JoeyColeman.ca

Age Shall Not Wear Them, Nor The Years Condemn, 2020

I spent the summer of 2003 posted to the Infantry School at CFB Gagetown. There I served alongside many who already complete a tour in Afghanistan, many who would go to Afghanistan, and sadly some who would not return home from Afghanistan. I've been thinking much the past few days about them, and how much fun each night in the

The People Who Made Us Better Along the Way

A playlist is often more than songs, much as songs are more than words. They stir emotions, enable us to relive memories, and to relief our stresses. I listened to President-elect Joe Biden's speech tonight. His writers decision to include references to the devotional Christian hymn On Eagles Wings was a great touch to a speech which hopefully starts US

Queen's Gambit - Filmed in Hamilton and Berlin

During my visit to Berlin Germany in December 2019, I enjoyed a brief tour of the Old City Hall. (Cause, if you are me, an Old City Hall is what you go to see). During the tour, we entered Bear Hall which was set up for filming of some upcoming Netflix. I took a few pictures of the hall, and

A Collection of Thoughts, Because This is My Blog

It's the evening of Halloween 2020, in the middle of a pandemic. This means I'm doing the same thing I do nearly every other night of this damn pandemic - sitting at my computer (actually standing, I have one of those desks now). I spend much of my time these days on random thinking. My thoughts tonight turned to the

NYT Piece on Small Theatres

The revival of small, often one screen, theatres in the past few years has been something to celebrate in communities across English North America. Hamilton has seen the revival of the Westdale and the Playhouse. (Sadly, the Zoetic did not survive 2019 - it was ahead of its time) Like all entertainment businesses, theatres are being hard hit by the

Open Courts and Living Rooms Visible Due to Video Conferencing

Video hearings is how the courts and adjudicative bodies (and municipal councils etc) function now to the pandemic. There are many access and privacy issues with this. Adjudicator Ian Mackenzie provides a good summary of this in a piece published on Slaw this morning. Of note, for me in my journalism practice, is how I may perceive individuals based upon

Stardust Trailer - Scenes filmed in Hamilton

A friend sent me a link for the trailer of a new David Bowie biographical film titled "Stardust", asking where some of the scenes were shot in Hamilton. [Wikipedia article on the film] The film is scheduled for release on November 25. Here's what I picked out (and a big thank you to everyone on Twitter for helping me place

Unpublishing - some thoughts

In which I discuss my own practices, and why I need to think about unpublishing into the future

Documentary "Newstown" Explores the Closure of Youngstown Ohio's newspaper The Vindicator

A few months ago, the Canadian documentary After Fact premiered online. I'm one of four journalists featured in After Fact. The documentary team followed me during three years, 2017 to 2019, ending shortly before I won my journalism fellowship (I think that would've been a fun ending). It was an interesting experience, and documentaries are a medium well equipped to

The COVID long-haul: 2021 Cancellations Begin. Time to Cancel my March Birthday Party?

It's odd to think that exactly six months ago I had an email conversation to reschedule cancelled March/April meetings into September. It was a Tuesday, St. Patrick's Day in fact, and I was consumed with responding to the COVID crisis as a UofT Fellow-at-Large. The Provincial State of Emergency was declared, we were moving students out, classes were online,

Interesting Listen: Boston NPR station interview on preparation for COVID vaccine distribution

Our public health leaders are preparing us for the long-term reality of living during a pandemic, with discussions of lengthy time periods for the development of an effective vaccine, the production of these vaccine, and the distribution of the vaccine. There may not be enough COVID vaccine for everyone until 2024, the world's biggest producer of vaccines stated to media

Fighting Adjectival Bloat

John McIntyre of The Baltimore Sun writes on how journalists use language. Primarily, he focuses upon grammar and style. As one of those journalists whose grammar is ruinous, I read McIntyre's writing wondering what it be like to work in journalism thirty years ago when there were copy editors. [Putting aside that as a Crown Ward, my socio-economic class of

Bill 156: The Ag Gag Law

A good piece on J-Source explaining how Ontario's "Security from Trespass and Protecting Food Safety Act" is a threat to good journalism. On June 10, the Canadian Association of Journalists released a statement condemning Bill 156 and highlighting a number of concerning consequences. According to the statement, the new law does not allow protections for whistleblowers, would criminalize undercover investigators

Good for a Laugh

Enjoyed the parody "A Message from Your University's Vice President for Magical Thinking" especially the following passage: After measuring classrooms and examining our antiquated ventilation systems, our staff (those who haven’t been furloughed) reports that there’s absolutely no way our already scheduled and enrolled classes can safely fit in those spaces. But our university has always valued creative

FOI Ruling in Niagara With an Interesting Twist

The Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake fought against releasing the "minutes of a particular meeting between four named individuals" which involved the town's chief administrative officer and mayor meeting with two undisclosed individuals. The Town tried to claim solicitor client privilege. The IPC ruled against the town's claim of privilege over this meeting, and here's the twist the town's solicitor was providing