Current Obsession: HAMILTON (Yay Hamlet!)

Lin-Manuel Miranda leading the November 25 Ham4Ham perfor­mance. Photo: Mark Peterson/Reduxpictures as seen in New York Magazine.  See Lenny in the bottom left corner? OK...half of her? :)

The soundtrack to Lin-Manuel Miranda's brilliant Hamilton has been on constant rotation in our house since early this Fall and I don't expect that to change any time soon.

If you haven't yet found yourself under the spell of this master and his masterpiece I've got some suggested viewing for you...

It all started at the White House in 2011. As Lenny would say, "prepare to be amazed":



The standing O from the President was prophetic.

A few years later, that became THIS:



And the press and mainstream success has been flooding in. Check out Lin's Wheel of Freestyle on the Tonight Show:



That day Lenny came home from school and told me she wanted to listen to Hamilton and paint abstracts. Parenting WIN. Click here to see 36 seconds of awesomeness.


And finally, on our recent trip to NYC at #Ham4Ham with Céline and Lenny.  MEGA exciting to be there and see Lin-Manuel in person.  Click here to check that out.

Yeah, this show hits a bunch of my sweet-spots, American History, Politics, Broadway and Hip Hop so it makes sense that it would speak to me. But it's genius seems to be nearly universally accepted. Which is such an exciting thing to witness.  Most exciting for me is, I think, feeling this excited by a piece of theatre again. I don't think I've felt this way in 20 years. It feels amazing to be completely consumed by a piece of art. I'm very grateful for the joy this show has given me.

Next stop: terrorist first bump.

Lenny learns how to high five just in time for the MLB All-Star Game.  Give her some skin!

You GUYS! I KILLED tonight...

I watched a lot of Foghorn Leghorn...

If you've got 15 minutes or so, take a load off, get yourself something yummy to drink and dig into this. Those interested in acting, comedy or showbiz stories (and anyone who misses watching LOST) will find a lot to enjoy here.

Better get her some clip on earrings...

My fabulous friend Lauren (who, incidentally, took the photo of me on the masthead) sent me this.  I love it when you're friends "get" your sense of humour.  It's also nice to have a glimpse of what it's going to be like here in a few months when Lenny's on her feet.

A Friday Afternoon with Lenny

Come ON!

La Belle Epoque Fall Music Series

MTN Media Relations has been working for the past month or so with the fabulous Sybil Walker and The Academy of Spherical Arts on a new music series featuring great singers in the intimate La Belle Epoque Room. I wanted to share some video footage that I shot of some of the talent from the first few shows so that you can get a taste of what this great series has to offer. Despite the fact that I have been "working" at these shows they have still been some of the most relaxing and pleasant evenings out I've had in a long time. I think that's saying a lot!

Heather Bambrick, multi award winner and Jazz FM radio personality is one of the most purely entertaining artists working in Toronto today. Here she is with her stellar band performing a tune familiar to Nancy Wilson fans, Look At Me Now.

Heather Bambrick

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Amanda Martinez (also familiar to listeners of Jazz FM) is one of the brightest lights in the Canadian Latin music scene and I think this footage of her performing one of her own compositions (with Heather's band) shows why. She's truly captivating.

Amanda Martinez

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Last week the electrifying Juno nominated blues diva Shakura S'Aida paid tribute to Nina Simone. Here she is with her band (including Robi Botos on piano) bringing down the house with I Put A Spell On You. You'll notice a jump in the quality of this video thanks to the fact that it was a two camera shoot. (Kudos to the Robeau for helping out with his newly acquired mad video editing skills too!)

Shakura S'Aida

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On Friday, October 5th La Belle Epoque will be presenting Carmen Unzipped with the wonderful pianist Patti Loach and the legendary opera star Jean Stilwell. It promises to be a really memorable evening. If you're in the T.dot, I hope you can make it out!

For more information, or if the videos on this page present technical difficulties, please visit La Belle Epoque Music Series

The sky is falling...no, really.

Last night at 1:30AM I sent a bulletin to my myspace friends.

Watching Obama in Selma today got me thinking...

In "WE WUZ ROBBED," Spike Lee explores the presidential race between George W. Bush and Al Gore in November 2000. Through first person accounts with campaign workers, advisors, confidants and speechwriters for Al Gore, Lee illuminates the confusion over the Florida polls and chronicles a historical political event that has led to what some have called the first American presidential "selection."

I've posted this video on my profile. I urge everyone to take 10 minutes to watch it.

If I'm going to have an account at a website owned by Rupert Murdoch I figure I'd better spread some good news. You guys can follow the link to myspace to the right and take a look at the video too. Spike Lee is the man. And it's never too late to talk about these issues. Just because time has passed doesn't mean democracy wasn't hijacked.

A few hours later, this morning, when I walked out my front door I heard the sound of helicopters. This is not the norm. Toronto feels like a war zone today, people. The weather is so messed up that major stretches of highway and roads downtown are blocked off because of fear of ice falling off of office buildings and the CN Tower, which happens to be the world's tallest free-standing structure. That's right. The damn thing is 553 metres tall (that's 1,815 ft for my American friends) and there are large sheets of ice, traveling at crazy high velocities, whipping around the dowtown core. I can see the tower out my window at work. I keep looking at it, waiting to see some deathly ice sliding down it's side. Nothing yet. The CN tower was built 31 years ago. This has never happened before. Coincidence?

When I went for a short walk at lunch, fighting against the wind every step, I was certain that I was going to end up like Ralphie in A Christmas Story, attacked by a rogue icicle. It was his lie, but it would become my reality.

Clearly, I've got issues.

If Al Gore was President of the United States, would I be having these issues?