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Jack Derricourt, Author at The Panic Manual

Hot Docs Review: Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (2016, Werner Herzog)

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In a world where the amount of data and content produced online every day could, when burned on cd and stacked, reach to Mars and back, October 29th, 1969 seems a moment long out of date and insignificant. But, as Werner Herzog establishes in the first minutes of Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World, on that very date, at UCLA, the internet was born. For those returning to Herzog’s documentary work, there will be many familiar effects; and …

Hot Docs Review: Danny (2014, Justin Simms, William D. MacGillivray)

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A teary-eyed man stands at a podium and utters these words: “Orson Welles once said, if you want a happy ending, you need to know when to end your story.” Like Citizen Kane, Danny is a story of a political giant that begins at the end. Danny Williams was a rarity in Canadian politics. In a political culture where we often vote away what we don’t want rather than democratically embrace an agenda of action, the fiery former premier is …

Concert Review: Telly Savalas Is Alive and the Reigning Sound, October 25, The Horseshoe

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“There’s a lot of style here tonight, Jack.” Telly Savalas was alive and well and talking to me. The long-presumed dead actor/director/interpreter/visionary was telling it like it is in front of a gangling, open-mouthed troupe of music fanatics. Dressed in a suit with more class than a Harvard graduating ceremony, and with the help of his be-wigged piano player, Telly cooed terrible truths out amongst the audience: “You kids are facing down a terrible form of darkness these days . …

Concert Review: Ty Segall Band, La Luz, (Then Later) Simply Saucer, September 21, Danforth Music Hall

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  I had to go through a baptism to make it to the show. A third of the way on my trip into oblivion, the sky opened up and poured holy floods. The air cracked open with lightning. It was a Black Sunday. Soaked to the bone, my “What Would Beyonce Do?” button dripping tears of its own, I stumbled up to the ticket booth of the Danforth Music Hall, tripped, and found myself seated comfortably inside, a double Jameson’s …