Author: Steve Murray

Leave a comment Posted on September 17, 2014September 16, 2014 by Steve Murray Link-Off

Wednesday Link-Off: Politically Incorrect

Well, Canada is still talking about Doug Ford taking over for Rob in the Toronto mayoral race. I don’t think Dougie has a shot but it would be interesting at the Ford homestead in 2017 and 2018 if Doug is the mayor and Rob wants the job back. If you’re not talking about Toronto politics, chances are you’re talking about the sad state of the NFL which seems to get worse daily.

And now, it’s time for us to do the links. Let’s kick things off with Mexican model Alejandra Guilmant.

Some people were willing to write-off the Liberal surge as a Justin Trudeau honeymoon. Now, the Liberals appear to be back and a threat to Conservative dominance. (CBC News)

Doug Ford was expected to be the brains behind Rob Ford’s mayorship. Instead, his been more hindrance than help. That doesn’t bode well for his candidacy. (The Globe and Mail)

And Doug’s candidacy for mayor wasn’t a last-minute plan thrown together to keep the Mayor’s sash in the family. It was implemented at the last-minute but Rob’s drug and alcohol issues meant this contingency plan was in place for months. (National Post)

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Leave a comment Posted on September 16, 2014September 13, 2014 by Steve Murray Sports

Formula E Beijing ePrix: Debuting with a Bang

The first ever race for the first ever international all-electric motorsports series got off with a bang. I mean that in both a literal and metaphorical sense too. For all the worries about the potential issues with Formula E, they put on a pretty good show despite the pit stop and car change nonsense. However, the race started and ended with literal bangs thanks to a Turn 2 incident on Lap 1 and a final turn incident on the final lap.

The result was that 24 laps and 19 corners of a race lead for Nicolas Prost was thrown away with one dangerous move that took him out of the lead and nearly injured Nick Heidfeld. That let Lucas di Grassi through to ink his name in the record books as the first ever Formula E race winner.

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Leave a comment Posted on September 15, 2014September 12, 2014 by Steve Murray Video Games

The Walking Dead: Season Two – Episode Five (Spoiler-Free) Review: My Only Friend, The End

Coming into the second season of Telltale’s The Walking Dead, one of the big things people were talking about is how the game would be able to continue with Clementine as the protagonist. After all, she’s just a little girl. She couldn’t fill the shoes of Lee.

Well, literally, Clem couldn’t fill his shoes. Figuratively, once we got all the character introductions out of the way and got into character and plot development, this season took The Walking Dead to heights surpassing Season One. Sure, the episodes are shorter and maybe the illusion of choice isn’t quite as strong as the first season but amazing story and character writing made this game one of the highlights of 2014.

Now we reach the end of Season Two and boy, does Telltale give this season a spectacular send off.

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Leave a comment Posted on September 14, 2014September 13, 2014 by Steve Murray Link-Off

Sunday Link-Off: The Family Legacy

Well, if you’re a fan of Toronto or Canadian politics, you’ve picked the right week to check out the Sunday links. All Canadians are talking about is Rob Ford. Even the Oscar Pistorius news is tertiary to the municipal politics of Toronto. I guess that’s what happens when said municipal politics features an admitted crack user as the mayor and an alleged drug dealer as his brother’s replacement in the election.

But before we get into that and all the other Sunday links, here’s American model Melanie Iglesias.

It’s a rare look inside a dying mayoral campaign with now-former Toronto mayoral candidate David Soknacki. One of his campaign staff went on the record to say that Toronto voters elected Rob Ford in 2010 because they were “very superficial.” And you wonder why his campaign was going so badly that he withdrew. (Torontoist)

And given that Mayor Ford is in hospital with an abdominal tumour, his brother Doug is carrying the family name in the mayoral race while Rob will run for Ward 2 council. While Rob was in with a shot at being re-elected, pundits aren’t holding out hope for Doug. (MacLean’s)

Mayor Ford’s former chief of staff, Mark Towhey, is working on a “tell-all” book about his time with the Ford administration. Conveniently, it’s coming out six days before the election. (Canada.com)

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Leave a comment Posted on September 12, 2014September 10, 2014 by Steve Murray Entertainment

Doctor Who: Robot of Sherwood Review

What happens when legends meet? I don’t mean two famous people but more what happens when two mythical creatures meet. Sure, we’ve had enough cross-over movies, TV shows and comics that cross-overs have worn out their welcome but there’s still the special moment every now and then.

But what happens when two mythical creatures who aren’t all that mythical get in a battle of egos? That’s the question that is being asked and answered by this weekend’s episode of Doctor Who. The Doctor, a myth throughout space and time, comes face to face with Robin Hood, a myth of Earth. They’re very real and very spectacular.

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Leave a comment Posted on September 11, 2014September 10, 2014 by Steve Murray Entertainment

Doctor Who: Into the Dalek Review

Since Steven Moffat has taken over as executive producer of Doctor Who, the Daleks have been used sparingly. There have only really been two Dalek episodes, 2010’s Victory of the Daleks and 2012’s Asylum of the Daleks (which was more a Clara episode than a Dalek episode). This is in stark contrast to the Russell T. Davies era (which I have more than this issue with) which had eight Dalek episodes in four seasons and generally made them look like chumps in all but one of those stories.

For the second episode of the Capaldi era, we’ve already got ourselves a Dalek episode. There’s no better way to throw a Doctor head first into the chaos of the universe than pitting him against his arch-nemesis.

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Leave a comment Posted on September 10, 2014September 9, 2014 by Steve Murray Link-Off

Wednesday Link-Off: More than PR

There’s no getting around the way the Ray Rice story blew up. While we all agreed the suspension was far too light, past precedent notwithstanding. However, we didn’t suspect that the NFL had never really bothered with its due diligence in the matter. Now they’re scrambling, not to make it right, but to save themselves from a complete PR meltdown. What a sad state of affairs when PR trumps doing what’s right.

So let’s get this post underway. Here’s Camille Rowe.

Toronto mayor Rob Ford has scored a key endorsement in his re-election campaign: Mike Tyson. (Yahoo!)

If you’re a Politico reader, their executive editor just left over strategic differences with the site’s founders. (New York Times)

Several months after the incident occurred, the full video of Ray Rice beating his wife made its way to TMZ. Suffice to say that his two-game suspension became a massive PR nightmare for both Rice’s now-former team and the NFL. But that’s all this was about. It’s all about PR. (Sports of Earth)

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Leave a comment Posted on September 9, 2014September 6, 2014 by Steve Murray Entertainment

Doctor Who: Deep Breath Review

While I was writing the review for this week’s episode of Doctor Who, I realized that I was behind in posting my Doctor Who reviews over on The Lowdown. I promised Doctor Who reviews over here this season so you’re getting all three episode reviews this week. Today is the season premiere, Deep Breath. On Thursday is the Into The Dalek review. Usual Friday service begins with the third episode review for Robot of Sherwood.

Given the recent explosion in popularity that Doctor Who has seen on this side of the pond, it seems as though that Deep Breath might be the greatest test of the revived Doctor Who. Sure, this is the fourth incarnation of the series but it with Doctor Who becoming more and more popular during Matt Smith’s tenure at the controls of the TARDIS, this will be many fans’ first regeneration.

While Deep Breath won’t go down as the greatest Doctor Who adventure ever, it certainly worked well at showing that the show is changing pace and themes with the new man in the blue box.

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Leave a comment Posted on September 8, 2014September 7, 2014 by Steve Murray Sports

F1 Italian Grand Prix: I Am My Own Worst Enemy

Regardless of the drama of the Belgian Grand Prix, this season has been all about the battle of the Mercedes teammates. Nico Rosberg might be leading the championship right now but he still has fewer wins than teammate Lewis Hamilton. He also has fewer retirements than Lewis which is why he’s in the Championship lead.

But that doesn’t mean that Rosberg is untouchable. Just because luck and speed has been on his side for most of the season doesn’t mean that the championship is his. All it took was one big slip up for Rosberg to throw away the lead of this race and hand momentum back to Hamilton.

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Leave a comment Posted on September 7, 2014September 6, 2014 by Steve Murray Link-Off

Sunday Link-Off: Common Sense Revolution

I don’t want to say that it’s been a boring week in the world of news but it’s kinda felt very much the same as the week before. Maybe our attention spans are getting slightly longer when it comes to big news. Then again, maybe there is nothing of note happening this week.

So with that happy thought in mind, it’s time for us to do the weekend links. Let’s start with Hailey Clauson.

The continuing attempts to portray Michael Brown as a thug may have run into a snag called “facts.” Unlike the latest right-wing assertion, he wasn’t a felon. (Think Progress)

The current crisis in the Middle East is a leftover of the 2003 Bush campaign against Saddam Hussein. However, President Obama has to treat this crisis differently than his predecessor if he has any hope of succeeding. (National Journal)

But just to show that I’m an equal opportunity windbag, here’s a [adjective redacted] saying that America is still the world’s freedom police. (Daily Telegraph)

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