Glenn Kubish

  Thanks for stopping by the Three Things podcast.  Here's my bet. Maybe it's a long shot, but, here it is. If I can do a better job noticing the things I notice that make me happy and grateful each week, and then say those things out loud, then I won't feel, when it's time to add things up, that I have wasted my time. That's the judgment I fear the most. You wasted your time, Glenn Kubish! Here is this week's Three Things podcast: 1. Firestarter A couple of days ago, I found a black Bic lighter on the sidewalk downtown. I don’t smoke, I have virtually no need for a lighter, but whenever I see a discarded lighter, I pick it up. It’s a story in my hand. Scene 1: Man walks across Jasper Avenue. Scene 2: Man spots lighter, wonders if it works, spins spark wheel, waits. Scene 3: Finger of flame emerges. The end. Standing there on Jasper with my new lighter, I flashed back to a conversation about fire with Wallace from the Alexander First Nation a few days earlier. W...

Pauline Kael did it her way, Siskel and Ebert theirs, and each of IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and tribute.ca reviews movies in its manner. My way is simple. Am I still thinking about the movie when I wake up the next morning? I woke up this morning thinking about Maudie. It is the story of Nova Scotia folk artist Maud Lewis and her husband Everett and the tools they use. It is about more, of course. It's about the small rooms we live and create in. And about the crooked being made straight, and the straight crooked. It's about light and windows. It's very much a love story. And it's very very much about the tools that Maud and Everett use. Everett (Ethan Hawke) is a fisherman who uses a hatchet, an axe, a hammer, a spoon, a wheelbarrow, a scythe, and, memorably, once, his hand. Maud (Sally Hawkins) uses a hatchet, a cleaning brush, and, memorably, throughout, a paintbrush. And a cigarette. She holds a cigarette like a fuse. The filmmakers who gave us Maudie bui...