Zoomer Magazine August/September 2022

PHOTOGRAPHS OF BOB MARLEY playing soccer surround me. I am at the Bob Marley One Love Experience (below), a sprawling Instagram-friendly exhibition in Toronto chronicling the life and times of the sui generis reggae iconoclast who died way too young at 36, of melanoma, in 1981. The show takes me back to an earlier year, 1976, and another locale – Kingston, Jamaica – where when not off at boarding school, I lived on Hopefield Avenue, around the corner and down the block from 56 Hope Road, a hallowed address in the Marley legend. Now the Bob Marley Museum, Marley had moved “uptown” from Trench Town, the impoverished community he immortalized in song and which remains his music’s spiritual home. 56 Hope Road was also where he housed Tuff Gong records,…

FOR SOMEONE who was born in the village of Come By Chance, N.L., Arlene Stacey conducted her professional life in no way “by chance.” My dear friend, who died of lung cancer on May 21, 2022, at 67, was a meticulous editor, a consummate grammarian and the fulcrum of magazine production. Every comma and semicolon had its place and, in Arlene’s world, exclamation marks had few reasons to exist at all. Thanks to her encyclopedic knowledge of publishing built up over a 40-year career, “ask Arlene” was a recurring phrase in the Zoomer magazine office, where she was managing editor until her retirement in the spring of 2021. A sense of calm would descend over the editorial department when she arrived for the production cycle – everything was going to…

IT’S BEEN A HALF-CENTURY since Paul Henderson notched the magical goal (above) that lifted Canada to a victory over the Soviet Union, but the memory remains vivid for those of us glued to our TV sets on that September afternoon in 1972. The goal marked the glorious climax of the month-long Summit Series that proved we were champions of the hockey world – albeit by the slimmest of margins. It was a fitting finish to the emotionally draining, frantic and unforgettable eight-game rollercoaster ride that produced moments of highly skilful play, offset by violent skirmishes.  Gamesmanship trumped sportsmanship between these two bitter on-ice rivals and Cold War enemies. “It was a war. Our society versus theirs,” recalled team captain and emotional leader Phil Esposito (mixing it up with a…

AFTER TWO YEARS of virtual, scaled-back and relatively understated pandemic film festivals, public health restrictions have lifted and the excitement is understandably at fever pitch. None more so than for the jewel in the crown, the Toronto International Film Festival, a.k.a. TIFF (Sept. 8-18, tiff.net).At press time, TIFF had announced a couple of big gets: the coveted world premières of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery from Netflix, with a star-studded cast that includes former 007 Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Leslie Odom Jr. and Kate Hudson; as well as Clement Virgo’s much-anticipated adaptation of David Chariandy’s award-winning novel Brother. Canada’s other two main fall festivals – the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) and the FIN Atlantic International Film Festival in Halifax (FIN AIFF) – had yet to…

IN POP CULTURE, it’s generally agreed that the emergence of three similar things in proximity signals a trend. If so, then the 1950s, perhaps the most contentious decade of the 20th century, is ready for its close-up. Three of 2022’s buzziest movies are set in those post-Second World War years, invariably depicted as innocent or sinister. There’s director Baz Luhrmann’s recently released biopic Elvis, director Andrew Dominik’s steamy Marilyn Monroe portrait, Blonde, based on Joyce Carol Oates’ 2000 bestseller and on Netflix Sept. 23, and director Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling, opening in theatres Sept. 23. Of these, Wilde’s dazzling psychological thriller looks likeliest to embody all the famous – and infamous – elements of the era, which was defined by the advent of television, drive-throughs, rock ’n’ roll,…

NO OFFENCE TO The Notebook and Still Alice, but a two-hour film, however lovely, cannot possibly capture the complicated reality of Alzheimer’s disease. From symptoms to diagnosis to progression to decline, the process often takes years, even decades, to unfold – not to mention its dismal reputation as the saddest of the sad. Enter This Is Us, NBC’s notorious tear-jerking Tuesday-night drama, which premièred in 2016, featuring and following generations of the ever-expanding Pearson family. Set largely in the 1990s and 2000s (although super fans know the show flashes back to the 1960s and forward to 2030 and beyond), This Is Us grappled with big societal issues – race, mental health, addiction and aging – by showing how the Pearson clan coped with intergenerational trauma and healed to keep moving forward.…