Brendon J. Wilson

 by Brendon J. Wilson

The Tales of Beedle the Bard Available for Pre-Order

The Tales of Beedle the BardHoly Hogwart’s, Dumbledore! Amazon.com is now accepting pre-orders for the latest J.K. Rowling yarn, “The Tales of Beedle the Bard”, due out December 4th.

In 2007, Amazon had purchased one of only seven handmade copies created by J.K. Rowling to benefit the Children’s Voice campaign for a whopping £1.95M. I, like many others, worried that I’d never get to read the storybook of the same name mentioned in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last book of the Harry Potter series.

And now Amazon.com is bringing it to the public in both a standard edition, and a drool-inducing collector’s edition that mimics the look of the original hand-illustrated storybook.

Lest you think this is Amazon.com cashing in on the rampant Harry Potter withdrawal (in play until the new movie comes out in November, and then again until Tales of Beedle the Bard comes out December 4th) to make a quick buck, it should be noted that the net proceeds from these editions will support the Children’s High Level Group, a charity co-founded in 2005 by J.K. Rowling and Emma Nicholson MEP to make life better for vulnerable children.

in Entertainment 0 comments
 by Brendon J. Wilson

Top Five Unsexy Things About Yaletown

I came across a ridiculous piece of news via the ever-amusing condohype blog: Yaletown is being dubbed the “sexiest neighbourhood” in Canada. Really? I can think of at least five reasons that this isn’t the case (and yes, I’m channeling Nick Horby’s Rob Gordon here):

  1. Pretentious: Tiny dogs, overpriced restaurants, snotty attitudes, and waiters and hairdressers who seem to think they’re &*%$ing James Bond (where I’m using “&*%$ing” as both an adjective and a verb). Turned on yet?
  2. Costly: Given the cost per square foot of housing in Yaletown, you might end up doing it in the street. But maybe that’s “up your alley”, so to speak.
  3. Smelly: Garbage dumpsters in the street. Mmm. Sexy.
  4. Annoying: 1 way streets, no parking. This has no connection to sex – it’s just a bloody pain in the ass.
  5. Cramped: When all else fails and you can’t get laid, there’s always the Internet. Except your wireless router keeps cutting out due to interference from your eight adjacent neighbours’ own wifi networks. Guess you’ll have to exercise your imagination (and no, that’s not a euphenism).

Have I missed any? Shall we try for a Top Ten? Add yours in the comments.

Now, in the interest of disclosure, I have to say that I lived in Yaletown for three years – not because I was sexy, but rather because I was lazy. The location allowed me at one point to walk across the street to work. I have since recovered, and now live in Cambie Village.

in Opinion 7 comments