REFLECTION & REASON

I fell in love with carnival culture. Unexpectedly. And then I wrote a book about Carnival in Toronto . Out of necessity. My parents are Jamaicans, and didn't grow up "playing mas" or "jumping up" in costume to celebrate emancipation, crop over, their culture, or the countless other reasons that individuals participate in carnival around the world. It wasn't until they moved to Toronto where they decided to take part in the tradition of carnival, otherwise known as "Caribana," and bring my siblings and I downtown to University Avenue to watch the colourful procession of masqueraders, costumes, steel pan bands, and the delicate constructions of Caribbean elation . We celebrated our Jamaican culture in other ways: with oral traditions, foods, social practices, music, literature, movies, and visits "back home"...and carnival was never a huge part of that experience. But like other young adults and teenagers in Toronto, when you'r...

Dave Chappelle's making his highly anticipated post-SNL television comeback there, Neal Brennan has a stand-up comedy special circulating there now...and Netflix wins . Big time. I stumbled upon " 3 Mics " by accident, after watching Brennan's promotional interview with Charlemagne and the gang on the The Breakfast Club. His stand up special has been on Netflix for a little under three weeks now, and it's really, really good. I'm a fan of Brennan by default . In fact, any fan of the Dave Chappelle show (that Brennan co-wrote, co-produced, and directed with his best friend from 2003 to 2005) has already been predisposed to like his thought processes, and have already spent countless hours laughing at his comedy sketches and sense of humour . Repeatedly. For years. What else has Brennan written? He wrote for "Keenan and Kel," for "All That," for a show called "Singled Out," and of course also for the 1997 movie " Ha...