Den of Divinity

Just stopping by

2008-10-19T11:30:00.002-07:00

Just fiddling around to the Facebook overlords' tunes...

April Fools

2008-04-05T21:39:00.002-07:00

I've come to conclusion that not having a "home" classroom is detrimental to my blogging. Furthermore, the whole "having to plan a lesson everyday" isn't helpful either.
Spring Break was a lot of fun but went by much too quickly. Kerri came to visit and we played tourist for the five days she was here. Once she was en route home, I chained myself to the computer and finished up the last assignments for my two UBC online courses. Sent those off the night before school started again and that was it for my Spring Break... sigh.
Still haven't seen a movie yet. I know. It's just plain ridiculous.
On the up-side, BER and I have been to seen some live theatre which always cheers me up. I saw the school play before Spring Break and was really impressed with the Drama program at McNair. BER and I took Kerri to see Into the Woods at the Cultch while she was here and then we went to see Cathy in Anything Goes at the Metro. That girl gets carried around by guys in every show we see her in... :o)
I continue to work at reducing the book pile by my bed although I don't know what I'll use as a phone table once I get through them. Most recently, I've discovered the Pellinor series by Alison Croggon and would recommend them but caution that they borrow heavily from Tolkein (but in a MUCH better way than Paolini's mess(es)). I also finished off the Neanderthal Parallax by Sawyer (have started giving serious thought to atheism because of them) and forgot to mention the two Matthew Reilly novels I read in February, The Seven Deadly Wonders and The Six Sacred Stones which, cheesy as they sound, were fantastic high-octane adventures. Oh and there was also a little blitz on yet another Scott Westerfield trilogy - The Midnighters - which was fun but I think I'll take a break from his books.
School's been hectic. Report card marks go in next week and my Grade 10s just learned to write five-paragraph essays last week. At least I hope they learned how to write them. I should be marking them right now... meh.
Plans for the big 3-0 are starting to come together. Double meh.
Turns out good things always get sequels. Enjoy!

Marching Forward

2008-03-01T13:22:00.002-08:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm probably the suckiest blogger alive.
Since the official New Year started, I haven't seen any movies at all. Zip. Zero. Nada. No one's more sorry about that then I am.
I have, however, read two excellent books by Robert J. Sawyer (among a myriad of other literature), thoroughly enjoyed watching Terminator:The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and started teaching a new contract which includes an awesome (if extremely whiny) Socials 10 class. I'm getting my butt kicked by the almost full-time teaching, two nights a week tutoring, two regular weekend library shifts and the two UBC online courses I enrolled in back in December. My commute in the morning is about 10 minutes longer because of an extra bus transfew and even though I could go home straight after 3rd block, I'm usually at the school until at least 4pm.

I'm a bit whiny myself at the moment but it's nothing some muscle relaxant can't solve. Spring Break's in 13 days. I promise to do something worth writing about by then. In the meantime, enjoy this. It's my current favourite online video.

Cheers!

The Golden Compass

2007-12-04T09:37:00.000-08:00

Considering I saw The Golden Compass on a sneak preview (thanks to the alertness of my House Elf/Daemon who spotted the commercial) a week before most people, it's with sincere apologies that I present this overdue review. (And, yes, I know that I still owe about ten more mini-reviews from the summer.)

Firstly, I have to point out that I read the novels by Philip Pullman last several years ago and so I managed to avoid the error that I made with The Two Towers (wherein I re-read the source material immediately before the screening and therefore continue to remember the second installment of New Line's "greatest" trilogy with deep-rooted animosity and a sense of betrayal). Even so, I loved the first two novels in the trilogy, still consider my day at London's National Theatre watching the double-bill of His Dark Materials: Part 1 & 2 my best day at the theatre EVER and couldn't help but anticipate great things for the film adaptation. For the most part, I was satisfied.

To start with the casting (it's been ages since I've been able to dissect a literature-based cast like I did with Harry Potter), I think Dakota Blue Richards was ideal for the role of Lyra. I can see where critics of her older-than-twelve appearance are coming from but, having had my fill of eleven-year-olds playing eleven-year-olds with the first two Harry Potter adaptations, I think that casting a young actress who could really carry off a fairly complex character was more important than chronological agreement between performer and performed. Besides, she's only thirteen now, so the age thing isn't all that far off. (In the stage production, all roles were played by adults with only costuming, the puppeted daemons and "acting" indicating whether they were younger or older, so I had no trouble buying Richard's Lyra. It was blind-casting as well - Lord Asriel was a fantastically handsome Brit of African descent.)

Large child casts are often the weak point of these movies and I thought the young actors playing Roger and the Gyptian kids came off a little rough in their shared screentime with the talented Miss Richards but since most of the kid scenes were mobs where they simply needed to be herded in one direction or another, they didn't disturb the general polish of the performances. Along similar lines, the adult Gyptians performed more as an ensemble in the film which worked except that I seem to remember having a stronger attachment to Ma Costa in particular when reading the books.

Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig did well in their supporting roles of Mrs. Marisa Coulter and Lord Asriel, respectively. The lore-centric fandom kicked up a huge fuss initially regarding Kidman's blonde-ness but, possibly due to my distance from the source material, I wasn't fussed about the discrepancy (which is, admittedly, a bit unusual for me). I think Mrs. Coulter came across a bit more dysfunctional on celluloid than in print. Brendan wondered why the freaky golden monkey didn't speak while all the other daemons did. My response was that Marisa doesn't have a good relationship with her "soul" as evidenced by her backhanding him after Lyra runs away. Mr. 007, on the other hand, seems quite at ease with Stelmaria, his snow leopard daemon, and embodied the determined and serious nature of his newest franchise character respectably if a bit too suavely to suit the Lord Asriel of page and stage.

The voice cast for the daemons was remarkable. The combining of the vocal talents of Freddie Highmore (who must have the best agent in Hollywood even if it isn't Johnny Depp), Kathy Bates, and Kristen Scott Thomas with seamless and stunning CGI graphics might possibly have been my stand-out favourite part of the movie. If there hadn't been witches.

Sir Ian McKellan and Ian McShane as the voices of the primary armoured ice bears (or Panserbjørn) of Svalbard were awfully exciting for me (but BER commented later that he kept expecting them to pull out bottle of Coke). I probably would've appreciated more exposition (I know, I know) regarding how Iofur (McShane) had lost touch with his true nature and led the entire armoured bear community away from their tradition of sky-iron armour towards human-worked metal which is in direct contrast to Iorek (McKellan) who, once reunited with his armour, proves to be the stronger and truer leader of the bears. But that's just me.

Sam Elliott was obviously born to play the role of Lee Scoresby (did they even have to costume him, I wonder?) and I sincerely appreciate his eloquence in defending the film from the accusations of godlessness being spouted by the religious right. Of course, it would take a grizzled ol' cow poke to speak plainly about the ridiculousness of the "controversy". From what I've seen of the Catholic League's campaign, they're primary concern is keeping kids from reading the books the movies are based on. Funny how life imitates art. If they don't want to be seen as a fascist, totalitarian organization, they should probably eschew the mantra of censorship.

And finally, Serafina Pekkala, as portrayed by the luminous Eva Green, may not have been as central to the story as Pekkala's role in the stage production (wherein the character is more a composite of both Pekkala and Dr. Mary of the third book) but fulfilled the dual purposes of indicating and explaining Pekkala's interest in Lyra and the Gyptians and revealing the witches' prophecies. (The bonus is how great she looks while doing all that). The visual effects that gave her and her clan flight are probably the most effective ones in the film. I actually came close to tears of pure exhilaration when the witches arrived to participate in the climactic battle at Bolvangar.

Finally, on to the movie itself...

As an adaptation, I thought this film was solidly successful in introducing the characters, delivering the plotline, and conveying a sense of an alien yet familiar landscape. However, Pullman's books are extremely wordy and much of the fantastical nature of Lyra's world is described in passive prose. On screen, this means that the first several minutes are filled with rapid exposition, narrated by Eva Green, explaining the nature of daemons (so, for pity's sake, pay attention unlike the woman in the row in front of me who turned to her neighbour fifteen minutes in and asked loudly,"Why do they all have animals?"). For me, my greatest satisfaction was in the fact that nothing truly significant was left out or warped for the film edition (see past rants on the origin of the Marauders' Map and the character of Faramir, respectively). Furthermore, it managed to retain more of the enchantment of the story than Columbus' attempts at the Potter saga did for me. Granted, it could be argued that it was an easier visual adaptation than HP or LotR since most of the technological groundwork had been laid years before pre-production thanks to those two enterprises (and Coca-Cola) and the Dark Materials crew didn't have to worry about Quidditch and Oliphaunts/Mumakil. But, studio-marketing-and-producing-powers-that-be willing, they'll get a chance to really show what they can do in the next two films. (Angels, mulefa, and cliff ghasts... oh my)

As specifically a movie (and the reader can probably tell that I'm having issues separating my feelings for the book and film), I wouldn't recommend it to younger children as the content is quite dark, literally as well as figuratively. Furthermore, despite the declawing of the book's more blatant commentaries on dogmatic beliefs and religious paternalism, the basic concept of Dust and daemons is a somewhat complex one that, from what I've read of the reviews, has bewildered some adult viewers.

Just so my review doesn't come across as some sort of studio-schilling love-letter, there are some flaws in the production. The flow of the action fights the lag of necessary set-ups and explanations to create a strangely choppy rhythm. Frantic chase scenes alternate with very detailed, talky bits, some more interesting than others. Dramatic physical conflicts break up the long travel sequences. The visual sequence used whenever Lyra utilizes the alethiometer gets really repetitive and, speaking of that, I thought that the Master of Jordan College's verbal user's manual for the "Golden Compass" was pretty ambiguous for a twelve-year-old... or a twenty-nine-year-old.

Also, I have to admit that I was a little distracted by the fact that BER hadn't read the books and I would intermittently ask him if it was making any sense. I had a feeling that I was filling in a lot of the exposition in my head with what I knew from the books and wondered if the film was actually leaving lots of gaps for newcomers. My pre-knowledge aided the suspension of disbelief and acceptance of Lyra's world for me. In fact, I might've actually been a little disappointed that there weren't more contrasts to our world.

It is clear that the writer, director and production team of The Golden Compass had to make hard decisions in bringing this project to completion and presenting it to the global audience. They've created a film of incredible beauty, filled with great talent, and (very) lightly underscored with an accessible version of the source material's original message. The books are great... as books. The movie is good... as a movie. The art of adapting the former into the latter is often attempted (ever more so these days) but rarely realized well. As I texted (after seeing the sneak preview) to those who would appreciate knowing it, "Finally, someone gets it right."

I should be doing something else

2007-11-26T08:59:00.000-08:00

Monday mornings suck and, despite my best intentions to be productive, I'm taking a little "me" time to do some ridiculously short reviews of the movies I've seen since the strike started.

Pixar's Ratatouille was more appealing to me than The Incredibles, not quite as cute as Monsters Inc. (which still reigns as my favourite Pixar production), and a little more intelligent than A Bug's Life. The visuals of Paris are a love letter to the city (and its vermin) and the human characters in the kitchen are well-developed and interesting. The (steam sanitized) rats running the kitchen was a lot disturbing but, otherwise, it was a sweet, feel-good flick with a realistic humour and real heart.

I'd almost forgotten that I saw Evening earlier this summer. Take that however you'd like. It had one of the most impressive female casts in a long time but my feeling about it was that it missed the mark somehow. Thinking back, I remember thinking it unfair to the younger actresses to be held up in direct contrast to the likes of Vanessa Redgrave and Meryl Streep even if one is Claire Danes and the other is Mamie Gummer, Streep's unfortunately named daughter (the physical resemblance is striking). Collette and Richardson were believable in their roles as the grown-up daughters of the increasingly incoherent Redgrave but the plot seemed muddled somehow and their performances seem superfluous to the love story told by the memory of Redgrave's character.

"Yippe-ki-yay..." you know the drill. I saw Live Free or Die Hard with Pegaroo late in its run and couldn't help but love it for its sheer adrenaline-junkie appeal (and its awfully clever bus ad campaign). The movie is pure popcorn - over-the-top stunts and explosions, wry old-school vs. new-brand philosophies, and the cheap thrill of wondering when the catchphrase is going to be trotted out. Mac Guy Justin Long as the cowardly genius sidekick, Kevin Smith's cameo and Mary Elizabeth Winstead's turn as McClane's daughter backed up Willis' effortless performance as the ultimate loose cannon officer. There were moments, I could swear, that Willis' personal thought of,"What the heck am I still doing this for?" registered on his face while he got his butt kicked by yet another female villain. But, then again, that could be McClane's thought as well.

Call me easily convinced but after watching Michael Moore's newest offering, Sicko, I was all ready to move to France or Cuba. But, wait, the bf points out, we already live in Canada, one of the cinematic bastions of universal health care and you (me, that is) have already lived in the UK, where its NHS is portrayed as another shining beacon of hope by Moore's cameras. In neither country is the health care system seen as a source of warm, fuzzy feelings although most everyone recognizes that what they have is better than what the US offers to its less well-off citizens. As with all of Moore's documentary-style films, Sicko is entertaining and shocking by turns. My personal aversion to blood and injury prevented me from getting as into the movie as with, say, Farenheit 9-11, but it was still educational with that grain of bias-salt that Moore applies liberally to all his projects. P.S. Check out the http://www.hook-a-canuck.com/ website. LOL
EDIT: I went back and found my immediately-after-seeing-the-movie reaction which I posted to Mass Comm's review of Sicko:

"Just saw the movie finally. Don't really have an proper opinion to give on the state of the American health care system, having never lived in it. The representation of the Canadian one seemed typical from what I've experienced. HOWEVER, I have also heard and read the opinions of many individuals who have found Medicare waitlists long and frustrating. Individuals who have flown Stateside to private clinics in order to have their procedures performed. All in all, though, I am appreciative of Canadian health care and hope that the move towards privatization slows and reverses soon. In addition, my time in England gave me an appreciation of the NHS (even though they never handed me cash) despite the seemingly constant complaints about it from those around me. Mostly, that's to do with a shortage of GPs and dentists, I think. Interestingly enough, the day after we saw the movie, I visited a walk-in clinic, a blood-testing centre, and made an appointment at a dermatologist's office. Funny the things that spur one to action.
As for the movie itself as a movie (rather than a commentary), I found it a little on the long side. Usually, Moore films engross me completely but, as I mentioned to Brendan afterwards, my squeamishness about injury sounds (like that guy's shoulder popping out) and what I found to be an intrusive soundtrack prevented me from focussing well on the narrative (?) being told. I thought the Cuban scenes were the most emotionally exploitive which, with some film-makers, I resent but with Moore, I've come to expect and usually respect as one of his best-wielded weapons (since logic and even-handedness ain't). Irony and humour work well for him too. But I'm easily led that way. Brendan's the voice of reason in pointing out the downsides of life in France and Cuba, which I thought looked pretty awesome."

Yes, of course I saw Transformers and, y'know, I didn't hate it. Mind you, the fans were more impressive than a lot of the movie. It's logically problematic (if you could turn into any vehicle, why would you pick a semi and not a tank?). It does little to capture the kitch of the TV series (I really was hoping for energon cubes). And the GM sponsorship downgraded some of the old favourites (Jazz, my favourite Autobot in the movie, pictured left, went from being a Porche to a Pontiac). The action was chaotic and exciting, although it did tend to drag on a little. The eye-candy, token grease-monkey love interest wasn't too annoying. And there were some very amusing visual gags (my favourite is still the Autobots trying to "hide"). Overall, I don't think it was a waste of my money, I was glad I saw it in the theatre, and I might be tempted to see a sequel. Yay, Starscream. Way to keep the dream alive.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was arguably my most anticipated movie of the summer season. Why, I'm not sure since, with the exception of Prisoner of Azkaban, none of them have lived up to my expectations which are, admittedly, pretty high. Since this was the largest book and it was made into the short film, I suspected that there were going to be problems.

And problems there were. But, to keep to the "ridiculously short" length that I promised above, I'll stick to my biggest disappointments and greatest pleasures in this adaptation.

Disappointments:

1) The total disregard for every other plotline besides Harry's (specifically, Neville's)

2) The villification of Cho (but then everything about Cho's portrayal and her relationship with Harry has been a disappointment).

3) The total lack of detail of the Ministry of Magic (I wanted some talking statues, dammit)

Pleasures:

1) The portrayals of both Luna Lovegood and Nymphadora Tonks

2) Thestrals looked pretty cool

3) Teenage angst was turned down significantly

To rank the adaptations of Rowling's work so far, Azkaban remains #1, Goblet of Fire takes second for being perhaps the most faithful adaptation, Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets remain at the bottom simply due to the terrible acting and heavy-handed directing, which plops this one smack in the middle. Not a terrible showing, but bad enough to irk.

Well, that's six so far and, by my count, nine more reviews before I'm caught up. Hopefully, that won't take another five months.

Brushing Fame

2007-11-09T10:25:00.001-08:00

A little late but I thought I'd give a quick rundown of my last 48 hours in LA.

Sunday morning was slightly problematic timing for several of us. The time change confused Jewel and Matty as they rushed through their breakfast only to discover that they were early when we ran into them on the corner of Hollywood and Highland. One of our morning panel was still hungover (but when is he not? Oh, right, when he's plastered). Still, he managed to get to his LA storage unit to pick up some "prizes" for us, thereby lightening his load of things requiring moving to NYC. We were a quiet bunch which again left it up to a few of us to keep throwing out inane, and sometimes amusing, questions/comments. The "prizes" were awarded for answering trivia questions about the folks on stage as well as for particularly interesting questions and extraordinarily witty comments. I won a book, a screw (seriously), and a pair of NYC subway handles. I kept the first two and donated the last (pictured below) to Jen and Lynn.

The ladies (not that Rose isn't one) were next and the trash talking continued, this time with Christina jumping into the ring with great enthusiasm.

When asked which Muppet they would be, Christina answered Janice and Jewel said The Count while Morena was informed by Jewel that she would be Oscar. "Why," she asked,"because I live in a garbage can?"

"No," interjected Christina, shaking her head,"It's because you're grouchy. Really grouchy."

The subject of fan fiction was brought up and Christina was fairly innocent about the extent of the adventures that their Firefly characters had gotten up to in the minds of the masses.

"I think our characters have hooked up a lot in fan fic," Morena said to Jewel.

"What about me?" asked Christina,"Have I hooked up?"

"I'm sure you've hooked up a lot," commented Jewel.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Morena,"Just spit it out."

"What? That she's a whore?" remarked Jewel.

"Oh, whore," exclaimed Christina,"I was just thinking pretty."

The talk would probably have continued for a long time in this vein if they hadn't been so rudely interrupted by a backlit figure from the back of the room asking,"Excuse me, ladies, but do any of you know what it's like to make out with Nathan Fillion?"

Cheering and applause erupted as folks recognized their captain (although someone's sure they heard Jewel mutter,"S**t") and he bounded to the stage and leaped onto the women present. Being Nathan, he immediately took centre stage and took control of the questioning. If Firefly were still on the air, where would you live now? What would your character wear? On (insert new program actress is working on), who is your Captain? Does he or she wear pants as tight as mine? The energy level in the room had spiked.

And yes, it was asked,"How much?" in reference to Nathan's shirt. His response? "If you have to ask, you can't afford it," which was amended to,"The shirt's the rental. My usual shirt's in the shop."

Jonathan came out at one point with a bottle of champagne and four glasses, saw Captain Mal and gave a WTF? expression. "Ah, Jonathan Woodward! Let me guess, he's hammered," commented Nathan.
With Nathan there, Jewel and Morena asked him whether he thought Joss would mind if they revealed Inara's backstory. (This had come up during the Saturday Q&A where Jewel and Morena had gone back and forth on it several times before Morena decided that she needed to get Joss' explicit permission first. I believe her exact words were,"He will punish me." When pressured to call him, she said that he wouldn't pick up her phone calls. She didn't seem to believe us when we promised not to tell if she told us. :o) Anyhoo, Nathan didn't think that they should but he did call Joss for us. At least he acted like he did.
My theory is that he called and pretended to talk to Joss except that it was to the machine. He got off the phone and told Morena,"Joss says no and that I get to smack you."

Morena, looking up at Nathan with an adorable expression, said,"Okay!"

Smack = kiss on the cheek apparently.

Suddenly, Nathan's phone rang and it was Joss phoning back to tell them that they couldn't reveal Inara's backstory but they could reveal Book's... and that Nathan gets to smack all the ladies on stage. "Okay!"

Book's backstory (invisi-typed for those of you, like Ron Glass, who would rather not know: Turns out that our good shepherd was not an Operative. Not even an operative. He was a high-ranking and very dirty Alliance police officer. It all makes sense and yet leaves us with more questions. Was he found out? What made him change? Why is his identification still treated with respect by Alliance members? Damn you, Whedon!

Oh, then Mark and Adam had a Q&A. Poor guys. It was fun but it's kind of hard to follow an act that includes Nathan.

And that should've been all my celebrity moments for the weekend (and for the next couple of months) but, as I sat in the LAX boarding area awaiting my flight on Monday morning, I suddenly found myself surrounded by tall guys in matching tracksuits. The LA Galaxy soccer team were travelling up to Vancouver on my plane to play a friendly match with the Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday (0-0 draw, btw). David Beckham was the major draw, of course. He sat opposite me for about 40 minutes and was unfailingly polite to all the people, big and little (see right), who came up for photos and autographs. The little girl in the picture was having a tantrum as her mother wheeled her up for an autograph but went very quiet when suddenly face-to-face with Becks. The other players also tried to make her smile. It was very cute to watch as these professional athletes made eye-contact with the toddler and complimented her on her hair-do and doll. I had nothing relevant to sign (boarding pass? laptop?) so I had my picture taken with him instead. Several students and one staff member (interestingly, all female) have since informed me that they hate me. Once again, the nature of celebrity confuses and eludes me. And, if it's news to any of you, other women are weird. Me, I'd be more impressed by my picture with Adam Baldwin.

Still Shiny

2007-11-04T01:27:00.000-07:00

... if a little poorer.
These fan conventions are not for the frugal nor, probably, the sensible. In any case, today was The Big Spend. I wonder on some level if the organizer isn't using this first North American convention to test the waters as to how much people are willing to spend. Compared to the Serenity Squared, and this is factoring in the exchange of GBP to USD, this convention is extravagant. Grants, the organizer wanted to bring his own staff which meant the costs of flights and two weeks' accomodation for a dozen people had to be covered by the ticket sales and photo/autograph fees. Even so... did I mention that the main venue is a nightclub and that the bar charges $4 for a Coke and $6 for a bottle of water? Apparently a glass of wine is $10. Anyhoo, enough bellyaching about the cost. It's a given for these sort of things, really. If one were to exert some self-control, it doesn't necessarily need to be such a money-pit. Yeah... but then if the one in question were me... HYPOTHETICALLY :P

Today, the photos were a priority since autographs started in the afternoon and many fans wanted their photos with the guests autographed (I didn't). I had one picture taken yesterday with Ron and three taken today with Christina, Adam and Morena. I'd had one taken with Morena at Serenity Squared but there was a stain on her shirt and I wanted a do-over. I'll scan them in when I got home but I'm pretty happy with them overall since I don't photograph well usually. Of course, the guests don't have that problem. We like our Big Damn Heroes pretty. Unfortunately, some of my friends ended up with blinks and blurs despite the photos being digital. The line-ups were handled pretty efficiently I thought and they managed to get them to us before the autograph session today. The line for Adam was the longest since this is the first Starfury convention he's ever attended and he's had to cancel all of his other appearances this year due to work commitments. He's a high-demand commodity in short supply to the fan-verse. The dude's really tall. And clean-shaven. Totally threw me off this morning. One of the female fans was positively giddy from her exposure to him today. It was cute but I'd hate to think how she would've been if Sean and Nathan had been able to attend as well.

The Q&As were a lot of fun today. Not that yesterdays weren't but because the guests were onstage in pairs or trios, there was a lot of banter that you don't get with singles. First up were Yan Feldman (Mingo), Christina Hendricks, and Ron Glass. (Steven, I don't think I'll be able to remember every word Christina said but I'll paraphrase the best parts that I can recall...)
Yan was mostly asked about being a twin and costuming. One of the most interesting things he mentioned was that when he and Raphael were deciding to try for the roles, which called for Cockney twins, they decided that since they didn't look typically English but were able to carry the accent, they thought they'd go through the entire audition as if they were English. They got through the initial readings and meetings speaking totally in their Cockney accents until they were finally face-to-face with Joss who asked flat-out where they actually were from.
Christina got the biggest laugh of the three although perhaps the credit should go to the person asking the question. To begin with, the question was how she felt about her kissing scenes with Nathan in Firefly. Her response to that was that she couldn't remember specifically except for thinking,"Acting is FUN. Work is FUN." The follow-up to that was,"Did you blow 'em on purpose?" (meaning, of course, whether she had messed up the scenes in order to have a few more takes). But Ron's facial expression and Yan's comment "How could you do that by accident?" left nowhere to go but forward with that train of thought.
Because he had had a Q&A yesterday, Ron didn't feel it necessary to hold a microphone during today's session. His contributions were spoken unamplified but that suited us Browncoat Pass holders in the front tables just fine but I can't speak for the poor schmos in the chairs and standing area. I asked probably more than my share of questions simply in an effort to minimize uncomfortable silences. One of my more embarrassing mis-steps was asking the guests where they thought their characters' lives continued onto after their time on Serenity or Firefly ala Jewel Staite's most recent blog entry on Myspace (wherein she whimsically decided that River and Zoe hook up, Mal, despondent over Wash's death goes crazy, Kaylee and Simon have genius triplets, and Inara takes Jayne to the Companion House for training). Of course, the moment the words were out of my mouth, I looked at Ron (aka the late Shepherd Book) and promptly apologized. Yan tried to propose some sort of necrophilic epilogue but our good Book was having none of that. Yan decided Fanty and Mingo gave into their narcissistic natures and fell in love with each other while Christina saw Saffron taking on new and more interesting identities possibly under the name Dominique. Ron refuted this possibility, stating that Dominique is what they always named the powerful black women in shows like Knots' Landing. Christina's response was that Saffron could do whatever she liked and that included being black. So there.

Between the first two guest Q&As, while many of us were getting photos taken, there was a presentation by the fellas at QMX who have the creative license for Serenity merchandise. (http://www.quantummechanix.com/HOME.html) Their portfolio is truly incredible with beautifully actualized Serenity ship papers, blueprint reference guides (I love the fact they figured out by watching the episodes and movie over and over again that, like many sci-fi vehicles, the insides don't actually fit inside the outside), travel posters & postcards for 'Verse planets, dog tags, Alliance money and replica weapons. For shouting out a correct trivia answer, I manage to nab myself an uncut sheet of Alliance money which would've cost a heap of real money if they were actually available to be purchased. The Serenity model is in the works. We were made privy to their half-scale model, still in development after a year and many expert denials that it couldn't be done, and, although, I doubt I'll ever be able to justify the purchase of one, it was very exciting to see something like that in its early stages.

The second guest Q&A paired Morena with Jewel and the two of them have this incredibly close (Morena was Jewel's maid of honour) and amazingly crass (who, during the maid of honour's speech announced to everyone present that Jewel wasn't wearing underwear) relationship. Jewel took most of the flack in this outing as Morena pulls no punches in trying to entertain us ... at Jewel's expense of course. Thus it was how we learned that Jewel had a particular hate on for a specific Kaylee jumpsuit which was a bit short in the body resulting in discomfort and "camel toe" (Morena's words). The ladies hadn't seen each other in almost a year but Morena sent a gift with a fan to Milton Keynes where Jewel was attending Collectormania last week. It was a photograph of Morena with a speech bubble which read something along the lines of,"Jewel is so wonderful... if you don't mind eating horse s**t!" Still, being the awesome friend, Jewel had ordered a bottle of champagne to arrive midway through the session to keep Morena's spirits buoyed. One very interesting question posed came from an Aussie Browncoat who asked Morena (because he had already asked Jewel at a previous con) who she would choose to make out with in a film if she had to pick a woman. Before she could answer, he informed us all that Jewel had picked Jessica Alba. This elicited a very dramatic reaction from Jewel's husband, Matt, who was sitting by the side of the stage. Apparently, he had put Jessica Alba on his "Top Five" list last night and she had taken him to task for that. Meanwhile, Morena was "hurt" and wouldn't pick Jewel since Jewel hadn't picked her. Jewel relented and decided to change her choice... and picked Gina. Morena eventually picked Eva Green. Yeah, guy readers, you can all just stop reading now. It doesn't get better than that this post.

Adam and Mark came out for the last of our guest Q&As. A lot of the questions posed to them centred on acting technique, character development, and props. Mark said something along the lines of the simulation of authenticity in an environment of the imagination which struck a neat chord with me and both of them stand by the motto that no one plays a villain. Mark, when asked about the roles he chooses, made the statement that there are two kinds of great roles in acting - that of the last sane man in the universe and that of the guy who sold him out before leaving. He feels that all his best roles fall into those categories. Adam explained that the hardest scene he ever played was one as a teenager where he had to emote about killing a man with absolutely no acting training. It was a pivotal scene in his career as it sent him running to New York to learn how to act. Of course, he also said that he got no work while in NYC. Mark shared some intriguing bits of backstage drama. First, when he was despairing over his first Firefly scenes, Adam strolled by and told him to take it easy, that the reason Badger's lines were written so difficult was because Joss had been writing for himself. He had fully intended to play the role himself but the higher-ups decided against it in the end. Mark credits Adam with saving his sanity to no small degree. When he did a guest spot on Star Trek: Voyager, he fell victim to the Janeway vs. Seven of Nine battle wherein the battlelines were drawn between the two camps and because he had spent some time discussing their scene with Jeri Ryan, Kate Mugrew played her entire scene with him without looking at him. He discussed Katie Sackoff from Battlestar Galactica as an actor savant in that she doesn't seem to realize how good she is and stated that her instincts are so accurate that one would be a fool not to go with them. He also let it be known that at least one actor on BSG has been told that they are the fifth Cylon when they AREN'T. The scripts for the final season are under such tight wraps that the producers have admitted that it is possible that they will shoot red herring scenes. He did say that his character, Romo, would be having a very informative discussion with one of the three (?) Adamas in this last season. I hope that was interesting to some of my readers.

Finally, there were the autographs. Once again, Adam's line was the longest and this time, because autograph times are chances for more personal interaction than Q&As and photographs, it was also pretty slow-moving. Two of my four freebies were gifts for friends since I had as many autographs as I needed from those particular BDHs. Ron signed a black and white headshot which I'll add to my 8x10 wall display at home. I ended up with SIX items for Adam to sign including my freebie and one which was requested by a friend. (By the way, anyone who really wants my money just needs to arrange a Gina signing session...) My impulse buy today was a Fanty and Mingo 8x10 which had been pre-signed by Raphael who couldn't attend due to his honeymoon (sheesh) and which was such a great companion shot to my Buffy Xander x 2 picture from Collectormania. (If they'd had a Joanie shot from Mad Men, Steven, it would've been in your stocking this year but there were no pics better than the one you already have.)

Dinner was at California Pizza in the Hollywood Blvd Center tonight and at least four booths were Browncoat dens. This was followed by the second Meet 'n' Greet with a slightly different crew. Adam and Nectar joined Jewel (and husband Matt), Morena, Ron and Mark. There were surprise drop-ins by J. August Richards (Gunn from Angel) and Adrienne Wilkinson (Livia from Xena:Warrior Princess. Jonathan was hosting the Alliance Pass holders' party at a different venue and Christina and Yan might've attended that one or called it an early night. I stayed a little later tonight but actually spent more time chatting with other Browncoats. Morena made a thorough circuit of the room so she stopped by our table for a talk and I discussed the idea of a Vancouver con with Sean Harry a bit more. Nectar came by our booth right when she arrived and she let us know that she'd tried to make it to the party last night (still painted gold from the shoot) but that she was falling asleep at the wheel as she drove back into LA and Sean had told her to just go home. I had a quick chat with Jewel (who still thinks hosting a cocktail party at a tequila bar is strange yet effective) and Matt and came home to report on this very full day since I'm sure that if I don't do it promptly, things will get badly muddled in my head.

Geek Girl Glee

2007-11-02T18:09:00.000-07:00

So I probably didn't approach my La-La-Land getaway in the most sensible fashion. Instead of having all my luggage packed and ready to go early on Thursday night and getting a good night's rest, I went to my knitting cast-on party (I'll write something on the other, badly-neglected blog about that), then came home and packed and prepared until about 3am. I catnapped until 4:30am and then called a taxi to take me to the airport for the surprisingly crowded check-in. 0630hrs saw my flight take off and we landed at LAX some three hours later, me being unconscious for most of that (the snack cart left a cookie for me on my fold-down table). There was a long wait for the shuttle to the hotel and more time spent by the driver circling the airport, hoping to pick up more passengers. I fell asleep again en route to the hotel. When we arrived, there were plenty of obvious Browncoats hanging around, checking in, and making their way to the registration and event venue so I knew I was in the right place.
Registration took place in the front room of the Element Night Club. Slight typo on my Browncoat pass (they left out the "i" in my name) so not only am I skiving off from school this weekend, I'm all incognito as well. I had my picture taken with Ron Glass and then managed to take over 70 photos of him, Jonathan Woodward and Nectar Rose during their respective Q&As. Having played Mr. Universe's Lovebot, Lenore, in Serenity, I naturally assumed that her name was assumed for career purposes. Nope, really and truly, she was born and named Nectar Rose. And she's a very funny and genuinely sweet speaker who recently filmed a movie with Christopher Walken and is currently working on a Fellini-esque project where she gets painted gold and which she freely admits she does not understand. Ron was more a no-nonsense sort of a speaker and Jonathan had difficulty distinguishing his whisky glass from his microphone.
Managed to connect with Jen, the Travelling Aussie Browncoat, who had left some stuff in Vancouver when she moved home. I packed most of it down here with me and we made the luggage transfer once we got back to the hotel. As it was dinner-time, a group of us headed to the Italian restaurant next to the Element and had a nice meal in truly amazing surroundings while being serenaded by various members of the wait staff. The restaurant, Miceli's, is a family-run place in its original building from 1949. Heavy wooden beams, parquay floor and hundreds of Italian wine jugs strung everywhere give it's multi-floor set-up a very unique vibe. Especially with the piano-man playing accompaniament to the auditioned waiters (we didn't hear any woman sing but there were a couple women serving tables). www.micelisrestaurant.com The food was simple, flavourful fare and they don't skimp on the cheese.
Following dinner, we headed to La Cantina for the Meet 'n' Greet. Several cast members had been contracted to come out for a few drinks (Jonathan's always looking for a topper) and I had some very nice discussions with Christina Hendricks (it's a travesty that they don't have Mad Men photos for autographing), Mark Sheppard (who likes Vancouver very much, thank you) and Yan Feldman (raised in Toronto, it turns out). Jewel, her husband Matt, Morena (with short, short hair), Jonathan and Ron were there as well, extremely gracious and welcoming to all the eager but tongue-tied masses.
Tomorrow, Adam joins the throng (he was busy filming Chuck today) and the big Browncoat autograph session is in the afternoon. Squee! Adam's autograph will be the second last on my matte-framed nine-shot of the cast. Gina (and Joss, of course) remains the glaring hole in my collection. Now if I can just convince Sean Harry to host a convention in Vancouver!

Once a Month...

2007-10-24T10:47:00.000-07:00

That's apparently all I'm capable of posting these days. Apologies to my loyal readers (but I'm still doing better than the bro. :P

The big news would be that the strike is over. As our main issue was that of pay equity and the Library Board refused to admit that there even is a pay equity issue at VPL, Library Workers had the hardest battle to fight and ended up having to content ourselves with the smallest victory. I'm admittedly a bit bitter about the whole thing. And, sadly, the knitting seems to have aggravated the RSI from last year. However, our final tally was about $4000 raised with over 200 other items going to the less fortunate.

I'm off to Los Angeles next weekend for Serenity LA and am looking forward to spoiling my inner geek-girl for four whole days. There was some stress about how to get some time off in order to be able to take in all the events but that resolved itself beautifully.

Weekend after that is the "in lieu of Christmas" visit to San Fran to see the aforementioned bro and Mum.

Then on Dec 21st, the House Elf and I are off to the Big Smoke and two weeks of proper British hospitality! Tickets for the Ewan McGregor & Chiwetel Ejiofor production of Othello went on sale last Monday, 0900hrs GMT, which meant, of course, that I was up until 0200hrs PST Monday morning repeatedly dialling the Donmar Warehouse box office phone number until getting a ring-ring, being put on hold for 20 minutes and then placing my reservation with the "you live in such a beautiful city" lass on the other end. (Online tickets were not available.) End result: we have excellent seats on exactly the evening we were hoping to get. The late night was worth it too since the entire run was sold out by the time I got to school. Woot!

In between the upcoming globe-trotting (and, to be fair, I've been very much the homebody for the last year or so), I'm still waiting to hear if my teaching contract gets extended past the Christmas holidays. My classes have been filling up. Last year, I don't think I had more than one of the seven classes with more than 5 students. This year, I've only got one left with less than 5. Mostly nice kids, though. Mind you, as I've said before, nothing fazes me after my experiences in England. Which makes it a little strange that I'm so eager to go back, I guess.

In less interesting news, I've apparently developed a penchant for picking fights with pregnant acquaintances. Or they have with me. First, there was the mass Facebook sending of this YouTube video:

which seems pretty counter-intuitive since the sender, someone I knew in my teenage years, actually spends her entire commentary saying that the message is from the "loonie left" (I've since corrected her on the spelling of looney) I responded that the video may be a bit idealistic but the tenets seemed sound and not all that radical and pointed out that at the end of the video he asks everyone to forward the video on, which is exactly what she did. Her response was extensive and it seems that her spelling gets even worse when she's agitated.

In the second case of fight-picking, I was sent a mass forwarded email from one of my classmates from Chilliwack wherein it (the email) proclaims that the upcoming release of the film The Golden Compass is one of the most anti-Catholic, dangerous and evil things to ever come about. I'll point out first for the uninformed, the story in The Golden Compass takes places in an alternate universe. The Catholic contingent is focussed on the fact that the clergy who serve The Authority in this alternate universe are corrupt. I responded to this email by letting her know that I enjoyed the books and that I am looking forward to the movie. I might've even recommended that she read them as they are a fitting homage to John Milton's Paradise Lost. Her response was as you'd expect (long) but she did promise not to send anymore propaganda my way at the end of her diatribe on how the popular media targets the Catholic Church. I replied "Thanks" and left it at that.

In both cases, I find myself frustrated that I've wasted as much time thinking (and fuming) on these incidents as I have. I know that people's feelings about politics and religion are impossible to debate logically with. I know that I'm not even that logical a debater. And in both cases, I politely informed the ladies-in-waiting that I was not interested in trying to convince them to change their views and that I wouldn't be appreciative of their attempts to sway me from mine. Well, maybe not in so many words but I was polite. Except about the spelling.

It's All Been Done

2007-09-26T10:17:00.000-07:00

Wow, has it ever been a long time... and yet very little has actually changed.
Vancouver Library's still out on strike although there may be a little light at the end of the tunnel. We know better than to get our hopes up too high after nine weeks on the picket line but it's something at least.
Also, I'm back in the same classroom as I had last May and June. The usual suspects are pushing my buttons and making my days (alternately and at the same time, some days). There was also a huge element of chaos at the beginning of the year with an unexpected extra 102 students enrolling.
The combination of full-time teaching, getting my 20 hrs of picket time in each week, and still trying to have a social life is getting pretty exhausting. And it seems to be affecting my mood.
Life goes on, as they say, and some days it really does seem to be an exercise in futility. I observed this morning that I don't understand how anyone gets out of high school alive and yet sometimes it seems that we're all still stuck in "high school". Cheerful, eh?
If I were to focus on the positive, it would have to be all about the truly inspiring things that have been happening on the picket line. We started the "Knitting in Solidarity" right at the beginning of the strike to give knitter/picketers the option to get some projects done while putting in their strike duty. It evolved to become an educational and charitable program when several people who have never knitted (or knitted a long, long time ago) picked up the needles and started creating some amazing items. Those who felt confident enough started knitting hats for the homeless and those in need. Soon we had over a hundred hats! Then the idea to sell some of the hats took root, with the proceeds going in their entirety to the Hardship Fund which is providing loans for CUPE 391 members who are suffering the most - deferring mortgage payments, tuition, credit card bills, etc.
To date, the Solidarity Knitters have produced over 300 items (scarves & wristies have been added to the repetoire) and raised well over $2000 for the Hardship Fund. I am constantly amazed at how productive and selfless the group has been. Not only that, but there have been donations of knitting needles and yarn from all quarters. Early on, one donation of three new skeins came from one of the "bottle collectors" that works the downtown core. Said his father had been an active member of CUPE 500 in Winnipeg and that he wanted to help us out. Nearly made me cry.
Besides the Knitorious Knitters, there have been rallys, potlucks, BBQs, concerts, auctions, haiku days (just TRY writing a relevant 3-line poem with a 3-9-1 syllable structure) and human alphabet soup. We have a virtual library of videos addressing all our major issues and celebrating the solidarity that has only grown stronger with every day of this mean-spirited and unnecessary strike.
And the other up-note for me today? Only THIRTEEN more Fridays until Christmas holidays!

STRIKE!

2007-08-03T16:29:00.000-07:00

As most of my friends (especially the Vancouverites) know already, the Vancouver Public Library has been on strike for the past 10 days. This is an unprecedented action in the 77-year-long history of our union, CUPE Local 391. As it is our first time doing this, we have been trying to be innovative about distinguishing our job action from that of our brothers and sisters in CUPE 15 and CUPE 1004, representing Vancouver's inside and outside workers, respectively. Keeping that in mind, please check out the video of our "read-in" from last Sunday.
The main issues of contention with the Employer are pay equity (VERY amusing video presentation: - - oh wait, I can embed that one :)

rights for auxiliary and part-time workers (can I get a woot-woot?)

improvements to benefits, and job security (on this point, please read this which lo-lights the travesty carried out against the workers of our bindery who still have no "guarantee" of employment once their worksite is obliterated by highly illogical cost-cutting measures)
I've been picketing my 20 hours per week for strike pay in my own special way. On the first day, several of us commented that there were a number of knitters in the picketing force. So, when we got tired of walking, we all sat down together and pulled out our projects. I've since made a large sign informing passer-byers that we are "KNITTING IN SOLIDARITY" which has gotten mixed reactions. On the initiative of Angela Ho, we have now organized into knitting hats for the Downtown Eastside Residents. The hats can also be bought and the money goes to the Hardship Committee which Angela is heading. Interestingly enough, this job action has probably brought much of the staff of a diverse and very compartmentalized workforce closer than it's ever been. Being part-time/auxiliary means that I have seen many worksites and members over my ten years with the library but people move sites, job classifications change, and some descend into the depths of Serials and Acquisitions or ascend to Level 7, never to be seen again... until we strike.
For the most accurate information on what's going on (the City has paid for a very expensive PR company's work so the papers and news are suspect, at best), please check out: http://www.fairnessforcivicworkers.ca/news
Okay, enough propaganda for today. Thanks for reading. Class dismissed.

Evan Almighty

2007-06-25T11:15:00.001-07:00

If you aren't in the city or just didn't notice, Vancouver had some pretty mixed-up weather yesterday. First, a deluge in the morning which woke us up with a sound similar to a river being diverted past our window. Then, sunshine. Then rain. Then thunder and lightning. Then more rain. Then sunshine. You get the idea. Seemed rather apt that we had planned to see Evan Almighty even before the weather freaked out.

A little background first: The Boy had seen Liar, Liar, the first of what I see as a trilogy of Michael Bostick-produced, Tom Shadyac-directed, family-friendly, moral-heavy comedies but not the second, Bruce Almighty, and so can be forgiven for the WTF? expression he gave me when I commented that I saw the three films as being very much alike in shape and style. That's not to say that Liar, Liar, Bruce Almighty, and Evan Almighty aren't funny and entertaining. They are funny but in very similar ways. In fact, I think that the differences between Bruce and Evan are solely due to the differences between Carell and Carrey. The over-actor and the career-schmuck. The actresses playing the wives/girlfriends in the three movies (chronologically Maura Tierney, Jennifer Aniston, and Lauren Graham) don't get a lot to work with. The kids (present in L,L and EA) are usually little scene-stealers but really only serve the role of heartstring-pullers. The most remarkable resemblance between the three movies is in the protagonist's development. Career-driven individual learns what is truly important through mystical intervention (and a large dose of embarrassment). Carrey's roles usually involve a large amount of hubris whereas Carell is, overall, a more sympathetic character to begin with. In fact, come to think of it, Carrey tended to be both the hero and the asshole in his two films while John Goodman stepped in to fill the role of the "villain" in EA. And that's another thing these films share - a lack of a true bad guy. Characters can be greedy, superficial, ignorant, and manipulative but they never mean to be bad. They're all redeemable and repent in the end. It's all a little high on the sweet-factor for me.

Getting back to Evan Almighty specifically, it's full of great little sight-gags and some very obvious self-referencing. The animals are very cute and funny and varied (it ONLY cost $200 million? The Hollywood Animal Wranglers Union must've lost the last round of negotiations) and, damn, if they weren't so verminous and probably rabid, I would be getting me a pet raccoon tomorrow. Special effects were good and the size of the completed ark was downright impressive. The Noah plotline concerns itself completely with the building of the ark (which leads to "family-time" together) and the gathering of the animals (which leads to a family pet) and completely eschews the whole drunken incest bit from the Bible. (And a good thing that, I figure.) The supporting players are all incredibly talented - Goodman, Shannon, Sykes, Higgins and Hill - and it's anyone's guess who will be Almighty next.

BTW, I would be perfectly happy to find out (in sixty years or so) that the Big Guy Upstairs actually resembles the one portrayed by Morgan Freeman. "Want more proof? I haven't done the pillar of salt thing in a while." ROFL. P.S. Check out his name tag in the restaurant scene.

The Departed ... and something else

2007-06-18T12:21:00.002-07:00

We seem to have gotten into a habit of doubling-up our movie nights. We'll watch the movie we plan to see and then catch something else interesting on TV or watch something short on DVD.
Saturday, we started with The Departed which I'd had home from the library on DVD for way too long. Somehow, despite all the hype from its release last year and the Oscar wins, I managed to keep myself ignorant of the ending (much thanks to my friends who saw it and didn't spoil it for me) which is probably best as many of the better points of the film have to do with the element of surprise.
Performance-wise, there's very little that I can add to the accolades that Nicholson, Damon, and DiCaprio have already garnered. I particularly liked Wahlberg's character who just seems to be one giant ball of cuss most of the time (hence, the less-used teaser poster I chose for my graphic) and I thought his Oscar nomination for Supporting Actor was reasonable. (I particularly enjoyed the irony expressed in the intro at the Academy Awards where they point out that he was being nominated for playing a cop in a city where he'd been arrested over two dozen times in his youth.) Martin Sheen, as the Captain, and Vera Farmiga, as the romantic interest for both DiCaprio and Damon (there's an element of ew there), were also excellent supporting players. I did think that the relationship between Sheen's character and DiCaprio needed more fleshing-out. I didn't see the basis of Queenen (Sheen) asking Costigan (DiCaprio) to go undercover with the "do it for me" line. It was one of the many points that were lost in the translation from the original Hong Kong film, Infernal Affairs, I think.
From what I've found online, Scorsese chose to shoot the alternate ending to IA but incorporate many elements from the two sequels, thus creating a much longer film that tries to tie together the past, present and (somewhat) future of the characters. Madden (Farmiga) is a compilation of three minor female charactes from the three Hong Kong films and Wahlberg's character is almost totally invented for the Hollywood version. The focus on Nicholson's role is also different from the original, wherein the mob boss is a catalyst but not a major player. Obviously, I'll be looking to watch the original (and possibly the sequels) sometime in the future.
I enjoyed The Departed although whether it was deserving of all the hype and awards to the extent that it was lauded is questionable to me. Last night, we caught Goodfellas on the History Channel and I'm pretty sure I'm with the majority in feeling that Scorsese's 1990 work was a much better film.
But Goodfellas isn't the other half of this review. After watching The Departed, we were flipping channels and found Vampiros Lesbos, a 1971 collaboration between Spain, Turkey and Germany. A female-centred re-telling of Dracula, BER cited it as quite possibly the worst movie ever made, which I had always considered the sole territory of Roger Ebert's Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (released in 1970 and thus predating VL). Yeah, it's bad. Really terrible. It's a little shorter than Beyond... but, with Showcase cutting away to commercials at the absolute worst moments, it's plot is either really, really, really simplistic or way too complicated for me. Even thrown into the arena of psychedelic soft porn, it fares badly. In short, it's an 89 minute train-wreck (91 minutes in Argentina apparently).

Knocked Up, F**k Yeah!

2007-06-11T18:29:00.000-07:00

*Edit: I just realized that that title could be construed in a personal way so I just want to make absolutely clear that this post is about the new movie, Knocked Up, and the not-so-new movie, Team America:World Police which I referenced using BER and Josie, Hair Goddess' favourite theme song line. And it has absolutely NOTHING to do with me physiologically. Nothing.*So I obviously didn't upload the expected image of Canuck Seth Rogan and pretty-enough-to-be-a-Canuck Katherine Heigl for this review (there only seems to be the one of them in the waiting room anyway). But this picture is every bit as relevant as Knocked Up is truly a family affair with Judd Apatow casting his wife, Leslie Mann, and two daughters as Heigl's on-screen sister and nieces. Furthermore, he seems to be good friends with everyone else in the cast as well.
And I'd like to point out before I get into this short review that, with the exception of some episodes of "The Critic" and "Newsradio" that he apparently wrote/consulted on, I had never been exposed to either Apatow's cinematic or small screen prowess, having never seen The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Fun With Dick and Jane, Anchorman, or any of his other myriad films before seeing this last Thursday. (Oh wait, I saw most of The Cable Guy - let's not count that :P - the C.S.I. episode was better anyhow). Sadly, I have also yet to see "Freaks and Geeks" which I've been meaning to get on DVD for years.

Knocked Up is a nice movie. Crass yet funny, stupid yet clever, and, at times, startlingly honest but, at the core, nice. Sure, Ben (Rogan) is looking to get improbably laid when he meets Alison (Heigl). And, sure, Alison realizes that she would never have slept with someone like Ben - chubby, childish and basically unemployed - if she hadn't been incredibly drunk. But when the unplanned pregnancy rears its embryonic head, the two of them and a fabulous group of supporting characters react in natural and believeable ways. There are moments of clever, biting humour (eg. Alison's co-worker). There are moments of anger and angst (the leads are, respectively, a juvenile illegal Canadian immigrant and a pregnant entertainment reporter... of COURSE there's going to be anger and angst). There is a LOT of silly, stoner, "guy"-humour (pink eye, anyone?). There are moments of verbal and visual shock-value (you'll know what I'm talking about when you see it - THREE times) And then there are these moments of incredible clarity where real fears about life and relationships for both guys, girls (and bouncers) are laid bare. The movie's a lot deeper than one would expect. And, for one historic, cinematic moment, a trip to Vegas doesn't cause the guy more problems than he started out with (well, not many more in any case) and it was damn funny. Love that Paul Rudd...

After seeing Once on Saturday evening, we found ourselves with most of an evening still free and we decided to round out some of my pop culture references (BER had seen most of it in bits already) by watching the DVD of Team America: World Police that I'd borrowed from the library. I'll admit that I may not have been fully conscious for the whole thing but Parker and Stone don't really need me to be to get me to laugh. It was a surprisingly dramatic film. And puppet sex is always a crowd pleaser (see Avenue Q). I'll probably always prefer South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (and probably Orgazmo too) but this was an ambitious and successful foray for the Partners in Pervosity. F**k, yeah!

Once

2007-06-10T22:58:00.000-07:00

I can't help but feel that the trailer for this movie misrepresented it somehow. From watching the trailer, one could be led to believe that the story is a romance between two unlikely strangers punctuated by their love of music when in fact it is more a story of music punctuated by a tantalizing romance. Very few of the scenes from the trailer occurred in the expected contexts for me. I've heard it reviewed as "a deconstructed musical" which, while I'm not exactly sure I understand the term, sounds about right. There was none of the "normal" building of relationships, characters, and results. The music bursts out from the beginning nearly fully realized while the romantic plot line progresses in completely non-traditional stages. (Usually, a fella finds out if a girl is married or not before asking her to stay the night.) The main characters - credited as "Guy" and "Girl" - are played out as sweet and slightly lost individuals in a world full of things they would like to have but without a real plan to reach their goals.
Glen Hansard, most recognizable as Outspan Foster from The Commitments, is Guy, a busker on the streets of Dublin who fixes vacuum cleaners in his father's shop on the side. He sings the cover tunes that tourists and passer-bys want to hear during the day and his own songs - many inspired by an ex-girlfriend - at night. It is at night that he is approached by the lovely and precocious Girl, played to the tee by Marketa Irglova (I have no idea how to insert the necessary accents in Blogger), a Czech immigrant with an ear for a good melody. In the span of a short week (maybe ten days), they become an integral part of each others' lives despite some social missteps.
At only 85 minutes, this is a musical about the music without the big production numbers, without the typical "grand romance" and with a genuine, real-world feel to the setting and characters. The songs burst forth in situations that make logical sense and, although they run into some implausibly good luck in their quest to record a demo, you watch and buy into it with the satisfaction of witnessing good things happening to good people. These are people who face the realities of family and responsibility daily with humour and practicality. Best of all, being actual musicians (all of Guy and Girl's "original" songs are written and performed by Hansard and Irglova), they sound great.

Video Fun-Time

2007-06-06T22:34:00.000-07:00

First, a little something to get us all ready for the magic of Harry Potter to come in July...

And, now, for your edification in spider-lore...

Who knew?

Meet Achaean

2007-06-06T21:14:00.000-07:00

How much do I love movie promotional software?

Apparently, you've got 12 days to help me reassess my attributes and secure a permanent form for my daemon. How fun is that?!?

Three Thirds

2007-05-28T09:20:00.000-07:00

Now, if I remember my fractions unit in Grade 6 Math, that should equal a whole... something.

May has been THE month of threequels and, for perhaps the first time in my movie-going existence, I made an effort to see them all simply to get them out of the way. I won't deny that there was some anticipation for these overly-hyped franchise offerings but I've been the victim of high expectations in the past and am consciously-wary of expecting anything phenomenal from self-proclaimed "blockbusters".

First, there was Spider-Man III, once again starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst although I really only look forward to the performances/appearances of Bruce Campbell, Stan Lee and J.K. Simmons. Sam Raimi will probably always be able to lure money out of my pocket however this script, which he co-wrote with unknown-to-me brother, Ivan, was a bit too ambitious in its content and really needed an objective editing hand. I enjoyed the inclusion of the fiesty and charismatic Gwen Stacy (which completed the MJ/Gwen character switch) played by the very blonde Bryce Dallas Howard and the special effects for Sandman's first manifestation were nothing short of art. I also led the cheer (and I really wasn't the only one) when Dunst got laid out. Topher Grace as Eddie Brock worked for me but I can understand fan ire over the less-than-true-to-the-comic casting as I have occasionally ranted about other choices for long-established and well-loved characters. :oP

Strengths

- excellent special effects (as always)

- ambitious storyline (which, unfortunately, deviated considerably from the literary sources thereby eliminating the plausible inclusion of several excellent future plots)

- Bruce Campbell and J.K. Simmons

Weaknesses

- too much crying and dancing

- Aunt May's preachiness

- both leads were pretty darn annoying

And then along came Shrek the Third. My big confession is that I really hated the first Shrek when BER and I saw it in the theatre. I've been converted since then - watching it several hundred times with the Yorkshire kidlets, you either learn to laugh or take a flying leap into the canal. My current theory is that Myers' Shrek voice was too reminiscent of Fat Bastard (who I've never found funny) for me when Shrek came out. BER hadn't seen Shrek II as of the week before the release of the threequel so I went out and bought it and we watched it one free evening (few and far between, really, these days). I was stunned to discover that there were several differences between the US version versus the UK version (which was the only version I had seen up until then). Specifically, the Ugly Stepsister is voiced by Jonathan Ross (a popular talk/chat-show host) in the UK and by Larry King in the US version. There's also the "Justin" poster on the underside of the canopy of Fiona's childhood bed which I'm pretty sure is not in the UK version. I'd be curious to see the two scripts side-by-side since I'm pretty sure there were also a few joke "adjustments" made too.

Unlike many of my wiser friends, I actually do read the reviews that come out about the movies I see and, for perhaps the first time, I find myself of a completely diametrically opposing opinion to EVERY review I have seen in print for this movie. Where the reviewers have called it "stale and calculated" (Philadelphia Daily News), I thought it was funny and thoughtful. Where the reviewers have said it was "lots of razzle-dazzle to distract from the hole at the center of the story" (Rolling Stone), I agreed with BER in that the third film actually had a lot more plot to it than the second film which, honestly, although funny, was really just a constant chain of pop-culture references. In short, I liked the movie. It made me laugh. It made the little ones in the theatre howl. It had great performances by well-respected artists (I mean Idle and Everett, of course) and gave little girls some terrific role models in the Princess Squad (pictured above). And if some of the more off-hand slams were that it was too sitcom-like, I'll fully own up to the fact I like sitcoms. I don't understand how people can expect the third movie in a cartoon franchise about ogres, talking animals, and fairy tale characters to be revolutionary. Of course, it's going to stick to its formula but if it's still funny and has a good message, what's wrong with that? I find it pretty annoying that folks cut Spider-Man movies slack for being targetted at teenagers and comic-fans but expect Shrek, which is really targetted at 9-year-olds, to be some sort of fountain of high-brow wit and social commentary.

I suspect that Adamson's departure from the helm (he still wrote the darned thing) somehow allowed reviewers to wallow in some cattiness but it must be an industry thing. My heart goes out to Chris Miller who created something entertaining, financially successful, and yet still meaningful which fills a niche that some people just don't realize needs filling from time to time.

Strengths
- Princess (+ one Queen) Squad!
- Donkey/Puss body-switch
- baby ogre/donkey-dragon syncopation

Weaknesses (but mostly still funny)
- Prince Charming's Mummy issues
- Mr. Merlin's New-Aginess
- High school isn't exactly seen in a positive light

On to the Pirates!
First off, stay until the end of the credits. All of the Pirate movies have had bonus scenes tacked-on to the end (it's a Disney thing mostly) but this one actually matters. The first two were basically pet tricks (the monkey in the first and the dog in the second) but this one is in the vein of X-Men 3. It is the actual end to the movie (and feels like it).
Secondly, my biggest beef with this film is that one must sit through the entire Dead Man's Chest to understand wtf is going on. And, honestly, the only thing that kept me awake during the first sequel was the volume. Basically, Gore Verbinski had a great story which might've been a stellar 3.5hr movie. For obvious reasons, he was forced to make two movies instead which resulted in a long, over-drawn, and (dare I say it?) boring sequel followed by a lengthy, slightly-convoluted, but immensely more exciting and intense threequel.
Lastly, I might actually like this film BETTER than the first. It's just really good story-telling and I'm a sucker for a good narrative. Now, I've put myself in conflict with all those who criticized the plot for the highly improbably actions taken by the many characters (see how good I am being at avoiding spoilers today?) but, you know what?, the entire franchise was highly improbable. Who would have thought that a Disney theme-park ride would spawn such a success? The success of the first movie was probably the only reason I went to see Eddie Murphy in The Haunted Mansion, another highly improbable happening.

Strengths
- Keira Knightley actually looks like a girl in this one
- The Meeting of the Brethren of Pirate Lords
- Keith Richards

Weaknesses
- There's a reason you never hear about "high-speed chases on the high seas" before the invention of motors
- Chow Yun-Fat could have been so much cooler
- Jonathan Pryce deserved a better exit

And that's all for the May blockbusters. I had a lovely birthday in the middle, btw. The big 2-9... yikes! :o)

Waitress

2007-05-14T09:22:00.000-07:00

The rave reviews have been coming in fast and furious for Adrienne Shelley's final film, the screenwriter, director and cast member having been tragically murdered in her apartment last November. In Waitress, besides writing and directing, she plays the mousy, perpetually-single co-worker of Keri Russell (whom, and I checked with IMDB on this, I have NEVER actually seen in any role, having never watched "Felicity" nor Mission Impossible III) the title character, an unhappily married and even less happily pregnant waitress and pie genius.

It's a lovely little movie with wonderfully human characters, realistic dilemmas and moments of real tenderness. There are some scenes where the dialogue doesn't exactly play true-to-life but I caught myself wishing people actually talked like that - honestly, poetically, and with a twist of irony. Nathan Fillion is, as always, completely swoon-worthy as the newcomer doctor and extramarital love interest and Russell is equal parts salt-of-the-earth and sweet despair. Shelley and Curb Your Enthusiasm's Cheryl Hines back Russell up as the waitressing staff of Joe's Pie Place (someone correct me if I misnamed the diner) and Andy Griffith fits the role of crotchety Old Joe, owner and regular customer of said diner to a tee. The cast is small, tight and extremely talented and, given the elegant and powerful script they are given, shine in their roles whether as a nerdy but persistant Casanova or a "happy enough" line cook.
There's really nothing that I can say that hasn't been said better by the reviewers of the New York Times, USA Today, Roger Ebert, and the 90% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. What I can say that stood out for me the most is the fact that the movie doesn't toe a moral line in any way. No character is without flaw and there is no divine retribution to balance out infidelity, resentment, abusiveness, hubris or childishness. That's not to say that the characters don't have a conscience but it's up to them to deal with their indiscretions and mis-steps, not some universal watchdog. Because, as we all know, good things don't always happen to good people and the nasty folk don't always get their comeuppance. How fitting and terribly poignant that Shelley's movie should deliver that message.

I've got (beat) Personality

2007-05-12T23:08:00.000-07:00

Hitched from Steven Rubio's blog, these are the results of a 21-page, online personality inventory.
With respect to the trait of Agreeableness, you appear determined, competitive, skeptical, and proud. You tend to express your anger directly.
With respect to Neuroticism, you resemble the average respondent in your ability to tolerate stress. Like most others, you are generally calm, but can at times experience negative emotions such as fear, anger, worry, and self-doubt.
With respect to Extraversion, you are moderate in your social enthusiasm and your activity level. You enjoy social situations but at times find these to be stressful. You value both the company of others as well as quiet time spent alone.
With respect to Conscientiousness, you are generally dependable, consistent, and careful. You are neither excessively planful nor obsessed with your work, but you are generally prepared and organized.
With respect to Openness to Experience, you are open-minded and enjoy new experiences. You are imaginative, have broad interests, and enjoy abstract, philsophical concerns. You are emotionally responsive.

Well, yeah

2007-05-08T11:53:00.001-07:00

Divinity --

[noun]:

An immortal

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

All my Favourite Books are Coming to the Big Screen

2007-05-02T21:04:00.000-07:00

Everyone and their house elf knows that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is coming out this summer. And if you don't, how exactly do I know you?

And if one were to peruse my sidebar of links, one would notice the link to the pretty little official site for The Golden Compass due out this Christmas starring Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Eva Green and the improbably-named but visually-perfect-for-the-role, Dakota Blue Richards.

And now, I am informed by Entertainment Tonight Canada (and confirmed by imdb.com), a film adaptation of Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising is due out in September.
Cooper's five-volume series about an eternal struggle between the forces of Good and Evil incorporating Arthurian legend was one of my childhood literary pillars. The Dark is Rising is actually the second book in the series (and which is also the name of the series) much as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the second but most memorable of the Chronicles of Narnia. I'm having a hard time envisioning the film adaptation and might need to re-read the book (nor a hardship) to refresh my memory on the specific happenings of the second book but the casting, headed by Christopher Eccleston and Ian McShane, looks intriguing. Cooper uses prophecy devices throughout the series and it's a testiment to the sheer amount of useless knowledge I retain that I quote the following completely from memory (you'll have to trust me on this). The punctuation might be slightly off.

"When the Dark comes rising,
Six shall turn it back.
Three from the Circle
and three from the Track.

Wood, bronze, iron,
Water, fire, stone
Five will return
And one go alone.

Iron for the birthday.
Bronze carried long.
Wood from the burning
And stone out of song.

Fire from the candle-ring.
Water from the thaw.
Six Signs the Circle
And the Grail gone before.

Fire on the mountain
Will find the harp of gold
Played to wake the Sleepers
Oldest of the Old.

Power from the green witch
Lost beneath the sea.
All shall find the light at last,
Silver on the tree."

It makes more sense if you read the book. And, hopefully, when you see the movie.

In Pursuit of Logic

2007-04-27T20:03:00.000-07:00

I don't know why I continue to expect the world to make sense. Incurable optimism, I guess.

Recently I applied for two job openings.

Job posting #1 required someone with a background in Education and/or libraries, who felt comfortable working with kids 11 - 16 years in age, had an interest and knowledge of Young Adult and Children's literature, and experience in fundraising, promotions and recruiting, training and managing volunteers. In short, my last fifteen years of work experience. Oh, and the candidate must be 30 years old or younger at the start of the workterm. Check.

Job posting #2 was seeking a teacher with experience and education in working with students with learning diabilities. There were other phrases and descriptions involved, none of which could be honestly applied to me.

So which job calls and interviews me today and immediately offers me the position? And which one didn't even shortlist me for a cursory phone call? It ain't logical, I tell ya.

By the way, this does mean that I actually have my own classroom for the next 8 weeks, working with the unbelieveably outstanding Ms. Walker. My only real concern is the inferiority complex I feel coming on... woot!

Bellatrix Lestrange is Hot

2007-04-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

If you missed her, she's delivering a curse at approximately the 1:59 point in the trailer. And Sirius... squee/sigh

One lesson well-learned

2007-04-23T19:06:00.000-07:00

Note to self (and any other T.O.C.s):
When subbing, don't wear a v-neck if you have a tattoo on the lower sternum. Grade eight boys have sharp eyesight.

R.I.P. Black Donnellys

2007-04-12T10:30:00.000-07:00

... real and televised.

NBC is certainly making its way into my bad books. Studio 60 is still nowhere to be seen despite the fact that filming has resumed on the last of the season's 22 episodes. And now the mid-season replacement, Paul Haggis' The Black Donnellys has been yanked ignobly from the cursed Monday night time-slot and replaced with the improv show Thank God You're Here! which, honestly, I simply turned off before the intros were finished. TGYH! gets another week in the slot and then, with the return of Heroes, NBC is throwing in The Real Wedding Crashers, a reality show which won't be getting my time either. The Programming department really needs a kick in the ass, IMHO. If you're going to air a Sorkin show, you need to give time for the series to build its fan base. Factor in the TiVo viewers, move the time-slot maybe. If you're going to air a Haggis show, screen the first few episodes ahead of time, why dontcha? That way, you wouldn't have to put the third episode (deemed too violent for primetime tv) directly to online viewing (which doesn't work in Canada anyways, btw NBC.com) and leave a big ol' gap in the show's continuity. Bah.

A little history lesson now...
Haggis' concept of The Black Donnellys was based on the historical family of the 1800s who lived in the London, Ontario region of Canada and wielded a "reign of terror" over the Lucan townspeople for 33 years. Being the good li'l history teacher I am, I picked up a book about them from the library for edification since the story never reached my Saskatoon high school's history classroom (and yet we spent how long talking about Diefenbaker?). Anyhow, in a nutshell, the Donnelly family consisted of James and Johannah who emigrated from Ireland in the 1847 or thereabouts with two sons, James Jr. and William. William was born with a club foot, had the worst reputation of the lot (that's 2 characteristics that Haggis borrowed for his character, Jimmy), played a fiddle later in life and was the only son to marry. James and Johannah had five more sons and, last of the lot, a daughter named Jennie (common enough name but Haggis probably used this too). Reputedly, the family spent their entire 33 years in Lucan in a feud with the town, beginning with James and Johannah setting up their homestead on someone else's land (squatting, a foin Irish traditional, apparently) and then threatening the rightful owner with an axe when he came to clear up the "misunderstanding". Over their sojourn, the Donnellys were accused of arson, cattle poisoning, horse mutilation, theft, mugging, and various forms of violence. James Sr, James Jr, William and Robert all served time in prison. The boys were also quite good athletes as well. They were also, admittedly, very hard workers. They just seemed to feel the most efficient way of attaining their desires was the best. And usually involved their fists.
James Jr. died of a heart defect exacerbated by pneumonia he caught while hiding in the States from an arrest warrent. Michael was stabbed to death on Christmas Eve 1879 by a couple of lumberjacks while waiting to catch a freight train home. Jennie, apparently very quiet and pretty, married a man in St. Thomas and raised a family of four as a well-respected member of the community.
However, it took a vigilante group organized by the town's Special Constable, James Carroll, to bring the rest of the family down. On Feb. 4, 1880, the mob of 31 drunken men descended on James and Johannah's house (which had already been burned to the ground once by a mob), managed to trick James (then in his 60s and arthritic) and the only son at home, Tom (who had never been bested in a fist-fight despite a local saloon owner's promise of a year's worth of free drinks to the person who could), into handcuffs, and then proceeded to beat them, Johannah, and their visiting niece, Bridget, to death. The men were beheaded with an axe. The remains of the bodies were so mutilated, slashed, battered and burned, that they all fit in one coffin. The mob then moved to William's house but only two, Special Constable Carroll and William's brother-in-law, actually approached the door. John, who stayed at the house with William and his wife, opened the door when they knocked and was shot full of lead by the two shotguns pointed at the door. This was a sort of accident as the men had been targetting "the clubfooted devil" and they left thinking that they had gotten him. Patrick was away from home that night. Robert was in prison.
Six ringleaders, including Carroll, were brought up on charges of murder fueled by the eyewitness testimony of Jonny Connor, an eleven-year-old who had been staying with the Donnellys the night of the murders. The prosecutor was denied the motion to move the trial out of the Lucan area and the jurors, all of the local area, released all the men accused.
It was a really good read and I have to thank Haggis for tweaking my curiousity enough to look into it. Thomas P. Kelley wrote the book, published in 1954, and it went on to be one of Canada's bestsellers at the time. His narrative is humourous and ironic by turns, his descriptions quite vivid. For example, Johannah was anything but the dainty Irish miss one might expect.
"At the time she met her future spouse Johannah was eighteen, had stern and swarthy features, big hands, broad shoulders and agate-hard eyes. She looked like and should have been a man, her sex undoubtedly robbing the bare-knuckle prize ring of a prospective champion. In later years she sprouted a miniature Vandyke, wore red flannels and told of never having been "much of a beauty." Her picture proves the words to be a gross understatement."
I certainly hope Haggis wasn't thinking of this when he cast Kate Mulgrew.
James, on the other hand, was said to be quite good-looking and all the children were spoken of as being extremely attractive. Even by their enemies. Pretty is as pretty does, I guess.

Tempting Tarot

2007-04-09T22:24:00.000-07:00

You Are The Lovers

You represent ideal love: innocence, trust, exhilaration and joy.
You demonstrate the harmony of opposites, two sides coming together.
At times, you also represent the struggle between what is right and what is tempting.
Control is an issue for you, especially when you don't know your reasons for choosing something.

Your fortune:

You have an important choice you need to make about love, and it will be a difficult choice to make.
You are likely struggling between the love you crave and the love that is right.
In the end, you will choose what you crave, even if it's bad for you.
Because without what you crave, you will feel empty and incomplete.

What Tarot Card Are You?

Grindhouse

2007-04-06T22:29:00.000-07:00

Attention, my more sensitive readers, in the spirit of the Rodriguez/Tarantino double feature, this review may have more expletives than my blog posts usually employ. Click, highlight and read at your own discretion.

What we have here, folks, is some fucked-up shit. But, if you went to see this movie, it's the least you'd expect from a combo involving Sin City's Robert Rodriguez and the self-defining Quentin Tarantino. I don't want to gone on too long here since the individual movies are only 85 minutes and I've decided not to do my usual spoiler thing here (you're already highlighting to read this, how am I supposed to hide anything?) so here it goes in the proverbial motherfucking, possibly-emasculated nutshell.

First, the trailers:
To create the feel of the vintage drive-in double bill, Rodriguez and Tarantino invited film-makers to create trailers to fictional horror movies (at least I assume they won't be made into feature length films, but who knows with Hollywood today? Oh wait, IMDB says that Machete is in pre-production for a direct-to-video release. Oh boy.) The first one ran before Planet Terror and the others ran after the intermission.

1) Machete directed by Robert Rodriguez - Mexican day-labourer turned hired killer betrayed, turns to ex-hitman turned priest for help, gets the women, kills the men. Tag-line (paraphrased to the best of my memory): If you hire him to get the bad guy, make sure the bad guy isn't you.

2) The Werewolf Women of the SS directed by Rob Zombie - The title basically tells you what the movie is about. Purposefully edited to be painfully bad, the trailer's thoroughly ridiculous and pretty darn confusing. Cameo by a surprising star in a surprising role. No memorable tag-line.

3) Don't directed by Shaun of the Dead's Edgar Wright - Without realizing it was Wright, the humour of this one struck me as distinctly British. There's no real way to sum up the action in the trailer. Memorable tag-line: If you are thinking of seeing this movie, DON'T

4) Thanksgiving directed by Eli Roth - Eli Roth is one fucked-up, misogynistic, tasteless S.O.B. Tag-line: This year, there won't be any leftovers.

OK, onto the features:

Planet Terror - The plotline in Rodriguez' offering isn't original by any means. Nasty gas released at military base has a nasty effect on the local population, turning them into nasty-looking, puss-filled, flesh-craving monsters. Small group of individuals with an immunity to the gas fight to survive. Rose McGowan is amazing in her role as Cherry Darling, a go-go dancer (not a stripper - there's a difference) who loses a leg early on to a pack of hungry infectees. For some reason, these movies always have an abused wife in the cast of characters and Heather Graham-lookalike, Marley Shelton, plays that role here as Dr. Dakota Block, married to crazed emergency-room doctor, William Block, played by Josh Brolin. I really liked Freddy Rodriguez (no relation) as Wray, McGowan's romantic interest with a mysterious history. Cameos by the Black Eyed Peas' Fergie and Tarantino (no one expected that, did they?) and an uncredited star keep the audience observant even if they could ignore the action on-screen. That, and the female deputy's constantly shrinking uniform.
The gore is gratuitous, the violence hyperbolic, the logic pretty tenuous, and the humour blacker and more cliched than "a dark and stormy night". Continuity takes a back-seat in a story that is as predictable as the make-up is disgusting. A true homage to the films that drew Rodriguez into this business.

Death Proof - Tarantino's half of this endeavour could be considered two related short films. The first is a set-up piece, establishing the murderous villain, Kurt Russell's Stuntman Mike, and his weapon of choice, cars. The second matches the villain up with some formidable nemeses. The first re-showcases McGowan, not nearly as attractive as a blonde, and distracted me with the appearance of Vanessa Ferlito from C.S.I.: New York. The second indulges Tarantino's love of classic cars and car movies. And chicks in cars. All in all, it's one helluva a ride.
Rosario Dawson and Kurt Russell have been touted the most in Death Proof's junket but it is an exceptionally well-done ensemble piece. Tracie Thoms is really Tarantino's mouthpiece on-screen (even though the man himself is tending the bar in the first half), spewing out countless N-words and Mo-Fos but taking exception to "blaspheming". And Zoe Bell is a goddess. Autophiles might shed a tear over the damage done to the vehicles involved but I was more impressed with how much damage those classic cars could take and keep going.
I'm not of the generation that frequented drive-ins and I know that numerous references flew right over my occasionally-cowering head, but I recognize a labour of love and the sheer amount of fun Rodriguez and Tarantino had putting these movies together, missing reels and all. If only we all could have careers we loved this much.
I guess I didn't really swear enough in this review to really justify all this invisi-type, but I did text anyone I didn't think would be offended with the message,"Just saw Grindhouse. There's some fucked up shit right there, Batman" after we left the theatre so it's safe to say the movie had an impact. Fuck, yeah.

The Power of the Bear...

2007-04-02T19:35:00.000-07:00

Stephen Colbert may have something else to say about them but Jen and her fund-raising for the BC Women's Hospital and Health Centre have proven the effectiveness and lovableness of these stuffies by bringing in over $10,000 for the cause! Congratulations, Jen et al on your fabulous success! And thank-you, any of you, who might've contributed, too. I bought one but it's a present for someone else. And they've got a few left over that they'll post in a week or two. For now, though, I think I'll take that link down. Cheers!

Recognition

2007-03-27T21:16:00.000-07:00

http://www.myheritage.com

Apparently, we don't quite have the technology yet... Of my 10 closest matches, besides the ones I picked, two were male, one was apparently Lizzy McGuire's best friend, and one was Jenna Elfman. There was also another Japanese celebrity and one from South Korea. It does vary quite a bit depending on the photo you pick, however. Have fun!

A Depressing Duo

2007-03-26T22:24:00.000-07:00

Saturday was an odd film-viewing day for me to say the least. I usually like to see films that make me feel good. Real life's tough enough as it is without spending my "play" time watching stuff that'll bring me down. Which explains why I still haven't watched my DVD of Mystic River. However...
After I finished work at the library, Merwitch picked me up and we fought through the hordes of folks heading for the Jewish Film Festival at Fifth Avenue Cinemas to get our tickets for the documentary, Sharkwater. There's been pretty good buzz about this Canadian-made film about the billion-dollar-a-year shark-finning business. The writer and director, Rob Stewart, is a young photographer with a biology degree and a love for sharks. As a photographer and cameraman, Stewart does amazing work and his mission to inform the world about the true nature of sharks is admirable and amazing. The images and moments he captures and presents are incredible. Seeing him on the sea floor, petting and stroking the sharks that surround him like so many pointy-nosed, pointy-finned puppies, is truly awesome. The story of his quest to save sharks from the finners, shown in all their gory business, is epic, involving Guademalan gunboats, Costa Rican courts, the Taiwanese mafia, the Galapagos Islands, flesh-eating disease, and a "long-line" - used to catch sealife indiscriminately over large distances - that can reach "from the Earth to outer space".
Unfortunately, he isn't a very good film-maker. The movie lacks focus and rhythm and, on several occasions, direction. I could have dealt with a few twists and turns as his originally-planned love-letter to shark-kind became a real-life adventure. However, the tangents the film took were distracting and more than a bit self-centred. Stewart seems to enjoy being in front of his camera as much as behind it and this does a lot to detract from the subject of his film. His voice-over narrative is monotonous and often repetitive. His editing is questionable. At one point, while introducing the person of Paul Watson (a very interesting individual, btw), there is a montage of illegal ocean animal poaching that Watson's Sea Shepherd organization has confronted in the past. Right in the middle of images of whaling and long-lining, there's about 30 seconds of a Canadian seal hunt. Now, I'm not on any certain side regarding the seal hunt. I don't know enough about it to make any sort of judgement. However, I resent and dislike the inclusion of a bloody ice-flow for the sole purpose of shock value when it is neither illegal (so far) nor related to shark-finning. It ruins the flow of imagery and is as irritating in retrospect as it was in the theatre. The final fifteen minutes (before the stats run) was also pretty brutal as Stewart fills the screen with images of himself free-diving in Costa Rica in nothing but a Speedo and flippers.
I'll admit that the message came through loud and clear. There is a luxury industry in shark-finning and it has victimized 90% of the world's shark population so far according to the film's stats. Sharks, who take 25 years to reach sexual maturity, are the top of the ocean food chain, controlling the plankton-eating fish population and thus allowing the plankton to continue to produce oxygen for us "conceited, dressed-up apes" (that's a paraphrase of Watson's words, not Stewart's) to continue to breathe and survive and massacre more unprotected species. I'll have to have a word to my godparents regarding future Chinese dinners. In the meanwhile, there's more information, some pretty graphic footage, and a petition at the film's official website.

Merwitch is a busy little shark herself these days so she dropped me off at home directly after the movie and headed for bed and some much needed sleep. As it was getting late, I suggested to BER that we watch one of the numerous libary DVDs I have cluttering up the living room which only runs about a half-hour. Mass Com mentioned to me on Google Chat recently that he had bought it when Criterion had a sale and it happened to come into the libary while I was working. Nice how things work out like that. Anyhow, if I wasn't feeling all that great about humanity's treatment of fish, 30 minutes about the Nazi concentration camps was sure to put me in a misanthropic mood.
Night and Fog (Nuit et Brouillard) was made in 1955, ten years after the concentration camps in Germany and occupied Poland were liberated by the Allies and their actual function as extermination camps was revealed to the world. Filmed on site at Auschwitz, the documentary uses colour footage of the post-war camp as well as black-and-white newsreels and photos to illustrate the humiliation, terror and despair that marked the last days of 9 million people. In addition to the images of the mass graves, primitive barracks, and emaciated bodies, the film includes footage of what the Sonderkommando plundered from the dead. Rooms filled with mountains of shoes, mounds and mounds of clothing. Millions of pairs of eyeglasses. The maintenance of some of the camps was paid for by scientists and laboratories who "bought" bodies, both living and dead, for experimentation and mutilation. In 1955, much of the film recovered from Nazi vaults was still in good, even pristine condition, and the director, Alain Resnais (who much later stated that he had wanted the film to be allegorical to the French intervention in Algeria which was contemporary to the making of Night and Fog) uses them to great effect paired with the calm, eloquent narration of Michel Bouquet (Rob Stewart, take note). Mind you, I read the subtitles.

After these two, I think I can be forgiven for indulging myself in Kronk's New Groove on Sunday night (sorry, honey) and The Devil Wears Prada this morning. And now that I've seen it, I reiterate what I stated in response to Artfan's comment on Chris Cooper's chances of an Oscar nod for Breach. If Streep can earn a nomination for Prada, Cooper should get one easily if merit counts for anything. Oh, damn.

Breach

2007-03-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

Who knew that a movie that starts off with John Ashcroft could be so enthralling?
The trailers for this film of espionage and betrayal based on the story of actual F.B.I. double agent, Robert Hanssen, gave a lot of the possible twists away. It seems like the film-makers might have wanted to initially lead the viewers to believe that Hanssen, played with incredible charisma by the always impressive Chris Cooper, was merely a "sexual deviant" as Ryan Phillippe's ladder-climbing F.B.I. Intel upstart (what is the term for a member of the F.B.I. before they make "agent"?), Eric O'Neill, was informed at the outset of his assignment. I think the producers realized that the story was just too high-profile to try and throw a red herring like that out and therefore, Hanssen's real crime is make explicit in the trailers and the "reveal" in the movie seems to fall a bit flat. There are some technical flaws in the film that stood out for me. For instance, there is a singular visual used repeatedly, almost intrusively, early in the film that seems significant in the first hour but which, ultimately, seem to be cosmetic. The other, which Ms. Walker asked me about afterwards, was when O'Neill and Hanssen enter a church. Hanssen makes his sign of the cross from left shoulder to right shoulder, in the manner of Western Orthodox (including Catholic) worshippers. O'Neill crosses right to left, which is more indicative of an Eastern Orthodox catechism despite the fact that the film establishes that he was educated by Jesuit priests.

Sign of the cross flub not withstanding, Phillippe's turn as the conflicted protagonist was very good. I've taken his work very seriously as he seems to be one of those "face-maker" actors ("This is my serious face. See? I'm acting serious.") but his performance here seems to tap into some genuine emotion and his character's actions and reactions are spot-on believeable. Laura Linney plays an interesting character in this film - the F.B.I. agent directing O'Neill and co-ordinating the take-down of Hanssen. A career agent, she comes across as tough as nails even when folding her laundry. Cooper, as the bizarrely sympathetic American traitor, is stellar. Hanssen's character is complex without being complicated. As presented in this film, it seems to make perfect sense that this God-fearing, rulebook-quoting, self-professed patriot would spend 25 years betraying his country's most confidential secrets. He is a crotchety, straight-talking, intolerant old man approaching retirement in an organization he could have risen high in if he had been willing to politic. The beauty of this movie is in the fact that the audience feels a real affection for him, reflected in O'Neill's relationship with him, even knowing the reality of the lives he has cost and the damage his actions inflicted on the security of his country. If there isn't an Oscar nod in there for Cooper, I'm giving up on the entire award show gimmick.

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

2007-03-21T23:33:00.000-07:00

The roots of the IRA in the struggle for Irish freedom from the British has never been the makings of any sort of "feel-good" film. This may be because directors and film-makers realize that there is very little to feel good about in a conflict that pitted brother against brother, neighbour against neighbour, and can claim responsibility for atrocities committed by both sides. Vastly out-gunned, out-numbered, and out-politicked, the grassroots Irish Volunteer "freedom fighters" hesitated very briefly historically to cross the fine line to terrorism to fight the original British occupation and, later, their own Irishmen who wore the uniforms of the Free State Forces. Ken Loach's newest offering illustrates the sort of action men and women of socialist conscience are forced to take in order to take possession of the democratic freedom they were promised.

At the film's outset, Cillian Murphy's character, Damien, is an Irish orphan who has made good, become a doctor and is on his way to London to teach at one of the best hospitals in the Empire. The year is 1920, Sinn Fein has had a majority of Irish Parliamentary seats for two years and has effectively seceded from the British Empire (although unrecognized by the UK or any other country) and the British forces are in evidence everywhere in Ireland, "protecting the peace" under the Defence of the Realm Act, mostly patrolling for any unauthorized "public meetings", such as a final field hockey game held to bid Damien farewell, for instance. Through his experiences, the audience sees how one path can be rejected for another, one that is a more meaningful and more personal fight.
Loach's use of violence here is brutal and bloody. There is no slick Hollywood gloss to the torture, the ambushes, the executions. There is no honour in the deaths nor the killings. Despite the blood on the ground, on the hands of the combatants, on the bodies of the dead and dying, the Irish countryside in this film is overwhelming as it continues to bloom and thrive in the greens and browns that so successfully mask the tweed caps and jackets of the Republicans.
In the dialogue, Loach again chooses potency over polish, preferring to have his characters stutter and stammer in their passion to speak for their cause rather than have them deliver lines of unrealistic loquaciousness. The genuine emotion exhibited by the actors was an impressive salute to the conflict the real men and women must have felt.
To be nit-picky, the unevenness of the editing stood out for me - some of the scenes segued awkwardly from interior discussions to outdoor IRA training while others were quite effective in the use of sound and environment. One scene in particular, where the IRA men come walking out of the fog singing, I found especially poetic. The multiple scenes in Sinead's farmyard, conversely, I found to be a rather heavy-handed device to juxtapose the British and Free State armies.
Ireland's Troubles continued for well over fifty years after the time frame of this movie and Loach, born English, knows better than to create any sort of a pat ending. There is no ideal solution presented. There is no perfect system in the presence of humanity. As one character writes (and I'm paraphrasing because I'm getting old) "It is an easy thing to know what you are against, quite another to know what you are for."

My First (OK, Second) YouTube (Actually, Comedy Central) Embedding

2007-03-21T23:23:00.000-07:00

It had to be done. Watch it while you can... and wonder at the level of government idiots like Bolton can ascend to.

The first embedding didn't work because of the Viacom copyright lawsuit against Youtube. Here's hoping the second one works for a little longer!

Getcha TICKETS!

2007-03-20T15:34:00.000-07:00

For those of you who haven't heard, Brendan's band, Edmonton Block Heater, is performing as the Angry Inch part of a live production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch which opens on April 24th. Tickets are now on sale online.

This is the stage production that the 2001 movie of the same name is based on. According to my Wiki-Research, there was some dispute between the creators - Mitchell and Trask - about the sound of the show and, where the film has the darker, rougher, more raw feel that Trask favoured, the stage production is seen as more of a slick "Broadway" style production that Mitchell preferred. In any case, it's going to be a fabulous, musical, cross-dressing time to be had by all... who have tickets, that is!
Speaking of which, the venue is the Media Club in downtown Vancouver (adjacent to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre) and while I'm not certain of the exact seat numbers, I can't imagine the house to be that big, so I'm sure that it'll fill up fast. Tickets are about $25 each in advance and $30 at the door. There's a bonus for the production team if the shows manage to sell-out 80% before April 10th so my House Elf Jacek, East German bassist extraordinaire, would greatly appreciate any and all word-of-mouth advertising and large groups sales! I will, of course, be leading a charge with any and all culture vultures who inform me of their interest and dates of availability.

EDIT: A link to Edmonton Block Heater's Myspace page has been added under my "Fun Stuph" sidebar. Click and listen!

Too Dumb To Live

2007-03-20T11:26:00.000-07:00

The answer, Alex, is John Bolton, former US ambassador to the UN, on tonight's Daily Show.

sigh

2007-03-19T20:04:00.000-07:00

Today's magic number: 289
I believe in magic, sometimes.

The Lives of Others

2007-03-13T22:09:00.000-07:00

Let's just get this over with: Pan's Labyrinth was robbed.
But that's not to say that The Lives of Others isn't a fantastic movie. It is an incredibly well-crafted, beautifully-told story of people at the mercy of a powerful system both corrupt and insidious. The premise of a Secret Police agent's personal involvement in the subjects of his surveillance could fall down in so many ways but this film does its fledgling director proud on almost all fronts. Stasi agent Wiesler, author Dreyman, and actress Sieland are portrayed as richly detailed, nuanced and flawed characters by Ulrich Muhe, Sebastian Koch, and Martina Gedeck respectively. The villains are a little less nuanced, easy to hate and fairly representative of the East German regime they work for and which grants them their power. The script stands out here, evoking moments of ironic humour in what is otherwise a shocking revelation of invaded privacy and re-definition of "full surveillance". The characters' struggles with a world set out to ruin them, where being true to oneself means prison or worse, cannot fail to engage and move the audience member. The comparison drawn between the world before and the world after November 9, 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall presents an academic query to students of history and culture. My greatest joy in watching this film was in how the story evades the embarrassingly sacchrine in its final scenes in order to deliver a deeply touching and doubly-profound final line. As a teacher, I hope to be able to show this film in class (despite its very silly MPAA "R" rating). As a movie-goer, I recommend seeing this film. Be warned though: you'll need to read fast at the beginning.

All that being said, I personally feel that Pan's Labyrinth was the better movie in terms of its innovative spirit, its juxtaposition of the real world with the fantastic, its use of one representation of evil to underscore another and its use of one character's virtue to enhance anothers, and even (especially?) its morally-ambiguous supporting characters. All of these elements are blended together to transport the viewer into a world full of mystery, violence, beauty and courage. Both films deserved their nominations but Germany won on the strength of its consistency not its genius.

I've always been mature for my age

2007-03-11T18:58:00.001-07:00

...who knew it was only by 2 months? Thanks, Lori, for the hitch!

You Are 29 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.

13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.

20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.

30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!

40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

Black Donnellys

2007-03-04T18:16:00.000-08:00

I'm not going to say it's better than Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I'm not going to say it's worse. It had a lot happen in an entertaining fashion in a one hour premiere. It introduced some excellent storytelling and incorporated some fun bits of visual effects from Haggis' film background. It humbled the troublemaker, injured the innocent, and martyred the honourable. But can it last?

In other news, I caught up in some of draft posts so if y'all feel like scrolling down past the Charity Bears (still a worthy cause to big in, btw), there's my Oscar post-mortem and some whiny stuff. Feel free to chime in on the Oscar results. I'm pretty much over the whiny bit. Cheers!

Charity Bears!

2007-02-26T19:08:00.000-08:00

Jen, one of the most active and activist Browncoats from right here on the Left Coast (well, she's actually Aussie and is physically in Australia at the moment but we claim her as ours... so there) works with the BC Women's Hospital and Health Centre as a fundraising organizer and has launched an awesome online auction in support of this fabulous organization. Now, unless some of my nearest and dearest have been holding out on me, I don't know that any of us can afford to bid huge amounts. HOWEVER, there are some amazing items that Jen has arranged for and SOME of you are just about fanatical enough to throw your two cents (probably even more) into the ring. I've uploaded the pics she sent me of Alan and Jewel from the Firefly/Serenity 'verse but regular viewers of Smallville, Deadwood (hehe), Supernatural, and (the new) Battlestar Galactica, might be interested in checking out the Teddy Bear link I've posted under "Fun Stuph" to the left. Please pass the information onto anyone you think might be interested!

Here's Jen's pitch in her own words:

"Hi everyone!

You might know that I worked with a charity while living in Vancouver. One of the projects I started was "Bears that Care for BC Women's".

With the support of the Vancouver film industry, BC Women's Hospital & Health Centre in Canada is proud to bring you Bears that Care for BC Women's - the cutest fundraiser in town!

Famous personalities from film and television have thrown their support behind BC Women's by autographing these cuddly little bears. And they are just crying out for a new home - with you!

100% of the proceeds from the auctions of the Bears that Care for Women's will benefit the BC Women's Hospital and Health Centre. Charitable Registration No: 890267537RR0001

BC Women's Hospital & Health Centre is Canada's busiest maternity hospital. Your assistance helps us care for the pregnant women who come here from across the province when they're in danger, when something suddenly goes terribly wrong during their pregnancy. By helping us raise money in this project, you are also helping us provide the best possible care for more than 1,200 babies every year who fight for their lives in our Special Care Nursery. You are helping BC Women's, a recognized world leader in women's health, care for women at every stage in their lives.

Each week until the end of March, a new group of celebrity bears will be up for grabs.

You can find out what's up for grabs each week at http://tinyurl.com/2whb82

From the small screen:
Smallville - Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum, Allison Mack, Erica Durance, Kristin Kreuk, Annette O'Toole, John Glover
Supernatural - Jared Padalecki & Jensen Ackles (5)
Battlestar Galactica - Edward James Olmos, Jamie Bamber, Tahmoh Penikett, Kate Vernon
Firefly - Jewel Staite (3), Summer Glau, Alan Tudyk
Happy Days - Erin Moran

Movies filmed in Vancouver:
Case 39 - Renee Zellweger (2), Callum Keith Rennie (2), Ian McShane (2)
Shooter - Mark Wahlberg
Postal - Verne Troyer (4), Larry Thomas (3), Zack Ward (2)

This week we have the following auctions:

Ian McShane (Deadwood/Lovejoy) Autographed Bear
Callum Keith Rennie (Due South/BSG) Autographed Bear
Erin Moran (Happy Days) Autographed Bear
Jensen Ackles & Jared Padalecki (Supernatural) Autographed Bear & Production Photo
Jewel Staite (Firefly/Serenity) Autographed Bear & Autographed Photo
Larry Thomas (Seinfeld) Autographed Bear & Autographed Photo
Zack Ward (Titus/Anne of Green Gables) Autographed Bear
Verne Troyer (Austin Powers "Mini-Me") Autographed Bear
Kate Vernon (Battlestar Galactica) Autographed Bear
Annette O'Toole (Superman/Smallville) Autographed Bear & Production Photo

Please support the women and babies of British Columbia, and bid on our snuggly autographed bears! If you can share this information around, that would be awesome!!!

Thanks!!"

Oscar Aftermath

2007-02-26T14:26:00.000-08:00

It was an entertaining four and a half hours if only for that terrific Will Ferrell/Jack Black/John C. Reilly number. And considering Eddie Murphy's loss (in addition to Ferrell's snub), I'd say that those guys really put their finger (whichever one) on the very apparent prejudice in the awards.
Surprises? Not really a whole lot. Sure, my predictions weren't spot on but I'm the last one to claim to understand the Academy's reasoning. In fact, I made better predictions during the execution of the show based just on gut feeling than before when I actually gave it some thought.
Best Picture & Best Director: It was a slight surprise that the Academy would awarded The Departed with both of these honours. It just didn't seem the type to take it especially with innovatively-shot films like Babel and Letters from Iwo Jima in the melee. The smaller films - Little Miss Sunshine and The Queen - seemed to me to be taken for granted as also-rans but I think Scorsese's long wait for his director's statue might have had a lot to do with the Best Picture win.

Best Actress in a Leading Role: Dame Mirren carried it off with class and dignity. That's the statue as well as the film.

Best Actor in a Leading Role: There was some question as to whether or not O'Toole might take this on the grounds of his age, his many nominations, and his lack of a single win but I was glad to see Forest Whitaker win for merit.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: This was predictable and very exciting for someone (as Ellen pointed out) America didn't vote for on American Idol. Jennifer Hudson was sweet in her acceptance and I, personally, don't put any credence in the rumours that Beyonce begrudges her the success.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Okay, this was one of the two relatively big shocks of the evening. Eddie Murphy should have won this category. His performance was phenomenal. It took him outside of his "safety zone" of schtick. It was risky. It was well-done. It was deserving. In hindsight, there are only two reasons that I could come up with for why he wasn't up there: his comedic background and Forest Whitaker. On the first point, it has long been understood that the Academy does not have much of a sense of humour (sense of irony, yes - eg. "Let's give this Oscar to the one man who cannot enter the country under punishment of prison") and comedians like Murphy, Carrey, and Ferrell are really doomed at this juncture in time to being "the saddest men in town" when it comes to Oscar season. On the latter point, it would have been a hugely progressive step (and the Academy isn't really known for those) to award three of the four acting honours in a single year to black performers (and the fourth to a non-American! OMG). I honestly believe that Whitaker's win as Best Lead meant that Murphy would be locked out. Some recent articles in magazines have commented on Murphy's "sour grapes" after the award was announced but I think the man has a right to be upset. I loved Little Miss Sunshine and Alan Arkin was an incredible member of the ensemble but his win could really be chalked up to the Academy rewarding him for sticking around as long as he has. (Arkin's last nomination was in 1969.) Merit based awards are not the Academy's strong suit (see below).
Congratulations, Mr. Arkin, but Mr. Murphy was done wrong.

Best Foreign Language Film: My first reaction to the announcement of The Lives of Others was WTF? And that was probably my feeling for quite a while afterwards. BER tried to warn me that Pan's Labyrinth's wins in the smaller technical categories - Best Make-Up, Cinematography, Art Direction - boded badly for a win in the film category but I didn't think that could be possible. Pan's was nominated for six awards, why shouldn't it win all six? I did a little research afterwards and this is what I've come up with:
This is the third year in a row that Germany has been nominated in this category and each year's submission has been highly deserving of praise and awards. 2004's Downfall was a remarkable feat of story-telling that emphasized the horrific actions in the human players of the Third Reich. 2005's Sophie Scholl was equally well-done and historically significant and this year's entry of The Lives of Others has garnered incredible reviews and critique. In the two previous years, Germany's entry has been beaten out by, arguably, more "important" films - The Sea Within beat out Downfall and Tsotsi beat out Sophie Scholl. This year's field did not hold as much competition in terms of "timely" issues. To over-simplify the field, The Lives of Others stood against a family drama, a war movie, a fairy tale, and a film nominated from one country but about another. My theory is that the Academy saw this "softer" field as a chance to reward Germany for its consistency over the last three years. (I've decided to call this the "body of work" award, which sounds better than "consolation", along a similar vein to the "vanity" award they're so fond of handing out to Lead Actresses.) I find these awards pretty irritating as they overlook the current year's achievements in favour of the sentimentality of things gone before. The whole point of the nomination process is that it is an honour simply to be nominated and the field should be a difficult one to choose a winner from. That being said, the winner should win on the merits of the submitted film/performance, not on what was done in previous years by them or their country.
Finally, as BER pointed out, the Foreign Language category is always tricky because it lumps so many films together and only allows for five nominations from ALL the movies made outside of the US production companies. It's a tough thing to not be American, it seems. At least when it comes to the Oscars.

I Want a Do-Over

2007-02-22T19:45:00.000-08:00

You may argue that the real world doesn't work that way - no one gets to go back in time for a real second chance. Well, I argue it darn well should. Case in point: today.
Susan calls me at around 0900hrs and asks me to work an evening shift as an LAI. Oki-dokey. No reason I should turn down a few hours work just because it's a branch that's more than a little problematic to reach by transit. And I've got a whole day to kill in-between anyhow. So I read a book in bed until about noon and I get a bit hungry. I check the food in the slow-cooker. Not our best recipe but still tasty. Watch a couple episodes of The Wire's 2nd season on the disc that Pinxie's dude, Captain Alias (I think that's his LJ handle), burned for me. Realize around 1500hrs that I'll be cutting it a little close to try to bus out to Richmond to drop off some paperwork AND make it to the library so I try to get a taxi at the hotel down the block. ALL sorts of taxi nastiness. End up not going to Richmond but making it to the library on time. Get my gloves on, I'm already to get started when Sue asks me,"Are you supposed to be working tonight?" That sets me back for a moment. "Didn't you call me this morning to work?" I ask. It wasn't this Sue/Susan. Great. Call around to a couple of different branches and finally figure out that I'm supposed to be at a branch on the OTHER SIDE OF TOWN. Another taxi. Less taxi nastiness this time though. Get to the right branch 45 minutes late but I skip my break and that leaves me with only a half-hour loss (and the cost of the taxis). I should never have answered the phone.

Oscar Post

2007-02-21T12:35:00.000-08:00

I have been a very negligent film fan lately. I don't think I've properly reviewed a single movie yet this year until Music and Lyrics in the last post. And it's not like I haven't seen any movies. My magic pass to Festival Cinemas kicked in New Year's Day and I've been to see Miss Potter (with Princess Y), Notes on a Scandal (with Ms. Walker), Pan's Labyrinth & Volver (with BER), and The Queen (with Merwitch). My, I've got strangely-named friends... Oh, and thanks to my Tinseltown connections, I've also seen Children of Men, The Curse of the Golden Flower, and a bit of Babel. Lastly, I paid to watch Dreamgirls. Finally, something really worth my money.

There are bigger and better blogs than mine reporting on the upcoming Academy Awards so all I'm going to put my two cents in on is the main categories of interest. That's not to say that the Best Short, whether Documentary, Animated, or Live Action, isn't worthy of notice, just that since they aren't being marketed to me 24/7, I have more knowledge and time invested in the feature films.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
I haven't seen Little Children or Blood Diamond and I have a soft-spot for the cast of Little Miss Sunshine but, despite the very good things I've heard about Marky Mark's performance in The Departed, I'm pretty certain that this one's going to Mr. Eddie "James Otis Marvin Brown Redding Gaye" Murphy for Dreamgirls. The Academy loves a mimic and a tribute and cherishes actors who take on a new skill like singing and dancing. Murphy manages all of these things and does it with style.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Again, I believe Dreamgirls will take this category with the much-lauded performance of American Idol's "also-ran" (wtf?) Jennifer Hudson. It's a bit of a heartbreaker though because Abigail Breslin was the heart and soul of Little Miss Sunshine and Cate Blanchett's performance in Notes on a Scandal was gut-wrenching work. I can't comment on the Babel actresses since I missed the first 20 minutes and then got motion-sick after 20 minutes in the theatre.

Best Actor in a Lead Role
It'll take some sort of a violent coup to wrench this statue out of the grasp of Forest Whitaker's portrayal of Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. The movie was flawed although I thought James McAvoy's performance was stellar but he was also my favourite "Scottish king" even before playing my favourite Narnian faun. Naming a winner always means indicating the losers as well and I'm ill-equipped to hand out sympathetic kudos since I skipped out on the other performances in this category. But here's a loud and proud shout-out to Canuck, Ryan Gosling, for getting a nod for Half-Nelson and a salute to Will Smith for what I've heard is a great performance in The Pursuit of Happyness. As for Mr. DiCaprio, word is that he got nominated for the wrong film. Poor Peter O'Toole. Apparently, this year's loss will make him the losing-est Acadmeny Actor nominee ever. Mind you, the Academy is a nostalgic and emotional beast. O'Toole could take it on pity but I think that everyone would know it and that it would be an injustice to both him and Whitaker.

Best Actress in a Lead Role
Meryl Streep can pretty much do anything it seems, including garner a nomination for a role in what is probably the most pedestrian film in this category. Birds gotta fly and stars gotta shine no matter the backdrop. However, she'll happily applaud Dame Helen Mirren's win this year for The Queen, I'm sure. Dame Dench's nasty, vampiric, pen-wielding manipulator in Notes on a Scandal dares us to laugh at her insanity while horrifying us with her actions but after taking a statue 8 years ago for 6 minutes of screentime, I think she'll be okay. Again, I haven't seen Little Children but I think Penelope Cruz might've had a shot this year if the Dames were out of the picture. Her performance in Volver was brilliant.

Best Picture
Sadly, I've only seen two of the five nominees in this category. (Should've been three but Dreamgirls' nomination got lost in the mail apparently.) The two that I've seen - Little Miss Sunshine and The Queen - while terrific films, don't really strike me as Academy winners. The Oscar for Best Picture usually goes to a politically-charged/-inspired movie or as an award to a director for a larger body of work (looking at you, Return of the King). At least, that's what I've seemed to have noticed. Babel is the front-runner but critics are loving Letters From Iwo Jima so I'm giving this category up as a possible (but improbably) split between the two. I don't hold out much hope for The Departed taking Best Picture because I think Scorsese will win for Best Director (finally!) but the Academy won't give him both.

Well, that's about it. I'll tempt fate and make a few more predictions:

Pan's Labyrinth - nominated for Art Direction, Cinematography, Foreign Film, Makeup, Original Score and Original Screenplay.
I'm cheering it for Best Foreign and Best Original Screenplay for sure. I'd like it to win for Best Score but mostly I just don't want Philip Glass' score for Notes on a Scandal to win.

Cinematography is a funny category for me. When I consider Best Cinematography, I think of the sweeping vistas and landscapes of David Lean's films. I sort of define it as the use of the environment to enhance the film, but mostly I think of the environment as outdoors-y. I don't think that'll be a factor this year with two films about magicians - The Prestige and The Illusionist - on the ballot. Wish I'd seen them so that I could write something halfway intelligent about them.

Children of Men - nominated for Cinematography, Film Editing, and Adapted Screenplay. I'm leaning toward awards for Best Film Editing (the scenes in the shoot-out were unbelieveably stunning and the sound and action was edited in such a clever, thought-provoking way) and Best Adapted Screenplay (although it'll have stiff competition in Borat and Notes on a Scandal).

I suspect the period films - Marie Antoinette and The Curse of the Golden Flower - will duke it out over Best Costume Design, Mel Gibson's Apocalypto might take Best Makeup, and Dreamgirls will notch another one for Best Song (with three of the five nominations, it's really just a numbers game). I have no idea what to consider in looking at Best Art Direction and the only movie I saw that is nominated in Visual Effects - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - was terrible. I also didn't see any of the animated films this year so "no comment" on that. OK, that is all you'll hear/read from me on the Oscars until Monday (when I return to gloat/sulk). Feel free to chime in on any especial favourite of yours this year. I used the official Oscar listing to check nominees.

Falling Can Be Fun

2007-02-20T20:02:00.000-08:00

My dear DDCAddict has known this for years but only (very) recently has there been someone to catch him and fall reciprocally. What a nice Valentine's month this has turned out to be for them.

Personally, I fell off the caffeine-free bandwagon today but with good reason. Really. Cat-napped about 2.5 hours last night (stress sucks) and then was determinedly forcing myself into a semi-restful stupor around 0900hrs this morning when the library calls and asks me to work in the evening. Totally do-able if I can get some sleep in during the day... Five minutes later, the phone rings again and it's York House calling to see if I can work today. "Yes, but..." I stammer,"Isn't it already nine o'clock?" School starts at 0830hrs. "Yes," says the queen of understatement on the other end,"we'll need you as soon as possible." Hop a cab to get me there for 0915hrs and walk into a French lesson in progress. Grade 6s, a chatty bunch, but, like all the classes at York House, well-behaved. Found out at the end of the day that a bunch of them had switched seats so that they could sit with friends while their usual teacher was away. It's bound to happen when you're a substitute and it's not like it disrupted the lessons anymore than if I had tried to enforce a seating plan. I noted the deviant behaviour in my notes for the day and she'll have the option to deal with it tomorrow.

BER and I had a lovely dinner out at CinCin's on Sunday evening and followed it up with some harmless fun at the movie theatre. Romantic comedies aren't usually at the top of my to-see list but Princess Y brought Music and Lyrics to my attention a little while ago and I had read some positive reviews since then.
The film starts with a ridiculously 80s music video of the fictional musical group, Pop!, performing their big hit,"Pop! Goes My Heart". Loosely based on Wham!, Hugh Grant plays the lesser known member of the duet who is now reduced to singing his old hits to his original audience, now older and ostensibly wiser (although you'd be hard-pressed to prove it in the behaviour of the women in the crowd) and whipped into a nostalgic frenzy by Pop! signature dance move. There's definitely some serious hip action involved.
Barrymore is a cute, chatty, hypochondriacal plant-waterer who turns out to have a real talent for turning a phrase when Grant's character needs a lyricist for his submission song to a hot young pop star (ala pre-bald, pre-baby Britney), Cora Corman, a rather fetching (and young) Haley Bennett.
The movie is cheerfully predictable with lots of catchy tunes and some clever lyrics. Grant, as the self-deprecating, dry British wit, and Barrymore in her perfected child-woman role, are a surprisingly good fit as a couple. I've had issues in the past with the Hollywood older man/younger woman bent where men of decripit age somehow exude some powerful attraction over nubile nymphs a third their age. Grant, although fifteen years Barrymore's senior, is not unattractive in this film and Barrymore isn't some twenty-year-old ingenue so I'm willing to let myself enjoy the final reel's dramatic and romantic flourish and revel in their fictional happy ending. The credits are fun too.

V-Day

2007-02-14T10:14:00.000-08:00

There's some sort of evil coincidence at work that Valentine's Day and veneral disease share the same initials. Just a thought. Cute bunny, huh?
BER and I tend to celebrate on the 15th to avoid the annoyingly inflated prices of flowers, chocolates, and dinners. This year, we're putting it back to Sunday since EBH is rehearsing evenings tomorrow and Friday. Many of my married friends are spending their Love Day apart from their significant other... my best wishes to you all. Having spent two Februarys away from home and hearth, I am that much more grateful to be home for this one.
No work today (correction: just got called in for 4 hours this evening) (correction #2: shift got changed to eight hours starting at 1300hrs) but, as always, lots of stuff to do. My disappointing news for the day is word that NBC will only be airing one more episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip before putting it on "hiatus" with an undetermined return date. Doesn't look good. Its time-slot is being taken by The Black Donnellys, a New York-based mob drama co-written by Paul Haggis. I love Haggis' screen work and his television credits are nothing to sneeze at so I'll probably try out this new show whose title is a salute to Haggis' Canadian background and the Black Donnellys of Ontario folklore. I've still got my fingers crossed on the return of Studio 60 though.

How Wrong Can They Get It?

2007-02-13T18:23:00.000-08:00

From DarkHorizons.com:
The trade papers have confirmed that Tom Cruise and Ben Stiller are teaming up for "The Hardy Boys" as rumoured earlier this week.

WHAT!?! Apparently, it's actually entitled The Hardy Men and has Cruise and Stiller playing the leads, all grown up and reunited for one more mystery. How is any of this a good idea? Someone explain it to me because I don't even remember when the Hardy Boys were even all that interesting... wait, I do, it was when I was twelve and reading the crossover where Ned Nickerson walks in on Nancy Drew and Frank Hardy kissing.

Dumb, de-dumb, dumb.

Productivity

2007-02-13T18:19:00.000-08:00

After what was a thoroughly exhausting week, I really crashed last Sunday. I made the conscious decision to break the caffeine addiction I'd revelled in during the week and go cold turkey. The result was that a trip to the laundromat and Safeway in the afternoon completely wiped me out. To give you some idea of how bad my caffeine intake had gotten... Each day that I worked at the school (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday), I started the day by getting the largest mug I could find out of the staffroom cupboard and filling it with coffee and about 4 spoonfuls of sugar ("about" because I sometimes couldn't find a spoon and just poured it into the cup from the large canteen it's stored in). Classes start at 0830hrs and recess is around 1030hrs and I'd need (and get) a refill by then. Lunch is 1205hrs and by then I'm the only person still drinking coffee so I'd usually just hope that there was still some left in the recess pot and finish it off. Otherwise, I would make a new pot and try to drink 2 cups before the lunch hour was over to justify it. On days when I would teach and then work at the library for four hours (Thursday, Friday), I would get a venti Starbucks to tied me through the evening. Needless to say, my 0830hrs Saturday shift at the library required quite a bit of "pick-me-up" throughout the day.

So Sunday was a bit of a rehab/recovery day. Monday turned out to be the "no pain, no gain" day when the withdrawal headaches started in. Luckily, I wasn't working until 1700hrs at the library. Took a couple of Advil and tried to get stuff done in an effort to ignore the constant pounding in my skull. Somehow, I managed to soak and pin out (aka "block") the baby blanket I had knitted for Mary and Randy's new baby, Monica. I also set up the PVR that BER bought on a Christmas sale. Let's ignore the fact that that was almost TWO months ago. All the wires and stuff were a bit confusing for me considering the mental state I was in but it seems to be working now. (We've now got an extraneous DVD player in nearly mint condition to sell ... any takers? We'll even throw in the batteries in the remote!) Dropped off a year's worth of dry-cleaning way up on King Edward and Cambie and then headed the other way to grab the laundry before hopping a bus to get to work. On the way to work, I picked up a (non-caffeinated) soy rooibos latte. For about 5 minutes after my first sip, I experienced a slight placebo effect as my brain waited for the caffeine kick that usually follows a visit to Starbucks. That wore off pretty quick as my system suddenly registered that it wasn't getting any caffeine. In fact, it wasn't even getting all that much sugar! Gave in on the second demand as the branch had a box of assorted Valentine's Day candies sitting by the computer.

Today, I did my good deed and set up Merwitch with my godmom and her body shop guy, Jeff. Merwitch had a bit of an automotive encounter a couple of weeks ago which resulted in her passenger side mirror dangling forlornly in the wind and a couple of interesting rubber tread "racing stripes" down the passenger side of her car. Jeff helped us out quite a bit on the price (especially compared to the assessed cost that ICBC had given her!) and the part should be in by the end of the week. Being the good chaffeur that she is, despite having only gotten a couple hours of sleep after working until 0400hrs, Merwitch dropped me off in Richmond to (finally!) get my payroll paperwork done. With a little cooperation from the lovely members of the Richmond RCMP next door, I was able to get it all done (except for some official transcripts which I didn't find out about until much later). Wandered over to the mall afterwards for another rooibos latte and found out Starbucks makes pretty good cupcakes... mmm, sugar.

Got home around 1430hrs with another headache. Advil, water and a nap seemed to put me right. I'm at the Central library tonight. It has been busier than usual but that's not saying much. So far, I'm liking my accomplishments for the week and it's only Tuesday!
Tomorrow, I'd like to finish a knitting project, clean out the bedroom closet, take stuff to the Salvation Army and the consignment store, cull the DVD collection and cure cancer. World peace can wait until March.

Limits

2007-02-09T23:21:00.000-08:00

I know my limits. I even know my limitations. And, today, I recognized both in the faces and voices of the 20 six-year-old girls I was meant to "teach". Too needy, too distractable, and too darn cute. Less cute the third time a certain student broke into tears in a fit of paranoia over whether her mother would pick her up afterschool, but still...
Today was also the first time I was made really aware of the privilege so many of the York House girls come from. First, one of the second-graders that I taught last week stopped in the hallway to show me that she had lost a tooth. When I asked her if the Tooth Fairy came by last night, she smiled and told me that she'd gotten five dollars for the tooth. Five bucks? Wow. Later, the first-graders had a show-and-tell where the six-year-old of the moment had brought her Fender Squier Bullet electric guitar to show. She took a long time to tell but her mother has every moment on digital video. Apparently, it was blue when she got it at Christmas but her mother took it into an auto detail shop and had it repainted black. She's named the guitar "Black Diamond". Now, altogether... awww... how cute! I think I remember naming the family's luggage at her age.

Waiting for Jesus

2007-02-05T13:45:00.000-08:00

BER and I joined L&J for a night at the the-ah-tah last night. It was a US touring production of Jesus Christ Superstar starring Jesus himself, Ted Neeley, from the original 1973 film version directed by the amazing Norman Jewison (who, it turns out, is not Jewish but IS Canadian). Now, if you take a moment to do the math, Neely has been performing the role of Jesus Christ for at least 34 years (he understudied the role on Broadway before the film was made) which means that he's been Jesus on Earth longer than Jesus was on Earth. That fact gave me some thought whenever he sang the lines about doing his best for three years but "it feels like thirty".
It's not a long musical (as I may have mentioned before when Sally, Izzy and I saw the community opera production of it in Leeds) and, having started at 1900hrs, even with an intermission, we were done with our final ovations by 2115hrs. There was a crowd in the lobby waiting for Neeley to appear. The chorus of angels was not apparent. It was the final show of this tour stop and there were preparations to take down their sets and pack up costumes and props and start on their trip to Salt Lake City. The Public Relations handler came out to address the hordes, as it were, and explained that we were easily 4 or 5 times the number of people they had seen after the previous shows. She encouraged us to line up in some sort of orderly fashion to wait for Ted and then we never saw her again.
Ted arrived around 2200hrs and proceeded to sign autographs, pose for pictures, chat with fans, dispense hugs and advice... he might have been taking confession, we're not completely sure. We just know that it was taking a long time before people started heading out. We got our autographs and pictures around 2330hrs. So, just to recap, we waited for our time with Ted longer than we actually sat in the theatre. He's a very nice man. He's developed a very spiritual attitude about life (bound to happen, I suppose). He spoke to us about the actor playing Judas and how he felt the late Carl Anderson's spirit guided Corey's path to this production. He's not very tall, as you can see in the picture, but his presence on stage is extremely convincing and, considering he's playing a character 30 years out of his age range, that's darned impressive.

And I thought I was a fan...

2007-02-02T18:01:00.000-08:00

Harry Potter Helpline

Day 2, Grade 2

2007-02-02T13:24:00.002-08:00

My initial petrifying fear of primary students has ebbed to the point that I'm having a pretty good time. Their usual teacher let the school know yesterday that she wouldn't be in today either and the school asked me back. Since I'd learned all their names by that point and it was another day's work, I agreed. I cancelled my payroll appointment again with Richmond - Patty in Personel is sounding distinctly chilly - and Ms. Shore called me at home last night to give me the heads-up on today's special schedule. Turns out today is the Grade 2 performance of the mini-musical, Stone Soup, for the Grade 3s in the morning and then parents in the afternoon. Furthermore, their diorama book reports were due today so those presentations, a math lesson on adding and subtracting with money, and a little storytime filled up an already busy day of performances, French and P.E. During their French lesson, I got to do reading exercises with the kindergarten class. Yet another thing I'd would never have pictured myself doing 48 hours ago...

Choices

2007-02-01T12:12:00.000-08:00

I am often overwhelmed by the number of choices we are presented with everyday. Mundane, superficial ones. Massive, life-altering ones. What to eat. What to wear. Who to call. Who to ignore. What career path to take. Which bridges to burn.
About four years ago, I chose to apply to university in pursuit of a second degree and a possible career. My maternal grandparents were teachers and one of my older cousins teaches at the university level. Even my father purported to being a professor at one point in his life so my choice was not without hereditary precedent. Now there's even a younger cousin preparing for life as an elementary teacher. And here's where my choice made a difference. Despite knowing that there was a HUGE calling for elementary school teachers over high school teachers, despite realizing that (as the RSD interviewer reminded me) demand for Humanities teachers was low, despite understanding that getting a classroom in the Vancouver boroughs would involve no small amount of pimping myself out as the best darn teacher in the whole freakin' world, I chose to be a secondary teacher in Social Studies.
And this morning, as I watched 20 seven-year-olds come flooding into the Junior School classroom I had volunteered for, I realized that I made the right decision.
Had to reschedule my appointment with Richmond Payroll but it's another day's work and something of a badge of honour to wear. They really had no one else they could call. Really.

Just Call on Me...

2007-01-31T14:09:00.000-08:00

Today was my third day in as a substitute at York House and I've fallen in love with teaching all over again. Social Studies for grade 7s and grade 10s and a really well-catered staff meeting at break made for a fabulous morning. Furthermore, they booked me for another day in February and four more in April. I'm hoping that they have more soon but it's a start...
Yesterday, I interviewed at the Richmond School Board for a position on the teacher-on-call list. The interviewer wasn't exactly encouraging about my chances of getting a lot of work as a T.O.C. She pointed out that they weren't having any trouble filling vacancies this year; that of all teachable subjects, they have more Social Studies teachers than any other subject; that Richmond schools weren't super-convenient to get to by transit; and that this is an odd time of year to begin T.O.C.ing as well as an unlikely time to get a contract. All that said, she assured me that she wouldn't be taking the time to interview me if she didn't think that I was a good candidate for the list. She ended the interview by saying that she'd be in contact with me in the next couple of days.
She called the house this morning but I was teaching so I didn't get the message until lunchtime. I called her back and she asked if I was still interested in being on the on-call list. Oh, wait, let me think about that a moment. Yes? :P I've got another appointment tomorrow now to get the payroll paperwork done. I like the sound of that... pay...roll...
Anyhoo, I'm in for a few hours at the library since this "career" of mine isn't exactly filling the coffers right now. There's something to be said for safety nets. With a little discipline (?!?), I may even get ahead of this financial game sometime soon...

Staying Tuned

2007-01-29T12:22:00.000-08:00

Life's moved on as it is wont to do. I don't think things will ever be the same as before last Wednesday night. You can't go back on some things and that's probably best in the long run. The problem is that focusing on the long run usually involves being mature and patient, things I need to work on and never needed to before with as much urgency as now.
I've been very lucky in my relationships so far in life, which I'm very grateful for and I hope that I've never taken for granted. Now, I need to put in some work and thought and prayer. Who I'm praying to is still up in the air, mind you.

#500

2007-01-26T11:30:00.000-08:00

I dedicate this 500th post to my brother who got me started blogging all those years ago... um, well three's a pretty big number.
If you're quick, you can catch a glimpse of him in the third segment of the video here.
Love to the Bro!

2920

2007-01-26T11:04:00.000-08:00

That's how many days together BER and I were meant to be celebrating today. Life sucks.

Balance

2007-01-25T15:43:00.000-08:00

Shoulda posted earlier in the week before the universe could right itself from the weird and wonderful Tuesday I had. Ah, well.
First thing on Tuesday, I found out that I've been calculating my library hours on the wrong 7 days of the week and managed to work an extra half-hour in the first week of January. Oops. Talked to HR and they're okay with it "as long as it doesn't happen again".
Got email from the Social Studies teacher that I'll be covering next week at York House School. That was cool. Also got pictures of the brand-new baby Mary and Randy Tabada welcomed on Monday evening. Will try to upload those later. (Edit: They've put together an online album to save me the trouble.)
After my little 4-hour shift, I was heading down to 3Y Frames to pick up my Dreamgirls artwork but stalled a bit at the library, making some appointments. First the restaurant for our anniversary dinner on Friday, then with Josie Hair Goddess for a quick treatment on Wednesday. Oops, cell phone buzzes - missed 3 calls. I figured that they were from other branches trying to get extra people in to deal with the backlog from Saturday's VPL computer crash.
Call #1 - York House Personnel looking for an English teacher for Thursday. Wait... that should be Thursday!!!!
Call #2 - Godmom reminding me about dinner. (Side story: her mom and dad were at the mall that morning and wandered by a new bank branch opening where they were giving away grab bags and playing some games. God-grandmom wins some juice boxes. God-granddad picks out a grab bag with a hundred dollar bill! Didn't even realize it until he got home. We went to a very nice restaurant that night.)
Call #3 - Richmond School Board calling to book me for an interview!!!!
Flew pretty high that afternoon. And evening. And even a bit Wednesday morning. Enough that I felt generous enough to volunteer for an emergency shift in the afternoon (after the hair appointment).

Crash.

Hair treatment came out a little too short and poofy but that will remedy itself with time. Work shift was slightly marred by the smell of the dead mouse in the wall at South Hill Library. Met BER at Safeway to pick out groceries for our next slow-cooker meal. Went home for a salad and pizza dinner. Then, with the press of a button... I'm not exactly sure what happened. Luckily, the York House girls today were as wonderful as I could've hoped for (so that my lack of sleep didn't affect the lessons) and Ms. Walker and Merwitch were willing and able to respond to the distress signal I sent out last night. Thanks, gals, you're amazing.

The irony is that this post is about the bad balancing the good but I'm the one left completely unbalanced. Stay tuned.

Quite the Song to Sing

2007-01-17T18:08:00.000-08:00

The most read and commented LiveJournal that I frequent is that of author George R.R. Martin. His epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire (the order of which Variety managed to mess up) is the nearest equivalent to Tolkein-esque work in production today. It has flaws but so does Tolkein's work (or so I'm told). In any case, his readers don't stop at his books - of which there are many in addition to those in the Ice and Fire series - they religiously check in on his "Not a Blog" blog and comment in droves. Which shouldn't really surprise me considering the queue that I had to wait in back at Forbidden Planet in London when I went to his book signing for Feast. I'm still hoping he'll answer my question someday. Maybe in Book Six.

Yesterday, I was discussing the fact that I'm lucky if three people drop by here and comment regularly while Martin had posted at 1453hrs on the 15th (about the possibility of a pizza-crawl in New Haven, in case you were curious) and I was commentor #117 or something equally insane as of 1900hrs on the 16th. Granted, he may be an hour or two ahead of PST but... still! Anyhoo, today he posted his BIG NEWS at 1220hrs and, as of this moment - 1818hrs by this computer's clock - there are 220 comments. It is, however, very big news indeed in the world of the fanatical and quite the undertaking by HBO. Very canny also, though, in that they'll have a huge number of subscribers signing up for the chance to see this world brought to life.

If you haven't read the series and have the time and energy (which, honestly, I didn't the first time a made a run at them) to devote to multiple political machinations, vendettas and alliances, familial intrigue and discordance, incredibly well-drawn characters of all ages, races, religions, temperaments, and sexual orientation, as well as some of the darkest moments of despair and vengeance I've ever seen in print, I'd heartily recommend them. The series looks to be complete in seven books (it was six but the fourth became two books). Four are already out (five if you live in the UK, where the third was also split into two). The fifth, A Dance of Dragons, is expected in the next year or two. His chapters focus on the activities of specific characters, shifting the focus and voice accordingly, which is only maddening when he doesn't pay enough attention to the characters you really care about. That was the major flaw for me in Feast. Only the works of Guy Gavriel Kay sit higher in my esteem for historically-based fantasy and that's only because I read him first and he's Canadian.
By the way, the covers I picked were the ones I saw in the UK, except for the one for Storm of Swords because, as I said they published it in two volumes entitled Steel and Snow and Blood and Gold and the covers were different. One thing that I found interesting was that the US cover for Feast for Crows featured a stylized bird crest which I saw online before the UK one was released (even though they released the book in the UK before North America that year to coincide with his signing tour). I thought that the bird motif was a little too reminiscent of the Third Reich symbolism to fly well (har-de-har) with the British publishers and was proven right with the UK cover that was eventually released.

If you haven't noticed by my rambling - uncharacteristic, I know - I've been trying to fill up space so the cover images don't format funny. And... that should do it. Cheers!

Must've been a Tuesday

2007-01-17T12:22:00.000-08:00

I worked a split shift yesterday for the library which is actually a good thing as it allows me to earn a full eight hours' pay. It does tend to fill up a day, though. Anyhoo, I arrived a couple minutes late for my morning shift which wasn't an issue and the staff seemed happy, if surprised to see me. Turns out the hours that I had been booked for were hours that hadn't been worked on Sunday, but only the two people who had worked on Monday (one who doesn't work on Tuesdays and the other who didn't start until 12:45pm) knew this. Thus, on several separate occasions, I got asked why I was in. This was invariably followed by,"not that we're not happy to have you but..." I had no answers, having not been filled in on the circumstances of my hours. I had, however, been told to take my cake box home, since it had been cluttering up to staff room for a month now.
Between the two shifts, I had three hours to kill so I wandered down to 3Y Frames (lugging the darned cake box), next door to Kidsbooks on Broadway, and arranged to have my (brother's Christmas prezzie to me) Dreamgirls artwork and certificate matted and framed. (Thank you, Artfan!) Of course, I had to visit Kidsbooks after that and buy the newest Tamora Pierce novel. (It came out in October and the library STILL hasn't filled the holds on it.) Stopped in at the Shoppers' Drug Mart and indulged in a little Optimum Points harvesting.
Got home around 4pm which gave me a half hour before I needed to head down to Central for my evening shift. Put the shopping away. Put a Michelina's meal in the microwave to heat. Gave cleaning the slow-cooker a real try. (The coconut curry chicken from Monday was pretty tasty even if the sauce was a little thin for my liking. However, some had sloshed into the metal housing which initially shorted out the cooker and finally resulted in some burnt-on crud on the inside. The instructions forbid the use of any abrasive cleaners or anything really except a damp cloth. Scrubbing in the morning hadn't worked so I laid some wet cloths on the aforementioned crud remembering the acid/base characteristics of H2O... Sonofagun, it worked!) Took the microwave meal out, box was hotter than I expected, tried to put it on the counter only to succeed in dumping steaming hot mashed potatoes (the runny kind) all over my right hand. OW. Throw the box in the sink before it can do anymore damage. Run water over my hand... right into the sink where the box is sitting, filling IT with water too. Like I was going to eat it now anyway. Clean up the kitchen, grab my bag and jacket, run out of the house... just in time to see the #15 go by.
I walked down to the next stop thinking that the #17 also crosses the Cambie St. Bridge. No, it doesn't. Not anymore, anyways. Wait for the next #15 which is now standing room only. I probably would've gotten a seat if I'd stayed at the first stop. Get to work a few minutes late (does that sound familiar?) only to realize that I don't have my staff card with me. (VPL staff cards double as ID and access cards. However, only the Central library and Champlain Heights branch actually require it for access points. And usually only the librarians ever wear them for ID) All right, I go check in upstairs and then come back down to sign a spare access card out from Security. Start my shift by shelving a truck of books. The Newspapers & Magazines division is almost completely "compact shelving", motorized shelves on tracks that slide apart and together in order facilitate the more efficient storage of archived ... duh ... Newspaper & Magazines. It's a great system. Until the shelves stop moving the way they're supposed to. Damn. Went to talk to the librarians on-desk to explain that this particular section was not working and that retrievals from that area might be a problem. Go back to fiddle with the controls and see if anything can be done. Librarian shows up 2 minutes later with a dozen retrieval requests for exactly that section. Double damn. Go get the manual turny-thingy. Twenty minutes later, the retrievals are done and the shelves are neatly closed. Not to be touched again for the rest of the night.
The remaining three hours went by without much incident. Caught a guy doing the crossword in the newspaper. Edumicated him on showing consideration to other people who might want to do the crossword. Found a couple in one of the glassed-in meeting rooms having their dinner. That's a no-no. Wow, library etiquette's fallen a long ways since the days when "Shhhh!" from a grey-haired woman wearing pince-nez could strike fear in the hearts of patrons.
Oh, when I got home, the House Elf informs me that I missed dinner at my godmother's. That's when I actually realized it was Tuesday, her weekly day off, and I'd forgotten to call her to let her know that I was working. Called to apologize and catch up on news.
I don't have many hang-ups about any particular day of the week (ala Garfield & Mondays) but Tuesdays are starting to stand out for some reason...

Words of Wisdom

2007-01-15T19:46:00.000-08:00

A couple of choice pearls from the world of Auntie D. today, kids:
1. Avoid the Cambie St and West 12th Ave intersection at all costs. The traffic tie-ups going north, south, east and west today take "ridiculous" to an entirely new level.
2. Pay attention to where your fingers (and fingernails) end when mincing (or at least cutting up in a "fine" fashion) garlic (or anything, for that matter) with a Ginzu knife. I have a very pronounced gash in my left pointer fingernail now thanks to experiential learning.
3. Avoid dropping curry paste on light-coloured linoleum floors. Unless, of course, they're already yellow.

In other news, I'm hoping that the coconut curry chicken in the slow-cooker turns out okay.

One Last Farewell, the Second Accomplishment

2007-01-14T22:31:00.000-08:00

Years and years ago, there was a big open space in a residence quad (lived 6 but there were 4 on a floor, get it?) that needed something Christmas-sy. I obliged by purchasing a little 6-foot-tall, "Canadian Pine" artificial Christmas tree. We decorated it with cheap dollar store decorations, garlands, and beads and I believe I hung all my presents that year on the tree rather than putting them under it. The tree topper, in the tradition of my happier childhood days, was (and is, as you can see) a very simple cardboard star covered in aluminum foil. Yup, that's the same star I made that first December. Over the years in our current abode, I've put the tree up specifically for the annual Yuletide get-together and the newer decorations were added from snapped Christmas crackers and as souvenirs from travels and even a couple as gifts or gift-garnishes. My Tannenbaum may not have been the most stylish but it was a genuine display of memories and tradition.
Well, our little tree saw no action in the Christmas seasons of 2004 and 2005 as the House Elf has a tendency towards Grinchiness when it comes to the accoutrements of the season. However, as I put it up this last December, I came to the sad realization that it was time to let this one go. Our storage space is at a premium and the re-packing and unpacking of this low-tech production is becoming more and more difficult each year. Thus, as I stripped it down today (a little late by some standards but pretty darn good by mine), divesting it a final time of its decorations, most of which are still the dollar store buys from nearly a decade ago, I said good-bye to the little metal and plastic concoction that made that Christmas in Gage Towers a little more special. For me, anyways.

(Oh, and check out the cool Totally 80s Trivial Pursuit game under the tree that Kerri Claus sent us this year!)

2007 - First Accomplishment

2007-01-11T18:30:00.000-08:00

I've just sealed the envelope of my application for the Richmond School District (blech - that glue tasted yucky) with my completed application inside, of course. It took a little doing since many of the required documents from 2004 (end of practicum report, etc) were not immediately apparent to me. I knew that I'd scanned them in since securing useful pieces of paper for more than 2 years is impossible for me but I'd hidden them away in the file labeled "Protocol" since that's the agency that I worked for first. Luckily, I found them on (almost) the first try. Also, one of the confidential references that School District #38 requires needed to be my most recent supervisor... who would be Michael Betts... who would be in London. Sigh. Luckily, he's the nicest supervisor in the world and, although I did call across the pond to make sure he would be willing to be a reference, I needn't have. Off to Purolator to send the single sheet of paper and envelope off to the Big Smoke. FIFTY BUCKS?! Geez. Then off to Richmond with my lovely chauffeur, Merwitch, to drop off the other reference form at my practicum high school and my sponsor teacher (who's just about to retire, yikes!). The chauffeur was after a work-out in the UBC pool which worked out just fine with me since I still needed to get my Campus Log-in working which, apparently, I need to do in person. UBC's changed quite a bit since 2004, most particularly the old library which is now all glass and chrome at one end - a bit like a prosthetic limb, really - and the bus loop, which is now directly across from the Gage Residence Towers (where was THAT improvement when we were trekking our groceries through the Student Union Building, eh?).
Ah, well. Done and dusted, as the Brits say. What's next?

Triplet Threat

2007-01-10T18:41:00.000-08:00

Hmmm... I was sure that I had a picture with just the sisters but this'll have to do. In my early Browncoat days, I was fortunate enough to meet the K sisters - T, K and B - fellow fans of the great Joss Whedon. They're the ones in the Jayne hats. (In the picture, left to right, they're actually B, T, and K.) The little girl dressed as River and her dad as Wash were on their way to the fancy dress (aka costume) parade.
Anyhoo, the sisters are not only movie fans but movie makers. They've been trying their hand at various short film competitions and their most recent creation has been entered in the Bafta 60 Seconds of Fame and it's up to internet viewers like YOU to judge and comment on it. So check it out here, rate it (high!), comment (nicely!) and then let all your friends know about it too! Please!
Just in case, I'll be sending it to everyone in my address book anyhow. :)
Oh, I should mention that they aren't actually triplets but the very drunk Jonathan Woodward insisted they were when B went to get her program signed. (It was her birthday so it should be theirs too, right? Right!?)

Did I Dream It?

2007-01-10T11:02:00.000-08:00

I can be forgiven for feeling a little surreal this morning, I think. Even if I'm not in Hawai'i. (The magic number's up to 282 for Friday, btw.)
Yesterday, another really nasty windstorm of the winter hit Vancouver, kicking the Stanley Park restoration efforts in the 'nads and actually causing a ceiling tile at the library to fall out of its framework. Good thing no one had been browsing the New Fiction at that point. Snow was predicted which would be the third dump that we've gotten in the last 3 months which is, oh, three more snowfalls than Vancouver's had in any winter in my memory (I missed the last two, remember). Climate change does strange things to my mind.
My evening at home felt similarly odd. The House Elf and I watched the 2nd half of the second episode of Gordon Ramsay's second season of US Hell's Kitchen. Near the end, I suddenly realized that the men's team was missing a member. Weird. Found out later that he'd been hospitalized due to stress. Then a female chef sets her hand on fire. And still, the annoying brunette isn't gone. Crazy. Then I watched the Rick Mercer Report which I haven't seen in eons and realized that Jon Stewart can actually be improved upon although I'll admit Mercer sacrifices some of his news-reporting street cred for laughs. But that's okay.
Here's where my television viewing takes a turn for the bizarre. Following on the RMR, CBC premiered their new program, Little Mosque on the Prairie. When I first heard the ads I thought that it was a Canadian version of Amish in the City, aka More Reality TV Crap. Instead, it's a sitcom about a small Muslim community in Mercy, (I assume) Saskatchewan, and their mostly non-Muslim prairie town. And it's funny. Yes, it addresses current, post 9/11 prejudices and fears, but only to get the laughs. A Middle-Eastern looking man talking about dropping bombs and suicide at an airport? Context is everything. "Are you from Saudi Arabia?" asks the small-town newspaper reporter when the new imam arrives. "No, I'm from Toronto," replies the holy man. "That's even better! This story's going to be HUGE."
I made an attempt after this to watch the People's Choice Awards but realized after awhile that real people couldn't have actually voted for these things so I went to take a shower after Click won for best movie comedy. While in said commode, not one, but two phone calls come in for me. Which the House Elf kindly brings into the bathroom. I called them back later.
That would've been enough to chalk this rotation of the earth up to "one of those days" but then the House Elf starts skinning chicken thighs at 2330hrs to put in the slow-cooker he bought on Boxing Day. I'd already established it works fine by throwing some chicken, carrots and potatoes in on Tuesday. At 0030hrs, the chicken thighs, two jars sun-dried tomato and olive tomato sauce, half an onion and lots of garlic was set to cook at "low" and we went to sleep.
0730hrs - What's that smell? Whoa, garlic. Yep, definitely garlic. That slow-cooker is thorough if nothing else. We shouldn't have to worry about vampires for a long time. Wonder how much garlic he put in there? Wait, if I sit up, I can smell the chicken. Lie back down, just garlic. Sit up - chicken. Lie down - garlic. I need to sit up. Or pull my blankets over my head.
0815hrs - Time to get up.
0820hrs - Seriously.
0825hrs - Geez.
So at 0830hrs, I'm sitting up, legs over the side of the bed, contemplating my forthcoming ninth straight day of work. Ugh. And the phone rings. Bah. If that's Human Resources, they're out of luck. But, no.
It's not the venerable, employed-me-for-ten-years-and-now-slowing-sucking-the-soul-out-of-me Vancouver Public Library.
It's the on-call booking person from York House School, needing a Social Studies teacher for two mornings at the end of January. How I managed to complete the conversation is beyond me. I'm not even sure I remembered to thank her. A classroom! I'm going to be in a classroom again!
Which brings me back to my initial question. But I've written the dates on the calendar and in my day-planner so I'm going to be there on those days and they'll just have to lump it if it all turns out to be a dream.

Magic Number

2007-01-04T15:28:00.000-08:00

277

Alex, the answer is: The cost of a one-way flight to Honolulu from Vancouver leaving tomorrow.

New Year's Eve Weirdness

2006-12-31T15:16:00.000-08:00

I've seen this meme on quite a few blogs lately but I haven't been personally tagged until now. So here it goes, Lori !

Here are the Rules: Each player of this game starts with the six weird things about you. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says you are tagged in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

SIX WAYS I’M WEIRD….

1. I insist on the toilet roll being dispensed from under the roll rather than over. If I'm not in my own bathroom, I'll change it if possible. Most public toilet stalls don't let you do this, however.
2. I have a compulsion to read cheesy romances. Lately, cheesy vampire romances.
3. I collect stuff. DVDs, Hard Rock Cafe pins, Starbucks cards, postcards, yarn, books, trading cards, board games, photographs... some of them aren't strange collections but when you put them altogether in an 650 square foot apartment, weirdness threshold is reached.
4. I grocery shop in a stream of consciousness way. I'll see something on sale and then think,"If I bought that, I could make this if I buy that and that and that also." Which kind of defeats the purpose of buying something on sale, I know, but we are looking at weird, right?
5. I think my collarbones are my most attractive feature.
6. I can recount (sometimes quote) whole conversations and cinematic detail from movies I've only seen once.

Taggees:

Artfan

Steven

Kat

Pinxie

Supermum

Sonny

Have a wonderful end of 2006, everyone! The New Year's sure to be a doozy! Enjoy!

Boxing Day Blues

2006-12-26T17:36:00.000-08:00

Chalk one up for the germs this holidays. Ever since finishing work on the 23rd, I've been getting progressively sicker with a nasty cough. And I'm back at work tomorrow. Bah.
Christmas was very low-key and cozy here at home. It really wasn't about the presents this year. I splurged on a blocking board for myself on the 24th so that I could get the House Elf's cardigan finished. I need to work on my blocking (shaping and pinning knitted garments to dry) technique. Yesterday and today I spent much time pinning and sewing in the zipper. BTW, I hate sewing - especially with black thread trying to attach a black zipper to a charcoal grey sweater. All these less than stellar craftworks have left me in a rather unfriendly mood. However, all nasty experiences come to an end and the cardigan is finished with the exception of two bits of loose wool that I need my yarn sewing needle for and, of course, they've all disappeared. Grrr...
In other news, the House Elf hopped online yesterday morning and caught a great deal on a PVR (digital Personal Video Recorder) which is quite exciting although it may spell the end of my (rapidly degrading) video tape collection and good-bye to the trusty VCR... Onwards and upwards, I guess. And ina similar vein, my godbrother dropped by with an early gift on Sunday night and even helped install it - "it" being a wireless internet router. Although we're having some issues with activating any security on it, it'll be nice to have both the PC and laptop internet-capable.
I spent most of yesterday in bed with Buckley's and paracetemol running through my system trying to muster the energy to be social in the evening at my godfamily's house. I did my best, although I mostly just sat on the couch, knitted and watched tv. Dinner was excellent (as per usual) and somewhere around 30 people ate their absolute fill of turkey, stuffing, barbecued pork cutlets, sweet and sour prawns, tomato and boccacini, lots of veggies, and THREE desserts. Yum!

Despite my attack of the grumps at the moment, I sincerely hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas, filled with good food, family and friends. I love this season as much for its sense of generosity and well-being as for its hokey traditions and superstitions. The commercialism and gluttony just happen to be along for the ride too. Happy holidays, folks!

And a Very Merry Christmas to You, Ms. Rowling!

2006-12-21T12:08:00.000-08:00

(pronounced like "rolling" pin please, folks!)
The Room of Requirement door is open for the holidays (thanks, Lori, for the scoop!) and the title for Book Seven is our gift!

Instructions for opening are here. Highlight and have fun with the Hangman game! (It took me three tries but that was because I mistyped a letter and it threw me down the wrong trail. Really.)
If you're using Mozilla/Firefox, I suggest switching to IE since the Hangman window wouldn't open for me for some reason in Moz/Fire. Make sure your sound is on as well as she's got Christmas tunes playing in the background. This is probably the most festive opening ever!

Deepak Chopra Quote of My Lifetime...

2006-12-20T17:38:00.000-08:00

...or this one, at least

Deepak Chopra was on The Colbert Report last night and amidst the many transcendental tropes he proposed, one soundbite really appealed to me:

"There is no creative impulse in the absence of discontent."

That and "upgrading the illusion" but mostly that.

I didn't know spiritual guru/meditational guides could have such a great sense of humour. Almost makes me want to listen to one of his sound recordings. Almost. Somehow, I don't think it'll be as amusing.

Christmas Crooning...

2006-12-20T17:31:00.000-08:00

I first heard the lyrics for this hymn quoted by a villainous Jonathan Pryce playing Mr. Dark in the slighty freaky Ray Bradbury/Disney co-production of Something Wicked This Way Comes.
I like 'em, even the bleak American Civil War stanzas.

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound the carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn, the households born
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.

- Henry W. Longfellow, 1864

One Short

2006-12-19T17:34:00.000-08:00

I feel that I've fallen out of the habit of blogging. I'm not sure if that's to do with the gi-normous amount of stuff I feel that I have to get done by New Year's or the fact that I haven't been spending all that much time at the computer.
Here's the run-down on the "Cursed California Holiday", camouflaged for whininess-content. Highlight and read at your own discretion.
Now that I've got a bit of distance from the California trip, I can honestly say that it could've been worse.
Sure, Nanocon, the Gina Torres convention I had initially booked my trip to Los Angeles for got cancelled, but at least I hadn't committed myself to Flanvention 2 the following weekend as well since it got cancelled with less than 24 hours notice. That would've sucked a lot. And it still sucks a lot for those 500 people - some of who flew in from the UK and NZ - left disappointed and out of pocket. Are you listening, Booster Events?
Sure, I got a massive migraine after watching Casino Royale at Grauman's Chinese Theatre (the movie was actually quite good), but it would've been worse if my hotel room hadn't been designed for day sleepers with black-out curtains. A couple of Advil and 4 hours sleep fixed me up fine.
Sure, I had to put up with several days of my mother's "advice" on how to lose weight because I would be such a pretty girl "if only..." which culminated in her telling me that if I gain any more weight, she doesn't want to visit anymore. This last bit of maternal affection imparted at the airport just before I left, of course.
Sure, I wasn't too happy all the way home. But, y'know, I'm not 14 anymore, when I didn't have some level of certainty that I'm actually pretty okay just the way I am. I still have days where I'd like to be a size or two smaller or an inch or two taller but I am pretty sure that what I am now is deserving of love and acceptance. It hurts to be on the outs with both parents at this time of the year but I have to say, despite sounding pretty self-righteous, that a lot of it is their own problem. I only feel really fat when I have to listen to Mom and I only feel really dysfunctional when I have to interact with Dad. They're not going to change anytime soon so I'll just hang out at home where I can continue to try to be as physically and emotionally healthy as I can be.
Oh, and sure Air Canada misplaced my luggage on the way home, but they did manage to track it down in the next 24 hours and deliver it to the house.

The title of this post has mostly to do with the things I would've liked to have accomplished in the last couple of days. Mundane little tasks but lists that would've been very satisfying to have completed. Ignoring the massive tasks of cleaning the bedroom and organizing pretty much everything in the apartment, I managed to miss one task on each of my daily lists. Yesterday, I couldn't find the receipt for some faulty Christmas lights so I wasn't able to refund them. Today, despite finding said receipt and being able to refund them, I wasn't able to request the criminal record report from the Vancouver Police Department that the library now requires most of its staff to submit because you can only make the request at the Main St. department not the 2nd Ave. one that's way closer to my house. Tomorrow, my list looks something like this:
- bake cake for Kitsilano party
- set up and attend Kitsilano party
- work the same shift at N&M that I'm "working" right now
- see movie at Tinseltown

If I can't complete that list, I'll be mighty peeved.

Sunday night was my first Christmas 'do since my sojourn in the UK. To recap, Christmas 2004 was spent sick as a dog, freezing cold, and reeking of garlic in a sweet little house on the Yorkshire Dales, witnessing the vandalism and drunken injury that the holidays inspire in Yorkshire folk. Christmas 2005 was a study in delight and expense as the House Elf and I journeyed from to the Emerald Isle and to the Dales and back again, exploring the joys of long walks across stonewall-strewn fields and celebrity-stalking in the wilds of the West End.

This year is a home-grown and cultivated one. My Skipton family has journeyed here to spend the holidays with the grandparents in Vancouver. BER's Nashville buddy (with wife and child) are expected any day now. And I got to mull some juice! Apple and cran as per my pre-UK tradition. The new tradition this year, it seems it strange headwear.

In chronological order of appearance, were Princess Y (on the right, wearing my tree-topper star - or so it would seem) and the Merwitch (the left) with hubbie (not pictured). The evite informed attendees that the part-ay would begin at 1800hrs. Counting on compliance, I took a shift at work that ended at 1700hrs. Princess Y appeared at the abode at 1510hrs, beating me to my own party and effectively derailing any plans I had to shower and change into "hostess" gear. Merwitch and hubbie arrived at 1730hrs, always eager to set (or continue) the trend. Although the Y was plotting to do a hit-and-run (she's recovering from pneumonia, poor dear) on the party, she hung out until 1930hrs or so, then scampered off but not before bestowing some lovely tea-cozies on her ex-rez-mates...
...which Merwitch and Hockey Hunny (on the right) found new and fashionable uses for. Mine adorns the teapot she gave me for Christmas years ago and which we used that evening to brew the tea H.H. brought.
I liked Christmas crackers before living in England but I believe that this to be the first year that the hats were actually worn by the majority of guests. The jokes were sufficiently terrible and the toys were acceptably cheesy. Above, I like how jauntily Tigger's consort wears his chapeau and appreciate how married people really do merge into one entity eventually. Below, Pegaroo (left) and Pal (right) are oblivious to the enhancements to their images Sonny (centre) attempts to "horn" in with.
My final pic here was taken by unexpected but very welcome guest, Jody, of ex-roommate Karen. They used to live next door and are the reason BER and I live where we do now. Karen is now a home-owner way out in New West and we miss having her and her cat, Asha, nearby. Jody went gallivanting off to South Africa by way of Victoria and brought his lovely lady, Julia, to the party. (The number of alliteratively-named couples who attended was quite interesting. At least it was to me.) All in all, despite spending the entire evening in clothes I'd worn to work, I thought the evening was quite the success. BER and I estimated about 20 bodies came by to share holiday cheers which is probably the most people we've ever hosted at a single gathering. Deck chairs had to be wiped off and brought in to accomodate bottoms. Quite a historically significant moment for my social life!
Well, that's all for the moment. I owe my readers several movie reviews which I hope to get done on Thursday. Happy Holidays, in any case!

Grauman's Chinese Theatre

2006-12-10T00:21:00.000-08:00

Before I get to the nasty bits, let's cover some of the nicer aspects of my recent holiday... this was definitely one of them.

Before my visit, I only knew of this Hollywood landmark by sight and a vague sense of its history. Oh, and a mention in the lyrics of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard:
"By this time next year I will get my foot in the door
Next year I know I'm going to score an amazing success
Cut to the moment when they open the envelope
Pass the statuette to Bob Hope and it's my name you hear
We'll be down on our knees outside Grauman's Chinese
Palm prints there on the street immortality's neat!
This time next year, this time next year.
We'll have nothing to fear contracts all signed
Three-pictures deal yellow brick road career
Hope we're not still saying these things this time next year."
My first pictures of the building from a distance were marred by the fact that the buildings across the street were casting such large shadows over the structure. Still, they're in my newest album in Divapics. For those of you in too much of a hurry to wait for them to download (looking at you, Princess Y!), I've picked a few to narrate along with. Above, is the ornamentation found directly above the theatre doors. The building was designed to resemble a red Chinese pagoda, Sid Grauman having become enamoured with "Oriental" decor during a trip in the early 1900s. He had already built the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard and the Chinese Theatre was meant to be his flagship.
The centre doors stand open while the theatre is open for tours and screenings so I took a picture of the left side doors which were beautifully restored for the 75th anniversary celebrations in 2002.The foyer of the theatre is breathtaking but dimly lit for the most part, making much of it (such as the enormous wall tapestry and intricately designed carpet) very hard to photograph. This lighting fixture - situated above the condiment stand - was definitely the most photogenic.
As I walked into the theatre, I had an incredibly intense sense of deja vu (NOT the Denzel Washington sort) and knew that I knew this setting intimately. I asked the tour guide and, sure enough, the finale to Singing in the Rain with Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds was filmed in the very aisle that I was standing in. That was pretty darn exciting, I have to say. The stage she ran off of is gone now, having been removed with the introduction of Cinemagic Scope Projection which allowed the Chinese to have the largest movie screen in the world at the time.
This is the back of the theatre taken with my back to the screen. In the middle is the projection booth. To the left of the projection booth (as we're seeing it) is the seat that Sid Grauman set up for his private viewing of the movies. The other three curtained balconies (the two to the right and the far left one) are fakes that Grauman had built so that the aesthetic balance of the theatre wouldn't be thrown off. Incidentally, no one except the projectionists have access to that seat nowadays. Since it isn't wheelchair-accessible, the theatre isn't allowed to sell it as a seat.

In typical chauvinistic style, the mens' restroom is conveniently located on the main floor, easily accessible from the lobby while the women's is found at the bottom of a labyrinthine series of stairs (well, at least 2 flights and they are pretty twisty). To make up for it, there is an enormous lounge/powder room set aside for waiting in.

Grauman's Chinese is also famous for its forecourt where celebrities have been memorialized in cement for almost 80 years now. The tour guide informed us that the idea was inspired by accident. Sid was giving the actress, Norma Talmadge, a tour of his new theatre, still in construction, when she tripped and stepped into wet cement, leaving her footprints in the pavement. This gave him the idea to create the famous ceremony and he invited her back for the opening to make a more permanent (and neater) record of her extremities with his two partners - Douglas Fairbanks and, Canadian-born but beloved by American moviegoers, Mary Pickford.
Again, I didn't know much about Fairbanks before beginning this post except that he was a partner in the theatre and that he was a movie actor of high status in the 1920s. Turns out he and Mary Pickford were lovers and then married and they were probably the first to be referred to as "Hollywood royalty". Together with Charlie Chaplin and DW Griffiths, the couple founded United Artists, the film studio now owned by MGM and Sony and which Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner recently signed a contract to run. Fairbanks was also the first president of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences and hosted the first Academy Awards banquet.

Pickford and Fairbanks were an extremely well-matched couple in that they were the two highest paid actors in the movies of their day, they were each married three times (marrying each other was the second for both of them) and both are still considered to be highly influential and respected members of the Hollywood founders. Talk about setting a standard for all the hand and footprints to come...

Speaking of which, I couldn't get over how tiny Pickford's feet were. I guess they really were smaller then.

There are loads more pictures of hand and foot prints in the album. I didn't go so far as to take one of every set and I don't know how I managed to overlook Trigger's hoofprints but there are some really interesting ones (at least to me). The tour guide said that the theatre is very conscious of the fact that they have such a finite amount of space left. Chances are that if they do an average of one per year from now on, they will run out of space in about 25 years. At least it'll make a great centenary celebration.

Hollywoodland

2006-12-03T09:41:00.000-08:00

I'm in LA for the next 24 hrs. Got in late last night. The Residence Inn by Marriott Beverly Hills is newly renovated and completely smoke-free. My room is called a studio which is appropriate. In fact, it's a bit like a really nice motel. I've got a kitchenette, a widescreen HD tv, free internet (if I'd brought the laptop), and a pretty comfy bed. However, the House Elf would definitely not approve of the bathroom fixtures. I nearly pulled the bathtub spout out of the wall trying to turn on the shower.
I've decided to visit Grauman's Chinese Theatre today and catch Casino Royale while there. They apparently give VIP tours of the theatre itself so I'll see if that's a go. And then a quick stroll down Rodeo Drive and dinner at the Hard Rock.

I am NOT being a wimp...

2006-11-27T19:24:00.000-08:00

It really snowed!

Vancouver, I hardly know ye

2006-11-25T17:20:00.000-08:00

It's freakin' snowing!
Gah!

Weekly round-up

2006-11-20T11:25:00.000-08:00

Well, the last week has been full of new and exciting things.

First, the House Elf returned on Tuesday from his New York gallivanting. He brought back some lovely prezzies for me including t-shirts from Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, C.S.I. and Avenue Q (different from the London production), as well as a long-sleeved tee with the original series Battlestar Galactica logo on it. I'm still waiting for pictures from his travel buddy's camera.

Thursday was the annual open house at Cantu, Midland, and Living Space. I headed over there after work, met up with BER, who was all gussied up for the occasion, and we partook in the sushi bar and the saki bar and the martini bar and all the hot eats and sweets (missed the chocolate fondue, though). Very busy, very tasty, and it was really neat to see the boy in action with all his high-fallutin' clientele.
When we got home that night there was a message on the machine from York House School about an interview for today. Woo-hoo!

Friday saw me called in to Britannia library in the torrential rain. Wet, wet, wet. I haven't worked at Britannia for something like six years. Strangely enough, most of the staff remembered me. Afterwards, I headed downtown to see Josie, Hair Goddess, and we chopped TEN inches off of the mop. Oh. My. I'm still getting used to it. The eight inch ponytail that she cut off initially will be going to Locks for Life or, if they can't use chemically treated hair, another organization that does wigs for chemo patients. Altruistic me is all smiles. Dinner with JJ and Lucy and BER at Shabusen (all-you-can-eat sushi and Korean BBQ) and then home for a shower (those itty-bitty hairs on your clothes and scalp after a haircut are really irritating).

Saturday evening, BER and I met up with Jodie and Amy to see Urinetown: the Musical! at the Firehall Arts Centre. What a great show! It's apparently the largest cast the FAC has had for a single production and this is the second time they've staged it this year. Their spring run was 97% sold out and this run is doing pretty well too. Ms. Walker couldn't even get tickets for Saturday's show.
The show is set in a future where a twenty-year-long drought has deemed private toilets an impossible luxury and public toilets are fee-based in order to regulate water consumption (and to make money for the UGC - Urine Good Company). Public urination is illegal and gets you sent to "Urinetown", an almost mythical destination for miscreants from which they never return. The show is narrated primarily by Officer Lockstock and astutely commented on by his scene partner, a street urchin named Little Sally. The hero is Bobby Strong (played here by Matt Palmer, who played Jamie in the production of The Last Five Years that BER and I saw at the FAC in 2003) and the heroine is Hope Cladwell, both naive and attractive young people who come to a believeable, if not predictable, end. Little Sally is played by Tracey Power, who is a co-creator of The Back Kitchen Release Party, a Fringe BYOV musical BER's Streels bandmate, Jonathan performed in. And Senator Fipp is played by Denis Simpson from The Polka Dot Door. I wanted to shout "Polkaroo!" everytime he came on stage. He probably wouldn't have appreciated that, though.

Yesterday, we had a lazy morning and then I made a trek out to Main Street with some stuff for the charity and consignment shops. Stopped in at Three Bags Full (my new local knitting shop) and splurged on two pairs of Addy Turbo needles. Picked up some beads on the way back home for the hats I'm knitting for the half-sisters. Apparently, I'm not supposed to buy them anything anymore since they get all jealous and cry. How this is my fault, Dad did not divulge.

This brings us up to today. I went in for the 9:30am appointment at York House School, had a nice chat with the head of personnel. An hour later, I'm on the on-call list! Probably won't get any work until next term since I'm pretty booked up with the library right now but I can happily say that I am a teacher again! Yay!

"Good" for What it is

2006-11-12T19:31:00.000-08:00

First of all, I'd like to make perfectly clear that my nausea and headache while sitting in theatre 9 at Tinseltown had nothing to do with what was on the screen. I hadn't eaten in 24 hours and the low-sugar level in combination with rapidly moving images on the scope screen made me feel icky. That's all.
A Good Year was okay. I didn't pay to watch it and it was wasn't terribly written, acted or shot. In fact, Ridley Scott's cinematography was really well-done in that it effectively contrasted the cold, grey, and chrome and glass environment of London's financial district to the warmth, sunshine, and traditional home and hearth of the vineyards in southern France. I've been informed since that Scott owns his own vineyard in a similar locale which probably explains his reluctance to blow anything up in this film.
Where this movie falls down (at least as perceived by my sugar-starved brain) is in trying to tell all the stories of the original material. The screenplay is based on Peter Mayle's novel of the same title. Mayle is probably best known for writing A Year in Provence which was adapted into a television miniseries in the 90s to great acclaim. A mini-series has the potential to draw out several disparate plotlines and then bring them together in a cohesive manner whereas films are challenged by their time constraints. A Good Year was billed as a romantic comedy wherein an unscrupulous bonds wheeler-dealer, Max Skinner (Crowe), inherits a vineyard, falls in love and rediscovers himself. The billing is only accurate in the sense that it collapses five different plotlines into one sentence:
1) The romance is presented in the person of Marion Cotillard (pictured on the right, who, btw, doesn't even get mention in the first billed list on IMDB) as the local beauty, teasingly named Fanny Chenal. Romantic comedy is a misnomer since the romance isn't funny at all and not nearly as touching as Will Ferrell's pursuit of Maggie Gyllenhaal in Stranger Than Fiction.
2) The comedy is at best situational. The vineyard was owned by Skinner's uncle (Albert Finney) but run by Duflot who had been growing grapes and producing wine for the vineyard for thirty-plus years. His dog doesn't like Skinner. His wife does (but in a friendly French way). Skinner, at first, doesn't fit in at the vineyard and gets stained by tomatoes, wine, chicken shit (used as fertilizer on the vines), and then by falling into an empty pool.
3) The inheritance isn't as straight-forward as initially thought as an American girl named Christie shows up claiming to be his uncle's daughter, who, by French law, would inherit the vineyard whether legitimate or not. Doesn't help that she's very young and very cute. Skinner asks his real estate agent/lawyer at one point if it's illegal in France to shag your own cousin. Charlie answers,"Only if she's ugly." (Other than Christie, Americans are represented poorly by ignorant and ridiculous tourists.)
4) Rediscovering himself requires Skinner to reprioritize his life. This plotline runs from the first London scene to the very end and involves several minor players in London. I might actually have found this storyline to be the most engaging as the initial Skinner is a "greedy bastard" of the highest order and the final Skinner is too but not so much for money.
5) The real main story is that of Skinner and his uncle. This is told in flashbacks to Skinner's childhood (where the character is played by the increasingly omnipresent Freddy Highmore). His uncle was a man of secrets and the present-day Skinner had become estranged from him years before his death. The vineyard is meant to represent the last tie Skinner has to his past and therefore his last chance to redeem his character. A lot of metaphor to lay on a bunch of grapes and a big, old house. With scorpions.

This film is an obvious departure from the norm for both Scott and Crowe and, although I don't consider it a waste of my two hours, I don't think fans of their work will be all that appreciative.

Trailers (since I've become slightly engaged to this bit):
1) The Holiday : see Stranger than Fiction review of this trailer. It was slightly different but not significantly.
2) Blood Diamond: I take back what I said at first. Leonardo diCaprio's accent in this movie definitely instigated the nausea.
3) Notes on a Scandal: Cate Blanchett and Dame Judy in a really creepy story of private love and obsession. Not a good time to be a teacher in England.
4) Deja Vu: It's Denzel but this looks terrible. And the trailer was cheesy.
5) Curse of the Golden Flower: Chow Yun-Fat and Gong Li make a beautiful couple but I've given up on spending my money and/or time on kung-fu flicks.

Will.. Can Do...

2006-11-11T17:01:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I'm not very reverent of Remembrance Day. I wear my poppy and, if awake at 1100hrs, I observe the moment of silence. The rest of the traditions - Mass for my Catholic friends and drinking binges for my military friends - just seem to fall by the wayside every year no matter how good my intentions are. I'd like to think that I respect and honour our veterans all year round, not just on the designated day/month. My other tradition is to wish my friend Mary Tabada (nee Gray) a happy birthday. I think I've managed to call most years since moving away from Chilliwack at age 11.

Just came back from my ol' stomping ground at Tinseltown where Emily and I watched - and heartily enjoyed - Stranger than Fiction. What could be termed stranger than fiction here is the fact that I actually wanted to see this Will Ferrell movie. It's a first, believe me.
But like Jim Carrey won me over with his performances in The Truman Show and Man in the Moon, Ferrell really rose to the occasion in this story about a very routine-immersed taxman who suddenly hears a voice narrating his life as he lives it. I'll probably never list Ferrell in my top ten hottie list but he plays an immensely sympathetic character in the person of Harold Crick, flawed and awkward and, eventually, totally worthy of the romantic interest, played by the ever-luminescent Maggie Gyllenhaal. A totally neurotic Emma Thompson, a supremely competent Queen Latifah, and a very toned-down Dustin Hoffman round out the major players and each lends their own special quality to the world of Harold Crick. My favourite cameo was probably Tony Hale from Arrested Development, thankfully with both hands whole and healthy, playing Harold's only friend, another taxman.
At the end of this film, I was filled with the contentment of finishing a really well-written book. I described it to Emily as being a "perfectly shaped" two hours, no element of the movie jarred or disturbed the journey being taken. Harold's odyssey of self-awareness is, of course, the primary story being told but Emma Thompson's character (writer Kay Eiffel) and Maggie Gyllenhaal's character (tax-evading baker Ana Pascal) also undergo journeys of change in quieter but equally meaningful ways. I loved the intelligence of the script, the quality of the humour, and the humanity of the message. I think that director Marc Forster's strength lies a lot in his ability to make the emotional connection between the audience to his characters (Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland). Whether numerically-obsessed, anarchy-leaning, chain-smoking, or hyper-organized, the viewers find themselves on-screen and can't help but laugh, cheer, and cry.
I don't know that the Oscar buzz surrounding Ferrell's performance is really warranted. As shown with Carrey's bids in the past, the Academy doesn't seem to have much of a sense of humour when it comes to actors known best for farce and parody. Too bad, though. A nomination is truly deserved.

Anyone who has seen a movie in the theatre with me knows that I have a couple of idiosyncracies:
1) I have to stay to the very end of the credits.
2) I play a game at the end of the movie trying to remember the trailers that ran before.

As to 1), there's nothing at the end of the reels of Stranger than Fiction.
In the case of 2), Emily and I both found the trailers pretty memorable:
A) The History Boys, based on the West End play which won Tonys when it transferred to Broadway last year with most of its original cast intact and then onscreen.
B) Mel Gibson's Apocalypto, which looks odd (but not intriguing) and gory.
C) The completely unheard-of (by me) The Children of Men, starring Clive Owens, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine. Based on a P.D. James book, it's set in the near future where people can no longer procreate for reasons unknown. England has become a military state and a miraculously pregnant woman has been found but must be smuggled to an ocean colony and freedom. Looked amazing.
D) The Holiday. The one we forgot initially. The "vanilla" one that usually gets lost in the shuffle. A Christmas rom-com starring Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, and Jack Black. Looked a little like Love, Actually. 'Nuff said.
E) Finally, The Pursuit of Happyness (not to be confused with 2005's Pursuit of Happyness). Will Smith and real-life son, Jaden, play a father and son trying to survive in the city while the father tries to become a stockbroker. "Inspired" by a real-life story. The flippin' trailer made me cry. Geez.

On My Own...

2006-11-08T18:52:00.000-08:00

So the House Elf's off to NYC for a week tomorrow morning. I've got the weekend off due to Remembrance Day. What to do, what to do...

Overall, I'd like to think that I've been fairly productive so far this week. Posted a blog entry (finally), cleaned the tub and shower, unpacked box #2 of 3 of the London shipment, finished a knitting project, got my half-sister's birthday gift ready to mail, watched the Republicans get thrashed in the mid-term elections while enjoying the antics of Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert. And it's only Wednesday.

Some decluttering is in order (isn't it always?). If I can get a reasonable amount done, I'll probably hide out at the movie theatres this weekend. Stranger than Fiction, The Queen, and possibly A Good Year. Who's up for movies?

One more thing

2006-11-06T14:48:00.000-08:00

My Yahoo! Canada Entertainment headline reads: "Baron Cohen's comedy defies box-office analysts and trounces Allen's Santa Claus 3."

Did they really think Martin Short as Jack Frost in November was going to beat an anti-Semitic, incest-advocating, plumbing-use challenged, bear-toting, ice-cream truck driving, Pamela-Anderson obsessed tourist in America? (BTW, if you're a really fast reader, I challenge you to read the entire disclaimer at the end of the credits.)

My Most Politically Incorrect Day EVER

2006-11-06T13:15:00.000-08:00

It's not like Bill Maher came to dinner wearing his Steve-Irwin-complete-with- stingray-barb-and-roundly-condemned-for-being-a-callous-and-inconsiderate- jerk-but-who-didn't-know-that-already? Hallowe'en costume but there were moments yesterday that I fully expected to be smacked by some invisible hand of the PC-right for enjoying the humour I was watching.

First, there was the widely-hyped Borat!: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. If anything, people might learn to spell Kazakhstan from the media's inundation of the social consciousness (my point proven). If there's a word for the sound one makes when gasping in shock and belly-laughing at the same time while being self-conscious of said laughter, that would be the ideal adjective for the sounds in the theatre for pretty much the entire 84 minutes. Well, except for during the hotel room scene. I laughed but nudity hasn't really fazed me much since watching Confetti twice on the big screen. Guys, in particular, seemed to have a more viceral response to the hotel room antics of Borat and his producer. The House Elf refers to Sacha Baron Cohen's style as the humour of discomfort (I may be paraphrasing) and I would agree. For better or worse, my comfort level with discomfort must have risen since the second Austin Powers movie since I still think Fat Bastard is grosser than anything I saw at Silvercity Metropolis yesterday, inside or outside the theatre. Maybe two years of British homegrown comedy is showing its effects on my sensibilities. Maybe my taste has developed since the last time I attempted to watch more than fifteen minutes of Da Ali G Show. Maybe I just like laughing at the discomfort of "Americans" - those individuals portrayed in their behaviour on film as small-minded, patronizing, class-conscious, war-mongering bigots who just happen to live between Canada and Mexico. To say that Borat! was the funniest movie EVER may be stretching it a bit but I laughed a lot and didn't feel like asking for a refund, so there's that. On the other hand, I took a knitting project into the theatre and got a lot of work done on it too. Meh.

Vancouver has hit its winter wet streak with a vengeance and once Pegaroo and Paul dropped us off at home, BER and I settled in for some quality internet and TV time, respectively. Nice timing, as the 2006 Simpsons' Halloween Special was on (I've completely lost track of how many it has been now). It was one of the better ones of recent years from Homer eating some outer space goo and giving the homeless a new use through Bart's commandeering of Krusty's golem to an alien invasion of the Earth under the codename Operation: Enduring Invasion. It seems like it's been a long time since they really pushed the envelope and it was a welcome return to form.

Global's got a great prime-time line-up on Sundays when they've actually got new episodes to air. Since I'm not a devoted fan of Seth MacFarlane's second bite at the apple, most "American Dad" episodes are new to me and last night's was a doozy. Stan's anti-gay dogma cracks as he discovers the Log Cabin Republicans' support after his play Lincoln Lover convinces them that he believes that Lincoln was also gay. His initial shock and disgust mutates into a sort of wannabe-ism when they offer him a chance to speak at the Republican National Convention. When his heterosexuality impedes his progress, he decides to have sex with a man. There were some amazing lines in this episode but the only one that sticks word for word in my head is,"They didn't choose to be gay but they did choose to be Republican!"

Oh, then Stewie and Brian end up enlisting in the army and being sent to Iraq, shoot each other in the foot in an effort to be sent home just in time to see democracy take over. Meanwhile, Chris joins a band, becomes a punk then gets set straight by Marilyn Manson and goes fishing with his dad. It was funny. I wonder if I can get an MP3 of "Evil Monkey" on my cell phone...

The evening rounded off with the first of a two-parter episode of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip". The show's slated for cancellation so every moment is bittersweet right now. I haven't really posted a lot lately so I haven't had much time to rave about the show. In short, it could be termed a glitzier, slicker version of "Sports Night" with a much higher profile cast. The writing is solid but, even though I never watched a single episode of "West Wing" so I don't know if he's recycling any of the political rhetoric, I have already noticed Sorkin re-hashing some "Sports Night" themes. Not a big problem and it's worth a little repetitiveness to see Li'l Cordry from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart get all that air time. Matt Perry and Bradley Whitford are a great team and Amanda Peet is not even nausea-inducing. I'm still caught off-guard by how much Steven Weber is turning into a young James Woods lookalike and the character of Harriet is played by Sarah Paulson who was in Serenity as Dr. Caron, the last survivor of the research team sent to Miranda and who makes the recording that the Serenity crew find. So, to sum up, Sorkin's got a great cast, his usual sharp writing, a really intriguing premise and tons of current "ripped-from-the-headlines" fodder. So how the hell did "Heroes" become the break-out hit of the season? My only theory is that the hype killed it. I rarely pay attention to the new season hype (except for "Dexter" which I still can't get... grrr) but the critics have lambasted Sorkin for the "ego" they perceive in the set-up of Studio 60. The guy just spent how many years writing about life in the White House and a show about a late-night sketch comedy show is too egotistical. Seriously. Maybe the critics are a little too sensitive about how he portrays the entertainment industry. I believe Judd Hirsch's character in "The Pilot" maybe speaks a little too much truth when he meltdown on-air a la Network: "This show used to be cutting edge political and social satire, but it’s gotten lobotomized by a candy-ass broadcast network hell-bent on doing nothing that might challenge their audience." He continues,"We’re all being lobotomized by this country’s most influential industry that’s just throwing in the towel on any endeavor to do anything that doesn’t include the courting of 12 year old boys. And not even the smart 12 year olds. The stupid ones. The idiots. Which there are plenty, thanks in no small measure to this network, so why don’t you just change the channel? Turn off your TVs, do it right now, go ahead." Probably not what people who make their living off television viewership want to hear. I didn't actually see "The Pilot" but I've just found the transcript on-line so you guys are gonna get the rest of this rant. Because it's just that good.
"A struggle between art and commerce. Well, there’s always been a struggle between art and commerce. And now I’m telling you art is getting its ass kicked. And it’s making us mean, and it’s making us bitchy. It’s making us cheap punks. That’s not who we are! People are having contests to see how much they can be like Donald Trump? We’re eating worms for money. Who wants to screw my sister? Guys are getting killed in a war that’s got theme music and a logo? That remote in your hand is a crack pipe. Oh yeah, every once in a while we pretend to be appalled... Pornographers! It’s not even good pornography. They’re just this side of snuff films. And friends, that’s what’s next because that’s all that’s left. And the two things that make them scared gutless are the FCC and every psycho religious cult that gets positively horny at the very mention of a boycott. These are the people they’re afraid of... This prissy, feckless, off-the-charts, greed-filled whorehouse of a network. And you’re watching this thoroughly unpatriotic Mother-" That's where the studio cut him off since the whole thing. But the camera goes back to him concluding off-air:“It’s not gonna be a very good show tonight. I think you should change the channel.” So, it's not like the writing is letting the show down. The ambition to single-handedly turn around the downward slide of the entertainment industry might have been a bit much but who else is volunteering to try? A final, minor point, but I do have to question Sorkin's choice to throw a rather haphazard two-parter (guest-starring John Goodman and told mostly in flashbacks) into the beginning of sweeps month. The guy's got guts. He may not have a show soon, but guts, he's got.

Bloody Hell!

2006-11-02T23:01:00.000-08:00

Mad-Eye Moody was right - CONSTANT VIGILANCE

I've been so busy working lately that I've really forgotten about the important things in life. Like checking JK Rowling's website regularly. Apparently, I completely missed the writing of the W.O.M.B.A.T. - Grade 2 paper. What a load of rip-roaring bollocks! There ought to be some notification about this sort of thing. I can feel myself slipping into the world of wizarding delinquency as I type. Gorram it. And a D'arvit to boot. (Google them, you lazy Muggles.)

Beats the DaVinci Code

2006-10-29T22:58:00.000-08:00

There's loads to write about since the last time I posted but I'm just writing a quick note to encourage y'all to investigate my newest link (under "Book Related", in bold) - The Real Shakespeare? The branch head of Collingwood library, Fred Faulkes, who is also an incredibly popular children's librarian and guitar player, has published the first in his series of researched volumes about the true authorship of the works of William Shakespeare. I attended his book launch on Friday night and, honestly, it was really fascinating the details and tidbits he discovered in his research over the last nine years. He provided slides of Shakespearan images and points out clues to the artist's own knowledge of the fraud. He even quoted the words of Ben Jonson who prefaced Shakespeare's first folio and illuminated the cryptic choice of verse that Jonson made in writing what was meant to memorialize "the man from Stratford". For ten measly Canadian dollars, you can own the Ebook today by purchasing on the website. Me, I'm saving up for a few hardcopies for myself and a couple of interested parties. By the way, Fred's chosen a publisher that shares his interest in the environment and they operate a "print on demand" process where only ordered books will be printed. Saves the trees. I love this man.

What the Doctor Ordered

2006-10-18T18:06:00.000-07:00

I don't know how much better it made me feel but I indulged in a little retail therapy last night at work and ordered the Seasons 1 and 2 DVD sets of the most recent incarnations of Doctor Who. The Jury's still out on Eccleston as I haven't watched all that many episodes with the ninth Doctor, but I'm a sucker for Tennant (pictured) who was so very convincing as the insidious Barty Crouch, Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I've seen most of the crucial episodes from his first season as the tenth Doctor and he really seems to be having a blast playing the part.

LA Layover

2006-10-17T14:54:00.000-07:00

The geek girl in me is crying a little today. Turns out that the ticket sales for NanoCon I were too low to justify the costs of putting on the one-day convention so they've cancelled it. Which leaves me flying into LAX on Dec 2nd and flying to SFO on Dec 4th with nothing to really do in between. Well, there is a HRC to hit on Beverly Blvd but, compared to meeting Gina Torres, that doesn't really perk me up all that much. I'll probably save a little money since I won't have to shell out for staying at the Hilton anymore. And I'll be reimbursed the money I'd invested in the convention pass so far. Still, I had really been looking forward to this. :o(

Home Sweet Homebody

2006-10-16T17:49:00.000-07:00

I haven't been sleeping well lately. Some of it might have to do with a persistent muscle pain in my back and shoulders. I think it's a side-effect from working the VPL Book Sale last week. Last night, I took some Advil before bed and voila! I slept straight through until 9am. The pain is still there but my energy level was way better. So good that I decided to stay in bed until I'd finished reading Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, which I'd been working on for a while now. Took longer than I thought to get to the Armageddon.
Main thing I wanted to get done today was to clean out the kitchen cupboards. Ended up binning five bags of stuff (expired, unidentifiable, or just plain questionable) and took a box of stuff into the Food Bank. Discovered a totally unnecessary quantity of wheat bran and oats in the top shelf of the cupboard as well as a nearly new 2kg bag of brown sugar. That was around 1330hrs today. Presently, I have 3 dozen bran-craisen muffins and just under 7 dozen oatmeal chocolate chip cookies in my kitchen and dining area. Merwitch just took a dozen of each with her and hopefully, Marianne will be by soon to pick some up too. Anyone else?
The kitchen floor needs a cleaning but I think I've effectively killed my momentum by turning on the 24-hr C.S.I. channel (aka Spike). Don't forget: John "Let the Eagle Soar" Ashcroft is on The Daily Show tonight!

** Okay, I lied. Ashcroft is Wednesday. Dunst is Thursday. So I'll definitely watch on Wednesday and definitely won't on Thursday...

A Few Ticks Off the List

2006-10-16T00:11:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd give myself a pat on the back for getting my cover letters and resumes done and mailed out to the local independent schools...
...oh, and I correctly identified Billy Ray Cyrus when we flipped passed Doc. And the usually ineffable House Elf didn't. And then wouldn't believe it until I made him look at this.

A Couple of Flicks

2006-10-15T15:22:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I mentioned a film. The House Elf and I have settled into "life" again and it's a work-a-day world most of the time. I've still got some lovely movie passes to use and the big movie-related news in my world is that I won third prize in the Vancouver Fringe Festival Raffle. Of the three prizes, the bike would've been wasted on me, the trip would've been cool but probably a little inconvenient, but the year-long VIP membership to Festival Cinemas is a perfect fit. Unlimited movies for me and a guest for the whole, flippin' year! Starting in January but I'm okay with that.
I haven't made much headway in viewing the DVD collection especially since excellent DVDs keep coming across the check-in deask at the library. So I'll dedicate this post to the Vancouver Public Library, well on its way to putting Rogers and Blockbuster out of business:

After watching Little Miss Sunshine twice in the theatre, I've started seeing organized children's competitions in a different light. I competed in music festivals as a child and I know first-hand the anxiety experiences like that can instill in a young person. Intellectually, it's not a hard leap of reasoning that most children's competitions are more about the parent than the child. Fortunately (?) for me, my parents weren't all that involved in my competitive careers. 2002's Spellbound documents the trials and tribulations of eight competitors in the National Spelling Bee from their regional qualification to their performance in Washington, D.C. The personalities of these remarkable children is put in the spotlight in the footage selected in the film and it's all too easy to pigeonhole each child as he or she is introduced which, of course, is exactly what we did. I liked the shy, hard-working girl from Pennsylvania. Brendan was rooting for the oldest daughter of a working single mom from Washington, D.C. We were both interested to see if the loner from Missouri would blow anything up. The musical version of the spelling bee phenomena - The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee - which Artfan got tickets for when I was visiting San Fran is funnier, more interactive, and more musical (obviously) but the two are incredibly similar in the way the contestants are pressured to win. For instance, in Spellbound, the boy from Orange County, whose father had hired numerous language tutors for him so that he wouldn't be stumped by words of foreign origins, competed knowing that his grandfather in India had hired a thousand people to chant and pray for him and had promised to feed 5000 people if he won. One of the off-screen parents refers to the whole event as "another form of child abuse" and as you watch the heartbreak in these kids faces when they hear that bell signalling a spelling error (how much more Pavlovian can they get?), it's hard to disagree.

There was a lot of buzz about this movie last year around awards season (see Steven Rubio's review here), especially regarding Amy Adams' performance as Ashley, the endearingly naive and almost impossibly happy yet pregnant centre of an otherwise rather morose North Carolinian household. Arguably, Embeth Davidtz (better known to me as Miss Honey from Matilda) is the main character but, like a shiny object distracts from the most brilliant shadowplay, Adams is singled out by her energy, her optimism, and her childlike openness. A couple of familiar faces were present: Ben McKenzie (from the O.C.) plays Jonny Johnsten, Ashley's uncommunicative, unresponsive husband who is only redeemed in my eyes by one unbelieveably touching scene (typically, it's only him in the scene). Scott Wilson (the late, great Sam Braun of C.S.I. fame) plays the reticent Johnsten pater who notices everything and comments on nothing. The movie is beautifully awkward. Every relationship is flawed and yet each pairing seems right somehow. Like the art that Davidtz' character seeks to showcase, the movie is by turns grotesque and elegant, but rarely at the same time.

Ooh, Sparkly

2006-10-09T00:01:00.000-07:00

This year, like most, I give thanks for good friends, plentiful food, healthy family and the many opportunities I have been given. From the b'ys (and girls) of the Rock to my friends overseas and back to the crazies I hang out with here on the Left Coast, I wish them all the best on our Thanksgiving Day!

Tuscan Dinner, or a lesson on "From Scratch"ness

2006-10-05T20:38:00.000-07:00

All right, it's taken me about a week to recover from my ambitious attempt at Tuscan cuisine and I haven't even boiled water since, but I did manage to take some pictures of the birthday dinner I prepared last Sunday.

Antipasti
The appetizers were a combination of bought and prepared dishes. BER picked out these stuffed olives from our local gourmet grocer, Capers, and they provided a salty accent to otherwise mildly flavoured items. The olives were a mix of pesto-stuffed and feta-stuffed.

The salad was a pre-mix of endive, radicchio and arugula with raisins and candied walnuts. We dressed it lightly in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The only appetizer I made from scratch was the cecina, a garbanzo bean flat bread (pictured above, baking). It came out more bread than flat which I think was due to the fact I simply used up all the chickpea flour I had bought at Capers rather than measuring. I also probably should've gone with a cookie sheet in order to spread it thinner but it turned out pretty tasty. And useful in sopping up some leftover oil and vinegar in the salad bowls. (pictured below, plated)
Primi

The first course in Italian meals is usually starch-based - pasta, risotto, rice, etc. I opted for something simple to prepare and which I'd actually had while we were in Firenze - Pappa al Pomodoro, a tomato and bread soup. This is where I first figured out that this "from scratch" method wasn't really my style. The recipe called for 625g of tomatoes to begin with but then they needed to be blanched, peeled, sectioned, seeded and have all the "tough" bits taken out. That left me with about a half cup of tomato. I threw them in with the olive oil, garlic and basil and then added a large can of drained whole tomatoes for good measure. It's not much to look at but it tasted pretty much how I remembered it from April. Really, I can't see how anyone could get this recipe terribly wrong.Secondi

The main course consisted of three dishes, two of them sides meant to complement the meat dish and fulfill some sort of vegetable requirement.

Again, opting for fairly easy-to-prepare items, I chose the Spezzatino Toscano, or Classic Tuscan Casserole, for my main second course dish. It's a beef stew flavoured with rosemary and sage, garlic and tomatoes. The single longest procedural step in this meal was in preparing the chuck for stewing. Turns out that giant cleaver Mom always had in the kitchen comes in handy when cubing meat by hand. Serrated edges tend to get pretty slick with meat bits. Also, the last time I made stew, I bought inside round which doesn't come with nearly as much (or any, for that matter) intramuscular fat that needs removing. Grrr...

The cookbook-recommended accompaniment to the casserole is "Country-style Potatoes". Canned tomatoes are actually required in this recipe and they are added to a sauteed onion at the same time as the pre-cooked potato chunks. Funny, how much they look like pasta shells in the picture...The most photogenic of my dishes was the string beans. It was a last minute addition when I realized that, although there were a lot of tomatoes present on the menu, nothing so far could be considered a vegetable dish. Whereas I had photocopied the rest of the recipes out of the book for ease of use, I simply took direction directly from the library book (which I kept in the dining room and safely out of splatter-reach). Since I returned the book earlier this week, I've got no idea what the Italian name for this dish is but doesn't it look great?
And the secondi course plated up pretty nicely although, ironically, the side dishes shared the plate while the main sat to the side.

"Can I eat yet?"
Dessert

I'm usually pretty comfortable with making desserts. I like to bake and most of the time, experimental recipe results taste good even if the presentation leaves something to be desired. The Zuppa Inglese, or Zuppa Ducale, was the final nail in the "from scratch" coffin. Supposedly invented for the Duke of Florence in the 15th century, it blurs the line between tiramisu and trifle, which is probably why the English expatriate community of the 18th century brought about its name change. The glass bowl is lined with rum-dipped ladyfingers, then a chocolate custard is poured over this first layer followed by another layer of similarly treated ladyfingers and a layer of vanilla custard and topped with a last layer of ladyfingers. The recipe then requires twelve hours of refrigeration before serving so this was the only dish I worked on the night before the meal. Even though I read the instructions through ahead of time, it still didn't occur to me that the five egg yolks, suger, flour and milk were meant to become the homemade custard. Maybe if I'd realized it before I got to the stirring stage... well, anyway, things didn't look so hot at the end. I'd run out of rum by the last layer of biscuits and the custard was MUCH too runny. And finally, I just didn't have the right sort of dish even though it met the requirements of being a 2 quart glass bowl. I covered it up with foil and threw it in the fridge hoping that the culinary fairies would have a go at it before morning.Now, I know from experience that looks don't mean anything where sugar, cream and chocolate are involved but... blech.

Deeply doubting the success of this first attempt, I headed down to Safeway for a safety net plan. Bird's Custard Dessert, one of the first things I ever learned to make, is still available despite some noises in the UK of discontinuing it. Bought more ladyfingers and stopped at the dollar store and picked up a 1.5 quart Pyrex loaf pan. Out of rum, I pulled down the amaretto bottle from my booze collection from uni days. Almond, after all, is a Tuscan traditional dessert flavouring. I tried to find a smooth-sided saucepan to make the custard in since cleaning it out of the remaining non-stick but ridged pot wasn't making my top ten at the time. Turns out the powder now comes with microwave directions. Excellent. Add a little Fry's Cocoa powder to half the batch and voila!A much more appetizing result.
We did try both to be fair and version 2.0 wasn't just a pretty face. The amaretto was preferable to the rum (the rum was too boozy) and the custard consistency was... well, version 1.0 couldn't really be called consistent. The original recipe also calls for Alchermes liqueur (used to give a unique natural red colouring to the ladyfingers), which I didn't have on hand and, after clicking on what "kermes" are, didn't really miss. Mr. and Mrs. Q-ball got a taste of the Zuppa the next day and Merwitch, at least, seemed to enjoy it.

So, what have I learned?

1. When cooking for four hours straight, one does not have much of an appetite for the final meal.

2. When cooking with every burner going and the oven on, paranoia hits an all-time high.

3. Make sure the guest-of-honour knows when to be back for the meal.

4. Tradition is good but, unless you're cooking with gas and/or Jamie Oliver and/or the Iron Chef staff, short-cuts are my friends.

5. Finally, Italian food tastes best while on holiday in Italy.

Still, I'm glad I did it. BER seemed to enjoy it. And we still have leftovers.

Yay, Us!

2006-10-05T17:28:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a modest little ad in the Province today, I discovered that today is UNESCO's World Teachers' Day. Thanks to Wikipedia, I discovered that some countries actually have national holidays for their Teachers' Days! Although I can't give them a holiday (admittedly, most of them are retired now) I can give props to a few of my most memorable teachers who get much of the credit (and blame) for who I am today.

Mr. Ramsden - top of the list and my prime example of how you don't have to be a "nice" teacher to be popular :) My hero.
Mr. Colborne - for the chance to really connect with literary characters. The first teacher to ever describe a fictional heroine as "hot" (Tess)
Mrs. Beaton - who first introduced me to Tolkein, Lewis, and Alexander
Mrs. Martin - who let me visit the library whenever I ran out of books (weekly visits are such a tease!)
Sister Loretta - a shining contradiction to all the nun-teacher stories I have ever heard
Mr. Poole - who remembered me years after... and misremembered Ann Gibson's name.
Mr. Reeves - the man gets the credit for my love of history... his metrestick for keeping us all awake

To all my current collegues in the trenches of education today, both in Canada and on the other side of the pond, I salute you all and the good fight you win everyday!

Every House Elf Gets His Day...

2006-09-30T15:12:00.000-07:00

...even if he's not too fussed about it.

In honour of the completion of his 37th turn around the sun, I present a few tidbits on the best boyfriend ever.

"Brendan was raised in the wilds of Northwest Ontario, though not by wolves, as he usually claims. His first paying gig was as a Buddy Holly impersonator, at the age of thirteen. By sixteen, he had made two important discoveries: First, that teenage girls were not generally interested in Buddy Holly impersonators, and Second, that all the local bands were looking for a bass player. Brendan bought a bass guitar and within weeks found himself in demand, playing everything from Pop and Rock to Punk, Reggae and Country.
Brendan's Roots music skills were further polished upon his move to Vancouver, during his tenures with Juno Award-winning The Paperboys, Alternative Country critics' darlings Yard Sale, and Folk/Comedy/Disco/Rap juggernaut Fear Of Drinking, among many others. He also spent three years as bassist in the Wednesday Night Band at the seminal and much missed Southhill Candy Shop, backing some of the most talented & influential songwriters and musicians to be found anywhere."

We met near the end of this bio-blurb, while he was with Fear of Drinking and I was working on my BA at UBC. In the months and years that followed, FoD got downsized, the Streels were born, there was the stint with Starfly, and he began gainful employment with these folks. Edmonton Block Heater is the current incarnation of his rock-star-ness. (Check them out, folks! Downloads and pictures abound! Be their friend!)

While I was away gallivanting... oops, teaching, he held down the fort at Yukon and 12th. However, to my utter delight, he joined me not once, but TWICE in Europe for some photo ops (yeah, um, travelling).

Here he is in Ireland, just after Christmas:

Posed along the River Liffey, with the James Joyce Bridge in the background.

"Another picture?" This one from the historical O'Connell Bridge with a view of the Ha'Penny Bridge.

Easter break saw us zip through the three major cities of Italy.

Rome - Palm Sunday mass with the Pope, ants in the bathroom, and incredible ruins of bygone peoples. My coffee addiction begins.

"Quit sneaking up on me with that thing!" - surveying the preparations in the Colosseum for the Good Friday procession...

Florence - a jaunt to Pisa, a long wait for a tall dude, and my utter infatuation with all things Tuscan.

"Stop!" or "Heil to me!" or "Watch me hold this thing up with one hand like everyone else in this square!" Oh, and if anyone's seen this fleece he's wearing, please send it our way please.

Venice - visually stunning, at times eerily ancient, and then there were the fleas in the bed. If we could've afforded to love it, we would've.

Seated on the throne of Torcello with the ever-present red bag of the Swiss Army.

(Speaking of Swiss Army, this is what the Swiss Guard actually wear:

Not a multi-purpose knife in sight.)

My most recent favourite picture of the birthday boy was posted back in May so I won't bother posting it again. And that's about it for today. Tomorrow, a day late but with bother of us off work, I'll try my hand at a Tuscan birthday dinner. I'll let y'all know how that turns out.

Happy birthday, hunny!

Well, I said it's happened before...

2006-09-28T12:51:00.000-07:00

I did miscalculate. Tuesday was 92 months for the House Elf and me. Suffice it to say, we're not too fussed about exact numbers.

Worth a Blog Post

2006-09-26T19:50:00.000-07:00

Unless I've miscounted/miscalculated, and it has been known to happen, today is BER's and my 99th monthaversary... just thought I'd put that out there since Steven Rubio's counting fractions of his marriage today. Mind you, he's also making a very clever reference to some - ahem - older forms of musical media. I'm just pointing out my math skills...

Two Ticks (sort of)

2006-09-22T17:30:00.000-07:00

Well, my resume/CV has been updated but, just so I don't get too productive, my printer's gone on strike until I replace the colour ink cartridge. I don't even need colour to print these things but there's something wrong with one of the black ink nozzles and the printer won't clean the nozzles until there's ink in the colour cartridge.

Took the day off. HR called but, after considering her offer 7 hours of LAI work at one of the busiest branches in the system, I told her I just couldn't do it. One day of feeling like a total misanthropist at a time is enough for me. The House Elf made breakfast for me and handed me the Advil, the hotwater bottle and the echinecea caplets. I'm hoping nothing nasty gets a hold of me before I get a chance to shine for the school board.

One Tick

2006-09-22T01:52:00.000-07:00

I managed to finish my Fringe post. I left the original date there for continuity's sake. It's just down the page but, if you're super lazy, here.

Blarg

2006-09-21T14:08:00.000-07:00

I've always liked this cover even if I haven't read the book. To be quick about it (my lunch break's over in two minutes), I've been in an absolute rubbish mood all day. Every little thing irritates me and what bugs me most of all is knowing that nothing has happened that could reasonably be considered irritating...

Zach Braff is my Friend

2006-09-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

I've actually got two draft posts waiting for some love right now - one for St. Martin & the Florida/San Fran wrap-up and another for the Fringe shows we caught on Sunday. I was planning on finishing them both off today, my "no-work" day, but it seems that I'm now working 4 hrs at Champlain as an LAI. How the heck did that happen?
Anyhoo, I've been exploring the myspace-verse after reading in the highly-intellectual Entertainment Weekly that Zach Braff has a page. I'd signed up to subscribe to the very awesome Edmonton Block Heater page awhile back and used the discovery of Braff's page to try out the invite option. Dude's got about 60,000 friends and his page has only been up about 6 weeks. Pretty mind-boggling. I got me thinking that myspace has made the term "friend" pretty light-weight. By my personal definition, I wouldn't call people I meet through myspace "friends" or even "acquaintances" - maybe "known cyber-entities", in Braff's case "known cyber-celebrity".
Last meandering thought for the day: which library patron should I find more annoying - the woman harmlessly mumbling and giggling to herself in the children's section or the woman who complains about the first woman and then proceeds to have a twenty-minute conversation on her cell phone?

Of Drama Queens, Forbidden Fruit, Zombies, and Sinking England (oh, and Jesus Christ)

2006-09-11T15:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's Fringing was thoroughly satisfying and enjoyable. Pegaroo and I had beautiful weather and had no trouble utilizing our Frequent Fringer card at the venues. We had a lunch of yummy Muffin Granny crepes and BER made an appearance for dinner at the Keg. Four shows in three fairly different venues made for a diverse theatre-going experience and none of our picks disappointed.

We started the day at the Arts Club Theatre Stage with the very talented Alex Dallas, a performer I've been a fan of since her days with Sensible Footwear, a Toronto-based British comedy group. Her show this year is called Drama Queen and is a 60-minute personal monologue recounting many tenuously-linked events from her life, beginning and ending with her formula for happiness - "Champagne, chocolate... and cunnilingus." Her monologue was a truly impressive collection of tales that ranged from family to celebrity, professional success to personal loss, childhood memories to very adult experiences, and from the mundane foibles of life to moments of utter inspiration. My favourite of her anecdotes (for reasons which will become apparent) involved an old friend of hers coming to see her show Nymphomania at the Vancouver Fringe a few years back. This old friend was now quite successful and was in Vancouver filming X-Men 2 and playing Nightcrawler. He came to see her show and then took her out for drinks afterwards with Sir Ian McKellan. It was quite obviously one of the most surreal and amazing moments in her life. Not only that, and I can't think how she could've forgotten it, but that was also the afternoon show that I attended and spoke with her afterwards. It was before I was blogging (so I'm estimating September 2003 - does that jive with the filming of X-Men 2?) but I had waited after the show to let her know how much I'd enjoyed it and as the room cleared out, there I was alone, except for a man at the back of the room, who I had just seen on DVD in Spy-Kids. And, damnit, if that wasn't all I was capable of telling him. sigh. Anyhoo, Pegaroo and I stayed a bit after Drama Queen to say hello and Alex heartily recommended The Excursionists when we listed the shows we had planned for the day.

Our next show was The Diary of Adam and Eve, which is itself the first act to the musical The Apple Tree. (That's not the Fringe show's poster, or even the poster from any production. It's the cover of the Mark Twain story that the first act of the musical is adapted from.) It's being done in the same BYOV (Bring Your Own Venue) that the folks from The Back Kitchen Release Party used two years ago but apple tree productions chose (probably wasn't their choice, actually) to use the long wall for the production instead of the short and that makes the house feel pretty cramped. The show was very lo-tech, very "Fringe", and the musical director made some interesting choices. I wasn't completely blown away by either the script or the performances but it was a lot funnier than I'd expected and the actors did an admirable job with the props and set that they were given. I didn't know that Home Depot even had a range of toy barbeques and lawnmowers. (And, just to emphasize how small the theatre world is in Vancouver, the woman playing Eve was Pinxie's scene partner in On the Town.)

There was a bit of a gap between The Diary of Adam and Eve and our next show, Screwed and Clued's first one-man show. Things have changed quite a bit for my boys from Wolverhampton since those long, summer days of Shooting Up Shakespeare. Stewart, the only S&C member touring this year, married a Canadian girl and has been granted Canadian permanent residence status. Justin wrecked two tendons in his ankle and is hobbling along, hoping to recover completely and not have to compete with Hugh Laurie for an American accent. No sight of Baz and David. Pegs and I headed to the venue to see if we could grab our tickets before going to stow some shopping in her car and ran into Stewart himself outside the venue. He let us in on the shambles that was the Saskatoon Fringe this year as well as just discussing various topics, including my time in England, Wolverhampton specifically. Funny boy, he's gotten into the Canadian habit of apologizing for everything. "Stewart, we're coming to see your show!" "Oh, I really am terribly sorry." "Stewart, I was in Wolverhampton this summer." "Dear God, I'm so sorry!" All with that lovely British accent of course.
Zombies was probably my favourite show of the Fringe this year (and not only because I had such a crush on Stewart all those years ago - although that helped) and probably my second favourite Screwed and Clued production, after Shooting Up Shakespeare. It was the story of a man rushing to work, having overslept but without having have rested. He discovers the ability to see the lives of those he makes eye contact with in sudden images and sounds. He sees their lives with their eyes and discovers that most of them live plain, routine, black-and-white lives soundtracked with static and white noise. What I liked best about the show, its primary similarity to Shooting, was its discontinuity of plotline. The show begins with its final scene, skips back to the beginning and tells it in order of the events of Will's day, repeatedly interrupted by scenes from a dream which always end with the alarm clock going off. The dream scenes build on each other until the entire dream is made clear to the audience. One reviewer commented that the show was "all concept and no content" but I felt the concept made for worthy content so "pfft" to him. Yay, Stewart! (And Mrs. Stewart, whoever you are...)

After three very nice steak dinners, BER, Pegs and I hooked up with Pinxie for our last show of the day, The Excursionists, a two-hander comedy inspired by the science-fiction of Jules Verne and the foibles of the Victorian British imperialists. This show had been recommended by both Alex Dallas ("great fun") and Stewart ("Their accents are better than mine") and it was a very high energy, well-played farce of the highest order. Presented by Theatre Off Jackson, a Seattle-based company (but credited by the Fringe program to California for some reason - mind you, Stewart was listed as hailing from St. Isadore, ON), Christopher Bange as Lord Necksycracksy and Jonah Von Spreeken (no, really, that's his name) as his inventor companion and best friend, Professor Goggins, travel the world by underwater train in search of a new... er, England, when the old one sinks into the ocean. Ribald humour, suicidal despair and some audience participation made the hour fly past as fast as the Neptunia Express. A good time was had by all.

(Please note that it is currently September 22nd in real time and I am just finishing off this Fringe post. These Fringe posts always take so long (eg. Sept 10, 2004) but I'm going to lump in our fifth play to get it all over with.)

Monster Theatre presented Ryan Gladstone and Katherine Sanders (directed by Bruce Horak - I missed his guitar) in a recreation of what they imagine the life of Jesus was like between the ages of 13 and 33.
It was funny but the singing wasn't.
Surprisingly, I think Katherine made a better Jesus than Ryan however Ryan deserves props for his role(s?) as the three-headed Wise Men. Mind you, they were Jewish, of course (with a name like Wiseman...).

Now, I had mentioned to dear Stewart earlier that Shooting Up Shakespeare was my favourite Screwed and Clued show. He took that in stride, knowing that I meant no disrespect to the other shows, and replied that TJ Dawe (mysteriously absent from this year's Fringe circuit - girlfriends, they ruin everything) had said that people almost always told him that they enjoyed the first show they'd seen him perform more than the others. Same goes for Monster Theatre, I guess. I'd happily pay to see The Canada Show annually. However, I won't pay to fly to Winnipeg to see them stage it at the Manitoba Theatre for Young People this fall. I encourage all Winnipeggers to go, though!
Finally, go here to play Jesus Christ: Zombie Slayer.

And so ends my Fringe adventures for this year...