Her name is Paz Vega. She was in Spanglish (imdb | rotten tomatoes), which we watched tonight. It didn’t get great reviews, but I liked it. My wife did too. Adam Sandler was funny, Tea Leoni was funny (and more than a little scary), Cloris Leachman was funny…everybody was funny. And cute. Definitely worth watching. Especially for Paz Vega. Mmmmmmmmmmmpazvega.

Oh yeah, and I watched Bringing Out The Dead (imdb | rotten tomatoes) last night. Paz Vega wasn’t in that. I think Scorsese directed it or something though…had an Oscar winner in it…meditation on saving one’s self in order to save others, and vice versa…something along those lines. Whatever.

OK, this is just beyond stupid. A grandmother is suing Rockstar Games because she bought a copy of GTA for him, and as you all know by now, it turns out there’s a hack that shows you sexual content within the context of the game.

First of all, she bought the game for her 14 year old grandson when the box is clearly marked Mature (meaning for people 17 and above). Second, in order to get at the “sexual” content you’d have to use the hack; you can’t get at it playing the game normally. Third, I’ve seen a clip of said offensive content. It’s nothing you couldn’t see on an episode of The Sopranos. So what’s next…every parent in America suing every cable network that’s ever shown sex and/or nudity? GQ and Cosmo taken off magazine racks for being too bawdy?

Smarten up granny. You’re being a tool.

Ever since last year’s film festival, when we shortlisted about five times as many selections as we actually had time to see, I’ve kept a list of films that I wanted to keep an eye out for. I’d periodically check for those movies on Tribute, videoETA and Zip to see if they show up.

Well, Zip must monitor their most frequent search queries, ’cause of the two dozen movies I had no information about (no release date, no word if they even would be released), 15 just showed up on Zip this week. None of them have release dates, and some — especially the foreign ones — don’t even list stars or directors. But it’s good to know they’re paying attention.

Of course, given my recent slowdown in viewing, my ziplist is up to 130 titles with another 46 on the ‘pending’ list. Yeesh.

Record everything on TV. Watch what you want.

Promise TV [via BoingBoing]

I’m listening to the new Constantines album Tournament Of Hearts. Five songs in and I’m sold. I’ll be buying this one October 11.

If for some stupid reason you still haven’t heard Shine A Light, go buy it. Give it a couple of listens though; it creeps up on you, that one.

Feeling a bit better today…throat pain now just annoying rather than searing, so I came to work. It still hurts to talk though.

All the booze hoarding that people were doing…no need.

Between the heat and rain, the weather in this city has been decidedly unfriendly for the past few weeks. I don’t think I’ll like Toronto again until the film festival starts up in 6 weeks; until then I might have to go on a small hunt for the things I like best about the city, just to remind myself why I like it here.

The shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, and the reaction to it — especially in his native Brazil — have been at the forefront of news for the past few days. I haven’t commented as I’ve been away. Normally I’d be the first to decry police brutality — and the fact that Menezes was shot 8 times, 7 of those in the head — needs to be explained. But I have a hard time blaming the police officers for making the decision to shoot. It was the day after the second coordinated bombing attacks in as many weeks. The man left a building that was being monitored for terrorist activity, entered a tube station carrying a bag, and ran when officers identified themselves and told him to stop.

At this point you have pretty decent cause to suspect that the man is dangerous, and prudence — given the previous day’s events — demands that you assume he has a bomb. The man is running toward a train, where to date 6 of the 8 bombs have gone off. To me, it’s clear: you have no choice but to incapacitate him. Now, in a perfect world, the police would have a weapon that could knock him down and pin his hands behind his back such that he couldn’t set off a bomb. But the situation was far from perfect, and so officers had to choose, and they choose to shoot. I honestly feel that they had no other choice.

As I said, someone has to explain why Menezes was shot several times at point blank range, and why he wasn’t contained on the bus rather than in a busy tube station, but in the end I believe the police had little choice.

Just one more horrible side effect of the bombings, I guess.

This cold has me out of commission for today, so I have a little time to post in between shots of cough syrup and cups of neo-citran.

The visit was short, but the visit was good. It’s been a long time since the old home was that crowded (my parents, myself & my wife, my brother & his girlfriend, my other brother & his wife & 3 kids, two visiting Aussies and two dogs); in fact, the old original farm house was opened up and six of us bunked in there. With friends of ours stopping by and a constant flow of tourists looking to buy maple syrup, it was a busy place…but still relaxing.

There was a great deal of reading, napping, watching of weepie movies (none of which I did), as well as eating and playing cribbage (both of which I did with gusto). We picked strawberries, helped make a batch of maple cream, barbecued several times, and visited a distant relative (distant in the bloodline sense, not geographical; they’re just down the road) who was also home from the UK, and whose family threw a big outdoor get-together. I played with my nieces and nephew, showed our friends around some of the property (where we saw some rabbits and a pheasant…hardly the bear they were hoping for though), spent some time on the junk rock looking out over the farm and talked music with my dad. We celebrated a couple of upcoming birthdays, played frisbee with a backdrop of thunderclouds and watched people get frustrated with a utensil parlour trick.

So the weekend, obviously, was a good time. One brother had to leave early to catch a flight for work, and his wife took the kids home later that day. The other brother stayed on for a day or so before heading elsewhere in the province. Our flight had a bit of a hiccup: a lady just in front of us had a heart attack, we think, but she seemed ok when she got off the plane. Still, the pilot picked up the speed and made the fastest landing & taxi that I can remember so that a medical crew could come on board. I’m glad she was ok; the couple next to me didn’t seem so concerned (“Geez, that landing was so rough“; “C’mon, medical people, hurry up…I’m tired!”) but some people are just assholes. Whattaya gonna do?

So now we’re back. The cats are happy to see us, I’m happy to have a supply of Tylenol cold and warm soup on hand, and happy that we can relax now until December.

Peace.

I got back from my weekend trip yesterday to find an early birthday present — season 1 of the BBC series The League Of Gentlemen — waiting for me. Looking forward to watching and, by all reports, being disturbed by it.

Whoa. Medical emergency (not ours, obviously) on the flight but all seems to be well. We’re in a cab, headed for home.

Dag, my throat hurts.