Author: Dan Dickinson

Happy anniversary to me

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At this very moment four years ago I was probably doing some boxing day shopping with my father and brother, and was seven hours away from making an honest woman out of Nellie.

.:.

I’ve watched a ton of movies in the last few days, so here’s the synopsis: The Good Shepherd was actually pretty boring, and Angelina Jolie is really starting to scare me; Friends With Money was a chick flick, but the four lead actresses were so good it was almost worth it; Haven was one of the worst films I’ve ever seen and I have no idea how it got on my list in the first place; Shame was a rather shoddily-done documentary about an incredibly interesting topic so it balanced out; Spider-Man 3 was kind of entertaining but was the worst of the series by far, and 300 looks frigging amazing on Blu-Ray.

Whew.

[tags]anniversary, the good shepherd, friends with money, haven, shame, spider-man 3, 300, blu-ray[/tags]

Because it's that time

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December means best-of lists. I’m starting with what I considered to be the best albums of 2007. In past years I’ve pussied out and not ranked them; not so this year. While 2007 lacked a clear and classic winner like The Woods or Funeral, the top three are all quite good.

  1. Kings Of Leon . Because Of The Times
  2. Arcade Fire . Neon Bible
  3. The Besnard Lakes . The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse
  4. Radiohead . In Rainbows
  5. Spoon . Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
  6. Raising The Fawn . Sleight Of Hand
  7. Explosions In The Sky . All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone
  8. Band Of Horses . Cease To Begin
  9. Okkervil River . The Stage Names
  10. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club . Baby 81

Neko Case‘s Live From Austin, Texas was among the best I bought all year, but I don’t feel right including a live/compilation album on that list. Other good ones included Ongiara by Great Lake Swimmers, The Kissaway Trail‘s eponymous debut and Let’s Stay Friends by Les Savy Fav. My two biggest disappointments were Challengers by The New Pornographers and Icky Thump by The White Stripes; both were good, but not of the killer quality I’m accustomed to hearing with those two bands.

Over the next few days I’ll be doing my best films (so far) and best songs list.

[tags]best albums of 2007, best music of 2007[/tags]

My brain and eyes might just explode

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Yowzah, that was quite a morning. I guess not going home this year freed us up to purchase some bigger-ticket items for each other (which we normally wouldn’t want to try to get on a plane), so I am now the proud owner of a Blu-ray DVD player and Nellie now has a wine fridge. We certainly got lots of other cool stuff as well, but suffice it to say the DVD player’s been a little distracting; I’ve already hooked it up and watched Superbad.

I also got 300, the Spider-Man Trilogy and the seemingly-made-for-high-def BBC series Planet Earth on Blu-ray, as well as The Bourne Ultimatum in standard DVD format (it’s only on HD-DVD for now). Nellie got Freaks And Geeks: Season 1, Young Guns, Young Guns 2 and Never Been Kissed.

I got a few books too: My Boring-Ass Life by Kevin Smith, The Book Of Dave by Will Self and The Cult Of The Amateur by Andrew Keen. Nellie got A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore.

Right now Nellie’s making Christmas dinner (everything except the turkey, of course) while A Christmas Story plays in the background. I don’t know if she’ll be able to top last night’s kick-ass meal (lemon pepper shrimp, scallops, cheese, chocolate & a bottle of white wine I bought her last year) but I’m willing to let her try.

Happy Christmas, everyone.

[tags]christmas, blu-ray, wine fridge[/tags]

Happy holidays, everybody!

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A work day that was supposed to end at noon actually didn’t end until after 3:00, but that’s ok. It wasn’t exactly a tough one. I had one little errand to do in Yorkville, and it took about 15x longer than it should have, but I pretty much expected that.

.:.

Ah, the Liquor Dome. Craptacular then (by which I mean my university years), craptacular now.

.:.

R.I.P., Oscar Peterson, a true Canadian music legend.

[tags]liquor dome, oscar peterson[/tags]

"Oh, that name is intolerable. It suggests midgets working in a factory."

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Apart from getting up very early to buy groceries (I wanted nothing to do with a grocery store on the 23rd of December) it’s been a lazy, relaxing Sunday. Gift wrapping and corporate finance will come later; we decided to spend the morning watching movies.

We actually watched Keane (imdb | rotten tomatoes) yesterday, not today. It was not an easy film to watch, I thought, but it was impressive for two reasons: the nauseating feeling you got seeing this man get hurled into and out of madness, and the performance of Damien Lewis. He was on the screen for practically every second, every scene, every shot, and to so skillfully show this man being buffeted by the forces that afflicted him must’ve taken incredible patience. Damien Lewis might just be the most underrated actor out there.

Keane represented the last of our Zip movies. When it’s returned, my account will officially be closed.

Shifting gears, we watched Who Killed The Electric Car? (imdb | rotten tomatoes), a documentary about…well, you can probably guess. Some documentaries are haphazard and jump all over the place, or seem designed only to outrage, but this one had a very clear narrative and a real quality of production that you don’t often see from the genre. Lots of background and facts, but presented clearly and concisely. The story of the GM EV1 electric car is interesting, but the story about the car’s quiet demise — which I’d not really paid attention to — is rife with intrigue and conflict. Highly recommended.

Oh wait…shifting gears…I just got that. Sorry. I hate puns. They’re lazy humour.

Finally, about an hour ago, we watched Mrs. Henderson Presents (imdb | rotten tomatoes) which was ok, but not great. Cute and clever, to be certain, and the two leads — Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins — were awfully good, but it veered too close to schmaltz (and dove nose-first into sentiment, for that matter) too often. I suspect it would’ve been labeled a good family film except that there’re naked ladies every which way you look.

[tags]keane, damien lewis, who killed the electric car, gm ev1, mrs. henderson presents, judi dench, bob hoskins, windmill theatre[/tags]

At least I still have the empty can

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As I write this I’m trapped in the den, as Nellie’s wrapping gifts in the living room. Luckily I have a TV in here and there’s a Canadiens game on, but I think I might’ve had a little too much Diet Pepsi, so it could get messy in here.

.:.

Last Friday night at Smokeless Joe was so enjoyable we returned again last night, looking for more Great Lakes Winter Ale. Unfortunately they were out, but we had some very tasty alternatives (Hacker-Pschorr Dunkle Weiss for me and some kind of Belgian Tripel for Nellie which she loved). No fear about not getting another taste of the winter ale, though: we bought a few bottles today at the LCBO.

We also got some treats for ourselves (Nellie got some Tedeschi Amarone at the LCBO, and I picked up some truffles at JS Bonbons) and for the cats (especially Sonny; his favourite toy is a little red ball that his Auntie Jenny got him years ago, and we’ve had trouble finding more of…until today and we bought five. Oh, and catnip, so they’ve been trying to crawl into their stocking all day).

.:.

I’ve never been in Toronto this close to Christmas before; it’s interesting. We went to St. Lawrence Market today to pick up a few things, and it was about six different kinds of crazy in there. It wasn’t even 10:00 yet and the crowds were so thick you’d think you were at a concert. I can’t wait to go grocery shopping tomorrow.

It’ll be really weird going to work on the 24th.

[tags]smokeless joe, great lakes winter ale, dunkle weiss, tripel, st. lawrence market, toronto[/tags]

The Family Stone we are not

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I’m not going home to Nova Scotia for Christmas this year, as I normally would. When I tell people this their first reaction is usually, “Oh, don’t want to deal with all the family drama, eh?”

Given how often I’ve heard it in the last month, and the number of times I’ve heard stories about such family drama, I think I must have a fairly abnormal family. There’s no drama. We don’t fight. We don’t have feuds, or get snippy, or form alliances, or try to manipulate each other. In fact, even since I grew out of the gimmetoys-gimmetoys-gimmetoys phase (if my dad were reading this he’d say, “What, you mean two years ago?”, ’cause that’s just how he rolls humour-wise) spending time with my family has been the best thing about Christmas.

I laugh more, and feel more relaxed, with my brothers and parents (especially when we’re on the farm) than I do with anyone else, except Nellie probably. That quiet time, punctuated with games of skill (read: cribbage and Trivial Pursuit), musical interludes (usually my father, brother or I fighting trying to convince my mother we should listen to delta blues instead of Christmas carols) and episodes of utter silliness (my brothers and I speak some kind of special language when we get going and occasionally fall on the floor laughing) is about as close to blissful meditation as I get.

And this isn’t just my immediate family either: our extended family on my dad’s side gets together every Boxing Day and it’s equally fun and laid back. Of course, they’re all like my dad…not a lot of high-strung people amongst the Dickinsons.

One of the reasons we could stomach the idea of not going back to NS this year is because we just spent time with my family in France (having one of the best times of our lives, I might add, so that’d be hard to top so soon after) and Nellie’ll have a family visit in about a month, so we won’t have been away from them for too long. There’s a couple of other reasons why we decided to stay in Toronto, but the idea of avoiding family drama never even crossed my mind. The only drama at all will be not seeing them.

[tags]family drama[/tags]

A morning of mild revelations

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Something occurred to me yesterday: I am half my father’s age. Well, technically I was precisely half his age on Oct 10 (thanks Excel!) but in terms of years, I’m 32 and he’s 64. I remember when I was a kid I wondered how old I’d be when that happened; I didn’t have the math skills to just figure out that it was just 32 so I sat down and did the math. I wasn’t even ten years old at the time, so 32 seemed like centuries away. I couldn’t imagine being that old.

Also: I never thought I would own a brown suit, but I’m wearing one today for the first time.

Life’s full of surprises.

[tags]silly musings[/tags]