So…there’s the first day under our belts. It’s been pretty easy so far, and it’s not looking to get much harder for the whole week. Maybe saying that’ll come back to haunt me, but I don’t expect many sleepless nights or panic attacks.

Well, I’m here, in my hotel room. I can now unpack in a matter of minutes…I have it down to a science. And I have to do it 11 more freakin’ times.

But it’s becoming familiar, like home away from home. Dallas became like this when I was flying down there every week…the hotel became like a second home. I developed routines there, just as I have here.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go track down a can of diet pepsi.

I’m off for more MBAish goodness, starting tomorrow, returning Friday. If I post between now and then, it’ll likely be to bitch about how annoying/boring/tough the course is. Pray for me.

See you in a week, folks. ‘Til then, get down with your bad selves.

We just got home from watching These Girls (imdb), another Canadian flick (set in Shediac, NB even!). It was really quite good; funny, interesting, good acting, good pacing. Very well done, I thought. Not exactly heavy or meaningful material, but eminently enjoyable. It did pose a problem or two with my marriage though: my wife is now much more in love with David Boreanaz, while I seem to have developed a crush on Caroline Dhavernas.

Rating: 8 out of 10.
Star power: David Boreanaz, Caroline Dhavernas, Amanda Walsh, Holly Lewis. I also walked by Maurice Dean Wint (Hedwig, It All Happened Incredibly Fast) on my way to the washroom.

Anyway, that’s it from me for a while. I’m away on course for the week starting tomorrow morning, and may not post anything until then. Hence, no more TIFF for the next six days. Oh, and the new Dandy Warhols and Sigur Ros discs come out this Tuesday, so I’ll have to wait ’til the weekend to really get into them. Grr.

Later, kids. Stay cool and dry.

We’re thirsty after the movie, so we popped into the Spotted Dick on the way home for a beer…and we’re the only non-asians in the place. In fact, we’re the only people here who aren’t in one big party taking up half the bar.

The beer’s cold, the wings are coming, and the clientele’s multinational. That plus a film festival movie were a pretty good way to end my last night in Toronto (proper) for a week. Sweet.

…into a giant line. Our good luck last night — short line, short wait — has run out, as we now wait in a much longer line with a longer wait assured. We’re back at the Paramount to see These Girls…my last film for six days.

I can hear Collective Soul playing outside my apartment somewhere, presumably as part of U of T’s frosh week. I wonder if the organizers realize that the average frosh was 6 or 7 when “Shine” first hit the radio.

[UPDATE: They just played “Where The Streets Have No Name”, and now they’re playing “Baba O’Reilly”…is it not CS and in fact just a cover band of some sort?]

[UPDATE 2: Now it’s “Dream On”, so I’m closing the frickin’ windows.]

We just got home from our first of five festival films: 3 Needles (imdb | tiff) was the latest from Thom Fitzgerald. Two years ago we saw another of his films — The Event, which was also about AIDS — but this newest one was on a much larger scale.

Several people make poor choices throughout the film, which causes others to pay with their lives. Some are aware of what they’re doing, some have no idea. Some may know but are are so desperate they put aside their conscience for money.

The film was definitely impactful. It was more than a little uncomfortable at times (I never thought I’d see a woman chew through her baby’s umbilical cord). It was just too long, and too scattered. The reviews I’ve read so far were right: Fitzgerald has a great movie there, he just needs a good editor.

Rating: 7 out of 10.
Star power: Chloe Sevigny, Shawn Ashmore, Sook-Yin Lee. Michelle Trachtenberg was in the audience, sitting behind us somewhere, even though she’s not in the film.

I am a geek. Geeky things make me happy.

Like the new feature in Firefox v1.5 that lets me force popups into new tabs. That makes me happy.

I picked up the tickets for Little Fish this morning. The lineup wasn’t so bad…maybe 30 people with the volunteers shuffling us along the Manulife Centre walls. I think one of them might have flirted with me a little, which was disturbing ’cause I’m pretty sure she was 15. Anyway, I now have all the tickets I plan on having.

First one — 3 Needles — is tonight.