Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the ultimate use for the internet: Stuff On My Cat.

I laugh at the fact that, even though everyone has a computer in front of them, some people still have enormous dictionaries and clunky calculators sitting on their desks. From one little box in my Firefox toolbar I can do complex math, search with any engine, look up a word on dictionary.com or wikipedia, find a cd on amazon or cddb or a movie on imdb, find the weather in any city, get a stock quote…just about anything.

And don’t even get me started on printing…

This was a good idea. I’ve started brining downloaded albums (which I like to call ‘previews’) to work with me so I can give ’em a listen and suss out what’s worth buying. Yesterday I decided to buy the new Constantines and took a pass on the Jason Collett disc; today I have the new Dandy Warhols disc Odditorium Or Warlords Of Mars and Underwater Cinematographer from The Most Serene Republic. So far I’m happy enough with the DW disc that I’ll buy it. I had no time for Welcome To The Monkeyhouse, but I like this return of spaciness they’ve undergone.

I’ve only skimmed through the TMSR disc, but at first listen it was pretty good. [update: on second listen, no it isn’t.]

Where was I when all this started happening? Europe? Nova Scotia? Up my own ass? There’s a lot of good music on this bill…enough that I’d consider checking it out if it weren’t smack dab in the middle of the film festival.

Sleater-Kinney, The Hidden Cameras, Tricky Woo, Joel Plaskett, The Organ, A Northern Chorus, Death From Above 1979, …As The Poets Affirm, Final Fantasy, Frontier Index & The High Dials…that’s pretty impressive. And they say there’s more coming.

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.