I don’t know why everyone had such a hate on for Elizabethtown (imdb | rotten tomatoes). Nellie and I just watched it, and we both really liked it. Granted, we both seem to like Cameron Crowe movies more than most people (I like Vanilla Sky a great deal, for example), and I had a small problem with how Orlando Bloom seemed to struggle with his accent for the whole movie, but I just…liked it. I can’t explain it much beyond that.
Category: Movies
Refreshment & variety
After a long day of spring cleaning (well, not that long…I slept until 10 and Nellie didn’t get out of bed ’til nearly noon), during which we rearranged the bedroom and combed up enough cat hair to make a Chewbacca suit, Nellie has cracked open a bottle of 2005 Fielding Estate Pinot Gris that Duarte gave her. I went slightly downmarket: a diet pepsi. Ahh.
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My Roku just played Blink-182, then Blind Willie Johnson, then the Rheostatics‘ cover of “Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald”, then Sugar, then Bob Dylan, then Sebadoh. Hooray for random.
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From Listening Post: Neil Young to Take on Bush Administration in Upcoming Album.
[rubs hands together with glee, all Burns-like…]
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A colleague and I were talking about Brick yesterday. He had the “You wanna take a swing at me, hash-head?” line in his MSN message. It’s funny, but we both noticed the same tiny little details about the movie, like the lamp in the van or what was written on the sign in the vice-principal’s office or the incomprehensible dialog between Brendan and Brain. Goes to show what a great job they did. I can’t wait to buy it; we’re considering going see it again in the theatre.
How long can grooming take anyway?
Today’s IndieTits was very funny. And I heartily agree with Neko Case being #1. Wrong Wainwright at #5, but it was funnier that way.
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Some movies that I/we watched lately, but which weren’t very good:
- Domino (imdb | rotten tomatoes), because it was an interesting story, but not interesting enough to require the frantic pace and annoying echo chamber of this great big hackey music video.
- Out Of Order (imdb), because Showtime tried to pull off some kind of scam by cramming an entire season of a show into a 97-minute movie. It did, however, alert me to the fact that Justine Bateman has become rather hot at the age of forty.
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I’ve been slowly working through Saturday’s Star after returning from Montreal, and was particularly interested in this article by James Travers about how the front runners for the Liberal party leadership are flexing a little more IQ muscle than has been seen in Canadian politics for some time. My favourite line: “With Michael Ignatieff and Stéphane Dion opting in yesterday and Belinda Stronach dropping out a day earlier, the collective leadership IQ is soaring.” The other entrants or potentials — Bob Rae, Gerard Kennedy, Ken Dryden, Scott Brison, John Godfrey, David McGuinty, Maurizio Bevilacqua — are no slouches either. Whether or not you dig the Liberal party, it can’t be a bad thing to have smarter people trying to run the country.
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One last thing about our Montreal trip: I have to comment on the travel particulars. We flew Westjet this time, as I used up the Airmiles that find their way into my account without my really knowing. Anyhow, it was my first time with them and I was pretty impressed; the thing I liked the most was that they didn’t take 45 minutes to “groom” the plane like Air Canada does; it landed, they let the passengers off, and they let us on seconds later. Much faster turnaround time than I was used to.
And finally, about the Hotel Gault…I know I’ve already gushed about it, but it bears repeating: stay there if the opportunity presents itself.
In which I contemplate my own navel
I saw a preview of Brick (imdb | rotten tomatoes) tonight at the Varsity. I really, really, really liked it. About the only way to describe it is a juxtaposition of noir and high school styles…like an episode of Veronica Mars starring Bogart and Lorre, written by Mamet as he wrestles Hammett to the floor.* Dialogue so dense and fast that you have to work to keep up at first, a plot that expects you to pay attention, a staggering main role played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt…yup, the kid from Third Rock From The Sun who’s become an indie hero. If you like good movies, you’ll like this. At least, you should. Get thee to a cinema.
* side note: Mamet vs. Hammett is a play just waiting to happen. You heard it here first.
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I’ve heard about this before but it’s the first time I’ve seen detail on it: NBC will be releasing 10 internet-only episodes of The Office this summer that’ll feature more of the background characters. More Kelly & Ryan!!
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Scientists claim that “Jesus may have appeared to be walking on water when he was actually floating on a thin layer of ice, formed by a rare combination of weather and water conditions on the Sea of Galilee.” Why would they bother pointing this out? People that actually believe a bearded dude named Jesus walked on water aren’t going to suddenly believe it wasn’t a miracle just because you say so, no matter how sound a theory you throw at them. You can’t reason someone out of a position they were never reasoned into.
[via]
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Sometimes I wonder why I blog. I’m not like most people who have a specific topic for their blog; I throw pretty much everything that enters my mind up here. I’ve owned single-purpose blogs before — radioDan (music & movies), skirl (general stuff that eventually became this blog), and Girlfriend Du Jour (my future wives) — but it gets to be a pain in the ass and so I consolidated the first two into this one. I still post to Girlfriend Du Jour ’cause it’s so much fun. I think being a generalist is more important, or at least more interesting, to me than going in-depth on a topic like music or movies or technology or…I don’t know, maple syrup. Whatever.
I think it has to do with how we were raised. None of my brothers or I focused on any one thing, though we were usually pretty good at a few; we were encouraged to play more than one sport, or learn more than one instrument, or read from a variety of sources. We all seemed to fit in a couple of social worlds as teenagers (at least, that’s what I remember; my brothers were basically out of high school by the time I arrived), so I could hang out with the skids or the jocks or the smart kids. I was on the basketball team, but I was also in the jazz band. I had long hair and played in a bad rock band, but I also knew more about computers than anyone in my school. I grew up on a farm but I feel at home in a city. And so on.
I think I’m still the same now. I feel like I have so many interests that I can’t keep up the way I’d like to, and it comes across in my blogging: scattershot, brief summaries of thoughts that whip through my brain. The categories over on the right are pretty much the breakdown of any given moment inside my head: music, movies, sports and the news are constants, and the hundreds of news feeds I read every day give me plenty of content. Books, food, my friends’ blogs, politics, Toronto goings-on and whatever subject I’m studying for the MBA right now are usually top of mind as well. Work keeps my mind focused on technology, especially developments in how people — the general population, not just geeks — will be using it in the next few years.
And in true Dan form I’ve forgotten why I even started writing this post. Arrrgghhhhuiworuowytwhgkfdnkf. Oop, wait, I’ve got it now: would this blog be better off if I just picked a particular topic and went with it? Or is it ok the way it is? I can tell by the stats that more than half the readers are not friends and family who just want to know what I did last night, but I wonder if my attention span could fuel (tolerate?) a single-topic blog…
OK. Bed now.
"Is there going to be a change in Canadian music?"
Kevin Drew and Leslie Feist made some comments about the Canadian Idol teenyboppers who were nominated Junos. The CTV president of programming got her back up, asking “Why trash somebody else?”, but if you read the comments Drew and Feist made, they don’t seem to be running down the kids…they seem to be taking a shot at the music and tv industries. And with good cause; they’ve basically made music an excuse to have a tv show (or entire channel).
Also: the day when the president of programming at CTV can lecture members of Broken Social Scene about music is the day I teach Al Pacino about method acting.
.:. I won a pair of tickets to see Brick (imdb | rotten tomatoes) on Wednesday. Thanks NOW!
 .:. By now I guess pretty much everyone’s seen the trailer for the Simpson’s movie. I have both high hopes and terrible fears about how it’s going to turn out. I think it would be funny if Marge cussed like a sailor on shore leave. But that’s me.
 .:. More developments, though little progress, in the James Miller case. I wrote about it two years ago, when I saw the documentary, and again about a year ago.
I wanna be, I wanna be like Taik(o)
I’m into exorcisms. Or, rather, movies and stories about exorcisms. The Exorcist kinda freaked me out, I grew up near a town with a well-known possession story, and I liked The Exorcism Of Emily Rose (imdb | rotten tomatoes) even though I probably shouldn’t have. It too often fell into horror movie clichés (though it wasn’t a horror movie) or courtoom clichés (though it wasn’t a legal drama either), and would have been far more interesting had it been more faithful to the actual story of Annaliese Michel, but I find watching psychological/spiritual forces wrack some poor innocent interesting enough that I didn’t mind so much.
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I also watched a documentary today called Touch The Sound (imdb | rotten tomatoes). It’s about Evelyn Glennie, a percussionist who I remember reading about in my drumming days…many, many moons ago. It turns out she’s also deaf, something I didn’t know until I read the synopsis of this film a year or two ago. Watching this film, her skill seems even more remarkable when you think that she can’t hear…but when you realize she can hear, in a way that’s different but no less effective than how you or I do, it’s not surprising at all. After that, the only remarkable thing is how well she can play.
By the way, in my next life, I’d like to be a Taiko drummer.
83.1%
Doopy doopy doo. Whilst I wait for inspiration to strike (I’ve reviewed and studied about as much as I feel like iI can), here’re a few interesting tidbits of news that caught my eye:
- United 93 is premiering at the Tribeca film festival next month. It’s high on my list of must-see movies this spring, partly because of the gripping subject matter, and party because it’s directed by Paul Greengrass, whose work I enjoy immensely. I can only imagine it will draw some controversy, but it’s been 5 years since the attacks and if anyone can handle it, it’s New Yorkers. They’re not much for shying away from things.
- Toronto, on the other hand, has been hemming and hawing about the waterfront since before I moved here. However, as Christopher Hume reports in the Star, it appears they’re taking the first steps toward the redevelopment they’ve been promising for years. However, I shall believe it when I see it.
OK. Back to studying. Or pretending to study.
56.1%
John Doyle asks the same question in the Globe today that I asked last week: what happened to The Shield?
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One weird thing about this building: it’s incredibly dry. My skin is so dry that my knuckles are cracking and bleeding, and my face looks like I’ve just gone for a job through the Alkali salt flats. I guess it’s because I’m living in recycled air 24 hours a day, or because the towels are like #30 sandpaper.
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I cannot believe how stupid this movie looks. Which means it’ll do great business at the box office.
"Only people who'll remember this is us."
We just finished watching Gunner Palace (imdb | rotten tomatoes), a documentary about an American field artillery unit who took over Uday Hussein’s old palace in Baghdad. It was a bit uneven and slow at times, but overall a pretty informative slice of (shitty) life for these guys and the Iraqis they deal with. The soldiers have to duck rocks, worry about IEDs and deal with the fact that no one back home will every understand what their time in Iraq was like. The Iraqi people get held at gunpoint, woken up in the middle of the night by soldiers and sent to prisons like Abu Ghraib without much evidence against them.
“I don’t think … anywhere in history has someone killed someone else and something better has come out of it. It’s just … not possible.”
Whatever you think about the war, you have to respect the soldiers for the work they have to do, and feel sorry for them when the situation sometimes pushes them over the line. Gunner Palace was a good look at a bunch of soldiers standing at the edge of it.
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I also watched Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior (imdb | rotten tomatoes) this week. Dopey martial arts movie, but holy smokin’ Joe Kubek, that Tony Jaa is one bad-assed squeaky-voiced mofo. No effects, no digital tricks, no “bullet time”, just a little dude kicking and elbowing and jumping and kneeing his way through a whole raft of baddies, including one creepy voiceboxed chief. If you appreciate martial arts movies for the action and don’t mind the thin plot or dippy dialogue, pick this up.
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The Canadiens all but eliminated the Leafs tonight, winning 6-2 after beating them 5-1 two nights ago. Atlanta lost, so Montreal moves back into the 8th playoff spot. The way things are going, the Montreal-New Jersey game we have tickets for in two weeks could be big indeed.
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Clubbed today: protestors in Minsk, baby seals.
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My old friend from university, Farm Boy (ironic that he got the name, since I grew up on a farm and he did not) visited today. He, his wife, Nellie and I had lunch downtown at the Irish Embassy and then caught up for a bit before they left to have dinner with his brother. They were enamored with the cats; who wouldn’t be?
Everything. Everyone. Everywhere. Ends.
Busy day. Got to work around 7:30 and left around 7:00. I can’t really remember doing anything major today, just a pile of little things. Seems like that’s all I can get done anymore. I’m thinking about booking a small room for myself one afternoon every week…no email or phone, just a notepad and a pen and my brain.
Anyway, it was partly busy ’cause I’m away all next week. Course number…6, I think. A friend of mine from university is coming into town tomorrow, and I have about 10 other things on the go, so I have lots to do between now and Sunday morning.
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I just pre-ordered the fifth season of Six Feet Under. Good thing Nellie has her Young Riders nostalgia to keep her occupied, otherwise I don’t think she could keep her mitts off the SFU discs until I get home.
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I’ve been pretty silent on music & movies lately. This is what I’ve bought in the last month or so:
- Living Things . Ahead Of The Lions
- Cat Power . The Greatest
- Rogue Wave . Descended Like Vultures
- Trespassers William . Having
- Mogwai . Mr. Beast
- Neko Case . Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
I also have new albums from Ben Harper, Gomez, the Fiery Furnaces and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in my ‘inbox’ waiting to be reviewed. The new ones from Clearlake, Magneta Lane, Rainer Maria and Beth Orton are on my wishlist.
As far as movies that are still out in Toronto that I want to see:
- Ask The Dust
- Beowulf & Grendel
- Cache
- Inside Man
- Match Point
- Tristram Shandy: A Cock And Bull Story
- V For Vendetta
- Why We Fight
The movies coming up this spring/summer that I really want to see: American Dreamz, Flight 93 and X-Men 3.
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 