Today was our first foray into Cinematheque. We met Stanzi and T-Bone at Jackman Hall to see Midaq Alley, a Mexican adaptation of an Egyptian novel. The main selling point for me: a young Salma Hayek in her first starring role.

Not a bad movie, considering the budget they must have had. Except for the teeth. And the guy with the cheesy moustache. And the naked fat dude. And the rather amusing subtitle translation job. Ah, let’s face it, it could’ve been any movie and I would’ve liked it, ’cause she was in it. She’s so dreamy.

Sigh.

There’s a poster in the lobby of my office building advertising something called the “Professional Excellence Symposium”, a title so dumbass that it reminds me of the The Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence.

Once again, I selected my next Zip pick at the suggestion of T-Bone. This time it was Carandiru (imdb | rotten tomatoes), a film about the the 1992 São Paulo prison riot. I could feel real similarities to City Of God; there must be an established Bralizian style of film making. The telling of the story seemed more important than just recounting it, letting us actually get a sense of how pathetic and ferocious the inmates were. Not as good as City Of God, but I’d still recommend it.

Listening to Johnny Cash cover Soundgarden at 7:30 AM is a bit of a shock to the system. Stark lyrics sung by a starker voice. Left me feeling a bit melancholy for both, I admit.

Now that the MP3 has become my preferred format (supplanting the CD), I want to download a few albums and several songs, and thought I’d do it through one of the pay sites. So far, it’s been a pretty frustrating experience. I tried eMusic, where I found two of the albums I was looking for, but none of the individual songs. I then tried Napster, and found precisely nothing. No albums (and these aren’t exactly obscure, mind you: they’re the newest releases from Bright Eyes, The Kills and Soundtrack Of Our Lives) and none of the ~25 songs in my P2P wishlist. Puretracks, the CRIA’s download site, doesn’t have any of the (admittedly, more obscure) wishlist songs, and I could find only one of the three albums: I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning by Bright Eyes. Sadly, I can’t download it, but I can order it for more than it costs at HMV. Hot dammit.

So what are my options? 1) keep buying CDs; 2) use iTunes; 3) download using P2P software. I’d prefer not to do #1 since it goes against my new music strategy, as it were. #2 may not even be a viable option, since the iTunes library may be no better than the others I’ve tried, and besides it uses a dumbass file format that I don’t like. #3, however, is simple and free. I would feel guilty about it, though only about 5% as guilty as the CRIA would like me to feel since that’s about how much the artist gets of my CD buying habit.

Anybody know of any better download sites?

For some reason, English Cut — a blog written by a Savile Row tailor — is completely mesmerizing. It could be that I so badly want a bespoke suit, or it could be that I’m fascinated to see a blog with a non-tech/music/politics subject.

Truer words were never spoken blogged.

I started a free two-week trial with eMusic last night, and downloaded a few albums that I had been planning to buy. I don’t think I can stay with eMusic, though, since they only had 2 of the six albums that I was looking for, and only one of the ~20 songs in my soulseek wishlist. I might try Napster next. I tried Puretracks, the CRIA’s site, but it blocks my browser. Idiots. Way to piss off the people trying to buy your music legally.

OK, as much as the idea of Carly Fiorina becoming head of the world bank doesn’t make sense, and as much as it terrifies me that Paul Wolfowitz has been mentioned for the job, that Bono’s name is being mentioned is just hilarious.

I had a nice relaxing evening while Nellie was at a friend’s wedding — got lots of work done, finished off some errands, ripped lots of CDs, watched a movie, blah blah etc. — and met G&C for breakfast this morning at the (so not kidding) Golden Griddle.

And now, my day will consist of an epic battle between my needing to study accounting and my wanting to watch both the Duke and Toronto basketball games on TV.