Saturday, July 4th, 2009 12:30 pm: The Friday Five

The Friday Five for July 3rd, 2009

Randomosity!

1. It's the last night of the world, and you've only just found out. What five things will you do in these final hours?
Hmm - does everyone else know? Might make it easier to have sex, lol.
2. How do you feel about our American Flag's design?
First, not mine, second, take it or leave it.
3. What pets have you had?
Four cats and two gerbils.
4. What was the last activity you wore a wristband for?
When i went to the PEACE DOT LOVE concert.
5. What song changed your life?
I don't think any song has changed my life to a significant degree.

Sunday, July 5th, 2009 08:19 pm: sushi, no fireworks, ice age, shopping, eating

Wednesday morning i didn't have anything planned for the day, and it was not a bad weather day, so when Torrie and i started chatting online, we hatched a hastily arranged sushi lunch. Miah couldn't make it (lazy?), and neither could Jackie (famil stuff), but we were able to steal Mel from the school. Good times were had - Torrie talked about the worn, hard, over-sized thong she found in her filing cabinet, and the 'lube sock' (dirty old sock with a bottle of lube in it) she found in her guest bed after the guests had left.

I got invited to see the 'fireworks at Harbourfront', which i assumed meant the Ontario Place fireworks at the waterfront. When i got there, around 8:20, they were at Harbourfront, where there were no fireworks. They were waiting for some people to show up, so i decided to wait - having already parked, i didn't want to spend the half hour it would for me to get to Harbourfront, only to have to come back. So, i waited... and waited... I called around 9:00, and they were wandering around Harbourfront, waiting for the others still. Ugh! Around 9:20, i got a text message saying they weren't coming. I found out later, that some of the new friends didn't want to go to Ontario Place (and apparently were told i went to the wrong place - the only one with fireworks). I was so pissed off, i didn't want to wait another hour by myself for fireworks, so i just left. Sucky evening.

Thursday, i went to get comics, what there was, and read them at Lick's. I saw Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, which is about what you expect. The bits with Sid, and with Scrat are the best parts, while Ray Romano and Queen Latifah deaden whenever they're on screen. It's not that you can't make an elephant exciting (see Horton Hears A Who). The Scrat-Scratte bits could be cut into a good short on its own. The ankylosaur was ridiculously oversized, and they were plant-eaters.

"It's a boy!" "That's a tail." "It's a girl!"

After the movie, i did some shopping - got Russ's birthday present (Future Shop Card), Lisa's (American money for her New York trip), some alcohol (wine for Saturday, couple of beers for Russ, cider for me). In the evening, i downloaded some music to make Russ a mix CD.

On Friday, i picked up Michelle and Courtney for lunch at Harveys (ha ha). Then i met up with Miah at the school, and he and i drove to TO so he could drop off a DVD with Jackie. Chatted a bit with her, and then drove back. We had supper at Montana's in Ajax whike waiting for traffic to lighten.

Sunday, July 5th, 2009 08:21 pm: bbq, brunch, moon, CDs

On Saturday, it was Russ's birthday party BBQ. His parents are here from England for a few weeks, plus Lisa's family was all there (except the ones in New Hampshire), plus the neighbours, Greg and Andi and one of their girls, and me. I drank a fair bit. One vodka cooler to start, and the rest was wine. There were various appetizers - Russ made bruschetta (his garlic toast is the best i've ever had). For supper, there was a ton of chicken, salmon steaks, and steak, and salads.

Today i went downtown to see a movie. I ate at Spring Rolls and had their brunch special - unfortunately, i didn't have my camera, lol. it started with a choice of dim sum - i got the chicken & veggie dumplings of course, and they were especially yummy. The main was essentially the same as the Vietnamese char-grilled style pork chop and spring roll (with rice and simple salad), except instead of a spring roll, it had a sunny-side up egg on top of the rice. Then dessert was 'coconut crepes', which were wrapped like springs rolls, with green coloured crepes - the filling was essentially toasted coconut flakes, and there was some sweet red sauce for dipping.

The movie i saw was Moon, starring Sam Rockwell, who was amazing. He stars as an astronaut about to finish his 3 year contract as the only worker at an energy mine on the moon (supplying 70% of the world's energy, in an essentially utopian future). His only company is Gerty, the Hal-like computer companion (Kevin Spacey), and messages from his wife and child (the direct satellite being down). Then he starts seeing other people... It's a kind of thriller, but more cerebral (no alien monsters), and very good.

After, i walked around Yonge & Dundas a bit, picked up the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' latest CD (which i thought i'd got on Friday - turned out to be the second CD, which i already had, ha ha). Then i drove to College Street to look at Soundscapes, where i got The D'Urbervilles' CD, and Lily Allen's latest. I had been looking for some other artists, but i had left my list at home.

Thursday, July 9th, 2009 12:09 am: love and poverty in Paris

On Monday, after tidying and sundry things, i went into the city to see a movie at the Cinematheque. I got there just before 6, for a 7 o'clock show, and i decided to rush down to the Queen Mother for a quick supper. I had their steak special, with hollandaise sauce (amazing!), salad greens, and some roasted veggies, and a Strongbow, and read a manga. I made it out of there by 6:33.

The movie i saw was The Sign of Leo (Le Signe Du Lion), by Eric Rohmer. A 40-year-old American living in Paris, sponging off his friends and acquaintances, finds out a rich aunt has died, throws a party for all his friends (borrowed money). But it turns out his aunt has disinherited him, so he ends up losing his apartment. All his friends are now away for the summer, and he descends into hard times. The wandering around Paris lasts quite a while - it's not a fast paced film, but it's not so grim as it sounds, although it make some good points about how we ignore street people, not knowing how they got there.

Accompanying the feature was a short (22 minutes) by Rohmer, The Girl At The Monceau Bakery (La Boulangère De Monceau, more literally, The Bakery-Girl of Monceau). It's about a man trying to pick up a young woman he sees near his university quite often - he looks for her in his neighbourhood during his lunch break, trying to seem casual, and ends up going to a bakery every day for a quick bite, and starts another flirtation. It's pretty funny, as we get to hear his internal monologue, shy, pompous, calculating and slightly delusional all at the same time (that's love for you, especially the French variety).

Sylvie

Jacqueline.

Friday, July 10th, 2009 08:19 pm: gangsters, wings, djs

Tuesday i had to stay in town (for a BBQ that never materialized), surprise surprise, decided to give Public Enemies a chance, based on its generally good reviews.

"The Feds try to take down notorious American gangsters John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd during a booming crime wave in the 1930s." The trailer sets it up as a showdown between Johnny Depp's Dillinger and Christian Bale's FBI agent Melvin Purvis, with Marion Cotillard as Dillinger's girlfriend Billie Frechette caught in-between. But Melvin Purvis hardly has a personality (and his death may have been an accident), Bille Frechette is missing inlarge chunks of the movie, and it's mainly about Dillinger. If you're going to focus on Dillinger, i woud've called it something like Bye Bye Blackbird, not Public Enemies. I didn't really enjoy it a lot - we didn't see any of his early life (no context), and it doesn't really show why he was a bigger than life celebrity (as much as i like Johnny Depp, i thought his character here was pretty flat).

Both Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd died after Dillinger, not before. I think the movie would've been more fun if it was a more general look at 30s gangsters "Public Enemy Era" culture. At least Billy Crudup got to do his 30s newsreel voice, ha ha. I'd say wait to rent it (or download).

I like baseball, movies, good clothes, whiskey, fast cars... and you. What else you need to know?

After the movie, i met up with Miah, Matt, Emma and John (with Jack) for wings, and then went to John's place (he cancelled the BBQ because there were agents showing his house - Miah wasn't feeling well so went home, but Chris came to replace him.

I found out that Martin Streek, long time DJ on CFNY killed himself the day before. I'd just realized Sunday i hadn't heard him on the radio lately, so i searched online, to find out he'd been let go in May after 25 years (i thought he was just replaced with guest hosts for vacation or something), along with Barry Taylor (whom i really enjoyed). Anyway, Streek's death was something of a shock.

Saturday, July 11th, 2009 12:33 am: Sushi day, # 4356

Wednesday was sushi day, yet again, this time with Miah, and 5 (count'em) grads, of the female variety.

Meaghan and Torrie. Rockstar doesn't want to be photographed, lol.

Felicia and Caroline. Happy Birthday Felicia!

Miah and Morgan.

Miah went to the washroom just as i got up to take a pic, ha ha.

More rockstar attitude.

Afterwards it was comics day, and reading at home.

Saturday, July 11th, 2009 04:36 pm: Food, Inc.

Thursday i went in to the city - a little late, but early enough to catch two movies.

The first movie i saw was Food, Inc., a documentary on the industrialization and corporatization of food. There may be images of old time farms on the boxes, but the chickens and cattle are crammed together, standing in their own crap, pumped full of anti-biotics and growth hormones, fed subsidized, pesticide-laden corn. Even if you decide to go vegetarian, food processing plants are so laden with bacteria, that you're more likely to get salmonella, E. coli or listeria from your salad (at least you can kill it by cooking your meat - counters might not be clean). Most of the processing is done by a few very large corporations - we have less choice than it looks, many farmers have none (only one compnay to sell to), and they even own the seeds, so now you can't save a portion of your grain for replanting like farmers have done for the past 10,000 years. And they also hire illegal immigrants on a large scale.

It was a good documentary, more of an introduction to the topic, because it was kind of shallow in places, and really could be a lot longer. The issue of subsidies and protectionism is an interesting one, because subsidies for American corn are so high - that is, it can be sold for less than it costs to make, it helps drive poor farmers in the third world out of business (so does food donations, but that's a whole other story). It's also part of the reason junk food is so cheap - corn is a very versatile product, and can make both the starchy bulk of junk food, and the sweetness (hi-fructose corn syrup), but in these forms, it's not very healthy. So, government is essentially subsidizing junk food.

It's cheaper to eat junk food - unless you count diabetes (which the man on the right has).

I couldn't find a shot of someone dragging dead animals out of the 'barn'.

A guy who does it the old-fashioned way.

Saturday, July 11th, 2009 04:38 pm: And God Created Sex Kittens

The second movie i saw was Et Dieu... Créa La Femme, (And God Created Woman), by Roger Vadim, the one that made Brigitte Bardot famous.

She plays Juliette, a 'wild girl', or at least kind of a free spirit (often no shoes, or any clothes at all), and rather available (ahem), on the French Riviera. A wealthy, charming, older man is interested in her (although a bit too fathery, and not the dancing type she wants), but she wants his business rival, young Antoine (whose interests are very short term). When threatened with being sent back to her orphanage by her guardians, tired of her attitude, she ends up accepting a marriage proposal from Antoine's earnest younger brother Michel, who adores her, but is pretty blind to things. Adapting to her new life becomes difficult (not that she really does any work). Light weight, even in the 60s, and i HOPE we've evolved since then. At least we now have robots with our (technologically-enhanced) sex kittens.

"You are at the point of falling for her."
"What makes you say that?"
"Whenever you look at her, you appear less intelligent."

The trouble with in-laws: "What are you doing in my bed?"

Saturday, July 11th, 2009 05:05 pm: streetcars, French food, Harry Potter

I took a streetcar ride between the movies, and took some photos too. This is on the Spadina streetcar, north of College.

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Now we're into (Old) Chinatown.

Spadina at College.

Spadina still has a lot of cars.

This is not Queen - it's the next stop up. That's a lot of streetcar.

I had supper at Jules (yet again), and forgot to take a pic until halfway through through - well, almost done the caesar salad (very good - lemony, not too much dressing).

I had the sauteed chicken (so good, i even eat the mushrooms, lol) and frites. It really is unbelievably good. The sun coming in from the windows (the west, around 6:30 pm) is very bright.

Finally, dessert, crème brûlée, the best in Toronto.

This building has been closed for renovations, but i see this former convenience store is now a Harry Potter ad.

Inside.

The streetcar back, along Dundas past Spadina, around 10:15 pm.

Random: okay, the best-before dates are not kidding - this was just two days past.

Saturday, July 11th, 2009 07:00 pm: Dolce & Gabbana - hello?!

Friday was, of course, another movie. I took some manga to read at Lick's at lunch, and then saw Brüno. I was actually somewhat disappointed. I really enjoyed Borat, but just being gay and coming on to people, or having a fake Austrian accent, or continually referring to your anus as your 'Auschwitz', just isn't that funny. How many times can you wear a ridiculous costume in public and have people stair and still laugh?

I cringed through the first half hour. It did start getting better. There's a part where he's interviewing parents for a photo shoot, and he's asking them outrageous questions, whether their kids will drive dangerous equipment, lose weight, get liposuction - they would do anything. But most of it was just worth a chuckle.

"The baby is a dick magnet."

The velcro suit.

Hello?!

The evening started at home, doing laundry and such, and then i talked to Miah. We picked up a DVD (The Spirit, which was cheesy fun, but should've been better), and watched it at his place.

Today, i should've been going to an artshow with friends, but they were late getting their act together. Bah! Phoned Lis, but they're busy with family stuff tonight.

Sunday, July 12th, 2009 10:01 am: Freedom, horrible freedom!

I decided at the last minute to go into TO and see a movie at the Cinematheque, Pier Paolo Pasolini's Teorema (Theorem).

It begins with reporters asking a man why he is giving away his factory, and political questions, about whether it's the beginning of a revolution (it was made in 1968), is it the end of the bourgeoisie (upper middle class) and so on. Then we jump back, finding ourselves with an upper middle class family, and a young man who wanders into their lives. He reads Rimbaud (not 'Rambo', a French poet, famous for his degenerate ways). One by one, each member of the household desires to be seduced by him: the religiously devout housekeeper, the studious son, the detached mother, the naive daughter, and finally the father. Then, the young man is mysteriously called away, but not before each of them has told the young man how he has transformed them, and they don't know how they can go on without him.

The son becomes an artist, seeking new methods of creating, ones that have never been done before (i'm not sure if throwing cans of paint and urinating on canvases was new even in 1968). The daughter runs around measuring things, and then becomes catatonic and hospitalized. The mother now has unquenchable passion (though she does her best with a string of young men). The maid goes to her home village, eats only nettles, and sits on a bench. She heals children, and then floats above the buildings, and finally buries herself, not to die to be transformed. Then the father, after ogling another young man and giving away his factory, strips naked and walks into a desolate landscape.

The director was arrested for obscenity, but there's hardly any nudity (tighty-whities, (very briefly) girl's bare chest), and much of the sex is actually alluded to. There's the religious aspect - aside from the miracles, the young man comes across as a Christ-like figure. It's an odd film - less than 1000 spoken words, not much in the way of explanation, or even story. The family doesn't seem particularly repressed, although maybe that's the point - we are all so rarely in touch with our true selves, that we don't know we are repressing until we are liberated. Perhaps the 'theorem' is that 'liberation' (the director was a 60s style Marxist) is less about class than personal revelation. At the same time, it's pretty funny, as their attractions and reactions are so over-the-top ridiculous.

You know you want him, because he's The (younger) Most Interesting Man In The World....

Monday, July 13th, 2009 12:29 pm: Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition 2009

Another year, another Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. This year, we did the whole thing in one go - over 500 booths - very tired feet. I think it's cool most (if not all) artists are Canadian.

GAH! Mo & Katelyn.

Some examples (you can check the TOAE website):

by Jan Cyril Fundano

by Jason Edmiston

by Gosia

by Mike Parsons

by Amanda Arcuri

by Matthew Merrett

by Yue Heng Duan

by Meaghan Ogilvie

by Chi Nakajima. It was awesome seeing Chi again - she was a student of mine from way back at Humber.

by Chi Nakajima. Her work is amazing!

Saturday, July 25th, 2009 04:27 pm: The Friday Five

The Friday Five for July 10th, 2009

1. What is your favorite vegetable?
Maybe corn?
2. What is your favorite salad dressing, sauce, gravy, or condiment?
Salad dressing - i dunno, ranch? Gravy is good - as long as it's real.
3. What is your favorite culture's food (American, Chinese, Creole, Indian, Italian, Mexican, Soul Food, Southern U.S., etc.)?
French.
4. What is your favorite beverage?
Ginger ale.
5. What is your favorite food?
Too many!

The Friday Five for July 24th, 2009

Writing Five

1.Do you like your handwriting?
No, it's not vert esthetic.
2. Do you prefer to print or write in cursive?
I print if someone else has to read it. Cursive for for a lot of writing.
3. Do you think handwriting should be graded in school?
Only if it's the best way to increase legibility.
4. Do you prefer writing in pencil or pen?
Pen.
5. When you write in ink, do you prefer a neutral color such as black or blue, or a fun color like purple or green?
Neutral

Saturday, July 25th, 2009 05:10 pm: Harry Potter And The... Sixth Movie? Really?

I missed a whole week of posting - i suck!

Booked my flight/hotel room for New York, had to run various errands to get ready for that.

Saturday the 18th, i went to Jackie's for a freezing BBQ on the roof of her condo building. What is with this summer??? SO cold. Miah was also there, and a bunch of people i'd never met before.

On Wednesday the 15th, i saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I thought this was one of the more enjoyable of the series, with no big plot holes (although they didn't explain why the potions book was such a threat). I actually find the school and adolescent side, the interactions among the cast, more fun than the over-all Voldemort plot. So much has been cut out of the movies i wonder if the last one(s) will make sense. I've seen it a few times since, as well, lol.

I thought he was excellent as Slughorn.

"She's smart... funny... attractive..."
"Attractive?"
"Well you know... she has nice... skin"

"Oh, to be young and to feel love's keen sting."

Monday, July 27th, 2009 10:14 am: Trip to New York City - Day One, Sunday

Last week i went to New York - i've been meaning to check it out for some time, and booked a reasonable package from Travelocity for flight and hotel room. I arrived 2 o'clock on Sunday afternoon, for four days.

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The Hudson River, north of New York.

The flight times between Toronto and New York are padded - 1:50 for a flight that takes just over an hour - mainly because LaGuardia is such a pain. We got in New York 25 minutes early, only to wait on the tarmac for 40 minutes. Samething happened on the way back - the palbe left the gate on time, but sat parked for over half an hour waiting to take off.

I got a shuttle bus (12$) from the airport to Grand Central. It's a grand old building, completely surrounded by other buildings. It was a short walk from Grand Central to my hotel room. Grand Central is on 42nd Street, at Park (which would be 4th Avenue). The 'Streets' are just a single street north-south from each other, while the 'Avenues' are bigger blocks west-to-east.

A food cart on the way to the hotel. There were tons of them all over the place, selling all kinds of food.

My hotel was The Algonquin, a famous New York landmark (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algonquin_Hotel). It's dead centre (very narrow). It's on 44th Street, just east of Sixth Avenue

On my door, words from one of the literati who made the place famous

The hallway in front of my room. The wallpaper is cartoons from The New Yorker.

My room.

Funky shower curtain.

I was hungry, and wasn't picky, so i grabbed something at the McDonald's i'd walked past. They didn't have fries! I walked down Fifth Avenue (which reminds me of Bloor near Bay and Yonge), and came across the main Public Library (undergoing renovations). I didn't really know where i was going, lol. I eventually turned west along some side street (37th?) that had a lot of closed businesses - i saw a lot of that, crazy busy streets right beside totally dead streets. I turned back north along Broadway, which unlike all the other streets in Midtown Manhattan, and crosses them at a diagonal.

South of Times Square.

Times Square is where Broadway meets Seventh Avenue - the photo makes it look darker than it was.

Bizarre.

The place is crazy full of people - all the time. Its like Yonge and Dundas plus King Street theatre district combined, times ten. Traffic was also crazy, but they have taken a large part of the street and given it over to pedestrians and places to sit.

You can see the Lion King sign. 'Broadway' theatre means all the theatres that are within a 3 minute walk of here - they are all in the same spot, it is nuts.

Problems with the dynamic range of photography?

There was a flea market going on Sunday too. You can see the sign for Wicked, another Broadway show.

*sniff* home.... I was looking for a newspaper, or something to show me where movie theatres were - thought maybe i'd catch something that was showing only in New York.

What th'?

Ads for Billy Elliot and Mamma Mia - the theatres would be very close (if not just below).

Gah!

A close up of Radio City Music Hall.

What th'!!! Tim's has just opened shops in NYC, ha ha. No mention of donuts, or Canada.

"Gentlemen's club", i love it .

New York's fa... finest.

I had supper at Tad's, visible in the Tim's pic, where you buy cafeteria-style, but the seating is more restaurant-style. i didn't eat the garlic bread (or garlic brick, ha ha). Actually, there were two Tad's in Times Square, but i'm not sure which i ate at, ha ha.

I walked down to 42nd and west of Broadway. This store is across from the AMC. The AMC had 25 theatres, about the same as the AMC at Yonge & Dundas or Whitby, but in five high floors. Of course, the movie i saw, Blood The Last Vampire, was on the 5th floor. Next time, i take the elevator.

I bought a shish-kebab at a food cart when i got out of the movie, and ate part of it, but i was worried about how well it was cooked. Also, they put it into an untoasted hot dog bun. Times Square was just as busy at 10:30 as it was at 5. That Walgreens (drug store) was 24 hour. I don't know when most of the stores close. I walked by and H&M on 5th Avenue, and was impressed it was open until 8 on a Sunday, but the stores on Times Square were open until at least 11, including clothing stores, electronics, etc. There were quite a lot of drug stores, but no convenience stores or grocery stores, at least in my neighbourhood.

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New York cabs - plenty of them! I liek how most of the streets were one way - you only had to look for cars coming in one direction.

I made it back to my hotel, which was just a block east of Times Square, around 11.

Monday, July 27th, 2009 03:38 pm: Trip to New York City - Day Two, Monday

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Monday was first full day. I started off with an egg mcmuffin, which was cheap and on the way. It was just the same as Canadian egg mcmuffins, with real egg. I walked east along 42nd Street. This is the base of the Chrysler Building, which i find more attractive than the Emoire State Building, and less apey.

Look waaaaaay up.

A composite to get the whole thing in.

Toronto has similar new boxes, but these are much tidier. In fact, i was very impressed with how clean New York is - just as clean as Toronto is on the best of days, if not cleaner. Also, i felt very safe. Of course, i wasn't in any bad neighbourhoods, but it's nothing like the bad reputation New York has had. I missed taking a photo of a newstand, booths where you can pick up newspapers, magazines, pop and candy, which were all over Times Square.

What does 'curbing' your pet mean?

The UN Secretariat Building, at 42nd and First Ave.

Looking back along 42nd.

The UN Headquarters.

Dag Hammarskjold Park (named after the first secretary general of the UN) - a man was doing exercises there, tai chi i think.

Dag Hammarskjold Park, on 47th Ave, between First and Second Ave. It's not big, but it is nice, mainly benches for sitting.

Yes, you can get breakfast at a food cart. Along 47th St.

Or steak, rice, and so on.

Looking ip Park Avenue.

I turned up along Fifth Ave, and had to take a pic of TGIFridays. They are all over - there are at least two in Times Square. Where we have Casey's, Kelsey's, Jack Astor's, Milestones, they had only TGIFridays.

And a ton of Sephora stores. There were also about 5 H&M's in the midtown area. In fact, i was drenched from all the walking around, and stopped at one to get a fresh shirt to wear into the museum, lol.

Hot dogs. I bought one late Monday night. New York hot dogs are different than Toronto ones - they are awful! Where in Toronto when you ask for a hot dog, they put a deluxe weiner on the grill to cook and toast your bun, in New York, they pull a little one out of water where it's been soaking after being cooked (grilled still, i think), and put it on an untoasted bun. So disappointing.

As i was waiting in line to get into MoMA, someone was lifting something up a skyscraper. The Museum of Modern Art was the most important place i wanted to see.

Pablo Picasso Night Fishing At Antibes

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Vincent Van Gogh Starry Night.

MoMA is an amazing art gallery - it has the majority of the famous art pieces you seen or heard about. This one was referenced in Coraline.

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Henri Rousseau The Dream

Pablo Picasso Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Ah, nice.

Pablo Picasso Woman's Head (Fernande)

Fernand Leger Exit The Ballet Russes

Egon Schiele Nude With Violet Stockings And Black Hair

Henri Matisse Jeannette I-V

Henri Matisse Dance (I)

Constantin Brancusi Blonde Negresse II, The Cock, Maiastra, Bird In Space, Mlle Pogany, Endless Column

Pablo Picasso Three Musicians

Constantin Brancusi Mlle Pogany

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Piet Mondrian Trafalgar Square

Frida Kahlo Fulang-Chang And I (sorry, a little out of focus).

Joan Miro Hirondelle Amour

Joan Miro The Birth Of The World

Salvador Dali The Persistence Of Memory. Surprisingly small!

Arman I Still Use Brushes. Those are paint brushes stuck to a canvas,

Edward Ruscha OOF

Roy Lichtenstein Drowning Girl

Toni Abruzzo panel from 'Run For Love' (published in Secret Hearts).
Lichtenstein always ripped off his comics-style works from actual comics, and thus from the original artists, with barely any kind of transformation (other than the fact he painted rather than drew), let alone acknowledgement.

Andy Warhol Campbell's Soup Cans

Robert Smithson Alogon #2

Jasper Johns Flag

Jackson Pollock One: Number 31, 1950

Alberto Giacometti Tall Figure, Half-Size

Mark Rothko No. 3/No. 13

Hans Bellmer Doll. What?

Looking down into the sculpture garden.

Song Dong Waste Not

Arthur Young Bell-47D1 Helicopter

There were a couple of food places at MoMA. This is Cafe 2, on the second floor, logically enough. It's little upscale from the ROM's new cafeteria. You order at the front, then sit down, and they deliver it to you.

That is the White Bean Salad (fava beans, spring peas, 'haricots verts' - known in Canada as green beans, lol - and shaved pecorino cheese), and Organic Tomato & Basil Soup (roasted tomato, corn, shaved ricotta, and some other veggies).

This is the Grilled Center Cut Pork Chop (with kumquat, pineapple, sage motarda, roasted fingerling potatoes, arugula). This was my most expensive meal - or close to it.

I'd already seen the bulk of the 'classic' works, 19th/early 20th century, so it was on to more contemporary works. I forget the name of this one, but it was a room full of height marks.

People are standing in line to get their heights measured and marked on the wall.

Jim Shaw Untitled. I recognize many of the Superman drawings, stolen from covers - oh, and a Green Lantern. I wish people would stop thinking it's okay to rip off comics artists. I think i can identify some of the original artists, Wayne Boring, Curt Swan, Neal Adams and Gil Kane.

R. Crumb The Complete Fritz The Cat. Wow, an actual comics artist's work.

R. Crumb God Wants Me To Draw

Tom of Finland Untitled. I picked this because it look like a gay Superman, ha ha (just needs the spit curl on his forehead).

Arturo Herrera Untitled

Arturo Herrera Untitled (close-up)

Paul McCarthy Penis Hat

Raymond Pettibon No Title ("Vavoom series")

Jennifer Astor Stills From 'The Perfect Ride' Animation. Photo didn't work out very well. In this case, it's animation that's being disrespected.

Jennifer Astor Still From 'The Perfect Ride' Animation. Because this work was done by an "artist", rather than an animator, it gets to be in a gallery. But all she did was trace from film of bull-riding, and flatly at that. Take any sequence from an actual cassical animator, and it would blow this away.

Andre Thomkins Untitled. Made by pouring enamel paint into water, which pooled on the top, played with the paint, then placed the paper on the surface to pull off the image - kind of like a print. This made me think of Dar.

Jeff Koons Untitled (Winnie The Pooh Series). Seriously, Jeff Koons, you suck.

Song Dong Waste Not (close up)

Song Dong Waste Not (close up)

Song Dong Waste Not (close up)

Alexander Calder Lobster Trap And Fish Tail

Weng Fen Bird's Eye View - Shenzen. I'm in the reflection, d'oh!

Robert Wilson plan for the opera 'the CIVIL WarS: A Tree Is Best Measured When It Is Down'

The Triadic Ballet: A Film In Three Parts After The Dance By Oskar Schlemmer

Frank Lloyd Wright Fallingwater, Edgar J. Kauffman House, Mill Run, Pennsylvania (model)

Arthur Young Bell-47D1 Helicopter

Julia Lohman Waltraud Cow-Bench

James Victore Double Justice, Use A Condom/Bugs, Use A Condom/Bunnies, Just Say No

The design area was a little disappointing, with just a bunch of objects, and no context or any information for the pieces.

Vico Magistretti Eclisse Table Lamps

I was getting pretty tired, after museuming for 4 hours, and decided to get a gelato in the sculpture garden.

Okay, they only had one flavour, coconut (with actual coconut shavings, so it was kind of like hairy ice cream), and it was very hard.

The exterior of MoMA - not overly impressive to look at, but the works were amazing.

I walked back to my hotel along Sixth Ave. Now THIS is competition.

I realized i must've passed Rockefeller Center on the way up to MoMA without noticing - what? So i walked along 51st to check it out.

Nothing like what i thought it would be. What's that ugly strcuture behind the gold guy? You never see that in movies. I figured it would be a giant open plaza that would dominate the street, but it's actually sunk, and where people skate in the movies is currently covered in tables and umbrellas. Underwhelming.

This is the opening to Fifth Ave, and obscures Rockefeller Center, which is why i missed it.

A lot of people with signs, a lot selling bus tours...

I checked out the hotel internet, which was 50 cents a minute, or 50 cents a page (a page!), and figured it was probably painfully slow. I went to Times Square to check out the Times Square Information Centre (which looks like it used to be an old theatre).They have free internet there, but it is truly awful and frustrating, lol. I was looking to see what shows were playing, but Mondays there are hardly any shows, so i decided to catch another movie, this time 500 Days Of Summer, which wasn't playing in Toronto (yet).

I grabbed a slice of pizza before the movie, and that awful hot dog after. The hot dog was so bad, i decided i needed ice cream to wash it down, and got a butterscotch sundae from a truck. Wasn't very buttery flavoured, but it did the trick.

Monday, July 27th, 2009 03:41 pm: Trip to New York City - Day Three, Tuesday

Tuesday, i was going much further, to the American Museum Of Natural History on the upper west side, Central Park Ave (=Eighth) and between 77th and 81st Streets. So i had to figure out the subway system. There were a number of stops near to me, but they all go different places and it's hard to keep track, and different routes share parts of the tracks.

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My feet were tired from the day before and if i'd bought ticket beforehand (online?) i could've gone in straight from the subway, so i was forced into the rain, so that made me a little grumpy.

I crossed the street to get a better pic of AMNH.

Central Park is to the left.

The main entrance.

Also making me grumpy - the line up.

The Asian Animals area - they sure do love their dioramas.

The Stout Hall of Asian Peoples.

"Peking Man" - this area is a little older and pedantic. This area is supposed to be about Asians, but focuses a lot on Europeans, and constantly refers to "man", which wouldn't be so bad if every image they made wasn't in fact male.

'Adaptation To A Pleistocene Environment' - during the ice ages, there were in fact humans also living in temperate and tropical environments, and there were also warm periods between glaciations (which is actually what we're in now).

Fertility figure from Catal Huyuk 6500 BC (one of the earliest known agricultural/neolithic sites). She is apparently giving birth.

Diorama of 'Peking In The Late 15th Century' (late 1400s).

The food was downscale from MoMA's, which i guess makes sense, as there were a lot more people here, and probably a wider variety of incomes. This was pure cafeteria, altough i was shocked when i got a half chicken - yeesh! I could've done with a quarter chicken, an extra piece of corn, and less beans, lol. gthat cupcake looked better than it tasted. I only ate about half of what was on my plate - sorry.

Okay, i'd spent an hour and a half before lunch on a small portion of the second floor, and realized, unlike MoMA, there was no way i'd cover the bulk of the museum in one day. So, i had to pick what i really wanted to see. I think this is the Hall of Biodiversity, which just on the way of where i was actually going.

\
My first target was the Spitzer Hall of Human Origins. Neanderthal.

This didn't turn out so well, but includes a variety of different primitive primates.

Modern human (Home sapiens sapiens) and neanderthal (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis).

Australopithecus afarensis in the centre, modern human upper right, neanderthal top centre, 'hobbit' (Homo floresiensis) top left.

Ouranopithecus, probably ancestral gorilla, and a modern gorilla skull (Gorilla gorilla).

Recreation of the Laetoli prints.

This entire exhibit was just amazing, awesome, and very up-to-date. I wish there was something like it at every museum.

Another famous fossil.

'Lucy' (Australopithecus afarensis), one of the most famous hominid skeletons, more than 3 million years old.

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"Ha ha! Pink girl colour!"

Horse engraved on a massive limestone rock, about 25,000 years old, southwest France.

Then it was off to the fifth floor, first stop, Milstein Hall of Advanced Mammals. Mammuthus - mammoth, essentially an elephant, no more primitive than African or Indian elephants, and they weren't all woolly (only those living in the far north).

Metaxytherium - extinct dugong.

Palaeoparadoxia - a desmostylian, distant relative of elephants and seacows.

Mammut - a mastodon, not a mammoth or elephant, but their relative - see the life model, really flat headed.

Gomphotherium - older relative of elephants/mammoths and mastodons.

Moeritherium and Phiomia - very primitive relative of elephants/mammoths and mastodons, would've looked pig-like.

Platybelodon - more closely related to Gomphotherium.

Brontops - a brontothere, old rhino-like relatives of horses.

Megaloceros - "Irish elk", extinct giant deer.

sequence of horse evolution.

sequence of horse evolution.

sequence of horse evolution.

Amphicyon - related to bears/dogs/weasels/seals, called 'bear-dogs'.

Leptictis - very old shrew-like animal.

Moropus - chalicothere, related to rhinos and tapirs, looking like a cross between horses, gorillas and giraffes, but with claws.

A chalicothere.

Indricotherium - super-sized horn-less rhino, possibly the largest mammal ever on land (maybe tied with the biggest mammoths) , similar to a decent sized sauropod, double to triple the weight of a tyrannosaur.

Indricotherium again. The Hall of Primitive Mammals (though a lot aren't any more primitive than the 'advanced' ones).

Lestodon - ground sloth (Sid is way too small).

Glossotherium - ground sloth.

Megalonyx - ground sloth, but more closely related to living two-toed tree sloths than the other ones here, and Scelidotherium - more closely related to the other ground sloths above.

Glyptotherium , Panochthus (giant), Propalaehoplophorus - relatives of Euphrastus (model, living armadillo)

Thylacoleo - lion-like marsupial meat-eater, related to kangaroos, koalas, wombats, possums.

Diprotodon - rhino-like marsupial plant-eater, closely related to koalas and wombats.

Ptilodus jaw (multituberculate) - not closely related to any living mammal.

Thylacosmilus - lion-like marsupial meat-eater, this time from South America, but not closely related to living ones.

The Astor Turret.

Simosthenurus - extinct kangaroo.

Smilodon - classic saber toothed cat.

Moschops, early (255 m.y.a.) plant-eating therapsid, mammal-like reptile, which preceded the dinosaurs.

Lycaenops - early (250 m.y.a.) meat-eating therapsid, mammal-like reptile.

Lystrosaurus - early (250 m.y.a.) vaguely pig-like therapsid, mammal-like reptile

Edaphosaurus (back) - even more primitive reptile (ancestral to therapsids and mammals), pelycosaur, and another pelycosaur, but i missed the name (looks like Ophiacodon).

Another pelycosaur, but i missed the name again.

Dimetrodon - pelycosaur.

Then on to the Ornithischian Dinosaurs Hall. Ceratopsian skulls.

Styracosaurus.

Triceratops.

Anatotitan - a duckbill/hadrosaur.

Stegosaurus.

Edmontonia - an ankylosaur.

This is the Saurischian Dinosaur Hall (saurischians are the two-footed meat-eating theropods, and the gigantic sauropods).

Struthiomimius - ornithmimosaur/ostrich-like theropod dinosaur.

Deinocheirus - a theropod, possibly (giant) ornithmimosaur.

Deinonychus - dromaeosaurid ('raptor') theropod, with images of its close relative, Archaeopteryx.

Archaeopteryx - considered the first bird, essentially a small theropod dinosaur (fossils without feather impressions have been called as such), showing the slab and counter-slab.

Archaeopteryx - showing the slab and counter-slab.

Tyrannosaurus - a tyrannosaur theropod.

Hesperornis - a toothed, wingless diving bird (not closely related to living birds), and Mononykus - with claws instead of arms for wings (possibly related to ornithomimosaurs).

Tyrannosaurus - a tyrannosaur theropod (different angle).

Albertosaurus - a tyrannosaur theropod.

Me touching a sauropod bone (it was set out for people to touch).

Allosaurus - a carnosaur theropod (much older than the tyrannosaurs).

Allosaurus - a carnosaur theropod (again).

I think a prosauropod - before they grew big and became proper sauropods.

Apatosaurus.

Coelophysis - a primitive small theropod.

Coelophysis - a primitive small theropod.

Vertebarte origins hall - that is, every vertebrate except dinosaurs and birds, mammals and humans.

Pterosaur - couldn't find the kind.

Pterosaur.

Pteranodon - tailless pterosaur.

Pteranodon skull - close-up.

Pterosaur forelimb - very large (composite photo).

Rhamphorhynchus - long-tailed pterosaur.

Prestosuchus - not a dino, early relative of crocodiles.

Tylosaurus - gigantic, swimming lizards, related to monitor lizards, over 65 million years old.

Cryptocleidus - plesiosaur.

|The rain wasn't so bad now, but gawd my feet hurt - i really should've had two pairs of shoes.

Stupid line-up to buy passes. There are no tokens, and you can't pay cash, and you can't buy from an attendant. You have to buy cards (cardboard) passes with magnetic stripes, even for one trip. Except these machines weren't selling single passes. I got frustrated, becasue when i tried to buy 8$ worth of trips, it wanted my zip code. For reference, it turns out foreigners can use 99999 as their zip code.

Station attendants are there just to answer questions, like why can't i buy tickets from station attendants.

The station platforms are a little grungy (tidy though) and hot, but the cars are clean and air-conditioned. I was never on one that was packed to the gills (i was going in different direction than commuters), and they felt very safe (though apparently they're not recommended after 11:00 pm).

After relaxing briefly at my hotel, i went to buy a ticket to a Broadway show, and had supper at TGIFridays - figured i had to do it once. You can see the Winter Garden Theatre through the window here.

Dead centre is my theatre, the Palace - the show i saw was West Side Story. Below the first McDonald's sign you can see (just above the umbrellas) The Times Square Information Center. Behind the other one, you can see TGIFridays, but not the one i had supper in, ha ha.

Inside the Palace, waiting for the show.

I got a rum and coke during the intermission, which you could take into the theatre (because it was a sippy cup). Yeesh, it cost me 12$ (US!).

I've never seen West Side Story - caught a tiny bit of the movie a few months ago - but i know most of the songs. It's a variation on Romeo & Juliet, except involving New York gangs, Italian vs Puerto Rican. See one group is Catholic, Latin-speaking and from a warm climate, the other is from a warm climate, Catholic and Latin-speaking. [not my photo]

"How do you solve a problem like Maria?" Oh, wait, wrong musical. "Me siento hermosa, oh so hermosa..." [not my photo]

Times Square in the misty evening. I thought i'd give a New York sausage a try, but it was just as disappointing as the hot dog.

Monday, July 27th, 2009 03:42 pm: Trip to New York City - Day Four and Five, Wednesday and Thursday

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My original plan was to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but my feet were killing, and i couldn't hack another day of stumbling through a museum. I'm not sure if wandering the streets was a good alternative, lol. This is Herald Square, at 34th Street and Sixth Ave and Broadway (where Sixth and Broadway intersect), looking like a sedate version of Times Square. Looking north.

34th Street and Sixth Ave and Broadway. Looking north-east.

34th Street and Sixth Ave and Broadway. Looking east.

34th Street and Sixth Ave and Broadway. Looking west.

34th Street and Sixth Ave and Broadway. Looking south.

On Seventh near 34th, i found a Burger King that had internet that was fast and relatively cheap (2$ for ten minutes). I also had a Croissanwich for breakfast - they really ought to toast it, not microwave it.

At 34th and Sixth! Another grand opening.

Finally! Found a bookstore. Not very impressive though, no better than any Chapters, not nearly as good as Indigo or World's Biggest.

The Empire State Building, ape-free.

Macy's, apparently the world's biggest department store, at 34th and Sixth. I kept going back and forth between Sixth and Seventh.

The Empire State Building (and another H&M).

The bottom of the Empire State Building.

The Empire State Building (composite), from 34th and Fifth.

Fifth Ave looking north from 34th.

Don't know what this is, but it looked nice. I walked back up to my hotel.

Right beside my hotel was a restaurant called the Red Flame. I'd been craving pancakes, so this was lunch.

This is.. i think, Park Avenue and 65th, in the upper east side. I was on my way to Central Park Zoo.

This is Fifth Avenue, looking south from 65th Street - Central Park to the right.

This is Fifth Avenue, looking north from 65th Street - Central Park to theleftt.

Those bronze animals move - it's a big clock.

Okay, my map said the zoo was on 65th Street. I could see the zoo to my left. That is, beyond the GIANT EFFIN WALL OF IMPENETRABILITY! So i had to walk back to Fifth to find the proper entrance.

Confusion reigns.

This is the 'Intelligence Garden', though no one knows why.

Toucan.

Larger Malayan chevrotain - pretty small for a deer, like a large rabbit

Fawn-breasted bower bird

Some kind of ibis.

Bamboo.

Bowerbird.

Bats - caught with flash.

Silvery marmoset.

The Tropical pavilion was two levels.

Black and white ruffed lemur.

Toitles.

Red panda.

Snow leopard.

Brown-eared pheasant.

Hairy-nosed wombat... uhhh...okay, it's really a chicken.

Harbour seal.

Harbour seal.

The Central Garden.

California sea lion.

California sea lion.

California sea lion.

Snow monkey (Japanese macaque).

Penguin exhibit.

Not sure which species.

I was only in the southmost part of Central Park - it is over 4 km long, and 0.8 km wide. Yeesh! A little bigger than the block from St. Clair to Queen, and Yonge to Avenue Rd, or 50% bigger than the Toronto Islands.

There is a small amusement park in Central Park.

Looking across Central Park South (59th St) from Sixth Ave.

Looking down Sixth Ave. I took a bit of a break at my hotel before heading out again.

Around 6, i headed down to the Soho area to see what was there. This is Broadway and Houston (Soho means 'south of Houston), so i'm actually looking north from Soho to... Noho, lol.

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Walking south along Broadway. This strip reminded me of Queen Street West, as it's becoming, stores like H&M, Zara, and so on. There was also a Uniqlo, which is kind of the same thing, but from Japan - and it was enormous. There was a short i really wanted, but they only had it in small and extra-small. Boo! Oddly, there were very few restaurants, as if the cool had been squeezed off the street. The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art was supposed to be around here somewhere, but i couldn't find it.

I don't know!

The side streets were kind of dead.

I went along Broome St, but it was about the grubbiest street i saw. Some woman was selling DVDs from a bag.

By the time i got back to Broadway from Church, there wasn't much on Church Street either. I really needed a better guide to find the right streets in the neighbourhood. This is Lafayette and Canal.

This is Centre and Canal Street, looking into Chinatown.

And this is looking north, at Grand and Centre, looking into Little Italy.

I stopped for supper at a cute French restaurant called Parigot, at Lafayette and Grand. This is the Warm Goat Cheese Salad (the goat cheese on baguette is warm [and oh so good] not the mesclun), plus fresh bread and butter, and a glass of chardonnay.

Then i was brought a bag of light, lol.

Coq au Vin (rooster cook in wine) with Fettuccini.The chicken tasted more like beef. Oh, and another glass of wine. Yeah, this probably cost more than the meal at MoMA.

I was sitting on that empty chair facing in to the restaurant (there was no one sitting beside me while i was there). Oddly, i heard more French in New York than i do in Toronto, mainly from tourists from France, i think. Interestingly, the subway has different language service in Spanish, Italian and French.

This was the only place where anyone engaged me in conversation - a couple sitting kitty corner from me asked where i was from, was suggesting places to go - too bad it was the last night.

Also, it was the only restaurant where the serving staff that was really friendly (like most Canadian restaurants). The Algonquin hotel staff were really nice, and so was the ice cream truck guy, but otherwise, most customer service were not at all friendly, though no one was rude. Some people, like the coat check guy at MoMA said their spiel like they'd said it a million times, and as long as they say 'enjoy your trip' don't care how it sounds.

My final morning. I walked around Times Square a bit on my last day - this is Good Morning America being taped. It looks dark, but it was around 8 am and sunny.

Hilarious - so many restaurants have signs posted for choking and occupancy.

Back to the Red Flame for breakfast. Talk about not friendly - the waitress seemed almost confused/annoyed i was there eating.

So, then i was done. The lame airport shuttle was 40 minutes late picking me up, but i got to the airport by 10, and despite the delay taking off, back in TO by 2 pm. I was impressed by how clean and safe New York is. I missed using loonies and toonies - all those dollar bills are lame. Also, there are no blue boxes or recycling bins anywhere - i don't know how/if they recycle in New York.

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 10:22 pm: Blood The Last Vampire

The first movie i saw in New York was Blood The Last Vampire, a live-action remake of an anime. I rented the anime a long time ago, although it seemed to me like it was only half the story (and half as long as its 45 minutes running time) - i wasn't that impressed then, and i'm not that impressed now.

The English dialogue is pretty awkward (well, that's certainly like a lot of anime), and there's really not much of a story. It's set in 1972, for no reason i can imagine (except perhaps to give the opportunity to have a lot of anachronistic military equipment around?). I think the movie is really built around the gimmick of having a 400-year-old sword-wielding teen half-vampire in a sailor uniform - in fact she even wears it before it is given to her when she becomes a student, and in fact, even though the school she's assigned to doesn't have uniforms. Not sure why she needed to enrol in the school. The question is, why did it take 400 years to have her final battle with the big bad demon? The monsters were pretty darn cheesy but the action shots were good.

Get a new mentor, this one sucks.

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 10:24 pm: "People don't realize this, but loneliness is underrated."

The second movie i saw in New York was 500 Days of Summer, which is a kind of romantic comedy: "Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn't." Well, kind of. It was pretty funny. The style is offbeat, with a 3rd person narrator, a song and dance bit, bits of documentary style. The story jumps back and forth over 500 days in the relationship, between the good and the bad. The lead guy, played by the lead guy from Brick (yay at that movie) is looking for love and believes in fate, and is easily the more emotional of the two, the lead girl, played by Zooey Deschanel (purdy) doesn 't want a relationship and doesn't believe in love or fate. A really enjoyable movie, unpredictable. Maybe the end is a little pat, although it's kind of fun too. The gimmick about a little sister giving older brother relationship advice is straight from Gregory's Girl, though.

"Just because she's likes the same bizarro crap you do doesn't mean she's your soul mate."

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 10:26 pm: "Plays are pastimes for intellectuals."

I haven't done much since i got back - it took a lot of time to edit down the trip photos. I did went to see Lisa & Russ on Friday, and they invited me over for supper.

Saturday night i went to the first real stag i've ever been to, Matt G's. Kind of funny, a bunch of men drinking and gambling in a Knights of Columbus Hall (there was some food too). A couple of people got REALLY drunk, but i don't want to embarrass Matt or John, so they'll remain anonymous. Then we went to the nearby strip joint, which was so awful on a Saturday night as on a Thursday (the only other time i've been). Not that it was great. Some more drinking ensued, though not by me - i was designated driver. We went to Matt's hotel room so he could yell at everyone's apparent homosexuality, and he could harass am escort service on the phone, lol.

Sunday i saw a movie at the Cinematheque, Paris Nous Appartient (Paris Belongs to Us). It's about a girl, Anne, a university student, who becomes involved with a group of intellectuals just after one of them, a Spanish man, has committed suicide. She gets involved with one of them, Gerard, as an actor in his attempt to stage Shakespeare's Pericles (apparently a difficult one to produce). She gets involved with another, Philip, an American who fled to Paris under mysterious circumstances, who believes Juan's death is suspicious, and Gerard is in danger too. Anne begins to search for the score Juan taped for the play, which also mysteriously went missing. Singularly unhelpful is femme fatale Terry, Gerard's girlfriend, previously both Juan's and Philip's girlfriend. Anne gets caught up in Philip's conspiracy theories, and whether it's true or not, just the belief in it could prove deadly.

It's good at creating a sense of paranoia and impending doom - this is the height of the Cold War, McCarthyism, the fascism in Franco's Spain, and still close enough to World War II, and these French intellectuals are a mix of actors, artists, anarchists, communists and capitalists. I enjoyed it, although i don't know about the acting. The black and white cinematography looked beautiful.

"A specimen of a vanishing race – rabid individualists who want everything to be destroyed – but who destroy themselves first – a sort of biological fatalism."

"One of those things where you work for art without getting paid."

"We'll watch some silent films, they’ll cheer you up!" (Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, ha ha).

"If you don’t call before midnight, I’ll kill myself."

"Am I going crazy, or is it the whole world?"

Friday, July 31st, 2009 11:29 am: AGO with Corey & Mo

Thursday i went into the city to hang around with Mo and Corey S. for the day. There were a couple of new exhibits i wanted to see at the AGO, so that's where we went first.

The first show at the AGO was Angelika Hoerle: The Comet of Cologne Dada. "This show explores how Angelika and her works connect to artistic and political movements of post-World War I German..., she emerged as a key figure in Cologne’s Dada art scene. Her story is intensely personal and reveals how her artistic drive and political conscience could not be thwarted by war, social conventions, or fatal illness (death at the young age of 23)."

Painting as a Weapon: Progressive Cologne 1920–33 / Seiwert – Hoerle – Arntz. "The Cologne Progressives were a group of artists who came together in Cologne, Germany in the 1920s. In the aftermath of the horrors of the First World War, like many Germans, these artists desired radical social and political change... and sought to unite art and politics." The Angelika Hoerle exhibit was created to partner with this travelling one. Some of the pieces i thought were kind of iffy, some i really liked.

We also saw Remix: New Modernities in a Post-Indian World, which "...seeks to explore complex ideas about what it means to be an indigenous artist in the 21st century." It was a little dodgier, less coherent as a show. I saw some of the pieces before at MOCCA.

David Altmejd's The Index is a permanent piece on the first floor.

In the Henry Moore area, they have many items for his preproduction of his sculptures, and a play area for kids to try their own stuff.

Corey likes his work.

The galleria with Mo and Corey.

The galleria without.

After the gallery, we went to East for lunch. This is Young & Eligible - alizé bleu, sour apple liqueur, skyy vodka a(nd i assume some mango ice cream?

'Famous' pad thai with chicken.

In Chinatown on Spadina.

After lunch, we wandered around Queen & Spadina, stopping at Aboveground Art Supplies, Pages bookstore, Silver Snail, DeSerres (the former Loomis) art supply store, and Gwartzmans Art Supplies.

After, we hung around Mo's for a bit, and with Katelyn when she came home, and then i left for Miah's, picking up some Strongbow and ginger ale. Matt and pizza were already there when i got there at 7:30. Eventually Dawn, other Matt and Mark L came by. We went out at 10:30 for The Corral, which i've never been to (supposed to be attractive women, despite the country music). It was closing in 15 minutes when we got there. Gah! I went home, the others went to the Tap.

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 12:17 pm: Cottage weekend III

Friday, i went up to Chris's cottage for the 3rd Annual 'Weekend of Debauchery', although this time, the former students weren't invited, and no other teacher came up, one because he was moving (although he had 3 weeks), another to put in an offer on a house (that takes a whole weekend), and the third just because no one else was coming. I was somewhat disappointed.

Anyway, i got there a little late Friday night (9:30), after taking longer than i thought to buy food and booze in Gravenhurst - it's a straight four hour drive. Chris regretted not inviting the grads, and the next morning we went to the nearest town to call ones we knew were in Sudbury. Unfortunately, no answer - i left a message, although as it turned out, they didn't get it. So, it turned out, it was just Chris, his wife, their two little kids, and me. It was pretty quiet, but it was still nice. We did a boat tour around to the end of the lake (it's V-shaped), and Chris wake-boarded on the way back. I didn't take any photos this year, though.

I left Sunday morning, taking a route i haven't before, 400/69 down to Foot's Bay, then Muskoka Rd 169 to Highway 11 in Gravenhurst, and 11 down to the 400 again. I was looking for a bunch of burger joints i thought i saw once before Washago, but no such luck. I stopped at a place called Weber's, which is apparently somewhat famous - they even have a private bridge for pedestrians to cross the divided highway, but i bailed as soon as i saw the line up. I drove down a little further to a place called The Burger Pit, which didn't have as many customers, though the staff friendly and the burger was fine (apparently, Weber's is more famous for being there, than the quality of their burgers).

View of Weber's from the bridge.

View of the highway from the bridge.

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 12:19 pm: Funny stuff

I thought maybe i'd stop at AMC or Colossus at 400 and 7 to see a movie - bought a paper to see what was on, and wondered if the Cinematheque had anything going on. So, i drove downtown, parked (illegally) right in front of the AGO on McCaul, to go read the Cinematheque poster. Nothing, but i parked on McCaul, wandered around Queen, bought a jacket at H&M, sat at the Queen Mother, reading, had a Strongbow and the pad thai.

After, i went to the AMC in Whitby to see Funny People, Judd Apatow's latest, featuring Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen. It's a comedy of sorts, but more dramatic and darker than you might expect for a movie about comedians - Adam Sandler's character is kind of a jerk, and has been diagnosed with cancer. He hires a beginning stand-up (Seth Rogen), still working in a deli to make living, to write jokes and be his personal assistant, and ends up being something of a hired friend and conscience. Jason Schwartzman and Jonah Hill (younger fatter version of Seth Rogen) play his more successful roommates, and Leslie Mann and Eric Bana play Adam Sandler's old girlfriend and her husband.

I really enjoyed it. I think Adam Sandler's work is much better when he's pushed into more dramatic roles. And with all those comedians, there are a ton of great lines. Interestingly, they used a lot of old video showing Adam Sandler when he was younger (including prank calls he and Apatow used to do), and a ton of cameos, from Ray Romano to Eminem.

Awkwaaaaard!

"Is your act just designed to make sure no girl will ever sleep with you?"

"Don't put me in this position where I have to fuck my way out of a corner!"
"He'll do it too. I've seen him."

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 12:21 pm: ROM August exhibits

On Monday, i went into the city after lunch to catch up on a couple of ROM shows.

The first was Joshua Neustein's Margins (Contemporary art unraveling the Dead Sea Scrolls), which to be honest, didn't impress me much.

"Through drawing, sculptural and textual elements, Neustein's installation re-enacts the emergence of the word piercing the silence with luminous presence."

Then i saw Beyond the Rhythm: Caribana Art Exhibit. "As a collective response to 'Beyond to Rhythm', a poem written by guest curator Joan Butterfield, the juried exhibition serves as a celebration of survival and accomplishments, as depicted by a talented array of African-Canadian artists." Except... some were clearly not Canadian (or at least no connection was made), and maybe a more appropriate focus would've been Caribbean-Canadian. Regardless, it was a good exhibit, although there's always a mix of appeal and quality.

Joy Andre (detail)

Donnet Maria (detail)

I really like Izzy Ohiro's work.

On the way through looking for these exhibits, i can across Out of the Vaults: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, an excellent exhibit of something from the ROM's own collection, a funeral text (a 'book of the dead', a kind of instructional guide for the afterlife buried with each person). The text is more interesting to look at than the Dead Sea Scrolls (being illustrated, and with Egyptian hieroglyphics and hieratics). There were also things like sculpture, coffin, funerals masks and so on.

Little illustrated portion. I wish i'd brought my camera - since it's the ROM's own work, you should be able to take pics.

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 12:23 pm: I knew her well... if i'd cared to...

After the ROM, i subwayed down to Queen. I went to the Queen Mother again, sat reading in the patio, with a Strongbow (twice, actually), until the kitchen opened. I had the jerk-rubbed tenderloin, with roasted fingerling potatoes and sauteed collard greens, in orange and coconut red curry sauce - very, very spicy! I had to order dessert to help save me, a strawberry lemon mascarpone cake slice.

The movie i saw at the Cinematheque was I Knew Her Well (Io La Conoscevo Bene), by Antonio Pietrangeli (first time i've seen one of his). It's about a young woman who has moved from the country (very old country) to become a movie actress. She's pretty naive, but well-meaning (and very, very pretty). She gets scammed and abused and ignored by most people she meets - in fact, it seems what you need to to do to get ahead. Her first agent even ditches her at a hotel with the unpaid bill. There's a bit of a detour at a party of actors where an actor past his prime gets shafted by a star he helped make. It's a little slow, but good, and there are plenty of funny moments, even if things don't end well.

He asked you to phone his new girlfriend, so her parents won't know who's calling?

He just wrote about how vapid you are! Don't date a writer, your life is just fodder for their work.

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 10:19 pm: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, with Amanda Blank

Tuesday was the Yeah Yeah Yeahs concert at the Kool Haus (where it seems most of the bands i like seem to play). I got there just before the opening band started, with enough time to buy a tee short and a drink.

The opening band was called Amanda Blank, which had and Art Of Noise feel, with some rap/hip hop thrown in. Well, i guess that's the singer's name, although the first piece involved just the two musicians (with computers, spinning and other equipment, rather than instruments). Pretty good, actually.

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After a break, including a trip to the washroom (the cleanest toilet seat i've ever seen at a club, lol), and a couple more Revs (the last one to nurse the rest of the evening), Yeah Yeah Yeahs came on.

Set List:
1. Runaway
2. Rich
3. Dull Life
4. Gold Lion
5. Heads Will Roll
6. Miles Away
7. Skeletons
8. Honeybear
9. Maps
10. Soft Shock
11. Pin
12. Zero

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Maps was an acoustic version, and the audience sang along, doing a pretty decent job of it.

We had our obligatory break for an encore. I wonder if it ever happens that a band doesn't come back, or the audience doesn't demand one. Anyway, it was a pretty awesome show, and i figured out a setting on my little camera (which i snuck in my backpack) that worked fairly well, as long as i blocked the flash.

Encore:
13. Y Control
14. Cheated Hearts
15. Art Star
16. Date With The Night

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After the show, i bought a hot dog outside the club - not very good, not cooked well-enough, same with bun - but it was still better than New York ones, lol.

Friday, August 7th, 2009 01:35 pm: You can fool the movie audience, but not me

Wednesday was comics day, oh yeah.

Yesterday i had my first massage therapy in four weeks (missed the last one due to New York). My right neck/shoulder had been hurting a bit since yesterday morning, although my left neck hurt more seriously a few weeks ago. Anyway, she gave me the appropriate beatings and meat tenderizing.

Went into the city afterward, wandered around Queen Street, bought Eisner's A Contract With God collection from the soon-to-be-lamented Pages, and then stopped at Jules, to eat and read. Had a glass of rose, and the 'happy hour' priced steak-frites (flank steak, frites, a bit of mesclun salad), read a couple of manga and the Neanderthal article in Scientific American.

Then off to the Cinematheque to see Made In U.S.A., one of the few remaining Jean-Luc Godard 1960s films i hadn't seen. It complains about modern culture, yet wallows in it - ostensibly a film noir thriller, it's drenched in primary pop colours, mod music and fashion. Then again, Godard isn't really interested a linear story, more about giving his characters opportunities to muse about politics and ideals, in an anarchic and non-sensical style. So, there are guns and shootings, bright colours, Atlantic City set in France, communist ideology, mobsters named Richard Nixon and Robert McNamara, slapstick comedy, passages of dialogue purposefully obscured by street noise and Marianne Faithfull singing As Tears Go By in a bar. Kind of a film version of abstract art. Fun!

"You can fool the movie audience, but not me."

"We were in a political movie. . . . Walt Disney with blood." (Yes, the comic book art was in the movie.)

"I think it had to do with revenge. But this whole business of yours is not very clear."

"I think it had to do with revenge. But this whole business of yours is not very clear." (That's quite the accident - and why is the corpse in a dental chair?)

"I think advertising is a form of fascism." (But it looks like a Mondrian or Rothko painting behind you.)

Friday, August 7th, 2009 01:40 pm: An awful car crash you have to keep looking at. Oh the humanity!

After, i went down to Queen Street to meet Matt and Chris, only to have to walk back to my car to get my debit/credit cards, and then back to Queen Street again. We met at the Horseshoe, but Chris was hungry, so we ended up at the Queen Mother's patio, with some drinks and Asian food (Chris the pad thai, me the ping gai).

Then we decided to walk over Yonge & Dundas to see the G I Joe: The Rise Of Cobra midnight opening. Okay, we weren't expecting a great movie. As Matt said, the bar was set so low, how could we be disappointed? How naive we were. Want to see ice sink? Flashbacks shot from another character's point of view? Enormous, technologically advanced headquarters easily invaded by a small number of operatives? There's a point where the President sees something, and says something like, "Oh my god, that's your real plan," and we never get back to it! Ha ha ha. It's difficult to imagine a more inane, stunningly awful excuse for a movie. It makes Transformers look really, really good.

"This isn't my war."
"We are so effin' lucky, Sam."

"Technically, this unit doesn't exist." You mean 'officially', because technically it does.
"...comprised of the best soldiers from across the world." "Real American heroes..." Uhhhh....

You'd have to be an unclean brain-dead retard to like this thing.

"Watching this movie made me feel dirty."

"Turn it off! Pull the plug!"

"This movie insultuated my intelligences."

Gobs and gobs of random bad special effects joined by chunks of cheesy dialogue cut out of the final drafts of the cartoons' scripts. If you want to see shit move, go to the zoo and watch monkeys fling their turds.

The walk back to my car was more fun. After dropping Chris and Matt off at Matt's place, i made it home around 3:15. Ugh.

Friday, August 7th, 2009 02:57 pm: The Friday Five

The Friday Five for July 31st, 2009

1. How often do you clean your home?
Not nearly enough.
2. What domestic chore do you hate?
Cleaning windows.
3. What domestic chore do you enjoy?
Uhh... vacuuming, maybe?
4. Do you own a washing machine or go to the laundrette?
Washing machine.
5. Do you iron underpants and/or bed sheets?
God, no. OCD.

The Friday Five for August 7th, 2009

1. What is your morning routine?
Wake up. Maybe turn on lap top.
2. What is your nightly routine?
Brush teeth, go to bed.
3. Do you like to listen to the radio when you sleep or have it quiet?
Quiet.
4. What do you like to sleep in?
My bed.
5. What is the first thing you think about when you wake up in the morning?
How i am positioned.

Sunday, August 9th, 2009 03:47 pm: Tastes of meat...

Friday i didn't do a whole lot - reading, organizing and so on. I went outside and sunbathed for about ten minutes. Hmm... some time this week i washed my car, which was filthy after driving to Chris's cottage on dirt roads.

Mo trying to flood out whatever is tunnelling in the front yard (no luck).

East on the Danforth.

Yesterday, i went into the city and hooked up with a bunch of former students, Trish, Mo, Diego, Andrew P and his girlfriend Gina, to go to the Taste Of The Danforth. A stretch of Danforth, from Broadview to Jones, much of it known as Greek Town (and it is a Greek festival), is shut down, and there are various events, games, performances, rides, and so on.

West on the Danforth.

"Ohhhh, I hear laughter in the rain, Walking hand in hand with the one I love..."

Random parrots.

Andrew is not saying anything.

Quails on the spit.

I was there mainly for the food. I had... lessee... chicken souvlaki on a pita (very good), a roast quail (kinda dry and tiny), wild boar souvlaki (good, but essentially the same as pork), and a plate of perogies (also very good, but they were in a rush as the sauteing was pretty light). If i'd stayed longer, i would've had some baklava for more authentic Greek experience, and a butter tart (which looked pretty good), for the Canadian experience. I think more foods, like the various souvlakis, should be available as street food. At least TO's street hot dogs are awesome.

These kids spent forever getting set up for this race - i just left rather than wait any longer.

Various rides. It was a bit rainy.

Opa!!!

After, Trish and i went with Mo to get his "shisha" - replacement one, for his flavoured tobacco (allowed, it seems, under Islam, whereas marijuana isn't). Some wastecase started talking to me about something he had in his hand, which was related to something 'over there'.

Bronze guy at Yonge & Dundas. After getting a drink, and wandering through the Eaton Centre, we met up with Ken at the AMC Yonge & Dundas.

Toronto Life Square, northeast corner of Yonge & Dundas.

After the movie, we parted ways, Trish to meet a friend, Ken to meet the others to watch UFC in a pub, and Mo and i home.

Sunday, August 9th, 2009 04:36 pm: Tastes of blood...

The movie we saw was Thirst (Bakjwi), by the director of Old Boy. A devout priest gets a blood transfusion in a treatment for a disease, and inadvertently becomes a vampire, and one of the few people to survive his disease, and inadvertently becomes a kind of saint. On one of his blessings, he meets up with an old home town friend, and in meeting his family, becomes involved with the friend's self-mutilating wife.

There are three stories going on - the priest's struggles with his new appetites (both bloody and sexual), the wife's struggle against her suffocating family, and the relationship between the two.

It's a lurid, gruesome and funny movie, well worth seeing, although it goes on a bit too long - the last act could've been cut or cut out altogether.

Kang-woo is so happy!

The guy on the left is looking remarkable good for someone whose neck was snapped/folded backwards. Not a bruise, let alone dangling.

Ooo! Nice big screen!

Ooo! Delicious cake!

Thursday, August 13th, 2009 11:46 am: Scandaleux!

Sunday, what did i dooo? I know i saw Harry Potter again in the evening.

Monday, i hung around home, until supper time, when i decided i had (barely) enough time to drive into the city to catch a movie at the Cinematheque. The movie was Claude Chabrol's Les Godelureaux (The Wise Guys), a movie so obscure, IMDB doesn't have a single external review or user comment. It starts with a group of young men driving up to their favourite cafe, to find their usual parking spot taken. They and a bunch of others at the cafe gang together and lift the car onto the sidewalk, so they can park. When the car's owner, Ronald, returns, he's miffed and later vows (to his very gay housemate) to get revenge. Later, a pretty young woman, Ambroisine, walks by the gang in their car, and steals the driver's, Arthur, drink, and he begins his pursuit of her.

Somehow, the three of them hook up, and become a trio of destruction (at Ronald's encouragement) - Ronald sabotages his Aunt's charity event, gets Ambroisine to seduce his engaged cousin, all three throw smoke bombs at an art show opening, and so on. Ronald has a lot of money, while Arthur lives by begging money from his uncle. Eventually, Ronald gets his revenge, but it doesn't make him happy, Arthur gets his girl, but not the one he was after, and who knows what Ambroisine wanted.

It was interesting, and mildly funny - it was fun seeing both the wealthy upper and the pretentious art classes get their shots, but i imagine the 'orgy' scene was a lot wilder in 1961, and the gay stereotypes are ridiculous by today's standards.

Arthur and his pals (his car is ancient).

The 'scandalous' burlesque show at the charity event (i think now it would be applauded).

Ronald, Ambroisine and Arthur, at Ronald's house.

Ambroisine (her name comes from 'ambrosia', though i can't imagine why).

After the movie, i wandered around Queen Street, but instead of going into a resto or bar, just got a hot dog on the street. I was kinda disgusted with how shabby Queen Street looks these days, litter in the street, graffitti tagging everywhere (i'm all for graffitti art, but scrawling your name on everything just makes it look like shit), and bad sidewalk patches (what's the point of making it pretty with interlocking brick, and then patching it up crudely when they become uneven?).

Thursday, August 13th, 2009 01:28 pm: Summer Zoo

Tuesday, i went to the zoo. I had planned a meeting with the new Edwards Jones guy for 4. So, when i was looking at the Zoo's website for when they opened, i was disappointed that i'd made it, because it is open until 7:30 for the summer, and thought it might be fun to be there in the evening. So i hatched a cunning plan. I would go there in the morning, as originally planned, then after a handful of hours, i would come back home, have my meeting, have supper with my Dad, and then go back to the zoo, for the last couple of hours.

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My target was the new Tundra Domain. Got a much better look at the Arctic wolves in their new home (but what's going to end up in their old home in the Canadian Domain?).

Aboriginal interpretive trail. The plastic signage doesn't help, lol.

Snow goose.

Reindeer. Uh, why not caribou? The whole area is talking about Canadian native peoples, and here we have European animals? BACK TO MEXICO!

Snowy owl (smug bastard).

The new polar bear exhibit - missed you guys! I was disappointed there was no underwater viewing.

Right whale skeleton.

Comparative anatomy class ; identify the shoulder blade, humerus, ulna and radius, wrist bones and finger bones. After this i had a quick lunch (sadly, Harvey's), and read my camera manual to see if there was someway to keep the shutter open for an indefinite time.

As i walked back along the trail, i noticed there was indeed underwater viewing (i'd walked over top of it before). Yay!

Waiting patiently.

She got a fishy.

Your turn.

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The two sisters - the third one is male.

I got a beavertail for dessert - she's painting butter on it, before rolling it in cinnamon and sugar.

I saw over the wetlands eating my beavertail. See the little froggy?

There was a real big one too, probably a different species.

Yak, where we get yakitori.

Butterfly garden, where i have never seen a butterfly, lol.

Red panda.

Both kinds of camels.

European reindeer.

Scimitar horned oryx.

Mmm... piney. Or firry, i dunno.

Ounce, or clouded 'leopard'.

Some kind of goat.

Emu.

Wallaby.

O hai!

WTF - i actually thought it was mother and baby - guess not.

Kangaroo - BIG!

He's annoyed he was interrupted.

After this, around 1:30, i left to go to my meeting and have supper.

"I LIKE TO SING-A, ABOUT THE MOON-A AND THE JUNE-A AND THE SPRING-A!"

I returned around 5:30, and it was great - parked really close, it wasn't as hot and hardly anyone was there.

Plus, i liked the late day sun, and the animals were more active.

Beaver.

Jaguar on a platter.

Spider monkeys, moving in a very spidery way.

Flamingos, and snow geese?

Otters rolling in the sun (for a change).

I'd covered the whole Americas and Eurasia area, and went on to a bit of Africa. I liked the sun coming through the woods here, but i don't think it comes across in the photo.

Hyena.

Caracal.

Things that make you go... hmmm....

"Somewherrrrrrrrre over the rainbow..."

The Thinker.

No babies, please.

He's hearing false info from a zoo guide, like how cheetahs have no immune system (they do, but they are highly inbred, so are vulnerable), or lose 90% of their kills (only 50%).

Peahen and peachicks - reminded me of Kevin.

Peahen and peacock. I'm on my way back to the Americas/Eurasia.

Carp - just stand on the bridge and they come to you expectiung to be fed.

Red panda again.

Amur tiger.

Thursday, August 13th, 2009 02:05 pm: Sushi, Magners & Meteors

Wednesday morning i was editing my zoo photos, when i noticed i got a random message from Torrie, through my email (via yahoo messenger, which combined has to be the feeblest form of internet communication). So i met up with Torrie and Morgan for sushi lunch. Suuuuushi.

After sushi, i got my comics, and had 2.5/3 hours before meeting up with Matt. So, i decided to waste my money seeing a movie i've already seen, lol, 500 Days Of Summer. At least it's a good movie. Something prompted me to check my phone kidway through, and i saw Matt had called, and left a phone message saying he was going to be there early. I had another 20 minutes or so, so i went back to the movie. Then i got a text message (sound was off, by the way), and i went out of the theatre, to the second floor mezzanine, and could see him in FitzPatrick's patio. So, i left to join him.

We sat out there chatting for a bit, when Angelina (MIA since May) showed up, which was nice, and eventually Dawn. I downed a couple of Magners, a ginger ale, and a small caesar. I have to stop spending, lol. We were on the patio for about 4 hours. It's been hot and humid the past few days, but it got cloudy and cooled down a bit for no apparent reason.

After patio, i went to Lick's and got me a yummy burger, while i read some of the day's comics.

When i got home, i remembered i'd wanted to photograph/see the Perseid meteor shower, the Wednesday 11pm-1am supposedly being the best time to see it. Ugh, ha ha. Well, my camera doesn't have a shutter release port like my old film camera did, and the max time is 15 secs, which is pretty lame. I skipped the camera part, but drove out to the countryside to have a look.

My original lookout point, in a parking lot beside a church, on a country road, was no good, because there was a light from the church, and too many homes. I drove east a bit, and found a lonely dead end side road, which i turned into and parked. No one came on the side road, but the country road was surprisingly busy. Plus, i was still close enough to Oshawa to have the west and southwest horizon be essentially useless from the glow. I was out there for about an hour and a half. I saw a handful of shooting stars, but not a 'shower'. Sometimes you can see a trail of smoke from its entry, which is weird, because it makes it seem close. I saw a lot more airplanes - guess it's the flight path to Montreal and Europe. Also, my eyes started playing tricks, like seeing a light, think it's moving, like maybe an airplane or local police copter, then realize it's not actually changing position, even if it looks like it's moving. WEIRD!

Not my photo, but more or less what it looks like.

I also gave in and got a twitter account. What's next, blogger and flickr? Lol.

Saturday, August 15th, 2009 04:00 pm: Ponyo

Yesterday, i had a follow up appointment with my investment advisor (what a grand title, lol). Just putting some more money into saving, and transferred my beneficiary from my Mom ( :( ) to my Dad. Then mailed something (not often am i downtown Bowmanville).

After a pit stop at McDonalds for a meatless egg mcmuffin, i went to the AMC for an early show. I saw two students - well, a former student (dropped out), and one going from first into second year she gave me a hug, ha ha). The movie i saw was Ponyo, (Gake no ue no Ponyo - "Ponyo On The Cliff"), the latest from Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. A loose adaptation of The Little Mermaid story, it touches on his usual themes of ecology and child-like innocence. It's certainly less 'epic' (and less violent) than recent works, like Princess Mononoke, and more of a children's story, like My Neighbour Totoro. It's a cute and magical story.

Ponyo is a kind of goldfish princess (although she didn't look very goldfishy to me), and when she's rescued (trapped by trash in the sea) by a 5 year old boy, she wants to become one of them. She has magical powers, being the daughter of the goddess of the sea and a former human, she upsets the balance of nature. She has to choose between her two lives, giving up her magic and becoming human, and the boy has to prove he's worthy of her.

Miyazaki is old school, so it's all traditionally and beautifully animated, although it's rather bizarre. My only complaint is the mouth of the sea goddess. I don't think it's just a question of lipsyncing to Japanese instead of English - her lips seem to float on her face, almost as if her mouth was animated separately.

Ponyo meets Sosuke.

Ponyo's dad.

Ponyo and her sisters.

Sosuke and his mom.

They don't see Ponyo running on the waves.

Ponyo and Sosuke boat over prehistoric fishes swimming on the road.

Ponyo (human) and Sosuke.

After the movie, it was Licks (yes, again), then i went home, and tried to get stuff going for the evening.

Monday, August 17th, 2009 03:10 pm: Battle Of The Sexes

Friday I tried to get stuff going with various people (Matt/Chris, Michelle/Courtney), but finally said screw it, i wasn't going to waste another evening (like i did Thursday, waiting for Matt and Chris).

So, i went into the city to see Eric Rohmer's La Collectionneuse (The [female] Collector). It's about three people who shared a villa in the south of France for the summer, friends of the absent owner. Two are friends with each other, Adrien (art collector) and Daniel (the artist) and long time friends of the owner, the third a girl he seems to have met recently, Haydée.

The first prologue consisted of the camera watching Haydée on the beach, and eyeing her up and down. The second prologue consists of Daniel and another character talking about philosophy, relating Daniel to a cup that has had razor blades glued on (to make it unuseable - he is pretty prickly). The third prologue consists of a woman describing to Adrien and Carole how much she can't stand ugly people, then Adrien and Carole talking, as she tries to convince him to go to London, and he tries to convince her to go to the south of France - they part in a snit.

The bulk of the movie is narrated by Adrien, as he tries to convince himself to enjoy his vacation, to be lazy, and to ignore Haydée. Adrien and Daniel are often downright nasty with her, annoyed partly with her mere presence, partly because they're both attracted to her, and partly because of her frank attitude towards sex (she spends most of her days sleeping, and nights leaving with various men), which is why they disdain her with the name 'collector' (ironic for an artist and art collector). Adrien describes the battle of the sexes in his mind (talk about self-defeat), as he believes she is trying to seduce them, and especially him. He both prusues her and pushes her away. We see no evidence she has any plans (though she can enjoy their company).

I really enjoyed it, it was funny (wry humour), though slow-paced.

"She usually came home at dawn, when I was getting up. The boy wasn't always the one who'd come to pick her up."

Daniel and Adrien, as they snear at her.

Yeah, i'd totally fall for her.

Daniel and Haydée have some fun.

After, i met Mo and Corey S at Mo's place, and we went out for Indian food - forget the name of the place, but it's on Bloor west of Christie. I had the butter chicken and garlic rice - so good! Oh, also Mo ordered some chicken pakora (kind of like a chicken finger, or chicken tempura, or spring roll). And mango milkshake, just becase it made me think of Coraline. We went back to Mo's and talked the rest of the evening - in fact, until 1 so it was very late when i got home.

Speaking of students, i've seen two students and two former students in the past week or so, rather randomly. I mentioned two previously (Sarah C and Kyle J), but i also saw another soon-to-be-second year (Roxy) the Sunday before, and a grad from 4 years ago (Ian Z) just before this movie.

Monday, August 17th, 2009 03:32 pm: Busy Saturday

Saturday i actually had too much to do - that is, i'd been invited to 3 different things for the same evening, plus, Chris and Matt had cancelled on Thursday and Matt said maybe Friday or Saturday instead. I called Matt, but no commitment. I called Miah, but he wasn't go to the BBQ - sheesh, hard to get people organized. Although, while the BBQ had been in the planning for weeks, even months, the shift to this past Saturday was short notice. Also, Jackie had a party to celebrate her moving, but switched it from Friday, which had been doable, to Saturday.

Anyway, the first thing i did was go to the class of 2009 BBQ. It was host Molly, Justin M (class 08), Rob S, Travis, Dan C and his girlfriend Amber (class 12) and Ginny. I'd brought my own steak, but also ate a hamburger, ha ha.

Around 7 i left for Miah's (and a change of clothing). Dawn made it over, bringing a veggie plate, and we chatted before going out. Dawn drove us to this club in Mississauga. Uh, luckily, Dawn didn't kill us on the drive - don't rely on GPS people. The club was interesting - a real mix of age and ethnicity. We'd met Other Matt there. I didn't really like the music though, and there wasn't anyone i was really attracted to, and some really cheesy-sleazy guys. Ugh, really late night - we left around 1:30, and for some reason we got drive-thru. I didn't need a hamburger, lol. And i made the mistake of getting online when i got home. Ugh. At least i slept until 9ish.

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 07:04 pm: The Beach

I was looking to do something Sunday in the gorgeous sun (humid, but at least it's finally real summer weather), and Miah mentioned he'd burned his feet walking around at the beach, so... i went to Oshawa Lakeshore Park.

I bought burgers and chips at the snack bar, and sat in the shade and breeze to eat and read. I made the mistake of dropping a few fries, and a pile of gulls descended on me. I was whipping around a towel, and they still came, until they'd cleaned the grass of fries. Here they're harassing some other people.

Looking east - you can just barely make out Darlington Nuclear Plant.

Looking west - we're in a bay, so you can't see Toronto.

Looking behind me.

!

I went to the beach to do a bit of lying in the sun (with sunblock). I also did some more reading (Fog Magic, a book i read when i was a little kid - it wasn't as good as i remembered).

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Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 12:54 am: Bandslam

Sunday evening i saw the movie Bandslam. The reviews have been good, but if i'd known Vanessa Hudgens was in it, i probably wouldn't have seen it. It's about a nerdy kid who moves to a new town, hooks up with what passes for underdogs, and helps assemble a rock band for a contest. It had an interesting twist, separating the 'girl' into two characters, the band singer and the girlfriend, though Vanessa Hudgens as an outcast is ridiculous.

Overall, it wasn't too bad, but to show what's wrong with it, i'll mention this: they spend a lot of time to establish the boy's punk/indie fan cred, even breaking into CBGB's as his 'favourite place in the world', but the music that come out of their band are bland Disney-style (or in this case Walden Media) pop songs. Gawd, David Bowie was slumming!

"Hi, I'm Charlotte. Nice to meet you."
"I've known you since 5th grade."
(In real life, would they even talk to him?)

The band (minus one of the two girls on the right, at any one time)
"I think if you tried signaling, people would honk less."
"They don't need to know my business."

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 12:57 am: Massage, Menage, Manger

Monday i did stuff around home, until i had to leave for my massage therapy session. It's like a medical S&M, lol. Well, just M i guess.

I drove into the city straight from therapy, arriving just before 6. I rushed down to the Queen Mother for supper. I had the special (minus the mushrooms): fettucini in white wine & basil, with pancetta, leeks, cherry tomatoes and grated parmigiano reggiano, and a Strongbow. Finished just at 6:30, in time to get a water, get my ticket, get to the washroom and get into the theatre, lol.

The movie i saw was Jacques Rozier's (never heard of him) Adieu Philippine. Michel is a young man who works as a television camera trainee. He meets and tries to seduce, Liliane and Juliette, best friends and aspiring but not very good actresses. The three end up sharing a holiday/roadtrip in Corsica.

There's not a lot of story, and their fun is undercut by Michel 's impending draft into the army, probably to fight in Algeria, but it's still a sweet movie, as they play games with each other, deal with an unscrupulous director and Michel's family and friends.

Their first 'date'.

The camera follows the girls as they walk, giggle and promise not to get serious about Michel.

I think i'm in love.

After the movie, i met up with Mo, and we went to East for a bite. I had the dumplings (of course) and tried the tom yum kai soup (chicken breast, lemon grass, galangal, lime leaves, mushrooms, chili, lemon juice). Pretty good, a little spicy. I didn't eat the mushrooms.

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 01:01 am: Sushi & Prawns

Today i picked up Michelle & Courtney and we met up with Miah at a new sushi place in the north part of the Shwa. We had fun chatting, and i thought the food was alright, but the service really did suck - getting our orders screwed up, being very slow, and so on.

After dropping the girls off, i raced down to the cinema to see District 9. It was really good, although a little ham-fisted - the guy in charge played up the in-over-his-head too much, the military was hammily evil, and so on.

"We're from Direct Energy...."

"All the shacks in District 9 were actual shacks that exists in a section of Johannesburg which were to be evacuated and the residents moved to better government housing, paralleling the events in the film. Also paralleling, the residents had not actually been moved out before filming began. The only shack that was created solely for filming was Christopher Johnson's shack."

"Albert Einstein's eyes." A 'prawn' (pr0n?).

It is set up for a sequel. Expect it in exactly three years.

I meant to make mention of the Nigerians. What was that about? Okay, criminal gang lords i get, but what's with the voodoo magic nonsense? That was verging on racism.

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009 10:11 pm: Paisley trip

Last Wednesday i left to visit friends in the Paisley area, about a 4 hour trip, including some stops.

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2009 August 19 - Shelburne. On the way i drove through the town of Durham (not the same as the Region of Durham, which is my home).

2009 August 20 - Visiting the outdoor 'heritage village' of Grey Roots, the Grey County Museum.

2009 August 20 - 1840s (?) log cabin on the right.

2009 August 20 - Anishinabe Wigwam.

2009 August 20 - 1920s garage.

2009 August 20

2009 August 20

2009 August 20 - Those pits are now illegal (gas fumes used to accumulate in them).

2009 August 20

2009 August 20 - Still under construction.

2009 August 20

2009 August 20 - 1920s house.

2009 August 20

2009 August 20 - They had a small sheep pen.

2009 August 20 - The main museum from the back.

2009 August 20

2009 August 20

2009 August 20 - 1880s log house.

2009 August 20 - Coop!

2009 August 20

2009 August 20 - Blacksmith shop.

2009 August 20 - The girls got free custom-made nails.

2009 August 20 - The museum from the front. It was raining very lightly towards the end of our visit. What we didn't know was 40 km to the south a tornado tore through the town of Durham, killing a boy.

2009 August 21 - I decided to take the long way back home, to make the trip a little more interesting.

2009 August 21 - Why are cows segregated, ha ha?

2009 August 21

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2009 August 21 - You'd make a lovely burger.

2009 August 21

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2009 August 21 - Mmmm!

2009 August 21

2009 August 21 - Ha ha, not 'cheap smokes'.

2009 August 21 - There we go, 'smokes'.

2009 August 21

2009 August 21

2009 August 21 - Looking back at the 'First Nation'.

2009 August 21 - Looking forward to the hamlet of Elsinore.

2009 August 21 - Or is it the Elsinore of Hamlet?

2009 August 21 - East of Owen Sound you end up cutting through the Niagara Escarpment (sometimes literally).

2009 August 21 - Composite shot.

2009 August 21

2009 August 21

2009 August 21 - Looking back west.

2009 August 21 - Approaching Meaford, you can see not only Georgian Bay, but the other side (Penetang peninsula).

2009 August 21

2009 August 21 - As you cross valleys, you leave and come across the escarpment again.

2009 August 21 - Near Craigleith i came across what i at first though was road construction. I stopped at the side to take a few photos.

2009 August 21 - But when i got closer, i could see the utility poles were down, and being replaced. When i got back in traffic, on the right i saw a number of homes with torn roofs, trees broken, branches into homes - there was no way to stop to take photos. Anyway, it turns out the tornado that hit the town of Durham also hit Craigleith.</lj-cut>

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2009 August 21 - I turned south at Collingwood. As i was stopped on a main street, i thought i'd take a shot of the theatre name, but i think i was the better subject, ha ha.

2009 August 21 - I decided to get off the county roads, let alone provincial highway, to get less traffic and more interesting views, and was rewarded with wild turkey. I barely had enough time to stop, grab my camera and take this - another one had already crossed the road and disappeared into the brush. I went to take a look, but they were well hidden.</lj-cut>

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2009 August 21

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2009 August 21 - Okay, the road called Centre Road was laughable.

2009 August 21

2009 August 21 - Uhhhh...

2009 August 21 - The non-winter road paralleled this stream.

2009 August 21 - This is the good section - just a platform of dirt added to a slope! A long section of it was barely one lane wide, pretty rough - at one point i was going up a big hill covered with small rocks, and figuring if i'd stopped, i might just roll back, ha ha.

2009 August 21 - I don't know why these fascinate me.

2009 August 21

2009 August 21 - Big sky country.

2009 August 21

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2009 August 21

2009 August 21 - Uhh, on the map, Dufferin Line 3 is straight, ha ha.

2009 August 21 - Horseshoe Hill and Escarpment Sideroad in Caledon. The CN Tower is just barely visible (though not at this scale) to the right of the left-most utility pole.

2009 August 21 - A ridiculously oversized home being built on Old School Rd in Caledon. This was about 6 pm. I went to Highway 7, into Vaughan, where another tornado had landed the day before, but i saw no damage where i was. I went to the Colossus Cinema to see a movie, while waiting for Friday rush hour and weekend traffic to dissipate.

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009 10:20 pm: Inglourious Basterds

The movie i saw was Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino's re-imagining of World War Two. I thought it was great. He tests us with some very long, almost painfully slow scenes, but we're rewarded with great dialogue, and a very cathartic ending. The name comes from an alternate name of some 70s B-movie, although the spelling is unique - i believe a character has written it on his rifle that way.

"We will be cruel to the Germans and through our cruelty they will know who we are... The German will be sickened by us, the German will talk about us, and the German will fear us."

Young Shoshana.

"Actually, Werner, we're all tickled to hear you say that. Quite frankly, watching Donny beat Nazis to death is the closest we ever get to going to the movies. Donny!"
"Yeah?"
"Got us a German here wants to die for country. Oblige him."

Older Shoshana.

A great villain.

Saturday i did a bit of an errand run in the afternoon (mainly a little gift for Lisa), got caught up with emails and the like at home. Just before supper Russ invited me over to their place for supper, ha ha. I ate Dad's supper (burger and fries), and had one at Lisa's too (chicken, corn, salad, pie). I gave Lis her extra present (remembering that i had given her money for her trip to New York).

Today i went shopping, but only bought basic stuff like soap, razors, paper. Had some yellow curry at Thai Express. Saw Inglourious Basterds again. Spent the evening editing photos.

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009 10:29 pm: The Friday Five

The Friday Five for August 21, 2009

1. What time of the day is your favourite, and why?
Early mornings and early evenings, because they have the most possibility.
2. What's the best time to take a walk, and where to?
Summer evenings are the most romantic, and almost anywhere.
3. When can you work best?
Mornings.
4. What to do on sunny mornings and stormy evenings?
Almost anything, and enjoy the storm.
5. When you look outside right now, what do you see?
My street, in streetlit darkness. Nothing much is happening.

Sunday, August 30th, 2009 12:20 am: Week, Wedding, Lunches, Birthday

Went back to work this week - apparently, i was the only one...!

Had lunch with Michy and Courtney on Monday.

Wednesday, left around 1 to get comics, then had lunch, back to work, followed by Inglourious Basterds, i think.

Thursday, i had lunch with Chris (suuuuushi).

One day i saw Ponyo again...

Friday was Matt's wedding. I think it turned out i was the only one who actually rented a hotel room. First time i've brought my laptop too. I started walking from the hotel around 4:25, quickly realized i was going to run out of time before i got there. I hailed a cab - surprised they'd stop dead right on Lakeshore. The wedding was good, at the Boulevard Club, both ceremony and reception. Good food too... maybe... They had no cider, so i drank wine, and got drunk fairly fast. And tired, lol. I didn't dance at all. And i wasn't at all emo about things. Okay, not calling cab back to my hotel was not the best decision, as it was dark and rainy outside, when i started walking - hard to tell if they were even cabs. But i did get one, woo. The weather has suddenly turned cool, wet and crappy, Ugh.

In the morning, i felt a little crummy, from lack of sleep i thought. But after a while i started feeling really crummy, and eventually threw up. Fell asleep for another half hour or so, felt better. Was it the drinking? I'd begun to cut back, and was pretty sober by the time i'd got back. The fact that what i threw up was decidedly supper leads me to believe there was an issue with the food. Maybe just too much?

Anyway, i went downtown, parked, got cash, breakfast. I was thinking i had 4 hours, i would check out Fanexpo some. But the line up was ridiculous, and decided to bail. I thought i might see a movie at the Scotiabank Theatre, but it wasn't open, and wasn't sure if i could make it back to Lisa's. I went to Whitny instead, first, then saw Inglourious Basterds again.

The birthday party was fun, and full of food and rink, as usual. Lisa & Russ, the girls, Susan & Trevor and their kids, Mike and Angela and their baby, Lisa/Susan/Trevor's Mom & Dad, neighbours Tony & Deborah, and Lisa/Susan's friend Elizabeth.

Got home around 10. My internets crapped out for about an hour, annoying.

Monday, August 31st, 2009 09:54 pm: Fanexpo 2009

Sunday, i went to Fanexpo with Michelle, and we were there early, and very little line up to buy tickets, although it was about half an hour before it opened. Turns out, they had to close down entrance on Saturday because it got so full. Turns out their attendance was 59,000, a big jump from previous years (about 45,000).

I saw a bunch of students, grads and former students, Michelle (GDEV 10), Katelyn L (GDEV 11), Chantal (GDEV 11), Jackie (ANIM 08), Dustin (ANIM 09), Raj (Puppets 00), Ryan M (ANIM 08), Angelina (ANIM 08), Tammy (PDAN 04), Tamara (PDAN 04), Joe (PDAN 04), Ryan Howe (ANIM), Sarah Hibino (ANIM), and very briefly, Lindsay (ANIM 11) and Mike L (ANIM 07).

I had a few hours on Saturday, and though i'd spend it at Fanexpo. I met Daniel F (ANIM 10) and Paula (ANIM 10) on the way there. But the line up inside was so ridiculously long, that i gave up.

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Waiting to get in.

Playing a new game from Bioware. A perfect illustration of posing and balance.

Walter Koenig, looking a little lonely in comparison to...

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Leonard EFFIN Nimoy.

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He wanted a photo of Supergirl stepping on him? Creeper!

Dan Didio, Executive Editor of DC Comics, chatting with comics fans. Man, some are nerdy, lol.

Emma Frost? Don't see many teachers dressed like this at Durham.

Katelyn's friend, Katelyn L (GDEV 11), Chantal (GDEV 11), Michelle (GDEV 10).

Jackie (ANIM 08).

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Mark McDonnell, animation artist (Disney), author of The Art and Feel of Making it Real: Gesture Drawing for the Animation and Entertainment Industry, my only real purchase at Fanexpo this year. Beautiful book! And he's doing an awesome sketch and signing - no doubt whose book that is. Very nice guy. Many of the pieces in the book were actually for sale!

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Dustin (ANIM 09) and girlfriend.

Raj (Puppets 00), Ryan M (ANIM 08), Michelle (GDEV 09).

Bruce Campbell.

Some kickboxing thingy.

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Over for another year.

After, Jackie, Michelle and i went for supper in Chinatown.

Monday, August 31st, 2009 10:37 pm: A-Twitter...

Got my notice for my pay increase, an extra 2500$ a year. Yay!

I got my two new Scott Pilgrim tees and Wet Moon tee in the mail today - awesome (too late for FanExpo though).

Metric is playing a concert at my college - and i gots my ticket!

I'm all a-Twitter, ha ha ha.

Friday, September 4th, 2009 11:39 pm: This week...

A lot of this week was running around, especially for the Ottawa Animation Festival. Monday we had our 'department' meeting. Had lunch with Matt and Miah at Waltzing Weasel - driven inside by the bees. Tuesday, after doing some work, i went for lunch at Licks and saw Inglourious Basterds again. Wednesday we had the All-Staff meeting for the School of Media, Art & Design.They gave us lunch (those weird sandwich wraps). Matt and Chris were at some Games Education meeting.

Thursday, i left at 8 to drive up to Haliburton, the Haliburton School Of Fine Arts (part of Fleming College), to visit Dar. She showed me the new building (esthetically attractive, not functional as school space, overpriced). We talked about what was going on at each other's schools. After, we went to a local pub, sat on the patio and had lunch. After, she treated me to ice cream, we sited what looked like a past student, and then we parted. Another 2 hours back, although Matt called, and we met at the school. They'd had the part-timers meeting, and then a bunch (Chris, Matt, Miah, Angelina) went for sushi lunch. Chris went away for the weekend. I went to Matt's for a chat and burgers, Miah joined, then we met Angelina at The Tap. It was very busy, and loud, and annoying when the band came on (the back kept their crappy 'dance' music on, so we had two obnoxious music sets going on). I left around 11:30.

Today i was the only one in. I did more OIAF stuff, got my WebCT working and set up, and various other errands. Organized files, organized left over art kits, and so on. I had lunch with Emma, but i went home after dropping her off back at the school. Did laundry tonight, watching the South Park movie, cleaned up some.

Didn't seem like i got a lot done this week.

Saturday, September 5th, 2009 11:52 am: The Friday Five

The Friday Five for September 4, 2009.

Books Five

1. What story did you love reading, as a child?
The Thornton W Burgess series (Reddy Fox, Johnny Chuck, etc).
2. What remains to be your all-time favorite book?
No one favourite - nothing that sticks above others.
3. What book do you usually recommend to people?
None - well, if they had something specific, like, i dunno, Japanese fashion, there are 3-4 good ones.
4. If you were a character in a book, who would you be?
Hmmm... Martian Manhunter, because he can be anyone, as well as being insanely powerful. Everything Superman can do, plus shapechanging and invisibility? I'm in.
5. If you could write a book, what would it be about?
Hmm, i dunno - i've always thought i'd like to be the artist more. Something like xxxHolic, or Color Of Earth?

Sunday, September 6th, 2009 12:10 am: Cirque Du Soleil's OVO

Today i saw Cirque Du Soleil's latest show, OVO:

"OVO is a headlong rush into a colourful ecosystem teeming with life, where insects work, eat, crawl, flutter, play, fight and look for love in a non-stop riot of energy and movement. The insects' home is a world of biodiversity and beauty filled with noisy action and moments of quiet emotion. When a mysterious egg appears in their midst, the insects are awestruck and intensely curious about this iconic object that represents the enigma and cycles of their lives. It’s love at first sight when a gawky, quirky insect arrives in this bustling community and a fabulous ladybug catches his eye – and the feeling is mutual."

It's a spectacular show - one of their best! You really ought to see it if you can. It will leave you awestruck, and inspired.

Go to their website and see the trailer, or here if the link on that page gets broken.

Foot juggling and icarian games - so fun!

Amazing rope walking!

Moth antennae or caterpillars?

The head bug.

Girl meets boy (love bugs).

Stunning combination of trampoline and wall climbing - they're walking up the walls!

Sunday, September 6th, 2009 12:27 am: Evening in The Beach(es)

After the show, Lisa & Russ & the girls and i went to The Beach(es) for supper and a bit of a walk around.

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Queen Street looking west, around 7 pm.

Queen Street looking east, around 7 pm.

Queen Street looking west, around 7 pm.

Queen Street looking west and up, around 7 pm.

Caught myself (and Russ) in a mirror - i'm also reflected in the glass window. Why do i crouch to take a pic?

In the line up at Licks.

No, you can't have bubble gum.

Lisa, waiting on the other end.

That whole wheat bun with Guk is waiting for my rib-eye steak.

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Looking north on Queen, around 8 pm. When i first shot this, i thought the bike ruined my shot, but i liked it.

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Queen Street looking west, around 8 pm.

Lisa & the girls.

The boardwalk at Kew Beach, facing east - it wasn't really this dark. Humid late summer night.

The boardwalk at Kew Beach, facing west - it wasn't really this dark.

East again.

Tried holding it for a second - really needed a tripod.

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Tried to take a pic of a neon sign while waiting at an intersection, but didn't work out. Still, i like it.

Monday, September 7th, 2009 09:56 am: The CNE & Air Show

Last weekend of the summer, and i wanted to keep packing in the excitement, so i went to the CNE on Sunday.

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I'm not into rides, so my favourite part is the Food Building, ha ha.

The crepe was pretty tasteless, and the berries, while a little hard, were real fruit. This would be the healthiest thing i ate here.

Chicken and pork kebabs, with tzatziki sauce.

Can't find your yacht?

They are in the middle of a free fall. Okay, probably not 'free'.

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I did not try chocolate covered bacon...

Or the tornado potato...

The Air Show was on - this jet was hovering and moving forward in that position.

There it is again.

A composite (i was photographing around something else).

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Whee!

Back to the Food Building. The perogies were very disappointing. Deep fried? Ugh! There used to be a place that sold them sauteed.

Montreal smoked meat sandwich - even yummier than it looks.

There's a group of jets just off centre. They were hard to photograph - you could track them if they were far away, but when they were close, they were moving very fast.

Augh! They were always flying into the sun.

I did not flip the photo.

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Augh! So crowded. I got a Beavertail, and left for another year.

Some guy on Queen West stacking rubble.

I went to see Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince in 3D IMAX, which was pretty lame. Only the first chunk was in 3D - not like a climactic battle or anything. And a bit of the movie looked a little fuzzy. Also, i think they Scotiabank's IMAX bulbs need replacing, because it was too dark.

I had my tripod, and was aiming for that neon sign. I had a little time and made it down to Kew Beach again. A tripod makes a difference.

There's something i like about a well-designed neon sign.

Augh! Streetcar in shot!

Now a motorbike in my shot!

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EDIT:

Monday i went back to the beach to hangout and read.

Saturday, September 12th, 2009 11:42 pm: First week of school and 9

This first week of school is over, and i am into full Film Festival mode now. After Orientation for first years on Monday, Miah, Matt and i went for lunch at Shoeless Joe's. I actually had only two classes, both second years, Wednesday afternoon and Thursday monring. I was annoyed at people arriving late in one group.

On Thursday, Matt, Miah and i went for lunch at the university cafeteria - they had some indian food, which was pretty good (basmati rice and pea dahl, or something, ha ha). I didn't get much accomplished Thursday afternoon, even though i had no classes. After class, i met with Matt, then Miah, then John & Emma, then Chris, at Fitzpatrick's for drinks - had only a little time on the patio before the sun went below the building's horizon. Had a bit of a dinner there too (boxty quesadillas for me). John & Emma left to paint their new house, because they are boring. We went to see the movie 9 at 7:45, except it apparently started at 9:20. Either the website screwed up the times, or i did (i copied/pasted, but maybe from a different movie?). We tried to see when it was playing at another cinema, but it was no better, so we said screw it, and went for Wings, to wait for the 9:30 show.

9 was a big disappointment. Beautiful to look at, interesting concepts, but the story made no sense.

SPOILERS:

The big threat they've been facing all this time, since whatever ended the war, was a robotic cat, but it was rather easily dispatched by a single doll. One doll was said to be 'too old', but weren't they all created around the same time - except, bizarrely 9, who seems to have become conscious much later than the others.

There's a 'magical' talisman that can do the following: imbue the dolls with a portion of a person's soul, power a evil robot-making robot, suck the soul pieces from the dolls into the robot, destroy the evil robot-making robot, release the soul pieces, turning them into bacteria-laden rain. What was with the pentagonal shaped fire funeral? Was there a purpose to it (good luck that 5 of them died), or did they just think it would cool?

The dolls are supposed to carry on humanity's legacy. Then why were some of them (at least) released into the middle of a battlefield, rather than kept in the relative saftey of the laboratory? And what are they supposed to do? Found a new society? Although they're really no better than us, one ruling through brute force, sending another to his death, and 9 blundering his way with technology, causing the death of others. And what kind of society would 9 dolls make anyway? (I don't really see them reproducing.) Or were they all supposed to have reseeded the world?

It was really annoying, because it's set up as if it has a story, but none of it makes sense. Tim Burton is so disappointing (at least Corpse Bride had a plot). It makes you wish the Other Mother would come in show these people how to have some fun.

"Sometimes fear is the appropriate response."

"We had such potential, such promise." You sure did...

Friday morning i started my TIFFing, but i'll have to post later on that.

Sunday, September 13th, 2009 10:15 am: Like You Know It All

Friday i took the GO Train into the city, so i didn't have to face either rush hour. I got to the city at 8, and the first movie was at 9:15 at the Scotiabank Theatre. I had enough time to get an egg & cheese sandwich from Zupa's to sneak into the cinema.

The first movie i saw was Like You Know It All (or You Don't Even Know, and Jal Aljido Mothamyeonseo), from South Korea. It's a very slow drama, although quite funny in parts, and rather self-referential, being about a filmmaker whose been invited to judge at a film festival, and later lecture at a film school. The irony is that while everyone is looking to him for answers, he's very insecure. Also, he's very mild-mannered, yet he seems to antagonize a lot of people.

He gets told off by the festival director.

He is a bit weird.

Turns out his girlfriend from college is married to his former professor.

Sunday, September 13th, 2009 10:16 am: Shameless

After a quick pad thai (which was even yummier than usual) at Queen Mother Cafe, it was on to the next movie (thankfully at Scotiabank too). The next movie was Shameless (Nestyda), a Czech film. A woman kicks her husband out after she discovers he's having an affair with the au pair girl, and we follow both of their lives. She's upset at the break-up, works as a radio talk show host, and raises the son, and meets a man who is very similar to her.

The man is pretty easy-going about everything (and unashamed of his own behaviour), loses his job as a TV weatherman, and makes money driving people home from bars at night (he uses their car, putting his little scooter in their trunk). His affair with the au pair continues, although after listening to her rant about eating meat at a restaurant, a woman, a famous singer, comments to him when the au air goes to the washroom, "Is it worth listening to that for two hours for ten minutes of..." He says it is.

He meets the singer later, and they become a couple, even though she is 25 years older than him. Later, when waiting to give someone a ride from a sex club, he meets a former student, from when he was a teacher 15 years earlier.

Very funny!

He becomes bothered by his wife's big nose.

Which is why he seeps with the au pair (it's her turtle).

The wife's new boyfriend helps rescue the son from a tube slide.

The singer invites him to sing a duet on stage.

A flashback to his days as a teacher (amazingly, there is no suggestion he tried anything with them).

He and his former student.

Sunday, September 13th, 2009 10:16 am: If I Knew What You Said

I had enough time for a leisurely walk to Yonge & Dundas, checking out the Eaton Centre. I regretted not remembering a camera, though.

The last movie for the day was If I Knew What You Said (Dinig Sana Kita), a Philippine movie about a troubled high school girl - she has anger issues and so does her wealthy dad. She plays in a rock band to get out some of the anger, but she actually gets into fights instead. To avoid expulsion, she's sent to spend some time at a camp with a mixed group of hearing and deaf teens. She has trouble adjusting and goes back home, but has become friends (and more?) with a boy who is part of a deaf dance troupe.

In some ways, the story is predictable, but it was very well done. I liked the angle between her family's wealth and the dire poverty of many of the deaf children (the biy had been abandoned, presumably when they realized he was deaf). It was interesting how much they switched back and forth between English and Tagalog.

I walked back down to Union Station, made the 6:13 train, and when i got back, went to Lick's to use up some coupons i'd gotten - the new turkey sausage and sweet potato fries, both good.

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 08:20 pm: The Friday Five

The Friday Five for September 11, 2009.

1. Will or did you go on vacation this summer?
Yes!
2. Where will/did you go?
New York, among other places.
3. What do you like about the place?
So much to do, so clean, safe.
4. What don't you like about the place?
Not enough time, not in Canada, lol.
5. Where do you want to go next summer?
I dunno! Anywhere different, but safe, ha ha.

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 08:21 pm: Nymph

On Saturday morning, i saw the Thai film Nymph (Nang Mai). It's almost a horror story, slow, but creepy. It starts with a woman being raped in a Thai jungle, then we're floating above the jungle, slowly moving along, until we see two corpses lying on the ground (presumably the rapists). Then a young couple (May and Nop) whose marriage is breaking down begins a camping trip in the jungle (he is a photographer), and one of them goes missing. Very interesting, it reminded me of real fairy tales, in which hapless men get trapped by beautiful spirits (rather than the prince and princess folk tales).

Nop

May

On the way to the theatre, i took a photo of the building at the corner of McCaul & Queen, which this time is dressed for White Out, which was a great graphic novel, but made into a poor movie (according to the reviews). When i'd walked by the day before (without a camera), there was a lot more snow - it's appearance now is appropriate for how the movie will do.

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 08:27 pm: MOCCA - ARENA: Road Game

After the Nymph, i had lunch at Jules, and then went to MOCCA for their latest show, ARENA: Road Game: "The work in ARENA examines Canada’s fascination with the game of hockey. Using the game as a starting point, the exhibition explores hockey within the wider context of ideas and issues related to contemporary culture." Their shows are always a mix of stuff that works and doesn't work, for me anyway.

James Carl, The Original Six, 1998. [not my photo]
I don't understand why the original six NHL teams are presented as lighters?

Chris Hanson + Hendrika Sonnenberg, Zamboni, 2005. [not my photo]
I like this - a zamboni done in styrofoam.

Wanda Koop, Hockey Head. [not my photo]

Charles Pachter, one of Hockey Knights in Canada. [not my photo]
He also did the panels at the College Subway Station (sadly, no longer near where the Leafs play).

Jean-Pierre Gauthier, Nul/Flirting with the Puck (detail), 2008. [not my photo]
I also liked this - two hockey sticks were rigged up with wires to motion sensors and cameras, so when you walk by they begin a face-off.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul, still from Phantoms of Nabua (detail), 2009. [not my photo]
There was also a short movie ("video installation"), basically just a video of boys goofing around, kicking around a ball of fire (don't know what it was made of) - "masculine juvenescence" is a big phrase for boys goofing around. It was visually interesting.

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 08:35 pm: Graphics in Bloom

Then it was up to Bloor Street area, after a frustrating search for parking, lol. I went to see Graphics in Bloom: Koichi Sato Poster Exhibition at the Japan Foundation.

[not my photo]
I really liked his work - it had a very Japanese/zen quality, with a bright Chinese colour palette. It also had an Art Deco, and even Colorfield feel to it.

[not my photo]

[not my photo]

One of the rooms.

There are sights outside the Japan Foundation too!

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 11:47 pm: The Trotsky

Sunday was the BIG day for seeing movies at TIFF - four of them, starting at 12:45.

This is a shot of Richmond approaching Parliament Street. Before each movie, there have been archival clips featuring Toronto (VE Day in the streets, Yorkville hippies), and there was a clip of classic 1970 movie Goin' Down The Road, and in the clip they are taking this very recognizable route.

The first movie i saw was The Trotsky, an English-language Canadian movie, starring Jay Baruchel, as a 17 year old Leon Bronstein who believes he is the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky (real name, Leon Bronstein), despite living in Montreal. He is searching for his friend Lenin, his enemy Stalin, and future wife Alexandra (9 years his senior), and it becomes something of a love story. His father gives him a job at his factory, and he promptly begins to organize a union. His father responds by taking him out of private school ("silver spoon socialist"), but he then begins to organize the students. Leon is a little deluded, but the movie makes the point that radicals are often the agents for change in the face of apathy. It sounds very political, but actually it's just very very funny. It has some great performances by Saul Rubinek, Geneviève Bujold and Colme Feore, among others. Jessica Paré is in there somewhere, but i don't remember her.

After the movie, i have less than 90 minutes for lunch, and i go to East. As usual, when i have a camera, i photograph my food, ha ha. How many pics do i have of these chicken-veggie dumplings? And springrollini.

This was a brunch menu item, pork chop, with salad, egg and rice.

And dessert, coconut crepes (this was a cheap prix fixe dinner, for 11$).

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 11:50 pm: Suck

The next movie i saw was also an English-language Canadian movie, Suck, about a crappy rock and roll band which suddenly becomes better when vampires get involved. It's a very funny movie, with a bit of a cheesy skitcom feel to it. It stars the director as the leader of the band, Jessica Paré as the female bassist (and his ex) who becomes the centre of attention once she's bitten, Malcolm McDowell as a pretty ineffective VanHelsing, and a ton of other cameos, including Henry Rollins as an a-hole DJ, Moby as the lead singer of Secretaries of Steak, a hardcore Buffalo band, Dave Foley as the band's weasely manager, Nicole de Boer (Ezri Dax) as another ex-GF, Iggy Pop as a producer, Alice Cooper as a bartender, Carole Pope as a bouncer, and Alex Lifeson as... i forget, but he was in there, ha ha.

Some of the actors, before the movie began, the sadly-married Jessica Paré centre-left, Carole Pope centre-right.

"It's not what it looks like!" It actually looks pre-post, lol.

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 11:50 pm: Mall Girls

I had to walk over to the AMC for the next movie. This is Yonge-Dundas Square, from across Yonge and a bit south.

Sounded like there was a band playing but i couldn't see a thing.

Signing things for change - Batman, what happened to you?

AMC is a bit annoying for TIFF - you have to line up in this hot room to wait for them to let you into the lobby even (at the Scotiabank, you can go to the lobby, buy food, go to the washroom, whatever). Looking down on Dundas east of Yonge.

Looking down on Yonge south of Dundas.

The movie i saw was Mall Girls (Galerianki), a Polish movie about high school girls, centred on Ala, a lonely girl who becomes part of a clique of skanky girls who hang around malls and perform sexual favours for money, cellphones, jewellery, etc. She's torn between her new friends and status, and the nerdy kid who likes her. It's like a Polish Thirteen, but grittier - all of the girls have rough home lives (some parents are abusive, others sleep around on their spouses). It's not exactly ground-breaking, but it's well done, and does have some humour.

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 11:51 pm: Air Doll

There was only a half-hour between the end of the third movie and beginning of the last one, and i had to get from AMC back to Scotiabank, with time for the washroom, getting a drink and a seat. I considered transit, but didn't think waiting for a train or streetcar would be any faster. I considered a taxi, but i started walking, looking to call one, and got a fair distance before i saw one, by which time it was pointless anyway.

The last movie was called Air Doll (Kûki Ningyô). It's about an 'air doll' (a blow-up doll, with a more realistic face), who is cared for by the man who bought her - he talks to her, dresses her, and essentially treats her like a real girlfriend. But she, for reasons unknown, develops a soul. When he leaves for work, she comes alive, learns to walk, and leaves the apartment, meets people, even gets a job and begins a relationship. I was expecting a farcical comedy (and there was humour), but what i got was a thoughtful drama on loneliness, aging, and the need to belong.

The director is centre-right, and one of the actors (Jô Odagiri, looking a little Elegant Gothic), more of a bit part.

It was past 11 when i got out of the theatre, and midnight before i got home! Ugh! Class at 8 am, lol.

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 01:04 am: Campusfest '09 Concert, and yoga

Monday was a school day - first class with my first years. All three classes actually, so it was 6 hours straight of a lot of talking, so my voice and throat were feeling pretty dire by the end of the day.

I would've liked to have gone home for sleep, but there was a concert at the school that evening with Metric and Alexisonfire!!! I didn't realize gates opened at 4, and i would've gone in before the big lineup had started, especially once i saw that there was food there - it had to be better than the burger i had at the cafeteria. Plus, we missed the warm up bands.

[photo by Cynthia Green]

The beer tent had a crazy long line up. I don't see how we could have even gotten served in time, as the beer tent closed an hour after we got in (why? and why did it take so long?). Since it was unlikely they had anythjing other thand beer, i didn't really care, i had ginger ale, ha ha.

Well, whatever, i was there to see Metric. Matt, Miah, Chris, and Chris's wife Bekah were there too - John had a ticket, but had to cancel for some reason. Good thing too, as Matt lost his ticket. And a ton of our students were also there, some of whom were buried at the front so we never saw them.

[photo by Cynthia Green]

[photo by Cynthia Green]

[photo by Tracye Lamond]

Metric was great, although not as great as i've seen them in a club - the field was spread out too much, and the stage was in a strange corner. Also, it turned out they 'opened' for Alexisonfire (techincally, they were both headliners), who came on after, and with a bigger light show. Metric played for about 45 minutes.

[photo by Cynthia Green]

[photo by Tracye Lamond]

We stayed for about half of Alexisonfire's show, which the crowd was really into, but we got tired of the screaming (was there more than one song?), and went out for beer and wings instead, ha ha. I stole the photos from some of my students, lol.

Tuesday was class in the morning, then back to yoga - they started Monday without notifying anyone. It was pretty busy today though, and i was the only guy.

Monday, September 21st, 2009 08:41 pm: Castaway On The Moon

Okay, Friday was another burst of movies. I took the train again, but this time the first movie was up at the Cumberland. I don't like that cinema so much, because it's not stadium style seating (so old-fashioned!).

The first movie was Castaway On The Moon (Kim Ssi Pyo Ryu Gi), a Korean movie about a young businessman who finds himself in overwhelming debt, and attempts to commit suicide by throwing himself over a bridge (it helps that he can't swim). Instead he finds himself stranded on an island in the Han River. Though surrounded by the city (Seoul), he is unable to get anyone's attention (even his messages for HELP on the beach are ignored), and his cellphone dies. He is forced to begin foraging for himself - he even learns how to start fires and farm. Then we meet a young Korean woman, who has not left her room in years - her mother provides her with what she needs, and she sneaks out of her room when her parents are away. She has a scar on her face, which has lead her to spend most of her time online creating attractive avatars for herself. Her other hobby is photography, taking pictures of attractive passersby (for avatars), and the moon. She happens to catch the man's beach message (she believes he is an alien), and (sneaking out of her apartment at night to throw bottles onto the island) they begin to exchange messages, over a period of months.

What started off as a farcical comedy about a couple of losers becomes a sensitive movie about isolation and the yearning for contact and meaning. One of the best movies from the Festival.

Monday, September 21st, 2009 08:44 pm: Bunny and the Bull

I had just enough time to run out of the theatre, get on the subway and get down to the Scotiabank for the next movie, Bunny & the Bull, an English road movie, if it could be called that. The trip actually takes place on one of the character's memories, a fuss-budget, loner and shut-in. His best pal, a boozy sex-obsessed impulsive bloke named Bunny, forces him on the road trip, to have some fun, and to get Stephen laid. On the way they pick up a Spanish girl working at the Polish franchise of a crappy chain restaurant (Captain Crab, looking suspiciously like the Crabby Patty), and drive her back home to Spain.

This is anything but a conventional movie - it's apparent some tragedy has taken place, but the trip is a riot of ridiculous overblown farce (like when they are kidnapped by a Russian who drinks milk straight from a dog's teats). Also, it's not a straight forward love action movie - it's half animated, mainly stop motion, using whatever is at hand (much of it in Stephen's apartment), including paper drawings, clay models, cardboard boxes, random gears. It's a cross between Michel Gondry and Terry Gilliam.

Stephen and Bunny.

Eloisa: "Are you facking my face?"

The Russian and his dog (the bear is stolen).

Monday, September 21st, 2009 08:46 pm: Human beings are prudes and bores; You smell my ass, i'll smell yours.

I had a couple of hours before the next movie, so i could have a relaxing lunch and walk over to the AMC.

The final TIFF movie for the day was My Dog Tulip, an animated movie from England. It's an adaptation of a book about a man's love for his dog. He's an older and lonely gentleman, someone who doesn't much like other people, when he ends up rescuing a troublesome Alsatian. It's a very funny and sweet story - a good chunk of the movie is devoted to getting Tulip mated, ha ha. I liked the sketchy style - apparently it's the first feature which is drawn in a classical way, but done digitally (i would guess each frame was drawn and painted in Photoshop).

Tulip is excitable.

The neighbours don't appreciate Tulip.

Tulip doesn't like vets.

We don't know what the deceased thought of Tulip.

Monday, September 21st, 2009 08:48 pm: Chance of Metaballs?

The final movie of the night, since i didn't want to embrace the evening traffic jam, was a Hollywood movie, appropriately accompanied by popcorn. It was Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, the latest 3D animation (and i saw it projected in 3D) from Sony (makers of Open Season and Surf's Up). None of their work really compares to Pixar's, but they are a cut above average. If you've seen the trailer, you pretty much know the story, but it is very well-done. I think the character designs are attractive, and most importantly, it's pretty damn funny. If you can't push the art form, just keeps the gags per minute up high and i'll be happy. I liked the comment about disasters hitting famous landmarks first, lol. And yes, no lame pop references!

"You may have seen a meteor shower, but you've never seen a shower meatier than this."

Monday, September 21st, 2009 08:50 pm: WTF!

Saturday was the final day of the Festival, and had the one movie i wanted to see but wasn't able to order a ticket beforehand for. Sadly, there was another i'd wanted to see (Kamui), but its time conflicted with another.

The first movie was Symbol (Shinboru - quite literally the English word 'symbol'), from the director of Dai-Nipponjin ('Big Japanese Man'), the mockumentary about a Japanese monster fighter past his prime (which i thought was painfully slow), which i saw at TIFF two years ago. Symbol is something else altogether.

The first two thirds or so of the movie has two storylines. One part is set in Mexico, as we follow a family whose father ("Escargot Man") is in a wrestling duo - compared to the others, he's somewhat out of shape and we can't imagine how he'll be able to compete.

The second part is about a Japanese man waking up alone in a white room with no doors or windows. No one responds to his shouting. As he explores the room, he notices a small phallic-looking bump on the wall. When i presses it, a bunch of giggling cupids/angels appear, and then fade away, leaving their little phalluses poking out of the walls and floor. He discovers, as he pokes each one, that each has a different consequence. One releases water, another releases sushi, another a toilet plunger - another a little cupid bum that farts on him. He eventually discovers one that opens a door (only to shut when he releases it) - he has set up a series of them (swinging from a rope, grabbing a plunger, showing a key) in an attempt to escape.

The programmer who introduced it called it this years's "What The F" film, and i would agree. It starts off very funny (the first part is called 'Education'), as we (and the Japanese man) try to figure out what is going on - why is he imprisoned, and what is the connection with the wrestler. What we're expecting is perhaps some take on The Prisoner, when it suddenly becomes bizarre ('Implementation'), and then goes all cosmic ('Future'). I think i understand what it's all about (it reminds of Neil Gaiman's Sandman), although you could also see it as being about unintended consequences and unknown connections.

It would be interesting to split the first part of the movie into its two halves and show them separately, and gauge people's reactions when they are put back together.

The crazy nun driving the wrestler to his bout.

WTF!

WARNING - SPOILER:

I think the man in the room actually becomes God - he is sent there to learn how to make things happen, and how to connect a complex series. Once done, his actions have real consequences (when pressing an angel causes actions in the real world). Later, he begins climbing and aging, when finally presented with the giant penis, which i suppose is the Big Cause of everything.

Monday, September 21st, 2009 08:52 pm: Horse, Cowboy and Indian

I had some time to walk down to the AMC, and made an appointment (more about which later).

My final movie of the Festival was an animated one, stop motion, called A Town Called Panic (Panique au village - 'panic in the village'). I'd actually seen a short from the series, which is the adventures of Horse, Cowboy and Indian, plastic/plasticine toys, all of whom live together in the same house. Cowboy and Indian decide to build Horse (who is the smart one) a brick barbecue for his birthday, but accidentally order fifty million bricks, instead of just fifty.There's also a plotline about undersea people who steal walls, and a love interest for Horse. The best advice i could gather from this is to not store 49,999,950 bricks on your roof, hoping no one will notice.

Actually, there's no message here. It's just silly fun, as the animators keep pushing the characters into ever more ridiculous events. It's like watching little kids play with figures, if they were the children of Monty Python and Lewis Carroll.

Horse, Cowboy and Indian relax at home.

What to do when merpeople occupy your house? Fling cows at it.

Madame Longrée runs a music school.

They escape to... the Arctic?

Horse reminds Cowboy and Indian to stop playing tennis and get back to work.

Monday, September 21st, 2009 08:53 pm: The Informant!

After my appointment, considering i'd already gone over my parking period and was into another, i decided to stay and see a regular movie at the AMC. This time it was The Informant!, a comedy about a man who turns informant on price-fixing in the company he works for, even going undercover for more than two years. The real story and how it panned out for the informant isn't funny, but here it is played for laughs, and is very good. We get to hear the man's internal monologue, and it's a fun portrait of a man who is both stupider and smarter than you think.

"0014, because I’m twice as smart as 007" (actually a quote from Gilligan's Island).

Monday, September 21st, 2009 08:55 pm: "I think it's important to reach out to our fans in the shitty areas, too."

Today i needed to get some shopping done, though i still couldn't find a new hoody (why are they not in my size?), while i did get some new tees for yoga.

Then - you know, i remember a time when hardly any new movies came out during the Toronto Film Festival - then i saw another movie, this time Jennifer's Body. It's gotten mixed or average reviews, but i was pretty disappointed. The first hour really dragged, and overall the whole thing was a mess of direction. Characters kept veering between over-the-top and more natural behaviour, you were never sure what tone it was trying to strike. How do you go to science class with your friend when the night before you saw her drenched in blood and vomiting black fluid? Like, oh, it's back to normal? Some of the dialog was just plain bad. It could have been much better. And not nearly enough sex for it to be described as a sexy thriller (or tension, for that matter).

Nerdy girl? Know why? Glasses.

"Oh, hey, i know people are on fire behind me, but i'm gonna go with these guys."

"Hey, can i borrow your chem homework?" (Aren't you like 23?)

.
"I will finish you if I have to."
"Ok, you can barely finish gym class." (She's obviously out of shape.)

Monday, September 21st, 2009 09:01 pm: Around TIFF

2009 September 18 - On Friday i had lunch at the Queen Mother, yet again. Mmm... the lamb chops were good.

2009 September 18 - I like the name of this store (across from the Queen Mother).

2009 September 18 - Near Bay & Queen, walking from lunch to the second movie.

2009 September 18 - Near Bay & Queen.

2009 September 18 - At Yonge & Dundas.

2009 September 18 - After the movies, i took my own photo at Yonge-Dundas Square, using mainly all the bright lights of the Square.

2009 September 18 - Bay and King (i think, ha ha).

2009 September 18

2009 September 18 - My reflection on Bay near Front.

2009 September 19 - I didn't take many photos on Saturday. This is between the first and second movies, on Yonge near Wellesley. I SOLEMNLY PROMISE TO NEVER BARE MY MIDRIFF.

2009 September 19 - Yonge just north of Gerrard. I was trying to shoot the truck going by, except it stopped there, right where i was standing.

2009 September 19 - Oh, the Zanzibar... What's that?

2009 September 19 - Back to school special? Is that a discount for teachers, or students, or....

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 07:22 pm: Toronto The Ugly

In recent years i've become more and more disgusted by the ugliness of the city of Toronto. I don't mean the architecture or landscapes, i mean the general attitude and lack of pride and caring. Toronto has a reputation for being a clean city, but it's a lot dirtier than it used to be (and dirtier than New York is, or at least the Midtown area i was in) . For every street beautification project, there's some other arm of the city cutting up the streets and sidewalks, or covering them in pavement. Urban trees and planters are neglected or cut away. Overall, it just looks like the City just doesn't care. When New York began cleaning up the garbage and graffiti off their subways, they found it made a huge difference in how people behaved - when a place looks like a dump, people treat it that way.

These are just a few samples - the full set is here.

When i was at the University of Toronto in the 1980s, i never saw anyone lying in the streets, and while there were people begging for change, there are a lot more people begging now than there used to be. I never saw anyone lying in the streets, and hardly any begging in New York. Personally, i don't think it should be allowed. It's not for lack of sympathy - if people genuinely need help, they should get it. Toronto (and other cities) needs a lot more low income housing. A large proportion of street people are said to have mental problems, in which case, they should get the care they need. By allowing people to live in the street, we say it's okay for them to live like that, and we become enablers, rather than fixing the problem.

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 07:39 pm: Skin and balding... so cool

Ha ha - funny story. this weekend i was walking through a mall, when a woman waves some body care product at me - i give my head a slight shake, but as i pass her, she calls out, "Excuse me sir!"

I stop, and she gestures for my hand. In her Romanian accent, she asks me, "Vat do you do ven you have dry skin?" as she traces her crusty dry hands across my soft one.

"I moisturize," i say, and walk away. Ha ha ha!

Speaking of skin... BEFORE.

... and AFTER.

Balding, middle-aged guys with sunglasses. They're so cool. (I have sunglasses.)

Saturday, September 26th, 2009 10:37 pm: Update

Another week flew by. There was no yoga, as the instructor was sick (at least Monday). Not even massage therapy, that was the week before (and next week). We had a tour by reps from Ubisoft. Matt and i went for a drink on Tuesday, and i saw 9 again - Miah was supposed to join but he cancelled. On Thursday, we were supposed to go out, but Matt had to cancel as he was looking at houses, Miah was indifferent. Chris was gonna call (did i give him the wrong number?). I saw Lisa on Thursday too. Almost everyone has seen my tattoo - except my family, and my hometown friends, who i don't see regularly.

What a disjointed update, ha ha.

Oh! One night - i think maybe Monday? - my neck got so tense and painful i couldn't sleep, i was writhing, and it made me so nauseous i threw up. Throwing up didn't help much, since the nausea wasn't created by what i ate. Ugh! I felt like crap the day after.

One of our teachers has been gone the whole week.

The weekend has been pretty quiet - just left the house today to go drop off some empties, buy some more cider, newspaper, antiperspirant. Did a lot of internet stuff (mainly edited Facebook photoalbums, ha ha).

Saturday, September 26th, 2009 10:39 pm: The Friday Five

The Friday Five for September 25, 2009.

Then & Now Five

1. How old were you when you first started your livejournal?
Six years younger than i am now.
2. How has your life changed since then?
Not a lot - except my income is secure. Still lonely and needing to lose weight and move.
3. If you could go back and change one thing from your past, what would it be?
Go to art school?
4. What is one thing you would do to make livejournal better?
More readers? Ha ha.
5. If you joined the spice girls today...what would your spice name be? (ie, baby spice, scary spice, etc)?
Brainy Spice?

I think this will be the last Friday Five i'll do, it's boring me, and i think i'm boring whoever is reading this. Probably no one, ha ha.

Sunday, September 27th, 2009 12:16 am: Spike & Mike

Yesterday i was home most of the day - didn't leave until 6:30. I went downtown TO to see a movie at the Bloor. Dropped by Mo's place to say hi, which i did to Diego, Ken, Andrew and Gina (Mo remained shut in his room).

Had a quick supper at Acme Burger (should've gotten there earlier).

The movie i saw was Spike & Mike's Sick & Twisted Animation 2009. I was actually disappointed. The crowd was loving it though, although it seemed to be one of those crowds who laughed at things more and harder, because they think they should. I think they were probably high. There was one that was just a lame martial arts fight between a cow and a sheep, badly animated, and just not that funny. When the most polished piece is a decade-old music video (Ghost of Stephen Foster), then i think there's a problem. That being said, there were still some good pieces.

Fantaisie in Bubblewrap - a kind of horror story.

Katten Mons - a Norwegian one about a cat who is so hungry it keeps eating everything, including people and whole scenes. This is the kind of thing i think of when i think of animation festivals - visually interesting, offbeat, not just a gross gag.

Two Minute Itch - funny, but not actually finished (just drawn!).

Lapsus - funny and visually inventive!

The Ghost Of Stephen Foster, the video for the Squirrel Nut Zippers, from when swing was big in the late 90s.

La Revolution Des Crabes - crustaceans who wish they could move forwards and back, not just sideways, ha ha.

Furious Little Cinnamon Bun - just another one of those which really are non-sensical and violent stuff just happens, made funny by how it ends.

Washington - a funny animated rap about George Washington:

Washington, Washington
Six-foot-eight, weighs a fucking ton.
Opponents beware, opponents beware.
He's coming, he's coming, he's coming.

Let me lay it on the line, he had two on the vine.
I mean two sets of testicles, so divine.
On a horse made of crystal, he patrolled the land,
With a mason ring and schnauzer in his perfect hands.

Here comes George, in control.
Women dug his snuff and his gallant stroll.
Ate opponent's brains, and invented cocaine.
He's coming, he's coming, he's coming.

Washington, Washington.
Six-foot-twenty, fucking killing for fun.
Spread, spread, Delaware.
He's coming, he's coming, he's coming.

Sue me if I go too fast,
But the sons of his opponents wish he was their dad.
Got a wig for his wig, got a brain for his heart.
He'll kick you apart, he'll kick you apart!

Ooh!

He'll save children, but not the British children.
He'll save children, but not the British children.
He'll save children, but not the British children.
He'll save children, but not the British children.

Had a pocket full of horses, fucked the shit out of bears.
Threw a knife into Heaven, and could kill with a stare.
He made love like an eagle falling out of the sky.
Killed his sensei in a duel and never said why.

Washington, Washington.
Twelve stories high, made of radiation.
The present beware, the future beware,
He's coming, he's coming, he's coming.

Did I mention his four nuts?
Well he also had four dicks.
If you took off his boot you'd see the dicks growing off his feet.
I heard... that motherfucker... had like... thirty goddamn dicks.
He once held an opponent's wife's hand...in a jar of acid...at a party.

Sunday, September 27th, 2009 12:19 am: A Hard Day's Night

Tonight i saw A Hard Day's Night, the Beatles' first film. I could've sworn i reviewed it before. Or, if i didn't, i should've, because i've seen it before. Maybe i didn't catch the whole thing on TV, and decided not to review it? Funny, though their delivery of their lines is pretty dry. Interesting look at the 60s - for all the hullaballoo about fame getting in their way, it still seems rather innocent compared to now.

"Are you a mod or a rocker?"
"Um, no. I'm a mocker."

Sunday, September 27th, 2009 10:03 pm: Vanity Fair

Today i went to the ROM to see the show Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913-2008, which... "explores a glamorous photographic history of portraiture featuring... works by master photographers including Edward Steichen and Annie Leibovitz." Although, it would be more accurate to say 1913-1936 and 1983-2008(+), because the magazine shut down for nearly 50 years. Still, it was an interesting show, comparing the jazz age stars to the modern age. I can only remember one connection (Lionel Barrymore, and his grand-niece Drew), but there were others. Lots of great photography.

Katherine Hepburn, Louis Armstrong, Anna May Wong.

Demi Moore, Madonna

Hilary Swank

Julianne Moore and Ingres' original Grand Odalisque.

Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley (you're not fooling anyone, Tom Ford).

Sunday, September 27th, 2009 10:06 pm Word On The Street 2009

A pic i took at the ROM.

I went to this year's Word On The Street. Labyrinth is everywhere (but since when did they have cooking books?).

<lj-cut text="Word On The Street 2009">

I should've eaten here, instead of getting the World's Toughest Steak.

Joe Shuster Awards - what's that on the table?

Damn, they're everywhere too.

Lucky dinosaur.

There were some crazy shrooms in front of the Faculty of Law.

I didn't hang around too long - i never see anything i want (the problem with Chapters-Indigo and Amazon, ha ha). There wasn't anything i was interested in seeing at the Comics-Graphic Novels Tent.

Sunday, September 27th, 2009 10:10 pm: Bright Star

Then i saw Jane Campion's movie Bright Star, which is the story of poet John Keats's three-year romance (before his death from tuberculosis at the age of 25, a sad but fitting end for a tragic Romantic poet) with Fanny Brawne, told from Fanny's point of view. It's a beautifully done movie, though i think it skips over a lot of detail, some negative (his extreme jealousy, his sensitivity about his height [5'], his other siblings, etc).

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art--
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors--
No--yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever--or else swoon to death.

Sunday, September 27th, 2009 10:10 pm: Today In Science

Life reconstruction of 'Anchiornis huxleyi' - exceptionally well preserved dinosaur fossils uncovered in north-eastern China display the earliest known feathers.

The creatures are all more than 150 million years old.

The new finds are indisputably older than Archaeopteryx, the "oldest bird" recognised by science.

It has extensive plumage covering its arms and tail, and also its feet - a "four-winged" arrangement, says Professor Xu from the Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing.

Fossils of 'Anchiornis huxleyi'.

"The first specimen we discovered earlier this year was incomplete," Professor Xu from the Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing told BBC News.

"Based on that specimen, we named it Anchiornis; and we thought it was a close relative of birds. But then we got a second specimen, which was very complete - beautifully preserved.

"All over the skeleton, you see feathers.

"Based on this second specimen, we realised that this was a much more important species, and definitely one of the most important species for our understanding of the origin of birds and of their flight."