Paris, Not France

I admit it, I find Paris Hilton fascinating. The blonde act doesn't faze me one bit. I think she's a smart entrepreneur. I'm sure that her parents raised her well and with good values - most likely not as focused as Donald Trump would have been on his children, but still with good values.
This documentary depicted Paris with this lens. Sure, it showed her extravagant lifestyle but I saw the main message to be that this is one well-put together lady.
When the TIFF08 schedule was first released, this film was to have three screenings. Soon thereafter ticket selections for ticket-package holders occur ed, TIFF released a memo that there would only be one screening of the film "Due to unforeseen circumstances". Whatever that means. Someone who sat behind me at the screening said that they'd heard that Paris had already seen the film and didn't like how she was portrayed and wanted to get the movie taken out of the festival altogether. Who knows if that's true or not.
Paris did show up to the screening anyway. She came in with her entourage including security, Benji Madden, her manager and probably other people that I didn't recognize. Benji wore sunglasses the whole time and had a blank face and Paris smiled, but didn't do anything too exciting. I was disappointed with her outfit and choice of bag (which doesn't even stand out in my mind as to what it looked like - that says a lot).
Before she came in, the auditorium was buzzing. People were getting settled into their seats and chatting with their neighbours. As soon as the doors opened and they entered the room, everyone fell silent. The room remained silent except for a couple muted whispers of the "is that her?" variety. Various types of photography devices appeared out of nowhere, which didn't really surprise me, but I found it amusing. I was disappointed in the people who stood with their back to the stage (as someone was introducing the movie) when everyone else has already sat down to take more pictures of her. I guess everyone has their own way of being fascinated with this lady.
Nothing really interesting to say about the movie. Nothing groundbreaking, just showed the real Paris. Thank goodness, because I don't think I could have handled her fake voice for an hour.
Director Adria Petty was in attendance for the intro and post-film Q&A. Paris (and company) left the room after the credits (although she did seek out Adria to give her a hug) which I would hope was for logistical purposes as opposed to be because she wasn't interested in the Q&A (although, come to think of it, it's nice that the focus of the Q&A was the production and not the subject). The Q&A was pre-scripted - there was no audience participation. Logistics or imposed?!?
FYI, for those who care (probably only me), Adria was wearing Louboutins (black patent pumps) and carrying a Prada clutch (black with that attached wrist thing on the back). She also owns a Goyard, which I've seen more and more around town. Sigh.
Feel free to watch this documentary if you get a chance, but if not, you're not really missing out on anything that you didn't already know.

- picture courtesy of www.tiff08.ca

Shows how much I know

It seems that none of the movies that I watched won an award at the TIFF08.
Most of the movies weren't even ones that I wanted to see. Except for The Prize of the International Critics winner, Disgrace. I'm thinking it'll come out in movie theatres? I also wanted to see the People's Choice Award winner, Slumdog Millionaire.
Makes me wonder how many great movies I must have missed out on, even though I saw quite a few and many of them were incredible.
Ah well.

The Heart of Jenin

Maybe I like watching documentaries better than feature films. Perhaps it's that "real-life" aspect that gets to me. The fact that I might be able to try to relate it to something in my life, and if not my life, then the world around me.
I'd never heard of this story before and I admit that I don't know very much about the conflict in this part of the world, but luckily that didn't hinder my ability to appreciate the film. It sort of left me wanting to know more about what's going on and the progress of the situation (if you can say that there's any progress), but growing up in Canada and being the way I am, sometimes I find it hard to understand why things haven't changed.
Here's a little write-up about the film from the TIFF08 website. It sells the film completely short and doesn't highlight the best parts of the film, but regardless:

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After such a long conflict between Israel and Palestine, it takes an extraordinary story to jolt us out of accepting the status quo. The Heart of Jenin tells such a story. In November 2005, Ahmed Khatib, a twelve-year-old Palestinian boy, was playing with a plastic gun in the Jenin refugee camp on the West Bank when an Israeli soldier, mistaking the toy for a weapon, shot and killed him. Despite his grief, the boy's father Ismael consented to donate his son's organs to several Israeli children. Thanks to this act of humanity, four of those children, each from a different part of Israeli society, are alive today.

The Heart of Jenin explores the legacy of Ismael's decision during the two years following his son's death. We meet three of the young recipients of Ahmed's organs: Samah, a Druze girl in northern Israel, near the border of Lebanon; Mohammad, a Bedouin boy in the Negev desert; and Menuha, an Orthodox Jewish girl in Jerusalem. At the centre of the story is the compelling figure of Ismael Khatib. Having lived his whole life under occupation, he joined the resistance during the first Intifada and spent time in an Israeli prison. He later gave up fighting to focus on his family, but has lost two businesses to the conflict. The existing Israeli checkpoints make it difficult to visit his cousin, who lives only ten minutes away.

Directors Leon Geller and Marcus Vetter bring diverse backgrounds to the project. Geller lives in Israel, while Vetter is based in Germany, and has an unusual background that he explored in the autobiographical documentary My Father the Turk. With great sensitivity, they explore the complexities and the sorrow that persist on each side of the wall dividing Israel and the West Bank. In spite of all these troubles and the death of his son, Ismael maintains a willingness to seek peace through his own means. His journey is a triumph of the heart.

Thom Powers
**********************

The two directors, Leon Geller and Marcus Vetter were in attendance and held a Q&A session about the film and stressed the fact that the movie was not about the conflict in the area and not even the effect of one man's decision, but the journey of that man to meet the different children. The directors also said that it was the uncle of Ahmed Khatib who was the force behind many of these connections. That the father just wanted to meet the recipients themselves and didn't really care much about meeting the families. The uncle pushed to meet to whole families and actually, the father did not want to meet the Jewish family at all (this was the one moment of the film which surprised me as up until this point, there was no inclination that the father viewed different cultures/religions differently).
The tension at this meeting was incredible.
Two of the recipients wanted to remain anonymous right from the beginning of the event, so they obviously did not want to be a part of the movie. The directors of the film were lucky enough to have been following this story right from the beginning although they did borrow some footage from local news channels. They mentioned that they were just watching events unfold and had no part in making the connections. For logistical purposes, they needed to have two film crews...one on each side. Sigh.
The movie is beautiful. You can really feel the emotion coming from the characters (part of the reason why I was so surprised when the directors said the father wasn't interested in the one meeting). The tenderness between characters. There were many shots which prove that the eyes are windows into the soul. In spite of these moments, it's surprising to hear some of the sentiments expressed by the characters as to us, it just seems so backwards.
All I know is that I cannot judge, for I do not really know.
This documentary is beautiful story in the middle of an incomprehensible reality (at least, to me).

- picture courtesy of www.tiff08.ca

The Wrestler

Another successful Rush attempt, I went to see the much hyped up movie, The Wrestler.
When selecting which films I wanted to see and reading the blurbs about each of the movies on the TIFF08 website,I'd actually passed this one by. I forget exactly what the reason was, but it didn't catch me like some of the other movies did.
Once the festival got started, a buzz about the movie went around and word got out that it had just won the Golden Lion Award from the Venice Film Festival. I thought - hmmmm, there must be something to this movie, and since I'm all about embracing the experience, I decided to see what the big fuss was about.
The movie stars Mickey Rourke as a wrestler (think WWE) near the end of his career. The roller coaster ride he goes through as a former star, coming to grips with his last moments in the ring and his identity beyond. He has limited relationships with people outside of the world of wrestling and they are all strained in some way (especially the one with his daughter). The reason this movie is so good is because of Rourke.
Director Darren Aronofsky showed up (fashionably late, I might add) to introduce his film, but unfortunately didn't stay for a Q&A. I enjoyed his artsy movie, Pi and still need to see Requiem for a Dream. Nothing about this movie struck me as cinematically amazing...as I said before it was all Rourke.
The issues that are examined in this movie are real and very touching. When you love something so much, maybe not even love, but if something defines you, you feel lost without it.
Certain elements of the movie seemed to be skimmed over and I would have liked to see a little bit more development in other areas, but I can imagine how hard it was for Aronofsky to cut down his footage to 105minutes already, so I suppose I forgive him for that. As a whole though, I really enjoyed the arc of the movie and issues that were raised. Dare I say, the movie seemed too short?
It was a very good movie. Extremely graphic at times, but wonderful nonetheless. I would assume that it'll hit the big screen at some point?
The ending is stellar.

- picture courtesy of www.tiff08.ca

Uuuuuuuuugh

Egads, I'm tired. I just got home from my marathon day at the TIFF.
FOUR movies.
My eyes feel like they're going to explode.

The Biggest Chinese Restaurant in the World

From one documentary to another, the next movie that I watched during this festival was The Biggest Chinese Restaurant in the World.
This film, shot by Weijun Chen in China, but sent to Jean Tsien in New York to be edited and Lawrence Elman to be produced - what I found interesting was that Weijun Chen played no part in the development of the movie after he sent his footage away. Tsien and Elman had the chance to visit the restaurant in Hunan, but Chen never left China. Apparently a similar situation occurred with his film from last year's festival, Please Vote for Me maybe more obviously because of the subject matter of the film.
This movie will not be my favorite of the festival, but I did enjoy having the chance to learn more about my heritage, culture and the traditions and value system that the Chinese have. I would have liked a stronger arc in the film to make it a whole unit as I just felt like I was learning more about the restaurant and while there were miniature themes that arose and insights into the lives, emotions and thoughts of some of the characters, the write-up on the TIFF08 left me with higher expectations.
During the Q&A with Tsien and Elman, a couple questions were raised about the inhumane and crude treatment of the animals being prepared for food. I was so happy to hear Tsien's response (even as a vegetarian) and have to admit that I was surprised to hear these types of question being asked in the first place. I will proudly say that each culture has a different way at looking at the world and am shocked to learn that there are such North American centric thoughts and close-mindedness especially in our lovely multicultural Toronto. I too was shocked to see some of the events that took place on the screen, but I will not judge them for that. There was a question/attack?!? that related to the bird-flu...I won't even go there.
The film was already played as a mini-series on the BBC and the Sundance Channel. I'm assuming that it won't make the big screen here in Canada, but perhaps a television appearance will take place.
This film brought to the North American audience an insights into Chinese culture. I could tell from the body language and sounds that some of the audience members around me that they were shocked and surprised by moments in the film (and I'm not just talking about how the food was prepared), but I think it's films like this that help people learn more about things that they may never get a chance to experience in hopes that they can broaden their minds and diminish ignorance about things that they don't truly understand. For that, I am grateful.

- picture courtesy of www.tiff08.ca

Every Little Step

Maybe I'm getting soft. The combination of the magnificent music, singing, dancing, story and personal connection to this film, well, tears were shed.
Every Little Step is a documentary about the revival of A Chorus Line on Broadway. The film is perfect. The background story is touching and emotional, real people go for their dreams and there is a message behind it. The documentary parallels the musical itself.
The write-up on the TIFF08 website does not do the film justice in any way, shape or form.
There was only one person (who stood out to me during the film and the show) left from the documentary who got selected for a spot in the show that I saw back in March but there were a couple who didn't get selected in the film that ended up in the show. There may have been one more, I forget. A couple were replaced by understudies and others, I suppose had moved on for whatever reason.
I was surprised to see Tyce Diorio auditioning for the part of Mike. His technical skills are amazing, but that ego...Humpf. He has a completely different persona than I'd imagine him to have a la So You Think You Can Dance.
Baayork Lee (the original Connie) was a treat to watch. Apparently she was at the premiere, along with Donna McKechnie (original Cassie). Boo. Would have loved to see them. I'm not complaining. Directors James Stern and Adam Del Deo were on hand for a Q&A. No major insights into the film - this isn't a movie for deeper meaning. I am surprised that a wide release is in the works. Doesn't seem like a movie for the general North American movie-goer. I know it's being released in Japan for sure. I'd chatted with one of the people involved with that decision a couple times days prior to watching the film and she made me so excited to see the film.
I loved every moment of it. I suppose it was a documentary that didn't do anything surprising. I followed an audition process to a musical revival, but the way that the directors were able to thread in original footage from the original show, its development and significance of it all with the present day people, emotions and insights. Wow.

Oh yes, still enjoy the applause that occurs when volunteers are thanked in the pre-film montage and this screening was the first time I heard a hearty "aaaaaargh" during the piracy warning.

- picture courtesy of www.tiff08.ca

C'est pas moi, je le jure!

Maybe you've realised that I don't usually get strong positive reactions to movies and so when it does, it's gotta mean something.
This movie did it. When I feel like I can't do a movie justice in my piddly little blog, I post some sort of professional write up. From the TIFF08 website:

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Philippe Falardeau established himself as a director to watch with La Moitié gauche du frigo, which won the Claude Jutra Award in 2000 and the Citytv Award for Best Canadian First Feature at the Festival. He fulfilled the promise of that film with the accomplished, much-lauded Congorama, and with his latest, C'est pas moi, je le jure!, he delivers a highly sophisticated, often hysterically funny work that may also be his most accessible to date. Set in 1968, the film focuses on ten-year-old Léon (Antoine L'Écuyer, in an amazing debut), an inveterate hellion whose favourite hobbies include failed suicide attempts, vandalism, theft, running away and breaking and entering.

The cause of Léon's behaviour is fairly obvious. His parents are a truly horrific match, prone to ear-splitting domestic squabbles that begin with smashed plates and conclude with paintings being ripped apart. As their relationship deteriorates, Léon's actions grow increasingly outrageous and self-destructive (a “visit” to a vacationing neighbour's house is particularly memorable), and the situation is only exacerbated by his father's remoteness and his mother's liberal, conspiratorial approach to child-rearing.

C'est pas moi, je le jure! is a touching and amusing meditation on changing mores and family structures. Léon's best friend Lea is being raised by her alcoholic uncle, and may be as troubled a child as he is. Like Léon, she is in search of an absent parent, and the era is not helping their adjustments – a schoolmate tells Léon that divorce is a mortal sin. In many ways a historical and political allegory, the film is a study of abandonment and an elegy for lost political innocence. Falardeau constantly reminds us that the choices the characters make would not be possible today. Léon's mother flees to Greece to start a new life, and Lea informs him that she has opted to live in a dictatorship. In this case, the children are more politically astute than their parents – and seem far more aware that there is a sea change taking place.

Brilliantly acted and executed, C'est pas moi, je le jure! is one of the sharpest and most entertaining films you will see this year.

-Steve Gravestock

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That write up doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of how amazing this movie is. Every single actor in this movie did a wonderful job. The director, Philippe Falardeau really lucked out and found the very best three children for these parts to be in the movie.
The movie was touching. It was witty and hilarious.
The director was on hand for an intro pre-film and Q&A post-film. Not only did this man have a wonderful sense of humour and Quebecois accent, Philippe Falardeau was nice enough to stay and answer a LOT of questions. While one can really examine each of the characters in-depth (as the director eluded to just how much more there is to each of the characters that I obviously understood - mind you, I think all directors have similar thoughts about their movies, I'm just not sensitive enough to get all the little character details) this film was so wonderful in so many ways near the surface hat you didn't need to dig deeper to love the movie.
I can't even express how much I enjoyed this film. Everything about this movie was fantastic, even the music. Can someone watch this movie and tell me what genre it is so that I'll know what kind of movie I like? Moments of this move made me think of Amelie, for example when the character switches from narrating as a voice in your head to narrating like a soliloquy directly to the camera. I smile just thinking about their accents and the banter between the children.
The film is based on the book with the same name and its follow up book, Alice court avec René by Bruno Hébert although the director did make quite a few changes. I'm interested in reading the book, but I'm afraid it won't live up to the film and after knowing which parts were added into the film, I just can't imagine the lives of these characters without these moments.
If you haven't figured it out yet, I loved this movie. There aren't any more screenings of this movie at the festival (unless it wins audience choice), but hopefully somehow more people will have the chance to see it in the future and I hope this movie gets some kind of special recognition.

- picture courtesy of www.tiff08.ca

Three Monkeys

Three Monkeys is a Turkish film which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this past May where Nuri Bilge Ceylan won the award for best director.
The quick rundown of the movie involves a family, where father goes to jail in place of his boss to get extra money for his family. The mother ends up cheating on her husband (with the boss) while he's in jail. The son is a little bit of a loafer, but find out about his mother's new interest and decides to hide it from his father. And there's another member of the family as well.
I thought the pace of the movie moved quite well until the father returned from prison - that's when I felt like it started to drag. I don't think anything in the movie surprised me, but there were parts to the movie that I don't think I fully understood the deeper meaning behind. For example: why were some scenes played backwards? I have guesses as to why in one shot sweat is rolling upward on the forehead on the son's head, but I don't really know for sure. You know what would have made it better? A Q&A. No, I'm not bitter, I just wish we had one. I think this was the first movie at a festival that hasn't had a Q&A. Oh well.
The movie was beautifully shot. The colours were a little muted, but I loved it. I guess you can say that it was artsy. I liked shots where the scene seems to be out of focus and then the subject moves into the shot completely in focus.
I don't really remember why, but I know that my immediate reaction to the film was indifference. I suppose that's better than instantaneous disgust (which does happen). My crappy memory fails me as per usual, but I would recommend this movie to others. I think I would have liked some of the themes to be flushed out a little bit more, but I do appreciate the deeper meaning stuff that I did get and the way that the film was packaged (plot-wise and camera-stuff-wise). I suppose that most movies that really touch me are those that have a personal meaning and since this movie didn't have that link, maybe that's why I was a little indifferent to it? I don't really remember. It was good though. You want a beautiful movie? Go see this one.

- picture courtesy of www.tiff08.ca

Adela

And so TIFF08 begins!!!!

Up first - Adela. A Filipino movie starring Ms. Anita Linda (a prolific Filipino actress) - well, the subject matter is very touching, serious and not the most uplifting. I will have to let you read about it for yourself.
As I can't bring myself to discuss the topic of the movie so I will discuss my thoughts on the production itself. As I was watching this 90minute movie, I wondered if the director/producer had a reason why they pieces together a whole bunch of pointless clips which didn't really seem to move the plotline forward. It seemed really slow and was distracting from the point of the movie. At one point I thought that the movie was subtle, but that's not really true either, because it's blatantly obvious what the message of the movie is. I only realized due to the Q&A with the producer (along with one of the writers and Ms. Anita Linda herself - making her first international film festival debut!) that there was a deeper meaning behind the movie. It is due the Q&As that make these screenings worth every cent. The movie seemed slow. Along with the long clips of background scenery, I questioned the choice of camera angle in many shots as well. It seemed like a very amateurly shot movie - which doesn't really make much sense because this isn't the producer's first movie by any means. I didn't want to be too judgemental as maybe this just happened to be the look of most Filipino films. From my Americanized movie watching eyes, it just seemed odd to have a shot where for the first part, you see the subject of the film in full view, and as she steps forward to talk to someone out of range of the camera, the camera doesn't pan around to continue to have the subject in the shot. Instead her face is blocked by a prop partition and you continue to hear the dialogue, but can only see her the side of her. How about the scene of a baby being born in just mere minutes and coming out looking relatively normal - just covered in a little bit of blood. Other strange shots include a seemingly lengthy clip of Manila Bay, then a choppy switch to a different view of the Bay and the subject walking into the frame, and then another choppy switch to yet another view of the Bay and the subject still walking, but from a different angle. It was distracting. As I mentioned before the Q&A cleared up some of my confusion about the movie. The choice in shots distracted me enough to give me an instantaneous reaction of disappointment of the movie, but when an audience member asked why shots were kept in the movie at the length they were, the producer said that he wanted the audience to feel the slow pace of Adela's life as she feels it. The world around her may move at a fast pace, but during the span of one day, not much occurs, time passes slowly and it can sometimes be pure agony. As soon as he said that, my thoughts about the movie changed. I still find the movie to be slow and would assume that many people would feel the same and wouldn't enjoy the movie because of it, but I get it and I accept it.
Even during the credits (pre-Q&A), I sat there thinking that they were longer than the film itself. For such a simple looking movie, there sure were a lot of people who were a part of it. I'm pretty sure, however, that the last couple pages of credits were messages of thanks to different people/companies/groups that donated time/space/effort/finances/etc to the production of the film. The producer mentioned that many of the big names working on the film did not ask to be compensated for their work on the film as they felt having the chance to work with Ms. Anita Linda herself was compensation enough.
I'm not sure if I would highly recommend this movie, but at the end of the day, I did enjoy it. It's not the "feel good movie of the year", but I appreciate the issues that movie touched upon (from the blatantly obvious to the deeper ones that I never would have known about unless they were brought to light by the producer's words). Even without understanding a word that Ms. Anita Linda said, it was clear by her body language and nuances in her facial expressions that she is truly a master of the screen. Okay, okay, the more I think about it, the more I like it. I don't think everyone will like it, but it's an incredible character piece with a subject matter that - I don't know how best to describe what it means, but I know I don't want to get into the details of it because I'm not strong enough to do it.

See the teaser for the film here.

- picture courtesy of www.tiff08.ca

Gotta think long-term

While waiting in line to pick up my TIFF tickets - which I was lucky enough to get all of my first picks (Box #9 was drawn and I was Box #29 - mind you, I'm not really sure if the movies I picked were big ticket items) - I saw a hoard of Ryerson Frosh run by. They grouped in Yonge-Dundas Square, chanted a couple things and ran away. I heard them chanting from a distance, and I hope that they did something at the scramble.
I miss having my own students. I'm a little biased, but I'm in the best profession ever.
I think I'm going to wander around the UofT campus in a little while and see what's going on there.

Wonderland

I went to Canada's Wonderland in the fist time in at least a decade.
I don't consider myself a fan of rollercoasters, but I'm become accustomed to going on them. When I was a little kid, my dad (I guess the daredevil in the family) would take us on the classics like Thunder Run, Klockwerks, Swings of the Century, bumper cars and all those kinds of rides. My brother and I would go on the octopus ride at the end of the night when there was no line, over and over again and swing our pod around as much as possible. I remember going on a ride which I think was called So Loco (or something like that) with my dad as well. I think these two rides are now gone and replaced with Psyclone and Behemoth - but I could be wrong). I was coerced into going on the Ghoster Coaster and HATED every moment of it. I also hated the big swinging boat (apparently called The Rage - but I'm sure this wasn't it's name back in the day).
I remember going with my family and some relatives who were from out of town and my dad went with my uncle (?!?) on The Bat. I think this might have been the first time that my dad had gone on a hard-core roller coaster (no one else in the family would - remember the Ghoster Coaster experience?) and I remember him saying that he enjoyed it. Time passed and our family didn't really go as much to Wonderland.
High school hits and teenagers love that stuff. In an attempt to be social, I go too and not wanting to look like a whimp (oh, the joys of adolescence) I go on a bunch of roller coasters. The only thing about them that I don't like is that feeling in your stomach you get on the first big hill. The other stuff is uncomfortable, but I'm okay with it. It took a couple of visits for me to build up the courage to go on the Skyrider, Dragon Fire and The Bat, but I have done them all. Of course the Ghoster Coaster isn't a big deal anymore, but I still don't go on anything similar to that big swinging boat and I don't go on Drop Zone.
So, this past Saturday, I make my big return to Wonderland pretty sure that I'm not going to go on the Behemoth because every time I drive by there, I see how big the thing is and I still don't want to subject my stomach to that gross sensation. So my friends are nice enough to let me work my way up to the Behemoth - we start with Thunder Run, then The Vortex (which really doesn't seem as bad as I remember), then Top Gun (which also doesn't seem as bad as I remember - although my ear/head still hurt afterwards from rattling back and forth)...I was starting to think that maybe I could handle the Behemoth. We go to Splashworks to cool off and this is where we realize that the days of yore when a full day at the Wonderland consisted on riding every single ride multiple times is no more. After looking at the clock, calculating how long we'd been waiting in lines and all the rides we still wanted to go on - it looked bleak. Half of the rides at Splashworks weren't even running and due to an accident the wave pool was just a big swimming pool. Sigh - oh well.
On the plus side - funnel cakes are still really tasty. Oh wait, there is a downside to that too...when did everything get SO expensive. I know stuff was always expensive, but $11 for a funnel cake? C'mon. Is there tax on top of that too?
Anyway, by the end of the day, I was thinking that maybe I would have the nerve to go on the Behemoth. But for some unknown reason, it shut down for a little while and by the time it was up and running and we were ready to go for it...they were suggesting a 1.5 hour wait time. Seriously? Also, it was around 15 minutes to closing time when we found this out and they were still letting people line up. That just doesn't seem right - I would have thought that they'd cut the line off at 9pm or something.
I did learn, however that I still do get that gross feeling in my stomach, so I'm not completely cured. For the briefest of moments on The Bat I got that feeling, but surprisingly it was the twisting and turning that really threw me off. I come off the ride feeling a little loopy - something that I've never felt before. Hmmm.
So in 8 hours at the park, we went on 8 rides?!? That just doesn't seem right.
Maybe next year the strategy should be: one day @ Wild Water Kingdom, one day @ Wonderland (no Splashworks)...and only on days that somehow I get a psychic vibe that the parks won't be busy.

Scramble!

I happened to use the scramble intersection at Bloor and Dundas the day that it opened up for service. I like it.
I think that the Yonge and Bloor and Bay and Bloor intersections get a lot of pedestrian traffic as well, but not as much at the Bloor and Dundas one does - so I'm not sure if they warrant getting scrambles. Spadina and Dundas can get a little hectic at times - does it matter that there's a streetcar lane there?

Boooooooo

I just cooked my purple beans. They were such a deep purple. Eggplant-ish. And after being dunked in boiling water, now they're green. The water hasn't drastically changed colour though. Maybe a tinge of green, but not too different. Lazy way to tell if the beans have been cooked enough, I suppose.
I think this could turn into a fantastic elementary school lesson.
I still wish the beans stayed purple though.

A wonderful day

This past Saturday, I had the most wonderful day. I ended up spending the day by myself, and it was amazing. Here's the run down...

1. Sleeping in. I let my alarm clock run its course but finally hauled myself out of bed so that I could get something accomplished. I didn't want the day to go to waste or anything.

2. Lazy lazy lazy. Taking my time getting ready. Little surf time in the internet. Watching a couple episodes of The Office.

3. Clafouti. Was tired of just hearing about other people enjoying this place, so I went to see what the big fuss was about. Couldn't find any pain au chocolat...frig. Sold out. I guess sleeping in does have its downfalls. Got a croissant figue and ended up speaking half French to the waitress by accident because it wasn't a "fig croissant". The croissant was extremely buttery, but very meaty. The figue part didn't blow me away. I want a pain au chocolat next time.

4. St. Lawrence Market. Still just as good as the first time. Behold my shopping list:
- corn on the cob
- peppers (red, yellow and purple...I know, I said I wouldn't buy it again. I was drawn in my the colours. I was thinking rainbow salad.)
- tomatoes
- salade (I figured out that the lettuce I miss is arugula and also
this type a friend called Lamb's Ear.)
- purple beans (That's right. They're a dark purple and the lady beside me who was also buying them said that they turn green after you cook them. I haven't cooked them yet, so I don't know if it's true. Regardless, they're really purple right now and really pretty.)

5. Buskerfest. Here, I enjoyed a couple different acts, sampled random foods (including a chick pea dish cooked in mustard seed and
veggies - different!), people watched and got some tank top tan lines (yuck). There were a lot of your typical buskers (or well, typical in my mind), but I'd never seen an acrobat hanging in the air from large helium balloons. She didn't do very much up there, but the visual was quite striking.




My favorite act and the only act that I specifically sought out was PULP - a duo dance team featuring Robert Muraine and Garvin Tran.
You may know Muraine from
So You Think You Can Dance Season 4 or those Ikea commercials. The popper and b-boy combo put on an amazing show. I have videos but they are too large to upload. Sorry. The music was hype...I felt like dancing too. I'd actually walked
by one of their shows already in progress, but the crowd was huge and I didn't want to strain to watch. I arrived early the next time and got front row seats. Muraine didn't do anything different from his various bits on SYTYCD and the Ikea bits, but seeing him dance up close and personal was still enjoyable. Their excitement, enthusiasm, innate sense of music and love of dance was killer. A-Mazing. The event was raising funds for charity, but of course buskers were excepting money for themselves too!

6. Balcony time. Using my lounging chair for the first time, enjoying the sun that Toronto hasn't seen in a long time and reading the free Toronto Star I picked up at Buskerfest. Fantabulous.

7. Genee Competition. With the finals of the competition held at the Four Season Centre for the Performing Arts, the Genee is the Royal Academy of Dance's big international competition. The calibre wasn't quite Prix de Lausanne, but the top dancers of the competition were basically there. The gold medal winner was obviously the winner and I wonder if he would consider going for the Prix. I didn't get any pictures, because we weren't allowed to take any. Interesting how it doesn't matter at the Prix, but here it's a big no-no! Along with a great night of dancing I found out a couple things:
- Rex Harrington needs to get over himself and stop being a sour puss (and is developing a paunch)
- I need to work on my dress collection (or lack thereof)
- I notice when people wear Louboutins.

Like I said at the beginning, I had a wonderful day.

I get me

I think I know myself pretty well.
I'm quite proud of everything that I've done in my life. I think I've done a lot. It's a strange feeling to feel "old". It's a new experience, but luckily it will only last in this setting for six more months or so.
I'm totally a loner. Boy do I like having my space. My friends, I like you all a lot and could hang out with you forever. Y'all could do your thing and I'm content just quietly being with you - that's fine. Acquaintances though - phew. SPACE.

TIFF08

It's coming...
I decided to be proactive this year and got a 10-pack. The one downside about this is that I have to figure out which movies I want to watch before people have written up synopses and reviews about them. How am I supposed to know what I want to see?
I need to do some research. Sigh.
Doing the "rush line" thing last year wasn't THAT bad...and at least by then I was only lining up for movies that I wanted to see.
We'll see how it goes.

If you're a celeb fanatic, I can only help you in two ways:
1. Brad Pitt is coming.
2. George Clooney is not.

Still starstruck

Every year in the summer, there's a skating competition which renders me starstruck.
Two things worth mentioning about this year's festivities:
1. Louis Stong is a funny funny man. He is also a legend. When a legend walks up to you in the stand (albeit, I was surrounded by other people who he knew) says hello (just out of politeness - he has no idea who I am) and then proceeds to sit beside you and then continues to go about his business, well, heart palpitations ensue.
2. Sitting on the stand with Karen Preston. During a specific event we are both in roles where we're wearing headsets and can talk to each other. There are two other people in similar roles. So the four of us are talking, talking, talking...not sure how it comes up, but I learned that Tonya Harding was really scary. Intimidating as all heck and just not the most enjoyable person to compete against. Karen would switch spots in the dressing room at competitions so that she would be further away from Tonya.
Being among legends and listening to stories firsthand makes me feel like I'm part of some super-club or something. It's crazy. So many people at these competitions are the big time...and I'm right there with them. I often want to pinch myself. I hope I never become jaded and lose my excitement for this sport.

Hopefully I'll make the most of it

Tomorrow is a free day. I haven't had a free day in awhile, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm not sure how much I'll sleep in (it's hard to predict these days) but I've got a couple things in my mind that I wouldn't mind doing tomorrow. Nothing pressing (except for one thing in the evening - which I'll give a report on after the fact), but all things that I think would be nice.
Among the list is going (back) to the St. Lawrence Market. A couple weeks ago, I finally ventured down there and while it was obvious that I was paying a lot more for the produce compared to a regular grocery store (I don't know enough about produce to know if it was worth the extra bucks or not) I really enjoyed the experience.
I believe the last time I went there was in Grade 9 for a field trip which was set up like a scavenger hunt of downtown which had a goal for us to get to know our city better. It was a very well created assignment, which I hope teachers still use because children who grow up in the suburbs probably don't know enough about the city and well, I still don't know much about it and how wonderful it is and how much it has to offer.
Anyway, back to St. Lawrence Market. I love markets and I find it really hard to go to one without being tempted to buy something (even if I don't need it). The colours, the smells, the energy, the people...it's hard to resist getting caught up in it.

Let me share with you my shopping list:
- green beans
- red peppers
- green peppers
- purple peppers (I HAD to get them...I've never seen them before! They were whitish green on the inside and the taste was different from other colours of peppers...not very much flavour, in fact and I don't think I would necessarily buy them again. Especially if there are red peppers instead.)
- salad (I don't know the name of the lettuce, but it's not iceberg. Growing up, I only knew of iceberg and romaine. These two along with spinach were the only types of greens that I knew of to be used for a salad. My first market in Neuch introduced me to a whole bunch of other kinds of lettuce - which I don't really know the names, as they were all called salade regardless of the type. I'm sure that I only bought this type of lettuce at the St. Lawrence Market because it reminded me of Europe. There's another type of green that reminds me of Europe as well, but I forget its name as well too. Maybe I'll see it at the market tomorrow and be reminded.)
- yellow zucchini
- green zucchini

The next couple of days, I had the BEST salads. I get the feeling that if I make it to the market again tomorrow, I'll have the same result. Either amazing salad for days or amazing fruit. Or maybe both. I'd like to go to the Liberty Village market Sunday morning, but I found that because I was so tempted at the ST. Lawrence market last time, there was nothing left for me to need to buy to make it worth me going out to Liberty Village. I'll have to try to be selective about what I buy each time.
I should also take some pictures this time. I need to pull out my digital camera more often. I guess in Europe, I felt like I had the "tourist" excuse to take pictures of everyday things, but here in Toronto, I all of a sudden feel too self conscious to do it. I need to get over myself.

As you've seen with my lack of posts on the blog recently, I've been pretty busy - so I'm really excited to take tomorrow and just be. I heard it'll be nice weather too.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

I finally watched Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. My reaction: HUH?!?
I knew that this movie probably would require a little bit of attention on my part to follow what was going to happen, so I'm not really sure why I watched it for the first time as background noise while multi-tasking. It's my own fault for not really understanding everything happened. I guess I theoretically understand it the plotline, but I didn't keep track of who got killed very well. I thought that some of the people who were alive at the end were supposed to be dead and I'm sure I'm missing one significant plot connection...but I'm not too concerned, I'll just have to watch it again. I'd seen Snatch before and as I was watching Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, I thought that the two movies were very similar. You can probably tell that I didn't make the Guy Richie connection until I did a little research on the internet just a short while ago.
The final moments of the movie made slightly annoyed, but as it was happening, I was expecting it to unfold as it did.
I need to watch this move again, but I'm pretty sure once I pay attention to it, I'll like it. I won't LOVE it, but I'll like it.