Panic!!!

I was going to read up on some local news (I have some time to kill) so I turned to the Toronto Star website. Perhaps it was my timing, but splayed across the top of the screen in red was BREAKING NEWS. H1N1 outbreak at Mount Sinai Hospital. Way to get people to freak out.
Sure this stuff is important to know, but all of a sudden I feel like I could be in the movie, Outbreak. Since I have feelings of invisibility, I'm not too thrown off.
I'm just a little amused to see it there. Now, if we all have to be quaranteened, I'll eat my words, but for now, I'll just read up about some other news fluff. Hmmm...I haven't visited People Magazine's website recently. Ha.

Edit: So I just read the article about the outbreak and it goes into very little detail about, well, anything. Statistics are pretty flimsy and there isn't much heft to make us think more deeply about the situation.

Yowza!

Season 2 of So You Think You Can Dance Canada just finished. I'm happy with the winner, although I didn't get as emotionally invested with this season as I did with the first or with other seasons of the American version. I wasn't as impressed with the top 20 performers as a whole, but continued to watch the show really only because I was interested to see how far Austin (whom I've danced in the same studio with, so know what he's capable of) and Emanuel (whom I've followed as a figure skater since he was a pre-teen). Once the talent got whittled down to the top four or so, the dancing was fantastic, but for the first little while it was often a snooze fest. I appreciate how Canadians are super nice and stuff, but often the judges were too nice on the competitors that it got very frustrating.
Anyway, Season 6 of the American version just started. It's actually been going on for awhile but my original youtube source for the show disappeared and all of the replacements that I've found don't show the whole episode in a convenient way or haven't been showing the auditions. I know that they are now at the top 20 contestants part of the show and the clips that I just finished watching I think are from that episode. Holy expletive!!! From what I could tell (there's a possibility I didn't get the entire episode) they did a group number (splendid) and then did smaller group numbers based on their discipline of strength. The hip hop group, the tap group, the jazz group, two contemporary groups and a ballroom group. I can't even pick a favorite one because they were all equally impressive. My mouth was hanging open. They already seem so much more talented than the Canadian folks or even dancers from previous season. Sure, I understand that they were performing to their strengths, but still - the power that was there. Yowza! I wish I could have seen the Las Vegas finals show just to see more of their talents and who got cut.
I think I'm going to watch the clips again. I can't even express how good they were. So well choreographed to show off everyone's talents and strengths - but very cohesive at the same time. Amazing. Truly, amazing.

Edit: This was actually a teaser show to the first top-20 competition show. My source has now added the top-20 show on their site, and I'm so tempted to watch it, but I won't tonight. I'm going to bed instead. Albeit, an hour and a half later than I had planned because I watched other clips and shows, but still an hour and a half earlier than my regular bedtime. I need to get back to a decent sleep schedule.

Seriously

There's a guy in one of my classes that looks exactly like Sam the Eagle from The Muppets. Seriously.
Okay, he doesn't have blue feathers and he's not a bird, but the facial features are spot on. It's the brow line and mouth that give them an uncanny resemblance. That downturned grimace...even the shape of his head. The gentleman in my class is also bald which helps the cause. Seriously.

Colour trends

I take a look at a couple colour trends of the season, just to give me an idea what the people in power decide to promote for the season. First of all, I imagine this weirdo meeting amongst a secret fashion mafia who decide what's in for the season. It's too much of a coincidence that many design houses decide to show something so horrible as oversized shoulders, for example. I imagine these people sitting around a big table in a dark room plotting. Plotting weird things. This is better than my original idea that some minimum wage textile makers or fabric dyers just arbitrarily decide what kind of products they want to produce for the season and designers have to use what's made.
The September Issue had a scene where some powerful people sat around the table discussion trends and what they wanted to push for the upcoming season. With my gazillion Indigo gift certificates lying around, I think I'm going to treat myself to the September issue of Vogue in the future. I mean, what else would I buy? Books?!? Ha!
Anyway, a long time ago I had seen the FW'09 colour trends. I haven't been paying attention to whether or not Purple Heart (Pantone 18-3520) has hit it big or not. I'm not sure I really care. I recently noticed trends for FW'10 show up and was immediately intrigued. The palettes are quite nice, and it doesn't hurt that they both have black (no colour code needed!) included. Nice.

Alexander Calder at the AGO

I went to the AGO today, mainly to see the Edward Steichen photography exhibition (I really liked the Vanity Fair exhibition at the ROM and thought this would be a good match), but turns out I enjoyed the Alexander Calder one better.
I should have known better. If I had thought about it a little longer, I probably would have realized that the Edward Steichen stuff isn't really up my alley. I appreciated it for what it was, but I preferred the stuff at the ROM much more. The fashion in the 20s and 30s isn't too interesting for me, and I didn't find the portraiture anything exciting. No matter.
The Alexander Calder stuff was really cool. With a mechanical engineering degree under his belt, he built some really cool contraptions which formed a miniature circus. The circus was complete with trapeze artists, lions, elephants, parades, and the list continues. There were pulley, rope and hinge mechanisms to make everything move and function like they were the real thing. It was pretty cool. Before realizing that I was in the Calder exhibition, I thought I was looking at Miro, and actually a little bit impressed with myself that I could make reference to one of Calder's influences. It was all Calder, and he built interesting sculptures including ones that were made from wire. It was kind of like a three dimensional line drawing. I thought the curators did a wonderful job of shining a light on them so that the sculpture's shadow would be cast on the white wall and turning the 3-D piece into a 2-D piece of art.
The AGO is a great space and I'm glad that I have admission privileges to it - teachers can get in for free with governing body ID. It makes the experience a whole lot nicer knowing that you can come back whenever you want and not feel pressure to take in as much as possible in the day that you visit.

The September Issue

I just got home from a screening of The September Issue, the documentary about American Vogue's preparation for publication of their 2007 September issue. The documentary follows editor-in-chief and business woman, Anna Wintour as well as creative director and fashion visionary, Grace Coddington.
As documentaries generally tell the true tale of the subject, if The September Issue is an exemplary documentary, The Devil Wears Prada is as excellent feature film and very close to the truth. I don't know what kind of research Meryl Streep did in her role based on Anna Wintour, but she was spot on. Harsh, but with an edge of humanity.
The film also features the then almost unknown designer Thakoon Panichgul and the obvious influence that Ms. Wintour and Vogue has on a career. Thakoon definitely has talent and hopefully would have been worn by Michelle Obama without the backing of Vogue, but the support of the magazine probably helped his label come along. Editor-at-large, Andre Leon Talley also makes a couple appearances in the film. What a character.
The documentary is getting wide release in the city this coming weekend. If you enjoy documentaries, character studies and/or fashion I'd recommend this film. I really enjoyed the film. Getting a glimpse into the world of Vogue and what it takes to produce an issue. I was totally gaga over the fashion in the film. I desperately wish that I could live in that world (but not need to fight through it). I don't even get invited to Toronto Fashion Week (coincidence that it's happening now? Well timed, friends)...how could I possible dream to get invited to the couture shows in Paris.
I also have to say that I enjoy DocSoup and their free tickets for students!

A Blooming Business

The Planet in Focus International Environmental Film & Video Festival is not a film festival that I know much about. I only read about it from another blog that talked about the film, A Blooming Business (official site), which caught my eye. I enjoy flowers. I'm not a fan of gardening, myself, but I really appreciate other people's gardens. I also like fresh-cut flowers. A lot. If I'm invited to someone's place and there is a lady of the house, I will usually bring her some flowers. I want to spread the flower love.
Anyway, I'm tempted to see the film, but also worried that it will ruin flowers for me. I mean, that may not be a bad thing if the places I buy my flowers from gets them from horrible places...it's similar to movies which turn you off of fast food, animal products, meat, clothing brands, etc. Yes, it's important to be educated about these kinds of things, but sometimes the people behind things like this become preachy and very biased and I'm not into that. It raises awareness, and being more educated is always a good thing. Whether or not I do anything about it, well, we'll see.
I remember doing a project about apples in elementary school and after reading about the pesticides that were used I stopped eating apples for awhile. I like to think I've grown a little since then.
I'm sure sure if I'll get a chance to see the film, but maybe this is a festival that I should keep on my radar.

Vanity Fair Portraits at the ROM

The Vanity Fair Portraits exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum is wonderful. Not that I'm saying that the more highly advertised Dead Sea Scrolls (Ten Commandments - ONLY 80 HOURS!!!) aren't impressive, but the exhibition has its flaws (crowds, timed entry, dim lights, too much text, echoing, cavernous rooms).
I really enjoyed seeing the photographs. I like portraits. The exhibition is solid. Well done. I'd recommend the complimenting Canadian Content exhibition as well. The only drag is that it's on a different floor in the hallway (ahem, I mean, gallery space) that I will always think of as the typewriter room.
I'll be going to the Art Gallery of Ontario to check out their Edward Steichen exhibition in the near future I'm sure. Well coordinated my museum friends, well done.

Speaking of great museum things, there's a lot of great exhibitions coming to the city. King Tut is going to be at the AGO and Body Worlds has returned to the Ontario Science Centre.

Insider scoop: The ROM is definitely going to get a bunch of Terracotta Warriors (and some horses too!) and will be getting the Water exhibition that just finished up at the Field Museum in Chicago (although some of us are bummed that we didn't get the pirates exhibit instead...aargh).

Caught my attention

Ram posted this link on his website. Click on napstered to see the full article written by the mother of one of the teenaged shooters from the Columbine Massacre.
As soon as I started to read the article, everything else that I was doing (multi-tasking) started to get blurry. I'm not a big reader, but this read was absolutely compelling.
Oh boy, the issues that this raises. I mean, the actual massacre (and the information that was uncovered soon after) raised them all, but for me, they've faded from my radar over time.
I don't want to point fingers in this case, because I don't think I know enough about the situation and I don't think pointing fingers will do anything anyway. But boy, my mind is racing.
Not being a metafilter regular, I don't know if this is normal, but stopped reading the comments pretty early on. Forgive me for being judgmental, but some of those comments are pretty useless. For such a thought provoking article, I was highly disappointed with the quality of some of the comments. I shouldn't be too surprised, I don't bother reading comments on a lot of other information portals anymore for the same reason. Shame on me, I should be more welcoming to all viewpoints, especially given what I do.

The Amazing Race

Yeah, that's right, I watch The Amazing Race. One of my favorite teams (maybe my favorite, but I don't pay enough attention to the show to know for sure...you know me and TV as background noise) got eliminated in the most recent episode. Stupid rules. I mean, playing the game is enough stress - why can't the show just keep track of their travel documents for them?
Boo-urns.

Battle of the Blades

I haven't been following this show (I know, surprise), but I did manage to watch tonight's results episode.
For those who don't know, Battle of the Blades is a Canadian TV show that pairs a figure skater and hockey player together (think The Cutting Edge) in a Skating with Celebrities show format. Tickets for tapings cost money (as opposed to a lot of TV show tapings), but it seems like everything about this program is for charity - so it's all good.
As it was a results show, I only got to see two of the couples skate, and I have to admit I was kinda surprised at how good they were. Skating with Celebrities flopped (although it is quite popular in its other incarnations around the world) partly because celebrities don't necessarily know how to skate. Having pro hockey skaters on the show makes it an easier transition, although after watching the two couple skate, it's clear that there is still a deficit. What can I say, figure skating is hard. I applaud the figure skaters for trusting their men to put them up into lifts, death spirals and even head bangers. From what I gather, it's a cute show and I hope that it raises lots of money for charity as well as raise popularity for the sport.
The real reason I wanted to write about the show, is because tonight, I saw Kurt Browning skate an exhibition in hockey skates. The man did a friggin double salchow...in hockey skates. He did intricate footwork...in hockey skates. Did you hear me? HOCKEY SKATES!!! That man is something else.

Poetic Social Mission

Has anyone else watched this? I wasn't able to watch it live (by the time I logged on, the credits were rolling), but it was sorta on my radar leading up to the event. I didn't do a lot of digging to find out exactly what the deal was but nonetheless, I'm watching it right now.

Oh dear

I think someone is stuck in the elevator in my building. The concierge knows, but says that there's nothing he can do. And he's saying it with a voice of disdain. I don't think concierges are supposed to be speaking that way. I hope he's already called a technician and that the person/people in the elevator knows that someone knows that they're in there.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Walking home from dance class this morning, I saw an inordinate number of cars lining up to get on the Gardiner. Now, normally the onramp from Spadina Ave to the Gardiner west is ridiculous. People have to cut in at the last moment, and it's just a crazy scene, but today was worse than usual.
After walking closer to the scene, turns out that the Gardiner is actually closed. So cars are waiting at this closed gate. A lot of cars. And it's bumper to bumper, so cars can't even try and bail if they wanted to. And I wasn't really sure why cars would be waiting anyway.
After a little bit of search, the Garner was closed until Noon, but obviously they're at least an hour in re-opening.
I wonder how the people in the cars are feeling right now.
I was surprised that no one flagged me down to ask what was going on. I would think after being in the back of this crazy long line for an onramp that, albeit usually has a long line, people would be wondering why it's not moving. Of course, there's the chance that everyone in the line knows exactly what's going on and is just waiting for the gates to bet opened. Call me cynical, but I don't think that Toronto drivers are just that good. It's this bizarro gridlock that really put a smile on my face because it seemed so weird. Although, I guess people (myself included) stand in long lines to enter museums, buy tickets to a show, etc. So what's wrong with cars lining up to get on the highway?

Nuit Blanche 2009

Nuit Blanche was a dreadful disappointment, but probably in large part due to the fact that I was exhausted and didn't get a chance to really make the rounds and give the event a chance. We decided to go out to Queen Street West in Zone C, to try to avoid the crowds. Fail. I think I've come to the conclusion, that now in its fourth year, Nuit Blanche is big enough that there will be crowds everywhere. In our walk from the Drake Hotel to Spadina Avenue, there were only a couple installations of note:
1) Nite Lite, a big Lite Brite made out of water bottles. It was fun to play with, but with so many people playing at the same time, it doesn't really give you much creative license. It turns into something that you do just to say you've done it.
2) City Sonic: The Cameron House in Motion, giant white ants getting installed on the wall of the building with some random music being played and other images and text being projected as well. The best part, seeing the guy using ropes and pulleys to haul himself and the giant ant, up the side of the building. I suppose it would be cooler to see the installation after its completion.
3) The Sight of Sound, had three of Steve Mann's Hydraulophone. I gave it a go, and quite enjoyed the experience. I would have liked to find out exactly what tones would be played with the device. Apparently, the Hydraulophone was part of the first edition of Nuit Blanche (which I wasn't around for) and a big, big hit. I was surprised as how much pressure you needed to put on each "key" to get a tone. Experimentation led water being squirted all over, including in my eye. Nice that they used warm water.
Queen Street West has many art galleries, so a lot of them were open, but I wasn't really interested in that stuff. Coupe Bizarre had a nude model which you could sketch, and I don't know if they were plants or just naturally talented people, but I was thoroughly impressed. The formal, non-art gallery-esque installations were spread out along Queen St. West, making for a night with a lot of walking, but not much viewing.
Oh well. I was so tired, that I didn't mind much.
Based on pictures that I've seen, next year, I want to stick to the core with all of the major buildings because that's where a lot of the major installations are. I presume that will mean fighting crowds, but I don't mind. The problem is, the Nuit Blanche website is dreadful, though it may not be avoidable. It's just getting too big, and there's no way that I want to go through the whole website to see what all of the different exhibitions are.
Fingers crossed that I'll be more well rested and can see more stuff at next year's event.

Getting in the grovve

Now that the year's started again (academic, of course), I'm trying to sort through my schedule and get into a groove. I've already figured out my food groove.
St. Lawrence market for veggies and fun stuff.
Chinatown for fruit and bargains.
Loblaws for mundo meats and basics.
Sunday is my day to cook, cook, cook.
I think I'm fully stocked for a couple weeks to come.

TIFF09 roundup

So, the festival is over. I mean, there could be an after-party or two still going on as I type this, but the main events are all over.

I ended up seeing ten films in total. In the order that I watched them:
1. Cracks
2. City of Life and Death
3. Frederick Wiseman Presents La Danse – Le Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris La Danse – The Paris Opera Ballet
4. Accident
5. Same Same but Different
6. Vengeance
7. Castaway on the Moon
8. Micmacs à tire-larigot
9. A Brand New Life
10. Melody for a Street Organ

I've spotted the least amount of stars this year. Other than the ones attending the screenings that I attended, I've only seen one: Colin Firth, and I wouldn't have realized it, unless someone hadn't pointed him out to me. He did look pretty ho-hum, although before knowing who he was, I did appreciate his jacket. It was structured and well-fitting. Good classic style, but trendy at the same time. I approve. Anyway, I digress. I didn't see any stars, but I don't think that I went out of my way to look for them. I'm definitely past that part of the festival. I didn't even go out of my way to join crowds in front of hotels or other events. I guess I'm over it.
I had a very mixed bag of movies this year. Sadly, none of my picks won at of the festival's awards. I'm bummed that Micmacs only got second runner-up for People's Choice. I can't complain much - I didn't vote.
I had a great time at this festival. Although I didn't have any marathon days with four screenings like last year (I learned my lesson), by the end of the week, my eyes were exhausted and before the intros began, I would try to catch a couple zzzzs in my seat. I spaced out my movies pretty well, but my schedule was a lot fuller this year with non-TIFF commitments.
Just like every other year, I've been impressed at how the festival is run, everyone's enthusiasm and how the city opens its arms to the world for ten days.
I'm looking forward to seeing some of the movies that I didn't get a chance to see at the festival in wide-release or special screenings and will be ready to purchase my TIFF10 ticket package upon their release!

Melody for a Street Organ

After a little bit of whiff-waffling, I ended up buying a ticket to the final film that I would see in this year's TIFF, Melody for a Street Organ.
The write-up did sound pretty good, and I'd originally wanted to select this movie as part of my ticket package, but the screenings conflicted with other commitments do I'd penciled it into my book just in case. This morning, although exhausted and needing more sleep, I hauled myself out of bed, bailed on my other commitment and went to the screening.
I guess I'm happy I did?
It was a weird movie. A very long one, and a little bit odd. I'm pretty sure that something was lost in translation as there were others who were laughing hysterically in parts that I really couldn't comprehend why they would be so funny. There is also a strong possibility that it just went over my head, as I often think that's the case when I don't "get" a film.
From the write-up, I knew that there wouldn't be a happy ending, it just kind of sucked to see the vignettes weave together in a way where there were so many opportunities for happy endings, just to be pulled away and crappy stuff happening to characters instead. I don't know if it was a piece to say, "yeah, sometimes life just sucks", or if it's supposed to be some kind of twisted humour. I don't know. There wasn't a Q&A or anything (mental note - for future festivals, pick all the ones that I really want to have Q&As for at the beginning of the festival, because most screening towards the end get the shaft).
Now, I don't know if this movie is typical of Russian movies, as I've never seen a Russian film before, but like I said, it was weird. There were many moments, where I understood how they fit into the storyline, but I just didn't understand why it was happening. Why was it important to tell those particular vignettes?
I was also surprised at the number of people who left in the middle of the screening. I don't think I've ever attended another film with this many people bailing part of the way through. Hmm, that can't be good.
Would I recommend this movie, sure. Not with the highest praise, but it was kinda interesting to watch.

- picture courtesy of www.tiff09.ca

A Brand New Life

Sadly, competing for the worst movie that I've seen this festival, I had high hopes for A Brand New Life. The write-up looked great, but the film didn't live up to it and the teaser clip. I mean, it's a really great premise, but the problem was that after a great start, the movie kind of plodded along, skimmed over some very important themes that could have and should have been further explored and ended before any good bits took place. This film could have brought so much more to the table, but didn't.
As you've probably realized, I'm usually pretty enthusiastic about films. Even if I don't love them, I try to find something positive, or at least don't focus on the negative. This one had some great young actresses and as I said before, had the makings of a great film, but didn't follow through. At part of the film, where I felt like great insight, or deeper emotions would be looked at, the moment passed and sigh, a disappointment.
This screening was the North American premiere (it has screened at Cannes) and although it was a small theatre, the show was sold out and they admitted as many rushers as they could (the line was obviously long), so I guess there was good interest in the film. I wonder what everyone else thought of the film. Director, Ounie Lecomte was on hand to introduce the film and perhaps due to a language barrier, her intro eluded to her wanting to chat with us after the fact to further discuss her film. That she wanted the film to speak for itself first before she did. The movie ended, many people still stayed in their seat (so I think I wasn't the only one who'd gotten that vibe), and no one appeared. I know I left the theatre disappointed. I don't think I've ever had such an instant indifference to a movie before. It really makes me wonder if I missed something.

- picture courtesy of www.tiff09.ca

Micmacs à tire-larigot

Hands down my favorite film of the festival, I can't believe that Micmacs almost didn't make my list. I don't know what I was thinking.
This movie had two screenings, one at Roy Thomson Hall and the other, which I attended, at Ryerson. I should have known that it's a big-billed film and why the heck wouldn't I want to see it?
Oh my gosh, this movie was amazing.
I find it hard to pick a favorite anything in life. Colour, artist, singer, actor, piece of music, type of food, etc. Out of all of the films that I've ever seen, I can confidently say that Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain is my favorite. That's how stand-out good it was. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet made both.
I love his whimsical style, his jokes, his attention to detail, his choice of music...everything. I love the actors and actresses that he reuses in his films (duh!, Dominique Pinon - among others), I love it all!
The film stars Dany Boon as Bazil (although, I would have loved to see the originally cast, Jamel Debbouze in the role, but M. Boon was truly excellent) whose father is killed by a landmine and he, himself gets shot by a stray bullet from a local arms manufacturer. Flashfoward to the present where he finds a new family in a form of a very motley crew, each with their own story and talents. Throw in a little Mission Impossible (M. Jeunet said so!) to Bazil's plan at revenge and voila, a hit movie.
At one point in the film, I actually thought that this was a film with a serious political message and although M. Jeunet (on-hand for a Q&A - wahoo!) admitted, that obviously, one could see a grand message, it's a ridiculous message to harp as it's clearly common sense, this film is a comedy. M. Jeunet made it sound like he'd whipped this film together in a short amount of time and had just pieced it together from notes of things that he wanted to put in movies and things that he enjoyed, and I suppose I can kind of see that as this movie just seems so much like, well, exactly what he likes to do in his movies. M. Jeunet told us that he had been creating a movie adaptation of Yann Martel's award winning book, Life of Pi, but his ideas required a ridiculous budget and so he turned his attention away from that proposed film and seemingly threw this film together.
This is the first screening that I've attended that gave a standing ovation to the director and of course it was well-deserved.
So, it's clear that I loved the movie. I really need to watch Delicatessen. Obviously, I would highly recommend this film and I hope it wins some kind of recognition. If not, I hope that at least one gazillion people watch it. And if they don't laugh out loud, there's something wrong with them. Bonus part for me, I got to practice my French comprehension again. See, there's nothing bad about this film!

- picture courtesy of www.tiff09.ca