A Few Quick Notes 620

-Though a little warmer today, for the past few days we have been waking up to rather frigid temperatures (in the -35 to -40 with wind chill range).  Fortunately, these temperatures have decreased rather dramatically as the days have progressed and, typically, by evening we're up to a comfortable -20ish.

-I'm 1/4 in this year's Roll Up the Rim to Win competition.  I suspect my only entries will be those I purchased while either traveling to and from Edmonton or while I was in Edmonton.  I'll be surprised if I even get a chance to move up to 1/5.

-With ever lengthening days it has been a treat to walk to and from work in full light this past week.  Of course, paired with the cold temperatures we've been having, the full sun and bright skies have been a little dissonant.

-Over the past few days Jeannette and I have been somewhat obsessively watching Orphan Black, a show staring Regina native Tatiana Maslany (who also happens to have been in the Newfoundland-filmed movie Grown Up Movie Star alongside one of Kirsten's school friends).  Of course, because there aren't all that many episodes currently in existence this will necessarily be a short-lived obsession.

-I'm thinking about trying to drag Jeannette out for a walk along the creek/river today.  Aside from the somewhat cool temperatures, it's a perfect day.

Cameron - 14
Neil - 0

High points of the Canadian entertainment scene

Though we normally live a relatively quiet life, for the past week I have really been hitting the town in an attempt to up my Can-con street cred.

Last Sunday Jeannette and I attended a screening of the made-in-Saskatchewan movie Corner Gas: The Movie (obviously a spin-off from the similarly named TV show Corner Gas).  Though ravaged by a Globe and Mail review (that hardly discussed the movie), Jeannette and I both enjoyed the experience and thought the movie was pretty much what you would expect from a TV to movie translation of the show.

On Tuesday Jeannette and I attended the annual Vinyl Cafe Christmas show (an event we also attended last year).  This is the third time I've attended a Vinyl Cafe live show and the third time I have enjoyed the performance.

On Thursday a friend was kind enough to invite me to the Regina stop of the Trailer Park Boys Christmas tour.  Though not the greatest theatrical event of the year, it was nice to see Ricky, Julian, and Randy in person (while living in Halifax Mr. Lahey could routinely be spotted near our apartment and Bubbles could be seen at Bubbles' Mansion events - like the shopping car race we once happened upon).



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This weekend, if I can get my act together, I hope to catch one of the Cirque du Soleil shows happening in Regina.  Because of Jeannette's clown phobia there's no way I'll convince her to attend and as I haven't made any attempts to find someone else to attend with if I do end up going I think it will have to be alone.

And if I really wanted to 'do it all' I could also attend the upcoming Tom Jackson Huron Carole event (though at this point it seems very unlikely that I will be going this far in a quest to consume as much Can-con as possible).

Reverse synergy?

Over the course of the past few years I have listened to several episodes of podcasts about terrible movies.  Unfortunately, I've found most of these explorations of this topic have been rather underwhelming and really aren't what I was hoping for.

These discussions tend to be rather superficial and just discuss aspects of the movie that didn't work/how they are bad.

What I keep hoping these these will be are real discussions of how experienced companies can have so many major multimillion dollar projects go so far off the rails. (One brief interview I heard about the making/meddling of Jaws 3 was quite enlightening.)  It would seem that in some instances some form of groupthink so overwhelms the process that reverse synergy (or synergy that brings out the worst features of a project rather than the best) dooms the project.

Of course, I suspect that one of the major problems - if not the major problem - is that anyone who could speak to these matters authoritatively could only do so at the risk of damaging their career in the industry.  Consequently the viewing public is left with Hollywood's true movie magic - no meaningful explanation of how experienced movie studios/makers allow themselves to regularly produce truly horrific duds for staggering sums of money.

A Few Quick Notes 609

-Today I walked outside and immediately wondered if I even needed a coat. Once I started the car I realized that it was still -16.5, but it was about 10 degrees warmer than the previous morning and certainly enough to feel the difference.

-Apparently today was budget day.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that CBC did push back, or at least appeared to, push back Olympics coverage to do some budget coverage.

-I think we may need to head to the grocery store tomorrow after work.

-Over the course of the past few weeks I've been trying to sell Jeannette on the effectiveness of Shirley Temple's performances in her many childhood movie appearances.  I think I finally convinced Jeannette that Shirley's movies are still entertaining.

So it definitely felt a little weird when this morning Jeannette emailed me to let me know that Shirley Temple had just died.  Definite bummer.

Cameron - 12
Neil - 0

A Few Quick Notes 594

-At -3 it's as warm as it's been for quite a while in Regina.  Amazingly, the current forecast suggests that the temperatures will remain above -10 for much of the week.  Weird.  I wonder if this means that if it's sunny we might even start to see some melting?

-One of the aspects of this Regina Winter that I've really enjoyed so far is that many of the trees seem to be completely enrobed in snow/frost.  Consequently, most trees have turned white - so they look like those white fake Christmas trees (an effect I didn't know was real until I saw it with my own eyes).

Of course, the photos I've tried to take of the effect don't really do it justice.  It is incredibly striking.

-I'm not sure how it came about, but last night Jeannette and I decided to head to a movie.  I guess because New Year's Eve is such a popular party/bar night I assumed that the movie theatres, if they were even going to be open, would be empty.

Turns out I was way off.  I don't think I've ever seen a busier movie theatre.  Not only were there few parking spaces available, but once we got in we found that the movie we hoped to attend had a long line-up outside the theatre.  By the time they finally started letting people in and we were able to grab seats the theatre was close to two thirds full (though we managed to snag satisfactory seats).  Maybe even weirder is that almost everyone in attendance seemed to be between the ages of 50 and 60.

I guess this last fact about the audience composition is a little weirder when you consider that the movie we were there to see was Django Unchained, a Quentin Tarantino movie about a bounty hunting slave violently securing the freedom of his wife.  Though as far as I could tell the audience seemed to like the film, though I'm not sure exactly how much they like it.

In case you're curious, Jeannette and I were both quite underwhelmed by the movie.  We both had the impression that the script needed a few more trips through the editing cycle, if not a few major story adjustments.  And Jeannette might disagree, but I thought the cartoonish violence didn't really do the story/historical reality justice (but I guess cartoonishly gruesome violence is kind of Tarantino's trademark).

-Oh, and for no particularly good reason I decided to make a batch of English muffins this morning.

Aside from the size (they were much too small) they turned out quite nicely and were easy to make.

How to solve our F-35 problems

As some of you may know, since Kirsten and I first watched the NFB's The Defender about a year ago I've been a real evangelist for the film.  At almost every opportunity I try to encourage people to watch the film.




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Just moments ago I realized that I'd been completely missing at least one aspect of the film's timeliness - which is that aspects of the film parallel (or should parallel)  the F-35 process.  

When the film was originally created the plane development process followed in the film was in the context of the costly development of the CF-18.  Bob Diemert, the plane's creator, was hoping that his low-tech, low-cost plane would be adopted instead of the technologically advanced CF-18.  Maybe now that we're in the midst of the F-35 development process we need another prairie inventor the champion a low-tech, low-cost alternative to the F-35?  

Or given that we're now well into the 21st century maybe we could crowdsource the design?

And shouldn't there be a new NFB film charting the development of the 21st century version of the The Defender?

Even if this project doesn't lead to a viable alternative to the F-35 it might at least raise a few questions about plane design, approaches to military engagement, and procurement.  And, who knows, maybe it would lead to a movie as fun as The Defender.

A Few Quick Notes 565

-After yesterday's talk of a storm, today has been a surprisingly nice day so far.  Maybe this will last?

-I am not sure if it is generally the case that whole wheat banana bread is as good as regular banana bread, but the stuff I made yesterday was good enough for me to eat about two-thirds of the loaf before dinner.

-For the nth year in a row I haven't managed to wangle myself an Oscar party invite.  Oh well, I guess I won't get to watch America's second most popular live television event.

-Over the past day or so I've been in the process of convincing myself that there's a good joke about  downhill skiing and the fact that it seems to be one of the few sports where you sit down and get machine to do the boring bits so that you only have to stand for the fun stuff.  Kind of a 'just dessersts' scenario.

Maybe downhill skiing as a concept just isn't as ripe for humour as I keep thinking it is.

-Back to work.

Cameron: 37
Neil: 0

A Bunny Watson moment

This past weekend Jeannette took it upon herself to watch the three Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies.  Though I am not a fan of these movies, I did end up catching a few minutes here and there.

After watching the movies Jeannette and I were both quite taken with the similarities between the Lord of the Rings story and the Harry Potter story/books.

Of course, this discussion reminded me of the Radiolab piece from a few years ago about Wagner's Ring Cycle. While this piece is mostly about the Ring Cycle, they do discuss some of the similarities between Wagner's work and Tolkien's.



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This piece, like most of Radiolab's output, is easy to access and informative.

New/re-branded stuff on the internets

Today marks the launch of the re-branded/organized/titled/conceptualized version of the podcast/public radio show The Sound of Young America now called Bullseye with Jesse Thorn.  As was the case with TSOYA, Bullseye has pop-culture-y interviews and comedy stuff.  Oh, and in the first episode Jesse interviews a few cast members from everybody's favourite costume drama - Downton Abbey.

In honour of this event I thought that I might mention three other things from the internet that are either new or in the process of re-imagining themselves.

1) When Jessica, an early reader of this blog, moved to Korea about two years ago she expressed an interest in engaging in some form of blogging or blogging-like activity to communicate her experiences in her new place of residence.  It seems that the prospect of being "a blogger for the government of Korea" finally motivated her to create her own blog a few weeks ago.  And now that she has been selected by the Korean government to participate in their blogging program she will also be posting on their blog.

3)Andrew, a fellow Brinton Memorial Elementary School alumnus, has also recently started a blog after seeming interested in the prospect for some time.  Andrew's blogging goal is to watch and review at least 365 movies over the course of 2012.  At last count he has posted five such reviews.  If he doesn't watch out me my overrun his goal, and that wouldn't be fun for anyone would it?

3) To get back to the re-branding/imagining theme I first touched on with Bullseye, Jeannette has recently re-imagined her long-ignored Chinafax blog and is now using to document her exploits in the uncharted territory that is veganism in Wolfville.  This one is definitely worth checking out as I even get a shout or two as being someone who is not entirely antagonistic towards such a venture.

I think that just about wraps it up for new things on the internet.  I can't imagine that there might be more than three of them, that would probably be just a little too much for the information super highway to accomodate.

Note: Using 'blog' so many times in a single post makes me feel like a bit of a loser.  Sorry to have tarnished so many fine endeavours with this questionable word.

A Canadian pre-American Movie American Movie

A few years ago I watched American Movie and was completely baffled and amused. I didn't know if what I was watching was actually a documentary or a joke. A few days ago when I watched The Defender I was struck by similar feelings. Would someone actually try to build a slow, heavy, prop fighter plane in Manitoba?

Anyway, because The Defender is a NFB production it is available online for free. I think I recommend it highly.



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While this probably wasn't a joke, I am still not quite certain.

Gaping plot holes aside...

Yesterday Jeannette convinced me to attend a screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. And while I am normally disinclined to see popular movies on opening weekend (it will be the movie in a few days, but with a smaller audience) I allowed myself to look forward to the event.

Almost as soon as we arrived at the theatre for the late show it became clear that the movie was incredibly popular. Not only were all kinds of people leaving the theatre with brooms, quite a number of departing movie viewers were also costumed in costumes of varying quality.

Soon after entering the theatre we also noticed that lines were forming and that people weren't being allowed into theatres as early as might normally be the case. We soon learned that the most prominent and longest line was the one that we would have to join. Fortunately, we only had to wait in the line for a few minutes before being allowed to enter the theatre.

And while the line that we had been standing in wasn't particularly long (it wasn't hundreds of people long) it was long enough that by the time we entered the theatre most of the seats in the middle rows of the theatre were taken. We did eventually get fine seats, but they were closer to the back than I had originally expected based on the length of the line.

Almost as soon as the movie began it became clear that this wasn't a movie that was going to recap aspects of previous movies in the series, or even things that had happened in the first part. Viewers were expected to be relatively familiar with the story/franchise. As I am not an obsessive fan of the series I found that this meant it took me a few minutes to get up to speed with what was happening.

And then almost immediately we were exposed to one of the first major plot holes/continuity issues. In a scene they establish that Harry and his friends have a certain wand. In almost the next scene this wand is requested and Harry and his friends seem unable to produce the wand, though no explanation is given for this strange behaviour. Of course, when we came home Jeannette uncovered reasons for this behaviour that were included in the book but that didn't seem to make the movie.

For the next few minutes I was a little rattled by this strange occurrence, which just struck me as odd (as the first wand scene turned out not to be particularly important to the rest of the movie).

As the movie progressed characters were either omitted given minimal screen time. In some instances it seemed as though the filmakers were content to just show that certain characters still existed, even if they weren't given any lines or a reason for being shown.

Of course, another major problem is that a character seen at the beginning of the movie turns up at the end but how she came to be in the new location is not explained or dealt with (though it seems to have made more sense in the book).

Anyway, I am sure that there are a few more issues that particularly detail-oriented fans might have with this movie, but I guess I was just disappointed with the lack of attention payed to the general coherency of the film If we found two disorienting sections I presume that are even more, and two already seems like a high enough number as far as such problems are concerned. And didn't anybody with power who had seen the movie before its release not notice these problems and ask for a new cut of the movie?

I am sure that in many regards this movie will be largely review proof. No matter how bad the reviews it will make money (and based on the numbers available on Wikipedia it seems to have already broken even). Had the success of this movie not been almost guaranteed I wonder if the resulting movie might not have looked a little different and if some of these problematic issues might have been addressed more effectively (or if they might be remedied in an alternate cut to be subsequently released for home video).

Note: I think that I forgot to discuss many of the aspects of the movie that I had intended to, including the overall sense that I got from it. Of course, I am sure that people don't really care what I think about an already successful movie so I am not particularly inclined to go back and revise this to reflect the fuller examination of the topic that I originally intended. Those who are interested in what I have to say on the topic will have to accept this somewhat scatter shot treatment.

I might have just seen someone famous...

...or not.

What I definitely did see was a film shoot in Cornwallis Park.



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Maybe I will have to go star spotting after lunch...

... or not.

Boid

I was reminded of the Ironman 2 bird scene when I saw a few birds outside my window bathing in a puddle. The connection is obvious isn't it?



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A Few Quick Notes 493

-For better or worse, since my last update, it has continued to snow. Because of the near-zero temperatures we haven't seem much accumulation since about the time of my last post.

-Earlier today a friend of mine asked for a recipe for some lentil stew that I made about a month ago. Of course instead of providing him with something I of a straight forward answer he got the following:

I don't happen to have the recipe on me at the moment (nor did I the last time I made it), but I am quite willing to try to re-create what it was I did.

The last time I made it I think that I didn't start by adding some onions and oil to the pot, but that is normally how I would start. From there I would add the potatoes and lentils. I base the number of potatoes on the size of the batch I want to make, so maybe 3-4 cubed potatoes. In terms of lentil volume, the original recipe called for next to no lentils, I like to add close to a cup, again, it is flexible. At this point I would also add water and seasoning. As far as seasoning goes, I use vegetable bouillon/stock and black pepper. I would use maybe two tablespoons of the powdered stuff and a teaspoon or so of pepper. Add enough water (or you could use liquid vegetable stock) to cover most of the ingredients. I would say that it is better to start with less water and add more later than too much and need to boil it off.

(I typically use green/brown lentils and let them soak for an hour or two before cooking. I have never used canned lentils, but I presume you could. If you use red lentils I don't think it is necessary to let them soak).

The original recipe calls for carrots and celery, and suggests that they should be added only at the end of the cooking period. I find this works, but many people don't really like almost raw celery and carrots in their stews so I tend to add these ingredients at about the same time as everything else. It should also be noted that basically any vegetables you want should work. (For instance, when you were there I left out the celery because I know Rebecca doesn't like it and replaced it with things like frozen beans and corn.)

The great thing about this recipe is that it is quick, unlike regular stew. In all you probably only need to cook this for about an hour.

I realize this description/recipe has been a bit rambling, so if you have any questions feel free to write back or call.

This was then supplemented with the following nugget:

Also, upon consideration 1 cup of lentils seems like a lot for 3-4 potatoes, I might dial that back a bit.

I am curious to hear how this turned out as these may be some of the least precise recipe instructions I have ever given anybody.

-Last night we managed to lose our ultimate game by a single point. Even more impressive than the margin of our defeat is the fact that the final point was scored with less than a second left on the clock. Bummer.

-This afternoon Jeannette talked me into going to see the movie Black Swan with her and a few of her friends. While I will give this thing credit for being well acted and, at least as far as I could tell, technically well crafted, the experience was somewhat less than enjoyable. Maybe I am just turning into my father, but I really am not too interested watching someone self-destruct on screen, no matter how artfully it is done.

-My pea/lentil soup and bread should be ready for consumption shortly. After dinner I will have to be sure to get back to work.

Pretty much as expected

Our New Year's Eve plans proceeded pretty much as I outlined in yesterday evening's post. The major alteration of plans was that instead of finishing the second movie and heading to bed we decided to pause The Trotsky and then catch a few minutes of the festivities taking place in downtown Halifax.

The switch from the movie to local TV coverage probably wouldn't have been my first choice, but it wasn't too bad. It was particularly nice to seen that local TV coverage in Halifax is comparable to local TV coverage in St. John's, and certainly not much better. The other consequence of this decision was that we were able hear and see a few of the fireworks. Fortunately we did not have a neighbour or neighbours blasting them off nearby.

Another notable feature of our New Year's Eve celebrations was the relatively low level of alcohol consumption. My sense is that Neil and Rebecca each had one drink while Jeannette and I both did not consume any alcohol. Sadly, I did replace excessive drinking with excessive carrot consumption. Fortunately for me, the after effects of overindulging in carrots are much less imposing than the after effects of overindulging in alcohol.

Hope everyone else had as good a time as we did.

NYE Festivities

As usual, I have done my best to avoid strenuous NYE drinking related activities. Unlike past attempts to avoid such activities, in this case it appears that I may have been successful.

This year the plan is for Neil, Rebecca, Jeannette, and I to hang out in our apartment and watch a few movies. We are starting with the modern classic Despicable Me. This will be followed with The Trotsky.

Presumably these movie-related activities will bring us close to midnight. I guess if we aren't already in bed at midnight we might do some well-wishing and whatnot.

If I am not back before midnight, I hope everyone has an enjoyable New Year's Eve.

Attacked by logic

This evening Neil, Rebecca, Jeannette, and I attended a Dal Alumni sponsored advance screening of the latest Harry Potter movie. As the recommended time of arrival was 6:00 I had to head to the theatre directly from school, without getting a chance to eat.

Shortly after we picked up our tickets I expressed an interest in getting a burger a fast food restaurant located next to the movie theatre. Neil was keen on joining me. I guess he was also quite hungry.

Though the line-up was not very long it didn't seem to be moving particularly quickly. After a few moments of observation I figure out the hold-up - the guy in front of us was paying with spare change. Though the guy seemed to have quite a bit of change he hadn't counted it in advance so he didn't know exactly how much he had, which meant a rather belaboured counting process. After an agonizing five minute counting process the guy then had to pick up the extra change that he had dumped on the counter. The only good news is that he didn't have to wait very long for his food to arrive after he had finished paying.

Then, all of a sudden, it was our turn to order.

I quickly placed our order, three of the special promotion spicy burgers, though I requested that two be plain and one have only lettuce and cheese. We were then told that we could not order these burgers without cheese or special sauce.

What? I can't omit the most expensive ingredients from my order?

Eventually they allowed us to hold the sauce on all three burgers and transfer all three pieces cheese to a single burger. When Neil's burger eventually came out they had placed two pieces of cheese on one side of the burger and the third on the other.

As ridiculous as this outcome was, I was quite pleased to have some food before the movie.

The movie, which was pretty much what I would have expected, was fine. That they split the final book in two was definitely a bit of a bummer, though a feature of the movie for which I was at least partly prepared.

A Few Quick Notes 471

-We are presently in the midst of a multi-day rainfall. While this has encouraged me to stay inside a little more than I would have otherwise, it really hasn't been too bad. Though I keep expecting heavy rain we have mostly just had relatively light rainfall with periods of heavy misting.

-Though it didn't feel like it, officially we received 53 mm of rain yesterday. Having the forecast and the weather station at the airport instead of in town leads to something of a disconnect between the forecast and reality, as we saw yesterday. I suspect that today's continued rainfall warning, which is this now suggesting "Additional rainfall amounts of 50 to 80 mm are expected," is also likely reflective of the geographic particularity.

-Last night, because we wanted to take advantage of a Video Difference free rental coupon, Jeannette and I rented Mystery Team, a new independent comedy from the US that I first heard about in an interview on The Sound of Young America. Though there were a few moments of somewhat cruder than necessary humor, on the whole the movie was quite enjoyable and funny.

-My SSHRC application has been chewing up some of my time of late, though maybe not as much as it should be. Anyway, I have now completed a second draft. Hopefully with just a few more revisions my application will be ready to submit.

-Last night I prepared beef ribs. Did they ever not turn out. Not only did there seem to be even less meat than on pork ribs, they seemed much fattier and less tasty. I think that in the future I will be giving these a skip. This is a bit of a bummer as I really like beef and was hoping to find a new cut of beef to enjoy.

-I spent much of yesterday studying/reading and plan on spending much of today engaged in similar activities. Actually, because I have been doing stuff like this I have had to dramatically cut down on the number of naps I am taking. I haven't taken so few naps since my junior high days.

A Few Quick Notes 468

-We had another grey and overcast day in Halifax today. At points, much to my chagrin, it was raining somewhat consistently.

-I made a monstrously large batch of bean soup this evening. Though the soup may not be having a particularly beneficial impact on my digestive system, it was pretty tasty.

-We played our final fall league Ultimate game on Wednesday. The game was played in some of the heaviest rain of the year. Amazingly, the rain, though heavy, was relatively warm. Though the game was played in less than ideal conditions it wasn't too bad a game.

-Today, for the first time in my life, I submitted a letter to the editor to the Globe and Mail. I suspect that my letter won't be published but I am glad submitted a letter that pointed out a rather glaring factual error (the suggestion that Harold Innis was alive in 1969).

-Jeannette and I are presently watching the modern classic Groundhog Day. I am allowing myself a few minutes of relaxation after a long day of TA related responsibilities. For those of you who are interested, Stephen Tobolowsky, the actor who played Ned Ryerson, released a series of stories on the making of the film.

Streaming Movies

It seems that as of today Netflix, at least the streaming component of their service, is available in Canada. It seems that the company is offering people a free month of access, after that the service will be $7.99 a month for unlimited streaming.

Amazingly, within just a few hours of the service going live and the free month deal being available Neil had signed up and started streaming content. When I returned from the university I found Neil and Rebecca watching About a Boy.

Hopefully this won't prove to be too much of a distraction in our apartment.

What amazes me the most about this service is that it has taken so long for it to come to Canada. Why are so many of these streaming content services so slow to come to Canada, at least in comparison to the US? Particularly because the absence of such services seems to encourage people to use the illegal alternatives.