It's 24 degress and gorgeous outside. Hubby and I have been out and about since 10:30 this morning before everyone else headed out for the day. Bank run, grocery run, shopping for headphones (which I'm completely undecided on). We ended up in Queensborough and I twisted hubby's arm, dragging him for a little reprieve at Marble Slab Creamery.
Founded in Texas, the company has been serving delicious "home made" treats since 1983. They have a whole load of locations, including a few in BC, but this is the only one I'd noticed before.
We'd been meaning to check the place out before but the first time we were out there on a hot day, the line-up was much too long so we held off. Today, it was still nice and quiet probably because it was just after noon.
It's clean, white and glittery inside the shop with light bouncing off of all the shiny surfaces. It smells wonderful, like freshly made waffle. As someone comes out to help us, we spy an army of white dressed folks in the kitchen, madly dipping cones into chocolate and then nuts.
I can't decide on a flavour. Hubby goes firs. He picks Belgian Chocolate Ice Cream with Cherries. Small size.
They scoop out the ice cream, weigh it, put it on the slab. Add the cherries:
Mix it all up...
And the he gets to enjoy!
It tasted as yummy as it looks. I ended up getting the Belgian Chocolate with Raspberries in a waffle bowl, for the added cost of $0.75. Both were absolutely delicious. A little piece of heaven only cost us $11.
So the Keanu Friday Find has been on hiatus the last few weeks but I'd bookmarked a few new pictures for today...until I spotted these.
Fresh from the elimination from Euro 2008 and before heading off to the UK for a return to MU, the Portuguese super striker Crisiano Ronaldo headed for a well deserved vacation and the paparazzi followed.
There are a whole load of more pictures over at JJ and I had a seriously hard time choosing one. I think even mom will like to take a look at these.
I loved PIXAR's cinematic offering for 2007. Ratatouille managed to entertain while, as is PIXAR's trademark, never giving up on story or dialog. It was also rich in colour and I was mesmerized by the subtle beauty of it though for me, the best bits were the bits of Remy tasting the food and the way in which that was visualized.
I knew going in to expect great things from the most recent and final SIGGRAPH event of the 2007/2008 season "Teasing the Senses: The Visual Style of Ratatouille" but as usual, I was a little surprised by what I learned.
This time around, the crew brought up "Goddess of Light" Sharon Calahan, a Director of Photography/Lighting at PIXAR. It was fascinating listening to her talk about how she achieved the rich colours and textures of the film and though I understood very little of the technical, the before/after photos she showed really did speak louder than any words. But for the technical folks, she spoke about saturating shadows rather than mixing in blacks and grays which naturally dulls the colour and, from what I could see, gives everything a "flat" look. There is something very different in the feel of watching "Ratatouille", almost like a painting you want to step into where everything is at once gorgeous and familiar yet different.
What always surprises me is where people get their inspiration and hearing Sharon speak of where she looked for inspiration on lighting the shots provided what was, for me, the most interesting part of the presentation. Sharon spoke of finding her inspiration in her photos, photos of food and, not surprisingly, other films.
"Blade Runner", "Memoirs of a Geisha", "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb", "Batman". All very different films but all inspirations on the look of the film and when you see the stills from those films immediately before or after various shots in the movie, the inspiration is uncanny and I wonder how I could have missed it the first time around. I haven't seen "Ratatouille" since I rented it earlier this year but I'm really excited to give it a second look to try and really spot these visual references that I missed the first time around.
Overall, it was a great event and a fantastic way to finish off the year. A two month summer hiatus starts in July and the group will be back for the 2008/2009 season in September with the Animation Festival which I'm really looking forward to.
If you're not already on the mailing list, I highly recommend it. All of the events I've gone to have been sell outs so it's good to know what's coming up with plenty of time to buy your tickets. To sign up, it's as easy as clinking here and filling in your name and email.
I'm really excited and looking forward to another great year!
I don't often make the trip out to enjoy any fireworks on Canada Day, mostly because they're usually downtown and I just can't bear the throngs of people coming from everywhere to take in on the action. But it looks like this year I don't have to head far from home.
From a recent press release by the Quayside Community Board:
The Quayside Community Board announces a significant financial contribution to the Hyack Festival Association Canada Day Fireworks on July 1st, 2008 at 10PM. The Quayside Community, with 4000 residents and 2080 condominium homes, are proud to ensure this important first time event takes place in celebration of Canada's Birthday.
Taking place on the tip of Lulu Island in Queensborough this dramatic display will be seen from a large area of New Westminster and Surrey. In co-sponsorship with McQuarrie Hunter Barristers and Solicitors and New Westminster Vancity Savings the Quayside Community Board is proud to bring this exciting and important celebration to the shores of the Fraser River. Viewing points will be available all along the Quayside Boardwalk. Take the skytrain to New Westminster Station, go south over the Hyack Square Bridge and walk west towards the Rail Bridge for a close up view of the action.
How very exciting! Looks like the fireworks display will kick off at 10PM.
Tuesday is also looking like it will be a fine day so it may be worthwhile to pack some outdoor gear and head out for a full day of fun including on stage entertainment, community displays, family/children's games & BBQ, formal ceremony, and a family lunch and fun box auction, all of which is taking place at Queen's Park. These events kick off at 11:30 AM and run through to 3:30PM.
So prep yourself for a full day of excitement! Not to mention, all of these events will make it easy to get out early, enjoy the evening and stake out a spot for the fireworks!
So I've floundered a bit about the release of Guitar Hero on Tour for the Nintendo DS. First I was excited, then a little worried and now completely sold.
Hubby went to the US for a car show on the weekend and brought me back this fabulous game which, he didn't realize, had only been released on Sunday. I broke it open and immediately turned the sucker on.
The setup takes a little getting used to, as does the game play itself but the game designers have done a fairly good job of adapting the wildly successful game for a portable player.
It takes a while to find a comfortable position and for me, that means close quarters with the game nearly resting on my chest but it seems to work and the disclaimer itself states that you should find a "comfortable" position, so that's going to be different for everyone. The game play itself is pretty good and this version features different music which keeps things interesting. My only concern now is that I've had the game for 4 days and I'm nearly done...unless there's more stuff to unlock - I'll keep you posted on that.
So I'm sure I look pretty funny playing it but I'm definitely having a good time and as predicted, it is pretty addicting. By far the best of the screens in the entire game is this warning screen which made me laugh:
I first heard, and mentioned, dancing Matt earlier this year and I'd pretty much forgotten about him until, late last week, a new video of Matt started making the rounds. It wasn't high on my priority list of things to see but this morning I finally saw the video of his most recent travels and I have to say, it not only made me smile and even laugh, it also made me a little teary eyed. Why? Because one guy can bring so much joy and a real sense of global community with a 4 minute video clip.
I particularly love the India bit and I need to know...how did I miss out on Matt's visit to Vancouver?
I'm a fan of The Fast and the Furious. The chemistry between Diesel and Walker works, as does the story of a bad ass racer helping out the good guys. It's not a cinematic masterpiece but it does feature some excellent race scenes and some pretty hoppin' cars (notably Toretto's Dodge Charger).
I wasn't a fan of number two but I did have fun with the different feel and style of Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. The acting was even worse, as was the story, but the fact that this was filmed in Tokyo added enough colour and culture to make it interesting - not to mention an awesome soundtrack. I loved the ending of that film, but I never held my breath to think that there would be a fourth film in the franchise, one featuring my favourite character. Don't know what I'm talking about? Check it:
Yeah, that clip made me giddy.
Then there was an announcement that a fourth film was in the works with Diesel and Walker returning. There were rumours of filming in Brazil and even more rumours about the cars but the first official film stills have been released and though they don't show much, they're looking fine!
Somehow, after podcasting, rather than getting on with it and editing the show, I ended up killing nearly 3 hours downloading, updating and customizing Firefox 3.
Now that it's all "ready", I'm ready to edit the podcast but I'm not sure I have the energy for it. Will have to try!
There's some construction going on across the street from my office. They're taking down the entire block for a high-rise complex. I've been meaning to take a few photos of the demolition but haven't had a chance to, mostly because I've been running pretty late in getting tot he office in the mornings but this particular morning, they were busy taking down the last bit of the building and I happened to be early. I took a few shots from the same angle but I like this one the best.
I don't know much about George Carlin but I have seen a number of his skits. Carlin died yesterday and I thought to remember him with one of my favourite routines "Seven Words You Can't Say on TV". I warn you know, the language isn't really SFW but the bloody thing is damned funny.
The other day I posted some interesting developments in book promotion that has been dubbed "Book Trailers" and today I noticed some interesting marketing with "Writing Guru of the Moment" Stephenie Meyer.
By now you've noticed I'm a fan of the books but I'm also very impressed by Meyer's team and their creativity in spreading the word and excitement on the books and keeping the fans happy and involved. Sure, having a movie in the works doesn't hurt any but I'm particularly impressed by news around Meyer's book tour. These tours are nothing new: a book comes out, the author goes on tour to promote it and sign autographs. The difference here is the way in which they're approaching this. Meyer's publicity team is going further by incorporating music into the event even dubbing it the "Breaking Dawn Concert Series".
If that's not enough, they've also recently announced that the tour will be recorded and used as webcontent to share with fans, free of charge. Talk about keeping your market happy.
This entire thing reminds me of the last time I saw Anne Rice, on tour with Pandora. The event ticket cost me $15 but it also included a screening of Interview with a Vampire but I must admit, that seems small compared to this marketing machine.
Details about "The Breaking Dawn Concert Series" can be found on the official website. If you're looking for information on book tours in general, I urge you to check out BookTour which allows you to sign up, find the author of your choice and track their upcoming tour events via email!
Remember those? You picks your songs ever so carefully for that special person or occasion or like me, you made them of music that you like to hear for whatever occasion. For a while I also made Mix CD's but nothing managed to capture the greatness of the now extinct mix tape.
One local blogger, Mr. Raul the Fabulous, posted his first mix tape a few weeks back and I made a mental note to check out the service and then he posted a second one today and I just had to check it out.
My quick search resulted in this mini mix tape, if memory serves me right you could only get about 6 songs on one side of a cassette, so it's really "Side A" of the tape. I'll have to make up "Side B" at a later time! :)
I love shopping for the house. I wish I had more money to do it and more space to really buy what I'd love but I think we've done fairly well for ourselves with a few nice pieces.
I was doing a little research for the boss lady who is currently shopping for furnishing for the PH Show Suite in our first tower and I stumbled on a local store which I simply must visit. It's called K Interiors and they are located on South Granville Street. I was browsing around their shop tour and nearly fell off my chair looking at the sheer number of gorgeous Art Deco inspired pieces. Must make a trip out there.
One of my other favourite local shops is Bella Idea, which has been on Hastings for decades. Mom and dad have shopped there for as long as I can remember and though most of the furnishings are outside of my budget, and even in some cases taste, they have a large selection of bedding, dining room settings, china, silver and pretty much anything else you might need for a dinner party. I love it.
Breaking out in the book business seems so much more difficult than breaking out in the movie business. I've never researched the actual numbers but I certainly get the sense that there are thousands of books published daily whereas there are only a couple thousand of films made every year. I could be way off but that's the sense I get.
I was reading an interesting article by author Sophie Masson on Writer Unboxed, a site I started reading because one of my favourite writers, Juliet Marillier, occasionally posts there. Masson was talking about Web 2.0 and using some of the technology to get some attention. Masson speaks directly about making trailers for books.
I agree with most of the points she brings up but looking at the few trailers she linked to, I must say I didn't finish any of them. I'm not an expert on video but I do know what appeals to me and this certainly isn't it. They all feel static and a little boring. Masson's first rule states "Do not use a video camera to shoot a trailer." I think right off the bat you're missing out on an opportunity. Many of the best on-line videos I've seen on-line are home made. I think the KEY is to ensure that, whatever you're making, make it unique. Maybe use animation or live action, or even the pictures idea but above all, make it interesting and appealing. Also, the minute and a half running length is way too long. 30 seconds or a minute is the most I'd start with and if viewers respond well, then expand. Even better, do a series of short clips. If the first one is interesting, folks are more likely to come back for more.
Just a few things that came instantly to mind. I do think the idea is a good one - certainly thinking out of the box!
I'm not a big connoisseur of "fine cooking" or even "fine dining". I like to cook, and I love to eat but we do a lot of it at home but we rarely at anything out of cook books mostly because hubby is not particularly adventurous with food.
I'm not completely sure how it came up today but on the drive to the train, hubby wondered aloud about truffles and how he didn't know what a truffle was. Thinking about it, I'd heard the term before and I know it's an expensive item but I don't know what it is either so I figured I'd try to get to the bottom of the eternal question: what is a truffle?
According to an article in the now defunct Restaurants USA magazine, there are summer and winter truffles with the winter truffles being the most difficult and rare and therefore more expensive of the two. According to the article, which was published in 2001, white truffles can cost between $1,000 and $2,200 a pound and black truffles usually run from $300 to $600 a pound with a one-inch truffle weighing about an ounce. That is a mighty expensive mushroom.
It's not surprising these things are hard to find. According to various websites, including this one, truffles are found underground and essentially have to be "dug for".
Truffles are found in the ground, no deeper than 2-15 inches, in small groups often near the base of large trees. In order to find them, truffle harvesters use truffle hogs or more recently, dogs to sniff them out. Grounded truffles give off an odor that mimics a male pig sex hormone and thus, female pigs were traditionally used to sniff them out. However, hogs have a tendency to eat the finds before harvesters can gather them and as a result, more dogs are being used to uncover truffles. Once discovered, truffles can be collected in subsequent years at the same location. Truffle-fields or cultivated truffles are now being grown with some success in areas in Spain, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia, Oregon, North Carolina, Tennessee and the United Kingdom.
Risotto and White Truffles with browned butter. Photo care of oddgirl on Flickr.
It looks like truffles are used in both savory and sweet dishes and I must admit that now, I'm even more interested in trying it at least once. For those willing to shell out the big bucks for this delicacy, be sure to also take a look at the Gourmet Food Store's how to on cooking with truffles.
Somewhere along the lines, "The Incredible Hulk" discussion over at Row Three descended into comic book movies, "Blade" talk and then Andrew's posting on finding your Vampire name. I searched for mine and here's what I came up with:
The Great Archives determine you to have gone by the identity: Josette le Boursier Known in some parts of the world as: Demeter of The Vile The Great Archives Record: Vile, foul, filthy and greedy: this creature knows nothing of light.
"Vile, foul, filthy and greedy"? I might like to shop but I don't think I'm greedy. And this "creature knows nothing of light"??? I'm, like, the happiest person you'll ever meet! Ok. maybe that's pushing it but you get the picture.
That said, I do like my name and all in all, it does make for an interesting persona. What's your vampire name? Find out for yourself and then share in the comments!
I'd actually seen mention of this somewhere else late last week but managed to forget to post about it. Better late than never!
Trent Reznor, one of my favourite artists, is working with producer Lawrence Bender to create a TV series based on material from one of NIN's recent albums "Year Zero".
The concept of Year Zero centers on a bleak, Orwellian future approximately 15 years away, with the U.S. a religious dictatorship and the world on the brink of environmental and social collapse.
I, for one, will pretty much watch/listen/buy anything Trent puts his hands on because I have yet to be truly disappointed.
On a related note, it's worth mentioning that Reznor is also one of the biggest acts, along with Radiohead, to remove himself from the traditional studio music system. I am completely behind his ideas that we need to move beyond the old non-functioning system but I must also point out that it's much easier for him or Radiohead, both bands with rabid, deep rooted fanbases, to take this approach and much harder for small, upcoming bands to follow down the same path. Still, I do appreciate what they're doing for their fans and I must say, I'm loving the regular blog posts, YouTube videos and Flickr uploads that come directly from Trent and crew rather than some dude in the marketing department at some big ass record company.
We listen to 104.9 at the office and since I'm already here listening to it, I signed up for the Clear Rewards. They're currently running a special in conjunction with Science World's The Magic Behind the Music exhibit and every day, the station posts a tidbit of music trivia. Today's was "Who sings "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid?" Well, I've only seen that film hundreds of times so obviously, I knew that was Sebastian. From there, I headed right for YouTube to check out the great tune:
While there, I also recalled "Kiss the Girl", a song that made me all mushy when I was 11.
I actually woke up at 5:30, stuck around bed for an hour and when I started to get sore, I finally got up, that was 6:30 this morning. Thankfully, it works out well because I had a little finishing up to do on my first "feature", which will go up tomorrow, and now that I'm done, I feel like I've already accomplished a lot.
On the slot for the rest of the day is lunch with Vern and Steph, both of whom I haven't seen in a while, a trip to the mall to purchase wrapping paper and a card for Father's Day tomorrow, and then a trip to the movies with hubby tonight to see Edward Norton in "The Incredible Hulk". All in all, should be a good day and to boot, the weather looks like it may hold up!
We're at the brink of an energy crisis. Gas prices around town are currently sitting a $1.47. That's whole lot of money to fill up your tank.
If that's not enough, Terasen wants to hike the price of your natural gas. And then there's that nasty global warming/climate crisis on everyone's mind. So how does the BC Government react? They add a new tax and then give everyone $100 to make up for it.
I know, it's a bum deal. $100 won't go very far even in that environmentally friendly Prius but it's all we get and I say be happy you're even getting that. At the last Bookcrossing Meeetup, fellow booklover and blogger Monnibo mentioned that The Tyee was encouraging folks to put their $100 to good use. It makes good sense too. On it's own it isn't much but if everyone were to pool their $100, we'd have a nice pot of money to put towards an initiative that may actually make a change.
So, head over to Green Your Campbell Cash and have a voice on how you'd like to see your $100 spent! I'm certainly putting this into consideration for my $100!
Hard to believe but it's been nearly an entire week since my last "Twilight" post so here we go. This time around, fantabulous e-cards! Share them with all your friends!
Yes, that title is bound to catch attention. If I was writing for either Row Three or the FWC blog, I'd probably have added some asterix but as it stands, this is my personal blog and though the word can have some bad connotations, but in this instance, I think it's worth the risk.
The nice folks at the FWC have organized a great little event coming up this weekend, Saturday, June 14th. The event is taking place at the Ridge Theater. The film will play at 4PM and immediately after the film there will be a special "Pillow Talk" session with: Sonja Bennett (YPF star), Mackenzie Gray (local actor), Charlie Smith (Editor of the Georgia Straight), Neal Clarance (Partner, Ernst and Young LLP), Cam Labine (director of CONTROL ALT DELETE) and the entire thing will be moderated by Kathy Matak (SFU Philosopher's Cafe & Private Investigator). It'll make for a fabulous little event.
I've seen the film and it's great fun so if you're in town, or if you're in Toronto, there's a similar event taking place at the Scotiabank Theatre (Richmond & John Street). For loads more details, be sure to check out the First Weekend Club website.
I'm not a big fan of forums, never have been. It may have something to do with the fact that I came into the internet world at a time when MIRc and online chat rooms were the big thing so posting on a bulletin board and waiting for a response when you can have an immediate response seemed odd. So yes, bulletin boards have never really been my thing. I've tried to get into them but outside of the R3 bulletin board which the guys set up for behind the scenes organizing, I have a hard time keeping track.
In the short amount of time I did use bulletin boards, one of the things I noticed was how quickly things could get out of hand. In a chat room or a comment section, it seems easier to deal with but still, it's easy for things to get out of hand as they have with this funny story.
A friend of mine sent me this hysterical little "thread gone mad". It starts off innocently enough but it quickly gets out of hand, all thanks to one picture:
Growing up in Portugal had a lot of perks, mostly to do with small town living where everyone knows everyone else. Though that can be a bit of pain when you get older, as a child, it means lots of freedom to roam around town and someone will always know where you are. The one drawback is that I didn't have the same level of exposure to TV and music as folks living in the city. Music wasn't so much of a problem because Dad has always been a big collector, and books - well, we read everything we got our hands on and thanks to the traveling libraries, that meant lots of books but there was one TV in the house and it was in the kitchen and Grandpa had rule over what we watched.
Except for an hour a day and a two on Saturday when we got to watch cartoons. This is where I discovered and fell in love with She-Ra and He-Man and The Smurfs but my favourite show had to be "A Menina das Flores" which translates into "The Flower Child". A few of the boys and I have been bantering back and forth about recent news of a Smurfs film in the works and I mentioned I'm pretending not to have read those news mostly because there aren't a lot of TV shows I watched as a kid and they're all pretty precious to me. That's not to say I won't see a Smurfs movie, but I'm not thrilled about it.
I decided to put my fingers to work to track down some info about my favourite of those shows and I've come to discover that the American title of the show was The Flower Child Lunlun though it looks like the show was more of a hit in Europe than in NA. Still, as soon as I saw a picture I knew that was the show. My sister and I were OBSESSED.
I can't wait to show this to my mom. She's going to love it!
A friend sent me a link earlier today to some of the most breathtaking pictures I've ever seen. Some I've seen before in print advertising but others are completely new and amazing. They all come from Yann Arthus-Bertrand, a world renowned French photographer.
I've just given you a tiny taste of the goodness. For loads more photos be sure to check out this little gallery, and there are loads more photos at Arthus-Bertrand's official website.
Sir Alexander Mackenzie School in the Northwest Territories was once a Residential School. Photo care of cyborgess on Flickr.
There's something big a-brewing in Canadian history that will make waves over the next few days but which seems to be low on the totem pole of recent news.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, June 11th, Prime Minister Stephen Harper will formally apologize to the thousands of abused victims of residential schools. It took years but a while back the government started compensating survivors for the abuse and trauma that they suffered in these residential schools which peppered much of the Canadian landscape in the 19th and 20th centuries. I'm not all that familiar with the systems but I have read a few accounts of what happened in these places and none of them were pretty.
I'm not going to pretend to know the details of what has transpired over the years but I do feel that it's extremely important that we, as Canadians, mark this day in Canadian history. If you're looking for more information on the residential school system, I suggest this wiki entry, the Aboriginal Canada Portal which has a fantastic collection of links to various resources and even this amazing video care of CBC's "A Lost Heritage" which shows a short clip that aired on CBC in the mid 50's.
For those individuals in the Burnaby and New Westminster area interested in seeing the apology, the Aboriginal Student Services has booked Lecture Theatre 1614 of the New West Campus to show the official stream of the Residential School Apology. The theater has been booked from 11:30 until 1:30 on Wednesday, June 11 with the hopes that there might be people wishing to view this historic moment. Any and all are welcome.
At the moment I can't find information on who will be live broadcasting the feed but if you have any information on where we can see this historic event unfold online, please leave me a comment and I will post an update.
Ah! I was reading a very overly positive wrap-up of the weekend box office news from Europe and I have to say, as much as the numbers speak for themselves, the Variety folks are painting a pretty picture I'm not exactly sure is accurate.
Sure, people are still going to the movies, and someone has to win the box office battle but can they really say that the numbers didn't drop because of Euro play? Seriously? We're talking about nations that eat, drink and sleep football all year round never mind during a world class competition!
Still, it made me smile to know that there is some chatter about the lowered box office returns because of football. Not sure the same can be said for any other sport in the world!
It seems like the entire web world came to a screeching halt today for Steve Job's announcement of the iPhone 3G. As much as I want one, and I do, I'm a little concerned that so many folks have their apples stacked in the Apple basket (ha! that was unintentional), I'm seriously contemplating not getting an iPhone to be different. But we all know how my last hold out ended.
Regardless, in conjunction with the annoncement, the web was also given a fabulous little commercial featuring our favourite man about Hollywood, Robert Downey Jr. Check it out:
Getting ready to watch the football game which kicks off at 11:45. We should be doing some shopping this morning but there isn't enough time before the game starts so we're sitting here watching the Czech Republic kicking ass. NICE.
The weather gods seems to be smiling on us temporarily and the weather outside has turned from ugly rain to acceptable levels of sunshine. I'm just thrilled it's not raining.
No big plans for the weekend other than watching the football game tomorrow morning and then recording a podcast on Sunday. Other than that, I'm taking it easy. To boot, for the first time in months I'll be home on a Friday night. By myself. One of the boys in the car club is in a band that's playing tonight and a few of the boys are going to see the show. Hubby asked me if I wanted to come along but I passed it up. Let them have a boys night.
I missed it last week but I won't forget today! Here's this week's KFF:
I love Zip, I do. I've been a member of Canada's Netflix for 2 years now (I can hardly believe that but that's what my account details say). One of the first movies I added to the list was the much talked about Bollywood gem Don which stars the only Bollywood actor I can immediately recognize: Shahrukh Khan.
As I added more titles to my list, mostly obscure oldies, that golden gem kept getting further down the list and considering I have it set up on random, it looked like it would be years before I got to see it. Finally, I made a few changes to my account and put the bloody film on the number one spot where it's been sitting for over a month. Until today:
YES!!!
You'll also note that I currently have 500+ titles in my list. At this rate, it'll be a lifetime before I can get through them all. The goal for the end of the year is to knock 100 off and bring that number down to 400. I'll keep you posted on the progress.
In the meantime, if you're wondering why I'm so excited about seeing this, just check out this fantabulous trailer:
I came upon The Big Bang Theory earlier this week when flipping through the channels. I really just stopped because I noticed it was the guy from Roseanne so I wanted to see what he was up to now and wow, was I impressed. The show centers around these two geeky dudes, Sheldon and Lenard who live across the hall from a girl of average intelligence. That's what the description says but watching it was like seeing people I know up on the big screen. OMG, it's hysterical.
I have to do a little more work to figure out when it's on up here but I'm thinking I'll be investing in the Season 1 DVD when it's released in September.
For now, here's a little taste:
There's an entire official YouTube Channel so if you're looking for more, that's the place to start!
I'm not one to complain too much about the weather (trust me, there are folks who make a much bigger deal out of it) but when it's rained this hard for a few days, not to mention it's been cold as winter, I'm ready for a reprise. However short.
When a friend mentioned these doors to me, I thought he was pulling my leg but then, why should it seem so sci-fi-ish? Car designs and concepts haven't really chanced much in a few decades but technology has continued to grow so it only makes sense that something like this is on the horizon.
The company is called Jatech and they have developed technology which allows car doors to essentially slide into the body of your car. On the surface, there doesn't seem to be too many advantages to this other than it looking cool but heck, it could make for safer cars. Just thing of drivers trying to open their doors into traffic to get out of the car, being able to get in and out of the back seat without having to move the front seat....but overall, I'll admit there's a nice aesthetic to the movement of the door "disappearing".
Not sure of the cost of this add-on (though I'm sure it's not cheap) but it'll be interesting to see if a car manufacturer decides to implement the technology as a standard in their vehicles, forcing other manufacturers to follow suit. Not sure how realistic that is but a girl can always dream....
I came across this video today essentially advertising the great construction going on for the 1964 World's Fair. I especially like the bit about alleviating traffic jams...
They're the only 'news' channel out there that would resort to actually discussing a sexual position/practice on the air. Good god.
I was checking out Empire's list of small movies to watch this summer and at #4 they have this film called "Donkey Punch" and the description says "Never heard of the titular sex act? Ask the seediest person in the pub or Google it (warning: Do NOT try an image search if you value your eyes)." So what do I do? I Google it. With pictures. Except the pictures aren't bad. What the hell are they going on about?
While doing my "research", I found this YouTube clip of the Fox News folks talking odd sexual acts. It's funny on two levels: 1) the woman seems freakin' clueless and 2) they're doing this on national TV.
I proudly display and share my Portuguese heritage. Whereas I get the sense that my sister isn't quite as keen on keeping her heritage alive, I'm one of these people that's very much interested in not only sharing it and keeping it alive but helping it grow. A few years back I was very involved with the Portuguese community in Vancouver but a few happenings really rubbed me the wrong way, mostly because I felt like I was putting in so much of my time and getting so little thanks in return. That would be fine, if others were also being overlooked, but it irked me that some people would only show up for the big public events, doing little to no work at any other time, yet they garnered attention. Yes, I'm a little petty at time and this really did bug me. That's not to say that I don't love what Terry Costa, the guy behind the community - don't let anyone tell you otherwise - doesn't do amazing things. One of the projects he helped spear head was Portuguese Heritage Month, which actually kicked off on Sunday.
For the entire month of June, there are loads of events going on around town, most of them free of charge. If you're in town, I urge you to check out the events calendar for all the listings.
Given my film passion, it's no surprise that I veer directly to the Film and Video Festival portion of the events. I was checking out the various upcoming films and of those listed, I'm very, very excited to see "Foreign Land" from renowned Brazilian director Walter Salles who, earlier this year graced Cannes with his newest film "Linha de Passe".
Not directly related to Portuguese Heritage Month but also worth taking close note of is the fact that The Pacific Cinemateque will be running a retrospective of the world's oldest active director, Portuguese master Manoel de Oliveira. Between June 20 and July 6th, they'll be showing nearly all of the director's works, including his first film. Well worth checking out. If you're looking for a buddy to go with, worry not. Yours truly will be taking a few groups to the movies so if you want to tag along, keep your eyes peeled on the Vancouver Movie Meetup site.
And if you prefer to take in some local cuisine, be sure to check out the Georgia Straight's recent blog entry, care of the aforementioned Terry Costa, which outlines most of the local eateries.
All in all, should be a month full of fabulous events. Add in the EuroCup which kicks off with the first Portugal game on Saturday, and you've got more than enough events to get your Portugal fill for the year! Hope you get out to enjoy some of it! I sure will!
One of the other videos everyone was talking about from the MTV awards on the weekend was the Seth Rogan and James Franco weed smoking incident which was, apparently, hilarious. But because the folks at MTV are lame asses, anyone outside of the US wasn't able to see the "official" clip care of the MTV crew. For some reason, this one also took a little longer to pop up on-line (in decent quality) but I just saw it this morning and frankly, it's simply not that funny - though Franco does NOT disappoint. Yum.
Ok, so maybe just a little. But not all cars. Just LX cars. It's a fascination since we bought Mean Mary. I just can't help myself.
Like last night. I was watching "Southland Tales" when I noticed all of the cop cars were Dodge Chargers. Hubby was in the other room. I yelled out "Honey! All the police cars are Chargers!!" Lame. I know. But it gets worse.
I started to get tired so I moved the movie and myself to the bedroom. Hubby came in a few minutes later and watched a little of the movie with me. Well, lookie there, it's a 300. I say to hubby, "All we're missing now is the Magnum and we've got the entire LX family in the movie. I wonder how much Dodge paid for the placement." A few minutes later, Sarah Michelle Gellar's character arrives in...you guessed it, a Magnum. Weird in a cool sort of way.
And to make matters worse, I'm checking out some new pics that Peter over at /Film posted today for the upcoming Death Race remake titled "Death Race 3000" when I think I spot a 300. Lo and behold, closer look it IS a 300. I sent an email to the boys: "Death Race 3000: Spot the LX". Ha. Ha. Ha.
I know, it's a bit obsessive. I just can't help myself.
And while looking for some pictures of the cop cars in the movie, I found this cool clip about one of the stunts in the film which happens to feature my baby.
I *should* have known but I didn't. Shortly after I finished reading Stephenie Meyer's trilogy, I took all three massive books to a Bookcrossing Meetup where vanbiohazard took them home. I didn't think twice about it at the time but I can't tell you the amount of times I've kicked myself since then. I should have kept them and damned it, now I don't have them to refer back to. I just never knew this entire Bella/Edward story would blow up the way it has.
"Breaking Dawn" is due out a bit later this year (59 days and counting) but clicking around Meyer's site, I found a link to "Midnight Sun" which is essentially Edward's take on "Twilight". Now that's mighty interesting. The pdf to the first chapter is here but I don't want to read it until I have the original to compare it to. You know what that means right? Looks like I'll be dropping some money on the book. A second time. *sigh*
So I did wait. Actually, I'm not even sure if the awards show was on Canadian TV but I managed to completely forget the awards was even on which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Here's the clip:
Updated with better version of clip!
It's a bit dark to see much of anything but you certainly get the sense for what's going on. Tantalizing! vball * LoveR has posted some great looking stills from the trailer on her Flickr page and they look *very* nice.
