It’s been cold as hell for the last couple of days. I haven't brought out the big winter coat because I just KNOW it's going to get worse. At least I made a startling discovery this morning. The last few days, I've been getting to work with a headache. I'm OK when I get up but by the time I walk in the door at the office, I've got a pounding headache. I've discovered that this is due to the cold. The pain today didn't start until I was waiting at the Skytrain platform. I'm thinking I may need to start using a toque or something to keep my forehead warm and cozy. Oi.
Lots of fun stuff for Halloween so we'll jump right in. It took a lot of energy to keep this under wraps for over a month. To celebrate the new M&M's Dark, a site went up in September entitled "50 Dark Movies, Hidden in a Painting". The idea, find the 50 film titles as quickly as possible! It's lots of fun. Go here to take the challenge and make sure you let us know how long it took you to finish yours. It took me almost 30 minutes to do mine. I'll post a link with the answers on Friday!
As for the countdown of movies to see this Halloween…well, I just couldn’t make up my mind. In highschool, shortly after discovering Anne Rice, I picked up this fascination with Vampires. I didn't dress like one, I didn't drink blood because I thought I was one I just liked Vampires. Though I'm not as interested in Vampire lore anymore, I still remain a huge fan of Vampire flicks and of course, my number one spot for Halloween movies to see was going to be a Vampire movie but I couldn't narrow the list down to 1 so, I'm giving you a top 10 list.
10. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - low gore, quick dialogue and darn fun.
9. Blade - loud music, kick ass fight sequences and an ultra cool, buff vampire.
8. Underworld - sleek and modern, not to mention one of the (if not THE) best looking vampire I've EVER seen.
7. The Lost Boys - 80's greatness. I still love watching this one.
6. Night Watch - Russia like you've never seen it before.
5. Dracula - this original is still good today and even with all of the Lugosi parodies out there, the man still does Dracula better than anyone.
4. Shadow of the Vampire - the making of one of the best (and first) vampire movies. Malkovich and Dafoe are brilliant.
3. Nosferatu - this 1922 German classic has stood the test of time.
2. Bram Stoker's Dracula - what can I say? Gary Oldman is brilliant as the shape shifting Dracula. Throw in great performances from Keanu, Carey Elwes, Hopkins and even Winona Ryder, lots of blood, beautiful costumes, great music (which has since been used in TONS of movies) and Coppola behind the camera, and you have a winner. Oh yeah, and keep your eye out for the gorgeous Monica Bellucci…
1. Interview with a Vampire - well, my list couldn't really be topped by anything else. Anne's work, Neil Jordan behind the camera and a brilliant cast brings this, the story of Louis, the caring vampire, to life. But this is as much Louis' story as it is Lestat's and Cruise pulled this off beautifully. It's a gorgeous film with amazing performances. If you haven't seen it, do…it's well worth it. Plus, it's relatively low on the gore factor.
So there you have it. Essentially a list of my favourite vampire flicks.
I hope you everyone has a great Halloween tonight. Eat lots of candy, drink some funny coloured beer, cozy up with a scary movie and above all, be safe.
So after I posted on Friday all hell broke loose at the office and I ended up leaving with the biggest migrane I've had in months. I'm not sure if I jinksed myself or if that was in the cards from the beginning. Even with the headache, I managed to have a good Friday night and a good weekend. I didn't manage to get out of the house on Sunday though. I was feeling the pits, it was cold as fright, we had no electricity for most of the morning and Dan disappeared off to K's first thing in the morning and didn't come home until nearly 5. I did get lots of sleep and general good rest which was very, very nice.
In all my excitement on Friday I managed to forget to post a movie suggestion so today you get two. The first is the 1973 classic The Exorcist starring the horror movie goddess Linda Blair. A brilliantly scary film of satanic posession, Linda's head turns are just as scary today as they were in 1974.
My second suggestion is the brilliant Black Christmas. Generally considered the first slasher film and starring the ever amazing and forever infamous Olivia Hussey, this is certainly one of the best horror flicks; ever. Make sure you give it a viewing before the remake (which will either be a sell out or an over the top gore fest - depending on the rating they're looking for) which is scheduled to hit theatres on, none other than, December 25, 2006.
That's it for now. I have a stack of mail to get through before heading for lunch. Hope everyone's having a great Monday!
Happy Friday folks. I'm feeling really happy today. It's a mix of it being the last work day of the week, the fact that the boss lady isn't here and there's very little actual work for me to do. I just wish I could get away with reading...
When planning your next gambling excursion, forget Vegas instead, head out to Macau. The ex-Portuguese colony and now Chinese province is well on the way to unseating Vegas as the gambling capital of the planet. Better brush up on your Portuguese! :)
Here's something else which I'm sure some of you have seen. I figure I'll post it here now and in a few months I'll do this again to see how we're progressing. The one on the left is my movie site and on the right is this blog:
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To get your own value, chek out this site.
A local blogger who I've had the pleasure of meeting a couple of time recently posted a great read entitled "Getting Laid, Getting Tested, Getting AIDS". It's an easy to read and informative article that hits the ball right on the mark. Check it out.
To finish off on a great note, here is this week's KFF.
Have a fantastic weekend everyone!
Another selection for you Halloween movie lovers is John Carpenter's classic The Thing. This 1982 classic surpsasses its 1951 original (one of the few films that is better than the original). A tale of monsters at an Arctic reseach station is as good today as the day it came out. A little gory and definately thrilling, it's still on many lists of best horror flicks of all time. Not to mention that Kurt Russell is awesome.
Yesterday I decided to update to the new BloggerBeta template layout design. You may have noticed that the Haloscan comments were disabled for a little while but I've now got them back up. The new system is SUPER easy with drang and drop boxes that don't require any coding but if you do have to do any hard coding, be prepared for a nightmare. I'm not sure what language it's written in but it's not your standard HTML. Everything else worked like a charm and I managed to add everything on the sidebar from drag and drop boxes. For those who regularly read my movie reviews, I've also added an RSS feed from the movie site on the sidebar so you can easily stay up to date!
I had a great time with the girls last night. We headed out to the movies and a few folks from Meetup unexpectedly showed up which was nice. I've also (finally!) gotten a responce on what I need to go shopping in the great US of A and it turns out I'm OK! We've made plans to go down to Bellis Fair (sp?) on Nov. 4th. I'm REALLY excited! I was checking out Target (Tar-ge with a French accent) online and they have a sweet assortment of plus size stuff. I can't TELL you how difficult it is to buy clothes here for anyone over a size 14. Nightmare. So yes, I'm very, very excited!
Last but not least, I read some interesting news on Tuesday that I thought I'd share with you. Kurt Cobain, one of the greatest musicians of my generation, has now surpassed The King as the highest earning dead celebrity. Between October of 2005 and October 2006, he made $50M. It's upsetting to know that such a great talent was taken from us so young. He, like John Lennon, is one of those guys that make me wonder how differently the music business would be today if they were still alive.
To continue yesterday's list of movies to watch this Halloween comes the number 4 selection on my list: Monster House. It's eerie, fun and perfect for the entire family.
It's getting harder and harder to get up in the mornings. Leaveing the warm coziness of my flannel sheets and making a run to the bathroom in the morning is getting to be a chore. I consider myself a morning person but this has been a common occurance as far back as I can remember: come winter, mornings are the enemy. D keeps saying that we wouldn't have this problem if I turned the heat on but I refuse to do that especially considering that when we come from work, it's always comfortable at home. The big joke is that I'm constantly telling him to put on socks and a sweatshirt.
I've been scratching my head for the last couple of days over the controversy and media coverage for D.O.A.P. The film has been getting less than favourable reviews but the folks over at the TIFF gave it some award and, all of a sudden, everyone's talking about it. I plan to see it at some point next week but I'm not expecting any sort of ground breaking film making. What upsets me the most about this is that this stupid film is taking some of the limelight that should be directed to the fantastic, also controversial but much more important Deliver Us From Evil.
It's bloody cold outside today but I nearly boiled to death yesterday in my sweater so today I decided to wear sleeveless. I'm sitting here FREEZING. I just can't win.
Back to work. I still have a review to write for Marie Antoinette.
Children of the 80's. I KNOW you're out there. Well, guess what? I have a wicked new website for you. The other day I was reading one of my regular movie blogs and one of the guys over at Film Junk has started another site, The 80's Blog. Oh yeah baby. Re-live the 80's in all their glory and get updates on 80's stuff making a splash in the new millennium. This morning I even found out that She-Ra is *finally* coming to DVD. Holy mother. This is FANTASTIC news! Totally made my day. Now I just have to wait the few weeks until Nov.7.
With Halloween just around the corner, I'm going to take the next 5 days (it's actually 7 but I don't work weekends) to share with you recommendations on Halloween movies that you may have missed that are well worth watching. Today's Halloween selection is Slither. It's a fun and campy take on the typical alien invasion genre not to mention that it stars the ever handsome Canadian heartthrob, Nathan Fillion. It has some gory old school special effects, a little blood, a little swearing and a bit of sex so it may not be the best selection for the kids but a fun one for you and the friends. Slither is out on DVD today.
On totally unrelated news, I just saw the headline that Tom and Katie have picked a date! TomKat will be united as one on Nov. 18. Think I should send them a "Do It Yourself Divorce" kit?
Today has started off much better than last week. I'm not as tired and I'm definitely feeling a fair bit happier. I'm starting to think that I may just have been exceptionally tired. I skipped a couple of pre-planned events to just lounge around the house and relax which was one of the best things I could have done. I even managed to watch a movie on TV without falling asleep!
I missed breakfast this morning and I'm starving right now so I'm having my lunch early. Thankfully, I have some instant chicken noodle in my desk that I can eat for lunch!
I hardly pick up the freeby papers in the morning but once in a while I see a story that catches my eye and that was the case this morning. Most of you probably know that Vancouver is the host city of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Before we were selected, living in Vancouver was already expensive but since we were awarded the games, things have quickly deteriorated. Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels in the Downtown East Side (one of if not North America's poorest neighbourhood) were the source of most of the housing. One by one, these hotels are being sold, residents evicted and hotels upgraded into boutique hotels. The government has failed to create additional low income housing and so hundreds of people are put on the street every month. Unfortunately, this isn't just a problem with low income individuals but rather, it's happening all over. In generally affluent downtown neighbourhoods, long time residents are being given eviction notices. Property managers are removing tenants, refurbishing apartments and re-renting for, sometimes, 70% higher rent. A girlfriend of mine recently found out that her building was being renovated and she'd have to move out for 3 weeks while her apartment is fixed up. She thought this was very nice of the property managers considering that generally, the tenants get booted for good. What they didn't tell her right away was that if she wanted back into the suite after the renos, she'd have to pay the boosted price of $1400/month. That's $700 more than she pays now.
This is turning into a massive problem everywhere and I'm starting to fear that D and I aren't going to be able to move away any time soon and we may have to settle for living in my parent's basement until we're ready to buy a place of our own. It's a bit disappointing but I can't complain too much. It's either this or move away which is something I certainly don't want to do. It's getting to the point were Vancouver is just not affordable to live in anymore.
I blame this deep fall on the Olympics. Vancouver isn't ready to host this event. We have a government that doesn't listen to the people, social programs are non-existent, housing shortfall for both low-income and mid-income individuals not to mention some serious health care problems. This was all pre-Olympic bid. These problems have just gotten worse and NOW they're talking about giving back the games??? Well, I say give them back. Might as well try to salvage some of this nightmare.
Sorry for the rant. I needed to get that out. I really, really hope I don't have to leave Vancouver. I'm not sure where I'd go.
I didn't think I was going to make it. This week has been particularly horrendous and I'm not sure if it's just me or what. The weather hasn't been that bad and I've been getting lots of sleep but I'm still in a bit of a rut. I hope this isn't a long drawn out thing.
I'm looking forward to a weekend jam packed with stuff. Tonight is Sci-Fi Meet, tomorrow night is bookdiscussion at noon, afternoon with Mom and Raiders of the Lost Ark special screening with D. Sunday is 10AM special presentation of Deliver Us From Evil and then meeting a girl friend for The Queen. Somewhere in there I need to find a way to get a copy of the last episode of BG so I can be on top of it for Saturday afternoon.
I'm also trying to get next Friday off. D has taken it off and wants us to go away for the day. I'll have to confirm with the boss lady today and hopefully, I'll have a short week next week! Now to the good stuff:
This was taken at Cannes this year for "A Scanner Darkly". Nice.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Sorry for the rather unexciting posts the last few days. There hasn't been a lot going on this week other than me complaining about the rain (I know, I know. I should just move! Thankfully, I get over it after a 2 weeks and then I'm OK for the rest of the year), trying hard to get out of bed in the mornings (flannel sheets = cozy wake up. Who the hell wants to get up from that sweet cocoon of warmth?), trying to get caught up at work (both real work and personal) not to mention trying to finish the second book for the discussion group on Saturday. Yeah, it hasn't been the most exciting week.
I just read something really sad too, especially considering the current state of our planet. Today, GM celebrated the beginning of production of their H3 in South Africa for distribution in Europe, Asia and basically everywhere else other than North America. Why does this make me sad? Well, the H3 is one of the biggest poluters on the road and GM is doing everything to make this a hot seller. So much for saving the environment and helping prevent global warming. Shit like this pisses me off to no end. I hope to god that the rest of the world sticks to their small cars and gives GM the finger. They deserve it. Seriously, why the fuck do you need a big ass outbacking car like this to drive around town? To look good? WTF? But enough. I'll stop ranting now and just go hide in my corner. At least tomorrow I get to share happy things with you all. Primairly KFF.
So I finally managed to put my scribbled notes and my stunned little brain into action. It could also have something to do with the fact that I had an opportunity to discuss this with a fellow movie fan last night. I've posted my review for Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain. I think I managed to convey my feelings about it. Now I'm nearly caught up - I just have a couple of documentaries and rentals, none of which are really time sensitive, to post and then I'll be back on track.
I still don't have any information on the human evolution study I mentioned yesterday. Still nothing from the radio folks. I hope I don't end up having to call them but I really want to read more about this! If someone else out there knows about this mysterious 'study' please let me know!
That's been all my excitement so far. I better jet for now, gotta do some work but I may be back later! But, just in case...
Happy Hump Day people!
I was listening to the radio on the way to work this morning and the guys at the local radio station ran a story about a recent study about the future development of the human species. I thought that was a really interesting study so I've been looking for it this morning but have yet to find any details. I've emailed the show to get a link to the news story but in the meantime – while trying to find info on it – I came across this amazing site with more information on the future of human evolution. Not only that but they cover everything from AI to xHuman, This is an amazing wealth of information if you're into this stuff. I can't wait to dig a bit deeper through the site. Once I get the info from the radio station, I'll post that too.
Last night, I took my myself to the local college to participate in a new series being put on by Cinema Politica. We saw "Darwin's Nightmare" which is a 2005 documentary about the Nile Perch, a fish which was introduced to Lake Victoria as an 'experiment' in the 1960's and which has, essentially, taken over every part of the area and created a multinational fisheries industry with devastating implications on the local population. I'm extremely surprised that this didn't win the Oscar for best documentary last year – I guess penguins have more appeal.
I'll leave you with that. I'll try to have something fun for tomorrow.The weather has been particularly nice the last couple of weeks but on Saturday night, it took a turn for the worse. It's been cold and rainy for the last few days and it's not suposed to go away for a while. It's supposed to be a little better tomorrow but then back to rain for Wednesday. Winter has officially started here.
It was a nice weekend full of fun and surprises. Sister's B-Day was fun and filling on Sunday but the real highlight for me was D's surprise on Saturday morning. He gave me a new laptop. I've been planning for months to get one and Saturday, he pulled this one out on me. Turns out working at Staples does have some advantages. When he bought it for $200 it was a lemon (woulnd't even turn on) but with his expertise, and 3 weeks of extra work, he managed to get it up and running. It's a slim and sleek 14" widescreen Toshiba. LOVE IT! You should have seen me. I got all weepy and everything. Kinda pathetic.
After that excitmenet Saturday morning, the rest of the weekend paled in comparison but it was fun. I actually have a question for you guys. D and I went to the movies with K and the kids on Sunday. We saw the 3PM showing of "Over the Hedge". The theatre was full of little bobbing heads. It was ADORABLE. However, I noticed a guy get up at one point and come back a few minutes later. He was sitting in front of us and not looking too happy. I heard him whisper to his lady friend that the theatre wouldn't give them their money back now. Eventually they got up and left. I assume that he wanted his money back because the theatre was loud. Hence my question: Is it fair to assume that if you're watching a kids movie in the middle of the day, the theatre will be much louder than if you, lets say, see the same movie at a 7PM showing? I think this is a fair assumption but the morons in front of me obvisously didn't take this into consideration. What do you think?
I feel like I've accomplished nothing over the last two weeks. Other than work, sleep and the film festival, I haven't talked to anyone, haven't gone out with friends and have, pretty much, turned into the girl I was before D ever came along. It was a nice break from "reality" but not something I want to fall into for good.
The film festival came to a close for me yesterday, although the last film isn't until later today. I saw some good films, a couple of not so great ones but it all finished on a high note. I finished off my festival experience with "The Fountain". I usually try not to watch movies that I know will have big releases but I couldn't wait for this one. That movie is like a religious experience. Seriously. Reading some of the reviews so far it appears that more than one person 'didn't get it' and, as usual, I'm not sure how that's possible. I remember in my first year "Intro to Philosophy" class the prof said that "Everything in the world tastes more or less like chicken". I got it. In my mind, this statement makes complete sense but more than half the class were stumped by this comment and even after a year of discussion, some still didn't get it. Not to say that I consider myself smarter or anything but my mind seems to decipher and process abstract ideas which is something I'm fortunate to have. Problem now is that I have 5 other reviews in front of this one which means lots of work this weekend. I'll keep you posted as the various reviews go up.
Things are back to normal now. I'm heading to BIFF tonight which will be nice since I haven't seen the 'crew' in a couple of weeks and I swear I'm going through some sort of withdrawal. Saturday I'm meeting the girls for brunch and a few movies and Sunday is reserved for little sis who's celebrating a big 25 this year. She loves Dairy Queen ice cream cakes and every year, we get a little one for her. This year, we're getting the big mother. It's a perfect excuse for eating ice cream.
And now, for what everyone has been waiting for, this week's KFF.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Though it's a short week, it's still shaping up to be a busy one. It just started and Saturday is already double booked. How the hell does that happen?
The weekend was really nice. D and I went off to Sechelt to have dinner with his family on Saturday. We usually do Christmas dinner with his family but his uncle, who usually does the dinners, is off on a cruise this Christmas so no family gathering. Instead, we went out to see his aunt and the rest of the family on Saturday. We left really early (read 6AM) and still didn't get over to the other side until nearly 5. The ferry's were crazy (as is to be expected). We came back Sunday morning, had dinner with my family and crashed for the reast of the evening. We managed to get out of the house on Monday to do some shopping but that was the extent of the outings. I will say I had some fantastic sleeps over the weekend and Monday morning I was SORE from sleeping so much. It was nice. I've been nominated to prepare Christmas dinner for the family. It'll be my first turkey, EVER and I'm starting to freak out (even though it's 2 months away). If anyone has suggestions, I'm taking notes!
I was home last night (unheard of on a Monday) so I managed to catch a couple of the new TV shows which people have been raving about. Since it's probably one of the few times I'll ever talk about TV, I'll also mention a few other things that caught my eye."Entourage" is one that's been on HBO for a while but which I saw yesterday for the first time. It's funny and pretty creative but not something I could see myself watching regularly. "Heroes" is one of the new shows that's getting a lot of buzz. I only watching bits and pieces but right off the bat I was impressed by the characters and the ingenuity. From the bit I saw I wasn't sold on it but it does seem to be pretty good. I also caught an episode of "Dexter" which is a Showtime original show starring Michael C. Hall of "Six Feet Under" fame. It's about a guy who's a CSI by day and a serial killer by night - killing 'bad' people. I only caught the last half of the show and it looked kind of cool except I'm not really digging the voiceovers. Because it's Hall and I *LOVED* "Six Feet Under", I'm going to give it another shot but I'm not completely sold on it either. The one show that DID NOT disappoint was the season opener of Battlestar Galactica. WOW. Well worth the wait. It also looks like they've kicked it off on a good note. There was a large number of skeptics out there who didn't think the show could be salvaged from it's pathetic showing in the second half of season 2. I was a bit worried but not any more! It was fantastic. I can't wait until next week!
That's enough blabering for now. I actually have some work to do today so off I go!
I can't begin to tell you how excited I am that it's Friday today. And not just any Friday either! It's THE Friday of (Canadian) Thanksgiving weekend! Lots planned for the weekend including a few movies, dinner with the family, a trip to V-Con (Vancouver's Sci-Fi/Fantasy Conference) and more movies. Hopefully I can also squeeze some much needed extra sleep in there.
I remembered today that my bookcrossing site is now expired. I've registered a new domain name so now I just have to set up the actual site. I think I'm going to delve into Drupal to set this one up. If it goes well, the movie site will also be making the move. It's exciting and a little scary too.
On a funny note, this week was International Walk to School Week. That's not the funny bit. The funny bit is that the local public transit authority, TransLink, also announced that they were going to support Walk to School week by offering free transit rides for kids. Someone over there totally missed the boat. The BIG idea behind Walk to School Week is to get kids out EXERCISING. TransLink is just encouraging them to 'think outside the car' (according to their press release). Yes, this is noble, but why not schedule it for another week? Why on Walk to School week? The really funny thing is that the moron that came up with this idea is still working there. The even funnier (or scarier) part is that there's a second moron that approved this stupid plan. I should have a regular "Dumbass Move of the Week" section because I come across this stuff way too often. There are A LOT of dumbasses with dumbass ideas running big companies. I'm SURE there's more than enough material.
For this week's KFF, I uncovered a new source of pictures. There are thousands of pictures, many of them of exceptionally high quality. I only looked through the first page and found a bunch that I loved but I particularly like this one:
The picture is pretty big so I've uploaded a thumbnail. To get the full effect, make sure you click! :)
I wish all my Canadian counterparts a happy Thanksgiving and EVERYONE a fantastic weekend!
So I wrote this long post this morning about a recent engagement that I went to. About half way through, I decided to cut it in half but by the end of it, I decided to just not post it. But because I spent nearly an hour typing this thing out, if you're interesetd in reading it, you can do so here. It's a simple word document but it's all in there. It has some funny bits but it generally just angered me. If you do decide to read it, let me know your thoughts.
I'm off to see two films tonight. The first is part of VIFF and the second is actually a little get together with a GF. Other than that, it's going to be a pretty quiet day. To boot, I'm leaving at 3 today. It's after 12:30 now which means I have less that 3 hours left here today. I haven't done any work yet. I guess I'd better get to it.
I can't believe we're already at the beginning of October. Where the hell has the last 10 months gone? Yikes!
The film festival has been going well. I've caught some 'interesting' films over the last few days but still nothing that really caught my eye. I also managed to get a couple of nice Q&A's on 'tape' which I've uploaded to the movie site so if you like either Sarah Polley or Watanabe Kazushi, you may want to check it out. Other recent additions are a review for "Walking Alone for Thousands of Miles" and "Jackass Number Two". We are, after all, a non-discriminatory site.
I'm off to more movies tonight but at some point I'm going to have to stop at the electronic's store to pick up my 2 DVD set of Disney's "The Little Mermaid", by far my favourite of all the Disney classics.
I finally received my first CD from the music exchange a few of us have set up. It's a fantastic mellow mix which I'm thoroughly enjoying. Thanks to AmyHCAlum for it. It's fantabulous.
And finally on this day of random information, I give you the beginning of the end for a Vancouver landmark. The Woodward's building was imploded the other day to make room for a new development in the downtown core. This is a picture of the implosion in progress. You can see more pictures of the tear down here.
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