Here I Go, Off I Go, Down I Go, Again.

It’s been a long time.  It always seems like a long time.  I need to make this more of a habit.  I have a lot of bad habits, and this should replace at least one of them.  Anyhow…

My last post was during TIFF and I talked about the first two films I’d seen (Me and Orson Welles and Burn After Reading.)  I ended up seeing ten in total, and it was a phenomenal experience.  The other films I saw were Unmistaken Child, Sounds Like Teen Spirit: A Popumentary, Every Little Step, Good, Stone of Destiny, ONLY, Control Alt Delete, and The Wrestler.  For any of the first seven from that list, leave a comment and I can post a mini-review.  They were all good/interesting (with the exception of Good, ironically enough) and are worth seeing.  That being said, let’s talk about the Wrestler.

Holy Shit.  The motherfucking Wrestler.  This was not only the best film I saw at the festival, but probably the best film I’ve seen in a long time (you hear that, Dark Knight?)  Mickey Rourke is incredible, and protrays such an endearing and visceral character, that you can’t help but empathize with his few highs and many many lows.  When the film ended, I could feel my heart just pounding in my chest like a jackhammer.  I was on the edge of my seat and wanted more.  It was fully worth waking up and seeing this at 8:30 in the morning prior to my shift in the TIFF office.  I would have seen it on no sleep, and would have walked out energized.  Aronofsky has outdone himself yet again (he always seems to) which is why I won’t get annoyed the next time he takes five or six years to make a new picture.  Conclusion: see this film.

Continuing on the media theme, here’s some music I’ve been enjoying lately.

Meaghan Smith – The Cricket’s Quartet (Four track EP of Jazzy folk, with Kid Koala doing tables on one of the tracks. She opened for Ron Sexsmith at Massey this past week.)

Ratatat – LP3 (Really awesome electronic album, with live guitar. Not really dancey, but some good beats and textures.)

The Last Shadow Puppets – The Age of the Understatement (Alex Turner from Arctic Monkeys along with the lead singer of a band called The Rascals playing 60s style symphonic pop. Oh, and Owen Pallett of Final Fantasy does all of the orchestral arrangements. Yeah. 30 piece orchestra.)

Spiritualized – Songs in A&E (Yeah, I’ve already written about it here, but it’s just a really good album of pop music filtered through Jason Pierce’s own stylings. I recommend checking out the video for You Lie You Cheat, though it’s probably the heaviest song on the album. At times by a long shot.)

Robyn – Robyn (Yeah. It’s Robyn. She’s back and it’s fucking awesome. Check out Konichiwa Bitches and Dream On.)

And yes, for those of you who didn’t catch that slight nod, I just started working at Massey Hall in September, and it’s pretty sweet.  So far I’ve seen Ron Sexsmith, Sigur Rós, Los Lobos, Wynton Marsalis, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and many many more.  Tonight I get to see goddamn David Byrne, which will be incredible.  In the coming weeks, I get to see the Smashing Pumpkins (two shows), Joan Baez, Bill Maher, Robin Williams, Daniel Lanois, Stuart MacLean, and tonnes (metric tonnes!) of other stuff.

Regarding job hunting, I will say just this:  Hiring freezes suck.  That is all.

I feel like I should write something about the fake election we had a couple weeks ago, but it seems as though it’s all been said at this point, or like I’ve said it to people (or yelled it at people in a drunken stupor.)  So maybe I’ll come up with something soon about that.  That being said, only one week until the US election, which should be interesting.  HOPEfully?