I Have AIDS!

I don’t.

But, on Saturday I went to see the play at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (http://www.artsexy.ca/) and it was quite something. Gavin Crawford (of This Hour Has 22 Minutes fame) was excellent in the “title” role, and David Yee as Vidor, his lover, was a great subtle counterpoint to Crawford’s sometimes abrasive performance. When my girlfriend talked to one of her coworkers who had seen the play earlier in the week, her description was, “It’s Offensive.” And it is. There’s a description of a certain sex act that I dare not recount. Trust me, you don’t wanna know. But at the same time, that shock and offense committed by the script and the actors is necessary to make this story truly effective. And affective. Funny, poignant, and important, this was a phenomenal night of theatre.

Also – went out to play kickball last night (http://torontokickball.com/) which I highly recommend. Pick-up games continue until the 13th of June, when league play starts. I’ll be forming a team, and it’ll be awesome.

Strange Overtones

A few mini album reviews:

David Byrne & Brian Eno Everything That Happens Will Happen Today – I had the good fortune of seeing Byrne in October of last year, and it was phenomenal. While the album doesn’t quite have the same emotional intensity as the live show for me (no choreography) it holds it’s own quite admirably. Though I will admit that every time I listen to Life is Long I picture the three dancers flopping about on office chairs.  Personal highlight: Everything That Happens (the song) has the feel of a hymn to modern life, with an exuberant chorus at the end of the piece.

DOOM Born Like This - It’s goood.  Not Dangerdoom good, but goood.  My hip hop/rap chops really aren’t all that great, but I knows what I likes, and I likes this.  Favourite tracks thusfar: Batty Boys (it’s friggin’ hilarious) and That’s That, mainly for the violin sample, and the terrible singing to close the track (sorry, DOOM.)

Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – First off, kick-ass album title.  I mean, really, that takes a certain French gall (terrible pun alert!)  The album opens with a fine headbobber titled Lisztomania and continues to wow from there.  First single 1901 lights things up with a heavy synth and some power chords, and never stops.  The seven minute plus Love Like a Sunset is a little odd/intense,but it pays off, and it’s nice to see them experimenting a little.  (Side note: they sounded great on SNL this weekend, and I just have to say, what was up with Seth Rogen throwning back to the band at the end of the show. Has that ever happened on SNL before? Because if so, I’ve never seen it. On the plus side, they played Too Young over the credits, so that’s pretty badass. Also, Phoenix was on SNL. Way to go guys!)

Monsters Vs. Aliens… and a few other super-mini reviews

Stephen Colbert is the President. That’s pretty much all you need to know. He pretty much just does his Phil Ken Sebben voice. Bodyinawoodchipper! Ha!

Seriously, though, it was entertaining, the 3D was good, and I laughed a fair amount. The Close Encounters moment made me and my dad laugh. Hard. The trailers pretty much say it all, so there aren’t any huge surprises, but it’s still enjoyable. 

Trailers: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (looks alright, but not great), Star Trek (awesome), a couple others (can’t remember) and…. Where the Wild Things Are. Holy crap, does it look Magnificent. Yes, capital M Magnificent. Flawless, even. That movie has a lot to live up to, and it looks as though it will.

Saw Watchmen on opening day. It was as good as it could have been. It’s so dense and complex, that to translate it to film is nearly impossible. Zack Snyder did a good job of bringing as many of the iconic images as he could to the screen, which I think was the point.

I’ve seen a couple other things recently, and have yet to write about them – I’ll get there soon enough. Maybe. Also, I’m twittering now – link on the right.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

What follows is the start of my new “culture blog.” In short, I’m going to try to record films, bands, shows, albums, books and various other things I see, hear, read or watch. More or less. Oh, and there’s probably spoilers.

Sam and I went tonight to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button this evening, and I have to say, it was good. Not great, good. The story was somewhat solid, provided you could suspend disbelief*, and the visual effects were stunning. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the framing of the story. For those who don’t know, it’s based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby) and I’m pretty sure that at no point did Fitzgerald’s original include a daughter reading Benjamin’s diary to her dying mother during Hurricane Katrina. The device just didn’t quite work for me. It seemed a little forced. Overall it was very entertaining, and though I never felt like it was dragging, it could have stood a bit of a trim from the 2:48 running time.

* – At one point, Sam turned to me and asked, “Why is he getting shorter?” as he was becoming a child in his later years. My response was, “Why is he growing younger?” I realize now that it’s not necessarily two sides of the same coin, as he’s born both very old and very small (the size of a baby) at the beginning of the film. If we want to treat that as precedent, it doesn’t seem to make sense that he would revert to being a baby as he ages. I don’t know. I need to think about that one more.

Poke ‘er? I just met ‘er!

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

The WBCOOP is an online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers.

Registration code: 441944

A Film With Me In It

So I’ve been volunteering at the Toronto International Film Festival since Wednesday (and will be there every day until Saturday) and aside from the fact that I’m totally exhausted (I’m also working early mornings at IKEA) and that I’m bored to tears during my shift, it’s been pretty good.  Basically, I get to sit a desk (table) in the offices of the film festival (in the hallway outside of the boardroom) and hand out tickets to donors and friends of the festival.  No, I haven’t been giving tickets to anyone famous, and really, aside from Thursday (opening day) it’s really not been that busy.  That being said, I have managed to see two films thus far.

Me and Orson Welles was great fun, and proved to me that Zac Efron can actually act.  It follows the story of a young man growing up in New York City (Efron) who manages to impress Welles enough that he’s cast in the upcoming production of Julius Caesar.  What follows is part love story between a young man and a “more experienced” woman (Claire Danes) and part love story between the same young man and the theatre.  Naturally, he learns that there is more to theatre than just the smell of the greasepaint, and the roar of the crowd.  Christian McKay as wells is spot on.  There was a Q&A after the show, and I had no idea he was British, which makes the fact that he nails Welles’ intonations and inflections so well all the more impressive.  The Q&A with Danes, Efron, McKay and director Richard Linklater (Slacker, Dazed & Confused, School of Rock, Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly) was pretty fun – and (of course) there was a My So-Called Life question for Danes.  I enjoyed this picture and felt that there was a good chemistry and comic timing from the cast.  Arbitrary rating scale: 4 out of 5.

Burn After Reading was excellent.  I had read some of the early reviews about “inconsistency” and the fact that it just wasn’t all that good, and was a little worried, but I really enjoyed this flick as well.  John Malkovich, Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand all deliver killer performances as an over-the-edge, just fired/quit CIA Analyst (Malkovich) and two hapless gym employees, obsessed with the “intelligent shit” they just found on a burned CD in the locker room.  George Clooney and Tilda Swinton round out the main cast, and while their performances are a little more understated, they offset the other three delightfully.  I have to agree with whoever said it, but JK Simmons (who is only in two small scenes) as a CIA supervisor steals the show.  Naturally, because it’s a Coen Brothers comedy of errors (which, I maintain, nobody does it better) there a couple grisly deaths at the end of the film, and even a “moral” (though the usefulness of said moral is debatable).  All told, I walked out thoroughly satisfied, and this will join the other Coen Brothers pictures on my shelf in time.  Arbitrary Rating System: 9 out of 10.

Also, I managed to run into Peter Scrietta from /film and say that I really like the site.  I asked him how he was enjoying the festival, and he told me that he hadn’t been getting up early enough in the morning to see enough films, but had seen Miracle at St. Anna that morning.  Miracle is Spike Lee’s three and a half hour WWII picture, so that would be an understandably intense morning.

Alright – it’s 5:38 am and I have to be at work in 22 minutes.  If you’re in Toronto, go see a film or three.  It’s a lot of fun.