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.

Track-by-track review of the new Super Furry Animals album Dark Days/Light Years

Crazy Naked Girls – The title really says it all. Starting off with some random chatter, and turning into an electronic noise groove that’s half-sung, half-rapped like only Gruff can do. This then reveals (two minutes in) to some heavy-ass riff rock, with a bit of a glam punch to it.

Mt. - I don’t know if it’s Bunf or Cian (or Daf or Guto) Just checked Wikipedia, and it’s Cian on lead vocals. King of an acoustic glam stomper of a sort. Some nice strings at the end.

Moped Eyes – Originally called Hot Nutz this one is pretty laid-back, with a crooned chorus, and a nice groove.

Inaugural Trams - A nice poppy synth-based number, with a great sing along chorus. Nick McCarthy of Franz Ferdinand does a rap part way through. In German. Wild. It chugs along nicely (just like a tram, get it! Wait. Trams don’t chug. Never mind.)

Inconvenience – A song that wouldn’t sound too out of place on Fuzzy Logic – though definitely benefiting from the thirteen years of production experience between the two.

Cardiff In The Sun – The first epic of the album – clocking at 8 minutes. It builds slowly from a simple ticking drum machine, with additions of some guitar feedback, and a plucking bass (or bass synth, I think) ’til eventually the “Sha La La”s roll in, followed by a ghosted out singing of the title. It really just keeps building from there, and doesn’t reach it’s full power/volume/density until quite a few minutes in. It’s quite glorious, really.

Halfway through – I’ll finish this later.

I purchased one new CD, and one new iTunes download this week.  Sebastian Grainger & The Mountains’ self-titled album and The Juan MacLean’s The Future Will Come. Both are too new for me to write anything of substance about them, but I will say this: both are really good. Of particular note, The Juan MacLean album is currently only $5.99 on the iTunes Canada store, which if you ask me, is a steal of a deal.

Went out tonight with a few friends tonight to see Crank: High Voltage and I have to say, it was everything I expected and so much more. Ultra-violence. Crazy sex. Jump cut after jump cut after jump cut. Godzilla fight? Godzilla fight! Random cameos. General confusion and absurdity. And Dwight Goddamn Yoakam. It’s not a movie – it’s a thrill ride. And it’s awesome.

None of these are particularly critical reviews, but hey, I’m no professional. Just a guy who likes things.

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!)

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.

After an excellent dinner and beer at C’est What, Sam, Adam, Jessica and I headed to the Rainbow Cinemas for the 9:10 showing of Milk yesterday evening. It is truly a powerful and provocative story. The performances are excellent, and I understand now why Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke are neck-and-neck for best actor at the Oscars. (In my opinion, Rourke still wins hands down, but I can see the other side of it.) In terms of “best” picture, I don’t believe that this holds a candle to Slumdog Millionaire, and don’t think it will win. Gus Van Sant’s visual style also seemed really inconsistent. He did some great shots using reflections (the whistle!) but didn’t do too much else that really drew me in on that level. I think this is an important story about an important man at an important time. I felt quite sad at the end of the movie, because thirty years on, the state of California has taken a huge step backward from the ideals and ideas of Harvey Milk and his team.

This was a poorly written review, brought to you by me.

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.

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?

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.