Happy Halloween!

Samples.

I like the KiD CUDi one the best.

Movies.

I meant to write something last month, after Sundance. But I didn't get around to it. I do have to say though, that it was fun times, and far more accessible than I had imagined. Movie tickets did require a bit of getting up early and waiting in line effort, but I think that's part of the experience. Considering going again next year, ping me if you're interested.

Restrepo
Was interested in this movie, because it was shot by the pretty darn awesome photojournalist Tim Hethrington and journalist Sebastian Junger. This is a real war movie, and none like I've ever seen. Through ten trips over the course of a year to the same camp, the viewers experience a sense of intimacy with real soldiers. It's an hour and a half of the raw experience of being a soldier - digging, camping, patrolling, fighting. Post-tour interviews are moments of calm in the film between literal cinema verite experiences in the Korengal valley of Afghanistan, shooting at distant invisible targets, and being shot at. It's just a sense of audio calmness when the guns stop shooting though; the viewer still bears witness to the emotional turmoil of the young veterans trying to internalize the experience and bring it back home.

The film doesn't portray anything that goes on back in the US. There's no high level discussion on how the war is waged, it's pretty much only what's going on on the ground. However, despite the lack of commentary, I got a frightening sense that the war to win over the hearts and minds of the people was being lost by a bunch of macho and culturally ignorant kids, fumbling their way through botched negotiations with village elders over collateral damage.

If the purpose of a documentary is to educate, this film is about as hands on and practical as it gets. I left feeling like I understood what it's like to be "over there". All the print articles you've read about the war in Afghanistan don't hold a candle to this. Apparently the rights have been sold to National Geographic. I'd expect to see it on TV sometime this year. Watch it.

Enter the Void
I'm probably not qualified to write a review for this movie, since I walked out about halfway through. Apparently a crowd favourite during the Midnight Madness run at TIFF, this movie did not work, at all, as a morning showing. I was tempted to stay until the end to ask the director why he hated his audience so. An epilepsy-inducing opening credit sequence physically assaults the viewer with heavy techno music and gaudy flashing colours making the worst internet banner ad seem like a GAP commercial. And the only times the film stops beating the viewer are when it subjects you to boredom of equally painful proportions.

While there's was some impressive camerawork done in the opening scene, a continuous real-time shot of the last 20 minutes of the main character's life, the horrible acting, worse writing and flatlining from boredom timing just killed it for me. The entire production was an experiment in creative camerawork, but there's not much film in there. On top of that, the gut-wrenching shakycam had me covering my eyes in an attempt to postpone my non-existant breakfast from making a return visit. While I hear there's some semblance of a character development a bit later, I think everything was pretty much laid out in the first 20 minutes. After that, it's a flood of shock tactics, drugs, sex and violence. Unfortunately, no rock and roll. I'm curious if there's a twist ending. Someone post the last 5 minutes on youtube please.

Departures
I'm not sure where I read or heard about this movie. It might be that it won an Oscar. I was spellbound by the way this film masterfully danced between comedy and drama. You think from the synopsis that it's a film about a laid of concert cellist who goes to work in a funeral home, but it turns out to be a movie about dreams, regrets, family, honour, respect, love, loss and redemption. You might knock a few points for some fairly contrived situations, to make all the pieces fit - but the film comes together so well that it's a worthy cause in itself. You'll enjoy this one.

Examined Life
I was impressed that this was a National Film Board of Canada production, though it seemed mostly shot in New York City. You pretty much watch a bunch of modern day philosophers talk their stuff, while walking around, or rowing a boat, or riding around town in a car. Fill it was some cutscenes of things that happen around town, driving down a road, or walking down a path. If you're lucky, the scenery might match the topic of discussion. That's about it.

The content really is the talk. Hearing articulate thoughts presented eloquently from the mouths of the philosophers themselves is a vastly different experience than reading it off of a thick stack of pages. Some of it sounds like self-justifying academic bullshit, but there's definitely a few gems in there, as long as you can get through the more obtuse ones droning on. I particularly liked the Martha Nussbaum and Slavoj Zizek segments for their pragmatic analyses of our current society.



(note that the last two films were not viewed at Sundance, they're both available on Netflix streaming)

One shall stand, one shall fall.

I don't know how this will turn out, but the trailer is chock full of AWESOME.

Bumblebee looks like Bumblebee. There's a lot of recognizable characters, including Trypticon and Omega Supreme.
Thank God Michael Bay did not direct this.

Merry Christmas!

I can settle with a fake plastic tree.

Winter.

It's a cold winter, the fireplace is barely hot enough. The street outside is wet, the sky is grey. There aren't many people walking their dogs, and those who are, are huddled up and shivering.

Yeah, I shouldn't be whining, this is California and not Ontario, but they really don't know how to insulate buildings here. I liked wandering around the neighborhood when it was warm - it's not as pleasant now. In memory of happier times, here's something I found scrawled on a nearby building a month ago, when the sun was still shining.

New phone time

After many mostly-reliable years of Nokia-ness, I've finally upgraded to an Android phone. Overall, it's a lot more features, but a lot less UI polish. I feel like I need a lot more apps to get things done. And while I used to be able to text with one hand while driving, that's pretty much impossible now.

On the plus side, I did get a free show out of it. This video, is NOT from the phone camera though.

Being sentimental

Had a few drinks at the wine bar down the street (nice neighborhood joint, got a free sticker!), which lead to being sentimental. So thus comes three items of canned seafood from my childhood:
- Brunswick brand sardines with Tabasco peppers
- Clover Leaf brand canned tuna
- Unknown chinese brand of fried dace with black beans

I can forsee some cheap tasty meals in the near future...

Need to post more pictures.

Randoms.

Been flipping through the NYT runway slideshows, and it seems like that season of madness that was the mid-2000s has passed, with the booming economy, towering platforms, and garbage-bag silhouettes. I'm sure there's tonnes of articles out there on how fashion reflects the highs and lows of the economy and consumer confidence. I'm not sure. Maybe tighter budgets mean tighter waistlines, and practical sensibilities mean practical shoes (practical can be relative?). Or maybe Timberlake's been busy off-stage bringing sexy back. I particularly liked the United Bamboo shots. Never heard of the label before, but I'm wondering if it's hinting at a boom in asian/american designers (along with names like Derek Lam, Peter Som, Jason Chu, Richard Chai, and Alexander Wang).

Spring fashion shows means its actually fall. I'm not sure where that came about, maybe it's just a symbolic gesture on how detached from the real world these designer folks are. But anyways, fall means winter is coming, and that means my mind's detached and is running 3 months ahead. Well, that's what happened when I saw this video.


Yeah, I got that from browsing too much YouTube. Some other awesome stuff on YouTube. I might try doing some time lapse videos. After I get around to uploading vacation pics.


And finally, somehow I found this video. Now last year I had thought Lady Gaga was some forgettable flavor-of-the-week dance music singer(?), prancing around in her music videos with her tight little swimsuits and funky makeup. The whole attention whoring outfits didn't help. Never realized she actually could sing. Now I want to go see her live. Maybe she'll be the Elton John of the 2010s...


Here's another one, with absolutely lo-fi audio, from a Marc Jacobs party. Which brings us back to fashion shows. Darn.

A different pace of life.

I can't believe that I was on vacation just 2 weeks ago. I also can't believe it was already 2 weeks ago.

Not that I want to live in a village in the middle of nowhere, where there's nothing to do but farm quinoa and llamas, but the slow pace out there is kinda relaxing.

Figs.

Apparently my coworker has a neighbor with a fig tree, that drops a tonne of figs each summer and makes a mess. So the neighbor gives boxes of figs to the coworker, who doesn't happen to like figs. So now I get a box. Now I just gotta find me some prosciutto or jamon serrano.

I hate Ticketmaster. With a passion.

Every time I buy a ticket for an event through either TicketMaster or LiveNation, a swell of an rage and anger floods my being. Ok, LiveNation is a little better because of their occasional sales.

But get this:
Full Price Ticekt: 22.50x2
Facility Charge: 2.50x2
Convenience Charge: 8.50x2
Delivery: 2.50
Order Processing Fee: 5.40
Total 74.50

That's practically 40% in fees on top of the ticket prices. It's insane.

Views from above.

Lima's pretty dim at night. I'd have expected more lights from a city its size.

La Paz spreads like a brown blanket over the Andean hills. The size is surprising, as well as the violent layer of air that you pass through right before you land.

Miami is big and bright; the energy of the city pulses, lightning flashing through the clouds above and around.

Los Angeles is burning, choking in the billowing smoke.

I recognized the contours of the Los Altos hills on the way down, with a warm sense of familiarity. Does that make this home?

Book.

I'm a big fan of Gabriel Garcia Marquez' flowery style. I'm almost halfway through "Love in the time of Cholera". It's nowhere near as epic as "100 Years of Solitude", but it's still a decent read. I've learned a new word, "atavistic", but I haven't figured out "the bicycle on the sea, or the chicken on the grill, or the drawn-and-quartered angel".

Looking forward to the flight home, I might finish on the plane.

Unprepared

One thing I forgot to do before taking off was to install photo software on my netbook. There's two apps I usually use. Breeze System Downloader Pro copies photos off of my camera's CF card, and gives you a bunch of options on how to organize the photos as they're downloaded. I organize mine by date. It makes my life easy, since it doesn't copy photos that have already been copied before. All I have to do is plug in my CF card, and photos are automatically copied over and organized quickly.

I'm still using C1 RAW to convert RAW images to JPGs that I can upload to flickr. RAW files are much preferred, since they contain a lot more colour information than JPGs. That is, you can fix the white balance, or find detail information in areas that appear to be all white or all back. C1 is far from being the top app out their for this purpose. I'm using both apps because they were more or less the best of their breed a few years ago, and they're purchased and legit.

Unfortunately, after the first two days in Cuzco, I realized that I was filling up my CF card. Although I had a few more cards, I suspected they proably wouldn't last too long. Luckily I had a trial version of Adobe Lightroom installed. Lightroom's probably the best of the breed right now, but I'm still not certain I'm ready to drop $200 to replace C1 which is sufficient on the most part.

That's the long way of saying that Lightroom was useful on the first day of the trip, I got a few photos up on flickr, but trial period expired within a couple of days. I managed to extend it a few days by never shutting down and only using hibernate. Unfortunately, Win7 crashed once when I unplugged my memory card reader. I can try shooting in RAW+JPG, but I won't have a chance to put up any MP pics before I get back.

July was awesome.

Hm, I keep thinking of blogging about things, like visiting Montreal and eating at Au Pied de Cochon, visiting Crater Lake, weekends in SF, meeting strange online people IRL, or water-balloon-sniping the CEO at a company fundraiser, but I never seem to get around to it.

I can't believe it's already August. Last month was packed, and the birds are all out chirping this month.

Things I didn't expect to find in Toronto.

We can make this an entirely unfair scavenger hunt. Next time I'm back I'll bring a present for whoever can identify where these are. If I remember. If you were there when I took the picture, you don't qualify.

It's not the same Toronto.

People change. That's a given. For better or worse, I'd run into people after a few years and find they're not quite as I remembered. Recognizeable of course, but usually the interests aren't necessarily the same as before. Some people grow more adventurous, others a little more settled and staid. Others have additions they carry around in diapers.

Toronto's a little different too. Don Mills and York Mills used to be kinda dead, now it's upscale. The condo on the corner of Bayview and Sheppard used to be a big grassy hill on the edge of a parking lot. The garbage dump on the corner of Bayview and Leslie used to be a parking lot too.

While still flooded with immigrants, it seems like the faces are changing. I'm noticing more people with darker skin then before, and hearing more Arabic, along with other languages I don't recognize.

I was wondering, listening to the radio, whether 102.1 was still the Edge. It seemed somehow, a little less edgy. Like how alternative's gone mainstream. Then just yesterday I read about the suicide of Martin Streek. I've been listening to the Edge for so long that his voice had become a fixture. Even though I *know* they come and go (like morning show hosts "Don and Erin" and "Humble and Fred", I still find it mind-boggling when they change or disappear, especially in such a tragic manner.

Speaking of celebrity, does it strike anyone else as kinda odd how the protests in Iran kinda toned down with MJ's passing, and now they're back up and at it now that his tribute's done?

Ok, I know I'm writing about YYZ, but I've been listening to a band from SFO.

Retro Monday.

I seem to be keeping myself pretty entertained these days. I haven't even blogged about camping out in Joshua Tree in June, and already it's July.

There's a deep subtle thrill to camp out in the middle of nowhere. Not at a campground with facilities, but just out there, where there isn't another soul in a 10 mile radius. It might not be as exciting as night in the hustle of the city, but for a moment the world falls into another perspective.

I felt so small and insignificant in the vast emptiness. Looking upwards just revealed an even greater vastness of an incomprehensible scale. The rest of the world seemed so far away and inconsequtial; only the blinking lights of high flying planes or slow moving satellites reminded me of that high tech society on the other side of the mountain range. It felt like the world could end, and I'd miss it entirely. It was brilliant.

On another note, I heard a Matthew Good song on the radio the other day. Haven't heard any of that down here. How's this one for going back a few years?