Tunes

Looks like this is just gonna be my mix tape space for a while.

Yes, it really works.  Press play and enjoy.

Wall of Shame

Jess had a friend over today. I was playing with records like I usually do when we have company and he mentioned to me that he was thinking of picking one up for his dad for Father's Day. I figured I have plenty so why not just donate one to a worthy cause, right?

This brings us to a collector's dilemma. Which one to part with? I managed to find one I didn't really ever listen to and thought his dad might find interesting, but it got me thinking about why I buy the music I do.

Sometimes you get stuff because it's already established that it can stand the test of time. That accounts for most of the stuff I own that was recorded before I was born.

Sometimes you get stuff because it speaks to you somehow and it also stands up to the test of time. This accounts for much of my back catalogue recorded when I was old enough to hear it new.

Sometimes you get stuff because it sounds promising, and then promptly goes to hell! Just admit it. Sometimes you hitch your car to the wrong train. It happens to the best of us. This is the crap you leave stuffed in dusty boxes or trade in at second-hand music stores and hope nobody is looking.

Which brings us to the wall of shame.

I am going to look in my music collection right now and list the 5 most shameful things I own. I won't make apologies and I'm not bashing anyone's taste. I'm just being honest. This is stuff I wish I could un-buy.

*drum roll*

#5: Erasure - The Innocents
I fell for the 80's synth-pop thing like a lot of others but let's face it, this just wasn't a wise investment. Two tracks got a decent amount of club and radio play and the rest is nearly intolerable.

#4: Lords of Acid - Voodoo You
Yeah, it voodooed me alright. That's really all the explanation I can offer.

#3: Sisters of Mercy - A Slight Case of Overbombing
When Peter Jackson was trying to describe to New Line exactly what kind of "epic" he was referring to while pitching Lord of the Rings, I'm pretty sure he used a couple of tracks from this as examples. Temple of Love especially, is a marathon I'd rather not endure again. You'd think the title would have given me a clue.

#2: A homemade mix of Rush songs I threw together to annoy the hell out of a friend.
I really did make this just to play in the car at unbearable volumes sometimes when he was in it. He hated Rush with a passion that would make Moby Dick read like an Archie comic.

And the top spot goes to...

#1: The Go-Go's - God Bless the Go-Go's
Kinda speaks for itself, doesn't it?

On Set Baby!

Last week I had a gig doing production stills for one day on the set of a short film for the CFC. It was an outdoor scene being shot at Kariya Park in Mississauga. Needless to say (March being the bipolar bitch of a month that it is) the weather was less than accommodating. I was out there for roughly 12 hours, freezing my tiny little ass off. It was well worth it though. I had a great time and got some quality shots that the production crew will hopefully get some use out of for promotional material.

I figured I'd share a few with you. Since I'm not sure what I can and can't post here (even for editorial purposes), I decided to play it safe and stay away from pictures featuring the actors or anything related to the story. Here's a couple shots of the park itself and the crew hard at work.

Canada's Biggest Douche

I'm sitting in a Second Cup on Queen St in Toronto as I type this. Seated at the table directly to my left are 2 people. A woman who is apparently the manager of a branch of a financial institution that shall remain nameless, and a man who could easily qualify as the biggest douche in Canada.

To support this claim, I present to you the following statistics of the conversation I've had no choice but to overhear due to proximity and the douche in question's unnecessary volume.

Number of times a question has been proceeded by the word "Question:" - 12
Number of uses of the phrase "Think outside the box" - 9
(statistics based on roughly 15-20 minutes of yammering)

I add to the pool of evidence one "forehead wedge" style haircut, one button-down shirt which is painfully tight at the neck and one peach-fuzz goatee. Listening to this ass shoot his mouth off makes me feel remarkably justified in my decision to abandon working in office environments.

Photo Update

Got a few to share with you this time, so this might end up being a long post.

I've been trying my best despite the crappy winter weather and long hours at my day job to keep getting photos whenever possible. I just upgraded to a Nikon D80, so I definitely need to keep active just to get familiar with my new toy. It's rough though. I've only been in Toronto for 2 months so my contacts are few at best. I'd really like to start earning money this way soon, but I guess I'll just have to be patient.

Jess has been keeping me fairly busy though. She's been picking up the odd volunteer makeup job for student films and such, and of course her school has never had a problem with me hanging around catching snapshots for their student's portfolios.

Which brings us to some recent pics:

I accompanied Jess to a boxing club by the name of Sully's for a job she picked up on a student film. All she had to do was bloody and bruise a few actors so it turned out to be fairly simple and short. This one is a wide angle of the club's interior. I know it sounds cliche, but it really did remind me of something out of Rocky.


This is one of Jess at work. She started at the makeup station and added some light bruising and a couple of small cuts, then moved into the ring to gradually intensify the injuries between takes as the scene progressed.







This is one of the actors "warming up" on a heavy bag while the lighting and cameras were being assembled and positioned. He was playing the part of a boxer with a nasty habit of killing his opponents in the ring. He was a great guy. I caught him on camera once or twice hamming it up by standing on the ropes in the corner of the ring striking victory poses and calling for applause. It was totally Hulk Hogan.


The next three are from another visit to the School of Makeup Art. Tagging along with Jess to school is always fun, even if it smells nasty on occasion. I've learned not to volunteer as her guinea pig anymore though. I always seem to end up spending days nursing minor injuries or picking gunk out of my beard.


This is a set of fangs Jess is making for herself. I don't think I'll ever understand her fascination with vampires. I'm more of a zombie guy myself. I guess I just find the loss of free will scarier than the loss of my soul. I sold it years ago anyway. I'll let you guess what I got in return. (hint: it rhymes with "mock and bowl")


Jess showing off a tray of pre-fabricated bullet wounds. This will eventually become a template for mass producing gelatin applications. If you ask me, they totally looked like meteor craters. This board could double as a miniature moon set piece. Houston, the Eagle has landed.



This one is of a creepy looking fetal alien in what looks like a jar of piss. I assume it's supposed to be formaldehyde, but let's face facts. It looks like piss. It's amazing what one can discover when one gets to snooping in a special effects makeup school.



Well that's it for now. I've been gradually working my way into some interesting projects, so I'll be sure to keep updating as often as I can.

Peace!

An Apple A Day

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm in the process of switching from a PC to a Mac. I'm currently composing this on my brand-spankin-new MacBook and all that's left to do is transfer my useable data from my old machine to this one. Right now apple.com is my homepage, and will likely continue to be for some time as I'm just too lazy to change it. Although after reading this column from Steve Jobs yesterday, I think I might just leave it there indefinitely.

In light of the obvious success of the iPod and iTunes music store, Mr. Jobs took time to talk about what possible directions online music distributing could take in the near future, paying special attention to the issue of music piracy and it's current "nemesis", DRM (digital rights management). Mr. Jobs presented 3 possible scenarios:

Option 1: Steady as she goes.
Each manufacturer continues with the current setup of individual methods of copy-protection ensuring that the music they sell only works with their products. I don't know about you, but I can't see this working as a permanent solution. Without interoperability, consumer interest will either die out or revert right back to illegal sources.

Option 2: Share and share alike
Apple and other manufacturers license their DRM technology to each other in an attempt to achieve the aforementioned interoperability. Sounds good, but Mr. Jobs is quick to point out that the details of the DRM methods would leak faster than Valerie Plame's secret identity, hence making it incredibly difficult to maintain their respective agreements with the big four record labels in regards to said copy protection. Again, this sounds less than ideal.

Which brings us to option 3:
Anarchy!
Do away with DRM altogether. This seems to be Mr. Jobs' ideal solution (as well as the ideal solution for consumers), and I have to say I wholeheartedly agree with him. His argument is that DRM systems have thus far been completely ineffective in stemming the tide of online music piracy. Why even worry about protected songs purchased from iTunes when you can buy a completely unprotected CD which you can then rip to MP3 and distribute as you see fit? A strong argument indeed, however I'd take it a step further.

The so called "problem" of online music piracy (in my eyes at least) seems to be a drastically overstated one. I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, I'm just saying that it isn't even remotely as damaging as the RIAA would have us believe. Remember the introduction of the cassette tape? They insisted that it was being used to breach copyright laws and that it could lead to the downfall of the recording industry. That never happened. Remember when the first VCRs hit the market? The MPAA made the same argument and again the foretold apocalypse never materialized.

If anything, both industries greatly benefitted from both innovations when they stopped fighting progress and found a way to exploit these new technologies. Sooner or later they will have to wake up to the fact that trading music online is tantamount to the kids in the 80s and 90s that swapped mix tapes with their friends on a regular basis. And if online piracy is truly as destructive as they claim, where are the dismal sales figures to back up such a bold statement? Last I checked the local HMV outlets in my town were in no danger of having to close their doors.

But I digress.

The reason I'm twice as giddy about becoming a Mac user now can be found by checking out these Google search results for opinions on the new Windows Vista DRM features. Steve Jobs has the balls to point out how useless DRM is, while Bill Gates suckles at the teet of entertainment bureaucracy.

I've never been happier about being a turncoat.

I Have No Excuse

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted here. I'm sorry for the long absence, but things have been a little hectic. I picked up and moved to Toronto on kind of a whim so I'm still dealing with the repercussions of that. Things are looking good so far though, so I'll try to get back into the habit of visiting the blog more often.

I'll also be picking up my brand new MacBook and making the jump to a digital SLR camera next week. It should be much easier to post pictures on a more regular basis after that.

Talk to you punks later.

Happy Belated Halloween

I had a roll of film in my fridge that had been sitting around since early November. I decided to finally get it processed a couple of days ago and look what I found on it:

Not too shabby even thought the focus is slightly off from camera shake.

I had a low speed film loaded with the intention of getting some decent daylight portraits, but when I saw my lady dressed like this for a Halloween shindig I couldn't resist getting her to strike a couple of poses. Unfortunately we were on our way out the door so I didn't want to take the time to set up the tripod. I'm kicking myself for it now.

On a positive note, I'm sure I'll remember this lesson the next time I'm tempted to cut corners.

Tis The Season

You Just Can't Make This Stuff Up

Or can you?

The BBC scores points with me again with this piece on the world's tallest man saving the lives of 2 Dolphins at a Fushtin aquarium. It seems they swallowed some plastic shards and the only way to extract them was to have Bao Xishun (a Mongolian herdsman), reach in and pull them out. He happens to be Guiness' "Tallest Living Man" at 2.36m (or 7ft 8.95in).

This may be the closest to comic books that real life gets. You have a noticeably extraordinary person, who uses what makes him unique to save the life of something else. Be it human, animal, or scantily clad, purple skinned, alien whore-maiden . It doesn't really matter.

Sounds like the core of every superhero story I ever read. It probably won't be enough to save us from Batman, but it's inspiring nonetheless.

Bruce Wayne: Russian Secret Service

So I'm browsing through headlines today when I come across this article from BBC News. It's a report on former KGB operatives attaining positions of authority in the Putin administration in Russia. I figured it was worth a look. There's been very little Russian intrigue in the news since the end of the Cold War. I kinda miss it.

But that's not what brings me before you today. Accompanying the article was this photo:

It's a picture of President Putin touring a new FSB headquarters in Moscow. Notice anything oddly familiar about the symbol on the floor?

Now all I'm saying is, if the implied Russian threat from the associated BBC article means anything, the West is totally in for a major ass kicking this time around. They have Batman working for them. What have we got? Keanu Reeves? I'm sorry, but "There is no Batarang" is not gonna stop the thing from slicing your face in half douchebag.

I'm thinking Rumsfeld picked the perfect time to resign. In fact it just might be the reason. I have no trouble imagining him seeing this, saying "fuck that", and just walking out of his office.

UPDATE: Sean from Film Junk sent me this link showing a more deatiled view of the logo on the floor.

Accidents Happen

I figured it was about time I shared another photo.

I was out on the front porch with my lady one night, pointing my camera at her and threatening to take unflattering pictures. I had no real intention of pressing the shutter release. I had no flash and the ambient lighting was pretty much nonexistent. I goofed and snapped a shot anyway.

I had the aperture open as wide as it could go, but the shutter speed was still completely unreasonable for a handheld shot. I was surprised as hell that anything was even recognizable when I got the roll developed, and frankly I've become rather fond of this picture.

It's still one of my favourites. It isn't brilliant, or even original, but it serves to remind me that sometimes mistakes can be quite rewarding.

Transient Possession 3

I whipped up a new mix CD for my car today and thought I'd share the joy. CD's for my car tend to be evolving mixes. I tire of some songs much faster than others, so inevitably a few tracks on new discs are shared with its predecessor.

Here's the new track list:

1. Johnny Cash - Folsom Prison Blues
2. TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me
3. Controller Controller - Bruised, Broken, Beaten
4. The Thermals - St. Rosa and the Swallows
5. The Kills - At the Back of the Shell
6. Chocolate Watchband - Let's Talk About Girls
7. Love - My Little Red Book
8. The White Stripes - Hello Operator
9. The Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
10. Metric - Dead Disco
11. Of Montreal - Bunny Ain't No Kind of Rider
12. The Dears - The Second Part
13. The Pixies - Hey
14. White Whale - The Admiral
15. The Velvet Underground - Rock & Roll
16. The Vaselines - Jesus Don't Want Me For a Sunbeam
17. Badly Drawn Boy - Cause a Rockslide
18. Machine Go Boom - Parents
19. The Clash - The Card Cheat
20. Mobius Band - The Loving Sounds of Static

Now the reason I titled it Transient Possession 3 is becuase I decided one day that whenever I make a new disc for the car, I'd give the old one away. I figured this time I'd let anyone who reads this have dibs on it of you're interested. I don't mind mailing it out and if you don't want to give up a home address, give me a PO box or work address or something.

Leave a comment or email me at the address listed above. I won't tell you what's on the one I'm sending though. I like to surprise people.

...And To Your Left, You'll See The Giant Freaking Monolith

I came across this little gem of a story in the Washington Post today and it set my little geeky heart to fluttering. NASA officially announced plans to set up a permanent moon base.

NASA unveiled plans yesterday to set up a small and ultimately self-sustaining settlement of astronauts at the south pole of the moon sometime around 2020 -- the first step in an ambitious plan to resume manned exploration of the solar system.

The long-awaited proposal envisions initial stays of a week by four-person crews, followed by gradually longer visits until power and other supplies are in place to make a permanent presence possible by 2024.

A friggin' moon base man! I don't think I need to explain just why this is unbelievably cool. I know that renewed efforts at manned eploration of the moon is old news and this inevitable step has been foretold for some time now, but the official announcement coupled with this graphic from the New York Times depicting a rough layout of one of the prime pieces of lunar real estate being considered just got me pumped.

The only real question left in my mind (aside from the obvious question of defending our newfound territory against the mighty Unicron), is when can I start moving my stuff in?

Hogtown

Looks like I've been carelessly neglecting my personal space again. Sorry about that, but I've been in Toronto all weekend and therefore separated from my precious RSS reader.

I came up here to attend my girlfriends staff Christmas party last night. It was interesting, if a little uncomfortable. I definitely won't knock a free meal, but we got stuck at a table with Al Roker's exact double. Dude even sounded like him. It was kind of creepy.

Anyway I'll be heading back home tonight, so I'll make every effort to find something interesting when I get back so I can offer up my unwarranted opinion on it. Unless of course, the world has stopped functioning in my absence. I'm just vain enough to believe that.

Ciao for now beautiful people.

Time Of The Preacher.

After a number of false starts at a feature length film, it seems Garth Ennis' Preacher may have finally found a home on HBO. Apparently the U.S. network is putting together a series of one hour episodes based on the gritty, supernatural adventures of Jesse Custer.

Normally I'd shudder at the concept, but HBO has a stellar track record when it comes to episodic television productions and I think the character will get the treatment he deserves in their capable hands. In fact, having read the entire series of 75 issues I think the story would probably work better as a longer term small screen production. There are a lot of great side plots that would inevitably get dropped in the process of adapting it to a film.

I'm rather looking forward to this. Long live the Saint of Killers.

For those unfamiliar with the comic, there's some good info including issue reviews here.

Blasphemers!

My friends, today is a dark day indeed.

The always informative Cinema Blend has just brought to my attention a story which could be a signal that the end of times is nigh. One of my favourite books, one which has been adapted for the screen and despite the change in setting remained true to the source material and therefore is also a favourite of mine, is being given the broadway treatment. Say goodbye to your sanity, and hello to High Fidelity: The Musical.

I'll pause for a moment while you howl in pain and disbelief...

Feel better? Then let's move on.

I'll be the first to admit that musicals just don't appeal to me at all. But there's a major difference between a story originally written as a musical, and one that was adapted into a musical. The former I've been known to express tolerance for, even if it isn't my proverbial cup of tea. The latter, every time it has been attempted, is nothing more than a mistake of biblical proportions. Need proof? Look what the bastards did to the Evil Dead.

Now if you'll kindly excuse me, I think I'm going to be sick.

Cure For The Blahs Anyone?

Sorry for the lack of content this weekend folks. I've been in a horrible mood and as a result I've had a hard time taking an interest in anything. I'm doing my best to shake it but if the winters of years gone by are any indication, I'm in for a rough couple of months. If anyone has access to some home-spun remedy for the winter blues, I'd be eternally grateful if you shared it with me.

Maybe it's just because I miss my better half. I've never been good with distance relationships and even though she's not that far away, and the distance won't be an issue in a few months time, I'm still having a rough time with it. I'll see her again this coming weekend so here's hoping it shakes me out of this funk.

In the meantime I've got a useless but entertaining video to share.

Feelin' The Groove

There are few things that can bring a smile to my face the way re-discovering an album that's been collecting dust for a number of years can.

I had a hard time sleeping last night, so as I often do in such situations, I decided to toss on some tunes to soothe the savage beast known as insomnia. While browsing through the collection, I decided on a whim to go with Morcheeba's 1998 release Big Calm.

It's been quite some time since I played this one from beginning to end. I've picked out the occasional track or two to include on mixes for friends, but I'd completely forgotten the mellow charm this album possesses when enjoyed as a unified body of work. Plus, for reasons I've never been able to adequately explain, Skye Edwards' voice still makes me blush a little.

If you haven't yet had the priviledge, I highly recommend giving this album a go. It's at least worthy of a degree of respect for proving that the infamous "sophomore slump" is more of a guideline than a rule.