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Prisoners

TIFF 2013; or how I learned to queue

Prisoners You may have heard of Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal who star in Prisoners, but you probably haven’t heard of Denis Villeneuve, unless you’re weird like me and enjoy uncomfortable but intelligent Quebec film.Villeneuve is probably most famous for his Oscar nominated Incendies or his docudrama about the École Polytechnique massacre appropriately called Polytechnique. Prisoners is Villeneuve’s first English-language film, and the first example of… If you want to make money, go English. In this film, two families are celebrating Thanksgiving. Their two young daughters go missing… UH OH! You think that’s the events getting bad, you’re mistaken; things go from bad to worse. Gyllenhaal plays the cop searching for the girls; he provides… Read More »TIFF 2013; or how I learned to queue

Doctor Twelve

I’m likely to use an awful lot of – what we would call – violent sexual imagery. They’ve announced the twelfth Doctor and it’s Peter Capaldi! You might recall him from The Thick of It, which really is a brilliant show. Peter Capaldi played Malcolm Tucker, the foul-mouthed Scottish Communications Director for the UK’s PMO. Here’s a sampling. This will be a fun few years.

Carol Marcus

The Valkyrie Directive

For those who have seen the new Star Trek films, you’re aware of how poorly women are portrayed. As far as I can recall, we have Uhura, and… and… and… oh, there’s the green girl who Kirk bones, and Carol Marcus who seems to only be in the film to show her in her underwear. I was going to put that shot in my blog post. I decided it against it, and instead will feature a shot of the original Carol Marcus, a scientist, and mother, an ex-love, a human… Why I mention this is because The Valkyrie Directive is actually looking at women in Star Trek critically, and it’s… Read More »The Valkyrie Directive

In Review July 2013

My goal is to read 5 books, see 20 films, buy 20 albums, go to 15 concerts and attend 3 plays in the second half of 2013. I’m not doing great at my goal. Books I’ve read (0/5): Films I’ve seen (4/20): Cars 2 Children of Men Cherry 2000 Much Ado About Nothing Albums I’ve bought (0/20): Concerts I’ve attended (1/15): Poor Pilgrim Island Show Plays I’ve attended (0/3):

eSATA

Mac Pro eSATA

I recently purchased the 2012 Mac Pro. Not the brand-spankin-new Mac Pro that looks like a subwoofer. The giant Mac Pro which does a poor job at replacing the XServe. I needed eSATA, but sadly the Mac Pro doesn’t have either an eSATA port, or a Thunderbolt port. I could use PCI and get an eSATA card, but that’s pricey. Instead I found NewerTech makes an eSATA extender cable. Basically it takes a spare eSATA port on the board, and makes it external, and it’s only $25. Not bad. The instructions are incredible. It gives you the choice. Pre-2008 Mac Pro, or the 2008 Mac Pro… umm, I have the… Read More »Mac Pro eSATA

Is There In Truth No Beauty

Watching original Star Trek. Not the best episode, but I had to make two more animated GIFs…

Chapman

Orange Is The New Black

I’ve been powering through NetFlix’s new TV show Orange Is The New Black. The show is about a woman in her early 30s, starting a new business, found the man to spend her life with, suddenly has to come to terms with mistakes from her past. Piper Chapman spent much of her early 20s in a relationship with Alex Vause, a beautiful drug smuggler. Vause fingers her as a money smuggler, and Chapman finds herself beginning a new life in prison. The format for the show is to tell a story in present day prison, while flashing back to the story of how an inmate got into prison. The first episode… Read More »Orange Is The New Black

Nick Ferrio

Poor Pilgrims Island Show 6

Sunday marked the sixth Poor Pilgrims Island Show. Most concerts are very static; Poor Pilgrims differentiates itself by having each act performing at a different location on Toronto Island. Starting at the Franklin Storybook Garden was Peterborough’s Nick Ferrio. He played some good country songs with only himself, a guitar, and a backing vocalist. Reminded me of Daniel Romano, and that’s quite a good thing. Next up we went to the Dragon Boat Launch where Steve Kado and friends were performing his piece “2003.” I personally would call it “Steve Kado’s Experiments in Tedium.” It essentially consisted of two notes for over 40 minutes. It was painful. At least the… Read More »Poor Pilgrims Island Show 6

Metropolitan Toronto

Metro

I like the old Metropolitan Toronto logo. Metro hasn’t existed for about 15 years, and yet the logo is everywhere in the city.

Roll in the soap

Cherry 2000

Sam Treadwell is having a lovely evening at home, chatting with his android when they decide to have a roll in the soap. If he had consulted his android’s owner’s manual, he would have known that moisture and electronics do not mix. Sadly his android short circuits and dies. I never actually thought there would be a film about a man’s love for his Fleshlight, but here we are. This man is so distraught by the death of his sex toy that he goes on a mission to find a replacement to upload her personality into. He’s shown all sorts of choices, but none are Cherry 2000, a long discontinued model.… Read More »Cherry 2000