HELLO, I LOVE U!

Robert Downey Jr. to play Marvel's Iron Man! how very very perfect is that?!? not only is he a little crazy like Tony Stark but he's brilliant as well and HELLO! hummina hummina!

a brief list of Downey's brilliance and some of my favorite movies:

• A Scanner Darkly
• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
• The Singing Detective
• Natural Born Killers

QUOTE OF THE DAY

at salsa practice:

n: count together so you're all in synch

r: what if some of us wanted to be the Backstreet Boys?

QUOTE OF THE DAY

dan: oh it's on! it's on like donkey kong!

REAL LIFE KRYPTONITE

BBC News reports: "A new mineral matching its unique chemistry - as described in the film Superman Returns - has been identified in a mine in Serbia. "

NIKE TRANSFORMERS!

Convoy & Megatron Nike Free 7.0 - Set of 2

see also: fun Nike commercial:

SPIDER-MAN: THE MUSICAL

original article available at SneakPeek .

Think they'll use the original cartoon theme song


or will it be something more modern like the Aerosmith version?

SHAME ON YOU!

Roman Dirge's Lenore and Jim Benton's Happy Bunny are 2 of my favorite characters. shame shame Todd Goldman for being a dirty dirty stealer!

spoof t-shirt

this article (make sure you scroll down to the last posting for some wacky myspace.com stuff)lets the evidence speak for itself. In his press release he says, “My intention was not to copy Mr. Kelly. I have never seen his work before and would never intentionally knock-off someone else’s idea.” uh-huh...

THE WAR ON TERROR

the boardgame

and there's a tournament in LA this weekend

TRAILERS

CANUCK-UCATION

i retain pointless trivia like nobody's business!

• the Canucks have made the finals twice (Against the Rangers in 94 and against the Islanders in 82.)
• Dallas has been knocked out of the first round of the playoffs twice consecutively- tonight is game 5 and they will be knocked out for the third time in a row if they lose
• Dallas has only won one of their last 10 playoff games
• seven out of the last 10 times the Canucks made the playoffs, the team that won the opening game would end up losing the series (we won the first game in the current series)
• the last time the Canucks won a series after winning the opening game was the last and only other time they faced Dallas in '94 - where they also knocked Dallas out in 5 games

Go Canucks Go!

HEROES

all hail to CBC and Editor-in-Chief Tony Burman. CBC has proven to have learned from past mistakes and is, indeed, making an effort to practice what they have preached. a conscious decision was made to not sensationalize the Virginia Tech massacre. Burman writes in his Letters from the Editor in Chief:

Several specialists in the field in both Canada and the U.S. argued that the media’s blanket coverage of these “crimes of notoriety” encouraged copycats by “glorifying” their act. They urged the media to reduce their preoccupation with the killers, their identity and their photographs — and not report “idle speculation” about their motives...Overwhelmingly, the focus of our CBC coverage on radio, television and online has been on the victims and the many important issues which flow out of this tragedy.

as evidenced by the comments made to Burman's words, the question of whether or not CBC is ethically superior to other news stations is not something we will all agree on but i think they should be commended for daring to go a different route. CBC is being accused of whimping out and not keeping up with their counterparts but it seems to me that they have reported the news as opposed to gossiping about it. others have claimed that seeing the images "moved [them] to action." it was an eye-opener. i think it's sad that we need to bear witness to realize that 32 innocent people being gunned down is a horrific thing.

is this my cop out? i don't know if i'm becoming complacent but i am sick of feeling like that guy from A Clockward Orange with his eyelids pinned up and being forced to watch violent images - only in the movie it is done to the purpose of reforming and here it is informing. the ill effects of seeing these things comes from within, as i think it should be. without external negative consequences to these images, how long will it before i'm desensitized and no longer feel sick when i see bad things happen? i feel like the captive audience and the media has forgotten they need serum no. 114 for this experiment to work. i'm not being reformed, i'm over informed and i for one don't feel moved to any productive action. i can only sit with my mouth gaping in shock of how disturbed this guy was.

i feel like i've overdone the ranting but i am confused about the fine line between responsible informing and turning a blind eye. i don't know if CBC is doing the right thing but i greatly appreciate their option plan.

UNITED 93 & VIRGINIA TECH

i watched United 93 on the Movie Channel this weekend. well, to be more exact - i endured half of it and just as the terrorists were about to make their move i frantically grabbed the remote and changed the channel. the docudrama made me sick to my stomach which is probably a testiment to how well done it was.

the movie is not only about the heroes of the title flight but also a journalistic, apolitical detail of how the horror unfolded for the air traffic controllers, the military and the FAA. the hand-held camera work was brilliant. it drew the audience in - i was no longer watching but experiencing and it was terrifying. i believe the movie was supposed to be in real time which had an eerie sickening effect on me. there was something horrible in watching the realization sink in for each of the players involved. it was like a bad B-movie where you're silently screaming in your head,"don't open that door, the killer's in that room." it was gut-wrenching to know what was to come, a nightmare that i was not willing to have again. i wanted to huddle in the fetal position and weep but there was no release.

i was upset when i first heard about this movie. i thought it too soon to be sensationalized but Paul Greengrass (best known to the mainstream as the director of The Bourne Supremecy) did no such thing. the research was thorough, the families of the victims consulted, some of the people in the movie were actually playing themselves. this was a shrine he built to honour heroes that should always be remembered as such.

i have a great deal of respect for this effort and maybe one day i'll be able to finish the movie but maybe i shouldn't. i struggled with this for the rest of the weekend. images of 9-11 have scarred me. i was stunned into a stupor that day. i sat in front of the tv, unable to turn away and i sobbed. i was reacting so harshly that the guy i was living with at the time thought i actually knew someone in the World Trade Centre. i didn't but i knew the world had changed forever. till this day i've never been able to explain my reaction. i don't really understand it.

i was never an idealist. it wasn't a stretch to call me a wee bit cynical, at times, but never could i have conjoured such attrocities in my head. i couldn't stand that day, i was so sickened. i couldn't wrap my head around it and i felt broken. i felt like the whole world was broken.

here's this great homage to the real victims of the tradgedy and here i am wallowing in my pettiness. here's the question, tho - does this make me a lesser person? am i hiding behind ignorace? there was so much lost that day, why can't i just mourn forever? maybe it would be right to finish the movie and cry again but i can't quite yet.

monday morning, i woke up and turned on the morning news, like i do every day, and went about my morning routine. there was a shooting at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. i would later find out that 32 people died and the gunman killed himself. is this the highest casualty count in american school shootings? can it possibly be getting worse?

i was trying to remember how long ago the Colombine massacre was so i googled it. only 2 days have gone by and Wikipedia already lists the Columbine as the third deadliest shooting in America after the one at Virginia State and, of course, the one at Texas University in 1966.

the media has gone to town with this one. it's surreal with a larger than life antogonist and complete with a "multimedia manifesto" and its ill-timed delivery to NBC. he's a legend already. i understand the need to know, to inform, to pay tribute but i can't help feeling like the all media coverage, the strange pictures, the interactive graphics, the videos, the blog, the everything is over the top and effictively desensitizing the masses in the name of educating the ignorant.

is this insensitive? yes, it is. but so is slowing down on the highway and craning your neck around to catch a glimpse of that accident and we've all done that so let's just bloody well get over that one now. we're so inundated with images of cars crashing and flipping and exploding that when we drive by it we're somehow detached, safely cocooned by a pane of glass, in our cars, listening to our tunes, going about our business. it's just another image and it's fascinating in a morbid kind of way.

there's so much conversation about the violence in movies and videogames but what about being pummeled by news clips everywhere you turn? it's one thing to report the news, it's another to create a dog and pony show out of it. i'm not ranting about the coverage per se, but really more about the business of the news. it bothers me that they run commercials with teasers! "there's a sadistic killer running around in your area but we're not gonna tell you anything unless you boost our ratings by tuning in later tonight." the news is supposed to inform.

i know i'm being harsh and probably displacing my anger. i don't know why i react to the two tradgedies so differently. maybe i'm grasping for justification, some reason behind the chaos that is me.

9-11 made us hold our breath, the world was stunned into silence. Virgina Tech we all seem rabid for gossip. i somehow feel like we're being disrespectful. is it just me? is it hypocritical to be so ashamed of my inability to pay homage to one and so disapproving of the tribute to the other?

none of this makes any sense to me right now. i'm babbling about feelings i don't understand, things i can't seem to comprehend. i don't want to be ignorant but we're killing each other and ourselves and i just can't bare to look.

STRANGE STATUES

behold the strangness at Around the World

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The best part of your life is the part that you’re living right now.
-George Stroumboulopoulos

HEROES

i was watching The Hour last night on CBC, as i often do before bed, and it dawned on me that in my day to day routine i often glimpse great heroes that inspire me or move me to tears, to laughter, to think. i thought it only right to share.

i begin with George Stroumboulopoulos, host of The Hour. thank you George for making current affairs cool, for addressing issues that matter and issues that fascinate while wearing Sketchers and donning ear rings. and he's Canadian to boot! Toronto Life calls him "a loner who loves attention, an anti-authoritarian mama’s boy and a motorcycle-riding hedonist who doesn’t drink, smoke or sleep." smart and cute - i'll take two!



next, i turn your attention to John Cusak being interviewed by George at Sundance. IMDB hails him as "...an unconventional hero [w]ary of fame and repelled by formulaic Hollywood fare." need i say more? marry me you Bush-bashing liberal idealist!

lastly, Yann Martel, the author of The Life of Pi. not only is he a writer, but the winner of the Brooker Prize and was nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award. Martel issues Prime Minister Harper a challenge on his new website: www.whatisstephenharperreading.ca

i love the part of his letter that says, " I know you’re very busy, Mr. Harper. We’re all busy. Meditating monks in their cells are busy."

and who are some of your heroes?

PARASKEVIDEKATRIAPHOBIA

[ pronounced PAIR- UH- SKEE- VEE- DEK- UH- TREEUHFOH- BEE- UH]

— the excessive, and sometimes morbid fear of Friday the 13th.

HOT OR NOT

gill (to adrian): it's cold in here. are you cold.

adrian: i'm hot. dead sexy, in fact.

THE CHORES OF MEN

joel: no really, i read that in this study, 80% of men most preferred doing the laundry over any other chore.

me: no kidding.

joel: and then the next preferece was the dishes - with a dish washer, of course.

me: i see, so anything where men get to put something in.

CLATO VERATA NIC...(cough cough)

me on my way to GM place: how will i get in when i get there?

joel: go to gate 10, find [guy] and say to him, "the eagle has sprung the trap"

COOKIE

Cookie died yesterday of a bacterial infection and old age. She was 14 years old, rescued from a bad place and had silk for fur. Cookie had nightmares and would cry in her sleep. She wanted nothing more than to be loved and never felt like she was loved enough.

Meowzer and i will miss her dearly.

DRAGONLANCE: DRAGONS OF AUTUMN TWILIGHT

how the heck did i let this info slip by me?

behold: the animated movie

and there was much rejoicing.

ALANIS DOES FERGIE