Pole

Dear People Who Ride the Subway:

You do not own the pole.

The pole is not for your entire body.

The pole is not a resting spot.

The pole is not just for you.

The pole is for your ONE HAND.

The pole is for EVERYONE.

Get off the fucking pole.

Kind Regards,

Balanceless

Soft

Are you soft? 

Not muscle – wise, insides – wise. 

Soft.

Not weak or incapable or dependent or lost.

Soft.

Are you open?  Are you not unmoving? 

Soft?

Do you look at the everything of everything and live with knowing that you’ve looked at this everything of everything in all possible ways and considerations and come to a point where you know that your heart is open in a way that takes it all in and considers the everything and everyone.  Can you let your guard down to a point where you are free and vulnerable and open to anything and everything because that place between the what you want and the what you’re scared of is usually where all the amazing stuff is sitting, just waiting for you?

Can You Be Soft?

Be Soft.   

Pie

How is it possible that one tiny word containing a mere 3 letters can make me so damn happy?

Pie! I love pie!

Any kind of pie!  Honestly speaking, though, raisin pie isn’t really pie, it’s gross and blueberry pie is rather yucky because blueberries are best eaten cold.  Picky?  No.  Particular!  Pie is serious business!

Pie!  I love pie!

Maybe because it’s customarily served with ice cream? Who knows.  Who cares.  Hot, cold, fruity, creamy, double crust, crumble, fluted shell or plain.  Oh .. Pecan ...

Pie!  I love pie! 

And now, taking my love affair to a whole new level, I’m making pie (still working on the Clooney Factory).  Imagine the possibilities.  It’s all so delicious.  And as an added bonus my place smells great all the time. 

Pie!  I love pie!

Quotable - Part 11

"You are my Internet"

                                 
                                        C. Vaughan, dear friend and co-worker,
                                        Monday October 3rd, 2011,
                                        when I referred him to the Internet.
                                       
                                        That's a whole lot of pressure.

A TIFF To Remember - Volume 12 - Wrap Party

So here we are.  It’s over.  10 days of movies, movies and more movies.  It was, as they say, a blast.  It’s impossible not to find common threads when you see 25 (only) movies over 10 days.  Of course there was much to say about the human spirit.  Plenty going on with finding your place in the world.  But there was also lots of sex and lots of death.  Not normal sex and not normal death.

We had Sewer Sex, Stripper Sex, Lesbian Sex, Self Sex, Cathar Sex, Chicken Sex, Machine Sex, Backseat Sex, Make-a-baby Sex.  All that and we didn’t even see Shame.

We learned about lots of different ways to kill people, like by drowning, or with the heel of a boot, shower rod, can of pumpkins, fire extinguisher, hammer (twice), bow and arrow and a plain old boring gun.  As an extra bonus, things to do with that dead body:  rat foot, a shower platform and dance floor.  

I’m not sure which would be more helpful to spice up your particular life, but there you go.  The movies are such an educational medium.

You don’t see 25 (only) movies in 10 days and not love movies.  Thankfully, after 10 days and 25 (only) movies I can still say I love the movies.  But not just the movies themselves – I love the actual going to the movies, the dark theatre, the smell of popcorn, the trailers (my favourite part!) and I love talking about the movies.  We watch movies alone, yes, but movie – going is a very social thing.  I realized this definitively during TIFF – whether waiting in line or waiting for the movie to start, everyone is talking.  Talking about movies.  What was good, what was bad, what to see, what to skip.  It’s full on and you have to love it.  I love it.  The Posse loves it.  Most of my friends do too.  I also learned that above all else it’s the written word – the story – that’s going to get me in the end.  It all starts there, with an idea that comes to life and is brought to life by some pretty talented people.  Sometimes these ideas come to life like magic and sometimes, well, they don’t.  But that’s okay.  You can’t win them all.  We won most of the time this year, though – only one dud and 2 average films in the 25 (only).  I say that’s pretty damn excellent, and merely a tip of the iceberg because there was so much more amazing stuff we didn’t get a chance to see!  The bar’s been set pretty high. 

This TIFF To Remember was pretty special.  The films, of course, but the escapades and the laughs and the covert meals and the tears and the precision timing and the fun, fun, fun.  You know I’d do it all again.  WILL do it all again and I know the Posse will be there again.  We were made for this stuff.  We live for this stuff.

So, tell me, what are we seeing this weekend?

A TIFF To Remember - Volume 11- Magic & Wonder

We're tired.  Beyond exhausted.  It's hard to form sentences.  I bump into things.  I have bruises from bumping into these things and bruises from something else I did that was really quite dumb that I'm not going to tell you about.  I blame my exhaustion.  Can we make it?  Can we see this through?  Hell YES.  Kudos to Julie, our personal TIFF programmer, for selecting the most perfect film to cap off the most amazing 10 days.  A film with a simple story that you really don't need to pay attention to, you just need to sit back watch and listen to the magic and the wonder ...

The Flying Machine
Directed by Martin Clapp & Dorota Kobiela
Starring Heather Graham, Lang Lang

I was in for this one from the beginning.  I love kid's flicks.  I'm thankful that many of my friends have kids and now I have a niece & nephews so I can take these kids to kids movies and I don't feel like a weirdo sitting as an adult alone in kids movies.  But, then again, with pals like Jess and Cres I don't think I would ever be sitting alone in a kids movie as they love them too.  Phew.  So, Flying Machine is one of these crazy techie marvels:  3D; Animation;Live Action; Claymation.  All at the same time.  Wowsers.  The whole thing is set to the music of Chopin and admittedly I'm not all that for classical music.  Most of it, to me, sounds like violins at war.  It stresses me out completely.  I know, I am so low brow.  But you know what?  Chopin, at the hands of Lang Lang, on that piano was beautiful.  So beautiful.  I am converted.  Or at least Chopin converted.  There were many moments during the movie when I simply wanted to close my eyes and listen, but how could I do that with all the amazing stuff happening before my eyes?  There were balloons and flowers and a world tour so magical I, too, wanted to be on that flying machine.  Is that not the best kind of feeling in a movie - when you want to be IN the movie?  The director told us at the Q and A afterwards that a wondrous shot (not telling) took them 10 months to put together.  This shot lasted 2 minutes.  Can you imagine that?  The painstaking determination and patience required to do that?  Thanks, man.  It was worth it.  Lest you think I've gone all soft, I will say that The Flying Machine absolutely and completely proved that Heather Graham is one crummy actress.  So there's that.

Today, we're all set for.  Oh.  Hang on.  Nothing.  We're set for nothing.  It's just going to be a plain old Monday.  NO!  NO!  Take me back there.  Take me back to the movies!  Maybe this will help ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6ai39pJXMY

Look out, my official TIFF To Remember Wrap Party is, as they say ..... Coming Soon.

A TIFF To Remember - Volume 10 - Bang

Nine days of heaven.  Can this become my life?  How can I make this my life?  Today continued the streak of fine, fine film making (because technically, the last one wasn't actually seen today :) ).  Gotta go out with a bang, right?

The Skin I Live In
Written & Directed by Pedro Almodovar
Starring Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya

In the hands of pretty much anyone else, this movie would have quickly turned into a schlocky soap-opera-y eye rolling melodrama.  Pedro, however, makes a movie which is completely disturbing yet incredibly beautiful.  A man - Banderas, who I really don't like, but here, without his borderline swarthy Spanish accent , is absolutely perfect - seeks revenge and turns the thing responsible for his suffering into his ultimate reward.  The story unfolds very slowly. Twists, therefore, are not gasp worthy.  We simply watch them, accept them and wait for more.  There's no wild "dun-dun-dun" soundtrack to prompt us into a suspenseful turn.  Pedro knows we're smarter than that.  Prove him right and see this film.

Burning Man
Written & Directed by Jonathan Teplitzky
Starring Matthew Goode

What initially drew me to this film was good Matthew Goode.  I don't know why this guy isn't a bigger name, why he's not in more movies.  He's solid in everything I've seen him in (Match Point, A Single Man, Brideshead Revisited) and pretty charming in those movies attractive actors have to make to pay the rent (Chasing Liberty, Leap Year).  After seeing Burning Man, I know why he's not a bigger name, a bigger star:  Matthew Goode is great and it looks like he's not even trying.  Amazing.  Our story begins with Matthew as Tom and Tom's a prick.  He's angry and callous and reckless.  We don't really know why Tom is all these things but as his story plays out in non-chronological order, we're given snippets of what made Tom such a prick and then we understand why Tom is such a prick.  Tom's a prick for the only reason you're really allowed to be one:  for that very specific time in your life when you need to re-think and re-balance your whole life and world view because the thing / person so crucial to defining this, and to defining you, is no longer there.  I hated this movie because it was so real.  I loved this movie because it was so real.  This movie took me to places I've spent almost 4 years trying to run away from.  Cres read somewhere that this film was the most depressing film in the festival.  Yeah, I get that, but you don't stay there forever.  Tom can't be a prick for the rest of his life.  He starts to figure it out and we know he will, just like we all do, like we all try to.  And with one of my favourite songs rolling the credits as his battle cry, we know he does.  What's the song?  Go see the movie. 

From The Sky Down
Directed by Davis Guggenheim
Starring U2

This is a hard one.  I've had a week to think about this,  with a killer Pearl Jam doc in between, and I gotta tell you this one was ... okay.  You know I say this with love.  I can be objective.  I am and always and forever more will be a huge fan.  I wanted to LOVE this movie.  I wanted it to  take me inside everything I heard was happening in those fractious times when the band was recording Achtung Baby.  I wanted to hear from everyone.  I wanted juicy tidbits.  I didn't get much of that and ultimately wanted more.  But isn't that what we do with those we love?  We expect nothing but the best from them - we expect the most?  I think U2 let us down here.  It felt like the film was put together quickly and I hate it when "the band" is supposed to be engaged in a project and only Bono & Edge show up.  I know Larry & Adam hate this sort of thing, but guys, come on - it's your freaking documentary.  Anyway, there are 20 minutes of this movie which will give you goosebumps.  I'm going to say that 20 minutes makes this movie worth seeing, it totally does.  Just don't be surprised if it leaves you wanting more.


Kill List
Directed by Ben Wheatley
Starring Neil Maskell, MyAnna Buning

I'm not a huge horror movie fan.  Real life often scares me, why do I need movies to do that too?  I went into TIFF guns a'blazing this year and as a big part of TIFF is Midnight Madness, I had to - wanted to - experience it too.  Maybe I didn't pick the right movie.  I had no idea what was going on here.  There was killing (big deal), a cult (whatever) and some dead animals (yeah, okay)and alot of yelling (people, please turn it down).  I was more grossed out with the violence in Drive. I wanted to be disturbed!  I wanted to be scared!  I got none of that and I'm pissed off!  I am formally applying for my Midnight Madness rain check - how can I cash this in?

Well, today is it.  The last day.  Our swan song.  I will leave the house defiantly singing "One Day More" from Les Miserables.  Fittingly, it's family day - Julie's bringing her girls down (as they haven't seen much of mom) and I've got a friend bringing her two girls down as well.  Everyone loves the movies.  Take me to The Flying Machine !