My little slice of the pie....

Quote of the Day

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 02:12:13 GMT

From our Prime Minister:

"Just as the Stone Age did not end because the world ran out of stones, the carbon age will not end because the world runs out of fossil fuels," Harper said.

So even though we run out of fossil fuels... we will still be living in the "carbon age?" I would like to know when the "Green age" will begin. In my opinion, the government should take a hard stance on industry even if it affects the economy and add support where needed by helping workers find jobs, creating opportunities in the "green energy" sector and environmentally friendly industries. No matter what, industry will have to take a hit for the planet, it's inevitable.

ecoFraud

Wed, 02 May 2007 04:41:00 GMT

Came across this website on Facebook. Yes, Facebook, which is where I spend all my time online these days and why I haven't posted on here for such a long time. A good satirical website criticizing the Conservative governments stance on the environment. It's still in its infantcy but give it some time. http://www.ecofraud.ca/

Are you sure that's chocolate glaze on your donut?

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 00:04:34 GMT

This beautiful afteroon I was downtown so I decided to stop and have lunch at a ubiquitous donut and sandwhich restaurant. Before I sat down to eat, I decided to go to the bathroom and wash my hands since I had been practicing all morning and most likely I picked up all the germs of everyone else who had touched that piano before me. After scrubbing my hands clean I started drying my hands under the drier when I heard a toilet flush and the door to the bathroom stall open. Out walked a man in his late forties or early fifties. Being the courteous and polite person I am, I made sure I was out of the way so that the man could reach the sink (it was a rather small bathoom) but instead, the man walked briskly past me and turned the corner. Gross. Someone of his age should know better to watch his hands after doing whatever he did in that stall (I'm assuming the worst because he didn't use a urinal). Still worse: when I left the bathroom I noticed that the man left in the direction of the employees area. Could this man in fact be an employee of ubiquitous donut shop? Is he a baker? Will some unfortunate person eat the donut, pastry or whatever product this man will touch with his fouled hands?

I tried to push the thought out of my mind. I sat down and ate my lunch. Afterwards, I returned to the washroom to make a pit stop before I left. I did my business, washed my hands and started to dry them, when again, someone flushed the toilet, left the bathroom stall and walked straight out of the bathroom without stopping to consider washing his hands. This man was even older, probably in his sixties. So I'm thinking either a) these people are not aware of the existence of bacteria or b) these people have devised a method to do their business without having to clean up afterwards. After I left the bathroom I noticed this indiviudal sitting down eating his lunch. Gross. If this is the clientele or general peer group of ubiquitous donut shop count me out; next time I'm going to Subway. At least there they wear gloves when they make your sandwich.

Enough Already!

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 23:20:29 GMT

This is just a random rant while I sit here at home, having just completed my online component of "ethics training." Yes, the University of Alberta decided to complicate my degree further by adding an ethics training component which supposedly aids grad students should they ever find themselves in a variety of situations that could compromise their academic reputation and credibility. Fortunately, making it an online webct component allows you to skim the readings and try the tests multiple times until you get 100% on each one. Unfortunately, none of the questions were pertinent to my degree so it was essentially just another unnecessary hurdle to jump over while the powers that be dangle my university degree in front of me. I'll admit that the training would be helpful to those in a research-based degree but "Piano Performance" doesn't not exactly fit into that category. Just another example of why the fine arts does not belong in a post secondary environment: or at least at the University of Alberta.

Emily Haines Concert

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 04:48:23 GMT

I forgot to mention that I went to the Emily Haines concert at the Citadel last month. Some of you may know her as the lead singer from Metric but this concert was dedicated to her solo record she recorded recently. It was quite the opposite from her Metric flavour; it has a lyrical, ballad feel to it and she even played clips from independent films that she thought contributed to the idea of each song on a screen behind her. It all sort of reminded me of the direction Matt Good took after he left his band - much more mellow where the lyrics seem to supersede the music. The whole experience was a little surreal just because Emily was nothing I expected, but then everything I should have. You might think of indie rockers from what you see on tv: they're the type that would imagine what the sky would be like green and write a song about it and then tie in some metaphorical lyrics that have to do with suicide. It was kind of like that except she was the real deal and a little more down to earth (as much as I could gather) but the poetic element was definitely there. I've uploaded some pictures of the event as well as a very poor quality video I took of one of her songs. The quality is so bad I don't even know why I bother - I don't even know what song it is. Enjoy!

Concert on Saturday!

Sat, 03 Feb 2007 05:02:44 GMT

Hello Edmonton Readers! (I think there's one of you maybe haha)

i Coristi, the choir I sing with and accompany will be showcasing their second concert of the season at McDougall United Church downtown Saturday, February 2nd at 8 pm. The title of our concert is "Fireside Songs and Stories." We will be performing pieces by Canadian composers, R Murray Schafer and Larry Nickel, and others by Elgar, American composer John Rutter, Debussy and others! In the first half the music will be interspersed with a reading of The Cremation of Sam McGee by David Ley, a professor of Drama specializing in dialects at the University of Alberta (he does a wonderful southern accent). Accompanying us on harp for the evening is Edmonton Symphony Orchestra harpist Nora Burmanis.

Tickets are $15 for students and seniors and $20 for adults.

So please come if you can!

Visit http://www.icoristi.com for more information.

-Ry

New Year's News

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 06:27:56 GMT

Happy New Year to all! I apologize for the lack of updates but I just haven't felt like writing in awhile. I'm not sure how many people read this but I haven't received any angry e-mails requesting I post something so I'll assume everyone is okay with my absence. Generally I don't care if anyone reads this or not; I know some of my family does as a means to find out what I'm really doing up here in Edmonton. I also know most of my friends in Edmonton don't read this because I see them everyday, but I still like to think there's an extra something, a glimpse into my mind, only possible from reading one's blog.... well, maybe if they were reading a diary because I don't exactly pour out all my thoughts and feelings into this. It may contain the occassional rant, poetry, or some other lame attempt at literary artistry but for the most part it's about my bland ol' life. Perhaps I could make this a little more interesting if I knew my parents were not reading it *wink* *wink*. Love you Mom and Dad. Anyhow, time for another entry.

Christmas with the family was great if a little short this year. Everything seemed a bit out of kilter this year as visitation rights with family were short and sporadic courtesy of work schedules of certain family members. For instance, my sister had to work Christmas Day at the Hospital in Ontario and she didn't come down to Lethbridge until the 28th so I was only able to visit her for a few days. In some ways I'm already beginning to see the strain my sister's career puts on her and the cohesiveness of our once close-knit family unit but I guess that's all part of growing up. Still, I'm glad I was able to see her for a couple days. I envy her ability to focus on her career and not lose sight of her goals; I wish I could say the same about my love/hate relationship with music but her and I are different people. I think I've always been one to want more social contact than her. She'd easily lock herself up in her room studying hard for her med school exams but I on the contrary could easily be swayed to take a break from studying or practicing if it meant hanging out with some friends I hadn't seen in awhile.

A's absence this Christmas reminded me how important it is to stay in touch with family, and how I look forward to Christmas every year as a time for bringing the family together, released from the stresses of work and life. I am so thankful that I still get to see both grandparents and have dinner at their respective houses. I always enjoy the conversations we have as a family, as if for once in our hectic lives we are able to sit down and communicate. I already miss them all.....

For New Year's Eve a group of us went to Century Grill for some excellent Beef Tenderloin among other things. It's always nice when you can manage to get a group of friends together and make reservations in time! Unfortunately, a few of us were sick and made it an early night but some of us went to Churchill Square to take in the fireworks.

A few days after New Years I went to Montréal for a few days for lessons, visiting friends and some shopping. The lessons were given by a teacher I enjoyed working with last summer at the Orford Music School. Again, she reminded me how much I enjoyed working with her and as a result, I'm planning on moving to Montréal in the fall to pursue an artist's diploma. It will be difficult to leave behind all the friends I have made in Edmonton in the short while I've been here but new opportunities await! I'm also very lucky to have the encouragement from a number of close friends which helped me make this difficult decision. Some days my resolve wavers and I find myself leaning toward staying here but opportunities like this can come and go so it's best to go while the door is still open.

That's about all I have to report for now. This year promises to be just as busy and eventful as the last so I hope to see many of you over the course of the next few months!

Borat!

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 05:50:06 GMT

I've just witnessed one of the most crude, unapologetically discriminatory films of all time....... and loved it!

Borat is pure comedic genius. The fictional character (Borat) is a creation of British actor Sacha Baron Cohen who hails from "Da Ali G Show." Borat is a Kazakhstani television personality on a mission to the United States, the "greatest country in the world" to film a documentary so that his country may learn about the culture of the USA. Borat himself is a paradox; he greats us with a Polish "Jak sie masz" but his physical appearance is of Middle Eastern descent. It should not be difficult to understand that Borat does not represent anything remotely Kazakhstani, but rather, a clever manifestation of western ignorance of other cultures. How many audience goers actually knew he was speaking polish? All his hilarious quips and accounts of his 'beloved country' should be taken with a grain of salt - I highly doubt they have cars pulled by donkeys in Kazakhstan. Those who enjoy this film will see the political incorrectness of his opinions and crude behavior as the highest form of social satire in a time where political correctness goes hand in hand with western cultural dominance and civility.

While America is far too easy a target in the film, it is also the most appropriate target. Here is a nation that touts itself as the beacon of truth and freedom, in a time where the war on terror is also a cultural war. A place where Christian ideologues criticize Muslim extremists, yet turn their gaze from evangelists and the 'revival movement' and their antics; talks shows discuss the prejudices against women in the Middle East and try to fathom how anyone could live in such a place, believing their society to be more equitable to members of the opposite sex; a place whose citizens consider themselves friendly and tolerant towards others, but ignite into a rage if you greet them on a subway train, let alone speak to them. What Sacha Baron Cohen has effectively done is turn the magnifying glass back onto ourselves: the movie no longer concerns itself with the crazy antics of Borat, but the cultural reactions and sometimes unsolicited opinions of some of the unfortunate people who found themselves in this movie. In this way, the movie really does become a documentary, showcasing Western culture at its worst.

Critics of this movie will point to the multiple instances of discrimination, the anti-semitism, and other outlandish behavior of Cohen as hateful and morally degenerate; however, these moments are so completely ridiculous in their execution that you would have to lack any sense of humour, or even INTELLIGENCE to take anything seriously that Borat does. Cohen himself is part Jewish, so the anti-semitic claims have no basis here. It's not anti-Kazakhstani (for reasons discussed earlier). If anything, it might be anti-western but Cohen is British and apparently, lives in the U.S. This film merely pokes fun at some of the socio-cultural ideas and behaviors of western society.

I highly recommend this film! The audience was laughing so hard at times you couldn't even hear the film anymore. The world has been needing a movie like this in a long time.

It's been awhile...

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 05:29:21 GMT

It's been quite some time since my last post so I really need someone to kick me in the ass and tell me to write something. I actually received that "kick in the ass" this evening in the form of an e-mail from a friend, wondering why I haven't updated my blog recently. Honestly? I have not a single excuse. Perhaps I got tired of it, or maybe I just didn't feel like I had anything interesting to say... who knows. Coasting through life is hardly the inspiration to write anything profound. But I'm not coasting through life... it just feels like that sometimes. You wake up in the morning and it's deja vu all over again, like I'm caught in some endless loop a.k.a. the movie "Groundhog Day." Thinking about it some more at this moment I'm going to partly blame the weather because I think that's the most practical answer I can give. Something about persistent cloudy days puts me into a kind of funk.

Things are starting to get exciting though: I have a concert this Saturday the 28 at 2 pm in Lethbridge for the Polish Association. I'm actually really looking forward to it: the program contains some great music and is well-balanced. I'm actually sharing the concert with a colleague of mine so we'll each take our turn on stage. Being a concert for the Polish Association of Lethbridge expect a lot of Chopin, but don't expect the clichéd, overly played Chopin that everyone knows by ear. There will also be some Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Liszt-Schubert (transcriptions). Overall, it makes for a very enjoyable afternoon.

Japanese Prank Shows

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 05:45:36 GMT

Here's another comedic diversion from my usual rants: two videos that I stumbled upon on youtube.com

Apparently, the Japanese are way ahead of us in terms of content for prank and gag shows. I think you could get sued in the U.S. for doing some of these pranks, not to mentioned seriously injured. These videos are seemingly from the same t.v. show. Make sure you watch each video entirely because the second part to each video is much funnier than the first.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUGKtHnOaxM - funny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEqhVuzel0s - even funnier.

-R

Thought for the day...

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 06:54:37 GMT

Was watching tv today and came across this quote which somewhat resonated with me:

"Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training."

- Anna Freud

Austrian psychoanalyst & psychologist (1895 - 1982)

After searching online I found another good quote by the same author:

"I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence but it comes from within. It is there all the time"

- Anna Freud

How appropriate I find these after Orford...

-R

Angst

Sat, 26 Aug 2006 07:11:36 GMT

Do you often go to bed feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders? Do you feel the travesties, the disparities, the inequality, the injustice, the hate out there in the world? You have to. You're every part of the mosaic of our existence as anyone else. We each play our part, affecting the lives of those around us. Like an exchange of energy, it cannot be created or destroyed. For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. Eventually, indirectly or directly, you are affected by the decisions others make as well as the decisions you make every day.

How can we sit idle and apathetic knowing this? How irresponsible we are to ignore these injustices that occur every minute of the day and sit in our cozy chairs and couches watching CNN while drinking a latte. We are so easily connected with the rest of the world through the miracles of technology; we can see what happens on the other side of the earth, we witness the atrocities occuring in the middle east and overseas and yet the real miracle is that we are more disconnected than ever before. We try and ignore what we know, what is happening and blindly put our faith in others to solve the problems of the world today. Should we hide in our day to day lives, comfortable with what we have and never question the status quo? Should we put blind faith in those we elect to government to solve the worlds problems and then scurry about like a hamster content on its running wheel knowing where we end up at the end of the day?

But we're not hamsters. We're human. The human condition is such so that we will always want more. We want the best for ourselves and we want to protect those important to us. We want to be in control of our own destiny. Everyone on this planet shares the same values regardless of race, relgion, sexual orientatation or any other segregating factor. How can you sleep comfortably at night while someone else was dragged from their bed because their beliefs were deemed dangerous, only because they threaten to undermine the carefully planned existence created by those whose primary purpose (idealistically) is to protect the rights and values of their very citizens? Yes there is a paradox which is ubiquitous across the world. It can be found in almost every government on earth and especially within the major players of the world today. I don't have to mention the unmentionables but unless you've been living in a hole you should know what's been going on in the world today.

War on Terror. That has to be the the most oxymoronish phrase I have ever read in my life. I just don't understand how a country can go to war and not even understand why. To preserve freedoms they say. Or because of what happened on 9/11. When were freedoms preserved when the Bush administration ignored the intelligence that there was to be an impending terrorist attack? Were freedoms preserved when George Bush sat in an elementary school classroom for some 20 minutes after being informed what had happened in NYC? Of course not! I would even go to say that the Bush administration wilfully allowed those attacks to happen so that they could begin reshaping the middle east as they see fit. America, when are you going to do the right thing and elect a government that wishes to serve you instead of the other way around?

I'd write more but a) there's just too much going on in my head about this subject to sort out and b) this has made me tired.

Feel free to comment on this and offer your own feelings about the state of the world today. I'd be interested to hear what you have to say, even if it is "stick a sock in it Ryan."

Le retour vers Edmonton

Fri, 18 Aug 2006 22:46:52 GMT

I'm back in Edmonton. What else can I say to describe the feeling I have after leaving absolute, unadulterated musical bliss. Now I return to my academically tainted musical lifestyle here in Edmonton. It's actually not as bad as I let it on to be, but I look forward to when this degree will be over and I will no longer have to churn out papers that distract me from practicing and what I really want to do.

The last week in Orford was the best by far and a little crazy in terms of the partying that some of the students and myself partook in. A lof of alcohol was consumed on Thursday evening last week with many shenanigans occuring that night. As I like to think, whatever happened then, happened then and we do not need to revisit those events. Nevertheless we all survived the night and groggily emerged from our beds the next morning.....

Maneli Pirzadeh who teaches at the Université de Montréal, the second teacher I studied with at Orford is a great teacher for someone who is so young! Her and I had such a wonderful symbiotic relationship in our lessons we decided I would try and audition for the Université de Montréal DESS program (dipôme en études supérieures spécialisées) which is a two year program dedicated to interpretation and performance that one can complete after a Bachelor or Masters degree. This is extremely exciting for me because I'll be able to focus (fuckus for my francophone readers) solely on performance and improve my playing. This also means I might be moving to Montréal next year. I REALLY need to start saving money.

Now that I'm back in Edmonton I've been going crazy trying to put my house in order. My bathroom faucet decided to finally quit and start leaking everywhere so I had to buy a new one plus I need to clean my apartment which seems to have accumulated an inch of dust since I left three weeks ago. I guess the piano will have to wait until the week-end or even next week.

I'm going to try and put up some more pics of my trip. The problem is they're not my pics because I was smart and didn't bring a camera so I will be harassing the other people who were at Orford to help me out. I uploaded one taken in Montréal with three friends I met at Orford (thanks Laurent).

Until next time,

-R

Orford Week 2

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 18:16:20 GMT

Salut from Orford! I'm am now entering week two of my stay here and so far I'm surviving. My disgusting roommate who practically trashed our room has left, the room has been cleaned and so far I have no roommate at all. Life is good. The food is either a hit or miss but breakfast is always the same every day so we can expect at least one meal to be tasty. I've met a lot of good musicians and people here and so far my time is enjoyable. The masterclasses aren't as good as I had hoped with almost the entirety of them being in french but I can say I've received a glimpse into the "cult" (which is the technique) of Marc Durand, the famous pedagogue from the Université de Montreal. Essentially, if you don't play with the same technique that is taught out east you are discredited. It's kind of upsetting because that means I won't be able to play in any student concerts. Still, I'm learning lots and getting a lot of practicing in. Speaking of practicing time to go.

a bientôt,

-R

Bonjour from Quebec!

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 18:06:08 GMT

It has taken me almost five minutes to get to this page to add a blog entry because the computer I'm using at the Orford Arts Centre is 300 years old. But here I am and time to list a description of my travels thus far in ''La belle province.''

I left Edmonton on Saturday morning with no problems. Thanks to my cousin who gave me a ride to the airport I arrived on time. The plane ride was a gigantic headache because some Suzuki violin exchange between Montreal and Edmonton was happening and the plane was filled with some fifty talking kids who would not let anyone take a nap. Even the women and her baby that I was sitting next to didn't bother me at all. So much for sleeping on the plane. Even the ear plugs didn't help.

When I arrived in Montreal I was greeted by my friend Allison who put me up for the night in her ''shit hole'' apartment. I actually didn't think it was that bad but she assured me it was a lot worse when her and her boyfriend moved in last month. Allison showed me around old Montreal with its beautiful architecture and cathedral, modelled after Notre Dame in France. Allison took some pictures with her digital camera so I'll be able to share the pictures with you after I return. There were so many festivals in Montreal including the Just for Laughs festival, and African Cultural festival and the Out games (I actually met a participant in the Out games on my shuttle ride from the airport, she was from Holland and a very nice lady.) The Just for Laughs festival was kind of odd and not really funny to an anglophone such as myself. You couldn't understand the comedy or the displays - they had these dragon looking people on stilts with their tamer (who looked a lot like Malificent from Sleeping Beauty) who would pretend to eat people. It wasn't all that humorous. The African festival featured a number of musical acts and some displays selling artwork and other trinkety things. The next day we had brunch at a breakfast chain called ''Chez Cora's'' where I ate a gigantic crepe stuffed with fruit and hazelnut chocolate sauce. It was delicious but I didn't feel so great afterwards.

Orford has been enjoyable so far. I've had one masterclass so far and Jean Saulnier appears to be a wonderful teacher. His students are extremely talented and it is quite a humbling experience to watch them perform. My only complain is that the masterclasses are mostly in French so I have to interrupt and ask questions if I hear Jean say something important to a student. I look forward to playing for him after some more preparation.

The students are great and I hung out with some of my classmates last night. We have an unspoken agreement that I will try and speak French to them and they will speak English back to me so that we are both practicing our second languages, although I wouldn't call French my second language because I'm actually quite terrible at speaking it. Last night we played ping-pong where we practicied this concept. One of the students brought two bottles of vodka with him to supplement whatever he wants to drink at the bar on campus. That's right, there is a bar here. Right now my roomate is passed out on his bed, stoned. Sometimes I can't tell if I'm here to work or vacation.

That's all for now. We'll see how I enjoy myself in the weeks to come.

Ciao er.... au revoir.

Ryan

Jon Stewart is the Man!

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 19:22:28 GMT

Jon Stewart on Net Neutrality and as my friend Jodie says, "Listening to four-hundred and six year old [Alaskan senator] Ted Stevens" explain the inner workings of the internet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iMDRVzMfEM

Enjoy!

Oh, by the way, this is also good. Check out "There Goes the Gayborhood."

http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/videos/most_recent/index.jhtml

Trip back from Lethbridge

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 18:43:17 GMT

The Greyhound trip back from Lethbridge is always a great time. I left Monday morning at 10 am and I had two seats to myself between Lethbridge and Calgary but when I boarded my connecting bus in Calgary for the ride to Edmonton it was so packed with people that I had to share a seat with someone. I imagine it was that busy because the Calgary Stampede had just wrapped up. On instruments of mass transportation I'm always reminded of the kind of people that take the greyhoud or transit just by listening to the conversations around me. There is always your usual collection of demographics, each one making up a percentage of the denizens of the bus: high school drop outs that dress like they're going to be the next Eminem, complete with colourful language that the rest of the bus certainly wants to hear; your redneck travellers who repeat everything they've heard on tv as their own opinion; your bubbly, talkative passengers who think you want to hear about their extended family when you really just want to sleep; your smokers who come back on the bus after a stop and just reek of residue from their unfiltered cigarettes; and then there's passengers like me, desperately trying to nap with all these other people around me. Essentially, it's a travelling zoo filled with a wonderful sampling of the best (and worst) Alberta has to offer.

Some things I heard on my trip:

"I was an uncle when I was eight! Are you an uncle at all?" - The annoying kid next to me.

"Things are definitely better with Stephen Harper as prime minister. We seem to have better relations with the Americans. Bush never really liked that other guy." - The two rednecks behind me.

"You HAVE to go to Home Depot? What do you mean you HAVE to go to Home Depot? Fuck, I hate it when people say they HAVE to go somewhere like their legs are going to fall off or something. Or they're going to die. Fuck right, you're GOING to Home Depot. FUUUCCCKKK." - the Eminem wanna-be two rows behind me blabbing on his cell phone.

"Wow! Look at all those deer!" - The annoying kid beside me again.

"The gun registry was such a failiure. I mean, the whole purpose of it was to go after criminals. Do you think criminals are going to go and register their guns?" *man chuckles to himself, pleased with his wit.* - One of the rednecks behind me. Funny, if you didn't register your gun, you were considered a criminial. Seems we have more criminals in Canada with guns than ever before....

" " - me, trying to sleep.

Have a gooder,

-R

Lethbridge

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 07:27:07 GMT

So right now I'm in ye old Lethbridge visiting the family and getting some good practicing in. It's always interesting coming back home and reading the local news to find out what's happening in this neck of the woods. I apologize if this information is incorrect but apparently some crazy lady stole a family's dog and had it shaved and spayed so the family wouldn't recognize it. They were able to track it down and found it was at a vets. They tried to pick it up from the vets but the crazy lady beat them to it. So the father followed the lady home and confronted her and apparently beat the hell out of her. The dog is back with the family but I think the man has been charged with assault. What about the crazy lady who kidnapped the dog in the first place? How do people like this function in society?

Superman Returns!

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 09:49:28 GMT

Tonight I had the pleasure of attending Superman Returns at West Edmonton Mall in Silver City. Aside from the stupid attention seekers talking during the movie and the stupid people who are too large to fit in a standard size movie chair (which is quite roomy) and proceed to fidgit their legs behind your chair while you're trying to watch the film, it was an enjoyable experience. Now the purpose of this entry was not to discuss movie theatre etiquette (while I'm sure I will post about this in the future) it was to review this newest instalment in the Superman franchise.

I had the privilege of watching the first two Superman movies on Sunday when they were aired on Space Channel (1978 and 1980). Movies certainly have come a long way since then in areas of special effects, cinematography and er... acting but these early manifestations of the D.C. comic book superhero were still landmark films in their own right. I still enjoy watching the earthquake scene in the first Superman and the scenes of Christopher Reeve flying around saving the denizens of the fictitious Metropolis. Christopher Reeve played Superman with a charming simplicity that never seemed over-the-top. He was a likeable bumbling doofus as Clark Kent and the strong yet silent type as the man in blue tights, confident in his abilities but not brash. Margot Kidder's performance (Canadian!) as the assertive journalist Lois Lane was also admirable while other performances such as Gene Hackmen's Lex Luthor were well, a little overdramatic.

Enter the cast of Superman Returns. Newcomer Brandon Routh is fantastic as Superman and at times I thought I was looking at Christopher Reeve. His performance definitely plays an ode to Christopher Reeve's portrayal with its simplicity and general likeability as both the superhero and his alter-ego. Kevin Spacey plays a more plausible Lex Luthor, albeit with the same comical world domination plans involving the acquisition and marketing of real-estate. Kate Bosworth's Lois Lane seemed somewhat bland and one-dimensional as someone full of spite over the absence of Superman like a girl angry because her boyfriend hasn't called in a week. While this may have been a directorial suggestion I envisioned this role being played more maturely, perhaps by an older actress.

Still, this movie is worth seeing. Bryan Singer's adaptation slowly blossoms toward the climax of the film and takes the time to introduce its characters and develop its plot. In the recent revival of Superhero movies this time is a godsend, providing more layers and introspective glances at the characters instead of rushing into an action filled series of events. It also allows for some gorgeous visuals of Metropolis (New York City?) and some of the other architecture featured in the film. I expect more Superman movies will follow this one. While it is quite an accomplishment for a revival of a once great franchise let’s hope that it goes nowhere else but up. I give it a 7/10.

Speed Bumps

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 07:38:30 GMT

Remind me never to rollerblade past 6 pm. Apparently, this is when all the seniors decide to take walks and fill up the paths with their scooters, walkers and the like. My bad. I forgot all seniors go for walks after 6 pm just before they go to bed at 8.

Photo Album: Montreal January 2007

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 05:00:14 GMT

Montreal January 2007

Jonathan and Lily at the best burger place!

Laurent and I at the best burger place!

Lily and Laurent sharing a laugh.

I actually joined a cult while I was there.. jks.

Great picture!

At Lombardi's.. sadly it burnt down shortly thereafter.

Photo Album: Orford and Montréal

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 06:55:31 GMT

Orford and Montréal

"Friendly" Geese

On top of Mount Orford

Photo Album: December 20

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 06:55:31 GMT

December 20

Dec. 20 '05 #1

Dec. 20 '05 #2

Dec. 20 '05 #3

Photo Album: My Buds

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 06:55:31 GMT

My Buds

Kootenay smiles and Kokanee looks clueless

What's over there?

Kootenay is bored and Kokanee is.....?

Photo Album: Mexico pics

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 06:55:31 GMT

Mexico pics

Before the Gala Dinner!

The Gala Dinner!

After the Gala Dinner!

Hanging out in front of our resort.

Blog list: Blog list

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 06:55:31 GMT

J.G.'s blog
Friend and ex-roomate.
T.M.'s blog
Buddy from high school.
K.S.'s blog
Buddy from high school.