Sunday, August 30, 2009

Movie Reviews

I wanted to start a new section where I explain why I hate every movie I`ve ever seen. My goal is to end each segment with a movie I liked so that you can see I`m not a heartless bastard.

More than three people told me to watch `The Hangover`. For future reference, whenever more than three people tell me a movie is good, I can immediately cross it off my list.
So on Friday night I watched `The Hangover`.

HATED IT!
The concept is something I can really relate to in my own life, a group of 4 straight guys goes to Las Vegas for a bachelor party weekend and hijinx ensue, all the while they try and hide thr truth from their girlfriends. I didn`t laugh once. Why couldn`t they be honest with their partners? Why was every joke predictable? Why was this recommended so many times?
Another film that was recommend to me many times was Tropic Thunder.

HATED IT!
I laughed once. Very convoluted plot that was hard to follow, not funny, not relateable, bad.
I also saw last night a movie I have read all the books for, Confessions of a Shopaholic.

HATED IT!
They moved the heroine from England to America. The guy was not cute. The plot was not funny, the girl was dippy without the intuition of say Elle from Legally Blonde. If a girl is going to be this much of a drip she should at least make good music videos like Britney Spears, or something. Bad movie. Stay away.
A love I liked was Spellbound.

I remember I took my family to see this in the theatre and as we were waiting for the movie to start, my brother said "What is this about?" and I said "It's a documentary about a spelling bee." and he said "No. Seriously, what?"
Suspense, drama, real emotion, if you have a soul you will love this movie. Amazing.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Things that are bad

  1. Kazmir traded to the Angels, my least favourite team.
  2. Francoeur making fun of protective batting helmets makes the paper. “I’m not wearing it. There’s got to be a way to have a more protective helmet without all that padding. It’s brutal. We’re going to look like a bunch of clowns out there.” — Jeff Francoeur, New York Mets outfielder. Frenchie is also looking for suggestions on things to do in NYC on his blog. I have a few suggestions for him to do.
  3. Canadian Blood Services is Anti-Gay. "Canadian Blood Services should revisit the outdated policy of not allowing homosexuals to donate blood. Only 80,000 people in Canada are presently living with HIV, which represents less than 0.003% of the population.
    Everyone, gay or straight, has a chance of contracting HIV - it is no longer appropriate to consider it a "gay disease". All donations to Canadian Blood Services should be tested for the antibodies associated with HIV."

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Tampa Bay Rays

Went to the game last night. Interesting game as it lasted 4 hours and the score was only 2-1 and the umpire was hit in the chest with a ball and had to be taken out.

The main attraction was Scott Kazmir, see in his photo sporting a new Hitler mustache:
Zobrist has a great OPS and was good to see. Also I think this shot is pretty good considering it was from the 500 level.

I like this one too.

Evan Longoria is reliable.

This was the best shot I got of Kazmir. I went down to the first level to try and get a better picture but couldn't really get much closer. Apparently they want you to "pay" for that.

Another shot from the ground of Kaz.
Look who's now with Tampa!

Zaun's really not great photo and mediocre stats. He really REALLY should not have tried to steal 2nd last night. He runs like a harpooned walrus. He looks like the Keebler elf in the photo below.

A young in our section was wearing his Zaun jersey. I should have worn mine....
The worst part of the evening was the bottom of the 9th inning. Tampa goes in leading 2-1 and they bring in their closer, JP Howell. Second batter he gives up a home run, game is tied, and it becomes apparent Howell can't throw a strike today. Every pitcher has a bad day.
So Joe Maddon for some reason doesn't start warming anyone up. Howell walks three batters to load the bases and you can see him struggling, he's throwing as hard as he can and the ball is bouncing on the way to the plate. And after THREE walks and a blown save, Maddon still has no one up, he leaves Howell in.
When it becomes apparent your guy is tired and having a bad day the manager can't just leave him out there to die. You can't waste the past 4 hours of play and a chance to move up in the wildcard. So Maddon left him in and the game ended on a wild pitch. Jays win. Rays lose.
I checked out the Tampa Tribune this morning and only one person blamed Maddon for this loss, and even then only slightly. Grrr....

Hard & Able



Went to an event "Hard & Able" on Monday, a variety show for gay disabled people and it was a great time!

At the start of the show they aired some ASL music videos, like this one which I loved. I love how he combines sign language with dance.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Don Jail Tour

Finally went on the Don Jail tour today.
Walking in and looking up you see the old sky light, which will be restored in the renovations.

This is the entrance. Apparently they filmed the Tom Cruise movie "Cocktail" here. It was dressed up to look like a night club.

A cell block. You can't access a lot of the areas as they haven't been kept up and people are idiots and would trip and fall on a tour.

The dragons and snakes are part of the architecture. The idea is to make an intimidating atmosphere.

Another shot of the entrance wing.

This was the warden's family area that was later converted into cells. The cells are no longer there though.

This area was supposedly a maximum security area that was built to house a gang of four bank robbers that had previously escaped. They later escaped from this area too.

A cell, 8' x 3' that near the end would house sometimes 3 people.

Tour guide in the background and a cute boy in the foreground that helped make the tour worthwhile. His mom was really nice and we chatted for a while after the tour about other jails we had seen. She recommended a hotel in Coburg that used to be a jail.

Inside one of the "maximum security" cells.

This is where the executioner would walk up the steps the the interior gallows. I don't think I took a photo of them as there's really nothing there and not very much room to take a photo of a drop.

The chapel.

A hole in the wall where one of the prisoners in maximum security would dig. The idea was you put a poster up to cover the hole during the day. He didn't get very far.

Another of the maximum security cells. You see the paint, the place is really falling apart.

So they said they're tearing this building down mostly. These are some of the last photos.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Worst Play Ever


I just walked out of XXX Live Nude Girls at Summerworks.
I don't think I've ever walked out of a play before and we were sat at the back so we had to make a big production to leave and I'm still glad I did. Those are moments I can never get back.

Picture this.
Eight people on the stage at once. From the right, 2 girls playing Barbie with a video camera trained on them. Above the video is a running script. Quite a lot of dialogue. To the left of them is two people with microphones which I assumed would be the voices of the script. No. These two took turns singing random lines of dialogue, not at the same time as the video, and kept pausing to either play a cassette player into their mike with prerecorded static or to take photos of the audience with a disposable flash camera, like about 50 photos each during the half hour I saw the play. To the left of them was a four piece band. The woman with the violin picked up a spoon and used the end of it to knock on the wood portion of the violin. The man beside her played a clarinet but no sound came out. He would stop playing occasionally to throw a phone across the room or cut the hair off a Barbie doll.

All at the same time.

Wedding

Went to my cousin's wedding in Mississauga today. They are both REALLY nice amazing people and always have a smile on their faces. I like being around them so I was glad to go.

I even got up on the piano and belted a few out while my dad played.


The groom's parents.

My aunt and her husband and their son Warren. I didn't bring a date and ended up talking to Warren, who is 11, for most of the night. At the end of the night I said to my uncle "I've been hanging around an 11 year old boy all day, I feel like Michael Jackson", which maybe wasn't the right thing to say.

The couple's first dance.

The entire thing was great. The only thing I didn't get was the bride's mother stood up and read some poem called "A Recipe for Love" or something. It went like "Take 2 cups joy, a tablespoon of sunshine..." and on. I think that kind of thing is just for women. I was looking around the room and all the men were looking for the exits.

My grandparents and I. I got my grandmother up and danced with her, that was fun. A fast song came on and she stayed, she can really move for 85!

The bride in her amazing dress.

It was hard to take photos of the bride and groom as they were very busy so I didn't get that many.
Playing on a projector was photos of Andrew, my cousin's, life and I brought my flash drive so I grabbed a copy of them. These were the ones I liked the best.