file under "not sure"

this weekend, i'm walking through the lobby of my building and i notice this.




umm. i'm pretty sure there was an actual fire extinguisher sitting in this extinguisher housing before. but. yah. it's empty. WTF?

... ... ...
in other news, here's a point of view that's overdue:
Too Much Viral Marketing?

basically, this is the type where all those kids with too much time to spend on finding obscure clues and fake websites to obtain more clues to find more fake websites just for the purpose of being one of the nerdy few to see some fake behind-the-scenes video or to unlock some secret chamber of information about an upcoming movie.

and. so why does a geezer like me care? well, i don't really care except that i had, for the briefest moment, thought we should do something along those lines for the ladyhawk documentary. but then i decided that the target demograhic for the documentary doesn't include the target demographic that viral campaigns appeal to.

who knows if i'm wrong. oh well.

i have other things to worry about. like missing fire extinguishers.

same but not the same

you know.
same shit, different pile kinda stuff.

1/ this week i've been training video game employees on how to use their intranet
2/ rob got some well-deserved kudos on video editing (under extreme time pressure) a 5 min. pitch by a eco-sustainable company
3/ ladyhawk received a rather poor review by pitchfork. boo.
4/ we're going to catch vincats (a band from victoria) tonight
5/ we NEED to finish and ship off this wedding project this weekend.
6/ next week, i'll be a BOOTH BABE at an human resources conference.
7/ the outline to our next feature is starting to come together
8/ i was reminded this week how glad i am to be working for darren and gord
9/ life is pretty rad.

heima

rob and i, along with a couple of friends, sat in the comfiest theatre chairs in vancouver (in the vancity theatre) to watch Heima, the documentary about Sigur Rós performing impromptu, free concerts throughout Iceland.

we had already bought the dvd and loved it but when we heard it was playing at the vancity, we HAD TO GO and, yes, it was worth it.

i cried 10 minutes into the film, it was that beautiful.

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL, some other cool things happened:
1/ the vancity lobby sells beer and wine (at $4 ea) that you can BRING INTO THE THEATRE!!! how civilized.
2/ the canadian dolby dude happened to be in vancouver and perfectly calibrated the speakers at the vancity for the film.
3/ the film's director was also in town and there was Q&A after the screening.
4/ the volume was CRANKED UP and totally put you into this environment where YOU FELT like you were at a Sigur Rós concert.
5/ there was a freak snowstorm after the screening.
6/ the 4 of us ended the night with hot bowls of congee and wonton noodle soup

a rather perfect evening.

more food talk

rob and i had brunch at Crave (main and king ed) last saturday.

we noticed that, instead of the usual salt and pepper shaker, there was this slender metal cylinder. we were obsessed with this device and was hoping the food would arrive sooner so we could try it out.



rob, for the first time since i've known him, added extra salt to him meal using this salt grinder/expunder device where you push down on the top (like a syringe or detonator) and the salt is ground/expelled thru the bottom.




guess what i'm drinking.

mushrooms and shoes

about 5 minutes into cooking mushrooms, you know how (if you're cooking in a steel pan) as you're stirring the mushrooms, they start to sound like shoes skuffing in the gym?

like in a basketball game?

yah, i like that sound. i like that an organic matter being heated up sounds like shoes.

speaking of shoes

OH MY GOD



i snuck into the famous annual army & navy shoe sale during lunch today and decided to RETREAT.

there were shoes EVERYWHERE but amazingly enough, there were still shoes on the shelves.

4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days

4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days is simply a stunning film.

i won't lie to you, it's a full on artsy-fartsy film that, deservedly, won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

directed by a romanian director, situated in 1980s romania before the fall of communism there, this film is exactly the kind of intense, layered, brilliantly-acted kind of stuff that rob and i want to make.

thanks to ken t for insisting we watch this on the big screen.

monster weekend of shows

this past weekend was so amazing i'm still processing it.

SATURDAY..........................
so how can the weekend go wrong when you start it off with some Ladyhawk opening for Black Mountain at the commodore?

you can't.
it's perfect.
life is perfect.
you don't even need bevvies to notch it up because it's so freaking awesome.

Ladyhawk was, as usual, super energetic on stage and cranked out the tunes.
they put on a great performance.
i haven't seen them live since last year and it warmed my heart to see them perform in such a large venue like commodore.
a good percentage of the crowd knew the songs and really got into them.

crappy photo of Ladyhawk



then, you freaking bring on Black Mountain.
these are people i've met at the hive and gone to their shows so it's so weird and wonderful to see them sell out the commodore.
and once they started playing, boy did all the herbal smokers start lighting up.

it was also kinda interesting to see such a different crowd. the times that i've seen Black Mountain or Ladyhawk in vancouver, it's mostly the indie scene. but the commodore show saw a good number of more mainstream/jock/frat boy types.

it was a little off-putting.

crappy photo of Black Mountain


SUNDAY..........................
then the next day, sunday, it's The Black Keys at the commodore (again).

the opening act was bad. terrible. it's a wonder that this act has won the favor of pitchfork.

but then The Black Keys are up and, holy smokes, i've never seen such 100% audience ferver. even before the two members come onto the stage, people are clapping and yelling and whistling.

The Black Keys are freaking overwhelming. the energy coming from the TWO PEOPLE on stage is huge like a wave.



after each and every song, people go crazy.
i'm not kidding. after every song.
it's like a standing ovation after every song.


they only play for 1 hour but it felt like 2 hours.

rob and i both buy tshirts and the cd like stupid, teenage fans.