Strange Days

The last few posts haven’t been as decidedly carefree and gay happy as most, and I feel somewhat reluctant to keep writing posts that aren’t as gay upbeat as you’d expect. This is mainly due to the almost surreal turn of events in North America: with two elections looming and the American capitalist system crumbling faster than a piece of coffee cake, our world seems to be at a crossroads.

In our country, we have a Conservative government that is only succeeding because of provinces west of Ontario, since those are the places where the destruction of our land is still encouraged in the name of making money. We have an NDP party that is finally attracting people with a sense of moral decency/common sense and, I hope, can form the next official opposition to keep Harper and his retarded bullshit in check. It bothers me to no end that our Prime Minister is running an election campaign based on being a boogeyman and scaring people into thinking change is bad. I thought this country was better than that.

South of the border, my pessimism around John McCain winning the Presidency is, thankfully, slowly dissipating. In the midst of the “most important election of our generation” (don’t they say that every election now?), the last 30 years of unregulated, free-market capitalism has come to a crashing halt. No matter what the US government does or does not do, the American way of doing business has become one gigantic Epic Fail. I really hope that their government decides to do nothing, rather than bailing out companies who only exist to give people loans. We can look back now on Roosevelt’s time, taking the country out of the depression through massive public programs, and it’s fascinating to think that in 40 years we’ll be looking back on today as another huge change. The only question is if it’ll be a change for the better. One of my friends put it aptly: the US is on the brink of a recession (more likely depression) where, for the first time in history, the people who will suffer most are the ones with all the money. And you know what? No one will shed a tear.

Anyhow, I’m sure in a few weeks I’ll think of something gay silly to write about. In the meantime though, it’s going to be an interesting stretch of time where what happens will probably affect the rest of my lifetime.

The Week That Wasn’t

It’s been almost a week since my last post, which is hard to believe, considering the uneventful past seven days. Aside from a Lions game and a hockey pool draft, there just hasn’t been much going on; I’m happy to say the Lions seem to be playing pretty well barely good enough to win, and my hockey pool team is still a long way from ever being good enough to win me some money.

It’s September, though, and that means television shows return with new episodes. My viewing habits this fall include Heroes, which got off to a decent start; The Sarah Connor Chronicles, a show that’s about 75% good; Mad Men, a series whose first season I missed and am now catching up on via the magic of the internet; and I’m waiting patiently for the conclusion of Battlestar Galactica, which won’t air until early 2009.

Not returning to my television viewing is Grey’s Anatomy. I just can’t take any more of it, and unfortunately it’s a actually quite a poor TV show. When the title character is so utterly annoying, it’s not a good sign. So goodbye sexy primetime soap opera.

One of the new series the ladyfriend and I gave a shot at was Fringe. After two episodes we decided it wasn’t worthy of following. Both episodes boiled down to a gross-out science experiment augmented with the bane of science fiction plots, a deus ex machina that solves the current problem despite its complete improbability. Stuff like that probably works for the general viewing public, but to have some stupid device save the day doesn’t float my boat. It’s poor storytelling. And Fringe’s global conspiracy substory was played out long before The X-Files ran its course.

And away from the fantasyland of TV, the American empire is rapidly crumbling under its own greed. I’m not happy for this, and I’m not terribly surprised. That country got what was coming to it - to think that the ‘free market’ economy could end any other way than in the most epic of fails would be naive. To make things even more ridiculous, we now hear that John McCain wants to fly on his magical healing unicorn to save his country, asking that the election in which he’s running be put on hold while he rides into Washington to save the fair maiden America. How heroic, and how utterly pathetic.

Finally, a word about work. I can’t go into detail, but the project I’m on is experiencing some tension. Essentially we have a limited amount of time to make our game fun, and to fully prove out some half-baked ideas that should have been proven out months ago. The reward or consequences of succeeding or failing aren’t entirely clear to me. And to be honest I’m not sure we, as the workers, are being given the full story. Which is to be expected.

Actors and Actresses I Don’t Like

Scarlett Johansson. Yes, despite being known as “the boob guy” among my family, I don’t like Ms. Johnasson. I haven’t found her acting to be very good at all, and in fact she seems to have made a career of playing the pouty, moody girl. Plus, I don’t find her very attractive despite her ample bosom.

Tom Cruise. I desperately want include Tom on the “like list”, because he is capable of some good acting. However he hasn’t really stepped outside his comfort zone - contrast his roles in Vanilla Sky or Minority Report, where his only risk was having a disfigured face, with Christian Bale in The Machinist. Transforming oneself is more than just wearing makeup.

Chloe Sevigny. Although she’s taken on a great range of acting roles, my dislike for Chloe Sevigny really just boils down to finding her annoying as hell. Her voice and her face just bug me.

Charlie Sheen. This guy simply cannot act. He shouldn’t even be on TV - and everyone is on TV these days.

Gwenyth Paltrow. Again, she may have some talent (although I’m not totally convinced), the only role of Gwenyth’s that I enjoyed was in The Royal Tenebaums, but then, everyone in that movie was terrific. I think she suffered from being hailed as a success early in her career without really proving it out.

Will Smith. Ali was a pretty decent movie, but it’s just very very hard to take Will Smith seriously. When he turns on the “serious mode” it just feels forced and insincere - watch I, Robot and you’ll see that he doesn’t exactly redeem a bad movie with good acting.

Milla Jovovich. She carved out a niche, acting in three Resident Evil movies, but that’s about as impressive as Stallone and his run of Rocky Balboa movies - it’s not much of an acting challenge. I haven’t seen the one film she may have actually acted in (Joan of Arc), but she really hasn’t proven much even if that is a good movie.

John Krasinski. This guy is quite simply not funny. He plays the straight guy (in a comedy sense, not a sexual sense) on The Office; not exactly a role that requires physical comedy skills or any show of emotion. His foray into movies as “the next big comedy star”, in License To Wed and Leatherheads, were dreadful. If he can do something else, other than be not funny, there’s no proof of it so far.

Actors and Actresses I Like

Kevin Costner. At least, I like the roles where he isn’t the rugged sex symbol with bleached blond hair and a soul patch. Or when he’s portraying Robin Hood. The guy can actually act when he wants to. And I’ll go on the record to say that Waterworld is NOT a bad movie.

Keira Knightley. One of the few young actresses who, if you took away the tabloid nonsense, would still be a household name. It would be great if she could get noticed for more than the period-piece film roles she tends to do at least once a year. Rent The Jacket for an example.

Christian Bale. God damn he’s sexy. And I dare say he could act in any role thrown at him (he has so far).

Rachel Weisz. Another actress with a wide range of acting abilities. She’s played endearing roles and roles that make you hate her, and played them effectively. Ignore The Mummy movies and there’s few duds on her acting resume.

Keanu Reeves. Go ahead, laugh all you want. But put him in the right roles, and you can’t envision anyone else. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, A Scanner Darkly, The Matrix, and the upcoming Day The Earth Stood Still would not have worked without Keanu.

Zooey Deschanel. I’ve confessed my love for her on this blog in the past. Kind of like Keanu, but with more legitimate acting talent, and full of indie cool without being annoying. However, put her in the wrong roles and you’ll never see it. Good roles for Zooey: Winter Passing, Eulogy, All The Real Girls. Bad roles: Tin Man, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Kate Winslet. Just before Titanic, I watched Heavenly Creatures and fell in love with Kate Winslet, mostly because I found her incredibly attractive. Over the last ten years that’s changed to liking her for her acting skills more than her looks. Which is probably the way it should be.

Daniel Craig. Yes, yes, he’s Bond and does a great job with it. But before that, his roles in Layer Cake, Munich, and The Jacket (yes, I’m mentioning that again) were all strong. He might be most memorable as Bond, and his tight little Bond swim trunks, but he’s got more to offer than that.

Audrey Tautou. If you don’t love Amelie, you’re not a human being. As long as she stays away from Hollywood movies, and sticks to films like A Very Long Engagement, Dirty Pretty Things, or L’Auberge Espagnole, and everything will be great.

Tomorrow: Actors and Actresses I Don’t Like.

Pessimism plus Sudafed

So here we are, with the nicest stretch of weather we’ve had in at least a month, and I manage to contract a strain of common cold. Instead of going to Buntzen Lake with the ladyfriend and watching fine ladies downtown on my lunch break, I’m at home with a head that oozes mucous and a body that just won’t quit aching. I have to believe the offices at Propaganda harbour some mold or spores in the ventilation system; I’ve been sick more in the past nine months than in the previous two years. At least it feels that way. And sick in summer? Since when does that happen? Gah!

Anyhow, between my last post and today we’ve learned that Canada is headed to the polls in roughly a month’s time. Aside from the left wing (NDP and Green), whose policies won’t amount to much, the two main parties have only fixated on taxes. The Liberals have their green tax and the Tories have promised a diesel fuel tax cut. The latter, being completely backwards and meaningless, will of course get more votes coming their way. New tax versus tax cut? The voting public won’t care that one is at least proposed to tax the very stuff we shouldn’t be using. When weighed against a cut in tax, the cut always wins. We’ve been conditioned, over the past five years, to believe in the miserable failure of smaller governments and self-regulating industry.

It’s this reason - and it’s the same south of the border - that I have lost hope for a good outcome in both elections. On our continent the spectre of social responsibility scares people away. Our countries have put personal wealth ahead of social welfare. It’s the corporate attitude that has somehow dominated our way of thinking. Massive, social programs like the Marshall Plan or our universal health care would never happen today, because we’re unwilling to put the needs of the many ahead of the needs of the one.

I hate being so full of pessimism but I have this horrible feeling - especially in Canada - that we’re less and less likely to vote for real reasons, smart reasons, than to vote for the wrong reasons (the “anyone but him” vote, the “lesser of two evils” vote, or the “nothing bad has happened so let’s not change” vote). And it’s not that I fear an election result will doom us to a terrible future … well, maybe a Republican win in the US will … but why are people so afraid to believe in the greater good, and instead believe in budget surpluses and free markets?

Twig Notes XIV

Okay, it hasn’t quite been a week since my last post, but there’s quite a few things that have happened, and the This Week In Garrett format fits the bill.

- On the 6th we were in Vernon to celebrate my older cousin’s wedding. The weather was perfect (a balmy 25 degrees and sunny), and naturally we had a good time. I was trusted to film the important parts with my cousin’s 16mm Bolex camera, which I really hope turns out alright. I’ll have a selection of photos on Flickr sometime this week, although our puny digital camera probably won’t have many fantastic shots compared to the ones taken by “real” cameras. Anyhow, it marks the final marriage of family from my generation - the next to get married will be my niece and nephew, but barring any huge surprises that should be at least a couple years down the road.

- I decided to rent a car to make the trip to the Okanagan, partly out of fear of a repeat of our last long road trip’s car problems, but also to burn less fuel and just have fun driving a new car. We ended up with a Ford Focus, which was actually a very pleasant car to drive (and got about 6L/100km for the 1000km we drove).

- We returned on Sunday afternoon, but I had only an hour to throw some food down my gullet before heading out to a concert with my friend Nigel. He had flown in from five weeks in the UK the day before, so we were both fairly tired when we took in a show by Finntroll. What is Finntroll, you ask? It’s a metal band from Finland, whose songs are all in Swedish, and are about vikings and forests and trolls and goblins. Still wondering what it is? Check out this Finntroll music video - but if you’re a parent and/or over the age of 40, you’ll hate it. It is metal, after all.

- It’s new TV season again. Tonight marked the return of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and over the next couple of weeks, the other shows I watched last year will also be back. I’m probably going to quit watching Grey’s Anatomy, because I’ve finally faced the fact that it sucks. I’d like to give Heroes another go, but this season will really be the test of whether it’s actually a good show or it just got lucky in its first.