And now, the weather

I've added weather to the news page. None of this will mean anything to you if you don't live in Alberta. Well, at least in Canada. This has been added simply because I can and was curious about how it would look.

I haven't decided whether any of this will be permanent.

News comes to Piddleville

I've gone and added CBC news to Piddleville (and the Burble, I suppose, since it's a kind of bedroom community to Piddleville).

Anyway ... it seems to behave a bit oddly. Sometimes I click the link and it's there. Sometimes it isn't. I don't know if the problem is at my end or theirs but I'll live with it a while to see how it all plays out.

By the way, the news page has Arts, Canada and Alberta news.

Political collateral

I may be what is best called "political collateral damage." I've been caught in the fallout of the U.S. election race and the fevered need of Democrats and Republicans to get me to vote for their guy, despite the fact I can't since I'm a Canadian.

Still, today on the Internet I've encountered loads of pop up ads prompting me to head to the polling booth on decision day.

Hope this thing ends soon. Bad enough I had to endure a tedious Canadian election.

Am I a prude?

I don't think so. I just think Bad Santa is a turkey of a movie.

A disagreeable Mitchum

Maybe disagreeable is the wrong word since, in The Night of the Hunter, part of the evil Robert Mitchum portrays is in his ability to make people think he's a good guy when he's not.

Doesn't matter. The movie is great, though a bit odd. And maybe that's why I like it and did a review of it.

(And yes, it's been a while since I wrote anything but it's been a busy few weeks - not to mention great weather and who wants to be inside when that's going on?)

Why I quit radio

Some people confuse free speech with freedom to be offensive, even hateful. Or, as what happens more often, the freedom to be juvenile in order to get an audience, which often degenerates into being offensive.

I've no problem with the CRTC decision to yank a station's license. When I worked in radio, too many stations thought the only way to survive and make money was to go this route. In some cases it worked. However, it's very difficult to take any pride in what you do when what you do is find new ways to appeal to young people by being vulgar, or appealing to a "mass" audience this way.

I think it's insulting to young people (though they generally have a greater tolerance for it than the old and calcified).

Anyway, I got out of commercial radio largely because it had become so mind-numbingly stupid. In the years since, it appears little has changed. Well, maybe the degree of its stupidity has changed. It's become worse.

Brando great but Sayonara weak

I watched 1957's Sayonara last night starring Marlon Brando. He is great. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie isn't in the same league. Which is too bad because it's a really good movie. It just doesn't reach it's potential. I wrote a review of it.

Transition: one platform to another

It just may be the magnificence of The Burble, as well as Piddleville itself, will be offline for a bit sometime over the next few days. I'm making the transition from one platform to another and it will involve changing DNS settings etc., uploading all the files and so on. If it is down, it shouldn't be down for long. I just don't know when or if it will happen - sometime over the next week, I would imagine.

Maybe I'll take the opportunity to clean up a bit of the chaos in here. Who knows?

Movies to squint at: The Name of the Rose

I watched The Name of the Rose last night (out this week on DVD) and spent a good deal of time squinting. While thematically a dark film, it's also visually dark. So much so you almost think you're watching something by David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, The Game etc.).

I realize a director wants to communicate certain elements (like theme) visually, but really ... is it a good idea to make a movie people can barely see? (Okay, so maybe it's not that dark.)

Brief random thought re: media and politics

I saw a new TV promo tonight where the station proudly declared it would be watching the new Canadian government (which is the same as the old one but with less power). They'll be watching for the great mob, us. But what I wanted to know was who would be watching those media clowns? Hmm? The promo implied politicians are not to be trusted but really, what idiot trusts the media? It's like that old expression about the pot calling the kettle black. Anyway ...

Gads! ... Gotta get up early tomorrow to go see the doc to make sure that during my minor surgery they didn't screw up. I don't think they have; I feel more or less fine. But we'll check it out just to be sure. Don't want to find out six months from now that someone lost their pager inside me.

Western melodrama: Duel in the Sun

I must be experiencing a burst of movie energy since I have yet another review posted.

Unfortunately, this movie is a turkey. It's the 1946 western melodrama Duel in the Sun. Some people like it for its over-the-top silliness but frankly, it's a long movie. Too long to endure for something that's just plain bad.

Apparently, at the time it was intended to be a kind of western Gone With the Wind, and you can see where they probably had that in mind. But you can also see what a bad idea it was.

The biggest problem, I think, is not recognizing most good westerns depend on a simplicity, part of which is production restraint. So when you pull out all the stops and make the movie an overblown, grandiose production, you're making something in direct opposition to the sensibility of the western.

Cold Mountain: another review

I seem to be on a minor review roll. The latest is Cold Mountain - and I loved it. Go figure.

(By the way, in the review I neglected to mention how good the music is. Not a surprise though - T-Bone Burnett, same guy who was in charge of the music in O Brother, Where Art Thou?)

New review: around the world (1956 version)

I got back from Vancouver last night - lovely time. Though I felt a bit like Tom Hanks in The Terminal. It was two days spent essentially at the airport. (That's where the hotel was and the meetings.)

This morning, I managed to throw together my take on Around the World in 80 Days (the 1956 version, not the new one, which appears to have been less than successful at the box office).

It's not a great movie, by the way. But it does have some interesting aspects to it. (Yes, I know ... that doesn't tell you a lot and is hardly the sort of thing that recommends a movie.)

Lust in the dust?

I just watched Duel in the Sun and I can't say I was too taken by it. There were a few good moments, it was nice to see Gregory Peck playing against type as an obnoxious bad guy, but overall I think I found it overly melodramatic even for a soap opera (which it is). Frankly, the movie seems kind of silly.

But that's my immediate gut response. I'll have to think about this one.

Tarzan and the movies

Yes, hard to believe but I have put up a new review and have a fistfull of other movies to watch. The review? Tarzan the Ape Man, kind of a curious little something from 1932 that led to a whole bunch of subsequent Tarzan movies.

A cottage near Rimbey

I just got back from a cottage near Rimbey. (That's in Alberta. And that's in Canada.) I don't have much to say about it. I'll let the images do the talking.

Leaders debate: canadian election

I watched a good deal of the leaders English debate last night. I have to be honest, what struck me most was how annoying the NDP's Jack Layton was. He managed to undermine his good points, including his very significant point that the Liberals and Conservatives were running campaigns about what not to vote for rather than what to vote for, by his constant interruptions and haranguing. Frankly, I found him rude and ill-behaved.

As for the rest, I thought the Liberal's Paul Martin did fairly well given that he was under almost constant attack, and the Conservative's Stephen Harper did well also managing to score points without coming across the way Jack Layton did. However, it should also be said all the candidates with the exception of the Bloc Quebecois' Gilles Duceppe appeared pre-programmed. So it wasn't so much a debate as it was recorded announcements playing simultaneously.

And the question remains: forget the leaders, what kind of parties are the Liberals and the Conservatives? What kind of people will be running the Canadian government should one of these two be voted in?

A day of day surgery

I was thinking last night about this hernia operation. In the world of medical procedures, it's not a huge thing but, when you have a dislike for anything like this, as I do, it's big enough.

I began in the Day Ward, on the first floor (U.of A. Hospital). The procedure was on the third floor, Operating Theatre 4. So I was taken on a bed ride.

It was quite cool. I kept thinking, "Steadi-cam. That's what I need - a steadi-cam." Because I was seeing it all in terms of film and how it would appear (from my prone position on the bed, head slightly elevated). It wasn't quite the frantic rush you would see on TV. Rather, it was leisurely and much more interesting that way.

Anyway ... next up, Operating Theatre 4. Frankly, I've seen too many movies. So I had far too many disagreeable images and scenes playing out in my head.

The worst: the IV thing. So I'm hooked up. And they placed the oxygen thing over my nose and mouth while putting the anti-nausea, knock-out stuff into me via the IV. And I kept thinking, "This is how they do the execution thing. Death by lethal injection. This is how they do it."

This is not the sort of shit you want running through your head. But that's what was in mine.

When I came to afterwards, it was just like coming to after fainting or a seizure - both of which I'm overly familiar with. Again, quite disagreeable. I hadn't a clue who I was or where I was or who belonged to the voices I was hearing. I know I suddenly had chills and was shivering madly and someone said something about Demerol and morphine and - poof! I was out again.

The next time I came too, sort of the same thing - minus the shivering. But I stayed conscious and quickly recalled the who, the where, the why and so on. My throat was dry and sore (like a sore throat) and I damn near died when I started coughing. You'd be amazed at how involved your stomach muscles are in everything!

And then ... the long wait to get sensible enough and physically up to scratch sufficiently so they could say, "Adios," and send me home.

Lovely day.

dear me - yeeouch!!!

Hernia operation tomorrow. Ack!!! Not something I look forward to. I don't care for doctors, hospitals and I'm predisposed to anxiety. In fact, I'd be drinking heavily right now but I understand it's frowned on pre-operation.

Anyway ... I'll be pretty geographically restricted for a few days so ... who knows? I may get Piddleville updated a bit. (Maybe another movie review or two?)

choose your poison - canadian election 2004

All the parties have slogans for the election (though for the life of me I can't recall what they are). I've come up with my own - Choose Your Poison.

As usual, we've got another election that sort of works like negative opt-in. We'll be voting for what we don't want, rather than what we do. In other words, we'll be voting against something.

What are our choices? With the three major English Canadian parties they seem to be corruption, incompetence or the tooth fairy.

Personally, I wouldn't have a problem voting for Paul Martin. I wouldn't be enthusiastic about it, but I could do it. Unfortunately for Mr. Martin he leads a party that makes Enron executives look like choir boys. They are so morally bankrupt Machiavelli would be proud.

While Steven Harper might not be so bad, you can't really tell. He always gives me the impression of a guy who's doing handstands trying not to say anything but the prerecorded message that has been implanted in him. He also looks like a dentist, so there are some negative associations. And again ... the leader is one thing, the party another. To put it kindly, the Conservatives don't inspire confidence. They also eat their own. All parties do, of course, but they do it publicly and with glee and relish.

With Jack Layton, I still think he looks like a used car salesman urging people to come down to the "Weekend Blowout! Everything must go!" As for the party, they still think it's 1975. It's wonder they know how to use computers.

So where's that leave us? Bored and disgruntled and wondering if there could be a third option. You know, like some award giving organizations have: "We chose not to give an award this year as no one was deserving of it."

You also have to wonder if the anti-monarchists are wrong-headed. Given what we get to choose from in elections, would rule by a foreign king or queen really be so bad? At the very least, could it possibly be worse? You have to wonder.