Film Directors

Some of the most recent films I've seen have been chosen because of their directors ... one new, the others "catching up" on films I'd never seen previously.

I went to see The Science of Sleep (2006) a few weeks ago, a film written and directed by Michel Gondry (the director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). I had only seen Eternal Sunshine for the first time a few months ago, and thought it was wonderful - so when I saw the preview for Gondry's latest film (before Little Miss Sunshine) I figured I'd have to go see this one as well. I thought it was a fascinating look at the idea of blurring between sleep and wakefulness, and some of the effects during the dream sequences were neat. Towards the end though, I started feeling a bit frustrated because some of Stéphane's actions just seemed incredibly stupid - I wondered why couldn't he properly sort out what was sleep and what was real. Then I started thinking about Stéphane in the context of mental illness, that is, that he had a distorted perception of reality - and then the film made a lot more sense to me overall. Looking at the reviews on IMDB, it seemed as though it got either 8-10/10 ratings or 0-1/10 ratings (love it or hate it) - for me, it was almost both during the same film (but the frustration was short-lived, so overall I enjoyed it and I was glad I saw it).

I watched Mystery Train (1989) the other day (VHS from the library), the first film I'd seen by director Jim Jarmusch. I had been told about his penchant for panning shots - certainly it was a good way in this film to convey the mood (desolation?) of inner-city Memphis. I liked the technique how 3 intertwining yet never-really-meeting stories were told one after the other - I first thought that it was the next day when it switched from "Far from Yokohama" to "Ghost", until we saw the same hotel, the same song/same time on the radio, and so on, to realize that it was actually taking place at the same time as the first story (and the third story also taking place at the same time).

And while I had several friends who were big Twin Peaks fans when it was originally on TV, while we were undergrad university students, I never actually got around to watching it, nor anything else by David Lynch until now. The other day I watched Blue Velvet (1986) - "disturbingly good". I think disturbing in the sense that if you watch a movie about drugs/gangs/crime you'd expect certain levels of violence - but it seems more out of place with white picket fences and roses, and wholesome kiddies crossing the street in a small town, as in the opening shots of this film.

Today I watched Mulholland Dr. (2001) - wow! I was captivated throughout, at the end I got lost and confused, yet still appreciated the artistry and film-making throughout. Then when I read some "hints" online and realized I'd missed the significance of the opening scenes, it made more sense - overall, amazing!

(Thanks to Chris for the David Lynch and Jim Jarmusch recommendations).

Blogger beta

So I just upgraded to their new program, which means I can categorize my blog posts ... trying to go back and do so for the previous ones but haven't got to all of them yet. And I've played around with the formatting now that it's easier to do so.

Article about IVF coming to Edmonton Clinic

This article last week in the Journal was interesting, because we'd decided to put any fertility treatments on hold for a while and enjoy life instead, rather than continuing to get all caught up in the stress (such as mentioned in the article). We're planning a trip to France for July to see the Tour de France and do some cycling ... and then we'll re-evaluate the "having kids" thing afterwards. But it's good to know that the IVF Clinic here should be up and running by then...

Edmonton International Film Festival

Ok, so the EIFF was actually over a month ago now, but in the meantime I crashed and burned and then got sick (just recovering now), so here's a few words about the films I saw there.

La Tourneuse de Pages -The Page Turner (2006, France) - quite intriguing to me, having experienced a lot of piano festivals, adjudications, and performances (piano and other). Though I can't say that any negative comments from an adjudicator ever left me so permanently scarred that I had to carry on an obsessive campaign to (psychologically) destroy their life...

El Violin (2005, Mexico) - I picked this because I thought the contrast between the music focus and the guerilla rebellion would be interesting, and it was. Quite graphic and disturbing in parts though.

Ten Canoes (2006, Australia) - This was recommended to me by an Australian friend, I had to skip half of my French class to see it, but I'm glad I did - my favourite of the festival. Mainly in an aboriginal language, with an English narrator/voice-over, it was an interesting look at some of the aboriginal ways and myths, and much different than anything else I've seen. The contrast between the "current" storyline (which was actually far in the past) and the "mythical" storyline, where one was in colour and one in black-and-white, was well-done. And I enjoyed the scenery/landscape shots as well. (though it wasn't quite "terrorists in canoes", which is how Chris advised me to try to sell it to my husband - I went with a friend instead).

Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (2005, China) - This was my friend's pick, and I enjoyed it. I had the advantage of remembering a little Japanese, enough to know just how bad (and amusing) Lingo's Japanese translations and accent really were. The story was touching, but not a happy Hollywood ending - though in a sense, the ending was happy in that many characters learned more about themselves.

"Oprah Effect" in the US is "Comedy Satire" effect in Canada?

This article in the Journal the other day was interesting, apparently there's a study that those "who watch daytime talk show coverage of election issues and candidates...are more likely to vote for the candidate best aligned with their views than those who didn't". Meaning that even if the talk show seems all fluff and frivolity, somehow the candidate's message is getting through.

However, a pollster in Canada pointed out that that approach wouldn't work well here.

"Canadians -- in this more egalitarian, questioning-of-authority culture -- desperately want to get on a show where they can be teased," Adams says. "In Canada, the currency is irony, humour and self-deprecation. It communicates a kind of intelligence and self-confidence."

Therefore, the Canadian equivalent would be the comedy satire programs such as Mercer, 22 Minutes, and the Air Farce... (hmm, what does that say about me that I watch those shows each week and not much other TV?)

On a somewhat similar note, I want to know why Shaw Cable doesn't carry LeapTV ;-).

(I should mention that Todd Babiak has been my favourite Journal columnist for some time, I have The Garneau Block, just haven't read it yet but look forward to it).

Biking weekend - good and not so good ...

I was pumped about riding after finishing a 4 hour clinic with Alex Stieda, former Tour yellow jersey wearer (1st North American actually), on Saturday -
and best of all it was free. (My city hosted the World Masters Games last year, not sure if there was leftover money or something, but they had a series of "Masters Training Clinics" in various sports).

I was a bit nervous ahead of time , hoping that everyone else wasn't super-experienced/strong/super fast riders and that I'd feel out of place ... especially when the first few who arrived were talking about their Ironman tri experiences, but then a lady arrived in jeans, so I knew I wouldn't be the weakest in the group.

The clinic covered a lot of areas - climbing, corners, descending, sprinting, riding in a group - got more experience and some tips, improved my confidence (I only got my road bike in May so still a little nervous sometimes on the skinny tires), overall a great experience. And "Alex" was very friendly and made everyone feel comfortable (even the lady in jeans who ended up walking up most of the hills, she almost went home before it started but he encouraged her to stay and at the end she felt she had learned a lot).

Not sure if I'm more excited about the clinic itself or the fact I've now met and ridden with a former Tour yellow jersey! There's a good account on Cycling News by Davis Phinney about Stieda's ride in 1986 that got him the jersey.

Then today (Sunday), Ed and I went riding with a friend from prior running clinics. It was a nice fall day, sunny and warm, and we had a really good ride. Then something happened that I'm sure looked an awful lot worse from the perspective of those around me than it seemed from my perspective - my first (and hopefully last) bike crash into a car. It happened so fast I'm not entirely sure what all transpired, but I'm fairly sure that the reason I didn't stop before crossing a street was because I thought the car was not turning my way by their signals. By the time I realized that they *were* in fact coming my way, I was almost but not quite able to stop in time - my front wheel hit the car and turned and I went down. I was pretty quickly able to get off the road to avoid any further problems - I'm sure the driver of the car was pretty traumatized but Ed was able to reassure them I was ok. And I was - gash on one leg, bruising/muscle strains on the other leg. Amazingly enough, my bike was fine (Ed thought from his perspective that I'd actually hit the car myself and my bike had been run over).

To tell the truth, I think this is much less of a confidence-shaker than some previous crashes when I really wasn't doing anything much - then you start to wonder "how can I do difficult stuff if I crash on the easy stuff?". Whereas with this, I think blame was on both sides (I should have stopped to be sure where the car was going, and they should have signalled better and not have been going so fast), but at least there was a reason for the crash so mentally I'm feeling fine about riding still :-) .

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may

... and beware the Siberian High (that most dreaded of all meteorological phenomena). Bill Matheson, 1926-2006

Still more movies...

Little Miss Sunshine (2006) - went to see this with some friends, we chose to go to the semi-art-house theatre rather than the multiplex - not sure that the audience at the multiplex would have applauded at the end of the film. Actually, I don't remember the last time I recall an audience applauding at the end of a film ... I enjoyed this one a lot, perhaps in some ways a bit over-the-top. I really liked the scene where Frank, Dwayne, and Grandpa managed to get Olive to eat her ice cream without the guilt that her father was trying to impart ... also the horror of the pageant organizers and audience when Olive started her "dance" routine, as if all the other competitors were innocent and pure compared to Olive.

8 femmes (2002) - recorded this a while ago but only just watched it tonight. This musical-mystery was intriguing, good interactions between the actors, and overall quite amusing - not a typical Hollywood ending for sure. I liked the colour contrasts of all the outfits they were wearing - a lot of bright colours. The musical numbers weren't quite as jarring as in some films I've seen (see Bride and Prejudice below). I'm now interested in seeing other films by director François Ozon. (and some good practice for the French class I'll be starting soon ... vocabulary review when you hear French words you recognize and then can confirm via the English subtitles, I'm a long way still from understanding a French film without subtitles).

Bride and Prejudice (2004) - seeing that Pride and Prejudice is one of my all-time favourite novels, of course I had to watch this at some point. It was the first Bollywood-style film I had seen, I thought some of the musical-dance numbers were a bit much (I fast-forwarded through a few of them). But it was an interesting twist on the story, setting it in India with Mr. Darcy being a rich American.

Sense and Sensibility (1995) - I couldn't remember whether or not I had seen this one previously - I had, but I watched it again anyway. Directed by Ang Lee and starring Kate Winslet, Emma Thompson, and Hugh Grant, it's another film based on a Jane Austen novel. Like comfort food for me ... (ie. not very challenging, but enjoyable in the right context).

Looking forward to see what will be showing at the Edmonton Film Festival that starts on September 29, they were supposed to have their schedule online yesterday but it isn't yet.

Traffic in Edmonton...

I started working at the University Health Centre again this month, and I've been finding that the traffic is horrendous - even just compared to last spring. I drive almost downtown then take the LRT across to the university, and had been cutting it really close leaving the same time I was previously used to leaving. So, the other day I left earlier - but the traffic was even worse so I ended up 20 minutes late for work :-( . I was somewhat stressed over that, felt a need to apologize to the assistant director, was reassured that they understood etc. etc. - but still felt badly.

It's somewhat comforting in a way to know that it's not just me hitting bad patches of traffic, everyone's complaining - there was a whole series of articles in the paper this week about it. Presumably because of the economic boom in Alberta and the population growth here ... and that Ralph Klein recently admitted the provincial government had no real plan to handle the growth spurt ... from a column today in the Journal by Paula Simons:

It is, says Statistics Canada, absolutely unprecedented.
Alberta is in the middle of the strongest period of economic growth ever recorded by any province, in all of Canadian history.
This isn't just the biggest boom in Alberta's long and checkered history of booms. It's greater growth than Ontario experienced in its 1960s glory days or than B.C. saw in the 1980s during the great Hong Kong diaspora. It is, quite simply, the biggest boom Canada has ever seen.

Oh yes, I almost forgot, even if Klein didn't have any plan for the economic boom, he did manage to entrench the idea of the one-party state within Alberta, Frank Dabbs writes in the Tyee that

"Klein has consolidated the unwritten constitutional framework for a workable one-party state, now so deeply entrenched in Alberta's economy and political culture that it may never be dislodged.
He has completed the creation of the first functional post-democratic government in North America, run by elites for elites -- with the citizenry left on political standby to profit from a predatory economy if it can, and otherwise to fend for itself".

(and any Albertan who wants to pay to join the PC party can vote for Klein's successor as party leader/premier, plus out-of-province supporters can donate to the candidates' campaigns because there are no rules controlling the leadership contest...)

Swimming the English Channel

No, not me - Jen Alexander (Guiding types may remember her from the GuideZone or the YiGGGS list). She's in England now waiting her time to swim, sometime after Wednesday. Her blog is here - if you know Jen, check it out and send her a message of support.

Riding riding riding

That's what we did today, lots of riding - 60 km and over 3.5 hours, all the way to Rundle Park and back. A great way to spend the last Sunday afternoon of August when it's sunny and 25 C (knowing that winter's probably coming all too soon). Here's our route map in red, courtesy of Google (with a driving suggestion in blue, though I'd never actually drive that way to Rundle - I'd go up Henday to Yellowhead as it's much more direct) - click on it to see a larger version:

Only change in route was that we crossed over to Gold Bar Park going and stayed entirely on the north side of the river coming back. Lots of areas that I'd only seen on the map and never actually been to, like Rossdale, the Brickyard subdivision in Riverdale, Dawson Park, and most of Ada Boulevard.

This was my longest ever ride, topping last week's ride of almost 45 km to the University then the long way home via Snow Valley and a detour in behind Fort Edmonton. We also detoured slightly last week to Sue's to see the rock she put in her front yard (in memory of Darryl) - wow, it *is* big!

The other day I saw that the City is running various "Masters Training sessions" for free next month, I guess a follow-up to last year's World Masters Games - there was a Women's Road Cycling clinic with Alex Stieda, the first North American cyclist to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France (in 1986, good story about it here). So I signed up - I see that the men's clinic plus several others (triathlon, swimming) were already full. Stieda runs weekend skills camps in various locations (Banff, Jasper, Whistler, etc.) plus tours to the Tour de France, so even if it's just short I figure it will probably be useful - especially since it's free!

Remembering Darryl

here (what else can I say?)

What irony ...

How ironic is it when the song that I can't get out of my head and keep singing to myself is "Sing Me Spanish Techno", by The New Pornographers, which contains the lines

"if only to punish you
for listening too long to one song
listening too long to one song"

(which in fact are the some of the lines I keep singing ...)

What a day!

I woke up to radio news of thwarted terrorist attacks. Then I went online to read more about it, and heard that people were complaining about not being warned and that they lost their makeup, with the sudden restrictions on liquids in carry-on luggage (isn't not getting blown up a little bit more important than having to buy new makeup?)

Then it seemed that the crazies (well, one actually) on an online forum I frequent had become crazier still...

Then my day at work was so busy and demanding it made me yet again thankful I don't have to do this for too much longer (this sort of family medicine that is) - it's exactly the kind of stuff I quit last fall...

Then I heard at lunch that they found Darryl's body, which brought back all the sadness of last fall, but in the end it must bring some closure to Sue and to Darryl's family.

Then someone told me at the end of the day that there was a full moon last night, perhaps it explains my day ...

South American Penguin rescues

Penguins waddle back to the sea after oil spill clean up

(coming soon ... Ani DiFranco concert)