The Fortress of Fernitude

Saucy Error message

2007-11-07T21:53:02Z

I'm hacking around in the data binding code right now, and I got a wonderfully saucy error message:

bad property 'serviceRequest' in path 'serviceRequest.patient.sex' type=Patient

The secret to enjoying corporate life...

2007-10-23T14:53:59Z

While I was in Europe last year, I was registered for the local site mailing list, and I have not had myself removed. I enjoy knowing that a car has it's lights on 6000km away, or that some FIEND has not paid his sandwich club dues.

This morning I got this wonderful email.
Looks like a SPAM message for a creepy Voyeur website:

Dear colleagues,

May I ask you all to pull up the blinds every night?

Please do so in the meeting rooms as well, even if you did not use them.

If you do not pull up the blinds, they will blow open and they will be torn apart. As a result, this is very expensive to mend.

Can I rely on everyone to pull up all these blinds?

The repair costs for each blind can amount to 800 euros. Therefore, I hope I can count on the cooperation of each one of you.

Someone needs a hug

2007-10-15T21:08:00Z

Our poor beleaguered performance analyst just dropped by my desk. He asked how to restore the state of the database after the DELETE_ALL_STUDY_DATA() stored procedure was invoked.

First I asked if he had run that on MY database. Once he had said it was his server, and my heart started again, I told him that the Recycle Bin isn't an Oracle thing. If he starts sending studies in now he might be done by the end of the week...

*phew*
I can't get that lucky twice in one day, time to head home!

Good news (with caveat)

2007-10-11T21:48:16Z

I have better than 20/20 vision!
(with my glasses on)

Optometrists have a fun way with words :)

Lake of Fire Reviews

2007-10-05T21:40:47Z

Rotten Tomatoes has given Lake of Fire
100% (so far). Finally, the best film I saw in 2006 is in theatres for everyone else to see.

For a bit of nostalgia you can check out my review from last year's Toronto Film Festival.

Happy Space Race Day!

2007-10-04T17:53:21Z

The people who work at this company can be awesome.

There is a tin foil Sputnik satellite hanging in the cafeteria, with a collection of rare Soviet era pins and posters displayed around it. When I returned from lunch the following email was waiting for me (500k with it's included message: thanks NOTES)

50 years of the SPACE AGE!

Come to the cafeteria and celebrate with us!
Free Popsicle Rockets , WOW! OUT OF THIS WORLD
Come and get yours under Sputnik 1 !!!!!!
Hurry up before they decay and burn up!

atomicfern @ 2007-09-28T11:59:00

2007-09-28T16:00:21Z

Guess which PACS vendor...

Carter @ 10pm on TVO tonight!

2007-09-22T01:16:42Z

If anyone is interested in seeing the conversation with Jimmy & Rosyln Carter that I saw at the Film festival, then tune into TVO tonight between 10 and 11pm! As an added bonus you can see me in the fourth row clapping like a crazy person!

Last Day: Bad TV, Culinary Horror, Russian Horror, MMA Xtreme!

2007-09-15T17:50:07Z

Reclaim your Brain
There seems to be quite a bit of Austrian buzz around this movie. When I was racing to get into line for midnight madness on Tuesday night I passed by a white limo with "Reclaim your Brain" scrawled in spray-paint across the side. You can tell how proud the producers were from the way the film flows as well, but I fear it's a local phenomena, and doesn't work well for me outside of Teutonia.

Not to damn it with faint praise, but it had a real Canadian feel: you know, the we are very clever and against corporate culture thing. Not that that is bad, but it weighed down the film in the middle.

The movie starts well: the main character, Rainer, is quite an anti-hero, and prior to his transformation not much of a hero at all. He's actually quite an asshole. He's a trash TV producer in Germany, and makes many horrible low brow shows. For instance, the show that he is producing at the start is "Super Baby", which is a twist on the Dating Game. Three men compete for the opportunity to send 9 months in a luxury spa with the bachelorette. Why 9 months? Because the contest is a race: first sperm into the egg wins! Intercut with Rainer's coke fueled road rage it's a solid start to the movie.

Rainer's car is soon hit by a vengeful orphan of a man slandered by one of Rainer's shows. Her grandfather killed himself in shame and she finally gets her revenge against Rainer. This is the turning point in the movie, both for the main character, and also for the preachiness of the film. Rainer realizes to his horror that people really are as dumb as the ratings would imply, and goes about rigging the ratings system with a band of misfits to make Germans smart again!

The movie starts well and ends well, but it really kinda meanders in the middle. I have a feeling that if I spoke German than the dialogue may have made the middle bit more palatable. Based on reading the subtitles it landed up feeling preachy and forced. I would probably recommend the movie to German speaking film fans, but then again they have probably already heard of this film and have seen it.

Jar City
This movie is basically CSI: REYKJAVIK. It's a bleak and depressing murder mystery that takes place in Iceland. Erlendur, the detective who is the main character in the story is a humourless man who's daughter is a pregnant junkie and his life has long since left him. He is investigating the murder of a man that no one knows or likes, and eats the most horrible things you can imagine along the way.

Paula suggests an alternative title: 'Icelandic Culinary Horror'. If you have never seen a man eat a take-out stewed goats head, then take my suggestion: CLOSE YOUR EYES, you can't unsee a man gouging out stewed eyes and eating them. Erlendur's younger partner asks about getting something that's not on a buffet and the owner says "We don't serve your Guacamole shit here" ... his request for a latte didn't go over well either :)

This is a very good movie. Well made, excellent tone and pacing. You really feel the hopelessness of life and death in the cold desolate areas that the movie takes place. There is a line early in the film that sums it up: after seeing the body of the murder victim Erlendur says "“typical Icelandic murder… messy and pointless.". I would recommend it to crime drama lovers who are not culinarily squeamish.

Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case
Russia is fucked up. While I was on a ferry in Argentina I read an amazing article in the New York Times Magazine about Putin's succession after four years in power, and how far into Monarchy the Russian system had fallen. This movie makes it pretty clear that the Russian government has been a dictatorship since at least 2000, and that Putin and his supporters are very very bad people.

The movie is built around the story of the director's friendship with Litvinenko, and retelling Litvinenko's life right to it's tragic end. Litvinenko was an FSB (previously the KGB) agent who came forward to call out the corruption within the FSB and Kremlin. He came out in 1998 to claim that the bombings of apartments in Moscow were not a terrorist attack but rather a cynical and callous act to start a war with Chechnya. He further claims that Russian soldiers that were sent to the front were really being sold into slave labour, and they would be 'captured' and put to work by anyone who could pay the officers enough money.

While following Litvinenko's life right up to the point where he died of Polonium poisoning in London, the movie piles up years and years of horrible atrocities on the Putin government. It's one of those films that is hard, because it seems like it is only the word of the protesters against the government, and the level of inhumanity is so high that it defies plausibility of civilized people. Sadly, I fear that was has been said is true, and that the removal of communism really only removed the last barrier to a complete take over of a nuclear power by the forces of corruption and cruelty.

Flash Point
HK action at it's best. Last year I did retro HK action with Election 1 & 2 back to back, this year I'm seeing the latest from the director who did SPL. An explosive way to finish the festival this year!! This movie showcases MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), with some amazing stunts and fight choreography. Fans of the UFC will see some of their favourite movies being used in some spectacular ways in this film.

Damn I love to watch martial arts films at Midnight Madness! There is a fairly generic plot line that works to introduce you to the under cover cops and the colourful gang of villains that they have infiltrated. Soon covers are blown and gang members are put on trail ... if the cops can stay alive that long ...

There is only one scene with wirework in it, and it was for a comic scene, otherwise the movie involves only physical action and excellent choreography. The director commented that he felt that martial arts films had developed into a give / take sort of fight design: punch, dodge, kick, hit, punch ... but in real life people don't take turns when hitting. This movie is a flurry of action. Punches, kicks, tables, chairs, bottles, guns, pretty much anything that could be thrown at a person is. Some fast and exciting chase scenes round off the action buffet.

Highly recommended. The audience was screaming and clapping all the way through. Go see this movie for some kick ass action.

Lazy Day

2007-09-12T17:53:35Z

I've got a day off from my vacation today! I've been catching up on email and debating how to spend the rest of the day in Toronto. Any suggestions? I could rush either "Stuck" or "Pope's Toilet", but I'm feeling a bit filmed out at the moment. Right now reading Harry Potter and drinking tea is looking pretty damn good :)

Day Five: Palestine, Teenage Prostitution and Wild Japanese Movies

2007-09-12T14:43:15Z

Damn good day. It was running really tight between my movies all day, and had a volenteer take-down on my way to Man from Plains. I was running from the Paramount to the Varsity to make a movie that started in less than 15 minutes. I made it with 5 minutes to spare, and got stopped by a volunteer as a ran past waving my ticket wildly: The movie had not let in yet, and I passed the film reel coming up the stairs as I tried to find the end of the line. So I managed to get decent seats in all my films, but I have to say that if I choose to cut it this close again I'm wearing running shoes rather than sandals.

Vexille
I filled my homage BINGO card on this one: Braveheart, Dune, Mad Max, Bladerunner and just about every mech oriented anime were well represented in this movie. This was a Midnight Madness, but I erred on the side of sleeping a bit and did it at noon. Glad I fit this one in, it was a thought provoking (ish) science fiction tale told with an asian flair and coolness.

The movie is BEAUTIFUL, using really high end CGI which is mixed with what looks like digitally captured pictures of real nuts and bolts in a few of the J A G scenes ---- I'm not talking inconceivably successful military lawyer show here, I'm talking Sandworms that are made of FUCKIN' METAL. Kick ass.

The story is set in the isolationist Japan of the 2060s. It's been 10 years since they withdrew from international relations, and during that time very very bad things have happened. The US is forced to act when they come into possession of a leg (after *quite* a good action scene) that is made of biometal, which is proof of grievous breaches of international law. An elite strike force called S.W.O.R.D (am I a huge geek for thinking of another SHIELD and SWORD from comic books here?) is sent to investigate.

I won't ruin this movie with spoilers, some of it's best moments come out of the way that the situation in Japan unfolds. There are strong underlying themes of US dependance on foreign manufacturing and not asking questions about the technologies they receive. There isn't really a MNS 'twist' going on here, it's just that people turn out to be different than they first appear. There is a deep sadness in all the people that they strike force meets in Japan, but they trying to love every last moment of life despite the horrific circumstance they have been put in during the decade.

I would highly recommend this movie to people who perhaps have not been exposed to anime before. It is very accessible for someone not familiar with the genre, and an excellent gateway into the Ghost in the Shell movies.

Man from Plains
More Jimmy, and you know how much I likes my Jimmy. Very well made documentary which follows President Carter's book signing tour to promote his very controversial book "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid". I am going to have to start reading through my backlog of Jimmy Carter's books soon (he has 24 of them now!), and this one sounds like a good place to start. After seeing the movie, I would really like to see how he put his ideas into words, rather than how people reacted to the way he said them.

The book is supposed to be provocative, so that people will start talking about the issue of middle east peace again. President Carter made the point in this documentary and in the conversation on Monday that there has not been a single day of peace negotiation in 6 years: nothing since the current administration has come in. He feels that the US has failed the people of the middle east, and it has caused his country to be seen more badly now than anytime in history. Polls taken around the middle east are showing <5% of the people feel favourably about the United States, as opposed to a majority of the people supporting them in the 60s and 70s.

In many ways this movie reminded me of another documentary --- one of my favourites from a previous film festival --- "The Fog of War". Macinmara, like Carter, speaks of empathizing with the enemy, and finding alternative solutions to international issues. Both of these men are old now, but have hard earned wisdom and have a voice to speak out against what they feel is wrong in the world.... unlike the active Democrats or even the guy before Bush...

Highly recommended. I will reserve judgement on whether I agree with Carter's position until after I've read the book, but he certainly makes a strong case for peace in his documentary.

Very Young Girls
This is an important documentary, and I am hoping that they edit it down a bit more before distributing it. It was a similar situation to Shame from last year, where a really horribly made documentary was transcended by the awesome-a-tude of Mukhtaran Mai: the movie needs some tweaks, and it's too long but the underlying story is terrifying and the people are real and raw.

The story is about underaged sex trafficking. In New York City. We aren't talking about Russian Brides or Thai girls thrown into shipping containers here: these are American girls who are picked up off the street and brain washed into having sex to put money in the pockets of their pimp / abuser / molestor. The average age that a girl gets into prostitution in America? 13 years old. That's right. What's even worse is that the girls who are being abused and can't even legally consent to the sex that they are 'selling' are treated like criminals when they are arrested. It's a fucking disgrace.

The movie follows several young girls (13 - 16) who have been forced into prostitution by pimps and are now in the Girls Education and Mentoring Services (GEMS) program. Girls of this age should be in school and terrifying their parents with the thought of bringing a boy home some day, not living on the streets and turning tricks for some asshole.

The founder of GEMS, Rachel Lloyd, works to make them self sufficient financially and emotionally again, but it's hard to undo what has been done to these girls. The pimps have a powerful sway over these girls by being a lover, a parent and an abuser all at the same time. It's an addiction, and some of these girls replapse back into The Life several times before they either get things together or just disappear. Despite Rachel winning the Reebok Human Rights Award for her work with getting girls out of the sex trade, this is the first time I had heard about how bad the situation in the US was (no idea about Canada), and hopefully this film will help to get the word out.

Babysitters
A humourous look at teenage prostitution. Perhaps not the best movie to follow VYG, but it does make for a bit of a contrast doesn't it! A shy girl with OCD becomes the madame of a prostitution ring that runs under the cover of being a babysitting service. For $200 or $300 dollars the husbands can give the girl a ride on the way home. There is rivalry, love, rejection and some very funny moments in this movie. I think I would have been more blown away by it had I not just watched a 90 minute movie about the horror of real teenage sex trafficking. Definitely worth checking out when it gets released, but I suggest that you don't do the double feature that I did!

Sukiyaki Western Django
I cut it really close with this movie: I was running out of the Paramount at 11:17 to get in line for the midnight movie. It would have been fine if one of my friends, or one of my friend of friends was in line. I walked from the front, went around 3 corners of the building and finally found that although many people look like my friends, they probably want to know me before letting me into line!! So I settled into the end of the line, and steeled myself for doing a Miike movie solo when I made a new friend! Anyone who is not scared away by an Ichi the Killer T-Shirt is OK in my books :)

Before the film we had a surprise! Although Miike could not make it to Toronto (he has only been to one Midnight Madness, so far...) he recorded a short where he spoke Japanese and held up little signs in English, and told the audience that he is happy that we are seeing his new movie and he promises that it will be the best English language Japanese Western that we will see ... at this festival anyway :)

This is a Miike movie, so it would be redundant to say it was weird, but this movie was a very polished form of odd rather than something like the full out Yakuza & lactation-fest that you see with Gozu. This is a Japanese Western, so it is literally a fusion of the Spaghetti Western and the Samurai movie, with plenty of Miike flourishes along the way. The movie starts on a wonderfully cheesy set with a cloth backdrop of the setting sun. A lone cowboy is sitting by a fire, who has been ambushed by desperadoes. It's Quentin Tarantino! A bird swoops down and snatches a snake from the ground, and the cowboy shoots it out of the air and cuts open the snake as it falls to get a blood soaked egg. He rubs the red blood off the white egg and tells the men the story of the red and white clans (which is a bit confusing with the timeline but hey, this ain't Sliders, so I can't expect total historical accuracy)

The red and white gangs are fighting for control of a small village and a legendary treasure. They are at a stalemate, and both clans are anxious to recruit a mysterious young gunslinger who comes to town. The film is beautifully shot and full of colourful (red AND white!) characters, and situations. All of the actors speak in English, although there are subtitles as well, which sadly helped me in a few places where the accent overcame the dialogue a little bit. Miike is able to capture of both the tough talking / fast shooting Western with the unstoppable Samurai legend of Japanese culture --- Clint Eastwood playing Zatoichi if you will.

This is one of Miike's most accessible movies and I think it would appeal to a wide range of people, perhaps as part of a double feature with Audition. The perfect movie oriented first date :P

Day Four: A Great Couple and a Great Movie

2007-09-11T02:52:28Z

I was disappointed by the fact that both of the movies that I saw today were not completely full, although it benefitted me since I spontaneously decided to get a ticket for the second movie at the box office. Guess it's the Monday afternoon thing, but come on people it's Jimmy Carter we're talking about here!

Everything to Gain: Conversation with Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter
Jimmy and Rose Carter are amazing people. After his 'involuntary retirement' Jimmy Carter set out to change the world. He has written 24 books, he founded the Carter Centre, won the Nobel Peace Prize, worked for Habitat for Humanity and worked extensively in mediating elections and eliminating disease. He has had a rich, adventurous and valuable life which really began when he left politics.

The mediator kept the conversation with Jimmy and Rose Carter moving along swiftly, and asked all the questions I was curious about, which reduced the sting of not getting an open Q&A. The conversation covered their lives since his term in office, touched on his political views and how they feel about America's place in the world. Rose is very careful about her endorsement of the next presidential candidate: "I will support who ever is nominated" and didn't fall for the question "Would you like to see a woman as president?" It was a very special moment at the festival, in a completely opposite way to "Diary of the Dead".

Fun little fact: A poll of Canadians during the 1980 American election gave Jimmy Carter 68% of the votes, with only 12% going to Reagan :)

Closely Watched Trains
I really didn't expect to get the Jimmy Carter conversation, so I left this day completely open as a defense against a nasty second choice fiasco. Got my ticket, but I still had 3 hours to kill until I would meet my friend Darren for dinner. Got lucky once again: the Ken Loach dialogue was sold out (GASP), so I grabbed a ticket and killed a lovely two hours with a classic movie and a knowledgeable director (and a theatre mostly full of film nerds).

Closely Watched Trains is a Czech film from the 60s. It is set at the end of the war, and deals with the quirky people who live / work at the train station. The main character is a boy who has just started working at the railway. His uncle was a hypnotist who tried (rather messily) to stop the German tanks with only his mind, and his father was retired early by the railway and got killed teasing iron workers who were on the job. The boy is in love, and becomes obsessed with finding a cure for his premature ejaculation after recovering from a suicide attempt. The doctor who treats his wrists tells him that the cure for his problem is to find a mature woman to teach him, and hilarity ensues as he tries to find one.

Honestly, it is worth finding this film to see a boy earnestly ask a middle aged woman about teaching him not to ejaculate prematurely while she straddles a goose and rubs pills down the long neck that is pinned between her thighs. You just don't get comedy like that anymore.

The movie has little music, and long periods where the only sounds are the bustle of the train station and the talk of the characters. It's lovely to see a movie where the director lets you find what you want, without being beaten up by an overt score and stupid exposition. The movie ultimately has a bitter sweet ending, but it really resonates well now, even though it was made 40 years ago in a country I have not visited. As Ken Loach said in his discussion, "The movies that endure are the ones that are about simple realities of life."

Day Three: Fascists and Zombie

2007-09-09T17:12:34Z

My Enemy's Enemy
Now this is a Dictator movie! Klaus Barbie was a gestapo leader who was known for his ability to find and torture the enemies of the Reich. He sent 44 children to the the death camps. He tortured the members of the French underground. He was called the Butcher of Lyon. He also lived free for more than 30 years after the war.

How does a well known and unrepentant Nazi manage to evade capture for so long? Two words: cold war. The Americans wanted to keep an eye on the Communists, and the Nazi's had the documentation and organization to track these people. So the CIA entered into a secret pact with Barbie and other Nazi's to keep communism down. The French didn't like this, but the Americans managed to keep him fighting communism (terrorizing teachers, labour leaders and authors with leftist views) in Europe and Latin America for years.

So basically the American government has sucked as much as it does now for many years. Asshats. Governments in Latin America were toppled for no better reason than the US wanted to destabilize anything that wasn't a manipulable dictatorship. This is movie is everything that makes documentaries great: thorough research, a disturbing story and tight editing. The life of Klaus Barbie is an indictment of not just the Nazi's, but any form of totalitarianism.

Diary of the Dead
George Romero said that the inspiration for this movie is the proliferation of blogging communication in the world. What would happen if the first day of the zombie apocalypse happened now that everyone is a reporter? Since a big part of the story is about communication outside of the establishment, the story was put back in the beginning, but in the contemporary setting.

The hook of making a documentary 'The Death of Death' is present through-out the movie with the constant (and sometimes foolish) attempt to record the experience. The 'documentary' aspect is used to keep the story more personal, but it maintains enough production values to keep it from devolving into a messy Blair-Witch type of blur and giggle. This made the gore effects more immediate, and although there is less gore than recent movies like 28 Days Later, the shots are closer and allow the quality of the physical effects to be shown off.

The Q&A was great fun, George Reminds me of Stan Lee (without the whole 'banging Jack Kirby's wife' thing) it's probably the big old glasses and grey hair though :) He started his post-movie speech with enough thank-yous that it sounded like the Oscar acceptance speech he will never give :( His answers to questions were philosophical and intellegent --- he gives good Q&A!

Overall this was one of those magical film festival moments. There was a contingent of zombies walking up and down the line outside, and who chanted before the movie started: "What do we want?" BRAINS! "When do we want it?" BRAINS! Good energy, great director and a fine film. Good times.

atomicfern @ 2007-09-08T11:56:00

2007-09-08T15:56:41Z

Day Two: LONG, WONG, STAREY and SCAREY

Every year I seem to relearn the lessons I learned in previous years. The rule I relearned this year is one of travel logistics. Despite the fact that having a midnight movie being followed by a noon movie being TECHNICALLY 12 hours between starts --- which seems like a long time --- the reality is that after travel time, Q&A, and meals are taken into account, it's only 4 hours sleep.

I really needed more than 4 hours to keep my eyes open for most of today's films...

Terror's Advocate
Very disappointing. The fact that the AC was out in the theatre and the temperature was >30C and humid didn't help. Jacques Vergès is a morally ambiguous character who has lived an amazing life. The problem is that the movie was too long, and meandered through his life / defendants in the second half. They couldn't even spin his 8 year disappearance in an interesting way.

Not a good start.

Hollywood Chinese
Amusing, educational and entertaining. This would have been an excellent 'bridge film' if it had been sandwiched between two solid movies. It wasn't, which tested our patience. The movie was filled with clips from many incredible movies over the years, and I left really wanted to go to the Flower Drum Song dialogue later in the week :)

The story of chinese americans in Hollywood is an interesting contrast to the history of blaxpliotation. There have been chinese american movies being produced since 1917, yet they never really broke out into their own genre like black film in the 70s. It remained acceptable to have an actor in 'yellow face' right into the late 60s, and the leads in 'asian themed' american films were usually white with a supporting cast of actual chinese americans. Facinating history, but honestly I needed something a bit wilder in this slot.

Man from London
Artsy, beautiful and mediative. Paula will love this movie, and in fact she was the one who recommended it as a MUST SEE. I won't say this is a bad movie: it was just more artsy than I could take when we saw it. It is entirely shot in black and white with very little dialogue. The camera works is excellent, with long graceful steady cam shots that give it the feeling of watching a stage play, or even reality unfolding in realtime.

TARR is a great director, and quite famous for his films in Europe. Like American Chinese, it was on the wrong day at the wrong time for us. He likes to focus the camera on a single unchanging shot for long periods of time: 2 minutes of staring at a wall or an unmoving face was not uncommon. Despite my tired and impatient state, it's hard not to be beguiled by his techniques, but it was frustrating for Dave and I who really wanted to eat by the 90 minute mark. Probably not the best movie for the N.A.D.D generation.

The Orphanage
Endearing, Creepy and Wonderful. The comparison in the review to Pan's Labyrinth is a good one, despite the fact that the movies were made in parallel and could not have directly influenced each other. This movie lives and breaths 70s horror. It's not just the shot for shot homages to earlier films that make you think of The Omen, Rosemary's Baby or the Shining: it's the atmosphere of it. It seems like someone has been able to steal back the creepiness of 70s american horror back from the Japanese.

The only way that this movie could have been better is if Dave's speculation about Eugenics experiments came through. As it was the movie was tight, well shot, and bounced between taunt realism and creepy hints of the paranormal. Top notch child acting and people who look like PEOPLE made the movie work too. Very few stupid things were done by the actors, and as the two timelines come together the audience realizes simultaneously what has really happened seconds before it's revealed on screen.

See this movie.

If you are still hungry for sarcasm fueled movie blogging, you should head over to Josh's Festival Reviews Blog. He's doing a 30 book, so it's more bitchin' / typin' per day!

atomicfern @ 2007-09-07T09:08:00

2007-09-07T13:14:42Z

NOTE to future self: having a noon movie following a midnight madness SEEMS like a lot of time, but all the travel time to Scarborough is accounted for it's like four hours sleep ...

atomicfern @ 2007-09-07T03:01:00

2007-09-07T07:37:51Z

Dinner with the President: A Nation's Journey

This was an intellectual look at the situation in Pakistan right now, from the point of view of a educated liberal couple. I hate to admit but my ignorance of Pakistani history prior to the coop that put Musharraf into power, somewhat hindered my appreciation of this movie.

The documentary was built around a dinner that was arranged with President Musharraf, his wife, his mother and the documentarians. The scene of the meal is cut with interviews with people representing the different points of view in modern Pakistan. Very interesting, but it felt a bit too short for the ground they were trying to coverr.

Half the audience left after the first documentary. BOOOOO, that's rude even if you are going to a PAR-TAY.

Please Vote for Me
The second documentary of the evening was a hilarious romp! Chinese school children are given the chance to vote for their classroom monitor ... but who will they choose? The nice girl who wants everyone to like her? The incumbent bully who buys votes through his parent's contacts or asian Cartman?

Yeah, you read that right. This movie has a little chinese Cartman, who doesn't like wearing clothes. I kept hoping someone would sing 'I'm sailing...' during the talent contest.

Oh yeah, that's right. Tiny democracy has a talent segment. Which is cute / excruciating / hilarious all at once. Go see this movie!!

The Mother of Tears
Dario Argento bless your heart, you write movies that make no sense, and really just string together gore and nekkid women into an occult script. *sniff* it was beautiful. There is little ambiguity about the type of movie you are watching: right from the start a woman gets cut open by cultists and then strangled with her own intestines.... and then you meet a crazy monkey!

Dario and Asia were there too, and since it was Dario's birthday we got to SING to him!!

Preview of my Film Festival...

2007-09-06T04:10:22Z

The funny thing about this year's choices is how little there is that is funny. I forgot to add the comedies. I'm happy with my choices, but I do wish I had found a way to fit in a funny memorable crazy movie in there somewhere.

I landed up in box 5 of 75, and box 66 got chosen to start assigning movies from this year. Good placement, and I got all the movies I asked for. Let's hope my first choices are all good! Here they are listed by date, with a hyperlink back to the TIFF website. No NSFW hot-links this year, they have gone with a silly flash doodad rather than a nice easy to steal JPG!

Thursday 6th

8:45pm

Please Vote for Me
I'm starting off cute with this lovely little documentary. First year that a chinese class gets to elect their classroom monitor. Cute turns to politics pretty quickly from what I've read...

Midnight

The Mother of Tears
Dario Argento's latest movie. He is a master of horror, and there are boobs in the picture. Plus his daughter is in it.... and they are her boobs. Suffice to say this was a first choice for me.

Friday 7th

11:45am

Terror's Advocate
Ever wonder about the sort of scum that would represent Klaus Barbie and other horrible dictators and genocidal maniacs? Me too.

4pm

Hollywood Chinese
Documentary about the portrayal of chinese people in movies. They show clips from movies featuring such great asian actors as John Wayne and Christopher Lee. Before reading the review I didn't actually know there was a term playing yellow. Should be very interesting.

6pm

Man from London
Hungarian Film Noir. It's shot entirely in Noir and White. Looks amazing. It outlived it's original director. Can't wait for this one: I haven't seen a genuinely good film noir movie in ages.

10pm

The Orphanage
Gothic Horror! I'm hoping this movie lives up to my expectations. The review keeps citing the similarities of the film to Pan’s Labyrinth and the director's work with Guillermo del Toro. I really loved Pan's Labyrinth last year, so I hope this movie can stand up to the comparisons that have been drawn!

Saturday 8th

8:45pm

My Enemy's Enemy
Klaus Barbie was a Nazi who did terrible things during the war, yet became an agent for the CIA afterward. This documentary explores his life in the Reich and how it changed as the world entered the cold war. Second of my dictator documentaries this year...

Midnight

Diary of the Dead
X of the Dead, where X='Diary'Guess who's back?!? George Romero. First indie movie in 20 years. This movie will be what Midnight Madness is all about: gore, crazy crowds and a hardcore director. This will be a blast. I can't wait to pick apart the social commentary in the car afterward!

Monday 10th

1pm

Everything to Gain: Conversation with Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter
I am over the moon to have gotten this pick. I am a big fan of Jimmy Carter: people may question is handling of issues during his presidency, but you can't belittle his work afterward. He will be in conversation about his amazing life since being the president. I am working on some questions for him: I am dying to address a question with 'Mr President...'.

Tuesday 11th

Noon

Vexille
Japanese soldiers return to an isolated futuristic Japan where biotechnology has run amuck. I know it's lame to see midnight madness at noon, but I still feel burned after seeing Renaissance last year, and I'm playing it safe this year. Looks pretty and action packed, here's hoping it delivers.

2:15pm

Man from Plains
More Jimmy Carter! I'm showing a bias. This documentary follows him as a he does a press tour for his most recent and quite controversial book. I'm hoping he'll drop by for the Q&A, but that's a long shot!

6:45pm

Very Young Girls

9:45pm

Babysitters
This movie might be the movie that I can't unsee this year. It is a movie about young teen prostitutes and the scum bags who exploit them.
I must apologize in advance for how late I'll be coming out of this movie and running to see Miike. I shall try to be in line early enough for my previous midnight madness movies to tip the karmic balance in advance.

Miidnight

Sukiyaki Western Django
Japanese western. Takeshi Miike's first English language film. Quentin T has (what I hope is) a bit part to pay homage to this living master of awesome. I can't wait to see this movie.

Thursday 13th

12:30pm

Reclaim your Brain
I work with crazy Austrians, so I really had to see a crazy Austrian movie now didn't I? Think Running Man but funny, with the villian becoming brain damaged and fighting back against the trash TV industry that spawned him. Hopefully it's funny, I'm going need a bit of humour at this point :)

4:30pm

Jar City
Creepy Islandic murder mystery. Hopefully it manages to be atmospheric without being sucky.

9:30pm

Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case
This one is a real risk for me. It feels like the ink hasn't really dried on the whole Litvinenko murder yet, so this documentary might be premature. I am fascinated by what it will say about Putin and his democratically elected dictatorship.

Midnight

Flash Point
HK action at it's best. Last year I did retro HK action with Election 1 & 2 back to back, this year I'm seeing the latest from the director who did SPL. An explosive way to finish the festival this year!!

atomicfern @ 2007-08-28T18:51:00

2007-08-28T23:01:21Z

Phew. I've got my preliminary picks for this years film festival done. Time to fiddle around with second choices and decide on the reality of getting my choices :)

TIFF 2007

Amusing for gamers...

2007-08-24T13:20:44Z

I discovered while dicking around with our product that our default panning keyboard short-cuts are W, A, S, D.

Nerdtastic!

atomicfern @ 2007-08-23T10:03:00

2007-08-23T14:04:58Z

I've had enough of trying to reuse this magical class that only works during a full moon. It's time to apply the greatest Design Pattern left out of the Go4: Cut'n'Paste Polymorphim!!

atomicfern @ 2007-08-19T15:28:00

2007-08-19T19:29:55Z

Kitchener Gentrification Plan? This isn't your parent's Berlin!

Gay men make everything better!

2007-08-19T18:18:18Z

My last Queer Eye for the Fern Guy trip was my best yet. I attribute this to the last minute replacement of my roomie with a second gay man. Still two fashion vetos, the distribution was just changed slightly :) I've even enjoyed an increase in the number of saucy glances I get when wearing my new shorts!

Today I headed out to Milton to do some mountain biking. Normally I hate that boring 40 minute ride down the 401, but today it flew like an enchanted Muggle car! Listening to Stephen Fry read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" made the trip 100% better --- I almost drove around the block to finish the chapter :)

Conclusion: Gay men make everything better!

Gift for a home owner who has everything.

2007-08-19T00:47:15Z

I borrowed my neighbour's power washer today to blast 5 years of dead leave 'shadow' off my deck. DAMN that is satisfying. The little guy has two nozzles: one for cleaning windows and cars, and one for tearing the paint off of cars. I may not be much of a handy-man, but it's fun getting the toys to make the masquerade more credible.

My neighbour dropped by and said I should give it another go to get it completely clean, and I can't think of a better way to spend my post-mountain-biking hours tomorrow!

Citizens, UNITE!

2007-08-15T18:14:19Z

I have been volunteered to attend the Neighbourhood Mobilization Alliance for my area. I'm quite curious about what sort of people I will meet. Will it be senior citizens who are concerned with keeping the rabble down, or young folk who want to foster a neighbourhood for their young families ... or just people who want free donuts.

There will be donuts ... right?

Boring Computer Science Observation: You have been warned...

2007-08-14T20:44:27Z

Here's an interesting programming question today: what is an easy way to figure out if a float will fit into a double without loss of precision?

It's not a simple as it looks. Determining if a long fits into an int is trivial: you just compare INTEGER.MAX_VALUE and INTEGER.MIN_VALUE. However, floating point numbers are not about the floor and ceiling, it's about the number of non-zero numbers after the decimal point, or heximal point if you prefer :)

The best I could come up with today before I decided to just the double as a string was:

boolean isConvertableToFloat(double d)
{
float f = (float)d;
return d == (double)f;
}

It's funny how those CS 101 questions can come up in RL :)