Ed’s Little Corner of Waywardness v.2.

…but I like where I’m living
there’s music on Clinton Street
all through the evening.

Come March, you won’t find me at Homewood anymore. A new home, a new start; a good one, certainly, for what this year will bring.

First, I have to get through the packing. Being a pack rat definitely has its cons.

On a different note, it’s been 6 years since Ingrid Betancourt was captured. I really hope she survives to be reunited with her family, her people and her freedom.

E.

Welcome to 2008. Step right in. Make yourself comfortable.

New Year resolution you say? Indulge in a long overdue unexplored hobbie, evidently.

Live and be happy. Make art and hopefully surprise myself (thanks Neil… so simple yet so overlooked).

Find a new place to live. Anywhere would be nice; what (who) I really need is going to be there, it’s all that matters.

Feliz Navidad, Próspero Año Nuevo y demás a todos.

Si el 2008 resulta ser tan bueno como el 2007, todo va a estar bien.

Los extraño mucho a todos. Espero que todos estén bien y que la pasen muy bien en estos últimos días del año.

Salud!

[Presionen para ver la versión completa]

One likes to think that things in life are either figured out or will sort out by themselves eventually. One hopes and dreams, and adjusts.

One learns the incongruence between dreams and reality. And yet, it’s still vexing.

I am me, except when I’m not. I do, I say, I carry on; with such little time ahead and so many memories behind.

E.

Weegee, “With a song in my heart”.

“I don’t know why people expect art to make sense when they easily accept the fact that life doesn’t.”

David Lynch

Tonight’s showing of Helvetica was definitely interesting. I thought it would put me against the fence for my animosity about this oh-so-ubiquitous font.

Instead, it made me re-analyse my stance and find comfort on the fact that other designers feel the same as me (including Stefan Sagmeister, what a fuckin’ rock star that guy is, so cool!). It was certainly a good study on the use of typefaces in a social environment, just by the mere fact that someone’s willing to do a film about a font and that people are interested in seeing it.

Tomorrow start the Design Thinkers 2007 presentations. I’m a little esceptic about them, the topics seem very uninspired.; it’s not exactly “what matters to me”. But we shall see, I hope to be wrong on this one.

E.

“This machine will not communicate
These thoughts and the strain I am under
Be a world child, form a circle
Before we all go under
And fade out again and fade out again”

The year is ending, yet again.

There’s a lingering feeling of aimlesness in my life, which is rather unsavoury. Mainly because I have no valid reasons to be unhappy with my life as it is.

It’s just… I guess the mismatch between expectations and realizations is always disconcerting. But no one said life would be the way you planned it, right?

I am where I should be, that much I know. Now I just need things to settle in.

By the way, I NEED The Submarines to release more albums, is there a petition I can sign?

E.

Back to writing; not because there wasn’t anything to report, but mostly due to lack of time and sometimes motivation to do so.

Now, in the eve of the ever-elitist snobish celebrity photo-op movie party that is the Toronto Film Festival, us film lovers without tickets wonder about the upcoming fall season. I must admit I didn’t have expectations about it, nothing caught my attention. I was vastly misinformed, there’s a lot to look forward to.

Across the Universe: leave it to the Beatles to make a musical interesting. The cover songs actually sound good and devoid of the typical cheesiness that affects most musicals. The story sounds very captivating and the idea of bringing the Beatles universe to it is nothing short of genius.

Sweeney Todd: 2 musicals in a row? Never thought I’d see this day come. I already commented about it; looks really good. I want to see Johnny Depp slit some throats to some creepy whimsical music.

Eastern Promises: Cronenberg’s new film promises to be very gritty. The cast is superb: Viggo Mortensen looks amazingly creepy, Naomi Watts is lovely as ever and it’s about time somebody gave a good role Armin Mueller-Stahl.

I’m not there: Don’t count me as a Bob Dylan fan; I find his music rather boring, truth be told. But the idea of having 6 different actors, Cate Blanchett among them, to play Dylan in different stages of his life is fascinating.

Beowulf: this Neil Gaiman/Roger Avary script visual extravaganza is eagerly anticipated for its groundbreaking mo-capped animation, photorrealism and 3D overwhelming experience. I’m still esceptic about the end result in the trailer, but I’m definitely looking forward to being proved wrong.

Control: the debut of master photographer Anton Corbijn, a biopic about Joy Division’s Ian Curtis and his demise. As if the visuals weren’t enough, you’ll also be treated to original music and a score by New Order. Samantha Morton… look out for her.

American Gangster: perhaps I’m a closet gansgter movies fan, this looks very interesting. Denzel Washington should thank Ridley Scott for rescuing him out of those stupid cop roles he always does. Hopefully, he’ll finally get to prove why he’s won his Oscars. If not, you can always count on Russell Crowe to give a good performance.

If there’s something you should know about me is this… I hate musicals; hate them. I think it’s stupid to stage a movie where the characters are singing and dancing. Not only that, but the unnecesary cheesiness and frugality filmmakers give to the musicals. Can’t stand it. If I ever go to Hell, there’ll be devils dancing and singing, and fuckin’ Travolta in drag.

Having said that, this is one musical that looks very promising…

Leave it to Tim Burton to put his twisted spin on a musical. It should be good.

Last monday went to The Police concert. It’s very easy to hate Sting nowadays. People who say that they’re back for the money and that they don’t play good anymore, probably haven’t heard one song from this tour. Money may be a reason, who the fucks knows; but the truth is, they are just as good as in their heydays.

The concert was great, musically solid, entertaining, worth my money and time. Fuck, these guys on their worse day would sound better than _______ (insert any current top 20 artist… at Billboard.com, today is White Plain T’s, whoever the hell they are). Once in a lifetime you get to see really gifted musicians play amazing music and this was one of those experiences. By the way, Wrapped around your finger was fuckin’ hallucinating!

On a different note, the penguin crew are coming along slowly but nicely. We’ve been working on them one by one and Mort proved to be one buggy motherfrakker (yes, I’ve been watching too much Battlestar Galactica, so sue me!). He gave us a lot of problems today, that chubby bastard!

E.

Man, how I wish everything worked as efficiently as in Service Canada. It took me longer to get there than it took me to get attended.

For some reason, September has become a month of high importance and expectations. And the preceding months are always tense and stressful. I just want to get it over with and have a positive outcome. Damn you September!

It feels like this week I spent much more time at the House on Parliament than I should have. No regrets, the food is always delicious there. Joe & me concluded that…

all you need in life
is sweet potato fries

(House on Parliament’s fries, that is)

The following songs have been playing consistently on my mp3 player, 24/7 for the last week. Worth checking out…

Paul McCartney - Ever Present Past
Per Gessle - Mannen med gitarr
Fito Páez - Cadáver Exquisito
Smashing Pumpkins - Tarantula
The Cardigans - Communication
The Beatles - And your bird can sing
B-52’s - Is that you Mo-Dean?

E.

Great weekend to compensate the unpleasantness of this past week.

Friday was simply awesome. The details of such awesomeness is for me and me only, but trust me, it was indeed awesome.

On saturday, I had the chance to watch one of my favourite performers; she was way overdue in my list. Dolores O’Riordan rocked the Phoenix and I’m glad I was there. Solid perfomance, musically and vocally; she’s just very intense on stage and her voice is simply unique. Her Cranberries songs were really good obviously, but I enjoyed the hard-rock edgy tunes from her new album.

Zombie (Excerpt)

Black Widow (Excerpt)

Finally, closed sunday with a major Transformers geekasm. I still personally dislike Michael Bay and his redneck idiosyncrasy, but he delivered the goods on this one. I could have done without Frenzy, he gives JarJar Binks a run for his money. And that hacker black dude and the bimbo analyst, pretty useless.

By the way, why the hell is it so damn hot in this city?

In this enigma that life is, you always wonder who deals the cards, who moves the strings.

Maybe life is just a random string of accidents; a chaotic domino effect in which we fall and tumble perpetuating an unstoppable chain of events. Perhaps, there’s actually a puppet master grinning backstage as our lives unfold upon the movements of his hands. Or are we just not meant to understand all this? Maybe our search for the meaning of life is just a goose hunt, an exercise in futility.

In the strange way things happen, I get reminded today that the riddles of life are definitely beyond me. Yesterday I cursed this puzzling outcomes in life; today, I welcome them. Tomorrow, life keeps going and will bring incessantly all those things that aren’t there yet, those things we dread and dream of.

I wish I could thank someone or something today. I would. I wish I know who or what.

Les deseo lo mejor Papa, los quiero mucho. Recupérense pronto.

E.

Well, Americans:
What, nothin’ better to do?
Why don’t you kick yourself out?
You’re an immigrant too.

Who’s usin’ who?
What should we do?
Well you can’t be a pimp
And a prostitute too…

Wicked website by the way.

U2’s label in dispute with Apple
Universal threatens to pull songs from iTunes

If Universal pull they catalogue, iTunes would lose access to record labels that collectively account for one out of every three new releases sold in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan data.

Now that’s a bold move, but definitely a step in the right direction. This Apple pseudo-monopoly on online music and its distribution has got to stop. What do you say EMI??

E.

After a week of grueling work, I finally finished and got that monkey off my back. I pinned down the damn animal, shot him, made a neckless with its teeth and drank his blood (figuratively speaking, of course). But seriously, I hope the work pays off because I don’t want to lose the debate with my mom about “free will & hard work” vs. “the power of faith and positive attitude”. Enough said.

Now check out this picture… that’s one amazing threesome right there!

For those of you who only watch movies like Stomp the Yard, Dreamgirls or Adam Sandler’s movies, or if you only listen to Beyoncé, Fallout Boy or Justin Timberlake, the people in the picture above are: Björk, Michel Gondry and Natalie ‘I can’t get any hotter” Portman.

Michel Gondry… I don’t care how talented you are, but you truly are one lucky son-of-a-bitch! By the way, Björk and Gondry will team up again for the “Declare Independence” video… very exciting!

On a different topic, people in the U.S. still mourn the “tragic” death of 9 firefighters who died in a fire on monday. Very tragic because when you are a firefighter, that’s the last thing that could happen to you, right? Ten seconds of silence for these unsung heroes whose bravery inspires us to be better people…

10…

9…

8…

7…

Oh, fuck it..! Let’s better read how a NATO attack killed 25 innocent civilians.

E.

Las cosas que hacemos por el pan de cada día…

This weekend seemed kinda lazy but it was truly eventful; it started with a suburban BBQ full of bikers and ended up with a bowlful of stew. With long automotive drives, furry movies, gallo pinto, Loblaws persistence, Father’s Day shopping, and everything in between. Was food the theme of the weekend perhaps?

Went to the L’Arche/Brothers of the Blade (yes, blade!) BBQ which was nice. It was a little far but it was good to leave the city for a little while. The bikers were quite lovely people, in spite of how hot it must be in those leather outfits. Iceman, scoop me another one!

We came back to try a Costarican recipe for dinner. It was good but we miscalculated the cooking time and had to resort to a contingency (but delicious nonetheless) dinner.

Then watched Fur, which I think is a really good and overlooked movie. Nicole Kidman was terribly good - as usual - and Robert Downey Jr. was equally good. But the hair… There’s hasn’t been such a furry character on the silver screen since Chewbacca. Highly recommended.

Sunday, more food. Started with a superb gallo pinto. Then Father’s Day shopping. Then olla de carne… finally!!! Compliments to the chefs.

Happy Father’s Day Papa!

E.

I shall not mention that thing tomorrow that might or might not render certain desirable results. I will not speculate as to what will actually happen and the ramifications of such event. Nor will I say how excited or not excited I am about it. In fact, you should not be reading about it and I should not be writing about it. Es todo.

On a different topic, there’s a promising movie in the works. Let me see…

• Awesome director: Fernando Meirelles (City of God, Constant Gardener)… Check

• Awesome cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Danny Glover, Alice Braga, Juliane Moore, Mark Ruffalo… Check

• Awesome story: based on the genius novel by Jose Samarago… Check

• Awesome locaitons: Brazil and Toronto… Check

Write this one down and wait… you just wait.

On a day like this, 40 years ago, The Beatles released what is arguably the most influential rock album in music history: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

I’m a late Beatles fan; their music’s a legacy of my parents. I was too young back then but my parents listened to their music. It is now that I can better appreciate the value of such songs. I can only imagine how much of a music revolution this album was back then and how people never imagined that it would stick around for so long.

Not wanting to play the music critic, I’ll direct you to the Rolling Stones’ review of SPLHCB as the #1 of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time:

Read away!

We may blow out the candle today but the party goes on!

E.

So I’m back after being marooned in Costa Rica. What was meant to be a short cheap trip to CR ended up being a long expensive nightmare. I’ll skip my grief with the ridiculous canadian immigration system, but I will say that it’s really fucked up.

There were hightlights to the trip nonetheless. Mauro’s wedding, mainly, the turtles and spending time with my family. Oh, and the food… oh yes… the food.

But it’s good to be back in Toronto. The bitter cold’s gone, green is in, it’s shaping up to be a great spring/summer. I was missing my work, my home and Ms. Crooked Frames (and Tim Horton’s, a little bit).

A bit of old news, Amnesty International talks about US politics of fear in their last report:

“Five years after 9/11, new evidence came to light in 2006 of the way in which the US Administration treated the world as one giant battlefield for its ‘war on terror’, kidnapping, arresting, arbitrarily detaining, torturing and transferring suspects from one secret prison to another across the world with impunity, in what the US termed ‘extraordinary renditions’.”

That was random… but I just got back, gimme a break!

E.