Timmins

Mike rented a pimp ride and we drove to Timmins on Monday. We left Toronto around 2pm, got to North Bay around 5, met up with my brother Marc and his girlfriend Siobhan and my mom who was ironically on her way back to Toronto from Timmins. We picked up beers at the LCBO and the guy who served us used to be our neighbor in Timmins. We finally made it to the City with the Heart of Gold at midnight. We loafed around today, we went to the mall and I waxed nostalgic looking at my childhood home. I didn't see any family yet, that is the plan for tomorrow. My brotha from anotha motha John Cayen called me up, we're gonna have beers tomorow night, maybe some Chez-Nous.

night at the movies

I saw The Love Guru today. I have been looking forward to for a while, and it was a serious disappointment. I was lucky enough to go to a script reading last fall before they began shooting. If they had made that movie, I would be singing a different tune. Unfortunately they cut it to shit (88 minutes down from 110, shorter than some animated fair). All the funniest parts were cut or shortened. Wait until it comes out on DVD, hopefully it will be the longer cut and actually watchable.

Very proud to see my good friend Ian's name on the big screen.

Get Smart was starting just after Love Guru, so I went to see it right after.

It was better than Guru but not very funny, stay home, rent it later.

Could I spend all night in a movie theatre? Sure, why not? I went to see You don't mess with the Zohan. A pretty funny Sandler vehicle. Better than Smart and Guru, but not worth 10$. I guess that by that point I had gotten my money worth since I saw 3 movies on one ticket.

So I spent the evening going from theatre to theatre, watching movies. It was fun and easy to get away with at AMC Yonge/Dundas 24. I would and will do it again. Next time I will bring a lunch.

Gish Tour!

The Smashing Pumpkins have announced the release of a Gish box set and coinciding tour. Gish, the Pumpkins first record, was released in 1991, and has gone on to sell over a million copies. No details have been released about the content of the box set other than that it is "pre-Gish/Gish"(the band formed in '89, and Billy is known to have material never before heard by bootlegging ears). No dates or venues have been revealed regarding the similarly named "Gish Tour", which one would assume would take place across North America and feature the band playing songs off the aforementioned album.

read the band's announcement here

Mike is here!

Ran out of shakes so I had toast with peanut butter, two boiled eggs and a glass of milk for breakfast. You have to eat breakfast.

I went to meet Granny Mo at the Eaton Centre after her lesson at the Apple Store. That's early, like I had to be up at 8am to meet her at 9. That's early for me. You have a job and no sympathy for me. I love getting juice with her and chatting. We made plans to go to the Toronto International Film Festival in September. I am excited because I would be going anyway, and with G-mo going too it will be more fun(and I can't really afford to go). I know it seems a little weird, but my Granny is super cool. She can enjoy movies you wouldn't expect an older lady to like. We watched Team America together last year(She laughed!).

I think Kevin Smith's new movie Zack & Miri Make a Porno will premiere at Tiff08.


I went back to the Condo with G-Mo(That's where Grammy lives) to get some shakes. Grandma got me started on these milkshakes for breakfast, and it really changed my life. Not the shakes so much as eating breakfast.

On the bus back from Grandma's house, I got a call from Mike W. my best friend. Back from California to attend his girlfriend's sisters wedding. I hurried back downtown. We went for coffee, and then went to get a suit (We drove to the mall in Mike's sweet pimped/rented ride).

We got beers and food and good times.

looks like we are taking his sweet ride to Timmins next week. Road trip!

No gym today, I didn't know I would be hanging out with Mikey. My muscles need to be stressed serious tomorrow.

Bed time.

Lazy Bum

To catch up on blogging, not fall behind.

Saw Kids in the Hall on Thursday, at Massey Hall with Deidra. This was the last show on their tour, the hometown show, where you get to show all those people you went to high school with what a successful freak you've become. Our seats were on the second level and we had an "obstructed view", so we had a pole to the right but it didn't block much. As the last show on the tour, this must have been the loosest performance, but the most fun to do. Kevin MacDonald's voice was fucked, which sucked cause him in a dress is so funny with his woman voice. The show was fucking awesome. Hopefully the guys can stay together for a bit and write a movie.

Deidra and I had dinner on Friday night at the Rex.

I went to have beers at Shawna's place Saturday.

Sunday I had breakfast with Jagger and his lady, then we went to see the Blue Jays beat Baltimore 5-4. Then I went to my mom's house for my Uncle Lew's birthday.

I worked out on Monday and saw the Incredible Hulk.

Incredible Hulk is, well, INCREDIBLE!

This weekend the Incredible Hulk will smash puny box office records. I just got back from AMC Yonge/Dundas 24 with Ian where we saw an preview screening. We got there early so we could have the most primo seats. Ian is the only person I know with the same set of moviegoing standards as I do. Seating is so vital we will catch the next showing if our preferred row and seat have been taken. Because this was a preview we didn't have that choice so we arrived 2 hrs before the show(only one guy in front of us, and he had to check his camera so we held a seat for him). Ian and I haven't seen enough movies at the AMC to know where the best seats are. We tried two rows and found the sweet spot. Before the movie started they asked for five volunteers to do a Hulk impression. Ian said I should so I did. It was pretty cool. I won some swag, a hat, t-shirt, mousepad, young adult novelization of the film.

This Hulk is no sequel to the last Hulk movie(no matter how much HE wishes it was). It's a re-launch, and although star Edward Norton wrote the shooting script based on a draft by Zak Penn, the WGA has decided Penn will get sole story and screenplay credit.

There was a great story, kick-ass action and the special effects were really cool. The Hulk has some classic moves and there are some memorable lines and cameos that I won't spoil for you.The big action scene goes down in New York City(really Toronto) in Harlem(really Yonge Street). So crazy to watch a street get destroyed and then walk out of the theatre onto that same street and everything is ok. Of course I couldn't take my eyes off of Sam the Record Man during all that action. Those spinning wheels rock my world and are on screen for a while. Sam the Record Man loves to be in the movies, and this may be Sam's last film role.

Go see the Incredible Hulk!

Fuck Ted Rogers and his Monolith

I had to take my cellphone in to be repaired. The buttons on the face are cracked. I didn't even notice till Nicky told me about the problem with his phone(we both have the Sony Ericsson W580i). When I called Rogers, they knew about the problem. The buttons were supposed to be metal and were made of plastic instead. It was still under warranty, so I brought it into a Rogers Plus store for repairs and to pickup my loner phone. I had to wait for half an hour while the one girl working the service desk helped a dude with his Blackberry(They had 5 people on the sales side, but none of them could help men, natch).

This phone is such a piece of shit. My grrandma has the same one and she can't use hers, not because it is too much tech(she is cool as hell and if she were 10 years younger she would be going to Burning Man too) but she can't use it cause it's a counterintuitive piece of nokia bullshit. I now know the frustration my granny Mo lives with when she tries to make a call. None of the buttons lead where they should, the text messaging sucks. I can't wait to get my phone back, and Android later this year.

I picked up my tickets for Kids in the Hall. The show is tomorrow and I can't wait. I bought the tickets last month with the intention of asking someone, I don't know who. I thought about asking Deidra, but I knew she would say no, just because of the cost(she is a huge Kids fan and would love to see them live). So I guess I didn't really look very hard for someone to go with, and Dee and I were looking at the ad for the show in Now magazine and I realized I hadn't told her about the fact I had bought tickets. So after I picked em up I asked Deidra if she wanted to go, she said yes. Then about an hour later I was really happy that she was gonna come and it was gonna be really funny, so I was trying to text her with my shitty loner phone and she called! She is really psyched to go too and she wanted me to know! Crazy when that stuff happens.

Ian is back from LA but I haven't seen him yet. Breakfast tomorrow is the plan.

Here is a great Radiohead video, something to think about:

Weezer Red Album in stores now!

Weezer's new self-titled red album is out today. It is a serious evolution for the band. I like it. My Ipod will be rocking this for the rest of the summer.

I bought a copy of The Great Gatsby, which I have never read before. Many of my friends are surprised I didn't read it in school. Most of them went to Timmins High where it is required reading, but at O'Gorman it was not. We had to read the Elephant Man, a novelization of the film, because Mr. Claussi was too tired to change his lesson plan from the 80's(what a fucking education). I was in the book room at O'Gorman once, it was full of tons of incredible books and none of them ever got read.

Back in March I went over to Colin's place and he and Matt played some Stormalongs. I recorded a few songs and totally forgot about it, till now. Please enjoy these rare acoustic Stormalong-lite songs:

Colin & Matt, Acoustic Stormalongs 03.09.08