House of Cards

In Radiohead's new video for "House of Cards", no cameras or lights were used. Instead, 3D plotting technologies collected information about the shapes and relative distances of objects.


Radiohead does some kick ass music videos. I'm upset about the ticketmaster bullshit, but it worked out not getting tickets since I will be in California in August anyway. I might even get to see them at the Outlands Music and Arts show in San Francisco on the 23rd.

I'm getting an early hit of Pineapple Express

I was reading the news on Google and saw an article about Just for Laughs and it's film component. Since I am going to Montreal next week I read the story to see if there is anything interesting and almost shit my pants. Pineapple Express is going to have an early screening on Saturday July 19th (it comes out August 8th!!!)! I called the box office right away and got two tickets. Screenwriters Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg will be there for a Q&A along with producer Judd Apatow! This is like a dream! I was already freaking out about seeing Judd and Seth at JfL, but now that I will actually get to see the new movie with a Q&A, Awesome!

Double Feature Styles

There are so many comic book movies out this summer its impossible to spend any time away from the cinema. I went to see Helboy 2:The Golden Army today, and since I hadn't seen Wall-E and it was starting right after, I snuck in to that. I only use the word snuck so that it is clear that I didn't pay to see the second movie, no actual sneaking took place. I simply walked out after the movie, went up the escalator, walked in and took a seat. I just can't afford to pay for all the movies I want to see this summer.

Guillermo Del Toro is a an epic visionary. He sees a picture in his head and puts it on film so a whole theatre of people can watch his vision on a giant screen. I met Guillermo at Tiff06, where he was premiering Pan's Labyrinth. He gave a Q&A after the film and I was lucky enough to be in the isle as he left, I shook his hand and thanked him for his awesome movie, he thanked me for watching it. So I'm a huge fan of his work. He writes, he directs, he even designs the creatures in his films. Hellboy 2 was great, the action was as solid as the effects, and the creatures were wicked-cool and creepy.

Wall-E was tons of fun. Pixar is the best, hands down.

Stormalongs Cure Rock Scurvy

The Stormalongs, Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto On 07.10.08
I have been having a crazy bout of rock scurvy, my fucking teeth have been falling out from lack of rock music. Thankfully the Stormalongs have come to the Horseshoe with limes of rock n' roll.

The band was great, Colin's vocals were way too low. The crowd filled out as the guys rocked out. Everyone came to this show, Deidra made it out for her first show ever, as did my mom! Josh Mckay was also there as was Steve Horsecock Weir. A great show and good times.

Summer of Sunny J

I'm sick. I'm so sick I'm making Wookie noises like I lost Han. I got the cough due to cold. I took some cough syrup and now I will take the time to write about the last two weeks.

Timmins was fun. It was crazy staying at Mikes parents place across the street from my old place on Chenier Ave. I found myself staring at it, sometimes just sneaking a peek through mikes front window, the view now partially blocked by the gargantuan trees in mikes front yard. The house I grew up in is totally different now, the lawn has been paved to accommodate more trucks, and I don't know anything about the familly inside. Mikes house hasn't changed at all.

Mike and I walked around the Timmins Square just like we had back in the day, but it was so different from before. Not just the stores (Tim hortons, in the mall) but the feeling I had as a slacker teen shuffling through the halls of commerce. Feelings of panic, fear and isolation, that there was no out, those feelings gone. Replaced by the happy truth, that the slacker adult shuffling through this mall where Shania Twain once performed a free concert I was too cool to atend, is not stuck here and free to leave at any time.

I am reminded of somthing I said to Eric Pilon when he said his cousin Shania would become famous:
"Nobody from Timmins will ever become famous"-Julien (before Shania blew up)

We went out to Mickey J's(previously Fionn McCools, and then previously a St-Hubert) for Karaoke Night. Not to sing any songs but to have some cheap beers andsee if there was anyone we knew. When we got there they were at capacity, we waited for two people to leave, then Mike and his brother Gabriel went in and I waited with Vannessa outside.

I am lucky enough to have six Grandparents(My moms parents remarried). My Memmere and Peppere Chabot, and Peppere Gerry and Frances all live in Timmins so I should have visited them a bunch while I was there, but I didn't. I went to see my Dad's parents but Marcel was away with Uncle Dan in Sudbury. He had to get his heart checked out. So I hung out with my Memere but really missed seeing Pepere Marcel, and I should have gone back later in the week, but didnt.

I dropped in on Pepere Gerry. He offered me a beer, then noticing he was out, he offered not to make fun of me if i drank the pinia colada. I did and true to his word he didn't make fun. We had some leftover vodka and then since it was a special occasion, he broke out the scotch. He brought up a bottle of club soda he said had been in the basement for 10 years. it was most definatly flat, we drank scotch and club water. We talked about what I was up to(Burning Man, Going to Japan). He told me some stories. When Frances came home he went to play the piano for a bit. Frances said he has been playing again since the doctor told him he might be able to sing after his surgery later this month.

I went to Gillies Lake for rib fest, half-cut from the scotch at grandpas. They had oversold the beer tent and were not letting anyone in. I figured I would rock out wildly by the humongous Canada Dry can(no beer tent is complete without a giant inflatable can of something). I ran into Shawna and her husband John Stata but Mr. Cayen was not around. Delling showed up, we went to his house and I saw his new truck, we went to Micky J's, It was dead. Mike was there with Gab and V. Delling disappeared. We took a cab home and ordered Chez Nous on the way. It never showed, damn you Loverboy!

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

Montoya Family Vacation

10 years ago, I went to Niagara Falls with Mike Showler for May Run. While we were visiting his cousins, we made a short film to entertain our Grade 10 English class, here is that film.



The Stormalongs new recordings have finally been mixed. All the songs sound really good. I want to post Death Swan, an epic almost 16 minute rocker, but Colin says it needs way more guitars to be as terifying as it should be and I totally agree. But I have been talking about these guys so much I just have to share this song with you.


Missiles Through the Floor.mp3

Please download this song, and let me know what you think.

Happy Birthday Wesley, We Miss You

Wesley Willis was a rock and roll superstar, an incredible artist, and a chronic schizophrenic.


Today would have been your birthday, we miss you Wes. Rest in peace, no more demons, no more hellrides, just a sweet everlasting harmony joyride!

Rock over London, Rock on, Chicago!
Beef, it's whats for dinner.

Zack & Miri Make a Porno Teaser NSFW

Here is the teaser for the new Kevin Smith film Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

The Burning Man

First thing, Burning Man is not a music festival. It is an experiment in a temporary society 100 miles from Reno in the Nevada desert.

Please go here, read, look at the pictures, read about the theme camps.

And yes, I am going. It was my friend Matt Stone's idea, he and Bill and Kubi and Jas went last year, and he got me all hyped for this amazing experience.

It will be completely insane, our camp is described here.

I don't have a job, and I can't really afford the flight to San Fransisco(Arg! Sunny J loves SF). I checked Air Canada(my airline of choice) and the flight was 229$ each way, but with taxes and surcharges it was 700$. Then I remembered to check my Areoplan points, see how much it would take to get me there. Turns out, not only can I fly, but I could fly executive class! It took 40,000 points, but I had enough, and when I checked how much it would cost, holy fuck, 1,889$,EACH WAY, PLUS TAXES AND FEES! So I booked it! I'm flying YYZ to SFO on July 30th (Burning Man is the last week of August). I'm going early cause I need some time to chill in the City, and get my shit ready for the Burn (need a crazy bike, fo sho). I will get back on September 4th, just in time to attend the 33rd annual Toronto International Film Festival.

I really can't wait. Mom is going to help me with my costumes (she can sew anything). The theme this year is the American Dream (as a Canadian, I'm really intrigued).

I'm sure I will write a lot more in the next 3 months leading up to the Burn. But if you have a question, leave it in the comments.

Indiana Jones and The Saucer Men From Mars

I saw Indy on Thursday with Ian.

George Lucas won't be happy until he has made everything suck. His jowls have grown fat off of Star Wars and Indiana Jones films. If he wasn't wasting his time trying to figure out a story arc for Jar Jar Binks in those shitty fucking prequels he could have worked on this, instead this movie is just 10 years too late. Where the fuck are the Nazis!?! I go to see Indiana Jones because I want to see some stupid Nazi get bull-whipped in the face, not Cate Blanchett's Soviet Bitch look for moose and squirrel. There are a bunch of stupid CG monkeys, if I wanted monkey I'd have ordered the chilled monkey brains. It's still worth going to see, but so much is coming soon, who has time for so-so.

My brother Marc was in town and we went to see the Blue Jays trounce the Royals 7-2! Then later we saw Speed Racer, which was fun and the only thing missing was a ton of magic mushrooms (this movie was trippy as hell).
I'm glad to see the price of oil has not affected the cost of Shortty-Longbacks.

Weezer Video Rocks Youtube!

Weezer has a video for their new single Pork and Beans, and in true Weezer fashion, it's hilarious!

weezer's red album is out on June 3rd.

Bring me the bearded jowels of George Lucas!

Fuck George Lucas! He can't not fuck things up.
"I haven’t even told Steven or Harrison this," he said. "But I have an idea to make Shia [LeBeouf] the lead character next time and have Harrison [Ford] come back like Sean Connery did in the last movie. I can see it working out.
Someone should shove a lightsabre up his ass and then turn it on.

Then do the same to John McCain.