Hilarious blog

A friend tipped me off about the blog stuff white people like. HILARIOUS! Especially the reams of online comments. I definitely agree with today's post (Multilingual Children) and enjoyed reading Michel Gondry, the comments about Barack and people threatening to move to Canada. If only haikugirl could achieve over 5 million hits (sigh!)

NFB screening - thank you friends!

Thanks to EVERYONE who came to the screening of IDC videos at the National Film Board on Monday February 25th. Most of the audience were Marathon Women fans including 3 of the film's STARS (Mary, Hardish & Karen) and my co-director/producer Tamara. Thanks also to the lovely representatives of JeansMarines Men's Auxiliary (Gary, Dennis and Ray), my wonderful Rich, Jan from Vancouver, Marci & Greg, and Lesley and Angie who all came to show their support. I really appreciate it dear friends!

Interesting to see all 9 shorts from the Toronto area, including 3 of the 2007 finalists and 6 others never before screened.

State of Mind by Team Plasticine

Sumo Robot by Team Balidog

Forty Years, Hockey Nights by Team Trawna

The Bells of Old York by Team Moveable Feast

Marathon Women by Team haikugirl

Milk Matters by Team Pura Vida

Selling Faith by Team Toronto

Chantal Mukandoli: A Testimony by Ellipsis Productions

Outside The Box by Team 72Hundred

Really enjoyed "Forty Years, Hockey Nights" about diehard Leafs fans keeping the FAITH that their team will take home the Stanley Cup. "The Bells of St. James" reminded me that across the street at St. Lawrence Hall we had our wedding reception 6 years ago. Also reconnected with a friend who is now a Hot Docs Programmer. And of course we had to have a beer after. Shot of the gang at the Friar coming soon...

OSCARS - Two Degrees of Separation

There are two degrees of separation between me and a 2008 Oscar Winner. Cynthia Wade won for her documentary short Freeheld about a dying female police lieutenant who is fighting to leave her pension benefits to her domestic partner. Cynthia was a cinematography prof for my friends Ted and Dana at The New School University. What a thrill for Cynthia - congrats! And hers was the category announced by soldiers in Iraq and presented by Tom Hanks which is very special (not like Diablo Cody who picked up her Oscar from lame-o Harrison Ford!)

I'm really excited that Falling Slowly won Best Song for Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. We saw them live at the Danforth Music Hall in November and it was a magical performance. I also thought Jon Stewart was sweet when he let Marketa come back to deliver her acceptance speech after the music cut her off. You go girl! (Marci's web research after the concert said she's 19, he's 37 and they're together.)

Overall I liked the Oscars - heard from several people they thought the show was boring. I thought the red carpet was boring this year but the show was okay. Some of those presenters are sure looking old tho' -

Oscar Watch & Marathons

After dinner Saturday night with the M-Club at Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar, woke up to start watching all-day "Road to the Oscars" coverage, beginning with a great edition of Sunday Morning on CBS including a humorous comparison of the Oscar race to the 2008 Election. Most of my Oscar picks mirror the popular choices but I also like comparing "who will win" to "who should win". I agree with most of the Independent Spirit Award winners - and can't wait to see the fashions on the red carpet later today. In just a few hours, I'll be comfortably in my basement in my cone of silence watching the red carpet fashion parade on the new big screen. Hope you are able to catch all the festivities.

Then the excitement continues tomorrow night with the screening of Marathon Women at the NFB. Enjoy and send me your Oscar picks and pans!

Congratulations to the anonymous haikugirl reader who just completed a mountain marathon (see Comments). Don't worry - I'm told irritability is a common side effect of dehydration - my own Marathon Recovery was pretty manageable. Enjoy this encore link to the Flora London Marathon "day after the marathon" video and keep running!

Family Day was a real Family Day

Our first Family Day in Ontario was marked by the arrival of my brother Sam in Toronto. Sam (aka Semeon) has accepted a position with Phybridge in Oakville. He is excited about his new position as Vice President of Technology and jumped right into working this week after flying in from Calgary late Sunday. He has a long commute from our place (1 hour and 20 minutes) on the subway and GO train, so the hunt for suitable 905 lodging will begin soon. Best of luck Sam and Welcome to Ontario!

The Number 23 and All Bets are ON!

Number 23
kinda spooky, kinda weird,
kinda lame ending

Saw this on Pay-Per-Vu and it was alright - a decent rental. Virginia Madsen looks pretty hot for most of the film and Jim Carrey does a pretty good job. I won't spoil the ending but it was pretty wimpy.

Out to Morton's on Friday night (to quote my lovely husband "Feb 15 is the new Feb 14"). A mighty dinner and bill but then he lost a bet (everyone knows it wasn't Katie Holmes with Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible III, it was Michelle Monahan, soon to be in Made of Honor with Patrick Dempsey). We made another bet on Saturday night while watching our Las Vegas Marathon on the PVR. Rich said: it's that guy from Survivor 2nd season and I said Whaa?? Anyway, Rich was right (this time) - it WAS Colby Donaldson playing a dog lover with a giant great dane (this is on Mystery channel folks so it is an old 2005 Las Vegas episode). I would never have remembered the guy's name (my Mom would - she's a die hard Survivor fan) so I had to IMdB him (like Larry Birkhead, whom Sarah just spotted at The Cove Atlantis) but I AM impressed that Rich plucked the reference out of nowhere. So he's getting dinner at the Keg (York St) this month. Congratulations Rich!

Yay reds and friends! Boo ExpressVu :-(

I love reds bistro. I love those mini sirloin burgers. The snack platter and cod and flank steak with onion rings were also awesome! Tonight I met my friend Keith at reds and we shared apps and caught up and it was sooooo relaxing and fun. Then I met Rich at home and we watched what we had recorded on our NEW PVR - very exciting to be able to pause, get a snack and go back to the tv.

Too bad I almost lost my mind on Sunday dealing with the bozo installer from Bell ExpressVu. At 8am two men rang my doorbell and then walked around to the back to check the satellite on the roof. They seemed nice and professional but they needed a longer ladder so they called for someone else. At 1:00 the guy with the longer ladder shows up. At first he was just quiet but then he proved to be a real jerk. I'll call him Igor because he might as well have been in Eastern Promises which I finally saw the night before. Viggo was great in the movie. Igor was a complete ***hole in my life. He wouldn't confirm the work he was going to do, he interrupted and wouldn't listen. He even was swearing while trying to install his own cable. After getting it to go on the roof, he was going to run it all along the outside of our house when I had said I wanted it through the inside. He said: "I don't fish. Get constructor. I'm satellite installer, not constructor." "You mean contractor?" I asked. "Constructor, contractor, all the same, I no fishy." I said my husband would fish it through I just needed it inside. His continual interrupting and limited language skills meant he was stubbornly going to do it his way and wouldn't hear of anything else. He kept drilling holes in my house without asking and when I objected, he said I could cancel the job, someone else could finish. When I agreed to that, he started to take down all the stuff from the roof that he had spent the last hour and a half putting up - "it's my cable, it's my box". I was livid. I was pleading. His tone escalated and so did mine. I told him to stop right now and asked to speak with the supervisor. Only he couldn't get him on the phone and I couldn't get through to Bell. He just kept retreating to his truck and smoking and refused to look me in the eye. I was in tears with the frustration (Richard was unfortunately not around this afternoon). Dori, bless her heart, came to check on me and she called it: the guy wouldn't listen because I was a woman. Finally, the original guys showed up around 3:30 to finish the job. They calmed me down and explained everything and literally saved the day (and the account) and got things working by the time Rich came home. They were so much more helpful and caring and cooperative than "Igor". Thank you Tigram!

Sunday was certainly my worst customer service experience EVER. It's nice to have a PVR but it's hardly worth what I lived through. I logged complaints with Bell and they gave me a small credit but who cares - it cannot repair the post traumatic stress from this horrible, misogynistic man. They should not be inflicting this lowlife on anybody. SuperBowl Sunday is also a top-five contender for the Worst Day Ever award since, in addition to "Igor", I also cut my thumb with a knife (nice gushing blood for my guests) and gashed my knee on the stairs. Thanks to Dori and Ivana for their quick-thinking first aid treatment for my thumb and to Luisa for all her help in the kitchen. Merci les amies!! I'm on the mend. And of course, HUGE thanks to Antonio for all his amazing hard work on the shower downstairs. It looks awesome! I'll be posting an update on that shortly.

my PVR's HOT!
too bad Bell ExpressVu meant
my Sunday was shot

Juno

SEE JUNO!!!! The female contingent of our film club saw it on Fri. Jan. 25 and enjoyed it very much. I LOVED this movie. Ellen Page (from Halifax) is 20 and plays 16 year-old Juno, a pregnant teen who decides to give her baby up for adoption to a happy young couple: Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman. This was the second movie I saw in 2008 that involved a composer (Hugh Grant in Music & Lyrics and Jason Bateman in this). I bought the soundtrack and am inspired to write my own homemade songs, for her it seems as easy as baking cookies. Kimya Dawson of The Moldy Peaches writes most of the tracks on the soundtrack and I love her poetry and simple melodies. It puts a giant smile on my face every time I hear it and it lets me cruise along sidewalks and in elevators with a knowing grin (doesn't that always freak other people out??) My Oscar Prediction: Diablo Cody will win Best Original Screenplay for this gem of a movie but Ellen Page (as talented and deserving as she is) will likely lose to Julie Christie for Away From Her. Juno is a smartmouthed teenage girl and you wonder what makes her say all those funny, crazy things and she and the movie wouldn't be as unforgettable if she didn't say all those amazing things. Fresh, funny and totally satisfying - I want to encourage you to SEE THIS MOVIE (then post your reviews or comments here!)

P.S. Did you know her hamburger phone is the hottest selling item on eBay right now?

Juno is awesome
the soundtrack is wonderful
I hope you love it