TIFF Submissions

After 2 days of agonizing over what TIFF films to see with my 10 tickets, I finally have a plan! Here are my first and second choices:

Fri Sept 5
1st: The Burning Plain 2nd: Me and Orson Welles

Sun Sept 7
1st: The Secret Life of Bees 2nd: A Film With Me In It

Tues Sept 9 (Group Pick)
1st: Synecdoche, New York 2nd: The Brothers Bloom

Thurs Sept 11
1st: Les plages d'Agnès 2nd: 24 City

Fri Sept 12
1st: New York, I Love You 2nd: $9.99

Sat Sept 13
1st: RocknRolla 2nd: Genova

THANK YOU IVANA for kindly dropping off EVERYONE's completed picks this afternoon at the box office. You and Matteo ROCK!

We are in Box 23 out of 78. Wishing everybody good box karma! Update on Monday once TIFF sends us our final selections via e-mail.

My Favourite Time of Year!

Just got back from Toronto Life Square on the NE corner of Yonge & Dundas. Picked up my TIFF 2008 Festival Programme Book and complimentary bag. It's better than a race kit - I even got a mini Stella Artois glass chalice. (They know me so well! ;)

Will have to sit down and read the book and film schedule and fit in my runs and other commitments. We MUST plan a 10th anniversary dinner and a movie with Les Boys!

Visit my TIFF archive for links to past festival blogs and check back here to see my evolving TIFF film schedule (final picks confirmed on Labour Day Monday!)

Tropic Thunder

Tropic Thunder was fun. Ben Stiller was funny without being annoying (and his arms were pretty cut ;-) Robert Downey Jr. was totally hilarious - can't get enough of him this summer. Jack Black, Nick Nolte were en forme and Canadian Jay Baruchel (of Knocked Up) was a great straight man (smart guy foil?) Matthew McConaughey and Tom Cruise were great in their cameos. Perfect sendup of Hollywood, right down to Oscar night. Actor-turned-Screenwriter Justin Theroux wrote a hilarious script - great job! Tropic Thunder is worth seeing on the big screen because you're not quite sure exactly when it begins (and the fake trailers keep you guessing). Delighted to hear Jon Favreau is already working on Iron Man 2 with my fave Robert Downey Jr reprising his role and Justin writing the script.

Cagey TIFF VISA programmers

Seems TIFF has decided to recycle its best Roy Thomson Hall GALAS at the VISA Screening Room at the Elgin the next day (Burn After Reading, Rachel Getting Married). TIFF is also showing Che Part 1 and Che Part 2 on separate days. Hmmm, why not take a 4+ hour movie (258 minutes at Cannes) and screen it over 2 nights and we'll have 1 less movie to program. BRILLIANT! They have also put Darren Aronovsky (The Fountain, ugh!) and Ghost Town (c'mon) in this year's VISA lineup. Ghost Town? With Ricky Gervais? Saw the trailer yesterday when we saw Tropic Thunder and only Ricky Gervais thinks he is as great as he thinks he is. WHERE IS W. by Oliver Stone? Why don't this year's VISA subscribers get the privilege (pain) of seeing another high-budget Canadian co-production like Beowulf & Grendel which Ivana and I suffered through in 2005? It was so captivating we walked out after 25 minutes! Grrrrr TIFF programmers Grrrr. You'd better have some decent movies in the general schedule for me to use my 10 tickets for, or else I'll only be able to sign up for Tiburzi 2 and The Hips of JW Deux. We'll see tomorrow (Tuesday) when the complete film schedule is published. Stay tuned fair readers!

No VISA this year
Unless we pay forty bucks
Spend it at Winners?

TIFF 2008 is coming Mr. Anderson!

Just saw Jason Anderson's Festival fever article in this week's eye weekly. I just met Jason this weekend and after reading his TIFF sneak peeks I am looking forward to more TIFF recommendations. Ivana and I got our tickets straightened out at the Box Office and will have to submit our choices next week. TIFF has announced the full lineup of films and of course the best ones seem to be Premium tickets (i.e. Roy Thomson Hall GALAS or VISA Screening Room seletions at $40 bucks a pop) This year we can't use our tickets for VISA (a shocking first) but maybe we'll splurge if decide we can't live without seeing a top film or the sexy stars in tow. Like maybe Burn After Reading on Friday night after an awesome $$$$$ dinner at Reds or Canoe? It's our 10th Anniversary of TIFF with Les Boys so we will need to splurge at least once. Even the Closing Night Gala looks good this year and the cast is stellar (lately there have been some real dogs on closing night.) Mr. Anderson?

A Midsummer Night's Run 2008

On Saturday night we ran A Midsummer Night's Run 15K and got a gorgeous Finisher's medal and technical shirt which I plan to wear to work this week. Thank God for my running partner Mary who stayed with me the entire distance! MARY YOU ARE THE BEST! We ran and chatted together for over 2 hours - our official chip time was 2:09:41 - and we finished in the dark (Gary was a STAR for waiting!) Richard finished with a great 1:32:49 chip time and we saw JM friends Karen and Lauren along the 15K route and Elizabeth who ran 30K - WAY TO GO EVERYONE! All of us in the race had to wear flashing reflective lights or we were not allowed to run. There were some great views of the city at dusk from the Leslie Street Spit at Tommy Thomson Park including the skyline and a gorgeous full moon. 15K is the farthest I have run this year! My Running Room coach even spotted me near the finish and took a photo (thanks Kathryn!) The race was fun and good practice for the Nike+ Human Race 10K in 2 weeks on Aug 31 and the Scotiabank Half Marathon on Sept 28.

Fastest Man | Not-so-Fastest Woman

Jamaica's Usain Bolt just ran 100m in 9.69 seconds making him the fastest man on the planet. Pretty amazing to watch. Tonight I am running 15K with my friend Mary and we will take over 2 hours, finishing after dark. We will have blinkers on but there are no lights on part of the trail. It's called A Midsummer Night's Run and it is an event co-organized by Tracey who was JeansMarines' coordinator last year and now has a new venture with her partner Steve: Red Thread Retreat a B&B and retreat centre east of Toronto near Brighton. Richard is running the race too (he'll finish way before me). Luckily the route is close to home - we can walk home!

Yesterday there was marble-sized hail in the middle of the afternoon. Today it's calling for clear skies, temps of 22C (26C with humidex) so not toooooo bad for running. Hopefully it will cool off a bit in the evening too.

What's your Visual DNA?

Go to this site and you can check your Visual DNA by responding to a series of photos. http://DNA.imagini.net/friends

My Visual DNA Summary is:
Mood: Easy Rider
Fun: Escape Artist
Habits: Back to Basics
Social: Thoughtful

here is a link to my details - what are yours?

Salut Beijing!

For the next 17 days I will be glued to my HDTV watching the Beijing Olympics because I LOVE all the inspirational sports performances and personal stories.

Just saw the Beijing 2008 Preview tonight on CBC - I will be up to watch the Opening Ceremonies LIVE starting at 7am on CBC - they should be INCREDIBLE. I am such a sucker for those massive spectacles and the bird's nest stadium looks GORGEOUS!

Lance Armstrong is my new best friend

...only he doesn't know it yet because we haven't met. But I hear his voice motivating me after my runs and boy does it feel great!

Now that I have been using my Nike plus (Nike+) system with my iPod I have been synching my runs and watching my progress online. It is motivating to see a chart of your run. I have also set challenges for myself (doing 12 runs in 4 weeks and logging miles to help North America win the Battle of the Continents and boost the mileage for the Women vs. Men). Just like those video game players who play with a headset at home against people around the world, you can "compete" with other runners virtually through the nikeplus.com website

The best part is whenever you finish a run, if you have improved Lance Armstrong comes on afterward and congratulates you. Yes, Lance Armstrong. Yes, wirelessly. It is the coolest thing. Even after my crappy run last Saturday, I ended my workout and suddenly heard: "This is Lance Armstrong. Congratulations! This is your longest workout yet!" And then today, I ran 4K after work with the Running Room and heard: "This is Lance Armstrong. Congratulations! You just achieved a new PR for the 1 mile distance." [Note: PR is Personal Record, the new term for Personal Best] I told my fellow runners: "Lance Armstrong just talked to me again. He told me I did a new PR for the mile." Apparently Paula Radcliffe comes on also. Can't wait! Yay me! Yay Lance Armstrong!

Movies, Movies, Movies - July

July was a banner month for movies, at home and away - check the [late] reviews:

Hancock: Loved it! Will Smith is perfect. Jason Bateman helps him make over his bad public image and Will plays along, learning to compliment people and improve his listening skills. The anti-hero superhero flick. Charlize delivers a surprising performance. Definitely worth seeing in theatres.

Wanted: Angelina is amazing in this and so is James McAvoy. Morgan Freeman turns up in this too (is he the hardest working man in show business today?) Unbelievable stunts and effects but a very, very violent film. Saw it with my brothers and Richard and then went out for dinner with a disappointingly long long wait.

The Dark Knight: Unlike Hancock who rules his movie, Batman is a supporting player in his own sequel. This film belongs to the Joker and Heath Ledger is incredible. Definitely an Oscar-worthy performance (and now he's nominated for a Golden Globe). He made me think of Jack Nicholson in The Shining (not in Tim Burton's Batman). This film is long and beautifully executed but ultimately I felt it had no soul. Replacing Katie Holmes with Maggie Gyllenhaal was barely worth the effort. Aaron Eckhart was good (how many aa's between them?) and Gary Oldman and Micahel Caine were solidly reliable in their reprise performances. Maybe the producers had the film recut after Heath's death to salvage every one of his brilliant on-screen moments? Or maybe Batman just isn't tough enough to overcome the maniacal Joker? It was great to hear a similar take on the film by the British reviewer on BBC's The Culture Show.

En route to Dublin they actually showed us Drillbit Taylor with Owen Wilson helping out a bunch of kids. Whaaa?? I didn't even bother plugging in my earphones for that one. They also showed Definitely, Maybe with Ryan Reynolds as the father of Abigail Breslin who tells her the story of how he met her mother, one of 3 possible women. (Kind of like Mamma Mia where there are 3 possible dads.) Rachel Weisz and are great and even Kevin Kline shows up as her older lover and former prof. Glad I got to see this perfect inflight movie free (instead of paying $6.99 on Pay Per Vu)

While in Ireland we saw really cheesy movies on RTE Two including Blast from the Past with Brendan Fraser and Alicia Silverstone. [Nothing could compare with the thrill of seeing Crime Spree (shot at the now closed Hargrave Pub) when we were in St. Martin in 2004.]

After finally enjoying some free wifi at Shannon Airport, we saw 3 movies on the way home:
1. The Other Boleyn Girl with Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson and Eric Bana. REALLY enjoyed it (despite having to dodge the head of the kid who kept jumping up in front of me). I'm sure the book was engrossing but now I don't have to read it. Amazing how true stories can be the most shocking, even though IMdb says there are a few historical inaccuracies in the film.
2. Fool's Gold with Kate Hudson and Matthew McConnehey was TOTALLY lame. Plus, because it included a plane crash they edited out the last key scene and jumped to a ridiculously pat ending.
3. Over Her Dead Body starred Eva Longoria as a ghost bride who tries to sabotage her ex-fiance's new girlfriend - a beautiful psyhic. The captain kept interrupting the dialogue and it didn't matter because it was pretty lame and predictible.

Nike+ Human Race

I joined a 10K Clinic at the Running Room at their Commerce Court location (next to Jump) to help me prepare to run the Nike+ Human Race 10K on Sunday August 31st on the Labour Day weekend. Last summer I bought the Nike+ sport kit for my iPod but only successfully calibrated it a year later last Thursday night (July 31) at my clinic when I managed to run 4K. Not bad with a cold after vacation. My online training record shows only 3.26K but I ran 4K because the first .6K was spent calibrating my iPod. And my average pace for 2 runs looks pathetic (22 minutes) because my iPod wasn't calibrated the first time so it looks like I took 45 minutes to run 1.8K (NOT!)

Still, the Human Race is a cool concept. Nike has organized official runs in 25 cities around the world. Even though Toronto is not one of the official sites I can still participate because I have an iPod with the Nike+ system which tracks my mileage and syncs with my Nike plus account online. Wherever you are on Aug 31 you can run 10K and sync up your iPod so it adds your results to those of the rest of the world. Registration is free and I picked one of 3 charities to dedicate my kilometres to (the UN Refugee Agency like the Jolie-Pitts which will help nine million youth to learn and play. The Running Room will be running out of the Nike Lounge in Toronto (North of Summerhill station on Yonge St.) so it should be a good day. Even better if I win the trip for 4 to run the first 10K in Melbourne then back across the dateline to run 10K in LA all on the same day! Holy destination runs batman!!

Anyway, joining these challenges (Men vs. Women, North America vs. Europe) and seeing my results online (and sharing them with you and THE WORLD) will basically shame me into sticking to a program this month. See you on the road (or online)...