Happy 40th Birthday & Happy 4th Anniversary

Today is Richard's 40th birthday. Happy Birthday Rich!

It's also our 4th wedding anniversary. Hooray!

Tonight we're celebrating with dinner at Canoe.

A toast to you all... From us and the Topless Girls of Glitter Gultch.

Check out the latest updates on the sjr81 blog

My friend Joe the filmmaker

Got an email from my friend Joe Kuehne in Washington, DC who is one of my filmfest buddies. He recently entered the 5-day Documentary Challenge and placed in the Top 12 worldwide!! Here is his email:

It was a documentary short competition (9 minutes max) that was open to teams worldwide and had to be completed in five days. We did it at the end of March, and found out two days ago that we were selected as one of the Top 12 from the competition. That means our film will be packaged with the other 11 finalists as a feature-length series that will be sent to film festivals around the world.

They already have commitments from events in DC and New Zealand, and there's even one in Canada (I think it's in Toronto). That last one is sponsored by the National Film Board of Canada and the Documentary Organization of Canada. There's also a TV distribution deal in the works, and we're still eligible for all the major
awards for the competition, which will be given out in July here in DC. I'll keep you posted on dates and other info.

CONGRATULATIONS JOE!

Met in line at TIFF
Now documentary STAR
Joe we're proud of you!

Joe also spent the past weekend doing the 48-hour film project, also in DC, which started Friday at 7:00pm (read: NO SLEEP this weekend.) He is directing, his cohorts are writing and another TIFF buddy Shawn is the DP.

GO TEAM JOE! We can't wait to see the final product - pls bring tapes to TIFF in September.

Breast Friends Forever

I'm posting this message from my friend Joelle Segal on the anniversary of this event:

One year ago today, my sisters, friends, and I held Breast Friends Forever for the first time ever, an evening designed to tribute the strength and courage of all women & men who have battled breast cancer. The whole concept was inspired by my mother, Dody Segal, who lost her own battle with breast cancer in 2004. The night was both magical and extremely successful!!

With about 100 cancer survivors attending and about 400 supportive guests, we raised over $30,000 for Gilda’s Club Barrie Ontario! To celebrate the first anniversary of Breast Friends Forever, we’ve re-vamped the website, adding pictures, slideshows, and videos from the best moments of Breast Friends Forever 2005. If you were unable to attend the event, or if you did attend and you would like to re-live the magic, TAKE A LOOK!

-> Click on http://www.breastfriendsforever.ca/
-> Go to the Video and Pics page
-> Now have some fun!

My personal favourites are the BFF Video Clip (a brief synopsis of the evening, rolled into a very entertaining 1.5 minutes) and the Atmosphere/Action at the Silent Auction. You will also find Laugh Therapy, Silks performances, the amazing singer Liz Rodriquez, who made everyone cry, and more! You might even see yourself on the videos!

Due to popular demand, we are in the works of trying to bring Breast Friends Forever back next May 2007. If you have any suggestions, or if you would like to be involved, please email me at joelle_segal@yahoo.ca

Thanks again for all your 'support'!

Joelle Segal
34A

Akeelah and the Bee

See this charming movie! Akeelah and the Bee is a fictional story (unlike the documentary Spellbound) which follows an 11 year-old girl through a series of spelling bees. Starbucks Entertainment is a co-producer so they are advertising on all their coffee sleeves.

I love how Akeelah taps or skips as she spells and it's lovely to watch the relationship develop between her and her coach (Laurence Fishburne). I especially liked the idea of "50,000 coaches" - how everyone we know plays a role in our success.

Great message - nice movie - take your kids (but note the 2-hour running time) MMMm

Viva Las Vegas II

Flew to Vegas April 20 on WestJet for a quick 4-day, 3-night package. For the second year in a row, it was the perfect getaway. Stayed at the Hilton once again, right on the Las Vegas Monorail (my favourite mode of transport). Richard and I walked the strip and saw all the hotels, went shopping one morning, had an amazing dinner at Joe's Seafood & Steakhouse (delicious) in the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace (beautiful) and saw Cirque du Soleil "Mystere" at Treasure Island (ti).

We got to meet up both with my Uncle Wes and Aunt Marcella AND with my parents whose trips coincided with ours. Here we all are at the Freemont Experience - the lightshow in old Vegas.

Addicted to Sopranos Season 6

Okay, I never gave this show the time of day for the first 5 seasons but now I am hooked on The Sopranos Season 6. They had a catch up weekend and showed the first 4 episodes back-to-back on Saturday and then the 5th episode on Sunday night. It is so well done. Forget the violence, it is a total psychodrama. I must see all the episodes this year.

I've seen 3 episodes of Huff season 2 and it's okay ("a-ight"). It seems to be missing some soul. But Tony Soprano has got soul and self-discovery in spades.

Or maybe I'm just watching too much TV.

I admit I'm hooked
Sopranos on TMN
Tony - what a guy

See you in September!

I received the letter from the SJR Alumni Office this week. We finally got it out! Don't recognize some of the names of the missing - are they sure they're part of our class? Still, looking forward to seeing people in Winnipeg this summer.

Another STAR SIGHTING: Saw Dustin Hoffman outside the Indigo at Bloor and Bay last Thursday. He was smiling so I knew it was him (didn't talk to him, though - did wonder if he thought Indigo was better than Borders in the US.)

Maybe I'll hit a movie this weekend. The premiere of Huff on Monday night was aight but depressing.

Still need addresses!

Hey Class of '81!

Please email your current mailing address to Kari Parke at SJR parkek@sjr.mb.ca to receive a letter with more reunion details.

Check the Reunion evite for updates or post your comments at the sjr81 blog.

A History of Violence

Cronenberg in Cannes
Snapping shots for Premiere mag
movie was intense

Saw A History of Violence on DVD last night. Pretty intense. A clutch grabbed my heart when it started and didn't let go until the closing credits 95 minutes later. This is a violent film but it is compelling and has great performances. MMMM out of 5.

The DVD Special Features really gave insight into Cronenberg's style and approach as a director and it was fun to watch him work. His experience shines as we see him effortlessly create a relaxed set and manage to direct without being controlling. The short piece about their premiere at Cannes was enjoyable. And in one deleted scene, Ed Harris gets blown away by a shotgun and is lying there with a massive hole in his chest. Cronenberg comments: "Well, normally I would have had him take a gun out of his chest but I already did that. It would be like an hommage to myself. Which I am not above, by the way." That cracked me up. And William Hurt sounding exactly like Maria Bello's Uncle Pete from Philly was funny too.

Anyway, watch it and let me know what you think.

Reflections on Oscar

Oscar Night '06
Gangstas, Cowboys and Bacall
No surprise with Crash

That about sums up my reflections on Oscar Night 2006, Sunday, March 5th. I was worried for Lauren Bacall and wondered if she would make it through her introduction. She should have had a buddy like Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep who co-presented for Robert Altman.

Of course the surprise of the night was Best Original Song "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp". Jon Stewart did a great job improvising on that one. Overall, I was pleased with him as host for the evening. I was nauseated the next morning by Seamus O'Regan's dismissal of Reese Witherspoon's acceptance speech as "too earnest". I used to like him on Canada AM but now he annoys me. Alison S is right - he is a poor interviewer, especially at 7am.

I wasn't completely surprised about Crash. It was a great way to acknowledge a massive cast and position a movie internationally 2 days before it's DVD release. I even enjoyed seeing it again on The Movie Network recently - I had forgotten some of the nuances and was reminded of the fall and redemption (or redemption and fall) of each of the characters. I think it's interesting that it takes a Canadian to shine the light on U.S. domestic problems so effectively. Too bad no one will do that for us.

Jon Stewart was fun
Hooray for Oscar Winners
George and Reese and Paul

Check the AMPAS official site Oscars.org for a complete list of winners and the official site of this year's telecast Oscar.com for the latest fashions and trends.

The Zen of Starbucks cups

Found a great quote on my Starbucks cup today (The Way I See It #53):

Be exceptional. Make tremendous efforts to be extraordinary. What a privilege to be here on the planet to contribute your unique donation to humankind. Just make sure you do so...
-Shelby Lynne, musician

Shelby says she's just "a running fireball full of shit and emotion" who believes each song she writes "needs to be individually great - better than great. There's no room for mediocre in my thinkin'. My standards are pretty high."

I don't believe in mediocrity either. Make it an extraordinary day.

Visit the sjr81 blog

I created a companion blog to this site. Visit http://sjr81.blogspot.com to see the latest reunion discussion.

Be sure to forward the e-vite link to anyone we've missed and check back for the latest RSVPs!

Reunion e-vite

Now it's official. This week SJR finalized the date for the 2006 Homecoming and this morning Hardev called to discuss the Class of '81 Reunion plans.

Now the e-vite is live so please save the date in your (electronic) calendars and be sure to join us in Winnipeg on September 1, 2, and 3, 2006! Wouldn't it be nice to exceed the 80% turnout rate that the Class of '80 achieved last August? I personally want to see all those people I haven't thought about in 25 years...

Where are you Class of '81?
And what are you doing September 2nd?

Enron and Flight Plan

Picked up these 2 movies from Blockbuster to watch Saturday night. The guy around the corner from us went out of business so we have to go further afield to rent movies now.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is an interesting exposé of the Enron scandal. Lots of interviews with the author of the book of the same name and several others who were at the company at the time (surprisingly several women). It's stunning to see the Enron execs incriminate themselves as they reassure not only investors but employees to keep their stock while unloading their own. A fascinating portrait of hubris and treachery done with more flair than Michael Moore. MMMM

Flightplan - not so cerebral. The movie trivia is more interesting. Jodie Foster is okay. Peter Sarsgaard is good at being bad. Bad guy Sean Bean takes a turn at being the good guy pilot. MMm

Caché

Saw Caché (Hidden) at the Cumberland Friday night with Mary and Pavlina. This French film was at TIFF 2005 but we couldn't fit it into our schedules or get tickets. Overall, I liked it but parts of it really bugged me. Nevertheless, it does spark a lot of discussion and theorizing.

Caché stars Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche as a married couple who receive a series of videotapes showing their tony French apartment under surveillance. The tapes are accompanied by violent but almost childish drawings. At first they dismiss is as a prank by one of his fans (he plays a famous TV talk show host a la Bernard Pivot) but the tapes persist and it adds to the conflict in their already-strained marital relationship (we never see them kiss or touch - only argue).

Now, if this story took place in a major North American city, most of us would have gone to the police after the first tape. Somehow Auteuil refuses to contact them but lies to everyone telling them of course he's gone to the police. In fact, he goes off solo to confront the person he suspects (someone from his childhood that he wronged). Would any one of us ever show up ALONE at a low-rent apartment to confront a stranger we suspected of terrorizing us? Of course not. This is why this film starts to get infuriating, like my most frustrating movie of all time: A Simple Plan.

As frustrating as this movie can be, it is chilling and thought-provoking as we start to connect the dots and concoct our own theories about who's behind the tapes. And the stark way Michael Haneke shot and directed this adds to the suspense. See it, but you'll have to suspend your disbelief if you are a CSI fan like me. MMMm

Straight Dude's Guide & Brokeback to the Future

First there was The Straight Dude's Guide to Brokeback:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10342237/

Then there was Brokeback to the Future. It's pretty funny to watch this video. I can't believe someone would take the time to go through all 3 versions and splice together these scenes.
Make sure your sound is on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfODSPIYwpQ

Star Sighting at Starbucks

This morning I was getting my traditional Grande Non-Fat Extra-Hot Extra-Foamy Latte at the Yorkville Starbucks (Bay & Cumberland) when I saw Clive Owen walk in behind me. After I ordered I turned to tell him: "I loved you in Closer and thought you should have been Bond." He said "Thank you" and ordered his Grande Skinny Cappucino. He looked his typical rugged self but pretty good for 9:00am and was wearing a white down parka and jeans. Seeing him certainly cheered up my morning.

What's been keeping me up at night

I have been working on an e-learning project with people in the Office of the Provincial Controller (OPC) in the Ministry of Finance (MOF) - former colleagues when Modern Controllership Training was still in that ministry.

It's been a long, hard road. We started last June with a plan and didn't get humming until November and December 2005. Now we are almost finished building the course and it has grown to 100 pages online. The toughest part was getting all the content together in enough time - the main SME or Subject Matter Expert was still giving me pages to add on Thursday. Definitely not cool but my consultant/developers (former colleagues from Sun) have been amazing at turning around the endless changes.

The e-learning course looks amazing and when we launch this coming week (after a pilot with representatives from other ministries) we hope it meets the goal of helping all 25 ministries to complete their procedures at year end.

Olympics in HD

It was quite something to see the Opening Ceremonies live from Torino on Friday night in glorious 16:9 HD. The spectacle was so imaginative and surreal. And hearing Pavarotti sing was very moving - I thought Nessun Dorma was a good choice. The only problem is, it looked like he was lip synching like Ashlee Simpson on SNL because the sound and picture were not synchronized. On Saturday's coverage, it was the same story - and just as distracting. But only on English CBCHD. The French SRC had it synched. I know it takes coordination (Richard says HD poses even more problems than a normal TV feed) but HEY. You got the contract so make it work! I will update this post if I see CBC has resolved the problem. Stay tuned (or post a comment if this is a problem for you!) I remember watching the Opening Ceremonies from Nagano in 1998 (obviously pre HD) and the Japanese hosts organized a worldwide relay with different groups singing Beethoven's Ode to Joy. It was unbelievable how everything was perfectly synched and nobody missed a beat (I remember Peter Mansbridge marvelling at this on air too). And now 8 years later Canada seems to be struggling with the new technology. Guess we'll have to wait and see how this turns out...

ed. note: by Sunday Feb. 12 they had this bug worked out. Even Don Cherry was in sync ;-)

Alison's 40th

Alison and her husband Paul hosted a perfect party - a wine tasting evening in celebration of her 40th birthday (officially January 29th). Her parents, in-laws and several friends came from Montreal. Paul even flew in Alison's sister Lisa and her family (husband Mike, daughter Lucia and baby Henry) from London, England as a surprise! I'm sure it was as big a thrill for Alison to see her extended family as it was for her kids Ethan, Emily and Sophia to hang out with their cousins they don't often get to see. The evening was so SMART:
Spectacular organization
Memorable wines (5 to sample - everyone had a different favourite)
Amazing food (the birthday cake was divine)
Riveting conversation (especially about movies & music with David XXX Ray)
Terrific party!

Alison and Paul
Awesome hosts with super wines
Thanks for a great night!

Looking forward to Alison's birthday dinner later this month with les Filles...