Flickr and a POLL: worst movie you've ever seen?

Craig's Toronto Filmfest schedule this week.


So up to yesterday, the worst movie I've ever seen was One on One ("There comes a time when love stops being a ball and starts being a woman"), starring Robby Benson. Yesterday, however, Real Life took the prize for me. Holy toledo. Craig and I would have walked out, except the film so bad it was entertaining. Read Craig's review here.

POLL: What was the worst movie YOU'VE ever seen?

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I recently started using Flickr, which Cory Doctorow refers to in his blog as "Ludicorp's amazing, witty, easy photo-sharing/community service". Cory's on Ludicorp's advisory board. However, I first heard about this free service from Liam O'Donnell (the children's author I met on Orkut), who also recomended the service.

I like Flickr's respect of user privacy. Quote from Cory's blog:

"Also noteworthy, flickr's best-of-breed terms-of-service and a privacy control-panel (reg required) that lets your friends assert your friendship without exposing your presence on the system to their friends." You can choose to hide your real name, e-mail address, even your photos, from anyone else; on Flickr, you can make photos completely private: viewable only to yourself, or to invited individuals.

Anyway, I've started posting some of my favourite photos on my photo page. Some will be public, some semi-private (viewable only to those on my Friends list).

Flickr is also handy for those wanting to share photos about a particular event or theme. You can do this either by adding certain keywords (Cory added "worldcon", for example), or forming a group. I've started up a Filking photo-sharing group, for sharing of pics and URLS of filk convention photos. Photos and discussions are not viewable by non-members; however, anyone can join. I figure this will help keep the membership open, but also keep the photo-viewing limited only to those interested in filking.




Craig, working on a column.

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Merchant of Venice, Aurora Award nomination

My multitasking friend, Craig, at the Toronto Film
Festival, who saw FIVE MOVIES yesterday.


Saw "Merchant of Venice" yesterday at the Elgin with Craig and Jeff. Craig saw FIVE MOVIES yesterday. I love that crazy guy. Sadly, Al Pacino could not attend, but the pre-show talk cast included Ralph Fiennes and Jeremy Irons. Loved the movie! Today I see "Real Life" with Craig. Be sure to check Craig's Toronto FilmFest News and Reviews.

Thanks to Kristen for identifying the woman in yesterday's Blathering:

"Lovely pictures. The unidentified woman is Sonja Smits, who is a Canadian actress. She was in 'The Eleventh Hour,' 'Traders,' and 'TekWar,' and had a small but good part in Owning Mahowney with Philip Seymour Hoffman.

At my first film of the festival, Clean, the director was there with star Maggie Cheung! I'm still thrilled about being in the same room as her. Yes, I'm a fan girl."

Hey, Urban Tapestry has been nominated for an Aurora Award this year in the category of "Fan Achievement (Other)". An Aurora is an award given out by the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association to acknowledge achievement in Canadian SF and Fantasy. You can see the full list of nominations here (PDF file). Many thanks to those who nominated us!

Last weekend, I asked if anyone knew what kind of spider this was:







My biologist friend, Peter Kotanen, answered the following: "Your spider is a female Garden Spider (Araneus sp.) (like a lot of spiders, they have dwarf males). It's likely Araneus diadematus, introduced from Europe. It's also called a 'Cross Spider'; apparently a reference to its markings, rather than its disposition. It's a large Orb Web Weaver (Family Araneidae).This is one of the families that produces really sophisticated webs. Each night it eats its web and spins a new one. See this page for some images of this genus."

I visited the 2nd Annual Taste of the Toronto Entertainment District on Friday night. Listened to some live flamenco music, sampled the offerings of various restaurants in the area.







My faves so far: Grilled Thai Chicken with Sweet & Spicy Noodle Salad from the Whistling Oyster, Cedar Smoked Salmon Brushed with a Lemon Butter Sauce on Roasted Potato Wedge from Canadian Bar & Grill, crabcakes with Sweet & Spicy Peach Sauce from Alice Fazooli's, East Coast Fishcakes and Green Tomato Chow-Chow from the Duke of Argyle. Each dish ranged from $1-5. Yummm......







Yesterday's Film Festival galas across the street included Five Children and It (Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Izzard, Freddie Highmore, Tara Fitzgerald, Zoe Wanamaker, Alexander Pownall, Jonathan Bailey), Beyond The Sea (Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, John Goodman, Bob Hoskins, Brenda Blethyn, Greta Scacchi), House Of Flying Daggers (Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau, Zhang Ziyi, Song Dandan). Today: Shark Tale (Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Renee Zellweger, Angelina Jolie, Jack Black, Martin Scorsese, Michael Imperioli, Ziggy Marley, Doug E. Doug, Peter Falk, Vincent Pastore, Katie Couric), Kinsey (Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Chris O'Donnell, Peter Sarsgaard, Timothy Hutton, John Lithgow, Tim Curry, Oliver Platt, Dylan Baker), and Ray (ie Foxx, Kerry Washington, Clifton Powell, Harry Lennix, Terrence Dashon Howard, Larenz Tate, Richard Schiff, Aunjanue Ellis, Sharon Warren, Curtis Armstrong, Regina King).

No, I haven't done anymore starwatching. It was fun for one evening, but there are too many other interesting things to do this weekend. :-)

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Toronto starwatching

Mark Wahlberg, outside our building yesterday.


Today's pics are from the Toronto Film Festival and outside the CityTV Schmooze party. I meant to only stay just long enough to catch a glimpse of Dustin Hoffman, but admit I got hooked into the whole star-watching thing, especially since I ended up standing with no one in front of me, right in front of the entrance to the Schmooze party. I don't think I could have gotten out even if I had wanted to; people were packed in around me.




I didn't recognize a ton of celebrities, of course. Like this woman, who signed the autograph book of the person next to me:





Since she was standing so close, I figured I had to take a photo of her. It was only later I found out she's Trish Status, apparently well-known to wrestling fans:




And I did see Dustin Hoffman, yay:







The Schmoozething later that evening was interesting, mainly because what was happening on the giant television screens (and being televised) often had very little to do with reality. They kept showing clips of famous actors getting out of cars and such, for example, but we in the crowd had already seen this clips in the warm-up and KNEW they weren't there. Hm.

I also found it interesting because of the reactions of the actors themselves, and of the crowd. I love people-watching, and this was great for that. I was standing beside an obviously experienced fan, who told her companion, "Remember, you've got to YELL LOUD, or they won't come over."

And she was right! As the actors and other celebrities walked down the red carpet, they watched the crowd, looking for fans who knew who they were. Most were pretty willing to come over and sign autographs, shake hands. If I had a pad of paper with me, I could have gotten a bunch of autographs, darnitall.




Anyway, it was fun, and I also dropped by the Taste of the Entertainment District (more on that in a future Blathering). Here are just a few of the photos I took yesterday...

Atom Egoyan:







The cast of Saint Ralph, one of the films premiering at the Festival. To you Canadians: that's Gordon Pinsent on the right:





Neve Campbell on the left:





And here are two people who look very familiar but I couldn't place their names. Can anyone out there identify them?




Sonja Smits (thanks, Kristen!)

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Craigfame, filmfest, househunting

My friend Craig was in a Toronto Star cartoon yesterday!
Click on image for a close-up of the cartoon.


LOVED the cartoon of Craig in yesterday's paper, drawn by local artist and reporter Christopher Hutsul. If you're interested in what's going on at the Toronto FilmFest, do check out the official site or Craig's Toronto FilmFest News and Reviews.

I'm going to check out The Annual Taste of Toronto Entertainment District tonight, and may also check out the T.O. filmfest action across the street this evening. "I (heart) Huckabees" premieres tonight, and principal cast that may be attending include Dustin Hoffman, Isabelle Huppert, Jude Law, Jason Schwartzman, Lily Tomlin, Mark Wahlberg, and Naomi Watts. After that is "Clean", whose principal cast includes Maggie Cheung (from "Hero"!), Nick Nolte, Beatrice Dalle, Jeanne Balibar, Don McKellar, James Dennis, Martha Henry, James Johnston.

But to a completely different topic: looks like Jeff and I are going to start househunting again despite the recent Toronto housing boom. As much as we love our neighbourhood, we both agree that it's time for a change. We spread a map of Toronto out on our dining room table last night, marking off possible areas.

Chris Conway has suggested we move to Leicester instead. Of course I am checking out all prospects, but unfortunately I was unable to find a good Leicester restaurant directory online so I'm afraid Leicester has dropped in our list of potential move locations. ;-)

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Tasting Toronto

Took this photo at brunch with Parki and Jeff, at a
GREAT restaurant called 3's Company Cafe.
I had the raspberry cream cheese French toast. :-)


My MovableType woes are nearly sorted out, though I'm still tweaking templates and also need to start implementing some of the useful features available in the new version. Finished restoring the bulk of Inkygirl yesterday.

Yesterday I also dropped by the Goethe Institut for language practice material, including a German movie called Das Versprechen ("The Promise"), with English subtitles. Love this library! Also borrowed a video about Vienna in preparation for our trip in a few weeks, when we're renting a small castle near the city with a group of friends. Looks like we won't be going to Berlin after all, by the way; we're postponing that trip for another time.

The Annual Taste of Toronto Entertainment District starts tomorrow, woohoo! Samplings ($1-$5) from restaurants in the area plus live entertainment, all within a few minutes' walk away from our building. I love this sort of thing.

Also, the Toronto Film Festival starts tonight! Being Julia premieres across the street this evening. These galas are usually attended by some of the film cast, especially the main stars. Cast of tonight's movie: Annette Bening, Jeremy Irons, Bruce Greenwood, Shaun Evans, Lucy Punch, Miriam Margolyes, Juliet Stevenson, Tom Sturridge, Maury Chaykin, Sheila McCarthy, Rosemary Harris, Michael Gambon.

No Sean Bean or Kevin Spacey, sadly, so I don't have huge incentive to join the crowd outside for a glimpse, but I might poke my head out the window for a look.

Hey, my friend Craig has been featured in an amusing cartoon for a Toronto Star article that appears today, about the Toronto Filmfest! Check out Section C, A&E. You can see a small version on this page. And be sure to check out Craig's Toronto FilmFest News/Reviews.



Inside 3's Company Cafe.

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