You ever wonder whether it's you or the world that has the problem?

Damn School

So I didn't really feeling like doin it tonight. Sitting here at school in the room built to house the radio station CJ 106 doin my show, i do feel a little better than i do earlier and its certainly goin better this week than last week. My friend bailed on coming along again for the 2nd week in a row, which is lame. I kinda feel like talking to her about something but it would seem kinda stupid and not something i should be bothering to worry or think about it too much.

I think it annoyed me more b/c i was looking forward to hangin out and was in a bad mood already. From school. School is annoying me highly right now. Kinda feel like I'm just wasting my time and money. Of course let me preface that. Even if I hadn't come back to the school this year, there's a very high likelyhood that I'd still be wasting my time and money anyway. Just be wasting it on something else. So it was pretty confirmed today that the program is moving more towards a tv production sort of realm now rather than news like before. It's really important to them now to show us how to create a tv show idea and pitch it correctly. So we have to come up with a cooking or food related show and do all this synopsis, treatment, whatever crap. I'd have rather done a profile video. This project so far has highly irritated me. I'm not gonna be doing tv show creation and pitches for a living, I'm not creative enough; I'm barely creative enough to even be in this course.

I don't remember if there was anything else I was gonna write, so I'll just end it there. Do check out the new nightmare on elm street trailer, looks kinda badass. Also, new Alice in Chains out tomorrow, fuck yeah.

self-help

This isn’t so much a news blog. I don’t discuss current events or debate politics really with people but I thought I would mention a few things. Is now really the best time for the republicans to be coming up with stupid ideas to try and trash Obama with the in the condition it is? They got the birthers making a fuss about how Obama shouldn’t be president because he wasn’t born in America and then you got a guy claiming Obama is racist. Now I’m not saying minorities can’t be racist but it seems like a stretch purely for the sake of publicity and creating a buzz. Do they really think that things would be different if McCain had won? Obama took over the presidency during a shitstorm and they claim he’s been a failure so far since he’s not fixing things fast enough? The one thing about these claims is at least they’re attempting to have some credibility. What the hell was the guy thinking that made a piss out of what condiments Obama puts on his fucking burger?

Now, I’ve been pondering self-help and trying to fix some issues I have for awhile. Perhaps that’s why I’ve been more down and depressed at times the last several months. I’m getting older (24 next month) and I’m not getting anywhere trying to improve myself (of course, I’m not actually doing anything, so that would likely help.) The thing I keep going back to is the idea that going for therapy to a psychiatrist or psychologist would help, which I’m not sure if it actually would or not. I’m sure he’d be able to give me good advice and find out the source of it and whatever but I have a problem with actually incorporating advice and the such. Psychiatrists you need to get a doctor referral first so you need to talk to them and go through a checkover first before possibly getting a creepy old guy. Psychologists you don’t need a referral but it’s not entirely covered under healthcare. Clearly I could use some help but how do you tell if you really need to go to this level though? My attempts the last few years have not been very fruitful. I can get along with most people but after living in Brandon for 2 years, I’ve only got 2 people I’d say I’m friends with.

Just for example. I was at a wedding in St. Ambroise this weekend. My friend Carissa, who lives in Portage, asked if I would be her date for her cousin’s wedding. Seems like a great situation for me eh? Travelling out in the boonies and being surrounded by people I don’t know, talking and socializing for long periods of time. We spent most of the day with her friend Shelby, and while I could’ve done better, I think I did ok just trying to be friendly and inviting, talking about whatever ya know; movies, her boyfriend, job, university. She didn’t hate me at least I don’t think. The reception got a little boring after a few hours. They were kinda drunk and tired and out polka dancing and what not with other people they knew. Wasn’t my crowd ya know, didn’t feel comfortable in there with them. So I watched the band play and sat by myself. Yes, pathetic I know.

So a bunch of people from the wedding and us were staying at this hunting lodge that’s this famous landmark or something and has been visited by lots of actors and wrestlers and famous people. It was kinda cool actually. Anyway, there was an after party there after the reception. I felt very awkward at this thing, like I said not my crowd of people. Kind of weird and slightly red neckish. Then the drama started, her friend was smashed and going on about needing to stay away from one guy there b/c he was so hot she couldn’t control herself (he's all popular, I think i'm cool type, not as hot as she thinks though.) Got a little hectic yes. All in All I think it went ok.

Another part of the self-help thing I’ve been trying to get into is connected with school. Since I’m taking communications for some reason in the fall, I wanted to do some voice practice and training. Now most self-help plans I have I usually never get around to doing (like when I was gonna start writing down at night 3 good things that happened during the day after reading an article in Reader’s Digest. I was thinking about what kind of stuff I could write down and kinda figured it would end up being the same things all the time. Perhaps that defeats the purpose or point of the exercise, maybe not.) I got an old script from the news show so I was gonna get one of those mini voice recorders and practice reading the script. Anyone know any other vocal things? I talked with Diane before about stuff I could do and she also mentioned about working on moving where I talk out of. Like shifting it more down farther in my diaphragm or whatever.

Now this is rather long but it’s not a blog of mine without some movie reviews.

Lucky Number Slevin: Loved it, very good crime thriller. Check it out.

Smokin’ Aces: If you like action movies, you need to see this adrenaline-infused flick. There is tons going on in it and it’s just a great entertaining movie with fantastic performances especially from Ryan Reynolds and Jeremy Piven. Now it’s strange to say about a movie with a bunch of assassins trying to kill a guy but it was actually a lot more violent and bloody than I expected it to be.

Labyrinth: This is one of those movies that you should see just to be able to say you saw it. 12-year-old Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie as the most ambiguous, metro-sexual, 80’s hair metal looking villain you have ever seen in a Disney movie. It’s an excellent retro movie, so I recommend seeing it if you’re into those.

Alice in Wonderland

This is one of the strangest damn movies I've ever seen.

This isn't an in depth review, not that any of mine are, but nevertheless we shall soldier on.

Despite the fact that I didn't have a hot clue what the hell was going on in the movie I highly recommend it. You aren't gonna see an interpretation like this of Alice in Wonderland ever again. It's oddly interesting.

The movie is black and white and from 1966 which isn't hard to see. Just the way the story weaves and plays out makes you think, on more than one occasion, jonathon millar and those involved in making it were likely out of their tree when filming it and thusly you should probly be the same way when watching it.

The acting is well done, in an understated way for the most part except for the performances of Peter Sellers and Peter Cook of course. The use of sound is a high point of the film both music and background noise as well as the dialogue and voice over providing a complete experience.

I don't imagine you would find it in stores and it's a little bit of a search online to find it since there's so many versions of Alice in Wonderland but if you're interested it's worth the time.

sad irony

Ever get the feeling you don't do anything important? Like you have absolutely no impact on anything?

You just sit around, no one listens or thinks of you.

hello? anyone listening???

oh, right... forgot.

Here lies an assortment of man

So I got moved to a different place. Got everything mainly put away and set up. I like being able to walk home from the bar, one of the bars at least. more convenient than cab's. It's an unfortunate end to my TV streak. None of the places I've lived the last few years since moving out of my parents house (and then in again and then out again) have I had to pay for TV, the landlord did it. Not here tho, part of the rent, sat tv on an old as the hills television. Not set up right though. The channels only randomly work, you gotta fight with it a little and use work arounds to get them to work. I suppose it's good it works at all at least and I've got a good assortment of channels. I haven't got internet set up yet, they have wireless and there's an issue with the router upstairs so if i didn't have tv I don't know what I would do.

Still workin at the practicum, got like 3 weeks left. It's an odd life, I, literally, watch TV all day. Did get to go on some news shoots at least. Went around to an accident site, looked like a fairly nasty bash. As well as covering a sad guilt trip story at the samaritan house about the amount of food they brought in from an event they had over the weekend and it was all we got this much in but this much is needed. So many people use this service and it was depressing lol. I don't know how that sort of thing really works but I do worry about working and getting a job, providing for myself. It's weird seeing the few people from class that are still here at things like these or around work. People are pretty friendly though, striking up conversations and asking how things are going.

Is it weird going to a 18th birthday thing for a high school girl that I used to work with at zellers but haven't talked to in 6 months? I got an invite on fb but, ya know, it's one of those things where like she's just inviting everyone on her friend list now matter where their from or how old they are. The whole thing overall seems a mite strange too. It's at houstons on a wednesday night, starting early at like 6, seemingly being on by her parents. I'm not sure whether I'm interesting in goin or not or if it'd be too awkward since I would know maybe 2 people there, one of which I don't particularly get along with well.

Moving on to this editions movie, I could do more than one as I usually do but I don't really remember what I've seen lately so I'll just talk a bit about a movie I finally got around to seeing last night which I had been anticipating:

Put quite simply, this movie didn't disappoint. I had been reading a lot about it on bloody-disgusting.com and there was a lot of positive buzz around it. Ellen Page was originally scheduled to star in this but then decided the role wasn't for her and dropped out. Alison Lohman is great in the role of Christine but it's interesting to think of how it would of been with Kitty Pryde/Juno.

This movie is pretty damn scary. Like geniunely scary. Not just cats jumping on screen all of a sudden or sharp loud noises like in lame teen horror movies. Don't get me wrong, sound is an integral part of this effect of this movie but it's used very effectively in addition to other things. It starts out, you're thinking oh there was a noise, something's coming. oh more noise, it's getting louder, something's going to happen, and it keeps building and building and its getting louder and piling on more and more. k something's really happening here, ah the suspense, there's crazy shit going on on screen. then it finally happens, and yeh, it's all very well done. crazy scary and unsettling. Which is due in large part to the directing and editing. Sam Raimi is a fantastic director and Bob Murowski does an amazing job of editing. I highly recommend this movie.

Also check out: Marilyn Manson's new album "The High End of Low", it's different from a lot of stuff he's done, has a very glam rock sort of feel to it.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/16380 As well as, this unbelievable new trailer for REC 2, the sequel to the mind-blowing Spanish zombie type movie REC from a few years ago.

Figure this out though: The American remake of REC, Quarantine, was released last year. There already talking and working on a sequel to it. However, it's going to be an original idea separate from what the sequel to the original is about. WTF??

The Sun Also Rises

So I have an issue with making and keeping friends. I've been in Brandon almost 2 years, I made about 2 actual friends that I did anything with. One I don't do anything with anymore and the other one I can feel is starting to slip away.

Among a myriad of other things I won't get into b/c I'm going to try to keep this from being a whiny emo loser blog post, I go at friendships wrong since I little experience and knowledge of them. I try to move things along and develop them too quickly, all my focus is centred on one area you could say.

Maybe there isn't a problem here even. I'm quite paranoid since it happens to me all the time and usually things happen generally in the same way. I see and talk to her a lot at work (quick note- yes it's a she, no it's not a dating thing, no I don't like her, that's not what it's about) and then I'm inviting to hang out and do stuff all the time, she hasn't really wanted to do anything the last 2 weeks I can understand getting kinda sick of me.

Like I said, maybe it's nothing. She's tired all the time, works a lot the above reason etc. I basically wonder what the best course of action is, i should probly give her some space and not put anything forth for awhile but should I mention anything about this too her? i mean i would come like kind of a tool but i could talk about if its all too much since i have no clue with the friend thing.

Yeh, really no way of asking about this and trying to figure it in a butch manly way lol. If you actually read through this whole thing, I have new respect for you. Back to movies next time. Terminator: Salvation comes out next week....

*insert title here*

So I've meaning to write a new blog for awhile now but I haven't really been in a very good mood, I've been kinda depressed in terms of school and my progress and future plans and career possibilities. I could never really think of the right words to accurately describe how i was feeling so it never got written (i know, really too bad, i know people were just dying to read about it.) I really felt as if my skills weren't at the level they should be after being in school for 2 years. That coupled with the fact that I'm really thinking going back again in the fall for communications is a terrible idea. I had asked Diane before when I was thinking about it and she didn't think I should do it.

Here's something I don't get about swine flu. With mad cow disease, people were concerned about the safety of beef. With listeriosis, people were concerned about sandwich meat. I haven't heard anyone talking about being careful eating pork and ham and so forth. Perhaps that just has nothing to do it and "swine flu" is just a colourful name that they gave to it for one reason or another.

Moving on to a series of short reviews for movies i've seen recently....



Martyrs: This movie I'd been hearing nothing but good things about for the better part of a year before it came out and I had the opportunity to see it. It's the latest of a string of ridiculously violent/bloody French horror movies that have come out the last 2 years or so.

It's hard to describe what the movie is about without spoiling certain things about it as what it's about changes part way throughout it. How we start off, is with a girl who was kidnapped and abused when she was young finding the house of who she believes was responsible. Now like I said, it's very violent and very bloody however it does make you think. I liked the movie but it's quite difficult to describe how you feel after you've seen it. The movie grows and evolves through the duration and just gets increasingly more uncomfortable to watch that by the time the final twist happens and it's over, you just don't know what to think. Which kind of brings me back to my point i made earlier. There are several twists in the movie that happen abruptly and with no warning and just when you think you know where things are headed, it flips around. If you're squeamish, don't see it, absolutely don't see it. Or if you don't like horror movies or subtitles. Otherwise, strap yourself in and see it.


Seven (a.k.a Se7en): I just watched this for the first time b/c I had heard a lot about it and it is really good. It features Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman tracking down a serial killer who prays on people he sees as representative of the 7 Deadly Sins. It's gripping, entertaining, well-written, well-acted, very well done. Now of course I love bloody, gory movies, but this is a perfect example of suspenseful horror that works despite having little to no blood. There are only a few scenes in it really that are kinda gross and disturbing but for the most part all of the dastardly deeds are either briefly shown or just hinted at as to what happened. One of the deaths isn't even shown at all and there's basically nothing given for you to even guess at what happened. I'm not sure I enjoyed the ending, could have possibly been stronger but I suppose it works with the plot. Go see it.


Rob Zombie's Halloween: With a lot of promotion going on right now for Rob's sequel H2 I thought I'd check out the the first one. I hadn't heard good things about it really and after watching it they are all valid. Half of the movie is new focusing on his childhood and growing up and the other half is almost a shot for shot remake of the original. The re-imagining of the start is interesting showing his broken home and life but it also kinda hints that he's always been crazy to begin with so was it really his family life that did it? It's not as good as the original but I still I liked it and would say it's worth renting and checking out.


The Wrestler: incredible. That's always I can say, absolutely incredible. Slumdog Millionaire my ass.

errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I hate looking for apartments/roommates. That is all.

Let The Right Watchmen In

Tallyho good sirs, ya know what I learned recently I'm really not fond of? rotoscoping. It's far too much tedious work and I'm not a good drawer or tracer or whatever. An interesting thing about tho, even bad rotoscoping takes forever.

I was talking to a friend at work today on my lunch break (not that I don't talk to people when I'm supposed to be working too), and she asked if I hang out with anyone in my class. Her class does stuff all the time, their like an extended family. Let's not even get into that....

Anyway, on to business, most of my posts are likely gonna be about movies I've seen recently since I don't really have anything to talk about.

One quick sidebar though, a hearty salute is in order for one Andrew "Test" Martin who unexpectedly passed away during the last couple days. I wasn't a big fan of his (no, not one of his "testicles", he was doin a gimmick trying to get the fans to like him and was told by stacy keibler to say in a promo: I love my testicles, on live tv.) You never want to hear about wrestlers, or anyone for that matter I suppose, dying before they should at a young age.

RIP

Two quick movie reviews, you don't want this to be too long.


Watchmen: The book is a good read and the movie is a good watch and at the end of the day, both are still pretty awesome. Sure there's differences in between the two, some small, some bigger. and yes the giant squid monster is far cooler (which really isn't much a spoiler calm down) but I can understand how it wouldn't have worked. How they did it instead works better from a storyline perspective. It's got good action, an engaging story, some very nice cinematography and pretty good music. Don't let the length (clocking in at 2 1/2 hours) or the male nudity (probably the worst case of blue balls in the history of mankind. anybody? no? wasn't funny? ok.) keep you from seeing this movie.

Let The Right One In: There's two types of vampire movies: intense action-packed bloodfests and arthousey dramatic flicks. While not an action-packed bloodfest per se, this film does include parts of both. It's a swedish movie about a young boy, Oskar, who gets bullied and picked on constantly, who meets his newly moved in neighbour Eli, a strange girl who he doesn't know is a vampire.

I can't really describe what it is about this movie that I liked. I like to compare it to Twilight even though beyond both having vampires, they have no nothing in common and there's no comparison. It's like comparing Neil Young to Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance. Let the Right One, in a way, accomplishes what Twilight set out and tried to do. It's an unconventional love story, involving vampires and social issues.

Anyway, the two become friends and she teaches him how to stand up to the bullies. As bodies start piling up tho, it soons becomes apparent that the current situation, as it stands right now, can not last.

Technically, I thought it was really well done. The acting of the two leads was great, the atmosphere set by the exterior shots of a cold, snowy sweden was slightly unnerving and shot well. The climax includes a shot underwater that is just ridiculously awesome. loved it.

It's not a movie for everyone, it's deliberately slow paced and more focused on story and character development than flashy vampires with capes and protruding fangs. Who knows, you may enjoy it though.

6 Hours

Chelsea made the joke that I should do a blog 6 hours after reading her comment, so that's what I'm doing. Exactly 6 hours right now as I write this, listening to Drowning Pool's new live album. I've had two opportunities to see them in Winnipeg, even got my ticket to the most recent show but I wasn't able to go either time.

Anyway, without going on a rant, I thought I would say a word or two about professionalism. I'm not popular, I'm used to it but that really isn't (at least shouldn't) be important in terms of work that needs to done. I can get along and be fake with people, all I really care about it is that you get your end done. Being busy isn't really an excuse, you can be a diva and piss and moan all you want but at the end of the day it still needs to be done.

Item 2: The newest remakes have been announced. Total Recall and The Neverending Story. I liked Total Recall, it's a great cheesy Arnold movie but I don't think it really needs to be remade. Likewise, I'm not a huge fan of The Neverending Story but I don't really see it as something that needs to be remade either. Of course, I think most people, other than movie execs trying to make money and not having better ideas, would agree that generally most remakes aren't really necessary.

Random Assortment of Awesome

So I'm finally getting around to writing a new blog, exciting I know. I was originally going to write it like a week ago after watching The Midnight Meat Train but I was too lazy and never got around to it. So I'm just gonna throw together thoughts on various different things. The MMT review is likely gonna be a lot less detailed and in depth then it originally would've been but oh well.




MMT: I used to hate scary tv shows or movies when I was a wee lad and avoided them like the plague but around 16 or 17 I started watching them and horror has grown into one of my favorite genres of film. Far from being a horror expert, there's few movies I've watched where I thought, this is a little much for me. I love bloody, violent movies but jesus is this thing intense and brutal. On one of the bonus features, a making of type featurette of one of the kills, a guy says they used something like 5 gallons of blood every day (it may be more than that, I forget.) It's bleak, dark and very tense. I mentioned to a friend, it feels like you're constantly getting kicked in the chest (yes i know, send the bad metaphor gestapo after me.) Basically the movie is about Vinnie Jones killing people on the NYC subway and a photographer trying to capture the heart of the city slowly going insane as he gets deeper into the world.

Now 2 things that I like about this movie: -Unlike most movies, they don't cut away right before the kill is about to happen, most of the time at least. When Vinnie Jones cracks a girl in the face with a big hammer, you see the impact.
-The overall look. It's very drab and muted except for some parts in the subway which are accented by chrome like blue tinges.

Overall, if you're into horror movies, you should enjoy this one.

Yes Man- This is probly the best Jim Carrey to come out in recent years. He pays a negative guy who says no to everything, isn't interested in doing stuff with his friends or anything. He's depressed because his girlfriend broke up with him. A friend takes him to a Yes Man seminar. Where they teach him to say yes to everything. Doing this, he meets Zooey Deschanel's character and have lots of wacky hijinx. It's an entertaining, very funny movie. With surprisingly great music as well. Mainly supplied by a band called Eels but supplemented by a couple of songs by the band that Zooey Deschanel's character sings in called Münchhausen by Proxy. Go see it.

Hawksley Workman- Hawksley Workman played at the Roadhouse yesterday and it was frickin amazing. This dude can f'n play. Just about everyone did ridiculous crazy solos, including Workman, the other guitarist, the violinist and the piano/keyboardist. They also did jams in the middle and at the end of some songs which were unbelievably amazing orgies of sound. He's a funny bastard too this guy. Telling stories and making jokes in between songs and waxing philosophic about the neon signs for the guys and girls bathrooms and racing on the water slide at the hotel. J.D. Edwards was the opener and he was pretty solid. Some good straight forward acoustic rock and roll.

See you 6 months from now when I get around to writing another blog ha ha.

I Got Nothing.

So I haven't done any blogs on here in like 9 months since the last time I had to do it in class. Which is really too bad but the thing is, I don't have to anything talk about. Zilch, I got nothing. I'm working on it though, I'll try and come with something during my constant slouching off of school work to watch fawlty towers and nerd videos on youtube. As always, I'm open to suggestions.