Watching this film on big screen was a blast. The version played had bad and faded English voice over for the narrator but the dialog was in Italian. Additionally the reel was not stored properly so the film was brittle and kept breaking. However, the experience was great. I love watching movies in the cinema and this is a great example of how much fun it could be.
This picture has nothing to do with the movie, I just like how it turned out. Trev is all “oh, mommy is hugging me again…”.
After two years of not really doing much, I have gotten back to the dirt. I didn’t get much done yet, but I have taken pictures of the yard and made some notes.
I have made some progress of de-rocking the bit between the driveway and the path and have cleaned up about a third of the woodland trampoline area. More to come!
I’ve had some really nice bike rides this year. I am streamlining my home-school bike route. If I take bike paths it is 24km and if I drive on Carling it is 19. The challenge is to combine roads and paths in such a way that I make use of roads for speed where they are not busy and bike paths to avoid busy sections. So far the preferred eastbound route is 20.9 km and westbound 22.5. I take different routes because of traffic patterns that depend on time of the day. I haven’t tried either of these routes in their entirety so I am looking forward to checking them out. Of course, I will probably vary the paths every day to keep the interest.
In any case, I did a 22km route in 70 minutes this morning. I am quite proud of myself. I expect that in a couple of weeks I will be able to do the trip in just under an hour. Once I get there I will be happy.
Hum, Dylan Moran, Hum.
CBC announced format changes recently.
I am not so much unhappy about proposed changes as I am anxious. I really do think that radio should play current music by artists that deserve exposure because of either quality or cultural significance.
Commercial radio does do some of the exposure on artists that deserve it, but for most part they just don’t cut it. I think that I’ve officially heard more 80’s music in last two years that in that particular decade. I can’t blame the commercial radio as much as I blame the market that wants to listen to the song they first made out to over and over and over again but are too lazy to put on the record.
College radio (dead air, uhm, dead air) is great, but with so many shows most of which are unlistenable to any but a small subset of a small demographic, you just can’t turn it on and leave it on.
So it falls to CBC to be the bastion of audible art. CBC has the funding, skills and mandate to do it and do it well.
However, I haven’t had a favourite radio show since late night college radio metal and madness show in my CEGEP days, but lately, I have taken a strong liking to Tom Allen. I like the music well enough, but I love his stories and enthusiasm, it really picks me up in the morning. So, understandably, I am apprehensive about the one show that I like being cancelled.
Another thing that makes me nervous is that I’ve yet to hear a non classical piece on CBC2 during daylight hours and not think “This is godawful, where did they get this and who thought this should be played on air!!!”. Now, I like all kinds of music from noize (well, not so much now that I am older, but I used to) to opera to folk to hip-hop, but it has to be picked right. Whoever is picking contemporary music right now, better get a new position or I will have to turn off CBC2 altogether.
All told, I am glad that CBC is exploring new ground and trying to do what needs to be done to nurture Canadian arts, but I am upset that the only show I care for will be lost in the wash and, if they don’t do it right, I will end up turning to the lesser evil and listen to Def Leppard on commercial radio instead.
I expect three things from a film:
1. Make me care
2. Make me think
3. Make me laugh
If I was to give a point for achieving each of these, the Other Boylen Girl would get a big fat zero. Now, I love costume dramas and I love historical inaccuracies, but this was truly horrible.
Admittedly, we did laugh at the film, though not with it. Matching sofa pattern dresses were funny and there were plenty of opportunity to exercise one’s wit. For example, when Anne Boylen was walking to the block we pointed out that, in real life she got her head chopped off, but this is based on a novel…
She still got her head chopped off. So much rubbish, so little imagination.
In any case, the weekend in Montreal went well, we checked out this fun little hot chocolate place and went to the Quebec Library and Archives which is really nice. Trev had a great time with his grandma meanwhile.