Here are the movies I will be seeing at this year’s Fantasia. If I didn’t have to work, I would be seeing a lot more, but that is life, and thus this is my list. I might add some movies as the festival goes by, but the list is pretty much final.
Posted under awesome & movies & video
This is the real trailer for the movie Machete; originally a fake trailer created for the movie(s) Grindhouse.
It. Looks. Awesome.
I hope it debuts at Fantasia this year…
Posted under awesome & juggling & video
Montreal is well known by circus affectionados. Although primarily dominated by the Cirque du Soleil, one venue that I keep going back to in the Tohu. It offers some incredible circus performances in a small intimate setting. I have mentioned several shows I have seen there, but last night I saw one of the best shows ever. It is called PSY and is the newest show from the troupe Les 7 Doigts de la Main. I had seen their previous show La Vie and loved it, so there was no way I was missing this one.
PSY in French is short for psychiatrist. The show’s stars are all suffering from a different psychological issue. Whether it is insomnia, schizophrenia, agoraphobia, dependency or anger issues, they are all there waiting to see their psychiatrist. Some parts of the show are from when they have to interact with each other and others are by their flashbacks. Two of my favourite scenes involved the same guy. In one, he remembered his 8th birthday and everybody appeared as it did so long ago. They were about to play “Pin the Tail on the Donkey”, but instead of a normal knife, they had juggling knives. One actress started club spinning with the juggling knives. There is something hot about women spinning knives and acting psychotic… or maybe I’m just insane as well. The other scene with the guy involved juggling and a cane. It was a scene outside and people would keep passing by where their object was a juggling pin instead of the actual object. A homeless man had a pin inside a paper bag (bottle), one couple were nursing a pin (baby), a dog had a pin in his mouth (stick), etc. He would grab these object and start juggling or balancing them with his cane. It was quite fun to watch. Part of what made this show so enjoyable was the mesh between acting and circus. There was a story being told and the circus elements blended in with the rest. Everybody has their own skill and it was all fleshed out depending on their addiction.
The music was also great. Most of it was a sort of techno/old school recordings and it sometimes felt like I was at a DJ Shadow or Kid Koala concert. The acts all worked in sync with the music playing, and in case I never mentioned before, I LOVE that. I could go on and on about the show, but it just won’t do it justice. It is the type of show you need to see to properly enjoy, but hopefully this video will give you a glimpse of what it is like.
Tonight was the last night it played at the Tohu, but if ever it comes in a venue near you, you really should check it out.
Regarding the previous post, I had to go look up some old Quebec videos. For me, that means one thing: miniputt! For some reason, we used to worship minigolf. It played on the sports channel among all the other great sports and what made it so great was the announcer. Sometimes I like to scream out a “BIRRRRRR-DEE!” in public, and strangely, nobody looks at me weird. That show is legend, and it deserved its spot at Total Crap 6. Watch the videos below to understand what I mean!
Posted under alteration & awesome & photography
Ever stand in between two mirrors and felt like you could see yourself repeated to infinity? As a programmer, I would call that recursion, but to the rest of the world, it could be considered as the Droste effect. This is when one image gets repeated inside another over and over again. You’ll see this in photographs/paintings in which the person is holding a picture of themselves holding the same picture. M.C. Escher was really good at doing this kind of stuff.
With today’s technology (I’m looking at you Photoshop), these kind of effects can be easily reproduced without too much work. Of course, it is nothing compared to what real artists can produce, but it is still pretty impressive. Using an old picture of myself, I managed to make a repeating image and it definitely gave me the itch to create more. I know that next time I will be out shooting pictures, I will try to think outside the box so that I can post manipulate it to infinity.
There is only two days left before the festival begins! While, I will be seeing less movies than the previous iterations, this year looks as exciting as the rest. The choices this year were very well varied, and while I would love to see all of them, I have to force myself to limit my choices. Below you can view what I will be seeing in the upcoming three weeks. Since I will only be buying the tickets in a couple of hours, and the tickets are on sale now, there is a possibility of last minute changes, removals, or additions. I will update the calendar as necessary, and by tonight, it should be fully complete.
See below the calendar for more details on each individual film!
You can find more details on my choices here: (Opens in a new window)
If you are going to the festival and are seeing any of the movies below, look for me in line! Enjoy the festival!
UPDATE: Since it fell cleanly in between two other movies, we decided to add Grace on Sunday July 12th. This completes a full butt-numb-a-thon, with movies from 2pm straight till midnight!
Posted under awesome & music & video
I don’t own a Zune, nor do I plan on purchasing one, but their commercial is pretty awesome! It features puppet zombies and one of my favourite songs, “Fancy Footwork” by Montreal duo Chromeo. I consider that a winning combination!
UPDATE: It was removed from Youtube ONE DAY after I post it. Sheesh. You can download the video here. I highly recommend that you check it out!!
I found out a month or so ago that there was a place in Montreal which taught you how to do the flying trapeze. A friend of mine had done it before and wanting to try it again, she organized a group of 10 people to experience it with her. Among the group was my girlfriend and Dave. It was the first time for all three of us. Dave owns a wonderful camera/camcorder hybrid so we got to film our successes and failures. I would love to show my girlfriend’s video, but she doesn’t want others to see it. She messed up at the beginning, but she performed admirably for the last (and most important) swings. We had two hours and we squeezed in 60 jumps, so 6 each, and roughly one every 2 minutes. The jumps taught us progressively with the final lesson being a proper catch by another instructor.
Notes about the course:
Swing 1: An introduction to the trapeze and to break our fears. We simply swung down, hooked our feet, looked downwards, removed our feet, and then jumped off. It was simple to do, but it was hard to implement since we all had that initial fear of falling off. I look like doofus in the this swing in the video.
Swing 2, 3, 4: This was the same as the first swing except we had to focus on really bringing our arms and head backwards, and we would end in a backflip. On swing 4, my hand touched a support line and it screwed me all up. What you don’t see in the video (because of the angle) was that my trapeze was going crooked, so I used my hands to make it straight again. Of course, on video, I just look like I screwed up again!
Swing 5, 6: This time, we would swing, hook our feet, and then grab another instructor trapezing at the other end. This was why we had to look backwards all the time. If we didn’t look back enough, we wouldn’t be in position to be caught by the other person. The final two swings were really exhilirating since you got to really coordinate and feel part of an act.
Everybody agreed that it was a lot of fun and we all plan on going again. Apparently, they continuously teach you more advanced tricks, so we can get better and better as we visit them. If I ever revisit, I will most likely have a camcorder again and I will share my experiences once more.
EDIT: Dave added his video as well. Go check it out!
