The Bulldogs are Cheating

FLAME ON!!! (sorry)

5 March 2009
Toast
No comments
Categories: Hockey

My favorite team made a big splash at the deadline yesterday, picking up Olli Jokinen and Jordan Leopold to bolster their talent for a (hopefully deep) playoff run.

 

Leopold is a reasonably solid defenseman that I was sad to see leave after his first tenure in Calgary. Thankfully Darryl Sutter (flames GM) hadn’t forgotten about him and managed to get him relatively cheap from the Avalanche as they circle the drain. He brings some extra playoff experience back to the defense core and should help to fill the gap left by Giordano’s injury. As for the Avalanche, one has to wonder what exactly their plan for the future is… they didn’t trade Smyth, they’re somewhat short on prospects and I’m not convinced that Paul Stastny is someone you want to be betting the future of your franchise on, barring Sakic playing into his 50’s they’re in trouble. In exchange for Leopold they got Nycholat (who the Flames had just gotten off waivers), less than stellar D prospect Ryan Wilson and a 2nd round pick.

 

The Jokinen trade was a bit more painful. Olli is a player I have liked for a long time despite his lack of exposure playing in arguably the worst hockey market in the league in Florida. He hasn’t been too great since moving to one of the other horrid hockey markets in Phoenix, but he’ll be back with Keenan, the coach that originally got him going as a premiere player. Here’s hoping the magic returns.

 

Calgary has needed a true first line center for a long time. The closest we’ve come in recent years was during the last cup run when Craig Conroy had decent magic with Iginla but even in those days the other wing was the question mark. If Jokinen can wake up and be the player he was for the Panthers I’d gladly put a top 3 of Iginla – Jokinen – Cammalieri as one of the best in the league.

 

I really hope it pays off, because we paid a high price. Losing Matt Lombardi hurts. He’s a player I love for his speed, though he lack of consistent goal scoring hands have kept him from being the center I’d always hoped for. I will miss him and hope Calgary resigns him at some point. Brandon Prust is a hard nosed Sutter kind of guy that plays with a 50-gallon heart and will be missed, but is ultimately replaceable.

 

Unfortunately we also gave up a 1st round pick, either this year or next (Calgary’s choice.) I honestly think that’s too much… given how Olli has played this year I honestly think he was worth a 1st straight up (though Phoenix probably had a lot of interest) or more realistically a 1st plus Lombardi or Prust, not both. Sutter appears to be betting on this year (who can blame him either, we’re playing great down the stretch and Kipper is having an “on” year after a slow start, just like 04).  Losing the 1st either in this incredibly deep year (with our second gone too) or next year will hurt. I’m not exactly sure when we have to decide. Hopefully not until the draft itself when we have a better idea of what we’ll be giving up this year. Personally I think I’d lean towards giving up this year’s… who knows where we’ll finish in the standings next year and what a quite possibly lower salary cap might force us to give up heading into the 2010/2011 season.

 

I hope it’s the year for another cup run… my bank account does too. I’m not missing catching at least one playoff game for them if we make it past round 1 and my current internship means I have the means to do so without having to rely on Mister Visa Card. A quite possible Detroit-Calgary second round matchup (or Conference Finals) would be ideal since I wouldn’t even have to fly.

If you haven’t seen Coraline yet…

26 February 2009
Toast
No comments
Categories: Meanwhile... at stately Wayne Manor., Movies

coraline

Get out tonight to see it in 3D. Neil Gaiman’s twitter reminded me today that the Jonas Bros in 3D is likely to take over all the  3D capable screens at a theatre near you tomorrow.

You owe it to yourself not to miss this in 3D as it’s one of the few movies where it’s used to make the movie better through and through as opposed to just a gimick.

You know, Heath was great and all but…

23 February 2009
Toast
No comments
Categories: Comics, Rant...

If I have to hear one more newscast or oscar synopsis about how he “turned a comic book character into a psychopathic monster” (and other comments about how he apparently singlehandedly came up with his performance) I’m going to cry.

 

I’m sorry Mr. or Ms. copywriter or reporter or whatnot that your only experience with the Joker character appears to be from Adam West’s camp-o-rama batstravaganza but perhaps you should do some research. Without even diving into the books we can look at Nicholson’s performance… a very different Joker but with a similar psychotic malevolence. Jack and Heath are doing the same character… albeit as shaded by the very different Gotham’s imagined by Tim Burton and Chris Nolan. (For the record I enjoyed TDK but I despised Batman Begins, but that’s a whole other argument)

 

If we dive into the books we can find many instances of an even crueler and vicious Joker. I see Ledger’s character as having a slight glimmer of self control left, almost invisible… many of the books have the Joker fast past that point.

 

I’m glad he won his Oscar as it was a great performance for a fairly good movie that a ton of people saw. Hopefully a few of the people that tuned in to the Oscars to see that moment also saw a few other movies that tempted them. And speaking of Jack… where the hell was he, internet rumour seems divided on whether he snubbed presenting an oscar and was in turn snubbed by the cameras or if he’s sick?

Alan Moore’s sandy vagina…

18 February 2009
Toast
No comments
Categories: Comics, Rant...

Don’t get me wrong, I love Alan Moore’s work, I love Watchmen in particular but he’s a hypocritical angry old hash addict. In the lead up to the Watchmen release the media have been writing the usual stories about Alan Moore. We all know that Moore doesn’t like the idea of film adaptations of his work… he liked it fine when he took the money to sell the rights to various things in the first place, but that’s a whole other argument. Regardless he can do whatever he want then come screaming back later about how he disavows it and know that the hard-core fanboys will blindly follow his lead and ignore the fortune he’s making.

 

There’s no question the film will not be a direct representation of the original, that’s simply impossible. I just hope that it’s a great movie that tries to keep the spirit of the original alive while appealing to a broader audience (not LCD, but broader). Comic book zealots who think only a frame by frame translation will do are completely deluding themselves. It’s impossible both in terms of a watchable time frame for the movie (no matter how much I love the subject matter I’d have trouble sitting through a 4 or 5 hour movie :p) and also in terms of content.

 

Many fans are up in arms about Director Zack Snyder extending fight scenes and pumping up the action in the movie. I hate to say it folks, while I’m also a bit hesitant about his touch (I was not a huge fan of 300) the movie does need to have more action. People who aren’t familiar with Watchmen will expect a certain level of action and if they don’t get it, the movie will not do well. No matter what, if the movie was only tailored towards hard core comic book fans it would crash and crash hard. If a few more action scenes are the price I have to pay to get a think-piece like Watchmen out there and get more people to read the actual book (and that sort of comic in general) I’m all for it. The movie most of these fans want would cost an absolute fortune and make no money (no, book fans alone can not support that kind of budget) and we’d be stuck with “safe” crap like Spidey and xmen 3 as our only superhero flicks while anything with a brain was left to rot in development as “too risky.”

 

My biggest level of disgust comes with the total wanks who are complaining about  what the marketing machine is doing to Watchmen. They see the book being featured in stores and toys being marketed and they start whining about things being contrary to the spirit blah blah blah… I’m with you on things like coffee tie-ins and fast food (though I don’t think I’ve heard of one, at least not yet) but how the fuck is it a bad thing that I can walk into chapters and see a display of Watchmen.  It’s a great book with some great topics and if someone walks in and picks it up because the movie looks cool and really really loves it… how is that a bad thing? Am I missing some fundamental connection where the fact that I can now have a Nite Owl or Doctor Manhattan figure on my desk from Toys-r-us ruins your personal enjoyment of the book? Someone new is being brought into serious graphic novels is a bad thing? Get your head out of your ass and if you don’t want to see the movie, don’t see it.

 

And Alan, quit bogarting the good stuff.

The day the muzak died…

13 February 2009
Toast
No comments
Categories: Uncategorized

Per CNN:

Oh dear... what a man-perm.
Oh dear... what a man-perm.

MUZAK, those lovely people that bring you in-elevator or on hold kenny-g-esque (or strings) versions of popular songs is filing for bankruptcy protection.

Let us all hope this means that the next time we call Visa or Rogers we won’t have to listen to Katy Perry’s “I kissed a girl” as interpreted for Alto Sax and Oboe.

But sadly upon closer inspection they appear to merely be restructuring debt and not folding.

30 Rock – St. Valentine’s Day

13 February 2009
Toast
No comments
Categories: Television

As the follow up to the brilliant “Generalissimo” from last week, “St. Valentine’s Day” had a lot to live up to. While it didn’t quite hit that high water mark it still managed to make me nearly do a spit take a few times.

Liz and her hot-as-a-cartoon-pilot new flame Dr. Baird (Jon Hamm from Mad Men) end up having their first date on Valentine’s day, and what starts as awkward takes leaps and bounds into disaster area as accidental boob spillage, twosie seeing and family neuroses ensue. Our heroine and her new beau decide to embrace the trainwreck and try to get everything bad out of the way on the first date… thus far it works and we save the inevitable lemon-implosion for another episode.

Meanwhile in TGS-land, Frank’s one line of the episode hands off responsibility for a new blind NBC employee to Kenneth, who instantly falls in love and is speechless (I loved Tracy’s throwaway joke about Dotcom’s first meeting with Grizz’s Fiancée). Tracy plays a Cyrano of sorts, filling in the words he imagines Kenneth would say: “Yes indeedy corncobs!” After not seeing TJ’s crew for a bit Dotcom had some great moments tonight (he speaks french!) Needless to say, Ken does not end up getting the girl. Blind girl asks to feel is face and when she gets to his chin (or lack thereof), she beats a hasty retreat… ouch…

Salma Hayek continues her guest run this week with her nurse Elisa having issues with her catholicism and Jack’s very intense lack thereof. When forced to take confession rather than go eat a $1000 dessert, he manages to send the priest crying for backup. Priceless, as were the McFlurry jokes though I can’t imagine what McDonald’s must have paid for that.  I honestly don’t think Elisa’s hardcore religiousness out of nowhere was very believeable, but it did make for some great jokes, including Liz’s “If I had those knockers, I’d thank god too.”  I think we all should thank god for Salma Hayek’s breasts personally.

As a rule I’m not a huge fan of the episodes where A B and C stories are more or less completely separate, but the pacing and gags in this one made it work pretty well.  Jane only had one bit this episode but it was priceless as, after Tracy introduces her as Michael McDonald, she proceeds to butcher McDonald’s horrid over the top schmaltz.  I still find myself hoping we can go back to the writer’s room a bit, I miss Twofer and Ceri and more Frank…  We especially need more Pete, is Scott Adsit off doing something else? I thought Morel Orel was done with.

Favorite Line of this episode:  “The Patron Saint of Judgemental Statues”

A solid A- episode with some great moments.

In the words of Frou Frou the talking cat

10 February 2009
Toast
No comments
Categories: Meanwhile... at stately Wayne Manor., Rant..., Travel

There’s no place like home…

 

 

Waterloo's Tallest Building
Waterloo's Tallest Building

 

There are varying degrees of culture shock that one gets upon moving away from one’s birthplace for the first time. Maybe you moved to Europe for school and you’re learning a new language (or multiple new languages). Perhaps you went to Australia for a year to find yourself (more likely to find beer and people of loose morals of the gender of your choice.) Or perhaps you only moved to Ontario…

 

As most of you who read this blog know, I recently (temporarily) moved to Waterloo Ontario to take an internship at Research in Motion inc. proud manufacturers of BlackBerry and BlackBerry related products. Is it whiny and lame of me to complain of culture shock moving to southern Ontario from Manitoba? Yeah, probably… but it’s more a combo of wistful homesickness and culture shock anyway.

 

Waterloo is an incredibly white town, somewhere around 90% of the city is very white, mostly of Germanic descent. The universities thankfully break this up a bit, bringing a more diverse student base, especially of asian backgrounds. As someone from Manitoba however, the absence of any significant aboriginal population is somewhat jarring. I was actually specifically told that I might want to consider not broadcasting the fact that I’m Metis as this area doesn’t have the greatest reputation of friendliness towards first nations people. I’m not entirely surprised as the city is fairly affluent and definitely seems to cultivate a wholesome whitebread image.

 

The weirdest things have been making me home sick… I’m the first to claim that Winnipeg drivers suck, but at least we’re relatively friendly. People in southern Ontario like to come very close to running down a pedestrian in a parking lot at least once daily, and will NOT come to a stop at crosswalks even if you’re already halfway across. When people pass you on the highway, they will cut back in front of you within 2 feet of your bumper, even if the lane is clear ahead and there is no one on their tale. One of the weirdest things that I still find jarring after two months is the sheer length of light patterns. Pressure plates seem to be non-existent here and many of the intersections near my place have light patterns in excess of 90 seconds.

 

Culinarily I’ve been having issues too, needless to say I can’t get anything George’s like here (though I’ve been pleased by being reunited with Popeye’s Chicken) and overall ethnic food wise the place doesn’t hold a candle to Winnipeg. The single greatest tragedy is the lack (at least that I’ve been able to find) of any true thai restaurants. Most of the Vietnamese restaurants in town bill themselves as Vietnamese and Thai food, but invariably their Thai dishes consist of a shitty tomato based Pad Thai and various Vietnamese style noodly bowls with “thai chicken” which near as I can tell just means they put extra lime juice or lime leaves in. If you’re especially lucky you might find a lackluster Tom Kha Gai soup.  This wouldn’t be a crushing disappointment if it weren’t also very difficult to find Thai ingredients in the limited local asian markets. Proper thai curry pastes are nowhere to be found, much less something like Matsuman, but at least I can make some semi-proper pad thai. What I wouldn’t give to be able to head down to Vientiane tonight though…

 

You might think I should be thankful for the weather, but to be honest, other than the week of death back in January (Winnipeg: coldest place on the continent… beating out the ARCTIC CIRCLE) temperatures have not been far apart and we’ve gotten an absolute ton of snow that has made the wussy people around here hibernate even more. Even getting someone to go for a drink after work is like pulling teeth. I’m told things will get better here with the coming of summer and the festival season, but all I can say is thank god for movies and the internet. Regardless, summer brings Fringe back home and unless I can swing a trip back it’ll be the first festival that I’ve missed all of in well over a decade.

 

Matters are not helped by the fact that the famous southern Ontario attitude is alive and well here… Not long after arriving here I was shopping at best buy for a movie and happened to mention that I was new to the city and trying to keep myself occupied until I met some people. His response when he found out I was from Winnipeg. “So I guess things are a little more fast paced here hey? – – – Yeah that’s right buddy…Kitchener (population ~200k) is too fast paced for me, your towering downtown skyline of 3 or 4 buildings over 10 stories tall just blows my little prairie mind. Wake up, even Regina has a bigger downtown core than this dinky little town. I guess merely by being within 2 hours of downtown Toronto I should feel overwhelmed by the I AM CANADA aura that is the GTA.

 

Sorry, no dice.

Is it geekier that Bill Amend wrote this strip… or that I spent 5 minutes laughing at it?

10 February 2009
Toast
No comments
Categories: Comics
Foxtrot Feb 8 2009
Foxtrot Feb 8 2009

Apologies for any site wonkyness, had to rebuild it right before leaving.

Latest Posts

Find a Post by Tag