Me Talk English Pretty One Day
08 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in anecdote, US_citizen_thoughts Tags: IELTS, low key adventure, Permanent Residence, test taking
Be forewarned this will be all about my personal experience. So as I let slip before, I’ve gotten engaged to a Canadian. An obvious associated step is to get my permanent residency. Thankfully the same company that brought me from Florida to Ottawa will help with this process (instead of bothering with renewing my work visa). I was collecting together the things I was told to for the PR application (FBI record, forms that ask for every place that I’ve lived since turning 18, etc.) when I came across the item: IELTS test. What is this? The International English Language Testing System. So…you want me to prove I can speak English, my primary language? The fact that I got an advanced degree at an university where the only language was English isn’t sufficient? My college English classes isn’t enough? (As an aside, others have said they didn’t have to submit a test result, but I think the class of application for permanent residence I’m trying for does require this.) So right from the start my frame of mind is irked.
Irkedness continued with the test application. On one level I understand the security precautions, given it is used in official settings like residence applications, but that didn’t make me any happier having to get a passport photo to attach to the application. After submitting my application and paying the hefty fee (which thankfully my company will reimburse me for), I waited. In due time I was notified of the date of my test. I read over the things required of me, two number two pencils, an eraser, my passport. Sure no problem. The night before the test (a Friday) I start looking around and realize I have no non-mechanical pencils. I’m not particular to pen/pencil and paper anyway. On top of that since grade school I’ve always preferred mechanical pencils. So, no worries, I figured. I’d nip out, pick up some pencils and an eraser and pencil sharpener, and I’d be set. Not so. I discovered that we are in a post-non-mechanical-pencil world. This grocery store, that drug store, that grocery, that drug: no, no, no, no. Now I am somewhat desperate. I’m a bit tired and was hoping to go to bed early and instead I’m brainstorming on where to get pencils. I start going through boxes of my stuff still packed from the last move. I’m fairly certain I had a ‘real’ pencil two moves ago, but got rid of them in a fit of when-will-I-ever-use-this. Belatedly I put a request out into the social media ether. At this point I’ve ascertained that the art supply stores (which are the only places I can think of that would have what I need) are closed and won’t open till after the test starts the next morning. I didn’t think I was putting off a task to the last minute that had a chance of being difficult, but rudely awoken am I. Hark, a reply from the ether. Someone has the required pencils. At roughly the same time two things occur to me. One, I think my office has some real pencils. Two, I’m wiped and I need to go to bed right now. I thank my potential benefactor. I set my alarm a little early, so I’ll have a chance to swing by work, which is closer, and then a friend-in-pencils if that fails. Zzzz.
Other then some troublesome test taking dreams (in one I wasn’t supposed to have any electronic devices on me, so dream logically, I take off my pants with my cell phone in them, so I won’t get into trouble) I wake up rested. Zip over to work. Woo-hoo, ‘real’ pencils and eraser. Swing by grocery store that I tried last night, which had pencil sharpener but no pencils (huh?). Quick breakfast and I’m off. Arrive at the college campus where test is being given. Hmm. Last night I noticed that I didn’t see which room/building the test would be administered in my reply email. It was on the list of things to deal with but got sidetracked by pencil saga. I admit the next part is completely my fault, but I include it for completeness. Instead of calling number for IELTS, which has a Greater Toronto Area area code and might not be open but really it would be worth trying, I try entering the weekend-quite buildings to see if someone can direct me where to go. Then I get a couple of maybe-over-yonder answers, that are good guesses, but when I get yonder, turn out to be different language rooms. Okay, running low on time. Run back to car and call the number I ought to have to start with. In one last indignity I mentally flip the campus around in my head and essential go to the opposite side of the thankfully small campus. Now I’m running. With no time to spare (in fact I think I was a minute or two late, but I won’t argue them letting me in) I find the place I’m supposed to be. (Another side note, since then I’ve searched my email and realize that one reply had nothing useful, just information about me, but another reply existed and it had exactly the information that I needed).
The test. I’ll respect the testing company and won’t speak of particulars; however, I still have some thoughts. One was that even though I minored in German, even at my peak of German language knowledge, this test, were it in German, would have kicked my butt. Even as a native speaker, I admit that one or two of the listening comprehension questions caught me off guard. Granted I didn’t exactly study for this, so when they tried to get all clever with the question and additionally I didn’t quite catch a phrase, it lead to some guesses. So I don’t think I’ll be acing the test. I was also reminded of how much I don’t miss writing essays in test booklets (which I haven’t had to do since college). After three hours of listening, reading and writing we were dismissed and told to come back for a talking session throughout the afternoon. My test was four hours later, so I went home, ate junk food and napped. Back for the conversation testing section I have to say the choice of topics was odd. One part felt like a marketing survey. Another seemed like a strange shallow political discussion, where the question was somewhat provocative, but no, this is a testing environment, so we won’t purse that question. And then done.
Leaving aside the adventure I imposed on myself, I was spurred to think about people for whom this wasn’t a gimme test and bureaucracies more generally. I do think the test was probably fair in assessing whether people generally understand English. Even if as a native speaker and often test taker, from all my schooling, I could at times ‘see’ the test part of it. I could see how they tried to obfuscate answers and search out knowledge of synonyms and general content knowledge. My more general thought was about how institutional my grade school to high school days were, and how since then, I’ve been privileged in school and work to have more freedom in my day-to-day agency. And how part of that comes from class, and if I were poorer it would be common for me to find myself in more bureaucratic settings and less agency. And if was misfortunate enough to be confined to a hospital or jail I’d have least agency. Essentially the idea that more agency correlates (loosely) with class. (I know the correlation isn’t exact, with high class jobs like government agent or lawyer, but it works when it comes to the knowledge industry.) This triggered more connections (to a recent story I heard about police misconduct in NYC, the trials of middle school, and on, and on) but I’ll cut this tangent short.
So, yes I made it harder on myself. So, yes my country requires the same nonsense (and probably more) to remain in it. Did I find the whole situation abrasive and annoying? Yes. Will it be worth it and I’m lucky to not have to endure tasks like this on a regular basis? Yes!
P.S. Nod and apologies to Dave Sedaris for the title.
Ottawa International Animation Festival 2011
27 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Ottawa International Animation Festival Tags: OIAF, Ottawa International Animation Festival
This year the Ottawa International Animation Festival celebrates its 35th anniversary. Wednesday night (Sep 21st) kicked it off (for me) at the Bytowne with Shorts Competition 1. After almost twenty minutes of introductions and speeches (I found out who represents my riding) the lights went down. They didn’t stay down though, because many of the creators of the films were in attendance and stood to be recognized after their films showed.
I’ll preface my next statement with the fact that I generally groan when I hear a short will be experimental. This is because I’ve been burned too many times with overwrought and non-original bizarreness in the past. Which makes it even more noteworthy that the best short of the night for me was an experimental piece by the title Many Go Round from Japan. It is hard to describe other then to say that paper cut outs showing people walking, climbing, falling in many different ways are shown and gradually altered to give an awesome visual experience.
An interesting note/warning for creators. The Pig Farmer was rollicking zaniness. I was struck by the brief view of the twin towers being hit and how that image ranks up there with the Holocaust, for historical images that have power and creators must be careful including them, lest their creation not be able to support the weight of emotions such an image brings. Long have I seen people clumsily grasp Holocaust imagery and have their whole production fall under a weight their production can not support.
Two more that I’d rank just below “Many Go Round” are “Swimming Pool” and “Microphobia“. Swimming Pool was a very imaginative look at two people who have good reason to be cautious of daytime swimming, but when they both sneak a late night swim, find each other. Done in a very sketchy cartoon style, I loved the look. “Microphobia” is a great example of what a certain genrea of short can be. I don’t quite know what to call it, but there is definitely a catagory of experimental short, that involve geometric shapes changing and merging from one to another, a kind of kinetic doodle. In this case the shapes were formed with organic looking pieces that looked like they came from bits of life in a biology microscope lab.
Two more that were quite good were Chroniques de la poisse (Sticky Ends) and quite surprising to me (given my distate for advertisments) The Chase a promo for Intel. Sticky Ends, done in a cartoony jagged style, flitted from person and witnessed their unfortunate demise. It was really quite funny though, just trust me. The Chase was supposed to be a promo for Intel, but what really captured me was the different mediums and styles used (as the characters jumped in and out of every window on a computer, from Youtube videos to Facebook to office software.
A final honorable mention goes to Animal Kingdom. A fox, a racoon and a bear watch nature televesion shows. They start out as human-like behaviors but the fox starts to regress as the viewing goes on. A simple joke, but I liked it.
Capital Slam 2011 Summer Edition
10 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
in anecdote, poetryslam, US_citizen_thoughts Tags: CapitalSlam, ottawa, Poetry
Open Mic 1
Open Mic 2
I’m back. And so is the Capital Slam for the summer (actually it was already back, but I just attended my first of the summer). First, a personal digression or two. I’ve found a Canadian rose (or at least a Prairie Lily, she is from Saskatchewan) that I am now engaged to. We moved into together in a new place, and I need to take a moment to give Ottawa a big shout out. In the hot enough weather a couple of months ago, with the help of three of her friends, we valiantly were unloading the full van of 1 and 3/4 of apartments, when someone saw us and stopped to give us a hand. He turned out to be slightly liquored up, but he did pitch in somewhat, before moving on. While he was first helping though, another person showed up and asked if we needed a hand. He never came back, but he sent three more people over who totally save us from heat exhaustion. Go random acts of kindness.
Mia Morgan
Chris Tse
But enough about me, let’s talk poetry. Ruthanne was the host and Rusty Priskewas the DJ. She was also the sacrificial poet starting the night off with an ode to Violet Desmond. Then two open mic poets started us off with some good poetry. Then the slam was on in earnest (apologies to anyone’s name that I get wrong). Also, as usual, most poems don’t have a name (excepting some of the feature poet’s) so names are purely from my imagination. Decker started off with Famine a poem about the famine in Somalia and the human factors that make famine. Mia Morgan gave us Fear, a meditation on the necessary fear of opening up and sharing a poem. Chris Tse gave us Self-titled, a poem about his own growth as a poet. Vanessa Baker (one of my favorites who always seems to get shafted by the judges) shared Daughter (not) Just Like Me and all the qualities she hopes her daughter will have (in contrast to her own mothers exasperated I hope you have a daughter just like you). Rusty Priske performed Looking For Truth vs. News, a political poem in response to Fox/Sun and the allowing-news-to-lie federal ruling. Serafina dropped To The Sucker Who Marries Me, actually a lovely love poem.
Vanessa Baker
The feature poet was Mary Pinkoski, from Edmonton, although she had Ottawa connections having gone to Carleton. I loved her! I’m so glad she was able to find a Porter flight after her cross country train trip threatened to leave her stranded in Toronto, missing the slam. All of her poems had a wonderful simplicity to them that felt like she was just talking to you, or telling you a story, but stealthily had wonderful cadence and word choice in a way that you didn’t notice overtly, just in the general sense of good quality. The poem that came out of tutoring in a community center brought tears to my eyes. They were all good poems, but I’ll call out one line in particular that I liked: when we grow old, our love will grow obvious.
Rusty Priske
The second half was not in reverse order, but random again. Mia Morgan restarted us with Transit Days, a tale of joyous youth. Decker had the Don’t Have A Job and Don’t Fit in Blues. Rusty performed Tricks a riff on hard-knock lives. Serafina blew me away with Love You Like Fast Food, a tale of bad habit lovers. Chris Tse performed his (classic to me) McDonalds Girl, a story of crushes in McDs and food metaphors. Vanessa Baker recounted Sex as an Inevitably or No as Yes (which she performed at the semi-final last year) a poem of the negotiation between the sexes for love/sex.
Serafina
The summer slams are once a month, and the next one is September 3rd. Also at the Mercury Lounge. If you need more poetry before then, the Capital Slam team has a show August 20th at the Mercury Lounge.
Mary Pinkoski
For those wondering, the judges gave rankings of: 1st Chris, 2nd Sarefina, 3rd Rusty. I really like the new-to-me talent of Mia as well. I agree with the judges about Sarefina, another new to me talent that deserves notice. Just like at the semi-finals, Vanessa Baker could get no love from the judges, but I think she is still putting some great stuff out there. (No disrespect to Chris Tse or Rusty, the establishment poets still doing great things.) For another take on the event, which includes some more announcements, go here.
P.S. (Apologies to Dekker, my picture of her didn’t come out at all.)
Capital Poetry Slam – 2011 Semi-finals
10 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in poetryslam
This is what happens when a post is written just before the Finals instead of right after the Capital Slam Semi-Finals. That is you get my so bad they sort of turned into art pictures along with some words expressing what I can still remember and/or decipher from my notes (from the first half of the show on my cell phone, before it died and I had to wing it).
But enough of that, let’s talk poetry. First up in the competition for the night was Mack Cannon. He opened with a a-z form poem, where he strings together words of the same letter, building toward a complete whole. He closed the night (due to the reverse order of poets standard to the slams) with a different form poem, wherein he used the repetition of ‘I am’ fill-in-the-blank to create a powerful poem of/about being a young black man. I quite agreed when he was chosen to move on to the finals.
Next Prufrock gave a funny poem “Big Ego”. (Note all titles are made up by me as aids keep the poems straight. Usually I took a major theme or striking excerpt as the title.) “Big Ego” spoke of what an ego he had to have to think he was something in this vast world/universe that we’re in. For his final poem “Black Man,” he gave a stirring account what he is and what stereotypes he is not. While my description/memory may not be indepth, I very much enjoyed Prufrock and was happy to see him advance to the next round. Elle P recounted us with here two poems “Revolution” and “My People” that impressed the judges enough to advance.
One of my new (to me) poets that became a favorite of mine this year, Vanessa Baker performed two poems “Abercrombie and Fitch” and “Yes/No”, that unsurprisingly were favorites of mine. “Abercrombie and Fitch” is told from the point of view of a ‘popular’ person being what people expect of them so they’ll fit in, causing them to lose themselves in the process. “Yes/No” portrayed the push and pull of female protagonist who is interested in dating and a good time, and the men who continually need to push that further in a quest for sex. If there was a judging crime for the night, it would be that Vanessa didn’t advance.
Loh El gave us “Men” a description of what true manhood entails, with the great line, ‘Only psychopaths don’t cry’. His finally was “Welcome to a world.” I believe that Loh El has improved greatly over time and agree with the judges in advancing him to the next round. Grace Defined first gave us a love poem. I’ve lost my note on what her second one was (sorry).
Rusty Priske started with “Took the Path More Traveled”, a lament of the have-I-sold-out grown up who partakes of a normal desk job life and feels like he’s lost touch with his revolutionary poetry hurdling younger self. For his second poem he wrote a suffix poem, “-ation/-ize”, wherein the words almost all ended in first -ation and then -ize. I’m going to call Rusty out, since I like him so, in that he totally deserved to proceed to the next round as he did, but he really makes me sad that I’m missing the finals (due to summer travel commitments), because I feel like he held back on his best stuff for then. So good stuff, but not the grade-A stuff I’m used to from him.
Sean O’Gorman first shared a poem about poetry “Life is Liquid” and then followed that up with “Life is Worth Risking”. Again, specifics that I can recall to share are sketchy, but I will say I throughly enjoyed his stuff. Sean finally got some love from the judges and advanced this year.
Sense-Say is another of the new (or at least new to me) poets that I came to enjoy. First he gave us “The Body” and then the beautiful “Mind is Too Beautiful a Thing to Waste.” The judges agree that he is a deserving new talent and advanced him to the next round.
Brad Morden gave us “Just Human”. The “Bleed a Little” about the importance of living life fully and giving oneself to it. Bruce Narbaitz (another hot new slammer) first gave us “Priceless”. Then followed up with the fantastic “Bridge Jumping”, that I really wish I could recall more of to share with you, but did wonderful things with the old canard of “If all your friends jumped off a bridge.” I was quite pleased he advanced to the next round.
The last competitor, Daniel KL, gave us “Ski Love” a great tale of young love, what I’m more familiar with as “summer vacation love.” That was followed by her second “Broken Heart”. I much enjoyed her poems, but the judges did not, so she didn’t advance.
Kim Bit (another new-to-me this year poet that I was glad to see represented) was a sacrificial poet. Also, Open Secret gave us a non-competition poem to cap the night off. His “When I Am…” was powerful and reminded me enough of how much I like his talent to pick up a chat book of his after the show.
(If you really want to see all my crazy photos, look here.)
The Fighter
30 Dec 2010 Leave a Comment
in movie Tags: moviereview, The Fighter
After a bit of a movie hiatus (not just in not updating my poor neglected blog, but in actually not seeing movies for almost two months) I jumped back on the horse with a good one. The Fighter is an intense and hard, but also good film. I found myself a little surprised, because I care not for boxing. I find it a brutal past time, hardly worth calling a sport. Even if it weren’t for that, I’ve read articles here and there about the craziness of crowning a ‘world champion’ with the machinations of the different boxing sports federations vying with each other. All of that faded to the background for me for this film, mostly because it is a boxing movie in the way that ‘Million Dollar Baby’ is. That is, it uses the framework of a standard boxing tale to explore the effects of crack addiction and showcase an almost Shakespearean family drama. The cast is fantastic. Mark Wahlberg, Christopher Nolan, Amy Adams, and Melissa Leo are fantastic leads and the other actors fill out the action well. The top four though, are just so good and their roles are so conflicted and rich, it is a joy to watch them perform. It isn’t always a joy to watch though. The brutal family dynamics, including the effects of addiction/an addict as a loved one, can be as harsh as some of the punishingly painful boxing scenes. If there is any complaint to be made, it would be if you weren’t expecting a genre boxing film and found the obligatory clichéd ending too much to take. I think that is the wrong approach to take. I appraised the movie as an exceptional genre boxing film that stretches those boundaries and becomes a little bit more.
Power of Radio – CBC/NPR
28 Nov 2010 Leave a Comment
in anecdote, Canadian Institutions, CBC, US_citizen_thoughts Tags: CBC, NPR, radio
While we’re in the information age and TV and the Internet are supposed to be ascendant, I find that radio makes me feel the national character of the country I’m in. I find that I feel very American whenever I cross back into the states and NPR comes on. And conversely, I feel the Canadianization process strongly when listening to the CBC. It is interesting how the governments somewhat mirror the radio stations. CBC is a Confederation, insofar that there is one schedule of shows that are played all over the nation while NPR mirrors the Federalist aspects of the US, with each station creating their own programming and schedule. To me the CBC feels like a binding, cohesive force whereas NPR mirrors the laboratory of states aspects of the US. Another difference that really struck me this year, after acclimating to the CBC for a good long while, is the government supported nature of the CBC versus the listener and corporate sponsored NPR (and the accompanying programming breaks).
Another interesting difference is the CBC has Radio 2, with its Canadian cultural promotion component, which the US, with its world dominating culture, of course doesn’t need. Listening to Radio 2, especially the drive time shows, has definitely helped jump-start my Canadian music awareness. I’ve written before about how Radio 2 has introduced me to all sorts of wonderful artists and help guide me in picking people to see in concert as they come through Ottawa.
The close similarities and subtle differences between the nations is also mirrored in the radio programs. There are each nations great story telling shows The Vinyl Cafe and Prairie Home Companion. The random factoid shows As It Happens and All Things Considered. And on and on. But listening to these ‘equivalent’ shows the differences tell all you need to know about the different countries. And if nothing else, the hourly weather update in Celsius vs Fahrenheit sets the tone. (As an aside, I’ve found the C v F conversion was the most difficult for me to make, partially since it is the most complicated mathematically. I confess that on my most recent trip to the states I’ve been making the conversion from F to C, to compare to temperatures back in Ottawa.)
So, call me a Luddite if you must, but I still strongly feel the power of radio. Technology should help me overcome my lack of NPR with the new fangled podcasts and MP3 players. Since I’m still very much a man of two cultures.
Cycling in the Park – My Autumn Adventure
19 Nov 2010 1 Comment
in cycling, outdoors Tags: autumn colors, fall leaves, Gatineau Park
This year fall snuck up on me, when I wasn’t looking, it fell. Normally I love to track the subtle change of the leaves as autumn falls, but this year there was a stretch where, between sickness and the rain, I was neither biking to work during the week or visiting Gatineau park on the weekend. So instead this year, it exploded onto my eyeballs as one big Autumnal-color bomb. The first week I drove up to Gatineau Park, as seemingly everyone in Ottawa did as well, and got a good look. After that I biked into the park on consecutive weekends. The ride along Gatineau Promenade, from the southern entrance up to where it intersects with Kingsmere, is a great distance, hilly enough to get the blood pumping, but not grueling, and I think a perfect way to take in the fall colors. (The round trip is about 9 mi/15 km.) I was amused to see a park sign to the effect of ‘Now open – Fall colors’, like it was a new exhibit on loan. Because the multipurpose trail turns to gravel a bit before Pink Lake, I usually take the trail on my way into the park and then forget to get back on it and take the road on the way back. (A random aside, being the non-Francophone that I am, yet prone to picking up little language tidbits, I tend to think of it as ‘Pink Lac’, combining the French words and English word order in a way that seems symbolic of my partial Canadian conversion.) Both are nice. The paths weren’t overrun with people so they are easy to navigate and, mostly, set off from the road enough to give you the sensation of being semi-secluded in the woods. The road isn’t so bad either. Obviously your trading speed for ambiance, but even on the busy weekends I felt fairly safe with all the cars about.
One last aside, on the way home I happened down Lyon street. The road work was finally finished and the nice smooth surface was a treat to ride. But that is not all, when they painted the lines they added a bike lane, which definitely makes that stretch of massive one way street a little less harrowing.
If you want more pictures, here are the rest of my park/city pictures.
Ottawa International Animation Festival 2010
27 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
in festivals, Ottawa International Animation Festival
Thursday night (Oct 21st) I went to my first night of the Ottawa International Animation Festival. It was the second night of the 2010 event, having opened on Wednesday. Last year, still being new to Canada and it’s ways, the Canadian Thanksgiving threw me off my rhythm, and by the time I recovered, the Animation Festival was over. I’m a big fan of movie festivals (consistently seeing 30-40 movies at the Cleveland International Film Festival when I used to live there). I decided to temper my enthusiasm though, and just get a six-pack of tickets (for price of 5).
Back to my ‘opening’ night. I ended up going to a familiar venue the Bytown (even though events are being held all over downtown at the Arts Court, Empire Theatre @ Rideau, National Archives, National Gallery and more. I did so because it was showing the Short Competition (2 of 5) and I love shorts. Back in my Cleveland Festival days, long before the idea of moving to Canada was the merest glimmer of a budding thought, I noticed that the Canada Government and Ontario and Quebec Provincial Governments sponsored a lot of good shorts. Now the event is an International festival, but some great home grown talent was represented as well. Before I try to give a quick review of the nights offerings, a general comment that the level of quality and originality was top notch. Even the couple that I didn’t ‘get’ still were the products of obviously talented fertile minds. This was a Gala night, so we, the audience, got to vote on the winners and some of the creators of the shorts were in attendance and were recognized. The creators ranged from high school to professional works.
The first, “Tok Talk!” by Mirae Yi & Rhyu Yeh Yeon, came from South Korea and the high school creators were in attendance. It told the story of a cell phone inspired dream/nightmare. Next up was my favorite of the night, “Parade” by Pierre-Emmanuel Lyet, from France. The idea was one I hadn’t seen before, where for the most part we only saw white eyeballs, and the rest of the screen was dark. There was a set of brightly colored blob/animals/hallucinations that followed the main character around. When they moved around, they back lit the people and scenery and showed who/what was attached to the eyes. Just exceedingly clever, beautiful and a cute story to boot. (I also appreciated that in the closing credits, ‘batman’ was thanked.)
Next, “Divers in the Rain” by Pritt Parn & Olga Parn, from Estonia was very imaginative and the animation style very ‘art’ like; however, even though it had moments that I appreciated, it went on for a bit too long and I don’t think I ‘got’ what they were aiming for. The next, “A Family Portrait” by Joseph Pierce from the UK was quite good. A family, mother, father, son, daughter, are getting their family portrait taken. The view of the different characters changes as you see them from the different family member’s perspective, i.e. the head of a pig or devil. Behind the terse, strained dialogue you can work out a whole range of family drama. (I was reminded of this ‘Awkward Family photo’ website just heard about on CBC.)
The next piece, “Light Forms”, hailed from Canada made by Malcolm Sutherland who was present. This was an abstract piece with various ‘light shapes’ appearing, fleshing out into ‘bodies’ and then disappearing to make way for the next set. The next, “WWF ‘Heroes of the UAE’” by Josiah Newbolt & Ben Falk from the UK was a PSA about minding you’re carbon footprint. ’Paper people’ made of cutouts moved about and represented the point the voice over was making.
The next entrant, “The undertaker and the dog” by Shin Hashimoto from Japan also had its creators present. A bit dark and done in an interesting drawing style, but I liked it. From the UK, “The Henhouse” by Elena Pomares was very cute, telling the tale of a fox that gains employment in a cafe, and had some good symbolism about taming of a wild animal. The USA was represented with “Midtown Twist” by Gary Leib. Its creators were in attendance. A short piece, but done in a fun style and upbeat music it grabbed you.
Another piece from Canada, with the creator in attendance, “Black Moon: One Thousand Beams of Radial Light for Strata Advancement” by Brandon Blommaert was next. Very short and odd, it was still evocative. Another PSA from the UK, “Launch ‘Dave’ ” by Tom Perrett & Mark Perrett encouraged energy saving. The cartoony style was effective and appropriate.
The next piece, “Sinna Mann (Angry Man)” by Anita Killifrom Norway was a very moving story told from the perspective of a child living with a violent parent. I found it interesting the socialist vision of the state helping people that showed through. At the end the father is sent off to a place to be helped and is shown to be rehabilitated (although it isn’t all tidily wrapped up, since the wife doesn’t welcome him back). The last one “The Burning Haus” by Nils Knoblish from Germany was quite short. It seemed like someone decided to give a 60 sec version of “The Watchmen” that distilled the central point.
So in summation, a fun night. You should really try to see “Parade” if you get the chance. And this is just the start.
Jack Goes Boating @ Bytowne
07 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
in movie
I’ll warn you now, this is a different, more meandering, review of the film then my usual.
I must confess to being a Philip Seymour Hoffman fan. So when I found out that he’d be directing a film, I was onboard before I knew anything else about it. The last time I can recall having this reaction to an actor’s directorial debut was George Clooney’s “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.” Perhaps that is why I found myself comparing these two movies. The topic/style of each film seemed to match the sensabilities of the actor/person. Confessions was suave and smooth with cinamaticly beautiful touches and all that covering an underlying seriousness of subject matter. Likewise, Hoffman’s movie seems to match him. ”Jack Goes Boating” is of the genre of independent movies about quirky characters. The movie is low-key and emotionally raw. I found myself thinking, this is like a play, after an intense scene that involved the four main actors within the confines of a small apartment; thus, was unsurprised to find out it was based on an Off-Broadway play by Bob Glaudini. (It is interesting that three of the leads Hoffman, John Ortiz, Daphne Rubin-Vega had acted in that play.)
The title character Jack, played by Hoffman, is a not yet launched man, still living in his uncle’s basement, working at his uncle’s limo business. His social circle is restricted to his friend, and fellow limo driver, Clyde (Ortiz) and, by extensions, Clyde’s wife Lucy (Rubin-Vega). Connie and Clyde, decided to set Jack up on a date with another awkward character, Connie (Amy Ryan) who works in Lucy’s office. That is pretty much it. The rest of the film is that playing out as Jack and Connie tentatively consider having a relationship and Clyde and Lucy try to help with advice on being on in a relationship.
In some respects this movie plays as a, belated, coming of age story. Jack, after meeting Connie, decides he wants to do things with and for her. This leads him to learn some basic skills like cooking, with the intent of cooking a dinner for Connie. Also, he learns to swim after a passing remark about going boating together turns into a mythic big-date-of-the-future (since it is winter in the movie and hence too cold for any boating in the near term).
One thing that struck me is that most of the people in the film are in a social class that is usually absent in movies. Most of the people are working class people. While the middle class and the poor are well represented in movies, it wasn’t until watching this film that I realized how underrepresented the working class is. In addition, many of the characters work in positions where they cater to the upper class people. This allows for some interesting juxtapositions, i.e. Jack learns to cook from an aquiantence that cooks at a fancy hotel and thus doesn’t just learn to cook, but how to make a meal with presentation.
Another element of interest is recreational drug use. Some of the characters engage in varying ‘hardness’ of drugs, from enjoying wine all the way up to, for a special occasion, doing a line of coke. Something about the matter of factness of the drug use, along with it not becoming a focus or an ‘important moment’ was striking.
One last slightly tangental thought about transportation. For a movie set in New York, because of the lead’s occupation, there is more driving then I’m used to seeing in an indy film set there. I don’t think it was at all the screen writers intention, but I noted that Jack starts in his ‘unlaunched’ state as a driver of cars and his desire is to ‘graduate’ to a position at the MTA. There is a, quite indirect, implied ranking of public transit over cars.
In summation, if you like ‘indy’ movies, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, or play-movies (a la David Mamet), I recommend this film.
My Summer Crush by Crush Improv @ Arts Court
26 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in comedy Tags: Arts Court, comedy, Improv
A quickie. I’d been meaning to check out more at the Arts Court ever since I first went there as part of the Dance Festival. This event was also on the second floor (in the Byzantine building that you have to take the elevator and them some half steps to get to the performance spaces) to the right of the box office instead of the left, as the dance performance was. This is a larger open space that was setup sort of like a night club with many tables and chairs around them. There were even beverages, alcoholic and otherwise, available for purchase.
The Improv group was a group of nine performers who cycled on and off stage playing various improv ‘games’ or scenes. Comparing them to ‘Who’s Line is It Anyway‘, they were a little rough, but for local talent they were quite good. I was also happy to get the local references (I recognized every mall named!) even if political references still go over my head. Also You & Me and Me & You, from Montreal, guest stared. They were quite good.
Crush Improv has been running for most of the summer, but there is one last show Saturday, August 28th for you to check out. This is all part of Summer Fling. They expire August 31st, but 2 for 1 dinner coupons were given out as well.
