What a helluva day. Once I’m caught up with my work, I’ll tell you folks about how I spent the morning and early afternoon: scrambling to replace a stolen passport in order to be able to fly to the States next Wednesday for RailsConf. It’ll be educational: if you ever need to replace a Canadian passport in a hurry, you’ll know how.
In Manila, the city in which I was born, movie poster billboards have tended to be hand-painted affairs, with the renditions of the actor’s faces varying with the artist. While their renditions of faces in Filipino movies are within the ballpark, sometimes the faces they paint for stars of American movies are hilariously unrecognizable (I recall a particularly crappy Macaulay Culkin in a poster for Home Alone 2).
Manila’s not the only city to feature home-grown hand-painted movie posters; consider these gems from Minsk, courtesy of the English Russia site. Click each poster to see a corresponding official version.
Belarusian poster for 50 First Dates. Click the image to see an official poster.
Belarusian poster for Bridget Jones’ Diary. Click the image to see the still frame that inspired it.
Belarusian poster for Scooby-Doo. Click the image to see an official poster.
Tomorrow, Tuesday May 8th, another Geeks and Guitars event will take place at The Press Club (850 Dundas Street West), a lovely little bar on Dundas Street West, a bit east of Trinity Bellwoods Park:
It’s their weekly open mic jam night; Mark Kuznicki gave it a name by which we TorCamp people refer to it. They provide a decent drum kit and amplification for guitar, bass and vocals. There’s a house band that does a handful of numbers, and the free-for-all format allows for either solo performances or group jams.
You know it’s a good jam night when not one but two accordionists show up.
Here are some excerpts from Martini Boys’ (a trusted reviewer of Accordion City drinkeries) review of The Press Club:
Credit co-owners Shawn Merritt and Natalie Robinson with recognizing a singular opportunity when it came their way and seizing it. They have graced the Dundas West Strip with a hidden gem that will soon be discovered especially since they’ve opened it up on a street that is still a local secret.
Having the opportunity to chat Shawn up it turns out that he did a stint as a columnist in Vietnam but makes it clear that PC isn’t some dry “book club”. His main intention was to eventually offer rare liquors that he’d import from Vietnam: snake flavoured booze, rare flower spiked liquids that one can’t find in your regular bar-around-town. The atmosphere, being more European bar than English pub makes it easy to sidle up next to your neighbour and actually have a conversation, as suggested by the large corner bench that pulls the whole place together.
…
“The Press Club”, being the newest addition to an area that isn’t yet sullied by overpriced drinks, obnoxious doormen and dress codes in effect will surely succeed in due time. It has just opened after all, the art work that the owners plan to display has yet to make it on the walls, the rare liquors that Sean intends to import have yet to make it across the border, but once the little wrinkles are ironed out, The Press Club will attract more of a Dorothy Parker type than, say, an “Alfie” type.
The jam night doesn’t really get going until about 9:30 or 10ish; I plan to show up avec accordion around then.
Jammin’ with James on accordion at the Press Club a couple of weeks ago.
If you like ”lolcats” — pictures of cats with humourous captions, often written in the bad grammar we imagine that cats have — you’ll love I Can Has Cheezburger?, a site that provides a daily dose of lolcats. Here’s one from today, featuring that strange English cat who makes a daily routine of riding the bus all by itself:
If you haven’t yet see the video in which David Hasselhoff is drunk on the floor eating a cheeseburger while his daughter asks him to lay off the booze, click here to watch the video and squirm. I normally don’t do celebrity gossip on this blog, but I consider this case a public service announcement: Live your life as an example to follow, not as a warning to others!
I’m with Treacher on this one (the world’s getting weird when I’m exchanging bons mots and greetings with Jim Treacher and Andrew Levy, two guys who blog on Fox News talking head Greg Gutfeld’s site): I choose to remember the happy times. For your Monday viewing pleasure, here’s the video of the Hoff’s cover of Hooked on a Feeling:
(Images courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.)
If you plan to attend next Tuesday’s open mic night — a.k.a. “Geeks and Guitars” at the Press Club (850 Dundas Street West, between Manning and Euclid), you have an assignment.
Make sure you are familiar with these two chords, E and A:
Those two chords are all you need for a number of songs, including one I’d like to try: The Gourds’ version of Snoop Dogg’s Gin and Juice.
Tomorrow is the first Saturday in May, which means that it’s Free Comic Book Day!
2007 will mark the 6th annual Free Comic Book Day. For those of you not familiar with it, here’s an excerpt from their FAQ:
1. What is “Free Comic Book Day?”
As the name implies, Free Comic Book Day is a single day when participating comic book shops across North America and around the world are giving away comic books absolutely free to anyone who comes into their stores.
2. When is Free Comic Book Day?
Free Comic Book Day will take place on May 5, 2007.
3. Are they really free?
Yep!
4. Is every comic book store in the world doing this?
If you’re asking about convenience stores with a spinner rack of comics in a corner somewhere, the answer is no. This event celebrates the independent comic book specialty stores, thousands of which exist in North America alone. Each one is unique in its community, with a style and personality all its own, and each one carries a full line of comics, graphic novels, and related products.
While we hope every one of these stores will take part, each store will determine on its own whether or not to participate.
5. Then how do I know where to go to get my free comics?
As May 5 approaches, www.FreeComicBookDay.com will launch a customized database that will show you participating stores in your area. Sign up for our e-mail newsletter to be alerted when the database is ready, or check back in early April.