We haven’t completely lost our minds like the Yanks have.
(Thanks to AKMA and BoingBoing for the link)
Categories
The Modern Gentleman
While sick earlier this week, I took the chance to lie in bed, put The Verve Story on in the background and finally get around to reading The Modern Gentleman: A Guide to Essential Manners, Savvy & Vice, which was given to me at my last birthday party.
It’s a very light and breezy read, appreciated even through the haze of cold medication, and some passages made me even laugh out loud. Some of the advice is spot-on and echoes classics such as How to be a Gentleman and The Gentleman’s Guide to Life, some of it is stuff you should (or should have) learned by the time you hit thirty, some of it should make you say “What, are you out of your mind?” and some of the advice just hasn’t been written for some of life’s nastier surprises (the dating tips, for example, are useless for those one or two extreme dating situations that proved you’ve lived, and there’s nothing on what to do if your proposal of marriage is rejected; they assume success. Really, folks, this stuff happens.).
The book’s best feature is its writing — Messrs. Mollod and Tesauro are master stylists who easiliy blend the prose from classic etiquette books with twenty-first-century sauciness and wit. Here’s the opening paragrpah from the introduction:
A man may possess expensive duds, slick wheels and a tongue to match, but these are not the prerequisites of a gentleman. A gentleman is defined by how he carries himself and stormy climes. A student of the classics and a pilot of the new, he recommends sizzling reads, pays his gambling debts, mans the grill, and curbs his dog. Reserved, flamboyant or likely somewhere in between, a gentleman’s charisma is cultivated, not canned. He fosters an infectious comfort in others as they quietly marvel at his manner and his hats, from the erudite bowler to the plucky fedora. Little charms performed thoughtfully ensure that the inevitable faux pas are measured against a graceful reputation. He can be trusted with his word and your wife.
If you’re an aspiring gentleman with an upcoming plane flight coming up or need something to read during lunch or your daily commute, I heartily recommend this book. At the very least, it’ll make interesting conversational fodder when guests peruse your bookshelf.
If the film shoots here in Accordion City are going to be any indication, the sequel to Resident Evil is going to be incredibly over-the-top.
Last week, they closed the Don Valley Parkway intermittently so that they could shoot a helicopter chase scene.
Last night, while running to the store for snacks, we noticed that New City Hall was all aglow. Being the curious sort, we walked over there — a mere ten minutes from my house — to find the buildings bathed in the light emitted by some extremely powerful spotlights. As we walked closer, we noticed an stuntperson in a harness scaling the wall of the west tower. She was suspended from her back and facing downwards. A few moments later, the director yelled action, and the stuntperson ran headfirst down the wall. It was amazing to watch, and I kicked myself for not having my camera with me. Murphy’s Law of Cameras — there’s never one when you need it — had bitten me again.
Someone nearby told us that the stuntperson was in fact Milla Jovovich, who’s had a fair bir of training in “wirework” and likes doing some of her own stunts. There were a number of close-up shots for this scene, so it was necessary for her to do at least some of the stunt work. The budget for the film, he told us, was US$42 million, $30 million of which would be spent here in Canada. Many blockbuster films are filmed in Toronto, but the well ran dry with the SARS scare. He speculated that this film is supposed to help bring Hollywood movie crews back, but it may be tricky, what with SARS paranoia and Hollywood believing that America’s exclusive right to be a movie location was handed down to them by God (it’s the “Free Market” you guys cherish so much — it cuts both ways).
The guy also remarked on the fact that this new Resident Evil movie was yet another zombie film in a wave of horror flicks, and we both noted that the last big horror wave was also when America was undergoing paranoid fits — terrorism now, and the red scare back then.
With any luck, Milla and her filmmates (including host Carson’s brother, Zack Ward) will unwind again at tomorrow night’s Kickass Karaoke.
And since it’s a long weekend (that’s right, folks, it’s Thanksgiving weekend in Canada), I’m hoping that this sunday’s edition of Kickass Karaoke is a little more raucous than usual!
Tomorrow’s Kickass Karaoke will take place at the regular Sunday venue, The Rivoli (332 Queen Street West). Just go through the front door and follow the stairs up.
Among the things you’ll see at Kickass Karaoke are these fine gentlemen from my Asian gang known to Accordion City and the world as “Asian Gang” (pictured from left to right — Wil, me, Howard and Gavin):
Those of you with Hipster Bingo Cards, should come to Kickass Karaoke! Just by going there, you can check off the “Uber-hot Asian Hipster (male)” box four times!
More backlogged photos and video that I’d been meaning to blog.
Crab mosh pit
Updated: The link for the movie now works!
My house is right by the downtown Chinatown. If you’re not the kind of person who gets all queasy at the sight of fish and the like at open-air markets, Chinatown is a bargain-hunting paradise. A couple of weeks ago, after going out to Dim Sum with Deenster and her sister Lisa (who’s visiting from Tel Aviv) we walked by the markets just in time to see a fresh shipment of crabs get dumped into a stall and the shopping frenzy that ensued. I managed to get a video of the crab madness (1 MB QuickTime).
The Hippopotamus magazine party
One night in early September, I was accosted by a number of young women wearing hippopotamus costumes. After pinching myself to make sure it wasn’t some kind of wish-fulfillment dream, I found out that they were having a fund-raising party for a humour magazine called The Hippopotamus. While they could stand to work on their humour writing, they’re a cute bunch who throw good parties.
And hey, cute girls in hippo costumes!!!
I’m told the masks are modeled after the game Hungry Hungry Hippos:
More Montreal photos
Once again, thanks to Dave Polaschek for the VIA rail vouchers, which enabled us to travel first class, home of the all-you-can-drink Grand Marnier and fine dining, as Paul demonstrates:
Every Sunday, hand drum players in Montreal converge on what might be the world’s largest regular drumming circle: Tam Tam.
In the land of the drummers, the one-accordioned man is king.
Don’t I look as if I should be a member of the Buena Vista Social Club?
Categories
Sick day item #2
I uploaded some backlogged photos and movies during yesterday’s sick day, but never actually made a blog entry for them. Here’s the first set, which I call “Nephewpalooza”!
Here’s my nephew Aidan at his 2nd birthday party, shown with his mom — and my sister — Eileen:
Here’s Aidan and his all-time favourite uncle!
We’re going to make a keyboard player of out Aidan yet — here’s a video (1.1 MB QuickTime) of Aidan jamming on the toy of mine that he loves the most, my portable keyboard.
This is Aidan’s younger brother, Nicholas, a.k.a. “Nico”…
Categories
The Internet is no longer "over"
It’s been a few days since Versign did the right thing (but not without much whining, crying and outright lying — yeah, guys, “lots of people” loooooved SiteFinder — but typing a non-existent or invalid domain name no longer brings you to their search page.
My Python script for testing whether or not the Internet is over (which caught the attention of at least one techie site) now spits out the result “It’s still good”, but the most heartening thing is this lovely dialog box that Safari displayed:
