Hello

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and everything in between. It’s been a while since the last time I wrote anything. I really didn’t mean for the last post of the year to be about writer’s block and a really bad movie, it just kinda happened that way. Writer’s block will do that to you but I guess I just got caught up in the season or, more likely, I was simply lazy.

I did have 8 drafts of started posts for the holiday season. They were mostly Christmas related ie shopping,  carols, and merriment with some stuff about music and other randomness. I didn’t realize how many I had begun and I gave myself kudos for at least trying but when I went to review what I wrote most of it was one liners. Lame. The good thing is a couple of them are salvageable and maybe if I remember they are there they will get posted next year.

I have been up to quite a bit since then including trying some new restaurants like Harlem Underground. The place is small with a cool, laid back atmosphere. The night I went there was a live jazz trio that was awkwardly placed in the middle of the restaurant that I actually had to walk through to get to my seat but it added to the overall ambiance of the place. The wait staff was nice but the service was incredibly slow. Usually that would deter me from going but the food is so good. Everything that was ordered was full of flavour and simply delightful; fried chicken, barbecue chicken, sweet potato fries, candied yams, southern style mac and cheese, and, an interesting dish that everyone seemed to love but it wasn’t my favourite, fried pickles. I think I am missing something but whatever it was it was still good.

Also went to a place called Dazzling on King W. It was good, reasonably priced and a pleasant environment. It was just alright. The place is just nice with nothing really standing out. I am kind of shruggy about the place.

I took in some art on my holiday as well. I went to the Tim Burton exhibit on at Bell Lightbox. It was spectacular. Really if you can go you should. There’s a bit from everything that Tim Burton has had a hand in. There are doodles, art school projects, short stories, concept work from when he worked at Disney, props from movies and a few of his personal projects. It really gives you an insight into his creative mind and some of his process. The one thing that is the only downside is that it is overwhelming. There is just so much clustered together.

One of my favourite things at the exhibit was actually one of the first things that you see when you walk in. A short stop-motion animated film about Vincent Miloy. Everything about this screams the cinematic genius that is Tim Burton; it is strange, it is funny, and it is sweet. I had never heard of it or seen it before but now I get great pleasure from watching this over and over again.

I, of course, saw a few movies too. Not as many as you would think though – I missed a couple of weeks because Christmas parties kept getting in the way. I did see Tron: Legacy, True Grit and Season of the Witch. A lot of people have seen these movies so I will just give you a brief statement of what I thought.

Tron: Legacy : Was good, not great, and definitely not epic like many of the people who saw it thought it was going to be. It was very much like the original in the fact that it was visually stunning and pushed film technology forward – it has one of the best motion capture effects with they young Jeff Bridges (it still isn’t right and there is something creepy about it though) and they utilized the 3D better than most of the movies out there. But not surprising it lacked greatly in the story/script, there was just something missing. At least, unlike the original, this movie tells a very linear story that isn’t disjointed. I re-watched the first one and was amazed at how choppy (and boring) the story was but I could still see why it was a hit.

True Grit: This is a great movie, it is a classic western with a Coen Brothers twist. I was worried when I walked in to see this movie because I had been told that it was melancholy and slow but I didn’t find that at all. Sure there were slower bit to the film in setting up the story were there was a lot of talk but I thought the pacing was good. There was a proper set-up and introduction to all the characters that was not to lengthy or abrupt; there were moments of intensity/action that were well spaced and not random; the dialogue was filled with humour and the acting was amazing. You may have read this a thousand times but Hailee Steinfeld stole the show. She was just astonishingly good as Matty Ross. This is a remake but I haven’t seen the original so I don’t know how it compares.

Season of the Witch: It was bad. I will not waste any more time on this movie. I can’t believe I saw this and I have yet to see Black Swan.

I read some books but I will write reviews for those later. And I saw Green Hornet this past weekend so I will write a review for it tomorrow. Who believes that will happen? I may surprise you.

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