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Reviews

Review: Medieval Times

What can I say about Medieval Times? It was great!

You eat a chicken dinner with your hands, watch a show of horses running around an arena with knights battling each other. What more can you ask for?

Each section is assigned a knight to cheer for (we cheered for Louis du Rouge – the Red Knight) who didn’t fare too well, but we thought had the greatest potential of becoming the greatest knight there ever was.

They had full out jousting along with knights somersaulting off of their horses and taking their swords to each other’s throats. Excellent!

All in all, I thought $75 would be too much to pay for something like this, but I was not disappointed. Louis even threw Vero a rose! Awww.

Click on the photo above to take a look at the rest of the photostream.

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Who wants to make a movie with me?

“There is no director attached to the project, nor have any cast members been announced. The sequel has already earned over $60 million in two weeks and cost only $4 million to make.” – Dark Horizons regarding Saw III

Holy crap. We need James in here stat to do some calculations as to what % increase that is.

If I were to create something, I would be happy with doubling my money. This is crazy. I don’t usually follow how much movies cost vs. how much they make.

Just goes to show that if you have a good concept that is cheap (Saw…takes place in virtually one room. Maybe a few scenes here and there) it will pay off in spades.

Emphasis on good concept and not some unoriginal piece of junk like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation 2.

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Reviews

Review: MCR and Matt Mays

Saturday morning, haul my ass out of bed and get going to Toronto for the weekend.

Picked up a few albums on the way there however to tide myself over on a music fix.

My Chemical Romance: Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge – As you know, I downloaded this a few weeks ago as per Mike’s suggestion and felt it was worthy of a purchase. If you know me, you’ll know I’m not into downloading from an artist. Hey, let’s be honest, I’ve done it without purchasing. But I try not to. I like the system of how I can listen to an album and decide if it’s worthy of my cash.

Matt Mays & El Torpedo – What can I say about these guys? Saw them open for Sam Roberts last year and they rocked. Bought his album that night and frankly, it blew. It wasn’t bad persay, but it was more of country-rock like Neil Young and not the rocking show that I saw that night. So when their new album came out, I was hesistant. But then I kept hearing some great singles. Then I realized that his cohorts in crime (El Torpedo) came on board AFTER his first album which he recorded on his own. Great! This must mean that the second album will have some more rock than country. Upon first listen…meh. I’ll have to give it another try as it was more background music to a car trip than a real listen. But…I noted a lack of rock throughout the entire album.

Car ride to Toronto was great. Vero turns out to be a good traveller…you never know if someone might up being super annoying and trying to change the music all the time.

Dropped into the aunt’s place where I had a nice surprise of seeing Rick and Dwayne since it was Rick’s birthday. Unfortunate that I did not know that beforehand or I would have passed on Medieval Times. They are trying to convince me to come down next weekend for a little gettogether (read: party till I bleed) but we’ll see. Two essays are calling my name, but I’m making an honest effort to get them done so that I can go down to Toronto again. I wasn’t originally going to, but the itch is within me after seeing them for a short time.

And off we went to Medieval Times…alas, it’s getting late. I’ll write more tomorrow.

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Here’s to you b’y

Friday night…Jody’s going away party. Good times had with a colleague who came from the Rock and is now returning.

The party was hosted by the lovely folks of Pansy Avenue and we were treated to smoke salmon (mmmboy), desserts, chili, and copious amounts of wine.

I must say that Maren’s parties are high up there on lists of events. They are not to be missed. I was disappointed that no one wanted to partake in the limbo once again, but at least we brought out the darts (to the fear of everyone around us).

Thanks Maren & co. for the wild times! I’m sure a few pictures will appear on the gallery soon enough.

Also picked up an album from AP by Steve Cuch. He’s from Sudbury and there’s a song about AP’s sister on the album…so far, not a bad album. Low key, acoustic stuff. This may be the way that Mike and I wish to go with our first attempt at recording. Just simple stuff really.

iplaying: 3Am by Matchbox Twenty

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Concert Reviews

Review: Our Lady Peace in Toronto – Nov 2005

Let’s recap:
I won two tickets to a win-to-get-in OLP concert at Massey Hall, along with a bus ride which we didn’t bother taking and a night at the Bond Place Hotel.

On Sunday, November 6, Vero and I awoke and went to watch Dwayne’s kids swim in the public pool which was fun. Aidan is fun to watch as the kid never has a frown on his face. The world is his oyster.

We drove downtown Toronto to go pick up our tickets to the show and ended up with some Rogers swag (mugs, satchel bag!!!) and a sweet $50 in cash for spending money. YEAH!

We then met up with Ryan and Robyn as seen in the previous entry about Body Worlds 2.

We get to the concert hall and find ourselves in the left balcony pretty well in front of the stage. Not too shabby seats. It was an interesting birds eye view of the stage. I thought the floor may have been better but I really enjoyed this view.

Setlist:

Picture
Starseed
Innocent
Angels/Losing/Sleep
Clumsy
Wipe That Smile Off Your Face
In Repair
Car Crash
Where Are You
Is Anybody Home?
Al Genina (Leave the Light On)
Waited
Walking in Circles
Thief
Boy
Will the Future Blame Us
Superman’s Dead

4am
The World on a String
Apology
Somewhere Out There
Naveed

Highlights of the night:
– Entire concert being filmed for what we thought would be a live DVD, but turns out to be a Rogers-on-Demand concert (still great! I’ll have to download it when it comes out!)
– Raine Maida climbing the speaker stack to go into the right balcony during Will the Future Blame Us. AMAZING! I was telling Vero earlier of how Eddie Vedder did this sort of thing in concert halls and then balcony-dove into the crowd. Nuts. Turns out that a few people from Ottawa U (friends of Vero) were actually RIGHT THERE in the right balcony where he was. Insane. Wish it would have been us.
– New acoustic intro to Clumsy
– Rant of George W. Bush during Wipe That Smile Off Your Face. “This is war, now.” Amazing.

All in all, I would have to say it’s probably the best OLP concert I’ve been to (surprisingly since I was in seats). I felt that they’ve hit a stride with their new album which I hope they run with.

iplaying: One [Live in Montreal – 2001-10-12 – That’s the concert I was at!] – U2. Bono is going on about meeting with Paul Martin about abolishing the African debt at the next G8 Summit. Interesting to see what has happened in 2005 and what was spoken about in 2001.

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An Apology


I’m going to send out an apology right now to everyone who I’ve been meaning to have over to my place, but just haven’t had over yet.

I live a nomadic life nowadays, where I either spend my time over at Vero’s or at class, or at work, or travelling through all of that. I would say that I am at my house a total of 10 hours a week (not including sleep time).

I find it ironic that as soon as I buy a house, I am no longer at it. I do not regret this as I want to focus my energies on education (and the new relationship of course. Props out to Vero!)

In order to ensure our security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first GALACTIC EMPIRE…wait a second, where did that come from?

What I meant to say is that the first annual Palmer Christmas Bash shall be forthcoming in December. I’ll check my exam schedule and I also suggest you let me know what Saturday’s are good for you. I’m assuming the 10th/17th are the ideal choice for people.

Also, hokey Christmas sweaters are definitely mandatory. You have enough time to knit one.

I can forsee this to be a grand event involving decorating Palmer’s pad for the holidays…we shall string popcorn, put up a tree, hang mistletoe around…dip into the eggnog and apple cider!

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Surreal Feeling

As I walk on the Ottawa U campus, I look around at the falling leaves, feel the chill in the air and see my girlfriend’s photo on a poster.

What?

Vero is quite the photogenic person. She appears on a billboard on the campus that has been there for a few years, and now she is the poster child for the Winter Challenge.

It’s strange just waiting for an elevator and looking at a poster with your girlfriend on it. It’s cool though…she should get royalties.

But imagine yourselves looking at someone you know on posters plastered all over your building.

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Payola

Contractor guy comes to me the first week I move in and says “Hey, I’m building the mini-mall in the back of you and need to use some electricity to recharge the batteries in my scissor-lifts”. Being a good samaritan I say ‘No Problem’ and he says he’ll give me $10/day.

I’m thinking that is a good deal. I swear most of the people who talked to me was saying “Oh my God Ryan, you’re going to get screwed when you get your bill! You don’t know how much electricity he’s using!”

They have a point, but I’m thinking there’s no way that he’ll go above $10/day. I mean…electricity bills are under $150 for 2 months usually (at least they are for me).

Got a cool $100 from the guy a few weeks ago.
Got my bill yesterday.
Verdict?
My electricity bill came out to $70 for the last two months.

Booya. I just got someone to pay for my bill plus have enough to buy a case of beer.

Lesson Learned: Don’t think everyone in the world is out to scam you. Sometimes you get rewarded for helping others.

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Where the heck are those TPS Reports?

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=18325

An excellent review of Office Space: Special Edition. I was tempted to pick this up at Wal-Mart yesterday.

Speaking of Wal-Mart, no bonus DVD with copies of Revenge of the Sith at Canadian Wal-Marts! Booo!

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Reviews

Review: Saw II

We’re going to see Saw 2 tonight at SilverCity if anyone wants to join. We’re also meeting up at Moxie’s at 5:30. Need a reservation so if you want in, let us know so we can up the reservation number.

Heck, why make a new entry when I can just edit this one?

Alright, so Joe, Trish and I went to Moxie’s for some great grub. I recommend the Shanghai Fat Noodles. They were tres fat. AND THE WASHROOMS! My Lord! I now want a urinal with a tv in front of it. This washroom had tvs, a fireplace and I’m pretty sure that dude would have wiped my ass if I asked him to. It was great.

Shopped around Future Shop and Chapters and then headed to the movie. Picked up the new Star Wars Insider. I must get the Star Wars Fan Club membership instead of picking up these magazines at the newstand. I think the membership costs $50, and six magazines a year cost $60. You do the math. PLUS, I get access to the archives on their website. Sweet.

What can I say about Saw II? Throughout the movie I felt that it wasn’t holding my interest quite as it did as the first movie. It was decent, but not what I was expecting for a sequel.

Until the end! In true Saw-fashion, the ending kicked ass and I left the movie satisfied.

I recommend this movie to only those not of the faint of heart. I don’t think Trish particularly cared for it. I think Saw was pretty gruesome, but I think Saw II got pretty crazy at the end. Don’t know if the kids would care for it.

Question of the night: Does the ending of a movie make the movie? Let’s analyze…did I care for the entire movie up until the end? It was decent. Not the best, but decent. Nothing really happened. A few crazy scenes here and there, but nothing over the top. What the heck am I saying? It was all over the top…but in between the crazy scenes it didn’t really engage me. But here I am saying to go see this movie because I thought overall it was great, but the ending may be telling me to say that.

So, can you think of movies you’ve seen where you thought the film was mediocre, but the ending made up for it?

I can think of one. My fave Matrix movie – The Matrix Reloaded. I am more satisfied if I just cut to the scene where they visit the Merovingian. That’s where the movie takes off for the last hour. Non-stop action. Maybe this is a bad example considering an entire hour of a movie can’t be considered an ending.

nowplaying: Pennies by The Smashing Pumpkins (Billy’s Gravity Demos I)