Month: March 2007

I checked out The Black Donnellys last night after hearing some hype and not to mention the debacle with the Arcade Fire refusing to have Rebellion (Lies) appear in the final minutes of the show. I figured I should see what this show is about.

Well, I wasn’t disappointed. I enjoy a good mob story and this has its roots in it – the Irish vs. the Italians. Now THAT’S a story.

The show follows the four Donnelly brothers and how they all differ from one another but are brothers nonetheless and stick together no matter what. You find out that Jimmy gets into trouble all the time whereas Tommy is the good brother – the one who is going to university. Then the other two brothers are there and…well I don’t know what they do yet. They are supporting characters so far.

So they are the Irish side of the equation. But then you have the Italian side of the neighbourhood who (of course) don’t really care for the Irish ruling part of the neighbourhood so there’s always people going back and forth trying to keep the peace.

Anyhow, something goes wrong with the peace and basically…well, hey you can watch it for yourself.

This was an excellent pilot episode. It gives a taste of all the characters so you automatically know who you are interested in the most and it sets up the story for the remainder of the season (if not the series). Much like how the first episode of Voyager has them being whisked off away from home and they have to spend the whole series trying to find a way back.

For those of you who watched the show (no, I won’t spoil anything here) but the Arcade Fire’s song was to happen where Snow Patrol’s Eyes Open occurs at the end of the show. Supposedly you can go on Youtube and watch the Arcade Fire version. I hear it flows better. I enjoy Eyes Open as a song but can see why Rebellion would have been a better fit.

Anyhow, that’s that. Catch this show. Heck, even my Dad had heard about it and asked if I had watched it. Clearly this is an indication that it’s getting some street cred.

Hey, while we’re at it, why don’t I run down my list of shows I’m watching right now and see if you agree with what’s going on? I was talking about this very topic with the boys and girls at lunch.

– Heroes: Pretty well my fave show of the year. Awesome plot of course and hey, it involves superheroes. You can’t go wrong. It isn’t slowing down.
– Prison Break: I still enjoy the show even though it’s taken a 180 degree spin from the original premise of the show (aka breaking out of a prison). I still enjoy the story though. Reminds me of a high scale version of The Fugitive.
– Lost: I must admit that the third season is starting off VERY SLOW. However, now that it’s back on the air for a straight run I think it will be a killer season. I personally enjoyed Season 2 more than Season 1 as it opened up the story quite a bit. I can only imagine this will happen in Season 3. Prediction: Lost will end by Season 4. They don’t want to pull another Alias.
– Smallville: Honestly, this show just keeps giving. Season 5 was kind of a letdown, but Season 6 is killer. They introduced the Green Arrow who could stand on his own as a series (at one point I thought I WAS watching the Green Arrow show) and have some good developments with Lex Luthor. This is the year of Lex and we’ll see him shine as the bad-guy he is supposed to be.
– Greys Anatomy: I still enjoy the show and cannot complain about too much. It isn’t overly amazing to me, but it isn’t overly bad either. I enjoy watching it. That’s what counts.

Let’s backtrack. The Arcade Fire’s Funeral album is amazing.

Let’s get back to the present. Neon Bible is the Arcade Fire’s second full-length release and the world is anticipating what they have to offer. The Arcade Fire has shot to super-stardom and we’re proud to say they are from Montreal.

I have given the album a few quick listens and am impressed with the album, but must admit that it doesn’t have nearly as many tracks that are dedicated to the frantic change in tempo of songs that Funeral had. This was one of the things I fell in love with. Am I disappointed? Heck no. I’ve only given it a few listens and am not denouncing it. I think a few more close listens will let me know if this album is worthy of the Arcade Fire monicker. Does that sentence even make sense? They made the album, it’s their music, so I suppose it IS worthy!

I enjoy the direction they took with recording some old church organs and going to Budapest for cheap labour orchestras and choirs. I’ll have to remember that when I want some on my album. Budapest – the cheap route for good music.

Of more interest is the production stories surrounding an album, like how Neon Bible was recorded out of a church that the Arcade Fire purchased and made their home for a year. They constructed bedrooms, had a cook and lived in Nowheresville, Quebec for a year to record the album. Everything (except for one track) was recorded on old-school analog tapes. A rare feat in these times where digital is the way to go.

All in all, it’s a decent album so far and I am excited to see them live in Montreal with Mike.

I’ve also realized that it’s kind of silly to write a review of an album before really getting a good listen to it. 😉

One of the cooler events of the weekend occurred when Eric and I brought his two nephews – Alex and Mathieu, out to Ray’s Reptile Farm. Eric had been to it before but I had not so I figured it was a good time to go and check it out.

Note: I haven’t been hanging around kids all that much in the last few years but I just realized how they are in the car. Feelings of car-sickness, ‘are we there yet?’ and wanting to go for some fast food was the entire ride. Mom and Dad, I’m sorry for my youth. 😉

All kidding aside, they weren’t bad at all, and were cool to hang around with.

When we get to the reptile farm, Eric graciously pays my way in and we check out the wares. I must admit it was pretty cool considering I haven’t seen 75% of these animals in real life before. They had giant turtles, snakes, tarantulas (!!!), crocs and alligators. Very cool! So after meandering around for 20 minutes, you are asked to go back to this room where they have a presentation and someone brings out actual reptiles for us to hold.

The first such creature was some flying squirrel that just wouldn’t stay still so she had to bring it back into its cage. Nothing exciting there.

Then she brought out this rose coloured tarantula. Eric was the only one who held the spider in his hand as both his nephews and I were deathly afraid of tarantulas. I had more reason to be afraid after something spooked the spider and it enabled its defense mechanism on the handler. Supposedly it shot out hairs from its body all over the womans arms and neck and then she was itching profusely. Not a deadly touch, but an annoying one, nonetheless.

Then she brought out this huge snake that wrapped around her body. The kids gathered round and held the snake up – I would say it was at least 3 meters long. I felt it’s skin. Pretty rough actually. Never touched snake skin before.

Oh yeah, I can’t forget the giant turtle they brought out. He started walking towards the exit and Eric yelled out “Quick, he’s getting away!” We all had a great laugh at that.

There was a break of 15 minutes so we meandered around the souvenir shop where we heard someone ask if they had seen (mumble mumble, couldn’t catch the name of the species) because one had escaped. Eric and I just looked at each other and wondered what adventure we were getting ourselves into. Visions of one of the nephews wrestling a crocodile came to mind.

When we returned to the presentation, they had a feeding demonstration. They had some toads eat cockroaches which was neat in the fact that they told us how toads don’t have throats so when something is in its mouth, they use their eyes to push the food down into their stomach. Coolness!

Then there were snakes eating mice. Nothing exciting there.

Then he brought us to the Nile Crocodile where he fed some rats to them. Overall, I was semi-impressed as he jumped in the air for one of them, but the handler mentioned that they are usually more hungry than this and are just getting used to the new cage. He also mentioned how the Nile Crocodile (or perhaps all crocs?) are the only reptile who actively pursue mammals. So if you were going for a swim at the same time every morning, it would be smart enough to detect the pattern and attack you one morning. Insane! He also mentioned how alligators don’t attack humans. There have been 18 reported cases of injuries in the past 65 years and they usually deal with people who are making movements above the water so the alligator thinks “Hey, what’s that?”, takes a chomp out of the arm and then realizes it’s nothing it’s interested in. Granted, it still sucks for the guy who lost an arm but it’s good to know that alligators are our friends (generally).

All in all, I was impressed with the reptile farm and would recommend it to anyone who wants an fun activity to do during a morning/afternoon. Eric said the last time they went, the giant python ate a whole (dead) chicken. Now THAT would have been cool.

Two very enthusiastic thumbs up for Ray’s Reptile Farm.

Before I start this, I suppose I should tell Mom that when she called last night and I said I did nothing all weekend, it must have slipped my mind that I had a packed weekend except for Sunday. So when Sunday night came around and I was talking to her, I was zonked from being inside and cleaning all day long that I could not recollect anything of importance that happened in the past weekend. Sorry Mom!

But there were good times to be had on both Friday and Saturday. After work on Friday we headed out to Darcy McGee’s for an after-work pint which turned into a taster platter from Ireland. Awww yeah. I highly recommend buying it wherever you can. It’s good to get a taste of different beers.

Once I hit home around 8PM, I entered just in time to catch Babel on the television, which Mike and Carolyn had rented. Bonus!

All in all, the movie entertained me but I wouldn’t say it was mind-blowingly amazing. I enjoyed the storyline, the characters, the character development and how they tied together in the end. I definitely recommend the movie to everyone but I just can’t see why it was nominated for many Oscar’s. Big celeb Brad Pitt makes an appearance in the film which I hope for his sake that his white hair on the sides isn’t his real hair. Man, that dude looked old!

I’ve noticed that lately in films the big thing is having parties walking around the film and then the audience finds out how they are all connected at the end. This drives the audience wild! “…and then you find out that the post woman was really married to the eccentric millionaire who lost his stuffed bear when he was 7 and it ended up in Antarctica where Tito digs it up while fishing out ice for Apu!” WOW! I must admit that I am also amused when I see a movie that has connected characters in it (but don’t meet within the screen-time) but it makes me wonder what the big fascination with the six degrees of separation is all about.

So…two thumbs up. Check out the film. Supposedly it is part of a loose trilogy of movies where other characters show up in other films. I’ll be checking out the others also.