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September 4, 2000 Whatever happened to... What is happening with Liam Hall and Shaun Going presently detained in Yugoslavia? There hasn't been a lot of news about them lately. I did a few searches at different Canadian news sites along with a few foreign ones and found out from The Globe And Mail and The National Post Web sites that the investigation against the two is still in progress. The prosecution needs to gather more evidence so they could convincingly charge the pair of attempted sabotage. The two Canadians will probably be detained for at least another month. Will "Capitaine" Chrétien and Lloyd "Battle" Axworthy save the day? Or will Milosovec get bored and simply kick Hall and Going out of the country? Stay tuned for more news -- hopefully! This summer so far The SQ is accused of allowing people to die in highway crashes because they don't enforce the speed limit, a group of union heavyweights try to crash a PQ party conference, Air Canada came very close to a pilots' strike, a building contractor's new buildings are falling apart, the old Lavigueur residence in Laval was torched, and there are numerous highway construction sites around town trying to prevent what's left of our overpasses from falling on top of the cars below. On the flip side, the summer festivals are busy as usual, Quebec girls are still very beautiful, the crime rate is reasonably low, and people on the whole are still friendly on the streets even at 3 AM after the bars close. The weather may have been a bit on the cool and wet side this summer, but we've had worse. Remember the year of the July 14th flood when the Décarie expressway became a river? Or on another extreme, how about the ice storm and all those collapsing power lines? At least for once in a long time, you can sleep comfortably at night in the middle of summer and not leave a puddle of sweat in the bed. So I say goodbye to the summer of 2000. It was reasonably nice and there weren't any problems I didn't already half-expect. I hope it was the same for you. Two Five Star reviews this week (or very close to it) "North By Northwest" and "The Sound Of Music". The second title received a bit of a backlash from a few DVD review sites lately. All I can say is that "The Sound of Music" DVD still looks and sounds better than any other version previously available and we should be at least happy Fox is finally delivering a few decent special editions of their movies. Fox definitely will be removed from the DVD community's "Black List" if this keeps up. But please. No more spoilers like what was done with "The Planets of the Apes" DVDs! Not everyone has seen the movie and printing the climax all over the packaging is just plain stupid. Happy Labour Day everyone! Now get back to work! |
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August 28, 2000 Léon: The Professional: The Bug: The Follow-up The news is not good. Based on the posts at the Home Theater Forum, The feedback from Columbia is that the track they supplied is what was available at the time, and they don't plan to recall the DVD. I don't believe a word for it. If the DD 5.1 soundtrack is all they have, how did they get the Dolby Surround mix? All these soundtracks are normally created from a single multichannel master. So if the surrounds are correct on the DD 2.0 mix but dead on the DD 5.1 mix, what happened? Were two completely different soundtrack masters created? And why is the DD 5.1 soundtrack all right on the American version of the DVD? Where did they get that one? It doesn't make any sense. Columbia's reputation for producing excellent DVDs is being harmed by this gaffe. "On parle un lousy French" That quote was from a film clip shown in a permanent exhibit at the Museum of Man in Ottawa twenty years ago. But this issue is more significant today that it was then. And not only with the French language. The first problem is with the French language as it is spoken in France. It's sounding more like an English hybrid. There is a constant barrage of English words being mixed into everyday conversations and it's getting worse. Very often, English words are used where French equivalents are readily available. And nowhere is it so bad than with technology terminology. "Home Cinema" instead of "Cinéma Maison". "E-mail" instead of a variation of the word "courrier" ("courrier électronique", "courriel" or just plain "courrier"), "Browser" instead of "fureteur". And before you think that this doesn't apply to you because you only speak English, think again! The other problem I've been seeing recently is the constant barrage of spelling mistakes in both languages! And I'm not talking about complex words here. I'm talking about short, simple words! How many times have you seen the words "lose" and "loose" used improperly? "Did you lose something" suddenly becomes "Did you loose something". No basic spell checker will pick up this gaffe since both words exist in their dictionaries. And it changes the context of the message. In some cases, the mistake is such that the whole meaning of a sentence is changed and there isn't a way to determine what it was the person was actually trying to say. For the benefit of all the world's languages, could we please clean up this mess? In this age of instant communications, it's important that the message does not become distorted by a case of bad spelling or crossed languages. It may seem complicated when you take into consideration the number of languages that exist in the world. But the simple fact is this: to ensure your own language survives the test of time, you must embrace it, respect it and above all else, use it properly! Backstabbing 101: the graduation class (of one) So the business consultant won the Survivor Series. He knew what was the goal of the series from the very beginning and effectively demolished the team members one at a time by conspiring against them with the help of other team members. What a great message it sends to the youth of America! And if he is this good on an island with a handful of people, imagine the carnage he can cause in the business world! A million? He stands to make ten times that much with speaking engagements, consultation work and other such ventures! And the non-survivors will also probably get their million dollars with all the side deals they are currently negotiating. The talent agents and negotiators will be very busy for the next month or so. So now that The Survivor Series is finally over, what about the "other" show Big Brother? In this show, the interaction between the house guests is a total opposite from The Survivor Series. A legitimate family has formed over the last few weeks. And what happened last week? Out of the seven remaining guests, their nominations for banishment resulted in six house guests being selected out of the seven! Five of them got two nominations each and one got three! And who is going to get the boot this time? There's no way of knowing for sure. The popularity polls are still very close. There's going to be a lot of luggage to pack this week! What to review? I wasn't planning to review anything in particular this week due to a lack of
proper inspiration. At least that's what I thought until I took a stroll
in downtown Montreal last weekend and found a low-brow DVD called
"Endangered Feces: The Very To be brief, this guy has a mental problem! Or two... Or three... If you ever wondered if it's possible to succeed in life with a cable-access TV show, this is how you do it -- if you have the guts! My sympathies go to Mr. and Mrs. Green along with the inhabitants of the Ottawa region who had to put up with this nutcase's antics! Now that he's in the States with his show on MTV, we can all enjoy some peace and quiet until his show gets canceled and he has to come back up here. Have a good week! And STAY AWAY FROM THE MILK! |
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Léon: The Professional: The Bug This week's review is the International cut of "Léon: The Professional". However, it seems there is clearly a bug in the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Multiple reports on the Net are indicating that the rear channels are so muted that it's as if they didn't exist. One person even indicated the LFE track was also muted which seems to be true enough when you compare the bass response between the English and isolated music score tracks. My contact at Metro Video located in downtown Montreal didn't have any complaints from customers as of now, but he did listen to the disc on the weekend and also noticed the surround tracks were pretty much dead. So what will happen? Already the Future Shop Web site has the DVD available only on special order from the manufacturer. One other person indicated the DVD was pulled from the store shelves as well. Is it the beginning of a recall? Who knows? I'll keep you all posted. In the meantime, check out my review of the movie. Despite the problem with the soundtrack, it's still an excellent movie. One Island, One City, One Big Mess This is the pitch. The mayor of Montreal, the Quebec government and now the CSN are pushing to amalgamate all the local governments on the island of Montreal into one single huge municipal government. The purpose of this is to reduce costs, reduce the bureaucracy and reduce expenses. Don't believe it for a minute. This project is all about power and nothing else. The whole purpose of "One Island, One City" is so that the mayor will be the head of a much bigger municipality. The Quebec government will be able to impose it's control much easier over a smaller number of municipalities than a big number of them. And the CSN will have more clout with the enormous increase in union membership. And who is against the project? Pretty much every small municipality that stands to lose it's charter. The inhabitants of those municipalities will also lose many of the services they enjoy today. I'm not just talking about rich communities such as Outremont and Westmount. I'm talking about satellite communities such as Hampstead, Pierrefonds, Montreal North, Saint-Léonard and other suburban communities that have well organized local governments that deliver all the services their constituents need. So what's going to happen with a single city? The entire island will inherit Montreal's bureaucratic machine. That includes the potholes (Dorval will love that), the service cutbacks, the lack of accessibility to your local representative, the slowness of getting anything accomplished, the absence of accountability (potholes again)... Not a pretty picture. And will local elections be launched the moment the cities are merged together? Or will these ex-satellite communities be under the leadership of a representative they didn't elect? So much for democracy! Roll Them Bones! If anyone's interested, craps are now available at the Montreal Casino. The bets range from $5 to $1,000 and the odds are 3X on the 4 and 10, 4X on the 5 and 9, and 5X on the 6 and 8. All in all, very competitive. So now you have a new way to lose your hard-earned money! As if taxes weren't bad enough! Have a good week and leave your bank and credit cards at home. |
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August 20, 2000. The August 21 update will be slightly delayed. When watching the Director's/International Cut of "Léon: The Professional", I encountered an unusual situation where the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack had almost no surround effects whatsoever while the Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack had normal-sounding surround effects. I already posted messages about this problem to different sites and will check with the store where I bought the disc to see if they had any similar complaints. I'll post the results on Tuesday along with the DVD's review. Even though the sound category will be incomplete, the disc still deserves to be reviewed. Considering my point of view was not "tainted" by the US cut of the movie, this should be interesting. What I did during my summer vacation My summer vacation is almost over! How time flies when you're having fun. Now I have to go back to work and deal with reality! Yuck! So what did I do? Pretty much most of what I had on my list a couple of weeks ago. The one thing I didn't do yet was go to the theatre. I was a bit too busy resting. One item that I did do turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. The Musée de l'Orangerie exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts left me feeling like Oliver Twist. "Please sir, I want some more." The exhibit itself was modest and pretty nice. But for the price I paid for it ($15.00 plus $3.55 for the Admission Network's "Scalper Fee") I expected a bit more than what they offered. And if you want to listen to a commentary of the exhibit, that's an extra $5.00 please. What really annoyed me is that at the end of the exhibit you land smack dab into a gift shop set up just for the exhibit in one of the spare exhibit halls. Was that really necessary? They fleece us out of almost twenty bucks plus extras and then they want more? This is just as bad as some of those wax museums at Niagara Falls. Definitely overrated. I Am Canadian? This is related to this week's drama involving Liam Hall and Shaun Going, two Canadians from Alberta accused of terrorism in Yugoslavia. So what should we expect from our Canadian government? If the charges are a joke as has been claimed by the accused, how should we deal with the situation? If we can't get these two back within the next two months, what does that say about us as a nation? Are we to be portrayed as being so weak that any slightly uncivilized country can seize Canadian citizens for whatever reason and hold them against their will without any worry about what we will do about it? How the Canadian government deals with this particular situation will be very important to anyone who gets an offer to work in an unstable country. Can you go there with the reassurance that if anything happens to you, your country will do everything it can to help you out of the mess? Or are you better off staying at home and not take any unnecessary chances? On a more humorous note, imagine for a moment if these two guys were from the province of Quebec. What would Yugoslavia do when premier Lucien Bouchard shows up at their border? Olympic coverage: Canada vs. USA This is to all you Americans out there. Don't get caught off guard this time around! For complete balanced Olympic coverage, locate an affiliate of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation right now! Don't wait until the last minute! You don't want to go through what you had to endure with CBS during the Nagano winter Olympic games, do you? Forgive my sarcastic tone. But when I heard what Americans were getting for coverage during the winter games two years ago, it was painful to read! How an American network could offer such pathetic coverage to their own citizens is beyond me. The CBC doesn't even have close to the budget the big American networks have for their coverage, yet the CBC stays on the air all night long covering the events as promised and on schedule. No constant "Coming Up" reminders, just the approximate time the coverage will occur. The only tape delays are when more than one popular event is scheduled at the same time. They let you know about those as well. The CBC also acknowledges the existence of athletes from other countries. They don't have a "Canada Only" policy. Following the fiasco from the American coverage two years ago, it will be interesting to see what happens this time around. Will the American public get the Olympic coverage they crave? Or will they eventually have to get it on a "Pay Per View" basis? August 15, 2000. I just checked both the CBC's and NBC's Web sites. The CBC will broadcast 300 hours of coverage at an average of 18 hours per day while TSN will help along with 150 hours of extra coverage for a total of 450 hours. CNBC and MSNBC will share 279 hours of coverage (only 176 hours of it is live) while NBC will include about 165 hours of extra coverage for a total of 445 hours. And that's not counting the commercials and the repeats. Also, CBC's live coverage (300 hours) is an off-air broadcast which doesn't require a cable connection. NBC's live coverage via CNBC and MSNBC (176 hours) makes this a requirement. This week's reviews Another anime title. This is getting to be a habit these days. The review is of the Tenchi Muyo Ultimate OVA box set, a seven hour animated series with a lot of imagination put into it. On the more "normal" side of things, I also have a review of a lesser-known title that would be good as a rental. It's called "Stay Tuned" and it's about what could happen to you if you are a bit too addicted to television. One can only hope that there's no functional equivalent in the DVD world otherwise there's quite a few people I know who would already be goners. Have a good week! I'm going back to my slavery -- er -- work! |
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August 7, 2000 Summer time, and the living is easy (almost) I'm still on vacation and it feels good. I haven't really done much of anything that was on my list last week since both my mother and I were busy helping my sister get settled into her new apartment in Ottawa. All the services are within walking distance from her new place. She's going to love that so much! No need to travel all over the place by car for the mundane and not-so-mundane stuff! Now it's time to do the stuff on my checklist. I figured much of it will take only three or four days to accomplish so there won't be too much time left to goof off which is a good thing. If I had the full two weeks vacation, I'd be wondering what to do most of the time. This way, I get the chance to fill up my vacation and help out my sister at the same time. Don't worry. I'm still getting my much needed rest. This week's news Since I was out of town, I didn't get a chance to catch up on this week's news. But what I do know is that we had our Gay Pride parade here in Montreal last weekend ("Divers Cité"). This parade is getting more and more popular each and every year with growing crowds and a wider and longer parade route. I forgot all about it and it was too late to go downtown and watch it. But I did get to see much of it on TV later that night. The media is finally shaking off their obsession for drag queens and taking a peek at the other elements of the parade. And the one station that is not afraid to televise the parade happens to be the one that advertises itself as the "black sheep" of television. Quatre Saisons may consider themselves a black sheep, but I don't see the other networks contributing beyond a two minute segment in the newscasts. Quatre Saisons went as far as rebroadcasting the parade during Prime Time. And it was the only good show on TV that night. Everything else was just made-for-TV movies and reruns. It'll be interesting to find out how well the parade does in the ratings. Reviews this week I finally wrote the "Cowboy Bebop" review. But that's about it for now. Why no other reviews? Because I'm on vacation! I need to relax! I'll write a few more reviews when new titles come out or I find an old title that deserves to be reviewed. Have a good week! I'm going back to sleep... |
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August 1 2000 I'm on vacation! Ahhh! Two weeks! It just started and it feels good already! That's why this update is late by one day. I slept in -- for a couple of days! So how much travel will I do this year? Not much. And for me that's a good thing. I've been so busy moving into my new condo last year that I didn't have a chance to enjoy a real vacation. And because of a slight fear in air travel (plus inner-ear problems caused by air pressure variations), I won't be going anywhere that involves traveling above ground level. So what is there to do in Montreal? Well duh! If you can't find something to do in this city, you've got a problem! Museums. I haven't been to one in a long time and seeing the paintings from the Musée de L'Orangerie sounds like a good start. Shopping. It's time for new pants, shirts, socks, underwear, shoes... It's like grocery shopping when the refrigerator is empty. You have so many basics to buy. Time to fill up the Bay card again! The mountain. I can see my home from up there but I never actually took the time to go there and look. And what's absurd is that I'm only a few minutes away on foot from the bus line that goes up to the mountain. I'll go take a look at my place from afar and take a leisurely stroll towards downtown Montreal. That will lead to... more shopping! The theatre. I haven't been to the theatre in a long time. And there must be something interesting to watch these days. There are quite a few big theaters near my place so I can just look in the paper, reserve a seat by phone and just walk there one summer evening. Antique shops. I'm still looking for that one part to make the Revere 16mm projector work again. I'm also looking for a bench about half a meter wide for the entrance. Putting on shoes standing up is a real pain. My DVD collection. I just sold a few disc to a fella in Ontario so the list shrunk a bit. I'll check out my collection for more "potential candidates" and let you all know when they're up for sale. With the extra cash, I'll be buying, watching and reviewing more movies. Already, a DVD order arrived at the office last Friday just in time for my vacation! And there will be more movies to buy in the coming weeks! The windows need repainting, the kitchen cabinets must be realigned, and the dishwasher is broken. Surprisingly, this is the worst of the maintenance in this place. As for the dishwasher, that came with the place. Believe it or not, I still have my dishwasher from the old apartment hidden away in my storage locker. So if the one in the condo is dead, I have a backup dishwasher. If the one in the condo is still in good shape, I'll sell my old one. Then again, I might just dump both dishwashers. I live alone for crying out loud! And since I eat out quite often, I barely have any dishes to wash! And the skin problem that made washing dishes by hand a big problem eight years ago has disappeared. I could use the extra cabinet space. As for the condo building itself, it's a perfect time to call up the cable and satellite service providers and have them check out the wiring for compatibility with their signals. Before going through all the work of setting up for a new service, it's a good idea to make sure their service will work with the building's existing wiring. And if the office needs my help for anything, I told them my cell phone will be active during my vacation. Then again, I didn't tell them I'd actually be answering the cell phone when it rings! He he he! This week's news I missed one news item in the previous update, but it fits in perfectly with this week's update. Last week, we had a tornado tear through a campsite in Alberta. This week, a Concord crashing shortly after takeoff, killing everyone on board and a few people on the ground. One natural disaster, one technical disaster. My sympathies to all those who lost friends and family in these two incidents. As for the various news media, I have very little respect for them. They were so starved for news that the daily newscasts were spending almost five minutes on each of the items four days after they occurred! Can you imagine the feeding frenzy if they could actually see the bodies? It's bad enough they stick their lenses in the faces of those who lost loved ones in these disasters! Gotta get the sobbers! Gotta exploit the emotional angle! Watch a nature show where vultures are circling around a potential meal, and you have the perfect image of what the media does at ground level at the site of any major disaster. As for local news, we are having a few problems with drive-by shootings and road rage. It's nowhere near as bad as in some big cities in the States, but I wouldn't want to see it get any worse. Montreal is still a very safe city. In fact, it is among the safest cities in North America based on recent crime statistics. Even during the outdoor events such as the Jazz and Just For Laughs festivals, incidents are pretty rare and usually involve excessive drinking and minor squabbles. In fact, the only time we really overdo it is when the Montreal Canadians win the Stanley Cup. The last time they won it, twenty four blocks of St-Catherine Street were completely trashed. The Quebec Referendum only resulted in three trashed city blocks. At least our priorities are pretty clear. New DVD reviews this week Three of them! Monty Python's "Life of Brian", Bill Plympton's "I Married A Strange Person", and later this week the anime TV series "Cowboy Bebop". Not a single Hollywood blockbuster in the bunch. Doesn't it feel good breathing in some fresh air for a change and not stand beside a field of bulls? August 5, 2000. "Cowboy Bebop" will be added to next Monday's update. I've been enjoying my vacation a bit too much. Have a good week! I know I will! Now where's that drink with the paper umbrella in it? |
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July 24, 2000 Ack! Ack! Ackkkk! Pfft! Blublublu! I've just finished watching four Troma movies this weekend. Needless to say I feel a bit... weird. Now what is it with Troma movies? This is a studio that has been in existence for over twenty five years basically making and distributing some of the most vile, disgusting gross-out movies you could ever imagine. And yet, they manage to attract quite a huge audience. It makes one question the sanity of some people. It certainly makes me question my own sanity! This week's crop brings my Troma DVD count to twelve! And the ones I don't like are the ones that aren't gory enough and/or have imbalanced horror in them! As for the four DVDs I received last week, you'll find their reviews under "Troma Movies" in the Reviews section. Enjoy or be grossed out. This week's news Not much I'm afraid. The summer months are truly dead when it comes to news. The only items of interest are the crappy weather and our Prime Minister being in Japan for a few days. It's so bad that even the news broadcasts are resorting to more and more fluff pieces all the time. Even the TV show "Big Brother" just had their anarchist William banished from the house last Thursday. Now the live feeds feature people washing laundry, feeding the chickens and watering the garden. When they talk about something, it's pretty dull. Hopefully that will improve this week and go beyond someone revealing to the world they were once a model. Enjoy the fifteen minutes of good weather this week while you can. |
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July 17, 2000 Alert! Shark Attack! Shark Attack Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! That music I heard last week was not an illusion! My Web site was attacked! This is going to take at least a week to fix up! So why all the brouhaha? Because I just got the "Jaws" DVD this week! The review is up for your reading pleasure. The review for the week's other hot title, "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" will be available later this week. Two hot titles in the same week! You don't see that very often! July 21, 2000. The Star Trek review is up! Sorry for the delay. As for next week's reviews, it all depends if I get my big package from Express.com this week. Four Troma titles and two anime titles! This is the biggest package I ever ordered from the States! My credit card still hasn't cooled down yet and already the Urusei Yatsura box set is about to arrive as well! July 22, 2000. I just received the Troma titles! The two anime titles are in fact two Monty Python titles. I've lost track of my orders! Eeek! So many discs, so little time. Now before you think I buy all my DVD titles off the Internet from the United States, this is not my normal way of shopping for DVDs. My preferred method is to go to a small video store in downtown Montreal and browse the constantly expanding DVD shelves. Overall, DVDs are easy to come by and cost less in Canada than in the United States with a few notable exceptions: Troma and anime titles are difficult to obtain due to distribution problems, and Criterion titles are way overpriced, almost double what they cost in the States! I'll only buy Canadian when the price is right and the product is available. If a Canadian distributor can't give me what I want at the right price, I'll buy south of the border. There's a word for this. Competition. Backstabbing 101 So has anyone seen the shows "Survivor" and "Big Brother"? I can't stand "Survivor". Deserted island? Tribes? Rats for dinner? A bit too far-fetched. Also, the backstabbing is more direct considering the participants decide who among them gets the boot each and every week. In "Big Brother", the audience decides who gets the boot, not the participants. So it's the audience that has to be manipulated in reaching a decision, not the participants. This is a more complex scenario but not all that different from many office environments. The employees can't decide who to fire; that's the boss' job. But certain key employees could manipulate the boss into reaching a decision on who gets promoted and who gets fired, decisions that are not always for the better of the company. The same situation is occurring on "Big Brother" where the "bosses" are the audience and the "employees" are the participants. The audience could be manipulated in making decisions based on the feedback of a few individuals and not making decisions based on logic and common sense. Call it backstabbing by proxy. Now what about the fact you can watch "Big Brother" live on the Internet? Even those with 56K modems connecting at about 40K can still watch the live feeds. What we have here is a reversal of the Big Brother philosophy: a select few are now being observed by millions. Maybe the show should be renamed "Little Brothers". Both shows are unusual. But I'm catching myself watching the live feeds from "Big Brother" quite a few times a day. Maybe the fact it's a more realistic scenario occurring live and uncensored is what attracts me to the show much more than "Survivor". You don't know what's going to happen next. And when something does happen, you can see it live. Unedited, uncensored and unscripted. At least it seems unscripted. "How To Succeed In Advertising Without Really Trying" I just found an interesting way to increase exposure to my Web site. It's quick, easy and extremely simple. And it's such a highly effective low-tech tool! Business cards! It's really very simple! Just about all word processors have a series of layouts covering the most (and sometimes least) common business forms, labels and other various documents. One of these is a form for blank business cards packaged in pre-perforated 8½ x 11 sheets. They're simple to use and widely available at any office supply store in an assortment of colors and styles. The word processor layout itself is nothing more than a full-page table containing ten business card sized cells. Just create one card in the first table cell, copy the cell and paste it to the rest of the table. Presto! Ten business cards! Just print out what you need and change it as often as you wish. No printing companies to deal with, no minimum purchase requirements, no inflated bills... And for inspiration, just check out the business cards you receive from other people. Whenever you mention your Web site to someone, the next question will most likely be "what's the address?" Just whip out a card and there you go. Instant low-cost advertising. This week's news Aside from discovering "Big Brother" and business cards as an advertising medium, not much else. Work is progressing very well, home life is comfortable (then again I'm single, so home life is always comfortable), the Jazz festival has ended and both the Fant-Asia and Just For Laughs festivals have just begun. Oh! There is something interesting this week! Our beloved mayor Bourque is in China -- again. According to him, his trip is costing us $5,000 because most everything in the trip is a gift from the Chinese government and the business community. And the purpose of the trip? Drumming up new business in the Multimedia sector. I know. I'm also having trouble establishing the relationship. So while we're all trying to figure this one out, have a good week. |
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July 10, 2000 "I am not a committee!" Princess Leia, The Empire Strikes Back In my case, I am a committee. An actual committee of one to be exact. So what do I do exactly? I'm studying the possibility of having other cable suppliers offer their services in the condo building where I live. This includes microwave and satellite providers such as Look, Bell ExpressVue and Star Choice. If you're wondering why people don't just install their own satellite dish as they can legally do in the US, it is because the condo building (an almost one hundred year old converted textile mill) has a brick exterior with no balconies. Anything installed on the side of the building will ruin the character of the building itself and may even damage the ancient brickwork. The roof is an alternate location for the dishes but there's only so many possible places where the dishes can go. Too many of them and the roof of the building will look like an antenna farm. So now I'm studying the possibility of having the residents catch the signal off a single satellite antenna. The technology to do this does exist but it isn't certain the technology is available from all wireless suppliers. Nevertheless, if all suppliers offer this technology, this means only up to three antennas will be required for all services which is a lot better than say fifteen or twenty of the overcrowding buggers. Also imagine the savings on maintenance. Plus, residents living in parts of the building where satellite reception is normally impossible could also get satellite service. And me? I haven't decided which service to obtain. I don't even have Vidéotron cable because I don't like the imposed choice of channels or the fact I have to pay installation fees which are the equivalent of extended warranties: they're more of a moneymaker for the company and offer you little in return. So charging installation fees for a service you'll be paying for every month is nothing less than greed -- especially when Vidéotron charges seventy bucks to have some Joe screw in a connection in your unit's cable wiring! This week's f***ing news This is more of a beef than a news item. You'll find it in the Editorials. I figured I'd pass it along in case someone would learn something from it. It involves the creative use of language by people who seem to have a persistent problem with "inter-personal communications". As for local news, well I wouldn't know. I've been deliberately avoiding newspapers for the last month. It's summer and I figured this was a good time to "flush out" my mind of the the mass media "impurities" that have accumulated over the last year. At one time the only "illegitimate" local newspaper we had was Le Journal de Montréal. But now I've been seeing the same crap being propagated in more "mainstream" newspapers such a "La Presse" and "The Gazette". When it's a slow news season, the newspapers become unreadable. So I just stop reading them for a while. This week's offerings Sorry but there are no new DVD reviews. There hasn't been any decent titles to review this week so I'm taking a break. But coming up in the next few weeks will be reviews of more Troma movies, a couple of Monty Python flicks (think of African/European swallows and the Judea's People's Front), and a review of the 25th Anniversary Edition of Jaws! Can't wait to sink my teeth in that one! I was planning to buy "The Princess Bride" but Robert A. George (a.k.a. Obi), a highly reputable Laserdisc and DVD reviewer located at the Home Theater Forum pointed out so many troubling aspects in the latest DVD offering that I'm better off holding on to my Laserdisc copy of the movie for the time being. So that rules out that title among the DVDs I'll possibly be reviewing in the future. But don't worry! If I get Jaws this week, I'll have the review ready for next week's update. So have a good week and be careful where you go swimming! There hasn't been any shark attacks in swimming pools lately, but you never know... Have a good... Wait a minute! Why am I hearing two musical notes half a note apart all of a sudden? |
July 2, 2000 Let's Play Musical Festivals The Montreal fireworks competition and the Jazz Festival have begun. We will also be hosts to the Fant-Asia film festival, the Just For Laughs comedy festival, the World Film Festival and a few more festivals in the next couple of months. So forget about finding a hotel room in the city this summer. We're booked solid! I don't always attend festivals myself. The main problems are the lineups and the lack of available seats. The Fant-Asia film festival alone has grown to such a level of popularity that it's become difficult to get tickets even for the midnight showings. And forget all the Anime presentations since the tickets sell out within a couple of hours after being put up for sale. The World Film Festival however is a bit more civilized. Tickets for almost all the movies are put up for sale a week or two before the festival opens and everyone has about the same chance to grab a few hot tickets. Lineups before the shows are very reasonable, on average no more than a thirty minute wait. Much better than the alleged two hour waits at Toronto's Festival of Festivals. I'll have to attend something this year! I can't stay cooped up in my loft year round! Psst! Wanna Buy a Major Sports Team? In case you're interested, you can now buy the Montreal Canadians hockey team along with the Molson Center. You can't really blame the brewery for wanting to sell the whole shabang. The team's performance in the last couple of years has been a complete disaster and the player salaries are totally ridiculous. Add to this the exorbitant municipal taxes (three times the amount they should be) and you have a promotional tool that has gone way out of control. Molson held onto this team a bit longer than they should have. If you're thinking of buying the whole package, don't worry about the "No Move" clause where the new owners must keep the team in Montreal. Just have a proxy company buy up the team so they can resell it to your company shortly afterwards. Then you can move the team wherever you want. The Expos will also be put up for sale unless they leave town first. No one wants to pay for a new baseball stadium, and no one wants to watch the games in the overpriced phallic symbol known as the Olympic Stadium. The place has simply become an overpriced embarrassment from the day it was built. In sharp contrast, ever since the Alouettes football team moved out of that awkward Olympic toilet a few years back, their popularity and performance have soared to the point that every game played at the run-down Molson Stadium is a complete sell-out. Even the corporate boxes (tents?) are a hit with small companies that can finally afford to purchase a corporate box in a popular sporting event. And no one complains about inflated salaries since the vast majority of the players are paid about the same salaries as most everyday employees. The simplest explanation I can give for our behavior is this. We have a preference for home grown talent and winning teams. If we can't identify with the team and they lose games constantly, no one goes to the games. Pure and simple. This Week's Offerings Two DVD reviews are up. "Harold and Maude" and "The Sweet Hereafter". A new DVD release of an old movie and an old DVD release of a new movie. Although very different, these two movies are among the best I've ever had the joy to watch. There are also a few more installments in the Troma reviews for you crazy mixed-up individuals (like me for instance) who are into that kind of sick and twisted stuff (I need a break from "meaningful" movies from time to time). I also purchased "Independence Day" this week but it is already being reviewed to death by other sites. All I have to say is that although the anamorphic image is a bit soft and lacking in detail, it is still much better than the previous Laserdisc release. The sound is fantastic and the features are plentiful, but the Easter Egg is difficult to access unless you know exactly how to get into it. And if you're wondering, I did sleep and eat before writing the reviews. The sentence structure for these reviews is much better than the sentence structure in the reviews written a couple of weeks ago. That's it for this week! Don't forget to enjoy the nice weather! |
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June 26, 2000 I Must Self-discipline Myself! The title doesn't make much sense. If I don't self-discipline myself, who will? I should either discipline myself or enact self-discipline. Or should I ask for someone's help? No, I don't need help from a dominatrix. The wacky title is a symbol of what happens to my writing style when I forget certain essentials such as sleeping and eating. I've re-read my latest reviews (Casino, Ronin, Blues Brothers) and was stunned by the mistakes in the sentence structure. I've made the necessary corrections and reposted the reviews. If you already read them, there's no real need to read them again since the content hasn't changed. In the meantime, I still have to eliminate a few bad habits. I must now proofread my reviews the following day when I'm rested. Trying to proofread one's reviews the same night they were written is not recommended. The writing suffers quite a lot. So now I have to remember to eat and sleep when necessary and wait for the next day before posting any of my reviews to the Web site. Speaking of reviews, one of them contains a bunch of Troma movies. Since the picture and sound quality of Troma DVDs are pretty much the same (crap and crap), the list of features are consistent (loads of crap), and the actors are mostly unknowns (shit acting), I decided to group the movies in one single entry. Repeating the same picture, sound and features for each title would become tedious both for me (writing) and for you (surfing). I've also started writing the first chapter of a book I call "The Children of Rama" based on the Rama series by Arthur C. Clarke. Ever since someone mentioned them at the Home Theater Forum, my mind has gone on Overdrive. You'll find the start of the first chapter in the Odds And Ends section. No, I don't know if it's legal to do this. I'll deal with that issue later. I'm writing for myself. Not for money. So what's happening this week? Here in Quebec we are in the middle of both the St-Jean Baptiste and Canada Day holidays. Along with Christmas and New Year's, this is one of those crazy times of the year where the calendar is dotted with statutory holidays. This year we have two three-day weekends side by side! And locally July 1st is not necessarily recognized as "Canada Day". It is better known as "Moving Day" since legally all residential leases must end on June 30. At midnight on the nose, there will be fleets of moving trucks, U-Hauls and other odd vehicles on the road overloaded with people's life possessions desperately trying to get from the old dwelling to the new dwelling as quickly as possible before the beer runs out and your helping friends abandon you. I avoided all that hell last year by having my possessions put into storage for a couple of weeks while I moved from my old apartment to my new condo. This way, you can proceed with painting and repair duties without any furniture or boxes blocking the way. Adding storage to one's moving experience may be more expensive (almost double normal moving costs) but it's worth it if you can afford it. In the end, only a wine glass and a ceramic cup were broken. Summer seems to have finally arrived in Montreal. I've almost gone a whole week without feeling the need to drag along a jacket in case it cools down. This doesn't include one rainy day last week where I should have brought along a jacket but didn't. Brrr! The one benefit of this year's crazy weather is the lack of Montreal's traditional springtime smog days. Normally when the temperature rises considerably in the middle of spring and the wind dies down, an "air bubble" forms on occasion right over the city. As a result, all the city's pollution is trapped in this bubble and air quality plummets for a few days until the bubble bursts. Because of this year's excessive rains and cold weather, the bubble hasn't formed properly and there was no smog buildup. So breathe easy and enjoy the weather instead of complaining about it! Get out there and enjoy it! Happy St-Jean Baptiste and Canada Day! See you in a week. |