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February 26, 2001 Bad week for news This has been a really slow news week. The only local news I could find that is even remotely interesting is Hydro Quebec's bilingualism tests being way too difficult for even reasonably bilingual people to pass successfully. All of a sudden, employees of Hydro Quebec are losing their jobs because their knowledge of the English is no longer proficient enough for the jobs they've held for years. I'd have to try out one of those tests myself to see if this information is true. Although I am proficient in both languages (this Web site is proof of that), I do suffer from the consequences of a slightly limited vocabulary. My score on such a test should be quite interesting. Unusual Web site of the week #1 What do you get when you combine the basic concept of a reality TV shows such as Big Brother and Real World, find eight people willing to participate, and house them in a loft for a year? You get U8TV's production of The Lofters! Available nightly on The Life Network and 24 hours on the Internet, The Lofters are an alternative to the formula reality shows that came out in the last few years. You can find them at http://www.u8tv.com. The participants in this show all live together in a 3,000 square foot loft and are filmed 24 hours a day. But unlike most reality based TV shows, the participants do not vote anyone out of the loft, and they are not isolated from the outside world. They are free to come and go as they please as long as they participate as hosts of U8TV's programming, and keep the loft populated with at least a couple of people at all times. For this, everyone gets paid $30,000 for their one year stay, lodging, light and heating all included in the deal. And they can have company come over for a visit which they often do. Despite the less stringent regulations, this show's outcome is only mildly different from the other reality TV shows. However, it is worth watching just to see how these eight individuals and their friends will drive each other up the wall. The only thing I'm hoping for is that these eight individuals finally realize that they themselves are the only ones in charge of their destiny, and can change it at any time while still respecting the regulations that have been imposed on them. (Very) Unusual Web site of the week #2 I was channel surfing late at night last week as I often do before turning in for the night. As it often happens, I stumbled on to Quatre-Saisons' TV show "Sexe et Confidence" where I usually watch about ten seconds of the show so I can catch the subject of the day before continuing on to the other channels. But last Thursday's show stopped me dead on my tracks. The subject was inflatable dolls. The moment I saw what was in the studio for "show and tell", I started to laugh! Of all the sex toys ever invented, I've always found "inflatable partners" to be among the most bizarre invention ever conceived. Even worse is finding out there are many people out there who prefer them to the real thing. Do they prefer living in a fantasy world? Or are they running away from a reality they can't handle? When the host and guest mentioned a doll that costs up to $10,000 Canadian, that's when I said "Huh? What?!?" The product "Real Doll" is the creation of a California company called Abyss Creations. You can explore their product line at http://www.realdoll.com. The site is full of details on the available product line including a choice of separate head and body styles along with accessories and cosmetic features. The reason these dolls are so expensive is that they are fully articulated silicone filled dolls that weigh in at around 100 lbs depending on the body height and breast volume. They look and feel so close to the real thing that they are downright scary! If one of these dolls (fully clothed) was left on a couch as a joke, a person could easily believe that there was a real person sitting there -- until they took a closer look. If you want to see what is probably the most extreme sex toy in existence, go ahead and check out their Web site if you like. Just remember that this is all adult material. Now let's see... Head #5 with body #2? Or how about the Asian head #9 for that "multicultural" flavour? How about dark short hair? Long hair just gets in the way. And all those choices of colours... Where's my Platinum card? Still no new reviews this week. What's going on? I'll tell you what's going on. Too many releases of mediocre and bad movies! As a result, there has been nothing of interest to review lately. But this will change dramatically in the next few weeks with the release of partially or fully restored classic movies. These particular releases are beginning to seriously eclipse most new movie releases. Coming in the next few weeks will be masterpieces such as "Ben Hur", "Spartacus" (Criterion Collection) and "Lawrence of Arabia" along with a flood of Alfred Hitchcock classics, all presented in their original aspect ratio and bundled with plenty of special features. These titles and many more are attracting more attention than most of their contemporary releases. In a way, it's a reflection of the state of today's movie industry. Very few high quality movies are being made these days, and cinephiles are starving for some real entertainment. So they go for the movies that were made long before the major studios decided to replace excellent filmmaking and clever scriptwriting with special effects laden extravaganzas void of any half-decent story. There are of course exceptions to this rule. Unfortunately the Indiana Jones series has yet to be released on DVD despite the cries of desperation from fans of these excellent adventure films. I will review many of the upcoming spring titles as they come out. Just the thought of watching Ben Hur's chariot race on a 16x9 TV excites me! In the meantime, I'm now watching "The Ten Commandments" just to get me in the mood. Despite the horrendous overacting from almost everyone in the cast (mostly the script's fault for being too "preachy"), Charlton Heston's performance is still pretty decent. And Yul Brynner almost steals the show with his excellent portrayal of the pharaoh of Egypt. The DVD release itself may not be of reference quality as we are used to seeing these days, it's still much better than all previous video releases of this masterpiece. Hey! A quick review! So I did give you something after all! Have a good week! And let's hope the weather gets better, not worse! I'm getting sick of all this snow, ice, hail, wind... Man I hate February! It's probably the most depressing month of the year! |
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February 19, 2001 "Oh-oh. What did I do?" This has been a crazy week filled with acts of stupidity. But this event is as stupid as it gets! A truck driver in the Toronto area was finishing up his delivery of oil by-products when he needed to confirm that the tanker truck was truly empty. So he whipped out his flashlight to take a better look. The only problem is that his flashlight wasn't working. So he used his lighter instead. That's when he realized the mistake he just made. And yes, there was an explosion. The driver's eyebrows and half his beard were seriously singed, but he did survive the incident pretty much intact. The driver simply "forgot" one basic rule involving petroleum products. "Keep away from open flame". Naturally, the truck driver refuses to be identified. Hangover! Big time hangover! Oh man did I ever take a bath this week! I actually had a lot of Nortel stock which although it was worth over $120 a share just six months ago, I dumped it all this week at $30 a share! I ended up selling the stock at a loss! Ick! It's a hard lesson in the "art" of investing. But in my case, it's not that hard a lesson since my investments are still very modest. So even if I did lose money on this sour deal, I can still recover from the incident with some careful investing of my remaining funds. It could have been worse if I didn't sell all the other tech stocks last year when they were at decent share values. My problem with Nortel is that I didn't pay attention to it as closely as I should have i.e. I should have sold it when it dropped below $100 a share. At that level, the profit would have been very respectable. I found the experience to be mostly an annoyance that in the end won't scare me away from the stock market. But can you imagine what's going through the minds of most investors whose portfolios have dropped faster than a skydiver without a parachute? Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! What really killed Nortel is the overnight trading! Nortel lost most of it's value long before the stock markets opened. This prevented day traders from getting a jump on the price drop and avoid major losses. Ever since overnight trading was introduced, Nortel was hit with 50% drops in it's value not once, but twice in the last six months! Maybe I should invest in the company that makes Depends undergarments. There will be a lot of investors who'll need then in the coming weeks... Big enough to lose a truck! It's happening again! Along with the unstable weather, Montreal's roads are now riddled with potholes. And when I claim they can be big enough to lose a truck, I'm not kidding! A few years ago, one pothole revealed that the ground below was completely hollowed out to a depth of about twenty feet! Luckily nothing fell in that one mainly because the top road structure was supported by abandoned streetcar tracks. But an SUV did fall in one hole that showed up out of nowhere on the Décarie service road. The truck, which was immobilized at a traffic light, fell only a few feet, deep enough so that the roof of the vehicle was flush with street level. The driver was uninjured, but he did get the scare of his life! So when you hear a tall tale about Montreal's potholes and what they've swallowed over the years, please take into consideration that it may not be as far-fetched as it may seem. Local theatres close This is not as big a disaster as it may seem. The two notable closings are The Egyptian, the Plaza Alexis-Nihon and The Faubourg. These closings aren't big losses since both theaters have been going downhill for the last few years. The Faubourg and the Alexis-Nihon have suffered from constantly deteriorating projection and sound systems. The Egyptian theater (and it's speakers) have been invaded by mould caused by the dampness of it's basement location. Both theaters were very nice when they first opened just ten years ago. Now they're just dumps. My best memory of The Faubourg was viewing the Harris/Katz restoration of "Spartacus", a movie experience that still hasn't been surpassed to this day. The second was "The Princess Bride", a great old-style movie about beautiful princesses, evil princes, daring pirates and true love. I do have both of these movies on Laserdisc, but these presentations pale in comparison with what I saw and heard at The Faubourg. The last movie I saw there was the Special Edition of Star Wars. The projected image was fuzzy, the screen had a stain on either side left by the black matting material, and the speakers were shot. It was a painful experience, one that for me put in doubt the validity of the entire THX theater certification program. More theaters will close of course. Already the Place Desjardins, Berri and 2001 complexes have closed down a while back, and have been replaced with the new megaplexes that have sprouted all over the place in the last few years. But even then these new theaters are already in a state of slow deterioration. The Paramount is a clear example of this phenomena, the projection and sound system giving the impression they've been "tweaked" by a minimum-wage hack who doesn't know the first thing about projection systems. Things aren't getting better, they're getting worse. That's one other reason why I don't go to theaters anymore. It's like going to see a Montreal Canadien's hockey game: I expect to be disappointed. Widescreen catching on Things are at least getting better on TV. The letterboxing phenomena is catching on, preparing viewers for the eventual conversion to HDTV broadcasting some time after the year 2006. Already Canada and the U.S. have two hit shows presented in the widescreen format: "E.R." and "DaVinci's Inquest". On occasion some movies are also broadcast in the widescreen format making for a more balanced, un-chopped and enjoyable presentation. But what's funny is that one of the major supporters of the format happens to be Quebec's "black sheep" network Télévision Quatre-Saisons and their broadcast of soft-core porno movies on Saturday nights! I'm saying this because as I was hoping that CFCF-12's midnight broadcast of the movie "As Good As It Gets" last Saturday night would remain letterboxed (it didn't), the French soft-core movie "Emmanuel Pour Toujours" was being shown on TQS' network in all it's *ahem* widescreen "splendour". A bit odd considering that both stations are owned by the same company and are located in the same building. Is the widescreen barrier somehow linked to a language barrier? Flash Web sites of interest And here they are! These three Web sites have the following items in common.
And what do you get? A sick and twisted version of Survivor, a crash test dummy with an attitude, and mutinous self-destructive gerbils. If you're against cruelty to animals (including those annoying singing fish mounted on wall plaques), you may want to steer clear of these sites. Same thing goes if you don't have high speed Internet access; download times can be quite long on a dial-up connection. For the rest of you, enjoy the cartoons you sick bastards! No reviews this week There's simply nothing of interest these days. I'm still waiting for "Nuremberg" to arrive at my local store (I have no patience for crappy television broadcasts), and the current new releases are pathetic at best. I would have reviewed "The Guns of Navarone" but the 5.1 soundtrack suffers from the same problem that affected Columbia's "Léon" DVD release: almost no surrounds whatsoever despite the clear fact the 2 channel Surround track has plenty of distinct surround effects. So until I locate a corrected version of the movie, that review is on hold. Have a good week! And be careful where you drive in Montreal! |
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February 12, 2001. Mad cows! Mad cows! A trade war with Brazil. Am I dreaming or is this a slow news week? For some strange reason the banishment of meat products from Brazil has ballooned into something short of a declaration of war. Is our trade with Brazil really that high? Or are people and the media so bored that almost ready to "create" a crisis? I have trouble believing all this started over an aircraft deal gone sour for the Brazilians. But because I don't trust either the politicians or the civil servants on both sides of the border, I still don't know what's really going on... yet! Cold enough for you? speaking of a crisis, the weather these days is totally nuts! Warm spells with rain quickly replaced by sudden cold spells. I'm talking about a temperature drop of 20 degrees Celsius in 24 hours! The sidewalks are such a mess that it's safer to walk on the streets in the tire tracks of the passing cars! The city can't do much to resolve the situation. As soon as the temperature falls below minus 10 degrees Celsius, salt no longer has any effect. And salt does not make a great abrasive. For the time being, bundle up and be very careful out there. And if it's too dangerous to walk on the sidewalks, you're better off walking on the streets. It's not like we have any other choice. Just make sure there aren't any cars barrelling towards you while you're out there. Let's make an Asian deal! So Team Canada is in China right now trying to drum up some new business. Many human rights groups have asked Chrétien to speak out during his trip. But the reality is that in order to support the business side of things, it is not a good idea for the prime minister of Canada to criticize the way his hosts are running their country even if this involves the harming or killing of their own citizens. And for the accompanying entrepreneurs, these violations of human rights are in a way very important for controlling the cost of doing business in other countries. If you haven't noticed yet, the countries with the highest respect for human rights also have some of the highest labour costs. The countries with the most disgraceful human rights record have labour costs so low that they can almost be considered institutionalized slavery. In a way, the government of Canada is not interested in bringing up the human rights issue one bit. That would be very bad for business. The fact that this point of view is also highly hypocritical is not even taken into consideration. As well, any release of political prisoners during this trip will be nothing more than a token gesture. The political regime that imprisoned these people in the first place will continue to exist. This week's review "The Bridge on the River Kwai". I've always liked old movies even when I was a kid. Somehow, I've always had the feeling that recent movies were on the whole missing something important. So to keep from being bored to death by today's crop of bad movies, I often fall back to movies that were made before I was even born. The simple fact is that I want to be entertained! And today's movies are not satisfying me! So I go back to "library" titles. This movie is one of the gems. Have a good week! And don't forget to bundle up! |
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February 6, 2001 Update rescheduling As of now, I'll be updating this Web site between Monday night and Tuesday morning. Normally, I manage to finish most of the update by Sunday night. But more and more often I've been missing the deadline because there's always something left to do. As of now, I'll give myself an extra day to tie up the loose ends. SOLD!!! The Montreal Canadians hockey club and the Molson Center have been sold to an American billionaire named George Gillet Jr. Now before you all feel outraged that an American has bought our hockey team, the previous owners pointed out that during the sale, not a single Canadian company or individual has made any serious offer to buy the team. An American outbidding all serious Canadian offers would be one thing. But Mr. Gillet didn't even have any competition! And he announced his intention to buy the team and arena only a few short hours after they were put up for sale. Is this American more Canadian than most Canadians? He even managed to negotiate a reduction in the municipal tax bill, something Molson's Breweries failed to do on their own. Maybe we do need an American to fix our deficient hockey team. At the very least he already announced his intention to keep the team in Montreal. Then again, that's what was promised with the Expos baseball team, and they're now only two years away from moving south permanently. Only time will tell if things get any better. Mega-merger, mega-headache! Yes, I know. This particular item is becoming redundant. It's already become a running gag that has run it's course. But I just needed to point out that while Montreal's current mayor is constantly encountering protesters wherever he goes campaigning, Toronto is on the verge of declaring bankruptcy. It seems their modest mega-merger (7 municipalities compared to our 26) went so sour on the financial side that everyone should expect a hefty increase of their municipal tax bills pretty soon, close to a total increase of 77% spread out within the next five years. Living in Toronto is expensive enough as it is. But this?!? Any bets that this will be avoided here in Montreal? I didn't think so. In my case, a tax bill similar to Toronto's proposed tax hike means a minimum $150 increase in my monthly living expenses. As for Toronto, based on what it already costs to live over there, their monthly living expenses will increase close to $400 a month. And that doesn't include the price increases affecting just about every product sold in stores to compensate for their huge tax hikes. As for those renting apartments, how many of them can handle a minimum $200 monthly increase in rent? One thing's for sure, there's going to be a huge increase in the number of homeless people in the Toronto area pretty soon... Montreal Auto Show 2001 -- yawn! This does not mean I'm planning to buy a car anytime soon. I just like to know what I might be able to buy if I absolutely have to go down that route. I went to the Montreal Auto Show last Wednesday night and planned to stay there three hours at the most. It took me one hour to go through the show -- twice! Man was that ever a short night! At least I didn't have to purchase any of the overpriced food or drink at the Olympic Stadium. And with the exhibits being located at all the different recesses of the stadium including the swimming pool, it made for a weird show. But what can they do? The roof isn't reliable anymore so it's out of the question using the playing field as an exhibit hall. So you try to sneak the exhibits in every nook and cranny you can find. But this is getting to be a bit ridiculous. There were a lot of big cars on the pool's temporary floor including quite a few SUVs and big luxury cars. How much weight can that floor really hold before it collapses? Eventually the show will have to move to a better place. Let's hope Montreal finishes that convention center expansion sooner than later. Considering Montreal's narrow city streets, my small indoor parking spot and my mediocre driving skills (I only rent cars on occasion), I'm better off sticking with small, easily manoeuvrable cars. And I did find something that looked practical, comfortable, relatively inexpensive, maintenance-free for the most part, and wide enough for my stature (No fat jokes please, I'm just big boned!). It was a Nissan Sentra. Now I'm not saying that this is the car you should buy for yourself; but if you want something decent, comfortable, reliable and not too expensive, there are decent choices available out there from the various companies that were present at the show. The one thing that disappointed me greatly was the offerings from the majority of American auto manufacturers. Their cars do look and feel decent enough, but compared with the still-mighty Japanese auto makers, American cars still have that slightly "cheap" feeling inside. And God knows how the engines are built. Just sitting in a Saturn gave me a bad feeling as if I was stuck in a car assembled from spare parts made by the lowest bidders. German cars were not that much better. While sitting in a Volkswagen, it felt better than being in an American car, but the styling left me a bit cold. And don't get me started on the behaviour of the average Montreal Volkswagen owner! I've yet to meet one that wasn't trying to beat some kind of speed record on our city streets! I wasn't too happy either about the seats in most cars. As usual, too many cars have their seats angled way too far back to the point that my legs were being lifted in the air by the seat cushion itself. A lump pressing against the back of my legs tends to cut off the circulation, making for an uncomfortable ride. The problem is not necessarily the seats themselves; the problem is that my legs that are a bit shorter than they should be for my height. As a consequence, my legs don't rise up in the air as much as other people when my feet are resting on the pedals, and my legs end up resting directly on the seat cushion. This is pretty much what short people have to go through when deciding on which car to purchase. And since most car seats don't have a tilt feature built into the seat itself (an expensive option at best), that dramatically limits one's choices. Auto manufacturers will have to address this issue one of these days. They are still making cars based on their image of the average-sized man and are not taking into consideration the various body sizes that exist out there. A tilt steering wheel is not enough A new review this week Yes! I have a DVD title to review this week! Although, you might be asking why I'm even bothering with this one. Star Trek: The Original Series, Volume 18. The reason I'm reviewing this one is that there are probably many of you out there that are wondering if this series looks any better on DVD than what we normally see on TV. I can honestly say that you are in for a pleasant surprise! Then again, the transfer on this disc shows off all the flaws in the series itself. Read the review for more information. In the meantime, have a good week! |
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January 30, 2001 This week's update is not only late, it's also short! What can I say? It was a busy weekend. All Bets Are Off! What I said last week about Quebec having a new level-headed leader was rather premature. Then again it all depends on how you look at it. As quoted at Radio Canada's Web site, Bernard Landry said (in French) "Le Québec ne ferait pas le trottoir pour un bout de chiffon rouge." Or as translated word for word, "Quebec will not prostitute itself for a red piece of rag." Now here's the problem. Every language has expressions which when translated to another language can mean something completely different. In this case, since Bernard Landry was speaking about the conditions for receiving an 18 million dollar grant for the Quebec City zoo, most of the English media misinterpreted the "chiffon rouge" part to mean the Canadian flag mentioned within the conditions. Yet the expression does exist in the dictionary and is used to indicate a form of provocation, and has nothing to do with flags. Unfortunately the expression is most likely a rather old one that isn't used all that much these days. So when Landry pronounced the expression, even French Canadians (Quebeckers?) had to look it up in the dictionary. Or maybe Landry planned it all along. He could have used that expression knowing there would be the remote possibility that the English media would misinterpret it. Then he could claim this is simply another example why the rest of Canada simply doesn't understand Quebec. Canada: A DVD's History I watched last Sunday's episode including the "Making Of" feature that followed it. And I couldn't believe what I heard! They were explaining why they presented the series in letterboxed format, pointing out that they wanted to be ready for the "digital era". If that's the case, why in Hell is the DVD release not anamorphic and riddled with bugs? Maybe their version of the "digital era" is in sync with the introduction of CDs twenty years ago. It definitely doesn't fit in with twenty-first century philosophy. Canadian companies should just give up and contract out the mastering work to American companies such as D.V.C.C. or Laser Pacific. What these constant screw-ups are proving is that our tax dollars are being wasted big-time. And if we want to watch these same screw-ups at home when we feel like it, we have to pay for these shoddy products. All I have to say is "No thanks! I'm taking my business elsewhere!" No reviews this week This is due to a recent lack of decent releases. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing. I bought so many movies in the months leading to Christmas that my credit cards have melted! So now's a good time to let them cool off a bit and get them ready for a fresh new purchase blitz in the spring. Have a good week! |
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January 22, 2001 For Sale: One Hockey Team, Arena Included - Cheap! If you have to ask why the Montreal Canadiens are for sale, that means you haven't seen them play recently! The condition of the sale is very simple: the team has to stay in Montreal. Neither Molson's Breweries nor the NHL want to see another Canadian hockey team move south of the border. Supposedly a couple of Americans are very interested in purchasing the team. And how long before attendance to the games is so pathetic that Montrealers will almost beg for the team to leave town? About four years. After all, isn't that what's happening with the Expos baseball team right this minute? An American buys the team, trashes the TV rights for a whole year, can't get a new stadium built, attendance drops to almost nothing... Suddenly we have the perfect conditions to move the team to the States! So what will prevent the new American owners from accomplishing the same thing with the hockey team? Nothing at all. Enjoy the hockey games while you still can! And if you're real lucky, you might see the Canadiens actually tie a game! Our next Quebec Head of State will be: Bernard Landry. Zzzz..... Come on! I thought the Parti Québecois wanted a vibrant leader! Not one that can put coffee to sleep! Actually, a cool-headed leader may be just what Quebec needs. After years of political instability and referendum attempts, it may be time for Quebec to have a premier who concentrates more on the job of running the province instead of concentrating on all the political B.S. Just as long as he doesn't mind being paid less than, say, a member of the megacity transition committee. How much do YOU make? And if you're wondering, the Quebec premier and Montreal mayor each make around $150,000 a year including benefits which is reasonable considering the responsibilities. Monique Lefebvre, the head of the megacity transition committee, will make around $261,000 a year while the other members will make just over $200,00 a year. What are they doing that's so bloody important that they'll be making more than just about every other elected official? Hopefully there's an answer to this question. Otherwise, I might look for the same type of job myself. I wouldn't mind catching up on my sleep. Your defence cost us HOW MUCH?!? Here's the scenario. A man writes a letter to a local newspaper criticizing a lawyer's morals for having a pedophile as a client. The lawyer sues for libel. Following a court battle, the lawyer wins a $60,000 settlement. The total cost of the court case comes to almost $800,000, over ten times the amount of the settlement! And it was revealed that the case could have been settled out of court for $70,000 right from the start! The offender was none other than Stockwell Day. He wrote a letter blasting away lawyer Lorne Goddard for defending a pedophile in a child pornography case. Goddard sued for libel and won. Now Albertans are stuck with a hefty bill to pay. And they ain't happy! Oops! New leader has same old bag of tricks! I just learned of this shortly before updating the Web site. Bernard Landry is reminding all of Canada that Quebec is not a distinct society, but an actual nation. He's already planning a new referendum to be held two years from now! Here we go again! How much is this going to cost us this time around? Long Live The King Al Waxman passed away this week, the victim of complications following routine heart bypass surgery. Many remember him from a Canadian TV series called "King of Kensington", but that's not all he did. He has been a recurring character in numerous TV shows as well as a stage actor, a producer and a director. Highly talented and diverse, he will be greatly missed. This week's review "When Harry Met Sally". A great movie but a lacklustre DVD. This title doesn't measure up to the pre-release hype. See you next week! And let's hope it's less expensive than this week! |
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January 15, 2001 I QUIT!!! No! Not me! The headline was just to scare you all out of your wits. The person I'm talking about is of course Lucien Bouchard, the Quebec premier and the leader of the Parti Québecois. After realizing just how deep he was in B.S. and that being the premier of a Canadian province doesn't pay all that much money (most senior staff in big companies make more than he does, and they don't normally manage whole provinces), he decided to step down in order to find some breathing room, be with his kids, earn a better and saner living, and maybe even head off to California so that his American wife can get away from both our freakish weather and crazy politics. Canadian politics will do that to a person and his or her family. Despite the fact that Canada doesn't suffer from the kind of political violence experienced in other countries (over here the worst that happens is a pie in the face), the job of a politician is still pretty much horrendous: low pay, heavily politicized, constantly criticized by voters and/or the media, lack of proper job security (one slip-up and you're out)... You may think the perks are pretty interesting, but just ask anyone who travels for a living just how well their expense account covers the occasional frayed nerves and long days away from home. The media often reports on the big cats in Ottawa with their high status positions and fat pensions and benefits, but they often neglect the lonely back-benchers who while trying to improve the lives of their constituents, are told by their leaders to "sit down, shut up and vote how the party tells you to vote". Now I know Lucien Bouchard was the leader of a separatist party (you don't join the Parti Québecois because you want to stay in Canada), but he also was a half-decent leader of a government that ran the province well enough not to make the hole we're in any deeper than it already is -- at least not too much. The kind of problems the province is going through these days are no different from the problems experienced by the other provinces in Canada. And even though I'm against the city mergers plan, I can understand the basic reasoning behind it. My only problem with it is that this would create a bigger version of an existing dysfunctional management machine, a detail that seems to have been overlooked by the government. So Lucien is leaving. The only problem now is that the Parti Québecois has to find itself another leader. Unfortunately there are currently no viable candidates out there. This is not just a "public image" problem here; the party has to find someone who can handle the difficult job and put both the soft and hard liners in their place. It's like attempting to get two different parties to agree on something without the whole issue becoming a shouting fest. Whatever happens, the Parti Québecois will continue to exist and annoy the rest of the country for years to come. The leaders may change but the situation remains the same. I want to be in politics! I'm not talking about provincial politics. I'm talking about municipal politics! The suburban mayors want to counteract the effects of the city mergers by getting the candidate of their choice elected as the new mayor of the soon-to-be-expanded city of Montreal. Already the suburban mayors are having trouble amassing the necessary cash to run an effective and (hopefully) successful election campaign. Maybe I should throw my hat into the ring. But in my case, my promises will be downright nasty! If I'm elected mayor of Montreal, once Montreal and the suburbs have been merged together to form one mega-city, I will exploit the suburbs way beyond the level they have been exploiting Montreal for so many years! I promise to drain the suburbs of all their existing funds in order to rebuild Montreal's crumbling infrastructure! I promise to centralize all municipal services to the point that even people located at both ends of the island have to come all the way downtown to get their garbage schedule! I promise to transfer the beneficial services the suburbs have enjoyed for years over to central Montreal where they will be ruined by ineffective management and insufficient funding. Essentially, I plan to drain the suburbs bone dry! The doughnut effect Montreal has endured for many years will be completely reversed! Central Montreal will become the jewel of Canada while the suburbs become the kind of crumbling wasteland you see in apocalyptic style movies! And just to prevent further erosion of the city of Montreal by outsiders (more specifically the ones commuting from the North and South shores), I'll have half the bridges surrounding the island of Montreal torn down in order to make the morning and evening commutes an even bigger nightmare than they already are while at the same time save a huge chunk of money normally spent constantly repairing these bridges over and over again. So what are my chances of getting elected? Not a chance you say? Well look at this in another angle. At least I already informed you of my intentions. Do you think whoever gets elected will do the same? Those suburban mayors better be careful who they choose as a candidate. One he's elected (don't expect the candidate to be a "she", this is still pretty much an "old boy's club"), don't be surprised if the new mayor forgets the promises he's made to the now unemployed suburban mayors and decides to run the new mega-city in the same manner as I've described. The only difference is that I've told you what I intend to do. No other candidate will dare reveal to the people their true intentions. Maybe last week's cold hit me harder than I thought. I'm feeling much more cynical than usual! New updates this week No DVD reviews this time. All I bought last week was "When Harry Met Sally" and I only watched it last night (great movie, good picture, crappy "hissy" sound). Work at home and at the office last week kept me constantly busy. And my bad case of asthma provoked by that cold didn't help either, slowing down any progress I tried to make (it wasn't the flu, it just felt that way). So I had to catch up on some overdue work this weekend and forgo the DVD review for the time being. However, what I do have this week is a new series of DVDs up for sale, all highlighted in green, along with plenty of price reductions on the existing titles in the list. So come and get them while they're hot! Have a good week! |
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January 8, 2001 Ooooooo... It figures! I have the flu! Headache, fever, aches and pains, dry coughs... And just when I have to get back to work! So this week's update will be brief. But considering I already added a few new items of interest during last week, there is still plenty of stuff to read for this week. At least if you have the stomach to read the latest review! More on that later. It's time for a boycott! I've had it! This is the last straw! Enough already! Canadian made DVDs really stink! In the last few months, I have seen more examples of blatant incompetence from Canadian DVD releases than I've seen in the entire history of the DVD format! The one exception to this rule is Alliance. They put so much work in their products that they even managed to enrage Disney when they were adding more features to their Canadian DVD releases than Disney was adding to their American releases! Disney had to tell Alliance to cut that out or lose distribution rights. But for all the other companies, enough is enough! The only way to send a clear message to companies such as Lions Gate Films, the CBC and Over Canada Productions is to stop buying their products altogether and to warn others of their shoddy products which offer too many pan & scan only transfers, no extra features, buggy interfaces and inflated prices. It was bad enough when I found out the series "Over Canada", originally filmed with HDTV equipment, was released as an advertising medium for Sony products, made available only in a non-anamorphic transfer with Dolby Surround sound only. But now we even have the CBC screw up the "Canada: A People's History" release with it's unilingual non-anamorphic DVD which happens to be full of bugs based on reports at various forums. Even some of the top DVD players out there get the hiccups playing this disc! And don't get me started with the French Lions Gate DVD releases which are pan & scan and Dolby Surround only despite the fact anamorphic widescreen transfers and Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks are readily available on the European Region 2 releases. Late update. I just found out TVA International's DVD release of "Art of War" is riddled with so many bugs that it's pretty much useless in the majority of DVD players. Even worse, the anamorphic image isn't flagged properly! All anamorphic DVD releases contain a special flag which identifies the source material as being enhanced for 16x9 TVs. This way, if your TV is a traditional 4x3 shaped TV and the DVD player has been set up to take this fact into consideration, the player will automatically squeeze the image so that everything looks normal. Unfortunately, the flag is missing from the "Art of War" DVD which means that on a 4x3 TV, everyone looks tall and skinny! And it's not the DVD player that's at fault! How any company can make such a humongous mistake in this crucial parameter is beyond me. Because of all of this, I'm seriously thinking of starting a campaign to boycott Canadian DVD releases until such time that the various companies responsible for this sorry state of affairs get their act together and start releasing DVDs that can compete with some of the best releases coming from the US. New items this week First of all, there is a new editorial. It's actually more of a a cynical piece of humour than an editorial, but it does get it's point across that the Academy Awards are more of a sham than anything else. The editorial contains detailed instructions on how to obtain one of those coveted statues with the help of some basic strategy. Once you read it, you might recognize quite a few movies that have followed this path. As for the information itself, it's mostly factual, picked up from a couple of Canadian alternate news shows and documentaries that have recorded these events as they occurred, more specifically the news show "Undercurrents" and the "Race for the Oscars" documentary as presented on the show "Witness". Both shows have been presented on the CBC. Now the review. I don't know if the flu bug affected me earlier on, but I actually wrote a review for some Japanese animated pornography! The series is called "Cool Devices" and it's probably the most raunchy, violent Hentai ever made available in North America. Please be advised that although I took great care in ensuring that my review is nowhere near as graphic as the series itself, the review is FOR ADULTS ONLY! So have a good week! Now if you'll excuse me, I have to chase away my fever-induced hallucinations. |
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January 1, 2001 Quick Update As is usually the case, the week between Christmas and New Year's has been a very quiet one. So this week's update will be brief.
So Happy New Year and Happy New Millennium! |
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December 25, 2000 Psst! Wanna buy some bread? Dempster's Bread has been airing some interesting commercials that promote the "non-benefits" of their bread made with unbleached flour. They do state that the bleaching process used by other manufacturers is pretty much harmless. But the way they approach the subject makes it seem as if the bleaching process involves a few risks. In a way it's both intelligent and deceptive marketing. You state that your competitor's process is harmless but make it seem as if they're hiding a big nasty secret from you. I'd be worried about what's in the unbleached flour used by Dempster's. It's like the difference between pasteurized and unpasteurized milk. The unpasteurized milk seems harmless until you realize the pasteurization process kills off quite a few nasty diseases. Varied local news The Montreal area was almost hit with an ambulance strike, not that it would have any impact to the existing service. Since ambulances are deemed an essential service here in Quebec, the ambulance technicians must maintain a minimum level of service at all times. So what's the point of all of this? Well, I'm not sure anymore who wanted to do what and to whom. Originally the technicians wanted to go on strike, then they cancelled it, then I believe the union leaders wanted to continue with the negotiations while the technicians now wanted to go on strike... Frankly I don't know what's going on. Maybe I should just stay home and avoid accidents altogether. Now that the law has been passed, municipalities threatened by the city mergers project are starting legal procedures to have the new law thrown out. It's a final attempt at preventing small municipalities from being swallowed up by inefficient, badly managed big cities. In the meantime, mayor Bourque is still trying to get people to sign his petition in favour of the mergers and is having a tough time reaching his goal. The weather is completely nuts! We had snow, rain, cold spells, warm spells, almost an ice storm... It's like being dumped and flooded at the same time! Do yourself a favour. Stay indoors and hope that the roof doesn't cave in from the massive block of ice forming on top of it. As a precautionary measure, consider wearing a hard hat indoors so that you don't suffer from a head injury and have to wait for an ambulance to take you to the hospital. On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... A beer! Now don't take this the wrong way. I like Christmas a lot. But certain elements of this festive season have gone overboard. First of all, there should be a law forbidding the installation of any Christmas decorations in all stores before November 15. Many retail outlets were putting up their Christmas decorations and even pumping out Christmas muzak over the P.A. system before Halloween was even over! And don't get me started on the endless stream of badly recorded and poorly performed Christmas music we're bombarded with continually for two whole months! As soon as a song reaches the public domain, it is hopelessly butchered by the variations that are released. Even well respected artists get into the game by releasing the umpteenth version of "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer" and other previous holiday classics which have now become incredibly irritating. Even the Christmas specials on TV have become overly bland over the years. Gone are the days of the classy Christmas specials we saw as children. These days, the specials are rehashes of the same basic ideas and concepts that have been around for years. The only TV show whose Christmas episode I enjoyed this year was "The West Wing" which steered clear of the stereotypical Holiday storylines by using Christmas as a vehicle to bring out one character's post traumatic stress disorder in the open. Christmas was not the main subject in this case, it was a key part of an excellent storyline that had nothing to do with Christmas. But on every other show, it was the same worn-out formulas used for the umpteenth time in the same year. To me, Christmas has always been about being with your loved ones and enjoying each other's company and exchange some great gifts. I've been generous this year judging by the constant nagging from a few members of my family asking me what I got them for Christmas. If I've driven them nuts and made them happy at the same time, to me that's a great Christmas. The rest of the year, I just drive them nuts. Hehehe! Whichever way you celebrate it, have a great Christmas this year. All I'm asking is that the commercial crap be toned down for once so that we can enjoy the Holidays without being invaded by them. This week's review Surprise! It's not a Christmas movie. In fact, it doesn't even belong in the same culture. The movie is the long awaited Japanese animated feature "Princess Mononoke", a title which was suppose to be released on DVD last spring until it was revealed by Disney that the release would not include the original Japanese language track. A massive e-mail campaign succeeded in changing Disney's mind about this and they decided to postpone the DVD'S release until they could secure the rights to the Japanese language track. And a good thing too. Without the original language track, this DVD release could have been a total disaster. Instead, it's now a worthy DVD release and an excellent reference disc to show off your system. So Merry Christmas and see you next year! |
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December 18, 2000 Good morning, Mr. President. They finally have one! The United States finally has a president! After a one month delay, the Supreme Court has decided that the legitimate winner of the elections was indeed George W. Bush. So now the States can get back to the business of running their country and part of the world. Now maybe the news media can move on to other subjects. This one was getting very old. Sign my petition! PLEASE! Mayor Pierre Bourque is having a few problems at this time. To counteract the anti-merger movement, our mayor is circulating a petition in support of the forced city mergers. But he's running short of quite a few thousand signatures compared to the number of people that have participated in last weekend's protest. And now the mayors who stand to lose their jobs along with their towns are running television commercials. The Quebec government still has to pass the bill in the Quebec Assembly. Will all that's going on have an effect on the vote in the Assembly? It's doubtful. But the fight isn't over yet. This week weather: varied and confusing. The weather this week is completely nuts! First we have thirty centimetres of snow, then two days later we get another fifteen centimetres. And now we got rain to top it all off making the sidewalks walking death-traps! Now while I'm writing this update, there was even some lightning! Am I dreaming or is this kind of crazy weather becoming more and more commonplace? Web site of the week For Jazz fans living in Montreal and who don't have the thirty channels of music available on digital cable and satellite services, there is salvation! And it's located at http://www.comfm.com/live/radio/parisjazz . Twenty-four hours of continuous Jazz music of all kinds with no commercial interruptions. Until Montreal gets it's own jazz station, this satellite service from Paris is a decent alternative for anyone with high speed Internet connections. And thanks to my dad for pointing it out. Aside from the classical music radio station CJPX, Montreal's radio stations are pure garbage playing nothing but bland muzak-sounding music by commercial boy-bands and girl-bands who will be forgotten once their fifteen minutes of fame are up. Until the situation gets better here in Montreal, the only alternative we have is to access foreign Internet radio stations. This week's review The Silly Movies reviews come to an end with a true comedy classic by John Hughes. "Planes, Trains and Automobiles". It's the Road trip from Hell like you've never seen it before! Enjoy! And remember! Only one shopping week left before Christmas! So hurry up! |
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December 12, 2000 Web Site Closure No, I'm not talking about my site. I'm talking about a Web site dedicated to the DVD world since the introduction of the format a few years ago. Created by Steve Tannehill, The DVD Resource Web site (http://www.dvdresource.com) has been keeping DVDphiles informed on the latest DVD releases, and had a mixture of DVD reviews and rants. He even added a few personal details at times which resulted in quite a lot of e-mail responses, way too many of them hostile. Eventually he learned not to take these responses personally and finally concentrated on the business at hand. Over the last few months, his postings have been more and more infrequent to the point that many of us were already wondering if he just simply ran out of steam. This week he dropped the gauntlet and decided to sign off for one last time. While his departure was more of a whimper than a roar, there's no denying his contribution to the development of the DVD community as I would call it. Many other sites have started up since Steve's site was initially created, and quite a few of them have achieved tremendous success. They are also acknowledging Steve's contributions this week and are thanking him for a job well done. If it wasn't for Web sites such as his, I wouldn't have accumulated almost 300 individual titles over the last couple of years. It's because of the perseverance and enthusiasm of people like him that we now have a consumer video format that is better than anything that has ever been seen or heard short of an original film presentation, and has finally been accepted by the masses and the industry. Thanks Steve! I've Been Drafted! Well, I shouldn't say "drafted"; I should say "elected". It's just that the speed at which it happened caught me a bit off guard. One person nominated me, another person second the nomination, then there was a flurry of hands up in the air, all this occurred within ten seconds! If only the U.S. presidential elections were this quick and simple! I've been elected as a member of the administrative board in the condo building where I live. What am I expecting from all of this? Frankly, I don't know. Am I worried? Not really. I like these opportunities to find out just what kind of work I can do reasonably well. Now I already get a decent amount of exercise at the office, but that's not quite the same thing. My regular job involves mostly computers and very little else. Managing a residential building is a different ball of wax, even more so a building of historical value that started out as a textile mill almost a hundred years ago. Along with the regular scheduled maintenance duties, we also have our share of extra projects at hand which require our attention. How these duties will be shared between the board members and participating inhabitants will be revised in the next few days. A new experience! Cool! City Mergers Debate Heats Up There was a protest march on the weekend. Between twenty and seventy thousand people (it depends who you ask) showed up in downtown Montreal last weekend to protest against the Quebec government's forced city mergers project. The opinions were varied but followed the same common thread: no one believes this project will be of any benefit to anyone except for those currently in power. If anything, most people believe many of the services currently available in their individual communities will disappear very quickly once the inhabitants are part of the Great Montreal Family. With such an unpopular law being introduced, it will be very interesting to see what happens at the next municipal and provincial elections. And if both current government levels are thrown out of office, it will be even more interesting to see if the old municipalities are restored to their former glory or simply forgotten. It's Snowing! We are currently experiencing the first big storm of the Winter season. That's it! That's all I have to say except for "Get used to it!" He he he! This Week's Review Woody Allen's semi-autobiographical "Stardust Memories". His recent works may be forgettable, but he does have a string of memorable movies in his repertoire. This one is inspired from his own life experiences and is a riot! So enjoy and have a good week. And don't shovel too much snow at once! Take frequent breaks! |