Zap over to the CBC website and go to the 12:28 mark on Michael: Tuesdays & Thursdays - episode 109. There you will bear witness to the Canadian episodic television debut of the Mayfair Theatre in all of it's small screen glory for upwards of a minute and fourty-five seconds. The Mayfair has appeared in a couple of feature films and a number of shorts already, but I'm pretty sure this is the first time it's been in a TV show. If you are a Mayfair regular, I bet you might even yell "Lee!" and point at the screen during the scene. If not a Mayfair regular, doing so might be slightly less likely a thing to do.

For the third year running, Team Mayfair and the readers of the Ottawa X-Press have crowned the Mayfair as Best Alternative to a Multiplex Movie in the Best of Ottawa 2011 Poll.

I appreciate the Mayfair winning the category yet again. As I do every year though, I find it peculiar that a year end poll is voted upon with an early November deadline. I also wish that it just said 'Best Movie Theatre in Ottawa', something about the wording of that bothers me (as it did the last two years). I guess just because I think that the multiplex is such a horrible movie going experience more often than not. Bitching aside though, I am quite proud of the lil' accomplishment, and hope to be complaining about the wording of the category again in 2012.

I don't know about you, but whenever I see a single shoe on the sidewalk or in the middle of the road, my instant first assumption is that someone has been shoved into the back of a trunk, and in the ensuing kidnapping struggle the person's shoe has fallen off. My girlfriend, a more logical and smarter person than I, pointed out that when I see something like that, it's likely just a shoe from a change of shoes that has fallen out of someone's back-pack. I kid you not, I never even contemplated that in all the years of thinking that seeing a singular show in the middle of the road was the result of crime.

When discussed with one of my Mayfair brethren, he not only agreed with my kidnapping theory, we also then to the leap to the conclusion that a mysteriously left behind single shoe could be the result of alien abduction. My girlfriend still went with the boring and more real world lost object theory.

The reason that this discussion came up was that on a walk to the Mayfair last night, not only did we walk past a shoe on the sidewalk, we then walked by the much more bizarre abandoned baby stroller on a street corner. Not only an abandoned baby stroller by the way, it also had an empty wine bottle in it. And that's all of the story that I know. Will never know what the hell that stroller was doing there all alone on a street corner at nine o' clock at night. Though I will of course assume that the baby was kidnapped by drunk aliens.

He fought his first battle on the Scottish Highlands in 1536. He will fight his greatest battle on the streets of New York City in 1986. His name is Connor MacLeod. He is immortal.

Tonight (Mon - Nov - 7th) at 9:45pm the mini-series of Lost Marbles 80s Nights at the Mayfair wraps up with The Highlander. There were many a sequel and spin-off to the 1986 fantastical swordplay epic, but let's just all pretend this movie is a stand-alone story and we'll all be a bit better off in the long run. The film of course features not only Sean Connery again not bothering with attempting to put on an accent that would fit his character, it also has Queen music and is from the director of geek cult classics the likes of The Shadow and Resident Evil: Extinction. And although there isn't really much in the way of Highlander merchandise floating around, Lost Marbles still managed to cobble together a couple nifty prizes to give away.

The above sketch is titled - Batturtle will get there eventually. It is drawn by Jeff Matsuda, whom I remember from a Wolverine run written by Erik Larsen and the cartoon Jackie Chan Adventures. It has nothing to do with my Batturtle icon, but is interesting as a random something that has popped up on the internet, and then was e-mailed to me... as weird things on the interwebs have a tendency of doing. My Batturtle is a turtle / bat / pterodactyl hybrid kinda looking thing, this one here looks more like a turtle wearing a Bat costume. And not sure why he's yelling "Bruce Wayne!", kind of gives up the secret identity by doing so.

My third in an ongoing monthly interview series about goings on at the Mayfair has been posted on the (cult)ure magazine website. Amongst other cinematic topics this month we discuss Sir Sean Connery's lack of attempts to disguise his natural accent, the genius that is Andy Serkis portraying a chimp, that I bare no ill-will towards re-makes, and that I really like baseball movies despise hating the sport itself in real life. And we concur on the thought that Highlander is amazing. Which you should too. King Kong Lives is not amazing per-say (though does have a very nice poster)...but is a very enjoyable bad midnight movie. And will make you appreciate Rise of the Planet of the Apes even more.

The Mayfair is again nominated for 'Best Alternative to a Multiplex Movie Theatre'in the Best of Ottawa Readers Poll in the X-Press. I again appreciate the nomination, and again think the thing is worded improperly, since it makes it sound like multiplexes are a good place to go see a movie. As we all know, they are not. Anyhow, please tell all your friends and family and co-workers and enemies to go and vote for the Mayfair. Democracy!