Had a few interweb issues, but finally got a couple of my projects sent over to the 2nd Annual Sudden Impulse Film Fest. Amongst a batch of other short films, they will be screening a pair of my directorial efforts, The Fantasy and the fake trailer Overkill. So if you are in Toronto on Saturday July 6th, get to the Big Picture Cinema on 1035 Gerrard Street East for an evening of cinema, stand-up comedy, and music.

Tonight I finally got to partake in the delicious foods offered up at Union613. One of my bestest friends has been working there cooking up delicious dishes for a while now, where they make up a Canadian style Southern American menu. Unfortunately for me, but a plus for those of more of a carnivorous diet, the menu is mostly filled with lots of BBQ style duck and pig and catfish and lots and lots of meat. So, if that sounds like something that makes your mouth water, get yourself over to 315 Somerset Street West in Ottawa.

Good news though! If you are a pesky and picky vegan like I am, we can now eat at this fine establishment too. For my side I got the string beans, tasso, almonds & leek dressing. For my main course I got charred mirliton with quinoa, sunflower seeds, grilled veggies, roasted pepper pureé, smoked tofu ‘mayo'. Go there and eat.

Wake in Fright (aka - Outback) is an impressive though greatly disturbing dissent into madness tale set in the wilds of Australia. Especially if you happen to be a kangaroo. You can catch the film that left Martin Scorsese speechless, that Roger Ebert thought was amazing, and screened at Cannes in both 1971 and 2009 at the Mayfair tonight at 7:00pm, Saturday June 29th and Sunday June 30th at 8:45pm.

Today I got a Mystery Science Theatre 3000 silhouette on my arm. I would show you a picture of it, but it is all bandaged up and painful and gross still. I continue to prove that I am a bigger geek than you are.

Elle Fanning stole the show away from giant space monsters and lense flares in Super 8. I had a sense that what we had on our hands here was a uber-talented young actress with a future in Hollywood, and hopefully not a Linsay Lohan train-wreck (poor Linsay...how so I did love Mean Girls).

In her latest acting effort, the talented teen plays a distraught girl living an immensely complicated life under the looming and very possible threat of a 1960's nuclear holocaust. It's another shining and powerful performance from Elle, and you have one last chance to see her in Ginger & Rosa, tonight at 7:00pm at the Mayfair. Plus...Christina Hendricks plays her mum.

There is a bizarre movie geek conspiracy theory floating around the interwebs that Stanley Kuberick intended for The Shining to be viewed forward and backward. By doing so, numerous visual overlaps happen that reveal thematic interesting visuals. It's something that is just crazy enough to be true if you know anything about the life of Mr Kuberick.

I think that it's a fascinating experiment and well worth your cinematic spare time. I also think that you might find just as many seemingly on purpose cross-over images if you do the same to any movie ever made. You can have a chance to judge for yourself whether it's nonsense and coincidence, or madman artistic vision when the Mayfair screens The Shining: Forward & Backward on Wednesday June 26 at 9:00pm and Thursday June 27th at 9:30pm

Did you know that Stanley Kubrick was hired by NASA to fake the moon landing? It's true! Learn other such amazing stories when you watch the completely factual documentary Room 237 at the Mayfair tonight at 9:45pm and Tuesday June 25th at 9:00pm.

It's not every day that you get to see music legend David Byrne biking to work. I got to witness such an amazing sight as I was walking to Jazz Fest from work to partake in the David Byrne / St Vincent concert. It was as an amazing of a show as I had hoped, featuring the two aforementioned performers and a giant horn section. And he did not fall under the David Bowie habit of only wanting to perform his latest music offerings, and hit the crowd with a trio of Talking Heads offerings through-out the night.

The constant risk of outdoor concerts is that the weather just might rear it's ugly head and cause havoc. It did just that tonight with a constantly looming storm that finally hit during the end of the night. A good portion of the crowd evacuated their lawn-chair safety for dryer ground. Those who didn't run away were treated to an extended encore that was again dramatically hit with some well lit rainfall paired up with excellent musical accompaniment.

Willie Nelson a couple nights ago and Wynton Marsalis next weekend. Summer is an excellent time for music in the Capital. I'm sure you are all jealous if you are not here.

It's time for some derby in Ottawa, with a Rideau Valley Roller Girls double header tonight! It's a double dose of Ottawa battling Toronto with the Riot Squad vs the Smoke City Betties and the Slaughter Daughters vs the Gore-Gore Girls. Doors open at 5:30pm at the Barbara Ann Scott Arena, all pertinent info can be found over the the RVRG site.

Mirror Comics released this teaser image and a blurb about Zomkeys, a comic book written by me and drawn by Barb Felix. Since they are talking about it I guess that means that I can start spreading the word and begging everyone to buy a copy too. The one-shot comes out this fall, just in time for Halloween. I will be making frequent updates about th project leading up to its grand release. The comic is very highbrow, just like Sandman or V for Vendetta or Maus...except with more scenes of monkeys attacking people.

Got to see an advanced sneak preview of Th Lone Ranger tonight, the retelling of the classic character from a modern day Hollywood blockbuster Disney perspective (in case you haven't heard of the movie). I like westerns, Johnny Depp and director Gore Verbinski, so on the surface this is a movie that is seemingly right up my alley. One can't help but have a little bit of hesitation at the thought of Johnny Depp taking on a Native American side-kick character in a wild west movie.

It brings up an interesting debate and line of questions...to which I do not know the answer. Is it wrong for Johnny Depp to play Tonto? Is this the equivalent to the uncomfortable portrayal of Orson Welles in blackface in his take on Othello? Is it wrong for Tom Hanks to play a gay man in Philadelphia since he is straight? Is it wrong for Phil LeMarr to play the Japanese character in the animated series Samurai Jack because he is African American? Is Cate Blanchett allowed to play Bob Dylan in I'm Not There even though she is a different gender then the real life character she is portraying? This is a genuine series of pondering running through my brain due to Johnny taking on the role of Tonto instead of The Lone Ranger (which was supposedly the initial idea).

I really enjoyed The Lone Ranger. It was paced and packed with all kinds of quick slapstick levels of action and adventure, featured some fine performances, a great score from Hans Zimmer, and yes...I thought Johnny Depp was pretty great. Sure, he happens to be a giant movie star thanks to the unexpected success of Pirates of the Caribbean a decade ago, but he is also extremely talented at what he does. Like most mainstream blockbuster type films now-a-days, the movie is much too long, but otherwise a lot of fun. I hope that my enjoyment of the western does not make me a racist.

The Place Beyond the Pines reunites Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfrance and star Ryan Gosling. It is another character driven and rather heavy dramatic tale that again does not follow the traditional three act screenwriting structure.

Blu Valentine is an emotionally wrought film about the highs and lows that some go through over the years of an evolving relationship from meting to dating to marriage to conflict and disaster. When I saw it at the Mayfair a couple years back, my friend who accompanied me and I were both single, and the film left us rather emotionally crushed. It was quite the mountain climb to watch the characters jump back in fourth in time from happy to sad, and we roller coastered along with them. In fact,she leaned over to me at one point and said "I don't think I can get through this".

We gritted our teeth and made our way through the rest of the excellent film, even though it made for depressing results and makes one feel like you shouldn't bother to have a relationship ever again. I am happy to report that not only did the movie end up Oscar nominated, my friend and I both found much better significant other luck than the characters in the movie soon after.

I was quite impressed with their latest collaboration. It's a bit of false advertising if you go into it thinking that it's a bank heist movie starring hunky Ryan Gosling. That is a portion of the movie to be sure, but it is actually a generational tale about crime and conscious and family and forgiveness featuring talent like Eva Mendes, Bradley Cooper, Ray Liotta, Bruce Greenwood and Dane DeHann (who I thought was great in Chronicle).

You can see if you agree with me or with the critical negativity that seems to have been lashed at the film, we screen The Place Beyond the Pines tonight at the Mayfair at 6:30pm

I've said it before and I'll say it again...I don't care about Tom Cruise's personal life or religious believes or thoughts on medication or marital status or height. I don't care about any of those things. All that I can tell you for sure is that he is consistently in movies that I like and has been for a very long time. I appreciate that he's a super-star who isn't afraid to do a supporting part (Magnolia), a cameo (Tropic Thunder), heavy drama (Born on the Fourth of July), play the bad guy (Collateral), and his one ongoing franchise (Mission: Impossible) keeps getting better & better.

The latest in a long line of good Tom Cruise movies screens tonight at the Mayfair. Oblivion, the post-apocalyptic sci-fi epic from the director of Tron: Legacy, producer of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, & co-starring Morgan Freeman, screens tonight at 9:30pm.

Writers Keith Giffen & JM DeMatteis and artist Kevin Maguire were the creative team on one of my favourite comic book series of all time, Justice League International. They put a new spin on the super-hero genre, distancing from the dark & gritty theme's running through the genre at the time with a slightly more real world & comedic view of characters in funny costumes battling evil.

Their new offering will be Justice League 3000, and that's about all we know so far. Except for these amazing costume designs reinterpreting the DC icons for their futuristic turn from Howard Porter. Nerds have already taken notice of a green eyed, ginger Flash...looking a lot like Wally West (the fan-favourite speedster who has been disappeared since the DC Universe reboot). I will judge this book I haven't read from the guys who are working on it and the cool costumes that the central characters have on and conclude that it is going to b awesome. Or at least better than the other Justice League books currently on the shelves. But most likely awesome.

Even a lifelong movie watching addict like myself has holes in his cinematic checklist. Even more-so than that, even if you consider yourself in the history of motion pictures, there are always some that fall through the cracks of knowledge. In the slim category of not only movies I hadn't seen, but have never even heard of, was Breaking Away. The film recently came up in conversation coincidentally enough on not one but two podcasts that I listen to, Nerdist and Doug Loves Movies. Evidently it's on of those movies that no one knows exists, but those who do put it up on a cherished pedestal. Then as fates would have it, it popped up on the Netflix. All I knew about it was that it had something to do about bikes. I like going into movies blind, I won't give away too much about the plot, so you can do so as well if you haven't seen the movie either. It's kind of an American Graffiti or Stand By Me feel to it, a small town set coming of age in America tale. I am glad I finally found out of the films existence, it may just be on my favourites list now as well.

Watched the stand-up special Kristen Schaal: Live at the Filmore thanks to the magic of interweb streaming teevee and the Comedy Network. I'm not quite sure I can pinpoint exactly when I fell in love with the lovely young comedian...might have been when she stripped to reveal a Wonder Woman costume during a rant on the Daily Show. Then she was in The Muppets and Toy Story 3 and one of my favourite teevee shows in an age, Bob's Burgers. So many favourites!

This stand up special hits expected levels of comedic entertainment, and also reaches levels of bizarrely uncomfortable turns it's worthy of Andy Kaufman like comparisons. I loved it, especially the purposeful train-wreck twists taken as her performance reached it's conclusion. It's a bravely humorous turn at times that will surely make some viewers so squeamish to the point of running away from the program. I say that in a complimentary manner.

Another round of Kid Robot's Dunny vinyl toy-line was released today! It snuck up on me, kind of forgot about it 'til I was walking by the local Dunny dealership (Lost Marbles), and saw the latest collection on display in their front window. There is always a mystery figure, even on top of the blind box surprise that they have always been sold in. In an uncommon bout of good Dunny luck (I never get my favourite ones from the sub-sets that I want), I got not one but two different versions of the rarity. I managed to refrain from spending all my monies and just bought the two...for now.

I love comic books. I love comics of all shapes and sizes, whether they be about super-hero's saving the universe or a historical World War II drama or a gritty western or a brave autobiographical love story. There are a lot of great comics being produced, even so, the bad greatly outweigh the good (but to be fair, that's the same statistical average as in movies and teevee shows and books).

In today's market, a couple of big publishers greatly smash the independent offerings in their power at getting attention and getting in front of reader's eyes. I have no issue with the mainstream, books like Hawkeye from Marvel or Batman & Robin from DC are great reads. There is also the not so new comic book publishing habit, but seemingly quickly expanding trend, of licensed offerings adapted from the world of teevee and movies. Again, I have no problem with this, and currently have comics like Doctor Who and Buffy on my monthly pull-list. There costumed hero's from billion dollar box office hits and familiar faces from popular franchises filling up the comic store racks, sometimes with little room for a store to take risks on anything else. It's a constant point of anguish that the indie genre of comic books and its great diversity of output has an incredible difficulty uphill battle in getting a new readers attention.

One of those books that deserves your attention is reMIND. A truly original fantastical adventure tale, reMIND stars a tech savvy young woman who lives in an airplane topped lighthouse in a town obsessed with the Cryptozoological legend of lizard men. When her lost cat reappears with the new skills of walking (one two legs) and talking, then the fun really begins. reMIND is my favourite kind of comic, one with a lot of originality from both script and visual sides of the project. I found myself reminded of the work of Sam Kieth at times, a big compliment seeing as he is one of my all time favourite comic creators (by happenstance he also supplied a pin-up and a praising quote for the back cover of the first volume). The combination of character design and creatures and above ground and underwater cityscapes looked like something that Jim Henson might have put into a movie in his Dark Crystal era of filmmaking, and is perfect in scope for this imaginative bit of comic book storytelling.

The books are also the nice combo of kid friendly and just as good of a read for an adult, an ever growing bit of rarity. As an added bonus, the story is completely self contained into two thick hardback volumes, a nice thing in a comic book world often filled with endless complicated cross-over's. Although the story wraps things up at the end of volume 2, I would gladly read the continuing adventures of the characters in this world.

To read all about the 15 year long trek behind the scenes publishing adventure that lead to this book seeing the light, and to find out how to read the book for yourself, go check out the reMIND site.

The flagship Batman title as written by Scott Snyder and drawn by Greg Capullo is delving into an extended flashback territory. The latest story-arc takes things out of the current time-line, and zaps happenings back to the building block days of Bruce Wayne dressing up like a bat and dispensing vigilante justice to the people of Gotham City.

The corner-stone Bat book has been on a great run since it's re-numbering, and the first issue of Year Zero (in Batman #21) gets the always tricky prequelizing of a franchise off to a great start. The DC Comics relaunch into the New 52 universe has taken some flack from critics and fans, some of the criticism deserved. The reboot has been far from a train-wreck though, with Batman being one of their many worthwhile comics on the shelves worth a look. The best thing about stuff like Year Zero, is that it sets things a bit outside of always jumbled continuity cross-overs, so you don't have to worry about having to be knowledgeable of the dozen other Bat-books to know what the hell is going on.

Mark your calendar and re-arrange your weekend plans so your can drop by the Mayfair to partake in not one, not two, but three whole motion pictures featuring the adventures of Indiana Jones.

Festivities begin at 11:30am with Raiders of the Lost Ark. Amongst other bits of awesome, the original Indy adventure features Marion Ravenwood, my favourite female movie character of all time. Temple of Doom screens at 2:00pm, which I saw at the exact right age to wish I could be as lucky as Short Round and get to be Indy's sidekick. The Last Crusade wraps things up at 4:30pm, a generational adventure just perfect for Father's Day eve. Get ready for an excellent afternoon of cinema on Saturday June 15th that will leave you humming John Williams music for days.