Today it was announced via the Ottawa X-Press that the Mayfair was awarded the best movie theatre ever award. My friend corrected me that it was actually: The Mayfair has won the best movie theatre in the history of the galaxy, now and ever shall be, Amen.

Both might be a slight exaggeration and paraphrasing of what actually happened or was printed. In reality, the Best of Ottawa 2009 poll results were published in the new issue of the X-Press, and the Mayfair got awarded the distinction of the 'best alternative to a multiplex movie theatre'. Which is pretty awesome...though the title of the category still seems a bit strange, plain ole' 'best theatre' would be nice. Anyhow, nit-picking aside, thanks go out to the X-Press for the nomination and all the fine folks of Ottawa for voting.

PS - The cover of the issue features Sasha Grey in 'Smash Cut', which was filmed in part at the Mayfair (and screens November 20th!)

The Mayfair Theatre (the bestest theatre in all the land) has been nominated in two categories in the ‘Best of Ottawa 09 Readers Poll’ in the X-Press. Hence, now I will shamelessly ask (because beg is such a harsh word) everyone I know to take a moment, link over to their website, and vote for us as ‘best alternative to a multiplex’ and ‘best film festival’ (for the 'Silents is Golden' series). It should just be a category titled 'best theatre', wording there makes it sound like the best way to see a movie is in a multiplex... which is madness.

I should have posted this request a bit earlier…but didn’t think that a year end poll would close on Wednesday November 11th at 11:59PM. Y’know…’cause I thought the year ends at the end of the year, like say December 31st or so.

Anyhow, if you have a chance to vote, it’s greatly appreciated by me and the rest of your friends at the Mayfair:

X-Press Best of Ottawa 09 Readers Poll

Happy Halloween!!
Time for me to go and supervise some trick r treaters...to be followed by the annual practice of stealing candy from babies.

A couple days ago I read that Nickelodeon had bought 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' from co-creator and full owner Peter Laird. I didn't put much thought into this, being that we live in an age where big companies seem to be constantly buying up smaller companies (like Disney has with Pixar, the Muppets and Marvel). I figured that all it would mean was Nickelodeon would now be producing new cartoons and toys featuring the kid friendly multi-coloured headband wearing versions of the characters.

What I didn't realize, was that it was going to put into motion a chain of events that would lead to the demise in total of Mirage Studios itself. I just read a blog posting from Peter Laird in which he lays this out, and sounds very much like he has no interest in the characters anymore. Sometime in the near future there will be no more Mirage comics it seems. Leaves me kind of shocked and saddened.

I'm pretty sure that I own every comic Mirage has ever produced (not all first printings mind you...but I got 'em in some form). The turtle part in Batturtle comes from my love of TMNT. And at the moment even my favorite goalie on the Senators has Mirage character Casey Jones on his helmet.

I've had the pleasure of meeting pretty much all of the Mirage Studio artists who worked under Peter Laird. All are great guys who have a love of these characters, their books and their fans. Some of my prize possessions are a couple of original TMNT pages by long-time turtle writer and artist Jim Lawson. I look forward to reading all of their future non-TMNT related work.

I'm not sure when the last 'real' TMNT story will come out...sometime mid 2010 it sounds like. It will be a sad new comic day for me indeed when that date rolls around. And never say never I guess. This is not the first time Mirage has gone away. The traditional all red headband original characters could be back someday.

All good things must come to an end.

We (the Mayfair) got mentioned in the Ottawa Citizen yesterday in regards to the ongoing Lansdowne Live fun that's currently being hotly debated here in town. Click here for the link over to the article. Though if you're anything like me, you might want to refrain from reading some of the comments in reply to the issue (people's opinions that differ from mine make me furious!!).

Another lil' peek at the work being done on the Batturtle Productions logo animation. Intentions are for it to be tagged in front of the webisode project. We are working away on that, with plans to premiere online (obviously...seeing as they're webisodes and all) in 2010.

A second run at a Batty character design rotation. This one with a little more detail and shading on him. I've also seen a rough animation of the mini-project, it looks awesome.

This upcoming Friday night marks the greatest cross-promotion screening event in the history of the Mayfair! Roller derby girls AND 'Switchblade Sisters'. If you don't attend you clearly have your priorities all mixed up.

A few short weeks ago, being co-owner of the Mayfair wasn't part of my existence. Of course, much less was it even ever part of my day to day thought process. Now it's a constant and steady topic on my mind. Another thing packed into my already too packed schedule (a 48 hour day and 14 day week would be nice).

If you would have told me that the Mayfair was part of my future in more that a patron capacity though, I would have put up a hazard of a guess that my first suggestion of a movie to play might be 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'...maybe 'Big Trouble in Little China'. I would never have guessed that it would've been 'The Wiz'. Stranger things have happened I guess. So, if you're free Thursday night around nine or so, head on over to the Mayfair for a bizarre remake of Wizard of Oz starring Michael Jackson. I'll see yah there.

My friend (and conveniently enough also an animator) Cara Rowlands is currently working on an opening title thing for Batturtle Productions. A lil' project that I've been meaning to get underway for like a million years or so. The instigating factor was I wanted something neat to put in front of the currently in pre-production webisode series.

Here's the rotation for Batty. Where we finally get confirmation that he does indeed have a shell!

The Mayfair opened in 1932. In 2009 I became a co-owner.

Hope everyone has an Alpha Flight-tastic Canada Day. I will be crewing at some concert festivities like a chump. Or at least stuck there, hiding from the rain and not working because it looks like thunderstorms. No BBQ themed day off for me.

I'm working on a couple projects at the moment. Neither of which can I really talk about. Which makes blog updates a bit uneventful and difficult. I can at least say that one is a web-series and one is a comic book, and progress is happening on both.

The artist sent in the thumbnail layouts for issue three of the comic mini-series (it's five issues total). And even just at that stage it has me really excited. Can't wait to see it all penciled and inked.

Looking into getting an short bit of animation done for my mascot Batty there. Something quick and short for the opening titles of the web-series. Been meaning to get something like that done for an age, will be cool to see Batty in motion. Now if only I could get an action figure made in his likeness.

This upcoming Friday (May 29th) the Mayfair Theatre will be screening 'Young People Fucking' as their late late show (11PM). The movie is being shown as part of Canterbury High School's 40th anniversary, as it was directed by Canterbury alum Martin Gero.

Glenn Cockburn (one of the film's producers) will be in attendance to introduce the movie.

Tickets available at the theatre ($5 for members, $9 for non-members).

A movie that I worked on a lil' while back will have it's premiere this upcoming Friday night (May 22nd) at 7PM at the Nepean Creative Arts Centre (35 Stafford Road, Nepean...aka...Ottawa). Admission is $5.00.

Attack of the Giant Leeches is director Brett Kelly's re-make of the Roger Corman produced 1959 drive-in cult classic. A film which also got the MST3K treatment in 1992:

Dr. Forrester: Ah! Robinson, Servo, Mr. T. Robot! Our invention this week is inspired by this week's experiment, "Attack of the Giant Leeches". In ye olden times, alchemists believed that leeches served medicinal purposes.

TV's Frank: So do we!

Dr. Forrester: Uh, yes um, we found that the common fresh water leech uh, can serve the same purpose as a nicotine patch, and being neither food nor drug, there's no pesky FDA regulation to impede your progress and I can experiment at will. Frank?

TV's Frank: At your service.

Dr. Forrester: Our subject, Frank, has been trying to quit smoking for quite some time. He's a three pack-a-day man.

TV's Frank: No I'm not!

Dr. Forrester: Yes you are, shut up. Now this leech, we'll call him Patches...

TV's Frank: Yah!

Dr. Forrester: When applied to the neck or head area, will suck any desire to smoke out of Frank.

TV's Frank: No, no, no, no! No! No! No, I'm the sum of my vices! I have my pain, my happiness, my losses, my love! My struggles, my hobbies, my lent! I want to live! I want to live! I want to live! And love! And learn! And live!

Dr. Forrester: But this won't hurt a bit.

TV's Frank: Oh, Ok.

Dr. Forrester: Uh, there you go. Now, Patches, I'm depending on you, ya slug!

TV's Frank: Say, this is the most action I've ever got.

Yay for Free Comic Book Day!!!

This picture by Eric Talbot has nothing to do with me or Batturtle Productions. Except for if I had thought of it, I totally would have gotten him to draw me something like this one of the couple of times that I met him.

As I've stated on here in an earlier post, I prefer to add some form of picture along with my little blog updates. Alas, I don't have any photographic or art related stuff from the past month or so. Not that I haven't been busy. Work plows along on a couple projects that I can't really talk about just yet. Believe me, I wish I could gush about them but have been sworn to secrecy.

One (which I think I'm allowed to say is a comic book) is painfully close to hitting some form of maybe finding a publisher. It's such an insane uphill battle though. And I can't even say "but I can't complain"...'cause oh boy, could I ever complain about a couple of things that have happened to us in regards to finding a home for this thing and having it become an actual for real on paper comic book.

A couple posts ago I said I wanted to do something a bit more long form this year (like a feature length film). Which I would. But, out of nowhere (as good ideas have a tendency to often come from) a project that would be in a definite non-feature type format is on it's way to becoming a reality. As with that other project that's mentioned above, this too also involves comic books. Except they're more involved in the characters workplace location. I usually am extremely hard on my own writing...and I wrote something for this project that I think is my favorite thing that I've ever done. And that's a lot for me to fess up to considering my normal state of self deprecation.

On the weekend, crewed for a lil' bit on a comic book based shoot titled 'The Scarab'. Would've liked to have worked on it more, but had to ditch out 'cause I was already booked elsewhere. Anyhow, will contribute more work towards it in upcoming weeks.

Above is a shot of one of the costumed characters from the picture, The Woman in Red.

I guess this image could count as Blast From the Past #3 (I don't have drawers full of cool sketches like the TMNT blog has at it's disposal). That's me with a clipboard holding the lined shooting script, looking at a video assist monitor. This was taken during the shooting of one of the Villains shorts, which if I remember correctly was somewhere around 1950. Seems that long ago anyhow.

In more current news, am busy trying to get a few projects going:
I just wrote an 8 page back-up story for a friends comic book mini-series. The series that I co-wrote with Howard Wong is in the limbo of being shopped out to publisher's. In other writing related news, trying to figure out what to do with a trio of finished feature length scripts I have. Using them to sell out in some way would be just grand.

Also possibly re-tooling the ole' Comic Book Connection idea after having been inspired by a couple feature length doc's. Might be easier (well...easier is probably the wrong word) to focus the idea into a documentary with a beginning, middle, and end instead of a series straight away.

Basically, in 2009 I hope to do a longer project in some form. Fiction or doc... maybe both. If I can fit ambition and productivity in-between time spent at the Mayfair watching movies that is.

Will 2009 be awesome?
Magic Eight Ball says..."YES"
The Magic Eight Ball never lies!!!

From our home town of Ottawa...Kodos, Kang and I hope that all of you Quantum Presbyterians out there have an excellent Holiday season.

My good deed of the day (or week...or month...possibly longer) was to walk around my neighbourhood for a bit today, getting the new Mayfair schedules into some places of business and into people's hands. When I first saw the schedule a couple days ago, I became a little spellbound. On this one month of movies alone, the first of many schedules to come, the Mayfair has I think become one of the best movie theatres not just in Canada, but anywhere.

Check out the Mayfair website for more details on the screenings. And be sure to come out on January 2nd for the grand re-opening, featuring a free screening of some local shorts and the classic film 'Metropolis'.

The Killer63 screening is tomorrow. Go see it!

I have three things that I love about Halloween nowadays:
1) There's the eating of all the candy leftover from my friends house 'cause there's hardly any trick-or-treaters.
2) All the great old horror movies on TCM.
3) Girls in skimpy super hero costumes.
Happy Halloween!

In association with the comic strip PVP , there's a Flickr site about Skull the Troll and his travels around the globe. Where-in fans of the comic and owners a of Skull (doll? stuffed animal?...not sure the proper term) send in pictures of their toys travels.

A friend of mine recently made a trip to St Petersburg, Russia. And seeing as she is a fan of PVP as well, she was cool enough to drag along my Skull with her on her voyage. I submitted the picture to the Flickr site ages ago, bit seeing as it hasn't been updated in a couple months, thought I'd post it here.

Been horribly busy the past six weeks working at Cirque du Soleil here in Ottawa. Which was great, but very time consuming and distracting from other stuff that I should've been working on. So, now I'm back to work on various projects, mainly getting the Killer63 Fest, and my short film contribution for it all done and ready.

And, another important endeavor, is an attempt that I'm undertaking to bribe a friend of mine into naming his soon to arrive new baby son 'Optimus'. It began with me jokingly saying I'd give him $20 bucks to do so...word spread, more folks chipped in, and now I'm suddenly up to $400 big bribery dollars. Now that my time has slightly freed up a bit, I'm going to try to raise that number to as big a dollar amount as I can manage. If you'd like to contribute to the cause, lemme know. There's no better bribe you could possibly donate to.

Mayfair marquee for Killer63 year one

It looks like the Mayfair Theatre is closing in November. I spoke today with someone doing an article about the theatre (since I've shot movie stuff there and screened Killer63 events there). The news saddens me to no end. Especially so if it's destined to be replaced by another Starbucks or set of condos.

I have endless Mayfair stories I could tell. The first time that I went to the Mayfair, my uncle brought me, and introduced me to Monty Python. And since then, I've seen hundreds of movies there, double bills for the most part. I've happily wasted the day there watching a Star Trek marathon, shot cap guns at the screen of John Woo films, experienced horribly offensive Japanimation and classics the likes of Wizard of Oz.

It's awful that repertory theatres nation wide are destined for extinction it seems. The Mayfair is one of my favorite places on earth, and I will miss watching movies there very much.

Catwoman (Darwyn Cooke style) at the Fan Expo

My friends, this image above is prime example number one why comic con's are awesome. This was the view from behind Howard Wong's table on Sunday afternoon at the Fan Expo. If you can pry your eyes away from Catwoman for a moment, you'll notice his 'After the Cape' comics there at the bottom of the picture (both trades currently available from Image Comics...go buy 'em now!) .

A fun weekend was had by all. I got to see a bunch of comic con friends and acquaintances, got a bit of schmoozing in, got to chat with some geeky heroes of mine the likes of (Commander) Rick Green, Keith Giffen, and the folks from Mirage Studios amongst others. And went see 'Evil Dead the Musical', which I'm pretty sure was the greatest thing ever produced by human beings in the history of the planet.

I filled up my second sketch book (well, exept for two pages that are on reserve for friends that I have to get in there). So, I'll get around to a scanner sooner or later and show off some of the new highlights of my collection soon.

This is rather old news I'm afraid...the old complaint of being horribly busy and not having enough hours in the day (plus my internet connection was down for a week...horrible stuff). But I wanted to put up a little bit of a comment on the most awesome of film festivals in all of the land anyhow. Lat week I hit Montreal for 5 days of an overdose of genre bent movie watching madness. If you're a movie fan, if you love obscure martial arts movies, horror, bizarre documentaries, and the like, then this be the fest for you.

Seeing as the thing runs for a staggering 19 days, and I was there for 5...there's plenty (dozens) of movies that I didn't get to see. Without even making a stop over to drop off luggage or anything, headed straight to the theatre to meet up with friends and watch 'Akanbo Shojo'. An evil twin tale featuring a cleverly demonic little baby monster. The most fascinating of a documentary I saw, featuring train-wreck human beings as subject matter was 'I Think We're Alone Now', which was about Tiffany stalkers (yes...former teen pop star Tiffany). The best thing I was was a Thai horror anthology called '4bia' (which if I remember correctly translates to 'Crossroads'). I thought all 4 chapters were just great. It's so new though that it doesn't even seem to be on imdb as of yet. The worst thing I saw was not so shockingly enough, the new Uwe Boll opus, 'Tunnel Rats'. Within the first 3 or 4 minutes, I was in a haze of denial, thinking "Hey...this isn't bad, maybe the bastard's finally done it! Maybe this is gonna' be ok!". Things quickly went downhill from there from average to terrible to horrendous.

So, the festival has come and gone. Do go and check out the website for the 2008 Fantasia Film Festival though for a long list of movies well worth tracking down.

Starting to get plans going for this years Killer63 mini-fest of doom. There's a Facebook thing and a blog where one can look for updates and post questions or comments. Currently...nothing really on the blog about this years event...but soon...soon...

My friend Howard, who is also my current writing partner (on that thing that I can't tell you about) has gotten himself nominated for a Shuster Award. That magnificent bastard! The nomination is all fine and good for him, and as an added bonus it helps me out since now our pitch can have "from the Shuster nominated writer" in it. There's an online vote that can be checked out right here. If he doesn't win I'm flipping over a table.

Happy Free Comic Book Day! Oh man...how I do love FCBD. It's my favorite holiday of the year. If you're not familiar with this wonderful annual event held by the comic book industry, go and find yourself a comic book store and check it out. Free comics! What do you have to lose?

Raphael by Kevin Eastman

Last batch of sketches for now. Hope to have more worthy additions to show off post NYCC. Above is a sketch of Raphael by TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman. I love the Ninja Turtles. Especially those characters as published in their original Mirage Comics incarnations. Now I've met pretty much everyone ever majorly involved in that run past and present. Kevin isn't involved in TMNT anymore, but you can tell that he still has a real love of the characters. And I got to give him my card and explain to him the origins of Batturtle Productions. He complimented the Batty design, really liked it a lot.

Lobo by Simon Bizley

The other star attraction at the Heavy Metal booth was Simon Bizley. Biz is one of my comic book hero's. His run on 'Lobo' is one of the defining memories of my high school geekyness. He wasn't about, just an empty seat behind the table, with a bunch of doodles on the table-cloth in front of it. I asked the nice lady in charge of the booth if she knew when he'd be back. She said he was just out having a smoke, and should be back soon. Right then he appeared. If you're familiar with the character Lobo, well...that's EXACTLY what Biz looks like. Well, except for the pale white skin and the things over his eyes. Besides for that though, mirror image.

I went over and said hi. He was surprisingly pleasant for a big scary monster of a drunk-ish British fella. I asked if I might be able to get a sketch from him. He said sure, paused, then asked if I wanted to go out for a smoke (except, where Biz comes from, they call them 'fags'...yeah yeah, very mature, stop snickering). I don't smoke. I've never smoked. I've never had the desire to smoke. Right then, for the first time ever, I really wished that I smoked. I told him I didn't smoke, he said join him anyhow. So I followed him outside. He's a giant lumbering Frankenstein's monster of a man. He basically walked in a quick straight line, and people dove out of his way. We bumped into an old lady who gave him cookies, which he politely accepted (not sure who she was, but they knew each other).

After his smoke...he said he wanted a drink. We headed for a nearby hotel bar. He asked me what I wanted to drink. And once again, having never drank or had any desire to drink...now I wished that I did drink. He commended me for not drinking, and bought me a Coke. We sat and chatted about everything from Canada to history to politics to comics to the Ramones. An hour later, we left the bar. He said he needed more cigarettes. And at the nearby hotel store they had those, and they also had beer (they sell beer all over the damn place in the States). I had my backpack on (which Biz called a rucksack), Biz noticed this and asked if I would mind smuggling in some beer for him back into the Con. I can neither confirm nor deny that I did this for Biz.

Two hours after having initially asked Biz for a sketch...I finally got my sketch. I can also neither confirm or deny that Biz gave me some free books.

Later, my friend asked why I missed the George Romero panel. This was why. My friend Tom claims that this was the greatest Con story he has ever heard.

Tick by Gabe Crate

More sketches! Oh what an age of wonders we live in! Above, I'm sure that you will recognize the mighty blue force of justice himself, The Tick. In my first Year visiting San Diego, I was lucky enough to meet and get a sketch from Tick creator Ben Edlund (he also directed maybe my favorite 'Angel' ever). Year two, I got another sketch of the character from another fine Tick artist, Gabe Crate. He also gave me a copy of his comic, 'The Flickers'. Which I highly recommend you track down. It's funny and evil and actually made me laugh aloud while reading it.

Deadpool by Rob Liefeld

Ok...I know that hate is a strong word, but I hate Rob Liefeld's artwork. As should any other rational comic book reader with anything close to the smallest amount of good taste and reason. With all those teeth, scratchy ink lines, awful anatomy on everyone, panel to panel continuity thrown out the window. BUT, I would feel really bad if by some fluke he stumbled on this lil' blog, read that, and that my statement hurt his feelings. 'Cause he is likely the nicest comic book guy that you'll ever meet. It has been my goal to acquire a sketch from him for quite some time. Not sure why. Some kind of ironic, humorous take on my enjoyment of the world of comics. Like a fan of Elvis getting one of those velvet Elvis paintings. Or I'm just a jerk. Or a bit of both. I'm sure that Rob's millions of dollars and mega success keep him unworried about critics though.

Batman by Grant Morrison (!)

I showed off this Batman sketch to my friend Tom (who draws comics for a living), and he was unimpressed. Then I said "Grant Morrison drew it!", and he thought it was much cooler. I had gone to a DC panel solely to see Grant. As per usual, he has a tendency to blow yer mind with his stories. If he ever starts up a crazy cult, I'll be first in line to sign up. Later in the day, I was at Dark Horse Comics land, and my friend ran up yelling that Grant was signing at the DC area! I immediately sprinted my way over. I had nothing for him to autograph, so I was just going to get him to sign my sketchbook. Then, next thing you know, he's drawing me Batman. How did he know I liked Batman!?! THEN, he drew my friend Al an Animal Man. Which is Al's favorite Grant Morrison related character! He truly has magical powers greater than we average humans can understand.

Grifter by Travis Charest
Impulse by Todd Nauck


Humpty Dumpty by Tony Akins

Sketches! Forever and a day ago (ok...well, more like nine months) I was in California for the San Diego Comic Con. At which, I got a bunch of cool sketches to add to my collection thanks to the ever so nice comic artists in attendance. At the request of a few curious geeks, I had intentions to put some of these new treasures up much sooner. Alas, I don't actually own a scanner, and time flies. With the NYCC on the horizon, it was on my mind though...so I finally got around to the deed of going to a friends place where-at there was a scanner. And much scanning commenced!

So, here's three for now. The first: Grifter by Travis Charest. A character he drew during Alan Moore's writing stint on Wildcats (which was a great run). More recently he's done a whole bunch of amazing Star Wars covers. Next is Impulse by Todd Nauck. Todd has drawn a lot of Bart Allen in his day, and we lamented over the characters death. And third but not least, Humpty Dumpty, as seen in Jack of Fables drawn by Tony Akins.

More sketches to come (have to go be productive now).

Yesterday, my pass for the NYCC arrived in the mail. They don't have their complete schedule up just as of yet as I write this. Two things to do right at the top of my list though are going to be: trying to get an Ambush Bug sketch from Keith Giffen, and a Blue Beetle sketch from Kevin Maguire.

This has reminded me that I've totally dropped the ball and have neglected to put some drawings that I collected down in San Diego last year up here. Have to make sure to get my sketch book near to a scanner so I can do so.

I try to make it a habit of attaching pictures to my blog updates. Just to make the page more interesting, so it's not text from top to bottom. But no pictures this time. Why you ask? Because evidently it's a horrible world that we live in where people rip off ideas and concepts from other folks all the time. Which I guess is true...that's why you get movies like 'A Bug's Life' and 'Antz' coming out so close to one another...when up until that point, there had been zero animated feature films starring ants.

The news that I have to pass along is that I got to look at some artwork today for an upcoming project. The one that I'm working on with my friend Howard (see previous post). And, said artwork inspired me with geeky glee, and filled me with inspiration to get back to writing. I wanted to put some of the drawings up here, but Howard nixed that idea (with logical reasoning). So, they'll just have to wait to be posted until the project is a bit closer to actual realization. Keeps things all nice and mysterious I guess.

In unrelated news...all the comic books I bought today were $2.99 US/Canada. People smarter than I have tried to explain that the faltering of the US economy can have bad repercussions all over the place in various aspects of life. All I know is that my comics are like 66 cents cheaper. And that's all good by me.

This is a picture of my friends Howard and Rosario. Ok...fine...I don't know Rosario. Didn't even get to meet her dammit! That Howard bastard was just in the right place at the right time last year in San Diego. I was probably off donating blood or doing something else equally unimportant.

Anyhow, Howard and I are working on a project together that seems to be actually making a lil' bit of headway. Wheels are in motion towards it actually reaching a completed point. Just can't really talk about it quite yet. I know you want to steal all of my ideas...you can't trick me.

Made it into the comic store today for the first time in an age. Bought a giant stack of comics. What do I need to save money for? I'll just spend less money on food and bills and rent, put less money in the bank...everything will be fine. All very well thought out.

In another small geek accomplishment, I got a letter published in 'Angel: After the Fall' #4. Further proving that Joss Whedon is my best friend. Ok...fine...it doesn't prove anything...but it pleases me. Very easily kept happy I am. The interesting thing is though, is that they only printed half the letter. The half in which I praised the current run of 'Angel'. The editor chose to take out all the parts where I trashed the previous attempts at Angel comics that IDW released. Clearly not very good with criticism. Anyhow, current run (co-plotted by Joss) and the couple other mini-series by Brian Lynch and Franco Urru are very good stuff. Love this era of Joss in comics.

Forgot to mention that there'll be a couple of short films preceding tonight's screening of 'Dead of Winter'. Just like the good ole' days of big screen movie presentation, when they used to show serials and other such things in front of movies. Well...kind of like that. The two shorts are: 'Cassandra' (that I directed), and Anne-Marie Frigon's 'Scare Bear'.

Friday night (the 11th) marks the premiere of 'Dead of Winter'. A movie that I worked on some time ago that's finally all edited up and ready to be released upon the horror film enjoying public. The event happens at the National Archives (395 Wellington) at 7PM. You can check out a trailer over on the ole' YouTube.

My friend Logan and I hope y'all have an excellent holiday season. One filled with lots of presents and food and joy, and little in the way of adamantium clawed berzerker rage. Snikt!

Ottawa Actors is a new site / message-boards set up by Brett Kelly that should be of great use to local talent in film and stage. If you're interested in such happenings here in Ottawa, go check it out.

Went to see 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' today. Thanks to the Mayfair Theatre here in Ottawa having screenings of movies from the 30's to the 90's in celebration of their 75th anniversary. The repertory theatre (or revival house) is a dieing form of motion picture entertainment. Which is a sad thing. Seeing a movie like 'Raiders' up on the big screen just cannot be beat (even in this magical high-tech day of HDTV, big-screen TV's and home entertainment centre's with THX surround-sound). It's unfortunate that the majority of people are seemingly disinterested in leaving the house to enjoy movies. People had such a good time this afternoon that they even clapped when the movie came to an end...which is pretty much a non-existent happening in the average first-run movie theatre viewing experience. On the plus side, there was a very good sized crowd there...hope that the theatre pays attention to that and schedules more such screenings.