Just a quick post to remind one and all of Infra-Man, a great Lost Marbles Geek Night treat tonight at the Mayfair tonight at 9. I'm looking very forward to this Power Rangers looking 1970's sci-fi superhero vs giant monsters extravaganza. When we say we're the home of 'stuff you won't see anywhere else', we sure as damn well mean it.

I have not see the film yet, but from what I've researched, it seems to have demon princesses, witches, skeleton ghosts, a slew of monsters and front to back over the top martial arts action. We've got a bunch of Lost Marbles stuff to give away, and on top of all that it's a film that Roger Ebert thinks is extreme genius. That's the most respected film critic on the planet people!

Recently I got snippy with some friend of a friend as they were trashing Ottawa as a horrible place to live where there was nothing ever to do. I told them that if they thought there was nothing to ever do in this city they weren't trying very hard to find stuff. Not only do I think there's always something to do here, often I find the cool things overlap and you have to pick over two equally worthwhile events.

I thought of this glum hater of the city that I love so as a couple nights later I went to a hip indie lil' coffee shop tucked in beside the impressive Chinatown arch as I watched a great local band perform an intimate yet still rock & rolling show. The band used in this example, The Hilotrons, are on the cover of this weeks Ottawa XPress in promotion of their Saturday night show at Babylon.

So don't be one of those whiners who inexplicably say there's nothing to do in Ottawa. Unless you have other awesome plans, get yourself out to this show to see a truly impressive local band.

There have been many an awesome an amazing night at the Mayfair Theatre in the last couple years. Sure, every once and a while a Julia Roberts or Alvin & the Chipmunks movie slips through, but for the most part the diversity and quality of the programming is stellar. And where else do you get to watch stuff like Night of the Living Dead Live, classic silent films with live musical accompaniment, Troll 2 / Best Worst Movie, Hitchcock fests, Geek Nights, roller derby movie events, and the list goes on...

Thursday January 13th though will wrap up the Charlie Chaplin film fest we've been showcasing. And not to sound too over the top hokey, but these kinds of thing are I think akin to magic. Seeing movies from the 20's, 30's and beyond in a theatre opened in 1932 almost seems like time travel. Especially impressive are these series of films considering they still hold up seamlessly. So if you're in town, are a movie fan, and haven't had a chance to catch any of these yet, do yourself a favour and get out Thursday night to participate in some true movie magic movie-watchin'

I got a letter published in the latest issue of Hellboy. Even at my advanced geek age, I still get thrilled by such things. It's one of the big reasons why I love the comic book community, for it's high level of reader / professional interaction (except for DC Comics, I don't think they have any letters columns at all in their books, they've gone completely to the web for such things). Sure there's something to be said for message-boards some would say, but getting your thoughts published on paper within an actual comic book that you're a fan of is so much more meaningful, and seems like a bit of an accomplishment. To get into a comic book (or magazine or newspaper) you have to be found interesting by an editor or writer or artist. Someone involved in the thing that you are fond enough of to comment on thought that you had something worthwhile to share with the masses. Message boards just seem to be anger and stupidity a good 90% of the time. Any idiot can ramble on about anything on the internet (y'know, like on blogs).

Wrapped up shooting on day three of Thunderstorm (which has more lovingly been dubbed Fake Thor by some...and by some I guess I mean me). I think that the title character kind of looks a bit more like Iron Man than Thor, but who am I to question the mockbuster making artistic community? I'm going to pitch one called Sam Pilgrim Vs The Universe...or maybe Night of the Dead Living.

I saw Flash Gordon initially at the Renfrew Drive-In when I was a little kid. My mum or dad would take me there frequently to see many a geeky film. The first two films I ever saw were Star Wars and Star Trek: The Motion Picture, followed on other occasions by Superman II (which I'm pretty sure I saw before the original...but I'll have to verify that), The Legend of the Lone Ranger, Cannonball Run, Airplane! and various other late 70's early 80's offerings.

I have a distinct memory of being scared to death by at least one scene. Some plot plot point where Flash had to stick his hand in a hole and there was a killer spider in there or something like that (I haven't seen the movie forever, kind of blurry). I also remember thinking that it wasn't as cool as Star Wars. Which is funny, since now I know that the Flash Gordon serials and comic strips were a giant influence on George Lucas in the creation of the Star Wars saga. Not only that, evidently he initially wanted to do a big screen Flash Gordon after his successful turn on American Graffiti, but he couldn't get the rights to do so. The powers that be didn't think he was the right director for the job, considering that his previous science fiction directorial effort was the acclaimed but box office failure of a movie called THX 1138. There are many an article on the subject, but I found the one on Star Wars Origins fairly informative and comprehensive.

The most famous part of the film is of course not the script or behind the scenes talent or special effects or actors...but that it has a score from British rock and role icons Queen (one of only two films they did so for, the other being the original Highlander). A powerful over the top musical turn, accompanied by some pretty on the nose Saturday morning caliber lyrics along the lines of "Flash! He'll save every one of us!"

Find out if Flash Gordon can indeed save us pathetic earthlings at the first of four sci-fi themed Lost Marbles Geek Nights for the month of January, Monday the 10th at 9:15pm at the Mayfair Theatre

Home from work on the first night of shooting for Thunderstorm: Return of Thor. This is not of course the Thor film coming out in theatres later this year from Marvel Comics. This is what is commonly known in film geek circles as a mockbuster. Mockbusters are nothing new to the cinema world. The old monster films were ripped off over and over, in the 70's there were plenty of shark and space movies riding the coat-tails of Jaws and Star Wars. And in the 80's a plethora of wannabe Gremlins movies flooded out of the gates after its success.

This generation of mirror copy but low budget versions of Hollywood tent-pole releases are on quite the roll, so I guess someone must be watching them...or being tricked into watching them. There's one company called The Asylum that seems to hold the crown at the moment, they've done 18 in 6 years. Their fine library of titles include: The Da Vinci Treasure, The Termiators, Paranormal Entity and believe it or not, Snakes on a Train (you get one guess at what each of those were ripped off from).

It looks like the movie that I'm crewing on will even face some competition (besides for the competition of y'know, the actual theatrical release, big budget, directed by a four time Oscar nominee project). On the video store shelf, or more appropriately mayhaps to say on Netflix now-a-days, beside Thunderstorm: Return of Thor will sit The Asylum's Almighty Thor. And who said Hollywood was out of ideas?

Had planned to update the blog with this information a couple days ago. Alas my gmail account (and hence blog too) got hacked and taken over by evil villainous masterminds from Egypt. Nefarious Egyptians who tried to trick all my friends who're connected to me via g-mail to send them $2,000 because "I" was trapped at an airport in the UK under dire situations...or something like that. It was kindah' funny if it wasn't such an pain of a couple of days trying to get my account back. Good news: I've got it back. Bad news: It's wiped out of all of the information that used to be on there. Oh well. I digress...

Ok! Above is the poster for the upcoming event at the Mayfair Theatre, the third annual Painted Lips and Lolly Licks Film Festival (with all pertinent contact information listed upon it). It arrives just in time for Valentine's Day weekend, and is currently on the look-out for and accepting submissions of short films to be screened on the night.

I'll be directing a short which I think we're calling "Kindah based on a true story...". Hopefully we'll have casting figured out within the next couple weeks, and then I'm sure my frequent collaborators and I will shoot on a day very near to the deadline and be editing the night before. There's no other way to do one of these things.

The Magic 8 Ball decrees that YES indeed, 2011 will be awesome. So says the Magic 8 Ball!! Bow down before it's mighty power!

Sorry. I found nicer geeky festive images to accompany my lil'"Merry Christmas" blog entry...but I do love the fine inappropriate work of the Biz. And what more could be said than the wise words from Lobo his-self? So do what he says...or else...

Over and over again, there seems to be endless proof that there is never a sure thing in the art and business of film production. Imagine this line-up pitched to studio executives in the mid 80's: We've got a pitch for a new movie from the guy who created The Muppets, from the producer of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films, with a script written by a Monty Python alum, starring one of the biggest rock icons of all time. Uhm...yeah, let's green light that movie right away! Fat cat executives must have been tripping over themselves trying to be the first in line to finance this thing.

But, as famed screenwriter William Goldman pointed out in his writings about the film industry, "Nobody knows anything". And in this case, it's pretty unlikely that anyone could have guessed that a movie with those four men involved could have completely tanked.



A movie not making any money has never meant that the movie wasn't any good though. There's a long list, but the all-stars of great movies that were box office bombs include Fight Club, Office Space, Blade Runner, It's A Wonderful Life, Fantasia, Citizen Kane, and most recently I would add Scott Pilgrim Vs The World to that list. Critics not praising and an audience not showing up to a movie does not equal a terrible movie all of the time.

So, on Boxing Day, once recovered from the previous days family time, present opening and food feasting, make your way to the Mayfair for a holiday Lost Marbles Geek Night presentation of Labyrinth at 8:15pm.

Recently and coincidentally I was told a story of a girl showing her boyfriend her favorite film, The Princess Bride. Not only did he not like the film, he didn't even make it half way through the film before giving up and turning it off. That my friends is unacceptable, and I'm pretty sure the dictionary definition of what would be known as a dealbreaker. This wasn't some cliche case of a girl forcing a guy to watch Sex and the City or some horrible Julia Roberts romance...this was the frickin Princess Bride! There's not a lot of movies that I consider perfect, but this one is pretty damn close. It has everything! Swashbuckling pirates, underhanded villains, a tough and beautiful princess, eccentric wizards, rodents of unusual size, Andre the Giant, Peter Falk...what more could you possibly want!?

That is the end of my rant. Please come out and see this excellent film. And if you've been invited to the film by a significant other, do not fail the test. See the movie. It is great.

Lost Marbles Geek Night: Sunday December 19th at the Mayfair at 8:45PM.

Our Christmas gift from the Mayfair to you are a trio of geeky movies with a lil something for everyone. The perfect movies for the uber-geek or their more of the norm significant other. Date Night Geek Nights will kick off with the cornerstone generation x romantic dramady Reality Bites. The feature film directorial debut from Ben Stiller, starring a post Heathers / pre-shoplifting Winona Rider and every mid-90's geek boys crush, Janeane Garofalo.

Reality Bites - Sunday December 5th - 8:45pm

And then on the 19th and the 26th, slightly more fantastical date geek fare with the 80's classics The Princess Bride and Labyrinth. All nights with prizes from your favorite Christmas shopping destination, Lost Marbles.

A few days ago, the gentleman who directed my favorite movie ever died. And if you google Irvin Kershner, you'll find many more popular geek than I ranging from Harry Knowles to George Lucas saying deserved nice things about the man. So no need for me to repeat his career accomplishments here. Even though belated, I felt like typing up a lil' something though...

It's always sad when someone dies of course, and weird when someone you've never met yet admire passes away. You have no actual connection, but they've managed to yet completely help shape and change your life. The first movie I ever saw at a movie theatre was The Empire Strikes Back. I went to see it at the Somerset Theatre in Ottawa, which doesn't exist anymore, with three family members, two of which aren't with us anymore. The movie going experience blew my lil four year old mind, and can probably be pin-pointed as the first step towards my love of movies. I remember the opening scene with Luke on the Tauntaun, I was completely mesmerized by the snow kangaroo thing. And I remember the cliffhanger ending, and being furious when my dad told me I had to wait three years to find out what happens to Han Solo. Three years!?! I was only four! That's most of my life! I have vowed that if I ever have kids I'm making them wait three years between watching Empire and Jedi.

In conclusion, The Empire Strikes Back was awesome, and without Irvin Kirshner instead of Han saying "I know" in response to Leia's confession of love, he just would have said "I love you too". Thank you sir.

In the current issue of the Ottawa X-Press, the Mayfair was voted the bestest theatre in all of the land (that might be a slight paraphrasing on my part). That marks the second year in a row for us winning the category. Thanks to the X-Press and to all of our lovely patrons who took the time to participate and vote for us. You can check out the rest of the results either in the parer version (which is in the boxes and around town for the next couple days), or online.

Tonight at the Mayfair is our second of three John Waters pictures, which encompass the Lost Marbles Geek Nights / John Waters Mini Film Festival. There have been many a request for us to show all and any of John Waters films, and now that we're showing these three, there's questions as to why we're not showing more. Alas, in this horrible world that we live in, these three movies are the only film prints currently available. A shocking and unbelievable statement I know! So, for the time being anyhow, no Hairspray or Polyester or Pink Flamingos or anything else. It truly is the most annoying and frustrating of things in trying to run an awesome repertory theatre, the unbelievable amount of films that yah just can't get.

But, let's look at things glass half full and enjoy Cecil B Demented, John's comment on the state of Hollywood vs indie film-making. Tonight at 9:15 at the Mayfair for another geek-gasmic Lost Marbles Geek Night...and yes, there will be prizes.



Oh...PS...also tonight at the Mayfair, right before the John Waters screening will be a special presentation of Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Special for two reasons: 1. I'm pretty sure that I could watch this movie every day for the rest of my life and never get tired of it. 2. It's a fundraiser for my former high school, Canterbury.

So if you're coming out to one or the other tonight, why not take in the pair? Ferris at 7 / Cecil at 9:15.

Time for another Halloween. Which this year seems to be more the day that people are excited about The Walking Dead finally premiering on TV more than being excited by any thoughts of dressing up or getting candy. I swear, buzz in both geek and non-geek circles for this thing seems huge. I will be both going trick or treating with some friends kids (mainly to score some candy left-overs) and then dressing up for later costumed festivities. Then will go home and watch Freaks (for the first time...shocking I know) and of course, The Walking Dead. Good times.

The Mayfair has been nominated again and will be defending its title as the distinction of greatest movie theatre in the universe from the fine folks at the X-Press. Well, actually it's for 'Best alternative to a multiplex', which is a bit of a strange distinction. But we'll take it! So please feel free to click over to the X Press readers poll website and vote away.

While you're there, feel free to also vote for the Silents is Golden film festival, Lee's filmmaking efforts, our neighbours at Quinn's, Invisible Cinema, and our friend Socalled as Best Local Hero.

Tell your friends. Many votes from many friends are muchly appreciated! Polls close at 11:59pm on Wednesday November 3rd, winners announced on November 11th.

So, a pair of cool things just happened. First, an 11th hour special feature to the Scott Pilgrim screening tonight at the Mayfair (which happens in about 4 1/2 hours from now). A last minute guest will be in attendance, Catriona Strurton, who was in the band Plumtree, who wrote the song that inspired the comic to be named Scott Pilgrim. The band appears not only on the soundtrack (would seem weird if they didn't), but keep a look out for a Plumtree shirt on Michael Cera in the film.



More geek coolness, Edgar Wright was kind enough to help spread the word about our screening via his Twitter account. So we've got prizes as per usual for Geek Nights, we have a special rock & roll guest (who's bringing a music video to show off), AND the guy who directed Shaun of the Dead wants you to come! What more could you possibly want to talk you into attending!?!

Scott Pilgrim vs the World may well go down in history as the best film of 2010 that everyone loved yet tanked at the box office. I haven't heard a single bad review or comment on this thing, and yet it didn't even come near to making half of it's estimated 100 million dollar budget back. But, not being profitable does no mean not good. Look at Fight Club, look at Psycho, look at Fantasia...and let us not forget Hudson Hawk!

Now I cannot tell a lie, I didn't get a chance to see the movie yet either. Two reasons: I kindah hate multiplexes, and I knew that we'd get it for sure at the Mayfair. I'm very excited to finally get the chance to see it, especially since I've been told by a couple of different friends that it's like the powers that be sat down and figured out how to make the perfect movie that I would love. It's comic book themed, filled with crazy video game violence, populated with geek girl characters, has Michael Cera in the lead, and is directed by the guy who did Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

Wednesday October 27th & Thursday the 28th at 9:15 at the Mayfair, a special Lost Marbles Geek Night presentation of the greatest geek film of the year.

The marquee of the Mayfair from last weekend, a night which crazily enough hosted a classic silent horror movie with live musical accompaniment, a short horror film fest, and then the evening was capped off with what could be the worst movie ever (that people come to on purpose and then throw things). We will be back next year with more Killer63, with fingers crossed for better organizational skills and no last minute 11th hour panics. There will likely be both.

Above is another shot from my video for Boxcar Cadavers that premieres tonight at the Killer63. Come out to see how things fare for the poor fan who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Just tested out the DVD this-morning, and will check it out big screen this-afternoon (after Toy Story 3, before Phantom of the Opera). All seems well. I don't think putting on a festival that had everything run smoothly and be prepared weeks in advance would be the same. Need that 11th hour last minute hassle and stress to keep yah feeling alive. Anyhow, that's year 5 almost in the books, which is kind of a staggering thought. Hope to see y'all tonight at the Mayfair.

I don't want to play spoiler on my contribution to the Killer63 short horror film fest at the Mayfair, but the above image is from the Boxcar Cadavers video that I directed and it involves my talented friend Jennilee Murray being shoved in the trunk of a car. Be there Saturday night to see it and a dozen other diversely terrifying offerings.

It looks like we have everything together and assembled for the Killer63 screening on Saturday. So, y'know...a whole massive two days before the actual event. Not a lot of time to publicize the mini-fest, so just trying to get the word out via the magic of the internet while I can (don't know what people did before blogs and e-mail and Facebook and all this stuff).

The lucky number 13 shorts in the line-up will include (in not this exact order):

Never Bet the Devil Your Head - Kristian Larivier
Until the Fat Lady Sings - Rob Kantu
Bagra - Tom Jardine
Stop 21 - James Campbell
Seance - Robin Kasparik

Plus an 8mm zombie graveyard short from Petr Maur, two brand new shorts from Jeff Campbell, three works from Chris Chitaroni & Jimm Moir's Skywardkick Productions, and a pair of terror themed music videos from Canadian bands Hunter Valentine and Boxcar Cadavers (I directed the latter one). The work ranges in length from 5 to 18 minutes, and all combined comes in at about 100 / 105 minutes.

A couple of stills from Jeff Campbell's shorts "StalkHer" and "Dead End", both premiering this Saturday night (October 16th at 9pm) at the Mayfair Theatre.

Last week my film-making friends and I multitasked the shooting of a Boxcar Cadavers music video which will also serve as my entry into this years Killer63 festival. It involves rock and roll, kidnapping, and a nice girl locked in the trunk of a car. Even though it happened in the 11th hour, and well past my own set deadline, I'm very glad that we got to shoot the thing. It's a project that I've had on the brain for years, actually originally intended for another band that one of the Boxcar guys used to be in by the name of Crankenstein.

The shoot went well, and it's in the midst of being edited. Hopefully we'll have it all done by tomorrow...a whole three or so days before the actual festival screening. Such last minute stressy hectic deadline crunching feats are normal in such things. Every year I intend to get all this organized like a month in advance...never quite works out though. Maybe next year!

Only have time for a quick update, running off to the Mayfair soon to go check out the silent movie / live music night. Am equally excited for tomorrows screening of Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell, which has an amazing poster and tag-line. On top of that, it's got no less than two Star Wars legends: David Prowse (Darth Vader) as the Monster, and Peter Cushing (Grand Moff Tarkin) as Victor Frankenstein. And of course, it is also a very rare chance to see a Hammer horror classic up on the big screen.

Come check it out tomorrow (Sunday the 3rd) at Lost Marbles Geek Night at the Mayfair at 8:30.

There's at least a different version of Batman that pops up once a generation or so (sometimes things switch up even faster than that). Batman was the number 1 show that kids in 1966 rushed home after school to catch. For 120 episodes (over a very small period of time), and then one movie, Adam West and company's interpretation of Batman's world enthralled a generation.

Though it was not the original or the last live action version of Batman to make the leap to big screens, there were a number of serials in the 1940's and of course many incarnations to follow, most people for a very long time considered this Batman to be THE first and ONLY Batman. So much so that those not in the know to what Batman was like in the comic books before or after this era got kindah pissed off when Michael Keaton donned the cape and cowl for Tim Burton in the the more loyal to the source material film in 1989. Quite a few now grown up fans were pissed off quite and felt insulted that their childhood hero was being ruined.

Now, when I was a kid I hated this version of Batman. Loathed everything about the show. Because my Batman is Dark Night Returns, my Batman is Michael Keaton, my Batman is the genius animated series from Bruce Timm and Paul Dini.  My Batman wasn't bright colours, goofy dialogue, and shark repellent. And my Batman definitely didn't make use of on screen sound fx for fight scenes.

Then I saw the movie on VHS. And it was one of those laugh so hard you almost die moments (if you're not in the know...just wait for the shark scene). Although not my Batman, this Batman could still be greatly appreciated. The characters, the design, the style, the script...all weren't that far off in terms of a tribute to what was going on in comic books at the time. And the car! Man that's a cool car!




Batman swings into Lost Marbles Geek Night this Sunday September 26th at 8PM. A rare chance to see the geek classic up on the big screen.

The cool factor level that the Mayfair continues to attain helped in getting it mentioned over in the UK on a film program on BBC Radio (check out about 5:45 into the show). Specifically, the topic of conversation involved the above and beyond skills of our projectionist. I can only hope that being talked about on a Ricky Gervais podcast cannot be far behind.

So, in the September Mayfair schedule amongst a few other places, there was the news that Killer63 has been pushed up a lil' bit due to the packed nature of the October schedule. Meaning, the deadline has been pushed up a lil' bit for submissions to Octiber 6th. Forgot to mention it here though I guess. Now if there's one thing I know about trying to put together one of these mini-festivals, it's that not very many people hit deadlines (writer of this blog included). But let's do our best here people!

Thanks to everyone who's contacted me about getting a film in, any more questions or comments over the next month or so, lemme know.

Of course The Crow is memorable as the haunting final performance of Brandon Lee. Who like his movie-star father before him, died in his prime with so much possibility laid out before him. Lined up as his big break-through role after a few B-grade action movies, many thought that Brandon was the next big thing. And if not for some very bad luck and a freak accident, he would likely have been.

The whole sad tale has an extra brooding and creepy tinge to it, thanks to the fact that the film is about a central character that comes back from the dead. And in a way, Brandon Lee came back from the dead amidst publicity and praise to perform his final role up on the silver screen.

On a lighter note, I will always remember The Crow as the first R rated movie I attended as an 18 year old. For which I so smartly forgot my ID, but luckily got into anyhow.

The Crow hits Lost Marbles Geek Night at the Mayfair - Sunday September 5th at 9pm

Tonight's the night for one of the biggest Geek Nights of all. Our partners in geek hipness, Lost Marbles, presents it's third annual Kid Robot / Munny designer vinyl art toy event (this year titled in the movie tie-in themed name: The Colour of Munny). Mayfair doors open at 8PM for the gallery portion of the event, where you'll be able to check out the toy embellishing and adapting talents of dozens of local artists. And, as if that's not reason enough to attend, there will be a live art showcase and a ton of prizes.

Following that, at 9:30 will be the Canadian premiere of the much buzzed about documentary, The Vinyl Frontier (fresh off of it's screening at Comic Con). A history of the vinyl toy trend featuring all the artistic luminaries who helped make it an underground cult phenomenon.

Anyone who says there's nothing to do in Ottawa isn't coming to the Mayfair.

Off to celebrate the release of the new line of Kid Robot's Dunny toys at Lost Marbles tonight. There will be similar events across North America (or even the whole world I guess), but the kewlest store of all is Lost Marbles of course.

A good lead in to the upcoming and much anticipated Colour of Munny event at the Mayfair. And best of all, both events will give you the chance to get free stuff. Everyone loves free stuff!

I know it's a pretty heady statement, and it's never good to get people's hopes up too high before seeing a movie, but I'm pretty sure that King of Kong might be my favorite documentary...like ever.

Who could've ever have imagined that the world of competitive video game playing could be more exciting than the average big budget Hollywood blockbuster? More specifically, a documentary about a competition revolving around a fairly simple early generation game where a King Kong knock-off tosses barrels at you (you being Mario in this case). And on top of that, the movie hits you with a more insane unbelievable story, and one of the best hero / villain match-up's you've ever seen.

Don't miss out on the special Lost Marbles Geek Night screening of King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters. You'll never look at a video game the same way again.

(Sunday August 15th at 9pm at the Mayfair)

A quick reminder of tonight's Lost Marbles Geek Night screening at the Mayfair. If you love Joss Whedon...and if you don't, well, I'm not sure yer allowed to go to the Mayfair if that fact about you comes out...be sure to check out this great lil' documentary about the rise, fall and rise again of Firefly / Serenity.

It'd be a much better documentary if we lived in a world in which the story ends with a whole bunch of giant successful awesome Serenity movies. Alas we live in a world where people would rather see Deuce Bigelow 2 and movies like Serenity don't make money. Sad sad times indeed.

Lost Marbles Geek Night at the Mayfair - Sunday August 8th - 9pm

As I sat in the Mayfair for Geek Night a couple days ago (our first of the Lost Marbles sponsored era), the movie started, and it came to mind the I dropped the ball and didn't do a blog entry for the film. Been busy and distracted, just slipped my mind. So, I neglected to plug our screening of Blood on the Flat Track (where I fell in love with an absolutely insane roller derby player by the name of Basket Casey), but I still have time to at least promote the upcoming double-bill roller derby bout. All the pertinent info can be found at the Rideau Valley Roller Girls website. Don't miss out, could be the last bout of 2010.

Believe it or not, the fifth year of Killer63 is upon us. Ottawa's annual independent horror collective will return to the Mayfair on October 23rd. Deadline for submissions is October 12th. So get out there and start making horror shorts!

If anyone has any questions about the event, please feel free to contact me at: batturtle@gmail.com

Ghost World came out nine years ago!? Son of a bitch the passage of time from when a movie first came out is making me feel old lately! Did you realize that the first X-Men movie was the years ago!? A decade! Man.

Anyhow, the film Ghost World is based on the comic Ghost World, which was written and drawn by underground comics mastermind Daniel Clowes. Go buy a Daniel Clowes book, or go check one out at the library, they are all good across the board pretty much. The film was directed by Terry Zwigoff, fresh off of his universally acclaimed (and also comic book themed) documentary Crumb. Well, not exactly fresh off...it was seven years between projects.

Ghost World tells the fairly simple tale of a pair of high-school grad social outcasts living in a weird surreal suburban world. A strange lil place filled with strange lil characters going about their strange lil lives. Featuring a very young Thora Birch & Scarlett Johansson (well before her cat-suit, kick-ass Black Widow turn), and in a indie film cred one-two punch, the film features not only Illeana Douglas, but also none other than Steve Buscemi.

DC Comics, back in the 80's ran with a slogan which emphasized that DC Comics aren't just for kids anymore. Which kind of backfired, 'cause now no kids read comics at all. But that's a different rant. Ghost World (both book and film) is one of my go to examples for folks naive to the fact that comic books aren't just dudes in spandex hitting each other. Don't get me wrong, I love a good super hero comic as much as the next geek. Though still in this day and age of pop culture, folks still seem shocked that stuff like Road to Perdition or History of Violence or From Hell or 30 Days of Night do indeed come from comic book inspiration.



Ghost World is a prime example of a great comic book translated at it's best into an equally entertaining movie. Catch it at the Mayfair on July 25th at 9PM for Sunday Night Geek Night, as presented by Lost Marbles.

I lived in Vancouver when 'Quick and the Dead' came out. My mind escapes me on the name of the theatre where I saw it, but it was this great Mayfair type place that was right beside a bowling alley and showed Ed Wood movies, Planet of the Apes, animation fests and all kinds of cool stuff. I'm pretty sure they used it recently in an episode of Fringe (with the fake alternate universe movie titles on the marquee) but I might be wrong about that.

Anyhow, onto the topic at hand. Some people seem to dismiss this movie 'cause it stars Sharon Stone. Yes, I can't really admit to being a fan of hers either. If only for willingly appearing in movies the likes of 'Catwoman' and 'Basic Instinct 2' one should be heavily reprimanded.

Here is what she should be defended for though...especially for her actions in the year 1995 (or at least for her two films released in 1995). Her other movie that year was 'Casino', which of course was directed my Martin Scorsese. And Scorsese is a genius and can do no wrong and is the most respected filmmaker of our time if not all time. So if he wants to put that lady from 'Sliver' in his movie, clearly she's got some kindah talent hidden underneath there somewhere. She even got herself an Oscar nomination out of it.

The other movie she had released that year was the one for the blog topic at hand, 'The Quick and the Dead'. It's like a Clint Eastwood 'Man With No Name' type story, except change the man to a woman. In this case, that woman being Sharon Stone. She got a producer credit on the film, and used her Hollywood power of the time to throw her weight around on two interesting points of cinema history. One, she fought to give an unknown (to North America) actor by the name of Russell Crowe a lead part. Check out his imdb resume post and pre Quick & the Dead and see how that effected his career. Two: She also fought for a director named Sam Raimi who had just come off of a big flop of a movie that some geeks are a little bit familiar with by the title of 'Army of Darkness'.

So just for one night, put your Sharon Stone hatred aside, and come out to see a real kick ass western at the Mayfair.

Quick and the Dead, presented by Invisible Cinema – Sunday Night Geek Night – July 11th – 9:30pm

Happy Roller Derby Movie Night eve! Join the Rideau Valley Roller Girls for the highly anticipated special Sunday Night Geek Night screening of Kansas City Bomber (Sunday July 4th at 9PM at the Mayfair). What better way to celebrate the 4th of July than to cheer on Raquel Welch and a team of roller derby girls from Kansas?

Oops...here I went and found a kewl Alpha Flight picture on the old inter-web to make use of for a Canada Day best wishes greeting...then I forgot to make use of it. So a slightly belated 'Yay Canada!' to one and all.

I had to work last night tearing down one of the Canada Day stages downtown. You ever want a harrowing challenge for yourself? Head north on a street while tens of thousands of folks are heading downstream against you. Madness.