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!

Besides for it's Halloween theme, the TARDIS jack-o-lantern has nothing specific to do with this blog entry, I was just looking around for holiday appropriate images and thought that this one was kinda' awesome. Halloween is my favorite holiday thematically, but one that I really don't participate in in the dress-up sense. In the past few years I've gone out trick-or-treating with a couple of my lil' fake nieces, but this year they went and moved to Hawaii. So I don't even have the fake-uncle obligation of taking them door-to-door and carrying their candy bags for them anymore.

What I do like about this time of year is scary movies, It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror episodes, the Thriller music video, monster comics and candy. All of which I have taken part in today or will take part in. Though to be fair, I take part in all of those things fairly often on any given day of the year whether it be October 31st or not.

The Mayfair is showing a one two punch of The Rocky Horror Picture show of course, so I made a rare trip out to the multiplex that I've grown to be so displeased with each and every time I go to get my dose of horror. At least I used my Visa points, so they didn't get any cash out of me. We saw Paranormal Activity 3, and it did not disappoint. I have been truly impressed and terrified by this franchise three movies in a row. I hope they end it with the third entry though, I think the story has now been told in a nice lil' trilogy package. I have a feeling that Paramount will look at the $50 million dollar cash-haul of a weekend for a $5 million investment and get a fourth entry ready for Halloween 2012.

I am off to watch Halloween cartoons and mayhaps another movie. Happy Halloween one and all. Please do feel free to give me your leftover licorice and Maynards gummy candy.

Starting tonight the insanity that is the annual tradition of showing The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Mayfair during the Halloween season continues. You have a total of six chances to check it out on Friday, Saturday and finally on Halloween night itself. As an added bonus on top of the usual madness of throwing stuff and dressing up in bizarre costumes, the screenings are also accompanied by the Absent Friends Shadow Cast whom expertly preform a live rendition of the film in front of the film in progress. I think it would be kind of funny to do a non-participation screening and just sit and watch the actual movie. I seem to be in the grande minority in that thought though.

A few months back I worked on the installation of a traveling exhibit that was making a stop-over in Ottawa at the Museum of Nature (or as I have always called it, the Dinosaur Museum) called Extreme Mammals. I've been meaning to go and check it out as a museum-goer and not a thing-setter-upper before it left town. Plus, I am cheap, and Thursday's they do a free admission thing at the museum.

Amongst many bigger, scarier and more extreme mammals was the Platypus. Not so extreme by normal measures, except for that it's part beaver, part duck, and has poisonous claws. Poisonous claws that the males uses to subdue the females for mating purposes. Or, in layman's terms, the little bastards propagate the species thanks to making use of roofie techniques that might be used by any number of sleazy douche-bags in meat-market bars. Another fine example of the insanity that is the miracle of nature and animal ways.



There are plenty of non-shocking and offensive animals to observe as well. If in Ottawa, you have 'till November 6th to check it out before I go in to help pack it up and it rolls on to the next town.

Last night I got caught up in a naive attempt to try and do a good deed, and ended up being ripped off for twenty bucks. I didn't even realize that it happened, that I'd been evilly con-manned, until a good five or ten minutes after the thieving bastards plan had successfully come to fruition.

I was in the midst of a late night walking of the rat-dog with my girlfriend. A guy approached, who seemed very stressed out but polite and nice, and asked if he could borrow my phone because he had locked his keys in his car. I found myself handing over my phone to him, while chanting in the back of my thoughts "Don't steal my phone...don't steal my phone...". He did not steal my phone, thanked me for the use of it, and explained his trouble. He had not only locked himself out of his car and house, but his wallet was in his car, and hence he could not pay the tow-truck guy to help him to bust into his vehicle. Now, at this point, in retrospect, I have no idea why I fell for this. He really was delivering an Oscar caliber performance for the ages.

Next thing you know, I had not just handed over some cash but had gone to an ATM to get it first. I then accompanied my new friend to where his fictional car was parked. The locked out driver ran ahead to catch the tow-truck before it left. Alas, by the time we caught up with him, the non-existent tow-truck guy had left. My twenty dollars was taken, with the promise that it would be returned with a bonus momentarily (which I very Canadianly refused the thought of). We headed home, watched an episode of 'Arrested Development', and somewhere in the midst of doing so it donned on my that I had been tricked by a thief.

It's not the end of the world, twenty bucks lost into thin air does not destitute me. It did upset me quite a bit though, and couldn't help like being made feel like quite an idiot. Just another jaded evil happening that makes you think that it can be a really horrible planet filled with underhanded people more often than the opposite kinder type. This simple wrong-doing did make me feel a bit like going all Punisher vigilante justice onto the streets of Ottawa. But that seems like a lot of work, instead I will comfort my anger with Daily Shows and comic books.

Tonight at the Mayfair we present what is possibly the scariest and most acclaimed horror movie double bill of all time. Now, ask any movie buff what the two best horror films / scariest films ever made are and you will get varying answers of course. I continue to stand-by my opinion that movies are subjective and not objective. That in mind though, as a mathematical equation if you took into account the thoughts of all the critics and filmmakers and fans, the number one and two spot on the scary movie list would very likely belong to The Exorcist and The Shining. So if you are brave enough, please join us tonight (Oct 25) at the Mayfair at 7pm and 9:20pm for a pair of true Halloween tradition masterpieces.



As an afterthought, why is it that now-a-days the non-film-studio / made by talented film-fans movie posters seem to be always better than the real thing?

Killer63 has shown a number of Matt Fincer's Creepy Puppet Projects since the mini-fest began, and year in and year out they seem to garner the biggest laughs and applause from the crowd. If we were an actual festival that gave out awards, not to disrespect the other fine films, I'm fairly confidant that the Creepy Puppet Projects would continually win an audience favorite award. So, for your viewing pleasure, here is Matt's twisted contribution to last weekend's Killer63 screening, Happy Fuzzy Things.

Too tired to make much of a posting tonight. Another round of Killer63 went very well, lots of nice response and praise for the set, and a very decent crowd in attendance, especially considering it was scheduled in the late late slot. I always get nervous and stressed during a screening like this, but again all went ok, and was a nice event for the Mayfair, a nice showcase for some indie filmmakers, and a nice ego boost for me. Got home at about 2am from that, then had to get back up for a split-shift gig at 4am, which I'm just home from now. Set up lights and stuff for some kinda' fundraising event that will involve Joe Montana. Long day. Think at one point I actually fell asleep on my feet for a brief second (and I'm not even joking).

Anyhow, just wanted to post 'The Last One', the short that I worked on with three of my friends that we did for this years Killer63. I wrote it in about half an hour, we shot in about four hours, Jeremy worked his editing magic over his great cinematography skills, and here's what the final product came out like. And if you're curious as many seem to have been, no there is not a plan for a longer version of this. A stand alone short story is it. Hope you enjoy.

Images from Killer63 alum and Rideau Valley Roller Girl document-er Jeff Campbell's latest directorial effort 'Good Samaritan'. Tonight is the night for the sixth annual special Mayfair presentation of Killer63. It really falls under the time flies category for me, as it seems like just yesterday that a couple friends and I were casually chatting over the internet about organizing some kind of short horror fest for all of our friends to partake in. Now it's become an annual lil' Halloween event. An annual lil' event that always stresses me out for a few weeks then miraculously comes together at the last minute and everyone seems to enjoy.

So, a final reminder: Killer63 VI - Saturday October 22nd at 11:30pm at the Mayfair Theatre (1074 Bank Street in Ottawa). Fourteen new films from local filmmakers, a couple from Quebec, and even one from overseas. Last minute bonus news, we will have some give-aways thanks to our friends at Ottawa Horror.

A late in the day reminder that tonight (October 22nd) at 11:30pm, the Mayfair is screening Zombie (also known as Zombi, Zombi 2, and I think a few other titles. Italian movies are so confusing in that sense!). All you need to know about this horror masterpiece is that this is the movie where a zombie fights a shark. If that doesn't pique your interest, I don't know what will.

One of the short films screening tomorrow night at Killer63 VI is actually a music video from an Ottawa based band by the name of Zebrasseires. Check out Lone Fish, the song that inspired the video on their website, and then come out and see the video from the song on Saturday night (October 22nd at 11:30pm) at the Mayfair. And then the next time they play, go see them in concert. They are good. Listen to all the songs on the website...I'm not just being nice 'cause they're a part of Killer63.

Co-ownership of an indie movie theatre has it's privileges, one of them being that sometimes I get to watch movies slightly in advance of everyone else. Along with a couple members of the press, yesterday I got to watch an advance screening of 'Attack the Block'. I had high hopes for a new twist on the alien invasion genre from the producers and many of the crew behind 'Shaun of the Dead' and 'Hot Fuzz'. It did not disappoint.

Any time someone bitches and moans that there aren't any good movies anymore, that it's all sequels and prequels and remakes and reboots, I point to movies like 'Attack the Block'. Filmmakers aren't out of ideas, movie studios are still making great stuff...it's just that instead of finding something better to watch you (and likely not "you"...but you know what I mean) went to see 'Transformers 3' or 'Fast 5' or brought your kids to see 'The Smurfs'.

So, if you are in Ottawa, do yourself a favour, find some time in your hectic schedule, and get over to the Mayfair Theatre to see 'Attack the Block' sometime between October 21st and 23rd or 26th and 27th. If you don't live in Ottawa, track down this movie and watch elsewhere!

A screen-shot from the short film The Mask of James Henry, from Digger Films / directed by Steve Villeneuve. Steve and Digger Films are one of the returning alum to this years Killer63 line-up, amongst a mix of diverse offerings ranging in horror theme and sub-genre the likes of Creepy Puppets, zombies, apocalyptic tales, Twilight Zone fare, rock and roll, gore, comedy and more.

Below is the list of the films being screened (in no particular order), with a couple of late additions still to be announced:

KILLER63 year VI

Victor Perpetual – Ray Besharah

Employee of the Month – Olivier Beguin

She's Not Gone – Randy Smith

Lone Fish - Zebrasseires music video – Luca F

The Mask of James Henry – Steve Villeneuve

The House on Arch Lane – Alexander Steinhoff / Alexander De Lukowicz

Good Samaritan – Jeff Campbell

Six Minutes – Ralph Gethings

Profile of a Killer – Chris Chitaroni

Happy Fuzzy Things – Matt Fincer

Emily – James Campbell

Games Night – Fiona Noakes / Islam Balbaa

I've also finally posted a Facebook Events page, so now you can invite all of the people you know without the inconvenience of actual real-world interaction.

Released only a week apart from that other 1982 Spielberg movie, 'E.T. The Extra Terrestrial', was a much scarier view of a modern American suburban family, 'Poltergeist'. The film went on to become a box office smash, was nominated for three Academy Awards, spawned two sequels, and is on various top 100 lists from the likes of Bravo, the American Film Institute and others.

The film also got quite a bit of legit media and tabloid recognition thanks to two things revolving around the production. There has been quite a bit of superstitious talk of trouble on-set while the movie and it's sequels were being made. There were also a number of deaths amongst the cast, which can really for the most part be considered coincidental considering the number of people that work on any film. Sadly of course, one of these deaths include that of young actress Heather O'Rourke, the young blonde actress who uttered the films often repeated catch-phrase "They're Heeeeere!"

There has also been back and fourth controversy to this day as to who was actually the creative force and director of the project. Most reports seem to lean towards that is actually much more a Steven Spielberg film than a Tobe Hooper film. The poster for the film has 'A Steven Spielberg Production' listed right at the top of the credits, he wrote the story, and he was a producer on the film. On top of normal film production duties in that effect, he also did some if not all of the storyboards and a number of actors said he was more of a director on the project than Tobe Hooper was. Spielberg has been diplomatic over the years to his involvement on the project and to Hooper's deserved directorial credit. I'm suspicious though and lean towards believing the rumors and reports that Spielberg was in fact the director of at least most of 'Poltergeist'.

'Poltergeist' may have been the first horror film that I saw. It was a PG film back before the advent of a middle-ground rating in-between PG and R, so kids could get away with watching it without seeming to break any censorship rules. It's the perfect kids scary story, and if you see it at the right age it has a good chance to scar you for life. Any numbers of phobia could result as an after-effect to watching the film, including that of clowns or trees or television sets or suburbia in general even. Some cross-over effect of having seen 'Poltergeist', the extended 'Thriller' music video and 'Night of the Living Dead' at a young age are to blame or to thank for my love of the horror movie genre I'd say.

See 'Poltergeist', another great pre-Halloween screening tonight (Monday October 17th at 9:15pm) as part of Lost Marbles Geek Nights at the Mayfair. Answer a relatively easy bit of trivia and you even might win a prize!

Although the October installment of the 'This Month at the Mayfair' article came in a couple weeks late due to the poor interviewed being super ill and bed-ridden, it is at long last up on the (cult)ure magazine website for all to read. Went up on the site last night after we did a last minute interview to explore the second half of month, since some of the article was cut because the movies talked about had passed by on the schedule already. Upcoming programming at the theatre ranging from 'Winnie the Pooh' to 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' were all discussed.

Also for the piece we chatted about this-evenings Lost Marbles Geek Night presentation of 'Critters' (Friday October 14th at 11:15pm). The film is one of the rip-off / wannabe clones that came out on the heels and success of 'Gremlins'. Though it is a bit different since the monsters are from outer-space and they have intergalactic bounty hunters chasing them. The movie was directed by Stephen Herek, whose next film was 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, and spawned three sequels (one of which was the first role for a young Leonardo DiCaprio).



A bit shockingly considering the movie was low-budget, B-grade, knock-off fare, Roger Ebert gave the film a positive review back in 1986. In surprising review situations such as this, I'm always reminded that Roger also liked the Tomb Raider movies. None-the-less, continue checking out our Halloween programming, and see if you like a movie about fuzz-ball alien eating machines terrorizing a small town as much as the most powerful film critic of all time did.

Tonight and tomorrow at the Mayfair (Oct 12 at 9pm and 13 at 9:30pm) are your last chances to check out Bellflower, the knock-out directorial debut from Evan Glodell. Supposedly made for only a $17,000 budget, which I will say in a complimentary manner that I can't imagine a budget so low to be true upon seeing the finished product. I mean, the movie has a flamethrower and an amazing post-apocalyptic Mad Max style car in it ! Just one of those things alone has to cost about the much right?

My comment as the credits rolled, after a horrifically mesmerizing and explosive climax to the story was to say, "Well...that was something!". In terms of modern day film-making comparisons, it reminded me of 'The Devil's Rejects' style of characters seen from Rob Zombie mixed into the darkest of Quentin Tarantino's universe of storytelling. Somewhere around those two comparisons, mixed with slacker characters from Richard Linklater or maybe Kevin Smith if his actors did more than chat about Star Wars and lean on corner-store countre-tops.

All of the characters were very interesting and watchable, but I didn't like any of them. And that's a trait that seems to be lost in the storytelling styles within present day cinema. Everyone has to be too good now-a-days. Hence, it also reminded me of something you might have seen back in the hey-day of the 1970's. Something that might star Steve McQueen, except more disturbing. And I think it's the most impressive directorial debut I've seen in a long time.

I saw Bellflower last Friday night, unfortunately not many other people did. I think there were eight paying customers there that night. For the screenings tonight and tomorrow, I hope more people find their way to the theatre (maybe folks won't be so busy with Thanksgiving obligations and travels). I say that partially as a co-owner of the place of course, but also 'cause this is a movie that I hope gets some support, and that people get to see big screen style. I want to see another movie from these guys.





Don't just take my word for it, check out the Chicago Sun Times review from King of all the critics in all the land, Roger Ebert.

As often in my attempts to keep a blog updated, I am guilty of being a day or two behind in planned writings. In this case, tardy in wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving. Or at least wishing my fellow Canadians a happy Thanksgiving, my American friends get no such well wishes until next month.

I again find myself thankful for many things as the holiday rolls past this year. Mostly for the simple things in life, like that The New 52 at DC Comics turned out ok, that it's only a couple months until the Doctor Who Christmas special, that I'm amongst a select few of people who get to wear a Rideau Valley Roller Girls hoodie as my gang attire, and that I now how 300 gigs to play with instead of the pesky 25 I had with the provider that I just broke up with.

I'm thankful that the small bit of power I have in life makes it possible for me to get Blair Witch Project and Highlander along with other of my favorite movies seen up on the big screen. I am thankful that more often than not my life seems like the plot of a sitcom or some form of John Hughes movie. More and more I find myself actually taking a moment to let it sink in that I'm actually part owner of my favorite place on earth or that I'm on a road trip with a posse of roller derby girls or that someone knitted me a Super Mario Bros scarf from scratch (how does a human do that!? I think I'd be about the same level of impressed if someone handed over a jet pack to me).

Hope you all are equally thankful in your lives and sitcom happenings. And next year I will try to post my Thanksgiving thoughts before Thanksgiving, but likely will be late again, but still thankful that I'm kept so busy doing awesome stuff and things.

When you work freelance in techie related fields, whether it be rock and roll concerts or film production or boring corporate shows, you find yourself working on a wide range of diverse and strange stuff. I've done gigs for everyone from Cirque du Soleil to the Liberals to Kevin Smith in my day. I've pointed lights at KISS, painted sets for a Tori Spelling TV movie and helped piece together prehistoric monster museum exhibits.

Today I finished up crewing on the latest Brett Kelly B-grade independent epic, Jurassic Shark. You read that correctly. Not since Snakes on a Train or possibly Transmorphers has there been a greater mock-buster title. From what I pieced together from my few days of working on the production (didn't work on the whole thing) the movie is about girls in bikini's, evil spies clad in black, and a giant CG shark to be added at a later date.

Keep an eye out for the movie coming to a small screen near you sometime in 2012. Or if you live in Ottawa, I'd imagine that the premiere will likely be at the Mayfair sometime in the next few months. I just hope it means that rumor spreads thanks to misread imdb browsing that people will think I worked on a Jurassic Park movie.

Tonight at the Mayfair at 7pm, the world premiere of Ottawa based filmmaker Brett Kelly's new western, Hell At My Heels. The director will be in attendance to intro the film, and I would imagine most of the cast and crew will be on hand as well.



Also tonight, right after that at 9pm, your last chance (for now) to see Kevin Smith's Red State. Red State marks arguably the first time that Smith has made a real move (no guys hanging out in malls and corner stores talking about various rude things, comic book stuff and pop culture references), and I think it's the best thing he's done since Clerks. And John Goodman is in it!

I'm three weeks behind on extolling the virtues of Joss Whedon and his comic book writing skills, but I just managed to read the three weeks ago released first issue of Buffy season nine issue # 1 last night.

It's been over four and a half years since Buffy season eight hit the comic stores, and yet it seems to me that almost every time I meet a person who claims to be a fan of the series, they still have not checked out the comic book. How could someone claim to love Joss Whedon and his work, and yet not want to read the comic book that he writes and executive produces? And when Joss isn't writing the book himself, the other writers include Buffy and Angel writing alum the likes of Drew Goddard, Jane Espenson, Steven S DeKnight, Drew Z Greenberg, and Doug Petrie. It's the closest that we are ever going to get to another Buffy-verse TV series I think, and if you claim to be a Buffy fan, you should be supporting this book. If you don't want to hit a comic book store, or read comics in their monthly format, they collect them up into bigger fatter comics that you can buy at any bookstore or get on Amazon.

Comic books continuing on the stories of characters from other mediums is nothing new. Dark Horse has been publishing the further adventures of various Star Wars characters for years. There are a ton of Star Trek comics, and in more recent years there have been cancelled TV series like Charmed and Farscape making there way to the comic book page under the supervision of the shows creators and writers. Stephen King has even allowed for comic book prequel tales from the epic Dark Tower series of books to be published under his supervision.

Buffy season nine picks up with our central lead vampire slaying heroine living in San Francisco with a couple of roommates, hanging out with Spike, and...well...I guess I shouldn't say much else since there are so many damn potential spoilers stuffed within a fourty issue series.

Oh, and also go read the Serenity comics. Those are awesome too.

Tonight at 8:45 (Oct 4) at the Mayfair the Halloween programming continues to roll along, this time with a presentation of the original (and the best) version of Fright Night. I was never a giant fan of the juggernaut 80's horror sequel franchises the likes of Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th, I seemed to lean towards other areas of horror offerings, and Fright Night was one of my favorites.

Writer / director Tom Holland brought to the screen something a kin to the John Hughes teen angst formula, but instead of having our hero go up against an evil principal or various forms of high school crisis, this one goes up against a vampire. Holland went on to direct a couple of Stephen King stories, and a number of very good TV horror offerings within series like Tales from the Crypt and Amazing Stories, but I think his first directorial effort was his best.

The film stars William Ragsdale (who also seemed to have peaked in Fright Night) as the teen in trouble, with the much more memorable vampire and washed up horror TV host turned vampire hunter roles going to Chris Sarandon and the late great Roddy McDowall. The remake does boast a rather impressive cast (including the 10th and best Doctor Who, David Tennant) and a script from Buffy / Angel vet Marti Noxon, but in this case as in most (with rare exception of your True Grit's and Ocean 11's) you just can't best the original.

People may look back on it now as a gimmick film, but it should be of interest to any film fan that The Blair Witch Project was a true phenomenon. A dozen years ago, while horror fans were in the midst of slasher fare franchises the likes of Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer & Urban Legend (amongst many other of the same ilk) came a little movie out of nowhere about kids getting lost in the woods.

In a time where the internet was twelve years younger and viral videos weren't commonplace, the brains behind Blair Witch managed to be in the right place in the right time with the right idea. Trick as many people as possible into thinking your fake horror themed documentary is a true story, reel in the free publicity, and try to make back $60,000 bucks. They managed to do just a little bit better than that and watched their no stars / no effects / no tripod film gross near $250 million in worldwide ticket sales.

I happened to be in California when the movie was in previews down there. My friend and I drove past a theatre with Blair Witch Project on the marquee and a line-up around the block. I had never heard of it, he explained what it was, and I was confused as to why anyone would care.

A few weeks later back in Ottawa, I sat in a theatre on a Friday afternoon with a couple of friends to watch the now much hyped film. I proceeded to be completely enthralled and petrified. I know there's some complaint in the inability for some to suspend disbelief as to why these characters refuse to ever turn off their camera whilst on the run for their lives through a scary forest. That point is valid. I managed to push that aside and completely enter the world that this was indeed a very real documentary about three dumb kids who try to make a documentary about the fabled Blair Witch and end up entangled in a fight for their life against... something. I have three theories as to what that something is, but I guess I shouldn't share them here on the off chance someone reads this who hasn't seen the film yet. It also didn't help that one of the characters names was Josh. That put me even slightly more in the centre of the action. I wasn't a camper before watching Blair Witch, but afterwards it certainly did't make me ecstatic at the thought of going camping in a tent in the middle of nowhere for fun.



At that screening, while the credits rolled I heard two women discussing that they couldn't believe that a film studio would allow for such a disturbing documentary to be shown. While working at Rogers Video I took three calls asking if the film was a real documentary. And, I have had three conversations in real life with people trying to convince them that it's fake. It was maybe the greatest pop-culture trick on the public since Orson Welles and his friends mistakenly convinced folks that aliens were invading in 1938.

So, tonight at 9:30 (Oct 3) we showcase The Blair Witch Project. Kicking off not only the Halloween season, but also a trio of scary films presented by Lost Marbles (and with prizes from Lost Marbles too!). Later in the month comes Critters (Oct 14) and Poltergeist (Oct 16 & 17).

It's a pride filled time in a life-long comic book reading geeks life when they have a shiny new comic book out that they worked on for the masses to read. My friend and comic-con posse member Kris Waddell has a new mini-series out through Mirror Comics called Challenger. You can download it through mydigitalcomics for a mere 99 cents right now, and then sometime in the near future you can get a good old fashioned paper version. Go download it now! C'mon! It's only 99 cents! It'll slightly adjust the karma-wheel back in your favour to make up for all of the movies and music you've stolen off the interweb...and it's actually a really good comic too.

What could be better than a screening of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas? A screening of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas preceded by a live performance by Sin Sisters Burlesque! Tonight - Friday September 2nd, starting at 11pm at the Mayfair.




In other Mayfair related news, I was interviewed by April Yorke of (cult)ure magazine in a piece called This Month at the Mayfair - September 2011. Learn all about how I never get tired of watching Aliens, about the star-studded and long-lost never released Grizzly 2, and why I think Quentin Tarantino was all down hill after Pulp Fiction. The beginning of what I hope to be a new monthly tradition.

The summer has wrecked my schedule a number of ways thanks to a hectic work schedule amongst other obligations. No more so have things been delayed or halted than my attempts to keep a blog going on a regular basis. By slipping one in under the wire on the last day of August, I at least keep my streak alive of monthly updates, and will again promise to try to be more diligent with writings in the future.

Last weekend three friends and I took a lil' road trip to Toronto to attend Fan Expo 2011. I had a few missions set out for myself while there, succeeded in most of them. Got to meet Jeff Smith, and he not only drew me a quick Bone sketch, he also autographed and sketched in a book that I gave to one of my fake nieces for her birthday. Gaining me super big awesome fake uncle points for now and forever.

Watched the world premiere of an episode of Star Wars: Clone Wars season 4. It was advertised as the season premiere, but then the producer via pre-recorded message said "an episode" of the upcoming season. It had Ackbar in it and was very cool. And the eternal weirdness and joy of comic book conventions is the normalcy of watching a cartoon, mixed with the insanity of watching a cartoon in a room with dozens of folks dressed like Stormtroopers and Sith Lords and Slave Leia's. Many of them brandishing large firearms and / or laxer swords.






Went to a couple panels on the rebooting of the DC Comics Universe. They were actually quite interesting...well, to me anyhow...to a normal non-geek person, likely not so much. I have to admit that I've gone through the stages of grief on this subject and have come out the other side. I was in denial that they were going to do it. I was angry that they were doing it. I bargained the idea about in my head, trying to figure out if it could be stopped. I was depressed at the loss of my favorite universe. I accepted, and now I'm stressed about it, hoping it's good. And I have to say that listening to the editors and creative staff talk about it, seeing how much of a love of the game they have for the DCU, seeing how enthused they are at the challenge that lays ahead of 'em, they've really won me over. I'm still not sure if I believe the statement that this was 100% the decision of DC Comics and the powers that be at Warner Bros had nothing to do with it. But whatever the reason for zapping everything back to #1, I think they're giving it their all, I think they really want these to be great books, I think that they are super invested and want to make this the best DCU they can. I've gone from jaded to wanting to read everything they publish.

After hours one night we went to a club and watched a geek themed rapper by the name of Word Burglar. He was great. And not in a laughing at him, looking down at him, this is insane kinda great, but as in actually really talented and just happened to be rapping about GI Joe vehicles and Doctor Who. And he had an audience that when prompted all knew that TIE Fighter stands for 'Twin Ion Engine', and that they're not called that 'cause they look like bow-ties.

Spent the last day checking out a couple Q&A's. Katie Sackoff, for whom I didn't get to tell the story of how my friend and I set in motion a chain of events to get a baby named after her Battlestar character. Then, was blessed to be in the presence of William Shatner. That man knows how to keep the attention of a room. Whether it be with his stories of horse racing, working as an actor at a theatre in Ottawa in his youth, or Twilight Zone behind the scenes tales.



The bizarre highlight of the weekend happened when i was guarding my friends table in artists alley, I looked over the shoulder of some other friends I was talking to, and spotted someone I recognized. I excused my self, bolted around, headed out to the convention floor. I got out there, and lost sight of my target. I a panic, I looked left and right, then saw him. Big guy, glasses, beard, holding two giant bags of comics and swag. I approached and said "Excuse me Mr del Toro?". He turned around with a jubilant "Yes my friend!". Nicest professional geek in all the land, we proceeded to have a nice chat about various things, including the Mayfair. I can confirm nor deny that he gave me his e-mail and that he offered to record an intro for us if we show his films.

So, there are a handful of other stories, but those were some of the highlights from Fan Expo 2011. Oh, and for $5 I got the action figure of Lando wearing Han's clothes from the end of Empire. I love those obscure on-screen for 5 seconds Star Wars toys.

A few years before Ghostbusters made them true geek movie legends, director Ivan Reitman, writer (and future Egon) Harold Ramis, and star Bill Murray made a true Canadian classic in the summer camp movie Meatballs. Catch it this weekend (July 9th and 10th at 2:25 both days) as a rare afternoon Lost Marbles Geek Night at the Mayfair.

I don't know what the hell's going on in this comic book panel, but I would buy that comic book and the merchandising. This is the kinda' thing you stumble on when looking around the interwebs for a comic book image to accompany ones 'Happy Canada Day!' blog posting. Specifically I was looking for a Deadpool / Canada image, which you would think woulda' been easier to find considering he's Marvel Comics second greatest Canadian icon.

This year is the first in an age that I don't have a work obligation on Canada Day. The last few years I've done follow-spot stuff for Canada Day shows, and failing that I've fought the crowds to get downtown to tear down the stage post fireworks. I think there were cutbacks all over the place this year, so good news / bad news, I actually get the day off like most the rest of the country. Even the Mayfair is closed for the day, so I can't even go hang out there and watch movies! So far my Canadian content celebrations have mainly been the listening of Metric music.

I have no intention of braving the downtown crowds and wandering around with the masses. Especially since this year there's a prince and princess hanging out down there, meaning security, media, and maybe protesters will be at a much higher quotient. I think that there will be Canadian themed cupcakes from Thimble Cakes in my future, maybe some BBQ, and I am currently wearing a patriotic colour appropriate red t-shirt and matching Converse (ok, they're Maroon, but it's close enough).

I said I'd try and do more than just write about roller derby and Mayfair related stuff here, but then kewl stuff keeps happening with roller derby and the Mayfair. So please put up with me while I once again make mention of something else incredible and Mayfair related. The latest bit of awesome, is a Mayfair poster being published in the legendary cinematic horror magazine, Fangoria. Within an article about the legacy of Planet of the Apes, there appears a poster from our recent Go Apes! fest. First BBC Radio, then Fangoria Magazine, then I'm pretty sure that it's straight to world domination.

OverKill! from Jeremy Kennedy on Vimeo.

Friday night marked the premiere of the latest one-night-mini-fest at the Mayfair. Fake Trailers Reel Fest was a very entertaining night indeed, the audience in attendance (quite a good turn-out) were very receptive and all seemed to have a good time. It always does my heart good when folks come out to see the local indie filmmaking offerings which we manage to show occasionally on the big screen at the Mayfair.

My cinematographer, editor, and all around cinematic partner in crime for this short project just sent me a e-mail asking if he could post the proect online. The answer was of course yes. Especially since it's not using a bunch of copyrighted music like happened with my last short project. I've had real problems keeping on top of doing stuff like that with my work, nice to see that someone is doing it for me in this case. So if you didn't get a chance to see it at the Mayfair, I hope you enjoy watching it via web means here. Sit back, relax, and enjoy a couple minutes of fake trailer exploitative awesomeness (if I do say so myself).

What's that? You hate awesome things? Hmmm...yes, likely for the best that you stay away from the double bill RVRG derby night on Saturday June the 25th.

First of all...I've never seen previews spelled like that before. Weird. More importantly, Friday night marks the premiere of the Mayfair Theatres latest one-night mini-film festival screening extravaganza. On the heels of the romance and sex of Painted Lips & Lolly Licks and the horror that is Killer63, we now present to you Fake Trailers Reel Festival.

The evening will include an hour of new (or almost new) fake trailers from local Ottawa filmmakers, along with works from folks from Toronto, Montreal, the States and believe it or not we've even got an offering from the far off land of Australia. Our phony trailer-ness program include super-hero, mystery, horror, exploitation, puppets, derby girls, nurses, political commentary and spoof, amongst other topics and genres. Our original fake material will be accompanied by a collection of rare real classic movie trailers (along with a few surprises) from cinemas Drive-In and Grindhouse past.

Catch another great night of bizarre entertainment at everyone's favorite repertory theatre, Friday June 24th at 9:30pm at the Mayfair.

Dunny's fall under the category of what some call useless dust collectors. I've heard directly from people who just don't get it. There are some who look at stuff like this and shake their head in confusion and wonder why an otherwise rationale human being would waste their money on this junk.

There are others who have an opposite point of view and instead call these lil' bunny lookin' things amazing pieces of artistry in the medium that is vinyl toy. I heard one rather poetic rationalizing of the mind of a collector in a documentary I once saw on the subject. I believe the interviewee was a toy designer, and my paraphrasing of what was said is that this world we live in is not perfect. The world outside our door is filled with things we don't like, packed with stuff we don't want to see or think about or have run across our consciousness. So, when we stumble on something that we think is awesome (even something as illogical as limited edition artistically decorated toy bunnies sold in blind-boxes so you don't even know which one you're getting) we want to surround ourselves with it. We make our own perfectly decorated little worlds in our living rooms and bedrooms. And my geeky ideal perfect world currently has fourteen Dunny's in it...it will soon have more.

Though when I go to Lost Marbles to buy some at the release party tomorrow, I can do without that snail-y looking one pictured above. Reminds me too much of some terrifyingly creepy manga I recently read titled 'Uzumaki'. Other than that, if I had the money to spare, I would try my best to get 'em all. And they would collect dust on my shelves while looking neat.

A friend of mine once told me that she didn't watch hockey, not because she was opposed to it, but upon getting invested in watching a team it just became too stressful. It was time consuming and more often than not, ended in heartbreak 'cause a team doesn't bring home a championship every single year. I thought of that today as I watched my Rideau Valley Roller Girls take a defeat against the Forest City Derby Girls (of London, Ontario), in a well deserved victory for them.

It was a fun weekend to be sure, but during that last bout as I did my best to pay attention to my duties at helping out with score-keeping (or score-catching to be specific in the job titles monicker), I was definitely not happy in watching my girls have further unlikely a chance at winning the day as the point spread got further apart. There was stress and anger and frustration and quite a bit of harsh feelings put towards the referees accompanied by under my breath swearing.

As I have pointed out before to friends when they're feeling down about not succeeding at something, there is no shame in failure. There is shame in not trying, but no shame in failing. Wayne Gretzky played hockey for twenty or so years in the NHL. In those years he won four Stanley Cups. The greatest player of the game of hockey ever to skate on this earth only won four championships out of two decades of play!? Does that make Wayne Gretzky a failure? No more so than Martin Scorsese being a failure for taking so long to win an Oscar. Or Luke Skywalker being a failure for not saving his dad's life.

So, I must admit that I was slightly down today after the loss. I am proud of their silver medal though, and looking forward to them playing again next weekend. In a rematch of today's game no less!

Day one of the Blood Spill on the Hill tournament went down today (though the blood was spilling in Navan...nowhere actually neat the Hill). I helped score-keep on roughly 75 - 80 games (that might be a slight exaggeration, but it all becomes a bit of a blur after the tenth straight hour of derby viewing). My Rideau Valley Roller Girls (playing under their newly branded, raccoon mascot logo showcasing team The Vermin) soundly thumped the team from Moncton 325 - 19. A good time was had by all, and although the Moncton team lost, they should be happy in the fact that they are hands down the coolest and most awesome thing there is about the city of Moncton.

Don't tell anyone, but I find it completely impossible to hit deadlines for my own projects. If I make a deadline of June 3rd for a fest that takes place three weeks later, I can almost guarantee you that not a frame will be shot until sometime after that deadline passes.

Above is a picture from the latest deadline failing project of my friend and frequent collaborator on indie movie stuff here in Ottawa, Ray Besharah. He was nice enough to interrupt his rehearsal for a play that he's in the midst of prepping for to come to my place and shoot a quick scene for a fake trailer for the upcoming Mayfair Theatre event, Fake Trailers Reel Festival. It was a funny quick chain of events in terms of behind the scenes madness. I wrote up the one page scene of dialog around 8pm, he and my camera guy came over around 9:30, we were finished soon after. Then we ran over to the Mayfair to shoot some random cut-away shots of a couple burlesque girls. I love the from the hip guerrilla indie chaos involved in making weird little projects like trailers. Especially that you don't need a linear script or for stuff to make sense really. You just need something entertaining and attention grabbing that will fill two or three minutes of time and be awesome.

Our fake trailer can be seen premiering on Friday June 24th at the Mayfair along with a bunch of other original fake endeavors from near and far (local guys, American, even one from Australia) and a batch of rare classic 35mm trailers. Another weird movie night that could only happen in a city like Ottawa at a place like the Mayfair

This weekend, my Rideau Valley Roller Girl friends host the Canadian Women's Roller Derby Association east championship tournament. A batch of teams from across Ontario and from as far off as the mysterious land of New Brunswick will touch down on the unsuspecting city of Navan for a mighty batch of gladiatorial roller-skate styled sports combat. Partaking in a regular old run of the mill two teams playing off against each other derby bout is something pretty action packed. Having no less than eight full roster teams hit your city for an event, well...that's something else entirely. Attend the tournament for all the derby excitement, and stick around to see if Navan is still left intact by the time things wrap up by Sunday night.

The ultimate experience in grueling terror returns!

Stephen King declared that The Evil Dead was "the most ferociously original movie of 1982" (the movie is actually from '81, but I think most people saw it the following year). Considering that around that time horror films the likes of Basket Case, The Thing, Poltergeist and King's own Creepshow were released, he must have been quite a bit impressed. Amongst praise from other sources the likes of Fangoria Magazine, The Evil Dead became an indie horror phenomenon. And although it didn't quite make Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell household names, it did get their foot into Hollywood's door.

The Evil Dead is amazing in it's no-budget accomplishment. Although I like Evil Dead 2 better, and Army of Darkness the best, seeing the first chapter of the not quite fitting together trilogy big screen style is a real (and rare) cinematic scary good time. And of course, Ash isn't quite Ash yet either. He's not the selfish jerk of an anti-hero, he has no chainsaw arm and doesn't spout endless catchy quips and exude sexual innuendo. What the film has though is Bruce Campbell's big screen debut, hence is one of the most important films in all of history. For where would we be without Bruce Campbell?

Lost Marbles Geek Night presents The Evil Dead - Friday June 17th at 11pm, with an encore presentation on Sunday June 19th at 8pm (for those horror geeks who have earlier bedtimes).

I don't think that there is anyone who would be terribly shocked that the director of such cinematic classics as Blackenstein and The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington did not achieve film-making perfection with his late seventies effort, Skatetown U.S.A.

Though, as with many a movie of this kind, the levels of awfulness it achieves does not detract from the level of enjoyment that an audience can take away from it. So bad it's good classifies a roller skating disco epic starring a Happy Days era Scott Baio and featuring the acting debut of Patrick Swayze, years before he partook in any form of Dirty Dancing.

If getting a chance to see the rock & roller disco movie of the year wasn't incentive enough to hit the Mayfair on Wednesday night instead of watching the final game of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the show is also presented by the Rideau Valley Roller Girls. And they will be on-hand to partake in the experience of roller-skating movie action, and sell you tickets to the next RVRG bout. Which you will want to buy, because attending a roller derby bout in person is high on the list of the most of enjoyable ways that you can spend a night.

Skatetown U.S.A. - Wednesday June 15th at 9:15pm - for one night only at the Mayfair Theatre. A much more fun night than jumping on a band-wagon and cheering for a hockey team that you hated or were at least disinterested in the rest of the year. Promise.

A few days ago DC Comics made the spoiler laced announcement that they will be re-booting their Universe again this September on the heels of their current Flashpoint event. The first time that they did this was the universe merging and retooling that was Crisis on Infinite Earths. Crisis was a story with a purpose, it took 45 years of jumbled continuity, multiple worlds and various versions and styles of iconic characters and smashed them all together into one singular planet and timeline. From then on in there were two kinds of DC super-hero stories, pre-Crisis and post-Crisis. There have been a few more instances of partial historical creative messing with DC history with story-lines the likes of Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis. None of these follow-ups completely big banged things back to a whole new square one though.

My initial queasiness over this new universe announcement is the feeling that it isn't done for any kind of creative reasoning, but as an idea from the on high corporate bosses at Warner Bros that they want these characters simplified for the movie going masses. I am not so naive to not understand that comic books as any other creative endeavor of this type need to still pay its creators and be profitable. I continually don't understand why comic book companies think that it's a good idea to appeal to the movie going public who aren't buying comic books vs appeasing the true comic book reader. Marvel deleted Peter and Mary Jane's wedded bliss due to it being different from what happens in Spidey movies. They're making sure that Steve Rogers is back in the Captain America costume for when the movie comes out July 22nd. And they're notorious for in recent years confusingly putting titles back to number 1, then changing their mind to put the title back to it's original run, then maybe just randomly releasing a Wolverine # 1000. Very confusing stuff. I thought DC was better than that.

DC will not only reboot. They will also restart 52 titles (52 is an important number in DC lore of late). Meaning that insanely long runs on books like Detective and Action will interrupt for the first time since the late 1930's. I do not like this. It seems even more out of place considering that there's been giant mythologies built up not only in the past twenty-five year, but very much in the last few years that will all be derailed. Grant Morrison (my favorite writer in any medium) has done some phenomenal things with the Batman books in the past few years. The biggest things maybe being the original Robin graduating up to donning the Batman cape and cowl, and Bruce Wayne's crazy son becoming a snarky boy wonder with delusions of grandeur. I also grew up in a world where my Green Lantern was a jerk named Guy Gardner, not Hal Jordan, and my Flash was Kid Flash graduate Wally West, not Barry Allen.

I'm not sure I want to read a shared universe where those characters don't exist. Do we really need to read about Superman meeting Lois again, or Batman meeting a circus performer kid sidekick, or all the rest of the bazillion histories of these characters? Seems kind of boring to me. Comics of late, much like movies and TV, seem very guilty of looking back instead of ahead. Especially Geoff Johns, one of DC's big creative inputs, seems to really not like the new. In his reign, he's brought back Hal Jordan Green Lantern and Barry Allen Flash. Which were two of the great DC death plot-lines and amazing pieces of comic book writings. He zapped things back to the norm that the masses would remember (or at least his generation of the masses, since both characters were in themselves re-toolings of older DC characters), negating the work of other creators. The past is important, icons are important, mythology is important...but how about let's evolve to some new stuff here?

Though, that fear change rant aside, this is not only a comic story, it's DC comics story. And I'm not convinced that this isn't really an erasing of 25 years of continuity, but just a JJ Abrams Star Trek style alternate universe. Plus, this does open up one very important possibility for me. This could mean that one of my favorite characters could now be magically back to life. If Blue Beetle is back, that just might be the bribe that I need to look the other way on all of this.

This weekend the RVRG (Rideau Valley Roller Girls) kicked off their home season with what they dubbed a 'Coaches Pick' bout. Essentially an all-star game style event with girls from the league split up onto different teams. It is late and I'm tired and even though I worked as a score catcher at the event, at the moment I totally forget the score. I do know that team white came from behind and racked up a whole bunch a points to take the victory. I wasn't really cheering for either team (since they were all from my favorite Ottawa teams), but none the less enjoyed watching a great bout. You would think that the ladies might tone it down a notch since it was a inter-league team-mate vs team-mate event. They did not. They played as if it were the championship finals. I flinched a number of times while witnessing a hard knock down or wipe out. Looking forward to the next game in June. I wish there were more. And why isn't derby on tv? The sports channel plays poker, but not derby!? Madness.