Back from a Toronto roller-derby road-trip, where my friends in the Vixens rather resoundingly stomped the GTA Rollergirls G-Stars 278 - 37. I was there helping out as a NSO (non-skating official, helping keep the score correctly on record), and as per usual I find it difficult pretending to be neutral in my volunteer capacity in the referee department. I don't cheat or anything, but I have to refrain from cheering when one of the girls goes on a giant point run or completes a stunt of a move. That's why I went to Beast of the East in a purely spectator capacity. RVRG opens up their season on May 12th. Come and check it out, it's better then any of those other lesser sports.

It's Free Comic Book Day! Get yourself over to your friendly neighbourhood comic book store and participate in one of the greatest ideas ever conceived and put into action by human beings. In my youth, before geek culture had completely taken over the world, never in my wildest dreams would I have believed the concept of walking in to a shop once a year and being able to walk out with a big stack of free comics.

It's great that someone not only came up with a day like this, but that at a decade in the industry not only still has it, but has overwhelmingly embraced it. It's a chance to thank the fans, to try and lure in some new readers, and grab a bit of media attention. There's also a ton of proof at how comic books can focus on any genre and are amazingly diverse. On FCBD you can pick up some super-hero action, sci-fi, horror, crime drama, comedic stuff, weird indie tales, kids friendly stories, continuing adventures of your favorite tv, movie and video game characters and more. The event has become so big, that Hollywood makes sure to release a big tent-pole blockbuster comic book movie on FCBD weekend every year (this year it's Avengers of course).

So go get some comics. How many other days can you enter a store and walk back out with an armful of free stuff without having just committed a crime?

It's Star Wars Day, the eve of Free Comic Book Day, I'm going on a roller derby road-trip tomorrow, and there's a new Joss Whedon movie out. And as sometimes happens on days filled with such joy, you get hit with a throat-punch of a horrible event. While at work earlier today, got hit with the awful news that Adam Yauch, better known as MCA of the Beastie Boys, had died from cancer. Beastie Boys are one of my favorite all time bands, and attending a Beastie Boys concert was right on the top of bucket-list, that dream will now go unrealized. And for the next little while, for the first time ever, songs like Fight for your Right to Party and Sabotage will get me choked up. Attached here is a clip from The Late Show from a few years back, featuring one of the greatest live performances ever recorded for television. Enjoy.

Starting tomorrow night at the Mayfair we'll start our highly anticipated Ottawa premiere of the new documentary Comic Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope. It's the perfect film to watch in the days leading up to the first annual Ottawa Comiccon. The film was directed by Oscar nominee Morgan Spurlock, includes Stan Lee and Joss Whedon amongst it's producers, and features high caliber geeks the likes of Kevin Smith, Seth Rogan, Seth Green, Paul Dini, Grant Morrison and more.

On top of getting to watch a great documentary, if you come out to the Mayfair, you will also get a shot at winning some great prizes. The Comic Book Shoppe has supplied some comic and toys to give-away, including the pictured above toy adaptation of Marvel Team-Up # 65. I will do my best to remain professional and give the toys away to a deserved Mayfair patron, and not keep it for myself. I used to love Marvel Team-Up, and never in my wildest geek dreams did I think one day there would be an action figure made of Captain Britain and his weird-o 80's costume. If they make a Frog-Man toy my mind will really be blown.

Plus, our friends over at the aforementioned Ottawa Comiccon have kindly given us four free passes to their upcoming event. What other theatre rewards it's patrons so grandly? If you are a geek, and I know you are, be sure to check out Comic Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope - May 4th, 5th, 6th, 9th and 10th - only at the Mayfair. As usual, the film we be presented in glorious 2D for your peak cinematic enjoyment.

I haven't been able to officially talk about this yet, but yesterday my friend and producer put some behind-the-scenes pictures up on her Facebook page, so I guess I'm allowed to talk about this now. We have begun shooting some footage for a TV documentary focusing on my beloved Rideau Valley Roller Girls. It'll be 45 minutes or so, the deadline to hand it in is early July, and it is scheduled to be on the air in August. I'm excited enough about working on this project, the next step will be trying to convince the powers that be to green-light an entire documentary series. It'll be on the actual CBC, not just YouTube or something, an actual good old fashioned TV channel. Over the next few weeks we'll get some interviews, shoot some practices and bouts, and tell a bit of the story of roller derby here in the nation's capitol. Your tax dollars at work.

On Wednesday and Thursday night at 9:15pm at the Mayfair we're showing the new Canadian Content approved hockey movie, Goon. Everything that I've heard about this one is that it does justice to it's inevitable comparisons to Slapshot. I like that it's a distinctly Canadian movie telling a truly Canadian tale that isn't a bizarre bleak piece of cinema. It also showcases Canadian talent the likes of the director of Fubar and co-writer of Superbad and Pineapple Express, plus homegrown actors Jay Baruchel, Alison Pill and Eugene Levy.

Not that there's anything wrong with the weird and disturbing Canadian genre of film, I like David Cronenberg as much as the next film geek. It is nice though to present a view of our culture to the outside world that doesn't involve evil twin gynecologists or creepy bug monsters. Even if that culture in this case involves guys beating the hell out of each other while an adoring drunken public cheers them on in brutal gladiatorial combat. There aren't any Canadian teams left in the race for the Stanley Cup, so we at the Mayfair welcome all the saddened hockey fans into the theatre to partake in a big-screen theatrical version of a hockey night in Canada.

Started watching Community season 2. It's always frustrating when a show like this has trouble finding an audience and has to fight to survive, when a show like Two and a Half Men can last a decade. The bitter sweet aspect is that every amazing episode of Community watched brings me one step closer to a world where there's no more new episodes of Community.

We live in a world that's in a constant and sprinting pace of putting us ever closer to actually living in what we would consider a sci-fi like future. The taken for granted magic that is the smart-phone was something that a few short years ago would have been something that only James Bond or Batman might have had.

All forms of media are in the midst of a giant upheaval. It seems that sooner or later all form of literature will be read on a tablet, music will only be listened to via an mp3 player, and TV and internet will be officially smashed together into one form of interactive entertainment.

The same technological shift has hit the theatrical movie game. Despite any and all respectable indie repertory cinemas fighting against the evolution away from film, the future is upon us. We at the Mayfair won't get rid of our 35mm stuff, especially because we have an awesome 35mm library hidden away in the Mayfair catacombs. The issue is, that by the end of the year, pretty much everything movie related will be distributed in a digital manner. Not just the big-budget mainstream kind of stuff that we've shown in the past like say Harry Potter, but everything. Whether it be a kids movie, an alternative documentary, a foreign offering or an Oscar winner...none of it will exist on film-stock anymore. Meaning that anything that we've screened in the past lil' while that has had success, would be unable to be played in our current format. We wouldn't be able to screen The Muppets or The Artist or Monsieur Lazhar.

Now, we get by and pay the bills and pay the employees, but the harsh fact is that none of us are ever going to get rich off of running the Mayfair. Hence, we don't have tens of thousands of dollars in the bank to pay for something like a fancy new digital projector. Throughout our 80th Anniversary, we're holding an ongoing fundraising event to raise cash to be able to afford such an immensely expensive piece of equipment. We're having a number of special screenings and events, there will be auctions and prizes and poster sales, and even good ole' fashioned banks for you to give us your hard earned spare change in.

It's going to be an uphill battle of work, but already patrons have been very kind in their charitable offerings. Every time I'm in the box office and someone donates some cash it makes my soulless Grinch heart grow three sizes too big. And local Ottawa places have already been kind enough to donate prizes that we will auction off, stuff like tickets to see the Lord of the Rings concert at the NAC. So keep an eye out for our various fundraising events that we're having throughout 2012, and most importantly, come watch stuff at the Mayfair for the greatest movie theatre going experience of all.

My comic book stash delivery this-morning reminded me that we are a mere week away from the greatest holiday of the year, Free Comic Book Day. It's a day so staggeringly amazing that when I explain it to non-geeks they don't believe that such a thing could possibly be a true event. The Avengers, Simpsons, Transformers, Buffy, Smurfs, Donald Duck, Star Wars and more...all for the low low price of free! Only seven more sleeps until geeks are blessed with free comic book offerings from all their favorite publishers and stores. Mark your calendar, clear your schedule, and partake in the pure joy that is a world filled with free comic books.

This weekend at the Mayfair we're playing a collection of vintage Columbia Pictures shorts under the banner Three Stooges Follies. Sometimes 35mm print collections like this get a bit mixed up over the years and loose a short or gain a short. According to IMDb the program includes Buster Keaton, Batman and a trio of Three Stooges shorts (and a couple more titles that I'm unfamiliar with).

It's always a great time screening rarely seen classic pieces of cinematic history like this at the Mayfair. Showing stuff like this on the big screen, in a movie theatre that opened 80 years ago, is one of the closest steps you'll likely ever take to time-travel. If you figure out how to actually time-travel in a non-sentimental and literal way, please do let me know so I can accompany you to a Ramones show and to go look at dinosaurs.

I happened to be walking down Elgin Street tonight just in time to witness the sad army of hockey fans shuffle out of bars as the Senators were eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoff contention for another season.

It's amazing that we as a species enjoy watching sports of any kind, 'cause statistically speaking, almost every time it eventually leads to depressive sadness. Many consider Wayne Gretzky to be the greatest player of all time, and he managed to only win the top prize four times in a couple of decades. Those don't equate to an over-all chance coming out in a gleeful spirit at the end of each season. Now-a-days, it seems many a well respected player can make it their whole career without even a single championship. A friend of mine once told me that that was why she would never be a sports fan, she wasn't opposed, but just couldn't handle the stress and heartbreak that inevitably crosses your path.

As I watched the morose jersey clad drunken masses shuffle out of pubs, I felt like maybe I should suggest a less heart-wrenching hobby for them to partake in, like movie watching or scrap-booking.

Because the legitimate news media is filled with liars, idiots and immature editorials I naturally go to the fake comedy news sources to get informed about goings on in the world. Last night on The Colbert Report I learned about another thing that secures Canada as the greatest country on the planet. Canada has roughly 85,000 different kinds of quarters in active circulation, ranging from Remembrance Day tributes, to ones drawn by little kids, to sports team logo's. The next quarter added to the roster will be one with a kick-ass dinosaur on it. If that's not awesome enough, the damn thing is glow-in-the-dark so you can see the dinosaurs skeleton. Canada's quarters are better than all your quarters! If they can put glow-in-the-dark dinosaurs on all the money, this totally switches my opinion that currency should get rid of paper and coin and just go 100% virtual.

Tomorrow I get my Kermit the Frog tattoo, continuing my ongoing quest to have the most geekiest of inked up arms in all the land. Now I've got a Banksy piece, a couple DC Comics characters, a Droid, Kim Pine, a dinosaur, the Creature from the Black Lagoon and a TARDIS. Hopefully I won't be sued by Disney, they have a history of suing daycare centres, and getting the image of one of the characters they own added to oneself for display is way more permanent then painting Mickey Mouse on a wall.

We Need To Talk About Kevin is yet another amazing movie with a brilliant performance from Tilda Swinton. Watched it tonight at the Mayfair and it kept me in rapt terrified attention from beginning to end. There's this looming sense that everything is going to go horribly wrong pretty much from frame one, and the horribleness unfolds throughout the story. Impressive turns from Tilda Swinton and John C. Reilly is nothing too shocking, but what really stands out are the creepy villainous skills of all three young actors playing the various ages of Kevin. Some wouldn't classify the film as horror, it is though, just not the horror genre that involves a guy in a hockey mask chopping up teenagers. Although this is not the kind of film that you would likely buy on Blu Ray and make a tradition of watching with the family over the holidays, it is a film that is close to brilliance on all sides. It's the kind of film that leaves you a bit shell-shocked as the credits roll as you sink in what you just watched. Don't watch it if you are on the verge of contemplating starting a family.

I thought that mathematically speaking, since I had friends on four of the sixteen teams participating in the fifth annual Beast of the East tournament, that there was a pretty good chance that I'd be cheering on at least one team with friends on it as they made there was to the championship trophy. Alas, the fates were not on my derby-fan side this day. Not to say that it wasn't an action-packed and incredibly dramatic day.

First the Slaughter Daughters had to defeat a Montreal team with one of our beloved former team-mates on it (Assassinista on FDR). The game had so many back n fourths and was so close that I did not breathe for a large portion of the bout. Another couple of similarly stressful bouts were to follow, and next thing you know we were in the Championship bout for the second year in a row. As I wrote yesterday, I won't go into the exact play by play, but we did not win the day. Not out of direct laziness, but watching so many bouts in such a small period of time makes the whole day a blur. There was so much cheering that I kind of lost my voice, I may have choked back tears on a couple different occasions, and I ate delicious vegan taco's and pastries.

The crowd cheered the Slaughter Daughters on to their acceptance of the 2nd Place Trophy. Coming in 2nd out of 16 teams on a year when you've got a bunch of new players and won the year before is not something to be ashamed of. Plus, the 2nd Place Trophy had a dinosaur skeleton in derby attire on the top of it, which is pretty awesome. We all know dinosaurs are great...but winning a dinosaur skeleton wearing roller-skates and a helmet trophy is a prize to be proud of.

The opening bout of Beast of the East involved our Slaughter Daughters, the defending champions. It was scheduled for an insane 8:00am start, and was followed by shortened matches for the rest of the day. I'm not going to have great sports-journalistic skill in reporting the scores and events on the day, it was too much of a blur. I'm sure anyone interested can easily find the score-cards online.

By the end of the day I was completely exhausted, and all I had done was watch a bunch of derby. So you could imagine how my battered and bruised friends who actually partook in an epic day of actual intense athletics felt. My Slaughter Daughters came back to win their next two games, so they get to go on to day two, along with the three Montreal teams that my friends belong to now. Tomorrow at least once a team with a former RVRG member will play against us, and I know it will be a strange experience. As I commented before, it's like seeing Gretzky in a silver and black Kings jersey playing against the Edmonton Oilers.

We walked home through the miserable Montreal weather, we are staying at a derby friends house. We sat around eating some snacks and chatting and feeling quite worn out. Was shocked to look at my phone and see that it was a mere 9:45pm, it felt like we had been up all night and it was 5am or so. I think that starting derby at 8am instead of the more usual 7pm has completely messed with all of our inner-clocks. We will go to bed early, dream of girls skating around bashing each other to the tune of rock n roll and whistles, and wake up ready for another day of derby madness.

Road-tripped to Montreal with my girlfriend and a pair of roller-derby girl friends to partake in the madness that is the Beast of the East tournament. Getting into a car with a bunch of girls and traveling to far off lands for derby related events is nothing new for me. I've accompanied my Rideau Valley Roller Girls gang to such exotic locales as diverse as Sudbury, Pittsburgh, Rochester and more.

The girls at Montreal Roller Derby didn't think it was enough to host a giant weekend tournament, they figured they'd also play a bout on Friday night. The New Skids on the Block handily defeated Buffalo's Lake Effect Furies 326 - 62.

Since last season, four of my derby friends moved from Ottawa to Montreal, and they managed to land themselves on three different Montreal teams. Meaning I walked in to the rink, made my way to the merch table and bought three new T-shirts. Being a loyal friend, I'll be costume changing my attire depending on which friends team is in the midst of battle. At the likely event that out of the sixteen teams, sooner or later my friends will play against each other, then I will tape two shirts together and feel stressed.

I hardly ever watch movies at home, being as I go to the Mayfair all of the time to experience movies in all of their big screen repertory theatre brilliance. Seeing how busy I often am, I like to make the most of my free time at home, and catch up on films that we wouldn't be able to screen theatrically. Hence, because I have the interest in all forms of cinema and the cursed skill to watch anything, last night I watched Mega Shark versus Crocosaurus. A really big shark and a really big crocodile cause havoc and kill lots of people, it stars Urkel and that hologram doctor from Star Trek: Voyager, and it was as horribly awesome as it sounds. I also found out that this is the sequel to Mega Shark versus Giant Octopus,which I shamefully have not seen...no wonder it seemed like I was missing out on some aspect of the in-depth story element of big things smashing smaller things.

The new Rideau Valley Roller Girls season starts May 12th! Our long national nightmare is almost over.

Bob's Burgers serves as further proof that Seth McFarlane should wrap up the various versions of Family Guy that he produces. Unlike the trio of McFralane series that clog up Fox's animated time-slots, Bob's Burgers is original, funny, and actually has plot-lines to their episodes. Where-as Family Guy has a mish-mash of non-nonsensical dream sequences and seems to be on a dare-a-thon to see how offensive they can be before being banned from television forever. McFarlane should wrap things up and go concentrate on his live-action endeavors. I'd much rather Fox's animation department budget go towards Bob's Burgers instead of a fourth McFarlane show (which if we're not careful will be a Flintstones re-boot. Seriously!)

When The Simpsons comes up in conversation, some believe that it is past it's prime and should have gone off the air years ago. I've never given up on the show, and although it has had it's peaks and valley's over it's twenty-three years, I think the it is always worth watching. Especially since I've grown completely fed up, disgusted and bored with the animated universe of Seth MacFarlane, I've embraced and appreciated The Simpsons more and more.

The last few years they've gone out of their way to kick their cool factor up a notch as well. Somewhere around the time when they started working on the movie I think is when efforts got kicked up a few factors. I also think that they now have fans working on the show who grew up watching the series, and now have their dream jobs. They've employed writers like Seth Rogan and Ricky Gervais, had weird guest-voices like former comic book writer and current warlock Alan Moore, and opening credit sequences designed by Oscar nominated rebels like Banksy. Last nights opening sequence was a very impressive piece done by one of my favorite animators of all time, Bill Plympton. If they continue at this pace, I have no qualms if they feel like making the show for another few decades. Simpsons at its worst is still much better than watching a Family Guy episode that consists of a bunch of characters barfing for six or seven minutes straight.

Spent a chunk of the day watching The Muppets on Blu-Ray, watched the film with audio commentary and then all of the bonus features. On the disc was the trailer for Brave, which after the sadness and disappointment that a sub-par effort the likes of Cars 2 has re-instigated my worship of PIXAR. Up until Cars and Cars 2, I thought that PIXAR was pretty damn close to movie producing perfection. All of their movies were really good, critically acclaimed, award winning and happened to all make a truck full of profits.

Then Cars came along, which was not the worst movie ever made, but was the first movie that they did that left me feeling 'meh' at the end. Then a few years later they hit us with a sequel that seemed for the first time in their history to be done only for financial gain, and not because they had a good story to tell. Toy Story 3 had a great script, Cars 2 seemed to be done to sell Happy Meal toys and car shaped slippers and backpacks to kids. Especially in an animation world that was now producing really good non-PIXAR computer animated films the likes of How to Train Your Dragon, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Puss in Boots, this was just unacceptable.

I think Brave is PIXAR waking up, feeling shame, and wanting to be excellent on all sides again. My faith in the animation studio was happily restored. Then the next trailer was for the Cars straight-to-DVD spin-off, Planes. Meaning that now PIXAR has resorted to producing films the style along the lines of a Simpsons PIXAR parody. And again, I felt sad and angered at the state of most of what goes on in Hollywood film production.

We began our run of A Separation, the excellent Oscar winning Iranian film, last night at the Mayfair and it plays through April 17th. The film is pretty damn near cinematic perfection. If you can't make a movie that is from front to back exceptionally as well made as this film, you should just go home and sit on the couch and waste your own time with a little American Idol. If you aren't going to give it your all and have a great script performed by amazing actors and end up with an over-all impressive product for your audience to sit on the edge of their seats for and be enthralled by, why even bother? I'm looking at you Brett Ratner.

Anime makes a return to the Mayfair tonight with the movie that Speed Racer wishes it was, Redline. Highly praised in animation circles, the movie makes it's Ottawa premiere tonight at 11:30pm with an encore screening Sunday the 15th at 9:00pm. If seeing an excellent cartoon wasn't an inciting enough thought, we will also have some prizes to give away from Lost Marbles. And I promise that it will be much less offensive and insane than previous late night anime offerings like Urotsukodoji: Legend of the Overfiend (Redline isn't banned in any provinces). Just hold on to your seat and get ready to be knocked out with a hell of a lot of speed lines.

I have never been happier as to have avoided trailers and reviews and spoilers than with The Cabin in the Woods. I hate multiplexes, but ventured behind enemy lines thanks to a free advance screening pass that I got a hold of. It was the one film being released this year that I wanted to see as soon as possible in order to avoid finding out anything about the movie and having story-line and plot-twists revealed to me.

All I will say is that The Cabin in the Woods was one of the greatest movies that I have ever seen. I doubt anything else being released this year will come close to matching it as my favorite movie of that year. I walked into it knowing nothing about the movie except for those involved in making it, some of the actors, and that it was very likely something more complicated than a traditional teens killed in the woods story. I thought it was genius, and that's all I want to say. If someone starts telling you about the movie and you haven't seen it yet, punch them and run the other in the other direction. You will not be in the wrong.

I resisted the urge to get more comics from the library while returning stuff today. There's always something more that I want to read, but I really want to try to put a dent in the giant stack of unread comics that I have waiting to be read at home. The bottom drawer of my dresser is filled with three stacks of cheap bin comics that I haven't looked at yet.

There's a lot of great comics being produced currently, but it's hard to match the pure imagination, diversity and insanity of comics that were produced fourty or so years ago. Each cover was a masterpiece, there were heroic war comics, scary ghost comics, and super-hero books were actually fun and of interest to kids. Another plus is that many of the issues are self contained, so you aren't forced to buy dozens of cross-over books to follow a story.

The best part is that these kinds of comics can easily be found in cheap bins at conventions and stores. If you're lucky you can even find them at garage sales, though often people running garage sales are mad with delusional power and think that old comics actually have a monetary value. They're a great cheap option to pick up for kids (or grown-up folks) looking to read a bunch of comics. Though not so great if you already have a couple of hundred awaiting you in an unread state at home.

Plus, almost as entertaining as the comics, are the ads. The advertising encouraging kids to behave nicely for their parents so that they will then think they are responsible enough for gun ownership is worth the price of admission alone.

Another round of Fake Trailers Reel Festival makes it's highly anticipated return to the Mayfair in June. The one night only event will feature an hour of original fake trailer programming followed up by an hour of the greatest grindhouse / drive-in / cult classic 35mm trailers from the Mayfair vault.

I've gotta go try and figure out a storyline that doesn't feature derby girls, burlesque girls, swords, guns and random violence. I know that those are all excellent things to put in a trailer, but I can't just repeat last years theme.

Those interested in submitting a fake trailer have until Friday June 8th to do so, and the screening will be on Friday June 29th. Keep an eye out for further updates around the internet at various Mayfair portals (website, Facebook, Twitter), and if you have any questions let me know.

Back when Buffy was a TV show, my routine was that I would watch the latest episode and lose track of time and then yell a "son of a bitch!" when the 'Executive Producer Joss Whedon' credit hit the screen at the end of the show. The cursing would come because I thought there was still more show ahead, and a cliffhanger had just punched me in the brain. I enjoyed watching the show as it came out in weekly increments. I think that watching TV in giant marathon runs is kind of cheating. You don't get that time in-between stories to ponder and discuss and go crazy in anticipation of the next show.

I am a traditionalist when it comes to comic books as well. Hence, I read Buffy (currently in it's second comic book season, ninth over-all season) month to month and not in collected form. This season is being produced in a slightly different manner with Andrew Chambliss writing Buffy and Christos Gage writing Angel & Faith off of the over-all story as laid out by creator Joss Whedon, and under his supervision as he serves as executive producer on the books. For Buffy season 8, Joss was on hand to write a bit more, and there was a rotating crew of Buffy-verse TV writer alum and Joss Whedon's comic book writer favorites handling story-arc's.

Andrew Chambliss wrote five episode's of Dollhouse for Joss and has proclaimed himself to be a mega Buffy fan. I think he's doing a fine job handling the reigns of the franchise while Joss is off assembling Avengers.

Much like it's live-action predecessor, the last two issues of Buffy (which I read today in a bout of catching up on comic book reading) both made me go "Gah!" in a 'son-of-a-bitch!' like manner as I flipped to the last page of the story. If you are a fan of Buffy and Joss Whedon and are not supporting the comic, you are a monster. That may seem a little bit harsh, but it is true.

Happy eat candy for breakfast day! You can of course eat candy for breakfast whenever you would like because we live in the greatest country on earth (well, I do anyhow...you might theoretically be reading from a lesser country where you aren't allowed to eat candy whenever you would like to). Today, along with Halloween and Christmas I guess, it is slightly more socially acceptable to eat candy all day though. So get out there and gorge and celebrate the day that zombie Jesus came back to life and threw candy to all the children as he rode the easter bunny up to heaven. Or something like that...I'm not an expert on religious mythology and ceremony.

I am shamefully behind on my TV watching, which is a shame because I think that we are in a golden age of television. Yes,I know that the medium is filled with D-grade celebrities eating bugs and douche-bags eating giant slabs of hamburgers and horrible low-brow laugh-track sitcoms and a bunch of offensive tiresome Seth MacFarlane cartoons. Disregard all of that trash though, and TV has endless high quality comedy and drama being produced. There is so much in fact, that barring suddenly being independently wealthy and not needing to sleep, I will never ever catch up.

The latest small-screen episodic masterpiece that I've taken to watching is Community. It came highly recommended, I knew pretty much nothing about it, and I rather quickly fell in love with it. I enjoyed it so much, that I am pleasantly surprised that it is currently in it's third season, because most tv shows that I love get cancelled rather quickly. Shows the likes of Firefly, The Tick, Greg the Bunny, and Andy Richter Controls the Universe (and the list could ramble on) all succumbed to cancellation before reaching a second season.

Community features a very talented cast in a rather normal tv show premise of a bunch of classmates in a community college. Premises of tv fare like this, the surroundings don't really matter all that much, it's the characters and their scenarios and the quality of the writing that are important. There's nothing too groundbreaking in the concepts of people hanging out in a bar, a comedian and his jerk friends doing nothing in New York, or doctors operating on patients during a war...but all are classic television.

All I knew about Community was that I had seen it's star on various late night talk shows, and that he was funny. I also was familiar with one of his co-stars, Donald Glover, because there was a bit of a rumour / geek push to get him to play Spider-man in the rebooted franchise. And that Chevy Chase is on it, and evidently he is difficult to work with. Otherwise, I was coming in to the show with a pretty blank slate as to what I was going to see.

It was so funny that on numerous occasions I hit the 'I'm laughing so hard I might die' danger zone. And, it is chock full of geek references ranging from 28 Days Later to Sesame Street to Batman, which is an easy way to win me over. Of course, the show it so good that it means it will likely be cancelled in it's third season (I just got through season one). How can shows like Two and A Half Men or According to Jim last for like a decade, and great stuff not? Damn you Nielsen families, it's all your fault! Watch better TV!

As much as I've enjoyed much of DC Comics reboot of their super-hero universe with The New 52, my biggest complaint would be in the area of character design. Much of the costuming chores seem to have gone to Jim Lee, and although he is maybe the most popular comic book artist of our time, I can't stand his design skills. Everything he does is overly complicated, his Cyborg looks like a Michael Bay Transformer.

So, I was glad to see that Kevin Maguire was handling the design gig for The New 52's introduction of Earth 2 into the rebooted continuity. I've been a fan of Mr Maguire's work since he drew the 1987 relaunch incarnation of the Justice League. His cover for Justice League #1 is hands down one of the most famous and copied covers in the history of the medium, and over the last 25 years he's worked on pretty much every comic book character you've ever heard of. His resume includes work on Captain America, Spider-man, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Superman, Batman, and he's done some great indie stuff like Strikeback and Trinity Angels.

The only bad news is that with the news of his involvement in DC stuff, this means there are a couple more comic books that I am now looking forward to checking out. More money to spend, and more stuff to read in my always too packed, not enough hours in the day schedule.

What I like about his designs is that there's a realism to them without losing the super-hero aesthetics. Robin looks like she could actually wear that outfit while jumping around rooftops of Gotham, no high-heels, no extra-long cape tripping her up. This new Supergirl isn't dressed like a stripper, and is actually in an outfit that wouldn't be inappropriate for a girl to wear on Halloween. They should've let him handle the initial DC reboot designs too and maybe Batman and Superman wouldn't look all weird without wearing their underwear on the outside of their pants.

I got a very excellent belated birthday present from one of the kids of a couple of friends of mine. This young lady enjoys reading Bone comics (I got Jeff Smith to sign a Bone book for her at Fan Expo last year), likes listening to Weezer, and wears Batman shirts and Converse. Not so shockingly I'm a fan, and amongst the aforementioned young geek cred, she is also quite the artist. Pictured above is a R2D2 magnet, home-made from scratch with no help from instructions or a how-to book or the interweb. This little droid was made out of pure imagination and skill. I know that you are jealous and you want one too, but you can't have it, it is mine all mine.

It's not often that I venture outside of the Mayfair to watch movies on the big screen. I snobbishly refuse to give any money to the multiplexes, mostly because every time that I o I have a bad experience with a sub-par quality presentation like the movie being presented in the wrong aspect ratio or candy tossed up and plastered on the screen. I also find that you are much more likely to be pestered by other patrons chatting on cel phones, texting, talking amongst themselves, or getting drunk while the movie plays.

So, along with that negativity and because the Mayfair is the bestest way to enjoy a film, the only time that I partake in non-Mayfair movie watching is when I can do so for free. The latest free pass that I got a hold of was for the sequel to a remake, Wrath of the Titans. The Clash of the Titans was pretty awful, but I am a glutton for punishment, have no taste, and will watch pretty much anything. I wasn't expecting much, and I didn't get much.

When I see a movie like this from a studio like Warner Bros, a budget of $150 million, featuring actors the caliber of Liam Neeson, Ralph Finnes and Bill Nighy...I would like to think that all those factors could cobble together something at least semi-passable and a little entertaining. More often than not with this kind of stuff, it seems like no one is really making that much of an effort. As the end-credits roll, we've gained no attachment to the characters, had no plot-line to follow, and sit there feeling a resounding "meh".

Added to the drudge of the film is that it's presented in the biggest ruse in cinema, the glory of 3D. There wasn't a single part in the movie that was enhanced by it's 3D presentation. A couple of times embers floated by, and once the camera took a dive down a long tunnel, otherwise any hint of 3D was completely non-existent. I'm shocked that this snake-oil salesman of a trick continues to lure people to pay extra at the multiplex box office. In fact, the only time you really notice 3D is in the credits, which you wouldn't think that anyone would be all that enthused to pay extra money to enjoy. The only good news is that the film has only made $125 million worldwide (yes, it's insane that the words 'only made' in front of a number that big), so will maybe only brake even. Fingers crossed, that means that the planned third film in the series called Return of the Gods will die before it's put into production. Then I won't get another free pass for that and have to see another horrible mythology movie starring that guy from Avatar.

It was a waste of a couple of hours, but at least I got to see the trailer for Prometheus.

The new This Month at the Mayfair article is up at the (Cult)ure Magazine website. This time around we discuss the greatness that is the April schedule for the Mayfair. Amongst other worthy cinematic offerings, April includes such diverse films as the bizarre 1980's remake Cat People, the intense anime of Redline, truth is stranger than fiction documentaries like Girl Model and The Ballad of Genesis & Lady Jaye, Canadian Content acclaim of Monsieur Lazhar, the Penthouse Magazine produced Caligula, and the classic slapstick comedy from The Three Stooges. If there's not something that you're interested to see at the Mayfair this month, I'm pretty sure it means that you hate movies.

If loving Clooney is wrong, I don't wanna be right. I think that he has the most integrity, that his career is the most diverse, and is the most talented movie star that we have on the planet. If you would have told me that I was going make such a statement fifteen or so years ago, I would have pointed at you and accused you of being a liar. If you had told me that right after I saw Batman & Robin, I might have pushed you over and taken a couple swings at you with a gold club.

Luckily, a year later, George managed to land a gig in the Steven Soderburgh adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel Out of Sight. Since then, he's been puzzle-piecing together what I think will go down as one of the greatest resume's in movie history. Ocean's 12 and 13 weren't groundbreaking works of cinematic genius, but besides for a few lil' mis-steps like that he's been on quite the roll since the late 1990's.

He's played the lead, played supporting parts, played good guys or bad guys or he even once played a fox. When not repeatedly working with his new bestest pal Steven Soderburgh, he's quietly managed to work with nearly every talented filmmaker working in the business (Terrence Malick, the Coen Brothers, Robert Rodriguez, Jason Reitman, Alfonso Cuaron, Wes Anderson, etc...). Along the way he also learned how to be quite the filmmaker himself, directing four impressive films, two of which he also co-wrote. If that's not enough, he's stacked up a bunch of Oscar nominations, a win, and dozens of other nominations and wins.

Tonight I watched The Descendants, and it's not so surprisingly added to my ammunition of proof that Clooney deserves to be allowed to do anything he cinematically wants. If there were more stars out there who cared as much about putting out high-end product as Clooney does, we would have a whole lot better quality movies out there. Imagine if he had been able to wait a few years and do a Bat movie with filmmakers who actually cared about the characters? Being glass half full and unable to time-travel to fix things though, maybe doing the movie taught him a lesson that most others in Hollywood could learn a valuable lesson from. Actors should care more about making a good movie and amassing a good career over getting the big safe pay-cheque.

Late last night I worked on the tear down of a stage that I helped set up on Saturday night for the Juno Awards. I'm not even sure what exactly went on there, I think some autograph stuff and a couple of songs performed by bands I've never heard of. It was at a mall, and I was quite curious if anyone actually cared about this kind of thing and if anyone would show up. Evidently, people can be lured out for shopping mall based entertainment of the free variety. Rumour has it that upwards of a couple thousand people were in attendance, which blows my mind a lil' bit that there's anyone who would actually be a fan enough to partake in pop music presented in such a manner.

It reminded me of a different kind of mall gathering that I attended a dozen or so years ago while in Florida. My friend and I were flipping through the newspaper (that's how long ago this was) looking for something to do. He flipped the page, an ad caught our attention, and simultaneously we both exclaimed "The Power Rangers are going to be at the mall!". Our other friend we were with was not impressed, luckily his sister had a better sense of humour and she ave us a lift. Even though we weren't exactly the Saturday morning target audience age, we were fans. In fact, my friend had a life-size cardboard cut-out of the Pink Ranger in his bed-room. Hence, we were fairly ecstatic that this was going down while we were temporarily residents of Florida.

The Green Ranger and the Pink Ranger were there signing autographs to publicize the upcoming season and remind kids to buy toys and various other bits of Rower Ranger merchandise. It was complete and utter madness. There were traffic jams on the way there, the place was packed, and people in attendance weren't being very mature or level-headed at all about the situation. After the actor's hit the stage, it was akin to The Beatles stepping off of an airplane onto American soil in the early 1960's. Parent's were losing any sense of human sanity, kids were losing their minds, and security was completely overwhelmed. The frightening thing was that of course because we were in Florida, the overwhelmed mall-cops were all brandishing fire-arms. In fact, I would guess that many of the parents and maybe children had guns too. I saw parents on their way to partaking in fisticuffs, and one throw coffee in anothers face. It was on the verge of complete societal breakdown, riot squads and tear gas were imminent.

We didn't actually get to meet the Power Rangers, but we did get autographed head-shots. Mall people resorted to giving out stacks of pre-signed photo's in hopes of quelling the impending insanity of a Mall destroying mall. We were lucky to get out alive. Very glad the we got to go though, if we had missed it we would have felt as regretful as Homer did that time when he didn't go to the mall to see Mr T.

Today I watched The Nanny Diaries, a fluffy Hollywood romantic comedy where the characters all learn a valuable lesson and the girl gets the guy and happily ever after falls from the heavens. It was an ok film that was worth seeing, but I cannot tell a lie that the only reason I had any interest in the movie was because it starred Scarlett Johansson. A reason that my girlfriend has been very understanding about. I know that love is a strong word, but I have been in love with Scarlett since 2001's Ghost World. The respectful non-crazy infatuation has continued through-out the decade to follow.

Also in Nanny Diaries, playing Scarlett's romantic leading man, was Chris Evans. Chris played the title role in Captain America, Scarlett played Black Widow in Iron Man 2, and both will be seen side by side in The Avengers. I don't know how they could possibly make me anticipate this movie more. Maybe if it was Joss Whedon directing a Justice League movie with the same cast and budget instead (as much as I've enjoyed most of the Marvel movies of late, my heart will always belong to DC Comics). Anything short of getting stabbed or bitten by a cobra while watching the movie, I'm pretty sure that there is no way I am not going to enjoy The Avengers. Because again I must admit, script and acting and production value won't so much as matter, because Scarlett is playing a super-hero and I am a life-long card carrying geek.

You find out big news from strange places now-a-days thanks to the magic that is the interwebs. Via Nathan Fillion's Twitter-feed, learned that my Country of Canada is trail-blazing the way and getting rid of the penny.

This effects me very little, because as more and more people seem to be in the habit of, I hardly use real money at all. Almost all of my day to day financial interactions happen through credit card, debit card, online or even the rare writing of a cheque. The exception to the rule is the Mayfair of course, which is still cash only, but luckily enough I happen to get in there for free.

I don't know if it happen in five years or twenty or even in my life time, but I can't imagine that paper or coin based currency has much of an existence or importance left on this planet. I'm pretty sure that if tomorrow the powers-that-be held a press conference to let us all know that legal tender was going extinct that the universal reaction from most would be a nice big "Meh."

I'm pretty sure that future generations with their jet-packs and robot maids will look back at these caveman times and be as flummoxed by paper and coin money about as much as they will be by the concept that we kept movies that up on shelves in video-tape / disc form or that we lived in an age where ay folks couldn't get married. I will not shed a tear for the death of the penny, but I do have to make sure to cash in a couple of jars of 'em to that machine at the mall.

Started a few days of work today setting up stuff for the Juno Awards that are invading Ottawa this weekend. I'm not working on the televised ceremonies that are going on over at Scotia Bank Place, I'm working at a couple of different venues where other performances and award givings are happening. None-the-less, though not working directly on the production that he is hosting, I am going to count it as having worked on the Juno's. Hence I am now one-degree of separation away from one of our greatest Canadians of all time, William Shatner. I think that means that I get to hang out with him now and go horseback riding or something.

Don't know how it took so long for me to get around to it, but I finally watched the Batman: Year One animated film that came out late last year. I love Batman and I love DC's series of animated tv series and films, so my geek cred if shamefully hit by not dropping everything to view this film instantly on it's release to Blu Ray last October.

Warner Bros animation branch of DC Comics productions have been on an incredible run since the early 1990's. Starting with the Batman animated series, which lead into Superman, Batman Beyond and then Justice League, there was an uninterrupted run of excellent DC Universe animation on TV for some 15 years. Since 2007 or so they've been focusing more on stand-alone animated films with different voice actors and character designs, ranging from the 1950's set New Frontier, the anthology Gotham Knight, or the adaption of Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly's All Star Superman series.

Batman: Year One is an adaptation of issues #404 through #407 of Batman, written by Frank Miller (before he went crazy) and illustrated by David Mazzucchelli, published in 1987. An original concept at the time that has inspired endless Year One comic book prequel tales to follow. As I will always point out, because I am a comic book reverse snob, Batman: Year One was not and is not a graphic novel, it was four issues of the comic book series Batman. I hate the term graphic novel, no one says "I'm going to see a motion picture tonight", and I kind of find the term graphic novel equally pretentious.

Anyhow, back to the topic at hand...Batman: Year One is yet another example of Warner Bros animation being the front runner in not only traditional animation comic book adaptations, but in comic book stories from cartoon or live-action form. If I could only watch one version, I'd rather watch these cartoons than even my most favorite of live-action Batman's. The same stands for Superman stuff, except even with the excellent performance of Christopher Reeve, I don't think any live-action Superman film has been all the great. The cartoons are always better.

Batman: Year One clocks in at a tight 64 minutes (plus there's a cool Catwoman short tagged onto there too), and at a little over an hour tells a better story then movies twice it's length. Bryan Cranston takes a break from winning Emmy's for brilliantly portraying drug crime kingpin's in the making to play the polar opposite character of not Commissioner yet Jim Gordon. Some people don't think that voice acting counts as acting, but much like Kevin Conroy's frequent gig as Batman and Mark Hamill as Joker, Cranston out does even Gary Oldman in the portrayal of the character. Plus, the animation is beautiful, every time I see something like this it makes me wish that hand drawn animation was still at the powerhouse levels that it was at back in the 1990's. I love PIXAR and some of the live-action comic book inspired films, but to see comic books come to life, I think it needs to be done in a traditional animation style.

You want to see a really well done Batman story, you don't have to wait until the next Chris Nolan offering, just watch some cartoons.

Yesterday I got my ninth pair of Converse and the Grant Morrison non-comic book amongst other lovely birthday gifts. I received a very hilarious Twilight birthday card, an inscribed book that got me all choked up, and that image above is a home-made card made by a very skilled and talented friend who goes by the name of Drunky. It was another memorable Mayfair night, we don't make any money running a theatre and it's a constant amount of work, but we do get perks like getting to pick an awesome movie to show for one's birthday. I will never ever get tired of watching Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Especially watching it after getting to watch some awesome trailers, in a theatre full of friends, some of whom are brandishing dollar-store Nerf like swords, with a few dozen cupcakes to eat. Then, as tradition dictates, the after-movie-party involved playing Mario Kart on the big screen. And yes, playing Mario Kart on the big screen is as cool as flying a jet-pack or being in a Fight Club with William Shatner. Tis a wonderful life.

I've always been quite honoured to share a birthday with Leonard Nimoy. When I was a little kid, my Sunday morning tradition was to watch Star Trek on CBC with my dad, well before the age of sci-fi networks and Blu-Ray box sets. In fact, now that I'm thinking about it, the second movie that I ever saw was a drive-in screening of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (double-billed right after another lil' space epic called Star Wars). I watched every episode of Star Trek multiple times. I watched the excellent ones with time travel and Joan Collins, furry alien Tribbles and evil goatee Spock's...I watched all the not so excellent one's with space hippies and Spock losing his brain. And of course, Leonard Nimoy gave this silver screen it's greatest death scene of all time in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. If it is a spoiler to you that Spock dies in the end of the 1982 film, may I also spoil for you that Darth Vader is Luke's dad, Rosebud is a sled, and that the guy in Crying Games is a chick.

It is a horrible cliche, but since he has accepted, embraced and seemed honoured himself to have the Spock character in his life, may I wish Mr. Nimoy a happy birthday and hope that he continues to live long and prosper.

Yesterday we hung Star Wars ships from pre-existing ceiling hooks in the apartment, that I would guess the former tenants used to hang plants or something slightly less geek tinged from. There were five hooks and I had five vehicles, the fates decreed that this had to be. And by we hung what I mean is that my girlfriend had the skills and knowledge in which to hang the toys from wire from the ceiling, and I supplied said toys and had the idea to ask "Can we hang some Star Wars ships from those things?". Besides for the ability to get her into see free movies and a giant library of comic books for her to read, I don't really bring that much of value into the relationship.

I think this puts me one step closer to living in a full-blown Pee Wee caliber of a Playhouse, just need a fire-fighter's pole and a Rube Goldberg machine and we're all set.

As someone who helps run a repertory movie theatre, perhaps I should not point out that I cannot believe how amazing the state of television is. Every time I chat with someone I learn of another amazing tv series that I don't have time to watch. Yes, I know that tv is still full of D-grade celebrities facing off in competition, mind-numbingly anger inducing 24 hour news channels and insulting to the human brain laugh-track sitcoms. To be fair though, there's just as many horrible books, movies or bands out there. Every genre of arts and expression has a lot of terrible in it.

TV (when ignoring reality programming and dance shows) is in a golden age of quality. World class directors, writers and actors are all working on the small screen in favour of big. And not in the embarrassing way that washed up unemployed movie stars used to slink to tv to do stuff like Walker Texas Ranger.

My newest obsession is American Horror Story, which I didn't even know existed until stumbling on an imdb article about it while researching the interwebs for stuff to write about on the Mayfair's Twitter feed. I was instantly hooked into it's soap opera horror story style, next thing I knew my girlfriend and I had watched four episodes straight. On top of the quality, it's also amazing that tv land remains fairly uncensored in terms of sex and violence. I don't know if the powers-that-be were busy bothering movies and forgot about tv, but it seems like they can get away with anything there.

If you are watching an excellent tv show, please do not tell me about it, I have so much stuff to do and so little free time in my days as it is.

Today was the day to deliver new monthly schedules for the Mayfair. Did a route that I hadn't done before 'cause someone was sick. Started around Ottawa U land (which is a maze!), then the Arts Court, then down Elgin Street. Besides for the heavy lifting and manual labour potion of the schedule delivery chore, it's actually fun at most locations. In trade for the advertising, we give out thank you free passes to the places that are nice enough to carry the guides for us. Most people react to the free pass gift like they've just been given a jet-pack or a fresh new life sustaining body part. Which is a nice compliment that the Mayfair holds such an important place in their heart that getting to see a free movie brightens their day so much. Not sure what I'm looking most forward to seeing in April, either We Need to Talk About Kevin or Redline. Though I'm in the lucky position that I don't really have to choose favorites, I kinda' just live there and see everything. If I was forced to go see only one thing all month though, it would likely be the collection of shorts from the 1940's playing under the Three Stooges Follies banner. Watching that kind of stuff at the Mayfair is like time travel.

Friday (March 23rd at 11:30pm) the Mayfair presents a special one-night-only screening of the John Carpenter / Kurt Russell cinematic classic Big Trouble in Little China. I have seen a lot of movies in my time that I think highly of, but this one is right near the top of the all-time favorite list. John Carpenter pulled off an amazing triple punch in the 80's with Escape from New York, The Thing, and Bi Trouble in Little China. A trio of incredible geek movies, all of very different tones and styles, all with Kurt Russell in very diverse protagonist roles. Big Trouble is the lightest of the three, and filled with everything you could possibly want out of a motion picture. It has kung-fu action, evil wizards, monsters, a bumbling pompous Han Solo style hero, and the Canadian content quotient of a Kim Cattrall before she did Sex and the City and you started to hate her.

If you are not a fan of Big Trouble in Little China, do not tell me or anyone else at the Mayfair, we will likely be forced to revoke your membership and ban you from the theatre.

Read today on the interwebs that my fair home-town of Ottawa has again been awarded the distinction of being the bestest city in the universe, or possibly in Canada, something along those lines.

I am very defensive of Ottawa, I love Ottawa, and if you are despairing towards it I will heartily disagree and then fight you on your thoughts (in a non-physical manner). A while back I was working with a guy who wouldn't shut up about how much he hated living here, I told him in not the most polite of tones that maybe he should move to a city that he likes then, he had no response. Another time a rather stereotypical Toronto douche-bag kept trashing Ottawa over and over again, saying amongst other humorous wit filled remarks (he typed sarcastically) that Ottawa is the city that never wakes. I reminded him that there is a reason that there is a reason why the rest of the country hates most of his city.

Ottawa is great. If you think that there is nothing to do here you are putting absolutely no effort in trying to find something to do. Last year when we had the big-shot pop-art exhibit at the gallery, and American newspaper published an article of glowing praise about how much there is to do here. They had been doing an article on the touring exhibit, had no idea what an Ottawa was (the other cities on the tour were the lines of London and New York), and fell in love with the place. Ottawa has world class museums and galleries, acclaimed places to eat ranging from fast food to high end cuisine, you can go see widely ranging forms of music on any given night of the week, and we have all kinds of outdoor activities for folks who like that kind of thing. If that's not enough there's an NHL team here, championship roller derby, cupcake shops, burlesque troupes, punk flea markets, giant community garage sales, more music festivals than you can keep track of, an animation festival, a pinball convention, every once and a while bizarre stuff like a pillow fiht league makes its way through town, and of course an 80 year old repertory theatre.

In conclusion, it is awesome here. If you disagree I will accuse you of just being jealous that in my town there's a different shawarma shop once a block or so, we have a castle filled with dinosaurs, and in upcoming weeks we have not one but two different starship Enterprise captain's coming to town.

On the heels of Brian K Vaughan returning to comic books with Saga, some of his greatest characters have resurfaced in Marvel Comics. In a comics world that much like film and tv is filled with a lot of reboots, re-imaginings, sequels and spin-offs, Brian K Vaughan and Adrian Alphona gave us the Runaways. Too often in comics, new characters are just other versions of the established star. They are a irl or a boy or a woman or a kid, but still have Super or Bat or Flash in their name. Here we had something that was a welcome difference.

A group of original characters in an original plot-line set within the established Marvel universe. They were a bunch of kids on the run, sons and daughters of super-villains, band together into a family of friends and not a spandex costume amongst them. I loved Runaways like no other Marvel comic maybe ever, and when the creators left the series I was sad. But, when they left the writer stated that he hoped the characters would continue along in the universe under the creative talents of other writers and artists. And the wish came true when the series was taken over by the likes of acclaimed comic writers Joss Whedon, then Terry Moore, and finally an impressive if too short of a run from Kathryn Immonen. The last issue was released in 2009 before being cancelled mid-story-arc, and despite talk of a Runaways movie with a script from Vaughan, I was afraid that my favorite Marvel characters may become lost to once popular and now cult status obscurity.

It's hard to keep good characters down though, especially in comic books where writers love writing about their favorite characters. Look at any super hero team, and if there's a character or two on it who aren't quite the cultural icon of a Batman or a Wonder Woman, they are there because the writer or artist loved that character when they were a kid. If Joss Whedon does a stint on X-Men, or Patton Oswalt writes a JLA book or Kevin Smith writes some Daredevil, I bet that it's because these were their favorite comics to read when they were geeky little junior high comic book nerds.

Hence, I have a feeling that Christos Gage, the writer of Marvel's current teen super-hero book Avengers Academy, is a fan of the Runaways. And as soon as he was able to and got the thumbs up to do so from his editors, he wanted the Runaways to guest-star in his comic. I am not the biggest of Marvel Comics reader currently, and had never read or even known all that much about Avengers Academy. I could assume and piece together that it's a slight rip-off of the X-Men model of a school for super-powered teens, learning to make the best use of their powers with eventual plans to have them be actual Avengers. It's also an excuse for Marvel to have yet another comic with Avengers in it's title (Avengers, New Avengers, Secret Avengers, Avengers 1959, etc...) to catch the eye of movie-goers who are making huge success of Avengers films like Thor and Iron Man.

Avengers Academy #27 was a good super-hero book, and my beloved Runaways characters were handled very well. Their appearance didn't seemed forced or unnecessary, the characters voices and traits were to their proper form, and it made me really really wish that Marvel would give these characters another chance. I will buy a Runaways comic, I will buy action figures, I will buy a T-shirt, I will buy a lunch box. You make something and slap a Runaways logo on it, I will buy it Marvel!

There hasn't been a real comic convention in Ottawa for a long time. The state of them has been at an ever decreasing state, with local gatherings being increasingly squeezed out by sports cards and memorabilia. I'm pretty sure recent little con's that hockey card stuff has outnumbered comic book stuff by around 75%. There have been special guests as well, but that has also been fewer and more far in-between in recent years. All of which is a shame, since the city has a great geek culture and lots of folks who go to Montreal and Toronto to spend their monies and get their annual comic convention fix.

Finally it seems that our long sub-par convention nightmare is over with the announcement of the first annual (hopefully) Ottawa Comiccon. It's organized by the same folks who have organized the ever increasingly popular Montreal con over the past few years, has a bunch of actual big time geek worshiped celebrities, and some great comic artists on hand. It's only flaw is that it's way out in the middle of nowhere by the airport instead of in a nice central location like the OCC downtown, but that is only my own lazy complaint.

People I know in attendance include Marco Rudy (who worked on After the Cape with my friend Howard Wong and is currently New 52-ing Swamp Thing at DC), Tom Fowler (who's career accomplishments include drawing Jango Fett kill me), and Kelly Tindall (who's Archie Snow artwork graces my living room wall). In the not name-dropping and not friends of me category the guest list includes Darick Robertson (Transmetropolitan), Dale Eaglesham (Alpha Flight...they live in Ottawa) and Neal Adams (he drew Green Lantern / Green Arrow people! Only one of the most important super-hero story-arc's of all time).

We're also hoping to do some kind of Mayfair cross-over, show something geeky / comic con appropriate. Which shouldn't be too much of a stretch since we always have geek genre stuff anyhow. So get your Klingon costume ready and start counting down the days to May 12th and 13th.

After an afternoon of working at the Mayfair, stuck around to watch My Week With Marilyn. Enjoyed the film greatly, possibly even more so than all the other Oscar type movies from this season. It made me really want to watch the actual film that the movie was a behind-the-scenes tale about, and see some Marilyn films in general. Her body of work is a hole in my cinematic viewing history, pretty sure the only one that I've seen is Some Like It Hot.

Michelle Williams did an incredible job in her portrayal of one of the most famous women who has ever graced planet earth. She did just as an impressive job as she did in Brokeback Mountain, Blue Valentine or Shutter Island. Considering where her talents have justifiably taken her, it's a little staggering to remember that a decade or so ago she was the fourth tier character on a teen soap opera.

You've got two more chances to check out My Week With Marilyn at the Mayfair, 7pm on Monday March 19th and Tuesday the 21st. I know that it's really nice outside all of a sudden, but sitting in the dark watching a great movie is way better than enjoying the outside comfort of a beautiful post-winter day.