Are you ready to be angry at the people that run the world and frustrated at the state that society and the environment is in? Then the new documentary Greedy Lying Bastards is perfect documentary for you. Join us at the Mayfair tonight at 9:00pm, tomorrow at 8:30pm, Wednesday July 24th at 9:00pm and Thursday July 25th at 9:30pm. Unless you work for Fox News, or run an oil company, or are possibly Lex Luthor, get ready to be informed, educated and furious.

Run from the evil scary monkey! Mirror Comics released this here terrifying teaser image from the upcoming comic book one-shot Zomkeys. This horrifying little critter comes from a book written by me, drawn by Barb Felix and coloured by Brianna Parker. It will be out in time for Halloween, and you can be sure that I will be talking about it endlessly in hopes of convincing you to buy a copy or two or fifty for your comic book collection.

Tomorrow night (Friday July 19th at 7:30pm) the Rideau Valley Roller Girls invade city hall for an inter-league exhibition game happening outside on the front lawn of city hall. This will mark the first ever outdoors roller derby game in the history of our fine city, and best of all is that it's absolutely free. Th mayor himself will even be on hand to start the game and blow the first whistle.

Then if that weren't enough roller derby excitement for your weekend, Saturday July 20th at 5:30pm brings a double header of bouts to the Barbara Ann Scott Arena, located at 2250 Torquay Avenue. Tickets are a mere $15 at the door to see the RVRG Slaughter Daughters take on Toronto's Bay Street Bruisers and the RVRG Riot Squad battle London's Timber Rollers. What other sport is on now? Baseball? Pfft...roller derby could beat up baseball with both arms tied behind its back.

This Saturday July 20th there is no better way to spend your afternoon than at the Mayfair for some time travelling adventure with the Back to the Future Trilogy: Back to the Future at 11:30am, Back to the Future II at 1:45pm and Back to the Future III at 4:00pm. We even have a flux capacitor on hand in the lobby just in case we manage to get the theatre up to 88 miles per hour.

I've long been in the favour of more stylized or cartoon-y looking comic books vs photo-realism art work. It's not a brand new release, but I just read the Spider-Woman: Agent of SWORD collection, and I was greatly reminded of this. At first glance, Alex Maleev's artwork is very pretty. The more I look at it though, the more I think it looks lifeless, posed and traced. I find that the characters seem like they are cut and paste in front of photographic cityscape backgrounds or plunked into locations like a sticker into a colouring book page location. I find it all very distracting as I read through the story.

Since this Spider-Woman work is accomplished with directing models into poses and many of the backgrounds are digital references, it might have a sense of realism, but it lacks life and soul. I guess I'm a traditionalist. I like a comic book that looks like a comic book and not stills from a live action movie. Also, I kinda just noticed how blatantly offensive the triangles on her costume are.

Tonight I got to point a follow-spotlight towards living legend BB King on the final night of Blues Fest. Such an amazing gig gets me a bit emotional and choked up because Mr King was my dad's favourite musician of all time.

I went to see Mr King perform once with my dad, well over twenty years ago, and my dad got to see him again in Ottawa one time while I was out at school in Vancouver. He phoned me after the concert as excited as a kid on Christmas morn. He had overheard someone with a backstage pass saying that they were leaving, struck up a conversation, was kindly given the pass, and got to go met BB King. He got to have an actual conversation with his hero, and was given a bunch of personalized autographed pictures (the one written to me I of course still have framed).

My dad isn't with us anymore, but I smile at the thought that if he were I would have got him into the show tonight and h would have been ecstatic. And that while I was working, he probably would have wandered off, gotten himself back stage, and met up with his hero BB King again.

The last couple of night, the Mayfair has screened the Ottawa premiere A Band Called Death, the new documentary from Drafthouse Films. We've had a fine run of quality music themed doc's, they seem to be a real fan favourite with our patrons. Over the past few years we've had great numbers come out for such titles as It Might Get Loud, The White Strips Under Great White Northern Lights, Shut Up and Play the Hits, and Searching for Sugar Man. A Band Called Death is a worthy addition to that impressive collection of rock n roll doc's.

The movie tells the tale of three teenage brothers in the early 1970's who formed a spare bedroom garage-band. They annoyed the neighbours, played a few small-time local gigs, and even pressed a single in hopes of getting their music heard and signed to a record label. Their hopes of professional musicianship, fame and fortune hit a wall when the leader of the band refused to change their band's name from Death.

What follows is a decades long truth-stranger-than-fiction epic about the punk band legends that never were that is all at once heart-breaking, hilarious, inspirational, and filled with great real-life characters. Even if you aren't a fan of punk music, I cannot recommend this movie enough.

If you are in Ottawa, please join us at the Mayfair on Wednesday July 17th or Thursday July 18th at 9:15pm for A Band Called Death. If not, search out the film which will be making it's rounds and if you are lucky be playing soon at a theatre near you. Be ready to become a fan of a band called Death.

The cover for a new Spidey mini-series drawn by my friend Marco Rudy hit the interwebs today. For those who hate the current Superior Spidey story-arc, not to worry...this story is a good ole' fashioned Peter Parker adventure. It guarantees to look awesome.

One last Weezer post. I'm operating the follow-spotlight on the far left. A great way to watch your favourite band. I even got paid!

I got to help unpack, put together, and then put that W back onto a truck. I am one degree of separation away from the Weezer logo.

I love Weezer. I think that it's pretty safe to say that they are my favourite band. Tonight I got to wear my Sheezer shirt while pointing a follow-spotlight at guitarist Brian Bell as Weezer performed at Blues Fest. I got to have a nice conversation with their lighting director who had never heard of Sheezer before, and was now excited to look them up. As he assigned which crew member was to be on which band member, I got to smirk and assure him that I already knew their names. Even though I had to concentrate on the task at hand, I enjoyed the night greatly. Weezer knows how to put on a show. Afterward I was thanked for doing a good job, and he handed me the set list. A very nice souvenir that I will frame and add to the wall next to the last set list from the last show they did in Ottawa. I didn't get to help hold up an outhouse as lead singer Rivers climbed it and sung from its roof like I did a couple years ago...it was none the less still a greatly memorable night of rock n roll.

I'm always behind on my reading, so a few weeks late I will recommend All Star Western featuring Jonah Hex #21. Time travelling super-hero Booster Gold (another of my pre-New 52 favourite characters) was an unexpected guest star in the western comic in the past couple issues. Fantastical tales are nothing new to the character or world of Jonah Hex. Sometimes his stories are straight guns a blazing westerns, but he has bumped into vampires and ghosts and masked men along his travels. He has even traveled to a post-apocalyptic future in the 1980's series Hex.

This issue brings this incarnation of Jonah into present day for the first time. He lands in Gotham City and has a run in with one of the Batman Incorporated soldiers, Bat Wing. I admit that I loved the simplicity of the previous run of Jonah Hex tales a bit more then these ones. They had this great run of one issue stories featuring a rotating talent base of artists. The same writers are on board for this New 52 version of the character, which takes a more of an ongoing issue to issue continuity story-line to use. Some might not appreciate their favourite bounty hunter being removed from the past and being placed him into the centre of the DC Universe present day prime. I look at it the same way as I do with all the things that make comic geeks angry when there's a major change. These characters are really old, these characters have appeared in hundreds of comics, to keep things interesting you have to toss curveballs at these characters. It doesn't always work, but it often makes for interesting and fun new stories. Especially in mainstream comics, fun seems to be the one thing that is often missing. And just like Superman's death, Batman's broken back and Wolverine's lack of adamantium...I'm sure everything will be back to normal and Jonah will be back in the wild west before you know it. Don't fear change. Read comics.

I should be sent one of these buttons. I have now failed the Pepsi Challenge on three different occasions in three different decades. I'll never get to be a Pepsi spokesperson at this rate.

I may not seem the mold of their target audience at first glance, but I love the Wu-Tang Clan. If you are familiar with their library though, you know that there are a ton of references to all manner of geeky things ranging from Transformers to super-hero's to kung-fu movie sampling. So maybe it really isn't all that shocking that I am a fan. They were at Blues Fest this-afternoon, glad to be able to cross them off my concert bucket list. And yes, they even performed my favourite Wu-Tang song, "Shame on a N..."(I exchange the last word of the song title with Ninja if I'm singing along...as not to offend).

The best part about having a day job which involves stuff like being on the lighting crew for events like Blues Fest is getting paid to be introduced to a bunch of new music. This event in particular is one of the largest concert series in North America, located here in Ottawa, running from July 4th to 14th and hosting hundreds of musicians (I don't think that that is an exaggeration). Especially in the past few years, I listen to very little in the way of music. I spend all my auditory intake of arts and culture listening to podcasts and audiobooks.

Last night I got to point lights at the Irish American band Flogging Molly. Like many band of this sub-genre, they seemed to have two offerings, somber slow paced bar music and foot stomping fast paced bar music. They were a great amount of fun, there was a lot of green attire and many Irish flags flying. If you ever have the opportunity, I recommend seeing them in a live setting very much. Look out for mosh pits.

Hmm...maybe today's big hockey news shouldn't have been that much of a surprise considering the above photographic evidence of Alfie's connection to the Detroit organization.

I haven't rally been a true hockey fan for what seems like quite sometime now. It's not due to bandwagon jumping because the team for my home city hasn't won a championship, or because in recent years they've gone from contenders to an organization the misses the playoffs or fights to get in to post season contention each year. I was loyal enough that stats didn't really matter to me. I remained a Gretzky fan right through St Louis and to the farewell tour in New York that didn't go quite as well as everyone thought they might.

No...I guess I just found myself too busy for hockey. I would still go to games if free tickets fell in my lap (which happens every so often), and I have a birthday tradition with my uncle that continues, but otherwise I am very much out of the loop as to the ins and outs of the game. Whether that was that I became intertwined in the much more awesome sport of roller derby, or just because my nights became much more packed with going to movies at the Mayfair all the time. The more I hear non-sports fan comedians who I listen to (the like of John Hodgman or Chris Hardwick) poke fun at sports, the more I realized that I just couldn't raise up the spirits to care about them all that much anymore.

I was on my way to the vet for a quick check-up for the puppy thismorning when my friend told me the news. I was shockingly saddened and in a short state of disbelief considering that I haven't really followed hockey in four seasons or so. Alfie jumping ship to Detroit still kind of took me aback and made me loose my faith in the universe a lil bit. To be fair, Alfie really did nothing wrong. His contract was up, he's not breaking any rules or throwing fits or acting in any kind of underhanded manner (which athletes often partake in). I would have bet it all that he would have spent his whole career in Ottawa though. Now, instead of a noble and unprecedented run with a single team, he's off to try and get his name on a Stanley Cup in Detroit. Cheering for millionaires playing a children's game just doesn't seem all that appealing to me anymore. With the abandonment of my one time beloved captain, I do think this means that I officially don't care about hockey at all anymore.

Happy fireworks day to our American friends South of the Canadian border. Sure much of your country might be in shambles and a Mad Max-ian post apocalyptic wasteland is surely imminent...but at least we can all be distracted slightly from life's troubles by expensive things blowing up.

Another indie horror spotlight upcoming at the Mayfair, prepare yourselves for the terror of The Frankenstein Theory, as presented by our friends at ZombieInfo.com. Find out if Mary Shelley's classic and frequently reimagined novel was indeed based in fact, Saturday July 6 at 10:45pm, Wednesday the 10th and Thursday the 11th at 9:00pm

OttawaHorror.com presents the Rue Morgue Cinema film The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh at the Mayfair on July 3rd and 4th at 9:15pm. Clive Barker praised the film as "Magnificent." and also said that "This film has no precedent."...and he knows a lil' something about horror stories.

Happy Canada Day from me and my favourite home-town super hero team.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This week at the Mayfair we have a very different cinematic double dose of Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell. Sam Raimi takes on the directorial reigns of the latest step into L. Frank Baum's fantastical universe in Oz: The Great and Powerful. Alas, Bruce does not play the Tin Man or Cowardly Lion, but he does show up in a fun cameo.

Then up is the latest installment in the Evil Dead franchise, as produced by Sam and Bruce (along with their frequent collaborator Rob Tapert). It was actually produced by them too, not one of those fake producing titles like Stan lee on the Marvel movies. The film has been tagged as a re-make or a re-boot, but it's really more of another horrific tale set around the same location and unfortunate chain of events. It could almost be called Evil Dead: The Next Generation if not for Hollywood's love of simplicity in titles now-a-days.

Oz screens Tuesday June 11th at 7:00pm and Evil Dead on Thursday June 13th at 9:00pm. For a truly rare and interesting genre shift of a cinematic Sam and Bruce experience, come out on Wednesday the 12th for the family friendly Oz at 7:00pm and the wonderfully terrifying Evil Dead at 9:45pm. It will indeed be groovy.

A friend of mine lent me a big stack of 3rd generation Blue Beetle trade-paperbacks to read. The Jaime Reyes incarnation is one of her favourite characters, his predecessor Ted Kord is one of mine. I ignored the latest version of the character for years, was angry of his existence, and never gave him a chance. I loved the 2nd generation Blue Beetle very much, and after his untimely gun-shot to the head demise I really had no interest in reading an outer-space themed re-boot of my favourite member of the Justice League of my youth.

Especially since this version of Blue Beetle was co-created by Keith Giffen, one of my favourite writers (and co-writer of many of my favourite Blue Beetle tales of all time), it's especially amazing that I gave this series a cold shoulder. The story picks up in a very Kyle Rayner / Green Lantern fashion, with a young man being in the wrong place at the wrong time and stumbling into the life of a super-hero. And because Jaime is a high school student with all the everyday problems of youth mixed with super-heroics, there's also a bit of an early Peter Parker / Spidey vibe.

I fell in love with the character and his family, which they wisely intertwined into the history of the character's legacy that came before. He hangs out with the grand-daughter of the original Blue Beetle, looks up to Ted Kord with much hero-worship (one can even spot a WWTKD banner posted on Jaime's wall), and starts up friendships with Ted's former JLA team-mates.

I have learned of and been reminded of a couple of valuable lessons. Do not fear change and give things a chance. Maybe I should give some multi-coloured head-band TMNT comics a shot now too?

Today we departed the fine city of Boston after a much too short of a visit. New York gets credit as being the greatest city in the U.S., but I think thy might have some competition for that title. The horror that happened during their recent marathon can't help but be on ones mind, and I can't imagine how anyone could want to cause harm to such an amazing place filled with such lovely folks (which is the confusion that everyone feels I'm sure). They picked themselves up from that terrible event, the city did not shut down, the people did not hide in their homes, and they continued to live on proudly proclaiming that they are Boston Strong. I four short days the people of Boston were friendly and helpful and chatty and completely welcoming. I will miss the city and look forward to visiting it again.

It was a rain soaked day in the city of Boston. We braved the bad weather in between sprints between the dry safety of public transit and museums. It was an overwhelming day of history, science and culture as we hit not one but three museums around the city. We saw dinosaurs, we saw great pieces of art, we saw a big Tesla coil that could play Darth Vader's march with lightning Sith like bolts of electricity.

Speaking of Star Wars music...we partook in the instigation of the trip and capped off our day by attending the Boston Symphony Orchestra again, this time conducted by John Williams. Mr Williams is a lovely, humble, quiet spoken gentleman with a clear love of his motion picture orchestration career. I figured that I would get choked up at some point in the evening, and it hit as soon as he walked out onto the stage. He has written many of the greatest movie scores of all time after all, including all of those Star Wars movies that I love so much.

It was an interesting selection of musical choices, including Hook, TinTin, Lincoln and a selection from a pre-Jaws fame tevee series called The Cowboys. The highlight amongst a program of highlights was when they screened the River Phoenix young Indy scene from The Last Crusade, without a musical score. Mr Williams did a commentary over the clip, explaining how he might take notes or discuss what was needed with Spielberg. Then he and his orchestra played the full score over the re-played scene. If I learned one thing tonight, it's that Boston loves John Williams. I don't think I've ever been part of such an enormous introductory or end of night ovation for a performer. It squarely falls under once in a lifetime experience for sure. And yes, he did confirm that he is getting ready to compose some new Star Wars music.

I am not a fan of baseball. Every so often when I am visiting the States, I have a tourist and a when-in-Rome kinda' attitude on the subject, and I go and check out a game. I always have a good time in doing so, not so good as to want to partake in watching more than one game every every seven or eight years, but a good time none-the-less. Tonight we went to a Red Sox game (is it just me or is Red Sox one of the weirdest name and logo in all of sports?).

Baseball as a sport takes a lot of flack from non-believers. It takes criticism for being too long, too boring, and too concerned with the most minute of uninteresting statistical pieces of trivia. I agree with all of those thoughts. I also find the strange conundrum that despite my disinterest in the sport, I don't think I've ever seen a baseball movie that I didn't like. The thought of watching a whole game on teevee seems intensely unappealing to me though. That's why taking a whole bunch of games and condensing them into two hours of entertainment (like thy did in Moneyball or Bull Durham or Major League or any other baseball movie) seems to be for the best.

The catch with being at a live game is that you notice that even the most die hard of a fan doesn't seem to be all that interested in the game a whole lot of the time. There's more concern with catching peanuts or participating in a wave or singing Sweet Caroline, the slow paced events on the field seem secondary to the theatrics and traditions going on around the stadium. I was most excited that our collector's cup, containing what would be an illegal amount of cola in some cities, had Carl Yastrzemski's name on it. To be honest, I didn't even know that Carl played for Boston and I couldn't recount any of his accomplishments to you. I can tell you though that he was referenced in a Simpsons episode when Milhouse wanted a card that featured the player with big sideburns.

We walked off the street amongst a giant crowd of tens of thousands and got a pair of cheap tickets in the standing room only section. We were sneaky enough to grab a couple of nearby folding chairs, and before the end of the game went up to actual seats. The baseball stadium surroundings and the fans were great, and the game wrapped up in true movie moment fashion. 3 - 3 tie, bottom of the ninth, the super-star fan-favourite player gets a home run to win the game. Then after running the bases he jumps into a crowd of awaiting team-mates and rips off his tam jersey to reveal a Boston Strong shirt. The crowd goes wild and we all head for the subway.

It's no wonder that people love the city of Boston. Sure, the subway cars give out an ear piercing screeching wail and sound like they are about to derail at any second, but otherwise it's a great place. We hit daylight from the subway tunnels to be surrounded by wonderful architecture, kind residents asking if we needed directions, and food trucks offering up all kinds of vegan delicacies.

Th big event today was attending the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and I'm pretty sure that there is no nicer place to partake in being an audience member listening to live music. The place has a great mix of commoner's and the super rich, all melded together with Bostonian pride. All you have to do is flip through the evening's program to see how many million dollar plus donations were made to the theatre to get an idea of the bank account heights of many of the patrons in attendance. There were a lot of the rich elite, but also families and students and people getting to the event via the subway.

The theatre had an interesting vibe of classical artistry and the high-brow community, yet was laid back enough to have an audience that responds to a greeting from the conductor, has servers delivering drinks, and a candy bar. The ushers all war American flag bow-ties,and it's clear that they are experts in and proud of their profession. And a lil' touch that I really liked is that every one in the audience dressed up for the occasion, a lil' bit of formalism that I find people have given up on now-a-days when they attend the orchestra.

Tonight's program was a collection of Pixar scores with big screen movie-clip accompaniment. I will leave alone my disappointment and dislike of the two Cars movies, and focus on the rest of their amazing library of animated motion pictures. I love Pixar's output, from Toy Story all the way through Brave (...except for Cars, but I just pretend those don't count). The scores for the films are just as impressive as the scripts, animation or actor's performances are throughout. I think putting on these kind of pop-culture crossover nights are great ways to trick people to attend a live event, and best case scenario leads to interest in checking out various other offerings from a symphony. If you don't get choked up on a night like this while listening to / watching excerpts from Up or Wall E, you are a cold heartless automaton indeed.

Got some money exchanged, all packed, passport will not be forgotten, all ready for the trip to Boston tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing the shrine to Matt and Ben, amongst other historical and cultural landmarks.

Matt Smith is leaving Doctor Who, which will usher in a regeneration of the character and a twelfth actor stepping in to the role. I understand that being Doctor Who is a lot of work and that and actor might want to explore different roles, I none-the-less have a hard time wrapping my mind around how someone could walk away from a gig like this one. It's a pretty bad average when you consider that there's been a different Doctor about every 4.5 years over the 50 year run. Of course there's countless years of time travel between televised adventures that we aren't privy to.

Leaving on top vs overstaying your welcome is a tough balance to maintain when in a situation like this I can imagine, plus those Brit's have no fear in keeping projects shorter instead of running a concept into the ground. I will still be very sad to see Matt go. Though I was also quite devastated to see the tenth Doctor go, and things have turned out just fine in his absence. I was ready to give up on Doctor Who after the departure of David Tennant, I think I've gained more of an over-all appreciation of the legacy since then though. Even though it has been spoilered for usall, I can pretty much guarantee the shedding of a geeky tear when the current Doctor dies and the new one is revealed.

We opened up the Mayfair yesterday and this-afternoon for Ottawa's annual Door's Open event. Over the weekend, thousands of participants could explore landmarks, churches, businesses, buildings, houses, and all sorts of interesting architecture and hidden pieces of local history. There was a thought that folks might not be too interested in such a thing at the Mayfair since they could always come and check out the theatre while seeing a movie. We happily stood corrected on that thought.

Over the two days we showed off our pride and joy to 600 interested Ottawa residents. We had points of interest mapped out throughout the theatre, ranging from the stain glass windows, to an 80 year old seat, to an Alien. The real star attraction without a doubt was the tour of the projection booth. People love seeing behind the scenes of the movie presentation magic. So, for an extremely long line of inquisitive fans of cinema, I showed off our classic 35mm and shiny new DCP projectors for half a dozen or so at the time (it's pretty packed quarters in there). There were many a question, and to a person everyone seemed quite fascinated in how movies make it from production to the bi screen.

If you ever want a bit of an ego boost, co-own a theatre and then show it off to a bunch of compliment giving residents whoa are all thankful that the Mayfair is still there instead of a chain store or a parking lot taking its place.

Much delayed in mentioning this, but the second issue of Brian K Vaughan and Marcos Martin's digital only comic book series The Private Eye is currently available. The creators promise that this series will never be available on paper, so the only way to read and support this series is to do so via the interwebs (and you can pay whatever you want...one penny or a hundred bucks or whatever you see fit). I highly recommend that you do so.