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.

At first glance, a movie like Spring Breakers might seem like pure exploitation cinema. And it is. The story of three trouble-making girls and one religious do-gooder friend and their spring break adventures features gratuitous nudity, graphic sex, bad morals, drug use and gun filled brutal violence. It also happens to be an enthralling drama, an exciting crime story, and has moments of clever laugh out loud comedy. The casting of some Disney teen idol actresses gets beyond the publicity gaining gimmick and shows off the all four of the quartet have some actual acting chops. And if the exploits of girls in the midst of summer fun criminality wasn't enough for you, James Franco also is on hand to steal the show as a charismatic wrapping drug kingpin by the name of alien. I dare say that it might even stand shoulder to shoulder with other similar genre motion pictures the like of Trainspotting and Reservoir Dogs.

Spring Breakers screens at the Mayfair tonight at 9:15pm with follow-up shows the next four evenings.

There's a spoiler-iffic reveal so great in Angel & Faith #22 that it reminded me of the good ole' days of commercial break cliff-hangers that held me in such entertained rapt attention back when Angel was a teevee series. I actually gasped in surprise. Much like when Angel gained a spin-off show from Buffy, I still am a fan of both, but Angel & Faith has been a better comic right from the first issues debut. Writer Christos Gage has done a fine job at the helm of the series under the creative supervision of mastermind and executive producer Joss Whedon, along with some great artwork from break-out talent Rebekah Isaacs. We're never going to get more live-action adventures featuring the vampire with a soul, thankfully we have comic books to fill the vampireless void.

The only thing I like more than a good western story is a good weird western story (like Bubba Ho-Tep...or something featuring dinosaurs or ghosts...or maybe dinosaur ghosts). All Star Western # 20 features the books usual bounty hunter star Jonah Hex in a team-up adventure with lost in time partially amnesiac super-hero Booster Gold. Long time Jonah Hex scribes deliver another entertaining western tale, this one with a sci fi twist, and continue to produce maybe the best comic from DC's New 52.

I have not sen The Rep as of yet (subtitled: A Documentary about Independent, Repertory, Cinemas), but I have to say that it is by far one of the catchiest movie posters I've sen in a very long time. I am looking forward to this new Canadian doc, even though I have a feeling that it will have a lot of footage of closed down movie theatres and that that will make me sad.

The Rep makes its Ottawa Premiere at the Mayfair on Wednesday May 29th at 9:15pm and Thursday May 30th at 9:30pm. It may end up as a bit of a sorrowful tale, but you can take pride that you will be both supporting an indie movie while in an indie theatre by watching it with us.

I am the perfect age to have been a die hard Nirvana fan, the band's breakthrough album was released while I was in high school. I was on hand for the rock n roll revolution that the Seattle band instigated, the copy-cat expensive fashion rip-off's, the Weird Al cover, the movie Singles, and everything else that spun out from the grungy, dimly lit,lyrically garbled high school gym set music video. I remember standing at the bus stop and being hit with the information that Kurt Cobain had committed suicide.

Luckily, the end of Nirvana was not the end of drummer Dave Grohl. He proved do have even more musical skills than that of a drummer when his Foo Fighters album was released, which although under the guise of a band was performed 100% by Grohl. Over the years, on top of putting together a number of Foo albums with an actual band backing him, he also filled up his schedule playing with bands the like of Queens of the Stone Age and Tenacious D, and participating in the music side of the pre-fame Beatles film Backbeat. He can also can be spotted cameo style in an episode of The X-Files or the most recent Muppet movie.

His latest project in a seemingly always packed schedule is taking up directorial reigns for the movie Sound City. The documentary focuses on a very special sound board from a gone extinct Californian recording studio that had everyone from Fleetwood Mac to Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers to (of course) Nirvana record on it. The doc covers both rock n roll history that has surrounded the device, and explores the evolution of the technology and changes to music production (very akin to film production and presentation that has effected the Mayfair over the past couple years). And of course it is filled with a whole bunch of amazing music...the highlight being a reunion of the surviving members of Nirvana with none other than Paul McCartney filling in on vocals.

Sound City has a couple more screenings at the Mayfair, tonight (Monday May 27th) at 9:30pm and Tuesday May 28th at 9:15pm

No time to blog! The glorious day is finally here! If you call me I won't pick up the phone. If my doorbell rings I will not get up off the couch to answer it. We live in an age of miracle and wonder. Time to marathon through as many episodes of Arrested Development season four as possible before the rest of life gets in the way. Cue the theme song and some Ron Howard narration!

The more I listen to Doug Benson do his Bane impersonation on Doug Loves Movies, the more I realize that I think the whole Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy is just a mess. Glass half full, at least the horrible vocal choice made by Tom Hardy (who I otherwise think is an amazing actor) has lead to Doug Benson movie geek hilarity and the excellent movie quote game - Bane or Lincoln. A game in which you try to deduce whether a line of dialog is from a super villain or a U.S. president is shockingly difficult. Well, if I have similar feelings about Man of Steel, at least it will likely lead to some good material for the DLM podcast.

Christine is my favourite kind of horror movie. It doesn't over-explain, it doesn't reveal the secret origins of the monster, it doesn't bother with scientific realism in its storytelling. What we have here is a simple story about an evil car. In other hands that might've turned out rather silly, but from the Stephen King book and under John Carpenter's direction it packages into a very entertaining modern horror classic. It's on of those strange examples of a villain-centric tales where you find yourself cheering for the bad guy. Weirder still in this case since that character happens to be a car.

I hadn't seen the movie for a very long time. In fact, I'm pretty sure the only time that I've seen it was on VHS in all of it's ingloriously low visual quality and chopped up pan-and-scan sub-par presentation style. So, to see it now in glorious re-mastered DCP style, with a crisp colourful image and sharp quality sound was just great. Christine with her bright red paint job and shiny chrome attachments (I'm not a car guy...I can't give you specifics) looked glorious, and the soundtrack of classic rock and roll was perfectly crisp and clear. I know that a number of traditionalists lament the extinction of film, but presentations like this one make me confident that the digital future is just fine.

Christine rolls onto the Mayfair screen tonight (Friday May 24th at 11:30pm) and Sunday May 26th at 8:30pm.

This upcoming Saturday night (May 25th) marks the 2013 home opener for the Rideau Valley Roller Girls. Canada's number one home team, the RVRG Slaughter Daughters take on the KDG Disloyalists from Kingston. Then the RVRG Riot Squad battle home town rivals CCDD Dolly Rogers.

Advance tickets are $12, or $15 at the door...for more information check out the Rideau Valley Roller Girls site. It is the only sport that matters.

This slipped by me, but DC Comics has recently come to their senses and returned Power Girl to her original costume. Well, sort of...it has all those New 52 lines all over the place, but it's close enough. Much nicer than the costume that she was put into since the universe re-booted. Now, if the writing in the World's Finest comic would improve as well, I just might go back to checking out the adventures of one of my favourite characters. Until then I'll just go back and read the Justice League comics and Amanda Conner solo-book issues. I promise that I like the character for more than just the revealing costume. Put her in pants and a shirt without a big hole cut out of it and I would still think she was cool. I swear.

Tomorrow night the Rideau Valley Roller Girls present what is sure to be a modern day Canadian cult classic, The Burlesque Assassins! This retro 1950's era piece of cinematic action and adventure features beautiful and deadly heroes vs the evils of cold war communism. It is playing for one night only, and I guarantee that it will be more fun than any playoff hockey game that might be going on at the exact same time. Plus, the theatre will be filled with actual burlesque and derby girls.

The Burlesque Assassins screens tomorrow (Wednesday May 22) at 8:45pm at the Mayfair.