In Toronto to attend a wedding, and for the second time in as many days have dined at a very vegan friendly restaurant called Fresh. Went to two different locations, both were excellent, and I would like one to open in Ottawa post haste. Make it happen Fresh powers-that-be! I will give you money in exchange for tasty food!

Taking a break from reading while on a bus trek to Toronto, watched the series premiere of Boardwalk Empire. An episode of a gangster themed tv series on HBO directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Steve Buscemi was just as great as you might expect it would be. Again I lament that I don't have enough hours in the day or the free time in my life to just sit around for a few weeks or months to get caught up on all the tv viewing that I would like to partake in.

When you see a trailer for a movie that you've already seen, and it still gets you excited to see said movie, it's pretty safe to say that that is an awesome movie. For myself, currently that movie is Prometheus. We've been playing the excellent trailer for the film of late at the Mayfair, and I'll be going to see the movie for the second time this-evening. I rarely venture outside of the Mayfair for my movie watching, only time I do is when there is a free screening opportunity for a movie that I'm dieing to see. Prometheus was one of those films, and I will watch it for the second time on home turf tonight.

I thought Prometheus was great science-fiction. It was a risky endeavour for those involved to be sure, especially considering that it involved an acclaimed director going back to prequel-ize a beloved film that he directed over three decades ago. It was appealing to the die-hard Alien universe fan-base, and I'm pretty sure that it's just as enjoyable for someone to watch if they (have somehow) never heard of a Sigourney Weaver starring Alien picture. It makes me much more confident in the news that Ridley will soon be undertaking a similar venture with a new Bladerunner universe tale. There's nothing wrong with prequels or sequels or remakes or reboots...just take the care and effort to make them good. And this fiml, no matter it's re-hashed origins or basis in unoriginal beginnings, is quite simply very good.

Tonight at 7pm at the Mayfair we present the latest screening in our 80th anniversary celebration / decade countdown event. For the best of the 1960's we present the Oscar winning epic that is Lawrence of Arabia. Come out and watch the brilliance that is the performance of Peter O'Toole, and help us creep toward our goal of being able to afford a fancy new digital projection system and have the technology to be able to continue to screen movies into the new year and beyond.

As a footnote, Lawrence of Arabia is a very appropriate movie to catch before coming to see Prometheus (which we coincidently are screening the next two nights). Come and partake in one of the greatest cinematic epics ever made, then come and see an excellent piece of sci-fi that references it. Lawrence of Arabia is a classic, you'll be supporting the Mayfair, and as an extra bonus it will make you even more impressed with Michael Fassbender's android portrayal.

Today would've been Jack Kirby's 95th birthday. If I can slim down my over-all worship of the comic book medium down to one hero, it would be Jack. The imagination, quality, and staggering out-put that he managed over his career will never be equalled. Even though he hasn't been with us since 1994, there are still magazines and books that frequently print unpublished art.

I miss Jack Kirby, but am kinda glad that despite having read a ton of his work, I still have to get caught up with reading his entire library. If you thought that The Avengers movie was awesome, or think that Spider-man has a great costume, or have a special place in your heart for The Hulk (the list goes on endlessly)...you have the King of comics to thank for your geeky joy and entertainment.

On the drive home from the States today, finished reading Batman and Psychology. See, that is the level of the geekyness that I live by, when not reading comic books I read books about comic books. And in this case, a psychological exploration of the characters and mythology of the world of Batman.

There was a good chance that this book could have been a clinical bore or a pretentious collection of literary nonsense. The writer actually managed to pull off a very well assembled pop-culture read. Not sure if non-geeks would have any interest at all in the subject, but I actually found it of geek interest and real world educational.

What I particularly found of interest was that the writer managed to cover the very wide subject of the many different worlds of Batman. In the book there are segments covering the live action Batman's ranging from the campy Adam West Batman of the 1960's all the way to Christian Bale's dark slightly more real world vision of the character of today. It covers the usual oft referenced work like Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns, and writes in depth about Batman's beginning's to the current rebooted universe of The New 52.

It is somewhat a text-book, but of interest to anyone who enjoys the Batman lore. Not sure if it would be of interest to many other people, but I think it was written with a pretty specific audience fan-base in mind.

When I mentioned reading the book to a friend of mine they asked if the book was filled with blank pages and one that just said - Batman is crazy. The End. To a certain extent, Batman is of course crazy. Instead of becoming a cop or a lawyer or the mayor of Gotham, Bruce Wayne decided to dress up in a Bat costume and take the law into his own vigilante hands. The writer takes the stance that mane creators and fans and I take though. Is Batman crazy? Well, if he lived on our planet with our rules and our reality...yes. Luckily he lives in a world of crazed clowns, shape-shifting monsters, freeze guns, riddle crafting crooks, supermen and easily escapable insane asylums. So in his world, he's kind of normal.

Not so surprisingly, when staying in a hotel in the middle of nowhere in New York state, there aren't a ton of food eating options. When you are a finicky vegan, culinary options are even slimmer. Was happy that we stumbled on a Red Robin restaurant, which I had mistakenly thought only existed on the west coast. Last time I ate at one was on a visit to Vancouver in the late 90's.

Not only is it a lovely movie poster and flare filled restaurant with a Galaga game in the lobby, they also have a shockingly vegan accommodating menu for folks like me for an American burger chain. On top of that they not only have the somewhat common bonus of free drink refills, they also have free fries refills. Free french fry refills! You did not read that incorrectly...those crazy bastards at Red Robin will give you an endless supply of french fries. I wasn't even hungry anymore, I might have even felt a lil' woozy, but just in principal I ate an extra round. Imagine if all the burger joints gave you all the french fries you could eat...what a wonderful french fry world it would be.

Up bright and early and roadtrippin' down to New York State to help out on some weekend roller derbying with my RVRG posse. Strangely enough, both bouts are not open to the public, which seems very bizarre to me. Even if they are going down at 10am, I would at least make an attempt to sell some tickets and make a few bucks. I would imagine that at least a few hard core fans would show up. It will be weird to partake in roller derby that doesn't have music blaring and fans cheering.

Our final destination is Poughkeepsie...or somewhere in the vicinity of that city. For some reason Poughkeepsie is a very familiar city name, I think it was referenced in a Bugs Bunny cartoon or Abbot & Costello sketch or something like that.

I love these weird derby road trips, it gives me the chance to sit in the back of a car for hours on end and catch up a little bit on my neglected comic book reading. Besides for the general chaos that inevitably ensue from travelling to a different country with a bunch of roller derby girls, it also gives the opportunity to go to places that one would never actually travel to in a million years. No one in the history of the planet has gone there for vacation or to see the sites. That statement is nothing personal against the fine people of Poughkeepsie...but I'm sure that they would agree with me that that is true.

I got this t-shirt in the mail today from TeeFury. It is one of the bestest geek themed t-shirts that I have ever seen in all of my days. Jawas carrying off a Dalek!? Star Wars crossed over with Doctor Who!? Brilliant! I do not need more t-shirts, but your product is so reasonably priced and has such nifty original designs. Curse you TeeFury!

The alien invasion animated comedy Invader Zim is one of those shows that numerous friends have raved about, but I have somehow managed to miss out on. It came out in 2001, so at this point I am more than a decade late in jumping onto the cartoons bandwagon of worshippers. It is now on the Netflix though (or mayhaps has been for a while), and I at long last gotten around to watching the first episode. And, as I had been told, it was indeed frickin hilarious. Amongst other talent involved, Kid in the Hall Kevin McDonald played one of the aliens, and upon interweb research I have learned that TV's Frank from Mystery Science Theatre 3000 wrote for the show. Great, another awesome show to add to the list of awesome shows that I don't have the spare time to watch.

I haven't seen any of the Twilight movies. I am actually a little shocked that I haven't yet, since I have a pretty good track record of watching not just bad movies, but all movies. Somehow the blockbuster vampire werewolf teen soap opera franchise has manage to avoid my viewer-ship so far. One day I'll probably sit down and watch them all back to back, likely with friends, and afterwards I will be sad that I didn;t do something more productive and less painful with my day.

I am rather fascinated by Twilight from a pop-culture phenomena perspective. Especially of interest is that the books were popular...but not good, then the movies were popular...also not good. And everyone involved in the films production doesn't seem to hide the fact that the films are no good, and any fans of Twilight all also know that they are not good. Yet, they read and they watch and they care about if they are on team werewolf or vampire.

The powers-that-be in the film adaptations were rather evil brilliant in their realization that they didn't have to try so hard in making the film franchise good, because people were going to buy tickets no matter what. So they kept the budgets much lower than that of say a Marvel Comics or Lord of the Rings film, they made sure not to hire anyone too expensive to portray the characters, and they were sure to have lots of sponsorship tie-ins.

One of the actors who has found uncomfortable fame in his characterization of a sparkly dreamboat immortal undead is Robert Pattison. I have never seen the young super-star act in anything (or at least I have no memory of him, evidently he was in a Harry Potter movie). I cannot hold it against the guy for being in a horrible movie franchise any more than it can be held against a carpenter or plumber for taking a career making gig for sub-par employees. If you don't like the movies that's fine (and likely), but begrudging Pattison is along the same mindset of people being angry at bands who they think are sell-outs when the group gets successful. I've seen Pattison on a number of late night talk shows, and he seems like good people. He seems very conscious of the fact that the movies he is acting in are horrible, but he's not dismissive or unthankful about being in the position he has achieved.

The next two nights at 9:30pm we are screening Cosmopolis at the Mayfair. I'm looking forward to checking it out because I always appreciate an actor trying to break out of his type-casting mold, and I don't think director David Cronenberg would have given him the part undeservedly. If George Clooney can soldier on past his Batman & Robin turn, and Justin Timberlake can pull off a supporting performance in a hugely acclaimed Oscar winning film after having been a Mouseketeer and in a boy band, maybe there's hope that young Mr. Pattison won't have to be in soft-core teen horror romance films for the rest of his days.

We get hit with bad news so fast and hard now-a-days. So, when I turned on the Mayfair Twitters this-morning to write up the daily showtime postings, and there are posts from the likes of Michael Moore and Edgar Wright about Tony Scott...I feared the worst.

I love Tony Scott movies. He managed to have a unique style unto his own amongst main-stream Hollywood blockbusters. Beverly Hills Cop II is one of the best sequels ever, maybe even better than it's original. In the 90's I loved his fog-machine filled action / thrillers The Last Boyscout, Crimson Tide and The Fan. And after the turn of the century, I might be in the great minority of film-goers who enjoyed his kick-ass Denzel reunion with Man on Fire and then kind of loved the insanity that was Domino.

When not directing, he was a member of the Scott Free producing team with his big brother Ridley. They put out such diverse films as RKO 281, Cyrus, The A-Team, and Prometheus.

If I could only watch one Tony Scott movie for the rest of my life though, there is no hesitation in the choice that it would have to be True Romance. True Romance is a comic book geek Bonnie & Clyde romantic epic that showcases one of the most amazing ensemble of actors ever in a movie. And yes, it is my favourite Quentin movie, even though he didn't direct it. It also showcases a haunting Hans Zimmer score (again...one of my favourites), which will be in the back of my mind as I think about Tony as I'm sure he will be a topic of sad cinematic conversation the rest of the day.

I Am Comic (which I watched on the ole' Netflix) is a documentary tale of a once A-list stand-up comedian and his attempts to delve back into his once successful career. Interspersed around that plot-line are interviews with pretty much every successful comedian in the business...and that is not an exaggeration. The project features a wide variety of comedic talents including some of my favourites, like Sarah Silverman, Lewis Black, Louis CK, Jim Gaffigan and Chris Hardwick.

Although not the most ground-breaking of documentaries, it is an interesting look into the ongoing exhaustive life endangering battle that is the life of a stand-up comedian. The film is also about as low-budget and rough around the edges as the poster makes it to look, but in this form of movie-making sometimes all you really need is a camera and a mic and some interesting people to talk to.

I've heard some folks complain that there is nothing good on Netflix. These people must be even more incredibly lazy than the average couch-potato. Or maybe they don't understand that there are a library of offerings to browse through. I've got a list of like 50 things I want to watch, and I haven't even looked that hard...to be fair, one of those things is Cool As Ice with Vanilla Ice. Just because they have good offerings like I Am Comic doesn't mean I have over-all good taste.

Like any piece of entertainment put out to the masses that geeks consume, The New 52 from DC Comics has taken a lot of flack from comic book readers. Whether it be a series of books, tv shows or a movie franchise, geeks seem to love going to something and then tearing it apart...then buying more of the same thing and then complaining about the same thing some more. A comic store owner once told me that he had a few customers who had been buying X-Men books for years, even though they did nothing but talk about how much they hated X-Men books. They were collectors, at one point they were fans, so there was some form of obligation that they felt they had to just keep on buying.

I will never understand that. I bought X-Men comics when I was a kid. Then in my humble geek opinion, around when I was in high school an artist named Rob Liefeld started working on X books, things went to hell. Years later, my favourite writer wrote the flagship X title, and it was great. On his heels, Joss Whedon wrote some X-Men and shockingly enought I thought it was great too. Then I stopped reading because I didn't like them under their new creative teams and direction. I spent my money and comic book reading time elsewhere.

One of my favourites in the rebooted DC Comics universe is Batman and Robin, from writer Peter Tomasi and artist Patrick Gleason. Batman is on the verge of his 75th birthday, so trying to keep the character and his world interesting must be challenging to say the least. The ongoing twist to the Batman lore that this series focuses on is Batman as father to a young Robin born and trained to kill. A familiar character like Alfred Pennyworth in the grandfather role, Bruce Wayne and Batman as the unplanned parent, and Damien Wayne as the troubled punk-ass child who has a chance to be the greatest danger or maybe the greatest hero the world has ever known. I love the art and I love the story. I don't like the book just because I'm a Batman fan, that makes me a harsher critic at times to the mythology...I don't even like Chris Nolan's version of Batman (clearly I'm in the great minority with that opinion). This comic book is easily accessible, familiar to the batman mythos, and manages the near impossible task of truly adding a new building block to the lore in the form of Damien Wayne and his scowling, hooded Boy Wonder alter-ego.

Are all of the offerings in The New 52 worthwhile? No. If you like Community and 30 Rock on NBC though, I don't think it necessarily means that you'll enjoy fifty other programs on the channel. I think that the publisher is admirable in trying something new, in employing a diverse batch of creators, and not being afraid to take some chances. Now they just gotta explain how Batman went through so many Robin's so quickly.

It's time for another round of roller derby tomorrow night in Ottawa, this time at the Brewer Arena, located at 210 Hopewell Avenue. All the pertinent information is conveniently listed in the Rideau Valley Roller Girl image above this text! If you have plans tomorrow night, cancel them, this will be more fun than whatever is on your agenda.

Depending on your religious leanings, We Have A Pope might leave you quite offended. I found the comedic drama of a film to be a very well crafted script featuring some impressive performances, good laughs and surprising twists. I'm not religious though, so I have no fear of a spiteful god striking me down for watching a story that questions the hierarchy and traditions of organized religion. I wasn't the only one left impressed by the film: it was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, won a Golden Globe for Best Film in Italy, and got a batch of awards from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists.

Tonight is your last chance to see the multiple award winning festival favourite We Have a Pope, at the Mayfair at 7:00pm.

My friend Tom Fowler, the talented comic book artist who drew me being killed by Jango Fett in a Star Wars comic, has a new book released today. If you're in Ottawa, swing by the Silver Snail and pick up the book and get it autographed. If you live elsewhere, go buy it and read it in an equally enjoyable unsigned version. I'm looking forward to checking out his latest effort, and am kicking myself that I didn't think to ask Tom to draw Hulk smashing me.

Tonight at 6:30pm, right before we pack the theatre with roller derby girls for the doc Derby Baby, the Mayfair screens The Swarm. What is The Swarm you ask? Why, it's only a 70's disaster movie starring Michael Caine (who just happens to be my favourite actor) in a battle against killer bees. That's right...awesome cinematic perfection. Remember...this is more than a movie. It's a prediction!

Tomorrow night at 9:00pm the Rideau Valley Roller Girls, long time Mayfair friends, present the new documentary Derby Baby. The film explores not so much the normal aspect of fill-in-the-blank job by day kick-ass derby girl by night aspect that has pretty much been done to death, but delves into where the sport is now and what the future holds.

The doc itself is akin to the DIY-ness of Roller Derby culture as it received financial help thanks to Kickstarter fundraising and old fashioned tourings of the film. Hence tomorrow night's screening which comes thanks to a RVRG donation to the filmmaker's cause. If a great Juliette Lewis narrated doc and a theatre full of derby girls isn't enough for you, we will also be licensed for alcohol for the night. What more could you possibly want in an evening out!?

Experience a compelling story of love, addiction and rink rash at the Mayfair on September 14th at 9:00pm.

As you might guess, a film that takes claim as the most violent movie ever made and likes to remind you that it's banned in a whopping 31 countries is not for everyone. Most people can't even name 31 countries, much less be banned in that many.

The immensely controversial exploitation film, also known as Make Them Die Slowly, was directed by shlock-master Umberto Lenzi, who also brought to the screen other such cannibalistic cinematic fare the likes of Eaten Alive! and Nightmare City.

For those who couldn't stay up late for a midnight movie on Friday and enjoy being offended at a slightly more reasonable hour, tonight is your encore presentation chance to Grindhouse it up with us at the Mayfair at 8:15pm.