We did it! My New Year's resolution at the end of 2011 was to blog daily. There was no distinct theme, except for it being written by me. I enjoy having a self imposed assignment, and an excuse to undertake the chore of writing on a frequent basis. I also find that keeping on top of the practice of writing in any form keep the mind and typing fingers sharp for other assignments.

Foolishly, I think I am going to keep up with the daily blog, if anything I might just aim for shorter entries at times. The blog has been going well and has garnered some nice response from folks, and has even managed to get some films and books sent my way for review purposes, now if I could only trick someone into paying me for doing such things. Between the blog and various social media writings on behalf of the Mayfair Theatre, I find that that often takes up what normal humans might consider the same amount of hours as an average work day.

I also have some comic book and movie script stuff I want to get underway, so mayhaps a bit more work on that stuff and a bit fewer over-all annual hours put towards interweb writings. Thank you for reading, see you in the far off future that is 2013.

I finished reading another of my Christmas gift books: Father Gaetano's Puppet Catechism. The novella comes from Hellboy mastermind Mike Mignola and his frequent collaborator Christopher Golden, it tells the tale of a young priest and his first post World War II assignment at a church / orphanage. That would be an interesting enough of a story, even without the creepy haunted puppets, which of course this book has.

The other day a friend asked via the Facebook what my favourite book of the year was, for the non-comic book genre, this one is it.

A black and white stop-motion animation movie directed by Tim Burton based upon his own cult classic live-action short is reason enough for any movie geek to be excited. When it garners great praise, looks beautiful, is a lot of fun, has a lot of heart, and seems to be a step back to quality form from the director...that's even better. If you see it at the Mayfair and you can bring your dog along with you to enjoy the movie going experience, well that is just awesome!

Join us tomorrow for a Bring-your-Doggie matinee of Frankenweenie, Sunday December 30th at 2:30pm, only at the Mayfair. A theatre full of dogs watching a family friendly Disney horror movie on a snowy Sunday afternoon...what could possibly go wrong!? Please leave kitties at home, we'll try a kitty matinee some other time.

Finished reading / looking at one of my awesome Christmas gift books: DC Comics - The Sequential Art of Amanda Conner. I think that Amanda is the bestest comic artist working today. If you like comic books and aren't familiar with her work I suggest that you quickly correct that. May I suggest Power Girl? If you read Amanda Conner's Power Girl and do not like it, do not tell me, I will think that you are a fool.

The Master is one of those completely polarizing kind of movies. A good friend of mine thought it was completely boring, I thought it was intense and I was completely enthralled. I admit that I walked into this as a giant fan of PT Anderson's work (Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood) and that I can get lost in a long slow movie in a positive like manner. Whereas I think it's safe to say my friend would give The Master a failing grade, I would easily put it on my list of the best films of 2012.

A Mayfair patron made a similarly negative remark about the movie on Twitter, coincidentally right at the same time another patron gushed in an opposite positive manner on the same topic. I think that the good or bad aspects of a film are subjective and not objective in nature, a point of topic that some disagree with me about. I can love a film that others hate, or I can hate a film that others love...and there's nothing wrong with that. I will always remember that the Ottawa Citizen gave Army of Darkness it's lowest possible rating, while I think it is pretty much a perfect movie-going experience. I pretty much despised Avatar, and clearly I am in the great minority in that opinion since it just happens to be the most financially successful motion picture ever produced.

See which side of the fence you fall in on your Master opinion, check out The Master tonight at 9:15pm at The Mayfair (and if you can't make it tonight it plays the next three days too!). It's ok if you don't like it, I respect your opinion and we can still be friends. If you don't like Army of Darkness...I don't know, that might be a different story.

I have read every book that Julia Wertz has published, and I wish I had more time on my hands because I'm way behind on reading her various online comics and blog posts. I love super-hero comics as much as the next geek, but I also greatly enjoy the more indie aspect offerings that are out there. Julia's bravely honest autobiographical humour work is my go to pick for people who aren't into what the mainstream publishers could be offering, but still might be interested in some comic book readings.

I finished reading The Infinite Wait a few days ago, but I can mention it now because I have given it over to my friend. It was her Christmas gift, and I wanted to read it before wrapping it up and sticking it under the tree. The gift package was extra nifty 'cause it included an original drawing, a print, some little Julia made buttons & magnets, AND a personally made Julia mix-cd. I hope Julia doesn't mind that I was thrifty and didn't purchase two copies of the book, in the mean time I will encourage everyone else to go buy her stuff.

Nothing says Merry Christmas like a Mobile Organism Designed Only for Koffee! The mad scientist that could only have been designed in the Marvel Comics heyday by the genius that was Jack Kirby and titled the Mental/Mobile/Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing is now mine in mug form! We truly do live in an age of miracle and wonders.

Now, like a kid hepped up too much Santa delivered stocking candy, I will list all of the highlights of the treasure that I received:

Blu Ray: Prometheus, Cabin in the Woods and A Charlie Brown Christmas
Books: Mike Mignola & Christopher Golden's Father Gaetano's Puppet Catechism, Grant Morrison's Dinosaurs vs Aliens, Roger Ebert's Life Itself, & DC Comics: The Sequential Art of Amanda Conner
...also got the recently released Joey Ramone lost cd - which I hope is good, I love Joey Ramone, but often lost songs are left off of albums for a reason.

Almost as awesome as giant cybernetic floating head to drink delicious beverages out of, also got not just Jenga, but Spider-man themed Jenga! What's could make the stress induced stacking blocks game more exciting than crossing it over with a geek brand!?

Anyhow, hope everyone is having a great holiday season, I have to get back to watching cartoons, reading Archie Comics, and eating.

One more sleep! A quick entry to wish everyone a merry Christmas Eve and an excellent Holiday season. Hope you get many a present and eat way too much food.

There are many a Christmas song that I love, but Fairy Tale in New York is easily my favourite.

One of the favourite Christmas tv traditions for myself and David Letterman is Darlene Love's annual visit to the Late Show to perform Baby Please Come Home (which was televised last night). Thanks to the the festive magic of the interwebs, I can share yet another of her great performances.

Hey, check it out...the world didn't end! I was fairly confident that nothing was actually going to happen, as it didn't happen all those other times in recent history when some crazy people let us all know that the end was nigh on some specific time and date. Have to admit though that there's always a tiny little amazingly minuscule part in the back of my mind that thinks it might be cool to witness an apocalypse. Not a wise thought, but I guess it's the same mindset that makes geeks think that a zombie outbreak or giant monster attack would be fun times.

Anyhow, since we are all still alive, what better way to celebrate than getting out of the house and partaking in one of the worst movies ever made? Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is impressively awful in staggering and unbelievable levels of writing, production and performance. It is also laugh out loud funny from beginning to end, though always for unintentional reasons, seeing as I'm pretty sure that everyone involved thought they were making actual sci-fi and didn't intend for bargain basement camp cinema.

Amongst other accomplishments, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians has the most amazing (and by amazing I mean awesomely terrible) robot and polar bear, and a mesmerizing theme song that will play over and over again all Holiday season long.

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (and not to play spoiler, but he never exactly conquers anybody) yuletides its way onto the Mayfair screen tonight at 11:30pm. PS - Another Christmas miracle, as tonight marks the unveiling of our fancy new digital projector...never has such a bad movie looked so good!

Every time December rolls around, it seems that people moan and complain that there were no good movies released throughout the year. This always frustrates me, because there are great movies released every year, it just seems the masses would rather watch reality tv or cop shows or do whatever else they do to pass the time instead of watching good movies.

Last night I watched yet another great 2012 movie that seems to be making a lot of year-end best-of lists and garnering lots of geek appreciation cred and award buzz. Looper is an impressive sci-fi action drama featuring Bruce Willis as the elder and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the younger versions of the same character. A character who makes a living as an executioner of people sent back from the future to be disposed of, with the stipulation that he will make a fortune but will also have to kill a 30 years elder version of himself sooner or later. When Joseph is faced with killing himself (as played by Bruce), he screws up and is left both chasing himself down and trying to avoid punishment from the crime boss he is employed by.

Does that make sense? Explaining time-travel movies can be a bit confusing for the writer and the reader alike. In fact, right in the context of the movie, Bruce's character angrily and frustratingly retorts the he doesn't want to think about time travel 'cause it's too confusing (that is either smart or lazy screen-writing...not sure).

The film is filled with some great performances, especially from the two sides of the titular Looper. Joseph Gordon-Levitt has graduated with amazing success from his bad laugh-track sitcom beginnings, and more and more I think Bruce Willis may end up being the greatest movie star of his time. He can of course handle any action-hero duties a movie might need, and as a bonus he can hold his own in dramatic or comedic roles, and isn't afraid to play a supporting or unlike-able role.

Looper is smart sci-fi, and at it's core is an impressive and entertaining crime morality drama. And, so your brain doesn't get too overwhelmed with the scientific complexities of travelling through time, there is also a whole bunch of of awesome guns-a-blazing battles to keep your attention.

Be prepared to prove jerks wrong when they say that there are no new good movies being made, catch Looper tonight at 9:15pm at the Mayfair.

When I get a text from my girlfriend saying that there is a snow TARDIS across the street from the apartment, I must admit that my brain instantly translates that as "There's an actual TARDIS with some snow on it across the street!". Hence, when I return home and do not see a full size blue police box on the side-walk that I can step into and partake in intergalactic time-travelling adventures, there is a little bit of disappointment. None-the-less, a mini-TARDIS made from three recycle bins full of snow is still pretty neat. Well played geeky festive neighbours (plus it allowed my girlfriend to counter-geek by writing Bad Wolf in the snow on it).

You get the best things in the mail this time of year. Case in point, this awesome lil' home-made Dalek. What better ornamental addition to a comic-book spinner rack than an evil cybernetic alien in a Santa hat?

One more sleep 'til everyone's favourite guns-a-blazing festive holiday cinematic x-mas tradition returns to the Mayfair - the Die Hard double bill!

I always hesitate to gush too wildly about movies that I love, 'cause seeing a movie that you've been told is 5 stars but then you see it and you think it's only 4 stars somehow makes it seem like 2 stars. And you would think that Die Hard is safe since it was released over 24 years ago, but I'm always shocked as to classics that people have not seen. I am never afraid to put Die Hard up on a pedestal though, seeing as it is unarguably the greatest action film ever made!

If you see Die Hard now, after having seen a couple of decades of the action films that followed, you might not think it to be a masterpiece. What one must take into account though is that pretty much every action movie that came on it's heels was just ripping off the Die Hard character and formula. Before Bruce Willis portrayed the in over his head every-man action-hero cop John McClane, the action movie genre was a very different beast. The hero's were big and strong and cardboard cut-out's, Bruce embodied confident and cool the same way a Steve McQueen did...but he also got the hell beat out of him along the way, showed humanity and humour and fear, and had a weird habit of talking to himself a lot.

Die Hard also just happens to be set at Christmas time, which means that it stands shoulder to shoulder with other greats like It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol as one of my holiday favourites.

Die Hard 2 is also pretty cool, and features another Christmas bloodbath as John McClane takes on the challenge of both holiday travel via airports and terrorists. I'm also pretty sure that at one point it had the highest body count in any motion picture (not counting planet explosions like in Star Wars of course). And no, it's not called Die Harder, that was just the tag-line on the poster.

Die Hard double bill at the Mayfair on Tuesday December 18th at 7:00pm. It ain't Christmas without Bruce Willis jumping off the top of an exploding building.

Hellboy in Hell #1 resurrects both Mike Mignola's return to drawing comic books, and continues the decades deep chronology of tales for his legendary cigar smoking hell-born hero. Though Mignola was never far from his most identifiable creation, co-writing many a Hellboy and BPRD (Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defence) script, and supplying many a cover. It also isn't really a resurrection of Hellboy, since the character is actually still dead and stuck in hell.

Mike Mignola makes the most of his comic book story-telling and tells amazingly fun, complicated, heart-wrenching, scary, enthralling tales within them. He is never guilty of phoning it in, you'll never find 22 pages in a row where nothing happens. Mike Mignola does the history of comic books proud, and I hope he keeps it up for many a year to come. Just the face that I have a newly published comic book in my possession that says 'story and art by Mike Mignola' makes me very happy.

As an added bonus, in this initial chapter of our hero's trek through hell, he has a run in with some Christmas Carol mythology in the form of some creepy puppets (Christmas Carol is my favourite book).

If I could only read one set of comics for the rest of my life, I'm fairly confident that I would pick Mike Mignola's Hellboy stuff. I love a comic book that look like a comic book. I am not a big fan of artists who strive for photo-realism in their comic book pages, and I don't like once fantastical epics that are now filled with pages of talking heads. If it's a non-fiction or autobiographical thing...no problem, no need for explosions. If the story is filled with larger than life characters and super-hero's and potential for action and adventure and horror and awesome...do something! Comic books at their best can be better than any tremendously expensive Hollywood blockbuster, and within their pages you can do anything! It's much cheaper to get an artist to draw whatever you can imagine vs spending a bazillion dollars on cg.

If you've never read any Hellboy, go do so. You can go back to square one (the first collection is called Seed of Destruction), or pick up Hellboy in Hell #1 without being all that confused. It's pretty much all awesome.

If there was ever proof needed that initial box office receipts and critical response are not equal to a movie becoming a timeless classic, you just have to look to It's a Wonderful Life. The Frank Capra film starring Jimmy Stewart was released to sub-par critical writings and was a box-office flop in 1946, and it is now the undisputed Christmas tale cinematic classic.

I'm also fascinated by the story because although now considered a family friendly Christmas tradition, people seem to forget that it actually has quite a few moments of distressing darkness, including that lil' part where Jimmy Stewart almost gives up on everything and leaves behind his wife and children to suicide (!). It seems that if handled by a different director or if given a slightly more Twilight Zone re-write at one point, it almost could have been a much different story (very similar to my thoughts on another personal favourite, Groundhog Day)

Catch the holiday favourite at the Mayfair today (Dec 15) at 6pm or tomorrow (Dec 16) at 5:30pm, and just maybe an angel will get his wings.

Although it took me awhile, I finally finished reading Comics Prose: Short Stories by Comics Writers. I always seem to be guilty of stopping and starting on short story collections, I read a story and then put the book down due to distraction from a longer book or comics or some competing collection of stories vying for my attention. According to a receipt found within the book, I purchased it in April 2011 while on a visit to NYC. I read one of two stories on the flight home, and picked it back up off the shelf a few days ago determined to take it off the check-list of stuff to read that is around the apartment. The book is a collection with no over-all genre or theme besides for it's writers usually are known for work with sequential art accompaniment. Writers in the collection include Astro City's Kurt Busiek, Road to Perdition's Max Allen Collins, Batman universe writer and editorial mastermind Dennis O'Neil, Crisis on Infinite Earth's Marv Wolfman and Harley Quinn co-creator Paul Dini. It's an interesting thing to check out if you are a fan of these writers previous comic book writings, or it makes a good jumping on point if you are reading inclined but not comic book initiated. You just might stumble on some entertaining stuff that will pique your interest to check out something of a more actual comic book-y inclination.

This is our Christmas tree. It's base is a vintage comic book spinner rack which displays over 50 different Holiday themed books ranging from TMNT to Lobo to the Tick. It has decorations featuring Wolverine, Spidey, Star Wars, Nightmare Before Christmas, Looney Tunes, Spongebob, and the Muppets. It is topped with a mini-tree, Wavy the Crocodile wearing a Black Lantern ring, and a Weeping Angel. I hope it makes you as jealous as it makes me glow with festive geeky pride.

As I've recently mentioned, I think that documentary filmmaking has had an incredible run of excellent releases the last few years. The only unfortunate turn, is that often these impressive cinematic offerings leave one feeling that the end is nigh to do environmental or political travesties. Failing that, if you don't feel like giving up on our planet, you might at least feel immensely angered at the state of humanity and the powerful people ruling our world.

If you didn't have a distaste for billionaire business magnate and trashy reality TV host Donald Trump before, You've Been Trumped will most certainly leave you angered. This new documentary focuses on the bold faced lies and inhumanity that Trump spear-heads in his quest to destroy cherished lands in Scotland to build a gaudy tourist gold course. Witnessing his horrible diatribe and villainous actions taken against these lovely small town folks, who he wants to displace, makes you wonder if he is full blown insane or just evil. It's cliché to think this of a person, but you can't help but wonder how Trump can look himself in the mirror every morning.

None the less, even though it will make you want to hop a plane to the nearest Trump Tower and throw a punch, this is a brave and immensely interesting doc that although not exactly the feel good hit of the year, it is very well worth your movie viewing time.

You've Been Trumped screens at the Mayfair tonight and tomorrow, Dec 12 and 13, at 7:00pm.