Twilihate.

So, I went to see the newest entry in the unintelligible Twilight series. Why? I'm not sure. Apparently I hate myself.

Bella (who still has only one facial expression) and Edward (the sparkly one) are getting married. Her parents are THRILLED with the idea.

Apparently, no parents in Stephanie Meyer's inane, messed up universe thinks it weird that an 18 year old girl is marrying a dead dude, and eventually turning into one. It's cool.

NOT COOL.

After finding out they're getting married, the wolf dude is pissed off about their love so he runs into the woods and stays there doing things for a while. No one cares.

At one point, Jacob and Edward argue with each other about how 'what happens on the honeymoon' might kill Bella. SHE IS STANDING RIGHT THE HELL THERE. Two overbearing stalkery dudes arguing about hypothetical futuresex? That my friends, is ROMANCE.

I've always wondered (no I haven't) where a vampire would go his honeymoon. Well, question: answered! Obviously somewhere where he can show off his true sparkle. Why not the sunniest place ever? RIO.

This is when things get messed up.

Bella ends up with bruises from her new hubby after their first night together because he's like, totally so strong? Edward apologizes for giving them to her, followed by HER apologizing for being so weak to incur them.

Yeah. I'll let you figure out what's wrong with that.

Edward then no longer apparently wants to touch her. So she has to chase after him like Pepe le Pew chasing after his cat, but less fun. Yep, a few days after getting married they're already bored of each other, now Stephanie Meyer and Kim Kardashian have something in common.

My theory is that Edward just realized some things about himself. It's cool, man. We all knew.

When Edward finally decides to touch her again, Bella gets insta-preggers. This is followed by Edward wondering 'how can this happen?!', freaking out and brooding more. Someone apparently had time to do everything during his life but learn where babies come from.

Then, a demon baby ends up eating Bella from the inside. This was the only character I could relate to, as I understood her motivations, and we both wanted the same thing.

Yes, while there's a seizure inducing scene where Edward performs a c-section with his fangs, my favourite part came right at the end when Jacob "imprints" (falls in love) with the baby.

A GROWN MAN, FALLS IN LOVE WITH A NEWBORN BABY. LEGITIMATE, I WILL MARRY YOU (hopefully when it's actually legal) LOVE.
EVERYONE IS OK WITH THIS.

I miss the days of real vampires. And actual characters like Buffy, who you know, DID things instead of just...sitting around waiting to be told what to do. Hopefully this doesn't influence what girls growing up today think of what dudes should be like.

Also, all I could think of for the entirety of the time that the wolf dudes were on screen was this:

I had a couple of thoughts while watching the film as well, much to the chagrin of the twitards sitting around me.

Screw Stephanie Meyer and this series. I'm done.

TIFF10:Anticipation & Excitement

If you know me, you know that I love watching films, in theaters or at home. So, this is a particularly exciting time of year in Toronto for film lovers as the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is taking place. This is the second year that I'm partially attending TIFF. Last year I did a grand total of 3 films (Waking Sleeping Beauty, Micmacs & Up In The Air) and vowed to do more this year.

Sometime in August, I decided I should look into buying ticket packages. I had a list of must-see films and was looking through all the other films playing as well. I decided I would get the 25-30 film package.

As I clicked 'buy tickets' - an evil red screen of doom quashing my dreams to get the most out of the festival appeared. The packages were sold out.

Stunned, I read it over and over and vowed not to miss the day single tickets went on sale. I went through whatever measures I needed to.

The morning of the ticket sales, I woke up to my alarm and immediately hopped on my computer to buy the tickets I wanted.

The system was overloaded, making it akin to choosing electives in college. Sitting there I refreshed the page again, and again, and again...

...and again and again, and again, until I was about to abandon all hope, until finally...

SUCCESS! I ended up getting my top four film picks:

1) Sylvain Chomet's The Illusionist

2) Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan

3) Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams

4) Takashi Miike's 13 Assassins

and thanks to the generosity and awesomeness of two fantastic friends...

5) Danny Boyle's 127 Hours

6) Wuershan's The Butcher, The Chef & The Swordsman

I also plan on seeing Ben Affleck's "The Town" and saw Anton Corbijn's "The American" last week. Reviews coming for ALL of them.

This is going to be a busy little blog for the next little while!! Come back soon!

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World vs. Deep

On Friday, I went to see a film I'd been anticipating and extremely excited about since it was announced - Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. I've been an enormous fan of the books, I re-read the series in it's entirety every month or two, so it's safe to say I had a bit of trouble concentrating during the work day.

A bunch of us had organized going to see SPvTW after work on Friday, so I headed there straight after work. When I got to the theater with 30 of my closest friends and some family, the anticipation hit it's peak. I begged the spirit of Hollywood to not disappoint and live up to what I'd imagined.

Even though I already knew that there was much to differentiate between the film and the books (which again, I'm an enormous fan of) the nerd in me began to immediately compare scenes and events with the book. But then, I quickly realized that comparing the two was trivial, especially since Brian Lee O'Malley helped collaborate on the screenplay.

The humor, filmmaking technique and action scenes were what really stood out for me...the more I watched, the happier, more entertained and visually astounded I became until...

BAM! I was kicked in the freaking face by pure, unadulterated AWESOME.

Edgar Wright, Michael Bacall and Brian Lee O'Malley (along with everyone else involved) have created a brilliant film that speaks true to it's subject matter, while retaining it's own voice. I'm really glad Universal allowed this film to be made and for Edgar Wright to see his vision through.

I'm totally going to see it again.

R.

PS. The soundtrack seriously kicks ass. Buy it here

Coffee!

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I love coffee. So I thought I'd do a little post on why I love it and how I became so...for lack of a better term, obsessed.

It started one summer during school when I had an office desk job as a summer student. The job was very much a 'run out the clock' situation.


5pm couldn't arrive fast enough. It was a constant fight.

I've always loved the smell of coffee, but yes, even to those who know me well, there actually was a time where I couldn't stand the taste of coffee.

Even still though, if I could somehow set up a timer to wake me up to the smell of coffee every morning, I would, although that would definitely up my chances of burning things down due to faulty wiring...or stupidity.
The cafe at the front of the building had a self-serve type deal - it smelled absolutely wonderful with flavours like 'vanilla bean hazelnut', 'orange mocha' or 'clever chocolate'. They all tasted the same, the most vile tasting sludge ever.
One day, my cousin was visiting Toronto from Florida due to work, and he asked me to try his then favourite drink, a caramel macchiato.

The experience was enlightening.

I remember the first time I ever had a triple shot of espresso, I came home wanted to get something from my room. The next thing I knew I was at the top of the stairs without remembering climbing them at all.

Gradually, I became less and less accustomed to sweet drinks, where at one time I loved them, I can barely stand a Caramel Macchiato now.
Slowly I started to warm up to coffee and grow accustomed to the different tastes and essentially 'found my drink'. Currently either an Espresso Macchiato or an Iced Americano.

It wasn't until I moved to LA and went to what became my most favourite coffee shop ever, that I discovered what good coffee was.

For the first time, I tasted straight espresso that was creamy, rich and sweet - with hints of vanilla, hazelnut and chocolate. With no additives! It was love at first sip.


Now, mornings usually don't start til I have coffee. Without some, I'm a useless pile of blob. The staff at my local Starbucks can attest to that.

Coffee also brings people together. A few friends and myself have been able to go to one of our new favourite coffee shops in Toronto, Lit Espresso Bar, and be very productive, social and relaxed all at the same time. Coffee is the new beer.


After visiting so many coffee shops (so, so many) certain things start to jump out at you. Especially when they're reoccurring. As a result, I've been able to discern a certain number of barista 'types'. These are a few of them.

My friends Jon and Jeremy created a drink at Starbucks they lovingly refer to as "The Killer". I decided to be daring and try 3 shots instead of the recommended 2. The results were less than favourable.


I'm hoping that one day it rains coffee from the sky. If that happens, the world will be a more pleasant smelling and delicious place. It may also become faster paced and crazier, but we'll ignore that for now.

I sincerely think there's a whole untapped market for coffee flavoured/coffee influenced products. Someone should get on that and make it happen.
I'd buy it.

I think I have a problem.

R.

Studies

Head Studies

Compositional Studies

Sketches in Ballpoint Pen/Pencil/Pilot Pen

I'm working on some more stuff to post soon - in the meantime, any requests for any movie reviews?

R.