July 23, 2006 Archives

Woaw, I never did this... But I wrote a long-ish entry, and then *close* the window w/o even attempting to click on the submit button...

Basically, a summary of what I wrote was that I saw petronia the other day. She gave me a copy of a fan publication of one of my favourite shorties ever, illustrated by Wen and friend, the "One Sugar Dream" collab. basically, upon seeing the cover image (if even her artwork), I could associate the name "Wen" to it. Style is very peculiar, although I can't clearly describe it, and why I thought so quickly about her art, even if I've only seen it a handful of times.

As for the short story... Ok, another time, I must've recounted it many times already.

It was the Montreal Dragon Boat Race today. We did bad enough on the first day to get dropped in the "rookie" division, out of the three divisions. This morning today however, we did the best time of all "rookie" teams. That means, the best time out of, hmm, 20-something teams, right? But what goes up must go down, and we finished fifth on the final race, and went home with no medal. Heh, we have a website too. :D

Was pretty excited by the extent of event. Lots and lots of people, more than I ever imagined, with the food stands, clothing stands. I noticed there were way more chinese people in Montreal than I thought. A lot of Asian-looking people who speak teh perfect English or French. Lots of Cantonese too. Wonderful that the sub-group of an ethnic group does exist in Montreal.

There were lots of activities along the basin. Didn't follow much of it, as our team had a tent closer to the 500m start than the finish line (where stuff was happening). There were martial arts shows, and people singing. There were also stands where people could pay a small fee for a watermelon-eating contest.

This weekend passed exhaustingly. On Saturday night, I already felt as if it was Sunday evening, falling asleep right after drinking a mezzo coffee at Starbucks, and feeling as if there was nothing else to do but go home and sleep for another work week to start. Tired, b/c we all woke up pretty much at ~5:30 on Sunday to get to the pool by 7PM. Usually, when I'm awake that early on a Sunday, it's because I haven't slept the night before. :P

After the race was finished, I wandered off to the limits of the Piknic Electro. I think I do like electronic music enough. I didn't have a fresh supply of it lately, but particular electronic sounds is pushing on the right buttons. Sat on a bench facing the artificial pond, and just fell asleep to the sound of the psichh psicha, etc.

Later, was a bit more awake. Picked up randomly good food at Al-Taib on Guy (a zaatar, which I didn't know, could be served "all-dressed"). Went to the movie reviewed below here. Wish I could just sleep nine hours, bleh. Priorities, priorities...

And bleh, I'm still imagining myself making the paddling movement. <_< You know, turn your shoulders and reach, and shit.

Can't help but spoilerize.

Hmm. Not a bad movie at all. In fact, if you come into the theatre w/o prior knowledge of the plot, besides, oh, it's got plenty of CG stuff, and it's about somehow exploring one's imagination, then you're really really up for a happy moment as soon as the ride begins. Approved.

Last Fantasia movie, unless they draw a bunny from their hats like it happened in past years. There is actually a decent-sounding last-minute addition (albeit diagonally read review), but clearly for students, and a limited number of students, as it is shown at friggin' 3PM tomorrow at JA De Seve. Yeah, and I'll probably catch a few ones at Cinema Du Parc before it closes down forever. Man, I've seen this cinema since I've been a young kid whose grandma lives nearby.

Mindless entertainment. Probably like The NeverEnding Story mixed with Godzilla, and crack. It is so appealing after a day spent outside doing stuff.

Actually quite familiar themes, if one has seen Miyazaki's movies (especially Mononoke Hime, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, Laputa or Nausicaa - the ones that are particularly nature-themed, not necessarily on growing up).

So, on Thursday, I added Sunday Seoul to my schedule, which is three short stories with recurrent non-crucial characters.

So, that makes it eight movies for this edition of Fantasia, which is probably the fewest between 2003, 2004 and this year. I think that the publicity campaign was really intense this year, as the festival celebrated its tenth year of existence. Many of the movies presented on the last evenings of the festival (i.e. this week) like Great Yokai War and Re-Cycle are sold-out (just b/c people don't normally plan for Fantasia until their friends actually start talking about it).

I usually only plan for Asian films. If I have the time (like during the last previous years), I would stray from what I consider the core of my selection plan, and go for movies from elsewhere. I remember getting a story of secret cult a la Da Vinci's Code movie from Spain, and a bunch of American film, like that stalker-ish movie where a guy would build himself a doll/girlfriend, or the short stories collection by a half Asian American who I forgot the name (it was called Robot Stories maybe).