We've finally arrived at Back to the Future Day, October 21, 2015. While Marty and Doc Brown were travelling through time, I made my own tiny, tiny contribution to the world of film and television by co-hosting CBC's If Your Parents Split, a pilot that won a couple of awards but wasn't picked up, forever altering my career trajectory. It was a fun gig; I was pretty natural in front of the camera, if I do say so myself, and I really enjoyed interacting with the studio audience. The show was broadcast in February 1985, a few days before my sixteenth birthday.
Audience really didn't get to see much of October 21, 2015 until Back to the Future II, of course. I don't remember if I had any opinions on which crazy predictions might come true or not, but in retrospect I probably wouldn't have believed in hoverboards, side-by-side neckties or Jaws 19. Well, hoverboards are a thing, and if you count the various Jaws-inspired killer shark movies, I'm sure we're well past 19. Thank goodness the double necktie hasn't taken off, at least.
As everyone knows by now, in the end Calgarians decided to send my old bosses Kent Hehr and Darshan Kang off to Ottawa to represent them in Parliament. I couldn't be more thrilled for either man, and I know they'll represent their constituents very well indeed.
Sometimes I still feel a little sad that I've mostly pulled away from politics, particularly at election time. I did a tiny bit of work for Kent's campaign this time around, mainly handling some correspondence, and I'm very grateful I had the opportunity to do so.
I know Darshan and Kent will have a million things to do as they slip into their new roles, but I do have a few requests, in no particular order:
Renegotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership and stand up for fair copyright terms.
Protect net neutrality.
Repeal C-51.
Launch an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women.
Un-muzzle Canada's scientists.
Fund the CBC properly, so they can do their job.
Get serious about fighting climate change.
Move us toward a transferable ballot before the next election.
Increase contributions to the Canada Pension Plan, a good Liberal idea that died before it could be implemented.
Bring back the mandatory long-form census.
Of course none of this can happen overnight, and I know both Kent and Darshan have plenty of their own ideas to build a better country, and there's lots of good stuff in the Liberal platform. But a few additional ideas can't hurt.
While I'm glad to see Harper shown the door and very happy to see Darshan Kang elected in Calgary Skyview, I'm sorry the New Democrats were hammered so hard and that it looks like Kent Hehr has not won in Calgary Centre. I will of course not count Kent out until all the votes are counted, but at this moment it's not looking good. More on Kent tomorrow.
Whatever happens, I hope the Trudeau government quickly gets to work undoing the damage of the Harper years.
EDIT: looks like Kent is catching up. Come on Kent!
Last night I got together with Mike, Steve, Scott, Jeff and Pete to embark upon our latest adventure in roleplaying: Spirit of '77. Conceptualizing the game is pretty easy: imagine a world in which 1970s action/adventure television - shows such as The Six Million Dollar Man, B.J. and the Bear, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk, Charlie's Angels, S.W.A.T., Starsky & Hutch, The Dukes of Hazzard and so on - were real. Nixon served two full terms, Gerald Ford is president in 1977 and Saigon exists, West Berlin-like, as an American enclave in Vietnam. Against this backdrop, 1970s archetypes such as ex-cops, ex-cons, private eyes, glam rockers, good 'ol boys, vigilantes, gonzo journalists and others pursue their hopes and dreams while sticking it to The Man and, perhaps, uncovering the truth behind the vast web of conspiracies that are the foundation of 1970s America.
Our first session served as prologue to the actual gaming sessions to come; without rolling a single die, we worked together to craft our characters and their interrelationships. It played out very much like a really good improv session, and by the end of the night I'd come up with a character I'm pretty proud of: Johnny James Columbia, a good ol' boy, former stunt driver, now paired up with a talking VW Beetle. Here's an extended version of the introduction to the concept I rattled off last night (imagine this as voiceover narration to a typical 1970s adventure show):
"My name is Johnny James Columbia, but my friends call me J.J. I used to be a stunt driver in Hollywood. But then I met O.S.CAR - a souped-up VW Firebug who thinks he's the next big thing. Now we drive across America. I test his limits. He tests my patience. That's why they call us J.J. and the Firebug."
J.J. himself is a lanky, cocky twenty-something from California, chasing thrills and chasing women without asking too many questions about F.I.S.T., the shadowy organization that hired him to put the Firebug prototype through its paces. Never seen without his trademark mirrored sunglasses and leather bomber jacket, J.J. has an uneasy relationship with O.S.CAR, (Operating System: CAR, voiced by Vic Perrin) the artificial intelligence incorporated into the Firebug. O.S.CAR takes the form of a bulky 1970s style PC mounted on the Firebug's console - think a beige box with a low-resolution six-inch amber CRT. O.S.CAR is annoyingly self-assured and full of himself; F.I.S.T. engineers claim they're still "working the kinks out" of the personality algorithms.
The Firebug itself is a black 1975 VW beetle with a sweet flame paint job. Aside from being faster and tougher than the typical bug, the Firebug is also submersible and comes with a full set of ejector seats.
Once a week, J.J. must report in to Colonel Oscar P. Oscopy of F.I.S.T., a military man with a personality eerily similar to O.S.CAR. J.J. is somewhat frustrated that F.I.S.T. won't even tell him what the name stands for, let alone what they're going to do once the Firebug trials are complete. But J.J. is happy as long as he gets to put the car through its paces.
Needless to say, I had a lot of fun coming up with this ridiculous scenario, and I look forward to playing it out with the guys over the course of the next decade or so.
Mom just sent me this photo of her grandmother, my great-grandmother, Alice Etsell washing clothes on the Etsell farm near Virden. The shed in the background survived for many years; in fact, Sean and I saw it back in 2009, shortly before it was destroyed. Mom thinks this photo was taken in the late 1920s or early 1930s - almost a century ago.
Mars has loomed large in human storytelling for thousands of years. As with any popular setting, Mars has inspired tales of wildly varying quality, particularly when it comes to film. Mars Needs Women, The Angry Red Planet, Mission to Mars, Mars Attacks!, Total Recall - all entertaining films, but flawed to varying degrees. Ridley Scott's The Martian is just as (or more) entertaining as all of those movies, but without the flaws. It arguably stands as the best of the Mars movies to date.
Thanks to the film's clever in-universe viral marketing, most moviegoers knew the Martian's story before they ever stepped into theatres: astronaut/botanist Mark Watney is left for dead on Mars and forced to rely on his own wits for the months and years before a rescue can be mounted.
It's a simple story, but told with wit, tension and real human drama. There are no villains in this film, not even Mars itself; there is only a set of unfortunate circumstances, bad luck, and the immutable laws of physics. Set against that is Mark Watney's education, experience, intelligence and determination. It's a film where brains are more important than brawn, a celebration of science.
It's also a great testament to the importance of working together, from small teams to entire nations. I choked up a little at certain points in the film, particularly the points when good-hearted people on two continents work themselves to exhaustion for the sake of helping a person in need.
Aside from its merits of storytelling, direction, special effects and acting, The Martian offers something that many films fail to deliver: hope. For The Martian posits a world in which we once again boldly strike out for the stars, and do so in the spirit of international collaboration. I reiterate: there are no villains in this story, no shoehorned narrative of good versus evil. It's just a story of courage, smarts and the human need to explore new frontiers and do the right thing for our fellow people. Three and a half Burroughs out of four.
The first season of Daredevil was surprisingly satisfying thanks to engaging characters, good to great performances and a richly realized Hell's Kitchen. It looks like the show's second season will feature both Elektra and the Punisher, as well as the return of the Kingpin. Were this a movie I might worry the cast was becoming overcrowded, but with twelve episodes to work with I'm sure the creators will weave a solid web of gritty crime/legal drama.
Now that Marvel Studios has some of the rights to Spider-Man back, I wish they'd arrange for a cameo; Spidey and Daredevil have fun, tense, almost-friends relationship in the comics, and a shared history with the Punisher. That's probably too much to hope for, though.
Squashes orange, yellow and green
Fruiting inside our Thanksgiving dreams
The clocks jump forward, or do they jump back?
A festival of sweet caloric attack
A false cornucopia barfing up gourds
A James Bond movie marathon for all the nerds
Prairie utopia, a bountiful feast
Bubbling up from the earth on a bed of black yeast.
It was a great pleasure and honour to work with Kent Hehr for several years during his time as a Member of the Legislative Assembly. If you live in Calgary Centre, I hope you'll vote for Kent to be your Member of Parliament. In a time when it's all too easy to be jaded about politicians, Kent stands out as a true champion of the people, of evidence-based decision-making, of critical thought, of human rights and compassion and respect for everyone. No matter who wins the federal election, if Kent is one of the 338 men and women Canadians send to Ottawa, the level of thought and discourse in Parliament will be considerably elevated. Good luck, Kent!
Kent Hehr is running to be the next Member of Parliament for Calgary-Centre. Tomorrow his campaign will release a video that will give voters a closer look at the man. The above clip touches on a moment of violence that damaged Kent's body, but his spirit emerged stronger than ever. I look forward to seeing more of the story tomorrow.
I watched every episode of Gotham's first season last year, but the experience grew steadily tedious. I'm not sure why I tuned in for season two, but I'm glad I did, for just two episodes in Gotham feels like a different - and much better - show.
The fine production design of the first reason remains, as does most of the first-season cast. But the writing is sharper, the acting less melodramatic and more grounded (except in the case of the lunatics driving the plot in these first episodes, but here it's wholly appropriate), the pacing improved and the characterizations generally more believable.
In these first two episodes, we witness Jim Gordon's fall to beat cop and bounce back to detective, Harvey Bullock's adjustment to civilian life, a rending and reconciliation between young Bruce Wayne and his guardian/butler Alfred Pennyworth, and perhaps most importantly, the rise of the Maniax, a group of escaped lunatics whose only agenda is chaos.
Using the mentally ill as villains is a troubling and overused trope. While the cultural politics of this storytelling choice are still difficult to justify, at least this time around it's not boring; each of the Maniax have, if not depth, then at least interesting tics...and agency, which is somewhat ironic; in Gotham, only the mad are free.
It's too early to tell if the show has really turned around, but this is certainly a very promising second time at bat. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
A long time ago I played baseball. I don't remember much about it. Sean played too, though we were never on the same team. And I'm almost certain he was much better than me.
