Toronto is Godless

Today I joined hundreds of my city sharers to watch Obama's inauguration at the Bloor Cinema, because I've always heard the only way to see a Presidential assassination is on the big screen. Okay, I know it's an extremely off – colour joke, but the ceremony's over, it didn't happen, and we're all going to live happily ever after. And don't blame me for my sensibilities, I'm just a product of my environment. I was brought up on movies like 'JFK' and 'In the Line of Fire' in fact, the very theatre I watched the inauguration in today is playing one of my childhood favourites later tonight, 'Air Force One.' If you haven't seen it, the whole movie can be summed up in three lines that were in every trailer for the film.

Vice President Glen Close: How the hell did this happen? How the hell did they get Air Force One?

Military Guy: He knows how to fight.

President Harrison Ford: Get off my plane!

Suffice to say, assassination has been a bit of a preoccupation of mine since this whole Obama business started. I often wondered if there was going to be a section of the population that wouldn't vote for Obama out of fear for his safety. During the inauguration, I kept waiting for an overzealous secret service agent to dive for his moment of glory after seeing an umbrella brought out on a clear, dry day.

So sorry if my mind drifts to assassination, a taboo word at the moment, but I'm sure it's on many minds. Not only am I influenced by films and music, but I'm also from Toronto, where I heard the most cheers for the final group mentioned when Obama said “We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers.” This made me smile, as there were the obvious audience jeers anytime Bush was on screen, applause for anything Obama, and shushes from those intent on catching every word, but I didn't anticipate such a big response from our city's, apparently plentiful, 'non-believers.' As CNN showed similar gatherings all over North America, I knew I was joining the world in watching history unfold, but wondered how many other places cheered at this particular part of Obama's 19 minute speech. Perhaps more than I think, as the popularity of science and atheism continues to grow with increasing momentum. After over two centuries of God playing an integral role in Presidential speeches, this was a refreshing shout-out.

I also wondered how many places had a projector set up next to the monitor to display messages from the audience. Anyone that's been to an outdoor music festival in recent years has witnessed this phenomenon, as crowds are treated to live scrolling comments from teen cell phones like 'where u at megs lolz.' I wanted to test my 'assassination on the big screen' joke on this platform, but figured these messages must be censored in some way, at least for obscenity, probably not stupidity though, as I was still able to read things like 'look at Aretha Franklin's bow.' How could I not? It was covering half her face. I tell ya, bunch of godless (small 'g') heathens in this town, but at least that guy in the theatre with a laser pointer was funny again for the first time in 10 years.

Anyway, it's looking like they've got the right guy for the job this time, you probably all watched his amazing speech already, so here's a Dandy Warhols video instead.

Budovsky videos

I don't really have anything to say about these shorts by animator Alex Budovsky except that I'm a big fan. Here are my selections, but he's got about 10 others on his youtube page that are worth checking out as well.

"Exit 57"? Yeah, you missed it. It's about 14 years back that way...

After years of hearing about it, I've finally watched 'Strangers With Candy' (via the incredibleness that is the Comedy Network's online video library). Okay, I know I'm about 9 years late to getting around to this series, and its odd brand of humour is old news to most, but how many people have heard of 'Exit 57'? This was a sketch comedy show that Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello, and Stephen Colbert worked on before 'Strangers With Candy.' Comedy central aired two 6 episode seasons from 1995 to 1996. Even though I was only about 13 years old at the time, I've always been into sketch comedy shows and was surprised I'd never heard of this one. The reason being that it never aired in Canada or had any kind of DVD release, despite being critically well received at the time (according to Wikipedia... perhaps Colbert made some contributions to the entry). I noticed the show began right around the time Canada's 'Kids in the Hall' had wrapped (easily one of my all time favourite shows) which was just catching on in the States due to HBO and CBS airing syndicated episodes. Without even bootleg versions of 'Exit 57' being readily available on ebay, it seemed as though this show was lost into obscurity, despite the success the main players have had since. Then comes youtube to the rescue once again, with a search bringing up about a dozen various sketches from the show. Based on this sampling, it seems as though they were trying to pick up where Kids in the Hall left off, with the emphasis being less on parody and more on surrealism. The show's producer, Joe Forristal, even served as supervising producer on the first couple seasons of KITH. It's my diagnoses that most of these sketches are not very successful or funny. I can't help but wonder if those involved in the show agree and are happy to have it remain in 90's ambiguity. This theory is supported by the fact that several jokes have been re-used in subsequent series; I believe I've heard Colbert use the line “I'm not pushing you away, I'm pulling me towards myself” in every show he's been on. All that being said, here's one sketch that I do find really funny.


If anyone knows where to see the whole series, I'd be very interested, as I'm sure there's a few more gems in there.

Directly after posting this, I tested the video to find that it had been removed due to a copyright claim. This is a shame, as most of the unfunny ones seem to remain and the prime catalyst behind the post was to share this clip. I'll be sure to post the 'Schoolyard' sketch if it ever resurfaces. In the words of Chuck Noblet: "GOD DAMN IT!"

on The Outs

A couple months ago, as part of the promotion for their new album, Oasis held a contest asking youtubers to post their covers of four different 'Dig Out Your Soul' tracks. First place went to The Outs from Rio De Janeiro for their version of 'Bag it Up' (a song I'd love to see Trojan adopt for its next ad campaign). Big Brother Recordings will be flying the duo to the gig of their choice which they have decided will be at Wembley Stadium next July. A well deserved win if you ask me. Watch the video below and listen as the singer summons the voice of a 19 year old Liam Gallagher at about the 1:10 mark.

Let's face fact: he sounds better than Liam, and that's without any fancy recording equipment. Imagine the publicity the band would get if Noel fired his brother and replaced him with a 17 year old from a Brazilian cover band? It would be like that movie “Rock Star” but with better music. The Outs have an impressive 32 songs on their youtube channel. They cover mostly Oasis tunes as well as The Verve, The Beatles, Kasabian, U2 and the Goo Goo Dolls, and currently only have one original track on their myspace (www.myspace.com/theoutsband). Here's another one of my favourites.

I've begun working on a concept for a series which will have a couple characters partially inspired by The Outs. Imagine the Gallagher brothers at 17 (even though they're 8 years apart) with all the attitude, talent, and swagger they have now but without any of the money or fame. I can see them struggling to build a fan base as band egos and squabbles interfere with finishing most shows. There would be humour and squalor.

And for all of you people thinking to yourselves “are those the guys that do that song about a wall?” this one's for you.

No, THIS is England.

When I was living in England, I worked a temp job in data entry for a little while at a copyright licensing agency. I thought it would be like my favorite show: David Brent would be my boss, Tim and I would bond over torturing Garrett until our fallout due to a mutual crush on the receptionist Dawn. Well, perhaps it was a little like BBC's 'The Office' but I was sitting at the quiet table in the corner where nothing ever happens and everyone just keeps their heads down and works. There was a sort of Keith character sitting across from me; Robert was an overweight pimply guy with a passion for junk food, picking his nose, and anything else he could do to just let loose. Actually, I did serve the real Keith when I got a much better job at a pub in Fulham, and it would seem eczema is a weakness the actual actor suffers, but I digress.

It wasn't a very social place, as everyone usually worked with headphones providing their own soundtracks. Since data entry is about the most monotonous work you can do, I would constantly have a window on my desktop playing youtube videos. This is where I watched most of the hilarious series that is 'Peep Show,' the stars of which are actually the Mac and PC guys in the English versions of those commercials.

At the time, Shane Meadows' film 'This is England' was just being released and had a lot of press. I really liked the trailer, but something was missing: the Clash song from which the film got its title. I would often find myself at work watching the trailer with the youtube window on mute while I listened to the song. They must not have been able to secure the rights to the song, or perhaps the filmmakers don't like obviousness as much as I do, because it works brilliantly. I've put together this demonstration:

See? Anyway, I didn't see the actual film until I got back to Canada, since sustaining an existence on a data entry wage in London didn't really leave room for the theatre going experience. What stood out in the film to me was a good soundtrack as well as some great performances by the young cast members and by Stephen Graham (Tommy from 'Snatch') as the crazy Combo. I'm not sure I liked it as much as the trailer though, perhaps I'll have to watch it again.

Cheers,
Your Best Friend.

Your Best Friend is no joblo...

I know that my previous post said I'd be talking about movies in an informal fashion, and this next review seems kind of structured, but that's because I wrote it for a website. A few weeks ago, joblo.com, which has been my movie site of choice for many years, put out a call for DVD reviewers. It had been a long time since I had actually written a review (Jersey Girl doesn't really seem relevant anymore) so I chose a new DVD that had yet to be reviewed on their site and followed the format they use. Even though it didn't pay anything, I was a little disappointed that I didn't hear back from them, however I was saved the embarrassment of having to tell them that I can't review Blu-Ray (I don't have a player, I don't even have a TV, my laptop is my everything). But I was sneaky, and made a copy of the review I sent, which can now be read here:

DVD: Step Brothers Movie: 3 DVD: 3 Overall: 3

What's it about?
Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly and Director Adam McKay could not wrap TALLADEGA NIGHTS without knowing what they were going to do together next. They had a brainstorming session and McKay came up the image of Will and John in bunk beds... the rest of 'Step Brothers' basically writes itself: two forty year old unemployed men are forced to share a room when their single parents marry. The maturity level of these guys makes Billy Madison look like Doogie Howser as hijinks and shenanigans abound.

Is it a good movie?
Of course not, but the fun that the leads are clearly having does become infectious. You can't deny that the real life friends play well off each other, have dueling fros and look funny in briefs. They got some guy named Apatow to produce it, and apparently he has some funny friends too who don't mind showing up in bit parts. There's a reason these guys have a monopoly on comedies at the moment (or as I call it, a 'comopoly'), and it's not sex appeal.

The Extras
Deleted/ extended scenes : Guess what? They shot a whole bunch of stuff that either dragged on too long or wasn't relevant enough to the 'story' for it to be included the movie, watch it here!
This single disc version advertises having 'both theatrical & unrated versions.' The version I watched was the same running length as the theatrical release. At first I figured they probably just dropped a couple more 'F' Bombs and had a slightly longer close up on Ferrell's prosthetic balls, but when I couldn't find the other version on the disc, I deduced that the inclusion of these deleted and extended scenes count for the 'unrated version.' This misleading claim deserves a finger wag.
Commentary: This commentary by McKay, Ferrell and Reilly along with the film's composer comes in the form of an improvised musical, featuring a whole number dedicated to the maker of the aforementioned prosthetics balls. Basketball player Baron Davis also has some arbitrary participation.
Line-O-Rama: A fun feature on every Apatow DVD these days showing alternate takes where the actors improvise different one-liners. Since that's all these films basically are, there's usually some good stuff and you can be the judge if they chose the best lines to keep in the film.
Gag Reel: These are all the lines that were too funny to make it in to the movie because the actors couldn't keep their shit together while saying or hearing them.
“Boats 'n Hoes” music video: The complete version of a rap video the step brothers make on dad's yacht. You see enough of it in the film.
The making of Step Brothers: Spoiler Alert: Oliver Wood, the director of photography also shot all three of the Bourne movies. This is a spoiler because it's all I took away from this unnecessary 22 minute featurette.

Final Diagnosis
I had high expectations for TALLADEGA NIGHTS and was disappointed. Consequently, I had low expectations for STEP BROTHERS and was surprised at how well the same schtick held up for an hour and a half. Of course there were low points, and if you think you're getting something as good as ANCHORMAN, or if you're getting tired of this bunch altogether, then don't watch this. However, if you're a big fan of funnyordie.com, then this low concept, heavily improvised and often indulgent comedy will surely get a few chuckles.

Get to know Your Best Friend a little better...

If you made it to the end of my ridiculously long first post, then you're my new best friend. Now that we're best friends, here's a bit about me and how this relationship is gonna work:

I love movies and music. I'm going to be the first man ever to express my opinions on these things in the informal forum that is 'THE BLOG.' It should be noted that while I consider myself well educated in cinema, I don't have a musical bone in my body and have been diagnosed as tone deaf by my father, who happens to be all the way deaf. But in case the meter-long posting below wasn't indicator enough, I do like to talk about what I listen to, but some could label my little insights as uninformed. Anyway, in sharing my thoughts on what I'm currently seeing and hearing, I hope to expose friends to some cool things they may not have otherwise known about.

I like youtube and will call on it often to compliment, support, or compensate what it is I say on my web log. I look forward to adding songs to youtube just so I can talk about them here, though I've had pretty good luck finding most things so far.

I like stuff that white people like.. the blog as well as most of the things listed on it. More to come on that later. I also like things that are 'meta', so it's okay for me to blog about a blog.

I like things that are Canadian. Note the Canadian music rant below and the use of the metric system above, for I am indeed proud to be part of the red, white and new.

I like stories and literature. Some original short fiction may also appear on Your Best Friend's Blog.

I enjoy playing most sports, but rarely get the opportunity. I get many opportunities to watch sports on television, but rarely enjoy it.

In the winter I skate and in the summer I bike.

I'm a chess man, not a poker man. Sometimes I bake.

It is in to this web of logs that I now commence tossing my own...