Author: James McNally

GTABloggers Bowl!

The first GTABloggers meet was a success. Brooke and I got together with Rannie, Jay, Lily, and Jayme and bowled our cares away. Check out Jayme’s pictures. I was surprised that for all Rannie’s interest in photography, his was the most low-tech camera in attendance. Our next meet is November 9 at Sneaky Dee’s. I’m looking forward to it already.

I was just thinking today of what the metal group Anthrax must be feeling with all these anthrax scares going around, and what do I read over on Michael‘s blog? That they are going to change their name to “Basket Full of Puppies,” since that is so much friendlier. Sure, it’s a joke, but they must be feeling just a bit uncomfortable these days. It is nice that they actually have links to information on the disease from their site, since it must be the first place people hit when the panic sets in.

Ya Hala

Brooke and I will be attending “Ya Hala… A Festival of Canadian Arab Culture” at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto this Sunday. This must have been planned for months, but it seems that right now, more than ever, we should be trying to support our Arab-Canadian community. Most of us know so little about the rest of the world, and this is a great opportunity in our own city. Any other Toronto folks should come down as well. It’s free, too!

And, bad James, I have been meaning to talk a bit about the GTABloggers group that is being put together by Rannie Turingan. I haven’t yet met Rannie, but I already like him. Our first group gathering is this Saturday night for, gasp, bowling. We’ll be doing the American-style bowling, not the sleeker Canadian version, but come on out. Email me for details.

Movable Type

I’ve just installed Movable Type on some webspace kindly donated by James “Designweenie” Spahr. For those who haven’t heard, it’s a weblog content management system that is hosted on your own server, rather than somewhere else, the way Blogger is, for instance. So far I’m impressed. I hope to do some serious fooling around with it in the next few weeks, but if you’re comfortable with CGI scripts (and your webhost allows you to use them), check it out. (Update: 6/02 – I’ve officially transferred everything over to Movable Type at the regular URL. The above linked space has nothing of interest on it, but thanks James for letting me play!)

Citizen Kane

Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend, so maybe I’ll finally be able to catch up on my blog reading and posting. That is, if I finish the two articles and two web sites I’m working on. Ah, freelance! Brooke and I watched Citizen Kane last night. Of course, it was amazing. The lighting and camera work were years ahead of their time, at least for an American film. And Orson Welles. Well, it just makes me sad to think he ended up selling bad California wine. Maybe he should have stuck to the theatre. The DVD is excellent, the picture and sound are at their best, and the inclusion of the documentary The Battle Over Citizen Kane is an added bonus. So what do you think? Is it the greatest American film ever made?