Author: James McNally

What’s Up, Doc?

I’d seen What’s Up, Doc? (1972) on “best of” lists for years, but was always a bit afraid I’d be disappointed. This was Peter Bogdanovich’s homage to the screwball comedies of the 1930s, and these things can be pretty bad in the wrong hands. But I must admit I laughed quite a lot. Barbra Streisand is not my favourite singer in the world, but she’s actually quite a good comic actress. Ryan O’Neal plays the straight man perfectly. But for me, the highlight was watching the hilarious work of the supporting actors, including Madeline Kahn in her first film role, Austin Pendleton (looking an awful lot like Dave Foley from Kids In The Hall), and especially Kenneth Mars. It was also a treat that the setting was San Francisco, and the requisite car chase scene was riotously staged up and down the hills. To top it off, there’s even a jab at O’Neal’s most well-known role in Love Story (1970). The new DVD release has commentaries from Bogdanovich and Streisand, though I didn’t get a chance to listen to those.

Back To Work

I’ve been so reluctant to mention any news from the job front over the past few weeks for fear of jinxing it, but after several weeks of uncertainty, I start a new job, nay, a new career tomorrow.

I’ll be designing and maintaining the web site for the Lifford Wine Agency, who represent some of the most prestigious wineries in the world. Once the site is live, I’ll be shifting my attention to creating from scratch a new marketing initiative to sell wine directly to consumers. This will involve writing monthly email newsletters and coming up with other creative ways to educate consumers about the many many wines that never make it into our local government monopoly wine stores.

It’s going to be a huge challenge and I’m really excited to finally be working at something that will stretch me every day. Thanks to everyone who gave me advice and encouragement over the past few months. You kept my chin up and my eyes open and if it weren’t for you, tomorrow might just be another day.

Jackass: The Movie

Finally rented this. Not being a fan of the TV show, I’d mostly heard about Jackass from friends at my last job. It’s not really a movie, so it’s hard to judge whether it’s “good” or not. The stunts range from gut-bustingly funny to unwatchable, with the majority somewhere in between. Watching it by myself was obviously not as much fun as it would have been with a whole bunch of frat boys, but I still laughed. Brooke flat-out refused to watch it after the first 5 minutes. I guess this kind of humour is strictly a “guy thing”. Strangely, the only thing I could not watch was the paper cuts stunt.

I can’t really pass judgement on this kind of thing, even though it is dumb. There’s something inside all of us (guys, anyway) that just can’t help laughing at stupidity. And if these guys want to risk their lives, or at least their private parts, they’re welcome to it. I’m sure they made an obscene amount of money from this movie, too. But after watching almost 90 minutes of this stuff, I’d had enough. And for a few of the unfortunates in the movie, I suspect they’ve had enough, too.

It was interesting to note some of the surprising (and not-so-surprising) participants in the movie, like Spike Jonze, Lance Bangs (maker of the “Slow Century” documentary about Pavement and married to Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker), Rip Taylor, Henry Rollins, and Tony Hawk.

Proud

This weekend is the Gay Pride celebration here in Toronto. Brooke and I ran yesterday in the Pride and Remembrance 5K, and I just want to share how proud I am of my wife. Nobody works harder, and it paid off as she shaved more than a minute off her previous 5K best (only 3 weeks ago!). As a result, she beat me handily. The full race report can be found in my heretofore private running blog, cleverly entitled A Running Commentary.

Earlier in the week, in a bit of pre-Pride celebration, some GTABloggers gathered at Wilde Oscar’s for drinks. Despite the heat (and the attendant rotting garbage smell from the nearby bins), we had a nice time. Joining us as part of her ALA convention jaunt was the fabulous Jessamyn.

And then Friday, I finally got to meet Neil Lee (who had unsuccessfully tried to find us on Wednesday). Neil is visiting from Winnipeg, and in another amusing “small-world” twist, has a good friend in common with me. The three of us met for a drink in the afternoon that almost stretched into the evening (and would have had I not had some domestic responsibilities). I’m glad to report that Neil is another “online” acquaintance that I’m now proud to count as an “offline” friend.