Author: James McNally

Weekend Purchases

Weekend purchases:

  • The Flashing Lights-Where The Change Is – I know they opened for Sloan on their most recent tour, but thanks go to Jack for turning me on to The Flashing Lights!
  • Galaxie 500-The Portable Galaxie 500 – A selection from their entire 3 CD output, released by Ryko.
  • Withnail and I (DVD) – OK, I gave in. I just got it for a decent price. If Criterion comes out with a better version later, I’ll give this away. More people need to see this film anyway.

I’m starting to get excited about the Toronto International Film Festival. This will be my sixth year going, and I usually see between 10-15 films each year. This is the 25th anniversary year, too. I’ve seen so many good films and also movie stars and directors, too. Last year, Brooke got Ralph Fiennes’ autograph, which made her weak at the knees for about a month. I got John Turturro’s a few years ago, but I’m not much of an autograph hound. I find it embarrassing. I’ll try to report on what good stuff I see, as some of it at least will be released later to wide distribution.

Open Letters

I’ve been reading Open Letters for the past few weeks and I’m really enjoying the writing. Short personal pieces, all fascinating. People are just so interesting. And the site has a novel approach to content. You can read each daily update online, and/or they’ll put them all together in a PDF and email it to you every Sunday. Then you can print the stories out and read them like a real magazine. It’s so obvious, but very cool. I wish Salon would do something like that, although they’re already too big.

I guess I’ll go ahead and link to the Dave Eggers’ interview with The Harvard Advocate just like everyone else has. I’m still waiting to read his book, but I’m really looking forward to it. I just finished Chuck Palahniuk’s Survivor and it was really fascinating, a great satirical novel about consumerism, fame, and packaged “religion.” It did remind me a bit of Paul Theroux’s Millroy the Magician, though. Next, I’m on to Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. Small trivia item here. My girlfriend Brooke talked to Malcolm on the phone at The New Yorker for a story she was doing for the Ryerson Review of Journalism last year. He’s from Canada, you know…

Real Love

I rescued the following from the “journal” that I kept on my site before I started blogging. I think it’s a courageous thing for me to do to post it here. I mean , who else would admit such a thing:

Friday, April 14th 2000 04:30PM

I must be hopelessly in love with b. Of course, I am, but the evidence was never more damning than last night. I actually accompanied her to a, now brace yourself, to a Chris DeBurgh concert. GASP! I’ll let you laugh for a bit. ……….ok, that’s enough! Seriously, can’t say I was EVER a fan, and what does the guy do, but play for THREE HOURS!!! I mean, who does he think he is, Springsteen?! Oh well, I suppose I scored some points and maybe one day when I need company for a Pavement show, or Radiohead, or something, b. will have to sit beside me with the same pained expression on her face as I was wearing for three hours (and more) last night.

Empty Headed?

Wow. Not updating much lately. Am I just empty-headed? Actually, work’s been busy lately. This week, my boss is in Ottawa until probably Wednesday. Does this make James happy, since he is the only other person in the office? Not really. I’m much too easily distracted, and actually feel guilty for being unproductive at work. In happier news, Brooke has started a new job as a fact checker for Canadian Business magazine. Not full time yet, but she’s entered the world of journalism. Way to go, Brookes!

We spent Saturday night at the “Taste of the Danforth” foodfest here in Toronto. Danforth is a mecca of (mostly) Greek restaurants, and you can bet that I was stuffing my face with souvlaki and baklava with the best of them. I love Toronto. Not only can a festival of mostly Greek culture draw over a million people over three days, the crowd is made up of all races and nationalities, showing that multiculturalism actually works.

Long Weekend

This past weekend was a long weekend here in Canada, and so no updates. I saw the Blue Jays beat Texas on Friday, then went to see a band. Last night, I saw the IMAX film about Michael Jordan. It was fun, but clocked in at about 45 minutes long. Not much for $8. Picked up Eric Meyer’s excellent book, Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, which I’m reading for work and for myself. Also picked up some other books, including Survivor, by Chuck Palahniuk, the author of Fight Club, and Volume 1 of the journals of Thomas Merton. I also picked up Triple Play 2001, for my Playstation, which is a fabulous game. It will have to tide me over now that the release of Playstation 2 has been delayed until practically Christmas, at least in Europe. Amazingly, in the spending orgy that was this weekend, I didn’t buy any new music. Unbelievable.

I just downloaded Preview Release 2 of Netscape 6. A little bit faster than PR1 on my Mac, but still feels bloated. My main interest is whether it will be as standards compliant as IE 5 for the Mac. It’s definitely better than the nightmare known as Netscape 4. Has anyone else had any experience with it?