A Day, A Week, Hemant, A Year

The 6th annual Team Dream Golf Getaway was held a couple weeks ago at the Elk Ridge Resort in northern Saskatchewan near Waskesiu. This was the second time that I have attended this weekend that is filled with golf and all types of shenanigans. Last year I took a quite a few pictures to document the trip, but this year I shot a lot of digital video in its place.

I was able to get quite a bit of footage and have cut together a short film that you can view below. I have also included links to download some higher quality versions of the video that you can find below as well. Enjoy, and I would appreciate any comments that you have.

Note : the film contains a small amount of explicit language.

• Small Download 87 MB (360×240 Windows Media)
• Large Download 284 MB (540×360 Windows Media)

Since I watch so many movies and am constantly asked, “if I’ve seen anything good lately”, I decided to create a blog where I can post some quick and dirty reviews. I generally watch between three and five movies a week, and I hope to post a review of each of them right after the viewing. This sounds like a big commitment, but I think I can do it.

You can visit the site by going to filmmuser.com.  You can also subscribe to the posts through this RSS feed, or by entering your email address here.

While at the NBC studios we had an exciting moment with a possible celebrity sighting. A cry went out that was believed to be, “Look, it’s Ted Danson”.

There was clear disappointment in the car when it turned out the call was actually, “Look, it’s a chic dancin’.”

Since we had so much “fun” on Thursday night at The Magic Castle, we really didn’t think we could handle any more “fun” at a wine tasting in Temcula so we decided to just take it easy and do some shopping and see a movie. In the morning, Ryan and I went out to a nearby basketball court and played some hoops. We played some one-on-one, 21, and ran some shooting and post drills.

In the afternoon we went to a mall in the area and grabbed something to eat in the food court before going to see Grindhouse. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but it was pretty long, so be prepared. It’s almost three and a half hours long. After the movie I wanted to buy some clothes so we went to the Quicksilver store and I loaded up. I’m not sure I’ll have enough room in my suitcase to hold everything.

Since we wanted to try and see The Tonight Show again on Thursday, Ryan, Connie and I were on the road by 8:00 and hit the NBC studio by 8:30. But once again all we could get was standby tickets. We decided we would give it a try today anyway, since this would probably be our last chance to see it. We had to be back to the studio by 3:30 since taping was at 4:30.

From Studio City we made our way to Hollywood. It was pretty hazy out so you couldn’t see the sign in the mountains. We walked down the Hollywood Walk of Fame and made our way down to Mann’s Chinese Theater. We looked for some key stars and ‘hand and feet’ prints such as the cast of Star Trek, Harrison Ford, and the characters of Star Wars.

Connie needed a dress for our evening at The Magic Castle so we spent some time at a mall called The Grove. After we finished up we headed back to the car and toured around some of the more affluent areas such as Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive. There are definitely some impressive houses and properties to see in the Hills. We are pretty sure we saw at least one famous person’s house since there was a star tour bus in front of it and all of the passengers were taking pictures of it. We drove down Rodeo Drive, but didn’t have enough courage to actually go into any of the prestigious shops.

We had lunch at Canter’s, a famous L.A. deli / diner. I had a Fairfax sandwich that has a ton of corned beef and pastrami on it. It was good.

We killed some time before heading back to the NBC studio to get in line for The Tonight Show. There were a ton of people already lined up so we checked in with the other standby people. After about fifteen minutes the standby people were told to go join the lineups. There was a group that was entering the studio and we were told that they were special guests of Jay Leno’s. You’d expect there to be about ten or so guests. Nope, there were about one hundred. Jay has lots of friends.

There were pages armed with walkie-talkies walking up and down the line counting each person. But whenever they were asked how many people could fit in the studio, they would always claim that no one knew exactly how many could fit or how many would get in. So we’re not really sure what they were counting for. We just wanted to know whether we were getting in or not so we didn’t have to waste our time in line, but the pages loved their “power” and would give information to no one.

Shortly before 4:30 one of the pages informed us that no one with standby tickets would be getting in today. It was obviously disappointing that we would not get to see the show, but what really cheesed us off was that we didn’t need to wake up so early, and could have still accomplished the stuff we wanted to do. The one upside of not getting in was that we would not be rushed, or more likely late in getting to The Magic Castle.

There is a dress code for The Magic Castle and I didn’t bring a suit in my luggage. Luckily Ryan had a suit that fit me so we were in business. Since we didn’t want to be stuck in formal wear all day we ended up getting dressed in a parking lot on Hollywood Boulevard in the back of the car. The paparazzi only managed to get one shot.

We only had four blocks to drive, but it was rush-hour and it ended up taking nearly forty-five minutes to get there. It was insane, and funny at the same time, but we still arrived at the castle in time. Here’s a little description of what The Magic Castle is all about.

The Magic Castle is the private clubhouse for the Academy of Magical Arts, Inc, a very special organization devoted to the advancement of the ancient art of magic. The purpose of The Academy is to encourage and promote public interest in the art of magic with particular emphasis on preserving its history as an art form, entertainment medium, and hobby. Beginning with a charter membership of 150, the Academy has grown into a world-renowned fraternal organization with a membership of nearly 5,000.

You can only get into The Magic Castle if you are a member or if you are invited. At a previous visit with some co-workers, Ryan was invited back by one of the members. The castle is an old mansion with a restaurant and rooms for magic performances. There was also a haunted piano that played by itself, and took requests. We asked it to play Moonlight Sonata and the theme from Cheers.

The first show we saw after dinner was a close-up performance. In these shows there are 22 people in a small room and you are extremely close to the magician. The performer focussed heavily on coin tricks and it was real cool seeing it up close. Right after this performance we went to the main room which actually had a stage, and was a more typical magic show with lights, music, and all of that jazz. The room held about 100 people, but was still not very big. We sat right at the front.

The first magician in this room performed with his wife and was incredible. This is probably the best magic I have ever seen live, or on TV. It was so weird seeing this stuff from so close up. It really blew our minds. I participated in a card trick where the magician’s daughter picked a card I chose. She was about 2. His finale included him making his wife disappear while levitating under a sheet. He was wearing a vampire cape and wrapped himself completely up in it. When he opened it up, it was not him, but his wife wearing the cape. He was somehow at the back of the room.

The second guy in this room had a lot of humour in his act and was awesome as well, but I definitely preferred the first guy. Throughout the night we saw another close-up performance and 2 Prestidigitation performances. One of the more impressive tricks was when a magician had a person from the audience circle the page number and the headline of any story from a newspaper with a red marker. He opened up an envelope and had a xeroxed copy of that exact page - with the red marks. It was unreal.

We finished up at about midnight and headed back home. All I can say is that The Magic Castle is easily one of the greatest things I have ever seen. It’s one thing seeing these illusions on TV, but seeing them up close and personal is incredible. This may end up being the highlight of the whole trip. You can see more pictures of the day here.

I wanted to do some experimenting with video editing, but didn’t really have a theme to work on. So I thought I would throw together a quick video tour of my condo - not the most intellectual or ground-breaking film, but it was fun to produce, nonetheless. I also thought it would be cool to give my friends and family who live far away the opportunity to see where I live.

So sit back, grab some popcorn, and hit play.

Being a huge film fan, I always look forward to the Academy Awards each year. I usually do a pretty good job of seeing most of the movies prior the the show, but this year I didn’t hold up to my usual standards - I just didn’t get out to the movies as much since I’ve been back in Saskatoon (but probably still way more than most normal people).

This year Curtis and Nikki watched the awards show with me, and we decided to fill out the ballots for each category, picking who each of us thought would win. There was nothing at stake other than our honour and bragging rights. I went into the match with a pretty decent knowledge of what films were creating the most Oscar buzz, and I felt this was going to give me the leverage to take the competition.

Curtis and I started off neck and neck during the early portion of the show, while Nikki must have thought we were watching the Grammy Awards, based on her score throughout the evening. About mid-show my vast film knowledge started to really shine as I pulled away from the pack. As the night wrapped up, I ended up with 50%, correctly predicting 12 of the 24 awards. Curtis ended up with a respectable 9 correct, and Nikki brought up the rear with 5 out of 24.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the awards show and I felt that Ellen did a solid job of hosting - she’s a funny gal. I was happy that Al Gore got the Oscar for ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ - that documentary was a real eye-opener and will hopefully start to get the ball rolling on some new environmental policies - and it may be what Al needs to make a run for the 2008 Democratic nomination. It was also good to see Martin Scorsese finally get the directorial nod for ‘The Departed’.

“Myself. I ride for myself”. Some of you may remember the BMX themed movie from 1986 called Rad. It was one of my favourite movies as a child, and was one of the main reasons why I got into BMX at the time. For those of you who have never seen this movie (or heard of it, for that matter), I’ve provided a brief synopsis that appeared on the back cover of the VHS release.

Cru Jones is the best BMX biker in Cochrane. He’s got the talent to become the best BMX daredevil in the world. As the local paperboy, he jumps, spins, twists, and flips his bike with amazing ability. Bart Conner is the best BMX biker in the world, and he’s in town to race for the $100,000 HELLTRACK competition, the most grueling BMX race in history. Cru wants a hot at winning the title, but his mom, Talia Shire, insists he take his college entrance exams which fall on the same day. For the first time in his life, Cru has to make his own decisions. He decides to go for Helltrack, but Jack Weston the race promoter, has a dirty scheme for keeping the local whiz kid out of the race and away from his prized champion. Only the gorgeous Lori Loughlin, a member of the opposite team, can get Allen on track for Helltrack! And teach him a few other things while she’s at it!

I used to have a copy of this movie (actually a copy of a copy of a copy) on VHS that I probably watched well over a hundred times. Many of the hot BMX pros of the time were in the movie as stunt doubles, and many also had bit parts. I spent many hours trying to mimic the tricks that they performed in the movie. Over the past five years or so I have been trying to buy this movie on DVD (or even VHS) just so I could experience its magic again. It seems you can’t even find it to rent anywhere.

As it turns out, the movie has been out of print for sometime, and is no longer available from Embassy Home Entertainment. With such news there wasn’t much I could do - I had hit a wall. Then out of nowhere, my buddy Kipp instant messages me with a trivia question asking me what movie this quote was from.

“Myself. I ride for myself”

Since I was able to recite this movie line-by-line at one point in my life, it was an easy question for me to answer. I replied, “Rad”. Then after complaining that he too can not find the movie anywhere, Kipp informed me that there was an online petition to get the movie released on DVD. I immediately signed it even though I’m pretty sure it isn’t going to have any real effect.

But just in case, I urge you all to sign the petition here. You never know. And if the petition does actually work, all I can say is, “Hulk Hogan, eat your heart out!”

Anyone who knows me would probably tell you that I am a pretty big movie buff. I generally like all types of movies - action, horror, sci-fi, documentary, foreign, and yes, even romantic comedies. I prefer to see films at the theatre, but since Saskatoon has pretty lame ones, I’ve been missing out on that experience a bit since I moved back. Thankfully I also have a fairly decent home theatre setup that let’s me enjoy films in the comfort of my home.

Despite my love for seeing movies on the big screen, I rent a LOT of movies. I’ve tried to rent movies with my friends, and we literally cannot find ones worth renting that I haven’t already seen. While living in Guelph, I was probably Blockbuster’s best customer - seriously. The entire staff knew me by name - which I guess could be a little emabarassing, since they probably figured I didn’t have much of a life. When I got back to Saskatoon, my movie renting habit continued - and my movie spending continued to sky-rocket. I figured there had to be something better out there (that is, beyond pirating movies off of the internet).

The United States has had a service for some time called NetFlix, which essentially lets you rent movies over the internet, and have them delivered in the mail. Recently, Canada had such a service introduced called Zip.ca (on a sidenote, my cousin actually developed Zip, and my mother helped ‘beta test’ the mailing service since she worked for Canada Post at the time). I had known about this service since it was introduced, but I never took the plunge into signing up until last month. Zip defines themselves as follows:

Zip.ca is Canada’s largest online video service. We offer members access to an ever-growing DVD library of over 51,000 titles. Our convenient membership service combines a simple title-selection process, no due dates or late fees, and quick home-delivery.

There is a number of different packages you can choose from. The one I chose is $24.95 per month and I can have four rentals out at a time. After eleven rentals in a month, I get charged $2.95 per rental for shipping. I can’t see myself exceeding this limit, even though I will probably use the full eleven rentals. So, from a monetary standpoint, I’m saving a lot of money.

It’s pretty simple how it works. You have a ZipList where you add titles you’d like to rent. You simply browse through the inventory, and click the ‘rent’ button to add them to your ZipList. It’s pretty straight forward. You can also prioritize the order that you would prefer movies to be sent to you, but I’m not sure how much weight this actually has. As movies are shipped to you, your ZipList shows the date they were shipped, and the estimated arrival date. When you receive the movies, they include a postage paid envelope you use to mail back to Zip. It’s all quite slick.

After being a Zip member for about a month now, here’s my feelings.

• It’s difficult to receive new releases. I’m tending to get a lot of the older releases sent to me. Some of them are actually showing on my movie cable channels.
• I’m a little worried if I’ll receive new releases in a reasonable amount of time. I generally can go to Rogers or Blockbuster and rent a brand new release, when I want. Do I really want to wait a month? Two months? - to receive a new release? I don’t know if that will be the case since I’ve only been on board for a month. I’ll have to evaluate this as time goes on.
• It’s good that all movies on Zip are in widescreen format.
• Some movies are available in Blu-ray format, which is cool (but I don’t have a player to view them).
• A great money-saver.

Something else I’d like to mention, that I’m really unhappy with, happened recently. “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” was supposedly shipped to me on July 27, and had an estimated arrival date of July 31st. I never received it. I reported this via the Zip site - which they classified as a stolen DVD. Despite the fact that I didn’t recieve the movie, it still is showing as being in my possesion, thus limiting me to three rented DVDs, rather than four. I opened a ticket with Zip about this, and they informed me that stolen DVD investigations can take up to 21 days, and that rental slot will only become available when it is resolved. Weak.

All-in-all, I really like the convenience of renting movies from my computer, whenever I want, and the money-saving possibilities are incredible. It may be too early however, to fully evaluate if this service is for me. The downfalls I have identified will probably be a deal-breaker if they tend to be the norm. I really hope that members are given priority, based on their standing, such as frequency of rentals and speed of returns. If that’s the case, I think I may rank quite high, since I see myself using this service exclusively, and tend to watch the movies as soon as I receive them, mailing them back the next day. Hopefully they don’t assume I’m just copying and returning them.

Note: Saskatoon’s theatre problems are coming to an end as a new Galaxy Cinema is nearing completion.

I am going to pose a question - was E.T. a Jedi? Some of you may be thinking, WTF? This may sound like an outrageous question with an obvious answer, but there is evidence that he was in fact, a Jedi. Let me take a moment to state my case as to why I would answer this question with an unequivocal ‘yes’.

Srong evidence exists in both ‘Star Wars : The Phantom Menace’ and ‘E.T. The Extra-terrestrial’. Fans with a keen eye would have noticed that E.T.’s race is represented in the Galactic Senate of the Star Wars universe. In ‘Phantom’ this is seen when a motion for a vote of non-confidence is raised during a session of congress. If you haven’t noticed this, look to the bottom left of the screen once the motion is raised.

Such evidence also exists in ‘E.T.’ When E.T. and the kids are out for Hallowe’en in the movie, E.T sees a child dressed up in a Yoda outfit and is drawn towards him, repeatedly saying, ‘home’ and pointing at him. So this would suggest that E.T. recognized Yoda. Obviously he didn’t know Yoda personally since E.T. was set in the late 20th century, and the events of Star Wars took place a long time ago. But it is safe to say that E.T. simply knows of Yoda since he is legendary. It may even be possible that E.T. has communed with Yoda after he became one with the force.

The last piece of evidence is that E.T. clearly has Jedi powers. In the movie he is able to do fantastic stunts such as levitate objects and influence people with his mind. If you ask me, that sounds awfully similar to the Jedi we have seen in the Star Wars movies. The assumption was that all of E.T.’s race had such powers, but now that assumption may not be warranted.

This question is really up for debate since there is no documentation to support the ‘E.T. - Jedi’ theory. I just ask that you open your mind to the possibility. The evidence is there for everyone to see.

As I sit here watching the Toronto Raptors get completely demolished by the Detroit Pistons, I’m tempted to get back to what I have spent the entire day doing. I bit the bullet last night and decided to watch ‘Revenge of the Sith’. There was a couple reasons really; first, neither my parents had seen it and I thought it would be nice to experience it with them; second, I haven’t seen it since at least June, and quite frankly was having withdrawal. Seeing it six times in the theatre clearly can be classified as an addiction.

I woke up this morning excited to get to the bonus features of the ‘Sith’ DVD. The disk is packed full of documentaries, deleted scenes, and other great stuff. I thought I would watch a couple features today and slowly work through the disk during the coming week. Well, lets just say that isn’t going to happen. As I watched the deleted scenes I found myself completely hooked. As I finished of the cut scenes, I moved onto the first documentary, then the next, then the next, and so on. Everything on this disk is completely fabulous.

The deleted scenes have been completed just for the DVD as if they were left in the movie. The side story that was cut of Padme, Bail Organa, and Mon Mothma conspiring to start the Rebel Alliance would have been cool to see in the final film, but I do understand Lucas’s reasons to leaving them out.

The highlight of the disc is the full-length documentary ‘Within a Minute’ that follows the complete production of 49 seconds of the final battle between Vader and Obi-Wan including everything from the catering team providing food to the crew to the guys at ILM putting together the digital shots. Something like 70,000 man-hours was put into this 49 second clip and you really get a sense of the scale of this movie.

Once I made my way through the rest of the bonus features, I decided I couldn’t stop there. I threw the first disk back in and watched the movie again with the audio commentary by George Lucas, Rick McCallum, Rob Coleman, John Knoll, and Roger Guyett. I love the audio commentaries on DVDs that are done properly. Sometimes you get a bunch of fluff and nonsense, not getting any real information or insight into the movie. ‘Sith’ definitely delivers giving you some great information including everything from backstory to pointing out a kitchen sink flying into a space cruiser.

Now that I have completely exhausted everything on this fine DVD I am now left feeling anxious to view everything on my home theatre system. Seeing the movie again definitely was sweet, but it just doesn’t do it justice when watching it on such a small screen with weak sound. This movie is big and is meant to be experienced in a big way. Since my abode isn’t going to be set up for another three weeks I guess I can look forward to watching my Raptors this NBA season. And as they are currently down by 31 points with just a few seconds left, I can definitely say that watching the Raps is not going to be as enjoyable as watching ‘Star Wars’. Hey, what can I say? Sith happens.

I missed Blogging for the last couple days due to my current dilemma of not really having an address. On Tuesday I felt a great disturbance in the force and decided I better stay in Saskatoon. I managed to get a hold of Jason and Cheryl and they were generous enough to take me in for the night. Right out of the office I headed for Futureshop since the greatest movie in the history of movies was released on DVD that day - ‘Star Wars : Revenge of the Sith’. I had been waiting for that day for quite some time, and now the complete saga is in my possession - furthering my journey to unstoppability.

Once again my Jedi senses paid off - Wednesday morning was brutal due to snow and freezing rain. That could have made for treacherous drive. As the day neared a finish fatigue had set in, killing my desire to drive back to Wilkie, plus the Toronto Raptors season opener was only an hour away (Wilkie was at least 90 minutes away - you see the problem). Once again I placed a call to my billets and they graciously obliged to take me in. The Raps game was good, even though they picked up a loss.

Thursday at the office was good as I continue to settle into my new job. Day’s end arrived and I found myself back in Wilkie. As I was unloading my car the last thing I grabbed was the unopened ‘Episode III’ DVD I had bought only two days ago. At this moment I found myself in a serious predicament - do I watch this fine piece of cinema on my father’s 27 inch bargain television with stereo sound, or do I wait another month to watch it in proper fashion on my 50 inch LCD rear project Grand Wega television in glorious 6.1 digital surround sound? What would the Jedi Council suggest?