What's been up with me...
I've got a job! W00t!
That is, another job in addition to the two part-time call centre jobs I already have. A writing job. I now write freelance arts reviews for a minor online publication. It's only $50 an article, but I am getting paid, and it's experience and something to put on my CV. Also, I get paid under the table. Yays.
I haven't written any reviews yet. My first review is going to be of a documentary on Ralph Nader that I'm going to go see tomorrow. It's showing at this new independent theatre downtown. The theatre is really sketchy looking, but it's cool because their mission statement is to show social-issue documentaries that don't get wide theatrical release and aren't easily available in video stores or online. Then after every film they have a facilitated discussion for people who want to talk about it. I've already done an interview with the proprietor, so I'm going to do a write-up about the theatre itself as well as a review of the documentary.
I've already seen two documentaries there (there being the Brunswick Theatre, btw, for any Toronto flisters who maybe interested). One of them was Darwin's Nightmare, which was about Nile Perch in Lake Victoria in Tanzania and all the inter-related issues surrounding it: environmental problems it causes, its economic significance, poverty and famine in Tanzania, street kids, AIDS, prostitution, and the arms trade. One of its central points is that, while Nile Perch is Tanzania's most important export to Europe, for the Russian cargo company that transports it, it's only a front. Their real profit is made smuggling illicit arms into Tanzania, from whence their taken to conflict zones in Africa. It was really quite fascinating. The other was 9/11 Mysteries Part I: Demolitions. That one was basically a conspiracy theory questioning the offical explaination of why the World Trade Towers fell. Some of their theories got kind of far fetched, but they did raise some interesting points and I would recommend the film because it challenges the viewer to question the mainstream media.
Speaking of documentaries, I've also seen Sicko, and I have to say, I can always count on Michael Moore's films to make me grateful to be not-American. There are problems with the Canadian health care system for sure, but people who think we should be following the American model should definitely see Sicko. It's the French we should be trying to emulate instead. Gawd, they have everything. The film itself is definitely well done. Moore has been criticized for being too one-sided, simplifying issues and reying on spectacle. I say who cares. He's aiming at the American public, and he needs to be blunt and emotionally affecting if he's going to get his point across.
I saw Sicko on a date. Yays. It was with another one of David's friends. I'm not really attracted to him, but he's fun and he went to the New York Film School in LA, so he has lots of interesting stories. I'm not going to see him again for a while though because he's visiting his grandfather in Manitoba for a couple of weeks.
I also went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It was okay. It just doesn't come anywhere near the book. It lacks detail and thematic depth. My biggest problem with the Harry Potter movies is that they're treated so much as kids' stories, so they have this really shallow, glossy quality (with the possible exception of Prisoner of Azkaban). They should just be treated as stories, hell with target demographics. What I would really like to see is the BBC do a TV minseries of Harry Potter. Now they would really do the books justice.
The good thing about the movie was that it really put me into a Harry Potter state of mind. I had been relatively aloof about the upcoming release of Deathly Hallows, but now I am totally psyched. Here, one last time, are my own bets on what is going to happen:
(1) Peter Pettigrew is going to redeem himself by saving Harry. That bond between them that Harry created when he saved Pettigrew's life has to pay off and Pettigrew also has to prove himself a Gryffindor.
(2) Snape is not good. He's totally Machiavellian. There's no chance in hell Dumbledore would ever have told anybody to kill anybody.
(3) Draco and Harry will have a truce of sorts.
(4) Harry will walk through the veil in the Department of Mysteries. He will thus "die," but then later return.
Changing the subject to Buffy Season 8, I had been quite disappointed by issue #4, and was thus losing interest. Yesterday, however, my sister showed me the cover for issue #7, and now my interest is totally rekindled. In fact, you might say I am filled with fannish glee. I had actually been trying to keep my expectations for the Giles-content of this arc low so I wouldn't be disappionted, but with the realease of this cover I feel free to anticipate much Gilsey goodness. *hee* I'm even allowing myself to hope that along with cover #2 this will form the beginning of a trend when it comes to Jo Chen's covers. That is, that characters looking sexy on a cover together is a sign of imminent shippiness. It's likely I'm being delusional, but I've started hoping for Faith/Giles and now I can't stop.
I can't believe we have to wait for October to find out what happens! Ugh!