Tag: schedule

VIFF is love

The Vancouver International Film Festival kicks off this week, running from September 30 – October 15. I haven’t given the VIFF Film Guide & Schedule my usual care this year, but I’ve managed to find a number of interesting films through word of mouth, with thanks especially to Andrew and Keith. If there’s anything you think I might fancy that I don’t have listed, please feel free to make suggestions.

Sat, Oct 2nd: Win/Win, 10:45 am, Empire Granville. The 4th Revolution – Energy Autonomy, 10:45 am, Pacific Cinematheque. The Red Chapel, 12:30 pm, Empire Granville, (rush only). Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and The Magnetic Fields, 9:45 pm, Empire Granville.
Sun, Oct 3rd: The Red Chapel, 10:45 am, Pacific Cinematheque. The Sleeping Beauty, 6:40pm, Empire Granville.
Mon, Oct 4th: Ride, Rise, Roar, 9:30 pm, Empire Granville.
Tue, Oct 5th: Turn It Loose, 1:15 pm, Empire Granville. Into Eternity, 3 pm, Empire Granville.
Wed, Oct 6th: The Sleeping Beauty, 10:30am, Empire Granville. Transfer, 9:15 pm, Empire Granville.
Thu, Oct 7th: Transfer, 1:15 pm, Empire Granville. The Sleeping Beauty, 4:15pm, Empire Granville.
Fri, Oct 8th: Into Eternity, 1:50 pm, Empire Granville. Win/Win, 4:00 pm, Empire Granville.
Sat, Oct 9th: My Words, My Lies – My Love, 9:00 pm, Empire Granville. Into Eternity, 9:30 pm, Vancity Theatre.
Sun, Oct 10th: Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and The Magnetic Fields, 11:00 am, Vancity Theater. Ride, Rise, Roar, 2:30 pm, Empire Granville.
Mon, Oct 11th: My Words, My Lies – My Love, 3:00 pm, Park Theater.
Tue, Oct 12th: Ride, Rise, Roar, 6:40 pm, Empire Granville.
Thu, Oct 14th: The 4th Revolution – Energy Autonomy, 9:30 pm, Empire Granville.
Fri, Oct 15th: The 4th Revolution – Energy Autonomy, noon, Empire Granville. The Illusionist, 9:45, Empire Granville.

Of everything listed, the one I’m most invested in is The Illusionist, a film I’ve been enchanted with since the trailer leaked on-line last spring. “Based on an unfilmed screenplay by Jacques Tati, Sylvain Chomet’s animated follow-up to his worldwide triumph The Triplets of Belleville is a less manic and even more beautifully realized story of a down-on-his-luck magician in the 1950s and the young girl who is innocent enough to be spellbound by his talents. A true gem of whimsy and melancholy, graced by an extraordinary musical score.”

this weekend’s supposed schedule

If you’ve had the good fortune to see any of these, tell us how it was! We’ve got a lot of maybe’s on our list, and a few we’re deciding between, so information’s appreciated.

Friday

5:00 MEET THE FILMMAKERS: TRIMPIN + PETER ESMONDE in conversation with JEAN ROUTHIER Pacific Cinémathèque

9:30 pm Trimpin: The Sound of Invention (A documentary on one of my mother’s friends). "Peter Esmonde and Trimpin–with a sculpture for temporary exhibition in the Vancouver International Film Centre–will be in attendance for our Thanksgiving weekend screenings!" Vancity Theatre

Saturday

12:30 am Kimjongilia Empire Granville 7 Th 5

2:10 pm Splinters Empire Granville 7 Th 6

?? – Salt in Blood Alley

7 pm – Michael’s birthday dinner

9:15 pm Will Not Stop There Empire Granville 7 Th 3 (tentative)

?? – Frank’s birthday movie-night

Sunday

12:20 The Exploding Girl Empire Granville 7 Th 1 (tentative)

1:15 NFB 70th Anniversary Program Pacific Cinémathèque (tentative)

4:00 Canary Pacific Cinémathèque

6:10 Everyone Else Empire Granville 7 Th 3 (tentative)

9:15 Bluebeard Empire Granville 7 Th 2 (tentative)

9:15 Police, Adjective Empire Granville 7 Th 3 (tentative)

Monday

11:30 – Breakfast at Havana’s

1:20 Mother Visa Screening Room
@ Empire Granville Th7

4:20 Nora’s Will Empire Granville 7 Th 2 (tentative)

6:20 North Empire Granville 7 Th 4

8:45 Punching the Clown Empire Granville 7 Th 2 (tentative)

9:15 La Pivellina Empire Granville 7 Th 3 (tentative)

Please join us for any of these fine events!

I’m not going to Seattle this weekend, surprise, because, gloriously, it is time to VIFF!

The Vancouver International Film Festival kicked off yesterday, (Oct 1 – Oct 16), and I though I considered leaving town, it’s the most fun you can have in Vancouver whilst only sitting on your ass. I’d be a fool to miss out. This is the schedule Tony and I cobbled together for our weekend glued to chairs and the silver screen, mowing down endless tubs of candy and greasy popcorn, only occasionally blinking in the hateful light of this-thing-you-call-the-outside as we quest for more substantial food than the traditional yet truly terrible movie theater hot-dogs.

More to come later in the week, as this thing runs until the 16th and I’ll be damned if I only go for three days.

Friday, October 2

9:15pm – The Great Contemporary Art Bubble
Empire Granville 7 Th 1

Saturday, October 3

11:30 pm – Delicious breakfast
Havana’s on Commercial Dr.

1:30 pm – Soundtrack for a Revolution
Empire Granville 7 Th 2

4:15pm – Castaway on the Moon
Visa Screening Room, @ Empire Granville Th7

6:00-ish – Birthday dinner with Mishka
place as yet to be determined

?? – Delicious meat & wine & cheese
Blood Alley’s SALT.

9:00 pm – Forbidden Door
Empire Granville 7 Th 3

Sunday, October 4

10:30am – Will Not Stop There
Visa Screening Room @ Empire Granville Th7

1:00pm – The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Empire Granville Th7 (tickets are RUSH aka At The Door Only. We’ll have to line up eaarly)

4:00pm – Air Doll
Visa Screening Room @ Empire Granville Th7

6:20pm – The Girl
Empire Granville 7 Th 4

9:15pm – Face
Visa Screening Room @ Empire Granville Th7

sleep: not only for the weak


Taking in the Laundry, painted steel, 140cm x 90cm, 2009, by Barcelona sculptor Frank Plant

Went for lunch with a game designer stranger I met on the bus today. It was a bit odd, trying to be social through a mad haze of sleeplessness with someone I’ve never met before, but it was nice, too, to know that even when I’m this wiped out, I can introduce myself with enough panache not to be immediately written off as a vaguely hyperactive nutcase.

The last few weeks have been deliciously fun, yet exhausting and murderous. CanSec leading into the Juno’s? I’m slaughtered, especially given as nothing’s let up. My planned sleepy Sunday, for instance. Lung called at noon, and even that was too early for me to want to wake up after the crazy open bar soiree at The Lift on Saturday evening. I had to, though, to make sure I made it out to Slickety Jim’s for brunch with Emerson. I would have died all over again if I had missed that. Then, banking on an energy drink to win over my four hours sleep, Lung and I went hiking around the Twilight filming at Whytecliff park out by Horseshoe Bay until it was time to drop me off back at Kingsway and Broadway to meet with David and Pia for a bit of birthday-ing on Main before heading over to the Batcave, a dirty whirlwind, to retrieve my hostage bikini, (a failed mission), and try to relieve Dragos of the last of the CanSec supplies, (also a fail, but less so). Given the party, I don’t think I would have made it home if it weren’t for a surprise ride home from Richard, for which I am so obscenely grateful I should give him a pie, (hear that Richard, a pie! E-mail me to collect!), but even so, I don’t think I got to bed until somewhere around the vicinity of two or three.

Given my plans for the next few weeks, I suspect most days are going to feel like that. Busy as busy can be while still having fun. Somewhere in there, I have to cram in more work on getting my computer back up, sifting through photos, and spending time writing. Tonight, somehow, I don’t seem to have plans, but mercy, I am sure by the time I get home that will have changed. It doesn’t rain but it pours.

richard has the best grin on the planet

“The music business is a cruel and shallow trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men lie like dogs. There is also the negative side.”

-Hunter S. Thompson

I assumed, somewhat foolishly, that when Cansec was over, I’d get to rest, have a space to breathe. Apparently not. I just took a minute to chart out my next few weeks with a calendar in front of me and realized my weekends for the next month have already been assigned.

This weekend I’m going to the Juno‘s for work, bringing David along for his birthday. Next weekend, April 4-5, I’m going over to Victoria. The weekend after that, April 11-12, I’m going to be in Seattle ghosting Norwescon. The weekend after that, April 18-19, I’m again in Victoria with Ray, Nicole, and maybe Wayne to drop in on Esme and Nicholas, who has a gig. Then again the weekend after that, April 25-16, for his next gig, playing strip-club funk at Monty’s, and, even more bizarrely, for the grand opening of the Victoria Lawn Bowling Club, which has apparently been completely taken over by oddball hacker friends who all wanted a shot at the Olympics and free downtown parking.

Given this sort of schedule, I’m not sure when I intend to eventually sleep. Perhaps when I’m dead. Or better, when I’m dancing. Mercy knows I need the exercise, given how erratically/oddly I’ve been eating. First there came the week of meat, then the weekend of ice-cream breakfasts topped with chocolate and raspberry liqueur. Nothing I would ever complain about, though I am beginning to forget what a vegetable looks like, except that now that I’m not continually on my feet, all I want to do is sort of laze around until my break down the door weekends, an option that, though attractive, will simply Not Do. So, given that I work nine to five, and Tuesdays are Secret Film School, who wants to go swimming?

you make me feel so happy, so real. you beautiful moment in my life, as we wrinkle in time, so let’s stretch this thing out

we could build a comfier version

“Who’s got the ball…I’ve got the ball..”.

In a bit of a gravestone triumph, I’ve got reliable work in the week upcoming, but only because a friend’s mother has caught thick with cancer and, as she flies north to take care, her absence creates empty shifts at the Dance Centre. I’m going to be spending next Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings there. Time will go by slowly. Visitors with, say, cupcakes, juice, bags of frozen vegetables, cheesecake or turkey sandwiches and especially delicious books will be met with especially slavering open arms. Bonus points for [CENSORED-edt] with red.

More on Baudrillard.

For those who like philosophy, there are two plays coming you should take a gander at, (not to, if you have a goose you want to abandon somewhere, I suggest my freezer. furthering the thought I should have scrounged more food earlier):

Kyle! As! Miami Vice!

Our resident Official Thinker-Person, Michael, is going to see Socrates on Trial, March 14th at 7:30, at the Chan Center. Tickets are $12, $5 for students. It’s a short run, only two nights, with a talk-back after the show on Thursday. Tickets can be bought at the door, unless you’re a keener, in which case you deserve the woes of Ticketmaster. Go with my blessing. I’m not going to be there, not being much a fan of Socrates, but Michael will be and he is cute and single. Kyle (as seen on the left) will also be going, but he is less single, so not as much a draw, though he does recite dirty poetry about otherkin dragons furries and in return for taking nice pictures of him, he’ll write horrible plageristic things about you and chocolate pudding in Mike McGee’s voice. He’s a dear. Honest. We’re only at war when the dessert supplies run low.

The second play is Bertolt Brecht’s Life of Galileo, running March 29th to April 14th, at The Western Front. Tickets are $20, $15 on discount, $10 on 2-for-1 Tuesday. Mimi is stage manager, our friend Peter New is in the lead, and Sam‘s playing, um, something with a slightly pretentious title that I don’t actually have the power to recall right now. Needless to say, it’s got a good tag-line: He showed us the universe. The church showed him the rack. Despite the cost, I’m going to try and lure someone into going with me on Tuesday. Peter is always clever, and Sam, well, I haven’t seen Sam act in anything in the last year other than films about creepy black and white priests. In fact, I may have only ever seen him play priests*, so perhaps a different sort of cleric will be a breath of fresh air. (This role may not be that different, but suffice to say, I do not expect they have him singing with a kids toy or a crucifix-in-the-eye scene).

Than is dreamed of in your philosophy…

*I lie, I think he was a skinny opera singer in Lady of the Camillas.

sekrit dinner tonight is at 6:45

Would anyone like a pair of incredibly cute long haired ferrets? I would take them myself, but I’m already well on my way to being a crazy cat-lady. (I’ve even started leash-training mine.)

Over the knee stripy socks and stockings arrived in the mail yesterday. They are just as fun as I’ve always suspected such things would be. Part of my I-missed-out-on-being-a-girl stopped clamouring as soon as I put them on. Now, evidently, those particular brain cells want me to get a skirt that doesn’t go down to my ankles. I am dubious. Confirmation of one suspected good idea does not guarantee another.

THREADLESS is having another ten dollar sale.

To further my angry-at-the-world, various brilliant things are happening simultaneously tonight:

7 PM: Sex Pheromone in Tears: An unusual aspect of courtship in mice. University of Tokyo biochemist Kazushige Touhara gives the 21st annual Linville-Wright lecture on advances in olfactory sciences. SFU Harbour Center. 515 W. Hastings. Free admission. Info 604-291-5100

7 PM: Hope And Fear In Black Rock City. Kryshan Randel screens his short film about one of the most spectacular, creative and inspiring and places on earth. There will be a small donation ($3-5) at the door to help pay for the licensing of music used in the film (enabling them to enter film festivals etc). The Jupiter Lounge, 1216 Davie. Reservations not required.

Later this week:

Cory Doctorow is making an appearance with his talk, The Totalitarian Urge: total information awareness and the cosmic billiards. The lecture is presented by the Faculty of Applied Sciences’ Leonardo Institute, a non-credit graduate program that examines the risks, uncertainties, ethics, and art of applied science.

It will be presented twice:

Thursday March 8 at 6:00pm in the Fletcher Challenge theatre at SFU Vancouver (515 West Hastings St.) Free. Seating has all been reserved.

Friday March 9 at 3:30pm at SFU Burnaby in Academic Quadrangle, C9001. Free. Arrive early to ensure a seat.

for those who didn’t know

Upcoming gigs in Vancouver:

George Clinton with Parliament play Plush on March 4th.

DO MAKE SAY THINK are playing Richards on Richards on March 5th.

The Constantines play The Plaza on April 12th.

Regina Spektor plays the Commodore Ballroom on Saturday, Apr 21. Tickets went on sale today.

The Books play Richards on Richards on April 25th.

Lyrics Born plays The Plaza on Wednesday, April 26.

LCD Soundsystem play the Commodore on May 3rd.

!!! play Richard on Richards on May 4th.

Explosions in the Sky play the Croation Cultural Centre on May 5th.

Peter, Bjorn & John are playing the Commodore on May 12th.

(I only have a ticket to The Books, this is a wish-list / forget-me-not list more than anything else. They’re all going to be wonderful.)

Shane Koyzan’s show at the Cultch is tonight. Duncan and Kyle also plan to be in attendance. I’m still nervous, but not as much. I’m reassuring myself with thoughts of the things I’ve done in that building before. It’s been my playground and stomping grounds since I was six, so it’s an odd list, everything from karaoke to oral sex.

Wednesday Nicole and I are staying in all day and fixing the pretty tile table that has been drying out in my living room. My current plan is to give it to Alastair as thank you for housing Tanith and Tanaquil, who are getting bigger almost every day. Mishi might drop by too, but she’ll have to vanish in time to pick up her little one from school. (Who is apparently ten-ish these days, officially making me feel unfairly old. This is a fact much open to ironic mockery and not just a little bit of serves-me-right.)

Thursday, as much as I adore the lingering fragrance of pure man, I’m throwing over packing for a chance to give Jay his Old-Spice soaked clothing back. (Yes, ladies, that is how I identified it as his.) In the evening will be Andrew and Sara‘s $13 All-You-Can-Eat-Sushi Tampopo birthday party.* Details here.
*Special events, for those interested, are essentially the only way to get me to step foot into a sushi house.

Friday and Saturday are still fairly up in the air, and Sunday, like every Sunday, I’m at the Dance Centre from 3 pm – 9:30.

— FYI — NEWSFLASH —

Burrow is staying with me this weekend. (She just got a new XKCD t-shirt and it being super squealy happy about it). 2 o’clock tomorrow we’re going down to Suspended, Boca Del Lupo’s WinterRuption show at Granville island with Nicole and Duncan.

At four, she’ll be playing bike-polo at Grandview Park, and then we’re going to SinCity in the evening with Wayne.

You are invited to any and all of these things. (Bike polo, obviously, requires a bicycle.)