General Life Updates: New Cameras, Articles, Running, Reviews

Life has been hectic lately. Work is out of control and, in addition to my regular job, I’ve also been doing some emergency copy writing, which is really fun, but also a crunch in terms of deadlines. I’ve been powering away at my running. I ran over 10K last week, which was exciting and also encouraging, as I registered for a 10K race at the end of July before I had actually hit that distance successfully and was starting to worry that I had hit a plateau and wouldn’t be able to increase my distance in time. I am starting to develop some tightness in my right calf that I’m worried about, though, and I’m hoping that stretching will keep it from becoming a problem before the race.

The article about the Canadian Club project was finally published in Time Out Chicago last week. It made the front page of the site, which was awesome. I’ve sort of reached a bit of a block while thinking about doing an adbusting blog. I just have a million projects going right now, and the thought of working on all of them at once has left me with no choice but to retreat to the couch to read magazines.

But, in exciting news! My parents came to visit and brought me two old cameras they had found while getting ready to move. One is a Cine-Kodak 8mm camera, which is really cool looking, but unfortunately 8mm film is no longer manufactured. And who can afford to process film anyway?

The other is a Voigtlander Brillant which, miracle of miracles, is a medium format camera that uses 120mm film! Stark and I are going to get the lens cleaned and buy some film for it, and hopefully many photographic adventures will be had.

This weekend is Pride, and I’m hoping I’ll get some good shots of the crowds.

Now, on to some general notes on things I’ve seen and read lately. Not really full reviews, but just for my own future reference:

Movies:
- Juno
- Sweeney Todd
- I’m Not There

Books:
- Persepolis I and II
- After Dark
- Cover Me

Movies

Juno: B+ My expectations were really high for this movie, what with all the acclaim and the Oscar and whatever, so when it wasn’t as incredible as I was led to believe, I was disappointed. It was a bit overly precious, the dialog was trying a bit too hard. The script sounded like it was trying to be Buffy or Dawson’s Creek or a girl version of Kevin Smith, and it had that same stylized sound, but it just didn’t flow as easily and ended up sounding forced. But the soundtrack was great, the cast was great, the set design was great, and mostly everything was great except for a few trite moments and some clunky dialog.

Sweeney Todd: B- Meh. I admit – I am automatically prejudiced against anything having to do with Stephen Sondheim. I just don’t like the man. I think his stories are always too easy, too cliche, too pat. Also, one time I had to listen to the Into the Woods soundtrack on repeat for three months, so… yeah, I developed a bit of a problem. The cast, the effects, the look of this movie, it was all perfect. I just think the story and most of the songs are lame. I can’t help it. Sondheim ::spits::

I’m Not There: A+ This movie was everything I expected it to be and more. Todd Haynes is 3 for 3 in my book. I love his version of the rock biopic. I feel I learned more about Bowie and Dylan, their eras, and their importance from Velvet Goldmine and I’m Not There than I ever did about any of the other musicians featured in all those super-serious three hour biopics. Haynes’ movies are about ideas and feelings and music, not factual minutiae. Also – Cate Blanchett is so hot, I could die happy just having seen her portrayal of Dylan.

Books

Persepolis I and II: A+ I’m so excited to see the movie. Also, I realize that I know pretty much nothing about Iran. These were the best memoirs I read since Fun Home. The graphic memoir is wiping the floor with the regular ol’ book these days.

After Dark: B- Wow, this was just such a disappointment for me. Murakami is my favorite author, and I always have such high expectations for his work, but… meh. I think this might be my least favorite Murakami novel of all time, which is saying a lot, because I remember really disliking South of the Border, West of the Sun. I just couldn’t get into it, it was like a long short story. I also hated that it was told from this impersonal camera viewpoint, not from the perspective of a camera. It just seemed cold and it didn’t really go anywhere.

Cover Me: B I wanted to experience Mariko Tamaki before I saw her talk at Pride, so I read this novel in two days. It was fun. I loved reading about how different Toronto was even ten years ago, when having tattoos on Bay Street was terrifying.