Review: After the Wedding

>I’m about to run off to the airport, but I just had to say something about today’s release (in Toronto) of After the Wedding. Susanne Bier’s masterpiece film, which I had the opportunity to watch at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, falls incontestably in my top ten movies of 2006, and features one of Mads Mikkelsen’s best performances of his career. Admittedly, I’ve always been a fan of Danish cinema, and Bier’s Open Hearts is on my list of films everyone should watch at least once, but it is with After the Wedding that I think mainstream North American audiences will finally see the power of Bier’s work.

Basically the story of a man who returns to Denmark to confront the ghosts of his past, After the Wedding is much more than its plot. The acting and the pacing are exquisite, and this movie is a wonderful way for Susanne Bier to show of her adeptness with both the camera and with the written word. Sure, a lot gets lost if you don’t speak Danish or Swedish and are left to read subtitles, but even then you get a glimpse of the intricate craftsmanship that went into making this film.

I was scared that After the Wedding wouldn’t get a limited release here in Canada, but now that it is screening in Toronto and other select theaters across North America, I strongly urge you all to go watch the film. And email me while I’m out in Europe and let me know what you thought. I’ll need something to pass the time in the lonely hotel nights.

Facebook Has A New Look

Most of you that are members on Facebook — which is almost everyone I know — have realized by now that the popular social networking site has released a bunch of new changes to their look to make the site more visually appealing and easier to navigate. Judging from the overwhelming majority of status messages I saw yesterday, the shift to the new navigation wasn’t all too intuitive for a large portion of users.

That being said, I do think that the new look for Facebook is nice, and the new site architecture and navigation structure makes sense. People are just wary of change. In general, it sure looks like a whole lot of thought has been put into the development of the new look, and pretty much every change they’ve made that I can think of is relatively positive. Except for one.

My new beef with Facebook is in how they are managing the reply box for messages in your inbox. As you can see by the image below, after typing your message reply, you’re faced with three options: Send, Back to Inbox, or Delete this Thread.

Now, I know this may be a petty concern and doesn’t really matter to most people, but what I can’t understand is why “Back to Inbox” is getting the same primacy on the page as the “Send” button. If someone has gone through the effort of typing out a reply, they are most likely going to be looking for some kind of ‘submit’ button to send out that reply. They’ve done the right thing by making the ‘delete’ option small and unobtrusive, but I argue that by placing the ‘cancel’ option so close to the “Send” button, they are going to have a lot of angry people who will lose their long replies.

My suggestion: move it below the main interactive area, or above the text entry. Just anywhere away from the “Send” button. And my rant for the day ends there.

Dreaming Open Cities

This post has been sitting in my drafts folder for the past month or so, and I’m not sure I can truly do it any justice, but I really wanted to share the link, so hence this incomplete, badly-thrown-together post.

I’m not quite sure where I first discovered the Open Cities project, but I’m glad I did. I’ll let you discover more about the project on the wiki because I’m not sure I can do it justice, so do go and visit the site. I’ve contacted Mark and a few other people who are involved with the project, so if anyone happens to get back to me, I promise to update this post accordingly.

All that being said, there’s a page on the wiki that is called Dreaming Open Cities that asks: “When we say ‘open cities’ what does it make you dream? What does open mean in a community context, a city context and a global context?”

Tough question indeed. Luckily, our city is filled with remarkably astute individuals, like the awesome Lori Kufner:

I dream of a city where fun, creativity, and work are all the same thing; a city of believers of magic and those who make dreams come true for themselves and others. People making up a global culture integrating technology, art and community, learning and teaching simultaneously.

Or like the percipient David Eaves:

I dream of a city where the physical, technological and political infrastructure enables citizens to create their own projects or contribute to those that are ongoing — be they private, public or non-profit. Where decision making is as flat as and transparent as possible so that an Open City both nourishes and draws from its most valuable resource: its citizens.

Or my friend — and one of the best spoken word poets in the city — Mike Smith:

Openness: horizontality. mutability. creativity. mobility. flexibility. replicability. responsibility. transparency. intimacy.
Open city: a self-aware city, a city of feedback, where democracy is a verb, its etymology open for revision. Where all citizens have access, and where citizen means only that: living in a city.
A city of ferment, which reacts to threats by relaxing, not tensing. Civic judo.
An erosion of distinction between government and governed, economy and culture, have and have-not, I and The Other. Public spaces, decision-making processes, and doors to decent housing, sustainable transit, and meaningful work open to all.
A city of networks, not pyramids. A city of a thousand city halls.

Hard to follow up on great answers like that, so here’s my brief, one-sentence, attempt at dreaming of my open city:

I dream of a city where we are not only encouraged to be who we want to be, but where our differences are celebrated and harnessed to create a culture of sharing and co-discovery; a city where people do, say, and experience things not because they have to, but because they want to.

Yeah, a bit corny, I know. I’m sure you can do better, so hop on the wiki and share your thoughts.

The Travesty of Canadian Mobile Data Rates

You know how I’m always complaining about the horrible mobile service here in Canada? Turns out my whining was founded in fact. A recent post by Thomas Purves details the appalling inadequacy of mobile data access here in Canada:

I would like to say that Canada is a 3rd world country when it comes to Mobile ICT, except you can clearly see from this chart that even *Rwanda* has orders of magnitude better Mobile Data service than Canada.

I’ve recently been looking for a better data plan with Rogers, and I’ve realized that I just can’t afford to buy one right now. When I’m in London, however, I use my data plan without even considering the costs, it’s just that cheap. Here’s the chart that Thomas was referring to.

So while I think we all need to do something to abolish the CRTC — and while we’re at it, we need to do something about Net Neutrality here in Canada as well — I love the way Thomas puts it in his post:

If you live in Canada, write to your MP. The CRTC, as an institution, needs to be taken out and shot.

Not literally of course, as Thomas says, “we are Canadian after all,” but the sentiment is the right one. For more information, check out Thomas’ post. Thanks to Mark for sending this over.

Talib Kweli and Spoken Word

For those of you know that know me well enough, you know that spoken word poetry is a particular passion of mine. There are very few art forms that entrance me like the power of the poet warping his words and playing with language while toying with the aural sensibilities of the audience. And while I do perform my own work from time to time, I much prefer sitting there in the crowd while the masters — Shane Koyczan, Dwayne Morgan, Rives, The Fugitives and more — dazzle me with their lyrical prowess.

So when my friend Nav pointed me to this video of Talib Kweli, one of my favorite rappers, throwing it down at the Def Poetry Jam, I just had to share it with you all. The man speaks the truth in this video.

Kweli’s not the only star that has appeared on Def Poetry Jam — be sure to check out Alicia Keys, Lauryn Hill, Malcolm Jamal-Warner and others — but the true stars of the spoken word scene are the celebrities that are made through their words in performances in places like the Toronto Poetry Slam, The Roots Lounge, and coffee houses near you.

And if you’re in Toronto and interested in finding out more about the spoken word scene, drop me a line and we’ll hit up an open mic night.

Review: Grindhouse

To be brutally honest, I’m not really in the mood to write a film review today, but since I’ve had about twenty people email me asking what I thought of Grindhouse, I figure I might as well write something quickly. Let me preface this review by saying these four things: if you like Quentin Tarantino’s films, go watch Grindhouse; if you like Robert Rodriguez’ films, go watch Grindhouse; if you like both Tarantino’s and Rodriguez’ films, you should be watching Grindhouse right now instead of staring at your computer screen; and if you don’t like either of Rodriguez’ or Tarantino’s films, I really don’t know if I can be your friend anymore.

For those of you that may have missed all the buzz, Grindhouse is essentially a dual-feature where Rodriguez and Tarantino have allowed themselves to have as much as fun as they could possibly have while making a film. Harkening back to the glory days of exploitation film, both directors have packed their movies with enough violence, gore, and sex to scare off even the most hardy viewers unless you go into the theater cognizant of the fact that the directors are in fact making a statement about this kind of cinema rather than simply just creating in the genre. Packed along with Rodriguez’ Planet Terror and Tarantino’s Death Proof are four (five if you’re in Canada) fake trailers directed by some fantastic film-makers: Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright, and Eli Roth. The films and the trailers feature a Hollywood A-list cast, indicative of the fact that when Tarantino and Rodriguez make a movie, even the most pretentious celebrities know it’s going to be a blast.

I won’t talk about the fake trailers anymore, they’re definitely better to be seen and surprised. I will give a few quick thoughts on each feature, but I’ll keep it short. The first part of Grindhouse, Rodriguez’ Planet Terror, is exactly what you’d expect from the director of Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Only this time, Rodriguez doesn’t have to work within the confines of reality, so he packs the film full of ridiculous characters and plotlines, and even “loses” a film reel so we can skip all the boring bits half-way through the movie and get back to the action. There’s a lot of violence, a lot of stupid jokes, the babysitter twins, and Rose McGowan with a gun for a leg. All in all, tons of half-witted B-movie fun. It is Tarantino’s Death Proof, however that makes Grindhouse much more than simply a violent and gory romp: despite the lack of depth of character motivation, Death Proof features writing that makes such a astute statement about this kind of perverse cinema so subtly that you don’t realize that Tarantino is talking at you instead of the movie itself. Easily the strongest part of Grindhouse, this feature will keep you on the edge of your seat and puzzled (in a good way) from the first sight of the babysitter twins (again) to Kurt Russell’s ultimate standoff.

Oh, and Nicholas Cage stars as Fu Manchu. Enough said.

Looking for New Podcasts

I don’t use an MP3 player. If I’m not around my computer, I’m either in my car or in a situation where I shouldn’t be listening to music through headphones, so I really don’t have much use for them. That being said, I still love me some podcasts. I listen to them in the morning as I have my breakfast, in the afternoon as I have my lunch, and sometimes, even before I go to bed at night.

For a long time, the moviesTO podcast was my podcast of choice, but ever since Matt Brown retired from his hosting duties, it just hasn’t been the same for me. So earlier this week, I went through my iTunes list of podcasts, deleted the vast majority of them, and started looking for new sources of podcastainment. Yes, I just made that word up.

Here’s a list of what I am listening to, but what I would really appreciate is further suggestions as to other good shows to subscribe to in the future.

Best of Mike and Mike
Mike and Mike know sports, and if you really want to know everything about the sports world, you have to listen to their show. I’m never around to listen to their show live in the morning, so the podcast is good because it has all the best bits.

1st and 15
Not updated right now since the football season is over, but once those NFL players hit the field, there isn’t anyone that covers them better than Jeremy Green. One of my favorite podcasts ever.

Pardon the Interruption
Most of the time, I try and watch the show live on ESPN, but on the days I miss it, the podcast fills my necessary dose of Wilbon and Kornheiser. Kornheiser may be the funniest man on Earth, and I look a bit like Wilbon. You can’t get much better than that.

MacBreak Weekly
Leo Laporte and his all-star cast give every Mac lover all the goods they need to get through their week on this hugely popular podcast on the TWiT network.

MAMO!
Matt Brown may have left the moviesTO podcast, but he’s still doing MAMO. I wish they’d podcast more often, because to tell the truth, Matt Brown may be the most engaging movie critic/enthusiast I’ve ever met.

Movie Review
Because I absolutely love A.O. Scott’s writing style — despite the fact that I don’t agree with him all too often — I have to tune into this four minute podcast where he reviews a film every week.

net@nite
My crush on Amber Mac notwithstanding, net@nite is a great roundup of the best stuff on the web from the week. Plus, everybody loves Leo Laporte and his TWiT network.

Pop Culture
NPR’s stable of podcasts is extensive, and darn good. Hard to pick just a few, but Pop Culture is a lot of fun, despite being a bit cheesy at times. And yes, I just said cheesy.

Scrubs
Listen to this podcast after watching the episode, or it’ll all be ruined. It’s an audio commentary with the writer of the episode and an actor or two, so it’s a lot of fun to listen to while you’re watching the episode for the fourth or fifth time. You do watch the show at least four times a week, right?

This American Life
Clearly the best of the NPR stable, This American Life is full of gems of writing, culture, music — pretty much everything. Never a dull moment.

Ask A Ninja (Video)
I really don’t have to say much about this video podcast, because everyone watches it already. If you don’t, start.

commandN (Video)
Will Pate (who is awesome) and Amber Mac (who is just as awesome) in one video podcast, shot right here in Toronto? Oh my, it’s like podcast geek heaven!

The Mark McKay Show (Video)
Controversial, crazy and kooky. Also, he looks a bit like Rick Moranis. Mark McKay will get you thinking and laughing over on blogTO every week.

Rocketboom (Video)
Sure, it hasn’t been the same since Amanda left (I still love you Joanne Colan!) but Rocketboom set the standard for video blogging, and still continues to be relevant. At times.

Starring Amanda Congdon (Video)
To be honest, I only watch this because I miss seeing Amanda on my screen ever since she got unboomed, but she occasionally has some pretty awesome things to say.

Webnation (Video)
Amber Mac’s newest project on CityTV is a half-hour show called Webnation which is a pretty good wrap-up of what you missed on the web this week. If you listen to net@nite and watch commandN, it might be a bit of overkill, but you can never get enough of Amber Mac.

As you can see, it’s a bit tech and sports heavy. If you have suggestions for anything else that I should be listening to or watching, please pass them along. (And before you say it, my brother already subscribes to MuggleCast and Idolatry, so we’ve already got that covered since we listen to them together.)

Visiting Club 3121

Other than Anil Dash, I think I may be the biggest Prince fan that I know. I’ve seen him live four times, I own all his albums, and purple is my favorite color. The man is an instrumental and songwriting genius, and there are very few artists that have influenced the musical landscape to same extent as Prince.

All that to say, I was a bit disappointed when I heard that Prince was going the way of Celine Dion and others by closing out his career as a Vegas performer. Las Vegas just seems to be kind of place where musicians go to die. Luckily, Anil recently pointed to an article by Sasha Frere-Jones in the New Yorker that talks about his experiences at Studio 3121. An excerpt:

Permit me to plan your dream weekend. You’re going to see a musician, a great one, play at a small club in Las Vegas. For a hundred and seventy-five dollars, you could stand on the dance floor in front of the stage. But, if you want to sit down, house policy requires that you buy at least two tickets and pay an additional three hundred and seventy-five dollars, which entitles you to a bottle of alcohol and seats at a V.I.P. table at the edge of the dance floor. At midnight, the performer will begin a hundred-minute set.

Just from that opening performance, I’m already planning my visit to Las Vegas to see this for myself. Also, I might put Sasha Frere-Jones on my list of people I would love to be. I’m so jealous. For those of you that still don’t get the whole Prince obsession, here’s how Sasha puts it in the article:

He is perhaps the greatest living performer in the pop tradition. The fact that, as he says during his live shows, “my friends all look different—I look just the same” simply enhances the impression that he is our Dorian Gray, if Gray had been raised by Cher and James Brown. Prince’s songwriting heyday, which stretched from 1979 to 1988, is rivalled only by the Beatles’ in generosity, formal variety, and intensity.

Anyone want to go to Vegas this summer?

National Peanut Butter & Jelly Day

I would like to apologize to all of you for missing National Peanut Butter & Jelly Day yesterday. Do know that in honor of the glorious day, I made myself a PB&J sandwich for breakfast and savored it thoroughly. Next year, if someone can send me a quick reminder the day before, I promise a post about the best PB&J memories I have throughout my life. It might not sound exciting right now, but trust me, a significant chunk of my life has revolved around this simple yet delicious sandwich.

All that being said, Serious Eats was much more astute and observant than I was, so they had a full range of coverage regarding National PB&J Day. In fact, I think they covered the day better than most major news networks cover Election Day, so kudos to Serious Eats. One of the best reports they had was their scientific analysis of how to craft the perfect PB&J sandwich, a method I then used to craft my sandwich this morning. Here’s a quick excerpt:

Armed with measuring spoons and a knife, I discovered, much to my surprise, that the suggested servings printed on the peanut butter (2 tablespoons) and jelly (1 tablespoon) jars were perfect when spread on two slices of the Pepperidge Farm white bread. As you can see here, we were using classic scientific techniques in our serious PBJ experiment.

Adam and Meg pointed out that the Pepperidge Farm bread we had purchased was sliced thinner than many other brands. If thicker slices of bread were used instead, they cautioned, the same volumes of PB and J would not produce comparable results. They advised me to measure the relative thickness of all components with a ruler to determine a ratio that could be used with any bread thickness. That ratio is 1 : 0.6 : 0.3 : 1, as seen in the illustration here.

And there you go. The secret to the perfect PB&J sandwich is revealed. Needless to say, I had a wonderful breakfast.

(Infographic taken from Serious Eats, without permission. If you guys want me to take it down, let me know, but hey, I really do love your site.)

Facebook April Fool’s Day

It’s the first of April, and since I’m definitely not creative enough to come up with my own prank here on the web, here’s a quick image of some of the stuff that appeared in my news feed on Facebook as I signed in just after midnight:

The reference to The Oregon Trail was priceless. Sadly, I doubt half the people on Facebook will get it.

And while we’re on the topic, let Anil remind us of just how unfunny most April Fool’s Day jokes are on the web.