sammmmmmiches....

A whole website dedicated to just sammiches?? Sammiches of all kinds! Dessert sammiches! Meat sammiches! Cheese sammiches!!

Thank you for coming into my life Scanwiches.

sweet valley, say it ain't so...

Sweet Valley High, beloved pre-teen book series of my youth...

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Diablo Cody, the now over-hyped Hollywood stripper turned writer...


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Me being very very unsure about it all. Apparently a bidding war though so we shall see....

toronto film fest

Hey look what I found on the interweb! When we were in town for the Toronto International Film Festival a couple of weeks back we got tickets to the premiere screening of My Son, My Son What Have Ye Done directed by acclaimed German filmmaker Werner Herzog (and he was there!!) Anyway, the screening was at the breathtaking Elgin Theatre and look at that, there we are in the photo! Well, about a millimetre high anyway in the left hand balcony.

Photo by Malcolm Taylor/Getty Images North America

behemoth

I've been eye-balling this new rollercoaster every single time we've driven to Toronto this past year. Partly out of delight and partly out of bone-shattering fear. Thankfully, somebody rode the Behemoth for me and was kind enough to videotape it. Now maybe I never EVER have to ride it myself...

cinefest round-up

Man oh man, what a past week!! Saw a pile of movies, ate out at a pile of restaurants, chatted with a pile of people, threw a giant party, saw dawn and a hangover that will go down in the history books -- here's the full report. Well, the movies anyway:

Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky: This movie was great and perhaps my favourite of the whole week. Like 2 hours of eye candy for us Chanel fans out there. Honestly this movie must have been such fun for the art director and costumer -- please tell me you got to poke around in the Chanel archives for this!! Starring the stunningly beautiful Anna Mouglalis, this movie is perfection, covering the steamy affair between Coco Chanel and composer Igor Stravinsky. Hell you even forget she was almost charged with war crimes....

I know there's another one coming out shortly starring Audrey Tautou but for me, this one is the Coco Chanel movie to beat....

Son of the Sunshine: This movie was actually co-written by local writer Matthew Heiti and tells the story of a young man with Tourette's Syndrome and a strange ability to heal. Shot on a small budget begged and borrowed, you would never know it. This film was gorgeous to watch - like a warm 1980's polaroid. It was sad and strangely uplifting all at the same time. If you're like me and used to seeing really low budget projects look a certain way (usually like someone shot them with a Handi-Cam), see this movie. It will renew your faith in ultra small budget films.

It Might Get Loud: A documentary about the guitar starring rock legend Jimmy Page, gadget-king The Edge, and the all-things-archaic loving Jack White. This doc could EASILY have been 3 dudes sitting around talking about how great they are, stopping the bravado long enough to get all meedley meedley on the guitar. And while that all still happened, it never got out of hand. It made me want to go home and listen to all of our Link Wray and The Jam. One of the best music docs I've seen in a long while....

Survival of the Dead: Interrupting all our film festival snobbiness was a good old-fashioned zombie movie by George A. Romero. Was it anyway near as good as 1970's Romero zombie movies? Not at all. Was it fun and cheesy and gorey? Absolutely. It was a nice break in the week and made me laugh right out loud.

A Touch of Grey: I went to this movie after receiving a really lovely handwritten card from the writer/director inviting me personally and by name. Honestly, nobody does that anymore - how could I not go??? 4 lifelong friends getting together for one night of drinking, sharing, crying, fighting and even some duct tape tie-ups. I usually am not a huge fan of movies that take place only in one location - I like my movies to flow in and out of different settings - so that was a bit of a stumbling block for me but overall a sweet story that women of all ages can relate to. It'll make you send your mom some flowers...

The Woman of Ahhs: Loosely based on The Wizard of Oz, this film tells the story of a man searching for a woman he's never met, a woman he's only ever seen on the internet. Definitely an arty dark comedy, this movie had dance pieces, a documentary feel and a great wee little dog. This production company recently relocated to Northern Ontario and while I can't say this movie was my favourite of the week, I sure do like the producing team a whole lot.

Daybreakers: I know, I know, a big Hollywood vampire flick?? You're disappointed in me, I can tell. But it's Ethan Hawke and I will always have a giant crush on Troy Dyer and I am drawn to every movie he makes. That aside though, it certainly was not your average vampire flick. The gore was stupendous and there was nary a gentle Twilight-y love bite to be seen. It was all throat-tearing, blood-spewing vampire greatness. There were ladies all around me jumping clean out of their seats throughout this whole movie. Yeeeeeahhhhhh........

Tetro: The new film from Frances Ford Coppola, funded through the profits of his winery, this film is a visual masterpiece. Filmed in black and white (artsy fartsy I know), this film could have taken place in any country, in any decade. Admittedly, this film was much much too long, despite how much I loved it. The talk around the town is that Alden Ehrenreich is the next Leo DeCaprio and seriously, google this kid's face and tell me it's not true. Mainly, I am happy to see Vincent Gallo doing something good cuz man, when he's good he is SO good. But then he does something like Brown Bunny and it all goes to shit. This was like Buffalo 66 kind of Vincent Gallo...

And that's about it. Buckets of congrats to our friend Ben Bruhmuller who won first place in the shorts competition for his film Vs, taking home $2500!!. I'm so so proud of him ! His film really is something special. And of course I gotta say congrats to Marc too (he did the music for Ben's film)!! The two are already working on Ben's next project.

At work we hosted our annual party for Cinefest on Saturday so I didn't get to see anything else over the weekend. First reason being I was setting up the party and second reason being that the party took a turn for the crazy and got home at 6am meaning I did nothing at all on Sunday except want to die. But I guess that's the sign of a good party?

See you for Cinefest 2010!!!!!!!!

marshmallow experiment

You must have seen this video making the rounds? An adorable experiment asking little kids not to eat a marshmallow.

what I'm doing right now

...hence the reason I'm not blogging. BUT that means you can expect a whack of film reviews at the end of the week.

babies and dogs

Cute of the day. My friend's adorable wee baby meeting the family Newfoundland doggie for the first time.

Awesome.

tempest in a teapot

This Tempest dress was the dress I WANTED to wear to our chic film festival party.

I ended up just picking something up in town but I can't stop thinking about this dress.

So pretty. So great.

Sigh..

weekend round-up

This weekend was all about the Toronto International Film Festival and me and the bossman kicked it off Thursday afternoon with a trip down to the big bad city!

Friday we were in meetings most of the day and narrowly missed seeing any real celebrities by seemingly minutes judging by the hordes of people everywhere went. At one point, we came out of the Intercontinental Hotel and walked right into a large throng of gawkers and papparazzi who were REALLY hoping we were George Clooney. Alas, we were not.

Friday night we got all gussied up for the OMDC hosted TIFF party celebrating Ontario filmmakers and then out for a late dinner at the Queen Mother with friends Ben and Fran. For those of you who don't follow my Twitter, Ben has a film screening at TIFF this week! It's called "Vs" and my handsome husband did the music for it. If you're in the big city I highly recommend checking out his work - he does some amazing stop-motion animation/still photography/16mm film combo that is truly excellent.

Headed home Saturday into the waiting and napping arms of Marc - yay!!! Spent the rest of the day lazing around and then out to dinner for what's that??? All-you-can-eat-sushi restaurant????? Youpee!!! I think all-you-can-eat-sushi should officially be named the cure for everything ever. Quick drink with my favourite Big City Kelly who showed up in town and then home to bed......sweet sweet bed.

Sunday slept in and spent the day making applesauce made from scratch with the apples from our very own apple tree and since I was in the mood I busted out some of Martha Stewart's kick-butt cowboy cookies and then took a really huge and lovely walk with Sadie to the lake and all around the surrounding neighbourhoods. Home in time to enjoy a dinner of ribs, taboulleh salad loaded with our farm-share veggies and sauteed tatsoi -- YUM!!!

Sunday night (as if you even have to ask) I hunkered down to watch the season finale of True Blood which really kinda sucked. Talk about lack-lustre. Add to that another lack-lustre episode of Entourage and you can imagine how happy I was for the start of Weeds. Mary Louise Parker fixed my Sunday.

Happy Birthday to us here at C.Y.G.T.S!! We're two!!!

coolest nursery eveer

Man, check out what might be the best nursery I've seen blogged about in a long while. Over at Grayhood he posted some pics of his new Charley Mae's room (best name!!).

a mural he hand-painted complete with wee little Chuck Taylors! And baby's first taxidermy!

Honestly, if only I could have a queen size version of that crib for me to sleep in!!

This is a mural HANDMADE for him by the design team at Anthopologie as a gift. Honestly...

bubble wrap calendar

Off the top of my head, I can think of 2 people I could buy this for and who would love it...


*buy one at Heliotrope*

fable art

So these fable art prints are supposed to be for kids (I think) but forget that - I want them all to myself!! Check out pushmepullyou design for tons more great stuff...

bob marley for babies

OK, this is just adorable for parents who want to show their kids cool stuff but still want it to be kinda cute and cartooney. Spotted over at Ohdeedoh, a little video of Bob Marley's song "Three Little Birds"

The video is super cute with little birds and wee walrusesssesess... "The song is part of the B is for Bob album, compiled by Bob's son Ziggy which features versions of his father's songs remixed for a younger audience. According to Ziggy Marley, "My father's music spans generations and with B is for Bob we give the youngest their very own Bob Marley record."

Worth a watch even for us big kids...

hunkercise

Hands down, BEST thing I've seen in a long while...

bulldog feet, how do they work?

Honestly.....my heart just burst all over my laptop screen.

Hot Bunny Radio Playlist for September 3rd

CKLU 96.7FM

6-8pm

* denotes Canadian talent

italics denotes a new release

CLICK HERE FOR PODCASTY GOODNESS OF TONIGHT'S SHOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Black Lips -- Bad Kids -- (500) Days of Summer OSR
• Eels -- The Longing -- Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs of Desire
• Amelia Curran -- The Mistress -- Hunter Hunter *
• Joel Plaskett -- On & On & On -- Three *
• Modest Mouse -- Truckers Atlas -- The Lonesome Crowded West
• Sleater-Kinney -- Let's Call It Love -- The Woods
• Dan Mangan -- The Indie Queens are Waiting -- Nice, Nice, Very Nice *
• Bob Dylan -- Joey -- Desire
• The Wooden Sky -- My Old Ghosts -- Friends of Bellwood comp. 2 *
• My Morning Jacket -- I Will Sing You Songs -- It Still Moves
• The Antlers -- Sylvia -- Hospice
• Broken Social Scene -- It's All Gonna Break -- Broken Social Scene *
• Phoenix -- Love Like A Sunset Part I -- Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
• Jenny Lewis -- The Next Messiah -- Acid Tongue
• The Balconies -- The Slo -- The Balconies *
• She & Him -- Bring It On Home To Me -- unreleased track
• Amy Millan -- I Will Follow You Into the Dark -- Masters of the Burial *

MUSICAL NOTEY GOODNESS:

• this Eels song is not a good song for boys in a break-up;
• honestly Amelia Curran....HONESTLY! I can't even believe the sound of your voice...
• Dear Dan Mangan: I must love anyone who names their album from a Kurt Vonnegut book;
• Veda Hille on backing vocals too Dan Mangan? Very nice indeed;
• The Wooden Sky just might be becoming my new fave obsession;
• Man...playing a show of big fat giant long songs makes for a short playlist;
• Oceans of thanks to Big CIty Kelly for unhiding that unreleased She & Him Sam Cooke cover song;
• Can we ever get enough of Amy Millan? I think not.