This weekend I will be quite unavailable due to the unique conjunction of two weddings. One is for my good friend Keith Gillard of Fidgital and the other is for my only brother. I am the best man in the second wedding, in the first, I will do nothing except try and eat as little as possible in expectation of the hogfest to come the next day. The trick is to not eat morbidly but keep up apperances, not pop vest buttons, etc.

The strange glamour of the Democratic National Convention
In between all the preparations, dinners and meeting present and future relatives my only relaxation has been watching recaps of the Democratic National Convention. What a difference from Canadian politics. The convention was full of glitz, full of analysis of every word, every drop of sweat or flicker of the tongue. Another mystery also was the concentration on the wives of the candidates. Strange but also glamorous at the same time.

I've only played paintball a handful of times and now I have the welts to show why I haven't thrown myself into such a warlike sport. I suck. I can't spot the enemies and when I get a target, it takes me too many shots to range someone by which time I'm already taking fire. Anyway, yesterday, I, some friends and my brother's crew treated him to some paintball on the hottest day of the year. Anyway, the real test comes at the end of the month when my brother ties the knot. Having put up with the torture of multiple high powered blasts, he is surely tough enough for marriage. Here is a gallery of the aftermath of the paintballing.

Kelvin sent me this great link to a Chemical Bros. video that uses outtakes from some Shaw Bros' kung fu film in which the characters are made to digitally lipsynch the words to "Get Yourself High". It features the Canadian rapper K-OS. Directed by Joseph Kahn, director of this year's motorcycle thriller "Torque" and many many music videos. See it here >> (Windows Media Player needed)

It has taken a long time and still has a couple more phases to go before it is operating optimally. I designed the whole thing and will probably have to go back and make it look consistent throughout. That front page has gone through four different versions as the site has gone through a couple hiccups toward launch. My patient client now sees the fruits of it, in all its glory. What is it? filmSG is a products, services and professions directory for independent filmmakers. A one-stop shop for people looking to fill jobs or needing some product or service in their area. Members pay to be listed and can edit their profiles at any time. Right now the image display for their profile is a bit wonky due to host software difficulties but that will be solved in time. I worked on it with an excellent back end person, Mike Heller, who is making all the directory, database, ecommerce engine behind the scenes. Go check out filmSG.com >>

I'm big into near-futurist film - an attraction that began with Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (where is that deluxe DVD?) so I am a sucker for science fiction that seems just on the horizon. Michael Winterbottom's "Code 46" looks like it might fit the bill. The movie stars Tim Robbins as an investigator who falls in love with a woman who is a clone made from genetic material of his own mother. I liked Winterbottom's glacially-paced "The Claim" (a western) but I'm attracted to "Code 46" more by the look of the film which was filmed in futuristic-looking locations around the world, often hand-held. The cinematography in the trailer is striking especially given it was mostly using available light. Winterbottom's theory was to use his budget to find places in the world that were already futuristic. So it is interesting to see how much Blade Runner can now be seen in reality in the city scenes. Winterbottom has a mixed reputation among critics but I'll be sure to see this in the theatres. Hopefully, it won't be a great looking bad movie like Soderbergh's "Solaris". See the official site here >> (Flash required)

Yesterday I was visited from the Canadian government in the form of a nice lady from Stats Canada who was conducting a random survey of Canadians as part of a nutritional and health study. It was quite involved (and entertaining). It began with a detailed accounting of what I had eaten the previous day (Sunday) down to estimates of amounts and what sauces had been used in the preparation of it. Then it turned into a short mental and physical health (self reporting) Q&A. What followed became not so fun when I stood on an electronic scale and discovered that I had gained a few pounds this year - if her scale was to be believed. Anyway, now Canada knows that I had an ice cream sandwich Sunday as well as Mom's home cooking and a helping of bacon and eggs in the morning. Let's see how skewed I make my country.

Still on the subject of cars, I've just learned about 'drifting' which, to me at least, is translated into 'controlled skidding' on a raceway. Here is a video of a Japanese exposition where these kids do tricks in their after market hopped up cars. Earlier on it's a bunch of cars drifting down a speedway and then later there are stunts where they slalom around cute girls and do rodeo clown type stunts. View it here >> (.wmv) By the way, my Mazda3 is no longer mint. The side mirror got scratched up in a parking lot one day before my appointment to get the mirrors and hood protected by a 3M type concoction. It wouldn't have prevented the scrape but it's a bit of irony.

I haven't fallen out of love with this car yet. It's really my baby. What else can I say. It's just a great car to drive and has so far fulfilled my expectations. My next step is probably to look into adding an iPod interface into the stock stereo system. There are a couple methods to do this (and a third method that requries adding an upcoming Alpine replacement system - too expensive to contemplate). Then I would like to look into some light tinting and suspension changes. But all of this will have to wait until I make more money, which I am presently earning at work and contracting. Speaking of which, I'm falling asleep because I have a blower drying out the carpet just inside my apartment door because some fool had opened up the sprinkler taps two floors above me yesterday, flooding his floor and leaking down several floors underneath. No damage except to the carpets for me.

I collected this black beast yesterday at the dealership, a process that included a twenty minute point by point inspection thanks to a couple of checklists I found online from other owners. In the end the car was pristine, new, made in Hiroshima a few weeks ago. Missing were some extras that I had negotiated for - quickly rectified by going into the dealer inventory. So I drove out in a shiny hatchback, an exchange of cars that is like stepping from the Apollo programme to the Starship Enterprise for me. Considering I had driven an '87 Corolla for nine years - a car that had a carb, no power steering, no stereo, nothing, and moved up to a 2004 vehicle is a 160hp 2.3l DOHC engine, air, and a bunch luxuries I missed out on for about a decade, I was on cloud nine all of yesterday. There are a few things I would like to change in the future when finances permit such as a replacement sound system, nav system, better cloth, but as a car, I'm more than satisfied (well, after one day of ownership). The other change for me is in driving. The Corolla was a fun car to drive because I always felt that I had to push it in order to get anywhere. Now, I can barely touch the pedal and the high torque engine is pulling the Mazda ahead of the line without any effort. It can feel like I am coasting along a straight-away and I will be shocked by looking down at the speedometer and noting I'm breaking the speed limit by 20kph. So, I will have to adjust my driving quite a bit to bring me back into a semi-legal envelope. But for the handling, I used to throw the Corolla into lane changes with a wrench of the wheel - this now requires a feather touch. It is extremely responsive. But then, what do I know? I was driving in the Stone Age. I have more comments on the Mazda3Forum >>. Also, this thread has nice pictures of the same model as mine.

Keeping with the car theme, here is a shocking car crash video captured by a red light camera. A 75-year old driver in a PT Cruiser runs a red light (that some reports said had been red for 28 seconds), t-bones a Subaru which ends up nearly killing a pedestrian. Certainly enough to make you extra careful entering an intersection early (or late!). See it on Snopes >>

A grab bag of news. First of all well wishes and hopes for a safe July the 4th to my Americans friends. Go wave a flag for me. Yesterday, I put in an order for a new car. For all my talk about going environmental, I really didn't want to wait three months for a car that I couldn't even test drive (Prius). Instead, I test drove, researched and bought the peppy and economical Mazda3 Sport - the hatchback (see Mazda's Flash-heavy website here). In doing so I experienced the 'joys' of hammering out a deal at the dealership. My weekend wasn't all sweat, however, as Friday I had the day off and saw Spider-Man 2, a superb summer blockbuster. I also managed to catch an hour of the Vancouver Jazz Fest and I'm still putting in hours finishing filmsg.com.

I saw this on Tuesday but only had this late opportunity to write about what has become a social event for Americans (and Canadians). First, as a movie, Fahrenheit 9/11 is a grab bag of stunts, clownish attacks and gags combined with equal parts polemic and raw soul gazing that has had liberal democrats in a rictor since 2000. Much of the information about the Bush-bin Laden family link, their response to September 11th and the subsequent invasion of Iraq I've found from much better sources over the years. As a documentary format, it stinks. I've seen many more powerful films that have more right to be called documentaries receive a particle of the same adulation that Moore's films have received from audiences and the media.(Go see Errol Morris' The Fog of War and Bus 174!) But I will have to give credit to Moore for finally bringing this to the public in a way that the media has not (beyond the Internet). As unfair and unrpovable as some of the allegations are, there is no denying that Fahrenheit 9/11 has raw power that can hit you in the heart (just as it strikes low blows at the White House). The series of interviews with the mother of a GI killed in action, Lila Lipscomb, makes me tear up even in remembering it now and shows the White House's decision to disallow coverage of the returning war dead a terrible mistake. The public is smart enough to recognize what constitutes goulish behaviour and what is just the last recognition of a sacrifice for nation and family. Allowing us to see the toll of sacrifice that one family has suffered (as well as that of the Iraqis also portrayed in the film) makes Fahrenheit 9/11 worthy of being seen. This is where Moore really does have a strength, in the rapport he can build with his every day interview subjects, people who become the working class heroes of his polemic. Maybe only someone like Moore could get people to see this, but I wish he was a better filmmaker.

Today is the day when we celebrate being on top of the United States. Geographically, at least. To all my fellow Canadians, my best wishes. I am working Canada Day and my day began out of shift. I forgot my wallet, my cellphone and the time I had to show up at work (so I can help our American customers and partners). Only a block away, while I dutifully monitor the help desk at Destiny Media Technologies, people are gathering at Canada Place to eat cake, pop balloons and stand in line to get Maple Leaf tattos and small flags. Look back in my archives to find my list of the Great Canadian Films (in my estimation).