You Can't Stop The Beat!

Apparently our neighbourhood can double for Baltimore in the 1960's. I choose to think of this as a compliment.

The new film version of the musical Hairspray has been filming all over Toronto since August. Toronto Film Studios is right across the street from our house so a lot of movies use our neighbourhood for shoots. It's convenient and it's adaptable. Truth be told though, I've never seen the area so transformed. The set dressing for this movie is so detailed and so authentic. They've been filming in a number of different neighbourhoods in the city (including my sister's) and everyone has said the same thing...that they really started to feel as though they were somewhere else, at some other time.

I saw Hairspray on stage here in Toronto (in fact, it was the first show I worked on at CSIS) and I love it. I hope the movie holds up. The cast is great, and if the set is any indication they're moving in the right direction.

(Housekeeping note: to see the pics larger, just click on them).

It's Official. Fall has arrived.

I saw my first fallen leaf on my street this morning. I loved the red of the leaf against the pavement and how the veins of the leaf are still green. It's as if rigormortus hasn't yet set in.


Suddenly all I wanted to do was wear something plaid, buy a new warm coat and kicky new pair of boots and get a caramel apple cider at Starbucks to go. It begs the question, can snow be far behind?

Just another pearl of wisdom from Aaron Sorkin that I'd like embroidered on a pillow. Or tatooed on my forehead. Whatever.

Towards the end of episode two of the new series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip the character of Harriet Hayes (played by Sarah Paulson) turns to her ex-boyfriend and current-head writer of the SNL style show we're lurking behind the scenes of, Matt Albie (played by Matthew Perry) and asks him why she didn't get a laugh during dress rehearsal in the dinner scene when she asks for the butter. She got a laugh when she did it in the table read. What did she do wrong? He's reluctant to give her an answer at first, the show's about to start, their relationship is tenuous, there are mitigating factors there. But she pushes him and he finally gives her an answer.

He says, "you asked for a laugh". She says, "what did I do in the table read?" and he says, "you asked for the butter".

And there it is, people. The entire concept of truth in comedy that we struggle to learn and teach and understand and implement boiled down to one succinct and moving piece of a dialogue. I can't wait to see what he comes up with for next week.

The Conversation

It was a short work week for me this week. Last weekend the Robeau and I spent three days in London (Ontario) visiting family and celebrating his birthday with a luxurious stay at the Hilton (which was just lovely). The Robeau should have more birthdays, I think.

The perfect way to end a short work week for me is a coffee date with some good friends. Reimer is just back from his cross-country Fringe Tour and this is was our first chance to catch up in person. The beautiful and talented Michelle joined us. Not only is she my co-worker at CSIS but she's a mighty talented actor. An hour over lattes with these two was such a pleasure. Michelle is the kind of friend who always doles out buckets of warmth and Reimer, well, Reimer is the kind of friend who holds your hand when you're talking. Even if you're just talking about what was on TV last night.

Coffee with friends like these is like a NICEFEST.

What I'm doing instead of doing the dishes.

I have a lot to talk about Bloggy McBloggerson, but I've been so busy with various projects and avoiding doing the dishes that have piled up in the sink that I haven't had time to collect my online thoughts.

Eventually I will weigh in with a bunch of movie reviews, my thoughts on the best new show on TV - Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (and how if Aaron Sorkin came to me, right now, and asked me to do his bidding, I would do it...his bidding that is). I would talk about how CTV aired the wrong episode of Grey's Anatomy tonight (ack!) and how, apparently, I watch too much television. I would talk about how the Yankees clinched the division last night...! I would talk at great length about Spike Lee's brilliant new docu that I had the pleasure of seeing at the Toronto International Film Festival. But for now, I'll leave you with this...Spike's short film, We Wuz Robbed, a docu on the 2000 Presidential Election. Karl Rove calls it the "feel good movie of the year"!

Libertarians Can't Dance.

Five Years Later.

The View from Brooklyn, then and now, in today's New York Times

We've all heard so many opinions and takes on what happened five years ago today. We've all had reasons to mourn what happened that day, in our own ways. I've talked about it in the past and I don't have much to add except that today I've been thinking a lot about the loss of innocence. People talk about the loss of innocence brought on by the events of 9/11 all the time. It's an obvious palpable thing we see everyday in a million tiny ways in airports and newspapers and the faces of strangers.

It was watching the anniversary coverage of the 9/11 attacks that made me realize just how instantaneous that loss was, the minute the second plane hit. Listening to the morning show hosts, still perky, still upbeat, watch the first tower burn, trying to explain it away with thoughts about nearby airports and small aircrafts and "I hope the pilot didn't have a heart attack". The minute the second plane hit it was all over. Suddenly it was "we are at war", and "thousands dead" and "either you're with us or you're against us". Things really did change that day.

I wasn't personally affected by the loss of a loved one or an attack on my homeland that day, but I sympathize and I grieve for a city I love, even though it's not my own. I realized today that the loss of innocence is the thing I grieve for the most. I miss a time when irony wasn't mandatory. I miss seeing Rudy Giuliani's picture in the New Yorker and thinking of him first as Yankee fan instead of a hero. I miss being able to watch a rerun of any old sitcom set in New York without feeling a chill up my spine every time an interstitial shot shows the towers looming in the distance before we head back to Central Perk, or Will and Grace's Apartment or a night out on the town with Carrie and the girls. It saddens me that syndicated TV is now laced with reminders of how much we've lost and how bleak the future seems. Innocence. Gone. It's not what I grieved for five years ago, but it's what I grieve for today.

Unfair and Unbalanced.

In another life, when I was in my early 20's I worked in "Distribution" for a "film company". I was encouraged by a higher up, who was clearly jockeying for the much coveted position of mentor, to join a little something we like to call WIFT. WTF is WIFT? "Women in Film and Television", dumbass. Get WIFT it. I ponied up because, let's face it, I was too young and impressionable to know what a terrible idea something like this was. The first of every other month WIFT would hold a breakfast for its members to meet, mingle, network and hear words of wisdom from a guest speaker. We were to do all this, by the way, while not eating the breakfast spread that was laid out, opting instead for black coffee because that is what women in film and television do. Starve themselves. Even the ones that don't appear on screen. It was like The View, only worse. Much, much worse.

Some things never change:


Nice to see that America is finally ready for a woman to read off a teleprompter every night at 6:30pm even if it means CBS needs to photoshop 20lbs off her and make her look like a card carrying member of WIFT. Good. Lord.

While we're talking about things that are not new and not newsworthy how about Kyra Phillips chatting in the girls room with her mic pack on? I like Phillips, and the Robeau thinks she looks cute in a baseball cap, so it was nice to hear that she seems pleasant off camera. And I bet her husband feels pretty special these days. That said, how awkward is it going to be at her brother's house this Thanksgiving? I have a feeling that might be a little bit like The View too. "Pass the gravy you CONTROL FREAK"!



Phillips again, making a pretty sweet recovery.



That's all for tonight. You stay classy, Bloggy McBloggerson.

New Orleans: Where do we go from here?

Wanted to let you all know that my photo exhibition in support of hurricane recovery is up and running.

For all the details please visit my new site dedicated to the project.

At least we had a nice day for it.

Just got home from the Nolan girls' annual pilgrimage to the CNE. We ate stuff that had absolutely no nutritional value, saw the sights and shopped till we dropped. And now? After a day in the rain by the lake? Summer is officially over.

Some of the things to see at the Ex:

Um, no thanks, on both counts actually.



Paddy



Paula



Maureen



At the Midway







Sand Sculptures in the Agricultural Building





Public Art





Another kind of art, in the Food Building





From the original Princes' Gates