the pod bay door

Fans of the Tolkien series, Lord of the Rings, are predictably upset over the news that a new character, outside of the Tolkien universe, has been added to the final movie, The Return of the King. I’m wondering if this is a move to generate even more dollars at the box office in December 2003. Personally, I think Peter Jackson and George Lucas have gone just a bit too far this time.

Do you live in Canada, and watched the Super Bowl last Sunday, missing all the US commercials because the Canadian stations refused to run them, being the dorks that they are? You can watch the ads here.

I saw two recent films this weekend: Chicago and Frida. I enjoyed both of them. To appreciate and enjoy Chicago, go knowing in advance that you will see musical numbers every ten minutes. Richard Gere, Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones do their own singing and dancing in the film, and it is very impressive. The production numbers are outstanding, with the best being one in which Gere plays a ventriloquist with Zellweger as his “dummy”, and the press gallery are puppets – it’s a brilliant presentation and delivery. The only negative thing I can say is that the website Sucks Big Time.

Frida explores the life of Frida Kahlo, a controversial Mexican painter who was twice married to Diego Rivera. In 1925 she was in a bus accident that injured her severely. She had many operations, body casts, corsets, etc. She poured her soul into painting, was determined to walk again, and eventually approached the famous Rivera for criticism. It was a defining moment in both their lives, and the movie follows her life from that point onwards. Salma Hayek gives the performance of her career, and she is surrounded by an excellent supporting cast, including Alfred Molina as Rivera, Geoffrey Rush as Leon Trotsky, and appearances by Edward Norton, Saffron Burrows, Ashley Judd, Antonio Banderas, Mia Maestro, and Valeria Golino. Highly recommended.

We have had a month of cold, snowy weather. But when I stepped outside to drive to the theatre to see Frida, it was -10C and raining! I drove there, fighting the rain on my windshield, which kept turning to ice as it hit. I used all my windshield antifreeze to keep said windshielf clear until I got there.

The tennis elbow condition in my right arm is still bothering me considerably. I’m doing exercises with a 5 pound weight, and will visit the physical therapist again next Thursday. Acupuncture and cortisone shot may happen next.

Check out the trailer for Kill Bill the forthcoming Quentin Tarantino movie. It’s very cool.

OK, this is a blatant plug for the new album, ever-so-slightly rearranged, by my wonderful friend and brilliant musician, Jessica Owen (formerly Schoenberg – love you lots, girl!). After some delay, the record is now available for purchase from CD Baby.

This is Jessica’s fifth album. I was fortunate and priviliged to have played on and arranged most of her first offering, Sounds Like A Plan, recorded and released in cassette in April 1994. Since then, her talent has blossomed considerably, her songwriting and playing improved geometrically, and her incredible, powerful voice continues to amaze and demand your attention.

If you have hi-fi broadband access and Windows Media Player, listen to 2 mins each of four of her new songs. Low-fi dialup access is here.

Trust me, this is worth the effort. Yes, I am totally biased in her favour, but I can also tell quality music and effort when I hear it. Please consider buying a great product in support of a musician whom I respect enormously and love unconditionally, but more importantly, buy it because you’ll enjoy it for a long time to come.

Naomi Klein offers a chilling view of how America is “expanding” its borders to the northern Canadian and southern Mexican lines to create what she calls Fortress Nafta. Klein: “A fortress continent is a bloc of nations that joins forces to extract favorable trade terms from other countries–while patrolling their shared external borders to keep people from those countries out.” She also describes how this is happening in Europe.

It has been snowing heavily in Edmonton since Sunday, and the temperature has dropped into the -20C range. This morning, I woke early because I had to team-teach at 9:00 am (4th year Civil Eng class), knowing the roads would be shyte and that I had to clear my driveway. While making breakfast, I cracked my head on an open cabinet door in my kitchen, and it started bleeding. When I was ready to leave, I shovelled my driveway, got in my car, backed onto the street, and got immediately stuck in more snow. I tried shovelling under my tires, etc., to no avail. Fortunately, a kind soul in a pickup truck saw this, and came by to push me out. I did make it in time for class, sore head and all.

Three weeks ago I injured a muscle near my left elbow. The pain continues, despite using a tennis elbow brace and prescription gel on the soreness. It hurt like hell to play guitar on Saturday night. I think I may return to the physiotherapist.

It’s a snowy Saturday afternoon. The roads in Edmonton are shyte. Tonight I’m performing with Amelia (fiddler) and The Celtic Fiddlers of Edmonton for Robbie Burns Night at the Edmonton Scottish Society. It’s 2:20 pm, and other than getting a haircut at 10:00 this morning, I’ve been in bed sleeping…sheesh. I think grey days can make you feel sluggish.

At the U of Alberta yesterday morning, the Board of Governors passed a series of back-breaking tuition increases on students registering for the 2003-04 school year. Who do you blame? It’s easy: our provincial government. Note that they have cut provincial funding per student in half in the past 20 years. For every dollar increase in the price of oil, our government pots $108 million dollars. For every 10¢ increase in natural gas prices, it pots $163 million. The last provincial budget assumed oil prices would benchmark at $20US/barrel, and natural gas at $3/1000 cubic feet. As of Friday, 17 January 2002, oil was at $33.91US/barrel, and natural gas at $5.54US/1000 cubic feet.

The government’s standard whine is that “there isn’t any more money”, and “we’ve got to come to grips with (fill in the blank)”. Consider that ours is far and away the richest province in Canada. Our university administration says it must work hard to convince voters of the importance of university education, but I hear and read this plea yearly, and see no efforts made, except by the students. Read how many of them feel today.
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