Weekend Purchases

Weekend purchases:

  • The Flashing Lights-Where The Change Is – I know they opened for Sloan on their most recent tour, but thanks go to Jack for turning me on to The Flashing Lights!
  • Galaxie 500-The Portable Galaxie 500 – A selection from their entire 3 CD output, released by Ryko.
  • Withnail and I (DVD) – OK, I gave in. I just got it for a decent price. If Criterion comes out with a better version later, I’ll give this away. More people need to see this film anyway.

I’m starting to get excited about the Toronto International Film Festival. This will be my sixth year going, and I usually see between 10-15 films each year. This is the 25th anniversary year, too. I’ve seen so many good films and also movie stars and directors, too. Last year, Brooke got Ralph Fiennes’ autograph, which made her weak at the knees for about a month. I got John Turturro’s a few years ago, but I’m not much of an autograph hound. I find it embarrassing. I’ll try to report on what good stuff I see, as some of it at least will be released later to wide distribution.

Open Letters

I’ve been reading Open Letters for the past few weeks and I’m really enjoying the writing. Short personal pieces, all fascinating. People are just so interesting. And the site has a novel approach to content. You can read each daily update online, and/or they’ll put them all together in a PDF and email it to you every Sunday. Then you can print the stories out and read them like a real magazine. It’s so obvious, but very cool. I wish Salon would do something like that, although they’re already too big.

I guess I’ll go ahead and link to the Dave Eggers’ interview with The Harvard Advocate just like everyone else has. I’m still waiting to read his book, but I’m really looking forward to it. I just finished Chuck Palahniuk’s Survivor and it was really fascinating, a great satirical novel about consumerism, fame, and packaged “religion.” It did remind me a bit of Paul Theroux’s Millroy the Magician, though. Next, I’m on to Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. Small trivia item here. My girlfriend Brooke talked to Malcolm on the phone at The New Yorker for a story she was doing for the Ryerson Review of Journalism last year. He’s from Canada, you know…