Holiday Shopping - Cheap.

Well, the holiday season has descended upon us right smack in the middle of an economic downturn - fun! So not only are most people, myself included, rolling pennies (seriously when my jar is full I know I have $5) to buy morning coffee but buying gifts are taking precedence over parties, the must see teen/romantic/vampire movies and my phone bill.
After assessing the financial cost of my social life I have become a certified couch potato - luckily I still have cable. AMC is one of the best stations; non-stop movies, all the Rockies are on and various other movies you might never watch. The other amazing thing about AMC is the constant stream of products offered only on TV. My gift giving budget is saved! I have just found a way to stay at home, save money, remain entertained and buy gifts cheap without ever leaving the comfort of my couch!
First we have the Snuggie, http://www.snuggie.ca. Hold on to your socks because the Snuggie is amazing. It is a huge blanket with sleeves! You’ll never have the annoyance of wriggling your arms out from under a blanket when someone dares to phone you in the middle of your shows!
Despite not having a hood, this product is delectable, and the price is right baby - $29.95! That’s right, and if you buy now you get a second one free and a reading light. That’s, like, three presents right there for way cheap.
My other favorite available-only-on-TV product are the minted-limited edition coins. Sure, they’re American but what grandpa doesn't have a random collection of coins or stamps. These coins are always different because they’re so limited! All the more reason to buy today! Have the coins shipped right to your door - I love TV and my Visa (which I promise to pay off right after Christmas).
And for my own special present, from me to me, I think I’ll pick up a Tony Little Gazelle performance 300. It’s like an elliptical machine but without the electronics, and I can do it in front of my TV - perfect.

Happy holiday shopping!

Food and Wine

The Food and Wine Show isn't until November, but I found myself at a little preview. The theme this year is French, Parisian French. Wine, Vodka and Champagne were offered up with the most decadent little treats: Fois Gras, quiche and more. I can't wait for the actual show!

Halloween Costume Fun

Halloween is to die for!
It's the one time of year you can dress like a total fool and no one can say anything too you.
I think my favourite costume ever was a guy dressed up as a baby - the catch? He had a contorted coat hanger twisted around his neck! Yes, he was an illegal abortion - at the same time disgusting, in poor taste and utterly hilarious.
So, what will you be this year?

The Man Behind The Bat

Batman has a sordid past. He was painted as a gunslinger, accused of homosexuality, racked with dark tendencies, and suffered campy failure. But through it all his many incarnations has captivated people since the ’30s.
The reinvigorated franchise broke records this weekend with The Dark Night. So, I decided to tackle the most difficult of Batman questions, (insert dramatic pause here): Who plays the best Batman?

Yes, yes, the words on most viewers lips are ‘The Joker.’ Admittedly Heath Ledger’s portrayal was breathtaking, unnerving and made most viewers squirm with a disturbing glee - but the movie is called The Dark Night. So lets talk about the Bat.

Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney and Christian Bale all took a stab at playing The Bat. Some are captivating, awakening a viewers imagination, while others, frankly, take the big sleep. To fairly decide who plays the best Batman, I’m looking at how closely the character in each Batman installment remains true to the Pulpy original character, box office sales and of course, my arbitrary tastes are tossed in there for good measure.

Batman, 1966, starred Adam West as the Caped Crusader and was a spin off of the TV series. West has a Shatner-esque manner of speech throughout the movie - great for a laugh. But the endless Bat naming of everything in sight is tiresome: Bat ladder, Bat shark repellent. What’s next Bat toilet paper? It is kind of funny - but in a laughing-at-you not laughing-with-you sort of way. Verdict? It’s great for the “POW” and “ZIP” of a comic book and “Da na-na na-na na-na BATMAN!” will be stuck in the heads of generations to come. But, West doesn’t Bat cut-it.

Michael Keaton played Batman twice, in Batman and Batman Returns. Batman grossed $413,200,000 world wide and was met positively enough to garner a ‘sequel.’
Was Keaton the best Batman? Ebert thought the movie was too dark and lacked the humor of the original comic saying, “(it)discards the recent cultural history of the Batman character - the camp 1960s TV series, the in-joke comic books - and returns to the mood of the 1940s, the decade of film noir and fascism.” My verdict? There is humor in the film, and the fact that Batman is more in tune with the darker side of things weighs heavily in its favour......

In Batman Returns Keaton reprises his role as Batman. Although it is thought of as a sequel, director Tim Burton approached the movie as a completely separate entity from Batman and took it as a chance to make a movie more reflective of his own style.
The movie grossed $282,801,937 world wide. Ebert, once again, gave the movie only two stars and sighted the gloomy atmosphere of the film as the main problem. Ebert obviously misses the over the top camp of the 1960s Batman, but do I? Nope.
Verdict? Batman Returns was great fun but the story limits Keaton’s character this time around - in fact the movie should be called Catwoman.

Val Kilmer, what can we say? Is he a good Batman? Ebert gave the film two and a half stars - why? Well it seems he likes bright things and one-liners.
The movie grossed $335,000,000 world wide and yet it seems to be the least memorable Batman movie of the bunch; Val Kilmer is also just as forgettable. Unfortunately the nerve grating cackling of Jim Carrey is not.

George Clooney reportedly said he feared that playing Batman ruined his career - obviously it didn’t. But maybe he ruined Batman? Batman and Robin grossed $237,300,000 world wide - considerably less than the previous movies. It was met with poor reviews and as debonair as George Clooney is, he ain’t a good Batman.

Christopher Nolan could be said to have dragged the Batman franchise, kicking and screaming, from the brink of destruction. Batman Begins grossed $371,824,647 world wide - a stunning comeback. So what was it about Batman Begins that made this Batman so much better? Directors and art producers aside, Christian Bale, our would be bat, was allowed to explore the conflict between Batman and Bruce Wayne. The film was true to the Pulp roots of the comic, but with a style that didn’t overpower the actors - a criticism easily levied at Burton and Schumacher. Verdict? Despite Bale’s double chin when in the Batsuit, his portrayal of a spoiled bachelor with too much money gives him a bat-leg up. “Bale wins.”

Christian Bale in The Dark Night is just as good. So for all of you who haven’t seen the latest bat movie, brave those lineups and enjoy.

Sources
www.numbers.com
Batman the Complete History, Daniels
rogerebert.com
picture: ace_clipart.com

Model For A Day

these are photo's of the process my friend, Nikki, and I undertook, very happily, today as part of Luminato. We start with the before pictures, obviously, and continue to the end. I took the pictures and thus I'm not in most of them! Please read the below post, related to the photo's.


One the very rare occasion that I hang out back stage at a fashion show I always look on in fascination as the models sit (usually hunched over a BlackBerry) getting their hair and makeup done. They seem oblivious to it, annoyed or bored. Some models like it, while others are just going through a regular work day that simply entails getting done up frantically for back to back shows.
However, for us mere mortals the idea of getting our hair and makeup done is heaven - at least for me. I love the feeling of a brush sweeping across my eyelids, and even having mascara expertly applied to my thin lashes is luxurious.
Lucky for me L’Oreal broke out their team of experts to pamper any lovely ladies walking through Yonge-Dundas Square for Luminato, Toronto’s arts festival. Despite the hot, muggy day I, and many others, couldn’t pass up getting done up by a professional. The event runs until Wednesday June 11.

Your Bartender Just Isn't That Into You

It’s so strange when I stop and think about how many times a guy I barely know throws, literally throws, his number at me from across the bar. It’s not that I’m drop dead gorgeous, I’ve been described as having a “girl next door” look, it’s that men have a strange attraction to bartenders and waitresses. I spoke to a few servers I know, as well as some guys who frequent bars, in an attempt to shed a little light on this shady corner of the bar industry.
Some Toronto bartenders say sexual harassment, unwanted attention from customers and inappropriate behaviour, which sometimes develops into stalking, is just part of the job.
Danielle Todd, 27, studying political has worked in six bars over the last seven years and has a very good understanding of the industry and its hazards. When she worked at the Peel Pub she had a very unpleasant experience. While balancing a full tray of drinks in one hand and carrying a pitcher of beer in the other hand, she walked past a group of young men playing foosball. One of the men thought it perfectly appropriate to shove his hand down the front of her shirt and grabbed her.
What fun! Todd had the bouncers remove the offender, but says actions like that are bound to happen.
“Traditionally, it’s just one of those jobs that women are associated with, like bar serving wenches,” she says. “It’s a sexist mentality.”
One of Todd’s customers routinely showed up outside of her bedroom throwing rocks at her window at 4 in the morning.
“He knew where I worked,” she says. “He knew when I left. He knew what hours I worked.”
Standing behind the bar on a Sunday afternoon, things aren’t too busy and Todd smiles easily. As one customer walks into the bar, looks around and quickly leaves, her face darkens slightly.
“I can’t believe he came in,” she says. “He’s banned.”
The man who walked in is banned for good reason. He is harassing Todd’s fellow bartender, Margaret Debellis.
Debellis, 24, is studying business finance. Talking to her is like talking to a wise grandmother (although much younger and prettier). She is full of kind advice and offers herbal remedies for any ailment. It is easy to see how a customer might misconstrue her actions for something more.
Debellis met “Jay” (not his real name) at school where he asked her to help him with his portfolio. Things quickly got out of hand when Jay started coming to the bar with gifts for Debellis almost every night. He bothered other bar staff about her and called her all the time.
“He would leave messages saying, ‘I love you and I know you love me too.’ Or, ‘good morning my love. Good night my love. You’re my one true love,’” she says.
Jay has been banned from the bar, but still comes in asking for Debellis.
“Jay is my worst case,” she says. “He hasn’t stopped coming in despite being told he is banned from the bar. And he threatened Jill today.”
Debellis says she and other bar staff are diligent in telling Jay to leave when he comes in. She is careful when talking to Jay, saying, “We know there is something not right psychologically with him.”
Not every man who asks a bartender on a date is “not right.” Johnny Campbell is a musician. As the lead singer of his band Johnny and The Screaming Demons, he sees a commonality between bartenders and musicians.
“The thing about bartenders and musicians is that we are professional flirts,” he says.
Bartenders make most of their money from tips, and it is generally understood that the nicer the bartender, the better the tip. It works the other way too. The better the tip, the better the service. Todd thinks this is lost on some customers.
“You have to put on that show and people don’t realize that,” she says. “Why do you think so many actors are servers as well?”
Bryant Telfer, a writer and bar patron thinks men often act inappropriately towards bartenders because they think it is acceptable.
“There is an entitlement factor,” he says. “People are having their every need catered to. (Customers) think you are interested because (bartenders) ask how they’re doing and give them an extra drink.”
Debellis echoes this idea.
“I think that when you give a guy a lot of attention they haven't experienced before, they think, ‘oh my god this girl really likes me,’” she says. “But we are just really outgoing and free-spirited and they don't understand that.”
Telfer admits he asked bartenders out for dates in the past.
“It’s wish fulfillment,” he says. “You get a couple of drinks in you and things look differently. You think, ‘wow she does like me,’ when she asks how things are going.”
Telfer doesn’t recommend asking bartenders out, saying once you do, things get “awkward.”
For Katie McClaine things have been awkward between her and one customer from Toronto to Vancouver and back again; this excessive behaviour started the same way Todd’s and Debellis’ situations started - at work.
“She started coming there all the time and followed me from each bar that I worked at,” she says. “She sent me letters and gifts when I moved to Vancouver.”
McClaine describes this excessive behaviour with a smile, but she is clearly disturbed by it - especially the attention paid to her garbage.
For example, ‘Stacey’ (name changed) has McClaines ruined bike,“Hanging in her loft as art.”
Bartenders do whatever they can to deal with excessively attentive and aggressive customers.
Todd tells people she has a boyfriend, “Even though I don’t.”
“I’m rude sometimes, and I flat out ignore people,” she says.
Debellis says she “learned a very important lesson.” Adding, “Never give out your number and tell people when you are leaving work.”
Stacy isn’t banned from any of the bars McClaine worked at. She says that it doesn't make a difference.
“They are going to come in and you’re stuck there. You’re working, you have to be nice to them and you kinda have to talk to them,” she says. “Certain times the security will ask if you want to kick them out or ban that person. And you have to think about that. If I do that, is it going to have a negative effect on the bar? So I never bothered with that and I just suck it up.”