2010 CIFF Picks: HIS & HERS

Another one of my 2010 Calgary International Film Festival Picks: I am captivated by this 2010 Calgary Festival documentary: HIS & HERS (CIFF screening info) (film website)

Here is an excerpt from the film synopsis.

From kitchens, living rooms, and hallways across the Irish midlands, His & Hers delightfully combines observation and charm to tell a 90-year-old love story through the voices of 70 women. This intimate gender and cultural snapshot explores a woman’s relationships with the men in her life—father, boyfriend, husband, son. Following sequentially from little girl to old woman, each character portrait is woven with the others into one perfectly crafted cinematic quilt.

Check out the trailer.

P.S. The trailer looks better the second time as I managed to ignore the overpowering trailer music a little.

2010 CIFF Picks: Score: A Hockey Musical

Another one of my 2010 Calgary International Film Festival Picks: The Festival Gala Score: A Hockey Musical (CIFF screening info) (film site) seems like a lot of fun. Check out its trailer here.

P.S. This film is also a TIFF gala.

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Sept 13 update: See reviews in The Hollywood Reporter & The Montreal Gazette.

Watch Funny Lady Carmen Stockton @ CBC The Alberta Comedy Spectacular (Sept 4th @ 7pm)

CBC The Alberta Comedy Spectacular is tomorrow (Sept 4th @ 7pm). If you like a good laugh, check out the show. Here is an excerpt of an email Carmen sent me which I previous blogged about.

This is the CBC Comedy special that me and a few other extremely talented comedians filmed back in May, if you happen to be around your TV sets on this date (see below) and want to see us tell a couple jokes…please tune in!

The Alberta Comedy Spectacular: Best of the West airs Saturday Sept 4 at 7pm across Alberta on CBC TV.

P.S. In case I am out, I’ve set my machine to record the show as I don’t want to miss it. Traveling back in time a little, you can check out my video interview with Carmen, done 2 years ago in 2008.

Maggie Q is Nikita

The charming Maggie Q (Margaret Denise Quigley) (李美琪) is the star of the new TV show Nikita on CW and A. I am looking forward to checking out the show. I absolutely love the original the 1990 French film Nikita and, unfortunately, haven’t really enjoyed any of its many remakes. I hope this 2010 iteration Nikita will be different and enjoyable, will see.

Hmm, the trailer looks less impressive than I had hoped. Will try to watch the first few episodes for sure.

[HT TorStar "Salem's Fall TV Preview V: Nikita, the girl with the phoenix tattoo"]

Clifford Stoll: 18 minutes with an agile mind

I’ve admired Clifford Stoll for years since reading his book The Cuckoo’s Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage in the late 80s or early 90s. Without knowing how smart and insightful Stoll is, he may seem a bit of a “mad scientist” in the following video. But for those who pay close attention and listen carefully, look behind the superficial surface, what he said has lots of truth in them. Enjoy.

Clifford Stoll: 18 minutes with an agile mind

Golf is a game of luck, the more I practice, the luckier I get.

I’ve been re-watching The War Room in preparation for Kings of Pastry (a documentary by the same two directors: Chris Hegedus & DA Pennebaker) and I found a new quote to add to my Quotes I Love.

“Ben Hogan said, ‘Golf is a game of luck, the more I practice, the luckier I get.’ The harder you work, the luckier you are. I was 33 years old before I ever went to Washington and New York, 42 before I won my first campaign. [...] You’ve been part of something special in my life. I’ll never forget what you’ve done. ” -  James Carville in The War Room (1993)

Sept 5th, 2011 update: Here is a clip from the movie with the above quote.

Getting help from KitchenAid via Twitter

Note: Photos were taken when we bought these beautiful pans earlier this year. And yes, I know I am a geek that loves to cook. :)

Seriously, we love our KitchenAid appliances, I think I’ve become a better cook ! :) We started with a KitchenAid range and then bought a powerful blender. So when it came time to replace our worn out nonstick pans, we  went shopping around and finally decided to give KitchenAid pans a try.

Because of the lovely design and fire red, we felt in love with the KitchenAid Porcelain Nonstick Cookwares earlier this year and bought them. Unfortunately we ran into problems immediately when we started using them to cook and the problems, again unfortunately, haven’t gone away and in fact have gotten worst over time.

You see, the problems we have are with the pans bulging (seriously bulging) under heat. As I mentioned, we have a nice KitchenAid range. The range has a perfectly flat and easy to clean cooktop. But now, because the pans have bulged and have created a single point of contact instead of a flat bottom, the pans will literally spin on the cooktop. As a result, the bottom of our KitchenAid pans (see photos below) and the cooktop have been scratched. And I do feel a little bit worry/unsafe when I cook with the pans as I have to watch them carefully and don’t let them spin out of control.

Yesterday, I tried to get some help from the nice people from KitchenAid via thier twitter account. This morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see them replied promptly. Wow, KitchenAid is listening, very cool.

To help explain the problems, I figured some photos for “show & tell” will help. And as a reporter/blogger, since I got the photos already and twitter is too short to explain things, I thought I might as well write this up as an article.

Dear KitchenAid, you’ve been a lovemark to me in my mind. I hope the nice people at KitchenAid can help me.

P.S. The cooktop has scratched and become quite rough and spilled food get to stick to them more.

The lovely big pan with glass cover (7 months later).

The smaller pan without cover.

TIFF Fairy – 2010 Toronto International Film Festival

Thanks to my TIFF Fairy, I’ve just received my 2010 TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) t-shirt and program book, and other goodies.

Thank you my dear TIFF Fairy!

P.S. See my 2009 TIFF Fairy entry for links to two TIFF filmmakers’ interviews.