For all we know
We may never meet again
Before you go make this moment sweet again
We won’t say goodnight until the last minute
I’ll hold out my hand and my heart will be in it
For all we know this may be only a dream
We come and go like a ripple on a stream
So love me tonight
Tomorrow was made for some
Tomorrow may never come
For all we know
— For All We Know by Billie Holiday
21 July 2005, lunch time
“Could I get the VHS or Beta CD,” I asked.
“Sure.”
“Uh—Hey, I like your band too.”
“Thanks,” replied Nirmala Basnayake, from controller.controller. She smiled and sort of curtsied.
I already owned the controller.controller CD, so I didn’t want to buy it again. I also didn’t want her to think I liked VHS or Beta more than controller.controller. I’m not sure why I felt like this; I doubt not being accepted by strangers keeps her up at night, but I still felt obliged to throw out the compliment—it was true anyway.
VHS or Beta
Camouflage Unit were the opening act for the night. Dave and I arrived midway through their set. They were quite good, though a little bit unpolished when compared to the two bands that would follow them. I will have to see them again next time they’re playing in the city; they have a very interesting sound.
VHS or Beta came on shortly after Camouflage Unit, but spent a very long time doing a sound check. When they started playing I turned to Dave and said “They sound like the Cure.” He agreed. The lead singer sounded like he was channeling Robert Smith’s voice—it was uncanny.
Mind you, the band was good in its own right. Dave and I were at the front of the stage, surrounded by people dancing along to their music. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. The band were good live; looking and sounding like something out of the 80s, but not quite.
Touring alongside VHS or Beta was the photographer from Last Night Party. Shima will be glad to know that the party Dave and I were at was nothing like the parties featured on the web site.
controller.controller
The band Dave and I had come to see were controller.controller. It had been a pleasant surprise that VHS or Beta had been so good, but we had come expecting good things from controller.controller. When we saw the band last they were the opening act for Esthero and put on a really good show.
The band took to the stage more or less one by one. The drummer got on stage last, wearing a balaclava. The last time Dave and I saw the band, he had some sort of mask on. I guess it’s something he always does. The lead singer, whom I spoke to earlier, was wearing a white tank top and mini-skirt, and stood out on stage. She would have stood out anyway I suppose, being a small brown girl surrounded by some tall-ass white dudes.
The band opened with a new song, which was a great way to start their show. They seem to have written a lot of new material, and I would imagine have enough songs for a full length album now. They alternated, more or less, between old songs and new songs. People were really enjoying the show. Lee’s Palace was totally rammed full of people. Dave and I, in front of the stage, discussed what we’d do if there was a stampede and we needed to avoid getting crushed. Well, I discussed as much anyway. Everyone was dancing around us.
The stage at Lee’s is really small, which I think suits a band like controller.controller. Nirmala Basnayake dances, quite seductively I might add, through most of the songs the band plays. The bass player and one of the guitarists would flail around on stage like rock stars when the songs got particularly intense. I thought on more than one occasions one of the guitarists would smack the lead singer in the head with the neck of his guitar, the band were so close together, weaving in between one and other, and so in to their music. You should go see controller.controller live. It’s quite the show.
The show ended late, and Dave and I made our way home. Hopefully Dave got back to Scarborough before the TTC grinded to a halt.
Music | Life
17 July 2005, early evening
My mom was a half hour in to Morning Ragga when I walked in to the living room. She had already seen the movie before. I asked her if the movie was good, and she replied, “yes,” so I asked if we could watch it from the beginning, which we did. She was wrong; the movie isn’t all that good, though it isn’t all that bad either. Morning Ragga is about a boy starting an Indian-Fusion band. The story is fairly non-standard in terms of Indian movies—there is no love triangle, bad guys, song and dance numbers, or any of the other stereotypical things one expects to find in an Indian film. The movie is almost entirely in English, which was a bit strange, but not off-putting. I thought the cinematography was quite nice. If you want to watch some Indian cinema that is off the beaten path, this is a film one might want to check out.
Read reviews of Morning Raga at Rotten Tomatoes
[1] Movies
16 July 2005, terribly early in the morning
Dave and I saw K-OS perform tonight. The very talented John Legend opened for him. I hadn’t heard of John Legend before, but apparently he sings the hooks in all your favourite songs. K-OS put on a good show, with a entourage of B-Boys, a full band, and an excellent DJ all accompanying him. The third or forth song of the night was Commandante (track 6 on Joyful Rebellion), which begins with the words, “This is an Anthem.” For tonight, K-OS decided to throw in a, ”—as in Fuck George Bush,” before continuing with the rest of the song. The crowd, myself included, cheered. One of the members of K-OS’s band was from Scarborough. When K-OS mentioned this, it drew the loudest cheer of the night. I enjoyed the show a lot; K-OS is quite good. It is a shame that he has gotten so popular the only way to see him is in a huge venue like the Amphitheater. I like smaller venues much more.
I continued the night at the Horseshoe to see the Deadly Snakes (I missed the Tangiers) and then ended the night at Sneaky Dees, where I had a very satisfying Coke-a-Cola.
[5] Music | Life
In the style of a traditional Iranian mother, she would pretend, for five days, that I did not exist; thaw on the sixth; and on the seventh have forgotten the episode entirely, convinced that my rude friends, who didn’t even say Salam to her when they came over, were responsible for ruining my manners.
—Azadeh Moaveni from Lipstick Jihad
14 July 2005, the wee hours
Freakonomics is a very light read; you can probably read the whole book in a couple days. That said, the materiel is very interesting. The book presents the economics research of Steven Levitt in a very accessible manner. I didn’t think economics could be so damn interesting. My favorite chapter in the book is on the crack game. Levitt asks the question: if selling crack is so great, why do so many crack dealers live with their mom? Turns out selling crack isn’t that great—who’d a thunk it! I don’t know if it’s a worthwhile book to own; I bought the book on a whim while at chapters. That said, it is definitely worth reading. The subjects covered by the book are bizarre to say the least.
[1] Comics and Books
As much as i definitely enjoy solitude
I wouldn’t mind perhaps
Spending little time with you
Sometimes
Sometimes
Possibly maybe probably love
—Possibly Maybe by Björk
12 July 2005, the wee hours
I watched briefly as a group of Iranians sang songs and remembered the photographer Zahra Kazemi. Today marked the 2-year anniversary of her death. There is no mention of this, or anything else to do with Kazemi, in any of Toronto’s three major papers. This is probably because in two years basically nothing has changed with respect to this case. Two years is a pretty long time.
There was a handful of people out for the vigil. I didn’t stay long; it struck me as something organized by a small subset of the Iranian community for the Iranian community. It is a shame there seems to be very little interest in keeping this story alive outside the Persian community. People would walk by, take a flyer, and leave. That said, it is also a shame that the one group who organized a vigil did very little to promote it outside their own community. A Canadian national was tortured, raped, and killed in a foreign country—the fact that she was Iranian should really be secondary. This is something that every Canadian should feel effected by.
The sad thing is, as long as the government of Iran remains unchanged, I don’t see this case ever being resovled. I am not sure what Canada really can do in this matter. What sort of political pressure can a country such as ours exert on Iran, which has spent the past 20 years telling super powers to go fuck themselves? Still, on a day like today, some righteous indignation from an elected leader would be nice.
[1] Current Events | Politics
9 July 2005, early evening
You can get digital cable for free for one month from Rogers right now. My mom, who wanted to watch Tamil movies, decided to take Rogers up on their offer. I spent this morning watching the Documentary Channel, which is also part of the package. I watched SPIT: Squeegee Punks in Traffic, a film about the lives of squeegee kids in Toronto. We learn about their lives through a squeegee kid, Roach, who films his day to day life, as well as being filmed himself. You see almost every aspect of these street kids lives, which is for the most part not that pleasant. (Living on the streets is an easy way to be exposed to lots of drug use and violence.) It was an interesting film that is well worth watching.
The official Squeegee Kids in Traffic web site.
[1] Movies
9 July 2005, early evening
The Fantastic Four wasn’t a fantastic film, but it was reasonably good. The movie follows four people who get super powers after being exposed to cosmic rays. The takes some liberties with the story from the comic book, but is probably pretty close to what the more recent versions of the story have been. I enjoyed the film. Of course, I’ll watch any comic book movie, so you can take that with a grain of salt.
Reviews of The Fantastic Four at Rotten Tomatoes.
[1] Movies
7 July 2005, late afternoon
Today, a series of bombs were set off in London. I was born in London. My family and I still have a lot of friends in the country, so it was good to hear from my dad that everyone is apparently OK. The last bombing in London happened about 10 years ago and were carried out by the IRA. The bombings today were most likely the work of some fundamentalist Muslim terrorist group. One group has claimed responsibility, calling on Britain to pull troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan. As with the IRA attacks in the past, one would expect the British to rally around the government; I don’t see Blair pulling troops from anywhere. Whatever the purpose of this attack may be, I am sure it will accomplish little more then increasing the number of assaults on Muslims in England. Violence is a horrible way to advance ones cause, both morally and pragmatically.
[1] Current Events
6 July 2005, terribly early in the morning
I finally saw Memento. What a great film. Guy Pearce stars as a man who is trying to track down the person that raped and killed his wife. The catch is, he can’t remember anything a few minutes after it happens. The film basically has two stories, one going backwards in time, the other going forwards in time. You’d be surprised how intriguing a movie can be when you know how the story ends. The actual ending of Memento is really incredible. I didn’t expect it to twist as much as it did. This is definitely a must see film.
The official Memento web site.
[6] Movies
George Costanza: Ah you have no idea of the magnitude of this thing. If she is allowed to infiltrate this world, then George Costanza as you know him, Ceases to Exist! You see, right now, I have Relationship George, but there is also Independent George. That’s the George you know, the George you grew up with—Movie George, Coffee shop George, Liar George, Bawdy George.
Jerry Sienfeld: I, I love that George.
George: Me Too! And he’s Dying Jerry! If Relationship George walks through this door, he will Kill Independent George! A George, divided against itself, Cannot Stand!
5 July 2005, the wee hours
I had the day off today, and used it to do what I like to do best: watch a movie. I had seen Finding Neverland before, but wanted to see it again. Ahilan has said this is his favourite film of 2004. I’m not sure what my favourite film from last year is, but I can say this one was very good. I love the way this movie was filmed. Characters are constantly moving between the real world and the imaginary world, and the transitions are sometimes quite subtle. The acting is great all around. I can’t recommend this film enough.
My favourite scene in the film is shot while the following portion of the play Peter Pan is being shown:
“I can’t help you, Wendy. Hook wounded me. I can neither fly nor swim.”
“Do you mean we shall both be drowned?”
“Look how the water is rising.”
They put their hands over their eyes to shut out the sight. They thought they would soon be no more. As they sat thus something brushed against Peter as light as a kiss, and stayed there, as if saying timidly, “Can I be of any use?”
It was the tail of a kite, which Michael had made some days before. It had torn itself out of his hand and floated away.
“Michael’s kite,” Peter said without interest, but next moment he had seized the tail, and was pulling the kite toward him.
“It lifted Michael off the ground,” he cried; “why should it not carry you?”
“Both of us!”
“It can’t lift two; Michael and Curly tried.”
“Let us draw lots,” Wendy said bravely.
“And you a lady; never.” Already he had tied the tail round her. She clung to him; she refused to go without him; but with a “Good-bye, Wendy,” he pushed her from the rock; and in a few minutes she was borne out of his sight. Peter was alone on the lagoon.
The rock was very small now; soon it would be submerged. Pale rays of light tiptoed across the waters; and by and by there was to be heard a sound at once the most musical and the most melancholy in the world: the mermaids calling to the moon.
Peter was not quite like other boys; but he was afraid at last. A tremour ran through him, like a shudder passing over the sea; but on the sea one shudder follows another till there are hundreds of them, and Peter felt just the one. Next moment he was standing erect on the rock again, with that smile on his face and a drum beating within him. It was saying, “To die will be an awfully big adventure.”
The official Finding Neverland web site.
[3] Movies
5 July 2005, the wee hours
I woke up Sunday morning with nothing to do and a stack of DVDs. I had been meaning to see In Good Company for quite some time, but no one I knew ever wanted to rent it. I watched it by myself, and thought it was quite nice. The movie is a comedy about an older man who is demoted when his company gets bought by some huge mega-corp; his replacement is a boy half his age. Dennis Quaid plays the old man, and Topher Grace plays the young man; they were pretty hilarious together. The film is charming at times. Topher Grace’s character is thoroughly pitiable; he’s kind of like a lost puppy dog, you just feel bad for him throughout the whole film. The movie takes a look at what it means to be happy. The atypical ending was a nice touch.
The official In Good Company web site.
[3] Movies
5 July 2005, the wee hours
After watching Peter Pan, Ahilan and I wanted to go buy Finding Neverland. I had seen the film already, but was half asleep and wanted to watch it again properly. We went to Blockbuster and ended up leaving with a handful of used DVDs. When Mezan and Prasanna showed up at my house Saturday night, we watched one of those films: Collateral. Collateral was a wicked film. The movie follows a contract killer and a taxi cab driver for one night as the killer makes his hits. Tom Cruise and Jamie Fox both do amazing jobs acting in this film. Everything about the movie is basically perfect. The action sequences are really well done. The dialog is superb. The movie really impressed me. If you haven’t watched the film, you really should. Michael Mann is quite the film maker.
The official Collateral web site.
[1] Movies
5 July 2005, the wee hours
Ahilan and I were bored Saturday. We decided to watch Peter Pan after looking through Krishna’s DVDs for something to watch. I had already seen this latest incarnation of Peter Pan with Shima back when it was out in the cinemas. I enjoyed the film and thought watching it again might be nice. I assume I don’t need to go in to the plot of the movie. I thought the film makers did a great job of bringing the movie to life. With modern day special effects, the fantastic elements of the story really come to life. I thought all the children did a great job playing their parts to boot. Olivia Williams plays the John, Michael, and Wendy’s mother, and she was looking as charming as ever. (Also, Ahilan brought to my attention something I missed the first time I watched the film: Captain Hook and the children’s Father are both played by the same actor. I thought this strange till I read that this was quite common.) I thought the film was quite good—as children’s movies go anyway.
The official Peter Pan web site
Movies
4 July 2005, late at night
Very few movies remind me of high school more than the Young and Dangerous series. The first three movies in the series are much better than the films that would follow. The third film, which I watched with Shima and her brother on Friday, chronicles a turf war between the Hung Hing society, and the Tung Sing society. Tung Sing make appearances through out the series as a sort of generic evil triad. Hung Hing are the ‘good’ triad. I’m not quite sure how they make money, since they refuse to sell drugs and do anything else societies frown upon. The film is a classic. If you haven’t seen it, you haven’t gotten a real taste for HK cinema.
A review of Young and Dangerous 3.
[1] Movies
2 July 2005, early afternoon
Perhaps Hindu leaders should lighten up, says DiManno. Perhaps DiManno should work harder at not sounding like a bigot as she writes about the controversy surrounding the Bollywood Cowboy event held in Toronto.
The thing is, I don’t actually think Bollywood Cowboy was such a big deal, since it seems obvious that ACT were just totally ignorant about most everything. Now, the fact they somehow think Bollywood and Hinduism have anything to do with each other is sad, but hardly something to raise a furor about—especially since it is a good cause they are working to help.
That said, there are people much more religious than me who don’t want to see Hindu gods turned into pop icons. Everything DiManno is ranting about seems to miss the point of the Hindu communities complaints. To pretend Catholics wouldn’t object to a Sexed-Up Space-Pirate Jesus is wishful thinking. More so, even she doesn’t seem to realize that Bollywood and Hinduism having nothing to do with one another—besides the fact that those god damn brown people are involved with both. Worse yet, her generalization of the community at large is disingenuous. She goes so far as to suggest the Hindu community is full of bigoted backwards homophobe zealots. Maybe she gets her memos from the Conservative Party of Canada.
”[Bollywood Cowboy] demonstrated a callous disregard for non-European values and beliefs.” To which DiManno replies, “Oh please.”
Well, that’s certainly a tough argument to rebuke.
Suck it up Pakis!
[8] Politics | Current Events
2 July 2005, terribly early in the morning
Bill Blair, our new police chief, made some history last Sunday by being the first Toronto police chief to participate in the Gay Pride Parade. Although it isn’t such a big deal in the grand scheme of things, I thought that was quite impressive. I can’t even picture the old police chief, Fantino, watching the Pride Parade. Blair seems to be making an effort to change the public perception of the police. I think Blair can do it, but he has his work cut out for him. The day before the Pride Parade, Amir Ebrahimnia, who runs the popular martini bar Babylon on Church St, had his bar shut down for over-crowding. Once the place was cleared out, the cops proceeded to beat the shit out of the man. (Dave found this story, which I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere else. It strikes me as newsworthy.)
Update: Even Dave finds him self doubting the authenticity of this story. As far as I can tell, the only reports of this story all link back to the article I linked to here. There is no new information on the internet about this attack, besides the original article. It seems shady. Nevertheless, it’d be nice if some journalist looked into this.
Update: The article is getting a lot more play. BlogTO is now discussing it, though they link to a thread elsewhere on the net. My doubts about the story are growing. This seems like the sort of scandal that you would like to think is hard to cover up. If this is true—which is very well might be, the police force in Toronto has a pretty bad history when it comes to dealing with the gay community—then it says a lot that this story can go for so long without getting any sort of attention from the press.
[6] Politics | Current Events
2 July 2005, the wee hours
Shima wanted to watched Bewitched today. When we arrived at the cinema, it had already begun, and the next show wouldn’t start for quite some time. So, we watched my film choice, which was War of the Worlds. I haven’t read the book, so I don’t know how far it strays from the novel. I thought the films plot was good enough anyway. The special effects are great. I feel like playing Half-Life 2 after watching the movie; there is something similar about the aliens in the movie and the aliens in the game. The film is very fast paced, and the action basically starts right away. I think the film is worth checking out—Shima disagrees.
The official War of the Worlds web site
[5] Movies
29 June 2005, early evening
Deepa Metha’s Water is set to open the Toronto International Film Festival this year. I’ve always wanted to watch her two other films, Fire and Earth, but have never had the chance. Fire is about lesbianism, Earth is about the partition of India and the violence that followed. Fire was particularly controversial when it came out. Now in India, when controversial films are released, it is not uncommon to see people on the streets torching cinemas. This was the case with Fire, and will probably be the case with Water, assuming it is ever shown in India. Mehta began filming Water in India, but constant harassment by various Hindu Nationalist groups forced her to film the movie elsewhere. What country did she feel would be suitable, yet safer for herself and her crew? Well, Metha finished filming Water in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka!
[1] Movies | Interesting Links
29 June 2005, the wee hours
We’re a nation of minorities and in a nation of minorities you don’t cherry-pick rights.
Or so says Paul Martin. It is now legal to get married to the boy of your dreams in Canada—even if you yourself are a boy. Canada has legalized same-sex marriage. We now have to wait and see how what the public response to this law will be. I don’t think this is actually as big an issue in Canada as it has been made out to be. However, I also don’t know if it would have succeeded were it put to a public vote through a referendum. I think there will be some opposition to this law; after all, there are bigots everywhere—even in Canada. Maybe, if we hope and pray, they’ll all move down South.
[6] Politics
27 June 2005, early evening
Reading Dinu’s site I found a very interesting interview with an Iraqi suicide bomber: Inside the Mind of an Iraqi Suicide Bomber. I’m always amazed at the things people can do and rationalize in the name of religion. It is scary, though not surprising, that the suicide bomber had to wait almost half a year to get on the list of suicide bomber volunteers; the article isn’t completely clear why, though the implication seems to be because the list is so long. It should also come as no surprise that the occupation, as well as the influx of Mujahedeen from neighboring countries, is also helping to fill the ranks of the insurgency. Rumsfeld has said he expects the insurgency to go on for years. I think ultimately Iraq will go the way of Viet Nam; it will be a horrible debacle for the US, which will leave Iraq scarred for years to come.
[1] Interesting Links | Politics
27 June 2005, lunch time
The Sky Yard is the name given to the Patio on top of the Drake Hotel. It’s a very nice patio, half covered, half open. There are plenty of large sofas and day beds for people to lounge around on while they eat and drink. I met Carvill, Dave and Martha there for drinks and lunch yesterday.
Carvill and I arrived early enough we could still order brunch — which we did. I had a club sandwich, Carvill had some French toast. The food arrived just as Dave and Martha did. I can safely say I was given the biggest club sandwich I have ever seen. The waiter told me he’d be impressed if I could finish it. I told him he wasn’t going to be impressed; I gave Dave half of the sandwich. Carvill’s French toast was quite yummy — the random fruit it was served with was excellent.
Our waiter was a gay man — least I assumed so from his name tag which said, “Fag”. He had an awesome beard/mustache thing going on. I wonder if he was disappointed he couldn’t go party it up at the Pride festival taking place yesterday. If he was upset, you wouldn’t know it; the service at the Drake was excellent.
Martha and Dave each had a beer. Carvill and I each had a coke, which was served in a giant glass, and was real coke. That, perhaps, was the best part of the patio experience.
[9] Life | Restaurants and Bars
