The Methodology of a Name, Part Two!

Progress has been made in narrowing down the name lists even further, partly thanks to the great suggestions in the comments from the last post. If you have any ideas, keep em coming! ;-)

8. Real Life Pairings

Jenn was right -- certain pairs of names need to be avoided, at the risk of having other real-life personages curb the blossoming identity of our new addition. So despite my love for the name "Grace", having a Will and Grace in the house was not an option. Same for Will and Harry, Will and Kate, William and Trillium, and even Bill and Hilary.

Casualties: Grace, Hilary, Harry, Blake


9. War of the Words!

Both Dave and I have a penchant for word-names. They're easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and can invoke a meaningful totem to guide the child. That being said, we'd rather not have *two* word names, as a name like "Indigo Lily" feels a bit gimmicky to me.

Therefore, the words must all battle one another. There can only be one!

I grouped together all the word names for boys and girls, and then we thinned out the names we were less fond of. With girls, we were able to narrow by subject; we had A LOT of plant names and colour names to work with.

Plant Battle Casualties: Lily, Saffron, Sage

Colour Spectrum Casualties: Indigo, Scarlet, Clementine

Boy-Word-Casualties: Grant, Phoenix, Sterling


So, what's the next step? At 25 names, the girl's list still needs some paring down, which will likely happen by getting pairs of names to compete with another to eliminate weaker options. However, our boy's list is down to a manageable dozen options, so from here we can skip straight to examining the combinations for unfortunate initials and clunky sounds.

And of course, ideas are always welcome! :-D

The Methodology of a Name

As some of you may know, Dave and I are expecting our second child this winter. We're very excited to meet this new little person, albeit somewhat terrified about the prospect of chasing around not one, but TWO small children. I suppose the evolving/devolving coherence of this blog will be a testament to how we're managing. ;-)

Anyhoo, we are once again having to contemplate a name for this impending HelgaHume. And unlike our first time going through this process, we have less time and energy to sit and daydream about perfect name choices.

We have to be focused. We have to be decisive. And somewhere in there, we also have to listen carefully for the gentle, easily-missed messages from the universe... quiet messages guiding us towards the baby's true name.

No pressure.

So here's the method we are using, in all of its OCD-esque glory. To keep things interesting, I included name-casualties at each turn... the list of active names remains very secret, but perhaps you might be entertained in knowing which names have hit the chopping block, and for what exact reasons. ;-)

1. Buy a name book, preferably one slanted to your own naming sensibilities

Unsure of where to start, we purchased a baby name book specifically tailored to the kinds of names we are drawn to. The tongue-in-cheek book of choice was "Cool Names for Babies" by Satran and Rozencrantz, chosen for its emphasis on less common names, ranging from "a little different" to downright strange.

Casualties: Ultra-popular choices Jacob, John, Emma, Madison.


2. Secretly write down every name you don't hate

Dave and I independently went through the book, writing down every name that we were at least lukewarm about. We also added names we'd come across, or thought up, in the interests of having this list be as complete as possible.

Casualties: Names in the book that didn't resonate... Gable, Otis, Lola, Olivia


3. Combine lists, make notes of overlap

I then combined both lists into a single MEGA-LIST (in Excel), boldfacing the names that appeared on both lists. Note, there were no casualties at this point, as they happen next...


4. Blackball!

This was fun. We'd independently look over the list, and cross out anything we hated. Again, anything that was at least lukewarm to both partners could stay. Still, it was fun to tease each other for "weird" selections. ;-)

Casualties: Elvis, Connor, Lydia, Isabella


5. Points system

We were left with a long list of names, and now needed a way to prioritize them by how much we liked them. I proposed a method involving allocating points, where:

• 1 point = lukewarm
• 2 points = kinda like it
• 3 points = really like it!
  

Going through all the remaining names, we individually gave points to each according to how much we individually liked them. These scores were added to one another, for a total ranging from 2 to 6.

Then, we sorted the names by points, and removed anything scoring 2 or 3 points, as that meant that neither of us was especially keen on said name.

Casualties: Bigby, Kennedy, Tamsin, Sonata


6. Weird meanings?!

Given that name meanings are important, we looked up the meanings of the remaining names, and removed any with strange or uncomfortable meanings.

Casualties:
Tennyson = "Son of Dennis". Uhm, no, and Davidson/Karlason doesn't sound as cool, or relate back to awesome poets of yore.
Hudson = "Son of the hooded man". Sounds kinda rapey, dont'cha think? :-/
Caledonia = "From Scotland". Not really.
Ingrid = "Beauty of Froy, the mythical Norse horse". Pretty as a horse? No thanks.

...but the prize goes to Ripley, meaning "shouting man's meadow". Hee hee hee... "AUGH!! AUGH!!! I'm in a meadow!!! AUGH!!!" Yes, I'm finding that way too funny.


7. Stella Barbarella: Thinning the list by removing less desirable same-end-letter options

I noticed on our girls' names list that a stunning number all ended with the same letters. Granted, girls' names ending with "a" and "y"-sounds are both very common, but it pointed out to me that we could not indeed give a first and middle name that both ended in the same letter/sound without it sounding weird.

Hence, when grouping together eligible names by last letter (=LAST() function, for all you Excel junkies), I realized these groups were all in direct competition with one another. As such, it would be wise to thin each end-letter group to three or so entries, according to which we're showing a stronger preference for.

Casualties: Augustine, Sawyer, Isadora, Melody


... So what's step 8? Your guess is as good as mine! Our lists still need thinning, but at least they're prioritized. Will update you with further steps as they arise, but in the meantime, I hope this has minimally entertained you. ;-)

HelgaHume Wine Tasting Party VI

A while back, the HelgaHumes had our sixth wine tasting party. Much has happened since, and in the tumult, I had forgotten to post the results. However, here they are in all their glory:

• Pinot Noir has a patchy performance at our tastings, tending to get either first or last place. Here it was last again...
• For the first time, the sparkler was NOT last place! Maybe I'm finally succeeding in my pro-sparkling propaganda... (or maybe people just REEEALLY didn't like the other two!) ;-)
• Oz took first place (no surprise, the Victoria crowd seems to like full-bodied wines), but second place went to the not-often-considered Argentina! I must make a point of including them more in future wine tastings.
  

I also noted that the ordering effect is more pronounced here than usual, and as a result, I will be planning something diabolical to counter it in the next party. Enjoy!

HelgaHume Wine Tasting Party V

Two weeks ago, we held our FIFTH HelgaHume wine tasting party! There were some shocking results, so here be the highlights!

• The cheapest wine (Paul Mas, $15) won! Not a first time, but still a rare occurrence.
• The most expensive wine (Cremant de Bourgogne, $25) was LAST place! This has never happened before.
• France had the first-place wine (Paul Mas) AND the last-place wine (Cremant de Bourgogne)!
• HelgaHume wine tasting FIRST: A French wine won! Usually they don't do so well at our parties.
• Sparkling Winner: Seaview from Australia, $17
• CabSav Winner: J. Lohr from California, $23
• Malbec Winner: Paul Mas from France $15
• Wine sequence attrition was higher than usual (as in, more people rating A than G), and definitely skewed the results. If anyone has any ideas on how to curb this, I'm all ears. :-)

And now, for the detailed results:

What should a BC government data catalogue do?

In my day job, I’m part of a team of people who are working to bring the BC Government into the global open data movement. It is very fun, exciting work.

In  Citizens @ the Centre: BC Government 2.0, our public service has committed that people from British Columbia and around the world can access our provincial government data to improve research and decision making, and foster innovation in  information services through things like web and mobile apps.

 

A key element of this shift will be to create a data catalogue that allows people to access BC’s data. And so the question of ‘what should a data catalogue do?’ becomes pretty relevant.

 

Let’s pause there and say that what follows is a set of ruminations and thinking, and not an official representation of the BC government’s position, and that it could be subject to radical change. If anything, it’s an official representation of me trying to do my job (my official title is Executive Director, Citizen Engagement in BC's Ministry of Citizens' Services) by engaging people who are smarter and more experienced in a discussion about  what would be ideal for BC to be doing, and where we might have blind spots as our team goes about our work.  Really, this is risk management—I don’t want to miss some great opportunities and I don’t want to do anything dumb either. That said,  I hope you’re keen to dig in alongside us. Many thanks in advance.

 

Looking around at what’s been done with data catalogues to date, you see most of them working with a basic concept of data provision.  Toronto, Vancouver, Australia and New Zealand fall pretty squarely into this category, with Edmonton’s catalogue being among the most sophisticated. Other sites like http://www.data.gov also encourage data conversations by not only providing data, but also seeking some dialogue around the data through blogs and discussion forums. More interesting to me are data catalogues like http://data.gov.uk that put an emphasis on data action by trying to connect ideas about using datasets to a development or analysis project. Equally interesting are sites like http://data.worldbank.org that seem to focus on data understanding by focusing a lot on visualizations of data sets, making them more understandable to researchers, policy types and other people who aren’t necessarily skilled in data manipulation.

 

We can sum these up as a series of intents or purposes for data catalogues: provision, conversation, action, and understanding. In my mind, while these overlap and build on one another, what you choose as your most important intent will have a big impact on the function and design of your catalogue.

 

So here’a  good time to stop and check—is this typology right? Is there another intent that’s missing that could extend what data catalogues can accomplish?

 

One thought that occurs is what I’ll label data relevance. Data relevance would try and personalize how data sets are presented, especially using locations. So you could imagine searching for an issue, seeing a location of an office that deals with that issue (so, search for health, see a hospital or a clinic or a local nursing school), and then present data that is relevant to that issue (see performance data or research data or enrolment data). Ideally, these data sets might even link to the specific place itself, so you could see the data produced at that location. This, I think, is what Tim Berners-Lee is talking about when he’s going on about ‘linked data’ or ‘web 3.0’—where data can find other data. We see this on the UK data catalogue, but the explanation about what it’s supposed to do is pretty fuzzy. I might be wildly off base in making this connection,  but the feel of where I’m going seems to be following Sir Tim’s line of thinking.

 

Looking at these opportunities, then, where should BC’s emphasis lie?

 

While understanding that provision is fundamental—if our data is no good or impossible to find, everything else is a non-starter—I don’t think that it should be BC’s emphasis. What I think I’d like is to prioritize our intents this way:

1.       Action—BC’s catalogue’s success will be primarily  measured by how many projects it sparks that make use of provincial data sets. As such, the site should be designed with focused calls to action that move people from exploring data into using the data in productive ways. It will use the social networking capacity of the internet to help  ideas connect with skills and other necessary resources to make things happen.

2.       Conversation—BC is in its infancy in providing data to the public in this manner. Having rich feedback loops that allow the province to sense demand for data, how it can be improved, and how it is being used will help BC get better at providing data. Luke Closs’s rough-in work for a new data catalogue for our Apps 4 Climate Action contest is a big inspiration—especially his ideas about how to triage a data set: http://demo.socialtext.net/a4cadata/index.cgi?how_to_triage_a_dataset

3.       Understanding –those skilled at manipulating data—software and web developers, economists, statisticians and researchers—are not the only people we want to learn about the data. Telling stories that place the data in context can help all kinds of people understand issues that are important to them, and help build understanding of the issues facing BC, and maybe what we can do about them. A great inspiration for this kind of approach would the Guardian newspaper’s http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog.

4.       Relevance—that we build on GeoBC’s geospatial strengths to start connecting data sets to places as early as possible. The resulting map interfaces could be incredibly powerful.

5.       Provision—that we get the basics right, meaning: a) anything we call open data is in a format that is machine readable; b) that there is robust metadata that explains the data's provenance etc; c) that the data is structured through standards in such a way that it is usable; c) that it is findable through a strong search function; and d) that data, over time, becomes automated in terms of updates and publishing, using xml feeds and APIs. In my experience these basics aren't necessarily that easy, and really getting these right will be an ongoing process rather than something that gets done right off the bat.

What do you think? Is this the right order? Something missing? Am I off my rocker?

 

Depending on the answer, the next step will be to start to imagine some functionality that could support these intents, in this (or whatever) order. I’ll take that up in a subsequent post.

Posted via email from CoCreative

Inaugural Victoria Wine-Tasting Party!

Last weekend, Dave and I hosted our first ever wine-tasting party at our new home in Victoria. The night was a wild success, thanks to our amazingly fun guests. Thanks also to the experts at the Foul Bay BC Liquor Mart, as well as to the wine-matching cheese connoisseurs at Chiarellis, who did all the wine and cheese selections.

And now, with no further delay, here are the results!




The next wine party will likely be in January... so stay tuned for more results! ^_^

A New Direction

As I was unpacking the contents of our new home, I came across a familiar, red tube that contains my more cherished drawings. Bracing myself for nostalgia, I opened it up to look inside.

...But instead of nostalgia, I found inspiration.

This nude, one of my favourites, was one I did back in New Zealand. Dave had pushed me to take a weekly class, if only to meet new people and to flex my long-atrophied art muscles. I was shy and nervous, but I went, and in pushing my own boundaries of comfort I produced some of my best work.

Sitting on the floor of my new home, beholding this near-forgotten beauty, I remembered how happy I'd been when I was drawing.

And here I am, once again in a new city, once again having gone too long without incorporating art into my life.

As such, I resolve to get involved in the Victoria art community. I resolve to unshackle myself from my comfort zone.

I resolve to get drawing again.

Backtracking: Movie Reviews part 5

Next 5 movies:

July 3, 2009: I love the movie, "Blue Velvet"! Tonight was my third watching, and I've seen more new layers to it... so cool! (B+)

July 25, 2009: I watched "Top Gun" for the first time tonight... man, what a BAD movie! Stalking as a form of courtship? "Enemies" only mattering insofar as their ability to supply blow-up-able planes to the "plot"? Dialogue that makes little sense at all? That undermining women on the job is acceptable, but undermining men warrants a (manly) hissyfit? No thank you. (F)






August 2, 2009: I am, apparently, the only person alive who does not find Judd Apatow movies funny. There's more to life than penis jokes, and I've seen better writing for female characters in pornography! Funny People is the biggest movie misnomer I've ever come across. (F)




August 6, 2009: I LOVED "Tropic Thunder"! Clever premise, fun writing, good acting and delivery... and an almost-unrecognizable Tom Cruise damn near steals the show in his best role ever! (A)






August 24, 2009: I really enjoyed the movie, "Day Watch"! It's a neat plot, where Light and Dark forces navigate our present, urban reality, and a war between them is about to break out. A little like "Constantine", only MUCH better, and... Russian! For a fun, dreamlike movie, check it out! (A-)


Winner of the Set: "Tropic Thunder"!

Winner so far: Unchanged! It's still "Blade Runner", with runners-up of "Be Kind Rewind" and "Tropic Thunder", in that order.

6 things I've learned the hard way

So for the last year and a half or so, I've been busily trying  bring some new ideas into the organization where I work.  My colleagues and I have helped to create some really interesting projects that have moved the dial in terms of how public engagement tools get used in our provincial government. We've taken lots of risks and gotten some tangible, positive results. I'm really proud of what we've accomplished.

A big part of what I see as our success has to do with how we've come at our work. Inspired by folks who design products and systems for a living like the UK's Design Council , we made the assumption that in the launch of new ideas, highly detailed planning and extensive business cases can be unhelpful. Instead, ideas stand or fall based on how they perform when tested. So, if you have an idea, create a 'prototype', test it, get feedback and improve. Eventually you'll figure out it won't get you where you need to go, or it will show you you are downright visionary (or somewhere in between). Bonus: you won't have wasted piles of time and bucks in coming up with something that may or may not work, or is simply too big to fail.

 As a theory, this seemed wildly practical. Then I had the amazing opportunity to actually do it.

Practice is Painful

Some lessons I've learned along the way:

1) Prototypes aren't as easy as they sound

A designer colleague has this saying that I love: "quick and dirty is okay, but sometimes the dirty tends to hang around." We've had to get stuff up very cheaply and very fast. On the one hand, this wasn't so much prototyping as it was having to execute really quickly. On the other hand, it also meant that our first cuts were live, and we could try and improve on the fly.

The challenge here was that sometimes our users thought we were offering our final draft, not our first or second. Moreover, incentives within our organization to keep projects relatively secret meant that trying out early iterations was a no go.

As a result we endured some reasonable criticism. Happily, from an organizational change perspective, getting criticized can often be just the thing to break down resistance and catalyze the details of innovative projects (read: some of the 'dirty' gets cleaned up).

2) Ego is the enemy

Taking ownership of projects can be a real plus. It helps motivate you to put in the hard work, extra hours and push the envelope. It catalyzes creativity and a team. So ownership can be a boon for productivity.

But when ego starts getting in the way, there's a problem. Signs your ego is a problem? You're more interested in speaking opportunities than in getting your projects done. At night you imagine yourself as the great savior of your organization, a historical  visionary that will lead the way to innovation grace and wind up in a documentary somewhere. You are totally frustrated by the organization's inability to listen to you. You are completely overwhelmed by work because you believe you are the only one who can do the work well. If you're not doing it all, you hoard all the really juicy and interesting tasks for yourself.

This is will cause trouble because: 1) It means nobody else is learning except you; 2) You will burn out when your self-inflated expectations aren't met, and your project and change agenda will fall over; 3)When projects become closely associated with an individual rather than the organization, they are easily dismissed by decision makers, which will also hurt your change agenda.

I've been guilty of some or all of the ego behaviors above, and probably will be again. But what I've found out is that while having a vision of where to go with a project makes you strong, having an ego just makes you brittle. Fight ego off as much as you can.

3)  Something bosses need to hear: "Good, fast or cheap--now pick two."

Real enthusiasm for an idea from the executive ranks can be an amazing thing for a project. But said buy-in can lead to unrealistic expectations from execs. The discussion can turn into: "Great, we'll get a super duper project launched by the end of the week for free!" And depending on the project, you may be able to pull that off.

But if you find yourself in the realm of doing something complex that can't be done by the end of the week, I've found that using a trick taught to me by a systems guy I worked with in New Zealand works wonders. Ask the enthusiastic exec whether they have ever done any renovations to their house (the answer tends to be yes). Then introduce the renovation triangle, which has good, fast and cheap at the three points (this principle often applies to building stuff generally). You then elaborate on how you can pick two of the three--good and fast, but not cheap; cheap and fast, but not good; cheap and good but not fast. This tends to bring some discipline to the conversation.

3) Ideas are 10% or less. Everything else is fast talk and hard work.

I've found that when it comes to innovation, most folks want to be ideas people. And I understand why: it's fun to be brilliant and to be seen as brilliant (see point two).

But innovation isn't anything without action. This is the strength of the design led, prototyping approach, I think. But to keep organizations moving means taking on work people don't want to do, and keeping teams motivated through the inevitable rise and decline of enthusiasm around a project.

So reminding people of purpose and of already achieved awesomeness will help them stay motivated. Simultaneously being unafraid of grunt work helps send the signal that you are serious about making things happen, no matter what.

4) Taking on innovative projects means being regularly terrified and/or depressed. This is normal.

One thing I've learned about in spades is the emotional life of projects. The ramp up stage is full of excitement. Approval elicits elation. Launch is exhausting. Maintenance is full of uncertainty and/or boredom. And conclusions are full of nightmares of the whole thing falling over, ruined careers and general shaming by the higher ups. Sleepless nights can happen the whole way through.

If you don't anticipate or recognize this volatility it can really do a number on you. I've known lots of innovators who hamstring themselves because they are emotionally drained by trying to get things done. But this innovation stuff requires a thick skin and lots of patience. Otherwise, you'll be done before you even get started. Recognize what's happening, and pace yourself.

5) Getting a project out the door means choosing the imperfect. Sometimes the wildly imperfect.

The projects I've been involved with have not be as beautiful as I imagined them to be at the outset. Strange as it sounds, I'd like to make art with the work that I do. But being mature about constraints means understanding that isn't always feasible. It's more important that the project exists than be perfect. Because the next time, maybe you can be gorgeous.

6) Fire. Ready. Aim. It actually does create change.

The last thing I've learned is that this design inspired approach works. It really does. It's laid the foundations for a bunch of change that's helped benefit other parts of our organization. It's also help spark and draw together a community of people that want to do more work on similar themes. And it's starting to get our organization recognition as a leader in a rapidly advancing field.

The next phase will be about consolidating what's been created and building it out so that more people can do more work. We've learned a lot, and we can't lose that. Hopefully it will help make small innovations scale up to make a big difference.

Posted via email from CoCreative

The Conservative Party's War on Informed Decision-Making

As the Canadian readers may know, the Conservative government has inexplicably introduced a measure to sabotage its own information, and thus measurability, and thus accountability.

The move to make the Census long form voluntary undermines the reliability of the results by overrepresenting certain kinds of Canadians and underrepresenting others. Who is being underrepresented, you ask? Anyone less likely to respond to a voluntary survey -- First Nations and Inuit people, recent immigrants, youth, and the working poor, to name a few.

Having information on groups such as these is essential for decision-making bodies to advocate for, and target, the needs of a specific community. And without information, they are left guessing at a community's situation and needs, rather than knowing. To compromise the quality of Census data is to extinguish our ability to implement useful programs or policies to assist underrepresented communities, who are oft the communities most in need of said programs.

If this decision stands, Canada's government, agencies, NGO's, businesses large and small will all be unable to make evidence-based decisions, as our formerly-prized evidence will have been irreparably sabotaged.

This is a crisis, and I urge fellow Canadians to write your MP about this. I have done so just now, and the letter reads as follows:


Dear ****,

As a Canadian taxpayer, a patriot, and a member of your riding, I implore you to speak out about the Tories' abominable move to sabotage Canada's Census. The detailed information on the long form is necessary for NGOs, academia, businesses, and even government itself in making informed decisions. To make the long form voluntary introduces response bias, which means that some people (white, middle class 30+ year olds) are far more likely to respond than others, and in turn we leave behind anyone NOT fitting that mold. This is unacceptable.

Worse still, all other social surveys at StatCan (and possibly most other surveys in Canada) adjust for nonresponse USING CENSUS DATA. To compromise Census data is to compromise ALL these other surveys as well.

Moreover, this move was made by Clement with NO consultation, and will actually end up costing taxpayers MORE money. Plus, Clement is either tragically misinformed or outright lying to the Canadian public by claiming that the results will be just as good. (http://www.winnipegsun.com/news/canada/2010/07/07/14638106.html) As a professional statistician, I can assure you that this is simply not true.

Too much is at stake to sit quietly; all quantifiable knowledge of Canada is about to be transmuted into useless, expensive and inaccurate supposition. We are in the information age -- therefore, to sabotage one's own information is an unfathomably stupid move. I beg you to act on this.

Thank you,
Karla ***


Useful information : http://eaves.ca/
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/keep-the-canadian-census-long-form.html


If you are short on time, or uncertain in how you want to word your letter, please feel free to borrow some or all of my letter above. Regardless, WRITE YOUR MP to let them know we're not silent, nor complacent.

How many of us complain that the only time we see our MPs in action is around election time? Well, write them and give them a chance to do something for you!

Backtracking: Movie Reviews part 4

Next 5 movies:

June 14, 2009: I thought the new Indiana Jones flick was fun and cheesy, but I was irked by Shia Laboeuf's lack of chin. :-P (C)







June 16, 2009: I just finished watching a bizarre black-comedy art-flick "Johnny Suede" (C+), featuring a VERY young Brad Pitt!








June 18, 2009: I just finished watching "Caterina in the Big City" (A-), which is like an Italian version of "Mean Girls"... but with more spontaneity, more involvement of famiglia, and even the meanest girls are still kind of sweet. And then everyone ends up being friends. Recommend! :-)


June 23, 2009: I was totally charmed by the Israeli movie, "The Band's Visit". Egyptian police band ends up in backwoods Israel, amusing & good-hearted hijinx ensue, and the world reveals itself as being full of kind, wonderful people just trying to get through life. (B+)



June 29, 2009: I saw "Blindsight", a documentary about a group of blind Tibetan teenagers doing a climbing expedition of Mount Everest... it actually happened!! Whoa. (Fact that it happened: A+, the movie itself, B)


Winner of the set: "Caterina and the Big City"

Winner so far: Unchanged! It's still "Blade Runner", with runners-up of "Be Kind Rewind" and "Into the Wild", in that order.

Backtracking: Movie Reviews part 3

Next five movies:

May 24, 2009: I was utterly wow-ed by "Into the Wild". Great performances, EVEN by otherwise-weak Twilight-damsel. Fantastic music augments mood -- Eddie Vedder on lone acoustic guitar really hammers home the solitude the main character seeks. (A)


June 4, 2009: I recently enjoyed two obscure movies -- Blame it on Fidel (A), and Boy A (B+). Check them out when you are in the mood for two great end-of-childhood films!







June 10, 2009: I've confirmed, through rewatching, that "Blade Runner" is among the best films of all time, and is as visionary, textured, and brilliant now as it was back in the 1980s. (A+)







June 12, 2009: I had liked the movie, "Bug", up until the point where everyone went TOTALLY batshit nuts. (*Somewhat* nuts is fine, but there's a point when things stop making sense, and somewhere after that things stop being interesting...) I give it a D.





Winner of the set: ... come on, it's not fair to pit any movie up against "Blade Runner"! ;-)

Winner so far: "Blade Runner". Clearly.

Runners-up: "Be Kind Rewind" and "Into the Wild", in that order.

Backtracking: Movie Reviews part 2

And now for the next five movies!

April 28, 2009: I really enjoyed "Be Kind Rewind" -- it's a sweet and funny movie, with gentle turns and loving homage to classic films.








May 1, 2009: I was blogging and watching the movie, "Troy". I'll let you guess which one is occupying the majority of my brain cells... ;-)








May 10, 2009: I enjoyed "Star Trek", but I'm not sure if it wasn't largely because of the very cute Zach Quinto...









May 11, 2009: I wanted to like"I'm Not There" (the Bob Dylan movie), but didn't. :-P I get the feeling that, to truly understand why Dylan was so important/controversial/whatever, ya had to be there...






May 16, 2009: I finished "Zwartboek", which is thus far surprisingly entertaining. Bad, but entertaining. Think "Showgirls" done a la Third Reich resistance.





Winner of the set: "Be Kind Rewind"

Winner so far: "Be Kind Rewind"! I adored this movie!

Backtracking: Movie Reviews

For those of you who know me on Facebook, you already know that I like doing mini-reviews of films. It's been awhile since I started that, and I often find myself tracking back in my statuses to see what I'd said about a specific film. So, for your enjoyment (and my records), here are my (brief) movie reviews!

Since I've seen a lot of movies since January 2009, I'll put them up five at a time to avoid information overload. Enjoy! ^_^

January 24, 2009: I really enjoyed the movie "Frost/Nixon". I wish airline travel was that posh nowadays!




April 15, 2009: I watched "La Vie en Rose", enjoyed it enough, but found it a little too moody and indulgent for my liking.



April 20, 2009: I just watched a really neat movie called "Joyeux Noel"... it's about the 1914 Christmas where the front lines of WWI unofficially called a truce and partied together! Amazing idea, eh?



April 21, 2009: I think that "Bridge to Terabithia" should be renamed to "My Girl: another sequel". Boo urns.



April 26, 2009: I just watched "The Man who Wasn't There", and think Scarlett Johanssen did a very good job of playing a young, awkward high school girl. :-)






Winner among these: "Joyeux Noel"!

Stay tuned for my next five flicks....

Ottawa Fringe Lineup!

It's that time of year again, where the wonderful world of the Fringe Festival descends on eastern Canada and makes its way westward. I can barely contain my excitement!!!

Indeed, one of my least favourite parts of living in the western-most city in Canada is that it is the *final* destination of the fair Fringe. I have to wait until September to partake! How sad...

And in my envy of Ottawa experiencing the Fringe in a mere two weeks from now, allow me to use my finely-tuned Fringe radar to scan the program and plug a few shows.

• Burlesque Unzipped: I've actually seen this one, and it's an excellent performance piece, impeccably acted one-woman burlesque/history/comedy/dance show. I liked it a great deal, and highly recommend it. Suitable for Fringe virgins (=never been to a Fringe show).
  
• The Sputniks is another one I've seen, and found it to be good. Not great, but solidly good. One-woman show talking about life in a Soviet refugee camp, and coming to Canada. Interesting, compelling, and worth seeing. Drama, not comedy. Not for Fringe virgins, though.
  
• I know (or know of) people in these plays, so I'd be going to Unequal Harvest, Wild Abandon, Cactus: the Seduction.
  
• I've found this theatre company to be fairly reliable: The Last Goddamned Performance Piece (Black Sheep Theatre).
  
• These were showing last year in Winnipeg (and/or Victoria), and despite hearing good things about them, I wasn't able to get to them: The Last Straight Man in Theatre, Archy and Mehitabel, The Peter and Chris Show, Underneath It All
• This is a show that I'll see just to support my Winnipeg peeps who've travelled so far: Misadventures of a Massage Therapist
  
• And lastly, plays whose descriptions were noticed by my Fringe antennae, as they sound reasonably entertaining: 7x1 Samurai, Every Job I've Ever Had, Aomega, TransCanada 69, Actionable, Men Telling Stories

Anyhow, these are my picks, listed in descending order of priority. If any of these make it to the Victoria Fringe (in September! sob!!), I will see them then; if you see them first, I would love to know what you thought!

Happy Fringing to you! ^_^