CFL is Leaving CBC!?!?

I think I may have to cry. In what is, potentially, the saddest TV deal evah! the CFL has signed an exclusive contract with TSN for 2008. The deal will see all Canadian Football League games leave our trusty free broadcaster for the land of cable - including the playoffs and Grey Cup. The 2008 Grey Cup will be the the first time in 50 YEARS that the game has not been shown on the CBC. I don't know what to say. I can't believe that our league would leave us this way!

The best thing about games on CBC is that you knew - no matter what! - you would be able to find reception. Maybe fuzzy, bunny-ear reception but at least the game was on. And the CBC had just gotten flashier and the panel had gelled and that music, that gear-up-for-the-game theme music just made Saturday evenings in the fall the best things ever! And it is all going to end! Seriously, I am starting to REALLY hate what the business of broadcasting has done to the enjoyment of sport (ahem NHL - and now this!). That's all I have to say at the moment. Thank goodness I get one more season to ease into it. But Damn!

You can read about the deal here (CBC) and here (CFL) and here (TSN).

"My Boys" Makes the Cut

TBS has released a new series on its schedule called "My Boys". It is about a female sports writer and the group of guys (including her brother) that make up her social circle. The stories are always built around a baseball team (team, free agent, slump) and center on PJ's navigation through the single world. It's like "Sex and the City" with a testosterone twist. And, if you have ever spent ANY time in a buddy cicle of boys, it rings wondefully candid and true. It is a funny and enjoyable slice of entertainment. TBS airs two 1/2 hour episodes back-to-back on Tuesday nights (with replay on Saturdays) so you get a full hour of comedy TV that doesn't drag. The quips are sharp and feel like you are actually hanging out with this team. I admit to being completely addicted. Give it a try out if you are looking for something new on your TV roster. You won't be disappointed.

Nephew Alert

This is my nephew in full-on toddler status during his visit "out west" to see the other side of his family. Apparently the trip went really well. I haven't bee out there in WAY too long. I used to go once a year but I think the last time I visited Dad and Co. was 2002. I just don't have the means to get out there these days. Anyway, looking at Tag, I am getting all excited to see him again for the holidays. Only 5 more sleeps till I fly back to Ontario and then only 3 sleeps till Christmas. I actually have ALL my shopping done and am happy with all my selected gifts. I bought more than I should (since I am "technically" living on credit) but I had a job this year so it was nice to splurge. It is going to be a small Xmas at my brother's new house and I am looking forward to that. Then I have a mad flurry of visits up in Sudbury for 3.5 days before heading back to Trawna for (hopefully) a mellow and conversation-filled NYE with Jodi & Cindy (fingers crossed). In all, I haven't been this stoked for the holidays in a long time. And I get to hug this awesome little nephew of mine. Happy Holidays!

Potential

In the SO true words of Beth...

This one stands on his own.
He's not an X.
He's not a fling.
He's not leaving.
He's not the best friend.

These are all good things. Hmmmmm ....

Celebrity Skin

So, my horoscope this week said I should try to find my celebrity look-a-like and offered up a fun site to do just that. The site references key features in your face and matches them to a celebrity photo in the database. However, the results are not universal - they are photo specific. So when you change your picture, thus potentially changing the prominent elements in your visage, a different match may appear. The matches are also based on the type of celebrity pic in the system. (This explaines why I somehow managed to become a 96% match for Angelina by the end of the day. I always knew I had it in me!) You can see my four closest matches below for four recent pics of myself. And you can find your own celebrity doppelganger here. Have fun!

Bad Wave

I am all over the emotional map this week. I can't explain why but I am riding waves in too many directions and it is annoying. I wish I could figure out how to calm the anxiety. I wish I could push past the inertia. I wish I could fight back the fear. I wish I didn't feel like a crashing mess of WTF? splashing all over the place and going nowhere.

The Fountain -movie review

It has taken me awhile to process this film into anything like coherent comment for my review. I don't know if this difficulty says more about me or the film itself - but I dare anyone to not find The Fountain at least a bit challenging in the comphrension department. On that note, your interest in non-linear visual philosophy will likely determine your enjoyment of the film. That, or your use of some recreational "support".

What is undeniable about The Fountain is that it is visually stunning. As the big-name follow-up to Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream, Fountain offers up a dreamy and intriguing experience. And this time it is Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz in a time-twisting tale of love, life and death.

The film opens with a bald Jackman floating in space, facing hallucinations and talking kindly to a dying tree. I know - it feels exactly like it sounds. Time and place are unknown. Jump to the present where a modern Hugh is obsessed with finding a cure to the brain tumor that plagues his lady love. He is so intent on stopping her death that he is missing out on experiencing life with her before it ends. Weisz's Izzie is writing a book - "The Fountain" - about a conquistador's search for the tree of life (aka = fountain of youth) in South America. He is sent upon this quest by Queen Isabella and a third story begins. From this point the film becomes a collage of images drawn from the three paths flashing back and forth between the incarnations of the characters at various points in their quests.

Finally, the tree is located, the loss is accepted, and the path to everlasting "life" is found. However amid the allusions of life=death and a final fantastical sequence with a Mayan warrior, body-devouring plants and glowing space nebula, The Fountain falters. Its philosophizing is lost in the meandering musings. If you are looking for an outrageous optical diversion it may be exactly what you need. If you are aiming for a straight-forward story (of any kind) then it may be a filmic frustration.

TBS is TV Crack

I have decided that the crack version of TV-cocaine is manifested in TBS. Seriously, this station can ruin your life. It's like it has a couch-potato raygun that paralyzes you the minute you flick on the channel. If you ever have TBS as part of your cable package you will understand this dilemma. Nothing helps you waste time like watching TBS. And you would think that its incredible program repitition would be a negative but it only reinforces its power. Like on those weekends when the same movie plays everyday and you WATCH IT EVERY DAY! You don't mean to, but there is nothing else on. Except TBS. Movies ALL weekend. Entire evenings of one show. NCAA football games. Roadhouse on late night AT LEAST once a month. Really bad advertising for third-rate southern US universities and aluminum-siding. The addiction is a given. I don't even know why I bother fighting it. Oh wait, I don't.