Breaking Bad - Better late than never

OK, OK, time to talk TV and I'm a little late to the party but still ahead of the masses in the case of "Breaking Bad" created by Vince Gilligan, a regular writer and producer of X-Files. It's starring Bryan Cranston in his two-time emmy-winning role of Walter White, the chemistry teacher that turns to "cooking" crystal meth. He's great, and it's an exceptionally well-written (and very dark) show from AMC that deserves your attention. I burned through Season One in record time and worry Season Two is going to seriously affect my ability to get anything else done. I can't believe I spent time telling you about it when I could've been watching more episodes.

"The Wire" raised the bar
HBO's "The Wire" kind of spoiled me for regular cable TV. It was like nothing else and made it hard to be impressed by other offerings. Even better (yet different) than the exceptional "Sopranos," I bore early witness to what I still hold to be the best television series yet. To be fair, "The Wire" certainly isn't for everyone. It didn't have cliffhangers or white knuckle, high-octane moments like "The Shield" where a viewer jumping in for one episode could still get a thrill. "The Wire" was a slow-burn, multi-layered, highly realistic and revealing show that had more in common with a great novel than a TV show. It took a long time to catch on despite critical acclaim and most people discovered it only after it's fifth and final season aired and had hit DVD.

Muchas gracias, amigo
Great thanks to my friend Juan Carlos, who introduced me properly to "Breaking Bad," who also assures me that Season Two is even better than the first. I've only had a luke warm feeling about the other new and mainstay shows that have sprung from HBO and Showtime, I haven't been this excited about seeing the next episode of anything since "The Wire" but I will give a nod to "Bored To Death" as a show that seems to be getting better and better with each episode and I enjoyed "Hung," and "Nurse Jackie" to a certain extent. "Curb Your Enthusiasm" started very strong this season but I'm wary of where we're headed after last week's weaker offering.

To keep it in perspective - What I don't like:
One unifying poor quality of ShowTime's offerings such as "Californication," "Nurse Jackie" and especially "Dexter" (which I officially gave up on a couple of episodes into Season 2) is that they all have at least one character that is so ridiculous from the get-go (Prime example of this is Kathleen Turner in "Californication, Season 3.") They simply play untrue to the world the show has created and stick out like a sore thumb. Showtime seems strong on concept but it falls apart in the writing often. Still above average fare, worth watching, but just not realizing their full potential and certainly not improving with time. HBO has had it's fair share of misses, but generally hits the target more often than not.

So it seems AMC is putting quality at the forefront, not worrying about immediate mass appeal and I hope it will continue to do so. Season 3 of "Breaking Bad" is officially underway but when it will air is uncertain. If you were a fan of "The Wire," you owe it to yourself to check out this show.

(Please note: the promo poster pictured above is old, so please check your local listings for air times of Season 1 and 2 episodes)

Favourite Skittles ads

This Pinata man ad was not seen by many locally on TV when it came out, but this is one of my favourite ads of all time (VERY important to click on the red HQ button for full appreciation here):



And I'm it's come to mind, because another great ad in the same vein has been aired recently locally, and deserves some added attention.

NFB on iPod - featured App

The National Film Board (NFB) has done a lot to make its great library of material available for viewing to the public for free. They have numerous viewing stations at 150 John St. (at Richmond St. West) location in Toronto, and you can view films online at their website, and now there's another way. On your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Yes, the NFB's new app is totally free and very worthwhile. You can choose shorts or feature length documentaries and they load up for streaming very quickly. At a glance, I saw the "Project Grizzly" documentary available and you can skip ahead to any part in the film if you wish... with no lag time.

And naturally, the first thing I checked out was my favourite NFB animated short, Richard Condie's "The Big Snit" which has been a family favourite and a highly quotable short for many, many years.

"Well, pull my lips off. Looks like a bunch of people. Uh, must be some sort of... uh. uh. Is there some kind of parade on or something?"

A Serious Disappointment from the Coen Bros

This marks the second time that an eagerly awaited TIFF film I missed is a let down by the time I see it in general release. Proving high expectations beget disappointment, "A Serious Man" received rave reviews and I couldn't be a bigger fan of the Coen's body of work so I went in blind and with anticipation. Maybe I shouldn't have. One reviewer said it was their funniest film since "The Big Lebowski" and they did a tremendous disservice to my expectations, because that was all I needed to hear.

Had I known this was a modern retelling of the Book of Job set in the 60s and steeped very deeply in Jewish culture, I might've been able bone up on the subject a little and prepare for the bleakness to come in this black comedy. In a nutshell, we meet a decent, moral man (but essentially a schmuck) who is put upon by one personal disaster after another to ultimately no relief or redemption with no rhyme or reason to his misfortunes. It certainly is funny at times, but mostly it's leaving you with a feeling of "Haha. Ha. Heh. Hum. Er... wha?"

But the real problem here for enjoying this film is my limited knowledge of the Jewish faith and what it means to be Jewish leaves me out of the joke half the time and struggling to figure out what is going on. Quite simply, this is not a film made for the Gentiles and in that sense I really can't recommend it without that caveat.

To address that regrettable aforementioned Lebowski comparison: In thinking about it afterwards, whether intended or not, I do see some similar themes. Certainly "The Dude" also has one personal disaster after another that physically manifests more comically in the ultimate destruction of his beat-up, rust-bucket of a car. The Dude has so little to lose, that the soiling of his rug that really tied the room together is cause enough to go on a quest to find retribution. The ensuing adventures he becomes embroiled in along the way are what make the Big Lebowski great. And despite it all, he still gets laid too.

Whether under the duress of the obnoxious, vietnam vet Walter Sobchak (played by John Goodman) or not, I submit that Lebowski's Dude is more likable than Larry Gopnik of "A Serious Man" because the Dude actively tries to improve his situation while Larry just wonders why it's all happening to him and hopes that one of the three Rabbis can tell him what he should do. The phrase "God helps those who helps themselves" comes to mind, and it's kind of irritating, not quite funny, after a while to be following such a hapless schlep.

The underlying theme of life's cosmic joke and not knowing the higher meaning of it all is a far more palatable pill to swallow when surrounded by colourful characters that occupy the world of Lebowski, and more importantly, it's a story that does come to completion with a satisfying sense of closure which isn't a strong priority in the Coen's cinema of late (the great "No Country For Old Men" and not-quite-great "Burn After Reading" had that same kind of ending). It's the equivalent of gathering a stadium full of people that are hanging on your every word in a story and calling out "Figure it out!" as you walk away. Sometimes it's fun to analyze what it all means later, but moreso when you can say you enjoyed the ride in the first place.

I certainly don't fault the Coens for making a very personal film, and I'm not going to pass on seeing a Coen Bros film given the track record, but perhaps in future I'll be more informed of what I'm walking into. They'll have to do a lot more than that to get rid of me.

But nevertheless, thanks are due to The National Post for the free movie passes for this preview screening.

"The Crazies" ...looks intense

I'm just not a big fan of horror films. They usually fall into two categories for me:

A) Too dumb (or over done) and over-the-top to be scary; or
B) Too scary for me to handle.

It looks like the (February) 2010 remake of the 1973 George A. Romero film "The Crazies" is going to fall directly into column B, but too bad it won't be ready for this Halloween.

I'm scared already. So I'll freeze my nuts off and have the crap scared out of me in February 2010.

Thanksgiving leftovers

Generally, I'm not a big fan of leftovers. For me, most meals don't hold up as well as the first time. There are exceptions to every rule, but in my book, there are few. Chili actually gets better, and Thanksgiving turkey leftovers are certainly as good the second time.

I'm especially fortunate that my work colleague Tracy is nice enough to share leftovers with me. Her boyfriend Mac makes a mean turkey, plans for it a week in advance and he's always changing it up year after year. This time round, the 23lb bird cooked in the barbeque for about 15 hours using a Weber Smoker, infused with maple sausage, bacon and real maple syrup. (Oh, yeah. It IS as good as it sounds.)

Starting at 1:00 am Sunday, the bird watch began in two hour intervals as there was a narrow escape from disaster: the door to the cooker came off around 3:00 am, causing the charcoal to burn hotter. Tracy psychically sensed the bird's cooking integrity was compromised. Come to think of it, I awoke from a deep sleep around that time with a feeling of anxiety.

And lo and behold, on Tuesday morning, much to my delight, Tracy brought in some leftovers which I enjoyed thoroughly. The sweet smokey aroma was with me all day. Thank you very much Mac and Tracy! If I never wake from my turkey coma, you can be sure I died happy.

Thanksgiving 2009

Click on photo for larger view.

The annual trip to Westport, Ontario was a shorter than usual one this year as we decided we were going to come home in time for Thanksgiving dinner with all my folks on Sunday. It's the kind of tradition I look forward to all year, thanks in no small part to my Grandma's stuffing. I violate every rule I have for food, from allergy to portion for the sake of the in-the-moment pleasure. But make no mistake, I pay for it all later. Yes, it's that good.

One of the best parts of heading up to Westport is the scenery. The trees this time of year are so vibrant and colourful you'd swear they were plugged in. We were lucky we had good weather for the short time we were there, and it made the 4-hour drive worth it. Went on a couple of hikes in Perth and this year's list of wildlife we spotted includes: coyote, deer, wild turkeys, grouse, and porcupine. (If you ever see roadkill porcupine, it's not much of a mystery... they move awfully slow.)

Bye Bye Bell

Being a client services representative, you'd think I'd place a high value on that "above and beyond" effort from other companies. But I don't. Honestly. I just don't expect that elsewhere. What I've learned from experience is that exceptional customer service is a rarity. We aim to provide it at our company, but that is a specialty case where a relatively small client base with specific needs are catered to, and that example can't be fairly compared to any service that provides the general public.

Like a telephone company for example.

For quite some time, Bell Canada was the main provider of my basic telecommunication needs, back when there were fewer alternatives to be sure. Phone, Internet and Wireless. Nothing fancy, they just needed to work and I needed to be billed properly and I'd be happy. Well, I phased them out one at a time over a number of years, and finally to completion today. It would be fair to say they'd had their chances to win me back and squandered them, and it comes down to pretty bad customer service.

I dumped the Mobility first, for reasons I can't fully remember but I recall the final straw was a billing issue that took months to resolve that pretty much got me fed up with the ring of "never again" in the air. The internet was next to go, definitely due to extremely poor (and outsourced) customer service. And that decision was tougher, because giving up your sole email account is quite a pain in the butt. This is what happens when you put such low priority on customer satisfaction. A fraction of the cost to Bell also equals a fraction of the quality.

Last, but not least, the landline phone is switched. That one should've been easy for Bell to maintain me as a customer but that too bit the bullet today. And once again, it was their customer service that really dropped the ball and basically did nothing to help solve my problem.

As I said before, to avoid disappointment and frustration, I keep my expectations low, but that doesn't mean I don't have a threshold, and Bell just can't muster the bare minimum effort for satisfaction. It wouldn't take much, but it just didn't seem to me they think of losing me as a customer as a bad thing, even with a blatant warning. Here's hoping I'm not revisiting this cycle in years to come with Rogers, but I'm cautiously optimistic.

Starbucks VIA instant coffee review

As a regular drinker of Starbucks coffee, I decided to give their new VIA instant coffee a try. I will say that it surprised me that it was as good as it is. I liked it, particularly judging it as an instant coffee and in direct comparison to a proper brew as part of their taste challenge.

Starbucks it seems to me has been trying to reduce their imprint on landfills, as much as a coffee house of their nature and size can that sells product for people on the go. So that's why it's surprising to me that each individual coffee beverage comes in it's own little wrapper, instead of one larger container, which as yet is not an option. It works out to be essentially the same price of a coffee you'd buy if they brewed it for you. I realize there ARE rare occasions where you venture beyond the domain that Starbucks Cafés usually occupy, but I'm not really sure what void this product is filling. If you're away from Starbucks yet still have access to hot water, chances are you're going to be able to brew some coffee properly.

So I gather from some blogs I've read that this product is geared for the people who only want just one quick cup and want it fast, no fuss no muss. It should be interesting to see how well this takes off. One could argue that the VIA drinker would produce less garbage than the average coffee drinker, presuming they typically stuck to reusable cups, but it's the kind of garbage, plastic, that doesn't disappear so quickly that is concerning. Starbucks has been pretty good about offering a discount to people who bring their own cup or to encourage people to reduce waste, so a move like this seems like a surprising step in the wrong direction.

Here's a little promo of theirs explaining their angle:

Toasted flakes meet Vitali the Tiger: They're Great!

For those of you who might be regretting that moment of weakness last night, when you drunk-dialed your ex: Take comfort in the fact that you in no way acted out the dumbest thing that anyone could ever do last night. These two douchebags in Calgary thought it'd be fun to visit the Siberian tiger pen up close and personal at 1am this morning. What's the worst that could happen, right? (They are the largest cat species in the world, by the way.)

Details of story here.

Anyone else wondering how we managed to become the dominant species on the planet?

Zombieland delivers on its promise, and then some

There's about 32 or so reasons why Zombieland's a winner (apart from the obvious). And that's just taking from the (partially revealed) list of survival rules of Columbus, not to be confused with the city in Ohio, but rather the protagonist we know only as Columbus because that's where his character is headed.

Perhaps because of the saturation of the zombie-film market that preceded it, Zombieland is a refreshing take with the right amount of humour mixed with survivalism in the face of the undead. With style and humour to spare like this, I'm quick to forgive the plot holes and those logic-defying moments of "What were they thinking?" actions of otherwise intelligent zombie-killers. To be fair... the stupid and/or panicky choices that put our heroes in mortal peril is the basic staple of the genre. We ARE talking about a zombie movie after all.

This flick has repeat viewing written all over it, even if only for the opening scenes of zombie chaos. Or to put it another way, it's a rockin', blood-splattering, good time with a cool soundtrack to match. Popcorn movie fun at its finest.

Check out the trailer below:

Creativity's Top 5 Ads - Recommended Podcast

Time for an unsolicited plug of something I've enjoyed for many months. Long overdue.

While it is convenient, you don't need an iPod to appreciate Creativity's Top 5 Ads that showcases great advertising concepts (and sometimes music videos) on a weekly basis. Showcasing thought provoking and uncut ads from all over the world that you might not otherwise see. This might be the most convenient way an outsider can feel like an insider. And the material is always presented at a suitably high video resolution.

All you need to enjoy this podcast is an iTunes account and you can view it for free on your computer or iPod. Consistently good and always interesting. Check it out via the iTunes store or at Creativity-Online.com. Here's a sample, with the 2008 year in review. If you like what you see here, you can truly expect more of the same week to week.

David Cross at Queen Elizabeth Theatre, October 2, 2009

At the book signing Thursday, I thanked David Cross for coming to Toronto and told him I'd be in the front row the next day. He said, "That's great. It's going to be awesome." And indeed it was.

No point in trying to feign an unbiased opinion (...uh, above photo?) Obviously I'm a big fan and had been counting down the days to the show. To say I'm familiar with his work and recordings is an understatement and while this was very much a David Cross stand-up, it wasn't at all what I was expecting... in the best possible way.

Right out of the gate he sang a song about what we could expect in the show (no jokes about Cosmonauts) and the vast majority of the material was new stuff I hadn't heard before. There were a couple of moments where David shifted gears as he saw that certain bits (about Mormons for example) didn't have the same cultural resonance with us Canucks as they do with American audiences. He even hinted at bits briefly that he quickly decided not to do after all, suggesting the material is likely ever-changing on this tour.

Todd Glass opened for the show with a frenetic and funny 15 minute set and later on got involved with some in-audience antics for a bit about live-blogging and tweeting, playfully hinting at a deep disdain for malicious and factually inaccurate blogging that he talks about in his book "I Drink For A Reason."

My deepest concern of the day was that with two shows in one evening, we'd have ours (the first) cut short for time. But it was certainly an ample set around ninety minutes and while at the end there was a sense of urgency to wrap it up for the next show, as a final encore/treat we were given a 2-3 minute glimpse of an upcoming British sitcom called "The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret" that he said he's really proud of yet may not broadcast here in Canada. It looks very promising and with Arrested Development co-star Will Arnett and Spike Jonze involved, one can't help but get a little excited about the potential.

David Cross book signing at Toronto

In town for a couple of comedy show sets at The Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Friday, October 2nd, gracious and always funny David Cross paid a visit today at Indigo in Toronto’s Eaton Centre for a signing of his new book, “I Drink For A Reason,” for a decent sized and very appreciative crowd Thursday night. It was my first ever book signing, and I don’t usually care about such things but for Cross, I'll make almost any exception.

Reading a chapter entitled “I Don’t Have Children” and a portion of another, David seemed eager to switch gears to a Q&A session on topics ranging from the book, the tour, Mr. Show, and Arrested Development before the book signing. I am very happy to report that he intends to do a recording during this tour, likely in Boston, for a video release at some point. Also, as far as the rumoured Arrested Development movie, he says all of the key parties are keen to do it, but many details still need to be sorted out.

I had my copy of his book & two CDs signed and front row seats to tomorrow’s show so I’m pretty psyched to say the least.

And here's a classic Mr. Show for your enjoyment: