Category: Entertainment

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Films, 2005

For the record books as I close the year, here’s a list of all the movies I first saw in 2005. The theme of movies this year: laziness and television. The movies that don’t show up on the list are the movies I watched for a second (or third…) time – and that’s the bulk of them. I rewatched an awful lot of films this year, often because a) Eric was watching them already; b) I was too lazy to go to the video store, so I hit up the kommunal film collection; c) I wanted to watch them with Kathryn.

I also watched television-on-DVD for the first time this year. I’ve always ignored tv as the lamentable bastard child of cinema, but I discovered that Joss Whedon makes some very entertaining series. To my shock, Buffy the Vampire Slayer season two was excellent, and season three was okay. His later series Firefly is superb, as was its movie followup Serenity. Before now, the only time I sat down and followed the slower-paced character development of a television series was X-Files, and I got impatient with that after a season. Plus, when I watch the shows on DVD, I’m not tied to a schedule or forced to wait through painful advertising… a vastly better way to experience television, I must say.

So it goes. I think I’ll get a bit more adventurous once I move out of the Kommune. While I’m there, it’s very easy to just watch 10 minutes of whatever Eric’s watching, get queasy from the gruesome violence, and swear off movies for a week. Some day, I’ll get back into films, I imagine. Meanwhile, I watched 41 new films in 2005 – less than one a week. I’m going soft.

  • the man who knew too much. usa, 1956.
  • a beautiful mind. usa, 2001.
  • before sunrise. usa, 1995.
  • syriana. usa, 2005.
  • king kong. usa, 2005.
  • i heart huckabees. usa, 2005.
  • matrix revolutions. usa, 2004.
  • primer. usa, 2004.
  • the constant gardener. uk, 2005.
  • wallace and gromit: curse of the were-rabbit. uk, 2005.
  • serenity. usa, 2005.
  • layer cake. uk, 2005.
  • bleu (blue). france, 1993.
  • broken flowers. usa, 2005.
  • it’s all gone pete tong. uk / canada, 2005.
  • bullitt. usa, 1968.
  • charlie and the chocolate factory. usa, 2005.
  • blow. usa, 2003.
  • batman begins. usa, 2005.
  • the interpreter. usa, 2005.
  • star wars episode iii. usa, 2005.
  • the manchurian candidate. usa, 1962.
  • sin city. usa, 2005.
  • enron: the smartest guys in the room. usa, 2005.
  • the conversation. usa, 1974.
  • kung fu hustle. hong kong, 2004.
  • shaolin soccer. hong kong, 2000.
  • the killer. hong kong, 1989.
  • downfall. germany, 2004.
  • napoleon dynamite. usa, 2004.
  • be cool. usa, 2005.
  • born into brothels: calcutta’s red light kids. india / usa, 2004.
  • fast, cheap and out of control. usa, 1997.
  • million dollar baby. usa, 2004.
  • cidade de deos (city of god). brazil, 2002.
  • incident at loch ness. uk, 2004.
  • groundhog day. usa, 1993.
  • the life aquatic with steve zissou. usa, 2004.
  • fa yeung nin wa (in the mood for love). hong kong, 2000.
  • die salzmänner von tibet (the saltmen of tibet). germany, 1997.
  • house of flying daggers. china, 2004.
  • the breakfast club. usa, 1985.
  • eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. usa, 2004.
  • control room. usa, 2003.
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Vacation II

I left Jasper by Via Rail, catching the train from Jasper to Kamloops, which is about halfway between Edmonton and Vancouver, a little north of the Okanagan Valley in the lesser-known Thompson Valley. While the train ride was a little disappointing, that part of BC was quite beautiful. The Okanagan is essentially a desert, with sagebrush, tumbleweed and all of that. Kamloops lies on the edge of the desert-like bioregion, with more typical BC landscapes further north.

Kathryn met me in Kamloops, and we drove north to Wells Grey provincial park for some hiking and waterfall viewing. It’s a huge park, and looks like it’d be great for canoeing or longer hikes. We saw some nice alpine meadows on our dayhike, and just basked in the beautiful quietness.

On the second day, we drove south to the Okanagan, intent on getting some winery and orchard tours. We settled on the Mission Hill winery. Their estate winery was beautiful, and quite a pleasant way to spend a sunny afternoon. It really felt surprisingly European; you’d never guess that nearby Kelowna was such a sprawling, boring town. From there, we drove up to one of the orchards, and did a quick self-tour through the apple groves.

Finally, we drove back to our Kamloops hostel and caught a bus back, enjoying the scenery through Merritt and Hope along the way. Quite a good time, all told. Check out the photos too. There are even a few shots of me, sans hair.

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Vacation I

So, I took a week’s vacation last month, and the haircut was midway through that. I’ve been really sluggish about uploading photos from that vacation, but I’ve got the first few batches up on Flickr, at any rate. The main part of the trip was a visit to Edmonton to visit my brother Mike and his fiancée Jasmine, who just moved to a new apartment downtown. (Note: to see many of those photos, you’ll need to create a Flickr account and get me to add you as a friend.) That was fun – I’d never seen the centre of Edmonton before, and I had a fun time drifting around on bike. It was surprisingly easy to take on bike – calm backstreets, and pushbuttons at the arterials on many bike routes. I suspect it would be a lousy place to walk or take transit, though: there’s just too low a density, so there’s nothing in walking distance.

Mike and I then drove four hours to Jasper national park, next to the BC border. We did a nice hike through the Tonquin Valley, despite substantial paranoia about bear activity. We didn’t get to do the complete hike – a little too short of time, and it would have required a car at either trailhead – but we saw the Ramparts, which were definitely the highlight of the trip.

Mike went back to Edmonton, and I was planning to catch the train from Jasper in the afternoon, but I had enough time to do a quick hike through the Maligne Canyon, a spectacularly deep canyon carved through limestone bluffs.

I’ll post again with the second half of the trip once I’ve uploaded the rest of the photos.

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Musical Bumps

On Labour Day, I went on a little hike up at Whistler with my housemates. The route was called the Musical Bumps, since it crosses several music-themed peaks: from Whistler Mountain over Flute Peak and Oboe Peak, to Singing Pass and Melody Creek. Cheesy? Yes. But that’s Southwest B.C. naming for you: we’ve got Unnecessary Mountain, Gin Lake and Tonic Lake, False Creek, Tetrahedron Park, and Point No Point.

I’ve got a set of photographs up at Flickr if you’re interested. Eric also has a few. I’m not abandoning my old photo system, but I think I’ll leave it mostly as an archive, with Flickr as my public photo page… for now.