Rambling - Page 18 of 18

Canals and Disposable Bar-B-Qs

A Dispatch post from my partner in crime, Svetla: Alas, I finally discovered Holland. Criss-crossed by algae-green canals, covered from end to end by endless, grassy, cow-friendly fields and gently sunken into the calm of the cloudy sky, Holland feels like a quiet yet remarkably vibrant hideaway. The omnipresence of water itself is appeasing and rejuvenating while the beautifully adorned little houses embody the orderly, adept and truly serene Dutch way of life. The only problem is the Dutch didn’t know we were coming, and our bacchanalia in Amsterdam along…read more

Hummer Drivers Protest Israel-Caused Oil Spill in Lebanon

Posted by ezra in Broadsides, World Inc.

In a recent spat of protests of white males who drive Hummers (WMWDH), tempers flared and anger rose to the point that the mainstream media had to search for “arab looking Canadians” in the bystander crowd to photograph and subtly connect to rioting and violence. The Hummer owners marched down the streets of several Alberta and Texas communities chanting “Hummers are Hungry! Israel must be stopped!” in an apparent reactionary stance to the recent IDF bombing of a power station in Lebanon which has led to 35,000 tons of oil…read more

Purple Hazy

Ah Vancouver, er, Amsterdam. The weather here has forced your two fearless travelers under the limited protection of one teeny bright green umbrella – clutching it together as we walk the canal-lined streets of Amsterdam through the winds and rains. Yes, it’s been a wee bit pissy. But our day in Amsterdam yesterday was still great, i got my important interview with Hubb Roelvink, programmer for the EU’s Docuzone (now called CinemaNet), the world’s largest digital cinema distribution and exhibition network. I was quite happy to learn in the interview…read more

Fragmenting Iraq

Tonight we decided to rest here in Utrecht and save our energy for tomorrow night in Amsterdam. After dinner we put on Iraq in Fragments by James Longley, director of Gaza Strip. The film hasn’t been released, and we (Svetla, Bram, Ilke et moi) previewed it for a possible screening at ConU in the fall as part of Cinema Politica. After seeing it, we are pretty much in agreement. Fragments, much like Gaza, is a poetic masterpiec of sound, image and story. The camera seems to only capture incredibly breathtaking…read more

Heja from Holland

Well, after a cheapo flight (no free drinks or newspapers, unless you were wearing a suit) from Montreal to London, a 90 minute $40 bus ride from Gatwick Airport to Heathrow Airport, a three hour wait at the airport, a one hour flight to Amsterdam and a half hour train ride to Utrecht – we arrived! I celebrated being away from the sterility and discomfort of airports by drinking a large can of Amstel on the train ride from Amsterdam to Utrecht. Before I opened it, I had an apparently…read more

The World of Doc Will Miss You

Garrett Scott, director of Occupation: Dreamland died while swimming in a municipal pool in California near where he lived yesterday. He was only 37 years old. I had the pleasure of working with Garrett when we brought his film to Concordia for Cinema Politica last year and screened it along with Let Them Stay – a film about US war resisters. Some of the war resisters featured in the film are seeking asylum in Canada and were at the screening to speak. Garrett’s film added to the event with a…read more

First Wal-Town screening

Last night in the bunker at 80 St Viatuer East, about one hundred bodies packed into the small underground space to sweat like we were in the tropics and watch the first public offering of the Wal-Town documentary. Serge and the Loaded Pictures crew were trying to pay rent by selling drinks to the sweaty crowd, and capacity was shoulder-to-shoulder. In the end it was a great grassroots screening, and the film seemed to elicit an overall positive response. Many people kept coming up to me and congratulating me on…read more

Good-bye Varig

So two days before svetla and i are leaving for europe i get a call from my travel agent in vancouver telling me that varig, the airline i booked with to go from london to sao paulo with on august 6th, has gone belly-up. ticketes may be refunded, so hopefully i get my $2,000 back, but needless to say, i’m worried that i may not make the conference (visible evidence XIII) to give my breathtaking presentation on activist documentary and emerging social and IT networks. oh the troubles of the…read more

Doc Blog Take One

It is here that i wish to outline my gory plan for world domination by political cinema. Hopefully, the bored, disillusioned and bitter will all stumble upon this section of my site and read my psychofanatic wordplay on the topic of political cinema. Here i will talk all about film and video that moves people, or at least should move people that a) have a pulse, or b) are not neoconservative hacks looking for more entertainment to justify their empty and destructive lives. But alas there is hope for the…read more

The First Entry

In this first entry of temporarilyme v.4.1, i would like to start by saying thank-you to the hundreds of thousands of supporters who have waited patiently for my meak return to the world wide web. Now back, i pledge to offer up weekly blog drivel, old sentimental poetry, poorly conceived photography, uninformed opinions, political diatribes, and the odd film review. I hope you are up for it, world.