Perhaps like a comet I'll make a brief appearance here every few years? No, I'll find time for this blog again... This morning I spotted a post on Bad Astronomy about NASA's EPOXI spacecraft taking pictures of the nucleus of comet Hartley 2 from just 700 km away. Amazing.
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| EPOXI travelled 24 million km to visit Hartley 2. |
Back home from the Toronto International Film Festival's Opening Night Gala party. A late night, but a good time. Noshed on abundant tasty things, indulged in a variety of adult beverages, hung out with old and new friends... This is a photo of the Amarello Girls.
Back at work in three hours though, so "night everyone!". The TIFF screenings started today (Sept 3rd), but I've already been on the job since August 27th...
My Ironman Canada report is done, but I'm waiting to scan some photos before posting it.
Listening to: Call On Me (Eric Prydz vs Retarded Funk Mix) by Eric Prydz from Ministry of Sound - The Annual 2006.
I'm just back from the TIFF Staff Party at the Berkeley Church (which is no longer one). It was the usual mob scene of huge happy crowds, panicked bartenders and lousy, but hungrily scavenged, food platters...
It was nice to see so many friends and nice to blow off some more steam. The open bar helped with that. Once again the men's washroom was over-run by determined women, once again the dance floor was packed, once again the party continued until we were booted out by the event staff.
Back to looking for a job later today when I wake up...
| Listening to: Good Times Roll by The Cars from The Cars. |  |
Now this is what the Toronto International Film Festival is all about! Everything fell into place for me tonight...
It was a good night again at Roy Thomson Hall, with enthusiastic crowds for Bobby (or "Bahby" as some patrons called it) and Infamous. Everything went smoothly and nearly on schedule in spite of the 15 limos pulling up to the Red Carpet for Bobby and Sandra Bullock, Sigourney Weaver and Toby Jones showing up for Infamous. Bobby was well received by the audience, I wasn't around for the finish of Infamous, so I don't know what the audience thought of it.
Back in the dressing rooms we got a bit silly decompressing now that Closing Night is in sight. Then I headed up to Ultra Supper Club with some of the TIFF staff. We had passes to the Deep Dish after-party from fellow Volunteer Captain Donna's company, Diageo, who were sponsoring the event. There was a big crowd at the door but she got us through. DJ Dubfire was spinning great tracks and in spite of the intermittent rain (or perhaps because of the free-flowing Penka Vodka) we had a great time on the roof-top patio. Perhaps the best moment was breezing in past a self-important acquaintance who remained on the wrong side of the velvet ropes...
| Listening to: Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) by Eurythmics from Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This). |  |
Last night I went to the TIFF Staff pre-party for some team-building. Only three Roy Thomson Hall staff out of a dozen showed up and just to ice the cake the other two couldn't stay long. What a lousy team! This was important because we had to answer quizzes for points... I tried to "represent" and on the positive side I finally figured out how to play Sudoku. The Varsity theater crew loaned me Jill, who comes over from England every year to "work" as a Volunteer Captain, for some additional brain power.
Silliness aside, everyone's getting pumped and I've spent the morning pouring over the massive Official Festival Guide and the various schedules. This year I'm determined to get to some films other than the screenings I work.
Tonight we have a final staff walk-through and radio check at RTH and then... Lift-off!
| Listening to: Beat Box (Diversion One) by Art of Noise from (Who's Afraid Of) The Art of Noise? |  |
Finally I turn my keyboard to the Lord of the Rings Gala. In spite of an early start a rented stretch limo (booked by the Mirvishes for after the performance) we only arrived moments before the lights went down. I think we managed to snag a single flute of champagne. There were too many stops to pick up companions (we waited twenty minutes for Ferris...) and traffic was backed up eight blocks away. I redirected the driver north so we could come from a quiet direction and we arrived just in time. There was a huge lineup, but luckily the producer's partner William was there to wave us through. We were mostly seated together, and in the end Sheryl's daughter Tamara and her husband were given tickets too. She'd been to the preview with my son a week ago, and her husband unsuccessfully floated the idea of "just joining us at the after-party". They came down separately and beat us there in spite of a late start, so they had their proper share of champagne.
The stage was an immediate presence. It was encrusted by branches that reached out along the theatre walls, and was full of Hobbit cast members dancing to folk songs while the audience arrived. So you could say that the performance was even longer than the listed 3 1/2 hours. The stage floor itself was an amazing component, with circular sections frequently rotating and rising or falling to enhance stage movement. Fantastic.
Knowing the books and films I detected a few plot lurches, but they were unavoidable given the compression the story had to undergo. Early previews were almost an hour longer. James Loye and Peter Howe as Frodo and Samwise showed their character's bond and determination well, but the most captivating performance was unquestionably Michael Therriault's Gollum. What a juicy role! The Orcs, Dark Riders and Ents were powerful presences on stage. The Orcs were suitably gruesome and some leapt around the stage on spring-loaded boots. The Dark Riders and Ents towered above everyone on long stilts to great dramatic effect.
The most intense scene was the end of the first act when Gandalf confronts the Balrog. Talk about immersive... The scene that worked best for me though was the first part of the second act, when the Fellowship arrives in Lothlorien. Very magical and lyrical staging. I guess it's all about Elven queens with me. There was a great buzz in the crowd after the show, although the critics have apparently given mixed reviews.
The after-party was held at the Royal York hotel. 2000+ guests, all dressed in "black tie", enjoyed dozens of buffet stations (salmon loaves, oysters on a shell, arctic char, roast beef, cheese and dessert trays everywhere...) Kevin introduced his cast and then Värttinä, the Finnish pop group that collaborated on the music, gave a short concert. We stayed until about 2:00 AM, which is when we finally managed to track down Kevin and offer our congratulations.
| Listening to: Glamour Profession by Steely Dan from Gaucho. |  |
Yes, I was at the Opening Night gala for the Lord of the Rings stage show. Yes, it was a great evening. But I still haven't been home for more than a few minutes so I haven't been able to download the photos from my camera. I'll blog about it tomorrow. What am I ready to report on? The Formula One races that I finally managed to watch on the PVR with my friend. Well, one of them. The first race in Bahrain was recorded but somehow got deleted. Grrr... I don't know what went wrong there.
What I read about the Bahrain race was that Ferrari were at the front of the starting grid, so they appear to be back in the game. Honda, Renault and McLaren were all right behind. The big technical changes have been the return of tire changes during the race and smaller V8 engines. There's also a new qualifying system that cuts down the field after certain intervals during qualifying. Kimi Raikkonen fell afoul of this as a crash during qualifying kept him off the course before the first interval expired.
In the actual race the story was Kimi's charge from the very back of the field to finish third. He'll be in contention this year. Fernando Alonso got his Renault past Michael Schumacher's Ferarri just as he exited the pit lane from his second stop for the win (pictured here). That must have been an exciting moment! Jenson Button struggled to recover from a bad start and finished fourth. Newcomer Nico Rosberg drove well in his Williams, finishing seventh. It will be interesting to see how he performs. The new teams, Super Aguri, Midland and Toro Rosso were at the back of the field, but they've got a lot of development work to do. Torro Rosso is running last year's Red Bull car with special allowance to use a detuned V10 engine. Super Aguri is even running a four-year-old Arrows car!
So what about the race I did get to watch? That would be the Malaysian Grand Prix. Giancarlo Fisichella was on the pole in his Renault, with Jenson Button along side. The two Williams cars, driven by rookie Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber filled row two. Row three was also occupied by teammates, with Juan Pablo Montoya ahead of McLaren-Mercedes partner Kimi Raikkonen. Last race's winner, Fernando Alonso, couldn't qualify better than eighth because of an accidental over-fuelling of his Renault (he had to carry that excess fuel into the race too). Michael Schumacher qualified fourth, but started fourteenth because he had to replace his engine before the required two races.
The race itself was pretty straight-forward. Giancarlo Fisichella started on the pole and stayed there. His teammate Fernando Alonso got a great start, moving from seventh to third by the first corner and then managed to keep pace in his over-fuelled Renault, with the result that he was able to finish second. Jenson Button held his starting position until Fernando passed him, but kept ahead of McLaren's Juan Pablo Montoya. Filipe Massa out-drove his Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher, leaving them fifth and sixth at the end of the race. Jacques Villeneuve (go Canada!) drove well in his BMW, earning his team its first points. He might do well this year. Poor Kimi (see picture) was knocked out of the race on the first lap after being bumped by Christian Klien's Red Bull. Both Williams cars left the race early, due to an engine fire and a hydraulic problem. Jacques' teammate Nick Heidfeld also suffered an engine failure late in the race.
| Listening to: Tired Of Getting Pushed Around by Two Men, A Drum Machine, And A Trumpet from Tired Of Getting Pushed Around (EP). (A Fine Young Cannibals side-project.) |  |
I went to a fundraiser with Sheryl on Friday night, sponsored by the Australian bootmaker Blundstone. They had provided boots that local artists had decorated and an auction was held at the Steam Whistle Brewery. I think Sheryl and I were the only Australians there. Not even the auctioneer, who put on an Aussie accent that had us both fooled. A good crowd showed up though, and the converted railway roundhouse is a great venue. Booty Smacker played a hot set of 70's Funk too so it was a chance to go retro on the dance floor. The next day we learned that one of Sheryl's bosses had been there and spotted us from across the room as we were leaving. Lucky we didn't go too wild.
Sheryl's friend Louise told us an interesting New Orleans story that night. An acquaintance of hers had moved to New Orleans several years ago and owned an apartment building that ended up with water lapping within yards of its lobby entrance during the Katrina flooding. Foolishly, he and a small group of friends had decided to wait out the storm and by the time they realised their mistake they were almost cut off and had insufficient gas in their cars. Except one... A vintage Rolls Royce he owned that was stored nearby and had recently been serviced! They all jammed in and managed to drive to safety. It must have been surreal traveling through the impoverished areas like that. Probably dangerous too. They kept driving until they were right back in Toronto...
| Listening to: King of the Mountain by Midnight Oil from Blue Sky Mining. |  |
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