TIFF '09 Day One

I was volunteering at the Toronto International Film Festival last night, working as Volunteer Captain at Roy Thomson Hall. The Opening Gala was Creation, a biopic about Charles Darwin starring real-life husband and wife Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly ("English naturalist Charles Darwin struggles to find a balance between his revolutionary theories on evolution and the [his] relationship with [his] religious wife, whose faith contradicts his work." according to imdb.com). Jennifer looked great in a towering pair of heels, which came off the moment she got to the Green Room :-). The film seemed well received by the audience and the evening went smoothly from my perspective. I'll be back at RTH all next week, so I hope this is a sign of things to come.

Through the evening I circulated around helping where needed and making sure the volunteers were in position at the right times. The big change this year was the move of the Red Carpet from the normal east entrance to the west side of the building, which opens onto a pedestrian park. This resulted in a lot less congestion during admission, but the Red Carpet team had to deal with a much more spread-out environment and they had tons of communication problems due to balky walkie-talkies and incomplete talent schedules. It looked great to the casual eye though... There was even an excellent high definition video feed from the Red Carpet into the theatre as well as the internet and a few other Festival locations.

Now I have a bit of down-time before my Ironman 70.3 race up in Huntsville on Sunday. I'm going to try to take it easy so I can get to the starting line with better energy reserves than I had at Ironman USA back in July. (Yes, I will post that race report soon!)

Listening to: A Day in the Life (in glorious mono!) by The Beatles from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.