September

The seasons here in Toronto are changing. The leaves are turning, the warmer jackets are being sought out and the coffee shops are all selling Pumpkin Spiced Lattes.

September has been a busy month, here are just a few of the highlights: -

 TIFF - The Toronto International Film Festival.

One of my favourite events in Cambridge was the annual film festival and so I was very excited about the TIFF. This is one of the world's largest film festivals and North America's premier cinematic showcase. It is also, fortunately for me, remarkably egalitarian and open-access. Tickets are available for all showings to members of the public and there are even tickets reserved for sale ten minutes before each screening for those who want to take their chances and join the "Rush" queue.

Tickets for the festival went on general sale on September 1st at 9am. I did my homework and scoured the program for films I was interested in. (There was the option to buy a random selection of tickets, but I wasn't quite that brave).  At 8:50 I brought up the correct website, brewed a fresh pot of coffee and began to refresh the webpage to make sure I was at the head of the queue. At exactly 9, the screen changed and told me I was in the virtual waiting room and that I would be able to buy tickets shortly. Two hours later I had got no further and had to leave Megan in charge of my laptop while I went to see the Toronto summer airshow with her family (I must point out that she didn't want to come. I didn't just leave her to do my dirty work for me). When I got back Megan told me that she had finally got through at about 1pm and had managed to get us tickets to four films on our list; Dom Hemingway, Night Moves, Under the Skin, and Bad Words. Well done Megan!

Each of the four films was held in a different location, the first being Under the Skin in the Princess of Wales theatre. Megan and I agreed that this was probably our favourite of the four. A strangely low-key sci-fi, filled with a lot of candid footage of a cast of mostly non-professional actors interacting with an alien Scarlett Johansson. The film showed the streets of Glasgow through the eyes of an outsider, marveling at the strange rituals and un-fathomable accents of the locals and contrasting it with a series of strange and disturbing visuals. Probably not for everyone, but definitely a great choice for fans of  Leos Carax or Tarkovsky. Bonus points for a fantastic and very eerie score. A Q&A with Jonathan Glazer and Scarlett Johansson afterwards was the usual mix of interesting insights and stupid questions.

Dom Hemingway is a showcase for a brilliantly foul-mouthed performance by Jude Law as the eponymous, silver-tongued protagonist. This started off hilariously but somewhat lost it's way around the middle, not quite sure where it was going. Could end up being almost as quotable as Withnail and I and shares Richard E Grant in a great supporting role.

Bad Words is the first film directed by Jason Bateman. The sort of film that you'll only like if you think that swearing at children is big and clever. Fortunately, I think it's hilarious. Definitely goes further in its depravity than you expect it to, but I found it consistently laugh out loud funny all the way through.

Finally, Night Moves is a (very) slow burn eco-terrorist movie from Kelly Reichardt. It sketches some interesting characters but doesn't really know what to do with its plot once they all go their own separate ways. The first half really ratchets up the tension, but this is all lost with a strange turn towards melodrama towards the end.

In amongst all the film festival fun, we went to see Alt-J play down on the waterfront. Behind the stage was a fantastic view of the city and then behind us we could see dark thunderclouds rolling in across the lake towards us. During the final song of the night the storm broke, the thunder crashed, the lightning flashed all around us. Alt-J couldn't have asked for better pyrotechnics to finish off their show. It was one of the most atmospheric (pun very much intended) shows I've ever seen.

So, what else has been happening during September? I spent an enjoyable afternoon wandering around the AGO, in particular looking at the Ai Wei Wei exhibition. What struck me was the diversity of his work and interests; from photography to conceptual pieces, found objects to political statements. I enjoyed the contrast of somber subject matter and his mischievous sense of humour. A lot of his work focuses on the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and in particular the refusal of the Chinese government to release lists of the dead or missing. I was in China at the time of this earthquake and was aware of the chaos and the destruction it wrought but this exhibition really brings into focus the scale of the loss of human life.  

There are also a number of Ai's sculptures decorating the city hall, right next to a permanent Henry Moore. I really love the fact that there is a Henry Moore where Megan and I got married, echoing the Henry Moore at Leckhampton (known as Fred) where we first met five years ago. I'll be back at the AGO tomorrow to see the David Bowie exhibition. Can't wait!

Houses made of tea. The best smelling exhibit by far.

Chateau Lafite. Get it?

Steel poles removed from buildings destroyed by the 2008 Earthquake in Sichuan, China.

The AGO, designed by Toronto native Frank Gehry.

Dragon!

The Archer at Toronto City Hall

Fred, feeling the cold.

When I was invited to the Wellesley Apple Butter and Cheese festival, I assumed that it was an Apple, Butter and Cheese festival. Little did I know, I  was about to discover Apple butter! Essentially, this is a reduced apple sauce. Much like an apple jam, it is used on toast, cupcakes, pork chops, BBQ marinades and anything that needs an apple-ly kick. The festival also supplied us with fresh apple cider, hay-rides, wiener schnitzels, fudge, classic cars, home-made ice cream and, best of all, maple butter. Maple butter is the intermediate stage between maple syrup and maple candy. It's like a cross between maple syrup and set honey. I'm currently putting it on everything. Hello diabetes!

Horse shoe throwing. Looks a lot harder than I expected.

Homemade ice cream.

Cooking up apple fritters.

I would like this one, please.

Tommy Saxondale would have been right at home here.

Here come the apples!

Looking at people's expressions, I don't think anyone enjoys these rides.

Preparing the mashed apple for pressing.

Here comes the cider.

We were being attacked by wasps and couldn't escape.

Yes, we did go for a ride on this and yes, I did sit on the roof. It was brilliant.

  I think that's about it for now. It's Thanksgiving this weekend and then it's Halloween soon after. Meg has grand plans for costumes so we need to spend some time this weekend shopping for cloaks and swords (typical medievalist!). See y'all soon.  

Fan-Expo Canada

Two weeks ago, Toronto was host to Fan-Expo Canada. Over 100,000 fans of comic books, movies, comic book movies,  TV shows, sci-fi, fantasy, anime, gaming, and horror congregate to share their fan-dom, meet their idols, dress in crazy costumes and generally geek out.

Meg's sister and a bunch of her friends were all going for the whole weekend and invited me to tag along and join in the fan-friendly fun. Now, I've always thought of myself as fairly geeky. I know that Han shot first. I had at one point (very briefly) read all the Discworld novels. I know Dumbledore's full name. I once dressed as Ash from the Evil Dead. I get most of the references in Spaced. All in all, I thought I could handle a day amongst my peers,so I bought a ticket for the Saturday and began thinking about costume ideas.

As the day approached, I started to get nervous. I was receiving emails and schedules full of events and schedules for things I'd never heard of. I started to see people posting about how many weeks or months their costume had taken to make. One of the group that I was gate-crashing had previously dressed as Ghost Rider: -

How am I going to compete with that? I'd decided to go as Doctor Who; partly to capitalise on having a  British accent, but mostly because I realised that, bar the bow-tie, I had everything I needed for the costume in my wardrobe. (It turns out I dress as the Doctor everyday at work!). I had under-estimated the effort that people put into this. There was no way I could show my face next to a Ghost Rider of this quality. And to make matters worse, this year he was going as one of the X-Men I'd never even heard of. I had to wikipedia 'Cable' to find out who he was and learn his back-story. If you've never had to look up a comic book character before, I can tell you that it's a very confusing experience. There are so many different variations, story-lines, iterations and complex backgrounds that it's impossible to sum them up in a few words. For example; 

"Cable is first seen in conflict with Stryfe's Mutant Liberation Front,^[3] the United States government, andFreedom Force.^[4] The New Mutants intervened and he asked for their help against the Mutant Liberation Front.^[5] Cable saw them as potential soldiers in his war against Stryfe. He became their new teacher and leader, and outfitted them.^[6] He came into conflict with Wolverine,^[7] noting that the two had an old feud between them. Cable and the New Mutants teamed up with Wolverine and Sunfire against the MLF.^[8] Cable also led the New Mutants against the Genoshans.^[9]

With the aid of Domino, Cable reorganized the New Mutants into X-Force.^[10] The New Mutants ended with issue #100, with Cable and other characters then appearing the following month in X-Force #1.^[10] The X-Force series provided further detail for the character's back story revealing that he was from the future and that he had traveled to the past with the aim of stopping Stryfe's plans as well as preventing Apocalypse's rise to power. Cable traveled between the 1990s and his future with his ship Graymalkin, which contained a sentient computer program called Professor, the future version of the program built into X-Factor's Ship."

Not exactly as simple as "Bitten by radioactive spider. Climbs things."  I was beginning to worry that I would be found out as a fraud as soon as I got there. What if people started asking me questions about Doctor Who? I didn't really know much about it. I started feverishly watching episodes of Doctor Who as research to ensure that I knew who River Song was or how to defeat a weeping angel. 

Anyway, all my worrying and anxiety was for naught. The event itself was great fun. It was absolutely huge and had every kind of fanaticism imaginable. I started off the day at a screening of a series of horror movie shorts, explored artists alley (where comic book artists ply their trade), enviously browsed the merchandise stalls, tried out some of the latest video-game releases and saw a sneak-preview of J.J. Abram's new TV show, "Almost Human" (Blade Runner meets i robot meets Space Precinct. Do you remember Space Precinct? Brilliant show. See, I had no reason to worry about being geeky enough really). 

So what did I learn at Fan-Expo? Firtsly, Doctor Who is massively popular over here. I would say that the most popular costume by far was people dressed as Daleks, closely followed by people dressed as the TARDIS. They were everywhere, enough so to make a new world record for the number of Daleks in one place: 160.

Secondly, dressing up as fictional characters creates a bond of camaraderie. Everyone at the Expo was friendly, enthusiastic and very supportive of everyone else. Every single Doctor that I passed would say a friendly 'hello' or a very formal 'Doctor!', people would compliment me on my costume or even ask to have their photo taken with me. It's very hard to be cynical and aloof (as much as I enjoy doing that) when you're surrounded by so many people who are clearly enjoying themselves so much. This community truly was very welcoming, accepting, supportive and positive. In such a busy, crowded place you would expect to see lots of harried, stressed or even irritable people, but I didn't see one person who wasn't enjoying his or herself enormously.

Thirdly, some people look good in spandex. Some people really don't.

Fourthly, the bemused look on a supervising parent's face as they escort their fully costumed teenager around the exhibition hall is absolutely priceless.

Finally, this guy, for me, wins the costume prize hands-down. Amazing.

Dark Helmet from the movie Spaceballs.

                             

See below for a selection of pictures from the event. Tune in next time to hear about how I got on at the Toronto International Film Festival. 

KITT from Knightrider

The Doctor. Not looking very happy.

Feisty one, you are.

Wolverine on the phone

This is an intimidating man to pee next to.

Jubilee and Cable

No idea. Answers on a postcard please.

Steampunk muppets. I want one.

We're knights of the round table,
We dance whenever we're able

You shall not play!

Thorin Plasticshield

Ooops, I'm in the wrong film.

I told you that these'd be worth something someday, Mum. Bet you feel silly for throwing them out now. 

I bet he's too warm in that coat.

"You've not washed behind your ears."

No idea.

Also no idea.

Looks cuddly.

Standard family day out.

I'm sure there'd be room for Catwoman to sit on the car too if they all squashed together a bit. Poor Catwoman.

These things followed me about for a bit. Quite embarrassing really.

Vigo the Carpathian. Also known as Vigo the Cruel, Vigo the Torturer, Vigo the Despised and Vigo the Unholy. (Wasn't he also known as Vigo the Butch?)