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CIFF - SHORTS
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 1659
Late Monday, saw "Shorts" at CIFF. Seemed the best way, an averaging of short films would guarantee that my limited time would find some reward, rather than chancing it all on a single film (and there were a few that piqued my interest) I would see Shorts and be done with it.
The standard mixed bag, some OK, none really bad, an astonishing amount of manpower and work went into the simplest of them, credits as long as a feature film...
2 stood out: CURVE - by Tim Egan - a girl above a dark void, clinging on for dear life, and 90 DEGREES NORTH (90 Grad Nord) - About a German Pedestrian stuck at a traffic light (on a traffic Island in the middle of nowhere) - evoked "Waiting for Godot" and a lot of other surrealist/absurdist films. Well done.
SO 2 hits, fuel for nightmares to come, worthwhile, and maybe, fingers crossed, I'll find time for another film...
Time Passes
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1717
And it was her birthday, and I sent her the email, every year, 25 now all told. It wouldn't be different, no matter what.
She's someone who never found me, I know those who've found me, searched for me, I'm not that much of a Luddite. She's passed, moved on, we both have, but I'm curious...
And so, burning Calgary, moving on, the end of October, maybe, after 25 years, time to catch up, come to visit, see how she is...
Curious...
I send the email. There won't be too many more chances, we get older, one of us, sooner or later, will be disappearing. And there are few people that were as important in my life as she was. At my age, it's more funerals and the regrets that we didn't finally connect before they departed...Spain, 4 or 5 days, a week maybe, catching up, laughing, reliving old times, it could be good. Necessary. Closure. Always it was finished, we both knew, but now - well, closure, the definition changes. Closure, then the crossing. Maybe in a year, 10, 50, but we are so busy we don't know, can't anticipate, and there are no assurances we'll meet on the other side, and so maybe we should lets live while we can....
Green Tea Ice Cream
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1603
Sunday with the daughter, skating, been a while, she's pretty good. You would expect that, what with 5 years of hockey lessons and all, but I had rather over estimated my progress. And my 2 younger girlfriends, 5 & 7, there waiting, haven't seen them for 6 months, they immediately pounce, berate me for not having brought my scarf to tow them around the rink with, ask if I rode my dragon there and remembered that I was a wizard and checked with the daughter that it was true (and her rather sarcastic and jealous responses...), "What do you feed your dragon?" they ask..."Children" I tell them...
From here we pick up the daughters friend, wander around Cross-Iron Mills, then for dinner to the all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ. Sushi. And watching them order, the second helping, of course they go overboard, we're inundated with excessive sushi and food, I go to the bathroom, they spike my water with Wasabi, I merely switch with the daughter, the putrid yellow-green was a sure giveaway, nevermind...
We order desserts. For them, the tempura ice cream, for me, the green-tea ice cream. The table is still piled with the remnants of our excesses...My Ice cream arrives, I have a bite, "...would either of you like a taste?" I offer, "Yes PLEASE!" they chime, and I pass the spoon to her friend who takes a small mouthful...
A shame, if the daughter had been quicker to seize the leftovers I could have killed 2 birds with one stone...watching her friends face, puzzled, then contorted and the spitting into her water glass..."OMG" begins the daughter "I have never wanted anything so bad in my whole life and been soooo glad I never got it...You gave her Wasabi! You are a GENIUS"...
Never has malice found a more appreciative audience, and I bathe in my dark glory...
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