Didn't realize I didn't post a blog on Myspace about the whole shebang, since I'm at the Facebook side a whole lot more these days. So I'll summarize........

Day 1 of the fest was pretty much a bust. Traffic slowed me up a bunch getting here. They found more ways to make it less fan friendly continuing a trend the past couple years. I have barely any pictures that are worth squat. And my back dislikes me.

I think that Thandie Newton picture from last year was bad karma. She wouldn't stop for anyone. Guy Ritchie looks perpetually constipated. Ludacris is taller than I thought. Jeremy Piven is shorter than I thought and I'm convinced he hates people. Their movie made me late for the Jean Claude Van Damme movie which sold out by the time I got there, so hopefully I will watch it tomorrow. Amazingly, it has great buzz and reviews. Yeah, I know, from a Van Damme movie! Only one positive out of 6-7 negs. I got Gerard Butler to sign my 300 DVD. He's a great friendly guy, but pretty hyper and twitchy. THIS IS TORONTO! (PS - That's a 300 reference)
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Man, I tell ya. Nothing beats The Big Slice at 3 AM in Toronto.

I saw Guy Ritchie's new movie, RockNRolla. It's a great return to the fine form from Snatch and Lock Stock Two Smoking Barrels, especially if you watched the crap that was Swept Away and Revolver.

I also watched JCVD, short for Jean Claude Van Damme. Amazingly, it was really fantastic, a perfect bridge between Iron Man and Batman. I'm not kidding. Moments of levity and hollywood satire with interjections of grim reality and truth.

Red carpet action for Secret Life of Bees. Lots of young girls came out shrieking to support Dakota Fanning, who seems to be aging and growing rapidly. And I asked some others, if I said her name loudly, would that make me a pedophile? Heh. Also out for this movie were Queen Latifah, not quite American Idol Jenn Hudson, and Alica Keys.

Yeah, then there was the mayhem of Brad Pitt for Burn After Reading. He was much friendlier and jovial than last I saw him, even dancing for the crowd. The crowd though, just as nutty. Coens, Tilda Swinton, and a nearly bald Malkovich also appeared.

On the way to find food, I ran into Ricky Gervais and we talked about Kristin Wiig, who's in his new movie Ghost Town. He had very complimentary comments. We also talked about his upcoming HBO tv stand up special.

Interesting poll I asked Canadians:
Do you think it's more likely that Obama will be assassinated or that McCain will die while in office. Obama is winning 9-3.
Who would you rather see as president: Palin or Biden? Palin 2, Biden 6 (these were more about being anti-Palin, than actually voting for Biden), Who's Biden got 4.
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Day 3 brought Lebron James for More Than a Game. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. Several years ago, first-time director Kristopher Belman decided to follow a high-school basketball team in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. Its core group of players were four African-American youth from varying backgrounds, playing for the elite, predominantly white school St. Vincent-St. Mary. The boys had played together with the same coach since they were in grade school, developing an unusual chemistry. Hollywood should be so lucky to find such a script about family, redemption and what it takes to win. And as if that was not enough, one of the players went on to become an NBA superstar, Lebron.

Then in Dundas Square, he judged an amateur slam dunk competition. He didn't seem to be happy about being there though and muddled through all the proceedings.

Did you know there's a Canadian Walk of Fame like in Hollywood? They had a big event at 1000 bucks a ticket, and 10k for a VIP ticket. You can check out the attendees here: http://www.canadaswalkoffame.com/news/2008-list-inductees-announced.
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There was no day 4 as I stayed home to watch opening weekend of football. The biggest talk of Day 5 was the injury of Tom Brady, even up in Canada.

Start the day by seeing Losties Evangeline Lilly and Dominic Monaghan jumping into a cab marking the second time I've seen them in a few days, but no usable pics. Adrian Brody hasn't shaved in months. Kate Beckinsale, yeah uh, really pretty. Just for Anita, Timothy Hutton is a really nice guy. And Viggo Mortensen plays the piano well.

On the movie front, Larry Charles made a politcal version of Borat starring Bill Mahar. It's called Religulous combining religion and rediculous. It's funny in the same way Borat is. You get people who say and do really dumb stuff in the name of religion and don't realize how silly or one sided their version of the world is, while the Vatican priests inerviewed are the most moderate neutral people in the movie. Bill Mahar also told the media: "The USA is dumber than Canada."

Acolytes is a really well done teen angst psycological horror filck. If it's one thing the Toronto Film Fest teaches me every year, it's that when you find a dead body, just leave it alone or for someone else. Don't move it or try to frame the serial killer.
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Day 6 ended up being my last day. It was a fun last day that ended with the InStyle Party. It tends to be a big smoozefest and swag bag grab for any celeb that's still in town. It also draws in random celebs. I purposely went diagonally across the busiest intersection at Yonge/Dundas a few times. They've created a scramble walkway where you have one way green, other way green, then a 30 second period just for pedestrians to walk through however they want, much like Tokyo Shibuya and Akihabra. Ah, the things that amuse people. There simply weren't enough movies that interested me to stay. The festival ended up being alright as an experience on the whole. I think I'm jaded somewhat by the whole spiel. This marked year 11. As a fan or ticketholder, the festival just wasn't as friendly as previous years. It was also the cloudiest/rainiest year. Twice, I took cabs to go 5 blocks thanks to a bum foot.

The festival has lost a middle ground of movies. It tries to pull in the biggest names and movies, then fills out with Canadian and foreign films that tend to be from similar genres. I miss the animes like Steamboy or Hayao Miyazaki's trifecta of Spirited Away/Howl's Moving Castle/Princess Mononoke. There was a dearth of action or asain cinema or foreign comedy. It's also missing a middle ground of actors/actresses, preferring to go with the big stars. Here we go again with Brad Pitt. Although this year for him ended up much better than the previous 2 fiascos. I skipped Keira Knightly to watch a football game instead. It's got to be 4th or 5th year in a row I would have seen her. She's in yet another period piece.

I also continued my dislike of cell phones. Why do so many people carry on loud conversations while traveling from one place to another? If it's not while driving, then it's while walking. And the cell phone cameras? Is there a point to try taking a picture if you're target is 10 feet or so away or on the move? Yeah, I'm just ranting.

So quick thoughts: Hopefully, I will post some pics soon.
I really loved the JCVD movie.
Mickey Rourke in the Wrestler up for an Oscar? Really.
RockNRolla by Guy Ritchie is a return to form back to his earlier movies Snatch and Lock Stock Two Smoking Barrels.
Viggo Mortensen is one of the nicest guys you'll meet. Also plays the piano well.
Slumdog Millionaire is the next Little Miss Sunshine, from Danny Boyle who gave us Trainspotting, Sunshine, and 28 Days Later.
Thailand makes crazy action movies with this year's Chocolate. Check out Ong Bak and The Protector for introductions.
Ghost Town with Ricky Gervais is funny.
Ed Norton is still my archnemesis.
Steve Nash is still a mess even when cleaned up.
Kids in the Hall are old.
Kate Beckinsale is hot even when not a black leather wearing vampire.
Blindness was thumbs down.
Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno is impressive with fun cameos. Brandon 'I used to be Superman' Routh and Mac Guy Justin Long appear. Elizabeth Banks hilarious. Jason Mewes goes nuts. Oh yeah Dan, I met another Porn Star. Katie Morgan is just as pretty, perky, squeeky, and short in real life as those HBO specials.
Rose McGowan looks fantastic and pumped about Red Sonja, working out 2-3 hours a day. She said she's doing swordwork with the Matrix guys and it's supposed to start shooting this month.

There's a movie about to shoot in Ann Arbor. It's that suburb next to Detroit, where the University of Michigan is. It might also shoot in Ypsilanti. Ok, it sounds like a chick flick, but you have to start somewhere. So if you want to be an extra for a movie, here's your chance as they really need people for the movie called Whip It. This will be Drew Barrymore's directorial debut and stars Ellen Page. You might have seen her as Shadowcat in the X-Men movies or even more famously in Juno. The movie is based on a teenage girl's discovery of the roller derby world.

So if you're 18 or older and interested, then send an email to info@realstyleonline.com with your name, photos, date of birth, and contact info. Also put your availability in the subject line. It shoots July 28-31, Aug. 1, Aug. 4-8 and Aug. 11. If wondering about pay, you will get $7.40 an hour, and more if overtime is needed. Just as an FYI, they are specifically looking for men/women with mohawks or crazy hair (colored even better), bald people, people that know sign language, and of course, knowing how to roller skate is a big plus. If you are bald or know sign language, then put that in your email subject line.

I learned of the news of George Carlin's passing with much sadness as well, and with the realization that we have lost one of the great thinkers and comedic minds of the last century. Someone who wasn't afraid to tweak authority, who questioned everything. He wasn't college educated, but he had a brilliant mind, and had views — albeit strange and wonderful — on practically every subject in existence. Carlin was the thinking man's off-color comic — he was made famous during the 1970's by his "Seven dirty words" and his challenging of the FCC, a battle that occurred 30 years before Howard Stern would face similar challenges.

I didn't grow up in the 60's, so much of his bucking of authority that I heard on some of his early albums was mostly apocryphal when I listened to them during my college years in the late 90's, when I was first introduced to him. Nevertheless, given today's political environment and the dissatisfaction many Americans now have with their current government and another unpopular war, if you go back and listen to some of his early work, it sounds as fresh as the day it was recorded.

I don't recall Carlin ever saying so outright, but he always crossed me as something of a Luddite, or someone that was fearful of technology and posessions unchecked, and that we were losing our humanity in the process of advancement.

"We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less."

His political and social commentary aside,  I always was most fascinated with his "Place for our Stuff" routine which he developed much later on in his career.  The bit is about collecting possessions and constantly finding a need to put them somewhere. Carlin may never have thought of digital information in the same way as physical possessions, but if you think of his monologue in terms of storing data, we are facing the exact same challenges.

Devices may have gotten smaller and more portable, but now we have all this digital "stuff" to take care of now. Digital Photos, Videos, emails, productivity data, social contacts — keeping track of all this stuff online and offline has become immensely challenging. The many social networks I belong to because nobody belongs to all the same ones. USB or SD cards I carry with me when I travel, and have found that I always carry spares.  Even my GPS unit that tells me where to go can store almost a gig of music and pictures. I don't know if I'll ever have a place for all of my stuff. But I'll look to George Carlin as the prophet who envisioned it if I ever do.