Abbotsford Landmark Theatre is about the only cheap movie theatre left that charges less than $5 for a movie on Tuesdays. We ended up going to the matinee show of "Hope Springs" starring Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones. It's about a couple who have been married for 31 years and Meryl's character Kay wants to liven up their marriage so she and Tommy Lee Jones head off to Maine to have marriage counseling sessions with Steve Carrell. Meryl and Tommy Lee are very cute together because of their complete lack of sexual awareness and awkwardness, being that of an older generation.
We did some shopping and grabbed dinner before heading to the 7 o'clock showing of "The Bourne Legacy" starring Jeremy Renner and Rachel Weisz. For a reboot of the Bourne franchise in the same time frame it wasn't bad. I did enjoy the motorcycle chase through Manila and the fact that the female character in this wasn't weak was a plus but the ending seemed off. I know it's supposed to be open ended for a sequel but the ending came out of nowhere, nothing was really resolved. Not bad for a night out and it cost less than $10.
I've been staying with my honorary grandparents in Abbotsford and today we all went across the border to Lynden for lunch. Lynden is known for it's old Dutch settlement, therefore there are windmills everywhere. But it was quite sad as we walked down historic downtown, the once charming Front street was full of empty buildings. We ended up going for lunch at a "Greek" restaurant and looked at some antique stores.
My friends tell me I watch a lot of TV and it's true I do. I usually try and watch the first couple of episode of every new primetime show (not reality TV). I used to do this for work and now it's stuck. I actually enjoy watching all that TV, I would recommend it for all those would be or are producers, even directors out there. Not only does it help keep you current in TV watching ie. pop culture, it helps you know what networks are into and perhaps what you should be pitching to competitor networks. Also it's way easier to have a conversation with a stranger about TV, it's the same thing as asking someone what music they like.
Circling back to the topic of the post, Arron Sorkin's The Newsroom. It stars Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer, John Gallagher Jr. and Alison Pill. It centres around Jeff Daniels character Will McAvoy, the anchor of News Night. He has just come back from a forced "vacation" to find his staff have jumped ship to the 10 o'clock news. His new staff include Emily Mortimer, Will's ex Mackenzie who he hasn't seen in 4 years. She brings with her John Gallagher Jr. aka Jim who clearly has a thing for Alison Pill's character Maggie the intern turned associate producer over night. I am not the biggest Arron Sorkin fan, I hated the Social Network, not only did it depict women in a bad light but my main problem with it was that I just couldn't sympathize at all with Jessie Eisenberg's character, Mark Zuckerberg. However, I did enjoy Studio 60 so I gave The Newsroom a shot. The beginning monoluge Jeff Daniels performs had me hooked! Now maybe this show appeals more to me as a Canadian because I don't have that Ra Ra my country thing, we just don't do that here, which I think many critics at first disliked the show for because it opened with Jeff Daniels speaking the truth about America's current stats which are that of a third world country. Don't get me wrong I don't dislike my neighbours down south, this was just great writing. Now for those of you who have watched many of Arron Srokin's other shows and films will see that there are several "Sorkinisms". Watch this supercut and you'll see. So if you can get over that. It's actually a good look behind the newsroom of the past 10 years in American breaking news.
We went for brunch at Fet's on Commercial Drive and hung out at my Mom's house taking it easy as I think we've tired her out. Then my aunt and younger cousins came over and picked her up. My aunt is taking her to Edmonton. I'm hoping to go visit her in Spain next year. *fingers crossed*
Today we went to see a friend of ours in the Young Shakespeare performance of The Merchant of Venice at Vanier Park. Then it was off to Granville Island to look around and Bridges for lunch. After lunch we hopped on a little ferry to Sunset Beach. We walked the seawall to Stanley Park (the biggest city park in all of North America, bigger than Central Park in NY). After walking all day we decided to cheat and go on a Horse Drawn Tour around Stanley Park.
It was a rest day today. After lunch we headed down to the West End and walked down Davie street to English Bay. Took some pictures of the laughing statutes. Then we headed down Denman to Robson Street. My cousin wanted leggings so we headed to Le Chateau because they have the best leggings. For dinner we went to Guu Izakaya, we had takoyaki, yaki udon, okonomi yaki, konnyaku, BBQ eel, a large Asahi beer an for desert green tea ice cream. Everything we ate was a first for my cousin including eel! After dinner we walked down Granville Street and ended up bumping into some people from Spain who now live in Vancouver. Lastly we went for coffee at Trees.
So since Friday was my last day at work I was able to leave halfway yay! I met my cousin and mom downtown to do a little sightseeing. It's always great when friends or family visit because it forces you to go out and enjoy the city's tourism attractions.
We went to Hill's to look at native art, the Olympic Cauldron, Thierry's for a french pastry, historic Hotel Vancouver and the Art Gallery. In the evening we headed to Camagnolo for a Italian dinner and a Children's Hospital benefit at the Electric Owl (one of my fav venues).
After 3 months of extension this was my last week on Ice Pilots NWT Season 4. I am hoping there will be a fifth season and get asked back. (so put out some good vibes for me) In fact a couple of co-workers have asked me to help in the story department on a documentary they shot about a mother being reunited with her children after immigrating to Canada. I have had a great experience working with the Omni team and have learned a lot about making docu-reality TV. Which I will definitely be using on a few of my projects in development.
Not sure how I'm going to spend my time off yet. Maybe I'll go on a trip, I've been thinking of going to Vegas but to be honest I'll probably just burry myself into other projects. There is a Canada Council grant that keeps calling my name. I have 2 grants to write for that and if any of you have ever written a grant you know that they are a lengthy pain. I have some online content for Kiss My Incoming Abs to edit and a commercial to edit for our Kiss My Incoming Abs jewellery. In September I start shooting the second season of Kiss My Incoming Abs which airs on Novus and hopefully Shaw (we find out about that mid September). So here's hoping the sun will still be shinning so I can work outside. :)
My second cousin is in town on vacation from Spain! I have never met her before and I am pretty sure she doesn't speak any English and I don't really speak Spanish. She's my around my mother's age, so I'm hoping she'll be kind of like my Mom; adventurous. She's only staying with my Mom for 5 days so that doesn't really give us enough time to show her around Vancouver. We've kind of broken up the 5 days between different neighborhoods in the city; Commercial Drive, Granville Island, Downtown etc. Tonight we had a family dinner with my aunt and younger cousins.
About 2 years ago I had the pleasure to watch the first cut of first time director Jason Banker's Toad Road for a producer friend of mine.
Toad Road captures a disturbing portrait of contemporary youth culture where the lines between reality and fiction are blurred. It was announced this past week that Toad Road received two awards at the Fantasia Film Festival, best director and best actor for James Davidson. Watch the trailer here.
You know the "indie filmmaker" nowadays fundraises for their project, myself included. It's hard to make the right campaign because you're never sure what people will want to invest in. Here is an article a guy from
Vancouver wrote about his failed attempt at crowd funding. He ends up talking to Lucas McNelly who runs Kickstarter and IndieGoGo campaigns for a living and gives some tips to campaigning. Check out the post here www.savethecitizens.blogspot.com
Just launched our last episode of the Season 1 for Kiss My Incoming Abs. This episode features Nicole running the Vancouver Sun Run and in the kitchen Nicole and guest host Channa Serenity check out some wheat grass. We will be starting up again in September so stay tuned. In the meanwhile you can help us out by spreading any and all of our videos! :) Also like us on Facebook here.
It was a beautiful sunny day here so I went off to Nat Bailey Stadium for a Vancouver Canadians baseball game. I was so excited because I hadn't gone to a baseball game since I was in primary school. The Vancouver Canadians played against the Yakima Bears, unfortunately the Canadians lost, 3-1 to the Bears. But in great Vancouver fashion there were fireworks on the field at the end of the game. But the Canadians are still the leaders in the western division with 11 wins and 8 loses.
Hi to the few people out there that have read this blog in the past. I know I haven't updated in a long while. So I'll just give you he run down of what I've been up to which isn't much so here goes. After the Leo Awards in 2010, I continued working at Brightlight Pictures. I was even able to get them to start paying me! In December, I switched offices and started working on the production side. I still read the occasional script. But now I was helping make budgets, doing assumption sheets, getting my boss' production binders ready, and being a personal assistant. I worked at Brightlight for about a year and during which I still produced a webseries called Beach Ball P.I. and a short film called The Cheese Container. Beach Ball P.I. was written and directed by my friend Zia Marashi, it's a comedy about a private detective and his partner a beach ball. You can watch the 4 part series here. The Cheese Container was written and directed by my friend Janice Chow. This story illustrates a relationship that is about being there for one another rather than trying to change each other. You can watch it here. After Brightlight I bummed around and PA'ed on a few shows around Vancouver. Then in August 2012, I worked on The Family Cookoff for the Food Network and in September 2012 I worked on the Vancouver portion of Canada's Got Talent. In the November 2012, I started work as a logger on Ice Pilots NWT for Omni Films. While working on Ice Pilots NWT I started producing and directing a fitness show called Kiss My Incoming Abs which airs on NOVUS TV. Kiss My Incoming Abs is a transformational TV show that hopes to empower people to choose their best health and fitness lifestyle. We have just finished our first season and have been ordered for another season! You can watch the first season on Youtube. Lately I've been attending a writer's room here in Vancouver which has got new ideas flowing. Currently I am in post production on a documentary about a native youth group who canoe down the Fraser River with the RCMP called Pulling Together. I am also in the development stage on a documentary feature I plan to direct about a young woman who will walk Japan's oldest pilgrimage on foot around the entire island of Shikoku. As well I am developing a TV show about festivals around the world which I plan to produce, the first festival being Vancouver's own Pride Parade.
Abbotsford Landmark Theatre is about the only cheap movie theatre left that charges less than $5 for a movie on Tuesdays. We ended up going to the matinee show of "Hope Springs" starring Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones. It's about a couple who have been married for 31 years and Meryl's character Kay wants to liven up their marriage so she and Tommy Lee Jones head off to Maine to have marriage counseling sessions with Steve Carrell. Meryl and Tommy Lee are very cute together because of their complete lack of sexual awareness and awkwardness, being that of an older generation. 
