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  • Review: Triumph of the Will – A Film by Leni Riefenstahl

    eparrivalIn my Image and Communications class we watched this film which is a propaganda film chronicling the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremeberg (thanks Wikipedia!).  Leni Riefenstahls cinematography was quite forward thinking at the time…moving cameras (dolly), telephoto lenses, aerial photography, music within the film (thanks Wikipedia!).

    The film mainly consists of footage of the arrival of the Nazi party in Nuremberg parading through the streets, waving hello to their fans (and I do mean fans), speeches made to various assemblies of people (the youth, the Labourers, Party members, etc.) and overall documentation of the a day in the life of the Nazi party going through town.

    While I can say that I wasn’t blown away by the cinematography because I’ve seen it all before considering the techniques have been replicated many times over, I was blown away by various other aspects of the film.

    *Note that I don’t know a lot of cold hard facts about the Nazi Party and WWII.  So if I mix up something, go ahead and let me know.*

    The fact that I was watching a piece of history documented before WWII was quite strange.  Here was a film about a political party who was rising to power in Germany and hoped to bring Germany back to grandeur…back to the times before the first World War.  It was a simple black and white film with minutes upon minutes of filming a parade down the street and of people raising their arms in salute of Mr. Hitler and company driving through the streets.  The people seemed happy…it was probably a good time in Germany.

    triumph-will-march2Once in awhile, the National Socialist party would stop in and make a speech.  These were intriguing as they were very similar to speeches I’ve seen over the years…general comments about how the country will be strong again and it’s people will be powerful and they will not bow down to failure.  This could be any politician’s speech when you think about it.  It’s only because we know of what happens afterwards that we may look at it with a little fear.  Heck, I’m sure I heard President Obama talk about how their nation needs to rise up and become powerful again.

    But it’s the little things near the end of the film that become a little haunting.  The final speech says “The Party is Hitler – and Hitler is Germany just as Germany is Hitler!”  Those are some pretty powerful words.  It shows how fanatical his followers were becoming.

    It’s strange to watch a film like this and remember the fanaticism during Trudeaumania, or what is happening now down in the United States of America with President Obama.  Am I trying to say that these politicians are all comparable?  Heavens no!  But the devotion to their political leaders is comparable…at least in the beginning as seen in this snapshot from 1934.

    A sidenote about some of the scenes…there was one part filmed in Nuremberg where there were 160,000 soldiers lined up while Hitler, Himmler and Lutze walk down a path between them all.  This is a very powerful and iconic image.  I immediately thought of the scene in Star Wars where the Emperor walks amongst the storm troopers.  Lo and behold, not one minute after I made this comment did Adolf Hitler refer to his soldiers as Storm Troopers!  That was a surprise to me.

    I must admit that there were a lot of parts of this film which dragged on.  Twenty minutes of a parade is a little mind-numbing.  But overall I was excited to see this piece of film history.  I think the most interesting part of it was seeing Germany in 1934 before all hell started to break loose.  What am I saying?  This was clearly the genesis of hell breaking loose and it’s captured on film.  Haunting.

  • The Crisis of Credit Visualized – Link


    The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

    Mike sent me this great video concerning the credit crisis in the United States.

  • Extreme Tax Taking

    The need for tax money must be at an all time high these days.

    Today I received my retroactive back pay cheque. People were dancing in the streets, Maren is already scoping out her new Macbook, and I am depositing the cheque in the bank.

    Unfortunately the cheque was 55% less than the gross amount! That seems to be a little extreme, don’t you think? I mean…who is in a tax bracket that high?

  • Danny’s Thirtieth Birthday

    I had a good chunk of this entry already written and then somehow I never saved the email. Woops? So I guess I’ll speed through some elements.

    On Friday, Vero and I headed out on a road trip towards Barrie. We unfortunately left a little later than planned and ended up in rush hour in Ottawa. Not good! We then encountered snow storms along the way. Not good! Then we realized that the sun was falling. Not good!

    To make this even worse, we had decided to take HWY 60 as we heard it was a nice drive. Now, if you are planning to drive a highway in the middle of the night during various snowstorms, it’s probably not the best idea to head down some highway you are not familiar with, as well as one that cuts through Algonquin Park which looked like Hoth. I was ready to cut open a wampa if the car broke down but we made it through unscathed.

    We rolled into Barrie around 11PM and had a few beers with Ryan and Emilie. A few beers turned into us retiring for the night around 3AM.

    In the morning, we headed out to the Flashback Diner which claimed to have ‘Barrie’s Best Breakfast’. When I first heard this, I figured the owner must have been ‘Barry’ and it was their best breakfast. It wasn’t until I go into the restaurant when I realized that we were in the town of Barrie!

    Barrie is a nice enough place and it’s a good jumping point whether you want to go into the city (Toronto), or you want to do some outdoor activities (fishing, hunting, cabin). Ryan and Emilie seem to enjoy it and they have a sweet house with a lot of windows which Vero adores. Thanks for putting us up for the night!

    On Saturday night after dinner, we hit the road to Meaford which was supposedly an hour away. Of course, luck would have it and we hit snow squalls along the way so with a wrong turn near Collingwood, the trip ended up being two hours.

    We rolled up to the Kins Hall where the surprise party was being held. Vero and I honestly had a double take as we walked up to the place. There were four lone smokers tucked in a dark corner and beyond them were stacks of picnic tables stacked in a corner. Keep in mind that this area was still outside! Vero and I thought that the party was being held outside when we saw the smokers but we realized quickly that there were stairs in the back to climb up to the actual hall. Even getting the hall was random as the door was a little off axis and I had to haul on it to get it open. We saw Mike when we entered and then all I heard was Danny saying “Palmer?!”. Surprise, indeed!

    Turns out that in a moment of surprise party planning brilliance, Carol managed to convince Danny that there was an engagement party for their friends being held in the hall. So when he showed up, he saw all his friends in the hall and they yelled ‘Surprise!’. He was a little confused and looked behind him wondering who they were yelling at. He then realized that there was no engagement party and the party was for him! It was a grand old time with his family who had come up as well as a few of his old buddies from back home.

    The beers were a-flowing, wine was being spilled everywhere by Samantha and Carol and all in all, it was a good time. I also was introduced to a new beer…Mill Street Stock Ale which was AMAZING. I cannot rave enough about this beer and I’ve only had three so far. I shall be hunting for a case soon enough.

    We headed back to Carol and Danny’s house which was amazing…they had this bar and a fireplace in their living room. I was quite impressed by it all and can’t wait to get back there. It was nice seeing the Losier Clan together. Happy birthday to you Danny!

    The next morning we headed out around 10AM and I ended up at Canadian Tire in Collingwood to change a wiper blade. It wasn’t broken, but it wasn’t leaving Vero with a great view. Unfortunately for me, a pin had broken and I had assumed that it was part of the old wiper blade so I had to go in and buy a pair of pliers to rip it out. This process took me a good half hour and finally I got the other wiper blade on. Unfortunately for me (yet again), it turns out that the pin was part of the wiper arm and the wiper was hanging from a thread! It never flew off but I’ll have to fix it this weekend coming up.

    The drive back was equally unexciting. A few snow squalls here and there and we could never find the German Settlement that Krista had told us about. I would like to recommend that people don’t bother with HWY 60 unless it is the summer and you can appreciate the scenery. Otherwise, it’s probably best to travel on the 400 or HWY 7 during some snowstorms.

    I suppose I’ll get pictures of the event sent to me one day by Carol. I also need to remember to write an entry regarding fighting in the NHL. Turns out there was a faithful reader amongst the group on Saturday night and I said I would write on any subject he wished for. Mike, if I forget about it, let me know.

  • Review: The Culture of Make Believe

    cultureIn my quest to read everyone’s favourite books, I asked my colleague Mark to pass me his and it was a doozy. At 609 large pages with small print, this book took me a couple of months to finish. It was written by Derrick Jensen who seems to be an activist, environmentalist, concerned citizen of the world.

    The subject matter is quite dark, but I guess that’s a given when it looks at the world we live in and what is happening in it. It specifically focuses on examples of hatred within our world and how it in turn, destroys the natural world. It’s pretty heavy stuff and I must admit it was the first time I’ve read a book of this nature.

    That’s not to say that it wasn’t interesting. I found his writing style to be quite entertaining. He would attempt to bring up a point of view from different story angles. If he didn’t get his point across to you in one fashion, then he would attempt it from a different anecdote until he covered enough to make us realize what he was getting at.

    Specific topics ranged from how the African slave trade started, to how corporations killed 8,000 people in Bhopal. It speaks of the questionable justice system in which a man (usually a black man) can end up in jail for breaking into a car, while heads of corporations who destroy eco-systems around us which lead to birth defects, deaths and general nastiness walk away with a proverbial slap on the wrist.

    I found the book to be quite interesting in the first half as he was introducing new concepts and his stories were quite entertaining. The later part of the book dragged on for me…I couldn’t figure out if it was the fact that he was just tying together concepts he had been introducing throughout the book, therefore making me read concepts that I had already linked together…or the fact that it was two months into the book and enough was enough!

    I forgot to mention how the later half of the book specifically targets the rise of the Morgan family within the United States and how the essentially ran the country. It was an interesting analysis in how the politicians do not have a real say in how the country works, but more so the big players of the economy drive the direction in policy changes, etc. I’m sure for some of you reading this, you already knew this and I had some inkling of knowledge but nothing concrete.

    If you are up for the task of reading some pretty dire stuff about the world in which we live in, then I highly recommend reading this book. I found it to be entertaining and when the time is right, I may even pick up another one of Derrick Jensen’s books. In fact, even if you’re not up for reading about the truths of the world we live in, perhaps you owe it to the world to do so and not live in a culture of make believe. Wow, I am clever in using his title of the book in a sentence. Hee hee.  I’m making light of some heavy stuff and that’s not right.

  • I Love Joy of Tech Comics

  • Review: Friday the 13th

    With the new Friday the 13th film out in theaters, Trish, Vero, Aaron and I headed out to Rideau Cinemas after work to check it out.

    If you have never been to Rideau Cinemas, I gotta tell you, it’s a pretty great place to see a film.  I got there with a lot of time to spare so I went to HMV for awhile and found a great book called ‘Tales to Astonish’ for $3.  It is about the story of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and the rise of the Marvel Age within Marvel Comics in the 1960s.  The Marvel Age is when you see all the superheroes (Fantastic Four, Spider-Man) be created.  For $3, you can’t go wrong.

    Question: On an item that is FINAL SALE ONLY, why do they bother giving me a receipt?

    So after a nap and reading a book, Trish and Vero show up for the show and we buy our ticket (Trish even had a 2 for 1 coupon!) and when I asked the woman working there if it would be a problem getting seats in the theater, she had a good chuckle as there were ten people in the theater with us when the show started up!  This is a far cry from the madness which is Silver City where you need to arrive two hours before a new movie on a Tuesday night!  Heck, they didn’t even check my ticket stub.  I’m sure we could have walked in without one.

    So…Friday the 13th…I’ve been reading some reviews and they are pretty bad.  But the thing is, they echo the same sentiments which I don’t agree with.  All the reviews I’ve read speak about how it’s a lame reboot of the series…or is it a sequel?  Or it is a homage to the old films?  Either way, it just doesn’t know where to fit in the grand scheme of the series. Then the reviews go on about how it’s the same mindless hacker film of yesteryear…no-good doing teenagers get hacked by a guy in a hockey mask while running through the woods.  The story is thin, the characters bland.

    Uhh….last time I checked, I didn’t realize Friday the 13th was supposed to be an Oscar worthy film!  Let me set the stage for you my fellow readers…if you enjoy the Friday the 13th films for what they are supposed to be…mindless horror films where there are killers lumbering through the woods after screaming teenagers who may or may not get naked every 12 minutes…heck, you’re in for a treat!

    The film is an amalgamation of the first four Friday the 13th films which in my mind, are the true essence of what the series is supposed to be.  *Spoilers for the first four films right here…skip to the next paragraph or so to continue on***.  In the first film of the series, Mrs. Voorhees goes around killing camp counselors who let her son Jason drown while on their watch because they were having sex.  The second film sees Jason emerge from his watery grave and take out his revenge on a new batch of counselors.  In the third film, he returns again but in this one, finds a hockey mask which becomes his iconic image.  In the fourth one (and probably the best of the series) everything comes together again and he returns on a killing spree and is *supposedly* killed.

    So the new film starts out with a five minute recap of the end of the first film.  Mrs. Voorhees makes an appearance and it sets up the film…”You let Jason drown!”, yada yada yada.  Then the film skips ahead to ‘Crystal Lake – Present Day’ (I always enjoy when they move something to present day but if you watch the film twenty years from now, it may seem dated, especially if they are talking about this newfound technology…the GSP system) and we see a bunch of campers in search for a marijuana field.  Everything is going well and they set in for the night where common horror film camping activities occur (I specify ‘horror film camping activities’ because I swear whatever happens in the films never happen in the real world.  Doh!) but then Jason shows up and hacks them all up and then this leads to the main part of the film where a brother is searching for her missing sister who was part of this camping group.

    But of course Jason lumbers around and starts hunting down this new group of teenagers who (Oh noes!) are on Crystal Lake, Jason’s hunting area of choice.

    The film has great nods to the past in some of the killings…Jason with a machete, Jason with a bow and arrow…we get to see a good dose of 1980s slasher flick nudity and the film is a great addition to the series.  If you get past all the thinking behind “Where is this film supposed to be in the series?” and simply enjoy it for what it’s supposed to be…a half decent slasher flick, then I think you’ll enjoy it.  We all did.  They had some great death sequences and my favourite was the woman who was out wake boarding (for those who will tune into the film later on).

    Was the film revolutionary?  Heck no.  Was it a fun film to watch if you already enjoy the Friday the 13th series?  Heck yes.  It wasn’t as campy as Freddy vs. Jason and I would like to say that it was a decent Friday the 13th film.  I would still recommend watching the first four films of the series to get a good base of the story, but if you only need one, I guess there’s no harm in watching this one.

    On another note, we had this great idea of an amazing marketing tactic for a film like this.  At one point in the film, everyone is wondering where Jason is and then we hear the theater door open up behind and we say “I think that’s him entering the theater!”.  Imagine that as an actual event…somewhere in the middle of the film in a really tense part, an actual Jason comes running into the theater with a machete in hand and pandemonium ensues for ten seconds before he runs out.  That would be KILLER.  Vero and I were thinking of the logistics and we realized it couldn’t happen in every theater but it would be amazing to see it happen in select cities as part of the promotion.  Let’s just ignore the lame thoughts of mass panic, heart attacks, etc. that would happen and let’s think of the grand theatrical masterpiece that it would be.  Vero thought about a variation on this theme where the film would actually be sliced midway through the film and you would see Jason’s shadow in behind the screen (ala Gremlins 2…does anyone remember that happening in the theaters?).  Anyhow, we thought it was a pretty good promotion.

    iplaying: Be There for Me – Thornley (Tiny Pictures)

  • Definition of Awesomeness or Weirdness?


  • Winterlude 2009 – Rideau Canal

    IMG_0029, originally uploaded by palm0014.

    On Saturday morning I woke up and made myself some bacon and eggs while waiting for Mom and Dad to return from Lynn and Sue’s place. I checked the conditions of the Rideau Canal and we had the green light! As of 1PM, the Canal would be open.

    We headed downtown and Mom and Vero strapped on their skates. Mom had not skated in thirty years so I was quite interested in seeing if she still had the chops. I walked up the Canal a bit to find Rick and Troy and I could see Connie was having a bit of trouble getting used to her skates. We went back towards my parents but there were some horrible patches of the ice where it was literally chopped up and people had to walk over it. I had to pick up Tracey’s niece and navigate her over it at one point.

    By the time we made it to my parents (about 100 meters away), Connie had to bail out and shortly after that Troy had to as well. I can sympathize with them…I really can’t skate and I remember when I attempted to skate a few years ago how my feet were sore within five minutes.

    The rest of the afternoon was splendid…the weather was great and the wind didn’t pick up too much until we were in line for a Beavertail at the 1.4km mark. Aunt Dinah and Uncle Richard met up with us and mentioned that the ice was quite bumpy past that point so we decided to stick it out around the area we were in.

    After what may have been an hourlong wait in line for a Beavertail, we walked back towards downtown and Vero and I headed up to Troy and Connie’s room in the Chateau Laurier for some scotch. We then headed down to Darcy McGee’s for a quick drink which turned into another evening out there. Vero and I ordered some bruschetta bread which was decent but by the time everyone ordered some supper, we weren’t hungry at all. However by the time we left the restaurant we figured we would try and find a quick bite to eat and ended up stopping into McDonald’s on the way to pick up my parents.

    We had a good laugh at my parents that night. We had their car and they ended up getting a ride back to Lynn and Sue’s. Mom called and asked if we could pick them up at some point. I looked at my watch and said “How about 10PM?” and she said “Oh! I didn’t realize you would pick us up that early. How about 11PM?” Clearly they were having a great time and Vero and I felt like parents picking up our kids!

    The next morning we went shopping for a pair of skates for Mom which proved unfortunate but then we headed out to the new Princess Auto store off of Hawthorne. I never knew this place had expanded! It was huge and Dad, Lynn and I spent a good two hours there perusing their wares. I really enjoy a visit there as they have great deals.

    Afterwards we went to Lynn and Sue’s place for a quick drink and later in the evening Mom, Dad and I headed down to the Canal to see a light show which showed a history of the Rideau Canal and a bit of Canada’s history. It was quite interesting as they projected it on the Government of Canada Conference Center (the old train station) and they incorporated elements of the building into the show. For example, there are four pedestals and at one point in the show they had silhouettes of people dancing on top of the pedestals! After the fifteen minute show, we walked up to Parliament and then down to the Chateau Laurier to look at the historical photos and then Mom and Dad dropped me off at my second home which is Vero’s place.

    It was great to have a bunch of people up for Winterlude this year and I’m sure they all left impressed!

  • Winterlude 2009 – The Works and Darcy McGee’s

    P1060860, originally uploaded by palm0014.

    This year Winterlude was quite the extra special treat as a good chunk of the Palmer Clan ended up in Ottawa for it.

    On Thursday night, Mom and Dad rolled into town which gave me reason to take Friday off to spend with them. After a few beer, I convinced everyone to walk over to The Works, a great gourmet burger joint right in behind our place. Mom found it quite pricey ($13 for a burger!) which I must admit it is, but it was a stellar burger nonetheless. I had the Jamaican Jerk which did not disappoint.

    We walked home in the winter wonderland which Ottawa had become after a deep thaw which gave us patches of grass all over the place and ice on the roads. Poor Mom slipped at one point but we managed to save her from the wolves.

    On Friday the day was bright but there was a wicked wind when we headed out through Orleans to do some shopping. The first stop was to find a good, cheap breakfast joint around 10AM. Unfortunately the Tartan Pub and Grill was closed so we headed to Tim Horton’s at the Wal-Mart. They didn’t have any eggs for the B.E.L.T.! We then headed back down to the other Tim Horton’s which was the pay-off but it was quite the messy place to eat in.

    Afterward we headed to Home Depot where we learned a little about what styles of toilets to purchase. We were on the hunt for some toilets and sinks to put into the cottage down in Gaspe. After Home Depot, we headed down to BMR which is the same type of store they have down in Gaspe. We were amazed to find a pedestal sink for $40+ instead of the $100+ we were finding at Home Depot! I couldn’t get over the price of the pedestal alone being $13! Can you even make those things for less than $13? BMR has now become a spot in the back of my head if I need anything for the house.

    We then headed out to Le Baron where Mom bought a hat and I spied this ENORMOUS frying pan. I’ve never seen a frying pan that large before. Dad said you could probably fry a dozen eggs as well as a dozen burgers at the same time!

    A quick stop over to IKEA was what the doctor ordered. I treated the parents to some great hot dogs. Yes, I am a pretty nice guy. Those are some expensive hot dogs at IKEA.

    Along the way, we stopped by the restaurant within IKEA and Dad was astounded at the prices within. $2 for a pasta dish! 50 cents for a hot dog! $1 for a breakfast! We started walking away but he couldn’t hold himself back and laid down $2 for a pasta dish. Really, it’s no worse than what I would have prepared for lunch myself. Some pasta in a plate with some sauce poured over it. It’s not a bad meal at all! I’m going to try out their breakfast one day.

    After IKEA we headed home where Mom and Dad got ready to head over to Lynn and Sue’s place. I went out to Sobey’s to pick up some stir fry ingredients (and some great bruschetta bread!) and Mike, Vero and I dined while watching How I Met Your Mother.

    We headed out around 9:30 towards Darcy McGee’s where everyone was meeting up. We headed downstairs and I spied Rob, Matt, Karilee and a bunch of others hanging out downstairs. I chatted with them for a bit but realized I should try and find my cousin’s table to see if they could come downstairs. I found them upstairs and many handshakes, hugs and beer were passed around. There was no way we would move their table of 15 people downstairs for I spent the majority of the night upstairs but headed down once in awhile to chat it up.

    For historical purposes of this entry (as my grandchildren will want to know), the price of a pint of Guinness was $7.75.

    It was a good night at Darcy McGee’s. I was glad to see Troy and Connie finally make it up to the fabled event. It’s fabled in our mind…in the end, here’s what Winterlude usually amounts to:
    Friday: Go to Darcy McGee’s and close out the place.
    Saturday: Nurse the head, go to the Canal, get a Beavertail, go back to a pub for rest of the night.
    Sunday: Leave.

    There’s nothing much to it! Friday night, we did in fact close down the joint. However, there were some laughs along the way.

    When I arrived there I had to hold my tongue with one of the waitresses. I spied two empty chairs at a ‘reserved’ table. Let’s keep in mind here that we are in a pub here, not a restaurant in Paris. I nabbed two of them for my lady and myself with the notion of returning them if the ‘reserved’ party should show up. The waitress came up to me and said “Do you understand the meaning of the word ‘reserved’?” I had to hold my tongue and say I was sorry and would return the chairs. I swear five minutes later a group of people who had been standing around for awhile nabbed the tables for themselves! Oh well.

    Around midnight, the date changed to February 14, so I hauled out a photo of Vero and I and proclaimed my love for this woman. I also showed it to a few people around the pub and let the guys know that she was off-limits. I thought this was pretty funny.

    We ended up bringing back Rob, his uncle-in-law Serge, and Rob’s cousin Cheryl back in the Tempo. Vero swore that the car wouldn’t even make it up Trim Road as she had the pedal to the metal and it wasn’t moving too fast!

    We said good night to the crew staying at Chateau Laurier and headed home ourselves a few moments afterward.

    iplaying: Change – Thornley (Tiny Pictures)