The nominations have been announced for the 2011 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees.  I can't help looking at the list of members and nominations and seeing some glaring omissions.  Here are some people who I strongly feel deserve to be on the list.  I'm sure that you can think of some of your own.

Joe Jackson

Grandmaster Flash

Bad Religion

Paul Wellar

Squeeze

The Smiths

Steely Dan

Deep Purple

Moody Blues

Bruce Cockburn

Television

...JUST TO NAME A FEW  Several on this list are long overdue, such as Joe Jackson and Paul Wellar.  Both have contributed over 30 years of innovative song writing and recording.  Certainly a lot more than Donna Summer or LL Cool J.

     That being said, I have to give a thumbs down to last night's Nuit Blanche art extravaganza in downtown Toronto.  For those not familiar with it, this is an evening where major Toronto streets are closed (Yonge, Bloor, Queen, Bay) from dusk to dawn for the installation of major art exhibits and projects.  it is all billed as being very contemporary and interactive.

     I want to commend the endeavour on its scale and organization.  Having an evening of partying in the main streets of Toronto is very ambitious.  As such, it was a great success.  If anything, it seemed that the Frosh starved university students from U of T and Ryerson got their chance to cut loose in a big way.  Frosh activities on campuses in Ontario have been curtailed this year, with many of the more extreme events being sidelined.  I suppose that explained the thousands of drunk, loud and often vulgar people partying in the area of Yonge and Dundas, though I'm not sure that was the intended goal.  I have to say that I've never heard so much loud public profanity in the street, on subway cars and buses...  It seems that civil public behaviour is about as dead as dead can be.  But I suppose that may be a topic for another entry...

     Ya, so where was the art??  I was fully armed with maps and even the i-phone app (which was annoyingly unhelpful). 

     I started my evening around midnight at Nathan Philips square for the presentation by Daniel Lanois.  This initial experience, was, unfortunately, the highlight of my evening.  It was a 12 hour concert by Lanois accompanying film clips that were projected all over the square onto giant screens. 

     As I said, unfortunately it was downhill from there.  I must have hit at least a dozen exhibits.  Several were videos projected onto screens which were noteworthy in neither content nor quality.  I think other things were supposed to be happening around them, but I didn't see anything and it would have had to be pretty spectacular to make up for the lacklustre videos.  I spent 20 minutes in Ryerson Theatre watching what I think was a chess game being played on stage, waiting for the other multi-media extensions that were supposed to accompany this exhibit.  Nothing.  Eventually I left along with a lot of other confused people.  The huge campfire in the middle of Dundas Square was ... a huge bonfire in the middle of Dundas Square.  I suppose that it was a little odd to see this fire surrounded by people dressed as if they are in the backwoods, sitting in camp chairs, but are urban people really so unfamiliar with this that it counts as art??

     (CONTINUED BELOW DUE TO LACK OF SPACE.  ...STUPID BLOG PROGRAM...)

     “127 Hours” is not at all what you would expect from Danny Boyle as a follow up to “Slum Dog Millionaire”. 

     The movie retells the story of Aron Ralsten, the rock climber who was forced to amputate his own arm when it became pinned under a rock while climbing in a slot canyon outside of Moab, Utah.  The movie begins with some breathtaking action shots of biking and hiking through the spectacular Moab landscape.  I’ve spent a lot of time in this area and the cinematography does the area justice.  The main part of the movie documents the 127 hours that Ralsten spends trapped in a slot canyon with no hope of being found or rescued.  You would think that would make for a dull story, but with the addition of several flashbacks and careful editing, your attention is maintained.  I think the slow pace of the film in the middle contributes to your identification with the character and his plight, making the conclusion all the more moving.  Apparently, several people fainted at the premiere screening. 

     In the Q&A following the film, Boyle said that, with the exception of a few scenes such as the swimming hole scene near the beginning of the film, his depiction is pretty true to the actual events in all ways that are important.  Even that scene was included because it highlighted the contrast between the abundance and scarcity of water.  Both he and actor, James Franco spent a lot of time interviewing Ralsten in order to capture the authenticity of the story. 
   
     While it is definitely not a happy movie, the drama and the desperation of the film make it a serious emotional experience.  You end up wondering whether you could have done the same thing.

This movie gets a B+.

     “Submarine” was one of the best, most entertaining films I saw at TIFF.  It is a dark, coming of age comedy about an eccentric, 15 year old boy growing up in a small town in Wales.  Throughout the film I kept feeling that this is what “Youth In Revolt” should have been (instead of the pathetic massacre starring Michael Cera – who oddly got a credit at the end of this film).  It’s not as crazy as Youth In Revolt, but has that quirky humour and irreverence combined with the naivety of the too-intellectual teenager trying to make sense of a relationship. 

     The director, Richard Ayoade, demonstrated his own quirky sense of humour in the Q&A, where he answered such questions as, “Why did you shoot the movie in Wales?” with responses like “Because we wanted it to look Welsh!”  I’m not familiar with him, but apparently he is a comedy actor in his own right, and could get a job as a stand up comedian if he tires of making movies. 

     I really hope that this movie hits the mainstream screens.  It is well worth seeing.  The only criticism of the film is that the Welsh accents make some of the dialogue challenging to comprehend. 

This film gets an A-. 

     One of the films I most looked forward to at TIFF was the remake of the Norwegian “Let The Right One In”.  In the age of “Twilight”, this horror film about a bullied young boy who meets a young girl, who is more than a girl, was hailed as one of the best horror films of the decade.  Rolling Stone magazine declared that it was the best movie of 2008.  It’s kind of the anti-Twilight. 

     So when the American remake is made, naturally people are worried that the original masterpiece might be trivialized or butchered.  Have no fear.  “Let Me In” retains all the best qualities of the original and maybe even tweaks a few improvements. 

     “Let Me In”, directed by Matt Reeves, follows the original movie almost scene for scene, maintaining the dark, winter ambiance and capitalizing on the innocence of the characters.  Acting by Chloe Moretz and Kodi Smit-McPhee are heart-wrenchingly sincere, and Dylan Minnette truly makes you want to see the bully get his “due” at the end.  Slightly improved editing and a beefed up sound track help to intensify the at times almost too slow pace of the original movie.  Of course it is sanitized in the American way with more blood and less nudity, but aside from that it is only fair to say that it has retained all of the best points of the original.

This film gets an A-.

    I'll be spending the next few weeks frequenting downtown Toronto as I attend screenings for the Toronto International Film Festival.  No doubt the films will inspire some reviews and some other thoughts, so you'll have to forgive me if my writing revolves around film topics for the next little while.  Hopefully I'll make them interesting, interspersing some clever thoughts amoung the reviews.  After all, many of the films I'll be seeing will never be shown on main stream movie screens. 
    Over the past few weeks I've already had to make a few trips downtown to take care of registering and aquiring tickets.  Several weekday trips ended up with my becoming very frustrated with the traffic and parking situation downtown.  I don't know how anyone can do it.  I was going down mid day to avoid rush hour traffic, but everything was still jammed and the main routes were parking lots.  I have a friend who lives on King Street, near High Park, who tells me that it's not unheard of to have traffic jams outside his home at midnight. 
    And so I quickly concluded that, if I was going to be heading downtown for the next few weeks, I'd better come up with a "better idea".  I found that I could catch a GO bus in Stouffville (a small town just a 15 minute drive away from my home) where there was free parking.  The fare is about $15 round trip plus I don't have to drive and pay for gas. 
    Now, the last time I've had any frequent exposure to downtown was when I went to U of T.  Since then, I've never lived or worked south of Steeles (which is the city limits).  Suffice it to say that for 30 years or so, I've considered waiting more than 15 seconds to exit my driveway or make a turn to be outrageous traffic.  For the past 14 years, my trip to work each morning passed only one place of business, and that was a guy selling honey off his porch.  So I figured I'd better do a dry run last week using the GO bus to get into the city. 
    I have to say I loved it.  The trip down was about one hour, which is much less than I'd face if driving.  Being able to read a book or close my eyes and quietly listen to music was a dream.  Since I wasn't travelling in the peak hours, the bus wasn't crowded, in fact both down and back I had a double seat to myself. 
    Once down in the city I felt a strange kind of freedom.  I was able to go about my day with no time constraints at all, never worrying about a parking meter.  I chose to walk to my destinations.  Even though it was raining, I had an adventure of navigating through the core's underground walkways and concourses with the help of a handy little i-phone app that provided a map.  This underground maze is facinating, including 24 km of tunnels spanning from Union Station west to Roy Thompson Hall and north to Dundas.  If you lived in the area, you could probaly avoid ever going above ground.  -Not appealing, just interesting.  ...Well, maybe a little appealing in the winter. 
    Food wise, two meals barely cost me $10, between Tim Hortons and The Big Slice (which offers a humungeous slice of pizza and a drink for $5).  I'm sure there are other student oriented bargains around if you know where to look for them.
    I may never drive downtown again.  I'm not sure why anybody does.  Granted, I did a lot of walking (which is only healthy) to avoid taking the TTC, which is $3 a pop; considering that you pay that amount as a minimum for meter parking, even having to take a few TTC rides would still be OK.  I probably sound like a rapid transit commercial, but I have to say that I was genuinely surprised and have become a real fan. 

    To limber up for the TIFF, I caught a film downtown, which was so connected to movie stars that it's a crime that it wasn't entered in the Festival.  The movie. "Teenage Paparazzo", examined the life of paparazzi photographers who regularly plague the life of celebrities.  It contains interviews of both stars and photographers to examine the issue from multiple sides.
    The move centers around an encouter between Adrian Grenier (star of Entourage) and a 13 year old paparazzo.  He decides to get to know the boy in order to learn more about this life style and what motivates him/them.  He ends up turning the cameras on the paparazzi, and soon begins to question the whole idea of celebrity and what it means.  (Ironically, Grenier plays a movie celebrity in his TV show as well.)  Towards the end of the movie, it develops various serious themes and ideas, including society's need for celebrity, and Grenier questioning his own complacency.  The fragile personality of the young teenager adds an added layer and perspective, as we see the boy consumed by the life he's chosen. 
    I found it to be an interesting, entertaining and thought provoking documentary.  I actually thought it was pretty bold in it's view of the Hollywood mentality and glitter.  While I certainly don't have any interest in movie star tabloids, this movie transcended the ordinary to shed light on some really interesting issues and ideas.  See it if you have a chance. 
    On a side note, this movie was showing at the AMC at Dundas and Yonge.  It is great to see that the Carlton has reopenned.  Toronto needs theatres which are smaller venues in order to screen the less known movies that are never going to be the blockbuster.  Unusual movies are often some of the best ones out there.  They need a home, too.  North of Steels, there's nothing showing these foreign, art or documentary movies.  The Elgin, in Richmond Hill, used to reserve one screen for this type of move, but discontinued that years ago.  Hence, I often have to make treks into the city to catch these excellent films at the Carlton, Cumberland, Bloor, or now (it seems) the AMC 30. 

   Recently a discussion wandered into the area of disturbing films.  I consider myself a bit of an expert on the subject.  I guess I'm always looking for films that confirm my suspicions about the darker side of human nature.  (Ironic, considering what follows.)  There's a page listing my finds for "Most Disturbing Films" on my web site, -but it may be unreachable right now as the site's reconstruction is stalled due to the lack of a decent Web design program.  It will be available in the near future.
    A movie came up in our conversation that I'd never heard of.  The title was, "The Girl Next Door" and after recently watching it, this becomes the first new film to be added to the list in several years.  
     It is based on a true story and a bestselling novel by Jack Ketchum, telling the story of a foster child abused by a step mother and her four sons.  I have to say that the character of the step mother is the most repulsive character that I've ever seen in a movie.  You want to crawl onto the screen and strangle her.  Slowly.  The way the story is presented, the viewer feels complicit in the crime.  It makes you feel guilty and dirty and squirm in your seat, which, to my mind, is the hallmark of a disturbing movie.  
    So why watch something like this?  Why voluntarily subject yourself to a movie that has you clenching your fists by the end?  As I said, these movies are interesting studies in human nature and I found this one particulary interesting because of its treatment of the "shadow".  
    The shadow within our minds and personalities is created by the unresolved, unaccepted conflicts, insecurities and fears we've collected throughout our lives.  If not confronted, this shadow is often projected onto other people in the forms of prejudices, bullying and blaming others.  One of the things I learned in my psychology classes is that the things we find strongly annoying in others are often the things that we've hidden inside our own psyche.  "Shadow Work" is part of many self-help and self-actualization programs and is considered essential in personal development.  
    "The Girl Next Door" is an excellent demonstration of this as you can trace all of the bad things that are happening back to the neurotic nature of the mother and how she transfers all of her suppressed feelings onto her victim and her boys.  There is no doubt that this is an extreme case, but as such it is transparent and easy to understand.  
    I see the same things, though certainly to a much smaller and saner degree, in many of the social interactions I witness.  Often, in a group of children (or adults) one individual gets singled out as a scape goat and is the brunt of bullying and abuse.  That individual becomes the receptical for the manifestation of the collective shadows.
    This theme, examining how low human nature will plunge in unusual and adverse conditions, seems to be making a revival right now, especially in the post apocalyptic genre.  Witness "The Road" and "The Book of Eli" along with countless novels, -including many written for young adults.  But this theme has always been there, whether it be in "The Plague" by Camus or "Lord of the Flies" by Golding.  We're good at exposing the dark side of human nature, but seldom do you see a movie or a book which illuminates that darkness in the form of some kind of resolution.  (An exception would be "Star Wars").  -Maybe there's a book idea for me there.  
    Anyway, if you're in the mood for something repulsive one night, check out "The Girl Next Door (Jack Ketcham 2007)".
  

I was recently dragged to see "Grown Ups" the movie with a bunch of adolescents.  I found the movie to centre around a bunch of friends who were constantly bickering with each other, hurling insults and what the kids call "burns".  It was a thoroughly unpleasant film, but one which made me look around at my company and conclude that for many of them this was their life.  In my class over particularly the last year, in my youth group and in the smaller groups I had been working with at summer camp, I had to come to the inescapable conclusion that many (though not all) took great joy in endless insults, hurts and just generally being nasty to each other.  It is an epidemic. 

A friend at camp added that many of the current TV sitcoms, such as "Two and a Half Men", have exactly the same tone to them.  I don't watch sitcoms, so I have to take his word for it.  If however that is the case, it begins to explain a lot.  I've always said that the biggest influence from TV on young people is not the violence or sex.  It is the behaviour that they view on these sitcoms, many of which have main characters and stars close to their own age.  They are ordinary people in ordinary situations, and so they become powerful role models displaying "ordinary" behaviour.  Children come to view these behavioural offerings much more credibly than they do the violent or graphic scenes.  I think most children can filter out and recognise the irrelevance to their own lives of serial killers and such.  But the sitcom sneaks up on them and hooks into their sense of normalcy. 

Let them watch "Criminal Minds" or "Dexter", but keep them away from "Two and a Half Men"!