TIFFlz
So for my first week I’ve mostly just been hanging out, coding a bit and relaxing.
When I did go out this week, it was to TIFF. Apparently this is some kind of big deal in filmland, and a cultural event for Canadians. Brad Pitt was here, and I imagine many other stars that I don’t really care about.
The first movie we saw was the world premiere (I think) of The Dungeon Masters. It’s a documentary about gamers, and not like, Counterstrike gamers. There was a lot of larping, storytelling, dudes with no jobs sitting around playing D&D writing fiction books. It was actually pretty funny sometimes, and not just because the people were so lame. Beyond that, it was also interesting to see how people completely consumed by something like this go about their lives and how their loved ones react to it . I wrote enough to wrap around the image.
The second movie we saw was the North American premiere of The Good, the bad, the Weird. Apparently this is the biggest budget, highest grossing, omfg best ever movie in South Korea. Starring people like Jung Woo-sung (?) and Lee Byung-hun (??), how could you go wrong? But seriously, people were going crazy over the guys, there were hordes of fans not seeing the movie that were just lined up outside to see these fools. So I guess they’re pretty popular. JIN TELL US.
The movie itself was well done and all, an action / comedy / western that was probably about an hour too long (130 minutes running time). It was fairly stylish, but had a kind of simple story and lots of semi-repetitive action sequences. It’s still a decent movie, but I wasn’t all “I have to go download that right now.” Also the subtitles barely had a drop shadow, and when you’re shooting in the desert, it makes for a lot of bright scenes. So I basically missed about half of what was being said.
Ok now about crap you care about. Before the last movie, we went to this Korean BBQ. For $12, you get unlimited rice, steak, pork, chicken, beef, ribs, salmon, squid, and I think it was flounder. Also included is some weird Korean vegetables. So all of this comes to you raw, and there’s a little flaming grill thingy in the middle of the table. You get tongs, and just go at it. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten that much meat in my life, and whoever comes to Toronto to visit gets that.
I still smell like meat and I love it
Apartment
So there’s new pictures up on Flickr of my new place. It’s a fairly spacious apartment with a big living room, kitchen and a decently sized master bedroom. The actual building is a house, split up so three people can live in it. My front door is the back sliding window, and the back yard is mine. There’s this old guy that lives in the basement, he has a tomato garden he works on back there, which I guess is fine.
So far I’ve just been hanging out, seen a few movies which I’ll go into after Friday. The Toronto International Film Festival is happening, and the first movie I saw at it was actually really good. I’ve also been looking around for a YMCA to join, and have been working on some web design.
This desk is falling apart. I need to fix it now.
Quick update
I’ll have more to update later, but just wanted to post and say I’m here and alive and surrounded by Canadians. My apartment is pretty sweet, very spacious. There is an old guy with a bird and a tomato garden and a broken minivan. That’s it for now.
