Ketchup Chips

I want to talk about ketchup chips for a moment. In the food world Ketchup chips are quiet anomalous as they are two degrees of simulation. Ketchup is a simulated tomato sauce product and ketchup chips are simulated ketchup flavor. I've always believed that if we moved to three degrees of simulation the world would instantly implode. So if there's any food scientists out there working on a product that is simulated ketchup potato chip flavor please stop now and save us all.

The strangest thing about it is to imagine how far away the potato chip ketchup seasoning is from a tomato growing in a field (or on a vine??? I don't know how the hell it grows (which kinda proves my point about how disconnected we are from our food)). Its not even close. Ketchup doesn't taste anything like a tomato and ketchup chips barely taste like ketchup.

Why all this talk about ketchup chips? Well I recently started eating them again after spending 8 years avoiding them. Why avoid them? You may ask (despite the fairly obviousl reason I mentioned earlier)

let me tell the tale:
The year was 1998 and I worked a job that ended at 11pm, naturally I would stay up all night and sleep all day. One average day at about 2am I was hungry so I went to the 24hr supermarket to buy food. I bought 1 bag of ketchup chips, 1 bottle of cherry coke and most important 1 sub sandwich from the deli counter fridge that had been reduced to clear because it had reached its expiry date. When I say it reached its expiry date I don't mean that at the stroke of midnight (2 hours earlier) it had expired I mean that it had past its prime the day earlier at probably 8am, which is also most likely when it was slapped with the reduced to clear sticker. I figured what the fuck I save $1 (I was 20 at the time and a lot more hapless, nowadays I'm pretty fucking neurotic about food probably due in large part to experiences like this one). Anyway I went home to eat my food. The sub had reached the point where the bread was really soggy from the moisture of the lettuce and tomato and mayo and all the flavors of the thing had sort of melded into one another so each individual item of the sandwich tasted exactly the same and generally had the exact same texture. Seriously, I probably would have failed a blind taste test trying to guess what was a tomato, an onion or a slice of ham. But I ate it anyway along with the ketchup chips and cherry coke. It didn't take too long before I realized that it wasn't sitting well and so it all came back out. Now if you think that those food items seem like a disgusting combination to eat just imagine what they're like on the return voyage.

Why quit eating ketchup chips for so long because of this? I believe that we have some inherent instinct in us to avoid foods that make us sick. I often think about the thousands of years of trial and error that we (as a race) must have gone through discovering what could and couldn't be eaten. Fuck we even know down to which herbs and spices are edible so obviously there was a hell of a lot of experimentation going on. Even if you don't believe in evolution I don't think you can deny this. Its not as if God held a banquet and laid out all the plants on earth and said "these one's are edible and these ones are poisonous". Well in Genesis he first says "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;" (minus the knowledge one of course) but then when we (mankind) get banished from Eden he says "cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field." Maybe by the thorns and thistles he was saying that some of the shit out there will make you sick. Who knows. Anyway we obviously developed defenses over time to protect ourselves from the things we ingested. When we smell something that is rancid or rotten we instinctively know that it is bad its not as though we have been taught that. I don't remember the class in school when they taught us that a rose is a good scent and rotting meat is bad.

So that's the deal and now I'm sitting here eating ketchup chips with a glass of coke (not cherry coke, I wont touch that shit).

Severance - Toronto International Film Festival

Severance has been described as "the office" meets "Deliverance", a comedy/horror/thriller where a group of British office workers go on a weekend retreat in the mountains of eastern Europe for a team building workshop only to be hunted by a bunch of psychotic ex-militants.

This film mixes the comedy and horror pefectly (unlike black sheep which I saw earlier). Both elements are balanced nicely without one over shadowing the other. The film also purposely goes in the opposite direction of every horror cliche without blatantly speaking about it (like in Scream). Good movie.

The Fountain - Toronto International Film Festival

The Fountain is the much anticipated third movie for director Darren Aronofsky (who did Pi and Requiem for a Dream). From the Imdb plot summary: Spanning over one thousand years, and three parallel stories, The Fountain is a story of love, death, spirituality, and the fragility of our existence in this world. This is actually a really hard film to explain, I think you have to see it to really understand what it's all about.

As with all of Aronofsky's films this one really makes you think about life and the larger issues facing us. I always said that Requiem for a Dream was a great movie but that I would never watch it again because it was so intense that afterwards I was in a very strange mental state.

Although one of this films main themes is death it is dealt with in a very positive manner. The visual effects are amazing and Hugh Jackman's performance is stellar. Check it out.

American Hardcore - Toronto International Film Festival

American Hardcore is a documentary about the Hardcore Punk Scene in the USA (and Canada when they refer to D.O.A.) from 1980 - 1986. The film feature interviews with most of the key players and features rare live footage (but not really a lot).

There are a few interesting interview moments and some decent Bad Brains footage but as a film this movie was very poorly put together (which is surprising because the director said they had been working on it for 5 years). It almost felt like they just took a bunch of clips and just randomly threw them together. Someone else described it well when they said that the order of the clips could have run completely in reverse and it wouldnt have made a difference. For a film about a genre of music that is generally fast, tight, very structured with a definative political message, this film seems to lack any sort of cohesive stucture or point (it was hard to see what they were trying to say with it). This could have been done much better especially seeing as the film makers said they had hundreds of hours of interview material. Die hard fans only.

Trapped Ashes - Toronto International Film Festival

The basic story to Trapped Ashes is Seven strangers on a Hollywood movie studio tour are trapped inside an infamous House of Horror and forced to tell their most terrifying stories to get out alive. So in a Tales from the crypt style 4 different stories are told. Each of the stories and the wrap around story are done by a different director: Sean S. Cunningham, John Gaeta, Monte Hellman, Ken Russell and Joe Dante each has a fairly large resume in the horror genre.

The problem is that the whole thing was pretty weak. None of the stories were very engaging. For a horror film that was supposed to have humorous moments it was neither scary nor funny (not even in an ironic sense). The effects were so poorly done (it looked like a cheap episode of the outer limits). I don't even think big fans of the directors will be a fan of this one.

This is England - Toronto International Film Festival

Set in 1983 against a backdrop of Thatcher era Britain This is England Focus' on 11 year old Shaun who is trying to deal with the loss of his father (who died in the Faulklands war) as well as being bullied at school. Before long he falls in with an older gang of boys and girls who act as a kind of surrogate family and protect him from being picked on and although many of them are skinheads they are non-racist and basically harmless. Everything is fine until the former leader of the gang Combo returns from jail. Combo is aggressive and with racist tendencies with ties to the National Front. He soon breaks the group apart taking some of the members along (including Shaun) promising a better country with his radical political agenda.

Director Shane Meadows does a brilliant job of illustrating the atmosphere and social status of this slice of England in 1983. The characters are well defined and even Combo who could have easily been portrayed as a monster is shown to have many layers beneath his anger and emotional problems. First time actor Thomas Turgoose proves himself as a true natural in the role of Shaun (who in fact is based largely on director Meadows.) The film also touches on the history of skinheads instead of painting them all with a stereotypically negative brush. The soundtrack is great and the shots and locations are perfect. Worth checking out.

The Abandoned - Toronto International Film Festival

Again a world premiere from yet another first time feature film director Nacho Cerda.

from the official website:

An American film producer named Marie returns to her homeland, Russia, where her Mother’s dead body has been found under bizarre circumstances. She never knew her, having been adopted and brought to America as a baby. The only clue to what might have happened is an isolated, abandoned farm in the mountains that supposedly belonged to her natural parents.

Being the only next of kin, she inherits the place, but no one will take her there as local superstitions state that the area is... DAMNED. Only one man will embark on such a dangerous and long journey... A stranger that oddly seems to know quite a bit about her history... But once arrived, the guide mysteriously disappears, forcing Marie to explore the derelict location alone.

She discovers someone else on the property... A man named Nikolai, who claims to have been lured there exactly in the same manner, so he could discover the truth behind his unknown past as well.

They become stranded in the immense compound, plagued by terrifying, ghostly visions… The problem is that the ghosts that wander around are THEIR OWN. Dead versions of themselves marauder between the buildings in the night…

Time begins to move in reverse as history re-lives itself in front of their very eyes. While both their ghosts, illustrating exactly how they will die, patiently await their living counterparts to expire. A cycle of horror comes to fruition, as they are revealed the reason they have been summoned for this perverse reunion… And the brutal secret behind their family.

I'm not really up to date with modern horror movies, but this movie was pretty damn freaky. The sound effects, soundtrack and audio atmospheres were very well made to create an exteremely distrubing film experience (it was probably enhanced by the fact that the sound at this particular showing was really really loud... and I'm sure they did this on purpose to enhance the effect). Considering this is Cerda's first feature it was well done.

STRIKE - Toronto International Film Festival

German Director Volker Schlondorff tells the story of a shipyard worker Agnieszka Kowalska (based on Anna Walentynowicz) and her actions that help move Poland toward Democracy.

Although the info/story was somewhat interesting the film wasn't great.

Black Sheep - Toronto International Film Festival

I attended the world premiere of New Zealand director Jonathan Kings feature film debut "Black Sheep". The basic story is that an experiment in genetic engineering turns harmless sheep into blood-thirsty killers that terrorize a rural town in New Zealand. The film is a mix of comedy, horror and gore that pays tribute to many films in the same vein of the past. Weta workshop (of Lord of the Rings fame) worked on the animatronic puppets and the special make up effects.

All in all the film was average, although it was great to see a movie made with no CGI and actual puppets etc ( I much prefer this method as I despise CGI) it still fell flat in many areas.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Toronto International Film Festival

When my brothers and I got tickets to the 31st annual Toronto International Film Festival one film was at the top of all our lists. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. The problem was that the movie was at the top of a lot of peoples lists. Even though we had advance tickets and had our choice of films before the general public it was still sold out almost immediately.

It seemed like there was no chance that we would see this movie until it came out in wide release (Which is Nov. 3rd so its not that bad)
Huge cash was being paid for any tickets people were willing to part with (one American fellow paid $400) .

(The following is information I have gathered from other festival goers)
The night of the screening (Thursday 11:59) Borat showed up to the red carpet on a wagon pulled by four peasant women with his horse beside him giving air "high fives" to the crowd (see pic above). He then proceeded to give interviews to the press. Also speaking to the press was Michael Moore who was there to see the movie. Eventually everyone proceeded into the theatre.

At the festival they have what's called a "rush line" this is a line that you can stand in to get the tickets of anyone that didn't show up, so after they let in all the ticket holders they go around and count how many extra seats are left and then let that many from the rush line in. Even though the 1,260 seater was completely sold out the rush line had hundreds of people in it and the one's at the front had been waiting for about 8 hours. At final count they let 4 people from the rush line in.

After all that anticipation the film started and the projector broke down after about 10 minutes. They scrambled around trying to fix it (even Michael Moore who used to be a projectionist took a crack at trying to get it going). Borat, director Larry Charles and even Moore stood on stage and answered questions from the audience. As time went on it became clear that they were not going to get the projector fixed . The screening was moved to Friday night at the Elgin Theatre. Bad news for some, but great news for us. The Elgin is a bigger theatre so more tickets were available and we got tickets to the show.

The basic story of the film is that the Kazakhi government has sent Borat to the US (specifically New York City) to learn from American culture to better Kazakhstan, but when Borat sees Pamela Anderson's character C.J. on a re-run of Baywatch he falls in love and decides he must travel to California so he can marry her. Really though the story isn't important, its just an excuse for Borat to travel the country and interview unsuspecting people in his trademark style. I think the brilliance of the character is that you never question the character of Borat. Sacha Baron Cohen has the character so well refined that it doesn't seem like you're watching him play Borat, its just Borat. The film is easily one of the funniest and most offensive I've seen in years, well only offensive if you take any of it seriously. Cohen also has a great ability of making people expose their most ridiculous prejudices candidly on film with no remorse. In fact he describes the film as a "dramatic demonstration of how racism feeds on dumb conformity, as much as rabid bigotry." Happy Time!

* During the Q an A on opening night some asked Moore if he had seen "Team America"? He said "not yet, but I hear I get blown up"

** Michael Moore was also at the re-screening on Friday night as well as Dustin Hoffman

The Devil and Daniel Johnston

I first heard Daniel Johnston in 1995 when 2 of his songs ("Casper" and "Casper the Friendly Ghost") appeared on the "Kids" Soundtrack. I bought that soundtrack as soon as it came out because at the time I was a really big Sebadoh/Sentridoh/Folk Implosion/Lou Barlow fan (I was a 17 year old stoner at the time... what else would you expect). Anyway when I heard that the soundtrack was coming out that had 9 Lou Barlow project songs on it I had to have it, and of course I listened to it tons of times. At the time I partially wrote off Johnston as a novelty act "Casper the friendly ghost" was recorded in an extremely lo-fi fashion with what sounds like a toy organ and Johnston's unique voice. It wasn't that I disliked the song I guess I just had a hard time taking it completely seriously (remember I was 17 at the time). The funny thing is that as time went on I noticed that I often had "Casper the friendly ghost" pop into my head. Years after the fact I can barely remember any of the Lou Barlow songs on that soundtrack yet I would catch myself with lines from "Casper the friendly ghost" like "He was smiling through his own personal hell, dropped his last dime in a wishing well..." running through my mind. So I thought that if this song could have stuck with me for this long, there must be something to this Daniel Johnston character, I should get some of his records and find out what his story is. When I finally got some full recordings, I understood the genius that was Daniel Johnston.

Anyone that knows anything about Johnston knows that he has battled mental illness for some time and there are stories that seem almost too bizarre to be true surrounding his life and career. When I heard that they were making a documentary about him I couldn't wait to see it. Well....... I finally saw it and I have to say it doesn't disappoint. The story is tragic in many ways but beautiful in many ways too. I really don't want to say too much about the film but I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan or a fan of a good documentary. Watch the trailer if you need more convincing.