Biz-nass Trippin

Greetings!!!
Well I’m back from my first real business trip and it was an experience and a half. For the past week I have been in Toronto for the ATLA (American Trial Lawyers Association) Conference. Great speakers, free drinks, socializing, free drinks, informational seminars, drinks…. Did I mention that lawyers drink a lot? In all honesty, there really were some truly great speakers so totally motivated me and reconfirmed why I wanted to be a lawyer in the first place. The drinking and the socializing was just an added bonus.

The best part had to be just being in Toronto though. I LOVE that city!!! Sure I did the whole lawyer/conference thing, but my fav night was when the other young attorney from my office and I just went out by ourselves and got something to eat and then ended up at this cool jazz club on Queen Street West called the Rex. It was an open mic night so anybody who could play could get up and just jam. Not the most technically amazing jazz, but the improvisational and organic nature of jazz is what makes it truly an amazing art form. Good times, good drinks, good company… can’t ask for anything more.

Well I gotta get back to work… Later!

Candy and Wizards, Oh MY!

Happy Harry Potter EVE!!!
(yes, I am a huge nerd)

and more importantly... HAPPY JOHNNY...er Charlie and the Chocolate Factory day!!
It's been getting some pretty decent reviews so here's hoping Tim Burton's Willy Wonka is more endearing and less creepy than the original. Is is just me or did the original Gene Wilder, Wonka seem more like a romp through NeverLand ranch than it probably should have... It didn't help that Marilyn Manson's first album used it as its centerpiece. Take the Riverboat scene for instant...

"There's no earthly way of knowing/where the riverboat is flowing/is it raining or is it snowing/not a speck of light is showing/so the tension must be growing... Stop the boat"

Equally creepy when either Wilder or Manson is saying it...

Oh and a belated Happy Birthday to my sister KATIE!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE!

Summer Shlock-Busters

Well it's been a little while since I posted so I thought that I would send you all some blogger love :)
Been a busy week or so since I posted last... unfortunately, I haven't really done anything exciting, which has been really exciting for me! This past weekend I did absolutely nothing and loved it! I haven't just sat around and chilled for months and this weekend was perfect for that. I accomplished nothing! Was going to go into work (boo!), but instead I went and saw Fantastic Four. Good movie, nothing special. In terms of comic book movies though, it was lower rung. Its biggest problem is that there is no "issue". With Spider-Man it was guilt for misusing his powers and coming to grips with that responsibility, with Batman it is vigilantism, and with X-Men (the best of the bunch) it is racism. With FF, it's just a movie about people who have cool powers, oh and they don't like each other. Cool effects, junk food for the brain popcorn movie... perfect summer fare and that was exactly what I was looking for.

Now this weekend, thanks to FF, also marked the end of the "great Hollywood slump of 2005"... whatever that is. You see, ticket sales have been down this year every week compared to last year. I have a number of problems with this, the first lies in the traditional American view of economics in which there must always be growth. Why must there always be growth? How about plateaus and maintaining the current level? In the spirit of the All Star weekend here in Detroit I use this metaphor... After Berry Bonds set the record for most cranium growth...er... home runs in 2001, did people immediately say that next year he should be expected to hit even more? The same for the movie industry, last summer had some HUGE movies (Spider-Man 2, Fahrenheit 9/11, Shrek 2, etc..) that did big box office.

This leads me to my second point... There just hasn't been much to see. Aside from Star Wars III, there isn't a "buzz" movie, or at least there isn't one that can sustain the excitement past the opening weekend. Batman was great, but a little too dark for the mainstream, Cinderella Man just didn't cut it, Mr. and Mrs. Smith was more fun in the tabloids than in the theater, and War of the Worlds, well... Tom kinda scares me now :) You can't honestly tell me that they thought Rebound was going to hold up the box office this summer did they? If they release good movies, people will come. When they release crap... well, there's always NetFlix.

Brazilian Girls!

Well I hope all of you had a good holiday weekend!
A belated Happy Canada Day to all my northern friends,
and a belated Happy 4th of July to all my fellow damn Americans :)

Saw the Brazilian Girls on Friday night in Hamilton, Ontario which was awesome! They put on a great show and I can’t say enough about her voice live. Truly amazing… They played most every track off of their album and I was more than pleased as to how well it translated live. In fact, there was a great crowd there, which is something that couldn’t be said for their show in Toronto. Apparently the TO crowd didn’t move or participate in the call and response to “pussy”. You haven’t lived until you hear a crowd sing along to “pussy, pussy, pussy, pussy, marijuana”.
My only gripe about the show was that they didn't start until after 1:00 am!! One more sign that I am getting old...

For more info their website is here.

Well I’m off… latah