FROM REEL TO REAL: A THRUMMING MOVIE REVIEW

ALEX @ TIMS

TAKEN AT THE DRIVE-THRU

Over the past couple years through the TIMS take-out window, Alexander, a TIMS worker, and I have discussed science fiction movies galore. Please note, dear reader, that I am a daily TIMS London Fog consumer and, Alex, being a very familiar stranger and also a sci-fi fanatic, my last London Fog pick-up was just another opportunity to talk about the latest sci-fi movie releases.

It so happened that Alex pumped up PROJECT HAIL MARY sooo much that I decided to check it at our local IMAX that very night!

PROJECT HAIL MARY is a science-fiction space adventure about a 6^th grade science teacher, who just happens to be a former molecular biologist, Ryan Gosling, waking up as the only surviving crew member on a spaceship 11.9 light years from Earth. Slowly but surely, he remembers that he, along with his fellow crewmates of real astronauts, were sent on a mission to prevent a mysterious substance from destroying Earth’s sun. In a line, our protagonist was a on a mission to save Earth!

At the designated solar stop, our surviving spaceman is approached by an alien starship. This alien starship, of course, has a spider-looking astronaut as its captain, who happens to be on the exact same mission, a mission to save its planet! What are the odds?!

(Having such a corny plot, the odds are entertainingly high!)

RYAN AND SANDRA IN PROJECT HAIL MARY

Actors Ryan Gosling as the lone spaceman and Sandra Huller, as the authoritarian military superior who sent him into space, were perfectly cast and, I must confess, were a treat in their every scene. And the special effects throughout the movie were spectacularly stunning!

(Keep in mind that I watched this movie at an IMAX theatre. “IMAX” is short for IMAGE MAXIMUM, a high-resolution film projection on a massive screen having a brighter and bigger picture and better sound than what is normally presented at the regular theatres.)

But alas, at least for me, special effects, alone, cannot fix the corny plot of a two-and-a-half-hour snoozer! (However, Ryan's SWEET CANADIAN SWEATER may save the movie somewhat, or at the very least, help cancel some of my criticism?!)

SWEET!

Not-so-strangely, Alex has also praised BLADE RUNNER 2049, also starring Ryan Gosling (along with cameo, Harrison Ford). And, too, not-so-strangely, this sequel to the original BLADERUNNER, actually starring Harrison Ford, won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

I saw Blade Runner 2049 in the theatre, and what a disappointment it was when compared to the most perfect plot and the thoughtful and political setting of the original Blade Runner 1982! Of course, most of Ryan Gosling’s scenes were gripping-on-the-edge-of-your-seat wild and thrilling, but the convoluted plot begetting so operose for moi through the two hour and forty-three-minute movie!

But that neo-noir Blade Runner (1982) has become a sci-fi cult movie! Audience members seemed to empathize with both the protagonists and the replicant antagonists in this superbly dark and chilling cyberpunk high tech and low life classic. Yep. That first Blade Runner is one of my favorite all-time movies!

All the DUNE movies, too, are on Alex’s love list of big screen flicks! In the first DUNE (1984), the battles between Kyle Machaclan and Sting on that harsh and desert planet of Arrakis blew me away so much that I could feel the sand in my eyes! I started to watch a couple of the sequels, but like the Blade Runner sequel, the aborning plots were just pedantic and BORING, far too abstruse to tolerate during my supposedly recreational and enjoyable cinema times.

Ahhh! I love space movies! I loved the horror in first ALIEN starring Sigourney Weaver,

and I loved the dystopia in THE TERMINATOR 1984 movie with Arnie and Linda Hamilton.

  But the refurbished and redecorated sequels, not with new plots but with bedazzling high-tech special effects … MEH.

And what does any of this movie biz have to do with my busking?!

Factoid: This is the reel stuff I contemplate when thrumming! Really.

Marching in my CHAUCERIAN PARADE this week is my Grandpa Sid who raised me from the time I was five years old.

GRANDPA SID

Leafing through some ancient photo albums I found this, my very first caricature, which I drew when I was five years old!

GET SMART: DO WHAT YOU LOVE, LOVE WHAT YOU DO.

DON ADAMS IN GET SMART (AMERICAN '60S TELEVISION COMEDY)

There is nuance in my title that I shall set straight. Do what you love means to do something just because you love doing it, whereas love what you do means finding joy in doing something you likely would not be doing unless you were remunerated. In the context of this blog entry, the difference is subtle but significant.

These wintertime days I skate and ski. I love skating and I love skiing and do both as much as I can. Though I find joy in my contract employment with young offenders, and I find joy in running my private hypnotherapy practice, I doubt I would be doing either if I were not being remunerated.  

I LOVE SKATING. I have been skating as long as I can remember, my first memory being when I was five and my dad would drive me over to the closest outdoor rink. I vividly remember pushing a wooden chair around and around and around on the ice until my dad drove back to retrieve me. I also remember being the only skater at that crowded rink pushing a chair.

By seven years of age my parents had split, and I was living with my grandparents in Vanguard, Saskatchewan. At the Vanguard indoor public rink, I skated practically every day it was open. During the public skate there was always the sound of music on the loudspeaker, while all of us rink rats skated clockwise ‘round the ice surface, then switching to counterclockwise, and then back to clockwise when commanded over that same loudspeaker. And all of us wore the fashion navy or white kangaroo jackets, the sixty-year forerunner today’s hoody (methinks).

Sometimes when the rink manager (friendly giant, William Burton) would exit the building for a spell, we’d abandon the carousel skate in favor of Pom Pom Pull Away, a group game of ice tag, while some of the girls on the ice would practice their figure twirls.

At eight years of age, I was playing my first season of hockey, wee-wee (under 10). And I continued to play hockey, pee-wee (under 12), bantam hockey (under 14), midget hockey (under 16), juvenile hockey (under 18), and senior hockey (18+). All these "Vanguard Eagle” hockey years in Vanguard, I played in the NHL (the NOTEKEU HOCKEY LEAGUE), which included teams from the other small towns of Aneroid, Ponteix, Cadillac, Val Marie, Pambrun, Neville, Hodgeville, and Gravelbourg. I also played senior hockey for the Swift Current Indians in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, and the Icemen, in Regina, Saskatchewan.

No longer playing organized hockey (because of other commitment and precious time factors), I now only skate outdoors, and just two or three times per week. This is doing what I love on my favorite rink, The Rink On Wascana.

GLIDING 'NEATH A GIBBOUS MOON (THE RINK ON WASCANA)  

RINK ON WASCANA MANAGER

Whenever I skate at the Rink On Wascana, even with all my 65 years of skating, I still practice my technical skills, putting most my weight on the outside skate when I turn for example, which I unwittingly learned from being a ski instructor. Technically perfect physical turns for both skating and skiing, demand putting one’s weight on the outside foot. Turning left when skating, the outside foot is the right foot (pun intended), and when making turns going downhill on skis, the outside foot is the one toward the bottom of the hill.   

I LOVE SKIING. My first time on alpine skis was with my cousin at White Track Ski Hill, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. I was 21 and in my first-year at the University of Regina. From White Track, I went on to ski at all the local hills, Hidden Valley just 15 minutes north of Regina, Saskatchewan, Fort Qu’Appelle Ski Area (now called Mission Ridge Ski Resort), 45 minutes east of Regina, and Ochapowace Ski Hill, 90 minutes east of Regina.

A few years later working on pipelines and living in Kamloops, British Columbia, I would ski at Mount Tod (now called Sun Peaks, and the second largest ski resort in Canada), just north of Kamloops, Silver Star at Vernon, B.C., and Big White at Kelowna, B.C.

Married with children, we’d go on yearly ski trips to the Lizard Range of the Rocky Mountains in Fernie, British Columbia, Sunshine and Lake Louise in the Alberta Rockies. The last couple winters we’ve spent Christmas at Whistler Ski Resort, the most famous ski resort in Canada.

Factoid: As I am typing this blog entry, I am also gearing up for a ski trip next week to Elkwater Hidden Valley, Cypress Hills, Alberta.

Factoid: The more wrinkled I get the more I perpend. The golden handcuffs of my workday government contracts and, too, of my small beer private hypnotherapy practice, offer me the GET SMART financial security to do what I love without having to worry so much about budget. These golden handcuffs also keep me in the way of Zen, the practice of continually seeking joy in whatever work I do. And to add to my wallet, these past couple winters, I’ve been a ski instructor at Mission Ridge Ski Resort, at Fort Qu’Appelle. (I took the ski instructor course at age 72, and am now a professional with the Canadian Ski Instructor Alliance, receiving remuneration whenever I teach a ski lesson. Hmmm. Not-so-strangely, skiing for me seems to fit both the DO WHAT YOU LOVE and LOVE WHAT YOU DO edicts in this blog title!).

SKIING IN -26 DEGREES AT ELKWATER

(*You may have noticed, dear readers, that I have conspicuously omitted BUSKING from my wintertime favorite activities. Factoid: Not too many years ago I used to brag that I was a BRUTTO TEMPO BUSKER. But alas, no more do I find joy in thrumming my guitar whilst blowing my harp in nonthermal temperatures. And too, whether busking with my didgeridoo, or my banjo, or my Sharpie, I much prefer my world on the street to be sunny and windless.)

Come summertime when my skating and skiing fall into abeyance, I am looking forward to many clement days of hiking, diving, and of course, busking. But this is another blog entry.

Marching in my CHAUCERIAN PARADE this week, a couple of caninophiles!

THE DAUGHTER OF A LONG-TIME FRIEND

A STAND-UP COMEDIAN AND FAMILIAR STRANGER AT THE CURE