Grade: B+
What’s It About: Teen girls Joan Jett and Cherie Currie tear the rock world apart with an all-girl band, but the rock world bites back.
What’s Its Bechdel Test Score?
3/3! It passes early and often as well.
What About Minorities?
I’d say failure, but I can’t really speak to what the punk rock scene in the 70s looked like, because I was not there.
So…
This evening I went along to HIVE3. Well I didn’t go along so much as I was there selling bar tickets as a volunteer. I wasn’t able to go to the dress rehearsal on Wednesday so this was my only chance to see the shows.
HIVE, a collection of twelve different performance art and theatre pieces, continues to be one of the highlights of the year for me. This year’s collection is fantastic, drawing a good sized crowd even while Vancouver experienced some sort of typhoon.
I only managed to see three pieces, all of which I enjoyed immensely. They were totally diverse in terms of subject matter and format, and I’m actually a little bummed I didn’t get to see the rest. Even if I wasn’t technically “working”, there’s no guarantee I would be able to see each show. In order to get in to each show, and to prevent overcrowding, you have to collect invitations or tickets to get in. These come in different forms for different shows – a teddy bear, a record, an apron, a private invitation. In the case of Electric Company’s AT HOME WITH DICK AND JANE, there was only one person admitted to the show at a time, and only a handful of shows all night. Audience members were randomly drawn from a hat.
If you are new to site-specific theatre or just don’t have the patience for that sort of thing, it can be pretty frustrating. But the ambiguity of it is half the fun, like the little scavenger hunt you must go on to see the pieces.
My favourite show of the night was November Theatre’s ANA, a one-woman monologue which moved me to tears. Go with someone you love. HIVE runs again March 17-20 at the Centre for Digital Media. There is a bar and each night ends with a live band playing. Check out Vancouvertix.com for advance tickets.
After working entirely too hard during the Olympics, I finally got a chance to enjoy some of the free events as the Paralympics start in Vancouver. My partner in crime Kheyann and I went to LiveCity downtown to see some of the opening ceremony and watch Vancouver’s Said the Whale play a gig.
I am still “blah” about the whole Olympic thing, but I also totally think the Paralympics shouldn’t be ghettoized and ignored by the rest of the world the way they are now. Maybe I’m totally wrong about this, but it seems like they aren’t taken as seriously as the other games, but they certainly should be. I’m not saying all the athletes should compete against each other, but I at least think Paralympic events should be taking place at the same time as other events, so they get the same kind of coverage. Why can’t the ice hockey and sledge hockey be happening at the same time, so you can watch a hockey game and then a sledge game? So that the Paralympic athletes can get the same exposure as the other athletes? I wouldn’t ever know who Lindsey Vonn, Virtue and Moir, or any of those other people were if it wasn’t for the brief moment in time they are thrust into my view, and the Paralympic athletes should get the same opportunity to be recognized.
Anyways.
I’ve adored Said the Whale for quite some time, and I was ecstatic to finally get a chance to see them live. I was struck by four things.
1) Said the Whale sound great in person, exactly like their albums
2) Said the Whale have a great energy and know how to work the crowd
3) Their new songs are really awesome
4) Said the Whale are collectively very good looking, much better looking than a band of already very talented and slightly dorky people have a right to be. Some people get all the luck.
Some pictures of these gorgeous mofos after the jump. I didn’t get any shots of the bassist or drummer but I assure you, they are just as adorable. Khey mentioned in particular how effing adorable the curly-haired bespectacled drummer was.
Grade: C+
What’s It About?
Alice falls down the rabbit hole and goes to Wonderland. I think it can kind of be read as a sequel to the 1950s Disney version. The plot is new, put together from various elements of the books.
Whats Its Bechdel Test Score?
3/3! A complete pass! Also, this movie is about a girl fighting a woman on behalf of another woman. Pretty sweet stuff! The male Mad Hatter gets himself all woven into the story but that’s forgivable, I guess.
What About Minorities?
It’s as white a movie as the next movie.
So…
This was my Portfolio Short film from my writing course at Vancouver Film School. We had a limit of four pages in which to tell a story and showcase our style as a writer. We also only had three hours in which to shoot the piece, which means our choice of locations and characters was limited.
While I feel I can write in many genres (such as comedy, adventure, and science fiction, for children or adults), given the limitations I went with a short little story about “fucked up teenagers”, my favourite kind of teenager. Here is The John, about two teenage hustlers who accidentally kill a john. It’s NSishFW.
It is directed by Jim Bates and stars Maggie Ma and Matthew McLellan.
Grade: B 
What’s It About?
A US Marshall investigates a missing persons case in an isolated hospital for the criminally insane, where he uncovers a conspiracy.
Whats Its Bechdel Test Score?
1/3. Failure.
What About Minorities?
It’s as white a movie as the next one.
What the hell did I just watch?
Don’t get me wrong. Shutter Island is really, really good. The acting is phenomenal – Leonardo DiCaprio and Sir Ben Kingsley in particular are being as fantastic as usual. The story is really compelling and fascinating, to the point that I kept putting off going to the bathroom because I didn’t want to miss what was coming next. I had to pee for an hour, but it was worth it.
However, this movie is kind of like a really horrible acid trip. Obviously that’s what Scorsese was going for, so, well played. This movie totally fried my brain. There is one main twist that is fairly predictable, but the way its handled and all the stuff around it totally has me questioning the outcome and trying to figure out what really happened. It’s the kind of movie you have to watch again to figure it out – unless, I suppose, you just want to accept the easy explanation, which I am totally skeptical about.
Unfortunately, it’s a horrible acid trip I really never want to relive. The score was completely over the top and really stressed me out. I was really digging some of the cinematography – it was trippy in really subtle ways that had be questioning whether things were real or imaginary – but at other times it was a bit obvious and gimmicky.
I would certainly recommend it, though. This kind of movie is what filmmaking is about. It’s a very brave effort, although Scorsese isn’t exactly a greenhorn at making “brave” movies, and a few people in the audience did walk out. I think that’s more of a positive note for the film than a negative however – it’s a real experience, and not everybody is going to be able to hack it. I really want to check out the book now, too.
Update! A month later.
It looks like my attempt to keep a diary of my Olympic experience was misguided. With the exception of this first day, nothing really exciting happened at all. I was working so often and writing so little, and had no opportunities to actually partake in any Olympic fun (or protests), except for a taping of the Colbert Report.
Also, a Russian yacht was docked by Lonsdale Quay, where I was working, so met many young and adorable ~*Russian Sailors*~ throughout the month. That was nice.
Anyways, it’s over now, and thankfully some of the attractions are still up around town for the month of March, so perhaps I will write about them. In the meantime, I’m still plugging away at my screenwriting portfolio and YA novel, and looking for something else to help pay the bills.
Days Worked: 1
Times Accosted by a Hostile Member of the Public: 1
I’m performing a menial and tedious task for the Winter Games. I am helping load buses with spectators, athletes and employees going from the city to the mountains in North Van, where there is no parking or accommodation. Once the games actually start I’m sure this job will be exciting and action-packed, but for the next three days it looks like I’ll be standing around on the streets for strangers for upwards of ten hours with nothing to do.
In one particularly boring stretch of time, a member of our group told a story about a hate crime that happened last summer on the Island. While telling the story he used hand gestures, as story tellers often do. A slow, fake punch perhaps would have been employed, given that he was relaying a tale of violence.
Not five minutes later we were approached by a fake-tanned white guy dressed like Eminem, with crazy eyes (you know the kind, Tom Cruise has them), who got extremely close to the Story Teller and started screaming at him. He called him a thug for “re-enacting what you did to somebody”, throwing around weird pseudo-gangster postures, and claiming that he had been videotaping the “re-enactment” from a promenade.
Crazy Eyes was the full package. He had about four puffy vests on, but his legs and arms were bare, and he had a sideways cap and lots and lots of bling. He was positively orange from self-tanning, and when he first started talking I honestly thought he was doing some kind of street theatre. I thought he would go on his rant, perhaps actually start to rap, and then give us flyers to his show. Unfortunately Crazy Eyes was for real. He said that normally he wouldn’t even approach somebody like the Story Teller (who I guess I should mention is black), but since the Story Teller was wearing a Games uniform, Crazy Eyes knew he wouldn’t be able to retaliate.
Anyways he went off eventually, screaming about how he has this video and he’s going to show the world.
It was a weird first day. But I am used to sadly unloved and unwell people wandering around in Lotus Land, and I have a feeling this is going to be bringing them out in droves.
Perhaps something beautiful will happen tomorrow.
Later I tried to buy Oregon Trail on my phone, but it wouldn’t work, and I’m pretty sure I still got charged. :-S
Grade:A- 
What’s it About?
A former CIA agent cleans up the streets and uncovers a conspiracy in this parody of 1970s blaxploitation films.
What’s It’s Bechdel Test Score?
1/3 – failure.
What About Minorities?
A.
Being a parody of blaxploitation films, the protagonist and almost all the other characters are minorities. Everybody’s stereotyped, but it’s all in good fun.
So…
Grade: 
B
What’s it About?
In the future, vampires have taken over the world and humans are farmed for blood. The supply is running out.
What’s Its Bechdel Test Score?
1/3. There are two woman characters but they are USELESS. If you want to see a film that respects women, or is even halfway realistic in its portrayal of women, do not see this movie. It also has one of the most egregious and blatant fridging of a woman I’ve ever seen in my life.
What About Minorities?
D. The world is fleshed out with a few minorities in the background, and there are one or two small speaking minority roles, but it is still a majority (and not believably) white world.
Read more
Grade:
A
What’s it About?
The most famous detective in English literature solves crimes and uncovers a conspiracy in 1890s London.
What’s It’s Bechdel Test Score?
1/3, which is incredibly good for Guy Ritchie films. Irene Adler is awesome, but neither of these things prevents the movie from failing this test spectacularly.
What About Minorities?
Since this takes place in 1890s London and I have no idea how many non-white people were living at the time, I’m going to give it the benefit of the doubt. There is an Irish “gypsy woman” but it didn’t come across as offensive to me or anything.