Well, I’m back. I wish I had a great excuse for not updating this site. I don’t. But I do have a great reason to start back up again. Drum roll please…….

Starting August 31, a new theatre will be born in Winnipeg. It will be called The Theatre Project and will begin life at the Ellice Theatre on the corner of Ellice and Sherbrook, right across from the West End Cultural Centre. At the beginning, we’re only running on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings every week.

The films we’ll be showing will be some of the most interesting, funny and thoughtful films to screen in Winnipeg in a long time. Our focus is going to be in independent and foreign films. We hope to show a documentary in October. Also in October we’re planning to provide two nights for Winnipeg short films. If they’re interested, both the U of M and the U of W will be given the opportunity to show some of the best student shorts they have produced in the last year or so.

I’ve been saying we and us and our. That’s because this is a project undertaken by four of us. I have the pleasure of having worked with some very talented and intelligent people recently. They have seen the potential in doing something that is different and, we hope, of value to people. Bob Still has been an educator for a number of years. He has also been involved in live theatre productions both professionally and as a volunteer. Ken Wild is someone I consider a raw talent. I don’t think there are many things that Ken couldn’t do if you gave him a manual and 15 minutes to read the whole thing. John Uy may be the most self-effacing super-competent person I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with. The four of us bring incredibly varied experience and perspective to this project, yet we have never (yet) felt the need to quarrel about things. Bob and I are ancient. Ken and John are not. John is software savvy. Ken has computer hardware knowledge. Bob and I simply have many years of watching films. I can help a bit on the marketing side.

You see where I’m going with this? Three great people and me. It’s going to be like Christmas all the time. We’re still firming up the choices we want to make for the first month’s films. It looks like we have a great international selection from places like Iran, Serbia, France, Mexico and Denmark.

We will be launching a website for the Project soon. I’ll keep you posted here. I’ll also be posting the names of the films we’ll be showing soon. Thanks for being patient. Hang on. It’s going to be a great ride.

I don’t know about you but sometimes I feel underappreciated. In my head, I know that’s silly. Several of my coworkers are great about letting me know that I make a difference. Even when I do a small chore at home, my wife almost always says thank you. Of course, it may be that she’s shocked that I did it. ( Old joke: Why do you see Men At Work signs? Because nobody would be surprised by women at work.)

When I’m at work, there is one thing I can do if I really want to surprise someone. All I have to do is walk up to them and say two little words. “Good job”. Or “Well done”. And I don’t think that is unique to my workplace. Even the worst employee at any job isn’t screwing up for a full 8 hour shift. There will be something positive to pull out their performance. But so few people look for it.

At my workplace, I’m at the lowest level of supervision we have. There are about 84 levels of management above me and below me are the people who actually do the work. Part of my job is to make sure they are doing their job well. Unfortunately, we often turn that around. We start thinking it’s our job to spot when they aren’t doing their job well. But if I’m standing there watching my coworkers all day, I should be able to spot a couple of times when they’re doing it right. Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, authors of The One Minute Manager, claim that it is important for a manager to look for opportunities to tell an employee that they caught him doing his job well. Especially when the employee is new, find something to praise.

We all like praise and affirmation. I heard this story from several psychology professors at university, so I think it might be true. A professor was teaching a class on behaviour modification. So the class decided to experiment on the professor. When the professor stood on the left side of the room, everyone was quiet and attentive. When he stood on the right, people would start talking, books would fall off the desks, or perhaps someone would get up and go to the washroom. By the end of the semester, the professor spent almost the entire class leaning on the left wall. When the class told him what they had done, he refused to believe it. He claimed he had always taught from that spot.

You know the old phrase “Everyone talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it.” Well, this isn’t the weather. We can do something about it. Even if you aren’t in charge of something, tell someone that you caught them doing a good job. When someone does something nice, say thank you. Tell a friend or co-worker that they made your day better today. Be specific. Tell them exactly what it was. Help them to know what to repeat. They will feel better and so will you. If we all thank two extra people every day, who knows what can happen.

Okay. Yes, I’m still alive. I’ve been insanely chasing my poker dream and getting rejected. I’ll have to try to balance things a little bit better. Not only do I want to play poker, I have some other writing projects I want to complete, I have this blog to write… and something else. Don’t tell me. Tip of my tongue. Oh, yeah. A job. I have to go to work often enough that neither my boss nor my wife will fire me.

So I left off with a plan to talk about places where we ate in Vegas. If it sounds like I’m slamming the Excalibur again, it’s only because they deserve it. When we arrived in Vegas, it was at the end of a long travel day. We didn’t know where anything was and we were hungry. We saw the advertising for the Excalibur’s 2 for 1 buffet special. After waiting in line for over 20 minutes, we got to pay and sit down. I think it cost us $18 for the two of us. The place was busy. Anticipating a good meal, we started cruising the aisles. What a disappointment! Even though they were busy, the meat was dry and tough, as though it had been sitting under heat lamps for hours. Nothing was very flavourful. I tried the desserts. You can’t screw up a dessert, right? Wrong. The peach cobbler was not only bland, but it had the consistency of glue. At $9 each, the meal was overpriced.

The second buffet we had was at Planet Hollywood. The Spice Market Buffet cost about $29 each. Excellent service throughout the meal ensured that we had coffee as required. The assortment included Mexican, Asian, Italian, Middle Eastern and American dishes. I had the shrimp cocktail and chilled crab legs which were delicious. From the ambience to the service to food quality, all were first class.

The last buffet we tried was at the Bellagio. The price was about $27 each. As good as the Spice Market Buffet was, I enjoyed The Buffet at the Bellagio a bit more. There was a nice variety of Asian dishes to try, a separate seafood section, and Italian cuisine. But there was also Seven Spiced Lamb with a nice mint jelly. And the dessert section was excellent. They looked like they came from a specialty shop rather than a buffet.

The regular restaurants in Vegas were also quite good. After we went to see The Phantom at the Venetian, we went to Wolfgang Puck’s Postrio for a late dinner. We both tried a pizza and they were delicious. Wolfgang Puck’s restaurants are all over Vegas but they are all unique.

The night we were going to see Cirque du Soleil, we were going to go to the Harley Davidson Cafe for something barbecued. Unfortunately, it was closed for a private party. SO we wandered down the strip toward the MGM. Along the way we saw a place advertising Korean barbecue called Ginseng BBQ. What the heck. Give it a try. After some awkwardness because we had no idea what we were really ordering, we settled on a combo. The waiter lit a brazier which was built into the middle of our table. A large platter of meat was brought to our table and left there. After we stared at it for a few minutes, the waiter realized we didn’t understand. He explained in heavily accented English that normally, the customers prepare the food the way we like. But being a nice person, he quickly started putting food on the grill. He explained the various sauces which he had left us and the cold appetizers as well. Soon we got the idea and were grilling our own food and experimenting with the tastes of the sauces. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to truly enjoy it. We were pressed for time because the show was starting soon. Even though the menu says the combo is for two to four people, it really is too much food for two. And at $60, it’s a little expensive for two people as well. Good food though and worth it for a group of people.

We ended up at the House of Blues one night. This was the second time we couldn’t enjoy our first choice because it was booked for a private party. I have no idea if this is normal or not but it might make me more likely to phone ahead next time I’m in Vegas. The House of Blues has great Southern Style food. The ribs were tasty and fell off the bone. Marilyn had the Jambalaya and thought it was blah. See how smart I am! I get the good stuff. It was odd that they didn’t have blues playing on the sound system though. It was some kind of Euro-techno trash. It just didn’t fit. Oh well. Dinner, drinks and tip came to about $100.

Then it snowed in Las Vegas. For the first time, they closed the schools because of snow. They also closed the airport. So we were forced to stay an extra two days. We made the best of it by sampling a little bit more. The last memorable meal was at P.F. Chang’s at Planet Hollywood. You walk out of the high energy and rock music of the casino into a surprisingly quiet dining room. We ordered the Crab Wonton and BBQ Spare Ribs for starters. Both were great. Then came the Orange Peel Chicken and Coconut Curry Vegetables. Spicy but delicious. Some people might think spicy AND delicious. Those people don’t understand Dennis’ first rule of food. That rule is “Food should not hurt”. In spite of the heat, I really enjoyed that meal. And the price was great. The entire meal was under $40 before tip.

Okay. I’m back from Las Vegas. I’m trying not to be angry at the world. There I was. In Las Vegas. Now I’m in Winnipeg. And I have a cold. My head is stuffed up and I have a sore throat. And I endured two days of work like this. And… Oh, never mind.

I’ve realized there is no way I can catch up on a day to day remembrance of what happened. So I’ll try to do some blogs grouped around subject matter. Today’s theme is about the hotels I stayed at. There were two of them.

When we booked this trip, we had no idea of where to stay. The only thing I knew was that the Excalibur Casino had installed electronic poker tables in their poker room. So I decided we should stay there. We got online and paid for our rooms in advance.

When we arrived at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas, we decided to take the shuttle bus to the strip. It’s only $6.50 per person. It’s a good deal. The bus stopped first at the MGM Grand. Very impressive. They obviously tried very hard to make it feel like the kind of place a movie star from the Golden Age of movies would want. Next stop: The Excalibur.

I was so excited about getting there I didn’t focus on what the place is like. It’s like a tacky adult Disneyland. Once you’ve registered, they point the way to the towers where you’ll be staying. What surprised me is that they didn’t have their staff on hand to offer help with the bags. So we dragged our bags through the casino floor and eventually found our way to the elevators. When we opened the door to our room, we were pleasantly surprised. There was a lot of room and we had been upgraded to a widescreen TV.

The casino occupies the entire main floor of the hotel. I don’t play most of the games offered, Craps, Roulette, Blackjack, Keno, or slots, so I have little to say about those. And I’ll talk about the poker room in another post about my poker experience.

High-speed internet is available for $12.99 per day. There are WiFi hotspots at various places throughout  the hotel. I didn’t look for them so I can’t help you find them.

The location is a little weird. It’s right on the end of the Strip. Mandalay Bay and the Luxor are trying to extend the Strip farther south but all the real action is north of the Excalibur. Excalibur shares its corner with MGM Grand, NYNY, and the Tropicana. One of the shuttle bus drivers we had told us that there were over 14,000 hotel rooms at that corner, which he claimed was a world record.

Getting around Las Vegas isn’t a big problem. They have The Deuce, a double-decker bus, which runs the length of the Strip from downtown to the Outlet Mall in the south. It costs $2/trip or $5/day. It doesn’t go very fast so tourists don’t get lost or confused. It’s a great value for those who don’t want to walk a lot.

When we tried to leave Las Vegas, Las Vegas wouldn’t let us. It snowed. At first just a few little flakes. And our plane was sitting there with a mechanical problem. And more snow. Eventually the airport was shut down because nobody in Las Vegas understands snow removal. So we had to get a hotel room for what turned out to be two extra nights. There was no way I was going back to the Excalibur. I phoned Planet Hollywood and got us a room.

I called Planet Hollywood because I had shifted my poker playing to their room. I liked the action there and I definitely enjoyed the ambience. You arrive at the lobby arrive and you don’t hear all the irritating noise of the casino. Instead, you hear music loud enough that you wonder how the staff can get their work done. We quickly check in and go to our room. This is more like it.

The room was a little smaller than the Excalibur’s. But, for comfort, there was a duvet instead of blankets. There was a long, deep tub for those who like that sort of thing. There was John Belushi memorabilia in our room; clothing, props and posters. Internet access was $13.99/day.

Overall, the Excalibur was a less expensive to stay in but not centrally located, and a bit too much on the tacky side for my taste. Planet Hollywood was just a little more money but much nicer in appearance, more upscale in clientele, and close to the Bellagio and Caesar’s. I definitely recommend Planet Hollywood.

Okay. Apologies are in order. I had promised that I would keep everybody up to date about my time in Vegas. Here is what I’ve discovered. After spending all day winning money and then spending it, there wasn’t much time or energy for regular posts.

Here is the short form. We’ve gone for dinner at the Excalibur buffet (sucked big time), the Planet Hollywood buffet, and at The House of Blues. Two out of three ain’t bad. We’ll be going to the Bellagio for dinner tonight. We went to see Phantom on Friday (great) and will be going to see Cirque du Soleil – Ka tomorrow. I’m fighting a losing battle trying to win more money than Marilyn can spend. And I’m up over $800 so far. The Planet Hollywood poker room has been very good to me.

I’ll try to flesh this out more when I get back home. Remember, it’s a great day to be alive.

Many of you realize that I’m a night owl. My normal bedtime is around 2AM. That’s my normal routine and has been most of my life. So it came as quite a shock when I had to get up at 5AM Wednesday morning to go to Toronto.

What’s that? You thought I was going to Vegas? Well, yes. I was going to Vegas. But Air Canada, in its wisdom, thought it was important to fill up the flight from Toronto to Vegas. So when Marilyn, my darling wife, booked this trip, that was the deal they offered. We got a great price on the airfare but a lousy itinerary.

So we flew from Winnipeg to Toronto to Las Vegas. We got here about 5PM. Got to the hotel. I didn’t sleep much on the plane. We were both tired, and being an old guy, I had a nap. In Vegas. I flew over 7 hours to get to Vegas so I could have a nap. How sick is that?

We woke up a little later and discovered we were hungry. We decided to check out the 2 for 1 buffet at the Excalibur. That made it only $19 for the two of us. We had to wait 45 minutes in the queue. I was quite ready to eat by then.

Back in September, I had posted a thread in a poker forum about my upcoming trip to Vegas. I asked for advice about which rooms to play in, where to go, where to eat. Nobody mentioned the Excalibur as a great place to eat. Wednesday night I discovered why. There isn’t much good to say about it. The food wasn’t very tasty. The meat was tough since it had been sitting under heat lamps for hours. The dessert, Peach Cobbler in my case, did taste like peaches but it had a glue-like consistency. My conclusion, skip the Excalibur buffet.

Marilyn decided that an early night was called for. That meant I was free to play poker. But I too was tired. I know I don’t play my best poker when I’m tired. In fact, I may play my worst poker when I’m tired. I don’t think. I just throw chips around, hoping that my cards are good enough. When I run out of chips I stop. I didn’t want my first night in Vegas to be that story so I skipped to the end. I stayed in my room. I watched a movie. I read a little. When I got really tired, I went to bed.

So that’s the story of my travel day. A long time in the air, blah food, old people needing naps. Check back here soon. The next exciting installment, Vegas – Day One will show up in a few hours.

Well, I made it. I wasn’t sure I would, but I did. My wife booked this trip to Vegas to protect what was left of my fragile sanity. She was hoping that by giving me something to look forward to, I might not quit my job. It worked. I made it. But today I realized something. I like a lot of the people I work with.

Today I was surprised by the many good wishes I received from my friends. I looked at this group of strange people and discovered I was going to miss them.

Tomorrow I will be heading to Las Vegas. My friends have all heard my outrageous dream of how I might stay in Vegas forever. All I have to do is win about $500 per day. Every day. For a week. Then I’ll use my personal days to book off another week. If I do it again, then I’ll stay another week with the 5 undocumented absences I’m allowed. Then, if I am still profitable, I’m into the new year and I have 6 more personal days to use. If, after all this time, I’m still winning, I’m staying in Vegas forever.

So that’s it. That’s all it will take. $500 per day for 4 weeks. And all these crazy people I work with can come visit me in the sunshine. Wish me luck.

I like good movies. There isn’t anything particularly great about that. I don’t think people like bad movies. That goes with why they’re called bad. Bad movies are the movies that nobody likes, right? As it turns out, the answer is not that simple.

I participate in a writing forum. Somebody once started a thread asking for a response to this question: What is the worst movie you’ve ever seen? The responses were quite varied. The surprising thing was that even among people who are trying to become screenwriters, there was little agreement. Oh, there were some opinions that were just about universal, but not all were.

I had two nominees for worst picture. The first was a movie called Rhinestone (1984). Dolly Parton plays a country and western singer who makes a bet with her manager in order to get out of her contract. She agrees to turn anyone he picks into a country singer. If she can, she’s out of the contract. If she loses, she’s locked in for a longer period. The manager picks New York cab driver, Sylvester Stallone. I watched that movie and immediately said “That was a waste of 90 minutes of my life.” It was actually 110 minutes. I guess my brain shut down in self defense.

The second choice was Revolution (1985). Set during the American Revolution, Al Pacino plays a man who wants to stay out of the conflict. He expresses it clearly, in a modern Brooklyn accent, “It’s not my waaaaarrr!” With Donald Sutherland playing a boy buggering British general, it didn’t get better. It was further ruined by having Nastassja Kinski as the female lead.

Anyway, back to the forum question. Here’s a list of the nominees:
The Labyrinth
Aeon Flux
Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever
Boy and Girls
Christmas With the Kranks
Exorcist: The Beginning
The Fog
Jeepers Creepers 2
The Last Horror Movie
Resident Evil Apocalypse
The Ring 2
Stealth
XXX 2
Screwed
Pink Flamingos
You Light Up My Life
The Royal Tenenbaums
Anything with Ben Stiller or Owen Wilson
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
Alone in the Dark
Alien vs. Predator
The Blair Witch Project
Anything by Woody Allen (seconded by my wife)
Mortal Kombat
First 3 episodes of Star Wars
Costner’s Waterworld or The Postman
Plan 9 From Outer Space
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

This isn’t close to a complete list. So here is my challenge. Tell me what you’re choice is for the worst movie of all time. If you can, include your reasons. There is obviously no correct choice. I’d just like to hear what your thoughts are. Until next time, it’s a great day to be alive!

Many years ago, while attending University, a friend was telling me about this fantastic professor he had. This professor taught history in such an engaging fashion that it suddenly seemed relevant. My friend insisted that I attend a lecture and hear this master teacher myself. After receiving assurances that the professor wouldn’t mind, and indeed probably wouldn’t notice, I agreed.

It didn’t take too much cajoling. I’ve always enjoyed history. Not in an organized way, but in the travelogue way. I had enjoyed reading about ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. I’d wondered what it would be like to have lived then. While in junior high I had considered studying archaeology.

George Santayana, a Spanish-American philosopher gave us this phrase: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. He was trying to tell people that knowledge of the past is necessary for progress to be achieved. Without knowledge of the past to anchor you, all future change is just as likely to be harmful as beneficial.

So I attended this history lecture. The professor chose to discuss the period of the American Revolution. But he did it in a strange way. He began by asking us to come up with words that are used to describe Americans. At this point in the story, I have to remind people that this took place in Canada. The words, to the best of my recollection, were: Yankee, pushy, loud, can-do, aggressive, argumentative, etc. You get the idea. Then he asked for words about Canadians. We got: conciliatory, peace-keepers, status quo, quiet, negotiators. You can see the trend.

He then asked us to consider the historical period in question. In America at the time, there were two large, powerful and opposing groups. There were the revolutionaries. They wanted change. They were done negotiating with King George and Britain. They weren’t going to pay a tax just because the government said they should. They were going to do something about it. The other group was the Loyalists. They felt that the correct path was to discuss things in a rational manner. There was no reason to upset the whole apple cart over a small tax. Respect for authority was highly valued. Things eventually came to a head. The Loyalists had to choose to fight or leave. They would either have to fight beside their neighbors against their rightful King or fight against their neighbors for their rightful King. Or they could leave. And that is what many of them did. They moved north into what later became known as Canada.

This professor saw the seeds of our present day lives deeply rooted in our cultural past. There is a momentum that carries us along, day by day. Each day influenced by the one before it, and the one before that. Our biases, our assumptions, are often handed to us by the people around us. We got them from the people before us. You don’t think so? Consider this: In 1835, a Halifax, Nova Scotia newspaper created a character for a regular feature. He was Sam Slick, the Yankee clockmaker. This character was a plain speaking man who would poke fun at people on both sides of the border. But he would also encourage the old-fashioned Canadians to be as hard working and clever as the Yankees. Just 60 years after the American Revolution, the differences were evident.

More than 30 years have passed since that lecture but it lingers in my mind. It shapes how I think about politics and world events. That man changed my life and neither of us knew it at the time. His name? I don’t remember.

Every now and then, someone really surprises you. Mark Herman, the director and screenwriter of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is that person. There is nothing in Herman’s resume which would make you believe that he was ready for this film. He is a hyphenated person; a writer-director. He made a couple of short films about 20 years ago. He delivered a couple of forgettable films after that. Then he gave us a couple of competent but lightweight films. The last one of those was five years ago. Then he disappeared and wrote this amazing adaptation of John Boyne’s novel.

Bruno, played by Asa Butterfield, is the 8-year-old son of a high ranking German officer during the Second World War. His father, played by David Thewlis, is given an assignment which causes them to move from Berlin to a place out in the country. This new command is a Jewish concentration camp. Of course, little Bruno doesn’t know this. He thinks it’s a farm where all the people wear striped pyjamas. His mother, played by Vera Farmiga, doesn’t want the adventurous boy to discover the “farm” and so she insists he stay in the front yard. Soon bored due to an absence of friends, he sets out to explore. He chances upon the camp and finds a Jewish boy on the other side of the fence who is hiding from the work detail. The rest of the film involves the tension of these two young people trying to come to grips with their world. The adults, too, suffer for the choices made. The lies they tell themselves and their children begin to affect them as well.

I waited for a day before writing this review because I wanted to see which images stuck with me. To the films credit, there are several and they are located throughout the film. I especially enjoyed the way we are prepared for things in advance without it being heavy handed or giving the game away. Symbolism used in the film is appropriate for the scene. The two boys shake hands through an electric fence. They know that the fence is dangerous. We, the audience, know that the handshake is dangerous.

The film ends on a haunting image. I won’t give the ending away because I truly want you to see it with fresh eyes. This is the best and most moving film I’ve seen in a while. Enjoy it. I did.

My rating: 8 out of 10

Related Blogs

• Related Blogs on boy in the striped pyjamas
• ie:missional » The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Movie review and …
• Ace on Tech » Blog Archive » Movie: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
• Guitar Tabs

• Related Blogs on film

• Related Blogs on movie review
• » Movie Review: Day Of The Kamikaze - Blogger News Network
• EclipseMagazine » MOVIE REVIEW: Transporter 3: Taking Package X …