BagelHot

FAN Expo 2009 Day one

2009-08-28T15:00:00.016-04:00

The Tron Legacy lightcycle

There was a "TRON Legacy" show and tell in room 717 at the Fan Expo today. The highly secret event required all people going into the presentation room to release their cell phones and cameras to security guards. They took your gear and stashed it into a numbered ziplock bag. A ticket stub with the matching number was then given to you. You were then subjected to a metal detector and a frisk down.

With all that trouble of getting into the room we wondered if it was going to be worth sitting through this thing. We were an hour early and already the room was half full (maybe 200 people so far). The main demographic seemed to consist of people in their 30s. They looked like the comic book welding programmer types. You know, the guys that were losing their hair, are wearing jeans and a T-shirt, with running shoes and sporting a bit of a belly. The only thing missing would be the pager, cell phone, magnetic door pass/ID badge, combo.

These are probably the same guys that played the Tron arcade game when they were kids and watched the world of computer graphics explode over the years. Yeah, thems good people and me with my friends, Norman and Ian, fit right in. It's a difficult concept to think the movie was out 27 years ago. Geez.

The presentation was pretty cool. The audience was shown concept drawings, preliminary computer generated renders, the movie trailer that's available online, a sneak peek at some live sequences taken at Flynn's arcade, and some behind the scenes slow motion footage of the new video game warriors stunt tests. The stunt tests were super cool. I can't really explain it here to do it justice. Just think of guys jumping around (really high) doing somersaults in the air then throwing the Tron donut (yes, the frisbee is sooo 80s) all shot at 500 frames per second (or super slo mo) and without spring boards or wires!!! Just based on that I wanted to go see the movie.

Co-Producer Justin Springer, who was wearing a "Flynn Lives" T-shirt, answered some Q&A at the end. Things we found out... It's true, Daft Punk is going to succeed Wendy Carlos and will be doing the music for the new film. Both Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner will reprise their characters in the movie. Stephen Lisberger, the original director of Tron, is involved with the new movie (but he's not directing it). Will Journey have music in the movie? We're not sure, although the sneak peak footage of Flynn's had Journey playing in the background. The movie will also be in 3D, the 3D requiring you to wear those glasses!!! wowee!

Tron, when it originally came out in 1982, although it did mediocre at the box office and was boring to other kids, made an incredible impact on me personally. Before my interest in Roller Derby, shooting the glamour of catwalks, the craziness of rock concerts, before my career in photography, there was a time where I was fiddling with the idea of computer animation and making stories. I was 14 and was creating small animated films using Dad's super 8 camera.

Around the same time there were some primitive animations on the PET distributed by Cursor magazine, various programs that you loaded off of cassette tape. Some of the programs included animated adventures of Fuzzy and Wuzzy, two characters made out of astrisks (ascii characters), who went to the moon, hawaii, etc. It was computer animated story telling in it's primitive form.

I liked those little animations and thought it would be great to make some myself if only to get away from the one week turn around of getting the super 8 film developed from Kodak. Which now that I think about it was pretty fast. That included shipping AND the developing time.

Also film cost money. I think it was five dollars for two and a half minutes of film. That was a lot of money back then (to a kid anyway). Computer animation could be played back in real time. You could see what you had done instantly. That was the dream anyway.

In reality the coding took longer than expected and I ended up wondering if it was all worth it. That's when Tron came out. It was a film that justified my obsessive collecting of all and any books or magazines on the subject of 3D computer graphics. From the architectural article of Evans and Sutherland in Scientific American to the IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications magazine with the monthly column by James Blinn. I attempted to collect and absorb all the information I could come into contact with regarding this new form of technology.

I loved computer animation back then, the shiny metallic, plastic looking shapes and images. Movies after Tron seemed to come out one right after another. The Last Starfighter, the Genesis project from the Wrath of Khan... and then the unthinkable happened.

Lawnmower man was released in the theaters, the ugliest form of CG to come out at the time. Everything was busy and over textured. The art of computer animation was becoming stale and crappy. In my head, The people that loved doing the work were being replaced by accountant types creating crap to make a quick buck and cash in on this new trend. There didn't seem to be as much care put into the art anymore.

Attending Siggraph (special interest group on computer graphics - yes that's how nerdy I am) conferences over the years also reflected this. The first year I went to a Siggraph conference was in Dallas. It was 1990. Everyone I met that year seemed super uber keen on whatever they were doing. From small animations, to creating lenticular photos, to 3D knee simulations. You could tell the people loved what they were doing just by the enthusiasm in their voice and the wild arm movement. The high light was getting my foot accidentally stepped on by James Blinn while waiting at the bus stop. (I named my pet hamster after the guy)

As the years passed, the people attending Siggraph changed. The hippie that was coding cool stuff just because he could was being replaced by booth babes and guys in suits. There were less people on the floor that actually did any coding. Seeing the booth babes in the conference was great eye candy even if their main function was to get the nerdy guys interested in whatever the product they were selling no matter how much that product was unknown to them. But for the most part the nerdiness and spirit was gone, there were more sales people concentrating on the dollars, or selling other peoples work. The love for the art of coding and computer graphics was gone.

There was the exception. One company in particular stood out. A company that brought out it's own rendering engine. It was Pixar with renderman. You could tell there was something more going on at that company than just trying to make a quick buck. Attention to detail, custom coding, talking to the people that worked there (people like Dan). It was amazing.

Since then there have been a lot of computer graphics in movies and TV but it's rare to see anything spectacular anymore. We're so used to CG in our movie going entertainment. Terminator 2 was one of the last live action movies that comes to mind where I thought "Oh wow cool and holy crap".

You know a visual effect was great when they over use it in commercials and bastardize it. Visual effects and computer graphics in the hands of accountants and people that really don't understand the use of it. Like morphing instead of using a cross dissolve or the 3D bad boy commercials. If you haven't seen the Bad Boy commercials then consider yourself lucky. Ugh.

Pixar is the only company that brings out films on a regular basis with amazing computer generated graphics. I'm not saying that because of Dan, I'm saying that because the CG looks great and it's well thought out. Great art direction, nice composition, good use of the medium. I love that stuff. Watching those movies brings me back to the early days of Tron and the magic of the 25 cent arcades, back when computer graphics were being done by all the geeky people that loved it so much that they spent hours into the night coding new code. All just to show us something new. That's the magic of it all.

As for Tron Legacy, will I see it? Of course I will. Just for the reminiscing value alone it'll be worth it.

Photos and tooth

2009-08-26T10:00:00.005-04:00

View from Leona and Adam's apartment

I spent the day working on the final touches for the delivery of Leona and Adam’s photos. That wedding that happened all those days ago. The netbook originally being a band-aid solution to my laptop blowing up had now become my main photo editing machine. Who knew? The finalized sifting and sorting and color correcting, it did it all except maybe a tad slower.

My toothache had become less painful. Oh yeah, did I not mention my tooth started giving me shooting pains yesterday? Uh, no. Probably why there's no blog entry. I was rolling around in pain. Woke up with the lower jaw throbbing. It was hard to think about anything else. Not sure what happened. I was fine when I went to sleep the night before.

Just to be sure it wasn't some random temporary oddity I spent the day seeing if it would go away. Sleeping most of the time and waking up to see if I could eat anything. It didn't go away and I didn't eat much. It was still bothering me today but to a lesser extent. Maybe the nerve that was being triggered was getting dulled. It only annoyed me while eating or talking. I managed to make an appointment with the dentist tomorrow for 3pm. Yay!

I also managed to get over to Leona and Adam's to deliver the photos.

School of Fart

2009-08-24T19:00:00.001-04:00

"Uh, hello? This is a design school right?"

On my way home from working on "Turn the beat around" some movie for MTV I noticed this poster on the subway wall. I realize I'm treading the realm of Beavis and Butthead but really, I can't be the only one that sees that, can I?

What kind of makes this more funny, to me, is that it's an advertisement for a design school. How did that get past the uppity ups? Then again it's working. I wouldn't have posted this otherwise. Free advertising for them... maybe they're smarter than we think? Nah.

Sunday Sleep and Chicken Soup

2009-08-23T19:00:00.006-04:00

Chicken soup made in a crock pot (slow cooker)

I spent most of the day sleeping. While I woke up at 7:00am, it was still too early to meet everyone for the Detroit/TORD brunch. I needed to do stuff and stay awake for another 3 hours. I jumped on working on some wedding photos to pass the time.

While letting the computer batch process some color correction schemes I set up I went back to bed to lie down. To rest my eyes. Yeah sure. I opened my eyes five hours later at 2pm. I missed the brunch.

The highlight of the day ended up with me going grocery shopping. Specifically to pick up ingredients for making a chicken noodle soup from scratch. It would be another crock pot master piece. Some chicken, celery, carrots, mushrooms, onions, chives, garlic, and pasta all thrown in with some water.

12 hours later... presto chango... chicken soup.

ToRD vs Detroit

2009-08-22T12:23:00.007-04:00

MegaBouche waves to the camera

More accurately it's ToRD's CN Power (travel team) vs the Disassembly Line from Detroit. The Detroit girls had just come in from Hamilton where they scrimmaged last night with the Hammer City Roller Girls. Along with them came some of the Hamilton girls to cheer them on.

I should be noted that while small in numbers (and some in size) Hammer City can be pretty vocal and loud when they want to be. Up against the ToRD fans they're like the fans made with the genetic make up of Spartan warriors only in vocal form.

Ivy Rupted alone could take on the whole room by herself. I know. I've seen it done. This is one of the reasons why Hammer City loves her.

AK coaches the Detroit girls

Pre-game warm up.

Girls from the Hammer come to Toronto to cheer on Detroit

The Detroit bench

Cranky Pants gets the crowd going

A whip

A beeramid

D-minus talking to the Hammer City Fans

A pyramid for the Disassembly Line with Ivy on the top.

Land Shark

Candy Crossbones skates the outside around the pack

Me and the super cool Detroit photographer Colin (www.whimshot.com) tonight's 50/50 draw winner.

Furious George excited about the win.

Final Score
CN Power 122
Disassembly line 90

Queen Street West

2009-08-21T10:00:00.003-04:00

Emmanuel aka Motivatorman at Starbucks

Woke up pretty early in the relative scheme of things. Met up with Emmanuel at a local Starbuck’s. When ended up at the trendy coffee place because our usual haunt, the Stem, was closed. Closed why? Don’t know. It seemed to have that under construction look to it as I wandered by.

Bird house? When did that get placed there?

After doing a bit of catch up. I spent a few hours walking down Queen street. It’s been a while since I visited that neighbourhood. There was a bird house added to the local tree stump, a Bad Girls sign, and Pages shutting down.

Hmmm.

Pages closing at the end of the month.

Pages is one of those stores that I’d go to look at coffee table type photography books. They also had a great magazine section for fashion, more diverse selection than that of Chapters or Indigo. The books were all 30% off. I saw a think magazine (about $30) covering London fall/winter fashion. I think it included Tyoko, Paris and Milan as well. I missed London Fashion week this year. Looking through the book reminded me of all friends in London I hadn't talked to in a while and the designers collections that I didn't get to photgraph. Like the store closing, it was a bit depressing.

Goat Roti at Coconut Grove

This led me to walk up to the coconut grove. A restaurant that I used to eat at while going to Ryerson. They've moved since then and are located on Dundas just east of University. I ordered the goat roti.

It was a lot softer than I remembered. Still tasty, but soft.

Hurricane Bill

2009-08-20T20:00:00.000-04:00

Camera color correction set to daylight. This is the actual color of the sky.

Spent most of the day installing photo software on to the netbook. With the laptop in the shop I would quickly get behind on my photo sifting, editing, posting, It’s been two and a half weeks since RollerCon and I’m still sifting through those photos! On top of that there’s still wedding photos from the previous month that I’ll have to deliver soon. (I'm actually surprised Leona hasn't bugged me for them yet)

News about a storm approaching Atlantic Canada by the name of Hurricane Bill was on the television. As we’re not really that close, we’re not close at all to the Atlantic ocean, news of the hurricane is just news. At least until a bunch of clouds descended on to our city showering us with horizontal rain. The Durham region had a tornado touch down causing a bunch of damage. As for us who were living downtown, we experienced really weird lighting.

Pumpkin left out in the horizontal rain

It was like an orange gel had been put over everything. I looked out the window with Martina, my downstairs neighbour, and then went outside just to make sure what I was seeing was correct. It wasn’t some weird glaze that was put on our windows.

It really was yellow/orange, like the sun became a large tungsten light bulb. Pumpkin who had been left out looked pissed off. Soaked to the bone the cat meowed “Why me? “ and then the “Do I get food for experiencing all this?”. At least that’s what I’d imagined he was meowing. I’m no cat whisperer, but the cat seems to have a one track mind.

The lawn is wet

I walked around the front lawn taking photos, then took the cat inside to dry him with a towel, then placed the cat back outside.

The Drop off

2009-08-19T15:00:00.003-04:00

Roger with his crazy macro lens camera

I finished backing up the laptop and brought it into the Computer Systems Center. It's wasn't my first choice as far as computer stores go as they've done some pretty bad things to me in the past. However they were the only Toshiba authorized repair shop in the city that I could find. (Note: searching the Toshiba online database does not bring up the store - I should have took this as a hint not to bring my laptop there)

My guy behind the desk who took my computer seemed okay. In fact better than okay. After listening to my description of the problem he figured it was possibly a combination of dust build up and the heat of the room that messed up the computer. Since the computer still booted and worked for about 20 minutes he deduced that it was a heat issue. Made sense to me.

I left the computer, much like a parent leaves their toddler at day care for the first time, thinking that the laptop is in good hands and I shouldn't worry.

I wandered over to Monster Records to say "Hi" to Roger.

Laptop Backup

2009-08-18T17:35:00.005-04:00

Using the new netbook to back up files from the laptop drive.

Spent the entire day backing up and reorganizing data from the laptop hard drive. Did not see the light of day. Boo.

Big Fat Burrito

2009-08-17T12:00:00.002-04:00

Chicken Burrito at Big Fat Burrito

It should be known that before one takes their computer (or in this case laptop) in for repairs one should do as much as possible to back up any data that's on the computer. This way A) the service center can do whatever they want to the computer without you losing data, B) they can't take your data for the use of bad things like identity theft, C) your data doesn't end up on the internet without you knowing about it (like that photo of you drunk at that wedding standing in the washroom with one foot in the toilet - yeah you know what I'm talking about). If that photo makes it to the internet you should get full credit for putting it there not someone else.

The process of back up can be long and tedious. My computer went down a week ago. It's taken me this long to find the time to go to assess what's gone on and visit a computer store. Specifically to get backup drives, memory and other things to swap into the laptop just to make sure everything I can do to fix it or narrow down the problem.

Computer repair places usually charge by the hour and if they don't it's easier for them to know if the memory is bad than just dropping the computer in their laps saying something is wrong.

My visit to Canada Computers was quick. I picked up some replacement parts and went to look for food. I ended up at Big Fat Burrito, picked up a large chicken burrito, then bumped into Nikki from the Death Track Dolls.

Nikki from ToRDs Death Track Dolls

A bumper sticker that made me laugh

After eating the burrito I returned home to spend the rest of the day working on the laptop.

New Skids vs Queen City

2009-08-16T18:00:00.011-04:00

The Hamtrealto Superfriends

The New Skids on the Block or known today as the Hamtrealto Superfriends played a game against the Queen City Roller Derby Girls today in Buffalo, make that North Tonawanda. After playing against Hamilton yesterday some of the Skids had to head back to Montreal. So in order to fill up the roster some girls from Hammer City and Rebel Rock-it from Toronto donned the New Skids uniform for the day.

The Hammer City contingent consisted of Eduskating Rita, Perky Set, and Big Tickets. Us non-skaters (at least for today) and the entire cheering section for Hamtrealto were Jett Girl, Son of a Bitch, and me sitting right in the middle of the room between corners two and three. The rest of the venue was packed with Queen City fans. Loud, crazy, fun, fans!

Queen City Roller Derby Girls

It was times like this where I wished we grabbed Paul Bearer from singing karoake this morning to go with us. His set of lungs would have been great here. The game was close with Queen City trailing Hamtrealto after the first period by only 6 points. While in the lead the cheering Queen City fans muffled us considerably. Once Hamtrealto pulled ahead the venue was silent with the exception of Jett Girl, Son of a Bitch, and I screaming our heads off that is.

There were some really good plays. At one point Jess Bandit and Nameless Whorror were the only two Hamtrealto skaters on the track, they sped up making it difficult for the Queen City jammer to score. Jett Girl and I shouted "go, go, go!!! SKATE FASTER!!!", "Yay Skids!"

Tommy Toxic, Null Ptr Ref, and Pat Smear

Perky Set (pi)

Ninja Simone (23)

Ace Bandage, her last game as a ref.

Lip Service (360) speeds around the track as lead jammer

During the game Eduskate wowed us with two jams where she scored the whole four points in each jam. “Go Rita!!” we yelled as she skated by. My voice was starting to go. I should stick to using noise makers or the duck whistle.

Despite the pain of losing my voice both Jett Girl and I were screaming at the top of our lungs for most of the second period. “go, go, GO!!!”, "Go Eduskate!!", “Go Perky!!”, “Go Tush!!!”. I don't think I've ever cheered louder at any other game. There were only three of us and we had to make up for all of Hamilton, Montreal and Toronto that were missing the game. Channelling that I yelled my last "GO MONTreaaaaah...". My voice died.

The turning point in the game was while the jammer for Queen City was in the penalty box. Georgia W. Tush was jamming and scored 15 points. 15 points with her bad knee and after recovering from the party the night before. 15 points with her jamming most of the game because Hamtrealto only had 9 players to Queen City's 14.

The Hamtrealto wall

Perky Set (pi) makes her way through the pack

Eduskating Rita (2009), lead jammer

Lip Service (360) manoeuvres around Rebel Rock-it (7)

Georgia W. Tush (40 oz) skates like a machine

Georgia W Tush attempting to pass on the outside

Final Score
Queen City Roller Girls 69
New Skids on the Block 85

"Yea!!!!!". I think I started to tear up.

The Hamtrealto SuperFriends and the Queen City Roller Derby Girls

Same as above but with with refs and the cool announcers!

Icing the injured leg. "I'm surprised it didn't fall off."

Post game celebrations were held at the after party in the same venue. This was nice and convenient as the Hamtrealto skaters were tired and had a long trip back to Montreal, Hamilton and Toronto. Any time saving measures getting to the after party was appreciated.

The Queen City Roller Derby girls had a nice buffet type style spread of salad, pasta and meatballs. I was impressed that they let the visiting team, us, have first crack at it. They were great hosts.

Yummy eats courtesy of the Queen City Roller Derby Girls.

Refuelling for the long trip back to Montreal

The drink counter

After chowing down it was back on the road. We said good bye to the Montrealers who had a seven hour trip ahead of them, got in the pick up truck and returned to Toronto.

Fireworks at the US/Canada border

We are here.

On the Road to the Rainbow Rink

2009-08-16T06:00:00.022-04:00

Got up at 6am this morning. My hour long limited amount of sleep was made even shorter by hearing people downstairs singing to rock band. Specifically the song “Lean on me” with the main vocals being thrown around by Paul Bearer. His voice resonated around the upper floors of the house with the help of backup vocals from a bunch of the other sloshed and musically unidentifiable guests.

Surprisingly I actually felt like I had good sleep. The bed helped. For someone that slept from 5am to 6am, I was alert, could see clearly, and had a schedule to adhere to. The next step was to see if Rebel Rock-it would wake up. This task was given to Charlotte Bruise-a-lot who was still awake, she offered to go into the room where Rebel was sleeping to see if she could get her out of bed.

Rebel and I had to make the journey back to Toronto and double back to go to Buffalo. Why? Because I left my passport at home and because Rebel left her skates and gear in Toronto not knowing she was going to skate in with the Skids. Personally, I should glue the passport to me for future cross border excursions.

Everything went like clock work. Rebel woke up, we said our good byes, got into a cab, and were waiting on the front steps of Jett Girl and Perky’s house in record time. This is where we would meet up with some of the Montreal roller girls who were going back to Montreal via Toronto and catch a lift. We were early.

We didn’t want to wake them up before the assigned time of meeting so we sat on the porch and waited. 20 minutes went by before we heard their alarm go off. Then there was a bit of mumbling, then nothing, then groggy mummers of tired skaters. At precisely 6:45am, the time we agreed to meet, I knocked on the door. They were surprised that we made it on time. Actually, I think they were surprised that we made it at all.

Wrath Poutine amazed that we showed up... and on time.

Walking toward the car

Making room for the Toronto travellers

Chips for breakfast?

Making calls trying to track down clothing and skate gear

Wrath Poutine, had realized she left her clothing and skate gear in a trunk of a car which had made it’s way to Toronto. What luck. This would be another reason for the Montreal girls to make a small detour into Toronto other than to just drop us off.

Back seat

Front seat

Dropping Rebel off

Got the goods

"Bye and thanks!"

After dropping off Rebel in her neighbourhood and picking up Poutine’s skates and clothing, I was driven over to Castlefrank station (in Toronto), the TTC stop just before the Don Valley Parkway on ramp and the route toward Montreal. It was 8:30am. It was Sunday. The doors of the station were locked. The trains were not operating until 9:00am on Sunday. Whoops. A small oversight.

The alternative to the train were the two buses that were going east across the street. D'oh! I just missed them. I ended up hailing a cab.

15 minutes and eleven dollars later I was at home. I packed stuff for the trip to the States, my passport, GPS, extra camera batteries, and my zip lock bag of American money. It would be a few hours before Rebel dropped by with her pickup truck so I took a nap.

At 12:30pm, I woke up to text directions to the house so Rebel could meet me. At 1pm she arrived with the truck.

Stupid hair! later fixed with brand new white sunglasses

The trip to the rink had only two hiccups. This first being pulled over by the border guard. He told us “It’s your lucky day.”. I wonder if he thought that comment was funny? I also wondered how many people he would use that line on for the rest of the day. We spent about 20 minutes in a waiting room while they were outside checking the truck. They came in and let us go. Overall it wasn't that bad.

Food stop on our way to Buffalo

Some car on the side of the highway

As for the second hiccup, I had entered the address wrong into the GPS. Instead of "101 Oliver street, North Tonawanda", I typed in "101 Oliver street north, Tonawanda", an address that didn't exist. So we went to 101 Oliver street in Buffalo which also didn't exist. FRAN¹, the GPS, took us to a swimming pool.

With the help from Tush and a few cell phone texts we figured out my mistake and arrived at the Rainbow Rink at 5:15pm. Fifteen minutes before the doors opened to the public.

The Rainbow Rink in North Tonawanda (not Buffalo)

Scott (the Montreal announcer), Pat (Montreal Ref), and Rebel Rock-it in the parking lot

J.P.

Charlotte Bruise-a-lot (in the car) feels ill.

¹ FRAN - a name given to my GPS by Ivy Rupted. I came up with the acronym "Find Restaurants And Navigate" later.

HCRG vs SKIDS after party

2009-08-15T22:00:00.014-04:00

This ain't Hollywood.

The after party. Generally after ever derby game there's an after party. A close by restaurant, bar, sports bar, multiple bars that are gotten to via shuttle bus, old theatre, there's a whole world of possibilities. The after party might even take place in the same venue. Move the derby rink, throw down a few chairs and tables, Viola!

The after party allows the teams (and sometimes fans) to interact and get to know each other, drink, and party their faces off. This is something that really makes derby the sport that it is. It shouldn't be taken lightly or brushed aside as a bunch of drunk people simply having fun.

A bunch of girls can take down the other team on the track but still have cheers and beers afterwards while admiring the other teams skills and skating abilities. The after party is part of the teams ability to extend the sportsmanship that is unique to derby. (If your derby teams wins in a visiting city do you have to worry about your car being on fire from the losing team? no? Then I rest my case)

What is this?

As an observer of this cross border partying over the years the two teams that seem to consistently win the after party (have the most fun, feature the most creative hijinks, stay up the latest, last longest, and function properly the next day) in all of derby land have got to be the Hammer City Roller Girls and the Montreal Roller Derby.

Disclaimer: Now before someone from either city interjects that one is way more off the charts than the other or that there's no way Montreal or Hammer City can be the after party winners compared to city X with derby league Y, I have to say that this is solely based on my experience running from city to city along the various derby circuits. If there is another league boosting this, invite me over, and we'll compare.

So what's the secret ingredient that makes these two teams stand out over all else? A quick glance one might guess it's got something to do with the higher alcohol percentage in the beer north of the American/Canadian border. It could be something based from living in Canada.

Whatever the X factor is, the fact remains that the two crazy teams were getting together in the same place for the same after party. Watch out! Crazy good times ahead!

The fun, the food.

The third of the series

Is this a Roller Derby only event or can anyone join?

We miss Scora Luchadora.

Derby life lesson "Don't cry over spilt beer, grab a straw and suck it up."

Hula hoop dance off

Jess Bandit and Ivy Rupted

A well liked Tommy Toxic

After partying it up at This ain't Hollywood, the party moved over to Danger Mouse and Paul Bearer's house. The after after party had begun. A combination of blabbing, rock party, drinking and eating went into the night.

It was before all the partying began, like right after the game, that Rebel Rock-it and I decided we'd follow the Montrealers to Buffalo the next day for the match against Queen City...

(to be continued)

Rock Band at the after after party

Still partying into the night...

HCRG vs SKIDS 2009

2009-08-15T11:00:00.016-04:00

Brunch in Hamilton at the Cat and Fiddle.

My two favorite roller derby teams Hammer City and Montreal were playing today in what was to be the first all Canadian WFTDA sanctioned bout! Unfortunately the official WFTDA part wasn’t going to happen due to not enough WFTDA skaters from Montreal making the trip. D'oh!

The day started off by meeting up with the Hammer City skaters for brunch. Joining them was a last minute decision on my part and a lucky thing too as I would have made my way to the wrong venue otherwise. The game wasn’t at the Dave Anderchuck (or Mountain) arena like it had been for the rest of the season but at the Market street arena in Dundas.

I ended up getting a lift from Pulled Pork a relatively new ref for Hamilton. There was a cactus festival going on so we were told to get to the arena early to find parking.

Dicey (905) gets interviewed before the game

The arena was incredibly hot and quite dim (at least for us photographing the game).

photographers tip: It’s always good to ask the head maintenance guy at a arena if the lights can get brighter. There is sometimes various settings that the lights can be set at and usually they will be set to the lowest setting to save power and in this case to produce less heat. The difference can be a few stops which can make your photos go from dark and muddy to dim and sharper. It should also be noted that lights sometimes take as much as half an hour to reach their full brightness and color temperature.

At one point during the game I stood up and everything started to get fuzzy and dark. Heat exhaustion? Most likely. I don't know how the girls skates under those conditions and why weren't any of the side doors opened?

Georgia W. Tush (40 oz) indulges my request to leap in the air for another submission to Sin City Skates "Got Air" contest. I didn't know at the time that I had already won it. Wowee!

The New Skids on the Block

The game was close, bouncing between Hammer City and Montreal. It was near the end of the game, the score was almost tied that Wrath Poutine managed to score 8 points and win the game for Montreal.

Jess Bandit (-8)

Perky Set (pi) says "Hi" to the Skids

Some of the Harlot Alumni

Toronto fans!

Little Mean Mama (0) flies

Cut off (706) does derby ballet

Tommy Toxic and Tropi Kill Punch your sin bin workers

Wrath Poutine (Dirty 30) lead jammer, point scorer

Charlotte Bruise a lot and Jess Bandit peer from the bench

Derby yoga?

Miss Carriage (33 1/3) at the bench

Vicadoom (420) races around the track tailed by Wrate Poutine (Dirty 30)

Georgia W. Tush (40 oz)

Smack Daddy (XXX) takes a flying leap

Wrath Poutine (Dirty 30) gets eight points to advance Montreal

I'm not sure what's going on here.

Watching the bout

Dicey (905)

Bouncing off Tush

Wrath Poutine (Dirty 30)

Carla Coma (624) up against Wrath Poutine (Dirty 30)

Dicey (905) makes a move to block Trash N' Smash (1.8 L)

Georgia W. Tush hugs Miss Carriage

Carla Coma sad that HCRG lost the game

Final score
Hammer City Eh Team 80
Montreal New Skids on the Block 84

Nasher's Birthday

2009-08-14T22:00:00.009-04:00

I woke up and it was still hot today. I spent most of the morning working on laptop diagnostics. After a few hours of different configurations I have come to the conclusion that a bank of memory had fried causing weird warnings and crashes. I’m surprised that the bios ram check doesn’t pick up stuff like that.

I managed to get the thing booted and started a virus check running before heading to the Rhino and Nashers birthday party.

I still have to burn the photos from the Vegas wedding to disc. I also still have to burn a disc for Pittsburgh.

Chicks Ahoy's Nasher The Smasher

3:20am

Now on the bloor blue night bus on the way back home. Just left a cab with Tera, Megan, and her brother. The bus is pretty crowed for a Friday night. Standing room only. Will get home and fire up the laptop which should be shut down by now from the virus checking software.

Have to work on Tush’s Wedding photos and if I have time will attempt to upload more RollerCon photos to the blog.

Cupcake

2009-08-13T22:50:00.008-04:00

Cupcake tries to run behind a column... too slow.

I met up with my friend, goes by the name of cupcake, who I haven't seen in quite a while. Live and in person that is. We met up, went for dim sum, and did some catching up. It's the first time I've seen her sans children. That last time I saw without kids around, her kids, was before the first one (Asha) was born. Seems like a long time ago.

Meanwhile back at home I found the cat, Pumpkin, lounging on the steps. I opened the door and he got up only to reconfigure himself into a different sleep position.

Pumpkin spanning across the stairway

Pumpkin sleeps.

Pulled Pork

2009-08-12T22:24:00.006-04:00

Pulled pork sandwich

Every wednesday for the last few weeks a small contingent of jazz performers play at the park just north of where I live. A bunch of the neighbours meet there to take in the music and maybe grab a pulled pork sandwich from one of the vendors (only $3).

Baby Carl

Carl makes a grab for the camera

The ice cream truck

It's getting near the end of the summer as the ice cream truck now arrives as the sun is going down.

Blonde John back in town

2009-08-11T16:00:00.008-04:00

Sipping a drink at Harvey's

My friend John is visiting from New Zealand. His sister is getting married so he's here for the wedding. We ended up going to Harvey's as it was the closest place that had veggie burgers.

Taste of the soggy Danforth

2009-08-09T22:07:00.004-04:00

Black storm clouds move southward across the Bloor viaduct.

After seeing G.I. Joe at the silver city theatre up on Yonge and Eglington, I, for some reason decided to walk home. All together it took 3 hours which included stopping at a new pita place for a chicken shawarma. The weather was great until I got to the Bloor viaduct.

As I walked along the bridge you could see the black clouds rolling in. They were accompanied by strong gusts of wind, some light drizzle, lightning and thunder.

Looking back west the clouds are moving fast

lightning in the distance

The Don Valley Parkway

The street lamps at Broadview holding the "Taste of the Danforth" banner were shaking from being blown by the wind. Seconds later, the rain came down... in buckets. KaBoom! People were running away off the street trying to take shelter. It was like a bomb went off in the distance.

Within seconds I was soaked from head to feet. The rain had penetrated my shoes making it feel like I was stepping on wet sponges. It didn't matter if I stepped in a puddle two centimeters or two feet I could couldn't get any more wet.

Soaked people on the Danforth wait under building entrances

I pulled out the rain cover on my camera case and kept walking. I had the luxury of being about 15 to 20 minutes until I got home. A nice dry place with big fat towels. Along the way I stopped at an ice cream truck. I think I spooked the driver. He was reading the newspaper and probably wasn't expecting anyone to knock on his window let alone order an ice cream cone.

He didn't open the window, just shooed me away. Probably didn't want the rain to get in and get him wet. Boo. I got home sans ice cream.

Death Track Dolls VS Gore Gore Girls

2009-08-08T19:15:00.013-04:00

Up until today I've been noticing that I've been getting lazy photographing derby. Well bouts anyway. Not enough different angles, not enough close ups, etc, etc.

Just as I started feeling the magic, getting into the photographic groove so to speak, the sun went down... ugh.

Someone once said that it's better to get a shot with red eye than no shot at all. I took that to heart for the last half and kept shooting. Still it would have been better if I brought some portable flashes. Ah well... next time.

Look close... it's a tiny harmonica

The end

FINAL SCORE
Death Track Dolls 71
Gore gore girls 151

Roller Derby 1, Wedding 0

2009-08-07T13:30:00.002-04:00

Lisa is getting married August 15th, 2009

This is Lisa. I've known her since way back while taking applied computer science. We first met, really met, when she went to punch a guy named Andrew in the gut. Only he wasn't there. I was. I dropped like a sack of potatoes. We've been friends ever since.

Lisa is getting married on the 15th of august of this year. It's too bad I didn't know about this back in April/May when the roller derby schedule came out. I could have gone. The wedding conflicts with Hammer City's first WFTDA game against Montreal. The first All-Canadian WFTDA bout ever.

Short of death in the family there's no way I'd miss that game. Truth be told it would really depend on what family members died as well. Attending funerals has never been my priority. If you can't make time for them when they're alive then why make time for them when they've passed away? Okay granted, being there for the survivors might be a good thing.

And so I spent today with Lisa enjoying lunch in lieu of going to her wedding. We ended up at the vegetarian restaurant King's Cafe on Augusta.

My sister at Swatow

2009-08-07T01:30:00.002-04:00

Jane Luk at Swatow

Still running on the same sleep schedule I woke up pretty late, around 11pm. Not feeling like cooking anything I decided to take a trip downtown and visit Swatow. It's been a while since going there.

The waiter said I was late and that my sister was waiting at a table. I didn't clue in right away. I was still a bit groggy. Turns out Jane Juk was there with some theatre people. I'm not sure when or for how long this has been going on but for some reason the restaurant crew think Jane and I are sister and brother of one another.

By the way I ordered the usual 111a, better known as the shrimp and lobster sauce on rice.

Shrimp and lobster sauce on rice (menu item 111A)

Rebel Rock-it's Birthday

2009-08-05T23:00:00.008-04:00

Birthday party at Disgraceland

My sleep schedule since I've been back has been nutty. I woke up just in time to go to Rebel Rock-it's birthday at a bar called Disgracelend. It should be noted that they have veggie corn dogs there.

Veggie corn dog.

Burger and coleslaw

After eating a corn dog and a burger we went next door to Hurricane's and participated in some karaoke. Some of the girls sang the song "Summer nights" from Grease and then they all got up to sing "Rebel Rebel" while Rebel sat in front of them in a chair.

Karaoke at Hurricane's

The Karaoke host (at least while we were there) did not play Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" so a bunch of us sang it anyway over the music of something else. That being the last song we then returned to Disgraceland to see them close up.

Rebel Rebel

Singing "Don't stop believin'" without musical backup.

Back at Disgraceland

Rain, smog, cool weather

2009-08-04T14:00:00.006-04:00

Yonge street

It's raining today. Buckets. I can't believe it. What timing. Just when I get back. It's amazing!!

After being in a desert for a week and dehydrating each time I went outside, the rain and moisture is a welcome gift from nature. Wet shoes, soggy feet and being drenched head to toe. Yay for rain!

While walking home a car beeped at me. It was Brenton. He had just gotten his hair cut and asked if I needed a lift. By this point I was completely drenched. It was only another half hour to get home and I didn't want to get his car wet.

Brenton says "Hi"

Brenton's new doo.

The neighbourhood still looked that same. It had only been a week that I was away. Kyoko (landlord) was driving in a new car and Jeff was washing the organic bucket in a suit. Nothing crazy and Twilight Zoney. It's good to be home.

Kyoko and Chris' new car.

Jeff cleaning the organic waste bin

United we stand... and wait

2009-08-03T08:25:00.018-04:00

The line up for San Francisco.

The trip back started off pretty underwhelming. Starting with an surprise $50 charge for my luggage (that should have already been paid for) , $20 for the first piece and $30 for the second. What the heck? My flight via air canada covered the luggage costs. I had checked in advance. But no, the machine giving out my United airlines boarding pass wasn't letting me get my ticket without paying again for the luggage. To make sure I tried going through the automated teller's interface twice. Ugh.

I arrived at gate D52, I was tired, hungry, and less then happy. Looking over at the counter I noticed the time. It was 08:25, I was over two hours early for my flight. At the desk there was a line of people, two of them from RollerCon, one of them was S.O.

She was supposed to get on the 08:33 plane to San Francisco but was waiting behind some other people at the desk. While she and her friend waited I watched the clock slowly click over to 08:33. The flight status sign changed over from "ON TIME" to "DEPARTED". They did not board the plane.

After some investigating I found that they didn't hear their boarding call. They were sitting at the slot machines located a few meters away from the departure gate and didn't hear anything. No boarding call, no final boarding call, nothing from the gate D52 announcer.

As someone that just popped in as an observer you might think this was an isolated incident with two women who were consumed playing the slots. Maybe they didn't hear the boarding call because they were surrounded by the loud slot machines or were consumed by gambling? Your perspective changes slightly when you find out that not only did they not get on the plane but a total of 25 people missed their flight, that same flight, for the same reason. Now you wonder if United actually made a boarding announcement at all.

SO and the other 24 passengers had to fly stand by. Meaning they had to wait for the next few planes to fly them to their destination. Of course that also meant missing connecting flights and having to wait for those all well. It's irritating to think that by getting to the airport early, hours early, that something like this could happen. Having the flight staff blame the situation on you, the passenger, didn't help.

With that knowledge in mind I set my watch and went off to get food. There was no way I was going to rely on non-existent announcements or the non-caring flight staff to board my plane.

$11 burger from Ruby's

I ended up going to Ruby's Diner, a fancy 50s diner looking burger establishment. There really wasn't much choice in the matter. Much like most airports, once you're near the gate you're departing from you're boxed in to a certain area. Depending on your luck you can have good food or not so good food.

As it turned out, I had lucked out. Ruby's was a nice bright environment. I sat down at the counter while waiting for my food order. The employees were quite entertaining to watch. The banter between one of the cooks and a waitress had a bunch of us waiting customers laughing. One customer said "Just propose to her already". I received my burger and left before finding out the outcome.

Beats per minute, with her Elvis glasses and chops

I got back to Gate 52 to see Beats per minute and the two skaters that were waiting on standby. Originally I wanted to fly through San Francisco instead of LAX. Mainly because of the sushi restaurant that was located there. Unfortunately when I booked, going through LAX was the only option left.

Waiting for the next flight

While talking to B.P.M. I noticed a bunch of people lining up at my departure gate. I didn't hear anything. No announcement, nothing. The announcer for gate D53 was audible but nothing for gate D52. I looked over and noticed the desk guy at D52 blabbing into a mic but I wasn't hearing anything.

I said good bye and lined up asking if the plane was boarding. They said yes and that they announced the boarding call a few minutes ago. I told them that I didn't hear anything and that they should check their speaker system because gate D53 was coming in loud and clear. Their response was pretty lack luster. "Well, we made the announcement." I was going to try to verbally pound the fact that the speaker system should be checked but was too tired. I just wanted to go home. I got on the flight and slept all the way to LAX.

LAX

The 2 on the sign means you're standing in Terminal 2.

If ever there was an airport that needed better signage it would be LAX. In my limited traveling it's got the second worse signage only to Vancouver. I suppose it depends on where you're travelling and to be fair Vancouver was undergoing construction for the upcoming Olympics.

TRAVEL TIP
The tags (stickers) you get for your baggage tell you where the baggage is going. If you have a non-direct flight check these stickers. They will tell you if you have to pick up your baggage or if the airport personal will unload and reload them onto your other plane at the airport(s) along your journey.

I was not aware of this. Going to Portland from Toronto, after landing in Vancouver, I had to grab my luggage and recheck them. International flights can be a bit tricky as there's customs that you have to deal with as well.

I found out about the tags by talking to the United baggage help desk lady after exploring around the airport a while. Did I say signage was a problem? I stumbled onto the United airlines help desk by accident, the only person that was there was another passenger that needed help. She had been at the desk long enough to determine that no one was working there.

From there I made my way to the baggage carousel just in case my baggage was waiting for me. It was next to there that I found the United baggage help desk and there a very curt, pissed off woman. I don't think she wanted to be there. It's possible that answering mundane questions from clueless travellers was getting to her.

When I asked her about my luggage she said "Did you look at the luggage tags?". She grabbed the boarding pass from me with the tags and said "They are loaded onto the plane. Go to terminal 2.". She didn't tell me how she read the tags or where terminal 2 was. When I asked where terminal 2 was she, without saying anything, pointed to the help desk.

By contrast the help desk guy was quite helpful and pleasant. He had a map to show where we were and told me quite clearly how to get to terminal 2. Looking at the map everything seemed so easy. Maybe that's why they have maps of different airports in your flight magazine.

I memorized the map then went off to terminal 2. With a little help from a guy asking for spare change I managed to find terminal 2. Again, clear signage would be nice. Getting to the terminal was no problem but I was trying to figure a way to get in. All the doors were only opening up from the inside. A guy eating lunch helped me out. A small nondescript elevator took me up a level to the departure area. The doors opened from the outside.

It was there that I found the air canada desk. I wonder if I was exuding a being lost look? The air canada personal were quite nice. It was such a difference from the United airlines people. They looked at my board pass and printed me a new one then another person ushered me toward the boarding gate entrance.

It should be noted that it really doesn't take much to make a person's trip a great one. The person travelling is usually tired or confused. It's a new place for them generally. There's different customs, signage, dealing with people, etc. What may seem obvious to a person that works somewhere every day may not be that obvious to a new person that's travelling. Listening to questions and giving answers to those questions no matter how obvious the answers may be really does help. The Air Canada people really made my day. I was actually in a better mood.

Oven roasted chicken, mushroom and onion melt with soft drink

I was also starving. Again, not a whole lot to choose from. I ended up going to Wolfgang Puck and getting an oven roasted chicken, mushroom and onion melt ($11.30). From there a wait at the departure gate for two and a half hours.

LAX waiting area.

As I went to sit down someone shouted "RollerCon!". I looked over to see sone girls from Calgary that wanted to go to RollerCon but went to L.A. instead. They were just boarding their flight and I had just enough time to take their photo (see below) and give them my card.

Roller girls from Calgary.

Killing time on the internet.

The Air Canada flight was great. I slept the entire way back, waking up for the odd snack or glass of water. While waiting for the luggage to show up at the luggage claim area I bumped into Bill, the director of Foolproof, turns out we were on the same flight. I hadn't seen him since the making of foolproof (six years ago).

We talked for a bit, Bill had just finished making a Western, the same one he was talking about making six years ago. I was glad to see he was still working on films. I really liked Foolproof and really wanted it to do well at the box office. It didn't. It's disheartening when good people put time and effort into a something that turns out great but it fails. That's the film biz for you.

Insert plug for Bill's next movie Gunless. I'm going to go see it.