It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The 2008 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival kicks off on Thursday, September 4th. As always, it’s jam-packed with films from around the globe, although the latest installment showcases fewer Oscar-oriented features. The countdown begins.

The Visitor

The Visitor has been heavily praised and it deserves the good words being said. Lead actor Richard Jenkins turns in an understated performance as Walter, a professor reawakening to vitality through friendship with Haaz Sleiman's charismatic drummer, Tarek. The two men bond over music and solitary Walter is able to find a point of entry into a connected life. As Walter warms to his new companion, Tarek's arrest threatens to upset their relationship. Director/writer Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent) is steadfast in his commitment to making an empathetic, but realistic film. He veers close to cinematic contrivance with the story arc of Tarek's mother, but avoids obvious string-pulling nicely in the end. Good performances from the women in The Visitor, Hiam Abbass and Danai Gurira, round out the well-acted, affecting drama. The drum sequences are also a highlight.

To Novel or Not to Novel

93 years of age is not too late to publish your first novel. Of course, some novels should never be published, as the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for bad opening lines attests. The Globe and Mail ran a few of the 2008 lowlights yesterday.

The Grandfather Clause

Just read a nice post at Soundboard about the importance of music to youth. August Brown wonders "if the music you fall for between 18 and 22 is hard-wired to be the only music you really love in that insane, possessive, identity-crafting way for the rest of your life. Do we lose our capacity to be devastated by art as adults? What does it mean when you stop listening to the songs that sent ice up your spine at that age -- does that make your youthful music lust irrelevant today, or is all art meant to have a time and place you're supposed to grow out of?" I haven't an answer for Brown but I do know that even as tastes change, the music of your younger days retains its hold. When I hear raucous music now I usually don't like it. This dismissive tendency cannot be reconciled with the fact that I will happily listen to Hole (Celebrity Skin particularly) for example, and not find it at all over the top. It's grandfathered, as most youthful predilections are.

Free Books and Other Goodies

An obvious spot for free books is the closest public library. But libraries carry all sorts of media these days. Not simply content to stock their shelves with expected classics and mass-market paperbacks, libraries are keeping up with the times by making strides in the area of digital collections. In addition to books, it's also possible to "borrow" music and movies for use on iPods and other portable players. Toronto Public Library is in on the action. If the need to own precludes library use, book swapping may be the answer. If the problem isn't related to ownership but forgetful delinquency, Elf can help you remember what's due before coin-payable fines turn into dollar debts.

Now Reading

Smile When You're Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer by Chuck Thompson. It's decently funny so far, if a bit sophomoric (e.g. author regales reader with details of Japanese colleagues participating in the Penis Olympics). Thompson's intention is to avoid glossy, happy ending vacation stories and he achieves this goal by sharing some of his most inappropriate anecdotes. I'm only at the fourth chapter but the running theme thus far is whores. Whores everywhere for the weary backpacker. It's all pretty rogue-ish, apart from the egregiously banal confessions sub-title. Check out Thompson's appearance on The Hour, where he tackles the subject of sucky travel writing.

Sayonara Nana

I was disheartened to read that Nana Mouskouri is retiring from touring. When I was a kid, one of my favourite things to do was to play LPs at my aunt's house. Selections were limited and I was a slave to the albums I liked, so that usually meant one of four choices: The Best of ABBA; Michael Jackson's Thriller; the St. Elmo's Fire Soundtrack or Mouskouri's Roses and Sunshine. Childhood memories are a funny thing. I had to look up Roses and Sunshine because the title was gone from my head and I really only ever put it on for the song Nickels and Dimes anyway. I remember adoring that song twenty five years ago, but listening to a clip of it today stirs no emotion. It doesn't sound familiar at all and is far removed from the music I listen to now. Yet, I do still have a nostalgic fondness for Mouskouri, the lady with the black glasses, whose life I know nothing about. I wonder why some favourites stick with you and others fade away. The Winner Takes It All brings to mind vivid recollections of being in the living room where the turntable resided, singing/humming my foolhead off (internally). Ditto for Man in Motion, St. Elmo's Instrumental Love Theme and Georgetown. Oh, and Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'....but Nickels and Dimes is without rhythm now; just a tuneless phrase that runs through my head on occasion. Funny.