Thanks Adam
Oct 31 2003 - 10:40 a.m.

Adam e-mailed me thus: "dude, what about VINCENT? y'know, the BEAST??"

Good point, I forgot the most important one:

Nothing like applying fake rubber to the face of a youngster to teach you the value of familial love.

It's the most wonderful time of the year
Oct 31 2003 - 9:50 a.m.

Happy Hallowe'en everybody!

As I recall, some of the costumes I have worn over the course of my lifetime have included:

• An Arab
• Luke Skywalker (Tatooine)
• A wizard
• Storm Shadow
• Indiana Jones
• the Grim Reaper
• Batman
• the Phantom of the Opera
• Romeo
• Harry Potter
• Obi-Wan Kenobi

Notice a pattern there? Aside from the whole Arab thing (probably one of the greatest acts of visual racism in which I've ever participated, but then again I was only four.... learn 'em young, that's what I say), they're all costumes that I would gladly wear today, suggesting that I haven't changed at all, in my whole life.

I really don't think there's a human word fabulous enough for me
Oct 30 2003 - 9:45 p.m.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh baby, my heart is full of love and desire for you! Now come on down and do what you gotta do! You started this fire down in my soul! Now can't you see it's burning outta control? Now come on, satisfy the need in me. Cuz only your good lovin' can set me free.

That was for Lorne, and the big cake-eating grin he put on my face last night.

Wow. If you don't know what I'm talking about, the last two paragraphs are awesome!

Gotta give the big shout out to my namesake at EB Games at Yonge and Eglinton. Not only did he hang on to the last copy of Quidditch World Cup for me, not only did he lay a couple of free magazines on my ass, not only did we have a lengthy, enjoyable and detailed conversation about Game Cubing, but he slipped me the Rebel Strike demo disk free o' charge, just because I'd expressed interest in the game. That's the demo disk with the arcade Star Wars game on it from waythahellbackinthaday on it, so it's worth its weight in gold as far as I'm concerned.

And Quidditch rocks. I won all three Hogwarts matches on the first try - which was so elating I can't even describe it, I was shouting and cheering and so pleased with myself for actually having the level of Quidditch skill I'd always hoped I'd have. (I certainly can't match it in soccer.) Then I got to the World Cup... and got my ass reamed out in a stunning 310-10 loss to the US International team (I was Japan). So... I guess it's going to be a go, yet.

Three Survivor firsts in one night is more than enough to get me posting. Boy, if this were the old days I'd be going batshit right now. But as it is, I was merely content to see so many twists. "The" twist lacked the elegant simplicity of previous monkeywrenches (even I couldn't figure out who was staying and who was going and where and why and whatnot) but still, pretty neat. I agree with Savage, though, people who are out are out. They lost the game. No second chances.

First #2: a fucking quitter! I like the coldness with which they denied the ponce his final words. Every Canadian who's ever wanted to play should go to Osten's house and set off a car alarm at dawn.

First #3: A "to be continued" Survivor? Will two people be voted out next week - given that tonight's events all happened in one day, and the regular every-three-days Tribal Council is still two days away? Or are we having a 14-episode series this year? Whatever, it's all good. Rupert's shouting match was the highlight of my television-viewing year.

But I tell you one thing: the more I watch the latter-day series, the more I want Survivor 1 released in a big, showy DVD box. Especially with All-Star happening.... it's time to get back to when this show was as tricked-out cool as any of your prime time dramas.

This is how it goes
Oct 29 2003 - 4:21 p.m.

I've got Spike on the brain, no doubt about it. I'm on the verge of writing an expansive, unsolicited chronicle of his first month at Wolfram & Hart just because there are so many questions I want answers to. Has he contacted Buffy with the big news? Does he know about Anya? Can he hit Angel now that he knows how to make himself semi-corporeal? So much to play around with, and only one measly hour of Angel per week. It hardly seems fair. But I'm looking forward to tonight, if only because that shot of Tall Dark n' Forehead taking Eve from behind is just so... damned... funny. The things they do on the WB! "Good on you, mate!"

I'm putting the finishing touches on my Hallowe'en costume... came up with some of my usual creative solutions to certain problems (namely: the vest) but still have to see if I can do fake pirate boots half as well as I did fake Jedi boots last summer. I've got about eight tenths of a metre of black pleather to work with... It's gonna be tight.

A note to all Hanson shippers
Oct 29 2003 - 1:35 p.m.

I really don't think Zac would do that to Taylor. At least, not in their mother's bed.

A note to all Hamster eaters
Oct 28 2003 - 9:04 a.m.

Stop it! All of you! You sick fucks!

A note to all Hotmail users
Oct 27 2003 - 11:25 p.m.

It's time to stop. Here's why:

1. Every single one of you is in the red zone on your storage space.
2. Your messages get bounced back as "undelivered within 12 hours" nine times out of ten these days, pissing off all your friends.
3. No one can remember if you're joeblow157 or joeblow158.
4. Your attachments never get through.
5. All of your messages end with the utterly extraneous "------------------------------------------------------
   Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*" tagline, or something similar. You are spreading propaganda!
6. You're getting destroyed by junk mail. Stop pretending you're not. Stop pretending you don't have your junk mail filter set at "Exclusive."
7. You are contributing to that whole "Microsoft" thing.
8. "@hotmail.com" is the e-mail equivalent of "I wear a McDonalds jersey even when I'm off-duty"

Everybody got that? Goooooooooooood.

Daysleeper
Oct 27 2003 - 8:49 a.m.

There's just one day of the whole darned year that I don't mind getting up early, and of course, it's the day after Daylight Savings. Yay farmers! You have bought me a bright-and-early day without the excruciating pain.

Okay, I realize that getting up at 8:00 isn't exactly early by most peoples' measure, but ... well, I didn't tell you to become an accountant, you just went and did it. Bully for you.

So next week's Survivor twist has been revealed... and yeah, it's a real noggin-scratcher. Ejected players are back for revenge. I don't know what rights and powers they'll have with regard to actually replacing current players, but I guess we'll find out. And the more important show, Survivor All-Star, is starting shooting at the end of the week - but still no word on who's in the game! Come on, we know all these peoples' home addresses, somebody oughta be able to figure it out...

Done Simpsons; want Quidditch. Don't wanna wait till tomorrow because I am whiny and pathetic. Oh: and done Alias, too. As I exclaimed shortly after the credits rolled on the last episode, "I'm fucked. I'm completely fucked."

Mambo Italiano
Oct 25 2003 - 2:21 p.m.

Earlier this evening, when I went to buy TTC tickets, there was no one in the booth. So I walked through without paying. Then on my way home, I went to buy TTC tickets, and the guy had none to sell me. So I walked through without paying.

This is progress.

I am never paying again.

You of all people should know, TTC, that there's a difference between knowing the path... and walking the path.

Congratulations to Mark and Jenn (?) for a show well shown at the Oasis tonight, congratulations to Kim for skipping the first and third sets, and congratulations to me for meeting actual Tederick.com fans I had not previously met. (Although they were, admittedly, tangentially connected to my life.)

Seven Years Ago
Oct 24 2003 - 2:41 p.m.

I just took a doorknob to the temple. Don't ask how. But yeah, it's every bit as bracing as it sounds.

It also wiped clean everything I was going to post about, and most of my typing skills, based on how long it's taken me to bang out these meagre lines. And what's the capital of Oklahoma again? Dammit.

Hey, here's an idea: make neologisms using phrases here on Tederick.com. "Eclectic mix of Hatha styles" becomes "Eclatha." "Bloor Cinema" becomes "Blinema." Fun? Am I bleeding slowly to death?

Hang on.

In Owen's Words...
Oct 24 2003 - 11:01 a.m.

....this gives me THE SHIVERS:

edition.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/24/gibson.passion

Maybe it's the beer talking but you've got a butt that won't quit
Oct 23 2003 - 11:05 a.m.

Wow. For four years, when you typed in "Tederick" on Google, you got info about some wanker named Matthew Tederick.

Now you get Tederick.com.

This is progress.

Intermedia
Oct 22 2003 - 8:35 p.m.

No fair! They're using sex appeal to make me like Smallville again! Sex appeal and REM music! NO FAIR!! Bastards.

Me and my big lack of forward momentum
Oct 22 2003 - 11:03 a.m.

Today's crazy rumour.... is that Ridley Scott is attached to direct His Dark Materials for New Line, and that the Stoppard script for Golden Compass is already done. Supposedly Pullman will be in a position to confirm or deny this sometime later this week.

Bah. That took the air out of my whole day.

I never want to truly turn the microscope inward on this entire process, but what is it with this blogging thing? I got my own problems, yet I go and read about other people's problems on their blogs. Why? To depress myself more?

I oughta get out of the house more.

All right, here's something happy: A painting of teddy bears by Emma Watson.

And before I forget (again): the One Minute Film Festival, with the Neighbours programme, in which yours truly's "Sensitivity" will be appearing, and which yours truly will be emceeing (sans Darth Maul makeup), will be on November 20th, 2003 at 7:00 p.m. at the Bloor Cinema. I will hopefully update the hell out of the 1MFF website by the end of the week and you can read all about it there.

Great Ceasar's Ghost
Oct 20 2003 - 3:44 p.m.

Three times in the last 24 hours, doors have opened for me. Twice I was simply looking at a door and it opened. Once I was striding purposefully towards a door, and it opened all the way and let me through. This latter was obviously the most convenient of the three, the others were just spooky. Now I'm starting to hope that my Force-sense is developing in the wake of my recent Jedi deeds, but I am also beginning to worry that instead, I'm being haunted.

Because everyone keeps asking, this is the type of yoga I do:

"All classes are instructed in vinyasa or flowing style with breathing and mindfulness incorporating an eclectic mix of Hatha styles with influences from various teaching philosophies." Note the key phrase there: "eclectic mix of Hatha styles." And more specifically to my class itself: "Integrating the breath with classic hatha postures to enhance your overall health and well-being - sitting, standing, balancing, forward bend, backward bend, inversion, and twisting asanas (postures), including sun salutations." Integrating my breath has been my major point of focus for the past several months and I'm finally at the point where I can maintain that even, sin-cos breath throughout 90% of my yoga. Which is both fun in its own right, and very cleansing of the mind.

Check out my yogashoppe at www.bigstretchyoga.com. It's worth the drive to Bayview n' Davisville.

About once a year, I get a really diabolical corned beef craving. Mmmmm. Corned beef.

Nothing very important happened today
Oct 20 2003 - 11:29 a.m.

As it turns out, I should have been watching Alias all this time. Drat.

Great soccer game yesterday, our first official on-the-books official win, officially. I ran so fast my pants fell off - this is only the second time this has happened, but it's amusing every time. I even got one decent shot on goal... missed by two feet, but it's the thought that counts, right?

I cooked "Centipede Matt's Set-Your-Face-On-Fire Chili" on Saturday and the house is still all chili-smelling. Which is good for the first day or so, but kind of irritating after that. Damn you cumin and your pervasive aroma!

O-Ren Ishii
Oct 18 2003 - 9:11 a.m.

It turns out Tederick.com is 21% evil. Which means, by extension, that it's 79% good. But you knew that, right?

How's this for evil: I went down to collect my mail yesterday and opened the door and found a package. I've been waiting for a package, but this one surprised me:

Catfish nuggets. Who in their right mind is going about sending me catfish nuggets? I haven't pissed that many people off, have I?

Given that I am cramping like a 14-year-old girl, I shall skip yoga and watch movies. Hooray for self-awareness.

Sophie Fatale
Oct 17 2003 - 9:39 a.m.

Okay what's with Keira and the zombie Celt priestess garb? And why so angry?

Well, who am I to complain. Gift horse, I name thee: Mouth.

Best Buy / Future Shop have been crowned Tederick.com's Villain of the Week. Their reprehensible ongoing practice of working out side deals with the studios to offer "exclusive bonus disks" on various high-profile DVD packages has now extended to the forthcoming Indiana Jones set. Well, I ain't buying. Given the extraordinary downslide in the quality of BB/FS's DVD selections in the past two years, I absolutely shudder to conceive of a world where smaller stores like Ed's and DVD Wave have been driven out of business thanks to buyer pressuring of the kind we're seeing here. Don't buy your Indy sets from these wankers, folks. It's just not worth it.

(And you officially have my Captain Jack Sparrow approval to pirate the living shit out of that bonus disk. Rip it, burn it, sell it to your friends, set one on fire and toss it over the Paramount gates. "On the rare occasion pursuing the right course demands an act of piracy, piracy itself can be the right course...?")

I am equally irritated with Lucasfilm for altering Raiders with their increasingly-ungodly newfangled digital technology. We liked the reflection, George. Grow up and stop fucking around with film art.

To everyone that I owe e-mails back: ten minutes more, I promise.

Johnny Mo
Oct 16 2003 - 9:30 p.m.

Now why would anyone in their right mind vote out Michelle? Do you notice a small problem with Survivor 7 now? ...they're all ugly!!!! I'm sorry, I'm at the point in my life where I want my reality TV nice and plasticky. Remember Survivor 2, where they voted out all the ugly people first, and then the hotties fought it out for eight weeks? Those were the damned days. I saw Colby in a razor blade ad yesterday and actually did GoGo Yubari's schoolgirl giggle.

So today I had a moment of utter ignominy: I hit the bottom of my bank account. BOING. It's okay, it's been dealt with, I sold 2 pints of blood on my way to Mer's gallery opening and that had the double effect of a) getting me some ready cash, and b) making the art seem amazing. Well no, actually it was amazing all on its own. But never underestimate the value of severe lightheadedness.

"Ten bucks and a cookie? What a country!"

"Let's get down to brass tacks: How much for the ape?"

I keep trying to start paragraphs and end up quoting stuff instead.

GoGo Yubari
Oct 15 2003 - 10:02 p.m.

New bed, new bed, new bed, new bed! And my magic Yoda 8-ball seems to suggest that at some point in the very near future I'll wake up and find some attractive stranger in the bed with me. (You have to go pretty far down the road to get the magic Yoda 8-ball to suggest this, but it's possible with applied effort.)

I tell ya, four minutes of Lana in a one-piece was almost enough to re-ignite my Smallville passion... but not quite. Still, that's almost DVD-worthy.

Spike! Spike!

Perfection
Oct 15 2003 - 1:29 a.m.

Went to see Kill Bill again on the sperm of the moment, in lieu of poker. I think that really is a perfect film. Pulp Fiction will always mean more to me because of the time and place it came into my life... but man alive, KB is great.

And once again, 75% of an audience just didn't get it. As soon as Uma stands up, revealing Nikki in the kitchen doorway, all those people just get the hell out of it, and never come back.

Outdated/Automated
Oct 14 2003 - 11:34 a.m.

Boy there's a crapload of bad blogs out there. I mean, I never wanted to put that in writing on my blog because there but for the grace of god, yeah? But holy moly. You twig to one blog that's kinda good and then go to its links page, and just get inundated with crap. Endless, endless crap. It's dismaying.

So it's time to get proactive and have the First Annual Tederick.com Best Blog Award.

Got a blog? Use my handy Contact Page to send it unto me. If anyone sends me a good one, I'll bookmark it and visit it forever and ever. If not... well, I'll just be endlessly disappointed. If I get a bunch of good ones, at some future point, I will name the all-time goodest blog ever for 2003.

People who know me personally are not eligible. There will be no skill-testing question. There will be no prize. There will be no nothing! I merely seek to be reinvigorated by the creative possibilities of the internet.

Switching tracks: a big Tederick.com congrats dosed with heavy jealousy to Aly and Alexis, married to each other and therefore sexually unavailable to all the rest of us yobs.

(Oh wait: that was always true. Damn me and my late-night forelornings.)

Such a cute couple, actually.

Got the new Buffy soundtrack at long last... HMV bloody incompetent grrr argh... and now I'm even more depressed about Buffy than usual! Great mix of "Blue," and the "Chosen" score is fabbo.

Productivity
Oct 13 2003 - 8:20 p.m.

I forgot how freaking exhausting all this can be - tearing through the city on a cinematic whim with Mark, running to get shots, jumping to get shots, dangling to get shots, falling to get shots. We were out shooting for all of five hours, and I'm completely exhausted. And dehydrated - we geniuses forgot the Gatorade - and it was a damned hot day in T.O., full clear sky, plenty of sun, and not a lot of places to hide in the Don Valley.

The movie's called Burn, as in "run, as fast as you fuckin' can." It's an idea that Mark cooked up about half a decade ago that we started shooting but never finished. So, as a way to fool around with the new camera (hereafter referred to in this blog only as either "JVC" or "Sketch Cam") and also do what Sketch Cam was bought to do, and awaken my long-dormant-and-atrophied cinematic sensibilities. So Burn is just about as pure as pure cinema can get. Camera, guy, speed. That's your movie.

(There will be no techno on the soundtrack.)

I worked without a script or storyboard - just a half page of notes of where I wanted to start, where I wanted to end, and a few setups that I really wanted to get. Otherwise everything was improvised on site, which will be interesting to see if any of it cuts together at all. I've just had a very cursory look at the rushes and I'm pleased - everything seems to have turned out. One of the bigger problems the JVC has been expressing has been with focus, because apparently it has the shittiest auto focus in the history of home video. Which is fine if you have the wherewithal to focus manually, but when you're holding the camera backwards over your head with one hand while desperately riding your bike through thick brush with the other, manual focus is kind of out the window. But thankfully, everything today looks like it came out sharp.

I'll cut the mo-fo and post it in the T.C Theatre for your perusal. But first, I gotta get some damned sleep. I'm totally wiped!

So that's Productivity.

Also in the Productivity main line: I'm now working on four scripts simultaneously. This is in an effort to plug some output holes that have been slowing me down for a couple of months, where I get completely blocked for a week and don't write anything at all. Now, when I get blocked on one script, I jump over to the next one. Two are original rough drafts, and two are revisions of older work. I have no idea if this will actually work because it never really has in the past, but I'm in a fine madness now.

Geek
Oct 13 2003 - 9:09 a.m.

Because I am comparatively normal: here's the custom-built Death Star Home Theatre, from a design from Phantom Menace design director Doug Chiang.

The watchword for Oct 13: productivity.

I was on the fence about the whole 12" Buffy dolls thing but I'm officially falling off the fence, onto the "buy them all" side of the lawn. Here's why:

Man, they even got the lip-pout!

The Last Good Day
Oct 11 2003 - 1:09 a.m.

Today was awesome here in Toronto. Just enough haze to create that pervasive, golden fog throughout the entire day - and warm enough to be walking around in T-shirts and jeans. I love autumn, but I love Indian Summer more.

And I love Kill Bill Vol. 1. A whole, whole lot.

Kill Belloq
Oct 10 2003 - 10:26 a.m.

It's not an easy thing, reviewing three of your favourite films of all time... but with that brand spankin' new DVD set coming out in a couple of weeks, there just wasn't any excuse to put it off any longer:

• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Be warned. They're a bit glowy.

Deeds
Oct 8 2003 - 11:59 a.m.

Okay, this is just weird:

Jason comes over to drop off his tax shit, and I show him the lightsabre. He's soon on his way out, and I decide to come outside to see how the lightsabre looks in broad daylight. And we're just standing there on the porch - and I'm in my sleepwear and bare feet, mind you - and this woman goes running past the house, tears streaming down her face. Jason mentioned something a few moments ago about someone shooting with an XL-1 on the street, so at first I think it must be a movie (I've been guilty of this sin more times than I can count), but then this scraggly dude goes burning after her at a full sprint.

Jason and I look at each other. "That's not good." And we're off like a shot after them. So picture this: I'm running down Pape in my bare feet with a lightsabre in my hand to stop a bit of domestic violence. We round the corner and the guy's there manhandling the woman and she's screaming and crying for help, and - okay, just to reiterate, I have a lightsabre in my hand - and then it's all "LET HER GO" in deep, powerful Man-voice and you know what? The minute this guy sees the sabre, he's off her. Probably less out of a recognition of Jedi superiority and more out of having his mind tripped by the bizarreness of being confronted by a bearded dork in his pajamas wielding a plastic laser sword. Or, he just thought I was holding a long piece of aluminum, suitable for wailing on him. But nonetheless... I'll take the save, regardless.

Cops were called, disputes were dealt with, and the Jedi disappeared back into their day-to-day lives.

Odd thoughts that enter one's mind when contemplating the lightsabre:
Oct 8 2003 - 11:14 a.m.

• What was Jabba thinking?!
• I can see why the Cantina went all quiet when Ben whipped his sabre out.
• What was Jango thinking?!!
• If this is what it's like to have a green one, having a red one must be the scariest shit on earth...
• John Williams rocks!!!
• At last, true phallic compensation
• Boy, I bet Buffy wishes she had one of these, huh?
• No seriously, what was Jabba thinking?! Crazy hutt bastard!
• Can you program lightsabres as a weapon of choice in the Matrix? If so, I want to live in the Matrix.
• My neighbours must think I've gone completely shit-eating crazy.
• When fighting off an imaginary pack of Tusken Raiders, a frightened cat is not the ideal ally
• Wait a second... what were those Tusken Raiders thinking?!?!

Today is the day
Oct 8 2003 - 10:05 a.m.

I have been waiting for this day my whole life.

In 1996 for Christmas my parents bought me a Power FX lightsabre, and I was very excited and ran around the house hitting things with it. But something was missing. The hilt was fat, and plastic, and the blade was crude green and telescoped in and out. A fair approximation, but not... this:

I already knew what it was when the doorbell rang. I ran down and got it - just one box, one blade to rule them all. My Jedi Cloak was on before I knew what was happening. WHOOSH. HUM. VWIM. And I was off, was prancing around the apartment hitting things with my perfect, glowing green blade. And the words came out of my mouth:

"So this is what it feels like... to be a Jedi."

I have been waiting for this day my whole life.

Governator
Oct 8 2003 - 1:30 a.m.

Now this is progress. The T-800 Terminator is constructed with revolutionary alloys which allow its endoskeleton to withstand super-hot temperatures equivalent to those of a blast furnace. The living tissue is molded in a precise replication of a human being, allowing the unit to infiltrate human enclaves and thereby maximize its destructive killing force. Although forced to use external weaponry as no internal weapons systems have been included in the design, the T-800 is proficient in the use of hand-held arms up to and including a GAU-17 Mini-Gun. As such, the T-800 is an outstanding choice for Governor of the state of California.

There are things I don't suck at
Oct 6 2003 - 4:02 p.m.

Call me Mr. Fun, but I just filled out a hell of a GST return form. I mean, I kicked that thing's slobbering pink ass. By the time I've finished all my deductions, that damn government won't know what hit 'em!

Yeah. I gots ta get me a life.

All right, how's this: I wrote 35 pages of a brand new script this morning. I got up real early, and just got in a mood, and sha-zam, thar she blows. It all falls under the third step of the ultimate success formula: notice whether it's working. subculture wasn't, yet I was still plugging away at it like it was ever going to come to rights. Well, the hell with that! I'm onto something new.

Fingers tired and crampy from typing and calculating. Going outside now.

Garakfest '03
Oct 6 2003 - 9:48 a.m.

Hey, it's a day early, but what the hell: my review of Deep Space Nine Season Five. I can do this a day early because I'm two seasons late in my DVD viewing... although I watched "Improbable Cause" / "The Die is Cast" over the weekend and it's got me all excited.

Grey
Oct 6 2003 - 12:33 a.m.

Bad day for soccer. The team played great, holding a 2-0 loss against the top-scoring team in the league, which, defensively speaking, was a hell of a feat. I, on the other hand, had my worst game in a very, very long time. There's always one game - it's usually the third or fourth one in the season - where I just lose it completely, can't find the ball, am literally tripping over my own feet. To top it all off, I took a bad stop on my bad ankle, messing it up even further. I was so fucking pissed off by this point that I just kept playing, hammering away at it... not smart. Fortunately I've got 2 weeks to recover before the next game.

Then Canada lost a heartbreaking game against Sweden, missing our chance to go to the finals of the WWC. Still, Taryn Swiatek played a hell of a game - some downright spooky saves. That woman just knows exactly where to be. And Kara Lang's goal - beautiful. For about five minutes there I was on top of the world. 16 years old?! Jesus, I gotta try to pick up some skills.

In the Skin of a Big Brick Building with Art Deco Stuff All Over the Place
Oct 4 2003 - 9:28 p.m.

At approximately 4:45 today this individual was spotted entering the RC Harris Waterworks in Toronto. He is assumed to have had terrortastic intent:

Nah I'm just messing with you. Today, Mark and his dad and I got an awesome private tour of the waterworks thanks to a hookup through Kim. (Who rocks.) I never got the chance to tour the facility while public tours were still available, so it was really great to get in there at last. And man alive, it's just utterly fascintating.

I rolled about an hour of video, a good chance to test out the range and limitations of the new camera, and its still camera component, which is... well, it's a 1.33 megapixel still camera, what can I say? Anyhoo.

And this was an all access tour. We saw everything, went everywhere. Could have performed all kinds of anarchic acts if we were so inclined, but then, why would we want to do that? Oh right, that's why they shut down the tours in the first place!

So, like a pack of high school kids on a field trip, we just had a groovy time. I'm looking back fondly upon my high school years these days. There's nothing like soaking in a daily bath of hormones to make everything seem really potent.

One last shot: me taking a picture of Kim taking a picture of Mark taking a picture:

SWEET
Oct 4 2003 - 8:25 p.m.

As I'd hoped, Emma Thompson will be playing Professor Trelawney in Prisoner of Azkaban. I'm really happy about this.

Six Feet Underwhelming
Oct 4 2003 - 9:50 a.m.

I can officially say: I don't get it. I don't get the "HBO thing." And not "I don't get it" in the "I don't get HBO in my cable package" sense, I mean I just don't understand what all the hype over this netlet is all about. I've just finished watching the first season of Six Feet Under, and found it... unbelievably tame. I mean, I've seen episodes of Seventh Heaven with a bit more bite. What's the big deal about this show? Or The Sopranos, which I've never even been able to get through an episode of? Or Sex and the City, which is just warmed-over Seinfeld without the laughs? Or Oz, which is just needless vulgarity? Sorry, team HBO... if this is "the best of American television," I'll stick with Angel and The Simpsons.

Well I had a very weird night last night. I was so exhausted I fell asleep at nine, slept until 1, then woke up and couldn't sleep again until dawn. So I spent a lot of time in the apartment last night just hanging around doing nothing. I explored the upsetting world of Harry Potter slash fiction. I listened to music. I chased Zam around relentlessly. I moped about the Narnia movies being shot in New Zealand.

So, shooting Burn has been put off for a week or more but I can live with that, I've got other stuff I want to get done today. Otherwise the new camera's working out great, I'm still getting used to some of the features but on the whole I'm having a great time. I live in constant fear that my bag is going to get swiped with the camera in it, but that's just because I was raised on the best of American TV.

Welcome to Sarajevo
Oct 3 2003 - 11:12 a.m.

The goddamned bastards are destroying the street outside my house again. They did it in the spring and apparently they didn't make nearly enough noise so they're back doing it again. Jackhammers that sound exactly like machine guns. Pile drivers that sound like Godzilla throwing a tantrum. The goddamned bastards!!! I give them the finger every chance I get. (My resistance is futile.)

You know what else? I can't believe how many people "reminded me to vote" yesterday. Like I was going to not vote. Does anybody not vote? Does anyone really think I would miss my chance to kick the PCs out of office after the Reaming Incident of 1995? That's right, one homophobe ruined my PC tolerance for the rest of my life. Who's having gay sex now, homophobe?! WHO?! WHO?!!

That didn't come out the way I meant. But text editing is so trying.

Here's where we are, season-wise: Smallville gets the resounding "meh" from me. Too much Lex going crazy fighting his imaginary friend, and the Clana shenanigans are just getting annoying. I don't think this was episode-specific but rather an overall malaise about the series in general, so I have removed the Season 1 DVDs from my Profiler. Can there be no greater contempt?

Otherwise, I've got a small piece of paper on my bulletin board that I wrote on September 20th that has the Final Four for Survivor: Pearl Islands on it. Still enjoying Rupert quite a bit, although his Bear Voice is a bit too scary. And of course Angel was great, E.R. was great. Where's my Simpsons? I've been playing Hit & Run all week and I really miss Bart. Which I don't think has ever happened before.

Is there anything new that's good this season? (Note to readers: The O.C. is not good.) I missed Karen Sisco, for which I kick myself repeatedly. But then, there's Kazaa for problems like this. I also have a sick fascination for Joan of Arcadia but I have yet to catch an episode.

Big thumbs up for "Bad Day," the new R.E.M. single, which I heard for the first time on Tuesday and then again on Letterman last night and now can't get out of my frickin' head. It's got a great vintage sound that takes me right back to high school, which is exactly where I want to be right now. Now I think I'm actually going to have to buy In Time (the Best Of). Can there be no greater contempt?!

Greater contempt: Eight Simple Rules is staying on the air, and the series will follow the trials of the family after the John Ritter character dies. I mean, come on. Just.... fuckin' come on.

All right, that's enough ranting and railing, I've got crap to do today.

Illustrative
Oct 2 2003 - 4:48 p.m.

All right, here's the picture:

Read on.

Torment
Oct 2 2003 - 3:07 p.m.

Let's get right to the heart of this thing: at approximately ten minutes past midnight, very early on Tuesday morning, I was shown a photograph of myself asleep in bed at the cottage, while Matthew Price loomed over me with his shirt off.

I laughed it off at the time, but the thought of this event has been destroying me in increasing increments for every moment since I became aware of it. I had meant to wait until I actually had a copy of the photo (ahem) to show you, but the buzzing in my head has now reached such a fever pitch that if I don't blog about it now, a section of my skull will burst outward followed by a long "fiiizzzzzzzzt" sound that will accompany the expulsion of some gooey, pussy substance, like in that "Drive" episode of The X Files.

Okay: I had earplugs in. And I was more than a little rum-soaked at the time. So really, on paper, it doesn't seem like it would have been too hard to get the drop on me. But still, no one has ever been able to sneak up on my all-too-light-sleeperishness. Let alone a whole group of people, including a small child and a girl wielding a flash camera.

It just doesn't happen. It has never happened, it would never happen; these are the fundaments upon which I have based my very life. And now, it has happened.

What do I do? How do I erase the image of Papa Bear moving in for the big bear hug while I slumbered peacefully, dreaming of cattle, spinach, and the dude in the white room from Matrix Reloaded? How do I know they didn't scribble something obscene on my ass in dry-erase marker, to be gleefully erradicated by my first shower upon returning home, never to be found? How could this have happened? How? How?

Conviction
Oct 1 2003 - 10:14 p.m.

I know these bastards. I know them so well, that I knew without even being told that Spike wasn't going to show up until the last ten seconds of tonight's episode. Does that technically make all the WB promos for the season premiere false advertising? Sure does, but I know these bastards, so I wasn't taken in.

Wow. Marsters got second billing. That's fuckin' awesome. But still, I can't help but wonder how poor Boreanaz feels about all this - it's his show, he's the reason it's worked for four years, and now the network is just about ready to rename the series Spangel. A smaller man would be hurting big time.... but then, as David proved quite a bit tonight, he ain't no small man.

Full credit to Joss for playing the A game throughout tonight's episode - it was a slick, funny, invigorating "second pilot" for the series. It's an interesting new direction, but we'll have to see how it pans out... having watched two whole seasons of the Scooby Gang fragmenting apart over on Buffy, I don't think I want to see the Fang Gang doing the same thing.

But then, now we have Blondie Bear. A unifying force if ever there were one.

Exile
Oct 1 2003 - 5:18 p.m.

I'm coming down with something. My mother took one look at me yesterday and knew instantly that I was coming down with something, and she was right. I'm getting dizzier by the moment. I get sick very rarely so when it does happen, it's a real trip...

One in a Million
Oct 1 2003 - 4:16 p.m.

My brother Adam cut together a hysterical flick out of footage he shot at some dude's 50th birthday, and he's been nice enough to provide me with a copy so that I can display it for all to see right here at Tederick.com. (Our slogan: "Content is everything.") You can download the clip in the Tederick.com Theatre. Enjoy!

Four years of collecting them and I've only accumulated 1550 Jedi Master points. That's fucking pathetic. How am I ever supposed to buy anything with only 1550 points?!

Cherry
Oct 1 2003 - 1:37 a.m.

All the blessings in the world be bestowed upon Courtney for taking me to see R.E.M. It was awesome. I don't think it hit me until the fourth number, when they played "Drive." Here I am, sitting watching them play the first track from my favourite album ever - and it all just kind of washed over me, the complete sense memory of that specific moment in time, and everything just became incredibly giddy and perfect. Great show, great seats (my first time at ACC). Just excellent all around.

They didn't play my favourite song, but hey, they played most of numbers 2 through 10, so I sure can't complain! Automatic got a lot of air - six songs in all, including a well-earned "Nightswimming" to kick off the encore, a jaw-dropping "Everybody Hurts," and a really lovely "Sweetness Follows," which I never would have expected them to play. They played a lot of the best stuff from Reveal, too, and the absolutely smacked "She Just Wants to Be" out of the park. There was some cool new shit, too, and they closed the show with "The End of the World As We Know It." (Well, of course.) The place just went insane.

Yeah, this was truly great for me.

Switching topics, here's a wild one: I bought the War Room and the Jedi Council action figure sets at the Snail this afternoon, which were pretty frickin' expensive, and I spent quite a bit of time tonight contemplating dropping the hobby altogether. It ain't gonna happen, but I thought about it. My mother would be so proud.

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