Sunday, February 20th, 2005

"You're Worthless." "I'm Not Worthwhile."

I was going to see the Rwanda genocide documentary Shake Hands With The Devil last night at the Bloor, but was just too exhausted and didn’t think I could handle something quite that heavy. So I stayed home and watched one of my favourite movies of last year (and one of the greatest films ever, for my money), Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle instead. I’d seen it before off of a bootleg VCD but this was my first opportunity to see it in all of its full digital widescreen glory. Still awesomely funny. I had not realized that Freakshow was played by the guy who plays Stabler on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. That just blows my mind. They really need to make a sequel to this.

As a primer to his show with the Dukes at Palais Royale on March 4, Steve Earle will be a keynote speaker for Canadian Music Week that afternoon at the Royal York. I’d like to go, but the $20 admission is a little dear and it’s at 12:30, so I’d end up having to miss work.

Five Seventeen has finally “released” the Teenbeat tribute record he was overseeing, just in time for their twentieth anniversary festivities in DC next week. I actually make an appearance on one track, adding guitar to a cover of In Camera’s “Fragments Of Fear”, which is otherwise performed entirely by Five under the name of Nora Drenaline. You can hear it and all the other tribute tracks here. I was originally going to cover Luna’s “Bobby Peru” all on my own, but I just didn’t have the time to get it all together (Teenbeat put out the vinyl edition of Pup Tent back in 1997, hence their eligibility). The Washington Post has a piece on the label’s birthday (bugmenot: biasedmedia@yahoo.com / rathered).

It occurs to me that I have to do my taxes this week.

np – various SxSW preview tracks

By : Frank Yang at 10:50 am
Category: Uncategorized
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  1. 2/20/05 1:48 pm

     yale bloor says:

    you watch a bootleg and then previously pontifacate about downloading shitter kinny…..you my friend are what we call a major wanker… last time I waste my time digesting your moronic ramblings

  2. 2/20/05 1:49 pm

     Frank says:

    don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

  3. 2/20/05 2:17 pm

     Joe says:

    Frank, thanks for that M Ward track, and feeding my addiction…

  4. 2/20/05 7:03 pm

     thomaus says:

    Inciteful ramblings? …maybe. Moronic ramblings? …no way. Not from a guy who declares Harold & Kumar to be one of the greatest films…no way!

    YB seems to have missed the point that the S/K request had little to do with the economic "bootleg" aspect of downloading, and mostly to do with artistic control of their work. Which means it’s the lo-fi VCD viewing of Danny Leiner’s masterpiece that would be an issue.

    And what’s up with all of the bootleg DVDs flowing through Toronto these days? The lunch truck that services our workplace added DVDs to the menu a few months ago. Now that’s out of control.

  5. 2/20/05 7:07 pm

     Frank says:

    Thanks Thomaus… I think. For the record, and not that I really feel like I have to defend myself, I didn’t download Harold & Kumar. It was actually left in my mailbox on VCD by a friend. I don’t think it’s possible to make less effort than I did to see it. And I bought the DVD. So nuts to you. I think I’ve downloaded two movies ever, and I haven’t watched either of them. It’s just easier to rent the DVD and see it on my TV rather than my computer.

    As for the bootlegs, I would bet that most/all are imports from Hong Kong/China, where intellectual property rights are a joke. With the number of Chinatowns we have in this burgh and their direct import pipelines to Asia, I’ll bet they’re bringing them over by the truckload at almost zero cost.

  6. 2/21/05 1:24 pm

     jrmy says:

    If you dug Christopher Meloni (Stabler) as Freakshow, you absolutely have to rent Wet Hot American Summer, in which he plays Gene, a summer camp cool. It’s an awesomely hilarious movie all around, with great performances by Jeanine Garafolo, David Hyde Pierce, Molly Shannon, Michael Showalter (of the State and Stella), Michael Ian Black (also from the State and from Stella)… the list goes on. Meloni is the best, though, and worth the price of admission…

  7. 2/21/05 1:26 pm

     jrmy says:

    Sorry, that should be "summer camp cook," and not summer camp "cool." Damn fingers. They call ’em fingers, but I’ve never seen ’em fing.

    Oh wait – there they go.

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