Oct. 10, 2016 "Is breaking wind the best way to get a huge laugh?": I cut out this article by Michael Posner in the Globe and Mail on Aug. 25, 2012:
Daniel Perlmutter was riding public transit a few months ago when his cellphone rang. He didn’t recognize the number and, amid the urban cacophony, actually had to get off the bus to properly listen to the message.
He was very glad he did. Actor Eugene Levy – a bankable veteran of more than 50 Hollywood films, including American Pie and Best in Show, had chosen to mentor him as part of a joint program involving the National Arts Centre, the Governor-General’s Performing Arts Awards and (this year), the Canadian Film Centre.
The mentorship is given to one recipient a year and the terms are flexible, although it does come with a $5,000 stipend. Essentially, Perlmutter says, it’s whatever the two parties decide to make of it. So far, it’s meant a single breakfast with Levy and a follow-up chat this week.
But Perlmutter is not complaining. Over breakfast at Toronto’s Patachou, he says Levy “humbly offered wonderful suggestions” for changes in the draft script of Fit to Print, Perlmutter’s projected, $1.5-million feature film – about a struggling small-town newspaper editor who starts inventing stories in order to boost circulation.
The second draft, incorporating those ideas, is just days away from completion. Not surprisingly, perhaps, Perlmutter, 35, has written a part in the film that he hopes to convince Levy, 64, to play.
The second draft, incorporating those ideas, is just days away from completion. Not surprisingly, perhaps, Perlmutter, 35, has written a part in the film that he hopes to convince Levy, 64, to play.
The Globe and Mail’s Michael Posner sat down with mentor and mentee on the lawn of the Film Centre.
Have you ever done this mentorship thing before?
Levy: No – and I shouldn’t have done it. I have no idea what I’m doing, to be honest. But it’s a little late now.
You’ve read Daniel’s script? What did you think?
Levy: It was a great first draft with lovely subject matter that I found funny and charming.
Perlmutter: The second draft is a different beast. A lot more grounded, more real.
How many American Pie films have you seen?
Perlmutter: Just one – the first.
Levy: [Levy has appeared in seven other films based on the American Pie story, four of which went straight to DVD.] The last four were done for money. They made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I’ve never seen them. But if you’re going to see one, the first one is the one to see. I don’t enjoy seeing myself on screen, but I was pleasantly surprised by the first American Pie when it came out.
I told my wife when we went to the premiere that I thought my scenes were kind of funny, but I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy the entire film. But we realized right off the top this was a really great movie – done with intelligence, with a fantastic cast. American Pie was originally called East Great Falls High and when we shot it, I was actually shooting another film called American Pie.
Growing up, what films or TV shows of Mr. Levy’s influenced you?
Perlmutter: SCTV was everything to me. It was a magical thing to catch that. In my house, TV was very restricted, so I’d have to sneak it in, when my parents were out. The show seemed to be always changing, but yet its universe was consistent.
Who were your favourite characters to play?
Levy: The regulars were kind of fun – [TV newscaster] Earl Camembert, who I had created with Joe Flaherty at Second City. And Bobby Bittman, the comedian who crashes The Maudlin Show. We created that first as an improv in Pasadena in 1975.
Perlmutter: In a talk you gave, you posed a question about whether comedy was still funny. Because there’s so much bad comedy out there, stuff that’s lazy or tiring to sit through. Do you still feel that way?
Levy: Well, the stuff I did with Christopher Guest is the kind of stuff I enjoy doing and watching. Grounded comedy, where you are not afraid to go broadside. Chris and I are looking for a new project, but not more of the same – not a fake documentary. Every television program is using that device, badly, so it’s not as fresh as it was when we did Waiting for Guffman.
How do you fell about the Judd Apatow school of film comedy?
Perlmutter: I enjoy those films. I’m a fan.
Levy: Freaks and Geeks was one of the great comedies on TV. His films are funny, but at times they possibly appeal to a younger sensibility. He goes to places – the mad diarrhea dash to a toilet – okay, is that the comedy set piece here? Is breaking wind the best way to get a huge laugh? Obviously the answer is yes. It’s made him a billionaire.
Perlmutter: Second City was major for you as well.
Levy: Second City was the turning point, comedically, for me – it was the comedy school that was an eye opener. [We learned] very simple ground rules of comedy – always play at the top of your intelligence level. Do everything as smart as you can do it, even if you’re writing the cheapest character.
Perlmutter: That’s easy to forget.
Levy: Right, and it’s why Second City is still going in Chicago, now in its 53rd year, eight shows a week. And in Toronto since 1973 – coming up on 40 years and we opened the first show.
What advice would you give to the next generation of comedy filmmakers?
Levy: There’s only one bit of advice, really. You have to do what you think is funny – believe it and put it out there. That’s why comedy is hard to talk about, because it’s so subjective.
There isn’t a right way or a wrong way. But you can’t write comedy the way you think someone else would write it. You have to write it the way you live it.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
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Jul. 14, 2017 "Laying bare the life of Canadian filmmaker Arshad Khan": Today I found this article by Gayle Macdonald in the Globe and Mail. I thought it was kind of inspirational because Khan mentions that "The film was like therapy for me."
Writing is like therapy for me because I get my thoughts and feelings out on my blog. My The Vertex Fighter script was a bit like therapy for me because it did make me feel good.
There is art therapy for people to express themselves. I like dancing too. Exercise gives good endorphins.
Canadian filmmaker Arshad Khan was working as a flight attendant on a trip from New Dehli to Toronto in 1999, when he spotted a quiet, dignified woman in executive class.
“Do you know who that is?” he asked his fellow flight attendants. They did not. “Oh, my God, this lady is a famous filmmaker,” he gushed. Khan was referring to Deepa Mehta, best known (then) for her Elements trilogy of films, including Fire, Earth and Water (the latter Oscar-nominated for best foreign-language film in 2007).
Mehta and the gregarious flight attendant – subsequently turned filmmaker – struck up a conversation and exchanged e-mails. Twenty years later, they remain fast friends, with Mehta collaborating (as narrative director) with Khan on his first full-length feature, the documentary ABU, which premieres in Canada at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal on July 16.
ABU is the story of Khan’s life and the challenges of growing up a gay man in a close-knit Muslim family in Pakistan, where homosexuals are regarded as sexual deviants and a shame to a family. The film is called ABU (the Urdu word for father) because Khan decided to make this documentary after his father – whom he deeply loved and deeply resented – died.
“I was working on another feature film and this story just kept getting in the way,” says Khan, who studied film at Concordia University in Montreal. “It all started after I made a five-minute video for his memorial. But his death opened up so much more for me. I was very scared. I was laying bare my personal life – and all the trauma, heartbreak, joy and confusion that goes with it.”
It’s no small feat to tell your life story (Khan is 42) in 80 minutes. Throw in multigenerational family dysfunction, sexual abuse, homophobia, xenophobia – all from the viewpoint of a sensitive, young, brown, gay man struggling to be accepted in his native Pakistan and later, adopted homeland, Canada – and it’s no wonder it took Khan more than five years to make this film, which was shortlisted as a work-in-progress (but ultimately, rejected) at Sundance.
“[The rejection] was very difficult on my ego, but then I realized just getting shortlisted is a big deal,” says Khan, who lives with his partner in Montreal. “It forced me to go back to the drawing board. It was all there, but it just wasn’t coming out right. I showed it to Deepa. And she told me, ‘You need to remove your director’s hat, and put on your actor’s hat.’”
They laid down the narration in one day in a Toronto studio. Mehta – who has always been drawn to subjects marginalized by society – loved the film’s myriad layers. “I said to Arshad,
‘You’re looking back in the past to what happened – what you experienced – what do you want to say? The narration has to come through with a calm voice, not an angry one. You were four-and-a-half years old, and you were sexually molested in a bathroom – everyone can understand your anger. But when anger is directed right into your [audience’s] face, it can be too much. You have to get down behind your anger to tell your story properly.’”
‘You’re looking back in the past to what happened – what you experienced – what do you want to say? The narration has to come through with a calm voice, not an angry one. You were four-and-a-half years old, and you were sexually molested in a bathroom – everyone can understand your anger. But when anger is directed right into your [audience’s] face, it can be too much. You have to get down behind your anger to tell your story properly.’”
ABU is an amalgam of VHS family home videos, animation, flipcam and iPhone footage, interviews with Khan’s mom, dad and siblings, as well as Bollywood clips. He believes the documentary began as a quest to understand his devout Muslim father, Wasi, and turned into a journey of self-discovery.
“The film was like therapy for me,” Khan says. “It was like bringing a child into this world. I was really quite fed up with the secrets and lies in my life.”
“The film was like therapy for me,” Khan says. “It was like bringing a child into this world. I was really quite fed up with the secrets and lies in my life.”
By the final credits, Mehta says she believes ABU is as much about Khan’s mother, Bina, as his father. “After watching it again recently, I was captivated by the mom. Here is this [younger] woman in Pakistan, lovely and graceful, and not at all self-conscious, dancing.
And not caring at all if anyone is watching. By the end of the film, she is all wrapped up [in traditional Pakistani dress]. She ended up more fundamentalist than her husband ever was.
And not caring at all if anyone is watching. By the end of the film, she is all wrapped up [in traditional Pakistani dress]. She ended up more fundamentalist than her husband ever was.
“On a whole, other level, the film just explodes and embraces every aspect of Indigenous and gender rights, immigration, religion and the whole issue of sexuality. It’s complicated, and universal.”
Filmmaking is stressful, Khan says, but doubly so when the topic is so personal. “It was very difficult to rewatch footage of my father in the hospital, dying. And I was very frightened throughout because I had to make a film that didn’t destroy or compromise the integrity of our family, while at the same time, being sincere and true to myself.”
After a screening of ABU at the Frameline Film Festival in San Francisco last month, Khan says someone came up to him and asked what his father would say if he saw this film.
“First of all, my father would have been very happy I made, and completed, a film,” he laughs. “Secondly, he would have loved the attention. So he would have liked it.”
Jan. 5, 2020 "Rom com enters a new dimension": I found this article by Ryan Tumilty in the Metro on Jan. 23, 2015.
40 Below and Falling is not the latest Canadian weather forecast, but the title of the newest feature film being brought to you by innovative production company 12pt Media. Directed by Dylan Pearce, the Romantic Adventure/Comedy will be unique to its genre, being one of the first ever to be shot in both 2D and 3D, starring high in demand Canadian actress Jewel Staite (Firefly, The Killing) and Canadian actor Shawn Roberts (Resident Evil, Edge of Darkness, X-Men). Follow 40 Below and Falling on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/afrostyaffair/
Andrew Scholotiuk is a producer and was in the article:
https://fava.ca/portfolio_item/andrew-scholotiuk/
My week:
- Jan. 5, 2020 "Pregnant waitress receives $2,020 tip":A $2,020 tip on a $23 bill made a pregnant restaurant server “weak in the knees.”Danielle Franzoni, 31, a waitress at Thunder Bay River Restaurant in Alpena, Mich., arrived at work on Sunday grieving the loss of her elderly neighbor. “I told my co-workers that I wasn’t feeling like myself but I put on my best smile. I take a lot of pride in being a server,” Franzoni tells Yahoo Lifestyle.The single mom, who is six months pregnant, served a pair of regulars, who usually have breakfast every Sunday with their two sons. But this time, the couple dined alone. After Franzoni left them a bill for $23.33, she says the man began questioning whether servers were required to split their tips or keep them entirely.When Franzoni went to retrieve the signed bill, she saw the note, “Danielle, Happy New Year. 2020 Tip Challenge,” written above the tip. “It took my breath away,” she tells Yahoo Lifestyle.Franzoni says that while crying, she walked over to her manager and gripped his shoulder to steady herself. “I said to him, ‘Is this a joke?’”Thanks to the gratuity, Franzoni, a recovering addict who, only a year ago, was living in a homeless shelter, was able to rent a four-bedroom home for herself and her three children. She also purchased paint to decorate their new personal spaces. After moving expenses, Franzoni will use the rest of the money for tasks like getting her driver’s license.Now, the mom feels nervous to greet her regulars, should they return to the restaurant on Sunday. “It’s too good to be true — I want to thank them,” she tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “They have no idea that they lifted so much worry from my shoulders.”Franzoni says the money was a financial and spiritual boost. “I don’t want the recovery piece of this to be lost,” she insists. “I want anyone addicted to alcohol or drugs to not give up hope and stay clean.”In fact, she recently tipped a local server $20.20, telling Yahoo Lifestyle, “It’s how I’m paying it forward.”
- Social event: Last night I went to the Brown's Social House. I met 10 new people and had fun talking about TV, movies, and work.
Jan. 6, 2020 "The mall that Christmas forgot": I found this article by Justin Giovannetti in the Globe and Mail website. I haven't been on the website in a long time. I haven't been reading the newspaper since my brother got a discount subscription on the Sat. edition in Jun.
I read it on my tablet, and then I went to find the article, but now I have to pay to read it. There were 200 comments and one of them said: "It's not the Alberta economy that's not helping. The mall is unwelcoming and uninviting."
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-the-mall-that-christmas-forgot-retail-spaces-built-for-calgarys-last/
I Google "Calgary dead mall" and it lead to the above article and the one here:
"New Horizon Mall hosts public meeting for struggling tenants":
CALGARY – New Horizon Mall in Balzac is holding a town hall meeting Wednesday amid major financial concerns from its tenants and owners.
Some business owners say they’re struggling and concerned they may lose their life savings because they’re unable to pay rent or other maintenance fees.
Sohail Khan, owner of Smart Tech, said many shop owners are feeling the financial burden.
"I'm still not able to make enough that I can justify to completely work here and open my store all the time," said Khan. "To support my family, I actually have to go out and get another job."
The mall adopted a system, similar to that of condominiums, where shopkeepers purchase storefronts instead of leasing out spaces.
The $200-million New Horizon Mall opened a year and a half ago with space for 500 units and 26 food court units. Just over 100 stores are currently open, accounting for less than 25 per cent of the vast retail space that measures roughly the size of five-and-a-half football fields.
New Horizon Mall manager Scott Smith says while things are slower than they’d hoped, they are moving in the right direction.
“We’ve made some good strides here. Last year when I started, we had nine stores and now we have 109," he said.
My opinion: I thought it was weird that a new mall was dead. It's supposed to be an old mall.
1998 flashback: I was 13 yrs old and talking to my friend Heather on the phone about how Capilano mall is a dead mall.
2008 flashback: I was 23 yrs old and reading the 24 News paper profile of dead malls and it wrote about Capilano.
Well at least by 2013, it was renovated and it turned into a strip mall.
"American Airlines agent saves 2 teenage girls from human trafficking scheme":
Law enforcement officials say that a quick-thinking airline employee, aptly named Denice Miracle, likely saved two teenage girls from a human trafficking plot.
Miracle, an American Airlines agent at California's Sacramento International Airport, was working at the ticket desk on Aug. 31, 2018, when two girls, aged 15 and 17, approached her counter, according to KOVR.
Miracle said the teenagers, who were trying to board a flight to New York, had a small number of bags with them, but no form of identification and no adult guardians.
The vigilant employee began to think something was seriously wrong when she noticed that the tickets, both first class, were purchased online with a credit card under a name that did not match what either of the teens had provided.
"It was a first-class ticket. It was very expensive. I told a supervisor, 'I'm going to call the sheriff. It just doesn't feel right to me,'" Miracle said.
When deputies arrived at the airport, the teens admitted that their pricey tickets were purchased by a man named "Drey" who they met on Instagram.
Apparently, the stranger told them that if they flew to New York for the weekend, he would pay them $2,000 to model in a music video.
Authorities say they located "Drey" on social media, but after briefly making contact with him, all of his accounts went dark.
"We attempted to look him up on Instagram," said Deputy Todd Sanderson. "Just a few minutes after our contact with him, he erased all of his profiles on social media."
When Deputy Sanderson informed the teens that their tickets had no return flights, he said they became defensive before ultimately accepting what could have happened to them.
"They were somewhat flippant about – 'No, that can't be true' – and I said, 'No, the airline says you have a one-way ticket, and in my belief, you're going back there not to do the things that you think you were going to be doing.' And they said, 'I wouldn't let anything happen that I didn't want.' And I said, ‘Well, you probably wouldn't have a choice in the matter,'" Deputy Sanderson said.
Following the incident, the teens were reunited with their parents, who were likely surprised to learn their daughters weren't spending the night at a friend's home like they had been told.
American Airlines commended Miracle for her brave actions, saying that her employee training played a role in saving the girls' lives.
2 days ago
I guess the airlines did learn something from 9-11. No ID, no fly.
My opinion: If you are going to be flying out, you should definitely tell your parents or guardian about it. It's not liking going to a party, but it's still in your town.
Now I have to quote from Angela who was talking about Justin Berry doing sexual things on webcam.
Angela: By the time you get to this age (13), don't you kind of know what's right or wrong by then?
Well I guess the girls seem so excited about going to NYC to be in a music video, they didn't see how it's wrong to not tell your parents about it to be in it. They probably thought they won't get their parent's permission to go there, and that a parent would go there with them.
Also with Justin Berry going to Vegas on his own at 16 yrs old, to go to a tech conference. My memory is kind of fuzzy, and I don't remember if Berry went there with a friend and his friend's parent.
Jan. 10, 2020 Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist: I saw this pilot and it was really good with all the singing and dancing. My favorite were when the guys in the office did a hip hop routine to "All I do is Win: by DJ Khaled, Ludacris, Rick Ross and T-Pain. I like hip hop dancing.
You can watch it on Telus on Demand on CTV. It will be regularly on Sun. Feb. 16.
"A young woman discovers she has the ability to hear the innermost thoughts of people around her as songs and musical numbers."
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10314462/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3
Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector:
"A retired forensic criminologist teams up with an ambitious young detective to help capture some of the most dangerous criminals in America."
My opinion: I just saw the pilot and it was intense. I will record the series and watch it all in one week.
The Bone Collector: It turns out there is a 1999 movie that the TV show is based on. It stars Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145681/?ref_=tt_sims_tt
How to Win Friends and Influence People: This book is by Dale Carnegie and I have heard of it before. Last month I was going through my dad's book shelf and found the book and read it. I know some of the stuff already like: "Talk about what the other person wants to talk about."
My opinion: That is what I have been doing with the blog. I ask my friends, family and blog readers: "What topics interest you? I can then write or find an article that you would like and post it here."
This is from 2011 and I remember asking Angela if she has been reading my weekly emails.
Angela: Yeah, I like them more.
Tracy: Is it because I write about the news?
Angela: No, because you write about your opinion on the news.
I also like to hear and read about your opinions on the news.
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