Sane Canadians for Sanity (and/or Fear)!

So I was at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Keep Fear Alive in Washington DC. It was a reasonable amount of crazy, to say the least. Getting there was an experience in and of itself (thanks Torontoist!) and I can't say I recommend sitting down for 12 hours, standing up for 6 hours and then traveling for 12 hours again. It was exhausting, but in the best possible way.

The more I read about people who wound up too far back to see or hear anything, the more pleased I am that I was close enough to catch (admittedly not very helpful) glimpses of the stage while being directly in front of one of the giant screens and speakers so that I could see and hear everything. While waiting for it to start, it was pretty much impossible to get a sense of how many people were there. A few times I held up my camera and snapped a picture pointing back towards the Washington Monument trying to see what the crowd was like. 

The crowd behind me at about 11:00am

We stood there for a solid two hours while a recap of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report leading up to the Rally played on the jumbotrons along with musical segments from both shows and some trivia type things. I was particularly happy when Colbert's epic 'Remixing is Okay' video came on. A huge part of the experience was just looking around for the signs people were carrying. Some of the best ones from where I was were:

"Palin/Voldemort 2012"

"Pizza is Delicious."

"Make Awkward Sexual Advances, not war."

Although I think my favourite was this one:

REAL AMERICA: It is everywhere!

Finally, a countdown to the rally appeared with 2 minutes to go, but the screen cut out with about 30 seconds to go. It was kind of odd, everyone was waiting to countdown to the moment of sanity restoration, (and some nobly tried anyways) but the countdown disappeared before we could all freak out for freedom together.

The pacing was a little strange, especially at the beginning. Half an hour of not particularly engaging musical performances probably not the best choice. The Mythbuster segment was better, as it engaged and united the crowd. At least the part of the crowd that could hear the instructions. Throughout that segment the chant of "LOUDER! LOUDER!" kept working it's way from the back of the crowd towards us, which was the first indication that there were more people here than could hear what was going on. But still, it was much more efficient at uniting the crowd as a crowd (ever jumped up and down at the same time as 150000-250000 people? It's delightfully bizarre). I'd wanted to see the crowd do the wave and it happened, so I was very happy.

The wave

It wasn't until the Rally started that the screens showed shots of the crowd. The first of the shots of the crowd gave us the first real sense of scale. It was pretty awesome to hear everyone around me reacting to the first views of SO. MANY. PEOPLE.

My first real sense of the crowd size (although I still had no idea the crowd wasn't just on the Mall.)

Finally Jon Stewart appeared on stage and the crowd went a reasonable amount of crazy. I was super grateful for the jumbotron at this point. I was less grateful for the 6 foot 3 man who was standing in front of me. Then Stephen Colbert arrived from his Fear Bunker (in pants that cracked me up every time they appeared on screen) and the Restoring Sanity/Fear contradiction was up and running.

Awesome view was awesome. 

But seriously though, it wasn't a bad place to be at all. 

The rally itself was pretty darn awesome. It was most entertaining when Jon Stewart couldn't quite hold it together. When Colbert and the guitarist had a little difficulty starting a song at the same time, Jon Stewart started laughing, and never fully recovered as he gamely launched into his half of the duet. By the time Stewart and Colbert (at this time wearing matching american flag polar fleece sweaters) finished their song Stewart apologized through his giggles for making us listen to him sing saying that it wouldn't happen again and that "It worked in rehearsal".

The overall tone of the rally moved from ridiculous towards sincerity. By the time Colbert, his fear-based news montages and his giant fear puppet were defeated by John Oliver in a Peter Pan costume and the crowd cheering, it was time for Jon Stewart to address the crowd. He spoke about the importance of the little every day compromises that we all make, using traffic merging to highlight that Americans who disagree with each other get shit done every day. The strongest statements that were made were those made against the mainstream news media and its endless focus on fear and extreme personalities. 

"When we amplify everything, we hear nothing." -Jon Stewart

His speech is absolutely worth 12 minutes of your life. Watch it.

Rally to Restore Fear/Keep Fear Alive

I'm weirdly terrified that my iPod will die sometime on this epic road trip and I will be left cradling its lifeless body in my trembling hands.

And um YES. This is about to happen. Waaaaaaaay too many hours on a bus. Twice as many hours than I will be in Washington DC for. Totally. Worth. It.

The Hobbit!

YES. Hobbit casting. Shit is happening.

And it's Martin Freeman as Bilbo. Scheduling conflicts must have been resolved (and if this means he's not going to be in Sherlock series 2 I will be SAD PANDA. But I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be the case, so awesome).

Still no official word on Ian Mckellen or Andy Serkis apparently.... And I need both of them to be in it. NEED.

Phone interviews: Doing it Right

The phone rang just as I was dropping my backpack and guitar in the front hall after three hours in the car. I was in my pyjama pants and cottage clothes and really had to pee and I picked up the phone assuming it would be for anyone but me. But no. SURPRISE JOB INTERVIEW over the phone.

Internet Vacation in 5...4...

Legit, my only real goal for this weekend is to have as many campfires as possible. Wish me luck.

I disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler

Thanks to the majestic Torontoist and their noble efforts, I'm going to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. I'm so excited, you have no idea. I was so worried that I wouldn't get to be a part of this mass of ridiculousness/ surprisingly earnest attempt to inject a voice of reason into the current discourse. And yes, as a Canadian, my reasons to be there are slim, but they are also awesome. This will be my second pilgrimage to Stewart and Colbert this year (I attended tapings in New York in April) and I have high hopes for similar levels of epic.

I swear every time I go looking for reference pictures of whatever I'm attempting to draw I end up giving up and staging the reference photo myself.

Usually it's just to solve something boring like "how to arms work when someone is standing in this way?" or "where would your feet be?" but on some occasions it results in me hanging upsidedown off a chair to recreate a birds eye view shot by rotating the staging 90 degrees because the camera at my disposal is attached to my laptop.

I'm confident it will be 1000000000000% better than the Star Wars Holiday Special

There's going to be a Cabin Pressure Christmas Special!

I'm betting most of you don't care about a BBC radio sitcom that you've never heard of, BUT YOU SHOULD because a) I've just told you about it and b) it's hysterical. The writing is tight and tremendously clever and there's something magical about the simplicity of the set up (the adventures of tiny, single jet airline crew) that lends itself to sitcom gold. There are four main characters (a good pilot, a safe pilot, an excitable steward and their boss), each vivid and ridiculous in ways that only comedy can allow. I've spent a lot of time trying to stifle giggles when I'm listening to an episode on the train.  Cabin Pressure has also become a staple of any family road trip lasting longer than 29 minutes, with both my mom and I reaching to hook up our iPod's to the radio the moment listening to an episode is suggested.

I really can not praise it highly enough. It's easily one of my favourite sitcoms of all time.

"I'm mad at you. You're still so hot."

I like to write about the representations of sexuality in pop culture. A lot. And today I watched Glee, so this was pretty much inevitable. Sexy Spoilers for Glee, up to and including today's episode Duets.

Yeah. That's right.

I watched Van Gogh: Painted with Words last week. And you know what? I enjoyed it. I was watching it and was all not interested for about the first three minutes and then that documentary voice kicked in and the dramatization was suitably engaging and I was bloody FASCINATED. I was very depressed when the train ride was over but I still had 40 minutes left to watch. But the next day another commute awaited me! I've never learned so much about Van Gogh while commuting. Thank god for ipods.

And I threatened someone with a 50 question Quiz on Van Gogh: Painted with Words, and frankly, this is the kind of threat I keep.

Technology Holidays

Sometimes I take vacations from certain electronics in my life. Today I woke up and didn't even touch my cell phone. I left it lying on the floor turned off. There was nothing in the world it could do to get my attention. It was awesome.

I also take internet vacations, although they are usually determined by my physical location rather than my mindset. If I am away from internet access I embrace it, and am often surprised by how much I enjoy this disconnect. However, forced internet vacations caused by say, the neighbours having landscaping done that cuts off the cable... those are significantly less relaxing.

It's just enjoyable to leave something so crucial behind, if only temporarily.

I think we should take bets on when/if this movie *actually* gets released

Oh man, I made the mistake of trying to catch up on The Hobbit movie news.

I'm pretty sure that movie is inventing new levels of development hell. (Yes, I linked to TVtropes. Say goodbye to the next few hours of your life.)

What's this? A studio making a good decision?

Warner Bros has ditched the 3D version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. Rejoice!

Converting something filmed in 2D to 3D just doesn't fly (Clash of the Titans, I'm looking at you). I'm so relieved. This means I can watch this in Imax without fearing retina-burning 3D effects on a way too big screen.

I'm shamelessly obsessed with books that gleefully and actively admit they lie

Graham Chapman's autobiography: A Liar's Autobiography (Volume IV) finally arrived!

It's pretty much the House of Leaves of autobiographies. There are multiple authors, who all contradict each other or lie outright and then admit their lies in the footnotes. There are crazy footnotes that include one of the authors asking the others if they can have a day off. And yet amongst the haze of lies are some delightfully vivid truths.

Naturally its arrival led to me starting to read House of Leaves again. This week I'm all about the literature that lies.

Rented a guitar that is NOT BROKEN today. How awesome is that? A guitar that isn't cracking down the middle and is capable of playing all the notes! Also: it smells like vanilla.

Naturally I celebrated by learning how to play Don't Stop Believing.

At this exact moment in time:

I am watching what I was told was "A musical adaptation of Macbeth starring Sir Patrick Stewart."

It's not nearly as musical as I was led to believe.

The game is once again afoot!

Sherlock Holmes 2 started shooting today!

Between this and series two of BBC Sherlock 2011 is going to be an awesome year for Sherlock stuff. Not that this last year has been in any way disappointing... Keep up the good work universe!

Best news ever!

Carrie Fisher's one woman play Wishful Drinking is coming to Toronto!

The audiobook of the book based on said play is one of the funniest things I've heard in my life. I could not be more excited for this!

It's...

It's the 41 anniversary of Monty Python's Flying Circus first airing on the BBC!

Arbitrary Appreciation: Multiple Fields of Gravity on the Millennium Falcon

In Star Wars: A New Hope when our heroes are escaping the Death Star Luke and Han gun down some attacking Tie Fighters we're treated to several shots that show the Millennium Falcon has at least two directions of gravity working simultaneously.

It can be quite difficult to understand the gravity of the situation

I have high hopes that other parts of the ship have other directions of gravity. Can you imagine how epic a game of hide and seek would be?

It's like a crime scene up in here

I cut open the bottom of my foot without realizing it. I then spent 10 minutes cleaning up the bloody footprints I'd left everywhere.

This sounds far more extreme than it actually was.

Vacation from gender. Please?

The statement "I need to take a vacation from gender" is very often floating around my brain. Any drama or angst caused by the cruelness of the gender system I did not sign up for but have to deal with on daily basis inevitably reaches the point of "I need to take a vacation from gender".  This happens often enough that when I found the awesome genderfork website I submitted it and it was posted (huzzah!). 

It's strange and sad that it is absolutely true and utterly impossible all at the same time. 

Art!

I'm suitably exhausted from Nuit Blanche last night. I attended my own funeral, lay in a pile of 1 million pennies and walked between two naked people. I also got my fortune from a giant fortune cookie and was told I look a bit like Justin Bieber (I need a haircut...). All in all, fun was had, although I'll admit I'm rather looking forward to an artless but restful night.

Harry Potter and the Cycle of Anticipation

Sometimes I just stop and think about how happy I am that I got to grow up with Harry Potter.

There's just something about an entire generation of people spending 10 years wanting nothing more than the next book that makes it more awesome. I loved those agonizing waits between books, the inevitable countdowns to release dates, the sleepless nights leading up to the midnight book launch and then the marathon reading sessions that followed. The Harry Potter cycle of anticipation was second to none and parallel only to Star Wars. Years containing both a new Harry Potter book and a new Star Wars movie felt like the universe was giving me everything I could ever ask for.

The secret to not being disappointed by sequels you are excited for:

Expect it to be 10-20% worse than the previous instalment in the series.

This way a) you are prepared for said movie to not be as good as the movie(s) that came before it and b) if it totally kicks ass, it's an extremely pleasant surprise.

It should be noted that this will not always save you (Spider-man 3, yes, I am looking at you.)

I need to see The Social Network

Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, Sports Night) wrote it.
David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac, etc) directed it.

OH. HELL. YES.