James Piper, Author

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 ... see, I do have some good ideas ... L ast week I wrote an entry on the issue of a falling salary cap number in the NHL. The falling cap means some teams will have less room than they'd like to fill out their roster. I suggested teams pay a salary that is a percentage of the cap instead of a flat amount. I sent the following question to the Toronto Star hockey reporter: Q: If an NHL team is worried about a falling cap number and committing dollars to a free agrent which squeezes room for other players, why not sign contracts where the salary is a percentage of the cap number and not a flat amount. It probably makes sense to assign all players a percentage of the cap and you don't have to worry about being squeezed. (Provided the GM isn't Max Bialystock and his assistant isn't Leo Bloom.) A: Yes, if it were only so that we knew those who have run the Leafs for the past 40 years were simply channeling The Producers. It would...

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 ... a typical cardio workout ... I thought perhaps I'd get in 60 mins of cardio today. I haven't done that in a while and thought I needed it. Well, it didn't happen. I am working on five hours sleep today--not enough for me--so I'm dragging my ass today. Funny thing is, I felt alive and full of energy after my 30 mins on the elliptical machine. That's no surprising, I usually feel better after my workout. Posted 2009/03/31 at 18h28ET in Exercise.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 Victor Victoria. Feature film. (1982, 130 mins) IMDB ... just thinking about this film brings a smile to my face ... I f you're like me, you've seen a great number of movies over the years. Many of them are forgettable, but occasionally there's a movie that for whatever sticks in your mind. VICTOR VICTORIA is one of those movies for me. I must have seen it sometime in the 1980s and a second time probably one rainy Sunday afternoon. I remembered I loved the movie, but more importantly many specific details from the movie stuck in my mind. Lines of dialogue. Specific scenes. Robert Preston's performance. I watched it again tonight and I probably love it more than the other times. It's perfectly cast with wonderful performances, a great story, wonderful music, incredible costumes and sets for the 1930s. There's all that plus Blake Edwards's quirky comedic moments sprinkled throughout the film. The movie is a ...

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 Vantage Point. Feature film. (2008, 90 mins) IMDB ... the filmmakers's idea of insight is rather obvious ... T ake a run-of-the-mill storyline, chop it up into pieces and show the same event from six different points of view and you have a film called VANTAGE POINT. There is nothing new in this film. Nothing new about the narrative and nothing new about the way it is told. All have been done before, yet it is an interesting film since you'll probably want to see it come together in the third act, but once you do, you won't need to see it a second time and you may be probably be disappointed. That's my fundamental test for a movie. Would I want to watch it a second time or a third or fourth? In this case, once is enough. The film takes place in a large city in Spain. World leaders have gathered to sign a treaty to fight terrorism. The big dog on the block is the US president complete with his massive convoy and army of ...

Movies Watched in March 2009 1. 2009/03/01 The Spiderwick Chronicles. Mystery. (2008, 96 mins.) *** 2. 2009/03/01 Fracture. Thriller. (2007, 113 mins.) *** 3. 2009/03/02 Another Life. Drama. (2001, 101 mins.) ** 4. 2009/03/03 I Am Legend. Drama. (2007, 101 mins.) *** 5. 2009/03/04 Once. Musical. (2006, 85 mins.) ***½ 6. 2009/03/05 For Love of Ivy. Romantic Comedy. (1968, 101 mins.) **** 7. 2009/03/05 They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!. Drama. (1970, 108 mins.) * 8. 2009/03/06 Marie Antoinette (2006). Historical. (2006, 123 mins.) ** 9. 2009/03/06 A Piece of the Action. Comedy. (1977, 135 mins.) *** 10. 2009/03/07 The Heiress. Drama. (1949, 115 mins.) **** 11. 2009/03/07 Cinderfella. Comedy. (1960, 91 mins.) ** 12. 2009/03/07 The Ladies Man. Comedy. (1961, 95 mins.) **½ 13. 2009/03/08 Tucker: The Man and His Dream. Drama. (1988, 110 mins.) **½ 14. 2009/03/09 Congo. Drama. (1995, 109 mins.) * 15. 2009/03/10 Awake. Thriller. (2007, 84 mins.) ** 16. 2009/03/10 Chaplin...

Monday, March 30, 2009 ... a busy Monday ... A nother busy Monday and I almost decided not to workout today, but I did. I wouldn't call it a full workout, but it was better than nothing. Lateral Back 27 kg x 25 reps x 3 sets Vertical Back 27 kg x 25 reps x 3 sets Stomach Crunches: 30 reps x 4 sets with 2KG medicine ball. No Leg Lunges or squats. Posted 2009/03/30 at 20h07ET in Exercise.

Monday, March 30, 2009 Flushed Away. Feature film. (2006, 85 mins) IMDB ... watch and enjoy ... F LUSHED AWAY is a funny, interesting, enjoyable animation film. Pratfalls to make you laugh. A love story. Action to interest. An ending that resolves the story, isn't predictable but is setup. That's difficult to create and many stories lack all three elements. The premise: Roddy is a pampered pet rat living in luxury. When the family goes away on holiday, he's left alone, but loving it. When a sewer rat arrives, his world is turned upside down and he's flushed down the drain into the underworld of sewer rats. How does he get back in one piece? During his attempts to leave the hell-hole, he meets Rita. She's savvy of the ways of the sewer, devoted to her family, running from the Toad (our bigger than life villain) and his henchmen, and totally uninterested in knowing let alone helping our hero. That they should spend the rest of the movie...

Monday, March 30, 2009 Shampoo. Feature film. (1975, 109 mins) IMDB ... no do-overs in life ... W arren Beatty plays George, a pretty-boy hairdresser in Hollywood. Not only is George not gay, he's a womanizer who will jump into bed with just about any women. Hell, he'll jump out of one bed to jump into another. He's completely flighty and irresponsible. A bachelor forever. His girlfriend is Jill (Hawn). She's in love with him and is too stupid or naive to see what's going on. At the end of the second Act, she finds him screwing Jackie (Christie), her best friend and his former lover. The shades are off Jill's eyes and the relationship is over. Jill moves on. Jackie is a kept woman. She'd be with George if he wasn't so irresponsible. She didn't want to wait while George grew up. Her lover and keeper is Lester (Jack Warden). He's older and loaded with money, but he's also married to Felica (Grant). Their marriag...

Sunday, March 29, 2009 ... swimming has become a pleasant workout ... I had to go to the gym today for a workout and did. 30 mins in the pool doing laps. I wasn't exactly sprinting down the lane, but it's a good, light Sunday afternoon workout. Posted 2009/03/29 at 18h14ET in Exercise.

Sunday, March 29, 2009 The Crusades. Feature film. (1935, 125 mins) IMDB ... a Hollywood romance with swords thrown in ... T he title is extremely misleading. The film is not about the crusades but a love story set in the midst of a crusade led by King Richard. Richard never spoke English and barely even lived on the British isles. He was a Norman who spoke French, but you wouldn't know that from this film. The filmmakers also want you to believe the King would have been caught up in something as trivial as love. Not a chance. Marriage wasn't about love. It was about matters of state, about power, and with that power, wealth. A true-to-history film about King Richard and the Crusades would lack romance and therefore wouldn't appeal to a broad audience. What we have in this film is nothing more than a love story. Richard is betrothed to Alice, the sister of King Philip of France. He doesn't want to marry her. He decides to go on the crusad...

Sunday, March 29, 2009 The Sensation of Sight. Feature film. (2006, 134 mins) IMDB ... another non-linear non-sense film that is supposedly profound but isn't ... A t what point did a confusing narrative become great story telling? I am amazed at how people have been duped by this film. (And others like it). I have no issue with the actors or their performances. It's entirely with the filmmakers. Their idea of a great story is to present a middle-aged man in angst for reasons we don't know. Somehow his bizarre behaviour, as a result, is great cinema, great storytelling, but we have no idea where he's been or where he's going and therefore it's meaningless. The linear narrative of the story is straightforward. A high school teacher (our so-called hero Finn) stands in a class room with a student. One on one. The student pulls out a pistol, shoves it into his mouth and kills himself. The teacher is screwed up as a result. The filmmake...

Saturday, March 28, 2009 Real Time. Feature film. (2008, 80 mins) IMDB ... what do you do when you an hour to live? ... T ake one last look at the world. It's the line Reuben (Quaid) says to Andy (Baruchel) in Act III of this short, very shot film. The pistol in Reuben's hand is pointed at Andy's head. Indeed. One last look. Except for Emily Dickinson, Woody Allen and me, not many people dwell on death. We know we're going to die at some point. The question is when, where and how. In Andy's case it's bullet to the head at 15h--compliments of Reuben. At least that's what the filmmakers what us to believe and yet we know there must be a twist to change the storyline and there is. Andy is a deadbeat. A loser. If he died no one would mourn. No one would remember. The world would be neither better off or worse off. He simple exists in his miserable life. Because of ignorance, his lack of education, he believes there is such thin...

Saturday, March 28, 2009 ... a different sort of workout today ... I solved my problem. I wanted to go swimming today and did. I also wanted to get in some weights and did. It turned out to be 90 minute workout, but I reached my objective for this week. Bicep Curls: 7kg x 25 reps x 3 sets Bench Press: 11kg x 25 reps x 3 sets Inclined Bench Press: 11kg x 20 reps x 3 sets Stomach Crunches: 30 reps x 6 sets with 2KG medicine ball. Posted 2009/03/28 at 19h14ET in Exercise.

Saturday, March 28, 2009 Two For The Road. Feature film. (1967, 111 mins) IMDB ... two on many roads ... W hat can I say? Audrey Hepburn. Albert Finney. Stanley Donen. Henry Mancini. Maurice Binder. The film is a mature look at love, marriage--falling in love, out of love, back in love. The challenges of marriage when careers and children get in the way. It's also a film told in an unusual way. It's completely non-linear. We see a young Mark and Joa28a as they fall in love, later as they bicker on summer vacations in France. The film switches back and forth between these different times and yet it's still structured with three-acts. I think it's impossible to not like Audrey Hepburn. Her involvement in this film isn't the reason it's a great film, but I can't imagine it with anyone but her in it. Posted 2009/03/28 at 19h14ET in Movie Commentary.

Friday, March 27, 2009 ... I almost didn't exercise today ... I went to the gym and had a pre-workout shower. As I dried off I debated whether I should stay or leave. I started to dress to leave and backtracked. I put on my workout clothes and did 30 minutes on the elliptical machine. I wasn't pushing it but I still worked up a sweat. It counts as a workout. I thought I might do weights today. Nope. Not sure about tomorrow or Sunday. Weights tomorrow or not? That is the question. Posted 2009/03/27 at 20h06ET in Exercise.

Friday, March 27, 2009 Tora! Tora! Tora!. Feature film. (1970, 144 mins) IMDB ... Get a sense of what it might have been like on the day the Japanse attacked Pearl Harbour ... T ora! Tora! Tora! was the code word the Japanese military used for its attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941. When the bomber and fighter pilots heard those words, they knew the attack was a go. The film shows the events leading up to the attack from both the US and Japanese point of view. Unlike a lot of WWII movies, the Japanese military men speak their native language instead of Hollywood English. I prefer that approach even if the white subtitles are sometimes washing out because the background is white. White on white doesn't work. There are no stars in this film because the focus shifts from one of many characters and the focus is mainly on the mandarins in Washington and Tokyo or the generals and admirals. We never connect with a private on the ground or a seaman on a ship unlike...

Friday, March 27, 2009 Trade. Feature film. (2007, 120 mins) IMDB ... Why do filmmakers make such bleak films ... T he filmmakers would like you to believe this is the first film to follow the plight of women who are abducted or conned into becoming prostitutes--the sex slave trade into the US. It isn't. I've seen at least one movie on the topic, although the title escapes me at the moment. Abducted. Conned or duped. Sex slaves. Topics that bring out the dark side of human nature. I wonder why filmmakers want to show it. An easy answer is to allow us to feel good about ourselves. Look, someone says, I'm glad I'm not in that situation. Maybe. The same argument is made about news in general. It's filled with negative events (wars, fires, murders, accidents...). People read the newspapers and watch the television, day after day, and find comfort from other people's misery. Schadenfreude . I think it's a sad way to live life. P...

Thursday, March 26, 2009 ... a good workout ... T he change in my diet is making a big difference in my weight loss. I hit 92.2 KG today. The weight, fat, is coming off and staying off. I feel slimmer. Bicep Curls: 7kg x 25 reps x 3 sets Tricep Presses: 14kg x 25 reps x 3 sets. Stomach Crunches: 30 reps x 6 sets with 2KG medicine ball. Leg Lunges: 10 reps x 6 sets - Left/Right Squats: 10 reps x 6 sets. I face a dilemma. I want to go swimming on Saturday and Sunday. I want three weight workouts this week (I've done two). And I shouldn't do weights on consecutive days. Something's got to give. Do I do weights tomorrow or on Saturday or Sunday? Do I accept two weight workouts this week and cardio tomorrow? Not sure. I'll know tomorrow. Posted 2009/03/26 at 19h20ET in Exercise.

Thursday, March 26, 2009 Union Pacific. Feature film. (1939, 135 mins) IMDB ... a film worth watching ... C ecil B. DeMille is known for making epic films. Giant sets with hundreds of extras. Productions some say are cost prohibitive today without the use of computer graphics. The budget for UNION PACFIC was apparently $1 million, but that's 1939 dollars. What is that in today's dollars? About $130 million. While that amount would be a large budget for today's standards, it probably wouldn't be enough to make the picture as he made it. The film is based on real events, connecting the Union Pacific railroad west with California in the period after the US Civil War, but what is shown is entirely a Hollywood invention of storytelling to please an audience. You need a good guy, a bad guy, a love interest and something at stack--an objective. The main objective is to build the railroad, but there's another company building a railroad from we...

Thursday, March 26, 2009 Si j'étais toi (The Secret). Feature film. (2007, 92 mins) IMDB ... how can a mother transfer her personality and life to her daughter? ... A s the film opens we follow a middle-aged husband and wife. They are madly in love. Sugary type of love. They have a sixteen year old daughter who is sarcastic and petulant. It doesn't take long to realize something is going to happen to break up this perfect love nest. That event? The mother drives the family SUV on a highway with the daughter in the passenger seat. In a flash, she jerks the steering wheel to avoid hitting an oncoming vehicle, loses control. The vehicle tumbles down an embankment. Cut to a hospital scene where mother and daughter are alive but badly injured. When the daughter goes into cardiac arrest, the mother reaches over and grabs her daughter's arm. A moment later the mother dies, but the daughter lives. The major twist of the story comes shortly after when t...

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 ... not all workouts are good ones ... T oday was a cardio day. I did 30 minutes on the elliptical machine but for some reason my legs felt like lead today. I wonder if my cutback in the amount of cardio I'm doing is catching up to me. Could be, but I'm not sure. Remembered to do my stretching afterwards. I have discovered the motivation for remembering and doing it, but I'm not telling. Since my early twenties I've worn glasses to see for distance. They are weak (1.50) but I need them if I want to see clearly. I used to be able to read while wearing them. Not anymore. I'm getting to the point in life where I need reading glasses. Yuck. I guess need bifocals and don't want to admit it. Posted 2009/03/25 at 20h30ET in Exercise.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 Cleaner. Feature film. (2007, 88 mins) IMDB ... who you going to call? ... I love the setup to this film. Samuel L. Jackson plays Tom, a retired cop ,who runs a cleaning company, but not a typical cleaning company. His firm cleans up when someone dies whether it's murder, accident, suicide. Not the sort of job I would even contemplate, but someone has to do it. Tom gets a new assignment. There has been a murder in a mansion. When he arrives, no one is there, but there are signs the police have finished their investigation and after all he received the new job from the police. When he enters the house, the corpse is gone, but signs of a bloody murder cover the living room and he gets to work cleaning it up. A day later, he learns someone set him up. Framed him. There was a murder, the blood was real, but the police hadn't started their investigation because they didn't know there was a murder. He cleaned up a murder sc...

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 Snakes On A Plane. Feature film. (2006, 105 mins) IMDB ... one too many snakes on a plane ... H as there every been a movie with such internet buzz before it was even made? That's the legacy of this film, not the film itself. Snakes on a plane sums it up. Not much else to say, but I'll throw out a few comments. Oddly the film was first setup with Paramount, but after a while they decided they didn't want to produce it. The death of a screenplay, except the people behind it bought it back, known as turnaround, and got a new deal with New Line Cinema. Turnarounds don't happen very often. Studios buy more screenplays than they put into production and if they don't green-light it, it sits on a dusty shelf--think of the closing scene of RAIDERS and where the ark ended up. It's just the nature of the Hollywood system. William Goldman in his book WHAT LIE DID I TELL? suggests if he were the head of a studio, he'd...

Tuesday, March 24, 2009 ... back at it ... F or various reasons I was talking myself into not going to the gym this afternoon. It's one of those inner monologues where excuses are created, reasons are developed for why it would be okay to not go. Well, if you buy into it, you'll keep doing it and miss more workout days than you should. Call it discipline. I recognized the signs and went to the gym for a one hour weights workout. Lateral Back 27 kg x 25 reps x 3 sets Vertical Back 27 kg x 25 reps x 3 sets Stomach Crunches: 30 reps x 6 sets with 2KG medicine ball. I can definitely feel tighter stomach muscles. Leg Lunges: 10 reps x 6 set - Left/Right. Squats: 10 reps x 6 sets. Posted 2009/03/24 at 19h01ET in Exercise.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009 The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. Feature film. (2008, 117 mins) IMDB ... they can and should make a sequel ... F our young women in their early twenties have a special pair of pants they share during the summer. Even though the four are different sizes, the pair of pants fits them perfectly and while wearing them, they experience miracles. That was the premise of the first movie (though they were younger) and it's the jumping off point for this movie. The women have finished school for the year and return home to spend the summer together, but it doesn't work out as planned. They are going on their summer adventures. Each will take turns wearing the pants. Lena goes to a art school to study drawing. Her first encounter with a nude model tests her nerves. Later they meet and date and appear to hit it off, but there's someone else. Kostas. She met him in Greece during her visit in the first movie. The complications ...

Tuesday, March 24, 2009 The Palm Beach Story. Feature film. (1942, 88 mins) IMDB ... a Preston Sturges film--burn brightly ... P reston Sturges created THE PALM BEACH STORY during the height of his career as a Hollywood writer and director. Some draw similarities between him and Chaplin. Hitting their heights at a young age only to vanish from the scene. It was fun while it lasted. A Preston Sturges's film is filmed with any number of devices to create comedy and laughs. Satire one moment, pratfalls and slapstick the next. He wasn't afraid or embarrassed about using any of it, provided it got a laugh and it usually did. The story concerns a time when divorces weren't as common or as a easy as they are today. There are many real-life and fabricated stories about a wife moving to Reno to wait around until the divorce came through. In this film, instead of Reno, Claudette Colbert heads to Palm Springs for the same reason. It doesn't hurt that Pa...

Monday, March 23, 2009 ... no workout today ... F or a number of reasons I didn't go to the gym for a workout today. I'm not going to feel guilty about it. My long-term average is above six days a week and close to 6.5 in 2009. Can't exercise everyday. Tomorrow I will go--just not sure if it's cardio only day or a weights day. We shall see. Posted 2009/03/23 at 18h17ET in Exercise.

Monday, March 23, 2009 W. Feature film. (2008, 129 mins) IMDB ... Why haven't more people seen this movie? ... W . is a bio pic on the rise of George W. Bush. At it's heart is the relationship between father and son. In telling that relationship, the filmmakers show the progression of W. as a young university student bent on drinking and socializing, his struggle to find his place in life (a failure at so many things) to his rise as governor then president. The other aspect of the story is the development inside the White House for the plan of war against Iraq--the drive to remove Saddam Hussein, to control the region and maintain the US dominance in the world. The story weaves back and forth between the young, unknown Bush as he makes his way and the president in the White House as the administration puts their war plan together, implements it and suffers humiliation when no weapons of mass destruction were found. Having read numerous books on the Iraq ...

Sunday, March 22, 2009 The Doctor. Feature film. (1991, 122 mins) IMDB ... do they show this movie in medical schools? ... T he last line of my notes is: It's not the first time I've seen this movie, but I love it. The question is why? The simple answer is it moved me--emotionally moved me. In the theory of story, bringing emotion and understanding together is why we read novels and watch films. The story can be summed up easily. A selfish surgeon gets a dose of his own medicine when he discovers he has throat cancer, decides he doesn't like it and changes as a result. I know, it doesn't move you, you have to watch the film to get that part. There's the inciting incident when he realizes a cough isn't just a cough. Act I climax when he discovers he has to have a biopsy. Act II dealing with the hell of treatment. At one point he's mistaken for another patient and despite his protests is given an enema anyway. Act II climax with t...

Sunday, March 22, 2009 ... A relaxing swim ... S ince it was Sunday, it was time for a relaxing swim. I wasn't pushing myself and only did 20 laps. It was a like in the park instead of a run. Posted 2009/03/22 at 20h34ET in Exercise.

Sunday, March 22, 2009 Ride The High Country. Feature film. (1962, 94 mins) IMDB ... Peckinpah directing his first feature film ... N ot your typical western. There are signs in the film that it takes place around 1900 when the west was dead or dying yet it was released in 1962 at a time when Hollywood was still turning out the product for theatres and TV. One thing that surprised me was an old looking Joel McCrae. Not the same man we remember from the FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT or SULLIVAN'S TRAVEL. He didn't age well. Randolph Scott on the other hand had Hollywood good looks, and even more surprising, retired from acting after this film. He could have acted for another decade or more had he chose to do so. I haven't watched a lot of Westerns so I can't comment on the genre or even the famous Sam Peckinpah. I only know his famous film, THE WILD BUNCH, famous for its violence. There is violence in this film--bar room fights, shoot outs, but it'...

Sunday, March 22, 2009 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Feature film. (2008, 122 mins) IMDB ... what's with the long title? ... Y ou've watched the movie, seen the trailers, heard the hype on TV--probably. Since I don't watch TV, I missed it--no great loss. I read they wanted to make this 4th version for Indiana Jones for some time, but it kept being delayed because George Lucas wouldn't sign off on a script. Many screenplays were written and rejected. I'm more interested in the development of the scripts than the actual movie and I'm writing about other things than the movie, because there isn't much to say about the film. Should I be amazed the budget for this film was $185 million? Wow! That's a lot of money for one film. Is that the cost of getting the film into the can or does it include all the advertising, publicity and prints? Not sure. I'd like to know that as well. Maybe someone at Paramount c...

Saturday, March 21, 2009 Day 9 of 9 ... I was looking forward to my swim ... A nother Saturday. I had done three weights exercise in the week already so it was time for a swim. The swims have gotten longer and I suppose easier. 40 laps today. I can see I might get up to 50 or 60. Possible. Posted 2009/03/21 at 20h33ET in Exercise.

Saturday, March 21, 2009 The Grass Is Greener. Feature film. (1960, 105 mins) IMDB ... as enjoyable as any movie ... W hen they say they don't make films like they used to, THE GRASS IS GREENER would be an example. It's a film filled with brilliant dialogue, little physical action, longs scenes. There is wit, subtle, delightful wit and a dilemma to drive the narrative to its conclusion. A film like this would easily get made today, but it would be an independent film which means a low budget, limited marketing and distribution and wouldn't hit the top ten on the box office listing. Further, it wouldn't have actors with the status of GRANT, KERR or MITCHUM. Grant and Kerr play Lord and Lady Rhyall. They live in a stately mansion somewhere in the country near London in England. They are a gorgeous, happy couple with two young children. Despite the trappings of wealth, they are cash poor and must allow visitors entrance to their estate on tours. ...

Saturday, March 21, 2009 ... open mouth, insert second foot ... 1 50 year after the publication of ON THE ORGIN OF SPECIES, the most researched and defined theory in science still generates controversy and denial. This week it was Gary Goodyear, the Conservative MP for the riding of Cambridge. Anne McIlroy of the Globe and Mail asked him if he believed in evolution. This was his response: I'm not going to answer that question. I am a Christian, and I don't think anybody asking a question about my religion is appropriate. In other words he's a bible-thumper in denial about evolution. It wouldn't matter except he's the federal Minister of State for Science and Technology. He adds to his errors when he says: I do believe that just because you can't see it under a microscope doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It could mean we don't have a powerful enough microscope yet. I guess he's not familiar with Heisenberg's uncertainty ...