Soulpepper has a new actor on their stage tonight: my brother, Michael Healey adapted Ferenc Molnár’s comedy, Olympia for this Toronto run. Michael also appears as Count Albert. I wonder if he’s nervous with this double threat?

He tells me that updating the play has been a challenge but exciting. I hope he does well!

UPDATE: From the Toronto Star (four point five stars out of five):

Michael Healey’s adaptation is a major bonus, keeping the dryly witty tone intact while shading it with just enough contemporary resonance to make it interesting.

Yeah baby!

We rented Death Race 2000 and Last House on the Left and without knowing it, Martin Kove was in both. Eeeerieeee dooo doo doo doo! He’s like Jon Erik Hexum but alive. And old. Seeing this guy in two movies from the same decade wasnt much of a stretch since he’s done so much. I guess I’m a sucker for 70s boufy hair and a cleft chin.

I loved DR2K. I thought it was brilliantly sly and incredibly formaggio. The production quality was like watching season 3 of V or the worst episode of Buck Rogers.

Saw The Island as well. Fummm. Typical summer movie. Turn off your brain and smile as it rambles along. Sure there were glaring logistic errors in the story (why the elaborate hologram? Why not just put them on a frigging island somewhere?) but I accepted that as SciFi summer fun. Like getting sun burn. The only thing I didn’t like was the blatant product placement. Two lingering shots of beverage labels just before a character took a swig from it. Not cool. I can accept ads in the background as that it’s inevitable that you will see product during your regular day but movies are starting to beat this crap over our heads. So reject Aquafina and Michelob. Please.

“And mummy will pack up all his stuff and put it on the street.” — Woman to her dog at 6am as Sharkboy and I trundled off to the gym.

“The Greeks and the French are the same. We just don’t give a shit.” — Wasn’t sure if he was Greek or French.

Girl: “Are you wearing eyeliner?” Mom: “Would you shut up?” — Mom ‘n daughter bonding moment.

Busty woman to old waiter at The Studio Restaraunt: “Do I look tired to you?” Waiter: (pauses, obviously wondering if this is some sort of trick)”…You do look… a bit…” Woman: “I have been up all night!”

They may be memory hogs and they might be useless but they’re frikkin’ cute! Konfabulator is now offering free Widgets now that Yahoo has swallowed them up. Here’s a cartoon to help you understand where they came from and what they do. Currently I have the temperature for Toronto, the Simpson’s Random Quote, Werewolf monitor (no, not when Warren Zevon will be popular again… just phases of the moon and the goldfish swimming across my desktop. Of course, if you’re on Mac OSX.4 then you already have them. Point and laugh at the slow Windows drones.

Speaking of Simpsons, Sharkboy tells me that every episode of The Simpsons has a flame somewhere in it. I have the first season and can’t recall if it’s true for those shows. I have my doubts but so far all the shows we’ve watched, there has been a flame of sorts either by explosion or someone lighting up a smoooooth Laramie cigarette. Snopes can’t confirm it. Anyone know where I can prove this?

I would also like to direct your attention to that little button that appeared within the last 24 hours on your Google Customized Start Up Page. Right up there in the left: “Add Content”. That’s right! Click on it and the toolbar DHTMLs out. You can then add all your RSS feeds from your favorite sites and when you’re done, drag them around the page to create your own layout. What? You don’t have a Personalized Start Up Page? Ask nicely and I will send you a Gmail account.

I tell you people, the web is becoming fun again.

Right now I am wearing black socks, my day-old Y fronts and nothing else. I just this moment sneaked a toot out my right cheek. I’m eating a Mac N Cheese Bologna sammich with ketchup.

No, it’s on Dempster’s brown. What do you think I am? Uncooth?

I am waiting for the print shop to open this morning, watching the Yonge Street crowd trundling off to work and I spy a typical “bank worker” guy: almost-too-short cheap dress pants, nondescript shirt, backpack on his thin mid-twenties frame, glasses, just washed slicked hair.

And a samurai sword, sheathed, in hand. I love this city.

I have never posted anything regarding the contents of my iPod but I feel I have to since OldAudioDude gave me a $20 iTunes store and he may want to know what I spent it on. Special note to the people relieving one of these gift certificates: scratch lightly. I tried 27 of a possible 34 combinations to gain access when I accidentally dug so hard into the tail end of the Scratch Here! Revel in my first and last ever iPod music list (now with superstrength DRM!):

E=MC2, Big Audio Dynamite. Sample-y goodness!

The Globe, Big Audio Dynamite II. Reminds me of living in Brixton, near The Cube!

Train In Vain, The Clash. I had to get this. I only had Annie Lennox’s version.

Weathered Wall, David Sylvian. Lookit me! I’m an art fag!

We R In Need of a Musical Revolution, Esthero. She’s back! Her voice is Godzilla and my heart is Tokyo!

Rollercoaster (King Britt Scuba Mix), Everything But the Girl. I needed an atypical Tracy Thorn hit.

Emerge, Fischerspooner. Lookit me! I’m an art fag laughing at the old art fag!

European Son, Japan. Nigel once scolded me for placing England within Europe.

Night In My Veins, The Pretenders. Doin’ it up against a car!

Kid, The Pretenders. Rainy Earls Court song.

Absolute, Scritti Politti. Gay factor 9.5. Makes me dance like a lemur.

Breakout, Swing Out Sister. Rainy Brixton song.

Surrender, Swing Out Sister. Rainy Camden Market song.

Life During Wartime, Talking Heads. OldAudio might remember driving around in Mum’s new Pontiac 2000 with this on the tape deck.

The Rabbit of Saville, Warner Bros. Live. “Can’t you see that I’m much sweeta? I’m your little Sen-yor-ee-tur!”

Five Fathoms, Everything But The Girl. One of the first songs I ever downloaded. And lost.

Hollaback Girl, Gwen Stefani. There is an angry cheerleader in all of us.

Deeper and Deeper, The Fixx. No explanation.

I’ve packed waaay too much stuff. One hockey duffel bag full of t-shirts and telescope. One gym bag full of shoes. One knapsack full of electronics. Even all after all that, I have the little gnome on my shoulder nagging at me that I’ve forgotten something.

Ugly I know. Sorry. Cuts back on the Referral spam.

I’ll be sticking my head back in here every so often so you kids better not have a party while I’m gone.

Later, Squidwards!

Sorry for the outage, kids. Who knew you had to point nameservers to the new boxes that host this site after the original owners pulled up stakes and moved on? There wasn’t much I could do out there in the wild, unless I warchucked and we all know that logging into someone’s unsecured wifi is wrong.

Speaking of stakes, expect blow by blow blog entry and pics from camping soon. One hundred and fifty some odd shots to sort through to post for your fun and ridicule. See video of Condoleeza Rice showing off her bad self! See a beached whale! See more of the same but funnier. I hope.

Thanks to Evil Panda and Griz for a great week. Looking forward to your next visit, boys. Bring Off.

I was walking behind a text book atypical family of four (Dad, Mom, Son, Sis) on the way to work this morning and as they approached a city block the Dad pipes up:

“Okay, on this block, we’re going to pick up all the garbage on the sidewalk!”

Slight grumblings from the son and saunters over to a can by a doorway. The daughter took off, excited to get the most crap on/in her tiny mitts. Mom picks up a couple of wrappers and Dad went right into a bus shelter to get a Kleenex. Ew.

Now, I was amazingly proud of this family. They collected for one city block and stuffed stranger’s trash into a bin at the end of the block. They made picking up garbage on the block fun and helped make the city a little bit cleaner. More people should be as considerate.

But my negatory self, perched up on my shoulder with pitchfork and red catsuit, thought: Dad’s pretty cheap if that’s their form of family entertainment.

I so want to see The Aristocrats! Here’s a clip of the South Park kids’ version of the joke (via World of Wonder). Crappy animation safe for work, but audio certainly isn’t.