A Collection of Daily Wisdom by Dennis Sylvester Hurd since September 2003.

We don't go to the movies near as often as we once did. As today was a free day, we went to the Strawberry Hill Cinemas. Because that section of Surrey / Delta has a big Indo-Canadian population, a 12-screen Cineplex-Odeon always runs several, big-budget Bollywood Blockbusters there.

I can't think of a better way to spend a grey afternoon, than in front of a screen showing a bigger-than-life colourful Bollywood movie. This was a bit of an epic film called Jodhaa Akbar. It was set in the sixteenth century with Moghul emperors, a Rajput princess, and thousands on the battlefields.

This film was more historical than typically histrionic. Still, I wasn't disappointed that it had only several musical numbers. There was enough intrigue and drama to satisfy. And clocking in at 3 hours and 30 minutes, Jodhaa Akbar was surely worth the cost of a ticket.

Labels: India, movies, musical

A week ago I spent over $500 a Sony PS3 essentially for its capability to play Blu-ray high-defintion movies. I also checked what it costs to rent a movie at a Rogers Video store nowadays. I'd not been inside the New Westminster branch for years due to joining zip.ca. It is an online movie rental company similiar to a Canadian version of Netflix. A cheerful, Rogers counter clerk said renting a single movie cost $6 something. Then, he added that all Blu-ray disks are only one-day rentals. "I see. I'll wait to get my Blu-ray movies through Zip," I said. I left.

I was willing to wait as we pay about $2.50 per disc and there's no late fees when renting by post. I will probably never enter that Rogers again. Is there any irony in my spending a half K on a player but then refusing to cough up $7 for a rental? Nah, I didn't think so, either.

If you've ever been involved in online movie rental, you know that one creates a list of movies desired. The company then sends off the next available disc as soon as the previously returned movie has reached them. At any particular moment we may have fifty or sixty movies in the queue. So, last weekend, I modified our existing list so titles available in borth formats would ship on Blu-ray.

Of the dozen or so Blu-ray discs on the Zip list, just one arrived in the mail box today. It's a bit embarrassing to admit that the first-ever Blu-ray title that'll be viewed on our TV is Disney's High School Musical 2 (2007). That certainly doesn't sound very butch. Perhaps it's a good way to break in the PlayStation 3 though. Also, it's okay, as 3:10 to Yuma (2007), Rescue Dawn (2006), Saw IV(2007), and Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) are also on their eventual Blu-ray way.

Labels: HDTV, movies, musical, PS3, zip.ca

I'm adding this picture taken from our May trip to Los Angeles.



This is in honour of film in general. It's here today because I'm watching the extra audio track for the Wizard of Oz (1939). There's some absolutely amazing trivia on the 2005 DVD.

I have a new problem, however, as it's now a bit hard to accept the plot after seeing Wicked.

Labels: Los Angeles, movies, musical, The Wizard of Oz, Warner Bros

Earlier in the afternoon, I was positive I was going to leave a voice clip as a blog entry today. After all, my evening students do it as a part of class every evening that we meet. I was going to relate how wonderful it was to have a free Thursday.

Being between Intensive classes, I was completely free and it felt wonderful. I went uptown to the library and walked around London Drugs half dreaming about buying a new camera. I escaped without doing so and made it home happily.

Now that I know we're, for sure, going into Munich and Central Europe as a vacation in the autumn, I found and pulled out The Sound of Music from my vast DVD collection. It's funny how I remember most parts of it up to the intermission but the end seemed all new to me. How could I have understood all the historical implications when I was a babe and saw the film before? Even as a young adult I don't think I understood where Austria was. Now I'm assured that as long as we've got the time, we'll have to get to Salzburg, although it's all a tad Hollywood in the movie.



I've simply got to 'do re mi' down the same steps as seen in the film, even if I cannot carry a tune in a bucket. How nice of ancient Ms. Fisher to have told me to stand in the back of the choir and just mouth the words so I wouldn't bother the real singers. That was most probably in sixth grade but, oh, how far we carry the scars of youth!

(I still have a place near my ankle where hair doesn't grow because I tried to stamp out a 'combustion-able' mixture of gas and baking soda which we created for a junior high-school science fair volcano exhibit. Thank you Mitch Latva, my partner. Didn't we also do something on the effects of music on mice? I got stuck playing Hawaiian music to my sleeping white lab mouse whereas your rock'n roll critter kept biting through its wire cage?)

Labels: camera, Eurotrip 2007, musical, travel planning, world

Our city's Hyack Festival Parade was today. Now it's billed as The Largest International Parade in Western Canada.

There were something in the neighbourhood of 136 entries this year. That made it several hours long. As usual the 'Seafair Pirates' pulled up the rear exploding their cannon in shock waves that made poodles tremble in fear.

While the parade was en route though, I was thinking how people, similar to crows, like shiny objects. The local students did a fine job but there is certainly something 'showy' about the visitors. Many high school marching bands were up from the US. This video shows a group of Californian students.

With all the flash, I couldn't help but think of the music from the musical Chicago. Then, with a strange twist of fate, a few minutes ago, I watched the song mentioned in the title in HD. The 2002 movie version is on NBC tonight!

Labels: Hayack, HDTV, movies, musical, New Westminster, parade, YouTube

I just tried to check on my fish and found that my web cam stopped at 3:00 am last night. I sometimes end up far away from the PC on Microsoft update day. I wish they wouldn't force the PC to reboot!

Things here in LA are peachy. Last night's nearby blaze in Griffith Park is under no longer a threat. The sky is back to a clear blue and the afternoon temperature is still right up there in the 90's F.

Last night we took a bus downtown via the Silver Lake area. It's cute but I'm partial to hills rather than the straight as an arrow avenues and boulevards here. We walked around downtown a bit and ended back up on Hollywood / Vine as it's an easy commute from our hotel area at Santa Monica / Vermont.

This morning I was proud to be up and about early. Well, actually it was 9 o'clock before we left the hotel. We did the Warner Brothers Studio Tour. It lasted more than two hours and was okay but the guides are really told to stick to what the passengers might be interested in. Frankly, it's been a few years since Friends occupied any of my viewing time so they might want to tone down that aspect. I'd rather have seen stuff from the lot in the 1940's but then again, I'm far from normal.

We went downtown and ate at the Central Market. It'd been a while since I had a shawarma plate.

In a while, we've got to head up to see Wicked. I hope it's worth the $80 tickets!

Labels: Hollywood, Los Angeles, musical, Warner Bros

I've been a fan of NBC's [scrubs] for a while. Actually, I've been a bit of an on again/off again viewer. CTV airs the program rather irregularly and I didn't have it set to record on the old satellite recorder. Now, I'm picking it up from NBC directly. It really is clever and generally a joy to watch.



Last week's episode was especially hilarious. I even burnt myself a personal copy on a DVD. In order to find the name of the episode, I ran to the official website. This is the show's sixth season and last week was the sixth show of the season. It was entitled My Musical and here's what the site says:

'Sacred Heart is turned into a full scale Broadway stage when Patti (original "Avenue Q" cast member Stephanie D'Abruzzo) checks in complaining of hearing incessant music. While trying to determine the cause of this strange complaint the residents of Sacred Heart star in their own musical. Carla and Turk tango over her decision to be a stay at home mom or to return to work, while Elliot struggles with telling J.D. that she doesn't want to be roommates with him anymore -- both girls hope that the boy's "Guy Love" will help them through the rough patch. All the while the staff wonders if life would be happier if everyone was in constant harmony.'

Labels: musical, television

I just made a year-end donation to PBS. Since I've been watching high-definition TV, I have renewed interest in that valuable public resource. Rick Steves has never made Europe look so good. Last week, I caught Leonard Bernstein's Candide on Great Performances. Patti LuPone played the old lady. That tipped the scales. There's not another way I would have been introduced to the New York Philharmonic's semistaged performance were it not for PBS.



Sending in a few bucks was inevitable, I guess. Doing this sort of thing probably puts me up one rung on Maslow's hierarchy. Financial security may play a bigger role than personal growth although I am not absolutely sure. I've chosen a lifestyle that generates more free time than cash. Yet I find myself more keen on making charitable contributions than back when I earned lots more. Of course, the tax benefit doesn't go unnoticed. I can cut back on the amount of taxes I pay and donate to what I choose rather than leaving that decision to politicians and bureaucrats.

Labels: government, musical, television

On Saturday evening we went with friends to see a newly-released Bollywood movie. As it was in limited release, we had to drive to a multiplex in Richmond, BC to see the screening of Umrao Jaan.

We've been around Indian movies enough to know what we were getting into. It had a runtime of three hours and felt it although I didn't find myself checking my watch even once. In this story of a famous courtesan, I was expecting lots of music. If anything, I was surprised it took so long to get to the first song. The movie didn't disappoint with stunning backdrops and amazing costumes. As expected, Aishwarya Rai was drop-dead gorgeous although she was crying in most every scene. I did hope on one or two occasions that another character would slap her and tell her to just get over it. Circumstances weren't kind to Umrao but millions of others suffered to a much larger extent during those years.

This epic was based on 1905 Urdu novel and was previously made into a movie in 1981. We've not seen that but have checked it off on www.zip.ca to see on DVD. Today, modern Indian cinema can put out higher quality visuals and sound than 25-years ago. I like how the camera now frames very tight shots and can linger on a single face for an extended time. Whether these techniques lead to better storytelling can remain a point of argument.

I found the movie was a positive experience. Internet bloggers are not being very kind in their reaction, but why should we believe any of them? When all is said and done, we really only take the time to see classical dramas and not the general, run-of-the-mill slop that Bollywood can generate. This film was worthy of our attention.

Labels: India, movies, musical, Tim, zip.ca

Any movie in which people start singing in order to express a thought or feeling is obvious fantasy. Many of us cannot carry a tune in a bucket.



Once upon a time, I didn't know singing occurred on film other than My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, and Mary Poppins. Then a few years ago DVD's had became so widespread, all sorts of old material were pressed on them.

In 1954, MGM shot Brigadoon. Two American stumbling into a magical village which only appears every one hundred years is a really silly concept. At least fifty years later, it doesn't really matter that every scene was shot in a studio rather than in Scotland. It amazes me that all that work was cheaper than sending a crew overseas.

I've not finished this film but soon I will have ticked off another piece of Hollywood from a bygone era. Who was Gene Kelly?

Labels: movies, musical

When there's a huge variety to choose from, it can be difficult making a decision. Luckily on the www.zip.ca website, there's no rush in deciding on DVD's. It's easy to browse the selections and read about them. If it looks like it'll be of interest, one just clicks and it's added to one's personal upcoming zip list. There's so much of everything. My viewing habits have never been so eclectic.

I didn't know there was a TV remake of The Music Man in 2003. I've long considered the 1962 version a favourite. So when I saw the newer one on the site, I put in a request. That was a while back. There are 50 or 60 selections lined up on my list. The DVD arrived in the mail yesterday, and I started typing this entry while it was playing.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is good. It is colourful. The songs are, of course, familiar. There are a few numbers that were omitted from the original movie version. Some updating was to make it more politically correct. It's nice to know there were actually black people in Iowa at the turn of the last century. Still, this version doesn't seem quite 'right'.

It's funny how much we resist seeing a remake. I applaud Matthew Broderick's portrayal of Professor Harold Hill. It was reserved and smooth, yet I couldn't help but compare it to the original's Robert Preston. The same goes for Marian Paroo; Kristin Chenoweth was great but I kept wanting to see Shirley Jones. Of course it'd be impossible to update Ron Howard as the ultimate little tyke!

The 2003 version is very good and, in some ways, technically superior, but if you've missed the one that's 44 years old, do grab a copy for comparison.

Labels: movies, musical, zip.ca

On the weekend, we went to see the film, Rent (2005).

Having never gone to the stage version, we were not well-versed on the plot. The reviewers do say the movie grabs the 'essence' of the play and successfully adds street and outdoor scenes. Some of the music was familiar, of course.

I'm partial to film where people break into song and successfully replace movement and tons of dialog with music. Still, I was surprised how dated the movie seemed. After all it was less than a decade ago that it premiered on Broadway. Those '525,600 minutes' have only passed about 16 times since the play's inception.

Yet, I was oddly reminded of Jesus Christ Superstar (1973). The ideas and action seemed idealistic but from a slightly different epoch. It really was a different time, I guess. New York was different. The views on AIDS were different. Even, the hair styles were different.

Still, the best performances are supposedly to be timeless. I'll have to view Rent again after a suitable stretch of time.

Labels: movies, musical

Although I had no desire to get out of bed this morning, by the end of the day I had conquered my flu. After breakfast in our 'hospital' accommodations, we went downtown by Underground. I mention hospital not because of any reference to my own health. I mentioned that we were staying at Globetrotter Inn, a semi-hostel for people of all ages. Well before the middle of the last century the building was a center for local community health care. After a lot of refits, it makes a perfect residence away from home.

First, we went near the Tower Bridge and walked about.

After, while walking near Leicester Square we couldn't help but notice all the places selling show tickets, all seemingly at half price! We went right to the real TCKTS and decided on the evening showing of Chicago, the Musical.

I was rather tired so after a really late lunch we went back to the Globetrotter and I slept for a few hours.

Feeling much better after the sleep,we went back to Charing Cross and were there well in advance of the 8:00 pm show. It was marvelous. You'll never guess who played the role of the prison warden; it was Lynda Carter! Wonder Woman looked wonderful after all these years. We made some soup in our hostel kitchen after getting back at 11:20. I'll be dreaming about and all that jazz ... all night.

Labels: Eurotrip 2005, London, musical

One can't very well say they've done the Big Apple without taking in a show. At first I was worried that my only pants were the jeans I'd been wearing all week. It was a Sunday matinee show, though. I guess people seldom dress up for shows anymore with the exception of a few on Saturday night.

We went for the revival of La Cage aux Folles. Just how old is Robert Goulet?

Prior to the afternoon show, we spent the morning in Central Park. Today was the 20th Annual NYC Aids Walk. The news reported that nearly 45,000 people participated. Imagine, that's nearly the size of New Westminster, BC! It was a nice morning to watch the people and the event raised more than 5.8 million dollars.

Labels: musical, New York City, places