TV watchers who have an interest in Montreal might want to check out a new tv series called Naked Josh. It was produced and shot in Montreal, and the head writer of the series is Alex Epstein, a local screenwriter whose blog I used to link to, until he closed it down recently. Too bad. It was interesting to see how the writer was dealing with both the production company and the broadcaster.

The third episode (out of 8, I believe) airs tonight. I’ve missed the first episode so it’s a bit hard to evaluate the quality of the show on just one half hour segment. So far, there’s your standard fare of male/female misunderstandings and fascination stuff, a cute main character who lives above the Cin�ma L’Amour on St-Laurent, a macho best friend, an unattainable woman, plenty of good looking girls and quick, television style repartee. Oh, and nobody speaks French or has a French accent, at least not in the episode I saw. I wonder if this is something the broadcaster insisted on?

It’s at 9pm tonight (Tuesday) on Showcase.

You might want to check out the Web site for The Edible Ballot Society.

The news section of the Web site keeps track of what happened to the last ballot eaters:

All charges against ballot eaters ended in victory. Two out of six ballot eaters were found not guilty because Erections Canada didn’t introduce any evidence that two women charged were the same people who blended their ballot into a soy smoothie. Charges against the other four were dropped.

Just how much did “Fahrenheit 9/11″ take in over the weekend? $21.8 million, though it opened on just 868 screens. What does that mean? It means it was the No. 1 movie in America this weekend, the first documentary ever not only to be a weekend top grosser but also to land in the weekend top five, the highest opening-weekend grosser of all Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or winners, and the highest-grossing documentary of all time (excluding concert films and such).

From Salon Magazine today.

Est-il permis de manger un bulletin de vote?

Is someone allowed to eat a ballot?

Merci � Five Blue pour l’hyperlien.

I don’t understand the concept of “losing your vote” or “perdre ses �lections”. I hear people say this all the time, even intelligent people, and it always makes me impatient. You don’t vote to win (even though you can hope to). You vote to express a choice. If we voted to win, we would all vote for the same party, which would take away the need to have multiple parties. Nice vision of democracy.

It doesn’t matter if you know for sure that the party or the candidate you choose will not be elected. You go out to vote to say what your vision of your country/province/municipality corresponds to. Sometimes, most of the times, you have to make compromises on that vision, as no party seems to quit fit (or at least the system these parties have to deal with doesn’t). Hell, you can even choose to cancel your vote – that’s one way to express a vision. If the election isn’t rigged, your vote won’t be lost even if you don’t “win”.

I used to share my life with a man who believed in anarchy. Every election we would have the same discussions. I couldn’t believe he didn’t go out to vote. He couldn’t believe I “participated” in such a corrupted system. I kept trying to convince him to at least go to the polls and put the anarchy sign on his ballot, or something like that. If you don’t get out of your house (unless 99% of the population does the same for ideological reasons), then they won’t know what your absence means. (Especially if you’re not an active anarchist, involved in some kind of protest.)

Don’t tell me you’re not planning on voting because you know you won’t win, or even because you know you will. It just doesn’t make sense. As Kate says it well on her blog today: “Don’t think the winners will ignore a growing popular vote in favour of the NDP or the Green Party: they know that means support for environmental issues or for more equitable governance, and they will have to act accordingly.” Same thing with the Bloc qu�b�cois.

Me, an idealist? How could I be, when I know I’m going to lose my vote tonight? ;-)

Blork et moi avions d�cid� d�aller voir Fahrenheit 9/11 t�t ce soir, sans nous rendre compte que c��tait la premi�re du film (on parle du film dans les journaux depuis tellement longtemps que j�avais l�impression qu�il �tait d�j� en salle). Nous avons donc eu la surprise de voir que la repr�sentation que nous avions choisie �tait compl�te mais nous avons pu obtenir des billets pour celle de 19h15, alors que, selon mon ex rencontr� sur place, les lignes t�l�phoniques de r�servation de billets annon�aient que c��tait complet.

Nous sommes donc arriv�s t�t et avons pu choisir de bons si�ges. La salle �tait pleine � craquer et j��tais agr�ablement surprise de voir des gens de tous les �ges, dont plusieurs connaissances, venus voir le film d�s sa premi�re soir�e en salle.

Il y avait une �nergie sp�ciale dans l�air, un � buzz � qu�on ne voit pas souvent, m�me lors des soirs de premi�res. Mais la surprise r�elle nous attendait � la sortie du film. Le cin�ma, un tr�s grand cin�plex avec beaucoup d�espace, �tait plein � craquer. Il y avait des gens partout qui attendaient patiemment le d�but de la prochaine s�ance du film de Moore. Pour satisfaire � la demande, des repr�sentations avaient �t� ajout�es dans d’autres salles. Plusieurs jeunes �taient venus en groupe et lisaient ou discutaient, assis sur le sol, en attendant de pouvoir entrer. Les ascenseurs �taient pleins, le stationnement �tait plein, les rues autour du cin�ma grouillaient d�activit�. �a parlait, �a discutait, �a gesticulait. Il semble bien que l�effet Moore ait frapp� encore plus fort cette fois-ci. (Fait int�ressant � noter: sur les 10 films � l’affiche dans ce cin�ma, 4 �taient des documentaires. L’impact populaire des films de Moore y est pour quelque chose dans ce regain d’int�r�t vers le documentaire.)

Je ne tenterai pas de faire la critique du film. Je suis de ceux qui trouvent le travail de Moore important sans pour autant appuyer � 100% les techniques du journaliste et du cin�aste. Je me contenterai de dire que j�ai appr�ci� le fait que Moore se soit moins mis en vedette dans ce film que dans ses � documentaires � pr�c�dents et que j�ai �t� �mue jusqu�aux larmes par certains passages, moi qui pleure rarement au cin�ma�

Le magazine en ligne Salon a publi� deux int�ressantes critiques du film, l�une pro Fahrenheit 9/11 et l�autre contre. Voici deux extraits de chacune de ces critiques qui expriment bien ce que je ressens face � cette �uvre :

Extrait du texte de Andrew O’Hehir:

Fahrenheit 9/11 is an enormous film, an angry film, a flawed film and often a very, very funny film. There is anguish in it and death, and not as much coherence as there might be. It’s a political screed that makes our commander in chief look like a simpering dolt (and also like the instrument of a massive machine he cannot control) [�] In its bigness and rage, its low humor and its sentimentality, it has something of Whitman, something of Twain, something of Tom Paine. Love him or hate him, Michael Moore is becoming one of the signal artists of our age.

Extrait du texte de Stephanie Zacharek :

Moore is a very specific and slippery kind of bully: He glides along on his underdog status as if it were a parade float. He professes to feel great compassion for the common man. Yet over and over again, in movie after movie, he invites the audience to chuckle over ordinary people. Why? In “Fahrenheit 9/11″ he lists the countries that stepped forward as members of Bush’s Coalition of the Willing (Palau, Costa Rica, Iceland, Romania, Morocco, and the Netherlands among them), accompanied by funny stock footage of people in costumes of many lands. If Moore is the left’s great spokesman by default, shouldn’t he be using his influence (not to mention his money) to raise the level of political discourse in this country instead of lowering it? Instead we have a filmmaker who manages the feat of getting liberal audiences to laugh at how funny those foreigners are.

I’ve heard even die-hard Moore detractors defend “Fahrenheit 9/11,” claiming that its flaws don’t matter because it speaks to a higher truth. The thinking goes, I suppose, that we need every anti-Bush voice we can get, and Moore, who won an Academy Award for “Bowling for Columbine” and has several bestselling books under his belt, is likely to wield more influence than most other voices coming from the left. What’s more, even though “Fahrenheit 9/11″ isn’t journalism, Moore presents his findings with an air of authority. Moore believes the press has let us down in calling Bush on his fraudulence and falseheartedness, and he’s right. Still, the tradition, craft and standards of journalism have to count for something: Should we really be holding up cheap shots, inference and sloppy reporting as gateways to the truth?

Nous en sommes d�j� rendus aux singeries num�ro 6 ! (Pour en savoir plus sur les singeries, c’est ici.)

Ce mois-ci nous vous invitons � faire la liste de ces choses que vous voulez faire depuis longtemps mais pour lesquelles vous tra�nez un peu. (En anglais on parle de �monkey on your back� mais je ne trouve pas d��quivalent en fran�ais.) Allez, on est tous comme �a! Avouez qu�il y a des t�ches que vous voulez accomplir ou des r�ves que vous voulez r�aliser, si seulement� La liste des excuses est g�n�ralement longue. Quelles sont ces choses qui vous p�sent, avec le temps, parce que vous ne finissez jamais par vous y mettre?

Pour donner le coup d�envoi, voici la liste des � singes sur mon dos � :

-Classer/imprimer/organiser mes photos : C�est le genre de t�che dont je ne vois jamais le bout. Je suis assez bien organis�e pour tout ce qui est paperasse mais pour mes photos, je n�arrive jamais � prendre le dessus! La photo num�rique n�arrange pas les choses parce que j�ai tendance � prendre encore plus de photos et � remettre � plus tard leur impression. �a me p�se et je me dis toujours que cette fin de semaine-ci, promis, je m�en occupe�

-Organiser mes recettes : M�me chose qu�avec les maudites photos.

-Organiser mon horaire d�exercice : Ha ha ha�

-Organiser mes finances : Depuis que je suis travailleure autonome, tout ce qui a trait � l�imp�t s�est affreusement complexifi�. M�me quand je crois avoir le dessus sur cette t�che, il y a toujours une complication, un truc nouveau � envoyer au gouvernement, une erreur dans un formulaire, un acompte provisionnel � poster, etc, et ce, m�me si je paye quelqu�un pour produire ma d�claration d�imp�t! �a me rend folle et �a me fait perdre un temps fou.

-Nettoyer le four. Faut que je nettoie le four encastr� depuis l’histoire de la dinde de d�cembre dernier. Il n’y a pas une semaine qui passe sans que je me dise qu’il faut que je nettoie le four.

-Apprendre une troisi�me langue, id�alement l�italien, ou retourner prendre des cours d�espagnol.

-Cr�er un � template � pour mon site Web qui respecterait les standards et dont le design serait �l�gant et original. Pour �a, il me faudra de l�aide�

-Un jour, finir la lecture de Arts and Physics, un livre que j�ai achet� il y a � peu pr�s 10 ans et que je n�ai jamais r�ussi � terminer, m�me s�il me plaisait.

-Regarder les Sopranos sur DVD. Blork a d�j� vu les saisons 1 et 2 et j�ai du rattrapage � faire pour qu�on puisse regarder les autres saisons ensemble.

-Traduire le texte de pr�sentation des singeries en fran�ais.

-Cr�er une section about/� propos pour mon carnet.

-Utiliser un lecteur de fils RSS : Un jour, je vais en t�l�charger un et voir si �a me pla�t ou non. Un jour�

-Faire les d�marches pour trouver un agent.

� plus long terme :

-�crire un roman. (Je triche. �a devrait �tre un but � court terme, sinon �a n�arrivera jamais.)

-Apprendre une autre langue en vivant dans un autre pays pendant 6 mois ou un an. (Je l’ai fait avec l’anglais en vivant aux �tats-Unis. J’aimerais le faire � nouveau, ailleurs, mais partir moins longtemps.)

-Respirer. J�oublie, parfois.

Voil�! Si vous participez aux singeries sur votre propre carnet, n’oubliez pas de me laisser un commentaire ici pour que j’aille vous lire.

� genoux dans le gazon cet apr�s-midi, � retirer les plants d’herbe � poux, j’ai eu un flashback de la cueillette des petites fraises sauvages du temps de mon enfance. �a fait un si�cle que je n’en ai pas mang�. Mon dieu que c’�tait bon!

Est-ce que quelqu’un sait si ce genre de fraises (les toutes toutes petites, les fraises des bois) se vendent dans les march�s ou s’il est possible d’en faire la cueillette dans la r�gion de Montr�al? Il est probablement un peu trop tard. Snif, snif…

SCOTTeVEST, the maker of the geek jackets (with dozens of pockets to carry all sorts of gadgets), has just launched a new print ad campaign which is bound to become quite successful.

Looking at the ad, I can’t help but notice the rather large size of the… equipment. Aren’t cell phones much smaller than that now? A man must have designed this ad… (Or maybe I got it all wrong and it’s actually a tv remote.)

Steph has posted a great quote for me on her blog, so great in fact, that I have to republish it here (I want it for my archives so that I can reread it every time I wait for comments on a script.)

It’s from Collected Screenplays 1, by David Cronenberg.

How can anyone possibly read a film script? A script is not writing. A script is a ghost of something not yet born. It is by nature imprecise, inchoate, and provocative rather than evocative.

Its proper audience is a motley assortment of actors, directors, agents, producers, financiers, studio executives, and movie production personnel, none of whom will actually be reading the script for pleasure. The production of pleasure in the literary sense is not a goal of the screenwriter. The inducing of the birth of a film � that is the best a screenwriter can hope for.