What a fast week. I’m not even exhausted. That’s weird. I did lose about 15lbs just by eating better, so that’s a plus. Wait a minute… eating healthy for a week makes you good, but eating pizza and donuts for a week makes you feel tired. I think I may have stumbled across something here…

One final film at TIFF: Machine Gun Preacher starring Gerald Butler. It’s the true story of Sam Childers, a biker who found religion and turned his life around by becoming a crusader for hundreds of Sudanese child soldiers. Movie starts out with Sam getting released from prison and getting back into his old routine: drinking, shooting heroin, robbery and even the murder of a ‘dirty Indian’ as described in the film. Sadly, I laughed at that because my buddy Steve is part native and we all call him ‘Chief’. He’s cool with it so you should be too. Follow him on Twitter while you’re at it – @saysSteve. He likes sports.

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TIFF is really starting to wind down quickly. Second last day. By the way, I should note that I’m currently writing this report on an iPad. These things are amazing. Thanks Apple! I also have to mention that the iPad belongs to Shaun and Nicole Snow. They let me stay at their place Thursday night after the excellent Pearl Jam concert in Hamilton. Their cat Charlie puked on the carpet before we came home. I wonder if he knew I was coming and wanted to give me a welcome gift. Nice cat. Missing half an ear. He grew up tough apparently. When I asked to use the iPad, Shaun got all weird. Apparently, he uses it to play the sounds of the ocean to help him sleep. I bet he didn’t think I’d blog about it.

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Remember how I said that Killer Joe was the worst thing I’d seen at TIFF? I stand corrected. Just one film today and it was a doozy. The Moth Diaries, directed by Mary Harron. Harron is Canadian and directed the quite excellent American Psycho, so I decided to give this one a shot. Teenaged Rebecca is back at her all-female boarding school for her final year with her best friend Lucy. At least two years prior (the film isn’t clear) her father committed suicide. There’s a new girl at the school named Ernessa and slowly but surely she comes between Rebecca and Lucy. There’s a lot of weird things about Ernessa and although Rebecca doesn’t say it, she thinks Ernessa could be a vampire. Oh for fuck’s sake.

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Three films Tuesday so let’s get right into it.

Killer Joe, directed by William Friedkin. This is the same guy that directed The French Connection and The Exorcist. He may have had a few clunkers in recent history, but I had some hopes for this. Emile Hirsch plays a kid in Texas who owes a lot of money to the wrong people. With the help of his father and step-mother, he hires a crooked cop played by Matthew McConaughey to kill his mother for the insurance money. Since he planned on paying the cop after he gets the insurance money, McConaughey asks for Hirsch’s teenage sister as a retainer. I didn’t hate this movie, but it’s probably the worst film I’ve seen so far this year. 90 seconds into the movie is a centre screen shot of Gina Gershon’s hairy muff. Some people might like that. Some people might find that revolting. I’m sure many of you are upset that you had to read that. I had to see it. Now, don’t get me wrong, Gina Gershon is an attractive woman, but in a dirty trailer park setting it just didn’t do it for me. Call me crazy.

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Just a short update today as I only had one TIFF screening, but I did have a concert in the evening.

I had a documentary today called The Last Dogs of Winter. On my way up the escalator a lady in her fifties took a header at the top and did a hardcore face plant on the tiled floor.  I probably shouldn`t have laughed, but I totally did.  Hey, I waited until I had stepped on to the next escalator and there were already people helping her.  Jeez, I`m not an animal.  People falling down is funny to me.  I even laugh when I fall down because it`s funny.  I know which of you who agree and those that are ashamed to know me right now.  Still funny.

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Sunday September 11th. 10 years ago today I had a unique experience at TIFF. I was standing in line on Yonge St. outside the old Uptown theatre just before 9am with my buddy Jason and I think we were going into see a screening of Shadow of the Vampire. Word was spreading through the line that a bomb had gone off at the World Trade Centre. As we walked into the theatre, rumours became facts and we found out that two planes had crashed into the buildings. The movie played and one of the TIFF programmers came out after and said that because of the tragedy the rest of the screenings that day had been cancelled. The only other film that day that I had a ticket for was The Believer with Ryan Gosling. I met up with my friend Kelly and we went over to the Burgundy Bar & Grill and watch CNN for a bit and I couldn’t believe what was happening.

People were freaked out. Here we all were at a world renowned event. People were wondering if something like that could happen in Toronto that day. With a small panic in Toronto, you couldn’t even fathom what it must have been like in New York or the entire U.S. Throughout the day, I watched hundreds of first responders try to help people. NYPD, FDNY, doctors, nurses, soldiers, common citizens. I’m glad they cancelled the Fest for that day as I was in no mood to watch a movie. I was watching history. A dark history, yes, but history nonetheless. I remember I called my Mom that night and she had been sick all day and had no idea that anything had happened. I bet we all wish we could have had that feeling.

The next day TIFF started right back up again and I still have never seen The Believer.

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I had a big day on Saturday with big plans to get home early and rest up for the push through the meaty part of TIFF. That sounds unpleasant. One thing I forgot to mention on the Day 2 blog was that after The Last Gladiators, I spotted Chris Nilan in the lobby. Being a big Habs fan and remembering him being pretty awesome, I went up and spoke to him, shook his hand and survived not getting punched square in the face. He’s much shorter than I thought he would be.

I started off Saturday meeting my brother for brunch at a place called Allen’s over on the Danforth. A couple of eggs with smoked salmon and some sweet potatoes. Pretty damn good. The coffee, however, was amazeballs. Organic coffee is delicious. Ranking the places I’ve had coffee up here…it goes Allen’s at number 1, then Starbucks, and then Tim Horton’s. Now I’m not saying any of these other places had bad coffee or that I think their coffee sucks, it’s just that from an enjoyment perspective, this is how I ranked them. During our meal, I told my brother about the diet I was on and my attention became focused on a plate of food a couple of tables down. I pointed out the large slices of bacon on a girl’s hamburger. He pointed out that I noticed the large slices of bacon and didn’t even notice her other large…um…things. What can I say? I like bacon.

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As I said last blog, I have 3 documentaries today. Things kicked off in the afternoon with Urbanized. This was from the director of a popular doc from a few years ago called Helvetica, which was about the font of the same name. Urbanized was all about city planning and architecture and focused on a few cities from around the world like Mumbai, Rio, Detroit and New York. It was pretty crazy to see cities in India or China that have millions or billions of people and where the fuck they put them all. On the contrast you have cities like Detroit, which are bigger than Boston, San Francisco and Atlanta combined, but only has 700,000 people. You see a lot of rundown buildings and neighbourhoods, but the documentary introduces you to a guy in Detroit that got the cities’ permission to turn an empty lot into a massive community garden where the residents help take care of it and enjoy all the fresh produce for free. Amazing that no one has ever thought of that before.

I ran into my buddy Doug from high school, like I do every year at TIFF. It`s almost like clockwork. It was good ripping on the douchebags we went to school with. Ha. I keed, I keed.

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When the leaves begin to change and people start wearing jackets it can only mean one thing. It’s September and it’s time for TIFF. 9 days of films, plus 3 concerts and a football game to cap it all off. Oskee wee wee.

I headed up to Toronto on Thursday afternoon. I’ve realized it’s best to take the train into town, so I don’t have to pay for parking, plus it’s really not that much of a burden. On the train ride up, I was looking at the route map for the train service and looking at all the different routes and station names. Apparently, on the Richmond Hill route there’s a station stop named “Old Cummer”. I would not want to get off at that station. Gotta watch your step.

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I’m not sure where to begin. Growing up, most of us had people we looked up to or admired. Teachers or coaches. Celebrities or athletes. Naturally, most of my influences were in the world of sport. People like Kirk Muller, Cal Ripken Jr., Paul Molitor, Mario Lemieux and of course Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart, ‘The British Bulldog’ Davey Boy Smith, ‘Mr. Perfect’ Curt Henning, ‘Ravishing’ Rick Rude and Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage. With today’s news, the last four on that list are all gone.

TMZ broke the news that 58 year old Randy Savage (Poffo) sufferred a heart attack while driving his 2009 Jeep Wrangler. He lost control, it went over a concrete median and crashed head on into a tree. Fortunately, his wife escaped the accident with only minor injuries.

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They say all good things must come to an end. I’m not sure who ‘they’ are, but I suppose ‘they’ are right. TIFF is over. It’s been a long 9 days and I’m exhausted. I have to go back to work tomorrow and I’m looking forward to seeing good ol’ Jackson Square again.

Before I get into it, I should clear up something. It was brought to my attention by one person, that I actually neglected to mention the name of the brilliant Darren Aronofsky ballet film I saw last night. It was called Black Swan. This leads me to believe one of three things happened. 1) All of you already knew the name of the movie, 2) Since it’s the weekend no one has spent much time in front of the computer, or 3) No one gives a shit about what I have to say. I think it’s mostly 3, but like every other great asshole in the world, I don’t care. I will continue.

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All together now: Oskee-Wee-Wee, Oskee-Wa-Wa, Holy Mackenaw, Tigers! Eat ‘em Raw!! Did you all see that amazing comeback tonight? Cats down by 19 in the 4th quarter and they climb back for a win in B.C. against the Lions. Absolute gold. Made even better by the wings I ate while watching it. I have to say “Let’s Wing It” at Yonge and College might be one of my favourite places ever.

All right, now that we have that out of the way…

I hadn’t decided whether I was going to see 3 or 4 movies today, but after the 3 hours of sleep I had, I think 3 is a better idea. Morning starts off great as my friend Krista went out a got me coffee and made me brunch. Poached eggs in tomato sauce on beet greens and toast. That’s right! I had vegetables!

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