I’ve been a Monty Python fan for years, and the thing that drew me in was Monty Python and the Holy Grail [wp].  Like most good nerds I could recite complete passages of the film from memory, having watched it more times than anyone should ever watch any film.  Later I’d get into the show through the audio recordings, then eventually renting the VHS tapes of the BBC show. 

Yet I was oddly unwilling to pay good money to see Monty Python’s Spamalot.  Some of it was that of all the Pythons Eric Idle, the driving force behind Spamalot, had always been my least favorite of the group and had always seemed the most willing to cash in on the group’s fame no matter how tacky. 

And tacky it is, though in the glorious tacky manner that both embraces and mocks its translation from low budget film to Broadway musical.  In a lot of ways this is a meta-musical, playing with the form the same way that the movie played with the form of movie theatre.  Songs such as “Diva’s Lament” and “You Won’t Succeed On Broadway” are often less about the plot, than about the fact that a musical is going on.  Some songs are slightly altered versions from the movie, while Idle brings “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life” in from Life of Brian to help fill the show out.

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I used to walk past the Device To Root Out Evil everyday going between the Skytrain station and my apartment without ever really thinking about it. I liked it well enough, though not into art I always found it pretty cool looking and it was a nice way to break up the monotony of the West End’s new condo development.

Sadly it broke up the monotony too well, as some apartment owners complained that it was blocking their view of the floating gas station in the bay and Hell hath no fury like a bunch of no nothings with a petition to frighten the city government with.

Bought from Stanford University for three hundred thousand dollars after the university commissioned its creation by American artist Dennis Oppenheim and then rejected it for being too controversial since it is an upside down church. Ironically the only controversy in Vancouver was about housing prices affected by it.

The sculpture is off to Calgary. Yup, we’re now officially less open minded and more money obsessed than Calgary. Way to go Vancouver.

Further reading on the Device To Root Out Evil:

• CutltureKioskque [ck]
• Stanford Daily Online [sdo]

Vancouver Art Gallery Exhibition

KRAZY! The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art

May 17 to September 7, 200

I went to see Krazy! last week. It’s the first showing at the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) that I’ve been to in awhile, and as someone who spends far too much of their monthly income on video games, comic books and graphic novels it’s right up my alley.

The exhibit takes up two floors of the gallery, with the main floor being dedicated to comics and graphic novels along with anime and magna with the second floor turned over to video games and film. The show is curated by some of the big names of the featured industries including Art Spiegelman most famous for his Holocaust retelling Maus and Will Wright who created the Sim games such as Sim City and The Sims. The show offers an interesting examination of animation from cartoon stips in the newspaper with Krazy Kat to video games and modern computer animated movies.

It does not, however offer any context, something that is actually too bad since this is a rare opportunity to bring outsiders into the world of animation, and graphic storytelling.

Below the jump is my critique of the exhibit. It might sound negative, but really in total this is a good show and well worth your time. It’s certainly not perfect, but there is a chance that I’m being overly critical of it. I enjoyed my time going through the exhibit quite a bit, and would certainly recommend it to anyone regardless of their interest level in animated storytelling.

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Iron Man, originally uploaded by Jeffery Simpson.

Any comic book fan worth their weight in refried beans is heading down to Seattle for the Emerald City Comic Convention [eccc] this weekend. Though Vancouver has yet to get a decent convention that attracts mainstream talent, Seattle’s convention has been getting better every year.

Since it’s not Vancouver related you won’t see me blogging about it here, though if you head over to our Seattle sister site Metroblogging Seattle [mbs] you’ll find that I’ll be doing some posting while I’m down there.

Anyone one else going down for the show?

On the set, originally uploaded by TrueFalseFilmFestival.

When most people really love a movie they might go see it a few times in the movie theatre, buy it on DVD and quote their favorite lines to their friends. In 1982 three twelve year olds really loved Raiders of the Lost Ark and so they set about remaking it shot by shot. Eric Zala, Jayson Lamb and Chris Strompolos took until 1989 to complete the filming of their remake, and then they put the film away for the next 15 years [wm]. Since being discovered by web nerd Harry Knowles, founder of Ain’t It Cool News, the film has become a cult hit the trio have been to George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment studio where they met Spielberg.

Crudly shot on ’80s home video recording technology and acted by a cast of teenagers, the film is meant to be quite an experiance both as a tribute to the original Raiders and for a cultish campish event in its own right.

Raiders: The Adaptation is showing in Vancouver tonight. There is one showing only at 7 pm at The Park Theatre [gmt].

The bus in ‘Foyles War’ ?, originally uploaded by Renown.

I am a bit late with this news which appeared in the Guardian on April 9. But I am sure there will be many fans of the PBS Mystery series who will delighted to learn, as I was, the even though the last episode of Foyle was on VE Day he may yet return.

The image, by the way comes from a bus restorer/painter in England. One of the appeals of British tv is the care and attention that is given to historic recreation in period drama. This really is a prewar coach, and yes, when the blitz damaged large numbers of London’s red double deckers, all kinds of other vehicles were pressed into service.

Now all I need is a plausible excuse for posting a picture of a steam train. Anyone want to see the world’s biggest coal fired cappuccino machine?

Who: The Submarines & Bell X1

Where: The Plaza

When: Saturday the 29th of March, 2008

Do you want a pair of free tickets to see The Submarines and Bell X1 this Saturday at The Plaza? Here’s what you do, you comment on this thread answering a simple trivia question and if you are the first person to answer it correctly you win.

What’s the catch? There isn’t any. Tickets will be ready at the door for you and a friend and you’ll get a night of some good music.

Just answer the following question correctly in the comments. If you need help see this Wikipedia entry on The Submarines [wp].

Question: What are the names of the members of The Submarines?

If you’re looking for something to do with the kids one Sunday, why not head to the Vancouver Art Gallery for their supersunday event, which is held on the third Sunday of each month.

Artists, staff and volunteers help kids to discover that there’s more to art than just drawing and painting.  The event covers writing, dance and even video creation, opening kids’ eyes to forms of art they may never have considered before.

The last event featured snippets from each of the exhibits currently on display at the gallery.

Truth Beauty covers photography from 1845 - 1945, and allowed you to pose for a family portrait.

The Kutlug Ataman: Paradise and Kuba exhibit encouraged families to go on camera and explain what they love about where they live.  The videos may be shown at future supersunday events.  Kids could also make their own TV, and put the photograph that they had taken at the gallery on to it.  What kid doesn’t want to be on TV, after all?

The Tree: From the Sublime to the Social looks at the impact that trees have on people and how the forest can be used to awe and inspire us.  Sketching of trees was encouraged, and they were also apparently giving potted trees away that you could replant, but although we found the indoor growing room, we couldn’t find anyone who was actually handing the trees out.  There was also a dance workshop and a story writing workshop on trees that we unfortunately get time to attend.

The Emily Carr and the Group of Seven exhibit encouraged families to paint their own winter landscape, and to learn about some of the most famous painters in Canadian history.

The price was a little steep ($15 apiece for parents) although children under 12 are free, and they do ask for a small donation to help cover the costs of the materials. 

While the event runs from noon to 5pm, which should give you enough time to see everything, chances are your kids will just tire out before seeing it all.

All in all, though, it was a great experience, and a nice change from just another weekend trip to the mall.

submarines, originally uploaded by Orrin.

Los Angeles pop rock band the Submarines are coming to Vancouver and we’ve got a pair of tickets to give away thanks to Nettwerk. They’re playing at the Plaza Club [pc] on Saturday March 29th, with Bell X1, and you could be there if you win these hot tickets. The Submarines started in Los Angeles, and so did Metblogs with Blogging.LA [bla], so a Vancouver Metblogs contest with the group seems natural.

So how do you win these tickets? Answer a bit of trivia and we’ll do a draw on Monday the the 24th from all the qualifying entries. Post the answer to the question in the comments of this post, and I’ll just have to be diligent in checking the comments and deleting the answers so you at the very least have to go to their Wikipedia entry to answer this.

Question: The Submarines first album Declare A New State was mastered by a friend as a gift for what special event?

Answer in the comments. Entries have to be in by Sunday March 23rd.

Edit: This contest has been relaunched.  See this post [vmb] for details.

I used to live a five minute drive from a massive park, which then managed to burn down [ck], but even then it was a great place to ride a toboggan. In an attempt to capture that rural past time of hurtling down a hill at high speeds, the girlfriend and I looked up sledding opportunities in the Vancouver area. Both Mount Seymour [ms] and Cypress Mountain [cm] offer tube rides. The Cypress website made it look more appealing, but they had a notice that their tow lift was not operating yesterday, so we settled on Mount Seymour.

The drive up to Mt. Seymour is short enough as long as you don’t hit Lions’ Gate Bridge traffic. It was a bit surprising as the snow piles up the further up the hill we got, living downtown I had begun to forget that more than six inches of snow can exist in one place.

The area set aside for tubing is divided into four tubing lanes, and one lane for the tow rope back up the hill. Unlike sledding in the wild the snow is not the fresh powder of so many ski hill promo shots, but rather hard packed ice. That’s good if all you’re looking for is speed, but not so good if you’re trying to walk around in boots that are not exactly designed for traction on compacted snow. Yes, if like me you wear impractical city boots then walking down to the starting gates can be an issue.
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