The following is a guest post by the always lovely Shira Lazar. Shira is an amazing reporter based out of Los Angeles, and was nice enough to offer to help me out with a guest posting. You can read more about Shira Lazar on her main site, or head on over and check out her blog, The Pop Report. Thanks again Shira! After a few hours of sleep, I’m back and ready to rumble in San Fran. My fellow Canuck and blogger, Duane Storey, has been doing a 24-hour blogathon for charity starting last night at 10pm and has been getting friends to do guest entries- so here’s my contribution. Last night at ...

It’s getting close. In just nine days, I’ll be getting on a plane and heading out to Calgary to attend the 2008 Juno awards. I haven’t really had time to let the whole event soak in yet, and to be honest, probably won’t figure out where I’ll be all weekend until I land in Calgary. What I really want to do is provide an insider’s view of what it’s like being at the Junos during the entire weekend. I’m not sure what that means yet, but it will most likely involve tons of photos and the odd video. To that end, I really want to go out and buy a new portable camera, something that can ...

When the Juno awards were announced a few months ago, I put my name on the list for media accreditation. I didn’t hear anything for a while, so I sort of assumed it wasn’t going through. Today I got an email saying I had a media pass, which means I have full access to photograph the Canadian Juno Awards. I’ll be photographing and writing on behalf of Urban Vancouver, so look on my blog and over there from time to time for photos and a few entries. I still have to sort everything out and see if I can get a hotel room and what not, but it’s fairly likely I’ll be heading to Calgary for ...

Curious to know what happens in the cockpit on French airlines when your dinner is being served? You might have though that the pilots were busy doing complicated fuel calculations, or checking safety systems. Think again! The stewardesses are coming up from and putting on a little strip show for the pilots. Added union incentives no doubt. Makes me wish I would have gone to pilot school. You can read more about the strip show here. I’m guessing that lady is in need of a new job. ...

Yes people, today is a great day in TV land. Jack Bauer, aka Kiefer Sutherland, was released from jail after serving 48 days for drunken driving. Now I gotta say — getting in a car while loaded is a dumb thing to do. I can openly admit I did it as a young adult once and a while, something as a grown adult I now look back on and realize how dumb it was. The trick is of course to plan ahead, otherwise you’ll find yourself stuck in the boonies with no way home. Now, I just refuse to get into situations like that, or at least have the means to pay for a long cab ride if I have to. I do understand ...

Tonight I ended up down at the Paramount theatre in Vancouver for a premiere of Cloverfield. For those of you who keep up with such things, Cloverfield has been somewhat of a mystery, relying mainly on word of mouth and a few minutes of raw footage released as a trailer for promotional means. MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD Going into the movie, I basically expected something similar to the Blair Witch Project, and for the most part, that’s exactly what I got. Granted there are a few more effects in this movie, and it is set in the heart of Manhattan, but for the most part it’s just the regurgitation ...

Photo by miss604Be afraid. Be very afraid. I’m heading out to watch this tonight with Rebecca, John and John. Rebecca had tickets to the Vancouver premiere and invited me along, which is totally exciting. I’m going on the record as saying I’m pretty sure this is going to suck (the trailer reminds me of a techy Blair Witch Project), but it’ll be a fun suck with a bunch of friends. That sounds dirty, I know. Check out the trailer below: I’m pretty sure the entire budget for the film went into the funky Independence-Day-looking poster, just to attract more people. ...

7:36pm – So John and Brennen just arrived for the Friday night nerd-a-thon. We’re debating what movies to watch right now while waiting for pizza to arrive. We have a big list of geeky movies here, some of which are on HD-DVD. Right now the short runners are: The Matrix in HD Dark City Gladiator Desperado Heat Ocean’s Thirteen in HD So we’ll see how it goes. Jeff will probably show up in a bit, and I’m not sure who else. I’m guessing The Matrix will be first just to kick everything off with a bag of kick-ass. My copy of Dark City has seen better days, so I’m trying to rip it to ...

Surprisingly, I have never seen this before.. It’s an old opening scene from Star Wars: A New Hope. I thought it was a complete fake at first, but it looks like it was real footage that was intended to be included at one point. What’s weird is that it’s sort of processed and seems to have been scored, which is unusual for anything that hits the cutting room floor. Possibly some fan added some Star Wars music to those scenes, but the music fits rather nicely which sort of makes me think it was in the movie up until the last minute. I’m having a small HD-DVD movie marathon at my pad tomorrow. ...

This is hot off the presses. Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema have reached agreement to make J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” a planned prequel to the blockbuster trilogy “The Lord of the Rings.” Peter Jackson is set to oversee the film adaptation of “The Hobbit.” Jackson, who directed the “Rings” trilogy, will serve as executive producer for “The Hobbit.” A director for the prequel films has yet to be named. Relations between Jackson and New Line had soured after “Rings,” despite a collective worldwide box office gross of nearly $3 billion — an enormous success. The ...

I hung out with some of my old high school friends tonight at a little Christmas dinner, and a few people brought up my recent blog posts about favourite movies scenes. We immediately launched into a big discussion about which other scenes were pretty awesome from our childhood memories, and I think we ended up with a list of about 20 or 30. First movie we talked about was one Brennen and I totally loved years ago: Tombstone. Here’s is the scene where Johnny Ringo and Doc Holliday have their final battle. Obvious spoilers ahead. I’m your huckleberry. ...

Heat is a totally awesome movie starring both Al Pacino and Robert Deniro. There are many classic scenes in it, but one that stands out is the coffee shop banter between Pacino and Deniro where we learn a pile about both characters. This type of scene has been used in countless movies since then, but they all basically pay homage to this part. Why I think it’s so fascinating is that both characters open up to each other and somehow relate, even though they are basically enemies by trade. And let’s be honest, Deniro and Pacino both kick ass. ...

Easily one of my top ten films ever (well maybe top 20) is the rare gem that is Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous.” If you haven’t seen it, you should immediately head out to the movie store and rent it. It’s full of touching moments, laughter, self discovery and even a dash of romance. Not only is the writing and story telling superb, but the photography and cinematography are both outstanding. I’ll post a few scenes here I really like (obvious spoilers). The scene on the bus after the Golden God bit is also classic: It’s all happening folks. ...

There are so many incredible scenes in The Lord Of The Rings, it’s really difficult to single any of them out. The books were pretty influential in my early childhood, as well as shaping some of my literary and cinematic preferences in my teens. I am totally a LOTR geek, and even wore a little ring around my neck for a few months after reading the series for the first time. Actually, the first thing you see when you walk in the door at my Vancouver apartment is a framed poster of Aragorn from The Return of the King (so cool, I know). When the movies came out, I was totally excited, and ended ...

No, the number 1 doesn’t mean this is my all time favourite movie scene, because I plan to post a lot of these over the next few weeks, and I haven’t even thought about ranking them yet. However, I’ve always really liked this one scene. I could care less if you hate Tom Cruise or think his religion is bogus (even though it is) — this scene is pretty high up there in terms of cinematic perfection in my mind. As a whole, Vanilla Sky wasn’t that great, but this last scene, with the music, the wisps of romance, the vibrant vanilla sky, the New York landscape, and the thought of what it must ...

The original Star Wars Trilogy really needs no introduction, so I won’t really say much about it except that it totally kicked ass, as would any trilogy involving a bad guy voiced by James Earl Jones. This scene is a classic battle scene involving Luke and Darth Vadar, where of course Luke loses his hand at the end and ultimately learns who his real father is. And seriously, pretty much every kid who ever watches this scene spends the rest of their lives making lightsaber noises whenever they swing anything. Hell, I even hold out my hand when I approach automatic doors and pretend I’m using ...

From IndianaJones.com If anyone forgot why Indiana was cool, you can watch this video: ...

WARNING – MAJOR SPOILER ALERT: I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – you can’t have a show based on heroes that are near invincible. You just can’t. Heroes have to be flawed, or have some element that makes them weak, otherwise there’s really nothing for an audience to identify with. Peter is the prime example – he’s really unstoppable, and while I used to get excited seeing him onscreen, now he just takes up screen time, mostly with a bunch of whiny morality. The only person who can really challenge him is Sylar, and for whatever reason that left him without any power ...

Looks like the first shots of KITT are out from the upcoming TV series based on the old show Knight Rider. From here. As you can see, it’s a Ford Shelby GT. Personally, I think it looks rather stupid, but that’s just me. Maybe I’m just a bit nastalgic, and miss the old version of KITT. ...

Well, it’s not very often I’ll write about TV shows, mainly because I don’t really watch a lot of TV. In an effort to get my expenses down a few months ago, I decided finally to pull the plug on cable, something that I haven’t regretted in the least. The only show I really watched last year was 24, and once that season ended, I just cancelled it all, saving myself $60 a month or whatever. A while ago, I went out and bought all of Heroes season one on HD-DVD. I thought it was a decent show, but there were a lot of characters I wasn’t interested in at all. The finale was pretty lame too, ...