Awesome

Starting this week, each Friday I'm going to drum up some cool trivia and quotes about amazing movies and not-so-amazing movies (read: pilfer the extensive trivia catalogues of IMDb) as a little treat for those thousands of loyal fans who stick it out till Friday afternoon to make sure they've read every. single. one. of our postings. This week: Donnie Darko

Donnie Darko is of course one of Eric Q. Grimes' favorite movies of all time, which in and of itself should be internationally know trivia for the picture. But seeing as Richard Kelly has never worked with William H. Macey (triviaaaaaa!), it's of little surprise that he ignores our good friend Eric. Anyways it's in the spirit of ignoring Grimes that the inaugural launch of "Awesome" is dedicated to that funny little ginger.

Donnie Darko (2001)

- The movie was shot in 28 days, exactly the time-span of the movie itself, on a budget of under US$5 million.

- In the scene at the house party someone is shown jumping on a trampoline, wearing a Ronald Reagan mask. This is taken from a photo of the journalist Hunter S. Thompson wearing a Reagan mask while jumping on a trampoline.

- In the film Donnie refers to "Married with Children" (1987) and, more specifically, Christina Applegate during conversations about sex with his therapist. The script initially called for Donnie's fantasies to be about Alyssa Milano. This had to be changed however when Richard Kelly was denied the legal rights to reference her in this manner.

- In the theater scene, Richard Kelly originally intended to have Donnie and Gretchen going to see C.H.U.D. (1984). However, there were problems with finding out who owned the rights to the movie. Finally, Sam Raimi came to the rescue by allowing Kelly to use and distort footage from The Evil Dead (1981), free of charge.

- Noah Wyle's character, Prof. Kenneth Monnitoff, is seen eating hard candy in some scenes because Wyle decided his character would be diabetic.

- Richard Kelly's original choice for the music to be played over the final sequence was 'U2''s "MLK." After difficulties obtaining the rights to the song, it was decided to use Gary Jules' cover of the Tears for Fears song "Mad World" instead.

- Richard Kelly originally wanted Tim Robbins to play the part of Donnie's father.

- The original poster art for the movie had been using an Arabic-style font, but this was changed to the much more standard Times New Roman boldface font for the video release after the terrorist attacks on the USA of 11 September 2001. The title remains in the same style in the film, though.

- Jason Schwartzman was replaced by Jake Gyllenhaal, due to Schwartzman's scheduling conflicts.

- Director Richard Kelly modeled the tone of the film after Stanley Kubrick's Lolita (1962). Elizabeth Darko (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is even dressed as Vivian Darkbloom (Marianne Stone) from Lolita at the Halloween party.

- One of the deleted scenes involves Donnie's English class discussing Richard Adams's novel Watership Down (1978), the plot of which involves a rabbit who prophesies the impending destruction of the rabbit warren. This scene was later included in the actual feature when the director's cut of the movie was released on DVD.

- During the open shots of the Halloween Party shown later in the film, in the background the sound of a wolf howling can be heard. It is the howl of the werewolf from An American Werewolf in London (1981).

- When Donnie's mother is calling to say how they'll be on the red-eye flight, the airport announcement in the background says that Flight 2806 is boarding at gate 42 and leaving at 12 AM. Presumably this is the flight they're taking, and also a reference to the 28:06:42:12 countdown that Frank gives Donnie.

- There are 28 scenes in the director's cut of the film. (Frank says the world will end in 28 days 06 hours 42 minutes and 12 seconds)

- The movie takes place in 1988. Frank tells Donnie the world will end in 28 days, 06 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds. If you add these numbers, the sum is 88. When Samantha asks when she can have kids, Donnie says: "Not until 8th grade." Donnie mentions to his therapist that his dog Callie died when he was eight. (He is later seen holding a stuffed toy dog in her office.) According to the television reporter, the fire at Jim Cunningham's house was extinguished "sometime after 8:00 last night." The climax of Donnie Darko occurs one week before the 1988 US presidential election. George Bush was elected on November 8, 1988 [11/08/88].

- The scene where Donnie corrects Gretchen was improvised because the actress could not say the word.

- The shot of the bike ride to Grandma Death's house is an homage to Steven Spielberg's E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), in which, Drew Barrymore also starred.

- The first scene in the movie is an homage to Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). The same movie is also labeled as showing at the movie theater.

- Jim Cunningham [The Swayze] depicts drugs, alcohol, and premarital sex as "instruments of fear." In the movie, Donnie smokes a cigarette, drinks alcohol, and engages in premarital sex. The climax of the movie occurs after he surrenders to all three temptations.

- When Donnie tells Gretchen he accidentally burned down a house, they are walking directly in front of Jim Cunningham's house. The Life Line Exercise Card that Donnie reads is about a girl finding a lost wallet. Later, Donnie finds Jim Cunningham's wallet on the sidewalk outside his mansion.

- In the "Cunning Visions" infomercial, Jim Cunningham pats a child on his behind. The young boy who wants to learn how to fight at the school assembly is the same boy in Jim Cunningham's infomercial (Larry Riesman).

- The film Donnie Darko and Stephen King's It (1990) (TV) both feature a knife-wielding bully. The primary bully is named Seth Devlin. His surname is a reference to the devil. A sticker inside Seth Devlin's locker reads: "What would Satan do?"

- According to the director's commentary, the book which Eddie Darko is reading in bed is Stephen King's "The Tommyknockers", the cover of which "some bastard stole from the set". Earlier in the film, Eddie's wife Rose is reading King's "It".

- Donnie mentions the DeLorean car, which was used for time travel in Back to the Future (1985). In that film the DeLorean had to reach a speed of 88 mph to travel in time.

- Rose Darko is reading the Stephen King book "It". In the book, children in a small town are terrorized by a clown. Later in the film, we see an encounter between Donnie and a clown.

- The dance performance in the movie is actually performed to "West End Girls" by the Pet Shop Boys (Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe). Due to budgetary constraints, however, the song had to replaced by Duran Duran's "Notorious" in post-production.

- When casting for the role of Donnie's sister, it came to Richard Kelly's attention that Maggie Gyllenhaal (who had few film credits at the time) would be available for the shoot. The agent who proposed her casting reminded Kelly of her scene in Cecil B. DeMented (2000), where she drank urine. Though Kelly was slightly hesitant towards the idea, he did like the way she drank urine--and knew he wouldn't have to work hard at creating a sibling rivalry between her and her brother, star Jake Gyllenhaal.

- The song that plays as Donnie is riding his bike home in the theatrical version is "The Killing Moon" by Echo & The Bunnymen. As Gretchen waits for the school bus, a Volkswagen Rabbit vehicle quickly passes in front of her. When Elizabeth Darko is sleeping on the recliner, there is a stuffed rabbit next to her. As Donnie reaches for the car keys, there is a Polaroid picture of him and his sister in Halloween costumes on the desk. Donnie is dressed as a rabbit. When Donnie is talking to his sister after his mom leaves near the end, a "jack o lantern" bunny is seen on the table. Frank, the rabbit, often appears near a water source (sprinklers, water main, faucet).

- The words "Cellar Door" are written on the chalkboard in Karen Pommeroy's classroom. When Donnie asks about their meaning, she replies that "This famous linguist once said that of all the phrases in the English language, of all the endless combinations of words in all of history, that Cellar Door is the most beautiful." In the director's commentary Richard Kelly mistakenly attributes the phrase to Edgar Allan Poe, but it was actually J.R.R. Tolkien who, in his 1955 essay "English and Welsh", said that "Most English-speaking people . . . will admit that cellar door is 'beautiful', especially if dissociated from its sense (and from its spelling). More beautiful than, say, sky, and far more beautiful than beautiful."

- Newmarket Films, the movie's US distributor, approached Richard Kelly about doing a director's cut. He accepted the offer and did the re-edit with editor Sam Bauer in a swift nine days. Comparably, it would take him a full 5 years before he was ready to step behind the camera again to film the universally panned "Southland Tales".

- Richard Kelly received only $9,000 to write and direct Donnie Darko which had a budget of 4.5 million dollars.

- The character Karen Pomeroy's name is a reference to Wardell B. Pomeroy, a sex researcher at the Kinsey Institute.

- Seth Rogen's feature film debut.

The Ol' Trail

Crystal Clear

A few days ago I kind of stepped in it on Stacey Bowman's incomparable blog Tornlake

In it I defended Michael Ignatieff's rise to power over the past few weeks within the Liberal Party. To catch you up with the debate (and to prevent you from navigating away from our website) I have pasted in responses to my comments.  

I have a terrible feeling that, in choosing Michael Ignatieff, the federal Liberals are about to choose a leader who is a political dilettante. Mr. Ignatieff exhibits all the same characteristics of ego and entitlement that made it impossible for John Turner either to mobilize the party beyond the Toronto elite or to connect with Canadians on a national basis. I certainly hope I am mistaken because the last time such a mistake was made, the consequences were two terms of Brian Mulroney.

It is precisely because he is statesman enough to put the interests of his party (and, by extension, the country) ahead of his own -- as he did yesterday -- that Bob Rae should have had his candidacy put before a Liberal national convention. And, had that occurred, the winner would not have to carry the faint whiff of illegitimacy that will follow Mr. Ignatieff for the foreseeable future.

So my initial response was: that's kind of dumb. And I don't want this debate to turn into ad homonym attacks, so let me make it clear that I don't think the person who made the comment was dumb. I just think that the idea in and of itself is unclear and not clearly thought out. Luckily, the editor of Tornlake popped by to clarify the comment:

Kitzy, I think the previous commenter was making the point that, regardless of whether Ignatieff would have won had the leadership been put to a vote at a convention or otherwise, giving him the reigns of the party without going through that process is what might give his leadership the 'whiff of illegitimacy' to some. The point is not whether he would have been voted in anyway, the point is that his leadership will not be validated by those votes.

For my part, I agree with you that Ignatieff may be able to bring new ideas to the party and he certainly brings intelligence and knowledge. But experience definitely counts, and Rae does have more experience.

I sincerely hope you're right and that saying Ignatieff might not be able to mobilize Canadians outside the GTA is a generalization.

Thanks for all your comments -- interesting discussion!!

Now let's just cut right to the chase: "thanks for all your comments"!!?! Why are you trying to silence me Bowman!? And if you think you can, you are very, very, VERY mistaken. This is EXACTLY why I [ed. note: We / Mostly Eric you part-timing piece of garbage] have a blog! Because here, the pointless arguments NEVER cease!! Not until we're proven right!

So in terms of you agreeing that Ignatieff will bring intelligence and knowledge. You're welcome. But as for some of the topics you are more reticent on? Well let's dig in, shall we?

(1) Experience Definitely Counts: I've been CEO of a large company for 30 years! And in those 30 years I have consistently made poor decisions resulting in the mind-numbing failure of a once booming business. Obviously Bob Rae wasn't that bad. I hyperbolize only to demonstrate that sometimes quality of experience is more important that the quantity of it.

(2) A Leadership Validated by Party Votes: Well, for starters, considering that only the best connected and influential Liberals even attend the Liberal Convention, the notion that somehow it would have been some kind of egalitarian democr-orgy had the vote been taken all the way there is a little bit naive. Secondly - and I cannot emphasize this enough - changing the rules on a whim because some people feel like it would do away with a "whiff of illegitimacy" / support their candidate certainly reeks of far more illegitimacy than following the rules of the constitution that have been ratified by the very people whose voices everyone seems to value so much.

(3) Giving him the reigns of the party without going through that process is what might give his leadership the 'whiff of illegitimacy' to some: Anyone who is unwilling to check on the basic constitutional laws that have guided the Liberal Party should think twice about throwing around jagged words like "illegitimacy". It's easy for everyone to get worked up about things like this - I'm reminded of the US elections in 2000 when Al Gore won the popular vote - but there are rules in place for a reason, and at the risk of sounding repetitive, let me echo my sentiments from above: you don't get to change the rules just because the call didn't go your way. In 2008, McCain was poised to win the popular vote while Obama won the Electoral College. He didn't, but if he had, would all the Liberals who had cursed Bush for "stealing" the election say, "welp, too bad we had to 'steal' the election this time"? Elections aren't stolen. They really honestly aren't. Did the Republicans win the recount because they beat the shit out of the Democrat lawyers? Yeah, they sure did! Which is to say, they worked a whole hell of a lot harder and they worked a whole hell of a lot smarter and that's how they won the recount. Complaining about that is a bit like saying, "The Red Wings totally stole that game from us by playing harder, faster and smarter! That's so unfair!!"

But I digress, my point is that, while I guess I can't hold it against people for mistakenly thinking that Ignatieff is an illegitimate selection, I can tell them that they are flat out wrong. And pleasantly, it won't be a matter of opinion. In this one case - and I'm usually willing to carry on discussions - anyone who says that Ignatieff is not the legitimately chosen leader of the Liberal Party is literally, completely wrong. They are wrong. Period! Because he was chosen by the process that was written into constitutional law and ratified by a two-thirds majority of all Liberal delegates. Which is to say, you can like or dislike Ignatieff till the cows come home. But anyone who says he is an illegitimate selection, or even that his selection has a "whiff of illegitimacy" is actually not thinking calmly, clearly or reasonably. And that inability to do so makes the theory stupid.

BME Pain Olympics

Oh my god. This will not be a long posting. However i am currently having a chat with my old irish pal JP, you know him as the Jagermonster, the JYP, J-Pie, J-Fly and several other aliases. He starred many times in the Chronicles of Grimes back in the day. Anyways he has just asked me if i'm aware of the BME Pain Olympics. Which I am not. He said it's a video floating around the internet right now, of two guys, and a knife. They are competing to see who can withstand the most pain.

WITH THEIR DICKS AND BALLS! Yes you heard me correctly, dicks and balls. He has not seen it yet, but from what he's heard BME is a group of guys that self inflict pain, and they even have a website. I have not been to it, and i'm not sure i'm going to. He also has informed me that from what he's heard, one guy in the video cuts his balls off. OFF! OOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Like what the fuck? He said he's also not sure but one guy might cut his dick off. Jesus Christ i can't understand this? Why...why would anyone do this? Has anyone out there seen this video? Is this all true or just a horrible sick joke? Please someone just tell me it's not real and I can go back to having at least a little faith in mankind.

JP has again just informed me the video is titled "BME Pain Olympics Final Round". And he put it best...."mate it better be the final round." He refuses to watch it, so do I, that's where you come in dear reader. Search it, watch it, take one for the team and tell us all if it's legit. After searching it on google it legitimately exists, and the photo above is from a guy watching the video for the first time.

To Scrap Or Not To Scrap.....

That is the question. Now what is the answer? Well maybe I should do a better job of defining my question for all you numbskulls out there. The question, well it's the same questions that's posed at least a few times every single year. Should fighting be outlawed for good in the NHL? Well i'm not here to answer that question, only to provide my opinion on the matter.

I think most of you already know what i'm going to say, no absolutely not, fighting is essential to the game of hockey. Hockey is basically the only major sport in the world where the game is policed not only by the referees, but by the players themselves. The system within the game is actually quite interesting too, because as anyone who watches hockey regularly knows, there is a hierarchy in place on any given team. Enforcers, grinders, agitators, checkers, playmakers, snipers, superstars. Without an internal code within the game, I think you would see a rise in violent incidents on the ice aswell as an increase in dangerous hits. Players could run around on the ice all willy nilly without fear of retribution from the enforcers. Your star players, the Crosby's, Malkin's and Ovechkin's of the league would have bullseyes stamped on their foreheads. These are the players that people pay to see, and without protection on the ice it would be free reign for cheap shots.

Obviously there is no way to fully remove fights from the game, but what they would do is probably something along the lines of throwing a person involved in a fight out of the game and giving them a one game suspension or something. Again though, this only creates problems. How do you mediate who started the fight? The league would be constantly be tied up with complaints from players and team officials over whether suspensions were warranted or not. What if someone started a fight to protect a player, does he get a suspension? What if a player is attacked and drops the gloves in response? Does he get a suspension? These would all be very grey areas and the amount of debate and hearsay would vary from case to case and it would be extremely difficult to maintain any kind of consistency in the verdict.

Essentially the argument about fighting is raised every year because of an on ice incident. With 30 teams playing 82 games each, there are going to be a lot of fights. Enforcers these days are not just big hockey players anymore. For the most part they are trained fighters. They take martial arts or boxing lessons. They are much bigger, and much stronger then the fighters of the old days. The chances of someone getting injured in one of these fights are pretty good. The most recent incident was not actually too major. Two fighters were finishing up their duel, and they fell, and one of them smacked his head on the ice pretty hard. He's fine, and just has a gash on the back of his head for his troubles. However of course this spawned the debate once again.

What everyone needs to realize is that this is a sport played by grown men and that they have accepted the responsibility of their position. Alot of these players are realizing their dream of playing in the NHL and if you removed fighting from the game, some of them would be out of jobs. For the most part, if you don't want to fight, you don't have to. Star players rarely if ever fight, and when they do, it's usually at their own volition, and referees are also usually quite quick to break these ones up. Wayne Gretzky in his career fought 3 times. His longest one was 14 seconds against Neal Broten. He instigated the fight by dropping his gloves first. Sidney Crosby has been in one fight in his career against Andrew Ference last year. He held his own, and also dropped the gloves first. When a star player does fight? It's usually against another star player or at least one similar in stature to himself. They never last long, and their are rarely ever many good punches thrown. Quite simply because they are not trained fighters, they take a big swing, lose their balance, and the refs jump in.

What society has to accept is that accidents happen. Has anyone ever been killed in a hockey fight? No they haven't. However people have died on the ice as a result of stick swinging accidents, or dangerous hits. Which as i mentioned earlier, would only increase with the removal of on ice policing. The entertainment value of a good hockey fight makes the league unique, I personally don't go to the game to see fights, but if one happens when i'm there....you can bet i'm on my feet rooting for Laraque to lay a beating on Lucic! It breeds team unity and can actually completely change the game. How many times have you seen a team down a couple goals, and then their fighter squares off against the other team and lays a beating on him, and the next thing you know the tempo and direction of the game swings completely and you've got a comeback on your hands. Happens all the time.

So in conclusion, obviously i support hockey fighting. Everyone has their opinion and that's just mine. I know some people see it as barbaric but for those who have played the game and followed it loyally like many of us have, it's quite obvious that it's been engrained in the culture and is important to it's success.

Learning How to Play It Cool...

Twentieth Century Fox has optioned rights to "How to Talk to Girls," a newly published advice guide written by Alec Greven, a 9-year-old expert on the subject.

The first of a four-book series, "How to Talk to Girls" was published Nov. 25 by HarperCollins, the publishing house that is a sister company to Fox. The film deal encompasses all four volumes.

The studio hasn't set a writer yet or assigned a producer, but 20th production co-president Alex Young sparked to the story of Greven, who was 8 when he began writing the book as an assignment for his third-grade class, to help classmates break the ice with members of the opposite sex. The result was a pamphlet that sold at his school's book fair for $3.

HarperCollins is selling the first of the four editions for $9.99.

The advice seems simple enough to follow: Greven's tips range from the facts of life ("Sometimes, you get a girl to like you, then she ditches you. Life is hard, move on!"), to getting a girl's attention ("Show off a skill, like playing soccer or anything else that you are good at.") to talking to girls ("You also have to be aware that girls win most of the arguments.") to dealing with crushes ("It can be very hard to get a girl to like you. Sometimes it takes years! Whatever happens, just don't act desperate.").

Fox bought the book preemptively, before Greven began logging airtime on TV shows including "The Today Show" and "Ellen."

The Gotham Group brokered the deal and I for one am excited as shit to see what this looks like on screen / learn an enormous amount about the opposite sex from someone under the age of 10.

Gibberish

It's Monday, I'm at work bored as fuck, i'm in a shitty mood and don't really have much of a reason to be, and i'm on here to write about god knows what. I really don't have a clue what i'm going to write about yet, maybe i'll just put these couple of sentences up and call it a day. It seems everything is pissing me off today, Mumford trying to get me to print out 89 pages of some fuckin bullshit for him. Do it yourself alright? You've got the time. Denby being too busy to email back and forth with me. Kitzy's having a shitty day too, just got an email from him that said "kill me now!" Now add the fact that Favre is currently in Florida on a cruise ship with Anna. Then throw in a dose of Pearson being on vacation with Susi all next week in the Mayan Riviera. That's not to say i'm some asshole who doesn't want my friends to have fun. Cause i'm happy for those boys, but at the same time it just reminds me of how much i want a break, and more than anything how much i'd love to just get away for a bit, even if it's just for a few days.

It kind of amazes me how much i let the weather affect my mood. In the summer getting through a work week is a breeze. No problem at all. I'll meet up with one of the boys for lunch, maybe eat outside if it's really nice. Or hide from the sun if it's too damn hot. Talk about getting away to a cottage or hitting a patio after work. The sun keeps it light out til mid evening. We can play soccer in the park and keep active. But then it starts to get cold. I wake up in the mornings these days, and it's dark out. I walk to work and it's cold. I get to work, hide inside all day, scamper to meet someone for lunch if I can and complain about how cold it is, then i walk home....and it's dark again. Things that seemed so easy to get done before, like laundry or grocery shopping, all of a sudden seem like much more ominous tasks.

Ok ok you can stop loading your gun now. I never intended to make people feel suicidal from reading this posting. Sometimes i guess you just need to get some shit off your chest. I've got alot more i could potentially unload but i think this is good for now. I mean for the most part i'm a happy guy right! I mean i'm not clinically depressed or anything so enough of all this crap. There are some positives to winter no doubt about it. I mean there are the obvious ones that come with weather change. You can't snowboard in the summer (unless you live in whistler i guess), sure i haven't gone snowboarding in about 5 years, but at least in the winter the option is there! And we all keep talking about getting a big snowboard trip organized, renting a ski in ski out place on a mountain somewhere and cramming it full of all of us. Beds for the couples, floor for the single guys! Don't worry Mike we can snuggle on the carpet.

Let's see what else. Well as you may or may not know, (and it's probably may since i don't think anyone other than denby or kitzy read this) i'm quite partial to the game of hockey. So one of my saving graces during the winter time is the opening of the outdoor hockey rinks. And they have officially opened this past weekend so that gives me the chance to get out there a few times a week, get some exercise, and non-violently release a whole lot of pent up sexual aggression. Alot of the boys like to come out and play too so that's always a good time. I'm already looking forward to catching Mumford with his head down sometime and possibly placing him in the hospital. (89 pages Mumford? really?)

Another pro/con to winter would have to be the partying aspect. Now it can be both good and bad depending on how you look at it. There's no doubt people, myself included, slow down their partying ways when the cold weather arrives. Their are several pros to this. You save some money, you get better at video games, you catch up on movies, you masturbate more often, your parents stop giving you lectures on the culture of binge drinking, you get to see Mumford's cold smile which is hilarious, you have less random bruises from not seeing a drunken Julien Favre so much, and you see Mike Denby more often since he's your only single friend left and couples stay in more in the winter so you cling to each other secretly hoping the other one doesn't find his true love before you do. I've said too much. Let's get to the cons. First off the obvious, getting drunk and partying....can be pretty fun. Hacking danks is cold, it's always dark, no more patio drinking, bikinis and tank tops are replaced by pants sweaters and coats, you need cabs to go pretty much everywhere, i always lose gloves/mittens, my radiator in my room is turned up way too high and i can't control the temperature and have a windowless room, my feet are often wet from snow, my coat/andrew's coat is falling to pieces.

Ok i guess those kind of turned into more my winter problems than a general overview of everybody's. But i think you get the point. Wow i actually gotta say i feel much better now having released all that crap out of my system. And hey maybe you'll actually read it since it's winter and you've got nothing better to do.