DVD Release of Still Life With Razor

Still Life With Razor Release Date: November 25, 2005 Directed by: Ken Cameron and Dave Reynolds Starring: Anita L. Miotti, Peter Strand Rumpel Colour, 15 min. Stereo Unrated (Parental Guidance suggested)

Get your copy today! If you are credited on the film you are entitled to a free copy, otherwise they are $10 each. A notice will be sent out shortly requesting shipping and/or dropping off info.

Mmmmmm . . . cheese!

On Sunday, Gina and I went to the Springbank Cheese Co. (it's closer than Janice Beaton) and brought home 3 cheeses to try. Sampling Cheeses is fast becoming a pastime of mine. I'm also thinking that the smellier the better, in some cases you may want to avoid smelling altogether . . .

Black Pepper Brie - I love Brie - by itself, on crackers, baguette, pastry-enveloped, etc., etc. This one was good but I think the pepper was no match for the brie. I like pepper - a lot - and it was not that the pepper was too much, I just think the brie they put it in was too weak. Great starter brie if you're afraid of it.

Cashel Blue - This is a nice starter-to-mid-range blue. I found it took a while to get used to blue - especially since I've always hated crunchy bits in places they don't belong - but I started early with the run-of-the mill Danish Blue and worked my way up. I think anyone who was at our Fondue last year can attest to the value of a good Gorgonzola. This particular Cashel smelled exactly like Elastoplast bandages (Gina agreed) but was quite good on the palate.

Le Grand Chouffe - billed as "Beer-washed Belgian Cheese", this is similar to Brie in texture and in that it has a rind. The bouquet on this one is pee-filled diaper (no, really, it is) but the taste is magnificent. There is a little bit of an ammonia finish but overall, of the three, this one was my favourite.

Why go postal when you can go Dutch?

From CBC news:

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/11/16/sparrow051116.html

Never have so few read so much for so little

Yes, I was a pre-judge for a writing contest in a local paper. In less than a week, I had to read almost 750 entries that included everything from How-to guides to Science Fiction. There was a ton of sci-fi, many of it written by children (the better stuff anyway), and a lot of writing for therapy (or self-self-help).

How did I do it? Well, we did only have to read the synopsis and a submitted excerpt. Some people did't even bother to submit an exceprt - for example, in one entry the would-be author wrote "I haven't had the time to write a chapter yet". So why are you entering?? Some other entrants thought that they could only enter what fit in the tiny textinput box on the website, even though it cleary stated up to a maximum of 2000 words below it.

It was a dark and stormy night. The rain fell hard on the ground but you should publish my book all the same.
(enter up to a maximum of 2000 words, unless you think we can judge your writing style with two sentences)

It was still somewhat fun to read through most of the entries. My favourite line was "Bob was a volatile explosives expert". My favourite synopsis was "It's a thriller version of Lord of the Rings with a gothic twist". If you get a chance to read the final 10 I'll let you know which one is my pick for publication.

Happy Belated Halloween!

Unfortunately the only pictures of me from Halloween are badly out of focus, otherwise I'd post them. Instead you can look at our pumpkin. I went for the classic goofy look. Our camera is sadly lacking a pre-flash with which to get focus with in low-light conditions.