happy new year!

Hard to believe that 2011 is now nothing more than a memory and we have a whole new 12 months ahead of us.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this year is better than ones in the past.

Of course, as Doc Brown once told Marty McFly: “The future is what you make of it, so make it a good one!”

christmas time is here (again!)

Once again the year is winding down and while things don’t always go the way we want them to, this year has been better than some of the ones in the past. Naturally there’s always room for improvement, but that’s what 2012 is for.

I’m fortunate enough to once again be back down in Jersey, celebrating with my family.  The drive was good, the weather has been cooperating and the mood is rather festive — which is always a good thing.

Hopefully everyone out there has a Merry Christmas (if you’re celebrating) and a wonderful New Year.

the stephanie plum movie is coming!

My mother and I are both big fans of Janet Evanovich‘s Stephanie Plum novels.  I’ve been reading them for years now and always wondered if and when they would become movies. It seems the wait is finally over.

On January 27, the first novel One For the Money becomes a major motion picture, starring Katherine Hegil in the role of Stephanie Plum.

I’ve seen the trailer and some screen captures and I gotta admit, Heigl does kind of  look like how I imagine Plum to look.  And considering Sandra Bullock was long rumored to be the producer and actress in the film series, I think we got off easy on this one.

But there are a few concerns before I rush down the ol’ multiplex: a lot of studios release duds in January because award season and holiday seasons have passed. Could One For the Money be a January pass-over?

And Katherine Heigl isn’t a very bankable actress.  The majority of her movies, with the exception of Knocked Up,  have either been major bombs and/or ravaged by critics.

Still, I’m hoping it does well and most importantly, it’s watchable. From the trailer, the expected gags and “nice ass” jokes are there, so it remains to be seen if there’s any substance behind it.

Once again my birthday has rolled around and as it happens every year, I’m now 365 days older than I was this time last year.  A lot of people wonder if I’m worried about getting thismuch closer to being forty and honestly, I haven’t given it that much thought.

I actually consider myself lucky to be “getting up there” when it comes to age. Not that my days were numbered, but so often we open the newspaper (for those of us who still read newspapers, that is) or turn on the TV and see stories about young people’s lives tragically being cut short.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have blessed with a good family and good friends. And when it comes to how I spend my birthday, usually it involves nothing more than relaxing at home.  I’m done with the big parties and get-togethers, although I do appreciate the good wishes, so thank you for those.

leather season returns

Yes of course I’m excited about the return of Leather Pants (and Leather Skirts) Season. I’ve been embracing it for the past few months now. (Since late September, in fact.) I wait all year for this to happen and it seems that once again, I’m ahead of the curve. Leather store Danier is pushing way more leather pants and skirts this year (as well as dresses too!), compared to previous years when the focus has been on their jackets and accessories.  As well I noticed Sears and Dynamite also have leather skirts in the line-up.

Leather is sometimes a slippery slope for people. For some, it brings back memories of 80′s rock bands or biker chicks. But every so often, it creeps into the mainstream and becomes a staple of fashion. Naturally I’m thrilled about this.

I’ve been doing the whole leather thing since college. Back then, PVC and vinyl were also in style, but it was common to see everyone from TV personalities to normal folks on the street wearing leather pants or skirts.  Then from 2000 until 2003 leather was also big again. It seems to come and go, but for me it will always be a staple of my wardrobe.

still got love for wikipedia

I’ve mentioned before how much I enjoy Wikipedia. I love how one article can lead to another and then another and by the time you’re ready to shut off your computer, you’re amazed at how one link took you to so many different stories.

Of course there is the fact that Wikipedia, like most things found on the Internet, can sometimes by unreliable on account of the fact that it can be edited by just about anyone .  But considering that people have left their own personal touches on certain articles makes it more fun. It’s an interesting trip down memory lane in some cases and for the most part, a reliable source for information, dates and stats (providing all information as been referenced and can be cross-checked)

You see kids, (and young journalists of the world) crossing-checking and fact-checking are things that journalists used to do back in the days before Twitter and Wikipedia. I know it’s hard to imagine, but that’s how we used to roll. Scary stuff, huh?

the eaton centre cinemas

Since I’m feeling all nostalgic these days, I figured I would walk down movie theater memory lane again. As I mentioned in my post about the Sheraton Center 2 cinemas, during my infamous six month stint in 1997, I remember going to as many movies as possible.

My movie outings were a great source of entertainment and I firmly believe the cinemas back then were much better than the eye-sores of today. (Yes kids, there was a time when a cinema that had nine screens was considered a mega-plex, there wasn’t a laser light show in the lobby and there were no crappy spaceships hanging from the ceiling over the candy counter. Hard to believe, I know.)

One of the first movies I saw when I moved here was Bean: The Movie. I had been a fan of the TV series while in college, so it seemed logical to see the feature film. I decided that the Eaton Center would be the theater I would watch it in. The film was passable, but what stuck in my mind was the cinema.

Keep in mind, at the time the  Eaton Center was one of the largest cinema in the country. It had somewhere between 18 and 21 screens at any given time (Yes, the number changed depending on the renovations. You can read about it on Movie-Theatres.org if you want.) And it was the FIRST multi-plex in the world.  But the kids of today wouldn’t even know it existed because Cinepelx Odeon abandoned the cinema in 2001 and it has since been torn down.

Yes, it was crowded, the rooms were tiny and some parts of it looked like the stuff nightmares of made of. I remember I was wearing blue PVC/vinyl pants that I had bought from either Stitches, Sirens or Le Chateau and thinking I would rather pee them than use the restrooms. But it was a piece of history.  And now it’s nothing. (Yes, you read that correctly. Blue vinyl pants. It was the late 90′s. Deal with it.)

I find that very typical of today’s big companies. They forget where they come from and what made them who they are — even if what made them was a less-than-perfect cinema on the corner of Dundas and Yonge, buried almost underneath the Eaton Center.

Now with the new AMC next door and the Scotiabank a few blocks away (see the part about eye-sores and crap hanging from the ceiling) all old cinemas are gone from the downtown core. I still think it’s very important to remember history, especially of something so pivotal in the development of modern day cinemas. Would it kill Cineplex Entertainment to put up a plaque commemorating the old cinema? It could read:

On this spot between 1979 and 2001 was the Eaton Center Cineplex Cinemas. At the time, it was the largest cinema in the world and the first-ever multi-plex.It helped build the Cineplex corporation into what it is today.

I’m sure with ticket prices averaging at $14 a shot, Cineplex could more than afford that sign.

bring on the new batman

I’m a comic-book geek and I love super heroes. Maybe not as much as my sister does, but I like the idea of super heroes. Or maybe I like superhero movies and I love the villains. I think if I had to be in a comic book movie, I’d want to be the bad guy. They always seem to have more fun.

The first super hero movie I remember watching as a kid was Superman: The Movie, followed by Superman II. Those films were awesome for their time (and still are today) and  not only did Lois Lane make me want to be a reporter, I loved how the comic came to life on the big screen.

Then came Batman and that changed everything. And I’m talking about the classic Batman movie directed by Tim Burton, which for the flaws that it had (such as the fact that Batman never swooped, flew, jumped around, crouched or turned his head) was an awesome film. The sequels, like most sequels were OK, but not as good. Batman Forever had potential, but it was too colorful and too loud and campy with the villains, Two-Face and The Riddler trying to outdo each other. (And let’s just pretend that Batman & Robin never happened, alright?)

And now we have the Christopher Nolan movies. I liked Batman Begins. It told a good back-story and set things up for future movies, but The Dark Knight, as good as Heath Ledger was as The Joker, was more flawed that Burton’s Batman. For all the people who criticized Tim Burton’s version, they seem to not want to mention that Nolan’s interpretation was more of a crime drama with a guy who paints his face and another guy who runs around in a bat costume.

In the comics, The Joker came to be because of a chemical accident, not as a bank robber who uses war paint to scare people. Losing a huge part of the back story of one of the greatest villains of all time was a mistake. And the fact that Gotham City looks too much like Chicago (they made little or no attempt to hide the fact that Gotham has a Chase Bank and Starbucks on LaSalle Street… just like Chicago does) took away from the “escape” factor that Burton’s Batman had.

In the 1989 Batman, Gotham was a creepy, art-deco city with looming buildings and hardly a trace of sunshine. It set the tone for a comic book movie and raised the bar. And I know that Nolan is/was going for a more realistic version of Batman, but it’s still a comic book movie and there should be that element in it.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m looking forward to the new Dark Knight Rises movie, but I’m also looking forward to the eventual reboot of the series again.  Bringing in a new director, new look and keeping it closer to the Batman from the comics, complete with creepy gothic Gotham City, a Joker whose back-story is told like it is in The Killing Joke (one of the best graphic novels ever written, by the way) and the true escape into a living, breathing comic book feeling that a super hero movie should have.

hard rock casino coming to atlantic city

It’s amazing how a little bit of good news can really turn my day around. Just on Monday I was complaining about how Atlantic City was in a tail spin and I wondered how long it would last.  And now it seems I have an answer: at least a few more years — and then some.

The Hard Rock International (the folks behind that famous restaurant with all the guitars on the wall) announced that they will in fact go ahead with plans to build a casino hotel on the boardwalk in Atlantic City. If all goes well, it will be finished and opened by spring of 2014.

This is great news for A.C. because Hard Rock is a big name and it will (hopefully) bring in big entertainment. And while Hard Rock Atlantic City will be a smaller-scale hotel/casino compared to the massive Borgata that opened in 2003 and the Revel which opens next year, it’s still a sign of good things to come.

But I’ve learned not to get my hopes up. Many casinos have talked about moving into the Atlantic City area and have never shown up. Pinnacle is just the latest along with MGM Grand, but the Hard Rock is a step in the right direction and will hopefully help stimulate things.  And it makes me happy to see that my “downtown city” is hanging in there.

yes, it’s hot. we get it

It must be either a slow news day or local media are going for the quick and easy sell. As temperatures here in Toronto reach the 95°F mark, every major media outlet from CTV to Global and the even The Toronto Star and Toronto Sun are jumping on the “it’s hot outside” bandwagon.

Naturally there are the expected side stories about ways to keep cool, how your pet feels the heat, if you can cook food inside your car and how air conditioning units are selling like – pardon the pun – hot cakes.

While everyone with a pulse is aware of how hot it is, it’s amazing how the media seems to think that nobody knows this. That’s why it’s the lead story everywhere, prompting me to wonder if nobody has criticized Rob Ford in the last seven hours for making cuts or if anyone got shot. (Those are normally the lead stories in this city.)

Hearing about how hot it is certainly doesn’t help the situation and frankly I’m tired of everyone bitching about it. Because we all know that in seven months from now everyone will complain about how cold and miserable it is.

Except me. I have central air and heat.

will atlantic city die?

When I was growing up, to me, Atlantic City was “downtown”. For a lot of South Jersey folks, Philadelphia is the “big city” where you go for a good time. But for me, I called “America’s Favorite Playground” the big city. And why not? It had bright lights, tall buildings, a bustling downtown, and everyone wanted to go there.  I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to be able to play my first game of Blackjack or pull the slot machine handles and hopefully win millions. (In case you’re wondering, it never happened. And by the time I was 21, I had already moved to Canada.)

Then something happened.

While I would love to say it was a direct relation to me moving away, I don’t think it really was.  Some time in the mid 90′s Atlantic City started to decline.  Tacky t-shirt shops and palm readers started to dominate the once famous Boardwalk, outnumbering the stores and restaurants. Casinos started to lose money and the State didn’t seem to care.

Then Las Vegas was reborn as the tourist destination, other states legalized gambling in the U.S. and AC continued to fall.

Sure, there was the promise of big name casinos that would come to town.  But so far, only two have come and many more have pulled out.  And yes, the recent rescission sure didn’t help. But how come Vegas continues to grow and Atlantic City, month after month, continues to struggle along on life support?

The answer is of course that Vegas is Vegas. Atlantic City had that chance too, but failed to grab the brass ring.  It has what Vegas doesn’t have: a shore line.  In the 90′s, the city should have done a massive overhaul, tearing down anything that wasn’t geared to help grow the economy and made cuts, tax breaks and incentives that would lure the casino owners to the coast instead of the desert.

Atlantic City has a great history, but that is almost all forgotten now.  And in the 80′s thanks to Trump and Tyson, the resort town enjoyed a small sporting boom and even hosted WrestleMania twice. (Laugh if you want to, but that event now brings in 50 million bucks to the host city each year) but hardly any big names come to town any more.

There was also the loss of the Miss America pageant and other setbacks including crime and the lack of decent jobs that has kept investors from heading east.  Sadly, no sales tax on clothes and shoes isn’t enough to bring them back.

Small advances have been made over the years.  The addition of The Walk and The Pier at Caesars have helped stir the local and tourist shopping interest, but it isn’t enough.  The question still comes up “why would I go to Atlantic City when I can go to Vegas?“

Sad but true.

And every time I read an article from the Press of Atlantic City talking about the decline in business or loss of revenue the casinos are reporting, it breaks my heart because in the back of my mind, I can’t help but wonder “will this be the final blow?”

Good Jersey folks like author Jen A. Miller try to remind everyone that southern New Jersey and Atlantic City are great vacation destinations.  They try hard to fight the negative Jersey stereotype brought on by the crap that is Jersey Shore and other heavily scripted ‘reality’ shows.

I doubt the remaining casinos will all pack up and leave together, but will there be an Atlantic City in 50 years from now?  It may not seem like a huge deal to everyone, but to me and many other Jersey people, it’s a scary thought.

remember the sheraton centre cinemas

When I was living in Toronto during my six-month stint back in 1997, I would often spend my days going to the movies.  Back then, Toronto had some great cinemas and they all had more personality that today’s monster megaplexes that are nothing more than eye-sores.

I lived just south of St. Clair, and there TWO theaters (the Hollywood, a two-screen cinema part of Famous Players and the Hyland, a Cineplex Odeon twin cinema) within a five minute walk.  Both of them are gone now, becoming an office building and parking lot, respectively.  The Hyland stayed around, albeit empty, until the early 2000′s when it was finally torn down and paved over.

One theater that really stood out, but I only got to go to once, was The Sheraton 2, located inside the Sheraton Centre hotel complex. Built almost four levels down, one had to drop down below street level to buy tickets, then keep going down to get to the actual cinemas.  There were only two screens and for the most part, it looked like a typical downtown theater from the 70′s and 80′s, with dark orange and brown decor. But compared to today’s cold and unwelcoming cinemas (I’m talking to YOU, Paramout/Scotiabank Theater) it was quite cozy.

Sheraton Centre cinemas closed in October of 1997 and the only film I got to see there was the forgettable (and for the most part, awful) RocketMan. (I was trying to see at least one movie in every theater in Toronto while I was here.)  All that remains of the cinema is the large gold marquee outside on Queen Street (now advertising shopping and restaurants inside the Sheraton) and the old ticket booth, which last time I checked, was an exchange bureau. Some sites incorrectly still list the cinema as an amenity of the massive Sheraton complex, but I assure it, it’s long gone.  The cinemas themselves, located downstairs from the shopping concourse, have been converted into event space.

For a great list of past and present theaters in Toronto (as well as other cities) check out one of my favorite sites, Movie-Theatre.org, complied by Mike Rivest.