My friend/fellow student Brian posted his own take on the entry from a few days back regarding my love/hate relationship with Toronto, which included mention of Richard Florida, a social and economic theorist and author of Who's Your City?. He was the keynote speaker at a conference Brian recently attended, where he discussed how, "place is evidently quite important, despite how common it is for people to travel between cities and work from various remote locations." (They also noted how during his speech, he recommended that a good way to choose a great city is to look at "where the gays go," which is actually really worthy if you think about it: Amsterdam, San Francisco, Montreal, New York, Sydney, Berlin...)

Anyway, this all really interests me right now, for obvious reasons, and I checked out Florida's book's website, which has a great feature that involves a series of questions that help you decide what city may or may not be a good fit for you. Its obviously not the end-all of knowing where you should end up, but I did it with the 5 communities I have either lived in or know well enough to answer the questions: Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Trenton (Ontario, where I grew up), and New York.

My results were a bit too close to call:

You should definitely consider staying in Montreal, Quebec
final score:80 (amongst the highest scores)

You should definitely consider moving to New York, New York
final score:81 (amongst the highest scores)

You should definitely consider moving to Toronto, Ontario
final score:74 (amongst the highest scores)

You should probably not move to Halifax, Nova Scotia
final score:58 (below the average [62.2] score)

You should definitely not move to Trenton, Ontario
final score:12 (way below the average [62.2] score)

I've returned from Tribeca (actually, I returned two days ago), and am now somehow going to write the last rough draft chapter of my thesis in 8 days and counting. I'd love to offer some retrospective on the film festival, but honestly, those 10 days just felt like any other trip to New York, aside from spending a few hours of everyday at the Apple Store in SoHo for indieWIRE's talk series (some clips from two more talks, Savage Grace director Tom Kalin and Superbad director Greg Mottola, are after the jump).

I'm gonna try to up my festival blogging anty next week at Cannes, but in the meantime, expect a few uninspired postings as I attempt to hold together the neglected half of my double life.

Guy Maddin was part of indieWIRE's Apple Store talks yesterday, here in New York promoting Tribeca screenings of My Winnipeg. Maddin was very charismatic and had a lot of really insightful things to say, particularly about Canadian identity construction when the cultural mammoth of America lies beneath us. But one thing that I must note, because its too funny not to.. During the talk, I noticed a really intense odor. At first I thought maybe it was someone near me who maybe accidentally farted. But then the smell got worse, and I noticed people going into the bathroom (located about ten feet from where Maddin was sitting) and then turning around within seconds with a disgusted look on their face. Maddin and moderator Dennis Lim must have noticed it, but continued on without flinching. Then custodial staff went in with buckets of water, holding their hands over their faces. 10 minutes later, they came out with a giant bag of garbage and the whole room smelt like that horrible mix of air freshener and human excretion. I still don't know what happened in there. The custodial staff get a cameo in my fourth clip, but otherwise, enjoy 5 clips from the talk, smell o vision free:

photo courtesy of Gothamist.com

A couple days back, I asked some actual New Yorkers why the Empire State Building was pink. I thought maybe it was because Friday was a day of silence for Lawrence King and other hate crime victims that it was for that. Some suggested Tribeca Film Festival, as its main colour is pink, other thought maybe it was breast cancer. But, no, none of the above. It was for Mariah Carey.

I found this press release which pretty much says it all:

New York Landmark To Shine in Lavender, Pink and White in Honor of a Great New
Yorker and her #1 album E=MC2

WHO: International superstar Mariah Carey, the #1 most successful
female recording artist of all time, with more than 160 million
sales worldwide -- who recently earned her 18th #1 single on the
Billboard Hot 100 with "Touch My Body," surpassing Elvis Presley's
long-standing chart record of 17 #1's.

WHEN: Friday, April 25th, 2008

I also found some youtube clips from the event, and jesus:

I hope she paid for this, and it was not a gift.

The indieWIRE produced Apple Store talks continued yesterday with Tony Gilroy at 6:30 and Amy Poehler at 8. I only had time to catch Poehler, which I'll admit was one of the most entertaining live events I'd seen in a long while. The talk was moderated by her SNL co-star Fred Armisen, though neither seemed to have anything prepared, which resulted in a hilariously improvised hour of chits and chats that strayed in all directions. Both actors were very warm and inviting, bringing an energetic audience to seemingly each have a question for them. One highlight was when Amy said "fuck" in front of two 10 year old girls in the front row, leading both Amy and Fred into a sketch that contained the word a few dozen times.. Anyway, check out some clips:

Oh, and another great moment (for us at indieWIRE at least), was when an audience member suggested (erroneously, as far as I'm concerned), that indieWIRE editor in chief Eugene Hernandez looks just like Fred. Amy pulled Eugene (who was sitting beside me) up on stage to test the comparison:

at the Squeezebox party she hosted.

Photo by brian brooks.

I caught the premiere of Zach Shaffer and Steve Saporito's Squeezebox! last night. The film chronicles the 7 year New York queer rock and roll night, Squeezebox!, which was held from 1994 to 2001 and was linked to many performers, including The Toilet Boys, John Cameron Mitchell, Jayne County, Justin Bond, etc.. Obviously I never was a part of it, but definitely saw its influence when I first moved to Toronto in 2002 and attended the monthly Vazaleen. It was also so fantastic to watch the film with a crowd of many Squeezebox fixtures, who emotionally cheered on the doc's interviewees.

Post-movie, the mood of Squeezebox was recreated at the Blender Theatre on 23rd street, with extreme debauchery rampant and a slew of performers, including Mistress Formika, Justin Bond, John Cameron Mitchell, Karen Black and Debbie Harry. It was the most worth-it hangover I ever had, even if its made me a bit behind on Tribeca tasks (including blogging). Ill post some photos later, but for now here's a drunkenly filmed clip from one of the night's highlights, Bond and Lily of the Valley performing Bowie's "Under Pressure."

and John Cameron Mitchell...

indieWIRE event yesterday... mediocre flip footage:

I've arrived in New York for 10 days of the Tribeca Film Festival. I survived the nearly 12 hour train ride yesterday (which I actually prefer over flying or driving only because there is something really calming about being locked in a train berth with no internet and no people, though others may disagree). One highlight was these two dudes that got on in Plattsburgh. One was named Bubbs, (as far as I knew.. he asked me if I could charge his ipod for him and it was titled "Bubb's Toons") and they both stereotypical scary jock types. Bubbs was going on and on to his friend about he cheated on his girlfriend the night before with some girl he'd "been trying to fuck for months." When his friend got off in Albany and he continued on to New York City, I listened as he spent an hour convincing his girlfriend via his cellphone that "that fag Chris is lying" about him having cheated on her, and that he loves her, always and always, etc, etc. So that was my main Amtrak entertainment...

I finally got into the city and headed straight to the Baby Mama opening party at the MoMA, where I was totally underdressed and enjoyed "pregnant lady" themed food offerings (think lots of chocolate). I mostly just stared awkwardly and nervously at Tina Fey until she noticed. Most of the 30 Rock cast was there, which was pretty amazing for I who am obsessed with the show. I then ended up actually conversing with some New York icons instead of just making them think I was creepy, when I headed to New York's oldest gay bar, Julius. It turned out John Cameron Mitchell was having his birthday party there. By that point, I had drank enough that I had no issue talking to him, or, in an equally fantastic moment, Justin Bond.

Anyway, so that was my (perfect) introduction to this trip to New York, which is currently being spent indoors transferring my old mac onto my new mac, which I got yesterday. Yes, my old iBook G4, 40 GB and 2 years of servicing me, is now a thing of the past. And though I'm obviously all about my upping the anty with my MacBook Pro, I'm gonna miss the old one...

It feels like I'm draining the life from a old friend.

Even though I kinda hate Saturday Night Live most of the time, this would be exciting if I lived in New York.

In lieu of the strike, Saturday Night Live, complete with one of the best hosts they've had all season (Michael Cera!), will perform live at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre this Saturday night. They will improv the skits and it obviously won't air on TV, so if you live in New York, its only 20 bones!

Apparently, Amy Poehler personally asked Mr. Cera to join in (his ex-uncle is her husband, see) and he won't be meeting with the cast until a few hours before the show...

Apparently, New Yorkers - a group I'd imagine are probably some of the more informed Americans - don't know that much, finds filmmaker Eric Leven.

Central Park. Sunday 1pm.

Chelsea Piers. 6:00pm.

A lamb, a droog and Fred.