Sunshine Cleaning … Entrepreneurship as catharsis

Written as a guest post for my friend Leah MacVie’s blog, the original post is located here. The 2008 Sundance favorite Sunshine Cleaning, written by Megan Holley and directed by Christine Jeffs, is a phenomenal look into the emotional fragility of two young women trying to find their way in life. Rose and Norah Lorkowski are at the age where adulthood should be in full force, dependent lifestyles at home with school grades a top priority long gone. But these two haven’t had the most idyllic childhood; in fact, some…

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Jammers skating through the pivots and blockers … Queen City Roller Girls

After watching Drew Barrymore’s surprisingly good film Whip It, I had roller derby on my mind. A couple weeks earlier I had been in Toronto for the city’s International Film Festival and watched as they constructed an outdoor rink to be played on as promotion for that film and a couple months later Buffalo Spree did a cover story on Buffalo’s own league, The Queen City Roller Girls. Leave it to our fair city to have a roller derby league able to capitalize on all the new hype—we have it…

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FaneXpo 2009: Day Three Recap

“My crotch has become a character all to itself” – Gary Brewer Quote of the day, and possibly of the weekend is that gem from Tim Doiron, regarding his cutoff shorts as he stayed in character for the duration of the festival. Both he and April Mullen had been standing outside the room that would screen their feature debut Rock, Paper, Scissors: The Way of the Tosser the entire time, passing out postcards, signing posters, and posing for photos as their alter-egos Gary and Holly Brewer. A quick look at…

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FaneXpo 2009: Day Two Recap

“Maybe your family tree didn’t fork” – Bruce Campbell Ah, Day Two at Toronto’s FaneXpo was a little easier to assimilate having gone through the initiation of the previous day. Arrival at 9:45—doors were at 10:00—threw us for a loop somewhat as the line weaving in and out of itself was massive. Could this be the line to see Leonard Nimoy, our first stop on the day? I will admit to being more than a little frightened at this hypothesis, but all was well upon realizing the massive queue was…

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FaneXpo 2009: Day One Recap

“What, do I moderate myself?” – James Kyson Lee Oh, the amusement I get from watching grown adults dress up like characters from their favorite anime/movie/game/etc. Surprisingly, I thought there would be more cosplaying, (I learned a new term), but thankfully I wasn’t alone in my lack of imaginative wardrobe. I did however pimp my Thor tee, so give me some credit. What was first a somewhat subdued looking scene—a scattering of people waiting outside lecture rooms for whatever person/screening was about to start—soon became mayhem once entering the actual…

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“The Big Bang Theory”: Sitcom Comedy for the Mindless or Social Commentary on Genius and Its Idiosyncrasies?

I will be the first to admit that I was brainwashed by the Hollywood machine and never had an interest to check out the CBS comedy “The Big Bang Theory”. Its marketing campaign billed it as another stupid sitcom to bring in money and entertain the mindless hordes of America. Why would I want to sit and watch 21 minutes of a half hour block filled with nerdy twenty-somethings and their lame attempts at getting women? To me this was a show about Sheldon, (Jim Parsons), and Leonard, (Johnny Galecki),…

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SEGA vs. NES in Video-Land

There is a new internet only show being developed in Astoria New York called The New Adventures of Captain S, produced by PBC Productions. This production company is made up of a few 20-somethings stationed in NYC trying to make a name for themselves in the acting/directing industry. One of the members is Tonawanda’s own Brett Vanderbrook, who plays the titular Captain S, aka Chad Williams, in the show. Brett has been making headway in the field, most recently doing stand-in work for Michael Haneke’s remake of his own spectacular…

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Virgin Music Festival 06

On a whim, a friend and I decided to head up to Toronto for the day on Saturday to check out the first annual Virgin Music Festival held on Toronto Park Island. This show is a two day event bringing some huge name acts over to Canada, just a short drive down the QEW. It’s our very own Lollapalooza only with great bands playing rock from the US, Canada, and England. The catch-phrase is “From England with Love” afterall. While the second day had more well-known bands playing – The…

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