Wednesday, July 28, 2010

BYou - A Blast From My Disney Past


Many of you may not know that I used to work in The Disney Store in the Toronto Eaton's Centre for a couple of years when I first moved to Toronto.
It was a great job and I loved it a lot, that is until an Evil Witch took the guise of our Store Manager and chased all the employees off, eventually myself included.

But that's besides the point.
What is the point, you ask? Well I'll tell you.
Earlier today I received a blast from my Disney past when an old cast member (coworker) of mine sent me this video


That probably doesn't mean much to you, but it made me laugh my ass off! Why?
If you've ever been in The Disney Store, you've probably seen what we like to call 'the loop'.
The loop is that screen at the back of the store, right above Plush Mountain.

(this is not from the store I worked in, thankfully)

This is where you will see movie clips, trailers, hear trivia and watch silly music videos. When I first stared it was back to school season and they were playing School House Rock, which was awesome and taught me about verbs and such while I worked (and while I slept).

The problem with the loop, is that it does just that, loop. Usually each loop is about an hour and a half long. So if you're working an 8 hour shift, you hear the loop around 5 or 6 times. Needless to say by the time they send you a new loop, you know the old one inside out and backwards. I use to lie in bed at night and have the loop play over and over again in my head. But once you get over that and the magic of Disney catches up with you, you find yourself singing or at least humming along with the loop.

We had a lot of fun working there.

(you can see the screen to the left of us)

Sometimes when the loop was particularly bad, we would spend our shifts making fun of it. This usually happened when the store was quiet.... usually....

This was definitely the case when The Cheetah Girl Movie came out and BYou started playing on the loop. We thought this video was silly and started mocking the choreography.
Of course I was the one that took that mocking to the extreme, with my over exaggerated dance moves. But I'm like that. This soon became known as "Brae's Song"

Once when we were cleaning up the store after a long day, we left the loop on while we worked. I was redoing Plush Mountain, as often was my job, when this song came on. So I got up on the top of the mountain and did my crazy, over exaggerated dance to the video, much to the excitement of my fellow cast members, but I lost my balance and took a tumble into the plush!
Good times, good times...

Anyway, after watching the video today, I noticed this come up on the side lines:


That's right! You too can learn these Awesome dance moves! (including my favorite fist bumbing sequence!)
(hopefully it comes with one of those shirts!)

But wait, there's MORE! When you order this video, you can also order this video as well!
That's right folks! BYou2 - Hip Hop meets Bollywood?

There's actually part of me that would love to get these and learn the routines just to tell my Disney chums that I did. And then I would sneak into the Disney Store and do them on top of plush mountian.
Oh yeah!

Update: After sending this to my friend Andrew, he sent me back this awesome picture!


Oh man, I'm hot! lol

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Inception - A Review


Inception, what a brilliant movie.
Don't worry, I'm not going to give anything away. Not that I think you could really spoil this movie, unless you took the time to explain the entire movie before giving away the end.
Mostly I'm going to talk about it as a movie and not about the plot at all.
Well, except for the synopsis:

Dom Cobb is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb's rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible-inception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse: their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move. An enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming.

Oh, and the trailer:


Looks pretty awesome right? Well it is! It's every bit as awesome as you hope it will be, plus so much more. I didn't think that was possible, but it is.


Christopher Nolan has blown me away once again with his vision and storytelling ability.
When this movie was over, the first thing I wanted to know was if it was based off of a book, because I want to read it! Then I found out that Christopher Nolan actually wrote it based off some of his dreams. How cool is that?


This movie has some of the best imagery that I have ever seen in a film. These images stay with you after the movie is over and are almost impossible to get out of your head.


Some scenes just keep playing over and over again in your mind. This includes one of the most incredible fight scenes I have ever seen.


The Matrix might have started it, but Inception perfects these kind of sequences.


The star studded cast was the perfect choice for this film. The characters are believable even though the roles we usually associate with them are strong.

Leonardo DiCaprio as Cobb


Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur


Ken Watanabe as Saito


Tom Hardy as Eames


Ellen Page as Ariadne (I love that name)


Cillian Murphy as Robert Fischer, Jr. (one of two characters who has a last name)


Marion Cotillard as Mal


I would also have to say that the eye candy alone is worth seeing this movie for, if you aren't already intrigued by this point. I mean Cillian Murphy is one of my usual favorites and Leo's always worth a look (as well as being an amazing actor), but I found myself crushing on Joseph Gordon-Levitt through this film, and Tom Hardy is certainly easy on the eyes.


The special effects in this movie are excellent, but they didn't feel over done or excessive like a lot of other movies these days. Basically, it felt like a dream, nothing more, nothing less and that was perfect.

So go see this movie if you haven't already, and if you have, go see it again.

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars!

It's very possible that this is my new favorite movie (up there with Suicide Kings, Boondock Saints, and the Dark Knight)

Speaking of Dark Night, Christopher Nolan really has a certain image to uphold ;)

Star Wars Goodies

Just thought I'd do a quick post on some of the new Star Wars Goodies that I've gotten over the last little while.
Finally my new shirt from Her Universe came in!


WooHoo! I love it! Check out some of the awesome details.


I really love that this shirt features so many different characters from the movies; Padme, Anakin (TPM, RotS), Luke, Leia, Han, Chewy, Vader, C-3PO, R2-D2, Shmi, Owen and Baru (young), Yoda, Obi-Wan (old) and yes, even Jar Jar. Plus, ships like the Millenium Falcon, Luke's X-wing, a tie fighter, the Death Star, The droid control ship (TPM) and Padme's Royal Naboo Starship, as well as places like Mos Eisley and The Lars Homestead.

I was a little sad that Padme looks washed out, but I don't think it takes away from the design that much.
Plus, I look awesome in it ;)


I'm so modest, aren't I?
You know what else I look awesome in? My new R2-D2 shirt!


I found this at Sunrise Records last week and was totally excited.
I know that this shirt is technically for men, but it just seems as if it were made for me!
Not only does the fabric seems to work well with my curves, but the design is a little girlier then most Star Wars shirts that I've found before. I mean he's even sparkly around the edge!


Not that there is anything wrong with men wearing sparkles. I actually encourage this.

I also encourage this:


Star Wars messenger bags for everyone! Get yours at starwars.com

Hey check out my Star Wars shelf


What you see here is mostly my collection of Star Wars books, from the left; The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, Knights of the Old Republic (book 1), my Early Victories Omnibus and various pocket paperbacks including The Thrawn Trilogy and The Jedi Academy Trilogy (which I am reading right now)
You can also see my chubby Yoda that I made, my R2-D2 bobble head (the only good bobble head that I've ever found) Darth Vader and GNK Droid.

On the other side you will see my awesome Stormtrooper plush, my kick-ass SW postcards, Darth Maul, Jabba's sail barge and some silly McDonald's toys that came with tattoos.


So, what do you think?

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Star Wars Facebook'd BBQ

So I was recently involved in an awesome event.
I'm part of a group called Star Wars Facebook'd, where we all chat, laugh, post pics and links all making fun of Star Wars. All in good nature of course, because we are all hard core Star Wars geeks. Some of the members already knew each other, but I wasn't one of them. Slowly but surely, I started to get to know the other members, starting with the Leader of the Pack Chris.
Then one day, out of the blue, while in The Silver Snail (in the SW section of course) I ran into him!


What are the odds of two Torontonians randomly meeting in a comic book shop, in the Star Wars section? Actually pretty good, I'd say.

Since then, Chris and I have been hanging out quite a bit. Since most of the members of the group are actually from Toronto or the surrounding area, we decided that it would be fun to stage a BBQ.

Months of planning later, we had our very first (and hopefully annual) Star Wars Facebook'd BBQ out on Center Island!

Do you like my Slave Leia Bikini Nails?


A party just isn't a party without a Darth Vader mask and some Princess Leia buns @._.@






Or a full ANH Leia costume (over jeans no less)


We even had some awesome SW plates, cups, napkins, tattoos and even a table cloth!



It's a SNACK!


Chris never met a cupcake he didn't like, and Admiral Snack-bar was no exception.


Utinni!


To see more of my awesome treats that I took, check out Bake Star Wars For Me



Surprisingly there were more girls there then boys!



As the day began to wear down, we were treated to this beautiful view of our city


We gathered by the land's end and watched the city lights blink on one by one.
A grand end to a grand day


I can't wait until next year!

Hopefully we'll have our officer shirts by then. (hint, hint, nudge, nudge Chris)