Our return to Podgorica and our train trip to Belgrade were the worst days of our trip and, though we enjoyed Belgrade despite everything being closed, we were still kind of beaten down when we got up on Tuesday morning. So, given that we had an afternoon flight, and our rather swanky hotel tolerated fairly …
Category: 2017
Riley Goes to Belgrade Sunday October 8, 2017
We got up early in order to make our 8:10 train. We had breakfast at the hotel and then walked over to the train station.
Riley Goes to Podgorica Saturday October 7, 2017
We finished off our watermelon first thing, and then got in the car and I drove as quickly as I could through the narrow street to get down to the downtown. There we picked up breakfast for the road. It was raining rather hard, the first time it had rained hard on the trip when …
Riley Goes to Ulcinj Friday October 6, 2017
After we woke up and admired our view once again, we realized that the only map we had was in Montenegrin and not very good. It was one of those highly stylized maps sponsored by a local business. The maps we had used in Zagreb, Dubrovnik and Kotor had all been exceptional, given their detail …
Riley Goes to Ulcinj, Montenegro Thursday October 5, 2017
We had breakfast at the hotel again, as it was included, but it was in a different room, which was interesting. We never really found out why. The good news is that it was on the first floor, where we a much better view than from the basement, with no windows.
Riley Goes to Zabljak Wednesday October 4, 2017
We ate breakfast in our hotel, as it was included. It was a big buffet that was pretty good, though apparently the coffee from the machine was shit. But the weather was absolutely miserable when we woke up, raining pretty heavily. So we hung out in the room for a while.
Riley Goes to Montenegro Tuesday October 3, 2017
We woke to the bells of the old church next to us, and the sound of children going to school. The only bad thing about our place was its proximity to the church, but there’s not much to be done about that when you want to stay within the old city and then old city …
Riley Goes to Kotor Monday October 2, 2017
The night before, I saw what appeared to be an excellent deal for breakfast. So we went to a hotel for a cheap buffet and that turned out to be a mistake. (Well, we were maybe too late.) The hot food was cold. Everything was not really as good as we had at other hotel …
Riley Goes to Kotor, Montenegro Sunday October 1, 2017
We woke up early because we had not purchased a bus ticket to take us to Kotor, Montenegro and we were a little confused as to how often it ran. We figured the best thing to do would be to get over there as early as reasonable and buy the ticket for the next bus. …
Riley Goes to Dubrovnik Saturday September 30, 2017
I have wanted to go to Dubrovnik since I first saw a picture of it, maybe 20 years ago. It has always seemed like a place so utterly unlike the world I grew up in. I wanted to see a walled city (though I have since been to Louisburg and Cartagena), especially one situated along …
Riley Goes to Zagreb Friday September 29, 2017
Our plan was not actually to spend nearly three days in Zagreb, it just worked out that way. We needed to get down to the coast and the fastest way was to fly. There were flights really early in the morning, in the middle of the day and late at night, but the flights in …
Riley Goes to Zagreb Thursday September 28, 2017
I was super happy this morning, because I slept in! And not such a ridiculous amount that it would affect my future nights, but seemingly enough that I adjusted to European time in one night. I felt rested and ready to go after barely being able to stay awake during dinner the night before. Off …
Riley Goes to Zagreb Croatia, Wednesday September 27, 2017
On the redeye to Croatia, I watched the new King Arthur. The flight was shorter than it was supposed to be, but we didn’t sleep very well. We got to Zagreb around 11AM local time.
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017, Guy Ritchie)
It’s hard for me to know what to do with this movie which, like other Guy Ritchie movies ostensibly based on preexisting sources, basically ignores its source but which is reasonably entertaining.
Riley Goes to Europe
Somehow I had managed avoiding spending any time in Europe (with the notable exception of the UK and the possible exception of Istanbul)…until the past 3 weeks, that is. For the last 18 days or so, I have been in Europe, essentially for the first time. This was supposed to happen last spring but we …
Toronto International Film Festival 2017
This year, I saw the fewest movies at TIFF that I have seen since I first started attending the festival around a decade ago. The reason for seeing so few films will become apparent in about a month. Here is my round up of the films I saw at the 2017 edition of The Toronto …
TIFF 2017: One of Us (2017, Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady)
I have seen a few Ewing-Grady documentaries so far and I have always found they tackle fascinating subjects but I have never loved the way in which they tackle them. Though I appreciate their attempts at breaking outside of documentary norms and customs (to a degree) I also sometimes find their attempts to do so …
Secret Chiefs 3 Live at The Great Hall September 14, 2017
This was my second Secret Chiefs 3 show, in a much better venue than the last time. It was also a very different experience and I’m not sure whether that’s because SC3 are doing something different on this tour (apparently they are here opening for Dead Cross) or whether the venue made them.
TIFF 2017 Racer and the Jailbird (2017, Michaël R. Roskam)
This is an entertaining, albeit slight, amalgam of the bank heist genre with one of those romances where the two alpha leads, who do risky things in their professional lives, fall in love with each other, but which is pretty much entirely ruined by an absolutely bonkers left turn (well, a series of left turns) …
TIFF 2017: Omerta (2017, Hansal Mehta)
What a mess. Where do I begin?
TIFF 2017: Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood (2017, Matt Trynauer)
This is a very conventional documentary about a man who claims to have been a pimp and a prostitute in Hollywood for 3-4 decades.
Tiff 2017: The Death of Stalin (2017, Armando Iannucci)
Iannucci’s new film is, as I understand it, a bit of a left turn for him: it’s an adaptation of a graphic novel based upon the real event of the title. Though I had no such fears, one could be understandably trepidacious about Iannucci turning his satirical eye to something historically accurate.
Dunkirk (2017, Christopher Nolan)
Hype is a terrible thing. So, no, I did not love Dunkirk. SPOILERS (if there can be spoilers for a movie based on a historical event).
The 2017 Wolfe Island Music Festival
After a year’s hiatus, the Wolfe Island Music Festival returned and I resumed my annual pilgrimage to the one and only music festival I go to. I think that, with one major exception, there was a general feeling among our group that this edition was better than the 2015 edition.
Confederation Part II: Canadian Pacific Scandal and The Saskatchewan Rebellion (part of The History of the Village of Small Huts) Live at Soulpepper Thursday July 27
We liked Part I of this section of The History of the Village of Small Huts so much that we went back for more.
OK Computer OKNOTOK 1997 – 2017 by Radiohead
I don’t normally review reissue editions of albums, whether or not I like them. And I wouldn’t review this either only I am going to record a podcast episode about OK Computer shortly and I was advised to listen to the rarities disk. So here goes…
RIP George A. Romero
Apparently Romero died. I was once a pretty big fan of his work. Romero, as I’m sure you know, pretty much invented the “zombie plague” movie. (This is as opposed to the old fashioned zombie movie, where there would be, like, one zombie chasing our heroes.)
Confederation Part I: Confederation and Riel (part of The History of the Village of Small Huts) Live at Soulpepper Tuesday July 11, 2017
This production is the second staging of a 1988 set of two 1-act plays which are part of the 21 1-act play cycle, The History of the Village of Small Huts, performed by Video Cabaret, a troupe that uses tableau and total darkness to give essentially soundbite snippets of Canadian history. I can honestly say …
Riley Goes to Saskatchewan Day 9 – Saturday June 10, 2017 Regina
I didn’t have a great morning as I don’t always sleep in when I’ve been up late drinking – more so now than when I was young – and the condo we stayed in was super bright. Then, shortly after 8, the in-laws called to inform us they would be there shortly for breakfast. We …
Riley Goes to Saskatchewan Day 8 – Friday June 9, 2017 Moose Jaw and Regina
On this morning we made a ridiculously heavy biscuits and gravy breakfast that we made once before this year (albeit with a few minor alterations). It’s great stuff, but it’s very, very heavy.