The risk is that someone will take you seriously.

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From the BBC:

The Minneapolis airport toilet where US senator Larry Craig was arrested for allegedly soliciting gay sex is now attracting tourists, say airport staff.

"People are taking pictures," Karen Evans, an information officer at Minneapolis-St Paul international airport, told Associated Press. ...

"We had to just stop and check out the bathroom," said Sally Westby of Minneapolis, on her way to Guatemala with her husband Jon.

"In fact, it's Jon's second time - he was here last week already."

Royal Zino, who works at the shoeshine shop next to the public lavatory, said "it's been crazy".

"People have been going inside, taking pictures of the stall, taking pictures outside the bathroom door."

I have a vision in my mind of Mrs. Westby confiding the following to a friend at some point in the near future: "I'm a little worried about Jon. He's been to that Minneapolis washroom stall 37 times today. He says he has diarrhea, but ..."

Two of my final TIFF films were Les Ordres, a 1974 Quebec film about the FLQ crisis, and the eponymous Joy Division, about the great post-punk band from Manchester.

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The original McPaper has evolved into a purveyor of solid journalism in between the splashy graphics about America's favourite breads.

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Immunity!!

From the BBC:

A Russian businessman wanted in Britain on suspicion of murdering Alexander Litvinenko says he will stand for election to the Russian parliament.

Andrei Lugovoi denies any involvement in former Russian agent Mr Litvinenko's death from poisoning in London in November 2006.

He has said he will run for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) of the Russian nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

If elected in December, Mr Lugovoi would get immunity from prosecution.

From the BBC:

Mr Gongadze had been campaigning against government corruption

Hundreds of Ukrainians are expected to form a candlelit chain on Sunday to mark the anniversary of the murder of a prominent opposition journalist.

Georgiy Gongadze was abducted in Kiev seven years ago. His headless body was later found buried in a forest.

The death triggered a major political scandal and became Ukraine's most high-profile murder case.

President Viktor Yushchenko said finding the killers was a top priority - but no-one has been convicted.

In a related development, another arrest has been made in the murder case of Moscow journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

From the BBC:

A Chinese journalist working for the New York Times has been freed after almost three years in jail in China.

Zhao Yan was arrested in 2004 and later charged with leaking state secrets, prompting condemnation from human rights groups and Western governments.

That charge was dropped but he was then convicted of defrauding an official of $2,500 - a charge he has always denied.

From the BBC:

A German archbishop has sparked controversy by calling some modern art "degenerate" - a term used by the Nazi regime in its persecution of artists.

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From the BBC:

The purported head of al-Qaeda in Iraq has offered a reward for the murder of a Swedish cartoonist over his drawing depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

The $100,000 (£49,310) reward would be raised by 50% if Lars Vilks was "slaughtered like a lamb" said the audio message aired on the internet.

The speaker, said to be Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, threatened a new offensive during the holy month of Ramadan.

Last month's cartoon showed Prophet Muhammad's head on a dog's body.

I sent the following e-mail on Wednesday afternoon to one Jacqueline Cook, marketing director at Tucows:

For the past month, the 'dashboard' on Blogware has worked intermittently for me at best. It's been down for 12-hour stretches, and for days at a time.

 

There are all types of other technical problems making my blog an absolute pain to use.

 

Talking to others and the reseller, it's not just me.

 

Blogware or Tucows haven't posted one word of explanation about this totally unacceptable situation.

 

I'm flabbergasted you people want to toss away your reputation like this, but that's your choice.

 

When my current subscription expires, I'm moving on.

 

Bill Doskoch

Toronto, ON

Two business days and more than three hours later, not a word in response. Can you say "lack of customer service focus," Billy? Arggh, captain, I can.

A Hong Kong martial arts kicktacular featuring the stellar team of actor/mayhem choreographer Donnie Yen and director Wilson Yip!

This hasn't been the best of TIFF times for me. You could say it was the worst of times, or at least tough times at TIFF.

I have found myself posing the following question to me: When, o when, will I leave a theatre thinking, "yessss!!"?

I have done so. Flash Point did the trick.

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I attended a "Doc Talk" session on covering war. The panelists were Michael Tucker (Gunner Palace, The Prisoner, Or How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair and the forthcoming Bullet-Proof Salesman) and Ellen Spiro and TV legend Phil Donahue, co-directors of Body of War.

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Saw Takashi Miike's latest effort. Not one of his best, but a fine piece of entertainment none the less.

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Not that I get inundated with them, but if you've tried to comment to this blog in recent days and you haven't seen your comment appear yet, you haven't been censored.

The piece-of-shit Blogware publishing tool I'm using isn't letting me approve comments. This has been going on for more than a month.

Better to send me the comment as an e-mail and I'll put it in the text of the post. The addy link is at the upper right.

A story of one young girl's day trying to get some schooling in post-Taliban but still-medieval Afghanistan.

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The Islamist terror organization that the U.S. set out to smash after 9/11 seems to be alive and well and changing tactics, relying more on home-grown terror operatives and become more media-active.

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At TIFF, there are -- at a minimum -- hundreds of fans with cellphone and regular digital cameras, and they're ready and willing to feed gossip websites with snapshots. This is making it tougher for real paparazzi to make a living.

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From the Sept. 10 NYT:

In the race to become a major supplier of original video programming to the Web, Warner Brothers has decided to reverse its direction.

The studio, part of Time Warner, plans today to introduce 24 Web productions in a range of formats including minimovies, games and episodic television shows.

But for this latest online push, Warner Brothers has discarded its initial strategy of insisting that advertisers shoulder production costs from the start. Instead, it has decided to finance most projects itself and worry about lining up advertisers to recoup costs later.

“In trying to get the business off the ground,” said Craig Hunegs, executive vice president for business development, “we ended up in a bit of a dance with advertisers about what various projects would look like.”

The shift underlines a growing realization among the big Hollywood studios: Web entertainment is evolving so quickly that they must take on more financial risk to keep up.

In the Second World War, Klaus Barbie developed a reputation as a ruthless, efficient -- even sadistic -- interrogator and counter-terrorism officer for the SS in Lyon, France. He earned the nickname "The Butcher of Lyon."

So when the war ended, what do you do with a guy like that? Well, for one thing, you don't waste his skills by prosecuting him as a war criminal. You put him to work fighting Soviet communism.

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You know you're in trouble when the programmer starts out by cautioning that this is a movie primarily made for Algerians, but hopefully the rest of us will get something out of it.

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Overheard in a TIFF line-up:

A TIFF volunteer is explaining what's going in terms of the line-ups for screenings of two films.

When she asked if everyone got it, some woman with a Midwestern accent said: "That was good. You were really clear." And then added, in a voice about 15 decibels lower: "... for a Canadian."

The 77-year-old zombie king still has it! :)

I speak of George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead, although it's more of a very solid double than a fence-clearing home run.

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Let's say that sometime in the next six to 12 months, you're in your favourite video store looking for a French movie about city kids plunged into a nighmarish rural hell.

If you come across director Xavier Gens' Frontiere(s) during your search, keeping on looking. Don't stop until you find Haute Tension, Calvaire or Sheitan, which is da bomb of the three!

Actually, Frontiere(s) screens again on Friday, but it ain't worth paying TIFF prices to see it, my friends.

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