I wish the U.S. would just adopt Toronto so I could go live there with no hassle. One day...
The above photo (click to enlarge!) gives an idea of what happens during the festival. The Elgin Theater is host to many high profile film screenings during the festival. This year I saw Persepolis opening night at the Elgin. No matter how many times I've gone, I'm always astounded by how incredible it is inside. It's such a shame that these old theaters get decommissioned and turned into condos (like the beloved Uptown...man, I miss that place something terrible). As much as I love going to places like the Arclight in L.A., nothing beats one of these old dames.
The crowd in Toronto is always vibrant and full of film geeks like myself. Only at a film festival can you strike up a conversation about the works of an obscure (to the general public) South Korean director (in this case, Ki-duk Kim) with a random person waiting in line with you. Only at the Toronto Film Festival can you line up with 1500 other diehard film fans at a quarter-to-midnight, waiting to watch the latest zombie-flick offering from George Romero...and stand up with those 1500 people two hours later to give Mr. Romero a standing ovation for a job well-f#@!ing done. I love you crazy Canucks.
My only gripes:
1. What's with the Chinese food -- who makes General Tso's Chicken with fried rice? And the sauce had the consistency of rubber cement. Not good.
2. Learn how to make a good slice of pizza -- don't know if it's the cheese or the sauce, but it just ain't right.
3. Something needs to be open after 2 a.m. besides 7-11. Seriously.
That is all.
Look how clean the freaking subway is (click to enlarge)! The tracks are cleaner than the street outside my apartment. Ridiculous. Plus, they actually wait for you to get OFF the subway before they start trying to get on...even the teenagers. Must be something in the water.
1 comment:
I'm amazed that a city the size of Toronto hasn't anything open even after 2am. That was the case here in Glasgow until we picked up a copy of the restaurant gazeteer - the place is sprinkled with various places open until at least 4am or so for grub. But no New York-hours until morning, so you'd have to make do with prepackaged sandwiches from the convenience stores around the rail station. The pubs close their kitchens around 9pm, odd, since people can be drinking there until that 4am time. The concentration is on getting your carbs from the beer, I guess, and not soaking up the alcohol with greasy food...
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