Godzilla: The Good, The Bad, and The Very Ugly.

Godzilla Movie Poster

I must admit something straight away, I have been a Godzilla fan for as long as I can remember.  Running home to catch the Matinee Money Movie on WDIO television out of Duluth, Minnesota.  They would play classic movies throughout the week.  Abbot and Costello, and the Toho movies were mainstays in my childhood film education.

Godzilla Roars

 

Over the years I learned that Godzilla was a metaphor for the horrors of nuclear war.  A creature spawned from the ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In that sense the first half of Godzilla 2014 works.  The film opens with an imaginative set piece showing nuclear testing in the 1950’s with documents being censored as the opening credits.  We also  learn that the so-called tests were actually trying to destroy the monsters that had been awakened from slumber at the dawn of the nuclear age.

Skyfall premiere here we come!!

As many of you probably know from my exhaustive and often lengthy pieces on the true history of James Bond one William Stephenson of turn of the 20th century Winnipeg that I am both a Winnipeg booster and a James Bond 007 fanatic.  I have been to pretty much every opening night of the Bond saga that I could crawl to since I was a teenager growing up in Fort Frances, Ontario.

Well I am happy to say that the latest James Bond production Skyfall will be no different and even a bit better as Darlene and I will be attending the Winnipeg premiere courtesy of the Winnipeg Free Press.

Free Press movie reviewer Randall King recently published a Bond trivia challenge in the pages of the weekend edition of the Winnipeg Free Press and I am the happy winner of that competition.

Even though I am a geek of some long-standing, I must freely admit that I found the questions very challenging.  I first probed my mind for the easy questions, the song whistled by the janitor in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (the theme from Goldfinger);  to the most obscure asking about James’ witty comeback lines and motivations for the femme fatale bond girls. YIKES!

In any event I must have scored well or been given extra points for showing my work, as I included not only the movie but also character names and actors names for all that I could uncover.  In all it probably took me longer than the movie to come up with the quiz answers but being able to count myself among the first in North America to see Skyfall is priceless.

PLUS as readers of my blog you all will get a great review on Thursday so you all can judge for yourselves if you want to plunk down some coin and see Daniel Craig as James Bond shoot up the silver screen in his 23rd film.

So stay tuned same Bond time, same Bond Channel people.

Here’s a taste to make sure you come back for more.

 

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Chez Sophie Bistro and Pizzeria: C’est si bon!

After a long work week Dar and I normally congregate back at the house Friday afternoon and have a quick pow-wow about our supper plans for the evening.  Normally we are just relieved to be at the week’s end and just want to crash for the evening before tackling the shopping and rest of the household chores on Saturday.

Ordering out is a must, sometimes we opt for ribs or chicken but a great deal of the time our thoughts turn to that yummy wheel of crispy dough slathered in sauce, meat and ohh so sticky cheese.  Of course I’m talking pizza, and one of our all time favorite pizza joints is just a five-minute drive from our home in the French enclave of St. Boniface.

Chez Sophie is a thriving bistro in the heart of the district sandwiched between a French university campus, residential housing, and the spiritual center of the district the St Boniface Cathedral.  Chez Sophie is a bistro first serving a classic spread of impeccably prepared French classics such as  Steak sauce au poivre (Steak in Peppercorn sauce), Boeuf Bourguignon (Casserole of beef), and Moule et frites (Mussels and fries).

The tiny bistro at 248 avenue de la Cathédrale

Go Jets Go!

Well it’s official hockey fans Winnipeg is playing in the big leagues again!!  At 11 am this morning the Atlanta Thrashers hockey club became property of True North Sports and Entertainment!  Pending approval by the NHL board of governors.  

The goal now, pardon the pun, is to raise a season ticket base in the neighbourhood of 13,000 strong.  The group headed by Mark Chipman and David Thompson think this is an attainable mark, and one that the NHL will consider acceptable for fiscal suitability.

Seating Map for the MTS Centre

Season ticket packages

Get on your boots! Only one more sleep till U2 in Winnipeg.

The claw has finally touched down at Winnipeg’s Canadinns Stadium and the band followed close behind. It seems that this weekend before the massive U2 360 Degree concert the Dublin quartet are filming a documentary at the Burton Cummings theatre.

Arriving Friday evening to a Irish drizzle of rain Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton greeted fans who had staked out ” The Burt” theatre in hopes of meeting the band.

Adam Clayton Meets fans at the Burt (Winnipeg Free Press)

Lead Guitar, The Edge presses the flesh with wet but excited fans Friday afternoon. (Winnipeg Free Press)

Bono signs an autograph for an eager fan. (Winnipeg Free Press)

My own reconnaissance took my camera to the stadium where the massive stage nicknamed The Claw is taking shape. Let me tell any of you who have only seen video or pictures of this monstrosity that it is easily the largest stage set up that has ever seen fit to land in Manitoba. With a footprint of approximately 40 yards square on the football field and reaching a height that matches the top rows of the stadium upper deck seating there will not be a single poor seat in the house when the show begins.

The Claw takes form behind a tight band of security.

Look, No guards here!

My seat for the concert of the year!

Apparently Bono is also very interested in a little project that rivals his own stage set up for sheer scale. The rising Canadian Museum for Human Rights at the forks, has been put on his agenda as a must see item. No doubt the spearhead of the museum project Gail Asper is dying to have a chat with the U2 front man about the project and it’s fund-raising arm.

Construction continues on the Canadian Museum for Human Rights

The Museum that is being constructed at The Forks complex will highlight the successes and failures of humanity in its ongoing struggle to find a noble path through the struggles of life. Genocides and conflict, rights movements and hero’s will be featured inside the massive “Glass Mountain” structure on the banks of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers.

With a limited time in Winnipeg before they move on to the next stop on their world tour I would like to personally wish the boys a hearty welcome and hope they enjoy Winnipeg as much as Winnipeg is going to enjoy them.

Sláinte!

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