A Geek’s Month in Review: September 2015

Nearly seventy months . . . over five and a half years. That’s how long we’ve posted on geekvsgoth.com.

I’ve always taken a certain pride not a single month has gone by without at least one post by Gru or I. Most months were even better. With over a thousand done so far — about half a million words combined — the figures average about fifteen posts a month, or one for every other day in the life span of the site.

I suppose it’s natural to feel reflective . . . can you sense I’m winding down? I’d hate to vanish without explanation, in a puff of unposted reviews.

See, it’s not that exciting things aren’t happening; our most recent months were memorable. Super-crazy memorable, in fact.

First we had a close encounter with actor Julian Richings. We sat transfixed in a downtown theatre, agog as he stood nearby. We debated introducing ourselves. “How many people know him by name?” I demanded, intending no insult. We’d recently seen the documentary That Guy Who Was In That Thing and had a healthy appreciation for the work of character actors, none much dearer to us than fellow Canadians. But then, in the fear we were creeping him out, we hesitated, and he (mercifully) escaped.

But that wasn’t quite the end of it…

Only two months later, at the 40th TIFF, we had an unexpected surprise: Richings was a guest of honour at the closing day’s Short Cuts. There to promote “She Stoops to Conquer”, he was gallant and a gracious conversationalist. After indulging selfie-snappers, he spoke with both us at some length, about On Their Knees and Man of Steel and, of course, Hard Core Logo. I could kick myself I neglected to think of Treed Murray, an excellent feature.

Our time in Toronto has found us more often in such spellbinding encounters. I swear to this day I saw character actor Kim Coates at Yonge and College. If he hadn’t been jogging, I’d have talked his ear off about Xchange and 45 rpm. To say (almost) nothing of the bittersweetly hilarious Portal to Hell!!! And now we have the opportunity to pester Lily Frost bimonthly.

Well . . . modest pleasures perhaps but, for a couple of Ottawa refugees, it’s been like discovering the Canada we’d long admired from afar, meeting the people who made such dreams into art.

I only wish we had a bit more time.

The reality is the job market here is as poor as it was in Ottawa, and desperate times call for desperate measures, like heading back to school. I suspected as soon as my second week of studies, there would need to be some changes. Weeks three and four have only confirmed, it’s time to take a break because, ironically, there’s no more time for breaks.

The site isn’t going anywhere and Gru’s as keen as ever. With any luck, I’ll be back again, hopefully a bit wiser. Maybe I’ll even find the chance to drop in now and then. There’s still a (metric) ton of Canadian content left to enjoy, after all.