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- 1I know it’s not a Big Gulp
Author: mattshepherd
I love storytelling, and helping organizations share their truth with the world. From non-profit media outlets to for-profit boutique agencies to one of Canada's great universities, I've been connecting institutions and stakeholders for a while, and enjoying both the journey and seeing great ideas find great audiences.
Saw a pretty yellow flower up the street and thought “you know, just for a change of pace, let’s do ‘yellow’ today.”
Tiniest Gallery: Evolution
Raggedy Dunk
Service Berry
I Guess The Youth Are Limited After All
I Don’t Want To Break It To The Lady Who Lives In This House But Dogs Can’t Read
Not A Book Store, A Book Stove
Kingston Has Great Trails
One Love
Stanchions
Tower Power
My New Friend, Tracey Barista
Quick Sew
Whole Lotta Vines (1-2)
My Wife Told Me What Kind Of Flower This Is But I Have Already Forgotten, Some Things Stick and Others Don’t I Guess
Franklin “Flip” Flanagan, last of the boxing lineage the Fightin’ Fencepost Flanagans.
Holiday hangover
As a Queen’s employee I am contractually obliged to point out tricolour when I see it occurring naturally, sorry
Sinister Door
Lawn Lion
My New Pal, Spiff Tenderloin. Fun fact: I know all cats’ true names upon meeting them or shortly after. Whatever this cat’s human thinks it is named… it is Spiff Tenderloin.
Hangin’ shoes. I don’t know why I photograph these.
Rock Climbing Tree
Hidden Sculpture
Sidewalk Snail
They Say Some Of These Little Libraries Are Kind Of Right-Leaning But I Don’t Know If I Buy It
Dead tree / haunted lantern
Flamed Sign
Red Gate
Window Saint
Nice Doors
Dawn at the New Garden
Inspiring Poem / Your A Goof
Tree Hats
Pretty Flowers
Minimalist Missing Cat
Jesus Can’t You Just Let These Children Play Without Belittling Their Intelligence (Parts 1 and 2)
Brick Christ
Rainy Statuary
Little House on the Lawn
Dutch Zombie Children Welcome You
Free Books, Free Ants
A Little Park But Wait It’s Not For You, Poor Person
Contrasting Footpaths
Cool-Ass Little Seed Library
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Maelstrom (2000)
Long before Dune and Blade Runner 2049, long before LA, Denis Villeneuve made a movie in Quebec that mashed up kitchen-sink drama, dark humour, Tom Waits songs, and a narrator that is also a dying fish.
Maelstrom was a high-water mark for Quebec film in 2000, and by and large still holds up.
The story, in a nutshell, is that nepo baby Bibiane is bad at business and not super great at life: she’s blown a $200,000 deal for the family business, parties recklessly, and ultimately drunk-drives herself into a hit-and-run. She runs.
From there, scored partially by Tom Waits’ “The Ocean Doesn’t Want Me Today,” the movie loops around as Bibiane grapples with guilt, falls in love with the son of the man she murdered, and finds, if not happiness, some sort of French-Canadian approximation of same. The plot is driven in part by stale octopus and a mysterious man who looks like a Harkonnen Oliver Platt that dispenses wisdom at laser-perfect moments.
If you didn’t live in Quebec in the late ’90s, it’s hard to express how perfectly Marie-Josée Croze absolutely nails the ur-Quebec-Woman of that era — the look, the hair, the clothes are insanely bang-on. And the movie lives in Montreal really successfully — the upper-class apartments but also the dive bars, the docks, the bus, the subway.
The movie is narrated, for no particular reason, by a Cronenberg-level gross fish that is being serial-butchered by a giant naked dude. Quebec!
It’s achingly obvious that Villeneuve has grown as a director since; there’s significant chunks of “student film vibe” scattered around here. But it’s got a lot of loopy charm, it’s a compelling time capsule if you want a feeling for Quebec au tournant du siecle, the leads are charming, and it’s interesting to see L’il Villeneuve as a nascent film director finding his feet.