Stepping aside from my usual entertainment posts, I got on the topic of the environment over on Tumblr and I wanted to post a little more about it here on my blog.

First of all, my rant started because Brooklyn Mutt posted the video of Bill Maher’s recent discussion on Global Warming with at least two stupid people who think money is more important than anything else.

That reminded me of The Most Terrifying Video You’ll Ever See on YouTube which explains that we’re taking a serious, almost insane risk if you think about the problem logically. It’s not a question about whether scientists are right or wrong, it’s a question of would we rather face a global recession, or global war, famine, disease, and potential political collapse?

That got me thinking though. I wish that there was a big film like Food, Inc. or Capitalism: A Love Story that dealt with the environment to help make people think about it differently. Taken in the right context though, I think both of those films make points about the current state of North America, and how it could be changed.

Food, Inc. in particular reminds us all that we vote for companies with the money in our wallets. Whether it’s a little, or a lot, we make decisions every day that impact every major company in North America.

And in the end, as Michael Moore points out in Capitalism: A Love Story, the world would probably be a lot better off if the almighty dollar wasn’t so important, and if the government thought more about individuals, rather than companies.

More to that previous point though, the fact is that we’re consumerists in a consumer-driven, capitalist world. I don’t want to sound like a hippy, but I know that I’m as much at fault as anyone for this problem. We see things, we want them, and they’re mostly all made by companies who don’t give a damn about how much their products hurt the environment as they are produced, used, and thrown away.

I realize every day that I need to buy less. I want lots of things, but every time I look at a product or a piece of tech junk, I see the price of it in terms of manufacturing, shipping, and disposal. It does little good though if there are just some of us thinking this way. It would be nice if it started with the spoiled teens and tweens, since that generation has the most time to make the most impact. Changing that demographic would ultimately change the world since it could percolate down through each new generation, and the older generations can just quietly take our commodity addiction to the grave.

Ultimately though, we need every person from 2-years-old to 100-years-old thinking about this, because things are only getting worse, and it’s going to take decades to start changing the mess we’ve already made.

It might end up taking a miracle to change the world’s attitude, but frankly I’d rather hope for that miracle rather than the disaster that seems to be looming on the horizon.

Before I run out to check out the Indie Awards for this year’s Canadian Music Week, I wanted to drop a couple of photos from last night’s CHUM Fanfest at the Masonic Temple.

With the venue packed full of fans who won their way into the show, some of the station’s main DJs were on hand to introduce the performers for the night, which included Danny Fernandes, Headley, Girlicious, Faber Drive, Karl Wolf, Joey McIntyre, and Daughtry.

I’ll be posting more from the night shortly, but until then here are two photos – the one above is Hedley’s Jacob Hoggard, and the other one below features the ladies of Girlicious, Nichole Cordova, Chrystina Sayers, and Natalie Mejia.

This is a pretty big year for The GATE; 2010 represents our tenth year writing about entertainment, and maybe most importantly, music.

When I started this site it was primarily focused on Canadian music, and Canadian Music Week was the first event I was accredited to cover. That makes this year’s Canadian Music Fest just a notch more interesting for me. I don’t think the festival has changed vastly since those days, but my tastes have, and there’s a whole new crop of bands worth checking out.

Tonight, for the first night of the festival, I’m headed out to catch Jason Collett, Zeus, and Bahamas play Lee’s Palace. My only problem with this plan is that I tend to gravitate toward Lee’s Palace each year, and I’ve seen Collett perform there before. That said, he’s an amazing performer, and apparently the three acts will be playing together throughout the night.

I actually spent an hour looking through the list of bands performing tonight, and I really only found a few other I wanted to see, and they were spread across the city. My CMW plan has always been to stick to one venue because half the time, after you’ve wandered across the city, you never know when you aren’t going to make it into the next venue.

Stay tuned to The GATE’s Twitter feed for updates during the night.

Hey, Canada, you actually need to check this out. I’m not normally a fan of Classified, but you have to watch his video for his song “Oh Canada” from the album Self Explanatory.

“I know where I’m from and I told ya before
North of America hard to ignore
Every time I go away I tell them for sure
I’m from Canada o-o-o Canada”

“Our national mascot’s a damn beaver
Oh Canada we love our beaver”

Fricken’ love it.

Video: “Oh Canada”
By Classified
Directed by Cazhmere

The 82nd Annual Academy Awards hits the air tomorrow night, so I thought, why not post my predictions? Better late than never, right?

Part of me has delayed this year because I don’t think predicting the winners for the most popular categories is going to be that hard. As critics have said though, we could very well be wrong, but it’s looking like an easy night, at least if your film is called The Hurt Locker.

This is going to be quick and dirty, so here goes, and don’t come crying to me on Monday if I’m wrong… (I’ll try to swing back by this article tomorrow and provide a few explanations about my choices.)

Follow The GATE on Twitter as I live tweet the Oscars, and check out our new Oscar page.

Motion picture of the year
Will Win: The Hurt Locker
Should Win: Avatar

Nominees:
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

Actor in a leading role
Will Win: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Should Win: Colin Firth – A Single Man

Nominees:
Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
George Clooney – Up in the Air
Colin Firth – A Single Man
Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker

Actor in a supporting role
Will Win: Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

Nominees:
Matt Damon – Invictus
Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

Actress in a leading role
Will Win: Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Should Win: Gabourey Sidibe – Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire

Nominees:
Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Helen Mirren – The Last Station
Carey Mulligan – An Education
Gabourey Sidibe – Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia

Actress in a supporting role
Will Win: Mo’Nique – Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire

Nominees:
Penélope Cruz – Nine
Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
Mo’Nique – Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire

Animated feature film of the year
Will Win: Up

Nominees:
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up

Cinematography
Will Win: Avatar

Nominees:
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon

Directing
Will Win: Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
Should Win: James Cameron – Avatar

Nominees:
Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
James Cameron – Avatar
Lee Daniels – Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
Jason Reitman – Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds

Documentary feature
Will Win: The Cove
Should Win: Food, Inc.

Nominees:
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

Foreign language film of the year
Will Win: The White Ribbon – Germany

Nominees:
Ajami – Israel
El Secreto de Sus Ojos – Argentina
The Milk of Sorrow – Peru
Un Prophète – France
The White Ribbon – Germany

Visual effects
Will Win: Avatar

Nominees:
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

Adapted screenplay
Will Win: Up in the Air

Nominees:
District 9
An Education
In the Loop
Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
Up in the Air

Original screenplay
Will Win: The Hurt Locker
Should Win: Inglourious Basterds

Nominees:
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The Messenger
A Serious Man
Up

Right now I’m finally watching Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story. I like his movies for what they are, but it is hard to call one of them a “documentary”. Compared to a film like Food, Inc. Moore’s films aren’t exactly “balanced”.

That’s not such a bad thing though. Moore has a compelling style, and he makes great points. As a Canadian (well, a dual citizen who has grown up completely in Canada), his films are eye-opening because they look into nooks and crannies most of us don’t get to see very often.

Canadians know a fair bit about America; we live so close together that it’s only natural, but some of the facts in this movie are hard to come to grips with.

My problem with this film is just that Moore’s song and dance routine has maybe gotten a bit out of hand. The editing, the voice-overs, and the music feel a little obnoxious, rather than insightful. This is a serious topic that deserved a documentary, but Moore laid the sarcasm on a little thick.

I haven’t finished the film yet though, so we’ll see how the second half goes. I’ll have the full review in DVD Tuesday next week.

For those of you who’ve seen Tim Burton’s remake of Alice In Wonderland, I’m wondering if anyone else thought they knew the answer to the riddle: “Why is a raven like a writing desk?”

I thought I knew the answer. I even thought it was author Lewis Carroll’s original little homage to someone else, but apparently, if the Internet is to be believed, I’m wrong.

The answer I had always heard was, “Because Poe wrote on both,” as in Edgar Allen Poe who wrote “The Raven”.

According to WikiAnswers though, the riddle originally had no answer, it was just part of the other nonsense from the story. Somehow that disappoints me a little, but that’s probably because I love Poe.

Funny thing though. You hear something long enough and you slowly come to believe that it’s true.

My Lifestream archive for the past week including my posts on Twitter, last.fm, and Tumblr.

	Shared Suddenly, kids seem kind of cool to me. So envious though, why….
	Shared Ha! Great movie, and maybe just a little appropriate right now?….
	Published zenofblogging: How It Ends – DeVotchKa Sometimes I’m left to…. >> Read more…

My Lifestream archive for the past week including my posts on Twitter, last.fm, and Tumblr.

	Shared "You know, for kids".
	Listened to 2 songs. Louis XIV – Finding Out True Love Is Blind Echo & The Bunnymen – The Killing Moon
	Published Film Friday: ‘Shutter Island’ and ‘Céline: Through the Eyes of the World’. >> Read more…

My Lifestream archive for the past week including my posts on Twitter, last.fm, and Tumblr.

	Published Oh, Canada: A guide to thriving in Vancouver, one smile at a time.
	Published Ewan McGregor & Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge) -….
	Listened to 11 songs. Fatboy Slim – Because We Can Ewan McGregor – Your Song Beck – Diamond Dogs Ewan McGregor, Jacek Koman, José Feliciano – El Tango de Roxanne David Bowie – Nature Boy >> Read more…