Gord Downie as the Biker (Left) and Joshua Jackson as Ben Tyler in a scene from One Week.
Visit http://oneweek.ca/screenings to sign up for your two free tickets.
Premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival this past fall, One Week is set for national release on March 6.
Gord Downie makes a cameo appearance.
Sharon Witcombe had to take a second look to make sure she wasn’t seeing things when Alec Baldwin skiied past her.
“It was strange because the other night, my husband and I had just been talking about how funny the show 30 Rock is and suddenly Alec Baldwin’s standing two feet away from us,” said Witcombe.
The Surrey, B.C., native had finished a run at Lake Louise Ski Resort when she spotted the actor, but admitted she was too starstruck to say anything him.
“I would have just put my foot in my mouth,” she said with a laugh.
Baldwin was participating in the final day of this year’s Waterkeeper Alliance Sports Invitational and Fundraiser, which began on Thursday at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise.
The 50-year-old star of such films as Glengarry Glen Ross, The Departed and the critically acclaimed TV comedy 30 Rock competed in a giant slalom race along with such celebrities as ER star Juliana Margulies, former Beverly Hills 90210 actor Ian Ziering, Olympic gold medalist Al Joyner, actor-director Chad Lowe and Sopranos wiseguy Joe Pantoliano.
Baldwin was in good spirits and hammed it up in front of his fellow competitors and an Entertainment Tonight camera crew.
He was recently named best actor in a comedy series at the 2009 Golden Globe Awards and told the media that the show had been picked up for another season.
“We’re really happy about it,” he said. “It feels great.”
The Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie was scheduled to compete in yesterday’s slalom race but cancelled because of a hockey-related injury he sustained on Thursday night.
Downie was hit in the face with a puck and received a couple of stitches to close the wound near his eye.
A significant portion of the funds raised from this weekend’s charity event will go towards Waterkeeper initiatives in Canada.
“I don’t know how the economy will effect this year’s fundraiser,” said organizer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “But we’ll probably raise about a million dollars.”
The non-profit Waterkeeper Alliance was founded by Kennedy in 1999 as an umbrella organization to give scientific, legal and policy support to Riverkeeper, Baykeeper and Soundkeeper environmental associations. For more information visit http://www.waterkeeper.org
Dark drama, black comedy meet in a suicidal mind
BILL BROWNSTEIN, The Gazette
No beating about the bush for director Jean-Marc Piché – his film Nothing Really Matters opens with these sobering words: “My name is Leo. I’m 35, and I want to die. I always thought suicide was pretty cool.”
Okay, and what’s your first clue this is not a date flick? But hard as it may be to fathom, Nothing Really Matters – making its world premiere tomorrow at the Montreal World Film Festival – has its moments of loony comedy, albeit black as they come. Mostly, however, this is one dark, dark, provocative drama about the plight of a man who has been holed up in his apartment for the last two years.
Leo (played by the electrifying Yannick Bisson) has also been holed up in his bathtub for the last 14 hours and 29 minutes, a razor blade by his side, ready to end it all. Fortunately, Leo is more a yakker than a hacker, and we are spared the sight of bathwater turning blood red.
Leo is an agoraphobe, terrified of moving about in the world outside his home. Luckily, Leo can work at home, where he designs websites for companies.
Even more luckily, he has managed to hook up with a dynamite woman, Carly (the ever-enchanting Pascale Bussières), who puts up with his phobias. Or did. And hence this seemingly endless soak in the tub.
Having established his central character’s delicate mindset, Piché, who co-wrote the film with his wife, Catlin Stothers, goes back a spell to give some insight into Leo’s state. Along the way, viewers are introduced to a cavalcade of folk: Leo’s wannabe-gangster landlord (Kenneth Welsh); his best buddy, a wannabe acting star (Spike Adamson); and a burglar (Gord Downie of Tragically Hip fame, who turns out to be quite the acting find) unfortunate enough to bust into Leo’s apartment.
The crook inadvertently triggers high hilarity. After being overtaken, then bound in telephone cable by Leo, the woebegone burglar must listen to the unwell Leo lecture him with much psychobabble about criminality. This levity, while short-lived, is much appreciated, particularly as Leo becomes more and more unglued.
Given the disturbing nature of the flick, one might jump to the conclusion that Piché was raised in some dungeon and force-fed a stark diet of Ingmar Bergman descents into Hades. Hardly. Piché, who has been living in Toronto for the last 12 years, is in fact an acclaimed director of TV commercials.
Then again, perhaps it’s not a surprise that a man who won a gold medal at an advertising-film festival for his fluffy pie-crust commercials would make the leap to a feature film no one will ever call fluffy. There is likely much pent-up emotion involved in shooting spots for the likes of Chrysler, Molson and Campbell Soup – especially in the case of the latter, for which Piché had to deal with the ever-delightful Don Cherry.
But Piché credits his commercial work for providing him the discipline require to make a feature film. “There is much to be said about having to be able to tell a story in just 30 seconds – one which people will be happy to see at least 200 times.”
Here’s a 10 minute interview with Gordan (sic) Downie:
WNYC – Soundcheck: The Tragically Hip (April 23, 2007)
The Sadies team with Gord Downie
By FISH GRIWKOWSKY – Sun Media
Given the Sadies secret status as one of the worlds wickedest bands – country, rock or otherwise – it was vaguely surprising to find them unscheduled on the mainstage at Folk Fest double-oh-eight.
But shucks – its just as easy not to complain right?, given their time among us has been subsequently partitioned throughout the weekend – including a gratifying whopper Canadiana session tonight at 7:30 p.m. on Stage 1, the eastern border of New Folkland.
The brothers Travis and Dallas Good call from between Canmore and Calgary, intending fully to have pulled up into town last night to sample our party culture once again. Their persistent friendliness has them in some spectacular collaborations coming up, but just read on …
SUN MEDIA: “New Seasons was one of my favourites last year. Can you tell me a little about what Gary Jayhawks Louris brought into the studio? Dudes a pro playa, obviously.”
TRAVIS GOOD: “He helped from the ground up. He helped with the writing, the arranging. Vocally, he really pushed us. He thinks of things Ive never really thought of when I sing. And he was there, looking over our shoulder, reading what we were writing.”
SUN MEDIA: “What would he suggest with your singing?”
TRAVIS: “Oh, to do another take. Laughs hard. In the earlier records, we would do a couple takes and Id say, Well, thats what I sound like. If its squawky, thats my voice. But hed get us to do it 10 times, a bit of a slave-driver, that man. For me the vocals are the hardest thing, so its the first thing I want to abandon … get right to the guitar as quick as I can.”
SUN MEDIA: “Eat your vegetables so you can have dessert.”
TRAVIS: “Yeah, exactly.”
SUN MEDIA: “You guys are obsessive collaborators – is there anything you can let out of the bag coming up youre working on?”
TRAVIS: “Oh, for sure We just did a thing with Garth Hudson and Mary Margaret OHara, a Band tribute record Garths throwing together. All Canadians, hes producing and playing on it. We just finished a country record with John Doe. And weve been chipping away recording with Gord Downie. Like with Gary Louris, weve been talking about how, Wouldnt it be nice if we did something one day? We’ve been in the studio and done some work since. We did a couple songs thatll be on a compilation for the Waterkeeper Foundation.”
SUN MEDIA: “Part of making music together is friendship – you looking forward to hanging out with some musicians at the Folk Fest, onstage, backstage?”
TRAVIS: “Sexsmith should be pretty easy. Weve talked about doing stuff with him, too. So you never know. Laughs. We met Robyn Hitchcock at one of those and it went really good, we ended up recording with him. Same with Jim White. It can go either way, really good or really bad.”
SUN MEDIA: “As long as everyones joining in, its great.”
TRAVIS: “Yeah, I dont like the circle, going around, staring at the sun while a persons doing a solo thing. Not my bag. Hey, you want to talk to Dallas a bit?
SUN MEDIA: “If I have to. Just kidding – yeah. Extended phone rumbling. Dallas, whats the new album looking like?”
DALLAS: “Weve got a bunch of songs weve been working on with Gary, but I dont think well get a chance to revisit them until December. But considering the album that were working on with Gord is going to be original and with an equal amount of input, we dont want to sell anything short there.
“Even though we have three records on the go right now, not including our own or the stuff we did with Neko Case on her upcoming album, I still like to think of everything one project at a time. Last month in particular I was working on four separate projects simultaneously. Ive felt a little overwhelmed lately, because I do all the mixing, too. But Im a bully with that. But whatever. Dont cry for me, Im already dead. I dug my own grave and someday Ill gladly get to lie in it.”
The Sadies play tonight; tomorrow 1 p.m. on Stage 1 and 5 p.m. on Stage 2; finally, 11 a.m. Sunday on Stage 6.
As posted by Tthip to hipbase.com:
Gord has a small part in another Michael McGowan movie (St. Ralph).
This movie is called One Week stars Joshua Jackson (Dawson’s Creek) as a cancer patient who embarks on a motorcycle trip from Toronto to British Columbia.
Gord plays a biker in this movie scheduled for a 2008 release.
The movie is being scored by Andrew Lockington who also scored St Ralph.
I wonder, with the same director and musical director as St Ralph where Gord contributed Hallelujah if we will get any more Gord solo for this movie.
The new city and colour album can be listened to on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/dallasgreen.
Be sure to check out the track Sleeping Sickness featuring Gord Downie – and some Thompson Girl influence!