Zero for Conduct

Now that I’m writing about cinema for Momentum magazine, please send me all your bike film stories and information! That doesn’t just mean movies about bikes, it means cycling artists / filmmakers as well. Momentum is about the self-propelled lifestyle, from environmental, economic and political stuff to social, fashion and health angles – so if you have a cinema / video / moving-picture spin that involves human-powered machinery, try me out.

Meanwhile, here’s this CALL FOR ENTRIES from the Bike Film Festival:

Bicycle Film Festival | Trailer from casagrafica on Vimeo.

NINTH ANNUAL BICYCLE FILM FESTIVAL
Deadline For Entries Is March 7

http://www.bicyclefilmfestival.com

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I submitted a story to the Indie Writers Deathmatch at Broken Pencil Magazine this week!

I’m posting this in a bid to get the jump on my competition by seizing the search-engine high ground.

I wrote a science fiction short called “Pangea’s Edge” which takes place in Surrey 2040.

You, my fellow travellers, will help me win – by voting for Pangea’s Edge in a series of one-on-one deathmatch rounds on Broken Pencil’s website.

If you’re reading this, you can help – I’ll update this posting when the finalists are announced, and you can click me to the top!

Since the weather’s so awesome for biking, I think you should all check out the latest issue of Momentum in which I demonstrate how to carry a cat on a bike.

What never made it into the issue is the fact that this was Spooky’s first and final ride.  We were taking her to the vet to be put down, after the terrible surprise of cancer that grew behind her right eye and couldn’t really be solved.  That’s a long story which I don’t need to blog about – suffice to say the kitty loved the adventure of riding a bike, in the safety / concealment of her cat carrier.  Oh, the things we learn too late.

In case that crazy issuu.com viewer doesn’t work, it’s on the Momentum site as well (without the picture, though).

Zero for Conduct, the Zine of Counter-Film, will be for sale in hardcopy at Canzine in Toronto this weekend! Sonja Ahlers will have it somewhere on her table in the “Gotta Laugh to Keep from Crying” room! If you can’t make it to Canzine, get it HERE.

-Flick Harrison

Zero for Conduct is Flick Harrison’s new zine of counter-film.

(get it!)

I still need to get a waxer – this issue feels a little too perfect for me, I only did one drawing and the rest was laid out in Indesign.

IN THIS ISSUE:

Interviews with

Reg Harkema on Leslie, My Name is Evil
Jeff Carter on Inside Passage
Tom Scholte on Crime
plus Waiting for Sancho and more!

I created it to try and rekindle some kind of underground film thing in Vancouver that I think is, well, just a bit TOO underground. This year’s Vancouver International Film Festival was the kicker for me, I finally felt like taking part again, having worked on two of the films screening, and a recent visit to a Zine fair / comics show at the Vancouver Art Gallery reminded me that it is really all about just getting it done.

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I finally got recruited to write for Momentum, the magazine for self-propelled people. I wrote a book review in each of their last two issues:

The Wheels of Chance
by HG Wells

and

Urban Biker’s Tips and Tricks
By Dave (Mr. Bike) Glowacz

Both pretty awesome books! I could go on about them here, one being Wells’ (surprisingly) non-sci fi about adventure and romance in the early days of cycling (they were the fastest thing on the road!) and the other, Mr. Bike’s handy guide for maximizing your bike awesomeness.

But the reviews are much more complete than whatever short blurb I write here, despite how useful it would be to draw google hits by saying Hoopdriver Hoopdriver Hoopdriver!

Check them out with the links above.

-Flick Harrison

Are you folks following the Canadian tax credit censorship issue? Anyone looking for Harper’s secret agenda need look no further!

Bill C-10, an amendment to the income tax act which runs hundreds of pages long, has 13 words in it that give the government the right to cancel tax credits for film productions unless

“(b) public financial support of the production would not be contrary to public policy.”

In a Conservative majority situation, this could cut out films that depict violence, homosexuality, underage drinking, etc. Are the Conservatives really more interested in protecting Canadian morality than Canadian jobs?

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The Saskatoon Star-Pheonix published this rare and silly defense, by Les MacPherson, of the RCMP’s taser attack on Robert Dziekanski, the Polish guy at the Vancouver airport.

Man’s lack of co-operation necessitated force

I wrote him this email in response:

Mr MacPherson,

Your definition of resisting arrest is novel. Walking away = violent.

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Gwynne Dyer reviews the new movie of Frank Miller’s 300.

That’s all, I haven’t blogged in a while ‘cos I’m too busy.

I’m calling it: The Bloc pulls the ripcord (rejects the budget) within 24 hours either way of the Quebec Election. I.e. before the vote to throw the race and take a free news-cycle on No-campaiging-allowed final day, OR, after the race to destabilize the Quebec Parliament and keep the PQ in permanent war mode – provincial vote, federal vote, second provincial vote, referendum.

I was having too much fun / working too hard to take many pics but the closing Gala is finally over and we can all get on with our lives. The visual projections went super-well, I don’t think anyone guessed what the connection was (they were all credits from past closing gala films, isn’t that innnteresting?) but it gave the room that epic-ending feeling which was my purpose.

(BTW, as I type, I wish there was a way to make myspace playslists so I can listen continually without calling up that window and clicking all the darn time).

Anyway, here’s a few pics. This is me with Cathy Falkner, filmmaker David Vaisbord and Sheril Gelmon. Man, his hair is getting fabulous, like some movie star in a cartoon. Notice I took one more kick at the “I fuck the man” / Monkey Warfare t-shirt can.

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