Hungry Like A Wolfe!

Let me bid a fond farewell to the late great American born yet Canadian actor, Maury Chaykin. (Most actors escape Canada for Hollywood, Maury stuck around.) You knew that whenever he showed up in a movie, you were in for a treat. Always one to surprise you, he celebrated his 61st birthday by dying!

Pal, Alex offered up two of his quotes:
When asked, "Have you invited the Lord into your heart?" He replied, "Are you crazy? The place is a mess!"
From Dances With Wolves: His final line to Costner was "tell the General I've just pissed my pants." He then blows his head off!
Love it!!

Thanks to him, I have a Kevin Bacon count of two! He and the Bacon were both in "Where the Truth Lies" giving him a KB count of one. Maury and I were both in Act of Vengeance in which I once saved Chuck Bronson's life! Though I don't recall ever meeting him, I'm fairly certain we must have had a scene together. (We were also in Night Heat and Due South but I don't know if we were in the same episodes.)



You can always look him up on IMBd to find out his movie history and here to make your life more convenient, are some of the awards he's been up for:

* 1986, Nominee, Gemini Award
Canada's Sweetheart: The Saga of Hal C. Banks
Best Performance by a Lead Actor in a Single Dramatic Program
Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television

* 1989, Nominee, Genie Award
Iron Eagle II
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television

* 1990, Nominee, Genie Award
Cold Comfort
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television

* 1994, Winner, Genie Award
Whale Music
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television

* 1997, Winner, National Board of Review Award
The Sweet Hereafter
Best Acting by an Ensemble
National Board of Review of Motion Pictures

* 1998, Winner, Gemini Award
La Femme Nikita (episode "Innocent")
Best Performance by an Actor in a Guest Role in a Dramatic Series
Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television

* 1998, Nominee, Gemini Award
Emily of New Moon (episode "Paradise Lost")
Best Performance by an Actor in a Guest Role in a Dramatic Series
Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television

* 2003, Nominee, ACTRA Toronto Award
A Nero Wolfe Mystery
Outstanding Performance – Male
Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists

* 2006, Winner, Career So Far Award

Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film

* 2006, Winner, Gemini Award
At the Hotel (episode "The Perfect Couple")
Best Performance by an Actor in a Guest Role in a Dramatic Series
Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television

Most recently, I saw him as the nasty rapist-guy in Blindness...



and even nastier in Entourage...



 Go out and rent some of his movies, you won't be disappointed...

Fellow Philatelists Follow Fleur de Lys For Freedom!

Not just Fleur de Lys but also Nelvana, Johnny Canuck and Captain Canuck joined fellow Canadian, Superman (maybe you've heard of him) on a set of stamps back in October 1995. I was an amateur stamp collector back in my childhood (1000 Worldwide stamps for 99 cents!!) though I gave them up when I discovered Comics. But occasionally I get the urge to pick up a sheet of stamps and then forget all about them (like this sheet.)












This sheet of GeGeGe stamps has actually been used once or twice!










Other stamps that are available include Naruto and a cool dragon!
















You hit the jackpot, Tiger! It's the Year of the Tiger next year and the annual postcards (年賀状 nengajo) that you can send to your nearest and dearest are now available everywhere. Here's a smattering of what you can get...















Finally, once I've sent out all my cards, I can add a Christmas seal for good measure! I picked these up from my clinic. Pretty sweet and they help fight TB!

Now if I could just get off my ass and send out some of those letters and packages that I've promised to people, I would be a happy man!

"There's Trouble a Bruin"!

I wasn't sure how to entitle this post so I went with the least offensive. The Canadiens sure better come up with a miracle, or they're heading for the showers for "Boston is Creaming Them" (a rejected title, no way to work Boston Cream Pie into it and it sounds slightly rude.)

How about, "To Hab or Hab Not!"? I kind of like that one, it has a Bogart feel to it (To Have and Have Not, duh) but I see it was already used a month ago when talk of Celine Dion et al. buying the American-owned Habs and I don't want to get accused of net-thievery.


There are fewer actual Canadians on the Canadiens than on some American teams thus my only pick in the pool would make an appropriate title, "Last Tanguay in Paris" but he got injured and isn't even playing any longer, furthermore it's Montreal, not Paris.

Being a loyal Leafs fan, I should never have put any faith in a rival Eastern team, especially one that boasts that (according to Alex), "We've beaten Boston in most Cup series before so we'll win this one too." That being said, I refuse to root for the Flames even if they did win today!

I'll sum it up with: Go Canucks!

Go Canucks!

Now there's a statement I haven't used in a long long time. Definitely don't want to see the Flames win, will root for the Canadiens if I have to but now that my other top two Canadian teams have ignominiously been defeated, the Canucks get my bucks.

That being said, here are my picks for the Sendai pool (that probably only Alex & I will join.)

FORWARDS
Alex Tanguay
Kevin Bieksa
Jonathan Toews
Mats Sundin

DEFENSE
Dennis Wideman
Kevin Bieksa
Kris Letang

GOALIE
Roberto Luongo

Don't ask me why for my picks. Not really sure...


This post has been brought to you by Choco-Banana Pocky & new キャラメル (Caramel) KitKat!

Wake Up Sleepyheads!

All my friends overseas will have gone beddy-bye long before they could learn the result of the Vancouver/ Dallas game. 138 minutes into it, Henrik Sedin scored with 1:54 left in the fourth overtime period to give the Vancouver Canucks a 5-4 victory over the Dallas Stars Wednesday in a marathon opening game of the team's NHL Western Conference first-round playoff series. (As stolen from TSN, I'm too busy to offer a rundown.)

I'm off to a Live event, a DEEP PURPLE tribute band, which promises to be oddly awesome or awesomely odd. Once I get back, all of my NA readers will have read the news about the Canucks themselves.

100 minutes and counting...

Holy Crap! The Vancouver Canucks vs. the Dallas Stars is about to enter its 3 overtime period! Blowing a 2 goal lead, the Canucks now have to fend off some insistent Stars to take the first game in their series. Should be interesting.

In other news, Ottawa managed to whoop the butt of the Penguins (Take That NBC!) 6-3 and the only goal that Glory-boy Sidney Crosby got was his teams third goal in the last minute on a power-play (like most of his goals.)



I'm not too interested in the other teams playing, but another double o/t game between Sharks and Predators ended in a Jaws victory (5-4). Anaheim took Minnesota 2-1 in a comparatively low scoring game.

Even without the Leafs, Canadians or Oilers, this promises to be a pretty interesting play-off series!