Zodiac
I've recently got back from seeing Zodiac, a film which I'd somewhat been looking forward to seeing. I purposefully read very little about it from reviewers, and read even less about the meat of the story, as I both wanted to learn about the film as it developed as well as I knew I would see the film regardless due to David Fincher being the director.
Well, in a nutshell, the movie was... tedious. Not boring, at least not completely, but just tedious. It really didn't go very far, and when it did go anywhere it really took overly long to get there. This would easily rank among Fincher's less-interesting movies, somewhere around the level of Panic Room (which I rather disliked and found quite pointless and boring). I've got an overwhelming urge to watch Se7en, Fight Club or The Game to cleanse my palette and get some good Fincher stuff at the forefront of my brain.
On a related note, I saw the movie at South Common and had quite possibly the worst experience I've ever had with the so-called public transit system here. The ETS is far from perfect, has an utterly horrible schedule and route selection around where I live, and absolutely does not take you to a lot of places one may want to go. I've found it amusing yet sad the slogan for the ETS is something along the line of "where life takes you" when you can't get to so many places with ETS (airport, anyone? Hello?).
Anyhow, I was on the #74 from South Common to Heritage, having to wait for that bus for a while (as it happens when the route operates on 30-minute intervals), and I got to the Heritage terminal about 10:02 or 10:03 according to the big clock at the station. A quick check of the schedule for the #40 at the terminal showed me the next bus was scheduled to depart at 10:05. I was somewhat elated to have made such a fortuitous connection as taking the bus any time after afternoon peak hours can be a crap shoot for timing and connections. I sauntered over to where the #40 stops and waited. And waited. And waited. No bus ever came, let alone left anywhere near 10:05. I was unimpressed. So, the next one was supposed to depart at 10:35. I waited for that bus too. And waited. And waited. IT NEVER CAME. Two buses in succession, which were supposed to come, never came. By 10:40 I was beyond unimpressed and had moved onto livid. I could not fathom how this could happen. There's a notation on the bus schedule posted inside the terminal which basically says schedule information is subject to change without notice. Fine, I can accept that... things change, and there's the logistical and economical aspects regarding updating every piece of information about it. But there's a world of difference between schedule information changing and two successive buses going walkabout. Ultimately I wound up taking a different route (which did actually show up, on time) at about 11:05.
So, I've fired off a letter of complaint (via email of course) to the city about this situation. Given feedback to governments can so easily fall on deaf ears I really don't expect a reply, but I know I definitely won't get one if I don't bitch.
On a related note, the day started off quite poorly as I went back to the casino and proceeded to drop another $200 at the poker tables. So, I've now eaten through my winnings and I'm going to try to stick to not playing at the casinos any more... and no more real money play online. Just play money stuff online and maybe the occasional home tourney for a few bucks.
So... I dropped a couple "hobo racks" as one friend of mine called $200 today, I saw what was an uninteresting movie, and wasted a bunch of time at the bus station swearing at the city. That was my day. At least the burgers at Wendy's before the movie were damn tasty.
Well, in a nutshell, the movie was... tedious. Not boring, at least not completely, but just tedious. It really didn't go very far, and when it did go anywhere it really took overly long to get there. This would easily rank among Fincher's less-interesting movies, somewhere around the level of Panic Room (which I rather disliked and found quite pointless and boring). I've got an overwhelming urge to watch Se7en, Fight Club or The Game to cleanse my palette and get some good Fincher stuff at the forefront of my brain.
On a related note, I saw the movie at South Common and had quite possibly the worst experience I've ever had with the so-called public transit system here. The ETS is far from perfect, has an utterly horrible schedule and route selection around where I live, and absolutely does not take you to a lot of places one may want to go. I've found it amusing yet sad the slogan for the ETS is something along the line of "where life takes you" when you can't get to so many places with ETS (airport, anyone? Hello?).
Anyhow, I was on the #74 from South Common to Heritage, having to wait for that bus for a while (as it happens when the route operates on 30-minute intervals), and I got to the Heritage terminal about 10:02 or 10:03 according to the big clock at the station. A quick check of the schedule for the #40 at the terminal showed me the next bus was scheduled to depart at 10:05. I was somewhat elated to have made such a fortuitous connection as taking the bus any time after afternoon peak hours can be a crap shoot for timing and connections. I sauntered over to where the #40 stops and waited. And waited. And waited. No bus ever came, let alone left anywhere near 10:05. I was unimpressed. So, the next one was supposed to depart at 10:35. I waited for that bus too. And waited. And waited. IT NEVER CAME. Two buses in succession, which were supposed to come, never came. By 10:40 I was beyond unimpressed and had moved onto livid. I could not fathom how this could happen. There's a notation on the bus schedule posted inside the terminal which basically says schedule information is subject to change without notice. Fine, I can accept that... things change, and there's the logistical and economical aspects regarding updating every piece of information about it. But there's a world of difference between schedule information changing and two successive buses going walkabout. Ultimately I wound up taking a different route (which did actually show up, on time) at about 11:05.
So, I've fired off a letter of complaint (via email of course) to the city about this situation. Given feedback to governments can so easily fall on deaf ears I really don't expect a reply, but I know I definitely won't get one if I don't bitch.
On a related note, the day started off quite poorly as I went back to the casino and proceeded to drop another $200 at the poker tables. So, I've now eaten through my winnings and I'm going to try to stick to not playing at the casinos any more... and no more real money play online. Just play money stuff online and maybe the occasional home tourney for a few bucks.
So... I dropped a couple "hobo racks" as one friend of mine called $200 today, I saw what was an uninteresting movie, and wasted a bunch of time at the bus station swearing at the city. That was my day. At least the burgers at Wendy's before the movie were damn tasty.
posted by chris burgess at 06:10
2 Comments:
In regard to Edmonton public transit, you are singing my song, brotha. I spent many a year trying to get to far off corners of Edmonton where I worked at various TV stations, and let me tell you, waiting around at West Edmonton Mall for a half hour at midnight in minus 30 degree weather is no picnic. And from the sounds of things, the situation has just gotten worse since the mid-90's, when I last took ETS. People like to complain here in Vancouver about the transit system, and it's not without problems, but it's nowhere near the disaster that ETS is.
I got a call back from the city this morning actually, in response to my complaint email. The schedule posted *apparently* says (and I've only just arrived back home, I've not had a chance to verify) each of the two I was waiting for don't actually run then. Huh? Why are they on the schedule?! They apparently go straight to the garage bypassing any actual rider traffic.
So, rather than having service every 30 minutes with a couple mishaps making me wait, we instead have a situation where my area has NO SERVICE between about 9:30 and 11:00pm on weeknights. WTF?
What could I say to the lady from the city though... so I just had to suck it up. Stupid frigging bus service.
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