High art, tongue-in-cheek films among Canadian Sundance entries

The reeds of tall grass shift in the wind. The black-and-white scene along the dirt road is barren, poetic. Suddenly a large, lone horse rushes across the screen, attracted to a shining light on the horizon.
For the crowds attending the Sundance film festival, this could easily be one of the most arresting images they’ll see over the next ten days. Tao Gu’s short film On the Way to the Sea, one of the 14 Canadian films at Sundance, is a highly experimental work, drifting through the chaotic memories of survivors of the 2008 earthquake centred in Wenchuan, China.
Produced by Montreal’s Green Ground Productions, it’s the high-art side of Canada’s Sundance roster, while at the other extreme is Jason Eisener’s tongue-in-cheek exploitation feature Hobo With A Shotgun, about a homeless vigilante shooting down the bad guys.
Based on fake trailers within Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s film Grindhouse, the film has long been building word-of-mouth ahead of its showing at Sundance’s midnight program of films.
High art, tongue-in-cheek films among Canadian Sundance entries

Veena wants Shiv Sena in Pak 'Bigg Boss'

Veena wants Shiv Sena in Pak 'Bigg Boss' If Pakistani starlet Veena Malik had her way, she would pit former President Pervez Musharraf against the Shiv Sena in a Pakistani version of 'Bigg Boss', the reality show that brought her to the limelight.
Veena, who has taken on the mullah brigade for calling her "immoral" for her appearance on 'Bigg Boss', was asked in an interview about the contestants she would choose if Pakistan were to host the reality show.
"Former President Pervez Musharraf, (former minister) Sheikh Rashid, (parliamentarian) Jamsheed Dasti, Shiv Sena, Nargis, (Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief) Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Aishwarya Rai, actress Meera and Britney Spears," she said, naming her dream list of contestants.
Asked if she would repeat any contestant from 'Bigg Boss 4', she told 'The Express Tribune' newspaper, "Dolly Bindra. Even the very thought of this show is very funny. This could be hilarious."
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No winners in Fouhy train wreck

No winners in Fouhy train wreck  The saddest thing about the retirement of Ben Fouhy yesterday was that there were no winners.
Those happy that the nettlesome Fouhy has removed himself from kayaking would do well to look up the meaning of pyrrhic victory.
Everyone loses here. The list is long and distinguished and starts with the national sports funding agency Sparc.
They were late on the scene of the Canoe Racing NZ crash and, like the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, went through the motions of administering life support without fully committing themselves to the process.Worse, having looked as if they might have stitched something together that would have kept one of the country's premier athletes in his sport, they appear to have blown with the wind when the pressure came on.It is understood Sparc believed the rules of engagement with Fouhy changed when he did some work with CRNZ coach Gordon Walker, signalling a reintegration into the national programme that cancelled out the need for ring-fenced funding. Nobody in the Fouhy camp believes that argument bears any serious scrutiny.
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Company Town: 'True Grit' rides tall in the saddle

U.S online news:The 2010 holidays brought big-budget action movies, 3-D family adventures and star-driven comedies, but the season's only undisputed hit is an old-fashioned, guns-blazing western."True Grit" sold a studio-estimated $24.5-million worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada on its second weekend, just short of the $26.3 million taken in by the more expensive and hyped "Little Fockers."
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Bill Simmons in OKC: But what does it mean?!

UU.S online news:  So Bill Simmons showed up at the Thunder-Nets game Wednesday in Oklahoma City. For those of us, myself included, who enjoy Simmons’ columns and podcasts but also want him to fully embrace the Thunder, a reaction of maybe 10 percent of the intensity of the Double Rainbow Guy swept over us.
Why was Simmons here? What did his presence mean? Why does it matter to me and people like me that he was at the Thunder game, and what he thinks about the team and city?
Simmons is the most popular sports columnist in the U.S., and by extension the world. (I’d be surprised for various reasons if China and India, the only two countries more populous than the U.S., have sports columnists as widely read as Simmons.) I suspect that it’s not even close. That also makes him the most polarizing, thanks to the combined natures of sportswriting and popularity.
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