As many of you may know (I'm of course assuming many of you read my blog), this week marked the start of the Toronto International Film Festival. I cannot / will not go to any screenings this year. Not for lack of choice of films (I think the selection is quite good) and not for general dislike of the festival as all my past experiences with TIFF have been fine. I will not go, however, because of the $16.75 ticket price. For the first time, one TIFF ticket actually costs more than a movie ticket normally costs in Toronto. How are the up and comers, the movie lovers, and the assorted artistic not so rich types supposed to attend? You want to go to 2 films? $33.50. 5 films? $83.75. Well, you get the idea.

I have a bunch of stuff to do and I'm not above procrastination where movies are involved, but this year I'm saying no to TIFF. I did, however say yes once more to Doc Soup. $95 for tickets to 17 fantastic docs - 10 of them your choice during the Hot Docs festival. One more reason why documentary kicks butt.

Finally, I offer one observation I had while in Yorkville this weekend: Tiny printed tank tops on 15 year old Paris Hilton clones are multiplying like a horrible fashion virus. Everywhere you looked it said "I'm with the Band", "Mrs. Timberlake", or "Spoiled Rotten". How clever can it be when EVERYONE is doing the exact same thing? ... Don't even get me started on the ruffled micro mini skirts.

Hello! Click on over to the Rentz page (www.midnightherring.net/Rentz.html) to see the new, improved web page style and graphic goodness. Whoopie! I made stills! You can get to this page from the link under "Current Project" above or on the home page. I'll be putting up a few more stills as I digitize footage.

Oh, and I also made a much better "Miniatures Documentary" graphic. The previous one was a last minute type deal. I still don't have a title for this upcoming project. Small world?.. Nah. Too Disney. If anyone has any ideas I'm happy to hear them.

Final news concerns the editing work I'm doing for the next month or so (both my own and the kind that pays the bills) so I may not have much time to update my business site. I'm putting together a grant proposal due on October 15th so wish me luck.

One more thing - I added a new Blogger feature that allows readers to e-mail my blog posts to their friends. Obviously this was a greatly needed service and was not added just to make me feel popular. No, not at all.