American Dreamz

Today, I went to see American Dreamz. It was not because I chose to go see it, but it was because I stumbled across it.

At first, Roman wanted to meet up with some friends at l'Utopik, a cozy, hippy-esque coffee shop that reminds me of Sleepless Goat in Kingston. So, we met up at about 6:40 p.m., I was running a bit behind, so I invited him up while I got ready. We proceeded over to a gallery showing that his friend sent him an e-mail to, which he forwarded the e-mail. We stayed about 15 minutes, and then we went across the street to the Videotron, and looked at used DVDs. I didn't buy any, since I bought Proof and Rent today at Blockbuster. (Both of them pre-visioned for $24). Then, we walked towards l'Utopik. However, we made a stop at the Archambault, and I hung out at the music store (they sell music scores and instruments on the second floor). I was like a kid in a candy shop. First, I was in the percussion section, so I saw lots of drum sticks, drum kits, snare drums, maracas, triangles, and cymbals. And then, I walked into the musical instrument part, where there were karaoke CDs, woodwind instruments (recorders, flutes, trombones, etc.). After, we walked into the guitar room, and we looked at acoustic guitars, and classical guitars... I couldn't recall how to play the four chords on the guitar! Then, we proceeded to the piano room. There were lots of pianos, and it was fun to be able to play on them, with no one bothering me... And some of them sounded very nice... In fact, I find that some of the upright pianos sound better tan grand pianos...

After my musical Fauré (Ha!), Roman and I proceeded to l'Utopik, and we sat around for half an hour... It turns out that the two friends who originally were supposed to meet up for coffee also didn't show up. So, we decided to go and see a movie together. At first, Roman wanted to see the movie Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, which is about this lady who fought against Nazi Germany. However, that particular movie was being showed at 10:20 p.m., and that was going to be too late. Thus, we settled for American Dreamz. (Yes, I will now get to the movie review, before I talk/rant more about Roman.

My first perception of this movie was that this was going to be a politically incorrect, slapstick humour, brainless funny movie. However, this turned out to be a complete opposite... The humour was clever, and most of it very intelligent. Of course, there were also low blows, and my favourite line (my first belly laugh) was when the agent was saying to Mandy Moore's character, "We have to keep the white-trash image, look what it did for Britney Spears". I liked the way that many things were made fun of in this movie: The President of the United States, the show American Idol, the war against terrorism, the "terrorists", etc. I laughed at many things in this film that not many people found was funny. Usually, it's because I am processing the information quickly, or because it's intelligent humour. But it is surprisingly, a good movie. The ending, however, was surprising. I was not expecting it at all. Oh, and I totally identify with the hopeless romantic boyfriend of Mandy Moore's character. Totally echoes my situation with Roman, who is starting a relationship with Olivier, but still hangs out a lot with me. At least I didn't catch them screwing each other in the dressing room.

And now, more stuff that doesn't make sense about my friendship with Roman. He asked me today that if no one was interested in taking a road trip to Kingston, Toronto and Niagara Falls, if we could take the trip together... Again, this is something that you'd do with your boyfriend, and since I am not his boyfriend... But I said that if it's just between two people, I couldn't afford it, probably. And this is true... We did some rough mathematics/estimation, and it was going to take about $200 per person (6 or 7 people together). So, $1200 - $1400 between two people, that's a lot of money! I don't have $600 - $700 for five days worth of travel. In fact, my budget is a lot less than that for 5 - 7 days... (And frankly, I really wouldn't be interested in going on a trip if Olivier came along, I would feel like i - a tour guide, and ii - a third wheel)

The only reason why I agreed to spend some time with Roman today was because I thought I would be with more people than just him. And then we ended up just spending the night together... Either he orchestrated this whole thing, which is quite possible, or fate is on my side (or possibly teasing me, I don't know yet), which is also quite possible.