I’m a movie fan, and one of the great things about moving to the US is that we now get to sign up for netflix. For those who don’t know, it works like this. You set up a list of movie you want to see. They’re mailed to you, three at a time. You can keep them as long as you want. When you’re done, you mail one back, and the next one in your list is mailed out to you.

We’ve already got our first two movies watched. The first was the documentary Winged Migration. This is supposedly about bird migration, and features some beautiful shots, including some where you have no idea how they got a camera that close to a bird in flight. You have no idea until you watch the special features, and learn that the birds were trained from birth, and many of the shots were planned. Still, the photography is beautiful.

The next movie is one that I’ve been waiting to see for a long time. I’m somewhat of a fan of really bad B-movies, I’ve seen my fair share, including some real stinkers (Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity is perhaps the worst). One I’d not seen, until this weekend, is “They Saved Hitler’s Brain”. I’d been looking for it for a long while, and was pleased to see that Netflix offered it.

You’d think, with a title like “They Saved Hitler’s Brain” that this would be a great film. But alas, it’s not. Part of the problem is that it’s really two movies, stuck together. The second half was shot in the late 50s/early 60s. It was supposed to be a professional, medium budget thriller. But, for some reason, production was stopped. A few years later, one of the bit players in the orginal footage got a hold of the film, and finished it by grafting on a first half, with totally different actors. The result, as you’d expect, is an awful mess.

Trust me, this one is not “so bad it’s good”, it’s just bad. Even the Hitler head at the end can’t make up for it…

Today I checked out the See Spot Community Art Space on the Commons (the downtown pedestrian mall). They sell local art works at accessible prices, among other things. They had some great photography pieces, but I found the variety of artists was a little thin. Probably because they have chosen to relocate at the end of August due to the high cost to rent a storefront on the Commons. Anyhow, I wish them well and will look for them again when they find new space.

On the way home I came across this:

Yes, that’s right, it’s not just the Tijo, I too can write weblog entries! So I’ll keep y’all up to date with the exciting world of particle physics. I’m sure you’re all riveted to the webcam though, so there’s not much more to say.

Anyway, as Tiff said, the move is pretty much done. Where in the new place, and all unpacked. It’s a bit smaller than our place in Vancouver, but it has a nice homey feel to it.

Tiff’s pictures don’t actually do the uphill nature of my walk to work justice, I’ll have to arrange to post some of the ones that show the step staircases. The good news is that I’ll be in shape in no time. My walk to work is like spending a half hour on a stairmaster.

While most of you are still tucked in bed each morning, Matt is headed up the bluff to work and I’m joining him for some morning exercise!

There is a path a few blocks from our place that connects downtown Ithaca to Cornell. The path is made up of slate staircases that are crudely maintained and beside a series of waterfalls in the Cascadilla Gorge. The hike to Cornell takes about 1/2 an hour, but I accompany Matt for about 2/3 of it for the time being. He says the last bit is especially treacherous but there’s an impressive waterfall in the final leg.

Here are some pics I took this morning:

At the moment the water flow is quite low. This path is closed in the winter after first snowfall. Even now there’s potential for accidents as the slate on some of the stairs is crushed and loose. Parts are really wet and slimy too. But wow, pretty, huh?

We rolled into Ithaca with Brad and his girlfriend Carly on Sunday August 1st. Driving along Cayuga Lake to Ithaca was beautiful, and spotted with several wineries. We pulled into the lookout at Taughannock Falls and Brad snapped some photos.

With much anticipation, the first thing we did in town was find our apartment, located in the rear of this house:

At first sight we figured it was small but sufficient. I had some concern when I looked under the kitchen sink to see about 6 types of RAID (!) - including ant killer, roach killer and wasp killer. Thankfully the roach stuff was unopened, but the ant can was nearly empty.

Since we didn’t expect our shipment to arrive until Monday or Tuesday, we shared a motel room with Brad and Carly. It was so intolerably hot outside that we spent nearly the full two days inside, air conditioned and watching COPS shows and bad reality TV.

Matt checked into Cornell and was set up in a temporary office, while Brad, Carly & I explored some of the forested campus with it’s gorges and waterfalls. We also checked out the Cornell Plantations where there are huge herb gardens. Too hot though, so we returned to the Meadow Court Inn and drank beer. Brad also picked up some of those kooky shades that seniors wear over their glasses. This nearly made Carly nuts.

When we called UPACK on Tuesday, they informed us our shipment would not arrive until Thursday. This meant we’d have two nights of sleeping on the floor in an empty apartment. Happiness. The way things turned out though, we didn’t get our stuff till Friday night, so we were somewhat irritable and bored. Plus we got an extra night of hard sleep on the floor.

There are so many restaurants here that I heard it’s the highest per capita in the US. We ate at the infamous vegetarian Moosewood Restaurant which was perfect since Carly’s vegan and Brad’s a boyfriend vegetarian now. It was delicious.

This is hippy country indeed. We even counted almost a dozen tie-dyed shirts in the first 24 hours. There are also plenty of churches in the downtown area, which I found a bit strange. There’s some fabulous architecture though.

As for the ra ra USA patriotism we were prepared for, there are hardly any houses with raised flags, and I haven’t seen a flag sticker on one single car. There are yellow ribbon stickers on a few though, symbolizing support for troops in Iraq.

Grocery shopping is on a whole new level. There are so many options it’s crazy. There are products here in the most basic stores that I couldn’t find anywhere in Vancouver - like gram flour (though I never did check Punjabi Market). If you ever bought Japanese Rice Vinegar then you will be surprised to hear there are like six different flavours of it available. Some things come only in weird sizes, like 1/2 cans of mushrooms or only small tins of garbonzo beans. The stores here are Tops & Wegmans. We have to either walk for 25 minutes, or take a bus for the same to get to one. Downtown the only convenience stores are a gas station and Commons Market, both about 8 blocks away.

Shopping in general is quite sad. There is a mall just on the edge of town with Target, Best Buy, Old Navy, Abercrombie & Fitch, a mini Sears, and Borders Books. There are some other smaller shops in that mall, but not much. There is a store called A.C. Moore which is kind of like Michael’s (craft shop) but much more awesome. There are 3-4 aisles of photo frames, and the same for yarn. That should keep me busy in the arts department. Downtown there are mostly arty tourist shops.

The movie theaters here are *special*. When we had nothing to do at home last week, we got out to a couple of theaters, both within walking distance. The first was Fall Creek Cinemas, which has three screens. Much like Pacific Cinematheque in vibe, but teeny tiny rooms. We saw Control Room there, and if you haven’t seen it yet then you’re missing out! Michael Moore can eat his own shorts. More of an unusual experience was the Cinemapolis where we saw Coffee and Cigarettes (Jim Jarmusch, excellent character film). It’s located at Center Ithaca, a small mall. When we entered the mall we figured the theater would be easy to find. We had to ask people where it was and were directed to a basement corridor with no signs, just a door at the end of a long hallway. Weird. To give you an idea of what these places are like, neither even used cash registers.

As for the multicultural scene, we are not in the heart of white America - yay! The university and college students are from all over the world, and Ithaca has a rich African American history, which is clearly apparent about town.

Well that about introduces this blog. Not all entries are going to be this long. There’s a lot I’ve skipped, so be thankful!