Kingdom of Boredom & Keane!

So that new Ridley Scott flick Kingdom of Heaven which is being promoted as the 'new Gladiator' (not specifically, but the inference is there) SUCKS!!!
I mean it does star Orlando Bloom of the ever-changing facial expression, but I sort of thought the potential for a good story was there. However, I found myself extremely bored with the history lesson on the Crusades, so I give a big thumbs down to Ridley Scott. Orlando Bloom needs some acting lessons and is not old enough to command enough energy into a rallying war cry a la Russell Crowe or even Colin Farrell, in what some consider the abomination of 'Alexander' (which I thought was pretty decent considering the long history of awful Classics movies).
I also give a major BOO! to the new Paramount Vancouver cinema at 900 Burrard St. because underground parking cost me $5 for the evening without parking validation. The Guest Services attendant claimed that Paramount has no affiliation with the Parking Authority in the building, yet the ENTIRE complex is called Paramount Place, and as Cassie shrewedly pointed out, the last time she checked, the building was built specifically for the theatre. Anyways, I am going to email a complaint because other 'urban' cinemas like Tinseltown validate parking for moviegoers and even back at home in Toronto the maximum I have ever paid for parking at a cinema in town is $1 with my parking chip validated at the theatre box office. What's up with Famous Players, eh? Greedy bastards.


On a different note, last night was the last concert that I had tickets for in Vancouver and it was for Keane at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. I didn't think much of the opening act which was some guy named Brendan Benson and his band called... The Stiff Tissues (YUCK!). I was pretty glad when they left the stage. Some weird women was sitting in the seat next to me on the aisle and she was having trouble moving when people had to come and sit down, so for most of the night I tried not to leave my seat because I had to keep climbing over the back of my seat into the aisle behind me just to escape.
I was hoping to get a pin or something from the merchandise table but the shirts weren't that impressive and they didn't have much else. Merch Guy said they didn't bother bringing anything over the border and that the selection they had was shipped directly from the UK to Canada. I guess when you only have 3 dates in the country it makes sense, but at the same time, would it have killed them to bring a box of buttons over the border? Anyways, that was a bit of a bummer but on the other hand I saved money!
Keane put on a fantastic show as I had expected they would. I suspect that the lead singer could actually have a career in musical theatre if the band split up. He just has a really pure and clear voice with a lot of range... watch out West London! They also had some cool little projection shows behind their stage set for some of the songs. I haven't seen any of their videos, but I expect that some of the work came from those.
An interesting highlight occurred during the encore when a girl at the front of the crowd leapt onto the stage and grabbed the lead singer around the neck. She was of course promptly removed by security but it was still pretty amusing. I think she wanted to hug Tom but she saw security moving in so she kind of made a desperate lunge for his neck which took him completely off guard and he almost lost his balance. He recovered nicely, had a good laugh and said he appreciated the gesture and that it probably would have happened at some point, so why not tonight. It just amuses me that some teeny bopper would throw herself at this guy. Keane are a pretty unassuming trio so it's not like they exude super coolness or whatever. They are pretty humble and obviously genuinely enjoy what they do, but I wouldn't say that the lead singer is that attractive. But I guess to this girl, they mean the world. It also reminds me of going to concerts when I was younger, because it has been a few years since I've seen someone hurl themselves on stage to accost a band. Ah well, I hope that she was let go by security with relatively little harm done.
All in all, it was a good end to the run of shows I have seen here in Vancouver. Sadly, I have no shows lined up for Toronto this summer, but hopefully some stuff I am interested in will come up soon.