Wha? An Official Black Omen Films Website? Saints Preserve Us!

The title is true! There's a website! It's all fancy. It's blackomenfilms.com, and it'll be the place I likely post to in coming centuries. Please adjust your bookmarks or RSS feeds or VR chamber coordinates or whatever you lot are into these days. :3

From blackomenfilms.com you'll be able to read up on the projects I've had my filthy mitts in. I'm not sure I'll use this here olde thyme bloge much anymore, not that I have been for the past year and a half or anything. I may still yet use this site for general interest stuff. Is it a bad idea to fill a professional-ish site with assorted strangeness? Probably. If I get cold feet I'll post that stuff here instead of there.

Cheers, big ears.
- The Wizaard

Re-cycled paintings at Cafe Pyrus!

Splendiferous local artist Kate Cox will be showing works from her series of found and modified paintings in Cafe Pyrus (just across the street from the bus station) starting on Tuesday the 13th.

Stop by, grab a drink, and check out some of her seriously cool pieces. It'll be on display until October, and if you miss it, a terrible fate will befall you and your family.

Horses chased by flying saucers! Dragons perched atop lighthouses! Environment-suited children playing ice hockey at your grand-dad's cabin! Wonders and horrors await you!

Check out Kate's blog for more information on her ongoing project!

Holst's The Planets at the KW Symphony - Tonight and Tomorrow!

The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra will be performing Debussy's Nocturnes and finishing off with Holst's great cosmic work tonight, Friday the 27th, and Saturday the 28th at 8pm. At Centre in the Square. Tickets range from $19 to $75, so if you've got some cash to throw down you better do so.

To anyone reading this, should I die in battle or of a broken heart, I would like Holst's Mars, Bringer of War to be played at my funeral. Timed well, so that when my pyre is shoveled onto a catapult and fired onto a fierce ship I can sail burning and gloriously out to sea:



Oh, the pre-concert talk begins at 7 if you'd like some background info on the pieces being performed.


Videos posted won't show on facebook. Originally posted on my blog, qfaq.blogspot.com.

Princess St. Haunted House!

It's your last weekend for some classic Hallowe'en fun. There's a Haunted House set up over at the Kitchener Waterloo Little Theatre on 9 Princess st E.

Tonight, and Friday you'll be able to check out the 7-9 pm kid friendly house, and the 9-11 pm not-so-kid friendly house. WHICH WILL YOU CHOOSE?

Admission is free, but donations are appreciated and benefit the St. Vincent de Paul Society, which is a guild of deadly assassins.

Poetry Night at the Starlight Lounge

It pleases me to report that the Starlight Lounge, located at 47 King st. N in Uptown Waterloo is going to be hosting a night of indie fiction and poetry on Monday, October the the 18th.

Oh yeah, and it's effing FREE.

Doors at 7.

Here's the line up:

Gary Barwin - The Porcupinity of the Stars

Natalee Caple - The Semiconducting Dictionary

Evie Christie - The Bourgeois Empire

Sheila Heti - How Should a Person Be?

George Murray - Glimpse: Selected Aphorisms

Dorothy Ellen Palmer - When Fenelon Falls

Do what thou wilt!

Local I, Scream Horrorfest Starts today!

The local I, Scream Horrorfest begins today, located at The GIG Theatre on 137 Ontario st. in Kitchener, and lasts through to saturday and sunday! Go here for the schedule. If there's anything you'd like to see, you can bring 5 canned goods or non-perishable items for the food bank and ticket prices are halved. Like magic!

Brutal Knights, Dead Wife, and Mighty Atom Show This Saturday!

Some kingly Canadian punk bands are hitting Mom's Tattoo in Uptown Waterloo tomorrow night, Saturday the 25th, and it's going to be amazing. I'd heard the Mighty Atom was playing and made a mental note to check it out and blog about it, only to find that one of the best punk bands to come out of Toronto in recent years is headlining: The Brutal Knights - hilarious and wildly entertaining, beautiful and terrible as the dawn. Entry looks like 10 smackers.

Be there at 7:30! Here's the Mom's Tattoo myspace write up.

Your friendly neighborhood Wizaard will be there to greet you if you greet him first since he doesn't know who the hell you are.

Here's some tunes for your perusal:

Mighty Atom

Brutal Knights

Dead Wife

Gandalf my old friend, this....will be a night....to remembuhhhh.

Calling All Zombies! Film Shoot on the 23rd and 24th!

CAFKA, Kitchener Waterloo's contemporary arts forum, is spearheading the work of artist Jillian McDonald, who deals primarily in, oddly and wonderfully enough, ZOMBIES. She's shooting a performance piece on film, where she needs as many zombies as she can get attacking the Steel Rail train in Waterloo. That's the one that runs to St. Jacobs.

People who show up with their own zombie makeup on will be an asset, but there will also be makeup people on hand to touch up or help you. Here's the write up on the facebook event titled Zombie Film Shoot at the Waterloo Train Station:

So, CAFKA is doing an art project to coincide with the Steel Rail train party on Friday September 24th. They need zombies to show up on Thursday and Friday to participate in a filmed and live event. This is a 2 day commitment.

Here are the details:

They need about 15 zombies for Thursday at 1:00 pm at the Train Station. These people need to commit to showing up Friday night for the live attack as well. You can do your own make up ...ahead of time but they will also have make up artists there to zombify you or touch things up.

They need more zombies to show up at 6:00 pm for the second stage of shooting. As many zombies as possible would be great. If you can commit to being there again on Friday night that would be even better.

The schedule of events is:

1 p.m. Thursday, September 23:
Make-up

2 p.m. Thursday, September 23:
Shooting while the train is moving: 15 zombies required.

6 p.m. Thursday, September 23:
Make-up

8 p.m. Thursday, September 23:
Shooting of zombies swarming train at Waterloo Station.

10 p.m. Friday, September 24:
Zombies to participate in a live event.

If you show up Thursday, you will be told when you need to be at the train station for make-up on Friday night. It all has to be timed right.

This is a great opportunity for local zombies to take part in a film/art project/live theatre event. It sounds amazing. Sadly, your Zombiemaster is out of town and cannot participate but I'm sure you will all do me proud out there.

The artist involved is Jillian McDonald and the co-ordinater is Gordon Hatt. Track them down if you need more info or want to help.

- Zombiemaster Mike

Here's a bit from Gordon Hatt:

CAFKA is really excited to to see the great response to our zombie shooting on Thursday September 23 and the performance on Friday, September 24. Basically, we need about 15 hard core zombies for Thursday afternoon to be ready by the 2 p.m. train departure and shooting. More zombies are need at 8 when s...hoot a swarming of the train. On Friday night at 10, we will do it again with as many zombies as we can muster. We are going to be doing basic make-up and costume at the train station before shooting and performing, but if you want to develop a more elaborate make-up and costume at home, by all means.

Jillian Mcdonald has done a number of zombie performances and shootings in Canada, the United States and in Europe. She is really great to work with. Please call me at the CAFKA office (519.744.5123) email me (gwhatt@cafka.org) or contact me on FB for more details.

Be sure to keep an eye on the CAFKA website for the comings and goings of our regions local artists, and as a great bonus, national and international ones too.

Waterloo Royal Medieval Faire This Saturday!

It is upon us! The Royal Medieval Faire is this Saturday in Waterloo Park, and there you can find some mirth, merriment, and a bunch of people dressed up like they're not from around here. It's almost...almost like they're from.....another time!!1

Indeed, the faire is very clearly a temporal rift that opens up around the same time every year, in the ides of september it seems. I have been monitoring them for quite some time, and I am seeking a way to restore them permanently to their proper time. Or maybe I'll find a way to seal them here forever so I can dance a foppish jig with the knights and ladies every weekend. Whichever solution presents itself first.

Bring the family and friends and maybe...just maybe...you will meet me in my true form - as THE WIZAARD, GUARDIAN WIZARD OF WATERLOO (the loser in the cheap wizard hat).

Survival of the Dead Screening at Princess Tonight!

The latest George A. Romero zombie installment, Survival of the Dead, is getting a screening care of Gen X Video tonight at the original Princess Cinema in uptown Waterloo. It's a zombie dress-up, so go in costume for 8:30 and pick up some prizes if you're worthy.

The Princess Bride and 8 1/2 at the Original Princess!

Legendary 'romantic fantasy motion picture' The Princess Bride scheduled to play the Original Princess Cinema tomorrow, Tuesday the 17th, at 7pm. If you like pictures moving in front of you, and romance and fantasy and Andre the fucking Giant, go and see it!





Also, the following Wednesday, also at 7pm, Fellini's even more legendary 8 1/2 is being screened. Autobiographical and lush, this one's an 'Italian arthouse dark sunglasses black and white motion picture.' If you've never seen an artsy foreign film before, or just feel like tasting a splash of Italy, give it a shot.



This is a double whammy of wicked film. Check out the Princess schedule for a full outline.

Protip: The Original Princess only takes cash.

Deathproof Wrestling to hit the Polish Legion on Saturday!

More hardcore wrestling this Saturday at the Polish Legion (601 Wellington St N, Kitchener)! Be there or be square! Click on the poster for Deathproof's website and deets.

Cherry Festival! Non-Violence Festival! Saturday the 10th!

Heard about it? It's taking place on Victoria Park island in Kitchener from noon till 9 pm.

"The 6th annual Nonviolence Festival Day in the Park brings together local community groups, vendors, artists and the public for a day of music, food, meditation, crafts and games under the banner of nonviolence.

Admission is free, and the day is made possible by volunteers."

If you be a violent man or woman with an affinity for cherries, the Cherry Festival might be more to your liking. That's going on from 11am to 6pm at Cherry Park, Kitchener which is at the corner of Strange St. and Waverly Rd. Cherry related foods should abound. Here's the link!

Earthquake Hits Waterloo Ontario - My Fault

Sorry guys, it was my fault. Pun intended.

Earthquake, thunderclouds?

Best case scenario: A Minor Wurm got bored.
Worst case scenario: It's fucking Ragnarok.

Since the burning of Mel's Diner I'd suspected that a Big Terrible Old One had awoken and razed it to the ground. A dragon was the obvious answer, and I had apologised for not acting on its presence sooner. I still miss the milkshakes.

For weeks I've been searching for clues as to the whereabouts of this mystery beast in the vast network of tunnels and caves that make up the Waterloo Downbelow, which is a place I do not recommend you visit without serious preparation and accoutrement - most important being your travel papers and a magical axe. Maybe bring this guy, to keep the bone-crunching trolls satisfied while you run away stealthily into the shadows of cowardice:

Not that I'd do that to him, he was a good man. Is a good man. If he were to disappear without a trace, I'm sure his friends and family would, out of reason and well-balanced emotion, reach the conclusion that he ran away from home because he hates everybody.

So after battling with some trolls and thumbwrestling some goblins I managed to glean some choice rumours about a big something lurking in the Downbelow. My money, I said to the gnome, is on this being the dragon. I lit up one of my wizard pipes, the one that protects me from thought control, and struck into deepest depths of Waterloo.

It was there I found it - A Great Old Wurm, dripping its malice onto an annoying Happy Bunny dayplanner. "INCINERATE WATERLOO, PICK UP THE KIDS" was written there. Right. Well. I knew what I had to do.

For the next two days I battled that thing deep below, and it was very hard I'll tell you. Whenever my anti-thought-control pipe went out the beast made me do the truffle-shuffle until I could struggle out a match. Anyway, it finally went down around 1:45 pm today, which is what you guys in Waterloo and across Ontario felt.


And what thanks might I get for my labour? None of course. A wizard needs not these things. But when I kick a Great Wurm's ass and the only loot it drops is a Happy fucking Bunny dayplanner, I start to suspect that I've picked the wrong career.

Ooh! Acid Drop to play at the Chainsaw!

Looks like local Kitchener thrash-punk crossover band Acid Drop are going to be hitting the Chainsaw (formerly The Spur, at the corner of King and Dupont) with some bands I have yet to sample in uptown Waterloo this Saturday, the 26th. Be there or be square!

Here's their video for Banana Cream Pie. :3

Banana cream pie

Acid Drop | MySpace Music Videos

Waterloo Airport Airshow Tomorrow!

The Snowbirds: Defending you from the Alien Menace since 1942

Just a heads up on the Waterloo Airport's Aviation Expo in Breslau! It's happening on the 19th and the 20th, just in time for father's day.

The legendary Snowbirds (whom I believe to secretly be a special force of extra-terrestrial counter-measure pilots) will be performing. If planes are your thing, check it out! I went with my pappy to see the pre-show earlier today and was reminded that planes go pretty fucking fast. I was also caught off-guard as to how maneuverable the smaller planes can really be - I'm a big fan of old-school bi-planes, and they were a treat to see.

You can read the airport's write up hereabouts. I think tickets are $15, and $7 for children and seniors.

Lifeforce is Playing at the Princess!

Heads up! Lifeforce will be screening at the original Princess Cinema on two nights - Sunday the 20th and Tuesday the 22nd!

Lifeforce feels like what would result if a b-movie producer was suddenly given a hollywood budget to do whatever he or she wanted. "So it needs vampires! And zombies! Naked babes too. And they better be in space at some point! Scientists, laboratories, detectives. And we better take this one seriously you guys! Get to it." It's a really bizarre and wonderful genre mishmash of a film. And decidedly British.

You can read the Princess write up here and/or watch the trailer below.



I'll likely be going on the Tuesday. :3

The Wild Hunt hits Waterloo, June 4th-9th!

I've been waiting for this one. This Canadian film about LARPers turning savage is getting some buzz. There isn't much opportunity to catch a Canadian film in our current cinematic climate, so have yourself a rare experience. You can read the full write up on the film at the Princess page hereabouts. The screenings are part of the Canada Film Days festival, which should be worth following!

It's screening at the original princess from today onwards to the 9th. The directors themselves will be at tonight's screening to chat and answer questions.

LARP + Viking = Liking!

Canadian Fantasy Writer Guy Gavriel Kay to Appear in Waterloo!

So you see, it was actually eating their souls all along. I like stories that turn out that way.

I do too, Kay. I do too. And I'll tell you that when I see you at Wordsworth Books in Uptown Waterloo this Wednesday, the 27th. It's located across from Waterloo Town Square.

Guy Gavriel Kay, famed canuck fantasy writer, will be at a book signing for the release of his latest - Under Heaven. It's either 10 bucks to get in or the purchase of his book. If you dig Kay, you may want to sashay that way.

Ok. So far I've read his beloved Fionavar Tapestry series and a book of his poetry. Decent shtuff.

Deathproof Hardcore Wrestling Event is TOMORROW!

Ever wanted to see a bonafide wrastlin' show? Pro-wrestling too glam for you? How's about some hardcore wrestling, the sort where people do some really crazy things to each other in the name of getting very hurt?

YOU'RE IN LUCK!

Deathproof Wrestling has a show coming up tomorrow night, on Friday, in Guelph at Cowboys.

It's fans bring the weapons, which means you can bring something you want to see smashed across the backs of our Canadian youth. You can catch the full write up on the event here! It looks pretty gawdammed awesome.



Apparently there's going to be a match between two wrestling gamers - one an oldschool nintendo fanatic, and the other a World of Warcraft addict. This should be highly entertaining. :3