Monsters vs. Aliens vs. Migraine

Your options are slightly limited when it comes to things to do in Ottawa on Easter Sunday, but we managed just fine. We've been staying at the Albert House Inn for a couple of nights, just as a bit of a treat before going back to the Adam's Airport Inn for the rest of our stay in Ottawa. Oh, and our upgrading streak continued. When we checked in here, there was a cancellation, so they upgraded us to the biggest room in the place. And the breakfasts here are amazing.

Anyway, the one thing that was open today was Chapters down near the Rideau Centre, so we spent a lovely three hours or so perusing the stacks, looking for new books or authors. We didn't buy any books, let's not be silly here. Books take up too much space and are too expensive when bought in Ottawa. But we took notes and we'll order a bunch when we get back to Iqaluit. Assuming we have any money left. Which may be somewhat doubtful by the time this week is over with.

Oh, fun thing I learned at Chapters today. I was in the biography section looking at Steve Martin's book "Born Standing Up" and I noticed Rebecca Eckler's masterpiece on the same shelf. Just out of curiosity, I picked it up and tried reading a few pages, just to see if it was as bad as her column writing. Unsurprisingly, about as awful as I expected. But here's the amusing thing...I noticed there were no blurbs on or in her book. There were no glowing words of praise on the back cover. There was nothing inside in the pages leading up to the first chapter.

I grabbed a few nearby books and looked at them. All of them had blurbs somewhere. The publishers managed to find someone, somewhere to say nice things about the author. I'm assuming bribes might have been involved with some of them, but they made do.

Nowhere in the land could there be found a person willing to go on record and stake their reputation as having enjoyed Eckler's book. Really says something, when you think about it.

This evening saw our continuing quest to see every movie currently playing in Ottawa while we're here except for Hanna Montana. This evening it was Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D IMAX. And we're both fighting the headaches as we speak. I thought I would be all right. I saw Beowulf in 3D IMAX a couple of years ago, but whatever process Dreamworks is using for this movie gave me a headache. The fact that the movie is erratic and not nearly as clever as it would like to think it is didn't help any either.

We saw Duplicity on Friday, which was better, but not quite as good as it should have been. Not entirely sure why. Some people complained the script was too complicated, but honestly, if you couldn't follow what was going on, then there's something wrong with you. I think it might have been that Julia Roberts and Clive Owen didn't have as much chemistry as I thought. And it should have been more fun. I think it was a touch more serious than it needed to be.

Not sure what movie to catch next. God help us, maybe Fast and Furious...although I notice a theatre in town is showing a double feature of Monty Python - Life of Brain and the Holy Grail. That's deeply tempting. But we shall see...