resistance to persistence

matchstick folks get the camera turned on them. that’s not me on the left - it’s my doppleganger, jeff from matchstick.

i was contacted last week by matchstick, the company that was so nice to include me in their nokia phone seeding promotion. they were looking to video interview some of the folks who blogged about their experience with the nokia 6682. so last night we met up downtown, found a spot to video (keep it short in case security shows up looking for permits), and i answered a bunch of questions on video. classic single-person interview style where i repeat the question asked at the start of my answer. they asked the usual questions - do you like it, what don’t you like, how many people have you told, any good stories? of course - if i didn’t have my nokia 6682 with me, i wouldn’t have been able to capture my 2nd meeting of Kenny Hotz.

i wasn’t used to being the one in front of the camera. i’m usually behind the camera, taking the photos, but i think i did alright. the video is intended to be shown only to nokia, but i might get to see the finished product. we joked about posting it to youtube.

happy birthday dad. i miss you lots and wish you were still with us. wherever you are upstairs, i hope there’s a quiet lake, a stocked cooler full of beer and the flyers are stanley cup champs.

hug your family every chance you get.

i did my best impression of paparazzi, along with a few hundred other people, and snapped some shots of stars at the toronto international film festival. i went to the gala opening of “Bobby”. it has a huge cast which includes Anthony Hopkins, Ashton Kutcher, Christian Slater, Demi Moore, Elijah Wood, Emilio Estevez, Heather Graham, Helen Hunt, Joshua Jackson, Joy Bryant, Laurence Fishburne, Lindsay Lohan, Martin Sheen, Nick Cannon, Sharon Stone, William H. Macy and others.

Several of them attended the premiere. I got photos of Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Sharon Stone, Christian Slater, William H Macy, and Emilio Estevez. Definitely not my best photos as I had a full zoom going, with lots of shake trying to dodge other people standing in my way. Next year I’ll be closer.

View my photos from the premiere, by clicking the images below.

stars at the Toronto International Film Festival, 2006

clockwise from top right, Bif Naked, Moka Only, Matthew Good, Jay Miron

While I was in Vancouver the past Labour Day weekend, I spotted some local celebrities and I wasn’t even looking for them.

• Bif Naked - she was filiming something in the near the seawall at Coal Harbour. She was talking into a cellphone and said “Have a great time in Viet Nam”.
• Moka Only - he was walking along Robson street. I noticed him at first from the hot Nikes he was wearing and then looked up to see who was wearing the shoes.
• Matthew Good - I spotted him in the Vancouver Airport on the way home. He ended up on the same flight as me, sitting about 10 rows in front of me.
• Jay Miron - BMX superstar, he was sitting on the patio of the great little pancake restaurant, De Dutch that we went to for breakfast.

image published on Torontoist.com

Imagine my surprise this morning as I’m reading Torontoist, going through the items and see a very familiar image appear. “HeY! Wait a minute! That’s my photo.” Unfortunately, the photo was used about a sad story of a car accident.

That photo is available for viewing on Flickr athttp://www.flickr.com/photos/blainekendall/75478082/ along with other great Toronto photos I’ve taken.

me with Kenny Hotz

It was a very exciting lunch hour today. I had a dentist appointment for a checkup and as I was walking along King Street, I looked next to Starbucks and saw a small film crew. The sound guy looked familiar and the guy they were filming had his back towards me but I thought I knew who it was. I decided to check it out to confirm and walked past them. Sure enough, it was Kenny Hotz from Kenny vs Spenny. I yelled, “when’s the next season start?” Kenny shouted back “October 16″. I realized this would make a great blog post, so I pulled out my cameraphone, the trusty Nokia 6682, to capture the moment. Kenny said he remembered me from the previous time I ran into him and stopped him to talk and said he reads my blog. He’s left comments here as well. I’ve got celebrity readership! After the photo, he says “film him…get him on the show”. Camera’s rolling and he asks me to borrow $5. I grabbed my wallet, whipped out $5 and handed it over. I said “anything to help you beat Spenny” and started to walk away. Kenny said, “in that case, I should have asked for $20″. I figure with all the laughs this show has given me, it’s well worth $5 for my entertainment and this way I give a little back. This form of payment is way better than coughing up $12 to see a Hollywood movie and then finding out how bad it sucks.

So, I’ll be anxiously awaiting the start of Kenny vs Spenny Season 3, Sunday, October 16 at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT on Showcase. For one, to see the new episodes, and secondly, to see if I make it onto the show. If you haven’t seen the show yet, you owe it to yourself to do so. Read my previous article about the show.

I’ve posted the cameraphone photos at my flickr page.

UPDATE: Kenny left comments to this post saying they were filming episode 12 of 13, “Who can be homeless for longer” and my $5 donation went towards paying for his lunch.

check out youtube for clips from the show if you’re interested in a preview of what the shows are like. They were also on Conan O’Brien, see the clip here.

it’s now been over 2 weeks since my father passed away in a tragic swimming accident. my parents were on vacation in the dominican republic. early in the morning they were in the water and got pulled out too far by a rip current. my mom wasn’t out as far and fought her way back in, but my father was unable to make it back in. he was bravely pulled into shore by a passing kayaker but dad had taken in too much water at that point. my mom was very strong in taking care of getting my father home in the following days along with great help from the hotel and travel companies.

all of my mother and father’s siblings flew in for the funeral so we had great family support. i can’t thank them enough, along with so many friends of my parents - amazing what they did for us. also, my friends have been amazing offering support every step of the way, as well as attending the wake and funeral. i’m lucky to have such great friends. i also met at least 300 people who came to the wake and funeral to show their condolences for my father. i never knew how many lives he touched until it was too late. since my father was in the military, we grew up all over Canada and we met many people across the country. and a lot of the country was in contact with us. as well as so many people in our home city. my dad always said hi to anyone he met and would joke with anyone he could. i think it’s the eastern canadian “down-east” influence. i remember as a kid walking down the street in north sydney, nova scotia and my father would say “hi, how ya doing today?” to complete strangers. i always found it strange, but it’s the down-east hospitality… nobody is a stranger and everybody is a friend. and he carried that hospitality and charm with him wherever he went. i think that’s why so many people liked him so much.

the funeral was very sad, but it was also great to see the turnout. we knew there would be a lot of people attending, but were overwhelmed by the numbers that turned out. the very large church was packed and people even had to stand in the aisles. since my dad was an instructor in the military, they shut down the school for the morning and bused all the students in to attend. seeing row after row of military there for him was a great honour.

it’s been a hard struggle every day. i wouldn’t say each day is easier or harder…they’re just different. some days are hard in one way and the next day will be hard in a different way. focus and concentration are difficult. different thoughts or things you do each day trigger different memories. the last thoughts in my head at the end of the night and the first thoughts when i wake up in the morning are of my dad so it never goes away. in a way that is good because i don’t want to forget, yet sometimes you just want a break from the pain. i can only imagine how my mom feels. if i lost my wife after 32 years of marriage i don’t know how i could face each day. but she deals with each day as it comes. i’m very proud of her.

when i think of how hard it is to cope with the loss of my father and why it happened to him, i think of a story my dad’s best friend told me recently. my father was diagnosed with parkinson’s disease almost 10 years ago but still remained very active and thankfully still didn’t have a lot of the problems associated with the disease. but at no point did my dad get down on himself, nor get depressed and say “why me?” he simply said “this is what i’ve been given, this is my fate and i’m going to deal with it”. so i know that he would expect me to be the same way about his passing. this is my fate and i’m just going to have to deal with it and move forward in my life. slowly and sadly.

I got some film developed over the weekend. A few of the shots were from the Toronto Film Fest. Snapped a couple of Cameron Diaz. Not great quality because it was pouring and I had to shoot through people huddling with umbrellas. See my celebrity set here on Flickr.

This morning, walking into work I spotted Kenny Hotz just in front of me waiting outside of a bank machine. I had to stop to talk to him.
For those who aren’t familiar with him (and there’s probably lots) he’s on a little seen show called Kenny vs Spenny.

Kenny and Spenny are two best friends who compete against each other. Their competitions are ridiculous, immature and totally intense. Like most pals, Kenny and Spenny have always competed against one another. Kenny sees every contest as a way to have fun, get things for free, meet girls and humiliate his pal on national television. He feels that he can beat Spenny “fair and square” but admits that would take all the fun out of it. Kenny loves to compete against Spenny, because Spenny is an only child and isn’t used to sibling rivalry. “I’m like the tormenting brother he never had and probably didn’t want.”

The show aired on CBC around dinner time - I guess CBC thought it would appeal to kids, but I found it to be a bit violent and dealt more adult-themed issues, even though these 2 guys are very immature.

Here’s examples of some of their competitions:

Who can stay awake the longest?
Who can stand up the longest?
Who can sit on a cow the longest?
Who is the sanest?
Who can earn the most money in three days?
Who can stay blindfolded the longest?
Who can win a beauty pageant?
Who can lose the most weight?
Who can stay handcuffed the longest?
Who can put on the best concert?
Who is the strongest?
Who makes the most convincing woman?
Who is the best male stripper?
Who is the best figure skater?
Who will use their arms first?
Who can survive in the woods the longest?
Who can live in a van the longest?

Think of MTV’s Jackass meets Survivor. It’s no-holds barred and Kenny always has a sneeky plan. I’ve seen them stay up for 3 days straight, stay handcuffed to each other for a very long time (going to the washroom was very funny), try to sleep standing up, and dress in drag to host a tea party for a bunch of women. Hilarious. The loser of the competition gets to be humiliated by the winner. I’ve seen them humiliate each other by being forced to run down Yonge St naked, parade on a streetcorner as a hooker and try to pickup men (a cop car even showed up shortly after).

It’s a hilarious show, but CBC hasn’t shown it in a couple years. I went searching for it and found it on the GameShow Network which I don’t get. So I had to talk to Kenny this morning when I saw him to find out what’s going on. He told me it’s coming back soon on Showcase. Showcase always plays great shows, like the brilliant Trailer Park Boys. Kenny also mentioned that now “it’s totally hardcore”. I can’t wait to see it. He asked me if I liked the show and I enthusiastically told him “I love it!”. I can’t wait to see it on again. Check it out if you get Showcase.

UPDATE: Check it out, Kenny actually found my site and replied in the comments. I’m not sure how he found my site so soon, but I’m impressed. Check Kenny’s site for his latest work - Papal Chase, an attempt to meet Pope John Paul II to win a $1000 bet.

Bennifer2 is in town. Affleck is filming a movie, and it’s 4 blocks from my office. Garner flew in and they’ve been spotted around town. I’ve got my eyes peeled. I walked past the shoot when I was out for lunch today, but they’re doing some interior shots. The outside is all done up with vintage cars and buildings decorated like flower shops, but no action outside yet. I’ll pass by on my way home. I should have brought my camera. The trusty phonecam might have to do the job.