Friday: Due to a problem with the internet at work I got to take off early, which was awesome because it meant I could crack open a couple beers and continue my full frontal assault on my laundry which had been collecting on my floor for the better part of three weeks. Once things were approaching sanitary, I made my way down to the Esco for Bloodshot Bill, a one man rockabilly band.
The opening act was also super fun, they're called The Kid and had a sort of psychedelic 60's sound to them. Also, the lead singer was hilarious in his skinny pants and pointy white loafers. He even let me shake a maraca during Bloodshot Bill's set.
Thing I'm learning is that I need to start being careful going to rock shows by myself. While the attention is certainly flattering, it ends up being distracting to the show. I had no less than three suitors vying for my attention, but I just wanted to get my dance on, which I did.
Saturday: Feeling the effects of my over indulgence, Saturday was a decidedly slow moving affair. L came to pick up the cat around noon, but instead of starting the de-fur-afying of the apartment I went back to bed since my meeting had been pushed to Sunday. At some point I agreed to meet MJ to try to help her with her computer, but slept through the appointed meeting time and agreed that it would be better if I just stayed home.
Made a couple calls out West and then curled up in a blanket and set about catching up on the mound of films piled under my TV. First up was Little Miss Sunshine, which I really enjoyed, but probably not as much as most people. However, it was the perfect antidote to my foul mood, so there was that.
Next up was Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, which while well acted and written, suffered from some technical flourishes that ended up being rather distracting. The nonlinear plotting was fine, but the forced strobing effects used to signal a change in time/perspective were pedantic and useless. Also, Ethan Hawke was so fucking twitchy I wanted to see him hurt, badly, which didn't really happen. At least not enough for my tastes.
Sunday: Another pretty lazy day. Went for my weekly bagel run. Finished off Before the Devil Knows You're Dead and made some calls out West. Tidied up the house a bit and then made my way to the office for my meeting with MJ and Taien. Since MJ is going to leaving for Korea for close to 6 months next week, we needed to have a sit down to discuss who would take care of what. Didn't take too long and afterwards we contemplated going for a drink together when Taien pulled out a bottle of whiskey, so we opted to do that. A few drinks later MJ and I stumbled over to Sago for some sushi and then I walked home. Made some more calls West and started watching the Darjeeling Limited, which I plan to finish tonight.
Showing posts with label weekend round up. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weekend round up. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Long Weekend Round-Up: NYC, Canadian Thanksgiving & Fletcher Tattoos
Photos pending
Friday: Got up bright and early to catch the train to NYC to spend Canadian Thanksgiving with my Fletcher brethren, Rock, Slim and Linda. Packed entirely too much stuff to occupy myself on what ended up being another 12 and a half hour ride through purgatory (actually, Upstate New York) and ended up mostly listening to Broken Social Scene, knitting and reading The Atrocity Exhibition.
Got to Penn Station at 10 PM where I met up with Phil and Tina and jumped on the train to their place in Astoria. Got to meet their doggy, Trixie, drank wine and ate greasy food at Mike's, then passed out on the couch.
Saturday: After a suitably late start, Phil and I headed out to the East Village to price tattoo places on St. Marks Place. Met up with his friend Amber in the park and ate stupidly delicious hummus with sauteed mushrooms at a restaurant called, appropriately enough, Hummus Place. Hung out for a bit and then called my old UBC drinking buddy Andy to arrange a meeting place in Williamsburg.
Met up with Andy and got some cheap and delicious tacos and frozen margaritas, then headed out to Greenpoint to catch his buddy's show. I felt super bad because I ended up nodding off during the set, but it turned out my brief siesta was much needed because the evening ended up turning into quite the adventure.
After leaving the Red Star bar we went back to Manhattan for someone's birthday at the eleventh street bar. Unbeknownst to us it was actually a costume party, although only about half the bar seemed to be participating. Costume highlights include the woman dressed as Glenn Close from Fatal Attraction, complete with a stuffed rabbit in a pot, a guy dressed as Alex my droog from Clockwork Orange and no less than 3 Sarah Palins.
After several cocktails we moved on to someone's loft in the area, but while everyone else was at the convenience store buying more beer I opted for an extra large bottle of mineral water. Partied on the roof to a DJ spinning tunes and managed to sticker one of the Sarah Palins with an Obama/Biden sticker. At about 4 AM I was ready to pack 'er in, but Andy talked me into sticking around to enjoy potato latkes and perogies at some 24 hour dinner in the neighborhood.
Got back to Phil & Tina's at around 6 AM and promptly passed out on the couch.
Sunday: After waking briefly to grab some breakfast with P & T, I passed out again until 3 PM when Bess called to organize meeting up that evening. Ended up choosing to attend an evening of indie/experimental music at the Issue Project Room at the Spiegeltent on Pier 17, which was an eclectic mix to be sure. First up was a noise-rock band from Boston called Neptune who make all of their instruments out of scrap metal and other various things. Next was Tony Conrad, who worked with the Dream Syndicate and krautrock bank Faust, who basically played a modified violin with reverb for about 45 straight minutes. After that was 5 piece blues band.
Being that we were both starving, we ventured up to the lower East side to grab cheap and delicious Chinese food at the Congee Village, where I also enjoyed my first ever apple martini (I know). After catching up over congee and yummy tofu and veggies we both conceded defeat and went our separate ways to sleep.
Back in Astoria I opted to give Louie a call since his plane from Vancouver should have landed by then. Chatted briefly as he was in a cab back to his apartment and once he was settled he came by Phil and Tina's to hang out. Ended up at Mike's again and stayed up until about 1 AM talking.
Monday: Slept a decent amount for the first time my whole trip, then set about helping Phil with his preparations for Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner that evening. I was in charge of desert, so whipped up an old fashioned Quebecois sugar pie & a yummy & spicy sweet potato pie. Other yummy things we prepped included samosa stuffed twice baked potatoes, and a stuffed pumpkin.
At about 2:30 PM Louie came by and he and I made our way to St. Marks Place to arrange for our group tattoos. Luckily they were able to accommodate all four of us and the quote was slightly less than we had originally been told. While we were waiting for the artist to get ready, Louie went up to The Onion offices to grab a copy of the issue with the Sukiyaki Western Django review with my pull quote in it while I waited for Phil. Snuck into Search and Destroy to grab a thank you gift for MC for making sure my cat didn't starve.
Around 4:30 PM Tina showed up and the artist did up sketches of our tattoos. Mine was a little bigger than the others because I opted to get a banner under the house. They were very sweet at the tattoo shop, letting us all take a million photos like the bunch of nerds we are. Phil and Louie left after getting their tattoos to finish the preparations for dinner, so us girls had to tough it out on our own.
Once we were all down we headed back up to Astoria and went straight to Louie's place because we were starving. As soon as we got to the door I was accosted by Louie's friend Heidi, who I hadn't seen in years. Once inside, I proceeded to drink much wine and mingle. Before dinner I helped Louie and his friend Carson from Sarnia put together a YouTube playlist of Canadian Heritage Minutes and Hinterland Who's Whos.
After dinner I chatted outside with a French girl who commented on my Quebecois accent, probably the best compliment I've gotten since I moved out here. I didn't really think about my accent until she mentioned it, but as I was speaking to her I suddenly really noticed the difference between my lazy, low, Canadian French and her more lyric, refined, continental French.
Back inside, things had degenerated into a Rock Band Party, as do most parties I go to these days. Once that started to wind down and people started to go home, Louie got out his Uke for the traditional post dinner Ukulele concert, which went very well, right up until the guy from upstairs came down to ask us to keep it down.
I had started to nod off on the couch when Louie suggested we make a conference call to his parents to tell them about our tattoos, which was funny and lovely. Finally, at around 2 AM, Phil, Tina and I stumbled back to their apartment so I could crash on their couch one last time before scrambling to catch my train home.
Tuesday: Got up at 6 AM and scrambled out the door with my little suitcase in tow and set about getting the supplies I'd need to survive the trip home: food, water, etc. Got on the subway and suddenly realized I didn't have my cellphone. Got off the subway, went back to Phil and Tina's, woke them up, searched the couch cushions and then realized that the damn thing had been in my purse the whole time. Went back out on the street to hail a cab. Forty minutes and $40 later, turned up at Penn Station in time to realize that I'd missed the boarding call for my train by half an hour. After briefly waiting in the Amtrak customer service line, decided to play it safe and asked an elderly police officer where the nearest Greyhound station was. Walked the six blocks to the Greyhound station and bought a ticket for the next bus, which conveniently was leaving in two hours. Put myself directly in the line-up for the bus, since I would be damned if I missed that too, and accepted my bus going fate.
As it turns out, the bus was quite pleasant, and despite leaving two hours after the train, actually got me back to Montreal at the same time the train would have, if not sooner. I even enjoyed our rest stop in Albany. Fuck the train.
Friday: Got up bright and early to catch the train to NYC to spend Canadian Thanksgiving with my Fletcher brethren, Rock, Slim and Linda. Packed entirely too much stuff to occupy myself on what ended up being another 12 and a half hour ride through purgatory (actually, Upstate New York) and ended up mostly listening to Broken Social Scene, knitting and reading The Atrocity Exhibition.
Got to Penn Station at 10 PM where I met up with Phil and Tina and jumped on the train to their place in Astoria. Got to meet their doggy, Trixie, drank wine and ate greasy food at Mike's, then passed out on the couch.
Saturday: After a suitably late start, Phil and I headed out to the East Village to price tattoo places on St. Marks Place. Met up with his friend Amber in the park and ate stupidly delicious hummus with sauteed mushrooms at a restaurant called, appropriately enough, Hummus Place. Hung out for a bit and then called my old UBC drinking buddy Andy to arrange a meeting place in Williamsburg.
Met up with Andy and got some cheap and delicious tacos and frozen margaritas, then headed out to Greenpoint to catch his buddy's show. I felt super bad because I ended up nodding off during the set, but it turned out my brief siesta was much needed because the evening ended up turning into quite the adventure.
After leaving the Red Star bar we went back to Manhattan for someone's birthday at the eleventh street bar. Unbeknownst to us it was actually a costume party, although only about half the bar seemed to be participating. Costume highlights include the woman dressed as Glenn Close from Fatal Attraction, complete with a stuffed rabbit in a pot, a guy dressed as Alex my droog from Clockwork Orange and no less than 3 Sarah Palins.
After several cocktails we moved on to someone's loft in the area, but while everyone else was at the convenience store buying more beer I opted for an extra large bottle of mineral water. Partied on the roof to a DJ spinning tunes and managed to sticker one of the Sarah Palins with an Obama/Biden sticker. At about 4 AM I was ready to pack 'er in, but Andy talked me into sticking around to enjoy potato latkes and perogies at some 24 hour dinner in the neighborhood.
Got back to Phil & Tina's at around 6 AM and promptly passed out on the couch.
Sunday: After waking briefly to grab some breakfast with P & T, I passed out again until 3 PM when Bess called to organize meeting up that evening. Ended up choosing to attend an evening of indie/experimental music at the Issue Project Room at the Spiegeltent on Pier 17, which was an eclectic mix to be sure. First up was a noise-rock band from Boston called Neptune who make all of their instruments out of scrap metal and other various things. Next was Tony Conrad, who worked with the Dream Syndicate and krautrock bank Faust, who basically played a modified violin with reverb for about 45 straight minutes. After that was 5 piece blues band.
Being that we were both starving, we ventured up to the lower East side to grab cheap and delicious Chinese food at the Congee Village, where I also enjoyed my first ever apple martini (I know). After catching up over congee and yummy tofu and veggies we both conceded defeat and went our separate ways to sleep.
Back in Astoria I opted to give Louie a call since his plane from Vancouver should have landed by then. Chatted briefly as he was in a cab back to his apartment and once he was settled he came by Phil and Tina's to hang out. Ended up at Mike's again and stayed up until about 1 AM talking.
Monday: Slept a decent amount for the first time my whole trip, then set about helping Phil with his preparations for Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner that evening. I was in charge of desert, so whipped up an old fashioned Quebecois sugar pie & a yummy & spicy sweet potato pie. Other yummy things we prepped included samosa stuffed twice baked potatoes, and a stuffed pumpkin.
At about 2:30 PM Louie came by and he and I made our way to St. Marks Place to arrange for our group tattoos. Luckily they were able to accommodate all four of us and the quote was slightly less than we had originally been told. While we were waiting for the artist to get ready, Louie went up to The Onion offices to grab a copy of the issue with the Sukiyaki Western Django review with my pull quote in it while I waited for Phil. Snuck into Search and Destroy to grab a thank you gift for MC for making sure my cat didn't starve.
Around 4:30 PM Tina showed up and the artist did up sketches of our tattoos. Mine was a little bigger than the others because I opted to get a banner under the house. They were very sweet at the tattoo shop, letting us all take a million photos like the bunch of nerds we are. Phil and Louie left after getting their tattoos to finish the preparations for dinner, so us girls had to tough it out on our own.
Once we were all down we headed back up to Astoria and went straight to Louie's place because we were starving. As soon as we got to the door I was accosted by Louie's friend Heidi, who I hadn't seen in years. Once inside, I proceeded to drink much wine and mingle. Before dinner I helped Louie and his friend Carson from Sarnia put together a YouTube playlist of Canadian Heritage Minutes and Hinterland Who's Whos.
After dinner I chatted outside with a French girl who commented on my Quebecois accent, probably the best compliment I've gotten since I moved out here. I didn't really think about my accent until she mentioned it, but as I was speaking to her I suddenly really noticed the difference between my lazy, low, Canadian French and her more lyric, refined, continental French.
Back inside, things had degenerated into a Rock Band Party, as do most parties I go to these days. Once that started to wind down and people started to go home, Louie got out his Uke for the traditional post dinner Ukulele concert, which went very well, right up until the guy from upstairs came down to ask us to keep it down.
I had started to nod off on the couch when Louie suggested we make a conference call to his parents to tell them about our tattoos, which was funny and lovely. Finally, at around 2 AM, Phil, Tina and I stumbled back to their apartment so I could crash on their couch one last time before scrambling to catch my train home.
Tuesday: Got up at 6 AM and scrambled out the door with my little suitcase in tow and set about getting the supplies I'd need to survive the trip home: food, water, etc. Got on the subway and suddenly realized I didn't have my cellphone. Got off the subway, went back to Phil and Tina's, woke them up, searched the couch cushions and then realized that the damn thing had been in my purse the whole time. Went back out on the street to hail a cab. Forty minutes and $40 later, turned up at Penn Station in time to realize that I'd missed the boarding call for my train by half an hour. After briefly waiting in the Amtrak customer service line, decided to play it safe and asked an elderly police officer where the nearest Greyhound station was. Walked the six blocks to the Greyhound station and bought a ticket for the next bus, which conveniently was leaving in two hours. Put myself directly in the line-up for the bus, since I would be damned if I missed that too, and accepted my bus going fate.
As it turns out, the bus was quite pleasant, and despite leaving two hours after the train, actually got me back to Montreal at the same time the train would have, if not sooner. I even enjoyed our rest stop in Albany. Fuck the train.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Weekend Round-Up: Vamps, shopping and CAKE!
Friday: A fairly mellow night, punctuated only by a trip to Cinema du Parc to meet up with Chris, Lee & Alex for Daughters of Darkness on the big screen. I was super stoked because star Danielle Ouimet (a.k.a. Valérie) was going to be in attendance. She looked lovely and elegant, radiating the same beauty she did even in her early ingenue roles. She told some very entertaining stories about her difficulties with director Harry Kümel (apparently at one point things devolved into an all-out physical brawl) and her affection for her co-stars, particularly Delphine Seyrig.I had wanted to ask her for a photograph after the screening, but I totally chickened out. She did seem super nice though, so hopefully by the time I do have my shit together enough to interview her she will be cooperative.
After the movie I opted to walk home, then watched some crap on YouTube before calling it a night.
Saturday: Got up much later than I'd expected, but considering how tired I was from the week I opted not to feel too bad about it. Met up with Alain & MC to walk around and do a bit of shopping. Made the mistake of going to H&M (which, for the record, is the devil) and walked out with what is probably the shortest skirt I have ever owned. I blame the fact that I was having a "skinny" day and everything I tried on looked really good. Also, I deserve clothes that fit me. Yeah, that's it...
After Alain was all shopped out we stopped for Indian food as we all had a craving. I stuffed myself stupid on onion bhajis, extra potato-y saag and some kind of delicious fresh mushroom curry. After dinner more walking was in order, but I'd eaten so much I started to get stomach cramps and had to beg off to take the bus the rest of the way around Mount Royal. Tidied the house a bit, then read and went to bed.
Sunday: Another lazy morning. Finally got around to my bagel run around 1pm, then headed up to IGA for a grocery run. Did a bit of work before meeting up with Gloria from work to bake cakes for Margherita's birthday on Monday. Gloria made an almond chocolate mousse and I pulled out the good-ole Red Velvet Cake. Got home in time to call the 'rents and ice my monster cake before stumbling into bed.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Long Weekend Round-Up: Leatherface, Jazz & Work, Work, Work
Friday: After another psychotically busy week, I was rather relieved to have some time to chill out at home before going to see the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, on the big screen, at Cinema du Parc with Chris & Lee. It actually my first time seeing it (I know, I'm shocked too), and I'm very glad I waited until I had the chance to see it in 35mm. Despite some 70's fashion and dialogue, it stands up pretty well and while not nearly as graphic as it's reputation implies, I thought it was creepy as hell. Some of my viewing companions thought it was more funny than scary, but I know I'm not going to bother with the blasphemous remake. Also, Rob Zombie is a hack.Afterwards we went to Benelux for some beers & Chris made the mistake of trying the homemade, non-alcoholic root-beer. I quite liked it, but I have something of a sweet tooth. However, it did have a rather too strong vanilla aftertaste that was a little off-putting.
Saturday: Decided to take a break from working and spent a leisurely day enjoying the warm summer weather that had suddenly decided to appear. Went for brunch near Parc Molson and spent the afternoon drinking red wine and eating sushi in a park. Watched a couple of squirrels fight/fuck, which was mesmerizing and inappropriate at the same time.Later, a friend invited me to check out The Cinematic Orchestra at Club Soda, and although I am not a jazz fan I decided to be open minded and check it out. Turns out my instincts were correct, as even my friend was underwhelmed by the free-jazzy noodling, but I can't call the evening a total loss because the opening act was amazing. He's a singer-songwriter from Brooklyn named Grey Reverend and I totally recommend checking him out if you like that sort of thing. I think he's best live, where his fierce acoustic strumming carries the most weight, but his lyrics are poignant and clever and heartbreaking.
Sunday: After farting around a bit in the morning, finally got out to Mile End for my weekly bagel run. Managed to get some work done for my second job, but my meeting that morning got pushed to that evening and then to Monday. Thought about going to see Vengeance is Mine at the FFM, but opted instead to stay home and watch The Last Winter, eat baked potato chips and drink mineral water. I was impressed by what director Larry Fessenden was able to accomplish with what was obviously a minuscule budget, but an over abundance of wanky camera techniques took away somewhat from the creepy tone. Still, it was intelligent, well acted and socially relevant, three qualities sorely lacking in indie horror these days.
Monday: Had a meeting re: my second job where I discovered that I will have even less free time this coming week. Oh well, it's good experience with a (very) vague possibility of visits to film fests in the future. After my meeting I had my first bad experience with the Montreal Metro, but that was due in part to my poor listening skills. Finally made it home and cooked up a huge batch of Thai curry using my stash of homegrown basil, that I will be eating for the next two weeks. Made a quick call to my folks and then worked, worked, worked, until I found that crazy pull-quote I blogged about last night. Then worked, worked worked some more until I finally had to sleep.
Monday, June 09, 2008
Weekend Round Up: Improv, Opera and Walking. Lots of Walking.
Friday: Got charmed into going to another All Stars! improv show with Alain and MC at Theatre St-Catherine, which was sadly rather disappointing. The crazy homeless man who kept interjecting/playing with crinkly plastic bags didn't help much, but luckily he left half-way through. It was an intriguing format, but like with most improv it really depends on the players and the night and it just kinda felt like things were a little "off". Also, I was exhausted and nodded off a couple of times. Never a good sign.
Yet, despite my weariness I was determined not to be a complete wimp and so we joined Alain and MC on a walk up St-Laurent to take in some of the F-1 street sale action. Had fun laughing at the Eurotrash and L coveted the twice baked potatoes. Ended up walking all the way home from St-Catherines street, which didn't quite take as long as you'd think, and passed out almost immediately.
Saturday: We were supposed to go L's friends cottage just outside of Ottawa so L could get some practice driving, but I was having a very bad day so we opted to stay home. Called Alain and MC to see what they were up to and after a quick breakfast at a cute little cafe in Mile End we walked down to Mont-Royal to meet them. Turns out Mont-Royal was also closed for street-sale action so I loaded up on cheap cotton undies, half-priced organic cosmetics, not to mention free yogurt (yum!).
After a couple of hours of that we went back to Alain and MC's place to have a sit and Alain whipped up some coffee smoothies for everybody, although I had to abstain for the good of my digestive system. While sitting on the patio L thought better of his baked potato for dinner plan and we opted to go to the awesome Mexican place Alain had mentioned the night before. I got a veggie burrito and horchata, which was a little grainier than I was used to, but still super yummy.
Post dinner we continued down St-Laurent towards St-Catherines so that we could take in a little Crescent St action before hitting Place-des-Arts for Madame Butterfly Under the Stars. However, once we got downtown we realized we didn't have as much time as we'd thought so we decided to just grab a beer at Benelux before the opera. I grabbed an apricot cream ale, while L was seduced by the gold medal winning rye beer.
Being that the boys were a)slow drinkers, b)trying to find reasons to procrastinate, MC and I headed off to PDA alone. It wasn't 'till we got there and saw the sea of lawn chairs that we realized how ill prepared we were. We had a mere 5 minutes to find a spot on the concrete by the far right side of the stage to park our bums. Luckily I had a sweater to sit on for a bit of tail bone cushioning, other were not as lucky.
Despite a restless first act, L did manage to get into it. I was impressed by the fact that they'd managed to find a Japanese soprano to play Cio-Cio San, not just the usual white chick with too much eye make-up. When it was all over I asked L what he thought of his first opera, and his response was, "they were all such jerks, except Mme. Butterfly," which, in my opinion sums things up quite nicely.
After the opera we wandered up towards Crescent, but things were starting to wind down and I was getting super tired so we walked to the Metro and called it a night.
Sunday: L had tried to find us a pool, being that it was yet again, crazy hot; but sadly was unsuccessful. We almost ended up at Parc Jean-Drapeau, but at the last minute I convinced him that we should to to the Tam-Tam. He called our friends Andrea and Mark and they agreed to meet us there. We opted to walk the 20 mins to Mont-Royal park through Mile End so we could grab some fancy groceries for a picnic, a concept L seemed to be having quite a bit of difficulty grasping as it had obviously been a while since he had just hung out in a park.
After our mini-feast of sparking blueberry lemonade, whole wheat baguette, guyere chese, summer sausage and hummus I took L on a tour of the sites. In addition to the drumming hippies and the guys (and girls this time) beating each other with swords there were circus arts and capoera and a girl swinging from a giant sheet tied to a tree. L. was also shocked at the number of people drinking in public, but as usual everyone was so chill about it it wasn't a big deal.
On our way home we got caught in a sudden deluge, and while it was still very warm I cannot say I was all that comfortable being that soggy. Luckily it let up enough for us to grab some Portuguese chicken in Mile End which we happily scarfed while watching yet another installment of Buffy. Since L had to be on set quite early the next day we called it an early night, but not before switching our duvet for our summer quilt.
Yet, despite my weariness I was determined not to be a complete wimp and so we joined Alain and MC on a walk up St-Laurent to take in some of the F-1 street sale action. Had fun laughing at the Eurotrash and L coveted the twice baked potatoes. Ended up walking all the way home from St-Catherines street, which didn't quite take as long as you'd think, and passed out almost immediately.
Saturday: We were supposed to go L's friends cottage just outside of Ottawa so L could get some practice driving, but I was having a very bad day so we opted to stay home. Called Alain and MC to see what they were up to and after a quick breakfast at a cute little cafe in Mile End we walked down to Mont-Royal to meet them. Turns out Mont-Royal was also closed for street-sale action so I loaded up on cheap cotton undies, half-priced organic cosmetics, not to mention free yogurt (yum!).After a couple of hours of that we went back to Alain and MC's place to have a sit and Alain whipped up some coffee smoothies for everybody, although I had to abstain for the good of my digestive system. While sitting on the patio L thought better of his baked potato for dinner plan and we opted to go to the awesome Mexican place Alain had mentioned the night before. I got a veggie burrito and horchata, which was a little grainier than I was used to, but still super yummy.
Post dinner we continued down St-Laurent towards St-Catherines so that we could take in a little Crescent St action before hitting Place-des-Arts for Madame Butterfly Under the Stars. However, once we got downtown we realized we didn't have as much time as we'd thought so we decided to just grab a beer at Benelux before the opera. I grabbed an apricot cream ale, while L was seduced by the gold medal winning rye beer.
Being that the boys were a)slow drinkers, b)trying to find reasons to procrastinate, MC and I headed off to PDA alone. It wasn't 'till we got there and saw the sea of lawn chairs that we realized how ill prepared we were. We had a mere 5 minutes to find a spot on the concrete by the far right side of the stage to park our bums. Luckily I had a sweater to sit on for a bit of tail bone cushioning, other were not as lucky.
Despite a restless first act, L did manage to get into it. I was impressed by the fact that they'd managed to find a Japanese soprano to play Cio-Cio San, not just the usual white chick with too much eye make-up. When it was all over I asked L what he thought of his first opera, and his response was, "they were all such jerks, except Mme. Butterfly," which, in my opinion sums things up quite nicely.After the opera we wandered up towards Crescent, but things were starting to wind down and I was getting super tired so we walked to the Metro and called it a night.
Sunday: L had tried to find us a pool, being that it was yet again, crazy hot; but sadly was unsuccessful. We almost ended up at Parc Jean-Drapeau, but at the last minute I convinced him that we should to to the Tam-Tam. He called our friends Andrea and Mark and they agreed to meet us there. We opted to walk the 20 mins to Mont-Royal park through Mile End so we could grab some fancy groceries for a picnic, a concept L seemed to be having quite a bit of difficulty grasping as it had obviously been a while since he had just hung out in a park.
After our mini-feast of sparking blueberry lemonade, whole wheat baguette, guyere chese, summer sausage and hummus I took L on a tour of the sites. In addition to the drumming hippies and the guys (and girls this time) beating each other with swords there were circus arts and capoera and a girl swinging from a giant sheet tied to a tree. L. was also shocked at the number of people drinking in public, but as usual everyone was so chill about it it wasn't a big deal.On our way home we got caught in a sudden deluge, and while it was still very warm I cannot say I was all that comfortable being that soggy. Luckily it let up enough for us to grab some Portuguese chicken in Mile End which we happily scarfed while watching yet another installment of Buffy. Since L had to be on set quite early the next day we called it an early night, but not before switching our duvet for our summer quilt.
Friday, June 06, 2008
Weekend Round Up: Birthday, Beerfest and Bad Movies
We were a man down at work this week and it was super busy, so I'm afraid I'm only posting this just as I am about to begin collecting adventures for my next installment... sigh.
Friday: It was my co-worker Gaëlle's B-day on Tuesday so she was hosting a little BBQ party at her place. Luckily she lives quite nearby so L and I were able to walk there, although we did get caught in the rain during the walk back at 1:30 AM. The party itself was quite lively, most of my coworkers showed and we even managed to make some new friends. We were planning on leaving much sooner than we did, but the appearance of SingStar 90's meant that I lost L for close to an hour. Needless to say, he was a hit.
Saturday: Didn't get up nearly as early as we would have liked due to the previous night's hijinks, but still managed to get down to Mile End for breakky before noon. Because they were also running behind we even had a little time to kill before meeting up with Alain & MC to go to the Puces Pop Printemps craft fair, so I decided we needed to get some bagels at St-Viateur Bagel and man am I glad we did. SO DELICIOUS! SO CRISPY... SO CHEWY... SO... drool...
At the craft fair I coveted many things and spent $15 on handmade soap. Rosemary and coffee?! Yum! MC got a super cool silver anatomical heart pendant and some hand cream. Alain and L managed not to whine too much.
Afterwards we rewarded the men for their patience and headed down to the Mondial de la bière (International Beer Festival). Being that they had an extra tasting mug, we stopped by Alain and MC's on our way down to pick them up and had an impromptu Apple Trailers party while drinking delicious roasted Japanese green tea. Then Alain introduced L to GTA and I thanked my lucky stars that we don't have a gaming system that would support such a game (for the record we have a Sega Genesis and an N64), otherwise I would probably also be a gaming widow.
While the threat of rain did seem to keep some people away, the beer fest was quite busy as it generally is on the Saturday.
As MC pointed out, the fest has a genius profit scheme: entrance is free, but tickets are $1 a piece. Each tasting is anywhere from 2 - 8 tickets (usually in the 3 - 5 range) and is equal to about half a pint. So you go in thinking you'll stay on a budget and only get $20 worth of tickets, but by the time you've ingested 20 tickets worth of beer you decided you need "lots more ticketsh!" and end up leaving with a pocketful to scrounge a poutine somewhere.
I started off with a trio of stouts, including one with hints of raspberry, then moved on to a lighter, super refreshing ginger beer. In addition to beer I also had delicious Belgian fries, wild deer sausage on a stick and I had a wild boar & field mushroom hot dog on ciabatta bun with homemade sauerkraut.
While in the men's room, L learned of a tent providing 16% golden ale for a mere 3 tickets so we all decided to make that our last stop (like there would have been a choice after 16% beers), since I'd already made reservations for us at the Comedy Nest to watch my friend Christophe headline his first stand-up gig.
By the time we showed up at the comedy club, we were admitted a little on the rowdy side so we were prompted seated right in the first row. I, in particular, heckled and was heckled by the host (all in a supportive, non show ruining way) and MC was the subject of Christophe's serenading, not once, but twice. All in all the show was quite successful, although I'm sure the fact that we were, in a word, loaded, that much funnier.
After some minor Metro mischief I managed to steer L home and we both passed right out.
Sunday: Being that we were in bed by 11:30 PM, neither L nor I were particularly hung-over, but that didn't stop us from being totally lazy house-bums. We watched some more Buffy the Vampire Slayer (finally on to Season 2!) and L decided to finish watching Dead Silence while I did sudoku and snarked at the badness of the movie. Make that deep and painful badness. I cannot express how bad this movie is. Do not bother, even out of curiosity. It is a train wreck and dumber than a tree stump. A retarded tree stump.
After dinner we popped on Valentine, and I'm still not sure why L rented it. I guess he was on a David Boreanaz kick. Also bad, but in a fun, sarcastic late 90's way. But mostly it is bad. And also REALLY stupid.
Friday: It was my co-worker Gaëlle's B-day on Tuesday so she was hosting a little BBQ party at her place. Luckily she lives quite nearby so L and I were able to walk there, although we did get caught in the rain during the walk back at 1:30 AM. The party itself was quite lively, most of my coworkers showed and we even managed to make some new friends. We were planning on leaving much sooner than we did, but the appearance of SingStar 90's meant that I lost L for close to an hour. Needless to say, he was a hit.
Saturday: Didn't get up nearly as early as we would have liked due to the previous night's hijinks, but still managed to get down to Mile End for breakky before noon. Because they were also running behind we even had a little time to kill before meeting up with Alain & MC to go to the Puces Pop Printemps craft fair, so I decided we needed to get some bagels at St-Viateur Bagel and man am I glad we did. SO DELICIOUS! SO CRISPY... SO CHEWY... SO... drool...
At the craft fair I coveted many things and spent $15 on handmade soap. Rosemary and coffee?! Yum! MC got a super cool silver anatomical heart pendant and some hand cream. Alain and L managed not to whine too much.
Afterwards we rewarded the men for their patience and headed down to the Mondial de la bière (International Beer Festival). Being that they had an extra tasting mug, we stopped by Alain and MC's on our way down to pick them up and had an impromptu Apple Trailers party while drinking delicious roasted Japanese green tea. Then Alain introduced L to GTA and I thanked my lucky stars that we don't have a gaming system that would support such a game (for the record we have a Sega Genesis and an N64), otherwise I would probably also be a gaming widow.
While the threat of rain did seem to keep some people away, the beer fest was quite busy as it generally is on the Saturday.
As MC pointed out, the fest has a genius profit scheme: entrance is free, but tickets are $1 a piece. Each tasting is anywhere from 2 - 8 tickets (usually in the 3 - 5 range) and is equal to about half a pint. So you go in thinking you'll stay on a budget and only get $20 worth of tickets, but by the time you've ingested 20 tickets worth of beer you decided you need "lots more ticketsh!" and end up leaving with a pocketful to scrounge a poutine somewhere.I started off with a trio of stouts, including one with hints of raspberry, then moved on to a lighter, super refreshing ginger beer. In addition to beer I also had delicious Belgian fries, wild deer sausage on a stick and I had a wild boar & field mushroom hot dog on ciabatta bun with homemade sauerkraut.
While in the men's room, L learned of a tent providing 16% golden ale for a mere 3 tickets so we all decided to make that our last stop (like there would have been a choice after 16% beers), since I'd already made reservations for us at the Comedy Nest to watch my friend Christophe headline his first stand-up gig.
By the time we showed up at the comedy club, we were admitted a little on the rowdy side so we were prompted seated right in the first row. I, in particular, heckled and was heckled by the host (all in a supportive, non show ruining way) and MC was the subject of Christophe's serenading, not once, but twice. All in all the show was quite successful, although I'm sure the fact that we were, in a word, loaded, that much funnier.
After some minor Metro mischief I managed to steer L home and we both passed right out.
Sunday: Being that we were in bed by 11:30 PM, neither L nor I were particularly hung-over, but that didn't stop us from being totally lazy house-bums. We watched some more Buffy the Vampire Slayer (finally on to Season 2!) and L decided to finish watching Dead Silence while I did sudoku and snarked at the badness of the movie. Make that deep and painful badness. I cannot express how bad this movie is. Do not bother, even out of curiosity. It is a train wreck and dumber than a tree stump. A retarded tree stump.
After dinner we popped on Valentine, and I'm still not sure why L rented it. I guess he was on a David Boreanaz kick. Also bad, but in a fun, sarcastic late 90's way. But mostly it is bad. And also REALLY stupid.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Long Weekend Round Up: My Last Minute Trip to NYC, A.K.A. Trains, Metros and Subways or, Coney Island WTF
Yes, I am totally, woefully behind on my blogging and for that I apologize. With any luck I will be able to pump out Weekend Round ups for the last two weeks, a vlog or two and maybe even some political commentary before the next weekend shows up. We will see. In the meantime, here's the round up for May 16 - 19.
Friday: After bailing on a camping trip at the last minute, I suddenly got it into my thick little skull that I needed to go to NYC to hang with my Fletcher siblings*, Rock, Slim & Bunny. See, Rock lives in NY now and was getting ready to leave on a comedy tour of Canada and then he was off to camp for the remainder of the summer. Slim had been living in New Orleans with Linda, his wife, but she had recently gotten a job in NY and Slim was in town apartment hunting. Bunny still lives in Van, but was on vacation with friend in NY. And while I was making friends in Montreal, that house did a lot to shape me into the lovable neurotic mess I am today and the novelty of being able to just jump on a train to see everyone was something I could not pass up. So I purchased a ticket and spent Friday stealing myself up for the 10 hour (one way) trip.
Despite needing to pack and get organized, L and I still managed to fit in our traditional Friday night movie. This week it was Candyman, which I had actually avoided at a slumber party as a teenager, opting instead to play Ouija board with my friend's younger sister upstairs. I did not get into horror movies until much, much later and admittedly I still whine and scream and have to sleep with a light on after watching one to this day. In some ways I am glad I put off watching it until I was an adult because, hot damn, is it ever good. On so many levels. It's exactly the kind of heady, intellectual horror that I didn't think got made in America. But the fact that it was made by an Englishman and was based on a story by an Englishman lends credence to that theory. If you've never seen it, or even if it's been a while, I highly recommend checking it out. You'll be glad you did.
After the movie it was straight to bed since I had to be at the train station by at least 8:30 AM, which meant leaving the house at 7:30 AM.
Saturday: L walked me to the Metro in the morning as I started my epic journey on railed transport. The line was already quite long when I got to the station, but I managed to find a spot on the train next to a polite Brazilian woman. Being that this was my second time taking THE TRAIN TO HELL I made sure that I was properly prepared. Blanket to protect me from the freezing air conditioning? Check. Variety of foods and liquids to avoid having to buy a hotdog microwaved in plastic wrapping? Check. An assortment of books and magazines with which to occupy myself? Check. An MP3 player, DS or laptop with DVD player would have also been welcome accessories, but being that I own none of these, I got by alternating between reading and napping.
As I should have expected, the train was late, meaning that I had less than 5 minutes to make it to the theater for Rock's comedy show at 9 PM. Luckily, the train let off at Penn Station, a mere 4 blocks from the Magnet. I made it to the theater with two minutes to spare and entered the lobby to hugs from Slim and Bunny. The show seemed to go very well and afterwards we all went to a local bar called Walter's to hang out.
I met lots of nice people at the bar, including a friend of Slim's from DC who lives in NY now and her cousin from California who I got to talk hockey with (go figure, he's a Pittsburgh fan), as well as a nice lady who let me hold her autoharp. Afterwards we caught a cab to Rock's place in Queens and I pretended to strangle a 22 year old wrestling enthusiast with his seatbelt. He'd even shown me picture of him in spandex!
Sunday: Being that it is one of Rock's favourite places in the world and he had yet to make his annual pre-camp pilgrimage, it was decided that Sunday would involve a trip to Coney Island. On our way to the Subway we stopped at a bagel shop to get some nourishment and much to my astonishment I was able to get mine with tofu spread in lieu of cream cheese. My heart seldom knows such joy. While waiting in line a (very) New York cop tapped me on the shoulder to ask about my tattoo and was very disappointed when I told him I had gotten it done in Vancouver as he loved the work and was looking to add some more ink to his collection. I did my best not to squeal, but even Slim was impressed by the genuine coolness of this member of the NYPD.
After an hour and a half on the Subway (the length of the L line, in fact) we made it to Coney Island just in time for the rain to start. Joy. While waiting for Bunny and her friends, Rock, Slim and I rode the Cyclone twice, but opted to put off riding the Wonder Wheel until they arrived. We killed time in a pathetically ill-maintained spook house with a hilarious animatronic vomiting man out front, although I did feel a little bad that Slim had to ride in a car all by himself and thus didn't have anyone to turn to aghast as rubber Halloween decorations held together with duct tape wobbled feebly on their worn-out springs.
After having blown $5 on that mess we wandered up to Cha Cha's for a drink, but there was some sort of post-church luncheon going on so we had to find seats at the bar to watch the assembled five year olds crawl around on the stripped pole by the stage. Slim wisely ordered a White Russian which prompted the woman behind the bar to point at herself, because apparently she was a "White Russian". Rock and I tried to order pina coladas, but they were all out so we got strawberry daqueries and proceeded to get even colder than we already were. Eventually Rock was so chilled that he had leave to buy a hoodie from one of the local crap merchants.
Bunny and her friends finally arrived to join us for a drink and then we all opted to explore the boardwalk a little bit. Sadly, by this point Deno's was closed, meaning no Wonder Wheel, and Slim had left so we opted instead to ride the Cyclone a third time.
By this point it was pouring, so we found shelter in an arcade and played a bit of skee ball. Then we went back to the subway to pick-up Rock's friend Rosy who had just arrived. While on that side of the amusement area we stopped in at Nathan's for hot dogs and everybody else got ice cream at the candy place next door. Which is where I think I found the single grossest confection possible: candy glossed marshmallows. My fillings hurt just thinking about it.
After that the plan had been to hit the Freakshow, but it was also closed. So Rosy and Louie rode the carousel for what seemed like half-an hour while a small Latino child hollered his guts out before the guy selling tickets was able to yell at the guy operating the thing to shut it off. Then we decided to leave.
Back in Manhattan, Rock went back to the Magnet to prepare for his Buckshot and Benny show and I got some decent cheap Indian food across the street. The show was excellent as usual and afterwards we went for a drink with Kaitlin (a.k.a. the other half of BnB) and her boyfriend Alistair and I got to talk about how I hate smoked meat (sacrilege, I know).
After all that Rock and I took the subway back to Queens and I chatted with his roommate briefly about working in the video game industry. In yet another example of the world being too damn small, it turns out his roommate is head of development for a studio loosely affiliated with the company I work for and was on his way to Quebec City to lay down some smack. Being that I am very new to this industry it was really cool to be able to talk shop with someone who'd been immersed in it for some time and it was unfortunate that we both had to get up so damn early the next day for our respective trips as I would have really enjoyed getting more inside dirt. Next time, I supposed.
Monday: Got up before my alarm and wrote a nice note thanking Rock and his roommates for putting me up which I left next to the Caribou and Maple Syrup I'd brought down with me as peace offerings. Then it was on to the bagel shop to grab breakfast and lunch and a bunch of juice smoothies to replenish vitamins.
Back at Penn Station I was surprised at how comforting it was to hear people speaking French all around me in the line to get on the train. While the trip back home was supposed to be shorter than the trip there, we got held up at the border for what seemed like hours and it ended up taking even longer, meaning that in three days I had spent 23 hours on a train. L met me at the station and we had dinner at Nickel's before taking the Metro home.
*Background: Near the end of my last year of University I moved into a shared house in a residential neighborhood near school with a bunch of friends. We called ourselves the Fletcher family and we all had Fletcher names. Mine was Nancy.
Friday: After bailing on a camping trip at the last minute, I suddenly got it into my thick little skull that I needed to go to NYC to hang with my Fletcher siblings*, Rock, Slim & Bunny. See, Rock lives in NY now and was getting ready to leave on a comedy tour of Canada and then he was off to camp for the remainder of the summer. Slim had been living in New Orleans with Linda, his wife, but she had recently gotten a job in NY and Slim was in town apartment hunting. Bunny still lives in Van, but was on vacation with friend in NY. And while I was making friends in Montreal, that house did a lot to shape me into the lovable neurotic mess I am today and the novelty of being able to just jump on a train to see everyone was something I could not pass up. So I purchased a ticket and spent Friday stealing myself up for the 10 hour (one way) trip.
Despite needing to pack and get organized, L and I still managed to fit in our traditional Friday night movie. This week it was Candyman, which I had actually avoided at a slumber party as a teenager, opting instead to play Ouija board with my friend's younger sister upstairs. I did not get into horror movies until much, much later and admittedly I still whine and scream and have to sleep with a light on after watching one to this day. In some ways I am glad I put off watching it until I was an adult because, hot damn, is it ever good. On so many levels. It's exactly the kind of heady, intellectual horror that I didn't think got made in America. But the fact that it was made by an Englishman and was based on a story by an Englishman lends credence to that theory. If you've never seen it, or even if it's been a while, I highly recommend checking it out. You'll be glad you did.
After the movie it was straight to bed since I had to be at the train station by at least 8:30 AM, which meant leaving the house at 7:30 AM.
Saturday: L walked me to the Metro in the morning as I started my epic journey on railed transport. The line was already quite long when I got to the station, but I managed to find a spot on the train next to a polite Brazilian woman. Being that this was my second time taking THE TRAIN TO HELL I made sure that I was properly prepared. Blanket to protect me from the freezing air conditioning? Check. Variety of foods and liquids to avoid having to buy a hotdog microwaved in plastic wrapping? Check. An assortment of books and magazines with which to occupy myself? Check. An MP3 player, DS or laptop with DVD player would have also been welcome accessories, but being that I own none of these, I got by alternating between reading and napping.As I should have expected, the train was late, meaning that I had less than 5 minutes to make it to the theater for Rock's comedy show at 9 PM. Luckily, the train let off at Penn Station, a mere 4 blocks from the Magnet. I made it to the theater with two minutes to spare and entered the lobby to hugs from Slim and Bunny. The show seemed to go very well and afterwards we all went to a local bar called Walter's to hang out.
I met lots of nice people at the bar, including a friend of Slim's from DC who lives in NY now and her cousin from California who I got to talk hockey with (go figure, he's a Pittsburgh fan), as well as a nice lady who let me hold her autoharp. Afterwards we caught a cab to Rock's place in Queens and I pretended to strangle a 22 year old wrestling enthusiast with his seatbelt. He'd even shown me picture of him in spandex!
Sunday: Being that it is one of Rock's favourite places in the world and he had yet to make his annual pre-camp pilgrimage, it was decided that Sunday would involve a trip to Coney Island. On our way to the Subway we stopped at a bagel shop to get some nourishment and much to my astonishment I was able to get mine with tofu spread in lieu of cream cheese. My heart seldom knows such joy. While waiting in line a (very) New York cop tapped me on the shoulder to ask about my tattoo and was very disappointed when I told him I had gotten it done in Vancouver as he loved the work and was looking to add some more ink to his collection. I did my best not to squeal, but even Slim was impressed by the genuine coolness of this member of the NYPD.
After an hour and a half on the Subway (the length of the L line, in fact) we made it to Coney Island just in time for the rain to start. Joy. While waiting for Bunny and her friends, Rock, Slim and I rode the Cyclone twice, but opted to put off riding the Wonder Wheel until they arrived. We killed time in a pathetically ill-maintained spook house with a hilarious animatronic vomiting man out front, although I did feel a little bad that Slim had to ride in a car all by himself and thus didn't have anyone to turn to aghast as rubber Halloween decorations held together with duct tape wobbled feebly on their worn-out springs.
After having blown $5 on that mess we wandered up to Cha Cha's for a drink, but there was some sort of post-church luncheon going on so we had to find seats at the bar to watch the assembled five year olds crawl around on the stripped pole by the stage. Slim wisely ordered a White Russian which prompted the woman behind the bar to point at herself, because apparently she was a "White Russian". Rock and I tried to order pina coladas, but they were all out so we got strawberry daqueries and proceeded to get even colder than we already were. Eventually Rock was so chilled that he had leave to buy a hoodie from one of the local crap merchants.
Bunny and her friends finally arrived to join us for a drink and then we all opted to explore the boardwalk a little bit. Sadly, by this point Deno's was closed, meaning no Wonder Wheel, and Slim had left so we opted instead to ride the Cyclone a third time. 
By this point it was pouring, so we found shelter in an arcade and played a bit of skee ball. Then we went back to the subway to pick-up Rock's friend Rosy who had just arrived. While on that side of the amusement area we stopped in at Nathan's for hot dogs and everybody else got ice cream at the candy place next door. Which is where I think I found the single grossest confection possible: candy glossed marshmallows. My fillings hurt just thinking about it.
After that the plan had been to hit the Freakshow, but it was also closed. So Rosy and Louie rode the carousel for what seemed like half-an hour while a small Latino child hollered his guts out before the guy selling tickets was able to yell at the guy operating the thing to shut it off. Then we decided to leave.Back in Manhattan, Rock went back to the Magnet to prepare for his Buckshot and Benny show and I got some decent cheap Indian food across the street. The show was excellent as usual and afterwards we went for a drink with Kaitlin (a.k.a. the other half of BnB) and her boyfriend Alistair and I got to talk about how I hate smoked meat (sacrilege, I know).
After all that Rock and I took the subway back to Queens and I chatted with his roommate briefly about working in the video game industry. In yet another example of the world being too damn small, it turns out his roommate is head of development for a studio loosely affiliated with the company I work for and was on his way to Quebec City to lay down some smack. Being that I am very new to this industry it was really cool to be able to talk shop with someone who'd been immersed in it for some time and it was unfortunate that we both had to get up so damn early the next day for our respective trips as I would have really enjoyed getting more inside dirt. Next time, I supposed.
Monday: Got up before my alarm and wrote a nice note thanking Rock and his roommates for putting me up which I left next to the Caribou and Maple Syrup I'd brought down with me as peace offerings. Then it was on to the bagel shop to grab breakfast and lunch and a bunch of juice smoothies to replenish vitamins.
Back at Penn Station I was surprised at how comforting it was to hear people speaking French all around me in the line to get on the train. While the trip back home was supposed to be shorter than the trip there, we got held up at the border for what seemed like hours and it ended up taking even longer, meaning that in three days I had spent 23 hours on a train. L met me at the station and we had dinner at Nickel's before taking the Metro home.
*Background: Near the end of my last year of University I moved into a shared house in a residential neighborhood near school with a bunch of friends. We called ourselves the Fletcher family and we all had Fletcher names. Mine was Nancy.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Weekend Round Up: Movies, Indian Food, Tam-Tam
Friday: After a busy week where L and I both entertained guests from out of town we opted to make it a quiet night in. After scarfing some leftovers from my lunch at Elio's I tried to make a few calls out west and L went to pick us up some DVDs. Sadly, they didn't have Wendigo or Paris, Texis and Henry Fool was only available on VHS so we ended up going with The Wicker Man (73), Un crabe dans la tête and Altered States. Popped on Wicker Man only to discover it was the US theatrical cut, not the UK Director's cut, but that was okay by me since I really didn't like it as much as L. But it was definitely worth it if only to see Christopher Lee in a kilt. Oh, and he sings too.Saturday: L was busy at a course during the day so I chilled at home by myself and cleaned the kitchen and bathroom. When L came home we went for a walk towards the Plateau and had some excellent and very reasonably priced Indian food at Maison de Cari Golden. After dinner we walked back through Mile End and accidentally ended up in a Hasidic neighborhood. It was strange being so close to home and yet feeling like we had trespassed into another country, but very cool and comforting in another way. When we got home we watched Un crabe dans la tête which was directed by André Turpin, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors. After the movie we called it a night since L had to be at his course again Sunday.
Sunday:
With L at his course again I met up with Alain and Marie-Claude at the Jean Talon market. They were there with some friends from Ottawa and were gathering supplies for a picnic on Mont-Royal park. Every Sunday when the weather is nice enough hundreds of drummers gather in Mont-Royal park for a huge drum circle known as "Le Tam-Tam". After a delightful lunch of sausage, cheese, bread and pesto we wandered into the woods a little bit to witness the other bit of lunacy in Mont-Royal park on Sundays: dozens of boys and men whacking each other with duct-taped swords. 
Some of them were in full armor, some only had chain mail or leathers, but the majority were in basic jeans and a t-shirt. After a couple of rounds of that we ventured back to the front of the park to paruse the hippie wares for sale on blankets, but being that it had cooled down considerable since we'd arrived we decided to call it a day and I walked home through Mile End so I could check out a used book store I'd spotted a couple weeks ago.After purchasing a book on Herbal Magick and some body lotion I got home in time to record a French Slang video and work a bit in the little garden in the front. When L got home I cooked a nice pork loin in the oven and we watched Altered States which was both awesome and pure Ken Russell.
Monday, May 05, 2008
Weekend Round Up: Super-Lazy Weekend of Nothingness
Friday: Being that I never properly recovered from a late night talking UFC with my brother on Monday, we opted not to go out and instead just grabbed a bunch of DVDs. Sadly we only got through the first one, Chaos, which was confusing even for a Japanese film, before both L and I passed out.
Saturday: Despite the crap weather, I still wanted to go to Mile End to spend more money on organic cosmetics so we called up Annie and Mel and invited them out for breakfast with us. Went back to our new favourite Mile End spot, Zorba, and I got fluffy pancakes and super yummy sausages.
After breakfast I got around to making my purchases and $50 in deodorant, hand cream, face cream and toothpaste later (I am a sap...) we headed back home. The afternoon was spent cleaning the house and working on my French Slang Saturday video before Marie-Claude and Mark came over to watch the hockey game.
After the crushing, depressing defeat of the Habs, which incidentally also crushed the hopes of all Canadians of seeing a cup in Canada for the fifteenth straight year, we all trundled down to the old forum to catch our friend Andrea do her stand-up thing. Alain, who had been at the Habs game, met us there. The evening went pretty good, and Andrea was particularly in form. However, we've been going to enough comedy night recently that the host and the headliner were the only comics we had not already seen before and most of the material was kind of old news. After the show it was back home to bed.
Sunday: Weather was still crap so we stayed in and watched the rest of our movies, namely Hannah and Her Sisters and Phantom of the Paradise which I really want to learn more about. L put some more plywood and pressboard out for garbage pick-up. We had burgers for dinner and L went and got us some more movies. We got through The Mist and called it a weekend.
Saturday: Despite the crap weather, I still wanted to go to Mile End to spend more money on organic cosmetics so we called up Annie and Mel and invited them out for breakfast with us. Went back to our new favourite Mile End spot, Zorba, and I got fluffy pancakes and super yummy sausages.
After breakfast I got around to making my purchases and $50 in deodorant, hand cream, face cream and toothpaste later (I am a sap...) we headed back home. The afternoon was spent cleaning the house and working on my French Slang Saturday video before Marie-Claude and Mark came over to watch the hockey game.
After the crushing, depressing defeat of the Habs, which incidentally also crushed the hopes of all Canadians of seeing a cup in Canada for the fifteenth straight year, we all trundled down to the old forum to catch our friend Andrea do her stand-up thing. Alain, who had been at the Habs game, met us there. The evening went pretty good, and Andrea was particularly in form. However, we've been going to enough comedy night recently that the host and the headliner were the only comics we had not already seen before and most of the material was kind of old news. After the show it was back home to bed.
Sunday: Weather was still crap so we stayed in and watched the rest of our movies, namely Hannah and Her Sisters and Phantom of the Paradise which I really want to learn more about. L put some more plywood and pressboard out for garbage pick-up. We had burgers for dinner and L went and got us some more movies. We got through The Mist and called it a weekend.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Weekend Round Up: BBQ, Demolition, Maple Syrup
Friday: Started the weekend a little early with a 5 a 7 on Thursday at work. Finally got a chance to talk to some co-workers not in my department and alternated between playing Rock Band and watching the first two periods of the Habs game projected on the wall on the cafeteria.
On Friday my teammate Susie invited the rest of the English team to join her for lunch, although only Fred and I were able to. We ended up at a cute little Chinese/Thai place on Beaubien, not far from my house. After work I met L at Club Video Beaubien to pick out some flicks for the weekend, but limited ourselves to two because Mark and Andrea had invited us over for BBQ. Being that we had a little time to kill we wandered up to Plaza St-Hubert and I bought my first ever bikini. It's brown with blue flower accents, and it was on clearance so it was very cheap.
After snagging beer and burgers at IGA we wandered over to Mark and Andrea's place in St-Henri. After dinner we amused ourselves watching Flight of the Concords videos on YouTube and I laughed like a maniac. Being that I hadn't actually slept that well Thurday night, I was dead tired by about midnight so we took a cab home and I crashed out hard.
Saturday: Being that I knew we were going to be eating a big-ass breakfast on Sunday, we opted not to go out in the morning and I did some pilates. Then we got ready and headed out to run errands. The shredder we'd gotten less than a month ago never worked so we went to Bureau en Gros to return it, and as I'd suspected we weren't the only ones having trouble with that model. Afterwards we headed up to Zellers to pick up some more stuff for our backyard project with the Gift Card my brother had gotten me for Christmas. As we were lugging all our goodies back with us on the Metro a girl actually approached us to ask if we were moving (apparently she had something to sell us if we were). We told her no and continued on our way.
Back home L got to work demolishing the faux deck thing in our backyard, but it turns out most of the work had been done for him. The whole thing was so rotted and poorly constructed in the first place that he was able to pull most of it apart with his hands. Luckily the soil underneath looks like it's in pretty good condition so it shouldn't take too much more work to prep everything in time for L's dad's arrival to build our garden. Meanwhile L has thoughts of paving stones and patio sets dancing through his head.
Later, Alain and Marie-Claude came over to watch the game. After a disappointing loss we opted to watch Living in Oblivion to boost our spirits. I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it before, especially since it has my boy, Peter Dinklage. I doubt Dermot Mulroney has been better in a movie.
Sunday: Sadly we hadn't gotten as much sleep on Saturday as we would have liked, but we still made it to the parking lot of my office in time to catch our ride to the Au Pied Des Erables cabane a sucre. The social committee at work had organized a last minute sugar shack outing and I had jumped at the chance to enjoy the tail end of the season.
I had never been to a sugar shack before and had not really known what to expect, but I have it on good authority that the one that we went to was quite good. Basically, a sugar shack outing usually involves a meal around a large communal table, followed by tire on snow. The food is generally homey old-fashioned fare: potatoes, fluffy omelet, pancakes, baked beans and ham, all with liberal dousings of maple syrup. After gorging ourselves, the group went for a little nature walk where we found a grass snack and a tiny black froggie.
After the ride back I had a little nap and L continued to work on the back deck, then we had some burgers and watched The Kiss of the Vampire, which while not one of the best Hammer horror's, does boast one of the most amazing endings to a vampire film I have ever seen. If you're a Hammer fan and you haven't seen it yet, it is worth checking out for that alone.
On Friday my teammate Susie invited the rest of the English team to join her for lunch, although only Fred and I were able to. We ended up at a cute little Chinese/Thai place on Beaubien, not far from my house. After work I met L at Club Video Beaubien to pick out some flicks for the weekend, but limited ourselves to two because Mark and Andrea had invited us over for BBQ. Being that we had a little time to kill we wandered up to Plaza St-Hubert and I bought my first ever bikini. It's brown with blue flower accents, and it was on clearance so it was very cheap.
After snagging beer and burgers at IGA we wandered over to Mark and Andrea's place in St-Henri. After dinner we amused ourselves watching Flight of the Concords videos on YouTube and I laughed like a maniac. Being that I hadn't actually slept that well Thurday night, I was dead tired by about midnight so we took a cab home and I crashed out hard.
Saturday: Being that I knew we were going to be eating a big-ass breakfast on Sunday, we opted not to go out in the morning and I did some pilates. Then we got ready and headed out to run errands. The shredder we'd gotten less than a month ago never worked so we went to Bureau en Gros to return it, and as I'd suspected we weren't the only ones having trouble with that model. Afterwards we headed up to Zellers to pick up some more stuff for our backyard project with the Gift Card my brother had gotten me for Christmas. As we were lugging all our goodies back with us on the Metro a girl actually approached us to ask if we were moving (apparently she had something to sell us if we were). We told her no and continued on our way.
Back home L got to work demolishing the faux deck thing in our backyard, but it turns out most of the work had been done for him. The whole thing was so rotted and poorly constructed in the first place that he was able to pull most of it apart with his hands. Luckily the soil underneath looks like it's in pretty good condition so it shouldn't take too much more work to prep everything in time for L's dad's arrival to build our garden. Meanwhile L has thoughts of paving stones and patio sets dancing through his head.Later, Alain and Marie-Claude came over to watch the game. After a disappointing loss we opted to watch Living in Oblivion to boost our spirits. I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it before, especially since it has my boy, Peter Dinklage. I doubt Dermot Mulroney has been better in a movie.
Sunday: Sadly we hadn't gotten as much sleep on Saturday as we would have liked, but we still made it to the parking lot of my office in time to catch our ride to the Au Pied Des Erables cabane a sucre. The social committee at work had organized a last minute sugar shack outing and I had jumped at the chance to enjoy the tail end of the season. 
I had never been to a sugar shack before and had not really known what to expect, but I have it on good authority that the one that we went to was quite good. Basically, a sugar shack outing usually involves a meal around a large communal table, followed by tire on snow. The food is generally homey old-fashioned fare: potatoes, fluffy omelet, pancakes, baked beans and ham, all with liberal dousings of maple syrup. After gorging ourselves, the group went for a little nature walk where we found a grass snack and a tiny black froggie.
After the ride back I had a little nap and L continued to work on the back deck, then we had some burgers and watched The Kiss of the Vampire, which while not one of the best Hammer horror's, does boast one of the most amazing endings to a vampire film I have ever seen. If you're a Hammer fan and you haven't seen it yet, it is worth checking out for that alone.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Weekend Round Up: Movies, Gardening, Bloodsports
Friday: By the time Friday rolled around I was dead dog tired. Never did recover from our whirlwind trip to the Saguenay and I trapped in a bad habits of going into work late and leaving late. After work I walked down to Mile End to buy cosmetics at the organic grocery store we found a couple of weeks earlier. Called L. at home and he met me there so we could find a place to eat together. On the way to the Polish restaurant/general store L. had spotted on his way to meet me we ran into an old friend of my sister's. I told her that my sis would be visiting me in June and she gave me her number so they could hook-up.
At the Polish place we got the platter for two, which consisted of two kinds of perogies, cabbage rolls, Polish sausage, goulash, potato dumplings & something called "hunter's stew". It all had a wonderful homemade taste and was all together delicious and extremely filling. Actually, a little too filling for me, if truth be told. That said, I would gladly go back for their chicken perogies any day.
After dinner we went back to the house so L. could change as we decided that at least he should go to the party we'd been invited to by Mark & Andrea. I was just too tired. L. walked me to the video store so I could grab some DVDs I knew he wouldn't want to watch and he continued on to the Metro. I settled on an eclectic triple bill of Primer, Paprika and The Sea Hawk.
After thoroughly bending my brain with the first too films, I was still up watching ol' Errol Flinn when L. came home around 2 AM. Turns out the couple with the two cats who were on the flight from Vancouver with us were at the party. Small world.
Saturday: Since the weather was still good we decided to focus to getting stuff together for our garden since L.'s dad would be arriving soon to help us with it and we hadn't even started demolishing the faux deck yet.
After a surprisingly tasty breakfast at a new place on Parc in Mile End, we opted to pop in to Rona to start amassing supplies. We got a crowbar to start the demo, as well as planters and lots of dirt. I also grabbed a bunch of seeds and a little rake and a trowel to start working the soil.
When we got home, I determined that we didn't have enough soil and we also needed some rocks for drainage so we ventured out again to Home Depot to pick up the rest of what we needed. L. and I both put out our backs carrying home big heavy bags of dirt and rocks. I spent the rest of the afternoon building my Martha style tiered planter (thanks for the tip, Bean!) and cleaning the garbage and weeds out of our front "yard". L. meanwhile took charge of cleaning the inside of the house in anticipation of our hockey watching guests.
I was anticipating an easy Habs victory, meaning that they could move on to the next round of the playoffs. But no. They let an early lead go as we all howled and wailed at the television, deeply disturbing poor K.C. I think he was just upset we hadn't gotten him a little Canadiens jersey yet.
After the game Andrea had to make an appearance at a birthday party and I convinced everyone once else to follow me to the creepy sports bar near our place to watch the Georges St-Pierre/Matt Sera UFC match. Yeah, that's right, UFC. I had recently discovered Georges St-Pierre on RDS late one Friday night about a month ago. Actually, the fight I saw was the titled bought he had lost to Matt Sera where St-Pierre had been strongly favoured, but had gotten his ass handed to him in violent and mildly disturbing fashion. Hearing that a rematch was on the horizon and knowing that it was going to be held in St-Pierre's hometown of Montreal I was very interested in seeing the fight, but after the Canadiens' shocking loss, it was imperative. I had to see someone from Montreal win something that night!
We quickly found a spot amongst our fellow depressed Canadiens fans and settled in for the fight. There were four matches before the main event and we quickly determined that we could guess the winner from their entrance theme. Dude who entered to the Verve Pipe did not do well. Our boy St-Pierre came out to a French Rap song, so we knew he'd do well.
There were a number of Canadians fighting, including St-Pierre. The first fight involved a kid from Toronto named Mark Bocek who lost, but he stayed in all three rounds despite crying blood through two of them, so he did okay. However, this show of true Canadian grit augmented our disappointment at Kaleb Starnes of Surrey's performance, dancing around so his opponent, Nate Quarry, couldn't even take a swing. My other faves (incidentally they also won their respective fights) were Mancurian Michael Bisping and Rich Franklin.
Finally it was time for the main event. Everyone was channeling their hockey frustrations towards Matt Sera. Although he comes from NY, to us he represented Boston. And we howled with blood lust as Georges St-Pierre charged into the octagon and pummeled Sera like he should have the first time. While Alain was hoping they would go at least three rounds, it was called near the end of the second round, St-Pierre winning on a TKO.
Sadly, Andrea arrived just as the match finished, so she missed out on our vicarious vengence. Alain and MC had to go home, but Mark and Andrea followed us back home to watch a movie. Being that Andrea needed some serious cheering up we pulled out the Showgirls box set again, although this time we abstained from the drinking game. However, we did play a quick round of Pin the Pasties on Elizabeth Berkley just for fun.
At about 3:30 AM, Mark and Andrea said their farewells and L. and I crawled into bed.
Sunday: Annie called at 10:30 AM to see if we were still up for breakfast before salsa dancing. Being that neither of us could move, we opted to skip both, knowing that skipping a second week of dancing lessons essentially meant we were dropping out of the class. But we promised instead to join up the next classic ballroom class offered at the same studio in May.
After lying in bed as long as we could we moved to the couch and watch Right At Your Door, a surprisingly effective low-budget apocalyptic flick we'd missed at last year's Fantasia. While the ending was a little too Twilight Zone for my liking, it was still quite well done and I totally recommend checking it out, especially if you have a crush on Rory Cochran like I do.
After the movie we decided to get dressed and located some cash, cheap food and more DVDs. We ended up at Le Roi Du Smoked Meat in St-Hubert plaza where we ate our meal in the company of an Italian bridal shower upstairs. Luckily they had Mulberry Street, another one we missed at Fantasia which L. has been obsessed with, at the video store. I also got to pick a film and for some reason opted for Richard Kelly's epic mess, Southland Tales.
After enduring Southland Tales, where about every three minutes L. and I would look at each other and say "Uh, what?" we opted to at least make a real dinner to make up for our complete lack of motivation in every other aspect of our day. Then it was on to Mulberry Street, which did not disappoint. If you like old school survivalist horror, see this movie. I highly, highly recommend it.
Sadly our viewing of the film was interrupted by a mini-infestation of some sort of horrible multi-legged bug I had never seen before. They came one by one, but there were three of them. Each dispatched in turn by L.'s boot and quickly disposed of so we knew it wasn't just the same one. Even K.C. was scared of these things, backing away as is skited across the floor. Somehow, despite all this we managed to get to bed a decent hour so that we could start the week in better shape than the last one.
At the Polish place we got the platter for two, which consisted of two kinds of perogies, cabbage rolls, Polish sausage, goulash, potato dumplings & something called "hunter's stew". It all had a wonderful homemade taste and was all together delicious and extremely filling. Actually, a little too filling for me, if truth be told. That said, I would gladly go back for their chicken perogies any day.
After dinner we went back to the house so L. could change as we decided that at least he should go to the party we'd been invited to by Mark & Andrea. I was just too tired. L. walked me to the video store so I could grab some DVDs I knew he wouldn't want to watch and he continued on to the Metro. I settled on an eclectic triple bill of Primer, Paprika and The Sea Hawk.
After thoroughly bending my brain with the first too films, I was still up watching ol' Errol Flinn when L. came home around 2 AM. Turns out the couple with the two cats who were on the flight from Vancouver with us were at the party. Small world.
Saturday: Since the weather was still good we decided to focus to getting stuff together for our garden since L.'s dad would be arriving soon to help us with it and we hadn't even started demolishing the faux deck yet.
After a surprisingly tasty breakfast at a new place on Parc in Mile End, we opted to pop in to Rona to start amassing supplies. We got a crowbar to start the demo, as well as planters and lots of dirt. I also grabbed a bunch of seeds and a little rake and a trowel to start working the soil.
When we got home, I determined that we didn't have enough soil and we also needed some rocks for drainage so we ventured out again to Home Depot to pick up the rest of what we needed. L. and I both put out our backs carrying home big heavy bags of dirt and rocks. I spent the rest of the afternoon building my Martha style tiered planter (thanks for the tip, Bean!) and cleaning the garbage and weeds out of our front "yard". L. meanwhile took charge of cleaning the inside of the house in anticipation of our hockey watching guests.I was anticipating an easy Habs victory, meaning that they could move on to the next round of the playoffs. But no. They let an early lead go as we all howled and wailed at the television, deeply disturbing poor K.C. I think he was just upset we hadn't gotten him a little Canadiens jersey yet.
After the game Andrea had to make an appearance at a birthday party and I convinced everyone once else to follow me to the creepy sports bar near our place to watch the Georges St-Pierre/Matt Sera UFC match. Yeah, that's right, UFC. I had recently discovered Georges St-Pierre on RDS late one Friday night about a month ago. Actually, the fight I saw was the titled bought he had lost to Matt Sera where St-Pierre had been strongly favoured, but had gotten his ass handed to him in violent and mildly disturbing fashion. Hearing that a rematch was on the horizon and knowing that it was going to be held in St-Pierre's hometown of Montreal I was very interested in seeing the fight, but after the Canadiens' shocking loss, it was imperative. I had to see someone from Montreal win something that night!We quickly found a spot amongst our fellow depressed Canadiens fans and settled in for the fight. There were four matches before the main event and we quickly determined that we could guess the winner from their entrance theme. Dude who entered to the Verve Pipe did not do well. Our boy St-Pierre came out to a French Rap song, so we knew he'd do well.
There were a number of Canadians fighting, including St-Pierre. The first fight involved a kid from Toronto named Mark Bocek who lost, but he stayed in all three rounds despite crying blood through two of them, so he did okay. However, this show of true Canadian grit augmented our disappointment at Kaleb Starnes of Surrey's performance, dancing around so his opponent, Nate Quarry, couldn't even take a swing. My other faves (incidentally they also won their respective fights) were Mancurian Michael Bisping and Rich Franklin.
Finally it was time for the main event. Everyone was channeling their hockey frustrations towards Matt Sera. Although he comes from NY, to us he represented Boston. And we howled with blood lust as Georges St-Pierre charged into the octagon and pummeled Sera like he should have the first time. While Alain was hoping they would go at least three rounds, it was called near the end of the second round, St-Pierre winning on a TKO.
Sadly, Andrea arrived just as the match finished, so she missed out on our vicarious vengence. Alain and MC had to go home, but Mark and Andrea followed us back home to watch a movie. Being that Andrea needed some serious cheering up we pulled out the Showgirls box set again, although this time we abstained from the drinking game. However, we did play a quick round of Pin the Pasties on Elizabeth Berkley just for fun.
At about 3:30 AM, Mark and Andrea said their farewells and L. and I crawled into bed.
Sunday: Annie called at 10:30 AM to see if we were still up for breakfast before salsa dancing. Being that neither of us could move, we opted to skip both, knowing that skipping a second week of dancing lessons essentially meant we were dropping out of the class. But we promised instead to join up the next classic ballroom class offered at the same studio in May.
After lying in bed as long as we could we moved to the couch and watch Right At Your Door, a surprisingly effective low-budget apocalyptic flick we'd missed at last year's Fantasia. While the ending was a little too Twilight Zone for my liking, it was still quite well done and I totally recommend checking it out, especially if you have a crush on Rory Cochran like I do.
After the movie we decided to get dressed and located some cash, cheap food and more DVDs. We ended up at Le Roi Du Smoked Meat in St-Hubert plaza where we ate our meal in the company of an Italian bridal shower upstairs. Luckily they had Mulberry Street, another one we missed at Fantasia which L. has been obsessed with, at the video store. I also got to pick a film and for some reason opted for Richard Kelly's epic mess, Southland Tales.
After enduring Southland Tales, where about every three minutes L. and I would look at each other and say "Uh, what?" we opted to at least make a real dinner to make up for our complete lack of motivation in every other aspect of our day. Then it was on to Mulberry Street, which did not disappoint. If you like old school survivalist horror, see this movie. I highly, highly recommend it.
Sadly our viewing of the film was interrupted by a mini-infestation of some sort of horrible multi-legged bug I had never seen before. They came one by one, but there were three of them. Each dispatched in turn by L.'s boot and quickly disposed of so we knew it wasn't just the same one. Even K.C. was scared of these things, backing away as is skited across the floor. Somehow, despite all this we managed to get to bed a decent hour so that we could start the week in better shape than the last one.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Weekend Round Up: My Saguenay Adventure
Friday: Went into work super early so that I could leave at 4:00 PM without dipping into my vacation time, which was hard because I was starting to come down with a sinus cold. Spent the day starring at my monitor in a fog, but still managed to get something done. At exactly 4 PM, I met L., Annie & Mel in the parking lot and we started our trip north.It took about an hour to get off the island, and if we had waited even half an hour later it would have taken three times that long. Mel managed not to get into any road rage incidents with anyone, which was good and I prayed to St. Christopher as I do anytime I get into a car with someone in Quebec. Not that I've converted or anything, it's just that scary.
After a quick supper at a St-Hubert Express in Trois Rivieres it was back onto the road. Sadly it was too dark for me to enjoy the view on the treacherous Parc, and it had started snowing, but the trip was pretty uneventful. We got to Annie's parents' (L.'s taunt Denise and oncle Evans) place around 10:30 PM and we hung out in the kitchen talking and looking at Annie's sister Jasmine's pictures of South American beetles.
At around midnight we bid our farewells and Evans gave us a lift to L.'s cousin Valerie's charming little trailer home where we would be spending the night as Valerie was actually in Montreal for the weekend at a dance conference. Again, Saguenay hospitality was offered in spades and L. noted that a boy cousin probably wouldn't have thought to leave out towels for us.Saturday: After a restful night we called L.'s step-dad Yves who was also in town for L.'s cousin Dave's anniversary memorial (the real reason for our trip) who picked us up so we could all have breakfast together.
Being that it was nearly noon, finding a place for breakfast was a bit of a struggle, but we did manage to find somewhere that was still serving. There was some minor drama regarding the coffee and I thoroughly confused the waitress by asking for black tea (I got Earl Grey and an apology).
After breakfast we toured around the Saguenay at bit on our way to the fromagerie Boivin (cheese factory?). 
The Saguenay is a very interesting and beautiful city, that is actually three cities merged together: Chicoutimi, Jonquière and La Baie. L. had lived in all three areas at various times, and the cities that make up Ville de Saguenay were actually made up of smaller cities and towns. It is actually a Fjord but is mostly agricultural, with rolling hills and fields. The main industry is still Alcan, one of the first to settle in the area. We actually found out recently that my uncle Martin (my mom's sister's husband) had done co-op work for Alcan while in college in Arvida, now part of Jonquière. 
Unfortunately the weather was a bit inclement and it started snowing again. We drove around taking photographs and L. bought a bag of warm, fresh, squeeky cheese curds. That's right, squeeky. That's how you can tell they're fresh. In joual, the sound they make is "skouik, skouik".Around 3 PM we arrived at L.'s dad's place in Jonquière. It's a beautiful Victorian era apartment, originally built by Alcan when they opened their first facility. It even has a dining room! Yves hung out a bit with us all and L. got to play with Nicole's dog Noisette.
Later, Nicole's daughter Katherine showed up with a giant tourtière, the official meal of the Saguenay. L. had two helpings and we saved him some for breakfast. After dinner we all sat down to watch the Canadiens game, when L.'s half brother John and his mother, Florence, came by for a visit. It was a very nice surprise as it had been a couple years since L. had last seen John and we had a very good conversation about video games and film. It turns out that John had been interested in pursuing a career as a game designer, but stumbled into starting a degree in art instead. It was a little overwhelming for me to meet so much of L.'s family all at once, but most people I had met before and everyone was so welcoming and genuinely nice that it was really a pleasure. Everyone seemed very excited to meet me, and L. boasted that I was the reason he had decided to move back to Quebec.
Sunday: Went to my first Catholic mass. Ever. It was actually less scary than I expected, due mostly to the engaging young priest with a goatee and skate shoes under his robes. After mass we went for a brunch buffet with the rest of the friends and family, where L. had (believe it or not) more tourtière. I met more of L.'s family and he and his cousin Caroline talked about how somebody from their side of the family better start having babies soon.After brunch we visited with L.'s tant Reine and oncle Arthur while Yves gathered his stuff as he had been staying with them for the weekend. Arthur taught us about L.'s ancestor's (apparently the Malthais side of the family is originally from the Isle of Malta) and Reine asked if my parents spoke French at home, probably the best compliment I've ever received.
Then it was off to Ste-Foy (next door to Quebec city) with Yves so we could catch a bus back to Montreal. Luckily we were able to catch an express bus and made it back in time to catch the third period of the game.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Weekend Round-Up: Spendy Cupcakes, Comix & Salsa Dancing
Because L. and I both work day jobs, a lot of our exploring the city is done on the weekend. In the spirit of providing as much first hand experience of Montreal as possible, I had been wanting to do some sort of Weekend Round-Up feature for a while now, but I would usually forget until Wednesday, at which point the previous weekend was starting to get fuzzy and it stopped seeming all that relevant. I was hoping to have this post up on Monday, which would have made more sense, but we're a girl short at work right now so I actually have something to do during the work day. So here you go:
Friday: Hooked up with MC as I was going to be in her hood running some errands and I wanted to drop off Alain's metro card which he had given me last weekend as he was going to be out of town for a week and figured I could use it. Had a very girly evening of buying Organic shower gel, $15 worth of cupcakes at Petits Gateaux & body butter at Bella Pella. Grabbed dinner at our new addiction, Thai Express & met up with L. at our new favourite video store, Club Video Beaubien. Rented The Getaway (original), Pump Up the Volume & Shampoo. Watched Pump Up the Volume, which is AWESOME and the only Christian Slater movie Kim and I didn't watch during a sleepover night because her mom rented us If Looks Could Kill instead.
Saturday: In an effort to break out of our usual routine we opted to explore the Mile End neighborhood which is basically the area between us and The Plateau on St-Laurent. It is a predominently Anglo & student hood, with lots of cool boutiques and bagel shops. Had brunch at tiny, but packed Brazilian restaurant with roasted fruits. Found Drawn & Quarterly, a very nice store specializing in alternative and indie-press comics and novels. L. hinted strongly at wanting the Rick Trembles book, I finally picked up Therefore, Repent! and butted in on conversation about Vancouver and the till. Found another Organic supermarket with a huge selection of wellness & cosmetic products. Will pick up foundation there when I am all out. Headed up to Plaza St. Hubert to try on Yoga pants at Belle & Rebelle. On the way there we stopped in to Studio 9, which I had been avoiding it because it is so close, but I will have to start a box or something there. Didn't really find any pants & went home. I worked on computer (hello, editing!) while L. cleaned. Sorta participated in Earth Hour by watching the Habs game by candlelight with no heat (it's better than nothing, right?). After the game, Alain & MC came by to watch my recently purchased (for $9.99, natch!) Showgirls VIP Limited Edition Box Set. I made the mistake of the playing the drinking game with red wine. Tried watching Shampoo after Alain & MC took off, but my tummy would have none of it. Vomited red potato chips into the sink and called it a night.
Sunday: After Saturday night's adventures, opted to join Annie for Salsa Dancing classes in the Village instead of our planned outing to the Wine & Spirits Salon. Met Annie & Mel for breaky first at their favourite weekend haunt, Coco Gallo (after we introduced them). L. and I managed to get through the lesson without breaking up or physically harming each other, so that was good. Had coffee in the village with Annie and her friends before departing to wander downtown prior to getting to Comedyworks to see Andrea in a best of Open Mike showcase/contest. She won in a tie. Stumbled home & passed out by 11:30 pm.
Friday: Hooked up with MC as I was going to be in her hood running some errands and I wanted to drop off Alain's metro card which he had given me last weekend as he was going to be out of town for a week and figured I could use it. Had a very girly evening of buying Organic shower gel, $15 worth of cupcakes at Petits Gateaux & body butter at Bella Pella. Grabbed dinner at our new addiction, Thai Express & met up with L. at our new favourite video store, Club Video Beaubien. Rented The Getaway (original), Pump Up the Volume & Shampoo. Watched Pump Up the Volume, which is AWESOME and the only Christian Slater movie Kim and I didn't watch during a sleepover night because her mom rented us If Looks Could Kill instead.Saturday: In an effort to break out of our usual routine we opted to explore the Mile End neighborhood which is basically the area between us and The Plateau on St-Laurent. It is a predominently Anglo & student hood, with lots of cool boutiques and bagel shops. Had brunch at tiny, but packed Brazilian restaurant with roasted fruits. Found Drawn & Quarterly, a very nice store specializing in alternative and indie-press comics and novels. L. hinted strongly at wanting the Rick Trembles book, I finally picked up Therefore, Repent! and butted in on conversation about Vancouver and the till. Found another Organic supermarket with a huge selection of wellness & cosmetic products. Will pick up foundation there when I am all out. Headed up to Plaza St. Hubert to try on Yoga pants at Belle & Rebelle. On the way there we stopped in to Studio 9, which I had been avoiding it because it is so close, but I will have to start a box or something there. Didn't really find any pants & went home. I worked on computer (hello, editing!) while L. cleaned. Sorta participated in Earth Hour by watching the Habs game by candlelight with no heat (it's better than nothing, right?). After the game, Alain & MC came by to watch my recently purchased (for $9.99, natch!) Showgirls VIP Limited Edition Box Set. I made the mistake of the playing the drinking game with red wine. Tried watching Shampoo after Alain & MC took off, but my tummy would have none of it. Vomited red potato chips into the sink and called it a night.
Sunday: After Saturday night's adventures, opted to join Annie for Salsa Dancing classes in the Village instead of our planned outing to the Wine & Spirits Salon. Met Annie & Mel for breaky first at their favourite weekend haunt, Coco Gallo (after we introduced them). L. and I managed to get through the lesson without breaking up or physically harming each other, so that was good. Had coffee in the village with Annie and her friends before departing to wander downtown prior to getting to Comedyworks to see Andrea in a best of Open Mike showcase/contest. She won in a tie. Stumbled home & passed out by 11:30 pm.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)