This year has probably been one of the most eventful years of my life, whether in terms of achievements, activities or music. Rather than narrow my list to musical discoveries and just a few other categories I did last year, I’d like to expand it to include some other things.
Top Achievements/Life Changing events:
I really feel like this year has been the one where you say “My hard work has finally paid off”. And all the doubt and tiredness you felt before was suddenly worth it. I won't go into detail about it, but I'll just list what was important in chronological order: Finishing Capstone, Graduation, Moving (we had been at the old place for 13 years), being accepted at and attending Polytechnique, being on the Dean's List, getting a scholarship and being considered for another and doing well in my first semester especially considering everything is in french.
3 Top Activities:
Treetop Trekking – I had heard about Treetop Trekking in 2007, but never managed to organize the event until this year. We were 5 (including myself) and went to Arbraska in Rigaud which is about 50 mins from Montreal. I’m terrified of heights, so it was a really interesting experience. I managed to do all the courses (which the exception of Extreme, because we had no time). It was totally awesome, really fun and I’m glad that the people I went with liked it too (and that they came )
Kinnetik Festival - While this is technically a music event, I don’t exactly consider it a concert because it’s a kind of prolonged thing. Thanks to Ryan and Paw for letting me know about it – we went to one of the nights. It was from 5 pm- 3 am – practically non-stop industrial/hard core music and dancing. I saw some very interesting fashions – cyber goth and such with all the neon hair falls. There were also the usual black PVC clothed people. I also saw interesting dance moves, which inspired me to look up industrial dance on youtube and find this video
If possible, I’d like to go to Kinnetik again next year.
Divers Cite – This is probably one of the most fun festivals I’ve been to. Nobody cares what anyone is doing as long as they’re having fun. A group of us went on the Saturday to check out what was going on and danced in the rain and then later when it was not raining anymore danced again to DJ Ana Paula (who btw, is awesome).
3 Best Food Discoveries:
Le Coin Mexicain – Metro Iberville
We all know that 3 Amigos and Carlos and Pepes are “Mexican” food (just like the vast majority of places are “chinese” food). So I was on the hunt for real Mexican food. A friend of mine told me about Le Coin Mexicain and so I decided to mobilize some troupes to test this place out. Holy crap, this place is great. They have sopes, Horchata, salsa verde (I much prefer green salsa to red salsa. It’s made with tomatillos and has a kinda tangy flavour), tamales, arroz con leche, tortilla soup, queso fresco!!! and more that I was not able to taste (I didn’t order those all myself :P I sampled friends plates). I will have to go back for sure to try their guacamole among other things. Another Mexican thing I really like (which I’m not sure they have but I tried at the Mexican Independence Day celebration) was Elote. It’s corn on the cob, with mayonnaise, queso fresco or parmesan and cayenne pepper. It sounds kind of sinister, but it is so tasty, woosh.
Anyways, you all need to have Mexican food.
Sushi Moushi – Decarie in between Isabella and Queen Mary
In the world of all you can eat sushi, sushi moushi is pretty darn good. It is also kind of eccentric in that it serves flavours that you typically do not see in Sushi restaurants. My favourite was Yasai Tempura Maki, which is onion, cucumber, zucchini, sweet potato and all fried. Like dude man, this was amazing. They also have one flavour with lychee in it. Kanda is still good (I’m fond of their deep fried scallops with the sauce on the side), but sushi moushi is very original and they’re also close by. Hah!
Spirite Lounge - 1205 Ontario
You need to go to this place, even if it's just for the decor. It's the strange restaurant I've ever been in, which christmas lights, hindu pictures, pictures of Jesus and Buddha, playing cards on the ceiling, rugs everywhere. In addition, you pay 15$ for soup, main and dessert with tea and you must finish your food. Though shall not waste. I finished everything - which is vegan and amazingly tasty. I would love to go back.
Notable Mentions: Sala Rosa – especially for their curried pumpkin and coconut soup, 5000 years - different from all the other korean resto's I've been to, La Faim du Monde - best coleslaw I've ever had
3 Best Places to Chill:
L’Escalier – Ste Catherine near Berri metro
This place is located, surprise surprise, up the stairs. Imagine someone took a flat, removed all the doors, painted the rooms strange colors and generally everything is made for floor seating level. They frequently have musical performances and also serve food for rather inexpensive prices. They also have quite a selection of tea. It’s a great place to get lost in time, because the times I went, we often freaked out when we found out how much time had passed.
Casa del Popolo – St Laurent near St Joseph
Really inexpensive, frequent concerts, wide selection of food and beverages and overall super chill.
Café Sarajevo – St Laurent near Beaubien
Though we didn’t get to stay here very long (we had to catch the metro), this place is really cool. They have Bosnian coffee, which is served in these really tiny cups. Every night they are open, jazz or gypsy bands play. Frequent performers are Soleil Tzigane and Les Gitans de Sarajevo. Hopefully I’ll be able to go back again and fully enjoy without racing for the metro. Also, hopefully more people will be dancing around to such wonderful music :)
I'd also like to mention Parc Rene Levesque. I biked there once and I love it. I spent a few hours there just hanging about on the rocks staring at the water. So definitely a great place to chill, though outdoors and so it depends on the weather.
3 Best Teas
Garden of Eden
I had this tea when I went to visit a friend in Toronto. As she knows I'm a huge tea freak, she took me to the tea emporium. It smells like you crushed a bunch of berries and made some kinda perfume out of it. Incredibly fruity, more than any other tea I've had. It's based on green tea and flavored with all the berries. It's absolutely wonderful. I bought some and brought it back. Too bad there's not much left :P
White Peony Mint Tea
I got this at a tea store on St Denis. I'm a big fan of Moroccan Mint Tea (that you have at...well Moroccan Restos :)). This tea was a pleasant surprise though. Its mintyness is less pronounced than in Moroccan mint, but still there. It feels very cleansingv(like after you've eaten). One of my favorite in terms of minty teas.
Sencha Kyoto Cherry Rose Festival Tea
Got it at the same tea store as Mr. Mint. I had tried this tea at L'Escalier and at Cafein a while back. I liked it quite a bit because again, based on green tea with a hint of fruit (I typically despise pure fruit herbal teas). What's great is that when I bought a package of it, the cherry was even more present than I remember. Hoorah for fresh tea!
3 Best Movie Discoveries
Let the Right One In
I saw this movie just recently. I heard about it after reading a message board connected with a music blog I frequent from time to time. I never actively sought out vampire movies, but after seeing the trailer, I was intruiged. The movie takes place in Sweden and generally deals with a 12 year old girl named Eli who's a vampire and she befriends a 12 year old boy who is being bullied. The atmosphere is very somber and doom, but the movie is also very sweet. I cannot recommened it enough. I've seen it 3 times already. I absolutely love it.
Wristcutters: A Love Story
The spirit of this movie reminds me a bit of Everything is Illuminated for two reasons : the music and the mass amounts of driving. The movie is about the afterlife of suiciders. However, it's not depressing, it's really wacky and has a great soundtrack. Tom Waits also make an appearance.
Time of the Gypsiess
Three of us decided to go to Cinema du parc to check out some gypsy movies. Now, the description they had on the site made it seem like it was a comedy. That was the most misleading description ever. Initially it was kind of funny. But dude man, this is one of the most depressing movies I've seen - we all agreed. We left completely blahed out. This is not to say however that it's a bad movie. It's very good and very well acted, just not happy. Essentially dealing with a boy who leaves his home with good intentions, but gets corrupted by crime.
New General Entertainment:
Gad ElMaleh
I found out about this comedian while trying to show a friend from Houston an example of the difference between a quebecois and french accent. It was entirely random, but then I started watching his sketches and found out he was really funny. Now he is one of my favorite comedians :)
How I met your mother
I heard about this show from 2 friends and while not studying for finals, I decided to check it out on surfthechannel. Not a good idea because it's really funny and incredibly addictive. Barney has more catch phrases than I've ever heard, but it's ok, because he's awesome. :P
Queer as Folk
Another show I heard about in passing and decided to look up. Showcase started streaming episodes off of their site (once a week) and then I discovered that it was all on surf the channel (except episode 410, which paw passed to me). The show was really witty, it had its funny moments, sad moments...typically drama I guess, but also had great music (the babylon club mix is great - thanks to paw again for passing that to me).
3 Best Musical Discoveries of the Year (with suggested songs):
Beach House – Heart and Lungs and You Came to me
This band is extremely spaced out. The lady’s voice is rather soft and deep. To me at least, it feels like you’re floating. It’s great music to just sit there and space out to, which I’ve done a number of times.
MGMT – Electric Feel and Time to Pretend
It’s hard to exactly describe what genre this band belongs to. I’ll play it safe and say some kind of alternative psychedelic rock. Electric Feel was the first song I really liked and they sound like the beegees. It’s extremely funky and dancy. Time to Pretend is a little bit more standard rock, but still has that 70s feel to it. Either way, love em.
Vampire Weekend – One (Blake’s Got a new face)/ A-Punk
I discovered this band randomly on Nodata I think. They’re like dancy punkish rock in a way, but the guy has a softer voice than most punk bands as far as I know. Very enjoyable.
3 songs that happened to stay in my head
The Killers – This is your life
When I say that this song stayed in my head, I’m not kidding. I heard it while Christmas shopping at HMV two days before a final. I don’t listen to the Killers really, so I had no idea who it was, just that it was damn catchy. I asked one of the store clerks and she told me the track. I went home and downloaded it. I kinda lost track of how often it played on loop (I was too lazy to switch it while studying for said final). Play count till now 127 (on itunes). 105/127 of those plays were done in one day. Since then it has played on winamp too. So total is probably close to 160 times since December 10. It really is a great song though. I love the beat so much :) And I’m somehow still not tired by it.
TV on the Radio – Halfway Home
Another HMV gem – I was perusing the store to kill time sometime in September when I was in the area. Thought it sounded good, so asked a clerk. I had heard TV on the Radio in 2004 as openers for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and wasn’t crazy about them. This song pleasantly surprised me though.
Architecture in Helsinki – Heart it Races
This song was probably the song of the year that I decided I had to spread around in some way (much like Gogol last year). These dudes are from Australia and the band is generally wacky (just my style). The song is very festive. It has steel pans in it and chirpy voices. One particular friend of mine is a fan of this song and so we often break into song and dance around. The video is also pretty cool, oh neon awesomeness!
3 Best Concerts:
This is an extremely hard category because; I can say without hesitation that every concert I saw this year was amazing. I have seen bands this year that I have been waiting years to see and others that though I haven’t, were just as great for different reasons. To make my decision easier, I’ll pick one for spring, summer and fall.
Spring: The Cure – Bell Centre – May 14, 2008
The Cure is pretty legendary as far as I can tell. I was with Ryan and Paw and we were sitting in the 200 section. This was Paw’s first Bell Centre show and so we were uncertain as to whether it would still be good considering our seating position. Luckily, the band had lots of visuals and on top of that they played for about 3 hours. It was probably the longest show I’ve been to and I don’t feel that his voice suffered while singing. It was really top notch. They also played all the songs I wanted them to play – most importantly Disintegration.
Summer: Radiohead – Parc Jean Drapeau – August 6, 2008
I have been waiting since 2003 to see them. I tried to get tickets in 2006 (I left my final early to go to Place des Arts to try and get tickets, but they sold out). In addition, none of my friends wanted to go see them for various reasons. Still, on April 9, I bought 2 presale tickets, because I did not want to miss them again. Luckily, my PT friend was awesome and came to see them with me even though she really didn’t know them. I arrived at PJD at 3 pm, gates scheduled to open at 5, but opened at 5:30. There was a forecast for rain, so I bought 2 ponchos at the dollar store. When the gates opened, I saw people running, so I started running too and half way through thought to myself “dude man, I’m out of shape, I’m a terrible sprinter, but I have to keep going”. I got a spot on the leftish center side of the gate right up front. This is amazing considering over 35000 people attended the concert. My friend arrived around 6 and found me. Then it started raining for about 30 minutes. Eventually it stopped and the opening band, Grizzly Bear came on and there was a rainbow (ironic considering Radiohead’s latest album is called in Rainbows). Radiohead came on around 8 or so. Once it was dark basically because their stage setup was magnificent. LED light columns changing colors in unison with the songs they were playing and screens visible to crowds far back. In addition, unbeknownst to Radiohead themselves, it was the last day of the International Fireworks Festival and so, there were Fireworks during the show. All this combined, and them playing most of the songs I wanted, made this show nothing short of epic and made all the rain and waiting and running entirely worth it. If they came again, I would so go.
PS, though I cannot put two for summer – I must mention that I saw Sigur Ros on September 20. I have also been waiting for them for a long time and they are one of my favourite bands. Their show was also amazing. Confetti wins!
Fall: Broken Social Scene – Metropolis – October 31, 2008
I’ve known about BSS for quite some time, but was never a huge fan. After watching QAF this year, I grew very fond of the song “Lover’s Spit”. When I heard they were coming, I thought why not see them, could be fun and also bought Paw the ticket for her birthday. I went in with no expectations and left entirely blown away. First of all, it being Halloween, the band wore costumes and as with previous experiences seeing bands comprised of more than 6 people, stage energy is way up there. My favourite part of the show, was hands down, during “Ibi Dreams of Pavement”. During the part of the song where there is no singing and just instruments playing, Kevin Drew told everyone to scream, basically for everything that you want and everything that’s going wrong. So, a type of group therapy
The room filled with everyone screaming (luckily had my earplugs :)). But it was such a great experience, everyone in unison. I also really enjoyed the song “It’s all gonna break” which has become of my favourite songs by them for these lyrics in particular “you all want the lovely music to save your lives” and “you want what you can't and you can't cause of fear we've got to get out of here”
Suffice to say, after this concert, I became a bigger BSSer than before.
I can generally say I have very few complaints about this year. Naturally all years have their ups and downs and this one did require much work. But like I said, I feel like it's actually paid off.
I do wonder what 2009 will bring. Cuz hey, next year is my year, the year of the Ox :P Let's hope it's full of pure elemental awesomeness :)! (even if you're not an Ox).
Cheers to you all and I wish you a Happy New Year with lots of luck, happiness and all that stuff that people wish each other :)
I finished my biology class today and decided to work on Part 3 of what I suspect is 4 (haven't figured out what to do for it yet though). Sorry the quality is quite unpremium on youtube this time even though I upped the encoding for this one...might just be because it's faster. It plays fine on my computer :P In anycase, here it is.
I would say it's whackier than the others. The music is "The Deutsch Mark is coming" by Yann Tiersen. If you've seen "Goodbye Lenin" you might remember this song :)
I would say it's whackier than the others. The music is "The Deutsch Mark is coming" by Yann Tiersen. If you've seen "Goodbye Lenin" you might remember this song :)
While taking a break from Stats, I thought I'd do the second installment of the Fall series. I called this one the dream sequence because it seems kinda surreal/eerie (at least to me and my mom :P). It's also random...and I consider dreams to be pretty random.
Music is "Mk2" by Radiohead. It's on "In Rainbows" Disc 2.
Music is "Mk2" by Radiohead. It's on "In Rainbows" Disc 2.
I have a bunch of clips from the fall season (perhaps more will appear since fall is not over). They kind of differ this time in that it's somewhat hard to put them all together + with the fall spirit. So, I think this time i've decided to make a series of short videos, approximately 1-2 minutes in length. In addition, while I think Fall was generally cheerful, the videos will not be.
So, here is the first installment in what I suspect will be 2-3 more videos for the fall season.
The music for this video is Pinion by Nine Inch Nails
Back to studying the Central Nervous System!
So, here is the first installment in what I suspect will be 2-3 more videos for the fall season.
The music for this video is Pinion by Nine Inch Nails
Back to studying the Central Nervous System!
Newmindspace is interactive public art, creative cultural interventions and urban bliss dissemination based in New York and Toronto. "
"All over the world, groups like Newmindspace organize free, fun, all ages, non-commercial public events. From a massive Mobile Clubbing event in a London train station to a giant pillow fight near the Eiffel Tower in Paris to a subway party beneath the streets of Toronto, it is clear that the urban playground is growing around the world, leaving more public and more social cities in its wake. This is the urban playground movement, a playful part of the larger public space movement.
One of our goals at Newmindspace is to make these unique happenings in public space become a significant part of popular culture, partially replacing passive, non-social, branded consumption experiences like watching television. The result, we hope, will be a global community of participants in a world where people are constantly organizing and attending these happenings in every major city in the world."
Their latest event was Night Lights: Higher
Tomorrow night, we will attempt to create an art installation that is higher than the CN Tower. Over the course of four hours, we will slowly raise a glowing string by balloons, attaching brightly coloured LEDs every foot or so. Throughout the event, the dazzling string will reach dizzying heights and drift gently in the wind.
Below is a video:
I wish something like that would happen in Montreal. There some events that happen, and I have attended quite a few (scavenger hunts, pillow fights, metro parties and manhunt), but these dudes manage to assemble A LOT more people (I'm talking about hundreds, for their pillow fights, light sabre battles and capture the flag for example) to their events than anything that happens here.
I'm not sure why it is exactly that, at least so far, in Montreal we are unable to mobilize as many people. There was one time (unforuntately I wasn't there), the first metro party, which happened to be organized by newmindspace in March 30, 2007. The car was absolutely packed and they managed to go from Henri Bourrassa to Cote Vertu and back to Cote-Ste-Catherine.
For the most part, attendance ranges from about 25-40 people, sometimes more if lucky (like at the pillow fight ~ 85). Hopefully it'll change in the future. If not, I guess I'll try coincide my Toronto visits with their events :P
"All over the world, groups like Newmindspace organize free, fun, all ages, non-commercial public events. From a massive Mobile Clubbing event in a London train station to a giant pillow fight near the Eiffel Tower in Paris to a subway party beneath the streets of Toronto, it is clear that the urban playground is growing around the world, leaving more public and more social cities in its wake. This is the urban playground movement, a playful part of the larger public space movement.
One of our goals at Newmindspace is to make these unique happenings in public space become a significant part of popular culture, partially replacing passive, non-social, branded consumption experiences like watching television. The result, we hope, will be a global community of participants in a world where people are constantly organizing and attending these happenings in every major city in the world."
Their latest event was Night Lights: Higher
Tomorrow night, we will attempt to create an art installation that is higher than the CN Tower. Over the course of four hours, we will slowly raise a glowing string by balloons, attaching brightly coloured LEDs every foot or so. Throughout the event, the dazzling string will reach dizzying heights and drift gently in the wind.
Below is a video:
I wish something like that would happen in Montreal. There some events that happen, and I have attended quite a few (scavenger hunts, pillow fights, metro parties and manhunt), but these dudes manage to assemble A LOT more people (I'm talking about hundreds, for their pillow fights, light sabre battles and capture the flag for example) to their events than anything that happens here.
I'm not sure why it is exactly that, at least so far, in Montreal we are unable to mobilize as many people. There was one time (unforuntately I wasn't there), the first metro party, which happened to be organized by newmindspace in March 30, 2007. The car was absolutely packed and they managed to go from Henri Bourrassa to Cote Vertu and back to Cote-Ste-Catherine.
For the most part, attendance ranges from about 25-40 people, sometimes more if lucky (like at the pillow fight ~ 85). Hopefully it'll change in the future. If not, I guess I'll try coincide my Toronto visits with their events :P
Today I decided what my next culinary challenge will be, but the recipe calls for raisins and I've decided to omit them. Then it got me thinking about desserts I don't like (which is strange, because usually I talk about food I like :P).
Anyways, yeah.
1)Desserts with raisins in them - it doesn't matter what it is, even if they try to conceal them! You eventually find it, chew on and it, and bleeeeh. Dessert is ruined. This is especially the case for Oatmeal Raisin cookies (or any other cookies that have raisins in them) and cinnamon buns with raisins hidden in between each successive rolled layer.
The texture of the raisin is different in both cases:
a) in the Oatmeal Raisin cookie
the raisin has shrivels, dries up (more than it was before, if that's even possible) and so is this hard thing that you bite into...and tastes terrible.
b) in the Cinnamon bun,
the raisin soaks up lots of juice. It's like the raisin is trying to revert back to grape form, but it fails. So it's just kinda unpleasant and gross. If I wanted grapes, I would eat grapes.
Retrieving them is not so fun either...for your hands get really sticky.
I feel the same way about dried cranberries. :P
2) Liquer Filled Chocolate
I probably shouldn't generalize this one, but some liquer taste really gross inside the chocolate. Like unless it's really fruity and festive, imo it gives a really peculiar taste. Please refer to Gad Elmaleh's sketch at around 1:10 to 1:50
3)Jello and its gelatinous friends
As a child, Jello was my last resort dessert. If it was the only thing left at the buffet, that's what i'd have. I even had difficulty eating it when the doctor told me (in the event of stomach illnesses). It's not really the taste (which is for the most part sugar and artificial fruit flavoring), it's the texture.
And that leads me to the friends of Jello. Not that they necessarily have gelatin in them, but they have a similar texture.
a) Bibingka Cassava (Cassava cake)
apart from ground cassava used in west african food (which I really like), this was my only other exposure to cassava. I had it 5 years ago while visiting a person's place. Perhaps it's because it didn't have a cakey texture at all. I can't even really describe the taste...I just know eating it wasn't fun.
b) These little glutinous rice cupcakes?
I had them at a karate bake sale. The kid who brought them was really excited, gave me one. I tried it - mouth full "It's great! :D"...*disappears and disposes of it* I did feel bad though :)
There are three instances that I eat Jello/jello friends - Fruit jellies (they have actual fruit in the center!), in vietnamese drink Three Colors (it has green jello worms) and as a glaze on cakes (typically cheesecake or mousse cake)
4) Licorice
All types, but especially black licorice. Apart from the dessert I will name next, it's the nastiest thing I've ever tasted.
5) Fruit Cake - I'm not talking about cake that has actual fresh fruit on it,
I'm talking about that one that plagues grocery stores at Christmas and for some strange reason is often part of wedding cakes (I've been told it's for stability purposes, especially when it has columns supporting each layer).
Whatever fruit is in there does not resemble fruit anymore - in shape, taste or texture. Even the surrounding cake tastes like pure elemental nastiness. The only one that's even slightly tolerable is the one that only has cherries in it or the jamaican fruit cake (it also doesn't have those yucky alien fruit in them).
But ok, I've asked many friends if they like fruit cake and they all don't. Clearly, there's a market for it...I've noticed that it's always parents that like them. My parents do, my friends parents. So I'm wondering: is there a point in time where people suddendly like fruit cake? Like, do you have kids and then like it? I'd like to know and try to prevent this from happening.
I think that's all I can think of for now. If you have any other gross desserts, please name em :) I'm curious.
Anyways, yeah.
1)Desserts with raisins in them - it doesn't matter what it is, even if they try to conceal them! You eventually find it, chew on and it, and bleeeeh. Dessert is ruined. This is especially the case for Oatmeal Raisin cookies (or any other cookies that have raisins in them) and cinnamon buns with raisins hidden in between each successive rolled layer.
The texture of the raisin is different in both cases:
a) in the Oatmeal Raisin cookie
the raisin has shrivels, dries up (more than it was before, if that's even possible) and so is this hard thing that you bite into...and tastes terrible.
b) in the Cinnamon bun,
the raisin soaks up lots of juice. It's like the raisin is trying to revert back to grape form, but it fails. So it's just kinda unpleasant and gross. If I wanted grapes, I would eat grapes.
Retrieving them is not so fun either...for your hands get really sticky.
I feel the same way about dried cranberries. :P
2) Liquer Filled Chocolate
I probably shouldn't generalize this one, but some liquer taste really gross inside the chocolate. Like unless it's really fruity and festive, imo it gives a really peculiar taste. Please refer to Gad Elmaleh's sketch at around 1:10 to 1:50
3)Jello and its gelatinous friends
As a child, Jello was my last resort dessert. If it was the only thing left at the buffet, that's what i'd have. I even had difficulty eating it when the doctor told me (in the event of stomach illnesses). It's not really the taste (which is for the most part sugar and artificial fruit flavoring), it's the texture.
And that leads me to the friends of Jello. Not that they necessarily have gelatin in them, but they have a similar texture.
a) Bibingka Cassava (Cassava cake)
apart from ground cassava used in west african food (which I really like), this was my only other exposure to cassava. I had it 5 years ago while visiting a person's place. Perhaps it's because it didn't have a cakey texture at all. I can't even really describe the taste...I just know eating it wasn't fun.
b) These little glutinous rice cupcakes?
I had them at a karate bake sale. The kid who brought them was really excited, gave me one. I tried it - mouth full "It's great! :D"...*disappears and disposes of it* I did feel bad though :)
There are three instances that I eat Jello/jello friends - Fruit jellies (they have actual fruit in the center!), in vietnamese drink Three Colors (it has green jello worms) and as a glaze on cakes (typically cheesecake or mousse cake)
4) Licorice
All types, but especially black licorice. Apart from the dessert I will name next, it's the nastiest thing I've ever tasted.
5) Fruit Cake - I'm not talking about cake that has actual fresh fruit on it,
I'm talking about that one that plagues grocery stores at Christmas and for some strange reason is often part of wedding cakes (I've been told it's for stability purposes, especially when it has columns supporting each layer). Whatever fruit is in there does not resemble fruit anymore - in shape, taste or texture. Even the surrounding cake tastes like pure elemental nastiness. The only one that's even slightly tolerable is the one that only has cherries in it or the jamaican fruit cake (it also doesn't have those yucky alien fruit in them).
But ok, I've asked many friends if they like fruit cake and they all don't. Clearly, there's a market for it...I've noticed that it's always parents that like them. My parents do, my friends parents. So I'm wondering: is there a point in time where people suddendly like fruit cake? Like, do you have kids and then like it? I'd like to know and try to prevent this from happening.
I think that's all I can think of for now. If you have any other gross desserts, please name em :) I'm curious.
Hiya!
I'm procrastinating:
I'm supposed to be writing a research proposal - well actually first, reading articles to be able to produce the aforementioned piece of work.
So I'm transferring data to a portable hard drive to copy to my new laptop and I've decided to address this question.
It's something that comes up in conversations with people often enough, whether you've known them for a long time or not. I'm usually not sure what to answer. I've had ideas...but never really settled on anything.
In the past I've thought about Japan (when I was watching anime lots - over 6 years ago), then Iceland (I still think it's cool - but was more into it 1-2 years ago), Greece (after I saw Mama Mia...it looked really pretty), Spain (just dude man) and Brazil (but the crime rate is a little frightening). I've also thought about Europe in general (people who I know have gone there to visit/take tours...seems cool enough).
Yesterday, while in my Biology class, my project partner (he's from Ecuador) decided to ask me that very question. I said I wasn't sure. Then he said "What about in South America?" So, out of nowhere I said Chile.
He asked why? I said because it's long and has volcanoes. He started laughing. But then I decided to look up stuff about Chile. Now, I probably shouldn't base my opinion about a country on a couple articles, but there's one in particular that makes it sound like pure awesomeness!
Check it out:
Santiago, Chile is a city with well over 5 million people. It’s one of the most advanced cities I’ve ever lived in. It’s also one of the cleanest cities I have ever observed.
The doctors here take the practice of medicine extremely serious, like being an artist taking art to an almost spiritual level, and no they don’t play golf. If you wind up in the hospital for something here, you’ll be in good hands. Again, I know from first hand experience. Here, they’re not concerned about your Medical card and all that red tape crap you would face in the states, here they put the patients’ health first, money matters later.
Chileans are a nocturnal people. Once you make a few friends, it’s not uncommon for people to come by your house late at night and stay late. This was something I had to get used to. Fridays are usually the days that you’ll have an unexpected guest. They may just drop over for a cup of tea…………at 11pm and stay till 2am. This is considered normal so if you are not a nightowl, develop the habit.
It’s easy to find a place to live, with a little persistence, an apartment was secured with a rent of approximately $200 dollars monthly. It’s an older building but very clean and well maintained.
If you don’t own a car, no problem the public transportation is absolutely the best. Buses run in all directions very frequently and all night. If you miss a bus to downtown, not to worry, your wait time for the next one will be about ten minutes max. They begin to run a bit slower after about 2am though. The fare: 330 Pesos, again, less than 50 cents. There is a subway system, and it is rivaled only by the English Tube. The trains are on time, speedy and very clean. You’ll find no graffiti on them. They’ll take you just about anywhere you want to go. I’ll tell you now, the buses and subways are always crowded. Expect close quarters on public transportation at all times.
Those are just a few of the things that seem really cool about it. It's clean, has public transportation, people seem laid back (and they like tea!), the scenery look amazing! Nice doctors, the police are generally not corrupt, so many different climates to visit, phone/internet/rent are not terrible and amaaaaazing food (or so he says) :P
Perhaps I'll settle on another place for my "Where would you like to go?" answer, but for the moment I'm feeling very Chilean.
I also found a blog where someone shows pics from there/adventures. It's pretty new...but still cool.
So, now I have to try Chilean food (apart from empanadas).
I'm procrastinating:
I'm supposed to be writing a research proposal - well actually first, reading articles to be able to produce the aforementioned piece of work.
So I'm transferring data to a portable hard drive to copy to my new laptop and I've decided to address this question.
It's something that comes up in conversations with people often enough, whether you've known them for a long time or not. I'm usually not sure what to answer. I've had ideas...but never really settled on anything.
In the past I've thought about Japan (when I was watching anime lots - over 6 years ago), then Iceland (I still think it's cool - but was more into it 1-2 years ago), Greece (after I saw Mama Mia...it looked really pretty), Spain (just dude man) and Brazil (but the crime rate is a little frightening). I've also thought about Europe in general (people who I know have gone there to visit/take tours...seems cool enough).
Yesterday, while in my Biology class, my project partner (he's from Ecuador) decided to ask me that very question. I said I wasn't sure. Then he said "What about in South America?" So, out of nowhere I said Chile.
He asked why? I said because it's long and has volcanoes. He started laughing. But then I decided to look up stuff about Chile. Now, I probably shouldn't base my opinion about a country on a couple articles, but there's one in particular that makes it sound like pure awesomeness!
Check it out:
Santiago, Chile is a city with well over 5 million people. It’s one of the most advanced cities I’ve ever lived in. It’s also one of the cleanest cities I have ever observed.
The doctors here take the practice of medicine extremely serious, like being an artist taking art to an almost spiritual level, and no they don’t play golf. If you wind up in the hospital for something here, you’ll be in good hands. Again, I know from first hand experience. Here, they’re not concerned about your Medical card and all that red tape crap you would face in the states, here they put the patients’ health first, money matters later.
Chileans are a nocturnal people. Once you make a few friends, it’s not uncommon for people to come by your house late at night and stay late. This was something I had to get used to. Fridays are usually the days that you’ll have an unexpected guest. They may just drop over for a cup of tea…………at 11pm and stay till 2am. This is considered normal so if you are not a nightowl, develop the habit.
It’s easy to find a place to live, with a little persistence, an apartment was secured with a rent of approximately $200 dollars monthly. It’s an older building but very clean and well maintained.
If you don’t own a car, no problem the public transportation is absolutely the best. Buses run in all directions very frequently and all night. If you miss a bus to downtown, not to worry, your wait time for the next one will be about ten minutes max. They begin to run a bit slower after about 2am though. The fare: 330 Pesos, again, less than 50 cents. There is a subway system, and it is rivaled only by the English Tube. The trains are on time, speedy and very clean. You’ll find no graffiti on them. They’ll take you just about anywhere you want to go. I’ll tell you now, the buses and subways are always crowded. Expect close quarters on public transportation at all times.
Those are just a few of the things that seem really cool about it. It's clean, has public transportation, people seem laid back (and they like tea!), the scenery look amazing! Nice doctors, the police are generally not corrupt, so many different climates to visit, phone/internet/rent are not terrible and amaaaaazing food (or so he says) :P
Perhaps I'll settle on another place for my "Where would you like to go?" answer, but for the moment I'm feeling very Chilean.
I also found a blog where someone shows pics from there/adventures. It's pretty new...but still cool.
So, now I have to try Chilean food (apart from empanadas).
Following her adventure the previous night, Anti-Rocks set out on another adventure. She had not gone on her bike in a while and decided to take in the premium fall air and scenery on wheels. She made her way to the institution known for its steep hills, colorful interiors and mastery of technology. She determined at that this point that she requires more practice, for it took her a while to climb the hills. As a short cut to the famous mountain of the Village of Montreal, she rode through the Cemetery. It was a generally nice ride and she was undisturbed by visitors and the dead. She, in return, did not disturb them. After her nice ride, she arrived at the Pirate’s and Western Redhead’s dwelling for Sushi making. They were successful in their task and were incredibly full. Anti-Rocks thought that the Halloween spirit had finally left and did not expect any more strangeness to come.
She continued her week as planned, visiting the previously mentioned institution and also to the Heart Institute for a field trip. In the middle of the week, Anti-Rocks once again met with the Free-Spirited Zoologist for tea at a new place suggested by another one of her friends. Paw and the Zoologist’s friend were unable to attend due to other engagements. They made their way to the place known as “Potion du Shaman”, or so they thought. Anti-Rocks had written down the address “1699 St-Denis”, but in that spot was Café Houkha – a place which that had tried before. If Anti-Rocks did not know better, she would’ve assumed that Mercury was retrograde. The Zoologist called her friend to confirm and indeed that was the spot and her friend theorized that the place she was talking about was perhaps only the bottom part. In any case, as they had tried the place before, they decided to set off to try another. The Free-Spirited Zoologist was curious about a Café run by Gypsies (Café Gitana) and naturally it was not well lit. They sat down and observed the menu for about 5 minutes and concluded that they were hungry, but all that the place served was dessert. So they left, initially going to a Tibetan place, but they got distracted by the Korean Food place beside it called 5000 ans. Anti-Rocks was excited – she would be able to compare all the Korean Restaurants she had tried. Upon reading the menu, she was surprised to find many dishes she did not know, ones she had not heard of. In addition, they were served a drink that tasted like coffee, but looked like tea and it was cold – Wheat Tea. They asked the waitress where it could be acquired, but she did not know.
Unlike other Korean places, they did not serve you the traditional appetizers of Kimchi, sprouts and potatoes. We got Miso soup and then our dishes, which were nothing short of delicious. In addition their décor was cute (there were goji berries in a bowl, which I’m certain customers where not allowed to eat for they are quite expensive). They left this spot and returned to the gypsies. They were pleased to find their old spot vacant and stole it. They ordered Mint tea (the way Anti-Rocks likes it – in the glass cups with little spoons and the metal tea pot. It had a very strong minty flavor and little cubes of brown sugar on the side). In addition, the Zoologist ordered a double apple flavored dose of Shisha and let Anti-Rocks try. She had never done so before, and so agreed. They sat there for a while and by the end of the night became somewhat drowsy. More specifically, the Free-Spirited Zoologist said “I’m floating on clouds” and Anti-Rocks was generally incoherent, sometimes mixing her words or just being slow. Apparently that’s what happens when you don’t smoke and the whole room is smoking too. After our tea, we decided we needed air and set out on another adventure. We decided to investigate if the misty fountain was still functioning. The walk went well – they made a short stop for the Zoologist to buy ice cream and Anti-Rocks a bottle of water. Following that, the two had damn tea alerts and decided to go into the Congress Palace which is clearly distinguishable by its colorful exterior. Upon entering the building, Anti-Rox was overcome with glee to find herself in the presence of the Magical Pink Forest, as foretold in the Great Scavenger Hunt in February passed. She had only heard of it, but not witnessed herself. The travelers were curious and so the Zoologist ran through the pink trees and hugged one. At one point though, they decided to continue their hunt for damn tea facilities. They found one – and as in the past, it was locked. Anti-Rocks was sad and they decided to come up with another plan. At that moment, they heard a loud scream, as if someone was being tortured. The Free-Spirited Zoologist set off running, but rammed into a nearby water fountain. It is possible she will be bruised – only time will tell. Anti-Rocks determined that they were cursed, for this is the second time this has happened (locked bathrooms and scary noises). Would there be a third time? Perhaps. But until then, it seems the spirits of Halloween have finally left.
She continued her week as planned, visiting the previously mentioned institution and also to the Heart Institute for a field trip. In the middle of the week, Anti-Rocks once again met with the Free-Spirited Zoologist for tea at a new place suggested by another one of her friends. Paw and the Zoologist’s friend were unable to attend due to other engagements. They made their way to the place known as “Potion du Shaman”, or so they thought. Anti-Rocks had written down the address “1699 St-Denis”, but in that spot was Café Houkha – a place which that had tried before. If Anti-Rocks did not know better, she would’ve assumed that Mercury was retrograde. The Zoologist called her friend to confirm and indeed that was the spot and her friend theorized that the place she was talking about was perhaps only the bottom part. In any case, as they had tried the place before, they decided to set off to try another. The Free-Spirited Zoologist was curious about a Café run by Gypsies (Café Gitana) and naturally it was not well lit. They sat down and observed the menu for about 5 minutes and concluded that they were hungry, but all that the place served was dessert. So they left, initially going to a Tibetan place, but they got distracted by the Korean Food place beside it called 5000 ans. Anti-Rocks was excited – she would be able to compare all the Korean Restaurants she had tried. Upon reading the menu, she was surprised to find many dishes she did not know, ones she had not heard of. In addition, they were served a drink that tasted like coffee, but looked like tea and it was cold – Wheat Tea. They asked the waitress where it could be acquired, but she did not know.
Unlike other Korean places, they did not serve you the traditional appetizers of Kimchi, sprouts and potatoes. We got Miso soup and then our dishes, which were nothing short of delicious. In addition their décor was cute (there were goji berries in a bowl, which I’m certain customers where not allowed to eat for they are quite expensive). They left this spot and returned to the gypsies. They were pleased to find their old spot vacant and stole it. They ordered Mint tea (the way Anti-Rocks likes it – in the glass cups with little spoons and the metal tea pot. It had a very strong minty flavor and little cubes of brown sugar on the side). In addition, the Zoologist ordered a double apple flavored dose of Shisha and let Anti-Rocks try. She had never done so before, and so agreed. They sat there for a while and by the end of the night became somewhat drowsy. More specifically, the Free-Spirited Zoologist said “I’m floating on clouds” and Anti-Rocks was generally incoherent, sometimes mixing her words or just being slow. Apparently that’s what happens when you don’t smoke and the whole room is smoking too. After our tea, we decided we needed air and set out on another adventure. We decided to investigate if the misty fountain was still functioning. The walk went well – they made a short stop for the Zoologist to buy ice cream and Anti-Rocks a bottle of water. Following that, the two had damn tea alerts and decided to go into the Congress Palace which is clearly distinguishable by its colorful exterior. Upon entering the building, Anti-Rox was overcome with glee to find herself in the presence of the Magical Pink Forest, as foretold in the Great Scavenger Hunt in February passed. She had only heard of it, but not witnessed herself. The travelers were curious and so the Zoologist ran through the pink trees and hugged one. At one point though, they decided to continue their hunt for damn tea facilities. They found one – and as in the past, it was locked. Anti-Rocks was sad and they decided to come up with another plan. At that moment, they heard a loud scream, as if someone was being tortured. The Free-Spirited Zoologist set off running, but rammed into a nearby water fountain. It is possible she will be bruised – only time will tell. Anti-Rocks determined that they were cursed, for this is the second time this has happened (locked bathrooms and scary noises). Would there be a third time? Perhaps. But until then, it seems the spirits of Halloween have finally left.
The day after, Anti-Rocks and Paw along with others (The Cheerful Healer, Manna the Calm, Indifferent Duc and The Free-spirited Zoologist) congregated at the Pink Room (La Sala Rosa) for the degustation of food from the Spaniards and the celebrating of Paw’s birth. Unfortunately, the Tall Economist was unable to attend due to illness. During the degustation, the congregation made a point of embarrassing Paw by singing the traditional birth song. The food was well liked by all – it consisted of a curried pumpkin and coconut soup, various types of Paella (rice dishes), tortillas (but here they are essentially omelets), a steak, melt-in-your-mouth salmon and finally Flan for all. What was particularly premium about this Flan was the fact that it did not have the consistency of silken tofu throughout. It had certain firmness on the surface and the inside was nice and melty. In addition, the caramel infiltrated the structure well, making for the best Flan they have ever tried (or at least for some of them).
After they ended their food adventure, Anti-Rocks and the Free-Spirited Zoologist had another adventure to set out on. They left the Pink room wearing Green hair and a one eared Fox headdress. Their mission: to go to a secluded music hall (that they were invited to) and amuse the cousin of the Free-Spirited Zoologist: The Torontonian Manager (the person who invited them). The music hall is in an area of the village known to the villagers for its unsafeness due to roaming gremlins, abandoned buildings and lack of light. However, this did not seem to phase the brave travelers. Hopefully the Fox would scare off any gremlins. Upon arrival to the transfer station, they boarded the bus. To ensure their proper arrival, the Free-Spirited Zoologist asked the bus driver to inform us of the stop. He replied affirmatively – saying that the stop is less than 5 minutes away and is before the tunnels. He also said that he hopes we are not scared of the dark. This slightly worried Anti-Rocks, for she had never ventured into the area and certainly not at night. However, they arrived safely at their destination. Anti-Rocks’ first impression was that it was generally badly vegetated – mostly barren land. She had not noticed the Music Hall until the Zoologist pointed it out.
They entered and noticed two somewhat laid-back money guardians (which we later found out were musicians as well). The Free-spirited one inquired as to whether her dear cousin was there and they invited us to search for ourselves. As they entered the room where music was to be played, they were noticed by a familiar musician – The Wandering Spirit. He greeted them warmly and asked of their news, past and present. It appears however, much to their dismay that the Torontonian Manager was not there. It seems that the creator of the event must say they are attending even if they are not. And so, their mission to amuse the cousin was no more. And so, they sat down as the first act was to start (there were to be three). The general tone of the evening was warm and folky. Anti-Rocks had brought sweet provisions with her in the form of chocolate covered marzipan and little mars bars. So, they ate them (with the exception of 2 mars bars).
At one point, Anti-Rocks had a damn tea moment. In fact, she had had it during the journey to the secluded music hall, but was not able to do anything about it prior to the intermission following the first act. So, after paying for the show, she made her way to the women’s outhouse. Much to her dismay it was locked. So she waited. And waited. And waited. She then caught a look of the men’s outhouse and noticed stalls (unless her eyes betrayed her) and wondered “If there are stalls in the washroom, why would the door be locked?” This slightly angered her, for she had damn tea and also wanted to get rid of her gum. She decided to explain her case to the Zoologist who accompanied her to investigate the situation. Naturally, once Anti-Rocks brought her to the scene, the door was unlocked. With glee, she sped to the door of the washroom. At that point, the Wandering Spirit inquired if there was an outhouse party. Anti-rocks tried to explain, but was generally incoherent:
“Well, I went to the outhouse and the door was locked and I didn’t understand why…”.
”Well, sometimes it appears locked, but is just slightly jammed”
”I tried really hard, and it wouldn’t open and yeah…eeee” And Anti-Rocks dashed in while the Zoologist, the Wandering Spirit and the guardians of money chuckled. Following that, Anti-Rocks made her way back to her table in time for the next act, which was the Wandering Spirit. He arrived on stage (with his other band mates) with a truly terrifying mask (like a sinister yoda with lots of gray hair and a beard). However, this was extremely amusing as the voice behind the terrifying mask was singing very sweetly – which doesn’t match very well. The crowd was greatly amused and could not contain their laughter. As such, the Wandering Spirit gave up and threw the mask off because he could not concentrate. After that song, he asked why no one was dressed up for Halloween, except for Anti-Rocks who had green hair. The crowd answered that it was yesterday. He concurred, but still believed that the spirit of Halloween should continue.
In between the 2nd and 3rd act, Anti-Rocks and the Free-Sprited Zoologist, now infused with lots of sucrose, decided to play a game known as Table Hockey with the beer coasters. They did this with much glee, spouting random phrases in Spanish (possibly inspired by their previous meal) and cheering for their goals. Sometimes the coasters flew off the table and in some occasions flew into fellow music listeners. They were generally amused though and did not protest. Anti-Rocks’ incoherency continued, as the first musician asked what we were doing, and she replied “Hockey Table!...coasters…”. It seems that he got the general idea. The final act was also nice, but generally more subdued and somewhat sleepy. The concert ended and The Free-Spirited Zoologist decided to greet a friend she randomly encountered there – a violinist who was playing that night. As Anti-Rocks and the Zoologist were incapable of consuming more sucrose infused provisions, Anti-Rocks offered a Mars bar (yes, Mars indeed made of chocolate) to her. She was quite pleased. The remaining planetary treat would go to the Wandering Spirit. So, we found him and informed him of our incoming departure. As usual, he embraced us warmly. Anti-Rocks then presented him with the candy. He thanked her, but then professed that he felt ill the night before. The Zoologist inquired as to whether it was candy related and he confirmed. As such, Anti-Rocks with the most serious face she could muster said “Well, if you don’t want it, you can always give it back” and held her right arm out. She smiled shortly after to indicate her sarcasm. The Wandering Spirit chuckled and said “No! I’ll eat it right away” and then he wished the brave travelers a safe trip home (he had gotten lost earlier that evening).
So, they set out. The Free-Spirited one had an idea – let us walk back to the transportation station known as Place St-Henri rather than take the bus! (Even though it was 11:35 pm. Naturally, they are not scared of the dark). Under normal circumstances Anti-Rocks would not have done this, but she figured “I suppose we are two. So it’s not so bad and you’re a fox and I have green hair. Clearly mutants of some sort”. She had drawn a make-shift map earlier in the evening in the event that she would have to walk. So she was confident that they’d find their way. However, it seems that the Halloween Spirits had different plans for them. They arrived at the cross section of St Remi and Notre Dame as indicated on the map. They then walked forward on Notre Dame and continued on for some time. Anti-Rocks was a little worried and thought maybe they missed the street they were supposed to turn on (Ste Marguerite). So, they reasoned that if they were indeed going in the right direction, if they continued, they would end up at the next transport station: Lionel-Groulx. So onward they went – on small side walks, under underpasses…until they found themselves on the side road of the highway 20 – there is not much there: mostly industries and barren land. They found out at that time that they had turned in the wrong direction on Notre Dame. Now, it is not unusual (rather frequent) that the Free-Spirited Zoologist loses her way. This doesn’t usually happen to Anti-Rocks though. They figured though, that they’ll find their way somehow. They continued walking leisurely while Anti-Rocks told the Zoologist about a sad film she had seen not long ago with the Cheerful Healer. In the midst of her story though, a loud noise was heard – something akin to a creature (man or beast) being slammed against a metal door. Anti-Rocks was startled and let out a little scream, while the Zoologist ran off. Anti-Rocks followed soon after attempting to catch up. They ran for about 2 minutes and determined that they had escaped peril. In the distance, they spotted a bus stop and decided to see what time it would arrive. Luckily, they only had 8 minutes to wait. The hid themselves in the bus shelter and awaited the vehicle. It arrived as predicted at 12:08 am. On board was a strange looking driver and two people – apart from that, entirely empty. Anti-Rocks determined that it must be a ghost bus. The bus arrived at Place St-Henri but did not stop. However, fear not, the travelers were not kidnapped. Instead the bus brought them to Lionel-Groulx, which proved convenient for the Free-Spirited Zoologist. Following their arrival to the transportation station, they made their way home safely and unharmed – at least for now.
After they ended their food adventure, Anti-Rocks and the Free-Spirited Zoologist had another adventure to set out on. They left the Pink room wearing Green hair and a one eared Fox headdress. Their mission: to go to a secluded music hall (that they were invited to) and amuse the cousin of the Free-Spirited Zoologist: The Torontonian Manager (the person who invited them). The music hall is in an area of the village known to the villagers for its unsafeness due to roaming gremlins, abandoned buildings and lack of light. However, this did not seem to phase the brave travelers. Hopefully the Fox would scare off any gremlins. Upon arrival to the transfer station, they boarded the bus. To ensure their proper arrival, the Free-Spirited Zoologist asked the bus driver to inform us of the stop. He replied affirmatively – saying that the stop is less than 5 minutes away and is before the tunnels. He also said that he hopes we are not scared of the dark. This slightly worried Anti-Rocks, for she had never ventured into the area and certainly not at night. However, they arrived safely at their destination. Anti-Rocks’ first impression was that it was generally badly vegetated – mostly barren land. She had not noticed the Music Hall until the Zoologist pointed it out.
They entered and noticed two somewhat laid-back money guardians (which we later found out were musicians as well). The Free-spirited one inquired as to whether her dear cousin was there and they invited us to search for ourselves. As they entered the room where music was to be played, they were noticed by a familiar musician – The Wandering Spirit. He greeted them warmly and asked of their news, past and present. It appears however, much to their dismay that the Torontonian Manager was not there. It seems that the creator of the event must say they are attending even if they are not. And so, their mission to amuse the cousin was no more. And so, they sat down as the first act was to start (there were to be three). The general tone of the evening was warm and folky. Anti-Rocks had brought sweet provisions with her in the form of chocolate covered marzipan and little mars bars. So, they ate them (with the exception of 2 mars bars).
At one point, Anti-Rocks had a damn tea moment. In fact, she had had it during the journey to the secluded music hall, but was not able to do anything about it prior to the intermission following the first act. So, after paying for the show, she made her way to the women’s outhouse. Much to her dismay it was locked. So she waited. And waited. And waited. She then caught a look of the men’s outhouse and noticed stalls (unless her eyes betrayed her) and wondered “If there are stalls in the washroom, why would the door be locked?” This slightly angered her, for she had damn tea and also wanted to get rid of her gum. She decided to explain her case to the Zoologist who accompanied her to investigate the situation. Naturally, once Anti-Rocks brought her to the scene, the door was unlocked. With glee, she sped to the door of the washroom. At that point, the Wandering Spirit inquired if there was an outhouse party. Anti-rocks tried to explain, but was generally incoherent:
“Well, I went to the outhouse and the door was locked and I didn’t understand why…”.
”Well, sometimes it appears locked, but is just slightly jammed”
”I tried really hard, and it wouldn’t open and yeah…eeee” And Anti-Rocks dashed in while the Zoologist, the Wandering Spirit and the guardians of money chuckled. Following that, Anti-Rocks made her way back to her table in time for the next act, which was the Wandering Spirit. He arrived on stage (with his other band mates) with a truly terrifying mask (like a sinister yoda with lots of gray hair and a beard). However, this was extremely amusing as the voice behind the terrifying mask was singing very sweetly – which doesn’t match very well. The crowd was greatly amused and could not contain their laughter. As such, the Wandering Spirit gave up and threw the mask off because he could not concentrate. After that song, he asked why no one was dressed up for Halloween, except for Anti-Rocks who had green hair. The crowd answered that it was yesterday. He concurred, but still believed that the spirit of Halloween should continue.
In between the 2nd and 3rd act, Anti-Rocks and the Free-Sprited Zoologist, now infused with lots of sucrose, decided to play a game known as Table Hockey with the beer coasters. They did this with much glee, spouting random phrases in Spanish (possibly inspired by their previous meal) and cheering for their goals. Sometimes the coasters flew off the table and in some occasions flew into fellow music listeners. They were generally amused though and did not protest. Anti-Rocks’ incoherency continued, as the first musician asked what we were doing, and she replied “Hockey Table!...coasters…”. It seems that he got the general idea. The final act was also nice, but generally more subdued and somewhat sleepy. The concert ended and The Free-Spirited Zoologist decided to greet a friend she randomly encountered there – a violinist who was playing that night. As Anti-Rocks and the Zoologist were incapable of consuming more sucrose infused provisions, Anti-Rocks offered a Mars bar (yes, Mars indeed made of chocolate) to her. She was quite pleased. The remaining planetary treat would go to the Wandering Spirit. So, we found him and informed him of our incoming departure. As usual, he embraced us warmly. Anti-Rocks then presented him with the candy. He thanked her, but then professed that he felt ill the night before. The Zoologist inquired as to whether it was candy related and he confirmed. As such, Anti-Rocks with the most serious face she could muster said “Well, if you don’t want it, you can always give it back” and held her right arm out. She smiled shortly after to indicate her sarcasm. The Wandering Spirit chuckled and said “No! I’ll eat it right away” and then he wished the brave travelers a safe trip home (he had gotten lost earlier that evening).
So, they set out. The Free-Spirited one had an idea – let us walk back to the transportation station known as Place St-Henri rather than take the bus! (Even though it was 11:35 pm. Naturally, they are not scared of the dark). Under normal circumstances Anti-Rocks would not have done this, but she figured “I suppose we are two. So it’s not so bad and you’re a fox and I have green hair. Clearly mutants of some sort”. She had drawn a make-shift map earlier in the evening in the event that she would have to walk. So she was confident that they’d find their way. However, it seems that the Halloween Spirits had different plans for them. They arrived at the cross section of St Remi and Notre Dame as indicated on the map. They then walked forward on Notre Dame and continued on for some time. Anti-Rocks was a little worried and thought maybe they missed the street they were supposed to turn on (Ste Marguerite). So, they reasoned that if they were indeed going in the right direction, if they continued, they would end up at the next transport station: Lionel-Groulx. So onward they went – on small side walks, under underpasses…until they found themselves on the side road of the highway 20 – there is not much there: mostly industries and barren land. They found out at that time that they had turned in the wrong direction on Notre Dame. Now, it is not unusual (rather frequent) that the Free-Spirited Zoologist loses her way. This doesn’t usually happen to Anti-Rocks though. They figured though, that they’ll find their way somehow. They continued walking leisurely while Anti-Rocks told the Zoologist about a sad film she had seen not long ago with the Cheerful Healer. In the midst of her story though, a loud noise was heard – something akin to a creature (man or beast) being slammed against a metal door. Anti-Rocks was startled and let out a little scream, while the Zoologist ran off. Anti-Rocks followed soon after attempting to catch up. They ran for about 2 minutes and determined that they had escaped peril. In the distance, they spotted a bus stop and decided to see what time it would arrive. Luckily, they only had 8 minutes to wait. The hid themselves in the bus shelter and awaited the vehicle. It arrived as predicted at 12:08 am. On board was a strange looking driver and two people – apart from that, entirely empty. Anti-Rocks determined that it must be a ghost bus. The bus arrived at Place St-Henri but did not stop. However, fear not, the travelers were not kidnapped. Instead the bus brought them to Lionel-Groulx, which proved convenient for the Free-Spirited Zoologist. Following their arrival to the transportation station, they made their way home safely and unharmed – at least for now.
On the night of Halloween, a troupe of four set out on a journey to hear magical sounds in the building known to people for its proximity to a sketchy transportation station surrounding by gravel and other such rocks. They assembled in front of the Metropolis approximately two hours before the start of the performance – they being Anti-Rocks, Paw, the Western Redhead and Steel-toed Pirate. That night Anti-Rocks had green hair and was almost unnoticed by the Steel-toed Pirate and the Western Redhead until she caught their attention by means of savage poking. Much to their delight, they entered the line with Paw and Anti-Rocks. During this time, they discussed strategies for fending off unwelcome crowd annoyances and the upcoming sushi creations two days later.
Upon entry, they raced to the front gate and assured their places from premium viewing of the musical groups that would appear in the near future on that night. While waiting they purchased various provisions in the form of water, tee-shirts and compact discs. Much to their excitement, the first group appeared – of course not in normal attire. Two were in space suits (one having two heads, which slightly unnerved Paw) and the drummer appeared as a Giraffe. It appears that the other two did not know that he would do that. So, The Land of Talk played their music for about 45 minutes and during that time a rabbit hopped on to the stage to play saxophone for one song. Not long after Land of Talk disappeared into the darkness, Broken Social Scene made their way onto the elevated platform in front of the brave troopers. Being that they were the main act, the troupe held onto the gate for dear life in case of sinister annoyances.
They arrived disguised. Of course the Bunny was there, as was a man dressed as a woman (Mrs. Brendan Canning), with her “asshole drunken husband” (Kevin Drew). In their company – a mummy, a man in a toga and various other costumes. Without delving too far into details, suffice to say the musical group played extremely well. The night was filled with magic. A particularly magical part of the performance was during the song “Ibi dreams of pavement (a better day)”. During the middle of the song (where the band typically plays and no one sings), the sinister husband addressed the crowd and asked us to scream, but for a particular reason – for ourselves:
"All right, it's therapy time everybody. This little bit we do for everybody, every human being in the house tonight. For everything you've lost, for everything you didn't get, for everything you hurt, for everyone that hurt you, everything you want to become, everything you never became, you're gonna scream. All right? You're gonna let it all out, you're gonna be as loud as you can...On the count of three, you gotta scream your guts out. You ready? Therapy. One. Two. Three. Scream. Go”
After his cue, the entire building was filled with the screams of joy and sorrow, general pure emotion of the crowd – not once, but twice. Anti-Rocks and Paw both had the same reaction: which was to bend over the rail and scream into the ground in front until they had no voice left. However, the night was not without its annoyances. The Steel-Toed pirate was generally the protector of all, but mostly the Western Redhead. At one point, there was a particularly annoying person who kept savagely kicking and bumping into the Steel-Toed pirate. As such, she did what naturally came to mind – to wrap her leg around the annoyance and pull forward so that they fell to the ground. It appears the person was incredibly confused and had no idea what had happened – much to the Pirate’s delight. On the side of Anti-Rocks and Paw, there was a strangely dressed female who also kept bumping into them, and her handbag would continuously whack the face of Paw. At one point the female asked if she could stand in between us at the gate for a while, to which Paw replied “well, I am with my comrade” and so the female went on the other side, but still dancing with the annoying handbag action. The pirate was tempted to take action, but she refrained.
The concert ended when Halloween ended, thereby ending our night of magic, happiness and wonder (it lasted about 4 hours in total, including the Land of Talk). And so, the tired troupe headed home. However, this does not end this Halloween tale. It appears that the spirit of Halloween would not leave our fearless travelers just yet.
Upon entry, they raced to the front gate and assured their places from premium viewing of the musical groups that would appear in the near future on that night. While waiting they purchased various provisions in the form of water, tee-shirts and compact discs. Much to their excitement, the first group appeared – of course not in normal attire. Two were in space suits (one having two heads, which slightly unnerved Paw) and the drummer appeared as a Giraffe. It appears that the other two did not know that he would do that. So, The Land of Talk played their music for about 45 minutes and during that time a rabbit hopped on to the stage to play saxophone for one song. Not long after Land of Talk disappeared into the darkness, Broken Social Scene made their way onto the elevated platform in front of the brave troopers. Being that they were the main act, the troupe held onto the gate for dear life in case of sinister annoyances.
They arrived disguised. Of course the Bunny was there, as was a man dressed as a woman (Mrs. Brendan Canning), with her “asshole drunken husband” (Kevin Drew). In their company – a mummy, a man in a toga and various other costumes. Without delving too far into details, suffice to say the musical group played extremely well. The night was filled with magic. A particularly magical part of the performance was during the song “Ibi dreams of pavement (a better day)”. During the middle of the song (where the band typically plays and no one sings), the sinister husband addressed the crowd and asked us to scream, but for a particular reason – for ourselves:
"All right, it's therapy time everybody. This little bit we do for everybody, every human being in the house tonight. For everything you've lost, for everything you didn't get, for everything you hurt, for everyone that hurt you, everything you want to become, everything you never became, you're gonna scream. All right? You're gonna let it all out, you're gonna be as loud as you can...On the count of three, you gotta scream your guts out. You ready? Therapy. One. Two. Three. Scream. Go”
After his cue, the entire building was filled with the screams of joy and sorrow, general pure emotion of the crowd – not once, but twice. Anti-Rocks and Paw both had the same reaction: which was to bend over the rail and scream into the ground in front until they had no voice left. However, the night was not without its annoyances. The Steel-Toed pirate was generally the protector of all, but mostly the Western Redhead. At one point, there was a particularly annoying person who kept savagely kicking and bumping into the Steel-Toed pirate. As such, she did what naturally came to mind – to wrap her leg around the annoyance and pull forward so that they fell to the ground. It appears the person was incredibly confused and had no idea what had happened – much to the Pirate’s delight. On the side of Anti-Rocks and Paw, there was a strangely dressed female who also kept bumping into them, and her handbag would continuously whack the face of Paw. At one point the female asked if she could stand in between us at the gate for a while, to which Paw replied “well, I am with my comrade” and so the female went on the other side, but still dancing with the annoying handbag action. The pirate was tempted to take action, but she refrained.
The concert ended when Halloween ended, thereby ending our night of magic, happiness and wonder (it lasted about 4 hours in total, including the Land of Talk). And so, the tired troupe headed home. However, this does not end this Halloween tale. It appears that the spirit of Halloween would not leave our fearless travelers just yet.
I randomly found out about this band called Beach House the other day. The guy at this blog said:
Because I feel a need to promote the shit out of this band. It's downtempo kind of indie folk I guess, though that doesn't begin to touch the depths they reach. No one else out really does what Beach House does, and even if they did, they couldn't do as well. It's sparse, almost like a faded memory of playing house with your kindergarden girlfriend in a faded blue concrete basement. MC Eiht would say ggggggeeeeeah.
I was intruiged, so downloaded both albums. So today was Beach House test day. Now, there have been a few cds/bands that have been able to make me space out under certain conditions...but they had a different space out feeling from this band. Like the guy said It's sparse, almost like a faded memory - almost as if it completely stopped time and pulled you in - you can't concentrate on anything else. It makes you smile and close your eyes.
I just know that it's awesome. So, if you feel like completely zoning out, I would suggest these two albums.
Here are two of their songs on youtube:
From the first album (self titled):
and from Devotion:
Because I feel a need to promote the shit out of this band. It's downtempo kind of indie folk I guess, though that doesn't begin to touch the depths they reach. No one else out really does what Beach House does, and even if they did, they couldn't do as well. It's sparse, almost like a faded memory of playing house with your kindergarden girlfriend in a faded blue concrete basement. MC Eiht would say ggggggeeeeeah.
I was intruiged, so downloaded both albums. So today was Beach House test day. Now, there have been a few cds/bands that have been able to make me space out under certain conditions...but they had a different space out feeling from this band. Like the guy said It's sparse, almost like a faded memory - almost as if it completely stopped time and pulled you in - you can't concentrate on anything else. It makes you smile and close your eyes.
I just know that it's awesome. So, if you feel like completely zoning out, I would suggest these two albums.
Here are two of their songs on youtube:
From the first album (self titled):
and from Devotion:
I took some pictures while on my way home from premium poutine and general perusing.
yay leaves!
The landlady's cat:
yay leaves!
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| From Red and Yellow Days |
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| From Red and Yellow Days |
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| From Red and Yellow Days |
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| From Red and Yellow Days |
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| From Red and Yellow Days |
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| From Red and Yellow Days |
The landlady's cat:
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| From Red and Yellow Days |
So, my quest to try all the vegetarian restaurants in Montreal continues. On Saturday, my friend and I had planned to go to Chuch (or Chuchai, either one). We went in and...I dunno if they don't serve people at 4 pm or something? but nothing was happening. We went to the counter to see if maybe we could pick something, but the counter dude was not paying attention, so we left. Not even 30 seconds away is La Faim du Monde. This is awesome because it's on the veg-list.
La Faim du Monde is pretty cool, at least in terms of decor. It's small, has some indoor and outdoor seating. You can see the kitchen from where you're sitting. Their menu has things from all over - india, mexico and general asian foodies.
Both my friend and I ordered a small Dahl soup for starters and then she got the Greek Feta sandwich and I got the Inca Pate (beet, quinoa, cashew nuts, onions, tahini and sunflower seeds - yes it tasted healthy :P good too).
The Dahl was huge. Small for them is like medium at least - 2-3 cups of liquid. It wasn't the best dahl ever - I prefer it a bit thicker. But it tasted good.
When our food came - our faces were both like @_@ how are we going to finish this?!
Each half of the sandwich is about 6 inches long and 4 inches wide and 2-3 inches thick - stuffed to the brim. On top of that, it comes with coleslaw.
Most people don't know this, but I absolutely hate coleslaw. It is my salad nemesis. The one at Kentucky Fried Chicken looks radioactive - I have no idea what they did to it. The ones at the grocery stores look yellow and gross. Taste just as bad. This extreme vinegary taste that maybe was used to hide the fact that the cabbage is decomposing?...yeah, you get the idea. So I was hesitant.
People, this coleslaw they have is legendary. I took a bite and told my friend "DUDE MAN, this thing is awesome!". She took a bite and agreed. It is the best coleslaw I've had in my life - hands up an down.
It had purple cabbage, carrots, sunflower seeds, some form of green thing which I suspect was sprouts and a dressing that I cannot describe other than jesus came down in his awesome white shoes did a dance, stirred the dressing himself and blessed it 10 000 times. I must somehow reproduce this creation...and so it shall be my next cabbage mission.
Now, back to the sandwiches in general. They are so huge that we could not finish them. We only ate 1/2 and took the other 1/2 to go. I was still full 5 hours later...but ate it anyways because I was not near a fridge and didn't know how long it would keep.
The soup (4$) and sandwich (10$) + tx = 16$. Now I typically consider that expensiveish dining...but being that the sandwich lasted me 2 meals and it still would've been that way even without the soup...it's like 5$ for a meal. Which isn't bad at all :)
I'll definitely go back again, if only for the blessed coleslaw.
PS: Plantains taste awesome in thai green curry :D
La Faim du Monde is pretty cool, at least in terms of decor. It's small, has some indoor and outdoor seating. You can see the kitchen from where you're sitting. Their menu has things from all over - india, mexico and general asian foodies.
Both my friend and I ordered a small Dahl soup for starters and then she got the Greek Feta sandwich and I got the Inca Pate (beet, quinoa, cashew nuts, onions, tahini and sunflower seeds - yes it tasted healthy :P good too).
The Dahl was huge. Small for them is like medium at least - 2-3 cups of liquid. It wasn't the best dahl ever - I prefer it a bit thicker. But it tasted good.
When our food came - our faces were both like @_@ how are we going to finish this?!
Each half of the sandwich is about 6 inches long and 4 inches wide and 2-3 inches thick - stuffed to the brim. On top of that, it comes with coleslaw.
Most people don't know this, but I absolutely hate coleslaw. It is my salad nemesis. The one at Kentucky Fried Chicken looks radioactive - I have no idea what they did to it. The ones at the grocery stores look yellow and gross. Taste just as bad. This extreme vinegary taste that maybe was used to hide the fact that the cabbage is decomposing?...yeah, you get the idea. So I was hesitant.
People, this coleslaw they have is legendary. I took a bite and told my friend "DUDE MAN, this thing is awesome!". She took a bite and agreed. It is the best coleslaw I've had in my life - hands up an down.
It had purple cabbage, carrots, sunflower seeds, some form of green thing which I suspect was sprouts and a dressing that I cannot describe other than jesus came down in his awesome white shoes did a dance, stirred the dressing himself and blessed it 10 000 times. I must somehow reproduce this creation...and so it shall be my next cabbage mission.
Now, back to the sandwiches in general. They are so huge that we could not finish them. We only ate 1/2 and took the other 1/2 to go. I was still full 5 hours later...but ate it anyways because I was not near a fridge and didn't know how long it would keep.
The soup (4$) and sandwich (10$) + tx = 16$. Now I typically consider that expensiveish dining...but being that the sandwich lasted me 2 meals and it still would've been that way even without the soup...it's like 5$ for a meal. Which isn't bad at all :)
I'll definitely go back again, if only for the blessed coleslaw.
PS: Plantains taste awesome in thai green curry :D
So, I've been meaning to make this little compilation for a while...and acquired the very last of my videos just before fall started. So, today instead of doing my statistics homework, I did this with one of my favorite songs off of the new Sigur Ros album, Inni mer syngur vitleysingur :)
The lyrics are here - in both Icelandic and English :D
Enjoy!
Now I should probably do some homework...hah :P
The lyrics are here - in both Icelandic and English :D
Enjoy!
Now I should probably do some homework...hah :P
This post shall consist of something that was of primary epic importance and then a few side bits of mini epic importance.
That which is incredibly epic and important is not surprisingly, the Sigur Ros concert on September 20, 2008 (which I attended). I've been waiting to see them for at least 3 years because their music is great - possibly the most shiver inducing music I've ever listened to (I think my shiver record was exceeded at that concert, or maybe on par with Radiohead).
I have uploaded a few videos of the concert here. Youtube is doing maintenance right now and so I can't upload it there.
It took place at Quai Jacques Cartier. Twas a bit chilly, but not terribly so...I got a shirt. A splurge on my part, but dude man, it was destiny :P I didn't have enough cash on me for a shirt, but then while perusing the area, there was an ATM. So the shirt was meant to be mine. Anyways, enough of this and onto the show.
I was on the leftish side, in front of the speaker, right at the front against the gate (usual location it seems). So I had a good view of the stage.
The opening act was an Icelandic band called Parachutes. Apparently the vocalist of that band is the boyfriend of the Sigur Ros vocalist. So they're touring together - how sweet :P. They were pretty good. I generally find (or at least with a good part of the Icelandic bands that I've heard) that the music always has some kind of magical vibe about it. Also, it was the bassists birthday; so the violinist summoned the crowd participation in singing the Happy Birthday song...and so it was sung, all at once in English, French and Icelandic.
About 30 minutes after the opening band finished Sigur Ros came on. First of all, they have nice uniforms. They're all black, except for the drummer. He had a white shirt with his happy colorful hat/crown on. My friend explained Jonsi's outfit quite well - like a pseudo cowboy. Here's the setlist ( I'm a lamer and knew which songs were which from the first note >_> I also sang along (silently, lol)...in icelandic & hopelandic):
01 svefn-g-englar
02 glósóli (the scream at the end is shiver inducing!)
03 ný batterí (I was surprised that they played this...it's an incredibly depressing song, but awesome. I used to loop it often in fall 2005. Lyrics here w/ translation)
04 fljótavík (there was colorful snow-like confetti falling from the top of the stage :D)
05 við spilum endalaust
06 hoppípolla (haha, joyful song!)
07 með blóðnasir (at this point, Jonsi asked us to sing along by going Ooooooooo Ooooooooo. Created that happy together crowd atmosphere thing).
08 festival
09 heysátan (This was really pretty - the four of them gathered around the same general area to play their instruments. It started dark, but every time they played something, these little electric candles would light up and the dim again when there was no music).
10 viðrar vel til loftárása
11 inní mér syngur vitleysingur (my favorite song from the new album so far because it's so cheerful, especially the build up near the end. It does make me laugh though, because during that fast part at the end, it sounds like he sings "you kinky towlie" at one point :P makes for an interesting insult. "you suck!" ...."well you're a kinky towlie").
12 sæglópur (aha! this was initially my favorite song off of "Takk" along with "Andvari". This explains my old fb name :D)
13 hafsól (dude man! this is the revamped version of the song from "Von", and it came out on the Hoppipolla single (I think?, if I remember correctly) Anyways, it's top notch. I'm really pleased they played this. It starts off all quaint, with the bassist tapping a drum stick on his guitar and Jonsi doing his bow on the guitar thing. The end builds up really nicely and it goes all chaotic with the recorder and the drummer going mad and ending with Jonsi banging the bow against the guitar until it is destroyed...then he threw it into the crowd).
14 popplagið (YES! That's all I could say. First note, bang, I was like no way! Untitled 8. The most EPIC song on ( ) and possibly one of their most epic. I didn't take any pictures during this song because I was completely into it :o and many shivers, oh yes. What a great way to "end")
encore:
15 gobbledigook (I knew they were gonna play this song because it's their first single off of the new CD and also they came out with acoustic guitars. Also, some people from Parachutes came to help with more drums. Jonsi said, ok, I'm gonna ask you guys to help, it's really difficult. I'm gonna ask you to clap...but on beat!
It's different from their other stuff, if only for the use of the acoustic. The concert ended perfectly with colorful blasts of confetti from each end of the stage. The only other concert that I've been to that had confetti blasts was the Polyphonic Spree. So, like at that concert, I naturally jumped around like a happy bunny).
As people continued clapping, the band came out once more to bow and thank us.
Here are some pictures:
Now the little tidbits:
I was roaming around HMV yesterday to use up a gift certificate a friend gave me for my birthday and a song started playing that I thought was pretty good. So I asked what it was. HMV dude says "It's from the new TV on the Radio" album - Dear Science.
Now, I'd seen them open for The Yeah Yeah Yeahs early in 2004 and I thought they were "ok", but not super into them. I guess they were still developing their style or so. So I decided to download the album and give it a try. It's actually pretty good. So far the tracks that I like are "Halfway Home" (the one I heard in HMV), "DLZ" and "Lover's Day". In a way they're like MGMT, but more rocking (less discoey :P).
Also, there are many things happening at Cinema du Parc these days...but I haven't been able to check them out yet.
I completely missed the Eastern European Film Festival. The last day is tomorrow, but I doubt I'll be able to check anything out. So perhaps next year :( (eurofest.ca I think it is).
Starting Friday is the Bollywood Film Festival. I already have Devdas, but I may be checking out two of the movies. Om Shanti Om was recommended.
Also, Pop Montreal has some things showing to. Of particular interest is the Oct 5 stuff - talking about Nollywood (the Nigerian Film industry), which is like #3 in movie production in the world ~ 2400 films/year. Crazy peoples :P (including meself, woot). Also, they will be showing a 63 min film of a road trip through Ukraine with Eugene Hutz - the vocalist of Gogol Bordello - a most awesome gypsy punk band. So I may check that out as well, for he is an all around premium dude.
Now, for something truly epic - Cinema du Parc is gonna be showing "War and Peace/
Voyna i mir (in russian)) - based on the huge ass novel by Leo Tolstoi. I have yet to read that...I'm still stuck on Anna Karenina and War and Peace is longer :P By the time I finish that i'll probably be 30 something.
In anycase, such an epic book deserves and epic movie. It's over 7 hours long and so they must show it in 4 parts. Like dude man...imagine being at the cinema for that long. Yeah, there are intermissions, but I'd leave the place "whoaaaa, my eyes >_<".
I was tempted to embark on such an adventure, but then I found the movie on youtube.
So if any of you feel like subjecting yourselves to 7 hours of russian epicness, start here
That ends my long post,
So Until next time,
Happy Fall!
That which is incredibly epic and important is not surprisingly, the Sigur Ros concert on September 20, 2008 (which I attended). I've been waiting to see them for at least 3 years because their music is great - possibly the most shiver inducing music I've ever listened to (I think my shiver record was exceeded at that concert, or maybe on par with Radiohead).
I have uploaded a few videos of the concert here. Youtube is doing maintenance right now and so I can't upload it there.
It took place at Quai Jacques Cartier. Twas a bit chilly, but not terribly so...I got a shirt. A splurge on my part, but dude man, it was destiny :P I didn't have enough cash on me for a shirt, but then while perusing the area, there was an ATM. So the shirt was meant to be mine. Anyways, enough of this and onto the show.
I was on the leftish side, in front of the speaker, right at the front against the gate (usual location it seems). So I had a good view of the stage.
The opening act was an Icelandic band called Parachutes. Apparently the vocalist of that band is the boyfriend of the Sigur Ros vocalist. So they're touring together - how sweet :P. They were pretty good. I generally find (or at least with a good part of the Icelandic bands that I've heard) that the music always has some kind of magical vibe about it. Also, it was the bassists birthday; so the violinist summoned the crowd participation in singing the Happy Birthday song...and so it was sung, all at once in English, French and Icelandic.
About 30 minutes after the opening band finished Sigur Ros came on. First of all, they have nice uniforms. They're all black, except for the drummer. He had a white shirt with his happy colorful hat/crown on. My friend explained Jonsi's outfit quite well - like a pseudo cowboy. Here's the setlist ( I'm a lamer and knew which songs were which from the first note >_> I also sang along (silently, lol)...in icelandic & hopelandic):
01 svefn-g-englar
02 glósóli (the scream at the end is shiver inducing!)
03 ný batterí (I was surprised that they played this...it's an incredibly depressing song, but awesome. I used to loop it often in fall 2005. Lyrics here w/ translation)
04 fljótavík (there was colorful snow-like confetti falling from the top of the stage :D)
05 við spilum endalaust
06 hoppípolla (haha, joyful song!)
07 með blóðnasir (at this point, Jonsi asked us to sing along by going Ooooooooo Ooooooooo. Created that happy together crowd atmosphere thing).
08 festival
09 heysátan (This was really pretty - the four of them gathered around the same general area to play their instruments. It started dark, but every time they played something, these little electric candles would light up and the dim again when there was no music).
10 viðrar vel til loftárása
11 inní mér syngur vitleysingur (my favorite song from the new album so far because it's so cheerful, especially the build up near the end. It does make me laugh though, because during that fast part at the end, it sounds like he sings "you kinky towlie" at one point :P makes for an interesting insult. "you suck!" ...."well you're a kinky towlie").
12 sæglópur (aha! this was initially my favorite song off of "Takk" along with "Andvari". This explains my old fb name :D)
13 hafsól (dude man! this is the revamped version of the song from "Von", and it came out on the Hoppipolla single (I think?, if I remember correctly) Anyways, it's top notch. I'm really pleased they played this. It starts off all quaint, with the bassist tapping a drum stick on his guitar and Jonsi doing his bow on the guitar thing. The end builds up really nicely and it goes all chaotic with the recorder and the drummer going mad and ending with Jonsi banging the bow against the guitar until it is destroyed...then he threw it into the crowd).
14 popplagið (YES! That's all I could say. First note, bang, I was like no way! Untitled 8. The most EPIC song on ( ) and possibly one of their most epic. I didn't take any pictures during this song because I was completely into it :o and many shivers, oh yes. What a great way to "end")
encore:
15 gobbledigook (I knew they were gonna play this song because it's their first single off of the new CD and also they came out with acoustic guitars. Also, some people from Parachutes came to help with more drums. Jonsi said, ok, I'm gonna ask you guys to help, it's really difficult. I'm gonna ask you to clap...but on beat!
It's different from their other stuff, if only for the use of the acoustic. The concert ended perfectly with colorful blasts of confetti from each end of the stage. The only other concert that I've been to that had confetti blasts was the Polyphonic Spree. So, like at that concert, I naturally jumped around like a happy bunny).
As people continued clapping, the band came out once more to bow and thank us.
Here are some pictures:
Now the little tidbits:
I was roaming around HMV yesterday to use up a gift certificate a friend gave me for my birthday and a song started playing that I thought was pretty good. So I asked what it was. HMV dude says "It's from the new TV on the Radio" album - Dear Science.
Now, I'd seen them open for The Yeah Yeah Yeahs early in 2004 and I thought they were "ok", but not super into them. I guess they were still developing their style or so. So I decided to download the album and give it a try. It's actually pretty good. So far the tracks that I like are "Halfway Home" (the one I heard in HMV), "DLZ" and "Lover's Day". In a way they're like MGMT, but more rocking (less discoey :P).
Also, there are many things happening at Cinema du Parc these days...but I haven't been able to check them out yet.
I completely missed the Eastern European Film Festival. The last day is tomorrow, but I doubt I'll be able to check anything out. So perhaps next year :( (eurofest.ca I think it is).
Starting Friday is the Bollywood Film Festival. I already have Devdas, but I may be checking out two of the movies. Om Shanti Om was recommended.
Also, Pop Montreal has some things showing to. Of particular interest is the Oct 5 stuff - talking about Nollywood (the Nigerian Film industry), which is like #3 in movie production in the world ~ 2400 films/year. Crazy peoples :P (including meself, woot). Also, they will be showing a 63 min film of a road trip through Ukraine with Eugene Hutz - the vocalist of Gogol Bordello - a most awesome gypsy punk band. So I may check that out as well, for he is an all around premium dude.
Now, for something truly epic - Cinema du Parc is gonna be showing "War and Peace/
Voyna i mir (in russian)) - based on the huge ass novel by Leo Tolstoi. I have yet to read that...I'm still stuck on Anna Karenina and War and Peace is longer :P By the time I finish that i'll probably be 30 something.
In anycase, such an epic book deserves and epic movie. It's over 7 hours long and so they must show it in 4 parts. Like dude man...imagine being at the cinema for that long. Yeah, there are intermissions, but I'd leave the place "whoaaaa, my eyes >_<".
I was tempted to embark on such an adventure, but then I found the movie on youtube.
So if any of you feel like subjecting yourselves to 7 hours of russian epicness, start here
That ends my long post,
So Until next time,
Happy Fall!
After class yesterday evening, I happened to have my camera and took a few pics for fun :D
Walking from the main building of Poly down their many outdoor stairs
The main building of Universite de Montreal
Some more outdoor stairs that lead to a little scenic pathway of sorts :)
Pavillon Mackay-Lassonde - the one that's all colorful inside
Light!
Walking along that scenic path
Here you can see part of the ramp I try to bike up. It's long, inclined and curvy. I usually get 3/4 up, so maybe next time I'll make it :P
treeeees
more light in the sky
That's it :)
PS: It's getting to premium sweater weather! How wonderful. Soon it'll be time for crunchy leaves, halloween, and apple picking :D
 |
| From poly |
Walking from the main building of Poly down their many outdoor stairs
 |
| From poly |
The main building of Universite de Montreal
 |
| From poly |
Some more outdoor stairs that lead to a little scenic pathway of sorts :)
 |
| From poly |
Pavillon Mackay-Lassonde - the one that's all colorful inside
 |
| From poly |
Light!
 |
| From poly |
Walking along that scenic path
 |
| From poly |
 |
| From poly |
Here you can see part of the ramp I try to bike up. It's long, inclined and curvy. I usually get 3/4 up, so maybe next time I'll make it :P
 |
| From poly |
treeeees
 |
| From poly |
more light in the sky
 |
| From poly |
That's it :)
PS: It's getting to premium sweater weather! How wonderful. Soon it'll be time for crunchy leaves, halloween, and apple picking :D
I started the Masters Research Program in Biomedical Engineering on Tuesday (officially...I only had class on Wednesday). Tuesday consisted largely of administrative things.
So far, here's what I can say:
1) Compared to the English universities in Montreal, Poly's administration is a whole lot more efficient and polite. Every time I've gone to inquire about things or drop things off, I've been greeted nicely and everything is done quickly. They also don't charge you for attestations of full-time study.
They also try really hard to be welcoming. For orientation they organized a kind of info session about biomed with free beverages and pastries. Then we got a free lunch that consisted of salads and meat and also dessert. For veg's they gave pizza. Granted, it wasn't a very good tasting pizza...but hey they tried!
ETS also seems to be pretty efficient...but I was only there for 20 minutes today. So I'll have to gather more observational data while I'm there taking my class.
In contrast, Concordia charged me 10$ each time for attestations and they're also incredibly slow. They also seem generally grouchy. There are some really awesome profs there though.
But, this doesn't even compare to McGill. They are THE SLOWEST university EVER. They still haven't given me a letter saying whether or not I can do a masters there :P Oh, well McGill. It's too late! I would say it's only their administration that's slow, but no, at least some of their profs are equally slow.
2) The campus of University of Montreal encourages physical fitness - the entire thing, is uphill and Poly is on the highest part of the hill. Biking up there is quite a challenge and so is walking (to some extent). Even if you take the subway, you have to go through the ramp and then walk up 10 flights of outdoor stairs to get to the main building. Luckily the other building, Pavillon Lassonde is not that high. One advantage of the height is the nice view of the city though.
3) Pavillon Lassonde the most colorful university building I've ever laid my eyes on. Each floor is a different color - there's red, green, blue, orange, though bathrooms are grey. The bathrooms are entirely automatic - automatic flushing, automatic tap, automatic paper towels and the super high power hand dryers that deform your hand so that it looks like you have moon craters forming in them. There are escalators going up, but none going down. It was built to be ecological, which brings me to my next point.
4) Poly is really trying hard to be ecological. They have lots of bike racks and there are bikes you can borrow for free to ride around campus to get from building to building. There are recycling bins everywhere, clearly indicating what type of material goes in what. There's an entire website dedicated to being ecological.
In the Graduate Student handbook it says you can borrow a set of reusable containers while you're there. There's also a coop there. And if you use reusable containers/cups, I hear that whatever you ordered is of reduced price. I have yet to investigate all their enviro stuff, but it seems really awesome that they're so dedicated to it.
5) Poly is as multicultural as Concordia but in a different way that makes sense. Concordia has a large arab, indian and chinese population. Poly has lots of quebecois, vietnamese, french speaking arabs, french speaking africans and then a few other groups scattered around.
6) I've only had one class so far, but the teacher is reaaaaaaaally queb. It amuses me because I'm so used to being taught in English that it's something new. I'm used to I guess what you'd call international French and though I live in Montreal, I'm pretty unfamiliar with the slang and expressions used by the French speaking population here. Some things go over my head. Some things I knew they said before, but it's still fun :) I'll see how the other teachers are. I haven't made any friends yet, so I haven't been able to assess my comprehension in a conversation really. I mean, I spoke to one person during orientation, but then when I didn't know how to say one word in French, he completely switched to English and so my experiment was over. I've spoken to administration, but they usually don't use much slang...so yeah.
That's it for now. I should take some pics of the campus at some point I guess. But then I'll look like an uber-tourist. I'm quite pleased about taking a course at ETS. I'll get to try out two universities at once :D Once I finish my Masters, I will have tried 3/4 Montreal Uni's :D!
So far, here's what I can say:
1) Compared to the English universities in Montreal, Poly's administration is a whole lot more efficient and polite. Every time I've gone to inquire about things or drop things off, I've been greeted nicely and everything is done quickly. They also don't charge you for attestations of full-time study.
They also try really hard to be welcoming. For orientation they organized a kind of info session about biomed with free beverages and pastries. Then we got a free lunch that consisted of salads and meat and also dessert. For veg's they gave pizza. Granted, it wasn't a very good tasting pizza...but hey they tried!
ETS also seems to be pretty efficient...but I was only there for 20 minutes today. So I'll have to gather more observational data while I'm there taking my class.
In contrast, Concordia charged me 10$ each time for attestations and they're also incredibly slow. They also seem generally grouchy. There are some really awesome profs there though.
But, this doesn't even compare to McGill. They are THE SLOWEST university EVER. They still haven't given me a letter saying whether or not I can do a masters there :P Oh, well McGill. It's too late! I would say it's only their administration that's slow, but no, at least some of their profs are equally slow.
2) The campus of University of Montreal encourages physical fitness - the entire thing, is uphill and Poly is on the highest part of the hill. Biking up there is quite a challenge and so is walking (to some extent). Even if you take the subway, you have to go through the ramp and then walk up 10 flights of outdoor stairs to get to the main building. Luckily the other building, Pavillon Lassonde is not that high. One advantage of the height is the nice view of the city though.
3) Pavillon Lassonde the most colorful university building I've ever laid my eyes on. Each floor is a different color - there's red, green, blue, orange, though bathrooms are grey. The bathrooms are entirely automatic - automatic flushing, automatic tap, automatic paper towels and the super high power hand dryers that deform your hand so that it looks like you have moon craters forming in them. There are escalators going up, but none going down. It was built to be ecological, which brings me to my next point.
4) Poly is really trying hard to be ecological. They have lots of bike racks and there are bikes you can borrow for free to ride around campus to get from building to building. There are recycling bins everywhere, clearly indicating what type of material goes in what. There's an entire website dedicated to being ecological.
In the Graduate Student handbook it says you can borrow a set of reusable containers while you're there. There's also a coop there. And if you use reusable containers/cups, I hear that whatever you ordered is of reduced price. I have yet to investigate all their enviro stuff, but it seems really awesome that they're so dedicated to it.
5) Poly is as multicultural as Concordia but in a different way that makes sense. Concordia has a large arab, indian and chinese population. Poly has lots of quebecois, vietnamese, french speaking arabs, french speaking africans and then a few other groups scattered around.
6) I've only had one class so far, but the teacher is reaaaaaaaally queb. It amuses me because I'm so used to being taught in English that it's something new. I'm used to I guess what you'd call international French and though I live in Montreal, I'm pretty unfamiliar with the slang and expressions used by the French speaking population here. Some things go over my head. Some things I knew they said before, but it's still fun :) I'll see how the other teachers are. I haven't made any friends yet, so I haven't been able to assess my comprehension in a conversation really. I mean, I spoke to one person during orientation, but then when I didn't know how to say one word in French, he completely switched to English and so my experiment was over. I've spoken to administration, but they usually don't use much slang...so yeah.
That's it for now. I should take some pics of the campus at some point I guess. But then I'll look like an uber-tourist. I'm quite pleased about taking a course at ETS. I'll get to try out two universities at once :D Once I finish my Masters, I will have tried 3/4 Montreal Uni's :D!
Last Friday I went to Washington, D.C. with some of my family members.
It took us 14 hours to get there (typically a 10 hour journey), as there were some snags on the way. While we got lost in Washington trying to find the hotel, we stumbled upon some areas that really remind me of Little Burgundy/Place-St-Henri/Georges-Vanier area. It just looks really sketchy and it seems theres more of the general sketchyness there than here. From what I understand Washington is really close to Baltimore and Richmond. Apparently Baltimore has lots of violence. So that could be one of the reasons for the sketchy feel.
On Sunday, my cousin, her boyfriend and I ventured into the city for a short sightseeing excursion in the touristy areas. It's a standard capital city (though keep in mind, my only references are Ottawa and Quebec City). But, they look generally pretty, nice to check out once and then there's not much to do after. We saw the White House, Capital Hill, the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial as they're all in the same area. We passed by an FBI building too.
Their subway - also called the metro, is probably one of the best subway experiences I've had in North America apart from Montreal's. Their fare is inexpensive (1 round trip ticket was 1.38$), it's clean and doesn't require going outside to switch train directions. You simply, either walk across (like at lionel groulx) or you go up the stairs and go on the other side (like other stations). Their trains are air conditioned, which is always a plus (we don't have that yet) and there's not much noise. My only complaints are that the stations are open (the weather can get in) and the seating arrangements on the train don't provide much standing space/maneuverability (remember when the low platform buses first arrived and it was just rows of double seats? yeah, like that. Then everyone complained and we changed it).
People seem generally friendly. People in the US seem to really practice premium customer service because everyone always asks "how's your day", and room service knows your name when you call. The accent is interesting...I would say, from this, I can see the progression of accents from Northern US to Southern US. I've been to New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Oklahoma and now Washington. It seems that the further south you go, the more twang there is in words and the longer the syllables get. The only addition I have to make is to Boston, where yeah, they do that, but they also add r's at the end of words and remove r's where they're supposed to stay.
e.g. "Brenda put the sofa in the car" becomes "Brender put the sofer in the cah"
The best part of Washington was probably my 3 minute carousel ride and generally chilling with my cousin. I was the only adult on the carousel that was not a parent. It was still fun though :)
It took us 14 hours to get there (typically a 10 hour journey), as there were some snags on the way. While we got lost in Washington trying to find the hotel, we stumbled upon some areas that really remind me of Little Burgundy/Place-St-Henri/Georges-Vanier area. It just looks really sketchy and it seems theres more of the general sketchyness there than here. From what I understand Washington is really close to Baltimore and Richmond. Apparently Baltimore has lots of violence. So that could be one of the reasons for the sketchy feel.
On Sunday, my cousin, her boyfriend and I ventured into the city for a short sightseeing excursion in the touristy areas. It's a standard capital city (though keep in mind, my only references are Ottawa and Quebec City). But, they look generally pretty, nice to check out once and then there's not much to do after. We saw the White House, Capital Hill, the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial as they're all in the same area. We passed by an FBI building too.
Their subway - also called the metro, is probably one of the best subway experiences I've had in North America apart from Montreal's. Their fare is inexpensive (1 round trip ticket was 1.38$), it's clean and doesn't require going outside to switch train directions. You simply, either walk across (like at lionel groulx) or you go up the stairs and go on the other side (like other stations). Their trains are air conditioned, which is always a plus (we don't have that yet) and there's not much noise. My only complaints are that the stations are open (the weather can get in) and the seating arrangements on the train don't provide much standing space/maneuverability (remember when the low platform buses first arrived and it was just rows of double seats? yeah, like that. Then everyone complained and we changed it).
People seem generally friendly. People in the US seem to really practice premium customer service because everyone always asks "how's your day", and room service knows your name when you call. The accent is interesting...I would say, from this, I can see the progression of accents from Northern US to Southern US. I've been to New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Oklahoma and now Washington. It seems that the further south you go, the more twang there is in words and the longer the syllables get. The only addition I have to make is to Boston, where yeah, they do that, but they also add r's at the end of words and remove r's where they're supposed to stay.
e.g. "Brenda put the sofa in the car" becomes "Brender put the sofer in the cah"
The best part of Washington was probably my 3 minute carousel ride and generally chilling with my cousin. I was the only adult on the carousel that was not a parent. It was still fun though :)
Or at least you'd think that if you came to my house in the last week. For some reason my mom bought an EPIC amount of bananas...and had the impression that we'd consume them all before they ripen. I kid you not, there were at least 15. I mean they're awesome and have lots of potassium in them...also a source of magnesium. But there's only so much you can eat all at once. So, I had to get creative with my bananas. Wasting bananas is no good :O
First, on Tuesday I decided to make some Vegan banana bread. Now, I didn't post about this, but the week before I tried making some vegan zucchini bread (I love zucchini bread, but never made it vegan...actually haven't had it in general in like 10 years...dunno why). Anyways, it was an failure of catastrophic proportions and I didn't understand why. I *never* fail at baking :P or until then. It formed a very well defined crust, but the innards were not cooked. It was this kinda strange pudding consistency.
So, I was like "If this banana bread screws up...I dunno what to do".
So, it smells like happy awesome home baking...and comes out like mr. zucchini. Sadness...I mean, it tasted good. I kinda ate it all in one day with the help of a friend...cuz I dunno how long not exactly cooked banana bread lasts.
I was discussing my predicament with another friend. Her immediate reaction was "YOUR OVEN IS TOO HOT!!!!!!". So, now, I've been at this place since June 1 and since then, the only things I've baked until Mr. Zucchini the fallen and Internally mashed banana bread was Baklava and Mango Cheesecake. Those two things don't really screw up much in baking (at least in my experience). So, it makes sense that I didn't notice an oven temperature bias. HAHA! It's not me! I'm no longer the failed baker. Only problem is I don't have an oven thermometer.
So, for my next banana recipe, I said "Screw bread, I'm making cookies". So I did. The temperature called for was 350, I put it to 300. I'd say that the offset is probably about that, because the cookies came out all cooked n what not. But the real test will be a cake in the future. Like actual cakey cake, not cheesecake.
They kinda look like amoeba pseudo cookies muffins though. I say this because they're not round...just funky shaped and super soft. About the consistency of a muffin.
For some reason I didn't save this recipe to favorites...otherwise I would've posted it.
Another thing I did with the last 2 remaining bananas was make a cold banana treat.
All you do is you slice your bananas and then put them in a ziploc bag for the day or overnight. After that you put it in the blender...it has a very melted ice cream consistency and then you can freeze it again. So you kinda make banana ice cream.
I didn't freeze it for long, so it was like banana "yogurt".
So, I cut some mangoes and put them on top of a banana cookie and topped it with that banana yogurt and sprinkled a bit of Fry's cocoa on it. Twas not bad :)
There are still cookies left. But I *hope* my mom doesn't buy any bananas for a while.
Another thing I made yesterday was Fennel and leek soup. At Casa del Popolo I tried their soup of the day, which was Fennel and Green onion soup. Now, I've tried Fennel tea and had fennel in samosas and basmati rice, but never in soup...as what I know as Fennel is fennel seeds and had no idea that fennel looked like an onion with celeri attached to it with leaves that look like dill leaves.
So twas an experiment. I found this recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/120393 and veganized it (because if I can avoid lactaid I will :p)
All I did was replace the 1/3 cup of sour cream with 1/4 cup of soy milk and decided I shall not put parmesan (plus I don't have it :P). You also cut a lot of the calories and fat from the recipe by doing that and it tasted super awesome! Though I think I overdosed on the black pepper/spice a bit. Next time it'll be perfect :D and I can bake some rosemary bread with garlic margarine on top or something coolio like that.
On a side note - I was organizing my bookmarks today. I never realized how many resto reviews and recipes I collected (there's also lotsa music bookmarks mind you :P).
Anyways, I found one review about an El Salvadorian dish or snack? called Pupusas. They tested them at 3 different restos and determined the best one. They're basically like thick corn flour tortillas filled with a variety of stuff. I love stuffed bread! haha.
The review is here: http://hour.ca/food/food.aspx?iIDArticle=13026
So dude man! I gotta go there some time D:
That ends my food post! wheeeeeeeeee
First, on Tuesday I decided to make some Vegan banana bread. Now, I didn't post about this, but the week before I tried making some vegan zucchini bread (I love zucchini bread, but never made it vegan...actually haven't had it in general in like 10 years...dunno why). Anyways, it was an failure of catastrophic proportions and I didn't understand why. I *never* fail at baking :P or until then. It formed a very well defined crust, but the innards were not cooked. It was this kinda strange pudding consistency.
So, I was like "If this banana bread screws up...I dunno what to do".
So, it smells like happy awesome home baking...and comes out like mr. zucchini. Sadness...I mean, it tasted good. I kinda ate it all in one day with the help of a friend...cuz I dunno how long not exactly cooked banana bread lasts.
I was discussing my predicament with another friend. Her immediate reaction was "YOUR OVEN IS TOO HOT!!!!!!". So, now, I've been at this place since June 1 and since then, the only things I've baked until Mr. Zucchini the fallen and Internally mashed banana bread was Baklava and Mango Cheesecake. Those two things don't really screw up much in baking (at least in my experience). So, it makes sense that I didn't notice an oven temperature bias. HAHA! It's not me! I'm no longer the failed baker. Only problem is I don't have an oven thermometer.
So, for my next banana recipe, I said "Screw bread, I'm making cookies". So I did. The temperature called for was 350, I put it to 300. I'd say that the offset is probably about that, because the cookies came out all cooked n what not. But the real test will be a cake in the future. Like actual cakey cake, not cheesecake.
They kinda look like amoeba pseudo cookies muffins though. I say this because they're not round...just funky shaped and super soft. About the consistency of a muffin.
For some reason I didn't save this recipe to favorites...otherwise I would've posted it.
Another thing I did with the last 2 remaining bananas was make a cold banana treat.
All you do is you slice your bananas and then put them in a ziploc bag for the day or overnight. After that you put it in the blender...it has a very melted ice cream consistency and then you can freeze it again. So you kinda make banana ice cream.
I didn't freeze it for long, so it was like banana "yogurt".
So, I cut some mangoes and put them on top of a banana cookie and topped it with that banana yogurt and sprinkled a bit of Fry's cocoa on it. Twas not bad :)
There are still cookies left. But I *hope* my mom doesn't buy any bananas for a while.
Another thing I made yesterday was Fennel and leek soup. At Casa del Popolo I tried their soup of the day, which was Fennel and Green onion soup. Now, I've tried Fennel tea and had fennel in samosas and basmati rice, but never in soup...as what I know as Fennel is fennel seeds and had no idea that fennel looked like an onion with celeri attached to it with leaves that look like dill leaves.
So twas an experiment. I found this recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/120393 and veganized it (because if I can avoid lactaid I will :p)
All I did was replace the 1/3 cup of sour cream with 1/4 cup of soy milk and decided I shall not put parmesan (plus I don't have it :P). You also cut a lot of the calories and fat from the recipe by doing that and it tasted super awesome! Though I think I overdosed on the black pepper/spice a bit. Next time it'll be perfect :D and I can bake some rosemary bread with garlic margarine on top or something coolio like that.
On a side note - I was organizing my bookmarks today. I never realized how many resto reviews and recipes I collected (there's also lotsa music bookmarks mind you :P).
Anyways, I found one review about an El Salvadorian dish or snack? called Pupusas. They tested them at 3 different restos and determined the best one. They're basically like thick corn flour tortillas filled with a variety of stuff. I love stuffed bread! haha.
The review is here: http://hour.ca/food/food.aspx?iIDArticle=13026
So dude man! I gotta go there some time D:
That ends my food post! wheeeeeeeeee
So, since my trip was canceled this weekend, I decided to peruse around the city and enjoy the premium summer time weather (finally!). On Sunday, Montreal was having its annual Gay Pride Parade on Rene Levesque, starting at De Lorimier and heading west ward. It was my first pride parade (I generally don't attend many parades...haha). But hey, why not.
Anyways, it was actually pretty fun. The theme for this year, or at least according to the Pride website was "Here comes the Circus". There were quite a few floats with that theme - Sky, Mado, BDSM (I dunno the official name, but they seemed like some kinda sinister circus...probably one of the coolest actually). There were also people doing choreographed dances...Cowboys, men with pompoms, social dance group and to a certain extent the Lebanese gay/lesbian/bi/trans association.
TD had their own float and IBM made an appearance. They also gave out stickers saying "Smile if you're gay!". Marching around were also gay parents with kids, topless lesbians and general randomness all around. Oh yeah, Stephane Dion was there (he waved to us), as well as some members of the NDP. :P
I took quite a few pictures (I'll post a few :D) and also made a video about it (rather than loading all the videos I took, I figured a little compilation would be kinda cool).
Here's the video:
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