Author: Dan Dickinson

I couldn't C5 things on the menu that I wanted

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Last night five of us (it should’ve been six but one of our party took one — a kid’s fever, specifically — for the team) had dinner at C5. We had booked dinner with the intention of participating in the Crosstown Kitchens event Stop For Food, but when we arrived we were disappointed to find that, unlike Winterlicious, there was no choice in the courses. Since the lone price fixe menu option didn’t impress, the five of us opted for the regular menu. So much for going easy on the pocketbook.

The food we ordered from the regular menu was good, not great. The buffalo mozzarella amuse-bouche was excellent. My pork belly and calamari starter was decent…really, I’ve had better pork belly and the calamari may as well have been left out. My venison was quite good, and the other touches — sweet potato puree, beets, etc. — were delicious. Our wine — a Morgan Pinot Noir — was excellent. Nothing on the dessert list appealed so I passed. Nellie enjoyed her meal less than I did. I got the sense that our other dinner companions were up and down as well, and no one seemed blown away. I feel like what I had wasn’t the best that C5 had to offer, especially given that Toronto Life just ranked it the 10th best restaurant in the city, but compared to a recent visit to Nota Bene or yet another return trip to Canoe (which TorLife ranked #1 this year) it just doesn’t stack up.

However, in such pleasant company, the evening was still more than enjoyable. And the space, it should be noted, is spectacular. I would happily come here for drinks, especially if my other option in the immediate neighbourhood is Lobby.

But are we getting smarter?

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Statscan is a great site if you like poking your nose into Canadian demographic data (or just about anything else). Recently I wondered how the percentage of Canadians holding post-graduate degrees had increased in recent years. A few clicks later I found a summary table that I’ve condensed a little more below:

educationallevel1

Those are some pretty drastic changes in all levels of education over those fifteen years. The proportion of people earning bachelor’s degrees grew by 59%, as did those earning a doctorate. The proportion earning master’s degrees jumped 81%. Pretty remarkable. The drop in the group without high school diplomas is probably largely due to the death of those born before compulsory schooling laws like the Schools Administration Act came into effect.

Another summary table caught my eye: the educational level attained by farm operators. In 2006 7.4% of farmers held university degrees. In 2001 it was just 6.1%. Hard to say what it would have been in the mid-60s when my dad got his.

"I wanted the glory, I wanted the fame. I wanted the pretty girls to come up and say, 'Hi, I see that you're good at Centipede.'"

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Last night I watched The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (imdb | rotten tomatoes), a documentary about…well, Donkey Kong. And it was amazing. That 97% rating on RT isn’t an aberration, folks. This was one of the best films I’ve seen in months.

Even if you didn’t play arcade games in the 80s (I was barely old enough to, though I never played Donkey Kong) you’ll find it entertaining. You’ll be amazed at this group of men who’ve achieved some kind of stasis, not really leaving the early 80s. More than that, though, it’s a great story. Interesting people, humour (intentional or not), douche-y villains and actual suspense. This probably would have made my top ten list in 2007 if I’d seen it in the theatre.

Rent it, or find it on TV. You’ll be glad you did.

"Bonjour, Angleterre."

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We watched Son Of Rambow (imdb | rotten tomatoes) yesterday. Cute, very funny in places (like any time Didier was on the screen, or when the lead character was told to hide in a bush) but just a bit too saccharine at times. Still, worth renting on a day when you’re in a light mood, if only to see how the religious youth of Britain were shaped by the cultural phenomenon of First Blood.

Still with camp-iconic films from 1982, I watched The Wrath Of Khan yesterday too, for about the shamwowsandth time. Still awesome, even (especially?) the badness. As I twittered yesterday:

There is nothing quite so awesome as the way Ricardo Montalban says “Ahdmeerill?!?”

Except how he turns into Space Ahab at the end.

Sinuses > self-actualization, apparently

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Sorry. I know it’s been drab and boring here lately. It’s just taking forever to get out from under this goddamn cold. Maslow was right, it’s hard to be spontaneous and creative when your body just wants to lie down and ingest unholy medicines. It’ll get better — I’ll get better — soon, I promise.

In the meantime, I want to draw your attention to a widget you might not have seen, especially if you only read this blog by RSS feed: the bottom widget on the right side of the page shows which book I’m reading right now. Clicking on it takes you to the excellent Shelfari, which you should use if you’re at all into books.

omgsick

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Never before have I strung two cold together like this, almost back-to-back (I had a two-day reprieve last weekend). This is a completely different cold than the last one…sore throat, chest congestion and coughing this time, unlike the exploding sinuses of the last cold. In both cases, though, I felt like chicken-fried ass.

At some point in the next couple of days I won’t be able to talk…it’s that kind of cold. My wife and co-workers believe rare occasions such as this to be tiny miracles, brief instances of peaceful zen in their universe. I view them as a personal attack from mother nature.

Final thoughts on the Oscars

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Sunday night’s Oscars were the best I can remember watching. Not in terms of technical execution, but just in that they cut out the annoying parts from years past, and moved the boring categories along quickly.

I’m glad Slumdog Millionaire won. It was fun to pick a movie without knowing much about it, get blown away by it, see it become this huge sensation and then watch it win the big prize.

Not everyone liked it though. NOW magazine’s Susan B. Cole had this to say last week:

Should Slumdog take the best picture Oscar, it will be the most violent film to do so ever. And I include the two Godfather movies and The French Connection when I write that.

Laughable commentary like that (and trust me, it doesn’t stop at movie reviews) is what made me stop reading NOW. Commenters on NOW’s site (including David Topping, the firstie who called Cole out on Torontoist) have suggested that films where the bad guy kills women to make suits out of their skin, where the best supporting actor kills several people with a bolt driver or where several cops shoot each other in the head might retain the title.