Author: Dan Dickinson

Vodka + ice wine = Nellie's new best friend

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Watched Show Me (imdb | rotten tomatoes) yesterday, a low-budget Canadian film. It was interesting if not plausible, and well-acted if not well-written.

.:.

We also went out for our last Winterlicious dinner last night, to Jump with our friend CH, and were happy with the way the event ended. We had a great time: the service was great, our drinks were very tasty, and the food was quite good, especially my celery & parsnip bisque and my chocolate/espresso cheesecake.

And so it’s over for another season. The final tally: 1055 was poor, Savoy and Jump were very good, and Canoe was excellent. I think that next time we’ll keep it to one or two restaurants; the value for money doesn’t always seem as great now that we’re more or less limited to vegetarian options.

.:.

Today is sports marathon day. Right now I’m watching the end of the Raptors/Clippers game; after that I’ll slip over into the recording of the Canadiens/Penguins game, and then at some point tonight tune in to the Superbowl (hopefully I can avoid Billy Joel singing the anthem and Prince performing at halftime). Nellie’s been forced to set up temporary residence in the bedroom.
[tags]show me, winterlicious, jump cafe, raptors, clippers, canadiens, penguins, superbowl[/tags]

Like sugar in the chair

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New stuff I added to the Nomad this morning:

  • besnard lakes . “for agent 13”
  • bloc party . “i still remember”
  • champion . “keep on”
  • champion . “no heaven”
  • cinch . “get up and get out”
  • hands . “so sweet”
  • kristin hersh . “in shock”
  • pablo . “wall street”
  • talking heads . “sugar on my tongue”
  • youth group . “sorry”

.:.

I never got all the fuss about Sienna Miller. I’ve seen pictures of her, I’ve seen her in movies…I was just never that impressed. But when I saw her on The Daily Show a few nights ago…holy smokes. I think I get it now.

[tags]sienna miller, daily show[/tags]

trio | ripetizione

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I’ve been listening to three songs over and over for the past few days:

  • “No Heaven” by Champion
  • “The End’s Not Near” by Band Of Horses
  • “Dummy Room” by The Vindictives

They’re three pretty different songs, but all very catchy and very good.

.:.

It’s back to the schooly grind tomorrow. I have over 1100 pages to read, 2 cases, a term paper and 6 topic discussions to write, and 6 quizzes to take between now and the end of April.

[tags]champion, band of horses, vindictives, mba[/tags]

I'm not the only dummy in this dummy room

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After last night’s drinks & veggie burger (at Spuntini’s The Spud Spot The Auld Spot) I watched Montreal play Pittsburgh. The Canadiens eventually lost in the shootout, but were lucky to get out of it with a point, being down 2 goals with 6 minutes to play. They had to endure a 7-minute (!) power play (during which they also went down 2 men for a while) and the loss of their best defenseman, so all in all they did well to get an OT draw, especially on the road.

Overall it was a great game: very chippy with lots of hitting but still fast with some real moments of skill. I can’t wait for the rematch on Sunday afternoon.

.:.

Fridays are my days to get stuff done in the office: fewer co-workers around me, fewer incoming questions & requests, and a last surge of energy before the weekend.

Ummm…I guess that means I should stop blogging though…
[tags]penguins, canadiens[/tags]

I wonder what Pierre Berton would say about making love in this Canoe?

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Last night we had dinner at the ne plus ultra of winterlicious restaurants, Canoe. It was, as expected, superb: great food, impeccable service, and just an enjoyable experience in a fantastic restaurant. It’s hard to argue with the decor and the view, and the company — T-Bone and a friend from work — made it a fun evening. We were supposed to be booted out by 8:00, but our server liked us so they let us keep the table for a while. I guess the fact that we kept ordering drinks helped their decision.

By the way, I had the goat cheese & onion tart, the gnocchi in pea foam (better than it sounds) with dried sage and the pear tart with chocolate ice cream.

[tags]canoe, winterlicious[/tags]

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction."

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Proof of evolution: just five years ago Stephen Harper called the Kyoto Accord a money-sucking “socialist scheme”, but today he’s a good steward of the environment. Welcome to the party, Steve.

.:.

There was an interesting article in the October issue of The Atlantic called “Prophetic Justice” about the grounds on which terrorism suspects are being tried, the ignorance and fear that allows the situation, and the political climate that fosters it.

That inculcation has ample source material, Haykel said, because many hadith and Koranic verses seem to advocate violence; most Muslims just know not to take them literally. Is it possible, he was asked during cross-examination, that someone radically inclined might take al-Kousi’s words as a call to action? “Well, the Koran can be taken as a call to action,” Haykel answered. “You don’t need to listen to al-Kousi.”

Religious speech is extreme, emotional, and motivational. It is anti-literal, relying on metaphor, allusion, and other rhetorical devices, and it assumes knowledge within a community of believers. Its potency is deliberate: faith is about calling on a higher power, one stronger than ourselves, and the very language we use helps inflate that strength. We arm ourselves (itself a violent metaphor) with prayer.

This is hardly unique to Islam. The question of how to interpret a text may be as old as writing, and it applies equally to determining where the power of religious speech inheres. In authorial intent? A reader’s interpretation? Historical or modern context? Over the centuries, and even today, the Bible and Christian theology have helped justify the Crusades, slavery, violence against gays, and the murder of doctors who perform abortions. The words themselves are latent, inert, harmless—until they aren’t.

It’s long, but worth the read.

.:.

My favourite new source of excellent music: the KEXP “song of the day” podcast. It’s usually something I haven’t heard, and is almost always very good.
[tags]stephen harper, kyoto accord, prophetic justice, terrorism, kexp[/tags]

A gurgling stomach is "one of the signs" of My Lunch's imminent return

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First of all, some big news: my oldest brother is now engaged!!! Everybody pop over to his blog and say congratulations to TimmyD and She Who Must Not Be Named.

Needless to say we’re extremely happy for both of them. We adore SWMNBN, and love how happy she makes my big brother, so we couldn’t be more pleased. Huzzah!

.:.

We tried a new place for Winterlicious last night: The Savoy. T-Bone joined us once again, along with her friend AS. We had a MUCH better experience this time than we had at 1055. My wine (can’t remember what it was…something Tuscan) was really good, my starter salad was excellent, my mushroom risotto wasn’t bad (I don’t like mushrooms, but even then…pretty decent) and my creme brulee was just right. The service was also very good, and best of all our table was in an enclosed booth, so the four of us felt very private and cozy during our meal. To top it off, it was actually cheaper than the typical ‘licious meal — $25 instead of $35 — so we definitely felt like we got our money’s worth.

The Savoy could very well become a neighbourhood joint once we move into our new place.

.:.

I seem to have buggered up my knee somehow. Tried to run on it Sunday afternoon and had to hobble to a stop after 45 seconds. This happens occasionally; hopefully a day with the knee brace should fix it up. But of all the weeks not to be able to exercise: Winterlicious week. Deadly.

.:.

This post on the Showcase Sideshow blog makes an interesting observation: the quality of Mexican directors right now is pretty impressive. It’d be pretty tough to find a better trio of films than Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo Del Toro), Children Of Men (Alfonso Cuaron) and Babel (Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu) in theatres right now.

.:.

Holy blessed mother of hotpants, this Washington Post story takes climate change denial to a whole new level of silliness:

Hardison, a parent of seven here in the southern suburbs of Seattle, has himself roiled the global-warming waters. It happened early this month when he learned that one of his daughters would be watching “An Inconvenient Truth” in her seventh-grade science class.

“No you will not teach or show that propagandist Al Gore video to my child, blaming our nation — the greatest nation ever to exist on this planet — for global warming,” Hardison wrote in an e-mail to the Federal Way School Board. The 43-year-old computer consultant is an evangelical Christian who says he believes that a warming planet is “one of the signs” of Jesus Christ’s imminent return for Judgment Day.

His angry e-mail (along with complaints from a few other parents) stopped the film from being shown to Hardison’s daughter.

The teacher in that science class, Kay Walls, says that after Hardison’s e-mail she was told by her principal that she would receive a disciplinary letter for not following school board rules that require her to seek written permission to present “controversial” materials in class.

Seriously…if you’re the school how can you discipline a teacher for that? You’ve opened the door for teachers to be disciplined for discussing anything, since there’s always some nutbag parent who’ll get their knickers in a twist. Teaching evolution? Sex ed? Geology? Astronomy? Prepare to be disciplined. Hell, if a kid’s parent works for Verizon they’re even likely to complain about the math.

[via Cinematical]

[tags]engagement, savoy restaurant, winterlicious, climate change, inconvenient truth, frosty hardison[/tags]

"To marriage…the reason we have bars."

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That toast comes courtesy of Battlestar Galactica, to which I am now firmly addicted.

.:.

Poor Nellie’s sick, so we didn’t go to a movie today, just emptied one of the Zip envelopes. it was November (imdb | rotten tomatoes), a low-budget indie starring Courteney Cox. It was weird and a little confusing at times, but reasonably impressive considering it was shot in 15 days.

[tags]battlestar galactica, november[/tags]

The Devil is {yawn} boring

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The Devil Wears Prada (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was…meh. Not terrible, but entirely unremarkable. A few little laughs early on, but only a few. Predictable & formulaic if well-executed. Just…vanilla.

I don’t get all the fuss about Meryl Streep’s performance; I mean, the woman has produced so much brilliant work over her career that this seems throwaway by comparison. Stanley Tucci was great, but he — like Streep — was a brilliant actor dragged down by the material.

Next.

[tags]the devil wears prada, meryl streep, stanley tucci[/tags]