Category: Friends

"Only people who'll remember this is us."

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We just finished watching Gunner Palace (imdb | rotten tomatoes), a documentary about an American field artillery unit who took over Uday Hussein’s old palace in Baghdad. It was a bit uneven and slow at times, but overall a pretty informative slice of (shitty) life for these guys and the Iraqis they deal with. The soldiers have to duck rocks, worry about IEDs and deal with the fact that no one back home will every understand what their time in Iraq was like. The Iraqi people get held at gunpoint, woken up in the middle of the night by soldiers and sent to prisons like Abu Ghraib without much evidence against them.

“I don’t think … anywhere in history has someone killed someone else and something better has come out of it. It’s just … not possible.”

Whatever you think about the war, you have to respect the soldiers for the work they have to do, and feel sorry for them when the situation sometimes pushes them over the line. Gunner Palace was a good look at a bunch of soldiers standing at the edge of it.

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I also watched Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior (imdb | rotten tomatoes) this week. Dopey martial arts movie, but holy smokin’ Joe Kubek, that Tony Jaa is one bad-assed squeaky-voiced mofo. No effects, no digital tricks, no “bullet time”, just a little dude kicking and elbowing and jumping and kneeing his way through a whole raft of baddies, including one creepy voiceboxed chief. If you appreciate martial arts movies for the action and don’t mind the thin plot or dippy dialogue, pick this up.

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The Canadiens all but eliminated the Leafs tonight, winning 6-2 after beating them 5-1 two nights ago. Atlanta lost, so Montreal moves back into the 8th playoff spot. The way things are going, the Montreal-New Jersey game we have tickets for in two weeks could be big indeed.

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Clubbed today: protestors in Minsk, baby seals.

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My old friend from university, Farm Boy (ironic that he got the name, since I grew up on a farm and he did not) visited today. He, his wife, Nellie and I had lunch downtown at the Irish Embassy and then caught up for a bit before they left to have dinner with his brother. They were enamored with the cats; who wouldn’t be?

They're no here

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Ooh, almost forgot: Chromewaves’ Frank noticed that Mogwai will make a stop in Toronto after all. Like him, I think my ears have healed sufficiently since I last saw them. I shall see if M2 is up for it.

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Ever see Ripley’s Game (imdb | rotten tomatoes)? I just watched it this week; don’t even remember how it got onto my Zip list, but I’m glad it did. I liked it very much; Malkovich is better than usual here, and that’s something. I like movies with style; this one has it. It’s subtle, but it’s there.

The best-laid plans of mice and plastinated men

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We were foiled in our attempt to see BodyWorlds last night at the Science Centre last night with CBGB. Apparently we left it too late (the exhibit leaves Sunday) and it was sold out by the time we got there. I guess we shouldn’t have left it so late, but vacations and house purchases and xmas trips just got in the way and, alas, we may have missed our chance. I’ve seen the show (in an earlier incarnation) so I wasn’t that disappointed, and CBGB may be able to see it this weekend, but Nellie probably will not. I felt bad about that.

Defeated, we went back down to the Danforth and had some food & drink at Dora Keogh, then home to watch The Shield, which kicked ass.

The place is dead anyway

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Since Nellie’s sick, we’ve been laying low this weekend, which means we’ve watched lots of movies & recorded TV. Actually, because of her faux-OCD, Nellie’s holed up on the couch right now with the kleenex, her laptop and some downloaded Veronica Mars. But we’ve also watched:

  • XX/XY (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was something we’d never heard of, but IFC has been advertising it like mad. We both like Mark Ruffalo, so I recorded it. It wasn’t bad; a little whiny and self-interested maybe, but I’ve seen worse. I had to laugh at the tagline though: “There’s no room for honesty in a healthy relationship.”
  • Power & Terror: Noam Chomsky In Our Times (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was a Japanese documentary that just featured a couple of lectures and interviews with Chomsky shortly after the 9/11 attacks. It was interesting to hear his take on things when feelings were still so raw…he asked for perspective (“The best way to stop the practice of terrorism around the world is to stop participating in it…”) but also contradicted those proclaiming imminent doom by saying that, all in all, the world is a much better place than it was even 50 years ago, and *far* better than it was two centuries ago.
  • But I’m A Cheerleader (imdb | rotten tomatoes) started off as a pretty smart and biting satire about sexual mores, religion and politics, but ended up degenerating into a plain old girl-meets-girl love story. Meh.

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I don’t get companies who treat their email address like a fax line. It’s not something you just check once a week, people. It’s a personal communication channel. You know, like a tel-e-phone? Catch up.

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CBGB called us tonight from the pub around the corner and asked us to join. Since we hadn’t gotten off our asses all day, and since Nellie was feeling better, we did. They’d just left a chocolate-making class we gave CB for her birthday, and had loads of their own handiwork with them. We had chocolate-covered strawberries and truffles over pints of beer and nachos. Somehow it came up that they’d never seen Swingers (money, baby!) so we came back here to watch it. Then CB spilled tea on herself and we made her watch Family Business, which scandalized her. So not a good night for her.

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And now: the NBA all-star skills competition. God bless the PVR.

Paradigms shift. So do chords.

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Our good friend MS just told us that she’s gonna be a mom. This is weird, since she was fiercely anti-motherhood when she still lived here. But things change, I guess; there’s been a lot of movement on that issue since we all met in our early 20s. Surprise surprise.

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Speaking of friends, CBGB now have a blog detailing the move into their new house. It’s in the sidebar. Check it.

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“Soon Enough” by The Constantines might just be my favourite song of 2005. I almost get weepy when I listen to it.

Gender dysphoria, new-house euphoria and iambic pentameter

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Stupid Blogger…I tried to post this Saturday but it didn’t work, so it’s been sitting in a tmp file on my desktop for three days. Also: stupid me for forgetting about it.

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We finally got to see Transamerica (imdb | rotten tomatoes) last night, which was a must-see before the Oscars given what we’d heard about Felicity Huffman’s performance. She lived up to the billing too; it must’ve taken an incredible effort to walk, move, act and react like a man who was trying desperately to become a woman. And for a woman to be confident enough in herself to take a role that requires you to play a man trying to look like a woman…that must be on the rare side in Hollywood. Good for her. If she doesn’t win the Oscar, something is seriously wrong with the academy.

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CBGB moved into their new house today; we went over and had dinner with them. Couple of drinks too, to wind down the day and help GB forget about painting. We got Vietnamese from a nearby place called Mi Mi, which was pretty damn good…pork, shrimp & chicken, beef and chicken, some with rice, some with vermicelli. There were some spring rolls and sugar cane wrapped with shrimp and some other big salad roll-y things. Anyway, it was all good, especially when mixed with a Hacker Pschorr weiss bier.

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Yay, Jen Heil. Boo, Atlanta Thrashers.

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It’s funny how, despite studying Shakespeare throughout high school, it’s only recently that I’ve caught on to what iambic pentameter is.

Wild boar & pork belly. Who knew?

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Yup, my baby’s 30. We celebrated the milestone in fine style last night, having dinner with CBGB at Luce and spending the night in luxury upstairs at the Hotel Le Germain. Quel decadence.

First of all, the hotel: Le Germain is known as one of the best boutique hotels in Toronto, and it definitely lived up to our expectations. The hotel is gorgeous, from lobby to rooms…far nicer than the Soho Metropolitan. The decor, the raindrop showerhead, the king bed, the high-tech desk chair…the entire room was just perfect. It made for a pretty nice pre-dinner lounge and post-dinner slumber.

And, of course, there was dinner downstairs at Luce. Nellie and I had a drink at the bar while we waited for CBGB to arrive, and once they’d arrived at 7:30 we all sat down to eat. We had a quick look at the menu, but within a few minutes we all agreed that the best option was the tasting menu. And manoman, was that ever the right choice. We tried food that we would’ve never ordered on our own, but hey, what better time to try a whole bunch of new stuff than on a milestone birthday? At the end of the night they were nice enough to print up a quick list of the food (and matching wines) that we were served; it’s incomplete, but I’ll do my best to remember everything we had.

  • amuse bouche: quail egg on a salted potato fingerling.
  • zuppa: Vanilla scented lobster bisque with a scallop on cornbread. The wine was a 2004 Rallo Carta d’Oro from Sicily.
  • antipasti: Cannoli with asparagus, provolone & asparagus pesto, pappardelle with sea urchin and bison steak on a bed of barley and oyster mushrooms. The wine was a Majolini Franciacorta from Lombardia.
  • pasta: lobster-filled ravioli in squid ink with calamari, and quail with linguini pepperincino. Wine was 2003 Cocci Grifoni offida pecorino.
  • pesce: Cod with cod mash and pancetta paired with pork belly, and grouper with radicchio. Wine was a 2004 La Tunella Tibolla Gialla from Friuli.
  • carne: wild boar paired with something polenta-y, and rack of agnello. The wine was 1999 Villa Marianna Salice Salentino Riserva from Puglia.
  • formaggio: something that looked like brie but wasn’t, and a citrus sorbet.
  • dolce: four small blocks of baked chocolate mousse, and ‘Happy Birthday’ written out on the plate in chocolate.

It was easily one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten, and I think the others shared my opinion. I would have never guessed that I’d enjoy lobster bisque or lobster ravioli in squid ink, let alone something called “cod mash”, but enjoy it I did.

The service was fantastic: plates and utensils being placed and whisked in a flash, napkins folded the moment you stepped away from the table, background on each wine from the sommelier. There was a weird mixup with a cheese plate — it was placed on our table, then taken away a few seconds later — after we’d had a few bites — and taken to another table (!) despite our warnings. The servers had a brief but panic attack; we thought it was funny, but I’m not sure that other table would’ve thought so. It certainly weren’t cheap — I’m sure my father felt a chill go down his spine when I signed the bill — but how many times do you get to eat a meal that’s amazingly delicious and completely adventurous at the same time?

The meal had lasted three and a half hours. A final drink at the bar — CBGB stayed out late on a school night just for Nellie’s 30th…thanks guys! — and we retired to that beautiful room.

Pretty sweet.

Walnut

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We just got back from Noce — the last of our Winterlicious excursions — with T-Bone (as usual) and RC. It was really good, especially the starter (salad with walnuts, pear and cheese), dessert (three kinds of mousse) and wine (some kind of kickass pinot noir). The main — venison — was ok, but nothing special. The service was great, and my wife & RC claimed the gnocchi was pretty rockin’ too, so I’d like to go back on a non-licious night.

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After sucking large for the last couple of weeks, the Canadiens have won two shutouts in a row. I watched the game this afternoon against Philadelphia, and they completely dominated the Flyers. Hard to believe, after some of the games I saw them play even a week ago.