I mean, I doubt the Judds ever played that club

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Last week CBGB were in town, and we managed to catch up for a bit, despite Lindsay still being out of commission due to her ankle. I directed them to Wynona, near where their old house was. To be sure, this quality of restaurant was not in business at that corner when they lived there.

We shared grilled house focaccia, Albacore tuna crudo w/ mixed citrus + compressed melon + pine nuts, burrata w/ fig + ham + honey + almond + fennel pollen, a 25oz bone-in ribeye, and two desserts: a lemon posset and a meringue. All with a bottle of Fusco Mencia, and Stratus botrytis-affected Semillon for dessert. I also remember starting with a rather cloudy, tart Sperling skin contact Pinot Gris to start.

I miss them. I wish they still lived here, especially now that I’m nearby, but I’m glad they’re happy in Ottawa.

More Ketamine than a Montreal nightclub

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The ol’ blog has been relatively quiet lately. That’s because our summer took an abrupt shift when Lindsay tumbled down our stairs and broke her ankle in three places. That was a month ago today.

It involved surgery, several screws and plates, a lot of painkillers, and a lengthy (ongoing) convalescence wherein she can’t really leave the loft, but she’s on the mend. We’re hoping she gets the all-clear to start to put weight on it the same day she starts orientation for new PhD. [Side note: thankfully she picked U of T and not Cornell, because the logistics of that would have been brutal.]

Since flying is ruled out so soon after surgery we didn’t get home to Nova Scotia this summer, which means we didn’t get to see brother #2 before he decamped for another year. 😦

It also means we’ve been watching a lot of TV — some good, like Mindhunter season 2, and and some bad, like The Man In The High Castle, which has such an interesting premise but also such rubbish scripts and wooden acting. Shame.

Anyway, this too shall pass, but not before she gets sick of soup and crutches.

.:.

Cover photo from here, and not Lindsay’s actual x-ray

The Great Honourable Eve

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We’ve been watching a fair amount of TV lately vs. going out (more on that later) so have blitzed through a few seasons / series / documentaries. The ones I’ve watched (two with Lindsay, one without) have all focused on intriguing women.

The Great Hack (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was, apart from some annoying voiceover at the beginning and end, a pretty interesting look at Cambridge Analytica. I think it missed some context that Michael Lewis covers in his podcast, and was maybe a bit more favourable to Brittany Kaiser than seemed appropriate, but still good overall.

The Honourable Woman (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was a BBC series from a few years back, eight episodes in all, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal who was — naturally — amazing. I love British spy shit. Love it. I’ll take all of that ye got, BBC.

Season 2 of Killing Eve (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was almost as good as the first, and the first was one of the best things I watched last year. Villanelle remains one of the most fun and well-written characters on TV — not surprising since the series was adapted for TV by the brilliant Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

More. More like this please.

“Commence Operation Child Endangerment.”

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The amount of available excellent TV remains overwhelming, especially now that Amazon Prime Video can be cast to Google devices. As such, I’ve managed to get through a few more seasons of shows, betwixt all the half-finished shows on the go. To wit:

Billions (imdb | rotten tomatoes) remains pulp in season four, but it’s entertaining pulp about megalomaniac billionaires and politicians.

I thought Stranger Things (imdb | rotten tomatoes) season two was okay, but season three to me felt like a return to form. Lots of great jokes. Amazing new cast additions, mostly inside the mall. Nice through-line about kids growing up.

For some reason I’ve always had a weird soft spot for Tom Clancy stuff (The Hunt For Red October is, like, comfort food for me) so Jack Ryan (imdb | rotten tomatoes) starring John Krasinski seemed like a safe bet. And it was. Nothing special. Nothing groundbreaking. Just entertaining violent geopolitics, as The Clance intended.

Happy Canada Day

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We just got back from a couple of nights at Mike & Heather’s cottage. The weather was beautiful. The drinks were plentiful. Ken was there (with his wife Michelle) and I hadn’t seen him for years, so that made me happy. The food was fantastic. We felt like freeloaders as we decided at the last minute we could still make it, and then decided on the spot to stay an extra night. We sat on the dock. We took a boat ride around the lake. I got lots of play time with Brody the big black dog. We played asshole and drank vintage Veuve I’d sabered open.

We had to leave early on Canada Day to get home to catch ourselves up (we’d planned to come back Sunday afternoon but couldn’t bear to leave) but still — what a beautiful weekend.