The Calculation

I saw The Time Traveler's Wife last night. It was really, really TRAGIC. Eric Bana was kind of dull at the beginning, but he got better towards the end. The movie was surprisingly short, considering the length of the book.

Eet

CDs I've listened to recently:

Battle for the Sun by Placebo: Placebo came into my life at a time when I needed that angst. Upon hearing their last CD for the first time, my first reaction was: "Jeez, this is bad music!" There are some pretty cool songs on there, though. I find one of the singles, "For What It's Worth", supremely annoying. The song "Battle for the Sun" is as repetitive as it is addictive. 

Far by Regina Spektor: The first time I heard this CD, I liked its middle portion the best, and I didn't find any of the songs as catchy as her previous ones, say, for example, "Better". However, I know find the first half of the CD to be very strong. I love "Eet", "Machine" and "Laughing With". "Folding Chair" is a nice, happy song. The highlights of the second half of the CD are "Dance Anthem of the 80's" and "One More Time With Feeling".

Spinnerette by Spinnerette: Lots of catchy, interesting songs. Simply put, a good listen.

Julian Plenti Is... Skyscraper by Julian Plenti: Julian Plenti is the side project of Paul Banks, Interpol's lead singer. His songs are really... interesting. What can I say? That's what they are. Of all of the songs on the CD, "On the Esplanade" is the only one that doesn't really do much for me.

Wonderful Night

Books I read while I was on my trip:

Between the Bridge and the River by Craig Ferguson: Craig Ferguson is easily my favorite famous person. In my opinion, he is way more than a late-night talk-show host: he is a genuinely smart, decent, and knowledgeable person, and he has exactly the sense of humor I am looking for. Perhaps because I like him so much, I am biased, but I sincerely loved his book. It is a novel with four main characters, and it talks about everything from love and religion to Hollywood. It is a bit confusing at first, but it is worth it. It is a hilarious book and an interesting thought pops out every two lines.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith: This book was really hyped up in 2000. I couldn't get past the first part (there are about six parts to this book). It is not that funny nor that interesting. The book is about the lives of some individuals in London, some of them being foreigners.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers: A very contemporary non-fiction book. There were loads of instructions on how to read the book at the beginning of the book. Unfortunately, towards the beginning, the author tells us those instructions are unnecessary. I decided to listen to him. Therefore, I did not understand much of the book. Perhaps I am just not smart enough. The books tells us how the author had to take care of his brother after both their parents died from cancer, while attempting to create a magazine at the same time.

Human

Three Sundays ago, I flew from Montreal to Vancouver with a friend. I spent three days there and after that, it was Victoria for one day, Banff for three days, Calgary for three days, Drumheller for one day, Regina for five days, Winnipeg for four days and finally Toronto for four days. Here are my impressions of each stop I made:

Vancouver, British Columbia: went to The Eatery, a really well decorated Japanese restaurant with some cool music; biked along the Sea Wall (10 km), which is awesome; as part of a pub crawl, went to Roxy, a pretty okay place, and met some cool English and Scottish people; went for a walk in the mountains, just one hour by bus from the city.

Vancouver is a pretty cool city. It has everything: mountains, the beach, the city. It is smaller than Montreal, and I find its downtown area simpler. Vancouverites are ridiculously nice people. Generally, we found that the more we went east, the more unpleasant people became. If you ask a Vancouverite for help, he will really go out of his way to help you.

Victoria, British Columbia: a really nice, small city. My friend really liked it. We went whale-watching, expecting it to be a nice ride in the sea, under the sun. As a matter of a fact, we had to go really far into the ocean, at 50 km/h. The wind was unbelievable. We were too proud to get inside the boat, so we stayed on the deck. I think we would have died from the cold if it weren't for a life-saving blanket. The experience was still awesome, though.

Banff, Alberta: went for the most extraordinary hike ever along Bow River, amongst endangered flowers, it felt as if we were in Pocahontas; did some canoe, and that was pretty painful, we only reached one lake out of three and had the laziest canoe ride ever on the way back, using only the current; met the greatest couple ever, Chris, 19, and Hannah, 21, both British and in possession of a rental car in which they brought us everywhere; went to Takkakkaw Falls, and they were awesome; went to Lake Louise, which is a million times more beautiful than any picture you'll ever see, and took a dip in it, the water was three degrees Celsius; went to a cool bonfire, though smaller than what we had imagined; drank way too much at karaoke; the next day, we added another person to our group, Tom, a cool Canadian with a funny dirty T-shirt; went to Johnston Creek, it was okay; went for a random dip in ice-cold water in front of Castle Mountain; went to hot springs; went camping with the most inclined tent ever; and, finally, went to Lake Two-Jacks and Lake Minnewanka/Mini-Wanker, both really beautiful.

Banff was my favorite stop. It is unbelievably beautiful. We were surrounded by mountains, and at night, we saw the starriest sky we would ever see. It was hard to believe we were still in the same country. I really like cities, but I fell in love with this national park.

Calgary, Alberta: went to Heritage Park, it was okay; went to the Calgary Tower, it wasn't that impressive.

Calgary was my least favorite stop. It felt like the least Canadian city to me. It felt (no offense to my US reader(s)) like we were in the United States, mainly because of the huge Wal-Mart and the equally huge stores alongside it, as well as its huge parking lot. It is not that big of a city, and not that pretty. 

Drumheller, Alberta: what a crazy name for a town. It is a real hellhole where the only thing they have going for them is a dinosaur museum. The museum is actually pretty neat. One cannot help but wonder what the young people who are growing up in that town do to pass the time.

Regina, Saskatchewan: we stayed there the longest, and it was the third smallest city we stopped into, after Drumheller and Victoria. This says everything. I didn't expect to like Regina at all. The first thing we did there was watching Harry Potter, because we thought we wouldn't have much to do in that city. (The movie was okay. I found it funny. I didn't like the beginning much, but by the end I was pretty caught up in it. The actors are still incredibly bad, though.) We stayed at a couple's appartment, Trixi and Max. Trixi was kind of hippyish, but like a cool hippie. Max was more punkyish. Their appartment was pretty cool. It had Indian drapes everywhere. Max had had surgery in his mouth, so we could barely understand him sometimes, but it was pretty funny. Trixi is really into belly dancing and drumming. We went to see one of her belly dancing workshops and we saw her drumming in the street for money. All in all, because of them, we got to see the hippie Regina. I never expected Regina to be a hippie city. We stayed there five days, and that was enough to see the whole city. We went to about every used books store in Regina. They had one really cool one in particular, Buy The Book. They also had a cool records store and an awesome restaurant with lots of vegeterian options. One night, we did about four places before hitting the gay bar, and that was where there was the most action in the city. We came back the next night, but the music wasn't as good.

Winnipeg, Manitoba: I didn't really like Winnipeg. It is a pretty big city, and its younger population, in its downtown area anyway, mainly consists of hipsters. The more time we spent in the city, the more impatient I became with them. They had a cool CDs store and a cool movie rental place in Osbourne Village, though. There was also a great vegan place in the Exchange District.

Toronto, Ontario: HUGE city. We went to the Distillery District, not expecting anything, and it was actually really nice. There were a lot of art galleries. Chinatown was also great, and huge. Kensington Market was supposed to be where they had the hippie scene of Toronto, but it wasn't that cool. We ended our trip with a bang at the Kool Haus for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs concert. It was AWESOME. The opening act was Amanda Blank, a cool and indecent rapper. The crowd went crazy when the actual concert started. I ended pushed against a girl who was against the barrier, right at the front, right in the middle. I don't know where Karen O finds the energy to perform the way she does for such a long amount of time, even though the concert felt really quick. She is incredibly beautiful when she performs, and she is completely crazy, as expected. "Skeletons" was beautiful, and "Maps" too. I am so glad I got to see them without all that Osheaga shit.

This trip was one huge chunk of a really great summer. And it's not over yet!