Appassionata

I saw a great German movie yesterday called Das Leben der Anderen. The English title is "The Lives of Others" and it won the Oscar for best foreign movie in 2007. But that's not important. What's important is that this is a pretty good story. It is not even a very complex story, it can be pretty hollywoodian if you want. The movie is kind of stressful. It is very insightful on the rampant paranoia that was going on in the DDR. I'm not sure I should base my impressions of life in the DDR on this movie, but it certainly strikes the imagination. I'm really glad I got to see this movie.

Direction

I went to a great restaurant last Friday! It is on Ontario St. and its name is "Chez ma grosse truie chérie". That translates to "At my big dear sow". It is a really nicely decorated restaurant with two separate sections. We got in at one of the sections and they made us go through the kitchen to go to the other section, which was kind of weird, but also kind of fun. The waiter was really nice. The portions were reasonably sized. I got a salmon foursome for my appetizer: there was salmon carpaccio, beet marinated salmon, apple smoked salmon, and salmon tartar. It was delicious. I got to taste a few other appetizers and they were great too!

Next I had a good piece of piglet with cheddar polenta. The polenta looked like mashed potatoes and tasted like good mac'n'cheese (i.e., not KD). We also shared

Parmesan fries, which were perfect. For dessert I had a big chocolate macaroon with some pears and yogurt sherbet. That dessert and the other desserts I tasted were delicious.

This is definitely a restaurant I would like to visit again. They also have a more laid-back menu, with what looks like quality burgers, grilled cheese sandwiches, and hotdogs. I'm guessing they serve that menu at lunchtime, but I'm not sure. I'll have to see for myself!

This Mess We're In

I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I... and it wasn't that good. The actors just looked stressed all the time. The best part was seeing Kreattur poke Mondingus Fletcher with a fork during Harry's interrogation. There weren't really any big action scenes, and I didn't really see the point of showing Harry and Hermione half-naked. What Bellatrix did to Hermione was pretty awful.

That's all I have to say, I guess.

Empire State of Mind

I saw Manhattan, by Woody Allen. The only other Woody Allen movies I have seen are more recent ones: Match Point and Vicky Christina Barcelona. They were okay, but it seems that I am not much of a Woody Allen person. Manhattan had some few funny moments, there were some beautiful scenes, but it didn't do that much for me. This is the original hipster movie. Xavier Dolan is nothing compared to this. Some shots are indeed very clever. Diane Keaton's character is pretty insufferable, but she is kind of likable at the same time. It was fun to watch a young Woody Allen with all of his neuroses. He makes New York seem very romantic, and I guess that is the point of the movie.

The Man Who Sold The World

I went to Ginza, a great all-you-can-eat sushi place on St-Denis St.! I usually don't like sushi pizza, but theirs was excellent. The Sakara roll was great too (I think I have that name right). In places like these, they usually offer food other than sushi. It isn't always good, but at Ginza, it was pretty great. The portions weren't too big, and they had cute little eggplant appetizers. Their beef sashimi was good too.

Help Myself (Nous Ne Faisons Que Passer)

I've just finished reading Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway, and I am a bit puzzled by this book. The beginning is absolutely beautiful, but the party scene at the end is so boring. Perhaps it's meant to be that way. Anyway, it is really lovely to be walking among the streets of London at the beginning of the novel with all of the different characters, whose thoughts are all fascinating to follow. I found Rezia's character very touching, and I loved Peter Walsh and Septimus.

Projects

I recently finished watching the entirety of "The Wire" and I feel like I just have to write a blog post about that. "The Wire" is known for being one of the smartest TV series ever made, and it certainly is the smartest TV series I've ever watched, followed more or less closely by "Mad Men" and "Veronica Mars". (They're smart too, but a different kind of smart.) It is mainly about Baltimore's drug scene, and it could be considered a crime drama, but it is also about the various institutions that are part of a city. We're talking the media, the education system, the government, etc. We also get to realize that it isn't enough to know who the bad guys are: you need solid proof. But first and foremost, it's about every single person trying to fulfill his own particular needs, and the conflicts that can ensue. Since the series is about Baltimore's drug scene, the street lingo is very much present in every episode. At first, I didn't understand a word of what the characters were saying to each other, even with the subtitles, but I got used to it. I loved seasons one, three and four, and I only had a few problems with seasons two and five. Season two drew away from the black gangsters and focused on the people working at the port, and those people are mainly white. Seriously, I didn't care for the white folks, I wanted the black gangstas back. Season five was a bit too much, but it still broke my heart to think that it was the last season of "The Wire" I could ever get my hands on.

I loved many of the characters, and many of them infuriated me. There are a lot of characters, but if one were to point out one particular character on whom the series seemed to focus on, it would be Jimmy McNulty. McNulty is a cop and a rebel, and those two things don't necessarily fit together. I loved him as a rebel. In season four, he calmed down a little, and I loved watching that too. In season five, he went back to being the rebel I loved, but it wrenched my heart to see him drift away from his tranquil state, in which he was so happy. Bunk was always a great character, but I especially loved him in season five. Cedric Daniels is HOT. I liked Lester Freamon in season one, but he got more and more cocky as the seasons went on. I loved Bubbles, of course. Amongst the gangsters, I particularly loved Bodie, and Snoop was pretty scary. I loved the tension between Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell. I know that all this talk about the characters doesn't mean anything to you, but see, I was so invested in "The Wire" that I don't care.

I saw one critic's quote in the back of the DVD sets that says it all: "Either you love 'The Wire' or you haven't seen it."

Way Down In The Hole

(These lists are in alphabetical order by authors' last names.)

Books I am buying this year:

Mansfield Park - Jane Austen

Hollywood - Charles Bukowski

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

The Beautiful and the Damned - F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Last Tycoon - F. Scott Fitzgerald

A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby

The Lottery: And Other Stories - Shirley Jackson

The Subterraneans - Jack Kerouac

Reading Lolita in Teheran: A Memoir in Books - Azar Nafisi

The Jungle - Upton Sinclair

Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson

A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf

Orlando - Virginia Woolf

Books I am borrowing at the library sometime this year:

Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom

Catch-22 - Joseph Heller

Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (must finish that one)

If any of you remember the other lists of books I made at the beginning and in the summer of last year, you'll notice that a lot of the books in this list have already been mentioned previously. I really haven't read a lot of the books in those previous lists.

Summer Well

There you go, theoreo, something new to read :) You should write more often too! Anyway, this blog post will be about Interpol's new self-titled album. I haven't listened to it that much yet, but I find it excellent. In an article, the album was described as being "somewhere between the first and the second album", and that description is pretty accurate. For this album, Interpol went back to their independent label, having worked with Capitol for their third album. I personally liked Our Love to Admire a lot, but I can see how working with Matador provides better results for them. I already knew four of the songs on this album, i.e. the songs they played at their show: "Success", "Summer Well", "Lights", and "Barricade". I like "Summer Well" a lot, although it sounds a bit better live. "Lights" is a pretty intense song. At first, I thought the guitars on "Barricade" were a bit too much, but that song is growing on me now. "Always Malaise" has an awesome title. "All Of The Ways" is a slow and intense song. In "The Undoing", Paul sings in Spanish :) Throughout the album, Paul's voice remains as strong as always. It is pretty sexy to hear him curse in "Try It On" ;) I believe this album will remain for some time in my car!

Half Light II (No Celebration)

Arcade Fire’s latest album, The Suburbs, is sooooo good. It took me less time to appreciate this one than Neon Bible. In some ways, there seems to be a lot more going on in The Suburbs than in the last two albums. The tracks I like a lot are « Ready to Start », « Modern Man », « Half Light II (No Celebration) », « Deep Blue » and « We Used to Wait ». For once, I also like the tracks where Régine Chassagne is the main singer, i.e. « Empty Room » and « Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) ». The Suburbs is one of the two new releases that have been in heavy rotation in my car this summer. The other one is High Violet by The National, which came out at the beginning of the summer. It is pretty depressing for a summer album, but it is also incredibly good. Another CD which has been playing a lot in my car lately is Carla Bruni’s first CD, Quelqu’un m’a dit. Also depressing, but that is some really pretty music.

Lights

Wow, I saw Salt yesterday and it was amazing. Okay, maybe not amazing, but it was a good little action movie, and good action movies are always awesome. It's always a pleasure to see a crazy chick pull off insane Spiderman-like stunts. The movie's catchy tagline, "Who is Salt?", is very accurate: during the whole movie, the only question running through my head was, "Who the fuck is Salt?" Angelina Jolie is pretty scary in this role, you literally never know what she's going to do next. I'll leave you with a slight spoiler, i.e. the message of this movie: Do not fuck with a girl's man.

Conversation 16

Shutter Island was HORRIBLE. The ending was incredibly obvious.

And I watched a really disturbing English independent movie, Fish Tank. Lots of inappropriate moments.

Biological

Recently read Yann Martel's latest book, Beatrice & Virgil, and it was great!

Recently saw French movie De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté and it was beautiful!

Recently went to La Banquise and had a novelty poutine (fries, cheese, BBQ sauce, sour cream, guacamole and tomatoes) and it was delicious!

Sorry, feel more or less like blogging these days.

Sleepwalker

I'm going to one of my favorite restaurants tonight, and this prompted me to do a round-up of all of my favorite restaurants. After all, I have been writing about restaurants for some time now. So, let's start with the ones that are more

On the expensive side

Le Piémontais: This is the one I'm going to tonight. Fine Italian food. We always eat the same thing: veal with cream pasta, and it's to die for. They also give us free chicken at the beginning, and the bread is always good and warm, which is always a great thing. It's really kind of expensive, though.

M sur Masson: It's expensive, but the portions are huge, and it is always delicious. We have a great relationship with the staff. I love the salad with the half-cooked egg! I have a previous post on this restaurant here.

La Porte and Laloux: Also expensive, smaller portions, but really delicious. My posts on those restaurants are here and here.

On the medium side

Dima: Really far, but killer appetizers. Syrian food. Previous post here.

On the cheaper side

M & M Legend: I'm not even sure of its proper name. We keep calling it "the pink restaurant". It used to be a very sketchy-looking place with pink walls in Chinatown. It has recently been renovated, and now my friend doesn't like it as much because he says it has sold out and that the prices are higher than before. It could be true, but it still is pretty cheap. There are Chinese buns, some more dessert-like and others with meat. The portions are huge, so it's a great place for eating with friends.

And, why not? My favorite fast food places

I love Thaï Express. It's what I eat when I'm depressed. I like the taste of McDonald's, KFC and Taco Bell, although I feel terribly guilty once I'm done eating at those places. And on the Canadian side, I like Harvey's and Tim Hortons. At Tim Hortons, I can get great coffee, great bagels, and great donuts when I feel like splurging.

I started with pretty well-rated restaurant and ended with McDonald's. Classy.

Take It Or Leave It

I'm pretty much done with classes, so it's back to Having A Lot Of Time To Read time. For a long time, I tried to find the edition of Salinger's Nine Stories that I wanted, but I finally gave in and bought a different edition. I wanted to reread it before tackling the only Salinger I hadn't read yet,Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction. (I bought it last summer in Vancouver: it has been sitting on a shelf ever since.)

My rereading of Nine Stories was unsatisfying. Understanding those stories correctly would require me to read exterior analyses of them. I'll probably do that sooner or later, but I wish I didn't have to.

Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters was more satisfying. It is the detailed story of Seymour Glass' wedding day. It is often very funny. With this story, I decided Buddy Glass was my favorite of the Glass children. (Zooey is not bad either, and Boo Boo is cool, too.)

Unfortunately, I was very bored with the beginning of Seymour: An Introduction. The narrator goes on and on about very abstract ideas. I eventually realized that the narrator was actually Buddy Glass, whom I had previously been proud to proclaim my favorite Glass child. The story got better, though. It became a detailed portrait of Seymour Glass, Buddy's older brother. Seymour Glass annoys the hell out of me, though. But it is endearing to see how much his brothers and sisters love him. It is equally endearing how Buddy always doubts what he is writing.

I have now come to the conclusion that my appreciation of Salinger's work, from my favorite to my least favorite, goes like this: Franny and Zooey, Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters, Seymour: An Introduction, and Nine Stories. The Catcher In The Rye goes into another category entirely, the category of Books I Have A Love-Hate Relationship With. It probably stands alone in its category, actually.

(I have to mention, though, that the stories in Nine Stories are still all enjoyable. I tried to rank them from my favorite to my least favorite, and I realized that I actually kind of like them all. I usually like either the beginning or the end of the story only, though. I like the beginnings of "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and of "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut". "Just Before the War with the Eskimos", "The Laughing Man" and "Down at the Dinghy" are terrific stories. I liked the end of "For Esmé - with Love and Squalor". I didn't like the end of "Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes." I didn't like the beginning of "De Daudier-Smith's Blue Period", but its end is terrific. "Teddy" is an interesting story.)

The edition of "Nine Stories" that I wanted is pictured below.

Windowsill

Yesterday I watched a terrific movie. It is called Entre les murs, and its American title is The Class. It is a movie that feels like a documentary, as it is based on a book written by a French high school teacher and this teacher plays a version of himself in the movie. We follow him through a year of teaching a class mostly filled with ethnic students from a less fortunate part of Paris. The classroom scenes will feel very familiar to any viewer, as they reflect something everyone has gone through: high school. It is interesting to watch these fifteen-year-old students who all seem to think they rule the world and to remember that we had similar feelings at that age. The movie is a great reflection on education. Both the students and the teacher are not perfect: they both have great moments, and they both have obvious flaws. There are times when one wants to scream at the teacher: "That is not how you should do it! I know a much better way of dealing with this student!" The movie is very funny at times and truly heartbreaking at others. A great moment.

Come Here

Whoo! Lots of catching up to do. Recently, I went to a fancy restaurant, I read The English Patient, I saw The Informant!, a cute French romantic comedy, and Hable con ella. So skip ahead to any passage that might interest you.

The restaurant: I went to Europea, the kind of restaurant that gives you tiny portions in enormous plates, but they gave us plenty of freebies in between the apetizer and the entrée, so it was fine. Actually, there were so many freebies that I just couldn't wait to get my entrée. First, we had to choose between olive bread, white bread and parmesan bread. I had olive bread, which was delicious. They also gave us breadsticks with olive oil. Next we had a parmesan and goat cheese chip shaped into a lollipop: our first freebie. The next freebie was a lobster capuccino with truffles: delicious. I had foie gras as an apetizer, then another freebie came along: it was some sort of eggnog with truffle pieces in it. It was kind of weird. Then we had an apple sherbet with ice cider to clean our palate: it was great. My entrée was scallops and crawfish on a risotto bed. There wasn't mushc risotto, though, so I was kind of disappointed. Then came a shitload of desserts. We had lime sherbet with white chocolate, which was really great. Then they gave us cotton candy (?!) and madeleines, which we could bring home. Then I finally got the dessert I had actually ordered, which was chocolate cake with thyme sherbet: it was great. To conclude, they gave us pound cakes which we could also take home. The service was kind of weird at that restaurant. All in all, I don't think I would go back there.

The English Patient: As much as I hated the movie, I loved the book. What the movie did for me, though, was that it allowed me to imagine Juliette Binoche each time Hana's character was mentioned, which isn't a bad thing at all. The book was really sensuous and was a lot more linear than the movie. It allowed me to understand the importance of Kip and Hana's story, which seemed totally irrelevant to me while I was watching the movie.

The Informant!: It was kind of a complicated movie to understand, what with its story concerning corporate crime and all. It was funny at times, though.

Prête-moi ta main: If this movie had been made in the United States, it would have been totally unwatchable. The French accent, however, can make up for anything.

Hable con ella: I have seen four Almodovar movies: La Mala Educacion, Volver, Todo sobre mi madre and Hable con ella. My favorite one was La Mala Educacion, then Todo sobre mi madre, then Hable con ella. Hable con ella is still a terrific movie, though. It is beautiful, as all Almodovar movies. That guy really knows how to tell a story. I found this movie particularly sad.

PDA

I know a few tapas places in Montreal, and Casa Tapas is where I go when I feel like having typical Spanish tapas, rather than having fancy fusion tapas. It is on Rachel St., and it is a medium-sized restaurant, but it still feels pretty intimate. We were a party of four and shared five tapas along with a paella. The tapas are okay-sized, and we actually could have done without the paella. For next time, though, I'll favor ordering more tapas over a paella. The paella was great, but I just find it more interesting to try lots of different tapas. The ones we had were the fried calamari, the fig scallops, the lamb filet mignon, the meatballs and the stuffed eggplant. The calamari are the best I've had in Montreal. The size of the fig scallops plate was a bit disappointing, but it was delicious nonetheless. The lamb filet mignon was satisfying as always: along with the calamari and the stuffed eggplant, it is one of the main reasons I come to Casa Tapas. It is incredibly tender and is mixed with almonds, basil, and cherry tomatoes. The meatballs, though simple, were also very good. And finally, the eggplant is a pure guilty pleasure: it is covered with cheese, and it is EGGPLANT. Come on. I usually have churros at the end of the meal, that typical Spanish dessert (long doughnut sticks covered with sugar and dipped into chocolate sauce, and they're particularly good and warm at Casa Tapas), but since we were full and didn't want to go over our budget too much, we decided to do without. We had a great bottle of white wine all along, and all in all, we each paid about 30$, which isn't that bad. Of course, with one single bottle and four drinkers, you don't get much to drink. Usually when I go out with my family, we also get a single bottle. However, my parents and I are the main drinkers and my mom doesn't drink that much, so I get a lot more wine on those occasions. :)

All Fired Up

I finally went to La Distillerie the other day. It's one of Montreal's more famous bars among the youngsters and it is located on Ontario St., near St-Denis also. They have several unique cocktails and some of them can be served in a huge format commonly called a "pot Masson". I had a more classic mojito, and it was delicious. The place was a lot smaller than I had expected, and it was pretty dark, too, but it simply made for a better ambience. It will probably become a new favorite of mine.

The Cure

I saw Tegan and Sara at the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier at the Place des Arts last Monday. I hated the venue, it wasn't intimate at all. The concert was great, though. I liked the light effects a lot, and I found that the girls conveyed a lot of emotion.

Setlist:

Arrow

Don't Rush

The Ocean

Hell

Walking With A Ghost

I Bet It Stung

Burn Your Life Down

Where Does The Good Go

Speak Slow

On Directing

Red Belt

The Cure

Paperback Head

Night Watch

Soil, Soil

Knife Going In

So Jealous

Nineteen

Northshore

Alligator

Sentimental Tune

Someday

The Con

Encore:

Back In Your Head

Feel It In My Bones

My Number

Call It Off

Living Room

Other topic: Yesterday, I went to a great tea lounge called Camelia Sinensis near St-Denis. My friend and I had a black Chinese oolong that required us to use a special technique. We were given specific amounts of time for the infusions, and we each had two small cups in front of us, one of them being more cylindrical. We used that one for the first pouring. Afterwards, we would smell it then pour it into the other cup. The cylindrical cup would keep the scent of the tea, and that scent would change as time passed. The senses of taste and of smell would then be separated, very effectively: the tea didn't taste as it smelled. We also had a delicious grape scone, which was just the right amount of buttery, and a green tea cheesecake, which was as delightful as any cheesecake always is. I left the place feeling incredibly relaxed.

Games for Days

Are you more failblog.org or fmylife.com?

Fight the Power

Oh, I also watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs recently and it was awesome! I especially loved Mr.T's voiceover, and Neil Patrick Harris was hilarious as a squeeking monkey. The character of the dad is also great and provides for many moving moments.

After Hours

Books: Read Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer, it was great. Horrors of war, once more. I loved the description of Brod's character, and a lot of other things, including the meaning of the book's title.

Movies: Saw The Fountainhead, Gary Cooper is weirdly handsome as Howard Roark; Patricia Neal is not how I pictured Dominique Francon, but she is also weirdly beautiful; I enjoyed Raymond Massey's portrayal of Gail Wynand the most; one of the greatest things about this movie is that it is old and black-and-white, so, not much there; I don't think the movie makes much sense to anyone who hasn't read the book, oh but how I love the book, I reread it recently and all along I was going ohmygodIlovethisbook.

Saw The English Patient, so horrible, I don't understand how it got so many Oscar nominations, both of the characters of the love story are utterly unlikable.

Saw Ne le dis à personne, a terrific French thriller directed by Guillaume Canet, I guess the boy's got brains too.

Saw Up in the Air, it had some good moments; Vera Farmiga's character is really hot; a good reflection on unemployment; it is scary how somebody can get to the point where George Clooney's character has, i.e. with no connection to anybody whatsoever.

Saw Inglourious Basterds, it was okay, but I wasn't blown away by it or anything.

Music: Have bought The XX album from iTunes recently, not exactly breaking news in the indie world here, but I like them a lot.

Places: Went back to Laloux, one of my favorite restaurants, before it changed chefs; perhaps I mentioned this restaurant before; the servings are usually very small, and it is always frustrating because the dishes are both always expensive and delicious; this time, perhaps because they are changing chefs, the servings were a bit more generous; I had a delicious plate of lamb with a tajine of carrots.

Went to a fancy Vietnamese restaurant, it was excellent, had imperial rolls, a Tom Yum soup, chicken sautéed with vegetables, and a very original dessert: chocomaki, a dessert resembling sushi with sweetened rice replacing the rice, fruit replacing the raw fish, and chocolate sauce replacing the soya sauce, all along with some coconut ice cream.

Real life: Arrived to L.A., it was weird, I kept thinking about all the broken dreams that must go down there; went to Santa Monica, a nice little shopping neighborhood; went to Venice Beach, didn't stay very long; drove down Rodeo Drive, a fancy shopping street; visited the Vietnamese mall in Santa Ana; went to a Vietnamese vegeterian restaurant, it was weird.

Drove from L.A. to San Francisco, the road was really nice, desert-like; San Francisco is pretty beautiful; went to a fancy restaurant called La Folie, had snails, Hawaiian butterfish and a Valhrona and passionfruit bomb; went to Napa Valley and Sonoma, i.e. wine country, it was really beautiful; walked around Fisherman's Wharf; went to a contemporary Vietnamese restaurant, it was so delicious; went to Berkeley; went to Chinatown to eat some dim sum; went to City Lights Bookstore; went to Haight-Ashbury; went to Union Square; saw some Chagalls and Picassos; ate at a great Thai place; went to Stanford.