Battle Without Honor Or Humanity

Yesterday one of my best friends and I went to his favorite sushi place in Quebec City, Nihon Sushi. I think it is an okay place, but half of the time, I find it disappointing. Their rice varies from night to night. The restaurant is located in one of the city's more upper-class districts. It is not a particularly heavily decorated restaurant, and it lacks a bit for ambience. They lower their prices from Sunday to Thursday and at all times for students. I had an avocado hosomaki, a salmon hosomaki, a butterfish sashimi and a "Soleil levant" (rising sun) maki, which is made with scallop tartare, mango, apple, orange, avocado, lettuce, honey, tobiko and sesame seeds. They also gave me three extra pieces of avocado, which was nice. The next time my friend and I eat there, we will probably share a dish filled with makis chosen by the chef.

The Way You Look Tonight

Yet another old movie. Love with the Proper Stranger, with Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen. I had been curious to know what Natalie Wood looked like, because Lorelai Gilmore gets compared to her at one point. Well, Natalie Wood is so beautiful, she literally made me look twice at the screen the first time I saw her. She's got incredible eyes. I think she looks more like Amy Acker than Lauren Graham, though. Steve McQueen is supposed to be the prince of cool or something. Physically, he is not really my type, but he does have some attitude. The movie is about Natalie Wood getting pregnant with Steve McQueen out of wedlock. It gives us a look at Italian inmigrants in New York and at how difficult it must have been to get an abortion in the 60s. We also see gow chaotic Macy's seems to be in that time. I've never been to the one in New York, but as I recall, Macy's is kind of on the down low. The music of the movie is pretty wonderful: I found it really old-timey. Natalie Wood has a crazy breakdown just when she is about to get the abortion. It also gets pretty dramatic in one scene where Natalie Wood invites Steve McQueen to dinner. Just before that scene, there is a weird moment where Natalie Wood tries to cover her cleavage. The end of the movie is pretty cute.

Face aux étoiles

One of my Christmas gifts to F was Enki Bilal's latest, La couleur de l'air (the color of air). It is the last of a trilogy. F later bought the first book, Animal'z. I had already read it before, and I reread it after reading La couleur de l'air. I'll start with Animal'z.

The title of the book is related to a few of the characters who can hybridate themselves with animals using packs of some sort. The technology is the product of Ferdinand Owles' research, one of many characters who are all attempting to find safe haven after a planetary event, the "coup de sang" (blood hit). The hybrids aren't the most interesting characters, though: there is a guy who says mostly interesting quotes from famous people who is involved in some kind of duel and there are also cannibals.

La couleur de l'air reunites the reader with characters from the first two books from the trilogy, Animal'z and Julia et Roem, and new characters appear as well. Since I read La couleur de l'air first and had read Animal'z a while ago, I didn't remember the characters from the first book too well. The end ofthe trilogy is pretty surprising and sends a powerful environmental message. I read a review that said the characters lacked emotion, but I believe it is because they are all on a survival mode.

Bilal's drawings, as usual, are very anatomical, and he still uses a lot of blue. At some points in the third book, there are more colors, and those moments are pretty striking. I will be getting the missing second book soon.

Starlight

Last week F and I decided to get a reservation to that restaurant we had a gift certificate for. We took the reservation for last night. The gift certificate was for the Ciel! restaurant (Sky!). It is the restaurant that took the place of the old turning restaurant of Quebec, ehich had existed for some time. This is the kind of view you can get from the restaurant:

F and I started with a white wine frim St-Sévère, in Quebec. It was surprisingly good, light and refreshing. I then had smoked salmon on a blini with blood pudding sauce. There was a lot of smoked salmon, so that was a definite plus. The blood pudding sauce qas also excellent. It was a bit unexpected with smoked salmon, but it worked well together. The blini was a bit big, though. F had mackerel gravlax: his portion was smaller than mine, and it was a bit too spicy for him. He got to compensate with the next course, though: cheese. It might be unsusal to have cheese as a second course, but oh well, the Gilmores have it with cocktails. (I am rewatching "Gilmore Girls" on Netflix, in case you were wondering.) We told the waitress we would like three pieces of cheese, anything but blue cheese. She didn't tell us what we got, but she said they served a lot of cheese from the Charlevoix area, not too far from Quebec City. The cheese was great, even though we didn't know what we were having, and it was served with beets and candied nuts. I believe there was a bit of ginger in the nuts. We also got warm bread at that point. Some critics say warm bread is a restaurant gimmick, but it is always appreciated. 

By the time we were done with the cheese, we were also done with the wine, so F had a beer from the Sherbrooke area, we believe, and I had a cocktail, the Général Montcalm. It was made with bourbon, maple syrup, lemon juice mint and apple juice. Judging by the ingredients, I thought the cocktail would be pretty similar to the one I had at L'Atelier, except for the apple juice. Well, the apple juice complemented the bourbon nicely. It made the cocktail sweeter, but I could still taste the bourbon. The drink was surprisingly refreshing for a bourbon cocktail.

For the main course, I had wild boar osso buco with beans, kale and orrecchietes, which are round pasta. That dish is usually served with rapinis instead of kale, but the kale was fine. The meat had a pretty strong taste. The sauce was great and tasted of herbs I couldn't manage to identify. There was a bit too much pasta for the amount of meat, but the whole dish was quite a satisfying portion.

After our main courses, F and I were too full for dessert, so that will be for another time. I would perhaps come back there in the day, to have a different view. However, it isn't a restaurant I will be going to regularly, because it was a bit expensive. The rhythm of the service is nice, though, for an evening when you want to take your time. A reservation is probaby essential, because we went there on a Sunday, which is usually a slower night, and there was a good amount of people, especially for a January night, when less people go into restaurants. Perhaps it will be less crowded as  the "new restaurant" factor fades out.

Rock And Roll Music

I watched another old movie recently: Teacher's Pet. It is with Clark Gable and Doris Day. I had only seen Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind, and I had never seen Doris Day. Clark Gable makes a lot of funny faces in Teacher's Pet. The movie is a romantic comedy, but it manages to talk about serious topics, such as education and journalism. I enjoyed this movie more than Houseboat.

Almost In Your Arms

I watched Houseboat a few days ago. I like watching old movies, especially ones with Cary Grant. I find him incredibly charming and surprisingly funny. With this movie, though, he didn't have much to work with. The premise of the movie is a bit ridiculous: the character played by Cary Grant, Tom Winters, and his kids decide to move into a guesthouse next to Winters' deceased wife's sister. The guesthouse gets moved around by a truck, and the truck stops right smack in the middle of some train tracks because the truck driver is mesmerized by Sophia Loren's beauty. A train wrecks the guesthouse, and so the Winters family moves into a houseboat. Every character in the movie has a weird tan. The movie is cute enough, but I look forward to some better Cary Grant movies.

All of the Lights

This weekend, I went to L'Atelier for a friend's birthday. It is a restaurant that specializes in cocktails and in fish and meat tartare. I started with a Kentucky Lime, a drink made with Old Forester bourbon, lime, maple syrup and cinnamon bitters. I tried it at first without any lime and it tasted strongly of cinnamon, but once I put some lime in, it became much more enjoyable. I then had tomato and red pepper soup. I love tomato soup, even though some people think eating tomato soup is like eating spaghetti sauce. For my entree, I chose a salmon tartare with lobster oil. I had a choice of fries or salad. I went with the salad, and they gave me a huge portion. The people who had chosen the fries didn't get many of them. The other cocktail I had was made with Beefeater 24 gin, apricot juice, green cardamon, lemon, simple syrup and soda. It was good, but I preferred the Kentucky Lime. I had a fun evening, but in my opinion, the restaurant is a bit too expensive.

Comfortably Numb

For Christmas, F and I got a gift certificate for a recently opened restaurant, so we wanted to go there this week. We decided to simply show up there, knowing that we wouldn't mind eating at the bar if ever the restaurant was full. Unfortunately, the whole place had been taken up by a group, so we went to our go-to restaurant, La Souche. It is one of my favorite places in Quebec. They brew their own beer and make great food with ingredients bought locally. The name of the place means "the stump", and a lot of the tables are made with parts of tree stumps. As for the food, there are new specials every week. During the winter, one of the specials is usually a comforting stew. That is what I took, and this week it was a pork stew with cranberries, camembert and aragula. Adding cheese to a stew makes it a bit intense, but since it wasn't a very strong cheese, i.e. camembert, it was okay. The cranberries were a nice touch, especially since the holidays are not that far behind us. The stew usually comes with some nice, hot bread. F had a burger, and since I am addicted to La Souche's fries with mayo, I pretty much wiped those out.

Search and Destroy

I watched Vi är bäst!, a Swedish movie about three young girls starting a punk band in the 80s. Nothing much happens in the first half of the movie. Things pick up when two of the girls decide to cut the third girl's hair. I don't watch movies in Scandinavian languages very often, so hearing some Swedish was fun. Throughout the movie, we hear old Swedish punk, and some of it sounds pretty good.

Knights of Cydonia

I finally finished the whole Dragonball series. It was a very satisfying read. I had mostly read the earlier volumes as a child and I was afraid that the series would get less funny once Sangoku would start fighting aliens, but that didn't happen. I think Sangoku is a great childhood hero. He always goes further in his training, and he makes you want to take up martial arts. My favorite characters aside from him are Tenshinhan, Piccolo and Vegeta. I like characters who have been enemies before becoming allies. The last arc is a bit ridiculous, and it is sometimes tiring to see the characters rely so heavily on the Dragon Balls, the senzus and new incredible levels of training, but all in all, I had a really great time reading these books.

Go Hard

This weekend, I watched The Man with the Iron Fists. It was entertaining enough, but it had quite a few flaws. The action starts to slow down when the movie starts to show where the character played by RZA comes from. The directing gets weird at the end, with the screen separating itself. The concept of mixing martial arts and hip-hop together could have been pushed further. In the first half of the movie, a lot of battle scenes are acted out to hip-hop music, but in the second half, there are fewer battle scenes, and the ones remaining are acted out to an anonymous score. The portrayal of women in this movie is pretty bad. It was also bizarre to hear Asian actors speak with such strong American accents. The bloody scenes can get really gross. So, quite a few flaws.

A Beautiful Mine

Yesterday F and I didn't feel like eating at home, so we went out to Charbon Steakhouse. We have been there a few times already. It is a bit expensive, but the portions are enormous and they give you plenty of freebies, so it is all worth it. This is the second time we have taken the soup of the day as a starter, and they are pretty good with their soups. This time, it was carrot, turnip, maple syrup and some spice which the waiter couldn't remember. It comes in a really huge dish! Afterwards I had an 8 oz filet mignon with parmesan fries and a truffle mayo. I usually don't like truffles, but I always order those fries, even though I have to pay a little extra. The last time, I had taken an 10 oz steak and it was too much, so I reduced my steak's size a bit, but I think I will have to reduce it once again next time. They simply give you too much food. We managed to cram in a bit of dessert. I had a maple crème brûlée, which was delicious, but it became impossible for me to finish it. All in all, I would gladly return there, but I would order less food. I love this place because of its coziness: it is full of dark corners and red velvet and it looks just like the kind of place where Roger Sterling and Don Draper would have a lengthy lunch (yes, "Mad Men" once again).

Ashes to Ashes

It has been a bit more than four years since I wrote my last blog post. I won't be going to school for this winter semester, and so I have decided to start blogging again. As my old readers know (if there are any of them left), the subjects I used to cover were books, CDs, movies, TV shows, and restaurants/bars. Since my last blog post, I have had less and less time to read books, my music listening goes in phases (there are phases where I am listening to a lot of new music, and phases where I am listening to anything much), Netflix has become a fixture in my life, and I have moved to Quebec City where I try to convince my boyfriend F to try out new restaurants with me. I will continue to cover the same subjects, although the proportions in which they are covered in my blog might vary from their previous proportions.

For my first blog post of 2015, I have decided to talk about the movies I have watched in 2014. I used to feel guilty about watching so many movies, as I could be doing better things with my time, but I watched "Mad Men"'s second season over again this year and when some woman asks Don Draper what he likes in life, he answers "Movies". So now I don't feel guilty about matching so many movies, because it is something I truly love to do (yes, Don Draper has that much influence on me). Here are the movies I watched this year that have left a strong impression on me. Some were seen in theaters, others not. They are listed in the order in which I watched them:

Edge of Tomorrow: A good action/sci-fi movie, with just enough romance. I still love Tom Cruise, even though everybody hates him.

Starship Troopers: F made me watch this cult movie. I wasn't expecting much, but I liked it a lot. A lot of meaning can be given to this movie, but I enjoyed it as a simple action movie... my bad.

Boyhood: I was born a bit earlier than the protagonist, but this movie still made me incredibly nostalgic. The soundtrack is perfect: for every year depicted, the one hit of the year was chosen. I laughed out loud alone when "Soulja Boy" came on. We can also see the evolution of technology, which is pretty interesting.

Lars and the Real Girl: This movie made me long for a community.

La Vie d'Adèle: Chapitres 1 et 2: Probably overhyped, but the reunion scene made me cry, it looked so real.

Mommy: Our own Quebec genius' last movie. His directing didn't make me cringe anymore, and I was genuinely troubled at the end of the movie. The only movie of his that I haven't watched yet is Tom à la ferme. He really gets better with each movie. He's like Sangoku in that way (I am reading all of the Dragonball series currently. It was my Christmas gift from F. So romantic, haha. I will probably be doing a blog post on that subject when I am done).

Superbad: A great comedy.

On the Road: I am probably losing all credibility as a girl who likes books here. At least, the movie made me want to get back to reading Beats books. It is a very classical movie, nothing earth-shattering. Diarios de Motocicleta by the same director is one of my favorite movies. I also like Garrett Hedlund a lot, mainly because of TRON: Legacy.

Gone Girl: I am including this movie because it was one of the hyped movies of the year, but I mainly enjoyed it as a thriller, nothing more, really. The movie is pretty pessimistic about couples.

Zoolander: Another great comedy.

Interstellar: This movie had me watching with mouth agape and made me want to watch it again immediately with subtitles to better understand the parts where they talk about physics. I liked it better than Inception. Some people say that the love theory in the movie is ridiculous, but it perfectly appeals to sentimental girls like me.

Dazed and Confused: At first, I was thinking "Ok, yet another early Richard Linklater movie with a lack of structure". However, the movie got better as it went on and at the end, I was completely charmed by Linklater's portrayal of youth. This is the third movie of his to make it into my pretty exclusive list of favorite movies (mainly movies I could watch over and over again), along with Before Sunset and The School of Rock.

The Rock: Another cult movie F made me watch, another time where I didn't have much expectations. In the end, a very enjoyable thriller, with Nicolas Cage making you wonder whether he is a good actor or a completely ridiculous one.

Laurence Anyways: The third movie by Quebec genius Xavier Dolan. I didn't like the first part much, the directing was really hectic, but I guess that matched one of the characters' state of mind. It is a very long movie, but it didn't make me cringe as much as his two first movies, and it made me even more convinced of the importance of subventions for culture. We need subventions, so that movies like these can be made, so that people can feel less alone. Namely, the movie makes you realize that when some of the most important relationships in your life go awry, you are not the only person to whom this happens.