Turnip Farm

I went to see Jurassic World. There were some moments that made it seem promising. Some moments made me jump out of my seat a bit. However, the tame Velociraptors and the final fight are simply too ridiculous. The movie also definitely lacked a Jeff Goldblum-like character pondering on the meaning of life.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

After going to Decca 77, I went to see U2. It was something I wanted to do once in my lifetime. I used to listen to U2 a lot when I was younger. I haven't listened to their more recent albums that much, but I do have the latest one on my Apple devices, as all Apple users do. The songs from that album weren't that bad. They played a lot of them in the show, along with some classics like "Pride (In the Name of Love)". "Sunday Bloody Sunday" was a strong moment, with lights the color of the Irish flag:

There was a fair bit of technology in the show. There was a huge rectangular screen in which Bono could walk and images would go around him. Bono still has a great voice, and yes he talks a lot about global causes, and The Edge is pretty cool. I am glad I got to see this show.

New Year's Day

I got tickets for U2 for June 12th because June 13th is my sister's birthday. Unfortunately, we had another family gathering on the 13th. My mom decided to make a reservation on the 12th at a restaurant near the Bell Center, Decca 77. They are used to having people who go to shows after eating, so they had a special pre-event menu. I had already been to the restaurant a few times before, and I had found it okay, not particularly remarkable. Now that I had a taste of their pre-event menu, I am even less impressed. I ordered an heirloom tomato salad as an appetizer. I thought it would be fresh and simple, but my dish was really busy, with a lot of ingredients in it. There were also blobs of a mayonnaise-like sauce. For my entree, I had fish, which I thought would be light, but there were also blobs of sauce around it and it also had too many different ingredients around it. The dessert was okay, especially because it involved rhubarb, which is in season. If I ever go back to the Bell Center, I would try to find another restaurant near it.

High and Dry

Last week, a friend form Alma was in town, so I invited him to join F, A and I at a restaurant I had been meaning to try for some time, La Gueule de bois. I had seen this restaurant a while ago when I had walked past it, but other than that, I had never heard about it. It looked like a nice place, though, and sure enough, it was. However, there weren't that many people for a Thursday night, which was a bit of a shame, but that also meant the restaurant didn't get too stuffy. For my appetizer, I had their homemade blood pudding with scallops. The chuck of blood pudding was huge. I don't order scallops very often, but each time I get them, I am reminded of how delicious they are. My entree was fresh pasta with shrimps and rabbit. To have shrimp and rabbit in one dish was a bit intense, but it was delicious. The rabbit wasn't too salty, as it usually is. I had cheesecake for dessert. It was one of the smoothest cheesecakes I have ever had. All in all, F found the restaurant to be a bit too expensive for what it was, but I believe the price was right enough. My friend from Alma liked the restaurant a lot, too. His biggest complaint was that they didn't have any local beer, which they should since there a lot of microbreweries near the restaurant.

Cruel World

I went to Lana del Rey's show last Thursday. I didn't get tickets for it myself since it was a school night, but my sister got me some tickets for Christmas.

Grimes was on stage for the first part of the show. I haven't listened to her album that much, but I only recognized one of the songs (an article about the show I read later only talked about two songs from her album). Apparently she is releasing another album soon, so she must be testing her new songs. Her performance wasn't really appropriate for the Bell Center, though. It was too concentrated on one part of the stage. There were also weird dancers all around her. Since Grimes is from Montreal, it made me think that maybe she only called up some of her friends so that they could dance around her on stage.

As for Lana del Rey's performance, well, it wasn't exactly the best show I have ever seen. She didn't talk that much, but she smiled a lot. She went down into the public and brought back some gifts on stage, among which there was a Canadian flag. She didn't do any encores, either, and the show was finished after an hour and a half. She seems to rely a bit too much on her pre-recorded voice, or maybe that's just my imagination. At one point, she held the microphone towards the public but I could still hear her singing. Perhaps I was mistaken and it was the public singing, because everybody seemed to know all the lyrics. In general, her songs varied just enough from the album versions so that there could be doubt whether she was lipsynching or not. The videos playing behind her were a bit too self-indulgent, with lots of footage of herself and of American flags.

I had forgotten about the possibility that she might do her Leonard Cohen cover in Montreal. I really hope she will record it someday, as "Chelsea Hotel #2" is such a great song. Besides songs from her albums (mostly singles from Born to Die and Ultraviolence), she also played a song called "Us Against the World" which I liked a lot, "Serial Killer" which is a little bit more of a minor song, and she covered a Peggy Lee song in a pretty jazzy way.

Perhaps I would see her again in Quebec City with some friends, but I don't think I will be going back to Montreal to see her.