My Pop Culture

Appassionata

2010-12-11T11:12:00.003-05:00

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

2010-11-28T15:05:00.005-05:00

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

2010-11-21T20:59:00.002-05:00

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

2010-11-02T10:24:00.002-04:00

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

2010-10-31T20:30:00.003-04:00

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)

2010-09-27T08:59:00.003-04:00

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

2010-09-14T01:58:00.004-04:00

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

2010-09-09T19:16:00.004-04:00

(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

2010-09-08T16:13:00.003-04:00

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)

2010-08-16T11:55:00.001-04:00

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

2010-08-01T11:52:00.003-04:00

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

2010-06-25T13:41:00.002-04:00

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

2010-05-16T13:44:00.001-04:00

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

2010-04-17T17:24:00.003-04:00

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

2010-04-16T00:57:00.007-04:00

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

2010-03-20T17:05:00.002-04:00

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

2010-03-14T22:36:00.003-04:00

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

2010-02-10T22:53:00.006-05:00

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

2010-01-26T22:15:00.003-05:00

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

2010-01-24T15:17:00.003-05:00

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

2010-01-12T22:08:00.000-05:00

Are you more failblog.org or fmylife.com?

Fight the Power

2010-01-07T15:35:00.005-05:00

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

2010-01-06T01:30:00.007-05:00

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.

Come As You Are

2009-12-08T23:28:00.006-05:00

I read two other Nick Hornby books recently. The first one is About a Boy. I liked the movie better than the book. (And, as you know, I preferred the written version of High Fidelity to its filmed one.) The end of the book is pretty different from the end of the movie. I liked the bit where Marcus, one of the main protagonists, says that it doesn't really matter who are the people who back you up, as long as they're there.

The other one is The Polysyllabic Spree. It's a collection of essays which Hornby wrote for a magazine. The essays are about the books he reads and buys. He buys a shitload of books, and he makes me want to buy a lot, too. I love to read his views on reading. Reading fills me with despair too, sometimes.

I'm done with Nick Hornby for now. He makes me want to read Dickens... We'll see how that goes.

On an entirely other subject, I also saw The Ugly Truth recently. It was so bad. Katherine Heigl plays an uptight bitch, and Gerard Butler is very disappointing.

Analyse

2009-11-18T01:46:00.005-05:00

Movies, movies, movies! And why not add in a theme: the movies I have seen these past few days are all about playing games. Playing games with people, with love, with magic.

Dangerous Liaisons (1988): An adaptation of a French classic directed by Stephen Frears, who also did High Fidelity and The Queen. The novel was written in 1782, so I assume the movie takes place around that time, and boy did they have fun with sex in that time... more than one would perhaps expect them to. Basically, the main protagonists are thoroughly bored with their lives, and so they play around with other people in very intricate ways. The cast includes Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Uma Thurman and the very comical Keanu Reeves... though perhaps this effect was not intentional. His voice has probably deepened with the years, is what must have happened.

Jeux d'enfants (2003): A French film by Yann Samuell... What a weird movie. A boy and a girl have been daring each other to do numerous things all throughout their lives. The game is pure fun at first, but as they grow older, the consequences pile up. They play with each other, they love each other, and they hurt each other. Some of the events that occur in the movie are very twisted indeed, and the ending is surprising to say the least. At some points in the movie, it becomes difficult to tell what is reality and what isn't. It stars Guillaume Canet, who is rather easy on the eyes, and Marion Cotillard. I do not especially like this actress, but her beauty is made evident throughout the film. I usually love French movies, but I have to admit I am not sure what to think of this film, what with its vision of absolute love. Also, the characters, in their younger selves as well as in their older ones, talk especially fast, and with that French accent...

There is a passage in which the male character describes what his life is like now that he is 35 years old. It is not easy to separate the French language from this description, so I will leave the original description here, but I will attempt a translation:

"Je vous présente ma vie vers 35 ans. J’avais tout. Une femme, deux enfants, trois potes, 4 crédits, 5 semaines de vacances, 6 ans dans la même boîte, 7 fois mon poids en matériel hi-fi, 8 coïts conjugaux par trimestre, 9 fois le tour de la terre en emballages plastiques, couvercles de polystyrène et autres packaging alimentaires non biodégradables, et 10 ans sans voir mon père. Le bonheur. La panoplie du parfait tyran dont j’avais rêvé toute mon enfance."

"I present to you my life towards 35 years old. I had everything. One wife, two kids, three friends, four credit cards, five vacation weeks, six years at the same office, seven times my weight in electronic devices, eight marital fucks per trimester, nine times the Earth's orbit in plastic wrappings, styrofoam lids and other non recyclable materials, and ten years without seeing my father. Perfect happiness. The perfect despot panoply I had dreamed of my whole childhood."

The Prestige (2006): Illusionists are a weakness of mine. In that effect, a movie about illusionists is irresistible to me. Add in a dream cast and I'm done. The cast comprises Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Piper Perabo (in a small role, but she is lovely as always), David Bowie, Andy Serkis (who provides an enjoyable performance, even without being computer-modified), Michael Caine, and Rebecca Hall (her performance in Vicky Christina Barcelona seems to be often overlooked, but it was the most memorable thing about this Woody Allen flick). There is also Scarlett Johansson, but I don't like her that much. The Prestige is the story of the rivalry between two illusionists and how they keep sabotaging each other. I was disappointed at one point of the movie when real magic is introduced, but the final and immensely satisfying twist soon reminded me that I was watching a Christopher Nolan film. And, at the end, when the greatest magician is revealed... there are no more arguments left.

Christopher Nolan also made two of my favorite films, Memento and The Dark Knight. I can't wait to see his next movie, Inception, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Ken Watanabe. It was also supposed to star James Franco, but I guess that didn't happen.

Baby, I Love Your Way

2009-11-15T16:34:00.004-05:00

I hadn't enjoyed the movie High Fidelity as much as I thought I would. The book, however, is great. I cannot decide whether this is a guy book or whether this is a girly book written by a guy. Apparently, guys worry about a lot of things too. The book is often very funny: the "I haven't seen Reservoir Dogs yet" passage is hilarious. There is a sad moment when the main protagonist is about to finally reacquaint himself physically with his ex, and all he can think about is whether they have protection or not, because she has been with another man. I also like this passage very much: "People worry about kids playing with guns, and teenagers watching violent videos; we are scared that some sort of culture of violence is taking over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands - literally thousands - of songs about broken hearts and rejection and pain and misery and loss."

You Keep Me Hangin' On

2009-11-03T23:26:00.001-05:00

The other night, my family and I went to one of Montreal's best "bring your own wine" restaurants. It is called La Colombe and the waiters were very efficient, but perhaps that was only because they wanted to have a second service. As an appetizer, I had a salmon mousse, which sounds really weird but it was actually pretty good. My entree was lamb, and it was great except for the sauce, which was a bit too dark. We finished off with a nice chocolatey dessert, along with cream. I would give it 7/10.

Stadium Love

2009-10-25T19:00:00.004-04:00

I went to the Metric concert on September 17 at Metropolis. It was cool. The Stills were the opening, and they were okay. Metric's show was a lot about the lighting effects and the long, weird instrumentals with lots of synths. Not sure that's what the fans wanted, but it was interesting. Honestly though, once you've seen Karen O, no other indie songstress makes the cut.

Dancer

2009-10-17T15:19:00.002-04:00

My friend and I developed a taste for vegan restaurants during our trip across Canada, so we decided to go try another one out in Montreal with one of our friends. It is called "Aux Vivres", and it is on St. Laurent St. It was so good! I had tomato and cumin soup, a Thai bowl with brown rice, bok choy, grilled tofu, peanuts and peanut butter sauce, fresh apple juice, and a huge piece of chocolate and apple cake. The servings are pretty big and very satisfying!

This Fire

2009-10-15T14:07:00.004-04:00

Craig Ferguson's autobiography American on Purpose came out on September 22nd. It is a very enjoyable read, and one can easily recognize Craig's humor throughout the book. Fans of his show have already heard a lot of his stories, but it is still a joy to be reacquainted with them. In the first part, Craig tells us of his childhood in his native unforgiving Scotland and of a few people who have greatly influenced his life, including his parents and his relatives living in New York. It makes one realize that, throughout life, we meet a lot of interesting people who become important to us. Later on, Craig recalls his days of drinking and of moving through the punk and stand-up comedy scenes. This includes his getting acquainted with the women involved in those scenes (man, he was a STUD!). After getting past drinking, Craig then moves on to his incredible journey through the show business world of America. He started with many crap jobs, wrote a novel and a few movies along the way, and ended up getting, against all odds, the position of late night talk show host on CBS. A lot of elements of this read make it highly inspirational, but they can all be summarized with this one sentence from the book: "Between safety and adventure, I choose adventure."

Don't Stop Believing

2009-09-30T20:06:00.006-04:00

Yay, TV is back amongst the subjects discussed on this blog! And yes, I'm on the "Glee" bandwagon. Who doesn't love to watch other people indulging in the joys of show choir? The dialogs are also often hilarious. I am presently waiting for it to start. After a so-so third episode, last week's episode was very strong. The scene between the poster gay character and his dad was pretty powerful, and the Quinn pregnancy thing is seriously messed up. Also, there was a pretty great moment in the episode, which starts a bit after 1:32 in the video embedded below:

I might comment on tonight's episode later. On another note, the soundtrack to Where The Wild Things Are is now streaming online, and I'm loving it. Of course I do: it is, after all, Karen O! The movie looks like a real tearjerker... I'll be waiting for it!

That Time

2009-09-20T12:50:00.005-04:00

I went to see Regina Spektor last Thursday at the Metropolis. It was a pretty great concert. Little Joy opened, they were cool. Regina was onstage for approximatively an hour and a half, but it felt longer, perhaps due to the nature of her songs. This is by no means a bad thing. She had three musicians with her: a drummer, an Asian violonist and an Asian cellist, who were awesome :D They stayed onstage for the first part of the concert, and after that it was only Regina and her piano or her guitar. In the first part of the concert, she played "Eet", which was one of the better moments of the concert. "On The Radio" was also awesome. She took out her aqua guitar for "Bobbing for Apples" and "That Time". "Après Moi" made me want her to sing in Russian far more often. For "Poor Little Rich Boy", she had a wooden chair next to the piano and was hitting on it with a stick all while playing. We thought the stick would break, but it made it. The encore was so great. She played "Samson", "Us", "Fidelity", "Hotel Song" and "Love, You're a Whore". I was waiting for "Hotel Song" during the whole concert and I finally got it! "Love, You're a Whore" was a country-like song, very fun. She played 23 songs in total, and the only song from Far that she didn't play was "Genius Next Door". Here is the complete setlist:

The Calculation

Eet

Folding Chair

Ode to Divorce

Machine

Laughing With

One More Time with Feeling

Blue Lips

Two Birds

On The Radio

Dance Anthem of the 80's

Bobbing For Apples

That Time

Après Moi

Poor Little Rich Boy

Wallet

Human of the Year

Man Of A Thousand Faces

Encore:

Samson

Fidelity

Hotel Song

Love, You're a Whore

Your Honor

2009-09-13T12:22:00.004-04:00

I saw The Reader and it was pretty good. However, I find it hard to believe that the main character's teenage experience would have such an important impact on the rest of his life. This movie made me think, here is yet another movie on what Jews went through in the Second World War, and it still is as horrible as ever. They are perfectly entitled to their anger, but for how long can they get away with it?

Temptation

2009-09-05T12:18:00.003-04:00

I've read Trainspotting and I loved it. The book is pretty different from the movie, as the story does not focus around Renton and involves many other characters. To read this book, you have to be prepared to reading English written in the Scottish accent. I enjoyed reading about the lives of those petty criminals, seeing them deal with depression, learning about their views of the world and finding myself agreeing with them. The book, written by Irvine Welsh, is also really funny at times.

The Calculation

2009-08-28T17:43:00.004-04:00

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

2009-08-12T00:24:00.002-04:00

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

2009-08-09T13:38:00.004-04:00

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

2009-08-07T00:58:00.007-04:00

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!

Stay

2009-07-11T15:41:00.003-04:00

Movies I saw recently:

Star Trek - Yep, finally saw it. It was okay. Very sci-fi.

Reality Bites - A very cute 1994 movie directed by Ben Stiller. He plays in it, alongside Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke. Love triangle, sexual tension, and so on.

Public Enemies - I understood very little of this movie. I'll leave it at that.

Sapphire

2009-07-09T00:22:00.003-04:00

I met Alex McCurdy last summer in France. He released a little while ago an album on MySpace. You can listen to it here. It is not for the casual listener. It requires you to listen to every single word that is said, or else it just sounds like crazy stuff. An attentive listen, though, is rewarding. Lyrics aside, the music itself is very interesting. These guys are obviously having fun with their instruments, and they are coming up with pretty cool things. Alex also does some solo work that can be found here. Those songs are more melodic. The "Knock, Knock" song is HILARIOUS. He is also a poet. I strongly recommend the "Alex Show" series.

It Takes Two

2009-06-27T14:01:00.005-04:00

My first summer movie was The Proposal. (I still haven't seen Star Trek.) It was okay. What can I say? It was a romantic comedy. Some things were really bad about this movie, but overall, it was okay. Sandra Bullock didn't really do it for me, but Ryan Reynolds is seriously awesome. And Betty White is pretty cool, too.

Cool Scene

2009-06-20T15:17:00.002-04:00

We went to a typical French restaurant yesterday. It is called Beaver Hall and it is located in the business center of Montreal. It's not that expensive, and they serve just the right amount of food. The maître d' was really nice. He offered us a glass of white wine. Both that wine and the one he suggested us for the rest of the evening were delicious. I ordered a fish soup yet again, and the fish of the day. The fish soup was very satisfying, as always. The fish of the day was halibut served with cherry tomatoes, and it was also very good. For dessert, I got chocolate mousse and it was great. Before leaving, we grabbed some apples that were displayed at the door for us to take. All in all, a very enjoyable restaurant.

Just A Girl

2009-06-18T00:29:00.006-04:00

No Doubt is one of the first "alternative" bands I ever listened to. So when I heard they were coming at the Bell Centre in Montreal, I thought, why not?

The opening acts were Bedouin Soundclash and Paramore. Bedouin Soudclash was okay, but the crowd didn't show much interest: after all, they had come to see No Doubt. Paramore has a lot of energy, the girl has a great voice (the red hair really works for her), but their songs are really ordinary. Haley, the singer, obviously loves what she's doing and communicates a lot with her public. She can easily summon the crowd to do whatever she wants. Gwen Stefani visibly has more experience, but Haley doesn't lack anything much for a performer.

I have to say, though: Gwen Stefani is still a hell of a performer. She had everybody dancing during nearly two hours. The concert got a little emotional when she started singing "Running". The most exciting moment for me was when they played "Just A Girl". It seemed to be an anthem for many people in the crowd. "Just A Girl" was the last song they played before returning for an encore with three songs. On the second one, Paramore came back on the stage, and Haley sang along with Gwen Stefani. It was a pretty great sight.

Gwen Stefani tried to interact with her audience as much as possible. She let a girl come onstage to take a picture, she made everyone sing "Happy Birthday" for several of her acquaintances and she came down to sing right next to some the members of the audience.

The stage was entirely white, and most of the crew wore white too. The drumset was in the middle. This is what it looked like:

Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)

2009-06-13T11:15:00.003-04:00

My friend had seen an ad for an aperitivo Italy-style taking place in a lounge in Old Montreal. It started at 5, so while we were waiting for it we went to see the free "Imagine" exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts. "Imagine" is Yoko Ono's project. A lot has been said already on this exhibition on other friends's blogs: the tiny "Yes" written up high, the all-white chess games... The exhibition was OK. I liked the fact that we had to go through heavy black curtains before entering a room, so that the next room in our wandering remained a surprise. The first rooms I found to be a bit small, so I felt a bit claustrophobic. Plus, there were still a lot of people at the exhibition, even though it has been in Montreal for some time now, so that didn't help. My favorite room was the one with the numerous TVs all showing John Lennon chanting "Give Peace a Chance" and the multiple exclamation points in the backgroung. I also liked hearing "Imagine" as I entered an entirely white room. It remains a very powerful song. I believe that, after all, it is John Lennon's music that stays with me the most, even before his philanthropy. I'll say one last thing: it is a lot more complicated to play with an entirely white chess game than it sounds.

Afterwards, we went to the aperitivo. However, it was nothing like in Rome, where all you had to do was buy one drink and you had access to an all-you-can-eat buffet. We got very little food. Waiters came by offering us small apetizers, but the quantity was very unsatisfying. However, I had a very interesting drink. It is called a clear sangria: fizzy wine, peach schnapps, white cranberry juice, and fresh blueberries and raspberries. It was funny because we clearly were out of place at that lounge. We were dressed way too casually, for starters. The crowd mainly comprised of businessmen in suits. I'm not sure I even understand what a businessman is. Also, they all seemed to know each other, which was kind of weird. Anyway, we had a fun time.

Add It Up

2009-06-04T01:33:00.006-04:00

I stumbled upon a partial list of summer releases on moviefone.com and it inspired me to write a list of the movies I would like to see in theaters this summer. I will probably get to see about only two of them, as I really don't go to the theater that often. These choices are mostly based on casting, but I will likely be influenced by the reviews that will be published when these movies actually come out. Surprisingly, there are two rom-coms and one romantic movie in this list, although I usually despise those particular movies. Anyway, here goes the list:

The Brothers Bloom - Adrien Brody and Rachel Weisz? Oh, yeah. My local anglo paper gave it a warm review, whereas my franco paper gave it 2 1/2 stars out of 5. However, I hate the particular critic who gave this rating, and so I am choosing to ignore her opinion.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - This is a no-brainer.

The Proposal - I used to love Sandra Bullock when I was young, and Two Weeks Notice is a great guilty pleasure. Also, Ryan Reynolds is kind of cute.

The Ugly Truth - OK, Katherine Heigl seems like a real bitch, but I loved her in "Roswell". And Gerard Butler isn't too shabby, either.

The Time Traveler's Wife - The book was OK. There is a high possibility this movie will suck, but... yay for Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana. (Just so we're clear, I hated The Notebook, but I liked McAdams in The Family Stone and in Mean Girls.)

Year One - Olivia Wilde? She's pretty to look at. Michael Cera? So. Cute. Jack Black? Hell yes!

Public Enemies - I don't like Johnny Depp so much but... Christian Bale!! He might be a jerk, but... it's Christian Bale!! I'm not so familiar with Michael Mann's work, but I watched Collateral, which he directed, and I liked it.

There's also a Sarah Michelle Gellar movie that looks pretty good and that is due in 2009, but there is no release date as of yet.

AND, I have yet to watch Star Trek! Urrgh!!!

Something

2009-06-02T00:20:00.004-04:00

This Side of Paradise was published in 1920. It is F. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel. The main character is Amory Blaine, a handsome young lad who is a passionate man in general, and who is particularly passionate about poetry. He spends the first years of his life very comfortably, for his father does not lack money. His sole company is that of his mother, who is a fascinating woman, to say the least. He then goes to boarding school, where he prepares himself to life in Princeton. Along the way, he makes a few friends and meets a few girls. Towards the end of his studies, Worl War I begins and Amory is enrolled in the army. His military career does not last long, however, and does not seem to have any great impact on him. After the war, he meets the love of his life, only to lose her after a few months. The only thing left for Amory is to try and find his place in the world.

This book is interesting because its main characters, if they truly existed, would probably annoy the hell out of me. The fact that they live in the 1920s, however, seems to make up for it. Also, F. Scott Fitzgerald's descriptions of female characters are simply extraordinary: they all seem like incredibly superficial creatures, yet they remain utterly irresistible...

Feel Good Hit of the Summer

2009-05-30T15:47:00.003-04:00

I've decided to write down a definitive reading list for the summer. Perhaps I am being too ambitious. My hope is that I am not ambitious enough. Some of these will take me longer than others... So here it is, more or less in order:

This Side of Paradise - F. Scott Fitzgerald: I am almost done with this one.

Into The Wild - Jon Krakauer

The Dharma Bums - Jack Kerouac

Huis clos - Jean-Paul Sartre

Nouvelles - Guy de Maupassant

Franny and Zooey - J. D. Salinger: This is a re-read.

Saga - Tonino Benacquista: Also a re-read. This is a French book about screenplay writers.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky: I saw this one in a bookstore at Heathrow and it looks interesting.

Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh

Middlemarch - George Eliot

The Diviners - Margaret Laurence: This was suggested to me by theoreo

Equus - Peter Shaffer

Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers: I want to buy this one.

White Teeth - Zadie Smith: I want to buy this one too.

Les Yeux Au Ciel

2009-05-28T02:03:00.005-04:00

The first time I saw Les Chansons d'Amour I liked the music, but I hated the story. The fact that I first watched it on a sucky TV probably contributed to my initial dismissal of the movie. However, rewatching it was quite delightful. The music was as beautiful as the first time, and I paid more attention to the story, which lead me to appreciate it more.

Les Chansons d'Amour can be translated as "Love Songs". It is a foreign movie, and it is a musical. This might send some people running for their lives, but they would perhaps be missing out on a nice experience. I like the style of this movie very much. If I were more familiar with old French movies, I could perhaps liken Les Chansons d'Amour to one of them. One of the things I like the most about Les Chansons d'Amour, however, is probably that it is first and foremost a way for me to revisit my beloved Paris, a city that holds a very dear place in my heart.

This movie deals with how people react to the death of a loved one. Throughout the movie, many memorable musical moments can be enjoyed. The music is very simple, but it does not lack modernity. In fact, some of the more tragic moments remind me of Placebo, in all their Frenchness and anger. One of my favorite scenes is a duet between Louis Garrel and Clotilde Hesme (who I find very pretty and whose French accent is simply hilarious :P), where they are very intimate but never actually kiss, for they are too busy singing. Another great moment would be the musical duel that takes place between two of the main protagonists. One revels in amorous flings, and the other claims that such a lack of commitment can be tiresome. If you are interested in France at all, you should get your hands on this movie. :)

Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3

2009-05-26T00:55:00.005-04:00

I have just finished reading Songbook by Nick Hornby. Nick Hornby is a rather successful English writer. You know how High Fidelity and About a Boy are movies? Well, they were books before that, and they were written by Nick Hornby. I have seen High Fidelity and I adore About a Boy, but I have yet to read those two books. Songbook is the first Nick Hornby book I have read.

If you have seen or read High Fidelity, you know how important music is to this author. Songbook is a collection of essays about Nick Hornby's favorite songs. I know very few of the songs he speaks of, but this didn't keep me from enjoying the book. This is because Nick Hornby does not talk about the songs he loves only as pieces of music. What he does instead is he uses these songs to express his point of view on certain issues of life. He does not talk like a musical elitist and succeeds in remaining accessible. As I have said previously, this was my first encounter with Nick Hornby and I rather like his style of writing. Because he is a successful author, I expected his book to be an easy read. Songbook is not a difficult read, but Nick Hornby has a pretty extensive vocabulary and is a really precise writer. I will soon be reading his other books.

Shame and Fortune

2009-05-23T12:48:00.002-04:00

I went to an Indian restaurant last night. It is, I believe, the signature Indian restaurant in my town. It is right next to the mall, so everybody knows about it. It is called Le Tandoor, and it is a really good restaurant. We got samosas, chicken and beef vindaloo, tikka lamb, butter chicken, shrimp with spinach and naan (garlic and regular). I might be mistaken on some of the names. My personal favorite is the tikka lamb, which is barbecued lamb served with very tasty rice. The butter chicken is great too. However, we had to wait nearly an hour for our food...

Where The Wild Things Are

2009-05-21T00:51:00.004-04:00

The hype surrounding Patrick Watson has always kept me far away from him. However, the recent release of his second album Wooden Arms prompted me to give him a listen. I'm not all for the utterly unmanly voice, but this is, after all, some pretty cool music, with lots of crazy instruments. "Fireweed", which opens the album, builds up slowly and offers us a small climax. It was the second song of the album to be released as a single. At first, I wasn't convinced by the first single, "Tracy's Waters", but it has now won me over. "Beijing" is a pretty great song. "Wooden Arms" and "Big Bird In A Small Cage" are very beautiful. "Hommage" is an instrumental piece, and I am certainly incapable of telling you to whom is Patrick Watson making a hommage. I don't like "Traveling Salesman" so much. There isn't any singing in "Down At The Beach", but it is still very interesting. "Man Like You", "Where The Wild Things Are" and "Machinery Of The Heavens" are pretty...

Eleanor Rigby

2009-05-19T00:23:00.009-04:00

I read Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and found it extremely sad. It was released in 2005. There are three narrators in this book. One is Oskar Schell, a nine-year-old boy. The two others are his grand-parents. I will start with the grand-parents, and move on with Oskar afterwards.

The three narrators are very different. Thomas Schell and his wife both grew up in Dresden, which is a German city that was bombed by the Allied forces in 1945. Thomas was in fact in love with Anna, his wife's sister, who was killed in the bombings. Because of this, Thomas Schell cannot speak. However, in the passages he narrates, his sentences seem to have no end. Oskar's grandmother's style is different: she likes to put spaces between her sentences.

Oskar is a pretty special boy. He only wears white, he writes letters to famous people, and he invents things to keep himself from getting sad. Oskar's dad died in the September 11 attacks. Oskar is looking for something he believes will help him get through his grief, and we follow his journey through the city of New York. The city of New York is very important in the book. Oskar has to meet a lot of people on his quest, and he chooses to meet them in alphabetical order instead of doing it geographically, and so his journey seems endless. Plus, he walks everywhere. As I said, Oskar meets a lot of people, and at one point of the story, he thinks of the song "Eleanor Rigby": "All the lonely people. Where do they all come from? And where do they all belong?"

This book made me realize how traumatizing 9/11 must have been for the United States. Apparently, I had never thought about it enough. I was pretty young when it happened, and at that time, all I could think of was that perhaps Americans were exaggerating a bit with their patriotism. I had to read a fiction book to understand that they had really been hurt.

The book is also interesting visually: there are pictures of doorknobs, pages with lots of words written in differents colors as in a stationery store, and pages corrected in red.

Quote

2009-05-02T13:53:00.002-04:00

Steven Wright is a really great comedian. His comedy album I Have a Pony came out in 1985 and its follow-up I Still Have a Pony was released in 2007. He talks very slowly and has a characteristic deadpan humor. Here is the first part of an interview with him and Craig Ferguson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEqcn-n6-oU

Modern Guilt

2009-04-29T23:07:00.004-04:00

Modern Guilt was released on July 8, 2008. It is Beck's latest record. It doesn't particularly stand out in any way. It is very short, and very electronic. Perhaps further listening will someday reveal more about this album.

All You Need Is Me

2009-04-27T23:54:00.002-04:00

Morrissey's latest album came out in February. It is titled Years of Refusal, and it is quite good. Morrissey still rocks out immensely. Lots of short, catchy songs. Only two slower songs: "It's Not Your Birthday Anymore" and "You Were Good In Your Time". And that great voice of his... I will be looking forward to more listens of this album in the future.

O Valencia!

2009-04-25T13:54:00.005-04:00

I first heard "O Valencia!" on a compilation. The Decemberists are part of this year's lineup at Osheaga and they put out a new album a month ago. For all those reasons, I decided to get one of their albums. I didn't feel like getting their newest album, though, so I got The Crane Wife. Having heard only "O Valencia!" from them, I thought they would be a cliché indie band, but "O Valencia!" is actually the happiest song on the CD. (It's not that happy, actually. I just checked the lyrics... As a music listener, I don't pay that much attention to lyrics.) The music gets quite tragic at times, such as on "The Island" and on "When The War Came". "The Island" is one of the album's epic, multiple-parts, 10-minutes songs, the other one being "The Crane Wife 1 and 2". "The Perfect Crime 2" is a surprising and catchy song. In the second part of the album, things get a bit slower, with "Shankhill Butchers" and "Summersong". All in all, I'm glad The Decemberists aren't as cliché as I thought they would be.

The Royal We

2009-04-22T23:14:00.004-04:00

I got the new Silversun Pickups album, Swoon. It came out last week. I first heard their song "Lazy Eye" on Rock Band 2. (I know, shoot me.) I think that song is pretty catchy, and there seemed to be a lot of buzz around the new album, so I decided to check it out. Honestly, though, I don't really understand what the buzz is about. They seem pretty average to me. I often feel unqualified to write an album review because I don't know shit about music theory. Perhaps someone who does could help me understand Silversun Pickups. What baffles me the most about this group is that the vocalist is actually a man. He sounds like a tough girl to me.

Anyway, let's break it down: "There's No Secrets This Year" and "The Royal We", the first two songs, are catchy enough. What makes "Growing Old Is Getting Old" interesting is that it becomes very different midway through. "It's Nice To Know You Work Alone" is kind of a silly song. "Panic Switch" is a cool little song. "Draining" and "Catch & Release" are also cool, but are on the slower side. As for the rest of the album, I do not care enough yet to write anything about it...

Femme Fatale

2009-04-20T23:52:00.012-04:00

I believe Factory Girl was an overlooked movie. It is a biopic of Edie Sedgwick, one of Andy Warhol's muses. It stars Sienna Miller as Edie, and she is charming in the movie. (Although Sienna Miller, in real life, hooked up with a married man... gasp.) It also stars Guy Pearce as Andy Warhol. I loved him in Memento. (If you have never heard of this movie, watch it ASAP. It is one of my favourite movies and it was directed by Christopher Nolan, the director of The Dark Knight.) Andy Warhol, in this movie, is an asshole. I know this movie is a dramatization, but I believe Andy Warhol was also an asshole in real life. My opinion is pretty biased, though. It rests solely on this movie and on the book Please Kill Me: An Oral History of the Punk Movement. (This book was already mentioned in this blog once... Find out where! LOTS OF FUN PARENTHESES TONIGHT, WOOHOO.) Perhaps this is only going on in my own little crazy mind, but it seems to me that, in pop culture, one must take sides. One is more Letterman than Leno, or more "Heroes" than "Lost". And Factory Girl and Please Kill Me made me more Edie Sedgwick and Velvet Underground than Andy Warhol. This is stupid, because I know someone who likes both Andy Warhol and The Velvet Underground. And Please Kill Me also portrays Lou Reed as an asshole. ANYWAYS, watch Factory Girl. It is an interesting movie, filmed in a chaotic way. It is the story of how a girl rose quickly to fame only to be thrown off by her mentor. There, you got my two cents. Be warned, though: some critic called this movie "Edie Sedgwick for dummies". Oh well, I just try to do my best.

The Hand That Feeds

2009-04-18T13:05:00.002-04:00

Last week iTunes raised their prices. Some songs, the most popular ones, are now 1,29$ instead of 0,99$. Some of the older songs had their prices brought down to 0,69$. Now, I find no good reason for this change. As Trent Reznor's agent said, more or less: "In this time of bad economy, do you really want to put off the people who are still willing to pay for music?" Not only that, but there are very few songs that actually had their prices up. Not every song in iTunes' top 10 is 1,29$. Well, all the better, is what you'll tell me. But I disagree. Why upset us with these news and then do very little about it? It's completely irrational, I know. But I guess I don't like small disturbances in my life. Or something.

Soft Shock

2009-04-15T23:19:00.004-04:00

Let me tell you about something that happened to me a little while ago. I was in the bus, and this guy was talking on the phone with his iPhone. He had his earphones on and was talking through a little speaker. This is one of the things I find the most unnatural in the world. People who talk on the phone on devices other than a phone just look crazy. It is even worse when it is only an earpiece. Often you will never see the earpiece, and will just assume that the person is talking to himself. That's not all that happened with the guy on the bus, though. I know that with the new iPod nanos, you can shuffle through the songs by shaking your iPod. I didn't know you could do that with an iPhone, though. So after talking like a madman on the phone with a device other than a phone, the guy started shaking his iPhone like a madman to shuffle through songs.

I think he saw me smirking at him, because he was staring at me afterwards.

Dudley

2009-04-13T23:18:00.004-04:00

Another restaurant, another favorite of my family. This time it's on the cheaper side, and mainly Mediterranean. It's also pretty far away, from my point of view, somewhere in the north of Montreal, but I could be wrong. The name is Dima. We start with various spreads, in which we dip pita bread. There's the classic hoummos; metabaal, which is made from eggplant; and mouhammara, which is a mix of pine nuts and pomegranate. I could be awfully wrong about all the different spellings. Other starters include taboulé, a parsley salad; akras naanaa, which is meat with a touch of mint; and sausages. I then had shish taouk: chicken served with hot, crispy pita, and some salad and rice. Every time we go there, we are never disappointed.

And in other news: Eminem's new song kind of sucks. And it's kind of making me sad.

Dragon Queen

2009-04-11T15:23:00.003-04:00

Family time. We went to our favorite restaurant, M sur Masson. Translation: M on Masson, Masson being a street. We like to go there because the food is always delicious, the servings are always enormous and we are pretty chummy with the maître d'. I had forgotten about their incredible salad served with a half-cooked egg on the top. I had duck magret along with some sort of duck purée, which was absolutely scrumptious. I finished it off with a chocolate desssert. There was fine Italian wine all along. A very agreeable evening.

Hysteric

2009-04-08T23:30:00.007-04:00

What the hell is wrong with HMV?? It's Blitz! was out of stock at their store!!! I had to go buy it in a friggin' library... Oh well, it's not that important. What is important is I GOT MY HANDS ON THE NEW YEAH YEAH YEAHS CD :D

Some people hate reviews that focus on the songs individually rather than on the album as a whole, but those are the reviews I enjoy the most. That's how I deal with an album. All in all, what I can say is: there's some incredible music, right there. Karen O's vocals are as awesome as usual, on every single song. I love "Heads Will Roll" ("Off with your head!"), but every song is great in its own way. "Runaway" is kind of sad. Generally, I tend to find some songs really sad without any good reason. "Little Shadow" is a great closer.

The CD I got had a shitload of acoustic songs on it: "Soft Rock", "Skeletons", "Hysteric", as well as "Little Shadow". They are all gorgeous :D

The art inside the CD "box" is also very original. To know what it is, buy the album in a CD format :) A CD is a beautiful thing to possess...

Slave To The Wage

2009-04-06T23:20:00.003-04:00

Damn!! I've been buying way too many CDs these days, digital or otherwise. What the hell is wrong with me??

Here are the CDs I bought in the last month or so:

Is This Desire? - PJ Harvey

This Business of Art - Tegan and Sara

Only By The Night - Kings of Leon

Haughty Melodic - Mike Doughty

Dying To Say This To You - The Sounds

War Child Presents Heroes - Various Artists

Black Market Music - Placebo

Acid Tongue - Jenny Lewis

And these are the CDs I intend on buying soon:

Traffic and Weather - Fountains of Wayne

It's Blitz! - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever - Explosions In The Sky

Give Up - The Postal Service

Urgh.

Running To Stand Still

2009-04-04T16:04:00.003-04:00

I have finally bought the War Child compilation. When I first heard of the concept, I thought it was very cool: an artist from the old generation chooses one song he believes is the most important amongst all of his songs, and then chooses an artist from the new generation to interpret it. Perhaps this concept was more or less applied severely, but if it was, some pretty cool things appear: for example, Leonard Cohen's favorite song of his would be "Take This Waltz", and I love that song too! And so we discover Bob Dylan likes Beck, The Clash like Lily Allen, The Ramones like Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Blondie likes Franz Ferdinand, and Iggy Pop likes Peaches. Yeah Yeah Yeahs' song is pretty cool, and Elbow's version of "Running To Stand Still" is tears-worthy. I also discovered an Elvis Costello song I didn't know, and The Like's rendition is pretty catchy.

Music When The Lights Go Out

2009-04-02T23:03:00.002-04:00

Three songs I am listening to a lot these days:

1) "Lover, You Should Have Come Over" by Jeff Buckley - Great.

2) "The Gift" by The Velvet Underground - Is it even a song? Eight minutes of madness.

3) "Like Spinning Plates" by Radiohead - Sometimes I think I could go crazy simply from listening to some of Radiohead's songs. "Motion Picture Soundtrack" from Kid A is another good example. "Like Spinning Plates" can be found on Amnesiac. I know a lot of people think Amnesiac is almost a "Kid B", but I really like it. It is really bleak, but I like it.

No No No

2009-04-01T23:12:00.001-04:00

It broke my heart when she said "no".

Life In Technicolor

2009-03-31T23:54:00.004-04:00

The lineup for the Osheaga Music Festival has come out and I don't really know what to think about it. It seems really scattered. These are the groups I know a little bit, or a lot: Coldplay, Jason Mraz (urgh), Girl Talk, Lykke Li, Elbow, Beastie Boys, Rufus Wainwright, Arctic Monkeys, The Decemberists, Crystal Castles, The Ting Tings and Beast. I have already seen Coldplay and Arctic Monkeys. Why bring back those two? What have Arctic Monkeys been up to lately? Arctic Monkeys are good in a show. Not really fun, perhaps, but good. Their fans go crazy at their shows. My sister is really enthusiastic about Arctic Monkeys, but I can't get too excited. There are other bands who will be pretty active this year who are free, I believe, at the time the festival will be taking place, and who could well be invited. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, unfortunately, is busy around that time.

Other bands will be announced on May 7th. I will be waiting until then.

Perhaps I am just jealous of Coachella's incredible lineup.

Dreams

2009-03-30T23:27:00.002-04:00

We've been reading Cane by Jean Toomer in my literature class. There are three parts to this book, the two first parts being a mix of short works of prose and of poems, and the third part being a play. The book, written in 1923, is about black people and their constant struggle with their identity. The first part takes place in the South, the second part in the North and the third part makes us return to the South. It is a very bleak book, very well written. Something worth checking out.

I Hear The Bells

2009-03-29T14:22:00.002-04:00

"There was this one girl. She was blonde, petite... smelled of marshmallows and promises."

"Promises? That's the name of my perfume!"

Closer

2009-03-27T15:46:00.003-04:00

I finally gave in and bought Kings of Leon's Only By The Night on iTunes the other day. I was already listening to "Closer" and "Sex On Fire" non-stop so I figured I could buy the CD. I have always found Kings of Leon a bit too Southern for my taste, but their sound makes me happy these days. "Closer" is pretty bleak compared to the rest of the CD. "Crawl" might be the song that rocks out the most on the CD. "Sex On Fire" still works for me, every time. "Use Somebody" is such an easy song. It's the kind of song a guy writes with every intention of getting into a girl's pants. I love "Manhattan" and "Notion", and "Cold Desert", the closer, is a sad, slow song.

I am eagerly waiting to buy Yeah Yeah Yeahs' new album. :)

Pagan Poetry

2009-03-26T23:33:00.002-04:00

This is the poem I chose to analyze for a paper for my literature class.

"IN JUST-" BY E.E. CUMMINGS

in Just-

spring when the world is mud-

luscious the little

lame balloonman

whistles far and wee

and eddieandbill come

running from marbles and

piracies and it's

spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer

old balloonman whistles

far and wee

and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's

spring

and

the

goat-footed

balloonMan whistles

far

and

wee

53rd & 3rd

2009-03-25T23:38:00.002-04:00

"I'm eating and ignoring you."

"Look at you! Eating apple pie..."

Invisible City

2009-03-24T23:21:00.002-04:00

Another movie with Sean Penn I can suggest you is Mystic River, directed by Clint Eastwood. I saw it on the way back from Barcelona. Watching a movie on an airplane is never really satisfying, but I could still appreciate this movie. Based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, this movie takes place in Boston. In the first scenes, we meet three childhood friends, and one of them gets taken away by some strange men. Fortunately, he is able to escape, but this event changes things between the three friends. Years later, the three children have grown old, and one of them loses his daughter in an incomprehensible murder. Clint Eastwood does not disappoint, and the cast is stellar. (Kevin Bacon :D).

Rebel, Rebel

2009-03-23T23:48:00.002-04:00

So I finally saw Milk, and it was effing fantastic. Lots of people say that this is one of Gus Van Sant's more classical movies, directing-wise. Having only seen Good Will Hunting among Van Sant's other movies (and Good Will Hunting is supposed to be another classical movie of Van Sant's), I cannot really compare Milk with the rest of his work. I found Milk to be not that classical, though. What striked me particularly was how short some of the scenes were. But hey, I don't know a thing about directing, so...

This movie is infintely quotable, and Harvey Milk is portrayed as a very warm person. Emile Hirsch's performance is really compelling. Also, there are a lot of "wtf?" moments. As in, "Wtf? Is that really how bigots think? Their arguments make no sense whatsoever!" Those kind of moments.

And now, I'll get cheesy: one of the aspects I liked the most about this movie was its love story. It simply tells you that the people who once mattered in your life will always matter. And I found that beautiful... that's all.

Sway

2009-03-22T23:31:00.000-04:00

I love the Dirty Dancing reference.

Péché d'envie

2009-03-21T13:41:00.002-04:00

I went to a restaurant with my parents and with my brother yesterday for some family time. The restaurant was on Ontario St., in Montreal's Gay Village. It is called Carte Blanche, which can be translated to "blank card". It is actually a French expression meaning "we give you the freedom to do anything you want". This restaurant was an actual French restaurant, not fusioned with anything else for a change. The ingredients were very simple throughout the menu. I splurged completely and ordered the fish soup with its rouille and a meal of chunks of lobster in an orange-flavored sauce. Both were delicious. I ended things with a chocolate fondant for dessert, and it was really good. The restaurant was nearly empty, which was kind of sad, but I believe a large party was coming on after us. My father says there are too many good restaurants in Montreal, and so people do not know where to go anymore. There was a single waiter for the whole restaurant, and even though there weren't that many people in the restaurant, he still had to constantly run. He still managed to remain very professional throughout the evening. All in all, if ever you are looking for a small and simple French restaurant in Montreal, this is a pretty good one.

Ocean of Noise

2009-03-19T23:23:00.005-04:00

You know how I hate the movies people usually love? Babel is one of them. I had heard so much positive feedback about this movie, I kept waiting for something to happen. I find that there is no high point in the movie: it is one constant line. I get it, there's this big international message, interconnectivity between people, etc. The coincidences used to illustrate that, though, were too unbelievable for my taste, and were not very interesting. There goes another Brad Pitt-Cate Blanchett project that I don't like... but not so much because of them.

Babel is, I believe, part of a trilogy by director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu including Babel, 21 Grams and Amorres Perros. I have not yet seen Amorres Perros, and although I hated Babel, I liked 21 Grams very much. It took me a while before realizing that the different scenes in the movie were not placed in chronological order. I don't know if mentioning this will ruin the movie for you... It is a pretty bleak movie, and it gets violent at the end. I really liked the ending to this movie, and I like Naomi Watts a lot. Sean Penn is growing on me more and more. I will probably be seeing Milk tomorrow, and if so, I will surely talk about it in this blog soon. FINALLY I will be watching Milk - I've been wanting to watch it for an eternity.

Then She Appeared

2009-03-17T23:16:00.002-04:00

"The things you find amusing astound me sometimes."

Bukowski

2009-03-16T23:18:00.002-04:00

I am going to talk to you about another highly immoral book... Two immoral books actually, although one is perhaps less immoral than the other. Let's say two books, then, by the same immoral author, Charles Bukowski. He isn't only a novelist, he's a poet, too. I don't know much about his poems, but his novels, anyway, are semi-autobiographical. I will talk to you about two of his novels, both of which I have in my library. The first one is Ham on Rye and it features Henry Chinaski, Bukowski's alter ego. Ham on Rye tells the story of Henry Chinaski's childhood, which takes place in the Great Depression. Chinaski comes from a poor family, and his childhood is very rough. I found some passages of the book to kind of violent, especially since they feature a young child. The book basically tells us the desperate story of this kid who will grow up to become the very immoral man featured in the second book I will talk to you about, Women.

Women does not take place immediately after Ham on Rye. Some of Bukowski's other works complete the time gap existing between Ham on Rye and Women. By the time Women takes place, Henry Chinaski has become fairly old. He is now a semi-renowned poet and gives public hearings. He is always drunk. At the beginning of the book, Chinaski hasn't had a woman in a long time. However, he meets a crazy woman who will become a big part of his life and not long after that, he realizes that he is attractive to many women because of his reputation. He then spends his time cheating on his girlfriend, getting drunk, and writing.

There are no moral endings to these books. As you can guess, I found Women to be particularly immoral. It is the perfect book to boost a guy's ego. Its lesson is that if you write, you can still get fucked even if you're old and ugly. These books are sometimes funny, but essentially the main thing you get from them is a very easy read.

If you're wondering, I haven't given up on the idea of giving my posts song names. There really is a song called "Bukowski": it's a Modest Mouse song. All right, I'm giving away the answer, but no one is really playing my game anyway.

Human Behaviour

2009-03-15T23:08:00.002-04:00

Another movie I want to suggest you is Dogville by Lars Von Trier. For a movie, it's very intellectual, but I still liked it a lot. It has a lot of powerful scenes and a very peculiar setting. I felt uneasy during the whole time I watched this movie, but I like that. I found the end to be extremely violent. The movie is about a woman who seeks refuge in a small town. At first, the townspeople like her, more or less, but soon they begin to use her. This movie is three hours long, though, so know what you're in for.

Exit Music (For A Film)

2009-03-14T14:17:00.003-04:00

"Do you want me to have you committed or would you prefer to check yourself in?"

Heroes

2009-03-13T14:37:00.004-04:00

I once said I would sometimes talk about books I had read, and I never got around to doing it again. Today I suggest you a more classic book: To Kill a Mockingbird. Before reading it, I knew it was about the trial of a black man accused of raping a white woman, but I didn't know anything else. I was really disappointed when I started reading the book, because it seemed as if the narrator kept talking about things that had absolutely nothing to do with the trial. The trial actually comes very late in the book, but once you're there, it's fantastic. Atticus Finch, the narrator's father, will surely become your hero. He is the accused man's lawyer, and he is a man with really strong morals. This is one literary character you do not want to miss on.

And while we are on the subject of books, I wanted to tell you that I got the translation of the title of Milan Kundera's book right: it really is Laughable Loves. So, Alex, you can now go get it. And you can now be conceited all over again: I gave you a shout-out on a post!

Laughing Out Loud

2009-03-12T23:42:00.005-04:00

I'm getting more and more the feeling that I'm just not that good at this movies thing. I seem to hate most of the movies everybody loves. In order to reassure myself about not being an obnoxious movie grump, I will now suggest you from time to time movies I have actually liked. The first one that comes to mind is The Darjeeling Limited. It's a Wes Anderson movie starring Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman as brothers. I actually like Adrien Brody a lot, and he acts as an asshole in this movie, as always. It is kind of haunting watching this movie while having in mind that, at the time it went out in theaters, Owen Wilson had tried to kill himself. Anyway, it's a really beautiful road-trip like movie. The story takes place in India. If you're into low-key humor, you should try it out.

Never Get Old

2009-03-09T23:37:00.001-04:00

"Finish your homework!"

I'm Set Free

2009-03-08T14:55:00.006-04:00

Let's set the record straight. Which TV series do I actually listen to these days? I used to watch a lot more TV series. This year I have given up on "Prison Break", "House", "Grey's Anatomy" and "One Tree Hill". Seasons 1 and 2 of "Prison Break" were great, season 3 was okay, but this season has just gotten messy. "House" has gotten formulaic. "Grey's Anatomy" is okay-written sometimes, but watching surgeons behave like high school kids no longer amuses me. "One Tree Hill" was a really bad habit of mine, but I missed the French premiere, and so I was discouraged to catch up on what I had missed.

These days I am watching "Heroes", "Desperate Housewives" and "Dollhouse". I remain faithful to "Heroes" no matter what. My geeky side needs to express itself. "Desperate Housewives" is a family thing. My dad enjoys it so much, it's pretty funny.

Some TV shows I started watching when they weren't on air anymore. They are otherwise known as the TV shows which helped me get through school. They are: "Daria", "Freaks and Geeks", "Veronica Mars", and "Opposite Sex". They are all THE SHIT. "Opposite Sex" is a really funny show that only lasted eight episodes, starring a young Milo Ventimiglia and a young Chris Evans.

I never really watched "Gilmore Girls" in its entirety. Weirdly enough, I gave up on it when Jess appeared, because he didn't appeal to me then. At that time, perfect boyfriend Dean worked for me. I then started watching again when Jess disappeared, but not because I liked Logan, just because. Then I found clips on YouTube, and you know the rest.

Your Ex-Lover Is Dead

2009-03-06T16:40:00.002-05:00

Who was there, out at West, pulling at the covers of the universe? Perhaps the gods we had given birth to, stuck in their loft-shaped paradise, exasperated at being so numerous, having each been led to believe they were unique.

- Monique Proulx, Champagne (the translation is mine)

Death Sex

2009-03-06T05:43:00.001-05:00

Small Stakes

2009-03-05T18:02:00.004-05:00

Today we tried going to a restaurant recommended on the Internet. We ended up in a really fancy restaurant, the intimidating kind. It was called Neichel. There were tons of weird appetizers at the beginning, the waiters had weird accents, and there were truffles and foie gras all around. The portions were really big, though, and the service was pretty fast. I had hare, which was weirdly presented, but the surprise foie gras pieces were great. There were tons of little sweets at the end as well. The coolest thing about the restaurant were the silver spoons hanging from the ceiling with invisible threads. Neat decoration.

Ghetto Love

2009-03-04T17:47:00.002-05:00

I have finally brought myself to listen to Spinnerette. I like the Distillers so much that at first I was like, "Brody, why do you have to chaaaaaange??" Apparently, she has something new to say, and this something is poppier. But it still has Brody Dalle's edge. (Brody Dalle was the Distillers' lead singer.) Oh well, I'm all for that: I never have enough of edgy pop. The title of the post is the name of one of Spinnerette's songs. Check out the video on YouTube: it is pretty hot, and Brody is looking good without her crazy hair. There is only an EP out for the moment, but I'll be waiting for the album.

Like Someone In Love

2009-03-04T05:12:00.004-05:00

"Jess... ma'am."

"I'm dancing on the inside."

"Oooh, zing, I've been snapped!"

"It's just a saying."

"Now say, 'And get in there and make me my supper!'"

The Start of Something

2009-03-03T17:27:00.003-05:00

We went on a Picasso tour today. The museum was as cool as last time, but the guide was really annoying. Something funny happened, though: some really unsubtle noobish people started invading our tour, even standing in front of our guide and acquiescing to everything she said. My brother and I tried to make them feel bad by staring at them, but it didn't really work.

And for those who were wondering, I did bring my laptop with me. I'm not wasting my time in Barcelona running to Internet cafés. I'm just wasting my study time.

what I'm listening to at the moment 2

2009-03-03T05:37:00.008-05:00

1) Leonard Cohen. What a poet. When you are in a certain mood, he is exactly what you need. Here is my list of Leonard Cohen songs:

"Suzanne"

"The Stranger Song"

"So Long, Marianne"

"Bird On a Wire"

"The Partisan"

"You Know Who I Am"

"Famous Blue Raincoat"

"Night Comes On"

"Take This Waltz"

"Dance Me To The End Of Love"

"Democracy"

"Anthem"

"A Thousand Kisses Deep"

2) Debut by Björk. Great stuff.

3) I have just heard The Sounds' Myspace. They are a Swedish group, not that recent, touring with No Doubt this summer. Unfortunately, we will not be getting them in Montreal. We will be getting Bedouin Soundclash instead. (...) They're kind of dancy. Maybe I'm just sold to them because the singer is female. It's my feminist side.

From now on, I will attempt to be Grey's Anatomy/One Tree Hill-like and give each of my posts a song name. Points are given to the reader if he/she guesses whose song it is, without cheating, if possible. Let's see how long I can keep this up.

I love this scene 11

2009-03-02T18:13:00.001-05:00

I love it when they just show her the fender.

Kids

2009-03-02T09:44:00.003-05:00

I thought I wouldn't be able to write as often as before, but I find myself blogging more than ever. I really should study. This morning we went on a tour of the gothic quarter, and we found ourselves in the middle of an elementary school recess. I guess the school's location had a rich history. Anyway, it was really funny, because there was a little girl who started translating the guide's explanations to her friend.

I have finally figured out where our rented apartment is situated. There is a twenty-minute walk from our apartment to Plaça Catalunya, which is the commercial centre of Barcelona. There is also the University of Barcelona that is near to us. All in all, our apartment is located in a pretty quiet place, but it is still pretty central.

My pop culture two cents: I have watched the third episode of "Dollhouse" and found it pretty great. The moment when the singer says "I just want to be free" while she is ascending in a cage is good TV. Also, at the end (I won't spoil it for you), Eliza Dushku's character does something I would never have expected. This show seems like it will take a while before becoming interesting, because the main character cannot be awakened so soon (if you are interested at all in pop culture, you know what I mean, because the premise of this show has been everywhere over the web). I hope it doesn't get axed before things have a chance to get going on.

Restaurants

2009-03-01T17:09:00.003-05:00

We have gone to two restaurants up until now. The first one was a typical tapas place. Pretty good, but I'm sure there are better restaurants out there. In Montreal, for example.

The other one was an Indian restaurant. My family has a knack for eating foods foreign to the countries we visit. It was really good, but also really expensive. It was called Namasté. We ate chicken vandaloo, mango lamb, butter chicken, tandoori chicken and masala prawns. The samosas were also really good, and we had two sorts of naans.

Barcelona is the laziest city I have ever been to. Nobody ever seems to do anything. On the other hand, the driving is crazy.

I love this scene 10

2009-03-01T08:04:00.002-05:00

Best line ever.

Laughable loves

2009-02-28T09:24:00.002-05:00

I brought this book by Milan Kundera to Barcelona called Risibles amours. It can be translated as "laughable loves". I had already read the book before, and it is a pleasure to reread it. There are seven short stories in it. In the first one, there's a great moment where a couple comes into a factory of some sort in order to find a woman. (I'm sparing you the details.) The wife asks her husband to describe the woman to her, but the only thing he can remember is that she was beautiful. He is then pressured into giving out more details about the woman, and so he says she was blond and tall. But the woman, who is terrified to be found, is neither blond nor tall. The man had simply been so impressed by his beauty and so, to him, she was certainly blond and tall.

In another story, there's a great passage I will be attempting to translate:

"It was a situation that was never to be repeated in his life: he had confronted the unimaginable. He had just lived this brief period of his life (this heavenly period) when imagination is not yet saturated by experience, (...) when you know very few things, so that the unimaginable still exists; and if the unimaginable is about to become a reality (...), you start to panic. And he really did panic when, after a few more meetings where he remained irresolute, she started to interrogate him in great detail about his student room, almost begging him to invite her."

Besides that, today my taximan seemed like he was about to cough his lungs out. And the weather is not that great today in Barcelona, but I still hope to get some sun at one point!

This is for Alex (the first few sentences :P)

2009-02-27T02:07:00.007-05:00

Yes, I am going to Brazil this summer. For a month. For a research project. I don't know which one yet, I have merely given out my choices, and they are the ones who have my fate in their hands. :) So, Alex, have you got any travel plans for the summer? If anyone else want to share their summer plans, feel free to do so :)

On a side note, I am going to Barcelona for spring break tomorrow... actually today. This will be the first time that my complete family (my parents, my sister, my brother and I) will be in Europe together. Usually, my parents bring only one of us to Europe each summer. Yes, I am a spoiled brat. I will mostly be studying in Barcelona, though, as lame as that sounds. I have exams coming on when I come back, and I do hope to get some studying done while I am in Barcelona. I have already been to Barcelona once, and in my mind, there is not that much to see in Barcelona, so I let it stay that way, so that I am not too tortured while I am over there. I mostly consider it as a gastronomic trip. Tapas every day, yum.

I don't know if I will be able to pursue this blog while I am in Barcelona. Perhaps not every day, as I have been doing, that is almost certain. I might just be telling you about the places I go, since it is so useful to you, since you are all always going to Barcelona... ;)

I have to pack my suitcase now, and I really don't feel like it, as I have just returned from a semi-goodbye party, where there was lots of wine and this Beauty and the Beast movie... I have to, though, all in all, I have five hours to pack my suitcase. Gaah.

I love this scene 9

2009-02-25T23:22:00.000-05:00