Leftovers.

Had some leftover homemade tomato sauce, and needed to use up some eggplant we had.  Equals eggplant parmigiana.  Standard breading station on the left, excessive mozzarella on the right.  Tasted good, but too much like lasagna.  Less sauce/cheese will be key next time.

I made duck breast for C and a friend on the weekend, so just re-seared it with leftover celeriac and potato puree.  Added some goat cheese and parsley to make it a bit more palatable.

What I’m working on.

Environmental Site Assessments, Permits to Take Water, borehole analyses, dewatering calculations, for stuff like this.

All of this.

Watch all of it.  Blogotheque does a great video set with Beach House’s best (new) songs.  You’re going to get why the new Beach House record is so good.  Gooooo.

That’s all I got.

Your weekly links.

Food

• NY chef takes locavore to the extreme – you’ve heard this, it’s bloggerfodder.  The breast milk cheese chef.  I would definitely try it.

• Master Chef Susur Lee says Torontonians are more adventurous eaters than New Yorkers – more back patting for the Big Smokers.

• Learn the art and science of perfect popcorn – know those methods.

• Know umami – the elusive fifth taste, it’s becoming the foodie buzzword of the past couple of years.

Toronto

• Toronto goes for a garden sharing program – live in an apartment and dying to garden?  Have a big yard but too lazy to garden?  Boom.

• It’s Canadian Music Week – preview here c/o BlogTO.

Environment

• Water-conservation rating considered by Ontario – like Energy Star, but for agua.

• Introducing the WaterPebble – monitor your water use whilst showering.

• George Monbiot rips into the feed-in-tariff system – Climate change skeptic offers his take on how green energy policy will make costs rise for the middle classes.

• Private transit more common than you think – Amidst talks of privatizing the TTC with new mayoral candidates, learn more about partial privatization of transit.

• Algae worse than corn in the biofuel industry? – It better not be, this is the trojan horse.

Science

• Knowing the mind of God: Seven theories of everything – Learn more about the frontrunning theories of how this universe/multiverse of ours works.  Everyone should bone up on their String Theory.

• Now you can read in bed  without the weird neck pain!

• Researching the atheist mind – questioning the cognitive connection to religion

Everyday Looper.

For you touchy feely iPhone owners.

The vow of not photoshopped.

Thanks be to Cracked for this post.  I’m just showing my jaw droppers.  This generation is all about making non-verbs verbs.  Texting, nexting, photoshopping.  Ugly words ahead.

These are not bad photoshop jobs, they are actual installations.  People like art that’s comprehensible, and I am one of those people.

Sculptures by Alan Gibbs.

An actual horse through bonfire race in Scotland.

Look for the slight skin exposure around her neck, quite a job.

The gaseous outfall of a Russian test missile caught in a Norwegian night sky.

Months and months of modelling and construction.  Complete trip.

Aurora Borealis as seen from the International Space Station.

You should need this.

It is happening again.

Beach House’s new record Teen Dream is still amazing.  First three tracks are complete revelation (Zebra, Silver Soul, Norway).   It’s mainly two people making these sounds, with a touring drummer coming to a sold out Toronto stage near you.  Damn those Trinity Bellwoods bums, I wish I got tickets when they came out.  If you want live proof of their greatness, go watch some intentionally slightly humorous videos of them performing their new songs c/o your sister’s dog trainer’s favourite music website.

Victoria Legrand – listen to this woman, watch this woman, she’s special.  This is woman.  This is her band.  And you can’t help but think brunette Stevie Nicks.  Sorry, it’s easy, it needs to be said.  Or you could just use the word huuusky [onomatopoeia].   Even the falsetto’s got some husk.  She has a true gift in colour and tone, and quite good with melody.  She even directed this video.  Just don’t judge too much, when was the last time you saw a great music video?

The real (fake) owner of Laser Cats.

All of these photos can’t be real.  They just can’t.

Blue word weekly.

Science

• 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = Hella – An online petition to make “hella” the new prefix for 10 the 27th power.  I.e. The sun weighs 5 hellatons.  Vote YES!

• All you ever want to know about the craziness that is pubic hair – There, I said it.

• Why didn’t Chile’s 8.8 earthquake do more damage? – 8.8 is unfathomably massive, thank goodness the specific nature of this quake helped prevent further disaster.

• Can we trust the IPCC ? – We know the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change isn’t infallible, but what about the big picture?

• Why aren’t we talking about desalination? – The water supply of the future, but environmentalists don’t seem to be talking about it.  I don’t understand why.  It’s more expensive and takes more energy now, but that’s now.  Reverse osmosis technology will only improve.

• The complex physics of clouds

• Basement bands rejoice, eliminate that bass! - Latex can help eliminate low frequency sounds.

Toronto

• Woodstock pioneer planning massive Toronto concert – see ya SARSstock.

• Under-the-table dining in Toronto – places where industry cats go, besides the Harbord Room.

• Toronto’s psychogeography – I hate that word, it’s a very white and educated word.  But it makes sense… An Eye Weekly article on how big city dwellers make their life manageable.

• Toronto’s Wilco Sandwich Shop – expensive sandwiches and Wilco?  StuffWhitePeopleLike would say revelryyyy.

• Toronto hippies want to tap your tree for syrup – and the city says mmmm… no.

• Mancakes! – Toronto bakery is selling tons of these things.  Just cupcakes with manly things made out of fondant on top.  If only men could gracefully pronounce fondant.

• Toronto is now out-partying Montreal – eat it poutinies!!  We need to be good at something!

• Alex and Luke’s Excellent Adventure – Canadian couple go on a massive road trip in their tiny VW Rabbit, use social media to dictate what they do.

Arts

• Snoetry – Not boogers.  People like to draw big things in snow so all high rise condo dwellers can see their “work”.  This time around, a nice man turned a big snow outline of a schlong done by teenagers into a “work of snoetry”.

• The Knife + Darwin – made for internet publicity, the band tries something new – evolutionary rock opera.

• Roger Ebert continually proves his brilliance – an interesting response to his Esquire article.  This man is brilliant, and he’s been writing a ton since his diagnosis.  Seriously brilliant.

• Sarah Polley is punk rock – she pulls her name from the Oscar list as she discovers her short “Heart” done for the Heart&Stroke Foundation will be used to sell margarine.  Good for you man.  I’d put my name on butter, but hell no margarine.  Marjareen.

Food

• The organic food showdown…. Whole Foods vs….  Wal-Mart? – get ready to erase those liberal bourgeois impressions of your flourescent lighted, linoleumed neighbourhood Wal-Mart.

• The chicken hipsters – Things weren’t supposed to be this way after I graduated from architecture school, but here I am back on the farm and collecting eggs

Miscellanium

• Downtown Brantford’s destruction – city councillors vote to demolish original construction buildings in the city core.

• Canadian internet slow and expensive – Harvard study lays it out.

• Rogers bandwith limit fees go up – mind those seasons of Battlestar Galactica and Six Feet Under.

- eat it poutinies!!  We need to be good at something!

Olympiad.

Yesterday was quite a day, wasn’t it lovelies.  The first day where Torontonians not only tilted their heads away from their shoes, but actually looked you in the eyes, opened their mouths, slapped your hands, and witnessed warm union.

And now for some obvious.

The media made way too much of everything – Own the Podium, waffling on our “sudden” patriotism, hockey analysis, the contrived MTV hosts trying to appeal to young viewers.  Like the real Canadian I am, I was worried that the athletes felt too much pressure to succeed.  But from whom?  Not actual Canadians.  The media acting as a chatty Cathy mouthpiece for Canadians.  Lovelies!  The average Canadian wanted you to have fun and soak in a great moment.  We know you’ve worked your whole life for this, have fun and try hard.  Fun first.  You’ve worked so hard that fun should mean good things.

But we did the right thing without the waffles.  We really enjoyed ourselves.  We feel better about ourselves (needed).   We were inspired and celebrated their tireless hard work.  We made Americans jealous with vibrant hand warming garments.  We won more golds than any other country.  We were able to laugh at ourselves too very easily.  We were able to show the world our awful and popular pop groups.  We just need to explain how Neil Young went before Simple Plan.  And Hedley.  And Theory of a Nickel Creed.  But I know I’m not alone.

Way to go, Van.  You’re still tirelessly cool.  Maybe more family cool than Williamsburg cool, but that’s most likely a good thing all in all.    And you got your wish – Toronto is (still) very jealous.

Glued.

Patrick Watson – Giver

Sure it’s Canadian Jeff Buckley/Radiohead, but this song is sweetballs.  Brooding subtle backing cellos and a supertypical intro lead guitar part begins.  Breathy yearning voices, simple melody, and then comes the bum kicking part – the creamy timing transitions between 4/4 and 3/4 throughout the song.  It throws you at first, even slightly disorienting.  But after three listens, once you catch the groove, it’s like lazily swinging on a long, green, Tarzanic vine.  Tarzanic!

What gets me dizzy is mostly just the first verse – darkened piano quaternote chords, amazing vocal character, and the big tonal contrast in the drums.  You hear the big low boom of the kick drum, perfect snare rolls, and a beautiful bright  tambourine.  That’s some jaaangle.   Mr. Bojaaangles!  When you get the widest spectrum of frequencies in a drum track, that spells BIG.   What’s great about this drummer’s performance is his use of big but also in his rests.  So much space between notes, it’s perfect.  Then the chorus – to me I get a bit excited, because this chorus sounds like the boys, and I like that.  Driving, understated, killer drum/bass part.

Patrick Watson is the shoegazing darling of the Canadian indie criticism circle.  2 Polaris nominations, one win, yet not a lot of household recognition.  I’m personally OK with that.  Of the two albums I’ve checked out, I can count the good tracks on half a hand.  He can’t seem to get out of the breathy vibrato, the no-treble grand piano, and the mediocre melancholy.  But he’s got this one.