this is water.
This is water. Some are lakes. So yes, I write about obvious things.
I also have some songs here:
 | Mike Christie on Of Montreal. |
 | Shan'e Harris on Of Montreal. |
| Mike Christie on Of Montreal. |
 | Ben on Of Montreal. |
| Mike Christie on Kitchener will save the w… |
It’s summertiiiime. Grilled vegetable salad with crostini and goat cheese/lemon dressing. Eggplants, yellow/green zucchini, peppers, avocados. Ladies and gentlemen, grill your avocados. Make sure they’re firmish, but they come out brilliant on the grill.
Sometimes it pays to work in Richmond Hill. The reverse commute, and amazing value Chinese food.
Enter Northern Dumpling Kitchen, in “Times Square” at Leslie and Highway 7. Good try Richmond Hill, a clock at the top of your GTA mini-mall does not quite equal 42nd and Broadway. Northern Dumpling Kitchen mainly serves dim sum and some northern Chinese dishes.
One of the coolest things on the menu is tea smoked pork belly, served with scallions, hoisin, and the tastiest pita like bread product you’ve ever had. Hybrid of naan, croissant, and the deep fried Kelsey’s pita chip (that partners the ubiquitous spinach dip). Unreal. Here she is.
Big thanks be to Paigu for the photos.
Toronto – “a changed city”. One side completely fueling the other. The postitive feedback loops of completely excessive and addictive media coverage, massive government spending and isolation, and public anger. More obvious – everyone is to blame. A few hundred angry idiots smashing and burning. A few hundred cops way too eager to assault and arrest. All the while the press coverage is literally fuelling the fire with 95% chaos, 5% ACTUAL G20 policy. And we’re all not that surprised. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhh sigh.
Follow Steve Paikin on Twitter, you know who he is. The host of Ontario’s best television program, The Agenda. One of our best interviewers/journalists. He witnessed very undemocratic protests last night downtown. I’m sure he’ll be throwing down on The Agenda on TVO tomorrow night.
Diane Sawyer talking to Stephen Hawking about the relationship between science and religion.
Sawyer: So, to the people who say science and religion are irreconcilable, you say. . .?
Hawking: One could define God as the embodiment of the laws of nature. However, this is not what most people would think of as God. They mean a human-like being with whom one could have a personal relationship.
Sawyer then asked him if there was a way to reconcile science and faith.
Hawking: There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, [and] science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works.
Still lots of big questions to be answered. A lot of non-empirical questions that science will have a lot of difficulty answering.
via whyevolutionistrue.
I present THE Office Dunder Mifflin floor plan. I’m sure there are many Office fans that are also CAD literate. Kudos.
via unrealitymag.com.
Few but mighty this week.
Cheap, reliable, east meets west, small plates, entertainment in the back, good beer selection, no split cheques. Cause you know, you’re sharing. Favourites at The Supermarket in Kensington are:
We were just there last weekend. On Sundays they are making Kensington streets pedestrian-only, and we had a fun funk band playing right outside the Supermarket with compulsory Kensington crazies dancing to their own drums. It was fantastic.
I find I always go back to this part of Toronto to eat. The Augusta/College vibes. Torito, Grace, Sidecar, Caplansky’s, Burger Bar, Negroni, . Now L.A.B. has just opened up to major buzz, as has Cinq 01 for the yuppie dates. College is back.
Read a great review of this very show c/o Toronto music blogger Frank Yang @ Chromewaves. In Toronto @ The Kool Haus.
Going to a show like this is undeniably fun. As Chromewaves said, it was great to see so many different groups of people sweat exactly the same amount. Other than Daft Punk a few years back, this was the only show where so much evaporated sweat was gathering above our heads that the ceiling and ductwork had pure sweat condensation saturated all over the venue. Near the end of the show, it was literally raining sweat. Well more like spitting sweat. From the ceiling. LCD Soundsytem: the shows where 5% of the sweat is yours.
They played some classiques and some solid new offerings from their new record, This is Happening. This is fun, repetitive, backbeat-based music with a scholarly knowledge of rock’s broad history. Simultaneously immature and mature, smart but primal.
This is the album of the season. I find I usually have about 4 albums per year that really do it. I just wish The National released this new record during the proper sound-season schedule. You know. Marley in the summer, Nick Drake in the fall, the music just feels like weather. Most bands I listen to have a justifiable time of year attached to their sound. This record is a November record, their old single does not kid around.
I am a bona fide National enthusiast. First and favourite album was Boxer [2007]. Most purists prefer Alligator [2005]. Usually first = favourite, because you feel so rewarded for hacking through jungles of monotoned, minimalist melody for at least a few listens. Then one walks the worn path to working through it until one song clicks into place. Then another song three days later. And so it goes. Like a slowly exposed 3D Magic Eye puzzle.
I’m lucky I get to see them next week, here. This record was made for that space. Here’s “Lemonworld”, the clear first song that clicked into place for me this time around. The great thing about new National records is that once you’ve tackled previous LPs, the learning curve can be virtually instant for the new ones.
The National - Lemonworld
Clear nods to Bruce Springsteen ballads, R.E.M. romanticism, NY darkness, and proof that the simplest of melodies can feel revelatory, honest, and refined. It’s pop music with a very special voice and pretty things to say. It’s a staid move away from irony. It’s that wise nag on your shoulder that encourages you to pull a song back rather than force it higher. That gets me excited.
Jerry Seinfeld needs to get off the stage, he’s skewing the stage greatness level down bigtime. And that’s coming from a Seinfeld freak.
You may have seen this already, but wow real wow. “A combination of three-dimensional ultrasound scans, computer graphics and tiny cameras to capture the process from conception to birth’ of a number of animals including penguins, elephants, dolphins, dogs, and penguins. Yes, penguins. It was filmed for a National Geographic Documentary called Extraordinary Animals in the Womb“. Learn more and see more animal photos here.
