Hold on to what is good even if it is a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe even if it is a tree which stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do even if it is a long way from here.
Hold on to life even when it is easier letting go.
Hold on to my hand even when I have gone away from you.
- Pueblo Blessing
�
Saturday, Apr. 23, 2005 - 4:06 a.m.
WARNING!!!! if you know me personally, you may read my diary, but if you do, you take the chance of hearing things you don't want to know, misunderstanding what I've written and being hurt by it. If you are unsure if it is ok to read, save yourself and me the grief and heartache, and ask first!!! Please note that this is a DIARY, ie my subjective feelings, hearsay, suppositions, and outpourings of ranting of the moment. It does not represent objective news, the whole of what I think of a topic or someone, or even a thought-out representation of any of the above. Keep that in mind. Thanks. * Here is a Diary Etiquette Read Me.
Hotdocs and Haitian Food
Dang!
I really wish I had lots and lots of time and money. I would go this great documentary film festival in Toronto called hotdocs. Here is the schedule at hotdocs.ca. They were interviewing several of the documentary filmmakers on the cbc radio last night when I was walking the dogs. Specifically Cross and Bones, which is filmed in Drumheller, Alberta, and is about the weird dichotomy of archeologists ie evolution (since Drumheller is like the dinosaur capital of the world) and this passion play they put on there, ie creationism. It seems like a totally timely project and I'd love to see it.
Another documentary they were speaking about was one about a group of soldiers in Iraq, called Gunner Palace. It was fascinating... he said that the guys acted like war movie characters, with lots of posing, bravado and stock phrases at the start, but once their comrades started getting killed left right and center, reality struck and they started to act with more sensitivity, humanity and depth of complexity. Very interesting. Music seemed to be omnipresent he said... boomboxes in jeeps, ipods on individual soldiers, and a lot of the young men were making up raps about their experience. One said something like "To you it looks like a movie, but for us this movie is real". It seems worth seeing.
Anyways, the festival seems to go from April 23 to May 1, so any of you in the Toronto region, get to it! yeah.Oh, and it seems that Gunner Palace may actually be in cinemas instead of just at the documentary festival, so maybe I can see it here in Montreal. That would be cool. (btw you should read that link... I wonder what this will do to the US attitude on war, with all these kids coming back realizing war means blowing their friends in half for very little reason, rather than heroic points on a video game or bravado on a film screen... will it be at all like vietnam with the veterans at odds with the national zeitgeist?)
Like I have time. But I'll try.
Another fun thing I saw a poster for is called Drummerkombat.com... sounds totally great to me. I love drumming, especially manic intense drumming (vs that comatose marathon drugstupour granola drumming). Sounds like the sexiest thing to come onto the agenda for ages. I see that the "boxing matches" have already been going on since the start of March, and end May 11... I'll have to get my butt down to Les Foufounes Electriques some Wednesday night. Maybe next week after the Illustrators Assoc. meeting. Fun fun fun. Though maybe the attitude will be really really macho, what with bikini girls between rounds! hehe.
OK gotta get some more work done. work work work. Life is hard when you start work at 2am. hehe.
You know, I think Haitians eat too much meat and starch... the restaurant we went to tonight was hilarious. The last resto we pulled out of the Cheap Thrills resto guide had great atmosphere, was inexpensive but rather chic in an alternative kind of way, with an excellent menu and great service. The place we went to tonight was in a strip mall with a parking lot full of badly parked SUV's. Turns out half of them belonged to young black guys who love shiny white cars, who deliver food from the restaurant. Inside it was pretty much empty, with zero atmosphere, and a menu board with a list of "grilly (or something like that), chicken, beef, stew, vegetable" with a price. No description. So I took the chicken and l'Ecrivaine had the grilly or whatever it was called.
We got a small bowl of lettuce with salad dressing first. Which tasted like lettuce with kraft salad dressing.
Then we got our plates. Huge enormous white plates, with tiny grated carrots sprinkled artistically around the edges. And one piece of chicken leg flanked by two rather dry plantain patties looking lonely in the center of mine, and a small pile of pork chunks, looking rather dry and very cooked, flanked by another two rather dry plantain patties looking all lonely in the center of hers.
The nice lady brought some sauce in little metal dishes, which tasted like Campbell's tomato soup watered down. And then a large serving of rice and red beans for each of us. So then it didn't look quite so minimal.
The chicken was really good... rather like barbecue with crispey skin. The pork was dry, kind of like chewing on chunks of jerky. Tasty but very dry. All, including the rice, was greasy.
And other than the sprinkling of carrot which was used as parsley in nouveau cuisine, ie to visually fill up the huge empty space on the large plate with minimal food, there were no vegetables. It was good, and we ate more than we needed to, even finishing all our rice, but I felt as though you could've squeezed the oil out of me at the end.
We also had "tropicale" juice, which was some concoction of frozen fruit juices the owner mixed up. He was very interested to know if we liked it. It was ok. Sweet and fruity.
Anyways, we were overdressed, and conspicuously white and anglophone. Very funny. We should have dressed like suburban hiphop kids and driven shiny white SUVs. hehe.
So, that is my restaurant review. See how good I am at not going back to work?
OK that's it. Other stories later, maybe. Like how L'Ecrivaine told me I was controlling since I actually wanted to tell her about my trip as she flipped rapidly through the photos I had bought... I was on Monday night and she was already rushing through Tuesday afternoon. I tell ya, Monday night at the dyke bar was much more interesting than flowers on Divisadero on Tuesday at 3pm. Sigh.
OK, tah!
me
wenchie
4 People have left cute, callous or caring comments on the wench's wordiness!!
Leave yours too!!
Go to "notes" instead of comments
ps, you'll need to email me for a username and password
�
previous meanderings - future past
Goodbye Michael. May your next life be kinder to you. - Thursday, Jun. 25, 2009
Taking Care of Your Cows - Thursday, Jun. 25, 2009
Saint Joseph robs the cradle and eats spaghetti - Sunday, Jun. 14, 2009
sticky notes and broken irises - Friday, Jun. 12, 2009
The FOODCOMMANDER - Monday, Jun. 08, 2009
�
