Snow, Lights and Icicles

Happy winter wonderland to those who have a big pile of snow on their doorstep!

To those who don't, here's what you're missing out on: minus one million celius!  

At least it's somewhat pretty.

Lights on snow on St-Laurent.

Icicles!! Brrr....

Remnants of holiday lights near René-Lévesque.

Stay warm!

Carrot and Cabbage

Some friends of mine whipped up this awesome super easy salad for me not too long ago and I recreated it the other day.
And here it is to share with you!

-carrot
-red cabbage
-sesame oil
-a touch of soy sauce if you like
-pepper


toss, serve, deelish!


and those lovely salad servers are by Blisscraft&Brazen, handmade with love!

Docu-Bonanza!

Dear friends,
It has been a couple of days since my last post, as I have locked myself in with a pile of documentaries that I will share with you.

First up: L'amour fou (2010), a documentary centered around the relationship of Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Bergé, his life and business partner, and the auction of their art collection after Saint-Laurent's death.  Told mostly from a series of interviews with the poetic Bergé, the film is revealing and at times touching, but unfortunately failed to engage me, keeping the viewer at arms length.  The final scene of the auction itself should feel like some kind of crescendo but comes across as selling a whole lot of stuff, without knowing the history behind certain pieces with their owners.  Although, I must add that watching art being moved is fascinating for real!

A quote from Bergé:
"C'était une très belle époque, Marrakech. Une époque que je ne me souviens pas avec nostalgie-parce que je n'ai pas de tout de la nostalgie-mais avec beaucoup de joie, c'était une histoire de jeunesse."

 Up next: Jean-Michel Basquiat: the Radiant Child (2010), an awesome documentary on the late artist (who died at 27!!) told with many modern day interviews as well as director Tamra Davis' interview with Basquiat from the 1980s in its VHS glory.  While I have never really been attached to Basquiat's work, I had some familiarity with it, as I had seen Julian Schnabel's biopic years ago when I was going through an Andy Warhol obsession.  While still not more enamored with Basquiat's work itself, I have a giant pile of respect for the man himself and have too, too many good words about this film!  If anything I LOVE LOVE LOVE, learning about someone's artistic practice/process/methods to madness.  Whew! Good stuff!

Would you like a quote?:
"He never copied. He always improvised a total revision, Jean Michel was demanding that, "if you wanna talk about influence, man, then you've got to realize that influence is not influence.  It's simply someone's idea going through my new mind."

Last film: Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006) is a documentary about the development of battery operated electric vehicles that first appear on California roads in the late 1990s.  While there is enthusiasm for the cars, corporate bullying ensues (from car and petroleum industries) and eventually all electric cars are crushed.to.death.
Sigh.
Oh the irony, given that in the present day we now have steady popularity of hybrid vehicles.  I suppose that the hybrid might be a happy medium?  Ok, I'd already seen this film before but I felt the need for a refresher, given that the film Revenge of the Electric Car (2011) is on my list of films to see.

Fave quote: "America is addicted to oil." George W. Bush

Optical Printer

I was hanging around Main Film today and feasted my eyes upon the beast pictured above.  The Oxberry is an optical printer of intimidating proportions for those like yours truly who has never dabbled with effects on film.

So what does the optical printer do you might ask? Pre-CGI baby! Take a look at this video featuring the ILM dudes piecing together flying objects and a background in Star Wars.

If you really want to geek out, here is an article of the making of the special effects from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

And a little closer to home, François Miron is a Montreal filmmaker who has mastered the art of the optical printer in experimental film, his process immortalized in this awesome Rick Trembles cartoon.

Heathers

Ok friends, I'm going to admit something...I just saw Heathers for the first time.

A group of friends decided to have a monthly movie night where one person is selected to bring a film that will please a group of varying cinematic tastes (so unfortunately Last Year at Marienbad will not fly) and present the surprise film with an oral "book report."

This is apparently a teenage cult classic film of a the John Hughes era (aka the 1980s), a must-see, and the precursor of all "mean girls" type films.  I had a bit of difficulty with my suspension of disbelief at first, but then I let myself get swept by the surreality of the high school hierarchy in cinema.  Our discussion after the film was centered around this question: can a Heathers-type movie be produced today?  Given the sensitivity of guns and murder in a high school setting, post-Columbine or closer to home, post-Dawson, could this plot exist?

Three Lockets

Juliana's three unusual looking pendants caught my eye the other night and I asked her to tell me about them.  The vintage-y looking pieces turned out to be a set of lockets by Juicy Couture. Oh! What a surprise! I said; being used to associating the brand with hearts and jangly charm bracelets.  I loved the way Juliana wore them open, so I asked her what inspired her to do so. She replied: "they don't stay closed."

Cartman and Goldfish

Happy new year! Happy 2012! Aaaaand maybe the end of the world according to some?
But in the meantime have a lovely new year from Cartman and a large plastic goldfish I spotted in a bathroom possibly exchanging the midnight kiss.
Bonne année!