on the flip side

stay far far away from newly opened Terracotta Chinese Modern in gastown.

- where: you don't need to know
- what: tweaks on chinese food
- who: don't know
- must try: if you're forced by friends to go, try the beef sliders
- of note: they apparently love house music and hostess/servers who wear gobs of makeup and very tight outfits. the food was mediocre and expensive. just horrible.

because marion asked me to

some the tastiest and well-crafted meals i've had recently:

Judas Goat
- where: located next to Salt in Blood Alley
- what: spanish tapas
- who: chef Lee Humphries of the Long Table Series
- must try: scallop tartare with pork rinds
- of note: it's a tiny 24 person joint so make reservations

Bao Bei
- where: 163 Keefer St, Chinatown (across from Floata)
- what: modern asian food
- who: Tannis Ling (a bartender) from Chambar
- must try: Mantou steamed buns with braised short rib
- of note: Tannis went to Taiwan and Hong Kong to research recipes from her family to incorporate into the menu

Acme Cafe
- where: 51 West Hastings Street (beside Famous Meats)
- what: modern diner
- who: Alan and Peggy Hoffman
- must try: brunch
- of note: Alan is a photographer and his gorgeous photos line the walls


*B took the photo above of me at the Acme Cafe while i was excitedly figuring out veggie seed plantings

another criterion worth your time

jeanne dielman
directed by chantal akerman

released in 1976, this film deserved to become a criterion selection. here are the highlights:
- 201 minutes long
- minimal dialogue
- looooooong takes
- the minutiae of a french housewife during the 1970s

but that's just the setup because SHIT HAPPENS that will blow your mind.

another interesting thing of note, the director was only 25 when she made this masterpiece. WTF! if that was my debut feature, i wouldn't bother making more films because coming up with something better would be très difficile.

the extra features on the criterion give lots of insight into the difficulties that the young director faced with her more experienced actor.

you will love this film if you also loved:
- Hunger by Steve McQueen
- any movie by Tsai Ming Liang
- Morvern Caller
- Vagabond by Agnes Varda

you can rent this film from Happy Bat on Main Street or borrow it from Rob.

festival-ing

i survived my first film festival as a programmer. actually i more than survived, i OWNED it, baby.

i made sure to chat often with visiting filmmakers, talking to them about filmmaking and especially where to get the best ramen in the city (it's motomachi on denman, btw).

i really enjoyed moderating the documentary panel and two Q&A sessions except for the fact that the microphone died for all three speaking opportunities. maybe it's a sign that i should be speaking louder. yeah, that's it.

there were really only 2 stressful moments:
- we didn't have the proper audio cable for a particular format and had to pull up the mackie mixer that was powering the microphones as an intermediary device.
- the hdcam deck inexplicably didn't want to turn back on. luckily we discovered this 5 hours before the deck would actually need to be in use. we brought in a new power cable and then as we were standing around, it suddenly turned back on.

but i'd have to say the most rewarding part was being in a position to sincerely thank the filmmakers for their work and to encourage them to make more films knowing how discouraging it can be most of the time.


...........
in other news:
- the condo still hasn't sold
- i need to do some serious video editing in the next little while
- B and i are going to portland the weekend of Nov 21
- the craigslist couch i bought only a month ago is being turfed. the legs just aren't supportive enough and only one of us can sit on it at any given time.
- today we bought the retro couch from nood
- my dad is in taiwan visiting my mom for 2 weeks
- i've started 2 new knitting projects
- my new favourite drink is the whiskey sour
- we tried this new chinese wonton noodle place on broadway near cambie and it was OK.

abode hunting

to keep a track of which places we really like or might be memorable, we've come up with nick names.

guess what our nick name is for this loft?




other names we've come up with are:
- dream design
- pink pole (they had a pink pole in the middle of the bedroom)
- cigar collection
- psychiatrists office (sometimes we called this place cast iron collection)

wtf

seriously, they couldn't take 5 seconds and REMOVE THE SAFEWAY BAG before taking the picture?

a picture that is supposed to delight and entice potential buyers to pick up this cute little house for around $600k?

sigh.

dude, stuff is happening

like:

- did a pickup shoot for ELTEE at J's apartment last week.
- getting my condo ready for sale = painting, chalking, cleaning up the patio, putting up prints, and generally feeling that there's not enough time to do everything before the open house this weekend.
- festival programming stuff for VAFF
- last week i started a weekly tues night project mgmt exam prep course that goes until dec 2. here's the interesting acronym i get to add after my name if i pass the exam: PMP. before you all get too excited, it stands for: Project Management Professional
- VIFF starts this week and i haven't even purchased my tickets yet
- i just agreed to edit together a trailer for a short film
- also i'm coming down with something and feel like crap

that is all.

oh, and B moved in.




J waiting for Rob to prep the GH1



Rob and his precious GH1