The Trilogy Post Part Three: The Food

At last, the finale to my Trilogy Post!

I apologize for the tardiness of it, I have had quite a busy week.

So last Friday Aleks and I enjoyed the Summerlicious Menus downtown Toronto at the Royal York's branch of Benihana. It was great!

For those of you who don't know, Benihana is a Japanese restaurant where the cooking of your food is done right in front of you! Normally a very expensive restaurant, a three course meal only cost us 45$ a person. The summerlicious menu was as follows:

California Roll
Crab Stick, Masago, Avocado, Cucumber
or
Vegetable Tempura
Asparagus, Shiitake Mushrooms, Sweet Potato, Red and Green Peppers, Broccoli, House Made Tempura Sauce
or
Spicy Avocado Roll
Pineapple, Cucumber, Chili-Lime Mayo



Main course is prepared at your table and served with Japanese Onion Soup, Benihana Salad, Shrimp Appetizers, Hibachi Vegetables, and Rice:

Teriyaki Chicken
or
Vegetarian Saishoku
or
Hibachi Steak
or
Teriyaki Steak



Mandarin Orange Cheesecake
Grand Marnier Anglaise
or
Mango Pot de Crème
or
Green Tea Ice Cream

(source)

This is probably one of the coolest restaurants I've ever been to. The chefs basically put on a show for you with the way they cook. The way it works is that they sit you at a table that holds 7 people, like this:


They then serve you your starters. When you've eaten your starters, the chef makes his way to your table and begins cooking the entree meal for all seven people. The center of the table (see the metal part in the picture) heats up and turns into their grill. They cut everything up, throw some of it in the air, play with their knives. It's quite the show!

If I were a food critic, I would give the food at this joint 4 out of 4! It was fantastic! I had the Avocado Rolls as a starter (some of the best sushi I've ever had) and ordered Steak Teryaki as my entree. The steak was amazing! I loved it! Aleks had the Vegetable Tempura as her starter and opted to go with the Chicken Teryaki which she enjoyed as much as I enjoyed my steak! The amount of food they give you is unreal! It was hard to eat all of the meat and veggies that came on your plate!

The food, as well as awesome tablemates made this night extremely enjoyable! If anyone's looking for a classy place to eat, I would recommend this a thousand times!

The Trilogy Post Part Two: The Music

Check this out:




If you can read, then you know by now that that is a ticket to see 19 year old YouTube sensation Bo Burnham. The show was Friday night at The Second City in Toronto.

If you don't know who he is, here's a clip of what made him so popular:



He. Was. Hilarious! He played a nice mix of new songs and some of his YouTube hits. He's racist. He's sexist. He's rude. He's vulgar. And most of all, he's daring. At such a young age, he has skyrocketed to the top (almost) of the comedy train since he's been recruited by Just For Laughs for their tour.

What worried me a little bit was how much stand-up he did compared to music. He's making a slow transition from music to stand-up: he would stop in the middle of some songs to tell jokes and he finished maybe one song all night.

However, this does not turn me away from Bo Burnham. He takes what's popular in politics and entertainment and puts a funny and ironic spin on it. Listen to the song I posted: it's so smart! Regardless of the path he chooses, be it music or stand-up, I will remain an avid fan.

He's also a great example of someone who sat in their bedroom and just did what they loved and got rich off of it. YouTube is in. It's the new way to get your shit out there. It connects billions of people worldwide and it's what makes you popular today.

Good job Bo, and good luck in the future!

The Trilogy Post Part One: The Movie

The start to these epic three days was an (almost) midnight viewing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

STOP! SPOILERS AHEAD! IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE FILM YET, BEWARE! SPOILERS!

The movie was...okay. It was not the best Potter movie but it certainly was not the worst (Ahem, Prisoner of Azkaban). Now I've been reading the books since the first one was released so my expectations going into the films are very high. That being said, I loved the first two films. It seems though that after the loss of director Christopher Columbus and the death of Albus Dumbledore portrayer Richard Harris, the movies have been losing more and more magic with every one being made. This sixth film had the least amount of magic by far.

Let's start with the film's loyalty to the book. Before criticising the filmmakers for an unloyal portrayal of the book, one has to keep in mind that the book is massive and to stick to it 100% would result in a twelve hour movie. That being said, why are we adding sequences into the movie that weren't even in the book?! Nowhere in the novel did the Weasley's beloved Burrow burn down! If they had taken out that sequence, they could have made the ending into the intense finale that was in the book!

That brings me to my next point: the ending. In the book, remember the epic battle between the good and the bad? The Order and Dumbledore's Army against the Death Eaters? Yeah, it's non-existant in the movie. Why? My guess is that the producer's thought that there was a great battle scene in the last film and they didn't want to bore the audience with another. What they don't understand is that the fans want to see the book onscreen! Dumbledore didn't get the amazing funeral that was in the last chapter of the book. (By the way, what's with the new Dumbledore?! He's no where near the Dumbledore described in the novel.), Harry didn't have his final words with Ginny, Bill Weasley--Wait a minute, Bill Weasley wasn't even in the movie! All in all, the ending was crap.

The good, you ask? There was some good. They nailed the teenage romance that everyone goes through growing up (yep, even wizards have that awkward teenage phase!). At times, it was a little overdone and cheesy, but for the most part it was hilarious. Rupert Grint stole the show here with his perfect comic timing. Who knew that he had the funny in him? His scenes with Lavender Brown were priceless and exactly how I imagined they would be from the book. The Harry/Ginny relationship was barely developed. All we saw was that they were interested in each other. Boooooooring.

Overall, the film was a build-up, a segway, to the final film. We didn't see Voldemort once (except for in flashbacks of course). Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which will be split into two parts, one to be released in 2010 and one in 2011, is the final film. I am so looking forward to that one now, hoping that they can recapture the magic from the first two films. Yes, the later films are darker, but they can still be magical!

I give Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 2 stars out of 4. The next time we see our favourite trio will be when they are finally free of their Harry Potter personas in the final film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.



Stay tuned for The Trilogy Post Part Two: The Music.

The Trilogy Post

Hello my few readers!

This past week has been HECTIC and I've got lots to update on. Unfortunately, my computer crashed on me and while I wait to get it back online, I have to use my lady friend's computer.

My next three posts will be a three-in-one: A Trilogy.

Until then,

adios.

A Critical Review: "My Sister's Keeper"

Question: What's the perfect Sunday afternoon movie? Something funny? Quirky? Witty? Action-Packed? Dramatic?

The answer could be any of the above. The answer certainly is not a melodramatic sob fest. Wait, let me correct myself, the answer could be a melodramatic sob fest, but it should not be director Nick Cassavetes' latest novel-to-film adaptation My Sister's Keeper.

The film, starring Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin, is about a lawsuit that a genetically engineered girl launches against her parents for the rights to her own body. In a nutshell:

• At a young age, the Fitzgerald's oldest daughter is diagnosed with terminal leukemia.
• To save her life, they opt to genetically engineer a second daughter who's parts they can use for their cancer-stricken one: a donor child.
• At age 11, young Anna decides she's had enough of the surgeries, the needles, and the hospitals and decides to sue her parents for the rights to her own body.

I thought that this film would be interesting because of the moral and ethical issues the premise presents. How could you create a child and raise it, only to always demand her to sacrifice her body for her sister? Should an eleven year old child have "medical emancipation"? In other words, is an eleven year old responsible enough to make her own medical decisions? Should family always be willing to give anything up for each other?

However, instead of touching upon these questions, the film explores the family's past and more specifically the past of the terminal child. And although the film is touching with it's strong familial values, it falls short of hitting home. It just feels like the filmmaker's only goal was to make his audience cry. And that's all he did.

I have not read the novel on which the film is based, but apparently the differences between the two are disturbing.

I give the film one star out of four. Sorry Cassavetes, you had me with John Q, but lost me with this one.

New Digital Art!

Over the past couple of weeks, I've traveled deep into the world of Adobe Photoshop. And the result has been... satisfying!



Above is the result of my journey into the magical world of Photoshop! It does not have a title, and I feel like it's a little empty (especially in the middle) but otherwise I'm pretty happy about it.

I intend to do more digital work that I can post up here. What do ya guys think?

24 has always been one of my favorite shows. I've watched the whole series (seasons 1-7) almost since the show began and it's non-stop action and unique style has always captivated me.

Now, it's been years since I watched the first couple of seasons and over the summer, I have been watching them, all 24 episodes, with my girlfriend because she had never seen them.

This second time around, I'm noticing things that should not be happening. Check this out:



You see that on the left? Ya, that's a camera. How does that make it into the final cut? It's so blatantly obvious that it makes me think that it was left in on purpose. For what reason I don't know. After that you think they would have corrected it, but no, it happens again here:



Not much different from the first image except that in this scene the camera actually moves! It's one thing to have the camera in the frame in the first place but how could you move it further into the frame?! Someone really wasn't paying attention here and the editor probably shat himself when he saw it.

This was in season one, hour twelve. 24 really is one of my favorite shows so it kills me to see amateur mistakes like this one made. However, I am happy to say that I since haven't seen any mistakes like this made and I am currently watching season three. If I find anymore, I'll be sure to let you know!

Cheers.