Author: ZA

An Oscar-worthy Menu

Entertainment

Planning an Oscar party? Need some best picture-themed food? Now that there are 10 best picture nominees, instead of 5, trying to devise an entire menu of themed foods is going to be twice as difficult this year. So let me help, and try a few of these ideas on Sunday, March 7. Warning: Lots of meat and alcohol.

Flaming German drinks, some serious Jewish appetizers and a cocktail that won’t alienate any guest:

Start with a German winter drink (meaning it’s served hot) traditionally served at New Year’s called Feuerzangenbowle (Flaming Fire Tongs Punch). [Inglourious Basterds] As a non-alcoholic option, offer glasses of milk.

For food, serve some matzah balls [A Serious Man], of which there are several varieties, and shrimp cocktail [District 9]- you can’t go wrong with shrimp cocktail.

Lighten things up with a high-flying drink and an exotic first course:

To go with the first course, serve this drink to your guests: the Paper Airplane Cocktail. [Up in the Air] For added excitement, use tiny plastic cups, serve it from a trolley, and charge $9 a glass.

Then, depending on what kind of bird meat you can procure, try either the Ostrich Chili-Corn Tamale or Partridges with Orange and Vermouth Sauce. [Up] Mmmm… Pair with any one of many salads from South America, like the Red Quinoa and Cranberry Salad or the Jicama and Orange Salad. [also Up]

Bring on the hurt with more drinks and a precious main course:

Make sure guests go home full and satisfied with this pigs feet recipe and some collard greens. Can’t find any pigs feet? Try this fried chicken recipe instead. [Precious]

To wash the meal down, serve this charming cocktail: the Chili Bomb (Crown Royal and Red Bull). Do not offer an alternative. [The Hurt Locker]

Colourful desserts and British tea:

Offer these two dessert options to end the night on a colourful note as they announce which one of our culinary inspirations will be taking home the grand prize: Blue Tidal Wave Sorbet [Avatar] and/or these harmonious black-and-white cookies [The Blind Side]. Serve with English breakfast tea, or another British variety of tea [An Education].

Enjoy!


An Ode to Dreaming

Culture, Entertainment

By some random or divine coincidence, I ended up watching both Anvil: The Story of Anvil and Man on Wire tonight, in between which I also watched J.K. Rowling’s 2008 commencement address at Harvard University on TED.com. The coincidence? Besides all of these things being generally awesome, they each also had a “follow your dream” message to rub in my cynical face.

Anvil: The Story of Anvil

Anvil is a Canadian heavy metal band that rocked with Bono in the early ’80s, but lost momentum shortly after. During the filming of the documentary, they were struggling to keep going in between family life and ‘real’ jobs. (You can read a great review of it here.) The point is, they never reached the fame or success of The Rolling Stones, but they’ve matched their longevity. And they aren’t too proud to mail out demo tapes, borrow money to put out a 13th album, or to play to a crowd of 5 headbangers.

Lead singer and guitarist Steve “Lips” Kudlow says at one point, “The music lasts forever. And maybe the debt does, too. But the bottom line is the music lasts forever, and that’s the art, that’s the most important thing.”

Man on Wire

Meanwhile, Philippe Petit is sneaking into the World Trade Center to walk along a tightrope over 1,300 ft. in the air. (Proper review here.) If you’ve seen this documentary, you will understand why I love his energy, and his enthusiasm. I think of this quotation from On the Road, by Jack Kerouac, when I listen to Petit talk about his motivation:

“The only people for me are the mad ones. The ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time. The ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes, ‘Awww!'”

When Petit talks about his approach to life, that it should be lived on the edge, moving and creating each day like a work of art, it makes you want to do the same – to move, and move, and move towards something, anything – to fix your eyes on something and reach.

Petit describes the moment he heard about the twin towers being built, and the birth of his dream to walk between them: “Now I have acquired my dream. Usually, when you have a dream, the object of your dream is tangible, it’s there, it’s quixotic, but it’s there, nagging you, confronting you, but the object of my dream doesn’t exist yet.”

He then waited until the towers were built, planned for months, snuck in and danced up there for almost an hour. You have to respect that commitment. That alone – the certainty and conviction, that clarity of purpose – is something to envy. The fact that he succeeded (and didn’t fall to an untimely death) almost seems secondary.

J.K. Rowling

And on that note, you can also listen to  J.K. Rowling give her take on failure and success to hundreds of Harvard graduates and their beaming parents. While her whole speech is worth a listen, what she said about failure was of particular interest to me. If you’re not already aware, the British author of Harry Potter fame was broke and nearly destitute when she wrote the first book and, obviously, has since been rather successful. Here, however, she talks about her lowest point after a failed marriage and having no job:

“The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass. And by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.”

But…

“Had I really succeeded at anything else, I may never have had found the determination to succeed in the one arena where I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized and I was still alive.”

“And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”

I can’t help but find inspiration and a bit of solace in believing that there is an upside to failure, a “stripping away” of oneself, as she put it, that lets you figure out who you really are, that let’s you find your purpose.

Rowling also adds, “There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction.” An excellent lesson for the kids, I think. At some point, you will have no one to blame but yourself for not getting where you want to go.

In short, I’m feeling rather encouraged and optimistic about things now. But if you still need some convincing, this ought to do it.

A potpourri post for the New Year

Uncategorized

“We fight terrorism not only by dropping bombs, but also by building schools.”

I just want to share this blog post on Sen. Clinton’s speech on development. I like the highlights of the speech that Kristof chooses, especially about emphasizing investment over aid.

Christmas post-mortem

I somehow didn’t find the time to share my thoughts on this before Christmas, but better late than never. Usually around that time of the year, I would gripe about how I don’t celebrate Christmas and how it gets shoved down my throat from every angle for weeks and weeks leading up to Dec. 25. This year, however, what really bothered me was the griping coming from everyone else about the PCness of the expression “happy holidays.”

This is the wrong way to think about using the expression “happy holidays”: It’s a politically-correct euphemism for “Merry Christmas” that we’re forced to say regardless of the context because we have to be sensitive to those who don’t celebrate the birth of Santa Jesus.

And here is the good way of thinking about using the expression “happy holidays”: In corporate or just generally broad settings, saying “happy holidays” means that you understand that there are other holidays being celebrated at this time of the year other than Christmas. In every other case, just say “Merry Christmas” if that’s what you really mean.

The best photos in the universe

I shared this on Facebook as soon as I saw it because it just has to be shared. I almost couldn’t decide which one would be my new desktop wallpaper – #3 Eternally Stargazing won, eventually.

H&M Gets Trashed

Let’s all thank Twitter for alerting me to this story. Apparently, people are very upset that H&M and Wal-Mart destroy and throw out unsold clothing (both chains deny that this is their policy and have said they’re going to investigate why this was happening in their NYC stores). I love hearing stories like this because bad deeds deserve bad press, and bad press (hopefully) leads to reparations.

Mirror, mirror on the wall… how environmentally responsible am I?

I love and want this ridiculous mirror. Guilt is the best motivator.

Because I also love bargains

I’m going to post this one on my bulletin board. Full price is for suckers.

Everyone’s a critic around awards season

Instead of sharing my own bloated predications, consider these lists as my own. (When it’s time for the Oscar Poll, EW writes my ballot after all.)

Even so, I will share my five best favourite movies for the year. (And I’ve seen A LOT of movies this year, so I actually feel informed enough to choose favourites, for once.)

1. Up in the Air
2. The Hurt Locker
3. Star Trek
4. Up
5. Moon

Okay, well, I haven’t seen Fantastic Mr. Fox, and I think if I had, it’d probably make my list, but here it is anyway.

Oh, and my New Year’s resolution is just to follow through on the goals I set out for myself on Labour Day. Just so you’re up-to-date.

On Avatar

Entertainment

My thoughts on Avatar boil down to this: A story well told isn’t necessarily a good story.

James Cameron is a good storyteller, I’ll give you that, and I would cite either of the first two Terminator movies or Titanic as proof. But the story that is supposed to ground the lights and awe of Avatar just doesn’t hold up.

[SPOILER ALERT]

First, it’s just such a well-worn tale: The evil invaders versus the quintessential ‘natives,’ and the converted explorer who falls in love with the New World (and a very pretty native who embodies its values). (See: Pocahontas.)

It’s not that it isn’t a relevant tale with a strong moral lesson – it’s just so painfully obvious. What happens to a story when every characters fits an archetype? And because it’s such an obvious political analogy, we know who the bad guys are, and we know what road the main character is going to take because the good vs. bad lines have been so plainly drawn.

Second, the characters are not so much properly developed characters as they are players whose depth are sacrificed for the larger moral tale. I feel as though I should have been hissing at the screen every time the Bad Guy appeared, and there isn’t even an attempt to make the Na’vi anything more than an idealized society that makes human civilization look like total dicks.

The result of this black-and-white characterization is that I didn’t feel any emotions toward the characters. So-and-so died? Oh… I guess that’s sad?

Plus, I just didn’t buy the last-minute redemption of some of the secondary characters. It was only when they were physically destroying the Na’vi’s homes that some of these supposedly regretful characters shed a tear, or refused to cooperate. What am I supposed to believe? That before, when the humans were only going to coerce these ‘savages’ off their land to mine for Unobtainium (stupidest name ever, by the way), they were willing accomplices and then, when it’s time to actually force them out, they suddenly feel bad and they’re supposed to have what? Depth? Evoke sympathy? Fuck you. And it’s not like Cameron tries to expose this sham; I honestly think we’re supposed to hate the Muscley Guy in the Machine and everyone else was just following orders.

And I don’t care much for Sigourney Weaver’s character either. Is she supposed to be the beacon of rationality and morality in this tale? She’s a pawn on a corporate payroll with bloody hands. Fuck your good intentions or love for the Na’vi. She was smart enough to know what she was getting into.

So, scratch that. I guess I did feel emotions for these characters: Anger.

The only time I felt any sadness was towards the injustice of the whole affair – the heartless colonial mission that destroys societies for the Almighty Dollar. But that’s just not enough.

Besides, Cameron is offering up some really big ideas: colonialism, genocide (?), even mixing human DNA with Na’vi DNA, and there isn’t enough movie to show the complexity that necessarily goes along with these concepts – even in almost 3 hours.

I also felt like the ‘he-gets-a-second-chance-to-walk’ storyline was almost too much, like trying to squeeze one more element into already stuffed movie, although I think the idea itself was a good one.

All that being said, I’ll return to my assertion that it’s a story well told. You can’t argue that it wasn’t visually fantastic. Even the little things – the way the sun glinted off surfaces, or the way water fell – were awesome to see. It didn’t look nearly as cheesy as it did when he showed clips at Comic-Con in July. And in terms of pacing, editing, and even dialogue, it had its strong points. All of which made me want to like it more than I did. It’s just sad that for all its 3D wonder, Avatar is just a 2D story painted in fluorescent blue.

I write, therefore I procrastinate.

Writing

Funnily enough, the date of my last post was also the exact day Zip sent me American Graffiti – and it has taken me the same amount of time, almost to the day, to watch it as it has to post again. I did, however, organize my closet in the interim. So, feeling thoroughly ashamed to be one of those sporadic ‘oh-I’m-too-busy-to-blog’ bloggers, I’m going to stop making notes in my organizer about all the things I want to blog about, and actually post something.

That concludes my unnecessary, somewhat random, prologue.

During the International Festival of Authors in Toronto late last month, I collected some favourite quotations from a series of Q&As with various authors compiled by Star book critic Geoff Pevere. Why? Because sometimes thinking about what being a writer is like, or what it means, instead of actually putting pen to paper (read: fingers to keyboard), is just easier.

Also, if you read all the Q&As, you may notice that I favoured the authors who tended to have disorderly habits – no one wants to read about a successful writer who is productive and never stares out a window when they should be meeting a deadline.

B.C. crime writer William Deverell:

Q: How do you get started writing? How do you avoid getting started writing?

A: In this trade there is no time clock to punch, you must exert a will of iron. Typical fall day: I leave for my writing studio promptly at 10, imbued with determination. But I can’t help notice the weather is fair, for a change it’s not raining, so perhaps a walk in the woods might invigorate the mind, and the field mushrooms are out and perhaps one should gather some for dinner. Ultimately, after a couple of hours of this hard discipline, I take my bag of mushrooms to my studio and sit down to keyboard. But first I have to turn on CBC 2 and listen to the news, and that’s followed by the Brahms second symphony, and it would be insulting to the master not to listen. And in the meantime, of course, there’s that unfinished chess game on the computer that might just sharpen the mind. (I have yet to fall prey to Internet addiction only because I have banned all phones from my studio.) Suddenly yet another hour has passed, and I sense the first tremblings of panic disorder, and finally bring up the chapter I’ve been working on, and begin to read, edit, compose – and then just as suddenly it’s 7 o’clock and I’m late for dinner and in deep s–t and I race to the house, forgetting my bag of mushrooms.

Q: What is the optimal creative atmosphere?

A: (…) Dreaming. Faulkner is said to have divorced his first wife because she could not understand that when he appeared to be staring idly out the window he was actually hard at work.

Q: Do you actually like writing?

A: I used to practise law, when all I dreamed of is what I happily do now.

Nova Scotia author Shandi Mitchell:

Q: Where do you write?

A: I have two work spaces: 1) A beautiful studio that overlooks the canal. No phone or email. This is where I am supposed to write. 2) My upstairs, 7 foot x 8 foot, ½ story office. A quarter of the room is comprised of a closet. The only place to stand up straight is under the peak. There are phones, emails, TV, husband, dog, and my only window looks onto the street, which is under construction. This is where I tend to write.

Q: Do you actually like writing?

A: I like having written. The act of writing itself can be a gruelling, soul-ripping, self-doubting, mind-crushing mountain to climb, interspersed with glorious moments of flight. But once done, I can’t wait to go again.

U.K. author Iain Pears:

Q: How do you get started writing?

A: Guilt is the best motivator; the trick is to let it build up until you feel like a total useless wretch. Then you can get down to work out of sheer self-disgust.

Q: Do you actually like writing?

A: Sometimes. Especially when I consider the alternatives.

On second thought, I don’t think my prologue was that random, after all.

I don’t even like Banana Republic.

Uncategorized

I know post-secondary institutions tend to blend the line between higher education and corporatization, but this ad I got from the York Alumni Office is particularly disgusting, just in its blatant disregard for impartiality:

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Register Now: Fashion Savvy plus 25% off at Banana Republic

Step 1: Fashion Savvy. This is the first event in The Real Life Series: Six Steps to Social Savvy.

York grad Tamara Glick (MBA ’03) will help you find your fashion savvy using models to illustrate the finer points of putting together killer office-appropriate outfits. You’ll learn the five levels of corporate dress for men and women, from formal corporate to smart casual, get a 25% discount at Banana Republic and enjoy wine and cheese! Space is limited, register early.

Tuesday, Oct. 27  6-9pm
Banana Republic (80 Bloor St. W)

Cost: $10 per person

—

What the hell is this? It even takes place in a Banana Republic! They’re not even trying to pass it off as anything other than a cheap commercial – and you have to pay $10 to be advertised to!

For shame.

TIFF!

Entertainment

I debated whether or not to post about my TIFF experience. On the one hand, all of the movies I saw are being released relatively soon (as early as this past Friday, and as late at Christmas Day ’09) and are being reviewed by more relevant people than me. On the other hand, I always have fun at TIFF, even if (to my dismay) I don’t end up seeing any movies that end up being “important” (i.e. ones that don’t generate critical OR popular buzz). Frankly, it’s always really hit-or-miss at TIFF. But in the end, I decided that since I invested so much time researching and standing in line, it at least warrants a post.

Creation

Creation

Creation (release date: Sept. 25, 2009): This is the British movie about Darwin that opened the festival (instead of a Canadian movie for the first time!),  starring Paul Bettany and real-life wife Jennifer Connelly. Like 3 out of 4 of the movies I saw, it was based on a book: Annie’s Box, by one of Darwin’s great-great-grandsons. Like a lot of other movies that end up being Oscar bait, I thought it was a perfectly well-made and interesting movie, but it wasn’t nearly a masterpiece. Admittedly, it weighed too heavily on the emotional trauma and religious controversy surrounding The Origin of Species and neglected an opportunity to explore his actual theories – despite an adorable scene with Bettany and a monkey. Also, don’t marry your first-cousin. Grade: B.

The Informant!

The Informant!

The Informant! (release date: Sept. 18, 2009): The new Matt Damon movie based on – you guessed it! – a nonfiction book by journalist Kurt Eichenwald. The marketing for the movie makes it seem like Damon is just a bumbling informant – including the 40-year-old Virgin-esque poster – but his character is actually a lot more interesting than that. As the movie unfolds, I would wager that you end up being surprised by how carefully they reveal what kind of guy this Mark Whitacre is. Considering some of the other movies trying to be funny these days, this was pretty funny. Grade: B+.

Youth in Revolt

Youth in Revolt

Youth in Revolt (release date: Oct. 30, 2009): The new Michael Cera movie based on the visually-awesome epistolary novel called Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp. Like Superbad, there was too much sexual humour for my taste, but, unlike Superbad, it was interestingly absurd and included a lot of really good secondary characters (ex. Fred Willard on ‘shrooms!). Unfortunately, it felt a little rushed at times, especially when trying to include some characters from the book, but that always happens with adaptations of giant books, I suppose. Michael Cera was his usual self – awkward nice guy who gets the girl – but an imaginary and devious incarnation of his dark side named François Dillinger (with a mustache and tight white pants!) was funny insomuch as it was a change for Cera. The worst part was how much I thought it was kind of stupid and lame for (SPOILER) the characters’ young love to actually work out in the end. Boo-burns. (END SPOILER). Grade: B+. Side note: Saw Cera at the premiere and he was exactly like his characters. Found out later that Kevin Jonas was also at the premiere in the audience! *high five*

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (release date: Dec. 25, 2009): This may not be based on a book, but instead it’ll be known as the last movie Heath Ledger starred in. It should also, however, be known as the latest Terry Gilliam film (of Monty Python fame, as well as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Twelve Monkeys and Brazil). As you may know, Heath Ledger died during production, so they had Johnny Depp, Colin Ferrell and Jude Law fill in for his character (every time his character enters the fantastical imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus through the magical mirror, which happens 3 times). All that aside, here’s what I think of the movie itself: The concept is pretty good, the visuals are great, Verne Troyer’s acting is terrible, Heath Ledger/Colin Ferrell has sex with a 16-year-old, and the plot is confusing. For whatever reasons you want to speculate, the movie is pretty slow for the first half and then picks up and tries to fit in a lot of plot in a short space of time, which makes it a bit confusing. Pacing and editing, therefore, could use a lot of work before being released (although it’s being released in the UK and elsewhere very soon on Oct. 16). Could be a lot better. C+

And that was TIFF ’09. ‘Til next year…

On Teaching

Culture

Teaching is harder than it looks…. well, harder than it looks to me, at least. I’ve been tutoring the kids of a friend of the family (with math for grades 3, 5 and 9, mostly) for a couple of months now, and they’re going back to school next week. When I started, my assumption was that it was just a matter of showing them how to solve problems and talking them through the questions when they were having a hard time. But now that I’ve been doing it a while, I’m totally humbled and I have a newfound respect for teachers (good teachers).

For the most part, trying to decide how to show the kid how to do something is harder than it seems. Then, I have to figure out why the kid doesn’t understand, which is mad hard because you can’t count on them to communicate these things on their own. Even knowing when to shut up and let them figure out and when to help them is tricky. And you can forget about knowing how to motivate them, or how to get them to try when they just don’t think they can do it.

Oddly, I also tutored kids in grade 9 and 10 with the Pathways to Education program this past winter, but it wasn’t as difficult. I think it was because I was just there to help them with their homework when they needed it, and the teachers were doing the actual teaching during the day at school.

In any case, I really liked working with them (plus I enjoy doing math). It’s so rewarding when they understand something. (And not very rewarding when everything you’ve taught them seems to just fall out of their heads.) One of the little girls gave me one of the “good job!” stickers in her activity book and said I deserved it! I bet you don’t get stickers in your job.

My New Year’s Resolutions

Personal

Maybe it’s because I’ve been a student pretty much all my life, but Labour Day just feels more like the beginning of the new year to me than Jan. 1. Besides buying a new agenda recently, I also put a post-it on my laptop with my 5 goals for the year without realizing they were, essentially, my new year’s resolutions. And at the risk of making everyone feel like summer is nearly over, here are my goals for the 09-10 year:

1. Get into grad school.
2. Reach my goal weight.
3. Publish my soon-to-be-written novel.
4. Earn my French certificate from the UofT School of Continuing Studies.
5. Save enough money to buy a car.

I admit, I hesitated before publicizing these here. It’s always slightly embarrassing for me to admit certain things, like wanting to write a novel or lose weight. Frankly, I feel a bit silly. But I ultimately decided that would be cowardly. Besides, the pressure that comes with going public might be good for me. Maybe, if you’re really lucky, I’ll eventually post my Bucket List on here, too… Maybe.

Oh, Canada, how could you?

Politics and Current Events

You’ve heard about this, right? Canadian Suaad Hagi Mohamud was stranded in Kenya because KLM Airlines and the Canadian Border Service Agency thought she was an impostor ’cause her lips supposedly didn’t match her passport photo? It finally took DNA testing to prove she was who she says she was. But you already know this story.

When stories like this get a lot of media attention and people get really riled up about such blatant injustices, I always wonder about a few things:

1) Why this story? There are so many human rights abuses and just generally crappy stuff happening every second of every day every-freakin’-where, so why this story? Why this woman? How does this story become water-cooler material? I feel almost manipulated when I get upset reading about stuff like this, ’cause I know that shit happens all the time, but I feel particularly upset about this specific woman.

2) What happens now? She’s finally coming home, so is that the end of the story? Will the Canadian Border Service Agency change any of their policies? Will they find a scapegoat, pay some public retribution and wait for the storm to pass? PM Harper said the agency is being asked to provide a full account of their actions. To what end? The pessimist in me wants to cry ‘shenanigans!’ at this PR song-and-dance routine.

3) What’s the attention span for cases like this? I have to admit, when Laura Ling and Euna Lee were detained in North Korea, the situation eventually fell off my radar. That is, until they were released. And I’m sure most people who were outraged at first eventually stopped thinking about it, too. Of course, I remind myself that there are always that group of people – politicians, journalists etc. – who continue to pay attention and take action long after the general public have lost interest in stories like this. It’s a small consolation. I guess it’s not realistic to keep the public outcry going strong for every injustice.

Frankly, I feel rather blue about the whole thing. Maybe there will always be an imbalance between people who look “Canadian” and those who don’t. Could I, as a brown woman from a Muslim family, ever become prime minister of Canada? I’m gonna’ have to say no (but feel free to argue with me on that point).

I always think of this story when I’m on this subject: When I was in grade 5, I had to give a speech, and I chose the subject of holidays. I talked about the origins of Victoria Day and Halloween, and ended the speech by expressing a hope that one day Canada will celebrate all holidays in addition to Christmas and Easter, including Muslim holidays. Afterwards, my teacher said I had done a good job, but explained that in Canada, we celebrate Christmas, and I could celebrate my holidays in “my country.”

I didn’t say anything in response to that because I was confused. Up until that point, I did not realize that Canada wasn’t my country. Unfortunately, that leaves me a little dispossessed. If I don’t belong here, where the hell do I belong? That’s the crux, my friends. What kind of country is this, if its own citizens can’t feel as though they belong?