Sunday, March 30, 2008

The Quest for the Date Bun

When I was growing up in Kuwait, one of the special treats we got was the date bun. It's a simple enough thing: a yummy torus of baked dough with a few vents cut into the side, stuffed silly with date filling.



Once we moved to Montreal, I went into a great date bun drought ... until my parents discovered a Middle Eastern store, Marché Adonis, that had a large selection of baked goods. Baklava, halva, and yes, date buns.

Sadly, though, I've never been able to find them in Vancouver. Every so often, when I'm back in Montreal for a visit, I pick up one or two dozen to bring back. I freeze them and slowly ration them out over many days. Things would be so much simpler if I could hook up with a date bun dealer in Vancouver for my fix but all of the local Middle Eastern stores I've tried have never heard of them.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

The Death of the (Film) Theatre

A friend and I went to see The Bank Job last night. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Apart from a resolution that strayed into action-movie territory, I thought it was a great heist movie, presenting everything from build-up to aftermath. Recommended.

Unfortunately, my curse with theatre experiences has come back. I had a relatively long run of seven or eight nights where I enjoyed watching movies with no annoying whispers, chit-chat, interruptions. However, last night we had:
  • Two or three separate groups of talkers
  • Annoying laughter guy braying at the back of the theatre
  • Clapping and "Yeah!"s at certain characters getting their comeuppance
I know I'm a film snob. I know that preferring to watch films without audience participation is a predilection that's fast moving me into the minority (if I haven't already). I know that many of my friends have made the switch to home theatre as their primary venue for seeing movies rather than the cinema.

And I know that I'll follow pretty soon.

This lack of cinema etiquette is but one voice in the chorus that is sounding the death knell of the theatre. The others (digital downloads, home theatre improvements, HDTV, etc.) all factor in too. The combination will, I believe, relegate theatre-going to watch films into as much of a niche pastime as theatre-going to watch live shows.

It's just a question of time. My prediction is 5 years.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Interminable Game Shows

On Sunday night, I watched about two and a half episodes of "Are You Smarter Than a Canadian 5th Grader?"

[No, don't ask.]



The thing that drives me up the wall with the newer game shows ("Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?", "Deal or No Deal", etc.) is the sheer amount of time the host and the contestant spend blathering. If it takes you more than a minute to answer a question, I've already written off your show and switched channels.

[Again, don't ask.]

Not that I'm a huge fan of game shows anyway. I think I'll always have a soft spot for Jeopardy, but that's about it.

And coming back to "Are You Smarter Than a Canadian 5th Grader?" When the hell did "Biology" get renamed to "Life Systems"?