Sue and Pierre's Birthday Week!

So this week we celebrated Pierre's birthday on Friday (January 19th) and Susan's birthday on Saturday (January 20th). It was fun and we ended up with more cake than you could shake a stick at, LOL!

Tuesday night was really the only time that we could all get together for a night out, so Pierre, Susan, and I went to the vegetarian restaurant for Pierre's birthday. Susan and I treated him. It was really nice. It was a delicious meal and we had a great time. Everything would have been great if Pierre hadn't been sick all night afterwards, though.

There is a kind of flower that they put in soups here. Pierre mentioned it as we were eating, but didn't think anything of it as he finished his meal. The next day, however, after spending a restless night feeling sick, he remembered that this particular flower doesn't agree with him. At least I'll know for next time.

He felt so awful in fact, that he didn't go to work on Wednesday and I took his class for him. After going to see the doctor, it turns out that he also has a mild case of Gastro. Hopefully he'll be alright in a day or two. I feel awful for him, what with it being his birthday this week.
Susan, on the other hand, has been much luckier this week!

She got a really nice pool cue from Pierre and I. My co-worker Nathan helped me choose it because he is a pool player and I am not. I am so clueless about pool that it's actually kind of funny. We gave her the pool cue on Thursday at school so that she could use it Thursday night (every Thursday is pool night).

Nathan bought Susan a 40 oz bottle of Canadian Club Whiskey for her birthday and we opened it on Friday night at her house. I think this is the first time I ever drank Canadian Club. I was surprised by how smooth it was (I'm used to Jack Daniels). I think I have decided to be a CC fan as well.

As you know, we play poker every Friday night, and for the last few months it has been at Susan's house. This week was no exception although there were a few more people than usual since everyone wanted to come celebrate her birthday with her. Terry, Phillip, and Tavis (the usual suspects) were there as always, but tonight we also had Jen, Adel and Robert playing.

Robert and Adel can't often make poker on Friday because they are so busy setting up their new on-line businesses (I think that evenings and weekends are the only time they have to do it). Jen lives pretty far outside of Chiayi, so it's a bit of a trek for her to come, but they all came and joined us at Sue's house for a poker party. Jen has a class now on Friday nights that ends at 9PM, so she thinks she will be able to make it more often since she is already in Chiayi around the time we start playing.

We ended up with eight players at Sue's house, and we played until nearly 4 in the morning. It was really fun. In the end, however, Robert and Terry were the only ones left with any chips, and they decided to call it a draw and split the pot.

Poor Susan only has about 5 ounces left if her Canadian Club, too... so I guess we'll have to buy her some more, LOL!

Saturday night we went up to a French restaurant on Daya called Le Partager. There were two birthday girls, Susan and Tara. Tara's birthday was Wednesday, but this dinner was to celebrate both their birthdays. The restaurant prepared a piece of cake for each birthday girl and presented them on a big plate with a tealite candle, it was really cute!

After dinner, we all drove over to a new bar that just opened called Sport Bar. Yes: Sport Bar (singular). We decided that means they probably only enjoy one sport... and since this is Taiwan that sport is probably ping-pong. So if you ever need to see the big ping-pong match, you know where to go, LOL! Seriously, though, the place is really nice. They have a big screen TVs that show "the game", as well as a few mini-TVs that customers can change the channel. They have little nooks around the central area and several of these have a computer with internet access in them. They also have air hockey and an electronic basketball shooter game... It's quite the cute place! I left Susan there with the gang around midnight and headed home.

As for today... Sue is off at volleyball and I am taking it easy here writing my blog!!

As I write this, I'm listening to a new CD that I just got in the mail this week.

In the early 1980s there was a skinhead oi band that I really liked called Blitz (click on the link to open their myspace page and hear some tunes). As far as I knew, they released a handful of singles and one fantastic album called "Voice of a Generation". I have loved this album since as long as I can remember, it is loud and obnoxious but has lots of sing-along anthem-style songs.

I recently discovered that there had, in fact, been a second album called "Second Empire Justice". To say that this second album is different from the first is like saying that broccoli is not watermelons. This album is so different that I would never have guessed it was the same band if I hadn't seen the liner notes and credits for who played what instrument.

The first album is straight-up hardcore oi music (heavy guitars, pounding bass and jungle-style drumming with a vocalist screaming his fool head off). This second album is sedate by comparison, uses as many keyboards as it does guitars, has dance rhythms and drum machines. It sounds vaguely like Joy Division, The Wake, Modern English, OMD, or early New Order.

To most hardcore Blitz fans, this was a complete disgrace... I'm really enjoying it, though! 20 years later it still sounds really cool! A lot of the tracks are hit and miss, but there are enough excellent tracks on it to make it worth tracking down. I'm really pleased to have found it and I have been listening to it pretty much non-stop since it came in the mail! YAY!

Due to browsing over on the website Rate Your Music, I have also discovered that Blitz reunited and released a third album called "The Killing Dream" in 1989. Reviews say it is more like the first album, but more mature and less angry. The reviews also say it is a very good album. I can't comment on it yet as I haven't heard it... but watch this space because it's already in the mail on it's way to me.
Blitz have not released anything recently, but they are in the middle of a tour of the United States, so it's nice to know they're still active!

Dinner with friends! A mouth-watering post...

Susan and I, along with my friend Albert and his girlfriend Mickey (whom I have known forever!) were invited to Sean and Jane's house last night for dinner.

Sean and Jane own the bagel shop. Albert and I have been doing an informal language exchange on Tuesday nights with them for the last two years, but Albert has been more and more busy lately, and he can rarely attend. The language lessons have become less and less frequent since just before Susan arrived in Taiwan. I have been busy, or Sean has been busy, or Jane has been busy... the lessons are cancelled or rescheduled... so my Tuesday nights with Sean have fallen by the wayside of late.

This doesn't mean that my friendship with Sean and Jane has lapsed! About two weeks ago, Susan and I were having a snack at the bagel shop and we started talking with Jane. Jane has been attending a government sponsored course in Taiwanese traditional and specialty cooking. She has been really enjoying herself and she wanted to invite us over to her place for dinner! Susan and I accepted, especially when Jane said she wanted to play Mahjong after we ate.

We arrived around 7 o'clock and were treated to some really wonderful dishes. Jane knows how picky Susan and I are, so she was pretty selective in what she prepared!

There was my favourite soup: carrot and turnip (I guess it's a turnip... it might be a radish... I've never seen anything like it in Canada: they are generally as long as your forearm!). Whatever the "turnip" thing is, I love it in soup.

We had quite an assortment of appetizers: There was a special dish made with rice-noodles. It looked like Shanghai noodles, but tasted completely different. There was also a dish made with snap peas, beans, mushrooms, and carrots that was out of this world. There was some Tofu, prepared Taiwan style (with garlic and gravy). There was also some Chinese cabbage smothered in garlic butter with sweet carrots.

No proper Taiwan meal is complete without meat (unless you're vegetarian!) so we had three dishes to choose from: sausages, meat-sauce, and pork chops.

The Chinese sweet sausages were served in the traditional Taiwanese way: with fresh slices of garlic. You are meant to eat a slice of garlic with each mouthful of sausage. This creates a mix of sweet and sour flavours in your mouth. It's a little overwhelming at first because of the garlic being so strong, but it's really good!

The meat-sauce is something called "Lou-Ro", which means deer meat. This isn't actually deer meat, but rather a thick stew-like goulash that has huge chunks of meat in a really delicious sauce. It is meant to be served over rice or noodles as a main dish, but as tonight was Jane's showcase for various things she'd learned, we were treating it like yet another appetizer. There was, of course, rice available, but we were encouraged to eat it over the rice-noodles. This was especially nice because of all the different flavours coming together!

Finally, there were also some fresh Chinese style battered pork chops, which everyone enjoyed.

For afters we had some fresh fruits: apples, oranges and something that looked like green eggs, but were more like apples with a pit in them. I wish I could be more specific but I can't for the life of me remember what they're called in English. Sorry! You eat them like apples, skin and all, and they are quite juicy... not guava... nope. Sorry ...drawing a blank!

Finally, we opened a bottle of Champagne that Susan and I brought instead of wine (we still had it from New Year's Eve and this seemed like a good occasion to use it!). We toasted to friendship and to 2007.

After dinner we played Mahjong, and Susan kicked everyone's butt... despite not having a clue what she was doing at the start of the evening, LOL!

It was a really nice evening. It was especially great to just sit and relax among friends. When everyone was good and tired, we crashed on the sofa and let Sean show off his plasma screen TV and surround-sound in-home theatre system. We watched the last half hour of Star Wars 3 on TV, then headed home.

All in all, it was good night and definitely something to write home about!

Happy New Year!

So here we are in another new year, and I've been too busy this week to post my blog, LOL!

Susan and I spent an awesome New Year's Eve with friends at her place. We got together around 7 o'clock and we hung out listening to music, eating, drinking, and playing scattergories until midnight. Then we went up to the roof of out building and enjoyed a panoramic view of the night sky filled with fireworks! ok...I'm making it sound better than it was. It was actually too foggy out to see too many fireworks, but there were loads of them coming from all directions, so it was nevertheless really fun.

We opened up a nice bottle of bubbly (real stuff, not bloody Baby Duck), and we all had a few glasses as we toasted the new year and enjoyed the view. The night was really mild so most of us were up on the roof in short sleeves. The sky was overcast, but the moon itself was really really bright. It was a gorgeous evening.

There were seven of us there. Susan and myself, Tavis, Kevin, Lenka, Terry, and Phillip. It was loads of fun and we laughed ourselves silly until about 4 am when we just had to call it a night before people got too tired to drive home!

The next day, I spent my time organizing my New Years "best of 2006" podcast. I really enjoyed putting it together and I have been really enjoying listening to it, too. If you have a chance, by all means give it a listen. You can get it here: Avenue Podcast New Year 2006.

Since I am still in a bit of a "New Year" mood, I thought now would be the perfect time for me to post my "Best Of" lists for 2006.

Television

TV Disappointments of 2006:

1) Ghost Whisperer (last season was good, this season has sucked so far. If Melinda cries one more time I'm gonna hurl. It's tuning into a cheesy version of Highway to Heaven, if that's even possible but I definitely love the addition of her new co-worker Delia Banks (played by Camryn Manheim). I love Camryn Manheim, but so far she has been really underused and she is pretty much why I am still watching the show.)

2) Jericho (Started off well... then turned into a typical soap with a cheesy premise. As much as I like Skeeter Davis, I just can't buy him as an ex-mercenary.)

3) Medium (The stories have been great this year, but her boss and partner are constantly mocking her abilities to the point where it's a farce: why are they even working with her if they don't take her seriously? It's distracting and annoying.)

4) The Book Of Daniel (This show aired far too briefly in January, 2006. Although only 3 or 4 episodes ever made it to air, I have since managed to see all the episodes. It was cancelled way ahead of it's time as NBC gave into the pressures of the right-wing minority. A lot of complaints were based on the fact that the main character, Episcopal priest Reverend Daniel Webster (Played by Aidann Quinn) was accepting of his openly gay son Peter (Played by Christian Campbell). If I were to have an objection, it would have been to the fact that two of the church's bishops, one of them married, were having an affair. That upset me much more that the fact that the reverend had a gay son! The show was well written and thought provoking. One thing that I most liked about the show was the fact that Reverend Daniel often had heart to heart conversations with Jesus (wonderfully played by Garret Dillahunt), whom only he could see. Their conversations were often thought provoking and humorous. I would have liked to see more of this show.)

5) Torchwood (This show is a bit of an odd one since it appears on both my Best Of list, and my list of disappointments for 2006! I've added it to the disappointments only because I felt that, as good as it was, it only ever hinted at character development. I also felt strongly that the characters often behaved in ways that were plot driven to the extreme, doing things that were not true to their character, but that looked good on screen. I also felt that the series producer (Russell T. Davies), who is himself gay, took the opportunity to lay the sexuality on a bit too thick. Everyone kisses or sleeps with everyone else to the point where it seemed a little overboard and preachy: "look everyone! There's nothing wrong with being gay!"... true enough, but half the time it wasn't necessary in the context of the show! So... although I loved the basic premise and the storytelling, I was a little disappointed that Torchwood wasn't better than it was... especially the weak-ass season finale!)


TV Best of 2006:

1) Dexter (series 1 on Showtime in the US)
2) Heroes (on-going American NBC network)
3) The Lost Room (3 part mini-series on US SciFi Channel)
4) Robin Hood (12 episodes from the BBC in the UK)
5) Doctor Who (12 episodes and Christmas special from the BBC in the UK)
6) Torchwood (13 episodes from the BBC in the UK)
7) Desperate Housewives (on-going American ABC network)
8) Stargate: Atlantis (on-going from Sky One and the US SciFi Channel)
9) Day Break (already cancelled from American ABC network)
10) The War at Home (American FOX network) / How I Met Your Mother (American CBS network)

Honorable mention for being consistently engrossing, well acted, and well written: Coronation Street (on-going from ITV in the UK and CBC in Canada).

Honorable mention for being fun to watch despite inconsistencies and plot holes: As The World Turns (on-going daytime drama from American CBS network).

Honorable mention because I don't watch them but Susan keeps insisting they're fantastic: Grey's Anatomy (on-going from the American ABC network... Susan's choice for #4) and House (on-going from the American FOX network... Susan's choice for #5).


Books:

I didn't read as many books as usual this year, so I have fewer to choose from than usual, LOL!

Here are just a few books that I read and thoroughly enjoyed (I didn't take the publishing date into consideration).

1) Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code (shame about the movie)
2) Daren Shan's Lord Loss and The Demon Thief.
3) Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series (four books: The Eyre Affair, Lost In A Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, and Something Rotten. A fifth book, First Among Sequels is due out in July 2007)
4) Dianna Wynn Jones' Howl's Moving Castle and it's sequel Castle in the Air.


Anime and Comics

Anime: want to check out some spectacular story telling and great fun stories? Try something from my top 10 These are 10 Japanese animated television shows/movies that I watched this year and absolutely loved! Most are suitable for mature children, but all are well written and do not treat the audience as children or as idiots. The dialogue is clever and snappy, and the stories were engaging and had lots of twists and turns. Titles marked with an asterix (*) are NOT suitable for children. More information about any of these titles can be found at the Anime News Network.

1) The Twelve Kingdoms (Fantasy epic set in a world that resembles ancient China. A young girl is ripped from her home in modern Japan and thrust into the twelve kingdoms. Available with excellent English Dub)

2) Fullmetal Alchemist (Science meets magic! Brothers Edward and Alfonse travel the land trying to find the mystical philosopher's stone. With it they hope to regain something they've lost... available with excellent English Dub)

3) Scrapped Princess (Not everything is as it seems! A prophecy claims that the princess will destroy the world on her 16th birthday, a date which is fast approaching! Available with excellent English Dub)

4) Mushishi (Mushi are a type of elemental lifeform that most people cannot see. A Mushishi is a teacher and a doctor who studies mushi. Human interaction with mushi is usually inadvertent, and often dangerous. Sometimes, the mushishi can help.... expected to be available in English dub sometime next year, but so far only available in Japanese. I saw it with subtitles provided by fans).

5) Tie: My Neighbor Totoro/Spirited Away (My Neighbor Totoro is an excellent full-length classic film from 1987. I'd rate it higher, but I thought some of the newer shows deserved a chance! This classic film tells the story of how two girls meet their forest dwelling neighbor. It is distributed in the West by Disney. Available with 2 different English Dubs. I prefer the old one, not the Disney dub!) (Spirited Away is the 2002 Oscar winner for Best Animated Feature Film. It tells the story of a young girl who, along with her parents, inadvertently wanders into the world of the gods. She must find away to save her parents and return them all to our world. Distributed in English by Disney with excellent dub! )

6) Rozen Maiden (Living dolls fight to the death! The dolls were created by a master craftsman and each comes to life with the help of a medium. They fight in what is called "The Alice Game", a game where the winner will not only be allowed to meet their creator, but will also become Alice, no longer a doll, but a real person... only available in Japanese, I saw it with English Subs supplied by fans. A second series called Traumend is available but I haven't seen that one yet!)

7) Witch Hunter Robin (Robin works as a sort of police officer, tracking down witches in modern Japan. Funny thing is, she is also a witch. Plot twists and conspiracies galore in this excellent series... available with excellent English Dub)*

8) Hellsing (Vampire cops!! This is the story of the Hellsing foundation in England, a quasi-religious organization that fights vampires, with the help of two vampires! Available with decent enough English dub)*

9) Chrono Crusade (Set in what seems to be America during the 1930s, this is the story of a religious organization, The Magdalene Order, who train their priests and nuns to fight against demons.... using big bombs and guns, of course! Our hero is sister Rosette, who has the most unusual of companions, a demon named Chrono who befriended her as a child. This wonderful series is available with an excellent English Dub.)

10) Elfen Lied (A man made species of human-like killers seek to take over the world... Excellent storytelling, but definitely not for the squeamish. There is enough blood to supply the red-cross for a month. This is also borderline hentai, and the main character often wanders around without wearing any clothing... the nudity is pointless and distracting, but the story itself was compelling enough to make it into my top 10. DEFINTELY NOT FOR CHILDREN)*


Comic Books: Looking for some light reading or something fun to while away some time? Check out my top 5 comic books. Most are available as collected works in trade paperbacks.

1) Tie: Ultimate X-Men/Ultimate Spider-Man A couple of years ago, Marvel Comics created an alternate universe, known as the Ultimate Universe. In that universe, all the characters and super heroes are the same, but without all the baggage and back stories of the regular Marvel Comics Universe. In a nutshell, it means that a first-time comic book reader can pick up an issue and read it without having to know all the intricacies and backgrounds of all the characters... simply because they haven't been written yet! I have been REALLY enjoying the ultimate comic books! They are highly recommended, and a subscription for a year is only about $20 USD.

2) Tie: 1602/Spider Man India In 1602, Marvel Comics presents an 8 part mini-series showing what would have happened if the super heroes of today had actually lived in the year 1602. It was created and written by Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert. It features the X-Men, Spider Man (Peter Parker), Nick Fury, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Captain America, and many others. This is phenomenal, and worth tracking down. Spider Man India tells the story of a Spiderman who is not an American named Peter Parker. What if he was a teenage boy from India? Really cool story! This is another marvel comics mini-series that is worth finding.

3) Keroro Gunsou (AKA Sgt. Frog) This is a very funny on-going manga (Japanese comic book) that tells the story of frog-like alien invaders on Earth who end up befriending the very creatures they were sent to enslave. Highly amusing for both kids and adults. Available in English, but the books are all black and white, as is the norm for Japanese comics. There is also an excellent television series based on these books, but to date it isn't readily available in English (I watched it in Japanese with fan subs)

4) Astonishing X-Men This series has just started it's 3rd year. It is written by Joss Wheadon (creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly) and drawn by John Cassaday. The story has been really good so far, but as should be expected with Joss Wheadon; what looked like it would be a 3 or 4-issue story line has actually turned out to be one long story arc that has not yet resolved. Rumour has it that this year will see the conclusion of the Wheadon/Cassaday story arc. Great reading, loads of fun, but a very complex plot. I strongly suggest that you pick up the back issues if you want to read this comic. The back issues are nearly all available as trade paperbacks that collect multiple issues together in one book.

5) X-Men First Class This is a really cool on-going mini-series from Marvel. It is about the first group of students to become the X-Men: Cyclops, Iceman, The Beast, and Jean Grey (Marvel Girl). This mini-series takes us back to the original team of X-men and what they were like as teenagers. It's been loads of fun so far! There are 4 left in the series. I hope they turn out to be as good as the first ones have been!


Music:

Here are my top 10 favourite Albums of 2006 (in order):

1) I'm From Barcelona - Let Me Introduce My Friends
2) Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country
3) Morrissey - Ringleader Of The Tormentors
4) Beatles - Love
5) Cansei De Ser Sexy - CSS
6) BWO - Halcyon Days
7) Muse - Black Holes And Revelations
8) Saint Etienne - Tales From Turnpike House (US Edition)
9) Belle And Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
10) The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes

Honorable mention:
11) Vanessa And The O's - la Ballade D'O
12) Nouvelle Vague - Bande A Part
13) Asian King-Fu Generation - Fan Club


My Favourite EPs of 2006:
Secret Shine - Elemental EP
Secret Shine - Beyond Sea And Sky EP
Sambassadeur - Coastal Affairs EP

Reissues that I was *very* happy to see:
Nitzer Ebb - Body Of Work (2 CD Collection)
Brighter - Out To See (featuring many previously unreleased tracks)
Weeping Willows - Singles Again (2CD collection)

Finaly, here are the songs that rocked my world in 2006 (AKA: Most plays in my iPod)
Fosca - I've Agreed to Something I Shouldn't Have
The Legends - Play It For Today
Radio Dept. - Pet Grief
Depeche Mode - Precious
Depeche Mode - Lilian
Asian Kung-Fu Generation - Rewrite (Theme from Fullmetal Alchemist)
I'm From Barcelona - We're from Barcelona
Pale Sunday - Twiggy Superstar
Young Tradition - California Morning
The Honeytraps - Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You)
Lily Allen - Smile
Lily Allen - LDN
Lily Allen - Nan, You're A Window Shopper (unreleased Demo)
BWO - Chariots Of Fire
BWO - Temple Of Love
Saint Etienne - Milkbottle Symphony
Pipettes - I Love A Boy In Uniform (School Uniform) WHY Wasn't this on the damn CD?!?

Most of these songs can be checked out on my Avenue Podcast, and all can be purchased from my favourite on-line CD shops:

Poppolar Records One stop shop for Indie Pop!
CD-Wow Free shipping worldwide, good selection, low prices
CD-Baby Good Service & decent selection of some hard-to find CDs.
CD-Japan Great site for Japanese imports: low prices, lots of freebies!

Once again... Happy New Year... and if you've actually read this far: bless you! ;)