Archive for May, 2007

Review: UDON

Title: UDON
Release Year: 2006
Running Time: 134 min.
Genre: Comedy / Drama
Director: Katsuyuki Motohiro
Writer: Masashi Todayama

A bright, cheery film about one of Japan’s dearest comfort foods, udon. This film takes you through a roller-coaster adventure ride on this tasty dish as we see from start to end how a fad/boom grows and deteriorates in Japan’s smallest prefecture, Kagawa. Interestingly enough the movie begins with a fact:
The Kagawa prefecture is home to just under a million residences, but boasts an astounding 900 udon shops. Compare this to approx. 500 McDonald’s outlets making its home in Tokyo, with a population of about 12.5 million.

One can only imagine how much of a craze this noodle dish is in this part of the country.

Although this film showcases some of the passion that goes behind making the noodle in its purest and delicate form, this film is far from what you would call educational. A comedy at best – much better than the stand-up comedian we hear at the start of the film – we are pleasantly entertained with scenes of udon noodles in all its glory.

I can’t imagine not salivating after seeing this film. But then again, with a Japanese background, I am more than likely more partial to Japanese food than anything else. We see oodles and oodles of udon shops in the area, each one having their own unique specialty. We see one udon shop that literally only sells udon noodles and requests you to bring your own chopsticks, bowl and sauce! Comicly we see people coming out of this shop with udon noodles in a Zip-lock type bag, with people eating the noodles with their bare hands.

Behind all of this udon glitz and glamour, we do have a storyline based loosely upon the main character and his father who day after day, slaves over his udon masterpiece. As Kosuke tries to make ties with his father, we see the storyline progress as the father unexpectedly passes away, leaving his store without any future, and leaving its customers with questions.

What does Kosuke-kun do? Will he survive in this udon-boom, or will it just pass away like the once famous tamagochis?

I have to say, however, that I did enjoy this film for what it was. Not expecting a great deal out of it, I was pleasantly surprised with the content of udon, its tedious process – albeit quite brief – and the characters, whom I think made the film that much better. The varied personalities made it a more interesting feast for the eyes.

Watch it for a good laugh. Watch it to appease your appetite. Or simply watch it for the love of udon!

An overview…

So it seems like I’ve been absent for a while, and in a way I have. Still physically here in Toronto, but I suppose that’s about all I can say. I think it’s safe to say that I’ve been a little recluse lately, not doing a whole lot and staying just a little closer to home. Hopefully in the near future though, that will change. Let’s all hope for the best!

This weekend I’m volunteering for the Art of Jazz festival at the Distillery District. This will be my third year that I volunteer for this event, as I’ve always been a jazz fan, and getting backstage access to anything is always a great perk to have. If you’re in the neighbourhood this weekend, stop on by the District!

On another note, I hear the Becel Ride for Heart is happening this Sunday so I will likely stay clear of the area that day. Instead, I think I may opt for Streetsville’s 35th annual Bread and Honey festival, which I’ve actually never attended before. Just around the corner from my home, this annual event celebrates the goodness of bread and honey. The city of Mississauga prepares itself with 13000 loaves of bread and 650 pounds of honey! Imagine that.

Today’s news involves the closing of Sam the Record Man… once again. Only this time I get the feeling it’s for real. A true icon in Toronto’s downtown core, this family run store has been a favourite for many people. I remember the days when Sam’s always had one of the lowest prices on albums. As of June 30, 2007, the flagship store will be closing its doors for good.

On another note, an interesting turn of events happened over at the office of JPG Magazine. The two founding members of the magazine quit the company after a disagreement with the CEO. It’s a sad state of affairs and one which was unexpected. The online community is going bonkers over this and while some people say we are over-reacting, others feel this is deserving an issue to rant and rave about so that everyone’s voices are heard.

A similar event occurred just a short while ago when Flickr deleted a user’s photo explaining that the site was not intended to rant and rave about other people’s problems. While the photo no longer exists on the site, Flickr seems to have offered a formal apology to this user, probably one of the most popular members on the site.

So all in all there has been a lot of things going on. I don’t mean to be anti-social by any means, but for the time being, I will try my best to cope with the situation at hand and see where it leads me.

Not to mention I still have to get a start on my next issue of U&I which has been on the back burner for some time now. Hopefully I will find some time to do this one before it gets too late!

I went away with Norah Jones

This was my fourth time seeing Norah Jones in Toronto. And this was the second-best performance she gave, next to her debut performance at the Palais Royal Ballroom in 2002.

She came out of total surprise as the opening two songs from the opening act was accompanied by Norah herself. Standing alongside M. Ward while he strummed the guitar, I didn’t realize it was Norah until she started singing. After the two songs, however, she stepped off the stage as quietly as she came on it.

After the opening act, there was a 15 minute intermission where the crew re-organized the instruments and prepared for Norah.

And then the lights went dim. The players stepped up on stage, and that’s how the second-best Norah Jones concert I’ve ever been to, started.

Adam Levy, Daru Oda, Andrew Borger, Lee Alexander and Norah Jones. They were all there, just like in 2002 at the Palais Royal Ballroom (now called the Casino Royale). This year, once again held at Massey Hall wasn’t as intimate as her first performance in Toronto, but was noticeably better in all respects than when she played at Massey Hall in 2003.

The acoustics were much better. The lighting, much more varied and interesting, the song selection was evenly distributed between her three albums, and Norah’s on stage presence was still the same, good old Norah that we all love.

Not quite as shy on stage anymore, but nonetheless a quiet presence, Norah goes through her setlist like it is programmed into her. When something unexpected happens, Norah is forced to amuse the crowd with her sheepish comments about Toronto, how the band members don’t watch sports, and a little chit chat with the audience about how she thought “Row double Z” was a city and not a seating location.

Even since her last performance at the Molson Amphitheatre in the summer of 2004, her talents have grown considerably in addition to her maturation in singing. Norah – and Daru – now play the guitar, making her more active on stage, jumping from the grand, the wurlitzer, the acoustic, and electric guitars.

My only qualm about this concert was that Norah didn’t play on the wurlizter enough. I absolutely love the sound of that piano and as soon as I hear it, an unmistakable image of Norah immediately jumps into my head.

Throughout the concert, cameras and their flashes seemed to be OK by the staff members, as flashes were constantly going off. Fortunately I was able to get some half decent shots even without the use of flash, enabling me to take more shots without the apparent disturbance of my close neighbours. I do have to apologize though, for the shutter noise my camera makes. It may have been a nuisance to my direct neighbour who probably thought I was taking way too many pictures. Only 53 though. Only.

I have to commend her though, on her choice to play Painter Song. That has to be one of my favourite songs on her first album and I am so very happy she put that in to her set list. As always, after she graciously takes a bow and exits the stage, the crowd cheers on for an Encore. After a few minutes of cheering, they all come back for 3 more songs.

Taking a last twirl on stage, she exits and the lights lite up.

As an aside, what amazes me all the time is how fast the crew is able to disassemble the stage. As soon as the concert is over, they storm the stage and start tearing it apart like there’s no tomorrow.

So now that the concert is over, I decide to wait a while to see if she would come out of the Stage door on Victoria Street. Seeing that there were about 9 others doing the same thing, I didn’t feel all that silly doing it by myself. I asked them if she came out the last time she was here. One guy mentioned that there was a huge crowd that time, and that they were asked to line up along the building as Norah patiently and so kindly signed everybody’s requests one by one.

So a mere hour later, there were 10 of us including myself as she came out of the door with a security guy by her side. At first nobody knew if they should approach her, but as I found myself standing right next to her, I took my picture of the two of us that was taken 5 years back, and asked her to sign it for me. I told her that was the year Toronto had a garbage strike and she seemed to remember that incident.

I asked if I could have yet another picture with her, and she graciously agreed as someone working with her volunteered to take my picture. Norah takes a look at my camera and says the same thing she told me 5 years ago. “Wow, that’s a great camera!” I remember distinctly 5 years ago I had my Kodak DC265 Zoom, and she had though that was a fancy camera. 5 years later and me with my Nikon D200 and SB600, I get the same comment from her; made me laugh inside.

She expressed how she didn’t like her picture taken when she was not ready for it. So out of respect, I didn’t take any additional pictures – except for the one from behind showing her signing for the crowd.

She readies herself by putting her arm around you and posing for the camera. She has to be one of the friendliest artists I’ve met to date. Even Lisa Loeb doesn’t beat that. As she was signing autographs, she chit chatted with one of the fans as he talked about past Canadian concerts. I merely marvelled at the fact that Norah is standing in front of me and talking to a fan. It just seemed surreal for a moment.

And once again, I realized that she is indeed pretty short.

But she is definitely no short in talent, nor personable character. And that’s what makes Norah Jones such a great artist to listen to, and see live in concert.

The next time she comes to Toronto, you can bet I’ll have the picture that was taken today in hand, ready for her to sign!

After all these years…

Every year we keep saying to each other “we should meet up.” Every year goes by without actually meeting. Last year we came really close as I set up a meeting at a restaurant. The only problem was, that restaurant closed down and so we never met up. This year we decided to give it a go again… and finally, we met.

It was a pleasant encounter this evening as I met a childhood friend of mine for the first time in several years. It must have been at least 5 years ago that I saw her last, and even at that time it was a brief encounter.

Meeting for dinner after work, it was quite a different experience as we reminisced about the past, talked about the present, and pondered about the future. More talkative than I had remembered her to be, she was highly engrossed in everything that I had to say. In turn it was a conversation-rich evening that was very refreshing for me.

When we decided to meet up at Williams-Sonoma on Bloor street, it never really occurred to me if I would recognize her easily. However after perusing through the store a number of times, I came walking down the steps from the second floor to the main, and saw an unsuspecting person looking quietly at the coffee makers.

Is that her? Can it be her? She looks a little different.

Putting all suspicions aside, I slowly approached her. By the time I was next to her, she turned around. Although I had to think for a split second, I knew soon after it was her. Different from what I had remembered from my childhood years (probably a good thing), but now that I think about it, similar to how I saw her 5 years ago.

Our stories carried from the good old days in Barrhaven where we walked back from school together, to going to Wonderland, and then arriving to where we are now. She’s married – oddly enough to an acquaintance to my brother – but has no little ones in the works. She so calmly puts it, “I’m still a little selfish in my ways.”

The evening went quick. Too quick that she thought it was still only 7:30 by the time we got out of the restaurant (it was actually quarter past 9 at that point).

Being a photographer, it was amusing to hear her say that she was the impatient type who doesn’t like to get her photos taken. However, she was kind enough to insist on taking photos at a park when she goes to San Fransisco next week.

I’ll be looking forward to that if it ever comes my way!

Although we ended the evening off saying we should meet again soon, I really do wonder, when will that be?

Saturday May 5, 2007

It was a day full of pleasant surprises today. And what better day to have it all than a day like today, with the sun shining, the brisk wind blowing, and the the clear blue sky. It was a great day to celebrate my birthday.

After attending my last Mandarin class of the year – I ended with a measly 88% overall, which was lower than my first year at 93% – I had a multitude of choices as to what to do before my birthday dinner celebration at Sushi-man. However since I was lacking so much sleep these past few nights, I decided that I needed a power nap and took some time off to sleep in the late morning. I felt guilty as it was a gorgeous day outside, but I really needed that nap.

After waking up, I was almost tempted to go back to the photography show just to browse around. But then I thought, maybe it would be interesting to go see the Japanese Bazaar that’s being held at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre. I’ve never been to the bazaar before even though I did help out making mochi (Japanese rice cakes) one year. I remembered however that the DVP was closed all weekend long and that persuaded me to move towards my last choice, which was to go to High Park and see the cherry blossoms that I was told were only at around 60-70% blossom.

I figured I would check it out just to see what it was all about since I’ve never actually gone to High Park during this season… let alone see a row of sakura trees in Japan or here in Toronto. This was probably the best choice I made during the day.

As I walked around into the park, I slowly made my way taking pictures along the way for good measure. I came to the main pathway where the cherry blossoms lined the path on either sides. One side carried the river while the other side had the grassy knoll. As I walked from the base of the hill, I came upon a very pretty sight of cherry blossoms even though they weren’t at their peaks.

More interestingly, the the majority of the crowd sitting and picnicing on the hill were Japanese. I suppose this was to be expected. It was just amusing that it occurred to me that this is where the Japanese community of Toronto hide. I walked around taking pictures until about halfway through the path, I hear someone calling my name. I look to my left and I see Naho waving her hand and coming towards me. I hadn’t seen her since January so it was a surprise. She had set herself up with her boyfriend, on a tarp, merrily drinking some wine – even though it is illegal to drink alcohol in public.

They told me that they were expecting more people to arrive shortly and that I was more than welcome to help them with the wine. So how could I pass this opportunity?! With a little snack here and there to munch on, we caught up and chatted. Next came a friend of Aidan who was very interesting to talk to, and whom was properly equipped with 12 mini-bottles of beer. After him came Tomomi whom I hadn’t seen for the same period of time. Always a bundle of joy, she brought with her some onigiri (Japanese rice balls).

A little while later more friends came and this became a full blown hanami, which surprisingly was my very first experience. While I’m sure it would be in more of a grand scale if I were in Japan, this was still a pretty good time even without full bloom.

I was there for a good 4 hours before I had to make my way downtown for my dinner engagement. Thanks to traffic – and I suppose a little thanks to losing track of time – I was about 30 minutes late for dinner. Of course I felt really bad as all my friends were already there waiting for me.

I was told to try the $35 omakase dinner there as the quantity was more than average, and the quality was good. Of the 10 of us, 8 had ordered omakase, which I’m sure must have been quite a task for the sushi-chef that night.

While I’m sure I could have handled the omakase dinner without any problems, that night I had coincidentally run into a photography friend of mine who was sitting at the sushi counter with his girlfriend. Without me knowing, he had bought me a plate full of sushi, which was so very kind of him. And it was a very large plate indeed. That plate alone made me quite full. To add the omakase dinner on top was just crazy.

The dinner was great as I got to catch up with friends. It was a while since we all met up like this, and I was quite happy to see that they all came out for my birthday. Fully armed with a homemade apricot cake, 12 year old whiskey, a bookmark from Korea and a Japanese dish set, it was a memorable way to celebrate.

This set is special in its own way and is always full of unexpected things.

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