The Dark Knight Rises...Somewhat

courtesy of
Cynthia Blackston
from Flickr

Tuesday August 7, 5:41 p.m.

Well, after the Scarborough Ribfest, the remaining Anime Court members and I decided to go for the big ticket: "The Dark Knight Rises". So, The King, The Bishop, The Rook and The Mathematician and I drove over to Scarborough Town Centre to catch the final movie in the trilogy.

To be honest, my expectations had not been that high for this one. Not because I had expected it to be a flop, but "The Dark Knight"raised the bar so high a few years ago that I just couldn't see this sequel being able to even be on the same level, let alone surpass it. And sure enough, "The Dark Knight Rises"isn't as good as the second movie. I found it entertaining enough, so it remains residing on a level between "The Dark Knight"and "Batman Begins"....luckily this last sequel is lodged closer to the second movie than it is to the first movie. I'm still not totally sold on "Batman Begins".

What I did enjoy about it were the inter-character relationships. There were the feelings of camaraderie, betrayal, heartbreak and respect amongst the human and not-so-human knots that have woven this complicated web. And sadly, in one major relationship, the string (and the heart) breaks for most of the movie. I enjoyed the banter between Bruce and Selina along with John Blake's lynchpin connection with pretty much everyone. And the ending is undeniably sweet and happy...probably a source of some debate. And of course, what's a Batman movie without some kickass transportation?

What I didn't like about it was the surprising clunkiness of editing in a number of the scenes which resulted in some fairly Tumbler-sized plotholes: Blake figuring out who Batman really is....pre-movie? That overlong captivity in the Pit, and how Bruce manages to find his way into the siege that is Gotham City....among other scenes. There was an overall feeling in parts of patchwork quilting that never struck me at all when I saw the second movie. And generally, there was the genuine concern that this movie was about to collapse under the weight of its own mythology and expectations....much like Batman and Gotham City during their darkest hours. That is what happened with the "Star Wars"prequels...at points, I thought the whole Batman thing was gonna end up being too mythic. And despite the reports that Bane's vocal problems had been cleaned up...I was still straining to understand what he was mumbling about. Between his electronic garble and Batman's bass-end growling, the war for Gotham could've ended up even longer just because of the lack of communication.

But Chris Nolan held it together long enough to get us to the end without dissatisfying most of us. And I'm sure both he and Christian Bale are sighing some relief that it's now all over. All I'm hoping is that it will be many many years before someone decides to start up another franchise with The Caped Crusader (et tu, Spiderman?). But there may be a teensy-weensy chance that Anne Hathaway may inherit her own superhero/supervillain set of movies. Joseph Gordon-Levitt? Nah.

Simcoe Day Weekend Part 2

Tuesday August 7, 5:16 p.m.

Yesterday was my second trip to what has become a standing summer tradition in the GTA: Ribfest. This time, it was Scarborough's turn to host the massive culinary orgy of grilled intercostal muscles from cows and pigs. The Ribfest gang got together which included members of The Anime Court and a couple of others.

As usual, we all got there early to secure a table under the shade. Unlike the one in Etobicoke's Centennial Park on Canada Day, we needn't have worried about baking under the sun for this Ribfest. The sun was there, but the temps were definitely un-August-like. Not cool but it was really comfortable. Tokyo residents would've just wept if they'd even had a single second's exposure to the Toronto air yesterday. It also helped that the organizers were smart and placed the tables under a lot of trees for automatic shade.

A grand picture of one of the rib shops represented. This is Crabby's Ribs...actually a regional restaurant from London Ontario. Another nice thing of getting to a Ribfest early is that there is no real problem of standing in line. There are a few places whose reputations precede them and already attract a fair lineup right from the get-go, but in this case, Crabby's looked a bit lonely so I got there and picked up my contribution to the rib conversation and brought back a half-rack. That, and a sausage on a bun plus fries and gravy. Apparently, I do have a death wish.

These are Crabby's ribs. They were probably the ones that had the thickest coat of tangy sauce on them. As is the usual custom within the Rib Gang, we all buy from different places and share. So, we all had a smattering of beef and pork ribs. I have to say that I prefer my pork ribs since I find them more flavourful and tender than the beef variety.

This wasn't my own dessert, but The Anime Bishop offered, so I took a piece of that great Canadian tradition of funnel cake with plenty of ice cream. The tasters found the cake a bit funky...although I thought the taste of fried dough had an added hint of lemon for some reason. In any case, everyone was grateful for the huge dollops of vanilla ice cream on top to help the stuff go down.

There was karaoke far down the Ribfest area. I managed to filter out some of the more egregious examples of "American Idol"-wannabes, but there was one amateur who actually did sound pretty good with her rendition of "I Will Survive"by Gloria Gaynor.

The bunch of us left at about 2:30 but there were still people just pouring into the area, apparently more than happy to try to find some space and lineup for several minutes for ribs.
As we left, I knew that there was still the final Ribfest to attend....the one in Burlington, which according to the Anime King, was 3 to 4 times the size of Scarborough's Ribfest. But that won't be until Labour Day.

Simcoe Day Weekend Part 1

Tuesday August 7, 4:35 p.m.

Nominally it was the weekend tribute to Ontario's 1st Lieutenant-Governor, but personally, I would peg it as the Anime King weekend.

Sunday was the usual meeting day for The King and I. Neglected to take a picture of the restaurant we went to, but it was a Scarberian place that specialized in inexpensive dumplings (I hesitate to use the word 'cheap' due to the wrong connotations which may be evoked). $5 for a steamer of 15 scrumptious jiaoxu which even contained some soup along the lines of sho ron po. Made them taste even better.

The second dish at this place was a Hot and Sour Soup with the added benefit of udon noodles inside. Huzzah...an idea whose time has come. I've always loved this stuff, especially during the Winter. I've even made a batch of Hot and Sour over the years. The vinegar is the key. Again, this big bowl for 2 is just $5. Brings back memories of $5 Thursdays at Pizza Hut.

Of course, after lunch was the usual stopover at that Second Cup on Steeles. I've been following The King's lead and getting a Paradiso Coffee with a Lemon Tart. Good combo.
I see Second Cup as the happy medium between Starbucks and Tim Hortons. The various Starbucks branches in Tokyo were friendly and warm but I always saw a bit of corporatization in their interior design. Timmies is of course a fine place to go to for the donuts and the Chili Combo, but it's a bit too fast food to savor that coffee for a long time unless it's late at night. Second Cup just has the right sort of atmosphere to enjoy friends while downing that joe.

The anime for that day consisted of a couple of the special movies for "Smile Precure"that pop once or twice a year. The anime series has gone on for nearly a decade and involves different teams of warrior teens every year or every other year. Each of the movies starred every team that has ever existed on Sunday morning television, and by the last movie under this format, there were 21 girls with their own powers along with several cute familiars. Hard to get everyone to talk in merely 90 minutes.

There was also a new anime that The King kindly showed me called "Joshiraku" which has five young female rakugo comics just riffin' on all sorts of nonsensical discussion. No holds barred, no political correctness there.

We took another eating break and so The King and I drove into Markham where we went to a Wild Wings branch. It was a deserted place so space and service were no problem. Ended up having a basket each of spicy and honey-garlic wings with fries and gravy on the side. Yup, we do our protein and carbs hard. If there's one thing I've appreciated since returning from my Japan odyssey, it's been regular access to chicken wings.

But Sunday was merely the beginning.

Doing Good, Canada!

Saturday August 4, 11:25 p.m.

Canada didn't do much yesterday at the London Games, but boy, did they make up for that today. 1 Bronze, 1 Silver...and finally our first Gold...thanks to Women's Trampoline. How must Rosie MacClennan feel right now....instant sports heroine.

It was another scorcher in the GTA....Humidex of 42 degrees or so. Luckily, I stayed inside for the entire day, but I've got a fan blowing in my room right now. I don't think things will change all that much for the weekend.

The folks at Caribana must have been sweating up a storm of perspiration all day downtown. There is a similar if far smaller event in Tokyo called the Samba Festival. It's always held in the traditional quarter of Asakusa, strangely enough, during August. Not surprisingly, a lot of men of all ages take tons of pictures of the scantily-clad women as they traipse down the streets. Still, I'm pretty sure that those dancers aren't nearly as bold as a lot of the Caribana folks.

My Kingdom for a Barber

Friday August 3, 10:58 p.m.

Went to my corner barber for that $8 trim. The guy got it done in less than 10 minutes. Still, after having gone there 4 times since my return back to Canada, I'm now wondering if I should opt for something a bit more expensive, a bit more farther away, but with a bit more class. I went into the shop and just saw one....barber....just splayed all over the waiting area chairs like my Dad on the sofa on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Didn't look one bit sheepish either. For $8, I don't expect   Royal service but man, that just wasn't right. I didn't understand the language they were speaking, but the splayed girl probably said to the guy who ended up with my cut, "Hey, it's your turn!"

I didn't get particularly nostalgic for my trips to the barber during my long years in Japan, but I have to say that the service was absolutely top-notch. Despite paying the yen equivalent of $50 each time, I got a great cut, shampoo (twice), head and neck massage, coffee/tea (hot/cold depending on the season) and some good conversation. I actually looked forward to my bi-monthly tonsorials despite the certainty of a lighter wallet. I haven't had the same feelings with my current shop.

Here is a 40-minute video of a visit to a Japanese barber. The barber does everything but the head and shoulder massage which was a bit of a surprise to me.

And this is an excerpt of one other visit to a barber during the scalp-and-shoulder rubdown.

Enjoy!

Weekend and Olympics

Friday August 3, 10:44 p.m.

Went down to that meeting on Thursday at the school. A mere 5 minutes. One teacher remarked that was probably the shortest meeting on record. Am I still getting paid my $22? During that rather quick deposit of information, I heard that quite a lot of regular teachers will be taking off for various lengths of time, so I may be getting quite a bit of work but I've yet to hear anything from my minders. Still, I was happy to get that free butterscotch donut from Timmies.

Today was a stay-at-home. Got my hair cut in less than 10 minutes. And there was a lot of Olympic viewing. I have to say that with 3 different channels showing coverage of different events, Canada definitely has one leg up on Japanese coverage. At the halfway point, Canada is doing relatively OK in the medal count at 12th place. No Golds as of yet, but we've gotten a smattering of Silvers and Bronzes, including one in Judo. And Japan is doing even better in 5th place...got a few Golds. The big thing is the Women's Soccer....no, really. Canada defeated Great Britain on their home soil to get into the semi-finals, while Japan did the same thing against Brazil. We may be looking at an interesting final. And ironically, the Japan-Canada prelim game was the first event to be televised for the Games.

We've got a long Simcoe Day weekend. Nothing big tomorrow but on Sunday, it'll be another round of anime and food with The Anime King. There was some thought about even heading over to the Scarborough Ribfest on the same day, but The Anime Bishop stated that there was a good chance of thunderstorms, so it looks like that may be held off for the holiday Monday. Not a bad thing since I'm not sure if even I would be able to handle spareribs and a good dose of dumplings within 6 hours.

And Caribana is starting up tonight and throughout the weekend. It'll be pretty crazy downtown so I'm glad that I won't be going anywhere near the area. Hopefully, the craziness will just be limited to the legal fun variety.

Full Wednesday

Thursday August 2, 12:53 a.m.

Got through Hump Day with a full day at the school. Again, nice 3 groups of young folk, although I think a few didn't quite know what to make of me with my oddball approach to teaching. And again, I cannot change my stripes on that matter. But at the end of my final class, I even got a few rounds of applause although I think the last few minutes had everyone getting into a bit of good-natured raucousness over the topic of coffee.

I have to head down again later today since the regular monthly meeting is on. If it weren't for the fact that I get paid for attending it, I would be sorely tempted to just skip it since I was rather unimpressed with the last one....even considering the free Tim Hortons donuts.

Had my weekly talk with The Anime King a few hours ago. We'll be making our usual meet-up on Sunday for anime and food. Since it'll be a long weekend coming up, we could be looking at some major hours in front of the screen watching "Moretsu Pirates"and "Smile Precure".