This week I went to two fun evening show type things. On Wednesday Kim and I went to Second City to see the comedy stylings of John Dore and Judah Friedlander (who you may recognize from NBC's awesome show: "30 Rock"). Both acts were really funny, although Judah Friedlander's was a bit too long.

On Thursday I went with Matt to our first Tafelmusik concert of the season. This is our second year as subscribers and I'm still really enjoying it. The group is incredibly talented and the church they perform at is a much more intimate venue than Roy Thomson Hall (which is where the Toronto Symphony Orchestra plays).

On Tuesday for wing night we went to Cafe Polonez for delicious delicious Polish food. I had a potato pancake folded over and filled with pork goulash, and Kim had pierogies. I also shared some random Polish beer with Rob and Will. That restaurant is great. The portions are gigantic and the most expensive meal on the menu is $14. Plus the food is amazing.

Repent and seek shelter! For today being the first day of Autumn is also the first step toward the bleak cold death of winter. Tremble and fear before the oncoming cold and snow and prepare thy defences against their bodily onslaughts.

Yeah, I don't like winter and the mornings have been getting colder lately.

Tonight Kim and I went to see Burn After Reading which is the latest from the Coen brothers. It seems to be very much in the style of The Big Lebowski (ie. awesome) in that it is super-random and ultra-hilarious. The cast was fantastic, all of them. I can't pinpoint any particular one because they were all so good. Even the fairly minor role played by J.K. Simmons was awesome.

When we got home I finally got around to making hummus after several delays. I haven't given it a thorough taste test yet because I prefer hummus to be cold, but from what I licked off my fingers while making it I think it's going to be very good. Check out the recipe and a picture of my results below.

Homemade hummus

I did stuff other than TIFF screenings (see below) this past weekend. I spent some time walking around to random places with Matt and Adrienne and ended up buying a new memory card for my camera. One of my old ones recently corrupted itself at a most inoppourtune time so I decided to replace it with something decent. My previous purchase decision was aimed at spending the least amount of money possible. This time I paid more for what I hope will be long lasting quality. We shall see!

We also had lunch at the crépes place on Queen Street. Mmmmm...crépes.

On Sunday night Kim and I went to Toni's for her birthday party! She made us Aussie-burgers (regular burgers plus fried eggs, fried onions, bacon and beets) and also delicious pavlova. Then we played a new game Toni bought, Apples to Apples. Of course I was super-pro at it because of my previous experiences playing in Algonquin this summer.

My next blog-worthy event is coming this Thursday when I intend to make my own hummus. Excitement!

For the past week and a half the Toronto International Film Festival has been happening here (in Toronto, obviously). I went to three show this year and was reminded again how I should really go to more shows and not less. TIFF is awesome.

My first movie was Real Time which is a Canadian film about the last hour of the life of a compulsive gambler before he is ummm, whacked, for not paying his debts. The title is a reference to the fact that the movie runs in real time. Every minute you sit in the theatre is a minute in the movie and a minute closer to the main character's impending doom. This was not just a gimmick but actually served to control the mood of the movie. It is pretty light-hearted at the start with lots of jokes and funny stuff. But as it progresses and you realize time is running out, things stop being funny and start being pretty depressing. The mood and tone were perfectly managed and the result was an excellent movie.

My second movie, Vinyan was a collaborative horror film from France, the United Kingdom and Belgium. A white couple who lost their only child in the tsunami in Thailand set out to the jungles of Burma to search for their son after seeing a video of tsunami-orphaned children in the region. The children live on their own in a destroyed village and have clearly become feral. Personally, I find children terrifying so this movie definitely frightened me. The acting from the two leads seemed to be a bit dead, but I enjoyed the performance given by their untrustworthy guide (some sort of local gang lord). Also, the scenery and cinematography in the movie were gorgeous.

The final movie I saw was the Spanish slasher-comedy flick, Sexykiller. The movie follows the exploits of a female serial killer on a University campus in Spain. If it weren't for the gore this would be a straight up comedy, however the intensity of the viscera were enough to earn this movie a place in the horror-dominated Midnight Madness program. For me this movie was just plain fun. The female killer, Barbara, is so confident in her convictions about who should die that it's hard not to agree with her. The pacing is excellent, never a dull moment, and there are lots of amusing references to Hollywood classics and other pop culture stuff. Barbara frequently talks directly to the audience in the movie, addressing the camera with such authenticity that it often feels like she can see you. This feeling was further enhanced by the actress's attendance at the screening. Both her and the director talked before and after the movie and they looked like they were having at least as much fun as the audience. Such a great atmosphere!

Next year I'm going to try to go to five screenings. It's just so much fun!

It seems like there is an endless amount of dialogue in Toronto about what to do with the Gardiner and how to improve transit in the downtown core. Today I came across a new proposal that I hadn't seen before, the Toronto Waterfront Viaduct.

Instead of tearing down the Gardiner and then replacing it with something else, this proposal suggests building a suspended expressway above the existing rail lines. This is nice because it means the Gardiner can continue to be used while the new expressway is built. When the new road is complete the Gardiner can be torn down and Lakeshore can be revitalized with fewer lanes and pretty median flower boxes or something.

There would still be a massive highway in the core of the city, but it wouldn't be blocking anything that isn't already blocked by the railway. Furthermore, the proposal suggests that the expressway have two levels, one for traffic and light rail and another level below for pedestrians and bicycles. Thus it would be a useful corridor for anyone needing to travel through the city, regardless of preferred mode of transport.

I'm obviously not a city planner, or even an engineer, but the proposal claims the costs would be similar to any of the other serious proposals and has the added benefit of minimal disruption during the construction phase. If these statements are even halfway true then this is by far the best solution I've ever heard to the transportation problems affecting downtown.

Now someone just needs to come up with a plan to get all of the many and varied stakeholders to agree there is a problem and that something serious needs to be done. Then we'd be set.

I did a bunch of walking around today, down through the harbour and all around High Park. The goal was to take fun photos. Here are the results!

Stickers on a pillar supporting the Gardiner Expressway

Crumbling bits of the Canada Malting Co. buildings

Weird berries on a bush near the Island Airport ferry crossing

Dogs fighting at the far west side of the CityPlace construction area

The Bathurst Street bridge at Front Street

Bumble bees fighting over a flower in High Park

Bumble bee and flower in High Park

Stairs to nowhere in High Park

Berries on a vine in High Park

Dragonfly on a flower in High Park

On Saturday Kim and I went out to "The Beach" because we'd never been there before. A lot of people call it "The Beaches" but according to residents of the area that is incorrect. Meh, whatever.

Anyway it was nice, lots of fun shops with chocolate and other foods and of course long stretches of beach. Unfortunately the E. Coli count was at 398 where acceptable levels are below 100. There were still some people swimming though.

We got ice cream from one of the random stores and the shopkeeper was nice but a bit strange. He seemed to want to keep giving things to his customers. I'm all for free stuff but this was excessive and felt desperate. First a single scoop cone turned out to actually be two gigantic scoops. Then he put two cookies, two chocolate covered pretzels and a huge chunk of dark chocolate into the top scoop. It made for a very precarious treat. While juggling my wallet and the ice cream to pay the man proceeded to give a bag of no-name M&M's to add to the insanity. It was too much! I really only wanted a little bit of ice cream and nothing else.

On Sunday we went to Matt's house for supper with him and Adrienne and Chris. They made yummy curry with rice and I brought samosas and Rice Krispie squares with candied peanuts. I made both the candied peanuts and the squares myself! Check out the recipe! They turned out really well and taste even better today.

After supper we played games with Chris and then I borrowed The Watchmen (widely considered to be the definitive graphic novel) from Adrienne and read that. It was pretty cool and made me want to both see the new movie coming out and maybe check out some other graphic novels too!

My main accomplishment for today was to discover and subsequently purchase a jar of "Green & Black's Organic Hazelnut Chocolate spread." Yes, now I have fancy Nutella. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure it will be delicious.