The "long time no post" round-up

Not a complex post. Just a mention of some of my new finds from the past few weeks in Vancouver.

Eating:

Checked out Toratatsu, the lil' sister restaurant of Shiru Bay. Rather than the center of trendy, stylish Yaletown, this one is tucked in close to the approach to Stanley Park on Denman. No open kitchen, so it doesn't have the lively attitude of the Bay. Gorgeous deep red walls that glow in candle light, funky artifacts and decorations. Lots of carryovers from Shiru Bay on the menu at what I thought were possibly slightly lower prices - Ebi Chili Mayo, yum! Service was iffy.

Shopping:

Enflux! Saw this store from the B-Line bus route and looked like a worthy reason to explore what is happening on West 10th Ave. This store reminds me a lot of Canoe and Relish in Portland; stores that I fell in love with. I'll be looking out for the launch of their new website, which I was told would be up in a couple of weeks. Came home with this tea stick by Blomus. Mmm, tea stick.

Viewing:

Transformers Movie (2007) - I had been looking forward to this since a time when Michael Bay and Spielburg bringing it to the screen was just a rumour. That could have lead to an unreasonable level of expectation. I loved how good the movie looked. I loved the cheesy lines and situations. I expected more Transformers. Too much focus on humans. I want to see robots disguised as vehicles. I want to see the full Autobot army fight off the Decepticon army. Maybe in the sequels.

Ratatouille - This one got it right spending a bit of time on the humans and lots of time on the, here, rats. Looked amazing. Paris was gorgeous. The frantic kitchen shots were great. Fun! Something that I thought would be passed over from Disney animated features to the Pixar movies would be the big ballad song scenes (think Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin), but neither Disney nor Pixar seems to do this anymore. I'm not quite sure when it died (but suspect it was about the time that Disney features went to pot - Pocahontas or Hercules maybe), but it is something that will have its time on the screen once again.

Listening:

Interpol - Our Love to Admire. I'm surprised that iTunes isn't smart enough to recognize a typo in its search field. I mistyped "inteprol" into the search field and it came up with no results. I would have thought it would pick up that I meant "Interpol." The disc arrived today as a contest prize via Beyond Robson. Free music is good.

Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger. I own Gold, Demolition, and Rock N Roll by Ryan Adams. I listen often to Gold, but rarely listen to Demolition and Rock N Roll. After my first listen, I'm guessing Easy Tiger will be somewhere between the two groups in listen counts. I read that Easy Tiger was released as a solo artist album due to the music label's demands. Though Ryan's voice is very recognizable upfront, this album does sound more like a band than the much-more-solo disc Gold.

Infuriating:

Purolator. I spoke to four separate Purolator employees on three separate days to finally make arrangements to pick up a package today. I understand that couriers are a service that caters to the business market (i.e., Monday to Friday, 9-5 crowd), and know that each and every time I will be receiving a package it will be a hassle. I did not expect that the hassle would be each time I was given a pick-up time, I should have considered it only tentatively scheduled. For each pick-up time, I called to confirm the parcel was at the correct location and was available, I was given a new pick-up time and told that the previous employee was mistaken with the information they provided.