Music Favourites of 2012

It is the end of December and I keep forgetting that it is also the end of the year. So to commemorate the last days of 2012, I have put together a list of several music favourites that is a bit of an atypical listicle instead of a traditional end of year music blog post. Here are the musicians and their albums that were inspiring, addictive, and my favourites for 2012.

ALBUM THAT MAKES YOU BELIEVE IN MUSIC AGAIN

Grimes was everywhere in 2012 and for a good reason. Her fourth effort since 2010, Visions, is utterly fantastic and hypnotic, aptly described as “witch house.” Visions sounds like no other album before but with its lo-fi dance beats and girlish vocals it is still catchy and, in my opinion, very accessible. I can honestly say that her work makes me have hope that talented musicians can still reach the masses without the requirements of booty shaking and Nickelback replications. Other than Nightmusic (video above), also check out Genesis and its wacky Japanese anime and samurai inspired video.

BEST ALBUM FOR PRODUCTIVE DAYS

I love finding musicians and their albums that serve as background music for work days, and Burial makes quite a few great tracks for this purpose. His Kindred EP came out earlier this year with three strong tracks, and Loner (above) is the highlight of this issue. The Mercury Prize nominated artist has two full albums and several EPs, including collaborations with Thom Yorke and Four Tet, and as I am big fans of both Radiohead and Four Tet I am not surprised that the resulting works are solid.

Listen to more tracks and read my previous posts about music for productivity in these November and December posts: Things That Go Bump in the Night Part One (electronic tracks) and Part Two (alternative tracks). Look out for Part Three for instrumental jazz music and Part Four, to conclude the series, in the new year.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Brought to you by flashbracket and Family Guy.

Brunch at La Société, Toronto

La Société
The Colonnade
131 Bloor Street West
Unit 211
Toronto, ON M5S 1R1
(416) 551-9929
http://www.lasociete.ca

Last weekend as I was making plans to meet up with some friends for brunch, it was suggested that we go to La Société in Yorkville. I like to keep up with the going ons in my hometown so I had heard about this French bistro in the former space of an average quality dim sum restaurant. I like trying new restaurants so as stuffy La Société seemed to me, I agreed to have Sunday brunch in the six months old bistro.

Art Gallery of Ontario and the Canadian Art Collection

The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) completed a four year renovation project in 2008. I was still living in Toronto when the Franky Gehry-designed redevelopment plan was completed but I did not have the chance to visit the gallery until now. I definitely missed a lot since the AGO reopened its doors four years ago.

The AGO is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood, between the financial district and Chinatown in downtown Toronto. Gehry designed the most recent expansion and the renowned Canadian architect lived in the neighbourhood as a child. As one of the largest art galleries in North America, it holds the largest collection of Canadian art works which includes the Group of Seven, David Milne, the Native Canadian artist Norval Morrisseau, and Cornelius Krieghoff, as part of their permanent collection.

Lawren Harris, Beaver Swamp Algoma, oil painting (1920)

Christmas Cookies for the Baking Neophyte

Every December when I have finally peeled myself away from my books, and gathered lots of flour and butter, I start baking. I put aside one to two days (some times three) to put my mixer and oven to good use and churn out a few different Christmas cookies. My favourites are Sugar Cookies (festive) and Cranberry Pecan Shortbread (very easy), then I rotate between a couple of different cookie recipes that I have collected over the years. This year, in addition to the two standard recipes, I also baked Chocolate Peppermint Sandwich Cookies, Triple Ginger Cookies, and Orange Pistachio Crescents (which in the end actually became a sandwich linzer-cookie-type concoction). Hyperlinks for the cookie recipes are the same recipes that I used, with the exception of the Sugar Cookies, Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies, and Triple Ginger Cookies, which are linked to similar recipes.

Orange Pistachio Crescents, which ended up as sandwich cookies.

Cookie baking requires quite a bit of elbow grease, but if you have time, patience, and love being crafty, this makes a fun activity where in the end you have treats to share. I do not do a gift exchange with anyone outside of my immediate family, but for friends I like to give personally baked cookies for the holiday. Giving cookies can also be a more cost efficient endeavour than buying individual gifts for everyone on your list, though it does require quite a bit of an upfront investment. After the first purchases, the annual replenishment of perishable ingredients (butter, eggs, etc.) and the replacements of such items such as candy sprinkles and cookie containers, are required.

When I first started baking Christmas cookies, I was an apprentice to the baking world. I love cooking, but baking barely has any room for improvising allowed in cooking; baking requires exact ingredient measurements and faithfulness to the temperature requirements of the recipe (more on butter temperature is below). It has now been a few years of cookie gifting, so I gathered some tips for Christmas baking neophytes.

Triple Ginger Cookies

Momofuku Noodle Bar in Toronto

momofuku noodle bar
190 University Avenue
(University, just north of Adelaide)
Ground floor
Toronto, ON M5H 0A3
http://momofuku.com

Ah, momofuku. Beloved by New Yorkers, food lovers, and hipsters and Koreans (and hipster Koreans). I met up with a friend for lunch at its new noodle bar in Toronto which opened in September after a late launch and with much anticipation. The noodle bar is amongst a total of four momofuku restaurants residing beside the new Shangri-La Hotel on University Avenue, including daishō, shōtō, and nikai.

daishō, meaning “pair of swords”, is located on the third floor of the momofuku complex and serves large-format meals and sharing plates. This means that parties of four to ten guests share dishes meant for multiple consumers that are similar to that of momofuku’s ssäm bar in New York. Menu items in NYC’s Ssäm Bar includes whole roasted pork (“bo ssäm”) and “raw bar” items such as Santa Barbara Uni. Shōtō, which translates as “short sword”, is similar to momofuku’s ko in NYC with tasting menus. nikai, which translates into “second floor”, is indeed above the Noodle Bar on the second floor, and is a bar and a lounge.

12/12/12

Happy 12/12/12!

This date is the last time most of us living today will experience a day where the numericals in the month, date and year are the same. To celebrate, here are some facts regarding the number twelve and today’s date:

1. The name for the number twelve is believed to be have Germanic roots meaning “two remaining (after having ten taken).”

2. The Twelve Days of Christmas is also called Christmastide and is celebrated for the twelve days starting Christmas day to January 6, The Feast of Epiphany. This tradition varies slightly amongst the churches and sects of Christianity.

3. Both Western and Asian astrology are based on twelve horoscopes. Asian (including Chinese and Korean) astrology is based on twelve animal signs depending on the year of birth according to the lunar calendar. Did you know that every twelve “horse” and “pig” years is a special horse and pig, the White Horse and Golden Pig, respectively? My sister happens to be a White Horse and my dad is a Golden Pig.

4. The ancient Greeks loved the number twelve. Greek mythology’s twelve Olympians were gods that lived on Mount Olympus after taking over the elder gods, the Titans. Additionally, Hercules, the son of Zeus, was ordered to perform the “Twelve Labours” as atonement for his misdeeds. Hercules was also forced to serve King Eurystheus for twelve years in return for immortality.

5. The next time the date will again have the same numericals for the month, date and year will be in 88 years on January 1, 2101.

Also of note: The Mayan calendar does not end on December 12, 2012 but on December 21, 2012. Which means we have nine more days until the end of the world…apparently. Good luck to all of you.

Scenes of the City in December

I was stomping around a good portion of the island today, and Montréal had beautiful weather. After a day of snow then freezing rain, today was bright, sunny, crisp and cool but with sun flooding the city. So I took a few photos of the different neighbourhoods I was meandering through before darkness fell, which at this time of year is around 4 pm.

The photo above is of the Outremont/Mile End area along Laurier street. This area is lined with shops that are a bit more upscale, as well as some great restaurants including a failed venture with British chef Gordon Ramsay. That restaurant is the first building on the left of the photo, and was a long-standing but faltering establishment called Rotisserie BBQ. Gordon Ramsay came in all Hell’s Kitchen-style, revamping the place and renaming it Rotisserie Gordon Ramsay before abruptly pulling out of the business relationship four months later. The restaurant is still up and running but is now named Rotisserie Laurier.

This neighbourhood is still a great place for shopping and eating. Juliette et Chocolat is a great dessert café, and Gourmet Laurier stocks all the hard to find ingredients for cooking and baking. I was so grateful they had meringue powder so that I can whip up so Christmas desserts tonight.

Gourmet in a Hurry

December is always a crazy time of year, is it not? When I was working full-time I was busy wrapping up projects for the end of year then meeting with family, friends, acquaintances and friends-of-friends for the holiday. As a student I am scrambling with end of term tasks and exams while trying to keep my eyes peeled open and awake. And even now I am meeting up with more people in a week than I sometimes do in a whole month!

Needless to say, my dietary habits are not the healthiest nor regular these days. I try being frugal and eat a packed lunch or wait until I make food at home. Instead, in the past few weeks I indulged more often in purchased coffee because I was desperate for a caffeine pick me up, and paid money for sub par and overly priced sandwiches. Now that it is the weekend and my boyfriend and I can share meals together, I have made the point of preparing some quick and hearty dishes for plus one.

The recipes that follow are definitely far away from ramen noodles and Kraft dinner, and much more suitable for “adult” consumption — adult in that I feel less like a poor student without breaking the bank. They also use many common grocery items found in many Canadian households, and non-perishable products such as jarred olives and capers that you can have handy in your pantry for long periods. Using oven-proof skillets for both recipes cuts down one step and dishes to be washed, but you can also just transfer items from the frying pan to a baking dish. Both can also be made for the same meal since they both cook in the oven to be at 425°F and together uses a whole package of fresh basil so that none goes to waste.

Things That Go Thump in the Night: Part Two

For the second part of my posts, Things That Go Thump in the Night, I am going over musicians and their tracks that can be best described as being of the “alternative” music category. For me, these musicians are not quite rock, do not fit neatly into electronica, and have great tracks and albums to accompany you through a productive work day. A big contender in this category is the British band Radiohead.

RADIOHEAD

Radiohead is one of the musicians that I have been most loyal to over the years. Growing up in the Toronto suburbs, I was forced into years of classical piano training when all I wanted to do was listen to guitars and the beeps of electronic experimentation. Radiohead definitely fit the bill for both those musical elements, and despite their metamorphosis in style over the years I have loved almost every one of their albums. I also appreciate their newest album, last year’s The King of Limbs, which is the perfect album to play while plowing through work. The album has an ambient feel and the vocals merge with the instruments so that the words are almost discernible. Separator is my favourite track off the album and a great example of the British band’s versatility despite almost 20 years of existence.

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE

The Toronto band, Broken Social Scene, now a  truly broken scene of musicians, have a few instrumental tracks throughout their four albums for your more rock-friendly tastes. Pacific Theme is an easy-going track with a tropical taste, and you would never know it is from a Canadian band with indie cred. Other great instrumental tracks by Broken Social Scene include KC Accidental and Meet Me in the Basement from their last and final album.

GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR

The exclamation point-loving, Montréal-based band Godspeed You! Black Emperor is sparse when it comes to issuing new albums but epic when it comes to crafting each of their tracks. The shortest of their works is six and a half minutes long, but have released stretched out tracks as long as twenty-nine minutes, in the case of their first album F# A# (Infinity). Their new album released this year is the first in ten long years, but Godspeed You! Black Emperor have managed to maintain a loyal following of devotees of their saga-producing works. Storm is off of their second album, Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven, and is emotive, daunting, and inspiring for a long day of work.