Damn you, Mom...

So as hilarious at it can be, it turns out that I am color blind.
Those who wonder about the title, it's because the gene is on the X chromosome on the leg missing on the Y, so if a boy gets it, it's because of his mom (and girls have less chances of being colorblind).
I have none it for a long time now, I discovered it when I was 18, and something I have never understood is why they are not testing it sooner at school. It's cheap to check so why not discovering it as soon as possible.

Anyway, every one knows the dot numbers test, but there is another, more subtle, test and I ran into a online version here http://www.xrite.com/custom_page.aspx?PageID=77
Upon completion you get a rating, 0 being the best, and a map of you color deficiency.

You can check my results on flickr

failblog.org

Or why I am a failure...
So a couple of weeks ago I went to Ottawa, to see the Ron Mueck Expo, and have a change of scenery.
Arriving there, I realized that the expo wasn't located in Ottawa per se but we Shawinigan, more than 200 miles away and on the other side from Montreal.
See the museum from Ottawa owns a gallery in Shawinigan...
So last week end, a friend and I set off to Shawinigan.
The expo was so-so. There wasn't a lot of piece from Mueck, some of them I had already seen. The best part was probably a documentary on how he creates his pieces.
There was another artist exposing but I didn't get it... I like the ostrich.
We also went to the Festival de la Poutine (a culinary specialty from Quebec), which mixed music and Poutine...
Awesome.

O Noir

This is a specially dedicated to Liz...
So last night, to thank my friend for hosting me until I get a place (next week) and putting up with me, we went to ONoir, a restaurant in Montreal.
What makes this restaurant so special is that all the waiters are blind, and you eat in complete darkness.
There was something similar in Paris, but it was seasonal and I never got the opportunity to go.
So for a couple of hours, you get to live like a blind person, which made me realize several things:
- I would rather be mute/deaf.
- The feeling of not seeing is weird, I wanted to close my eyes, but I didn't feel comfortable with my eye lids closed.
- Most people are insanely loud in complete darkness.
- I didn't know what veal tasted like.
- I didn't feel obligated to finish my plates.

I took their surprise menu, where you don't know what you're going to eat. I guess the best to try this would be to go with someone, tell him what you don't like. He can check with the staff.
It's really hard to locate the food in your plate and to seize how big you are cutting your chunks.

The main thing that spoiled the experience for me was the noise. I expected to spend a quiet diner but it was the complete opposite. First, it seems because people can't see the person their talking to they immediately speak louder. The other thing is that next to us was a table of girls having their night out and they were fucking loud and obnoxious. To the point where I almost left midway through the main course. Who the fuck thing it's a great idea to go in that kind of place for a party anyway? This add another issue has the waiters rely on talking between themselves in order to navigate without bumping into each other.
I asked the one of them and they told me it was more quiet during the week so I will go back but on a week night.

La France en Amerique du Nord...

I have long said that Montreal was full of France French.... Too many of them...
So many in fact that the otherwise mellow Montreal folk are turning into angry mobbing people, just like people from Paris.
A couple of night ago, a 18 year old guy has been shot dead by a cop, who was trying to control him. That guy was playing dices in a park, the cop wanted to control him, I don't know what happened, the cop drew his gun, the kid is dead.
Since then a neighborhood in Montreal north is burning. Riot in the streets, a dozen of car burned down, special police units in the streets at night, etc...
It saddens me, I liked the quiet Montreal. I hope it's going to be a one off and everything is going to go back to normal.

Ron Mueck...

I recently discovered that the sculptor Ron Mueck had an exhibition at the National Gallery in Ottawa.
For those who wonder who he might be, he is the guy making some hyper realistic sculptures of people.
The first time I saw one, it was a giant 6ft tall baby head... Scary. The details are amazing and it could almost be taken for a real one.
I really dig his work.
I will probably go spend a week end to Ottawa.

Added bonus is "Maman" a sculpture from the Louise Bourgeois who also made the spider on the Embarcadero in San Francisco. I really like her work as well. The two sculptures are really dynamic.

La stupidite des quotas...

I need to speak about something probably unknown in the US, it's content quotas.
It came to me last week when I was scanning the radio spectrum to find a replacement for the radio I used to listen to in San Francisco, KITS Live 105.
In some country or states (France, Quebec,...) government have voted law to insure a minimum ratio of content in the native language for TV or radio.
For example, in Quebec, radios are forced to play at least 60% of french songs.
I really don't like this.
What happens if a specific music style is under represented in a given language? To tell the truth then it doesn't exist in that country. Let's take indie rock, there isn't a lot of indie rock in French, much less good one. The law makes it impossible for a specialty radio to survive because of the lack of content in French. It's the same for metal, or blues...
Instead we get a flood of crappy radio with shitty commercial pop songs, because no matter what crappy commercial pop exist in every language.
I think it's nice to try to save your culture and language, but shouldn't it be by proposing quality content instead of force feeding...
I am going to buy a satellite radio or an HD radio, KITS has a channel on it.

pas bavard...

I have not been really chatty lately...
It comes from the fact that I am pretty stressed right now.
Montreal is not as fun as I expected or wanted. My friends are almost all busy. Most of them are deep into their relationship so they are not going out... It sucks.

I found an apartment but it's not all that I wanted. It is on the small size (800 sq. ft.) and I have to buy all the appliances. It doesn't have a garage so I won't be able to work on the Nova. I don't like that I am leaving just above the landlord and they won't allow to have pets (here goes my kitten).
I thought I could stay at my friend's until I found something ideal, but after 3 days where we have been arguing almost every night, I decided it was time to get find something asap. The place will be free on Sept. 1st though, so in the meantime I am going to suck it up. The place is super nice though and I love the area. It's the kind of area where it's not busy, it's really residential, but you still have a couple of nice mellow restaurants to go out to. Simple places with no fuss and good food. I am 10 mins away from a permanent farmers market and also 10 mins away from 2 subway stations.

Other news, I went to see more movies at Fantasia and I would really recommend No mercy for the rude and to a lesser extent Seven Days.
Seven days is a classic cop movie. It was good but predictable.
No mercy is really cool. The characters are deep and atypical.

I am also a little bummed out, because I just ripped the rear quarter panel on the Nova. It's going to need a replacement, but since it's not just a bolt on (there is welding involved where it meet the roof) I won't be able to fix this until I find a garage of some sort. It's prompting me to buy instead of renting. I am going to be on the lookout for a house or a condo with an private garage...