Last night I went to the Japanese Soora restaurant at Somerset West and Percy for my friend Mike's birthday.


It was originally the type of restaurant where you had the option of cooking the food at your table, but apparently their cookers didn't meet some set of requirements, so they're waiting to get clearance on new ones.

The deep fried tofu was fantastic. The main course however, a stew of chicken and sweet potatoes, had much to be desired. The chicken had bones in it and it kind of smelled like a wet domestic animal.




Eight more restaurants to go.

I added an item to the list to make it a uneven 25: Write ten 1000 word reviews of my ten favourite films.

I watched Goldfinger yesterday, which means I've now watched about 1/5 of the 007 series in a little over two weeks. I also now own all of the Bond films on DVD except for Quantum of Solace, so I can pretty much watch them at my leisure. Goldfinger was pretty great, with some iconic scenes that I've seen parodied a few times. It's also the film that marked the first use of the "Bond theme" by a famous artist (in this case, Shirley Bassey).

One piece of trivia I didn't know about until I watched Goldfinger was that the Sneaker Pimps got the sample that runs through the song "6 Underground" from the film's score. That kind of blew my mind since I've liked that song since before I turned 20.

I started work on a new song last night, but I don't know if I like it.

I finished recording another song, an original called "Moments After Waking," and I put it up on the Wire and Light myspace: http://www.myspace.com/wireandlight

Check it out!

I saw Quantum of Solace in a theatre yesterday. It wasn't as good as Casino Royale, but still better than simply "good," with great first and third acts and a middle that lags a bit. I hope they spend more time in the next film developing Bond's character a bit more. He's just sort of a dour killing machine in "Quantum," rather than the human being "Casino" promised.

I picked up another Bond set and the special edition of Casino Royale. I watched them both last night. "Russia" was more Connery suaveness at its finest. I was utterly blown away by "Casino." One of the most intense action flicks I've seen in some time.

Last night I ate at a restaurant in Ottawa I'd never eaten at before: Forno Antico on Bronson Street.


Their specialty is pizza cooked in a wood burning oven. Mmm.


Nine more restaurants to go.

24. Get props from Terry Lee

Hale.

Terry Lee Hale stopped by my myspace page and listened to my cover of "Dead is Dead." Damn cool.

I bought a box set of five Bond films yesterday and watched Dr. No, the first film in the Bond series. With the box set came tickets to see Quantum of Solace in the theatre, which I'll do on Sunday. I should watch Casino Royale before then.

I recorded a cover of Terry Lee Hale's "Dead is Dead" and posted it at the Wire and Light myspace page. I'm not sure if I'm going to count cover songs towards the album, but that makes five I've completed so far in total.

I've added "Donate to a charity" to the list, with the charity pending research. I'm also adding "See Veruca Salt live," despite their erratic gig schedule and the fact that they rarely play outside of California. It could happen.

A little bit about Wire and Light:


Wire and Light is the name of my "band," insomuch as one person can call himself a band. When I was a teenager I dreamed of being a rock star. I have been in a handful of bands since those days, but I've always wanted to write music for myself. The problem: I only know how to play the bass guitar. The solution: Write the rest of the instrumentation on a computer.

When I was 19 I started messing around with a program called Impulse Tracker that a friend of mine had used to create some great instrumental music. The program is pretty archaic by today's standards, given that it ran in DOS and sported an interface that was nothing to write home about. However, at the time, I used it to create music that still plays in my head today. A tracker program was the perfect fit for me, and for years I thought about getting into it more seriously.

Tracker programs are pretty well extinct by this point, and produce music that you might hear in a 16-bit video game. Two years ago, another friend turned me onto Reason, an all-in-one virtual studio including synths that I can control with a MIDI keyboard. Reason is thickly layered with possibility to the point where it seemed too intimidating to absorb, and I became busy with school. Earlier this year I decided to take another crack at it. I bought a keyboard and an instruction manual that I read cover to cover, and gave myself the goal of writing a song by the end of the summer, a goal I accomplished in early September.

Since then I've completed three more songs, including a cover of "Sleep Apnoea" by Buck 65. I've also launched a myspace page for the band, located at http://www.myspace.com/wireandlight. Currently, I'm working on two more songs that should be ready within the next couple of weeks.

I call the "band" Wire and Light because that's what the music I'm making generally boils down to.

New to the list: ride in a limousine. I'm also going to assemble the daily pictures into a video when I'm through taking them, as per Rayanne's suggestion.

Just a note: Last year a woman kept a similarly-themed journal on which she blogged about doing one new thing a day everyday until she turned 30. It's a really neat read and I consider her an inspiration (the limo idea came from her list).

Check her blog out here: http://jen365.blogspot.com

Added a couple of new list items: eat at ten new restaurants in Ottawa, and eat an Elgin Street Diner Blue Plate Special in one sitting.

17. Find a new job.

18. Make a video blog.