A Note from Brussels 

Granite bust of Tintin at the Comic Book Centre

After a week of living at an airport hotel in Brussels, I finally made it into the city. This last week has been a endless loop of breakfasts in the hotel lobby, taxis to the office, lunch in the canteen, locked in a meeting room, and churning through half-baked design options. It felt great to just sleep in, take a light breakfast and grab the train into the city centre. I'm here with my manager, Martin and while I took in a visit to the slightly rundown Comic Book Centre he found the only English Pub in Brussels to watch an FA Cup match.

“The last time I was in Brussels was… twenty-two years ago.”

We had a funny moment when we discovered the Grand Place (by sort of ambling towards where we thought it was) but were distracted by some dog wearing glasses. The joke was we were so easily amused by a dog wearing glasses that we didn't really notice the fantastic architecture around us. Brussels isn't so big that you can't see a lot by foot so it was fairly easy to walk from the central station to the Grand Place, and from there to a MediaMarkt (like a Belgian FutureShop) to pick up a couple of things.

The last time I was in Brussels was for a weekend in the summer of 1990. Twenty-two years ago. The disappointment with the Comic Book Centre today was that it was pretty much the same then. This is like one of the world capitals for comic books and this place is in a nicely kept building but the exhibits were exactly as I remember them. Pretty corny and outdated. In that time there has been a new museum built outside of Brussels just to commemorate Tintin's creator Hergé. Unfortunately I doubt I'll get a chance to set aside the half day you'd need to get there so Sunday I'll probably just head into town in the afternoon and check out a gallery or two. I'm sure a cone of frites will feature in the my plans too.

I think a couple of days of taking in the city will make the rest of the week go a lot faster. It's nice to take a trip and all but you pretty quickly can get home sick (not to mention absolutely fat as I haven't exercised anything but my mouth eating junk pretty much since I've been here). It'll be nice to get back to a real winter city.

Urbanized in Toronto

Wim Wenders' ode to choreographer Pina Bausch, "Pina" Image via Mubi.com


I missed the documentary "Urbanized". Got there too late! It was sold out, so I went to Pina, a 3D dance movie, instead. 

"Pina" has all the pretension of modern dance and is fairly straight forward, fixed camera filming of dance pieces. An example of the odd (maybe just Germanic) obtuseness would be as follows: a dancer enters into view, yells, "Dieses ist Kalbfleisch!" - "This is veal!" then puts two pieces of raw veal in her dance slippers as she ties them up. Yet it is full of incredible physicality and beauty – said woman with the veal in her heels then proceeds to dance for several minutes entirely "on pointe". It also has some pretty great music which you can hear a sample of below:

PINA - Original Soundtrack - "Lillies Of The Valley" - Music by Jun Miyake by www.cinema-rock.com

Urbanized is playing again on Tuesday but I doubt I'll be able to see it, so I'll probably just have to rent it like everyone else. 

I will say this. It is fun to see a movie at the TIFF Lightbox. Most of the theatres are great, spacious with gorgeous red velvet curtains though there is one really small "multi-purpose room" with temporary bleachers. Very uncomfortable. You can linger in the gift shop, see an exhibit or just get a drink at the bar before going in. I think the Varsity at Bay-Bloor tried this grown-up approach to going to the movies but didn't quite succeed the way the Lightbox does. I don't really like the building which is just a typical glass box and the circulation and ticketing are a little messy but the quality of the theatres, café and bar are better than any movie house in town.

Dead Mouse; Not the Cool Kind 

image via Designers Go To Heaven

He would've died with his boots on, if he wore boots, or if Clarks made very tiny boots. I didn't know him that well. Maybe he was more of a Croc guy or Converse high tops? He never wore shoes, I know because I could hear his little nails scurrying over the parquet floor. Maybe it was a she and not even a he at all? Well, they are nothing now. Dust to dust. Ashes to ashes and all that. This was my annoying little visitor. Your common house mouse. Mus musculus Linnaeus (apparently). Now dead. 86'd from my juke joint via a one way ticket down the garbage chute. People die everyday. So do animals. I'm responsible for their deaths. I order them killed, slaughtered, divided and wrapped in cling film. Then I eat their corporeal flesh. Sometimes, if it suits me, I gnaw at their bones.

This rodent's death was different. I planned it and saw it through to the bitter end. A mob hit couldn't have been better executed. I said I didn't know him though I knew him well enough to know all his routes. So predictable. Being predictable will get you killed.
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Recipe: Beef Stew, Eight Ways

Having grown pretty tired of my own beef stew, but with fond memories of a carbonnade I had at Belgo in London (you like that, casual place-name drop, POW!) I'm determined to romance le boeuf once more. Thankfully Mark Bittman has offered guidance vis-a-vis his How to Cook Everything App on my phone. Chapeau to you, Sir. Chapeau.

Recipe:

Beef Stew, Eight Ways
By Mark Bittman
From the How to Cook Everything for iPhone^® app

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Thought-Bomb of the Day 

CUPPOW! from Paper Fortress on Vimeo.

Every once in awhile a simple idea has been conceived, devised, designed, executed and delivered. You know it's a great because a) it is so very simple; b) you can't believe you didn't think of it; and c) you almost can't believe it doesn't already exist. The
Cuppow from Aaron Panone & Joshua Resnikoff is just such an idea. I've long been a fan of using mason jars for storing rice, grains, nuts, sugar, salt and so on in air tight container. When the reckoning of Peak Oil we'll be forced by cost to stop frivolously using petrochemicals for throw-away uses such as containers and energy and start using plastics more wisely and re-thinking truly recyclable and more abundant materials such as glass and steel (though you need energy, aka petrochemicals, to make them so). The humble mason jar and all of its inherent qualities, will be something we return to. I'm not sure if the designers have thought about it, but, if I were an investor I can see possible extensions of this product. A lid with a sealable top, a lid with a sealable top for pouring things like salt, sugar or cooking oil, or a lid, perhaps made of silicone that can act as a seal during pickling or perserving that can be opened and closed without opening the lid. I'm just thought-bombing (apparently "brainstorming" has fallen out of favour due to it's use to describe neurological events… or something).

Unlike many good ideas, you can actually order one of these today at Cuppow. Go ahead. See what it's like to hold a good idea in your hand.