Big Bunny's Girl of the Month: Tera Patrick

This month's feature we feature a woman who is married to one of the ugliest men on the planet. What she sees in that fat troll i don't know.

Tera has some thai blood in her. She did some modelling before making a name for herself in porn. While these pictures are relatively tame, head over to the Supreme website for a few short movie snippets of her posing with supreme products (the t-shirt one in the shower is one of my favorites) for something is much less safer for work. Click on the random item in the menu and you'll see the link to her section. There are a few of them, so just keep reloading and it will refresh the selection. Unfortunately, its what you see is what you get kind of format at the website. But despite that its still worth a visit.

Jamie Kennedy at the Gardiner

I had lunch there again. The menu has changed since the last time I was there, which is always a relatively good sign. They still had the yukon gold frites, which I suppose is their signature dish.

I got a different impression of the room. The last time I was there I thought it was like a T shape to it. This time it looked like a big box with a little rectangle coming off to side. They look to have a big partition wall that they left open this time around. I guess they might use the partition to create some of sort of private dining room for special events or something. I kind of like the place a little more with the wall open because it seems a lot more open and you get a lot more light. When they seat you they ask you whether you prefer the big room or off to the side -- if you want to have more private conversation kind of seating.

The service is pretty casual and competent. We kind of lingered around at the end and they didn't try to get us out of the place, which was kind of nice.

There weren't a lot of old people this time around, it looked to me much younger and female crowd this time around -- not that I'm complaining.

I shared the frites to start. They were nice and crisp. They are so well done. They come with some mayonaise on the side, and they taste so good with it. I had a chicken pot pie for my main. It was really filling. They serve it really warm, so its like a really good dish on a cold day when you need something warm. If I wanted to complain about anything I would have liked more mashed patatoes in the filing. Didn't have desert, so I'm not sure if they changed the desert menu as well.

Overall, I don't think that I was disapointed by anything this time around. But I didn't see any reason for me to up my rating from the first time around. If they start having a dinner (besides the friday night) I could see some upside on the bunnies, but right now its just a real good place to go to lunch.


Rating: 1 Bunny

Notes on the Bunny Rating System:

• 0 or no Bunnies, it's a waste of time; don't go.
• 1 Bunny, the place is worth checking out.
• 2 Bunnies, you should go out of your way to check out the place; the food is really good and the place is cool.
• 3 Bunnies, you absolutely have to go there; the food is exceptional and the place is really cool

Radiohead "In Rainbows"

Checked out the new Radiohead "In Rainbows", which is kind of out this week. They did some pre-release of the mp3 files and then they'll have the actually CD out in december or january. The version I got came with a "bonus CD" that has some live versions of the stuff on the actual release. I heard some people complaining about the bit rate on the files earlier this week, so I was expecting some pretty crappy quality (less than 128 kbps). But I think its relatively decent (160 kbps).

I liked "In Rainbows" a lot. It sounds kind of like Kid A at times, although it may not be as electronic -- lots of guitars (electric and acoustic) mixed in as well. So I guess its kind of like the stuff they did on "Hail to the Thief" or "OK Computer" before they went more electronic. There are 10 songs on the release. I listened to the whole thing without skipping anything. Some of the songs are more uptempo ( e.g., 15 Step and Bodysnatchers), while others a little slower and more mellow (e.g., Nude, All I Need, Faust Arp) and the rest being somewhere in between (e.g., House of Card, Reckoner). I'd say the vibe probably leans more to the mellow side, but its not sappy or anything like that.

I can't say that I dislike anything on this. The songs are really solid. If I had to pick favourites I'd have to say that I like Nude and Jigsaw Falling Into Place quite a bit.

The bonus CD is basically live versions and I think a demo or two of the songs that are on the CD. They don't have multiple versions of songs or anything like that, basically just a live performance of everything on the CD. The bit rate on these wasn't as good as the actually CD and because these are live recordings the sound quality varies quite a bit from track to track. I guess these give you sense of how the tunes evolved because some of the songs date back to june 2006.

Overall, this is really solid release. Radiohead delivered the goods (again). This is worth checking out.

Smoked Meat and Montreal

I suppose this is one of the culinary treats Montreal is known for.

The definitive place to sample it is Schwartz's. Someone said to me when we walking around Montreal that if you walk by Schwartz's and there is no line up then you go in, even if you're not hungry. Shortly afterward we walked past Schwartz's and there was no line up (it was like 11:30 AM) and we went in. After we sat down and got the sandwich the place started filling up and a lineup was forming outside the door.

This is a place you go to eat and don't worry about the decor. The service is really quick. You ask for what you want and they bring it pretty quick. I ordered a corn beef sandwich with a coke. You could order the meat lean, medium or fat. I got the lean one. The sandwich comes packed with meat. I'm talking about a stack of meet that's like 3 to 4 inches in height, in between a couple of tiny slices of rye bread with some mustard. I haven't seen that much meat in a sandwich since Brother's closed down in Toronto. The tables got this mustard bottle so you can touch it up -- the mustard is a really nice accompaniment to the meat. I wouldn't have minded getting a pastrami sandwich to go, but I was pretty full (I had a big breakfast). I also wanted to sample the home fries and the cole slaw, but I probably would have thrown up if I tried to eat anymore. A sandwich and coke came out to like $7.35 with the taxes in, which is a great price considering how much meat you get.

It goes without saying that Schwartz's is a must visit if you to go to Montreal.

I was really full at lunch because of the big breakfast I had. I went to this place called Rueben's (its on St. Catherine). Has that diner look. I got there around 8:00 am or so. Mixed crowd, some anglo guys in suits, some french office chicks, and some other french guys dressed more casually.

I had the Reuben omelet, which is an omelet stuffed with smoked meat. It comes with home fries (cubes of potatoes), your choice of toast (i picked whole wheat) and a few slices of fruit. I think they asked for some like $7 for it and they throw in the coffee as well. The coffee was freshly brewed. I also tried the cafe au lait there. It comes in like this big bowl. I'll have to admit I liked it a lot more than the latte's I usually have. The omelet was packed with smoked meat. This was a really filling breakfast and it was a really decent price. I'd probably go back here again for breakfast, but I'd probably go lighter in terms of what I eat so I'd have more room at lunch when I hit Schwartz's. I figure I'd go for one of the plates and the high fat meat the next time I visit and try the fries and cole slaw.

Schwartz's Rating: 3 Bunnies
Rueben's Rating: 1 Bunny

Notes on the Bunny Rating System:

• 0 or no Bunnies, it's a waste of time; don't go.
• 1 Bunny, the place is worth checking out.
• 2 Bunnies, you should go out of your way to check out the place; the food is really good and the place is cool.
• 3 Bunnies, you absolutely have to go there; the food is exceptional and the place is really cool

Random pictures

I can add some commentary, but its probably better to let the pictures do the talking.

Musical Selections

This is a real mixed bag.

I spent a lot of time listening to the Junior Boys this week. I ordinarily don't listen to electronica, but this is really good stuff. Even more surprising these guys are from Hamilton, Ontario. I would have thought that they might be England or something like that. At times the stuff reminds me of Depeche Mode, but its much more stripped done -- kind of minimalist. In any event, its really good. I listen to both of their releases, Last Exit and So This Is Goodbye, with remixes and extra. Of the two I liked the Last Exit more, but both are really good. If you want to check it out I'll make it easier for you. You can get the Last Exit here and So This Is Goodbye here. Just in case you're not familiar with mp3 blogs, the downloads are on a third party server, so there are limits on how much you can download -- so they'll be a wait period in between downloads. Enjoy.

I also checked out part of Charles Mingus's Passions of A Man box set. This is really intense. Its the opposite of the junior boys. The juniors boys stuff is stripped down to the minimum. The Mingus stuff is really layered, you've got the rhythm section in the background, the horns playing the harmonies over top. I checked out Disc 3, which has most of the stuff that shows up on Blues and Roots. This is stuff that should be listened to loud. After listening to this I kind of feel sorry for the people who never have listened to Mingus. But then I suppose a lot of people couldn't appreciate what he did.

On a more mellow note, I listened to Madlib's Blunted in the Bomb Shelter. This is reggae mix that he put together. Its not like he just took the songs and played them, he cuts and splices them together into the mix. So most of the components of the mix are pretty short -- about 1 to 2 minutes. This will give your subwoofer a really good workout.

An Evening at Bar Italia

I went on Monday night. It wasn't overly busy, but still pretty decent.

I haven't been there in a while, but the place and the menu look pretty much the same. In terms of decor, it looks OK. They have a bit of contemporary look -- although it hasn't changed in a long time. I don't think that they'll win any awards for the place but its pretty decent looking.

The crowd is pretty young. I think that the hipsters have abandoned it for "cooler" spots on the College Street Strip. There were quite a few good looking chicks when i was there, mind not you nothing super hot, but it was still more than adequate. There were a number of metro sexual douche bags in the place, but I think that kind of goes with the territory.

There was no DJ, but they had a decent playlist in terms of the music. It has a bit of loungy feel to it, they were playing some soul jazz (i recognized some bobby hutcherson) and stuff with similar vibe.

The service was OK. The hostess was pleasant, although the waitress that worked my table had a little bit of an attitude, although not in a confrontational sort of way. Both of them were pretty good looking, the waitress had a tattoo around her ankle.

This isn't fine dining by any means, but its pretty good cafe/pub food. I had the mushroom salad and the cubano pannino, which is a grilled pork sandwich. Both of them were pretty tasty. I also sampled the gnocchi, which came in a bit of cream sauce with prosciutto, that was decent as well. Like I said earlier, the menu hasn't really changed much. I can remember having the cubano and mushroom salad like 4 or 5 years ago. In a way, its nice to have a favorite that you can turn to and not have to worry about trying to figure out what's decent on a menu. On the other hand, i can imagine if someone is a regular it can get pretty tiring eating the same thing over and over again.

The food and two drinks came out to like $50, so its not exactly a budget destination. For an extra $30 you could get a really good dinner at the Foxley. However, I think if you're going to place like this you aren't necessarily going for the food.

There's nothing really spectular about this place in a either a bad or good way. This is the kind of place you can go with a girl or go watch girls and have a low maintenance night.

Rating: 1 Bunny

Notes on the Bunny Rating System:

• 0 or no Bunnies, it's a waste of time; don't go.
• 1 Bunny, the place is worth checking out.
• 2 Bunnies, you should go out of your way to check out the place; the food is really good and the place is cool.
• 3 Bunnies, you absolutely have to go there; the food is exceptional and the place is really cool