BigBunny's Page

Big Bunny's Girl of the Year (and December)

2008-12-19T14:21:00.001-08:00

I am delighted to present this year's girl of the year: Sunny Leone. Wow.

If she can't increase my readership, I don't know what will.

Big Bunny's Girl of the Year: The Runner-Ups

2008-12-13T17:26:00.000-08:00

These 4 were contenders to be the Girl of the Year, but they didn't make it to the top of the list.

They're listed in random order.

Priya Rai

Priya's got a lot going for her, but not enough to be girl of the year.

Lucy Liu

Oh Lucy you're so juicy, but not juicy enough to be the girl of the year.

Leyrn Franco

You know the competition for the girl of the year honor is really tough if she can't win.

Sarah Shahi

Sarah's got a lot going for her, but not enough to be the girl of the year.

The Year in Review: Best Spots to Eat At

2008-12-06T16:58:00.000-08:00

This is the first of the year-in-review theme.

These are what I'd consider to be my top 5.

5. The Foxley Bistro . I like this place a lot. The food is good. The atmosphere is good. What's not so good, is the wait to get a table if you come between 7:00 and 9:00. The menu is reasonably priced and tapas style. Dinner for two here can easily be $80 with a few beers.

Rating: 2 Bunnies

4. Tati If you asked be at the beginning of the year whether Tati would've made my top 5, I'd probably say no. But the place has grown on me as well as showing some improvements on some things that bugged me on my early visits to the place. Bistro food for the most part, with some other things mixed in at a decent price point. Nice place for dinner for 2 or a group. A younger crowd for the most part with good music and a couple of nice still life photographs (i like the one of the putty knifes especially). The wines are surprisingly good for the price points they offer them at. Not too shabby.

Rating: 1 Bunny

3. Teroni. I really like this place -- the courhouse one. The food is simple and good. The place is nice looking in a non-Toronto sort of way. I don't think you could go wrong here.

Rating: 1 Bunny

2. Delux. A new French Bistro on Ossington. I've been there quite a few times. So I know enough about it to review it, just haven't found the time to collect my thoughts. This a low key spot where minimalist is the operative word -- from the layout of the place to the menu and the wine list. The menu is simple and well curated, but solid. They are big on the characturie, and they might do most of it on sight (i'll have to ask about the sausage next time i go). Even the deserts are good. And you get all of this at a reasonable price. Hopefully, the economic downturn doesn't hurt this place.

Rating: Unrated -- no review yet

1. Boba Well this is the second time a number #1 pick on my year in review has gone out of business. It's a shame. Of all the Yorkville high end places I've been too this is easily the best. They took things like the food and the service seriously. But I guess the owners decided to move or try something different. Oh well ...

Rating: 2 Bunnies

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

Big Bunny's Girl of the Month: Gina Lynn

2008-11-26T15:22:00.000-08:00

This month keep's the latin flavour and features Gina Lynn, although it's not readily apparent from the pictures -- she's not a real blonde. Gina has puerto rican and italian parents, started working as a stripper in her senior year at a catholic high school (according to wikepedia) and then progressed to working as a model and finally as a porn star, appearing in such classics such as "Drowning in Bitch Juice 3", "Oil Overload" -- a favourite of mine, "Big Tits at Work" and "Breast Seller 2" among many others (appearing in more than 100 fils). But Gina isn't an actress she also works behind the camera as a director -- talented and hot -- directing such features as Ultimate Feast 2 and 3, Black Attack 2 and some releases in the the Filthy Ho's and Fresh Breed series.

I'm sorry that this one is light on the pictures, but there is lack of jpeg's out there.

Real Estate Signs: A New Media Outlet

2008-11-01T16:44:00.001-07:00

The street side garbage/recycling receptacles is a major outlet for real estate agents to advertise. But lately I've been noticing that some agents have been going upmarket. I guess its too degrading to have your image and slogan just below a garbage receptacle and get garbage and stuff seeping down on your brand.

The bus shelter sign is the new garbage can sign.

Check this one out.

"A new standard of excellence", as opposed to the old standard of excellence? Why not "Excellence in excellence!"?

This guy even has a little ad campaign going.

He's got a strategy that he's selling you. He has 74 options to choice from to help you.
First, he tells you his method 12.

Then he's got his method 31.

What I don't get is if he actually buys ads for all his methods? Probably not, because then he would just be giving away his secret to other real estate agents who would track down his signs or read this blog.

But I'm going to keep an eye for more ads from him to see if he reveals his secrets.

Big Bunny's Girl of the Month: Eva Mendes

2008-10-24T12:58:00.000-07:00

The temperature's starting to drop, so lets warm up around the hot and sultry Eva Mendes. Eva joins Selma Hayek as Campari calendar girls who are also girls of the month.

Real Estate Divas?

2008-10-18T16:41:00.001-07:00

This caught my eye. I remember there being 2 divas before, but the flip side of the sign didn't have the other diva.

Here's the original sign

There should be 2 of them one that looks like Peg Bundy and another one.

I wonder what happened to the other diva? Maybe the lifestyle for a real estate diva is too fast paced -- drinks at a cougar bar, drinks at divorcee night at some hotel bar bear the airport, late dinners at Red Lobster or the Keg -- and she burned out. Or maybe they got into a fight. Peg might have stolen the other ones boyfriend or something.

hmmmmmm.........

I'm not sure we'll ever know for sure.

Tati Revisted

2008-10-17T08:42:00.000-07:00

I've previously reviewed this spot, and while it wasn't a disaster it wasn't overwhelming either. But things can change over time.

I didn't know this until this summer, but apparently this place is named after the french comedian/director Jacques Tati. They also have a movie poster for one of his films when you first come in. Kind of neat. Better than picking something like "Wild Thing". Have to tip my cap to the owner on this one.

The scene is still pretty mixed, but does lean more heavily to the young side. The musical selections are always pretty decent. You can hear anything from some indie rock stuff to miles davis stuff from the 2nd great quintet.

The service is casual and friendly. They have an all girl crew working here. One is a holdover from earlier in the year, but the rest seem new. They all kind of share. So you can get served by any of them, especially on a busy night. Some of the waitresses are pretty hot as well. The Saturday night crew is particularly noteworthy. There are 2 blonds and a brunette who will give anyone who's a little bit of pervert a bit of exercise for their neck muscles. I have to tip my cap to the owner on this one as well.

The wine list here is pretty well stocked. I've never been disappointed by the wines I've had here. Like a lot of places a lot of the better wines are in the $80-$100 or above range. However, unlike a lot of other places you can still work the wine list for a really good choice in the $40-50 range. I had this really great California Zinfandel there and it was about $48. They also have a Malbec there that they sell by the glass, which is really good. I had a glass and i could smell the bouquet without doing anything to it. I think a bottle is in the low $40 range.

The appetizers are always pretty good. The snails are really good as is the salad with bits of bacon/ham. They also have an antipasto platter which has a little cheese, some cured meats, a grilled pepper, some olives, grilled calamari, grilled shrimp, ... . I know that this is not authentic french bistro fare, but the ironic thing is that the french bistro does antipasto better than a lot of Italian spots.

I think there's been some change over in the menu. I don't remember some of the things that are on there from before. But in any event, aside from the foray into the pasta, its standard french bistro. The cassolulet here is really hearty. I almost didn't finish. The serving size is pretty decent -- noteworthy since most portion sizes are shrinking as the economy goes into the shitter -- and the cassoulet is in the medium range for richness. So its not as heavy as the cassoulet at Pastis for example, but it's not a light weight either. They also have this monk fish that they prepare like a lobster, which is quite good. It might actually be the lightest main on the menu. I say lightest because the most of the mains are really rich or filling. Take the black cod. I thought that this would have been pretty light, but I think they cooked it in a lot of butter and it comes with this truffle oil mash potatoes -- so it was pretty hard to finish. I'd say the fall back options on the menu would be anything with frites: the steak, the bavette and the mussels (when they're in season -- months with an r in them).

The deserts are pretty decent. The coffee was a real weak point during my earlier visits. But one of the new girls is doing a lot better job. The coffee is decent now -- it would definitely be better than Starbucks now -- so its drinkable.

This is definitely a medium price range place, your looking at $100 or so for dinner with a few glasses of wine. They also have a decent looking fixed price menu on Sunday to Wednesday for $25.

Overall, not too shabby. A nice little spot to go for dinner for two or for bigger groups if you're looking for a french bistro with a younger scene.

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

Keepin' It Realtor

2008-10-11T16:18:00.000-07:00

I found this site just today: Keepin' It Realtor. They take submissions of real estate ads and post them. They also hand out an award on the ad.

I'm not sure, but it looks like its based here in Toronto because a lot of the ads look like they're from here or maybe they have a lot of readers from Toronto. I guess some people have submitted some ads that I had posted previously.

Its great to see another blog pop up and devote itself to the sharing of these great ads. I haven't done a real estate sign post in a while, but I'll have a few for you in the next weeks.

Spotlight on Gear: Aladdin Style Footwear

2008-10-04T15:54:00.001-07:00

If you need something to rock to the club and get ready for the ladies how about these.

I'll have to admit, I'm not sure if the Aladdin thing is played out and you're supposed to be moving to a more duck feet kind of look. In any event, lets have a closer look.

Here's something with the edgy Aladdin toe

You see that it comes to a point and curves up. This is the style that I thought was on the leading edge of douche bag fashion.

But when you see them along these two with wider and flatter fronts as well as a bit of snakeskin pattern, I'm not so sure what the leading edge of douche bag fashion is anymore.

These ones have a wider toe, but have a bit of the arc associated with the Aladdin style toe. Could they be some sort of hybrid style?

Now the metal tip on these toes is clearly late-1980s or early-1990s gino. This might be a retro look or could it be a revival?

The Mondrian style colour blocking on these is a really different detail. You don't see that every day, so I guess that's going to grab a lot of attention when you rock them to the club.

Recent Trends in Food: Cured Meats

2008-10-02T14:32:00.001-07:00

I was reading this article on a new trend in Italian restaurants in the U.S. Apparently, a lot of the high end spots are starting to cure their own meats and serve them their own instead of buying the industrial made stuff.

How about this to get you salivating. A nice cooler full of prosciutto (with a few cappocollos in there was well).

To make this the old school way you need the hind leg from a pig, some salt, black pepper (and perhaps some chili peppers if you're into a little more heat) and at least 10 months to cure the meat. Of course there's the initial preparation of the meat that needs to be done properly, so this not for amateurs. You need a pro to do it, which is why these places in the U.S. are getting someone specialized to do it.

This looks like some sort of salami, but if you ask me it looks pretty industrial grade.

Now this is a capocollo. This is the real thing. Its made from the shoulder of a pig. The meat is different from the hind leg -- I think its not as a tough. Its a solid slab of meat that gets black peppercorns inserted in the meat. It's then wrapped in a casing that is coated with pepper and other seasonings and then bound with string.

Just look at it. Its magnificent.

Here's some speck. As I understand, speck is a cross between the salting methods used by Italians and the smoking methods used by Germans and Northern Europeans. I guess you end up with something in between in terms of the flavours and textures.

The bresaola, is something I didn't try until recently at Teroni. It was pretty tasty. It's made from beef. From the descriptions I've read, it's sounds like its kind of made like a capocollo. It has a really nice colour and texture to it. I'd like to get close to one and smell it.

It would be nice if this trend in authentic cured meats made its way up here. As far as I can tell it's all over New York. There's even this new french bistro Bar Boulud, which is run by some guy from Lyons. Apparently, Lyons is well known for its sausage in France. So this guy brings in a charcutier, who is someone who basically makes sausage, cured meats as well as other things from pork, from Lyons to give the place the authentic stuff -- instead of the shit you can get at a supermarket. Up here, the closet I've heard to this trend is Teroni getting their prosciutto from a guy who makes them the old fashioned way. Still that's a start.

Wild Thing Espresso and Gelato Bar

2008-10-01T14:29:00.000-07:00

Little place on Harbord near Central Tech. The place took over a dive burger joint that used to be frequented by the thugs from Central Tech.

The name is quite unfortunate. I once saw these two guys give each other a high 5 and say wild thing when they saw the sign on the place.

The place is on the first floor of a Victorian house, but most of the original details are long gone. Its got the restoration hardware lighting, exposed brick on one wall. The guys who run this place have no taste in music. I've heard this techo lounge stuff playing in the place, and then on other days its kind of like classic rock (led zeppelin, beatles) mixed in with stuff like diana kral or something like that. Having no music would be a definite improvement in the atmosphere. They also have pretty shitty magazines in the place, elle and similar titles.

To me the crowd looks like a lot of University students and the occasional local. They don't have a lot seating so usually there's something like a half dozen customers or so in the place.

I haven't tried the gelato, not sure if they make it on site. They also do grilled panino's, but not sure how that works out. In terms of the coffee, there are at least 2 guys who work the machine. One is pretty decent, the other is much less so. So if you get the better one you can get a decent americano or espresso. He's got pretty good technique and does all the little things. The other guy is no where near as competent. The second stringers they have at Manic Coffee are better than him. Also if you want to put milk or cream in your coffee or americano then you have to ask for it because they don't have a little place where you can add your own like other coffee places. I'm not sure if they're trying to save a little money or something but its kind of annoying because they don't actually tell you that they don't have any milk available. They also nickel and dime you on the serving sizes. For example, like Manic and Ella's Uncle they serve an iced latte. The price of the iced latte is a little more, but the serving size looks to be a lot smaller. I've been checking the place out for a while and the prices of the americano have also increased from the early part of the summer, but the size of the cup (to stay) is also smaller.

Overall, with Manic Coffee in the neighbourhood not sure this is worth it. If you get the skilled guys at Manic its going to be better than here. If you get the less skilled guys at Manic its still better than here. The atmosphere is also better at Manic.

Rating: 0 Bunnies

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

Movie Posters

2008-09-26T08:46:00.000-07:00

I was checking out some blaxploitation soundtracks -- which are a bit of a passion for me -- and was really surprised at the movie posters and how interesting they were. I don't really see that in more contemporary posters, but I guess that does along with general decline in quality in most things.

The Foxy Brown poster has a lot of details and the catch phrase. Nice soundtrack too, by Willie Hutch.

Black Mama White Mama is a little more out of control. I like the ".. where they come from this is fun." Never seen the movie, it looks like the same sort of idea as that movie with Sydney Poitier and Tony Curtis when they escape from prison, but this one looks like it might be a lot raunchier.

Savage, which has a really nice soundtrack, also takes the poster to a comparable level.

He's more than a man he's a death machine. Pretty much lays it out pretty clearly. But what really takes this to the next level is catch phrase at the bottom: "Men call him Savage, Women call him all the time".

Now how about this for suggestive:

This should've gotten an Oscar, since they give them for almost everything. "Watch the landlord get his". I can just see it, "I'm sorry I don't have the money this month. Is there something else I could do?" Then you cue the porno music.

Big Bunny's Girl of the Month: Mylene Jampanoi

2008-09-20T15:56:00.001-07:00

Even though she's a French actress, Mylene has a bit of an American Apparel look to her. Maybe she spent some time in Montreal?

Le Corbusier

2008-09-18T14:19:00.000-07:00

This is style incarnate. Smoking jacket with peaked lapels; bow tie; pocket square; and, horn rim glasses.

Anyone who works in a smoking jacket is a hardcore as far as I'm concerned

Landscape Design and Patios

2008-09-06T16:53:00.000-07:00

This caught my eye the other day (these are high resolution images, so just click to get the supersized version):

It's a giant bronzed lion!!! Imagine that in a city. Some of you might be wondering who would have a bronzed lion. Well as you can see in the followup photo, it's on the patio of an Italian cafe.

I wonder who the designer was that came up with this idea. Could it be Tarzan? Perhaps. But most likely it was someone with a name like Guido Tartaglia or something like that. He probably wanted to claim part of the imperial glory of the Roman Empire, which he perceives to be his ancestry and heritage -- even though he probably has more in common with the moors than the Romans. If he was going for the Roman thing he should have gone all out, and put in like a temple and fountains and maybe dress the staff in togas.

This place -- besides having the bronze lion -- also has some interesting quirks. For example, when you order lunch, apparently you write down your order on paper and pass it to the staff. They also put a tip on your bill for both large and small parties, before you get served. The next step in this service philosophy would be to let you go into the kitchen and make your own lunch after you pay.

Erotic Art vs Pornography: Part II

2008-09-05T14:24:00.000-07:00

Most of the pictures from the last post disappeared, so I decided to use websites instead.

I don't think that there's any doubt that a site call chicksnbreasts -- hot girls, sexy pictures and videos -- would lean to the porn side of things. They basically search Flickr and post pics that they find there. Most of these are like the snapshots no one is supposed to see, but somehow get posted to the internet.

The line gets much more blurred with debauchette and beautiful and depraved. I think this are run by women and it seems to have a more highbrow leaning. There's little stories and commentary. Lots of black and white photographs, but then there's the hardcore stuff. Most of the time, its on the erotic art side of things, but then it crosses over in straight porn.

FIFTYROOMS is pretty firmly on the erotic art side of things. It lists the name of the photographers who are participating -- after you go through a warning message. You click on the name of the photographer and it takes you to their contribution. All the images are Polaroids. The only contributor that I recognized was Merlin Bronques from lastnightsparty. If you're familiar with his urban pinups -- if you're not you should be -- that's sort of stuff you'd see here, although everyone does it differently.

Black Tuesday

2008-09-02T14:34:00.000-07:00

A few changes to some past ratings.

Bar Italia:

This used to be a 1 Bunny place. Why does it lose its bunny? First, what they serve and call a risotto should probably be called a soup. If it was a little clumpy it would be a bad risotto, but what they serve is horrible. Second, when they say they use buffalo mozzarella in their caprese they are only using the term and not the real thing. Third, some of the staff have no idea what campari is. The difference between something like Bar Italia and Terroni, is like the difference between Listerine and a good single malt scotch (like a Glenlivet or Highland Park 10 or 12 year old). They might want to think about getting rid of the kitchen and putting in some extra seating and just be a bar.

Rating: 0 Bunnies

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

Manic Coffee:

This used to a 2 Bunny place. it used to be that you could walk into the place and not worry who the Barrista was. Not so anymore. They've got a new crew working the place. I suppose you might expect a certain amount of turnover, but the replacements right now, except for a slim girl with tattoos, aren't that great. The go-to-guy is still Steve. He's got one of those thin mustaches and is pretty mellow. I think he works mornings and early afternoon (1:00 or so).

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

Terroni @ the Courthouse

2008-09-01T12:09:00.000-07:00

The place is pretty impressive -- high ceilings, nice floors, marble, nice wood (reclaimed douglas fir) and ornate plaster work. This is a big place, but its broken up into distinct rooms. There's a bar area with a banquette when you come, the hostess is in a corridor and you tell her how many. She then basically figures out where you'll sit or have to wait -- no reservations. You can get seated in one of two rooms, a smaller one of two the side and a large one in the middle with a big fireplace. The smaller room has like a gallery or balcony on top so the ceilings have a lot of height. They also have a few private rooms: the one upstairs has a more contemporary look to it, but the basement one makes you think of those movie scenes where you get these little Italian cantina around the time of WWII. My favourite thing about the place is the giant case where they keep the prosciutto's at the front -- makes my mouth water.

The patio is nice. It's pretty understated. It backs onto to a square or green area for some condos or something. It kind of reminds me of this side street just off of St Denis in Montreal where the patios for the restaurants and cafes spill out onto the street.

The crowd tends to lean towards the younger end of the age spectrum, but the you get all sorts here. Pretty casual and relaxed.

The service is decent. I mean this is not the sort of place where you're going to get a personalized meal planner and spectacle when they serve you, but they answer your questions and are friendly and polite.

In terms of drinks and wine, they keep it real. If you're looking for a place to go get fruit martinis and shit like that this is not the place for you. So you can get cocktails and drinks that Italians drink. I like that, no pandering to local tastes. So if you order a Campari, you're not going to have your server say things like "Excuse me, can you say that again" or "I'll have to check whether we have that", or even worse bring you a cranberry juice.

The wine list is pretty extensive. I have to admit I've had some trouble sorting through it because its so extensive. To really work through it well you have to have a pretty good knowledge of Italian wines or perhaps a good knowledge of the wines from some region. I'm not sure the staff would be too much of a help. The last time I order wine there I asked for some help and got a glowing recommendation, but the wine turned out to be really pedestrian. Of course, if you've got some money to spend you're going to be able to find something decent -- you can probably sort most of these wines by price. But if you're on a budget its tougher to work the list. There's no house wine to fall back on.

The menu is basically simple southern Italian food -- although I'm not sure how the smoked salmon pannino made it on to the menu. So stuff is done in a homey kind of way. For example, if your secondi dish comes with broccoli then the broccoli is prepared the way an Italian mother might prepare it -- boiled, garnished with some olive oil and sprinkled with chili peppers.

The salads are nice and you can tell that they don't go cheap on the ingredients. For example, if you get the buffalo mozzarella caprese you really get fresh buffalo mozzarella that tastes different from what is described as buffalo mozzarella at most. The salads are all relatively light so you can get two or maybe three for two persons and sample the menu. The fried calamari come super-sized. They only come with some slices of lemon and they're done well -- not soggy, not burnt, just right.

The pastas there, broadly speaking, come in a tomato sauce or without (cream or oil based). Personally, I'm not a fan of the tomato sauce ones because the tomatoes aren't cooked before making the sauce, so you get a little more of the acidic taste of tomatoes. But this would be true for almost all Italian spots. So they would be fine for people with less refined palettes who can't tell the difference. Of the ones without the tomato sauce, I tend to prefer the aoili e olio ones (oil and garlic). For example, the pappardelle (thick fettuccine) with sausage, peas and mushrooms is kind of like a bolognese, but without the sauce. The serving sizes are relatively big.

They do thin crust pizza's well here too. Big variety to pick from.

Surprisingly, coffee is not really a strength here -- but then the places that can serve well made coffee are few and far between. On the other hand, the deserts are well done. They have a flour less chocolate cake on the menu right now that's really good. The tiramisu is also a nice fall back pick.

A dinner for 2 (2 starters, 2 mains and a shared desert) with a few drinks will be about $80-$100. So this is in the medium price range.

Overall, you can't go wrong with this place. Good food and great vibe. I'd say they set the pace for simple Italian food in the city. As much as I like the place, I can't give it two bunnies though, its a real close call. There's just something missing -- maybe they need some real Italian guys roaming around the place or a sommelier to help out with wines -- but its really close. But this place gets a bunny without any reservations.

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

Musical Selections: The Beat Konducta

2008-08-30T15:58:00.001-07:00

Checked out Madlib's Beat Konducta Vol. 5: Dil Cosby Suite, which is a J Dilla tribute beat tape (J. Rocc from Stones Throw is involved too). Nice cover:

Really smooth, most of the tracks are less than 2 minutes. This is really smooth, you can keep listening to this over and over again and not really get bored with it. If you are into the mellower beats on J Dilla's Donuts then you'll like this. The only negative about this is that its so short -- about 33 minutes.

I don't think this is really recent, I just listened to it for the first time, but Madlib's Raw Ground Wire Hump (Beat Konducta in India 45) is also worth checking out. Not surprisingly -- this has a real Bollywood soundtrack feel to it. The 45 has Raw Ground Wire Parts 1 to 4 on it. There was a track called Raw Ground Wire on his Beat Konducta Vol 3-4, but none of the 4 parts on the 45 sound like it. The Bollywood soundtrack thing does come through pretty clearly on a few parts of this -- the other two are more low key influences. Again this really short, about 6 or 7 minutes. But then you can get more the stuff on Beat Konducta Vol 3-4.

Il Gatto Nero

2008-08-23T16:45:00.000-07:00

Or in English The Black Cat a cafe on college street.

The place probably has one of the best locations around. It's on the corner on the east side of a side street with some big trees providing shade over the patio on the side. You can sit near the front or on the front patio and look at the hipster girls in their American apparel outfits and the street cars roll along College street. Prefect spot for the summer.

The place building itself is really great too. It's got really high ceilings -- although the colour scheme wasn't so great. There's a banquette on the wall and the bar is also against the bar. Tables fill in the rest of the space. The place would look fabulous if a professional with some taste redid it.

The staff seems like a bit of a mix. There was a nice, polite and perky girl working the tables. But then there were some monosyllable guys who sound like they were from Brooklyn in the place as well.

The menu has a mix of salads, panini, pasta and pizza. To me the menu looks kind of similar to what you might get at most Italian spots around the city -- although a few of the salads look like they got ripped off from Terroni's menu.

I ordered a grilled chicken breast panino. I was appalled by what I was served. The menu said chicken breast and they brought me processed chicken. If I had wanted processed chicken I would've gone to the deli counter at the Dominion across the street, but I suppose some establishments need to lie to diners. The menu also said it was grilled, but I don't think these guys have a real grill -- the grill marks looked kind of fake (maybe they use a George Foreman grill). The bun was too doughy and thick -- so the balance in the sandwich is off. The "chicken" is really thin so you end up having to chew really hard because the bread is too thick and the sandwich starts to come apart after a few bites. I asked the waitress whether the sandwich came with anything. She politely replied that it came with some mixed greens. What she didn't say was that the mixed greens didn't come with any dressing, so even though it looks like a salad and it's more like something you would feed to a grazing animal.

Also I'm not sure if cleanliness is high on the priority list here, the washroom has a really strong urine smell to it.

I generally like to check a place out a few times before I deliver a review, but in this case I'm going to pass a summary judgement because if you can't do something simple liked a grilled chicken breast you can't be expected to deliver on something more complicated. It's a shame someone who could actually make food can't invade the place and take it over -- but I guess these sorts of things happen when you have a legal system that enforces property rights.

Rating: 0 Bunnies

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

Big Bunny's Girl of the Month: Leryn Franco

2008-08-21T14:15:00.000-07:00

Since the Olympics are underway it seems appropriate to have an Olympian as this month's feature. Leryn Franco is a javelin thrower -- how phallic -- for Paraguay's olympic team. I would have figured that javelin throwers would have a bulky east German look to them, but apparently I was mistake. Leryn looks like she might be on the Brazilian beach volleyball team. She was a runner up in the Miss Paraguay contest a few years ago -- the winner must have been sizzling hot.

She's been trying some modeling and has her own calendar (see a couple of snaps below). The one with the white bikini is a nice one, kind of makes you picture with her skin a little wet with sweat.

The Fish Store

2008-08-07T14:05:00.000-07:00

A little spot on college street. Almost like of like a stand, but it has some seating out front.

You order inside, so its either take out or sit on the patio to eat in the summer. The patio is nice, its got some umbrellas over the tables and there's a bit of a counter facing the street with stools. So you can sit in the shade. They bring you the food. The servers/staff are friendly and polite.

The menu is pretty simple. You order some sort of grilled fish, which you can get as a sandwich, burrito or a salad. You can pick from, among others, catfish, grouper, salmon, black cod. They also have some soups -- a clam chowder and a butternut squash.

I tried the clam chowder, its fine. It's not the best thing to order in the summer because its kind of rich. It's a better pick in the winter or when its colder. Also its a lot richer than the fish, so its kind of awkward to have it before the fish.

They also make a lemonade that I like quite a bit -- it comes with half a lemon in it.

I've had the fish sandwiches; I'm not into burritos. They come on a bun that is really light. It kind of reminds me of a croissant, but's it even lighter. So basically it just wraps the fish, so its not like you have all this doughy bread to chew through. Nice way to package grilled fish. The fish comes with some sort of lettuce and tomato as well. These are nice light sandwiches and they're prefect for the summer, filling but not too heavy. They run a daily special, which is like $5.99. It's usually the lower priced fish on the menu (e.g., the grouper, catfish) that are used in the special. You can go for the more pricey fish as well like the halibut, wild salmon or black cod, which will run you like $9 or $10 for a sandwich. Still pretty decent return for the price. The rest of the menu is in the $7 to $8 range. The soups are $4.

Overall, this place is alright. It's not going to be overwhelming in terms of what they provide, but they have a simple menu and they do it well. I feel so much more civilized after having lunch here and walking past the people having lunch at the hot dog cart.

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

Splotlight on Gear

2008-08-05T07:05:00.000-07:00

How do you keep track of what's happening in the fast paced world of "gear"? There are all these different collaborations and release dates are all over the place. I guess a Google search would work, but you'd have to do one every day or so. Or you could take the easy way and check out Selectism.com. They do all the work for you and they update it every day.

Check it out if you don't believe me.

Musical Selections

2008-08-01T14:09:00.000-07:00

Mixtapes are where it's at if your into hip-hop or you could even say music more generally. There's something about being able to use a sample that would otherwise not be able to be cleared or jacking someone's else beat and using it in a totally different way that can take something familiar to a totally new level. There's quite a few good ones at there right now.

Although its been out for a while, and got quite a bit of attention this spring, Wale's Seinfeld themed mixtape "Mixtape About Nothing" is a really good one. I don't know much about Wale, but his mixtape is one of the best this year. it was mixed by Nick Catch Dubs -- who did Saul Williams stellar "Real Niggery" mixtape a few years ago.

KiD CuDi's mixtape "Emile and Plain Pat Present a KiD Named CuDi" might be the best non-cocaine dealing themed mixtape out in the last few years. Plain Pat mixed Kanye mixtape from last summer and he put together another scorcher this year. The beat selection is really good and the KiD delivers some fine verses.

Looking for some mellow music to chill to do on a hot summer day/evening? Diplo and Santogold's Top Ranking will fit the bill. There's a few hard driving tracks on this one, but most of it is pretty mellow. There's quite a bit of reggae, probably about one third of the total tracks on it (this has got about 35 tracks on it).

While most big label hip hop underwhelms -- although the mixtapes are a different story -- indie/underground hip hop continues to thrive. Stone's Throw steps the pace with two releases this summer. The first solid entry is the Dilla Ghost Doom "Sniperlite". So this is a couple of J Dilla beats from donuts with verses from Ghostface Killah and MF Doom. This is short, one from Ghost, one from Doom, and the 3rd track splices the two together.

On the longer side, is MF Doom & Madlib's (i.e., Madvillain) "Madvillainy 2: The Madlib Remix". Apparently, this was Madlib's personal remix -- which he just decided to release this summer. Although its a remix, it has the feel of a totally different album because none of the track names are the same. Also the beats are so different it gives it a whole totally different feel to the original. This is highly recommended.

Coffee at Aroma Espresso Bar

2008-07-28T14:34:00.000-07:00

This is supposed to a coffee shop, but they also serve sandwiches. I'm not sure if its like a chain or a small independent operation.

Its a fairly big space, they have two seating areas that flank an order counter that faces another counter with stools that looks out onto the the street. Its got a bit of modernist look to it. The tables are dark in colour and the chairs have redish/burgundy upholstery. It has a bit of a club/lounge feel to it because they play house music/club music quite loud. The furniture in the back room is pretty low profile as well, which adds to the club vibe. The tables in the front seating area are a little higher. There's a patio in the summer. The place is really busy -- doesn't really look like there's a slow time or night.

The crowd is all over the place. Some really young, some really old and pretty much everything in between. The staff is really young, and not very competent.

I ordered an americano and i got a dark liquid with a little foam on top. I tasted it. It wasn't coffee as far as I'm concerned, but I suppose some people might consider it to be so. This is one of those times where you should be allowed to throw the hot "beverage" in the face of the person who made it, so maybe they might actually try to make what is ordered the next time -- kind of like when a dog shits in a house you shove its face in the shit and it won't shit in the house anymore.

The coffee was so appalling, it should get a negative rating. Unfortunately, my rating system doesn't have this sort of feature -- so it gets 0 bunnies.

Rating: 0 Bunnies

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

American Apparel Ad

2008-07-26T16:38:00.000-07:00

Even though the company has been sold to a private equity group I guess the old management team is still in place. This is a classic. I like that's it kind of like a proof sheet where you can pick the best image. My personal favorite the first one on the right side. I'm not sure if it comes through on the scan, but in the newspaper ad you can actually see her skin has a sheen to it.

They also provide a little bio on the model.

Jessica works in the Montreal store and is working on a business degree at McGill. But I'm not sure on how many people would read the bio part. In any event, the visuals are quite nice. She's also got a few slide shows on the American Apparel website if your into that kind of thing.

Big Bunny's Girl of the Month: Lucy Liu

2008-07-18T12:46:00.000-07:00

Star of television and screen, immortalized in Outkast's "Hey Ya", the seductress Lucy Liu gets featured this month.
Yummy.

Coffee at Ella's Uncle

2008-07-15T13:08:00.000-07:00

It's a tiny coffee shop on Dundas West between Bellwoods and Claremount.

Pretty simple layout to the place there's a room with a counter in about the middle. The staff are one side and the customers are on the other. It's got a bit of a retro kitchen feel, with the black checkerboard tile setup. There are some counters along the window and one of the wall with stools (seats 8 or so). The other wall has the sugar, cream, milk etc. There's a print of some streetcar track being laid from way back. They usually have music playing. The times I've been there they've played Beck and Marvin Gaye. Combined with the service, it gives the place a pretty laid back feel.

The place is pretty busy on the weekends and you can see the hipster douche bags out. But during the week days its not as busy especially in the early afternoon.

I'll have to admit my first visit was really disappointing. I had an Americano that tasted like it was made at Starbucks. However, they do have a very skilled guy working the machine, his coffee is substantially better. He's got a beard. I'm not sure if they've got a bigger crew working the machine, it looks like a pretty small operation. In any event, the Americano here when its made properly is quite good. There's a decent thickness of crema on it, which suggests that the espresso would be worthwhile. They also make a really good iced latte if your into that sort of thing. They can sweeten it for you as well -- to your preference. I'll have to say that I prefer this one to the stock iced latte you can get at Manic Coffee, which doesn't taste as good (at least to me) unless you get it with soy milk. The prices are really reasonable, a small Americano for $2 and nothing over $4 for the larger size -- lattes, machiattos etc.

There's a dark skinned woman who bakes stuff, I haven't tried any of her stuff yet but it looks pretty yummy. I guess that most (if not all of) the treats they sell are made in house.

Places like this give me hope. It's worth a look. It's a solid bunny, could be two if it didn't matter who was behind the counter.

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

Eroctic Art versus Pornography

2008-06-27T13:51:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about this the other day. Erotic art would be socially acceptable but pornography is viewed less favourably.

Take the above image. I would probably say that is erotic art. The black and white image makes it seem more serious. But its not just whether the image is in black and white. For example,

this is in colour but I'd still say that it was erotic art. Both images have a more serious mood. But there's something different about this one

I would figure that most people would consider this to be more pornographic.
Here the model also has the thong and bare buttocks like the previous two but there's something different about the mood. This isn't as serious or somber as the other two. Here I get the feeling that she's having a good time, that she really likes showing her ass. While in the previous two the models were just modeling and used as part of a composition.

I could continue to explore these alternative viewpoints and considerations, but I'm just going to post some more pictures of erotic art.

I'll close this out with a final image that may have been inspired by the 2 Live Crew

Big Bunny's GIrl of the Month: Isabelli Fontana

2008-06-21T17:26:00.000-07:00

She's a brazilian supermodel. No need to say anymore.

Real Estate Signs

2008-06-18T14:30:00.000-07:00

I couldn't get any closer to the one above, but its basically a cartoon/drawing of a black woman in a car. I guess its supposed to represent that the agent is like driving around and helping you. Tha sista's doing well cuz she had a white bitch working the open house for her.

The next one caught my eye because it was almost life size -- like one of those life size card board cutouts you see the theater or something. So I was almost going to walk away, but I took a peak at the other side and I found a gem.

It's a husband and wife team. But Carlito doesn't have Juanita as his wife/partner, he's got Charlotte -- who as we can see is a poster girl for the Aryan nation, although her choice of spouse probably got her kicked out of the group.

I wonder how they met? Was she out with a few friends from Burlington who decided to get wild and go to a salsa club and she found Carlito there? I was also thinking who got who into real estate? Was it Carlito or Charlotte? Aryan white girl wants to get a career for the husband. Alternatively, Carlito wants to project the image of a success story and brings his Aryan wife to work. All the latino guys would admire the whiteness of his woman and be impressed -- kind of like how white guys go for asian girls.

Spotlight on Gear: The Military Shirt

2008-06-17T14:02:00.001-07:00

The spotlight returns and shines on the military shirt.

The military shirt is enjoying a bit of resurgence these days, with some keeping true to the original while others take the inspiration from the classic.

For example, here's your standard army surplus military shirt.

What separates this one from the bad copies is the pockets -- this one has the extra deep ones. This differs from the version that is typically sported with the Aladdin kit, which has undersized pockets.

Some designers like to take put their own spin on the military shirt, keeping some details intact and changing others. For example, Michael Bastian likes to slim down his shirt, reduce the size of chest pockets (although well above the Aladdin level) and strip out the shoulder epaulets. He also tends to favour the tabs that hold the sleeves in place when you roll them up. This is one he did for GAP, with cheaper fabric then he uses on his own line.

APC sometimes takes details from the military shirt, so their kind of like hybrids -- not really a military shirt, but a button down with different details.
Like the single military chest product

with a nice little detail on the hem.

Or you can take the white oxford button down, and toughen it up with the shoulder epaulets. This is from last year's Madras collection and has this really nice oxford cloth.

Rogan's version of the military shirt looks even tougher than the original. It's in a gray chambray and its got this futuristic look. The epaulets on the shoulders are sewed in and don't have any buttons. The chest pockets are like slits and don't have any buttons. The buttons on the shirt are metal, with most being black with except for one that's just plain.

A Continuous Lean

2008-06-14T15:51:00.000-07:00

I stumbled across this website a few weeks ago and its quite a decent little spot.

A Continuous Lean is run by some guy in NYC.

It has a little of this and a little of that, but the guy is really into men's clothing and shopping. His taste leans to classic american style ranging from work wear to preppy. You could almost say that the guy has a japanese angle.

Actually, probably a little more than an angle because he did a post on Free and Easy, the Japanese fashion magazine more than once. He also did a post on the new RRL in the Hamptons.

I'm not sure if its the kind of site that people who know go to, but its kind of interesting check it out if you can.

Big Bunny's Girl of the Month: Emmanuelle Chriqui

2008-05-24T16:57:00.001-07:00

This month the sultry and exotic Emamanuelle Chriqui is featured. This actress in non-pornographic material is from Montreal and is of Moroccan-Jewish heritage. She looks really glamorous, but somehow really wholesome and down to earth.

Maxim ranked her as the number 6 hottest girl in the world.
I would have liked to provide some nicer pictures, but I couldn't find anything.
I'll probably have better luck with next month's girl.

The Real Estate Guy

2008-05-16T08:37:00.001-07:00

Here he is. Has a bit of artsy look going -- the turtleneck with the blazer, the shadows in the portrait; the slightly unkept hair with a well groomed sideburn at the precise angle of 20 degrees.

That's his own name for himself. Check out the detail below.

I can kind of see this guy with a tattoo on his chest or back with the brokerage logo. Something like when superman goes into the phone booth as clarke kent and then comes out in his outfit.

Big Bunny's Girl of the Month: Priya Rai

2008-04-19T16:42:00.001-07:00

She's definitely not a Bollywood star, she's in porn. According to the Boobpedia, she was born in India and moved to the US. She became a model and then got into porn. I'm not sure how old she is, but she's doing MILF porn.

Boobpedia quotes her on describing her main goals as "meditation and being in tune with my spiritual and sexual energy". Here's a link to her homepage if you're interested or a link to a blog dedicated to her, for the really perverted readers who won't be satisfied with the softcore pictures.

Big Bunny's Girl Of the Month: Sarah Shahi

2008-03-24T07:07:00.000-07:00

Sarah's exotic and sultry look is a product of her mixed heritage: Persian (father) and Spanish (mother). Currently, she's staring on the L-word, which is some sort of program on lesbians (I've heard it described as the lesbian equivalent of Sex in the City). She does a lot of magazine spreads and she's ranked as high as #66 on the Maxim hot 100 list (they don't know what they're doing).

I couldn't find any suitable pictures to complete the 360 degree perspective, so these will have to do.

Dinner at Sotto Sotto

2008-03-22T16:04:00.000-07:00

Checked it out on a Friday (Good Friday actually). It was really busy, we got there at about 7:30 and all the tables were full. The first sitting gets turned over pretty quickly, but the second sitting people can pretty much linger around. We left at like 10:00 or 10:30 and it was still pretty busy. We had a reservation. I've heard that this place is kind of popular with celebrities and you could get bumped if they want to have a celebrity show up without a reservation.

I've heard this place described as pretty romantic. I don't know if I'd use those words to describe the place. Its really really dark. It's also really loud -- there's no background music or anything -- wouldn't be the place to go if you were looking to have a quiet dinner. The place is in a basement, but its kind of like at street level so its not like your in a dungeon or something. The place is set up with two rooms. There's like a food preparation area in the first room and some tables there as well -- i think this is like the VIP section; the other room has a bunch of tables. I think they were going for a grotto/cantina look to the place. Given the dimly limit rooms I'd say they nailed the look they were going after.

The crowd looks to differ by sitting. The early sitting was more like 40-50-ish, but the second sitting tended to be younger (30s, but not much younger than that). A lot of couples, but there were some women in groups of 2's and 3' s in the place as well.

We had a waiter. He looked like he was a professional. He had good answers to questions and made some good suggestions. They also had this old Italian cougar walking around the place in a low cut lime green top. I don't know what her job was.

They have a good wine list, but this place is not going to be cheap. They do have some house wine which is priced really well and is quite good. We had the house chardonnay ($55 a litre) and it was quite good. If you're on a budget I'd say you can't go wrong with the house wines.

The menu is kind of extensive. They have a lot salads and grilled stuff to start and a lot of the pasta dishes come in starter and main size. For the mains you can pick from the pasta, meat (primarily veal), chicken, fish and risotto sections. The risottos here are for two people and take like 45 minutes to prepare. I've heard that these guys are hardcore when it comes to risotto -- it's probably their signature dish.

I had the grilled mushrooms to start. They were quite tasty. It came with a giant porto bello at the bottom and a few other varieties on top. The guy across from me had this smoked salmon penne, which came in rosey sauce that also had a smokey taste to it. There were also some good comments made about the buffalo milk mozzarella caprese. For my main I had the misto di mare, which was some scallops, calamari and salmon fillet. It comes on a bed of argula with assorted other greens. The calamari was grilled with a little charring, which actually complemented the balsamic vinegar in the accompaniment. The scallops and the salmon was cocked just right -- so it wasn't charred. This dish was great. With a little lemon juice it was light and refreshing. The only complaint I would have is that there is too much balsamic vinegar -- so it makes it hard to enjoy the wine after a while because all you can taste is vinegar.

They have a good selection of deserts. I tried a bit of the pecan pie and it was pretty good. There were some favourable comments made about the chocolate mousse and the molten chocolate cake. I had a cappuccino and it was prepared quite well. This is an Illy coffee shop.

In terms of price point, this place is not cheap. Two litres of house wine, 3 starters, 4 mains, 3 deserts and 3 coffees came out to like $380 or so.

Overall, this is place is pretty good. The food is not like going to a culinary experience, but its pretty simple food that's prepared well and they don't use cheap ingredients. They also do the little things right -- like make good coffee and offer you a selection of good table wines.

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

Manic Coffee

2008-03-12T13:45:00.000-07:00

I've been sampling the place for a while.

It's just outside of the College street strip near Bathurst.

The place looks like a typical coffee shop in this city: colour accents on the walls, track lighting, etc. However, the music is a lot different from the crap you might hear at most coffee shops. For example, a few weeks ago I sat down and listened to some Black Sabbath as I sipped on a latte. Last week I went in and they were playing some sort of punk rock, but the week before it was Hall and Oates. So the musically taste of whoever picks the music is really eceletic or they have different people picking the music.

The place is like a long rectangle. There are seating areas in the front (by the door and window) and in the back, you pick up the coffee and stuff in the middle. The back area has got a few tables and a couch. The front is all tables, but there's also like a magazine selection (stuff like vice and skateboarder magazines).

You get some hipster guys and a lot of cute girls hanging out in the place. Mostly locals I think.

I've been casing the place to get a sense of how different people work there because there can be differences in the skill level. I've seen four so far -- they were breaking in someone new last week (he's got one of those shaggy hair looks). The other three are pretty much all even as far as i can tell: there's a preppy looking guy with a mustache; a guy with a shaved head; and a girl with dark hair and tattoos. They all have the same technique when it comes to working the machine to make the coffee and making a latte.

In terms of the coffee, these guys definitely know what they're doing. For example, the americano has a crema that is comparable to that on most espresso's that get served in the city. It also tastes a lot better. By comparison, the americano at Starbucks is absolutely horrible. When they make a latte they hold the cup at an angle when they pour in the milk so you get a swirl. The latte here absolutely blows away what they have at Starbucks and other place.

I've also tried some of the specialty drinks. The mocha is really good, but you have to drink it fast because it cools a lot quicker than the latte. They also do a chai latte, which has an apple cinnamon taste to it. I've gotten use to the Starbucks version, but this doesn't have that kind of taste. This one is more like one of those loose leaf chai's (e.g., The Gallery Grill or Pangaea), but it doesn't get overly tannic or astringent because they don't have the tea leaves steeping too long.

Overall, this place is really impressive and is worth checking out. This place is a solid 2 bunnies.

Rating: 2 Bunnies

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

Real Estate Signs as a Palette

2008-03-10T11:50:00.000-07:00

I guess I'm the only person fascinated by real estate signs. Here someone has decided to modify the sign.

So lets take the basic image:

Now what about if we decide to blindfold him. Like this:

This person also decided to put a patch on the agent's head.

These aren't really path breaking modifications, but I'm surprised that you don't often see people coming up and doing something to the sign. Like the one below, where he's got an eye patch:

or the Viking helmet in this one:

I guess you could take it one step further and use the signs or pieces of the images to come up with some sort of collage.

Spotlight on Gear: Uniqlo Denim

2008-03-08T16:10:00.000-08:00

This month the spot light shines on denim. This is the premium premium line offered by Uniqlo -- a 15oz selvage denim.

Nice pocket -- plain and a decent size. Its a straight cut with a bit of a taper at the bottom. The indigo is really deep and it rubs off pretty easy. Given the weight I figure this will fade really well and without much effort.

What really grabs my attention is the price tag. If you can't make out the picture, they were 5000 yen -- about $50 Canadian. What a bargain!!!!!!!!! Most premium Japanese denim in North America in the 15 oz range is going to set you back about $220-$250. The price is even better than A.P.C, which you can get for the $155 or so shipped from New York.

It's not like they're really going cheap on the details either -- the hems are chain stitched (which you don't see on the budget selvage denim from the gap).

If Uniqlo ever expands its presence in Canada and the U.S. its going to game over for the Gap, Banana Republic because they give you a better product for a lot cheaper.

Sale at the Rub and Tug?

2008-03-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

If the local rub and tug has to cut prices there has to be something going on.

Could there be a downturn in the economy -- so consumers have less to spend?

Or perhaps, the massage therapists are not very visually appealing.

I wonder if there will any another special promotions to drum up some more business. Like a 2-for-1 or $2 Tuesdays?

Real Estate Ads with Commentary

2008-02-21T15:04:00.000-08:00

These are high resolution images if you want a closer look at any of these.

This was a card. I guess its just not enough to have your name and number on the card -- you have to have an image to help you market your "brand". Here Mitchell --this kid must have had a mother into soap operas or something -- has got his arms crossed. While his partner (wife/sister/cousin???) has the prime and proper look. That is until you flip the card, then she's all business with crossed arms. I don't know if anyone sees this besides me -- but when i look at it i get the sense that he's banging her. That's fine if he's married to her, but if she's related to him its kind of like incense.

Can't forget the catchy saying as well:

You pick the best
So we can do the rest

they got the rhyme right, but it looks off because the syllable count on the two lines is different so its loses something. They should have kept it simple
Forget the Rest
Work with the Best

I guess these little catch phrases are really important. Check out this guy.

So typical garbage unit ad with a prominent picture as well as the contact info. How does he set himself apart, he has an awesome passion for real estate. Wow. I didn't think that was possible. I can understand people being passionate about a lot of things (music, art, chicks, politics) but not real estate. Does this mean that he gets all excited when he sees stuff he's into? Like does flip out when he see hardwood floors or crown mouldings? It seems a little odd because I real estate agents are supposed to be professional in some sort of dimension.

This next one is really boring. The guy's saying isn't even worth making fun of. But it does illustrate the potential drawbacks of advertising on a garbage can.

You can get some shit on you and you could look really disgusting. I'm not sure if its coffee or coke that's spilling down on the guy's face, but it does make him look really professional.

In this one her outfit really grabs your attention: giant hounds tooth.

But what makes Magda special? She's an award winner!!!!!

A platinum award even, not just gold or silver. She also has some degrees, but I'm not sure what a B.Sc. and a M.A.Sc. have to do with real estate -- the last one looks like an engineering degree. hmmmm..... I wonder .....

Check this one out. What inspired this colour choice? Could it be Picasso's Rose Period? Perhaps, but then he would be wearing a harlequin outfit. Might be an improvement.

When I first saw it I wasn't sure what the point of this was. Was he an agent? Or was it supposed to be an ad to attract agents -- so like they put a generic picture (like with a picture frame) -- and you picture yourself selling real estate. It's confusing because there's no catch phrase; i guess the background colour is supposed to hold your attention. Also the contact info is really small and in the bottom. Probably not a great idea -- especially with a lot of snow then you basically wasted the money on the ad because no one can get your contact info.

Now this next ad really sets itself apart.

So this is actually creative. She's got the dog with her and she like says that a real estate agent is like a dog. So like they would always be there for you no matter what -- just like a dog.

But does that mean you have to talk them out for a walk?

Big Bunny's Girl of the Month: Random Girl

2008-02-19T13:48:00.001-08:00

Who is she? I don't know. She kind of looks like she could be related to Kim Kardashian.

The pictures are from last night's party, check it out if you want to see her in more detail

Random Picture

2008-02-15T06:21:00.000-08:00

Via Supertanga's, a website that never disappoints. Hit the website to get a better look at this.

Big City Agents and Aladdin Style Footwear

2008-02-11T13:30:00.000-08:00

This real estate ad caught my eye.

That's Brad J. Lamb.

This is his team.

They used to have a reality show -- Big City Agent -- on what they did (and didn't do) in a day. Pretty high drama -- deals not getting closed, agents fighting with each other for stuff that is probably really insignificant.

I only saw a few episodes; I lost track of it after that.

He had this thing where he featured some of this agents and gave some of the background. I guess the show was supposed to be a giant ad for his brokerage and development business. That's kind of ironic because you would think that if someone was making millions from developing condo projects that they wouldn't have to advertise on a garbage can on a street corner. Maybe the condo business isn't as good as everyone thinks?

They had some really interesting poses. Check out the guy on the right, the way he's side ways but looking at the camera -- that looks really cooolll!!!. The guy in between mr. cool and the women is like going for the more casual guy next door look.

The guy with the red tie really standouts in the whole ad. Not only is he the only one wearing a tie, he also pulls off a more serious look because he looks more like a banker (like in the branch, not investment banking) than his colleagues. Everyone else while in a suit has basically got their shirt unbuttoned up top. Oh and he also has the cell phone pose, i think he thought of that hisself.

The woman on the far right, they featured her on one of the shows. She started out as a receptionist and worked her way up the ladder. She's in a relationship with this white guy who made her move out to Burlington and she's kind of stressed out because its a real hassle to chill with her girls because its a long commute. Guido next to her is a less sympathetic figure. Apparently, he was a bartender and Mr. Lamb had one of his drinks and decided that he would be a good real estate agent. I don't see the logic in that. It is kind of scary though.

The guy standing next to the one in the orange is supposed to be their top seller. He was a bit of a prima donna -- in more than the usual sense of the word sailor (pronounced with a lisp).

The second guy from the right was also having a bit of a complex on the show. He wanted to resell agent (where the money is better) and not be trapped in the showroom, where things can get pretty shitty. He actually got pulled from a showroom because of some sort of conflict with the developer of the project. I felt really sorry for the guy. He looked so hurt.

But really caught my attention after looking at this ad is the footwear. Your going to need the high resolution versions of the pictures so just click on them to see what i mean.

Look at the arc on the toe of the guy on the outside's shoes. I mean I can kind of seem him going home to his pad, with like cushions, carpets and a lamp -- a place with a real morrocan or middle eastern vibe. Maybe he changes out of his suit into some sort of vest and a baggy pant outfit. At the other extreme, the guy next to him has this super squared toed shoes -- probably kenneth cole -- that sort of look like duck feet.

If we look at the guy standing next to the woman in brown, we again see the aladdin style arc. However, in this case the shoes don't come to a point they are slighty squared off. The guy at the edge has a similar shoe, but no arc -- although it is slightly elongated. I never new that there were so many variations on such basic thing as an aladdin style show.

Its hard to sometimes get a sense of the sort of point we're talking about, but here we can line up a women shoes (at the far-left and one-from the right) with men's shoes and get a comparison.

The men's shoes are not necessarily aladdin version with the point, but they are quite pointy and elongated like a pointy woman's high heel. If you just had the tip of the shoe, it would be hard to tell whether we're talking about a man's or a woman's shoe.

Here again we can see the duck-bill shoe at the end and the flatter aladin style next to the woman.

So it looks like the agents in this brokerage tend to go for pointy shoes for the most part, but they also have some tastes for the aladdin style curl. This might be because they're into selling condos and lofts and they have to look more contemporary than an agent that deals with houses , where you might feel more comfortable with a squarer toe shoed agent.

But the thing I really want to know is whether Brad J. Lamb is rocking the aladdin style shoes?

Event Ads: High-brow vs Low-brow

2008-02-06T11:59:00.001-08:00

Here are a couple of ads for two different events. One's a little more artsy, while the other is a little racier. These are all high resolution pictures so just click on them to see the details.

This one is for some sort of burlesque show. I guess that's what they used to call dancing before it was called dancing. Now burlesque is supposed to be classier than the dancing, and it seems that the pseudo-bomehian hipsters are advertising this event.

It's got a decent title, but I kind of look at the picture and woman doesn't seem too voluptuous to me. It might be because the image is kind of grainy (more like blocky because of pixels), but if the women are supposed to be the focus of the evening then it should be that the women should feature more prominently in the ad. Here she's kind of washed out.

You can tell that this is really artsy because its compared to the divine decadence of the weimar republic berlin. Wow; guess the person who put this together read some history books or some sort of movie on this period on TV. I seriously doubt that anything in this city could rival the cabaret culture in berlin between the world wars. To make a comparison like that the creator of the ad has to be delusional. This is supposed to an ad for a burlesque show, who cares about the historical references. I want to know how hot the dancers/performers are going to be and whether they got a celebrity performer (whose name might be recognizable outside of the little circle of people that organized the event)!!!!!

Now compare that ad with this little gem. This is a two sided flyer.

Here's the first side.The event is called "One Night Stand". That's already got my attention. It lists the location, the date, the DJs, the preformers and the MC.

Here's the other side. Again, the title is there. But on this side they amp up the attention by putting the picture of the girl in the bikini above the title. Here the title and the image work in tandem to get the basic message of the ad across.

An extra detail in the image that i didn't notice until i looked at the high resolution picture (click on it the picture below to see it), is that the girl is pouring milk over her body. Again reall highly suggestive and sexually charged.

Its clear that this ad is a lot better thought out and put together than the first one. So the artsy ad basically falls flat because they lose sight of the big picture -- guess they were too self absorbed or whatever. The second ad has a simple message that it wants to get across and it does it both with the title and the images. Even the artwork in the second ad is better -- the bikini matches the background and the lettering in the foreground. Both events are trying to use "ass" as the selling point, but only one of them does it effectively.

Lions versus Eagles

2008-02-04T13:45:00.000-08:00

The royal houses of Europe often use lions and eagles in their coat of arms. For example, the english use the lion; the german empire, austria-hungary, tsarist russia as well as the roman empire used the eagle. Some other countries have also used these symbols in their national identity; the eagle (nazi germany and the acores), the lion (the venetian republic).

I guess some home owners want to add to the regality of their home by using lions and eagles as decorative symbols.

What i'm curious about is what makes someone a lion person, while a neighbour could be an eagle person.

Like here I'm thinking the columns probably give it like a NYC public library vibe and it should be lions.

This pad has got the frosted brick work and they go for a dark lion. I probably would've gone for one in plain stone, might be less of a contrast with the lightness in the brick work.

They also look a little undersized, not majestic enough.

Just down the street there is an "eagle" house. They're covered for the winter, but you can still make them out. Here the eagles are the prefect choice. They have the late-roman empire theme happening with the pottery and the concrete mini-columns. Still I probably would've gotten the eagles in stone instead of the dark finish. I think it would've made the place look more imperial.

It looks like the eagle look goes well with a roman theme to the house, while lions might be better suited to frosted brick and other looks.

The first few pictures I snapped were in Little Italy. However, I was suprised to find similar decorations when i was deep in scarborough.

We have lion on this place and also they have a little minature bear. When I saw the bear I was kind of thinking that the household might be russian, but it turns out that they are south indian or sri lankan. I was really shocked because it destroys the stereotype that italians or portueguese households use these decorations.

Just down the street from this house is a real masterpiece. I thought that a household is either a lion or an eagle house. But sometimes it s more than that. This house was a lion, an eagle, a collie and an angel house. Check it out.

The lions are like at the front (one on each side of the driveway) and the collies are in front of the garage. That's pretty regal. I don't really get the rationale for the collies, maybe they're into lassie or something. I would've thought that maybe you could have a crouching tiger or panther in front of the garage. The eagles are also painted to look like bald eagles (kind of harley davidson-ish), but the collies, the angel and the lions are kind of coppery.

So I guess you could be an eagle or a lion person, or perhaps you could be really into animals and be into have more than one in front of your place.
This is really confusing.

Big Bunny's Girl of the Month: Sunny Leone

2008-01-25T08:46:00.001-08:00

Since its so cold today why don't we warm up around the super hot Sunny Leone.

Sunny' real name is Karen Malhotra and she was born in Ontario. Her parents are Indian.

It looks like she's all stock, so no augmentation or anything like that -- kind of adds to her appeal, as does the piercing in her belly button.

She's a Vivid contract girl. However, she only does girl-girl stuff. Although, its rumored that her new contract with Vivid involves some chewing some knob on screen.

Spotlight on Gear

2008-01-24T13:59:00.000-08:00

How about this to keep you warm on those cold winter days: an N3B Jacket.

This rugged parka comes with real fur trim -- coyote or wolf, which will stay dry in snowy weather. Its got the snorkel hood, so you can pretty head off into your own world with it on.

You can even see the faint outline out the US Air Force patch on the shoulder.

The History Preservation Society has a nice write up on this, which is over the top:

"This year is set to be yet another fall/winter season with fashion-chic imposter parkas found in all the big stores, though none of these parkas will ever protect or insulate as did the original USAF styles they pathetically fail at emulating. The N-3 design is renowned for its comfort and insulating features that provide warmth at extremely low temperatures, most notably the snorkel-style hood."

Dinner at Boba

2008-01-17T14:49:00.000-08:00

Checked it out on a Thursday night. It was kind of busy, but not frantic.

It's in a house/building. The first floor is like the main dining room, while the second floor looks like it's a private room. I think the idea underlying the design is that it was supposed to a french chateaux or something like that. The got like this fluere de lille pattern on the wall up to the second floor. The first floor has got like these things in the corners that look like the edge's of stucco walls on houses. They also have these light fixtures where there is a circular fabric shade. The ceilings are kind of too low for the sort of fixtures they got. Its kind of got like a cream colour to the main room. I took a peak into the private room on the second floor and its kind of got this purplish red colour to it. While certainly not on the cutting edge of interior design, the place is infinitely better looking than the freak show that is Mistura. I don't find the place offensive or anything.

The crowd tends to be on the older side, 50 or there abouts. But I did see a couple of couples that were younger, they looked like they were late-20s. Given the quality of the food, which I will discuss below, it might be a popular date spot if you got the money.

There is a certain formality to the service here. If you don't put your napkin in your lap, the waiter will do it for you. However, they don't fold up the napkin if you leave the table. The waiter we had was really helpful. He answered questions about the menu and made some suggestions about some wines by the glass. They're really polite too. I guess they have a sommelier or perhaps a well informed hostess -- she was wearing a different outfit than the waiters and the servers. The table next to us had some guy complaining about the bouquet of the wine he ordered. Apparently it wasn't up to snuff. So it wasn't off, it just wasn't good as he expected. So in this really polite way the sommelier tells him that he doesn't know what he's talking about after she sniffs (i.e., "It smells fine to me sir."). People like this should just stick to table wine or take a course in wine tasting.

The wine list is actually quite good. They have quite a good selection of wines available by the glass. The best values in terms of quality for price are going to be the Canadian whites, which are in the $50 or so range. The reds will be a little harder to work. The corkage fee is $25 and includes decanting. We brought a Dead Arm Shiraz from 2000. It was incredible. (They had a dead arm shiraz from 2003 --not as good as the 2000 -- on their list and it was $125 to give you a benchmark.) If you're going to with a red, its probably better to bring your own and go all out and pay the corkage fee. If you like the whites you can probably go with one the good Canadian ones they have.

The food here is really top notch. I've been here before and it looks like there is some turnover in the menu -- always a good sign. I think they're signature dishes are the crab cakes in the starters and the ostrich in the mains. I've had both of them and they are really good. The ostrich is basically like steak, but a lot leaner. This time around I tried something different. I started with the grilled octopus. I guess everyone does grilled calamari, so octopus is a bit of an original choice. It came with fennel, potato, olives and arugula as an accompaniment. It was a really great balance of flavours with some contrasts. It wasn't oily, like some grilled calamari dishes -- it was just right. Well plated too. I would definitely have this again. The other people at dinner had the sea scallops and there were some favourable comments made about them. For my main course I had the veal tenderloin. The veal had this nice grey shade. I really like the accompaniment they plated it with a spaetzle (a short rounded egg noodle) with corn, bacon and a clump of butter sauce. Again another well executed dish. The side is really different, but it really meshes well with the veal. In terms of the other people at dinner, the rack of lamb looked good and the New York steak with frites looks like it's the thing you can't go wrong with on the menu. I tried some of the frites, I was eyeing them quite hungrily after I finished my dish. They were pretty crispy, but not oily, and they give you quite a few.

For desert, I shared what they call the grand desert, which has a little bit of everything -- an apple pie, a creme brullee, some sorbet, a chocolate tort with ice cream, etc. For like $14 you can't go wrong with this. I did a close inspection of the creme brullee, the crust wasn't too thick and you could see the vanilla bean trace at the bottom. I also like the apple pie they do there, it's a signature dish for them. I also had an americano, so like most places in the city coffee is going to be an issue.

In terms of the price point, most of the starters are in the $15 dollar range and the mains are in the low $30 range. Our bill, for 3, came out in the $250 range. I would guess if you don't bring your own wine, it would be $120-$130 per person for dinner.

Overall, other than the pedestrian look to the place there's no problem here. If they did some serious rethinking of the interiors you would probably start thinking of the next level. But as it is right now this place is really good high-end choice.

Rating: 2 Bunnies

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

Dinner at Mistura

2008-01-14T14:31:00.000-08:00

Checked it out on a Monday. I was surprised it was pretty crowded, almost like a Thursday.

The place has a room with bar in front, a little private dining room off to the side and then another room that is offset from the main room. They have these curtains so they can separate it from the main room. The night i was there they were using it for a party.

I'm not sure how long the place has been in this location, but it has a real '80s look to it. It's really tacky. There are like these light fixtures that have like a new york loft skylight detail and then they put a cheap chandelier in them. This run the length of the main room. I guess when they first built the place they had the pot lights that were more recessed, so there is kind of like a cylinder (recessed into the ceiling) and the light is in the cylinder. I guess someone changed their mind and decided to put in some of the new pot lights that are more flush with the ceiling. The only problem with that is that they didn't take out the old pot lights, they just put the new ones in at the end of the cylinder. So they kind of look like these little spot lights. Along the left wall they have these booths that run the whole length of the main room. But they super-sized the seating, so the backs come up really high (like 6-8 feet). The walls have a lot of these mirrors, with no frames. They have some tables in the middle of the room and a more traditional banquette at the back of the main room. I found the banquette to be somewhat cramped. This place is definitely not going to win any design awards, but it is so ugly that is actually worth a look.

The crowd can be best described as white guys in their 40s and 50s with a lot of money and no taste and the women who have sexual relations with them.

There was no back ground music in the main room, but they do play some jazz in the washroom.

The wine list is relatively big. There is quite to pick from. If you're on a budget you're going to forced to pick from the California and Australian and New Zealand stuff for the most part. We had a California Chardonnay that was adequate and an Australian Shiraz that was OK. I think they have a sommelier. I would probably recommend talking to him to get some suggestions.

The menu is Italian. It looks like there is some seasonality to the menu. I've been here before (3 and 5 years ago), the menu each time is really different, so the chef (some hardcore italian guy called massimo) really changes it up. The chef seems like a pleasant enough guy, he worked the room a bit.

To start I shared a couple of things. I had a bit of the crispy artichokes with caponata and then mushroom trifolata. Both of the starters were really light. I was somewhat disappointed with the trifolata. It was supposed to come with a parmigiano tart, but I could hardly taste any parmigiano in the tart. I had someone else taste it and they had the same assessment. They had these lamb ribs as starters, I probably should have had those. They got some favourable comments form someone else at the table.

The mains they are substantially better. This is where the chef's skill is really on display. I had the wild boar agnolotti. This was so good and really rich. It came with the roasting jus as a sauce it was so good. I also had a bit of the wild beet risotto. This is described as classic mistura -- i've had this here before. If you want to see a well executed risotto then have this. Its creamy, and it has these hints of parmigiano and its not too sticky or too runny. It's just the way its supposed to be. All of the pastas and rissotti can be ordered in appetizer or main size. The main sizes are quite big though. This guy does go cheap on the serving sizes.

I didn't go for the any of the meat or fish dishes on the menu -- i was trying to go light. But there is a quite a bit of selection. My sense is that these will be pretty well executed given the two I sampled. Oh and they will be really filling.

The deserts are interesting. He gives them all these italian names. I shared what they call the modernist, which was supposed to be plantain and chocolate. When I got it was like three filled dumplings with chocolate inside. It was pretty good. I order an americano with desert. Like most places in the city, they didn't make it properly. This also indicates that there will be problems with the espresso.

In terms of price. This place is going to really expensive. The starters are generally in the $15-$20 range, the pasta and risotto (main size) are in the $25 range, and the mean and fish mains in the low-$30 to $40 range. Given the price range I would expect the waiters to be all over you, but you don't see a really high standard of service (like you would at Splendido). However, the waiters did seem to be quite knowledgeable when questions. I'd figure dinner with wine would be like $130-$150 per person here.

Overall, the mains (and some of the appetizers) are going to be really good here; but the room and the crowd are going to be incredibly disgusting. But I think that adds to appeal of the place in a weird twisted way. So this kind of place to go if you want to have really good food, but in a completely tacky -- in both a decorative and social sense --setting. That's kind of ironic I suppose. But after you've been there once, there really isn't much reason to go back unless you really enjoy the show. So this place gets a split rating.

Rating:
1 Bunny if its you're first visit
0 bunnies after that

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

Hot Chicks with Douche Bags

2008-01-09T08:35:00.000-08:00

I found this website its really really quite interesting. The guy who runs it posts pictures of hot chicks with douche bags and if that wasn't enough he also provides commentary.

I was really blown away by the top picture -- the carrot like look of their faces, but it wasn't even one of the guys award winners.

The guy marks his award winners with these little trophies in the corner -- i've got a couple down here.

This one was an award winner. Look at the plunging neck line on the blond guy. Both of them seem to have a lot of sweat on their chests, but the girls look relatively dry. I guess they spray water on themselves.

This guy didn't win an award, although its hard to believe given the leopard skin cutoff outfit he's wearing. You can just imagine the intensity of the competition.

Like this guy. Look at the batman theme he's got going. He's got the belt buckle along with the tattoo of the bat signal on his chest. This is truly the next level.

He closed out 2007 with a series of awards. This is definitely worth a look.

Dinner at Tati

2008-01-05T16:45:00.000-08:00

This place is at site formerly occupied by Kensington Kitchen, which shut down at the end of the summer. Its a French Bistro.

I went on Thursday night. The place is kind of dead up until about 8:00 when it really picks up and get a lot more bodies in there. I've walked by the place on a Saturday night and its pretty busy. The crowd is a bit of mix -- some couples, women out for dinner, some old people. I'd say its probably a 30-40 crowd for the most part. The weekends seem to lean heavily to a woman clientele. I'm not sure if its local crowd or people from uptown.

The choice of music in the background is a little odd. Before 8:00 they were playing this techno/electro lounge music that was somewhat annoying. After 8:00 they started playing some kind of indie rock stuff, which was a lot better. Why there was such a difference in the selections is like really hard to understand.

The service is kind of casual, but they'll do things like change the cutlery after the starters as well as clean the table.

They cleaned up the place a bit. On the main floor they've repainted the walls and they put this colour accents on walls where they hung prints -- really HGTV. They also put in a bar, with some stools. Gives the place a really different look than its previous incarnation. The floors look nice, but when I was checking them out I noticed that the baseboards are kind of crappy. Some of the walls have these little 2 inch baseboards that you see in basement apartments, while other places have something like 4 inch baseboard. They put in a banquette on the left wall and a mirror above it, although looks kind of cheap (there's no frame and if you sit at the end of the banquette you can see that the mirror sits on top of some particle board). The lighting is kind of dim though, and that helps a little. I didn't see the second floor. I remember there being a bar and a two smaller dining rooms as well as the walk out to the patio.

I ordered a campari and soda to start. The bar guy/waiter butchered it -- too much soda water. I suppose he's spent a lot of time watching Cocktail and he believes he's the master of the free pour.

I shared the escargot with mushrooms to start. This was really tasty. The sauce/gravy it came with really good. I kept dipping my bread in it. The waiter/bar guy brought an extra basket of bread for the dipping. I had the lamb shank as my main. It came with some grilled vegetables in a sauce that was was kind of liquidy. I found my lamb shank to be a little disappointing. It was not adequately cooked because the meat wasn't falling off the bone. You had to tear it a bit to get the meat off the bone. You could also tell that lamb shank is not a choice cut of meat. I guess that's why you cook it until the meat falls off the bone -- so you won't notice its not a great cut of meat. I sampled a bit of the gnocchi, which came in a bit of a butter sauce. They were OK.

I ordered an americano and shared a creme brulee for desert. The americano was typical of what people pass off as coffee in this city -- so it was bad in other words. The creme brulee was kind of good. It didn't have a really thick crust so its not like you would have to really pick to get threw the crust on top.

In terms of the price point, its in the middle range of the mid-range restaurants. So dinner for two will probably run into the $120-140 range if you order wine. If you just have a few drinks with dinner you can get out of there for $90-$100.

Overall, the place isn't that bad, but its not that great either. In terms of its comparators. while Messis, just across the street, might be a little too much to stomach because of the over 50 set, they do the little things right -- e.g., they can make a good campari and soda and know how to cook a lamb shank. In terms of other bistro's I've checked out I would say that both Pastis and
Le Select Bistro are better choices in terms of the food. So while the place isn't a total disaster I don't think I can give it a bunny right now.

Rating: No Bunnies

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

Catch Phrases in Real Estate Signs

2008-01-04T06:45:00.000-08:00

I've noticed some real estate signs have these catch phrases on them. I guess these are supposed to help market the property and make you feel more confident in the ability/credentials of the agent or brokerage.

For example, look at this sign I spotted in a shop window.

Here you can expect "Higher Standards". Wow that's impressive at first glance. But then you start to wonder in what? Its certainly not in the choice of the suits the agent wears or his ties.

Then you can have the self-styled real estate divas.

Wow. That's a really powerful phrase. When I hear the word diva I think of some famous opera singer or prehaps someone like dianna ross or madonna. So I'm visualizing a woman in some some elegant gown or costume. In music the phrase has a pretty clear meaning. In real estate I guess the definition of diva is open to a much more liberal interpretation.

Lets have a closer look at the real estate divas.

First, there's the younger one. She kind of looks like the years of teasing out her hair in the '80s has increased the volume of her despite straightening it with an iron. She looks to be wearing some sort of top that could have picked up at a Portuguese fashion boutique near some sports bar on dundas.

Then there's the more senior one. She's kind of got the caked on makeup -- notice her really bright red lipstick. Based on the turtle neck and blazer (in neutral tones), I would guess that she doesn't wear high heels -- unlike her partner.

I'm kind of disappointed. I don't know what sort of service they provide, but when I hear diva I get all excited. Then I look at the sign, and i see a Peg Bundy wanna-bee and a frumpy women in her 50s.

I wonder if they've trademarked the phrase "real estate divas". If they haven't then I guess other agents could use it or variants because it is a real attention grabber.

Look at this sign.

The agent's picture kind of looks like a graduation picture, where they tell the female students to wear a crisp white blouse to get best results for the photography.

So the sign looks really kind of boring. But if she were to include a catch phrase like, "The Original Diva of Real Estate", "A Diva with Higher Standards" or "Real Estate Diva", it might add some life into it and improve her branding potential.

Musical Selections

2008-01-03T06:38:00.000-08:00

I have this thing for '70s soundtracks that I've been indulging in recently.

I checked out Alan Tew's Drama Suite parts 1 and 2. This really obscure but it's got really nice '70s vibe going -- the wah wah rythmn guitar that is usually associated with porn soundtracks does feature quite prominently. I thought I heard the theme to the People's Court on this or the original sample of what became would become the theme.

Another little obscure thing I took a liking to was Michel Colombier's soundtrack to the L'Heritier. Again a big '70s sound to it: the wah wah guitar, the Fender Rhodes piano and the heavy bass. It's really short, something like 12 minutes; and it has this little theme that keeps reappearing -- it kind of sounds like the opening to Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun. Even though its really short there's a pretty good balance between the uptempo and slower stuff.

Why is that the Japanese so frequently take things to the next level? Well add this one to the list: Toshiaki Tsushima's soundtrack for Cops vs Thugs. This little gem, its only about 14 minutes long, sounds like a blaxplotation soundtrack -- except that its better. Its got heavy doses of wah wah guitar, flutes, a horn section, james bond theme style guitar runs, etc. The wah wah guitar holds the whole thing together, it runs through the whole soundtrack. Most of it is pretty fast paced, but there are some slower bits that seem to have a more reflective quality to them.

I checked out the second part of Radiohead's In Rainbows. I had this one for a while, but only just got around to listening to it. The audio quality is a lot better than the first instalment. The whole sound is also similar to the instalment. Also like the first part, it's really well done.

I also managed to get my hands on Freeway's Free At Last. I really like this. Its kind of got a harder edge to it, and its really refreshing change of pace from most big label releases. It's sound is distinctly unsouthern. When you listen to this you can tell that Freeway is not going through the motions. Take a listen to When They Remember, and you'll know exactly what I mean. I doubt that this has been played much on the radio, but I like it.

Event Ad

2008-01-02T08:02:00.001-08:00

This is actually from last year, but its still relevant.

Its for their Holiday party. They have a bit of a winter theme going, with the ice and the christmas tree decorations.

They call event naughty or nice and they ask you which category you would fit into.

Here's the image that suggests you're nice. Lots of exposed skin, but not in an overly obvious way. She still has a relatively wholesome image.

But if your naughty, you get a get a fur trimmed string bikini. Look at how she's smiling. She's ready to party.

I like how they put the pictures of the girls in the ornaments. It kind of reminds me of those cartoons where you get the angel on one should and a demon on the other. And the devil is like urging you to be evil, but the angel is trying to get you to be good.

Of course the designer of the ad covered all his bases. So just in case you don't believe that you'll get some super hot girls you can still get really cheap beer. Six dollars for a pitcher is a real bargain, although you'll probably feel really bad the next morning.

The guy who put this ad together did a really good job. He, or she, should be teaching advertising.

Big Bunny's Girl of the Year (and December)

2007-12-27T07:11:00.000-08:00

The girl of the year (and December) is Kim Kardashian. These are all high resolution images so feel free to click on them for a better view.

Kim was the girl of the month for February this year. Since then she's had a really busy year: a sex tape (not really that good -- poor picture quality and bad camera angles); a reality TV show, which also features her sisters and the rest of her family; and, most recently, a playboy photo shoot. The pictures in this post are from that photo shoot. They're decent, but I think they lightened her up a bit (she might be a little too dark for some playboy readers -- but she's just right for me), and might have airbrushed some stuff out. They should have picked a better photographer to bring out her deep sensuality. Terry Richardson would have taken her to a whole new level. But I guess there's always hope for next year.

Top Pickups in 2007

2007-12-19T14:13:00.001-08:00

This is a run down of my favourite pickups this year. This leans pretty heavily to outer wear and denim.

10. Wings and Horn knit hats. For me a winter hat is an essential. These two caught my eye. The pom pom is really gangsta. The hats are also over sized, so they don't fit really tight. If you lean this over to the side, you can get a really pimping look happening.

9. Rag and Bone Jumper. I kind of liked this. I've had this thing for cardigans this year. This one is made from wool, but it kind of feels like felt. I like the buttons and the extra pocket up top. It's also got this detail, on the lower sleeve -- some sort of elbow patch.

8. Sugarcane Okinawa. I got these this year. I still haven't had a chance to debut them yet, but I'm really satisfied with them. They're made from the sugarcane/cotton blend and left hand twill. The denim on these is just sublime -- you get a little slub and these subtle differences in the colour. I'm pretty sure I'm going to keep these ones blue and not make them an everyday jean. I don't think that you'll many pairs of these on the street.

7. A gaggle of Jack Purcells. I loaded up this year. I guess the Chuck Taylor is the more common and popular choice, this is my the Jack Purcell takes it to another level. They aren't as common. They have this stealth quality to them, they might look like the Chuck Taylor at first but then when you take a closer look they're something totally different. I think my favourites are the gray ones. They're made of twill, not canvas. I've only seen one other pair in the city.

6. Oni Blue Fit Denim. I'm a big fan of these. The denim is super slubby and somewhat coarse looking. There are a lot tougher to fade than I would've thought. I got almost two months of daily wear into them and I've hardly dented them.

5. Engineered Garments Field Jacket. This one is unlined. It was little big; I was eying it through the spring, but someone scooped my size. I paired it with a Y-3 hoodie, which makes a nice inner layer.

4. N-1 deck jacket. This is something I spent most of the year looking for and only picked up a few weeks ago. Now I can look like Lee Marvin in Point Blank. It's got a really fitted look and the lining seems pretty warm. This will be great on those chilly days in fall and spring.

3. Engineered Garments Mountain Parka. Even though they call it a mountain parka its a field jacket as far as i'm concerned. I was eying this one all fall, I picked it up on sale at the end of november. This one besides a couple of detail issues (snap buttons, some extra pockets) is lined with a wool lining. I haven't had a chance to wear it yet, but I think that this will be a really decent fall jacket.

2. 45 rpm Soraikho Slim. I've only just gotten these, but these were a major item on my to get list. Unlike some brands that feel they have to a super-slim look with a severe taper, these are a straight leg cut that's a got a slimmer silhouette.

1. Nom de Guerre waxed cotton rain coat. I absolutely love this piece. I feel like a U-boat captain when I wear it. Its got a rugged military look, but its cut really slim. I'm really looking forward to see how this ages because wax cotton gets a patina as it ages.

Girls of the Year

2007-12-18T08:37:00.000-08:00

I'm making the monthly girl for December the girl of the year. These are the runner-ups. I picked 5, i'm not going to number them because that would be like objectifying them.

So in no particular order.

Kurara Chibana. She looks so classy.

Salma Hayek. Even though her heaving bosom features prominently in the picture, I do look over at the Campari from time to time.

Leah Dizon. Playful, but still kind of slutty,

Tera Patrick. I still can't believe she married that ugly fuckin' troll. She looks like she was made to be photographed by Terry Richardson.

Maria Ozawa. Asian chicks with no asses? Maybe, but Maria's trunk has got enough junk in it to make almost everyone happy.

Next week, my girl of the year.
Who will it be?

Year-in-Review: Dining Out

2007-12-15T16:35:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd close out the first year of this blog with a year-in-review theme.

This is the first post.

I'd picking the top 5 places in the city that i've reviewed.

5. There is no 5. I think the first 4 on the list are a lot better than any of the candidates that could file in the 5th spot, so there would be a big drop in the quality of the experience between the first 4 and the fifth.

4. Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar. I like the feel of the place and the choices on the menu. It's a decent value and there is a great choice of (good) wines at reasonable prices. It's got a tapas style menu. I like the frites here as well as the scallops a lot. If you get a couple of glasses of wine and some tapas your probably looking at like $120-$140 for 2.

Rating: 2 Bunnies

3. The Foxley Bistro. The place is not as polished looking as Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar, but the food is still really good. No need to worry about the wine here, there are just too many spices in the food to get a stable enough wine that could stand up to the variety in the menu. Hence my recommendation that you stick to beer or some other beverage. Like Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar, this is a tapas style menu -- but the servings are larger than the traditional tapas dishes. The menu is really reasonably priced. Dinner for two here can easily be $80.

Rating: 2 Bunnies

2. Splendido. This place is the place to go if you have buckets of cash to blow and want to get pampered. Whenever you get up someone will be waiting to tuck you into your chair when you get back. The plates are served all at one and unveiled together. The menu changes from season to season. The menu is not a menu in the traditional sense, you order different variants of a tasting menu, with some selections in the components. When I went there were a few different variants of the menus (some had more courses than others). There is a really extensive wine list, with a big range in the quality as the price points of the wine. The sommelier is really helpful and knowledgeable. However, be prepared to pay the price. If you go for the lowest price tasting menu and a bottle of wine, you're basically looking at $300 for dinner for 2. If I lived in Rosedale and was a real high roller then this would probably be the number 1 on this list. But I don't.

Rating: 2 Bunnies

1. Jamie Kennedy Restaurant. This is a more formal dining room located within the wine bar, but it offers a regular menu instead of the tapas available in the wine bar. The service is good, but you don't get the show that Splendido puts on. The sommelier is helpful and knowledge and there is a big selection at really good prices to pick from. Its pricey -- but not as pricey as Splendido -- dinner for two is probably in the $200-$220 range,

Rating: 3 Bunnies

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

A Most Interesting Real Estate Agent Sign

2007-12-13T13:02:00.000-08:00

I spotted this sign the other day while I was walking around at lunch. Some real estate agents like to put their pictures on the sign as a form of branding -- I suppose, or perhaps they are so vain that they like to see pictures of themselves.

I mean most these agents, both men and women, look really cheesy in these pictures. However, the picture of Valerie above is not in that category. If we look at the closeup we can see that Valerie is a real hottie.

Valerie doesn't want to give the impression that she is all beauty and no brains, so she also indicates that she B.B.A. (Bachelor of Business Administration.

There are few things that I real like about the picture.

First, the pose is more like one the snapshots you see at something like Last Night's Party -- although the skill of the photographer might not be equal to that of Merlin Bronques. With this pose I get the feeling that Valerie spends a lot of time at clubs.

You need to closer at the picture to see the other details that pop out.

Looking at Valerie's lips it almost looks like she wet them before they took the picture (either that or they photoshopped it). The wetness on the lips, really makes me want to consider her as my real estate agent.

The other that gets me about the add is the little glitter in the earring. It almost looks like a star. It reminds of those cartoons where the hero has these perfect white teeth and when they smile you see a sparkle in their teeth.

You can also see (above) that Valerie has some exposed shoulders and the outfit looks it has a pretty deep plunging V. I'm not sure if this would be proper business attire, but I don't think many people would care.

I can almost see her with some oversize sunglasses driving around in an entry level acura to showing.

Douche Bags and the Canadian Winter

2007-12-08T15:27:00.000-08:00

I didn't manage to get any pictures of this, but i hope my description can help you see what I saw.

I've noticed that douche bags tend to dress in a similar manner in the winter, with one or two variation.

First, they should wear a light wool top coat, which is usually (maybe always unbuttoned).

Second, they should be wearing a black shirt -- which might have stripes. It should be untucked.

Third, the top two buttons on the shirt should be unbuttoned. I've noticed that unlike my shirts, which might flop a little around the collar if they aren't buttoned up enough, a douche bag's shirt will look more spread. Think of a taking a fresh link of sausage and slicing it knife. You get that kind of effect. The other thing that you see -- and this is the great part about winter -- is that the bare chest that's exposed by the unbuttoned shirt turns really red. I get this on my hand in winter, its almost like a wind burn.

Fourth, there is the footwear. Obviously, there should be some Aladdin-style footwear that comes to a point. But as I kind of thinking that maybe its not Aladdin that the inspiration. Perhaps, its Santa's elves, who have to a lot of work in snow and have pointy shoes as well.
Maybe some of them got a day pass to go clubbing and didn't go back. Or maybe they're like cross country skis, so they cut through the snow and ice.

Anyway, keep an eye out for them.
They're everywhere.

Event Ad

2007-12-01T16:17:00.000-08:00

I saw this ad a few weeks ago. It's for some Latin-American dance event. I think this is pretty good.

The ad has all the basics: location, start time, information on prizes and drinks.

It also has a common theme -- the lollipop-- in both the title and the imagery.

These guys didn't go cheap on the model for the ad -- unlike some other promoters, as the closeup below demonstrates. This model is adequately breasted and quite fit -- notice the piercing through the belly button.

There is a strong sexual message in the ad. I mean it would be one thing if they had a smaller lollipop, but they used the extra long version. I would interpret it as saying something like, "Come to our event and you're going to get some hot chick chewing on your knob."

These guys get bonus marks because not only do have the extra long lollipop, but the model is having a really good time as well -- as the picture below demonstrates.

8 Diagrams

2007-11-28T14:13:00.000-08:00

I just grabbed an advance copy of the new Wu Tang album -- 8 Diagrams. There's also a mixtape to accompany it, which was mixed by Mathematics.

The mixtape is OK. I thought that the first half of it was a lot stronger than the stuff on the back end. It's got a few songs from old Wu or solo work pasted onto to new beats. Some of the these work better than others. I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said most mix-tapes are better than the actually album. Fortunately, this is not true here.

All the surviving members of the Clan are present. There is a tribute to ODB that is bit of a posse cut. The album is also note worthy because it has the first officially cleared sample of the Beatles. The RZA sampled "As my guitar gently weeps" for "The Heart Gently Weeps". Its kind of mellow, but in a real gangsta Wu Tang sort of way.

I would have figured that the Ghostface Killah and Raekwon would have been heavily featured on the tracks before I listened to it. But it turns out that the Method Man probably gets more verses than them. It's probably Meth's best showing in a quite a while. It's refreshing to hear Masta Killa, U God and Inspecta Deck also get some verses. There are a few RZA stream of conciousness flows. Ghostface and Rae also get their share and deliver. It almost easy to forget the GZA because he's just so calm and understated by nature. In any event, all of them are in top form.

The production is kind of what you would expect from the RZA -- snippets from Kung Fu movies, samples of shaolin soul -- but just to cross you up he's got a beat with a little bit of crunk in it.

I really liked this. I don't think that there's a song that just blows you away, but when you step back and look at the whole piece its really solid. There's nothing really disappointing on this.

Big Bunny's Girl of the Month: Tila Tequila

2007-11-26T08:03:00.000-08:00

This month I feature Tila Tequila. Tila is originally from Vietnam, but moved to the US. She started out as a car model and somewhere along the way she became the most popular person on myspace. She's got her own TV show right now -- a reality dating show -- One Shot At Love. When the first episode began I thought this was total trash. Basically it was 16 super-meat heads, with excessive testosterone levels competing for her. So basically there were a lot of confrontations and posturing. Then there was serious plot twist. A group of 16 super hot girls come out. It turns out that Tila is bi-sexual and the show will have the men and women competing for her love. With this little twist, this show went from trash TV to must watch TV.

There are plenty of pool side competitions and a lot of the girls prefer to wear thong bikinis. Tila also has a lot of sexual energy, so she frequently makes out the women contestants. Also they picked some real meat heads so a few weeks ago there were some punches thrown and security had to escort the guy she kicked out off the set. Next week there's supposed to a cat fight.

Like I said, must watch TV.

I like the American Apparrel outfit she's wearing above, maybe she should do a calendar with them.

Dinner at Phebe's Zee Bar

2007-11-24T16:39:00.000-08:00

I would've have probably been better off posting on something else, but this place was so hideous I had to share it with the world.

It definitely wasn't the first place on the list for dinner on Friday night, but since we couldn't get a reservation anywhere else we had to go there. Interestingly, the person responsible for the reservation said something to the effect "It always seems that I can get a reservation there when other places are booked." That raises the obvious question of why there might be that regularity.

The name of the place "Zee Bar" is supposed to be a clever pun on "Sea Bar", I must be a little slow because I didn't see that until someone told me. I thought Zee was German for the. The place is supposed to specialize in seafood.

The crowd, is mostly in the 40+ range. Mostly couples, but it looks like a few cougars go the place before prowling the city. I get the sense that its mostly a local crowd.

The place is decorated like Captain Highliner's recreation room. It was hideous. They have like these exposed brick walls all over the place with nets, lobster traps and mounted trophy fish. I almost expected to see the Captain -- Captain Highliner because Captain Morgan would never come here -- come out and work the room to make sure everyone was enjoying their meal and having a good time and maybe tell an interesting anecdote about some what he harpooned.

For some reason, they seem to have a decent wine list. We had a California chardonnay off the list that was pretty good, it was like $48. I can't remember the name exactly, but it had a bit of an Italian ring to it. We also brought a bottle -- a Mersault -- that was fabulous. The corkage fee was kind of high at $25, which would discourage most people from bringing a wine.

The menu has a few selections in the mains and the starters. They also have an oyster bar, so you can order those as well. The food was adequate. Most of the mains are in the low-$20 range, although the oysters were like $3.50 each. I started with the clam chowder and it was pretty good. Unlike Cafe la Gaffe, the clam chowder is prepared like a clam chowder. I followed that with a Jambalaya, which was really filling. It had a little bit of everything, but it was kind of light on the better quality seafood and compensated with a lot of clams and mussels. They also give you a little galvanized steel bucket to put the shells in. If they actually had a little bit of balance in the kind of seafood they were using they wouldn't have to put the buckets out. I mean the buckets on the table is kind of like 1 step removed from spreading saw dust on the floor and having the tables replaced by a sheet of plywood on bales of hay. I also tried someone's frites -- they came with some mussels, he also got a bucket. The frites are certainly not Jamie Kennedy quality. They weren't that crisp, a little on the soggy side.

I did order desert, although I tried a bit of someones chocolate cake. It kind of tasted like something like you could find in the frozen foods section of a supermarket.

Overall, this place is not that cheap. Dinner for four came out to $280 without the tip. The place is hideous and the food is not outstanding. It shouldn't be a surprise that they don't get any bunnies.

Rating: 0 Bunnies

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

Next Level Shit

2007-11-20T13:32:00.000-08:00

Ok, for this post I should get the blogger of the year award. These pictures are just a sample of what awaits you at supertangas. Basically this website is pictures and movies of girls posing in thongs -- and not much else. The girls are from all over, but a lot of postings from Italy and Spain as well as South America. But there are French and Eastern European ones as well.

Cafe la Gaffe

2007-11-19T14:02:00.000-08:00

Went for dinner a few weeks ago. This was my first time back in like 10-years or something.

The place pretty much looks the same as it did back then. It has a lot of charm. It's an old Victorian building with high ceilings in the main room. The main room has an exposed brick wall on the left with some banquette seating, and the bar on the wall. The wall is covered with some art -- not prints. It seems a lot nicer than most of the nasty shit people hang on walls these days. They still have the original floors in the place -- they look like oak. There is also some seating in the back room, with a smaller bar.

I was there on a Thursday night. It wasn't too hectic. I'm not sure if it was because of the weather or if this was a typical scene. There were no old people that I could see in the place. There were also not many couples there. Most of the crowd was women. I would probably say that they would in their late-20s to the early-30s range. There was a group of 4 sitting close by. They were decent looking. Mind you they struck me as more a square-toed-high-heel-type than the pointy-high-heels variety.

The service is pretty relaxed and casual. They staff look really bohemian -- you know the struggling artist with no talent look. I generally don't have an issue with causal, but it would be kind of hard to tell the difference between the staff and the customers here. They were playing some stuff by the Beatles as the background music. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, but not my first choice.

I didn't have any wine, but they seem to have a fairly extensive offering of bottles with some available by the glass. The markup seemed to reasonable -- about 2.5 times LCBO prices. Mind you I doubt you'll find anything that will really impress you, but you should be able to find something acceptable.

I started with a clam chowder and had the bouillabaisse as my main. After I had placed my order I hear the waitress describing the clam chowder as being different from most clam chowders because they use a tomato base. Well that might be interesting decision, it also means that it isn't a clam chowder anymore and perhaps a more suitable name may be appropriate. Also if you plan to use a tomato base for the soup it would be helpful if you used fresh tomatoes because it would taste better. The bouillabaisse also turned out to have the same tomato base, also not a good improvisation. For a french bistro they do use a lot of tomatoes. I'm not sure if whoever's cooking doesn't know how to make a fish stock to use in the bouillabaisse, but it would have helped. The bouillabaisse also had a lot of mussels and clams, at the expense of other types of seafood. Definitely not one of high points in the menu.

I had a taste of the stuff chicken breast. It wasn't undercooked or anything. It tasted like roast chicken. The serving was absolutely huge (as was the bouillabaisse). I find it hard to believe that they have such a large female clientele with servings this big. They also don't really plate the food very well. Its just heaps of food -- kind of like what you see at one of those Portuguese BBQ chicken joints.

The place isn't really cheap either: a couple of drinks 2 chowders and 2 mains came out to $70 not including the tip.

Overall, I was not impressed at all with the food -- even though I kind of liked the look of the place. They need to put a lot more effort into the presentation of the food as well as actually cooking good food and the appearance of the staff. They might start by hiring a real chef instead of whoever's cooking right now. Bodega is far better in terms of what you get for a similar price, e.g., the staff look like staff, the food is plated well, etc. You could also get a lot better meal for the money at the Foxley.

There are better places to eat and hang out.

Rating: 0 Bunnies

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

Real Estate Agent Ads

2007-11-17T16:34:00.000-08:00

I've been noticing a lot of real estate agents like to advertise on the street. Its interesting though because they put the ads on the garbage/recycling bins. So I guess when someone is throwing out their garbage or depositing their recycling they might think that they could use the real estate agent in the garbage can.

Here are a couple that really grabbed my attention. These are all high resolution so just click to get the bigger image.

This agent specializes in servicing women. I guess her deal is that she can relate to a woman and guide her through this whole process of finding and buying a house because they need an advisor because they're doing it alone.

I think that's a good idea, but why don't women real estate agents specialize in serving men. I mean it might useful for a single man to get some advice on what would be the foundation of a good bachelor pad. For example, what colours make women feel more comfortable in a space? Are you better off with open concept or something that is broken up into rooms? Is my kitchen chick friendly? Should I have a bathtub in the master ensuite?

I think it would be really important to get the answers to these questions provided by women. If you think about the size of the commissions involved it would be great to get answers to these and know that you'll be set up.

I wonder what other services a full service agent like Janice (above) could provided. I mean a regular agent could tell your getting a good deal and your not overpaying and you can afford it. But I guess the old saying about real estate agents applies "A real estate agent will tell you anything." Sure its a great time to sell. Sure its a great time to buy.

This is where an agent like Janice can provide a really useful service. Suppose you're undecided about what to do and you don't know whether to up your initial offer, for example. Janice senses your indecision and helps you make up your mind by giving you a blow job and then telling you if buy the place you can expect to get something like every night because you're buying a real pimp pad. I would probably be more inclined to buy the place then I would with the usual agent comments: "Great location", "This a real bargain" etc. You know for the kind of commissions that agents get these days (2% of the purchase price) it makes sense to get a little something extra thrown in if your agent looks like Janice here.

This another ad that caught my attention. This one seems to be appealing to my intellect. I would almost buy into that if I didn't see the glamour shot of the middle eastern chick. Once I saw that my mind really started to wonder.

After wandering for a few seconds I kind of focused in on the lips, which seem really suggestive to me. Have a close look at the picture.

If you look at this picture you'll notice that her skin looks really pail and she's wearing white and her dark hair forms a border or frame. So what really stands out is that her lips are really red and feature prominently in the middle of the image. So I'm thinking that there is a subliminal message in the ad. Something like " use me as a real estate agent and you get a blow job".

That's my interpretation. I mean my imagination could be really running wild, but this is a really suggestive image if you ask me.

Digital Cameras and the Internet

2007-11-12T06:42:00.000-08:00

I'm willing to wager some money that 10 years ago pictures like the ones I'm posting would be really hard to find. I think its the spread of websites like myspace and facebook that has really led to uptake in the upload of pictures of this.

But I wonder if girls were always thinking of taking pictures like this, but couldn't because they didn't want some pervert who developed the pictures to make a copy for themselves. So its digital cameras that are making easy for them to do this.

I also wonder what these girls are thinking when they take these pictures. Are they like drunk or do they have some sort adrenalin rush or are they just like bored.

I wonder .....

Cindy: I'm like so bored. Let's do something crazy.
Amanda, in reply: Hey, like, let's strip down to our thongs and take some pictures.
Cindy: Cool!

In the end, who really knows -- let's just hope they keep taking and posting the pictures (some of these are high resolution so you can get a bigger picture by clicking on the image).

Ghostface Killah

2007-11-10T16:19:00.000-08:00

I saw a prototype for this a few years ago, but its gone into production.

Now the dopest flyest O.G. pimp, hustla, gangsta playa, hardcore motherfucker has his own action figure -- The Ghostface Killah doll. It comes in a limited edition run of a 1,000 with real gold jewellery and a real velvet rob. I think its like $500 U.S., less if you get paid in a real currency.

I really like the bracelet with the eagle, it might be a little hard to see in the picture, but anyone who get something like that made needs to have an action doll.

The doll even gets a lot of ass:

You can check it out at the official ghostface killah doll website.

Halloween

2007-11-09T12:52:00.001-08:00

I used to think that Halloween was an archaic pagan tradition that needs to get removed from the calendar. A bunch of kids knocking on doors looking for candy and chocolate and thugs rooming the streets throwing eggs at people for no reason other than it being Halloween.

That was before I found these pictures (some of them are high resolution so click on them to get a bigger image). Now I think of Halloween as an opportunity for girls that are sluts -- or have an inner slut that they're afraid to indulge -- to dress up (or actually down) in something really whore-ish, get drunk and not be responsible for their actions.

I think their could be some value in keeping Halloween around ....

Musical Selections

2007-11-03T16:50:00.000-07:00

I worked through quite a bit of stuff in my inventory this week.

I got this compilation called Sex-O-Rama. Its like highlights from porn sound tracks from the '70s and '80s. It has its moments, but I wasn't too crazy about it.

I got my hands on some stuff by Lonnie Liston Smith, his release called Renaissance. Towards the mid-'70s he had a real porn vibe going on in his music. He called his band the Cosmic Echoes. Much better than the stuff on the porn music compilation. This guy had a pretty good pedigree -- he was in Pharaoh Sanders band before he went out on his own. His early stuff does kind of sound like the Pharaoh's, but he develops into the porn master after a few albums. Renaissance has got the right vibe going, I'm really glad I got my hands on it.

I also checked out something that is a little more contemporary but still has the loving vibe happening. Its one of the Dan the Automator Nakamura alter egos -- Nathaniel Merriweather presents Lovage: Music to Make Love to Old Lady By. This is mellow, but its really good. He's got a chick singing and some other guy over the beats he made. This guy doesn't mess around when he puts together a beat. I wouldn't play the two skits in front of a girl, but the rest of it is fine. I think my favourite is Koala's Lament, which is an instrumental with Kid Koala making a guest appearance.

It was a mellow music week. I got a bunch stuff by this vibe player called Cal Tjader. His stuff is kind of loungey, but it has more a latin sound to it. I checked out four albums Solar Heat, The Prophet, Cal Plugs In and Descarga. The stuff is pretty to chill out to. The latin flavour to it gives it different sort of feel than the '70s soul jazz sound that became acid jazz. I didn't sick of his stuff (I listened to all of it on wednesday), as I might have if I listened to soul jazz.

I also got my hands on Miles Davis's Complete On The Corner Sessions. I really liked this. It basically the spaced jazz-funk-rock sound that he had going in the early-70s. Some of it is pretty laid back, but it can get pretty intense at times. Most of the songs are pretty long, but there are a few shorter ones sprinkled around. Some of the shorter excerpts could be used in porn sound track. While this isn't one of his most well known albums, you can listen to this box set and still understand why Miles Davis is like the next level shit.

I also tried to listen to Herbie Hancock's Joni Letters. It was horrible. It was like Dianna Kral, but worse (worse because she has no talent, but he is supposed to be talented). Totally limp. I mean this is like worse than Keith Jarrett. I'd avoid it unless you like Diana Kral.

Coupon

2007-11-01T14:11:00.000-07:00

I got this the other week. Its a high resolution scan, so just click on the image to get a more detailed look.

This is for one of those "energy" drinks, probably some new brand trying to take away market share from Red Bull. I have to say given the coupon, they're off to a good start.

The coupon states that it'll keep you yodeling all night long. However, the superimposed picture of the hottie suggests that you're not likely to be the one using your tonsils if you drink Frank's -- at least that would be my interpretation. I could be wrong, but I don't think so. I mean they could have put a picture of Gunther with a pint of beer lounging around in the Alps, but they didn't. They went for the chick with the Bavarian mountain slut look.

Incidentally, when I got the coupon the girl featured in the picture was handing them on the street. I couldn't get a picture. But she was standing on the street in front of stretch hummer limo with another hot chick. They were both rocking the Bavarian mountain slut look in the picture. But it was even better in real life because they're wearing these white stockings with these super high heels.

This is a well thought out campaign for a new product that is sort of refreshing -- because it's so blatant. Anyway, lets hope we see more of this sort of stuff.

Big Bunny's Girl of the Month: Tera Patrick

2007-10-24T08:19:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-20T16:28:00.000-07:00

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"

2007-10-13T16:28:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-12T07:08:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-11T07:21:00.001-07:00

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

Musical Selections

2007-10-06T14:11:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-03T08:26:00.000-07:00

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

Review of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel

2007-09-29T16:30:00.001-07:00

This is a hotel in Montreal that I had the misfortune to stay at.

The first sign that this was going to bad was that some old white guy was standing next to me in the express line or something like that and the fuckhead at the registration counter called him before me even though i was there before him. Even the guy that got called up couldn't believe that he was being served before me.

The room was described to me as renovated, although when I got up to it all I smelled was tobacco. Whenever the person in the next room flushed their toilet or maybe it was the person above my room it sounded like an airplane was landing/taking off. Another interesting feature of my room was that hot water came out of the tap when I turned on the cold water. I wonder what I would find in an un-renovated room -- perhaps I could get a fatal dose of exposure to asbestos or some other hazardous material.

The bed was relatively good and the TV was a decent size. However, it was extremely cold. I tried to adjust the thermostat in the room but this had no effect. I think I would have been warmer sleeping on the steps of the cathedral across the street that night. Also the air conditioner or whatever was producing the cold was really loud. Interestingly, after I did the express checkout from my room the air conditioning was shut off. I got a chance to look at a room in the Holiday Inn and it was better than the room I had.

The hotel seemed to occupied by these old white guys with big bellies -- they look like they were pregnant -- and red faces -- the double scotch before dinner set. However, the next day I saw a lot of slutty looking women in the hotel. I know that there was a golf tournament or something like the days I was there, which probably explains the old white guys. It's debatable what the hot chicks were there for -- maybe they were call girls visiting the old guys.

I believe that the Queen Elizabeth is supposed to be a four star hotel. I'm not sure how many chromosomes the person who assigned that rating is missing, but I wouldn't even given a zero bunny rating. It should get a negative rating -- avoid at all costs.

Big Bunny's Girl of the Month: Lela Star

2007-09-24T07:04:00.001-07:00

Unfortunately and surprisingly, Lela does not have a wikipedia entry so I'll have to offer a few of my own observations. Lela is an actress. She strikes me as the type who really enjoys her work -- so she might not be acting most of the time.

I guess her name is a stage name. She has a few tattoos and piercings. In terms of tattoos she has a star on her waist (I think this is like the star in her name) and one on her lower back. The piercings include one in her belly button and in the clit area.

She's a squirter, but not one of the freak squirters.

Event Ad

2007-09-22T15:16:00.001-07:00

These are all high resolution pictures, so click on the picture if you want more details.

I spotted this ad the other day. I thought it was really well done, not like some other events. To me the whole school girl imagery put up against the back to school title makes it work really well.

Whoever came up with this ad didn't make a half-hearted effort to get the school girls, as we can see above. I don't know if these two are in the porn business, but they would be at the very least dancers (especially the one in the foreground). I like the pom poms on the one in the background giving her a bit of cheerleader look, but with a bit of a twist -- cropped skull top that says "Bad Girl Univ." with studded dog collar. Whoever thought of that is a true artist.

In the foreground, you get the more conventional school uniform kilt taken to a new level. The white socks with heels and the two arm tattoos. The tattoo on the thigh is also another nice touch. I don't think she has any trouble earning lunch money.

The one in the background looks a little more wholesome.

The one in the foreground looks really professional.

If the strong visuals weren't enough, they also have cheap drinks. Something for every -- ass and/or booze.

Not only did these guys come out with a really good ad but they promoted it well. I was walking home on Thursday night and they had a few girls in school girl outfits handing out fliers. They were kind of like indie-rocker chicks -- not as hot as the chicks in the ad -- but you could see butt cheeks on one of them because her kilt was so short.

Random Picture

2007-09-15T15:40:00.001-07:00

From Last Night's Party.

If you want to talk about hot hipster chicks, then here you go.

Lets deconstruct her look.

The over sized sunglasses, which are standard issue for hipster chicks. She really pulls them off well, so she's wearing them not the other way around.

The pigtails, take the look in a totally different direction. Most hipster chicks couldn't pull it off -- but you can tell she means business, she's no school girl.

The tight top, totally self-evident. (I'm pretty sure its American Apparel.)

The jean shorts. If they were cutoff, it would be even better.

The tattoo on her right forearm. Like I said before, she means business. No half-hearted stuff for her.

In the second picture, you can see that she's wearing heels -- which basically completes the look as far as I'm concerned. If she was wearing ballet shoes or flip flops it would be a total disappointment.

Even the location is first rate.

Here's a link to the first picture, so you can get a better look at the details (like the tattoo). The second picture is here

Japanese Photography

2007-09-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

I don't really know what it is about the Japanese, but they always seem to be like on the next level. I've been looking into some different photographers and they always seem to be doing doper than the next guy.

I found some stuff by Osamu Kanemura. He does these urban landscapes that are jam packed. They're collected in his book, Spider's Strategy. You can see scenes similar to these in Chinatown, but they aren't as intense as the Japanese equivalents.

Here are a few.

I also stumbled across Kohei Yoshiyuka. His stuff is more out there. Basically this guy went to this park in Tokyo where couples make out to take pictures. They were shot in the 1970s at night and published as Document Kouen. So you're probably thinking, what a pervert. Here's the twist. There are all these pervs in the park who spy on the couples and in a few pictures they almost seem like they are getting in on the action. So he's there documenting all this.

Here are a few samples, so you can see what I'm talking about.

Like I said, next level shit.

Ankle Bracelets

2007-09-05T08:31:00.000-07:00

When I was growing up ankle bracelets on a girl meant that there was a pretty high probability that she was a tramp.

Yesterday I was walking home and there was sun dried woman walking towards me in some tight spandex with a camel toe. She was also wearing a cropped top and I could see the glitter of some blue coloured glass or crystal in her belly button.

This made me think is the belly button piercing the new ankle bracelet?

But then I wondered what about a tattoo on the lower back, which is sometimes referred to as a tramp stamp. These seem to be a little more common than a belly button piercing, but i don't have any survey results to back this up. Maybe the tramp stamp is the new ankle bracelet?

To me it seemed that the ankle bracelet wasn't overly common, so like when you saw it meant that you hit the jackpot.

I raise the issue because tattoos are so much more common. For example, this morning I noticed that the woman testing my dad's eyes had a tattoo on her foot (I spotted it because she was wearing ballet shoes) of a Chinese character. This woman was probably in her 40's or maybe a little older. She was wearing a lab coat so I couldn't tell if she also had a tattoo on her lower back. So tattooing is probably a lot more popular with a lot of people, for whatever reasons, so when I see one on the lower back should I really look at it as a subconscious signal.

Or maybe the tattoo and the piercing are interchangeable, some like piercings and other like the art work. So it doesn't really matter what you see, you have a keeper if you see either or even better both. Given changes in social norms maybe we're just seeing more of this (in other words, if ankle bracelets were still fashionable we would be seeing a lot more of them).

I wonder ....

Douche Bags of Toronto

2007-09-01T15:30:00.000-07:00

I saw this in the NOW weekly in the style section. They usually profile some "hipster" who has some sort of look that is usually a poorly done combination of H&M and vintage pieces. If they really want to see good combinations of vintage and more current things they should start picking some Japanese kids to feature.

This week I guess they decided to move more upscale with the film festival set to kick off in a few days.

He's sporting a more upscale look. He's wearing all Versace in case you're curious.

The powder blue suit really makes me wonder what he was thinking or who was with him when he bought it. Kind of Miami Vice, but not really because of the cut of the jacket.

The shoes are standard issue for douche bags in this city -- they have an elongated silhouette but come to a bit of a point. These are a little more subdued than the ones that do come to a point -- these stop a little short -- but they definitely fall into the Aladdin style footwear that more fashion forward douche bags favour.

I finding it really surprising that they featured an outfit like this and are actually being serious. You never see someone dressed like that in The Satorialist, which is blog where the guy takes pictures of people in the cities he visits.

They did a little a Q&A with him as well and one of the questions they asked him was what was his little secret. His reply was "Mistura", which is a restaurant with a really high price point. I have a hard time understanding why it would be a secret though because the restaurant is regarded as one of the better ones in the city and the chef/owner makes appearances on restaurant makeover.

Like the title says douche bag.

Big Bunny's Girl of the Month: Leah Dizon

2007-08-25T15:37:00.000-07:00

This month's feature is Leah Dizon. Leah started out as a car model and now she's some sort of pop music singer in Japan. How that happened is anyone's guess because she's not Japanese. According to Wikipedia she was born in Las Vegas and is of French, Filipino and Chinese heritage. The next couple of pictures are of when she was still a youngster (but legal) and working the car show circuit, the others are a little more recent.

Musical Selections

2007-08-24T14:01:00.000-07:00

I had a chance to listen Miles Davis' The Complete In A Silent Way box set. This is a 3 CD set, which includes the original release in the title as well as some other stuff. For example, there are a few songs that appeared on Filles de Kilimanjaro, which I believe is the first Miles Davis release after the Second Great Quintet period. My favourite piece in the set is on the first CD called "Two Faced". Its a really long instrumental that got really subdued solos laid over top some deep bass lines and this spaced out mellow Rhodes electric piano background. Overall, the whole box set is really smooth and mellow. There is a slightly uptempo number that I'm not really into, but the rest of it is awesome. A few some summers ago one of the frat houses across the street used to play it quite a bit (the original release, not the box set). Sometimes you can find good taste in the most unexpected places. Anyway, it goes without saying that this is a classic.

I followed that up on the same day with DJ Mitsu the Beats compilation Another Roses. Only a Japanese guy could think of putting together a tribute to the Fender Rhodes electric piano. This is the actually the sequel to the first installment, which was called 28 roses. Basically, this is '70s soul jazz. Some of it is quite good, but there a few cheesy songs with vocals. I could probably do without them. If you take out the vocal songs this is actually pretty good. It would be kind of loungy, but in a good way. I think you could play this at a dinner party or cocktail party -- although there are a few tracks that have a real '70s porn soundtrack sound. The prequel is actually supposed to be a lot better than this, but I haven't added it to my collection yet.

Along the same lines I checked out a compilation called Blue Note Revisited. This is a set of remixes of old blue note releases by some prominent DJs and producers. Some examples of the contributors include, among others, DJ Cam, J Dilla and Madlib. Again its mostly a 70s soul jazz sound, with hip hop baselines and drum tracks. These remixes, or a lot, of them have an acid jazz sound to them. Again there are some cheesy vocal tracks. But there are some pretty solid compositions on here. My favourite would have to be the reworking of Grant Green's "A Time to Remember" by someone called Osunlade, who I never heard of before.

I checked out Herbie Hancock's Dedication. This is just him unaccompanied. It was only released in Japan in the mid-70s. Half acoustic, half electronic/electric. I think this is the only thing I've listened to by Herbie Hancock that I don't like. I would have to say its like a Keith Jarrett album.

I continued to nibble on John Coltrane's Complete Prestige Box Set. No complaints.

I got my hands on an advance copy of Madlib's Beat Konducta Volume 3-4, it comes out next week some time. This has got an indian/south east asian feel to it -- both in the samples of the vocal snippets and the music. All of that is laid on top of his drum patterns and bass lines. It's a bunch of short compositions, 1-2 minutes in length -- J Dilla Donuts-style (or like his brother's recent release). I really liked this. It's got a bit of a different sound to it compared to most of what's out three today, but it's really listenable.

The Trojan Upsetter Box set is the mellowest thing I listened to this week. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the Upsetters, they are noteworthy because they were Lee Perry's house band. So there are lot of Lee Perry Tacks on it, as well as other reggae notables who recorded with the Upsetters, e.g., Bob Marley, Augustus Pablo, along with more obscure names. These aren't dubs though, so there have a little more lift to them because of the vocals. Still pretty chilled out though.

Dinner at the Foxley

2007-08-22T07:52:00.000-07:00

Went on Tuesday night. The place was still kind of empty when we got there at about 7:00, but there was a big rush of people showing up just after we got there. The place is kind of small, it sits about 30 or 35 and maybe 40 if you count the seats at the bar. They don't take reservations. You're probably OK if you show early, but expect a bit of a wait if you get there later.

The place is on the small side, its pretty narrow. The ceilings are really high -- 12 -14 feet, which is nice. The brick on the left wall is exposed and i guess its got some sort of varnish or maybe a sealer on it because it has a bit of sheen. Most of the tables are are on the left wall. They have a few "elevated tables" along the wall as well. The right wall has a small banquette, that has seating for 6, maybe 8 if everyone knows each other. The place has got a decent hardwood floor. It's a medium stain, looks like oak. Similar to what they have at Jamie Kennedy Gardiner. The furniture isn't much to speak of. I don't think the chef/owner had any big time financial backers, so I think he's making do with what he could get. Still the place looks a lot better than most of the stuff you see on Restaurant Make Over.

The crowd is definitely on the younger side. There was a table of five girls beside us, 2 of which were definitely in the higher reaches of the hotness scale and two were quite acceptable (pleasant to look at and adequately breasted). There were some couples and a few parties of three. There was only one old couple in the place. I don't think that this place gets much of the older crowd because it is a little on the loud side. Might be because its on the small side, so the sound just gets amplified. They play alternative/indie rock, but its kind of in the background because the chatter is louder. The place has a lot of energy to it and an inviting vibe to it.

The service is decent and casual. We were kind of uncertain about how much food to order, so we asked our waitress for a little help in terms of guiding the number of dishes. She told us, that she would let us know if we ordered too much. We also had a few questions on the dishes and she effectively answered the questions we had for her. The plates come pretty quick and in twos. The chef brought out our last dish, he even gave us new little plates -- so we could savour the full flavours of the last meat dish we had, without contaminating it with some of the earlier orders.

They have fairly big selection of wines, with quite a few whites on the list. There also have a bunch of premium/imported beer around (cans and bottles). I'm sure quite a few people will go for the wine. My advice would be to skip the wine and drink beer, which is what I did. The dishes on the menu use a lot of spices on it, e.g., hot chillies as well as the more fragrant and flavourful kind. Once you get the spices in your mouth after you start eating its really going to change the taste of the wine. So while the wine will start out OK, its going to be a different story once you start eating. On the other hand, beer is always going to taste the same. Beer also has the added benefit of cleansing your palate, particularly if you have something with a lot of heat.

It's a tapas style place, but the servings are a little on the larger size. The fish and vegetarian dishes are a little smaller and lighter, while the meat dishes are larger and more filling. The menu is ordered with the vegetarian and fish dishes at the top, while the meat dishes are at the bottom. There are quite a few selections to pick from. I would probably guess that there are something like 20-30 dishes to pick from.

I've heard this place described as Asian inspired Portuguese food. I don't see that at all. To me there are strong overtones of Thai cooking on the menu. They give you chop sticks, no forks in the place settings. While there is a lot of seafood, I didn't see any Portuguese style seafood food here (grilled sardines or salted cod). I haven't really explored the menu that deeply, so I can't offer a better description than to say that the menu is really eclectic. I'm not sure how much of the menu is seasonal, so whether it would change it in the winter (always a good sign). My educated guess, given what i've seen, is that it will because the chef is really into what he's doing.

We ordered 5 dishes:

a shrimp and mango salad
a new zealand tarakihi ceviche
a vegetarian spring roll
a lamb and duck (prosciutto) dumpling
a beef cheek curry, with coconut scented steamed rice

I like all of the dishes we had. One of things you notice right away with the lighter things is how fresh the food is and also how fragrant it is. The new zealand tarakihi ceviche was especially noteworthy, it had a nice salsa/fruit accompaniment. There were 4 portions of the spring roll and it came with a really hot dipping sauce. I didn't mind the heat so much, but others might. Note that the spring rolls are not like the ones you get at the $6 Thai lunch place. The spring rolls are not deep fried nor are they doughy. I'm not sure what the wrapping was, but it was like raw vegetables or something. The lamb and duck dumplings were also another highlight. I really like the blend of the lamb and duck -- two rich meats. They brought five dumplings, plus a dipping sauce. I wouldn't have minded getting another dish. The beef cheek curry was also really good (this to me is more french than Portuguese, but i guess they're a lot of uneducated reviewers out there). There were something like 5 big chunks of cheek. I emptied the curry juice onto my steamed rice after I got through my share of the dish. Really tasty. I think 5 dishes is a decent meal in terms of quantity for two people.

They don't have a big selection of deserts and it looks like they vary from night to night. They had a rice pudding when on the night I went. I didn't try it, although I was kind of tempted.

The price point is relatively reasonable. The 5 dishes, a beer and a glass of sparkling rose when for about $90 and change with the tip.

Overall, I really liked the place. With so many shitty resto lounges opening up in the city its nice to go to place with a bit of a soul to it that serves really good food. The bill refers to the place as the "Foxley Bistro and Bar". If this is the future of the bistro in this city, then they should bring the future to the present. The chef really cares about the food, which you can tell by the quality of the ingredients he uses and the fact that he works the room too. I'd say the place is comparable to Jamie Kennedy Wine Bar in terms of the quality of the food and the energy in the room. This place is a solid 2 bunny restaurant.

Rating: 2 Bunnies

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

Musical Selections

2007-08-18T16:19:00.001-07:00

I listened to a lot of really interesting music this week. Here are the highlights.

Young Holt Unlimited Plays Super Fly I had no idea who they are, but i saw the title and i was interested. Basically, its most of the super fly sound track. It's a little different than Curtis Mayfield's version, but pretty close in spirit. If I would have to describe it, its probably got more new orleans feel to it (i'm guessing these guys are from the south) -- so it doesn't have the hard edge that the original does. It's still pretty decent.

Raekwon Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. This has to be my favourite hip hop album of all time. I just play this one from end to end. Although its a Raekwon solo effort, Ghostface Killah plays a prominent role on it. The production is by the RZA and he didn't go cheap on the beats or anything. The other members of the Wu Tang appear on a few tracks. What I like about this is that there is a sweeping narrative about dealing cocaine running through the whole album. This is hardcore at its finest. A definite must listen. An epic hip hop album.

For a change of pace how about Herbie Hancock's soundtrack for Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up. I fell asleep in front of the TV a few weeks ago and woke up to see that Blow-Up was playing on TCM. The movie has a pretty good soundtrack. Herbie did most of it, that is the jazz stuff on it. The Yardbirds also have a tune on it. I guess this would be from the Jeff Beck era, but according to Wikipedia both Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page appear on the track, which is called Stroll On" but has a riff that's similar to "Smokestack Lightning" -- not there's anything wrong with the riff. But getting back to Herbie, its a little different than his solo work with Blue Note from around the same period. This stuff is probably a little more atmospheric, which I guess it has to be because it is a soundtrack. There's no real overall sound to it -- some of the tracks are slow jazz, while some have a real 60s groove to them. However, one thing that you see throughout is that the bass lines feature really prominently. If you remember Deelite's "Groove is in the Heart" with that really cool base line, well the song they sampled is on this sound track ("Bring Down the Birds"). Overall, this is a really cool (and very rate) album that is worth checking out.

For the mellow selection, King Tubby Herb Dub- Collie Dub. King Tubby produces really good dub. His dub style is a lot slower and heavier than others. This is a really good selection of dubs. A few of the tracks of this one made it on to my super heavy dub play list.

Keith Jarrett

2007-08-14T14:12:00.000-07:00

I have a hard time understanding pop culture's fascination with Keith Jarrett. Just last night in one of the reruns of the Sopranos, Tony Soprano's soon to be deceased cousin Tony B. makes a reference to playing Keith Jarrett music in his massage parlor. If his intention was to get some elevator music, I think it would be a good choice.

I make this statement after numerous attempts of trying to listen his over-indulgent and spineless music. Don't get me wrong, I acknowledge his pedigree (a former sideman for Miles Davis) and his obvious technical skills. But basically the guy plays limp noodle music. One of the first Keith Jarrett CDs I ever bought was the horrible Melody and You or some shit title like that. I listened it to once and then sold it to a used CD shop. (Keith Jarrett CDs get good prices at used CD shops, in case you're wondering). This summer I decided to give him another chance and acquired some of his work from the '70s. Basically, his limp noodle music is not a recent evolution, but something that has characterized his career even in the 1970s. I mean some may refer to the great Köln concert as an example of his whatever. Pure self-indulgence, right down to using the German name for what is referred to as Cologne in English.

Even the album cover is self-indulgent:
See how he's concentrating at the piano, while he feels what he's playing.

The bottomline is that Keith Jarrett is basically the Kenny G. of the piano.

In contrast, lets look at a mostly forgotten jazz musician. Pharaoh Sanders, who was once a sideman for John Coltrane (and some say even influenced him heavily, although there was no doubt a reciprocal influence as well -- I've never read any similar statements about Keith Jarrett and Miles Davis):
This guy grew up in the South, and his name was actually Farrell until he met Sun Ra -- who suggested that he change his name to Pharaoh. While he definitely leans more heavily to the avante garde, his music is till quite listenable. His work in the early '70s clearly is his best. In fact, not only is his music better than the stuff Keith Jarrett calls music, but he's also got more style and he's got the hardcore motherfucker look going on.

The Pharaoh is no Kenny G.

Musical Selections

2007-08-11T15:37:00.000-07:00

I got a chance to listen to a lot of stuff this week.

Common's Finding Forever, which is out now, was something I really enjoyed. His stuff isn't as thugged out as most rappers, but then he's no noodle either. I think he's positioned himself just right. Kanye West produced it (or most of it) so its got a really unified sound. I'd pick up the instrumentals from the album, because they would be of interest in their own right. Kanye along drops some guest verses as well. I thought his last release Be was really good, I'd have to say that I like this a little more. Overall, I'd have to say this is one of the best new releases so far this year.

In a more instrumental vein, there's Blockhead's Uncle Tony's Coloring Book. For those of you who aren't familiar with Blockhead, he's a DJ -- and a very good one. I'd have to say that he's at the caliber of DJ Shadow, or perhaps even better. I have a few of his other releases and I like them. This one is at least as good as the other ones, although the vibe is a lot different. I think a lot of hip hop producers get stuck in a rut because they have to have a sound. Blockhead is different. Each of the tracks on the album is different, but its not like the album feels really disjointed. I might be because he mixes styles and genres within each of the tracks, so you have a little of this and that on each track so somehow they all have a link to each other -- even though they're different. If that makes any sense? (Just listen to this and you'll see what I mean.) Take nyc bounce, it kind of starts of with something like a short french horn loop and then you get the drums coming in with this driving bass line. The french horn loop then continues to appear. There are a few vocal snippets in there as well. Parts of it have a psychedelic fuzz rock feel, but then there's almost an '80s feel to part of it . All this is sampled and programmed and the guy really has it going on. After listening to this album, you can imagine how big his record collection must be, because he knows a lot of music. I highly recommend this one.

Also in an instrumental mode, there's Oh No's Dr. No's Oxperiment. Oh No is Madlib's little brother, so he comes from a good gene pool musically. While Blockhead's album is more like full length compositions (3-5 minutes), Oh No's album is a collection of shorter pieces (1-2 minutes). In a way, its kind of similar in format to J Dilla's Donuts, although the vibe is a lot different. I have some of the other stuff Oh No has released and I never really warmed to him. However, this release is really good. I was really impressed. He would be better off if he dumped the guest rappers and only worked on instrumental albums like this from now on. Overall, this has a real eastern flavour to the sound. There a lot of hints of '70s soul/funk to it. I'd recommend this one as well.

It's unfortunate that the white man has almost completely associated reggae with Bob Marley's Legend compilation, but shit happens i guess. My reggae collection is a lot deeper and richer. This week I pulled out something I haven't listened to in a while, Jacob Miller Who Say Jah No Dread . This is kind of slow and mellow, it would be deep roots reggae for those that are familiar with the terms. It alternates songs and the dub versions. My favourite is Baby I Love You So, which also has Augustus Pablo appearing on it. The dub version, by King Tubby, is brilliant. This is a great album. It's too bad that most people don't know about this sort of stuff. I'd like to get an Jacob Miller or an Augustus Pablo t-shirt, but I don't think that they would even think of making one because no one really knows who they or the other great reggae guys are. Oh well, ....

I've been nibbling on John Coltrane's Prestige Box Set. This is a huge collection -- 15 CDs. Really good listening, a little on the mellow side. I also listened John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. This is just like a wow album for me. The structure of it; the background rhythm work; McCoy Tyner's piano playing; the chanting of a love supreme; and, the 'Trane's playing. I thought of this one this week when I was checking out the Supreme website. In their random section, they used to have a short skateboarding movie set to the first track on a love supreme. Those guys have really good taste. (Maybe the supreme guys will put out an augustus pablo t-shirt.)

While we're on the supreme line, I didn't get through the whole album but I kind of got into the Beatnut's Supa Supreme off of Stone Crazy. Even the instrumental is really cool. These guys really knew how to put together beats. Another really cool instrumental off that album is Finger Smoke.

Recent pickup: short sleeve shirt

2007-08-05T18:35:00.000-07:00

This is another summer sale pickup. I like the pattern, see below for the detail. The little detroit tiger d above the pocket comes off -- it wasn't stitched on too tight.

Bad Event Ads

2007-08-04T16:59:00.000-07:00

These are all high resolution pictures, so please click on them if you want a better look at the details.

This ad got my attention. It's like for one of these latino day events. You know i would've figured that latino guys would in general have access to hot chicks, but apparently this might not be the case. Seeing this ad I wouldn't be running out to this event. I mean it really sends the wrong message about what you'll get at the event. Unless of course your into latina chicks with big guts.

Take a closer look at the picture. Her belly is like huge. I mean they really try to hide it with the angle, but you can still tell pretty easily that she has a big tire in the middle. I think they also try to distract you with the James Bond girl pose, but you can pretty much tell there is a lot of junk at front.

I do have some interactions with latino guys and my generally sense is that they are into hot chicks, so this is really confusing. I guess there could've been a shortage of funds in the budget to pay for a model or the guy picking the model was into fat chicks.
They put these ads all over the city. Here's one that was on the boarded up window of a mexican buffet.

In contrast, look at this ad. Now this is what you call good advertising.
The text and images provide all the information you need.

Random Picture

2007-08-03T07:42:00.000-07:00

Recent Pickup: Military Shirt

2007-08-02T07:16:00.001-07:00

I picked this up last week on the last weekend of the Holt Renfrew summer sale. I spotted this earlier, but it was kind of pricey so I held off until the price became somewhat reasonable. I like the mini-lapel near the collar. The olive green gives it a bit of a gangsta look, even though its pretty refined looking. Its cut pretty slim. This is a 15.5/39 and I don't swim in it.

I really like the details on the sleeves.

The pockets are little smaller and not as square as the typically military shirt pocket, but they are still functional. Also note that the pockets are considerably large than those on the military shirts typically worn by douche bags, examples would include the Fillipa K and Junk De Luxe offerings.
These are all high resolution pictures, so click on them if you want to see the details.