Dessert and song

[petronia]

Editorials warning against the noxious effects of heat and smog appear in newspapers just as the storm breaks overnight, and the temperature dips to a rainy 17C by morning, like a miniature of autumn following summer. The rain lasts all day, skirt-soaking gusts in the morning and prickling mist in the evening. It's cruelly pleasant - for some extraordinary reason my mother didn't rush to turn on the air conditioning as soon as room temperature broke 25C the way she usually does, and after four straight days of 30-plus weather even I was beginning to wilt a little. Yesterday was so humid I sweated my way into dehydration just walking around in the Old Port, and the idea of hot street food was intolerable. Today however I got a banana-custard-chocolate crepe at Ichipan. Ichipan is fabulous, especially the fake plastic crepes lining its display window in the manner of fake plastic sushi platters. Funny how Montreal is such a crepe-oriented city but it takes a Japanese chain to perfect the take-out option. Even beaver tails they just dump on a napkin for you and hope for the best, icing sugar and all... In a disheartening move, my beloved Maple Delights sandwich-cafe-and-gelateria reopened on Saint Paul just across the street from Ichipan, so now I'll be forced to choose every time where I want to spend my summer afternoon tea money. Either that or I'll be getting chicken curry crepe and crossing the street for a gelato cone, or something.

Other news: clearly I should not be allowed into Archambault with actual money in my pocket, as managed to drop 75$ on that Stereolab boxset and the Pet Shop Boys Back to Mine. (Granted, that comes out to a respectable 15$ per CD.) Now I have four whole Stereolab albums, which should be enough for anyone given that it's pleasantly summery mood music to be kept on loop in the background. As for the Back to Mine - dammit, I'd stuck so well to not buying these things too. If I'm not a fan of the artist I don't care, and if I am I tend to have half the tracks already, which if you think about it is not all that surprising. I didn't even get the New Order one, though arguably I should for the other 50% of the tracks I'm unlikely to come across anywhere else. XD;; However Neil Tennant broke me with his Scary Taste Nazi Chillout Mix. Forget already having tracks, the only names I recognized were Edvard Grieg, Dusty Springfield and Closer Musik. I had to buy it just to see what it was about. Though while eyeballing it in the cash register line I decided that it was mostly contemporary classical and minimal techno, and was actually right - apparently Neil Tennant also hearts the Kompakt Kittens.

Meanwhile Chris Lowe's mix is like LOL LOL ITALO DISCO GOSPEL QUEEN.

In short, this compilation is totally worth it. For me. It's so tailored to my taste I can't shake the creepy impression that I would've made these mix CDs eventually, given unlimited time and resources. Like, if you told me these were mixes I made in 2006 with songs I hadn't heard yet by mid-2005 (other than the three songs on LChris's I do have), I would totally believe it. ...Except I probably wouldn't, because when I pick music to post I tend to bypass genres like minimal techno and Italo disco under the assumption that few people would be interested. I mean, sure if I had the Pet Shop Boys on my flist, aha. _o_

(To be specific, in fact... I'm pretty sure I've talked about that ficverse in which Oshitari Yuushi and Takahashi Ryousuke intern at the Tokyo teaching hospital, right. LChris's mix is very much akin to my unfinished Oshitari DJ mix that I never got around to posting, and that is decidedly a "futureficpod" - the sort of stuff Oshitari plays in his car while cruising around town, incidentally setting Ryousuke's teeth subliminally on edge because it is exactly Keisuke's music slowed down by half HAR HAR HAR. Meanwhile Ryousuke would be comforted by TNeil's mix. I'm not sure what it all means, other than that the lights in my mental skyscraper are idiosyncratically wired.)

Comments

[niche.livejournal.com]

i think it's only when you're not intimidating me with your MoB-obsessive entries that i can truly appreciate your coolness. (that is a good thing (y)) i think you ought to talk about crepes more because i've never tried one before. i've been living in four straight months of thirtyplus weather someone save me save me now~ i'd kill for montreal weather, really. i bet it is secretly gorgeous otherwise. you know even if i haven't talked to you in about six months (!) i still remember you telling me what thick hair you had. <333 i will stop scaring you now. :D *brims over with sabina love*

Mastah of late comments~!

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Ha, yes, lately this journal must seem quite psychotic to people who are not at all into Mirage. *weeps* My RL friends go :O! at me and thus I attempt to make a minimum of RL posts. I should bring my camera to Ichipan and take pictures of the fake plastic crepes. (There is no Ichipan in S'pore?) And Montreal weather would be really nice if these last two weeks could even out to 24C instead of 32C one week and 16C the next. >:E

*♥ at niche*

[inarikami.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what it all means, other than that the lights in my mental skyscraper are idiosyncratically wired.

*snort* XD

Also, I'm going to be a n00b here but what on earth are crepes? Isn't it something like ice-cream..? Then why does it come in curry flavour? *confused* Not really sure I've ever seen them around in Europe. ^^;;

[akatonbo.livejournal.com]

Crepe = very thin pancake stuffed with something. The "something" can be sweet or savory, but people seem to usually think of sweet things.

Man, now I really miss the crepe place I used to go to in SF. So good. I could make a meal of their rosemary potatoes (which were a free side with everything that wasn't dessert) alone.

[inarikami.livejournal.com]

Ah, thank you! Sounds yummy. Too bad it's not known around here. :(

[smurfmatic.livejournal.com]

Tell me about it girl, hot street food, in Singapore, 32 degrees plus, *with* an equatorial sun, and then you will truly wilt.

That said, Hong Kong has been wet since the weekend ended. It poured water from the skies, and actually is still pouring water from the skies, with temperatures still in the upper twenties (http://www.hko.gov.hk/contente.htm). Not unpleaseant at all, it's actually the first time this year that I experience so much rain in so little time. I thought that as Montreal built tunnels to evade the cold, HK's built covered pedestrian overpasses to perform the same role against the rain. I've yet to experience a typhoon, but I'm working on it (seriously - I just went to JAL's office, and I might be stuck here for longer than I thought).

I took the Star ferry in the middle of the storm, roundtrip, but unfortunately left my camera at home. It was nice, with reduced visibility and the boat gently rocking.

-C

[mitethe.livejournal.com]

the sort of stuff Oshitari plays in his car while cruising around town

...So what car would Oshitari drive?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

A little red Corvette I don't really know, actually. Whatever it is, I'm not sure you could convince Ryousuke to ride in it. XD

[mitethe.livejournal.com]

As long as it's not what Ogata drives. That is one crossover I'd actually read. XD

[akatonbo.livejournal.com]

...I remembered that you had come up with such an AU but wasn't sure who the PoT half was. Wow, that'd be ear candy. Listening to them talk to each other, I mean. XD

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Ha, yes, I hadn't even thought of that. XD

[moderntime.livejournal.com]

Drat, I knew there was something I forgot to pick up at Amoeba, and it was the PSB Back to Mine. It sounds quite fab, although I admit that I'd mostly get it for that Italo disco goodness.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

The Italo disco's awesome. But I really like Neil's mix too, actually - it's very smoothly sequenced and perfect for wandering tragically around town like a movie heroine on a rainy day.

[moderntime.livejournal.com]

What a lovely description, you should write copy because you have completely sold me on this album. XD