Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Where have all the hipsters gone?

where have all the flowers gone?

Williamsburg, Brooklyn may well be recognized as the "influential hub of hipster culture" but the corner of St. Viateur and Casgrain, in Montreal's Mile End (Canada's hipster capital), is hot on its heels.


Hot on the heels of a falafel sandwich from The NEW Green Panther, I headed further east on St. Viateur Street than usual last week and discovered the most amazing NEW bohemian micro-neighborhood.


Of course, I fear an imminent hipster invasion.

Like all hipster hoods, the area is in an old working class, industrial one known as the schmatta (garment/textile) neighborhood and used to be populated by Eastern European, Greek and Portuguese immigrants.


These days it's full students, artists, eccentrics and a few remaining Hassidic Jews. 


While creeping gentrification is a concern, the micro-neighborhood still features a slew of traditional social clubs as well as an old Polish church. (Though it must be noted that said church does, in fact, play host to a hipster music festival.)

St. Michael's

It's a special blend of old and new. 

Much like the hispter itself.

Appropriated from the 1940's jazz scene and used by hepcats cooler than the cat's pyjamas, the term hipster was originally used to describe "a generation (...) suddenly rising and roaming America, serious, bumming and hitchhiking everywhere, ragged, beatific, beautiful in an ugly graceful new way--a vision gleamed from the way we had heard the word "beat" spoken on the street corners on Times Square and in the Village (...)--beat, meaning down and out but full of intense conviction," Jack Kerouac.

With the hipsters leaving Brooklyn for cheaper and more bohemian domiciles, how long will it be before my new favourite micro-neighborhood gets invaded and loses its delicate balance - and cool?   

crooklyn brooklyn

But back to my falafel sandwich and whence it came.

Vegan and organic, The Green Panther is "a fresh, dynamic project whose main goal is to develop a more sustainable way of living in today's urban reality by supporting and creating local alternatives, though the use of organic produce (local when available), recycled materials and by raising awareness." 









The sandwich I shared with the Original Mile End, or OME, hipster contained an addictive mix of falafels, cabbage, carrots, pickles, sauerkraut and tahini. 

 the OME hipster

We enjoyed it outside, in the sun, at the corner of old and new.  

 













Tuesday, September 16, 2014

It isn't easy... being green

Just ask Kermit.

"i think it's what i want to be"

Since summer's very sudden demise, I have felt, no heard, my inner voice telling me, no screaming at me, that it's time to get healthy.

Sure... summer was fun with its hot dogs and hamburgers, its Caesars and Pina Coladas, its late nights and early late mornings, but let's face it: the party... is over. 

we can't stop

I don't know what it is about the change of seasons that makes me feel like I need to take charge of my life, both inside and out, but since the sudden drop in temperature (it feels like the entire city of Montreal took the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge) I've taken a few steps to get healthier.

For starters, I've become an oil puller. In traditional Ayurveda (or Ayurvedic medicine), oil pulling is credited with everything from whitening teeth to detoxifying the body.  

If swishing sesame oil for 20 minutes is good enough for Deepak Chopra it's certainly more than good enough for me.

I'm also on a 15-day cleanse for "first time" cleansers. Even though I'm not a "first time," uh, anything, I figured a nice, gentle cleanse would be a good way to get the ball rolling, so to speak. Consisting of burdock root, blessed thistle, Norwegian kelp and more (lions and tigers and bears, oh my!), the cleanse claims to "detoxify the body through it's seven channels of elimination."

Seven???

I'll be sure to update you on the functions of my liver, lungs, kidneys, blood, skin and lymphatic system at the end of the month!

While the First Cleanse program is designed to work on its own, certain dietary and lifestyle changes are obviously recommended.

Gone are the hot dogs and hamburgers, the Caesars and Pina Coladas, the late nights and early late mornings. In their stead are cabbage and kale, water and detox tea, early nights and early late mornings (nobody's perfect).

Speaking of kale...

"it's like a really bitter spinach... with hair"

Kale propaganda (and bragging) aside, I recently came across a really great recipe for kale chips on Oh She Glows, an award-winning vegan recipe blog. While the green goddess' recipe calls for nutritional yeast, garlic powder and onion powder, I left those out and made the best nearly all-dressed kale chips with kale, extra virgin olive oil, chili powder, paprika, salt (not Himalayan) and pepper.    







They tasted A LOT better than they look... trust me!

In addition to feeding myself with foods guaranteed to help me glow for the inside, I've also been working out. 

Regularly.

Umm... for two days.

After two at-home workouts I'm confident (ha!) that I can get through one not-at-home workout without passing out. As such, I'm going to try a sweat session at the Midtown Sporting Club this afternoon. If that works out and I can still walk, I may try a free Pilates ballet bar class at Tres Studio Barre later this week.

Even though pointing my toes gives me cramps.



  



 

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Nailing it

Before nail art was even a thing, I was a nail artist.  Unbeknownst to teenaged me, tiny Union Jacks on tiny fingernails would one day be considered normal ordinary trite.   

Nowadays, nail art is such a big thing that I could literally pin it all day. From Jin Soon Choi and Jenna Hipp to Kimmie Kyees, it seems like everyone is a nail artist these days.

nails by ursula

more nails by yours truly

With titles like "nail guru," and sentences that include the likes of "her art can be seen on the fingertips of...," it's obvs that nails are now very big business.

 dead presidents

And growing.

If, and that's a big if, Justin can be credited with bringing sexy back I'm of the opinion that Rihanna brought nails back (while sexy tagged along). 

Thanks to her stilettos, and I don't mean the ones on her feet, manicurists the world over are now sighing, well, a sigh. 

Of relief and rejoicing.

 serious stiletto nails

The time for jokes about "beautiful nail... just one" are definitely over and manicurists, or nail stylists, are definitely having the last laugh.

"she say you look so pretty"

The reason I've been so nail absorbed lately is my latest acquisition. 

An anchor tattoo.

On my hand.  

 ahoy matey!

Ever since a friend oh-so-casually mentioned that my hand "looks like it has rickets," I've been of the opinion that it, and the anchor, would be greatly enhanced by a killer set of claws.

Like Khloe Kardashian's. 


Historically, long nails have always been associated with wealth as they intuit that the person donning them does not have to do manual labour. According to the Straight Dope, ladies of the imperial Chinese court used to wear ornate fingernail protectors to guard their talons from wear and tear.

Kind of like this:



If you think you're ready for a nailgasm, or "the physical and emotional sensation experienced at the peak of excitation from the artistic treatment of fingernails," check out the trailer for the documentary by the same name:

nailgasm, the documentary

Now that you're convinced (!), do like Nicole Richie and get a house call... from
Kimmie Kyees no less!

 "am i screaming at someone with my nails?"

Nailed it!


I only have one question. Should I go pointy or not?





 

Friday, September 5, 2014

Here's to the queen of comedy!

Yesterday afternoon I received a text. 

It was from the beau and it simply said "your joan rivers died." 


While Joan Rivers was far from being solely mine, the news of her death did, in fact, hit me hard.

I never met her but I felt like I knew her. 


Thanks to her trailblazing stand-up comedy routines, her outrageous red carpet antics (she made the red carpet what it is today - before her, it was literally just a carpet), her hilarious (and touching) reality series Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?, the insightful documentary about her life fittingly dubbed a Piece of Work, her biting Fashion Police quips and, of course, her salacious In Bed with Joan web chat show, I came to know one of the funniest, and hardest-working, women in showbiz.

And if the most important thing to be able to laugh at is yourself, then she was definitely a pro at that as well:

   comedy central roast of joan rivers

Interestingly enough, I came to "know" Joan through one of her greatest critics: my gal Chelsea Handler. While the two had a well-publicized feud due to the fact that Joan accused Chelsea of sleeping her way to the top and being a "drunk whore," it is thanks to one biatch that I got to know the other biatch.

who is wendy williams and why is she drinking tea through a straw?

Like most comedians, Joan did not have an easy life. A crippling sense of insecurity (hello plastic surgery!), a marriage that ended when her husband committed suicide after their television show got cancelled and a fraught mother-daughter relationship all contributed to what made Joan who, and how funny, she was.

Watching her documentary was a real eye-opener for me. 


In it, she talks about being fearful of being unemployed and deemed "irrelevant." This from a woman who won wrote 10 books, appeared in nine films and over 60 television shows and sold "$750 million worth of jewellery on the TV shopping channel QVC," according to The Telegraph.  

 miley's tongue thrusting inspiration?

She also unleashes "the card catalog," a catalog of every joke she has ever written.

 the serious business of comedy

If Joan, the woman who "just wanted to be liked" was here today, she would see that she was more than just liked. 

She was loved. 

And she will be missed.   

Oh, and also, this explains a lot:

may the lady with the peace pipe rest in peace!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thursday, September 4, 2014

A pickle by any other name

Once you've had the best, it's difficult to settle for less.

And I've definitely had the best.

Pickles, that is.

My grandfather Jerzy (the best jadek a polski ogórki could ever ask for) used to make the best pickles (in addition to mixing cement, sharpening knives, standing on his head and flipping his eyelids over... during dinner).

 not a flipped eyelid in sight

He was a man of many skills, my jadek. And also of languages. But back to his pickles.

He kept bottles and bottles of them in the cool, dark basement at the cottage.

Sometimes, in the middle of the day, we'd surreptitiously go down there and have a couple... PLUS a large bottle of Coca-Cola (because soft drinks were strictly forbidden). In order to avoid suspicion, we'd burp up the evidence before rejoining the rest of the family.

Since then, pickles have been one of my top comfort foods.

In fact, there aren't many things in life that aren't made better by adding pickles.

Take pizza. The smoked meat pizza at Pizzeria Magpie, more specifically. Garnished with smoked meat, pickles, cheddar cheese and Dijon mustard, it is perhaps one of the best pizzas I've ever had.

Other than the pizza made by my dad... but I digress.

Take salad. Just the other day, my mum and I tried Mandy's for the first time. Famous for their salads, Mandy's makes a mean smoked meat salad. Chock-full of salady goodness, plus "Montreal's best smoked meat" (do they mean Schwartz's or Lester's? I prefer Lester's but I can't speak for all of Montreal... or can I?), diced dill pickles and Cape Cod chips.

But wait!

Is it the smoked meat or the pickles that I truly crave???   

Speaking of cravings, isn't is weird how pregnant women crave pickles? I Googled it today and according to Dr. Phil, "women who crave pickles are really craving salt and may be mineral deficient, specifically sodium deficient."  

But why pickles? Why not... chips? Or... umm... something else?

Since I do not have answers to these questions, I will go back to what I know best: pickles.

As a true connoisseur and Polish pickle by birthright, I can safely say that Moishes kosher dill pickles, in their original brine, are the best I've had since my grandfather's.

And just like that, I'm craving deep-fried pickles. Deville Dinerbar has some divine ones.