bar hopping, maxin' and relaxin', theatrical excursions, & super bowl viewings

what a blast this weekend has been. usually my weekends are filled with pretty normal events (a bar or two, random drunken fun, etc.), but this one just stood out amongst the rest. to kick it off, Caitlin and i hit some bars on friday including one of the better Montreal brewpubs, a really cool whiskey bar, and eventually Bifteck (gotta stick to the roots). L'Amere a Boire has some good beer, nowhere near the craft-brewed delights of Dieu Du Ciel, but nevertheless a chill place. i can't remember what the name of the whiskey bar was, but it was a great place, with probably 90 different whiskeys. we tried two different whiskeys...the names are kinda lost to me at the moment, but they were damn good. the music was great too, bringing back some 80s music memories, but we called it quits there when ABBA made its first appearance. bifteck was solid, as usual...cheap pitchers and 5 shots for 10 bucks. another upside of that place is that when you know all the staff, you get treated a lot differently, e.g. when Mike (the bouncer) is yelling at everyone to leave 'cause the bar is closing, he makes a point to politely come to our table and say "hey Nick, we're closing up soon, so just finish your drinks when you can." ya gotta love bar hopping.

saturday was a lazy day for most of it, but definitely a welcome break from the hectic week. i hung out with Caitlin during the day watching Arrested Development episodes (that show fucking rules) and HP: Prisoner of Azkaban. randomly bumming in front of the tv can be awesome. later in the afternoon, i headed over to Jenny's apartment for her early birthday party. her parents were up for the weekend, so they cooked dinner and everyone brought beer. dinner was really good, and her parents were cool, and most of the riff-raff ("buncha fuckin' amateurs!") eventually headed out leaving a core group of Dave, Jenny, Alex, me, and a few friends of theirs. drinking games led into trivial pursuit (as usual), which led to me, Dave, and Alex playing "Scarborough rules" (gotta get every question right on the last card to win) until Dave triumphed at 6:10am. 20 minutes later, i was stumbling back home (thankfully only a block) to get some sleep before the morning.

sunday morning. still a bit buzzed from hours before. drag myself over to Theatre St. Catherine to see Tecumseh as a Doorstop thanks to Dave and Jen's rabid enthusiasm for the play.

wow. it was simply amazing. i know that i'm not an authority on theater (very far from it), but this hit home so much. it basically surrounds two americans and two canadians that are living together in NYC on the day of the 9/11 attack. it was hilarious, powerful, emotional, intellectual...the list could go on. it spoke about the meaning behind the attacks and our interepretations, both from canadian and american perspectives, as well as about communication within and across cultures and personal relationships. i identified with it so much, mostly with the main character's reaction to the attack, which was the looming question of "why?", instead of the vengeful anger and blind patriotism that immediately spilled forth from the open wound that the attack inflicted upon the US. the acting was flawless and as convincing as i've ever seen. it's only too bad that the show is now closed. hopefully, it will open somewhere else, because i know a lot of people who would really appreciate it. i'll keep everyone posted if it does.

soon after, i met up with Dave to go to Brian's house and watch the super bowl. that was a lot of fun, with the steelers taking a well-deserved championship title and Hines Ward pulling out enough sick catches to get the MVP award. afterwards, i finally got to check out the highest rated depanneur (in terms of beer selection) called Rahman, located on Laurier, just west of St. Urbain. this. place. rules. it's a little expensive, but they have, what seems to be, the full selection from every single microbrewery in all of quebec. it's the first place that came even close to reminding me of the selection back in the states. and those who know me will fully understand how happy this made me. so, i've got 4 beers in my fridge to try (3 which aren't even rated on Beer Advocate!).

and so, the weekend of fun comes to an end as i sit here typing and watching the director's cut of Donnie Darko. this cut is far superior to the theatrical release, with one exception: they replaced the Echo and the Bunnymen song "The Killing Moon" in the beginning (as he rides down the mountain on his bike) with some other tune that, imho, does not even come close to having the same effect and link with the visual and thematic progression of the scene. now i've gotta hit the sack...gotta get up way too early to fill wire conduits in the new music building with sandbags in time for a 10am acoustical test in the labs. blah.