September 2009
31 posts
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Restaurant Review – Griff’s Wine Pub (Fitzroy VIC)...
Griff’s might be named after a dog, but this restaurant is anything but. The dining room has an elegant feel, with just enough sound from the front bar filtering in to keep the atmosphere relaxed. The wine list is extensive and affordable (as you’d expect from a “wine pub”), and the food is great. Cod croquettes were crunchy and succulent and the fish of the day was salmon filet, cooked to...
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Product Review – Fisherman’s Friend (Original...
This is a much better take on how a mint should feel. I like my mints to spray an air compressor into my sinuses, and luckily, that’s the feeling that I get with the original flavour of Fisherman’s Friends. I will admit that they don’t look very good – the musty brown of tanned shoe leather. But I take that as a positive, that more time’s been spent on the flavour than ensuring that the...
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Restaurant Review – The Vegie Bar (Fitzroy VIC) –...
There’s a real art to cooking good vegetarian food; and it’s a skill that I wish I had. Luckily, Vegie Bar is just down the road from me, and if the (almost 24/7) lines to get a table are anything to go by, they’ve certainly got the skill down pat. And it’s cheap, too; with most of the mains hovering around the $10 mark (a distinct positive when my attitude towards vegetarian food is similar...
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TV Review – How I Met Your Mother (Season 3) – 4...
It’s very rare to find a TV show that continues to improve season by season. But as you can see from my reviews, that’s exactly what’s happening with ‘How I Met Your Mother’. There are improvements with storylines this season, as well as a solid selection of fresh faces brought in to support (worth mentioning are Enrique Iglesias, Britney Spears, and Sarah Chalke (though, I hope she’s not...
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Movie Review – The Hangover (2009) – 3 Stars
Here’s a case in point for managing expectations before you see a movie. I’d been told over and over again that ‘The Hangover’ was amazing, and one of the funniest movies for the past few years. Honestly, I actually did think it was reasonably funny – the characters are good, there were some memorable moments and quotes, and I like the idea of a bachelor party movie that doesn’t actually show...
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Bar Review – The Evelyn (Fitzroy VIC) – 4 Stars
If you like your bars dark, sticky, and with live bands each night, then The Evelyn is probably your kind of place. You won’t get a chicken parma here – but if you buy some take-away elsewhere, they’ll let you bring it in; but they do $10 jugs, and the bands that play there are wildly varied, but almost always good. There’s room to sit, both inside and outside, with comfy couches and tables,...
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Video Review – Out of Time (2009) – 4.5 Stars
I’m not sure what else to say to express how unbelievable this video is. It goes without saying that the skills exhibited are fantastic - they’re well above just about every example of urban acrobatics and parkour that I’ve seen before. But beyond that, this video balances perfectly between professional editing and shot choices, and the amateur personality that has you feeling that...
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Product Review – GU Energy Gel (Chocolate Outrage...
Put your hand up if you always wanted Nutella as a kid, but were never allowed to have it. Well, I’ve got a deal for you. If you exercise for over an hour, you’re allowed to tear the top of a sachet of Nutella-flavoured goo and have as much as you want. It won’t even spoil your dinner. If you ignore the hyperbolic flavour name, this is quite a good product. It has all the functional...
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Product Review – New Balance MR1063WR – 3.5 Stars
As I mentioned yesterday, finding shoes to fit with custom orthotics can be a tricky task. Luckily, with advice from a podiatrist, I’ve found my way to the New Balance cushioning range. From this year’s selection, I’m using the 1063, and had no trouble placing the orthotics in under the insole whilst keeping a great fit overall. It’s a very stable shoe and certainly feels a lot softer under...
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Service Review – Rebel Sport Footwear Section – 1...
When I run, I wear custom-made orthotics to handle some pretty serious pronation, so it can be tough to find the right shoe. The assistant at Rebel was sure that if I’d be wearing the orthotics, I’d need the shoes with the strongest rolling support, avoiding natural, cushioning shoes. This surprised me, so I checked with a podiatrist. His answer was the exact opposite – the orthotic provides...
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Product Review – GU Energy Gel (Vanilla Bean...
There’s a reason that toothpaste is mint flavoured, and not vanilla flavoured. It’s because putting something that tastes and feels like stale, congealed custard in your mouth is not a pleasant experience. The effect is good though. It’s two mouthfuls for a 400KJ hit that is sustained over 45 minutes, and is supplemented by 20mg of caffeine. And as someone who likes a coffee before...
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Event Review – Sri Chinmoy Yarra Boulevard Half...
Earlier than I’d like on a Sunday morning in September, I took part in my first proper running race. The Sri Chinmoy group puts on a variety of casual sporting competitions all around the world, including about a dozen races in Victoria. It’s a nice group of people, and the setup is easy to work out, even on your first run. I was a little surprised to realise that the “aid stations every...
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Product Review – Polar FS1 Heart Rate Monitor –...
I’d never used a heart rate monitor until recently, so I thought I’d use the first of a series of running-related reviews to discuss the Polar FS1 monitor. The cheapest of the Polar range, the FS1 has one key attribute; it’s simple. All you get is a stopwatch and heart rate (though, unfortunately, you can’t see both concurrently). It’s comfortable (even though the watch is a bit bigger than...
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Video Review – Distraxion (2008) – 3.5 Stars
Over the space of two years (part of which was during his time at an animation school), Mike Stern put together a great animation called ‘Distraxion’. It’s great because the message is simply, it’s delivered in a charming way, the characters are relatable, and the animation is perfectly clean without being overly realistic. And I mustn’t be the only one who thinks it’s great; it’s picked up...
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Product Review – Imation Nano USB Flash Drive –...
What I look for in a USB memory stick is small size, durability, and ease of attachment to a keyring. The Imation Nano series performs pretty well on all three points. Sure, I’d like it to be a bit smaller; and sure, the swivel cover becomes loose after a while (it doesn’t fall off, it just stops doing much “covering”); but I’ve had one on my keyring for about four years without trouble. One...
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Restaurant Review – Wrap It Fresh (Melbourne VIC)...
It’s really more a food-court outlet than a restaurant, but I’ve recently started having wraps and salads from Wrap It Fresh for lunch, and I love it. There are plenty of places that will customise your order, and there are others that specialise in fresh ingredients. This place does both. Just take an order form and tick what you want, and then watch it made in front of you. It is a bit...
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TV Review – How I Met Your Mother (Season 2) – 3.5...
I think it’s taken the writers of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ a year to work out where they wanted to fit. The second season has the same likable appeal as the first, but the humour is more refined, the timing is crisper, the dialogue is a bit snappier, and overall, it just feels like a tighter show. So even though I pushed through the DVDs in just over two days, the comedy has stuck with me. I...
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Restaurant Review – Sugo (Malvern VIC) – 3 Stars
There’s not much wrong with Sugo. The décor’s nice, with wooden tables, a clean kitchen opening onto the dining area, and chalkboards showing the wine list. The food’s the same, too. Great saganaki, tender marinated calamari (that could have used a few more spices in the marinade), fresh pasta with soft, shredded duck and mushrooms, and spring flavoured risotto with chicken, bacon and leek. ...
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Movie Review – Observe and Report (2009) – 1 Star
I’d wondered why I hadn’t heard too much about this film, given that Seth Rogen and Anna Faris are such hot commodities right now. The answer is; it’s terrible. I never stop a movie half way through, but I almost made an exception for this. That being said, don’t blame Faris and Rogen for this, they’re just doing their job. The real failings with this movie are the writing and directing. ...
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Restaurant Review – Crust Pizza (Fitzroy) – 3.5...
I know that take-away pizza doesn’t really fit the standard “restaurant” category, but as far as pizza chains go, Crust is up there with the best. Sure it’s a little more pricy than something like Dominos, but you feel the quality both in the taste and in the way your stomach feels after you’ve eaten. I’m a big fan of the Upper Crust (gourmet selection) Sausage Duo pizza with its sweet...
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Movie Review – I Love You, Man (2009) – 3 Stars
I have a feeling that as this film centres around relationships and a wedding, then it has to come under the banner of ‘chick-flick’. But don’t let that put you off. ‘I Love You, Man’ is quite a good movie. It’s the interactions between characters that makes this film so funny. Paul Rudd and Jason Segal have great timing, and their work with the supporting characters like J.K. Simmons’...
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Theatre Review – God of Carnage (MTC) - 4 Stars
It’s hard to imagine four more different, yet strikingly similar, characters on stage than what you see in Yasmina Reza’s play, ‘God of Carnage’ about two couples meeting to discuss a violent altercation between their eleven year old sons. The cast of four is fantastic: Hugo Weaving as the smarmy, workaholic lawyer, Natasha Herbert as his nauseous wife; Pamela Rabe as the holier-than-thou...
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TV Review – Top Gear (Season 13) – 3 Stars
It’s lucky that Top Gear started off as such a good show, because now that it’s getting a bit “samey”, it’s actually holding up well. Nothing was particularly different in season 13 (aside from a somewhat lacklustre faux-“revealing” of Michael Schumacher as The Stig in the first episode), but there were certainly highlights. Jay Leno is the pick of the guests, as he discusses his 150 cars,...
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Book Review – ‘The Age Good Food Guide 2010’ – 4.5...
The wonderful thing about this guide to all things gourmet in Victoria is that the writing is so good, just reading can serve as a meal out in itself. But that’s not how I operate, so within minutes of picking up my copy today, I’d flipped through the maps, tagged the thirty restaurants with a two kilometre walk from my house, and begun planning my next couple of years’ worth of fancy eating...
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Restaurant Review – Mario’s (Fitzroy VIC) – 4...
Regardless that there’s a tie-pinned and waistcoated waiter bringing me bacon and eggs on a Sunday morning, this quintessential Fitzroy establishment remains a very relaxed location. Maybe it’s the two metre high child’s painting of a pig on the wall, or the contented chewing from nearby tables. In fact, you don’t even need to eat here to know this place is good – the constant stream of...
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TV Review – How I Met Your Mother (Season 1) – 3...
I’ll give this show one thing – it’s incredibly easy to watch. Within three days of borrowing the DVD, I’d finished the whole season. The characters are very likeable, the scripting works well (both in terms of the seasonal plot and the minute to minute dialogue), and the performances are all smooth. What it seems to lack, however, is the memorableness of some other shows. While I remember...
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Restaurant Review – Undertaker Social (Hawthorn...
If I took a ratio of meal quality to price of all the restaurants I’ve visited, then Undertaker Social would be at the top. In a comfortable and spacious room (keep an eye out for the amazing light fittings), the variety of European tasting plates and gourmet pizzas is an experience to savour. We had a pork, apple and caramelised onion pizza, matched with plates of grilled baby octopus on a...
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Movie Review – Behind Enemy Lines (2001) – 2.5...
Not being American makes this a hard movie to appreciate. While you can enjoy clips of Owen Wilson running in slow motion through the Bosnian countryside, you have to ignore the plot based around the Navy’s horror at a single Marine killed in enemy territory, and their plans to shoot an entire battalion of Serbian soldiers in retribution. I’d expect this from Wilson – only a couple of years...
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Restaurant Review – Houndstooth (Fitzroy VIC) –...
I’ve found my new local – and at $20 for a three-course dinner, it’s hard to go wrong. To keep the costs down, you’ll have to order at the bar, and the menu is limited, but the food really is great. A puff pastry gorgonzola and onion tart was a delicate start, feeding into kangaroo fillets with a beetroot, lentil, and rocket salad, topped off with one of the best choc-ripple cakes I’ve ever...
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Restaurant Review – Happy Kappa (Fitzroy VIC) – 3...
First of all, this was my first experience with Japanese noodle soups, so take this review with a grain of salt (or wakame or menma if they’re more your thing). I was lucky to be eating at this small, quiet noodle place with a self-proclaimed ramen soup aficionado and fluent Japanese speaker; who, after discussions with the chef/waiter/one-man-band about his native area of Japan, soup...
August 2009
30 posts
2 tags
TV Review – Rescue: Special Ops (Channel 9) – 2...
I don’t know if this if how each of the shows plays out, but with only the first five minutes having any real form of “rescue”, this’d probably be more aptly titled, ‘Rescue: Picking up the Pieces’. There’s nothing specifically wrong with that; it’s just that the characters seem more suited to climbing under burning cars or hanging from balconies than they do discussing marital breakdowns with...