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An epic Vancouver evening

Yesterday, I was doing a Shopper's Drug Mart run at the top of the hill on W. 4th. I was in there for quite awhile that the lighting outside had started to fade and when I left the store, the mountains were in brilliant view and the sky, clear. Instead of returning home immediately like I planned to, I walked down the hill to Kits Beach to savor the beauty. Fortunately, I had my camera with me and was very happy I did:

*Can you see the seal in the water? 

Breathtaking! 

Restaurant Review: Sushi Bella

Sushi Bella, which opened doors in Kits this August (the original location is in North Van) seems to be doing well so far. Though new restaurants tend to be popular at the start, I have a feeling that Sushi Bella will continue to thrive, especially with its prime digs at 2059 West 4^th Ave—smack dab in the heart of the shopping district. I have been to Sushi Bella twice now, once for dinner and once for lunch, and it’s a great place to get your fill of Japanese fusion.

The first time I visited, I ordered the Crispy Crab Cake starter with prawn and creamy roasted garlic aioli. As someone who is a big fan of crab cakes, I’m inclined to try them whenever I spot them on the menu. For any other crab cake lovers out there, I would recommend the Sushi Bella crab cakes. (Crab cake glamor shots after the jump)

For any other crab cake lovers out there, I would recommend the Sushi Bella crab cakes.

As for the sushi, all rolls I’ve tried were ordered off the Bella Rolls section of the menu. I started off with what turned out to be my favourite – the Crazy California Roll – deep fried with crazy sauce, followed by the Crunchy Go-Go Roll (Double prawns, yam tempura, avocado, crunchy flake, chili mayo), which was also a treat. If you enjoy tempura sushi in particular, I would highly recommend this roll. I followed up on this by tasting the Rainbow Roll with tuna, salmon, ebi & avocado on top of a California roll.

Rainbow Roll with tuna, salmon, ebi & avocado on top of a California roll

Since I am partial to any sushi roll that contains cream cheese, I also went for the Love-Me-Tender-Roll with smoked salmon, crab mix, cream cheese, salmon and cucumber. Then I went for the Caterpillar Roll (deep fried unagi, cream cheese and avocado) which scored points for actually resembling the critter.

Caterpillar Roll (deep fried unagi, cream cheese and avocado) 

My second visit to Sushi Bella, I once again ordered the Crazy California Roll (because it is just so darn good, which should tell you all you need to know) and tried three different prawn tempura rolls – The Drunken Tiger Roll, Gangster Roll, and Dynamite Roll – not only do they have funky names, but they were all very tasty.

The restaurant itself is a clean, quaint spot, decorated with a lotus flower here and there. I particularly enjoy the turquoise decor Sushi Bella has made its signature aesthetic.

Sushi Bella’s signature turquoise caught my fancy.

The service is well-paced, but best of all is the pricing. I’ve been to take-out sushi places that cost about the same, or more, without the benefits of a sit-down restaurant. So, next time skip the take out and enjoy some fabulous sushi with a little more atmosphere at a very good price.

Did I already mention I was into the Crazy California Roll? I did? That’s crazy.

Sushi Bella (Kitsilano): 2059 West 4^th Ave., 604-734-4990, Sushibella.com 

(Link to Kitsilano blog: http://www.kitsilano.ca/2011/11/01/restaurant-review-sushi-bella/) 

Restaurant review: Mistral Bistro

On Thursday evening, a friend and I had dinner at Mistral French Bistro located on the corner of Trafalgar and West Broadway. If you are seeking a continental European dining experience, Mistral is worth checking out.
Owned by a married couple Jean-Yves and Minna Benoit– both of whom are chefs – the owners’ culinary journey is an interesting one and can be read on the Mistral website. The Madame greeted us upon arrival with a lovely smile and kindly offered to take our coats. Apart from very friendly staff, the restaurant itself has a cozy and intimate atmosphere with nice decor and mood lighting – suitable for date night or to just to savor some French cuisine.
Moderately priced and authentically Français, there choices range from seafood like Bourride Marseillais–clams, scallops, prawns and fresh daily fish in creamy saffron aïoli sauce–to steak frites and free range chicken with wild mushrooms. Their French onion soup was topped with lighter-than-air cream, and the warm goat cheese on crouton, which includes mesclun, pears and prosciutto, makes a light and healthy appetizer.
Overall, my experience at Mistral was more than satisfactory – with superior food choices at fair prices. The service was efficient and well paced. The staff were competent, well-mannered and engaging.
Daily lunch specials are also offered; I recommend stopping by on a crisp autumn afternoon to enjoy a glass of wine with Clams à la Provençale in butter sauce with shallots—and for those who wish, a chance to practise your French!
À la prochaine!

Mistral French Bistro, 2585 West Broadway, 604-733-0046, Mistralbistro.ca

Link to review: http://www.kitsilano.ca/2011/10/07/restaurant-review-mistral-french-bistro/

Shark dive

I went on my first ever shark dive in December in The Bahamas while visiting family on vacation. Stuart Cove is the popular company to dive with when visiting Nassau. Many film productions have been made with Stuart Cove - they have even been nicknamed the "Underwater film capital" Remember Into the Blue with Jessica Alba?

Check out the Stuart Cove website here: http://www.stuartcove.com/

Location: Stuart Cove in Nassau, Bahamas

I'm contemplating having this first one printed large and framed for my wall. It's pretty neat. 

Shark knocked me over slightly :) 

101 Dalmations (Opening titles)

I had forgotten how neat the opening titles were to 101 Dalmations - because it has been so long since I had seen it. I used to watch quite a bit as a kid and I now own the dvd but haven't watched it until now... love the opening sequence, cute, clever, happy:

Another thing I love, is that when the narration begins after the credits, we are led to believe that Roger is the one narrating, when he says he is a bachelor living with "his pet," when it's actually Pongo (his dog) who is the one narrating.

Little Mermaid - Opening titles

I had forgotten how beautiful and well done this opening credits sequence is to the little mermaid - the composition, the musical score...

Dumbo!

I still cry when I watch the scene of "Baby Mine" when Dumbo goes to visit his mommy in prison

fantasia walt disney's 1940 original movie Nutcracker Suite part3- fish ...

Once again, I will likely be watching this clip many times over for reference of moving fish - such a hauntingly beautiful song (Tchaikovsky's "Coffee" aka Arabian Dance) and is also beautifully animated.

Fantasia - China Dance

Another reference for final film - so simple yet so effective!

Fantasia - Russian Flowers

Russian Dance was one of the songs I wanted to use for final film, but unfortunately I was only able to find a techno version that was royalty-free!

Elephant love

My love for elephants will never cease. They really are one of the most amazing creatures. I love the teamwork in this scenario. Amazing!

7 Tonnes 2

And speaking of elephants - check out this awesome short by special FX director Nicolas Deveaux 

I remember seeing this years ago. It makes me happy.

Vancouver love

It is not often the city gets clear and sunny days, but when it does, it's beautiful!

Essential Film Recommendations by Michael van den Bos

Here is a list of recommended films from my current film theory instructor. The ones highlighted are those I have already seen or own - many of which were screened during lectures when I was doing my Film Studies B.A. at Brock University:

FILM	YEAR	DIRECTOR
8 1/2	1963	Federico Fellini
12 Angry Men	1957	Sidney Lumet
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea	1954	Richard Fleischer
2001: A Space Odyssey	1968	Stanley Kubrick
39 Steps, The	1935	Alfred Hitchcock
400 Blows, The	1959	Francois Truffaut
42nd St.	1933	Lloyd Bacon, Busby Berkeley
A Woman in Paris	1923	Chalres Chaplin
Adventures of Robin Hood, The	1938	Michael Curtiz, William Keighley
Alexander Nevsky	1938	Sergei Eisenstein
Alien	1979	Ridley Scott
All Quiet on the Western Front	1930	Lewis Milestone
All That Jazz	1979	Bob Fosse
American in Paris, An	1950	Vincente Minnelli
Apocalypse Now	1979	Francis Ford Coppola
Applause	1929	Rouben Mamoulian
Asphalt Jungle, The	1950	John Huston
Awful Truth, The	1937	Leo McCarey
Bambi (Walt Disney)	1942	David Hand
Band Wagon, The	1953	Vincente Minnelli
Battleship Potemkin	1925	Sergei Eisenstein
Beauty and the Beast	1946	Jean Cocteau
Belle de Jour	1967	Luis Buñuel
Best Years of Our Lives, The	1946	William Wyler
Big Sleep, The	1946	Howard Hawks
Birds, The	1963	Alfred Hitchcock
Birth of a Nation, The	1915	D.W. Griffith
Black Narcissus	1947	Michel Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Black Pirate, The	1926	Albert Parker
Bob le Flambeur	1956	Jean-Pierre Melville
Bonnie and Clyde	1967	Arthur Penn
Breathless	1960	Jean-Luc Godard
Bride of Frankenstein	1935	James Whale
Bridge on the River Kwai, The	1957	David Lean
Brief Encounter	1945	David Lean
Bringing Up Baby	1938	Howard Hawks
Broken Blossoms	1919	D.W. Griffith
Cabinet of Dr. Galigari, The	1920	Robert Wiene
Cabiria	1914	Giovanni Pastrone
Casablanca	1942	Michael Curtiz
Cat People	1942	Jacques Tourneur
Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin (doc)	2003	Richard Schickel
Children of Paradise	1945	Marcel Carné
Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (doc)	1995	Kevin Brownlow & David Gill
Circus, The	1928	Chalres Chaplin
Citizen Kane	1941	Orson Welles
City Lights	1931	Charles Chaplin
Conversation, The	1974	Francis Ford Coppola
Crowd, The	1928	King Vidor
D.W. Griffith: Father of Film	1993	Kevin Brownlow & David Gill
Day the Earth Stood Still, The (the original version)	1951	Robert Wise
Directed by John Ford (doc)	1971/2006	Peter Bogdanovich
Doctor Zhvivago	1965	David Lean
Double Indemnity	1944	Billy Wilder
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Stopped Worrying and Love the Bomb	1964	Stanley Kubrick
Dracula	1931	Tod Browning
Duck Soup (The Marx Brothers)	1933	Leo McCarey
Dumbo (Walt Disney)	1941	Ben Sharpsteen
East of Eden	1955	Elia Kazan
Fantasia (Walt Disney)	1940	various
Faust	1926	F.W. Murnau
Floating Weeds	1959	Yasujiro Ozu
Foolish Wives	1922	Erich von Stroheim
Forbidden Planet	1956	Fred M. Wilcox
Foreign Correspondent	1940	Alfred Hitchcock
Fort Apache	1948	John Ford
Frankenstein	1931	James Whale
Freaks	1932	Tod Browning
Frenzy	1972	Alfred Hitchcock
Freshman, The (Harold Lloyd)	1925	Fred Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
From Here to Eternity	1953	Fred Zinnemann
General, The	1927	Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman
Godfather II, The	1974	Francis Ford Coppola
Godfather, The	1972	Francis Ford Coppola
Gold Rush, The	1925	Charles Chaplin
Gone with the Wind	1939	Victor Fleming
Goodfellas	1990	Martin Scorsese
Graduate, The	1967	Mike Nichols
Grand Illusion	1937	Jean Renoir
Grapes of Wrath, The	1940	John Ford
Great Expectations	1946	David Lean
Great Train Robbery, The	1903	Edwin S. Porter
Greed	1925	Erich von Stroheim
Gunga Din	1939	George Stevens
Hard Day's Night, A	1964	Richard Lester
Hidden Fortress, The	1958	Akira Kurosawa
High Noon	1952	Fred Zinnemann
Hiroshima mon amour	1959	Alain Resnais
His Girl Friday	1940	Howard Hawks
Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film (doc)	1980	Kevin Brownlow & David Gill
How Green Was My Valley	1941	John Ford
I Vitelloni	1953	Federico Fellini
Idle Class, The (two-reeler)	1921	Charles Chaplin
Intolerance	1916	D.W. Griffith
Invasion of the Body Snatchers	1955	Don Siegel
Iron Horse, The	1924	John Ford
It Happened One Night	1934	Frank Capra
Jazz Singer, The	1927	Alan Crosland
Jezebel	1938	William Wyler
Kid, The	1921	Charles Chaplin
Killing, The	1956	Stanley Kubrick
King Kong	1933	Merian C. Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack
Knife in the Water	1962	Roman Polanski
La Bête humaine	1938	Jean Renoir
La Dolce Vita	1960	Federico Fellini
La Strada	1954	Federico Fellini
Lady From Shanghai, The	1948	Orson Welles
Lady Vanishes, The	1938	Alfred Hitchcock
Last Laugh, The	1924	F.W. Murnau
L'Atalante	1934	Jean Vigo
Laura	1944	Otto Preminger
L'Avventura	1960	Michelangelo Antonioni
Lawrence of Arabia	1962	David Lean
Leave Her to Heaven	1945	John M. Stahl
Letter, The	1940	William Wyler
Little Caesar	1930	Mervyn LeRoy
Lodger, The	1926	Alfred Hitchcock
Lolita	1961	Stanley Kubrick
Love Me Tonight	1932	Rouben Mamoulian
M	1931	Fritz Lang
Magnificent Ambersons, The	1942	Orson Welles
Maltese Falcon, The	1941	John Huston
Man Who Knew Too Much, The	1934	Alfred Hitchcock
Man Who Knew Too Much, The (Hitchcock's remake)	1956	Alfred Hitchcock
Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The	1962	John Ford
Man with a Movie Camera	1929	Dziga Vertov
Manchurian Candidate, The	1962	John Frankenheimer
Manhattan	1979	Woody Allen
Meet Me in St. Louis	1944	Vincente Minnelli
Metropolis	1927	Fritz Lang
Miracle of Morgan's Creek, The	1944	Preston Sturges
Modern Times	1936	Charles Chaplin
Most Dangerous Game, The	1932	Ernest B. Schoedsack, Irving Pichel
Mother	1926	V.I. Pudovkin
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington	1939	Frank Capra
Murder, My Sweet	1944	Edward Dmytryk
Mutiny on the Bounty	1935	Frank Lloyd
My Darling Clementine	1946	John Ford
Napolean	1926	Abel Gance
Narrow Margin, The	1952	Richard Fleischer
Night at the Opera, A (The Marx Brothers)	1935	Sam Wood
Night of the Hunter, The	1955	Charles Laughton
North by Northwest	1959	Alfred Hitchcock
Nosferatu	1922	F.W. Murnau
Nothing Sacred	1937	William A. Wellman
Notorious	1946	Alfred Hitchcock
October	1928	Sergei Eisenstein
Oliver Twist	1948	David Lean
On the Waterfront	1954	Elia Kazan
Once Upon A Time In The West	1969	Sergio Leone
One Week (two-reeler)	1920	Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton
Only Angels Have Wings	1939	Howard Hawks
Ox-Bow Incident, The	1943	William A. Wellman
Palm Beach Story, The	1941	Preston Sturges
Pandora's Box	1928	G.W. Pabst
Passion of Joan of Arc, The	1928	Carl Theodor Dreyer
Pather Panchali	1955	Satyajit Ray
Paths of Glory	1957	Stanley Kubrick
Peeping Tom	1960	Michael Powell
Phantom of the Opera, The (silent, starring Lon Chaney)	1925	Rupert Julian
Pick-up on South Street	1953	Samuel Fuller
Pinocchio (Walt Disney)	1940	Ben Sharpsteen, Hamitlon Luske
Psycho	1960	Alfred Hitchcock
Public Enemy, The	1931	William A. Wellman
Queen Christina	1933	Rouben Mamoulian
Quiet Man, The	1952	John Ford
Raging Bull	1980	Martin Scorsese
Raiders of the Lost Ark	1981	Steven Spielberg
Rashomon	1950	Akira Kurosawa
Raw Deal	1948	Anthony Mann
Rear Window	1954	Alfred Hitchcock
Rebecca	1940	Alfred Hitchcock
Red Ballon, The (short film_	1956	Albert Lamorisse
Red Hot Riding Hot (cartoon short)	1943	Tex Avery
Red River	1947	Howard Hawks
Red Shoes, The	1948	Michel Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Repulsion	1965	Roman Polanski
Rio Bravo	1958	Howard Hawks
Rio Grande	1950	John Ford
Robin Hood (silent version with Douglas Fairbanks)	1922	Alan Dwan
Roman Holiday	1953	William Wyler
Rules of the Game	1939	Jean Renoir
Scarface (the original film starring Paul Muni)	1932	Howard Hawks
Scarlett Empress, The	1934	Josef von Sternberg
Searchers, The	1956	John Ford
Secrets of a Soul	1926	G.W. Pabst
Seven Samurai	1954	Akira Kurosawa
Seventh Seal, The	1956	Ingmar Bergman
Shadow of A Doubt	1943	Alfred Hitchcock
Shadows	1959	John Cassavetes
Shane	1953	George Stevens
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon	1949	John Ford
Sherlock, Jr.	1924	Buster Keaton
Shop Around the Corner, The	1940	Ernst Lubitsch
Singin' In The Rain	1952	Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs	1937	David Hand, Walt Disney
Some Like It Hot	1959	Billy Wilder
Sons of the Desert (Laurel and Hardy)	1933	William A. Seiter
Stagecoach	1939	John Ford
Star is Born, A	1937	William A. Wellman
Star is Born, A	1954	George Cukor
Steamboat Bill, Jr.	1928	Charles F. Riesner, Buster Keaton
Strangers on a Train	1951	Alfred Hitchcock
Strike	1925	Sergei Eisenstein
Strong Man, The (Harry Langdon)	1926	Frank Capra
Sullivan's Travels	1941	Preston Sturges
Sunrise - A Song of Two Humans	1927	F.W. Murnau
Sunset Blvd.	1950	Billy Wilder
Superman	1978	Richard Donner
Sweet Smell of Success	1957	Alexander Mackendrick
Swing Time	1936	George Stevens
Taxi Driver	1976	Martin Scorsese
Ten Commandments, The	1923	Cecil B. DeMille
Ten Commandments, The	1956	Cecil B. DeMille
They Were Expendable	1945	John Ford
Thief of Bagdad, The	1940	Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell, Tim Whelan
Thin Man, The	1934	W.S. Van Dyke
Thing From Another Word, The	1951	Christian Nyby (Howard Hawks)
Third Man, The	1949	Carol Reed
Thorne of Blood	1957	Akira Kurosawa
Throne of Blood	1957	Akira Kurosawa
Tokyo Story	1953	Yasujiro Ozu
Top Hat	1935	Mark Sandrich
Touch of Evil	1958	Orson Welles
Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The	1948	John Huston
Triumph of the Will	1936	Leni Riefenstahl
Trouble in Paradise	1932	Ernst Lubitsch
Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The	1964	Jacques Demy
Underworld	1927	Josef von Sternberg
Varieté	1925	E.A.Dupont
Vertigo	1958	Alfred Hitchcock
West Side Story	1961	Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise
White Heat	1949	Raoul Walsh
Wild Bunch, The	1969	Sam Peckinpah
Wild Strawberries	1957	Ingmar Bergman
Wind, The	1928	Victor Seastom
Wizard of Oz, The	1939	Victor Fleming
Written on the Wind	1956	Douglas Sirk
Wrong Man, The	1956	Alfred Hitchcock

Apparently I still have a lot of catching up to do!