Caroline Ishii and her sous chef pose for the camera at Zen Kitchen. Photo courtesy of John Wiseman on Flickr

It’s no secret that we are big fans of ZenKitchen here at Apartment 613. The little vegetarian restaurant on Somerset has become a welcome addition to Ottawa’s culinary scene. When we first wrote about ZenKitchen back in the summer we reported that the restaurant’s executive chef, Caroline Ishii, and co-owner/sommelier David Loan were followed by a camera crew as they tried to fulfill their dream of opening the place and making it a success.

That adventure has now been documented in the new show from Mountain Road Productions titled, The Restaurant Adventures of Caroline and Dave. The first of 13 episodes will premiere on the W Network, this Wednesday night at 9PM. (Click here for a sneak peak). The co-owners are planning a small party (media event/tasting/episode watching) that evening to kick the series off - invitation only, we’re afraid (more on that later).

According to the shows’ producers, Caroline and Dave did not have an easy voyage turning ZenKitchen into a reality.

Though Caroline is an excellent chef who prizes the freshest ingredients, she did not have much experience with the business side of running a restaurant. Dave too, a former political staffer, was a little wet behind the ears on business front.

Their inexperience was compounded by early financing problems, real estate issues, faulty equipment, absent contractors and “staff walking out the door.”

Somehow, they made it all work and came out with a great product. If you want to see exactly how they managed to make their restaurant one of the city’s best culinary additions this past year, you should tune in to the show. We will.

As a very special treat - ZenKitchen has invited two lucky Apartment613 readers to their party/ screening tomorrow night. If you want to get your vegan on and celebrate with the team at Zen, email us at editors@apt613.ca and we’ll enter your name in a draw for the chance to attend! Get typing… we draw names at 6:00pm!

Courtesy of Eduardo Mueses on flickr.

This week on AV (yes we’re back!):

- A tonsillitis’d Peter exhales The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townwomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production Of A Christmas Carol in one breath once more before diving into a review of the Gladstone production. Peter’s verdict: the play is reasonably satiable, though given the production’s heavy reliance on audience participation, A Christmas Carol seems best suited for families who have better taste than taking their kids to see the epic fail that is the new Jim Carrey film adaptation.

- Peter and I (mostly me, though) interview Dipna Horra, an M.F.A. Fine Arts student at the University of Ottawa whose sound installation The Colonial Times will be shown at Gallery 115, the uOttawa visual-arts gallery at 100 Laurier Ave. Dipna talks about the influence of architecture in her artwork and her experiences living in Brooklyn. The Colonial Times takes place Wednesday Dec. 16. at 100 Laurier. The exhibit will be up noon to 7p.m., and Dipna will serve tea between 5-7 p.m.

Music:
The Flaming Lips — “Evil”
The Most Serene Republic — “The Four Humours”
Spiral Beach — “Raising the Snake”
Rose Melberg — “Things That We Do”
Bloodshot Bill — “Pretty Lil Miss” and “Oh Honey Doll Baby Doll”

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The Rural Alberta Advantage: Amy, Nils and Paul. Photo courtesy of ipickmynose from flickr.

Last week’s show featuring Casey Mecija from Ohbijou about rural hometowns could not have made a better precursor for this week’s interview with Nils Edenloff from The Rural Alberta Advantage. The Toronto-based band’s debut album Hometowns — a recording themed around heartbreak and moving away from home — was critically acclaimed by many music bloggers in 2008 and the trio has been touring extensively for the past year, making their third trek down to Ottawa this year on Nov. 12 at Zaphod’s. Next up, Peter interviews Michael Small from The Meligrove Band, who were scheduled to drop by Zaphod’s on Saturday but had to cancel due to H1N1. Sad, but the show will go on with headliner The Most Serene Republic. Lastly, we wrap up the show with a review of Humpday, a great indie flick about two straight guys who decide to make a porn. It sounds like a premise out of a Judd Appatow flick but it’s actually a profound film — listen to learn why.

Music:

The Rural Alberta Advantage — “The Ballad of RAA”
The Meligrove Band — “Planets Conspire”
The Most Serene Republic — “Heavens to Purgatory”
Annie — “I Don’t Like Your Band”

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Photo by Jess Baumung. Courtesy of Indoor Recess.

The Hometown. For many, we may never again inhabit the towns of our childhood, but we do make occasional visits, if not in person, then in memory. I can say with certainty without even having to verify with Peter that my co-host is not likely to ever move back to Brantford — he’s too much of a big-city guy. Brantford never meant anything to me until I met Peter and heard his stories about the Ford Plant, the gritty music hub home to Brantford’s young music scenesters. On this week’s Audio Visual we talk to Brantford native Casey Mecija of Ohbijou, who shares her memories of the Ford Plant and the influence it played in her career. We move chronologically to the place she now calls home — Toronto — and how she incorporated the city’s well-documented indie-rock collective philosophy into her own work, like her Friends in Bellwoods compilation albums that feature a cornucopia of indie-rock Canadian talent, including Snailhouse, Katie Stelmanis and Ottawa’s own The Acorn. Her band’s most recent collaborative effort is Beacons, Ohbijou’s sophomore album, released this summer and the main reason for the band’s current tour. Ohbijou hits up Babylon this Saturday with openers Silver Starling and Giant Hand.

In the second half of the interview Peter and I review Big Fan, a new indie film by Robert D. Siegel, the previous editor-in-chief of The Onion. Starring Patton Oswalt in his first leading, serious role, Big Fan tells the story of Paul Aufiero, a devoted football fan of the New York Giants who is beaten up by his hero, Giants player Quatrell Bishop. Siegel’s script examines the cultural prejudices of fandom — as illustrated through Paul’s “loserish” lifestyle as a parking lot attendant who still lives with his mother — and the way in which fandom can implicate life-changing decisions. In the case of Paul, the question is whether or not he chooses to sue the pants off of Bishop, the “right thing to do” according to his bewildered and demanding family members. Peter and I agree with many of the critics lauding Big Fan, for this is a pronouncedly strong debut for both Oswalt and Siegel. Don’t t miss it at the Mayfair (playing Fri-Mon; check the theatre schedule for more info).

Music:
Cold Cave — “Love Comes Close”
Ohbijou — “Jailbird Blues”
The Almighty Defenders — “Ghost with the Most”

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Image courtesy of Alroy Fonseca from the Apartment613 Flickr Pool

Recently, Apt613 was the media sponsor of the Salon Evening Event at Cube Gallery. The theme of the evening was Anxiety, and the audience was engaged in a discussion about their anxieties while watching fantastic performances by Gruppo Rubato, singer-songwriter John Carroll and actress Kel Parsons. We invite you to Check out our podcast as we present selections of the performances from that evening.

Photo courtesy jontintinjordan on flickr

The Review Edition:

• Tina talks about her initial apprehension and gradual admiration for Mary and Max, a claymation feature-length film that will be screened at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
• Peter analyzes the new multi-artform shift in orchestra performances with Beyond the Score: Mozart’s Final Piano Concerto at the NAC
• We wrap up the show with a discussion about the noir homages and humour in the new HBO television series, Bored to Death, starring Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifianakis and Ted Danson.

Music:
Javelin: “STD Fury”
Memory Tapes: “Bicycle”
Plants and Animals: “Feedback in the Field”
Hudson Mohawke: “Rising 5″

Photo courtesy of Ming Wu on Flickr

This week on the show we had the pleasure of having bassist Stephen Neville from The Balconies come in to talk about the local indie-rock band’s just-released first CD, their upcoming CD release show, and their upcoming performance at the i(heart)music festival. The festival is the brainchild of Matthew Pollesel, a local boy who runs  one of the most popular music blogs in Canada, i(heart)music.net. For more information on the festival, check out the full interview with Matt here on Apt613.

We played some tunes by the Balconies, talked with Steve about the evolution of the band, and premiered the band’s new “Myspace single”, whatever that means. If you haven’t heard the Balconies yet, you owe it to yourself to click that Myspace link above, or this one. They’re one of our favourite Ottawa bands, and their awesome songs are surpassed only by their intense, high-energy live show. How intense? Last time, Peter got smacked in the head with a guitar AND DIDN’T EVEN STOP DANCING!

Steve stuck around for the rest of the show and we talked about District 9, the new sci-fi movie from Neil Blomkamp. Peter hadn’t seen it, but now he has, and he, like Steve and Tina, recommends it highly.  We also talked about the Apartment613 Fall Fiction Contest. Go! Enter! Now! And finally, friend of the show and friend of the blog Ming Wu came by to take some photos. Does my profile really look like that?  I thought I had more of a Leo DiCaprio quality…

Music: The Balconies - The Slo
The Balconies - Serious Bedtime
The Balconies - Battle Royale

Peter’s still working on the iTunes podcast, but he just bought a new computer to replace his broken old one so he doesn’t have much of an excuse for not doing it for next week.

Poorfolk's Jonathan Pearce at Bluesfest 2008. Photo courtesy of Ming Wu.

When and Where: Saturday July 18. 3:00PM, Blacksheep Stage

Poorfolk, Ottawa’s hardest rocking band, will hit the Blacksheep Stage for the last weekend of Bluesfest. How do I know they’re Ottawa’s hardest rocking band? Because the New Jersey rock band The Wrens basically said as much when Poorfolk opened for them at the Capital Idea! Festival in the summer of 2007.

Since that faithful night, Poorfolk has only gotten better. The band started as Jonathan Pearce’s little solo project back in 2001. In 2003 his friend Scott Freeman joined the band. That same year they released their first self-titled album. In 2005, they moved to Ottawa and built the band that has now become a staple of Ottawa’s independent music scene.

Anyone who grew up on the great alternative rock bands of the 1990s, like Pavement and Dinosaur Jr., will instantly find a lot to like with Poorfolk. The band’s 2008 sophomore album, Our Burning Street, represented a major step forward for the band. It contains the kinds of catchy and chorus fueled rock and roll that you can’t help but sing along to with a beer in hand.

The National Post said of the album: “The songs on Our Burning Street have all the urgency and earnest appeal of a band with something to prove, but are delivered with the assuredness of old hands who have absorbed the lessons of the past and know how to deliver the goods.”

That’s what makes Poorfolk one of Ottawa’s best bands. Pearce and company have continued to learn from the past and grow by leaps and bounds with each successive release. It helps that the band’s live show provides a memorable experience. There are few better ways to spend a Saturday afternoon than to listen to some Poorfolk rock tunes under the hot sun with a beer in hand.

If you’re still not sure if you should catch Poorfolk Saturday afternoon give the song below a listen.

Poorfolk - Demons

Courtesy Ryan Tolene on flickr

On Audio Visual this week we had two guests (four, if you include Al Connors’ impressions of Scott Florence and Margo McDonald). The first was the inimitable Al, who stars in the Company of Fools’ production Much Ado About Nothing. Al, Peter and I discuss the theatre company’s 20-year anniversary/history and their mandate and approach to Shakespearian works. A full schedule and general deets can be found at fools.ca.

The latter half of the show was dedicated to a heated debate about the Polaris Prize shortlist, which was announced Tuesday. Travis Boisvenue, Peter and I discuss the issues of selection criteria and bias that the Polaris Prize have raised, given the much-criticized predictable and rockcentric nature of this year’s shortlist, as well as the benefits of having a Canadian music prize like Polaris exist despite its issues.

Music (chosen for their unfortunate exclusion from the Polaris short-list):

Women - “Shaking Hand”
Land of Talk - “Yuppy Flu”
Japandroids - “Wet Hair”

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Courtesy Radiofish on flickr

This week on Audio Visual we decided to take a little stat-holiday break and give our dear listeners a best-of compilation. Included in this edition: interviews with Travis Boisvenue about local tape labels, Cock’d Gunns members Dick and Barry, and journalist Jonathan Goldstein.

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