Tohu is an interesting organization in Montreal which has a multi-pronged mission in that it wishes for Montreal to be recognized as an international circus arts capital as well as revitalize the neighborhood of Saint-Michel. All this and they are environmentall-friendly too!

This is such a jovial looking location and a spot which I do plan on frequenting quite soon. Their line up of events include such diverse offerings as a talk by Buddhist master (and translator to the Dalai Lama – Mathieu Ricard, a free musical performance by Catherine Major and several circus events.

For more information, check out the site here Tohu- La Cite Des Arts Du Cirque

Sorry about that, but I just love alliteration. I also love the rich cast of characters we have here in Montreal. Columnist Bill Brownstein in the Montreal Gazette tells us today that Ezra Soiferman has made a film called Posthumous Pickle Party about Simcha Leibovich’s grocery on The Main, Montreal’s famous St. Laurent Boulevard. You can find more on Ezra’s blog.

The film premieres tomorrow night (Thursday, Feb 22nd, 7:15PM) at the NFB Cinema (1564 St-Denis St. at de Maisonneuve, Metro Berri) as part of the Rendez-Vous du Cinema Quebecois film fest.

There is no atomic bomb in the canisse!

Listening to CKAC after the Habs win against les super poche de Columbus, you’d think we should all be running off to Crappy Tire to get a chaise longue and reserving a spot on St-Catherines for the parade..

On se calme..

The fuss? A new goaler by the name of Jaroslav Halak who was brought up to replace Huet while he recovers from surgery.

Halak had himself a good game, good enough to give the Habs a boost. Koivu and Ryder scoring the bulk of the points started too look like their old selves.

Tonight and the coming matches will determine if this slide into the abyss is now over and if they can hang on for a spot in the playoffs.

Until then, I’m gonna wait before buying that chaise longue.

Cory Doctorow recently posted an entry in Boing Boing where he was bemoaning the fact that real estate costs in “superstar cities” was now so high that they preclude the emergence of alternative (and riskier) endeavors. As I was reading his entry I kept telling myself that, “at least my hometown is not like that”. You can imagine the smile on my face when I got to this paragraph:

I think of Europe’s B-list cities, like Florence, as having the best of all worlds: relatively cheap housing, lots of weird, experimental activity, cosmopolitanism, beauty and culture. Go to a superstar city like NYC or London and check out how similar all the restaurants, stores, and galleries are. When you need to make $[RIDICULOUS] per square foot every month, there’s not a lot of room for a crazy, experimental bookstore or a funky, marginal cafe. Compare that to cities like Melbourne, Montreal, Austin and many other “second cities” and you find a flourishing alternative culture.

Alex and I went to the Jutras last night, and boy are my hands tired. We sat in the Bon Cop Bad Cop section, which was right next to where the Jutra show’s producer worked the crowd. He urged us at the end of every commercial break to clap like maniacs. After a while, I just started fake-clapping, and I now realize that’s what everyone probably does at the Oscars, too, having bruised their palms before the Best Short Documentary winner is done talking.

There was a lot to applaud, though. The big winner of the night was the auteur film Congorama, which I hadn’t seen but am going to rent now. It won for best screenplay, best actor, best director, and best film. (Is there a word for trifecta that involves four?).

Lots of glam, both onstage and in the audience. I’ve never been to the Genies, but the people who had were adamant that Montreal throws a more stylish bash.

Does everyone know about the L’Itinéraire magazine? You’ve doubtlessly seen the magazine being hawked in busy areas such as metro station entrances. It’s really a wonderful enterprise dedicated to helping those who have trouble fitting in society live a productive life. Articles center around the problems of poverty and the homeless. Some of them are written by the magazine sellers. Selling the magazine gives these people the chance to earn a living and find self worth in a society who has largely excluded them. These are real people with real down on their luck stories who have overcome hardships to be where they are today – out selling on the streets. At their pace, at their hours.

The L’Itinéraire building at the corner of De Lorimier and Ste Catherine also houses a café. Called Café sur la Rue, the eatery serves complete meals at very low prices. There are social workers in the cafe for consultation. Hungry people without money are fed too, thanks to donations from the public. You can also buy meal cards on line to donate to the Café or to have sent to your home. Last week, I ordered some and had them sent to me. I hand them out to hungry panhandlers and let them know it’s good for a free meal. I also remind them that there are people there who could help.

I thought this was a great way to give constructively. You can order the meal cards over the internet here. And click on “Faire l’achat de Cartes Repas” at the bottom left of the screen.

I was walking across Eaton Center the other day and some guy with a black bag stopped me and asked: “Want a Wii?”

If you don’t know yet, the Wii is Nintendo’s latest gaming console which is pretty sold out almost everywhere on Earth just like Sony’s Playstation 3.

The only reason why I bring this up is because I am so used to people asking me for money or people handing out papers, newspapers or flyers.

This weekend I went to Toronto. I noticed something…

Pedestrians in Montreal are true jaywalkers. Pedestrians in Toronto are not at all! They really wait for the little white man to come before crossing the street, even when there is no car in sight.

I seemed to be the only one crossing on reds or anticipating the light (when it turns orange in the other direction, start crossing). Waiting in the cold when there’s no car coming doesn’t make sense!

Maybe these clear signs near crossings help Torontonians know how to cross at lights. Should we have them in Montreal too?

OK it wasn’t the biggest snow storm we’ve seen on Wednesday. Still 15 cm. is sizeable particularly when whipped up into drifts by 40 km an hour or faster winds. So according to James Mennie in the Montreal Gazette this morning, “City’s trucks, PR machine go into overdrive to minimize the winter of our discontent”. Some snippets from the article will give you the flavour of his remarks:

Journalists were given an up-close look at snow removal on the corner of St. Zotique St. and de Lorimier Ave. yesterday morning. The city wants its snow-spackled, wind-chilled taxpayers to know it’s working to remove snow faster than usual after Wednesday’s storm.
.. ..
But what seems important here is that while past winters have seen the city take as long as 48 hours to clear its sidewalks, it’s now trying to do the job in eight.

Here in LaSalle, we’ve seen the same ‘PR + fast cleaning’ phenomenon. Although the street signs have always implied that snow might be cleared from the streets on Saturdays, apparently this was never the real policy. So we all received a glossy card in our mail-boxes on Thursday informing us that from now on snow would be cleared on Saturdays too when necessary. This morning it happened on our street with pleasing efficiency and speed.

Now if only LaSalle can come in line with all the other boroughs and allow dogs on leashes to be walked in parks, then that too would minimize the discontent of a great many LaSallois.

Such sad news.

This is the website for the film Larkin was working on before he died. l hope it was close enough to being finished that we might still see it.

Postscript: According to Mog at Midnight Poutine, the film’s production will continue in Larkin’s memory. Good news indeed.