On Sunday, Quebec’s film industry will award the Jutras — our local equivalent of Oscars. It will be interesting to see what wins, because Quebec had so many strong films this year, from the searing drama Sunday in Kigali to popcorn crowd-pleaser Bon Cop Bad Cop. Indeed, our province had a disproportionate share of winners at the Canada-wide Genies (where Quebec hockey bio pic The Rocket took home a stack of statues).

What was your favorite Quebec film this year, and why?

I’m still undecided as to whether I’ll even attempt to buy tickets for The Police concert. Unless you’ve been hibernating in a cave – which is not a bad idea for mid-February – you’ll have heard that The Police have reunited and are coming to the Bell Center on July 25th. The last time I tried buying tickets for a hot concert – Madonna’s Confessions tour – I was so disappointed. My friends and I practically had a military operation in place and we still couldn’t score tickets. Neither by wristband at the Bell Center, at other Admissions outlets, on hi-speed internet, or by phone. I refused to buy from scalpers and ended up missing one of the most talked about concerts of the year. Being a huge Madonna fan, that was a total downer.

Now as for The Police, I’m feeling rather ambivalent about the whole thing. I wouldn’t mind going but I wouldn’t be devastated either if I didn’t. Tickets go on sale tomorrow for The Police with a maximum of 4 tickets per person. Again, they’ll be giving out wristbands at the Bell Center today so that you can be part of the random draw to determine where the lineup starts if you are buying tickets at the Bell Center itself. I’m not doing that. I hate waiting in line to begin with. Voluntarily freezing my ass off in a crowd of people for tickets that I might or might not get for a group that I’m not completely crazy about seems like too much effort. The Police had some good hits but I don’t know if I want to go to the concert simply because of the hype. Is anybody else planning to buy tickets and if so, what’s your action plan?

If you parked your car in a perfectly legal spot after work tonight, you might want to check that it’s still legal. In Vieux Montreal, road crews put up “no parking 7 pm to 7 am” this evening. The only problem? They put them up AFTER everyone came home and parked for the night.

Every year, I get towed at least once when a parking spot suddenly changes to a no-parking spot. On the plus side, the city doesn’t tow your car to a central lot unreachable by public transportation (the way New York does). They tow your car to the nearest available legal spot. You can call them at (514) 872 3777, and they’ll tell you where to find your vehicle.

According to The Economist, Germany is running out of land to make eiswein (ice wine) — not because of overdevelopment but because of climate change. The German vinyards aren’t getting cold enough for the grapes to freeze on the vine, which is what concentrates the sugars and makes ice wine so scrumptious.

Bad news for the future of the planet, but a boon to the Canadian wine industry. (Note to growers: please stop trying to make Cabernet north of 40. We won’t have a proper Mediterranean climate for, well, at least a few years.)

Biscuit Vio (link is gone) got the ball rolling while others like Pierre-Leon and Philippe are making sure that this story gets ample coverage.

A classic case of blogger plagiarism by a big company. Assuming you can read French, check out this recipe (sorry, link gone) from Mitaine ecarlate. Now saunter over to an identical recipe (third link gone) from the Metro web page.

Professsion: Epicier Copieur

[update] I have just been informed that the offending page has been taken down. Unfortunately for them, I had also saved it as a PDF file.

[update 2] It appears that the situation has been somehow resolved which includes removing all traces that it ever existed.

Alright people, where’s the giant snowstorm that was supposed to blanket the city in up to 40 cm of the white stuff? I ventured out at lunch today and frankly, this is nothing my friends. I didn’t even get the tops of my snazzy boots dusted. Looks like the weather forecasters were all bark and no bite. Come on, I need a snow day! I’m talking snowbanks up the wazoo. Road closures, school closures, you know the drill. Everyone needs a day off in February. Maybe if we all do a snow dance, we’ll get the winter wollop that we all deserve! hehe

A lot of restaurants in my Old Montreal neighborhood are touristy, with a maitre d’ who stands outside urging you to eat there. But some of the neighborhood’s best eateries don’t even have a sign.

A couple of insider-ish places worth splurging on in Vieux Montreal are Chasse et Peche (423 rue St. Claude) and the wine bar/restaurant Aszu (212 rue Notre Dame est). Both have the dainty-morsel-on-a-big-white-plate aesthetic (i.e. you might want a snack before or after), but are adventurous in their cuisine.

If you’re not into nouvelle cuisine, go to Aszu just for the wine bar, where you can buy tasting portions from the vast wine collection. (Aszu imports wine privately, so they have things you won’t find at the SAQ).

Any other out-of-the way restaurants you know about? Places without signs, where you just have to know where you’re going? (And yes, I know they’re all listed in the various restaurant guides, but that’s cheating.)

Check out San Jose, our 53rd city and the newest cog in Metroblogging’s plan for world domination.

As Jay reported earlier today there was a major fire downtown, in an old building on Ste-Catherine near St-Mathieu.

At around 16h30 when I passed by the firemen were still working, the streets were still closed.

Being a fireman in these conditions it’s really quite something!! -20°C (or -30°C if you count the wind in)! The water freezes! Your uniform/suit freezes! Brrrrrrrrr! COLD!

So I have a lot of respect for these men (and few women). And I’m glad they are there to the rescue when we need them!

All of today’s photos can be found on my pics’ page.

One advantage of my being a simple blogger, instead of a respectable journalist, is the ability to entertain wild speculations out of very little evidence. Tonight I joined my twin brother, my sister and my father to celebrate his 68th birthday at Le Paris Beurre, an excellent French restaurant in Outremont. I was enjoying my cassoulet when I noticed a familiar face leaving the back room and going out into the cold night. It was Louis Bernard, who came in 4th at the last Parti Quebecois leadership race in 2005.

Shortly afterward, we saw Pierre Charbonneau another longtime PQ member, former MNA and speaker of the Quebec legislature. That’s when we realized that something was up and we all felt an intense need to go to the bathroom and to check out what was going on back there.

The back room was filled with PQ “tetes grises”, old party hands easily recognizable to anyone who’s been watching the news for the past 20 years. I instantly recognized Louise Harel and maybe even former PM Bernard Landry.

This might have been something as simple as an annual meeting of PQ old timers but the impending elections and the recent reevaluation of Andre Boisclair’s leadership have certainly helped to stimulate our late dinner conversations.