The funeral march from Griffintown to City Hall took place this afternoon. Complete with dogs, babies, musicians, speakers and a coffin, the protest drew upwards of 150 people. Have a look through the Flickr album to see the townspeople in action. The decision is slated to be made at City Hall tomorrow evening, and hopefully, a glimmer of hope will dawn upon the evolution of our fair city.
The Griffintown development issue sure is on everyone’s mind, these days. In brief, Griffintown is now a hot topic for Montreal. It’s a great up-and-coming area between University and Guy (some say all the way to Georges-Vanier) from Notre-Dame to the waterfront. Imagine a bustling and friendly new neighbourhood right south of the downtown core. Unfortunately developers have come in and are keen to make it into another short-sighted Dix30 eyesore, fraught with gigantic condo buildings and big-box stores, alienating residents. This decision was taken with no real public consultation whatsoever.
There will be a march to from Griffintown to the Hotel de Ville organized this Sunday April 27 at 3pm starting at the horse palace at 1220 Ottawa, down by the canal. I personally, have never been one to rally for causes, deferring to other more zealous individuals to fight for common beliefs. However, the Griffintown cause is one that affects all of us in this city, and more importantly, I’m convinced that the strength of the people actually might just make a difference. So if you’re interested in keeping Montreal beautiful with well-thought out urban planning and attention paid to those of us who love and live in this city, come join us on the march!
Sites of interest:
Save Griffintown
CSRG
Facebook event
Help support the cause!
I’m not usually one to promote events happening at Dawson College, but this one is pretty interesting for all of you who are into photography (you know who you are).
April 22nd at 6:30 you can meet two Olympus professional photographers, Lou Manna and Judy Herrmann. I’m personally interested in seeing Lou Manna who is a food photographer, that’s something that I’d like to learn more of and get into one day. I plan on being there, contact me if you’d like to meetup beforehand.
The event is free and open to the public, plus there will be a raffle with prize of an Olympus E-510 Digital SLR camera. Nice.
Check out the posters below for the details.
A lot of planets needed to be aligned for this shot to happen: A new steadier tripod, a clear sky, no wind, great visibility, new HDR software and, especially, no teenage daughters urgently asking for a lift on this Saturday evening. My sister commented that it almost looks like these images of a vibrant and futuristic Tokyo that you often see in anime movies.
The image above is only a small part of a much larger photograph. Click on the image to see the original version, and, if you’re blessed with a large-enough screen, check out this link for the full panoramic version.
Vaginas are coming to town! Yes, that’s right, V-Day Montreal is celebrating the 10th anniversary of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues in the form of a bilingual benefit production.
From the press release:
Where: Doubletree by Hilton Montréal Centre-Ville Hotel, 505 Sherbrooke Est.
When: February 15 & 16, 6pm VIP Reception and Art Show,
7pm Doors, 8pm Show
Admission: $30 General Admission, $50 VIP Access
Ticket Purchasing: http://www.admission.com (800) 361-4595
Mission: To raise funds and awareness to stop violence against women and girls in the Montreal community
Celebrity guest performances will also be featured in the show. For more details check out the website at http://vdaymontreal.blogspot.com/.
Yesterday, after a very lengthy day’s work, instead of going home and collapsing aimlessly in front of the TV I decided to take up the offer of a friend and make it out to the Kalmunity Tuesday night at Sablo Café. The perfect soulful balm to the kind of day I had had. An evening of fantastic live organic soul-funk-jazz improv rendered by great musicians all feeling and channeling the Vibe. It did the trick. I got home by midnight, my soul full, my mind relaxed. As for the café, it’s located on the corner St. Dominique and St. Zotique (metro Beaubien), the drinks are relatively cheap and the sandwiches are notably yummy. Cash only and cover is 5$ at the door. Check it out one of these Tuesday nights. :)
Everything in the world is wrong, right? Wrong! It’s just people who keep focusing on things that are wrong and in the process, they destroy everything that is right.
Since the end of last summer, I started going to comedy clubs. I saw stand-up comics on YouTube and on TV (Comedy Central Presents and Last Comic Standing) and I figured that there must be some place in Montreal with stand-up comedy. How could a city host the Just For Laughs festival without having events dedicated to comedy?
On this winter day, I give you a few stand-up comedy events that are happening in Montreal, every week and every month.
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The French language seems to have become a big concern since the news came out that a journalist got 15 jobs downtown without needing to speak French. Personally, I don’t pay attention to the language I use, the bottom line is communicating and understanding. Too much bad has happened because of the lack of that.
I just read this article which I found pretty funny, even though it’s pretty easy to guess the punch line.
It’s definitely exagerated to show a point, because I never anybody say “Qu’est-ce qu’on fait tonight?” I never heard anybody use the word “tonight” in a French context. And in this sentence, “Calm down Manon, take it easy!”, there is way too much English for a person who is trying to speak French.
It’s an ironic scenario and those two characters are definitely stupid.
I’ve got this buddy of mine that I have known since High School. For as long as I have known Mark, he’s been one of those guys who just never stops having ideas for stories, movies, music.. you name it.
There’s always something going on and you figure sooner or later, he’ll conjure up that one piece that gets him the recognition he deserves.
Way back when computers weren’t connected to anything but a printer and Hydro Quebec, he and I came up with this idea to put together a magazine. We called it “Drug of the Nation”. It was a collection of stories and photos of a small gang that I grew up with.
We would sit in his apartment and listen to The B-52’s Rock Lobster, over and over again.. Actually, I think I was the one who really loved the song, Mark just couldn’t bring himself to tell me he was fed up with it. We’d print out the stories and then copy and paste them (using actual glue) and send it to the printers. You cannot believe the time this took to make.
I went on to get a boring job in front of a computer, but Mark has continued to write and he’s releasing his latest book: A FINELY TUNED APATHY MACHINE October 18nth in Montreal.
Good Luck Mark.
From the suggestion box
Google ran a contest last month in order to build a collaborative video through Youtube for Gmail. The idea was to pass the Gmail logo (an M envelope) in a creative way through video. Ann and I (swing dancers from Montreal) submitted our creative idea. And we made it! Not only in the video, but on the Thumbnail of the youtube video. Selected from over 1,100 clips from fans in more than 65 countries. We’re proud to represent Lindy Hop (the dance) and of course, Montreal.
- Alain
