Jusqu’au 8 juillet 2007 aura lieu le festival de jazz comme à tous les ans au centre-ville de Montréal dans l’espace bordé par les rues Sainte-Catherine et de Bleury et les boulevard de Maisonneuve et Saint-Laurent. Voici un plan des lieux.

Il y aura de nombreux spectacles gratuits à tous les jours durant toute la semaine. Les rues seront fermées. Tenez compte de ça pour prévoir vos déplacements.

Tous les détails sont sur le site du Festival International de Jazz de Montréal.

We mourn the passing of a wonderful local artist and person. Known affectionately in Quebec as Boule Noir, the late rhythm-and-blues musician and “godfather of Quebec disco”, Georges Thurston was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in the winter of 2006. From that time on and until his passing this past Sunday, he never let his terminal illness deter him from performing, recording or appearing in public. He successfully recorded his last album, prophetically entitled Last Call… dernier appel last fall.

I had the special honour of knowing him personally, as he and his wife were my next-door neighbours. He was a kind-hearted man, always of a sunny disposition, and he will be sorely, sorely missed. I leave you with his own words…

Rest in peace, Georges.

Other links:
http://www.ccac-accc.ca/news.php?id=822
http://www.ccac-accc.ca/news.php?id=644
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/en_francais/story.html?id=eb8d4265-a7f3-46f5-8fa2-02f63f2921a2&k=26789
http://www.radio-canada.ca/arts-spectacles/musique/2006/08/04/004-boule-noire-cancer.asp

The relatively new Montreal chapter of the Pecha-Kucha event took place last night at the SAT, on lower St. Laurent. A Japanese term meaning “the sound of conversation” Pecha-Kucha is very, very cool event where people get together to share their ideas, dreams and inventions. At each event, about 20 people prepare a presentation on their project(s) and present it in a slide-show format. The restriction is simple: 20 slides for 20 seconds each, where each presentation does not exceed 6 minutes and 40 seconds. This format encourages presenters to keep things concise and is an exercise in conveying as much interesting information in the allotted time span.
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It is summer in Montreal, which means long evenings spent on terrasses, an endless succession of street fairs, and the 17th annual Fringe Festival, which runs until Sunday. For less than the price of a movie ticket, you can take in one of 99 different shows at 21 venues, all of which are conveniently listed here.

Yes, but how do you decide which shows to see? Well, you can check out the reviews on the festival’s Net Buzz page, on Midnight Poutine, and on Indyish. Or, if you’re pressed for time and looking for a hot Fringe tip, you can head straight to the exquisitely written absurdist comedy The Works at Théâtre Ste-Catherine. Seriously, go now.

Warner Bros, announced this week they will stop all pre-screenings of their films this summer. This essentially means that private radio stations across the city won’t be calling “caller number 7 gets to see..”

The real purpose of this announcement is to put the heat on the Canadian Government to change its laws regarding digital piracy.

Dr. Michael Geist is the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa and has a very interesting blog concerning these issues. His post regarding Warner decision is a very fascinating read.

In it, Dr Geist points out that “Warner Bros. astonishingly now claims that 70 percent of camcorded movies have been traced to Canada over the last 18 months. Given the claims of 20 percent, 23 percent, 30 percent, 40 percent, and 50 percent did not make the requisite impact (in fact, the USTR even rejected the movie industry’s request to escalate Canada on the Special 301 Watch list), we now get a blockbuster number of 70 percent. Of course, just yesterday the head of the Canadian Motion Pictures Distributors Association told the Industry Committee that the number was between 20 - 25 percent. Moreover, with New York City taking 40 percent of the camcording claims and with Spiderman 3 apparently appearing on China streets weeks before the previews in Canada, the numbers just don’t add up.”

The media, for the most part has published stories that really, have not gone into depth on this issue.. merely reporting that Warner is stopping pre-screenings because of concerns that Canada is a pirate heaven and that Montreal is the nerve center of this piracy. The real purpose of this maneuverer is to simply to attract the Government’s attention and to plant in Canadian’s minds that we are a piracy heaven.

We aren’t, and I’m not buying Warner’s or any other studio’s numbers.

Where can you see a guy twirl a girl around his head while riding a unicycle? Or how about a juggler juggling 7 hoops while bouncing a ball on his forehead? How about a tightrope act involving 3 guys, 2 bicycles, and a chair, all stacked up pyramid style, and all done without safety nets or cables? These were a few of the amazing feats we witnessed at the Cirque du Soleil last night. It was an incredible performance and included a lot of humor, reminding me of the earlier incarnations of the show. But the most amazing “act” involved 3 girls on the floor. I swear they had spines made of rubber. How else to explaing their ability to lie on the floor, face down, and flip their body and legs up and over their heads so that their legs were completely horizontal with the floor. My back only bends one way - forward, but these girls seemed to do the impossible and fold their back - backward. Then they stacked themselves on top of each other in this position so they looked like a triple decker sandwich. Really bizarre! They had another amazing act that I can’t properly describe. It was like two gerbil wheels attached to either end of a pole that pivoted around vertically like some carnival thrill ride. And then the gymnasts got on this spinning contraption and did their thing. Breathtaking and heartstopping. If you ever get a chance, go see the new show Kooza, it’s well worth the ticket price. (Though I’d eat before going, a hotdog and a beer will set you back 12 bucks!)

If this is news to you, then mark your calendar for next Saturday, May 5, from noon to 5 p.m. Montreal has been designated as a “UNESCO City of Design“. The Design Montréal bureau is launching the first edition of Design Montréal Open House day. This event will familiarize the general public with Montreal’s design and architecture communities, and showcase their richness, diversity and talent.

Montreal design firms that have been recognized in the past two years in interior, industrial or graphic design, architecture, landscape architecture and urban design will open their doors to exhibit the work that won them these prestigious awards. The designers who received awards for Montreal projects, which visitors can tour (e.g. buildings, squares, parks, streets and interiors) or view (e.g. furniture, signs, etc.) will be on hand to discuss their achievements and answer visitors’ questions. For more details, check out Montréal, UNESCO City Of Design.

Just a few pics from last night’s Nelly Furtado concert at the Bell Center. Fresh off her sweep from the Junos, Nelly brought her Get Loose tour to Montreal. Great concert, lots of fun and Nelly can definitely sing. Opening acts were the hyper Jon Levine Band and the too cool Saukrates. Had great seats on the floor about 20 rows from the stage but too bad my camera ran out of juice and couldn’t get any good shots. But it was a great night. I wasn’t a big fan of Nelly’s first CD but funny how everything sounds better when remixed and live in concert. I really like the hip hop influence on the current album Loose so I’m glad she performed a lot of tracks off the new CD. Of course, the crowd pleasers were big hits like the opening song Afraid and Say It Right or Promiscuous with Saukrates filling in for Timbaland. During a costume change, one of the backup singers performed a pretty good version of Justin Timberlake’s Sexy Back that kept the crowd pumping. For the song Forca, Nelly appeared in a Habs jersey which sent the crowd cheering. She told the crowd that she doesn’t put on a different jersey in every city but that her father’s favourite team is the Montreal Canadiens so that’s the only one she’ll wear. What a girl. She knows just how to charm a crowd. Nelly’s dancers threw out soccer balls into the audience and Portuguese fans waved their flags like crazy. A lucky guy two rows up from me managed to catch one of the soccer balls. All in all, a pretty fun night with a packed house, great beats, and great Canadian talent.

Howdy!

The Blue Met Festival released their schedule yesterday, and like last year, completely ignore blogs, blogging, and bloggers. And it doesn’t look like they will be accrediting bloggers either, as the form has a field for ‘employer.’

Does anyone want to try?

Last weekend, I had the chance to visit the Jardin Botanique for their annual Butterflies Go Free exhibit in the largest of their many greenhouses. The event is quite popular with families and children but the staff controls the number of people who can enter the exhibit at once. In short, it was a long wait. We went at 11am Sunday and waited over an hour. But it was worth it! The moment you walk in, you are stunned by the twinkling of butterflies everywhere and all the walls and plants seem to shimmer as the little creatures bat their wings while resting. The blue and purple butterflies are really something to see. It was pretty comical everyone trying to take pictures of the little buggers - they don’t sit still for long! All through the exhibit, they have smooth jazz playing and it’s really quite magical. Every once in a while you’d hear someone squeal with delight as a big butterfly landed on someone’s head or hand.

The exhibit runs until April 29th, so catch this wild and wonderful event while you can. (But it helps if you like bugs of course!)