…so I was invited to a really cool thing here in Montreal. It is a meeting of local bloggers that happens once a month organized by the guys over at Yulblog. In case you have not heard there was a big storm that moved through here on Wednesday it dumped 20 – 25 cm of snow on the city which if my math is correct is between 7 and 8 inches. So, being from the South and not just the Southern area of Canada but the Southern areas of the United States I bailed. I saw the snow and the sun going down and I was not brave enough so I did not go. I heard that it was great, they had a great turnout and everything went swimmingly. Well, I just want to say I should have gone. I mean when am I going to be here again…yeah so. If you are here then you should check out their next meeting with is scheduled for February 4th at la Quincaillerie, 980 rue Rachel E. After we bailed on Wednesday we did go back to the little restaurant right next door for some Poutine but that calls for a whole blog post on it’s own so check back here soon too.

It’s been a long winter made even worse by the fact that I missed 4 Yulblog meetings in a row. Sometimes I had a good reason (snowstorm, trip to Rome) but other times I was just too lazy, tired, depressed. This is why I decided on the following question of the night: What was the biggest mistake you ever made?

Debbie: Having broken up, then going back with my ex. I learned and kicked him out of my life!
Jean-Luc: Avoir internet!
Pluche: Avoir decide d’aller chercher de l’eau, loin de la tente a 10h PM du soir, au milieu du parc de Jasper en Alberta. Un ours brun en liberte c’est l’fun dans Yogi mais pas dans la vrai vie.
Emile: Ecrire ce que j’ai en tete, a ce moment precis, serait – je crois – ma pire erreur, ever!!
Karo: Ne pas partir faire un voyage backpack en Afrique quand j’avais le temps et l’argent.
Chris Baum: Took a full-time job when I had a great contract with the best firm out there. My path remains the same, but took some detours.
Fred: Ne pas avoir tente l’aventure aux USA qunad j’etais plus jeune.
Tanya: Not going to more Yulblog events.
Frederic: Growing old.
Mikel: Moving from a perfectly nice house in Montreal…to Ottawa! Came back 2 years later.
Zeke: Walking out of the LMMC concert on March 4th.
Le lapin blanc: Avoir une vie sociale au cegep!
Steve (Fagstein): Not asking Chez Nadia out on a date. Wait a second, she’s right here! Nadia, do you want to go out some time?
Vero: Refuser l’invitation de Guy A pour aller a “Tout le monde en parle”.
Carl: Avoir force mon coloc a faire jouer une piece d’Annie Major Matte un peu trop souvent.
Max: Avoir laisse une fille qui presentait une magnifique disparitee.
Martine: Getting my third facelift.
Ed: Falling for Frank H.’s April Fool’s blog post (three years in a row!).
Laurent: J’ai insulte la mere d’un ami sans savoir que c’etait sa mere.
Long: J’ai dit un gros mensoge mais ca m’a rapporte $10,000.
J. Ruttan: Coming here.
Eric D. : That condom that time…
Patrick: De ne pas avoir achete de condo en arrivant a Montreal en 1999.
Maggie: (Written by Chris before he wa sknown as Zeke: It happened on May 4th 1995)…and it involved a pair of galoches and an Elvis Costello Concert.
Nadia: Fagstein.
Etudiant Alpha: J’ai rit d’une leucemique de 6 ans sans savoir qu’elle etait malade.
As for me, I took the fucking blue pill which explains why I’m still here.

Unless you are visiting us on a web browser, you might not have noticed that a lot has changed in the Metroblogging world over the past week. “Unfortunately” I was on vacation in Rome so I have been unable to comment about these changes until now. In addition to the new layout, you will now have the opportunity to rate our entries. The damage to our egos is expected to be fairly severe but I have been promised ample stocks of Prozac and Single Malt Scotch. Another significant change is that commenting will require signing up for an account. While this may seem to be an unneeded addition for Metroblogging Montreal, the situation in other cities has made this requirement necessary. This will also make it much easier to magically transform prolific/clever commentors into official authors. Yes, I now have that kind of awesome power (I think, I haven’t tried my new magic wand yet). The most significant change, by far, is under the hood. The Metroblogging sites are now powered by a homemade variant of WordPress. Those of you who posted comments in the old MT-“un”powered version have probably noticed how slow it was. Trust me, it was even worse when posting stories and this was not helping with our productivity. Some of our old authors have already expressed interest in contributing again.

I just got off the phone with the information desk at Trudeau Airport. Unless the weather does something unexpected, the first landing of the Airbus A380 will take place on Runway 24R at 12h30 tomorrow afternoon.

Contrail Aviation Photography has an excellent spotting guide for YUL. I’ll probably be at spot number 9 since I’m hoping to include the Mont Royal and the Oratory in the background. I’m not sure about the direction of the light though so I’ll do a quick scouting run and report back in a few hours.

Update I checked out the various spots at about 12h30. As you can see in the first two images, you can get a pretty good view from Chemin St-Francois but the sun will unfortunately be illuminating the left side of the airplane. You won’t be able to see the actual touchdown but the plane should emerge from behind a group of buildings with the front wheel still in the air.

The illumination from the end of Pitfield is marginally better since you might be able to position yourself to capture the well-illuminated left side. A note of warning, bring your fastest lens. Even at 1/200 sec, many of my side shots came out fuzzy.

Ultimately I found another spot that may not as close as those two but it should provide me with an interesting foreground. Where? I’m not telling. You can probably guess that the whole area will be an absolute madhouse come tomorrow.

Update II Can anybody confirm that planes are indeed coming in from the East this morning?

Since I am so obviously not busy enough, I have decided to start a third blog. The Stories Behind the Pictures is a Video Blog (or Vlog) that will feature a spoken narrative of some of the context behind some of my favorites images. Once I’m comfortable with the technology I plan to invite other photobloggers to contribute their own stories behind some of their images. Although the concept itself may sound a tad too serious, I have added a little extra something to make it more entertaining.

Other than the blatant self-publicity, I should note that the second episode features my best night images of the Montreal area.

Another first Wednesday has come with a fun and well-attended Yulbog meeting. After much considerations, I decided to go with a question that seemed appropriate for the middle of summer:

If you “had” to go on vacation with an actor/actress, who would it be and where?

Marie-Eve: Ewan MacGregor in Berlin
Ella: Simon Pegg in Majorca
Debbie: I’d be in London with Angelina Jolie and Alan Rickman, or Scarlet Johansson, or Clive Owen, or Ed Norton, or Salma Hayek, or Monica Berlucci, or Koda Kumi, etc…
Pluche: Jessica Alba in Kauai (Hawaii)
Nathalie: Marvin the Martian on Pluto
Marie-Josee: Adam Sandler au Nunavut
Marc-Andre: Monica Belluci a Florence
Christelle: Jake Gyllenhaal in Peru
iBen: Uma Thurman in Australia
Josh: Angelina Jolie, Neve Campbell, Jennifer Connely, ok ok I can’t choose only one allright! I’d take them to a Mauritius beach although they’d probably prefer the bedroom.
Pierre-Nick: Celine Dion in Las Vegas…NOT!
Miss Klektik: Angelina Jolie and Clive Owen in NYC. I can choose two.
Sebastien: Scarlett Joihansson in Porto, Portugal
Patrick: Jennifer Connely at my place
Luce: Romain Duris at Puerto Escondido
Ed: Marge Simpson in Shelbyville
Mikel: Christopher Walker in Europe
Nadia: Ewan McGregor in Barcelona
Mare: Julliet Binoche, anywhere
Jean-Luc: Heidi Klum, sur une ile deserte with lub!
Vanou: Kevin Smith, aka Silent Bob, in Jersey all the way!
Jack Ruttan: Sarah Berhardt in Montmartre, Paris
Joanie (Pupuce): Josh Duhamel, Iles Turquoises
Daniele: Kim Rossi Stuart (Romanzo Criminale) dans une villa en Toscane
It’s Josh again, I forgot Denise Richards, Sharon Stone, Marylin Monroe and Jayne Manfield.
Alexandre: Alyson Hannigan au camp de l’orchestre
Michel Dumais: Sigourney Weaver – Whatever planet but no Aliens please
Martine: Gael Garcia Bernal, chez Ikea (parce qu’etre “domestic” avec lui…ayoye!)
Carl: Sienna Miller dans son loft du film Interview
Photomax: Monicca Bellecci ou elle voudra
GaB: Audrey Tantou et Amande Congdon a Honolulu
Catherine: Marc Beland a Venise
Benoit: Gwyneth Paltrow a St-Tites-des-Caps
Pascale: Johnny Depp en Grece
Marc: Salma Hayek in Merida, Mexico
Zura: Ralph Fiennes and Angelina Jolie in Peru – Machu Pichu
Laurent: Charlotte De Turckheim en Nouvelle Caledonie
Josh forgot to add Salma Hayek
Steve (Fagstein): Mary-Louise Parker or Casey McKinnon. Where? Who the fuck cares!
Etudiant alpha: To Longueuil with the big Lebowski
Pierre-Luc: Kevin Rose a San Francisco
Gharl: Salma Hayek en Italie et/ou dans ma chambre a coucher
Virge: A Casablanca avec Jude Law (wwoo!)
Melanie: En Australie avec Ryan Reynolds
Francis-Louis: Un onzen dans Hokkaido avec Rachel Weist et Karine Vanasse
Marc-Alexandre: Avec Catherine Zeta-Jones au Dieu du Ciel a Montreal
Catherine: Avec Hugh Grant a Ibiza
A.J.: Hedy Lamarr in 1920’s Berlin
Yannou: Philippe Noiret aux Marquises; on irait voir la tombe de Jacques Brel
Elise: A montreal pour l’ete avec Chow Young Fat (de H.K.) le Chinois le plus sexy au monde mangre son age gradissant. Ou? A Bali car, selon Yannick, il n’a pas grand chose a dire mais c’est pas grave car il y a plein de chose a faire.
Sylvain: Ananova, she’s unreal! We would go to Second Life for sure…how about Cyberia?
Joss de Pieds dans l’eau, tete en ville.: Partir faire le tour du Mexique en moto avec Galorie Garcia Bernal
Artemisia: Avec Ethan Hawk aux Seychelles…mais Jonas Parker ferait l’affaire
Jonas Parker (Alston): Karine Vanasse in Amsterdam…to get her all relaxed
As for me, I’d love to discover Cambodia with Angelina Jolie who seems to be on a lot of threesome-approved lists. Unfortunately she’d probably kill the mood by trying to bring back another kid.

Hi Metrobloggers, My name’s Darren Barefoot and I’m a blogger and a marketer. I’m working with the folks at Canada Place in Vancouver, helping to promote their make-your-own video contest, and hoped it might of interest to your video-enabled readership. Here’s the schtick: Contestants make a one-minute video answering the question “What does the Canadian Experience mean to you?” and submit it here.

The contest closes on June 19 (apologies for the short notice–I only got this news on Friday–And I only saw the suggested story this morning-Andre), and winners will be notified on June 22. The winner gets a trip for two to Vancouver (from anywhere in Canada), two nights hotel accommodation and $500 in spending money. There are two runners-up, and they get $250 in cash and $50 in Canada Place merchandise.

Here’s a sample video for your perusal. Frankly, all of the video bloggers I know could do better than this. Complete rules and contest details are here.

Any questions, let me know. Cheers. DB.

I’ve known René Lapalme from Une vie en musique for a little more than a year but I really “met him” at the December Yulblog when he interviewed me for his show on Radio Centre-Ville. By a funny coincidence, he published the interview on my birthday.

In late February, he announced that he was taking a break because he was feeling tired all the time. He posted a couple more shows but on his return to blogging on March 31st it was becoming obvious that things were not getting better. His blog is still online so you can follow the rest of the story (I just don’t have the heart to relate the rest of it). Unfortunately it doesn’t end well.

This afternoon, I heard from Martine that Rene passed away last Saturday at the young age of 42. From his symptoms and the rapid progression of the disease, I’d guess that it was pancreatic cancer, one of the least survivable kind.

This is coming at a time when another one of our own is going through his first round of chemotherapy. Hopefully we’ll have enough good vibes to spare.

[update] Radio Centre-Ville 102,3 CINQ-FM will be commerating his many contributions between 6 and 8 tonight. The podcast will subsequently be available at radiocentreville.com.

Friday June 22nd has a big red circle on my calendar. Not only will it be the beginning of my summer vacation (yeah!), but it also marks the day that Flickr is coming to town.

This event is part of a book launch commemorating the 24 hours of Flickr. According to its Upcoming page, the location is still being arranged but one of its notable participant will be Heather Champ who is not only famous for her many contributions to the photoblogging world, but also happens to be one of the founding member of Yulblog.

Howdy!

Since it appears that I am a marked man, and anything I link to has the potential to land me in jail, I will be extremely careful when writing here. (Kate at the Montreal City Weblog, Julie Belanger at maZe and Martin Breton at brem experience all do wonderful jobs of summarizing my situation).

But if anyone is interested in reading the contraband information, I will be bringing photocopies of all the articles to YULBlog this Wednesday.

Oh, and if anyone knows a good constitutional lawyer who accepts legal aid cases, I’d be most appreciative if you let me know.