Montreal Category Archive
Kyoto Jazz Massive
Shuya Okino of Kyoto Jazz Massive is playing Montreal tomorrow night: Shuya Okino of Kyoto Jazz Massive fame as he embarks on a North American tour supporting his latest United Legends EP. This stop in montreal is going down at...
Pecha Kucha Night Montréal
James and I are putting on Pecha Kucha Night Montreal at the S.A.T. on June 14th. Doors open at 7:30 and attendance is free....
Crippled
Sometime while I was away this winter, IleSansFil, the Montreal free community wifi service, crippled all their hotspots, by disallowing any and all traffic without login. (Or so it seems, I've only tried at 4 or 5) The ISF service...
Homesick
Me too, oh man, me too. (Today was such a total clusterfuck, I'm crying listing to this.)...
metro
A dirt poor article written about the "top 11 subway systems n the world". Montreal is 8: Highlights: Diverse, beautiful architecture and unique station art (each station is designed by a different architect). Pleasant riding experience (smooth rides: the trains...
Only Jo
Travel update from someone else. Jo was a waiter at Laïka. For years. The others referred to him as "Uncle Jo". Jo left for a long trip of discovery about two weeks before I headed out in mid december...
MacBook Pro Theft
Before I left Montreal, I gave my friend Shawna a set of keys to the office for her to use while I am way, to help her set up her media/design company for non-profits/non commercial endeavors. I just found out...
Morning dose
business idea the product: freshly pressed fruit juices and smoothies, in two size formats each, coming in a handful of standard combinations (based on price of raw materials and, you know, what tastes good and sells). at order time, buyer...
All the lonely people
I'm over at my mobile carrier, Fido, 's website. Was gonna see if I can login somewhere and manage my services. Time to get rid of voicemail as, well, I just don't ever check it. Been over a year. I...
Find teh kittens!
From a list of undergraduate projects available at the Center for Intelligent machines at McGill, "Content-Based Image Retrieval": 2. Finding Animals in Internet Imagery Using Learning Methods This project, based on a recently published paper, involves finding images on the...
Municipal silliness
Seems our local municipal "government" is high on something. Nevermind the fact that they are driving landowners to pave over small parks because the local police can't handle a couple of drunk teenagers, now they are fining a mother of...
"No to Parc Avenue renaming" petition
If you haven't already, and you agree it's a ridiculous waste of money, not to mention cultural travesty, please do sign the petition at causes.ca....
Bang bang
Not to be flippant about the Columbine-style shooting that just happened at Dawson college in Montreal, but this quote from a 19 year old student got my rant on: "I'm only 19 and to have flashes of your life and...
Withdrawal
I've been back from Tokyo for 2 months now. Funny, it feels far far longer than that; more like 6 months. I've eaten japanese-style food once. (it was my favorite place. I was so disappointed.) I've not watched a single...
To save Bethune
EastSouthWestNorth: Extraordinary Chinese Sayings, 1840-1999 - Part 1: When the Chinese Communist leaders found out that Dr. Bethune was ill, they ordered a full-scale effort to save him. Zhou Enlai issued a secret order to the party underground in...
Location Portals
Michael finally went and got himself a "this is not personal!" weblog where he will talk about something that is central to everything he hopes and dreams about (in a non personal way! hehe). If you're interested in location based,...
Pine Exchange: still under construction
They tore down the last of the old overpasses and Parc is now a straight line through. Either side though are still pits where the fancifully graffitied underpasses once glowed. See for yourself. (Mainly for the expats ;)...
No guilt
It's a beautiful sunday afternoon in Montreal, and no goddammit I do not feel like going out and enjoying the sun and getting some exercise today. I will NOT feel guilty for spending my afternoon on the computer in the...
Odd thematic concurrence
From the Montreal Craigslist "Pets" listing: - Pet caretaker for hire (Plateau) - 2 cats for adoption - moving out of country, please help (montreal) - BEWARE: A cat killer/torturer is loose in Montreal! (Montreal) - Sweet cat about 2...
How multicultural is YOUR city?
We have 6 processions of honking cars a day during World Cup here. How about you? (Could also be titled "How many World Cup monkey fans live in your city?")...
Insight in hindsight
Ed Bilodeau mentioned he just missed his 8th anniversary of "personal publishing on the web". An excerpt from his first post, dated March 12th, 1998 (notice the dated space URI): Spend any time at all surfing the Net, and you...
Ice sailing downtown
The sidewalks are slicker than skating rinks. The wind is gusting up to 78km/hr (50 miles an hour). Unless you weight upwards of 120lbs and have spikes on your shoes, stay home. Or, go the other extreme, rig up...
Stupid smoker
Listen, it's bad enough that you are smoking in here (even though legally for the moment you are still allowed), but the fact that you are one of these idiots who leaves his cigarette burning in the ashtray is beyond...
New île sans fil logo
Mike linked to the announcement of the new ISF logo. Here's what they unveiled: Here's my suggested fix: Basically, I lined things up, centered the text-mark, instilled some harmony by adjusting the kerning a bit better, got rid of the...
Local Government Organizations (LGOs)
ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiative) - Local Governments for Sustainability We provide technical consulting, training, and information services to build capacity, share knowledge, and support local government in the implementation of sustainable development at the local level. Our...
A funny thing happened on my way to...
I did a lot of walking yesterday. At 1:15 I visited the apartment I mentioned here previously. Arriving at the address, one of my suspicions was confirmed: it was indeed the same building that an english professor of mine from...
Getting my hopes up
On saturday early afternoon I have an appointment to visit what could very well be my dream apartment. I was not actively searching for a new place, but I came across its listing online and though "this I cannot not...
Local Montreal bands fundraising for Pakistan (South Asia) relief
<snip> We are a group of friends organizing a benefit concert on Nov. 11th for the victims of the Pakistan quake. The benefit event will take place at Sala Rosa (4848 St. Laurent). Danette Mac Kay, best known for her...
Safe travels gaucho
So, Steven's probably sitting on the tarmac at Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport right now, beginning a 2 month trip to Cuba and, I suspect, to the core of himself. No, he's not going to go sit on the beach. He's...
Be careful what you ...
I'm somewhat late delivering a project. I'm workin workin workin to get it done. The plan was to wrap it up tonight and start migrating parts before morning. I've been pulling all nighters for the last 2 months so it's...
Local Google Map "Point of Interest"
In Tagzania I found the (so-far) only Montreal tagged Google Map point. This particular spot is pointed out as showing 3 seasons in one spot. The spot in question is just after the north bound access ramp to Highway 13,...
Yes, we have no bananas
There are NO air conditioning units left to be had (from the "big box" style retailers) anywhere on the Island Of Montreal. On the other hand, I now have THREE bicycles sitting in my living room. All of them more...
Touché
Damn... I'm on the verge of popping a reblog feed of Andrew's blog in my sidebar...The Karl Rove situation is a litmus test for just how far the Bush administration is willing to go to cling to power and lie...
Free Montreal WiFi Google mapped
Michael barked at me that "it's in WifiDOG CVS now!" the other night and I guess it's cause I haven't sparked my aggregator in a week that I missed it but... Here's a standalone GoogleMap of all Ile Sans Fil...
Also a bicycling weekend...
Basically the last 4 days have been wake up, code code code, eat, code code design code, bicycle bicycle eat, design design code, sleep. Most excellent Michael Lenczner has lent me a most craptasic 15 year old stolen-and-repainted-numerous-times mountain bike...
Mappin my route
Too cool. My jogging route. 4km each way. 4km uphill, 4km down. Be sure to check out the satellite view too (eventhough there are dang clouds in the way). (PDF for posterity)...
Sophisticated krishnas
The Hare Krishnas from down the street just went by. They seem to have hired a new arranger cause instead of just chanting, they had an accordion and some real bongos and were doing the traditional "hare hare krishna krishna"...
Slow motion cold
I've had a raw sore throat for well over two weeks now, and horking up small wads of mucous from the back of my throat. At first it was just annoying and, in typical fashion, I just bore it and...
Well said.
Andrew continues to make me cheer with his canadian political commentary. His take on bill C-38, "C-38 is a uniter, not a divider", is well worth a read. (Bill C-38 is same-sex marriage legislation that just got passed in Canada.)...
Sticky
Mainly because this is teh funniest promo copy I have ever seen for a bar night... Kudos Murad. PEEL YOURSELF OFF THAT LEATHER COUCH. PUT ON SOME DRY UNDERPANTS. JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT THE CITY COULDN'T GET ANY HOTTER!!! SLOWDANCE...
It's damn hot
So Karl and I moved from the sweatlodge-like Laika to the air conditioned Java-U on St-Denis where Oblivia was. Logging into the free wifi network I spot something familiar in the URL. "Helloooo... what's this..." I made this! A long...
Parking meter hack challenge
Steven launches a challenge to local hackers and their friends: Hack the new Linux-running, GPRS-networked parking meters. Why? 1- Show that it can be done 2- Perhaps help improve the system 3- Perhaps send a message up: "hey, we KNOW...
Linux + GPRS in parking meters
Steven gives us the lowdown on the fancy-pantsy new high-tech networked evil machi... er I mean parking meters in Montreal....
Men's roooooom
photo-852 07May05Originally uploaded by sylvaincarle. Sylvain moblogged this quite funny "men's room" symbol. C'tait où, man?...
The keitais are coming!
Slowly over the past year I've noticed a subtle transition in the mobile phone handsets that have been available here in my home market. But today it really struck me as apparent: the keitais are coming. Not in features or...
Mismanagement in Montreal
It is raining outside. It has been raining heavily all day. A street cleaner just went by... TWICE. Not to put too fine a point on it, but... it is 10:00 pm, nowhere near the 9:00-to-10:00 am time slot where...
Télé Sans Frontières
I was handed a small flyer by a street kid for a showing of Télé Sans Frontières short films. From their statement: Amener des jeunes à dire vrai et à porter leurs propos afin qu'ils se construisent, se réalisent et...
Another clever local
Welcome to Andrew Rose and his "the mass is secretly obsessed with nipple dream" weblog. Curling trumps Pope - Apparently CBC actually stands for 'Curling Before Christ'. Every channel I get (that's about 4) has coverage of the Pope's death—save...
Purple Cross
There is a small mountain in the center of the island of Montreal called Mount Royal. At the top sits a lighted cross. It is visible from most of downtown and the east. Last night... Uploaded to flickr by Pumpkin...
Mike Durcak Photographs
Quick plug for my good friend Mike Durcak's photography exhibit "vernissage" this evening at Blizz. Mike converted my apartment into a studio (and presumably a party central ;), while I was away last month, in preparation for this show. I...
Tokyo > Montreal in under a second
I'm sitting in the Good Day Café, just off Aoyma Itchome/Omotesando (search me how the street names work in this place...) in Harajuku, Tokyo. I spark my NewsReader, go to my folder of Montreal RSS subscriptions... and I am 100%...
The films of Arthur Lipsett
I think it may be some sort of meta-cinema-type-thing where the audience will be filmed watching films......
Devices of Design
I attended the "Devices of Design" symposium, hosted by the CCA (Canadian Center for Architecture) and the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science, and Technology (Daniel Langlois was the founder of Softimage). Devices of Design, a collaboration between the Canadian...
WikiTravel
Just came back from a fun Dim Sum lunch organised bySébastien Paquet, where I met, amongst others, the co-founders, Evan & Michele, of Wikitravel, the Wikipedia of travel. I don't need to explain the concept do I? ;)...
Game
Just received the above in a group email with the subject "Best night of your life". Amazingly it made it past my spam filters. Not that it is spam - I know the senders - just... you know... The...
Montreal Metroblog
I want ten Montreal-area webloggers to join me in making up our local Metroblog. English and french posts that somehow have something to do with Montreal, and share whatever bits of this great city. :) Here are some of the...
[this is aaron]
Because, while I can respect it, Aaron's quiet, "I'll be over here" demeanor drives me batty sometimes, I am going to take license and point out his freshly published résumé. While I'd love to expound on how he's actually publishing...
Some of my favorite geeks
have been mightily busy![Apologies to anyone offended by that term...]Aaron finally fixed his "I-roll-my-own-thank-you-very-much" weblog and immediately posted about some of the wikkedly neat stuff he's been toying with over the summer.
International video and electronic art manifestation
DESERT : 6th MANIFESTATION INTERNATIONALE VIDÉO ET ART ÉLECTRONIQUE MONTREAL, SEPTEMBER 20 TO 27, 2004 - presented by Champ libre True to its in situ diffusion approach, it is under the theme of the DESERT that Champ Libre presents its...
Too much music
Pop Montreal starts next week.Looking at the schedule and the roster of musicians, I am paralyzed.... other than the sold out Franz Ferdinand show ...I think I shall have to ask some advice, or just let myself be led astray by those who know better.
C. difficile
Microbe blamed for 100 deaths at Quebec hospital A bacterial agent commonly found in health-care settings has been blamed for the deaths of 100 patients in the last 18 months in a single Quebec hospital, says an infectious disease expert...
Scratch The Aprils
They canceled the rest of the tour. So no party tonight. Dang....
More info on Aprils show
Ok, got the info straight. The Aprils will be performing as part of the "Club Par Avion" Summer 2004 tour at Saphir (next door to 4 Brothers grocery store) on St-laurent on Wednesday July 7th at 10pm. For an idea...
St-Jean on St-Viateur
So the rumor was true. There will be no official St-Jean Baptiste celebrations on St-Viateur this year. THAT... is a travesty. A crime even, I'd say. Then again, it's not like the Mile Enders need an excuse to hang around...
In Memoriam
With heavy heart, I sent the following email to some of my fellow YULBloggers (Montreal Webloggers): Last fall we had the pleasure of being introduced to Andrea "Space Cadet / Piglet Posts" who had joined our little community of Montreal...
Ile Sans Fil WiFi at Laïka
Mike, of Ile Sans Fil, grinning as we test out their newly activated free hotspot at the trendy Laïka Café/Bar....
mutek
MUTEK Shows aside, apparently there are some interesting panels and workshops. Sadly though, the whole site is in flash, the schedule all done in little flash modules, making it nigh impossible to get a clear overview of what's what. Shame....
The Ville de Montréal is screwing with my jogging route
I'm somewhat a creature of habit, I suppose, and as such, little changes to things I take for granted sometimes leave me... rather pissed off. Since last fall, the Ville de Montréal seems to have taken two very annoying actions,...
Cable
Today I took some drastic first steps. Today, I switched from Bell Sympatico DSL to Videotron Cable Internet access. So far, the speed increase is, to put it mildly, reality-bending. I also switched from crappy old normal cable TV to...
Euro Deli WiFi Update
About three weeks ago I blogged about EuroDeli getting WiFi. Well, Mike from IleSansFil told me that the WiFi should be up, on probationary basis, in November. What this means, of course, is that we must ALL go to Euro...
Euro Deli WiFi
I just stopped by Euro Deli on St-Laurent for an after dinner allongé & dessert canolli. I had my iBook out (yeah I got one...), writing up a blog entry about the jaunt to Toronto this past weekend, when an...
Wanted: Peking Duck
I haven't had Peking Duck in well over 10 years. It had completely slipped my mind as a dish I very much enjoy. Can anybody recommend a good place to have Peking Duck in Montreal? Please? I don't think I'll...