School's In

As I watch my daily traffic continue to increase, due in no small part to the mere mention of Lucie Laurier and the overplayed “nipple slip” fiasco, I would like to take a moment to thank all those who have been kind enough to actually read some of my entries here. Though I know most of you are here looking for the now difficult-to-find video clip, the fact that some of you are spending a few minutes to check out my writing gives me hope that my audience will continue to expand and diversify.

So all that being said, what’s new with ol’ Al? Well, school has now officially started here in Montreal. It blows my mind that high schools, elementary schools and CEGEPs are already in session. Back home in Ontario, we don’t start before Labour Day. Did I already mention that this province can be backwards sometimes? I suppose that there’s something to be said for easing the kids back into the routine, but for my taste, I prefer to just jump right back into the fun.

Despite not being a fulltime student for the past several years, I can’t help but feel the yearning for a new academic session to start. No doubt the influence of a decade (give or take) in the Purple Prison back in London, Ontario. I like academia. Beats the hell out of corporate life, that’s for sure. The money isn’t nearly as good, obviously, but I always liked learning new things. My experiences in the corporate world have shown me that learning stops outright after the first 6 months in a given position. From there, it’s a waiting game. Most large companies have HR guidelines that limit the amount of movement employees can make within the corporate structure. They further complicate the policies by employing staff from temp agencies.

In academia, there’s always a chance for a fresh start. A new year brings new classmates, new professors, new material… and chances are pretty good that, once one reaches the post-secondary level, that the courses are more in-tune with one’s particular interests. Sounds good to me! I’m all about pursuing my own interests. I’m still hoping to do graduate studies at some point in the future, by the way. There’s something appealing about having the title of “Master,” wouldn’t you say?

All in due time, I suppose. Til next time…

One Year in Montreal

As I look at the calendar, I see that I’m coming up on the one year anniversary of my departure from London. In fact, I believe it was a year ago today that I was handing over my cheque to get a room in an apartment—sight unseen. All things considered, I think the move has worked out okay. Sure, I’m in debt up to my eyeballs, but for the first time in a long, long time, I’m actually where I want to be, both geographically and, to a certain extent, spiritually. Now that’s not to say that I’ve gone all meditative/religious on you folks. Pretty far from it. But I will say that I’m happier here than I’ve been before, despite the smaller social circle. I’m still working on that, but I figure it will all sort itself out in due time.

So in honour of my one year in Montreal, I thought I would give the readership a bit of a walk down memory lane. I can already sense Morgan rolling his eyes, but I’m writing this anyway. I suppose the most important thing that has happened since I got here was finding a job. Sure, it sounds pretty common and uninteresting, but it was a lot more of an ordeal than I would ever have imagined. I came to this city confident in my work experience and my communication skills, but by the third month of hearing little more than “work on your French,” I was beginning to question the wisdom of this move.

Debts mounted, hair thinned and gray whiskers started to creep their way into my goatee, but I kept looking. And, as is usually the case, when I was down to my last nerve, I found work… in a call center. Um, yeah. But as much as it sucked, the job did stop the financial bleeding just enough to keep me afloat. And shortly after that, I landed my current gig. Needless to say, I’m still thrilled to be here.

It was also shortly after landing my job that I got the green light to interview Chéli Sauvé-Castonguay over at Musique Plus. Since it was my first semi-high profile interview, it still holds a special place in my heart. Within a few weeks, I scored another interview, with Biz from Loco Locass, and in French, no less! I’ve made a pretty good run with this blog, all things considered. Maybe I’ll manage to land a few more before the year is up. Since there’s now been multiple requests for Mitsou, I feel that it’s my duty to try and appease the peanut gallery and see if I can waste an hour of her time. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

So what else have I been up to? Hmmm… well, I’ve attended a francophone music festival, the Just For Laughs comedy festival, indulged in some local delicacies, like smoked meat and bagels, not to mention the visits to some of Montreal’s landmarks! All in all, I’m looking forward to seeing what the next year will bring. Til next time!

Shot down

Yes, dear friends, it's true. Ol' Al B Here has been refused an interview request avec Lucie Laurier. I received the news via e-mail this evening. Here's a copy of the original
correspondence in French:

«Monsieur,

Nous avons bien reçu votre demande concernant la comédienne Lucie Laurier et nous vous en remercions. Cependant il ne lui sera pas possible de vous accorder cette entrevue. Lucie est actuellement en travail de pré production en vue d’un prochain tournage de long métrage et son agenda professionnel ne lui permet pas d’accepter d’autres engagements. Je vous remercie de votre bonne compréhension.

Marie Vanasse
Attachée de presse de Lucie Laurier»

For those who don't speak French, it basically says, "Thanks for your interest, but she's in the midst of pre-production right now and doesn't have time for other professional engagments. Thanks for your understanding."

No big surprise since, as I mentioned in my last entry she'll be starting work on a film called Nitro on September 10th. I had hoped to catch her before that, but that's life. Maybe if I hold my breath til I turn Québécois blue, they'll give me the chance to talk to her once filming wraps. Don't bet on it, though.

Til next time...

Lucie Laurier's wardrobe malfunction

I'm beginning to think I've got the lousiest luck in the world. Okay, it's not really that bad, but I was a wee bit perturbed at the timing of the latest wardrobe malfunction to hit. Sure, it's not on the scale of Janet Jackson's epic Super Bowl flash, but in light of the recent internet release of Lucie Laurier's nipple slip during a Musique Plus interview, methinks my chances of scoring an interview avec la belle comédienne have been reduced from slim to none. Apparently the clip in question never aired, so some Musique Plus employee is bound to get in a heap of trouble.

I had contacted her agent via e-mail last week (before I had even heard about the clip) to see if I could set something up, but I've yet to receive any response. Admittedly, it was a long shot, but I figured it never hurt to ask. From what I read, she wasn't scheduled to start shooting her next project until September 10, so I thought I might luck out and get something scheduled. Now that this clip has been aired, I doubt she'll be doing much in the way of interviews til she's ready to promote her new film. Bummer.

I've seen a few of her films now and I've enjoyed her work. Oh well. Better luck next time, eh?

Quebec City Jumping Frogs

Leave it to the marketing folks of the ABA to walk headlong into a controversy. Apparently some genius decided it would be a great idea to name the new franchise in Quebec City the Jumping Frogs. As we’ve seen in the comments of this very blog, the term “frog” is used as a derogatory term for French speakers. In this era of political correctness, why would anyone think this was a good idea? It would be similar to putting a sports franchise in the heart of Manhattan’s Little Italy and calling them the WOPs. No one would stand for that.

So tell me, what’s the difference between the use of Jumping Frogs and, say, the Washington Redskins? Both are derogatory terms used for a group of people, though I would think that the Redskins moniker is a lot more offensive, given that the term is a racial slur versus an ethnic slur. I know I’m splitting hairs here, since both are offensive to people. I can’t really defend the use of either name for the franchises, regardless of the fact that Washington’s team has been around for decades and has a strong tradition attached to it.

When choosing the name of a sports franchise or mascot, franchises would often take on names that would represent characteristics with which they wanted to be associated. So I suppose that, in the case of Redskins, they were going for the “noble warrior” angle or perhaps “savage ferocity.” Maybe I’ll look into that at some point. For me, I think less about the fact that Redskin is a term for a Native American and more about the fact that their jerseys are red.

I really don’t care, one way or the other, about the use of the name Jumping Frogs, but it seems to me that, from a business standpoint, someone’s got their head buried firmly in their ass. This is a new franchise so one would hope that the owners were trying to attract a fanbase to the product. Surely there has to be a better way to do that than insulting the target market. So now it’s time for another round of audience participation. Please feel free to sound off aboutsports teams using racially or ethnically questionable terms. Til next time…

Local girls making a mark at the Rogers Cup

Marie-Eve Pelletier was a break-point away from turning last night into the biggest night in the history of Quebecois Tennis. Already leading by one set in her second round match with Aussie Nicole Pratt at the Rogers Cup, the 24 year old quebecoise failed to put away a key game that effectively swung the momentum back in Pratt’s favour. Though she played hard in the third set, there were too many missed opportunities for her to pull out the win. The Montreal media has been saying that she just ran out of gas by the third set and, based on what I saw, that may well have been the case. I’d be more inclined to say that the pressure of being in front of the home crowd got to her. Fatigue can lead to mental errors, but so can intense pressure and stress.

Montreal isn’t an easy place to compete when you’re an athlete. I’ve heard the media be compared to a pack of wild dogs in the past. It’s almost as if the city’s sports pundits have adopted Al Davis’ “Just win, baby!” catch phrase as their own collective mantra. Compare les Canadiens to the now-defunct Expos. One is a source of pride while the other became virtually ignored as the losses continued to mount.

Last night was a bit different. Following on the heels of Stephanie Dubois’ bittersweet victory over Kim Clijsters, I’ve no doubt that the Stade Uniprix was buzzing at the possibility of two home-grown talents making the round of 16. It was already a pretty big deal in the local media that 2 of their own had made it into the 2nd round in the first place. Both had pulled off upsets in the previous round. In fact, the stands were full to watch the girls play—attendance for these two matches would have been significantly less had Dubois and Pelletier not made it this far. And since the tournament has already had more than its share of withdrawls, injuries and upsets of top seeds, I’m sure the organizers were hoping to ride Quebecois pride as far as they could.

So now Dubois has made it into the round of 16 and, truth be told, I’m not disappointed in that. It would have been nice if she had actually won the match (she was getting trounced and had already lost the first set 6-1 before Clijsters was forced to retire due to injury, trailing Dubois 3-2), but a win is a win, right? The 19 year old from Laval plays with a lot of genuine enthusiasm and will benefit from the additional experience she’ll gain. I like how she plays, throwing her heart and soul into every swing of the racket. Doesn’t hurt that she’s pretty cute, either.
So, like the rest of the city, I’ll have my TV tuned to RDS (or maybe TSN) to see how this plays out for her. Bonne chance, Stéphanie!

les Racettes

This past weekend offered an interesting opportunity for my family. Y’see, it was the most recent conclave of l’Association des familles Racette in St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Quebec. Those who know me well will notice a difference in the spelling of the last name, but we are, in fact, a part of the Racette clan that arrived in the French colonies somewhere before 1666. My father has gone to great pains to create a very elaborate and in-depth genealogy, in part, because I had claimed that no one in our family tree had ever done anything of note. So, given that stubbornness is apparently an inherited trait, he decided to prove me wrong. Along the way, he came across this particular association.

In retrospect, I’m pretty fortunate that he joined all those years ago because it led me to contact Sylvain, who has helped me immeasurably since I relocated to this fine city. Anyway, since I’m in Quebec now, it gave my father an excuse to pack up the car and head north to attend the bi-annual assembly. The day started with an hour long cruise along the Richelieu River, followed by a tour of historic Fort Lennox. The cruise itself didn’t hold much interest for me, since I’ve never been much of one for enjoying scenery (unless the scenery in question is in their 20s and wears halter tops), but the fort was cool. Since I’ve been taking a more active interest in history in recent years, visiting the site was right up my alley. After the tour, we got back on the boat and headed to the hotel for a nice dinner with the Association.

As it turns out, we were pretty much the only Anglophones there. Hardly a surprise, but considering there are American members of the Association, one would have thought there would be more people speaking English. I didn’t mind, but my father’s French is so rusty at this point that it bordered on embarrassing. One thing I did realise is that I don’t enjoy speaking to my mother in French. I guess it’s because I was raised in English, but I still find that interesting.
The Association, itself, is comprised mainly of middle-aged and older people. All very nice, but it’s certainly not a crowd that’ll be partying to the wee hours of the morning. Still, it was nice to be in a setting with a larger sense of family. I come from a rather small family, with very few cousins within driving distance, so it’s still a bizarre concept for me to be at a “family” function. I wonder how long the Association will survive, given the age of the membership. It’s unfortunate that the younger generation (and I’ll include myself amongst said generation for the time being) hasn’t taken much interest in family history or tradition. I think we have more to gain by participating than we realise. So here’s hoping that sometime in the near future they learn how to recruit some younger members! Til next time…

Bon Cop, Bad Cop

I’m back in Montreal after a two week, self-imposed exile in London, Ontario. I think it would be pretty hard to find a city of comparable size with LESS to do than there is in my hometown. Mind you, it did host the LPGA Canadian Women’s Open last week, so I guess there’s some appeal. But for those of us who have no interest in golf, the town’s pretty dull. So once I got back to Montreal, I went out to catch a screening of Bon Cop, Bad Cop at the AMC Forum with Phil.

I had been to the Forum once before, but I guess I wasn’t really paying attention (amazing how often that happens, huh?) because it never even remotely occurred to me that I was standing on the hallowed ground of les Canadiens. It wasn’t until I saw the remaining block of old seating that the light bulb went on. Then Canadiena started jumping out everywhere… names of stores, the team logo, framed jerseys and memorabilia. Yep, Sherlock Holmes I am not.

So in retrospect, there was probably no better place for me to have seen this film. I’ll explain. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, because let’s face facts, it hasn’t gotten much press outside of Quebec (though admittedly more than the average Quebecois film), this is the first fully integrated, bilingual film in Canada’s cinematic history. The story follows the well-trodden path of Hollywood “buddy pictures” wherein two mismatched characters are forced to work together toward a common goal. In this case, it’s a Quebecois cop played by Patrick Huard and an Anglophone cop from Ontario, played by Colm Feore.

The average moviegoer in Canada will be hard-pressed to recognize either name, but I’m familiar with both their work. I can see why Feore was chosen. They would have had a rough time trying to cast that part had he refused. Mind you, that could have added a bit more hilarity to the mix. As it stands, I think they made the right choice. Huard, as co-writer of the screenplay, plays the Quebecois cop to the hilt. Considering he’s better known in Quebec as a stand-up comedian, he does an admirable job in the role.

The story is pretty straight forward: a serial killer has started systematically knocking off the powerbrokers in the professional hockey world that are responsible for selling off Canadian teams and players to the Americans. At first glance, it’s pretty cheesy, but I think that taking it at face value diminishes what Huard has come up with. The whole movie, from start to finish, pokes fun at Canadian stereotypes. When seen as a feature length farce/satire, one gains a greater appreciation for the whole production. There’s not a lot of subtlety there, but that’s the whole point. Part of the humour would be lost if no one caught the references.

The biggest question I have is whether the humour will translate outside the Montreal city limits. The language issue is one that, as Montréalais, we’re forced to confront on a daily basis, so we’re pre-conditioned to react to language-related situations. But what about audiences in Toronto? Will their complete obliviousness to the existence of the rest of Canada affect their senses of humour? Will the metro Toronto belief in the inherent inferiority of Canadian products (ranging from football to movies) transfer over in this case, as well? I guess we’ll find out in about a week since the Canadian release of the film is scheduled for the coming weekend, I believe.

I would be remiss in my commentary if I didn’t mention one more thing, in passing. I’ve cruised by some message boards to see the reaction of Francophones to the film and, though mainly positive, I did read remarks from those that believe the film is actually a Federalist vehicle, attacking the separatist movement by trying to demonstrate how people from the 2 main cultures in Canada can co-exist and work together. I think that’s pushing it a bit there. Movies should be a diversion—it’s an entertainment medium. Leave it at that. See the film for what it is: an enjoyable 2 hours. The only agenda this film has is to make a profit.

Here’s hoping that box office success will wake up the Canadian viewing public to the talent within our borders! Til next time…