Al B Here

The Debate Rages On

2007-05-08T12:53:00.000-04:00

The debate wages on, at the moment. In one corner, we have those that believe that this little Montreal experiment has run its course. In the other, we have a small faction that believes there’s a world of opportunity waiting for me to find it. As per usual, I’m on the fence. If I had the slightest idea what to do right now, I could move forward with confidence—even if moving forward meant moving back to the city I fought so hard to escape.

So for my own sanity, I’m going to try and go through the two arguments and hopefully come up with some sort of profound decision by the end. Let’s start with the arguments for staying in Montreal:

1) My love of the French language and Quebecois culture. Though I haven’t done nearly as much exploring in recent months as I would have liked, I’m still intrigued by this place. There’s still so much to explore here.
2) The festivals. If I make the long trek home, I would be doing so JUST before the festival season starts. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that summers in Montreal are one helluva good time.
3) The cost of Education. Though I can’t presently afford to keep taking courses, I’m now a Quebec resident and, as such, get the in-province rate. For those unfamiliar with the difference between in-province and out-of-province rates in Quebec, it can come out to approximately 60% difference in tuition rates. And since I’ve already experienced firsthand my need for additional education, it makes more sense to do it where it’s cheaper.
4) The nagging sense of unfinished business. I’ve felt this before, actually… when I was in the Kinesiology department. I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve got things to do and goals to accomplish here. Mind you, the KIN adventure was a less than stellar experience by the end, so my gut feelings really shouldn’t be trusted at this point.

So now to balance things off, I should look at London and the merits of heading back to the Forest City:

1) My whole support system is there. My family and my closest friends all live in London (at least for the time being). As much as they’ve driven me crazy over the years, I definitely miss having them around. I miss talking to people. Truth be told, if I don’t have a class or something, then I don’t talk to another person after I leave work. That takes its toll on a person after a while. Part of the reason I haven’t gone out to do more in this city is I’ve gotten tired of doing everything alone.
2) Lack of a language barrier. Here, I’m an Anglophone who speaks French with a clearly anglo accent. Back home, I would be considered an asset as I’m (by Ontario standards) fully bilingual. Regardless of what people say, the truth is that Anglophones are at a disadvantage when trying to find work in Quebec. They hold us to different standards in French than we do for English. So be it.
3) Cost cutting. By moving back in with my parents for a bit (God help me), I could cut my costs in half while I try and get debts under control.

There are obviously no guarantees that either choice is the “right” one. In looking at the two arguments, I see a conflict between my head and my heart. My heart tells me to stay and fight it out, but my head tells me not to put any more obstacles in my path than necessary. The job market in London still sucks, but if I’m being screened out of the majority of jobs in Montreal anyway, then it’s probably an equal playing field in either city.

So now I’ll open the floor up for discussion. Should you wish to chime in with your opinion, I encourage you to do so. Also, if anyone has any job leads in either city (London or Montreal), I would appreciate hearing about them. Til next time…

Bye Izabelle!!

2007-04-28T11:24:00.000-04:00

The landscape of Musique Plus changed last night as the folks at Plus Sur Commande bid a fond farewell to longtime VJ, Izabelle Desjardins. When I first learned she was leaving via MySpace (she had sent out a bulletin to everyone on her friendlist), I was a bit puzzled. After all, this girl had pretty much become the face of the station over the last couple of years. She was the first VJ I ever remember seeing when I tuned into the station in the summer of 2004. From what she’s written, she has other things that she wanted to explore, so I wish her the best of luck.

It’ll be interesting to see what will happen with this new VJ Recherchée contest that they’re running to replace Iza. I had seriously frowned on Muchmusic’s American Idol meets the Real World reality show concept a couple of years back, so I’ve got my doubts about what they’ll come up with here. But that being said, Musique Plus has always had a way of conveying its own unique character over the airwaves so I’m optimistic that they’ll find someone decent. Still, the next girl has some pretty big shoes to fill!

I had hoped that someone would have been kind enough to post some clips of her last show on YouTube, but no one has been that slick yet. So instead, I’ll post one of the videos they played during Iza’s last show. Sorry to my readers who check out this blog via Facebook, but I don’t think that the embedded video will transfer through on the newsfeed, so you’ll have to come directly to my blogsite. The song is Chewing Gum Fraise by Numéro (featuring Omnikrom). Enjoy!

Maddy's on the Office!

2007-04-18T08:44:00.000-04:00

One of my faithful readers, who identifies herself as Lina in the comments section from time to time, has dropped the not-so-subtle hint that my blog has been on a bit of a downward turn with the various bumps I’ve been enduring in the last month between work and school. So I decided I would try and be a bit more upbeat this time and let people in on what I consider to be good news. Granted, it’s not good news for me, specifically, but I’ll live vicariously through this one anyway.

A certain number of you out there know that, over the past few months, I’ve made friends via e-mail with a lovely actress named Maddy Curley. Admittedly, she’s not a household name at this point, so don’t be too distressed if you haven’t heard of her. Her most prominent role was as a supporting actress in the film Stick It (one of my guilty pleasures) as the up-and-coming gymnast, Mina. But what has she done lately?

The answer, dear readers, is that she has been keeping herself busy with independent and short film work that hasn’t hit wide distribution. However in a little over a week, she’ll be popping up in something a bit more mainstream: NBC’s comedy The Office! When she first mentioned it to me, she thought the episode was due to air on April 19, but later said it was April 26. So just to be safe, I’ll watch both weeks (to be honest, I never watch the show, but I'm making an exception for her sake). I’m not sure how much airtime she gets or how many lines, but it’s still cool nonetheless. Good job, Maddy!

So there you have it, folks: Positive news from Al on a Wednesday. Til next time…

***UPDATE April 27, 2007*** For those who tuned in to see Maddy on the show, I'm a bit bummed to say that they cut her scenes. Perhaps they'll show up eventually in the Deleted Scenes for the episode, but given that I'm in Canada, I won't be able to verify that. I'm still proud of her anyway!

the long weekend

2007-04-11T09:45:00.001-04:00

Well, it’s all over except for the crying. I finished the second of my night courses last evening and, though I’m not nearly as confident of the outcome as I was about the French to English class, I’m thinking I should finish with a reasonably solid B. Of course anything could happen, so I may well finish with something ghastly like a C. There isn’t an A in the running, though, as I believe that was mathematically impossible. Oh well. Onwards and upwards, right?

Today is important as I’ve got an interview down the hill. I’ve been spending the last 20 minutes or so browsing the unit’s website to see what sort of knowledge I can glean from what they’ve chosen to post. It’s interesting, to be sure. I’m actually somewhat surprised that, in total, the female population of this particular institution is roughly twice the size of the male contingent, with the notable exception of the Faculty of Management, that seems to be an even split. I’m sure there are other interesting tidbits to be found here, but I don’t have the capacity to absorb it all in one sitting. I’ll have to come back later to check things out more thoroughly.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with my travel and social schedule, I just got back from a long weekend spent in the friendly confines of London, Ontario. It was definitely an interesting trip. I had rented a car from Enterprise for Thursday and, though I picked it up about 20 minutes late, was well on my way by 3:30pm or so. I had requested a Hyundai, but got stuck with a Kia. Should I do that again, I’ll upgrade the car if offered the Kia. That thing is a horrible highway car.

Anyway, I’m within rock’s throw from Belleville, a little less than half way to my destination, when I feel something weird. There was a momentary deceleration and a bit of a shift in the car’s direction. Nothing I couldn’t handle, though, but the cars around me started to pass me. Weird, I thought. Then an SUV pulled up beside me with some lunatic hanging out the window, waving and pointing at my car. I look and see him mouthing the words, “Dude, your tire is gone!!!” so after a quick moment of disbelief, I pull over. He was right. The tire was gone. All that remained were scraps of tire, a beat-up hubcap and shiny rims. A quick look at the clock and I knew I was in trouble. It was 7:30pm.

Now at this point, Fate decides to be nice to me. As I’m on the phone with Roadside Assistance, a CAA truck pulls up. We have a quick chat and the guy offers to change my tire and gives me directions to the nearest Canadian Tire store (my best hope for getting home since everything else would be closed). I gladly accept and make it to the store with about 45 minutes until closing time. All told, I lost about 2 hours or so, but I managed to roll up to my parents’ house around 1am Friday morning.

The rest of the weekend was spent with family and friends (with the majority of time being spent at Chris and Rebecca’s house). I also managed to attend a service at Julie’s church. I’ll get into that another time. I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend! Til next time…

Updates from Al

2007-03-29T08:51:00.000-04:00

Well, well, well… the last couple of weeks have been quite an adventure, to say the least. To begin, I would like to formally announce that I’m looking for work in and around Montreal. I got the news last week that there just isn’t any money in the budget to maintain my position, so at the end of the fiscal year (May 31) I’ll be handing in my keys and bidding a fond farewell to my little office space. While this is hardly the sort of news I wanted to hear, I was only ever promised a year here so getting an extra 2 and a half months is actually pretty decent. So if any of my readers know of any jobs for Anglophones out there (and though I shouldn’t NEED to emphasize this, I will anyway: NO CALL CENTRES), please feel free to drop me a line.

The next blow to the ol’ ego came last night in the form of a rather thin envelope from McGill’s Department of History. Contained therein was notice that I had been rejected from the Masters program and that my interest in the “highly competitive” program was appreciated. Um, thanks for that, I think… so I guess that clears up any fears I had about how I was going to pay for the MA, huh? Oh well. The next challenge awaits, I guess.

So let’s try and end off on a positive note, shall we? Last night I had the final exam for the French to English Translation course I’ve been blasting through this term. It’s hard to believe that 12 weeks have gone by so quickly, but evidently it has. Now I don’t know if I just got handed something different from everyone else in the room or if my classmates are just far more cautious than I am, but I was done that exam in record time. Sure, I had to look up the occasional word, but otherwise the translation seemed to write itself. All told, in a 90 minute exam, I was done in 45 minutes—and that includes the time I spent re-writing my rough draft! So either I tanked it or I rocked that baby til the break of dawn. We’ll be getting the results back next week, so I guess I’ll find out then if I’m as clever as I believe I am at the moment. Maybe I’ll get lucky on the English to French exam after Easter? Anything’s possible, right? Til next time…

Avril Lavigne, Supporter of Core French Currculum Reform

2007-03-26T12:56:00.000-04:00

As I was reading through an article on Avril Lavigne’s new multilingual single “Girlfriend” and I couldn’t help but laugh. Apparently the folks in marketing thought it would be a brilliant move for her to record the chorus in 7 different languages in an attempt to further break through overseas. Not a bad idea. But that’s not the thing that made me laugh.

Y’see, one of the languages chosen for the song’s reworked chorus is French and, despite her VERY French name, Avril doesn’t speak a word of it. This led the journalist (Karen Bliss) into a line of questions that prompted Lavigne to lament the fact that her parents never put her in French immersion classes when she was younger. Considering she’s a high school dropout, I’m not really sure how much good any immersion program would have done for her.

Bliss then takes a timeout during the article to indict the current core French program, saying,

“Considering how Canadian students are required to take French classes from public to high school, it's ridiculous that one doesn't graduate with at least an ability to have a conversation en francais. The curriculum needs to be changed.”

Naturally, this was accompanied by an appropriately supportive quote from Napanee’s former pop punk princess:

“It's so bad," Lavigne agrees. “No one knows (it). Yeah, we had French class every grade, but we didn't do anything. It's not very good at all.”

I don’t disagree with the content of what she said; I just find it funny that anyone would try to use Avril as a means of promoting French language education. It brought to mind the words of the late, great comedian, Bill Hicks, who said,

“When did we start listening to prepubescent white girls? I must have missed that meeting.”

Let’s not hold Avril up as a role model for today’s youth, okay? If anything, she should be used as a warning to anyone thinking of dropping out of school. Yes, she made it. Good for her. But statistically speaking, you won’t make it, so stay in school so you can make something of yourself. But that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong. Til next time…

My Mind is Blank

2007-03-15T11:48:00.000-04:00

We’ve hit March 15 and my mind is still a blank. My parents decided to take advantage of March Break this past week and drove up from London to see little ol’ me. As much as I hate to admit it, I do miss my family occasionally. Sure, it was pretty tight quarters, but it’s the price one pays to have visitors in a one bedroom apartment in Montreal. They were able to entertain themselves while I was at work, so I didn’t need to play tour guide.

I also got back the results of my English-to-French midterm and, while hardly spectacular, was well within the low ‘B’ range, which is fine by me at this point. This course was a good litmus test for me and my fluency in French. It showed me that, though I’ve got a reasonable grasp of the language, it’s going to take longer than the duration of this course for me to approach my own demanding performance standards with respect to mastery.

I also recently got the chance to attend a lecture by Sherry Simon, who wrote a book called Translating Montreal: Episodes in the Life of a Divided City (I just ordered a copy of it, by the way). Her observations have prompted me to read her book, since it seems that she took a different look at Translation. To her, translation becomes a tool of cultural contact and exploration (hmmm… sounds like a theme I can support) rather than a replacement of one text with another. I’m curious to see what direction she takes with it.

Alright, I’m off. Til next time…

Loose Ends

2007-03-07T08:45:00.000-05:00

Consider this post as Al’s way of tying up some loose ends. The last couple of weeks I’ve been more self-absorbed than usual and, to be honest, haven’t had much to say au sujet du Québec. But for those who are interested in the daily happenings of my routine, I wanted to let you know that, yes, the bank did manage to correct my balance and return to me the money that had been scammed by those evil card skimmers. And no, there were no bounced cheques in the meantime, so all is well in that respect.

I continue scratch and claw my way through my English-to-French translation course with varied results. I had thought that I was finally turning a corner last week when I received back my first ‘A’, only to be smacked back to reality this week when I got back a ‘C’ right before the midterm. Nothing like a confidence booster right before the midterm to get your mind in the right place, eh?

My French-to-English class has been far more consistent, in terms of performance. I’m holding down a pretty solid ‘A’ average, which will help me pull up my average from that nastiness in the other class. But to be honest, I’m thinking that I should cut back to one class at a time while working full-time from now on. Sure, it would be nice to get it out of the way sooner than later, but I’m finding myself feeling a bit burnt out trying to juggle everything. As Morgan often advises, it’s best for me to take fewer courses and really get my head around the concept, rather than doing a half-ass job.

Alright, that’s all for now. Til next time…

Justin Trudeau's Aspirations

2007-02-27T09:35:00.000-05:00

I was thinking about the recent announcement Justin Trudeau’s intention to run under the Liberal banner in the Papineau riding of Montreal. I don’t know about the political landscape of Montreal, but from what I’ve been reading, the seat is currently held by the Bloc Quebecois. I wonder how much his last name will help or hinder him in a campaign.

What I really wanted to talk about is the reaction I’ve read from English Canadians. The ones that have particularly caught my attention are the ones that say things like, “Who does this guy think he is?” or “God help us! Not another Trudeau!” or even “What has THIS guy ever done to deserve to run?” Such mindsets are absolutely asinine.

Am I biased towards Trudeau because of his late father? Yes. Regardless of how Pierre Trudeau is remembered by history, I know that without his policies and vision of Canada, I wouldn’t exist right now. Just think of the hours you folks have spent reading this blog! Thanks ol’ Pierre for that!

So what right does he have to run? He’s a Canadian citizen. He has JUST as much right to be a backbencher as any other citizen. Is he running for the leadership of the party? No. He’s not. At least not at the moment. If he wants to take an active role in politics, so be it. He’s certainly not less qualified than any number of other MPs who’ve served for multiple terms. Take Joe Fontana, for instance. The guy was in real estate and insurance before getting into city politics. Next thing you know he’s a Liberal MP for London-North Centre! Is Trudeau more qualified than him? Yes, he is.

Here’s another point to consider: Trudeau hasn’t actually won the nomination or the seat yet. While this is all well and good for headlines, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Until the man gets elected, it’s much ado about nothing, as far as I’m concerned. Alright, that’s all for now… til next time…

Ripped off- the cloned bank card fiasco

2007-02-23T13:50:00.000-05:00

Well, how about that… ol’ Al has had a bit of a rough week, to say the least. It started off innocently enough, but it’s turned into an exercise in frustration. I was checking my account balances yesterday to make sure that my pay had gone in, and it did, but I also got another fun surprise. Someone had cloned my bank card! Apparently some yahoo made a deposit of $2222.22 (obviously an empty envelope) and then took out whatever he could from my account. Thankfully, I have limits on my access card otherwise I would have been more screwed than I ended up being. As it stands, the thief made off with half of my pay cheque.

I’ll admit that I’m surprised at how quickly the ScotiaBank’s card security team noticed the activity, and am equally happy that they blocked my card from further use pending a visit from me down at the branch. That being said, I think our friends at my local branch in Montreal need to brush up on their procedures. I went in and spoke with a teller, who then broke out a few forms for me to fill out. He also got me a new access card. That’s all fine and well, but the guy didn’t even ask me for any form of ID! I would have thought that, before handing over a new bank card for an account that had been flagged for suspicious transactions, that proof of identification would be in order!

Things went downhill from there as this teller explained to me that I would have to initiate the investigation through my home branch. Only problem is that my home branch is in LONDON, ONTARIO! A little common sense here, please?! So he assures me that he would be sending my forms on to my home branch and they could proceed from there. I was also forced to sign a form that said that, pending the results of the investigation, that I MIGHT NOT get my money back. So as the month end approaches, ol’ Al may be maxing out his overdraft to pay rent. Not cool.

So I decide to call the friendly folks at telephone banking to see who I would contact to place a complaint about the teller and their procedures and, in doing so, learned that the teller had messed up again! In creating the new card, he lifted the limits on the previously blocked card so that the information could be transferred to my new card. Then he forgot to close the profile on the old card, meaning that the cloned card was now fully operational again. Had the skimmers decided to try again, they could have taken me for more money! Please, someone take this guy aside and retrain him!

But wait! There’s more! I followed up with my branch in London and they hadn’t heard a word from the gang in Montreal. So my question is: what the heck is going on?!?! I’ve voiced my concerns to the branch manager on Montreal, as well as my home branch, so hopefully something will get resolved relatively quickly. I want my money back!

So how did this happen? Good question. I have my suspicions, though. I had gone to la Belle Province on Tuesday night because I had a craving for poutine and they didn’t have a POS machine. So I was forced to use one of those independent EZ cash machines. I hate those things because they ding me with service charges. I believe someone had some sort of card reader hooked into this one and I didn’t notice. The next day, someone in Laval is making the fake deposit and the withdrawl. And on a sidenote, the poutine didn’t particularly agree with me that night and I ended up calling in sick the next day while my account was being drained. Coincidence? Doubtful. I lose a day’s pay, plus half my last pay cheque because I had a craving for poutine. Guess we know what I’ll be giving up for Lent. Til next time…

An Underwhelming Response

2007-02-19T09:25:00.000-05:00

Last week, I issued a formal invitation to supporters of a Free and Independent Quebec, asking them to send me something to post on my humble blog here, but the response has been underwhelming to say the least. This should come as no surprise, really, since my francophone audience is quite tiny and I believe they may be uncomfortable subjecting their beliefs to the (occasionally) scathing commentaries of some of my regular readers. One of my old sovereignist friends has agreed to send me something, but I’m not sure when he’ll get around to sending it in.

I’ve approached Loco Locass, as well, but Biz told me that they’re working on the new album at the moment and don’t have the time to spare right now. Anyone familiar with their work knows that they’re meticulous with their choice of words and never do a half-ass job at anything, so I can see why they wouldn’t want to send something that was just thrown together. It’s unfortunate that they won’t be participating in this little discussion, but I understand and I look forward to their next album.

So for the moment, we’ll have to put discussions of Quebec sovereignty on the backburner. I would like to take a moment to thank Larry Savage over at Uncorrected Proofs, who tried to drum up some traffic for me, as well. Anyway, we’ve just started Slack Week at McGill, so I don’t have classes (or assignments) due this week, which should give me time to do some brainstorming for topics. Happy Monday, everyone! Til next time…

Genie Awards!

2007-02-14T09:28:00.000-05:00

For those expecting some sort of Valentine’s Day posting, you’ll be collectively disappointed. Much like last year, I’m opting to not do much more than casually acknowledge this “holiday.” Instead, I want to talk a little bit about the Genie Awards, held last night in Toronto. The Genie Awards are essentially the Canadian version of the Academy Awards, but unlike their cousins to the South, are barely even noticed by the general viewing public in Canada.

Anyway, I was looking at the list of winners and something rather obvious jumped out at me: almost ALL the winners come from Quebec! Now I’m not sure if the Quebecois just produce more films per year than English Canada, thus leading to a larger talent pool from which to draw, but it does strike me as odd that the awards were so lopsided. It would be nice to see a bit of competition in both languages one of these years.

In terms of the winners, it seems that the Rocket suffered from a Prince of Tides sort of effect. For those that don’t remember, the Prince of Tides was once nominated for something like 7 Oscars (including Best Picture), but the films director, Barbara Streisand, wasn’t even nominated. Alright, so it’s not the same situation at all. The Rocket was nominated in every major category and won in virtually everything (Best Actor, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, etc) but yet lost out on Best Picture to Bon Cop, Bad Cop.

For a nice change of pace, I’ve actually seen both of the main contenders for Best Film, and for my money I would vote for Bon Cop, Bad Cop. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed both films, but I just felt that The Rocket dropped the ball. It felt too… clichéd… to me. My views on Bon Cop, Bad Cop are pretty well known, so I won’t waste too much space on this, but I will say that once you really get the joke, it becomes that much better of a film.
So congratulations to all the nominees and winners! Til next time…

An Open Invitation to Quebec Sovereignists

2007-02-12T09:08:00.000-05:00

I spent the better part of this weekend (and by better part, I mean pretty much every waking hour) doing a combination of translation homework and watching the first two seasons of Veronica Mars on dvd. Yes, I’m a wild man. No doubt about it. Anyway, when I checked my e-mail this morning, I found a rather interesting letter in my Inbox. It seems that my little ol’ blog has caught the attention of a couple of sovereignists and one decided to drop me a line with some links to some English language resources about the topic of an independent Quebec.

As luck would have it, I was already familiar with the earlier versions of the sites mentioned, but that got me to thinking. While this is not a politically oriented website, nor do I intend to make it one, I do believe very strongly in open communication and the promotion of understanding between people of differing viewpoints. So keeping that in mind, I’ve decided to open up the floor for discussion. I would like to take this opportunity to issue a formal invitation to sovereignist readers who, for one reason or another have stumbled upon my site, to submit articles on why there needs to be an independent Quebec.

I’m not concerned with whether it will actually happen (I prefer to let the future sort itself out) or whether Quebec could survive on its own as an independent state. I’m more interested in why you feel the way you do. Any submissions, whether they be in English or in French, will be posted here unedited, though I reserve the right to divide submissions up into multiple parts if they’re on the lengthy side. Articles will be attributed to the pseudonym of your choice and I will not disclose the e-mail addresses of any submitters. Articles may be submitted via the handy e-mail link that I've posted on the upper right hand side of this site.

I like open and productive dialogue and encourage discussion amongst my readers; however anything that I interpret as malicious or hateful will not be accepted nor posted. So take this opportunity for what it is: a chance to communicate your ideas to a largely Anglophone audience who has an interest in Quebec. Til next time…

Backwoods Quebecois village by-laws

2007-02-06T09:58:00.000-05:00

Alright, this is just ridiculous. I was flipping channels during the Super Bowl (blasphemy, I know!) and decided to check out a bit of Tout le Monde en Parle. It’s a French talk show on Radio Canada on Sunday nights where (occasionally) controversial guests are invited to discuss whatever issues have gotten their shorts in a bunch. It’s hosted and moderated by Guy A Lepage, a fairly well-recognized Quebecois comedian, who is joined by le fou du roi, Dany Turcotte. The role of le fou du roi is essentially comic relief—particularly useful when you’ve got some crackpots on the program. Well, this time around they decided to invite André Drouin, a town councillor of Hérouxville.

It seems that this town is (or at least its municipal representatives are) fed up with accommodating immigrants. Get this—they passed a by-law that specifically forbids the stoning of women?!? Um, isn’t this already covered under, oh I don’t know, MURDER?!?! Was this law really necessary? Who are these people? The population of the village sits at 207! Somehow I don’t think that they’re being overwhelmed by the demands of a great wave of Islamic immigration.

Anyway, this town councillor goes on Tout le Monde en Parle and starts going on about how Charest needs to call a state of cultural emergency and start rescinding cultural and religious compromises that have been put in place to accommodate the religions of immigrants. What a bunch of backwoods hicks! So I guess we can chalk up yet another example for those that love to accuse the Quebecois of being a bunch of racist, intolerant xenophobes, eh? At least Charest has had the good sense to reject the suggestions of these yahoos in Hérouxville. Since this story has already been picked up by some American news providers, I’m sure it’ll be making the rounds soon enough. Til next time…

La Paryse

2007-02-05T09:59:00.000-05:00

(Somewhat) fresh off of the submission of my MA application on Thursday, I needed to blow off a bit of steam and relax before throwing myself headlong into translation assignments for my classes. As luck would have it, Zahra was free and suggested that we check out her favourite hamburger place in Montreal: La Paryse. Since I’ve always been a burger and fries sort of guy, I thought, why not? Truth be told, I was far more interested in my companion than any hamburger, but that’s neither here nor there.

She had told me that the place was pretty popular and that whenever she had gone in the past, the place was always packed. Given the small size of the restaurant, I can see why that would be the case. Fortunately for us, there was a table in the back of the quaint little eatery. I would have to say that it redefined the term “intimate” for me, as they crammed somewhere in the neighbourhood of 15-20 tables into a place that could barely support that. I could probably have snagged fries off of a neighbouring table. The décor was pleasant enough, though nothing really sticks out as terribly memorable. Admittedly, I was focused more on Zahra than my surroundings, so forgive my lack of a detailed description.

There wasn’t a lot of variety on the menu, which considering its reputation as a burger place should hardly come as a surprise. They also make a pretty mean milkshake, I might add. The burgers are 100% beef (no relation to the company that supplies McDonald’s) and, quite honestly, are fantastic. Messy, but fantastic. I would have to say that there’s no dignified way to eat these things, unless one resorted to a knife and fork. And seriously, who eats a hamburger with a knife and fork?

By the time we left a couple of hours later, there was a line up out the door and starting down the street. All things considered, the place deserves its reputation. Located on Ontario St, near St-Denis, it’s also close enough to some of the trendy pubs and nightspots, so it’s a good place to start an evening. If you have the chance to check it out, I recommend it. Til next time…

Deadlines, deadlines!

2007-01-31T10:49:00.000-05:00

The next 24-48 hours will be particularly stressful for ol' Al. Not only do I have an assignment for my French-to-English translation course, but the deadline for my MA application is tomorrow. I've been polishing up my submissions as best I can, but I'm still missing one of my reference letters. I sent an e-mail yesterday to the professor in question, but as of right now, I haven't received a reply. With any luck, it'll magically appear in my mailbox before the deadline. After all, the Department Checklist clearly states that "only complete application packages will be processed." So, yeah. A wee bit worried. Sorry for the brevity of this entry, but I think I'll pace back and forth for a bit. Til next time...

Church, Balance and the Subtlety of Language

2007-01-25T11:44:00.000-05:00

After my chance meeting of Martin’s uncle at la paroisse de Saint-Ambroise a few weeks ago, I’ve been attending mass every Sunday. I’d been thinking back on my Kin 021 class from several years back and the concept of the Wellness Wheel. A quick websearch turns up a bunch of sites related to the Wheel, so if you’re interested in a more thorough discussion of the topic, I encourage you to check them out.

Anyway, I’ve accepted that I lack balance in my life. In fact, I may have mentioned that in a previous entry… well, maybe not explicitly, but I had at least resolved to make some efforts towards self-improvement. The Spiritual segment of the Wellness Wheel has been non-existent for me for the past 15-20 years, at least, so I thought that it was a good place to start. Also, since the services are conducted in French, it’s a good opportunity for me to look at the language in a different context.

I won’t pretend to be a highly skilled grammarian by any stretch of the imagination, but I did notice some things that I found interesting. In English, when one uses God (and by “God” I mean the Christian version) in a sentence, it usually starts with an uppercase letter. That’s not particularly unusual, since it’s being used as a proper name. However, the same goes for when God is replaced by a pronoun, regardless of its placement within the sentence (eg. “I am an instrument of His will.”). From what I recall, this is supposed to acknowledge the writer’s reverence for the Supreme Being.

French is a far more subtle language, so I was interested in seeing how religious content was handled. I’ve been a bit surprised at the way the prayers have been translated, particularly since Quebec has (historically) been a God-fearing province for hundreds of years. I had expected to see a lot more use of what is typically called the vous de politesse. For those not familiar with the language, I’ll try and explain this as best I can.

In French, there are 2 pronouns used for the English equivalent of “You.” There’s the form “tu” and the form “vous.” The “tu” form is used when addressing an individual with whom one has a certain degree of familiarity. The “vous” form is used when addressing a group of people, when addressing someone that one holds in high esteem, someone elderly, a business client or perhaps just someone who one doesn’t know very well. Its use is a mark of respect. It used to be used when addressing one’s parents, but it’s pretty uncommon to see it used that way now. They’ve even got a couple of verbs specifically used to inform someone that they can switch from the “vous” to the “tu” or vice versa (tutoyer and vouvoyer).

So as I was saying, I figured that any prayers or responses would be full of “vous” when referring to God, perhaps even written in uppercase letters to note a similar reverence to God as what one sees in the English equivalent. Not so. At least not in the translations used in this parish. From what Martin’s uncle told me, they’ve used a lot of translations from Latin over the years and this particular one is far less formal in its structure. I was thinking about that and, to a certain extent, it makes sense to me. Through the subtlety of the language construction, this French version tries to create a familiarity with God. He isn’t some unknown force, but rather someone with whom parishioners can have a very close, personal relationship. This concept of a personal relationship with God is also in keeping with the message being conveyed during the masses. Anyway, it’s this sort of nuance that continues to fuel my interest in the French language. I’m intrigued by how much can be expressed by something so simple as the choice between the use of “tu” or “vous.”

I’m not sure if anyone else is still awake after reading this entry, but whatever. I find the topic interesting. Til next time…

Têtes à claques

2007-01-18T09:57:00.000-05:00

I was talking with my distant cousin, Sylvain, recently and he pointed me in the direction of a site called Têtes à claques. According to my handy dictionary, that translates to “unpleasant faces,” which would pretty much sum up the look of the rather bizarre looking characters in these direct-to-web short comedic films. I kept forgetting to look up the site until this morning when I read an article online that announced that the folks at Juste Pour Rire had purchased the rights to these shorts and planned on selling them to various broadcasters all over the world. The creator of the shorts, Michel Beaudet, has maintained the rights for the internet, mobile phones and the Canadian and Quebecois television markets.

I took a look at the site and, to be quite honest, I’m not sure what I think about it. Part of the humour must come from the look of the characters, which are pretty much plastic figurines with Beaudet’s mouth and eyes spliced overtop to do the dialogue and the reactions, but I’m not sure how this has blown up into such a phenomenon. The site was launched in August and now gets about 250,000 visitors per day. That’s the sort of traffic ol’ Al could only dream of!

The most popular clip is a spoof of infomercials, advertising a the fictitious Willi Waller potato peelers. Just to give you an additional idea of the influence of this site, vendors in Montreal and area reported an increase in the sale of potato peelers during the Christmas season. There were many a happy Quebecois who found potato peelers in their stockings. Le monde est fou!

Anyway, if you’re a fan of short webfilms, then I encourage you to check out this site. Maybe one of my faithful readers can explain the appeal. Keep in mind, all the videos are in French at this point. They’re working on English versions, though, so when this is unleashed on an unsuspecting anglo audience, just remember where you saw it first! Til next time…

***UPDATE: Jan 25, 2007*** Alright, I took another look at the site and a few more of the clips. It's funnier than I first gave it credit for. Not every one's a winner, but there are plenty that are good! When I first made this posting, I doubted that I'd bother checking it out again, but now I can say that I'm becoming a fan. Til next time...

Racism in Quebec

2007-01-15T09:11:00.000-05:00

Well, how about this little tidbit? After I spent a considerable amount of time defending les Quebecois against accusations of being racist and intolerant, they go ahead and admit it in a survey conducted by Le Journal de Montreal, TVA and 98.5 FM! Needless to say, I’m disheartened by this new information, especially since the same survey indicated that, collectively, the Quebecois are more racist than the rest of Canada.

According to the survey, 59% of those surveyed indicated that they were strongly, moderately or marginally racist. That’s a pretty significant number. Apparently the Arab community bears the brunt of these negative feelings, followed by the Jewish and Black communities. Surprisingly, the Asian community is barely mentioned. Now before we go tarring and feathering the ethnic Quebecois, it merits mentioning that half of the respondents who come from ethnic communities also consider themselves racist.

Apparently the respondents indicated that news coverage of the Middle East, in combination with the events of September 11, 2001, have contributed most strongly to the negative views of Arabs. The reaction to 9/11 shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but it also shouldn’t be used as a crutch 5 years after the fact to justify negative views of an entire cultural group, especially since those living here had nothing to do with it. This is making my brain hurt.

Now I didn’t participate in the survey, nor have I seen the list of questions, but I’m quite aware that statistics can be manipulated to support just about any conclusion one can think of. Remember, the survey indicates that 6 out of 10 people fit anywhere within the range of strongly to marginally racist. That’s a pretty wide berth. I’d be far more interested in seeing how many admit that they’re strongly racist. Perhaps Quebec is less ethnically diverse than the rest of Canada? Could that impact the results? Perhaps the Quebecois are more direct and honest in their discourse, admitting what those in the rest of Canada may be too embarrassed to admit? At the very least it sparks discussion. It may be nothing more than sensationalist nonsense used to drive newspaper sales or TV ratings, but if this somehow positively contributes to addressing an existing problem, then I’m all for it. Til next time…

Tag

2007-01-12T14:45:00.000-05:00

I noticed a spike in my traffic today and since I didn’t post any links to gratuitous nudity recently, I found this to be a bit puzzling. So off I went to check my handy sitemeter and found the source of this new activity. It seems I’ve been “tagged” in some sort of game of blog tag by a columnist for Le Journal de Montréal named Jean-François Codère. You’re right, J-F, I had absolutely no idea that you stopped by to read my little blog, but I welcome visitors from the Francophone community. I expect your readers were a wee bit surprised to find largely English language content on my site when they followed the link. Anyway, perhaps you can point me in the direction of other aspects of Montreal that I’ve yet to discover.

Alright, out of respect for J-F’s link, I’ll play along, as well. From what I’ve gathered, I need to come up with 5 things to post about myself that aren’t exactly common knowledge. Hmmm. That may be tougher than I’d have thought as I’ve been pretty open about most things on here. Alright, here goes:

1) I have a fairly unnatural fear of squirrels. It’s subsided over the years, but I still don’t like the wee rodents. When I was a young lad of around 5 or 6 years old, I was chased around a playground by a (possibly rabid) squirrel. I have no idea how I managed to escape the little bastard unharmed, but since that time I’ve been afraid of them.
2) I have no idea how to ice skate. I had fully intended to learn, but the only time my parents took me out to skate, my mother hit some sort of edge on the ice surface and broke her leg. We just never went out to try again. If some petite québécoise wants to teach me, then I’m more than happy to learn!
3) I’m not a “cat person.” I prefer dogs as household pets.
4) I started watching curling in the 1990s because I thought Kim Gellard was really hot. Now I actually have an appreciation for the game. No, really. I do.
5) I’m half newfie. Both my grandparents on my mother’s side were born and raised in Newfoundland. I’ve never been there, but I think it may be nice to visit sometime.

That covers it, I think. I’m sure I could put something more scandalous down, but I’ll leave that for another time. As for the tagging of other blogs… hmmm… I suppose that Phil Renaud could put down something interesting. Let’s add Chris to the list, as well. Til next time…

Just Rambling

2007-01-10T15:35:00.000-05:00

Things have been rather slow chez Al B Here. The semester has begun and I’ve been to my first two classes. I think it’ll be nice to have a regular routine, once I get accustomed to the consecutive 13 hour days on campus. I’m still working away on the MA application package. I managed to secure my references and even dig up some old, graded papers while I was home. THAT was a genuine surprise, let me tell you!

I dug through some plastic storage bins in my old closet and came out with a couple of ‘A’ papers from the days of my youth. I didn’t reread them because I was sure I would start critiquing my old work. And what good would that do? I wonder how surprised the selection committee will be when they see a writing sample from 1997… that was back before anyone even considered using online resources in essays and research papers!

In the interests of accountability, I thought I would post some of my goals for the New Year. No, they’re not resolutions. Resolutions are useless. So here’s the first one: buy a notebook and start carrying it around. Morgan has been hounding me about this one and he’s right more often than wrong (as we learned during a Totally 80s Trivial Pursuit game), so I’m going to give it a shot. Second, I’m going to make a more concerted effort to get to the gym. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are a complete write-off, because of my courses, but that leaves 5 other eligible days. My goal is to get there 3 times per week. This is actually part of a more general goal, which is to live a healthier lifestyle. I won’t give up anything, per se, but I’m going to seek a better balance in my life.

I think that covers everything for now. Wait, no. My final goal is to get back to posting some witty commentaries sooner than later. Til next time…

the Louis-José Houde experiment

2007-01-08T09:20:00.000-05:00

I'm trying a little experiment here. Having seen the nifty clips that others have managed to include in their blogs, I thought I would try and do the same. I've attemped to link to a short clip of the stand up comedy of Louis-José Houde. Those of you who've seen the film Bon Cop Bad Cop will remember him as the fast talking coroner, Jeff.

He seems to be pretty much everywhere at the moment. Definitely one of the "in" Quebecois comedians at the moment. So sit back and enjoy this little experiment. By the way, it's in French, so I apologize to those readers that don't understand the language. Til next time...

Some Interesting Sites

2007-01-03T10:23:00.000-05:00

Since I have a bit of time this morning, I thought I would direct my readers to a couple of interesting sites. The first is the blog of Matthew Hayday from Mount Allison University. He’s a post-doctoral fellow in Canadian Studies and has written a book called Bilingual Today, United Tomorrow: Official Languages in Education and Canadian Federalism (a copy of which is sitting on my kitchen table). It’s one thing for me to ramble on about Quebecois culture and language issues, but Matthew has the credibility to back up his analysis. He’s also been rather helpful as I’ve searched for potential essay topics for my MA application, so check out his site. I think it’s a worthwhile read.

The next comes from Larry Savage from Brock University. I’d gotten an e-mail over the past few weeks, indicating that he would like to put a link to my blog on his site and since I welcome new readers, I gave him the thumbs up to do so. I’ve skimmed his entries over the past week or so and it looks like a pretty interesting blog in its own right. He’s definitely more tech-savvy than I am, so if you like audio and video clips as well as interesting commentary, then I encourage you to visit his site, as well.

I’ll be starting one of my translation courses tonight, so we’ll have to see how workload affects my blogging output. As OJ has been so adept in pointing out, I’ve been AWOL for a good chunk of the holiday season. With any luck, I’ll be able to put things together on a more consistent basis as my humble blog enters its second year of existence. Til next time…

Draw Your Own Conclusions

2007-01-01T18:46:00.000-05:00

Welcome to 2007! I’ve returned from the surprisingly green environs of London, Ontario and still have a day or so to kill before I start back at work. So I’ve been watching a bit of football and a variety of dvds (including my newest guilty pleasure, a film called Stick It). Since part of my holidays have already been covered on Chris’ blog, I thought I would jump straight to this past Sunday, when I had one of those really Bizarro World moments. Enough preamble, let’s get to it.

This past Sunday, I decided to check out the local Catholic churches. I’m not a devout Catholic by any stretch of the imagination, but recent correspondence with a new friend prompted me to take a look around. So I did some web searches on the Archdiocese of Montreal website and found a listing for Saint-Etienne, located about a block or so from me. It didn’t list the times of the services, so I made a wild guess and took a walk over. Here’s the thing—when I got to the address, there was NO church there! Nothing. There was just a fenced off lawn where I was expecting to see one.

I was a little put off by that. One would think that the Archdiocese would have the good sense to keep their parish listings at least somewhat current. I turned around and started to walk home when I noticed a church steeple off a few blocks away from me. So I decided it was worth a look. After all, I could have gotten the address mixed up. The closer I got, the more I realized how big this place was. It was HUGE. I can’t really say I’m surprised, though, since historically, the province of Quebec has always been a very Catholic province.

As it turns out, I’d found the parish of Saint-Ambroise. The service had started at 11am, so I was already late, but I decided to slip in the back anyway. Now I’m not sure if it was the echo of the hall (if someone can suggest a better word to describe the inside of a church, I’ll gladly take it) or the fact that I’d never spent much time learning religious words in my French courses, but I didn’t understand the majority of what was said. After the mass, I decided to introduce myself to the priest.

He was a pleasant enough fellow, with glasses and gray hair. He gave me the general rundown of the mass schedule and asked the usual questions about whether I’d been baptized, etc. occasionally switching to English after noticing my accent. I’d mentioned in passing that I had moved to Montreal from London and he told me that his brother used to teach Physics at Western. Interesting coincidence, but I didn’t think anything more of it.

On my way out, I took a look at the parish bulletin, trying to find a listing of the mass times and then, before leaving, I remembered my manners and asked the priest’s name. His answer left me stunned. We’re talking jaw-on-the-floor stunned here. I had just been having a pleasant conversation with Denis Saint-Maurice—the uncle of one of my best friends through eighth grade and high school, Martin St-Maurice! I’m a bit disappointed in myself that I hadn’t caught on sooner, since it was common knowledge amongst our group of friends that Martin’s father was a Physics professor. That was the reason they moved to London in the first place!

So I’m not sure what to make of this, to be quite honest. After all, there are a little less than 2 million people in Montreal and I just happened to move into THIS parish’s area? The odds of this happening are lottery-esque. So draw what conclusions you may from this, but I think I’ll be popping into the Sunday services a bit more regularly from now on. Couldn’t hurt, right? Til next time…

The Quest for Mitsou

2006-12-20T14:36:00.000-05:00

Mitsou has been one of my favorite Québécois personalities for a while now. Though I didn't understand any of her lyrics when I first heard Bye Bye Mon Cowboy back in the late 80s, she still made an impression on me. Then, as usually happens to francophone artists in English Canada, she seemed to disappear, only to return a few years later with a rather risqué video for her song Dis-Moi, Dis-Moi. From what I've been told, her songs still get air-play during various Toronto "One Hit Wonder" hours on the radio. But despite our ignorance in English Canada, she's continued to have a vibrant career in Quebec. It's with that in mind that I contacted her representatives to try and arrange an interview. Her schedule didn't permit it earlier in the Fall, so I tried again in mid-November. Here's the response I got today:

Bonjour Alan,

Je me souviens de vous. Je suis désolée de vous annoncer qu’il ne sera pas possible pour elle de participer pour les prochains mois.Mitsou sera en congé de maternité jusqu’à approximativement la fin du printemps. Peut-être pour l’automne 2007?

Je vous souhaite un magnifique temps des Fêtes et vous prie d’accepter mes meilleurs vœux pour la nouvelle année à venir!

Meilleures salutations,

Julie
__________________
Julie Harvey
Dazmo Inc.

Not exactly the response I had hoped for, but rest assured, I'll try again. I suppose this is where my stubborn streak comes in handy, eh? I'd just like to take a quick moment to send Mitsou and her family my best wishes during the holiday season and, of course, health and happiness for their soon-to-be new arrival. Til next time...

Words Without Voices

2006-12-15T15:02:00.000-05:00

Ol' Al received an unexpected e-mail in his Inbox this afternoon. It seems that Jim Fielding of Atlantis Found Publishing in Maine came across the review I did about the Metal documentary several months back and asked that I mention the Words Without Voices online album art competition. I took a quick look at the press release and figured it, why not? What follows is the press release sent to me by Mr. Fielding. I encourage any of my artisitcally inclined readers to check it out.

***

Rock Meets Academia in National Concept Album Art Competition

Portland, Maine-based Atlantis Found Publishing Inc. announces the launch of “WORDS WITHOUT VOICES” (™) Online Album Art Competition. The contest seeks digital visual artwork submissions to illustrate the song lyrics of Conceptual Artist James Thomas Fielding.

The contest is limited to the U.S. , Canada and the U.K.

The juried art competition, which seeks to establish a new multimedia artform based on rock “Concept Albums,” offers $6,000 in cash prizes to be awarded to three finalists in two categories: Best Songbook Jacket and Best Album Jacket.

The public will select the winners by voting online at the contest website
http://www.wordswithoutvoices.com/ .

The “WORDS WITHOUT VOICES” (™) series combines Art, Music, Language, and Internet Technology, and will be aimed toward the youth market, especially college art instructors and students who study Advertising, Visual Arts, English, Graphic Design, Multimedia, Music, and Web Design.

Says Maine resident Fielding, 51, “This competition places more emphasis on imagination than knowledge, and students in many fields of study will benefit from both result-oriented and experiential learning.”

Fielding says “WORDS WITHOUT VOICES(™)” is not so much an attempt to resurrect the concept album as to preserve and explore its possibilities as a viable artform.

“The release of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967 should have signaled the beginning of a new era in album composition,” says Fielding, “instead it was a rare high point in a field more interested in making money than exploring art. In the 40 years since Sgt. Pepper’s release, modern rock has been limited enormously by formula formats and commercialism.”

According to Fielding, Green Day’s American Idiot is a good recent example of the “concept album,” even though it wasn’t marketed as such.

Fielding admits that Atlantis Found’s agenda—to elevate an artform which reached it’s creative zenith by the mid-1970’s, is ambitious. “Staples of yesteryear such as concept albums and rock operas, like The Who’s Tommy, Hair, and Jesus Christ Superstar, are rare today,” Fielding says.

Still, he believes the potential appeal of concept albums ranges from “15-year-old heavy-metal headbangers to college professors with PhD’s in literature.”

Fielding is seeking artwork to illustrate the titles of 25 Songbook Jackets and 125 Album covers, in genres ranging from country, gospel, and progressive rock to death metal.

The initial “WORDS WITHOUT VOICES” (™) contest features no music, just the combination of visual artwork and Songbook, Album and Song titles.

While the contest is open to “anyone who is creative,” state contest restrictions apply. Entry fees are $10 for one entry in one category, $15 to enter both. All submissions will be displayed at WordsWithout Voices. com.

Final deadline for the competition is August 31, 2007.

J.T. Fielding is a conceptual artist, freelance writer, rock critic, lyricist, singer, songwriter and musician. He has produced over 500 musical compositions and 5,000 song titles in a 35-year career.

Contact Information:Jim Fielding
Atlantis Found Publishing Inc.
PO Box 9546 Portland, ME. 04112
jtf@wordswithoutvoices.com
http://www.wordswithoutvoices.com/

The Recap

2006-12-14T12:40:00.000-05:00

The dust has finally settled and I’m on my own again. Last weekend saw OJ roll into town, which was cause for a wee bit of celebrating. Thanks to him, I got a chance to take in one of the mandatory Montreal experiences—un match des Canadiens! His train arrived a little before 5pm, which gave us enough time to swing back to my place to drop his stuff off, then go right back downtown via metro to the Bell Centre. We didn’t have tickets, naturally, so we were at the mercy of the friendly street vendors.

En route, we met “Jacques,” who happened to have a couple of nosebleed seats available. I was somewhat surprised that OJ didn’t try to haggle a bit for the price, but whatever. The point is we had seats. Though he protested, at first, OJ convinced “Jacques” to take a picture with us. OJ had tried to play it off as a tourist thing, but “Jacques” was no dumbass. He knew damn well that this was our insurance policy against getting scammed. Fortunately for all parties, the tickets were legit.

This was my second opportunity to see an NHL game in person (the first being in Toronto, years earlier, thanks to some free tickets from a fraternity brother), but this time I got to see a team that I didn’t despise. Our seats were well up in the second highest row, right beside the Molson zone. Y’see, at the Bell Centre, they have a section sponsored by Molson where they do promotions and whatnot. However, we were just outside that section, so ineligible for any prizes. We did have the privilege of gawking at the Molson Promo girls, though!

The game ended in a shootout (totally stupid way to end any sort of hockey game, regular season or otherwise), with Buffalo taking home the victory, leaving us to drown our sorrows at Pub Saint-Ciboire. The boys from Cagibi were playing, so OJ got a chance to hear an example of independent (in many contexts) Quebecois funk/rock music. I also got a chance to introduce him to Blanche de Chambly. Though not nearly as potent as la biere Trois-Pistoles or la Maudite, it’s still quite good. A couple of pints later, we were en route to find late-night smoked meat.

A couple of blocks from my apartment, one will find a 24 hour restaurant called Le Roi de Smoked Meat. It seems to me that if the place is claiming to be “Le Roi” of anything, it should be pretty good. We’d actually discovered this place when the lads came up the year before. I won’t claim this is the best smoked meat place in Montreal, but it isn’t too shabby—especially after a night of drinking. So we grabbed takeout and headed back to my place to stuff ourselves full of smoked meat and crash.

For me, the rest of the weekend was uneventful. It seems that my once indomitable constitution has gone into decline. So while OJ was out doing tourist stuff in Montreal, I was at home, on my couch, watching football. So that’s the scoop. Til next time…

Mes Aïeux

2006-12-08T12:02:00.000-05:00

Today I thought I would take a moment or two to talk a bit about my favorite Québécois group, Mes Aïeux. I would be pretty shocked if my readers from English Canada had run across them before and even more shocked if my new American readers (Thanks to a recent link from Stumblingthroughlifewithgrace.com) had even the slightest clue who they are. Since they’ve recently released a new CD/DVD set in Quebec, I thought that now was as good a time as any to talk a bit about them. I don’t know too much about the history of the group (Yes, I know. My bad. But it seems to me that the music is more important than quaint little tales of origin.), but it’s pretty clear that they’ve been deeply influenced by traditional Québécois folk music. The sextet is comprised of Stéphane and Benoit Archambault, Fredéric Giroux, Eric Desranleau, Marie-Hélène Fortin and Marc-André Paquet and has released 4 albums to date.

I picked up their 2004 album, En famille, when I was in Quebec City during my first French immersion course and from the first song, I was hooked. The song? Dégénérations- very recently the #1 francophone song in Quebec. The song was first released 2 years ago, but it got no airplay from radio here. Apparently the Powers-That-Be in music programming didn’t think it was right for their audience. Constant pressure from the fans of the group finally got them to change their minds and the next thing you know, it’s the most popular song in Quebec.

For the most part, the song’s sung a capella with only a tribal drumbeat to keep time (though I suppose the presence of ANY instrument disqualifies it from truly being a capella). It traces the history of a family through its days of clearing farmland to present day apartment living, comparing one generation to the next. In a touch of irony, the song’s present generation yearns for the very things their forebears gradually gave up: a plot of land to work and a large family.

I’ve found the same sort of subtext (a desire to return to simpler times) in songs by other sovereignists, though I can’t for the life of me give examples at the moment. The difference between this song and those by other sovereignists is the acknowledgement that the past was pretty miserable. They seem to advocate a balance between the old ways and modern living. Now how anyone attains such a balance is anyone’s guess.

Their songs do have political undercurrents (no big surprise in Quebec), but they also have a sense of humour (again, no big surprise). Heck, they wrote a whole song about leaving the bar after last call and going for late-night poutine! Overall, I’d recommend them to anyone who’s a fan of the pop-folk genre, even if you can’t understand what they’re saying. So fire up your file transfer program of choice and track down a few songs. Til next time…

Calm Before the Storm

2006-12-06T12:57:00.000-05:00

Today’s edition of Al B Here will be a brainstorming session. In a mere 2 more days, Hurricane OJ will be blowing into town, leaving chaos in his wake. So the question becomes: what does Montreal have to offer this weekend? There’s been talk of wandering up to some friendly street vendors, in an effort to procure tickets to Saturday night’s hockey game, but even if we do that, the game will be over by 10pm at the latest. And who wants to go home at that point?

While surfing around, I also noticed that my old friends from Cagibi are playing a gig at Saint-Ciboire that night around 9pm, so we may be able to catch a part of that show, depending on how long it goes. From there, I imagine there’s no shortage of trouble we could get ourselves into (though how much manages to make its way onto this site is anyone’s guess). Le Petit Medley is out, though, due to a private party. Damn shame, too, given its proximity to my apartment. I’ve also had a hankering to hold an informal Quebecois beer tasting session. Neither he nor I are connoisseurs so I wouldn’t expect any grand analysis of bouquet or subtlety of aftertaste, but it could be good for a laugh or two.

If anyone amongst my Montreal readership has any recommendations, I will happily accept them for consideration. Don’t be shy! Til next time…

Thoughts on Dion

2006-12-04T11:42:00.000-05:00

Although I’m not really one to banter on too much about politics, the recent Liberal leadership convention caught my attention. I didn’t have too many thoughts about it beforehand, aside from being anti-Rae, but I was still pretty surprised at the outcome. Watching Stephane Dion’s come from behind victory reminded me a bit of the coup that resulted in the IOC granting Sydney the Summer Olympics. For those of you who haven’t followed the convention, Dion barely squeaked into 3rd place on the leadership ballot, then leapfrogged the 2 leading candidates and then sealed the deal on the 4th ballot.

The Sydney delegation pulled a similar stunt back in the day. They approached voting members of the IOC and essentially pitched the idea that, “Okay, we know we’re not your first choice. But do you think we’d be an acceptable second choice if your favorite gets knocked out?” They managed to gain enough support by focusing on the endgame rather than the first couple of rounds of voting. Slick move. And from an outsider’s perspective, we seem to see this again with Dion’s victory in the Liberal leadership race.

Far be it for me to try and tell the Liberals what to do with their party, but I’m hard-pressed to believe that Dion can lead them to victory, even in a minority sense. I’ve no doubt that he’s a bright guy, but I can’t help but wonder how his grasp of English will play in the rest of Canada. Chretien had the benefit of a splintered Conservative opposition and a nostalgic connection to Trudeau. Dion seems to be less fluent than Chretien and doesn’t have the luxury of opponents in disarray.

From what I’ve read, Dion was brought in shortly after the 1995 Referendum and worked on the Clarity Act, which has seen more than its share of bad press in his home province. So the Liberals may have just chosen a leader who can’t win in the West and who may have an uphill battle to carry Quebec. Mind you, plenty can happen over the course of the next several months, but I think that Dion is a stopgap leader, at best. Til next time…

Al's Birthday

2006-11-30T10:04:00.000-05:00

I made it. Not entirely sure how or why, but I made it nonetheless. For those of you unaware of today’s National holiday, it’s called la Journée d’appréciation des danseuses, though you may know it by its more common name, Al’s birthday. Yes, it’s true; I’m inching further and further through my 4th decade on the planet, having reached the ripe ol’ age of 32. Rather than take my customary day off, I’ve opted to come into work today. I figured that I shouldn’t deprive the masses of their opportunity to greet me and wish me well.

Truth be told, this will be a rather uneventful birthday. Last year, I was drinking shots of flaming sambuca at a downtown watering hole before returning to my apartment where the roomies had baked me a cake. This year, I’m sans colocs, though I will be receiving a visit from the parents this weekend. I’ll also be grabbing a few bevies with Phil and CT at some point, as well. But for the big day itself, I’m flying solo.

Alright, I’m off for now. Just remember, tip using bills! The girls don’t take loonies or twonies! It’s a health risk when wearing platform shoes. Til next time…

Le Rouge et Or de Laval

2006-11-29T11:22:00.000-05:00

I’ve touched on this more than a few times over the course of the last year, but I’ll say it again anyway: things are different here in Quebec. My latest example comes on the heels of this past weekend’s Vanier Cup which showcased two of the most consistently dominant football teams in recent CIS history, the Rouge et Or de Laval and the Huskies from the University of Saskatchewan. Laval dispatched the Huskies 13-8 in a hard-fought game played in deathly cold on the Huskies home field to take home their third Vanier Cup in 4 years. Not too shabby, huh?

At most schools, there would probably be some sort of rally in the student union building or possibly on the football field. I remember being one of many to crowd the UCC atrium the last time my alma mater managed to win the Vanier, though truth be told, I was more interested in scoping out the cheerleaders than hearing a bunch of victory speeches, but I digress. The city of Quebec, by contrast, held a victory parade up the Grande Allée for their conquering heroes, followed by a visit to city hall to visit the mayor and then the National Assembly. Naturally, there were speeches by party leaders, each of whom received their own Laval jerseys from the team. The whole thing reminded me of the annual visits to the White House accorded winners of major professional sports.

Obviously they made a bigger deal out of it because Laval is located in Quebec City, but I believe they would have made similar gestures had ANY of the Quebec-based schools won the national title. Politicians, especially in Quebec, never miss an opportunity to get face-time with the media. I just find it remarkable that they would go to so much effort to acknowledge a university football team. I just can’t imagine the Powers-that-Be in Ontario (I won’t speak for any of the other provinces) doing anything remotely similar. I think Ontario could learn a little something in that respect. Student athletes work very hard to excel both in the classroom and on the playing field and we should take pride in their accomplishments. But that’s just my 2 cents. Til next time…

Raymi versus the Politicos

2006-11-28T10:33:00.000-05:00

I must admit, I’ve been watching with a certain amount of glee as Raymi’s rabid readership tears apart at least one blogger foolish enough to question why she lost to Raymi. I’ll freely admit that my blog is far too mundane (by Raymi’s standards) to be acknowledged by her, and I’m fine with that. Her blog is pretty much an assault on the senses, with a wild colour scheme, tonnes of photos and a chaotic writing style. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, you either love her or you hate her. There doesn’t seem to be any fence-sitters.

If I’m forced to choose between Raymi and some political blog, I’m going to choose Raymi every time. Well, maybe not every time, but close enough. These people spend SO much time pontificating in their own little corner of the blogging universe that they don’t recognize their blogs for what they are: completely self-absorbed and meaningless. It seems to me that the only readership that these blogs attract comes from like-minded individuals. I’m sure there’s the occasional traffic from Liberals on a Conservative blog, but really, no one is going to convince anyone else to switch their affiliations or world views based on what’s written on a blog. All it does is provide some sort of mutual admiration society nonsense for these folks to reinforce their own perspective.

So let’s put blogging in its proper perspective: it’s self-expression. It’s a creative outlet. It’s entertainment. It also satisfies voyeuristic tendencies. But don’t for a moment think that it imparts any greater knowledge or enlightenment onto the world. Kudos to Raymi and her legions of fans that continue to knock these arrogant bastards down a few pegs. Good luck in Round 2 of the Canadian Blog Awards. I hope you win the whole damn thing. Til next time...

American Thanksgiving

2006-11-23T10:03:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to my American audience! Though I’m sure you’re all too busy stuffing yourself with turkey to read this, I thought I would recognize it anyway. Today is a special day for ol’ Al because he gets a chance to watch his beloved Detroit Lions put on the throw-back uniforms and get smoked by their former quarterback and his new team, the Miami Dolphins. I’ve opted to take a(n unpaid) half day off so I can take in the carnage and enjoy a bit of rest.

I wish I had a good explanation for why my team is doomed to season after season of embarrassing performances, but sadly, I have none. Alright, I have one. They’re a bad team. Being a bad team encompasses so much, ranging from poor draft selections to boneheaded front office moves to the play on the field itself. As much as I want to believe they’re underachieving and the victims of unfortunate circumstances, close to a decade of futility has splashed a bit of water on my face.

That being said, I’m not about to jump ship and abandon my team. I’ve lived through the decades of pathetic Tiger baseball and a chunk of the 90s where Detroit Basketball meant a fire sale of talent and/or early playoff exits. So one of these years, the Lions will turn it around and I’ll be able to proudly sport my home jersey (or perhaps my other home jersey) more than once a year. Until that time, number 54 stays in the closet, only to see the light of day on the American Thanksgiving. Enjoy the game! Til next time…

Initial Observations on the CBAs

2006-11-22T10:12:00.000-05:00

So now that first round voting has closed, I decided to take a closer look at some of the blogs in my favorite category of the Canadian Blog Awards: Best Cultural Blog. I guess my definition of “culture” must differ considerably from those who made or regulate the nominations because in my opinion, most of them don’t actually qualify. Granted, I didn’t go through each entry with a fine toothed comb, but it seems to me that, of the other nominees, the one that’s most reflective of the category would have to be African Perspective. Right behind that would be Arrogant Polyglot. While the other blogs are well done and certainly have their merits, I sincerely believe that there is a difference between politics and culture. The same can be said of sexual orientation.

Perhaps the inclusion of the other nominees is more a reflection of the desire to have a wider field for first round. After all, what fun would it be to have only 3 nominations in a category? I agree with the concept of having multiple rounds for the competition if only because of the sheer volume of candidates for any given category. I’m still shocked at how many political blogs are out there. I’ve tried to read a few of them, but the only one that actually held my attention for more than 10 seconds was Rants from the Moderate Separatist. I don’t agree with much he has to say on the blog, but it still makes for a pretty good read. I also find it interesting to read the perspective of a different sort of separatist than I encounter here.

At any rate, the results will be posted tomorrow, so I would like to offer my congratulations to any blogger who managed to successfully escape the first round of voting. I’m hoping to be one of them, but I won’t be holding my breath on that one. Good luck in future rounds! Til next time…

Not-So-Subtle Reminder

2006-11-20T08:56:00.000-05:00

We're entering the last day of first round voting for the Canadian Blog Awards for which ol' Al B Here has been nominated for 4 awards. If you haven't already done so, please vote for me in EACH of the categories, namely Best New Blog, Best Cultural Blog, Best Local Blog and Best Blog post. I've noticed that some other nominees have been more aggressively promoting the awards and, in fact, encouraging (or sometimes demanding that) others vote for their blog each day. While this is well within the acceptable guidelines, I don't play that way. I've noticed a spike in my daily stats thanks to these awards, so I'm hoping that those of you who've taken the time to drop by will read a few of my posts, get a feel for what I'm doing here and, most importantly, come back regularly.

I'd like to thank the readers who took the time out to nominate me in the first place. We'll find out in a few days if I've survived into the second round of voting. Til next time...

la nation Québécoise

2006-11-16T14:17:00.000-05:00

Now that I’ve posted my interview with Bernard Landry, I think the time is right to revisit the whole topic of la nation Québécoise. A number of other blogs have been reacting to and debating the stance that Michael Igniatief and other Liberal leadership candidates have taken concerning the possible recognition of Quebec as a nation or distinct society. This is not a political blog. Never has been. But since I live in Quebec right now, I thought I would weigh in.

A nation is a group of people that share a common language, history and typically the same geographic space. This history and language, as well as cultural elements, like art, music, and pastimes, contribute to a sense of identity. There’s a feeling of connection between members of this nation… one can relate to other members of it. So in this way, Quebec is most certainly a nation. Now I won’t go so far as to say they’re more unique than other provinces and territories, but I can see how they could feel like less and less a part of Canada.

If we look back on some of the major events in this country’s history, we see there’s a pretty major difference in perceptions between the Anglophones and the Francophones. In both world wars, Quebec staunchly opposed conscription, having no interest in fighting what they considered to be a British war. During the FLQ crisis in the 1970s, the rest of Canada cheered Trudeau’s use of the War Measures Act to stop the terrorists, but mention of that still elicits strong feelings of betrayal amongst les Montréalais who were around at that time. Though we collectively experienced the same events, the perceptions were significantly different.

On a cultural level, we only seem to recognize the Quebecois in athletics, but there’s a very definite star system here. When Bon Cop, Bad Cop was released in English Canada, I can guarantee you that the principle star (and writer), Patrick Huard, was a complete unknown. But here in Quebec, he wouldn’t have been able to walk down the street without being hounded for autographs every 10 meters. There’s something wrong with this picture, isn’t there? Quebecois cultural offerings are largely ignored until they, inevitably, end up being recognized on the world stage through Academy Award nominations or something like that. Then we seem to rediscover our “Canadian pride” and pound our chests at how creative and funny “we” are.

English Canada ignores Quebecois culture because it can’t understand the language and can’t relate to it. But in my opinion, this is a conscious choice on our parts. I know several parents in my hometown of London, Ontario who have decided against putting their children into French immersion programs. Why? Because they can’t see it actually being useful long-term. And perhaps they have a point.

The thing that frustrates me to no end is the dismissive attitude Anglophones seem to have towards learning French. I don’t believe it’s possible to create a fully bilingual nation, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask for people to open their minds to our own history and culture. Francophones have contributed to making this country what it is (good and bad) and I believe it’s about time they get recognized for it.

Bernard Landry told me that independence was a matter of dignity and I’m starting to see his point. If we truly consider the Quebecois a valuable part of Canada, then we should acknowledge them for what they bring to the table. Otherwise, we may as well just let them go. Til next time…

News from the Front

2006-11-14T14:29:00.000-05:00

Today has turned out to be a pretty good day (and I’m not even half way through it yet). Just after lunch, I received an e-mail from the folks responsible for creating the student e-mail accounts at McGill University. It looks like I’ve been accepted into Part-time and Continuing Studies for the Certificate in Translation (French to English) program that I had applied to earlier! Hurrah!

Now how does this fit into my grand scheme? Well, I’ve always been a bit of a worrier and since I can’t claim to have loads of job security at the moment, I thought I would take something that could add to my skill set. There’s bound to be a market for someone who can translate French to English in this province. Sure, I could have taken something a wee bit more practical, but what fun would that be? Besides, this also leads back into my explorations of Quebecois culture and would assist me in reading through primary sources should I succeed in my attempt to get into grad studies.

I’ve also recently joined a gym and have managed to get through 3 workouts so far. With any luck, I’ll manage to get back to a dainty 200 lbs sometime in the new year (I’m not going to hazard a guess as to how far through the new year it’ll be, though). So overall, I’ve got some pretty positive things happening. Lastly, voting begins tomorrow for the First Round of voting for the Canadian Blog Awards. Please feel free to show your support for ol’ Al B Here. Til next time…

Bernard Landry Interview (Part 3)

2006-11-11T15:35:00.000-05:00

Back to the action. For those just joining the party in progress, I highly recommend checking out the first couple of parts of the interview. The beginning of this little adventure can be found here.

Whenever I talk to a lifelong sovereignist, I can’t help but ask if there’s anything that can be done to reconcile the two solitudes, aside from splitting Canada up into its component parts. The answers are usually pretty similar. At this point, I’ve typically heard that they just feel it’s time to try things on their own.

“Frankly, there is not so much animosity and thank God! We’re in good relations with the rest of Canada, but nothing can be done to prevent us [from seeking] liberty for our nation. A nation must be free. There is literally no real compromise except independence.” Landry said.

So it appears we’re at an impasse. The Parti Québécois has been around for 36 years now and don’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.

“What Canada should do, formally, that could be in the interests of Canada and in the interests of Quebec, is accept that Quebec is a nation—accept that formally, which is not the case.” Landry suggested. “That’s the base of everything for the future; the way England recognizes Scotland as a nation; the way Spain recognizes Catalonia as a nation. Why doesn’t Canada do the same?”

Alright, let’s suppose that Quebec chooses to leave Canada. What happens to the small francophone communities in the rest of the country? The Quebecois would be essentially turning their back on their linguistic brethren, wouldn’t they? Not necessarily, according to Landry.

“They will be more protected if they could count on a new French-speaking country, member of the United Nations, UNESCO and other international organizations, to help them live as a minority and to give the example to treat the minority in the way we treat English speaking Quebeckers,” he explained. “As an independent country, we could be in a very good position to be an example to the rest of Canada, and to many other countries in the world, how to treat minorities.”

This is where he and I sharply disagree. Are English-speaking minorities respected in Quebec? For the most part, yes, though I can attest to how difficult it is for an Anglophone to try and find work in this province without being perfectly bilingual. I would argue that any “respectful” treatment Anglophones receive has more to do with the fact that they were historically part of the ruling class and thus, had the money and influence to ensure their needs were taken care of. In my opinion, it has nothing to do with Quebec’s respect for minority groups. Money talks. So he and I will have to agree to disagree on this point.

Longtime readers will remember that I typically end off my interviews by asking my guest to give me some adjectives to describe Quebec. Here’s what Monsieur Landry came up with:
“Culture is important. Solidarity is important. And to be open to the rest of the world is important. That’s the 3 most interesting characteristics of Quebec. Look at the cooperatives we have here, the unions we have, the social system we have,” he said. “And young Quebeckers travel all over the world. The population in Quebec travels more that the rest of Canada, outside of North America. You should see the proportion of Canadian passports held by the Quebec population compared to Ontarians or the West. Look at our culture: Celine Dion, Cirque du Soleil, Denys Arcand, many singers, dancers and musicians. Quebec is sort of a synthesis between North America and Europe. It’s the most European part of North America, no doubt.”

So looking back on his career in politics, what is Monsieur Landry most proud of? The economic revolution and transformation of Quebec that he, along with many others, were a part of.

“When I was young, we were exporters of aluminum, pulp and paper, wood and that sort of natural resources. Today, we export airplanes, telecommunication materials, pharmacology products, high technology with our sophisticated engineering firms, multimedia and so on. We started from raw materials and mining and forests and we went on to technology,” Landry said.
I would like to take a moment to thank Monsieur Landry for granting this interview and giving me the opportunity to learn a bit more about the sovereignty movement in Quebec. Hopefully my readers enjoyed it as well. Til next time…

Bernard Landry Interview (Part 2)

2006-11-03T00:06:00.000-05:00

The introduction to this interview can be found here.

I was born in November of 1974 so my parents were hip-deep in my “terrible twos” when the Parti Québécois (PQ) won the provincial election in November of 1976. Obviously I don’t remember a thing about that time period, but from what I’ve read, the PQ’s victory was nothing short of shocking in English Canada. Despite warnings in Laurendeau-Dunton report of 1969 of unrest within the francophone population, no one really believed that a sovereignist party would form a government. And according to Landry, it surprised even the PQ itself!

“It was not in our mind, at all.” Landry said. “It was the start of a movement. It was clear that the movement was not designed for [impatient] and ambitious people. Even in Lévesque’s mind, it was to be a long road. He was mistaken at that point because 6 years [after the PQ formed] we were in power. And we’ve governed Quebec most of the time since that period.”

Lévesque was in it for the long haul and gathered together people who were prepared for a struggle that may not be fully realized for decades. It definitely wasn’t a task for the faint of heart. Monsieur Landry recounted Lévesque’s theory to me:

“Lévesque said to me, in 1970, ‘It will be a long road, but independence should come when a generation will have passed.’ A generation is about 25 years, so Lévesque was [almost] right because, in 1995, we got 50% of the vote for independence.” Landry said.

I asked the former Premier of Quebec to think back to 1976 and to tell me about his first reactions to learning that, not only had he won his seat in the National Assembly, but also that his party would lead the government. In a word, he was stunned.

“It was incredible. It was so strange. Not for a fraction of a second did I think that I could beat a cabinet minister.” he said. But once he secured his seat, he just wanted to be a “member of the National Assembly and doing my best to have our ideas progress. Those ideas being progression [of Quebec] and sovereignty.”

Now I had heard different terms over the years, ranging from the total independence of Quebec to some sort of Sovereignty-Association, so I wanted some clarification. What is it he was fighting for? I wanted to clear up whatever misconceptions I may have had about the movement and look at things with an open mind, if I could.

“For Lévesque and people like myself, we were rather constant. For Lévesque, Quebec’s adventure was a national adventure and not an ethnic adventure. Lévesque was an inclusive man and, by the way, in ’76 we elected the first black people in the National Assembly. Many members of the cultural communities were in the first staff of the party.” Landry explained. “We were inclusive at that time and we’re still inclusive.”

“Second, Lévesque was in favour of a close economic association with the rest of Canada. It’s still my point of view: an independent Quebec, but with a free circulation of goods, services and persons between Quebec and Canada, just like they have in the European Union.” he said.

Now obviously there’s a big difference between the half-billion person economy and the 30 or so million that make up Quebec and Canada, but Landry is confident that a very equitable, free trade agreement could be made between the two groups. But why is there a need for an independent Quebec? Why leave Canada?

“There are many, many reasons. The first one is dignity. Quebec is a nation. That’s absolutely clear. Almost no one today objects to that because it’s a fact. Jean Charest is in agreement and [Michael] Ignatieff is in agreement—even Stéphane Dion. So if you are part of a nation, why would you be satisfied with the status of Prince Edward Island? A nation cannot be a simple province of another nation. It’s a matter of identity and dignity.” he explained.

“Starting from that principle, many material reasons are connected.” he continued. “The Canadian nation is managing its own interests. Sometimes it coincides with Quebec’s interests, sometimes not… but Canada is working for Canada and the Canadian nation and it’s detrimental in many, many ways to the interests of Quebec. There are many examples in history [where] the Canadian interests are one thing… [but] it’s directly against Quebec’s interest. An historical example: Wilfrid Laurier, Prime Minister of Canada, was advocating free trade between Canada and the United States in 1911. He was defeated and we had no free trade until recently with Brian Mulroney. It was in Quebec’s interest to have free trade. It’s obvious. We’re near New York. We’re near Boston. We connect directly, North-South. No. We were confined to Canadian economic space. It was against our interests, but it was probably good for Toronto and Canada as a whole. But not good for Quebec.” Landry said.

“My sovereignist convictions are not based on resentment. It’s based on our interests in the future and even with Canadian interests.” he clarified. “It’s not in the interests of Canada to be constantly fighting Quebec’s aspirations and trying to centralize when Quebec wants to de-centralize. Some things must be centralized in Canada, in the interests of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, but it’s against Quebec’s interests. So if Quebec is out of Canada, Canada will be in a better position to live its destiny and organize itself along values that are good for Canada. At the moment, it’s an internal fight: on constitution, on budget, about everything! It’s not good for Canada and not good for Quebec.”

It’s time to hit the pause button again and pick this up again another day. Next time we’ll wrap up my afternoon with Bernard Landry. Til next time…

Continue on to Part 3.

Bernard Landry Interview (Part 1)

2006-10-29T23:30:00.000-05:00

The introduction can be found here.

Alright, let’s get back on track now. I had left off in the waiting room of Bernard Landry. He had a meeting prior to mine, so I had plenty of time to calm my nerves. When it was finally my turn, I was directed into a small meeting room with a central wooden table. I noticed that the walls were decorated with a series of inspirational poems (in French, of course). There were also some books in one corner that covered topics in economics, as well as one by René Lévesque. Fitting, considering how much of an influence the founder of the Parti Québécois had on Landry, dating back to the beginning of his career.

When Monsieur Landry joined me, he carried a copy of the e-mail I had sent to his assistant, highlighted to remind him of who I was and why I was there. I can only imagine that someone of his public stature must get requests on a daily basis and it would be next to impossible to keep track of them all. He addressed me in French, asking me in which language I preferred to conduct the interview. I explained that, though I was quite sure I could conduct it in French, that the eventual transcription would make it very difficult for me to accurately reproduce his answers. And since I strive for accuracy above all else in my citations, I would be more comfortable in English.

Interestingly, he asked me some questions of his own (still in French), such as where I was from, where I learned French, etc. It was a nice gesture as it helped to break the ice a bit and make me more comfortable. I would have liked to spend more time casually chatting, but I was there to conduct an interview. Best to be professional about it, right?

I wanted to get a better sense of the man and his motivations, so I started with questions about his family and his education. As it turns out, Landry was raised in an atypical family for the Quebec of that time. While most families in his village had a dozen children or more, he was an only child. But it wasn’t long before his parents decided to adopt two little girls. That being said, while a family of 3 children might be considered large today, it was pretty small, especially when you consider that one of his neighbours had a family of 22!

He pursued studies in both law and economics at the university level, but I was curious about how he ended up in politics.

“These studies, law and economics, are highly compatible with politics, of course.” he explained. “My intention was to be a public servant. I went to Quebec City to work as an employee for René Lévesque, who was a Liberal minister at that time, with the Department of Natural Resources. And it’s Lévesque that advised me to study economics because that was a priority of the Liberals of that time and the Quebec of that time.”

Quebec was in the midst of what’s been called the Quiet Revolution (or la Revolution Tranquile en français), which was a modernizing of Quebec from a mainly rural province to a more industrial and production-focused economy. As such, there would be a need for economists. Landry’s studies in Europe affected his outlook on Quebec’s relationship with Canada, so when Lévesque contacted him about running for the Parti Québécois, it seemed like a natural fit.

“When Lévesque founded the Parti Québécois, he called me and said, ‘I would like you to be one of our candidates.’ In my reflections, I was already going directly toward Quebec sovereignty and independence because I studied economics in Europe and I had seen how modern countries can be independent and, at the same time, share the same economic space.” he said. That was also why he participated in the Free Trade debates and supported the NAFTA treaties.

Prior to the formation of the Parti Québécois, Landry was a Quebec Nationalist with strong leanings toward being a sovereignist. This is where it starts to get a bit complicated for those who don’t live in Quebec. It’s not as simple as “Conservative,” “Liberal” and “Socialist” here. Those seem to be almost like flavours of other designations like Nationalists, Federalists and Sovereignists. I asked him to try and clear things up for me a bit and here’s what he told me:

“You have some Quebec Nationalists still today, members of the Liberal Party of Quebec or Canada, wanting to cultivate Quebec’s differences, protect the language and so on, and saying that they prefer to do that within Canada. To me, it’s a paradox, but not according to them.” he said. “To me, if you’re a nationalist, you favour the independence of your nation. But as a consequence of the past, some old nationalists are still not sovereignists. Some Federalists are Quebec Nationalists in the old sense of the term. It’s complicated, but even la Société St-Jean Baptiste in Quebec City and, I think in a northern city, I think it’s Sherbrooke, are traditional Quebec Nationalists, fighting for language and culture and so on and are Federalists at the same time, but they are more and more marginal.”

Okay, so if I understood that correctly, Nationalists, both of the Federalist and Sovereignist varieties, are fighting for the preservation of the French language and culture, but disagree on the best way to accomplish it. One can consider oneself a Federalist without being a Quebec Nationalist, but it’s not really possible to be a Sovereignist without being a Nationalist. This looks like a good place to stop for now, but we’ll pick this up with thoughts on the 1976 election. Til next time…

Continue on to Part 2.

Oh Lucien, Lucien, Lucien...

2006-10-18T13:54:00.000-04:00

I was reading through some French websites over the past couple days and it looks like Lucien Bouchard has ruffled some feathers here in Quebec. If I’ve read it correctly, it seems ol’ Lucien has sounded off about the work week in la Belle Province (and no, not the fast food chain). Bouchard did an interview for TVA during which he said:

«On ne travaille pas assez. On travaille moins que les Ontariens, infiniment moins que les Américains! Il faut qu'on travaille plus.»

Very interesting. While he doesn’t call the Quebecois lazy, it’s still a pretty sharp comment. It shouldn’t surprise anyone, though. Bouchard has always had a Conservative outlook, so it makes sense that he would call out the more socialist mentality of Quebec. Needless to say, the union leaders were unimpressed. According to Sylvie Dugas:

Les chefs syndicaux rappellent que c'est l'ex-premier ministre Bouchard lui-même qui avait amendé la Loi sur les normes du travail pour réduire la semaine de travail de 44 à 40 heures, à la suite du Sommet sur l'économie et l'emploi en 1996.

She goes on to quote François Vaudreuil, President of the Centrale des syndicats démocratiques, who said that working more hours isn’t synonymous with the collective well-being and that this generation is more interested in family values than economics.

Despite the outrage expressed by the union leaders, Bouchard was essentially right. Take my job, for instance. In Ontario, I would likely be working 37.5 hours per week, but here my work week tops out at 33.75 hours. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. So would productivity increase by encouraging a longer work week? I see no reason why it wouldn’t. Sure, there will be the nay-sayers that will cry wolf about the potential for burnout, but I don’t think that it would become some sort of widespread epidemic if people put in a few extra hours per week.

This reminds me of a conversation I had on the way to the airport with a Fraternity brother from New York. He was recounting a discussion he had had with a European business colleague wherein he said (paraphrasing now, of course), “Why are we Americans the top economic power in the world? Because we put in the time and bust our asses for what we want. You don’t get something for nothing in this world. Put in the time and you’ll see the benefits.”

Obviously there’s more to the American success than work ethic, but I thought the comment was interesting. So what do you folks think? Should Quebecois work more? Feel free to discuss it in the comments section. Til next time…

Apprehension and Anticipation

2006-10-17T13:18:00.000-04:00

My mini-cassette recorder is still sitting on the living room coffee table. Beside it, one will find a UWO clipboard with some quotes scribbled on the lined paper contained therein. I don’t think I’ve ever been more apprehensive about finishing an article in my life. Seriously. I know that my half hour interview with Bernard Landry isn’t anything monumental in the grand scheme of things, but I want to do a good job with it.

Now every time I sit down and press play on the player, my mind starts racing. What if my questions all sucked? What if I’ve got absolutely nothing of value out of the interview? Did I just blow a golden opportunity that few writers or reporters get afforded? And while I’m sure my readership is less judgemental (Morgan is, of course, excluded from this comment) than I am of my work, I still want to put something of substance out there. However, in saying that, it occurs to me that shit is still a substance…

In other news, I’ll be taking an entrance exam this coming Thursday in the hopes of entering a part-time certificate program in Translation at McGill University. The department is structured a wee bit differently than what I’m accustomed to at Western, insofar as the types of courses one is eligible to take is limited, but I wanted to do something to keep my mind active and perhaps meet some people. And if I managed to get a certificate out of the deal, then all the better, right? Plus, it gives me a classroom setting to work on my French again. So that’s what I’m up to. Til next time…

My Lucky Day

2006-10-13T13:16:00.000-04:00

Well how about that? It’s Friday the 13th: the unluckiest day of the year. Though I wouldn’t call myself superstitious by any stretch of the imagination, I admit I like the idea of outside forces, like luck, having an impact on daily life. It makes things a lot more interesting, à mon avis. Sure, randomness has its merits, as well, but that seems so impersonal. So I’m a big fan of Fate and Destiny. And luck, for that matter, though one could argue that mine has been less than stellar.

So given that this is supposed to be the unluckiest day of the year, I like to celebrate it. The way I figure it, this should be the best day of the year for any unlucky person. Basic mathematics tells us that multiplying two negative charges will produce a positive outcome, so why can’t that be the same for luck? Today will henceforth be a lucky day for me. I’ve decided.

So how will I celebrate my lucky day? I’m not sure yet. Money is pretty tight, as usual, but I’m sure I can dig up something somewhere. I may just give Le Petit Medley another shot tonight, so if anyone happens to be in the Montreal area, feel free to drop in for a pint. Chances are good you’ll find me at the bar sampling whatever happens to be on tap. Have a good weekend everyone! And happy Friday the 13th!

Iron Maiden at the Bell Centre

2006-10-11T13:37:00.000-04:00

Perhaps they’ve always been around, but I guess I was a bit more conscious of it last night. Around 6:30pm, the metro was taken over by swarm of greasy, long-haired, mostly underweight (or so it seemed) heavy metal fans. It was an hour before show time and the masses were making their way to the Bell Centre for what everyone hoped would be a concert for the ages: the return of the legendary Iron Maiden to Montreal. I know I’ve mentioned the Quebecois love of heavy metal in the past and the sold-out venue adds weight to that argument.
I’ve got to admit, I was excited to see the show. I’ve never been a huge fan of Maiden by any stretch of the imagination. I don’t own any of their albums, never bought any t-shirts. Heck, I haven’t even downloaded any of their songs. But any decent metal fan knows at least SOME Iron Maiden tunes. So it was in that spirit that I headed out to see one of the Monsters of Rock.

I met up with Phil out front of the St Hubert and then headed in to find our seats. When we had originally looked on the seating chart, we had thought that we’d scored pretty good seats. Turns out we really weren’t familiar with the layout of the Bell Centre because the White section left us on the 6th floor, in semi-nosebleed seats. The opening band was called Bullet For My Valentine or something like that. Mercifully, they only played a half hour. They weren’t bad, I suppose, but I don’t think that Maiden goes well with speed metal. The band maintained a sense of humour about things, acknowledging the fact that no one had any idea who they were, but thanking the crowd for the support nonetheless.

The stage was set up like some sort of burnt out, war torn city block with sandbags disguising the monitors. All in all, it looked pretty cool. They also raised a prop tank up out of the stage on hydraulics and out popped Maiden’s mascot, Eddie. During the encore, Eddie made another appearance, standing close to 12 feet tall and carrying a machine gun. Bruce Dickinson also won points from the crowd by addressing the audience entirely in French.

Now here’s where I risk the wrath of Maiden fans everywhere. The show was pretty weak. Yes, I know they just released a new album. Yes, I know that there’s a certain responsibility to promote the new album. But when I drop $55 for nosebleed seats, I expect to recognize the songs! Instead, they chose to play the ENTIRE new album.

While I’m sure some of the songs would grow on me over time, I found myself zoning out several times. It wasn’t until the very end of the set that they played something familiar: Fear of the Dark. The crowd erupted. It was pretty obvious that THIS is what the crowd came to see. Unfortunately, this was all just a tease. In all, they played 3 encores (possibly 4) and the crowd definitely wanted more. I heard some fans complaining at the song selection, so I know I’m not alone in my assessment of the show.

Overall, I can’t say I was impressed by my first Iron Maiden show. I don’t think I would see them at the beginning of a tour, if I had a choice. Til next time…

On the Road Again...

2006-10-10T13:26:00.000-04:00

A happy belated Thanksgiving to my Canadian readers! It’s been one heck of a rough weekend for ol’ Al. I could safely rename the blog Al B Here, There and Everywhere after all of my travels. Right now I’m dead tired. I picked up the rental car at 4:30pm and headed for Ontario a little after 5pm. Contrary to popular belief, les Montrealais don’t necessarily take off early on Fridays of long weekends, as I discovered first hand. I drove headlong into rush hour, pushing back my arrival time in London to close to 2am. The word “ouch” comes to mind.

Saturday was a wee bit more eventful as I learned of the birth of Chris’ bébé. There are the appropriate number of fingers and toes, or so I’ve been led to believe, so all is good there. Rebecca also made it through intact, so all is good on that front. But that wasn’t the end of our adventures for the day. No, sir! It also happened to be the wedding day of my fraternity brother, Rich, so back into the car I went, dragging my friend Lauren in tow. Back we went to Toronto for what amounted to being a hybrid of a Chinese and Canadian wedding reception, meaning that we had the 8 course meal, but there were also speeches given by the groom’s side and a dance afterward. I didn’t get to take advantage of the open bar, though, because we were heading back to London that night. Yes, you read that correctly. I drove from London to Toronto for a wedding reception and then returned the same night. No hotels for me.

In an interesting twist of Fate, I had had a conversation with the girl at the car rental agency, during which she advised against bringing “friends” to weddings as it tends to curtail the good times and hamper one’s ability to meet someone new. Well, I have to give her credit for foresight as she was half-right. I’m glad I made it to the reception and it was nice to see the boys again, but there are certain obligations that go along with being the gentleman, namely attending to one’s date and making sure she’s having a good time. That being said, I wanted to catch up with the guys a bit, which left Lauren the opportunity to socialize. Don’t go thinking I left this girl by her lonesome the whole time. That wasn’t the case at all. But somewhere along the lines, she got to talking with one of the single guys who sat at our table and, sure enough, numbers were exchanged, etc. So my “date” picked up at Rich’s wedding. Good one, Fate. Thanks for that.

I hadn’t given too much serious thought to Lauren for a while now. There’s a pretty significant age difference between us, which has been used as an excuse for why we won’t hook up, but the new guy is 29, which the mathematicians among us will note is a mere 2 years younger than I am. Um, yeah. So the feelings are a bit hurt, at the moment, even though I wasn’t actually pursuing her. My friend Chris said something worth sharing regarding the whole situation. It went something like this, “I suppose in future, the response to anyone who claims some hard & fast rule is "Bushwah." There are no rules people won't break when its convenient.” Well put. And that’s all I’m going to say on the matter.

Sunday was football, as is customary. I watched my Lions blow a 14 point lead in what seemed like 30 seconds and go to a woeful 0-5 record on the season. That was followed up by the usual family dinner and a quick jaunt over to see Chris’ new bébé. Monday was another roadtrip adventure that amounted to 10 hours in the car, thanks in no small part to traffic being reduced to one lane around Brockville. So this has been quite whirlwind weekend for me. And tonight I’m going to see Iron Maiden at the Bell Center, so I’m in for another long day. Wow, all this just to explain why the Bernard Landry interview isn’t fit to print yet!

I would just like to take a moment to pass on my congratulations to Chris and Rebecca on their recent arrival, as well as congratulate Rich and Leslie on their marriage. Both are starting off new chapters in their respective lives and I wish them all the love and happiness they can have. Til next time…

An Afternoon with Bernard Landry

2006-10-03T18:30:00.000-04:00

Today I’m going to turn back the clock about 3 weeks. While the eyes of Quebec, and to a certain extent, Canada, were focused on Dawson College and the sheer insanity that took place that day, I was walking from my office near Mont-Royal down to Old Montreal. I had heard what was going on, of course, which was the reason I was walking. The metro lines were stopped along the route I needed and although I had given some thought to trying to reschedule, I felt it was better to go ahead with the interview. After all, Monsieur Bernard Landry was a busy man. If it was going to be a major problem, then his assistant would call and cancel. So far, no call. So off I went, through the light mist and rain.

I had over-estimated how long it would take me to get there, so I had a bit of time to look around. I noticed that his name was absent from the lobby directory listing of businesses and offices that occupied the building. I suppose it’s best to keep a low profile when one is the former leader of the Provincial government’s opposition party. It ensures a certain amount of privacy can be maintained, especially now since he’s no longer officially a public servant. I checked the address for the umpteenth time and headed to the designated floor.

Obviously I didn’t get a guided tour of the office, but it wasn’t quite what I expected. The door was unmarked, except for the office number, so I was a bit unsure of whether I was in the right place. Fortunately, the portrait on the wall gave it away. I checked in with his secretary and then took a seat. There was a TV in the waiting room, tuned to the latest happenings over at Dawson. I had pretty much tuned out at this point, trying to keep my mind on the matter at hand. In a few minutes, I would be meeting with Monsieur Landry.

Next time, the interview. Til next time…

Continue on to Part 1.

Canadian Blog Awards

2006-10-02T13:05:00.000-04:00

I got a bit pensive over the weekend. I was sitting at my computer, typing out the beginning of what will eventually be my interview with Bernard Landry, and I got to thinking. Am I actually any good at this? Sure, I’ve been getting more hits over the past couple of months, but who’s to say that the readers actually come back? I haven’t the foggiest idea. I could try and use my comments section as an indicator, but I’ve found that my most avid commentators are the people I’ve known for years. So I’m left to wonder, am I writing anything that piques the interest of the average Joe? Or do my postings become infinitely more interesting if the reader knows me personally? Hmm. Perhaps I don’t really want to know the answer to that.

I’m going to try and make a more concerted effort to attract attention to my site here, though not through the use of naughty keywords. That’s the easy way out. No, no. We can’t do things the easy way around here. I need to find ways to make this a little more widely recognized. After all, my writings cater to a pretty small niche, I think. On that note, I would like to encourage my readership to nominate this little ol’ site for the Canadian Blog Awards. Nominations are open and being accepted until early November, if memory serves me. O’course, don’t feel obligated to make any nominations unless you feel the site actually deserves it. Feel free to read the rules for nominations while you're at it.

On a totally unrelated sidenote, there’s nothing to report on the McNorgan baby-watch… yet. I’m sure that either he or I will post something when the new bundle of joy pops out. Til next time…

Welcome to the fold, Chris!

2006-09-28T15:46:00.000-04:00

I haven’t really got anything to say today, but I felt like mentioning the addition of PhD Chris to the blogging community. I’m sure my regular readers had noticed the newly added link under the People I Know category. So feel free to visit his site and leave comments. I’m sure they’ll be appreciated. Well, maybe. I guess that will depend on the nature and source of the comments. Either way, let him know that he’s not just babbling on for no reason.

In looking at the calendar, I also noticed that we’re nearly at the end of the month, which means that the countdown to the arrival of the new addition to the McNorgan clan is officially on. If Chris or Rebecca know the sex of their prospective child, they haven’t let me in on it. Hopefully it will go smoothly for both mother and child. Buckle up, Chris. I can guarantee that’ll be one of the longest days/nights of your life! On that note, I’ll sign off for now. Til next time…

Quebec Studies Open House

2006-09-21T12:06:00.000-04:00

Around 4pm I got an e-mail in my Inbox from Dr Jarrett Rudy of the History department at McGill University. Apparently he doubles as the Department Head for the fledgling Quebec Studies program there as well. It seems they were having an open house to promote their program, complete with cheese, French bread, wine and (of course) Quebecois beer! I know my readers will be completely shocked that I decided to attend the event. After all, when has Al ever fallen for the old “free beer” recruiting tactic?

So I headed over, with a spring in my step, looking forward to checking this thing out. I arrived a bit later than the majority of the attendees, but in plenty of time to mingle a bit and sample the available beer. I wasn’t quite bold enough to introduce myself to the huddle of professors, but I gradually made the rounds. Once I was on my 3rd beer, I found myself trying to explain the Toronto-Montreal dynamic to a Parisian exchange student, which of course prompted chuckles from the PhD candidate from Alberta. I failed miserably to disguise my complete and total disdain for Toronto, but whatever.

Dr Rudy was also nice enough to offer to be a sounding board for ideas as I try to prepare a research paper for my application to the Masters program. It’ll be nice to get a bit of feedback so I don’t end up completely off track and whatnot. Now I have the unenviable task of trying to come up with a topic. That was always the reason I never tried to do Editorial work for the campus paper back in the day. Heck, I run into the same problem with this blog de temps en temps. So I appeal to my loyal readership: please submit history-related topics that could make for an interesting 15-20 page research paper.

For those anxiously my interview with Bernard Landry, it’ll probably be another few days. I’ve been taking my time with it. Til next time…

A Touch of Evil

2006-09-14T08:44:00.000-04:00

What the HELL was THAT all about?!?! The shootings at Dawson College have made national and, to a lesser extent, international news but for those who aren’t caught up on the story, here’s the basic rundown: some lunatic in a black trench coat went down to the campus and opened fire on the students in and around the school’s cafeteria. Police arrived on the scene and neutralized him. For those not familiar with the terminology, neutralized means killed.

Details continue to roll out as each hour progresses, but at this point one of the 20 or so victims has died with several others listed in critical condition. What makes a person do something like this? The whole concept is so foreign to me that I can’t even begin to wrap my head around it. According to the CBC website, the shooter kept a blog with pictures of him holding various weapons. I could very easily post a link to his blog, but I refuse to do so because I don’t wish to feed his twisted need for attention. I also refuse to feed the public’s equally morbid curiosity into what makes this wacko tick. Leave the psychological analysis to the professionals.

What he did was horrible. There is absolutely no justification or rationalization that could ever make this act seem remotely reasonable. While I understand the need to take him down, it’s unfortunate that he died. Not so that he could explain himself. Not so he could apologize or be rehabilitated. But so that he could be forced to live out his days paying for what he did. At this point, he’s gotten away with no real consequences, save whatever fate may befall him if there’s an afterlife. As far as I’m concerned, he can rot in hell. Pointe finale.

Canadian Content

2006-09-11T14:44:00.000-04:00

I got into a discussion recently about the Canadian film industry and it made me start to think. At what point does a film become “Canadian?” No doubt the industry has any number of criteria to distinguish “our” films from those made elsewhere, but indulge me for a moment or two. Climb aboard my train of thought. There are quite a number of Canadian actors, directors, and writers, who work in Hollywood, yet these productions, are never considered “Canadian.” Major films are shot on location in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal; many times using Canadian technical and production staff but these, too, aren’t Canadian.

So what does it come down to? Let’s suppose, for sake of argument that we wanted to make a comedy. No doubt we’d be hunting around for a good comedic leading man. The current poster boy is someone like Jim Carrey, but we could just as easily go for someone like Mike Meyers. If we wanted to go more old school, we could with Dan Aykroyd, Eugene Levy or Martin Short (though I freely admit that none of these guys can carry a movie nowadays, but that’s not the point). We could easily make a decent ensemble cast out of Canadian comedians.

Alright, so we’ve got the onscreen talent covered. What about behind the camera? There is any number of Canadian directors who might fit the bill for our fictional creation. If we wanted to go with the nostalgia angle even more, we could snag Ivan Reitman (Canadian immigrant) to direct and produce, while getting Lorne Michaels to produce and maybe do some of the writing. Just for additional giggles, we’ll shoot in Toronto. So now we have a film that is written, produced and directed by Canadians, and shot in Canada. Is it a Canadian film yet? I would be inclined to say yes, personally. But what happens if the film is backed by 20th Century Fox?

It seems to me that the moment a film gets picked up by the Hollywood machine that it seems to lose all connection to Canada. Wacky, huh? Is it really all about the money? If Canadian talent is being used in the principle/important roles yet backed by a major studio, then why do we consider it American? I would love to hear some opinions on this. Til next time…

Major News!

2006-09-08T13:16:00.000-04:00

Big news from in the world of Al B Here today! Some of my more ardent readers already know about this little coup, but it’s far from common knowledge, so I thought I would spread the news. Ol’ Al has managed to score his highest profile interview to date! And who, pray tell, is the next willing participant in my exploration of Quebecois culture? None other than the past Premier (like the Governor of the Province, for my American readers) and former leader of the Parti Québécois, Monsieur Bernard Landry!

Any exploration of Quebecois culture would be severely lacking without discussion of politics, so I decided to go to someone with firsthand experience. Aside from a séance with the spirit of René Lévesque, I can’t think of a better person to talk to than a past Premier. Now there are those among you that believe I have no business discussing politics with Monsieur Landry. Truth be told, you’re probably right, but I’m going to try it anyway. I have no doubt that he’ll be able to provide some pretty interesting insights into a movement that I’ve never really understood.

The most common reaction I’ve received has been (much like the initial reactions to the other interviews I’ve done so far), “How did you pull this off?” And given my status as an independent writer, I can see why people find this whole thing so bizarre. I've said it before, but it merits repeating: I’m interested in the topic and it never hurts to ask! Sometimes I get shot down. So be it. That’s no reason to stop trying, right? I freely acknowledge that I could never pull this off in Toronto, so I’m going to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves here in Montreal.

As always I would like to acknowledge the support of my circle of regular readers. I’m definitely psyched about this and I hope that I come up with a solid effort for you guys. Til next time…

Le Petit Medley

2006-09-05T13:20:00.000-04:00

The Labour Day weekend has now come and gone and, though the weather left a lot to be desired for most of it, I decided I should take advantage of the extra recovery day and check out the nightlife in my area. I’m fortunate enough to live within a Donovan Bailey of Le Petit Medley but had never checked it out. The place seemed busy enough to be worth a look, so I figured, why not?

As I walked in, I was met by my first surprise of the evening: there was a $6 cover charge. Ouch. I’ve paid less to go to bars downtown! Sure, there aren’t too many other options near me, but that just seemed a little excessive. But I ponied up anyway and took a look around. As the name implies, it’s not particularly big, but the place has a good feel to it. The bar is the central focus of the place, smack-dab in the middle of the room. There are tables and a lounge area to the left as one enters, with a small dance floor and some more couches off to the right. It reminded me a bit of Molly Bloom’s from back in London.

After ordering one of my trademark Molson Exports (which cost just a hair under $5), I took a look around. Turns out that damn near everyone in the place has drinking draught beer. Hmm. Perhaps they knew something I didn’t? I managed to find a dark corner with a decent view of the surroundings. The crowd seemed to be mid-to-late 20s with a few cougars mixed in for good measure and it was most certainly Francophone. It wasn’t particularly busy when I got there at 11:30pm, but at the stroke of midnight, the place filled up in a hurry. That was also the cue for the DJ to start things rolling on the dance floor.

That’s when I got my second surprise of the night: they played Mes Aieux?!? Though I was quite happy to hear something from my favourite Quebecois band, it took me off guard that a bar would play folk-rock music to get people to dance. But sure enough, it worked. The dance floor was packed in no time and people were singing along to the song. Guess the DJ knows his audience, eh?

By this point, I had switched to draught and was feeling less self-conscious about being there alone with each sip. The music was too loud to be able to carry on anything that resembled a conversation, so I just hung back and people-watched. One thing I noted is that the bar seems to be a BYOB (Bring Your Own Babe) bar as there weren’t the usual small packs of women I’m used to seeing when I’m out. Also, the ratio wasn’t favourable. Maybe I picked a bad night, but at this point I can’t recommend the place as a prime cruising location.

Overall, I’ll give the place a cautious thumbs up because of proximity and atmosphere. I think it would be a decent place to finish off the night after returning from downtown. Anyway, that’s all for now. Til next time…

School's In

2006-08-30T13:06:00.000-04:00

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

2006-08-29T12:47:00.000-04:00

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

2006-08-25T22:36:00.000-04:00

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

2006-08-21T14:46:00.000-04:00

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

2006-08-21T10:24:00.001-04:00

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

2006-08-17T09:45:00.000-04:00

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

2006-08-16T12:28:00.000-04:00

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

2006-08-15T11:41:00.000-04:00

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…

Can't you see the resemblance???

2006-07-26T12:42:00.000-04:00

I was just about to check my e-mail for the morning when I ran across a story on the Yahoo main site about finding one’s celebrity twin, so being the curious sort that I am, I followed the link and checked out the story. The general gist of the story is that a website called MyHeritage.com will do a similarity analysis of uploaded pictures and compare facial features to those of celebrities in their database. It’ll then present the results, displaying which celebrities the user most resembles.

Sounds like it could be good for some giggles, so I uploaded a recent photo of myself. A few mouse clicks later and I have the results: Based on the picture I uploaded, I share a 56% similarity with Wilhelm Wundt and a 50% similarity with Victor Hugo. Um, yeah. Guess it must be the beard, huh? Or the fact that we both have 2 eyes, a nose and a mouth. The results were hardly convincing, so I decided to try another photo—one without the goatee.

This time the results were a bit more… um… flattering…but still completely ridiculous. According to the site, my face shares a 60% similarity to Jude Law, Carson Daley and Anatoly Karpov. Sure. So I went with one last photo to see if I could get anything that resembles consistency. ‘Twas not to be. This time, I came up with a 58% similarity to Dean Cain. I think someone needs to get their algorithm fixed.

Anyway, it’s an entertaining diversion for a few minutes, so I encourage my vast readership to check it out. Til next time…

In Conversation with John Cleese

2006-07-24T09:12:00.000-04:00

Another Monday morning has reared its ugly head and, like many out there, I’m anxious for the next weekend to come. While I like my job, there’s something to be said for time off. And that, dear friends, is what I’m heading towards. By next week at this time, I’ll be sleeping in air-conditioned comfort back in the lovely Forest City of London, Ontario. Odd that I could be looking forward to going back there when I live in Montreal, but I’ve never claimed to be “normal.” Besides, the Just For Laughs festival will be over by then!

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending In Conversation with John Cleese. I figured that, if I was going to hit the festival, I should try to see one of the big names. And they don’t come much bigger than Cleese. The format of the show was pretty simple. Hosted by Ian Hanomansing, the show was essentially a live interview with Cleese, followed by questions from an eager audience. I’m not a diehard fan of Monty Python or Fawlty Towers, but I’ve seen enough of Flying Circus and the various films to have gained an appreciation for his work. That being the case, I imagine that I missed out on the significance of a variety of the topics about which he spoke.

I think that British comedy is more about the delivery than what’s actually being said. There’s just something about the dry sarcasm and quick wit that makes me laugh. That’s not to say that I enjoy all British comedy because, to be honest, it can be rather dry and I’m not always in the mood to pay attention. It seems to me that, if you’re not on the ball, you’re bound to miss something. The interview took somewhere in the neighbourhood of an hour, followed by a brief intermission and then questions from the audience. It was largely anecdotal, so I can’t really relate back too much of it, but I laughed.

One thing I do recall is that he believes comedy is becoming increasingly difficult because, as the envelope gets pushed further and further, there are fewer places to go with it. After all, we can’t go back to comedy from the 50s and expect it to garner the same laughs as it did at that point. Comedy is a reflection of a moment in time. What was funny at one point contributes to the evolution of what will become funny later on. Comedians (and to a lesser extent, writers) build on the works that came before them so, in that respect, sketch comedy owes performers like John Cleese a great debt.

All told, the interview lasted a bit under 2 hours, and I know the audience was disappointed when it ended. But that’s the way it goes, right? Had they not stopped it there, I’m sure the session could have gone on til the wee hours of the morning. At any rate, so ends my Just For Laughs experience—unless there ends up being more good Last Minute tickets available. Til next time…

Tim Minchin - Dark side

2006-07-19T09:37:00.000-04:00

Alright, alright, alright. I’m addicted. I’ve admitted it. Are you happy now? Despite the oppressive heat that, thankfully, has recently broken, I love this time of year in Montreal, mainly because of the Just For Laughs festival (and Quebecois girls in skimpy outfits). I had originally planned to spend another quiet evening at home, perhaps doing dishes or watching TV, but mid-afternoon I decided to check the Last Minute Tickets section of the Just For Laughs site and see what was available. And lo and behold, I find that there are still seats available for Tim Minchin’s show! Guess I had plans after all, eh?

Like virtually all of the acts that I’ve seen thus far at the festival, I had no clue who this guy was, but the way I figure it, he wouldn’t be invited here all the way from Australia if he didn’t bring something to the table. The show wasn’t sold out, by any means, but that’s more an indication of his name recognition (or lack thereof) rather than the quality of the show. Minchin is a musician who manages to mix in some stand-up comedy along the way. It’s pretty clear to me that he’s spent far more time as a musician than a comedian, but he’s got potential. He won the Perrier Comedy award for Best newcomer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2005 to give you a bit more background.

Minchin spends a little over an hour singing about things like inflatable dolls, using canvas bags instead of plastic at the supermarket and the need for a good peace anthem for the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. While I can’t say I was doubled over in laughter throughout the show, I had a good time and would see him again. His quirky stage persona adds volumes to the show. Trust me, he’s just as bizarre as he seems from the picture. It’ll be interesting to see if he gains more of a following after this stint in Montreal. Keep your eyes and ears open. He’s worth seeing. Til next time…

Brutal Service

2006-07-18T13:05:00.000-04:00

It looks like the heat may have finally broken here in Montreal. Glancing out my office window I can see the rain coming down, though I’m sure it’ll stop far too soon. Like much of Ontario, we’ve been getting punished by a combination of heat and humidity that makes me eager to get to the air-conditioned confines of m office each day. Wow. Al motivated to come to work? At least you can all take comfort in the fact that it’s for self-serving reasons, right? No need to repent yet. Judgement Day is not at hand.

It was a pretty quiet weekend on the home front. Plans fell through on Friday and Saturday, leaving me to watch episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the (dis)comfort of my hot and humid apartment. I miss that show. Sure, it was campy at times, but I think it had the right mix of camp, witty dialogue and decent acting. But enough about Buffy. Let’s move on with the weekend, shall we?

I got a call around noon from Phil. He was planning on coming to Montreal for the afternoon to meet up with Sara and her friends for brunch at a well-hidden Mexican place on St-Laurent called Sala Rosa or something like that. I never would have found the place if I didn’t have the address. I think it’s part of some sort of Spanish community center or something since I saw a “members only” section off to one side as I came in the door.

The place reminded me of something out of the movie, Desperado. Small, round tables, ceiling fans and a room décor that screams Mexico. I’ll give it points for atmosphere, but penalize them for terrible service. It didn’t take me long to pick out Phil and company. I was actually a bit surprised that there were so many people around since, when he mentioned it on the phone, he said that he was meeting up with Sara and her girlfriend. Next thing you know I’m at a table full of lesbians. And not the “butch” lesbians in the plaid shirts, either. These are all very attractive women!

Since I was there late (gee, big surprise!), the others had just started eating. The waitress sees me, notices that I’m a new arrival and offers to bring me a menu. I accept the offer and wait. And wait. And wait… The woman never came back!!! It’s not like it was too busy or anything, but regardless, the next time she came back was when it was time to start clearing the table. I’m not a particularly confrontational person, but I was a wee bit agitated by this. So I pull her aside as the others are paying the bill and remind her that I would have been a paying customer had she bothered to come back. Her reaction was something I wouldn’t have expected.

First she apologizes, but I can see it wasn’t really genuine. Then she says to me, “Well next time, you should be more aggressive.” Excuse me?!?! I’m the customer. She’s the waitress. She should be taking care of the customers. That’s what they pay her for. That’s (allegedly) how she earns her tips. Needless to say, I wasn’t impressed. I honestly don’t think I’ll be going back there anytime soon. I’m generous with my tips (some would say I’m too generous) and I can’t see any reason to show that establishment any love. Good thing I was in pleasant company!

Anyway, the rest of the day was unremarkable. We went back to Sara’s condo for a while, then I ended up back at my apartment, ready for a fun-filled round of laundry. Til next time…

The Nasty Show

2006-07-14T10:02:00.000-04:00

Now THAT’s more like it! Five comedians (six, if you count the host), offensive content and alcohol. There’s a recipe for a fun night! I headed down to Club Soda a little before 9pm and walked headlong into the longest line I had ever seen for a comedy show. It went around 2 corners and down 2 blocks. Guess the show’s pretty popular, eh? I was a bit surprised that they managed to get everyone in and start the show on time, but by a little after 9:30pm, they were ready to rock n’ roll.

For those not familiar with the landscape of downtown Montreal, let me bring you up to speed. La rue Ste-Catherine is known for many things: shopping, strip clubs and peep shows, whores and the gay village, likely in that order of priority. Le boulevard St-Laurent divides the city into East and West and is home to trendy clubs and bars, for the most part, though it also boasts its share of strip clubs and XXX theatres. Club Soda, home of the Nasty Show, is located at the corner of St-Laurent and Ste-Catherine and let me tell you, there’s no more fitting place to hold it. It’s right across the street from a VERY scary strip club called Café Cléopatre and within easy access to a number of other dens of iniquity (for those interested in such locales, I’m sure I’ll do a full review if I ever get myself out of debt sufficiently to visit a few), not to mention the ever-present streetwalkers that roam the corner of Ste-Cat and St-Laurent. Though to be fair, the police presence during the festival scared off a number of the “vendors.”

The show itself ran a little less than 2 hours and was raunchy as hell. Bobby Slayton handled the hosting duties and kept the show moving well and the audience entertained. The rest of the line-up included Jay Oakerson, Dom Irrera, Patty Rosborough, Patrice Oneal and the token Canadian, Mike Wilmot. Despite probably being the “biggest name” amongst the group, Irrera was second man on deck and, to his credit, didn’t use any of his more well-known material. This show is pretty much a comic’s excuse to break out every offensive scrap of material that they would never dream of using on the Tonight Show. Nothing was off-limits. Truthfully, they went for the easy laughs, with plenty of sexual and religious content and racial slurs, but the audience just lapped it up. I think this may be the side-effect of all this political correct nonsense nowadays: people seek an outlet for all the things that are normally “inappropriate” and revel in it.

If there were truly any weaknesses in the show, it was the inclusion of Rosborough. She tried hard and was funny, but her act seemed pretty forced to me. I’ve never been a big fan of female comedians in the first place, so that’s probably my natural bias rearing its ugly head. So be it. I just think that men are better at doing raunchy comedy. Kudos to her for giving it a shot, though. Overall, she got a good reaction from the audience, so her act wasn’t a bomb.

Mike Wilmot closed the show and was clearly the strongest act. It must be a little nerve-wracking to be the closing act of a good show, but he came through. Though maybe it’s actually easier to go on last because the audience is already so warmed up that they’ll laugh at damn near anything? No clue. All I can say is that he was good.

Audience interaction highlight of the night: Jay Oakerson, a fat guy in his late 20s, had just finished doing his bit on why he doesn’t sleep with hot women (1. He can’t [fuck them]. 2. They won’t [fuck him].), when he asks the audience, “Where are all the fat girls tonight?” The guy beside me shouts out, “Toronto!!!” Huge audience reaction. Nicely done.

At any rate, I got my money’s worth and will happily go again next year. Til next time…

Stewart Lee-90s Comedian

2006-07-13T12:53:00.000-04:00

So here I am again, mere hours away from tonight’s edition of The Nasty Show. But rather than dwell too much on that, I felt I should recap a bit about last night’s show, Stewart Lee. To be honest, I wasn’t blown away by the content. Sure, he had some funny moments, but overall, I think his style takes some getting used to. Before last night, I was completely unfamiliar with him, but a visit to his website showed me that he’s had a pretty active career.

If I were to describe his style, I would say that he’s a storyteller with a deadpan delivery. He doesn’t use the usual rhythm I’ve gotten used to out of stand-up comedians, preferring to gradually coax the audience along. His jokes are pretty clever and, often times, he gets laughs from the audience anticipating the punch line. The problem is, the audience isn’t always clever enough to follow along. Or at least last night’s wasn’t. To his credit, he made an effort to make sure that he won over the whole audience. Whether he succeeded or not is open to interpretation…

So would I pay to see him again? Good question. I think I would give him the benefit of the doubt and go back to see a different show (obviously not last night’s content). After all, one can’t expect to hit a home run every at-bat, right? Well, that’s all for now. Tonight: the Nasty Show!

Just For Laughs

2006-07-12T10:08:00.000-04:00

My love of stand up comedy has been pretty well documented over the years. What can I say? I love to laugh. I prefer seeing a good stand up comedian than a band. I have no problem dropping $30 to see someone like Steven Wright or Billy Connolly (who I’ve seen 3 times, actually) rather than paying hyper-inflated ticket prices to see any number of untalented hacks music groups.

So now that I’m living in Montreal, I’m taking advantage of the renowned Just For Laughs comedy festival, taking place as we speak. There was no way I could spend the summer here and miss out on the festival, so once I got my internet hooked up this past weekend, I hopped online and started checking out the available shows. Most of Canada will be familiar with the gala events, as seen on the Comedy Network, but I wanted to see something a little bit more raw and unrefined. So that solved it: I had to check out the Club shows.

Naturally, club comics are a bit more of a risk, in terms of the quality of the content, than the higher profile shows, but I think I’ve found a good one. Yes, dear friends, ol’ Al grabbed a ticket for The Nasty Show this Thursday. To be honest, I haven’t heard of the majority of the acts that will be performing, but when I saw that Dom Irrera was on the bill, I had to grab a ticket.

I came across Dom’s work back in about 1988 when I picked up one of the Just For Laughs comedy cassettes. I won’t pretend that he’s a comedic genius, but the man makes me laugh and, really, that’s all I’m asking out of a comedian. In all reality, he’ll probably be using much of the same material I remember from back in the 80s, but that would be the case with most comedians nowadays. The only one I ever saw who put on completely different acts each time I saw him was Billy Connolly.

At any rate, after years and years of talking about seeing the festival, I’m FINALLY going to see a part of it in person. Til next time…

****UPDATE: I decided I didn't feel like waiting another day to enjoy the festival, so I picked up a "last minute" ticket to Stewart Lee's show at the Cabaret Juste Pour Rire. I know nothing about this guy, aside from the fact that he's British, so it's anyone's guess as to whether he's any good. Here's hoping he is!****

Interruption of Service

2006-07-09T17:56:00.000-04:00

My regular readers will note that I have removed a post concerning my experiences at my previous residence. This was done at the request of my former roommate, who claimed that the content was libelous. While I do not agree with the claim, I have taken down the post in the interest of moving on with my life. Til next time...

Trashbin Clothing Company website launched

2006-06-22T13:25:00.000-04:00

Avid readers of this blog may remember that I had decided to plug the efforts of one of my friends from back home in London, Ontario who is trying to get a custom clothing business off the ground. Since this sort of venture is never easy, I thought I would do my part to promote her business and announce the launch of her new website: Trashbin Clothing Company.

From a functionality standpoint, the site is still a bit raw, but I know that it'll improve over time. The gallery section is essentially sketches of possible outfits, but from what I've ben told Dawn will be adding more items as time goes on. There is an online ordering section, but I confess that I didn't test it out as I'm really not in the market for either corsets or fetish wear. That being said, it's a handy option.

At any rate, I encourage you to check out the site and contact Dawn if you're interested in her designs. Til next time...

Entrevue avec Biz (Loco Locass) Quatrième Partie

2006-06-19T15:45:00.000-04:00

Over the course of the interviews I’ve done so far, my readers will likely have noticed that I’ve asked one recurring question: How would you describe Quebec? This one would be no different. I was curious to see how Biz, an outspoken sovereignist, would describe his “home country,” so I asked him for 5 adjectives that described Quebec. The question took him a little by surprise, but he had told me earlier that he preferred the spontaneity that unrehearsed interviews, so he was quite happy to answer.

“Je dirais le premier qui me vient à l’esprit, c’est « français ». Pas dans le sens de l’adjectif de la France, mais « langue française » parce que le Québec n’est pas le seul endroit en Amérique où on parle français, mais disons que c’est l’endroit, l’épicentre, c’est le bastion de la langue française et je pense qu’à partir de ça il y a beaucoup de choses qui découlent. D’ailleurs, par exemple, t’es à même de le constater puis ça, c’est intéressant, le chemin que tu fais. C’est que de l’Ontario, quand t’entends parler du Québec, c’est toujours avec The Globe & Mail, The Gazette ou Global TV, puis c’est toujours par un prisme unilingue anglophone qui comprend juste la surface des choses parce que tu ne comprends pas la langue. Tu ne comprends donc pas la culture, tu ne comprends pas tout ce qui se passe et donc tu juges très rapidement en surface, puis souvent c’est pas vrai ce que tu penses... Alors, le fait qu’on soit francophone, non seulement ça nous rend unique mais ça nous rend pratiquement hermétique et incompréhensible aux yeux des Canadiens puis aux yeux des Américains puisqu’ils ne nous comprennent pas parce que… ils ne nous connaissent pas puis ils ne nous comprennent pas. Ça nous rend donc conscients de cette différence‑là et fiers de cette différence‑là.

Je dirais aussi que, bon, le Québec est un territoire, je dirais… Je vous parlerais d’espace ou d’immensité. C’est un très grand territoire, le Québec. C’est plus grand que le Texas, c’est plus grand que beaucoup de pays d’Europe; c’est plus grand que la France et c’est très peu peuplé, en fait. Il y a beaucoup d’espace au Québec, mais ça, je dirais que c’est pas nécessairement propre au Québec. L’Ontario est très très vaste. Le Canada en général est très très grand, mais moi quand je pense au Québec, la notion d’espace, d’immensité, du fait qu’on n’est pas tassé les uns sur les autres aussi, ça me vient à l’esprit aussi, rapidement.

Ensuite, les traits de caractère. Je trouve que les Québécois… Je dois dire qu’ils sont pacifistes, conciliants, avec ce que ça a comme défaut des fois d’être pas capables de s’affirmer assez… Tu sais, on n’est vraiment pas comme les Américains, là, dans le sens où on est très accommodant « Ah oui, okay. » Donc, des fois ça peut être une qualité ou un défaut, là, mais pacifistes en général, c’est‑à‑dire qu’on ne règle pas nos conflits dans la violence. Tu sais, au Référendum de ’95, le Référendum a été perdu pour les gens qui croyaient au Québec par 50 000 voix. C’est pas beaucoup. Puis y’a pas eu personne qui est allé dans Westmount ou dans le West Island pour casser des vitres ou casser des gueules. Il n’y a pas eu de violence, y’a eu aucune violence, ça s’est fait dans… Ça, je suis très fier de ça. Je suis pas fier qu’on n’ait pas voté… qu’on ait voté Non, mais je suis très fier qu’on l’ait fait dans un processus démocratique pacifiste, je suis très fier de ça. Donc, je dirais quoi? Là, on est rendu à trois. Je trouve… Qu’est‑ce que je pourrais dire? Que les Québecois sont… Je trouve que les Québécois sont créatifs. Je pense que ça fait partie d’un trait de caractère, à savoir… peut‑être que c’est notre situation minoritaire qui fait ça. Vu qu’on est une minorité, donc on n’a pas le choix de développer des bonnes idées pour se déployer, se maintenir en vie puis exister dans le monde, si tu veux. Pratiquement toutes les créations culturelles qui représentent le Canada en ce moment, ce sont des créations québécoises au niveau artistique : les films, la musique, le Cirque du Soleil, des choses comme ça, c’est fait… C’est ça. Ça fait partie du fait qu’on est minoritaire alors que les Canadiens, par exemple…”

I was a little surprised to hear him mention the concept of space and vastness of the province because my Québécois civilization professor in Trois-Pistoles had often made reference to that. I thought it was more of a literature major’s interpretation at the time, but here was someone, completely unrelated to the school telling me the exact same thing. Maybe she was on to something after all? I would also like to acknowledge something else that he said there: when the results of the Referendum of 1995 were announced, there wasn’t any widespread rioting or violence, which considering the difference was around 50,000 votes is pretty significant. The whole separatist issue is one that is very emotionally charged and for there to be no significant violence is something we should all be proud of, as Canadians. One need only look at Eastern Europe to see how things could have gone.

He’s also right about the creative output of Quebec, at least in terms of awards and international recognition. The only Canadian films that get any sort of buzz at the international festivals or award shows come from Quebec. The irony of the whole thing is that, for the most part, these creations, which represent our country on the world stage, are virtually ignored at home. I can think of one film from Quebec that had a theatre release in good ol’ London, Ontario: Jesus of Montreal from the late 80s, early 90s. We didn’t even get Les Invasions barbares and it won an Academy Award.

As far as music goes, the Quebecois scene may as well not exist. I recounted to him how I went looking for a variety of artists in Music World (who proudly attach a little maple leaf sticker beside the names of Canadian artists) and found Jean Leloup, Les Cowboys Fringants, heck even Felix Leclerc, in the World Music section. And why? Because they sing in French. And only English versions of Celine Dion’s or Roch Voisine’s discs could be found (though they both carried the maple leaf). He wasn’t particularly surprised. He had told me that although Loco Locass had reached gold status for one of their albums (50,000 copies sold), they had sold a mere 100 copies outside of Quebec. It was purely a case of supply and demand.

We had gotten a bit sidetracked, but that was fine by me. After all, I think some of the more interesting content can come from the sidenotes and stories people tell. One such sidenote comes from a recent trip the group made to the University of Ottawa to discuss poetry and politics. Check this out:

“À un moment donné, récemment, on est allé à Ottawa, à l’Université d’Ottawa y faire une conférence sur la poésie et la politique, en fait ce qu’on faisait, nous autres. Puis y’avait beaucoup de Franco‑Ontariens, quelques Québécois et des Anglophones francophiles, je dirais, qui aiment le français, les curieux comme toi, des gens curieux. Il y a une fille à un moment donné qui nous écoutait parler de l’indépendance du Québec, puis tout ça. Puis elle dit « Mais c’est formidable ce que vous dites là, je pensais… j’avais jamais réalisé que ça pouvait être comme ça, il faudrait que vous fassiez le tour du Canada puis que vous expliquiez ça à tous les Canadiens mais en anglais. » Évidemment, elle le disait en anglais mais… c’est ça qui était…

En fait, elle était très drôle parce qu’elle disait… Elle a commencé à parler en français très difficilement, en fait. Elle disait « Moi, mes parents m’ont envoyée dans une école d’immersion, puis je trouvais ça difficile parce que je devais prendre l’autobus puis j’étais la seule de mon village qui allait dans une école très loin. En même temps, là je suis contente. » Puis là, en disant ça, elle a commencé à parler en anglais, puis là elle disait en anglais qu’elle était très contente de parler français parce que ça lui permettait d’ouvrir ses horizons puis tout ça. Mais en même temps, elle parlait anglais, tu sais, elle avait des petites notions. Puis, j’ai l’impression que c’est un peu ça, les Canadiens, ils aimeraient ça parler français mais, tu le sais toi‑même dans ton parcours, tu ne peux pas apprendre à parler français à Red Deer ou à Moose Jaw, tu sais. Il faut que tu viennes ici à Trois‑Pistoles puis que tu sois immergé complètement dans l’océan francophone, de comprendre pour parler, pour vivre la culture parce que c’est pas juste une langue, c’est pas juste du papier, c’est dans la vie, c’est dans tes affaires quand tu sors dans la rue, c’est un mode de vie. C’est pas juste une langue, c’est une culture. Ça, tu peux pas le comprendre si t’es pas venu au Québec, te plonger au Québec.”

Back to the topic at hand : describing Quebec. Truth be told, I had lost track of how many adjectives we had already been through, but he had more to say and I’m always willing to listen.

“Là, disons, il me manquerait un autre mot pour le Québec. Je dirais l’hiver. L’hiver, ça fait partie du Québec et du Canada, c’est pas exclusif au Québec. Encore hier, je parlais à un chauffeur de taxi qui me disait « Bon, moi, j’ai déménagé de la Tunisie, je suis bien au Québec. » Il disait « Y’a juste une chose qui me tanne, c’est l’hiver. » Tous les immigrants qui arrivent ici ont des problèmes avec l’hiver. C’est quelque chose vraiment… on ne soupçonne pas… Nous, on le subit en ronds sonnants, mais on est habitué depuis toujours. Mais eux, là, ça passe pas. Mais ça fait partie de notre identité, peut‑être de moins en moins avec le réchauffement de la planète.

Y’a une chose, par contre, que je rajouterais et puis dont on ne parle jamais au Québec, qui, moi, m’apparaît fondamental dans l’identité du Québec, c’est la notion de notre rapport avec les Amérindiens, les Premières nations. Dans l’identité québécoise – canadienne, je le sais pas – mais… Ne serait‑ce que dans les noms de lieux – Chicoutimi, Tadoussac, Hochelaga, Stadacone, tout ça – notre rapport avec les Premières nations a déjà été, quand on était en Nouvelle‑France, là, très très étroit. On parle des métis, des métis qui sont allés dans l’Ouest, tout ça, là. Ça, c’était comme une fusion des deux cultures, la culture européenne puis la culture amérindienne et puis, dans notre façon justement d’apprivoiser l’hiver, dans notre rapport avec l’espace, ce territoire‑là, comment on l’a connu, comment on l’a exploré. Puis cette dimension‑là de l’apport des Premières nations dans l’identité québécoise est complètement niée, complètement évacuée et moi, je suis très sensible à ça pour la remettre de l’avant. Donc, pour moi les Premières nations sont… On ne peut pas parler du Québec si on ne parle pas des Premières nations. Pour moi, ça m’apparaît fondamental.

Tu connais John Cole? J’ai lu son livre Siamese Twins (les frères siamois) qui parlent du Québec et du Canada. Puis lui, sa thèse de départ, reconstruire l’identité canadienne, c’est autochtone, francophone, anglophone. Le Canada, c’est une sorte de triangle équilatéral, avec des sommets égaux, puis l’identité du Canada repose là‑dessus. Le problème au Canada en ce moment, c’est qu’il y a une pointe du triangle qui écrase les deux autres. En fait, le Canada pourra le confirmer. Le Canada… Le Québec vit en français, le Canada vit en anglais. La réalité, c’est ça. À Ottawa, il y a une espèce de bilinguisme structurel dans le gouvernement fédéral, mais c’est pas vrai que le Canada est bilingue. Les gens qui sont bilingues, c’est les Francophones au Nouveau‑Brunswick, les Anglophones au Québec, puis les Francophones au Québec. C’est les seuls gens au Canada qui sont bilingues. Les Anglophones du Nouveau‑Brunswick sont pas bilingues…

Tu peux pas vivre en français à Toronto. Puis moi, je ne blâme pas les Canadiens de ne pas parler français; je veux dire c’est une langue en dehors du Québec, une langue qui sert à rien. Je veux dire, quand est‑ce que tu vas te trouver de l’emploi, quand est‑ce que tu vas écouter de la musique en français si tu es au Yukon? C’est une langue… Pourquoi la langue anglaise est tellement importante dans le monde? Parce que c’est les Américains qui l’ont prise, qui l’ont supportée avec leur économie puis leur contact militaire, comme les Romains ont imposé le latin. Je veux dire, une langue, ça s’impose pas parce que c’est beau puis ça sonne bien, ça s’impose avec l’économie. Donc, c’est pour ça que le français va décliner partout en Amérique, sauf au Québec peut‑être où là il y a des structures qui le protègent.

Au Québec, c’est important de parler français. Tu sais je veux dire? Alors que c’est pas important de parler français en Saskatchewan. C’est pour ça que les parents canadiens me font rire quand ils envoient leurs enfants à l’école en immersion. Ils veulent que… On veut toujours être bilingue, mais c’est trop de travail devenir bilingue, donc on va donner ça à nos enfants. Alors que toi, t’es la preuve, on peut très bien décider d’apprendre le français. On peut très bien si on a le goût, mais ça prend un acte de volonté, à. Toi, t’as déménagé, là, carrément. Mais d’abord, t’as été curieux. T’as dit « ah, ça m’intéresse, je vais aller en immersion », puis là après ça t’as dit « okay, il se passe des choses ici, là. Faut que je vienne approfondir ça. » De Toronto, de St. John à Terre‑Neuve, de Red Deer en Alberta, tu peux pas soupçonner tout ce qui se passe au Québec parce que tout ce que tu reçois, c’est de l’information biaisée, juste pendant le référendum les Québécois sont nationalistes, les Québécois sont pas gentils avec les Anglophones, les Québécois sont des maudits chialeux avec le déséquilibre fiscal, les Québécois votent tout le temps pour le maudit Bloc Québécois qu’on est pas capable d’avancer politiquement. C’est tout ce que t’entends, alors quelle image que tu te fais? C’est quoi, cette gang‑là de chiâleux puis d’arriérés?”

Though we got back on track, as you can see, it didn’t take long for us to get sidetracked again and start talking about Canada as a bilingual country. He recognizes that it doesn’t make much sense for people outside of Quebec to speak French. He’s almost saying, “Look, we cause you guys enough problems already here. Let’s just cut our losses and go our separate ways.” One need only look at the comments from my most recent entry to see the glimpses of the frustration the whole Quebec issue raises with Anglophone Canadians. And he’s right, we’re often given a pretty biased vision of Quebec, based on news reports whose primary focus is no longer to provide the news, but to sell the product, whether it be copies or advertising air time. As a result, we end up with a slanted view of the way things are here. Lucky for you ol’ Al is here to shed some light from time to time, eh?

I finished off the “official” part of the interview with a pretty simple question: Okay, I’m here in Quebec. What’s my next step to understanding what’s going on here? Here’s his response:

“Là, t’es à Montréal. C’est bien, Montréal. C’est une belle ville, mais c’est une métropole nord‑américaine où euh… Tu peux très bien vivre en anglais à Montréal, hein, tu t’en es rendu compte? Souvent aussi quand tu parles en français, beaucoup de Francophones te répondent en anglais quand ils entendent ton accent. Ça, c’est niaiseux de notre part. Ça là… Moi, je ne blâme pas les Anglais de ne pas parler français au Québec, je blâme les Francophones qui sont toujours en train de plier. Tu sais ce que je veux dire? Toi tu fais l’effort de parler, hein? Si tu ne parles jamais en français, tu ne l’apprendras jamais. Moi, ça ne me dérange pas de prendre beaucoup de temps, de parler moins vite, d’expliquer à un immigrant ou à un Anglophone puis qu’il dise « hé, j’ai eu une conversation en français, j’ai compris, c’est le fun, ça ». Les Québécois, on ne fait pas ça. Donc, à Montréal… Moi, ma suggestion, si tu veux comprendre le Québec, c’est de sortir de Montréal, faut que tu voyages. Faut que tu ailles en Abitibi, en Gaspésie, au lac Saint‑Jean, sur la Côte‑Nord, en Outaouais, à Québec. Faut que tu ailles à Québec, dans la Ville de Québec, parce que là tu vas… À Montréal, c’est comme si tu me disais je suis allé à New York, j’ai compris les États‑Unis. C’est très très différent. New York, c’est un pays presque. Montréal, c’est un peu ça, tu sais. C’est une ville qui est très… Parce que le reste du Québec, là, c’est beaucoup plus homogène, francophone, blanc, catholique. Y’a pas beaucoup d’immigrants; au lac Saint‑Jean, là, y’a pas beaucoup de Noirs, vraiment pas beaucoup. Ça, moi, j’aimerais qu’il y ait plus de diversité mais en même temps c’est un fait. Faut le constater, ce fait‑là. Faut constater aussi qu’au Lac Saint‑Jean personne parle anglais, vraiment personne, là… parce que si comme Canadien, par exemple, tu viens faire l’expérience du Québec, tu restes juste à Montréal où tout le monde est bilingue, tu peux te faire servir dans ta langue tout le temps partout, tu comprendras pas le Québec parce qu’il y a une grande partie du Québec qui est unilingue comme, par exemple, en Ontario les gens sont unilingues, Anglophones. Par exemple, je pourrais pas comprendre… prétendre comprendre l’Ontario si j’allais juste à Ottawa où il y a des gens qui parlent français aussi, en disant « hé, je me suis fait servir en français partout à Ottawa, donc l’Ontario c’est bilingue ». Je pense que pour comprendre le Québec, il faut voyager au Québec. Ça, c’est le conseil que je te donnerais à toi, mais à tous les Québécois aussi parce qu’il y a beaucoup de gens qui ne sont jamais sortis de l’île de Montréal. Je pense que pour connaître le Québec, il faut… Évidemment, la culture, en général, c’est un bon moyen de comprendre…Si t’as vu le film Maurice Richard, par exemple, t’as compris une partie de l’histoire du Québec aussi avec ça. Les journaux, il faut que tu lises les journaux d’ici, que t’écoutes la télévision d’ici, tu vas comprendre beaucoup de facettes de nous qui ne sont pas très belles à exposer, très quétaines, très petit village refermé sur lui‑même, mais c’est nous. Tu sais, quand tu découvres quelqu’un, c’est pas juste ses bons côtés, tu découvres ses mauvais côtés. La culture, à mon avis, elle demeure le meilleur moyen d’avoir accès à l’âme d’une nation, si tu veux. Puis voyager. Si tu comprends le territoire, tu comprends à quel point c’est grand, puis à quel point… Peu importe où que tu sois au Québec, tu vas comprendre que t’es encore au Québec. Tu traverses en Ontario puis tu traverses au Nouveau‑Brunswick, à un moment donné, frontière ou non, là, tu vas t’apercevoir que tu n’es plus au Québec. Et c’est ça qui fait qu’on a la conscience d’être une nation. C’est que partout sur le territoire, on partage une culture commune.”

Hopefully this extended series has been somewhat amusing for my readers. I would like to thank Christiane Côté from French Transcription Services, without whom I would never have been able to present this in the manner I wanted. Reading French is one thing, but being able to transcribe things from a mediocre quality tape recording is quite another. Til next time…

Sorry, I Don't Speak French!

2006-06-16T14:25:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, I was reading the weekly edition of the Hour while doing my laundry and I came across a review for Graham Fraser’s new book, Sorry, I Don’t Speak French. Since loyal followers of my blog already know that language is a topic near and dear to my heart, it should come as no surprise that I absolutely HAD to pick it up. And I’m certainly happy I did. Well, perhaps “happy” isn’t accurate. Y’see, when I was reading through the book’s introduction it started to become painfully clear that, in many ways, this was the book I had wanted to write, myself! I’m not sure how many times I stopped reading, mid-paragraph and thought, “Hey! He’s absolutely right!” but it felt like I was doing it constantly.

So what does he say in the book? Well, for those who have no interest in reading it, I’ll point out a couple of the higher points. He deals primarily with Federal language policy and the repercussions of bilingualism in the Federal government, trying to debunk the commonly held misconception that Trudeau dreamt of a country where everyone was fully bilingual. According to Fraser, this was never the case. Trudeau apparently wanted 2 things out of the Official Languages Act: first, that people should have the right to speak to their own government in the language of their choice and second, to give the youth of the nation the option to learn the other official language. That’s a pretty far cry from what I was always taught growing up.

Graham also points out that the Federal government has dropped the ball in terms of improving relations between francophones and anglophones since the 1995 Referendum, whether it be through caps to funding of immersion programs to the sponsorship scandal. Instead of building bridges between the two cultural groups, we’ve isolated them. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from being in this province, it’s that one shouldn’t back a Québécois into a corner. They’ll react VERY strongly, whether it be rational or not. The next few years will be interesting, particularly if the PQ wins the next election. After all, they’ve promised yet another Referendum should they take power and that’s really not something I look forward to, especially with a front row seat here in Montreal.

Though no one can offer outright solutions to the language issue, I think that the suggestions Fraser has made through the course of the book have merit. I would go into more detail, but he writes far more eloquently than I do, so I highly suggest my Canadian readers go out and read the book. It would be a shame if his work goes unnoticed as this issue will eventually dictate the future of our nation. Go out and read the book. For those who are interested, check out this link to an interview with the author. Til next time…

Entrevue avec Biz (Loco Locass) troisième partie

2006-06-12T13:20:00.000-04:00

So let’s get a little deeper into the political attitude of Quebec and les Québécois, shall we? A little over a year ago, university, college and CEGEP students voiced their displeasure with Jean Charest’s proposed budget cuts to education by going on strike. And believe it or not, the government listened. In fact, not only did the government listen, but they also allocated more money to education than they had planned. WHAT?!? Having lived through Mike Harris’ so-called “Common Sense Revolution” wherein education was cut by hundreds of millions of dollars and tuition became less regulated, I’m shocked at the outcome in Quebec. Had we pulled the same sort of stunt in Ontario, I have absolutely no doubt that we would have gotten absolutely no results. The universities would have been happy to keep cashing our tuition cheques, raising the rates and delaying our graduations. Not so here.

I asked Biz for a bit of an overview of the situation and made the comparison to the Mike Harris regime (one will notice that Loco Locass made the same sort of comparison in their song, Libérez‑nous des Libéraux). He told me that the cause became more than just students versus the government. People who were no longer students sided with them. There’s a belief that education is important and that the students were already poor enough—I wish we had experienced the same sort of support in Ontario before the gradual rate hike started taking effect. For some reason, they watch the government with a more critical eye here and they believe, much like they do in France, that the government will listen if the people make their views known. He remembered Harris’ cuts and wondered why we, in Ontario, seemed to just grin and bear it. It comes down to that basic belief that people can make a difference. We don’t seem to think that way in Ontario, at least not when it comes to dealing with the government.

“Mais nous, justement depuis que le gouvernement Charest est là, les gens ont compris que s’ils descendaient dans la rue, parce que le gouvernement est tellement pas bon en fait, il fait tellement plein de niaiseries qu’il faut qu’il soit surveiller de très près par la population.

Quand ils ont voulu faire une centrale au gaz au suroît, les gens sont descendus dans la rue, le gouvernement a arrêté. Quand ils ont voulu subventionner des écoles privées à 100 %, les gens sont descendus, le gouvernement a reculé.

Ç’était la même chose pour les étudiants. C’était une grève qui n’était pas juste pour les étudiants, c’était partout au Québec. Moi, j’avais mon carré rouge, beaucoup de citoyens qui n’étaient plus des étudiants étaient solidaires avec les étudiants parce qu’ils trouvaient que le gouvernement était injuste, incompétent, puis des voleurs qui n’avaient pas… Ils volaient de l’argent aux étudiants aussi pauvres alors qu’ils disaient que l’éducation allait être leur priorité. Donc, tout le monde était d’accord avec les étudiants puis, justement, ç’a marché partout. Ils sont allés récupérer une partie, cent millions, qu’on leur avait prise. Donc, à ce compte‑là… c’est là que tu vois qu’il y a deux cultures au Canada. Les Québécois ont une culture qui est près de celle de la France au niveau de la manifestation, de l’opinion publique. Nous, on pense que si on descend dans les rues, ça peut changer des choses. Alors qu’au Canada, je ne le sais pas mais tu me disais que les gens… ça m’a toujours étonné ça parce que… Quand Harris a fait sa révolution du bon sens, je le savais, moi, je suivais ça de très loin mais quand même, puis je me disais y a personne dans les rues, donc les gens doivent être contents, ça doit faire leur affaire, ils doivent être satisfaits, ils doivent dire merci au gouvernement, on est content comment ça s’est fait. Donc, j’ai eu une perception un peu bizarre des Ontariens en disant, bon, ce qu’ils veulent, tant mieux pour eux, c’est ça qu’ils vont avoir.”

Mind you, the people won’t react to every cause under the sun. It needs to be something they believe in and support. The fact that the students took the initiative themselves demonstrated to the Quebecois that this was an important issue. The students are the future of the province and deserve the same sort of opportunities (if not better) than those that came before them. It was only by rallying the people to their cause that they succeeded. Biz believes very strongly in the power of the people and their right to express their views through protests, and they try to use their songs to encourage people to express their views. In fact, one of their songs (guess which one) became a symbol of the protests.

“Mais en fait ça dépend aussi de la manifestation; si elle concerne juste les professeurs, ça sera pas suffisant mais si les professeurs réussissent à rallier avec eux l’ensemble de la société en disant ça concerne pas juste nous mais toute la société, l’éducation parce que c’est nos enfants qu’on va former. Ils vont avoir des bons emplois, ils vont générer de l’argent pour payer nos frais de santé quand on va être plus vieux, tu sais. Les étudiants, c’est ce qu’ils ont réussi à faire, se mobiliser eux‑mêmes à l’échelle de tout le Québec puis, en plus, d’inclure le reste de la société, les syndiqués, même le restant de la société dans leur combat. À ce moment‑là, tu peux gagner. Tu rallies l’ensemble de la population. Aucun gouvernement… même en France, ils vont reculer, là, sur le contrat de première embauche, là. Il n‘est pas question qu’ils reculent. Mais quand un gouvernement fait face à une opposition d’une telle ampleur, il n’a pas le choix de reculer parce qu’il dit « ça va contre le peuple », en fait, ça marche pas, je peux pas faire ça.

Moi, je crois beaucoup à la mobilisation de la société civile. On l’encourage beaucoup nous, dans nos chansons, dans nos spectacles puis dans notre esprit. On voit souvent… Avec les étudiants, on faisait des… on allait dans les spectacles de musique, notre chanson allait jouer partout dans toutes les manifestations étudiantes, c’était la chanson de la manifestation pour dire non à ce gouvernement‑là.”

When I continue with the final part of the interview, we get back to discussing more of la culture québécoise. Stay tuned…Continue to part 4

Conceding to that OJ Kid

2006-06-10T22:46:00.000-04:00

So after several months, I'm ready to concede to the majority opinion and say that OJ will likely be the lucky (???) winner of the Marriage Pool and be the next to walk down the aisle. Mind you, Kev is 51 days through a 90 day training regimen and claims the results would be different if I allowed the "After" photos to be posted here. Who knows? If there were a high enough demand from the ladies in the audience, I would probably post them. One thing I know I wondered (and I have to credit my roommate Meagan for this next comment) was when did OJ's mom start reading my blog? She must have been voting a lot to give him such a big lead! Wow.
For those still interested in letting their voice be heard, please feel free to check in the appropriate box on the poll provided on the right side of the page. For additional background on the candidates, please click here.

Entrevue avec Biz (Loco Locass) deuxième partie

2006-06-08T16:31:00.001-04:00

Somewhere along the lines, I had heard that Loco Locass were the pop culture “Defenders of the French Language” in Quebec. And considering the complexities of some of their songs, I can see how they would have gained such a reputation. But they’re really known for their separatist political outlook and critiques of the government, both Provincial and Federal. So I wondered, when did this all start for Biz? Was there some defining moment when he felt that Quebec needed to become its own country to ensure its survival? Going through the “why do you feel this way” seemed a little pointless. I know he wants an independent Quebec and no amount of debate between the 2 of us would ever change that, so I decided to stick with the “when” part of the whole deal. This is what he told me:

“Moi, ça date pas. Du plus loin que je me souvienne, ça date du premier Référendum en 1980. Il y en a eu deux référendums, un en ’95 et un en ’80. Donc, moi en ’80, j’avais huit ans, j’étais un petit enfant. Mes parents, qui étaient de la Ville de Québec… Je sentais qu’il se passait des choses dans la ville. Y’avait des pancartes, y’avait OUI, NON. Ça, j’étais capable de comprendre ça. J’avais demandé à mes parents de m’expliquer pourquoi, qu’est‑ce qui se passait, tout ça puis elle m’avait expliqué que… à un enfant de huit ans, en fait, que les Québécois voulaient s’occuper de leurs affaires eux‑mêmes, tout ça. Puis là j’ai dit mais y’en a qui ne sont pas d’accord avec ça, comment ça y’en a qui sont pas d’accord? Elle a dit, bien, ceux qui sont pas d’accord, c’est les riches, ceux qui ont beaucoup d’argent, les Anglophones, les Canadiens puis eux autres veulent rester Canadiens.”

So essentially it started as early as grade school for Biz. I can’t remember a thing about the 1980 Referendum, but I can see how that sort of thing (and the attitudes of one’s parents) could shape one’s opinions growing up. From his parents’ perspective, it was the rich and the Anglophones who wanted Quebec to stay, but the common man wanted no part of it.

“En fait, le plus loin que je puisse me rappeler, j’ai toujours trouver que les nations devaient s’occuper d’elles‑mêmes en fait parce que les Québécois en ce moment y’a une situation un peu poche qui se passe avec le Canada. On est pas dans le Canada vraiment parce qu’on n’a pas signé la Constitution. C’est comme si on est marié, mais on n’a pas signé le contrat de mariage. Tu sais, t’as un Premier Ministre à Québec qui est un fédéraliste ardent, M. Charest, pourquoi il ne la signe pas, la Constitution, pourquoi? S’il ne la signe pas, c’est qu’il y a un problème. C’est quoi, le problème? Réglons‑le. Donc, on est à la fois pas tout à fait dehors du Canada, pas tout à fait dedans, pas de statu quo. J’imagine pour les Canadiens ça doit être extraordinairement fatiguant d’avoir un interlocuteur qui est toujours en train de chialer, maudit assurance médical, maudit Ottawa, maudit ci, maudit ça. C’est comme… y’est pas capable de se prendre en main. Pour ça, moi je me dis gouvernons‑nous nous‑mêmes, puis arrêtons de chialer après eux autres, en fait. C’est aussi simple que ça pour moi.” he expressed.

Biz feels that there’s a general disconnect between Quebec and Canada, reaching back to the repatriation of the constitution. After all, Quebec has never officially signed off on the new constitution (a point I’ve heard from virtually every separatist I’ve ever met) and at the moment, the Premier of Quebec is an ardent Federalist, but even he hasn’t stepped up and signed the constitution. There must be some reason why not. And really, it must be pretty draining for Canadians to be constantly hearing someone complaining all the time about every little thing. For me, I think that’s one of the best things about having Quebec as a part of Canada—they keep Ottawa honest (or at least as much as it can be).

Loco Locass, like Public Enemy and other hip hop groups from the 80s and early 90s, occupy an interesting niche in pop culture. On the one hand, they’re entertainers. On the other, they have something to say. Biz is quite proud that the Forum section of their website has become more important than the section about the group itself. They want to create dialogues, advance ideas--just discuss what’s going on in the world. They’re not just a hip hop group anymore. Their site has become a major locus of internet discussion. Having stopped by the site a few times, I admit it’s been pretty interesting to read the discussions. Sure, there are still some crackpots on there, but one finds that anytime there’s an open discussion. So does that mean that the political ideas are more important than the songs themselves?

“Oui et non, aussi importantes parce que si on fait pas des bonnes chansons, on véhiculera pas nos idées. Tu sais, j’ai bien beau faire une chanson « Oui, un pays, votez oui, votez oui ». C’est comme euh… ça poche, point. Je veux dire, personne ne va écouter ça. La chanson Libérez‑nous des Libéraux avait eu beaucoup d’impact pour plusieurs raisons : y’avait une conjoncture, y avait un gouvernement qui était très très impopulaire, ça rejoignait dans le texte et dans les idées ce que beaucoup de gens pensaient mais aussi c’était une chanson entraînante, bien construite dans sa structure avec un refrain assez accrocheur, de la turlute à la fin qui rejoint tous les Québécois, un bon rythme assez… qui donne le goût de contester, d’aller de l’avant. Je pense que c’est une bonne chanson bien construite puis au niveau des idées, bien, elle supporte une idée qui était la majorité des Québécois, en fait… avec laquelle la majorité des Québécois étaient d’accord. Donc, elle est devenue populaire à cause de ça. Mais si t’as juste une bonne idée ou juste une bonne chanson, t’auras pas autant d’impact. Ça prend vraiment les deux, ça prend des bonnes idées dans des bonnes chansons que les gens vont retenir puis qu’ils vont avoir le goût de chanter puis de fredonner.”

For Biz, it takes a combination of the two aspects. The reason for the success of their song Libérez‑nous des Libéraux was that they were able to tap into many of the sentiments being felt by the people of Quebec, but do it in an entertaining way. You may have good ideas, but if you don’t know how to express them in a way that’ll be attractive to the public, then no one will notice. At the same time, if you’re all style and no substance, then the public will be even less inclined to listen to what you have to say. It’s got to be a balance, otherwise it just won’t work.

Believe it or not, folks, we’re only about a quarter of the way through the interview, so I’ll stop here for now. Til next time… Continue to part 3.

Feeding My Inner Geek

2006-06-03T09:21:00.000-04:00

I've been lacking a certain amount of motivation lately, in particular as it pertains to writing. With all the stresses involved with finding a new apartment and getting things sorted out for my impending move to the Rosemont area, I've found my energy increasingly lacking. And now that my Pistons have taken a powder at the hands of Shaq Daddy and those blasted Miami Heat, I have one less pastime to occupy my attention.

All that being said, I've been finding myself taking comfort in a game I started playing somewhere around 1995, I think. The dates and timelines are pretty fuzzy at the moment, but whatever. The game? Magic: the Gathering. Yes, dear readers, I admit it. I play a collectible card game--and I enjoy it! It's fun! So what's the game all about? If one wants to work the fantasy angle, then each player is a wizard, battling for control of the planes of existance. The wizards gather their resources, summon minions and cast spells until they've defeated their opponent. The goal is actually quite simple: reduce your opponents lifepoint total to zero before he/she does the same to you. But though the goal is simple, getting there is tougher than it sounds.

The game actually starts long before one sits down across from the opponent. Y'see, both players will have constructed a deck, based on their collections of cards. Deck construction is probably the most interesting aspect for me because it gives me a chance to stretch my mental muscles and see how clever I am. The cards will interact in different ways with one another when playing the game, so finding the "right" combination of cards to achieve your goal (while thwarting your opponent) is where the fun comes in. I like coming up with ideas, building decks and then crushing opponents with the my wonderous creation. Problem is, this doesn't happen nearly as often as I would like.

So my quest has continued on an almost daily basis, looking at card lists, reading articles on the major info sites, like Starcity Games and Brain Burst, hoping I'll find something that the pros have missed (highly unlikely, but I can dream, right?). And yes, for those who are uber-serious about the game, there IS a pro tour wherein tournament winners can take home a cheque for $35, 000 US. No, that wasn't a misprint. I've also been spending an inordinate amount of time (and money) playing the online version against players from around the world. So there you have it. That's what ol' Al has been up to lately. The next part of the interview with Biz will be posted in the next couple of days. Til next time...

Interview with Biz (Loco Locass) Part 1

2006-05-25T16:36:00.000-04:00

**I’ll do my best to explain the French as I go. I felt that it was important to the integrity of the interview to maintain the content in its original form. I apologize to those readers from the great state of Texas who can’t read French. To my anglo-Canadian audience, you have no excuse. We’ve been taking French since grade school and it’s an important part of our national identity—something we should all be proud of, so break out the dictionaries if necessary. You can find my introduction here**

There’s so much I don’t know about Loco Locass, and so much more to learn about Quebec, I figured I would start at the beginning. What does Loco Locass mean? Where are they from? How did they meet?

“Loco en espagnol, c’est « fou », puis locass en français, ça ne s’écrit pas comme ça mais ça veut dire bavard, ça veut dire qui parle beaucoup comme loco ici, c’est un mot qui veut dire… qui parle beaucoup. Puis loco, ça fait référence aussi à locomotive, locomotivum, le mouvement puis le fait d’être local aussi, qu’on parle beaucoup du Québec et de ce qui se passe au Québec. Donc, on a des problématiques locales, donc on est locaux aussi, on s’intéresse à ce qui se passe chez nous. Donc, ça fait un peu référence à tout ça, là, en fait.” he explained, essentially “Crazy Talkers” with a reference to both movement and the sense of being “local.” The word Locaux (the plural form of local) is phonetically similar to the Spanish word “Loco,” for those less familiar with French.

“Le fait aussi de mettre un terme espagnol, ça fait référence aussi au fait qu’on est préoccupé aussi par toute l’Amérique au complet, le continent américain aussi. C’est pas juste… Même si on est préoccupé par le Québec, on a une ouverture aussi sur le reste du monde.”

“Batlam, c’est un ami de Québec, c’est vraiment un très vieil ami du cégep, ou high school on dirait. On avait donc des amis communs, puis on se réunissait autour de la radio, on faisait de la radio au cégep. D’ailleurs, Loco Locass au début faisait une émission de radio au cégep puis très vite on a été très attiré par la langue, en fait l’écriture. Lui écrivait, moi aussi j’écrivais. Aussi on lisait beaucoup, puis on aimait beaucoup la littérature, la musique aussi. On écoutait du hip‑hop français puis graduellement, moi, j’avais le goût d’écrire des textes.” Biz said.

“Quand on a rencontré Chafiik par l’entremise d’un ami commun, on avait déjà quelques textes de faits. Lui nous a fait des musiques, on a dit : « okay parfait, on va faire un disque. »”

He and Batlam have known one another since high school and met up again because of a radio show they did in cegep (like a combination of community college and/or university prep), also called Loco Locass. By the time they met Chafiik through a common friend, Biz and Batlam had already written a few songs. Chafiik took care of the music part and they decided to make a CD.

The group itself formed a little over 10 years ago, so I wondered how things have changed over the years, as far as goals and vision for the group. Not a lot, apparently. The goal had always been to put out good music, with a distinctively Québécois accent. They wanted to give a voice to the issues that concerned them, namely the protection of the French language in Anglophone North America and the political independence of Quebec, all the while putting on a good show.

“La vision originale, je dirais qu’elle reste quand même assez intacte. Évidemment elle a pris plus d’ampleur, si tu veux, mais au début, là, ce qu’on voulait faire, c’était du rap en français mais vraiment québécois parce que nous, ce qu’on écoutait au début en `95, c’était du rap français de France. Il n’y avait pas vraiment beaucoup d’artistes qui le faisaient ici au Québec en français avec l’accent du Québec puis avec des problématiques du Québec. Donc, à partir de là, nous, ç’a toujours été de faire de la bonne musique avec l’accent québécois, puis de la musique originale puis des bonnes chansons qui parleraient du Québec, puis des préoccupations qu’on avait à l’époque c’était la langue française, l’importance de la langue française dans un contexte minoritaire en Amérique puis l’indépendance politique du Québec. Ça, c’était les deux fers de lance, je dirais, propres au début. Ça, c’est resté… Puis d’ailleurs, notre premier album, on l’a appelé Manifestif, qui est un peu le manifeste, la prise de position politique, puis « festif », ça veut dire à travers la fête, à travers le party, à travers le plaisir, en fait. Donc, dans nos chansons ou dans un spectacle, quand tu viens à un spectacle, il y a cette notion de fête, de plaisir, mais aussi la réflexion continue sur l’identité puis ce qui se passe au niveau socioéconomique et politique.

Je dirais que la vision d’origine, en fait, elle a… La mission, si tu veux, là, ça n’a pas évolué. C’est juste que ç’a pris beaucoup plus d’ampleur évidemment parce qu’au début on était dans l’est de Montréal puis on travaillait; personne ne savait qu’on faisait de la musique, mais plus personne ne voulait entendre parler de la souveraineté après le Référendum de ’95, puis le fait du rap, le rap ça n’existe pas au Québec, personne ne connaît ça, y’a personne qui va aimer ce qu’on fait, en fait.

Finalement, au début on a eu un succès médiatique. Les médias étaient très intéressés à nous parce que ça portait souvent les tuques en forme de fleur de lys. Donc ils disaient, il y a donc des jeunes qui s’intéressent à la politique dans une forme moderne avec du hip‑hop. C’est curieux, on va aller voir qui ils sont ces bêtes‑là. Ils se sont intéressés à nous. On a vendu à peu près 10 000 disques du premier album Manifestif. C’est quand on a fait l’Amour Oral, notre dernier disque, qu’on a eu un succès plus populaire, plus réparti à travers tout le Québec.” he recounted.

They were a novelty when they first came out in 1995 since no one wanted to talk about language issues or independence after the Referendum, but the media took an interest anyway. After all, here were young guys, trying to use hip-hop to discuss politics. The attention was nice and they sold 10, 000 albums, but it wasn’t until their 2nd album that they really took off.

In preparation for the interview, I decided to read through the lyrics of a few of their songs. The one that caught my eye was L’Empire du Pire en Pire. Being a Classics major, I appreciated the references to ancient Rome and the parallels drawn to the US. But in hearing him talk about his mindset, I realized that I would probably have hung out with him, had we gone to the same high school growing up. You’ll see what I mean in a moment.

“Dans l’Empire du Pire en Pire, on fait référence effectivement à l’empire romain. Moi, ç’a toujours été… j’ai toujours comparé les Américains aux Romains, moi, par ce que c’est une puissance. Tu sais, on parle de la domination des Américains en ce moment sur le monde, mais les Romains, faut pas oublier qu’ils ont contrôlé un empire qui est plus grand, en fait, que celui que les Américains contrôlent en ce moment, en imposant une langue, le latin, une culture, des architectures, des cirques romains. Tu sais, tu te promènes en France, même dans le sud de la France, y’a encore des colisées romains où il y a des corridas, ça fait plus que 2 000 ans que ç’a été construit, ça. Donc ils ont été vraiment impérialistes, en fait, militairement et aussi culturellement. Puis je trouvais qu’il y avait un parallèle à faire entre... Un empire ça se déploie, puis ça se construit, puis ça meurt aussi, toujours de la même façon. Moi, ce qui m’intéressait, c’était faire le parallèle entre les deux et donc de pouvoir aussi annoncer le déclin et éventuellement la mort de l’empire américain exactement comme on avait observé celui de l’empire romain. Les Romains ont construit plein de routes, en fait, qui ont permis d’aller envahir les Barbares. Mais après ça, pendant qu’ils étaient occupés avec du pain des jeux, ils étaient complètement décadents à la fin, les Romains, ils ne construisaient plus rien, ils allaient au cirque puis ils mangeaient gratuitement puis, pendant ce temps‑là, les Barbares ont envahi Rome – un peu ce qui s’est passé avec le 11 septembre, à savoir les Barbares sont entrés dans Rome. En ce moment, je trouve que les Américains sont très très décadents… À mon avis, c’est une nation qui est sur le déclin en ce moment, vraiment sur le déclin. Ça me faisait penser à l’empire romain, finalement.

Puis, dans une autre chanson aussi sur Amour Oral, qui s’appelle La bataille des murailles, j’ai écrit sur la… comparé le Sommet des Amériques, je sais pas si ça te dit quelque chose, ça. En 2001, à Québec, il y eu un grand sommet qui a réuni toutes les nations d’Amérique. Il y eu des grosses manifestations dans la Ville de Québec. Ça me faisait penser à… y’avait un périmètre de sécurité, y’avait les monarques qui étaient dans leur château. Ça faisait penser à l’époque médiévale avec un château, les paysans qui veulent se ramasser au château, y’a un combat entre… y’avait même des catapultes, ils lançaient des vraies catapultes. Moi, ça m’a toujours intéressé d’utiliser des analogies soit avec l’empire romain ou l’époque médiévale pour expliquer, en fait, que l’histoire humaine est toujours la même, souvent. Ça tombe toujours en… C’est toujours les mêmes grandes opérations, les mêmes grands trucs. Dans le cas de ces deux chansons‑là, c’est moi qui les ai écrites les deux, ça me préoccupe beaucoup, les analogies historiques, mais j’ai pas étudié en histoire ou quoi que ce soit, j’ai joué beaucoup à Dungeons & Dragons, alors je connais le nom des épées puis des armures. Ça me permet justement d’utiliser ça dans mes chansons. ” he said.

Yes, you read that correctly. Biz used to play Dungeons & Dragons. He had just as “geeky” a hobby as I did. Amazing the sorts of things y’hear, eh? Tomorrow I’ll resume this and we’ll get into a bit of politics and Biz’s take on Quebec. Til next time… Continue to part two.

Interview with Biz (Loco Locass): The Introduction

2006-05-24T16:36:00.000-04:00

Before I begin, I would like to take a moment to congratulate Biz and his wife on the birth of their first child, Louis. I hope that he grows up happy and healthy.

A little over a month ago (Easter weekend, in fact), I decided that I wanted to do another interview. I was still basking in the afterglow of my interview with Chéli Sauvé-Castonguay and, quite frankly, was feeling lucky. So I went over my mental wish list and decided to try and get in touch with Loco Locass, specifically Biz. I had decided on Biz because I knew he spoke English and I couldn’t make the same claim about the other two of the trio, Batlam and Chafiik. Plus, it would have been more than a bit overwhelming to deal with all three.

So why Loco Locass? Who are these guys? I know the majority of my readers have no clue who they are, but that’s part of the appeal, for me anyway. I first heard about Loco Locass during my sojourn in Trois-Pistoles 2 years ago. As I’m sure you’ve all noticed, my old animateur, Fred, has had a profound influence on my explorations of Québécois culture. My first Québécois CDs were all bought based on his recommendations, for instance. Well, Loco Locass is one of Fred’s favourite groups. He’s even analysed the lyrics of a few of their songs for some essays in years past. So I figured I’d give them a quick listen.

I’m not normally into rap, let alone Francophone rap, but their song Libérez-nous des libéraux is really catchy. I didn’t understand much more than the chorus, but I could probably say the same thing about a dozen Anglophone rappers. Personal language limitations aside, it sounded pretty good. And much like the rap of the mid to late 80s, there’s content to their lyrics, presuming one takes the time to read them. There’s also an intricacy and complexity to their songs that would make many a grammar teacher smile.

Did I mention they’re Quebec nationalists? Interviewing Biz had the makings of a fun afternoon, that’s for sure. So I dropped a quick note to his management company and requested an interview. I figured it would probably take a few weeks to sort out details and whatnot, but to my surprise, I found an e-mail in my Inbox the next day asking me to call him. I left a message on his voice mail and the next day he called me back. I was absolutely giddy. Unlike my failed attempt to do the interview with Chéli in French, I managed to carry out the phone conversation en français and arrange for an interview the following day.

Here’s where it gets a little bit embarrassing for me: despite having listened to their songs and seen some interviews, I wasn’t entirely sure which one of group I was meeting. They always seem to do the interviews together and I usually spent more time listening to what they were saying than identifying which was which. All I knew for sure was that it wasn’t the one with the shaved head. That’s Chafiik. Some google searches didn’t clear things up, either. So I just trusted I’d be able to figure it out when the time came and headed down to Le Café de l’Apothicaire sur la rue Beaubien in Rosemont.

I was pretty nervous, as one can clearly tell if one listens to the recording of the interview, but this whole Quebec experiment is meant to broaden my horizons and allow me to experience things I would never have the chance to in London, Ontario. So I took a few deep breaths and got my head together as I waited. Before long, I noticed a pregnant woman come strolling in, followed by a tall, skinny guy in a bandana, a Puerto Rico football jersey (that looks oddly similar to the Alouettes jersey) and the typical hip hop-style baggy jeans. Chances were pretty good I had found Biz. So after he and his wife had settled in, I went over and introduced myself.

**Tomorrow, I'll get into the interview itself. Til next time...***
To continue to the first part of the interview, click here.

My oh my...

2006-05-17T21:54:00.000-04:00

What a difference a week can make. It's merely minutes after the Cavs stunned my beloved Pistons in Game 5 in Detroit. It seems that the Pistons have completely lost all composure and may very well get bounced from the playoffs by LeBron. How has this happened? What's gone wrong? Cleveland is showing more grit and determination than I (or anyone else) has given them credit for and LeBron is showing that he may already be the best player in the league. Wow. That's all I can say right now. Just wow. I'm going to have to curl up in the fetal position for a while to recover from this loss. Man... well, Game 6 is Friday, I believe, and since I'll be driving home to London, I'll miss it. Damn.

the Women of Quebec

2006-05-15T14:36:00.000-04:00

I’ve been bouncing back and forth on this blog, alternating between semi-serious content and, as Morgan would describe it, the utterly ridiculous. Well, Morgan, this one falls into the utterly ridiculous category, if only because I miss your razor-sharp critiques of my views. This particular topic has been in the works, in one form or another, for the past 2 years. Though I’ve already dabbled in subjects like the “Perfect Woman,” I’ve neglected mention of the sexiest women in Canada (if not the world): les Québécoises!

So why have I decided to put fingers to keyboard now? Well, it’s inspired by a conversation I had recently with a new acquaintance (Hi Ver!). I haven’t the foggiest idea how we got on to the topic, but I tried to quantify what it is about les Québécoises that has captured my attention so thoroughly. Now thanks to the wonders of the internet, you’re all privy to the discussion as well! So what is it about them? What makes them so different from, say, the women in Ontario?

It really starts with the collective attitude. This is where I start making gross generalizations, based entirely on my perceptions. Since I subscribe to the idea that one’s perception is one’s reality, this is my reality. Canada is blessed with 2 major cultures within its borders: Anglophone and Francophone. As a result, we don’t need to look to other countries or cultures to find someone with exotic appeal. We have about 3-4 million of them right here in Quebec!

Let’s start with the accent. C’mon guys, admit it! We like accents. We like hearing the cute ways they pronounce different words. For me, though, it goes back to hearing the accent when they’re speaking their mother tongue. When I hear a woman with a québécois accent, my knees get weak. It doesn’t matter if I have seen them yet or not. I could overhear a conversation in French outside my office door and I start to melt. It’s like I have it hardwired into my brain… must be the calls of my ancestors or something.

Next there’s the style. Quebecois women have their own style, like some sort of trendy cross between skater punk, hippy chic and haute culture. They can be casual or sophisticated and carry it off in ways that Ontario girls just don’t. Line up girls from Toronto and girls from Montreal and I guarantee you’ll see a difference between the 2 groups. Fashion choices are more a reflection of their personalities. Women from Ontario seem more likely to follow American trends than Québécois women. Les Québécoises put their own spin on things.

My old friend Chris used to say, “It’s what’s inside that counts.” Mind you he was talking about the rather substantial contents of a girl’s blouse at the time, so let’s talk about that. I believe that Québécois women are genetically predisposed to having amazing bodies. When one looks back on the “traditional” Quebecois foods, one finds a variety of high sugar, high carbohydrate dishes that make me wonder how the whole province hasn’t gone into insulin shock. La tarte au sucre (literally “sugar pie”) is exactly that. So how is it that there are so many tiny, trim women here? Natural selection, I tell you. And à mon avis, nature has chosen wisely!

So now we’ve reached the final piece to Al’s ramblings about les Québécoises: personality. When I see, listen to, or talk with a Québécoise, I see something very obvious in their personalities. There’s a passion and fire there that is lacking in most Ontario women (Sorry, girls! You know where to send the hate mail/comments). They’re like little balls of fire. God help you if you get into an argument with one of them because they’ll dig in their heels and fight for their point of view, even when proven wrong! They’ll keep at it anyway. There’s just something intangible that appeals to me.

I think an anecdote is in order to try to illustrate my point. One day in mid March, I was walking down Avenue du Parc on my way home after work. The snow had been melting and the grass went and muddy on either side of the sidewalk. From the other direction, I see a couple of teenagers walking toward me, a guy and a girl. As they got closer, I heard the girl speaking with the accent I’ve come to know and love. By this point, we’re probably within 20 feet of one another when, out of nowhere, the girl bodychecks her unsuspecting companion into the mud! I smiled, laughed to myself, and thought, “Now THAT’s a Québécoise!”

So there you have it. I have no clue if I’ve managed to make my fascination with these women any more clear than before, but at least I tried. So til next time…

NBA Playoff Action

2006-05-09T09:14:00.000-04:00

It’s that time of year again: Playoff time in the NBA. Few things in life get my blood racing in quite the same way. Those of you who don’t care for my NBA observations should probably just skip to the next blog. This has been quite a week in the NBA. We saw the exit of Employee Number 8 (Enjoy the golf course, Kobe!), the crowning of the league’s MVP in Canada’s Steve Nash, and a ridiculously dominant performance by the Pistons in 5 of the 6 games they’ve played so far this post-season. Oh, and Big Ben managed to snag his 4th Defensive Player of the Year nod, just for good measure.

This year’s MVP was probably the worst kept secret in league history as someone from the Head Office seems to have leaked the winner a couple of weeks before they made the announcement—just in time to try and stoke a rivalry between Kobe and Steve Nash. Coincidence? Unlikely. Though why they would need to hype the series any more than they already had is beyond me. Personally, I don’t enjoy watching Kobe win. Yes, it’s most certainly jealousy creeping in, as I would love to have even a 10th of the ability he has on a basketball court, but there’s something exhilarating in watching him lose. Again. I would be quite pleased if he never managed to win another championship for the rest of his career. That being said, I’ll have to admit that he was probably a better choice for MVP than my countryman. He carried the Lakers back into the playoffs and put a helluva scare into the 2nd seeded Suns. But all his heroics went for naught as his team folded like the patio set Maddog is forced to hose off on a weekly basis out in Ilderton.

In the meantime, the Pistons have kept rolling along. Sure, there was that hiccup in Milwaukee as they got blown out, but the Bucks played above their level. It happens. Now we’ll get to see if they can carry things through against Lebron and the Cavs. There’s no way the Bad Boys will put up the kind of numbers they did last Sunday when they tore the NBA’s “Next One” a new ass, but I don’t think the series will go beyond 5 games. There would have to be some pretty serious developments for that to happen.

I’m still not willing to make any bold predictions about the eventual Championships because, let’s face it, there’s a lot of basketball left to be played. But rest assured, the afro wig and jersey will see a lot of daylight over the next month or so. Til next time…

Bunnies After Work

2006-04-27T22:05:00.000-04:00

A couple of days ago, I was wandering through the Student Centre of the #10 ranked party school in North America, when I saw a sign posted on a bulletin board. It was black and white with a logo known around the world-- a sleek-looking bunny rabbit. Apparently a certain campus pub had invited the local girls from the recent pictorial to do a magazine signing. Well, I think we all know where Al was tonight, don't we?

I was already working late today, so it didn't take too much motivation for me to stop by for a beer or three. The funny thing was, the girls were 2 hours late in showing up, so I pretty much got there on time! Amazing that they all of a sudden got modest, eh? Anyway, the appearance was also tied to a donation for women's breast cancer charities, so I have yet another reason to justify my attendance. But truth be told, I wanted to see what these girls looked like, in person. I hadn't even seen the issue ahead of time (no, seriously!), so this was going to be a surprise all-around.

The two who showed up were Brynn Chudleigh and Phylis Syd (both pseudonyms, obviously), and yes OJ, Brynn was one of the ones sharing the strawberry. At any rate, as I waited for the girls to arrive, I started thinking about the whole Playboy thing. What would these girls look like? Would they be the type who'd catch my eye otherwise? Truthfully, I don't know. Sure, they're both attractive, but I can name a group of waitresses in London who make these girls look pretty average. In fact, I know quite a few women who could easily earn a spot in the world's premier men's magazine.

So why did these girls do it? Well, according to Brynn, the money was pretty sweet. She'd also said that she'd had enough of a good time that she's consider doing it again. Funny since this comment came from the only girl in the pictorial who didn't get naked. I didn't hear anything similar out of Phylis, but based on her other online work, it's pretty clear she has no problem with nudity. According to the write-up, Phylis wants to be an actress, so this is probably just a career move for her. I would like to say, though, that they both seemed very nice. Certainly no attitude or ego being thrown around.

I also came to the conclusion that people get worked up over nothing. Take the Saugeen Stripper, for example. If she was able to handle the initial uproar and attention, then it's probably blown over by now. I am curious, however, to know if she did decide to tough it out or if she transferred or dropped out. Wherever she is, I wish her good luck.

Now I'd like to take a moment to open up the floor to the females of the audience (Presuming any of you bothered to read down this far). If you were asked to pose for Playboy, would you? And please explain your reasoning for either a yay or nay. It'll be fun to see who's actually brave enough to respond. So c'mon ladies, leave some comments. I'm curious to see your reactions.

Capitulation

2006-04-26T20:33:00.000-04:00

Ok, I surrender! I've been trying my best to get a good handle on the interview material, but I'm just not fluent enough to pick out all the words when I'm trying to do the quotes. The quality of the recording doesn't help, either, that's for sure. So now I'm left with the choice of just saying, "Screw it!" and posting the whole thing in English, or swallowing a pretty hefty charge to get the recording transcribed so I can get this puppy done. The typical anglo response would be to just do the whole thing in English and forget about the potential francophone audience who might stumble upon this when looking for news of their favorite band. I'm not ready to do that yet.

One of the things that I find so hypocritical about us, as Canadians, is that we seem proud of the idea we come from a "bilingual country", but to be honest, that isn't the case at all. The fact is, we have 2 large populations (one larger than the other) who speak 2 separate languages. Very recently, a biopic of the life of Maurice Richard was released in Ontario and, according to the review, the film includes subtitles for the French dialogue. While I acknowledge that it's necessary to help the English audience understand, I still find it pretty sad. I wonder if there are subtitles for the English dialogue in the Quebecois version...

On a positive note, I was impressed to see that the Toronto Sun bothered to take notice of the Montreal group Malajube in a recent article. We're so oblivious to what goes on inside the Quebec border. No wonder there's such fervor to the separatist movement. Would we even really notice they were gone if they left? I'll pick up this topic again, no doubt, but I wanted to give OJ his blog fix for the day.

Transcription Services (or lack thereof) in Montreal

2006-04-20T09:11:00.000-04:00

If this were the Boston Globe, I’d have been long since fired. Thankfully, this is not the Boston Globe and deadlines are pretty much set by me and my energy level. That being said, I’ve been remiss in my writing duties and, no doubt, disappointing my ardent following of 3 faithful readers. I could come up with any number of excuses, but I think that one will suffice: I’ve been lazy. Regardless of how much I enjoyed doing the interview with Biz, I’ve found the inevitable task of pouring through the micro cassette recording to be less than appealing. So I’ve been investigating alternate means.

Last time out, I did a full transcription, word for word, of my conversation. However that was in English. That’s just not going to happen this time. I took a giant leap forward by doing the interview en français, but now I’ve been left of the daunting task of going through a mediocre-quality recording to pick out interesting quotes, in French, and then translating them for my readers. I can already hear Morgan telling me to “Suck it up! This is what you wanted, remember?” And he’s right (he has an annoying habit of being right). But before leaping headlong into this task, I felt it was only prudent to explore what else may be available. That means: transcription services!

From what I’ve been able to find, there are only a handful of transcription services in Montreal. And let me tell you, it’s a good gig if you can get in on it. There was one company (who shall remain nameless) that charged $0.10 per word. Yes, you read that correctly. So essentially, a one hour interview would likely cost in excess of $900 to have transcribed (plus applicable taxes, of course). The word “ouch” comes to mind, along with several other rather colourful metaphors. Another, charged by the audio hour. Okay, now we’re talking here. Their rate? $300 US per audio hour, plus the recording would have to be sent to New York (despite the existence of a Montreal office). Additional fees would be incurred if the quality of recording is lousy (which it is). The last company seems to be, more or less, a local entrepreneur. She charges $4.50 per audio minute, but because she’s moving offices, nothing would be ready before May 1. Definitely the most reasonable, that’s for sure, but given the fact that I want to put things out in a somewhat timely fashion, she’s not an option.

So essentially, I’m back to square one. Al, his micro cassette recorder, and a notepad. With any luck, it’ll be ready to go this weekend. Til next time…

Another Special Guest Appearance

2006-04-14T09:29:00.000-04:00

It's with a great deal of excitement that I make the following announcement. Around noon today, I'll be meeting with Biz from Loco Locass to discuss more music, culture, history and likely a wee bit of Quebec nationalist politics. I know the name won't mean a whole lot to my anglophone audience, but trust me, this is pretty darn cool! I'm in the midst of putting my questions together, so I won't say too much more now. Hopefully I can come up with some interesting stuff. Guess we'll find out. Just 2 hours til I meet with Biz...

An Historic Occasion

2006-04-11T19:46:00.000-04:00

Okay, so maybe my title is over-stating things a bit, but I still found today to be quite interesting. I received an e-mail response from Dr Jarrett Rudy from the Quebec Studies area of McGill's Department of History, containing an invitation to the book launch for Michael Gauvreau's latest work, The Catholic Origins of Quebec's Quiet Revolution, 1931-1970. It took me all of 30 seconds to mull it over before accepting. Granted, I have absolutely no background in religious history, aside from my dabblings in ancient religions and mystery cults, but the title looked intriguing enough to make me want to take a look.

I think anyone familiar with Quebec will have heard of the Quiet Revolution, at least in passing, and when one looks at the monumental scale of the churches here (even in villages of a couple thousand people), I think it’s fair to say that the Church has an incontournable place in the collective memory of the Quebecois. So for Gauvreau to examine the Church’s place in such a defining time in the province’s history provides a definite appeal, at least for me. It’s all fine and well for me to explore pop culture and whatnot, but there has to be a starting point for everything.

I’m not going to delve too much more into the topic at the moment because I’ve barely had the book in my hands for an hour and trying to recount the author’s presentation really wouldn’t do the topic justice. So I guess my avid readers will have to wait a wee bit for me to revisit this topic. I’ll also be taking a look at Dr Rudy's book, The Freedom to Smoke: Tobacco Consumption and Identity, and if his schedule permits, sit down with him to discuss his findings and maybe grab a comment or two about the upcoming non-smoking legislation. So that's some of what I've got coming up. I'll also be giving a brief tour of Quebecois beer. You know that topic will be well-researched, that's for sure. Til next time!

What I learned

2006-04-05T09:18:00.000-04:00

I’m still somewhat giddy over my experience at Musique Plus last week (a week ago today, in fact), so I thought I would take a moment to reflect on what I’ve learned so far from all of this. First, I need to invest in a digital camera. Presuming I manage to continue on with my weird and wacky attempts at interviewing Quebecois celebrities, I would like to have something more personal to remember it by, as well as to provide proof that I did, in fact, do the interview.

Second, I’ll really have to reconsider the style I use for presenting said interview. On the one hand, I like being able to provide, verbatim, exactly what the person has said. That way I’m not taking anything out of context or painting my own image of the person. I allow them to do that, themselves. It allows fans (or even just casual readers of this blog) a glimpse into the personality of the person I’ve chosen to interview. On the other hand, it’s a royal pain in the butt to transcribe the full contents of a half hour interview. I have no idea how long it actually took me to get the thing done, but the fact that it required 3 instalments says something.

Perhaps it was easier for me to justify a full transcript of my conversation with Chéli because she said a lot of interesting things. Somehow I doubt that future interviews will go as smoothly or provide me with the same amount of content. She speaks her mind. I like that. A good interview is a cooperative effort between the interviewer and the subject and, let me tell you, she made my life SO much easier by being so easygoing and down to earth. On the off chance she decides to come back and read my postings again, I would like to sincerely thank you, Chéli, for everything. You rock!

Third, I learned that I have to work harder on my French. The fact that I lost any semblance of a vocabulary during our introduction shows that I’m not nearly as comfortable with the language as I had hoped. I suppose that would be the same for anyone during times of stress, but I still found it embarrassing. By the end of the hour together, I’d somewhat regained my composure, though I think it’s pretty obvious that I stammered and babbled my way through the questions. If I’m dealing with someone whose first language ISN’T English, then I should do my best to be clear and concise with my questions. Actually, I should be clear and concise, regardless of their first language.

In terms of the content, itself, I was surprised that she discussed her insecurities as candidly as she did. I never would have thought she’d get grief over her accent. Sounds pretty darn good to me! But then again, I’m just une tête carrée, right? I find it ironic, considering the Quebecois have such an inferiority complex over the fact that they don’t speak “proper” French, that they would give a fellow francophone grief over their accent. In a twisted sort of way, it makes me feel a bit better about how potential employers had reacted to me over the course of the past several months. At least I know I’m not alone.

If anyone out there has any feedback they would like to provide, please feel free to do so in the comment section. Til next time…

Interview with Chéli (Part 3)

2006-04-02T13:49:00.000-04:00

Well, folk, here we have the third, and final, installment of my interview with Chéli Sauvé-Castonguay. For those joining the party in progress, you can find Part 1 right here. So without further ado...

***
AL B: One of the things that I was also wondering about: given your position in the public eye, does that put you in a different position, as far as doing projects I the community? Take Bono, for instance. He’s big on promoting causes and things like that.

Chéli: Right, right.

AL B: Considering your position in the community, is there anything that you do or that the station does as far as outreach programs?

Chéli: Yeah, for sure! Especially because of our demographic. I mean, it’s mostly kids that watch us. I would say the age group for Musique Plus, without including MusiMax, would be from like 7 to 18. We’re trying to get an older public, like to 24, but right now I would say that’s the biggest. Y’know, the mass. That’s where they are. That’s who’s listening to us. So definitely, we involve ourselves I everything and right now I’m with, most of the VJs actually, who aren’t smokers, are involved in what’s called «la gang allumée»…

***This is when I hear the telltale pop of my audio recorder, telling me that I’ve run out of tape on this side. We make a few joking comments about old school technology as I flip the cassette.***

AL B: Alright, flipped the tape.

Chéli: I love tapes. Okay, so yeah. La gang allumée. That’s a program to just entice kids to not smoke or stop smoking. It’s kind of scary how kids smoke at a very early age now. So we just basically go around now, it’s like a contest. They do a project and if their project is chosen, there’s a VJ that goes to see them at their school.

AL B: Oh, okay.

Chéli: And this is for the whole province of Québec. That’s one thing. The other thing that I love to do—it’s always kids. It’s always related to kids, education and all that. So another thing that I constantly do is go to schools and speak about the importance of bilingualism, because of my job and because I do both. Some of the hosts here do not speak English.

AL B: Really?

Chéli: Yeah, some of them don’t. Or if they do, very little. Not enough to be able to do it on air. That’s why the ones that are fully bilingual are always given the chance to travel, do interviews with major international artists, and also do those interviews live. So I can’t stress more how important it is to be bilingual nowadays. There is such thing as being proud of your language, but you have to have an open mind. We can’t hide the fact that English is the universal language. So that’s another thing. I always involve myself that way and I always go and talk to kids and tell them and explain to them how I got to this point.

AL B: Okay, now the music industry in Québec is pretty much self-sufficient from what I can tell and it’s pretty much also unknown in the rest of Canada. That being said, are there any sort of hidden musical treasures that you would recommend?

Chéli: That are French…?

AL B: La musique québécoise.

Chéli: La musique québécoise. Oh there’s SO many bands! I mean, because if you look at the Maritimes, they love that folkish kind of music, like Blue Rodeo. There’s so many bands that are from there that are big in the rest of Canada, but if you like that kind of music, you have that here à la bonne franquette au Québec! We’ve got les Cowboys Fringants that I think are known pretty well in Canada. Well, they’re not THAT known. That’s the thing.

Um, let’s see, let’s see, let’s see… I don’t know if people know Jean Leloup, but if they know Jean Leloup, a new one that resembles a lot and who’s worked with him, is Anik Jean. She’s a French singer. And then there’s more like, I don’t even know how to describe their type of music, but it’s part of la relève that we call here… Yann Perreau, Ariane Moffat, Pierre Lapointe, Stéphanie Lapointe, who’s nominated for a Juno. Actually Stéphanie Lapointe is nominated for a Juno, along with Anik Jean that I already mentioned.

In terms of the hiphop world, there’s great talent in the hiphop world., that’s French hiphop. Yesterday I went to this launch and his name is SemiBruce. He started this label called Bootleg and the beats, I tell you, the beats are awesome! It’s French rap, but I think it’s great. All these guys, instead of trying to go in through Canada, they have to go in France if they want to enlarge their careers. There’s SO much talent! It’s hard to… there’s also Les Respectables… there’s a bunch, there’s really a bunch to be proud of.

AL B: Okay, now in general, there is almost like an expiration date on the career of any VJ…

Chéli: Yes.

AL B: …because it’s…

Chéli: It’s TV!

AL B: Exactly, it’s TV. So what sort of aspirations do you have when you reach that “certain age?”

Chéli: Well I’m always frightful. I’m telling you, I never feel secure. From the moment I started here to now, I never felt secure. I think that’s, in one way, very important, because you never want to let it go to your head. Anybody can do this job, and that’s what they want. They want to show the public that anybody that watches us could say, “Y’know what? I could do this job.”

So I’d hopefully stay, if I do stay in TV, I want to keep going in this cultural [vein]. Anything that’s culture, basically: entertainment, film, music. Those are all the things that interest me. Because I’m franco-ontarienne, I’m constantly fearing that that I won’t be able to have a job at TQS, TVA, Radio-Canada or y’know, those big stations or big enterprises here because I don’t have a Québécois accent. Sometimes people watch me and think, “hmmph! Maudite anglophone! I don’t understand what she’s saying!” They don’t feel the link. So that’s always been something that gets me that I’ve always feared.

So if ever that doesn’t work out, another thing that always interested me was travel shows and National Geographic, so I might just fall into trying to become a videographer, a photographer or something like that. Y’know, keep my options open, because I think sometimes, especially nowadays, we tend to glamorize artists and people. People are famous for no reason nowadays and I find that very… frivolous. Sometimes I go home, although I love what I do, I love my job, I love music. I love this. It’s fantastic! I couldn’t ask for better stuff, but I go home and you watch Biography channel. You watch National Geographic and you’re just like, “Wow. What am I doing? What is the significance of what I’m doing?” It’s so little. It doesn’t represent anything. I’m not saying I want to go save the world, but I’m saying that sometimes I want to do something that has meaning. And I can actually bring information to people that will be more than just, “Hey! So you’ve made 5 million dollars and you have no talent. Excellent. Love it.” You know what I mean? Sometimes that’s what it is. I’m not degrading or berating what I’m doing because I know that culture and entertainment is a big part of our lives in our society. And people, after a hard day’s work, like to tune into that kind of stuff because it feels better. It’s something light and easy-going. But it’s just that when you’re always in it, sometimes you just get fed up with these people.

AL B (laughing): I totally understand. So my last little question is: do you have any suggestions for me, during my little “voyage of discovery” here, of things that I absolutely must, either see or experience, while I’m here in Québec?

Chéli: Okay. Right, right, right. Okay. It’s funny because I’ve been here 4 years, so I’ve also been discovering. I’m franco-ontarienne, so there’s so many things that I’ve discovered here… You HAVE to go to Québec City. You’ve probably done that, but if you go there in the winter time, during the Carnival, you have to have… what is it called? Caribou! Oh, no. Is it Caribou? Ugh! It’s like a type of alcohol.

AL B: It’s Caribou.

Chéli: Is it Caribou?

AL B (chuckles): Yes.

Chéli: Oh! So you’ve had it?

AL B: I haven’t had it, but I’ve heard of it.

Chéli: It’s not that good, but you still have to have it. And the way to do it is, when it’s the Carnival, you go to that strip of all the bars…

AL B: La Grande Allée.

Chéli: Yes. La Grande Allée. Then there’s a bar—an ice bar—and you go have it there.

AL B: Okay.

Chéli: So that’s cool. Another thing, but you’ve probably already done that, too, is la cabane à sucre. This is the time to do it. You go in the morning, you have your eggs with… okay, they’re like beans, so we call them des bines à mélasses. So you have that there at la cabane à sucre. There’s syrup, you have your bacon with your syrup… it’s really fun! You can go on a horse ride and go get your own maple syrup. There’s des cabanes à sucre everywhere around the region of Montreal, so that’s another thing… Assist to the Jazz Festival, which you probably already did, but…

AL B: I actually only got here in September, so…

Chéli: Oh! So it’s coming up this summer. Right here at the Complexe Desjardins there’s a bunch of different stages… oh then Francofolies, Festival du Jazz, these are all things that are going to happen this summer. This city, in the summer, is amazing. It’s fantastic! You’ll never want to leave Montreal. It’s a beautiful city. It never sleeps and people are so fun! Like I said, «la joie de vivre.» People are dancing in the streets. There’s stages, there’s music. It’s beautiful. So Jazzfest, Francofollies, these are definitely the 2 festivals to look out for this summer.

Hmmm. Le Festival du Film du Monde. That’s another one, but that’s more around Fall. That’s films that are from here, films that are from outside, everywhere à l’étranger. That, again, is fun. That’s another thing I love. We embrace different cultures here, more so, I believe than anywhere else in Canada, apart from Toronto, obviously. But stil, I think, here we embrace a lot of outside cultures.

What else? What else? What else? Go on the terrasses in the summer. Drink beer on the terrasses in Old Montreal and you’ll really feel it. I think that’s pretty much it. I can’t think of anything else that’s very “Québec”… If you go to the little bars in Old Montreal, they have little bands, every weekend, every Saturday night, that are very bonne franquette type of music. People are drinking beer, dancing. It’s really good! It’s really fun! So Old Montreal is definitely a place to go to.

AL B: Well, I appreciate your time.

Chéli: My pleasure, my pleasure.

AL B: Thank you very much.

Chéli: I appreciate your questions. They were good! I felt bad. I couldn’t find the words sometimes!

AL B: No, no! It’s alright! It’s okay!

***

So there you have it. Je voudrais remercier la belle Chéli. Elle est très sympathique et très charmante.

I hope you've all enjoyed the interview. Hopefully there will be more to come in the future.

Interview with Chéli (Part 2)

2006-04-01T09:37:00.000-05:00

Picking up where we left off in the last installment, Chéli and I had gotten the niceties out of the way, so it was time to move on to the heart of the interview: la culture québécoise. Since I do recommend that this be read in chronological order, please click here to find Part 1 of my interview with Chéli before continuing on.

***

AL B: Now one of the things that I'm interested in is la culture québécoise...

Chéli (smiling): Yes!

AL B: And one of the things that I picked up when I got here was 101 mots pour comprendre le Québec...

Chéli: Le loi 101?

AL B: No, it was in l'Actualité...

Chéli: Oh! L'Actualité!

AL B: It was a special issue. It had a series of essays, well, more like mini-essays, on Québec.

Chéli: Okay.

AL B: It's obvious that there is a difference between Ontario and Québec in terms of just the feel of things and the culture out here, so in that sort of spirit, how would you describe Québec? Whether it be culturally or spiritually or whatever. I guess I'm interested in the soul of Québec, from your perspective.

Chéli: One of the main reasons I was driven to coming here in Montreal, I mean, if I wanted to do television, I could have easily tried it out in Toronto and do it in English, but I think what led me to Montreal is the language: French. I've always wanted to live in French and be able to go to restaurants and go to stores and always speak in French without having to, all of a sudden, speak English. What attracts me to this French culture is «la joie de vivre.» People here are, what I like to say, «bons vivants.» We love to live. I mean, there's a reason why the economy moved from here to Toronto. We take one hour lunches, two hour lunches... we're not driven by money and, y'know, that's why you don't see Americanism or anything like that. We don't grab any of that. We stick to our culture. We stick to the arts, the music--and we do it for the love of it. Everything that's economics or work and all of this, we're not driven for it. That's what I like about the people here. So the «joie de vivre,» I would say.

In terms of the culture, there's a tremendous sense of pride and I understand why: because you have to fight SO hard to keep it within the country, if you think about it. I know that a lot of Québécois don't refer to Canada as being their country, it's Québec that's their country, but I still like to say that Québec is part of Canada. I'm a franco-ontarienne and I'm so thankful that Québec is still linked to Canada because, if it wasn't for Québec, then people like me, who lived in Ottawa or in Winnipeg or all those French communities, would never have French schools or anything. I'm sure that the moment Québec leaves, forget about it! There's no more French in Canada! So that's what I love about Québec. I feel secure that I'll be able to live, forever, in French.

AL B: Okay, cool. Alright, so your sister station, MuchMusic...

Chéli: Yep.

AL B: ... has become more and more important in the entertainment landscape of English Canada.

Chéli: Yes.

AL B: So what sort of role do you think that Musique Plus plays in Québec?

Chéli: Well, it's definitely changed since its beginning when it started in '86. Because in '86, it was, like MuchMusic, there to catapult or to present new bands and new groups and underground groups. I mean, it was the first time you had a video for music. For Québec, most importantly, I think, it's that everything is local. I'm part of the Music Committee, the Video Music Committee, and it's always very important for us to add local content. Again, we're proud of our music. We're proud of the artists that we have here. We have a lot of talent here in Québec and that's the only way that they can actually have some air play. Nobody at MuchMusic is going to air Atach Tatuq or bands like les Cowboys Fringants or, you know what I mean, unless you're on like, French Kiss...

AL B: At like, 6:30 in the morning...

Chéli (laughs): Exactly! So I think that, first and foremost, that's what Musique Plus does for the local groups.

Now when I say it changed a lot, it's that now we're competing against stations like MuchMusic, MTV, VH1, all those stations, which would maybe explain why we also buy these TV reality shows. We also air clips like 50 Cent and all these guys-- all the American ones. At this point, it's a question of mass appeal. As much as we're proud of our local stuff, I think that even the people that live here in Québec hear 50 Cent on the radio and therefore, want to see the video. We know that they watch the Simple Life or they watch this and that, so we figure that, hey! Instead of having them watch it on MTV, let's get them to watch it here on Musique Plus! So that's kind of the reason why, I think, we've changed into a bit more of an Americanized [product]. But what I like about Musique Plus is that we haven't completely fallen towards that and I hope we never will, because of the local content and because we stay grounded that way.

AL B: Now what would you say would be the biggest difference between, say, MuchMusic and Musique Plus?

Chéli: I think the most obvious one is that, again, we're not Americanized. Like, our artists go in Europe, in France. If they want to go International, they go in France. Artists that live in Toronto, if they want to go International, they try to break the American market. Even the way we are, in front of the TV, the VJs... the people they choose, that each station chooses, and the way they direct these VJs is completely different. The mentality is completely different. Here, and I'm not saying that one station is better than the other, I'm just saying that it's evident. It's obvious by the way we do things...

AL B: Don't worry, I already said it for you. I did a little commentary on MuchMusic's VJ search versus the one from Musique Plus...

Chéli: Oh yes?

AL B: I've already given the thumbs up to Musique Plus.

Chéli: Aww! Thank you, that's sweet!

AL B (shrugs): So, y'know...

Chéli: Well, y'know, I have no shame. I'm proud of this station. I'm proud of what it represents and what I was saying, what I like about here is they pretty much give us carte blanche in terms of how we want to dress. We don't have little cue cards under the camera that we read when we're on air.

AL B: Right.

Chéli: If we're live, we're live. We prepare our stuff. We have somebody who's there to direct us and make sure we're not going out of line or whatever, but it's basically up to us. Whereas, I know how they operate at MuchMusic and it's not like that. They DO have cue cards under the cameras. You can see them. Sometimes they're actually reading!

AL B: Which is actually a big departure from the way they began.

Chéli: Of course! Moses Znaimer, what he wanted, when he first started CHUM Television and MuchMusic, was to have people without makeup. They wanted people without makeup, in front of a camera, a camera that moved, you know what I mean? THAT was reality TV! And now, it's like, all pre-taped, all flashy with all kinds of things. They're going much more toward that than we are, thank God! But even we've changed a bit. We're a lot more pre-tape now. There's much less live because it's probably less costly...

AL B: One of the things that always totally blew me away is when you guys do the interviews, particularly with the anglophone artists. I can understand what you're saying in both languages and it amazes me that you'll take the answers that they've given in English and pretty much translate them on the spot without missing anything at all. I'm watching that and shaking my head, thinking, how are they doing that??? So, um, well done!

Chéli (laughs): Well, thanks! That's cool! Thanks!

***

Looks like I'm going to have to split this up into 3 parts. In the next installment, Chéli talks about community involvement, the hidden treasures of Québécois music and things that I've got to be sure to visit and experience now that I'm in Québec. Continue to part 3.

Interview with Chéli (Part 1)

2006-03-29T19:34:00.000-05:00

I'll admit it: I'm a fan. I love television, movies, music--the whole 9 yards. I soak up pop culture and celebrity gossip like a sponge and now, thanks to this site, I've met my first bonafide Québécois celebrity! Technically she's franco-ontarienne, but I'm not going to quibble over details. Now given the fact that I haven't done an interview, face-to-face, in quite some time, I was pretty nervous. Remember how I said I could probably pull off doing the interview in French? Um, yeah. Forget I said that. It felt like my whole vocabulary left my head in the first 5 seconds. Heck, I couldn't even introduce myself properly. «Je suis Alan» is about as fifth grade as you can get. Nice to see that Minor in French paid off, eh?

Thankfully, Chéli is a sweetheart. As we went upstairs to find some place a bit more quiet, I stammered out something about how nervous I was and she just smiled, grabbed my arm and said, "Why be nervous? Let's go shoot the shit." That's when I realised everything would be just fine. We ended up sitting in what I guess would be the staff lunch room. It's definitely a shame that I didn't have more time (and more cassette tapes) because I would have loved to capture more of our conversation for posterity. Oh well. Live and learn, right?

Anyway, I gave her a brief overview of what I'm trying to do with this site and showed her the list of questions I had prepared. I wasn't sure how much she had been told prior to the interview, so I thought it would be a good gesture on my part. After all, she was taking time out of her schedule to talk to me. The least I could do is make sure my questions were clear. So after a quick test of my recorder, we got started. What follows is the transcript of my interview with Chéli, so get comfortable.

***

AL B: So I'm here with Chéli de Musique Plus. Chéli, thank you very much for the interview.

Chéli: My pleasure.

AL B: I've got some questions, if you don't mind. Let's start off with some of the more general ones. My audience tends to be more anglophone than francophone, so chances are pretty good they don't pick up Musique Plus on their local cable.

Chéli: Sure.

AL B: Okay, so, um, where are you from?

Chéli: Originally, I'm from Ottawa. I'd lived there my whole life and when I was 21, after university, I moved to Montreal because I wanted to start a career in television. I studied journalism and I knew that TV was the medium for me. I had done radio and I had done written press at the university and that's when I found out that TV was what interested me the most.

AL B: Okay, so when did you start at Musique Plus?

Chéli: I started in September 2002, which would make me in my fourth year right now. I'm not saying that the school isn't good or that the program wasn't good, but let me tell you, I learned more in one year at Musique Plus than in 3 and a half years of university.

AL B: So how did you learn that you got the job as a VJ? Like, did somebody call you... ?

Chéli: Actually, it was really lucky. I mean, a lot of it has to do with contacts nowadays. That's why I'm always telling kids when they come and see me and ask me about it, I always tell them: don't be afraid of making contacts because that's the best way. Market yourself. A lot of it has to do with PR. There was a friend of mine who knew somebody who worked here as a videographer, so they gave me his phone number. I called him and he said, "Listen, send me your CV with a picture and, I won't guarantee anything, but we can try it out..." So that's what I did.

I sent my CV with a picture and then, maybe 3 weeks later, they called me. One of the producers, or at that time she was a producer, called me and said, "We're looking for on-air personalities." I was floored by this because I was ready to be a concierge here. I was ready to do anything here, just to be IN Musique Plus! So she said, "First we want to see if it's worth doing a screen test." So before even testing me out in front of a camera, they wanted to meet and see how I was. So we met for 15 minutes, then I did a screen test. They gave me a few things to prepare, so I did that, and then the last part of it was to meet the Vice-President of Musique Plus, Pierre Marchand, and then a month later they told me I had the job. I was pretty lucky.

AL B: Okay, so when you first found out you got it, like when you FIRST heard the news, what was the first thing you did?

Chéli: Oh God! Well, the way they did it was interesting because they wanted to film it. They wanted to show, on air, how some of us went through it, so they made me come in, along with another girl that has the job now (they hired about 5 of us at the same time), and when they called me I thought that this was it. I had the job. The way they were talking on the phone, it sounded pretty good. "Come in, we just need to finalize some things." So I get here and go to a conference room and I'm with the other girl who got the job and then about 5 other girls show up. I'm like, "Geez, I thought I had the job, but I guess not. It's still a competition." What I didn't know was that these other girls were just posing there. They were girls that already worked here. So they made us do this test and I mean it was a really hard written test with Claude Rajotte. I don't know if you know Claude Rajotte...

AL B: Um, not at this point, no...

Chéli: He's like a Musique Plus icon because he was here from the beginning on and he knows like, everything, about music, so it was kind of intimidating to have him ask us the questions. We had to write down [the answers] . All this was being filmed and as I'm writing the questions, I barely wrote any answers 'cause I didn't even know HALF the answers to these questions. In my head, I was going, "Well, at least they they still have the screen test..." To me, I didn't have the job, but they knew all along that I had it. So when they announced that, "Okay, you guys have the job," the first thing I did is, I immediately ran all the way from here, which is Bleury, to Crescent Street 'cause I worked at a place called New Town. I think I lost about 10 lbs running! So I just came in and went into the office and they knew right away 'cause the knew I was trying out. They were like, "Okay, so when are you quitting?" And I was like, "Next Monday! I have to be at work on Monday!" So they were very nice and the whole thing was a great experience.

AL B: Cool, cool. Now obviously you would have imagined what your daily life would be like as a VJ before you got the job...

Chéli: I did, but it wasn't the same.

AL B: So then, what is the biggest difference between what you imagined and what the reality is?

Chéli: Um, I would say that we easily do 60 hours a week here and you don't realise it. I had never done really practical work. It was all theoretical in university, so to actually do journalism, that's one part of my job. Not only do we prepare all the questions for the artists, we do the interview and then we're the ones who do the editing. So that, in itself, takes a lot of time. Then the thing with me is, because I'm a VJ, I also prepare my live stuff. So between editing and preparing live, you're all over the map. I think it's more the practical work of it all that I didn't expect. It's also, I mean 4 years later, it's the people recognizing you on the street or you're buying groceries and people are just talking to you. I always think I studied with them or something. They approach me right away and I'm always thinking, "Hey! Alright, do I know this person?" So that, too. I'm not used to that.

***

Alright folks, now that we've got the introductions out of the way, I'm going to stop here. In the next installment, Chéli and I discuss Québécois culture, the differences between MuchMusic and Musique Plus and assorted other goodies. Continue to Part 2 Here.

The Big Day

2006-03-29T18:36:00.000-05:00

Oui, mes chères amies et amis, le grand jour est arrivé! I've just gotten back from doing my interview at Musique Plus! I must have checked my pockets a dozen times or more over the course of the day, making sure I had my pocket recorder and list of questions with me. It would be typical of me to forget something important like that and have to race back to the apartment. Thankfully, I had everything present and accounted for.

To be honest, there was a part of me that was sure the interview would get cancelled or rescheduled, presuming they let me do it at all. But with each step towards the corner of rue Ste-Catherine and Bleury, it became more and more of a reality. I did get one last scare, though. I checked in at the reception area and waited patiently as they called the VJ. In moments, one of my favorite on-air personalities came bounding through the door. Then there was a look of confusion as I introduced myself.

"Oh crap," I thought. "Something's up."

Then the "Powers that Be" smiled on me from above as she remembered our appointment. Après quelques instants, je jasais avec la merveilleuse Chéli Sauvé-Castonguay! How cool is that, huh? I assure you all that I'll get the interview posted as quickly as possible, but as you can imagine it's pretty tough to transcribe 40 minutes of material recorded on a cassette tape. I think I got a lot of good material, so I may very well have to break it up into 2 parts. Guess we'll see when I review the tape. to be continued...

What's In a Name?

2006-03-27T12:54:00.000-05:00

I’m sure by now that you’ve noticed the moniker I’ve been using on here since I started this little site, so I thought I would shed some light on how and why I chose the name I did. I’ve had surprisingly few nicknames over the years, so there wasn’t an automatic choice. Of course my Fraternity brothers would likely bring up one that, despite their best efforts, never quite stuck, at least to my face. It had to do with certain lapses in judgement on my part at a few of our parties but, needless to say, wouldn’t exactly be what I would consider appropriate for an online identity.

Inspired by the rather clever title of Paige’s blog, C’est What? (Yes, I’m mentioning her site again; deal with it.), I decided I needed something catchy. That’s when it hit me: Al B Sure. I would now like to apologize for the disappointment I’ve been causing fans of the 80s R&B singer who occasionally surf by, hoping for news of their beloved artist. As you can tell, I’m not him. I get a little extra traffic out of using it but since I’m not making any money off this endeavour, I think the gods of trademark infringement will cut me some slack.

Truth be told, I have been called Al B Sure in the past. It was back in the eleventh grade, if memory serves. Chris’ uncle Bob had rented out a local elementary school gymnasium with a few old friends in order to get in some exercise, so to make things more interesting, he invited out his sons and nephew, which then led to me joining in on the fun. I think that regular readers of my blog know that basketball is a passion of mine, well this how my illustrious playing career got started.

I’ve never been one to massage my own ego (or ID or super-ego for that matter), so I’ll admit it: I’m not a good basketball player. I never learned the basic fundamentals in a team environment, so at that point I was far less coordinated than someone who’d been playing for years. My shots would have so much backspin on them that the guys would swear they could hear a buzzing sound after I let the ball go. I like to think I’ve improved a fair bit since then, though I would probably still be the 8th man on a high school basketball team. Every team needs someone who can deliver the hard foul, after all.

I was a pretty sharp contrast to Chris’ cousins and their friends, who each played basketball at some level prior to our weekly battles. I’m not sure if it was Mike or Todd who gave me the nickname Al B Sure. Just an FYI, Mike is Chris’ cousin and Todd was a buddy of his from grade school. Looking back, I shudder at the handle Todd gave himself: Darkman. Good thing he came up with that one himself, otherwise we’d all be in a heap of trouble. Imagine a group of white kids naming the only black player “Darkman”? Geez.

At any rate, I was Al B to them. Come to think of it, the name may have come from repeated exasperation at my poor on-court decision-making. “Al! Why the hell are you taking that shot?!? BE SURE next time!!!” Ah well. At least I had fun, right? So it’s with these fond memories in mind that I took up the mantle of Al B Sure and named my site Al B Here For You. So there you have it… til next time!

The Blogsphere

2006-03-24T17:56:00.000-05:00

I know very little about blogs or "successful blogging," so I'm not going to try and throw together one of those How to Blog posts. Seems like everyone tries to put their own spin on what Tony Pierce came up with a couple of years back. Even Al B Here's favorite French Teacher from Minnesota, Michèle from Voix de Michèle tried her hand at blogging advice once upon a time. The topic has been beaten to death, so I'm not going to bother wasting your time or mine trying to come up with something profound. Instead I'm going to share my thoughts on this odd little pastime of mine, blogging.

I've come to the conclusion that blogging isn't all that different from high school. Whether anyone wants to admit it, we all want to be popular. We want to express ourselves and have others think we're cool. Is Tony the best writer in the world? No. But he's got a weekly following of somewhere in the neighbourhood of 10, 000 hits per week, so he must be doing something right. I don't even approach that number, despite the constant visits by Morgan and the rest of the London crew.

If blogging is like the school cafeteria, then Tony would be sitting at the "cool" table with the jocks, cheerleaders and assorted other seniors. I'm not sure how big his network of contacts really is, but there's a mutual admiration society thing going on and with each new registration to a blog site, his audience seems to grow. He tries to maintain a quid pro quo approach to link exchanges, though I imagine that's tough to do with the volume of links he receives. That's how I ran across the blogs of both Michèle and Phil Renauld.

Glancing around the cafeteria, you'd see a table of hot girls. You know the ones. They're a little younger, usually sophomores or juniors, but you know that they'll be next in line to join the "cool" ranks. That's where you'll find Paige of C'est What?. She doesn't get near the traffic that Tony does, but she's developed a pretty loyal following of her own and has the support of Tony and Raymi. Like anything else in this world, it's connections that count when you're trying to increase blog traffic. I won't pretend that every entry is brilliant, but she's talented and keeps me entertained.

I'm not even going to try and classify Raymi. She's a phenomenon of her own. You'll either love or hate her style; there's really no middle ground. Either way, she won't care what you think. She's definitely got her own little corner of the "cool" table. There are a number of other bloggers that are somehow connected to Raymi and/or Tony and thus benefit from the sheer volume of traffic. Raymi's boyfriend, Fil, would probably get a fair amount of traffic on his own, but being hooked up with Raymi certainly doesn't hurt his exposure.

So where does Al fit into this whole dynamic? Near as I can figure, I would probably be the equivalent of the A/V team (making my current employment all the more appropriate, non?). I've been at this since late December and have been trying to find an audience beyond my own immediate circle of friends. So like many of us out there, I've turned to sites like BlogExplosion and Blogmad to increase my exposure. This is pretty much telemarketing for blogs. Users surf these sites and earn credits based on the number of sites they visit. These credits are then translated into visits from other users of the site. All you can do is hope that people stay longer than the requisite 30 seconds or so and that an audience develops. Not particularly effective, by any means, but I've run across blogs like Underneath the Mask so I suppose that makes it worth the mind numbing hours spent channel surfing the blogs. I have no idea if I've grown my audience at all through either of these sites, so feel free to leave a comment to introduce yourself if you've come though either of these sites. Chances are good that I'll link to your site.

Anyway, that's all for now. Til next time...

One Week from Today...

2006-03-22T17:27:00.000-05:00

Looking at the calendar today, I got a wee bit nervous. At this time next week, I'll be down at the Musique Plus building on rue Ste-Catherine doing my long-awaited interview with a VJ. My close friends already know which one got selected by the "Powers that Be" in PR down at the station, but I think I'll leave the rest of you in suspense for the moment. In terms of the interview itself, I've been debating back and forth whether I should do it in French or English. On the one hand, I'm pretty confident that I could pull it off in French. The main problem would be transcribing it here for my audience. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to alientate my readers from the great state of Texas, who seem to take a fair amount of joy in cutting me off at the knees when rating my blog.

Yes, dear friends, ol' Al still wants to entertain the broadest audience he can, despite the obvious limits of the subject matter. So for all you cattle ranchers and oil barons out there, who really don't give a damn about Quebec or Quebecois culture, I'm going to do the interview in English. Truth be told, I'm also too lazy to do the additional translation if I included both English and French versions, so I'm still being self-serving while accomodating you folks. The Al in Al B Here isn't short for altruistic by any means.

Now in terms of the actual content, I think I'm going to try and keep it light. Sure, there's always the temptation to ambush a celebrity (no matter how well known) with some sort of bizarro world question, meant to completely embarrass them, but I'm sincerely psyched up about getting a chance to do this. I'm not going to repay the opportunity by pulling some low class stunt. I've done interviews in the past, but this is certainly the highest profile person I've had the chance to sit down and talk to... who knows how many times I'll get a shot at this. Better make it count, right? At any rate, it's something to look forward to. Til next time...

Site Housekeeping

2006-03-19T01:40:00.000-05:00

I had a little time to kill tonight, so I decided to try and get my site in order. I didn't do anything earth-shattering, but regular readers may notice I've put links to some of my more "popular" entries on the right side. This way you won't have to go hunting through the archives to find and continue the ongoing debates. This will allow new visitors to join in the fun, as well. Til next time...

St Patty's Day au Québec

2006-03-18T00:51:00.000-05:00

Ah, St Patrick's Day! The day when college students of all ethnicities and backgrounds somehow claim a piece of Irish heritage while sucking back pints upon pints of green beer. I've celebrated many such nights in my hometown of London, Ontario, but having moved to Montreal, I was looking forward to seeing how a true party city, like Montreal, would handle it. Truth be told, I'm a wee bit disappointed.

I think it's pretty fair to say that les Québécois, en particulier les Montréalais, know how to throw a good party, so what's the deal with St Patty's Day?!? I talked to Phil tonight and he decided to get a few of his buddies together to raise a few glasses in one of the Irish pubs downtown. The location of choice was one I was, oddly enough, quite familiar with: Mclean's Pub on Peel St. I hadn't been there since November of 2004 when Dré and I were in town to see Cagibi and celebrate my 30th birthday, but it left a lasting impression (mostly on my liver, I'm sure).

As we were walking down rue Ste-Catherine, we could see a massive line up for the Peel Pub, so we figured we might be in for more of the same at Mclean's. We could see a small lineup, but this was just smoke and mirrors. Though the place was busy, it was a far cry from the drunken chaos I've seen in years past at Molly Bloom's or the Brass Door Irish Pub in London. The weren't any open tables on the main floor, partly because of the imitation Irish band that was playing, so we were ushered upstairs. Truth be told, there wasn't much to see upstairs. There still weren't many available tables and there was a bit of a wait to play either foosball or pool, but it was missing the atmosphere of a good ol' Irish drunkfest. I blame this on the fact that they didn't disconnect the jukebox, thus allowing some doorknobs to play crap like Sean Paul. Nothing says luck o' the Irish like mainstream, corporately sanitized dancehall music.

After finishing my second beer, I headed back downstairs to listen to the band. Maybe I've been spoiled in my life when it comes to Irish drinking tunes, but these guys were pretty lousy. Sure, they got the crowd involved, but I hope they aren't trying to make a living off of their performances. One thing did occur to me as I listened to a tune about Whiskey: there isn't THAT much difference between traditional Irish music and la musique traditionnelle québécoise. The instruments are pretty much the same (ie. guitar, fiddle, etc), the general tunes and rhythm are similar. It's just the language and the content. The Irish seem to sing mainly about alcohol while the Québécois sing about farming. Make them instumental and I'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the two.

I was surprised to learn one thing, though. Apparently Montreal holds its own St Patrick's Day parade. This year it falls on March 19th so I'll be sure to avoid Ste-Cat that day. All in all, I expected more. I wonder what St Jean-Baptiste day will be like...

The Perfect Woman

2006-03-15T19:29:00.000-05:00

Back in 1985, when I was a wee lad of 11 years old, John Hughes came out with a film called Weird Science, yet another movie starring Anthony Michael Hall. I tell you, Hughes was singlehandedly responsible for that little pipsqueak having anything resembling a career in showbiz, but I digress. This was a bizarre little movie about two geeks who use their home computer to build themselves their idea of the Perfect Woman. Their choice for the lead actress? Kelly LeBrock. Pretty lofty praise for a woman who ended up marrying Steven Seagal. Based on that act alone I believe she disqualifies herself from consideration as the perfect woman. With all this witty bashing amongst friends this past week, I figured the time was right to talk about the kind of woman I'm looking for.

In my university days, I had a major thing for cheerleaders. For those who don't know, Western boasts an ongoing undefeated streak in Canadian cheerleading competitions, back since they started the competitions 20 years ago. The girls on the team are tiny, perky, amazingly toned and can do standing back flips on demand. What's not to love? The thing is, there are only about 12 of them on a campus of 26, 000 students, so the chances of me scoring with one were pretty much nil.

Now what's the next best thing to cheerleaders? Strippers! But I'm not going to go there. I can already hear the telltale snikt snikt of claws being bared by my female audience, so we'll skip that topic for now.

Instead we'll move on to the girls who truly hold a special place in my heart: the Oarhouse waitresses. It's pretty clear that the management relies heavily on the local co-eds to keep the patrons coming back for more. The pictures seen here are samples of the charity fundraising calendar the girls put together a few years ago to benefit the Humane Society. Natalie (the brunette) and Robin (the blonde) are my all-time favorites. I can't count how many nights I spent at that sports bar, nor can I imagine how much money I dropped there, though there is a running joke amongst my friends that I put several of the girls through school...

Now before you go jumping to too many conclusions here, I would like to point out that I was actually far less superficial in my criteria by this point. Uh-huh. Sure you were. Look at those two! Are you really going to tell me you went there for their personalities?!? Actually, that's precisely why I kept going back. Since I had gained "regular" status, I got to see sides of the girls that typical clients wouldn't. They'd even hang around after their shifts (occasionally after hours, as well) to have a couple drinks with me. These girls were cool. Natalie, in particular, had a great head on her shoulders, knew what she wanted to get out of life (and her education) and busted her ass to get there. Last time I talked to her (shortly before I moved to Quebec) she was getting ready to start a good job at an Accounting firm in Toronto. She's more than a pretty face and a killer body. I think she'll surprise anyone foolish enough to underestimate her.

Anyway, it's because of these girls that I started to look for women who were more than eye candy. Attraction is still important, but intelligence and personality are now more important. Geez, I really DID type that, didn't I? Well, it's true. Ol' Al is mellowing as he moves through his fourth decade on the planet. God help me, I can't really be maturing!?!

Now I'm looking for an equal-- someone who's independent and intelligent, who has the strength of character to stand up for what she believes (push-overs are a waste of my time) and who, just by being herself, inspires me to try and reach my potential. If I can find someone like that, then I'll really have found the perfect woman. Til next time...

Sport and the Quebecois Identity

2006-03-13T19:24:00.000-05:00

Okay, now that we've gone through a brief survey of the origin of sports in 18th and 19th century Quebec from the francophone perspective, we can better examine how sport reflects the "national identity" of French-Canadians of that era. First we saw horse racing, initiated by the English and promoted by the governor. Since we know that Quebec was essentially a rural region up until the time of the Quiet Revolution, it's easy to see how the sport was integrated into French-Canadian society. Victory on the track reinforced traditional values and their manner of living. The horses became an extension of the farmer. After all, you had to be doing something right to raise such a powerful steed, right? I'd almost equate it to the sort of pride experienced by farmers who raise the largest pumpkin for the county fair.

We also see the hesitation of French-Canadians to participate in the sports introduced by the anglos. Remember, the failure of the Patriot Rebellion in 1837-38 was still fresh in the collective memory of the people, so it's only natural that they would shun these new British sporting institutions. This resistance was further promoted by the Church, who were terrified that protestant values would sneak their way into the hearts of parishioners who participated in competitive sport.

Now after Confederation, we do see the creation of francophone clubs, which surely indicates that French-Canadians were ready to try and develop a new rapport with English Canada, not only on a political level, but on a social one, as well. Mind you, at the same time, there was also the tendancy to revisit more traditional activities, as we see in the popularity of snowshoeing clubs and canoeing. Remember, these 2 activities were common methods of travel for the coureurs des bois of days gone by. It's not a coincidence that these sports were popular. They invoke the Québécois desire to get back to nature and experience the great open spaces, as their ancestors had. The more "social" (as opposed to competitive) nature of the snowshoeing clubs also reinforce that intangible joie de vivre often used to describe the Québécois.

In Quebec, I've found that there's a bizarre fascination with the American Dream. They love the music, the films, the celebrities. Heck, you'll get more mileage with the girls here by telling them you're a American, rather than an English Canadian (probably the only place n the world that can make such a claim). This fascination has some pretty deep roots and can be seen most readily in the Québécois passion for baseball. I suppose one could interpret the love of baseball as another manifestation of resistance against their English conquerors. By playing baseball, they're rejecting the English regime, represented by the sport of cricket. Instead of baring arms, they choose to wield baseball bats and hope for liberation, as represented by the new American sport.

The fact that they felt the need to create a French vocabulary for sport demonstrates quite clearly that although there was a new agreement with English Canada, the fear of losing their culture and identity remained. By the end of the century, one could say that the anglicizing had started to succeed, at least in the case of hockey, wherein the "social nature" of sports in Quebec had been replaced by the burning passion to win on the ice.

In my opinion, there is no doubt that sport plays a part in the national identity of a country. We can see this through the proliferation of International Games during the 20th century. By examining the origins of the sport in Quebec of 19th century, we gain a new understanding of the collective mentality of French-Canadians of the time. We see that resistance against the domination of the anglos took several forms, whether it be through open rebellion like that of the Patriots, or the choice of the leisure activities, like the interest in the sport of baseball.

The fight to preseve the French language and culture even found its way onto the fields of sport. The changes to sporting vocabulary, launched by the Catholic Church and La Société du Parler Français au Canada, indicate that each facet of the life is significant to the Québécois, no matter how minor it appears to the rest of us. Finally, we see the sense of community present in the ideology of Québécois sport through the formation of more "social" than "competitive" sporting clubs. Although this analysis is obviously elementary, I believe that further research can only help in my quest to understand the modern Québécois point of view. If something as significant as sport is trivialized and overlooked, we may miss out on valuable insight. After all, this sense of alienation they seem to feel didn't happen overnight.

A (maybe not so) brief look at the history of Sport in Quebec

2006-03-11T12:43:00.000-05:00

I've been interested in sports for as long as I can remember. I was never a major athlete, by any stretch of the imagination, but one need not be good at something to find it interesting. Most sports fans remember stats of their favorite players or other points of interest, particularly for use in beer-buzzed debates in the local sports bar. So in that way, most fans end up being sport historians. I decided to take this interest a step or two further, thanks in large part to the influence of Dr Kevin Wamsley at UWO. When it came time for me to select a topic for my Introduction to Franco-Canadian and Quebecois Civilization class last summer, the choice became rather obvious: The History of Sport in Quebec.

What follows is a translated and edited version of my research at that time. I've made cuts where necessary, if only because I don't want people's butts to go numb reading through the whole thing. I've also tried to make the language a little less formal so my devoted readers won't get bored. That being said, if you'd like a copy, with references, in the original French, please feel free to e-mail me. Even looking at it now, I know it could use more editing, but whatever.

***
When we study a people or civilization, we usually starts with their history, their religion or their literature, however there's one facet that's less researched and often forgotten, but nonetheless important: their sports. Quebec is not an exception to this practise. Despite the fact that the influence of sports can be felt throughout the province, it's often neglected by the academic community. Since I believe that any study of Québécois civilization would be incomplete without examination of Franco-Canadian pastimes, I'll try and reconstruct some of the origins of modern sport in Quebec, using the available materials.

In discussing the birth of sport in la belle province, I ran into one major obstacle: a lack of detailed reports from certain time periods, particularly pre-Confederation. This leaves us to depend on the few accounts that survive. That being said, sport pops up at the end of the 18th century in the form of horse racing. Considering the agricultural bent of the population, this is hardly a surprise. In fact, it was likely more accesible to the average Francophone farmer than the other "gentlemanly sports" of the English since they were already accustomed to raising horses. The governor of the time, Sir James Craig, encouraged the growth of this sport when, in 1808, he created the "Jean-Baptiste Cup"-- a race specifically for horses raised in Canada by Canadians.

"Modern" sports appear in the 19th century, thanks largely to British immigrants. It was during this time that we see the proliferation of sports in Montreal and the formation of clubs, ranging from curling to rowing to snowshoeing, but these were predominantly anglophone. The main exception to this was the Montreal Olympic Athletic Club, founded in 1841 which included several influential French Canadians. This was also the first club to organize a lacrosse match between white and native competitors. The Montreal Swimming Club was another "integrated" club, offering meetings in both French and English since its founding. It seems a bit odd that a city full of francophones would have so few French sporting clubs, doesn't it?

Donald Guay is one of the leading historians as it pertains to sport in Quebec from the French perspective. He suggests that the absence of francophone sports clubs has to do with a difference in ideology. French Canadians were devout Catholics from farming backgrounds. City life represented industrialization and materialism whereas in the country, they were closer to God. Sport was thought of as a manifestation of the English whose presence threatened the very foundations of the French nation. There was also significant resistance from the Catholic Church, who believed that sporting clubs threatened the family unit. Meetings for sport clubs could draw attention away from family duties, and replace time normally spent with parents, friends and children. But it wasn't just the potential disintegration of the family unit that worried the Church--it was the loss of the French language, as well!

The language of sport was almost exclusively English so, at the beginning of the 20th century, La Société du Parler français au Canada, collaborating with l'Université Laval, started a movement to come up with a french vocabulary for sport. Having watched a fair amount of RDS in my day, I'd say they succeeded on that front. It may seem like a minor detail, but in their opinion, the vocabulary of sport plays a role in the national identity. Sport is something instinctive. To succeed in sport requires rapid reactions. These actions and techniques become part of the athlete. One could say that it becomes part of one's sporting identity as an athlete. Communication also becomes instinctive and the bottomline was that the French didn't want their youth reacting "in English" during matches. They were afraid that constant use of English terminology for communication would lead to an anglicizing of the French youth.

Despite the opposition from the Church, the middle class French Canadians tried to form their own athletic organizations, often using the English model. They bought into the idea that personal development could be achieved through sport and wanted their children to have the same sort of advantages as the English. With this in mind, we find the formation of the first francophone sporting club, Le Club de crosse Champlain de Québec, in 1868. Other clubs followed, with varying degrees of success.

For the better part of the 19th century, French Canadians were disinterested in the traditional English sports, like cricket, but for some reason absolutely adored Baseball. In fact, in 1877 it ranked second behind Lacrosse in terms of both popularity and participation. What's equally interesting is that baseball wasn't particularly popular with the anglophones en ville. Perhaps this was some sort of subconscious protest? By ignoring traditional English sports and adopting an American pastime, were they subtlely thumbing their collective noses at the English?

Hockey was a different matter entirely. Though it began with a few anglophone clubs in the 1870s, it went through an exponential increase in popularity by the end of the century. It went from an anglo-protestant pastime to a full-fledged francophone obsession. French Canadians love hockey. It's become a part of their collective soul. We see its influence in their literature, for example «le Chandail» de Roch Carrier, the success of Les Boys movie franchise and in the public reactions to the deaths of long-retired players like Maurice Richard or, most recently, Bernard "Boob Boom" Geoffrion. Just what sparked their interest is anyone's guess, but it's popularity doesn't show any signs of waning. Once they got hooked on it, they took over. Even today, Québécois players dominate the sport.

There's obviously much more to say on the topic, but I think I'll take a break here. I'll likely chat a bit about Sport as it pertains to "National" identity in future entries... til next time!