Up to the Hour

Hour Magazine @ SXSW | Day 1, Entry 1

Dave Jaffer — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:39:00 GMT

SXSW in Austin, Texas, is arguably the most important music festival in the world, annually bringing thousands of people into the so-called Live Music Capital of the World. This year, Hour's Dave Jaffer (pictured) is attending the festival, and keeping everyone up to speed with the doings and happenings. The following is completely and totally true.

Tuesday, March 16

I'm not writing this on Tuesday, March 16. I'm writing this on Wednesday morning, after I wrote the first March 17 installment. I really wanted to write this yesterday but, as you'll soon find out, the opportunity to do not there.

As such, let's have a secret, you and I. Let's both pretend I wrote this as it was happening yesterday. I promise I'll be honest about everything. After all: It's not too hard to be honest about things that are still burned onto your consciousness as if by branding iron.

I woke up yesterday morning after about four hours of sleep in the basement of my childhood home in Scarborough, Ontario. As many of you might already know, it's easier to find flights to, well, anywhere out of Toronto than out of Montreal. I had packed the night before but stayed up doing some work (and watching the season finale of my favourite show, Burn Notice, which I had downloaded earlier in the week). Four hours seems like not enough, but I can usually function on less. My mother had generously offered to take me to the airport and for this I am glad-every time save for one that I've taken a flight from Pearson International, my mom has dropped me off. It's our thing, and, more to the point, I've never had a problem flying out of Pearson when she's dropped me off. The one time I did was the one time I took a cab.

We arrived at Pearson around 10 a.m., leaving me with plenty of time to check in for my flight down to Austin, Texas, for SXSW.

Aside: It is my first time going to SXSW. I have wanted to do it for years. I had wanted to go last year with Hour Editor-in-Chief Jamie O'Meara but the dough wouldn't rise with regards to that particular plan. I had promised myself a few days after I first started getting the texts from Austin that I would try to attend SXSW 2010. If Jamie doesn't think he's getting those texts, he's out of his mind.

In February, 2010, I was accredited. A few days later I had a ticket to go down, generously furnished by a family member through their thousands of Aeroplan points. I should shout that out right now: I didn't have enough money to get down to Texas and I am only able to go through the generosity of my family. So thanks, guys. I owe you one! (Or, 25 000 Aeroplan points, rather).

Anyway, this was going to be my day: Get to the airport, check in, fly United to Chicago (with Polaris Music Prize head honcho Steve Jordan), sit there for a few hours, and fly United to Austin. I was supposed to get to Austin at 6:27 p.m. local time. Central time. My buddy Johnston Farrow, who lives Galveston and used to work for The Coast in Halifax (and also used to do publicity for Haligonian artists including Rebekah Higgs, and drink tequila with Jenn Grant) was going to pick me up at the airport in Austin, and we were going to go to his friend's place where we were staying. There would be four of us in total: Me, Farrow, Jon Dempsey (who I believe used to be an editor at The Concordian, and Farrow's friend Melanie. The other two were flying into Houston, getting picked up by Farrrow, who lives and works nearby in Galveston.

We were going to get to his friend's apartment, ostensibly going to take quick showers, get something to eat, and get out there to go see Metric together. I like Metric. Farrow likes Metric. It was shaping up to be a pretty good first night in Austin, and the (music part of the SXSW) festival technically didn't start until the next day, March 17. In theory, I was going to get a night of exploring and a free Metric concert under my belt before the festival even started. I mean if that's not a two thumbs up situation, you're just not getting enough iron.

Suffice it to say, this didn't happen. Instead, I ended up having one of the worst days of my life. Not just my professional life. My life life. What happened I'm going to tell in pseudo-point form, because recounting it in long snatches of crisp prose will depress me too much.

I get to the United check-in counter at Pearson; they tell me they can't find me on the flight going to Chicago. I say "huh?" So do they. They see what they can do. Turns out the ticket booked for me was booked for February 16, 2010 and not March 16, 2010. I am despondent.
I go talk to Air Canada, who tell me I can't talk to Aeroplan because they're not my points. I ask how much would a ticket, today, be to Austin, or, worst case scenario, to Houston? They said somewhere around $2500. One way. I wince. They say, "check United."
United says $3000.
I call my mom to come back to the airport. I explain situation. She comes back. We have a coffee and think. I try to find a wireless network. (Pearson sucks for this by the way). I find one option: Fly out of Buffalo on JetBlue at just past 3:00 p.m. By the time I find that option, though, it's no longer possible for me to get to Buffalo in time for the flight unless I'm getting driven by Jimmie Johnson with a police escort. I swear, a lot, in my head.
We spend an hour in the parking garage looking for the car. I swear, more, not in my head. I say things that would make Denis Leary blush.
We drive back to Scarborough. The mood is somewhere between extreme disappointment and extreme frustration. I want to put my fist through a window. I grumble, audibly, but then resign myself to the fact I'm not going to Austin. I get back to my childhood home, where my slightly older brother, his wife, and his son are making final preparations to fly back to Japan, to live, forever.
While they're out at lunch, I decide to find out if there's any way JetBlue, flying out of Buffalo, will get me to Austin or nearby. I find one choice: Fly from Buffalo, at 8 a.m., to New York City; fly from New York City at 11 a.m. to Houston; take a Greyhound bus from Houston at 3:30 p.m. (Central) to arrive in Austin at 6:45 p.m., or roughly a day after I was supposed to get there.
I hesitate, and then book it.
I get a cheap hotel room by the airport in Buffalo that has free shuttle service to the airport.
We all go to my oldest brother's place, in Vaughan, Ontario, for dinner, and the final goodbyes between that brother's family and the Japan-bound brother's family. We decide that we are driving to Buffalo shortly thereafter.
A few hours later, while on just about to get on the 410 to head down Buffalo way, an assclown in a white minivan plows into us while we're going through an intersection, pushing us right into the intersection. My brother saw it coming about a second before it happened. I did not. My neck has the bruises to prove it. We pull through the intersection and turn around to see the guy make a hard right, drive slowly for a bit, and then zoom away. I have never been involved in a hit and run before. I do not recommend the experience.
An hour and a half later, after a filing a police report at the least friendly police station in history (and that, my friends, is saying something) we are on our way to Buffalo, where we arrive at about 11:15 p.m. I check in, my brothers leave, and I go up to bed, but not before watching Sportscenter.

As a friend reminded me, via Twitter, these problems are "first world problems." I know this, and am humbled by the largeness of that notion. That said, next time you have a bad day of travel, I want you to think of my tale if only so you will feel better.

A Line in the Sand

MJ Stone — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:25:00 GMT

Camus meets the calamity of war in the Tableau d'Hôte Theatre's production A Line in the Sand is right. Director Mike Payette told me during an interview that the play, about the death of a Palestinian boy, had stirred controversy at the Segal Centre. So when I arrived at the arts center I wasn't surprised to see a group of Hasidic men protesting outside. "Say yes to Judaism, say no to Zionism. Israel is a dangerous place," they chanted. Well it wasn't the kind of protest I was expecting, but it was refreshing none the less. Even more bizarre was the arrival of about 70 Canadian cadets enrolled in an officer training program who had reserved seats for the play. Ah, the theater of the absurd... Hasidic Jews protesting against the state of Israel and a performance space jammed with wanna-be soldiers. Now that's drama!

And the MECCA goes to... 2008-09 season award winners

Robyn Fadden — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:51:00 GMT

While Anglophone-oriented arts and culture is technically considered a minority in Quebec, it maintains a high profile in Montreal partly due to the community built around it. Since 1998, the Montreal English Critics Circle Awards (MECCA) – organized by local theatre critics themselves – has been essential in bringing the theatre side of this community together. The yearly awards ceremony aims to not only raise the profile of Anglophone theatre companies and artists in Quebec, but to recognize the high quality of their work, from comedy to tragedy, sometimes even the more experimental. This year, on March 8, the 2008-09 season award winners – performers, designers, directors, text and more – were announced at Theatre Ste-Catherine:

Best Actor: Andreas Apergis (Blessed Are They – Infinitheatre)
Best Actress: Nicola Cavendish (Shirley Valentine – Centaur)
Best Director: Greg Kramer (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof – Segal)
Best Text: With Bated Breath (Centaur)
Best Ensemble: With Bated Breath (Centaur)
Best Visiting Producer: Tshepang (Mopo)
Best Set Design: James Lavoie (With Bated Breath – Centaur)
Best Costume: Marie-Genevieve Morin (Le Code Noir – Black Theatre Workshop)
Best Lighting: Spike Lyne (With Bated Breath – Centaur)
Best Sound Peter Cerone (With Bated Breath – Centaur)
Best Production: Blessed Are They (Infinitheatre)
Revelation: Paul Van Dyck
Honorable Mention: Robin Henderson
Distinction: Jeremy Hechtman and Patrick Goddard of Mainline Theatre
Honorable Mention: Chris Brown and Carolyn Murdoch of the John Abbott College Theatre Department

R.I.P. Marcel Simard

Meg Hewings — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:19:00 GMT

Documentary filmmaker and producer Marcel Simard is no longer with us, and it's a very sad story. But Simard's suicide death has also given the doc filmmaking community reason to rage against the worsening conditions facing the sector. In an op-ed in the March 10 issue of Le Devoir, Simard's filmmaker friend Marguise Lepage eloquently eulogizes his contribution to Quebec documentary and social justice, and rails against new government priorities and funding shortages facing doc and auteur filmmakers and producers. Lepage contextualizes the sinister side of this growing cultural poverty, exposing how linchpin independent production companies like Simard's Virage - which champion subjects and issues (gasp) over profitability - are in the process of disappearing. As Lepage points out, doc and auteur films have quite literally made the reputation of our cinema worldwide, and thankfully their makers are refusing to let them (and the injustices and subjects they bring to light) go gently into that good night...

Here is my translated version of Lepage's text, which appeared in Le Devoir (sorry for any inacuracies!).

Marcel Simard, 1945-2010 - I'm in mourning... and angry!

by filmmaker Marquise Lepage

My friend Marcel Simard, director, script writer, producer, husband, father and grandfather is no longer. His lifeless body was found Saturday morning in his car. My friend Marcel did not have a car accident, or a heart attack - he voluntarily put an end to his days.

In choosing to bow out this way, he obliges us - as he did so often in his work - to face the realities that society prefers to ignore. His tragic death directly confronts three taboos: first suicide and depression, which are too often viewed as a shameful disease! His death also raises the lid on a subject that has become even more untouchable: the financing of audiovisual work in Quebec.

Marcel Simard was my friend for nearly 25 years. After leaving university, it is with him that I first gained experience in film production at Les Productions du Lundi matin and directed my first long feature Marie s'en va-t-en ville. We became friends working together and - a rare thing - our friendship withstood the thousand and one tensions it takes to make a film.

Audacious

Sociologist by training, Marcel was a man with a keen social conscience. He was an artist and engaged producer. It was with him, and Les Productions Virages which he founded, that I was able to make difficult documentaries like Des marelles et des petites filles, as well as Des billes des ballons et des garçons about the treatment and working conditions of children around the world. More recently, it was again with Virage that I directed Martha qui vient du froid about the deportation of Quebec Inuit to the North Pole in 1950.

Marcel was daring, and often, he won risky gambles by successfully producing films that no one else would dare make. His temerity and determination are legendary, as is his great humanity and empathy for ordinary people.

When he put his compassion for tormented souls at the service of his talents as a director, it gave us films of great beauty that touched us - like Toujours à part des autres ou Love-moi, as well as other unclassifiable works that never received the recognition they deserved.

In the films he created, as in those he produced, Marcel looked for strong content and subjects who asked questions, before the prospect of financial gain.

Luminous Personality

Personally, when I finished watching a film Marcel made or produced, I would always leave moved, more educated or open to a situation than I was before. And isn't this the most beautiful quality of a work: its capacity to transform us a bit, and sometimes even, to make us a better person?

It was with him, and later with his partner Monique Simard, who also joined the company, that a number of young filmmakers made their first work. Also, given the reluctance to fund female directors, another remarkable fact is that les Productions Virage was among the production houses that produced the greatest number of films directed by women in Quebec.

This wonderful mix of boldness, humanism and creativity made Marcel Simard a person that was at once radiant and of great humility. If these amazing qualities gained him the sympathy of a number of people, they also sometimes cost him dearly.

Responsible

In a context where the rules of the game have become very difficult for audiovisual production in Quebec, the precariousness of a number of independent production houses has become evident. This is especially so for genres that Marcel always defended - documentary and auteur films.

For certain people, submitting a review of their business would represent only one formality in the process, since producers are used to juggling millions and peoples' lives. This was not the case for Marcel, who was oversensitive and of modest origins, and always felt personally responsible.

Although few people knew it, he'd put all his money from the sale of his house (on Champagneur street) into his production company last year, and a few days before he ended his life, had managed through painstaking labour and misery to reimburse - out of honour and solidarity - all the individual (DOPs, filmmakers, PR folks, etc) creditors.

Auteur film

There are many things that one could blame on Marcel, for whom I grieve today, but certainly not for disrespecting those with whom he worked, nor for not trying with all his might to make it so that auteur cinema regain its just place.

In what we pompously call the cinematographic industry here, the great majority of audiovisual productions are financed by institutions and different government bodies, and NEVER GENERATE PROFIT TO LINE THE STATE COFFERS.

Despite this fact, in the past few years, the "commercial" has been privileged ad nauseam (it doesn't bring in money, but it looks good!). And this, to the detriment of auteur cinema and documentary films that have always made our reputation here (and that often cause, despite their miniscule budgets, some beautiful surprises at the box office, like the recent J'ai tué ma mere).

In anger

So, I'm angry about a system that seems to have forgotten what's important - for all of society to have access to a vast diversity of cultural works of quality.

I'm angry to see an "industry" sustained by all its citizens - and whose raison d'être is precisely our cultural difference - copying American culture.

I'm angry to find that a big part of the medium underestimate the pertinence of films and TV programs that have an immense cultural plus-value and that often trace the way to an opening in genres that only later become successful with audiences.

I'm angry to find that creators from here are increasingly held hostage to the dictates of broadcaster schedules, ratings and the commercial potential of these works.

I'm angry that we could have let a production house crumble, especially one as important to the audiovisual landscape here as Productions Virage.

I'm angry that we are closing our eyes to the human dramas that hide behind unjust and unjustify-able politics.

Yes, my friend Marcel put his heart in everything he undertook. His recent financial troubles, exacerbated by his oversensitive nature put him on edge, made him loose sleep, then his health and finally his life! What a mess!

Marcel, I am angry, but also and above all terribly sad. Today, I cried with your wife, your children and their friends. But very soon, I will roll up my selves, and finish the beautiful film that we were supposed to do together. Ironically, the theme is beyond... I imagine that from where you are, you can still help and inspire me as you so often have.

Very soon, I will clean up my Kleenexes and continue the fight for those who don't have a voice or a chapter, or who - like you - died way too early.

L'Orchestre symphonique de Montréal unveils its 2010-2011 season

Robyn Fadden — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:04:00 GMT

(By Hour writer Richard Burnett)

"You're sitting in my office!" OSM Maestro Kent Nagano told over 50 journalists and cameramen assembled on the stage at Place des Arts' Salle Wilfred Pelletier after he had conducted his orchestra through an introductory song. "This is where we do our work."

The press was then invited to sit in the seats vacated by the musicians as Nagano unveiled the details of the OSM's final season at Salle Wilfred-Pelletier. The 2010-2011 season launches on September 2 with a free open-air concert at Place des Arts - their first-ever - in a concert also featuring the Cirque Eloize.

The orchestra will move into their brand spanking new hall next door for their 2011-2012 season. The new 2,100-seat symphony hall is currently under construction at a cost of $266-million.

"Usually I want to kill someone when I hear the jackhammers!" Nagano said half-joklingly.

Other highlights include their season's first indoor series concert Carmina Burana, under the direction of Jacques Lacombe, in September; Wagner's opera Das Rheingold (concert version) in May 2011; a concert tribute to Father Emmett "Pops" Johns, in May 2011; and David Suzuki will join the OSM for two special concerts about the environment on April 27 and 28 next year.

The OSM will also resume one of its great holiday season traditions, Handel's Messiah, under the direction of Kent Nagano, this December at Notre Dame Basilica.

Nagano also revealed he wants to hold three concerts in the three different historical Montreal buildings, and has asked the OSM to negotiate terms with their owners.

Nagano - who gave his first-ever Montreal press sit-down interview with HOUR in 2008 (surf to http://www.hour.ca/music/music.aspx?iIDArticle=15442) also paid tribute to Salle Wilfred-Pelletier.

"What makes a legendary concert hall?" Nagano asked rhetorically. "This year I'm emotional - to think of the great conductors, musicans and orchestras who have played on this stage for [almost] 50 years. This transition is a reminder that each tradition must also deal with change."

For more details on the OSM's 2010-2011 season, surf to http://www.osm.ca/.

Greening the Plateau event

Meg Hewings — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:30:00 GMT

This week, there's a hint of spring in the air, no? I've started to notice the quality of the light change, as it sneaks in my bedroom window - earlier - and with its rusty-orange glow. It's downright teasy.

Next, we'll be seeing little sprigs of grass poping up here and there, and getting randy.

So. If green is also on your mind, and you happen to have ideas about how to make the Plateau more eco, you should attend a community forum taking place tonight (Wedn. March 3) at 7 p.m. at the House of Friendship (120 Duluth St. E.). Organized by Projet Montreal, the forum welcomes locals to share their thoughts on what a greener Plateau might look like, what projects they'd like to see happen, and what tools they need to make their piece of the Plateau sprout. The forum will unite various groups, including Santropol Roulant, the Urban Ecology Centre, The Mile End Citizen's Committee and the local Eco-Quartier, as well as Greening Duluth (the new neighbourhood group that turned a parking lot into a garden last summer).

"Tonight we'll talk about projects we currently have on the go, and those planned in the future," says Corinne Dussouchet, of Eco-Quartier Jeanne Mance. "Les Rouelles Vertes is one of our programs. Basically, a group of neighbhours or citizens who want to beautify/green their street just have to call us and be motivated. We help them to plant trees, or make their 'green vision' come alive. It permits us to green the neighbhourhood - ecologically, socially, artistically. On Saturday, May 29 we have a free flower distribution day. We give away flowers to beautify the neighbourhood. People can plant them in their front walkway, on balconies, at schools or community centres.

Another project we offer is communal composting. Once you become a member of the program, you can bring your organic material to us. We compost it in turbines in Parc Jeanne-Mance and re-distribute the soil produced. We also have worm composting, which you can do at home."

Grey skies turn blue, Black Feelings turn it up, and other Friday fantasticness

Robyn Fadden — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:50:00 GMT

For the first time in a long time, today I felt the warmth of the sun. And while brief, it reminded me that maybe I should save my beer and poutine money for a "sun-destination" trip next winter. But, well, beer and poutine... Speaking of which: Friday! And lots of awesome stuff to do:

- I for one am definitely going up to Il Motore (179 Jean-Talon W.) for the second night of the Blue Skies Turn Black 10th anniversary shows: with Hour's cover stars Black Feelings and Grand Trine, Ultrathin, Tonstartssbandht, Special Noise, Homosexual Cops and DJs Fred and Guillaume (read more about BSTB's more-underground music connection with Pirates of the Lachine Canal here). Starts at around 8:15 p.m.

- Divan Orange (4234 St-Laurent Blvd.) hosts a MEG Showcase featuring the pop-rock stylin's of Organ Mood, Vicious/Delicious and Shortpants Romance, 8 p.m.

- The Immigrant Worker Centre of Montreal teams up with Cinema Politica in solidarity with the laid-off textile manufacturing workers of Quebec with a screening of documentary Made in L.A., plus dinner and discussion, at the IWC (4755 rue Van Horne), 6:30 p.m., free.

- Say Goodbye Broadway, Bonjour Montréal at the Musée des Ondes Emile Berliner (C-220-1050 Lacasse), where artefacts from the city's early-jazz era (1900-30) add insight to those red-light days.

- Snow won't stop Critical Mass - join the bike revolution at Phillips Square, 5:30 p.m.

- Spain's fiery flamenco leads the way in El grito, el silencio at Salle Pierre-Mercure (300 De Maisonneuve E.), 8 p.m.

- Intimate Sky Series Chapter 15 brings music and poetry to MAI (3680 Jeanne-Mance), 8 p.m.

- See short films of comedy and "desirs troubles," such as Geoffrey Uloth's Among Friends (9:45 p.m.), plus Denis Côté's presents Carcasses at Cinémathèque Québécoise, part of Rendez-vous du Cinema Québécois.

Photo review: Hollerado rocks tribute to Fun 'N Roses

Jamie O'Meara — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:30:00 GMT

It's last call for Hollerado, who play the final night of their month-long, Saturday night stand at Divan Orange (4234 St-Laurent Blvd.) this coming Saturday, Feb. 27. It's becoming something of an annual thing for the band (last February the whoresome foursome farmed themselves out for 28-days straight, playing nightly residencies in seven different cities, seven nights a week for a whole month) who've been selling out their concerts at Le Divan. The last show this weekend will see the band sharing the stage with Zeroes and Huron.

Hollerado released their album debut, Record In a Bag, at the beginning of this month, a ragingly homosexual review of which can be found here. The Cesarean birth of the Bag capped an uncommonly crazy year for these semi-local boys (Manotick, Ontario enjoys joint custody of the band), a year that saw them rock the People's Republic of China not once but twice, win $250,000 dollars (yes, that's the correct number of zeroes) from an Ottawa radio station and shoot a video for the song Juliette starring Hollywood actress Margot Kidder (perhaps best known for her role as Lois Lane in the Superman movies). Among many other things. You can read a heart-warming, semi-drunk story that maps the madness, written by some genius, here.

The photos below were snapped at Hollerado's Valentine's Day show at Divan Orange - a predictably outstanding display of down-to-earth showmanship - and were taken by the lovely and talented Amy Blackmore (co-producer of the St-Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival).

Snow time like the present. a.k.a. Thursday, how to do it

Robyn Fadden — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:18:00 GMT

Ah, the snow-melt-slush-snow-melt-slush cycle decends upon us. Forge through the sleet tonight in the name of many different causes, or just to have fun, either way, works for me.

- Painting a New World for Haiti shows work by emerging African artists, with honoured guest Minister of Immigration Yolande James, at Olympic Stadium, 5 p.m.

- Painter John Ancheta's Aquacades swims to great depths at Battat Contemporary (#100-7245 Alexandra), 6 p.m.

- Best Canadian Poetry and Best Canadian Essays 2009 and the Banff literary journalism program's Cabin Fever launch many a good word at Drawn and Quarterly (211 Bernard), 7 p.m.

- Funny, highly entertaining and admirably odd, Sidemart Theatrical Grocery's experimental and music-inspired Trying for the Kingdom is worth a visit to the Segal Centre Studio (5170 Côte-Ste-Catherine), 8 p.m. tonight and Feb. 27.

- NYC-dweller Gina Gibney visits town with View Partially Obstructed uncovers beauty and tackles domestic violence, at Agora (840 Cherrier), 8 p.m., to Feb. 27.

- Meg Stuart's Do Animals Cry figures out family at Usine C (1345 Lalonde), 8 p.m., to Feb. 27.

- Blue Skies Turn Black celebrates 10 years of bringing us awesome music, with The Besnard Lakes, Shapes & Sizes, Little Scream (w/ Becky Foon), Adam And The Amethysts, Snailhouse, No Joy and DJ Annie Q, at Il Motore (179 Jean Talon W.), 8 p.m.

- Action Contre la Faim and Green Room raise funds for Haiti tonight, starting at 8:30 p.m. with Jonah Engle's Haiti field recordings, The Brothers Rigby (of Lake of Stew), Gutstrings, Steve and Catherine (of Young Galaxy), Andrew and Ariel, Murray and Natalia (of The Dears) and World Provider, plus DJ Patti Schmidt at midnight - at Green Room (5386 St-Laurent Blvd.).

- And the techno-mighty Vitalic burns a hole in the dance floor, with Jordan Dare and DJ Mini at SAT (1195 St-Laurent Blvd.).

Busking for Change Montreal: Save the date, metro-takers

Dave Jaffer — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:26:00 GMT

You know when you're in a subway station and you see a musician busking for change? On March 2, 2010, in Montreal, you might very well know the musician in the subway station busking for change. And chances are they've played for much larger audiences than you and the pre/post-work crowd.

War Child announced today that their successful Busking for Change initiative will take place in Montreal on March 2, 2010, between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. Apparently, a full list of stations where (well-known, and famous) musicians will be playing will be available, soon, but the stations they're specifically shouting out at present are Berri-UQAM, Place-des-Arts, and the McGill metro/Eaton Centre conflation.

This, of course, is kind of blarg: I mean, people at Snowdon and Plamondon and Angrignon need love too, right? Still, it's a good start.

A list of artists is no doubt forthcoming as well, but I've heard a rumour that my old buddy Patrick Krief (ex-Dears, Black Diamond Bay) might be playing, and where there's Krief there's ~~fire~~ maybe Jason Bajada?

In 2009, the Busking for Change initiative took place in Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary. It raised over $100,000 and was assisted by the musical talents of Arkells, Neverending White Lights, USS, and current Ottawa Xpress cover boys Hollerado, to name but a few. It was inspired by Our Lady Peace frontman Raine Maida, busked on the streets of Toronto a few years ago to raise money for War Child and also publicize his then most-recent solo album, The Hunters Lullaby. In about 12 hours, Maida raised $22,000, which is a spectacularly guitar case-full of change.

This is the first time Busking for Change will take place in Montreal. Spring Shoes, who's worked with War Child in the past, and helped rebuild schools in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is helping with sponsorship.

"Busking for Change Montreal is taking place at a crucial time, when War Child is setting up long term rehabilitation programming in Haiti," reads a poignant release. "The event will mark the return of a War Child assessment mission from the devastated country, where it will be working to help the most vulnerable by providing support in trauma recovery, poverty reduction and education to those children and youth that are most at risk."

So remember this, and mark it down in your calendriers, si tu veux: March 2, 2010, between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m., Montreal. Mark it down as the day that your commute won't suck as much as it usually does and remember, that's a good thing for you as well as for a very worthy cause.

Mid-Life Crisis Full of Laughter and Joy

MJ Stone — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:58:00 GMT

From start to finish I don't think the smile left my face. It surprised me, because I had my doubts. Before the curtain was drawn on Mainline Theatre's The Mid-Life Crisis of Dionysus, I have to admit, a musical about the god of the debauched didn't inspire me. Although it did sound sexy... I just figured the evening would be lacking in substance and vigor. Well, I couldn't have been more wrong.

Everything from the music to the cast to the original songs inspired bachanalian pleasure. The production was as heady as wine and as deliciously indulgent. The Mid-Life Crisis of Dionysus has legs (very beautiful legs) and real staying power.

At Mainline Theatre (3997 St-Laurent Blvd.), to March 6

MTL's Shtetl on the Shortwave talks sex with Dr. Annie Sprinkle!

Robyn Fadden — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:31:00 GMT

Public Cervix Announcement! World-famous post-porn performer and sex-ed icon Dr. Annie Sprinkle talks to the delightful Tamara Kramer, host and producer of Shtetl on the Shortwave on CKUT90.3FM, tomorrow (Friday, Feb. 19) at 11 am! I wonder if Annie thinks Montreal is still the sexy thing it once was? I worry about our reputation these days, I do.

But, to go a little deeper (yep), all too commonly in this still-nascent internet age, the most pervasive images of sex are wrapped up in social control, misogyny and the superficial - that's "mainstream" porn for ya in general, I guess. And while it may be just the thing for some, it barely skims the surface for others. Sprinkle's take on sex and sexuality is like a breath of pure freedom (which is kind of like oxygen but with more long-term euphoria). She's made porn, she's starred in porn, she's written books about her sex/love life and books about how to figure out our own sex/love lives. She even has a PhD in human sexuality, for good measure - hey, credentials open doors, wink wink.

A post-Valentine's-Day interview with her seems kind of perfect, really. Listen live on Friday at 90.3FM or ckut.ca.

Indoctrinate U: Just when you thought campus brainwashing couldn't get any worse

Jamie O'Meara — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:04:00 GMT

So what happens when political correctness goes too far? Someone makes a feature-length documentary about it, that's what. And in this case that doc is the much-talked about 2007 film Indoctrinate U, written and directed by Evan Coyne Maloney, who also stars in it Michael Moore-style (albeit with one critical difference said a reviewer at The Weekly Standard: "[Maloney's] got the on-screen dexterity of a Michael Moore, only with integrity").

Indoctrinate U closely examines repressive and widespread ideological conformism on American university and college campuses, a slowly moving storm of censorship that has created "a campus culture in which speech codes rule the day; in which free inquiry has been replaced with prescribed, politically correct values; and in which students are taught not how to think, but what to think." Sounds just like studying fine arts in Montreal in the early-'90s - good times!

Anyway, the documentary takes Maloney - whose previous works include Brainwashing 101 and Brainwashing 201: The Second Semester - to several different university campuses across the United States, most of which roll up the red carpet at the sight of him with often disturbing, hilarious and disturbingly hilarious results. See for yourself in the trailer for Indoctrinate U posted below.

Intrigued? How couldn't you be. Let your curiosity lead you to Restaurant Chez Alexandre et Fils (1454 Peel Street) this Sunday, February 21, for a public screening of Indoctrinate U presented by the MacDonald-Cartier Society. (The MacDonald-Cartier Society bills itself as a non-partisan, independent, not-for-profit organization developed to educate young Canadians about the influence of Sir John Alexander MacDonald and Sir George-Etienne Cartier on Canadian political institutions and process... since... whoa, nodded off there for a second.)

The long and the short of it: Former members of your high school history club and debating team are showing a film at a swanky resto and they're doing it for FREE, so we should all show our gratitude by showing up. The projector starts rolling at 7 pm., and afterward there will be a short speech followed by a Q&A session with Peter Stockland, executive director of the Centre for Cultural Renewal (CCR) and former editor-in-chief of the Montreal Gazette. Again, this event is free.

Best. Blog. Idea. (Possibly.) Ever.

Meg Hewings — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:43:00 GMT

Remember that Facebook phenomenon where people decided it was OK to share 25 things about themselves with a everyone in their innerweb? Well, someone recently pointed me in the direction of this blog... anyone can submit 25 things about their sexuality. Anonymously.

The results are suprising moving profound funny disturbing. Warning: You will lose all sense of time.

25 Things About My Sexuality "It's complicated."

One of my favourite entries to date is Friday, Feb. 13, 2009.

What does it mean to "clean up" The Main?

Meg Hewings — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:10:00 GMT

Beloved (and historic) trannie showbar Café Cleopatra will be expropriated to clear the way for a new staid office building along the infamous stretch. According to a report by Alanah Heffez at Spacing Montreal, the Société de Développement Angus acquired two more properties on Saint-Laurent and Ste-Catherine: Main Importing Grocery and the building that housed Club Opera. The redevelopment of this stretch has been slotted for years now, but the fact that 4 live show venues will be replaced by office and retail space (all owned by one developer in what is supposed to be the new Quartier des Spectacles) remains the truly sketchy part of the story. Cleopatra's owner John Zoumboulakis has vowed to fight the expropriation in court, but it's unlikely he'll be able to halt the re-development project.

For better or worse, it seems that the lower Main is about to get "cleaned up" and that process known as "revitilization" has begun.

So, what does getting "cleaned up" really mean for a historic-if-"nasty" stretch of city with a legacy for show bars, sex clubs, steamie (and steamy) joints?

Notions of "cleanliness" have shifted radically depending on social and moral convictions of the day, and developments in technology, science, medicine and urban planning, say organizers of an upcoming public forum about Montreal's hygiene habits. Called Soap, and co-presented by the CCA and Pecha Kucha Montreal, the informal interdisciplinary event explores the broad concept of cleanliness and hygiene in urban Montreal.

The event will unfold at a more leisurely pace than most jam-packed Pecha Kucha soirées, which can feature upward of 12 presentations. Instead, curators at the CCA and Pecha Kucha selected six presentations through a submission process. Topics will include such varied subjects as bathhouses, snow removal and ideas around moral hygiene. In a highly anticipated presentation, Andrew Emond (who runs the endlessly fascinating Under Montreal blog) will map and explore Montreal's sewer system with the audience.

"We wanted to have a theme that's ambiguous, inviting and mysterious to look into," says Lev Bratishenko, one of the curators for the CCA. "We called it Soap as a way to open up the discussion, and to make it accessible, not overly academic. We felt cleanliness was a topic relevant to any city, and one that offers possibilities and invites responses."

Soap will otherwise take the Pecha Kucha format and flair, which means that speakers present 20 slides, each lasting 20 seconds, and the audience is encouraged to chit-chat and/or be engaged, encouraging or even rowdy during presentations. "People can also have their choice of three bars," laughs Anders Bell of Pecha Kucha Montreal.

The event takes place at Shaughnessy House at the CCA (1920 Baile) on Feb. 11. Doors open at 6 p.m. and presentations begin at 7 p.m. For more info: savon@cca.qc.ca.