Montreal’s Fashion Week is early in the season, but apparently that can be a good thing. More on the relative importance of our city’s stroll down the catwalk.
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Michael Applebaum called Louise Harel a liar on Friday and suggested she should step down over her recent charge that an engineering firm faked a city employee’s identity on some documents. However, Harel seems to be on the money that this engineering firm, which has its own offices at city hall, is a mite too close to the action.
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Pleased to note that the Mies van der Rohe gas station on Nuns Island has been revived as a community centre, uniting kids and older people in a unique kind of facility.
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Quebec intends to sue the engineering consortium responsible for the plans drawn up for work done on the tunnel paralume that collapsed last summer – luckily sparing human life, but shutting the tunnel for weeks while the mess was cleared up and the tunnel’s solidity verified.
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Architectural piece about the transformation of the Erskine and American Church into part of the Museum of Fine Arts, preserving its stained glass windows. Shame the windows are not better photographed.
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Doobious
Awesome use of terrazzo aplenty in that thing. Just delicious.
Thanks for the reminder to go see a concert in the new hall.
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Spacing looks at the impending by-election in Vieux-Rosemont to replace Pierre Lampron, and thinks it may prefigure how public feeling is running on the three main city parties. The election will be on April 29.
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Richard Burnett’s Gazette blog has notes on Black History Month; the Mirror’s notes; notes from QMI; Radio-Canada; the official website.
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Piece about a very elaborate wall mural in Pointe Claire has a couple of striking omissions, the most obvious being the artist’s name, but also no challenge to the dubious notion that a picture on a wall can somehow compensate for the loss of a grocery store in an area that’s had one since the 1750s.
Quel Avenir looked at NDG’s Our Lady of Grace mural this week, followed by some thoughts on a mural in Trois-Rivières and a certain other media outlet condemning it as wasteful of taxpayer dollars.
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William
It does say a new grocery store will be opening in March.
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A Hells Angel on the police wanted list was arrested Thursday aboard an STM bus. I’m always puzzled why these guys hang around where they know their faces are on a list. It’s a big world. Although maybe as a motard he figured taking public transit was enough cover.
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This strikes me as a sign of hard times: used cooking oil is being stolen from temporary storage behind restaurants. Restos used to have to pay to get the stuff carted away, but now it has value as raw material for biodiesel.
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C_Erb
It’s also used in the production of cosmetics.
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Metro riders may have noticed some trains playing a three-note door warning lately – it’s going to be standard throughout the system by summertime.
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Tux
Most metros used to make those notes as they pulled out of the station. I remember reading that it was the electrical hum of several power transformers or something being turned on in stages. I love that they preserved the notes of that sound, but it’s kind of too bad they made it sound fake and synthesized… a recording of the actual sound would have been way more nostalgic…
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Domenico Cotugno
@Tux:
I remembered reading that somewhere, as well. The explanation has (surprisingly?) found its way onto Wikipedia’s pages: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Metro#Bombardier_Transportation_MR-73.I don’t know why we don’t hear the 3 notes anymore, since the equipment hasn’t changed, though.
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Michel
(Haven’t read the links)
Strange, before the holidays I was trying to convince my toddler to take the bus & metro with me (an earlier attempt ended in a fright-filled screaming disaster).
Anyhow, one of the ways I convinced him, besides the fact that we would be going to the library, was that the metro made music (or did in the past) to indicate that it was leaving. Sure enough, we get on the metro, the notes are played, and the lad relaxes.
Finally, aren’t those the beginning notes of Aaron Copeland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man”? -
Michel
Oh, never mind. Read the wiki, and I just repeated the Copeland line.
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Matt
@Tux, I believe the door-close chime was intended to sound synthesized as to differentiate it from the sound of the metro departing in the other direction.
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British pharma biz AstraZeneca is closing down its Montreal lab and cutting the 132 jobs that were here. It’s just the latest in a string of closures in what used to be a vibrant pharmaceutical sector in this town.
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Michel
Stolen from a comment on Fark, regarding the brouhaha over Komen (pink ribbons) no longer funding Planned Parenthood:
There’s a lot that’s suspect about this organization, and I’m glad this opens people’s eyes about it. There’s quite a bit of suspicion in some circles that the Komen Foundation is little more than a front group for AstraZeneca, its biggest “sponsor. ” What are AstraZeneca’s biggest products?
Well, percholorate chemicals, for one thing, which are thought by some researchers to be a leading environmental cause of increased breast cancer rates.
And guess what their other leading product is?
Well, it’s some pharmaceutical drugs that are the most common treatment/chemotherapy drugs used in breast cancer treatment. The SGK Foundation’s exclusive focus is on treatment (i. e. , drug therapy–largely using AstraZeneca’s phamaceutical products), withnothing devoted to prevention or determining causation (which could affect the sales of their carcinogenic perchlorate products).In other words, too bad so sad for the folks who lost their job. But then again, perhaps they could now find work for a more ethical company.
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Mathieu
Are you implying that pharmaceutical companies like AZP’s main business is to sell cancer creating products and that is why they lobby to stop holistic approaches to cure this disease? This must be the most ridiculous comment I read today.
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Michel
Um, no where in what I quoted is there any mention of lobbying to stop holistic approaches.
/Here’s a cookie. -
Mathieu
You assert that AZP finances Komen and that is what I considered lobbying. I agree that it’s not accurate. However, the comment’s argumentation goes like this:
AZP’s main product is chemicals that can cause cancer AND medication against cancer. It’s a perfect situation as AZP creates the problem and repairs the dammage. As AZP doesn’t want chemicals to be banned nor its drugs to become useless, they sponsor a foundation (Komen) to promote treatment by drugs and divert efforts to find causes of cancer. We have to then discredit Komen as it seems to be a front to keep AZP profitable and not to fight cancer.
That’s what was written and what you decided to share. These are serious allegations: first that Komen is a fraud and second that AZP knows it is responsible for cancers and knowingly tries to divert public opinion from this fact. Then, you come to the conclusion that, since AZP is unethical, we should rejoice that it closed.
Writing that could be considered libel unless you have what it takes to back your claim.
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Elizabeth Laplante – some media are calling her Elizabeth Grégoire – who has lived through the murder of her mother Diane Grégoire and the suicide of her father, a suspect, has now been robbed by burglars who stole, among other valuables, some jewelry left her by her mother.
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Louise Harel says that a private engineering firm has been preparing documents at city hall but presenting them under the names of city employees. She wants an investigation.
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Do the folks at the Douglas know more about the coming zombie apocalypse than we do? They’ve just increased their collection of human brains. Video from the CBC with one vaguely amusing mistake in the narration.
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qatzelok
Between hand gestures and eyebrow contortions, the CBC employee said: “Brains help advance long-term scientific research.”
Who knew.
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The Café Sarajevo is closing again – after being chased away from its lower Clark Street location where it became a trendy hangout, it has languished on one of those blocks of the Main where few people stroll by.
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This brief piece on various government intentions for the replacement Champlain bridge leaves me with the idea nobody really knows what to expect, but Montreal – and even Quebec, this time – may have to put up with whatever the federal government decides to dish out.
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Our @William looks at French newcomers in Montreal as immigration numbers from the Hexagon increase.
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William
Thanks for the mention :)
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Bill Binns
Excellent article.
My wife tells me that Quebec used to advertise in France to attract French immigrants. This led her to the mistaken belief that she may have an easier time immigrating or at the very least her French university diploma would be recognized.
Also, the whole “Montreal is so European” thing may not make that much sense when you compare the city to Europe but compare it to say..Omaha or Tampa, (or Toronto for that matter) and you can almost hear soft accordion music drifting on the breeze as you walk the city.
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Some folks want to rename this park in Mile End for singer Lhasa de Sela, who lived and recorded nearby. It’s just called Clark Park now, named after the adjoining street.
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David Tighe
I hope they do
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Shawn
There’s already a commemorative plaque in that park for someone, near the gazebo, but I can’t recall if it’s her, or someone else?
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james
They really ought to. On Daybreak on CBC Radio One this morning there was a mention of a petition requiring 600 signatures for city officials to consider the change?
Is the effort already under way?
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The city’s project to renovate its 34 hockey arenas by 2020 is turning out to be more expensive than the original $200 million planned for it.
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Chris
Surprise!
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Dhomas
It would have been more surprising if they had NOT gone over budget, really…
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The upcoming High Lights festival aka Montréal en lumière is tarting up its image although still sticking to its original formula of culinary events indoors and shows and events outdoors – it’s always going to face the limits of what people will want to do outside in February. This year’s fest is from February 16-26.
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Robert J
It’s interesting how festivals are choosing the Place des Arts QdS area. Just for Laughs also decided to relocate from the St-Denis strip. I guess the quality space available around PdA is a draw (especially for Just for Laughs, St-Denis was a bit of a nightmare around that time of the summer). It’s also much more accessible by metro than the Old Port (getting to the festival ground on the Quais always involved a 10 minute hike or a bus ride).
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Charles
Is Montréal en lumière suppose to be a translation of Montreal Highlights. They could have found a better name like Montréal a son meilleur or Montréal sous les projecteurs ou Bouchées de Montréal… I never really understood that festival. It’s tough to describe in a phrase.
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Robert J
The culinary events are really world class, as is the annual Nuit Blanche. I think they should work on making the outdoor activities more coherent, though. All and all it has immense potential, as a great deal of restaurants, galleries, and cultural institutions use it as a platform to organize big events at a quiet time of the year.
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Tux
Nuit Blanche is awesome. Walk around all night seeing weird art installations, listen to movie themes on the organ at St-James, slide down a big ice slide, top it all off with breakfast at 5AM at an all-night place (oh how I miss Picasso’s!) then pass out. Nothing beats it!
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Chris DeWolf looks at two great old neon signs in different parts of Montreal.
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Ian
When I was a kid, my dad travelled a lot all over small-town Ontario so we often ended up eating at Chinese restaurants, because there’s always a Chinese restaurant and a tavern, and I was underage. The meals always came with hot mustard, soy sauce & plum sauce, in plastic packets from Wing’s. When I saw THE_ACTUAL_WING’S when I moved to Montreal, I felt like I had discovered a mythical wellspring of awesomeness.
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Bill Binns
I love seeing old photos of St Catherine from the 40′s and 50′s with all of those huge neon signs. It’s a shame more of them didn’t survive.
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Matt
Speaking of those neon signs on Ste Catherine, does anyone know if any by-laws or whatnot are preventing any new ones from going up. I ask because it came to my attention that the Fameux is allowed to keep its signage despite new rules on the plateau.
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C_Erb
The Plateau has bylaws governing the size of signs but I don’t think it has anything to do with the type. Some older signs have been grandfathered so long as they maintain the existing business (I would argue that Nouvelle Palais in Mile End has changed their menu far enough away from “repas typique Québécoises” that they shouldn’t be grandfathered, but maybe I’m just mad that they don’t have poutine anymore).
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Robert J
man those old signs are beautiful. I wish there were more. the new backlit signs and the sort of fake artisinal ones are much less cool. I wish the plateau would spend there time and energy on more productive matters
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Shawn
On a semi-related note, if you’re in Ville Saint-Laurent, look at the new frontage for Decarie Hotdog. The building’s been entirely redone and the hotdog place and its neighbour have really nice classic signs, imo.
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Charles
Does anyone know why the city forbade Navarino to put its sign backup (on Parc near St-Viateur)? Is it a safety issue? Apparently, it’s now part of http://signs.concordia.ca/new-navarino-cafe.html
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Ian
I figured it was an OLF violation but I guess it was just too big. Apparently the rules vary from borough to borough, too. I tried to look it up on the VdeM site but the by-laws section for the Plateau is password protected.
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Doobious
Is anyone here old enough to remember the Shell sign atop the University Tower building? Two or three storeys of rotating neon awesomeness. Must’ve been quite something to behold at night.
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We had a warmer January than we usually get, with temperatures roughly 3 degrees above the normal average.
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Journalists got a look at the current state of the new Planetarium and give us various descriptions and photos. Brief video clip from CBC with no narration.
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The will be no criminal charges brought in the imbroglio about the city’s controller possibly having read its auditor-general’s emails.
Blork 19:09 on 2012/02/03 Permalink
I so regret never having gassed up there back when it was a gas station. It was always on the list of “one of these days, I’m gonna…” but I never made it and then it closed. So glad to see it revived for a much better purpose.