The buzz is building for U2 with a look at the custom venue (to be taken down after the shows are over), and the money being spent here to create the venue and support the sheer size of the two presentations.
Updates from July, 2011 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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It was entirely predictable that having a bike path run right through the Quartier des Spectacles and thus get shut down for several of the best cycling weeks of the year was going to annoy people and almost as predictable that the city is telling cyclists to suck it up because it isn’t going to do a thing about it.
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ant6n
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Kate
You are completely right.
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qatzelok
The quickest detour – from East to West – is to walk or ride the wrong way up Clark to Evans, cut across Evans and through the UQAM Science Campus, and then down Jeanne Mance onto Ontario, where you can ride to Bleury, and then back onto the path. This is a lot shorter and a lot less uphill, than going all the way up to Sherbrooke. A helpful security guard at the Jazz Festival (I used to call them the Jazz Gestapo) suggested this short-cut to me.
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Kate
qatzelok, that’s a useful piece of advice.
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I was interested enough in this story about a bottled water ad campaign to snap a picture of one of the offending posters (this one inside a bus shelter – sorry about the reflections) but when I came to update the blog I found that the company has decided to pull the ads after complaints. Torontoist has a link to the TV commercial version which, if you watch it, will lead you to the French version as well.This is one of those situations where my first response is that it’s just an ad and the actors are only done up in generic primitive warrior costume, then I recall I’m not in a situation to have that image used against me.
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qatzelok
Not to dilute the article, but ALL advertising involves at least some lies and misrepresentation. And exploitation is just another way to leverage more money. This ad – exploiting native cultures that were killed off by corporations like eska – is no worse than an SUV ad that exploits natural beauty (while SUVs destroy same).
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Kate
Yes, I always flinch at the ads showing SUVs plowing through wilderness. But when you show people, it fires up feelings in more people than trees and landscape, I guess.
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qatzelok
“when you show people, it fires up feelings in more people than trees and landscape” Yes, images of smiling children next to airbag-equipped minivans have lead parents to conclude that the best way to show they love their progeny is … to participate in the number one source of childhood death.
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A plan to put up 200 condos on the southern end of Papineau includes no social housing at all, because it turns out the city’s rule that projects over a certain size need to offer some social housing is only “incitative” and has no downside if a developer blows it off.
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qatzelok
I agree with the on-site comment that there is already too much social housing in that area, and other more high-end housing options are needed to make the neighborhood more mixed.
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Globe & Mail has a good, appreciative article and a brief photo essay on the conversion of the Mies van der Rohe gas station on Nuns Island – “the most beautiful gas station in the world.”(My shot of the station taken back in 2007 when it was still in operation.)
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Doobious
Nice. Hopefully the architect’ll see fit to leave the air hose and compressor in place for use by passing cyclists.
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Patrick Lagacé catches Wajdi Mouawad out expressing himself frankly in France about his feelings about the Québécois. A good piece in Urbania puts the Mouawad story side by side with the Turcotte verdict and ponders them both. Rappellons (as francophone writers handle this kind of segue) that it was Mouawad who wanted to put convicted killer Bertrand Cantat onstage here but found that Quebecers were too “emotional” to tolerate it.
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D
He was completely out to lunch on the “Affaire Cantat”, and I don’t entirely agree with him on Quebecois anti-intellectualism (though I get what he’s saying about the Quebecois being an emotion-driven lot. Look at Lagace’s column…). But, he’s bang-on about the quality of the French spoken here.
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no\deli
@ D: Please point me to the metric used for spoken language ‘quality’. Is it anything like the Wine Spectator 100-point scale?
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Unusually for summertime, the three main homeless refuges in town are full up and turning people away; even the women’s refuges are full.
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We shouldn’t be so moody about what people think of us. A few days ago we were all emo because some snooty UK rag said we were “losing our charm” (the article itself was pay-blocked and the initial item on it, in Le Devoir, was likewise user-blocked, so I didn’t blog about it at the time, but here’s an account of the devastating judgement).
Now we’re all happy again, though: Lonely Planet says we’re the third best summer city, coming only after Barcelona and Sydney.
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ant6n
Bleh. I think the important thing is that we like it here.
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Tux
I don’t really think these rankings actually MEAN anything. I mean, I love Montreal, it’s my favourite place in the world, but I still think Orleans, MA is hands down the best place to spend your summer. Summer in Montreal is wonderful (even when you’re lying in bed sweating through your sheets) but nothing beats the ocean. :)
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MB
@Tux, it probably doesn’t mean anything metaphysically, but as dubious as these rankings are they can influence tourism-dependent commerce and foreign investment.
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qatzelok
“tourism-dependent commerce and foreign investment” And like mice scurrying after cheese… we need well-placed corporate media types to give the royal nod to our little ant nest? Should we repaint our sidewalks like PEI did for the prince’s visit?
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There’s mounting excitement for the weekend’s two huge U2 concert blowouts, but some displeasure that the city’s on the hook for extended transit services and security services, and Quebec’s municipal affairs ministry also kicked in close to half a million to help build the venue.
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Bixi has sent around a user questionnaire – I got one myself – that reveals a deep worry about the image of the Bixi brand.
(I’m linking here to Andy Riga’s Gazette blog, which I understand is exempt from their paywall, but if someone runs into a paywall blocker please let me know.)
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This is an 18th-century painting of Montreal that recently sold for a lot more than expected.
(I’m linking to a Vancouver Sun version of the story. I don’t know whether that will be subject to paywall blockage – somebody let me know if that’s the case.)
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walkerp
If I had that kind of money, I would definitely buy that painting. 1.2 metres wide! And really 200k is not that much. Imagine that thing gracing my living room wall. It’s amazing.
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Kate
It’s a really handsome piece. I’d love to be able to get closer to it and look at the details in the ships and what we can see of the era’s cityscape.
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Doobious
Only incidentally related, but I’m a big fan of Adrien Hebert’s paintings of the Port of Montreal. You can browse a gallery of them here.
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walkerp
Thanks, Doobious, those are really nice as well. And downloadable (got a new desktop background).
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Kate
Yes, really nice stuff. Thanks!
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“During the festivals, the cyclists only have to move a few metres to the north so we feel the bicycle path should remain in place for the time being,”
This seems a response by someone who doesn’t bike themselves.
When you get to St Laurent/Maisonneuve, and you’re being told that as a non-motorized cyclist you’re just too reckless to make your own decision whether your cycling is compatible with the crowds today, and are denied access to public space; you are being told two ways around:
go up to Sherbrooke and detour, coming down Bleury again. This adds 500m to the journey compared to the Maisonneuve bike path (more than a ‘couple’ of metres), there’s a lot of traffic, and it’s up the hill – which is annoying especially with a heavy bixi.
go down to René-Lévesque. While this route is flat, it’s 1km extra, some of it against the one-way flow on St-Laurent, probably involving mixing with the crowds on the sidewalk (not sure why the festival bouncers even told me to go down there).