Leo Leonard of the Griffintown Horse Palace died last Friday. Alan Hustak also has a nice obit and the Gazette has a photo essay (or look it up full size if you’re subscribed). CTV even covered the obsequies.
Updates from July, 2012 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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After holding out last year against supporting the NASCAR race, all three levels of government have caved this year, presumably after the promoter showed that the race brings economic benefits to the city, and will put $800,000 into promoting the event.
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Clément
Retombées économiques: Take my tax dollars, give them to NASCAR. Because we all know NASCAR, just like Formula 1, is a struggling, non-profit organization that supports environmentally friendly causes like the reduction of greenhouse gases.
In return, I lose all access to a public park for a week (except the casino, of course). And, I get drunk Americans spending their money buying American beer in American hotel chains like Marriott, Holiday Inn and Hilton.
Yup, good deal.
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Bill Binns
I’m generally against this sort of thing too but 800 grand doesn’t seem like that much especially compared the 400M$ Quebec City NHL stadium. Btw, suggested name for Quebec’s new team…”The Fantômes”.
Sales taxes are so high here that you could probably argue that the goverment will make all or most of that 800k back from the event.
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qatzelok
I can’t wait until Science finally disappears so the Feds can give billions to car racing spectacles like this one, unencumbered by reality.
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Digging downtown to repair water main leaks is a constant task and can get very complicated. The city engineer comes off as calm and determined, the academic engineers on the verge of freaking out.
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Had a notice on my door this morning saying we can now opt out of getting the Yellow Pages delivered. Yay!
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Chris
That has been the case for ages. To opt out, you have to tell them your name, phone, and email, which I’m sure won’t be used to spam you. :(
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Bert
It’s easier just to put the thing in the recycling bin once per year. Now, if I can just get the Publi-crap guys to respect my no publicity English-French-pictogram, I would be happy.
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cheese
Best (and only) way I’ve found to avoid the publi-sac is to not live on the ground floor (RDC). they never bother to walk up the stairs at our place.
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Tux
I’ve got a recycling bin right outside my front door so I’ve considered a “dear publi-sac guy – please deposit your crap directly into recycler, thank you” sign. Anyone tried that? I feel like I have to deal with way too much unwanted paper in my daily life. I’ve got an e-mail address thanks, and if you don’t know it I don’t want you to send me anything.
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Kate
cheese, my impression here in Villeray is that they do walk up the stairs. They have so many pieces to distribute, so they’ll hang things on any door that doesn’t have the official anti-junk-mail sticker on it.
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paul
I phoned Publisac to stop deliveries and they gave me the best customer service experience ever. I left a message, they called me back to confirm, but I expected little. Sure enough, the next week publisacs at my door again.
A week later, they followed up and promised it wouldn’t happen again, and sure enough, both me and my neighbours haven’t recieved one since!So call!
(and lobby Projet Montreal to ban publisac ) -
Kate
I haven’t received Publisac since I put the official sticker on my mailbox.
However, as a print graphic designer by trade, I’m hesitant to stifle any means of making a living with print ads and so forth, and Publisac is a huge player in this area.
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Evening demonstrations continue, with two arrests Tuesday night as two hundred people demonstrated.
There’s trouble in sight at the UdeM, where the professors’ union is less than thrilled that the university has taken Bill 78 as an excuse to make plans without consulting them.
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An item on a museum for “geeks” talks to one of the museum workers and describes some of its exhibits but never tells us where it is nor links to its website.
Whenever mainstream media get all hand-wringy about the web, I think of this kind of article – which I see every day – and realize they still don’t get something fundamental about how it doesn’t work to maintain a pose that they’re on the web by necessity but not really part of it.
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Bill Binns
Web developers do the same thing. I can’t tell you how many restaurant websites I have been to that have no address, no phone number and no hours of operation.
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Kate
Don’t blame web developers. Restaurant sites are a genre of their own. Resto owners mostly have a vague notion they need a billboard in cyberspace, and can easily be sold on Flash sites with a few photos, a menu they can never update for themselves and, if they’re especially unlucky, cheezy music that plays on load. Honest web developers won’t sell this kind of “solution” but there are plenty of folks who will.
But restaurateurs don’t work with content like newspaper people do. You can’t really blame restaurant guys if they’re sold on having at least some sort of web presence, no matter how half-assed. Media people are supposed to understand things better than this, yet many of them are still staggering around groggy from the effect of the internet, 20 years after it began to be a household word. They use the internet themselves passively, but never apply their own experience as users to how their own content is delivered. It’s weirdly schizoid.
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Marc
Or restos that have no web presence whatsoever. I have dietary restrictions and I like to be able to see the menu ahead of going to eat. Especially if it’s somewhere I’ve never been.
And yeah, sites with music & sound……AAARRRRRGH!
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Adam
Slate devoted an entire article to why restaurant websites are to awful: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/08/overdone.html
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Kevin
Having just gone through a website upgrade, I can tell you there is a severe disconnect between the people who are constantly creating content, and the people who make the decisions about how a site should look/ what CMS to use/etc…
As for the article that incurs the object of your wrath, I can safely say that the original writer has the website link, but that the flunky (or possibly an automaton) never managed to put the two together.
It can be worse. I recently read an article about Buffy the Vampire Slayer that auto-linked every instance of a character’s name to corporate websites that only had the name in common.
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William
I think I found the museum’s details: http://bit.ly/P15K7F
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Michel
“Let me google that for you” is one of the most passive-agressive, non-original asshole moves out there. The effort it took you to go through the motions could have been used to simply enter the URL of the resto.
Oh, but no, you had to come across like an Interweb-savvy, cooler-than-thou hipster douchebag, showing everyone this cool little net factoid, hoping we’d all be impressed (and chagrined) by your urbane suaveness.
Bravo, little man, bravo.
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William
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William
Maybe this is appropriate too: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/butthurt
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Kate
William, the point is that the writer must’ve had the information and should’ve linked. Of course people can look it up separately. But it’s so bizarre that by now, people can’t see that if you’re adding content to a media presence on the web, talking about entities and websites without linking to them is just plain obstructive.
Either they think it’s better not to do it so people will stay on their site (they won’t) or they don’t see any value in being part of the flow. I could write a book on how people surfing the web get into a flow state, moving from one site to another: one of the reasons conventional media is in trouble right now is that their sites almost always block you instead of facilitating that flow. They think their stories are end points (they’re not) so they don’t offer links to related pages, they throw popups at you begging you to sign up for newsletters, they chuck paywall popups at you. So you back out and go somewhere else. Of course you do.
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Blork
The writer is only partly to blame. Most blame lies with the editor, who should have caught that. Unfortunately, editorial standards on the web are extremely low, due in large part to the huge role that bloggers have played in presenting content (and I say that as someone who’s been blogging for more than 10 years). Blogs are notoriously unedited, leading to the belief that web content does not need to be edited. Penny-pinching mainstream media take that idea to heart.
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richard
My personal favorite restaurant website (please turn up the volume on your computer):
http://www.arahova.com/interface.htmlps: Michel, i hope i am not coming across as some Interweb-savvy, cooler-than-thou hipster douchebag little man. this is sarcasm mixed with the fact that when i hear that music i salivate. it works. (and we should all lighten up a little.)
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Kate
Here’s another example of what I mean. This Gazette piece about that sad business in Warwick, Quebec where a man appears to have killed himself and his kids is specifically about how he posted a notice to Facebook before doing so.
I bet you can guess. Three fucking journalists worked on that story, but do we get a link to the pertinent Facebook page? No, we do not.
What exactly do they think they’re doing? They must really think they’re running a newspaper that’s merely condescending to post some things to the web. They haven’t figured out yet that they’re running a web media business that’s still printing things out for legacy users.
(I’m not linking to the page, partly because I’m not following the story on this blog – it’s not a Montreal story – and partly because I don’t know where it is myself. And you can’t necessarily find Facebook content by googling.)
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Kevin
@Kate Here’s the rub: all their money and revenue comes from those “legacy users”
The problem is not individual journalists working and writing and posting stories. The problem is sales departments led by executives and managers who don’t go online and who cannot figure out how to make money from it.And as bizarre as that sounds, there *really are* two solitudes: those who are online, and those who aren’t.
I know people who don’t use email, have never sent a text message, and who barely use computers.The other problem is people who say ‘wow, this online stuff is great! But we cannot invest more money in it until it’s producing revenue.’
I get your complaints, which is why the piece I wrote linked to the guy’s facebook page, had a direct link to his last letter, and even put in a map link to where the fire took place.
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Kate
Kevin, what’s going to happen when that generation of older anglos living west of Decarie dies off? The physical newspaper will be an expensive folly for the Gazette, then.
Don’t think I’m looking forward to this. Journalism in the best sense – inquiring into the workings of politics and business so’s to inform the public – is in precarious shape already. We need it, we critically need to have people who are paid properly to do the frontline work of asking the hard questions and digging for the difficult answers. I totally respect what they do. But I don’t know how I could pay them with this website.
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Kevin
Take your pick
a) The amount of money spent on content (ie. salaries etc.) will shrink, print runs will be scaled back, and the Gazette turns into the West Island Chronicleb) The Gazette expands into other realms and counts on those to support the news. Much like about.com is run by the New York Times. Income directly tied to clickthroughs. (Hasn’t the Gazette already tried this with an auction site?
c) Paywall enforcement gets stricter. The ‘web’ disappears and all news goes into an app-like function. (Will not work for spot news, as long as radio is still around)
d) Government sponsorship of news media
e)???
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Jean Charest bragged that development in the Plan Nord would be ecologically sound, but the Stornoway diamond mine plans to use a diesel-powered generator, which will spew CO2. Bravo M. Charest.
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Jack
According to LaPresse election day is September 4th, and Denis Lessard is usually right about this stuff.
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Kate
Yes, he’s saying a campaign could start on August 1. Timed to collide with the Bill 78-mandated return to classes in August, and the protests that will accompany them, and hoping frightened people will vote Liberal to protect them from chaos.
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Bill Binns
Where does this idea come from that anyone is frightened of the students? Most of the people I talk to just think they are a bunch of mewling spoiled brats. It’s not neccesary to be frightened of them to be against their cause (whatever that is).
This whole issue with the students has brought me from being fairly politcally apathetic and barely knowing who Jean Charest is to being pretty impressed that he didn’t do the easy thing and fold. If the schools open next month and everyone who wants to go to school will be able to get in, I will be further impressed. I wonder how many other people are thinking along the same lines?
As I understand it, Charest’s defeat was almost a foregone conclusion at the start of 2012. If he is re-elected, he has the students to thank. That is sweet irony.
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Matt
I wish Jean an awful campaign. I still don’t understand how people can vote for him. Never mind the student issue, he’s done plenty of bad (not to be listed here) over the last few months/years.
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Kate
Bill Binns, people fear chaos, and the media haven’t stinted in building that fear. It’s good for circulation.
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Jack
@ Bill Binns, who do you talk to? I would assume a fairly esoteric bunch, especially if they knew what the word mewling meant.
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marco
I would take Charest over Marois any day. My vote will be liberal.
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Ian
Marois is an unsympathetic character in this drama, but she did at least give us subsidized daycare. You only have to talk to people in the ROC to realize how valuable that is in keeping people at work. Charest so far has accomplished pretty much nothing
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Anto
@Bill Binns: You know why his defeat was a foregone conclusion a few months ago? Because of this. This is what voting PLQ validates. You say yourself that he has the students to thank for his gain of popularity. Do you really think he doesn’t know that? Do you really think he didn’t use this crisis, and that he didn’t intentionally make it worse to gain political advantage?
The real irony is that people are still prepared to vote for him knowing all of this.
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Bill Binns
@Jack – I have a dog and run into a decent cross section of my neighbors at the dog park every day. I have a number of friends who were born and raised in Montreal but they tend to be 50+ and professional. I went to a huge wedding in May when everything was still going on and everybody was talking about the protest. I often walk in on conversations about the protests at my local dep. To date, the only person I have met face to face who supports the students is my wife but she is from France and that is to be expected.
I’m sure this has something to do with the part of town I live in. We have a lot of students here but mostly Concordia / McGill. I was up in Villeray over the weekend and there were red squares, signs and red blankets hanging from balconys all over the place. It looked like base camp for a May Day parade.
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Kevin
I have no idea what will happen in the next election, but what will students do if democracy decides upon another Liberal government?
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Ian
Voting is not the only way to democratically express oneself. If you really believe all there is to democracy is voting, you don’t have much of a grasp of democracy.
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Kate
Kevin, I fully expect we will get another Charest government if indeed this latest rumour is true and we vote before the Charbonneau commission does any more work. I think the best we can get is a minority government, which would at least be an improvement.
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David Tighe
” And then the infant, mewling and puking in his nurses’ arms” Who doesn’t know Shakespeare, but which play?
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Kevin
@Ian
If you think democracy is something other than voting, you’re using the wrong word. Many things come along with democracy: majority rule, independent courts, due process, civil liberties*; but at the core is the vote, and abiding by the rule of law.
Peace, order, and good government.*which can and are subject to limitations everywhere in the democratic world
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Kate
David Tighe: that’s from the Seven Ages of Man speech, which would make it As You Like It, right?
[Looks it up]
Yes!! It’s the All the world’s a stage speech from Act II, scene 7.
[Exeunt with alarums]
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Ian
@Kevin – “Some will say the protesters are the undemocratic ones, not respecting decisions of elected representatives. Some will say protest is nothing to do with democracy, that the institution is confined to the ballot box. They should read more, because they are ignorant to the history and meaning of the word democracy.” http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/ethan-cox/2012/06/breaking-quebec-solidaire-mna-amir-khadir-arrested-peaceful-cassero
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ant6n
@Kevin
democracy should also include minority protections (counter-balancing majority rule), free press, public participation.
Given the silly voting system here, the vote basically comes down to providing one to two bits of decision (from an information theoritic point of view). That ain’t enough.
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Radio-Canada says Notre-Dame East is being neglected with no new plans for its enlargement, but this is a bit strange. Only a few weeks ago the transport ministry tore down part of a vintage industrial building with the excuse that they needed to do it to widen the street.
Philip 08:38 on 2012/07/12 Permalink
I don’t know why, but even in the full sized I can see all of the content, and I’m not subscribed. I’ve never run into any kind of barriers when it comes to seeing any Gazette content whatsoever. Is this just me?
Kate 09:43 on 2012/07/12 Permalink
Philip, do you use various different computers and different browsers? As I understand it, the site keeps a cookie and after you’ve visited a certain number of times, you get this ugly green and white box blocking you from further browsing. I’ve seen it. I’m not stupidly banging my head against the site, it’s more that I follow bit.ly or ow.ly URLs from Twitter and then find myself back on the Gazette site, exceeding the limit.
But if you distribute your use of the site around different platforms, likely you’ll never hit your limit in any one browser.
Philip 13:06 on 2012/07/12 Permalink
That makes sense, I rarely use the site.
Doobious 16:01 on 2012/07/12 Permalink
The Horse Palace Foundation is having an open house and general cleanup of the site in Leo’s honour this Saturday morning. Details here.
Bill Binns 16:41 on 2012/07/12 Permalink
The paywall software the Gazette uses is called Press +. Google will provide you with a laughably easy workaround.