Fagstein » Fun

Scavenge: Impossible

Fagstein — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 03:04:35 +0000

I like scavenger hunts. I've participated in one or two, and provided the items on the list don't involve doing anything illegal, too embarrassing or too impossible (University of Chicago, I'm looking at you), I look forward to participating in future ones.

I missed one last weekend, the Impossible Montreal scavenger hunt, which was actually far from it.

Three teams participated, making videos and taking pictures to complete their tasks. As an example, here are each of the three groups performing their own haka:

There were other fun things, like doing a Rick Mercer-style rant about Rick Mercer or eating as many steamies as possible. Another one was Peter Mansbridge/Wendy Mesley slash fiction, that's just too good an idea not to link to, so here they are: The Sub-Librarians, The Flying Feltchions, #swag (bonus pointless references to Mutsumi Takahashi, Debra Arbec and Lori Graham in the latter).

The full list is here (PDF, after some humourously-crafted rules). Each of the participating teams used Tumblr accounts to upload pictures, video and text of their exploits, which you can find here:

First place: The Sub-Librarians
Second place: The Flying Feltchions
Third place: #swag (pronounced "hashtag-swag")

My first Just for Laughs gala

Fagstein — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 01:33:25 +0000

Just for Laughs stage at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier

It's one of those things I wanted to do for so long. I've lived in this city my entire life, watched countless performances by stand-up comics (in both languages) on the Just for Laughs stage at Théâtre Saint-Denis, and wanted to go myself. But for various reasons (mainly a lack of availability combined with a fear of the price tag), I never saw one of its famous galas in person. I've been to outdoor events (much of which isn't exactly funny, the giant screen showing Gags reruns notwithstanding), but never bought a ticket to watch an indoor show.

Last Saturday, I finally did. It was the only night I was really free to see anything. I went down to Place des Arts and decided I would plan my night based on what cheap last-minute tickets were available. I was actually a bit surprised when I found out that a 7pm show on a Saturday featuring Craig Ferguson still had seats available (singles, for the most part, mind you) that they were willing to give me for a significant last-minute discount. I picked it up, paying less than $40 in cash.

My ticket to my first Just for Laughs gala

The ticket was for the second-last row of the Corbeille (isn't that a cute little word?), which is the first balcony. I was near the centre, which put me right in front of a screen on which was projected the teleprompter showing intro scripts for Ferguson.

The view could have been worse, though it showed its main disadvantage right off the bat when the show started off with a guy taking off various layers of T-shirts in the audience on the ground. Many in the balconies couldn't see it. During the actual show, the view was unobscured, but I had to force myself to look at the comedian instead of the giant screen to the side of the stage showing a larger-than-life version of the performance.

The show started with a video of Just for Laughs highlights (including a lot of clips of big comedians from before they made it big). The video also showed some highlights of comedians embarrassing those who arrive late to shows. Of course, the people who arrived late to this show missed it. Is that ironic or just funny?

As for the performances themselves, well they looked and sounded a lot like stand-up acts. I'm not the best critic, so I'll leave that to the experts. The whole show lasted a bit under two hours, which means each comic got less than 15 minutes on stage. I knew I shouldn't have expected a whole hour with each, but I was always disappointed when they were done because I wanted them to continue. That was certainly the case for Ferguson himself.

A good recommendation

After the show let out, I headed over to Notre Dame St. near the Jacques Cartier Bridge to watch the final fireworks at La Ronde. When I came back, I hung around the last-minute-ticket booth seeing what was on around midnight. A Just for Laughs employee asked me if I wanted to see a show (marking the first time in my life, I believe, that I was asked "est-ce que vous comprenez l'anglais?"), and recommended something called the Alternative Comedy Show, playing at l'Astral just across the street. I wasn't aware what that was, but the ticket was $13 and change, so what the heck?

As it turns out, it's not really so "alternative" - in fact, half the comics there had their own one-man shows at the festival. People like Hannibal Buress, Paul F. Tompkins and Eugene Mirman. For about $50 total I got to see two shows with more than a dozen very good comedians.

Hannibal Buress sells one of his own CDs to someone who just saw him perform at the Alternative Comedy Show at Astral on Saturday night

While I can understand most people would want to go to shows like this with friends to share the experience, if you're going alone and you don't really care which comedians you go see, I'd definitely recommend the last-minute-impulse-buy method as a way to have fun that's easy on the wallet.

Because even the worst ones are still pretty funny.

Just for Laughs has a wrap-up of the festival posted here.

Water gun fight at city hall Saturday

Fagstein — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 23:16:20 +0000

After a successful event last year, the group Les Évenements T'es po game is organizing a second water gun fight around the fountain outside Montreal city hall this Saturday at 2 p.m.

The Facebook page shows more than 200 set to attend, though experience has shown that number to be as much as 10 times the eventual actual turnout. Last year about 100 said they would attend, and about 50 did, so that bodes well for this year.

The weather forecast for Saturday shows sunny, low chance of precipitation and a high of around 30 degrees. Also a good sign.

The event isn't organized in any official way with the city, and participants are reminded to follow rules of common sense - particularly not to target people who are not participating in the fight.

Pillow fight this Saturday

Fagstein — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:32:31 +0000

Pillow fight at Phillips Square in 2009

Saturday, April 2 is International Pillow Fight Day, an event coordinated by the Urban Playground Movement, which includes Toronto-based Newmindspace.

Among the more than 100 locations around the world participating is Montreal. Its pillow fight is scheduled for 3 p.m. at Phillips Square, where a similar activity was held (in the rain) in 2009 and again in 2010.

The Facebook event for the Montreal pillow fight has an astonishing 800 planning to attend, plus 400 maybes. Even applying the usual 10:1 ratio of those who say they'll come to a Facebook event and those who actually show up, it's still quite a large number of people.

Other Canadian locations are Calgary, Kingston, London, Quebec City, Saskatoon, Toronto, Vancouver and Waterloo, with varying levels of planned attendance.

Geekfest this weekend

Fagstein — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 16:17:52 +0000

The second annual Geekfest is this weekend at Au Coeur des Sciences de l’UQAM.

I won't be able to make it there myself because I'm working this weekend (particularly during all the good stuff like the video game orchestra show), but you should go and pay the few bucks to get in, because you'll see things like this:

Ancient Macintosh computers!

8-bit video game scenes recreated pixel by pixel!

Tetris cake!

People playing video games!

People taking poorly-lit photos of cosplay!

The Gazette's Al Kratina has an interview with the organizers and a better idea of what it's like here. (Yes, that's my headline, and yes, it's an Anchorman reference.)

Bored this weekend? Get your geek on at the Geek Fest

Third Montreal Underground City Scavenger Hunt

Fagstein — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 23:42:05 +0000

Alex and Kristin check their lists during the first scavenger hunt in 2008

It's been a while since the last one, but a third Montreal Underground City scavenger hunt is being planned for next Saturday afternoon.

The idea is pretty simple: A scavenger hunt (relatively tame - no stealing stuff or doing anything illegal) whose items can all be found within the confines of Montreal's underground city. Players are forbidden from leaving the underground city or taking the metro.

Participants are to meet at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 5, at the food court at Central Station. More details at the website or Facebook page, or the Gazette article I wrote about the first hunt in 2008.

Water gun fight this Saturday

Fagstein — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 06:55:00 +0000

If you're not doing anything on Saturday afternoon, a water gun fight is being planned for outside city hall.

About 100 people have confirmed their presence on Facebook (which usually means about 10 people will show up).

It's at the fountain at Place Vauquelin, which is just outside city hall on Notre Dame St. at Place Jacques Cartier (Champs de Mars metro), at 2pm.

Weather so far calls for sunny sky and 25 degrees.

UPDATE: Turnout was better than I expected, a good 50 or so. My pictures are below in a slideshow or on Flickr.

There are also photos on Facebook.

Happy World Cup, everyone

Fagstein — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 09:34:12 +0000

A huge crowd of France supporters flood St. Denis St. after World Cup semifinal win on July 5, 2006.

I love the World Cup.

After a month of the most important sporting tournament on Earth, I still think watching soccer on television is incredibly boring compared to other sports. And it shows no evidence of supplanting hockey as the No. 1 sport in this city. The game is badly officiated, mostly because its governing body doesn't want to enter the 20th century, much less the 21st. And many of the players are overpaid whiners whose sole purpose, it sometimes seems, is to turn the most incidental contact with an opposing player into a theatrical death scene.

And I still think soccer's offside rule is stupid.

But there's something about the way the World Cup takes over Montreal's fans. Because Canada isn't nearly good enough to make it to the final tournament, there is no home team, and everyone is free to choose sides. Many go with countries of origin, or maybe the team of their favourite player, or the country they once lived in.

No matter what country wins a game, whether it's a big player like Brazil or Germany, or a tiny speck on the globe like Uruguay or Ghana, there's always a parade of elated fans, honking their horns and waving their flags like they just had sex with a supermodel and realized they won the lottery.

During the 2010 cup, I spotted more than one Uruguay flag, and even once caught a flag that I later determined was that of the Ghana Football Association. I have no idea where that one came from - do they even sell them here?

Like during 2006, there were unofficial headquarters for the various countries based on their ethnic ghettos. Some were obvious (Italy, Portugal, France), while others weren't so much (Ghana, Uruguay, Argentina). Sadly, because of work I couldn't visit any of the postgame celebrations. They're truly fun to watch.

A Portuguese soccer fan is welcomed to the celebration of France's win

But what I love even more about the World Cup is that the fans here aren't fanatical.

It was July 5, 2006, and France had just beaten Portugal in the semifinal off a penalty kick by a guy named Zinedine Zidane (whose name would become infamous a few days later). While the Portuguese fans were consoling themselves on St. Laurent Blvd., the France fans were cheering and waving flags on St. Denis.

Eventually, some fans with Portugal flags came by. Instead of being made fun of or yelled at, they were invited to join the party.

Fans from France and Portugal embrace each other

They were celebrating France's win - and hence Portugal's defeat - but they were also celebrating the kind of great soccer event that comes only once every four years. They were celebrating because it's fun to celebrate.

Today, the 2010 World Cup comes down to one game between two countries that have never won the great tournament before. One of those countries will experience the kind of joy and national pride that will be spoken of for years (at least four, anyway). The other will feel the crushing disappointment of having come so far and fallen so short of ultimate victory.

But whether it's the Netherlands or Spain that comes out on top, somewhere in Montreal there will be a parade of fans leading us to a party. And everyone, no matter what colour their flag, will be invited to share in the celebration.

I just wish it could happen more often than every four years.

Bored this weekend? Get your geek on at the Geek Fest

Fagstein — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:12:07 +0000

It hasn't gotten a lot of attention in the anglophone community (I guess that's my fault?), but geeks from around town are converging this weekend for LAN parties, code fests, role-playing games and all sorts of other stuff at the Montreal Geek Festival.

Tickets are $12 for the weekend or $8 a day. The fun is at 752 Sherbrooke W.

And if you're into board games and other non-computerized geekiness, there's also the monthly Geek Outs at Burritoville on Bishop St. The next one is March 20 at 2pm. Attendance is free.

Christmas hugs

Fagstein — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 08:51:05 +0000

On Wednesday, two days before Christmas (and as I was rushing to get the last of my shopping done before a shift at work), I passed by this trio of happiness-peddlers at the McGill metro station, advertising free hugs for everyone who passed by.

Though their signs were in English only (one can only imagine what the OQLF would have done), the oral pitches were bilingual. In fact, they didn't even speak English all that well. Or French. But all they needed was "Free hugs! Câlins gratuits!" and some outstretched arms to get their message across.

They were standing just outside the turnstiles, in the path of hundreds of people emerging from the Eaton Centre with bags of presents, and others heading in to buy some.

It was about 5:45pm, and they said they'd been there for about four hours. All afternoon, offering free hugs to people passing by. Looking silly, but spreading the love.

Okay, so the idea isn't exactly original. In fact, there's a whole social movement dedicated to this, according to Wikipedia. And while they took a few shots of each other, there wasn't a cameraman, photographer or other organized witness to their actions. This wasn't some "flash mob" or a clever marketing campaign. They did this just for fun. "For love," they said, laughing.

The vast majority of people didn't partake in the free hugging, perhaps because they didn't have time, because they don't like hugging strangers, because they've never heard of this movement, or maybe they thought there was some ulterior motive.

But every 30 seconds or so, a person passing by, curiosity getting the better of them, looks at this display with a smile on their face, and decides to just go for it. After all, there's so little to lose, and so much fun to gain.

I got three hugs myself, one from each. Why not? They were free.

Merry Christmas folks.

Montreal SantaCon 2009

Fagstein — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:00:52 +0000

Robin Friedman and Jody McIntyre have been organizing a lot of fun activities around town over the past few years. Metro parties, underground city scavenger hunts, pillow fights, no-pants subway rides, bubble battles, and, when the original organizers couldn't do it anymore, manhunt.

Friedman has logically decided to formalize this in the creation of Red Zebra Labs, which will announce future events on its website.

The first one coming up is SantaCon, Saturday the 12th, starting at 4pm at McKibbin's Irish Pub on Bishop St. (See the Facebook event page).

It's basically a pub crawl with everyone dressed as Santa. Wikipedia explains more.

Not yet convinced how fun this could be? You can see photos from the 2007 and 2008 events on Flickr.

All you need is fun

Fagstein — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:52:10 +0000

Your humble correspondent dances disco-style at the beginning of the Love Mob (photo from the Facebook group)

I do like fun. And as long as an event has that as its primary goal, I'm all for it. Even if it's a tired formula like a choreographed dance or a lip dub.

On Sunday, I played hookey from PodCamp to participate in an event called "Love Mob Montreal". Not crazy about the name, but maybe that's just because I'm not in touch with my emotional side. As I mentioned in the previous post, it was an MP3 experiment that made sense to everyone with headphones but no sense to all the bystanders without.

An anthropology student interviews Laurent Maisonnave, one of the organizers

The organization was relatively low-key (about as low-key as one can get while still getting more than 100 people to show up), and attracted fairly little mainstream media attention (are they finally getting tired of the flash mob scene?). An article in Le Devoir and a writeup at Midnight Poutine were all I found.

Of course, there was also a bit of an ulterior motive here. The event was organized with Tourism Montreal, who are using it to promote the city and its new Quartier des Spectacles (pictures of the event have been uploaded to the QdS's Flickr account).

But they didn't interfere with the spirit of the event by asking us to scream "I love Montreal" or anything silly like that. They simply offered the organizers a studio to record the two MP3s (one English, one French).

Follow the balloons

The MP3 files were of very good quality, and the crowd was fairly evenly divided between red and white shirts. The live organization wasn't perfect, though. The crowd was asked to point to "John and Yoko" on the Hyatt Hotel terrace, but the doppelgangers didn't show up until a few minutes later.

But for its faults, the event was original, and it was fun. I got pushed into dancing disco-style to "Staying Alive", danced a waltz with a complete stranger, participated in a giant circle of hand-holding (I hope I don't get swine flu from all that holding hands with strangers), and did other things that would have been embarrassing had everyone else not been doing them as well.

Red and white shirts mingle after the event

An experiment worth repeating next year. Though perhaps with some music from this millennium.

Montreal’s MP3 experiment

Fagstein — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 06:21:06 +0000

UPDATE: Read about how this event went.

It's called "Love Mob Montreal", which sounds kind of weird, but it's actually a Montreal version of Improv Everywhere's famous MP3 Experiments (Improv Everywhere prefers people not use their names for independently-organized events, to avoid confusion).

The idea is that all the participants download an MP3 audio file to their iPod or other portable media player. They gather in a common place, and at a specified time they all press play simultaneously. The audio file contains instructions for what the participants should do. Since bystanders can't hear the audio, the experiment gives a sort of surreal image of a bunch of people doing crazy things in unison.

The Montreal event, organized by a "flash mob" group with some pretty poor web design skills, takes place today (Sunday) at Place des Arts, at what appears to be 3:30pm (the event lists the time as 3:30pm in English and "13h30" in French, but it had previously been established as 3:30/15h30).

Unfortunately, that puts it squarely in conflict with the Day 2 afternoon sessions of PodCamp Montreal. At first I figured the events would be related because they were on the same weekend and I had heard about the Love Mob from someone involved with both. But that's not the case, and I'll have to ditch at least two PodCamp seminars in order to participate.

The MP3 files themselves have just been put online: English, French (UPDATE: Links fixed, sorry). Participants are asked not to listen to them before the event. Instead, remember to bring a watch or other timing device that's accurate to the second, a media player with the MP3 loaded, and a white, red or pink T-shirt, and be at Place des Arts for 3:15pm.

Facebook has over 400 people "confirmed", which means about 40-50 will actually show up, give or take 200.

Foam war

Fagstein — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 06:52:25 +0000

Pillow fight at Parc Lafontaine, Aug. 15

It was quite a bit more dry than my last pillow fight, but just as fun.

CTV News van stalking nearby - didn't show to the pillow fight

Participants gather at Sherbrooke metro as requested

It was a bright, hot day, which called for sunglasses and excessive coolness

Just a random group of people walking to the park with pillows. Nothing to see here.

Pretending to relax before the fight

Organizers had wanted to do this "flash mob" style, which meant making it seem spontaneous and surprising passers-by. Except that there weren't really any bystanders (all the people in the photo above were participants), and people would be just as interested whether it seemed spontaneous or not.

At least three people took still photos, and three others took video, of the event - none of whom were from the mainstream media

Besides, it's hard to surprise people when your group is surrounded by photographers.

Still, you can't fault some for being creative.

Laurent Maisonnave, pretending to ... uhh...

Laurent Maisonnave loves his little iPhone.

You can see Maisonnave's live videos from the event here, here, here, and here, and an uninteresting interview with me here.

An interview of indeterminate seriousness for the video camera

The two organizers, Roxana and Pénélope, decide who gets the whistle.

Two of the participants give a mock lesson in proper pillow fight techniques

More photos here.

Last chance for fireworks tonight

Fagstein — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 10:00:57 +0000

Australian fireworks presentation on July 4

The annual fireworks festival has its closing ceremony tonight at 10 p.m., which will be your last chance to see these amazing shows until next summer.

As usual, the best (free) spot to view them is in the parking lot where René Lévesque and Notre Dame meet (Papineau metro). Be sure to bring a radio (105.7FM) to listen to the music that goes with the display.

You can see detailed reports and photos of the previous presentations at the fan site montreal-fireworks.com.

Pillow fight Saturday at 3

Fagstein — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 08:00:11 +0000

PILLOW FIGHT!

Over 100 people have "confirmed" on Facebook that they're attending a pillow fight Saturday at 3pm at Parc Lafontaine. That usually means that a dozen or two people will actually show up.

UPDATE: About 35 people showed up. Here's how it went.

Similarly, a zombie walk is planned for Saturday, Aug. 29 at the Papineau metro with similar numbers.

Super soaked

Fagstein — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:56:00 +0000

Screw MJ. This is the kind of fun I'm taking about.

At the Mont-Royal metro station on Monday (via Ange-Aimée Woods)

The Michael Jackson publicity stunt

Fagstein — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:48:10 +0000

Look, I don't want to make it seem like I'm anti-fun or something, because I really do enjoy it when people just go out and do something silly, if only for a few minutes.

But when you have an event involving a professional dance troupe that you've publicized to the media, when you have dozens of journalists present, when police and a government minister are taking part, can you really call that a "flash mob"? If so, the term has lost all meaning and should cease to be used.

No wonder groups so associated with the term, like Improv Everywhere and Newmindspace, have rejected it. I think it's time we all follow their lead if it's going to be commercialized like this.

Call it a publicity stunt, call it a public performance, call it street art, but don't call it a flash mob.

UPDATE (July 30): Similar thoughts from Patrick Dion, Jean-Philippe Rousseau and Le Détesteur, plus a defence from a participant.

Scènes de l’Autre St-Jean

Fagstein — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:27:22 +0000

I biked to Parc le Pélican last night to see l'Autre St-Jean (yeah, that l'Autre St-Jean). I got there after the anglo acts, but early enough to take some pictures of the party and hear some songs from Malajube before I left.

Here are the best of my pics:

Big parties are always an excuse to hand out free crap.

Aww look at that diversity. (I'm being sarcastic, of course - that's the flag of the Jeunes patriotes du Québec)

Shhh, it's an anglo reporter! Don't expose his true identity!

Volunteers patrolled the parc throughout the night picking up garbage, and boy was there a lot of it.

Security was searching bags for contraband alcohol

I couldn't help but wonder: What if this said "Canada" instead of "Italy"?

Lineups for the bathrooms were huge. I'm glad I didn't have to smell inside there.

This one won the prize for most giant Quebec flag

If nothing else unites us as Quebecers, it's beer

Your Hungarian flag is upside down. Or your Italian flag is sideways.

The band asked everyone to turn on their flashlights, lighters and cellphones, with moderate success.

Many people gathered along the exterior fence where they could drink their beer from home

Hopping the fence was strongly discouraged. This guy got security panicking because he wouldn't go back.

Sunsets are great for watching, bad for photos, especially when nobody turns on lights over the crowd.

Blue ... lightsabres? ... were in ample supply.

Les Dales Hawerchuk are named for a former Winnipeg Jets player, but don't worry, they're singing in French

Media photographers got to stand right next to the stage.

Giant ball with a fleur de lys got bounced around a lot. Vive le Québec gonflable!

The RDI van must have needed about 20 minutes to back its way out of the park along a narrow path through the crowd.

Ah, l'amour...

Pillow fight Friday at Fringe Fest

Fagstein — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:35:34 +0000

Pillow fight on April 4

The Fringe Festival includes a pillow fight scheduled to take place Friday at 5pm at the Parc des Amériques a St. Laurent and Rachel. You can signal your presence on the Facebook event page.

Bring your own pillow (no feathers please) and hope it doesn't rain like last time.

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