Monthly Archives: April 2008

| Media

Think about it

Why does this ad for a “special projects coordinator” for The Suburban’s advertising department have a picture of a woman leaning on something in it?

  1. The woman runs the advertising department at The Suburban
  2. The woman is what a typical advertising salesperson looks like
  3. The woman is a stock image designed to attract the attention of readers
  4. This ad is directed specifically at the woman in the photo, whom they can’t identify or locate by other means
  5. Who cares? She’s hot. Can I get her number if I sell ads for the Suburban?
  6. Holy shit! That’s me!
| Fun, Montreal

Dance around like an idiot — in groups!

Clear your calendars for April 26, 10:30pm. That’s when the next chapter of Montreal’s flash mob history takes place: A “silent disco” “silent dance party”, where people stand around listening to music on headphones and dancing to it.

When one person does that, it’s annoying and/or funny. When dozens do it, it’s a scene and/or pathetic.

Like the freeze in February, this one will take place around the big puck at the mezzanine level of Berri-UQAM metro.

Sadly I won’t be there because I’m working.

Event details on Facebook Event details here

| Montreal

Car carnage

On my way home tonight from work, my bus was detoured off of Ste. Catherine Street around my transfer point. Having a few minutes to wait for my connection, I wandered back to the corner of Ste. Catherine and St. Denis to see what happened. I figured from the overturned phone booth and broken glass that there had been some vandalism.

Then I saw this:

Police car from front

Near as I can tell, the police car (marked “media relations”) was driving down St. Denis Ste. Catherine, while a passenger car was driving on Ste. Catherine St. Denis. The police car broadsided the passenger car, sending it into the southeast corner where it took out the traffic light/lamppost and phone booth, spreading glass everywhere.

Fortunately, it didn’t look as though anyone was seriously hurt. The front end of the police car absorbed much of the force of the impact as it was designed to do.

A gallery of shots from the scene appears below (thank you, WordPress 2.5!)

Continue reading →

| Blogosphere, Media, Montreal

Gazette cycling blog

The Gazette launches a new blog today (with a mention on A1 and article/picture on D1) called On Two Wheels, which deals with cycling. The blogger is classical music freelancer, copy editor and all-around great person Kate Molleson, who when not asking me to cover her shifts on weekends can be seen biking around the city in all sorts of are-you-insane weather.

Her first post includes a mission statement.

| Canadiens, Video

Hey hey hey goodbye indeed

Some might decry this as a lack of class, but really Canadiens fans deserved this after Boston beat us in overtime yesterday: Bruins fans heckling Habs fans in the bathroom at [Corporate name here] Garden in Boston, singing “you’re gay, you’re gay, you’re gay, you’re-gay-you’re-gay-you’re-gay”

| Opinion, West Island

Suburban border security

This prison-style gate between Pierrefonds and Kirkland makes the Great Wall of Acadie Blvd. look tame by comparison.

This is because of vandalism. People spraying graffiti and stuff.

Look, Kirkland, I know us Pierrefonds scum may scare you a bit, but we’re not all serial back-alley rapists. Perhaps you should tackle your vandalism problem in a less draconian fashion?

| In the news, Opinion

Time to water the snow?

Stupidest thing I’ve heard today: People in Quebec City are watering the snow on their lawns to get them to melt faster.

Aside from the insane waste of a precious resource, the potential damage caused to a lawn that’s overwatered, the inefficacy of melting snow with water, and the much more sane alternatives available (like, say, shoveling it or just waiting a week for it to melt on its own), isn’t it a really bad idea to intentionally flood the area around your home during flood season?

| Blogosphere, Media, Montreal

Best of Montreal: Don’t vote for me

It’s that time of year again, when the city’s wannabe-next-hot-things measure their penis sizes and get all their friends to vote for them in the Mirror’s Best of Montreal poll.

It’s not just the bloggers this year that are shamefully pimping themselves and their friends. As I stopped by Boustan this week for my garlic-sauce fix, I was handed a card encouraging me to vote for them in every category they could think of (except, perhaps, best celebrity or Montrealer closest to sainthood). They were also stapled to all deliveries.

Boustan BOM flyer

Boustan actually does pretty good in the BOM poll without the effort. Their proximity to Concordia puts them in touch with the Mirror’s key demo (young anglos), and the delicious food and friendly service makes them a favourite of everyone who’s been there. Last year, they came in third in Best Late-Night Eats, fourth in Best Delivery, and first in Best Middle-Eastern and Best Falafel. Unsatisfied with a mere two first-place finishes, they’re looking to expand, making the case for the Best Sandwich, Best Fries, Best Cheap-Eats and Best Vegetarian categories.

As for Best Blog, a category I was sadly shut out of last year, I’ll buck the trend and encourage my readers not to vote for me. Instead, I’ll point to some better Montreal-based blogs that are more deserving of your votes and who (so far) have shown the class to not beg readers to stuff ballots for them. And if I don’t see my blog on that list when the results come out, I’ll know my campaign was successful.

So for Best Blog, vote for (in no particular order):

Remember, The Mirror is not a fan of ballot-stuffers. Be sure to fill out the entire survey with suggestions and not just one category. (And do some research for those please, no Céline Dion or McDonald’s)

Go vote.

UPDATE: I see that within hours of my having congratulated them for not pimping themselves on their blogs, Montreal City Weblog and Spacing Montreal have done exactly that. Therefore, I will encourage you not to vote for them.

*Full disclosure: I work for The Gazette, which produces Habs Inside/Out. So take my praise with a grain of salt.

| Canadiens, Montreal, Video

Olé

On behalf of the city, we’d like to apologize to anyone who tried to sleep after 10pm last night. (And, very possibly, anyone trying to sleep after 10pm tonight or 10pm Tuesday night.)

People got a little excited.

Not that they weren’t toying a bit with our heartstrings to begin with.

Actually, on second thought, no we’re not sorry. If you were trying to sleep during a playoff game, there’s clearly something wrong with you.

| Sports, Video

Expos nostalgia

39 years ago this week, major league baseball came to Canada for the first time with the creation of the Montreal Expos. For those unfamiliar with the story, they began in 1969, with the greatness of Expo 67 still in our minds, and played at Jarry Park until they moved to the Olympic Stadium, where they played until the franchise moved to Washington in 2004.

We can go on and on about how sad it is that baseball is no longer here and how much we want to bring them back, but this is the anniversary of its birth, not its death.

Thanks to the magic of YouTube, we can look back on the great moments of this glorious team, including some peeks at individual seasons (1977, their first at the Olympic Stadium; 1981, including the tragedy of Blue Monday, when they failed to make the World Series by a single run in a single game; 1982, including the first-ever major-league all-star game outside the U.S.) or fun little tidbits like a really-really young Céline Dion singing the national anthem or Fernand Lapierre performing the Expos theme song.

But my favourite is this goofy 1988 CFCF piece with Randy Tieman and Rob Faulds doing an Expos parody of Dragnet, “investigating” stolen bases.

If only rampant base theft was still a problem here…

| Montreal, Radio, Sports, TV

Team 990, RadCan to air Impact games

The Montreal Impact (you know, one of our other sports teams) has signed deals with Radio-Canada and The Team 990 to air games this season.

The Team 990 will air all 15 Impact home games throughout the season and all playoff games, with CTV regular Brian Wilde doing the play-by-play. He’ll be joined by former Impact player Grant Needham and The Team’s Noel Butler, who will also host a weekly, one-hour soccer show beginning in May. The same is the case for the 2009 season. The station is the team’s only English broadcaster. 

Radio-Canada will air 10 games (9 home games and one away game) on TV, online and on Sirius satellite radio. Play-by-play will be done by Claude Quenneville, with Guillaume Dumas on analysis and Marie-José Turcotte, Marc Durand and Andrea Di Pietrantonio hosting. Radio-Canada is the team’s only television broadcaster, and “could” also air the playoffs.
The Impact’s home opener, which will be covered by both stations, is May 19, playing host to the Vancouver Whitecaps. The first game of the season is Saturday at Vancouver.

Home games are also on CKAC and all games available at USLlive.com (if you’re willing to pay for it)