Posts Tagged montreal blog

73 results.

9ES242: It’s On The Internet It Must Be True

by on August 26, 2021 at 8:00 am
Posted In: 9ES, Podcast, Podcasting
The Montreal podcast that knows your anger, and knows your dreams is back. It’s the podcast that has been everything you want to be.
That’s right, CM Punk is back in professional wrestling and that’s pretty cool for about two-thirds of us. We also talk about Scarlett Johansson going toe-to-toe with the House of Mouse and question Netflix’s business model. We also get into obesity. Like we get into it. We are all obese now. We live what we talk about.
Not really, but what we do dig into is some of the science (or lack of science) that seems to be tied to human weight gain in the last few years as we look a little at the research going on at Slime Mold Time Mold which I will admit is a weird name for a website.
Finally we wrap things up with a little bit of talk about The Masters of the Universe.
if you enjoy the show and want to support us do us and yourself a solid and subscribe to the “9ES Deluxe” tier over on our Patreon page. It will be the best decision you make in the next 15 minutes I promise you.
└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments Off on 9ES242: It’s On The Internet It Must Be True

Shaking the Dust Off – Motivated Nonsense

by on November 28, 2017 at 12:52 pm
Posted In: Blogs, Homepage, Keith, Perspicacious Geek

I've got a headache.

This is going to be one of those blogs where I ramble on and on to myself and try to stay motivated. Will it work? Find out by reading all of it.

Sarah and I have had a kind of recurring conversation about looking back at our time together and nostalgia in general. I think looking back is only natural as the year winds down. I even keep a little list of cool stuff that’s happened over the year to take a look at as the new year approaches. I don’t like being “stuck in the past” but I like kind of going over the things that made me happy in the past. I think there’s kind of a proactive way of doing it, one where you avoid getting bogged down in just reliving former glories.

If you take stock of the good times, the things that you found were rewarding, you might be able to focus your efforts into pursuing similar things in the future. At least, that’s the theory.

It seems that as I work my way into my mid-30s I am more and more likely to get trapped in that mindset of “things were better when…” You know, when everything seemed simpler? When there were always a friends hanging out to meet up with? When there weren’t so many bills to pay?  When we all got together to watch a movie because there was only one copy of it on tape in the whole city?

Life used to be like a loose bag of Legos. You could put it together any way that you wanted to. It always seemed like it would be easy to just quickly pull it apart and make something new if you didn’t like what was happening. But now it’s this complicated Lego tower and changing any of those blocks way down at the bottom seems nearly impossible.

So maybe it’s not the end of the world to take a look at your Lego tower and relive the parts that you’re happy with? There’s still a lot of tower to build. Maybe it’ll be easier if you focus on building up the good parts. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments Off on Shaking the Dust Off – Motivated Nonsense

Leonard Cohen and Fargo Season 2 – Perspicacious Geek

by on October 9, 2017 at 10:23 am
Posted In: Homepage, Keith, Perspicacious Geek

fargo-season-2-cast-imageWhere are we at right now?

I was just talking with Scott about hitting creative blocks. Or motivational blocks. Or output blocks.

Or Lego blocks.

This blog seems to just be me complaining about motivation lately. That’s fine. Sometimes it’s just nice to do something and post it, without worrying about the audience.

With the ever looming goal of actually writing a novel, I think it’s not the worst idea to make sure I blog from time to time. If writing a book is playing a professional sport, blogging is hitting the exercise bike. It’s certainly not a full application of “writing” but it’s still good to stay in shape.

Anyways, here’s what I’ve been watching, listening to and thinking about. Think of this as stuff that I didn’t get around to talking about on 9ES.

What I’ve Been Watching:

We just finished up Season 2 of Fargo. Pretty hefty spoilers ahead for a 2 year old show.

I often take a step back and wonder whether or not I would enjoy Fargo as much if it wasn’t full of delightful mid-Western accents. Would the show be as charming and engaging if it was just set in upstate New York? Probably not. But I don’t waste my time thinking about that too much because it DOES take place in the mid-West. With all of Season 2 alternating between Minnesota and the Dakotas as we build towards the “Massacre in Sioux Falls” that was referenced a few times in the first season. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Comments Off on Leonard Cohen and Fargo Season 2 – Perspicacious Geek

Alice Glass Released a New Ep and It’s Not Great – Perspicacious Geek

by on August 18, 2017 at 11:13 am
Posted In: Blogs, Homepage, Keith, Music, Perspicacious Geek

aliceglassep-1503007654-640x640Alice Glass just released a surprise EP this morning. It consists of 6 tracks and starts off with the single “Without Love“.

Two weeks ago at Osheaga I saw Crystal Castles perform with Edith Frances on vocals. It was the first time I had seen them without Alice Glass so I was a little bit skeptical.

For all of their sketchiness, when Crystal Castles consisted of Alice Glass and Ethan Kath (starting late, completely no showing, reportedly being disasters back stage, etc.) and they were on, they were ON.

I had already enjoyed the latest Crystal Castles’ release Amnesty (I) with Frances on vox more than Crystal Castles (iii). Maybe on par with (ii) in my opinion. At the live show I was pleasantly surprised with how much energy Edith brought to her performance. I was also impressed that she managed to kind of find her own thing within the realm of the Crystal Castles’ “vibe”.

A big piece of the Crystal Castles live performance is that the duo always looks like they’re on the verge of having a bad trip, steering the show like an out of control big-rig fishtailing down a rain slicked highway. Without imitating Glass, Frances managed to find an onstage persona that fit the theme.

It was cool. So I put my own personal (whatever that’s worth) stamp of approval on the “new” Crystal Castles. I like the album, and I liked them live.

Now it’s Alice’s turn.

A lot was said during the departure of Glass from Crystal Castles and it mostly revolved around Glass feeling stifled creatively. There was a “he said, she said” about who wrote the lyrics and arranged the vocal melodies, with both members seemingly taking credit for those elements in various interviews.

So here we are, 3 years after Glass’ left Crystal Castles and Alice has finally released a collection of music.

I had already heard “Without Love” when it came out last week and my response was almost immediately “uh oh”. I was not a fan of the high-pitched vocals and the melody was entirely forgettable.

Having just listened to the entire EP I can say that the regrettable adjective “forgettable” applies to the entire thing. I am right now sitting at my desk and actively trying to remember a single tune or chorus from 6 songs that I just listened to and I cannot. That’s not a good sign.

Glass made a big deal about how “dark” she wanted to be with her voice and persona, but the high-pitched squeaking that is employed for most of the EP is sort of the polar opposite. It doesn’t sound dark, it sounds whiney and pathetic. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments Off on Alice Glass Released a New Ep and It’s Not Great – Perspicacious Geek

Osheaga 2017: Day 3

by on August 7, 2017 at 3:28 pm
Posted In: Blogs, Homepage, Keith, Montreal, Osheaga

As the laundry machines spin and spin and the house is slowly getting cleaned up after a weekend of nearly nonstop partying, we reflect on the third and final day of Osheaga.

Sunday did not start well for us. The battery meter on my camera flat-out lied to me and told me that I was going into the day with around 66% power. Somehow on the trip to the festival site it died completely. Stupid lying camera. That meant that all of today’s photos had to be shot on my phone. Fortunately my phone’s camera is pretty sweet. Secondly, the lineup to get into the site was disastrous. Sarah had to wait for over 45 minutes just to get in.

The good news is that it was all up hill from there.

With Sarah still stuck in the never ending line I took the opportunity to bounce around to catch a couple of songs of performers woefully booked at the same time. I managed to catch the tail end of Bishop Briggs set and then head over to the Island Stage to watch some of Weval‘s set as well. The crowds for both acts were a good indication that the Osheaga festival goers had kept something left in the tank for an epic finale to their weekend.

I caught just one song from Phantogram’s set while I got my first beer of the day and honestly, I am glad to report that they’ve upped their energy level from the last time I had seen them play (Osheaga 2014 if my memory serves). Phantogram has always been a band that I have enjoyed in the studio but never really clicked with me live. Either way, it seems like 3 extra years of touring has helped them knock the kinks out of their live performance.20170806_154102 ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments Off on Osheaga 2017: Day 3

Osheaga 2017: Day 2

by on August 6, 2017 at 2:15 pm
Posted In: Blogs, Homepage, Keith, Montreal, Osheaga

Hey guess what everyone? After the rain in the morning the rest of the day was sunny and beautiful! (Except for when Muse took the stage it rained for about 10-15 minutes.) I was right! I was right!

Day 2 of Osheaga was primed to be amazing, with the sun in the sky and everyone ready to forget about the scattered showers of yesterday.

Sarah picked up two cans of Bacardi Oakheart and we discovered that it was not very good. That’s what we get for trying new things. Their “spiced rum ginger ale” had a messed up after taste and as it got warm it got borderline undrinkable.DSC_0965

I take it back about trying new things though, a local Montreal band I have just discovered called Men I Trust took to the Tree Stage and put on a great set that was the perfect way to start the day. Despite some technical difficulties (that would seem to plague the whole festival throughout the day) that maybe cut their set short by a song or two, their mellow electronic sounds helped take some of the sting away from those cans of Oakheart. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments Off on Osheaga 2017: Day 2

Osheaga 2017: Day 1

by on August 5, 2017 at 12:57 pm
Posted In: Blogs, Homepage, Montreal, Osheaga

Disclaimer: Due to the weather delay many artists had their set lists cut short and moved around. As a result we didn’t quite get to see everything that we planned to. It also prevented me from busting out my camera and capturing some of the awesomeness that occured in the rain.

Hey everyone! It’s Saturday morning (bordering on afternoon) and I’m actively trying to sort out all of the music and madness of Day 1 Osheaga. All day music festivals are kind of an assault on your senses. With multiple musicians playing at the same time that you need to pick and choose from, games and activities set up by sponsership partners and just a generally immersive vibe it can be a lot to take in. Add the mayhem of some pretty severe scattered showers and piecing it all together becomes tricky.

After braving the storm and the walk to the new festival site, we were alerted by the official Osheaga app that there was no music right now due to the weather. We took the time instead to scope things out a little at the main stage area and lo and behold London Grammar took to the stage to serenade us with a shortened set.

Due to some rain that may or may not have happened my shoes were completely slogged with water. Sarah decided that this would be a good opportunity to head to the Vans area to try and win me a pair of shoes. She did not. But imagine if she did? It would have been an Osheaga miracle.

BADBADNOTGOOD delivered their trippy stylings at the Sonnet Green Stage and when asked to describe their music the best I could come up with was “weird experimental electro jazz” and I stand by that statement. Walter, staring off in the direction of the stage nodded and said “yeah, this is really good.”

After that we made our way to the the Perrier green house indoor stage to drink Perrier cocktails and watch Sophie Jones spin while someone, I’m going to assume her friend, danced on stage next to her and was really, really into it. I kind of hope she wasn’t her friend. I hope she was just a really big fan of Perrier. Despite there not being too many people in the “greenhouse”, Sophie was spinning a variety of crowd pleasing jams that had the small dance floor moving.DSC_0908

Now it’s time for a cautionary tale. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments Off on Osheaga 2017: Day 1

Osheaga 2017: Relax About the Weather

by on August 3, 2017 at 9:58 am
Posted In: Blogs, Homepage, Montreal, Osheaga
This dude's not sweating it. Photo by Susan Moss.

This dude’s not sweating it. Photo by Susan Moss.

A certain blog that happens to be based out of Montreal (a “Montreal blog” if you will) has published an 86 word article about how much the weather is going to suck this weekend at Osheaga. Despite its short length, it still manages to contain a handful of grammatical errors. The main feature of the article is a picture of The Weather Network’s weekend forecast with a red box around it. This poorly written garbage has been shared well over 1000 times on Facebook. To give you an idea of how little effort went into this article: this paragraph is already longer than the entire thing.

I’m no weather doctor, but how about you do me a favour and relax.

I’m not saying there won’t be any bad weather this weekend (although if Mother Nature decided to join the list of people calling out that blog as liars it would make me literally laugh out loud). I’m saying that if you take a closer look at the forecast it says that a lot of the rain will be limited to Friday overnight and Saturday morning, and the rest of the showers will be scattered.

Also, for that matter, who cares? With the amount of humidity this week we were all going to be drenched in our own sweat. To say nothing of the sweat of 10’s of thousands of strangers rubbing against us.

Finally, I would like to introduce you to the Dollar Store. Any number of dollar stores will allow you to buy a poncho for under 2$. Bust it out, enjoy your music and when the sun comes back out just roll it up and shove it in a plastic bag for safe keeping until the next scattered shower starts.  It can even be a clear poncho so your fleek Osheaga look will still be visible underneath! Fleek!

Here’s what not to do: Panic and freak out.

In the meantime, this will be me:

He's just really into Lorde.

He’s just really into Lorde.

Osheaga kicks off tomorrow at noon with Rue de Bois at La serre Perrier. Main stages start at 1 pm with Joseph, Samito and Lophile. Full schedule HERE.

Keith does all sorts of things here on 9to5.cc, he works with the other founders on 9to5 (illustrated), co-hosts our two podcasts: The 9to5 Entertainment System and Go Plug Yourself and blogs here as The Perspicacious Geek.

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments Off on Osheaga 2017: Relax About the Weather

’77 Montreal – Barrasso Has Mixed Feelings On Poutine

by on July 21, 2017 at 10:43 am
Posted In: 77 Montreal, Blogs, Homepage, Montreal

Barrasso’77 Montreal is a festival that is based around the history of punk rock. In many ways celebrating the unofficial “40th Anniversary” of the genre. With headliners like Rancid and The Dropkick Murphys having been around for years, and local acts like Genetic Control and The Kingpins heralding from the 80’s and 90’s you might think that the whole festival is just based on nostalgia.

You would be wrong.

There are a few new faces to the Montreal punk scene who will be representing what a “new”  punk band is all about: Barrasso. Barrasso released their first album in 2015, so compared to the likes of Madball they’re fresh on the scene. Also, they’re the only band that will be performing primarily in French (with honorable mention to The Kingpins who have a few French tracks).

I asked singer Jonathan Beauregard about what it’s like being a punk band in Montreal:

Keith: You’re a relatively new (from what I can see) as a punk bank, only being around for a few years. How did Barrasso get together?

Jonathan: I wish I had a cool story to tell about how we all met and formed the band. The truth is I barely knew these guys when I showed up to their practice space (at Cité 2000 back then).

I remember coming in the locker room for the first or second hockey game of the year for a team that I just joined. I didn’t know anybody really, I just wanted to play. It was the same with the band. So the first thing I saw was this bearded guy, wearing my old punk rock band’s t-shirt (Suck La Marde) and I said to myself; “Well, at least I’ll have this dude to talk to!” That was Frank, our drummer. Thierry was also playing with us. Once they knew who I was and the fact that my other band, The Dirty Tricks, was dead, they invited me to one their rehearsal with Etienne, to see if I would be interested in joining the band.

I was ready for a new start. New band, with new bandmates. But I didn’t know if they were good or if they sucked!

So I sat there in the couch, just wishing that they didn’t suck! And they didn’t. In fact they played these Hot Snakes type of riffs, down strokes, exactly the way I always did. I think it took 1 song and I was like, “I’m in!”

Louis came in later, when Thierry left for several months to travel the world. When Thierry got back, we didn’t know he was in town, and so he simply showed up to a rehearsal, without telling us. It was great to have him back and so now we have 3 guitars since then. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments Off on ’77 Montreal – Barrasso Has Mixed Feelings On Poutine

Fantasia2017: Poor Agnes

by on July 19, 2017 at 11:24 pm
Posted In: Fantasia, Homepage, Jon

Poor AgnesPoor Agnes is a tight little thriller hot off the world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival.  A pounding drum of relentless serial killing, Agnes (Lora Burke) captures her latest victim Mike (Robert Notman) and chains him in the basement assuring him of his impending doom.  The doom doesn’t come, and both we and Mike are surprised as something about him answers an unspoken question in her life.  Does she care?  Is she truly ruthless or is she waiting for an audience?  Director Navin Ramaswaran will keep you guessing until the end.

 

Morality becomes even more muddled as Mike slides down the slope from prisoner, to unwilling accomplice, to willing slave.  Agnes weaves sexual gratification into the torture she inflicts (or forces him to inflict upon himself) on Mike, seeming to finally capture him fully.  When she drags Chris (Will Conlon) into her web, partly to satisfy her own murderous/sexual desires but also as a test for Mike he protests “I’m not like you”.  Methinks the boy doth protest too much.

 

The frenetic pace of the first act doesn’t give us time to dwell upon Mike’s descent.  Halfway through, I found myself wondering who I was supposed to be rooting for, as time and time again Mike recoils from opportunities to escape.  A bit of restraint to Agnes’ madness might have allowed us to sympathize or at least to understand how she could find some connection with sniveling Mike.  A poignant moment comes as Agnes and Mike explore the desolate junked cars populating her remote compound.  Remnants of her dead father’s abandoned projects help bring a touch of depth to the character.

 

Poor Agnes is exactly what I go to Fantasia for.  Home grown (shot in Thunder Bay!) horror, bold and relentless villains and murky moral waters.  Burke has elevated the crazy eyes look to an art form in and of itself and the relationship between Mike and Agnes will keep you guessing.  Not for the faint of heart, but a week into the festival what else could you ask for?

 

 

Whispers at the Q&A indicate that a distribution deal is in the works, so keep an eye open on the likely channels for this one.

 

 

└ Tags: , , , , , , , ,
1 Comment