themontrealguide:

Érik Desmazières exhibition to inaugurate new graphic arts center

The Fantastical World of Érik Desmazières, an exhibition that will run from September 10, 2009, to January 3, 2010, will be Canada’s first retrospective of the prints of one of the most fascinating and distinguished contemporary printmakers, French artist Érik Desmazières. Approximately sixty prints will be exhibited in the galleries of the new Graphic Arts Centre of Montreal of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The works will cover the breadth of the artist’s achievements, from his earliest...

August 15th, 2009 | Montreal | Read More

Bicycle Film Festival rolls through Montreal

The Bicycle Film Festival is set to make its first ever stop in Montreal to present a cultural phenomenon like no other. Originating in New York City, the festival is a voice for the most powerful and culturally relevant movement of the past decade: the urban bike movement. The BFF brings together many creative communities, including fashion, music and art as well as various bicycling communities – including fixed gear, BMX, and road cycling – over a shared passion for bike riding. The history...

August 12th, 2009 | Montreal | Read More

City set for Montreal World Film Festival

After this year’s rained-out outdoor music and performing arts festivals, Montreal cinema buffs are getting ready for this city’s annual film frenzy, the Montreal World Film Festival – an event that really won’t be spoiled by the decidedly cold and wet weather. That said, strangely, this year the festival seems to be veering from its film-focus, and heading toward the art of dance for inspiration. The festival will be kicked off by the world premiere of Ricardo Trogi’s 1981. Produced...

August 9th, 2009 | Montreal | Read More

Montreal sees slump in tourism numbers

Tourisme Montreal has revealed that occupancy levels at Montreal area hotels are down as compared to last year’s levels, quoting figures from the Association of Hotels of the Greater Montreal. Occupancy levels are said to be down almost three percent, representing some 366,362 room nights for July of 2009, compared to some 376,603 a year earlier. The levels represent an occupancy rate of 67 percent this year, over 72 percent a year ago. For the first seven months of 2009 occupancy levels for Montreal-area...

August 6th, 2009 | Montreal | Read More

World Press Photo exhibition to show in Montreal

Montreal is set to be a stop of the World Press Photo exhibition, a prestigious showcase of the most poignant photographs taken in the past year. The Montreal venue for the exhibit, which will run for a month from September 4, will be the Just for Laughs Museum. The other Canadian stop for the lauded exhibit this year will be the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. Echeloned US photographer Anthony Suau took the top photography prize this year. Suau has travelled the world documenting nations in transition....

August 5th, 2009 | Montreal | Read More

Super soaker Flash Mob in Montreal

Montrealers are getting ready to get soaked in a quirky flash mob, set for tomorrow. I personally got a facebook invitation from The Vagrants of St-Lo, who are allegedly getting their plastic and rubber squirt guns out to spew friends and strangers with water. “Once upon a time, God blessed us all with plastic and rubber,” reads the statement, “and one smart (wo)man with the ingenuity to put the two together and create a tool of annihilation, water destruction, targeted at young kids under...

August 2nd, 2009 | Montreal | Read More

Celebrating organic… (but is it healthier?)

The timing was curious. Just days after a study showed that organic food has no nutritional or health benefits over regular foods, an organic food festival arrives in town. Although this festival is an event for the converted, I’m sure that some will be whispering and wondering if the new findings might well be true… For the record…from August 14th to the 16th the TOHU, the socially-active Montreal-based circus school, is presenting the 6th annual Fete Eco-Bio Paysanne, and event that features...

July 31st, 2009 | Montreal | Read More

The Real Kazakhstan at CinemaSpace

This stop on our journey takes us to one of the most misunderstood countries of the globe: the vast and oil-rich Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan. With myths and urban legends abound we intend to give you a taste of the real Kazakhstan; its culture, its people, history and natural beauty. Cultural navigator Andrew Princz and photographer Anna J. Kutor will take you on a journey over the country’s snow-capped mountains, vast steppes and flatlands. We fly in a Russian-made helicopter to what...

July 28th, 2009 | Montreal | Read More

Montreal design at La Coupole

Not to be mistaken for the grand Montmarte brasserie of the same name; the dome of the French Academie and even a Nazi-era missile bunker: Montreal’s version of La Coupole is the sleek signature restaurant of the downtown Hotel Le Crystal. The hotel itself has an elegant-contemporary look with a touch of exuberance of design. Its Swarovski crystal chandelier and oversized seats contrast the tailored look of La Coupole, where detail is measured and elegance prized more than amusement. La Coupole...

July 24th, 2009 | Montreal | Read More

Strange shaped balloons in the skies above

Every year the Quebec town of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu – not far from Montreal – the skies above the small city become dotted with dozens of strangely shaped aircraft. While at first site they may look like dragons or teddy bears, in fact they are the hot-air balloons of the International Balloon Festival of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. This annual festival attracts some 350,000 people, and this year 115 balloons are expected to take flight above the flat-lands not far from Montreal. A host of Quebec...

July 24th, 2009 | Montreal | Read More

An affair with landscape

Painting and Photography of American and Canadian Landscape 1860-1918 Canadian art at its core has been about landscape since its inception and an exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts reminds us of our historic love for landscape painting. And on top of that it’s a good way to compare and contrast the depictions of nature of our neighbors to the south. The exhibition Expanding Horizons: Painting and Photography of American and Canadian Landscape 1860-1918 features grandiose landscapes,...

July 20th, 2009 | Montreal | Read More

Finding Papa Ernie

Run by the elusive ‘Papa Ernie’, Chez Papa Ernie is a find, and one of Montreal’s newest eateries. Opened last month, it is part-deli and part full-fledged home-style restaurant that serves Kosher food and attracts a decidedly Jewish clientele. Finding the place was a miracle of sorts. It is located in a primarily residential row of houses visibly distinguishable only by the painting of a penguin clad in a tuxedo who joyfully welcome you. The penguin is only the first work of art. On entering,...

July 17th, 2009 | Montreal | Read More

National Film Board takes to the skies

I remember being impressed with the introduction of the Cinerobotheque by the National Film Board (NFB) in downtown Montreal. Basically on command, a whole library of decades of Canadian films was available at your fingertips. A robot actually picked up the CD in front of you. Now, the reach is far wider. After uploading the collection to the internet, they’re also taking it a logical step forward and placing the collection not on the air, but in the air. Following an agreement announced this week...

July 15th, 2009 | Montreal | Read More

A journey to the Maritimes

I must admit that I had never considered heading out to the Maritimes by train; although eating, reading and watching the landscape roll by for long hours with the comforting sounds of a train is a pastime that I thoroughly enjoyed during many years that I spent in Europe. The train is not only pleasant – but it is a great place to get to know a landscape, to talk to people and really journey somewhere. News of a recently launched service has lead me to reconsider my summer plans, which already...

July 10th, 2009 | Montreal | Read More

The Beaver Club: One-time glory

If there were only one iconic restaurant in Montreal that has witnessed this city’s long historic development with an eye on culinary traditions, it might well be the historic Beaver Club. This high brow restaurant in the most elegant Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth Hotel has stories to tell, and a history that dates as far back as far as the 18th century. In those days explorers and fur traders even gathered here to tell the stories of their exploits and dangerous journeys through the then still-wild...

July 9th, 2009 | Montreal | Read More

Café Noir: A microcosm of east-end life

Life begins early at Café Noir. Most mornings before the sun rises a hard-working Walid Boussetta, who runs the franchise here, comes in to his café to oversee the day’s cooking and baking. That is when he doesn’t do it himself. Slowly as the sun rises the regulars arrive. There is the jolly lady who distributes the 24 Heures newspaper at the Cremazie Metro. As she ends her shift she begins a chat-session punctually by scratching lotto tickets with her good friend, who...

May 4th, 2009 | Montreal | Read More

Verses Restaurant: In praise of slowly braised lam

If verses of poems give way to sumptuous temptations and far-flung fantasy, then a good many meanderings of those creative thoughts seem to have ended up at Old Montreal’s Verses Restaurant. While many high-brow eateries make the claim to being a fusion of this or that style of cuisine, this restaurant is one of the few that fuses traditional ideas of what a plate is to transform that into creative culinary concepts. Some of these actually help you re-think notions of even basic plates. Only...

May 1st, 2009 | Montreal | Read More

Toqué: Fragmentary evidence

Everything about an experience at Toqué! is calculated. The environment, the ambiance, the cadence of service, the aesthetic experience as well as the presentation of the dishes themselves; the whole is a creation presented with the complexity of a symphony. The burgundy and grey interior, high ceilings and open modern space is the perfect setting for the high-end chick restaurant that this is. My first encounter here was just that: the set for a group of conniving reapers in the recently...

April 15th, 2009 | Montreal | Read More

L’inconnu: The fare of maritime whalers

Walk into the Montreal restaurant L’inconnu and you would think that you’re about to experience a swank French restaurant with small plates and little portions of light fare. Nothing would be further from what you’re about to experience here. This restaurant serves food fit for a hard-working habitant, a maritime whaler, a Klondike adventurer or a Hungarian peasant. But the atmosphere is more subtle. Austere grey walls, a funky green wax bowl, hushed lighting emanating from light...

April 2nd, 2009 | Montreal | Read More

Aix Cuisine du Terroir: Our culinary symphony

My dearest friend Esther and I went to a symphony last night. It was a culinary symphony, though, since the only thing it had in common with music was the love and dedication that was put into the colours, tastes and textures of what was served. Like the notes of a scale nothing was left to chance here. And put on the pedestal of this restaurant is local Quebec and Canadian ingredients like caribou or wild came, all a rarity of sorts. We ate at Aix Cuisine du Terroir at the foot of Old Montreal,...

April 1st, 2009 | Montreal | Read More