Al B Here

The Debate Rages On

2007-05-08T12:53:00.000-04:00

The debate wages on, at the moment. In one corner, we have those that believe that this little Montreal experiment has run its course. In the other, we have a small faction that believes there’s a world of opportunity waiting for me to find it. As per usual, I’m on the fence. If I had the slightest idea what to do right now, I could move forward with confidence—even if moving forward meant moving back to the city I fought so hard to escape.

So for my own sanity, I’m going to try and go through the two arguments and hopefully come up with some sort of profound decision by the end. Let’s start with the arguments for staying in Montreal:

1) My love of the French language and Quebecois culture. Though I haven’t done nearly as much exploring in recent months as I would have liked, I’m still intrigued by this place. There’s still so much to explore here.
2) The festivals. If I make the long trek home, I would be doing so JUST before the festival season starts. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that summers in Montreal are one helluva good time.
3) The cost of Education. Though I can’t presently afford to keep taking courses, I’m now a Quebec resident and, as such, get the in-province rate. For those unfamiliar with the difference between in-province and out-of-province rates in Quebec, it can come out to approximately 60% difference in tuition rates. And since I’ve already experienced firsthand my need for additional education, it makes more sense to do it where it’s cheaper.
4) The nagging sense of unfinished business. I’ve felt this before, actually… when I was in the Kinesiology department. I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve got things to do and goals to accomplish here. Mind you, the KIN adventure was a less than stellar experience by the end, so my gut feelings really shouldn’t be trusted at this point.

So now to balance things off, I should look at London and the merits of heading back to the Forest City:

1) My whole support system is there. My family and my closest friends all live in London (at least for the time being). As much as they’ve driven me crazy over the years, I definitely miss having them around. I miss talking to people. Truth be told, if I don’t have a class or something, then I don’t talk to another person after I leave work. That takes its toll on a person after a while. Part of the reason I haven’t gone out to do more in this city is I’ve gotten tired of doing everything alone.
2) Lack of a language barrier. Here, I’m an Anglophone who speaks French with a clearly anglo accent. Back home, I would be considered an asset as I’m (by Ontario standards) fully bilingual. Regardless of what people say, the truth is that Anglophones are at a disadvantage when trying to find work in Quebec. They hold us to different standards in French than we do for English. So be it.
3) Cost cutting. By moving back in with my parents for a bit (God help me), I could cut my costs in half while I try and get debts under control.

There are obviously no guarantees that either choice is the “right” one. In looking at the two arguments, I see a conflict between my head and my heart. My heart tells me to stay and fight it out, but my head tells me not to put any more obstacles in my path than necessary. The job market in London still sucks, but if I’m being screened out of the majority of jobs in Montreal anyway, then it’s probably an equal playing field in either city.

So now I’ll open the floor up for discussion. Should you wish to chime in with your opinion, I encourage you to do so. Also, if anyone has any job leads in either city (London or Montreal), I would appreciate hearing about them. Til next time…

Bye Izabelle!!

2007-04-28T11:24:00.000-04:00

The landscape of Musique Plus changed last night as the folks at Plus Sur Commande bid a fond farewell to longtime VJ, Izabelle Desjardins. When I first learned she was leaving via MySpace (she had sent out a bulletin to everyone on her friendlist), I was a bit puzzled. After all, this girl had pretty much become the face of the station over the last couple of years. She was the first VJ I ever remember seeing when I tuned into the station in the summer of 2004. From what she’s written, she has other things that she wanted to explore, so I wish her the best of luck.

It’ll be interesting to see what will happen with this new VJ Recherchée contest that they’re running to replace Iza. I had seriously frowned on Muchmusic’s American Idol meets the Real World reality show concept a couple of years back, so I’ve got my doubts about what they’ll come up with here. But that being said, Musique Plus has always had a way of conveying its own unique character over the airwaves so I’m optimistic that they’ll find someone decent. Still, the next girl has some pretty big shoes to fill!

I had hoped that someone would have been kind enough to post some clips of her last show on YouTube, but no one has been that slick yet. So instead, I’ll post one of the videos they played during Iza’s last show. Sorry to my readers who check out this blog via Facebook, but I don’t think that the embedded video will transfer through on the newsfeed, so you’ll have to come directly to my blogsite. The song is Chewing Gum Fraise by Numéro (featuring Omnikrom). Enjoy!

Maddy's on the Office!

2007-04-18T08:44:00.000-04:00

One of my faithful readers, who identifies herself as Lina in the comments section from time to time, has dropped the not-so-subtle hint that my blog has been on a bit of a downward turn with the various bumps I’ve been enduring in the last month between work and school. So I decided I would try and be a bit more upbeat this time and let people in on what I consider to be good news. Granted, it’s not good news for me, specifically, but I’ll live vicariously through this one anyway.

A certain number of you out there know that, over the past few months, I’ve made friends via e-mail with a lovely actress named Maddy Curley. Admittedly, she’s not a household name at this point, so don’t be too distressed if you haven’t heard of her. Her most prominent role was as a supporting actress in the film Stick It (one of my guilty pleasures) as the up-and-coming gymnast, Mina. But what has she done lately?

The answer, dear readers, is that she has been keeping herself busy with independent and short film work that hasn’t hit wide distribution. However in a little over a week, she’ll be popping up in something a bit more mainstream: NBC’s comedy The Office! When she first mentioned it to me, she thought the episode was due to air on April 19, but later said it was April 26. So just to be safe, I’ll watch both weeks (to be honest, I never watch the show, but I'm making an exception for her sake). I’m not sure how much airtime she gets or how many lines, but it’s still cool nonetheless. Good job, Maddy!

So there you have it, folks: Positive news from Al on a Wednesday. Til next time…

***UPDATE April 27, 2007*** For those who tuned in to see Maddy on the show, I'm a bit bummed to say that they cut her scenes. Perhaps they'll show up eventually in the Deleted Scenes for the episode, but given that I'm in Canada, I won't be able to verify that. I'm still proud of her anyway!

the long weekend

2007-04-11T09:45:00.001-04:00

Well, it’s all over except for the crying. I finished the second of my night courses last evening and, though I’m not nearly as confident of the outcome as I was about the French to English class, I’m thinking I should finish with a reasonably solid B. Of course anything could happen, so I may well finish with something ghastly like a C. There isn’t an A in the running, though, as I believe that was mathematically impossible. Oh well. Onwards and upwards, right?

Today is important as I’ve got an interview down the hill. I’ve been spending the last 20 minutes or so browsing the unit’s website to see what sort of knowledge I can glean from what they’ve chosen to post. It’s interesting, to be sure. I’m actually somewhat surprised that, in total, the female population of this particular institution is roughly twice the size of the male contingent, with the notable exception of the Faculty of Management, that seems to be an even split. I’m sure there are other interesting tidbits to be found here, but I don’t have the capacity to absorb it all in one sitting. I’ll have to come back later to check things out more thoroughly.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with my travel and social schedule, I just got back from a long weekend spent in the friendly confines of London, Ontario. It was definitely an interesting trip. I had rented a car from Enterprise for Thursday and, though I picked it up about 20 minutes late, was well on my way by 3:30pm or so. I had requested a Hyundai, but got stuck with a Kia. Should I do that again, I’ll upgrade the car if offered the Kia. That thing is a horrible highway car.

Anyway, I’m within rock’s throw from Belleville, a little less than half way to my destination, when I feel something weird. There was a momentary deceleration and a bit of a shift in the car’s direction. Nothing I couldn’t handle, though, but the cars around me started to pass me. Weird, I thought. Then an SUV pulled up beside me with some lunatic hanging out the window, waving and pointing at my car. I look and see him mouthing the words, “Dude, your tire is gone!!!” so after a quick moment of disbelief, I pull over. He was right. The tire was gone. All that remained were scraps of tire, a beat-up hubcap and shiny rims. A quick look at the clock and I knew I was in trouble. It was 7:30pm.

Now at this point, Fate decides to be nice to me. As I’m on the phone with Roadside Assistance, a CAA truck pulls up. We have a quick chat and the guy offers to change my tire and gives me directions to the nearest Canadian Tire store (my best hope for getting home since everything else would be closed). I gladly accept and make it to the store with about 45 minutes until closing time. All told, I lost about 2 hours or so, but I managed to roll up to my parents’ house around 1am Friday morning.

The rest of the weekend was spent with family and friends (with the majority of time being spent at Chris and Rebecca’s house). I also managed to attend a service at Julie’s church. I’ll get into that another time. I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend! Til next time…

Updates from Al

2007-03-29T08:51:00.000-04:00

Well, well, well… the last couple of weeks have been quite an adventure, to say the least. To begin, I would like to formally announce that I’m looking for work in and around Montreal. I got the news last week that there just isn’t any money in the budget to maintain my position, so at the end of the fiscal year (May 31) I’ll be handing in my keys and bidding a fond farewell to my little office space. While this is hardly the sort of news I wanted to hear, I was only ever promised a year here so getting an extra 2 and a half months is actually pretty decent. So if any of my readers know of any jobs for Anglophones out there (and though I shouldn’t NEED to emphasize this, I will anyway: NO CALL CENTRES), please feel free to drop me a line.

The next blow to the ol’ ego came last night in the form of a rather thin envelope from McGill’s Department of History. Contained therein was notice that I had been rejected from the Masters program and that my interest in the “highly competitive” program was appreciated. Um, thanks for that, I think… so I guess that clears up any fears I had about how I was going to pay for the MA, huh? Oh well. The next challenge awaits, I guess.

So let’s try and end off on a positive note, shall we? Last night I had the final exam for the French to English Translation course I’ve been blasting through this term. It’s hard to believe that 12 weeks have gone by so quickly, but evidently it has. Now I don’t know if I just got handed something different from everyone else in the room or if my classmates are just far more cautious than I am, but I was done that exam in record time. Sure, I had to look up the occasional word, but otherwise the translation seemed to write itself. All told, in a 90 minute exam, I was done in 45 minutes—and that includes the time I spent re-writing my rough draft! So either I tanked it or I rocked that baby til the break of dawn. We’ll be getting the results back next week, so I guess I’ll find out then if I’m as clever as I believe I am at the moment. Maybe I’ll get lucky on the English to French exam after Easter? Anything’s possible, right? Til next time…

Avril Lavigne, Supporter of Core French Currculum Reform

2007-03-26T12:56:00.000-04:00

As I was reading through an article on Avril Lavigne’s new multilingual single “Girlfriend” and I couldn’t help but laugh. Apparently the folks in marketing thought it would be a brilliant move for her to record the chorus in 7 different languages in an attempt to further break through overseas. Not a bad idea. But that’s not the thing that made me laugh.

Y’see, one of the languages chosen for the song’s reworked chorus is French and, despite her VERY French name, Avril doesn’t speak a word of it. This led the journalist (Karen Bliss) into a line of questions that prompted Lavigne to lament the fact that her parents never put her in French immersion classes when she was younger. Considering she’s a high school dropout, I’m not really sure how much good any immersion program would have done for her.

Bliss then takes a timeout during the article to indict the current core French program, saying,

“Considering how Canadian students are required to take French classes from public to high school, it's ridiculous that one doesn't graduate with at least an ability to have a conversation en francais. The curriculum needs to be changed.”

Naturally, this was accompanied by an appropriately supportive quote from Napanee’s former pop punk princess:

“It's so bad," Lavigne agrees. “No one knows (it). Yeah, we had French class every grade, but we didn't do anything. It's not very good at all.”

I don’t disagree with the content of what she said; I just find it funny that anyone would try to use Avril as a means of promoting French language education. It brought to mind the words of the late, great comedian, Bill Hicks, who said,

“When did we start listening to prepubescent white girls? I must have missed that meeting.”

Let’s not hold Avril up as a role model for today’s youth, okay? If anything, she should be used as a warning to anyone thinking of dropping out of school. Yes, she made it. Good for her. But statistically speaking, you won’t make it, so stay in school so you can make something of yourself. But that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong. Til next time…

My Mind is Blank

2007-03-15T11:48:00.000-04:00

We’ve hit March 15 and my mind is still a blank. My parents decided to take advantage of March Break this past week and drove up from London to see little ol’ me. As much as I hate to admit it, I do miss my family occasionally. Sure, it was pretty tight quarters, but it’s the price one pays to have visitors in a one bedroom apartment in Montreal. They were able to entertain themselves while I was at work, so I didn’t need to play tour guide.

I also got back the results of my English-to-French midterm and, while hardly spectacular, was well within the low ‘B’ range, which is fine by me at this point. This course was a good litmus test for me and my fluency in French. It showed me that, though I’ve got a reasonable grasp of the language, it’s going to take longer than the duration of this course for me to approach my own demanding performance standards with respect to mastery.

I also recently got the chance to attend a lecture by Sherry Simon, who wrote a book called Translating Montreal: Episodes in the Life of a Divided City (I just ordered a copy of it, by the way). Her observations have prompted me to read her book, since it seems that she took a different look at Translation. To her, translation becomes a tool of cultural contact and exploration (hmmm… sounds like a theme I can support) rather than a replacement of one text with another. I’m curious to see what direction she takes with it.

Alright, I’m off. Til next time…

Loose Ends

2007-03-07T08:45:00.000-05:00

Consider this post as Al’s way of tying up some loose ends. The last couple of weeks I’ve been more self-absorbed than usual and, to be honest, haven’t had much to say au sujet du Québec. But for those who are interested in the daily happenings of my routine, I wanted to let you know that, yes, the bank did manage to correct my balance and return to me the money that had been scammed by those evil card skimmers. And no, there were no bounced cheques in the meantime, so all is well in that respect.

I continue scratch and claw my way through my English-to-French translation course with varied results. I had thought that I was finally turning a corner last week when I received back my first ‘A’, only to be smacked back to reality this week when I got back a ‘C’ right before the midterm. Nothing like a confidence booster right before the midterm to get your mind in the right place, eh?

My French-to-English class has been far more consistent, in terms of performance. I’m holding down a pretty solid ‘A’ average, which will help me pull up my average from that nastiness in the other class. But to be honest, I’m thinking that I should cut back to one class at a time while working full-time from now on. Sure, it would be nice to get it out of the way sooner than later, but I’m finding myself feeling a bit burnt out trying to juggle everything. As Morgan often advises, it’s best for me to take fewer courses and really get my head around the concept, rather than doing a half-ass job.

Alright, that’s all for now. Til next time…

Justin Trudeau's Aspirations

2007-02-27T09:35:00.000-05:00

I was thinking about the recent announcement Justin Trudeau’s intention to run under the Liberal banner in the Papineau riding of Montreal. I don’t know about the political landscape of Montreal, but from what I’ve been reading, the seat is currently held by the Bloc Quebecois. I wonder how much his last name will help or hinder him in a campaign.

What I really wanted to talk about is the reaction I’ve read from English Canadians. The ones that have particularly caught my attention are the ones that say things like, “Who does this guy think he is?” or “God help us! Not another Trudeau!” or even “What has THIS guy ever done to deserve to run?” Such mindsets are absolutely asinine.

Am I biased towards Trudeau because of his late father? Yes. Regardless of how Pierre Trudeau is remembered by history, I know that without his policies and vision of Canada, I wouldn’t exist right now. Just think of the hours you folks have spent reading this blog! Thanks ol’ Pierre for that!

So what right does he have to run? He’s a Canadian citizen. He has JUST as much right to be a backbencher as any other citizen. Is he running for the leadership of the party? No. He’s not. At least not at the moment. If he wants to take an active role in politics, so be it. He’s certainly not less qualified than any number of other MPs who’ve served for multiple terms. Take Joe Fontana, for instance. The guy was in real estate and insurance before getting into city politics. Next thing you know he’s a Liberal MP for London-North Centre! Is Trudeau more qualified than him? Yes, he is.

Here’s another point to consider: Trudeau hasn’t actually won the nomination or the seat yet. While this is all well and good for headlines, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Until the man gets elected, it’s much ado about nothing, as far as I’m concerned. Alright, that’s all for now… til next time…

Ripped off- the cloned bank card fiasco

2007-02-23T13:50:00.000-05:00

Well, how about that… ol’ Al has had a bit of a rough week, to say the least. It started off innocently enough, but it’s turned into an exercise in frustration. I was checking my account balances yesterday to make sure that my pay had gone in, and it did, but I also got another fun surprise. Someone had cloned my bank card! Apparently some yahoo made a deposit of $2222.22 (obviously an empty envelope) and then took out whatever he could from my account. Thankfully, I have limits on my access card otherwise I would have been more screwed than I ended up being. As it stands, the thief made off with half of my pay cheque.

I’ll admit that I’m surprised at how quickly the ScotiaBank’s card security team noticed the activity, and am equally happy that they blocked my card from further use pending a visit from me down at the branch. That being said, I think our friends at my local branch in Montreal need to brush up on their procedures. I went in and spoke with a teller, who then broke out a few forms for me to fill out. He also got me a new access card. That’s all fine and well, but the guy didn’t even ask me for any form of ID! I would have thought that, before handing over a new bank card for an account that had been flagged for suspicious transactions, that proof of identification would be in order!

Things went downhill from there as this teller explained to me that I would have to initiate the investigation through my home branch. Only problem is that my home branch is in LONDON, ONTARIO! A little common sense here, please?! So he assures me that he would be sending my forms on to my home branch and they could proceed from there. I was also forced to sign a form that said that, pending the results of the investigation, that I MIGHT NOT get my money back. So as the month end approaches, ol’ Al may be maxing out his overdraft to pay rent. Not cool.

So I decide to call the friendly folks at telephone banking to see who I would contact to place a complaint about the teller and their procedures and, in doing so, learned that the teller had messed up again! In creating the new card, he lifted the limits on the previously blocked card so that the information could be transferred to my new card. Then he forgot to close the profile on the old card, meaning that the cloned card was now fully operational again. Had the skimmers decided to try again, they could have taken me for more money! Please, someone take this guy aside and retrain him!

But wait! There’s more! I followed up with my branch in London and they hadn’t heard a word from the gang in Montreal. So my question is: what the heck is going on?!?! I’ve voiced my concerns to the branch manager on Montreal, as well as my home branch, so hopefully something will get resolved relatively quickly. I want my money back!

So how did this happen? Good question. I have my suspicions, though. I had gone to la Belle Province on Tuesday night because I had a craving for poutine and they didn’t have a POS machine. So I was forced to use one of those independent EZ cash machines. I hate those things because they ding me with service charges. I believe someone had some sort of card reader hooked into this one and I didn’t notice. The next day, someone in Laval is making the fake deposit and the withdrawl. And on a sidenote, the poutine didn’t particularly agree with me that night and I ended up calling in sick the next day while my account was being drained. Coincidence? Doubtful. I lose a day’s pay, plus half my last pay cheque because I had a craving for poutine. Guess we know what I’ll be giving up for Lent. Til next time…

An Underwhelming Response

2007-02-19T09:25:00.000-05:00

Last week, I issued a formal invitation to supporters of a Free and Independent Quebec, asking them to send me something to post on my humble blog here, but the response has been underwhelming to say the least. This should come as no surprise, really, since my francophone audience is quite tiny and I believe they may be uncomfortable subjecting their beliefs to the (occasionally) scathing commentaries of some of my regular readers. One of my old sovereignist friends has agreed to send me something, but I’m not sure when he’ll get around to sending it in.

I’ve approached Loco Locass, as well, but Biz told me that they’re working on the new album at the moment and don’t have the time to spare right now. Anyone familiar with their work knows that they’re meticulous with their choice of words and never do a half-ass job at anything, so I can see why they wouldn’t want to send something that was just thrown together. It’s unfortunate that they won’t be participating in this little discussion, but I understand and I look forward to their next album.

So for the moment, we’ll have to put discussions of Quebec sovereignty on the backburner. I would like to take a moment to thank Larry Savage over at Uncorrected Proofs, who tried to drum up some traffic for me, as well. Anyway, we’ve just started Slack Week at McGill, so I don’t have classes (or assignments) due this week, which should give me time to do some brainstorming for topics. Happy Monday, everyone! Til next time…

Genie Awards!

2007-02-14T09:28:00.000-05:00

For those expecting some sort of Valentine’s Day posting, you’ll be collectively disappointed. Much like last year, I’m opting to not do much more than casually acknowledge this “holiday.” Instead, I want to talk a little bit about the Genie Awards, held last night in Toronto. The Genie Awards are essentially the Canadian version of the Academy Awards, but unlike their cousins to the South, are barely even noticed by the general viewing public in Canada.

Anyway, I was looking at the list of winners and something rather obvious jumped out at me: almost ALL the winners come from Quebec! Now I’m not sure if the Quebecois just produce more films per year than English Canada, thus leading to a larger talent pool from which to draw, but it does strike me as odd that the awards were so lopsided. It would be nice to see a bit of competition in both languages one of these years.

In terms of the winners, it seems that the Rocket suffered from a Prince of Tides sort of effect. For those that don’t remember, the Prince of Tides was once nominated for something like 7 Oscars (including Best Picture), but the films director, Barbara Streisand, wasn’t even nominated. Alright, so it’s not the same situation at all. The Rocket was nominated in every major category and won in virtually everything (Best Actor, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, etc) but yet lost out on Best Picture to Bon Cop, Bad Cop.

For a nice change of pace, I’ve actually seen both of the main contenders for Best Film, and for my money I would vote for Bon Cop, Bad Cop. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed both films, but I just felt that The Rocket dropped the ball. It felt too… clichéd… to me. My views on Bon Cop, Bad Cop are pretty well known, so I won’t waste too much space on this, but I will say that once you really get the joke, it becomes that much better of a film.
So congratulations to all the nominees and winners! Til next time…

An Open Invitation to Quebec Sovereignists

2007-02-12T09:08:00.000-05:00

I spent the better part of this weekend (and by better part, I mean pretty much every waking hour) doing a combination of translation homework and watching the first two seasons of Veronica Mars on dvd. Yes, I’m a wild man. No doubt about it. Anyway, when I checked my e-mail this morning, I found a rather interesting letter in my Inbox. It seems that my little ol’ blog has caught the attention of a couple of sovereignists and one decided to drop me a line with some links to some English language resources about the topic of an independent Quebec.

As luck would have it, I was already familiar with the earlier versions of the sites mentioned, but that got me to thinking. While this is not a politically oriented website, nor do I intend to make it one, I do believe very strongly in open communication and the promotion of understanding between people of differing viewpoints. So keeping that in mind, I’ve decided to open up the floor for discussion. I would like to take this opportunity to issue a formal invitation to sovereignist readers who, for one reason or another have stumbled upon my site, to submit articles on why there needs to be an independent Quebec.

I’m not concerned with whether it will actually happen (I prefer to let the future sort itself out) or whether Quebec could survive on its own as an independent state. I’m more interested in why you feel the way you do. Any submissions, whether they be in English or in French, will be posted here unedited, though I reserve the right to divide submissions up into multiple parts if they’re on the lengthy side. Articles will be attributed to the pseudonym of your choice and I will not disclose the e-mail addresses of any submitters. Articles may be submitted via the handy e-mail link that I've posted on the upper right hand side of this site.

I like open and productive dialogue and encourage discussion amongst my readers; however anything that I interpret as malicious or hateful will not be accepted nor posted. So take this opportunity for what it is: a chance to communicate your ideas to a largely Anglophone audience who has an interest in Quebec. Til next time…

Backwoods Quebecois village by-laws

2007-02-06T09:58:00.000-05:00

Alright, this is just ridiculous. I was flipping channels during the Super Bowl (blasphemy, I know!) and decided to check out a bit of Tout le Monde en Parle. It’s a French talk show on Radio Canada on Sunday nights where (occasionally) controversial guests are invited to discuss whatever issues have gotten their shorts in a bunch. It’s hosted and moderated by Guy A Lepage, a fairly well-recognized Quebecois comedian, who is joined by le fou du roi, Dany Turcotte. The role of le fou du roi is essentially comic relief—particularly useful when you’ve got some crackpots on the program. Well, this time around they decided to invite André Drouin, a town councillor of Hérouxville.

It seems that this town is (or at least its municipal representatives are) fed up with accommodating immigrants. Get this—they passed a by-law that specifically forbids the stoning of women?!? Um, isn’t this already covered under, oh I don’t know, MURDER?!?! Was this law really necessary? Who are these people? The population of the village sits at 207! Somehow I don’t think that they’re being overwhelmed by the demands of a great wave of Islamic immigration.

Anyway, this town councillor goes on Tout le Monde en Parle and starts going on about how Charest needs to call a state of cultural emergency and start rescinding cultural and religious compromises that have been put in place to accommodate the religions of immigrants. What a bunch of backwoods hicks! So I guess we can chalk up yet another example for those that love to accuse the Quebecois of being a bunch of racist, intolerant xenophobes, eh? At least Charest has had the good sense to reject the suggestions of these yahoos in Hérouxville. Since this story has already been picked up by some American news providers, I’m sure it’ll be making the rounds soon enough. Til next time…

La Paryse

2007-02-05T09:59:00.000-05:00

(Somewhat) fresh off of the submission of my MA application on Thursday, I needed to blow off a bit of steam and relax before throwing myself headlong into translation assignments for my classes. As luck would have it, Zahra was free and suggested that we check out her favourite hamburger place in Montreal: La Paryse. Since I’ve always been a burger and fries sort of guy, I thought, why not? Truth be told, I was far more interested in my companion than any hamburger, but that’s neither here nor there.

She had told me that the place was pretty popular and that whenever she had gone in the past, the place was always packed. Given the small size of the restaurant, I can see why that would be the case. Fortunately for us, there was a table in the back of the quaint little eatery. I would have to say that it redefined the term “intimate” for me, as they crammed somewhere in the neighbourhood of 15-20 tables into a place that could barely support that. I could probably have snagged fries off of a neighbouring table. The décor was pleasant enough, though nothing really sticks out as terribly memorable. Admittedly, I was focused more on Zahra than my surroundings, so forgive my lack of a detailed description.

There wasn’t a lot of variety on the menu, which considering its reputation as a burger place should hardly come as a surprise. They also make a pretty mean milkshake, I might add. The burgers are 100% beef (no relation to the company that supplies McDonald’s) and, quite honestly, are fantastic. Messy, but fantastic. I would have to say that there’s no dignified way to eat these things, unless one resorted to a knife and fork. And seriously, who eats a hamburger with a knife and fork?

By the time we left a couple of hours later, there was a line up out the door and starting down the street. All things considered, the place deserves its reputation. Located on Ontario St, near St-Denis, it’s also close enough to some of the trendy pubs and nightspots, so it’s a good place to start an evening. If you have the chance to check it out, I recommend it. Til next time…

Deadlines, deadlines!

2007-01-31T10:49:00.000-05:00

The next 24-48 hours will be particularly stressful for ol' Al. Not only do I have an assignment for my French-to-English translation course, but the deadline for my MA application is tomorrow. I've been polishing up my submissions as best I can, but I'm still missing one of my reference letters. I sent an e-mail yesterday to the professor in question, but as of right now, I haven't received a reply. With any luck, it'll magically appear in my mailbox before the deadline. After all, the Department Checklist clearly states that "only complete application packages will be processed." So, yeah. A wee bit worried. Sorry for the brevity of this entry, but I think I'll pace back and forth for a bit. Til next time...

Church, Balance and the Subtlety of Language

2007-01-25T11:44:00.000-05:00

After my chance meeting of Martin’s uncle at la paroisse de Saint-Ambroise a few weeks ago, I’ve been attending mass every Sunday. I’d been thinking back on my Kin 021 class from several years back and the concept of the Wellness Wheel. A quick websearch turns up a bunch of sites related to the Wheel, so if you’re interested in a more thorough discussion of the topic, I encourage you to check them out.

Anyway, I’ve accepted that I lack balance in my life. In fact, I may have mentioned that in a previous entry… well, maybe not explicitly, but I had at least resolved to make some efforts towards self-improvement. The Spiritual segment of the Wellness Wheel has been non-existent for me for the past 15-20 years, at least, so I thought that it was a good place to start. Also, since the services are conducted in French, it’s a good opportunity for me to look at the language in a different context.

I won’t pretend to be a highly skilled grammarian by any stretch of the imagination, but I did notice some things that I found interesting. In English, when one uses God (and by “God” I mean the Christian version) in a sentence, it usually starts with an uppercase letter. That’s not particularly unusual, since it’s being used as a proper name. However, the same goes for when God is replaced by a pronoun, regardless of its placement within the sentence (eg. “I am an instrument of His will.”). From what I recall, this is supposed to acknowledge the writer’s reverence for the Supreme Being.

French is a far more subtle language, so I was interested in seeing how religious content was handled. I’ve been a bit surprised at the way the prayers have been translated, particularly since Quebec has (historically) been a God-fearing province for hundreds of years. I had expected to see a lot more use of what is typically called the vous de politesse. For those not familiar with the language, I’ll try and explain this as best I can.

In French, there are 2 pronouns used for the English equivalent of “You.” There’s the form “tu” and the form “vous.” The “tu” form is used when addressing an individual with whom one has a certain degree of familiarity. The “vous” form is used when addressing a group of people, when addressing someone that one holds in high esteem, someone elderly, a business client or perhaps just someone who one doesn’t know very well. Its use is a mark of respect. It used to be used when addressing one’s parents, but it’s pretty uncommon to see it used that way now. They’ve even got a couple of verbs specifically used to inform someone that they can switch from the “vous” to the “tu” or vice versa (tutoyer and vouvoyer).

So as I was saying, I figured that any prayers or responses would be full of “vous” when referring to God, perhaps even written in uppercase letters to note a similar reverence to God as what one sees in the English equivalent. Not so. At least not in the translations used in this parish. From what Martin’s uncle told me, they’ve used a lot of translations from Latin over the years and this particular one is far less formal in its structure. I was thinking about that and, to a certain extent, it makes sense to me. Through the subtlety of the language construction, this French version tries to create a familiarity with God. He isn’t some unknown force, but rather someone with whom parishioners can have a very close, personal relationship. This concept of a personal relationship with God is also in keeping with the message being conveyed during the masses. Anyway, it’s this sort of nuance that continues to fuel my interest in the French language. I’m intrigued by how much can be expressed by something so simple as the choice between the use of “tu” or “vous.”

I’m not sure if anyone else is still awake after reading this entry, but whatever. I find the topic interesting. Til next time…

Têtes à claques

2007-01-18T09:57:00.000-05:00

I was talking with my distant cousin, Sylvain, recently and he pointed me in the direction of a site called Têtes à claques. According to my handy dictionary, that translates to “unpleasant faces,” which would pretty much sum up the look of the rather bizarre looking characters in these direct-to-web short comedic films. I kept forgetting to look up the site until this morning when I read an article online that announced that the folks at Juste Pour Rire had purchased the rights to these shorts and planned on selling them to various broadcasters all over the world. The creator of the shorts, Michel Beaudet, has maintained the rights for the internet, mobile phones and the Canadian and Quebecois television markets.

I took a look at the site and, to be quite honest, I’m not sure what I think about it. Part of the humour must come from the look of the characters, which are pretty much plastic figurines with Beaudet’s mouth and eyes spliced overtop to do the dialogue and the reactions, but I’m not sure how this has blown up into such a phenomenon. The site was launched in August and now gets about 250,000 visitors per day. That’s the sort of traffic ol’ Al could only dream of!

The most popular clip is a spoof of infomercials, advertising a the fictitious Willi Waller potato peelers. Just to give you an additional idea of the influence of this site, vendors in Montreal and area reported an increase in the sale of potato peelers during the Christmas season. There were many a happy Quebecois who found potato peelers in their stockings. Le monde est fou!

Anyway, if you’re a fan of short webfilms, then I encourage you to check out this site. Maybe one of my faithful readers can explain the appeal. Keep in mind, all the videos are in French at this point. They’re working on English versions, though, so when this is unleashed on an unsuspecting anglo audience, just remember where you saw it first! Til next time…

***UPDATE: Jan 25, 2007*** Alright, I took another look at the site and a few more of the clips. It's funnier than I first gave it credit for. Not every one's a winner, but there are plenty that are good! When I first made this posting, I doubted that I'd bother checking it out again, but now I can say that I'm becoming a fan. Til next time...

Racism in Quebec

2007-01-15T09:11:00.000-05:00

Well, how about this little tidbit? After I spent a considerable amount of time defending les Quebecois against accusations of being racist and intolerant, they go ahead and admit it in a survey conducted by Le Journal de Montreal, TVA and 98.5 FM! Needless to say, I’m disheartened by this new information, especially since the same survey indicated that, collectively, the Quebecois are more racist than the rest of Canada.

According to the survey, 59% of those surveyed indicated that they were strongly, moderately or marginally racist. That’s a pretty significant number. Apparently the Arab community bears the brunt of these negative feelings, followed by the Jewish and Black communities. Surprisingly, the Asian community is barely mentioned. Now before we go tarring and feathering the ethnic Quebecois, it merits mentioning that half of the respondents who come from ethnic communities also consider themselves racist.

Apparently the respondents indicated that news coverage of the Middle East, in combination with the events of September 11, 2001, have contributed most strongly to the negative views of Arabs. The reaction to 9/11 shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but it also shouldn’t be used as a crutch 5 years after the fact to justify negative views of an entire cultural group, especially since those living here had nothing to do with it. This is making my brain hurt.

Now I didn’t participate in the survey, nor have I seen the list of questions, but I’m quite aware that statistics can be manipulated to support just about any conclusion one can think of. Remember, the survey indicates that 6 out of 10 people fit anywhere within the range of strongly to marginally racist. That’s a pretty wide berth. I’d be far more interested in seeing how many admit that they’re strongly racist. Perhaps Quebec is less ethnically diverse than the rest of Canada? Could that impact the results? Perhaps the Quebecois are more direct and honest in their discourse, admitting what those in the rest of Canada may be too embarrassed to admit? At the very least it sparks discussion. It may be nothing more than sensationalist nonsense used to drive newspaper sales or TV ratings, but if this somehow positively contributes to addressing an existing problem, then I’m all for it. Til next time…

Tag

2007-01-12T14:45:00.000-05:00

I noticed a spike in my traffic today and since I didn’t post any links to gratuitous nudity recently, I found this to be a bit puzzling. So off I went to check my handy sitemeter and found the source of this new activity. It seems I’ve been “tagged” in some sort of game of blog tag by a columnist for Le Journal de Montréal named Jean-François Codère. You’re right, J-F, I had absolutely no idea that you stopped by to read my little blog, but I welcome visitors from the Francophone community. I expect your readers were a wee bit surprised to find largely English language content on my site when they followed the link. Anyway, perhaps you can point me in the direction of other aspects of Montreal that I’ve yet to discover.

Alright, out of respect for J-F’s link, I’ll play along, as well. From what I’ve gathered, I need to come up with 5 things to post about myself that aren’t exactly common knowledge. Hmmm. That may be tougher than I’d have thought as I’ve been pretty open about most things on here. Alright, here goes:

1) I have a fairly unnatural fear of squirrels. It’s subsided over the years, but I still don’t like the wee rodents. When I was a young lad of around 5 or 6 years old, I was chased around a playground by a (possibly rabid) squirrel. I have no idea how I managed to escape the little bastard unharmed, but since that time I’ve been afraid of them.
2) I have no idea how to ice skate. I had fully intended to learn, but the only time my parents took me out to skate, my mother hit some sort of edge on the ice surface and broke her leg. We just never went out to try again. If some petite québécoise wants to teach me, then I’m more than happy to learn!
3) I’m not a “cat person.” I prefer dogs as household pets.
4) I started watching curling in the 1990s because I thought Kim Gellard was really hot. Now I actually have an appreciation for the game. No, really. I do.
5) I’m half newfie. Both my grandparents on my mother’s side were born and raised in Newfoundland. I’ve never been there, but I think it may be nice to visit sometime.

That covers it, I think. I’m sure I could put something more scandalous down, but I’ll leave that for another time. As for the tagging of other blogs… hmmm… I suppose that Phil Renaud could put down something interesting. Let’s add Chris to the list, as well. Til next time…

Just Rambling

2007-01-10T15:35:00.000-05:00

Things have been rather slow chez Al B Here. The semester has begun and I’ve been to my first two classes. I think it’ll be nice to have a regular routine, once I get accustomed to the consecutive 13 hour days on campus. I’m still working away on the MA application package. I managed to secure my references and even dig up some old, graded papers while I was home. THAT was a genuine surprise, let me tell you!

I dug through some plastic storage bins in my old closet and came out with a couple of ‘A’ papers from the days of my youth. I didn’t reread them because I was sure I would start critiquing my old work. And what good would that do? I wonder how surprised the selection committee will be when they see a writing sample from 1997… that was back before anyone even considered using online resources in essays and research papers!

In the interests of accountability, I thought I would post some of my goals for the New Year. No, they’re not resolutions. Resolutions are useless. So here’s the first one: buy a notebook and start carrying it around. Morgan has been hounding me about this one and he’s right more often than wrong (as we learned during a Totally 80s Trivial Pursuit game), so I’m going to give it a shot. Second, I’m going to make a more concerted effort to get to the gym. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are a complete write-off, because of my courses, but that leaves 5 other eligible days. My goal is to get there 3 times per week. This is actually part of a more general goal, which is to live a healthier lifestyle. I won’t give up anything, per se, but I’m going to seek a better balance in my life.

I think that covers everything for now. Wait, no. My final goal is to get back to posting some witty commentaries sooner than later. Til next time…

the Louis-José Houde experiment

2007-01-08T09:20:00.000-05:00

I'm trying a little experiment here. Having seen the nifty clips that others have managed to include in their blogs, I thought I would try and do the same. I've attemped to link to a short clip of the stand up comedy of Louis-José Houde. Those of you who've seen the film Bon Cop Bad Cop will remember him as the fast talking coroner, Jeff.

He seems to be pretty much everywhere at the moment. Definitely one of the "in" Quebecois comedians at the moment. So sit back and enjoy this little experiment. By the way, it's in French, so I apologize to those readers that don't understand the language. Til next time...

Some Interesting Sites

2007-01-03T10:23:00.000-05:00

Since I have a bit of time this morning, I thought I would direct my readers to a couple of interesting sites. The first is the blog of Matthew Hayday from Mount Allison University. He’s a post-doctoral fellow in Canadian Studies and has written a book called Bilingual Today, United Tomorrow: Official Languages in Education and Canadian Federalism (a copy of which is sitting on my kitchen table). It’s one thing for me to ramble on about Quebecois culture and language issues, but Matthew has the credibility to back up his analysis. He’s also been rather helpful as I’ve searched for potential essay topics for my MA application, so check out his site. I think it’s a worthwhile read.

The next comes from Larry Savage from Brock University. I’d gotten an e-mail over the past few weeks, indicating that he would like to put a link to my blog on his site and since I welcome new readers, I gave him the thumbs up to do so. I’ve skimmed his entries over the past week or so and it looks like a pretty interesting blog in its own right. He’s definitely more tech-savvy than I am, so if you like audio and video clips as well as interesting commentary, then I encourage you to visit his site, as well.

I’ll be starting one of my translation courses tonight, so we’ll have to see how workload affects my blogging output. As OJ has been so adept in pointing out, I’ve been AWOL for a good chunk of the holiday season. With any luck, I’ll be able to put things together on a more consistent basis as my humble blog enters its second year of existence. Til next time…

Draw Your Own Conclusions

2007-01-01T18:46:00.000-05:00

Welcome to 2007! I’ve returned from the surprisingly green environs of London, Ontario and still have a day or so to kill before I start back at work. So I’ve been watching a bit of football and a variety of dvds (including my newest guilty pleasure, a film called Stick It). Since part of my holidays have already been covered on Chris’ blog, I thought I would jump straight to this past Sunday, when I had one of those really Bizarro World moments. Enough preamble, let’s get to it.

This past Sunday, I decided to check out the local Catholic churches. I’m not a devout Catholic by any stretch of the imagination, but recent correspondence with a new friend prompted me to take a look around. So I did some web searches on the Archdiocese of Montreal website and found a listing for Saint-Etienne, located about a block or so from me. It didn’t list the times of the services, so I made a wild guess and took a walk over. Here’s the thing—when I got to the address, there was NO church there! Nothing. There was just a fenced off lawn where I was expecting to see one.

I was a little put off by that. One would think that the Archdiocese would have the good sense to keep their parish listings at least somewhat current. I turned around and started to walk home when I noticed a church steeple off a few blocks away from me. So I decided it was worth a look. After all, I could have gotten the address mixed up. The closer I got, the more I realized how big this place was. It was HUGE. I can’t really say I’m surprised, though, since historically, the province of Quebec has always been a very Catholic province.

As it turns out, I’d found the parish of Saint-Ambroise. The service had started at 11am, so I was already late, but I decided to slip in the back anyway. Now I’m not sure if it was the echo of the hall (if someone can suggest a better word to describe the inside of a church, I’ll gladly take it) or the fact that I’d never spent much time learning religious words in my French courses, but I didn’t understand the majority of what was said. After the mass, I decided to introduce myself to the priest.

He was a pleasant enough fellow, with glasses and gray hair. He gave me the general rundown of the mass schedule and asked the usual questions about whether I’d been baptized, etc. occasionally switching to English after noticing my accent. I’d mentioned in passing that I had moved to Montreal from London and he told me that his brother used to teach Physics at Western. Interesting coincidence, but I didn’t think anything more of it.

On my way out, I took a look at the parish bulletin, trying to find a listing of the mass times and then, before leaving, I remembered my manners and asked the priest’s name. His answer left me stunned. We’re talking jaw-on-the-floor stunned here. I had just been having a pleasant conversation with Denis Saint-Maurice—the uncle of one of my best friends through eighth grade and high school, Martin St-Maurice! I’m a bit disappointed in myself that I hadn’t caught on sooner, since it was common knowledge amongst our group of friends that Martin’s father was a Physics professor. That was the reason they moved to London in the first place!

So I’m not sure what to make of this, to be quite honest. After all, there are a little less than 2 million people in Montreal and I just happened to move into THIS parish’s area? The odds of this happening are lottery-esque. So draw what conclusions you may from this, but I think I’ll be popping into the Sunday services a bit more regularly from now on. Couldn’t hurt, right? Til next time…

The Quest for Mitsou

2006-12-20T14:36:00.000-05:00

Mitsou has been one of my favorite Québécois personalities for a while now. Though I didn't understand any of her lyrics when I first heard Bye Bye Mon Cowboy back in the late 80s, she still made an impression on me. Then, as usually happens to francophone artists in English Canada, she seemed to disappear, only to return a few years later with a rather risqué video for her song Dis-Moi, Dis-Moi. From what I've been told, her songs still get air-play during various Toronto "One Hit Wonder" hours on the radio. But despite our ignorance in English Canada, she's continued to have a vibrant career in Quebec. It's with that in mind that I contacted her representatives to try and arrange an interview. Her schedule didn't permit it earlier in the Fall, so I tried again in mid-November. Here's the response I got today:

Bonjour Alan,

Je me souviens de vous. Je suis désolée de vous annoncer qu’il ne sera pas possible pour elle de participer pour les prochains mois.Mitsou sera en congé de maternité jusqu’à approximativement la fin du printemps. Peut-être pour l’automne 2007?

Je vous souhaite un magnifique temps des Fêtes et vous prie d’accepter mes meilleurs vœux pour la nouvelle année à venir!

Meilleures salutations,

Julie
__________________
Julie Harvey
Dazmo Inc.

Not exactly the response I had hoped for, but rest assured, I'll try again. I suppose this is where my stubborn streak comes in handy, eh? I'd just like to take a quick moment to send Mitsou and her family my best wishes during the holiday season and, of course, health and happiness for their soon-to-be new arrival. Til next time...