Playing at Mainline Theatre, 3997 boul. St. Laurent every night except Sundays and Mondays until March 6th. $20 a ticket, $15 if you buy a set of four. Contact 514.849.3378 for tickets or buy them online.

Seeing as Montreal has as many yoga studios as it has churches, the list of participating studios is quite extensive and even if you go to only two classes, you will have pretty much made up for the cost of the card. It’s a ridiculously great deal, and will give you the chance to try out studios you might not have otherwise tried out!

Passport to Prana
Last day today for free shipping!

Financial and Administrative Coordinator / Coordonnatrice-eur financière et administrative

The Concordia Community Solidarity Co-op Bookstore is currently hiring a Financial and Administrative Coordinator. / La Librairie coopérative de solidaritéde l’Université Concordia est à la recherche d’un-e Coordonnatrice-eur financière et administrative.

The Concordia Community Solidarity Co-op Bookstore is pleased to offer a viable alternative to the corporate structure, putting students’ best interests above and beyond our own bottom line. As a not-for-profit alternative to corporate bookstores, we are conveniently located right on Concordia’s downtown campus at 2150 Bishop. Offering both new and used books, in addition to a wide variety of artisan consignment, we also boast the largest selection of sex and gender studies titles anywhere in Montreal.

Find us on the web at co-opbookstore.ca, or on Facebook at facebook.com/ConcordiaCoopBookstore

Tasks and Responsibilities

General:

• Organizing and maintaining all financial documents
• Liaising with Co-op’s co-coordinator on the daily operations of the store
• Administrating publisher accounts
• Overseeing monthly and annual budgets
• Reporting monthly to the Board of Directors & acting as a resource person on financial and administrative matters
• Liaising with the Co-op’s accountant
• Ensuring that receipt trails and paper trails are organized and in order
• Communicating with federal and provincial governments regarding financial and administrative matters, including submitting government declarations and remittances
• Overseeing operations of the Concordia University internal Banner account
• Researching and preparing proposals to update our bookkeeping systems
• Liaising with Concordia administrative bodies and services
• Liaising with the Concordia community and the community-at-large
• Maintaining and developing office systems with other staff including archiving, filing, computer and communication systems
• Ensuring the upkeep of the office, order and organize supplies with other staff
• Working with other staff and Board to maintain a clean, organized and welcoming space

Monthly:

• Making adjustments to the budget in accordance with Board decisions
• Liaising with Co-op’s co-coordinator on seasonal and general book orders and ongoing publisher relations
• Making month-end adjustments, including inventory adjustments
• Reconciling accounts
• Completing and presenting month-end financial reports to the Board
• Invoicing

Annually:

• Coordinating year-end inventory
• Completing all year-end adjustments
• Completing year-end transactions and reports
• Preparing year-end for auditor
• Liaising with auditor
• Presenting our year end financial report at our Annual General Meeting (held in November)
• Interpret and make recommendations regarding the auditor’s report to the Board and at our Annual General Meeting

Job Requirements and Assets:

• Experience in finance within Non-Profits and/or Not-for-Profits
• Understanding of bookkeeping in a retail (inventory and sales-based) context
• Excellent time management skills, self-motivation and self-direction
• Knowledge of MYOB or similar accounting software
• Ability to work with a computer (PC and Mac), proficiency in Word, Excel, and File Maker Pro
• Bilingualism (French and English, spoken and written)
• Strong communication skills
• Ability to problem solve
• Ability to work under pressure
• Ability to work in a chaotic environment
• Interest in community-based groups and non-corporate, self-managed environments and principles is an asset
• Experience in a bookstore is an asset
• Experience in community outreach, marketing or external relations an asset

Application Details:
Deadline to apply is Friday, September 25th, 2009 at 6 p.m.
Interviews will be held from September 29th to October 1st 2009.
Please note that only applicants selected for an interview will be contacted.

The position is set to begin on Friday, October 12th, 2009, and it is a one-year renewable contract. Candidates must be available 10am-4pm Monday to Friday (30 hrs per week), including some occasional evening and weekend work. The position includes two weeks of paid vacation.

The ideal candidate is eligible for an Emploi Quebec salary subvention program.

The Co-op Bookstore has a commitment to employment equity in our hiring practices. We encourage applicants to describe the unique contributions they, as individuals with diverse experiences, would bring to the Co-op in their cover letter or resume. Please indicate clearly in your cover letter that you would like to be considered for Employment Equity.

Please submit your CV and cover letter by Friday, September 25th, 2009 at 6 p.m. Unfortunately applications without a cover letter will not be considered!

By email: coopbookstore@gmail.com
Subject line: “FA Coordinator Hiring Committee”

By Mail or in Person:
2150 Bishop
Montreal, QC.
H3G 2E9

For more information you can contact us at 514-848-7445 or email us at coopbookstore@gmail.com.

Please feel free to circulate this posting to any job-hunters you may know!

The first and biggest is COMMENTS! Registration is no longer required to post a comment on any post. Of course if you already have an account you can still login to ensure your comments are attributed to you, but those who don’t can now post a comment without any long term commitment. Also, on the right you can see some of the recent comments so you’ll always know what the active discussions are. This was the most requested thing we’ve heard from people since our last redesign and we’re excited to see where it leads.

The next change is also something that was heavily requested, and that is a change to the ADS on the sites. You’ll immediately notice fewer of them, but what might not be as obvious is those smaller square ones to the right are specific to this city only and are being sold for a flat rate for a period of time rather than a confusing CPM/traffic/network model. Depending on the city, these range from $7-$175 for a full week. If you purchase one, during that time your ad will be the only one in that spot and will show on every page. We set these up both to make it easier for smaller local businesses to get their ads on our site, and also to help us bring in ads that relate better to our local audiences. Also, keeping these sites online is expensive and every little bit helps.

There are a bunch of other things we changed but we’ll leave those to you to investigate and take advantage of. Hope you like it, and we look forward to seeing you in the comments!!

Love,
The folks at MBHQ

The fundraiser was at the Opus Hotel, across the street from the Just For Laughs Museum where the festival will be happening. The performers were all fabulous, and performed a variety of different types of numbers, including some comedic stylings from Peter Radomski and a female duo whose names escape me. Even “Esther,” the girl who was cleaning up all the costumes after the ladies stripped down, was hilarious. There was a surprise out-of-town performer from Vancouver who went by the name of Bon Bon Bombay, and she really riled the audience up with her take on the Dresden Dolls’ “Missed Me,” plucking an unsuspecting man from the audience and tying him up with her scarves as she did her doll dance around him. It was definitely one of the highlights of the evening, along with the final performance of the evening by festival founder Scarlett James, who was a vision in white feathers and thousands of crystals!

If you’re hungry for more of Scarlett before September, you can see her perform at the Bal Érotique on August 14 at Club Opera, another sexy event that’s sure to whet your whistle for more! In the meantime, stay tuned for more news on the first-ever Montreal Burlesque Festival by checking their website at montrealburlesquefestival.ca.

Margaret Cho's latest film, Beautiful, premieres July 25 (photo by Austin Young, courtesy of MargaretCho.com)

In other festival picks, I’m looking forward to seeing Margaret Cho’s latest tour film, Beautiful, on July 25 at 7 PM. As described on the JFL website:

Armed with something more potent than lip gloss — a mouth so shocking and raunchy it should be stamped with a warning – Cho toured America with her manifesto: “This show is really about how we should feel beautiful,” says Cho. “When you feel beautiful, you’re going to have more of a willingness to use your voice to speak.”

I’m a big fan of Margaret Cho’s feminist, queer-positive work, so this is a no-brainer pick for me. I will pretty much see anything she’s willing to produce, regardless of its topic. Even if she doesn’t do the impression of her Korean mother in the gay bookstore she used to own, or talk about how you can only get ripped abs by sucking cock. Shocking? Raunchy? Not really. It’s just Margaret Cho being Margaret Cho, talking about her own experiences, and promoting positivity in a world that tends to undermine or simply ignore passionate voices like hers. And that’s pretty damn beautiful to me.

Of course if you’re more into mainstream comedy, you might want to check out the latest Judd Apatow flick, Funny People, the story of a comedian who has a near-death experience. Is it a serious film, or seriously funny? Find out on July 25 at 9:30 PM.

Finally, if you’re interested in the science behind the comedy, be sure to make it out for Albert Nerenberg’s Laughology. While philosophers and the Bible have shunned laughter, Nerenberg is convinced that it’s some of the best medicine around. Join him on July 22 at 9 PM to meet the man with the world’s most contagious laugh and see for yourself.

Matt Mullenweg, WP founder, at WordCamp Montreal (photo by Eva Blue)

After I posted my last blog about going to WordCamp Montreal, an ironic thing happened: my personal WordPress blog (buttontapper.com) ceased to exist. It’s back online, mostly, at the time I’m writing this, but a lot of my blogs have disappeared into the ether. Which I hope will serve as a warning to back up your own site weekly, if not daily, but probably won’t because, as we all know, people don’t like to do things until they learn from a bad experience.

ANYWAY, all that to say that I was going to be reporting on WordCamp on my blog, but since it got destroyed when my former hosting provider went AWOL, I ended up spending a good chunk of my weekend reinstalling WordPress, hunting down the files I’d lost, reinstalling old and new plugins, and otherwise jerking around on my site. Instead of reporting on WordCamp. I suck.

In an attempt to make up for the fact that I’ve clearly failed you all, I thought I would share some of the things I did manage to learn during my Saturday at WordCamp (Sunday was just way too hectic to make it to the SAT), and pass the wisdom of the crowd along.

The first talk I heard was CT Moore’s presentation on WP-MU (a version of which you can also find online at his website, Gypsy Bandito). He basically gave a quick walk-through on how to install the program, and an overview as to what it can do. If you’re going to be manipulating multiple blogs, whether on a single domain or across several domains, you should definitely consider installing MU. That’s what it’s designed for, as the name stands for Multiple Users. You can give admin privileges to lots of different people, let lots of people create blogs on your site, share admin privileges across multiple sites, and basically get a hell of a lot of blogs all managed under one system. It sounded pretty excellent, so I have been debating installing it on my own computer, but since I only currently own the domains for two blogs, that might be a bit overkill. Sure, I have to log into two separate interfaces, but it also helps keep them separate in my mind. If you had multiple blogs at one domain, this would probably be way more useful to you.

The second talk was actually a loose Q&A with Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress. Matt was in Montreal on vacation, so he didn’t want to give his usual “State of the Word” talk, but you can watch it online at WordPressTV if you’re curious. He’s been touring the various WordCamps throughout North America, and figured he couldn’t skip ours, even if it was during the final days of the Jazz Fest. Anyway, I thought he was super cool and had lots of good things to say about the WordPress community and how open-source software works, why it’s important to give back, and why people like Bill Gates will someday be giving their own software away for free. You should definitely watch the video, because he’s very optimistic and upbeat, and it’s nice to get that kind of perspective in a world that is so often cynical about community, and online communities in particular.

The last talk I stayed for was Brad Williams‘ WordPress security talk, which had lots of useful tips and tricks for keeping your personal site safe (with WordPress installed). I believe he said he would have all his tips online at his website, but I don’t think they’re online there yet. To summarize, you should:

• Have a secure password, that isn’t based on dictionary words (duh, but how many of us really do this?)
• Keep your WordPress files up to date with the latest plugins and WP installs
• Make a different account your admin account, and delete the original “admin” user
• Give your WordPress files a random prefix that hackers won’t be able to guess, instead of the default “wp-”

I think there were a few more tips that I’m forgetting, but those stood out as the most important and easiest to do, for starters.

There was quite a good turn-out for WordCamp Montreal, and if anybody else wants to share any insights they had or things they learned there, feel free to post those below.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “But Laura, aren’t conferences EXPENSIVE?” And yes, dear Montreal Metblogs reader, you are right; most conferences are expensive. But not WordCamp! No way, dudes. This one is only $30 a person ($25 if you’re a student), and that gets you two whole days of WordPress action AND a t-shirt AND a free lunch! Who says there are no free lunches in this world? Not the peeps at WordCamp.

So maybe you’re thinking, “But Laura, I don’t know anything about WordPress. I’m just a blogger with a free template. I am a total n00b; won’t they make fun of me?” Well, I can’t guarantee that someone won’t, because let’s face it: some people are just jerks. However, the goal of WordCamp is to bring new and experienced users together, to teach you some tricks, and to share information. So even if you’re the newbiest of n00bs, you’re welcome to attend. Hell, I’m not the tech-savviest gal on the planet, and I’m going, so you should too!

But like I said, there’s less than 24 hours left to make up your mind! WordCamp is this Saturday and Sunday, July 11-12, at the SAT (1195 St-Laurent). You can find the schedule online here, and a list of your fellow attendees here. To buy tickets, just click here!

Stevie Wonder (photo courtesy of Montreal Jazz Fest)

In case you miraculously haven’t heard about it by now, Stevie Wonder is coming to the Montreal Jazz Fest this year! His free concert, tonight at 9:30 at the GM stage (corner of St-Catherine and Jeanne-Mance), kicks off the festivities, and approximately 100,000 people are expected to attend.

As the Gazette reports, despite the fact that only 8,700 people attended his Bell Centre performance back in 2007, tonight’s concert is on everyone’s to-do list. If you’re planning on going, I’d advise you to get there early to grab a seat or a section of land to stand on. Otherwise, you may be hearing Lil’ Stevie from several blocks away.

For more Jazz Fest programming, check out their website at montrealjazzfest.com, and for a quick hit of Stevie Wonder, check out this YouTube video of “For Once in My Life.”

Beer (Biere et Companie)

Breakfast (Jardin Nelson)

Burgers (Les Belles Soeurs)

Cafe

Cajun/Creole

Caribbean

Chinese

Crepes (Jardin Nelson)

Deli

English/Irish

Fondue

French

German/Austrian/Polish

Greek (Ouzeri)

Indian (La Taj or Gandhi)

Italian

Japanese/Sushi

Lebanese

Mexican/Tex-Mex (Cafe de Matéo)

North African

Pastries

Pizza (Miss Italia)

Portugese

Poutine (Ma’ame Bolduc)

Quebecois

Ribs (Bofinger)

Salads

Sandwiches

Seafood

Steak

Thai

Vietnamese

So what are your favorites?