“Offspring Are Blank” comes on softly, like a warm, warped spiritual. It’s unusual for Dirty Projectors to deal in sounds so acoustic and pretty, but when the song juts out sideways with raunchy guitars and keys, everything falls into place. And so it goes for the length of the Brooklyn band’s 11th release, wherein their penchant for un-pop time signatures and other dissonant signals are used sparingly, but effectively.
“Egalitarian hornyman” Rob Delaney With a rep as the “funniest man on Twitter” (and almost half a million followers), Rob Delaney’s the master of exploiting the short form, wrenching the maximum possible humour out of a mere 140 characters. He’s also a uniquely sensitive and enlightened comic who self-identifies as a feminist and refuses to […]
Breaking Bad : “Madrigal” is Mike-centric This week’s episode begins, seemingly randomly, at a food tasting in a German lab. But those of us who’ve been paying attention (which, as this episode indicates, you kind of have to) figured out pretty quickly that the investigation into Gus Fring’s fallen empire was spreading out to the multinational conglomerate […]
After the announcement of this year’s Polaris Prize short-list (mediocrity incarnate save for Fucked Up and Yamantaka // Sonic Titan), I was hurting for some real, honest punk fuggin’ rock. Thankfully, the Refused/Off! show at Metropolis on Saturday night provided more than enough ballast to knock that dog-and-pony show out of my noggin. Although it was obvious that the younger crowd was there for the headliners, Off! put in an electrifying set that covered most of their new self-titled record and their stack of seven-inches.
Last Friday and Saturday, action-sports event Jackalope Fest took over the Olympic Park. And while fixed-gear cyclists, parkour enthusiasts, longboarders, slackliners and motocross riders were on hand, the weekend’s focus was skateboarding. In the end, the oft-derided Greg Lutzka, a native of Wisconsin who now calls southern California home, beat out France’s one-time wunderkind Bastien Salabanzi to clinch first place. But — and I really do mean this — the real winners were the spectators, who got to hear the indefatigable Dave Duncan, an ’80s pro skater who is now the mouthpiece of World Cup Skateboarding, give a play-by-play of the contest.
Like every other Montreal resident I know, I had never heard of the Stewart Museum. But as both a lover of small museums and an avid at-home chef, I was quite excited to see the widely posted ads for their temporary exhibition, “Craving for Design: Kitchen Design from the 18th Century to Tomorrow.” And indeed the museum has all the makings of a hidden gem: located in a 19th-century British fort constructed on Île Ste- Hélène (now just south of the Jacques Cartier bridge), the museum reopened about a year ago, following a two-year, $4.5 million-dollar renovation. The display space itself is quite small, housing an exhibition of its permanent collection materials in one two-floor wing, and the temporary exhibit in the other.
True Blood’s cast of supernatural characters had a day of reckoning yesterday — Sookie discovers she may lose her fairy status if she continues squandering her light beam; Jason comes to terms with the fact his parents were killed by vampires and not in a car crash as he had previously been told; Tara realizes her Bible-thumping mom will never love her unconditionally and Eric and Bill embrace their inner Sanguinistas, if only for a fleeting moment.
DeAnne Smith has two guiding phrases in life: “Let’s do this” and “It’s all happening.” It’s all happening for Smith, indeed. Smith is a powerhouse in the Montreal comedy scene, and not exactly our little secret. Her gamine charm masks a Ginsu-edged wit that fills venues from Edinburgh to Sydney. Critics laud her neurotic observations on life’s treasured moments gone awry. Audiences adore her skewering of all things precious. A packed touring schedule keeps her away from her adopted hometown Montreal much of the year, but luckily she’s got a few performances at Just for Laughs and Zoofest, including an appearance at the Bill Hader Gala and renditions of her latest solo show, “Livin’ the Sweet Life.”
Mitsuko Delivers
The latest from Yuya Ishii may be the gentlest film on this year’s Fantasia slate. Fans of dragons, zombies, Korean gangsters drop-kicking each other off skyscrapers or chainsaw-wielding schoolgirls riding Segways may not find what they’re looking for; while there is a pregnant woman at the center of the story, what happens to her is hardly Cronenbergian. That’s not to say that Mitsuko Delivers is not compelling, however – it’s a wonderfully measured dramedy not unlike the better works of Jason Reitman (with a 200% less sassy pregnant protagonist) or Alexander Payne.
It seems that everyone in Montreal has something to say about dumplings, though most of the time it’s a lament that, when it comes to this staple of Chinese cuisine, we’re no New York City. Despite our comparative rookie status here, there are a couple places people swear by for the best warm, pillowy meat- and veggie-filled bites of goodness. One of those places is Chinoiseries & Dumplings, a recently opened dumpling joint/dépanneur in the Plateau on Chabot St., just above Mont-Royal.
