Category Archives: Montreal

Redevenir Québécois

C’est le moment.

J’ai pas mal d’affaires à faire, y compris me trouver une (ou de la) job. Pis finir ma thèse pour de vrai. Mais ça empêche pas que c’est le moment pour moi de redevenir un Québécois.

«Mais t’es déjà Québécois!», dites-vous, à grand renfort de «Bin voyons donc!».

Oui, d’une certaine façon. Pure laine, même. Il a fallu que je le devienne après un certain temps. J’étais tanné de me faire traiter de «maudit français», à l’école. Et j’ai un peu cessé de l’être, à certains moments de ma vie.

Souvent, je redeviens Québécois quand je suis à l’extérieur du Québec. C’est la nostalgie qui fait ça. Pis le fait que le Québec est une société pas mal spéciale.

Mais là, je redeviens Québécois à la fin de  mon dernier hiver au Québec. Ça fait que le timing est bon.

C’est peut-être pas mon dernier été au Québec, par exemple. Je risque de venir passer des étés ici, après avoir déménagé à Austin avec (et grâce à) ma chère Catherine. Mais ça sera jamais la même chose que maintenant.

Une des choses qui me fait penser à ça, de redevenir Québécois, c’est que j’ai manqué le dernier YulBlog. Alors je me suis mis à commenter sur tout un tas de blogues montréalais, surtout francophones. Ça m’a fait comprendre que je fittais pas pis que je devais me mettre à fitter plus.

Une des raisons que je fitte pas, c’est que je sais plus ce qui se passe ailleurs dans le monde que ce qui se passe au Québec.

Quoique… J’écoute quelques balados québécoises et j’arrive à me faire une idée de ce qui se passe ici en entendant parler d’événements plus spécifiques. Mais comme c’est plutôt des balados de musique et de shows plutôt que celles de RadCan, c’est pas la façon la plus efficace de connaître les dernières actus de la vie québécoise.

En plus, je regarde peu la télé. Maintenant que la saison régulière de Télé-Québec est terminée, me privant de nouvelles émissions de Méchant contraste, Pure laine et La vie en vert, je regarde à peu près juste DSwJS (yeah, I know), au détriment de ma québécitude.

J’ai beau aimer Concordia pis y’a beau y avoir pas mal de Francophones là-bas, le fait d’enseigner en anglais (comme d’habitude), ça me pousse pas nécessairement à vivre en québécois.

Sans oublier que ma chère Catherine, qui devrait revenir à Montréal en fin de semaine, est pas locutrice native de la langue québécoise.

Donc, pour être Québécois et parler québécois, je dois un peu me forcer.  Pas que ça me tente pas. Mais j’ai besoin d’occasions.

Et hier, j’ai commencé à me donner l’occasion. De la salle d’attente d’un super médecin sympathique et efficace (pour un renouvellement de prescription), à la bibliothèque nationale en passant par le Marché Jean-Talon, le Cheval blanc et Une grenouille dans une théière (un salon de thé près de chez moi), j’ai pu vivre au Québec.  Entre autres, en entendant parler quelques personnes au salon de thé. Ou en marchant depuis le Cheval blanc jusqu’à chez moi (de Chateaubriand et Bellechasse).

L’affaire, avec Montréal, c’est qu’on peut très facilement ne pas se sentir au Québec. Pas surtout une question de langue. Plutôt une question d’identité culturelle qui inclut non seulement la langue mais les modes de communication et l’«accent». Alors, si on se tient pas au courant, qu’on va pas aux bons endroits, on peut passer à côté de beaucoup des choses qui font de Montréal la métropole du Québec.

C’est d’autant plus facile à manquer qu’il faut déjà comprendre ce qu’est le Québec. Ça c’est quelque-chose que beaucoup de monde qui a passé du temps à Montréal sans sortir dans le reste du Québec a de la misère à comprendre. Malgré les différences énormes entre Montréal et le reste du Québec (comme les différences entre Genève et le reste de la Suisse Romande ou entre Paris et le reste de la France), il y a des choses qui sont vraiment québécoises, à Montréal. Comme la façon de vivre de beaucoup d’adolescents. Ou bedon la bouffe. Pis les banlieues.

C’est pas folklorique: c’est typique.

Donc, pour me remettre dans le bain, m’as essayer d’écrire plus souvent en québécois.

Après avoir vu certains avantages de CanalBlog, je me suis dit que j’y aurais un blogue exclusivement en français. Mais, finalement, j’me rends compte que j’aime pas ça tant que ça, CanalBlog. Fa-que, plutôt que de multiplier les blogues distincts, m’as bloguer en québécois ici-même, sur mon blogue principal.

Audio People of the World: "You, Knight!"

Much to be said about a recent ITConversations podcast episode. Ostensibly, this episode was about the LibriVox success story. (LibriVox is a community project producing public domain audiobooks from public domain books in diverse languages.) Yet, during this conversation, Web analyst (and Microsoft employee) Jon Udell along with LibriVox founder Hugh McGuire managed to share much insight on such varied issues as community-building, project management, grassroots movement, open source development, participatory culture, and aurality/orality.

After the chat, Udell and McGuire followed up, on their respective blogs. Udell developed a useful script to make all LibriVox books into RSS feeds for use in iTunes and other media players. Such a collaboration is an appropriate example of the power of “scratch your own itch” development, described during the podcast conversation. The conversation also prompted Librivox reader Sean McGaughey to describe LibriVox as a killer app. [Update: Blog version of the same description.]

I was led to this podcast episode through a visit to LibriVox reader Kara Shallenberg’s blog. Started listening to the LibriVox podcast after reading about LibriVox on fellow YulBlogger Patrick Tanguay’s own blog. Among other things, LibriVox helped me appreciate Canadian Literature and I’m quite glad that the project may contribute to Montreal’s widespread recognition at the cutting edge of technology and culture.

As an aural learner, I was quite taken by Udell and McGuire’s comments on auditory media. It seems that these two guys really grok what is so neat about sound. At least, their ideas about sound are quite compatible with my own ideas about music, language, and the cultural importance of sound.

We might be in a minority, North Americans who care about sound. Many people (including some online visionaries) seem to care more about visuality. In fact, given the large number of Web designers in the “Web 2.0” movement, it might be said that auditory media have often been considered a subset of “audiovisual content.” Yet there is something to be said about sound standing alone in digital life.

For instance, McGuire and Udell talk about the possibility for people to undertake other activities while listening to audiobooks and other auditory content. Commuting is probably the easiest one to grasp, for most people, and while it might be fun to watch a DVD on a plane or bus, audio podcasts are possibly the ideal “distraction” for (hearing) commuters. Listening to podcasts while moving around has led to very stimulating experiences.

Fans of McLuhan would probably think of “hot” and “cool” media. The difference between video and audio podcasts clearly relates to McLuhan’s ideas about participation.

There’s also the issue of rhythm. While moving images certainly can be rhythmic, speech and musical rhythm seem, to me, to be more readily associated with diverse human activities. No idea where to look for the cognitive side of this but it’s clearly worth investigating.

For lack of a better word, sound is more “abstract” than other sensory experiences. Acoustic signals do have a physical reality but the practise of listening has been used to elicit important ideas about abstract structures in Euro-American aesthetics.

Lots more to talk about but it will do for today.

No Apology Required

Not sure why, but I quite like Omnikrom. Their summer hits  are unapologetically poppy and I like the self-deprecating humour which seeps through the whole thing. These guys seriously don’t take themselves too seriously. All the while posing as superstars, which they could well become.

I should go to the free (as in summer beer) Omnikrom and Numéro# Fouf show on May 9.

Omnikrom and Numéro#

Thanks to André Péloquin’s PodMo for including «Été hit» (which he got from La Swompe).

Small World? More Than an Experiment

Should have known this would happen eventually. One of my wife’s good friends’ ex-boyfriend had been on my mind for diverse reasons. Had pretty assumed that he might be blogging as he’s a technical writer and had been at the Montreal Mirror for a while. As Montrealers might know, the Mirror is a good source of bloggers (and fiber). Turns out, he’s not only a cool blogger (putting words into The Tinman’s Thoughts) but he also knows Blogmeister Blork quite well (despite some hiatus in the 1990s, it seems).

Also spent time talking with, among others, open-minded music educator Prof malgré tout, intriguing Cameroonian political scientist Waffo, enthusiastic and rational environmental geographer Benoit, outgoing and friendly Houssein, as well as a bunch of people I had already met (and blogrolled 😉 ).

Possibly the funniest interaction for me, during this blogparty, was when I went to talk with someone who was just leaning at the back of the room. The usual introduction to a new blogger is “So… Where do you blog?” (in French, «C’est quoi ton blogue?»). I do use it fairly often during blogging events but it’s the first time I get “Yup!” as an answer. Turns out Robert blogs at the equivalent of a site which would be called “Where Do You Blog!” Of course, “CKOI” is both the name of a local radio station and an IM-like way to say “What is it?,” in French.

Speaking of languages. There was probably a higher proportion of French-speakers at tonight’s party than at the usual Yulblog event. This was the 7th anniversary celebration of this local blogging community.

Again: bloggers have more fun. Than whom? Erm, I don’t know. But they have fun. Good, extrovert, talkative fun.

Shan’t we all be on Facebook, now?

Food and Satisfaction

Catherine and I have a lot to celebrate. Her recent offer from Austin, her less recent doctoral defense, ten years of living together… We had promised ourselves one truly good restaurant meal. In fact, this promise was made several times over the past year or so but we had never been able to fulfill it. Continue reading Food and Satisfaction

Jobs and Satisfaction

This one is more of a web log entry than my usual ramblings.

Executive Summary: Life Is Good.

Continue reading Jobs and Satisfaction

Plug a blog

Hey, blog-brothers and sisters!

Feel free to put a plug to your blog, here. Doesn’t even need to rhyme.

Got the idea from YULBlog last night and thought it might be neat. (Besides, it’s a shameless attempt at getting more comments and/or pings.)

Otherwise, if you came for stuff about craft and homebrewed beer, homeroasting and other coffee geekery, or musical diversity, do browse and comment.

I also have two blogs on music. One for a course in the anthropology of music, the other Thinking Globalisation Through Music.

Though it might not seem so obvious, I’m longing for comments… 😉

Plogues de blogues

Aux blogueurs, carnettiers, carnettistes et cornettistes.. Y compris ceux de YULBlog.

Ploguez votre blogue (carnet, billet, journal personnel, fluegelhorn) ici. Même pas besoin de rimes… 😉

Pour ceux qui viennent pour la torréfaction de café, le brassage de la bière, ou la musique, promenez-vous un peu…

J’ai aussi deux blogues dédiés à la musique. Un sur l’anthropologie de la musique (pour un cours à Concordia), l’autre sur la mondialisation pensée à travers la musique (pour un projet plus vaste).

Whaddaday!

Started out the usual way, with emails and blogs. But then moved into very diverse and unique activities.

Went to a workshop on the game Guitar Hero, organised by GameCode and Ludiciné. Stimulating conversations on music, games, gender, sandboxes, playfulness, musicking, performance, competition, etc.

Then went on to the Ethnographic Film Festival. Was only able to watch a short excerpt of a short film from the Wapikoni Mobile project and a good part of a movie about food production in Europe (Malthus was wrong! 😉 ). Unfortunately, there were technical problems with the Wapikoni short, but it seemed fascinating. Glad to know there’s a Wapikoni Mobile podcast, but contrary to the Off-Courts podcast, it doesn’t include video content.

Then moved to a coffee jam at Caffè ArtJava. Had an excellent time and tasted some of the best espresso in my life. CAJ is set to participate in the growth of Montreal’s espresso scene.

From CAJ, went directly to Kola Note to pay tribute to Boubacar Diabaté‘s life and influence on Montreal’s (very dynamic, yet IMHO underrated) African music scene. Many of the players in that scene appeared on stage (in different bands) and the general ambiance was that of a strong community. Reminded me of the Francis Bebey tribute at Alizé, a few years ago, but last night’s event was more free-form, organic, cooperative… African. Got a chance to spend some time with fascinating people (like my good friends Guy Langué and David Mobio) who make Montreal’s African music community what it is.

Some seem to disagree on my observations but I feel this community is quite unique in that musicians cross any line to play and feel together. Appropriate tribute to Diabaté who was a «rassembleur» (bringing people together). In fact, Diabaté was the first person with whom I worked for my master’s degree research. Through this work, I eventually met with Madou Diarra who became more than a friend for me.