Tag Archives: Montreal

cuisine, Food, food and culture, glocal, hedonism, Montreal, pleasure, Québec, Québécois, restaurants

Food and Satisfaction

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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 →

Academia, Austin, Beer, brewpubs, Coffee, Concordia University, ethnomusicology, glocal, hedonism, homebrewing, homeroasting, informality, Montreal, music scenes, personal, Québec, satisfaction, social networking, social support systems, students, Teaching, Texas

Jobs and Satisfaction

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

Executive Summary: Life Is Good.

Continue reading Jobs and Satisfaction →

Beer, Blogging, blogs, Coffee, comment-fishing, Montreal, music, Yulblog

Plug a blog

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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… 😉

blogues, café, Montreal, musique, Yulblog

Plogues de blogues

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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).

Africa, Coffee, communitas, diversity, espresso, gender, Montreal, Montreal Espresso Scene, music, music scenes, performance, personal, personal life, play, praises, ramblings, sandboxes, social butterflies, taste, tributes

Whaddaday!

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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.

Beer, craft beer culture, glocalization, Montreal

Beer Tourism

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We made the list!

Top 10 Cities for Beer Lovers (Sherman’s Travel)

Got this through the mailing-list for the MontreAlers brewclub. People are discussing some of the choices made by that travel agency but it’s still nice to see more awareness for beer tourism. Some beer lovers go to great extremes in those contexts and there’s a lot to be said about the cultural, economic, social, and even political importance of the quality beer movement.

The list, in alphabetical order:

  1. Amsterdam
  2. Berlin
  3. Brugge
  4. Burlington
  5. Dublin
  6. Mexico City
  7. Montreal
  8. Portland
  9. Prague
  10. Sapporo
joie de vivre, Montreal

Petite expérience à 1$

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Ma femme et moi étions au Marché Jean-Talon, ce midi. Toujours agréable, surtout la semaine. Il y a moins de commerçant, mais l’ambiance est excellente. Beaucoup plus calme, beaucoup moins de «m’as-tu vu?» plateausiens, des commerçants plus décontractés et moins vendeurs sous pression…

En quittant le Marché, j’ai décidé d’aller nous chercher un chocolat chaud chez Chocolats Privilège. Très différent de celui de Juliette et chocolat (mon préféré), bien meilleur que celui de la très chrômée Suite 88. Coût? Un gros dollar, TTC. Le chocolat chaud est dans un gros thermos Bunn-o-matic, on se sert soi-même. Les tasses (en styrofoam) sont seulement de 8 oz., à l’oeil, mais c’est suffisant pour moi.

Ce qui me fait dire que plusieurs commerçants du Marché ont bien compris le principe. C’est une petite expérience, toute simple, pour un dollar. Oh, bien sûr, on peut se faire du bon chocolat chaud à la maison, pour moins cher. Si on achète un contenant de poudre de chocolat. Mais, l’idée, c’est de profiter de la vie à son maximum. Quand on n’a pas d’argent (ce qui est essentiellement mon cas), on se débrouille comme on peut. La petite tasse de chocolat m’a procuré autant de plaisir que beaucoup d’autres choses dans ma vie qui ont coûté autrement plus cher. Oh, il y a des choses qui ne m’ont rien coûté et qui étaient encore plus agréables. Mais c’est pas vraiment une question de rapport qualité/quantité/prix. C’est le rapport plaisir/prix. Plaisir à peu de frais. Simplicité volontaire, objecteurs de croissance, Simple Living…
Au Marché, nous avons aussi dégusté de très bonnes saucisses de gibiers (1$ chacune, toutes petites mais succulentes) et d’excellents sandwiches maroccains (kefta et merguez). Tout compris, ça nous a coûté moins cher que deux repas chez McDo et nous a fait autant plaisir qu’un bon souper.

Bien que tout coûte plus cher qu’avant, se nourrir à Montréal peut être une expérience très agréable, même pour ceux qui ont très peu d’argent. Il y a beaucoup de choses qui nous manquent (comme une épicerie Whole Foods!), mais on peut très bien se débrouiller.