Top 10s Of The Week

Top 10 Songs:

10. STRAIGHT OUT OF THE GATES, Tech N9ne (feat. Serj Tankian) (2013)
9. HIGGS BOSON BLUES, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (2013)
8. FERAL LOVE, Chelsea Wolfe (2014)
7. SHARP, Red Mass (2014)
6. INSTANT CRUSH, Daft Punk (feat. Julian Casablancas) (2013)
5. WE EXIST, Arcade Fire (2014)
4. PLAYIN' WITH FIRE, Katie Armiger (2013)
3. SWEATPANTS, Childish Gambino (feat. Problem) (2014)
2. SMOOTH SAILING, Queens Of The Stone Age (2014)
1. RIGHT TIME, Nikki Lane (2014)

Top 10 Shows At The Montréal FrancoFolies This Year:

10. BURIDANE
9. CATHERINE DURAND
8. ÉMILIE SIMON
7. ZAZ
6. TAGADA JONES
5. INGRID ST-PIERRE
4. STROMAE
3. JASON BAJADA
2. CHLOÉ LACASSE
1. PHILÉMON CIMON

Politics As Usual

Her hair makes it seem like she's stuck in the 1980s; her mind-set is more 1780. Her name is Dayleen Van Ryswyk and she was just dropped by the British Columbia NDP party for being a bigot an idiot a racist ''a true independent voice'', from a CBC news story:

Some of Van Ryswyk's comments took aim at First Nations:

"It’s not the status cards, it’s the fact that we have been paying out of the nose for generations for something that isn't our doing," reads one post on Castanet, an Okanagan area website. "If their ancestors sold out too cheap it’s not my fault and I shouldn’t have to be paying for any mistake or whatever you want to call it from my hard-earned money."

The posts also took aim at the French-Canadian community:

"Seems the only group of people universally hated around the world other than the Americans are the French and French-Canadians. The bigots are the French and not us," the blog reads.

"I’m getting so sick of having French stuffed down my throat. This isn’t Québec. It’s western Canada. We speak English here. Why are we forced to have it at our western Canadian-hosted Olympics?"

Well, because at the heart of Canada's language policy is that the country has TWO official languages, and one of them - French - was the language that pretty much populated Canada in the first place, as most people in then-Lower Canada were of French descent, and that's how things rolled. Over time, Canada's population did go from 65% French-Canadian to the present-day 25-30%, but as long as the Constitution isn't changed (wait, Québec isn't even in it, is it? Ha!), both languages have to be represented in international events - particularly in regards to the Olympics, as the IOC's official language itself is French.

If that's how she feels about minorities, it kind of makes you wonder why she even applied to run under the NDP - a party resolutely on the Left - banner, rather than the Conservative one...

And about ''paying through the nose'' for aboriginals for ''something that isn't your doing'', well, lady, the fact that you have a roof over your head and a Canadian passport, and you're enjoying the perks of running for office, means you are taking advantage of the British invading the continent and slaughtering the people who were already there, well, common decency - as well as International Law - dictates you take care of survivors of the attempted genocide. It's, literally, the least you can fucking do.

Double Standards In Our Home And Native Land

Toronto Argonauts offensive tackle - and offensive douchebag - Rob Murphy was fined by the CFL for comments he made on Twitter during the team's train ride to Montréal, such as :

"At train station ... Pumped to be smelling foreigners this early in the A.M. They smell less offensive this way....little known fact,"

and

"Ok...the novelty of riding on a train thru Ontario and "Frenchland" has worn out....get me off this damn thing!!!!"

Now... read the ''comments'' section of the link I posted...

So far, all are up in flames about his comments on ''foreigners'', none about ''Frenchland''. Like it's ok to hate on ''The French'', despite us being the country's fucking founders and it being one of the two official languages.

Oh, and we're getting pretty fucking tired of being called ''The French'', too, seeing as we're pretty much nothing like people from France, in the same way North American speakers of English are nothing like the Brits and aren't called ''The English''. The last time I went to Calgary or Detroit for tea is probably the more recent than the last time I wore a beret and striped shirt to mime all day, dine on frog legs and steal your girlfriend. Well, maybe not that last part, but it's hard to shake off everything that's in your DNA.

The Unanimous Success Of Philémon Chante

And to think that just last Fall, Philémon Chante was performing a free concert at UnPop Montréal, my annual festival, for a half-full Cagibi... and that I got to share a stage with him, opening for Daniel Greer in an empty Brasserie Ste-Ambroise on a sad Tuesday night...

Like Patrick Pleau before him, Philémon Bergeron-Langlois has accomplished much in a short time span, not content with playing the Fringe Festival on June 12th, but performing at the peak of francophone music, Les FrancoFolies on the 15th.

A quick rise to glory for the man who, just two days ago, released his first record, Les Sessions Cubaines, at Casa Del Popolo, packed full of sweaty, loving adoration. Sure, it wasn't perfect - his usual charming and über-talented magnificent violonist Zoé Saint-Pierre couldn't make it... and neither did the records; despite a lauch show with nothing to launch, it seems the show garnered nothing but praise.

Here are a few articles in French preceding the show: Voir, Nightlife and L'Actualité!

And some pertaining to the show itself:
en français: on 4MTL and Bombe.tv
in English: from Free After Four and Examiner

The votes that matter are in, and despite being eliminated in the Francouvertes semi-final a month ago, we all know in our heart of hearts who the real winners are: those who get to witness Philémon singing.

Video Of The Week: Jean Leloup

Yeah, so it's OLD. Who cares?

I haven't done the dishes in over a week (maybe three, actually), someone won't bring me my vacuum back so there's cat hair dispersed on my hardwood floor, I've barely slept in a month so I haven't cleaned my sheets - actually, I haven't even made my bed since the time my cats had a fight and threw the sheets on the floor, I just arrange them back on the bed just about where my body's going to be when I crash.

Coming in from work last night, looking at my apartment, it really felt like the video feels - like a messy pad squatted by 50 derelicts who don't go to bed until the sun's well up.

I remember the first time I saw this video, in 1989, in the tiny television-room we had in the back of our apartment on Marcil in NDG - my parents didn't want a TV in the living room, so they set up this alternate TV-watching room in a space barely bigger than a closet with just enough room for a couch, a TV, my Nintendo Entertainment System and five feet between the TV and the couch.

My mom was watching TV with me, getting acquainted with the shit I was interested in, which was mostly Musique Plus - the only other shows I'd watch were The Flinstones followed by You Can't Do That On Television at lunch time on school days, and Lance Et Compte, MacGyver, Rock Et Belles Oreilles and some show about a guy who could stop time with his watch and might have been a detective, all shows that only aired once a week.

All of a sudden, between a Def Leppard video and another one by Bon Jovi or Madonna, came this guy, Jean Leloup, dirty, rebellious, singing in Québec French but not cheesy in the least, with hints of rockabilly, ska, and an attitude that was more punk than the Sex Pistols could ever pretend to be. He sang about shit I could understand: the glory of Spring and Summer compared to the gloom and doom of our winters, the beauty of seeing women dress lightly come the sun and hot weather, the importance of being surrounded by like-minded people over that of 'making it' or 'fitting in', or even finding a 'normal job'. There was a guy who got it.

Of course, my mom found him to be 'dirty', the living conditions in the video to be 'atrocious', the music to be 'so-so', and time has only exacerbated her views on Leloup as a character, while I have gone on to not only meet him but just about follow him around for a whole summer as my friends became part of his band in 1998, and just jam the night away with him quite a few nights. I've even incorporated him as a character in some of my own songs.

In all his splendor and glory, from 1989, Printemps-Été, by Jean Leloup...

I'm In French, Too!

For those familiar with Céline Dion's mother tongue, my French blog can be found here.

In the best of worlds, I would write everything that comes to mind in both languages and they would be replicas of one another. Likely, though, they won't.

However, they may complete one another. It's like both hemispheres of my brain working separately. I just wonder which one seceded first, and if a unification is possible.

Who knows, really? Those who read both blogs, that's who.