View Larger Map
My neighbourhood in Montréal.
This year went by extremely fast for me. I simply can`t believe it is the end of the year and that I have been in Montreal almost eight months. I doesn`t seem like four months ago that I saw GBH at Foufounes or five since I dated that weird chick from St Léonard, or eight since I spent the month of May in a disoriented haze. It`s like someone flipped a switch and moved time into fast forward.
My French is coming along slowly. I`m still …

Drive-By Truckers and The Hold Steady perform “Let There Be Rock” from the Drive-By Truckers album Southern Rock Opera at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, California, on November 25, 2008.
Guy in a gorilla suit aside (why is there always some asshole who does that?), this is a prime example of why the Drive By Truckers are one of the best, purest rock n roll bands working today.
The closest this tour came to Montreal was Toronto. Maybe next year.
Via Fark.

See my previous post on the Drive by Truckers

Former Jawbreaker and Jets to Brazil frontman Blake Schwarzenbach has been away from music for way too long.  After Jets to Brazil fizzled out just as they were really finding their voice, Schwarzenbach took some time off to finish his graduate work and do some teaching at NY’s Hunter College. Now he’s resurfaced in a new band called Thorns of Life with former Pinhead Gunpowder drummer Aaron Cometbus (yes, that Aaron Cometbus – the man behind Cometbus, probably the best zine ever) and Daniela Sea, an actor who used to …

1/2 kg cubed beef
2 Marc Angelo brand thick sausages
2 large potatoes
1 pouch of Old El Paso chili seasoning mix
540 ml can of seasoned petite-cut tomatoes
540 ml can of dark red kidney beans
398 ml can of peas and carrots
In a big pot, brown the cubed beef.
In a separate frying pan, cook the sausages.
When the beef is browned, add the can of tomatoes. Drain and rinse the kidney beans and add them to the pot.
Add the peas and carrots, water and all.
By this time the sausages will have cooked so cut them …

There is no reason for posting this, except that I’ve been listening to it and want to share. Dan Bern, live at Martyrs in Chicago on October 10, 2003. Courtesy the Internet Archive.

http://www.archive.org/details/dbern2003-10-03.

As someone who designs websites as a (big) part of his job, I don’t believe that, in most cases, a wholesale redesign of a live website is necessary. Many times, a gradual evolution in design and navigation is preferable, particularly if your site is highly trafficked and profitable. Not to mention a large part of their users’ lives. Look at Yahoo and Amazon, two sites that have seemingly changed very little over time; new features get added, new home page elements appear and are integrated without much disruption. In a …

My friend Dave over at Bumpershine sent out a request to a bunch of bloggers, musicians, industry types to send in their top picks from the Polaris long list. The Polaris Prize, for those who don’t know, is a juried competition that selects about 40 Canadian CDs that were released in the previous year. The winner gets $20,000. The main idea is to celebrate Canadian music regardless of genre, sales, etc. and just focus on the quality of the music.
Anyway, Dave invited me to participate and so you can …