Happy Divers/Cite 2010

It's not officially Pride yet, but this is like Pride, so happy Divers/Cite, and there are many events during this whole week, some are officially affiliated to Divers/Cite and others are just enjoying the ride.







and do not miss the T-Dances, they are just awesome, if I have time I will post more info, and this blogs returns to its normal state after middle of August 2010.

My City

Danny Tenaglia @ Stereo - July 24, 2010

Two evenings, one deejay, and a whole legion of dancers waiting for the master of the music. Many claim not to enjoy the fact Tenaglia talks to much during his set, others couldn’t enjoy him not because they didn’t want to go, but because the ticket price was too high, and others are still in awe for what they got to see and feel while Tenaglia took over of the temple.

I’m more a Saturday kind of guy, and my understanding is that lot of people decided to do the same thing, Friday was a much more intimate affair, with perhaps 500 to 600 people attending, and Saturday a solid full house. If Stereo had lowered the price to $50.00 on Friday, I bet they would have had a full house in both nights.

First surprise of the evening was to see that finally Stereo has lowered the deejay booth, and you can feel the difference in the energy, I can only imagine the wild parties Stereo will have this coming weekend, Divers/Cité will for sure make those walls sweat, and love the idea of Stereo evolving with time.

What an incredible musical taste Tenaglia has, from the moment I walked up those famous stairs, to the moment I decided it was time to go home and spend some quality time with my loved one, the music was out of this world constantly. The evolution of rhythms was perfectly layered, taking you up one notch at the time, if the evening of an university class it would had been called The Evolution of the Music, because I felt as if I was been taught what music is all about, and what better place than do it in Montreal eh?

Tenaglia started the night with deep house music, bringing of those charming tunes out of the box, flirting with the crowd, which gradually arrived in mini waves until the place was full. Deep house moved over and let some drums in the house, it got faster and faster, vocals and more vocals, then the music speed up a bit more, bringing a more industrial sound to the dance floor, the energy began to boil into more techy sounds, and of course by then Danny had already spoken a couple of times thanking us for been there, joking, and he also advised he was recording the set, I just hope he decides to release this wonderful set one day, because I only stayed for half of my class, and in order to graduate I must hear what happened to the end.

The crowd was just beautiful, great energy and well balanced with the regular “all walks of life”, hey if you want to see lawyers, doctors, fly attendants, students, engineers, company vice-presidents, gas stations attendants, and many more dancing and having fun together, then you just have to step in at Stereo. One of the reason pictures are not allowed, even thought I’ve seen Stereo relaxing in this policy, is because some people don’t want to see their pictures all over the net the next day - we just want to have fun and not worry that you were not smiling while someone was taking a picture or live posting a video in Youtube.

Some of my friends gave me the summary of what happened after I left and I missed the tribal set, the great house music splendor, and the craziness continued until around 3:00pm when it was time to go home. Tenaglia is a fantastic deejay, and if you have never seen him perform live, write it down as one thing in your “to do list”.

Danny Tenaglia wrote in his page:

Dear STEREO, thank U 4 havin me back & allowin me to do a Double Header theme. Your Venue Sound & Hospitality combined with Best Mixed, Mature & Cameraless Crowd that Dances Together in perfect harmony cannot BE compared anywhere as a package! If your not rated as #1 Club on this side of the globe, who cares? Anyone that matters know this is as Fact! I hope to BE back soon. God Bless U all & Stay on Top! Love, dt. :)

Will New York ever have another "Piece of Paradise" like Montreal has with ((((STEREO)))) ? Within the first few hours on Friday I was already extremely Envious that we don't have this here. By the time the 2nd gig was over on Sunday afternoon I left there feeling so much Joy & also sadness because this in my mind, heart, body & soul is the way: I have dreamed for it to BE - always. :-/

Tenaglia must know the love Montrealers feel for him is reciprocal and we can’t wait to see him back in our (((home))) again. Even the Fire Marshall showed up, I guess they didn’t want to miss the party as well eh? Thank you Tenaglia for such a wonderful time.

Love Parade 2010 - Germany

My deepest sympathy to the people that lost loved ones at the Love Parade 2010 in Germany, it is a pity that such an amazing event, where thousand of people go to party, ended up in a tragedy this year.

Bad Romance

kudos to these boys, they are actually pretty good.

(((Tenaglia)))

This is so wrong

Danny Tenaglia - Double Header

Not one but two consecutive evenings with Mr. Tenaglia, and you only have to pick either Friday or Saturday to go, or if you are as crazy as some of my friends, you will go to both nights.



now if you have never seen this guy in action, please read my review of his 2006 gig at Stereo - Danny Tenaglia @ Stereo, June 22, 2006

Quartier des Spectacles - Montreal

There are too many things happening in Montreal and it would a shame if you stayed at home doing nothing. First I must highly recommend you to check out the Just for Laughs at the new Quartier des Spectacles in Montreal. The city has not finished building the area but you can see it will be stunning when done. I actually didn't know Saint-Catherine will become permanently pedestrian between Jeanne-Mance and Saint-Laurent.



Loved the fact the Just for Laughs have much more space to spread out everywhere, because before when they use to close Saint-Dennis or Saint-Laurent, it would get too packed and it was even hard to wall around.

Talking about the Just for Laughs, so far I had to chance to see 3 shows: Mom's the World 2, I laughed so much about the stories of these middle age moms and their stories of their teenager kids; John Leguizamo, I always wanted to see his show and had the chance this week - very funny guy and I had no idea he was actually Columbian and that Mad TV started after he was asked to leave his own show House of Buggin; and the Gala show hosted by Lewis Black, great show just unfortunate I had the bad luck to have an annoying drunk couple right behind that wouldn't shut up for a second, those people shouldn't be allowed to reproduce.

I still have one more show to check out, the All Star Gala show on Sunday night. By the way, the four shows only cost me $99.00 - it was a package on sale in the hahaha.com website. If I had bought only one Gala show ticket, it would had cost me $70.00 so you do the math.

What else is going on?




and there is also Yinon Yahel at Unity, and don't forget the Fireworks Festival tonight, and you should get your bicycle and go for a ride around the city, no bike? No worries, just rent a Bixi - love the Bixis by the way - my new taxi during the Summer.

Stop Stoning - Please Help

If everybody just told their best friends and their families about this horrible situation, we would have over a million people signed by July 19th.

Take the 30 seconds to go the website...you would if it was your mother.

http://freesakineh.org/



and please join the facebook page 1 Million Canadians Say Free Sakineh

Rush Hour in the Netherlands

We only wish we had this type of rush hour in our cities eh?

"Morning rush hour in the 4th largest city in the Netherlands. Streets look like this when 33% of ALL trips are made by bicycle!

This is an ordinary Wednesday morning in April 2010 at around 8.30 am. Original time was 8 minutes that were compressed into 2 minutes, so everything is 4 times faster than in reality. The sound is original.

This is one of the busiest junctions in Utrecht a city with a population of 300,000. No less than 18,000 bicycles and 2,500 buses pass here every day. And yet Google Street View missed it. Because private motorized traffic is restricted here.

These cyclists cross a one way bus lane (also used by taxis and municipal vehicles), two light rail tracks and then a one way street that can be used by private vehicles.

Behind the camera is a railway (you can hear the squeaking sounds of the trains passing) and the main railway station is very close too. A number of rental bikes from the station pass and many of the cyclists will have come by train for the first part of their commute.

For those who frown upon the total absence of bike helmets in this video, consider these findings from a US study:

"Cycling in the Netherlands is much safer than in the USA. The Netherlands has the lowest non-fatal injury rate as well as the lowest fatality rate, while the USA has the highest non-fatal injury rate as well as the highest fatality rate. Indeed, the non-fatal injury rate for the USA is about 30 times higher than for the Netherlands.

Injury rate per million km cycled: USA 37.5; NL 1.4
Fatality rate per 100 million km cycled: USA 5.8; NL 1.1"

From: Pucher, John and Buehler, Ralph (2008) 'Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany'.
http://policy.rutgers.edu/faculty/pucher/Irresistible.pdf"

Montreal during the Summer

Just wanted to share with you some of the random pictures I've been taking in the last couple of days

David Tort @ Stereo tonight

Brazil, Israel or Spain?

yes ladies and gentlemen, we have Felipe Lira from Brazil at Unity, David Tort from Spain at Stereo, and Aron from Israel at Parking, just make sure not to drive tonight, because it is a Saturday night, and in Montreal it means fireworks, closed streets and lots of people out. Take your car out and for sure you will be stuck in traffic for a long time.

España vs Nederlanden

The kingdom of Spain against the kingdom of the Netherlands, this is the Fifa World Cup final that not many people expected. Obviously I wanted Brazil at the end, thought Argentina could make it, and I believe the Germans were unstoppable, but I was wrong and Paul, the octopus from Oberhausen was right. Paul's predictions have been broad casted live to the world, and once he picked Spain over Germany, many wanted to see him grilled.

Paul's prediction for Sunday's game? Spain will rein over the Dutch



Common question I heard this week was "is it Holland or the Netherlands?" People the correct term for the country is the Netherlands, Holland is a part of the kingdom, it would be the same as referring to the United Kingdom as England, I know many Scots and Irish that wouldn't be happy if we called them English right?

The Americas will have to accept the fact they are no longer the only ones to have won a World Cup outside their own continent, now the Europeans can claim the same, and actually is a good thing a new Football power will take the throne, lets share the wealth a bit eh?

What is my prediction for Sunday's game? I have friends in both countries, and I have always like the Dutch (even if they kicked Brazil out of this cup), but my feeling is the time for Spain has arrived. Good luck to both countries, and whoever wins, we know we are going to have big celebration in Canada. It is great to live in a multicultural country, because it doesn't matter who the winner is, we always have a big celebration in our cities.

Parking - hot hot hot

so hot that the firemen were required to come this afternoon to check out some smoke happening in the outdoors terrace, actually I don't even know if that terrace is part of Parking or if belongs to the other bar. But no worries, just minor damage, but it could have been different had the cute firemen stayed too long in the premises of the building.

Rio

Happy 4th of July to my American Readers

Stereo July 2010

Happy Canada Day