dEUS

the moment we have been looking forward to: the dEUS concert at the main hall in montreal (capacity: 200 people). i was standing on the fourth row during the concert. it took me 2 minutes to go to the loo during the concert and go back to the same spot. try that in vorst nationaal! these days dEUS plays solid concerts with no surprises. all the singles were played (except 'hotellounge' and '7 days, 7 weeks'), completed with their live favourites of the new album ('what we talk about', 'pocket revolution', 'stop/start nature'...) we heard a lot of dutch being spoken at the venue, and for the first time we actually met flemish people living in montréal. we have some lo-fi video footage, made with a digital camera. you'll notice mauro, who stole the show most of the time, especially during instant street (quicktime 3 mb). and here's a dEUS-medley (quicktime 5 mb), a compilation of 'pocket revolution', 'first draft (w.c.s.)', 'sun ra' and 'theme for turnpike'. unfortunately our pictures are a bit blurry. we've found the photo on top on deus.be.

cabane à sucre

maple syrup can be eaten with virtually anything over here. this is why we decided to investigate - together with marie's colleagues - where this syrup comes from. we spent our afternoon and evening at the sucrerie de la montagne, one of the many 'cabane à sucre's in québec. during the period between winter and spring, when it freezes at night but not during the daytime, it is the "temps des sucres". the resin is extracted from the maple trees, collected in buckets and then boiled until only syrup is left. we've ended our visit with lots of food topped with a lot of maple syrup.

new york, new york

new york being just a 7 hour bus ride away, we just had to go and finally see the city of our times... and so we did. our 3 day-trip to new york city was great! new york is big, busy, beautiful, interesting and different at every corner. thanks to our hosts candida & jan we were lucky to stay on the island of manhattan. here are some pictures of our trip: the greyhound bus, times square, central park, empire state building, ground zero, wall street... all sounds pretty familiar doesn't it?

edith

edith had to be in the states and stopped by in montreal. our second visitor! after the manadatory climb of the mont royal, we rewarded ourselves with delicious bagels from the famous fairmount bagel bakery. we also saw the 'block party' documentary by michel gondry, starring the excellent dave chappelle organising a legendary hip hop concert in brooklyn.

katrien & kris

on the last weekend of february, we were happy to welcome our first visitors from back home: katrien & kris! unfortunately for them, that weekend was also one of the coldest of this winter... so, we spent a lot of time in bars (laika brunch!) and in their rental car. but we must mention their bravery when queuing up in the cold for half an hour on the 'nuit blanche' of the 'montréal en lumière' festival, for the dance act at the hôtel de ville.

spring

for the first time this year it seemed like spring has arrived in montréal. the ice in parc laurier is melting, a lot of people are on the streets, no jackets are required. a bit strange because we've only experienced winter so far. but nothing is guaranteed as it will get colder the coming days...we went back to our former neighbourhood (côte-des-neiges) where we visited l'oratoire saint-joseph, the first church we ever saw with escalators inside.

parc d'oka

laurence and bruno, fellow belgians, invited us to a day trip to parc d'oka, one of the many national parks in the province of québec. the park is known for its beach along the saint-laurent river, but this time of the year both the beach and the river are completely frozen. the result is an impressive landscape.

strike a pose!

i've just finished the soundtrack for "strike a pose!". this short film was made by some people of the belgian collective called secretly canadian (no joke). you can watch it on this website!

library

i visit the library in montréal (in full la bibliothèque et archives nationales du québec) every week. they have a great collection of books and taking out dvd's and cd's is completely free (unlike the libraries i went to in belgium). cd's taken out at the moment: télémaque and daniel lanois... yep, i'm getting into québec artists. books taken out at the moment: three books about audio recording, the integral mafalda collection, flaschko (the adventures of a man living in an electric blanket) and a few episodes of henriette, funny and moving comics written by the men who created "monsieur jean".