glissades

last week we went to the "glissades" - and not just any glissades, the "super glissades" in saint jean de matha. the idea is simple: you take a tyre-like tube, sit down and slide off a slope. but then there's some interesting variations. slopes going up and down and taking sharp turns. big tubes you can use for up to 12 people, called a raft. sitting in a line on your respective tyres, and holding each other's legs to slide down kind of like a train. in one word, it really was "le fun"! click here to get an idea of what it feels like. this is definitely a reason to visit quebec in winter...

mont gabriel

my (marie's) work had organized a brainstorming session on the mont gabriel, a mountain about an hour north of montreal. since pieter is lucky enough to be my partner, he was lucky enough also to be invited to join us for dinner in the evening and stay the weekend ...! from our bedroom window we had a nice view of the ski slopes that were lit for the evening. we went to watch a freestyle ski competition that was going on right next to our hotel, and my colleague's kids enjoyed the ice skating rink as if they had been born on skates.

you are my joy

years ago, when the scottish collective the reindeer section was still active, i saw a video of their song 'you are my joy'. since then this video was to me an example of how a video can be simple, ridiculously cheap but cute and touching at the same time. despite many video sites like 'youtube', 'googlevideo' and 'myspace video' this video seemed to be forgotten and nowhere to be found. until my most recent youtube search... so enjoy 'you are my joy'!

tim hortons

when people over here say they "are going to tim's", everyone knows which tim they are talking about: tim hortons. tim hortons is a fast food restaurant chain that sells mainly coffee and doughnuts (des "beignes" in québecois). the chain is a true institution in canada, probably also because of its link to hockey (another one of canada's institutions). tim horton was a professional hockey player before he founded the restaurant chain. he died at a rather young age in a car accident.

steammm

a while ago i made music for an ad for 'arctic gardens', a brand of frozen vegetables. this involved recording of the microwave in the studio's kitchen. for those who want more ads: some of the recent stuff can be found on the updated marblesounds.com.