massif du sud

two weeks ago we had a weekend planned of serious "raquette" (snowshoeing) at the parc du massif du sud, including spending the night in a "refuge", the typical canadian chalet as you imagine it. but fate decided otherwise...

first, a snowstorm made us stop on the way to the massif, which was about 4 hours from montreal. miraculously, we managed to stop at the same spot as our friends who had left earlier in a separate car. as all roads to the park were closed off, we spent some time at a cora's restaurant and decided to spend the night at a nearby b&b, the beautiful manoir de beaumont. our hosts even allowed us to have the fondue, that we had bought in montreal before we left, for dinner. on sunday we left to finally do some raquette, only to find the ski lift we had planned on using just broken down. in the end we made a raquette walk of about 3 hours in the thick layer of snow left by the snowstorm. pieter found out why raquettes are useful when he lost one of his snowshoes and stepped knee-high in the snow.

the lakes of canada

sufjan stevens about the lakes of canada, a song by innocence mission: "i'm in awe of big songs, national anthems, rock opera, the broadway musical. but what i always come back to, after the din and drum roll, is the small song that makes careful observations about everyday life. this is what makes the music by the innocence mission so moving and profound. 'lakes of canada' creates an environment both terrifying and familiar using sensory language: incandescent bulbs and rowboats are made palpable by careful rhythms, unobtrusive rhyme schemes, and specificity of language. what is so remarkable about karen peris' lyrics are the economy of words, concrete nouns-fish, flashlight, laughing man-which come to life with melodies that dance around the scale like sea creatures. panic and joy, a terrible sense of awe, the dark indentations of memory all come together at once, accompanied by the joyful strum of an acoustic guitar. this is a song in which everyday objects begin to have tremendous meaning." the full song can be streamed on "all songs considered" where you find more artists chosing their perfect song.

apollo weekend

instead of organizing the traditional christmas dinner, my bosses at studio apollo rented a chalet for a weekend. for a lot of reasons that weekend was delayed several times, and finally our christmas party happened on a weekend in march. while we didn't have a white christmas at all, the day we left montreal there was a big snow storm. driving through a snow storm is a special experience, especially when it is getting darker. the 'poudrerie' (snow powder) floating quickly on the streets in front of the headlights has an aesthetic effect. but of course, there isn't that much time to enjoy that. i had to concentrate on the road for 4 hours and a half (instead of the normal 3 hours drive between montreal and quebec).

everybody arrived safely at the chalet in mont saint-anne. including the sympathetic cook norbert who cooked us delicious things like pancakes, pizzas and a kind of chocolate crême brûlée (mmmm). on saturday marie and i tried out 'raquettes' (snowshoes) for the first time. walking on short oval skis looks a bit lame at first, but it turned out to be a fun thing to do!

embarassing moments

justin emailed me a hilarious radio quiz about the rock band ac/dc. have a listen here. want more embarassing radio moments? check out this dutch radio show. a guy wants to test his girlfriend on valentine's day and that's when it all goes wrong. after a second listen, there seems to be some acting involved, but it's well done. unfortunately, these people aren't actors...

igloos and dogs

in our perpetual efforts to get to know every aspect of the quebec winter, we decided to go all the way: spend a night in an igloo and ride a dog sled. the igloo was not built with blocks, it was basically a heap of snow made hollow inside (quicktime movie of us inside the igloo). the natives living more north use blocks because the snow over there is more frozen. the night in there, even though quite cold, taught us a lot about how to keep our body warm. rule number one: go to the loo as soon as you feel the need - even if you really don't feel like getting out of your thermal sleeping bag. if you don't, a lot of your energy will be used on your bladder rather than on keeping your body warm... in the morning we were surprised to get breakfast at a nearby hotel - hot coffee never tasted so great!

the dog sled consisted of a sled with one person sitting and the driver standing, and 6 dogs. the only thing the driver could do is stand on the brakes or not stand on the brakes. the rest is up to the dogs...

gigs

the week started with two nights of rock 'n roll. on monday it was a belgian band, needle and the pain reaction, who visited montreal on their way to a music convention in toronto. their powerpop sounded great in a little bar on saint-denis. tuesday night, one of the coldest this winter, the montreal based besnard lakes (a name i can hardly memorize) had a cd launch at club lambi. unfortunately they had two support acts which means they were still playing around one o'clock. it's a phenomenon that i saw before in montreal and that i find rather annoying. it must be annoying for the band too as a big part of the crowd (including me) left before the end. the besnard lakes didn't convince me completely but maybe they convince you in the ancienne belgique on the 27th of may. the two pictures are taken with kind permission from the worldwide web.

burlington

we had to go to the american-canadian border to get some paperwork done at the immigration office. to make the drive more worthwhile we decided to turn this necessity into a one day trip in the united states. our destination was burlington in vermont. there wasn't a lot of time to discover this city, but enough to eat a big hamburger with gorgonzola and giant fries.