boston

like many québecois, we decided to spend the easter weekend in boston. after a six hour drive we arrived on m.i.t. campus (massachusetts institute of technology) around friday midnight. unlike our fellow québecois visitors, we were staying on campus, at johannes and karen's "family housing" flat, on the 14th floor and with a great view and a real miro on the wall (or that's what they told us!). we visited beautiful beacon hill, followed the freedom trail, and walked around on harvard and m.i.t. campus among the world's best students.

saturday was pieter's lucky day: not only did he buy himself a new music toy at a great price, he also found out his favourite band of the moment, loney dear, was playing in boston that very weekend. more about that concert in the next blog topic!

before the concert we went to have some pancakes with a strangely european taste. it turned out the pancake place was owned by a woman from antwerp. small world! there is still some work to be done on the pancakes, though: marie's apple pancake had coriander on it instead of cinnamon. a mistake from the chef, as it turned out. we kindly accepted free dessert to compensate marie's suffering!

sunday was marie's lucky day: she noticed some genuine schréder lighting in one of boston's underground stations. sunday was also "ronde van vlaanderen" day. on the picture you see johannes filming the online vrt broadcast that he gets through a belgian server, simultaneously filming and sending it via skype to a friend in florida.

bloc party

bloc party's sophomore (i like that word) album "a weekend in the city" has been in heavy rotation on my cd player this year. it's a record i associate with the long drives in quebec and the white landscapes (have a look at the cover of their debut album to see what i mean). from the moment i saw the montreal show on their tour schedule it became my most anticipated concert.
albert hammond junior was support act that night. we saw him earlier in montreal as the guitar player of the strokes, but this time he was the frontman, the songwriter and the witty guy. there were even songs where he hardly played guitar, giving away the parts to two other guitarists. and it all worked out nicely. i didn't know any of his songs but it was a very nice encounter with mr. hammond junior as himself.
after that bloc party rocked the house with the expected opening song song for clay (disappear here), which delivered the first highlight of the evening. two guitars and a bass playing the same riff always works. but let's not forget to give credit to matt tong, the hardest working drummer on the planet. he played like he wanted to collapse another lung, persevering in playing some crazy drum loops for about 4 minutes.
in a nutshell: i danced on banquet, was moved by so here we are, felt young again and raised my hands during "i should have kissed you by the water" in "i still remember". 'cause what a line that is. and of course, everybody screamed along during "positive tension" ("so f***ing useless"). ah, joy.
on the other side: kele should master some more microphone techniques, and too much delay on the guitars made the sound a bit cluttered. but more importantly: they didn't play two more years, which resulted in a bad score from my missus. next time, guys, please!

it never ends

this is snow. this ain't a flashback. this is april 12th. soccer season in parc baldwin still seems far away.

bains scandinaves

winter is slowly coming to an end, and we decided to have a final winter activity at the scandinavian baths in mont tremblant. to experience the full effect of the baths, you're supposed to follow several cycles of "heat - cold - relaxation". the hot part is an outdoor hot tub at 37° celsius, a sauna or a steam bath. then, the cold part is an outdoor pool at 13° celsius or the local river (where they had made a hole in the ice) at 3°! we must admit we did not have the courage to dive into that last one. the last part is the relaxing part, where you basically just sit down,stay silent, and feel the hot/cold effect on your body. we left after four of those cycles, feeling pretty relaxed and a bit sleepy.

les auberges du coeur

a while ago i made music for an ad for auberges du coeur, a charity organization for the homeless. instead of trying to move people with grim images taken on the streets, they try a different approach. in two ads auberges du coeur wants to help people to live with 20 dollars less by recommending the website commentsurvivre.com. the ads are simple but well done, and humour is probably more effective than shocking photos in my opinion. more news on the job front: my career in "la chanson française" has taken off. céline, you've been warned!

nous mentons

québec provincial elections have just finished. the liberal government was re-elected, but does not have the majority any more. these elections were a bit different than usual, since 3 political parties were involved in the race (parti libéral, parti québecois and action démocratique), whereas usually there are just 2, like in the united states. politicians here seem to attack their opponents in a much more direct and active way than in europe, which makes things more animated. the liberals also had an intriguing poster campaign: on the picture posters in the streets, the local liberal candidate would always have his hand on his chin. it made a lot of people wonder what message could possibly lie behind this. a radio presenter found the answer: they are holding their "menton" (= chin) to say "nous mentons" (= we are lying).