First and foremost, the Expozine opening party is happening November 25 at Drawn and Quarterly. To kick things off, there will be a round table discussion with Expozine founders Louis Rastelli (Archive Montreal and Distroboto), Andy Brown (Conundrum Press), Billy Mavreas (Monastiraki) and Pascal-Angelo Fioramore (Les Éditions Rodrigol) that will be moderated by Kevin Yuen Kit Lo (Four Minutes to Midnight). The event will also be featuring the launch of Four Minutes to Midnight’s latest offering which will celebrate Expozine with selections from Expoziners over the years.

When you’re at Expozine do yourself a favour and weave through the crowds of people to Matt Forsythe‘s table. He’s a Montreal based illustrator and comic book artist and on his website there’s a photograph of him holding a stuffed penguin. Matt Forsythe’s impressive body of work includes comics like Ojingogo, posters and drawings. At Expozine he’ll be showing his comic book Comics Class which is loosely based on his experience teaching children how to make comics. Some excerpts from the comic can be found on his website but also take a look at the book itself while you’re there. The comic itself is charming and funny and features a few choice teacher/student conversations, which is a dynamic that always yields comic gold. Matt Forsythe’s posters will also be available, look out for the beautiful poster for Prospector Films’ Sorry Rabbi.

The publishing company Drawn and Quarterly is an Expozine staple. If you haven’t heard, Drawn and Quarterly is a Montreal-based art and literary comic book publisher, they’re one of the most influential comics and art books publishers in North America and some might even argue, the world. They’re basically a Montreal institution and publish all your favourite comics by Lynda Barry, Daniel Clowes and Chris Ware among others. They will have a table or two stacked with the best and the brightest artists that the comics world has to offer.

Another Expozine gem will certainly be Toast on Jam, a darling illustrator and Montreal golden gal who runs her very own handmade small press called Toast on Jam. Her delightfully charming work features many of life’s most important things like pizza. Pizza Doing Stuff is a series about pizza doing all kinds of things like looking in the mirror, trying to catch a cab and drawing on the bathroom wall. Basically it’s stuff that you always wished you could witness pizza doing but because pizza is so delicious you never get the chance. If that’s not enough, she also makes posters, postcards and little books. All these treasures will be on sale along with other treats and things hand made with love. But if you’re not into “books” because even books with pictures is too much reading, maybe you’ll like the Montreal maverick artist collective Palimpsest. Palimpsest is a collective of Montreal artists, writers, curators and designers who strive to “create nonstandard venues for the exhibition and distribution of media and art”. Palimpsest is a magazine in a box comprised of print, audio, textile, video and everything else. Each issue features mixed media braided together by a theme not form. These guys are on the publishing vanguard and will certainly satisfy anyone who’s looking for something a little different this holiday season.

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THE DETAILS

Expozine, November 26-27, 2011 (12pm-6pm)

Saint Enfant Jesus Church, 5035 Saint-Dominique, (514) 271-0943

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(art of music) Tap your feet to live beats at one of Montreal’s best art museums this Friday night: local funmakers Random Recipe (pictured above) play the Musée d’art contemporain’s Nocturnes Series, complete with a cash bar and entry to all of the Musée’s exhibitions from 5-9 p.m. And, psst, the secret deal here is: you can buy a regular ticket for $10 or buy the $15 Wired card, which gives you access to the evening’s festivities as well as entry to the museum, other Nocturnes events included, for a full year!

(electric arts) This year’s incarnation of international digital arts festival Elektra makes music visual, so get ready to open up not only your ears but your eyes to sights and sounds possibly never seen or heard before… Montreal Buzz blogger Sophie Naima Caird breaks the fest down for us, from roving robots to Herman Kolgen’s video travels into a dusty, dusty world and Kurt Hentschlager’s FEED, an immersive, fog-filled space of low frequencies and 3D strobe effects. And on May 6, check out a free screening of short films at 6:30 p.m. at the Cinémathèque Québécoise. Elektra runs to May 8 at various locations.

[slow dancin’] Much-loved Montreal grassroots dance stalwart Studio 303 brings people close together, with their Slow Dance party fundraising event on May 7 at 8 p.m. Lean your head on the shoulders of a great contingent of “celebrity” designated dancers, fill up you dance card (yes, there are dance cards!) with the names of friends and strangers, and dance the night away – with a few dance performances here and there for inspiration and a fast-dance party after 11 p.m. At Studio 303.

[comic give-away] Comic books aren’t just for kids and nerds – any kid or nerd will tell you that, but it’s actually true! How many Hollywood movies have caught on to the fact in the past several years? The proof is in the profit. Free Comic Book Day brings us back to basics on May 7, reaching out to people unfamiliar with the wide world of comic books – what better way to do that than with free stuff? Here in Montreal, Drawn & Quarterly bookstore on Bernard gives away tons of free comics, requisite juice and cookies and even sets up a high-end colouring session for kids, nerds and non-kid, non-nerd curious. Fun times! And, yes, of course there’s an app for that.

(sounds like dance) Agora de la danse collaborates with Danse Cité to see their season out in style. The 8th edition of Choeur et Chorégraphes explores the fusion of dance with voice and brings together great talents in Montreal’s dance and music community, including composer André Pappathomas and choreographers Louise Bédard, Frédérick Gravel, les Soeurs Schmutt, Daniel Soulières, Catherine Tardif and artist Marc Béland. Catch it May 6 (8 p.m.) and May 7 (4 p.m.) at Agora de la Danse (840 Cherrier).

(real Montreal, on stage) Travel the back alleys and peek into the daily lives of a Jewish immigrant community in Montreal in the 1920s in Lies My Father Told Me – the story of the connection between a young boy and his grandfather, who peddles goods around town in his horse-drawn carriage. This new musical adaptation of Ted Allan’s classic story (once told on CBC radio in 1954 with the voice of William Shatner), stars Theodore Bikel, Patsy Gallant and a cast of over 25 kids and adults, at the Segal Centre, to May 23. Also in English-language theatre, Daniel MacIvor’s Beautiful View gets into the nitty gritty of women’s close relationships, at Centaur Theatre, to May 22.

(step lively) After 30 years of innovation and crowd-wowing, La La La Human Steps celebrates at home with the North American premier of A Piece by Édouard Lock. Company founder and choreographer Lock sees 10 dancers – including Diana Vishneva, star dancer of the Kirov Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre – perform classic ballet techniques in Lock’s own style with precision and speed, spinning a tale of operatic love to live on-stage music. At Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier at Place des Arts, to May 7.

(Africa, seen and heard) Pan African International film festival Festival Vues d’Afrique, brings the over 100 films from Africa and Creole countries to downtown Montreal, running to May 8 at the Gesù (1200 Bleury). And take in the many musical sounds of Africa all weekend at the Festival Musiques du Monde de Montreal, at Theatre Plaza (6505 St-Hubert) and Les Bobards (4328 St-Laurent), featuring Ivory Coast percussionist and guitar player Aboulaya Koné and his new project Bolo Kan.

[may weekend music] Talented and beautiful Israeli singer-songwriter Yael Naïm, who struck gold with her tune New Soul, featured in an Apple commercial, fills Metropolis with sensitivity on May 7. Olenka and the Autumn Lovers serenade with violins and Eastern European charm, with sometimes mellow, sometimes raucous klezmer-punks The Youjsh, May 7 at Divan Orange (4234 St-Laurent). For fans of “outsider” music and art, prepare to be blown away by this amazing triple bill and book launch at Sala Rossa (4848 St-Laurent Blvd.) on May 6.

The post THINGS TO DO IN MONTREAL (MAY 5-8) appeared first on Tourisme Montréal Blog.

This year’s festival boasts over 200 events and promises that over 200 writers will be milling around Montreal and the Holiday Inn comparing dictionary sizes and look for places to drink. With such an extensive program, figuring out just what to see can be daunting so here are the cliff-notes!

If you’re new to Montreal, check out Imagine Montreal which is a performance written by a few of Montreal’s most prominent writers like Gail Scott, Zoe Whittall and Edward O. Phillips, among others. Esteemed Montreal actors read stories that revisit some of Montreal’s milestones, like the infamous ice storm, some political controversies and, of course, the glorious Montreal summer. The City as Character, an event in a similar vein, takes place on April 28 and involves a panel discussion with Gail Scott, Peter Dubé and Teri Vlassopoulos exploring Montreal and Quebec writing, presented by the Quebec Writers Federation.

This year, the festival has placed a special focus on Indian writing and there are several events to choose from. On April 28 there’s Voices From the Indian Diaspora, where Bharati Mukherjee (who is also the focus of Face to Face event on May 1), Amitav Ghosh and Koyamparambath Satchidanandan will be speaking with Eleanor Wachtel about Indian writing and the literary scenes in India. Merrily Weisbord, Meena Kandasamy and Satchidanandan will be paying homage to Kamala Das, an Indian poet who died in 2009. Das has achieved worldwide acclaim and is best known for her work that is considered transformative for its blunt accounts of female sexuality.

On April 30, three Indian writers speak candidly about the books in their libraries that have challenged and inspired them in an event called Celebration of Indian Writing: Opening Your Libraries. If book recommendations are what you’re after, Opening Your Library: Canadian Edition is the event for you too. Get public book suggestions by four Canadian writers (Charles Foran, Alexander MacLeod, Kathleen Winter and Kate Pullinger) who reveal which books inspired them the most.

Bernhard Schlink, a European man of letters with a very impressive resume, discusses his new novel The Weekend and the themes that inform his writing. A former judge, he splits his time between teaching at Humboldt University in Berlin and at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York. Schlink publishes crime novels primarily, you know, when he’s not writing essays about German guilt or focusing on his scholarly work about law and morality and the meaning of justice. The event is hosted by Noah Richler on April 28^th.

McGill University is presenting a free talk with the Gore Vidal, where he will be discussing the American and international media. The 90 minute talk will be hosted by Marc Raboy. Alternately you could catch Gore Vidal on April 30th when he speaks with CBC’s Michael Enright about his life, his work, his legacy and maybe even that moment above on the Dick Cavett show where Vidal and the irascible Norman Mailer famously duke it out…

Finally, there’s the perennially popular CBC Blue Series moderated by Carol Off. This is a chance for you to see your favourite CBC radio personalities in real life interviewing the likes of Gore Vidal, Alexandre Jardin, Amitov Ghosh and Bernhard Schlink.

The Blue Met is also a family friendly event. The 4^th Annual Blue Metropolis Children’s Festival offers over 75 events with authors and illustrators and storytellers at no cost for children under 12 and their families. With so much going on this year, there’s something for everyone at this year’s Blue Metropolis.

Guest Blogger: Sophie Naima Caird

Photo Credit: Blue Met Children’s Fest- Monique Dystra

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The Blue Met Fest is a celebration of international literary superstars and some of Montreal’s finest writers. This year’s programme is impressive- for instance, there’s a face to face with Gore Vidal hosted by CBC’s Michael Enright. Or if that doesn’t float your boat, you can see one of Europe’s finest writers, Bernhard Schlink (The Reader), hosted by Noah Richler (yes, son of that Richler). If non-fiction is your thing, then Montreal’s Joel Yanofsky (Bad Animals), Charlene Diehl and Judy Fong Bates read from their memoirs for a program called Blue Met Nightcap. According to me, a series of symposiums called “Nightcaps” can only be read as an indication of how much writers love to drink.

Now, there are some things that are stereotypes because they’re true. For instance, most hippies have actually piloted a decrepit, seatless school bus with a bed in the back and a Mason jar full of sprouts growing on the dash. Likewise, on any given night most writers have enjoyed a drink or seventeen. The romance of the writer and the drink has been unfolding for centuries and is alive and well all over Montreal today. Here’s a look at the past, present and future of where Montreal writers drink.

The likes of Mordecai Richler, Irving Layton and Leonard Cohen have all called Montreal home. However, you’d be hard pressed to find Leonard Cohen yakking it up at local bar and you probably won’t see Anne Carson traipsing around Jeanne Mance Park, playing dominoes and drinking out of a paper bag. However, that’s not the case for scribes like Layton and Richler. In fact, Richler could usually be found engaged in animated conversation with patrons and journalists at bars like Woody’s, Winnie’s (pictured above), Ziggy’s and Grumpy’s, fondly referred to as Dink’s in his writing. In Richler’s flusher years, he was known to enjoy some drinks at the now defunct Maritime Bar at the Ritz Carlton. Less of a man about town, Irving Layton is lovingly remembered for imbibing in his McGill office. Even though current Montreal writers seldom go to these places, they’re worth a peak just to see where these former men of letters slurred their words.

Presently, you can find the Montreal literati at a few choice locales. For instance, local writer David McGimpsey mentioned that you’re likely to find sportswriters of all colours at the universally beloved Hurley’s Irish Pub. If you venture north towards the plateau, you’ll find yourself at the infamous Copacabana on Saint-Laurent. This bar features a Tiki inspired sunset on the wall, a conspicuous palm tree and a neglected pool table. The bar’s a bit of a dive but it’s dark, quiet and cozy. I’ve often thought that you can deduce the quality of an establishment by its bathroom and Copa’s bathrooms are immaculate, so there you go. Countless local writers, journalists and poets have spent countless dollars on their no frills drinks. Occasionally the bar will host a customer’s book launch, as a nod to their clientele. The bar itself is nothing fancy, but it’s well worth it.

The future of Montreal writing can be found all over the place, but they tend to congregate once a month at the Pilot Reading Series which takes place every last Sunday of the month at Sparrow.  Keep an eye out for these youngsters; soon they’ll be taking over the Blue Met.

Guest Blogger: Sophie Naima Caird

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THE DETAILS

The Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival, April 27-May 1, Holiday Inn Select Montreal Downtown Hotel, 99 Viger Avenue West

Woody’s Pub, 1234 Rue Bishop, (514) 954 0771

Sir Winston Churchill’s Pub Complex, 1455-1459 Crescent Street, (514) 288 3814

Ziggy’s Pub, 1470 Crescent St, (514) 285-8855

Grumpy’s Pub, 1242 Bishop St, (514) 866-9010

Ritz- Carlton, 1228 Sherbrooke West, (514) 842 4212

Copacabana, 3910 Saint-Laurent, (514) 982-0880 ‎

Sparrow, 5322 Saint Laurent, (514) 690-3964

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Photo Credit: Hurley’s- Appaloosa

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