M for Montréal

Yesterday we went to M for Montréal. A showcase of Montreal based bands for European labels, concertpromotors en A & R managers. So basically we got to see the best export-ready bands in town.

The concerts took place in the Mile End Cultural Centre. Since they have 2 venues, you could see one band in the Main Hall and then go to the Green Room to catch the other band that started to play.

I'l give u the line up and my personal view:

DJ Killa Jewel
She filled up the silence in between bands. She knew how to scratch all right, but not how to mix beats. And sorry lassie, no one gets away with Sweet child of mine and Knockin' on heaven's door by Guns 'n Roses following each other.

The Lovely Feathers
At their best they sounded like Maxïmo Park, but usually the rhythm section (bass and drums) couldn't keep a straight 4/4. A hint of Arctic Monkeys and a singer/guitarplayer that looked like E. from Eels on speed. Back to the rehearsal room I say.

Taima
Folk/country with an Inuit singer. Usually sung in Inuit (remarkably how it resembles Icelandic and Finnish). Guess it could do well on folk festivals. But apart from the gorgeous lead singer, not worth another look.

The Besnard Lakes
Man, they were tight! Excellent harmonic vocals, sweeping melancholic melodies and great songwriting skills. Live they sounded like The Album Leaf meets Under Byen.

The Mission District
These teenagers looked like The Hives and played something well ... I dunno ... Franz Ferndinandish. But their recorded material sounds way more poppy and mainstream rock. (T. says Orson.) Their music might not be original, but their gig sure was energetic! And the bassplayer looked he timemachined himself straight out of an 80ies punk band.

Galaxie 500
Rock'n roll in French. Energy and a wall of sound meets the likes of Rocket From The Crypt with some Led Zep twists. Live pretty ok (but that might have been the whiskey that was as cheap as the beer:-)

Patrick Watson Band
Keep your eye (and ear out) for this band. With the right label, distribution and promotion, this could be the next big thing. A couple of gigs ago they were joined by Gary Lucas (THE guitarplayer and co-writer of Jeff Buckley's Grace album). And Patrick Watson's talent sure matches up with the late Jeff Buckley. Magic pianofingerwork, a good sense of humour backed up by intelligent killer songs with a nice dose of chaos and psychedelica. Their last song was completely acoustic, no mics and a packed venue with an audience so quiet coz afraid to miss anything of the song. RESPECT! Like our newly met very drunk friend Léonie (Irena you got a twinsis in Montreal) said: "C'était quelque chose d'historique!"

Champion & G-Strings
I bought the album "Chill'm all" last year when I was in Montreal. Besides the nice pun in the title, I think I never was able to listen to the full album. 4 guitars, 1 bass and electronic beats. The hip crowd from Mile End seemed to like that cookie, but I just ate the cream on top. We left after 5 minutes.

What's on the decks?

Literally nothing, coz my platines (or tables-tournantes here) they don't work. Not because of the 120V (you can work around that) but because of 60Hz cycle here (Europe has 50Hz). So my LP's play too fast. Anyway hope to get an answer from Thomann real soon. (If you wanna buy music equipment, check out their prices).

But this post is acutally about the music I'm playing . Reply to me what music ur listening to as well. Here we go ...

1. Patrick Watson Band, a local band.
   Cinematic pop sweeps into dustbowl electronics, orchestral rock and dreamy ballads, with a gospel finale. (according to Secret City Records)
2. The Sedan Vault, a band from Vl. Brabant (I can't call them local anymore)
   Indie - Garage - Emo, reminds me of The Mars Volta
3. Christian Kjellvänder, Kristofer Åström, Thomas Dybdahl, St. Thomas and Nicolai Dunger, a bunch of Swedish & Norwegian bands/singersongwriters
   Scandinavian Americana
   

Halloween

I bought a big pumpkin for 2 bucks and made a Jack-O-Lantern out of it. What else to do when it's Halloween? But no food get's wasted in this household (a valuable lesson my Mum taught me when I was a kid and probably one of the few I took notice of)! So I scooped out the yellish pumkin flesh and made Pumpkin Pie and litres of pumpkin soup (I like mine with fresh parsley, carrots, tomatoes and ground cumin for a bit of a zip).

People have been wondering how our cat Nyfiken (Kneefucker when I'm angry with him) is doing? Difficult to speak for him. Guess in a way he must miss our garden and the trees and his cat buddies from the neighbourhood. But I guess cats forget easily so ...
He spends most of his time eating and sleeping, chasing his toys around the flat, waking us up by jumping on the bed at 6am and for no obvious reason doing a little sprint from the front to the back of our appartment (a straight 25m).
So I bought him a little treat: cat grass. Immediately he started munching away.

He likes to gaze at the pigeons and squirrels outside. And at night he dreams about tearing their raw warm flesh straight of the bone. (My idea of Halloween for Nyfiken).

WANTED: temporary roommate

T. is going to a conference in Warsaw end of November. That means I'll be home alone. Sniff sniff...

Normally I wouldn't mind that much coz T. went to lots of conferences and seminars abroad when we still lived in Belgium. Usually I spent the week playing lots of guitar, renting no-brainer action movies T. never wanted to see, inviting friends over for dinner to try-out new recipes (like sushi) and hitting the bars, going to bed at 6 am and waking up with terrible hangovers and my sister doing the dishes coz the house is a terrible mess.

But now I do start to miss the social interaction. I was used to going "downtown" Leuven to buy CDs and end up spending the whole afternoon in De Commerce with some friends. Having friends over for dinner and putting way too much effort in that pineapple-banana crumble with vodka. Or simply inviting ourselves to Greet & Tom and spend a lazy sunday afternoon watching our godchildren tear down the house.

I know it will be different when I have a job; not only do I have to work (darn!) but I'll get to know a bunch of new people.

So if you care to keep me company, there's a cheap flight leaving from Charles De Gaulle to Montreal at 11:45 on the 18th of November and going back on the 26th of November at 20:30 for 376,32 EUR. And you can get the Thalys from Midi to CDG (round trip) for about 82 EUR.

't Is niet voor mij, maar voor de eenzaamheid! Aantrekkelijke, knappe vrouwen mogen mij altijd schrijven op mijn adres; rue de coucou 70, Montreal.

American Saffron

I'm no herbalist in some sort of way. I have an interest in nature that is pure Hobbit-like (seen too much LOTR lately): I especially love plants, trees, greens and vegs when they taste good.

So this weekend I bought Saffron to put in the Tajine (thanks a bunch Sarah for the recipe, I added some zuchinni, carrots, chickpeas and toasted almonds, it was great!). When I tasted it, there was no sign of the particular taste. And for the colouring effect ... there simply was no colouring. (although the package claimed it is used for colouring couscous, paella, bouillabaisse)

Guess I should have been suspicious when I bought it; 3,69$ for 26g that's almost for free. But I just thought that I found a good a deal!

So I googled it and American Saffron aka Fake Saffron aka Bastard Saffron aka Saflower is not related in any way to the Spanish Saffron we know. It grows wild and abundant all over the US and Mexico. Apparantly it's use is medicinal especially for digestion problems: it has a laxative effect :-(

So beware of this fake saffron!!

Goodbye

I promised I would put this on my blog, so here we go ...

Bob asked some of his "friends" what they had to say about us going to Canada.

First snow

Well, just a quickie before the weekend: it has just started snowing (and we were of course outside and unprepared).

True, it's melting snow, but the snow flakes are pretty big. Ideal weather for chiens-chauds et une bonne choucroute (from Hengstenberg, such a funny name)!

Have a good one!

Ok, the picture is not all that great but look at the roof of the car ... SNOW!!

RHYTHMS DEL MUNDO

Something to help you get through rainy cold autumn days (well at least here in Canada).

Check out and listen to the snippets on RHYTHMS DEL MUNDO. The album should be in stores pretty soon.

Music from artists like U2, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys given a Cuban twist by Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo and others from the Buena Vista Social Club.

Fans of Señor Coconut and Richard Cheese will definitely like this!

A job, a job, my kingdom for a job

Who wouldn't wanna hire this guy?

The job hunt has been officially opened. Today I went to temp agencies such as Adecco and Randstad (yep, they even have those here) to register myself. But honestly I don't think I'll get news from them. At Adecco they just registered me at the reception. At least at Randstad they took the time to sit down and have a chat.

The guy from Randstad even gave me some names of agencies where I should present myself. And strangely he advised me not to put my date of birth, nationality and marital status on my CV. He said that's very European but not customary in Canada. You see, I would think that an employer wants to now if he's hiring a flash young guy like me or some old tosser! Guess not. So from now on I will keep that information private.

Too bad Susan from Interlabor is not around any longer. She could have easily found me a job

ADS: another day, another dawn, another way to get along

Most people know, but before moving to Montréal I have been working for 5 years as an AE for an advertising agency in Brussels. If possible, I'd like to continue doing that. And by the look of the commercials and posters around in Montréal, I should have a future here!
Here are a few of my favourite commercials

Greiche & Scaff - Inséparable


All right, the ad is some emotional BS about glasses, but I completely dig the song. And I can't find out who it is. I know on the French TV channels they have the song in French, so that makes me think it's custom made.
UPDATE: The song 'Another Day' was written by Jean Baudin specially for Greiche & Scaff. I googled him and only found a 9-string bassplayer with the same name.


Remax: Naked


This one is just great. Such a fresh way of looking at real estate. It's made by BleuBlancRouge. And from the same agency (think I'll send my resumé over there):
UPDATE: The song 'Chez Moi' was written by Lucienne Boyer & Ray Ventura back 1935. During the commercial we only hear the chorus.

The Gazette - Paris


Some "wortspielerei" but in sync with the piano, and it works!

Weekend = shopping + cooking

Oh don't u just love weekends where it's all about food?

Guess you all know I am passionate about food. Actually about all steps involved in food. Growing, buying, preparing and eating it. I can simply get emotional when something really really tastes good. And I am not talking about four star restaurants. Just basic stuff can be so beautiful as well. So buckle yourselves up for a foodpost!

It all starts on Friday when I go groceryshopping. I make a shoppinglist for the whole week. We decide what we're going to eat and from there we derive what ingredients we need. (Back in Belgium I used to type out my list and even spend a couple of minutes on the layout, freaky right!)

I usally buy stuff at lots of different places, but I try to get most of it in a supermarket. So far we've been going to 3 different supermarkets: L'intermarché 4 frères, PA supermarket and Provigo. First one is rather small, not a lot of choice and is kinda expensive. And the people working there are not really friendly. It's the one closest to our appartment, but we kinda only go there for last minute stuff. PA is about a 10 minute walk, but it's small, too crowded, too noisy. They have too much personnel and they don't work effectively. Usually the guys spend more time checking out the girls than filling the shelves. The owners are hispanic and you mostly hear Spanish and English. And finally there's PROVIGO a large chain (part of Loblaws). 20 minute walk, close to the Parc du Mont Royal on avenue du Mont Royal. They have a large variety of products, fresh fish, meat, cheese, nice large aisles and their generic brand "President's Choice" has the best tasting organic whole milk (tastes fresh from the cow, and I know coz I drank it every sunday when I was a kid at my grandparents' farm). Provigo is the ZEN shopping experience. (But you have to take a bus back and with all the groceries and full shopping bags in an overcrowded bus during rush hour is far from Zen).
By the way, all supermarkets do home delivery for an extra buck.

But this friday I went to PA supermarket coz some of the stuff I needed was on sale.
So I am not gonna go over my whole shopping list (that I forgot at home I noticed in the supermarket) but concentrate on 2 of my new favourite brands: Liberty/Liberté Yogurt and Celestial Seasonings Herb Tea. They have so many varieties. To list just a few: Dulce de Leche (with Argentinian caramel), Orange & Marzipan (my favourite), Coconut, Apple Pie, Plums & Walnuts, French Style Hazelnut, Lemon, Wild Blackberries, Peach & Passion Fruit, Black Cherries, Moka and lots more. Since I couldn't decide (and they were on sale), I bought 7 different flavours. As for the tea (and you can find this brand in Belgium as well) I kinda like Lemon Zinger, Sleepy Time, Mandarine Orange Spice and Bengal Spice. And I discovered new flavours such as Moroccan Pomegranate Red and Peach Apricot Honeybush. Oh and most of their teas are caffeine free.

Oh and the limes were on sale as well (10 limes for 1 dollar), so we had Drunken Mule. It's basically a punch with ginger ale (Canada Dry of course), some sprigs of fresh mint, crushed ice, sliced limes and vodka. Very yummy but also very dangerous. Y'all know what I'm talkin' 'bout :-)

So for the Drunken Mule we needed to buy booze. And here in Québec that means going to the SAQ. SAQ, Société des alcools du Québec, is a state-owned corporation responsible for the trade of alcoholic beverages. It's the same things as Alko in Finland and Systembolaget in Sweden. We bought some designer SKYY VODKA for our mule (hey, it was on sale :-) )

But let's fast forward to dinner tonight. Tonight we're having crostini with fresh figs, mint and prosciutto. Frittata with zuchini, mushrooms and tomatoes. And lemons filled with mozzarella, anchovies, basil and tomatoes. And as a main course a simple but fresh carbonara. Fresh meaning , fresh pasta, so I went down to Little Italy to the Jean Talon Market to buy durum wheat flour (=semolina di grana duro) to make pasta. Although it was a cold chilly and rainy day, walking at Jean Talon seeing and smelling mouthwatering produce is a warming experience.

Anyway, I should head back into the kitchen now, but I'll quickly give you my carbonara recipe. I add a few things to make it extra tasty.

Carbonara
Fresh pasta or very good linguine (I like the brand Di Cecco)
Bacon or pancetta cut in strips
1 clove of garlic
couple of eggs
double cream
freshly grated parmesan or pecorino cheese
small diced tomato
some chopped flatleaf parsely

Boil the pasta al dente. Fry a clove of garlic in some olive oil in a pan. Take the garlic out and fry the bacon. Whisk the eggs, cream and cheese together. When the pasta is ready add the bacon in the pan and add the eggmixture. And mix everything together on a very low heat.
Now it's up to you, I like my carbonara smooth & silky and others like it scrambled egg style. So smooth and silky means you take it of the heat and mix in the diced tomato and parsley. Otherwise you heat it through a little bit more (and stir often) and afterwards you can add the tomatoes and parsely. And serve directly with some extra grated parmesan cheese on top.

Tip: you can add a tiny bit of white wine or lemon juice just so the acidity will cut through the fat of the cream.

Tomorrow I'll be making Belgian waffles.

Have a tasty weekend!

Pimp my bankaccount

Last week we transferred nearly all our money from Belgium to Canada. For 5 years we have been putting money aside (OK to be honest, Tinneke has way move savings than I do. Most of my money went into music, guitars, CD's, LP's, etc.) for some big project: buying a house, a new car, moving abroad, etc. And since we have no real income yet, we're gonna need this money now. But not all of it of course ...

Coz money in a normal savings account gets you zilch. So why not invest the money?? I never kinda thought of investing money, but hey if I can get rich sleeping, why not!! "Just come and see me" said Kenny, my man at the bank. (By the way, he is about the same size as Kenny in Southpark. It was hard for T. not to laugh during our appointment.) So after discussing our options, rates, interests and how much money we were really gonna need this year, I went to the bank today and invested in a US account. It basically means you open up an account in the US, you change Canadian Dollars to US Dollars, put it in the account and a year later you have a nice sum of US money that you transfer back to Canadian dollars. Other money was invested in another account with a less profitable interest rate, but at least we have access to the money when we really need it.

Then I wanted to know if the rest of the money should be kept in the chequing account (zichtrekening) or savings account (spaarrekening)? It doesn't really matter coz they both have a neglectable interest rate, so that's why Kenny proposed a Guaranteed Investment Account. Basically it's a savings account but with a higher interest rate.

I got a savings, chequing, US, investment and a GI account now. My bankaccount just got pimped!!

But somehow it's a bit akward. Banking is so much different here:
When you open up an account, you know they will charge you like 4 dollars every month. And you are restricted to 10 transactions a month. If you keep a balance of minimum 1000 dollars, they won't charge you the 4 bucks, except when you do more than 10 transactions a month. You do more than 10 transactions, they charge you extra. You want like 25 transactions a month? OK, that's possible but they're gonna charge you more and you have to keep a balance of 2000 dollars a month. Well at least they are very open about it.
Even VISA cards. They only have VISA cards with revolving credit. That basically means you can use your card, you get an VISA invoice by the end of the month and if you don't pay in time you pay like 20% more. It's like PINTO in Belgium. That means of course that you can spend money that you don't actually have. That can be good, but without a job that just feels a little bit uncomfortable. So we'll wait a bit with VISA. In the meantime we still have our Belgian VISA , but with little money on the Belgian account left, there's no use of keeping that card.
Oh and tranferring money to another account? Well you can't really do it by Internet or Selfbanking coz they have to do it for you if the destination account isn't a client of our their bank. In Belgium you can transfer money to whoever you want and you can do it al by yourself, no magic or tricks involved.

Oh well, it's something we'll need to get used to.

La flambee des couleurs

Eric took us to the Eastern Townships (Les Cantons de l'Est) last week to experience first hand the beautiful colours of la belle province de Quebec.

We went to Mont Orford, about 150 km south from Montreal, close to the USA border and Vermont. We packed our picknick, climbed up the mountain (about 6kms up), had our lunch on the summit and crawled back down.
Afterwards we went to the small and charming town of Magog bordering Lake Memphremagog. Lake Memphremagog hosts a prehistoric creature but like his Scottish cousin Nessie, no one has ever seen the bugger. Even after our visit to the brewpub La Memphre and an icecold pitcher of Rousse Irlandaise still no sign of good ol' Memphre.
Before heading back to Montreal (and me cooking mussels & fries Belgian Style), we briefly visited the abbaye of St. Benoit du Lac. It's renowed for their Gregorian chanting, but no need to say this foodie went for the cheese and the cider of course :-)

It was a beautiful day with lots of autumny colours. Check for yourselves ...

Our first pics

Well, we finally got Internet at home. And our brand new iMac (oh yeah, we're SWITCHERS).

That means I can get serious now about finding a job (sigh, I kinda started to like my new lifestyle :-)

Here are the first photos of our first days in Montreal:

Tinneke and I celebrating our big move with some ludicrously expensive Piper.

Eric took us shopping to Costco's and we bought some yummie-tummie stuff

2kgs of peanutbutter ... 2kgs!!

The view from our front balcony avenue du Parc & avenue Van Horne

Our cat Nyfiken just likes the bathtub and ....

... our pink bathroom .... LAVER EN ROSE

our bedroom

kitchen, where the magic happens

living room

Diether our second visitor tasting the local brew "Belle Gueule"

Diether sampling Quebecs pride and honor: la poutine.
Think fries drenched in BBQ sauce or brown gravy mixed with melting cheese curds.