Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Montreal Jazz Fest: La Maison du Festival

Exciting news! Montreal has a brand new concert venue and it's got some serious soul! I was there last night, for the very anticipated inauguration of La Maison du Festival and its intimate cabaret-style venue, L'Astral.

Legendary pianist Oliver Jones and the singer he calls "the most-underrated jazz singer in North-America", Ranee Lee, made history last night as they were the first artists to perform on a stage that will soon embrace the biggest names of jazz music.

I am really excited, as I was sitting there, sipping on my white wine, I felt overwhelemed with a groovy feeling worthy of a 1920s Chicago jazz club.

No need to say, La Maison du Jazz is going to be my second home and "chouchou" hangspot.

Montreal's famous pianist, Oliver Jones hits the stage with band

The venue: L'astral


Oliver Jones on the Piano

First song performed at L'Astral. Beautiful Love by Ranee Lee


Singer Ranee Lee


La Maison du Festival's bistro, Le Balmoral, nice!



The chandeliers in Balmoral

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Marc Lagrange

"The environment and the beauty of women motivate me every day" - Marc Lagrange












Saturday, June 27, 2009

A Family Tree for all of Humanity

Human diversity has always fascinated me. Like many before me, I’ve often sat under the stars wondering who had come before me. Where did my ancestors come from? And if we all came from the same source, why did we all look so different? How did we become so diverse?

A few years ago, I tried to do my family tree with my father. After much research, we eventually reached a point where we no longer had any information to keep us going.

That’s what Spencer Wells, a genographer who analyzes DNA from people from regions all over the world – and that I’m completely obsessed with, calls “history”.

Turns out, within the last 200,000 years we all shared a common ancestor in Africa, and that analyzing genetic data allows us to trace human migrations over the past 50,000 years as our African ancestors migrated to other continents.

I was always a firm believer that we all came from the same origin. That we were all related, no matter how different, we were brothers and sisters. All of us. That belief has led me to develop an even greater source of inner-peace in moments of intense annoyance by other human beings: compassion.

Spencer Wells is an amazing, eloquent and extremely intelligent speaker. Here’s one of his presentations in which he explains how we can build a family tree for all of humanity. It’s fascinating.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Buika

I never get tired of this woman's voice.



Both albums, Mi nina Lola and Nina de Fuego are amazing from A to Z. If you're looking for a CD to play while hosting dinners at home with friends or summer night get togethers, I strongly recommend you give Buika a listen.

Love,

T xox

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Dolan, tu m'impressionnes

Vêtu de noir de la tête aux pieds, Xavier Dolan se tient seul sur scène. Nerveux, il demande à ses producteurs de venir le rejoindre. Il y a trois ans, Dolan commença à écrire le scénario de J’ai Tué Ma Mère. Il avait 17 ans.



Lundi 1er Juin 2009.

Ovation au Cinéma l’Impérial.

Évidemment, je pleure. J’ai pleuré tout le film. Des blessures que je croyais cicatrisées avec le temps, me semblent tout à coup bien vives. Mettre des Band Aid des fois ça empêche d’inspecter les plaies.

Mes larmes goûtent l’ingratitude de mon adolescence. Mon rire, l’ironie d’une relation amour-haine.

Xavier Dolan est un génie.

J'ai Tué Ma Mère, gagnant de trois prix à la Quinzaine des Réalisateurs de Cannes

Acteurs et producteurs rejoignent Dolan sur scène

Xavier Dolan

Quand le rideau se lève

Anne Dorval et Xavier Dolan

L'ovation

Moi mes souliers ont beaucoup voyagé