Hot in Montreal

Here’s the real reason while I like to attend YULblog events: group hugs! On this photo, I am surrounded by Montreal bloggers Blork (my right), Bill (below), Karl (my left) and Patrick (my extreme left). No wonder there’s been a heat wave in Montreal.

AJ shares a few more photos of Marie-Jo’s party here.

D’un rivage � un autre

Alors voyager, ce n�est pas aller � une destination, c�est compter le temps qui t�emporte d�un rivage � un autre.

Je n’ai ni le pied, ni le coeur marin, mais quand m�me, son beau texte m’a berc�e comme autant de petites vagues. C’est bon de vous relire, cher Laurent.

Il est question de voyage pour bien des gens ces jours-ci, et B. et moi ne faisons pas exception. D’abord, des amis californiens sont en visite chez moi depuis quelques jours. Nous nous croisons � Montr�al, tentant de reprendre la conversation l� o� elle s’�tait arr�t�e des mois auparavant. Nous y arrivons plut�t bien et �a nous surprend agr�ablement � chaque fois.

Ce weekend, c’est la famille qui se r�unit � Ottawa, chez mon fr�re, une nouvelle tradition qui compte beaucoup pour nous, maintenant que nos parents ne sont plus l� et que nous avons perdu nos pr�textes pour nous r�unir. Dix adultes, deux enfants, un b�b� et un golden retriever feront un d�jeuner sur l’herbe devant la rivi�re Rideau.

Et puis la semaine prochaine, B. et moi partons pour San Francisco, l� o� j’ai pass� toute ma vingtaine et o� des fant�mes de mon autre vie se cachent dans le brouillard. J’y retrouverai ma vieille complice et amie Jacqueline, une australienne qui a partag� avec moi l’exp�rience de l’�cole de cin�ma et nos premi�res tentatives de travail dans le monde de la production cin�matographique et du multim�dia. Apr�s plusieurs ann�es d’amiti� et de confidences, elle est retourn�e vivre � Sydney et je suis repartie pour le Qu�bec. Nous avons maintenu un contact �troit malgr� la distance et malgr� le fait que nous ne nous sommes pas vues depuis 5 ans. Je suis nerveuse et excit�e comme une amoureuse, d’autant plus que je vais maintenant rencontrer la fille de mon amie, une toute petite “aussie” de deux ans � qui sa maman essaye d’apprendre � dire “salut, �a va?”, juste pour moi. Imaginez cette phrase, prononc�e avec l’accent australien par cette cr�ature. Je vais craquer, c’est s�r.

Ce blogue ne devrait pas trop s’interrompre puisque je ne serai jamais bien loin d’une connexion � Internet. On a beau faire dans le “social”, on a parfois aussi besoin de refaire le plein de solitude devant l’�cran d’ordinateur.

TV bad, people good. Right?

Area man constantly mentioning he doesn’t own a television.

Another great parody from The Onion (linked via a comment on the What do I know blog)

It’s so funny how we always feel the need to apologize when we talk about something we watched on television. “Oh, I never really watch it”, we feel the need to say. Because we know so many people are glued to their tvs, and we know we are not one of them, of course.

TV is okay. TV is not the devil. There’s good stuff on tv. Sometimes even great stuff (ER, documentaries, ID Maison - this last one is a plug for the tv show I worked for and which is still airing, by the way). You just have to know how to find the good stuff, and you have to know when it’s time to turn the tv off. I haven’t turned on my tv in over 5 days now (summer is not a good tv season for me). But that’s nothing to brag about. Right?

A cool attitude

Monday was the first day of the first Montreal canicule - there will be many more during the summer - and I felt discouraged. You see, I work from home, which is wonderful at any other time of the year, but when it’s 36C in my house (and it feels like 42C) and my sweat makes my fingers slide on the keyboard, I just can’t get any work done. Sleeping in that kind of heat makes you more tired than staying up all night, and I could imagine the long sleepless nights ahead of me. Bleh.

I had meant to buy an air conditioner for years now, but I never knew which model to pick, how to install it, and the portable models I wanted cost twice the price of the regular machines. But on Monday, on my way to a caf�, I walked by a hardware store and impulsively went in. They had one portable air conditioner left, a somewhat expensive model for my budget, buried behind a couple of regular machines. I asked a few questions to a very nice salesman who offered to get the box out for me, but I told him not to bother, that I would look up the info on the Internet first.

Later, I tried to work in a caf� but couldn’t concentrate - I can’t help but listen to the conversations around me. I knew there were very good chances that I spend the summer at home, writing a screenplay (more on this soon), and it was just too hot and painful. So I went home, called back the store to get the precise model number, looked up the info on air conditioners on the Web, called a few stores and realized that there more no more units left in the city (or so it seemed). So I decided to just go and buy the precious one I saw earlier. There was only one of them available and I had a feeling that the box might no longer be there when I would get to the store. Now, you have to understand that I’m not much of an impulsive buyer - who knows how long it would take me to make up my mind on a new model if the machine I wanted was no longer there?

I was right to be afraid. When I got to the hardware store, an annoying woman had the salesmen move all the boxes so that she could look at the air conditioner I wanted. Looking on in disbelief (and sweat), I listened as she was trying to convince the sales guy to come to her house, a few blocks away, to deliver the machine and install it for her. I was about to stupidly say something (those portable machines on wheels don’t need installation) when the sales guy recognized me, and behind the woman’s back, brought his finger to his lip to tell me to stay quiet. “I’ll pay you”, said the woman, “can’t you come now and install it?” “We don’t do installations”, he said, “and we can’t deliver right now”. She tried to get him to do it anyway, with her “I’ll pay you” attitude, and when he refused again she asked if he knew someone who would install it, and he said those kind of people were rare. I was trying not to stare at the box. If it had been lighter, I would have ran away with it.

After a few more arguments, the annoying woman finally left, and the two sales guys and the cashier let out a sigh. “I’ve come to buy it”, I said. “I figured that much, that’s why I told you to stay quiet”, said the nice salesman, who had tried to talk the woman out of buying that last unit. “How are you going to get it home?”, he asked. “I was going to call a taxi”, I replied. “We’ll deliver it for you”, he said. He convinced the older, grumpier salesman to deliver it in his truck after the store closed. I thanked him profusely, got my credit card out, and went back home to sweat my last few drops.

When the salesman/delivery man arrived half an hour later, he got the heavy box out and told me proudly that this was one of the last units left in Montreal, and that every store had them in back order.

I felt like the whole hardware store staff was happy for ME to get this machine. I didn’t know them and only went in there occasionaly. Why did they care? But then I remembered how my mom had taught me how to be polite and respectful and I knew that my attitude with the staff of that store - not my money, or *gasp*, my looks - had something to do with the fact that I was going to be able to sleep through the damn Montreal heat.

So the lesson of this silly long post is: be nice to people. You will sweat a lot less.

Eye rant

I spend a lot of time on the Web, and a lot of those hours are taken up by reading blogs. Yes, I am one of those bloggers who actually read blogs! Lots of them! I hear that people like that are hard to find these days. But that’s not the subject of this post.

My blog was created using a template offered by Blogger, which I tweaked a tiny bit, mostly to change colors. I am no designer and I don’t know much about page layout but as a reader, there are certain things I cannot stand, things that will make me stop reading a blog after two sentences, not because of the content but because it is simply unreadable. And that’s too bad. Why do people still insist on:

-Using the tiniest font possible?
-Using a noisy background?
-Using the tiniest font possible on a noisy background?
-Using the full width of a page to publish their text instead of wrapping it around and making it easier to follow the lines?
-Writing very very long blogs and publishing them using the full width of a page?
-Choosing a dark font on a dark page? Or a pale font on a pale page? Please give me contrast!

In our desire to be original and different, have we forgotten that it is not fun to read more than a few paragraphs on a screen, and that there are simple things we can do to make it easier for our readers? Or do we not care whether people actually read us?

New RSS feed for ni vu ni connu

The new version of Blogger is allowing us to publish RSS feeds. I already had one, but I wasn’t allowed to publish the full version of my posts, which annoyed a few of you. The new version by Blogger offers the full content. Could someone with an aggregator test this new RSS feed for me and let me know if this is working for you? I would appreciate it very much!

La grande illusion

Isn’t it interesting how many people dream of writing a book? It’s sweet, and it’s (mostly) harmless, and I guess I once semi-shared that dream, and I guess one or two brain cells still make room for the possibility that I will someday write a book (fat chance). But, but, but … Then I followed the book-publishing industry for 15 years.

Ah, la perte d’illusion quant � la publication d’un livre! Un blogueur qui conna�t bien le monde de l’�dition � �crit un billet tr�s confrontant sur la futilit� de l’�criture et du r�ve de publication. Les nombreux commentaires qui ont suivi sont tout aussi int�ressants � lire. Il vaut peut-�tre mieux imprimer le tout et aller lire �a dehors parce que vous allez y mettre du temps. Mais la r�flexion en vaut le coup!
(linked via Bookslut)

L’�lectron libre

Tiens tiens, un autre de mes camarades et anciens coll�gues de l’�mission Branch� se lance tout discr�tement dans la r�daction d’un nouveau blogue. Jean-Hugues maintient des sites Web personnels depuis longtemps mais apr�s son exp�rience de Blogue-Out, il sera int�ressant de le voir produire � nouveau sous la formule du carnet.

Mais parlant d’anciens coll�gues, o� est pass� St�phane? Tu ne nous fais pas le coup de l’abandon si t�t, dis?

Le partenaire invisible
(Billet �crit dans le cadre de Blogue ta musique)

Alors que j��tais �tudiante en cin�ma, j�ai fait appel � deux musiciens pour composer la trame sonore de mon film. Je leur ai montr� le sc�nario de m�me que quelques images du film (toujours en montage), et je leur ai expliqu� clairement � du moins je le croyais � que je voulais une musique acoustique (piano et guitare) et que j�allais l�utiliser de mani�re tr�s discr�te dans le film. Mes musiciens, tout comme moi, avaient tr�s peu d�exp�rience en cin�ma.

Au bout de 2 ou 3 semaines, ils sont revenus me voir, tout fiers, avec une trame sonore qui m�a mis les larmes aux yeux, pour les mauvaises raisons : �La flute symbolise le personnage num�ro un�, dit le premier musicien. �Le synth� symbolise le personnage num�ro deux�, dit le deuxi�me gars. La musique �tait mi�vre, appuy�e, pseudo-romantique, bref, � des lieux de ce que j�avais demand� et esp�r�. Et je n�avais plus que deux semaines pour pouvoir terminer le film et le soumettre au grand concours organis� par l�universit�, qui pouvait d�terminer la carri�re d�un court-m�trage.

J�ai toujours �t� tr�s sensible � l�utilisation de la musique dans un film, mais je l�ai �t� encore davantage apr�s cet incident. La musique peut rendre un film moyen beaucoup plus int�ressant et m�me faire d�un tr�s bon film un chef-d�oeuvre. Mal utilis�e (ce qui est tr�s souvent le cas), elle peut aussi compl�tement g�cher un film. Je me rappelle d�un film de Spike Lee o� la musique (avec paroles) �tait pr�sente sans aucune raison, pendant tout le film, comme un poste radio allum� sur le plateau et que le preneur de son aurait oubli� d��teindre avant les prises. J�avais envie de crier ou du moins de sortir de la salle. Et m�me si j�ai appr�ci� The Hours et que j�aime habituellement les oeuvres de Philip Glass, la lourdeur de la musique - alors que les images et le sc�nario t�moignaient d�j� d�une lourdeur de vivre � et son omnipr�sence, m�ont agac�e au plus haut point. Je me sentais manipul�e � sentir plus, � pleurer davantage, alors que le film me touchait d�j� beaucoup.

Dans un livre g�nial sur l�art du montage que je recommande � tous les amateurs de cin�ma (The conversations, by Michael Ondaatje), le c�l�bre monteur de film Walter Murch explique : �Music seems to function best when it channels an emotion that has already been created out of the fabric of the story and the film�.

De nos jours, on con�oit la bande sonore comme un produit s�par�, dont le marketing pr�c�de parfois la sortie du film. C�est extr�mement regrettable et �a appauvrit le cin�ma en tant qu�art. Il y a des exceptions bien s�r : le tr�s beau film Frida int�gre parfaitement bien la musique, qui devient elle-m�me un personnage. Mais �a, �a pourrait �tre le sujet d�un billet entier!

Pour ce qui est de mon court-m�trage, mes deux musiciens, qui avaient quand m�me du talent, sont revenus me voir quelques jours avant la fin du montage avec une nouvelle musique qui me convenait davantage. J�ai rendu mon film � temps pour le concours de mon �cole. Il a remport� un prix et est parti en tourn�e � travers plusieurs festivals internationaux. La plupart de mes profs et camarades m�ont dit qu�ils avaient beaucoup appr�ci� la musique, que j�avais uniquement plac�e dans les sc�nes de transition et qui appuyait � peine le jeu des acteurs. Mes musiciens eux, ont �t� surpris du succ�s remport� par mon court-m�trage. Normal: ils �taient tr�s d��us de voir le peu d�utilisation que j�avais fait de leur grande oeuvre musicale. J’avais pourtant l’impression d’avoir accompli un petit miracle!

Bonne f�te de la musique � tous!

Note: Je vous invite � aller lire un autre carnetier sur un sujet semblable: la musique et la t�l�vision.

Une petite note jaune pour Sylvain

Eh bien, la nouvelle gallerie d’art du YULblogueur Mathieu Sylvain, rassemblant des oeuvres griffonn�es sur des calepins auto-collants Post-it, fait vraiment parler d’elle. Elle se retrouve aujourd’hui dans la fameuse section Off Topic du bulletin de nouvelles Good Morning Silicon Valley du San Jose Mercury News. (�trangement, je ne retrouve pas la mention sur le Web, seulement dans le bulletin de nouvelles que je re�ois par courriel).

Et Mathieu qui croyait que les choses s’�taient calm�es…