2013/08/02

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  Rue Prince-Arthur – 2013.07.24
  Scènes de Montréal – Montreal Scenes
  

  Updates Aug. 2

  Update 1 – Above: They have installed a few of those upright pianos in the Plateau Mont-Royal district. Anyone can sit and start to play. There’s a tarpaulin behind it which I gather any passerby can put on it when it rains.

  Update 2 – I forgot to mention, but starting yesterday, all my future posts will be in my new blog whose address is mentioned above. Since the WordPress code I use is basically compatible with the current Xanga, and will be even more so when (if) it moves to WordPress, I will post a copy of them here, as long as Xanga permits me to do it.

  Update 3 – Today August 2, 1971, my father died alone in Hôpital St-Luc, 9th floor (hepatology) at around 19h00. My mother had gone to lunch at a friend’s place. I don’t think it was a coincidence. As far as I am concerned, I was a patient on that same floor for a few weeks last fall. Just goes to say.

  

  Bed bugs

  When you sleep in your neighbor’s bed and it has bed bugs, there’s a chance you’ll bring some back home with you. Same goes with governments.

  A couple of weeks ago, it was learned (Jim Bronskill, Canadian Press) that « the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) helped to elaborate a directive permitting governmental agencies to use and share information which was obtained most likely through torture. [..] Located in Ottawa, the CSEC monitors electronic communications – from emails to telephone calls passing by faxes and satellite informations – from all origins and detects the informations of interest to Canada. It has 2000 employees, of which experts in decrypting, rare languages and information analysis. [..] With a budget of 400 million $, it is a key element in the Group of Five, an international information sharing network which also includes the United States, New-Zealand, Australia, and the U.K. Its American equivalent, the National Security Agency (NSA) has been the object of numerous leaks from the former external contractor Edward Snowden. » The CSEC was created in 2001, in the footsteps of you know what. Theoretically, the CSEC is not authorized to target Canadians. Until proof of otherwise becomes known, of course.

  Have you noticed that when it comes to concerted undercover sniffings or invading countries, like Irak say, there is a cartel out there of countries having the common characteristic of being anglo-saxon. You tell me that Canada is also anglo-saxon, I tell you that if it weren’t for the massive opposition of the Québec people and that the then Prime Minister was a Quebecer, we would have been in Irak too because in the anglo-saxon part of this grand country of ours, they already had unholstered their guns.

  Then, on July 31, I read an article (from the CP still) revealing that « an internal note of the RCMP [our federal police] says that the United States want their police officers to be exempted from Canadian laws in the case they would accept to participate in cross-border police operations. This revelation was contained in an information note prepared for the RCMP commisioner, Bob Paulson. [..] Traditionally, cooperation initiatives in matters of cross-border repression and the management of borders have been based on the idea that the laws of the receiving country applied. Questioned about this, RCMP sergeant Julie Gagnon said that the police corps had no comment to formulate about that note. »

  Neither do I. It’s self-explanatory. My question is: if Canada asks for the same, what will the answer be? Pretend it’s a question that someone would bother asking.

  Finally, Verizon has shown interest in barging into the Canadian cell phone market, with the benevolent accord of our federal government. It is already stupendously larger than all existing Canadian cell phone companies put together. Of course, some have questions for Verizon, like will they give the NSA informations about their Canadian customers. From an article in La Presse: « Verizon refused to answer queries by La Presse, quoting an internal note sent to its employees last June 6. According to this note, Verizon cannot comment the situation in reason of orders by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), the judicial body having forced Verizon to communicate the data to the NSA. »

  Now I know why I was itching lately. .

  Articles (in French) where I took the above info:
  1- Torture
  2- American police
  3- Verizon

  

  Buffoonic justice

  I just heard that the Castro abductor was sentenced to Life + 1000 years. There is that old saying which will always remain true: Anything exaggerated becomes ridiculous. Maybe it’s another manifestaion of that oversizing syndrome some Americans are famous for.

  

  Yearly twinkle fix

  Mostly because I still lack energy, and also unfavorable weather, I missed all of this year’s 29th edition of the International Fireworks competion. All except one. Yesterday was the last fireworks in competition and it was Italy. The weather was gorgeous and I decided that I just had to kick my ass and show up, at least this once. There’s another one on Saturday but that one is the closing fireworks, not in competition, so it’s not the same. Although…. Besides, it could rain Saturday for all I care!

  I left late, as usual. I can’t redo myself at my age. . ‘Late’ here means around 21h20. After getting to the Berri-UQAM metro station, I did the rest on foot, an about 20 minute walk though the Gay Village on Ste-Catherine St and finally got to my preferred spot on Notre-Dame St, under the Jacques-Cartier bridge, a few minutes before launch time at 22h00.

  And Wow! Wow! Wow! Italy didn’t steal this one! Themed on JUKE-BOX HITS, it was a continuous unraveling of oldies from mostly the sixties, seventies and eighties, starting with rock & roll the likes of Rock Around the Clock and Great Balls of Fire (indeed) and ending with a flabbergasting finale on Europe’s The Final Countdown. But that’s only the music. The show itself was fantastic, with lots of originality and synchronicity. I don’t know how it will fare as per awards go, but it was surely as good as the one from last year for Italy (bronze winner), by another firm however. I wanted to embed it but neither the video nor the audio were very good. For now the videos on Youtube for yesterday’s show are also unwatchable (no music, bad viewpoints, etc). So instead I’ll embed Spain’s entry a few weeks ago since they also produced a darn good show. I guess there is a reason why anywhere between 100,000 and 200,000 Greater Montrealers line boths shores of the St-Laurent river, and the Jacques-Cartier bridge above, ten evenings every summer, for 29 years now. Don’t mess about pyromusicals with Montrealers. They have become experts, much more foie gras than Big Macs, if you know what I mean.

  Spain’s 2013 performance:

  In a different register, the U.S. put up this year a show based on The Swan Lake. Not easy considering it was the only music score of the show. Nice visually but pretty conventional, imho.

  Now that I am in it, I may go to the closing fireworks on Saturday. The theme will be a tribute to U2. That would be a good opportunity for me to associate songs and group. If you’d ask me to name a U2 song, I’d be unable to do so. But I’m sure I have heard many of them here and there so, like they say, it’s never too late to make things up. I could of course stay home and listen to the music score on the radio, and even hear the bangs and the ooh! and the aah! from those at La Ronde, but adding a little visual never hurt anyone. As every year, the closinjg show is produced by Panzera S.A.S., an Italian firm also based in Canada and which is more or less the ‘house’ firm of the Fireworks competition. The late Giovanni Panzera was the Competition’s artistic director since 1987 and is greatly responsible for turning this event into the most important pyrotechnical art contest in the world. His was well known here, where he came often. He also developped a fine-tuned version of the ‘roman candle’, used by his firm. He died in 2000, at 70.

  

  • 00:52
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