“I’ll give you two choices: either I smash your face in or you tell me what’s going on.”

What to do when given a choice like that?  Any self-respecting non-masochist would readily choose option two: explain what is going on.  But here, as with most stories, context is everything. Earlier that Monday (Nov. 22) I had been covering the preparations for État d’Urgence (State of Emergency), an annual event organized by the art …

High Rollers: Montreal Roller Derby soars through its fourth season

Standing in line to buy a t-shirt the atmosphere begins to sink in: driving rock music, a buzzing crowd, squealing wheels and a decidedly tough team cheer.  Welcome to Montreal Roller Derby.  Picture it: a flat donut of a track with five scantily clad women per side bumping and bruising to prevent the other team’s …

Going green never sounded so good

There’s nothing like taking a stroll through downtown and happening upon the stages of the Montreal International Jazz Fest.  You’re not sure what, but something drew you in this direction: the distant echo of open air music, the stream of relaxed people coming and going, and the concert lights, lending their glow to the summertime …

The Sound of Silence

On April 2nd, Malika and I returned from northern Chile and our sightseeing vacation.  In planning, the highlight was to be our time in San Pedro de Atacama, a small town in the Atacama desert sustained by subterranean waters fed by the nearby Andes mountains.  In recent years, it’s become a tourist magnet whose number …

Earthquake Redux

The sound of a seismic event is unmistakable.  I realize the earthquake has been a recurring theme of this blog, but read on and you’ll realize why. On the scale of an individual human, the vibration is global, all encompassing.  Everything one can feel, see, touch, and hear is at first vibrating, then shaking, then …

The Smoking Gun

The last time I wrote, it was the sound of my dad’s snoring that urged my pen on (yes, I’ve been writing in my notebook as a start).  Since then I’ve moved to another room, next to my grandparents, and out of range of my dad’s rumbling.  Of course, this only means that I have …

Life’s a snore

I hoped it wouldn’t come to this, that I wouldn’t have to get personal, but as I explained in my first post, sound is often intimate.  After I became accustomed to the neighbouring canine alarm systems, another nocturnal sound, far more local and disruptive made itself heard. In my first week on Chile’s central coast, …

Release the hounds

A new sound has invaded my time in Isla Negra.  In this small coastal town, site of one of Pablo Neruda’s homes and where my grandparents have lived for the last 18 years, many people keep dogs as pets, but also as an alarm system. As in Santiago, but appropriate to its scale, Isla Negra …

Quakin’ all over

Since I arrived in Chile and especially since I got to Isla Negra on the central coast, I’ve been surrounded by sounds.  I arrived in Chile on March 7th, one week later than scheduled.  My flight had been postponed due to the movement of the Earth’s crust, no less.  In the early morning of February …

Halli Galli

The night before I flew to Chile, I had some friends over for a Chinese hot pot, a delicious send off prepared and organized by my loving Malika.  We ate until none of us could anymore, then Malika and I cleared the table for a game of Halli Galli, which we’re told means “fun” or …