LA POUBELLE PROVINCE...

by Tallulah Lastname, Interim Secretary:
Another Puces Pop, another satisfying trip to the City of Saints.

la poutine de La Banquise, c'est la meilleur
(photo by Heywood McGillicuddy)

While this is chiefly a whirlwind business trip, we did manage to partake in some of the revelry Pop Montréal had to offer.

As is usually the case when carousing here, much of Saturday night was spent elbowing our way up Mont-Royale and down Saint-Laurent, true to the Montréal habit of chasing the rumoured better party. An endeavour made no easier by the fact that none of us are in the habit of sporting cellular telephones. It's asthough every weekend is New Year's Eve here.

"My Stars!" One of this week's inductees.

We did eventually stumble upon Laura Barrett's utterly charming show at Le Cagibi. Miss Barret and her accompanying orchestra managed to delight us all despite the puzzlingly murderous glances of the staff and the venue's strict policy of only selling drinks when accompanied by an overpriced food order. Five bucks for a brownie? Va te faire foutre, connard! It's a good thing they sell beer at the corner store in this town.

Nervertheless: Laura Barret. We recomend her as heartily as one can recommend things to strangers.

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Our new Montréal friend, Michel Courtemanche graciously invited us to hold our Sunday Session at his spacious Mile End studio. Our colleagues still stuck in Toronto overcoming the swine flu were green with envy when we reported that at Monsieur Courtemanche's digs, cocktails are brought in by a robot butler.

Truth be told, it sounds much more exciting than it actually was.

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Not too surprisingly, the themes stirred up by the Company's run-in with pig sickness still linger in much of this week's output. Not just in the pieces we brought along to finish, initiated by those still confined to the bunker, but in many new pieces begun this week.

(photo by Lydia Caulpepper)

Perhaps we, not unlike Picasso, we are going through our "Flu Period." I suspect this phase might stick around atleast as long as the virus does.

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