THE CRITERIA: flavour, vegan innovation, and price
THE CATEGORIES: Best burger, best wrap, best juice/smoothie, best service, best dessert
I know this is maybe not a fair comparison, since Aux Vivres is vegan and Crudessence is vegan, organic, and most importantly, raw, but both have surprisingly similar, meat- and dairy-free menus. The big difference is that Aux Vivres uses an oven, a grill, a steamer and a lot of tofu and beans, while Crudessence doesn't cook a thing, and sticks to fresh or dehydrated vegetables, fruits, seeds, nuts and their oils. So no flour, no beans, no lentils, no rice, and no steamed, boiled, sautéed, or roasted vegetables, but 'raw' means a whole lot more than salad. Yes, you can use sunflowers to make a paté. Yes, zucchini can substitute for lasagna noodles. No, you don't need to cook sundried tomatoes to make a marinara sauce. So should you go vegan, go raw or stay home?

Photo: "Au Revoir Simone @ La Tulipe - 22-mai-09", by Midnight Poutine flickr pooler fabio costello.

This week in concerts: Not a whole lot going on as far as the big shows are concerned, which is good for all the people out there still saving up to buy their John Mayer tickets. However, there's a lot of sweet, soft music from small acts coming up just in time for V-day.

Wednesday, Feb. 10 :
Laura Marling w/ The Wheel, Divan Orange
UK siren Laura Marling is bringing her beautiful voice and soft tunes to the coolest orange couch in town. Opening for her is Colorado outfit The Wheel, the side project of two members from Born in the Flood.

C'est dans une salle drapée de velours noir, au sous-sol du Musée d'Art Contemporain, que s'est produit hier soir le trio montréalais Land of Talk. Dans le cadre des Vendredis Nocturnes, le MAC présentait une soirée réglée au quart de tour, qui commençait à 19h pile. La performance était également retransmise en simultané sur deux écrans situés ailleurs dans le musée.

Décrit comme "un trio indie rock avec une touche de folk", j'ai trouvé Land of Talk agréablement plus rock que folk. La voix d'Elizabeth Powell, qui supporte fièrement le groupe, était à la fois enfantine et légère, envoûtante et mordante. Le trio était parfois aidé d'un bassiste, pour un son encore plus dynamique et enjoué.

We all know the story - on an epic journey home after fighting in the Trojan War, one of the challenges Ulysses had to overcome was the threat posed by the Sirens, three enchanting women whose singing was known to distract sailors into wrecking their ships on the rocky shore of their island. This myth is also behind the title of choreographer Dominique Porte's latest work, Ulysse, nous et les sirènes.

Tondo Youth. Courtesy of Stefan Christoff.

"We have a culture of forgetting... These photographs are testimony to not wanting to forget," says Filipino author Miguel Syjuco, whose literary debut Illustrado won the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize and will be published this May. On the 111th anniversary of the Philippine-American war and vernissage of Stefan Christoff's On Movements in Manila exhibition at Kaza Maza, Syjuco's words acted as a reminder of the reality that these photographs represent.

Find films easily for FRIDAY FEB 5 through THURSDAY FEB 11.

Okay, so last week's Reel Forecast was ugly - hideous even. I'm having some issues with how best to include as much information as possible with as little clutter. So first things first: I have reformatted the mass of screenings in order to make it easier on the eyes. Any suggestions or comments are welcome. Next: if you care about your planet, your survival and your children, you should probably head over to Cinema du Parc. Collapse premieres tonight and runs all week. Narrated by Michael Ruppert, it's a film that deals in what he calls "conspiracy fact", in which he uses known facts (such as we are past peak oil and demand is rising while supply is diminishing) in an attempt to project the future conflicts that arise from these facts. The results are horrifying, even if it is all (educated) guesswork.

There are few things more gratifying for a music lover than watching a new band progress over time. This has especially been the case with Ismism - a group that has become more impressive each time I've checked in on them over the past couple years. Ismism was originally one guy named Matthew Daher, a drum performance major at McGill, who used it as a monicker for his lush ambient jazz experiments. For live performances, he added guitar, synth, bass, and vibraphone, and bam! - he had one of Montreal's best new instrumental outfits. After playing around Montreal for a while (and appearing on our podcast thrice), the band have finally completed an EP, which they will release at O Patro Vys on Saturday. I've been listening to it all week, and I gotta say, Ismism is worth your time and money. Their songs combine melodic and ambient qualities in a way that recalls KC Accidental (the late-90s band that became Broken Social Scene), Medeski Martin & Wood, and Bell Orchestre.

Below I chat with Matthew Daher about the EP, with detours into his favorite new music, accessibility in song writing, and his experience in McGill's music department.

Bravo February. You made it. And if you stay sunny and pleasant like this, we're happy to have you. The change of month seems to have brought its fair share of music to the city this weekend, including the 9th edition of the Féstival Voix D'Amériques (a tastefully curated showcase featuring spoken word, poetry and more). We also talk about livin' on a prayer, secret shows and spherical mattresses.



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Fresh brewed news for Thursday, February 4, 2010

More and more gruesome details are being made public as the Villanueva hearings continue. The two police officers who were present during the incident, Jean-Loup Lapointe and Stéphanie Pilotte, both testified yesterday and handed in their reports. Among other important details, the inquiry highlighted that certain procedures were not followed. Lapointe did not hand in his gun right after the incident; he was allowed to keep and discharge his weapon himself.

Photo by Marion Birdsell.

Brooklyn-based alternative/electronic/house four-piece Atypicals is making their Canadian debut at McGill's on-campus watering hole Gert's this Saturday, promising to be one of the most exciting musical acts to perform at Gert's, well, ever. With dance-worthy beats and infectious hooks, Atypicals' "electronica that stimulates mind and body" is known for getting the crowd on their feet. "It's really fun to play shows where everyone's dancing," says keyboard/synth player Jacob Bergson. "And, to be honest, I feel like having a name like Atypicals gives us license to do pretty much whatever we want to do on stage, and I enjoy that freedom."

Si le temps froid des derniers jours ne vous fait pas peur et que vous aimez batifoler dans la neige, vous devriez vous rendre au parc Jean-Drapeau pour la fête des Neiges. Que ce soit pour glisser, patiner, skier ou bien même jouer au mini-golf dans la neige, la fête des Neiges sera ouverte le 6 février pour une dernière fin de semaine avant de clore sa 27e édition.

...with roasted red peppers and cilantro

This is definitely a week to stay in and make soup...