Calling all aspiring journalists who like free things! The McGill Daily's got something special for you. For the second year the newspaper presents Journalism Week, a series of workshops, talks, and panel discussions, all with the intent of making you a better, more informed, and diverse journalist. Best part? You got it. It can all be yours cost-free.

Podcamp Montreal took place this past weekend and brought a host of media-savvy weirdos together. Podcamp bills itself as the "New Media UnConference", and the seminars are primarily for people creating podcasts or deeply engaged in social media applications who want to know what else their community is doing.

This was my first time attending the event, and I had a good time, gettin' my learn-on.

Ça y est, tout est terminé. La matrice des Invincibles, Lyne-la-pas-fine, s'est éteinte. Les folies des quatre irresponsables auront eu raison d'elle. Tragique fin pour la meilleure série télévisée québécoise depuis belle lurette (depuis toujours?). On ne blâme surtout pas les deux excellents auteurs, François Létourneau et Jean-François Rivard, d'avoir pondu une finale aussi sombre. Sous les larmes, il y a la rédemption. Devant l'inévitable, les Invincibles ont abdiqué et, assumant la futilité de leurs existences, ils comprennent maintenant qu'ils sont tout, sauf invincibles. Le rideau est tombé en beauté, sur l'espoir et la naissance. Celle d'un enfant et celle d'un culte.

Il n'y aura bien évidemment pas de suite aux Invincibles. La tournure scénaristique qu'a prise la série ne le permettrait certainement pas. Mais, une chose est certaine, on entendra certainement encore parler du réalisateur Jean-François Rivard. Mon instinct me dit qu'il fera prochainement le saut au grand écran et, si j'étais assis à la table de financement, je lui donnerais carte blanche. C'est incroyable tout ce que les artisans des Invincibles ont réussi à accomplir avec si peu de ressources. On le doit certainement au génie de la série et au talent de ses créateurs. Pour un jeune réalisateur qui vient de connaître un si grand succès, un long-métrage s'impose.

Mais, pour le moment, c'est le deuil. Steve, Rémi, P-A et Carlos ne seront plus jamais là.

In deciding how to get the message of suicide prevention out to a sometimes jaded public the challenge is up to Suicide Action Montreal to reach out to everyone to raise awareness. Faced with the challenge, the clever cats at Touche! phd, Sid Lee and Astral Media concluded there's no better way to illustrate suicide than to bring an abrupt end to things people like. The campaign rolled out in two ways. To start, popular programs randomly went black to make way for the following (roughly translated) message: "Does this premature ending surprise you? Imagine if it happened to the life of someone close." After a few seconds of darkness, the episodes started rolling again. Same thing happened with popular songs on the radio.Check out examples of both the TV and radio executions after the jump.

For those of you who haven't come across it, Grafika is worth a few minutes of your time. It is published by Infopresse. It is the link between the graphic and communications professionals in Quebec or anyone who is in love or learning the works these pros. It deals with such subjects such as graphic design, photography, illustration, print production and technology inherent in this sector. Recent topics include branding, typography and packaging. The Grande Bibliothèque has back issues if you want to check others out. I myself enjoyed it in the newish cafe Myriade on my street. [You can have your coffee brewed using french-press]

adidas and our home town heroes of brand experiences Sid Lee join forces to hype up the fact adidas will be celebrating its 60th birthday next year, so they decided to have a house party to kick off the festivities. The video is a modern fresh breath of history; from the days of good Ol' Adi Dassler kicking on the streets of Herzo, to the new culture clash of hip hop, sport and everything original. Let me know who you recognize in the video as it is a star-studded cast of adi lovers. Whats key is once again from right here in Montreal Sid Lee helps us recognize the commercial potential of creativity. A true example of so many talents working as a unified team under the leadership of generalist thinker. its so very cool to have them here.

Whether you want to know what today is or not, you probably know that it's the much awaited day of Obama's inauguration. Personally, I'm a little disgruntled at how terribly saturated the Canadian media is with the coverage of this event. Just a few minutes ago, I had to turn off my favorite radio station because even they are following the trend. We're Canadians, so what's the big deal? Why is even the CBC falling into the pool of overzealous reporting of how great our neighbour's new president is. I get a bit of a strange feeling that resembles when I was a kid and my friend got a much better toy for Christmas than I did. Are we such masochists that we'd rather dwell on how much better our neighbours have it than focus on fixing out own problems?

Here's a little election day humour for you (other than the fact that it seems like most of our nation cares more about today's American election than our own). The above video, a prank call by a pair of local comedians known as Les Justiciers Masqués, made its way around the blogosphere on the weekend and was picked up by most mainstream outlets yesterday.

While it's hardly news now, I wanted to post it in conjunction with a couple other Palin videos.

Bande à Part (l’équivalent francophone sur les ondes de radio publique de CBC Radio 3) lançait, le premier septembre dernier, sa toute nouvelle saison. L’émission, qui a pour mandat d'élargir l'horizon sonore de la culture populaire francophone au Canada en offrant aux musiciens et aux artistes émergents d'ici un levier média qui n'existe pas ailleurs sur les ondes radios commerciales, propose cette année plusieurs nouveautés dont les toutes récentes sessions Bande à Part. Me fut donné l’infime honneur et privilège d’assister à l’une de ces sessions mettant en vedette le groupe de Québec Lesbo Vrouven.

Although it's been stuck in development hell for months, Midnight Poutine is proud to announce that the MP/SNAP! joint photo exhibition will go ahead as planned! The winning pictures are, as determined by the staff and ordered by vote:

1. Accordion Man by i. borisovitch (pictured above)

2. 260 by jessica petunia

3. Man in the Snowy Street by Coreyu

4. Legs! by our very own kimberley blue

5. Graffiti Wall Portrait B&W by Coreyu

6. Looking Out by Coreyu (What can I say? The man is prolific.)

7. Stone Face by kimberley blue

8. Foot in the Air by Coreyu

9. Sherbrooke Station by JaxPhotography

10. Winter Wonderland Damaged Car by (guess who?) Coreyu

Hmmm...methinks we'll limit entries to one per person next time. Congrats to all the winners! (For instructions on what to do next, check out MP's Flickr board at http://www.flickr.com/groups/midnightpoutine).

The exhibition will take place on August 21st from 6 pm to 8 pm at SNAP!'s gallery. Address is 4064 Saint-Laurent, apartment 1 (corner Duluth). Adult beverages and finger foods will be offered at cost. See you there!

One of the first things I noticed about this city when I moved here was how many free magazines were available to the public, everywhere. Some are good, some are pretty bad, but they all serve their own function as far as free press goes. Most of them talk about current events and are there to help you choose from the wide array of things to do around town. For those of you looking for something a bit more cultured and developed in terms of stuff to read along your daily commute, keep your eyes peeled for the brand-new addition, Snap! Magazine, which in my opinion is one of the best things to hit the free stands in Montreal.

This fantastic new little enterprise was launched by two lovely Aussie ladies a few months ago (Fall 2007), first as a website, then as a print edition (Spring 2008) that comes out every second month. I checked out their stuff online before going to meet with them at their plateau office/loft/apartment, but never expected to be presented such an amazing piece of artful work when it came to the actual magazine. It's really, really beautiful. The photos are incredibly artful and of great quality (which is generally lacking in most free magazines); the articles are interesting, varied and pertinent; the paper copy has a fantastic visual appeal to it, unpretentious and cool. I'd be willing to say it's the best looking free magazine in town.

Alright. Now that I've grabbed your attention, I'd like to discuss a serious matter regarding a different form of 'reproduction'. I’m not sure about how many Canadians are actually aware of this, but the Conservative-led Federal Government is attempting to slide a new law (Bill C-61) under the electorate radar; a law which could impact all Canadians while impeding access to information and cultural media by prohibiting such activities as private copying, sharing, and fair dealing. I begin here with the assumption that all Midnight Poutiners have an interest in accessing information and cultural media. Thus, they would inherently be concerned about the future course of Canadian Copyright Law. But how well informed are we?

The impetus for changing the Canadian Copyright Act has been largely external. International obligations, namely WIPO, have been begun exerting moderate pressure on member jurisdictions to conform to treaty standards. Canada has been criticized for failing to reflect its treaty obligations within its copyright legislation. However, a more militant source of pressure has come from our southern neighbours.