Things That I Like (or not)

The Ambience and the Venues Live opera thrills. The crowd buzzes in anticipation of the performance, the appearance of a great star, or the discovery of a new one.  Devotees debate reviews of the staging and set decoration. Is it too modern or too traditional? The audience is eclectic. Young people in jeans mingle with […]

Le Gourmand in a circa 1850 stone house registered in the Québec National Archives as “La Maison Pierre-Demers”

The space is comfortable and warmly lit.

I first noticed the shop in 2008. Clusier has immediate appeal, but I waited two years before shopping there. Struggling with my weight, buying new clothes was not high on my agenda. Two years later and 30 pounds lighter, my wardrobe needed updating if not replacement. The Space The time had come to go inside […]

I have an hour to eat between meetings in Old Montréal. The weather is beautiful and I head for  FCO di Fiumicino.  The Pizza Montréal has many good pizza places but this is my personal favourite. I stand in line and order at the counter from a good selection of pizza by the slice. I […]

Restaurant Graziella  is my favourite place for lunch in Old Montreal. I really enjoy the atmosphere. I relax immediately whether I am alone or with a larger number of people. Pranzo The lunch menu is kept to four or five appetizers, a similar number of mains, and a couple of choices for desert. The basic […]

 La Botte Piena is one of my favourite restaurants anywhere. In May 2011, we had rented an apartment for a week in the little Tuscan village of Montefollonico.  The drive from Florence took longer than expected. We arrived at about 1:30 pm and the shops had closed for the afternoon and would only re-open at […]

Frantik is a Montreal-born hip-hop musician based in Halifax, Nova Scotia since 2012. He started playing drums when he was six years old. Since first year high school has always had some kind of musical project underway. He has been in ska and punk bands and has performed in shows and at festivals all over […]

It is Thursday morning and I should be sending out my newsletter but instead, I am scrapping almost everything I had written.  It was largely a rant about the woeful state of the self-proclaimed “Greatest Democracy” but by this time next week, I think that we all hope that we know the outcome of the […]