Relax, Regroup, Refocus

Relax, Regroup, Refocus

If you're trying to move away from social media, switch off your smart phone or disengage from the current political situation in Montreal, then you might want to head down to the Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique de Montréal for the last day of the first annual Yoga Festival Montreal. There are numerous sessions to work on your breathing, unblock your chakras and reach new depths of consciousness. This is a great way to relax and regroup, but more importantly the perfect means for silencing the background noise in our lives.

Yoga Festival Montreal, brainchild of the Yoga Community of Montreal (YOCOMO), is a grassroots initiative aimed at recognizing the breadth of yoga practice and skill. The purpose of the Festival is to empower individuals and connect the city's vast range of traditions and practices, and celebrate its vibrant diversity. More than 30 different sessions have been scheduled in the spacious conservatory studios, and the cheerful volunteers will direct you to your session of choice.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend a session on ayurvedic yoga with Bita Bitajian, who trains at the Ayurvedic Institute with Dr. Vasant Lad in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Ayurveda is the traditional Indian system of health that recommends a daily regimen of yoga to offset imbalances, while respecting our life stages and the changing seasons.

In the last session of the day, I heard the wise words of Dr. Madan Bali, the founder-director of the Montreal-based Yoga Bliss. An inspirational example of a healthy lifestyle, 88-year-old Dr. Bali has been credited with introducing yoga to schools, hospitals, community centres and corporations, as well as developing yoga as a complementary form for treating psychosomatic disorders.

If your yoga experience involved small dark studios with wooden floors groaning under your every  move, I recommend you stop by the conservatoire today to luxuriate in the large luminous studios. In fact, I don't think that YOCOMO could have found a more inspiring venue.

You still have a chance to catch some enlightening sessions today. You might want to dissolve the negativity in your life by meditating on the image of light with Juniper Glass, learn about the dynamic sacred art of Nritya, the yoga of dance, with Amrita Choudury or engage in a discussion on the interplay of sex and yoga (Brahmacharya) with Lauren Rudick.

Namaste!

This was cross-posted at Rover Arts under Festival City.

Other related posts:
YFM: Focus on Your Breathing Montreal
Review: A Buddhist Approach to Finding Release from Addictive Patterns
Review: The Spare Room by Helen Garner
Dance and Film: 3D Pina by Wim Wenders

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YFM: Focus on Your Breathing Montreal

YFM: Focus on Your Breathing Montreal

With the recent political demonstrations in Montreal, many have been biting their nails about the potential loss of tourism dollars. Although festival season is still a few weeks away, I have found the perfect remedy for anyone feeling stressed or conflicted about the future: it's the Yoga Festival Montreal (YFM), from June 8 to 10, at the Montreal Music and Dramatic Arts Conservatory, 4750 Henri-Julien, Mont-Royal Metro.

If you've always been curious about yoga but were overwhelmed by all the different choices, YFM is a great place to start.  In addition to offering classes in the more traditional forms of yoga, such as Sivananda and Kundalini, the festival also has classes in the more modern practices (Moksha Yoga and Jivamukti). What's more, there will be end-of-day panel discussions and lectures to help orient newcomers to yoga. I look forward to the lecture on the Pursuit of Perfection: Health, Happiness, Healing and Wholeness by Dr. Madan Bali, which is also open to the public.

Downward Facing-Dog cc 2010 Witold Fitz-Simon

Before I had my two children, I used to take Sivananda classes on St-Laurent Boulevard in the Mile End. I quickly learned that yoga was about a lot more than just the sun salutations. In fact, if you've taken classes that focus strictly on the postures, and you cringe at the thought of downward-facing dog, then you haven't quite discovered it. Yoga involves  postures, deep-breathing, meditation, music, philosophy and politics, all things that can be found at YFM.

In my pre-children days, I once took part in a yoga festival. On the Friday, I attended a seminar on meditation, which isn`t as easy as it would seem and requires practice. On the Saturday, I took two 90-minute classes and made tremendous progress in some of the postures. I left feeling relaxed and peaceful, but was unable to honour my dinner plans later that evening. I went home and took a nap only to wake up at 10:00 am the next morning, feeling rejuvenated.

I highly recommend YFM for those who want to learn more about yoga or for those who just need to chill out. I few high-profile candidates immediately come to mind...

Links for further info on YFM
The festival schedule (Classes in French and English or Montreal-style: bilingual)
Teacher bios
Registration information


Related posts
"Projecting" Free Speech on Power Corporation
Pots and Pans Protest of Bill 78 
Riotous Super Moon in Quebec
Montreal: 200,000 People Protest

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Year of the E-book: Fifty Shades of Grey and Oprah 2.0

Year of the E-book: Fifty Shades of Grey and Oprah 2.0

While many people still frown at the mention of e-books, they're a major boon to the publishing industry. Just imagine that Fifty Shades of Grey has now sold over 10 million copies, and people are still talking about it. What's more, the e-reader offers publishers endless means of promotion with its highlight and share features. And when we didn't think that the e-book business could get any bigger in walks Oprah...

A need for book clubs

After reading about a low-brow book, Fifty Shades of Grey, in a high-brow newspaper, I reviewed it, and I'm still astounded by how popular the review became. In just two months, I received 130 Facebook likes, dozens of comments and over 120,000 hits. That's success for a small-time book blogger. From this experience, I've discovered that I'm not alone: readers want to discuss what they read, particularly if they have strong feelings about it, and what better way than by leaving an anonymous comment and checking back.

I was once a member of a book club, and it was a wonderful experience. I read a lot of books that I never would have otherwise picked up, and I was able to discover other readers' thoughts on a book, sometimes validating my own, but more often than not giving me new food for thought. But it was finding the time to get five busy people together that eventually ended our group.

No need to get together if you have an e-reader

This year I received an e-reader for my birthday, and I won't lie. I love it. I like that I can change the font size and highlight a word to get the dictionary definition. In other words, I no longer have to contend with poor paper quality and cutting-edge designer font, two pet peeves that can ruin the read. But here's the big game changer: I can now highlight my favourite passages and share them.

Enter Oprah

If anyone has the star power to kick start a phenomenon, it's Queen Oprah. On Friday, she announced her new book club, format 2.0. Book publishers are rubbing their palms together as I write this! Readers can not only share their thoughts on Facebook and Twitter (#oprahsbookclub), but they can also read the passages her Majesty liked and commented on, with the Oprah's Book Club 2.0 Digital Edition, of course. Careful, there are several different versions of the book.

Oprah chose Wild by Cheryl Strayed (lucky her!) as her first book for Oprah's Book Club 2.0. Not only can you read the most inspiring quotes from Wild, but you can also get the O reading guide and join the book conversation with the talk show host extraordinaire.

 I'm not sure how Oprah decided on this book, but I'm wondering what is going to happen when and if she decides to feature Fifty Shades of Grey.

I've bought Wild and I will report back on whether or not Oprah's highlighted passages and comments actually enhance the reading experience.

Other book-related posts:

Fifty Shades of Grey, an update
Joyce Carol Oates on her Life and US Politics
Fifty Shades of Grey 
The Blue Dragon by Robert Lepage and Marie Michaud
The Return by Dany Laferrière
Meet Revolutionary Mother 
Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter
Interview with Carmen Aguirre, Chilean Resistance Fighter
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Antagonist by Lynn Coady
Irma Voth by Miriam Toews
Dogs at the Perimeter by Madeleine Thien
Going Down Swinging by Billie Livingston
Incendiary by Chris Cleave
Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell 
The Girl Without Anyone by Kelli Deeth


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"Projecting" Free Speech on Power Corporation

"Projecting" Free Speech on Power Corporation

This is about another type of protest.

At Christmas, as you may recall, I reported that media ownership was concentrated in the hands of a wealthy few, also known as the 1%. This week in the media, it was reported that the Quebec government leader, Jean Charest, was actually a privileged guest at Sagard, a sprawling estate owned by none other than the über rich Desmarais family (the rulers of Power Corporation), who coincidentally own one of Quebec's largest dailies, La Presse. Given this and the fact that the Charest government has limited the freedom of assembly and the right to protest, it would seem that mere mortals have relatively few conventional means to get their message out.

But who needs conventional! 

Fortunately, students brimming with creativity make up the front-line of government opposition. I came across this page today on Facebook: Nous Sommes Tous Arts, a group that specializes in projecting protest messages.

The top left picture below shows the projection of the Power Corporation logo with that of Jean Charest's Liberal Party on La Presse's office building on St. Antoine Street in downtown Montreal. The tagline below reads "Same struggle." 

In gentle mockery of a sketchy pro-Charest poll conducted of a very small number of respondents and published on the front page of La Presse, Nous Sommes Tous Arts projected the results of an equivalent poll  (top right picture below). The group surveyed some 20 people at the corner of Sanguinet and Ste-Catherine streets in downtown Montreal on May 28, between 6:30 and 8:00 pm. Those surveyed were asked "Do you believe that the Desmarais have a hidden agenda?" Quite unsurprisingly, 90% responded "yes," while 10% responded "no."

According to the Facebook page, the projection lasted about 45 minutes. The police did arrive on the scene, asked for ID and took the name(s) of the projectionist(s), but fortunately, no charges were laid. I think this is a brilliant, creative form of free speech.

If the 1% is going to project their beliefs on us then we will just project our beliefs back on them.

Other student protest related posts:
Pots and Pans Protest of Bill 78 
Riotous Super Moon in Quebec
Montreal: 200,000 People Protest


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Pots and Pans Protest of Quebec's Bill 78

Pots and Pans Protest of Quebec's Bill 78

Demonstration Tuesday Night

This week in Montreal, residents opposed to the provincial government's Bill 78 took to the streets to protest their loss of civil liberties by banging on pots and pans. Introduced to stop students protesting tuition hikes, this emergency law restricts protests, picketing and the freedom of assembly. As a result of this legislation, all demonstrations with 50 people or more require prior police approval, and failure to comply can result in fines from $1,000 to $5,000 for individuals.

It was soon after that a Facebook group, Les casseroles contre la loi 78, was started. It encouraged residents to assemble each night from 8:00 to 8:15 pm to express their discontent using their choice of metal kitchen implement. This tradition of demonstration, Cacerolazo, hails from Chile and Argentina and was an effective means of protest for people not wanting to leave their homes. As some of you may recall from my previous posts, most demonstrations have started downtown. But how could this draconian law be enforced if there were small pots and pans demonstrations all over the city?

In my neighbourhood of Villeray, people have been meeting at the Jarry-St. Denis intersection. On Tuesday night, joyful, elated demonstrators of all ages waited on the four corners banging on their aluminum salad bowls, woks, turkey basters, pot lids, colanders, double broilers and sauce pains waiting for the light to change.When the light turned green, demonstrators marched across the street and waited on the next corner for the light to change again. Other than some short-lived noise, no law was broken.

Demonstration Wednesday Night

However, on Wednesday night nearly 700 people were arrested in Montreal and Quebec City, which further fueled support for the small neighbourhood casserole demonstrations. Last night, Friday, we went out to the Jarry-St. Denis corner to find the entire intersection crowded with people banging their pots with their favourite kitchen utensils. I must add that the richest sounds are made with a good old wooden spoon. But this time around, people had brought horns, drums, cymbals and were even playing mail boxes and parking signs with drumsticks. But the sound was not chaotic; in fact, everyone worked together to create a definite beat. At 8:30 pm the demonstration headed south up St-Denis street where protesters received enthusiastic encouragement from residents on sidewalks and from a few ensembles on balconies pounding out their own rhythms.

These demonstrations are a wonderful festive way to get together with people in our community whom we might not otherwise meet. Overall, this is a fun, exhilarating means of civil disobedience, and the perfect opportunity to show our children that our rights and freedoms are worth protesting. My nine-year-old was enthralled by the experience and didn't want to stop until we showed her the flashing red police lights at the end of the street and the eerie sight of an empty bus creeping up behind the crowd, the holding vehicle for mass arrests.

Other student demonstration-related posts:
Riotous Super Moon in Quebec
Montreal: 200,000 People Protest


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Felines: Friend or Foe?

Felines: Friend or Foe?

Warning on Villeray Tree to Neighbourhood Cat Owners

In recent weeks, I've come across photocopied notices to area residents regarding a certain neighbour who evidently hates "stray" cats in his garden.This neighbour "Claude" has taken to posting an anti-feline message on the perimeter of his property, and it reads like this:

"Warning to all (Avis à tous), cats without tags will be captured and sent to the SPCA."

Another concerned cat-loving resident photographed Claude's warning message, added her own message, photocopied it and posted it to the tree directly across the street from the cat-loather's home, "Warning: keep an eye on your cat..."

Fortunately my own cats have tags, but after I asked around at work, I discovered that some of my long-time cat-owning colleagues have never put tags on kitty. So, it would appear that our neighbour Claude may be trying to tackle hapless felines in his backyard who indeed have legitimate homes.

Monsieur Coton on our BBQ

And some of the neighbours are vocally opposed to his kittynapping. In a woman's curly blue-pen scrawl, another concerned resident has added to the notice, [Translation] "I say we pass around the hat in the neighbourhood to collect some money to pay for cat-hating Claude's yoga lessons. He needs to breathe through his nose."

Now, I can understand the sentiment of fretting cat owners. Our feline friends go wherever they please, and we have little say in the matter. Take for instance our neighbour's tagless cat, Monsieur Coton, who refuses to buy into the concept of human property ownership. Twice I've gone downstairs to find him sleeping on the couch, and we suspect that Monsieur Coton regularly uses our garden as his litter box, so we do understand where Claude is coming from. For catless green thumbs, felines can be the bane of their gardening existence.

But we may have found a solution, which we are trying as I write this. It's called the ScareCrow, a motion-activated animal deterrent. As an animal approaches your garden, the motion-detecting sprinkler repels the animal with a startling two- to three-cup burst of water. The sudden noise, movement and spray of water should keep the cats away. We have aimed our ScareCrow directly at Monsieur Coton's favoured poop du jour site. Fingers are crossed.

If the ScareCrow is a successful deterrent, I might slip the spec into Claude's mailbox to keep some peace in the hood and to save him some lacerations and possibly his sight. The funds raised from the neighbourhood collection could be used to purchase this new found solution, and then we could all breathe through our noses again.

Other Villeray-related sites

Food: Villeray's Subtle Rawsomeness

Buying Local: Slak on Villeray 
Churros: The Uruguayan
Who's a Cyclopathe
Neon Icon: Miss Villeray
Café Cuzcatlan: Roasting Local Coffee Beans
Creole Cuisine
Oriental Pastry Delights

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What a Mother!

What a Mother!

Happy Mother's Day!

This year, I had the opportunity to interview Carmen Aguirre and review her book Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter. As a preteen, Aguirre and her sister went with their mother and their mother's partner to work in the Chilean Resistance. The family operated various safe houses in La Paz, Bolivia, and later cleared paths through the Andes from Argentina to Chile, smuggling in unspecified goods and other Chilean resistance fighters. At one point when Carmen's mother was clearing paths alone, she fell and injured herself, nearly dying from exposure before finally making her way home. Aguirre writes at length about the fear she endured and the double life she was forced to live in her adolescence. But in the end, she followed in her mother's footsteps, later earning her own pilot's license and flying goods and people over the Andes and into Chile.

I read a few reviews of Something Fierce, and I was shocked by the harsh criticism reserved for Aguirre's mother, Carmen Senior. How could she have sacrificed her children's safety to further a political cause? How could she have put her daughters in harm's way? Good old mother blaming. . . . Yet, no mention of the father, who, we would imagine, had some say in the matter.

Now, Carmen Senior could have left her daughters with her husband in Vancouver or entrusted them to families in Cuba, as was common practice among resistance fighters, but Carmen Senior chose to bring her daughters with her. Had Carmen Senior left her daughters behind, she still would have been deemed a "bad mother" for abandoning her children, entrusting them to strangers, etc. But consider this: if Carmen Senior had been the father leaving his children behind in Canada with the other parent, no one would have batted an eye. He would have been a man with strong political convictions, a revolutionary, a hero.

Women still endure double standards in their daily lives, and once they become mothers that standard becomes even more rigid. Mothers are judged by everyone: other mothers, fathers, children, teenagers, seniors, the media...everyone has something to say! Mothers walk a very fine line and punishment for mistakes is merciless.

In the end, Carmen Aguirre not only earned a pilot's license at age 18, but she went on to write and co-write 20 plays and today has over 60 stage, film and TV acting credits, in addition to winning the CBC's Canada Reads 2012 for Something Fierce. If your children's success is any measure of your skill as a mother then Carmen Senior did a bang up job. After all, a role model who is also a writer, activist and teacher with strong convictions can't be all bad.

You don't have to be clearing paths alone through the Andes to be a great role model for your kids, but wouldn't it be easier to be the mother you've always wanted to be, free of judgment?

I'd like to wish all mothers a happy Mother's Day. Mothering has abundant rewards and our children certainly enrich our lives, but it's a life that is full of difficult choices and sacrifices. Maybe, we should make it a little easier: judge less and praise more.

Other related posts:
Review: Something Fierce by Carmen Aguirre
Interview with Carmen Aguirre, Chilean Resistance Fighter
Review of Retribution and an interview with Carmen Rodriguez (Carmen Senior)


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Food: Villeray's Subtle Rawesomeness

Food: Villeray's Subtle Rawesomeness

Counter and Kitchen/Classroom at Saveurs de vivre.

For all of us with competing family and professional responsibilities, eating out is an obvious remedy for tired parents at the end of the day. And, yes, at times, we worry about the nutritional value of the food we're consuming, but what are parents to do? I have the solution, and it's right down the street at Saveurs de vivre.

This small take-out operation serves up a daily variety of healthy and delicious vegan, flextarian and raw meals. This is the perfect address for those who are lactose intolerant or require a gluten-free diet. For organic meats and pulses look no further.

I was surprised to discover just how reasonable the prices were at Saveurs de vivre: detox juices and smoothies (16 oz) $5.95; vegetarian meals from $7.50; organic meat dishes from $9.00, and raw desserts from $4.95. You can order single, double or family-sized orders. They even have a "social" size for when you want to invite friends over and don't have time to cook.

Family-size Beef Stroganoff w/ Noodles

Tonight, we are trying the Beef Stroganoff and egg noodles made with organic beef, onions, cream, paprika, homemade veal stock and dill pickles. The total cost for a family of four is $24.00, tax included. This is certainly cheaper than pizza, take-out chicken or Chinese, and more importantly, better for you.

Another little known fact, owners Lucie Boivin and her chef husband Pierre Sanglard offer cooking classes. Under chef Sanglard's direction, you will cook three different dishes and then eat your creations at the end of the afternoon course. I just walked by and the next class, May 19, from noon to 3 pm, is on preparing rabbit  ($75 plus tax). La Presse has named Saveurs de vivre one of the five best places in Montreal for cooking classes. The take-out counter is located at 7901 Henri-Julien, corner Gounod, tel. 514-904-0521.

Cru vitalité and Rawesome

Raw Desserts at Cru Vitalité

Just two streets west of Saveurs de vivre is Cru vitalité, a small eatery specializing in raw vegan desserts and snacks, such as kale chips, macaroons, super goji energy sticks and flax crisps. You may also want to try the vegan parmesan for seasoning. But whatever you do, make sure you try their gourmet vegan organic ice cream, which apparently has half the fat and only two thirds the calories of its conventional cousin. I had a taste of apple pie ice cream today, and it was sublime. Try it for yourself at
151 Gounod.

Other Villeray-related posts:
Buying Local: Slak on Villeray 
Churros: The Uruguayan
Who's a Cyclopathe
Neon Icon: Miss Villeray
Café Cuzcatlan: Roasting Local Coffee Beans
Creole Cuisine
Oriental Pastry Delights


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Read more »

Riotous Super Moon in Quebec

Riotous Super Moon in Quebec

Last night, May 5, the moon apparently came 15,300 miles closer to the Earth, making it appear 14% bigger and 30% brighter. The super moon reached its most luminous point at 11:34 pm last night, but unfortunately that was too late for my kids, so we saw it at 9:30 pm. It was a warm spring evening, and surprisingly there were few people in Jarry Park. We found a spot on a little hill to take this picture. For all the spectacular pictures you are seeing this morning, they were taken with a telephoto lens, which works like a telescope. If that's beyond your means then just invest in an inexpensive tripod.

Manif tout nu

The full moon is said to induce erratic behaviour in people, increasing the number of psychiatric hospital admissions, suicides, murders, emergency room calls and car accidents. Some police forces are even rumoured to schedule extra resources in case of some rare event. This week, there were several out-of-the-ordinary occurrences, such as the near-naked (manif tout nu) demonstration by Quebec students and the riot that ensued after student demonstrators clashed with riot police outside the Liberal general assembly in Victoriaville on Friday, resulting in 106 arrests and leaving one demonstrator with life-threatening injuries. Equally rare, on May 5, the Liberal government finally came to an agreement with the three student union leaders after more than 80 days of strike. Was this the pull of the super moon on Mr. Charest's brain or was it politically motivated with elections expected in the not-so-distant future?

I'm not alone in thinking that the government could have averted the injuries, arrests and damages to public property, not to mention the waste of public resources, if it had just sat down with the students a long time ago. Mr. Charest's poor judgment only made the students look better. Besides being articulate and tech savvy, the students were extremely well organized. No longer can anyone say that this generation is a bunch of spoiled individualists. If anything they've made it abundantly clear that those in high places are the ones with a monopoly over the much-bandied insult--entitlement. In fact, this student movement may have helped some of the students hone some hands-on organizational, public speaking and leadership skills that might not have otherwise been developed in class. Check out the translated kinetic typography speech of Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, one of the most vocal leaders of CLASSE, the more demanding of the student unions. I hear a great leader in this voice. What about you?

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Fifty Shades of Grey, an update

Fifty Shades of Grey, an update

This has been a big month for E L James, author of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, which can now be purchased as a single volume. The former television producer has also released not one, but three soundtracks for the book: the Fifty Shades of Grey, the Fifty Shades Darker and the Fifty Shades Freed.  Yes, books now have their own soundtracks.

And what a soundtrack! Take a look at this intergenerational mix of music and artists on Fifty Shades Darker: Ella Fitzgerald, Beyoncé, Nina Simone, The Police, Van Morrison, Roberta Flack, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Coldplay, Michael Bublé, to name just a few. James has also made the playlist available on YouTube, so that you can have a listen before you buy. Now every time you hear one of those songs you will think of Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele. A marketing coup!

Now James can not only be found on every conceivable social media platform, but she also knows that there is nothing better than the real thing, so she has embarked on a US book tour. According to The Hollywood Reporter, E L James was at the Biltmore Hotel in Miami last night signing books for some 500 thrilled fans. She will be making her way to the northeast, stopping today in Boston and Thursday in Philadelphia.

The Reporter goes on to refer to James as a "control freak" with "unprecedented demands" regarding the film rights she sold to Universal for the book. The news made me smile. Nothing makes me happier than for a woman to be kicking ass and being "difficult" in male-dominated Hollywood. That's right boys: my way or the highway.

For E L James book signing tour, click here.

For a review of Fifty Shades of Grey, click here.


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