Digital Smiles

Dear Internet,
You've been busy, I've been busy, and we've grown apart. Well, more like Me and Blogger have grown apart. But, I have no excuse really for this lack of blogging, so here's how I will make it up to you, Internet. Please accept my digital smile as token of my love.

Sincerely,
Aisling

ps - this is the fun us Montreal city folk, Matt, Rob and Colleen, have while driving to get some "fresh air" hiking in the mountains. It was great, stretch the legs, see the changing leaves, and rush home to youtube our experience.

Expozine Awards 2007

The Expozine Awards gala was held last night to celebrate the hard work of local publishers, illustrators, and page writers (not post writers like me...). Independent and DIY artists and their followers congregated for some cheap beer, entertainment, and lots of smoke machine to get a glimpse at this years winners:

Best English Comic

Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

Best English Zine

Welcome to Gayside by The Third Leg.

Best English Book

The Theory of the Loser Class by Jon Paul Fiorentino, Coach House Press

Meilleur Zine

Ex Aequo (tie):

Le fascicule du FAS / spécial non-apprivoisable et non-domesticable, par fas.mjack.net

Sexy Fall // Chute! // Nous Numéro 1, de Louise-Andrée Lauzière; Éditions les cuisines piquantes

Meilleure Bande Dessinée

Hasemeister (spécial Halloween) par Frédéric Mahieu

Meilleur Livre

Cyclope opus #3 / Plan cartésien, Éditions Les 400 coups

tags technorati : expozine, montreal, publishing, independent, comics, zines, illustration, mainline theatre,

Nuit Blanche 2007

Nuit Blanche this past weekend, a short vlog....more later.

Tags: nuit blanche, montreal, festival des lumieres, lights festival, art threat, gallery, kino, dancing,

Canucks vs. Canadiens

This is footage from my first NHL game, Vancouver Cancucks against my Montreal Canadiens. It was a pathetic game, where I didn't get to see even one goal, but witnessed the fans continuing distress at our team bumbling around the ice. The Canucks, who won by 4-0, even seemed depressed by the end, as if they were challenging the pee wee league to an unfair match. Friends came up from New York (Canucks fans, go figure), and of course they were happy with the result, but they didn't get to experience the full force of Montreal's hockey obsession, and the verbal active fans (beyond the booing). We had great seats, as we showed up after the first period, and got a deal on some centre ice, lower section tickets, even though we were surrounded by corporate suits. Who lamely split (maybe their SUVs were going to get towed) before the game was done.

It seems like tonight (Atlanta) MAY be the end of the Canadiens downward spiral...but, as the game is currently on, I don't want to jinx it.
So fingers crossed.

tags technorati : montreal, canadiens, hockey, NHL, canucks, vancouver, 4-0, lose, game, bell centre, slump, tickets, RDS, CBC, TSN,

progressive print mags

As we all soak up our media intake online, from many, many, many outlets on the internet - there are some courageous media savvy individuals and organizations that still make hard copies of their work. Sometimes for free, and sometimes for low cost, and even, gasp, hand deliver it to your door, so that you can read over the breakfast table, rather than balancing your breakfast over your keyboard (and hence, spill coffee or egg yolks into it...which my dear news junky partner (rob maguire) so lovingly did to my imac, because his powerbook is in the shop. Speaking of Rob, here's his podcast, featured on CitizenShift on this very subject of independently published newsies, like The Dominion - a grassroots newspaper about Canadian and international politics, as well as Montreal's local bi-monthly issues based mag, Siafu.

tags technorati : siafu, progressive, print, magazines, the dominion, publishing, independent, press, media, rob maguire, montreal, newsies, online, information, podcast, citizenshift