Montreal

aka La Métropole, La Belle Ville

The Skin I Live In

Claire | January 3rd, 2012

Almodovar. He could be called the master of darkness. Dark comedy, dark thrillers, addiction, convoluted murderous plots, dark-haired women and dark fantasies.
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Take Me To Your Atelier

Claire | December 16th, 2011

In French, Atelier means workshop, or studio. And due to its post-industrial nature, there is a lot of affordable real estate around town. What does this mean? For artists, musicians, designers, and other young creative professionals it is possible to rent space at a reasonably low cost. The result: an explosion of creativity. Production of new ideas, new materials, new artistic forms, and new clothes! Lots of clothes are manufactured here, and some of them never make it off the ground before hitting the racks at a ‘vente d’atelier’ (studio sale).

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Raphael Lozano-Hemmer: Lighting Up Montreal’s Night Sky

Claire | December 15th, 2011

He hails from Mexico city but makes his home in Montreal and Madrid. A conceptualist thinker, Raphael creates interactive installations meant for large-scale public dissemination. Imagine architecture and performance art transformed into a technofied bricolage of light in motion. Read More

The Art of Cool: City Chic meets Lit Geek

Claire | December 15th, 2011

I remember hearing about Urban Outfitters when I was a teenager searching for new outlets of cool, modern, affordable urban clothing. I pored over their ads in Elle and Seventeen Magazine. Chic but not too fancy. Trendy but never splashy. Shiny and sparkly…sometimes. Ever-changing: yes. Their graffiti-scribbled logo lettering, when combined with messy-haired down-to-earth looking models wearing layered necklaces, tank tops and dresses, playfully posing in carefree positions tossing their hair around. Read More

The Librarian: Redefining Bass

Claire | December 14th, 2011

Okay, I’ll admit it. I have a minor obsession for females kicking ass in the music industry. Its probably largely due to the fact that I am a female in the music industry. But it is also partially due to the fact that there is something undeniably emotive about a woman conjuring music using an instrument, her voice, or a machine.

That’s why I would like to educate those of you who happen to be into bass music that there is a new star on the horizon. Her name is The Librarian.
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Black on Black

Claire | December 14th, 2011

Tights: they add drama to an outfit when worn black on black. They can double as tight pants to provide an underlayer of winter warmth, or provide a sleek sultry canvas for knee-high socks, legwarmers, short skirts, or a peekaboo playground for textured tights. They may be almost solid-thick, patterned, or practically sheer. Fishnet, lace patterns, thigh-high and control top. Wool, cotton, fishnet, nylon or silk: Choose the form + function that suits you best.

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I See You Baby

Claire | October 31st, 2011

OK, admit it. Sometimes, occasionally, here and there, while waiting for a red light to turn green, walking up the street, or wandering through the park, you find your gaze drifting unconsciously toward a shapely woman’s butt,there is something ever-alluring about it. And when it comes to creating the perfect pant to make everyone’s look as good as it can be, Lululemon has it down to a science.

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Phantogram

Claire | October 28th, 2011


I’m not an indie rocker type, so it takes a lot for me to like a band. But from the moment I heard the first licks of guitar from Phantogram’s When I’m Small, I knew these guys had something special about their schtick. Read More

The New Beatport

Claire | October 25th, 2011

I remember when I was a kid, going to the grocery store to buy my favorite cereal – Cinnamon Toast Crunch – only to find out that the ‘new and improved recipe’ was actually a step down from the original, when it came to both flavor and crunch. When I first tried the new Beatport during its beta testing phase in May 2011, I felt the same way. Read More

Take me to the land of Red Sand

Claire | October 24th, 2011


It’s amazing how disloyal Canadians are to our own country. Read More

Starbucks vs. Tim Horton’s

Claire | October 21st, 2011

Starbucks and Tim Horton’s are pretty much polar opposites when it comes to ideology — Starbucks goes for the upper-middle-class “I will take a skim-milk-decaf-latte-with-sugar-syrup” kinda customer, whereas Timmy’s caters to those down home simple folk who are content to slam back a double double. Yet somehow the two coffee mega-moguls manage to produce one thing in common: pure, fiending addicts. Read More

Remembering Steve Jobs

Claire | October 19th, 2011


I was riding my bike past the Apple store the other day and I noticed a medium-sized crowd gathered around the storefront. Bystanders aimed their cameras high to capture the shrine-like mass of white sheets of paper clinging to the storefront window. Letters from fans and admirers, statements of adoration and of thanks, were plastered all over the giant front windows. Read More

First Lady of Bass

Claire | October 19th, 2011

Camea is no debutante. With 68 tracks to her name on Beatport, she is making quite a stand in the world of digitized dance music. Read More

Surfing on the Cloud of Sound

Claire | October 18th, 2011

Soundcloud, it looks kind of like how Facebook used to look. Read More

Owen Wilson does Woody Allen: a new take on Method Acting?

Claire | October 18th, 2011


A good story goes a lot farther in my eyes than a mega-budget when it comes to cinema. If I want to experience mesmerizing special effects and the wonders of technology, I’ll go to the IMAX or go view an art installation, but when I go to the movies I am looking to be swept away into a world of fantasy. Read More