Small Betrayals

I published an article in Friday's Metro and was censored.

It was quite the innocent joke. But the fact remains that I feel cheated. I was not advised or consulted. Proof reading at the last minute needs to be done fast, I guess, but that doesn't soothe me : being "politically correct" is still an obsession for many papers, and it makes me want to puke. I wonder if I'll go through the whole process every time I'll publish something...



The title was changed as well, and the one that they came up with does not necessarily reflect my personality. But who cares ? All they seem to be interested in is publishing formated articles, that could all have been written by the same robot, united in their lack of style and courage.

One of the things that make me stay away from any written media is this lack of personality, the dull way in which the events are objectively exposed and commented. It lacks humanity. And since I'm not a robot, I guess this is not for me, right ?

*

Looking for a gig, when you're an unknown DJ in a city of egos, can prove to be hard. I went to visit a club yesterday, in the hopes of launching something there rapidly. I could have one Friday a month, and the place is amazing. It's a fetish club on some nights, and the design is done accordingly; big steel beams everywhere, red lights, lots of leather, with even a motorbike at the back !

But the manager looks a bit depressed, and very vague. He couldn't give me a date for a "first" since he gave the next couple of Fridays to other promoters and wants to see if they'll do good.

In other words, I'm left waiting. Venues are hard to penetrate, so much that if I am to organize something that doesn't give me constant headaches, I'm inevitably surprised and I'm wondering what's wrong. You bring your crowd, you organize everything, you make the bar owners richer, and you get a kick in the butt as thanks.

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I learned about Jane Jacob's death by reading the Maisonneuve Mediascout, a daily email about what's going on in the world that I always read too late.



She died at 89 on the 25th of April. She wrote many books, among them her most popular "The Death and Life of Great American Cities", now a classic. It's funny that I had to read this book for a course at UQAM last year titled : "Dimensions Morphologiques et Patrimoniales de la Ville". I couldn't read all of it, of course, cause the copy I had was an awful french translation that didn't make much sense and probably didn't keep the original spirit of the book, but the biggest downer was the time and the work overload.

When you have four courses - the minimum required to get student loans - and a full time job - the minimum required to keep your financial sanity - you can hardly find some time to read...

It's a sad thing that she died, of course, but she lived a full life, wrote many books I have yet to read, and changed the way we think about the city forever. These are fine accomplishments that shoud allow her to... rest in peace.

*

Unity II burned down yesterday, during the afternoon, quietly. All streets around the club were blocked by firetrucks and there were huge traffic jams everywhere. I went back during the evening, looking for mourners, or at least guys that would bring roses to deposit among the ashes, but could only find people walking by, looking intrigued, and even amused.

I was planning on paying a few visits to its terrace over the summer, but I'll have to walk to Sky, and maybe even dip my toes in the delectable jacuzzi installed on the roof.

Be ready, burger boy : I'm comin' up !