I Killed My Mother

Being a teenager isn’t exactly fun. You linger in this liminal space between childhood and adulthood, essentially grinding through life until you finally sort out where you belong. It’s the time for experimentation and exploration — a rite of passage. Although we each encounter these vital years, the experience can be vastly different for each person.

Cinéma du Parc’s new programme We Are Young!: When Films Speak About Youth screens seven films from different countries that show the unique experiences of several teens but also the universal elements associated with finding our place in the world.

Water Lilies (France, 2007), Céline Sciamma’s directorial debut, follows Marie (Pauline Acquart), Anne (Louise Blachère) and Floriane (Adèle Haenel) over one summer as they each encounter their own sexual awakening, exploring ideas of female friendship and sexuality.

Flowers of Evil (France, 2010) is David Dusa’s film about Gecko (Rachid Youcef), who meets Iranian Anahita (Alice Belaïdi) living in exile in Paris. The two fall in love, but Anahita continues to be troubled by the turmoil in her home country following the June 2009 election.

Tilva Rosh (Serbia, 2010), directed by Nikola Lezaic follows skater best pals Toda (Marko Todorovic) and Stefan (Stefan Djordjevic), who spend their summer after high school creating Jackass-esque videos and silently fighting for the attention of Dunja (Dunja Kovacevic).

I Killed My Mother (Quebec, 2009), is Xavier Dolan’s directorial debut, about the complex relationship between a mother and son. It follows Hubert Minel (Dolan) coming to terms with his own homosexuality and his various feelings towards his mother.

Set Me Free (Quebec, 1999), directed by Léa Pool, follows Hanna (Karine Vanasse) living in Quebec in 1963. She is obsessed with Anna Karina in Goddard’s It’s My Life. At 13 years old, she is struggling with her own sexuality, trying to develop a special bond with her teacher and admiring her sensual friend Laura.

Sweet Sixteen (United Kingdom, 2002) is Ken Loach’s realistic drama about Liam (Martin Compston), a Scottish teenager trying to sort out a life for him and his mother, once she gets out of prison. His attempts to get money for a house are riddled with crime and complications.

Tomboy (France, 2011), is another Céline Sciamma film, this time discussing the significance of gender identity. Laure (Zoé Héran) moves to a new neighbourhood with her family and introduces herself as Mickäel. The film explores the complexity of being a transgendered youth.■

We Are Young! When Films Speak About Youth, starts Friday. Cinéma du Parc (3575 Parc), June 21–27

Stoker

There’s an eclectic mix of flicks coming your way today.

First up is Jack the Giant Slayer, starring Nicholas Hoult as Jack, along with Ewan McGregor and Stanley Tucci in supporting roles. Hoult will always be the wee fella from About a Boy to me — I can’t shake the image of his knit hat and cardigan. So when films like this come around, I struggle a bit. I wonder where his mum is. Maybe that’s just me.

In the film, Jack accidentally opens a gateway between the human world and one with a race of massive giants. He then has to battle these large opponents to rescue the imprisoned princess. The film has received mixed reviews — but I’m sure no one would go into this one thinking they’re getting the pick of the litter in terms of fairy tale adaptations.

There are two silly, slightly over-the-top comedies available as well.

Movie 43, which is the type of thing you watch because it’s rumoured to be that awful — has a star-studded cast including: Dennis Quaid, Seth MacFarlane, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Halle Berry, Gerard Butler, Anna Faris, Johnny Knoxville, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Sean William Scott, Emma Stone, Kristen Bell and more. It was shot over seven years as actors kept declining and trying to get out of the project (I’m looking at you Richard Gere), and it has 14 different storylines, each by a different director. It’s hailed as one of the worst films ever made, and thus I’ve immediately added it to my “to watch” list.

21 & Over stars Miles Teller (who I loved in Rabbit Hole) and Skylar Astin as pals to Justin Chon (Jeff Chang), who decide to celebrate his 21st birthday on the night before his med school interview. This flick isn’t a thinker, it’s an attempt at creating The Hangover for kids.

Korean director Park Chan-wook’s English-language debut Stoker is a dark and strange thriller. Starring Nicole Kidman (Evelyn), Mia Wasikowska (India) and Matthew Goode (Charles), it tells the story of India’s father (and Evelyn’s husband) dying tragically, and his odd yet handsome brother Charles moving into the house to care for the them. Charles is a total creeper, that’s all you need to know.

TV offerings for today include season two of Call the Midwife, a BBC period drama set in east London in the 1950s. It follows a newly qualified midwife and the work that she and her co-workers do in the deprived Poplar district. That may not sound too exciting but let’s be honest, you can rarely go wrong with the BBC.

Season three of Comedy Central’s Workaholics, about college drop-out friends working at a call centre, is also available.

Three films being re-released, having received the Criterion treatment, are:

Things to Come from 1936, the H.G. Wells science fiction story that takes you from 1940–2036. You can see the original newsreel below.

Marketa Lazarová, the 1967 Czech film directed by František Vláčil, based on the titular novel, about the daughter of a lord kidnapped by knights.

And Safety Last! the incredible Harold Lloyd silent comedy from 1923. Definitely worth watching.

Also being re-released are two science fiction/horror films that are quite cheesy and full of fantastically aged visual and special effects.

Lifeforce from 1985 includes not only a young-ish Patrick Stewart, but an important lesson in bringing aliens back to Earth with you.

And 1981′s The Howling, based on the novel. Werewolves. Ridiculous werewolves. ■

So Toronto’s NXNE is the sister festival to Austin’s SXSW. It’s the same concept (music, film etc), except Toronto has less drunken rednecks and more healthy-looking Canadians. The best part about NXNE is that Toronto’s crack-smoking mayor allows bars and venues to close @ 4 a.m. during festivals, meaning more bands, more afterparties, more spending and more blackouts. Let’s just say the drug business is booming. Smart…

I pillaged the city from venue to venue & must say, the surprise venue of the year was the legendary Horseshit Tavern. This club has a walk-up window for A&W takeout, so instead of grabbing a drink while watching a band, you can grab a burger just like that. I REALLY enjoyed that, ’cause I maintained this raunchy, beefy onion breath that made people avoid talking to me while watching bands I liked.

Highlights of Day 1.5:

Mozart’s Sister

Featuring Caila, formerly of Think About Life. These gals got the party started on opening night. Electro, dance-y and soulful. I can see why critics would wanna compare her to Grimes, except Caila can hit notes that Grimes will never hit. If you’ve had a couple of drinks, they totally give off that Viagra sensation.

Evan Dando

Evan’s the dude from the Lemonheads. His shows are boring, but I keep going to them ’cause I wanna see if he’ll ever have a breakdown on stage again. No luck thus far.

Social Distortion, Billy Talent & Millencollin

Yeah, they’re still around & they played, but I didn’t go cause ’cause that’d just make me feel old.

Down and out at NXNE

The Arbutus showcase

This took place in a very shady basement called the Comfort Zone. This grotto is dark, in every way. Montreal’s Paula brightened things up. Paula features the core members of Tops & Silly Kissers, so if you’re into those bands, you’ll get that same 5 a.m. Ave du Parc vibes.

Sean Nicholas Savage hit the stage, and I lost myself in his world. I saw him earlier in the Toronto outskirts walking alone while singing out loud & recording himself on one of those old-school mini cassette self-recorder. You might think he’s not serious, but he is, and halfway into his set, you can’t help but cheer him on as if he’s your best friend hitting his first homerun.

I wish I had an A&W burger for Braids. These guys remind me of how I felt while serving mass as an altar boy. For me, Braids is like colon cleansing, but from head to toe. They have this healing effect that can make me a better person every time I indulge in their music. Try listening to them while cooking rice. It’s so zen, man.

The show ended with Blue Hawaii, who I’ve written about before. Once again, a Montreal act that keeps our city on the map and can somehow make you forget winter exists.

Somewhere between these shows, I think I got attacked by a dog. My jeans were ripped across my crotch area and I lost a shoe. So I spent lots of my time and money shopping for an affordable pair of pants and shoes. I feel like a new man. Let’s see what happens next. ■

Crooked mayor or no, the view from the mountain is still the same. Photo via Flickr

Like the rest of you, I’ve run a gamut of discomforting emotions since our city’s longstanding system of corruption was harshly exposed for all to see, and at times yesterday it felt like with the arrest of placeholder mayor Michael Applebaum, we collectively reached a depressing nadir.

Some of us on social media even went as far to say we were embarrassed or ashamed to be Montrealers. In rapid succession, the world got a rather skewed sampling of modern Quebec life, in the form of the turban ban in soccer and now Applebaum’s fall from the tree. We’re a prideful bunch, and many of us personally felt the need to atone for our scandal-plagued city, which is understandable.

Well, let me tell you, dejected citizen: Unless you’ve personally stuffed your socks with cash or taken a manilla envelope, no questions asked, you have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.

It’s true — Montreal is corrupt, and during the aughts, the city was incredibly corrupt. We were none the wiser, although perhaps in hindsight we were simply content to look the other way. Reality seems harsh right now, but the crimes being brought to light in the Charbonneau Commission and Opération Marteau have already taken place. The wheels of change are already in motion, and with any luck, transgressors will face the music, and safeguards will be put in place to prevent weak-willed elected officials — of all stripes — from gaming the system.

Perhaps in a few years we’ll look back at the Tremblay decade simply as Duplessian darkness on the path to a new golden age of transparency.

Currently, everyone and their grandmother is mulling over a mayoral run. You don’t have to go that far, but with an election coming in November, now’s the perfect time to get reacquainted with the more minute aspects of municipal politics, even if it means simply reading your borough’s newsletter instead of tossing it in the trash. Don’t let the thought of your interim mayor getting hauled off to the precinct feed your apathy.

But in the meantime, do not be ashamed that the city is airing its dirty laundry in public. When normal citizens like you and I get together — as we did last weekend during the splendid Mural Fest on the Main — it’s business as usual in Montreal.

And, really, where else would you rather be? ■

The new le Cheese truck serves, yes, cheese.

We’re not exactly playing it cool with the food truck thing. But denial and demand go hand in hand, so perhaps our breathless reaction to the loosening of street-vendor laws is justified. Yes, some mobile restaurants may be hiring publicists to organize launches. We may have to contend with the whims and prices of concept trucks while still being unable to grab a $2 hot dog off the sidewalk. And, yes, our dear city has made it so that these free-roaming vehicles really can’t roam that freely (sorry, downtown office workers — you’re mostly stuck with food-court options). But we’ve taken a step in the right direction, and could anything that encourages entrepreneurship in our opportunity-starved city be that bad?

We spoke to Pascal Saltzman, the 24-year-old owner of le Cheese and a self-described “nice guy just trying to start a food truck,” to get a sense of what cheesy delights he’s slinging and what it’s like to set up a moveable feast in Montreal.

Gemma Horowitz: What is a cheese truck?
Pascal Saltzman: I can’t speak for every cheese truck, but ours is all about cheesy, nostalgic comfort food.

GH: Why do you think Montreal is ready for “cheesy notalgia”?
PS: We love the idea of using local produce, and obviously that’s something that’s really common right now with restaurants. We’re like, “cheese!” “Quebec!” It’s, like, synonymous. There’s always a market for it. People love cheese.

GH: Does the truck mostly serve mac ‘n’ cheese and grilled cheese?
PS: The mac is really what got us started. Then grilled cheese. We’re doing a Philly cheesesteak sub as well. Cheesy tater tots, cheesy gazpacho…

GH: Cheesy gazpacho?
PS: Mm hmm.

GH: Is the bureaucracy involved in establishing a food truck here as sucky as it seems?
PS: If you had just ridden shotgun on my day today, you would have gotten a perfect taste of the bureaucracy that we have to go through. It is definitely not easy. I think everything in this province is a little complicated sometimes. They don’t make anything simple.

GH: So it’s basically like, “You can have food trucks, but we’re going to make it as hard as possible for you”?
PS: The idea, I think, was a lot of the main reasons why they didn’t have food trucks was because there was such a big backlash from restaurants…

GH: Even though it’s perfectly okay in every other city?
PS: I guess we’ve got some interesting quirks in our city, in our province.

GH: You used Indiegogo to help fund your venture. Was it easy to convince notoriously poor Montrealers to give up their dough?
PS: We’ve raised almost $4,000. Obviously a lot of friends and family were the initial donors. But then people come out of nowhere and were like, “This seems like a cool idea.” Complete strangers have given us hundreds of dollars.

GH: What is the cheese truck going to smell like in summer?
PS: Well, we do have fridges to keep all the cheese cold.

GH: I think people envision a truck stocked with shelves of festering brie.
PS: Well, the actual truck itself is built of cheddar. Just kidding. All of our cheese is very well refrigerated, well preserved. There’s no bad smells, nothing like that. We won’t be stinking it up too bad.

GH: Where can we find it?
PS: We’re gonna be roaming around the city at a variety of different events and spaces throughout the summer. We’re on Twitter at @lecheesetruck. We’re on Instagram and Facebook. We’ll be posting all our events through social media.

GH: So are you only events-based, or can we find you on the streets on any old day?
PS: It’s mostly events. Those events at Lachine, for instance, are on a fairly regular basis. But we won’t be just roaming around the city, no.

GH: Will the name le Cheese run afoul of the language police?
PS: If you go to any casse croute in Quebec, a grilled cheese is called un grilled cheese; it’s not a fromage grillé. We thought it was a perfect name because it reflects the city. The city is half-English/half-French, and our name is half-English/half-French

GH: Your title is the Big Cheese. What does that mean in layman’s terms?
PS: I’m just the guy who had the crazy cheesy idea. We have a great group of people and are just trying to have some fun. We just thought it would be a good time to start a really high-risk business we know absolutely nothing about. ■

The Bling Ring

Yelp Helps is a tribute to Montreal non-profits, with free eats from Café Boris, Tourtière Australienne, loukomades from Mr. Puff, rillettes and le Pourvoyeur, plus drinks and a full line-up of music. Fringe Park (Rachel & St-Laurent), 6–9 p.m., free with RSVP

Fringe Fest continues! Check out our picks from the fest so far here.

The PHI Centre has an advanced screening of the Sofia Coppola film The Bling Ring starring Katie Chang and Emma Watson. 407 St-Pierre, 7:30 p.m., $11.25

The Suoni per il Popolo festival presents local practitioners of “avant-folk global protest music” Elfin Saddle with Hanged Up and Nick Kuepfer. Casa del Popolo (4873 St-Laurent), 8 p.m., $11

On the noisier side of Suoni, Danish post-hardcore band Iceage returns to Il Motore with Lower, Âmes Sanglantes and Verglas. 179 Jean-Talon W., 9 p.m., $13

Check out our complete listings for more great club, stage and gallery events.

Get Off the Stage Presents: All Their Golden Hits

Fringe fever is upon us. A wall of flyers obscures Parc des Amériques. Bands and storytellers strut their stuff on the outdoor stage to jovial crowds imbibing the St. Ambroisian brew. Volunteers scramble to fix last minute emergencies. And for those who think the party begins at 1 a.m., the 13th Hour is ground zero.

But let’s not forget, first and foremost, the Fringe is meant to support independent artists. Between the sunshine and all those beers, don’t forget to see the shows. Here are a few I caught on the first few days.

Yanomi Shoshinz in full clown regalia.

My grandparents had a bungalow colony in the Catskill Mountains that brought in variety acts every Saturday night. These Borscht Belt performers used broad plots as their vehicle for song, dance, dirty jokes and general Vaudevillian shtick. I imagine the lovable Yanomi Shoshinz and Cherry Typhoon’s Annoying Visitor to be cut from the same cloth, only finished with a precise, polished Tokyo touch rather than the gritty chutzpah of old Brooklyn Jews.

Mustachioed middle-aged gent Stormy Typhoon’s love of solitude is repeatedly interrupted by annoying visitors. Cartoonish? Yes. But these Fringe faves can bring warmth to even the most absurd situations. The two have enough talent to keep this fun and zany, without lapsing into complete silliness. Just ease up on the Tabernac rap.

Usually, there’s at least one bit in every sketch comedy show better left backstage. Not so for Get Off The Stage Presents: All Their Golden Hits . Every sketch sweats unapologetically with XY-chromosome-ness: space travel, fierce competition (Van Halen’s Roth vs. Hagar, Schwarzenegger lines, authorship of 80s songs), even a guest appearance by Christopher Hitchens. Nothing is sacred. Jesus belts a lapsed devotee and warns him, “If you’re going to act like Mary Magdalene, I’m going to slap you like Mary Magdalene.” There are dance numbers and an 80s soundtrack that only a devoted mix tape maker could obsess over. Very, very, very funny. Makes me wish I could grow a pair and scratch.

Bridget Jones: lone white girl from London hunts for love. Sex and the City: four white girls from NYC hunt for love. Girls: a slightly younger group of white girls from Brooklyn hunt for love. The Golden Girls: just threw that in there. Single Black Female: turns out that #firstworldproblems #cantmeetaman are not limited to a particular demographic. Single women from NYC in their 30s struggle in the search for love (or marriage) against some very depressing statistics. But, hey, depressing statistics are good fodder for personal drama. Gara Nlandu and Letitia Brookes soul search the merits  drawbacks of online dating, well-intended but insensitive family advice, past failed loves (both male and female) and the saving power of a department store and a credit card. The energy is high in this the-political-is-personal (sic) piece.

Fire in the Meth Lab

Elder brother Tim probably wasn’t first in line to win the Mr. Congeniality award. His irritating habits included sticking his dick in his brother’s ear, spitting in his brother’s mouth, and driving away whenever poor Jon went for the car door. Jon, however, gets revenge with Fire in the Meth Lab. In an attempt to make sense of his brother’s not-so-surprising stay in the big house, Jon sifts through Tim’s addictions to find things far more sinister than recreational pharmaceuticals – notably, Australia’s answer to Rick Astley: Jason Donovan. Jon’s love-hate relationship with his older brother shows that growing up the son of a minister in the Australian countryside translates to some weird masturbatory habits.

Keep calm and carry on isn’t a good motto for Gerard Harris. His neuroticism is fuel for the stories that make up Verbal Diarrhoea or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Bomb at Love. This storytelling show (along with an impromptu poem) recounts Harris’ finer moments with the ladies from age 5 onwards. By finer moments, of course, we mean, failures and the events that preceded them. For a guy who describes himself as shy, he still manages to see quite a bit of action. Harris is decidedly British — cocky, reserved, witty, and self-deprecating all at the same time. He dives into cerebral analysis of meaning at the end of each story, concluding with profound, and some less profound, observations. Even so, what makes this show is the British mastery of language. With gems like “paying tribute single handedly many times” to a particular picture of a naked girl or avoiding “cruel middle class boys who grew up to be Britain’s greatest accounts and consultants,” Harris shows himself to carry a little Shakespeare in his heart, no matter where he lives. Incidentally, the stylish and mermaid-creeping comedian Dan Bingham puts an Irish-Catholic spin on the same subject with Now That I Have Your Attention. Bingham not only keeps your attention from his first sentence to the last, but he delivers his tales of shame and longing with Ginsu-edged wit.

Talk Mackerel

Participatory theatre? Yes, please. Put on your birthday hat and take a seat at the table for Leslie Moira Duncanaine’s birthday party in Talk, Mackerel. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a jellybean. Poor Leslie’s not had the easiest life.  She’s not that popular, her best friend is moving away and her mom (mam) killed her dad. But, like any good Maritimer in a storm, Leslie isn’t easily sunk. She plays trombone and talks to the pictures of her ancestors on the walls. This creative character study shows that writer and director Sarah Segal-Lazar is one to watch. And damn, can she sing!

Other notable mentions: Philosophy meets power point while camping: Third Person. Illuminati and the devil meet power point in a rock exposé: Alex Cross and his Rise to Fame. Tough but tender, Liz Burns as Red fires a pistol through the heart in the search for her former co-conspirator Grizzly in Crossdressers and Criminals.

I have to mention one final show, though the next place you can catch it is at Edinburgh’s Fringe. Wandering about with a red fez and a sash, festival spokesperson Johanna Nutter is taking her moving, never-predictable My Pregnant Brother to the U.K. The story is one of a kind (her transsexual brother gets pregnant and that’s just the beginning!), but the themes of family and addressing our deepest longings, are universal. Nutter currently has an indiegogo campaign to raise funds for her trips, so show some love for a Montreal girl and drop a virtual dollar in the hat, yo. ■

The Fringe Festival continues to June 23. 

Chef Chuck Hughes. Photo by Dominique Lafond.

“I used to crush the Mirror, and now Cult MTL doesn’t like me, I’m in third place,” he fake-complains, broaching the subject of the recent Best of MTL poll with a joke before I even get the chance. “Obviously I’m happy, it’s all good.”

I’ll say. Even though his Food Network show Chuck’s Day Off stopped shooting several years ago, the beloved local chef landed the #3 spot as Best Local TV Personality, the #6 Most Desirable Man in the expanded Best of MTL Top 10 list, and both of his restaurants, Garde Manger and Le Bremner, landed in the Top 5 Best Seafood list.

We met as he did the press rush for a new cookbook/memoir based on Chuck’s Day Off, a kind of behind the scenes glance into life at Garde Manger.

“The show is something that we stopped doing in 2009, I believe, so it’s been almost four years now that we haven’t done any new episodes. It was 52 episodes, and they were pretty honest and we kept it at that,” he tells me, adding that the book of the same title seemed like a companion or logical extension to the show.

Chuck Hughes. Photo by Dominique Lafond.

“Ultimately, it’s autobiographical,” he continues. “The people that are in the show and in the book are really the people that I work with. It’s a little bit my story with them, a little the story of the restaurant, a little bit the story of the show. It’s not a Chuck biography, it’s more about the people who are involved in the show and suppliers, and it’s really a biography of the restaurant. It’s a pretty honest depiction of what it is to be part of the team here.”

The book was crafted with help from writer, former Mirror and Cult MTL restaurant reviewer and food stylist Joanna Fox, who also worked on the show, with beautiful food porn photography from Dominique Lafond, also a regular Hughes collaborator.

Hughes has been on the forefront of a new generation of chefs, who are increasingly called out of the kitchen and into the limelight to feed our seemingly insatiable curiousity about food.

“I never really dreamt about it or wished for it,” he says, but “cooking on the line is great and gratifying, but it’s a young man’s game.”

The new book, like the show and Hughes himself, concedes to the cultural fascination with those who cook our very best meals, but Chuck’s Day Off highlights the importance of the raw materials, rather than the narrative of the master chef.

“By focusing on great ingredients and just giving them a little touch,” Hughes says, “I’m trying to give a slice of what it’s like to be in the restaurant.” ■

Parlovr. Photo by Susan Moss

How much more needs to be said about the Montreal scene? A fair amount, apparently. Ever since the international spotlight passed over our buzz bands in 2005, the machinations and personalities and factions and infrastructure of the local music community have been an obsession, if only within the borders of this island. One musician in the new documentary Montreal Underground says as much, and it’s a pertinent comment given the context — the film’s mere existence proves its point.

Adding to that is the fact that it’s the second homegrown documentary on the subject to be released this year, the first being From Montréal. They tell a familiar story: Montreal has a whack of quality indie rock, pop and punk bands, we sing in two languages, bands migrate here from the ROC and working musicians face a number of challenges. But whereas From Montréal keeps it puffy and positive by showcasing instances of anglo-franco harmony, Giuliano Bossa and Melanie Parent’s Montreal Underground speaks to musicians and venue owners about how tough life is for small bands and small bars.

As someone who’s admittedly, occupationally obsessed with this city, I can’t call anyone out for an abundance of insular perspective/civic pride. So of course I’m a sucker for Montreal Underground’s wealth of footage of our city streets, which is so easy on the eyes — the helicopter-shot montage is just killer. But the film’s greatest achievement is capturing what its title promises: the underground scene. There’s so much priceless documentation of fringe bands like Squalor, Bad Uncle and P/do P/dro, and our talking heads include les Breastfeeders’ Luc Brien, members of Duchess Says and Cult MTL favourites Parlovr, whose inclusion here is bittersweet given their recent break-up. The footage of them playing the overhauled Parc Avenue venue Jackie & Judy is a double-whammy of disappointment.

Entrance to Drones Club. Photo by Lorraine Carpenter

And this brings us to where the drama lies, in the conflict between the small venues (and bands who play them) and the city, given their efforts to satiate yuppies by shutting down neighbouring bars via noise complaints and seemingly arbitrary licence/zoning bylaws. We get some historical context from original MTL punks like Rick Trembles and Chris Burns, who discuss the dire lack of show space back in the day and the need for DIY venues. The narrative comes full circle after we get an earful about Project Noise and the closing of Green Room and Main Hall, delving into the loft scene, its legal challenges and how cities in the Northeast U.S. do DIY differently, and more effectively.

If you’re looking for stories about our music celebrities or the city’s linguistic love-fest, you won’t find either in Montreal Underground. It’s more Banksy than Bob Ross — it doesn’t always deliver a pretty, perfect picture in soft, gauzy tones, but it exposes the gritty reality of a fight with authority that continues to play out in our streets and government offices. Today at least, we can say that the musicians, law abiding or not, are having a better day than the bureaucrats. ■

Montreal Underground premieres at the Rialto Theatre (5723 Parc) on Wednesday, June 19, 8 p.m., $10

Mayor Michael Applebaum, No. 3, Slimiest Local Politician. Photo via Flickr

So this morning, Mayor Michael Applebaum — your No. 3 Slimiest Local Politician, according to our Best of MTL survey — was arrested at his home. Naturally, UPAC, the anti-corruption unit, held a press conference to announce that the #anglojewmayor (we’ll never tire of that one) faces 14 charges — things like fraud, breach of trust, corruption in municipal affairs and the like. Along with Applebaum, 2011 Conservative federal election candidate Saulie Zajdel and former Côte des Neiges-Notre Dame de Grâce director of permits Jean-Yves Bisson were also arrested and charged several times over.

Applebaum, you may recall, assumed office last November, when he was sworn in as interim mayor following Gérald Tremblay’s abrupt resignation. At the time, he said he wanted to create a multi-partisan coalition to rid city hall of scandal. In the months that followed, UPAC raided city hall a couple of times, most recently last month. Following the first raid, Applebaum had the misguided idea of telling Montrealers that he “was not targeted by this investigation.”

Though details are still vague, the charges Applebaum now faces stem from real estate dealings in CDN-NDG between 2006–11. Oh, and he hasn’t resigned yet. ■

To see the results of the Best of MTL survey, go here. To see the complete Best of MTL issue of Cult MTL, with expanded survey results, go here.