miss julie d

2007-03-10T14:39:00.000-05:00

adidas+ argentina=March 15

For the last 2 1/2 months, I have been working on a very exciting project for adidas: Your World by adidas. The teaser is live since March 1 and the full version site is going live on March 15. Be sure to check it out!

March 15 is also the date I'm finally going on Holidays!! I was originally planning to go to New-Zealand with Marie-Hélène but things have changed and I'm going to Argentina for 3 weeks with Iléana and Véronique! I can't wait! You can follow our trip on our blog Carnet de voyage : trois filles en Argentine.

2007-02-07T23:28:00.000-05:00

Arcade Fired

If you live in Montréal, you are well aware that Arcade Fire are giving five shows this week at the Ukrainian Federation Hall. The venue being very small, the tickets for the 5 shows were sold out in a couple of minutes. I was not lucky enough to get mine that day but my prayers paid off since a co-worker who could not attend anymore sold me his tickets for tonight’s show. I invited my friend and music lover Véronique who also tried to get tickets the day they went on sale so she totally deserved to come with me to this very special event.

I saw Tapes ‘n’ Tapes at the Ukrainian Federation Hall last fall and the first time I walked in the place, I told myself ‘I feel like I’m in Prague'. Well, I haven’t been to Prague yet but that’s how I imagined an alternative venue in Prague would feel like.

The show was short (around 70-80 minutes) but I enjoyed every minute of it. The venue does not feature the best sound system but the spirit of the place totally fitted with the event in my opinion. I saw them when they opened for U2 in 2005 (they gave a mind blowing performance that night) so it was also a very nice experience to see+hear Arcade Fire in such a small venue. As stated in the newspaper, it might not happen again in the future given their popularity.

You can watch a video filmed at the first concert at the Ukrainian Federation last night:

Neon Bible is the title of their upcoming album...Tonight, once again, I realised that music is my religion.

2007-01-02T11:03:00.000-05:00

Best of 2006

As posted on Wézo’s blog, my 10 2006 coups de coeur (not in order):

-Hot Chip (le show à la Sala Rossa et l'album The Warning)
-Diplo à la Sala Rossa
-Babel (le film)
-Copenhague (la ville)
-Figurines (le show au Main Hall et l'album Skeletons)
-Teitur (le show au Cabaret et l'album Stay under the Stars)
-Pâté de campagne à St-Côme
-Patrick Watson (l'album Close to Paradise)
-Gorillaz (l'album Demon Days)
-Rex the Dog à NYC (oui ça compte car il a spinné le 1er janvier!).

2006-11-20T22:26:00.000-05:00

Diesel new identity is unveiled

Please welcome Sid Lee!

2006-11-19T23:34:00.000-05:00

Artsy Lördag

Yesterday I went to a Swedish exhibition called 'Touching the Invisible'' at la Sat. It's quite an original exhibition that is mixing art, science and technology. The 'Brain ball' installation is a futurist battle between 2 'competitors' alpha waves. Quite unusual! Oh and it's free so you don't have any reason to miss it!

Later that night, I went to a dance show called Import/Export by Les Ballets C. de la B. from Belgium. It was a mix of dancing and theatre with a live string quartet. It's kind of difficult to describe the performance but I can say it was very touching. The more I think about it, the more it grows into me.

2006-11-16T11:59:00.000-05:00

Diesel new identity

Next Monday, the firm where I'm currently working, Diesel , will change its name...

2006-11-12T17:39:00.000-05:00

November rain

Highlights

Cinema
Babel (Alejandro Inarritu Gonzalez): beautiful and touching movie. A real masterpiece. Best movie of 2006 in my humble opinion. Run see this movie!

DVD
-I'm watching the last season of Six Feet Under these days...What a great TV serie. Two DVDs to go but I don't want to watch them...I just don't want my Six Feet Under journey to be over. Nate, poor thing, call me and I'll help you out.
-Jack will be back soon so that's comforting :-)
-Brothers and Open Hearts (Susan Bier): I liked these movies as much as 'After the Wedding'. Bier is very talented. I was particularly touched by Brothers. The final part is emotionally charged. Great actors. Nikolaj Lie Kaas is not only talented but very handsome (sorry, I could not help it, he he).

Music
-The Rapture (November 2, Club Soda): The guys have a cool stage presence. They overcame my expectations! Personal highlight: I Need You.
-Hot chip (November 5, Sala Rossa): I was very excited about this concert. I LOOOOOVE their second album (which remind me I should buy their first) so I could not wait for their concert. Iléana, Véro and I had dinner at Sala Rossa, the restaurant (the venue is upstairs). And guess what? The guys from Hot Chip had dinner at the table next to us! Oui mes amis. But as very bad fans, we didn't recognized them...We even mentionned 'Whoa, what a bunch of weirdos' when they came in the restaurant. Ouch! The show was amazing!!! The re arranged their songs so it does not sound exactly like the album and they played quite a few new (+excellent) songs. They played Over and Over at the encore and I'm telling you, I thought the floor would break! Amazing show! I hope they'll come back soon!

How cool is that?
On this rainy and cold day, I'm reading the 20th anniversay issue of Q magazine. I got the one with Madonna which is pretty cool. I'd exchange it for the one with Damon Albarn or Noel Gallagher though...Anyone? ;) This is issue is like candy to me. When they asked Larry Mullen his favorite artist of the last 20 years, he answered Arcade Fire. Pretty cool, huh? Crazy how we're proud of the artists who are from our hometown...They listed Definitely Maybe from Oasis as a must have album of the last 20 years. I haven't listened to it for a while so I put it in the cd player and yeah, it rocks! I always liked Oasis even in their lows.

2006-11-04T15:04:00.000-05:00

DMA

MGM Grand Website won 'Best of Show' last Thursday night at the Digital Marketing Awards. Read more.

Bravo Diesel!!!

2006-10-25T22:04:00.000-05:00

Guilty pleasure

...I admitted to 2 of my friends (not at the same time) that I like 'Sexy Back' by Justin Timberlake. Guess what? They both admitted that they like Justin!! And these 2 friends are really not into dance music so I had no clue. Of course, they never mentionned that fact to me before I confessed...Now, should I say who they are? :-P

2006-10-24T22:52:00.000-05:00

Professional post

I'm working as a project manager at Diesel and two of my projects have been launched recently so it's time for a little self promotion!

Best place to work (client: MGM Grand Hotel & Casino): a microsite to describe, in an amusing way, all the benefits you get when you work for MGM Grand. MGM Grand (Las Vegas) won the Best place to work in South Nevada 2 years in a row. Congrats!

Brits Wanted (client: Tourisme Montréal): a microsite to promote Montréal among potential British tourists. The site is a local's guide to Montréal where 9 themes (nightlife, festivals, etc.) are introduced.

2006-10-24T22:32:00.000-05:00

Another Danish week end coming up

A friend of mine informed me that Anders Trentemøller, a Danish DJ (from Copenhagen?), is spinning in Montréal this Friday. He has a new album out (on PokerFlat) and from what she read so far, it's supposed to be very good.

Note: this dear friend of mine already used the famous pick up line in the past 'Would you like to come at my place to listen to my PokerFlat Records?'. Did it work? Oh yes!

As I wrote already, I'm going to see Lars von Trier latest movie Saturday night so it will be a Danish week end once again!

Also, thanks to Jeppe for his insights on the Danish film culture! I saw many movies from LVT so I'm prepared for something...special. In fact, most Danish movies, not only LVT ones, are quite ...special. That's why I like them.

2006-10-23T21:40:00.000-05:00

Yet another Swedish band

I found out about Melody Club about 2 years ago. If you're craving for the return of the keyboards, 80's style, check them out on My Space. Electric, currently on My Space, is a good example of what you can expect...They gotta come to Mtl too!

To follow up on my Danish week end, 'After the Wedding' was excellent! The main actors are great and the story is very touching. Oh and I got my tickets for the newest (a comedy!) by Lars von Trier. Looking forward to that.

2006-10-22T17:54:00.000-05:00

The Sounds

I discovered a new Swedish band called The Sounds. I'd say it's a mix of '80s new wave with a punk edge...The singer (Maja) is quite the rock'n'roll girl! I'd LOVE to see them live!!! Let's hope they'll stop by Mtl soon! Meanwhile, I'll buy their last album.

The Sounds on My Space: http://www.myspace.com/thesounds
The Sounds playing The Warped Tour:

2006-10-22T11:37:00.000-05:00

Danish week end

Yesterday, I went to The Figurines concert at the Main Hall with the Scandinavian groupie crew (Véronique, Rikke, Karina and Isabelle). I really enjoyed the show!
The band sounds great and the singer's voice is very interesting.
Oh and the singer was as handsome as a Dane can be...which is always a nice thing ;-)

Tonight, I'm going to see a Danish movie by Susanne Bier called 'After the Wedding'. It's part of the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma program. Lars von Trier's 'Boss of it all' is also showing in a couple of days so I'll try to see it as well if there are still tickets available.

2006-09-24T11:49:00.000-05:00

L'automne va être rock'n'roll

Wow, there's so many concerts coming up this Fall in Montreal, it's exciting!

Here's a BRIEF overview:
Kasabian
Ladytron
Matmos
Juana Molina
Diplo
The Figurines
The Rapture
Hot Chip

Fow now, I know I'm going to Diplo, The Figurines and Hot Chip but I'm sure I'll ending going to a lot more concerts. Yeah!

I saw Teitur, Tina Dico and Tobias Froberg on September 15 at Le Cabaret Music Hall. A line up of Scandinavians is quite rare over here so it was very interesting. Each of them did a lovely set. I'm listening a lot to Teitur's last album these days and I must say it's great!

I just realised that I haven't post much about music on this blog other than my stories on the Madonna concerts. Music is so important in my life that it was about time to talk about it. Madonna is a pop icon I was happy to see live but my music interests go beyond pop artists such as Madonna or U2.

2006-09-10T08:34:00.000-05:00

Let's get artsy

I went to an expo called 'Urban Senses' at The Canadian Centre for Architecture yesterday. It was very interesting and I took note of a few references that I'll now share:

The Snow Show: when architecture meets ice and snow...We're far from the classic igloos and ice castles!

Quiet American: forget about photos because here, it's all about sounds. Put the volume on and explore the 'one-minute vacations' series and travel from the Swedish archipelagos to a cafe in Paris 2e arrondissement to ...

2006-08-10T19:26:00.000-05:00

Pâté de campagne

Last week end, I went to Pâté de campagne, a private party (well, what can you do, you're a VIP or you're not) up north in the countryside. Five Djs were spinning from Saturday 1pm to Sunday 2pm. We camped on the site, had a little BBQ, then party all night long, all night, all night long! We were about 60 people. Everyone was very nice+cool. Thanks to Ilé, Véro and Rikke for the great week end!

2006-08-10T19:19:00.000-05:00

I got a cougar on me

For those who know me, you know that I'm not really fond of comedies...But for some reasons, I find some jokes in the Talladega Nights trailer quite funny!

'You can't be 2 number ones...Yeah, you can't...that makes 11' :-)

Ileana, if I ever decide to see that movie, it will have to be with you!

2006-08-08T19:51:00.000-05:00

Norway or Paris, which way should we go?!

Many cities in New England have European cities/countries(!) names...I thought this one was particularly interesting!

2006-07-30T16:50:00.000-05:00

MGM Grand launches

I'm a project manager and the project I've been working on for the last few months has been launched last week. If you want to experience Maximum Vegas, you know what to do!

www.mgmgrand.com

2006-07-30T16:39:00.000-05:00

Images from Cph

I've started to upload my photos on my Yahoo photo album so I'll post a link soon. Meanwhile, here some of my favorites:

1. A design laboratory. Can you get any more Danish than that? ;-)

2. That's my postcardish photo...

3. A Saatchi bike!

2006-07-30T00:18:00.000-05:00

Miami Vice

I saw Miami Vice tonight. My review in 3 words: Colin. Farrell. Wow.

2006-07-10T16:41:00.000-05:00

Back from Boston!

Madonna show was brillant! It was the same show than the one in Montreal but our tickets this time were way better (4th row in the lower section; middle part of the arena) so we enjoyed the show a lot more!! It was way cool to see her as close. Here's a photo I took during the show.

2006-07-03T09:24:00.000-05:00

Madonna...again!

I saw Madonna at the Bell Centre in Montréal on June 21. We (my friend Mélanie and I) were super lucky to have these tickets (both Mtl shows, 20 000 tickets/night) were sold out in 40 minutes. We thought they were a bit far in the back so we also bought tickets for the first Boston show which is this coming Thursday. I'm looking forward to this little road trip:

Thursday 6am: leaving Mtl
Thursday noon: checking in at our hotel in Boston
Thursday pm: walking around the city (I never been so I'm curious to discover it since many told me it was a beautiful city)
Thursday night: Madonna!
Friday: visiting Harvard University
Saturday and Sunday: beach time (either Hampton beach or Cape Cod)

Here's a photo published in La Presse (one of Montreal's French newspaper) where you can see Madonna leaving the Saint-James hotel in Old Montreal for her sound check.

2006-07-03T09:18:00.000-05:00

Montréal la belle

Montréal might be one of the cheapest city but she got the look. Yes, it has just been nominated one of the 'New Design Cities'. Bravo!

2006-06-28T18:29:00.000-05:00

Most expensive cities

I read in the Metro newspaper that the top 12 most expensive cities have been updated recently. Copenhagen is number 8! And what about Montreal?! Well, we are at number.... 80!!!! The only Canadian city in the top 50 is Toronto (47). I guess that's one of those charts that you don't really wanna be part of...

http://www.mercerhr.com/pressrelease/details.jhtml/dynamic/idContent/1142150

Curious to see what number 80 looks like? Here's a photo I took on my way to work last week (Square Victoria, downtown).

2006-06-26T21:11:00.000-05:00

Danish Feta

When we had lunch, Jeppe told us that Denmark lost a case agains't Greece concerning the use of the word 'feta'. Only feta produced in Greece can keep the name. I was at the supermarket last Saturday and I saw some Danish feta. I thought it might be my last chance to see a 'Danish feta' label so I bought it!

Here's a photo for Wézo ;-)

2006-06-26T13:31:00.000-05:00

Danmark+Sverige June 2006

A long time dream came true when I visited a little part of Scandinavia (June 13-June 20 '06). I stayed a full week in Copenhagen (Cph), the wallpaper city that was haunting my thoughts for sooo long. I also did a one-day trip to Malmö in Sweden since there's a 16km bridge (Oresund) connecting Cph and Malmö. I'll post and comment some photos from my trip on here but I'll also upload them on a Web based photo album for everyone who is curious to discover a piece of Scandinavia.

I must say a big hello to Jeppe and Vibeke, two very sweet Danes who invited us to hang out with them for a concert at Tivoli and to share a Danish lunch at their place. For anyone interesting in Photoblogs and Denmark, make sure to check out these 2 blogs:

http://www.substansfoto.dk : Jeppe's blog
http://www.christofferjonsinnbeck.com/photoblog : Chris's blog (Jeppe's cousin)

For once, I was the lucky traveller who had the chance to visit Denmark! Previously, when I was travelling to Europe and looking at the airport screens for connecting flights, I was so envious at the flights going to Sweden or Denmark... and now it was MY turn. I was so happy, I took pictures of all the pieces of evidence...Am I crazy? A little bit, but hey, life would be boring if there was not a little bit of craziness.

2006-01-04T17:28:00.000-05:00

Here's a link where you can download the countdown video at Markt (note: available for the next 7 days)!

http://s44.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1DDGPSUKPC9QH3HFWOLVAKAFL7

2006-01-02T13:07:00.000-05:00

Bonne annee 2006!!!

My friends Melanie, Ileana and I decided to drive to NYC to celebrate the NYE! We were lucky enough to stay at a friend of a friend's (!) apartment in the West Village (thanks Magali and Scott!)!

We started by a day of shopping (of course!). Shoes were 70% off at Marc Jacobs so that was a good start for Ileana. On the 31st, we went to see a musical (Hairspray). It was my 10th trip to NYC and my first musical on Broadway. It was about time to do this classic touristy activity! It was fun!

After some champagne drinking at the apartment, the celebration began at Markt in the Meat Packing District. Good meal, nice staff (Johnny '69' Depp) but too much air conditioning! Around 12:30, we moved to a loft party, still on 14th street where Rex the Dog was playing. It's a shame but we did not know Rex the Dog before and we literally fell in love! His set was MIND BLOWING!!! Ileana and I did not stop dancing one second while he was on. It's been a very long time that I did not enjoy a DJ set that much. Bravo!!! He finished his set with 'Respectable' that you can hear in this 5 minutes minimix:

http://www.rexthedog.net/minimixupdate.htm

The beats, the hands in the air, the smiles...It was a magic moment that I'll always remember...And yes, on top of that, Rex is damn sexy.If you want to check him out:

http://www.rexthedog.net/dates.htm

I'll post more photos of NYC, the party, Rex and of course, the girlz, later this week!