Chris1989

This will sound crazy to some of you, but what a time to be alive! I never got to witness the 60s boom, or the 76 Olympics, and all the infrastructure that was built during those two decades, but this is just as exciting. New towers, rebuilding of all our crumbling infrastructure and the construction of entire new projects. Thumbs up to the PLQ, and to Coderre. They're not perfect, and Coderre really rubs me the wrong way too often, but how can you deny what has gone on in the last few years? I was raised in a climate of Montreal is a "has-been city." How wrong they were.

Thanks Lindberg! The music at the beginning and end comes from the Planet Earth II soundtrack, led by Hans Zimmer.

This is great, I'm definitely going to use this for something in the future. Thanks everyone for the feedback!

Thanks steve

Hey everyone, here's my latest film in honour of Montreal's 375th. This one has taken me awhile, I've included clips from TV shows, movies, celebrities, etc. If this gets seen by a few Americans thinking about their next travel destination, great, but I think deep down, this is more a film to get Montrealers to see how much this city resonates with people around the world and how lucky we all are to live here. Share it if you want! Thanks everyone, and Bonne Fête Montréal. I was at the bridge illumination last night, like I'm sure many of you were, and the buzz in the city completely floored me. Everywhere I went, the streets were packed, people were excited and loud, and it really did feel like a new wind is in our sails. Last night, after the show, walking through the Quartier des Spectacles, a tour bus got caught at a red light next to the musical swings and you should have seen the faces of the tourists. They were all smiling ear to ear, glancing around at the space, at the fountains, at all the LIFE going on around them, taking as many photos as they could. I'm glad I got to see that, it was truly a special moment.

You cherry pick Mark. That's my problem with what you post. Gazette has had many positive articles this past year, so have a number of different publications but you focus on the negative ones and always throw in a "see, we've slipped since 1976", which is, I mean come on, how can it not be seen as a veiled shot at the French. You're suggesting Quebec started sucking when the French took control of the wheel and we haven't ever recovered. I'm an Anglo and that shit infuriates me. I'm sure you'll argue you never said anything like that, but then WHAT have you been insinuating all these years? I understand as an Anglo, its hard to look at 1976 and not see it as the beginning of a "downfall", but that was going to happen one way or another. It was despicable that the English establishment controlled this province when a vast majority of the population were Francophones. If you disagree with that, you're beyond repair. We've had a rough four decades economically, no doubt about it, I'm not blind to it, but I think everyone can agree Montreal is much more unique and much better off today than it was in 1976. We would not be who we are today without that "hiccup". We've been around for 375 years and I firmly believe that in the future, the 40 or so years of "rough economic times" will be seen as a tiny little blotch in the history of the city. The future generations won't remember that unemployment was high, that shops closed, that hundreds of thousands fled. Some will obviously recall it, but most will see it as the era when Cirque was born, the Jazz and Comedy fests, Moment Factory becoming a force around the world, when the French population finally got their voices heard, when the city began to gentrify, when our culinary scene somehow topped our past one, our schools were considered among the best on the planet and the city recognized as #1 in the world to be a university student. A lot of this is only now happening because we've gotten better at marketing the things we're good at. Old Montreal was a forgotten area of the city 20 years ago. Tourism was incredibly low, and now it's become one of the most visited tourist areas on the planet. It's estimated 6 million tourists visit the area every year; by comparison Vatican City sees 4.2 million and the Colosseum gets about 4 million. Isn't that insane! We need to start talking about the things we're good at and figuring out how we can expand on it, and grow it to other areas. There's so much to be proud of I can't even list it all. I get you're pessimistic about a lot of things and we need to be vigilant to keep on the right course, but you talk about Montreal as if it's Detroit right now and headed for worse. We're not Detroit. Let Toronto be Toronto. They have all the money in the world (apparently) and yet it's still somehow soulless. Toronto definitely has a "thing" going, but tall glass boxes, dirty parks, poor integration between the towers and street, and bland bland BLAND architecture everywhere you go is what they've been working on SINCE they became the biggest town in Canada. And all I ever hear is "But Toronto is getting better!" LOL. I'm sure it's much better than what it was, but they've had 40 years to do better and they still can't match the best cities in the world. What are they waiting for? Maybe it's because it has nothing to do with money and political influence and everything to do with heritage. Montreal's "je ne sais quoi" is passed down from generation to generation. It's in our bloodstream. You either have "it" or you don't. Toronto tried buying some of it and it still did fuck all over there. And perhaps the worst thing about Toronto: they're still as insecure as ever. God help them if any city surpasses them, the rest of Canada will never hear the end of it. When they surpassed Chicago in population they wouldn't shut up about it and argued they were now a BETTER city than Chicago. Really? Jesus Christ. It blows my mind to think some people rank city "greatness" based off of how many humans there are living in a city. You know what native Torontonian Lorne Michaels said about Toronto? "There's a thing that happens when you grow up in a place like Toronto. Everyone says stuff like "the food here is as good as New York", and I always respond, you know where they don't say that?" There's two types of people. Those who compare everything they have with everyone else to argue how much better they are, and those who know who they are and don't have any desire to try and compare with or convince anyone else This town has made some incredible history over the last 375 years, and I truly believe the best is yet to come. 10 years ago I wouldn't have said that, but it feels like everything has been changing since. It started slow in the 2000s and now, well, you all know. No matter how rocky things may get, Montreal will always stand the test of time. Rant over. Thanks for bearing with me folks.

Mark, grow a brain. Please. We're all waiting. Using JdM as an argument is laughable. Using Gazette is laughable. Using Toronto newspapers is laughable. Start looking at the stats. Stats you always go on and on about. Stats that show we are just fine and dandy. Just because we rank 11th in something and Toronto 10th, how the fuck is that worthy of failure? Get some different coloured glasses, because yours are covered in shit.

I made two Montreal short films that went viral on YouTube in the last few months and noticed from feedback how little the average Montrealer knew about the city. They just didn't know shit, and I'm not blaming them but Jesus Christ, how can you not know that smoked meat is a Montreal thing? And you were born and raised here? "Can't you get that everywhere in the world?" Holy Christ. Montrealers have no clue how special their city is. Not a f***** clue, anglo or franco. It's just nonstop bitching about everything all the time. It's easily the worst thing about Montreal. I'm currently working on a new film, this one 90-min in length, featuring some truly special material about the city. If this doesn't clue everyone in about how great the 514 is, I don't know what will.

Amazing, perhaps my favourite project right now. With all the amazing glass going up on projects around Montreal, I hope this one is up to par.

crosbyshow is exactly right. If it cost only $100 to install all those lights, people would appear out of nowhere to complain. I'm just so sick of it. and yes, it will cost more than most projects around the world, but I'm not sure I've seen a bridge with interactive lights like the ones we're about to see. Champlain is also getting a lighting scheme when it's completed, are people gonna complain the price tag for those lights should be removed from the budget of the new Champlain so we can put it into healthcare or something? Whiners everywhere!

People who questioned this project had no idea what they were talking about. Just more ignorance from people who need to learn to keep their mouth shut. This is Moment Factory! Born in Montreal and known around the world as the gold standard for lighting, and yet somehow, the city that spawned the company isn't good enough to actually use their services. This project already has people gushing on social media whenever they do a light test for a couple hours. Wait until it's lit up every night, it's going to be a breath of fresh air for everyone who catches a glimpse of it.

I love the pink balls, but this is spectacular. Great job MTL!

Whoever wrote that is a waste of space. I'm sick and tired of the negativity from the anglophone population; as an anglo, it really pisses me off. Shame on the Gazette for continuing to publish shit like that.*

Good God. A new Montreal icon is born.

from Saturday:

That fucking rag. But I'll take it, thanks man*

This building automatically makes the NFB cooler.

What a BEAST. Love it, game changer for the whole area.

Merci beaucoup, c'est vraiment gentil La musique: Planet Earth II (BBC) par Hans Zimmer. Tourisme Montreal refuses to share my videos. They got annoyed with me when I released the first video last month ( ) because I said I didn't like their "Sorry" campaign videos. They never said it flat out, but it was clear. They had one excuse after another. Tourism Quebec and Explore Canada however did share it, so that's kinda cool

Here is the second short film in a series I'm planning to make this year. All the footage came from YouTube. It took me awhile to complete this. I was able to find some truly special footage, so please give it a look and share it if you like it. I'm not making a penny off this project, just trying to spread the word about this special city we all love. Montreal vue par les touristes francophones:* Here is the first one I released last month, featuring English-speaking tourists:

I think we all need a breather. There's been so much good news lately, let's relax. I just finished my second short film on Montreal, from the perspective of francophone tourists from around the world. It's pretty special, I'd love if you guys could check it out. I know this isn't the appropriate thread but it's one of the more popular ones and I think it goes hand in hand with the idea that Montreal is getting noticed more and more on the world stage. I'm not making a penny off this project, just trying to get them to go viral and spread the word on Montreal.* I also made one featuring English-speaking tourists last month, which you can see here:

Wow that looks awesome.

I took one of those tourist hop on hop off busses last summer for fun, and when the stadium and the tower came into view, the tourists literally awed and gasped out loud, and then proceeded to take a thousand photographs each. Most of them then looked to the people they were with and made the motion of "we have to get off here and explore". The only other location they did that was the Oratory and Notre Dame. Canada has confirmed they will be bidding on 2026 FIFA World Cup and with Toronto deciding not to bid on 2024 Summer Olympics (and a new stadium they would have built for the event), a renovated Big O (done like BC Place) has been discussed as the potential location for the final. * The generation that watched the stadium's construction spiral out of control with corruption is getting older and quieter, and younger Montrealers see it in a more positive light. It will be fifty years old in 2026, a renovation is definitely coming and FIFA 2026 would be the perfect stage to show it off.*

Last summer, a friend and I took one of those double decker tourist busses of the city (we had joked about doing it for years) and when we turned onto McGill street, everyone on the bus started grabbing their cameras and taking as many photos as they could. A couple from Poland we had chatted with said they thought the architecture and built form of the city was spectacular. We had just come from the Old Port, and there was a young family from Missouri seated near us who were clearly blown away. I distinctly remember the son turning to his mom and saying "are you sure Montreal isn't in Europe?" and the mother jokingly responding "maybe we should check on the map again". I remember the Olympic Stadium being another moment when the tourists lunged for their cameras.*

I noticed that too! That hyperlapse is quite a project, Im still blown away by it. My video again: