MUSIC. Tha Alkaholiks-Foufounes Electriques-87 rue Ste Catherine E.-Tuesday, March 16.
Next Tuesday,
Under Pressure magazine is bringing another great hip hop night to Montreal's Foufounes Électriques. The concert is featuring Tha Alkaholiks on their farewell tour, with guest Embassy from Toronto, and Montreal's own Offsides, DJ DR1, and DJ Grandtheft.
Over the last decade Tha Alkaholiks have consistently been able to crossover the commercial and underground hip hop scene. The group is made up of three members, E-Swift, J-Ro, and Tash, and it has collaborated with platinum selling artists like Busta Rhymes, Xzibit, Nas, Snoop Dogg, and Wu Tang Clan. They have released four critically acclaimed chart-topping CDs, and are to release their new album this summer.
Offsides have become one of Montreal's most sought after hip hop groups. They got their start in 1996, and have released a couple of great albums, toured internationally, and won the CBC's "Big Break" contest of 2003. The doors open at 9 pm and admission is $7.
PARADE. St Patrick's Day Parade-along rue Ste-Catherine (rue du Fort to rue Jeanne-Mance)-March 13.
It may not feel like the real thing to us wannabe alcoholics at McGill, but the St. Paddy's Day Parade-the oldest such parade in North America-can be a blast if approached with dignity and lots of booze! Moreover, as 40 per cent of Quebecers have Irish heritage somewhere along the line, participation is a must for any cultural connoisseurs in this city. So have a drink to our province's green and white pioneers, and enjoy a most excellent prelude to the drunken festivities of March 17. For further information, visit the United Irish Societies of Montreal Web site at
www.bar-resto.com/uis.
FESTIVAL. International Festival of Film on Art (FIFA)-various venues-March 10-20.
As per usual, Montreal is fortunate enough to be the authority on Film as Art, boasting the only festival dedicating specifically to this pursuit. In its 23rd year, FIFA (no, this is not a soccer thing) is a must-attend for any avid reader of this section, featuring 270 films from 25 countries. Some of the major attractions at this year's event include a tribute to the late Guido Molinari, one of Canada's most influential modern painters, as well as the North American premiere of Napoleon, David-Le Sacre de l'image, which is being co-produced by The Louvre, no less. For the complete scoop on the festival, check out
www.artfifa.com/en/accueil.
FILM. The Jacket-various theatres-currently playing.
In our modern age of postmodernism, "mish-mashes" refers to a whole lot more than your grandmother's dinner.
The Jacket, a science-fiction/war epic/courtroom drama/psychological thriller/love story, is just that: a potentially successful mish-mash of ideas that have worked in the past, all chucked into one half-baked movie-going experience. So suspend disbelief, remember that a movie does not have to obey the rules of real life, and enjoy a career-making performance by Adrien Brody (
The Pianist), whose character, Jack Starks, is thrown into the middle of all this nonsense, and tugged in all directions.
