She Does Montreal

By Jasmine Soucy
What’s big and orange and has been serving up the tastiest creamy pep around since 1932? No, no, it’s not Carrot Top. It’s Gibeau’s Orange Julep! Located a block or two away from Namur Metro at 7700 Boulevard Décarie, this roadside restaurant is best known for being hard to miss. Shaped unassumingly like a ginormous orange (a Sunkist, perhaps?) the Orange Julep towers three stories high and spans forty feet in diameter. Possibly seeming a little foreboding in its place along the horizon (especially to incoming motorists not ‘in the know’) this other-worldly orb is anything but. read more...

Wednesday
Shapes & Sizes + Braids + un @ Sala Rossa
Shapes & Sizes are releasing their 3rd album Candle to Your Eyes on Sufjan Stevens' Asthmatic Kitty Label. Catch them on their POP OFF III appearance between performances at the Hillside Festival and Sappyfest. Alongside them will be fuzzy pop outfit Braids and synth act un.
$10. 8:30pm. Sala Rossa – 4848 St Laurent.

Thursday
Black Strobe + the Popopopops + the Penelopes + Phoebe Killdeer & the Short Straws @ Club Soda read more...

Outdoor flea market Marché La Recré sets up shop every Saturday from 10am to 5pm in the Lambert Closse schoolyard, 5840 St Urbain in the Mile End. Great deals are to be had on eco and local items including handmade jewelry, accessories and crafts, vintage clothing and furniture.

This Saturday will be Marché La Recré’s third, and the market is scheduled to run until fall, with no end date in sight yet. For more information, visit www.marchelarecre.com.

By Becca Lemire
I’m currently on a road trip with my bf and his parents, accompanying them on their art tour of Eastern North America. Long established artists, they seem to have many friends doing many cool things. This has lead us to the sleepy rural Quebec town of Shawinigan, about 2 hours north-east of Montreal, to check out Richard Purdy's current solo exhibition entitled L’echo-l’eau (Echoes of Water). It’s a multi-dimensional, multi-disciplinary large scale statement on art, water and life, among other things. It will be on display until September 26th at Espace Shawinigan. Tickets are $10 for adults and hours are 10am-6pm seven days of the week. Check out the website for more info. read more...

by Heidi Craig
French Fourch will launch T, a t-shirt exhibition and silent auction, on Friday, July 30th at SNAP! Gallery. The Franco-Belgian-Canadian zine makers collaborated with 30 young artists (graphic artists, photographers, painters, and graffiti artists) to create wearable art out of the humblest of sartorial mediums: the basic white tee.  The idea was to use the shirt as a credible artistic material as a means of injecting art into everyday life. Each shirt was specially created for the event, on blank tees provided by Québécois cotton purveyorBlank. Artists were free on subjects and techniques, with the knowledge that, after gallery time, the second life of the works would be in the street. A silent auction will be held during the vernissage, allowing audience members to bid on and buy the shirts they like best. read more...

By Tyler Yank
One of Montreal’s most anticipated summer festivals, Osheaga 2010 (July 31 and August 1 in Parc Jean-Drapeau) will no doubt be another two-day outdoor bonanza. Both headlining bands – Arcade Fire and Weezer - recently performed at the two-week long Ottawa Bluesfest, where I was lucky enough to catch them. If you are having any reservations about coughing up 65$ for a day pass to Osheaga (or 120$ for the full-weekend pass) allow me to provide you with an idea of what to expect from the headliners, and some fair warning: Osheaga 2010 may blow île-Saint-Hélène right out of the water. read more...

Intergalactic bossa nova harpist Maylee Todd touches down in Montreal next week for a show at l’Esco in support of her eclectic debut record, Choose Your Own Adventure. Check out her Aerobics in Space!, a catchy-as-hell flute looped tune.

With Bent By Elephants and Hooded Fang at l’Escogriffe (4467a St Denis) on Tuesday, July 27 at 8:30pm. $8. read more...

Divers/Cité, “la fête gaie de Montreal,” starts up today with week’s worth of free (and not-so-free) events. Not to be missed is 1, Boulevard des Rêves, an outdoor cabaret extravaganza featuring performances by Andrée Watters, Coco Thompson, Gardy Fury, Térez Montcalm and others. For the last ten years, 1, Boulevard des Rêves organizer and MC Marleen Menard has welcomed Quebecois artists of all stripes for a sensational night of celebration and song. This year, she welcomes over 20 acts belting out pop, blues and jazz numbers for your listening and viewing delight. As always, the three-hour event culminates with all the performers uniting on stage for a jaw-dropping finale. Admission is free, but a $2 donation is suggested. read more...

by Heidi Craig

After editions in Paris, London, Dubai, Las Vegas and Barcelona, it’s only natural that Laval would be next to host Dinner in the Sky, the newest trend in ludicrously expensive and dangerous dining. Here’s how it works: you and 21 of your closest pals are strapped in, roller-coaster style*, to chairs around a table on a platform. A crane lifts the platform 50 metres into the air, where you’re served dinner by friendly “standing staff,” presumably with bungee cords around their ankles. Want the whole world to know you’re a jerk who spent $300 for dinner on a crane? Dinner in the Sky provides a “customizable banner, visible from the ground, [that] lets passers-by know at a glance where your company stands among the rest.” read more...

THURSDAY

Extreme Painting
Mad Masks Beyond the Vendome Vernissage @ Galerie PUSH
Summertime in Paris Vernissage @ Parisian Laundry
Citywide exhibition theme Extreme Paintingbridges 16 commercial galleries with tons of shows all summer long. This week, Galerie PUSH presents the opening of Patrick Lundeen’s new work, Mad Masks Beyond the Vendome. The exhibition ranges from large-scale custom canvas masks, small works on paper to a video work featuring Liberace. read more...