Saturday, April 26, 2014

Better Late Than Never (the Basta%^&s) Finally Save a House in the Griff

Well only 50+ years later & Drapeau's draconian direction to rid Montreal of unsightly neighbourhoods finally is halted & the last home in Griffintown is saved. I think this is a good thing but I also think there should be in every neighbourhood that was leveled by Drapeau ,a museum with the history of the areas affected clearly documented for anyone to see. Afterall we do have a lot of museums in Montreal so some dedicated ones to show the ignorance of some political whims ........We need to salvage & remember as much of history as possible , instead of leaving it to politicians to tell the story the way they want to spin it instead of actual documented stories & photographs to tell the real stories behind the neighbourhoods.  However I digress.......lol
So here is a story from today's Gazette about a Home in Griffintown Saved at Last.
 
                                                       



MONTREAL — A condominium developer has been refused permission to tear down a row of buildings that includes the oldest house in Griffintown.
The Sud-Ouest Borough’s Comité consultatif d’urbanisme (CCU) ruled unanimously Tuesday against a request by developer Maître carré to demolish three 19th-century buildings at 161-175 de la Montagne St.
CCU Chair Anne-Marie Sigouin said the buildings, facing a park that was once the site of St. Ann’s Church, are a rare surviving example of a typical streetscape in the former working-class neighbourhood.
“We have sent the architects back to the drawing board,” said Sigouin, the city councillor for the Saint-Paul/Émard district.
“We want to send a clear message on heritage protection,” she added.
The buildings covered by the decision include a tiny house at 175 de la Montagne that is the oldest house in the district, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in Canada. Dating back to 1825-35, the small house was originally built on a different site and moved to its present location in 1865.
The developer had offered to dismantle and reconstruct the tiny house and integrate it into a 12- to 14-storey condo project while demolishing the neighbouring buildings, which date back to 1862.
The CCU approved demolition of neighbouring buildings on Wellington St. just east of de la Montagne judged to have no heritage value. Sigouin said the borough would welcome a development project for the site if it integrates the historic buildings on de la Montagne.
Hugo Girard-Beauchamp, president of Maître carré, did not return a call from The Gazette.
mascot@montrealgazette.com

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Toronto Star article re: Ted Grant Sixty Years of Legendary Photojournalism -by Thelma Fayle

Here is an article appearing today in the Toronto Star , some of you may find it interesting , as it relates to the last few posts on this blog re: The book written by Thelma Fayle about Ted Grant, and as mentioned previously the Leica Photo Gallery in New York City will have a 3 month display of Ted Grant's photos , and will host both Thelma & Ted this week as of Thursday in the Main Gallery on Broadway in  NYC.............the following is the article:

                

Canadian photojournalist Ted Grant finally gets his due: Goar

Thanks to an unlikely chain of events, a self-effacing Canadian photojournalist named Ted Grant has his own one-man show in New York.

                                     
 
Photojournalist Ted Grant took the iconic photo of Pierre Trudeau sliding down a banister in Ottawa's Chateau Laurier Hotel at the 1968 Liberal leadership convention. An exhibit of Grant's photos will be on display from April 24 to June 7, 2014, at the Leica Gallery in New York.

By: Star Columnist, Published on Mon Apr 21 2014
If you’re planning a trip to New York this spring, there is a treasure chest of Canadian memories at the Leica Gallery on Broadway.
The exhibit is called Ted Grant: Sixty Years of Legendary Photojournalism. It opens on April 24 and runs till June 7. The gallery’s directors, Rose and Jay Deutsch, call Grant “the father of Canadian photojournalism.”
You’ve seen his images, including the iconic shot (at the top of this column) of Pierre Trudeau sliding down a banister at the 1968 Liberal leadership convention. But you probably don’t know the photographer.
Grant never sought the spotlight or looked for accolades. When people praised his work, he’d say he was lucky or he just happened to be in the right place at the right time. But his “good luck” kept occurring. His portfolio includes some of the best candid photographs of Ronald Reagan, Jackie Kennedy, Margaret Thatcher and David Ben-Gurion ever taken.
The story of how his work ended up in one of the world’s top photo galleries is as interesting as the man himself.
I can’t tell it dispassionately because I like Grant very much (and had a trifling role). But it is worth hearing.
Throughout his career, Grant made time to share his knowledge. At the height of his professional prowess, he would slip away to Carleton University once a week to teach an undergrad course in photojournalism. I was lucky enough to be one of his students.
I have no photographic talent whatsoever. I didn’t have the right kind of camera and couldn’t afford a better one. I was awed by his professional stature. But Grant was so encouraging and so determined to find something good in the ham-handed pictures I took that I finished the course with a passing grade and a huge debt of gratitude to the man who helped me see the images around me, understand the play of light and watch how a master of the craft frames his subject.
I thanked him as well as a 22-year-old could and kept in touch with him when he moved to Victoria, where he now lives.
On the west coast, he continued to teach photojournalism. One of his students was a freelancer named Thelma Fayle. Like me, she was struck by his generosity, his eagerness to share his knowledge and his total lack of pretension.
Twenty-five years after she took his course, Fayle sent a letter to Grant asking for advice on a magazine profile she’d been assigned. Not only did he respond to her letter, he came to her house with his wife Irene. They chatted at her kitchen table for three hours. Without being asked, he accompanied her to the interview, stayed in the background and took some of the most evocative photos she’d ever seen.
Fayle asked Grant if he’d consider letting her write his biography, interspersed with some of his finest photos. He agreed.
It took her almost four years. She spent many hours at the National Gallery and Library and Archives Canada, poring over 300,000 of Grant’s photos to choose the 100 that appear in the book. She conducted more than 100 hours of interviews. She sought anecdotes from friends, colleagues and former students. And she wove it all together, highlighting his photos.
She learned about the improbable source of his skill: a childhood condition known as amblyopia or lazy eye. A doctor tried to treat it, giving him a patch to put over his good eye so the weak one would strengthen. But his elementary schoolteacher, thinking he was trying to be a clown, made him take it off. So his visual imbalance was never corrected.
But Grant trained his good eye to do the work of two. He became one of a handful (2 per cent) of left-eyed professional photographers. On assignments, he positioned himself differently than his competitors and shot from a different angle.
Slowly at first, then with gathering momentum he rose through the ranks. Successive editors discovered there was something special about the pictures he brought back.
Although Grant’s reputation grew, his practices didn’t change. That is clear from the list of “Ted’s tips” at the end of the book. There are 37 of them. Here are a few of my favourites:
  • I always carried a large bag of Thompson raisins. They were a quick hit of something to eat if I was working the oilfields or the Olympics or with a prime minister. The other guys always knew I had raisins and would share them with starving photographers.

  • Always be the first to arrive and the last to leave.

  • Don’t pose people.

  • Study the eyes of the person you are photographing.

  • Never say no to helping someone out.

  • “If you walk into any newspaper in the country, they will know Ted Grant’s name because of his reputation for giving back,” said former colleague John Harquail.
    Fayle’s manuscript was rejected by a dozen publishers before Heritage House Publishing took a chance on an unknown writer. Since then, its staff has thrown itself into promoting the book and Grant. They arranged the one-man show in New York.
    If you can’t get to New York, the book is an excellent alternative. If you can visit the Leica Gallery, you’ll see Grant’s most memorable photos showcased as they’ve never been before.

    Carol Goar’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

    Saturday, April 19, 2014

    Leica Gallery New York Show April 24th

    This is an invite reminder sent from Leica announcing the upcoming show commencing this Thursday April 24th Opening Reception from 6pm-8pm.
    Duration of the complete time frame to display many of Ted Grant's photographs, will be from April 25th until June 7th , 2014
    Opening hours Tue-Fri 12-6pm , Sat 12-5pm
       ........many of Ted's photographs that will be on display in the Leica Gallery are also carried in the book , written by Thelma Fayle (ex-Verdun / Montrealer) titled:
      TED GRANT
    Sixty Years of Legendary Photojournalism


     Here are some shots of the invite , (please don't shoot the cameraman , it was me.....LesF)
          you can click on each photo to enlarge then you might be able to read the print inside the card ,
     after you click on a photo you can then hold the Ctrl: button & then use your wheel on your mouse to make the photo even larger, but then again you most likely knew that didn't you.





    I get to include this invite notification card with my copy of the book, if you are close enough to New York City , then you may want to take in the Lecia Gallery show in person.
     
    Cheers & good luck to Ted & Thelma
     Have Fun & RememberVerdun       -LesF

    Wednesday, April 9, 2014

    Salut Marois Don't Let the Door Hit Your Arse on the Way Out

                               .............................................................................................'NUFF SAID.......

    Thursday, April 3, 2014

    Update from Dolly on her book Loddy Dah !

     

                                                                                                                                                                  One of our other gals from Verdun ,who will be having her book launch shortly just sent me this quick email update..........If you live in the Montreal area and can attend ,then you might just get to meet Dolly yourself, . let's encourage & support all the talented friends we can from our native Verdun / Montreal:               
                                                            

       Here is a copy of her email: (permission granted by Dolly to post this)

    Hi Les,

    Just to bring you up to date. Attached are images of my novel: front cover, interior, and back flap plus the acknowledgement page which includes YOU and the Verdun Connections Group! Hope you can read it. 

    It's been a long journey but it's out now on Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, Amazon.co.UK, Barnes and Noble and Indigo. BUT ask your bookstores to order the book because I believe in supporting indie book stores. Also ask your library to stock it as I get paid for every book borrowed.

    I am excited that my novel will debut in Montreal at the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival where I will be reading last day of the festival May 4 at the Hotel 10, corner Sherbrooke and St. Laurent Blvd, in the Jardin Room with the other new releases from Guernica including Lorne Elliot. Remember him? Reading some time between 4 and 5:30 pm. You can google the Festival April 2 when the site goes live and see what it's all about. I believe there is a link for launches. Yep, I'll be rubbing elbows with international authors, publishers, agents, illustrators, poets, etc. I'm not a literary groupie but even I can be impressed! Haven't been to Montreal since 1998 so it will be emotional. A lot of things have changed. I always wanted to write about that time in Montreal, the late sixties before it was forgotten and I did. Thank you to you and VC Connections for sharing their memories.

    Then May 25 I head off to Toronto for the second launch at the Supermarket Restaurant and Bar, reading at 4 pm

    June 12 is the Edmonton launch at Audreys bookstore between 7 and 9.

    June 24 reading at the Glass Door Coffee House Reading series here in Edmonton.

    Beginning of November I will be reading in Calgary at Owl's Nest with another Calgary author and a short book tour en route stopping through Red Deer and Lethbridge. Hoping to get to BC in the new year.

    I have also been invited to talk about my novel at a book club April 8 and another in the fall. The fall gig dates are still to be determined. 

    How is your sister and her book doing?

    Take care,
    Dolly