Quote of the week:

"The low-carb fad has gone." - Morgan Stanley analyst Michael Steib, on the Sunday bankruptcy filing for Atkins Nutritionals Inc., the company behind the all-meat, no-bread diet that swept the world in the late 1990s, to Bloomberg News

Burning Montreal

Burning Man, the annual anarchic, weeklong art festival-slash-gathering of the uninhibited and creative in the searing Black Rock Desert of Nevada, is about to get its Montreal edition. This weekend, organizers are hoping that Montrealers looking for a 24-hour stay in an alternate universe will make it down to Sherman's Forest outside of Bolton Sud, in the Eastern Townships close to the Vermont border, for Ignition 2005, billed as an "outdoor party for Montreal's Burning Man community," according to their Web site.

"Basically, we want to put our toe in the water and see how things go," says organizer Michele Jenkins, a San Francisco native who's attended eight Burning Mans over the past 10 years. She says similar events held in Ontario and around Boston have attracted their own communities, but nowhere near the 30,000 that show up in Nevada.

According to Jenkins, the only thing people need to bring are clothes, shelter, food and water, and "art, music, science, electricity and friends." Vending, of any kind, is strictly prohibited.

For more information and to get tickets, visit http://bruleurs.net/ignition2005/. » Patrick Lejtenyi

Riverside rush

Planners have seen a lot of promise in a long-neglected stretch of the St-Laurent riverside between the Old Port and parts west. The biggest of the bunch is a proposal to remodel the Bonaventure Expressway by 2025. SNC Lavalin engineers will present a how-we're-gonna-do-it study to the city this October.

Unlike the hugely controversial Ville-Marie Expressway, built in 1972, nobody complained a peep about the Bonaventure when it was laid down to access the Champlain Bridge and Expo 67. But now urban planners are trash-talking the roadwork.

"We're rebuilding a part of the city that was heavily damaged by the expressway," says Cité du Havre planner Pierre Malo. "It created a huge division in the area."

Other future action nearby includes the redevelopment of the four-million-square-foot Alstom train yards; a proposed new $1.2-billion casino slated to open 2010 and a $15-million, privately-funded soccer complex dreamed up by the Saputo cheese empire, which also owns the Montreal Impact soccer team. Impact rep Stéphane Banfi says the stadium wasn't connected to the other proposed developments in the area. "We're entirely independent of that," he says. » Kristian Gravenor

Green on top

July was a scorcher this year, with 18 days topping the 30 C mark. And while a great number of Montrealers were either paralyzed with the heat or muttering darkly about imminent air conditioner purchases, the Urban Ecology Centre was installing a rooftop garden, a proven micro-climate coolant. Starting next Thursday, August 11, they'll be sharing their tips with locals who want to cover their roofs with plants, grass and flowers, and organizing visits to other successful rooftop gardens.

Claire Frost, who worked on the Centre's pilot project, admits that a rooftop garden can be a pricey venture. She says that for a full garden, like the one they created on Parc, an entire new roof has to be built to be able to support the six inches of earth it needs. "There isn't a network here yet of people who build them," she says. "That's what this project is for."

There is a scientific component to the project, measuring temperature decreases and water retention.

Those interested in signing up for the workshops and tours can contact the Urban Ecology Centre at 282-8378. » Patrick Lejtenyi

Camp Alegre

Campement Québécois de la Jeunesse is not a summer camp for kids. It's summer camp for socially conscious activist-types who want to live a perfect world for two weeks out of the year. The third edition runs from August 15–29 at Mont Radar, an abandoned military base 45 minutes outside of Quebec City. The idea is to create a totally non-hierarchical, spontaneous, self-managed environment emphasizing direct democracy, respect for all and non-discrimination.

"We want to create a space that's parallel to the Porto Alegre social forum," says camp member Magaly Pirotte, referring to the annual gathering in Porto Alegre, Brazil, of grassroots activists groups, and a counterpoint to the concurrent World Economic Forum of the rich and powerful in Switzerland. "We want to apply the values we defend at Porto Alegre on a day-to-day basis."

People are free to come and go as they please, and Pirotte says anyone is welcome to begin discussion groups or activities as long as they respect the camp's values.

For more information on how to participate, call 298-9974 or visit www.campementjeunesse.org. » Patrick Lejtenyi

REAR-VIEW MIRROR

18 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
August 7–21, 1987

On the cover: A photo of three unidentified men, with the blaring headline "Inside the CIA," as Brendan Weston discusses the documentary On Company Business, based on revelations by a former agent, with director Allan Francovich. At the first screening, Francovich says, "The entire audience was CIA, and they were calling out to one another (when they recognized the interviewees)."

• Looking at the city's funeral industry, John Sobol is told by crematorium worker Mario Perase that, "It's always the same story. We bring them down to the fridge, we freeze them, we take them out, we display them, then we burn them." A typical body takes about an hour-and-a-half to completely burn at 1,200 C, he says.

• "Fail-Safe offered free condoms with lecture/demonstration at their record launch," Jenny Ross writes in Notes from Underground.

• "It's [director John] Glen's reluctance to deviate from pandering to the perceived expectations of the audience that continues to drag the series down," reads the review of Bond movie number 15, The Living Daylights.

Angel >> Pot entrepreneur/activist Marc Emery The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency had high-profile, Vancouver-based marijuana activist and seed seller Emery arrested in Halifax over the weekend and are asking that Canada deport him to face conspiracy charges. The DEA says 80 per cent of his seeds, sold online, are bought by Americans. Emery, who was arrested with two other members of the B.C. Marijuana Party, is not facing any charges in Canada. He has been arrested in Canada 11 times, but spent only two months in a Saskatchewan jail - a term that highlights the very different approaches to marijuana between Canada and the U.S., where Emery would face 10 years to life in prison.
Insect >> Quebec Liberals' youth wing fashion police Among the topics to be discussed this weekend at the Quebec Liberal youth wing convention in Sherbrooke is the ever-pressing issue of how girls dress. Alarmed by end-is-nigh omens like bared midriffs and g-strings, some delegates are considering a resolution pressing the provincial government to impose mandatory school dress codes for all pre-teens and adolescents. This may seem a bit of an odd reaction to a perceived problem - early sexual activity - for which tunics and knee-length skirts have never proven effective. Also to be discussed will be lifting the freeze on university tuition and nationalizing Quebec's water resources, debatably more important issues than teenage fashion.