Staycate the premises

By JACK OATMON

My couch is booked solid as a government handout waiting list this week and next. An exodus of the shack-wacky, university-reading-week February blues, or whatever it is. The onslaught of visitors is quite welcome, as I myself haven’t got any cash to throw at a vacation by a long shot. I’m planning my winter staycation this week and trying to gravitate toward diverse and contrasting experiences. The best thing about this city’s arts, music and nightlife is, after all, the variety.

To begin with, my eye and ear were caught by some of the artists on hand for tonight’s free Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québécoise soirée at the new cocktail lounge of Cinamatheque Québécoise. Intricate, psychedelic, spacey and strangely catchy, With All Due Respect is a local duo which has mysteriously evaded my detection until recently. Somewhere between the early millennial U.K. trip hop/dancehall crossover aesthetic and ambient, industrial dub, their performance should fit well with the saturated images and visual dissociation of the thisisnotdesign collective.

In other limey sounds, the Funky MTL party this Saturday night promises dubstep, bassline house and synth soca beats from Toronto’s Freeza Chin and MC Plain English. Find out how and where at myspace.com/eslonline. Also that night, sultry Brazilian vibes shall sear through February shudders at Zoobizarre as NYC’s Uproot Andy and Radio Radio appear at the Boomboxx night to batter booties with club cumbia and bottom-heavy South American dancehall.

In keeping with the indulgent eclecticism, Jerusalem in My Heart will be hosting a free evening of Armenian and Arabic sounds in the Sala Rosa restaurant, also on Saturday night. On the other end of the dingy strip, down at Café Cleopatra that night, the Dead Dolls Cabaret and friends are planning another night of booze and boobs and Barbie-bashing bodices ripe for the ogling. Always a button-popper.

And, finally, for a solid night of wacking out to floorboard-thumping funky tech house and hollering in people’s ears over the footloose din, folks can check out Yan Leigh, Kasteniede and Le Boucher DJing at the Eresys night at Salon Daomé. That’s also occurring on this particularly saturated Saturday night.

That should be enough to keep your temperature tolerable and your stocks in freefall for the weekend. And perhaps you, like me, are finally facing a week of admin and idling about after a trying couple of months of essays and icicles. If so, I have an extra little bit of cheery advice to keep you from cursing your feeble funds and nonexistent travel plans. Do like I do and get yourself some buddies from out of town to stay on your sofa and remind you that, no matter how ornery Old Man Winter gets in Montreal, some schmucks have got it bad enough that they spend their hard-earned bucks to come here from whatever accursed pit they live in!

DON’T WOK AWAY! jack.oatmon@gmail.com