Dark cities

>> McGill's Night and the City conference is engaging academia

by MARK SLUTSKY

Ask the gang down at the soda shop about the best way to have a good time this weekend, and chances are the first thing they'll holler won't be "Academic conference!" Though they might have the reputation of being rather dry, jargon-filled affairs, this weekend's Night and the City conference at McGill looks like one of the more interesting events on the social calendar this month. While far from being a beer blast, the conference, organized by PhD students Anthony Kinik and Geoff Stahl, promises events as varied as slide shows, video presentations, interesting lectures and films.

There'll be a reception this Friday at Noize record store, with a slide show promising a glimpse at Montreal's tabloid past, courtesy of McGill Art History and Communications Studies acting chair Will Straw. It starts at 7 p.m. and is free for all. Legendary German director Fritz Lang's 1931 classic M will be screened Sunday night at the Casa del Popolo, with a new soundtrack by locals Tim Hecker and Mitchell Akiyama. $4 is all you need to get creeped out.

Then check out some of the promised speeches: Kai Fikentscher's "The Sign on the DJ Booth Says 'NO DANCING.' What's Wrong with this Picture?" or Paul Moore's "City Lights: Movie Marquees and the Electricity of City Nights." Of the speakers, Stahl says "not all of them are academics in the strictest sense of the term." Artist Barnaby Evans, for instance, will talk about his installation piece in Providence, Rhode Island, and show an accompanying video. Of the conference attendees--who have come as far as Finland, Australia, Mexico and the U.K.--some are artists, and others independent scholars not affiliated with any particular institution.

Stahl and Kinik have also fixed up quite a pair of keynote speakers to kick the conference off. On Thursday, Dr. Bryan Palmer of Queen's University will present "A Profane Prologue to Histories of the Night." The lecture will be followed by the official launch, at Thomson House, of Palmer's latest book, Cultures of Darkness: Night Travels in the Histories of Transgression. The next evening has Dr. Mike Davis of SUNY Stony Brook and his intriguing-sounding talk "Wild in the Streets: The Hot Rod Riots and the Rise of the New Left." Both lectures will be held at New Chancellor Day Hall.

Night and the City costs $7.50-15 a day or $20-30 for the entire conference. The keynote addresses, like the Noize event, are free. Info at www.arts.mcgill.ca/programs/ahcs/nightandthecity.htm