St. Louis Square is one of my favorite parks in Montreal. Follow the cobblestone road that is Prince Arthur from St. Laurent, and you hit the small city oasis right before St. Denis. That's how I discovered the park in my teens.

Artists are a weird bunch. A motley crew of various talents (and often specific obsessions and strange habits), usually the only thing we have in common is a passion for the arts, or one corner of them.

The Cité-des-Hospitalières is undergoing a beautiful transformation, as creators bring their art to fill the repurposed space. I’ve attended a few shows at this venue, but until Floreus, I’d yet to have the pleasure of experiencing the chapel itself.

I am now high maintenance. Not the highest maintenance, and not in an annoying way, but I've made my decision, and I'm sticking to it. Allow me to explain…

When we were young, it was easy to celebrate new chapters. Admittedly, that was because everything was new, and it's easy to celebrate firsts. It's easy to be hyped and sentimental about the first day of school, but fast forward to halfway through your master's degree (shoutout Shaina!) and it's just a grind you've grown accustomed to.

Back in February, Director and CEO of Canada Council for the Arts - a governmental entity which supports the arts and literary scene in Canada through grants, services, prizes and payments - issued a letter to the community in which it announced that the Council will be lowering its spending incrementally over three years, as part of the federal government’s Refocusing Government Spending initiative, for a grand total decrease of $9.88 million.

Y’all, I went with the flow, and it took me where I needed to go. Considering how I regularly preach my personal brand of spiritual surrender (a mish-mash of things said by far wiser people than myself), it seems only fair to keep you abreast of the results in my personal life.

I recently got together with local musicians Debbie Christ and Booster Fawn to talk about their projects, their upcoming mini-tour, their plans for the future, and staying sober in a city that loves to drink.

It was a genuine pleasure having coffee with Wine and Halva’s playwright and director, Deniz Başar and Art Babayants, respectively. The title of Başar’s script comes from a poem by Arkadaş Zekai Özgür, a queer, Turkish communist who ultimately died in his mid-twenties after being arrested and brutalized by police.

The majority of my favorite Montrealers are from away. When questioned about this, it took me a minute, but I came up with what I believe to be true: transplants to our fair city come here because they love the variety of Laid Back and World Class that we have to offer.