Joni Void with Pablo Jiménez, Annabelle Chouinard, Adrianne Munden-Dixon, and Audréanne Filion, No Hay Banda, La Sala Rossa, 22 September 2024

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. —Genesis 1:2

YHWH Nailgun with distraction4ever, Erika Angell, and NPNP Trio, La Sotterenea, 27 September 2024

We live in the midst of unspeakable tragedy and violence.

War, famine, and death saturate the headlines. As if deliberate and malicious acts weren’t enough, we additionally face the persistent threats of accident and chance misfortune. At any moment we could be stricken with disease or hit by a bus.

We console ourselves with platitudes like “it is what it is,” or “these things happen.” And all the while the grass continues to grow, seasons change, leaves fall, some are born, others die, clouds form and dissipate in the clear blue sky.

The natural world manages to persevere with sociopathic indifference.

La Route Chante: Hommage à Lhasa, Rialto Theatre, 29 September 2024

No one dies at exactly the right time.

Good people always die too early, and bad people can’t die too soon. It’s not right that someone like David Bowie is dead, and, say, Donald Trump isn’t. We can only be grateful that Trump will eventually expire, and that Bowie once graced the world with his existence.

Life isn’t precious. It’s what we do with it that is.

Two Readers & Music III, at the Residence of Curtis McRae, 2 October 2024

Words inadequately describe the pleasure and the necessity of words.

Nicolas Bernier Album Launch, Université de Montréal, 3 October 2024

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. —Psalm 119:105

The Barr Brothers with Juana Molina and Kee Avil, La Sala Rossa, 26 September 2024

They say that practice makes perfect. We practice every day whatever it is that we are. You don’t just manifest in the world. It takes your entire lifetime to be what you’ve become. If you’re a horrible asshole, you must have attended rehearsal. If you’re a magical angel, that took practice, too.

Stars with The Dears, Rialto Theatre, 28 September 2024

The commemorative impulse pervades contemporary culture. We are perennially celebrating the anniversary of this or that artifact or wishing happy birthday on social media to public figures who died decades ago.

We even mark grim milestones with a perverse indulgence: Monday, for instance, will be the one-year anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on Israel and the ensuing and apparently forever-war that followed.

When the Soviet Union was dismantled and all the former Soviet Socialist Republics regained national sovereignty, the general global atmosphere was one of relief. The evil superpower fell, and no longer would the world need to cower in fear of an international nuclear conflict.

I am nostalgic for those halcyon days when it appeared as though the world was awakening from our Cold War nightmare. The prospect of total annihilation is always simmering today, somewhere on the back burner.

The Barber of Seville, Opéra de Montréal, Salle Wilfrid Pelletier, 1 October 2024

“I have unlocked and discovered a secret to living in these bodies that we hold. And oh yes, it’s very, very, very, very serious. The secret… is laughter.” —Lancaster Dodd, The Master

Our ability to morally choose is what differentiates humans from sentient beasts. We are furthermore set apart by our desire to know what is right. The application of justice raises us yet again above the level of pack animals. Still, what truly connotes higher intelligence is a sense of humour.

Afrorack with ONY, Honeydrip, and DJ Uñas, La Sala Rossa, 30 September 2024

Life is measured in increments of slowness and speed.

Everyone has experienced some unpleasant event that lasts an eternity, and conversely, something so pleasurable that it should never be allowed to end. Time itself seems to change duration too, depending upon our desire for it to stretch out or condense, usually behaving opposite to our wishes.

Clocks structure time and regulate it, converting time into currency that we can spend or save or waste frivolously. Similarly, dance music programs time into intervals that can be drawn out or accelerated to our liking, cheating time of its frustrating design.

The Zero Issue, NicheMTL Yearbook Launch, Ateliers Belleville, 19 October 2024

“I need you to be afraid of nothing.” —Sharon Van Etten, “Afraid of Nothing.”

When I approached the graphic design team at Studio FEED to create the layout for NicheMTL’s first-ever print edition, they suggested that we number it Issue 0. I immediately loved the idea for a few reasons.

First, I remembered a math teacher in my first year of high school who blew everyone’s mind by explaining that 0 equals 1. Mathematics was never my strongest subject, so I believed him unreservedly.

Second, with an infinitesimal dot, zero transformed visual art. The vanishing point literally changed our perspective. Without it, there would be no accurate representation of reality.

Once again, we encounter a paradox with the vanishing point, where zero equals infinity. That faraway speck is where something becomes nothing, where all things relinquish their thingness.

Two things have always terrified and fascinated me: everything and nothing. The concept of not being is a frightening notion. It conjures death. When we die, according to rational thought, we will become nothing, forever. This may be one reason why we invented the afterlife, so at least the infinite could be populated by something.

The thing is, nothing is not a thing. It’s just an idea. Just as the infinite cannot possibly go on infinitely, because no one lives forever, which is how long you would have to live to experience infinity.

With this in mind, you are cordially invited to attend the launch of NicheMTL’s Zero Issue, to be held at Ateliers Belleville 19 October 2024.

It’s going to be quite something.◼︎

Thank you for inviting NicheMTL to your thing. Please get in touch at the about page.

NicheMTL is Montreal’s independent not-for-profit source for this city’s most niche arts and culture. If you love what you’re reading, please consider subscribing.

_{Cover image: The Dears perform at the Rialto Theatre for Pop Montreal, 28 September 2024. Photographed for NicheMTL.}