Happy Father's Day to those marking it with their dads, grandpas, kids, uncles and whichever father figures have played an influence in your life! And a big hug to anyone missing their dad today. If you gather, remember to follow public health rules and keep your distance and wear a mask. My big recommendation: take a stroll to enjoy the sunny, warm weather, watch the hockey games together... or visit the ongoing train exhibit at Pointe-à-Callière Museum or the Arctic show at Cirque Éloize. (More info below.)
The Clock Tower Beach reopens Saturday! While you can't swim, you can lounge in a chair with a beautiful blue parasol, cool off in a mist station, play in the sand or order in from the bistro. Admission is ticketed. Open 11am to 7pm. Also happening: In the Old Port, the Voiles en Voiles adventure park features archery, aerial circuits, inflatable games. And MTL Zipline and The Observation Wheel in the Old Port has reopened, open daily 11am to 7pm.
Last weekend to check out the 30th annual Montreal Fringe Festival, though the virtual shows at FringeTV have been extended to June 30. Some shows are sold out, but there are still a few seats left for others. Consult the schedule here, and make sure you book in advance.
Some Fringe suggestions:
- Online: Master storyteller Nisha Coleman spins more heart-stopping tales in Alright: Solving the Problem of Living, Home Theatre Productions reinvents popular fairy tales in short but sweet How the Fables Have Turned, Confabulation's latest storytelling series and Joseph Ste-Marie's self-explorative This Show is Broken.
- In person: Phantom Limb Theatre Co's The Space Between is a ghost tale about two friends trying to communicate with the other side, Marissa Blair explores fandom in The Celebrity Obsession, or Pauline Gervais offers up new choreography in dance show Temps avenir.
The Grand PoutineFest comes to LaSalle! Head on over to the drive-thru at the Cegep André-Laurendeau parking lot. Unti Sunday.
Last chance! The eighth edition of SatFest presents eight short immersive works to be enjoyed under the dome, on a cozy black bean bag chair: check out a 'vertigo-inducing dive into entropic chaos', a fictional exploration of microbiology titled Immunity and an AI-generated trip called Piece. Until Saturday.
Martha Wainwright's Mile End music venue Ursa holds a mini festival with intimate performances. The Saturday lineup for Ursa Micro is Warhol Dervish and DJ Cheez-Tray, and Evelyn Brochu with a special guest. And Sunday features Jessica Moss & Jeremy Dutcher. (Martha's own show on Friday is sold out.)
Newly streaming this weekend: Andra Day stars as the legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday in a biopic that centers around a federal sting operation led by an agent who romanced her. Day won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar for her work. The United States Vs. Billie Holiday is on Crave.
Juneteenth marks the date in 1865 when slaves in Texas were finally freed, over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. The day has come to commemorate both the abolition of slavery and to celebrate Black culture, and just this week, it became the latest national holiday in the U.S. Grammy-nominated artist Robert Randolph has conceived of Juneteenth UnityFest, a free online concert and speaking event packed with talent, including Nile Rodgers and Chic, Earth, Wind & Fire, Darius Rucker and India.Arie and Phylicia Rashad, Jesse Williams, Billy Porter, Wayne Brady, Craig Robinson, Aisha Tyler and more. Saturday, 5pm.
Sheryl Crow invites you into her 'little church', a space stuffed with 'Americana curiosities' on her property in Nashville. She'll be performing her greatest hits, and revealing the stories behind them, in this, her first full-length, solo multi-instrumental livestream concert. Friday, 8pm.
To celebrate the release of a deluxe version of Black Sabbath's Sabotage album, Rhino Records has uploaded a virtual escape room inspired by the band! Use your Sabbath knowledge to solve the puzzle; it should take 10 to 15 minutes.
It was a hot week! Cool off at Below the Ice with Mario Cyr, a new immersive walk-through exhibit by Cirque Éloize. You will journey north to follow Cyr, a documentary filmmaker, to nearly inaccessible spots in the Canadian Arctic. Marvel at the polar bears and narwhals and walruses, and learn more about what a precarious position their environment is in. At the Éloize Studios In Old Montreal, at 417 Berri.
Pointe-a-Calliere Museum's new show is Italian Montréal. Drawing on loaned treasures from local families, the show touches on culinary traditions and how first-generation families fared after arriving in the city. A quarter of a million Montrealers count themselves as having roots from Italy! (While you are there, visit A Railroad to Dreams, all about trains!)
OASIS immersion is a new, 'touchless', next-level experience on the ground floor of the Palais des congrès. There are 105 laser projector, 119 surround sound speakers and a LED lighting setup. You begin in the Anticipation Room, proceeding through a set of different rooms and wind down in the Decompression Chamber. Current exhibitions include: stepping into the worlds of pianist Alexandra Stréliski, and astronaut David Saint-Jacques's recent trip to space. There is also a tribute to hygge, the Danish tradition of finding coziness in the everyday. Each visit is about 75 minutes.
Consider checking out a museum, now that they are open to the public: you pick your entry time in advance, so visits are socially distanced. Demand is high as well, so you will want to select your date in advance. Visit the McCord for the Dior haute couture show (today is the anniversary of the debut of the New Look!) or the MAC for Des horizons d'attente, its bundle of recently acquired works that address today's sense of malaise. The Museum of Fine Arts presents Riopelle: The Call of Northern Landscapes and other shows. They have also started to offer children and family workshops through weekends this summer.
And if you don't want to leave the house, several museums are still offering virtual shows... including the MAC, which has updated and expanded their sensational exhibit on Leonard Cohen, A Crack in Everything. Cohen gave his blessing for the show, which features pieces inspired by his life and work, back in 2015, and it went on display around the time of passing in 2017. The show has been enriched for online viewing, available until February 2024. The Louvre has also just put its over 480,000 items online. From the world's most-visited museum, check out the antiquities to Islamic art to medieval decorative arts, to modern sculpture and beyond.