Mass Montreal

The Masses, Not The Classes

Bob Stanley | 21st February 2022

Vignette about Irving Berlin's breakthrough 1912 song "Alexander's Ragtime Band" from an upcoming history of popular music. Why was it such a hit? It wasn't actually ragtime, but it was about that musical form, and Berlin also disrupted songwriting convention to make it catchy. It emphasises the chorus, has no second verse, and unusually these two parts are in different keys (706 words)

Déneigement Montreal

Hillary Predko | The Prepared | 17th February 2022

Montreal has mastered the art of snow management. The city receives an average of 82 inches every winter yet, thanks to a well choreographed maintenance programme, remains a highly accessible place for cyclists and pedestrians. The secret? Actually removing the snow, rather than just ploughing or gritting. Trucks transport around 300,000 loads to dumping sites every cold season (1,608 words)

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Podcast: Existentialism Today | Microphilosophy. Wideranging roundtable discussion about the state of this school of thought, with plenty of reference to the work of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre (52m 04s)

Video: The Giant Chainmail Box | Tom Scott. The Hill House, in Helensburgh, Scotland, was created in the early 1900s by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. This tour around the unorthodox ongoing restoration project is fascinating (3m 38s)

Afterthought:
“The days that make us happy make us wise”
— John Masefield

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