Broken 7 by La Compagnie de Bière Brisset

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Over the weekend I tried a new beer, Broken 7 by La Compagnie de Bière Brisset (so new in fact, that in this day and age, I can’t find a single useful link anywhere for either of them). I ended up recording my thoughts about it. Call it the Zekecast, Zeke’s Montreal Beer Podcast, a beercast or whatever.

Listen (22:26):

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You can download it here: Ogg Vorbis 14MB, MP3 27MB, Flac 98MB, WAVE 227MB.

In a nutshell, it’s a very reasonable and nice beer made better by it being made locally. Bright yellow, 5% abv, it comes in thin 500ml brown bottles with a label that evokes baseball uniforms. It has strong hay overtones with a nice aftertaste, I also was able to taste and smell at first some celery then a vague citrus scent and flavor (somewhere in between lemon and grapefruit) and a slight hint of something approaching licorice. However the lasting image and memory is of a late summer pasture. It’s much better when drunk extremely cold.

A bottle of Broken 7 by La Compagnie de Bière Brisset
A bottle of Broken 7 by La Compagnie de Bière Brisset

For those who are interested, the players on the Expos who wore the number 7 were Bobby Wine (1969 – 1972), Bob Stinson (1973 – 1974), Tony Bernazard (1979), Ron LeFlore (1980), Hubie Brooks (1985 – 1989), Lou Frazier (1993 – 95), F.P. Santangelo (1996 – 1998), Orlando Merced (1999), Todd Zeile (2003) and Tony Batista (2004). But as I point out Alain McKenna is probably wrong in thinking that there is any link to baseball, as here in Montreal the name will be pronounced “broh-kuhn set.” As the number seven is pronounced “set” in French. So it is much more likely that if there is any sports connection it is to tennis. And it only occurred to me now, that not only did he not write anything substantial about the beer, but what little he did write, he got wrong, implying that it is a Lager, when in fact it is an Ale.

For those following along these links will prove helpful. The Montreal Expos 1973 season (also here, here and here). Schaefer Beer, Rheingold Beer and the two paragraphs in La Presse that Alain McKenna, wrote about the beer. The address for Epicerie Unique is 4109 St. Laurent, here in Montreal.

And then finally

The EZ Montreal Art Podcast, episode 5, Melanie Gilligan at Vox

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Last month Eloi Desjardins from Un show de mot’arts and I got together to discuss art in Montreal in the summer. We were in Joliette to see the Jacques Hurtubise exhibit there (more on it later) but the conversation quickly got focused on the Melanie Gilligan exhibit Popular Unrest at Galerie Vox. This is the second part of a recording we made at the same time as the The EZ Montreal Art Podcast episode 4, Ryoji Ikeda at DHC/Art.

The EZ Montreal Art Podcast episode 5

Listen (20:27):

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Download: Ogg Vorbis 11MB, MP3 17MB, Flac 68MB, WAV 206MB.

More Art and the Law

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Let’s hope that it never gets to this here. On one hand I’m eternally frustrated with the values of Canadian Art (old and new). On the flip side, I’m kind of glad that no one (to my knowledge) has resorted to a court of law to prove (or disprove) the authenticity of an artwork. Last week the New York Times reported on a messy and sordid case whether works attributed to “Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko — are clearly originals or obvious fakes.”

Peter Paul Biro will have his day in court

Howdy!

The Montreal forensic art specialist who saw his career go up in smoke after a very damning article in the New Yorker in 2010 has clarified what and what cannot be tried in court.

The full 95 page ruling is available here. As I hear any more news I’ll let you know, but my best guess is that the only people who will be happy with the outcome are the lawyers.

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