Music Shows

Ive seen a couple of shows since im in Vancouver, ill discuss a little each of them :)

***Update***

Japandroids with No Gold @ Lifetime Collective
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Lifetime Collective is the smallest venue Ive ever been to. It looks like a small warehouse or really small lounge.
I didnt know much about Japandroids(heard a couple of samples of some songs before) and nothing about No Gold.
Show started an hour after it was supposed to so it was really a long wait and I was getting sleepy. Then No Gold started and i found out a really interesting band: funny, changing rythmn, easy listening, good beats and really friendly musicians.
Then came on Japandroids... first time since im in vancouver that i actually see Vancouver people actually move during a show and when they move they move! it was a non-stop trash and mosh pit pretty much everywhere in that small venue. Incredible i would say ;)
It was a lot heavier than I expected. I danced around to the music with people I just met and I had a blast. They played a pretty long show playing all songs on their new album + old ones.
Anyways i enjoyed the evening once it started and now have another band to follow around.
Plus i met a bunch of really fun people who I talked to during the evening :)
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Stars with Hey Rosetta! @ Orpheum
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The Orpheum is the most beautiful music theater ive ever been to. Covered in gold, paintings on ceilings, greek columns, marbre all over the place... its like a palace for music kings.
Usually the place is used by orchestra, but that day was Stars and Hey Rosetta! playing.
Unfortunately I was sitting down on the balcony level and it seems that those who build the theater made it beautiful and all but not so practical since the inclination of the balcony levels is not high enough for everyone to see correctly so you had to stand up to actually see the scene down there because when there was someone sitting in front you could see much.

Hey Rosetta! was a really impressive band they only played approx 20min but that time was worth it to me and people next to me also. They were entertaining and the sound was good thanks to the acoustic of the place.

I didnt know much about Stars, but they revealed to be a good listening even though I wouldnt bother to buy an album. It's calm and relaxing to listen to.


Korn @ Queen Elizabeth Theater
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Old Songs, Old Singles! :)

I wasnt expecting much from Korn since I hadnt listened to them in 10 years and last saw them during their Family Tour back in Montreal a while ago.
They ended up pleasing everyone including me by playing all the best singles and songs from earlier albums. Changing the background to the album covers of their next songs made people happy about what was going to happen next. People were dancing to the songs, standing up and having a good time to those old songs and bringing back great memories of the past.
Interesting fact about the singer: Jonathan would inhale Oxygen through a mask after each song and a sip of energy drink
great show!


Metric with Nico Vega@ Showbox Sodo (Seattle)
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Nico Vega: Big Surprise and so much energy from the singer. she was jumping all over. Also, they have great songs live!

Metric: Energetic! Crazy! Fun!
what can i say about metric really ... Emily is just a fantastic front(wo)man with a great voice, a superb aptitude to captivate the crowd and bring it to her world. She is playing keyboard, singing, jumping, dancing and talking to the fans. All the songs they played were good and dancing prone and the fans were dancing to the beats and having a great time.
I saw metric in montreal at the beginning of their tour and it was not has energetic as the Seattle show... maybe the enthousiastic fans made a difference, maybe Emily felt more in shape,... i dont know what happened but it was definitely worth the travel to Seattle. Go Metric Go! Hope they continue improving and creating music that more people can enjoy.


Crystal Castle @ Gossip Nightclub
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Noise, Crazy people, Crazy singer
I love Crystal Castles albums. I cant say I like all their songs since the songs are so different and some are more noises than beats, but during a show it becomes all noises ... maybe the acoustics of the club wasnt great or soundcheck was not done properly but ...
I enjoyed it but couldnt say it was one of the best experience at a concert ;)


You Say Party We Say Die @ Rickshaw Theater
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Great Band, Dancing, shortened, ironic ...

After 3 opening bands, YSPWSD came on stage and the party started!
The Rickshaw located in the dodgy area of Vancouver is a small venue with some character.
There wasnt a lot of people at the show, but this doesnt mean its not a good band ... people should listen to this great band. So they started playing and it was fun. I was really into it, until the ironic event happened during the 5th song of the show ... so while we were partying, the drummer collapsed on the ground without anybody noticing it even the band continued playing until the sound guy ran to the stage to rescue the poor drummer who was knocked out.
The show stopped, the drummer wasnt moving for 15 minutes until the ambulance arrived.
They announced that people should leave and so I did. Its sad that it happened ... just read that the drummer had a brain hemorrhage and is now on life support with poor prognostic ... :(

got the news that he died after a surgery that did not help after all.

Jonsi @ Vogue
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Genius, Relaxing, Moving, Energy, Incredible Visuals, Outstanding Performance

This could be words used to describe this fabulous singer, musician and his music.
It could be described as Sigur Ros++ since Jonsi (singer from Sigur Ros) created here the same quality we would wish for from a Sigur Ros album, but he adds energy and beats uncommon to his other band. Also, the presentation of the concert added so much to the musical performance with animated videos projected on many different screens and each screen showed a piece of the puzzle to this great story he was telling us. Burned stage, animal life, rainy night, art pieces created in front of the audience.
The band playing with so many unusual instruments such as a suitcase used as a bass drum, playing guitar with violin bow, etc...
The songs really take a different twist live and they are all playing diffently than on the album and it propagates emotions to the crowd.
One of the best shows Ive ever been to ... I even wanted to go back the day after, but word of mouth had to happen and the next show became sold out really fast!
To be enjoyed absolutely!


Charlotte Gainsbourg @ Vogue
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Good songs from her albums, great songs from her father, most boring performance ever

I didnt know what to expect going to a Charlotte Gainsbourg show... she's an actress I figured she could act and create a great performance, but that did not happened. Charlotte seemed like someone who was really shy, unsure of herself and unable to move an inch through her performace except during a song taken from her dad's catalog and in the encore.
Holding the microphone in one hand, other hand in her pocket, looking at the floor in front of her and not the crowd... this was a receipe for disaster and it was! More insulting was the fact that at some point she got a chair and actually sat down ... really and did this is at a moment when I thought it couldnt be more dull :(
Fortunately, her main guitarist Nicole was moving, seemed to have some fun and tried to entertain the crowd a little bit. Great band though behind her and great songs from Air and Beck who wrote her albums.
Just an unfortunate spending.


Soon:
LCD Soundsystem @ Malkin Bowl
Melvins @ Rickshaw
Our Lady Peace (Clumsy Set) @ Vogue

Great artist with stories

Im currently working with Sean and found out that he was doing great drawings and telling everyday stories through them.

look at his blog its interesting to me anyways :

http://seankaremaker.blogspot.com/

hello Vancouver

Ive been visiting Vancouver for 3 months now (already!) and here's what i think of it as of now.

So far I've visited most of downtown area, a little bit of Burnaby, Granville Island, Squamish and drove through a portion of south west Vancouver.

Downtown
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I live in downtown Vancouver and i love it! (Yaletown)
This is certainly the most fun area if you are into music shows, bars, shopping, nightclubs and good restaurants, but its also really loud on weekend through the early hours of the night.
Ive been walking a lot trying to visit and see as much as possible.
Granville street and Robson are the streets with the most activities and traffic at night since a lot of people are going out at night even on Sundays so everyday is a day where you can go out and have some fun! The hardest part of it all would be to select the bar/nightclub that you will like... which will not be a trivial task. So many of them right next to each other doesnt help a lot, maybe you can look at people going in and you'll figure it out...

Vancouver Art Gallery
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Here you can find the Leonardo Da Vinci human body drawings covering all possible muscles, bones and their reason to be there. This is an incredible exposition since it shows how clever Da Vinci was at that moment in history where the only information about the human body was found by actually doing dissections on dead body at night. Moreover, you will be amazed at how much detail he could draw using ink that you couldnt erase ... so its a one time think... dont screw up otherwise you start all over and with all those details im sure he wouldnt want that.

Really interesting to see.

Stanley Park
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Stanley Park on a sunny day is one of the best things about Vancouver ... enjoy a day biking, hiking, getting a tan at one of the beaches and going to the Aquarium. The park has those huge trees that you can only find in Pacific Northwest area. The waterwall is a great place to bike around the park next to the water, beaches and mountains. On the beaches you will have great views of the water(obviously), boats and the best part of it all the high mountains with snow on the top while you get a tan in the hot sun. On the beaches you will find big tree logs that you can use to sit on or relax leaning on them. Each beach has a variety to it some with volleyball nets, kids games or restaurants.

Aquarium
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The Aquarium is a must see visit because it has some of the weirdest fishes, reptiles, and animals that live in the area and tropical settings. You will get to see astonishing black and white Dolphins that were rescued after being trapped and injured in nets. You can listen to some trainers who will talk about those dolphins and entertain the crowd playing with the dolphins who do great tricks. Those dolphins cant be released in the wild since they would not survive with those injuries they have so they are taken care of here and used as research to help understand more about them.
Also, you will be able to see a family of Belugas who seem to be enjoying their pool swimming around, playing with each other. You'll be able to learn more about them as well.

Throughout the aquarium you will see things you never saw before and maybe touch a see star ... its a great place to go. I enjoyed it for a couple of hours before leaving for third beach.
Going there on a sunny day is a better option since you will be spending a lot of time outside.

Gastown (Chinatown)
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I visited Gastown/Chinatown the other day and it was a stressful time I found.
Why? Because this area includes the infamous approved drugged/poverty district of vancouver... pretty much a dodgy area i would say... it doesnt feel safe at all with fights occuring, drug dealing and other such activities.
I walked around avoided certain areas as much as possible, the best thing to visit is the free garden but not really worth the walk i found.
Walked there at night yesterday to get to a music venue that was located in the middle of that dodgy area... I survived but ...


Granville Island
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I went to Granville Island during the Olympics so obviously there was a lot of people there. Next time I go might be a really different experience, but I found a great micro-brewery, good fish & chips, good restaurants and a good art institute (Emilie Carr). Nice to visit and you can get there by boat-taxi which is a faster and cheaper way to get there.

Kits beach area
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Kitsilano beach area has a lot to offer from the beach itself with volleyball nets laying around, the huge pool, restaurants, Space Museum, Vancouver museums.
It was really windy when I went so it was so great, but the view was really nice with those nearby snow covered mountains and the bike trails is used by a lot of people and you can pretty much go anywhere using it.

SouthEast-ish Vancouver/UBC area
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The area around British Columbia University is the next best thing after the downtown area Ive visited so far. The area feels like a calm suburb with really great looking houses and grass around! This could potentially be a great place for families since it looks good and safer than some areas in gastown... The University with its museum, soccer fields, japanese garden and great architecture needs to be visited. I need to do it too ;)

Burnaby
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I travelled to Burnaby twice. The first time to go see the Vancouver Whitecaps playing the Seattle Sounders at the Vancouver stadium. It was a boring game ending in a 0-0 draw, but still got to see some soccer action with an MLS team. The way to Burnaby is not so beautiful and you really know when you leave downtown Vancouver heading east to go to Burnaby since everything looks older and poorer which looks a lot like Hollywood Blvd in L.A.
Today I went to 2 soccer shops outside Vancouver: The soccer shop, which had great selection, but the staff was really not friendly so it was not a great place to go. Then I found in Burnaby on Eastings Saveco Sports which is smaller, feels more like a family shop and the owner was really friendly and we had a talk about Holland and having a hard time selling those shirts. is it that holland fans dont buy merchandise or they keep their old jerseys and never change them ?

Squamish
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I went to Squamish to visit but mostly to do some marketing research not so long ago.
Squamish is the Outdoor activities capital of Canada where you can pretty much do any outdoor sports you want in a great natural setting. The mountain called the Chief is one of the highlight of the area where you can do some hiking, moutain climbing, jump off the cliff, skiing (?). In the area, you can bike, kayak, kite surfing, skating and any other outdoor activity you can think of. People we met there were really interesting and friendly. You can get all the gear you desire in the area with great local shops to really get the info you deserve to know about everything.
Worst place I went to was the Activity Information Center where we were really poorly received (thats the least i could say) and left almost as fast as we arrived eheh.


well this is it for the places i visited so far ...

Ubi Vancouver, trip through Canada, Olympics

So I finished working on Splinter Cell a couple of weeks ago. Its finally coming out and will be great!

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I decided to go start another project which is located in Vancouver working for Ubisoft there at the old Action Pants Studios.

To get there I decided to cross Canada by car all alone during Winter ... which is a long trip and when I arrived they considered me crazy to have done so since usually during winter you can get pretty big storms in the prairies but this year it was actually calm.

so anyways, the trip took me 5 days (10-11 hours drive per day plus stops to eat at lunch) through a multitude of vary different landscapes. In Ontario, I had to go through a lot of small villages on the main road and there was a lot of circular paths and a lot of trees around. It was a good two days of travel just for Ontario and I thought that that was boring ... until I got to the prairies (manitoba and Saskatchewan)

prairies: a flat land colored in white powder + some foggy sections that I couldnt see anymore further than 100 meters ... which is getting things worst since usually its pretty boring but now i couldnt see anything! funny thing is that they made the speed limits at 110 km/h so we can get out faster of these provinces ;)

so nothing really interesting here, i went around winnipeg which was the only big cities worth it on my path in Manitoba; to keep going fast .

Then on the 4th day ... Alberta!!!! I was happy to get in this province since it means mountain coming soon... then I got to Calgary which is a big city and host of the other Canadian winter olympics. I stopped to see the installations of the old olympic park where they had the bobsley and luge competition ... a lot of people were there skiing around etc ... This was the first mountain before the Rockies!!

Rockies: and then after slowly exiting Calgary I could see then mountains in the distance and i was soooo happy to see them after 4 days of flat land this was awesome. Got a couple of pictures on the way there and while driving through the mountains. I stopped at Banff and Lake Louise to visit (this was my first real stop since the beginning of the roadtrip).

Banff: this village looks incredible, i love how the houses are made (wooden stuctures), right over them you see the biggest mountain ever (well for canada). its an amazing view... i would stay here for a while too bad i dont ski or snow.

lake louise: after that i stopped at lake louise where a lot of competitions took place back at the olympics, at this time of year the lake is frozen and people were playing hockey on the ice, but this area must be incredible in spring time when the lake is clear blue and mountains are covered in snow all around wow! i had a good time here also, village is not as great as Banff though.

then i stopped to sleep in Golden right in front of the mountains was my room awwwwww :)

the fifth day i arrived in Vancouver and here i am before the olympics for a couple of months!
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Olympics
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they have just started and the city is being overrun by tourists (ok im a tourist at this point).
there are so many free events to see and participate in which includes music shows all over the place from the best Quebec's singers/groups to all different groups of canada ;) Places where people can watch the games together have been assembled around the different Pavillion and they offer so many screens to look at which is great. Go Canada!

i am going to a olympic hockey game soon. ive been walking around in downtown district where most events occur (and where i live) and people are excited in the streets ... even protesters are excited to cause some damage to some property but anyways ...

so ill be working on this new project and trying to be over excited by all that is happening around in the city until after work hours ;)

Uncharted 2, The Saboteur, Splinter

I was so excited that Uncharted 2 was coming out that I bought it the day it came out, finished it in like 2 days (which i never do anymore for a lack of time) and thought it was simply an incredibly fun and beautiful game!!!

Sometimes you are so excited by a product coming out, but in the end they let you down and made a crappy game after all with the marketing making sure everybody bought it anyways ... wont mention any big franchise here ;)

This was definitly not the case with Uncharted... which was absolutely amazing graphicly: walking in the snow which glues itself to Drake's feet and legs, the extraordinary backdrops where you get views of the whole area which is jawdropping.

The story is good and don't want to skip any part of it even though we know some plots will arrive well in advanced since like all treasure hunting games/movies there is always somebody trying to screw you to get the gold ... but nonetheless it is great and one of the best presentation of any games out there including the camera shots and how it's "filmed".

The characters are interesting (except the bad guy) they are unlike most games like the first one was, but it seems that the company has trouble making believable female characters compared to the male counterpart. For example, Drake has some scars that tells a story about him, there is some kind of personality in his body/face, whereas the female seems to be bland, and all shiny with not a lot of definition there is something missing I think.

The acrobatic gameplay is really fun, there is some movement and events happening during the different moments in the game, it's not only go up this area, there is a feel of urgency, the elements move around as we can see in the first 10 min of the game and the building collapsing part. its fun and unexpected.

the shooting sections of gameplay are better done than in the first game where some parts were frustrating. here we dont get that sensation, i like how they tried to give us a lot of different scenarios and different elevation which changes how we handle things. shooting mechanics work, had some troubles to get from cover to cover sometimes something that has to do with the controls.

puzzles were a little to easy but thats better than a hard one I have to get on the net to find the solution to ;)

great experience that i would replay again if time permits. really good reference for any games on cinematic aspects and how to present a story.

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The Saboteur is coming out on December 8!!!!!! Finally it comes out I'm so glad they made it ... those people were really great to work with and I'm really happy for them. Last time, I played the game design had finally been tweaked to make it a lot better than when I was working there.

the game is getting a lot of coverage from the different medias and events and im waiting for players response when the game comes out.

So glad!

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Splinter is coming along nicely. A lot of coverage has been done at the last couple of events where we showed a second map. the different medias seem to really enjoy it.

It is a beautiful game which plays really well. With the extra time we got we are making sure the experience will be fun and new to everyone.

hope people enjoy it when it comes out in a couple of months :)

VFest Toronto

I was at the Virgin Mobile Music Festival in Toronto this week-end located at the Molson Amphitheater next to Ontario Place.

It was a great festival in a venue that I'd never visited before and I was impressed by the architecture. Its an outdoor venue but not all of it ... since part of the seats are covered with a roof and the section 300 and grass areas are not. There are walls to hold the roof structure, but it gets windy everywhere. The floor section is really small, but makes the first sections that much closer :)

So the tickets I had were for the floor (100 level) and the 200 level seating so I was really close to the stage at all times.

There were 3 stages ( 2 of them quite far from the main stage ) but because of the schedules and their distanced location I didnt really got to see other stages but I only missed one of the groups I really wanted to see (Von Bondies). The fact that there was only one stage was kinda bad since we had to wait for the stage to be set for the next act everytime unlike at Osheaga in Mtl where the two main stages are side by side and we dont have to wait between bands.

Here are the bands that played and some comments about them ( if I remember them ):

Saturday
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Mates of State : first band playing at the festival they had a good first song and I was into it, but then 10 min later I was bored and wanted something different since it was all of the same

Lights : She was young, full of energy, kinda shy, shes talented and has some good songs, but ...

Grizzly Bear : I was waiting to see them, I was told it was a good band, but maybe my expectations were way too high cuz I was bored except for one song that was a little bit like Wolf Parade on the piano and all ...

Sloan : I had heard some of their older songs and I thought I liked it back then ... and I really
enjoyed their music now it was a lot of fun and they were enjoying themselves even though the singer couldnt play his instruments so they invited other people to play with them ... funny too.

Paolo Nutini : Scottish, weird posture, weird faces, screaming a lot, zzzzz music but people seemed to enjoy it on the floor dancing with their Scottish flags


Franz Ferdinand: Last time I saw them in Montreal I loved them, but for some weird reason I never listened to them after that show ... it never happened to me before and I still dont know why. I was expected a great performance from them and ... they delivered everything I was hoping for !! They kept playing some great songs ... in fact all their songs were major hits. I loved their energy, singing, interacting with the crowd and everybody was dancing. Great Performance at the festival ... one of the best.

Pixies: I already saw them before, but i dont remember where exactly, but they produced an amazing show also with rythmic songs like the good old days of alternative and grunge ... a band I'm really happy I saw again and wish to see them another time in a full show.

Ben Harper : I left before his show ... didnt really cared

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SUNDAY
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Coeur de Pirate: A lovely girl from Quebec with her band doing good songs that nobody could
understand, but delivered a good performance. A little shy since nobody really
got what she was singing about.

Datarock: Electronic music, red jumpsuits, extreme energy, jumping all over, playing many
intruments, good!

Mew: Bad music, really bad voice ... awful live anyways

Mutemath : didnt know at all the band, thought they were really good ( but playing after Mew
might be a reason I liked them so much lol ), people seemed to like them too so...

Cold War Kids: Dont remember them that much ... but I dont remember them to be good or as
good as other bands

N.E.R.D. : HipHop with 2 drums ... a lot of energy, not my style but was good live, brought
people on stage for most songs, good opening band

Our Lady Peace: This was a band which I loved the first 3 albums (mostly the first one though), but then they made some boring albums and still do which they should stop doing and just play their old material which is soooo good and grungy. So the show reflected that: old songs made people sing, dance and enjoy them, but half of the show was new stuff which should have never been invented ... ;)

PET SHOP BOYS: I knew the name but never really listened to them ... them being from the 80s or something ;) but they were excellent live! keywords to describe the show: Electronic, singing Robots, Cubes, Sports, Adidas, costumes, crazy videos, entertaining a lot, good songs. Excellent show !!!

Nine Inch Nails: This was one of their last performances ever (4 left). Ive been listening to them since their first album(20 years ago) and Trent has delievered great albums one after the other, trying to change his formulas, live they've always been incredible with stuff that you would never have seen before with screens effect and ... This show was more than any Ive seen from them before minus some of their technical scenic material since it was a 20 min stage construction. They gave a solid 2 hours finally to this festival and their career in Canada anyways. He sang so many of their greatest hits which are energetic and transmits it to the crowd who showed up for this last performance. Changing to more calm songs at times to relax a little bit even though after a while Trent's voice was a little bit irritated he kept singing for our pleasure.

The show started great and at the end of the first song the mic and its support was thrown off stage by Trent as he does sometimes ... the show was set to be a great one!! During the second song, Trent destroyed his guitar on his synthetiser right in front of the crowd and thousands of pieces flew all over the stage and some in the crowd... technicians had to give him another guitar and had the change the now destroyed synthetiser as well LOLL great start of the show !!!
Songs after songs they gave us the energy that we needed after such a long festival. During the show other guitars or instruments were trashed all over the stage for the fans pleasure and surely Trents own.

It was a great festival overall and a great time I had in Toronto for 3 days.

A lot has happened

A lot has happened since I last posted ... I quit my job, went in Europe for 2 weeks and started at a new place...

So unfortunately I had to leave this great place that was Eidos and leave good friends for many reasons that made my stay on Deus Ex unbearable. That is not too say that the game in the end will not be an awesome beast that everyone will want to buy cuz I truly believe that the people who really create it will be able to achieve such of a complex game (like Deus Ex 1 was).

I really enjoyed the work I did as a Living World Specialist for them and I really wish I could have continued my tasks, but ...

This is all I'm going to say about it since all that happened after was great and positive :)

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Europe

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So I decided to take some time off (2 weeks) and relax (as much as travelling in multiple cities can be) to see the world and experience something new since the opportunity to take some time off in this industry dont happen often.

I quit my job, buy a plane ticket and the next day I was on a plane to Paris without any sort of planning on my end ... my only plan was to go to Germany (frankfurt, Munich, Berlin), Amsterdam and Paris. Details like the when, where to stay, how to get there, etc... were not planned at all... all I had was a backpack and a will to explore and have fun!

I flew during the night to arrive in Paris at 10am. From there I wanted to get to a train to Frankfurt ... so I looked around and searched for a train ticket ... unfortunately I had to wait all day in Paris to get a train that wasnt filled up ... so I visited a little bit the 18 and 19th arrondissement of Paris in a really hot sunny day...ended up not drinking enough and kinda got sun sick ... a great way to start a trip ;)

Got on my train to Germany at 5:30pm and got in Frankfurt at 9pm and headed to a youth hostel.

No I dont speak German at all ... knew only 2-3 words. Fortunately for me, Germans are REALLY nice and speak English (most of them anyways) AND are happy to help tourists who are looking for their way... YES people actually came to me to help when I had a map in hands or I looked lost :D

Frankfurt which I visited for 2 days didnt had a lot to show, but I enjoyed the different types of architecture and old churches. My hostel was a great place to stay also.

Left by train to go to Munich 2 days later. Arrived in Munich and walked around a little bit without a map to discover by myself for the first night before entering my new hostel which was as crappy as ever with a welcoming flow of piss in front of the main door!! LOL

I stayed 3 days in Munich visited a lot to see as much as possible all the history that Munich had to tell about hitler and his movement, etc... I went to visit Neuschwanstein Castle which was one of King Ludwig II unfinished castle and who inspired Walt Disney to create his iconic Disney castle that you see in all Disney movies. This was a great site to experience.

It is unfinished but all rooms that are finished are just amazingly well made and most things were new inventions at the time. The visit didnt really last long since it is a big castle but only two stories are completed. I met fun people on this tour and we had a long time to talk since we had a 2 hour trip to get to the castle and another 2 hour to come back, but it was worth it and talking to other people about thier experience during their own trip was cool since I was all alone in Europe at least I could speak to someone here.

Also, I went on a tour of Hitler and Third Reich in Munich which showed us all the areas where they met and told us all that happened in Munich which was the capital of that movement. I took some time to go to a lot of bars, pubs, beer gardens to experience their incredible Municheen beer hmmmmmmmm :) Best beer I tasted in Europe by the way...

Then I went to Berlin where a lot has happened also (world war, Berlin Wall,...) There was a lot of history here to hear, to look at (the wall is still present in some areas), but Berlin unlike other cities in Germany has been rebuilt but modernly so we cannot see all the great buildings that were pre world wars, but it feels fresh and modern though. During my stay I took some time to go to a concentration camp which was a strange area to visit.

Left after a couple of days to get to Amsterdam. Amsterdam is different from what I had visited before since its a city built by men on some docks. I really liked how the Dutch created their city since the different canals makes it fresh to look at and offers a lot of ways to get lost like I did a couple of times with the many circular streets that go around town hehehe. Its a different language, but feels like it is still some kind of German language ... so I couldnt understand people and unfortunately people speak English but will not help you as the Germans did before so ... I had to find my way around town hence me getting lost sometimes trying to find my far away hostel. I had the opportunity to join a free tour of the city which was really interesting.

After a couple of days, I went back to Paris for three days before going back home. Visited almost all major attractions of Paris in one day which was sometimes incredibly hot sunny day then extremely rainy with a friend I met there. I was really happy to arrive in Paris since after more than a week and a half I could understand people around me and talk to them in French...even though some faked that they did not understand me and asked me to speak in English and slowly ... damn Parisians!!! But the fact that I could listen around was a great plus in this city. The second day I visited placed I didnt have time to go to the previous day like the Sacre-Coeur church in Montmartre where I attended church for the first time in more than 18 years, but there was something so great about this place and the fact that my feet hurt so much at his point that I stayed for something like 45 min.

I had the best ice cream ever in Paris and some great meals in some small restaurant around. The best meal I had during my trip was at a french restaurant in Amsterdam though.

Then I tried to come back to Montreal through Charles de Gaulle airport... I was unfortunately stuck during more than 3 hours in line at the customs since some Marocans whose flight was cancelled had decided that they were angry about it and blocked off all entry to everyone ... and since in France workers tend to go on lockouts as soon as possible well the customs officers didnt do anything and waited from 3am to 10am to do anything ... well in fact they called the police who came in mass, but decided not to do anything either ... until 10am !! at this moment they huffed and puffed and pushed people until they all were out of the customs lines ... finally I could go home ... well when everyone in line would be through which meant waiting in the airplane for more than 2 hours ... finally got back home :)

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This is becoming a long post ... but almost done here!

So I came back on Sunday and Monday I was starting at my new great job :)

YES I am back at Ubisoft Montreal on a great and huge project that will sell an incredible amount of copies due to its future status of game of the year when it comes out next year!!!

Just took over the map of another designer this week and starting to make magic again :)

Im happy to be back at Ubi with a positive attitude!! Im meeting so many people that I worked with before and friends I had not seen in years that Im really happy about this new adventure.

I will post later to talk more about my conviction that this project will be great.

have fun during this end of summer hot sunny days!