Monday, September 29, 2008

Blue Man Group

The show started with the stunning artistic talents of David Garibaldi who used his energetic talent to hype everyone up for the Blue Men Group. What Garibaldi would due is draw an almost instant portrait of a music icon (Jimi Hendrix, Bono, Mic Jagger) while dancing to the music of the particular artist that he is drawing. His method worked since the crowd was yelling and cheering wilder then when he had started.
Now, the theme of the concert was called “How To Be A Megastar Tour 2.1,” which means exactly what it sounds. Throughout the concert, the Blue Men order a DVD information video, with a member of the audience's credit card (not really, obviously), and do what the DVD tells them to do. This leads to a whole bunch of funny and visual stunning acts that they perform over the course of two hours.
The Blue Man Group aren't alone on stage though, they have a full band in the back of them, doing most of the music for them, besides making noise with small to large poles or their world famous drums. Since the Blue Man Group doesn't sing, they had vocalist Adrian Hartley sing the songs that they performed.
They also did a lot of interactivity with the crowd, bringing up two people at around the mid-point of the show, giving one a painted shirt that they drew on the shirt while it was on him. For the other person they gave her a baseball cap with a marshmallow sculpture on top of it. Near the end of the show, they had another woman from the crowd come on stage to introduce the members of the band who does the music as well. The first row were actually given plastic ponchos to wear just in case they might get paint splattered on them.
The variety of what the Blue Man Group accomplishes is simply stunning, using video, sound and acting. It doesn't leave any time for a dull moment, having a giant smile on your face the whole time watching it. An example of this would be one of the funniest jokes they are known for, which is how they put T.V. screens on their heads and mess around with each other.
They closed the show with a nice interpretation of The Who's Baba O'Riley with Hartley singing it while the Blue Men played little melodic tubes with their orange drum sticks. Even though it still cost 91.60$ to see them, it is still something that everyone should see at least once because it is a fantastic show.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Hooters

Forty tables. Four of them filled with a two or three people at the bar. This is a normal Sunday night at Hooters to the dismay of the managers and the employees. This is surprising considering the theme and popularity of a regular Hooters restaurant. Most people don't even know that there is a Hooters so close to them that opened last September and that is due to many reasons.

As you walk in, you can tell that Hooters has a very distinct and different atmosphere then other restaurants that you're used to. Around the world Hooters is known for it's fried chicken wings and beautiful girls, but not a lot of people go for the chicken wings.

While waiting to sit at a table, you can look around for 5 seconds and know what kind of restaurant it is, it's a place to watch sports and hang out with your buddies. Not ideal for going out with your significant other
for a romantic evening
but just by the name one can tell that it isn't.

So why is it doing so empty on most nights? For starters, the choice of location (Greenfield Park on the South Shore) is not the most ideal place to set up a restaurant like this. Greenfield Park is a suburb, so most people will go there sometimes, but a suburb isn't the best place to set up a booming business. Montreal would be more ideal, because there, you would get a lot of business because of the loads of people and the consumerism atmosphere.

Since they don't get a lot of business nowadays
, so they're doing a lot of things just to get anyone to come in. They've recently come out with a menu for kids and a bike night on Mondays. They try and advertise this on the radio sometimes but it's only once in awhile. They had a tremendous turn-out for the Super Bowl as well but that was because it's the biggest most watched sporting event in all of North America so very sports restaurant is bound to be packed.

There wasn't any hockey during the summer so that is when they've implemented these new things like the kids menu. Just the princip
le of the kids menu can be seen as being rediculous since Hooters is not known for being a sort of family atmosphere.

Yet that is what they're trying to turn it into to get some clients in. It's not as if the restaurant is hidden and hard to find, on the contrary it is on the main boulevard in Greenfield Park but the choice of location is still poor which may be the reason that not many people know about it.

Another reason for why there is not a lot of business is the lack of advertisement since there has been little to none at all. It wouldn't hurt to try and get out there to radio stations to try and get the message out to let people know that it's out there.

The people in the community that know about it do try and help to get the message out, hockey season is also coming back so that should get the restaurant filled up again. They have specials on beer for the hockey nights so that helps get business flowing as well.

As for the food itself, the chicken wings are generic but the curly fries are different and delicious. They have a burger and seafood part of the menu too but the burgers aren't very good and their really expensive while the seafood is not expensive but it's easy to spot why since it also isn't very good.

But it's still a great atmosphere just to relax after a day of work and to have a beer so you should still check it out if you're in the neighboorhood. It's on Taschereau in Greenfield Park right near the Jacques Cartier bridge.