Drop Target in Montréal!

Jon is working on a MEGA post right now, about a recent pinball adventure we took together, but in the meantime, I thought I'd write a quick post about a trip I took to Montréal, Quebec last weekend.

First off, I am sad to report that Montréal is NOT a happening town when it comes to pinball.  I wandered all over the city with my girlfriend Claire, in various different neighborhoods and districts and there was not a pinball machine to be seen anywhere.  I checked bars, movie theater lobbies and generally had my "pinball radar" on all weekend, to no avail.  The lack of pinball was confirmed by a few local Montréalers whom I questioned as well.

If I am wrong about this, and there is some epic pinball parlor hiding somewhere in Montréal, please let me know!  I would love to know about it, because the rest of the city was awesome, and I will definitely be visiting again soon.

Okay, but!  On Friday Claire and I went to the Drawn and Quarterly bookshop, where we ran into Peggy Burns and Tom Devlin (who work for D&Q).  Here's me at the shop, holding an advanced copy of Big Questions by Anders Nilsen:

Anyway, they asked us if we knew where we were going to get lunch and we replied that we did not!  So they took us to Dépanneur le Pick Up, an awesome little diner with a killer Pulled Faux-Pork sandwich.  While Claire and I were standing in line waiting to order, I looked around and suddenly I saw an awesome ZINE RACK.  And WHAT, dear readers, was in that rack?  You guessed it!  Drop Target issue one!

At first, I was like "Huh?!  How did THAT get here?!" but then I remembered that Drop Target #1 was nominated for the Best English Language Zine at the 2010 ExpoZine festival in Montréal!  (a fact that I think we forgot to mention on this blog - whoops!)  Anyway, a few Canadian distros picked up the zine after our nomination, so I guess that explains how it might have gotten there.

We're in good company!  Pretty much every zine on that shelf is top notch and most of them can be found over at Microcosm Publishing, if you want to check them out.  Hopefully some Montréalers will read our zine and then demand some local establishments get a pinball machine or two!

Okay, well, that's my story.  Jon should have a post soon that will blow your mind - or at least, it blew ours when it all happened!