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Petite Marie

Elle était ma grande sœur si on pourrait dire. De ma tendre enfance jusqu’au début de mon adolescence, elle était toujours présente.

Elle n’était pas ma grande sœur biologique mais j’avais l’impression qu’elle était toujours omniprésente dans ma vie grâce à la télévision.

Marie

Quand elle jouait Zoé dans Peau de Banane, sa spontanéité m’était très familière. Elle avait du plaisir à jouer au petit écran et son amour était contagieux.

Peau de Banane

J’enviais toujours son petit frère Sébastien de l’avoir comme sœur et également, de jouer ensemble dans Peau de Banane. Leur complicité était magique à voir.

Marie-Soleil et Sébastien

Mais c’est son empathie et sa douceur pour les enfants malades qui ont conquis mon cœur à tout jamais. Étant une enfant qui a été hospitalisé dès la naissance durant plusieurs mois, j’ai toujours une profonde reconnaissance pour la recherche médicale et la générosité des gens qui contribuent à l’avancement des soins pour nos petits.

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La force de Véro

Pour tous adolescents en pleine croissance durant les années 90, création des années 80, Musique Plus était un échappatoire culturelle viscérale. Du moins, pour moi.

J’étais une jeune fille avec une bonne dose de timidité malgré que plus jeune, j’étais une vraie boule d’énergie.

Quand j’ai aperçu pour la première fois une jeune Véronique Cloutier à ses débuts à Musique Plus, pour vous dire honnêtement, je ne m’identifiais pas du tout avec elle.
WHAT!!! Je peux entendre certaines personnes s’exclamer disant comment elle peut écrire ça.

Je me disais elle est tout le contraire de la personne que j’étais à cette époque.

Digne d’une adolescente en mode rébellion et désinvolte, je me posais la question si ça ne serait pas un produit manufacturé de son père qui fut un grand producteur très respecté au Québec et qui n’aura pas à prouver quoi que ce soit et tout lui sera offert sur un plateau d’argent.

Comme on dit si bien, il faut laisser la chance au coureur.

Après quelques mois, je commençais à découvrir cette force plus grand que nature et à avoir une opinion totalement différente de ce que j’avais au tout début.

Son style d’interviewer commençait à devenir un appât que je mordais de plus en plus.

Le Véro Show était une “date” entre ma télévision hmm correction la télévision familiale et moi. Mes vendredis soirs avec le combat des clips étaient un pure délice.

Au fin fond, pendant que Oprah était à son ascension au trône des animatrices de télévision les plus désirées et inspirantes, Véronique était pour moi Ma Oprah!

Pour une jeune fille qui au tout début n’était pas impressionnée, c’est la confirmation qu’il ne faut jamais juger un livre avant l’avoir lu.

Quand Véro a quitté Musique Plus, j’étais en deuil. Je me disais ça sera quoi la suite mais je savais qu’elle nous surprendrait encore.

Et la force de Véro a fait toute une entrée remarquée dans la cour des grands. Avec les années, elle est devenue une géante dans le monde de la télévision.

Je vais vous confier quelque chose entre vous et moi.

Il y a environ je crois presque 3 ans, j’avais écrit un petit commentaire sur la page Facebook de Véronique (une des rares fois) disant j’apprécie son travail et que je commençais à partir un blog qui se nommerait The Chronicle.

N’ayant aucune attente, je vois qu’elle m’avait répondu en me disant de ne pas lâcher et qu’elle me souhaitait la meilleure des chances.

Elle fut la première personnalité publique au monde à croire à The Chronicle.

Aujourd’hui, je voudrais lui remercier d’avoir cru en The Chronicle, d’avoir été une de mes inspirations médiatiques lorsque j’avais plein de boutons d’acné et ne croyait pas du tout en moi.

Également, je voudrais m’excuser que justement j’ai fait preuve de jugement quand j’étais enfant et je pensais même avant que les Kardashian, Trump, Jenner et d’autres enfants de célébrités de ce monde fassent leur marque sans nécessairement avoir de talents particuliers (je suis gentille), que Véronique aurait été un fruit de népotisme.

Oh que non!

Elle a prouvé tout le contraire. Et parfois, les médias n’étaient si fins avec elle. Au lieu de réagir de manière très vif, elle a su prendre le temps de se retirer et par la suite, d’affronter les médias à sa façon.

Elle est unique, forte, très drôle et authentique.

Tous les réalisations qu’elle a accompli durant deux décennies sont inspirants. Elle a affronté des méchantes tempêtes et elle n’a jamais baissé les bras. Elle ne sait jamais pris pour quelqu’un d’autre et c’est une fille du peuple. Pour moi, ce sont des valeurs à adopter à chaque moment de notre vie.

Que nous réservera la force de Véro en 2017-2018?

Sky will be the limit.

Une chose que je me demande est que je crois qu’elle va apprécier ce petit Chronicle d’une ancienne jeune adolescente pessimiste (mais ça n’a pas durée longtemps) de Montréal-Nord qui est devenue une femme dans la mi-trentaine qui remercie sa “Oprah” d’être la battante qu’elle est aujourd’hui.

Hmm, peut-être qu’un jour, une collaboration entre The C et Véro pourrait être in the making.

Keep dreaming girl.

http://veroniquecloutier.com

BOYS DON’T CRY

Congrats to JEV

The Chronicle

The legendary music band The Cure couldn’t have sang it better.

The Cure

I’m daydreaming about this weekend coming up at the speed of sound with this song playing and playing in my head. Ok actually, on my IPhone.

This next driver is definitely captivating to watch. I present you Sir Jean-Eric Vergne. Oh stay tuned for this weekend, I will have the honor to have a little Chronicle Interview with a few drivers and Jean-Eric will be one of them. Yeah!

Courtesy of SpaceSuit Media

Jean-Eric have accomplish a lot in his 27 years. He was recently appointed FIA’s first sustainability Ambassador. That’s a huge honor for a young pilot and he has already run for the Toro Rosso F1 team.

Jean-Eric Vergne Courtesy of SpaceSuit Media

And let’s not forget that with this F1 achievement, he went 5 times in the podium. That’s impressive!

I will give myself the title of a…

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Entering Nico Prost Universe

Prost!

You know this legendary family name. A dynasty is actually born and Nicolas Prost is caring the legacy with pride but he is doing it his way.

Nico is putting his own footprint in the fascinating world of the Formula E. He started racing for Renault e. dams since the birth of the Formula E in 2014.

He is driving with all his heart and with a big dose of fire in his eyes. Like all the super drivers, this weekend, Montreal streets will be a big urban playground. And the boys won’t be here to play nice with each others. The competition will be a very fierce one like we like it. Everyone of them have the desire to be standing on that podium and even want to be on the champion of that iconic race.

He had the privilege to learn from one of the best there is in the history of car racing. Nico had the same scientist demeanour as his father. Like father, like son.

I always said Alain Prost was The Scientist and Ayrton Senna was The Artist. Wow, that is a good comparaison.

Sebastien Buemi couldn’t ask for a better partner on the road. It’s really cool to see two athletes that does have a big level of respect for one and other. It’s almost romantic but please, let’s not getting carried away.

I’m really excited for this weekend. You will probably read it on every Chronicle this week. It’s such a big privilege for the city to have this race and to watch those racing devils reaching for the need for speed 100% E Style.

The Montreal streets will be Nico’s laboratory.

Let’s see The Scientist in action this weekend.

http://www.nicolas-prost.com

The unforgettable fire of Chris Benoit

This is a post I was waiting a long time to write. I took my time, I meditate on it and I’m ready to talk about the big elephant in the room.

I was so shocked to hear in June 24th 2007 the death of Chris Benoit and the atrocity act of killing his wife and his young son. For me, it just didn’t make any sense at all. As you will read this post, maybe you will see some lights on this tragedy and why I want to write an hommage to him.

Foremost, as a wrestler, he was one of the best there was in the business. I discovered Chris while I was watching a WCW pay per view as one of the members of the reform Four Horsemen. He was a quiet storm. He didn’t say much but you could see the eye of the tiger. I was mesmerized by his aura.

He was a born Montrealer that grew up in Edmonton. From a young age, he idolized one of the most avant-garde wrestler of all time Dynamite Kid (Tom Bellington) and The Best There is Bret the Hitman Hart.

Actually, Bruce Hart was the one that discover this young boy and if my memory is right, he did start training him and he did trained some really unbelievable given wrestlers.

Bruce is one of the older brother of Bret Hart and this guy is a wrestling guru. He have the eye to discover new talents and he have this perspicacity of understanding the psychology and the development of a good wrestler.

So Chris was trained at the famous Dungeon at the Hart’s house. He grew a close friendship with a fellow canadian prodigy Owen Hart. Ahh Owen and Chris could have the perfect dream tag team.

When Eddie Guerrero and Chris both won the championship belt at WrestleMania, what a beautiful moment it was in the wrestling history. Two guys from WCW that they were finally shining like a bright and beautiful diamond at the biggest night of sports entertainment. You could feel the brotherly love between the two of them.

The three amigos were a better version than the one of Steve Martin, Martin Short and Chavy Chase. Dean Malenko was one of Chris best friend and they were the both of them peanut butter and banana. They were dynamite together on the ring as a team.

When he was in the ring, he was superman. He was well liked by his peers and the fans. That is ironic that I will compare him toO.J, but like O.J Simpson, he was well liked and admire by many people and bang, he committed this really awful crime and people stop mentioning his name like he never exist and was never part of this world. Ok, this week, we did hear a lot about O.J (again) like we were back in 1995.

My opinion is that except from O.J, people still love Chris Benoit and at the time, your ethical side and your rational side is in a perfect conflict. We must choose the ethical right…

From an business point, you don’t want to associate yourself with a murderer and I do understand 100%.

But…

How come someone could have this change of personality and being so violent like this? He was one of the nicest person ever. What happen?

The result of the autopsy shown that he had so many concussions that his brain was like the one of a elderly 80 years old man with an advanced alzheimer. Chris was forty when he die. It like what the fuck moment. And add the steroid and painkillers and it was a bomb ready to explose. This is so sad. We will never forget the crime he made but with the knowledge we know now about concussions, can we just forget the career of a legend? I know I will get a lot of heat for writing this but I said I will talk about his wrestling legacy with pride. I know I may shock some readers and I do apologize but I won’t apologize for changing the conversation.

The movie Concussions with Will Smith (by the way, an excellent movie and brillant performance by one of the best actor out there) is the perfect way to explain how multiple concussions can change someone behavioural cognitive especially in the sports industry.

Just to give you a small example.

In the movie, there was a football player that was inducted in the all of fame right in the beginning of the move. He was playing for actually my favorite team The Steelers of Pittsburgh. He had so many concussions that he left his family, he was living in his car in the middle of nowhere and was addicted to anti-freeze liquid… When they did the autopsy, they discovered the many concussions he had change his personality and he develop a really heavy case of Dementia. And while the movie goes, you see that many football players are committing suicide and while performing the autopsy, they had several major concussions.

You will tell me it is a movie. Actually, this movie is based on a true story and the character that Will Smith played is the one of the groundbreaking pathologist and scientist Dr. Bennet Omalu. This man is a warrior and a scientist I really admired. Thank God for Dr. Bennet.

It’s a real killer having so many concussions. They were some that was so lucky but their life did change. Bret Hart had a serious one while wrestling a reckless Goldberg. A few years later, he suffered a major stroke. I had two concussions not while wrestling or playing soccer but the first time, I was playing at my neighbour and his mom told him to not jump on the bumper bed because the bed is a little bit shaky. This kid (I’m kind) jump and all the bed fell on my little 7 years old body. I don’t remember the rest until this moment I’m typing. The second one was my only fight at grade 6 and I felt my head straight to the ground. And it was the beginning of my terrible migraine and hallucinations. Imagine having those type of situation over and over again since you were a kid until you are retiring in a sports like Football, Hockey and even Wrestling.

With that knowledge, I always felt Chris Benoit have the right to have a proper respect for his wrestling legacy. He was smart, quick in the ring, agile, not a big flamboyant wrestler but a quiet storm. He did deserve all the championship he won with all his heart. I’m proud of his achievements and I’m proud to say it out loud. I also admired what Steve Austin said about Chris:

“Well first and foremost, what I think about Chris Benoit is that guy was one of the most nicest guys I ever met in my life. He’s one of the most talented, hard working cats I’d ever seen in the squared circle. Anybody who knew Chris would tell you those exact two things. That guy loved the damn wrestling business, he was born to be a wrestler and was absolutely phenomenal. Drawing a lot of his influence from The Dynamite Kid, he blazed a path as the Pegasus Kid and his legacy as The Crippler Chris Benoit was just one hellacious career.

Speaking for myself, Chris Benoit as the person I knew, loved him. Chris Benoit as a wrestler, loved him. Chris Benoit as the person who did what he did, unforgivable. Bottom line.”

The only thing he didn’t deserve was to be another victim of the CTE ” Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy”. It’s the name of the disease that is a neurological one that is degenerative and found in the athletes that had repeated blows to the head.

Let’s change the conversation. Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Let’s remember the happy times. Let’s continue to aware the community about CTE and to be a safe athlete. I’m happy the NFL, the WWE and even some universities football leagues are taking the stand for it. Thank you!

As for Christopher Michael Benoit, he will always be in my top 5 all-times wrestler. He may not be in the HOF but he will be in mine because he is one of the greatest period.

And that is because I said so!

Maestro Berman

This man is a pop culture connaisseur and he was the big maestro being the creative aspect of one of the most groundbreaking magazine of the 20th century.

Matt Berman has this artistic eyes and you can witness it on his Instagram account and by rediscovering George’s magazine.

When George came out (still talking about the magazine), I was a curious teenager wishing that she will be a writer while being older and wiser. I’m still in the process of it at 34.

I always had an interest of what is going on around the world but I would find to much of a work reading The Economist at thirteen. And I must admit, I was reading those teen magazine such as Tiger Beat and grab the weekly my mother-in-law Paris Match when I was spending the weekend with my father.

Then came George and I was really intrigued because at the time, I never saw a cover of one of the most gorgeous supermodel being dress as George Washington with such coolness, sassiness and getting a interest on a another way of thinking about politics. Mixing politics and pop culture was a perfect marriage. George was ahead of his time.

Look at today…

When Matt’s book came out in 2014 JFK Jr., George and Me, I was happy to finally read about the man that gave us those amazing covers and brought that little je ne sais quoi in an artistic way to this phenomenon (with the help of his boss of course).

I read his book 2 times (in this spring, I read again like it was the first time) and for a young girl that felt like an outsider when I was younger, I felt like I was having a conversation with a friend that I dealt with a really traumatic incident and that didn’t stop him to conquer the publishing world by a storm. His wicked sense of humour and his dedication for the magazine which I could have work at George and witness it everyday or at least have a summer job there as a young teenager.

I laughed so much while reading and I cried as much. Truly, one of the best books I read because it was so honest, so real and you can feel he did love his job and like RoseMarie, he is truly a fiercely friend that will defend you no matter what.

The chapter about the shooting of Barbra Streisand cover was like you would expect of the diva. Grandiose and so funny. But every anecdotes are well written and you have this feeling that you were actually there.

John was Matt brother. They were brothers in crime ”BIC”. RoseMarie and Carolyn were the sisters in crime too. It would have been a riot to share a happy hour with them.

This is a true hymn to friendship. They will always be family for life.

JFK Jr., George and Me

I’m rooting for another book from Matt. On his Instagram, he post some amazing never been seing pictures of some famous people like Catherine, Sofia, Marilyn, Marlon, Grace and the list goes on. A beautiful photography book with his picks will be amazing! We can witness is maestro skills while browsing the Lucky Brand website, some really cool advertising campaigns and on his website.

Matt Berman is in my eyes one of the most talented Advertising Creative force Maestro of our time.

Matt Berman Twitter

http://www.themattbermanstudio.com

Ready to Start

If I was pure, you know I would… Win Butler sang on the Ready to Start epic song from The Suburbs album of my hometown band Arcade Fire. P.S. The song Signs of Life is the TRACK!!!! Ok back to my Sunday topic.

Now, I’m ready.

Driven to perfection Chronicle Style

For what actually you must ask yourself.

I’m ready to talk to you about a brand new radio show I’m listening on CBC radio from two gorgeous, smart, funny and articulate ladies.

I will tell like it is but Montreal commercial radio station are such a boredom. The song are on rotation and the people on the mic are basically not very fun to listen. With the exception of some university radio station and some really good show on the CBC radio.

Again, one of my prayer has been answered. I always admired Isabelle Racicot for her easy-going interviewing style when I was a younger girl watching her on Flash. I wanted so bad to have the same coolness when she was talking to some celebrities. She have the really authentic vibe surrounding her when she is engaging a conversation with her interlocutor.

As for Martine St-Victor, I discover this unstoppable woman while reading an article on the La Presse journal of few years back and I was amazed as a young woman that founded her P.R empire and seem like the big sister I could have hang out as a kid.

Isabelle and Martine inspire me to keep rocking and kicking Chronicle Style. The fact that they are doing a radio show in English is another proof of their audacity since they are know as francophone public personality in Quebec. Like me, they are Haitian-Canadian and really proud to show it. You can see the beautiful friendship between the two of them. You cannot ask for better host actually.

We had the honour to listen at their radio show some really laid-back but insightful interview with Malcolm Gladwell (his book Blink is one of my most precious book). You can even feel that Mr. Gladwell was enjoying this talk. And they had a very fun talk with Laura Wasser. She is the lawyer of Hollywood heavyweight when the fairytale of a Hollywood marriage is going south.

Let’s not forget that they did talk with Oprah skin guru Jennifer Brodeur. A beautiful interview actually and Ms. Brodeur is a fighter. Those are the kind of interview I really like and find like a breeze of fresh air.

I can’t even wait the next episode like I do listen again the old one over and over again type of situation.

The girls with Malcom Gladwell episode

I will let you discover the new version of Batman and Robin duo. Maybe one day, I will have the chance to chill out with them at CBC studio talking about The C. Hmm, okay girl, keep dreaming!

Seat at the Table CBC

http://kanpe.org/en/