BlogTO reports:

An Annex institution is no more. Mel’s Montreal Delicatessen, a late night spot on Bloor both loved and reviled by residents of this city, has closed its doors. Or rather, had its doors locked by the landlord after reportedly failing to pay rent that was months in arrears.

It started so full of promise and slid into a miasma of laziness, rudeness, incompetence and debt (rather like my deadbeat ex-housemate, now that I think of it). When it opened ten years ago in Pizzadelic’s old location, the food and service were decent; over the years, it became the Amy Winehouse of restaurants: looking bad for its age, barely functioning, somehow clinging to life after all the self-inflicted harm and willing to let just about anyone work in it.

Out of respect for the city of Montreal, that “Taste of Montreal” sign should be taken down as quickly as possible. Montreal doesn’t taste like failure.

I gave up on Mel’s after a streak of incredibly bad service ending with a visit where Wendy, Dave and I sat in their empty restaurant for ten minutes, in full view of the staff, without even being approached. They were lost in their own world, and as I wrote in a blog entry back in 2006, “I’ve seen bathroom mould with more ambition.”

I wonder what will open in its place.

JPG magazine was beautiful but unsustainable. A photography magazine whose contributors were also its readers, it was part publication, part online community and part art project. You didn’t have to be an established professional photographer to get published in JPG; all you had to do was submit a really good shot (and everyone’s got one really good shot in them). Photography magazines aren’t really my thing, but I actually bought a couple of issues of JPG because the photos and articles they featured caught my eye.

With the public’s flagging interest in print media, the current economic situation and the costs of running a print publication on photo magazine-quality paper, JPG magazine was running out of money. They tried for months to find buyers or investors without success. Yesterday, they announced that they will be shutting down completely – not just the print magazine, but their website as well – on Monday, January 5th.

If you’re a JPG reader or are just interested in what the magazine was all about, you should follow their suggestions, which include:

• Downloading PDF versions of all their back issues. Do it soon, because their site will go offline sometime on Monday!
• Catching up with JPG contributors. The magazine started as an outgrowth of this Flickr group.
• Staying in touch. If you want to reach the staff at JPG, they’ll be taking email at jpgletters@gmail.com.

Remember, if you want to download PDF back issues, do it before Monday!

[This article was also published in Global Nerdy.]