The term “Big Bang” is usually used in the context of a theory describing the creation of the universe. To sum up and oversimplify, a hot, dense state caused a rapid expansion of the universe bringing us to where we are now.

The Museum of Fine Arts latest free exhibition, Big Bang, offers an explosion of artistic creativity, merging culture, time and genre to create a universe of possibility. Twenty of Montreal’s most renowned artists, including Denys Arcand, Melissa Auf Der Mar, Renata Morales and Wajdi Mouawad, were given carte blanche to create an installation inspired by a piece from the museum’s permanent collection. The result? Past meets present in an enthralling interplay between classic and modern, movement and stillness, darkness and light, formality and approachability. Our personal favourite was the room filled with mural art by the En Masse Collective, complete with bean bag chairs for a more laid-back museum experience.

Kaboom! —Jennifer Nachshen

Until January 22, 2012 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1380 Sherbrooke St. W., Montreal, 514-285-2000, www.mbam.qc.ca

If you're a girl-adult who goes to bridal showers drunk, loathes pastel with a superhuman passion and wonders whatever happened to, like, dating: someone wrote you a book.

The generally acclaimed debut novel from Jennifer Close, Girls in White Dress, isn't as (terrible word alert) chick-litty as you'd think. Sure, the cosmopolitan one-liners can feel lifted from a certain '90s HBO show. But her interconnected short stories, tracing familiar patterns of post-graduate ennui and reluctant maturity among New York twenty-somethings, have a welcome and sardonic honesty. There's a dark thread in all the air-light dresses, seen by Close as more economic burden than feminine pleasure. If you tug a little, it unravels a hard knowing: happiness doesn't get easier, and getting older sometimes just feels like getting less young.

This isn't a beach read, but a transitional one, for girls between seasons. —Sarah Nicole Prickett

With so many performances at the Just for Laughs Festival (from July 14–31), it can be hard to predict whether you’ll laugh ‘til you cry, or just cry. Montreal-based comedian Sugar Sammy is taking a break from the festival stage and we lucked out by getting his pro tips on how to get the best out of the fest.

1. You never know who’s going to be at the Best of the Fest, but according to Sugar Sammy, you may just find some big international stars warming up their sets (and having a drink with the crowd after).

2. Pick up a pass for the Comedy Conference ($99) from July 27-30 to attend panels, speeches, and discussions about the business of comedy. Way funnier than your industry conference.

3. “Discover” up-and-coming, alternative and underground comics at the bilingual Zoofest with a $39.99 pass for covering all shows.

4. Check out Cheat Live with Bill Burr, Robert Kelly and Joe DeRosa for the funny side of infidelity (guess there’s a funny side to everything).

5. If you’re French, or at least a franglophone, go see Mike Ward S’Expose, an edgy francophone comic who isn’t afraid to push boundaries.

Who knows? You may even bump into Sugar Sammy at one of the shows. But if his absence from the stage is making your heart grow fonder, just sign up at www.sugarsammy.com to be the first to hear about something big coming up soon in Canada (and, no, he didn’t give us any hints!). —Jennifer Nachshen

Festival Line-up and tickets at www.hahaha.com

For more of Jenn Nachshen’s interview with Sugar Sammy, see today’s Editors' Diary.

We may not be heading to Paris anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean we can immerse ourselves in "La Ville-Lumière," without even leaving the comfort of our couch.

As far as we’re concerned, Midnight in Paris is the movie must-see of the summer. Follow along with Owen Wilson as he meanders through time, partying with F. Scott Fitzgerald and his irrepressible wife, Zelda, pounding back drinks with Ernest Hemmingway, discussing his own literary merit with Gertrude Stein, and savouring the artistic temperament of Salvador Dali, Picasso and Toulouse Lautrec in Woody Allen’s magical tale of self-exploration and discovery.

Having had a taste of Paris in the '20s, turn the pages of The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. Told from the point of view of Ernest Hemmingway’s first wife, Hadley Richardson, this beautiful book takes the reader from the initial spark of meeting, to the eventual ashes of their ruined relationship. $18.77 at Amazon.ca

A sojourn in Paris may be no further than the Internet. We get outfit inspiration from Easy Fashion in Paris, filled with eye-catching photos of fashion fresh from the streets of Paris, turn to Meg Zimbeck’s Eating Paris blog for a feast for the eyes, and soak in the life of La Coquette to imagine our parallel life as an expat in Paris. And sometimes we take a peek into the life of our very own Parisienne à Montréal, editor of Vitamine du Jour, Elsa Vecchi.

—Jennifer Nachshen

We already love his signature stripes and celebrated sense of style, and now we can visit an exhibit offering a retrospective of the career of the fashion world’s enfant terrible.

Marking the 35th anniversary of the designer’s own label, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts will present The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk from June 17 to October 2, 2011. The exhibition will feature approximately 120 couture and prêt‐à‐porter ensembles created over the last 35 years, inspired by everything from the boudoir to the Eurostar.  Sketches, stage costumes, excerpts from films, runway shows, concerts, videos, dance performances and television programmes will all be included to highlight Gaultier’s creative collaborations with other artists including filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, photographer Mario Testino and pop stars Madonna and Kylie Minogue, among others.

We won’t be fashionably late for this exhibit. —JN

For admission and hours click here.

For photos from the opening galas, see our French edition's Editors' Diary

David Sedaris’ bestselling books are laugh-embarrassingly-out-loud-on-the-metro funny. And we can’t tell you how many times we’ve sat spellbound to his stories on National Public Radio.

We’ve been toting around his newest collection of fables, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary since the fall, but tonight we’re heading to Place des Arts’ Théâtre Maisonneuve to see the sardonic social satirist live. We’re pretty sure he’ll use this one-night performance to slice and dice everything PC, from popular culture to political correctness, as only he can.

It’s the perfect antidote for our usual Wednesday night America’s Next Top Model addiction. —JN

David Sedaris tickets available online or by phone at 514-842-2112.

Models and actresses dress with a desperate hope to be seen by Anna Wintour. But who does Anna Wintour dress to impress?

The answer is Bill Cunningham, the octogenarian New York Times photographer who bikes from street scene to soirée, capturing la crème de la crème of high society style for his columns “On the Street” and "Evening Hours.” In the new documentary film, Bill Cunningham NY, the camera is turned on the humble, unassuming pioneer of street-style photography, giving us a brief glimpse behind the lens of the man who considers fashion “the armour to survive the reality of everyday life.”

If fashion is armour, consider us a foot soldier. Which makes Mme Wintour the Commander and Chief. —JN

Bill Cunningham NY opens in Montreal on April 29 at Cinema du Parc.

Black Swan brought ballet to the movies. Now the movies come to the ballet, with a twist.

From the 14–16 of April, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal will present the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in Moulin Rouge. But instead of Ewan McGregor’s Christian and Nicole Kidman’s Satine, the ballet describes the love affair between artist, Mathieu, and a young laundress, Nathalie in Paris during the Belle Époque, with an appearance by Toulouse-Lautrec. —JN

Tickets from $62 online and at the Place des Arts Ticket Office: 514-842-2112.

Did you know that 2011 celebrates the Year of India in Canada Festival? We’re celebrating by scarfing down some poppadom and buying ourselves a Ticket to Bollywood.

From Mumbai to Montreal’s Oscar Peterson Hall, this 90-minute musical organized by the Kabir Cultural Centre covers four decades of Bollywood history with over 400 costumes and 1,000 pieces of Indian jewelry (and plenty of dramatic dancing damsels in distress, we’re betting!).

Getting to experience India without having to leave Canada? Now that's the bomb-eh? —JN

Ticket to Bollywood, Friday April 1, 2011 at 7.30 PM, Oscar Peterson Concert Hall, 7141 Sherbrooke St West, tickets from $24 at www.admission.com

We’ve never found babysitting to be much of a good time, but somehow Charlotte Brontë’s famous novel, Jane Eyre, made the life of a governess sound awfully romantic.

In the latest film version of the quintessential childhood reading-list tome, Alice in Wonderland’s Mia Wasikowska plays the famously plain Jane while Michael Fassbender offers a crush-worthy performance as the damaged Mr. Rochester (Dylan McKay’s got nothing on him).

However, the real star of the film may be the breathtaking cinematography directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, whose vision of the stunningly somber British moors is as haunting as Rochester’s first bride.

Reader, imagine how messed up we were after watching The Sound of Music.

In theatres March 25, http://focusfeatures.com/jane_eyre