doreyme

This goes for Canada, too...Prime Minister Harper + Conservatives

RIP, Jill

Clayburgh...

Montreal library book borrowers beware...

...if you have an outstanding library fine, the City of Montreal has a contract 

with a collection agency + they are not very nice.

 

RIP Arthur Penn

RIP Tony Curtis

Because there are not enough lakes...

in Canada?

Of all the things for Harper to dismantle...

 Honestly...when is the next election?
 

R.I.P. Louise Bourgeois

   
 

more here

 
 
 

Lynn Redgrave, wonderful actress, RIP

 more here

"Georgie Girl" was the first adult movie I ever saw.  The screening was at night on Granville St. in Vancouver + I wore nylons (not pantyhose) + used fake ID.   I still think it's a fabulous movie. 

 

RIP, a most wonderful artist, David Bolduc

a good tribute, here  

Desolation Row, "the Main", St. Laurent, from Sherbrooke to Duluth St. Montreal

Park Canada designated the Saint-Laurent Boulevard as a national historic site because of its function as a gateway for immigrants to Canada.  Before the extended sidewalk widening fiasco under the last Plateau-Mont-Royal borough mayor Helen Fotopolis, this used to be a thriving,vibrant street. Well, look at it now. Dumoulin Stereo, Atomic, Twist Encore, the Portugese knick-knack store, Mondo Fritz, American Apparel, Welch's Bookstore, the copy centres, the Mac fix it place, the vegetable fruit store, various bakeries, etc. etc. etc. moved or closed for good, hugely due to the extended renos that we can see now have effectively murdered the street.   The street is dead in the day now + one big bar at night. Why a bike path wasn't included in the renos while they had the chance, astounds me.  Instead we have these widened sidewalks passing by grim stores fronts such as these....

 

Arg.  So much destroyed in such a short period of time.  Can the Main recover?

 

republican politicians should watch this every morning with their toast + coffee

J.D. Salinger, RIP

more here  

or here

RIP, beautiful Jean Simmons

 fabulous in Elmer Gantry + so many other movies
 

an excellent column by Rick Mercer about proroguing in the G+M

read it + weep  

Lhasa de Sela, Rest in Peace

more here at CBC news

 

Nice way to begin the year. Has Canada become...

 
a banana republic, without the bananas?  
 
 

Wow. News flash. God only speaks French.

it saddens me that priests in Quebec aren't above this stuff. Geez.

 

Another lovely tribute for Henry Lehmann...

The Henry I best knew was my best friend throughout childhood. His home was "up the hill" from my home on w. 216th Place in Matteson, IL, and it was also my second home, as I spent much time with him and his mother, Virgina, father Henry Sr., sister Jean, and #1 dog Matt (short for Matthew). We collected butterflies,moths, caterpillers and cocoons together. We collected Mazon Creek plant fossils together. We waded in Turtle Pond together, catching painted and Blanding's turtles and getting our clothes all mucked up. We also often visited the fields of Matteson and Richton Park looking for a wide variety of frogs, toads and snakes. And we visited the Chicago zoos and the back (work)rooms of the Field Museum together. I was two years older, but we pals with a common interest in whatever Mother Nature could teach us. Two of his pen-and-ink-and-watercolor sketches (completed when he was 10-12) are my fondest possessions. So, his becoming an artist and beloved teacher were a perfect fit. He was not the Henry Lehmann many of you knew, but my memories of him from the 1950s will be with me until my turn comes.   from Owen Wavrinek

A childhood friend of Henry's...

sent this lovely remembrance...

Henry grew up in one of the south suburbs of Chicago, reared by a loving father and free-spirit mother, both now deceased. His "question authority" attitude was one of the guidelights for his friends in high school, and brought him to sanctuary in Quebec. When I last saw him at a memorial for his mother, he himself lit up when talking about beloved Wendy and children. He said his falling in love with Wendy, and in turn with each of the children, were completely unpredicted wonders in his life. His memory and example will be fondly cherished.  J. Longley

 

the ridiculously impractical , ridiculously expensive Plateau benches

 have now been winterized.  I wondered how these ergonomically stupid, aesthetically putrid benches were going to work in the winter, what with the snow + all.  I somehow thought they'd be carted away, with further expense, + tucked away until next summer.  I was so wrong.  Instead, they got four little striped Danger! Danger! bedsteads to protect our threatened knee caps. 

Oh my + these ridiculous slabs  are parked in the smack dab in the middle of the Plateau which houses the greatest number of artists in ALL of Canada.   Artists who would have appreciated a shot at designing actually cool + functional benches for their neighbourhood.   Hopefully with Project Montreal now in power in the Plateau, things will change...?  

Oh + re: the Project Montreal.  They're talking a lot of making new green spaces.  Super idea, especially if that includes green spaces for people who walk their dogs 365 days a year.  And hey, how about some garbage cans?  How is the urban forest supposed to stay clean without garbage cans?

 

Quebec director, Gilles Carle, Rest in Peace

more in today's Gazette  

Montreal artist/critic/teacher Henry Lehmann, Rest in Peace

 

more about Henry in today's Gazette

 

Jeanne-Claude, RIP

 

Christo's wife+collaborator

Are Quebecers stupid? Heartless?

what is wrong with us that we can't take care of our dogs?  A United Animals Nation organization, based in California  (granted, with the help of the SPCA in Ste. Agathe de Monts) needs to come to Quebec to save our dogs from cruel, abusive puppymill + dog-sled "keepers"?   Humbug. 

Montreal City hall may order owner to tear down funky Plateau resto front...

apparently it's too funky for the neighbourhood the city promotes as arty/funky.

Plus, the owner didn't have a permit, but he's already been fined, so that issue has been resolved.   But, seriously, a few blocks west, also on Duluth, the city of Montreal inspectors/officials watchkeepers of all things heritage + vintage + historic have allowed this wonderful specimen of aluminum siding at its finest to exist in the heart of funky resto-ville, Plateau. 

 

Also, a few more blocks west, the last elected borough officials allowed this type of thing to creep into our beautiful "heritage" neighbourhood...

 

Nothing against bed/mattress stores, but this is not a big box/costco area of town. We don't need 100 foot ugly signage to figure out this is the place one goes if one wants a bed or mattress.   So, dear city, before you make the owner tear down his $50, 000 store front that took FIVE MONTHS to build (how many city inspectors are on the payroll?) you may reconsider your inconsistent policies. 

Nancy Spiro, RIP

   

about Nancy

Gerry Ferguson, RIP

GLobe + Mail, obit

There oughtta be a law...

 

 

seriously, I can't believe this is legal

This four month old American baby is too "fat" for health insurance

oh brother

Whoa, Mr. Lauren, what were you thinking?

 read about it

Irving Penn, RIP

nytimes....

our Ollie, the best cat in the world, ever -- feisty, curious + so affectionate, so young, died today + we are all heartbroken

Jim Caroll, RIP

about Jim Carroll

Larry Gelbart, RIP

about Larry

Ted Kennedy, RIP

I had the feeling Obama was trying to hammer in the health reforms for TK before he died.   Alas.

more of the professional corporate foundations behind anti-health care reform

 

recess rally

the federal gov't cuts the Millennium scholarships

globe + mail article about this

Perhaps if they didn't spend money on ads dissing Liberal politicians when there is not even an election, there would be money to give scholarships to  kids that need + deserve sholarships.  In my youth (the Trudeau, Liberal years) they were plentiful + much appreciated. 

The FOX BROADCASTING COMPANY broadcasts a 16 year old pole-dancing

LA Times writes about this

on the Teen Choice Award show the other day.  This is the same conglomerate that broadcasts all those incredibly right wing, red neck shows... Bill O'Reilly + Sean Hannity etc . Imagine that.  (And the pole was on top of an ice cream cart. Cute.)

John Hughes, RIP

John Hughes  So young!  He directed one of my personal all time fave movies....Ferris Beuller's Day Off.  

scriptwriter, Budd Schulberg, RIP

dear plateau visitors, drug buyers, club goers, etc...

Please buy your drugs before you come to our neighbourhood on Friday and Saturday nights. Then the drug dealers will have no reason to come to our 'hood.

(Better still don't buy or take drugs anywhere, they tend to be hazardous to your health + the health of innocent bystanders.)