doreyme

Mount St. Hilaire, Monteregie...

Montrealers, is a short drive from the big city...unfortunately, no dogs allowed in this McGill sanctuary

6 reviews of the Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, John Zorn show at the Jazz Festival, Montreal, July2/10

 

 
 

mostly positive

positive

negative

negative

neutral

My opinion?  I agree with 2nd negative: re: the 2 diners in a Woody Allen movie.  "This food is terrible,"  says one. "Yes," replies her friend, "and such small portions."  I really like Laurie Anderson + Lou Reed.  I wish they had played at PDA last night instead of those too cold to be hip, caricatures of 19th century avant-garde-ness.  Really, could one "yo, great to be in Montreal" have killed them?  On the other hand, it was a really fun + theatrical + dramatic evening.  All that audience participation + all...

La Vieille Europe, Montreal, 2:23:10, December 23.09

 

Plateau Montreal, 2:12:21, December 23.09

 

Mount Royal + St. Laurent, Montreal, 11:59:29, December 22.09

 

St Hubert St., 4:14 PM, December 17.09

 

Mr. McGill at McGill, Montreal, Dec. 12.09

 

These signs are a few feet apart

 

 

big brother is, etc. Montreal, 2009

 

The Rusty Plum Holiday Bazaar, Montreal Dec12-13, 19-20, St. Viateur + St. Urbain

The Rusty Plum Holiday Bazaar

Avoid downtown chaos and support local economy.

Enjoy meeting the designers who represent the most talented of Montreal crafters and who bring you the best gift ideas for this holiday season!

Innovative. Creative. Unique.

Jewelry, Designer Clothing, Soaps, Fashion Accessories, Kids Items, Prints, Home Decor, Hand bound Books, Cupcakes, Recuperated Vintage Items, Photos, Poster Art, Small Press, Knitwear, Silk-Screened T-Shirts, Hats, Plush Monsters, and much more!

Kids activities and Pierogis, Fair Trade Coffee Bar and Great Atmosphere.

DECEMBER 12th & 13th
saturday: 11am-7pm
sunday: 11am05pm

DECEMBER 19th &20th
saturday: 11am-7pm
sunday: 11am-5pm

For more information email [email protected]


DONATIONS at the door for HERSTREET
For more info, please visit:
http://www.laruedesfemmes.com/e_herstreet.htm

 

Outremont, Dec.9.09

 

The NY-Montreal battle of the bagels continues....

in the New York Times

 

Outremount, 8:52 November 27.09

 

Mont-Royal, 8:36, November 20, 2009

the hardest little working squirrel in nutbiz

Back + forth, up + down.  It must live in our house which is probably not advised but I kind of like it.  I draw the line at racoons which come down from the mountain. 

for Plateau-ites, the Farmer's Market, today

the farmer's market, Laval + Marianne St.

Happy Birthday Leonard!

oh look, it's pat(ricia) pink's supercool building in the Montreal Gazette today

see more here

And below, of course, her supercool Pink Espace

More still Montreal Gay Pride Pics, August 16.09

More Montreal Gay Pride Pics

+ it gives me great pleasure to bookend the right wing folks with these pics. 

some montreal gay pride parade glamour August 16.09

3 august the 6th montreal moments

 

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.)

St. Joseph's Oratory, Montreal

The other day I played tourist in my own city and toured for the first time, the entire  amazing St. Joseph's Oratory 

It has the third largest dome in the world.  There is an area full of crutches left by people who were purportedly cured by Father Andre who may be canonized one day, it's in the works...(a note, I don't know how to add accents with Typepad, my French words are often not correct).

There are beautiful gardens at the back with incredible architectural details you don't see every day.  Like the wrought iron bird deterrent fences. 

Inside, in the various chapels and museums, etc. there are many statues of Father Andre (plus his actual heart which was stolen + recovered  in the early 1970's + his body in the crypt.) 

And more in the souvenir shop.  This big Father is for sale. 

meanwhile the Marche Duluth...

on Marianne+Laval thrives.  It's wonderful to be able to walk to an organic farmer's market to buy all this great stuff.  Right now only on Sundays but maybe that will change.

Apparently my $250,000 alley greenification is actually...

the $33, 000 greenification according to the Montreal Gazette today.   I don't know if that includes the heavy machinery + crew that were there all last week but in any case it's alot saner than $250,000 which is the amount the City presented as the cost. It's all very heart warming that citizens have organized this greenification of an alley although I still have issues about it.  Call me the neighbourhood curmudgeon, but... first of all, this particular alley was not "a dismal concrete slab where no one really wanted to go" which Marcelle Bastien, director of the Lajeunesse community centre states in the article.  Quite the contrary.  It was, to my eyes, which attended art school for six years, quite beautiful + fairly green.   Here is a "before" picture, taken on May 27.09

To my eyes, it was a naturally evolved space and much, much used by many.  My kids learned how to ride their bikes in this alley (+ others around here).  More recently it was much used by me + Angus.  Plus many, many other dog owners around here.  Bicyclists trying to avoid the crowded one way streets of the Plateau. Bell and Videotron repairmen. Junkies shooting up. Flashers.  And very few unattended children.  Like none.  Ever.  No one in their right mind allows young kids to play in the inner city alleys unattended these days.   Most people bring their little kids to  the two newly gentrified little kid parks around here.  One a block away. The other two blocks away. Both which now outlaw dogs (before the gentrification they were allowed as long as they were on leashes.)  Here are two pictures of the new + improved alley.

Hopefully the ruelle baree signs will come down.  The planted plants will get larger + it will looker nicer if you're part of the Mallification Movement,  but I worry, now people like me, the dog walkers will be barred from what is still public property.   Already, yesterday as I walked down the alley with Angus, I had to hold him tightly by my side for fear he was, as dogs do, going to pee on one of the new planted plants as opposed to the mostly wild + indigenuous plants and trees that were there before they were yanked out by the green citizens.   Parents (everyone was out this weekend) gave Angus dirty looks as we walked by.  No one did that "oh, look at the nice doggy" thing  + I can see the writing on the wall.  The city grows smaller, the taxes grow higher...

Oh, stop the presses.  Just discovered in the same paper another articleabout alleys.   

This one closer to my spirit. "Montreal’s laneways are habitat to some of the city’s richest biodiversity, says Chester, who leads tree tours around Montreal and has recently published a guidebook on the trees of McGill University. Saplings and wildflowers whose seeds were sown by the wind or the birds thrive and grow in the neglected cracks and corners in between walls and fences."  You said it,  Bronwyn Chester.  Amen.   

 

the $250,000 greenification of the alley continues...

meanwhile back in Montreal....

I go away for 12 days + my neighbourhood goes bankrupt. Our park, Jeanne Mance, still doesn't have a playground...

And nearby, one of our green alleys....

is in the process of "greenification"

to the tune of $250,000

...the green lines, I believe, signify what will be dug up so that plants can be added.   Now I love plants and trees as much as the next person, but the alley looks fine to me.  It's already green + in our neighbourhood we have few garbage bins.  Our sidewalks are in many places in really rough shape.  We have in many places huge potholes.  Our dog "parks" are a joke.  The anglo kids in this city don't have  text books.  We don't have enough ambulance personnel or doctors or nurses, do we really have to spend 250,000 to green a perfectly beautiful green alley? Humbug. 

St. Jean de Baptiste Day, June 24 in Quebec

 

 

who he was   + how it came to be a holiday on June 24th in Quebec

ollie in the alley, chilling

tempest in a teapot? Or a serious issue?

This banning of the 2 anglo bands?  Methinks, serious, along with lots of folks, judging by the huge public outcry --anglo, franco-+ allos (ridiculous recent classifications) that separate rather than unite Quebecers...in any case it's all over + the bands can play again + they got a huge career boost, the St. Jean Baptiste guys came off as old school chip on the shoulder party poopers + the sun is shining + we are ever so grateful to live in Canada+power to all the brave people protesting in Iran right now. 

St. Jean Baptiste Day, June 24 is the National Holiday of the Canadian province of Quebec

It is a celebration for everyone who lives in Quebec, supposedly.  But as usual, the very prominent, very vocal, very influential separatist group, Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal  does its party pooper best to exclude those who aren't pure laine, this time through a very closely affiliated organization called the Association Culturelle Louis-Hébert.   It's too predictable + depressing to go on about, especially since  other  Montreal bloggers  have already posted on the issue.Three good ones are bang bang, tattered sleeve + fagstein.   The positive thing about this ridiculous situation is that many francophones are just as outraged as anglos.  The bad thing (amongst many bad things) is that it will fan anti-Quebec flames in Red Neckville, Canada.   It will get national coverage. 

What I'm curious about is who are these sponsors of the  Association culturelle Louis Hebert who are threatening to pull  funding if the two "anglo" bands, Lake of Stew + Bloodshot Bill play at the celebrations?  Via google, I couldn't find the 2009 sponsors but the 2008 sponsors amongst others, were three provincial politicians Nicolas Girard, PQ  Bernard Bigras, PQ + Rita Dionne Marsolais PQ  dedicated to separatism. 

I imagine being a sponsor means they donated $$$$ to the Association Culturelle Louis-Hébert ( as well as the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal itself!) So I'm wondering, where did that $ come from exactly?  Are they personal donations or from public funding?  As in, our provincial taxes, which I believe are the highest in North America?  If so, it only seems fair, that our anglo taxes should work towards sponsoring all + every person in Quebec who wishes to celebrate their cultural identity on their so called national holiday. 

Banned in Montreal, from playing at St. Jean Baptiste celebrations

Banned in Montreal, from playing at St. Jean Baptiste celebrations

They're back, from where?

poor montreal 28th out of 29 north american cities with populations over 2 million

read it + weep

+ the only city poorer than Montreal (calculated via gross domestic product) is Riverside, San Bernardino, the largely hispanic + black low income side of LA.

Montreal ranks 28th in the percentage of residents older than 25 who have a high school diploma!!!!  Unbelievable, this in a city that  has the highest student population in North America (or is it tied with Boston? I forget). Guess they are out of towners.  

new lightposts on park ave, montreal may 15.09

to whom we thank for this 3 day weekend...

thanks to all the people who came to the verni at Pat Pink' today

hanging with my homies in one of Montreal's fabulous alleys which are perfect as they are + hopefully will never suffer the indignity of unnecessary + undesirable gentrification

new to Montreal, the Bixi bikes, rentable by the hour

These, across from the Angel on the Mountain.  And surprisingly, bilingual directions. more here

+ lastly a few more visual reasons why the Plateau Montreal

is a beautiful, vibrant neighbourhood that needs to be protected from overzealous bureaucrats intent on blandifying the area.

more choice local graffiti, might be the "how do you paint the soul?" dude or dudette

while I'm at it...more Plateau ranting

...these ugly tombstone slabs have recently been plonked on the Main to "honour the Portuguese" + because it is important that the city of Montreal continue to integrate and represent the different cultural communities in a way that is open to others. To be able to find a symbol that is inclusive was a challenge for me because it had to address the question of diversity in Montreal.  So says Isabel Dos Santos, borough councillor.  Okay, so where's the "anglo" diversity?  Most of the anglos in Quebec live in Montreal + have for many centuries.  Why isn't their diversity "addressed". (Why aren't the words on the slabs trilingual?)  Not to mention the tourists.  

Plus.  

Has anyone considered what these slabs are going to be like in the winter?  They're low.  We get a lot of snow.  Like lots of snow.   And how about the summer?  How hot will these black slabs get?  

And what makes these benches "Portuguese" other than the Portuguese tiles slapped on the sides + some Portuguese (+ French) words?  And most importantly -- as the Plateau is chock-a-block full of artists, why wasn't there some kind of public competition or consultation with Plateau artists?  

How much did these slabs cost anyways?   Arggg. I'm sorry, they are just so ugly -- they belong in some suburban disco mall not in the "historic" "heritage" Plateau. We, the residents + taxpayers have to wangle with city hall when we want to change a doorknob or a window sill yet this uglification of the Plateau continues unabated by the city councillors themselves.  The money should have/could have been spent on our pathetic local playground.  The swings, teetotters, etc. that were okay for my kids have been removed + replaced with -- well, nothing.  Gee + school ends in a couple of weeks.  

One good thing.  There is a municipal election coming in the fall.

read Josh Freed's column about the curious case of the disappearing playground

this is a new building, almost completed in my neighbourhood, Plateau Montreal

What do you think?  Was it the same architect?  The Plateau, more than once,  has been named one of the best neighbourhoods in North America.  It is, as determined by Stats Canada, a neighbourhood that has the biggest concentration of artists in Canada this is an old site but I've got a cold + don't have the strength to keep this up so I just don't get it.  Why are cold, brutal structures like this...with no balconies, no "green spaces" incorporated into the design...eg. a tree, not even one lousy tree?  Allowed to be built in this "heritage" neighbourhood?   We the taxpaying residents  have to follow extremely strict laws + regulations in the renovations + maintenances of OUR structures because we live in a "heritage" neighbourhood.  So what heritage is this building exactly?   Who approves designs like this? Somewhere, someone thought, wow, this will make a great addition to the neighbourhood.   Humbug. 

this is the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC

..that I visited recently.