Dimanche...

...à montréal includes:

a) Passion Pit.


b) Nietzsche.


c) pancakes from the Joy of Cooking.

paparazzi

Being photographed by the constant mob of paparazzi photographers who chase me around Montréal day in and day out.
Oh, life is so hard!



Maeva and Brendan Fernades, nominee representing Ontario, captured at the 2010 Sobey Art Award Gala, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal.

Check out Brendan's great work here.

He ate my heart, and then he ate my brain.

- "libertá per Ivan Collona" graffiti in the Pavillion V at UQAM. The Pavillion V is the one sandwiched between the erotica video movie theatre and the other miscellanea sex shops.

- The tuna sandwich at lunch just isn't cutting it

- taking a trip to the toilet only to find a needle deposit box. in a public washroom in the Pavillion J. The Pavillion J is not sandwiched between any sex shops, but I guess it's where all the crack whores hang out, and is why they chose it as the location for said needle deposit box. It comes with a handy sign inside the washroom stalls saying "les aiguelles, les applicatuers, ne les laissent pas trainer".

- coming out of lecture feeling the life sucked out of me as if by a vampire, only to see it's raining.

- strap on my rain pants and take off on my bike to David's house. Thank God for David and his amazing cooking skills and stocked kitchen of cooking gadgets. Some engineers get into photography for the gadgets, but David got into cooking!

- ride home in the rain but this time up two hills, which I conquered in full rain outfit soaking wet glory. Be hold the muscular maëva.

- I need a stiff drink. Now.

MTL part dix

Student card = check.
Grand bibliothéque library card = check!
New cheap grocery store discovered = check.
Bike ride encounter with La Centrale co-worker = check.
Amazing bike ride on Hutchinsn and Bernard = check.
breaking the TV = check (I was due for that).
secret sweet streets discovered = check. (Duluthe is my new haven).

Also I smashed a lamp that was in my closet today and then kneeled on a piece of glass. Good work. I also somehow managed to get a perfect print of my bicycle chain on my knee. How I ask you, How.
Then I read about Lady Gaga on the couch with chocolate my neighbour gave me and a giant cup of tea (necessity of life) to the music of the fan.
While in Outremont with Monique this morning in a health food store searching for Thayer's that we can't find anywhere a girl came up to me and handed me a pamphlet about cream. I flipped through it and then Monique said "I think I saw your name in there" and low and behold there is a cream in their line called "Maeva". Maeva is the new thing. it's en vogue. name your kids maeva, or you dog. soon you'll be wearing maeva clothes, and riding a maeva bike.

Get ready, the Maeva revolution is around the corner.

MTL part neuf

- Xenakis on vinyl
- cat sitting and the mysterious grischat who turned up and captured my heart
- strange landlords
- canicule
- Bill Evans trio
- strange neighbours
- neighbours swearing wickedly in quebecois french at 3am
- empty beer bottle in hand bag
- running into cyclists
- running into pedestrians
- new hair
- missed calls
- new connections, more connections
- cider and wolf parade and broken social scene and joy division
- first day at internship
- art and archives
- opening at skol
- pink fabric with unicorns for Lia
- cello
- circus act preview
- hot nights
- knitting
- meso soup and amazing korean ginger tea
- the girl that emerged from the forest and then went back in again
- performance art
- hookah bar and strange conversations

News

In the space of a week I got a job, an internship, changed some little things in my blog (do you like?) and met one of my roommates, a film maker who is moving to Hawaii. (can you say FUCKING AWESOME...)

I saw a great exhibition yesterday: Iannis Xenakis: Composer, Architect, Visionary at Canadian Centre for Architecture. I would recommend reading it and trying to track down some of his tracks to listen to. He composes his pieces using mathematical equations, first charting them out in different variations on graph paper and then translating them into readable music.
My favourite piece is Terretektorh, where the musicians are dispersed amongst the audience in a circular formation around the conductor creating an immersion for the audience in the music and an almost 3D experience.


(Study for Terretektorh (distribution of musicians). Image courtesy of CCA)

I've been walking, riding my trusty stead, drinking A LOT of tea (I know what you were thinking), looking and listening, and revisiting my photographic experiences from two french lands: Corsica and Drummondville. (see photo posts in this blog!)

Check out this great article about Montreal by the NYTimes - They'll get you by the first sentence, if not, by the time they've stated that Montreal is the other Paris. I guess that's why I love it so much. Is there another place in the world that is the "Other Paris"? That's a pretty big thing.

Also check out my new place(s) of empoloyment/internshipment.
École de langue de l'UQÀM
La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse. On passant, La Centrale is the oldest artist run centre in all of Quebec and emerged after the feminist movement of the 60s and 70s to give a platform for women and other underrepresented artists. They bring art to the streets, that means they want to take art out of the suffocating white cube! At the end of what I thought was going to be the interview but was more like a meeting I said that I was really excited and happy to have the opportunity to intern there and be involved in an artist centre in Montreal. And they said 'you found the right address because it's fun here' (but in French, of course).

Rainy Sundays

1) submission to make/shift = done.
2) submission to Front = done.
3) made Golden Tomato sauce with tomatoes I bought at the marché Jean-Talon earlier this week.
4) going to make (another) Peach upside down cake, or maybe the Ginger Peach Upside down cake that was featured on Thimble two days ago. mmmmm. baking on Rainy sundays.
Yesterday was the first time I ever made a Peach upsdie down cake, and it was very delicious. Moist and fluffy cake with perfectly carmelized peaches in a big concentric circle, garnished with almonds. I didn't even have trouble getting it out of the pan! Success.

Rainy day music = the following.


(Bicycle by Gary Louis and Mark Olsen)

I've been having such a great few days. I don't know many people here in Montréal but those that I do are wonderful souls and we have been having many adventures. Cookie making, bike rides in the night/in the rain, beer and cider on tap at L'escalier - a great little bohemian bar, great music, hikes up Mont-Royal in the sunshine with fabulous views of the city, nights out on the town, markets (jean-talon and atwater), bike repair lessons (when my inner tubes on both tires exploded and me and David had to go and get some more in St-Henri, and then I learned how to replace inner tubes!), and other great adventures.

fucking FANTASTIC day!!!!

Dimanche or day 4 in Montreal.

Plan:
1) read La Presse in bed (only for a little while) or at Parc Lafontaine (not accomplished today!)

2) due to sore feet, walk only as far as BIXI station at Marie-Anne et de la Roche or Rachel et Marquette. BIXI to Canadian Tire at St-Laurent and Beaubien Est.

3) buy garbage can. ... (haven't figured out how to get it back to my apartment on a bixi bike...)

4) after no 3 query is solved, BIXI to Marché Jean-Talon.

*bring cookies, water and apple for snacky purposes.

game plan saturday edition

5.38am open window for Minou. Marvel at the stillness of the world.

10am get up; make tea; read The New Yorker June 7th in Bed. In particular Fiction "Extreme Solitude" by Jeffrey Eugenides and "No Secrets: Julian Assange's mission for total transparency" by Raffi Khatchadourian. Read to the Bach's Fugue en si mineur performed by Glenn Gould on Espace Musique's livestream.

11am call mom; call lady who wants to see the car.

Noon make more tea; earl grey loose leaf; Parisian pain toast with plum butter, strawberry jam and other such accoutrements.

TO DO:
- buy garbage bin
- find Canadian Tire or Home Hardware in the direct vicinity
- buy clothes line things that hold the clothes line together
- get ingredients and tupperware for Sparkling Ginger Chip Cookies
- make Sparkling Ginger Chip Cookies
- buy La Presse
- read La Presse at Parc Lafontaine. with cookies.
- make long awkward black skirt into cute little black skirt.
- watch the end of Gainsbourg

to zine or not to zine

In between my bouts of massive cleaning today (bathroom, kitchen FRIDGE, airing laundry stored in bags for two months...etc) and my walk around LE PLATEAU Mont-royal (eep!) I contemplated the fact that I've been musing over the idea of making a zine.

I'm not sure what the concept will be. (that I think is the first thing I need to discover)
I'm not sure what the content will be. (that's important to discover as well)
But I'm hoping with discovery and organic movement, that something will soon come to me. Maybe during my further cleaning bouts (... the lime green stairway needs some work...).

New found interest: psychogeography.
Looking for possibilities in which to psychogeographicize my life.

99

3am. photo booth in Montreal metro station. there were black balloons inside. eve of nuit blanche Montreal.

miscellaenia, montreal and a bake sale!

I just developed my first 35 mm film in about a year and a half yesterday. There is nothing like leaving Village Studios (my local photo developer of choice) and hurridely opening the envelope to see my photos. All the waiting is worth it for that moment.

This particular film was in my camera for probably a year, There were already photos on the film when I decided to pick my camera up again. I started to open it and then realized there might be a film inside. So I went into my makeshift darkroom and low and behold found film inside.

The first photos are what were already on the film. Miscellania from over a year ago.

A tree that was hit by lighting on the Niagara Escarpment:


Bottles. In a window.


This was the last photo I had taken all that time ago, and since I decided to open my camera to find out if there was film inside, I ended up taking a double exposure by accident. Thus this photo includes the oldest tree in Grimsby, and my friend Sherrie's beautiful livingroom window in her old apartment in Outremont.




Next. I recently went to Montreal, the true European capital of Canada (in my humble opinion), to sort out my disasterous lease and apartment situation, see my lovely lovely Saskatchewan friend Angie and visit my lovely lovely vieux chunks friends in Drummondville. Angie is a saint and went apartment hunting for a day in the pouring rain with me. We walked to the very east end of Avenue Mont-Royal to see a really crumby apartment, our shoes were totally soaked as were we, and then had to walk all the way back up Avenue Mont-Royal to get to the metro. It was epic. and that evening she made a delicious Hungarian Mushroom soup.



The next day was sunny and warm and so wonderful out. So we went on an excellent walking adventure.

First we walked from Ave Wiseman and Ave Bernard, in Outremont, to "Le Depanneur" - I think my new favourite of all times restaurant. (I don't have many, but this one I really realy liked!) In one of the hottest spots in Montreal - nestled between Mile End and Outremont, this little resto has everything - exposed brick walls, live music, cozy couches and odd tables to sit at, bunting for decorations and best of all very handsome waiters. I cna't comment on the waitresses yet since we only had handsome waiters that day, but maybe they only hire good looking peeps! I will investigate further ;)

Alors, Le Depanneur. We also drank delicious tea and ate delicous food here.



When we were leaving, we asked the handsome waiter for directions to the nearest metro station and he drew us a map, that I kept, of course, becuase I'm like that. It led us here:


We thought for sure he led us astray when we climbed the stairs we saw and ended up on what seemed to be a highway! But a few mintues later after discussing the store "Jeans, jeans, jeans" in detail we ended up at Laurier station! So the handsome waiter didn't lead us astray after all!

On the way there, we saw this amazing shop and I want everything in the window. Especially that globe. I already have a globe (Aberfoyle market find at $15!), but I love that one too.



After eating at Le Depanneur, I went to get my haircut at Dru by Lucie on St-Laurent at Laurier.

Angie met me there and we went walking about. I think we were on Villeneuve when we saw this amazing little window display that just drew me in!



Also on Villeneuve one of my favourite shops ever:



I have no idea what street we are on here, but oh man (!). A dinosaur diorama. It was very detailed too.



Hence, yet another amazing adventure in Montreal. This city gets better with each time I visit it. And there will be many more adventures to come.


Now, at home, in Onterrible, I decided, since I don't have a job, I have a car to sell and I love baking, that I would have a bake sale in my driveway. Accomplishes all three of these tasks in one!

And this was my first bake sale:





New bake sale to come next Saturday!

Last but not least, my mom discovered in the midst of the bake sale that the Magnolia tree had finally bloomed for the first time:



New film locked and loaded ready to capture my dreams.
To come, Margaux our new (stray) kitty living in our garden, Montreal and Drummondville, again, and Angie's adventures in Toronto!