Collectively animalistic
hola bonjour salut yo.
I woke up yesterday early and got a ride to the nearest metro station, so I could spend the day exploring while my parents and Rae went out to see the mountains (which, in quebec, are just massive condo-covered hills with shitty ski resorts in between)...but I had such a good time on my own. I knew I eventually had to hook up with the lost boys, so I went and had coffee in the village and watched gay men play staring games with eachother...the fact that cities organize sex into districts still fascinates me. I wrote a paper in 4th year on the subject, and looked at Montreal's village as an example of a community so strongly supported by everyone involved that even the Tim Hortons has a pride flag in their window...wild shit, huh?
I got a hold of Mihailo (Mickey) and I got on the Metro to go meet him. I've known mickey, and the 'lost boys'(as they/we grew up being called) since I was 8 years old, and he was 3 or 4. This crew of boys who all grew up across the street from eachother bonded at such a young age, that we as friends are inseperable for life, it seems. Mickey met me at the Metro and we walked back through his neighborhood - Point St. Charles AKA "The Irish Ghetto"...I guess after the bikers all went to jail in the late 1990s, there was a turf war in this 'hood between the Irish drug dealers and a group of African-Canadian dealers...after many violent years in the area, the Irish 'won', and now it's much calmer there. That didnt stop Mickey from pointing out where a little girl got caught in the crossfire, or where they found a beheaded corpse in the park. yikes. that said, I never felt unsafe walking around their community. I guess in it's 'day'(the 50s/60s), the Irish ghetto rivaled South-Central LA or the Bronx for 'roughest neighborhood in North America'...it's also the oldest industrial area in Canada, so that might have something to do with it. 75% of all welfare recipients in Montreal live here, making up 2/3 of those in the neighborhood in full.
we got to their flat, which is odd, and slanty and totally absurdly cheap for them to live in (they all pay less that $150 in rent every month)...we all met up, drank tea, and went on a loooong walk down to the banks of the St.Laurent river - it was beautiful - we walked out onto the ice, just a bit, and could see the swell underneath the ice, so we backed off. the crew broke up a bit, and M and I and this guy Chris all went for an even longer walk all the way downtown to Concordia, and Mick and i went on continued walking adventures, but nothing so glamorous to bore you with here.
I met up with my parents and we went to go see and INCREDIBLE show at the Contemporary Art Gallery by Anselm Keifer, a german sculptor/painter who had his first Canadian exhibit opening - I've never seen a gallery that packed in my life - there was literally HUGE lineup for coat check, a HUGE lineup to get INTO the main gallery, and then a MASSIVE lineup just to get to the Keifer exhibit. I assume it's because it was 'free day' at the gallery, but holy fuck. It's amazing to me to see a city support visual arts like that. In edmonton, just mumbling about spending a cent more on public art space, and people flip. Lame.
anyways, this was among the more striking pieces in the show:
its a old bible, bronzed (I think) with wings...the show was called "Himmel-Erde (heaven-earth)", and was about reconstructing mythic symbols to create new meaning in spirituality - it was deeeeeep.
his paintings are massive...look!
Rae and I left the 'rents at that point to go see ANIMAL COLLECTIVE, which is something I've been looking forward to for weeks - the show sold out so quickly in the first venue that they had to move it to this gorgeous old theatre called La Tulipe...we got in no problem, checked out a bit of the opener and decided it was kinda boring, so we went and bought a supercan (AT 7-11!!) and drank it in the alley out of a paper bag...it's funny to think how UNcivil that might seem, but it kinda made me feel all big-city-like to do so. We finished up and went inside and got a good seat on the upper balcony...and they band, of course, was amazing. I like the new record, "Feels", but live the sound is so much more...dense and involved and heavy. The stage lights were never bright enough to see any of their faces, and as they thrashed and danced and boogied in the dark, I got the familiar sensation that I feel privledged to experience so often, where I realize that I'm seeing someone's passions in action - its a warm, accepting feeling I get at shows sometimes, where it doesnt matter to me what it's sounding like, but the performers are so...into it, they MAKE the show.
this was one of those cases.
the show was over, so we caught a myriad of busses, walked a bit, and boom, I was crashed out on a couch.
today: lunch w/the rents, more walking, drinking tonight with what seems like it'll be a massive crew - Liv and the YM girls are in town, Sam and Duncan are coming out, the lost boys, the sister...rad. I may not post tomorrow, because I'm going to ottawa, but we'll see.
take care, friends.
I woke up yesterday early and got a ride to the nearest metro station, so I could spend the day exploring while my parents and Rae went out to see the mountains (which, in quebec, are just massive condo-covered hills with shitty ski resorts in between)...but I had such a good time on my own. I knew I eventually had to hook up with the lost boys, so I went and had coffee in the village and watched gay men play staring games with eachother...the fact that cities organize sex into districts still fascinates me. I wrote a paper in 4th year on the subject, and looked at Montreal's village as an example of a community so strongly supported by everyone involved that even the Tim Hortons has a pride flag in their window...wild shit, huh?
I got a hold of Mihailo (Mickey) and I got on the Metro to go meet him. I've known mickey, and the 'lost boys'(as they/we grew up being called) since I was 8 years old, and he was 3 or 4. This crew of boys who all grew up across the street from eachother bonded at such a young age, that we as friends are inseperable for life, it seems. Mickey met me at the Metro and we walked back through his neighborhood - Point St. Charles AKA "The Irish Ghetto"...I guess after the bikers all went to jail in the late 1990s, there was a turf war in this 'hood between the Irish drug dealers and a group of African-Canadian dealers...after many violent years in the area, the Irish 'won', and now it's much calmer there. That didnt stop Mickey from pointing out where a little girl got caught in the crossfire, or where they found a beheaded corpse in the park. yikes. that said, I never felt unsafe walking around their community. I guess in it's 'day'(the 50s/60s), the Irish ghetto rivaled South-Central LA or the Bronx for 'roughest neighborhood in North America'...it's also the oldest industrial area in Canada, so that might have something to do with it. 75% of all welfare recipients in Montreal live here, making up 2/3 of those in the neighborhood in full.
we got to their flat, which is odd, and slanty and totally absurdly cheap for them to live in (they all pay less that $150 in rent every month)...we all met up, drank tea, and went on a loooong walk down to the banks of the St.Laurent river - it was beautiful - we walked out onto the ice, just a bit, and could see the swell underneath the ice, so we backed off. the crew broke up a bit, and M and I and this guy Chris all went for an even longer walk all the way downtown to Concordia, and Mick and i went on continued walking adventures, but nothing so glamorous to bore you with here.
I met up with my parents and we went to go see and INCREDIBLE show at the Contemporary Art Gallery by Anselm Keifer, a german sculptor/painter who had his first Canadian exhibit opening - I've never seen a gallery that packed in my life - there was literally HUGE lineup for coat check, a HUGE lineup to get INTO the main gallery, and then a MASSIVE lineup just to get to the Keifer exhibit. I assume it's because it was 'free day' at the gallery, but holy fuck. It's amazing to me to see a city support visual arts like that. In edmonton, just mumbling about spending a cent more on public art space, and people flip. Lame.
anyways, this was among the more striking pieces in the show:
its a old bible, bronzed (I think) with wings...the show was called "Himmel-Erde (heaven-earth)", and was about reconstructing mythic symbols to create new meaning in spirituality - it was deeeeeep.
his paintings are massive...look!
Rae and I left the 'rents at that point to go see ANIMAL COLLECTIVE, which is something I've been looking forward to for weeks - the show sold out so quickly in the first venue that they had to move it to this gorgeous old theatre called La Tulipe...we got in no problem, checked out a bit of the opener and decided it was kinda boring, so we went and bought a supercan (AT 7-11!!) and drank it in the alley out of a paper bag...it's funny to think how UNcivil that might seem, but it kinda made me feel all big-city-like to do so. We finished up and went inside and got a good seat on the upper balcony...and they band, of course, was amazing. I like the new record, "Feels", but live the sound is so much more...dense and involved and heavy. The stage lights were never bright enough to see any of their faces, and as they thrashed and danced and boogied in the dark, I got the familiar sensation that I feel privledged to experience so often, where I realize that I'm seeing someone's passions in action - its a warm, accepting feeling I get at shows sometimes, where it doesnt matter to me what it's sounding like, but the performers are so...into it, they MAKE the show.
this was one of those cases.
the show was over, so we caught a myriad of busses, walked a bit, and boom, I was crashed out on a couch.
today: lunch w/the rents, more walking, drinking tonight with what seems like it'll be a massive crew - Liv and the YM girls are in town, Sam and Duncan are coming out, the lost boys, the sister...rad. I may not post tomorrow, because I'm going to ottawa, but we'll see.
take care, friends.
posted by Eli at 8:59 AM
1 Comments:
yeah homie Animal Collective were really good here in toronto too. all the new songs they openned up with were stellar. they were channeling some serious Madchester echo rock. unbelievable. when they needed to be heavy they were heavy, when they were soft they were absolutely dreamy. plus the sound was unreal - all the vocal effects from the record were present, but you could still tell that dude could actually sing. and the depth of the drum sound was pretty surprising too.
i dunno the one thing i kept thinking about while i was watching them was that the Animal Collective will one day be regarded as the Sonic Youth of our generation - and that we have probably seen them at their best
-eric
Post a Comment
<< Home