je pense je suis fatigue.
ok - attempt #2.
I'm surrounded by someone else's luxury in Terrebonne, Quebec - about 1/2 hour north of Montreal. There is snow everywhere, piled 5 feet deep along the roads and on people's lawns. This neighborhood is fucking ridiculous...every house has grey stone facades, double garages, and variations on the 'castle in the prairies' look that seems SO popular around here...I suppose some context is in order.
I'm in Montreal visiting my sister, and my parents have arrranged to be here too. We're at this house because they have traded homes for a week with the couple whose house I'm in right now...they are in Canmore at my parents small and modest bungalow. We're here in their MANSION. I shit you not, here is what this house has:
-6 TVs - including a 5' mega HDTV flatscreen insanity.
-xbox & PS2. why both?
-a pool (outdoor, dammit.)
-foozeball, an indoor virtual driving range, an indoor skateboarding area/rampkinda thing
-a 12-piece drum kit/guitars/amps
-a workout room
-my DREAM shower - 5 spouts at once!
-2 dining rooms, 3 living rooms, 2 NICE cars, a massive kitchen with more cupboards than there is stuff to put in them.
-'theme rooms': one son has a football theme, while the other has hockey. The bathroom upstairs has a 'nautical' theme (blue everything, creepy sailor art, weird rope/knot thingy on the wall). The master bedroom is bigger than any bedroom I've ever seen in my life.
-2 basements! huh?
-a 'shed', which looks like it houses a SAUNA, among other things (a guest bedroom, maybe?)
nuts. Anyways, I'm led to assume that these people live here and surround themselves with this stuff as a way of sedating the urge to be adventurous, to dope their children into thinking that all they need in life can be bought, and to tell themselves that the city is unsafe and boring, and life is simply better in the burbs.
fuck it. Montreal is everything I remembered it to be. I walked around today and smelled the old city, ate smoked meat sandwiches dripping with mustard, spent money on records I can't find elsewhere, and loved it.
It made me think of the last time I was here - June of 2002. Laura and I were here learning french in Trois Rivieres, but we'd come into town on the weekends. It was so exciting - clubbing, going to shows, spending lazy sundays at Mont Royale, listening to the TamTam jam, smoking joints while Hare Krishnas danced and chanted around us. Their golden robes billowed and glowed.
Montreal, I'm totally crushing on you. I love your windy streets and endless fire escapes. I love being in the language minority, and just listening to you phrase the words "ok" and "merci". I love the attitude of the pretty girls who know it, and of the well-dressed men who hide their modesty behind $400 sunglasses. The smells. The snow. The lack of mutual respect for pedestrian and driver. Yelling old ladies. Smarmy and distracted old men. Jews who wear it on their sleeve (or hat, or kippah, or beard). I feel immersed in real culture for the first time in a long time. It's in the old buildings, and in the preserved copper roofs. In the churches and synagogues, black and grey from all the smog. It's almost romantic, how you flirt back with me constantly. Awww, I'm blushing.
Yesterday when the plane broke through the clouds and the city lights splayed themselves out underneath me, I was swelled with excitement and nervousness about my week to come. Would I be able to tolerate my family? Would I see the lost boys? Would they be all grown up? (I get to find out tomorrow, I guess). I met my parents @ the bus station and we went for Thai food...as soon as I got in the car I passed out and woke up outside of the mansion in which I sit now.
Today was fun too. We all went to Concordia to check out my sister's campus, which is nice, if not a bit wierd - it's basically spread out over several office-type towers, with one floor of each building devoted to a study (science floor, arts floor(s), etc)...I didnt realize it before, but I guess the Quebec gov't mandates that 5% of all visible space on any new architectural project has to be devoted to public art! The library at the uni has a cascading waterfall of letters tumbling off the roof, all silver and glinting in the afternoon sun. Beautiful.
I went from there with my stepdad Dean walking up St Laurent where we went to the world-famous Schwartz's deli and sat at the bar and ate what they invented - Montreal Smoked Meat. It was the first beef I'd eaten in 6 years. Weird, huh? It was salty, and sat like a rock in my stomach all day, but I guess it was worth it in the end. We shopped and hung out and drank too many coffees...we met up w/my sis and ma and we all went to see the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, which was actually really fucking cool. I haven't seen a full symphony play since I worked at the Winspear in Edmonton when I was 18...it was fascinating to watch the interplay of conductor and bassoon, of the percussion with the strings. It was a pops series, so we heard John Williams (not some cheesy movie shit, but a fully composed new work), Gershwin and Bernstein and a ballet by Aaron Copeland...it was fun, and I think my mom really enjoyed having us all there together, seeing it. We went from there to Chinatown and ate gross food, which is currently causing a rumble in my tummy. Eech. I need to go to sleep.
More tomorrow, if I can get online. I'm seeing Animal Collective tomorrow...anyone jealous?
Love Love Love
eli out.
ps: talking about 'crushing' reminded me of this album:
"Totally Crushed Out!" by that dog. - an amazing record by a long-defunct band. Too bad, really. Anna Waronker is hot.
I'm surrounded by someone else's luxury in Terrebonne, Quebec - about 1/2 hour north of Montreal. There is snow everywhere, piled 5 feet deep along the roads and on people's lawns. This neighborhood is fucking ridiculous...every house has grey stone facades, double garages, and variations on the 'castle in the prairies' look that seems SO popular around here...I suppose some context is in order.
I'm in Montreal visiting my sister, and my parents have arrranged to be here too. We're at this house because they have traded homes for a week with the couple whose house I'm in right now...they are in Canmore at my parents small and modest bungalow. We're here in their MANSION. I shit you not, here is what this house has:
-6 TVs - including a 5' mega HDTV flatscreen insanity.
-xbox & PS2. why both?
-a pool (outdoor, dammit.)
-foozeball, an indoor virtual driving range, an indoor skateboarding area/rampkinda thing
-a 12-piece drum kit/guitars/amps
-a workout room
-my DREAM shower - 5 spouts at once!
-2 dining rooms, 3 living rooms, 2 NICE cars, a massive kitchen with more cupboards than there is stuff to put in them.
-'theme rooms': one son has a football theme, while the other has hockey. The bathroom upstairs has a 'nautical' theme (blue everything, creepy sailor art, weird rope/knot thingy on the wall). The master bedroom is bigger than any bedroom I've ever seen in my life.
-2 basements! huh?
-a 'shed', which looks like it houses a SAUNA, among other things (a guest bedroom, maybe?)
nuts. Anyways, I'm led to assume that these people live here and surround themselves with this stuff as a way of sedating the urge to be adventurous, to dope their children into thinking that all they need in life can be bought, and to tell themselves that the city is unsafe and boring, and life is simply better in the burbs.
fuck it. Montreal is everything I remembered it to be. I walked around today and smelled the old city, ate smoked meat sandwiches dripping with mustard, spent money on records I can't find elsewhere, and loved it.
It made me think of the last time I was here - June of 2002. Laura and I were here learning french in Trois Rivieres, but we'd come into town on the weekends. It was so exciting - clubbing, going to shows, spending lazy sundays at Mont Royale, listening to the TamTam jam, smoking joints while Hare Krishnas danced and chanted around us. Their golden robes billowed and glowed.
Montreal, I'm totally crushing on you. I love your windy streets and endless fire escapes. I love being in the language minority, and just listening to you phrase the words "ok" and "merci". I love the attitude of the pretty girls who know it, and of the well-dressed men who hide their modesty behind $400 sunglasses. The smells. The snow. The lack of mutual respect for pedestrian and driver. Yelling old ladies. Smarmy and distracted old men. Jews who wear it on their sleeve (or hat, or kippah, or beard). I feel immersed in real culture for the first time in a long time. It's in the old buildings, and in the preserved copper roofs. In the churches and synagogues, black and grey from all the smog. It's almost romantic, how you flirt back with me constantly. Awww, I'm blushing.
Yesterday when the plane broke through the clouds and the city lights splayed themselves out underneath me, I was swelled with excitement and nervousness about my week to come. Would I be able to tolerate my family? Would I see the lost boys? Would they be all grown up? (I get to find out tomorrow, I guess). I met my parents @ the bus station and we went for Thai food...as soon as I got in the car I passed out and woke up outside of the mansion in which I sit now.
Today was fun too. We all went to Concordia to check out my sister's campus, which is nice, if not a bit wierd - it's basically spread out over several office-type towers, with one floor of each building devoted to a study (science floor, arts floor(s), etc)...I didnt realize it before, but I guess the Quebec gov't mandates that 5% of all visible space on any new architectural project has to be devoted to public art! The library at the uni has a cascading waterfall of letters tumbling off the roof, all silver and glinting in the afternoon sun. Beautiful.
I went from there with my stepdad Dean walking up St Laurent where we went to the world-famous Schwartz's deli and sat at the bar and ate what they invented - Montreal Smoked Meat. It was the first beef I'd eaten in 6 years. Weird, huh? It was salty, and sat like a rock in my stomach all day, but I guess it was worth it in the end. We shopped and hung out and drank too many coffees...we met up w/my sis and ma and we all went to see the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, which was actually really fucking cool. I haven't seen a full symphony play since I worked at the Winspear in Edmonton when I was 18...it was fascinating to watch the interplay of conductor and bassoon, of the percussion with the strings. It was a pops series, so we heard John Williams (not some cheesy movie shit, but a fully composed new work), Gershwin and Bernstein and a ballet by Aaron Copeland...it was fun, and I think my mom really enjoyed having us all there together, seeing it. We went from there to Chinatown and ate gross food, which is currently causing a rumble in my tummy. Eech. I need to go to sleep.
More tomorrow, if I can get online. I'm seeing Animal Collective tomorrow...anyone jealous?
Love Love Love
eli out.
ps: talking about 'crushing' reminded me of this album:
"Totally Crushed Out!" by that dog. - an amazing record by a long-defunct band. Too bad, really. Anna Waronker is hot.
posted by Eli at 9:57 PM
2 Comments:
why is everyone cool in montreal this week?
oh montreal, i'm forever crushed out too. this entry just confirmed it and made me doubly sure that i'm going there this summer. sounds like you are having a rad time and i can't wait to hear about it. and that house, shit!
and oh, that dog!! wow, it's like high school all over again. xo.
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