Montreal

Houses with steps outside and balconies galore. People play the guitar twenty feet above the street, rooftop b-b-qs on a fantasy sunshine twilight Franco-bohemian wannabe New Orleans evening (after the flood = after the terrific snows). Singing in bars. Excellent seafood, wide streets, blue sky like Sydney, strange mushroomy aromas in the underpass, beer sold in separate shops to wine and liquor. Ice-skating hockey team tragedy (C-H lost). Ukrainians and Portuguese. Very good coffee, random conversations with relatively deranged beggars, accented French ‘you can’t go wrong with THAT’, histories of amusing god-bothery (tabarnac a term of abuse). Murals on all walls. Painted roofs – some garish. Dogs, great danes and shepherds. Harley Davidsons and all the other trappings of a 1970s aesthetic. Reminiscences of Melbourne, missing only the trams. And maybe a bit more public transport (queues at all bus stops). Enthusiastic students, clean and bright. Souvenir bears.

11 thoughts on “Montreal”

  1. Makes me miss home.

    The sky is quite blue in Montreal. And I love how quickly the clouds move. (Look up.) It’s the island. (Or should that be the river?)

    It’s interesting to see what gets picked out in the city on a brief visit.

    On the public transport – now you know how I learned to walk so much.

    Don’t forget the blanche de chambly.

    And on the topic of swearing, a bit of embarrassing folk lore: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TncdhLGjFTE&feature=related

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  2. Spent the evening drinking beer in Brutopia or some such, with Ian and Lara, who told me interesting stories of years gone by, and who is now at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute, and was in Joel’s class. Tasks done for the day include a seminar on Marx and the talk on Pantomime Terror. Some sort of music event tomorrow night, then off to Ottawa.

    Yes, blue skies, make me homesick also.

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  3. The blue skies are, sorry to say, not actually in the picture, but they were out today. Did I get the class story wrong, perhaps, but a good time had by all.

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  4. The I am Canadian beer commercial thing is viral. Saw a muslim one, and this one from Kirk is, well, the last one I’ll bother with, but it entertains:

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  6. A great visit and a great day of talks, seminars, cadillac margaritas… John managed to bring the good word to the new world and convert a few canucks in the process.

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  7. and then he went to Ottawa and scrambled anthropology afternoons talking about their ‘engagement’ and entanglements. They are obsessed with kinship still. Catherine L said all the right things, but in a modulated tone that needed a bit more zipp for mine. Now it seems the trains are infected with some mysterious killer virus. And I had dinner with a moose killer. Wish I was back in the tabermothernacking streets of Montreal. Thanks Joel and Judith for hte hospitality (and Emily and Cristof – Hi, and hope you survived the bass). Red (maple) Salute.

    And Brenda Martin has left Mexico, after some time…

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