day in day out we seem to in need of a host to crash with. we have been couchsurfing for only one night, and wake up each day with the dread, and anticipation of possibly not finding a couch.
we went to the metro really far in one direction in search of a punk house called the squaler. we ended up in a huge factory district that smelled of rotting chickens, brewers yeast, and the occasional sugar cane. we hunted and hunted but the address we received must have been wrong, as the house did not exist.
we then found out that couchsurfing was having its 10year birthday meeting in montreal and we thought we would be able to find a host there for sure. we went to this really rich neighbourhood that actually had detactched housing and front lawns (different than what we have seen so far). a man named Yan said we could stay with him. he was a low talker who seemed very reserved.
when we arrived at the meeting it was just closing up, and yan threw a dishrag at dave and i and said something and pointed at the dishes.
we met someone from romania who was in the process of straightening her teeth with braces in montreal because back in romania her teeth would bleed and ache because they tightened them too fast.
anyway we did the dishes and yan turned off the light and told us we were going somewhere. again the language barrier. he gave us keys to a loft in old town montreal that we could stay in for the night. we arrived after passing the oldest building in montreal 1600 something, to an old decaying, seemingly abandoned space. i remember the light most vivdly, a pale flourescent light shone from the top floor down the stairway emitting a greenish glow over the peeling paint and broken tiled walkways. we went up three flights of stairs down a few corridors until we reached room 12. again we didn`t hear anyone or see any signs that this building was even in use. he gave us the keys and left. we opened to the door ro reveil an amazing space, fully furnished and nice, a complete surprise to what we waded through outside of the door. we were still really creeped out and decided to search the place to find out if this guy was crazy. we found a dresser full of elaborate womens clothing, paintings of naked men, and a television that only played static. i kept thinking of psycho, or american psycho for that matter. we decided we werent going to sleep very well and hit the streets of old montreal and finally slept around 4am.
awoke early as yan said he would swing by to pick up the keys. i left the loft to go accross the street for a coffee and wait for dave and yan. heavy rain was coming down through thick grey clouds. on my way out of the building i hear a televsion voice and some horrible rap playing through some of the doors, realizing that the space was in fact in use.
i sat with a coffee no later than to see dave walk into the cafe with plastic bags over his feet, slish-sloshing about. his shoes were ruined in the rain and gave off a putrid smell of decaying rodents.
yan came in about 2 hours late, and we gave him the key and talked to him waryingly, about the night, the loft, and about him. the place is used for the fringe festival, and the whole loft is underconstruction. everything made sense.
im currently in the grand biblioteque at berri uqam metro with 3 minutes remaining on my internet usage, its crazy how fast an hour can go by. and also how fast 3 and a half weeks can go by.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
couch tarde
todays forcast:
rain, not vancouver rain, but showers. a build up of of evaporation for months, that finally glosh it all out in a few hours. the kind that takes leaves off trees, wallpaper off walls, chewed gum off the side of bus shelters, the kind that generally cleans everything.
a day in history:
rented bikes on a day that was hot. biked along a two lane bike path through old montreal to ile sainte helene. biked underneath huge rollercoasters by la ronde (6 flags) and saw the biosphere and some more deserted olympic events. these ones had trees growing straight through the concrete stairways, and hundreds of swallows already called the place home. saw a bike trail that goes all the way to vermont. parc du la fontane with beer and italian food. met up with Tamas from vancouver at a venue he owns called lab sythetique. the show was really artsy and abstract. the venue is cool. in the vending machine if you press orange crush you get beer. a film was shown that was too abstract just for the fact of being abstract. it seems realism is a harder thing to do. the music that was "played" sounded like a dead voicemail machine with a pulse that had been microwaved, high reverb and set on repeat. actually i think it was.
next day
had to get a new couchsurfer near berri uqam. ran into steve from vancouver. he hopped a few trains to get here. he was with a huge crew from vancouver, some dave knew. the people we stayed with one is a graffiti artist, the other a mental health worker. they took us to their studio near metro place st. henri. this is clashing neighbourhood of huge 50 foot highways and small houses placed right underneath them. most of the houses were used in the early 1900`s by the tanners who worked at huge factories (now studios and artists lofts) that were probably nice then, but now are low income housing that are all facing eviction. their loft is a huge wooden loft with a view of a train yard and highways looming in the sky.
couche tarde is their version of macs corner store. which means staying up late. oh and KFC chicken is PFK.
went to the tam tam festival on mont royal park. its a huge drum/sword fighting festival that happens every sunday. all the people that play dungeons and dragons come out wearing medieval clothing with chain mail and home-made swords, bows and arrows, spears, and javelins and there are two teams and they battle it out in the forest. theres about one hundred people involved in the fight that happens every week, the rest of the few hundred watch first in comedy, then in a bewilderment as the people are serious about this shit! i think the festival is about the french fighting with the english, the famous battle, but don`t quote me on that.
fuck the keyboards here are all messed up with accents and weird symbols.
horsemeat is a big deal here. they come from old horses tourists ride in old montreal. oh fiddleheds too are good.
rain, not vancouver rain, but showers. a build up of of evaporation for months, that finally glosh it all out in a few hours. the kind that takes leaves off trees, wallpaper off walls, chewed gum off the side of bus shelters, the kind that generally cleans everything.
a day in history:
rented bikes on a day that was hot. biked along a two lane bike path through old montreal to ile sainte helene. biked underneath huge rollercoasters by la ronde (6 flags) and saw the biosphere and some more deserted olympic events. these ones had trees growing straight through the concrete stairways, and hundreds of swallows already called the place home. saw a bike trail that goes all the way to vermont. parc du la fontane with beer and italian food. met up with Tamas from vancouver at a venue he owns called lab sythetique. the show was really artsy and abstract. the venue is cool. in the vending machine if you press orange crush you get beer. a film was shown that was too abstract just for the fact of being abstract. it seems realism is a harder thing to do. the music that was "played" sounded like a dead voicemail machine with a pulse that had been microwaved, high reverb and set on repeat. actually i think it was.
next day
had to get a new couchsurfer near berri uqam. ran into steve from vancouver. he hopped a few trains to get here. he was with a huge crew from vancouver, some dave knew. the people we stayed with one is a graffiti artist, the other a mental health worker. they took us to their studio near metro place st. henri. this is clashing neighbourhood of huge 50 foot highways and small houses placed right underneath them. most of the houses were used in the early 1900`s by the tanners who worked at huge factories (now studios and artists lofts) that were probably nice then, but now are low income housing that are all facing eviction. their loft is a huge wooden loft with a view of a train yard and highways looming in the sky.
couche tarde is their version of macs corner store. which means staying up late. oh and KFC chicken is PFK.
went to the tam tam festival on mont royal park. its a huge drum/sword fighting festival that happens every sunday. all the people that play dungeons and dragons come out wearing medieval clothing with chain mail and home-made swords, bows and arrows, spears, and javelins and there are two teams and they battle it out in the forest. theres about one hundred people involved in the fight that happens every week, the rest of the few hundred watch first in comedy, then in a bewilderment as the people are serious about this shit! i think the festival is about the french fighting with the english, the famous battle, but don`t quote me on that.
fuck the keyboards here are all messed up with accents and weird symbols.
horsemeat is a big deal here. they come from old horses tourists ride in old montreal. oh fiddleheds too are good.
Friday, June 5, 2009
chou
bonjour mon amis, j'adore montreal...BUT je ne comprends pas ANYONE!
weather report: blaring blue skies, moderate air, the air that has no feeling against ones skin as it is the same temperature as you or I.
big things in montreal: bagels, poutine, wine, sex, cheese, cigarettes, music, butter.
day one:
we table scored cigars at a cafe and ordered coffee, and sat about for a few hours planning where we were going to stay. i phoned a couchsurfer, phil, and got through. he lives on Mont Royal and rue Parthenais. Took the bus, which if you have charisma, are free, to his place. later too the Metro to McGill University. This place is ancient.
The metro is really fast, and runs on actual car wheels rather than on rails. Its really loud, dirty, and windy while you wait sometimes hundreds of feet underground. Every so often you hear reverberated aliens screaming over the loudspeaker that bounces off the walls and carries down the tubes.
day 2
walked to the olympic stadium to see montreals glorious feats that were obtained through thirty plus years of debt. walked around inside the biosphere and the giant mouth with an elevator that goes up it to an observation deck. This place was void of any humans in what seems like thirty years. Vast pastures of cement and a few grazing skateboarders were the only things outside. Inside however was even stranger. Tonnes of neon lights going in all four directions overheard large enough walkways to accomodate thousands of people, but besides us, there were only two others in the building, two people in wheelchairs, seemingly lost, or forgotten, scooting around the foyer.
We left this place and went to the jardin botanique de montreal and the insectarium de montreal.
kept walking and ended up in a china town buffet. the place was huge and full of people gulping their mounds of food. the food ranged from sushi-jello-cake-chicken feet-pizza.
walked down st. catherines and found an abandoned block of buildings. we climbed the stairs to the roof and got a great view of the city 6 stories up. we hopped from one rooftop to the next seeing how the old blended in with the new.
day 3
we hiked mont royal. Its funny they call it a mountain, its really no larger than fraser street. But its a really nice park and was used as an ancient burial ground for the first nations before any settlers arrived. Half of the mountain is converted into a cemetary for the french. On top of the mountain is a huge cross with disco lights on it that lights up at night for the whole city to see. I even think it flashes. Went into the cemetary, the largest I've ever seen. Huge tombs and really old graves are scattered throughout the north side of the mountain some ranging from 1808-1810.
dave and i made borsht for the house. the house is really nice and old. there is a spiral staircase that leads to the front door off the street. 5 people share it, and pay $375 a month, everything included. phil said you can find rent for even cheaper in the city. fucking nuts!
scattered throughout the city is a bike station called bixi. You just swipe your credit card and for $5 a day 24hrs you get access to a bike. there are 300 stations throughout the city wherer you can drop the bike off. and for a half an hour its free! we rented bixis and went to a lame show at a space called lambi, then headed to a bar called barfly where 1940s blue grass was playing.
next day.
we were going to rent bixis when we found at the mont royal metro station a vast number of bikes painted green next to a tourist centre. we found out these bikes are completley free to rent! as long as you return them by 6pm. so we borrowed these and biked to beerfest at Bonaventure. Alot of free cheese, but the beer was expensive. There are alot of bike lanes here, two way bike lanes! Picked up some rolls of film that I hope to get scanned then added to this blog so you can see some of what I am describing. Ate mini burgers and poutine.
Had a few conversations where I just nodded while the other person spoke extremely fast in french, me laughing at the right points and saying au revoir at the end.
rode to this amazing park where people were playing all sorts of instruments while the sun set. we drank mead until it was dark. there doesn't seem to be any drinking laws here as everyone was drinking at the park, openly.
back to the house we had a conversation about how the city was made by freemasons. This guy who believed this studied symbology and could walk around the city studying old, really old statues that pointed in certain directs and how things lined up with one another and so on.
walked a really really dumb polish film called everything for sale. actually we had to turn it off.
turn this off.
weather report: blaring blue skies, moderate air, the air that has no feeling against ones skin as it is the same temperature as you or I.
big things in montreal: bagels, poutine, wine, sex, cheese, cigarettes, music, butter.
day one:
we table scored cigars at a cafe and ordered coffee, and sat about for a few hours planning where we were going to stay. i phoned a couchsurfer, phil, and got through. he lives on Mont Royal and rue Parthenais. Took the bus, which if you have charisma, are free, to his place. later too the Metro to McGill University. This place is ancient.
The metro is really fast, and runs on actual car wheels rather than on rails. Its really loud, dirty, and windy while you wait sometimes hundreds of feet underground. Every so often you hear reverberated aliens screaming over the loudspeaker that bounces off the walls and carries down the tubes.
day 2
walked to the olympic stadium to see montreals glorious feats that were obtained through thirty plus years of debt. walked around inside the biosphere and the giant mouth with an elevator that goes up it to an observation deck. This place was void of any humans in what seems like thirty years. Vast pastures of cement and a few grazing skateboarders were the only things outside. Inside however was even stranger. Tonnes of neon lights going in all four directions overheard large enough walkways to accomodate thousands of people, but besides us, there were only two others in the building, two people in wheelchairs, seemingly lost, or forgotten, scooting around the foyer.
We left this place and went to the jardin botanique de montreal and the insectarium de montreal.
kept walking and ended up in a china town buffet. the place was huge and full of people gulping their mounds of food. the food ranged from sushi-jello-cake-chicken feet-pizza.
walked down st. catherines and found an abandoned block of buildings. we climbed the stairs to the roof and got a great view of the city 6 stories up. we hopped from one rooftop to the next seeing how the old blended in with the new.
day 3
we hiked mont royal. Its funny they call it a mountain, its really no larger than fraser street. But its a really nice park and was used as an ancient burial ground for the first nations before any settlers arrived. Half of the mountain is converted into a cemetary for the french. On top of the mountain is a huge cross with disco lights on it that lights up at night for the whole city to see. I even think it flashes. Went into the cemetary, the largest I've ever seen. Huge tombs and really old graves are scattered throughout the north side of the mountain some ranging from 1808-1810.
dave and i made borsht for the house. the house is really nice and old. there is a spiral staircase that leads to the front door off the street. 5 people share it, and pay $375 a month, everything included. phil said you can find rent for even cheaper in the city. fucking nuts!
scattered throughout the city is a bike station called bixi. You just swipe your credit card and for $5 a day 24hrs you get access to a bike. there are 300 stations throughout the city wherer you can drop the bike off. and for a half an hour its free! we rented bixis and went to a lame show at a space called lambi, then headed to a bar called barfly where 1940s blue grass was playing.
next day.
we were going to rent bixis when we found at the mont royal metro station a vast number of bikes painted green next to a tourist centre. we found out these bikes are completley free to rent! as long as you return them by 6pm. so we borrowed these and biked to beerfest at Bonaventure. Alot of free cheese, but the beer was expensive. There are alot of bike lanes here, two way bike lanes! Picked up some rolls of film that I hope to get scanned then added to this blog so you can see some of what I am describing. Ate mini burgers and poutine.
Had a few conversations where I just nodded while the other person spoke extremely fast in french, me laughing at the right points and saying au revoir at the end.
rode to this amazing park where people were playing all sorts of instruments while the sun set. we drank mead until it was dark. there doesn't seem to be any drinking laws here as everyone was drinking at the park, openly.
back to the house we had a conversation about how the city was made by freemasons. This guy who believed this studied symbology and could walk around the city studying old, really old statues that pointed in certain directs and how things lined up with one another and so on.
walked a really really dumb polish film called everything for sale. actually we had to turn it off.
turn this off.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
words
words, words, words, words, words,words,wrods, words, words, swords, words, words, words, words, swrod, words, wrpds, words, words, words, words, words, words, words, worts, wrods, words, words, words, words, wrods, wrods, wrods, words, worries, words, words, words, wrodls, wrodls, words, words, words, words, words, words is what i like is words.
Monday, June 1, 2009
catchup post vs. verbal diarhea
we moved to the delicious food co-op with martine and all the people that live there.
checked out the different types of beer that are being offered in the distillery distrcit. a milk lactose sugar based porter.
went to younge street. ive never seen so many people in one place at a time before. everyone was milling about as if transfixed by the heads in front of them, oblivious to their surroundings, bumping into everyone and blaring nonsense through their mouths. out of utter disgust we went into the eaton centre. inside young girls were getting make overs and being photographed in front of judges to become canadas next top model. it was horrible.
we met daves great uncle stan. he collects wicker furniture and other antiques. his house was like an antique shop found on main street. huge old paintings covering the entire walls, leaving no wall space exposed. the scent was moth balls. he was really a funny guy, he would walk up to average workers on the street and ask them if they could get him a job. he was 78. He had a lot of stories to tell, and took us to the beaches of toronto. if i hadn't known that there wasn't an ocean near toronto i would have thought this was one! waves, seagulls, soft sand, it was beautiful.
we then met my uncle and went to a good burrito place downtown called chipotles. apparently it is a chain across the usa, but this is the only one in canada. It was great to finally see my uncle again, and hope we can meet again in the future.
One night after a huge storm, man the storms are beautiful! Two clashing clouds of mixed colors collide from opposite ends of the sky, leaving the ground a warm, windy atmosphere high of static electricity. soon the environment turns a dark green then the lightning. bright flashes and fork lightning, following is a downpour that rips the skin off your arms and bounces 4 feet of the ground. thunder rattles the windows in their panes. then as soon as it started the sun is back out quickly evaporating all the water off the streets. this happened 3 times or so in toronto.
anyway around midnight or so after one of these strorms martine drove dave, lee, larysa, and I to her parents house in Georgetown, a suburb about an hour out of toronto, where the houses are all on acres in the middle of dense deciduous forests. We made like a ravenous pack of animals raiding her parents fridge and cupboards, eating everything in sight. since the whole house was empty each of us had our own bedroom to sleep in. we awoke early, as lee had to work that day. I went outside for a walk in the dense fog. there were mosquitoes everywhere and i was attacked about 9 times. we drove back into the city and stopped to get one of the best croissants ive ever had. i normally don't like them.
one day we were informed that george bush and bill clinton were giving a lecture at the convention centre. those who wanted to go bought tickets for $200 and went through intensive security before sitting down. needless to say there was a protest organized outside. we went, but it was extremely disillusioned, small, and no one (including myself) knew why they were there. later this day was critical mass. what a strange critical mass it was. the police were protesting bicycling laws, and made us stop at every stop sign, every stop light and obey every law, or else fines would be given out. this left the mass in groups of twenty or so at a time, weaving in and out of traffic, rather than owning the streets. how bizzarre it was though, riding down younge street with hundreds of people stopping and staring as hundreds of bikes replaced the cars on the road. people were getting tickets by the handful.
oh on younge street there is an all cross street. meaning you can cross regularly, or diagonally to the other side. so every few minutes when the "all cross" sign appears there is a swarm of people all over the place.
the night before we left toronto we made a wonderful dinner, had wine and watched twin peaks.
we caught a ride share in the morning that took 15 people in a van. obviously an illegal business and one that rakes in a lot of cash. he drives daily to and from montreal and toronto. it was cramped, and it sucked.
arrived in montreal, and immediately i cannot understand anyone! i went to the bathroom at a drug mart and was chased out by a clerk who was yelling in french, things i did not know! so we are having a hard time, but are managing the language barriers. everything is in french.
the metro is amazing, but expensive. we table scored some food after we ate ours, it was a very odd textured brown circle on a croissant. i turned out to be frois grois. horrible, i will never eat it again.
its funny people come up to us blabbering away and dave and i just nod and walk away. we will try to learn as much french as we can.
trying to find a couchsurfer to stay at tonight. the hostels are expensive.
checked out the different types of beer that are being offered in the distillery distrcit. a milk lactose sugar based porter.
went to younge street. ive never seen so many people in one place at a time before. everyone was milling about as if transfixed by the heads in front of them, oblivious to their surroundings, bumping into everyone and blaring nonsense through their mouths. out of utter disgust we went into the eaton centre. inside young girls were getting make overs and being photographed in front of judges to become canadas next top model. it was horrible.
we met daves great uncle stan. he collects wicker furniture and other antiques. his house was like an antique shop found on main street. huge old paintings covering the entire walls, leaving no wall space exposed. the scent was moth balls. he was really a funny guy, he would walk up to average workers on the street and ask them if they could get him a job. he was 78. He had a lot of stories to tell, and took us to the beaches of toronto. if i hadn't known that there wasn't an ocean near toronto i would have thought this was one! waves, seagulls, soft sand, it was beautiful.
we then met my uncle and went to a good burrito place downtown called chipotles. apparently it is a chain across the usa, but this is the only one in canada. It was great to finally see my uncle again, and hope we can meet again in the future.
One night after a huge storm, man the storms are beautiful! Two clashing clouds of mixed colors collide from opposite ends of the sky, leaving the ground a warm, windy atmosphere high of static electricity. soon the environment turns a dark green then the lightning. bright flashes and fork lightning, following is a downpour that rips the skin off your arms and bounces 4 feet of the ground. thunder rattles the windows in their panes. then as soon as it started the sun is back out quickly evaporating all the water off the streets. this happened 3 times or so in toronto.
anyway around midnight or so after one of these strorms martine drove dave, lee, larysa, and I to her parents house in Georgetown, a suburb about an hour out of toronto, where the houses are all on acres in the middle of dense deciduous forests. We made like a ravenous pack of animals raiding her parents fridge and cupboards, eating everything in sight. since the whole house was empty each of us had our own bedroom to sleep in. we awoke early, as lee had to work that day. I went outside for a walk in the dense fog. there were mosquitoes everywhere and i was attacked about 9 times. we drove back into the city and stopped to get one of the best croissants ive ever had. i normally don't like them.
one day we were informed that george bush and bill clinton were giving a lecture at the convention centre. those who wanted to go bought tickets for $200 and went through intensive security before sitting down. needless to say there was a protest organized outside. we went, but it was extremely disillusioned, small, and no one (including myself) knew why they were there. later this day was critical mass. what a strange critical mass it was. the police were protesting bicycling laws, and made us stop at every stop sign, every stop light and obey every law, or else fines would be given out. this left the mass in groups of twenty or so at a time, weaving in and out of traffic, rather than owning the streets. how bizzarre it was though, riding down younge street with hundreds of people stopping and staring as hundreds of bikes replaced the cars on the road. people were getting tickets by the handful.
oh on younge street there is an all cross street. meaning you can cross regularly, or diagonally to the other side. so every few minutes when the "all cross" sign appears there is a swarm of people all over the place.
the night before we left toronto we made a wonderful dinner, had wine and watched twin peaks.
we caught a ride share in the morning that took 15 people in a van. obviously an illegal business and one that rakes in a lot of cash. he drives daily to and from montreal and toronto. it was cramped, and it sucked.
arrived in montreal, and immediately i cannot understand anyone! i went to the bathroom at a drug mart and was chased out by a clerk who was yelling in french, things i did not know! so we are having a hard time, but are managing the language barriers. everything is in french.
the metro is amazing, but expensive. we table scored some food after we ate ours, it was a very odd textured brown circle on a croissant. i turned out to be frois grois. horrible, i will never eat it again.
its funny people come up to us blabbering away and dave and i just nod and walk away. we will try to learn as much french as we can.
trying to find a couchsurfer to stay at tonight. the hostels are expensive.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
ideal honky tonk, two shots of whisky
theres this amazing coffee shed in the kensington market called ideal coffee. i think it may be the best coffee ive ever tried.
checked out the contact photography festival, theres 220 venues and over 500 artists we say some of the ones that looked interesting to me. lynn cohen, edward burtynsky, stan douglas, geoffry pugen, and so many more.
im writting this one week into the trip and I can safely say Dave and I have had a burrito everyday. We had one the day this writing takes place too.
went to martins house which actually has a website. i think its called the delicious earth co-op. it is a completely green space. they run on renewable energy, eat local, organic. it seems like a business almost the way it is run with numerous amounts of charts, tables and talleys adding up who did the dishes, who bought toilet paper who owes money for a few kamut grains they ate. all in all for us to consume from the communal fridge amounts to 3 dollars a day, nothing compared to the wholesome food selection they have.
met martine at her friends house ci ci. who cooked tonnes of amazing food for us and supplied endless wine and a liquor cabinet. ci ci had an amazing record collection, 2 brand new record players and 2 cd players that can be scratched. a huge mixing board that can have crazy sound effects overtop. they took us to the dakota tavern where a local hillbilly/honky tonk band was playing. catl was the bands name and some other band was there i cannot recall the name. the bands played harmonicas, banjos, organs and a tattered suitcase was used as a drum.
got back to the mud house to find my bed taken again, slept outside on the roof.
checked out the contact photography festival, theres 220 venues and over 500 artists we say some of the ones that looked interesting to me. lynn cohen, edward burtynsky, stan douglas, geoffry pugen, and so many more.
im writting this one week into the trip and I can safely say Dave and I have had a burrito everyday. We had one the day this writing takes place too.
went to martins house which actually has a website. i think its called the delicious earth co-op. it is a completely green space. they run on renewable energy, eat local, organic. it seems like a business almost the way it is run with numerous amounts of charts, tables and talleys adding up who did the dishes, who bought toilet paper who owes money for a few kamut grains they ate. all in all for us to consume from the communal fridge amounts to 3 dollars a day, nothing compared to the wholesome food selection they have.
met martine at her friends house ci ci. who cooked tonnes of amazing food for us and supplied endless wine and a liquor cabinet. ci ci had an amazing record collection, 2 brand new record players and 2 cd players that can be scratched. a huge mixing board that can have crazy sound effects overtop. they took us to the dakota tavern where a local hillbilly/honky tonk band was playing. catl was the bands name and some other band was there i cannot recall the name. the bands played harmonicas, banjos, organs and a tattered suitcase was used as a drum.
got back to the mud house to find my bed taken again, slept outside on the roof.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
hostage situation over a peanut butter chocolate banana milkshake
j
allison and i went to the linnix cafe for breakfast when we heard from a girl who was falling out of her shirt that there is a hostage situation at a school down the street. She said swat teams, hundreds of police, dogs, helicoptors were everywhere, and all the roads in a four block radius were closed. She informed us that it was the principal that was being held in his office by four armed men. We decided to go and check it out and mock the police. It was a frenzy of news reporters, police, on-lookers, all squelching under the sun in the middle of an 8 lane road for a glimpse of some action of the school 2 blocks down.
we headed back to the house, which was full of people, some that no one knew making sandwiches and coffee. the radio was cranked full blast to the news which was talking about the situation. apparently it was all a huge miscommunication and the whole thing was a drill, that no one knew about. A student called on his phone to a friend and told him the whole principal hostage business to get things riled up. The police didn't tell anyone this the entire time. Someone from the house was held at gunpoint at a park and told to evacuate.
Headed over to a place called Sketch. Its a huge, free wharehouse space for artists. Silkscreening, music recording, cooking, its basically the Purple Thistle but with way more organization and funding.
Checked out Mocca, Museum of contemporary canadian art. Amazing! The galleries here are huge, and there are so many. There must be a larger funding for art than in vancouver. Went to Queen street west west and gallery 44 contemporary photography museum. Walked all around.
Grabbed a really amazing milkshake, peanut butter and banana chocolate.
Went back the mud house, saw a meal that was brewing on the stove for a few nights (they make soups out of leftover food from dumpsters, and parks that they find and throw it all together in a big salty slew). Didn't eat this but went to Big Fat burritos instead.
We were invited to a surprise birthday party from Martine. We didn't know anyone here, and it was especially wierd to get excited while surprising someone you don't know, and may never see again. Everyone was nice, very theatrical.
It seems people here in general are very theatrical, less bitter than they are in Vancouver. I like the bitterness.
Went for a long walk with Martine and borrowed bikes!
allison and i went to the linnix cafe for breakfast when we heard from a girl who was falling out of her shirt that there is a hostage situation at a school down the street. She said swat teams, hundreds of police, dogs, helicoptors were everywhere, and all the roads in a four block radius were closed. She informed us that it was the principal that was being held in his office by four armed men. We decided to go and check it out and mock the police. It was a frenzy of news reporters, police, on-lookers, all squelching under the sun in the middle of an 8 lane road for a glimpse of some action of the school 2 blocks down.
we headed back to the house, which was full of people, some that no one knew making sandwiches and coffee. the radio was cranked full blast to the news which was talking about the situation. apparently it was all a huge miscommunication and the whole thing was a drill, that no one knew about. A student called on his phone to a friend and told him the whole principal hostage business to get things riled up. The police didn't tell anyone this the entire time. Someone from the house was held at gunpoint at a park and told to evacuate.
Headed over to a place called Sketch. Its a huge, free wharehouse space for artists. Silkscreening, music recording, cooking, its basically the Purple Thistle but with way more organization and funding.
Checked out Mocca, Museum of contemporary canadian art. Amazing! The galleries here are huge, and there are so many. There must be a larger funding for art than in vancouver. Went to Queen street west west and gallery 44 contemporary photography museum. Walked all around.
Grabbed a really amazing milkshake, peanut butter and banana chocolate.
Went back the mud house, saw a meal that was brewing on the stove for a few nights (they make soups out of leftover food from dumpsters, and parks that they find and throw it all together in a big salty slew). Didn't eat this but went to Big Fat burritos instead.
We were invited to a surprise birthday party from Martine. We didn't know anyone here, and it was especially wierd to get excited while surprising someone you don't know, and may never see again. Everyone was nice, very theatrical.
It seems people here in general are very theatrical, less bitter than they are in Vancouver. I like the bitterness.
Went for a long walk with Martine and borrowed bikes!
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