Montreal 2
Long haitus due an Airbnb fiasco, guests, and fatigue.
First off is the main reason I came here at this time, the Jazz Festival. I visited around 12 of the performances and was not disappointed by any of them. In order left to right top to bottom, Salin, aron!, Kokoroko, Brittany Davis, Marcus Gilmor, David Virelles, Hiromi, Mei Semones, Kamasi Washington, Alfa Mist, Chief Adjuah, and the festival mascot cat thing. I typically enjoy studio album listening experiences at home better than live concerts, but these were exceptions. Performing longer and unique versions, more solos, and unreleased music.
After these concerts, there were more performances at Piknic Electronik and Nuit d'Afrique. Gurafiku, TallandSkiinny, Zack Fox. Septeto de Montreal (Cuba), Afrique en cirque guinea (Guinea), Fulu Miziki (DRC), and Tiken Jah Fakoly (Ivory Coast). By this point, I was quite exhuasted from doing all this stuff outside and did not attend too many events. Pivoted towards chilling, some language exchange meetups, and fireworks.
The botanic garden was the most quiet place in the whole city and quite large. These larkspurs are interesting because I've seen countless dwarf larkspurs at the Arboretum, but never these large ones. And the Chinese garden was actually nicer than the Japanese garden, a rare occurrence in America. Downtown, there was this quiet long pond next to a private college. But it was rather dirty, and city noise could still be heard.
The libraries I visited were quite good. Grande Bibliothèque in Montreal has puzzles, hundreds of board games, great study, reading, and work stations. Bibliothèque Frontenac was a rather large and modern branch library. Bibliothèque Gabrielle-Roy in Quebec City has 15 instruments available for rent, tons of material, modern layout and furniture, private working rooms (salle de travail), and something unique. Over 1200 framed original artworks available for 90 day rental for $4. Very cool if you want to rotate artwork in your home, or perhaps testing out other styles or colors to see if they fit within in a space.
I was told by my friend from here that Montreal is known for construction in the summer, and it has lived up to that assertion. Detours, road closures, trottoir barré.
I had to research online to have any clue what this signage meant. Apparently this is supposed to signify the following: If the Obligation for cyclists to cross during the pedestrian phase is present: you cannot use the motorist phase and must use the pedestrian phase. So you need to cross following the walk sign, not the green light. Normally you can use either. I suppose this is for special cases where cars take priority in some kind of turning situation and they don't want cyclists crossing an intersection. This other bike related thing was the Masse Critique Montreal advocacy/group demonstration ride with quite a lot of people. Met 8 people from this one event from Edmonton, France, Boston, Charlotte, so I'm sure if I lived here it would be a cool thing to partake in community. I was also full-confidence mistaken for someone else twice at the ride, so I have a look-alike bike advocate choppelganger already established in the city.
This interesting restaurant called Fondue Chinoise Express or 麻辣烫 had a barrage of A4 Letter paper with menu items and instructions and notices and warnings printed all over the frontage of the little cubby kitchen within an Asian mall. Two funny ones:
- 如果你讲中文请不要和我们讲外文。If you speak Chinese, please don't speak with us in a foreign language.
- 饭好了，你不在。挨老板骂，你活该。If your food is ready and you aren't here, you deserve to be scolded.
Attended Chợ Đêm MTL which is a Vietnamese festival along the canal offering food, vendors, and performances. Tried Bánh Đúc Mặn Chay from Hang bar; it is a gelatinous coconut rice cake with a fish saucy savory minced topping. Thought it was going to be a dessert from an overly brief search before ordering, but definitely not. It was quite spicy with raw red chilis on top. Nouilles de Lanzhou was the best restaurant I visited personally. Something everywhere in the city, is that "good", popular, or famous food always requires a wait and it's a rather annoying and jarring experience. Having such a limited kitchen here, in terms of what I can buy without creating excessive waste when I leave as well as the cookware and lack of tupperware, I really miss cooking and do not wish to return this style of existence.
Final story is about a guy biking to the Electronic festival on a e-tricycle. He was playing electronic music from a speaker and pedaling on the bridge. I tried to ask in French if he was also going to the concert. He enthusiastically said "Oui!" I replied "me too", and there was some kind of exchange before I passed and continued biking uphill. Eventually I stopped to take a photo of the river and then he passed, where I then followed him because I was unsure how exactly to find the outdoor venue entrance on the large island. Eventually we arrived at roughly the same place and we trying to navigate, we had a small conversation but it was difficult to understand in the moment. Afterwards, I realized he was asking if I was working the festival, as he had on a staff shirt that said Ékip which is a intentional misspelling of the french word for team or crew. There were many part time gig workers present to run the festival. Anyways, nothing particularly special about this interaction with a positive, friendly, and helpful person, except for the unmentioned fact that he most definitely had cerebral palsy. And with all the good bike infrastructure and culture, he was enabled to safely bike across the city, likely for miles, as well as at night going home. It's the kind of accessibility I love to see, that moves me. Systems and inventions and infrastructure and effort that enable people's freedoms within their own lives. Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness; it's our right in the Declaration but that doesn't mean we fulfill it for everyone. One can hope and work towards it without prejudice.
Next post may contain my final thoughts and opinions on Montreal. Spoiler, I'm not moving here. I have a lot of home life enjoyment I am eager to catch up on as well, so not sure the timing.
Until next time.