2012/07/20

• 
  2012.07.12
  Scènes de Montréal - Montreal Scenes
  

  Note: parts of this post were edited yesterday

  Above

  My second-door second-floor neighbor is a circus artist. That long blue drape is used to do aerial acts by rolling and unrolling it around the body, in mid air. Montreal is one of the world's circus capitals. There was an annual international festival from July 5 to 15, Montréal complètement cirque with circus artists from everywhere, and many acts in open air across the city, many in the Latin Quarter near the UQAM. Major troups known internationally are based here, starting with the Cirque du Soleil, Les 7 doigts de la main (The Seven Fingers of the Hand), Cirque Éloize, and others. From Wikipedia about Cirque Éloize: «Having created seven original productions so far [since 1993], it has presented more than 3000 performances in more than 375 cities and 30 countries. Éloize means "heat lightning" in Acadian French (éclair de chaleur in Standard French).» It's founder comes from the Magdalen Islands (Iles de la Madeleine) in the Gulf of St-Laurent. The Cirque du Soleil does not need any presentation. They have been premiering their new show, Amaluna, at the Old Port for some months now and until July 14. I had promised myself to go see it but this and thats made it not to be. There are also major circus schools in Montreal, of which L'École nationale du cirque, and facilities like La Tohu, with its circular 900-seater multipurpose hall. Of course, I'm talking contemporary circus, not the Barnum and Bailey type of thing with animals.

  

  Normalcy

  Normal life is slowly resuming. The heat wave is over. The worst day was Sunday, when it reached 'officially' 31,6˚C at the airport, which can mean about 4˚ to 5˚ more downtown and an extra 5˚ or 6˚ on my balcony in late day full sun. Purolator delivered yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon the AC/DC adapter and it fixed the problem so I'm back with high speed internet. I was sleeping when they came, they didn't ring the bell, just left the parcel at the doorstep. The reason I was sleeping was because I had to get up at 5h45 in the morning to go to the hospital (downtown) for that biopsy and where I had to pass the whole day until about 15h00, after which I have to avoid physically straining activity for a few days. When I got back home I just felt like laying down (a habit I may have caught in the hospital - I should avoid those places).

  

  Pfffuit!

  Did you know that lungs are like balloons and when you puncture them with a needle they can just go pfffuit! and deflate? The things you learn in a hospital these days... But it you're luckcy, the puncture bleeds a little and that seals the hole and the air does not go pfffuit! But it can the next day, for reasons of its own apparently, so as I write this, I may go pfffuit! and have to call 9-1-1 so they can bring me to the hospital (there's one at 4 corners, I could walk for all I care) so they can de-pfffuit! me, that is remove the air having escaped the balloon and lodged between the lungs and the chest (they have a fancy word for that, pneumothorax), so as the balloon (I mean the lung) can reflate itself. It's all very much like a bicycle inner tire tube, finally. I understood that the no-strain idea is to prevent a pfffuit! although it was not explained to me that way. In fact it was not explained to me at all. They just told me about those two situations, the "no strain advice" and the possible "post-pfffuit!" as if they were two isolated things. But I'm quick. I can connect the dots.

  

  Missed opportunities

  I had every reason to go downtown Saturday evening. Instead, because of the heat, for most of the day I stayed home and 'chilled' as yougsters say today, which I understand does not mean at all to stay in a cool place but simply to not overheat one's brains. Doing basically nothing apparently has a chilling effect.

  Unfortunately since my brain was in the Off position, it failed to remind me that it was fireworks night AND it was the yearly special parade on Ste-Catherine St for the opening of the Just for Laughs Festival, this year called the Terra Karnaval. Last year it was the Pinkarnaval themed by and about Jean-Paul Gaultier, who was himself in the pararde. This year the theme was peace and the environment. Guy Laliberté, the founder of Cirque du Soleil, was a sponsor. I like those parades because they are very non North-American, the parade starting at dusk, it's night when it ends, all street lights are off on the street creating a very special ambiance, and they are full of imagination and creativity, plus most participants being citizens coming from different districts in the city. The parade runs eastbound for a good stretch of Ste-Catherine Street until it reaches Place des Festivals. I found some videos on Youtube, one shot at the intersection with Crescent Street and covering the whole parade. That part of Crescent, between Ste-Catherine and Sherbrooke, is where all the Formula One hooplah takes place in June (cars, bimbos, etc). The other video is mostly excerpts of the arrival of the parade at Place des Festivals and the subsequent show given there, in which there were aerial numbers by the Cirque du Soleil. That one is of great quality, technically, but unfortunately is to shit for visually, being sponsored by a magazine/web television organisation, whose idea of a great video is littering it with opaque self-ads and more so messing around with the camera, making it often slanted as if one of the tripod legs was shorter than the two others, something that they must think is what modern overhyped kids thrive for, but which is annoying like there's no tomorrow (for me anyways).

  Below: The parade at the level of Crescent, the street behind the blockade with a view of the mountain in the end. It's not obvious in the video but once past those two corner buildings, it's all but bars and terraces on Crescent, which in non-F1 times is one of the hot spots of Montreal nightlife, this one catering mostly to tourists for some reason (either from Quebec or elsewhere) although it's pretty much angloland. On the other side, south of Ste-Catherine (in the back the cameraman), there are on Crescent some "famed" strip clubs, so maybe that's why. Some people come here just because we have integral nude strip clubs and so-called 'contact' dances.

  The kid-on-speed video. Nice images of aerial numbers though.
  

  The other missed opportunity was the fireworks. I'm only half sad because it was Canada's entry, which when it comes to Canadian entries in that competition means essentially Québec, not by chauvinism but that how it is. For some reason, fireworks companies are here. Anyways, the one giving the show last Saturday is the same which took care of the opening and closing fireworks at the Vancouver winter olympics. In my book that can be as bad as a good reference. I'll have to wait and see on the net. I also missed the Greece entry, which was on Tuesday which, for obvious reasons, there's no way I could attend.

  But speaking of the net, there is this guy (or company) on Youtube [1PYR08] which makes stunning high definition videos of those fireworks. He posts 'best moments' videos of about 10 minutes, and says he will post the whole shows after the end of the competition, August 3rd. If I mention this it's that he did post excerpts of the Swiss show which included that drone thingie which impressed a lot of people. We see in the video that the color changing from red to green was in fact flashing logos which were changing. Most are recognizable (maple leaf - Canada, lily - Québec) but I'll add that the one with eight arcs and a dot in the middle is Montreal's logo. So of course I'm putting the embedded link here. But before, I'll post another one which gives a better and longer view of the drone part, in the sense that it shows the complete cycle of the drone 'tableau' and looks more like what we spectators saw on the shores, although more from a distance. But when the whole video in HD will be released, needless to say it'll be top of my agenda.

  The whole drone act (exactly 3 minutes). It's right at the start of the video. Afterwards the video is not worth watching. He had some kind of camera which put everything in the distance (higher fireworks) out of focus.

  This is the astounding quality video, where the drone act is already well under way in the excerpt it contains. Can't wait to see the full thing. I recall that the show's theme was about the history of aviation.

  We often get carried away with those fireworks. I did about Switzerland. One guy commented on that 1PYR08's facebook site that he would be surprised if Switzerland made it to the top three. He may be right, but if so that would say a lot about the other ones doesn't it? Among which the Japan entry, the first one this year and which I haven't seen either, and which technically boggles the mind. Really. Chech for yourselves here -> http://youtu.be/7ubrWFPvoR8. However, what I said about the Swiss show (lack of soul), someone said something alike about the Japanese one: technically a perfect 10, but no soul.

  Finally, I found this little treasure. It's a 1987 film made by or for Benson and Hedges, the then sponsor who isn't anymore for smoke-related issues , and which confirms that the competition started in 1985, the same year I arrived in Montreal. When I think about it, it's now 27 years that every summer I go see most of those shows, and have yet to be tired of them, as also thousands of Montrealers. Rather special, comes to think of it. And reminds me why I wouldn't want to live elsewhere. They say in the video that in 1987 it was the most important competition of the kind in the world. I don't know if it still is but I do know that for fireworks companies, winning here means a lot. That year, the U.S. had won. The narrator seemed delighted.

  
  

  

  Da food section

  Once in a while, that happened on July 12, we don't feel like going into too much trouble and elect to make something quick and easy for supper. And not necessarily that healthy but since it's only once in a while, who cares...

  For those who will read this in 2356, this is what they called a cheeseburger back then when people didn't have yet three eyes and funny things called trees were still growing everywhere. It's cheese topping a burger, which is a diminutive for hamburger, itself a way to describe meat prepared in the style of Hamburg, a city that used to exist in what used to be Europe. The most interesting part for you surely is the cheese, which is not really cheese, it's some kind of funny product that contains just as funny stuff which in some way is related to your now having three eyes. The rest of the thing is, in the order, the bottom half of a pagnotta, an Italian bread sold at Capitol at the marché Jean-Talon (I know, all these things mean nothing to you, Italy used to be an empire around 2400 years ago), sliced sweet pickles, red ketchup, yellow mustard, red meat turned brown by a process called cooking (the things you will learn here, BwTTZk, you have no idea...), itself containing chopped white onions and green mini things called Provencal herbs (Provence was not an empire, it was a lifestyle) and finally an orange slice of the funny stuff called "singles", maybe because it was sterile and couldn't mate, what do I know... and which is melted by the same process you just learned about and which they called cooking. The placement on top of it all of the upper half of the pagnotta was called in those days depositing. Now you ask me, why would they make such an ornament and isn't it a little unstable to hang on the wall? It's not because things are multi-colored that they are to be hung on the wall, you silly BwTTZk, they are made to be eaten. Oh my, something else I'll have to explain... eating. All they know is pilling. Things were easier back then in 2012. People knew instinctly what to do with a cheeseburger. Stuff themselves with it, and if they had manners, wipe the mess around their mouths afterwards. I'm glad I don't live in 2356. They are so ignorant... They can transmutate and vaporize in ethereal fogs but are clueless about making a basic cheeseburger let alone knowing what it is.

  

  Those who've been here before will remember (I'm not asking that much of an effort, I talked about this barely four days ago ) that I had made myself quesadillas which didn't turn out to be a raging success. I decided to correct this situation. First thing to do was of course to buy flour tortillas, which I did on Wednesday evening. I was in such a hurry to salvage my reputation that I neglected to check the size and ended up with the large rather than the medium ones. Maybe there were no medium ones on display to start with, I don't remember (why would I stash my memory with such useless details, I ask you!). By the way, I found out on the spaghetti that they 'can' be made with corn tortillas, especially in southern Mexico. Nice information but since I have tasted some with corn tortillas, it's gonna be information I will discard.

  So yesterday evening, I had the choice between two "paupiettes de veau" (gawd knows what they are called in English), and which all in all would require a good hour and a half of preparation, or going for something else. Friend having dropped by for a while in early evening (he was out of tomato sauce, and I'm the sauce keeper, the jars that is) and also because I had asked if he could pass by to remove a plaster I had in the middle of my back and couldn't remove myself. I kind of excluded asking neighbors to do this. All in all, when he left, and even before he had left, I had already ditched the paupiettes in my mind and decided on making the quesadillas.

  There are two ways of doing this. The KISS way (Keep It Simple Stupid) or the CYLS (Complicate Your Life Stupid). I'm not a kisser, so I ended up with a pizza. Almost.

  If anyone is interested in what's between those two tortillas, here is:
  - generous layer of coarsely grated provolone cheese
  - thinly sliced onion
  - sliced kalamata olives
  - diced green pepper
  - thin slices of jalapeño pepper
  - very thin slices of tomatoes
  - previously pan-fried thin slices of mushrooms
  - grated feta non cremoso (hard and dry feta used crumbled by latinos to sprinkle over food, like eggs rancheros, etc)
  - generous layer of sliced monterey jack cheese

  Some of that monterey jack was in thin slices with which I lined the edges, so when the quesadilla slowly cooked and the cheese melted, I pressed on the edges so as to glue them together and prevent all the stuff from running out. I'll try to remember that trick because it's a mighty effective one.

  I could have put more jalapeño but as they say, better be safe than dead. It was not a problem since all I had to do was sprinkle some of my home-made hot olive oil over it at serving time. What was a problem was the size, we're talking here of 25 cm (10 in) diameter and that's a little too much for me, especially stuffed like that (the quesadilla, not me ). Unfortunately for my stomach and the bunch of his friends in the digestive system, it had to do some overtime (with no extra premium, I'm not a business) since I ate all of it except a tiny piece in the end. The food slut won over reason.

  

  

  • 13:23
  • 4 Comments