2013/08/07

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  Hôtel de ville – City Hall – 2013.07.23
  Scènes de Montréal – Montreal Scenes
  

  Nest color

  I first used, as the temporary setting for the background of my WordPress site, the basic yellow offered in the short list in Appearance. I now changed it to the exact same one I use(d) in Xanga and I’m very pleased with the result. It’s much lighter, less agressive. As per the blog area itself, I’m starting to like that white background a lot. The pics, and my orange, come out more nicely, especially that the orange itself already had a white background. Now it blends in seamlessly. Friend asked me the other day why I always (still) use that orange, I just said Why not? «I like oranges» and «I’m silly at times» were supplementary answers.

  

  Traveling notes

  Coming back from my physio treatments last Monday, I decided to walk up St-Denis St for a while. It lines the metro line I would have taken so I could hop in at any station along the way. That morning, I had read in my paper about a musician who had played ten hours straight last Saturday on one of those street pianos. He was improvising, “going from jazz to classical without losing inspiration”. It happened on Marie-Anne St at the corner with St-Denis. However, three or four corners before, and smack on the sidewalk on St-Denis, there was also a piano. It had the color mentioned in the article I had read and also that red flower seen in the accompanying pic, so I figured it was the same piano. A couple of girls were around the piano (one playing), so I could not take a pic of it. I wasn’t in the mood to bother asking them permission. When I got to Marie-Anne there was no piano anymore. So I guess there’s a music fairy out there who moves thoses pianos around once in a while. This is a pic of the self-marathonian, who is an accomplished musician apparently. I wonder if they also moved that other one I have posted about, on Prince-Arthur St.

  
  photo © François Pesant, Le Devoir

  

  Boris à Montréal

  While on St-Denis, I stumbled also on this installation, based on the poem “Je voudrais pas crever” by Boris Vian. Vian was a famous and iconic figure of the St-Germain-des-prés scene. He was a “writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer” says Wikipedia (English) which shows the scope of the man. This poem of which one can find the translation in English here starts with «Je voudrais pas crever avant d’avoir… » followed by an eclectic list of what he wants to do before dying. They translated “crever” by “to die” but it has a more kind of “absurdity of death” tone to it. I’d have chosen something like “kick the bucket” or “to clap out”. Anyways, the poem is reproduced, in the original French needless to say, atop two of the blocks sides. On all four sides, passersby can add their own “before dying wish”. Some are kinky. One wrote «…having lived in the United States» and another «…having gone to the toilet, damn!».

  There are wheels under the box so I suppose that it also has a poem fairy displacing it here and there in the borough (Plateau Mont-Royal).

  

  

  Snakes and ladders

  My hometown made top of the news, and for bad reasons, when two young boys were choked or crushed to death by a 45 Kg (about 100 pounds) python having escaped from its glass cage through a ceiling ventilation hole. It most likely fell from the ceiling by its own weight. The children were staying for the night in a second-floor apartment located above a reptile store, and occupied by the store owner who has a kid the same age of the deceased. The cage of the snake, which was not for sale, was also located on the second floor.

  I know that building very well. It used to be a hardware/construction material store which was a big customer of our family business. It was relocated years ago in a much larger new store elsewhere in town. I went to college with the son of the then owner. The reptile store’s owner has the same family name but his name doesn’t ring a bell to me. However, with so young children, I’d be surprised that it would be my former classmate. I’ll ask my mother who’s got a much better memory than me when it comes to remembering people’s names.

  

  Inspirations

  I watched an interesting interview with industrial designer Michel Dallaire recently. As he says, he is not an inventor. He rather creates objects using them, of which many have become famous worldwide. He was explaining how and where he got his inspirations. First and foremost, the object’s design must have a meaning for him. For example, when he was asked to design the BIXI, the continuous go-and-return of the bike share system made him think of a boomerang. Hence the shape of the bike. Furthermore, it is why the original BIXI (Montreal’s) is painted black while the main frame itself, the boomerang, is aluminum colored. I knew nothing about this but now when I see a BIXI, the boomerang shape just hits me in the eyes.

  

  He also talked about the furniture for the Grande Bibliothèque, of which I posted about on Xanga back in 2005. Contrary to classic libraries, the reading or whatever tables are not flat but angled. You can see them by clicking on the 15th frame of the list shown on the homepage of Dallaire’s site here. He said in the program that when he was commissioned for this project, he had a flashback of a painting of St-Jerome which he had seen years before in a London museum, when he was studying there. It featured St Jerome sitting in front of such a slanted table. Jokingly he added that design was nothing new. Here is that painting, from Wikimedia Commons.

  

  Another design of his which I didn’t know about but of which they sold a few million, is the Angelcare. Someone invented a sensing system to detect a baby’s movement through the mattress, and send a signal to a nearby terminal. The detecting pad itself, under the mattress and therefore not visible, is not a primary design concern. But the external stuff, like the receiving terminal, yes. He was asked many times by a friend of his who was also responsible for the marketing of the product, to accept to make its design. Dallaire repeatedly refused, saying that the product rang no bell to him at all. And that was a sine qua non condition for him to consider looking at it. It is to mention that this product is primarily used to prevent (detect) the dreaded “sudden death syndrome” in small infants. I had a cousin who lost a chld that way, long before this detector was available. Needless to say, for the parents, it’s a tragedy. Anyhow, in last resort, and months later, his friend called him again one day and invited him to the restaurant. Dallaire didn’t want to go but the other insisted so he went. His friend ordered the finest wine they had, something quite expensive. Finally they went through all the bottle and had not ordered any food yet. Instead, they ordered another bottle. Soon after, Dallaire got a flash, maybe the bottle’s label (?), and saw a small angel and its wings slowly leaving the dead child’s body. That was it. A little cone became an angel/terminal, its aureole became the antenna, and on both sides, the controls became its wings. A portable parental unit is shaped like a little cloud, home of angels as everyone knows . Finally, they never got to eat. The Angelcare (seen in the second frame to the left of the library tables on the same Dallaire site) won the Grand Prize at the 27th International Exhibition of Inventions held in Geneva in 2000, and a first for a Canadian.

  
  Edited screenshot from © www.dallairedesign.com

  It’s fun to see how creative minds work.

  

  Da Food Section

  The other day, I made myself my Greek salad. I say ‘my’ because I am not sure if there’s something of me in there or not. Maybe the olives, I use pitted infornate. They are not Greek at all but deliciously salted. The recipe itself I got from my younger sister, years ago. I gather it’s the standard recipe. It contains cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, olives and Greek feta of course. I say Greek feta because that one (the original) is made with sheep or goat’s milk or a mix of both. They also sell here a feta made with cow’s milk, which is cheaper, much less tasteful, and has the compact texture of tofu. To avoid in a Greek salad, imho. The marinade is olive oil, lemon juice, salt & pepper and lots of dried oregano. Yesterday I made myself another one. It’s easy to make and perfect for summer. I’m having problems lately with either my glasses or my eyes. Is this image slightly blurred or is it me??

  

  Last week, coming back from my physiotherapy (again), I walked along boul. St-Laurent, namely to buy natas (pastéis de nata – I posted about those before). There’s a Portuguese pastry shop/noon sandwichry in the Portuguese part of St-Laurent which sells the best natas in town. Says me and a bunch of other people. The secret of those little tarts is not the filling, a kind of crème pâtissière slightly burnt on top, but their flaked crust. It must remain dry and flaky, which is not an easy task. Speaking of angels, I’m just reminded that this pastry shop is called Les Anges Gourmets. In this case, it’s more wormanship than design, however. Since it’s not really on my way, when I go there I buy six. It’s cheaper for one thing, and I can freeze some for future delectations. This time around however, I did a Biggles of myself and in three days they were history. Anyhow, all this is only context. When I was there, I also bought one of their delicious frozen “morue à la crème” (salted cod ‘à la crème’). It’s a mix of salted cod (generous), potatoes (less generous as it should be) and onions, filliing the container to about 90%. That is topped with a heavy béchamel sauce and finally coarsely grated cheese. It sells for around 5$ which cosidering the amount of cod there is in there, is a real bargain. More so that for someone like me, half of it is plenty enough for one meal. I usually indulge myself to eat a little more, then keep the rest for a second meal later on.

  This will only interest French-speaking Europeans, but on this side of the Atlantic we have only one word for cod, which is morue. When it’s salted, we call it ‘morue salée’ and when it’s fresh we simply call it ‘morue’. Over there they have two words: morue for salted cod, and cabillaud for fresh cod. No one uses the word cabillaud here, and not many more even know the word. In fact, the first time I heard it was in the eighties when I was listening on TV5 to a French cooking show hosted by Maïté.

  

  This evening I’m having a can of beans with molasses, to which I will add pan-fried slices of a left-over wiener I had in the fridge. This one you can send me to Abu Graib to sniff underwear, or Guantanamo to be reprogrammed, or to Syria to be tortured, there is no way I will post a pic of that here (or anywhere). If there is a heavy demand, I may however post a pic of the accompanying bun.

  

  • 22:04
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