Lat night was a fun night, with lots of friends and acquaintances (everyone who's ANYone was there, dahling!) and many little entertaining moments. And a few crazy ones: I am used to meeting the occasional Aussiophile here, who gets unreasonably excited when they find out my country of origin, but I've never made anyone cry before...
Worst case of the affliction that I had seen, really. I'm glad she had a good time while she was in Aus, and I'm sorry her visa ran out and she had to leave, but I haven't really lived in Australia for long enough now that I almost feel weird saying I'm from there, and I always have to admit at some point that I'm quite happy not living there, even though it's their life-long dream to be able to do so.
When I made my escape (the interestingness of the aussiophile girl being finally outweighed by the annoyingness of the drunk guy hoping to to kiss us) I heard her say in a very disappointed whine "See, now you've frightened her away!". And I did indeed feel like some small furry animal scurrying off to safety (but still did not feel at all like the kangaroo that Drunk Guy kept wanting me to be "Are you a kangaroo?" "No, do I look like a kangaroo?")
Last night I ended up being in a music video, quite randomly. This was part of the set. And I was already in costume for the party I thought we were going to (we got there by about 3am...)
There are definitely moments when I look at my crazy life, and think something very much like this, and the randomness of last night was one of those times, so this pic feels very representative of the evening!
I will, of course, post a link to the vid just as soon as I'm told it's finished! In the meantime, here's another vid from the same artist (though the vid from last night will be more like this one):
So, i was in Belgrade, at the Q*ueer festival, and I heard about this festival in Sarajevo, so I came here for that. After all, I was thinking of coming anyway. And then I heard about this festival next week in Zagreb, which wasn't in my plan (I was going to head south from here) but whatever. It sounds like fun! Of course, festivals in this part of the world mean police protection, and living with the possibility of fascist or fundamentalist violence. I am mostly pretty safe, as I am female, and once you're out of the immediate area, and look relatively 'normal' then there isn't much danger. Still, I haven't taken so many taxis in a long time! There was a minor attack in Belgrade - three people were slightly injured, but the police response was swift (there was a busload of them outside the festival the entire time). In Sarajevo the attacks from the fundametalists, (who were particularly mad that it was held during Ramadan) were more serious. It is the first queer festival they have had, and they expected trouble, but they weren't prepared for what happened. Here's a BBC article about it. I was mostly safely still inside the Gallery when it was all happening, and then we had a short walk behind the police lines to the place where police were getting taxis for us, and thankfully, unlike others, our taxi wasn't followed or stopped by a guy with a gun... Anyway, the festival is now more or less cancelled. I will write more when I can. Until then, I will upload my phone photos as I take them (and when i find wifi...).
The very dark picture i just uploaded is of the danube. I'm on a boat. A boat that's fixed to the shore, but still a boat. The saturday night party and concert of the queer beograd festival is being held here. After an attack last night, we were escorted here from the daytime venue by the police. It was like a parade, except at night, and with only about 50 people, and on banners or noise... Very odd, really! But it'r been a good night, nonetheless, although i'm currently by a window seeking refuge from the serious passive smoking habit the balkans have forced me to develop... The band are now playing Roxanne, so i may have to go dance.
More from the last week... Last Wednesday I climbed the Olympic tower with Emma. Well, hardly climbed. Went up in the wonderfully 70s futuristic elevator (you don't have a choice). It was nice to see Montreal from a different angle. And I could see several of my houses from there - or at least the streets they were on! Afterwards Em and I dropped in to say hi at the Rhizome, which is nearby, but decided to not stay long, and came home and cooked dinner and had a night in instead.
Thursday morning, after a pleasant brunch (I love doing brunch!) I waved Emma off, as she was heading to Mont Tremblant for a few days, then in the evening I went to see a klezmer band that consists of 3 people, two of whom I know, though I didn't realise *they* knew each other (Montreal is so like that) and the third reminded me so much of Kate (but I don't mean the psycho bits). It was a bit weird. Turns out cultural heritage really means something. Oi.
Vivent les Vélorutionnaires
Friday I worked *alll* day (it's hard when you're used to part time!) and then joined other cyclists for Critical Mass, the monthly reclaim-the-streets-for-cyclists ride around the city. I didn't have a bike until this month (thanks Emily!), so this is the first one I've managed to go to in Montreal (though I also got to do one in Vancouver last September). There are photos and little videos to give you the feel of it here, along with a few from Vancouver, just for good measure. The Vancouver one in September was considerably bigger, but it was later in the season, and the one immediately after bike month, which is always the biggest of the year, I think. Here in Montreal, this is only the second month I've heard people getting excited about it. I'm told Critical Mass happens all through winter here, but it's a much smaller, more dedicated group of cyclists willing to do the dark, snowy winter rides! Still, plenty of people at this one, though - certainly more than enough to stop traffic!
Talent Share After Critical Mass, (and a brief stop at at a pub for a beer with some choir people I knew would be there, and then home for a shower and food) I headed to my friend Aaron's for Le Salon, a bring-your-own-talent night. It was a great idea, and one I think I will have to emulate sometime int he future, although I'm not sure how well it would work in any other city. This city is just so full of talented people! We heard lots of music, of course, including the "Farewell to Nova Scotia" I had in my head all last week, and which started a whole string of folk songs from around the world. And three of the "Men of Maha" and Julie our lovely guitarist did I'm Your Man again, of course. And a lovely couple whose names I completely missed did a few beatbox & vocals duets of children's songs one of them had written, which was sweet. There was also some poetry - Poe's El Dorado, and then I recited Hilaire Belloc's Tarantella, which I hadn't done in years, and which has such a great beat to it that we decided to try it again with the beatboxing, which actually sort of worked! And then, one of the most-appreciated talents: Aaron made the most amazing *vegan* chocolate cheese cake. That is a talent I intend to acquire!
More to come soon, including: The Roller Derby, Fringe For All, more marching band stuff...
So last night's performance at Meow Mix at Sala Rossa went over quite well with the audience, but on reviewing this video, my impressions from on stage were confirmed. We couldn't hear ourselves. And it sounds like we can't. And one of the mikes is much louder than the others, which means the whole barber's shop feel gets a bit lost. And half of us forget half the choreography at any given moment. And for some reason they didn't use much lighting (possibly best that way, though...) Still, not bad for my Drag Debut and considering we had about 4 hours rehearsal together, in total. So here we are: The Men of Maha singing Leonard Cohen's I'm Your Man (I got a friend to film this on my new toy - it's a phone! no, a computer! no, a camera... It's an N95! I'm rather impressed with the video quality, at least)
UPDATE: Ok, so I just watched it one more time, and it's not so bad really. We did alright. At least in some parts!
Including a friend's band called "Please Don't Put Charles On The Money ('cos he's even uglier than we are)" (apologies if I got that wrong, but you get the gist...) And tomorrow - the Choeur Maha Yard Sale, followed by the anarchist bookfair, at which the marching band is planning to play, randomly.
Friday was busy. On my way to work in the morning, I investigated a grocery store called "La Vieille Europe" that turned out to not have the golden syrup or treacle I was looking for. I can see that my planned ANZAC biscuits are going to end up being "Australian, New Zealand And Canadian" biscuits, as maple syrup seems my best substitute at the moment! Then I went to work, at least for a couple of hours. Then I had some errands to run all over town which meant I spent the whole afternoon on public transport. After that, there was a lecture by a trans activist and legal professor Dean Spade, which was interesting and educational. And then I had a gig singing (and playing clarinet and spoons) our quebecois folk song "Ziguezon" with people from my choir. It was our first performance and we outnumbered the audience (we were performing at someone else's "Cabaret Canadien" which hadn't been well publicized!) but it was an excellent practice for our concert next week. After that I went to a friend's house to drink vodka and somehow got myself adopted by the sweetest two guys ever. I now have two more dads, it seems! Finally, I went to a slow dance prom party and spent the early hours of the morning filling up my dance card and doing the slow-dance shuffle to such songs as "Every Breath You Take" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart". Saturday, I didn't do anything at all. But today, Sunday, I have a brunch-ish-lunch, a champagne tea party clothing-swap, Food not Bombs, a marching band rehearsal and another choir small-group rehearsal. Better get on with it!
There was a party on Saturday night. An 80s Prom Party called Pretty in Kink. Telyn's friend won tickets and couldn't go, so we went - with instructions to take lots of photos. The 80s must be long enough ago now that we've all forgotten the fashion trauma, as it was actually a lot of fun dressing up for this. Admittedly we went mostly with the prom theme, as Telyn had this lovely princess dress, and an old tux and ruffled shirt for me to wear. It was a little small and didn't quite do up, but I think I managed to turn that to my advantage!
A few rubber accessories (for the kink part of the theme), some big hair and a side pony tail later, and we were ready.
It's entirely possible we spent longer on getting the outfits together than actually at the party, but that's half the fun, right? There are more pics on Flickr, though nightclub photos are ridiculously difficult...
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