Sunday on Saturday at Medika

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?")

Definitely an entertaining night!

Another Random Night

17/04/2009
Originally uploaded by Nomad Kat

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):

That trip I did in January, remember?

I just realised that I can make maps with google and embed them here. I mean, I knew I could embed maps, but hadn't thought of doing it here.
So I made this one of the trip I did in the first 2 weeks of January this year, which is a good excuse to blog something about it. The beginning was by bus, as I was travelling with my friend Anne, and she had a time limit, but from Herceg Novi up the coast, to Zagreb and back to Sarajevo was all done by hitchhiking.


View Larger Map

Trip highlights include:

The bus ride through the icy mountains to Podgorica. At one point I looked down from the bus window and saw nothing but the river a looooong way below... Also, the bus went 7 hours without a single toilet break (and no toilet on-board either). In fact the two girls who did attempt a toilet break at one of the places we stopped to load more passengers ended up being left behind (but were delivered back to us 15 minutes down the road)


The sheer amazingness of the Dalmatian coast and the walls of Dubrovnik:


Getting a new sweater & 3 pairs of socks from a guy who picked me up while hitching:


The weather, particularly in Split:


The Sea Organ of Zadar (and yes, I know this should be a video so you can hear it, but I haven't uploaded one yet!)


Unfortunately, by the time I got to Zadar, I was pretty sick of travelling alone and staying in hostels, as the couchsurfing thing really did not work - I didn't even manage to meet anyone. So I had way too much time on my own, and too much time to think, and ended up all melancholy.

But then I arrived in Zagreb, and spent 4 days hanging out with great friends who cheered me up and convinced me that I really should be living in Zagreb, and not Sarajevo.

So now I am!

Tulips on Mont-Royal

One of my favourite photos. I've probably posted it before, but it warrants a second viewing. It was also one of the first pics I even took on my N95, and convinced me that it was more or less as good as my Olympus, except for the lack of optical zoom.

Paris Highlights

My photos from Paris last month are now on flickr.

One of the highlights of the trip was spending an evening with my host sister from my 1996 exchange in Toulouse, Muriel. We hadn't seen each other in 8 years or so, although I've stayed with her parents once or twice in that time. She's developed a little family since then - here she is with Zoe, who was about 3 months old.

Nathaniel and I also finally made it to the Palais de Versailles. We tried to see it way back in December 1999 - the morning after the hurricane that destroyed the gardens and caused the Palais to be closed for months. It only took us 8 years, but we got back there, and they had had time to restore it all in that time, so it's probably just as well we waited!

Other pics include the Fete de la Musique, and the view from the Pompidou Centre, which was definitely worth it - as was the art within, of course!

Caernarfon

My favourite photo from Wales. Many thanks to the random stranger who didn't know she was posing for me...

Time Off

This Sunday, being the beginning of the last week here at Queenswood, there were no students arriving, which meant no placement testing, and no reason to do a single minute of work on a Sunday.
So I didn't do anything. I went to stay with Carollyn and Baska in London on Saturday evening, I watched Ten Canoes (which is brilliant, and having also seen the 'making of' documentary, I am amazed it ever got made at all!), I slept 11 hours, I moved from the bed to the sofa, and then I sat for 6 hours, getting up only twice, absorbing the luxury of internet on my own computer, and doing things like downloading podcasts and uploading photos.
I'm not up to date with the photos yet, but there are a few more "Montreal in May" pics on Flickr, and all of my photos from the few days I spent hitching in Wales in June. Paris and Berlin will follow when I next have internet on my own computer. I'm not too far from being up to date, though, as I have taken a total of about 5 photos since I arrived here at Queenswood a month ago - I'm too busy. It's a pity, really, as I have done a few crazy things, such as dressing up to MC the kids' theatre show every Friday night - I've been a witch and a pirate and an artist and a queen, and I think I'll be Hamlet this week, and I haven't got a single photo of any of them.

Slack

You think I've been slack blogging? I just worked out I hadn't uploaded the pics from my real camera (not the phone) for a month! Pretty much since I got my new phone, actually. Hmm. I wonder if they are connected...
Anyway, I'm working on it now. Bit by bit. Yesterday I uploaded some lovely pics of Montreal from the top of the Olympic Tower, and then I'm just uploading all the pics of the Roller Derby now. Still to come: my going away party (including some pretty mean air-melodica playing) and then Transfabulous in London.
Pics of hitching through Wales, then Paris and Berlin will have to wait until I am reunited with my own computer and can get them off my camera! Which will be soon, thankfully, as I'm fast running out of free memory space on it!

Catch-up Marathon Part I

There are two reasons for lack of activity on my blog - either excess of activity in my life, or lack of activity in my brain.
The last few weeks have mostly been the former, although the few times that I probably would have had time to blog, I think I was suffering the latter.
Here's a quick run down of a couple of things I did last week. Not everything, but hopefully this post will have a part II to get through the rest of the week.

1. Work (the boring one first) - it's been crazy, but the office is now moved, we've escaped from the Greek Mafia and have possibly probably found a replacement for me (just as well as I leave here next Wednesday, and have no intention of working after Friday!)

2. Meow Mix. I know I blogged about this already, but I've put up a heap more little videos of the other acts from the night on flickr. Click on the photo here to see the names of the acts we were on with. It was a most entertaining set of acts! My videos are not the full acts, just little snippets of them, flickr style. Including my favourite from Big Moves, which I like so much I think I will post part of it here.

I'm always impressed when people actually sing. And I can't believe that I leave here the day before their show in the Montreal Fringe Festival opens - it's called "Lard" because it's like grease, but thicker...

3. On Monday Emma showed up all of a sudden, so I got to play tourist for a few days! It was good - I managed to see the Basilica and climb the Olympic tower and go up the mountain again, so I sort of feel I have done the vital tourist things in Montreal.

4. Last Tuesday the wonderful Elvi (Hi Elvi!) threw me and Aideen (who is also leaving) a Choeur Maha going away party. We made use of the huge pile of sweaters she provided and braved the freezing weather (it got to 4 degrees that night - ridiculous! This is supposed to be *summer*!) to sit in her beautiful backyard, over in NDG, a part of town I hadn't been to before (another thing ticked of the 'must do before I leave' list!). To get there Emma and I caught a metro across town and then a bus even further west. On the bus I had this weird experience where I looked around and no one I could see looked french. And I couldn't hear any french being spoken. And all the books I could see were in English. It was like being in another city or country or something. But then I looked out the window and was reassured by all the french signage. Thank goodness for Quebec language laws!

Anyway, the party was great, the food was good, it was nice to see all the Maha people again. And I got to play Guitar Hero, which very kindly informed me at the end of my song "You Rock!". I was most chuffed. I also got wonderful presents! A luggage tag! A real one, made of plastic, and not the cardboard freebies I have to replace all the time! And it has the Quebec flag on it! And I got pencils patterned with the fleur de lis (they only write in french...) and the most wonderful maple butter, and some tissues with the Canadiens logo (it's a hockey thing). AND, Elvi (having obviously had far too much free time in the last few months) had read enough of my blog to notice my Engrish fetish, and, remembering this photo, presented me with two cans of coffee:

The only thing we failed to do was sing! A whole bunch of women from choir, and we failed to sing. Well, except for Auld Lang Syne, which shouldn't count.


And just because it's been stuck in my head all week (thanks to Rosemary and Mel), here's a version of "Farewell to Nova Scotia" I rather like. Very Living End, really. And more interesting than the traditional version.

Quebec City

Quebec City was lovely. Like being in Europe. I had lot's of "this feels like Edinburgh" moments, strangely enough, but then I'd turn a coner and feel I was in France, or one of England's walled cities. And this promenade reminded me of Nice, despite the lack of beach. The whole place was very pictureskew, really. Click on the pic for more.

Behind again

Way behind in blogging. Didn't blog Ottawa, but the pics are on flickr. Didn't blog last weekend, and now I've done enough since that my memories are getting hazy.
Haven't blogged this week - melty melty and over 20 degrees!
Haven't blogged today - sugar shacking, sun lazing, and then maha concerting. Flicks on pickr...
Haven't blogged tomorrow (this may not be so unreasonable though) which involves a marching band gig for my friends at the Rhizome and the second Maha concert, and then going out after, and then getting up for a 9am bus on Sunday to go to a cabin in the Laurentian mountains for a few days.
Life is good.

80s Prom Party

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...

More published pics

A friend of mine writes a local Montreal blog called nouveau*queer, and has played with a bunch of my photos to make lovely collages to illustrate her latest blog post. It's also a lot more info about the film screening I went to after the Choeur Maha concert a few weeks ago. The post is here.

Too Fast

Life is going way to fast to keep up with blogging right now, but I'm still managing to upload photos regularly. Photos from this month now include:

1. Kim Zombik, Choeur Maha member and jazz singer extraordinaire, from Circo d'Inverno, a circus and music performance I went to unexpectedly last Saturday (Thanks Elvi!)
   
2. The protest, march and many of the Marching Band from that same Saturday's Internation Day Against Police Brutality (including one of the poor old man a posse of police knocked down right in front of me, after Telyn and I had dexterously leapt sideways out of their way.)
3. A random pic of a huge work machine thing that made so much noise I thought the world was ending when it came through the metro station while I was waiting for the last train last night.
4. Some marching band friends playing in the metro after practice last Sunday
5. A photo from the practice itself, which is held in an anarchist library.
6. Hairdressing and poker playing at last night's surprise party for Rosin.
   
7. Cooking at Maison Laurier for Food not Bombs on Sunday.
8. And older pics of things like huge piles of snow from the biggest snowstorm of the season (or any season in the last 30 years), the metro, nuit blanche, colourful construction, climbing Mount Royal and random Montreal street scenes and statues.
   

The Mountain.

After only three point five months in Montreal, I finally climbed The Mountain today. Mont-Royal, the lump in the middle of town that gives this town its name. It's affectionately referred to as a mountain, but it's only a hill really. Still, there's quite a bit of uphill involved in climbing it, but the view at the top is rather pretty.
And the reason that I had time to do such frivolous things as climb mountains was that there was a mix-up with my day's worth of classes and they got cancelled. I didn't find out about this until I had already trekked all the way to Laval (45 minutes away, if I go early enough for the good bus!) so I got to turn around and trek all the way back, which was ok, as I should get paid for the day anyway!
Once home, I sent out an email to everyone I could think of who might have some time to do something with the wonderful sunnyness of the day, and the fact that it was only -10 or so, and ended up getting invited to climb The Mountain with Telyn. And as it was lunchtime, and we were on the McGill campus, Telyn took me to the Midnight Kitchen, for an almost-free vegan lunch, which is something I think every university should have.
After Telyn had to return to student life after lunch, I had a chance to wander around town, which I don't often do, and go to the Frigo Vert for a little shopping, which I also never get to do. At least, not there. And then I came home to while away the hours on the internet.
So overall, today was good!
More pics on flickr, as usual.

To the Dark Side

So I did it. I joined Facebook. I know. I know I said I wouldn't. I know I have been heard to say 'Facebook is evil'. And I still think it is. However, like long-haul aeroplane rides, it seems it is currently a necessary evil in my life. I'm living in the country with the second largest number of Facebook users in the world. Apparently 1 in 4 people in this country are on facebook. And the 3 in 4 who aren't probably include all the people who are too old/young/technophobic to be on it at all. People don't exchange email addresses or phone numbers anymore, they ask 'are you on Facebook?'. I say 'Oh, I didn't know about ' and people respond 'Really? It's on Facebook'. It was all just getting a little much for me.
So yesterday, I joined.
And my first impressions are that it's a great way to waste time. But also to find out about things that are going on. And I'm utterly astonished by just how many of the profile pictures of my new 'friends' are *my* photos, stolen from my flickr page! I had no idea! I'm rather flattered, really! Obviously I need to befriend someone as snap-happy as I am so that I too have large numbers of interesting photos of myself to choose from for profile pictures. I never have an interesting profile pic, because I'm just not particularly good at remembering to take photos of myself.
Or other people, I thought, but apparently I was wrong!
So feel free to search and befriend me. But I think I'd rather not have any pokes, gifts or other silly unnecessary pixels. I'd much rather an email (or blog comment) with actual real news telling me where you are and what you're doing!

Edgy Women!

So last night I spent first singing with Choeur Maha and Clara Furey, then seeing films and partying all as part of the Edgy Women Festival at Studio 303.
The concert went brilliantly, especially considering we had learned a few of the pieces ridiculously quickly. I didn't help much - after months of robust health, I've managed to pick up a cold this week, which chose Saturday afternoon to hit me. I wasn't too bad until after about our second number, when my right ear chose to completely block up, leaving me with no idea of how loud or soft I was singing. I'm told I didn't embarrass myself, though, but I was probably singing quietly, just to be on the safe side. I know I later found myself talking too quietly in conversation for the same reason!
My pics are on flickr, as per usual, but here are some of my favourites:
Choeur Maha, resplendent in red and black, going oooooh:


Three of us Maha people also did a bit of backup singing (no doo-wops involved, I promise) for one of Clara's pieces, which was great, but of course, I don't have any pictures of that, because I was performing. Here's Clara, though, being edgy solo:



After the concert, there was a short break, and then the next event started - a short film session called 'Juggling Gender'.There were two short films and a discussion with the two artists, one a short comedy about transmen, and the second a documentary about Circus Amok and bearded lesbian extraordinaire Jennifer Miller:



Lazlo Pearlman was the other artist, and next Saturday night is doing a show called 'Madame Pierre's Other Tongue', which I am definitely going to see!

After the films and discussion we all (well, the brave, hardy souls among us) slogged through the worst blizzard in 30 years (or something) to get to Le Sociale, the venue for the after-party. Which probably would have been a lot better attended if said blizzard hadn't been blowing. It's a real pity, as the proceeds were all going to a local queer youth organisation. Still, those of us who were there had fun, although I decided I wasn't having quite enough fun to make it worth missing the last metro!
All in all another brilliant Montreal evening, and more motivation for me to work hard on getting back here after the summer!

Why I'm not blogging much

I'm working. Every day. 5 days a week. At least I have 2 different jobs, so there's variety, and in theory it isn't full time, although it sure feels like it at the moment. But it's nice to know I`m doing some good in the world, helping out people like this.
In the last week I have also attended no less than 4 musical things, by which I mean rehearsals and jam sessions, as well as a free yoga class, and about a million social events. Ok, well, a couple. Oh, and I moved into my new flat. This means I have a new address. AND this flat is ALL MINE for 3 months (and 4 days). Why, it's practically permanent! You can send things by Seamail (if you're quick). Email me if you want said address, or the phone number that accompanies it.
I will blog about my flat soon - once I've unpacked, or rather, put things away rather than just upending all my bags to find things...
In the meantime, the pictures of last weekend's fantabulous Red Party and Cultural Insurrection Convention are on flickr, and if you haven`t seen them yet, you should! And yes, I know they need editing, and I will delete the ones that aren't worth looking at sometime. Soonish. Probably.
One of my favourites from each event:

Montreal Marching Band Madness

I've just come home from an incredible evening spent listening (and dancing madly) to marching bands. Yes. Marching bands. Sousaphones and all. Who woulda thought they could be so much fun! Here's the flyer:Several people I know here are in something that is generally referred to as the Anarchist Marching Band, and officially known as the Ensemble Insurrection Chaotique, I think. I would also be in this, if I had an instrument to play. I may yet borrow something and join, as it seems like a lot of fun. I've been offered the use of a flute, but I don't know if I want to go that far!

Anyway, this evening there was the film, which I unfortunately missed most of, and then the bands individually, including a gumboot dance ensemble, and then a sort of free-for-all where all the musicians were on stage (and then on the dance floor) jamming. And then we went out on the street and played and danced there until the police decided it wasn't such a good idea (no doubt prompted by the neighbours). It was fantastic, and I took about a hundred photos or something ridiculous, and I will post them here as soon as I can! Including the one of me playing a bassoon. I had met the bassoonist a few times here, and tonight she let me play hers! It's been about 9 years since I last set lips on a bassoon - and that was only for a few minutes on Sean's bassoon one evening - it's actually more like 11 years since I played regularly. And I discovered that my lip piercing doesn't really get in the way at all, which is good to know, and also that I can only remember how to play about one octave worth of notes - enough to play a decent bassline in the key of F, which seemed to be the favourite key for the brass bands, luckily, and to play the flintstones theme, but sadly not enough for baby elephant walk. I also learnt that my lip muscles are seriously out of practice and my lips fell off after about 10 minutes. and I also also learnt about a 'bassoon day' that will be at one of the universities here in March, which might be interesting, though possibly less so without my own bassoon!

Also waiting to be uploaded are the photos of last night's Red Party at L'Appart Laurier, which is where I've been staying lately. They have new flatmates moving in now though, so I'm going to stay here at the Rhizome (a co-op) for a while - possibly until Thursday when I can move into my own new flat. This is what the kitchen of the Rhizome looked like in the morning the last time I spent a night here. This is an excellent photo of the Rhizome, and conveys much about the place! It's great!

Right. It's 4am. Better see if I can find a bed...

A Kat and a Cat in the Sun on a lazy Sunday

So it`s -13 degrees outside, with windchill it`s -22, but wonderfully sunny, and I`ve just spent the last 3 hours sitting stretched out decadently in the sun in the comfort of my own flat.I`m supposed to be at Food not Bombs, helping cook for a velo-rutionaires something-or-other, but the sun was too seductive.It`s beginning to disappear now, though so I might manage to go to FnB soon. Maybe I`ll make it to the serving. I`ve helped cook or serve several weeks here now. It`s a bit chilly, but fun, serving soup to the homeless outside a metro station in town (they don`t usually let us inside).
The other reason I`m being lazy is because I worked most of this last week - my first week of work since October, so I`m not allowed to complain. It was almost interesting to be back in the rat-race.But it`did serious disrupt my sleeping pattern, so I needed to catch up. The reason I didn`t catch up on sleep on Friday night was a potluck at L`Appart Laurier on Friday night. Despite being `only` a potluck, it was wilder and better-attended than the actual party I went to there last month. It was great to realise that despite being here only 6 weeks now, there were only about 5 people there that I had never seen before. And I`m beginning to be known and recognised in this cosy little community. I love it! AND the food was fantastic, as always.And the reason I didn`t catch up on sleep on Saturday morning (afternoon) is because I went to see Sweeney Todd with Rosie. The first half was much better than the second half, but overall it was a great movie. Tim Burton`s imagery is, as always, utterly brilliant, and the beach-fantasy scene was just genius. And you`ve gotta love a musical with a body count! (I could post a pic of this, but I`d just have to steal it from google images, and I think you can all do that for yourself if you want).

But yesterday evening I had nothing on (in a different sense to this morning, when I also had nothing on), and just enjoyed hanging out with Basho the Cat, absorbing internet time and listening to music on the wonderful speakers here in this warm, cosy and elegant flat. I`m only here another week, and I will be sorry to leave. But the next flat is going to be just as good!