So Fantasia

As some of you have already seen in the comments, I am unfortunately going to be going on vacation for the first two and a half weeks of Fantasia this year.  While I am very excited about my vacation (to the Maritimes), I am bummed about not being able to dive into the awesome madness that is the world's best film festival.  It's even more of a disappointment because I built up a lot of momentum last year blogging about the movies (and possibly even got a few regular readers).  On the other hand, this will be a test of my maturity.  I am going to get the program and read it on my vacation and there will be lots of wailing and gnashing of the teeth (already missing both The Robot and the latest Ip Man installment), but when we come back, I will be psyched to dive in and take in what awesome movies are left.

Part of the reason I started blogging last year was because I found a big drop-off in the quantity of coverage from the english blogosphere last year.  So in my absence, I hope that people who lost some of their energy, find it again and give us the awesome in-depth reports as well as reviews.  I won't be online too much, but I hope to come back to an internet about to burst with Fantasia news, reviews, stories and opinions.

Go explode your cinematic awesomeness all over Montreal and the world, Fantasia.  I feel that this year is going to rock even harder. I can already here the CJLO DJs crushing it.

Seriously.  I'm not playing.

Also, PLEASE DO NOT TEXT DURING THE MOVIES.  NOT EVEN DURING THE TRAILERS!  If basic civil decency and thoughtfulness is not enough to convince you to turn your phone off as soon as the lights dim, I will warn you now that you have a two-week window to be an asshole.  Because when I get back, I am going after with extreme prejudice anybody who texts in my vicinity during the movie.  You will receive a stern warning.  You will receive a second warning.  Third time I am going after your phone.  I WILL go there.

Finally, are any of you movie nerds on Google+?  I never did the Facebook, but am on the Plus and would like to get a movie circle going.  If you are, you can find me at Olman Feelyus.

Bon festival!  Keep the seat warm for me. 

Portuguese Scaffolding

This is the kind of project that makes me happy to live where I live:

Man working

Seen on aqueduct replacement site on Laurier, east of St-Denis.

A message is sent

When you don't live in a neighbourhood and you see a sign like this, it is of passing interest and perhaps a gentle reminder to not litter.  But when you live here, you realize that there is a rich and ongoing story behind such a sign, a history of neighbours, conflicting use of space and cultural and demographic assumptions.  Though I usually fall on the fascistically clean side in these kinds of arguments, I am sort of on the fence here.  On one side, we have a residential building that is used as a commercial garage.  I'm pretty sure it is them who tend to leave fairly large piles of junk (though strangely, it's rarely automotive stuff) in this section of the alley, which then becomes a magnet for other junk leavers (including me on occasion).  I am pretty sure what you are supposed to do is leave the big junk in the front of the street where it will get picked up.  I don't like all the garbage in the alleys, but on the other hand, sometimes you do have a ton of clippings that need to get put out.  And when the alley is full of stuff, it blocks people from driving through, and I'm always in favour of blocking cars.  My larger concern about too much fussiness around the alleys is it starts to get close to restricting people's ability to do projects in their yards.  Too much officiousness back here and we could end up like Vancouver where you aren't allowed to have a clothesline.  It's a balance.

ruelle Saint-Louis du Ha ha

Here is a sweet alley.  I forget exactly where it is, one of those T-alley intersections south of Laurier, east of St-Hubert.  Anyways, I applaud it.

Clark & Villeneuve, Friday evening, summer

Interestingly, I learned from a neighbour who lives across the street from this building and has been there since the 60s that this grey apartment building sits on the site of what was a Jewish school. It was affiliated with the synagogue across the street (directly behind where I, as photographer, am standing) which is now a Jehovah's Witness church.  I would love to find some pictures of that building when it was a synagogue as well as the old school that was here.  I guess it was a vacant lot for quite a while before these condos were put up.

Some secret Patrick Swayze fan club here in Montreal?

For perverse reasons that I don't want to share on the internet, I have twice now gone to Boîte Noire, the extremely well-stocked arty video store here in Montréal, to rent Next of Kin. Both times, it has been rented! I was floored the first time that it was rented (and that was after searching through the "Gros Bras" action movie section in the basement for twenty minutes). But when I went back today, two weeks later and the guy told me it was out again, I was almost sure there was some mistake in their system. He confirmed that it had been rented recently, but couldn't say if it was the same person who rented it the last time. What the hell? Who the fuck is renting Next of Kin? I either really want to meet this person or I really don't.