Toronto has some cool festivals, Taste of the Danforth, Beerfest (not anymore), a small Jazz Fest, and there are probable a couple others. This weekend, as with every weekend in the summer I think, Montreal had more festivals than Toronto has all summer. It's crazy, they shut down major streets for entire weekends. When we the last time Bloor shut down from Friday morning to Sunday night. Mont Royal was shut down in that time period for Nuit Blanche, not the full Nuit Blanche I think but one of the two off shoots. The other was in the dead of winter, which we attended, we were cold. There is a Nuit Blanche in Toronto too, it goes all night one night and you can travel around the city checking out various artistic works, it's pretty cool, and it's over night. The winter version was over night and buses were free, that was cool. This Nuit Blanche included art painted on the street, Mont Royal. I think it was called Nuit Blanche Sur le (maybe la?) Rue. Patios everywhere, vendors hocking their wares, for the entire weekend. We went three times to check it out amongst our travels to the Fringe festival. That's right there was another city wide major festival at the same time. And from what I hear we better get used to it. The Jazz Fest is coming up, and there are a host of others that I've forgotten about because really I don't need to remember. If I want to go to a festival I'll just step outside and be right in the middle of one, it's unavoidable. There's no reason to plan to go, so there's no reason to remember which festival is going on which weekend.
The Fringe Festival is a performance art festival. We went first to a park to meet a friend and saw a couple (I think they were a couple but perhaps not) preform (sort of) with fire in a park. The girl was pretty good, she had a hula-hoop with sticks that were on fire sticking out of it. It was pretty cool to watch her spin the thing around and jump rope with it. I don't even think she burned herself although it's hard to tell. The dude that played with fire probably should have had more attentive parents. He was ok, some of the stuff he did was decent. I can't really get past one part of his act. He had already screwed up minorly a couple times, once burning his own ass with a stick that had fire on both ends. He's riding it around and the fire is creeping up the stick towards his ass. The crowds re-action of concern tipped him off and he stopped riding the flaming pole. Then, and this part is about as shocking to me as seeing a cat beat a Saint Bernard in a cage match, he flipped the stick in the air, let it bounce and then attempted to kick it back up into his hands. It would have been mildly impressive but the stick was on a huge angle when he kicked it and it went flying towards the crowd. He runs over and picks the stick up, not a big deal I guess although I turned to Kate and said I'm glad I'm not in the first row for this. Then the brainiac figures he would attempt the same stunt, I guess his routine isn't in tune with the music although the girl's seemed to be. So he does the exact same thing and the exact same thing happens, the flaming stick goes shooting off towards the crowd. I started planning what I would do when this jerk lit somebody on fire. First, finish the beer so no one expects me to throw it onto their flaming head, second plan escape routes for when the entire stage catches fire, third find a show that doesn't include fire. No one was burned except the performer and he was successful on his third attempt to kick the flaming stick, but holy crap.
At the same stage area whilst waiting for the show, and we were only there for a show we didn't know what we were going to see, I go up to the beer are for a beer. They're not serving beer. why not? The cops are coming. Did I miss something? Am I at a keg party? Why the hell does an advertised festival, that's rented a park area, need to worry about the cops. Sure enough the cops come, then they leave, in seconds even though many have beers and there's a giant sign that says BEER 4$. so once the cops leave a guy comes around telling everyone the beer tent is open again. Only in Montreal. Oh yeah and there was a half full bottle of Jack Daniels on a bench on the way in, and one the way out. I guess it's for people who don't have enough money to buy a beer.
Next we go see a poet across the street from the park that almost burned down. The guy is from England and has a number of political satire poems, quite funny. He also came out to the crowd before the show and introduced himself to everyone waiting. Kate and I once met a guy once outside of the Hummingbird before seeing the play Misery (awesome BTW). This guy asked us if we just ate at some restaurant we didn't eat at. We said no and he said we had doppelgangers roaming around the city. Then he asked if we had seen Misery before, we said now, he said we'd like it, I said thanks. The he said we need not worry if we're running late, the show won't start without him. I raised an eyebrow and said ok buddy or something although those lines. We found the whole conversation odd. The inside the theatre the guy who saw our doppelgangers steps up on stage, he's the freaking host. I like it when the people running the show stand in line, or are out in the crowd talking to them. I missed some of what the English poet said, the accent, the beer, the lateness of the night all contributed but the parts I did get were entertaining. Don't remember his name though, maybe I never bothered to know it. He's from England I doubt I'll run into him and need to remember his name anyway.
On Wednesday we're going to try and go see Cobra: The Musical. By Cobra I mean GI Joe's enemy. That's right. And it's a musical, I can't wait. Cobra-la la la la la la la la la, that's the actual battle cry for Cobra, it loses something on paper but if you ask me in person I'll give you a live demonstration of it. The GI Joe battle cry is much less interesting, it's 'Go Joes' or something. I personally am a fan but I can understand how others may find a simple 'Go Joe' a bit boring.
A pretty exciting festival laden weekend it was. I also helped my landlord replace a couple boards in our back deck that were rotting away. Then we rearranged the furniture out there and I BBQed salmon. It's too bad I have to interrupt my life 5 times a week to go to work.
The Fringe Festival is a performance art festival. We went first to a park to meet a friend and saw a couple (I think they were a couple but perhaps not) preform (sort of) with fire in a park. The girl was pretty good, she had a hula-hoop with sticks that were on fire sticking out of it. It was pretty cool to watch her spin the thing around and jump rope with it. I don't even think she burned herself although it's hard to tell. The dude that played with fire probably should have had more attentive parents. He was ok, some of the stuff he did was decent. I can't really get past one part of his act. He had already screwed up minorly a couple times, once burning his own ass with a stick that had fire on both ends. He's riding it around and the fire is creeping up the stick towards his ass. The crowds re-action of concern tipped him off and he stopped riding the flaming pole. Then, and this part is about as shocking to me as seeing a cat beat a Saint Bernard in a cage match, he flipped the stick in the air, let it bounce and then attempted to kick it back up into his hands. It would have been mildly impressive but the stick was on a huge angle when he kicked it and it went flying towards the crowd. He runs over and picks the stick up, not a big deal I guess although I turned to Kate and said I'm glad I'm not in the first row for this. Then the brainiac figures he would attempt the same stunt, I guess his routine isn't in tune with the music although the girl's seemed to be. So he does the exact same thing and the exact same thing happens, the flaming stick goes shooting off towards the crowd. I started planning what I would do when this jerk lit somebody on fire. First, finish the beer so no one expects me to throw it onto their flaming head, second plan escape routes for when the entire stage catches fire, third find a show that doesn't include fire. No one was burned except the performer and he was successful on his third attempt to kick the flaming stick, but holy crap.
At the same stage area whilst waiting for the show, and we were only there for a show we didn't know what we were going to see, I go up to the beer are for a beer. They're not serving beer. why not? The cops are coming. Did I miss something? Am I at a keg party? Why the hell does an advertised festival, that's rented a park area, need to worry about the cops. Sure enough the cops come, then they leave, in seconds even though many have beers and there's a giant sign that says BEER 4$. so once the cops leave a guy comes around telling everyone the beer tent is open again. Only in Montreal. Oh yeah and there was a half full bottle of Jack Daniels on a bench on the way in, and one the way out. I guess it's for people who don't have enough money to buy a beer.
Next we go see a poet across the street from the park that almost burned down. The guy is from England and has a number of political satire poems, quite funny. He also came out to the crowd before the show and introduced himself to everyone waiting. Kate and I once met a guy once outside of the Hummingbird before seeing the play Misery (awesome BTW). This guy asked us if we just ate at some restaurant we didn't eat at. We said no and he said we had doppelgangers roaming around the city. Then he asked if we had seen Misery before, we said now, he said we'd like it, I said thanks. The he said we need not worry if we're running late, the show won't start without him. I raised an eyebrow and said ok buddy or something although those lines. We found the whole conversation odd. The inside the theatre the guy who saw our doppelgangers steps up on stage, he's the freaking host. I like it when the people running the show stand in line, or are out in the crowd talking to them. I missed some of what the English poet said, the accent, the beer, the lateness of the night all contributed but the parts I did get were entertaining. Don't remember his name though, maybe I never bothered to know it. He's from England I doubt I'll run into him and need to remember his name anyway.
On Wednesday we're going to try and go see Cobra: The Musical. By Cobra I mean GI Joe's enemy. That's right. And it's a musical, I can't wait. Cobra-la la la la la la la la la, that's the actual battle cry for Cobra, it loses something on paper but if you ask me in person I'll give you a live demonstration of it. The GI Joe battle cry is much less interesting, it's 'Go Joes' or something. I personally am a fan but I can understand how others may find a simple 'Go Joe' a bit boring.
A pretty exciting festival laden weekend it was. I also helped my landlord replace a couple boards in our back deck that were rotting away. Then we rearranged the furniture out there and I BBQed salmon. It's too bad I have to interrupt my life 5 times a week to go to work.
1 comment:
Close, puppy! Nuit Blanche sur Tableau Noir...
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