Tag: montreal

by jad

Montréal: Kahnawake

St Kateri’s shrine was the reason we’d thought to visit Montreal in the first place, so, as you might imagine, standing here by the quiet banks of the Saint Laurent after months of anticipation felt pretty good. Our Lyft driver’s GPS had been acting up, which meant that I’d get a chance to have my longest exchange in French of the trip (which also felt really good). More significantly, it also led to experiencing this church from this vantage point first. I don’t know what was special about this tree, but it literally took my breath away. Christine was walking … Continue reading “Montréal: Kahnawake” →

by jad

Montréal: Habitat 67

Habitat 67 is an iconic housing complex situated on a man-made peninsula in the Saint Lawrence River. It was constructed as a prototype of the future of urban living for Montreal’s #Expo67, the theme of which was “Man and His World” (sorry ladies). It was supposed to demonstrate how urban mixity and suburban individuality could be brought together in an affordable way, but that last part crumbled under the pressure of the actual cost of construction. The modular units are now expensive condos. Spots for the walking tour only opened up a week before we visited (on my birthday, no less), … Continue reading “Montréal: Habitat 67” →

by jad

Montréal on 35mm

I just got my scans back from @moodysfilm – I was worried the imposed airport x-ray might have ruined my rolls (first time flying with film), but, thankfully, it seems like we scraped through! These were some of the last shots I took on one of the last things we did on our last day there; they’re from the Japanese section of the Montreal Botanical Garden, where the Government of Japan was at pains to tell us that the bonsai is NOT a tortured plant. x I didn’t end up taking as much film photography as I’d planned; the extreme heat and … Continue reading “Montréal on 35mm” →

by jad

Montréal: Expo Dream

One of the Montreal things that I’d read about obsessively before going was Expo 67, the great World’s Fair that took place here on Canada’s Centennial. It’s a multilayered megaevent that’s still seen as Canada’s cultural “Camelot” or even “last good year,” and there’s a lot to say about it, but during our stay at the In-Terminal Hotel, one thing of that era stood out: I couldn’t help but imagine the excitement that people must have felt as the world and even cosmos seemed to be getting smaller and smaller. You can’t really think of that decade without thinking of … Continue reading “Montréal: Expo Dream” →

by jad

Montréal: Airport Swim

This time last year, I was telling you about our little cocoon of comforts by a lake in Idaho. I hadn’t planned to tell you about this cocoon of comforts on our last night in Montreal exactly one year after I told you about that cabin by that lake, but I’m not surprised by the coincidence. x I told you about that lake of baptisms and the washing away of shame, so it’s only appropriate that, one year later, I’d tell you about a dinky little overchlorinated pool on the eighth floor of an in-terminal hotel where silly people try … Continue reading “Montréal: Airport Swim” →

by jad

Montréal: Orange Julep

One of the very last and most unexpectedly delightful things we did in Montreal was stopping by the famous “Big Orange” on our way to the airport. The place is apparently a hotspot for retro fans driving classic cars and carrying vintage cameras, but I think I was the only actual hipster there that rainy afternoon, though there was an older gentleman who purchased some merch – I don’t think his suspenders were ironic though. x I didn’t expect the orange julep itself to taste so good either! Apparently, “the fruit juice is deacidified by the mixture of skimmed milk … Continue reading “Montréal: Orange Julep” →

by jad

Let Us Compare Mythologies

Leonard Cohen’s first publication was a book called “Let Us Compare Mythologies,” a phrase that kept nagging me as significant to my trip to Montreal. What if we compared mythologies? Settler versus indigenous; English versus French; Expo 67 versus FLQ 70—what would we find at the other end of that trigonometry? That line comes from the slim volume’s second poem, I would learn, one with a most elusive title of its own: FOR WILF AND HIS HOUSE. The poem itself is a touching testament to the harsh contrasts of Jewish agency within Christian structuration. You can find it online read … Continue reading “Let Us Compare Mythologies” →

by jad

Montréal: Postscript

As someone from someplace oft described as “a land of contrasts,” I understand at a visceral level how asinine descriptors like that are; for what is a city but a mixed multitude and condenser of opposites? There are cities where this mixity is thrown in stark relief as harsh lines of stratification, it’s true – San Franscisco comes to mind right now – but we rarely use the language of “contrasts” there; haves and have-nots are not the kind of duotone that capture our imagination. No, lands of contrast excite the eye like a splash of modern art. It’s the … Continue reading “Montréal: Postscript” →

by jad

Montréal: Cohen & Kateri

On our first night in Montreal, we tried to watch a documentary called “Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Leonard Cohen,” but we were so tired that we started drifting off a few minutes into it. That was enough time, however, to catch a Leonard Cohen refrain from an old interview from his youth that would play in my head as we huddled under the world’s smallest umbrella in the world’s most terrifying sneak-attack thunderstorm. After asking Cohen what concerns him, and after Cohen laughed and demurred, insisting that he hasn’t the faintest concern, the interviewer pressed the poet to share what … Continue reading “Montréal: Cohen & Kateri” →