Kondiaronk – the Montréal Experience

Construction cranes at the Glen Yards site of the future MUHC Superhospital - work of the author, June 2011

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A Night at the Opera – Saturday September 17th 2011

So last night was the season opening of the Opéra de Montréal and I was fortunate enough to get invited by a friend who regularly reviews opera for Rover Arts an online Montréal arts review. I was only able to make it for the intermission of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, and true to the old adage, a well-dressed person can literally walk in anywhere without drawing any attention. In other words, the ticket is more proof to myself that I attended, lest anyone criticize my cultural merits too harshly. It was a packed house and Salle Wilfrid Pelletier looked as good as I’ve ever seen it. Place des Arts, as originally conceived, is a defiantly elegant example of Made-in-Québec 60s modernism, though I suppose some may wish to define it as Internationalist-Modernism, as that would be in keeping with other local landmarks, such as the Tour de la Bourse, Place Ville Marie or the Chateau Champlain. I asked my friend what he thought about the hall, and he mentioned that he particularly enjoyed the ease of circulation on the different levels of Place des Arts, in and outside Salle Wilfrid Pelletier and even between the interiors and exterior plaza. He contrasted this with the open spaces of the new concert hall, which he found to be constrained.

I’ve yet to see the interior of the concert hall, though I’m eagerly looking forward to at tenting my first concert there. I’m also looking forward to seeing the completed concert hall, which, among other things, will have a finished exterior, access from within the plaza, exterior lighting, and from what I can tell, a proper entrance on the Eastern side of the complex with its own open plaza and green space, a la the Place des Festivals on Jeanne-Mance. Esplanade Clark is supposed to help pull the established cultural nexus at Place des Arts in together with the assortment of cultural spaces further East, and the Esplanade Clark is going to further help pull a range of public spaces and institutions together, and doubtless ameliorate a seedy part of town. What can I say, I’m not entirely sorry the QDS is moving in and forcing a gentrification of this neighbourhood. Clinging to a seedy past is hardly a good idea, especially for the veritable heart of the city. I’m hoping within a few years the corner of St-Laurent and Ste-Catherine is jaw-droppingly beautiful, the centre of a vast and expanding cultural and entertainment district. But that’s another issue. You can read all about the QDS plan here.

After the show, which I found to be quite decent, entertaining and featuring some exceptional, albeit imported vocal talents, I was off to enjoy a smoked-meat at Dunn’s on Dorchester Square. So-so and overpriced if you ask me, but an enduring institution. It hit the spot regardless.

Next door we adjourned to take in cocktails at the Dominion Square Tavern, recently renovated and I dare say one of the finest drinking establishments in the City. Inside we ran into a couple of professors from Carleton University and I ended up getting some pretty solid advice pertaining to future graduate level studies. As we bid them adieu I turned in the direction of my recently acquired Bloody Caesar, done right with celery stalk and just the right blend of spices. Conversation focused almost exclusively on our mutual interest in enchanting, intelligent, beautiful women, of which this city is never in short supply.

Unfortunately the Dominion Square Tavern closes at midnight, and it may be in their best interests if they want to avoid the hassles encountered by all drinking establishment located on the other side of the Square. That said we decided to have a smoke in the recently renovated Dorchester Square and admired this grand public space in all its well-lit nocturnal glory. Across the road my friend spied an opportunity as I thought-aloud about finding suitable rest accommodations in this area. Our city’s dearth of clean public restrooms is something I think we should be a bit more concerned about, by I digress. We decided to crash a rather exclusive social function so I could make good use of their excellent facilities. Once again, dressing well and entering with confidence will pretty much get you anywhere. I should put this theory to work more often.

As we made our way through the suddenly silent guts of the urban core we spied a city side street temporarily renovated to look like the post-apocalyptic ruins of New York City. Mansfield would stand in for ‘anywhere in Downtown Manhattan’, as Montreal habitually does. Strange I thought, Montréal is as comfortable being New York City or anywhere in Europe as it is being a post-apocalyptic, futurist wasteland. What an honour!

In effect, it was merely a stroll with several sojourns through my own backyard, Despite the lack of neighbours and a sense of community, my new neighbourhood has some fascinating advantages in other respects.

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26 September 2011/ Listening to David Byrne & Brian Eno/ Apartment is hot-as-hell, Indian Summer’s a happening, but for how much longer?

About that show…

I had to be there. Work got in the way of the last two opportunities I had to see the Arcade Fire perform, so I couldn’t afford to miss it.

I got there unfashionably early and planted myself in what would later be described by various people I encountered at the concert as ‘the happy zone’ to contrast it with the many ‘angry zones’ around the Place des Festivals where people had got boxed in and forced to listen to the show while facing the opposite direction. Not the band’s fault of course, I think they prefer smaller venues.

But in part I think that may have changed last Thursday.

I was enchanted with them, their presence, their palpable joy. Despite the fact hat an poorly-placed tent and cherry picker obscured my view partially, it didn’t seem to matter. In a strange twist it seemed as if it was fundamentally more important for the band, this quintessentially Montreal concoction, to see the crowd that came to see them. I cannot imagine what it felt like to stand on that stage and see the sea of people, citizens united under a common joy, a shared sentiment expressed by Time Magazine’s ‘most intriguing of Canadian bands’ (fuck it, they’re all intriguing – Nickleback’s fan-base perhaps most of all .

They did not disappoint, playing everything we all wanted to hear, but most importantly, they said what needed to be said. I hope it didn’t fall on deaf ears, and it’s what I’ve been pursuing all these years, that shared cultural experience we sometimes pretend doesn’t exist. And when they made their statements, it didn’t come off as overtly political in the way a lesser band might. It came off as human.

There was a concentrated mass of good vibrations on that renovated stretch of Jeanne-Mance where what must have been one-hundred thousand people gathered. I wondered aloud with my friends, old and new (like as of that night, word up to the tree-planting crew! You guys are great! Making new friends at concerts is the best) whether they’d throw the fountains on and clear everyone out just for laughs (so to speak). Also realized that perhaps the best seat in the house would be on top of that old Jet Films building on Bleury facing the Imperial Theatre – methinks its time to dust off them urban exploration manuals… could be useful.

Something came to mind as they were playing Intervention, which is way up at the top of my favourite Arcade Fire songs. It would doubtless sound amazing if played on an authentic Cassavant organ, such as the one located at St-Jean-Baptiste Church on Rachel near St-Denis, which happens to have exceptional acoustics.

In any event, I know I won’t forget that show, and I love knowing that the band seemed to have enjoyed it as much as we all did. Also, Kid Koala and Kwarka were both excellent, though the sound in general was pretty bad throughout both their sets, almost as if the concert organizers only wanted them for background music. It’s too bad, because from what I could hear they were both excellent sets. I admittedly knew little about Kwarka, but now think I may actually use money to acquire their albums…

Who’d have thought?

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