Polytechnique

Above is a still from the 2009 film Polytechnique; a dramatized reenactment of the December 6, 1989 murders in which 14 women were killed.  While I was only a kid when the event occurred, it was during my years in high school when I began to learn more of the significance of the Polytechnique murders.  In Canada, December 6th became a commemoration day of the violence against women and gun control laws were tightened; but in the fall of this year the long gun registry had almost been abolished.

Camera+

Today was a lay low kind of day.  The "never stop having fun" mantra I have recently adopted has given me a bit of the sniffles.  Above is an image taken by the Camera+ app that I finally got on my mobile, as my old iPhone 3G didn't want anything to do with it.

This is Stella, she's a crazy cat who digs her claws and drools on you to show her affection.  In case any movie nerds were wondering, yes her name does comes from A Streetcar Named Desire.  Stella is much more dramatic to yell into the street than "Kitty" or "Princess."
Stella then proceed to dig her claws into my Travis Taddeo drop crotch jogging pants, because she loves me that much.

Tiger and Fox

Ah, I love these two! I met them in the bathroom lineup at a party hosted by Nans & Nat.  There was no thematic or dress code to the evening, so an extra high five goes to the tiger for putting in the sartorial effort and making my camera happy.  As we chatted the tiger told me he was "mille fois beaucoup plus serieux" (a thousand times way more serious) in his energy sector related job.  Indeed! The foxy lady was kind enough to let me skip ahead in the bathroom line.  Thank you, you guys made my night.

Circling Birds

On Saint-Viateur and Parc avenue, a large group of pigeons were circling around the cross street until they settled on a rooftop.  It was fascinating to watch as I didn't know they did any kind flying formation.

Here is a composite of all the images.

A New Suit

Some of my favorite words are: "Mel, can you come shopping with me?"

To this, I am most happy to oblige, especially for the male contingent.  Don't get me wrong, women's apparel is varied, exciting and made up of infinite combinations, but most menswear for the non-fashion risk-taking set has more conservative parameters and conventions that I think are fun to work within.  Did I mention that I love menswear?  Enter Mark: a multi-talented artist, makeup/special effects guru, and a force to be reckoned with in the kitchen.  The time had come for Mark to replace the dormant and ill-fitting suit in his closet.  This was our mission and I'm a sucker for men in suits.

While we had planned on multiple stops for our shopping spree, our first destination proved to be a winner.  We went to Michel Brisson and quickly honed in on Tiger of Sweden for their slim cuts and budget friendliness.  Mark went from skinny jeans, converse, black jacket and tuque combo (one of my personal favorite day uniforms) to navy/black suit with a subtle plaid pattern, grey Filippa K shirt and black Tiger tie.  Shazam!  Oh and of course we tried the suit jacket with Mark's checkered shirt and black jeans-and as we say in Quebec: C'est winner!

Knit Graffiti

I might be a little late to this party but I have taken note of knit graffiti or yarnbombing lately which seems to have surfaced in the US around 2005 with the group Knitta Please.  As my sources are wikipedia, I am learning as I search around the internet.

The top image is what sparked my "what is this?" curiosity. It is of a lamp post on Wellington street in Verdun, around June of this year.  The second image-also from this summer-is a knit bicycle outside of the Acne Studio in Soho in New York.  If you check out the google map, you can see the bicycle outside their door! A couple of internet searches led me to make the assumption that this bicycle is by the knit artist Olek.  There is some intricate and awesome work; can I have a knit one-piece please?
The last image is of a bicycle rack on St-Viateur in the mile end.  If anyone knows who the Montreal knitters are, I'd love to learn who they are!

Snow Day

Oh snow...
Why did you decide to come down
To our fair and fall-like town
Before I got my snow tires on?
Oh snow...
That's all the poetry I can give today's snow. Which will probably melt before the weekend.  I did a scary 180degree spin on a one-way hill. Nothing/no one was hit. A bus driver bailed me out of my stuck-on-ice-facing-the-wrong-way predicament.  Then a car slid into the bus. Oh dear.

When I got myself and my car back from the garage in one piece I decided I needed a drink to soothe my really-wish-I-was-still-riding-my-bike-nerves.  A couple of vodka gimlets from Sparrow did the trick.  And with the mojito-ish cocktails sitting in my belly-I walked home.