A few things about Montreal..(sorry about the late post but I wanted to write it now before it gets lost in my other travels)

A.) Lot of weird staircases attaching the second floors of apts to the ground.. Why? I am glad you asked… “Well, thanks to a 19th-century law stipulating that a green space be left in front of buildings—forcing builders to maximize indoor space—Montréalers have to risk their lives every winter shoveling these wrought-iron death traps. ” viceland.com

stair

b.) On the Canadian dollar, there is a Gabrielle Roy quote, that says, “How could we get to know each other in the slightest without the arts?” (or something really similar to that) What does our dollar say, “Fuck Arts, lets do business, bitch!”?

c.) A lot of the parking meters are not on the right where you park the car. They are like 5 feet (sorry, I don’t know metric), onto the sidewalk. It’s mildly confusing.

d.) If you are ever in Montreal, don’t walk from Chinatown to Little Italy on St. Laurent. It’s a lot longer than it looks on a map.

e.) Montreal, like in Sweden, will support it’s art scene by paying bands to do it as their job… That is why Montreal has such a great music scene, ala Arcade Fire, AIDS Wolf, the Stills, the Dears, Godspeed You Black Emperor and the Unicorns.

f.) I went to this amazing gallery here.

g.) An cool article about Montreal here.

h.) The cheese kicks ass there, the $2.50 subway rides do not.

i.) Instead of Where’s Waldo, there is Where’s Charlie? Huh? Does Waldo not translate?

charlie

j.) If you are ever in Montreal, eat here at Chuchai, an amazing vegetarian Thai Place.

k.) Is it me or does this place look like the ship that comes out of the ocean at the end of the Abyss?

abyss

l.) Montreal doesn’t believe in AC on the subways.

m.) There is a show there called The Super Friends vs Professor Vinyl on tv there. It was awesome three cute girls battled bad techno dj’s to play good music. A to the MAZING!

n.) ok that’s enough,….

Here are some songs from great Montreal bands..

Glissando 70 – Something (Actually from Toronto but still great)
The Arcade Fire – Neighborhood 3 (August Session) (bside)