Montreal Superfun

Montreal is super fun - from driving to jazz bar to dining and night clubbing to having a blocks and blocks of 3am post nightclub food choices we had fun from wakey time to bed time. Bed time even managed to include some sleep after wrestling over french fries in the hotel room and other 11 year old kid antics we revived.

This city has an awesome party culture, or at least we found many more corners of it than we have at home. People are more hipster fashionista, not just the Calgary expensive jeans an t-shirt look. Everyone is social, and at least where we were, didn't seem to find any anglo resentment, even over in Matt's more french neighbourhood. Girls want to dance and party, there's a definite lack of snooty "why are you trying to talk to us" attitude, it's totally different. It's more like "hi, here's my Polish 35 year old babe friend, here's my blonde 21 year old friend from London, and here's my Korean friend, we're just dolled up and out for drinks and dancing, what are you guys up to?" in French accents and you kind of look around for a second at the group of them, then like check around for a hidden camera man from a the beer commercial crew to see if this is for real or what. Warren was popular in his chip 'n dale-ish tux. Speedo got interviewed by some Czech crew reporting on a bistro with ostrich heads mounted everywhere named Bily Kun. Ty, Matt and Josh pulled off some low speed, yet death defying tripling on Matt's 25y/o Schwinn 10 speed. Qua seemed to singlehandedly re-popularize the 70's surfer drink the Harvey Wallbanger to "rehydrate" in between dancefloor sessions. Ahh, good times.

Clubs are set up with super super sound systems (maybe the $18 drinks had some way of funding that) - when we sent each other funny cell phone pics or texts, my eyes were vibrating trying to read it from the bass thump, and you could feel your lungs vibrate when we breathed. It's good when the brick walls and solid beam/solid wood floors pulsate with the crowd's movements too right? I like undulating floors esp. when the staircase manned by big bilingual black bouncers in sweet threads is basically so narrow it's a one way.

We toured our buddies flat here for a bit, here's some random Q&A. The short of it is one of us has always been a little closer to the bohemian lifestyle than corporate lifestyle. Having an 80's Schwinn 10 speed, a third floor loft, and a depanneur 25 yards from home actually makes a hell of a lot of sense relative to 2 car garage, big box strip mall, mortgage in the burbs. Anyway, it also ed to a bunch of huh's and wtf's, for example:

Cool coffee table. Yeah I made that out of an old baby carraige I found (of course that's a perfect place for a publication I've never heard of, a music/art/oddity thing apparently: Girlyhead Magazine - "passion, pirates and ping pong - the romance issue". Uhh, right).

Hey, where'd you get these bowling balls in your kitchen? I light them on fire, they burn a lot.

Hey, where'd you get this hub cap? Off a car in the anglo part of town, I'm making something out of it.

Hey, where'd you get this big piece of wood (ie. Like a 70lb wooden 3/4 cirlce out of some exotic wood)? Just found it when I was walking down the street.

Hey, why do you have this hammer drill? Man last week I was drilling so hard I almost drilled behind my ear.

Hey, why do you have this "Handgun Hunting" book with some pot bellied guy in a 70's suit and aviator glassses hunting Tennessee boars with a .44 Magnum? The poses inside are crazy.

Hey, what's this painting of a naked girl? I bought it at a sale because she looks kind of like me doesn't she.

Hey, what's this owl? He watches my kitchen.

Hey, where did you get this couch? When gay people die of aids in NY, they auction their property. I got it at an aids auction.

Hey this is a cool bead curtain, I like it. Yeah take it if you want, I have lots more.

Cool freestanding tub, do you close the curtain when you shower? No. Doesn't water get everywhere? Yeah but I'm on the top floor.

Hey what are these fuzzy gerbil things with long string tails? My new girlfriend came over and wanted to come inside really fast, but her boots were hard to get off, so I just got a knife and cut the pom pom laces off her boots and she left them here.

I guess it's not totally necessary to have Q&A's line up in linear fashion when non-linear sidesteps will pretty much suffice.

Here's an assortment of superfun pics:

Calgary airport at Palominos.

Look at that sweet WestJet plane (oh yeah, and a bachelor).

Marriott Chateau Champlain lobby bar - the minute we arrived some dolled up Quebecois Ricard's Red promo girls dropped by and gave us free beers.

Karting prep room, with Mr. Bachelor himself being attended to.

The karting aftermath... I love this stuff.

Who likes a classy guy? Everyone - it's tux night.

View from Warren and Erik's room.

Pantalones on.

Umm, hard to explain. In anticipation of fun.

Every lobby needs a man in a tux on a chaise lounge - on the way to a 9pm dinner start.

Who needs sleeves?

Everyone smile for the camera please.

That's the right idea, big big smiles.

Who needs tux jacket sleeves anyway?

Everyone got to cut off one appendage, so to speak.

That's so badass compared to just a plain classy tux.

Whole jacket sleeves starting to go. Side note here, what kind of bartender chick just hands over a big knife? "Hey, do you guys have a steak knife?" "Yeah sure". Perfect to hand out in a thumping club packed full.

Trouble past midnight.

Zoolander rogue?

4 other Zoolander rogues?

No explanation necessary.

It was too hot in the club for long pants.

Hello ladies... yes I moonlight as a chipp 'n dale, how did you know?

Chillin after. Who is this man of mystery?

Damn that's a fine 'stache.

Eating on the street is better than...

Bringing food back to the room.

Yes Qua, the ketchup hit the wall, the sheets, the pillows, and the floor. At least it's only ketchup.

Who needs an outfit for tomorrow with sweet custom artwork done by your friends?

Mmmm... coffee.

Sure is sunny out when you wake up at noon.

Let's go see old Montreal. It's chilly - Matt do you have any extra toques for us?

Well, actually, China town is just behind. Peace to Chinatown.

Supercool artwork. In old Montreal we walked down the tourist gallery street. These deformed sculptures look perfectly normal when peeked at through the looking glass on the bottom right - in this case a perfect F1 car. LeRoyer gallery, 60 rue Saint-Paul Ouest.

Someone getting... Married here today.

Who's motorcycle is this? It's not a motorcycle, it's a chopper... err a bicycle chopper. Hannan Customs.

Maple syrup and crunchy snow on a stick.

diese onze jass club, with the diese onze martinis.

Nice shades, except the missing arm, which is maybe why they were in a recycle bin...

Matt's neighbourhood with a few depanneurs about 15 seconds from home.

Third floor walkup with steep stairs.

Bead curtains were all the rage... like before we were born.

Some motley crew.

I'm not sure if this book ever made any best seller lists of note.

Recharge time before heading out at 10pm. Hey guys, what about dinner? Right, we don't need that.

"Who wants to sex Mutombo?"

Jazz flute.

Bily Kun, tastefully decorated up on the walls just above with a dozen plaque mounted ostrich heads.

Always strike a pose for the camera.

Jump - for my love.

Transportation at some point in time.

Nappy - 5am. Hey you to mopes, get up to your room on the 13th floor and gimme some space. Yeah yeah, take some overpriced minibar stuff for energy if you need to make it all the way to the elevator banks.