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She's a hoot ha

LefunesteLefuneste Posts: 7,989
Saturday morning! Yay!
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  • LefunesteLefuneste Posts: 7,989
    edited September 2017
    Montreal does a census of homeless people: they count everyone that is homeless at a particular date every couple of years. This gives the city an idea of how many people are homeless at this date, but it says nothing about homelessness during the rest of the year.

    Last census (2015), there were about 3000 homeless people in the streets of Montreal in March, 2015.

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-homelessness-count-finds-3-016-homeless-people-in-city-1.3141007
  • moetownmoetown Posts: 3,276
    There was a sort of tent city that got shut down recently. I live in an area where there are a bunch of homeless folks. I haven't noticed an increase, but I don't get out much.

    I just discovered there are several options for learning to speak French on Spotify. Maybe I can make myself stop listening to music and start doing that. Maybe not the entire drive - it takes about 40 minutes to get to work - but maybe like 15 minutes both ways. I wouldn't be learning to read it, but I could pick up a beginning French book at some point and see what I'm listening to in the car. I could spend maybe 15 minutes in the evening doing that. I've been listening to a lot of 60s French Pop lately. Not understanding the language probably makes the songs better than they really are. I like Françoise Hardy and some of France Gall. I'm not that into Jacques Dutronc. I'm listening to Clothilde right now.

  • KimKim Posts: 624
    I've just noticed the homeless here are much more visible and greater in numbers. I know there is a segment of the homeless community that isn't seen either. Homeless advocates know where they are but you don't want to go there because it's dangerous. Vacant buildings, and train areas
  • matthewmatthew Posts: 417
    As I believe have said before, most of of the homeless in my area are Aboriginals. They tend to hang out along Parc between Sherbrooke and the field beside Hotel Dieu hospital, and around UQAM and the corner of Sherbrooke and St. Urbain. Much, much, much more aggressive and belligerent than the other homeless, likely because they have nothing but contempt for white colonial society, and also likely because they are more damaged/and much more hopeless. Honestly, I am somewhat terrified of one particularly damaged group of them who are incredibly hostile. Not just because one of them attacked me a few years ago (if you recall one woman with slashed wrists grabbed my glasses and kicked me in the nuts and punched me when I wouldn't give her MORE money than I had), but because there have been numerous incidents since then. I honestly feel guilty that I have become more afraid of them than concerned for them in recent years.
  • matthewmatthew Posts: 417
    On a lighter note (and in keeping with the "She's A Hoot" theme):

  • matthewmatthew Posts: 417
    You were at Beatnik, Dan? You were in my neck of the woods, then?

    Every time I walk by Beatnik I am surprised it still exists. I believe Kid Koala hangs out there. Or did. It is one of the better record stores. Still a fan of Sonik, too. Pretty much over Cheap Thrills, even if it is convenient. The guy who runs it is nice, but I don't like getting kinda jerked around by the too-hip "I run a cool record label" guy who is often there.

    It was kinda fun stopping by Rough Trade in Brooklyn. Good selection, but still without a job and not feeling like I should be buying anything that isn't food.

    Also walked by the Williamsburg Knitting Factory. Didn't stay around late enough to check out the comedy show that Hannibal Burress started there. Didn't really do anything in New York except walk around. Can't wait to go back.
  • LefunesteLefuneste Posts: 7,989
    edited September 2017
    I teach at UQAM, Matt, I often take a walk up St-Denis after class. I visit Beatnik regularly, mostly for their folk and 60s music section in the back. I still like going to Cheap Thrills, but I usually just buy books there. If I want to find an el cheapo, slightly mouldy sci-fi paperback, Cheap Thrills is the place to go.

    In my opinion, Montreal's best record shop is probably Aux 33 Tours, on Mont-Royal. They have the biggest selection and the most space. But the place is a bit too slick, they mostly sell new stuff and their prices aren't the best. Beatnik has more charm.
  • moetownmoetown Posts: 3,276
    Jagmeet Singh is cool. I don't know anything about him, but I hope he wins.
  • moetownmoetown Posts: 3,276
    It's healthy to be afraid of unpredictable people who have attacked you in the past. It doesn't mean you can't be worried about their situation. Just be concerned from further away.
  • LefunesteLefuneste Posts: 7,989
    Remember that record store on St-Catherine street, near Guy Station, next to Capitaine Quebec? They closed years ago. I don't remember the name of the store. I really liked that place, the personnel was nice and the selection was typically quite good.
  • LefunesteLefuneste Posts: 7,989
    edited September 2017
    Jagmeet Singh is cool. I don't know anything about him, but I hope he wins.
    Meh. He leaves me cold. A lot of people don't like his overt religiosity, but that doesn't bother me much. If his religious beliefs are more important to him than winning votes, that's his problem. At least, unlike many christian politicians, he's honest about it.

    But see, I'm a Quebec separatist. I don't vote for no federalists, even when they're namby-pamby, lovey-dovey lefties like Jagmeet Singh.
  • moetownmoetown Posts: 3,276
    Is there that big of a difference between French language in Quebec and France? I suppose the accent is a bit different...

    Tabernacle! Learning French is going to take forever.

  • moetownmoetown Posts: 3,276
    The weather has been a lot cooler the last week here. I'm really hoping for a wicked winter full of ice storms and blizzards in N. Texas. Last winter barely qualified as a real season around these parts.
  • LefunesteLefuneste Posts: 7,989
    edited September 2017
    There's about as much of a difference between Quebec french and European french as there is between American English and British English.

    That is, usually, the language is close enough that everyone understands each other, but there are exceptions related to regional accents.

    For instance, Quebecers say "tabernacle" this way: tabarnak.
  • moetownmoetown Posts: 3,276
    At this point, I just need to focus on numbers, days of the week stuff, and basic questions and phrases. I suppose I should learn the present and past forms of a few verbs. I just don't want to overwhelm myself. This is probably going to help me teach my class this year.
  • LefunesteLefuneste Posts: 7,989
    edited September 2017
    You know some spanish, right?
  • moetownmoetown Posts: 3,276
  • LefunesteLefuneste Posts: 7,989
    edited September 2017
    Well, as you probably know already, most french grammar and a lot of french words are similar to spanish.
  • moetownmoetown Posts: 3,276
    Similar, but not the same...I never learned Spanish grammar, just phrases and some vocabulary.
  • 49 pounds down now.

    I'm going to see Old 97's on 10/21 with Phineas. He hasn't seen me since June. I'm kinda interested to see how much weight I lose by then. Should be about 70 to 90 pounds. That should blow his mind, I think.
  • Inspirational quotes on FB mostly inspire me to unfollow people on FB.
  • LefunesteLefuneste Posts: 7,989
    edited September 2017
    But Jeff, it's "your attitude, not your aptitude, that will determine your altitude", dontcha know?
  • matthewmatthew Posts: 417
    Adolf Hitler's father’s family name was Schicklgruber, but changed it to Hitler about ten years before Adolf was born. Imagine how different the world would be if people today had to denounce their political enemies as “Schicklgrubers”
  • moetownmoetown Posts: 3,276
    "Heil Schicklgruber!" would never have caught on and the world would have been a much better place...maybe.
  • moetownmoetown Posts: 3,276
    Studies keep pointing out how horrible sitting is for our health, but they never mention anything about lying down. Is being horizontal as bad, worse, or better than sitting?
  • Jurf_WurburJurf_Wurbur Posts: 5,472
    edited September 2017
    My mother-in-law does this super fucking annoying passive aggressive thing where if she thinks something is stupid, she'll put it away in a manner that makes it impossible to find.

    Measuring cups? Why can't you just use your eyes? One in this drawer, one in that one, one in that cabinet, one with the pots and pans. Ha ha, fuck you, you'll never find them.

    That leather balm you use on your shoes? It's stupid. You should use polish. You may leave it in the closet next to your shoes, but I'll put it in the garage next to the paint.

    Etc.
  • moetownmoetown Posts: 3,276
    So she takes your stuff out of your closet? That's pretty rude. Is she okay, y'know, in her mind?
  • matthewmatthew Posts: 417
    Of course I remember Esoterik. For years my sister was dating a guy who worked there. I used to hang out there all the time. Actually, that place was pretty much born out of a used CD shop in the Anglo suburbs (on des Sources in Dollard Des Ormeaux). I believe the guy who started Esoterik (can't remember his name) used to work at the CD place on Sources and talked the old guy who owned it into selling him some of the stock when he closed shop. He took a lot of that stock downtown to Sainte Catherines, sold off all the old Pearl Jam bootlegs and whatnot, and started bringing in avant-garde stuff. That's if memory serves.

    Anyway, by chance my sister started dating one of the workers there, a BC expatriate (a few of them came from the East Hastings area to live in Montreal and work computer programming/web design jobs), and I ended up somewhat in their orbit for a short while. Remember Justin? He lived just up the street from you, in the apartment building on the corner of Sherbrooke. When Esoterik shut down in late 2005 they organized a massive New Years Eve concert at Sala Rossa with a bunch of the Alien8/Constellation/Godspeed/Fly Pan Am folk. Feu Therese, Thames, White Flower and a bunch of other sidebands and whatnot played.

    Justin invited me to play with his band, Rivers & Mountains, a band which usually did like musique concrete styled stuff with contact mics and circuit bending and all that. The show was a bit of a goof, as they played a bunch of weird ambient noise for like five or six minutes before diving into "Needles In The Camel's Eye" (and then Alternative TV, New York Dolls, Stones, and Jerry Reed). This was to be a surprise because they never played actual songs with actual lyrics.

    I had only just quit drinking a few weeks earlier (in mid-November) and was pretty shaky and anxious, so it was also a gamble. Even if there was another drummer to cover any fuck-ups, it was a nice gesture [I definitely did fuck up repeatedly on "Bitch". I can't stand that song. I much preferred playing "When You're Hot, You're Hot"] I definitely miss that store. I kinda wish I had been less isolated/fucked up around that time and managed to have made friends in that scene. I still don't have many friends.
  • My kid is killing me on homework. He's home like 3-3 1/2 hours before I get home and he doesn't touch the stuff. This was one thing when he was in regular classes, but now that he's in magnet classes, he has an hour's worth of homework not 5 minutes. So now I finish my 9 hour work day, drive an hour home, then do an hour's worth of homework with my kid while he's tired and pissed off, then make him dinner.
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