Bienvenue à Montréal

So I've been happily resident in Montreal for about three weeks now, and I have to say that so far I am loving it. I may even like it better than Toronto (Gasp!). Aside from the obvious differences between the two cities, here are a couple of things I've noticed that don't get mentioned in the guidebooks...

1.) There's a lot of puke on the streets, and not just on Saturday/Sunday morning in the club district. I guess it's fall out from the laxer liquor laws. More booze = more drunk people = more vomit.

2.) Imported beer/cider is impossible to find. Because you can get it at a dep., the SAQ doesn't bother to stock it, but the deps. won't stock it because it's too expensive and not likely to sell through. Looks like I'll be road-tripping to T.O. for my Fuller's fixes.

3.) The homeless. They're everywhere. I mean, I though Toronto was bad. Maybe it's simply that here the vagrants are more flagrant.

4.) The libraries suck. Seriously. This is the best argument in favour of amalgamation I have ever encountered. You don't realize the breadth of collection a 100-branch system has until you move to a place where each tiny municipality has its own minuscule library system of a single branch or two, and has to split that correspondingly minuscule budget between French and English resources.

5.) Montreal drivers clearly feel that the horn is there to be used. Anything is valid provocation for a honk - but 9 times out of 10 the honker is driving as crazily as the honk-ee. Makes me very happy I still don't have my license.

The 2nd Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It's nearly fall, and that means it's also nearly halloween - which would hands down be my favourite holiday if only it involved substantial gift giving and turkey. To achieve the costuming excellence you all have come to expect of me, I need to start planning well ahead of time. I have several possibilies as to what I may be this year, and so I am soliciting your opinion in the handy form of a poll, located to the side of this entry. You will note that the costumes run to the short-and-sassy variety. This is not from a sudden fit of sluttyness, but rather due to the fact that, as a result of Halloween being on a Satuday this year, I will likely be spending it somewhere hot and crowded, where I am liable to have a good deal of drink spilt on me. My hand sewn reenactment dresses are thus staying firmly in my closet, unless someone invites me to a Jane Austen Halloween tea (On a side note, one of my costuming friends is taking one of her Austen dresses and going as something out of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Awesome idea, no?). Although I reserve the right to go with the option that most appeals to me, your opinion is greatly appreciated. So what are you waiting for? Vote!

Anybody fancy a Garibaldi?

I had a minor epiphany the other night while I was watching Spaced for like, the zillionth time. It struck me that one of the peculiar differences between the English and north Americans, is the need to refer to biscuits/cookies by their proper names. In offering someone something to accompany their double-double you would not say “can I tempt you with an Oreo? Rainbow Chip, perhaps?” No, you would simply ask “would you like a cookie?”. The British, however, being the biscuit connoisseurs that they are, feel it is always necessary to specify which treat is on offer. Of course, with the plethora of options available at your local Tescos, this is not merely a courtesy, but a necessity. You might happily have a Jaffa cake, while scorning a bourbon. Almost no one will refuse a chocolate digestive or Hob Nob, but you’ll be hard pressed to find a taker for the manky pink wafers which are all that remain of your M&S Holiday biscuit tin. I suppose what it boils down to is that, as every English biscuit has its own distinct, individual character, it is only right that one acknowledge them by name. Jammy Dodger anyone?

The Thrilling adventures of Lovelace and Babbage.

Thanks to a post on io9, I’ve been introduced to the most awesome comic EVER. Sydney Padua, an animator, was inspired to create a comic with Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace using steam powered computing technology and lots of numerical tables to fight crime and save the world. If you do not know who Babbage and Lovelace are, then shame on you. In short, they were, respectively, the inventor of the computer and the first computer programmer. They were also AWESOME. Lovelace was the only legitimate child of Lord Byron(you know, that poet guy). Babbage invented the form, the penny post, and many other things besides.

Padua is fitting this in around her work life, so updates are sporadic at best, but the art is amazing and the plots are funny and brilliant. And it has footnotes! But you don't have to take my word for it, as LeVar Burton used to say: click the link and see the historical geekyness for yourself.

The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage at 2D Goggles

"It's like Hogwarts for Pikeys!"

One of my most favouritest movies ever, the new adaptation of St. Trinian’s, is finally coming out on DVD in North America on August 11. Why now is a complete mystery, as the film premiered almost two years ago and was never even shown here, but I am not about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

I think it’s a brilliant film, but I am surprised at how much hated there is for it out there. On one hand it is being accused of messing with a classic part of English heritage (the original Ronald Searle comics and subsequent films of the 50’s and 60’s), and on the other it is being charged with rampant sexism masquerading as girl power. Now, speaking as a girl myself, I found nothing offensively sexist about it. Yes, some of the girls wander around in inappropriately short uniforms with their garters on display, but it is a statement about the power of sex rather than the objectification of women, and a good portion of the girls aren’t slutty at all. It also does a brilliant job (I think) of taking the mick out of the chick flick industry, and Colin Firth gamely allows himself to be the subject of a host of send-ups.

Overall, I think the problem is that it is really a cult film. It will appeal neither to those who are old enough to be familiar with the originals (too modern for them), nor with the teens to whom it was marketed (too smart for them). The people who do love it, and I know several, are all girls like me: educated, university age girls who know the original through their parents, and grew up in the post Pride and Prejudice era. Given its niche market, it’s not surprising the film didn’t do well, but I know I’ve already preordered my copy on Amazon.

1812 With a Side of Gossip

One of the things that gets my goat about reenactors here in North America is the conviction that it is not appropriate to recreate any leisured or upper-class life. Dancing, whist and macarons had best be left to those non-historic Janeites. Well! Canada may not have a huge elite, but they did their best to live civilized English lifestyles. I just came across one of the best chroniclers of this Canadian elite, Anne Prevost, who was the daughter of the Govenor General. The social life about which she writes in her diary – when not talking about how the war of 1812 is going – would not seem out of place in Highbury were it not for the snowshoeing and sleigh rides. Only 17 when the war breaks out, Anne has a clear writing style and almost Austenesque cynicism. Here are some gems:

February 12, 1813
“Read Lord Byron's Childe Harold. What a horrible wretch Lord Byron must be.”

February 20, 1813
“Walked before breakfast and caught a severe cold. 22 at dinner. Among the company were three American Officers taken by Colonel Procter near Detroit: Brigadier General Winchester, Colonel Lewis, and Major Madison–the General seems a vulgar, good-humoured man and had much the air of an old Coachman out of place in a shabby livery. Colonel Lewis is a horrible looking fellow, and Major Madison I should think had not long left his place behind the counter.”

Oooh, snap! Forget Laura Secord; there, my friends, is a Canadian heroine we might all be proud of!

Hidden Gem

Yesterday at the World’s Biggest Book Store I stumbled across an author I had plum forgotten about. Marilyn Todd wrote a great series of Roman mysteries about Claudia Seferia, a gold-digging former prostitute with a gambling problem. I really loved them when I read them back in high school, but sadly most people didn’t agree, and they disappeared from book stores after about the sixth in the series; even the library stopped buying them. I thought she just didn’t write any more, but turns out she just changed publishers. It’s still nigh impossible to find her last six books – the copy at WBB seems to have been a one-of, and the used copies floating around are ridiculously expensive – but fortunately it’s been long enough that after I finish this new one I can reread all the old ones and I won’t remember whodunnit. They really are a lot of fun, and it’s a pity they didn’t do better.