Montreal

So, finally I figured out how to get money into my US checking account, which is a huge relief. The way to do it is paypal. Just set up a new Canadian paypal account through paypal.ca. (I had to use a new email address) add your Canadian bank account and verify it. (This takes a week basically). Then pay your US paypal email account and you accept the payment. Now I'm waiting for the echeck to clear. So far I've paid about 5 dollars on the 100 dollars I've sent myself as a test, so I'm just waiting to see how much more I'm going to have so I can pay bills. Also, when I was in New York I deposited a Canadian check, which took 10 business days to clear, which is two weeks pretty much, but either way it sucks the big one. Is it better for Canadians who move to the US? or is it harder for USians to move to Canada?

Montreal

Nuit Blanche. Dusk-to-dawn city-wide dance party, yah? -2 degree craziness.

J, if you're reading this, can you have jellynyc do this on the Brooklyn Waterfront next year with, oh Diplo or Girl Talk, in say February?

Montreal

Poutine (with Pepperoni):

Parc Mont-Royal (with Kahlua):

Montreal

Quick shout out to highsnobiety. Thank you so much for sending me an LRG bag. I'm not quite sure if it's my style, I'm going to have to buy some new sneakers (it will go great with those coming-soon lo-tops). But at the price of free, that's great.

Kahlua is my roommates' dog. She is the sweetest pit/boxer? mix I've ever seen. It's nice living with a dog that you don't have to take care of.

That is all.

Montreal

Ok, here's a tip for everyone who moves to Canada from the US. This is really important, so listen up.

Don't buy things online from US shops. Period. Because the shipping will kill you.

If you're a technocratic (lazy) person like me, online shopping is just sort of a way of life -- you buy stuff online that you want, but don't need right away, and don't want to take time out to actually go out and buy, or just might be hard to find.

Such as, oh, LPs maybe.

Now, if you're me, you've been buying these things practically your whole life from Amazon, Target, and for LP's Insound.

But if you're in Canada, the rules change quite a bit. You have to pay some crazy tax after the shipping, and if you use UPS or FEDEX you have to pay a customs brokering charge.

While it is true that you can use "expedited" services from them, those expedited services are crazy expensive, charging as much as 100 dollars for a 3 pound (1.35 Kg) item. Now that's insane, when you bought a fukcing 100 dollars worth of stuff.

Also, it is possible to use USPS or Canadian Post and I "hear" that you don't have to pay a "brokerage" charge. But, this is the key point: online shopping is supposed to be hassle free, and this is not.

So, not buying American is the way to go here people. Too bad, I'm about to get raped by UPS. Well, maybe not raped, literally, but anally violated (tomayto/tomahto). Just wish Canadian companies did a better job of marketing online. Capitalism doesn't work when you don't promote your brand, people. What is the Canadian Target? What is the Canadian Amazon??? What is the Canadian Insound?????? Let me know.

Montreal

So I'm about to move, which is great, because I'd like to explore different parts of the city. In preparation for this move, I realized I have no towel, so I went to go find one in Montreal.

(It's weird when you have no idea where to buy a towel, since there's no Target, no Bed Bath and Beyond or something to just default to. It's amazing the grip big box chain stores have on my psyche. )

I digress.

In any case, I looked up a place, Linen Chest, which appears to be Bed Bath and Beyond.ca, and took off in search of cheap towel. I found the place in this huge underground mall system called the underground city herebouts. This "city" is all awe-inspiring capitalist underbelly. But I like it.

It's basically a series of connected underground malls, which I explored with delight, sampling from the plethora, nay, cornucopia, of shitty mall cafes and juice joints, generally feeling great because it's -18 below. Seriously, -18. That is unbelievably, unimaginably cold to me. Yes, I'm a pussy, fuck off.

Never did buying a towel seem so enjoyable simply because I walked about a kilometer entirely indoors to get to the store and back.

One thing though, which may actually be, you know, interesting.

So I went to the bookstore, Indigo, in one of the malls. One thing about Canadian bookstores, and I'm generalizing based on my experience with two, is that they have terrible curatorship. There were no staff picks, no books arranged in any order other than sales, date, or alphabetical in the store. This means that other than a table full of Oprah's picks, books I have already read and/or shitty trade paperbacks, there's no way for me to pick a book other than literally looking at every book in the store in alphabetical order. Yes, I know, I could find a book before I go, but that's asking a lot for a guy who had no plans other than "Get Towel" today.

So I ask a worker in the store if there are any, "you know, like lists of recommendations or something?" She points me to a kiosk with a browser for their lists (ah technology, I love and hate you). Again, only books listed in order of sales or date or by Times best seller list (which is a list of books to avoid, in my opinion.)  In any case, she recommends Ken Follett's "Pillars of the Earth."  Which rings a bell for me, because this book I read in high school and I remember it incredibly well.

The reason why is that it was assigned reading to me in 8th grade, one of those summer reading books. It's a reasonably well written espionage thriller, intended obviously to endow me with the pleasure of reading.

However, that alone would not suffice to have me actually remember reading it. The real reason is that it has some graphic sexual scenes. To put it mildly, I believe this book is the first place that I became aware of something called the g-spot. Which of course is slightly odd, because I was assigned reading it when I was 13. By Dr. Otto. So clearly, neither she nor anybody else had actually read it before assigning it, or whoever did was some pedophilic weirdo who got off on perverting adolescent kids.

Shame, Dr. Otto, shame. (That's not her, but you get the idea)

Of course, I was about to tell this story to the saleswoman right before someone asked her where to find the graphic novel section. Thank God, or else she would have thought I was going to get all rapey or something. Actually, Pillars of the Earth is quite good. Just, you know, skip the bodice-ripping/cunnilingus parts. or don't, whatever.

It is Fukcing Cold

Why did I move to Montreal again??

Montreal

Yesterday I hung around Montreal's "Chinatown," checking out the shops and such -- I was trying to hit the dimsum, but my lazy ass woke up way too late. I hit Chapters, the big bookstore here in downtown Montreal before heading over, and it took me hours to find a book to read in the most cramped "flagship" store ever. Definitely feel like there's not much reading going on in Montreal. B&N is packed almost every weekend, but this place not so much... Also there isn't much curatorship there. Maybe there are smaller better bookstores to go to. Screw it, I like the big chains though. Anyways, miss home.

So I walked past some really grotty, for the lack of a better word, strip clubs (skinarama's) to get to this Chinatown, which is kind of walled off by these really lame Chinatown gates. I was really looking for a good steamed pork bun, but apparently they don't have these:

Suck it, Momofuko, Mei Lai Wah kicks your ass on these 2 dollar bad boys. But apparently, Montreal is devoid of these old school establishments I used to go to on Mott. Man, did I say I miss NY?

Anyways, this Chinatown is tiny, only a couple of blocks, and I guess it doesn't really have much in the way of Chinois living in the area. It's basically what Little Italy in Manhattan is like for Italians, a must see, but only once a lifetime. Perhaps they have a feast of San Genarro type thing down here, but it's hard to see.

Anyways, ate at a place called Beijing Restaurant, had some dumplings and soup. They put me in the worst table imaginable... next to the bathroom, the service area AND the kitchen. Oh well, I was by myself, so I guess it's understandable. Service was good, good dumplings, terrible chicken corn soup (wayyy too thick it was like sludge.) Will check out Qing Hua later, because I hear they have the only soup dumplings in the City. Hopefully I can get those somewhere here.

If you visit Montreal, don't ask me to check out Chinatown, it's not so interesting.

Montreal

Schwartz's Deli, Montreal:

Good, but not great sandwich, basically a pastrami on rye with yellow mustard. Not too thrilled with this mustard -- Kraftish. Meat was mostly fresh if a bit dry. I'm used to the juicy chewiness of the New York variety. Pretty authentic NYC deli feel though (although those are a dying breed.) Staff was friendly, I ate at the counter "Anywhea you like, buddy." (Weird Canadian+Jewish? accents.) The pickle was fantastic. I might go back for the pickles. Also no Doc Brown's black cherry, boo.

Montreal

Portrait via Sean Tan's "Story in pictures".

Montreal

I had a chance over the weekend to see the Montreal Museum of Fine Art. I love museums, they are basically a safe haven for thoughtful solitude (I never go in a group, and it can be annoying as a couple as well.) Looking at new things, especially beautiful or amazing things, is a great way to spend an afternoon. The MMFA is big, larger than I first thought, housed in two buildings which contain a pretty diverse collection,i.e., european 18th/19th century paintings, contemporary art, decorative arts, and a very very nice collection of inuit art.

I think I may have found a new tattoo.

In any case, I have a particular fondness for the Inuit, partly because of my second grade teacher Mr. Euster, who lived in Alaska and had his Inuit friends stop by and tell Inuit stories about whale hunting, carve rocks and do other things second graders generally like. I wish I could remember their names.

In any case. I'd recommend the museum, it's not as big as some as I've been to, but it has all the right touches.

Well, at least you'll get to see this:

Montreal

So I recently moved to Montreal (in the dead of winter) and I've been so busy with school things and moving I haven't really had a chance to check it out very much so far. I am excited though to be back in a biggish city.

This is my new home (I never thought I'd live in a smaller apartment than the one I left in Tribeca). It is tiny but bright and I can't complain.

I had arepas for dinner last night. I think the last time I had arepas was with Yujung at the Caracas Arepas bar in the EV. I don't even know if arepas exist in Rochester... but in any case, it was at this place called Boulangerie Bocadillo

Which is this tiny place not unlike Caracas Arepas Bar, and it's two blocks from my place, so it's going to be my go to place (which I never had in Rochester). Now, it kinda seems like Rochester was this terrible girlfriend who I hated, but actually she had her moments and I miss her.

Oh and one crazy thing about my new school, the Ecole Polytechnique, is that when you come off the subway, you have to go up this crazy hill, but there are escalators there. Now the weird thing about these escalators is that its a long ramp like a incline airport conveyer. It's pretty much awesome and stupid at the same time, which I have never felt before. You can be the judge:

Well, anyways, its pretty crazy that nobody ever gets hurt on these things, so I hope I'm not the first.