The Ugly Sweater Fanuary Blues Party
On the night of January 31st we gathered, in all ugliness, to put an end to the blues of January and welcome a new, fresh February.

Some proof of the ugly...


aghast at our ugliness


playing a crazy game of celebrities

and to finish off the night my favorite local band, the Shady J's serenade us with the blues. you can watch their music video below!
(if you watch closely you might see some people your recognize like the beautiful MHJ)

Sad stat of the day:

In North America, humans now spend approximately 90 percent of their time indoors and a further 5 percent in cars, leaving only 5 percent of the time when they are outdoors (Leech et al, 1996)

I'm not sure if this is waking time or based on 24-hour day. But still, we need to be outside more, trees and earth and sky is so much more inspiring than four walls and furniture!!! enjoy it while you can before it gets too cold! (if you're reading from somewhere in N. America that is). This stat is pretty accurate for me in the winter, but this summer I often spent 4-5 hours outside everyday.




I got this stat from an interesting report on Urban Ecosystems and Human Health that i'm reading for my Environment and Resource Studies course called "Building Sustainable Communities"

Namur Metro: a good deal of fun (Part III)



"and i'll have the tali plate with..."
"chickpeas, no bread and no cheese" mrs. pushap interrupts.

it's official, i'm a regular, and so proud mrs. pushap knows my order (and my food allergies) by heart! i know this happens all the time in the movies at those home-town restaurants. But it happened to me in montreal! i'm not gonna lie, i feel pretty damn special. especially considering that pushap's is probably the greatest indian restaurant on the planet.

Pushap is the gem of the Namur metro neighborhood. its worth the trip all by itself, sans shopping. to get there, turn right out of the metro on jean-tallon, walk to the first set of lights and turn right and its at the next intersection.
here's why i love pushaps so so much:
- the food is always amazing, just the right amount of spice. and its 100% vegetarian
- their pakora and samosas with sweat and spicy dipping sauseare to die for as an appetizer. take a few to go when you leave for your lunch the next day. below are pakora, they are chickpea dumplings with onion, cilantro and spice.

- it's dirty cheap. you get a huge tali (mixed plate that includes chickpeas or lentil dal, 2 vegetable dishes, rice, chipati, and salad) plus a chai tea and dessert for $6!!! incroyable mes amis!

- they have deliciously strange, techno-colored desserts

- the service is quick and so friendly. they are so sweet!

- the decor is fabulous
- its always busy, but you can still almost always get a table within minutes.

- every friend i've brought their loves it, you'll always have good company

saturday special

last night was really lovely. my apartment had a little ending-of-term dress up and go out night. we had a delicious dinner at the blue lotus down on Duluth. i'd rate them...

9/10 for presentation

7/10 flavor of main dish, 9/10 flavor of spring roll

9/10 service (he waiter took the nice group photo for us!)

10/10 my company



after dinner several of us headed up St. Laurent to the sala rossa to hear Basia Bulat in concert. it was such a great show. she is a fun, genuine, gracious performer. she has amazing vocal and plays a mean autoharp and guitar and her band (banjo, ukulele, cello, viola, piano, percussion) were so great! they're all so down to earth and they way they interact on stage makes you feel like they're a bunch of your friends. i bought her album, oh my darling, and will be listening to it on repeat all day. you can give her a listen here.

here's a sample from her goofy music video.


Part 2 of the Namur series Coming Soon. come back often.

Namur metro: a good deal of fun!

Namur might just be the best metro stop in montreal. yes, its FAR up on the orange line, 2 stops form the end to be exact, which is about a 25 minute ride from mont royal stop, but its a straight shot, no transfers, so you sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.
Namur is way up on the left by Cote-Vertu. I live way on the right at Mont Royal.

needless to say, namur is well worth the trip. in fact its a trip i make about ever week or two. i'm going to leave you at a cliffhanger though, wondering why oh why i would venture away from the comforts of my plateau neighborhood so eagerly. the delights of namur each deserve their own posts. for now, hopefully you'll be content and appreciative of Namur's spectacular sense of style.


original 70's architecture.


namur's quality music


outside and on the way to...

how to spend a sunday afternoon in montreal?

i've been told countless times about the sunday tam-tam (drums) circle on the mountain and have been meaning to go every weekend since i arrived. today, the weather was perfect, i finished my studying and walked towards to mountain, camera in hand.

heading though Parc Jean-Mance towards the moutain.

so i was expecting a circle of 20 or so people, sitting in a neat circle, all drumming together. maybe some people dancing around the outside or just listening. but as i approached i could see this was certainly not the case...

a sense of community in such a huge crowd.

i felt like i was in some weird time warp between 1960s woodstock days and some happy time in the future where people of all races, ages, backgrounds come together to play music and dance.

there were families, young people, old people, people who had come alone, people who had come together. there was little talking, mostly just the rythm, the smell of sweat, weed, and autumn leaves.

i don't know if i've seen so much eccentricity all in one place. but while people were such individuals, so uniquely interesting, there was a common rhythm, a shared beat, a shared place, a shared outrageously beautiful autumn afternoon.



apparently the sunday tam-tams are quite famous. you can read about them on wiki, montreal city site, city noise and even see them on youtube.

you can see more of my photos on flickr.

“Love Your Body Week”, planned by the UW Women’s Centre, included a number of fun and informative events for students. There was a film night, a yoga class, a contact dance workshop, a seminar with a naturopath, information booths, a sex toy workshop, bust casting, and a belly dancing class. One of the events I attended was the contact dance workshop. What in the heck is contact improv? I hear you asking, curious and inquiring. I didn’t really know before I went to the workshop either, and I admit, I was a bit apprehensive that it would be totally weird and awkward. “Contact improvisation is a dance with gravity, momentum, and everything else that is happening in the moment, including the physical and energetic contact the dance-partners share. It is a whole-body study in the subtle art of non-verbal collaboration and co-creation. Often a meditative practice, improvisation is done without music, to allow space to tune into what is happening and the moment-to-moment impulses of the body.” (http://www.contactimprov.ca/#whatis)
At the workshop we started by plopping down on the floor and becoming aware of our breath. The leader suggested we think of our bodies as a bag of sand, and picture the grains of sand shifting with our breath. We slowly started to move more until we were all up moving around the room, still keeping the idea of sand and weight in our minds. Then we were asked to become aware of how others were moving around us, and start to make eye contact. Eventually we began to make contact with one another. We did an exercise where we pressed our hand or shoulder into a partner and tried to give and take the same amount of weight from one another. And then feel the weight of a partner as we moved through the room together.
Going into the workshop, I was a bit nervous and reserved. It seemed kind of weird and new age (even for someone who’s into yoga and other hippy, earth-mother activities). Dance around with no music and make almost full body contact with complete strangers? Sounds awkward. But by the end of the two-hour workshop I felt completely different. I felt aware of my body and how it moved and felt. I felt comfortable and calm, and even fulfilled in a strange way. Where did this sense of fulfillment come from? I think a lot of it came from the collaboration, contact and touch that I shared with the other participants of the workshop. Even living at a friendly place like Grebel I often go through an entire day and only make physical contact with several people (hugs from a few friends) and other days maybe no one. This doesn’t seem healthy or natural for me. Maybe I’m not reaching my “contact quota”. I felt fulfilled by the safety, trust and friendship created in the space of the contact improv workshop. I think a lot of the fulfillment I felt came from the physical contact and touch in the dance.
After the workshop I was talking to a friend about how it seems that sometimes people rush into romantic relationships when they might not be ready for one. They might jump in simply because they’re craving physical contact and intimacy. Relationships that are formed only on a physical basis can be unfulfilling. (insert witty joke about safe sex here) There might be healthier alternatives, you could start giving free hugs like that guy in Australia, or maybe embrace the new age and try some contact improv.