Love me less, but love me longer: 08/2010

2010/08/21

Full Canadian breakfast rue Crescent

Canadian Breakfast

Scrambled eggs - Bacon - Pancakes - Potatoes - Fruits - Toasts

July 31st, 2010 - Rue Crescent - Montreal, Quebec

2010/08/14

Un mignon bassin à Calgary

Marchez vingt mètres vers le nord, voici la rivière, l'île pour la détente, le Prince's Island Park. Trente mètres vers le sud, les premières tours bourgeonnent à la lisière du centre d'affaire. Quelques blocs vers l'est et vous toucherez aux quelques quartiers chinois, le centre culturel chinois qui était sur le point d'accueillir un congrès d'acupuncture sous sa voûte kitch & ouvragée.

A ce carrefour de frontières, un petit espace urbain de divertissement & consommation. Quelques hôtels de luxe, quelques restaurants de chaîne comme la Pasta Factory, un centre commercial de taille moyenne avec une demi-douzaine de salles de cinéma. Un grand parking près du hangar du mall.

Et juste à côté du mall, quand les premiers arbres suggèrent que le parc n'est plus qu'à quelques pas, une surprenante trouvaille architecturale, large bassin offrant une mince épaisseur d'eau aux pieds estivaux. Jeu inoffensif pour les enfants, immense pédiluve à ciel ouvert, l'installation est charmante, les tours lumineuses en toile de fond et les branches d'arbres éparpillées tout autour en mèches mal coiffées. On s'y retrouve à vélo, on y traîne en lisant mollement un paperback, on y déguste une glace achetée à la camionnette stationnant un peu plus loin. Un petit coin d'urbanité dérisoire & mignonne.

June, 25th, 2010 - Calgary, Alberta

2010/08/12

Middle-eastern barbecue in Ottawa

Chicken marinated in safran, oignon and peper

Kebab

August, 10th, 2010 - Orleans, Ottawa - Ontario

2010/08/10

Prince Island Park in Calgary

June, 25th, 2010 - Prince Island Park - Calgary, Alberta

2010/08/08

Quite family neighbourhoods in SW Calgary

Walking South on the 14 Street South-West in Calgary, rows of burgers restaurants, a surprising art gallery, fashion stores, the classical bead-string of urban commercial brands.

But the slope goes up after the 17th Avenue, green trees emerge while the shops disappear, here are houses & houses, family homes two dozens of blocks away from the corporate downtown. Wide balconies salute passer-by crowds, large SUV & mini-vans are parked along the roads, and the quite family atmosphere gets more pregnant once you dive in the peaceful neighbourhoods, away from the large communication roads. Flowers bring colours to the unmatched houses & buildings, everybody must be sleeping or away for some nice time in the countryside, or just having a rich meal: this is only the beginning of a sunny Saturday afternoon!

At some crossroads, you can see the hazy business towers far away, far away.

June 19th, 2010 - Calgary, Alberta

An amazing music store in Calgary

As told in a previous post, the Greyhound station is somewhat remote from downtown Calgary. What would you do if you had almost two hours to wait before the departure of your bus ? Eating a grilled-cheese sandwich in the station diner ? Come on ! Let's walk around in the quasi-no-mans-land around, the quasi-suburb, the forgotten neighbourhood that you won't find in tourist guides. The best way to make so unexpected discoveries.

At the corner of the 14th street and the 11th avenue South-West, a strange shape appears in the hazy atmosphere, at small garage-shape building with a promising red tongue. Get closer, the black spots surrounding the tongue are old LP stuck on the wall, this is it, a music store.

The garage door is open at the front, a sign still indicates "Complete brake and alignment" but the psychedelic painting shows that oil is not used anymore in-between the walls. A rack full of CD is placed at the entrance, piles of posters inside, all over, at the left-hand side, and racks & racks of old LP on the right-hand side. At the center, sales on LPs, old magazines such as vintage Rolling Stones Magazines or NME, second-hand books and new unexpected paperbacks. You should also find tapes, amazing collectible, maybe T-shirts but I cannot remember for sure ; a whole set of rock buttons, I am sure of this.

The place is called Heritage Posters & Music Inc., with two stores : one in Calgary indeed, and one in Vegas, yes in Vegas ! With a wonderful slogan: The Music that stood the test of time. Perfect verse for a second-hand retailer, a wonderland for music lovers.

I found two amazing punk magazines, Punk Planet Magazine from 2004, with a beautiful cover by the comic artist Jaime Hernandez. And I could not refrain myself from scanning through the old LP racks, with sales for a couple of bucks. That's how you find yourself taking the plane back to Ottawa with 4 large LP with incredible sleeves, among which Bow Wow Wow, The Cars, and this amazing pop-art-like Amazon Beach by The Kings...