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Montreal 2004
(Rush 30th anniversary)
August 21, 2004
Morning
Set
out for Montréal in the morning with B. for the Montréal
date (August 22) of the Rush 30th anniversary tour!
Breakfast
courtesy of Tim Horton’s, of course, they being one
of the few places open at 6:30 in the morning, then
off on our way!
In
Fredericton we started to hear a strange noise coming
from the rear passenger side tire. At first we thought
it was something in the cooler, because it was a kind
of intermittent banging noise, but then it became
more constant, and B. began to feel she was losing
braking power. After a brief under-car inspection,
which showed us nothing, and conference in Boisetown,
we backtracked half a klick to the Woodsman’s Museum
and inquired as to whether there was a garage in the
area. The very helpful staff got hold of a local man
to have a look at it for us, and we backtracked further
to his shop. We were afraid the brakes were giving
out, leaving us stuck three hours from Moncton, with
a fair sum of money tied up in this venture. All it
turned out to be, however, was a tiny piece of metal
left from a recent repair that had caused the brake
to operate improperly. The sound we'd been hearing
had been the metal coming into contact with the brake
pad. After a delay of roughly thirty or forty minutes
in Boisetown, we were back on our way without any
more trouble. Thank God we weren’t on the Trans-Canada,
or we would have been well and truly screwed.
Afternoon
Around
2:00 we adopted the Arrogant Worms Rocks and Trees
as the anthem for our trip through the (apparently)
moose-infested forests of northern New Brunswick. Endless,
endless kilometers of trees, punctuated by small rivers
and moose warning signs.The scenery is like a side-scrolling
video game where you only have so much background then
it repeats. We were so bored that we started pointing
out the items mentioned in the chorus of Rocks and
Trees. For those of you who have never heard the
song, its about the scenic wonders of Canada. The chorus
is as follows:
Cause
we've got
rocks and trees
and trees and rocks
and rocks and trees
and trees and rocks
and rocks and trees
and trees and rocks
and water!
They
had to have written this while driving across northern
New Brunswick. It's so true, and its worse when
you're driving through the Irving Replant areas: not
only do all the trees look alike, they're all
the same species, height, and distance apart. Stepford
trees.
 Crossed
the border in Campbellton, after having photographed
the giant salmon fountain. The picture turned out better
than I expected, considering that the car was moving
at the time. I have it on good authority from a friend
of mine that each year at the local high school graduation,
someone takes it upon themselves to dump a box of soap
in the fountain. Almost makes me wish we'd gone down
a few months earlier.
We
drove through Quebec following the Gaspé coastline.
Northern Quebec, especially this route, is both refreshing
and beautiful! A lovely break from the endless tress.
Endless, endless trees. When I start longing for lots
of human contact, you know it’s a bad sign!
Evening
We
passed Rivière-du-Loup at 5:30-ish, finally on the last
leg of our journey to Montreal. Stopped for gas, and
I finally got to perk myself up with a chocolate bar
from the dépanneur (conveniece store). I’d been craving
chocolate since Amqui! I hadn’t fallen asleep in the
car, which really surprised me because even with the
coffee, I’d only had 3 hours sleep the night before.
All the better, because it would put me on a more normal
sleep schedule when we got to the hotel.
Late
Evening
Oh,
God, the Trans-Canada is long! And boring, so boring,
for such long stretches. I finally fell asleep after
Rivière-du-Loup, when the scenery became, well, highway.
Highways are not generally scenic. When we finally got
into Montréal, we got lost trying to find our exit,
courtesy of the crappy map from hell. After that, we
proceeded to drive around Sherbrooke, looking for the
hotel. The hell-map didn’t help AT ALL because according
to it, the Holiday Inn Montréal-Midtown is right on
top of another hotel, giving the impression that they’re
one and the same thing. We finally found our hotel by
accident, and demanded confirmation from the parking
attendant. (Literally: I shoved my hard-copy of the
confirmation e-mail at him and demanded to know if we
were there.) I think I jumped out of the car before
it came to a complete stop, I was so sick of being in
it. In retrospect, I do feel bad for the poor parking
attendant, but then again I’m sure he’s seen crazier
people than I was at that point. Hey, after sixteen
hours in a car, then another hour lost in downtown Montréal,
tired, hungry, stiff, and pissed, and becoming progressively
more so on all fronts, anyone would go a little insane,
and I'm sure I was more than a little. Just getting
out of the car did wonders for my sanity, and I was
much calmer by the time I got to the desk attendant,
although probably still a little wild-eyed.
After
getting our stuff up to our room (for a suitcase each
we were hardly going to bother the porters) we went
back down to the restaurant to look at prices. The elevator
trapped us momentarily when the doors stuck: I used
the door-open button and discovered that it had stopped
two inches below the actual floor. Settling in a building
is a wonderful thing, no? After a brief look at the
prices, which looked worse than they were at 11:30 at
night, I decided to forgo the restaurant, and just eat
a candy bar I had in my bag. Also, we wanted to make
a couple of phone calls—B. to her mother, and me
to my fiancé. After some difficulty with being disconnected
while attempting to make a collect call, I gave up and
made a quick long-distance call, hoping not to be charged
too much for it. “Honey, I’m at the number I gave you,
room 910, call me back, bye” was literally all there
was to it. He called back promptly, and may have regretted
it because he was immediately regaled with a semi-hysterical
stress-release-cum-rant tale of the journey involving
rocks and trees and water and the God Moose, which I
should possibly have explained.
 The
God Moose was created after we saw an absolutely GIGANTIC
moose warning sign by the side of the road, and concluded
that it was warning about not just regular moose,
but Godzilla-sized moose. The God Moose! This was at
about the seventy billionth tree, and the eight hundredth
moose sign. We were a leetle bit punchy at that
point… Poor S. His fears for my sanity were confirmed
that night, I think.
My
last entry in the unedited journal I was keeping at
that point (this is altered to reflect past-tense, and
eliminate a lot of incoherencies) was:
I am never doing this again. Trains. Trains forever.
I
finished up the journal for that day after the phone
call, and went straight to bed, and blessed, welcome,
tree-free sleep.
August 21, 2004
Morning
and Afternoon
Woke
up around seven, chatted and figured out the coffee
maker, then had some coffee while watching Olympic diving.
Then, under the impression the pool was open at eight
thirty, we went down to use it, only to discover that
it didn’t open until ten on Saturdays. The hours must
have changed since the information brochure in our room
was printed. So we reversed our plan and got breakfast
first. Walked around for a while looking for someplace
to eat, and eventually would up going to a Provigo (Superstore
in Quebec) for coffee and a package of brioche,
which we ate outside in a small park by the Président
Kennedy Mètro stop. The park was small, but pretty,
featuring a playground, the outdoor patio of a bordering
café, and a small totem pole. (To view the full photo
and explantory text, click here.)
I love finding small green spaces like this in a city;
its one of the things I miss most in the one I live
in now.
Back
at the hotel, we picked up a paper on the way in, and
in strange coincidence, one of the stories was about
moose incidents on Canada's highways! Apparently it's
a real problem; we'd been wondering why all the moose
warning signs. I'd known they can do a LOT of damage
to a vehicle, but I hadn't realized how many incidents
there are over the course of a year. The Newfoundland
and Labrador moose warning sign is quite different than
the one pictured above: it features a large, intact
moose standing next to a crushed car, and that's pretty
accurate. I once saw a camper that a moose had jumped
on: the front was totaled and the engine block was cracked.
I don't quite remember what happened to the moose, but
I'm pretty sure it walked away.
Down
at the pool we first soaked in the hot tub for about
ten minutes, and talked for a while with a woman from
Pennsylvania who was up for the jazz festival. The conversation
was about travel, Montréal, cooking, and different trips
we'd all taken, although that last bit was mostly between
the other hotel guest and B.. I'd never been out of
the Martime provinces before this, although not for
a lack of wanting.
 After
showering, we took off again to find a walking route
to the Centre Bell, and somehow got turned around and
ended up going in the opposite direction. Fortunately,
while we were staring in touristy confusion at on of
the many convenient maps of Centre-Ville (downtown)
dotting the sidewalks, a native Montréaler took pity
on us and asked if we needed any help. We walked most
of the way down Rene-Lévesque with her, until she pointed
out our turn-off by the huge, fortresslike CP Rail building,
and shortly thereafter we found the Centre Bell. Picked
up our tickets from the box office, then wandered down
through part of Old Montréal and the little Chinatown,
before heading back to the hotel for food and some extra
sleep. We'd been walking for about two or three hours
all told, and we were quite tired.
Evening
 Around
five o’clock, after having asked the incredibly helpful
hotel staff for actual directions, we left to
find the venue again. They gave us a much shorter route
than the one we had taken previously, and gave us a
little map on which they had circled the hotel and drawn
a line from it to the Centre Bell. We found that first,
as a point of reference, then meandered through Old
Montréal some more, down to the old port area, then
back uptown and were at the Centre Bell by about seven.
Montréal is such a beautiful city.
What
with actually getting in, waiting to buy souvenirs,
and finding our section and seats, and a quick trip
on my part to change into my new t-shirt, we only ended
up in our seats at about 7:50, ten minutes before the
8:00 show. We were seated stage-side, close enough to
feel the heat from the flash-pots, and with an excellent
side-view of the band, especially Neil Peart and Alex
Lifeson, although Geddy Lee would occasionally disappear
out of sight behind the drum kit, but only occasionally.
The choreography appears blocked so that no matter where
you are in the auditorium, you’ll get a good look at
everyone during the show. The show was truly amazing!
Beautiful work with the lights and lasers, and the band
has so much enthusiasm and energy! My
God! They make performing look like play, not work.
There is just no way to describe Rush live: if you’ve
seen the Rush in Rio DVD you’ll have an idea,
but it’s just not the same. At times you’re so absorbed
in watching the band you forget to listen to the music—at
least I did. They’re amazing. Just to hear Spirit
of Radio played live was worth all the time in the
car (and the endless trees). I understand why people
follow their favorite bands around the country. Anyway,
we’re getting into not just fan-rant here, but scary-obsessive-fan-rant,
so I’ll stop. They played not only older songs like
Mystic Rhythms, Between the Wheels, and Xanadu,
but also a fair bit from Vapor Trails and Feedback.
Most of the encore was from Feedback, which I enjoyed.
Quite a treat to hear new material played live. Bought
a program on the way out, a large book printed on photo-quality
paper full of photos of the group taken over the past
30 years. I get a kick out of the fact that its exactly
the size and shape of an .35 LP. (Yes, I remember those.
Tells you something about my age, yes?) I didn’t get
a chance to look through it that night, though, because
we had to be on the road by seven, so it was straight
back to the hotel and to bed. Not terribly exciting,
but necessary.
August 22, 2004
Our
wake-up call came promptly at six, and we were packed,
coffeed, and at the front desk for check-out by six-thirty.
When we got down to the parking attendant, we discovered
that we hadn’t been charged for parking, which explained
why it came to significantly less than I was expecting,
but a call to the desk solved that problem. We got in
the car, and drove straight to Moncton with no problems,
and maybe 4 stops along the way for gas, coffee, etc.
Would
I do it again? With a few changes to the way we traveled,
but....oh yeah!
Other Photos
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ECHO
Through
its blend of material, verticality, and iconography,
this work evokes an Aboriginal totem pole. A totem
was an animal or plant, which the First Nations
of the West Coast considered to be the ancestor
and protector of the clan. In this case, the totem
is viewed as the protector of the forest resource
for future generations. With its upwardly spiraling
movement, this "never-ending pole" is
intended to convey the idea of renewal and sustainability.
The
bear is the symbol of wisdom and the healing arts
among Aboriginal cultures. For North Americans,
the bear is a mythical animal par excellence.
Its presence on this symbolic location serves
as a reminder to be respectful of ecosystems in
order to conserve and protect the forest and biodiversity.
Michel
Saulnier 2001
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One
of the stone lions guarding the Chinatown archway.
It has the name of the organization that donated
it, but I forgot to write it down, and can't quite
make it out in the picture. :(
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Notre
Dame Basilica was absolutely gorgeous, as was
the square in front of it, but there were so
many other people jostling for good angles,
it was hard to get a good one myself. There's
been a church building on this spot since the
1600's, although the first one was destroyed,
and the current building erected in the 1800's.
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I
just liked the way the Metro stop looked with
the fountain stretching out in front of it. The
people in red behind it are part of a frosh week
event.
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This
is one of those photos that really, really made
me wish I had a zoom function. Curiously enough,
from a certain spot on the waterfront near the
marina, the central figure looked like a hand
reaching upwards.
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The
giant fish again. Cause you just can't get enough.
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Another
photo that really made me wish I had a zoom. Because
its in the background of the full photo it's kind
of blurry, but I liked it because it shows at
least four different architectural styles, kind
of a history of the city in buildings. You can
see the basilica at the bottom left.
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These
guys kind of remind me of the art you see scattered
around Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax,
near the art building.
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A
little walking park in Old Montreal, yet another
of the green spaces you find scattered around
downtown.
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Closer
detail of the statues on the front of the basilica.
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All
materials except those already copyrighted, © 1995
- 2004, Firebird and &design
Last updated
May 27, 2007
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