felis_ultharus: The Pardoner from the Canterbury Tales (Default)
Travel

I just wanted to note that I'm back from BC. It was a very quiet trip -- I spent most of my days there hanging out with [livejournal.com profile] node357, which was nice. He composed some new music while I was there, and showed me Psychonauts, which really does deserve its reputation ^_^

I also saw a couple of friends I hadn't seen in about fifteen years -- all thanks to the miracle of Facebook. I never did get to Vancouver this time, though, so that'll have to wait for Yule.

The best pleasure though -- aside from seeing [livejournal.com profile] node357 -- was that of seeing the place itself. Montreal is toxic and grey and cemented compared to that greenery and clean air that is BC. I like Montreal because most of my friends are here, but except for the Old Port, and some of the older stone houses and parks, I have to admit I consider this a very ugly and polluted city. Too much concrete, and too few growing things.

Airports continue to get more and more surreal -- they've always bothered me because the waiting areas between flights are really non-places that drift detached from anything in a bland emptiness where things get sold. In other words, they're Postmodernism incarnate.

The Pearson airport in Toronto has a particularly weird waiting area. There's a stall there that sells jewellery trees for little girls, in the shapes of princesses whose heads and arms have been replaced by necklace-and-ring-holding tentacles. My first thought was Jenova from FFVII, or something out of Lovecraft.

Not much else to report -- I did not defeat any ninja armies this time around. I wanted a good start on the major edit of my novel, but only got about one-quarter in. It's almost a third finished now.

Meme

"If there are one or more people on your friends list who make your world a better place just because they exist, and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the Internet, then post this same sentence in your journal."

(I'm lucky in that this applies to probably most if not all of the people I've friended.)
felis_ultharus: The Pardoner from the Canterbury Tales (Default)
I'm posting from an internet booth at the PET-port in Dorval. I just wanted everyone to know I got here in plenty of time for my flight.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone in BC. I'm also looking forward to starting major edit on this version number 5. I have a very good feeling about this -- it's so much better than anything else I've done ^_^
felis_ultharus: The Pardoner from the Canterbury Tales (Default)
So for anyone who isn't aware, I'll be in BC from this Saturday to the Sunday of the following weekend. I might detour to Vancouver at some point, but I'll be staying mostly around Victoria area.

The last few days I've been mostly making preparations -- including a few shopping trips. I used the trip as an excuse to buy new clothes, which I've needed due to wear-and-tear, and because I've gone down several waist sizes this year. Maybe I'll be able to fit my kilt at Pride.

Other than that, I've been working heavily on my preliminary edit of the novel. I'm nearly 70% done. I want to finished -- and ready for the big edit -- by the time I go to BC.
felis_ultharus: The Pardoner from the Canterbury Tales (Default)
In Vancouver. The trip out was good. I have to say that BC Ferries has the most interesting warning signs anywhere. I now know that it is "illegal to transport bees across the American borsder" (why bees -- there are no signs warning of the dangers of transporting anything else). I have also learned that the Ferry service urges us to "not store drums" in their parking lot.

Of course, these were the same people whose slogan was "Cruise the Straits with BC Ferries" until a gay employee tipped them off.

I'm in a tiny internet cafe on Davie Street. Already visited Little Sisters' at their new location, spoke with Janine Fuller for the first time in 10 years.

My favourite cafe in the West End, The Edge, has turned into a Priape of all things! And the Gay and Lesbian Community Centre has gotten rid of their couches and coffee machine, though there are still places to sit and talk. And they run so many community organizations out of that place -- dozens of them, including support groups and community organizations of every description.

Seeing Vancouver's "village" is wonderful, and I missed it a lot, but it depresses me all the same. Montreal has nothing like it. We have a lot of queer businesses, but they're almost all bars and saunas. We only just got a tiny bookstore back. You could fit six of those bookstores in Little Sisters'. What services there are mostly run through university groups.

The community here is vibrant and alive, and large as it is in Montreal, it always feels kind of dead. If a person doesn't like clubbing, the only thing left in Montreal are university social groups -- and nothing during the holidays, or summer. Vancouver, a smaller city, really has a community, and you can feel it when you're here.

And I haven't seen a single bar or sauna in all the time I've been walking around here on this rainbow-draped street. I'm not against things like that, but it often feels that's all Montreal has to offer, and it's not stuff I'm into.

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felis_ultharus: The Pardoner from the Canterbury Tales (Default)
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September 2011

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