Train Set and Others

Having lived down town for the last few years I am no stranger to the sounds of a train pulling into a station. At least twice a day during the summer I walked under the train bridge at The Forks. It's not hard to see why I have train sounds on the brain.

If you stand under a train bridge and listen carefully, you can pick out all the different points of contact between the train and the tracks. Each one has a unique pitch and tone colour. If you add the sounds of the brakes regulating the trains speed as well as the cars banging together you've got some great techno. Except... The spacing of the wheels and the track connections usually put trains in 6/8. If the train is going REAL slow it becomes a dubby 4/4 groove. Always with the random lead elements provided by the breaks and the cars.

I pay attention to this stuff. I know a lot of you do as well. Who hasn't listented to their windshield wipers go in and out of phase? Found themselves humming along with the photocopier as it goes through its various cycles? How about Veronica's famous regge microwave? "doon ka chinka"

I know people read my blog... But nobody posts anything. Here is a great opertunity to end the terrible silence.

TELL ME YOUR FAVORITE SOUNDS!

Science makes it go!

The DAFx 2006 conference is being held at McGill. You might think I'd be all over the world's Digital Audio effects conference but no... The people who are involved in this conference are from Music Technology. They are the scientists that are pushing the boundary of what is possible in signal processing.

My Fourier theorem isn't what is has to be if I want to understand what these guys are talking about.

The composition majors are excited about the concert that is part of the conference. For all their science they can't do much with the technology they produce. They pass the tourch over to composers and instrumentalists who specialize in the "art" side of things.

I got to help McGill's eletroacoustics guys set up an insane load of equipment. A 9 channel audio diffusion setup, 2x 70 inch plasma displays, 5 computers...

Montreal is angry

"Life is like a video game, you gotta die sometime"

A sad state of affairs. The media will feast on this for weeks. They gave him his wish. His face is plastered all over the news. Here's a pic you won't see on TV:

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/7365/douchebagax2.jpg

It's gonna be hard for me to wear my trench after this one. I hope the next shooter wears a Hawaiian shirt.

Montreal is Crazy

I was walking down my street the other day and I saw a HUGE battle axe for sale in the window! (It even had an end pike and blood grooves!) It took every shred of my faltering grasp on reality not to go in there and ask how much gold it would set me back. I wonder if it has any bonuses...

So.... I noticed that there are a lot of medieval stories in Montreal. Helmets, Ninja stars, chain mail, huge broad swords, all more available than you might expect in a 21st century metropolis. These stores make Montreal a Mecca for the most terrifying of all nerds... The fantasy book reading, DnD playing, Epic Metal listening LARPer! (larp = Live Action Role Play) I had to learn more. I did some research and discovered one of the most beautiful stories I've heard in a long time.

***

Every weekend 200+ larpers fight each other with medieval weapons at the top of Mont Royal. Apparently this has been going on for quite some time and people come out to watch the nerds in full plate mail thump each other with ductaped swords. One day, a bunch of emo/punk kids, trendoid synth pop and goth kids secretly organized themselves (via message boards) into a massive army of rotting zombies. After putting the final touches on their makeup and costumes they climbed the mountain, to confront the army of medieval warriors. What do warring knights do when an undead army begins shambling out of the forest across the field? They put aside their petty differences and form lines to confront a greater evil. These nerdy warriors quickly integrated the zombies into their fantasy world. The battle raged, many brains were consumed; there were heroes, victims... Many of the knights became zombies themselves, seeking the blood of their former comrades. Anyway, it sounded like a lot of fun. Could you imagine what was going through the heads of some of those fantasy crazed lunatics? "I've been training my whole life for this!"

Hahaha. Montreal is crazy.

Montreal is different...

I was walking down Sherbrooke today and a man rode by on a bicycle, he had nothing on below the waist. I imagine his naked butt creates a radius of wierdedoutness that keeps him safe from aggressive motorists. If you drive too close you could see right up his ass!

The Future Smells Like Hamburgers

The Winnipeg effect isn't limited to those who spend their lives there. As we move around the continent we pull a swirling ball of increased probability of meeting someone we know. The more time one spends in the Peg, the more charge will carry with you as you explore the world. When needed, the Winnipeg effect releases a charge and will cause you to meet someone you know in a random place. Here is an example.



Yesterday I met Chris Jhons during my connection to the Honore Baugard line. Just as I was feeling like I didn't know anybody on the city, there he was. Kyle (Another friend) just happened to be stopping in Montreal before going to do his masters in Scotland. The three of us went out and had Montreal Smoked Meat. (It tastes like soft meaty cloves)

Afterwards, Kyle and I climbed Mont Royal to see what everybody was getting on about. We found a strange hard fruit the size of an orange. They were growing in the trees up there. The fruit smelled like my grandmothers flower arrangements and had a big pit in the middle. We also found a 1960 pavilion, ducks, fish, and picnic tables.

When we climbed down we drank 2 liters of Gatorade each. We then watched the final gathering of frosh week. Looking across the beautiful centre campus, I couldn't help but wonder if there were some future leaders of our country down there. McGill has a tradition of producing some of Canada's leading political figures. Then I noticed that the BBQ smelled great.

I looked over at Kyle, sitting there on the curb with his skater shoes and backpack... "The future smells like hamburgers". He agreed.

Welcome to NDG Montreal

I made it to Montreal,

My first impressions experiences of the city have been positive. I practiced my French on my cab driver on my way to my new place and he was impressed. For some reason French people here don't seem to be aware of the number of French speaking people in Manitoba, let alone the Francophiles like me. When he found out I was here to study music he got very excited. He said.. "I like music" and he rattled around in his glove box for a CD and popped it into the CD player. I was thinking "Oh god.. here we go..." And the taxi was filled with the most beautiful black spiritual choir music I have heard since my listening to Ladysmith Mambazo as a kid. Beaming with pride, he told me about this music and how much it meant to him. Then he blew me away by telling me that he was a member of the choir that did the recording! After that we talked about separatism a bit and how his family came to Canada. Very interesting, like most refugee stories.

I live in NDG or Notre Dame de Grace. It's a well off area of Montreal, kind of like a mix between MiddleGate River Heights and the cooler parts of Wolsley. My place is very nice and I have two great room mates. Dawne the Aboriginal, Behai french horn performance major from Winnipeg and Macha the Russian Jew violinist law student from Montreal.

We are quite a team. Already we're getting along well and sharing various duties and costs. Unlike out here in NDG, the prices in the McGill Ghetto are insane. A tiny one bedroom in a sketchy smoke filled building goes for about 650, including utilities. I pay less than half of that and my place is way nicer.

I went to Ikea. It almost killed me. I hope to never go there again. A manager at the store said it was the busiest day he'd seen in his 10 years working there. Where else can you get 20$ wooden chairs? Thousands of zombie consumers shuffling around shitty (but stylish) home

furnishings.

For now, I lement my lack of home computing, as well as my skateboard. Montreal is all hills. Skateboards are quite common here. (I see people long boarding down town, right along side the cars. Not that I'll do that, I'm just saying.)

More stories to follow. I'll update more often because school has started and I'm around computers. If you have questions, ask in the comments and I'll answer. Also, send me your mailing addresses. I'll respond to any letter I recieve.

Stories I'd like to tell:

-The Metro
-Milk in a bag
-Retro YMCA c.1920
-McGill School of Music (Harvard of the North) acording to Americains.
-Downtown Montreal