Tag Archives: metro party

| Fun, Montreal, Public transit

Metro party Friday night

McGill students are organizing a metro party on Friday evening, meeting at 9pm at the back end of the platform at Henri-Bourassa metro (why they don’t start at Montmorency is a mystery, but whatever). The Facebook page shows 77 “confirmed guests”, which translates to about 15-20 people actually showing up.

The party is similar to metro parties that took place in March, May and October of last year.

| Fun, Montreal, Public transit

Metro party tonight

It’s a bit last-minute, but a metro party is being planned on Halloween night (tonight).

The plan is to get on the last car at the Côte-Vertu metro at 9pm, in costume, and rock on all the way to Montmorency, 48 minutes away. (Don’t worry, you can get back free as long as you don’t leave through the turnstiles.)

Those of you interested can check out the Facebook page.

And if you have no idea what a “metro party” is, check out my recap of the one that happened in March.

Don’t expect this one to be as popular though, since it’s organized last-minute and a lot of people (including me) will be busy doing other things.

UPDATE: Looks like it went pretty well, judging from this photo by Alex D:

Metro party

The sister party on the Toronto subway also seems to have been well-attended.

Let’s hope the next one will be soon.

UPDATE (Nov. 22): A video of the party.

| Fun, Montreal, Public transit

Success is in the eyes of the flashmobber

On Saturday night I decided I’d stop by this metro party thing that was going on. I had my doubts about it, since it hadn’t been well publicized, but people showed up anyway.

Most of the crowd showed up together, being friends with each other. Some came alone. None of them seemed to know what was going on, and started asking around for whoever organized this thing. Whoever it was wasn’t there, and the group was left without music (a rather important part to any party).

Nevertheless, at 9:07pm we got on the train at Snowdon and everyone started stomping and cheering and blowing through noisemakers and stringing lights.

The real fun part about things like this is the reaction from unsuspecting bystanders. Some of them looked confused. Others had a blank, mindless stare. Some giggled, and some even joined in the fun. But everyone noticed.

By the time the train got to Jean-Talon, metro security was there to meet it. Nothing particularly nefarious had taken place. Doors weren’t held, alarms weren’t pulled. All they were doing was making noise, most of which got drowned out by the sound of the train speeding along.

Still, everyone got out there. And after a short delay while the tangled mess of lights was being freed from the support bars they were tied to, the group found itself on the platform, thanking the security guards for being such good sports about it all (the guards weren’t actually being insanely nice, but the cordial atmosphere took them off guard (no pun intended) and discouraged them from escalating the situation further).

After a post-mortem on the escalator, the group split up, and I found myself following the larger faction to the orange line heading downtown. They still had all their stuff with them, so they decided they’d have another party on the orange line from Jean-Talon to Berri. I debated whether to stick with them and watch what happened or go home.

I’m glad I chose to stay. Once they got on, they quickly gained the support of a small group of young men. One sat in the middle of the party, enjoying the scene playing around him and grooving with the noisemaker-generated rhythm. Another got up and started dancing like he was in the middle of a nightclub, grinding against the pole and breakdancing on the floor. The third sat in his seat, his eyes half-closed and looking like he was either high on valium or low on sleep.

Again, the same set of reactions. One couple looked like they were in a waking coma, but the rest of the people in the car stared and laughed at the entire scene.

Just as the train pulled in to Berri, I realized what was wrong with valium guy. He jerked forward suddenly and alcohol-soaked vomit magically appeared on his jacket and the floor. I decided it was time to leave before the place got stunk up. (Should I point out the irony that this kid’s vomit is going to leave a more lasting impression than a group of noisemakers who cleaned up after themselves?)

After some coaxing from one of the partyers, who introduced me to his friends, I decided to join them for some karaoke at a bar near Ontario and Papineau.

“Dive” isn’t an apt description for this place. It was cliché. Sea-green walls, glittery curtains, VLT machines, a claw prize machine, giant 40 oz beer bottles and tiny glasses (cheapest alcohol I’ve ever seen at a bar by the way), middle-aged waitresses who think they’re more attractive than they really are, and fat, bald 40-year-old men badly belching out 80s rock songs. I should start recommending it to tourists.

| Fun, Montreal, Public transit

Metro party this weekend (but…)

Looks like some people on Facebook are organizing another metro party this weekend.

Saturday at 9 p.m., meeting at the Saint-Michel platform of the Snowdon station.

I’m not quite sure why they’re taking the short blue line instead of the considerably longer green or orange lines. In any case, there are only 18 confirmed guests, so it probably won’t be anything near the greatness that was Newmindspace’s metro party in March.

| My articles

Crazy weekend tell-all

I have another page to myself in today’s paper:

Some extra tidbits not included in those articles:

Metro Party

  • One woman in the party took the opportunity as the train first left Henri-Bourassa to flash her breasts at the metro agent standing on the opposite platform
  • The first song played out of Kevin’s iPod was a hard-to-hear pounding of bass. The party really got started on, of all songs, Aqua’s “Happy Boys and Girls” (which, I admit, is on my music player as well)
  • Kevin’s portable speakers may not have survived the night. One of them appeared to develop a bad wire.
  • The crowd discovered relatively quickly that 100 people bouncing up and down to a rhythm will cause a metro car to sway. Unfortunately they couldn’t keep it going once they realized what they were doing.
  • “That’s not good, someone lit up a joint.” — As far as I could tell, it was the only illegal consumption that occurred that night, and it only happened once.
  • For some reason, about 20 people stayed on the platform at Lionel-Groulx as the train departed. They had gotten out as the metro cops walked toward the car to see what was going on.
  • At Villa-Maria, where the platform’s exit was right next to the last car, came the most visible staring. Some pointed, others looked confused. Others said things like “what the fuck?”
  • My photographer, Tim Snow, was quite a sport. He was sweating bullets as he tried to switch back and forth between a regular and wide-angle lens to take close-quarter shots. He almost got into an altercation with a police officer when the lens got too close to the officer’s face.
  • The party was also being filmed for a new CBC series that’s replacing the cancelled Street Cents.
  • I counted about 109 people on the platform at Côte-Vertu for the return trip. I got some strange looks as I counted, and some people shouting random numbers at me to throw me off (after I had already finished)
  • As the train left for its second run, a cloud of smoke filled the air. No, it wasn’t a cigarette, it was the dust being pounded out of the ventilation system in the ceiling.
  • A woman with a bike at De La Savane métro. She wasn’t getting on. Not the party’s fault though, she should have been at the head of the train, not the end.
  • The train stopped suddenly, twice, as it left Plamondon. It was then that I realized it was game over and the train wouldn’t go past the next station. Sure enough, the signals at Côte-Sainte-Catherine prevented the train from proceeding further until the cops came to kick everyone out.
  • Strangely, the metro cops (they were the same ones we saw at Côte-Vertu minutes before) didn’t want to kick everyone out at first, but merely set ground rules for the party to continue: No weapons, knives or alcohol (there weren’t any), and spread the party over three cars instead of one (which would have been a bummer because there was only one set of speakers). The group seemed favourable to the compromise until the city cops swung by and kicked everyone out.
  • Quote a cop (who was a really patronizing to me because he didn’t believe I was a journalist): “At least it’s original”. Despite the forced eviction, the police there took the situation pretty lightly.
  • One person apparently lost his bag at some point (which I found odd because he had a backpack on him as he spoke to the police — did he have two bags?). He disappeared before I could get the full story.
  • This weekend, Newmindspace is planning an Easter Egg hunt in Toronto, but has already pissed off one lefty who thinks they should use real ones.

Faceless Invasion

  • I spent the first part of the afternoon with a team from U de M. It was actually my first time on U de M’s campus, though I’ve been near it many times. Boy is that hill steep. Getting anywhere is like running a marathon.
  • The team I was with spoke franglais so badly I honestly had no idea what their mother tongue was. Every sentence would have half the words in either language.
  • A Reuters photographer was at the pudding wrestling tournament and got some good pictures.
  • Tomatoes and eggs have funny ways of exploding when thrown at someone’s skull at close range.
  • Catching a frisbee in your mouth is very hard. You’re more likely to break a tooth first.
  • I asked the McGill team (Team Just Fuck a Nun) why they’re spending 12 hours on this instead of, say, working on school stuff. Their answer, of course, was “but this is fun”, which I’m sure will comfort them when they fail their classes.
  • “Naked Newman”, who performed tasks naked even when not required, was apparently trying to earn back his nickname. He’d had it in high school for being naked at parties, but wasn’t known for this at McGill yet.
  • The McGill team members live in adjacent dorm-room-style 1 1/2 apartments in the same building, which is how they all know each other.
  • Naked Newman and “Judy” filmed themselves stealing an orange pylon on St. Laurent. They brought it home, passing right by two police officers who didn’t flinch. They planned to use it for their homemade bong, but never did.
  • Quote: “Do you want me to produce semen right now?” — One of the members, who performed most of the sex acts with his girlfriend, was kind of drained by the end of the night. But somehow he managed to produce enough man-seed to be used in a whiskey shot, scoring a few more points.
  • Quote: “You can stick it in there, but don’t move your finger!” — His girlfriend, receiving The Shocker. We later learned it was performed incorrectly, using the ring finger instead of the pinky.
  • Nick, the organizer, emailed me about this post, and wanted to get more information so he could issue a press release about my arrest. I told him to read the entire post. Then he felt like an idiot.