The one thing that makes the impending winter a little more bearable.
Category Archives: Photos
New bus shelters are so sharp it hurts (UPDATED)
UPDATE (Nov. 25): The Gazette’s Andy Riga reports the STM says the average price for these shelters is actually lower than what they reported earlier. Also see below my photos of this shelter at night.
A prototype of the new STM bus shelter at René-Lévesque Blvd. and Jeanne-Mance St.
On Monday, the Société de transport de Montréal made a big splash of this rectangular glass box, inviting the media to take pictures and witness a dramatic unveiling. This is the model of a new style of bus shelter that the STM is planning to replicate hundreds of times.
Michel Labrecque, the STM’s chairman, said the biggest thing about it is the look, and how the aesthetic design of the shelter will draw more transit users in. People want to wait in something “sharp”, he said, something that looks more like the future than the stone age.
The shelters will cost between $14,000 and $16,000 about $12,000 each, not including the development cost, which will bring the total price for 400 shelters to $14 million. Even then, it’s significantly more than the price of existing shelters.
After installing three prototypes (the other two will come next month), the STM will seek input from users before making the order for the rest.
Not wanting to pass judgment before I saw it myself, I decided to pass by the shelter on the day after the big announcement, when all the TV cameras, PR people and giant tarps had long gone (and when the weather wasn’t so rainy).
Front-seat driver
A woman sits on the bus driver's armrest greeting passengers
Maybe I’m being a bit of a prude, and insufficiently open-minded. And I know it can get boring when you’re driving a bus late at night.
But it just seems somewhat … inappropriate to have someone sitting with you in the driver’s seat as you’re driving the bus. Not only does it look rather unprofessional when people start to board the bus, but I’m pretty sure the people who tested the bus for safety don’t recommend people sit there.
There’s a seat right by the front door, and at this particular moment it’s unoccupied. Maybe you can sit there instead. Don’t worry, your conversation shouldn’t suffer.
He’s like Hitler, get it?
The Lyndon Larouche campaign uses subtlety and rational reasoning
And here you thought it was only in the United States that you could find the crazies.
Sure, Hitler killed millions of Jews and all, but Obama told NASA they couldn’t send people to the moon again! IT’S THE SAME THING, PEOPLE!
A Moving Day trash tip
Papers left for trash on Moving Day
A little late for this year, obviously, but next time, it’s probably best not to leave government documents with your personal information all over them out on the curb.
In fact, this applies whether or not you’re moving.
Happy World Cup, everyone
A huge crowd of France supporters flood St. Denis St. after World Cup semifinal win on July 5, 2006.
I love the World Cup.
After a month of the most important sporting tournament on Earth, I still think watching soccer on television is incredibly boring compared to other sports. And it shows no evidence of supplanting hockey as the No. 1 sport in this city. The game is badly officiated, mostly because its governing body doesn’t want to enter the 20th century, much less the 21st. And many of the players are overpaid whiners whose sole purpose, it sometimes seems, is to turn the most incidental contact with an opposing player into a theatrical death scene.
And I still think soccer’s offside rule is stupid.
But there’s something about the way the World Cup takes over Montreal’s fans. Because Canada isn’t nearly good enough to make it to the final tournament, there is no home team, and everyone is free to choose sides. Many go with countries of origin, or maybe the team of their favourite player, or the country they once lived in.
No matter what country wins a game, whether it’s a big player like Brazil or Germany, or a tiny speck on the globe like Uruguay or Ghana, there’s always a parade of elated fans, honking their horns and waving their flags like they just had sex with a supermodel and realized they won the lottery.
Let it snow
I went to a snowball fight today.
CJFM (Virgin Radio) had this promotion where they’d bring in snow and have people throw snowballs at each other in the middle of a July heat wave.
The station has video of the event, as does Canadian Press. I took some pictures which I’ve posted below.
The event – just across the street from Place Jacques Cartier in the Old Port – lasted about 15 minutes before the Virgin folks quietly departed into their air-conditioned SUVs, the pile of snow having turned to less appetizing dirty slush.
Still, a fun way to spend 10 minutes in the middle of a heat wave.
Dorchester Square reopens
After what seems like decades of renovation, the city has finally reopened Dorchester Square to the public. The grass is lush and green, park benches are plentiful, the walkway is new and clean, and pretty flowers surround the central monument.
Didn’t take long for the first litter to appear, though.
UPDATE (June 29): The Gazette has a story about the reopening, a photo gallery of the square – past and present – and a 360-degree panorama from the centre of the new square. The project also has its own website.
Back to the Future Shop
I don’t know why, but this image struck me – a giant, old television being thrown away in a not-very-sturdy Future Shop shopping cart.
For a second, I thought it was an art piece.
Yummy bolagna
Sometimes the bad translation is from French to English, as evidenced by these “sandwichs submarines” that were “prepered” in a food plant.
I looked up “bolagna” to find out what it means. Let me assure you I don’t want to eat that.
Maybe that’s why they were 50% off.
Back on the bandwagon, folks
Finally, an FTQ campaign I can support.
Speaking of Canadiens pride, local musician Daniel Iorio has written another song about his beloved Habs. This one, keeping particularly current, name-drops Gazette sports scribe Pat Hickey, whose car was vandalized by crazed Flyers fans and has been getting a lot of attention for it.
Listen to The Cheese of Philadelphia:
What a night
7pm: I get off the metro train at Lucien-L’Allier station. The platform is flooded with red Habs jerseys.
Crowd gathers in parking lot as Game 7 begins
7:07pm: I arrive at the parking lot outside the Bell Centre, which has been designated as a celebration area by the Montreal police. A giant screen is showing RDS, and the speakers have plenty of volume for people to hear. The lot is mostly empty, unlike the Bell Centre itself, but a crowd is slowly forming.
Montreal Geography Trivia No. 75
What – and where – is this?
UPDATE (April 27): John is the first to get this right below: This is the inside of what used to be a bus shelter on Pie-IX Blvd., specifically the one at Jarry St.
I didn’t know it when I posted this question, but it’s actually somewhat of a trick one. You see, the objects in this photograph aren’t there anymore.
How’s my hair?
Not that I would in any way use this photo to make an unfair generalization about television news reporters…
Words speak louder than action plans
Spotted at Concordia University last week
Nice to know I have a government that will spend my tax money on giant, unnecessary signs that advertise to me other ways the government is using my tax money.
I wonder if there’s a similar sign outside Canada’s sign-making factories, saying the government is “investing” in them too.