The hills mountain…are is alive…with the sound of…music. Montreal’s got the Jazz Festival starting tonight, and the Flamenco Festival starting tomorrow night… A flamenco festival, do you hear me?

…and I’m going to miss both of them!

I’m off for a wee West Coast jaunt, to Vancouver, Whistler, Vancouver Island, Victoria. So, if you’re in Montreal — get out there and enjoy it (on my behalf, though I’m sure I’ll have my unique brand of fun in the mountains and coasts of B.C.)!

Wow. Warren Buffett (world’s second richest man) just announced he was donating $37 billion to charity. He was worth something like $44B before, so I guess he figured he didn’t need more than about $7B to live on. This is the biggest philanthropic donation ever made by one person in the U.S. (I’d think possibly “in the world”, too!).

Now I think I can guess what’s (just become) the world’s richest charity! I just hope 99.9% (maybe I should put a few more 9s?) of that money goes toward the causes and not toward “administrative fees”. If you read about the terms of his donations, it should.

Lead by example. Again I say: wow.

…but not quite! Bonne fête de la Saint-Jean tout le monde! Here are a couple of photos from today’s small parade (that had to compete with the Formula One, which is usually held in Montreal earlier in June).

Note that “other” flag (green/white/red) seen below is a version of the “Patriotes” flag, now used by the MLNQ (Mouvement de Libération Nationale du Québec), a separatist movement.

You’d be forgiven for thinking I’m talking about Quebec, where we have occasional referendums on sovereignty and (so far) have rejected it — often by a very close margin.

But … no! I’m talking about Cataluña, where a referendum was held today on the new Estatut they’ve negotiated with Zapatero’s Spanish government. The new Estatut doesn’t include sovereignty, but it does declare Cataluña a “nation” (not the same as “country”!) and give more autonomy and control.

So, what happened? Well, though only 49% of the electorate voted, they accepted it with a 74% majority! (this is the third time in a row Cataluña has voted for an Estatuto. The previous ones were awhile ago, though — in 1932 and 1979.

There must be some trick to get people to vote for these things — I suspect it’s all in the wording…

Here they are for your enjoyment and mesmerization…taken yesterday (June 14) from my terrace, late in the day.
(Sorry, but the file is 1.7Mb, for those with a slow connection.)

(Click image to view time-lapse, 60 times faster than real time.)

In Montreal it’s obvious the FIFA World Cup is on. It’s not quite as crazy as Barcelona was when they won the Champion’s League, but still we have the horns tooting, firecrackers popping, flags waving after every victory (especially for Portugal, Mexico, Italy, Brazil, Spain, …). Most bars and restaurants in the Plateau Mont-Royal have flags outside. And inside — big screen television!

As you may have guessed, none of the flags is ever Canadian. The last (in fact the only) time Canada was in the World Cup was in 1986, in Mexico. We qualified but were knocked out in the opening round, having lost all three games. For a blast from the past, take a look how different we were, “only” twenty years ago. What cars we drove! What clothes we wore! What hairstyles! What indifference there was towards soccer — well, I guess some things don’t change (my neighbourhood excepted).

Speaking of round things (like, say, soccer balls), it was a full moon on Sunday. I got out my snazzy new high-zoom camera and took some shots that night, and more last night, when for some reason the moon was yellowy-orange.

The moon on June 12, one night after full.

Early Morning Grey (it doesn’t) Matter

by El Jardinero Zurdo, June 11, 2006

This confused morning, I eat a sad mosquito
and watch a tree fluff trying to mate with
one of its kind: suspect it’s life.
Pathetic, funny at times, but grey. That’s my banana.

This sad morning, I suspect a tree fluff
and eat one of my kind — trying to watch
life mate with my banana.
Funny, grey at times, but confused. That’s a pathetic mosquito.

This pathetic morning, I mate with one of my kind
and suspect life of trying to eat
my banana. Watch — a funny mosquito?
Grey, confused at times, but sad. (That’s a tree fluff.)

This funny morning, I watch life
and mate with my banana trying to suspect
a grey mosquito. Eat a tree fluff.
Confused, sad at times, but pathetic. That’s one of a kind!

This grey morning, I eat my banana
and watch a confused mosquito trying to mate with
a tree fluff — suspects it’s one of its kind.
Sad, pathetic at times, but funny. That’s life.