Yes he can…make fascinating installation art, that is. Thanks to CircusBoy for sending me the link, this stuff is “right up my alley.” In fact, I spent some time this week gazing into a slowly boiling pot of water, thinking: “can I film this process without getting my camera full of steam?” I decided the answer was: “no,” and so I simply continued watching in awe… Isn’t turbulent nature great?

As a friend of mine would say: “Ooh, transparency!”

And now, on to Ned’s site…be sure to check out the videos, in particular! I love the cloud rings (hmm, if only I were a smoker, I could make my own smoke rings!); the seven-storey indoor tornado; the “wind veil” that flows like wind through grass and masks the ugly concrete parking structure behind.

Or should I say: “Expo…say friend!”

Today, 40 years ago (that would be 1967, for those not so quick on the math), Montreal’s World Exposition had its opening ceremonies, and it opened to the public on April 28th, which was a Friday that year. Canada turned 100 years old that year, and Expo was our centennial party. I’m sure there will be more in the news about this later today and tomorrow, but CBC has published a slideshow on their site here.

More fun is to be had in their archives. They feature more media…like clips from CBC TV and radio back in the day. Check the archives out here.

“Montreal is generally known for its attractive women…”
Listen to the stammering reporter trying to interview the pavillion hostesses:
“I really feel that I should put on a sign that says: ‘Please talk to me, I’m lonely.’”
“It’s quite interesting to see how the Canadian lives…”

Our metro (subway) was created and opened in the six months leading up to Expo, too. It was a time of massive change and development in Montreal. And, interestingly, tomorrow, besides being the 40th anniversary of Expo, they’re opening new stations in one of the biggest metro extensions in ages. The metro now runs to Laval. And rides are free on the entire network this weekend… This will “no doubt generate strong interest and even greater pride,” says the STM. Frankly, I don’t know if I can handle any more pride.

Back on the subject of Expo, there is a range of activities planned to commemorate the anniversary. More here (en français).

Still more archival material can be found here. Si tu préfères regarder et écouter en français, essaye-donc icitte…

Remarkable Canadian activist and journalist June Callwood died last week, at the age of 82, of cancer. She wanted no “extraordinary measures”, or even treatment. Just let the disease take its course and awaited death with poise, humour, and wisdom.

CBC’s George Stroumboulopoulos (of The Hour) did an interview with her shortly before her death. It is “required viewing”. Moving, funny and — just wonderful. Please watch it, either the shorter version as aired on TV or (10:39), if you can spare the time, a somewhat longer version (16:35).

What a lady.

One day they’re just little kids, playing at Disney World. The next thing you know, they’re all grown up and off to explore outer space!

Off on his Mission To Space. Of course, we all worry about him, but at least he’s doing something he truly loves…

…dumps of snow, that is. After my last post, well — that was nothing! Yesterday and today we got hit with a “doozy” of a storm, and more snow and rain than we had way back in the old days (er, I mean: three days earlier). And the wind was crazy. At one point I looked out this morning and the rain was being picked up off the railing of my terrace and shooting upward into the air! There are still more than 100,000 without power…the very heavy wet snow and strong winds took down a lot of trees and power lines.

Still, we got it easy compared to what they had in the States. In New York City they had 200mm of precipitation — the previous record for that day was 50mm, a record set 101 years before. On Sunday we also set a record, though with a “measly” 30mm of precipitation,which probably included about 20cm of snow.

For any “out-of-countriers” from non-Northern nations think me ridiculous for me to say we had 30mm of precip. which included 20cm of snow… Well, a general approximation is that you can convert mm to cm when you’re talking about snow as opposed to rain. That is, if you had a snowfall of 20cm and “melted it down”, it would be equivalent to about 20mm of rain (or 2cm). The rain yesterday was very heavy and wet, so maybe the factor was less than 10, but it’s a rough rule.

The previous record in Montreal for the most snow on the ground on April 15 was set in 1971, when there was still 5cm on the ground at the end of the day. Of course, that year it was still the “winter snow” (it was an incredibly snowy winter). They didn’t get rid of the last of it until around April 20. This year wasn’t particularly snowy, and we’d already gotten rid of what we had by the end of March… but with these recent storms we still set a record with our 7cm still on the ground yesterday.

What’s with all this weather news? Well, I am Canadian after all, and it’s our favourite subject. I’m surprised I don’t have a “Weather” category in my blog… I just “calls ‘em as I sees ‘em” — and what I “sees” outside my window these days is miserable and worthy of discussion!

In other news, did you know that National Fair Trade Week(s) is (are) coming up (May 1-15…)? I am already getting into the swing of things — a new grocery store opened up near me, one which only stocks bio, organic, fair trade foods. So you can spend a bit more (well, a lot more, in some cases) and get a euphoric buzz from the incredible lightness of your wallet. Or maybe it’s from the hemp-seed oil you used in that stir-fry.

Seriously, though, why does it have to be two weeks? Many other important causes only get a single day to toot their horn! Plus, it sounds like you’ve made a mistake (”Excuse me, did you say week-s? Plural?”). On the other hand, if we have “International Year of the …”, then why not: “National Fortnight of the…”?

Hope you’ve enjoyed: “Local Quarter-Hour of the Blog” (hopefully less, unless you’re a slow reader).

Surprise, surprise (sigh, no, not really) — I just got back to Montreal in time for…a big dump of snow. I returned to a generally snow-free city, looking like maybe spring was, if not in the air, at least on its way. After all, it’s mid-April and all…

But no. Today, just for fun, we had a record-breaking snowfall. Something like 12cm [UPDATE: the official amount was actually 14cm!], which generally speaking isn’t much for us, but it is a fair bit for April 12! Likely it will all melt on…Friday the 13th.

Anyhow, it was quite beautiful. After being in Spain I was almost feeling nostalgic for snow. Almost. And at least it’s not really cold (around the freezing point).

[April 5, 2007 UPDATE: Within two days, a very nice woman from the CBC Archives Website got back to me, with thanks for my “catch” and the site is now correct…they externally validated my claim and it was correct. Thanks, Carol! Yay, turns out you can make a difference in the world! ;-]

I have just been reminded of the hazards of web-based research. The problem is that somebody may get a fact wrong, and then the error is duplicated and quoted. And stored — you know, for posterity. Some may hope that the “most often quoted” fact is the correct one — this is certainly not guaranteed to be the case for the Internet, where errors multiply and become hard to eliminate!

Even the venerable CBC archive site gets it wrong, it seems… I was looking up details on the history of the FLQ (a Quebec separatist terrorist organization). One of the often-mentioned incidents is referred to as “Black Friday”, which several sites (including the CBC’s) claim was May 13, 1963. An explosives expert was seriously injured trying to defuse one of ten mailbox bombs in Westmount.

However, looking at calendars, it seems that May 13, 1963 was a Monday. I found some other sources that seem to indicate the correct date was May 17 (though those other sites don’t refer to it as “Black Friday”, at least it is a Friday!).

When I’m back in Montreal, I guess it’s off to the libraries and newspaper archives for me!

P.S. Grumpy stickler for detail that I am, I sent a note off to the CBC Archive folks…we’ll see if they recheck the detail and correct it!

Apparently there is a saying in Spain: Domingo de Ramos, quien no estrena algo, se le caen las manos. Well, my hands hopefully won’t fall off this year, since I “tried” a few new things today… I went to my first Spanish wedding (in Terrassa), two baptisms PLUS a Palm Sunday service in Santa María del Mar in Barcelona (lucky for me, it was in Castellano and not Catalan as usual — don’t know why). The wedding and two baptisms were all at once(!), and in a sign of “modern Spain” (or, perhaps, “modern Catholicism”?), one of the children being baptised was also the child of the couple getting married!

Then, from the sacred to the profane — dinner of pintxos and Txakoli (typical Basque white wine), and finally a flamenco show at Tarantos. The show was by a group of guys called “Baratito Loco”…the music in particular was excellent, and especially the “two Pacos” on guitar (they weren’t “de Lucía”, no — rather Paco Heredia and Paco Garfia).

In Barcelona, near the Sagrada Familia, vendors sell huge palm fronds for Palm Sunday. They whiten and dry the fronds, then braid them into very fancy “bouquets” and flowery shapes. And all bundled up with a nice bow in the stripes of the Catalan flag!