#Montreal First Peoples Festival

[rabbitcruiser]

Canada’s National Indigenous Peoples Day

Learn about the various cultures and traditions of Canada’s Indigenous People, or join an event or ceremony to see how they have been preserved over time.

The culture, language and social systems of the original inhabitants of our world have had a significant impact on how we live our lives today. Canada’s National Indigenous Peoples Day is all about focusing on the contribution that these groups have made to our societies and helping people to learn about their heritage and culture. By celebrating this day, we can help keep Indigenous languages, traditions and culture alive for future generations.

Learn About Canada’s National Indigenous Peoples Day

The day officially first began in Canada in 1996, to celebrate the contributions and history of the Métis, Inuit and First Nation peoples. Since then, the day has been observed and celebrated internationally. Originally organized on the Summer Solstice (when the different peoples sometimes celebrate their heritage on the longest day of the year), the day’s events often include traditional feasts from each Indigenous People, festivals, dances, and the opportunity for people of all ages to learn about traditions, spiritual beliefs and culture. You might be lucky enough to see a sacred fire extinguishing ceremony or participate in a feast with a traditionally prepared meal.

It’s all about bringing people together from different walks of life to share in the contributions of Indigenous People to our society. You’ll find an eclectic mix of contemporary and traditional music while learning about how Indigenous Peoples helped to develop our agriculture, language and social customs. The day is also about how governments are creating crucial partnerships with Indigenous Peoples to protect their land, heritage and culture in modern times.

You can all get involved as the website has educational material for the whole family. There are also awareness events hosted in schools and local communities. If people want to get more involved they can even submit their ideas to get them registered as part of the event, so there are hundreds of opportunities to get involved. It also forms part of more extensive celebrations over an entire month that includes days like Multiculturalism Day and overall, aims to celebrate people from all walks of life and culture.

History of Canada’s National Indigenous Peoples Day

The day was officially recognized in Canada by the Governor-General of Canada Roméo LeBlanc in 1996. A year earlier in 1995, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples put forward the idea for the day to be created. The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was a Commission put forward to reconcile the relationship between the Métis, Inuits and First Nation peoples and the Canadian Government. In 1996, Aboriginal Day was born, later changed to Canada’s National Indigenous Peoples Day in 2017.

In 1995, it wasn’t just the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples that suggested the day should be celebrated. A team of non-Indigenous and Indigenous peoples gathered and named themselves the Sacred Assembly. Chaired by Elijah Harper (Canadian Politician and Chief of the Red Sucker Lake First Nations) they called for a day for Indigenous Peoples to be celebrated and recognized for their contributions to our society. In 1982, what is now known as the Assembly of First Nations, set the path for the creation of this day, which led to Quebec recognizing the day as early as 1990.

However, there has been chatter about creating this day since 1945, when the day was first termed as ‘Indian Day’ by First Nation Chiefs, led by Jules Sioui. Jules Sioui was part of Huron Wendake First Nation and led two conventions during World War II which started to challenge the rights of Indigenous Peoples. The first meeting was chaired in 1943 in Ottawa and was attended by 53 people. The conference grew remarkably, and in 1944 was attended by four times as many people. Since then calls for a day of recognition have gained increasing traction and popularity.

Meanwhile, in late-1970s America, an International Conference began to suggest that America should host a celebration of its Indigenous peoples on Columbus Day. In 1989, it was first celebrated by South Dakota, and by 2019 was observed by multiple towns and states, including Louisiana, Dallas and Vermont. Brazil has also been celebrating since 1943, by decree of the then President, Getúlio Vargas. The UN also launched International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples in 1994, celebrating worldwide contributions from global Indigenous populations.

The United Nations had issued a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in 2007, which aimed to create a global framework for the preservation, dignity and well-being of each Indigenous culture. This process started in 1982, when the UN created the Working Group on Indigenous Populations, to discuss the discrimination that Indigenous Peoples had faced worldwide.

How To Celebrate Canada’s National Indigenous Peoples Day

This is the perfect time to learn about different Indigenous Peoples and their cultures and traditions. For example, in Canada, this day celebrates the First Nations, Inuit and Métis cultures. Why not learn about the Michif language of the Métis, or find out more about the storytelling traditions of the Inuits? Learning about the separate cultures will help us to understand how each independent group contributed to many of the things in society we take for granted today.

Why not get involved in a local event and participate in a traditional feast or watch a sacred ceremony? Dive right in and download some of the online material – why have some fun with family and friends and learn about Indigenous Peoples in the process? If you don’t have an event near you, why not host your own and reach out to the local Indigenous community for some assistance.

Learning about the history of Indigenous Peoples is also part of understanding why a day of celebration is so vital for preserving cultures today. From land disputes to reconciling with Governments across the world, the story for all Indigenous People has not been an easy one.

Luckily now we can preserve and enjoy all Indigenous cultures and appreciate the vast contribution that has been and is still being made today. So get stuck in, participate in a traditional event and learn all you can about different cultures. Help us send a big thank you to the original inhabitants of our planet for making it what it is today.

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[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I’m planning my 2025 UK (and, this time, Ireland) trip, and I’m really really excited about it. But as 2024’s come to an end and we all do retrospectives, I thought it would be interesting for me to look back on my 2024 UK trip now, and see what, with a few months of hindsight, still stands out as the best and worst parts.

Reasons why I’m making this list: 1) it’ll be helpful, when planning for next year’s trip, to know what cool things I want to repeat, and what uncool things I want to try to avoid, and 2) I miss my trip and want to mentally re-live it by making a list and looking at the pictures again.

My 2024 trip was divided into three overall parts. Part 1 was five days in London. Part 2 was taking trains – London to Edinburgh, Edinburgh to Glasgow, Glasgow to Fort William, stayed overnight in Fort William, then Fort William to Mallaig, Mallaig to Glasgow, Glasgow to Edinburgh. Then Part 3 was five days in Edinburgh for the festival.

Part 1: London

Best parts of London, listed in whatever order they occur to me

- Trains: There were so many trains. The stations were cool. The tracks were cool. The seats were cool. The vehicles were cool. The speed with which you could get around the city was cool. The “Mind the Gap” voice was cool.

I joked before I left on this trip that this is like the stereotype that says all autistic people are 8-year-old white boys obsessed with trains, and then there's a cute/inspiration porn story in the local paper about the little autistic boy who's all excited to meet a train conductor. I said I'll be like that when I go to Edinburgh and see all those comedy shows, because in this simile, I am an 8-year-old white boy and these are my trains.

Then, once I actually got there, I remembered that trains are also my trains. Some autistic stereotypes exist for a reason. For example, I am a 34-year-old autistic white woman, and I fucking love trains.

- Highgate Cemetery

So beautiful. I wandered around it for nearly an hour, just appreciating all the history. And it was really cool to see Douglas Adams' grave - I left two pens, from my dad and I, as we used to read his books together. I went there mainly because I was interested in Douglas Adams, but was amazed by how lovely the whole place was.

- Taskmaster house

Obviously that was cool as fuck. I also went on a walk by the river to where they have the bandstands where they did location tasks for the first few seasons. I took this picture by holding my phone up over a fence:

- Really good non-shawarma on park bench

A couple of years ago, I heard Nish Kumar recommend a specific Montreal shawarma place on The Bugle, because he performs in Montreal sometimes. I'd never been to that place, but I was a bit skeptical of his recommendation, because I've tried shawarma outside my own city, even in other big cities, and it's always terrible. My city has a lot of shawarma places, due to various factors that mean we have a high Arab immigrant population, so I've gotten used to quite a high standard of shawarma. I know several people who've grown up in Middle Eastern countries where shawarmas actually originated, and told me that our city has their favourite shawarmas in the world.

So, I wasn't sure about Nish Kumar's recommendation. Not because I thought there could be no good shawarma in Montreal (that's not where I live, but it's a big enough city so it'll have some good stuff, better than Toronto), but because I was not sure if I should trust someone from England to know how shawarma is meant to taste. I hear British people talk about kebabs a lot, but they never mentioned shawarmas, so I figured they don't really have shawarma there. Just kebabs, which are not the same thing.

Having said this, when I went to Montreal to see some Just For Laughs shows in 2023, I tried the shawarma place that Nish had recommended, and it tasted amazing. So I had to admit that maybe he does know what he's talking about. I told all this to my friend who lives in London, and when he went to a Nish Kumar gig long before my UK trip, he went up to Nish after the show, and asked what his favourite shawarma place in London is. Nish said some place called Kebab Kid, and I put that on my list of places to visit, to see if England does have good shawarma after all.

So I made a special trip out there. I traveled pretty far out of my way to get there. I took some trains, and then I walked about forty-five minutes, across quite a lovely neighbourhood, enjoying how pretty London is. I arrived at the restaurant, and became a touch concerned that the place I was using to prove to England does have shawarmas and not just kebabs, was called Kebab Kid. But when I went inside, they did have shawarmas on the menu. I ordered one.

The guy behind the counter asked me if I wanted chili sauce or barbeque sauce. I said no, because... obviously. Obviously you don't put those on a shawarma. He said, "So no sauce, then?", and I realized those weren't optional extras, they were the only sauce on offer. No garlic sauce, no hummus. I said... okay, barbeque then. He put misc. salad in there instead of pickles and turnips. It was so clearly not a shawarma. It came with fries, even though fries obviously do not go with shawarma.

Skeptically, I took it down the road and sat down on a park bench to eat. And God, was it ever delicious. It wasn't a shawarma. That's absolutely not what a shawarma is. But it was a very, very good chicken sandwich. A guy sat down next to me and chatted to me for a while. He asked what I was eating, I said a shawarma, and he said he's from Turkey and they don't have proper shawarmas here, not like at home. I said yes, I can see that. They absolutely don't.

But it was a really really good chicken sandwich and I ate it in a really pretty park, surrounded by pigeons, and had a genuinely nice chat with a random stranger, and it felt sweet and peaceful, and I liked it a lot.

I told myself I was going to keep each item on this list pretty short, just a couple of quick sentences to explain them. I did not expect the first list item to make me break that rule would be a shawarma place. I'm going back to the rule now.

- Sunday roast

I flew all Saturday night. I arrived at 8:30 AM. My wonderful hosts picked me up at the airport, I showered and changed and dropped my stuff off at their place, and then, while fuelled entirely by adrenaline and no sleep, I accompanied my friend from a British comedy message board, whom I'd just met in person for the first time, to a pub with a Sunday roast.

I've been informed that he chose this pub specifically because it has a great Sunday roast, they're not all as good as this one. But this one was very, very good. I had horseraddish for the first time. I had Yorkshire pudding for the first time. I was very surprised that this things called pudding was just bread, until I tasted it, and I decided that anything that delicious can call itself whatever it wants. It was the perfect way to start a trip.

- My wonderful hosts

It's weird to write this part because he'll probably read it. But I stayed in the spare room of a guy I'd met two years earlier on a comedy message board, as I've said many times, I cannot believe lucky I got in messaging a guy because I just wanted a few old comedy recordings, and ending up with a wonderful new friend (and more comedy recordings that I could have imagined, that's cool too). We spoke regularly for a couple of years before my trip to the UK, which is relevant because, as my dad pointed out, it's inadvisable to stay with a man from the internet you've not met in person, but if he's been talking to you most days for two years, that's a lot of work to put in just to lure someone to your house to murder them. There are easier ways to murder someone. So it's probably fine.

He did not murder me. He has a wife whom I'd not spoken to before but she was so incredibly nice; I'd been slightly concerned that she might be put out by having to play host to some woman from Canada whom she didn't know, but it wasn't like that at all, she was so friendly and welcoming, and so was her husband of course, it was super cool to meet him in person and spend time with both of them, it was great. And they had three cats who were the absolute best cats in the world. I won't post a picture of the cats here, because, you know, those are other people's private cats. But they were excellent cats.

- The Bill Murray, Nish Kumar

Many, many hours of my favourite comedy I've of my favourite comedy I've ever heard was recorded at The Bill Murray pub, for Angel Comedy. I was so excited to see the venue in person, and I was not disappointed. I saw a Nish Kumar WIP there just before he went to Edinburgh, and holy God, it was one of the best evenings of my life. I arrived at the pub an hour before the show, partly so I could awkwardly hang around the door to the comedy room and get the best seats (I achieved this, of course), and partly because I wanted to spend time in that building, to take in the history.

And it was full of history. The walls were covered in pictures of great comedians who've performed there. There were murals with drawings of comedy legends. And the actual comedy room was perfect - small and intimate, definitely good at those technical things that I don't have enough expertise to know how they work but I know good ones when I experience them (sight lines, acoustics, comedy-conducive lighting). And I watched Nish Kumar perform an absolutely fantastic version of one of my favourite stand-up hours ever. It was a perfect night.

- Crystal Palace

I spent one morning in Crystal Palace. I ate breakfast. It's a very very pretty neighbourhood with cool little buildings and a sense of history and everything that I romanticize, when I romanticize the UK. It had a big beautiful park with dinosaur statues. I went into a cool independent bookstore, which has hosted performances by some of my favourite comedians ever, and I bought a beautiful children's book to donate to the autism centre where I worked at the time. If I'm honest, those hours were the ones I most enjoyed in London, aside from the time at actual comedy shows/venues. I just wanted to have a look.

Pictured below: not a tourist attraction (according to Elis James, who is wrong), but some cool dinosaurs

- Cambridge

On one of my days in London, I got trains to Cambridge and back. At first I was pretty disappointed in the place, because it had so many tourists that I couldn't really appreciate anything. But then I paid about 10 pounds to get into the grounds of St. John's College, which had an entry fee because it was one of the extra beautiful colleges. It was also Douglas Adams' college, so I'd wanted to see it anyway for Britcom tourism reasons. But holy God, was it ever gorgeous. I felt like I was in some sort of unnamed British fantasy novel.

The gardens. The old buildings. The history. The picturesque rooftops, the river with boats punting by like a postcard. The stained glass in the chapel. The courtyards that seemed from another world. The pillars. This was exactly what I wanted when I said I wanted to go to the UK and see "Harry Potter buildings". Not filming locations from the movies, I don't care about that. Magestic buildings with fantasy novel vibes. Also, you know, all the genuine history there. Douglas Adams, and I hear the history of Cambridge University might even go back slightly further than the 1970s.

I also ate lunch at a pub called The Eagle, because it was called the oldest pub in Cambridge, and I think that's even true (as in, I didn't just wander into any pub that had a sign saying "oldest pub in Cambridge" outside, I looked this up beforehand). Because I like history. The pub was so cool on the inside, and yes I'm aware that that's probably not even because it's several hundred years old, it's because they made it look that way so they can trade off tourists like me. I know that - that any pub that's several hundred years old is a Theseus' Ship situation. I don't care, the pub was beautiful. And I had an amazingly delicious lunch there.

- Regent's Park

One of the first places I went when I got to London. So much amazing comedy history there. Pretty park, I enjoyed walking around the pretty park. But I mainly enjoyed looking at the theatre, even though we couldn't go in, and standing on the spot of some of my favourite nights in comedy history, it was fucking cool.

- ABC Comedy, Romesh Ranganathan

This is another very cool comedy club in London, where a lot of really really awesome comedy has happened over the years, I've gotten to experience a lot of it from Canada via the magic of technology but was so excited to be there in person. And I saw Romesh do an hour-long WIP there (I think it was less WIP, and more just messing around and saying whatever came up), which was really funny and a great time. Weird to see someone so famous in person. He was taller than I expected. His reputation is for the grumpy thing, but he's so funny when he says something silly and then gives the crowd a huge grin. It was loose and great fun.

And thought I'd been told before that it's a small room, I was amazed to see in person, and confirm how very small it is, giving how regular it is for big names to perform there (Romesh Ranganathan, for a start). Just like the Bill Murray.

- All the big pretty buildings in the Parliament area, and St. James' Park

I spent a few hours wandering around the big pretty buildings in the Parliament area and St. James' park. It was old and nice and impressive. I kept walking by Big Ben and saying "There's Big Ben!" like in that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

- Square Mile neighbourhood and Leadenhall Market

Another time, I spent an afternoon wandering around a neighbourhood that I believe is called Square Mile. It had a lot of little alleyways, and I'm a sucker for little alleyways. It had big and impressive buildings that I enjoyed looking at. I went into a pub that had chandeliers.

That neighbourhood had Leadenhall Market in it, which is an exception to me not caring about places where the Harry Potter movies were filmed, because it's not just where they happened to film Diagon Alley the movie, it looks like how I pictured Diagon Alley in my head from the books. There were a bunch of little market areas like this in London, which I liked. But this one was my favourite:

- Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub

I spent nearly three hours in this pub. I ordered several alcohol-free Guinesses, because I was trying to stay away from alcohol throughout the trip. I was there by myself. So why did I spent three hours in a pub, if not for the alcohol or the company? It was just one of the coolest buildings I'd been in and I wanted to be in there for longer. I was in a basement room where I couldn't even get internet, so I couldn't even browse on my phone. I just sat there, for hours, alone in the room, and it was fantastic.

The pub had several different rooms, as you move downstairs, and one of the rooms was totally empty so I sat down there. This definitely sated my desire to see the other type of Harry Potter building - rather than the big and majestic ones that could be a wizard castle, this was a dimly lit basement that looks like it hasn't been updated since the 1600s, which is apparently when this pub was built. Knockturn Alley. Okay I'm done with the Harry Potter references (to be clear I did not, and would not, do any official Harry Potter stuff that could generate profit for the author because fuck her - I didn't even do any unofficial Harry Potter stuff like the Edinburgh tours or pictures with that Kings Cross cart - I just wanted to sit around in old buildings and feel like I was in a fantasy novel).

This gave me the thing I wanted to find in tourist attractions, but didn't. I visited some large old cathedrals, and wanted to feel a sense of history and magic and the gravity of a place like that, but it was packed with other tourists taking pictures, so I couldn't get into it. I sat in St. Paul's Cathedral trying to feel magic, and finally said to myself, "Yeah, God's not here" and left (metaphorical God, I'm not religious, but I'm often impressed with the weight of human wonder that goes into religious architecture). I found the Cheshire Cheese just after that, sat down in that old building, and felt all the stuff that I'd wanted to feel in the church but failed.

I'm genuinely glad there was no internet signal down there, because I took out my phone, and did write a whole big Tumblr post in my notes app, figuring I'd post it when I got back upstairs (okay, I didn't just stare at the wall for three hours). That magic of the building overtook me. That post was so incredibly cheesy, even for me. It contained the line "I didn't find God in a church, but then I found God in a pub," because apparently I thought I was John Robins now. And that's one of the less cheesy lines, since I'm willing to share it now. I think there were a bunch of reflections in there about struggling with my drinking problem, but written in ways that only made sense while sitting in that room. The rest of the post will be thankfully lost because I got upstairs, returned to the real word, said "this is bullshit" and deleted it. But I hope that this year, I can go back to the magical pub where the real world doesn't exist.

- Other pubs

I didn't drink at all in the UK (okay, I had one beer in a pub by the ocean on my last day in Edinburgh, but literally only one pint), and it wasn't the first time in my adult life that I've gone two whole weeks without alcohol, but it was the first time I've done that and found it easy, because things were going so well that I didn't even miss it. I did, however, drink a lot of alcohol-free Guinesses. Because I sat in a lot of pubs and wanted something that at least made me feel like I was drinking.

The worst part of London was the heat and the crowds and the fact that everyone moves so fast that you're not allowed to stand still for half a second without people getting angry at you for blocking the sidewalk, and there weren't a lot of options for refuge from that. A lot of the restaurants seemed to be takeaway-only, or just a few tables, and were always packed. So a lot of times, I found myself ducking into pubs to get out of the heat and the crowds. The pubs were old and nice and quiet and comforting, and I enjoyed sitting in them a lot.

- Egg Sluts

Okay, I'm going to change the tone a bit from the darker, drinking problem-based stuff. I had a fucking excellent breakfast sandwich in a place called Egg Sluts. I did not take a picture, but it was so good that I have to go back there in 2025. I'm a big fan of the egg + meat-based breakfast sandwich, and that was probably the best one I'd ever had.

- Sausage rolls

The first time I ordered a sausage roll from Gregg's, I did it while giggling about how I feel like a character in a story that was told on a panel show. The WILTY people are always making up stuff about Gregg's and sausage rolls. What a cute British thing to do. I'm going to eat a sausage roll on a train. This is so British.

The second, through, by my best estimation, 504th time that I ordered a sausage roll in Britain, I thought, "Fucking hell, am I ever glad we don't have these in Canada. I don't think I'd have lived to this age if I had the option to order them all the time. Sausage... in bread... it's brilliant. Why didn't we think of this in Canada? We must never think of this in Canada. This needs to remain a treat abroad."

- Lamb being a common food there

Here, it's a delicacy, often not available in places that serve the more common meats like chicken, pork, and beef. Some places offer it, but for a higher price than the same dish with another meat. Britain just puts lamb in everything.

- On a similar note, one day I went up to the roof of a high building and ate a lamb kebab while looking out at the entire city, and that was very nice:

- The Soho Theatre

Same deal as the other comedy venues - cool place full of comedy history, I've heard so much stuff from there and loved getting to see it in person and physically be in that space. Also, the walls were full of posters from shows that had performed there over the years.

- The London Underground when it was not packed with people

Fun stuff. Sometimes it was all dark and felt like a sci-fi movie. The cars made fun noises and went fast.

- I saw Daniel Kitson live twice, a couple of nights apart. One of the times, I met him after the show. My brain shut down and I forgot all the words in the English language and he stood there looking at me and I couldn't speak to him. He performed what I think is one of the best shows he's ever done, and I got to see it live, and that was cool as fuck. So incredibly cool. But oh my God, I felt terrible later that night (and the next day, and the next few days) when I realized how badly I'd Got It Wrong when I met him.

It's okay though, because I did eventually manage to look at the pictures my friend took, and those pictures confirmed that he at least found the situation amusing (I could not confirm that at the time as I was physically unable to look at him):

Worst parts of London, listed in whatever order they occur to me

- The British Library

It might be unfair to call this one of the worst parts of my trip to London, because it was still pretty cool. But most of London was good, so by the standards of that, this was… weird. I went on the day I arrived, right after the Sunday roast, when I’d flown all night and not slept in well over 24 hours by then, so that definitely did not help. I took a guided tour of the place, and the tour was super weird. Our guide was obsessed with telling us that the government had secretly killed Alan Turing. Every part of the tour was basically a way for him to bring it back to that subject. Which almost sounds like a gimmick, but the guy seemed quite serious about it. He also told us several facts that other people on the tour pointed out were incorrect (not just the conspiracy theory thing, but factual stuff like confidently mis-labelling what language certain books were in). The whole thing was just weird, and the fact that I was reaching “asleep on my feet” territory made it feel like a weird drug trip.

- The heat

I realized a few months before the trip that this would be taking place in the middle of summer, and I need to factor in how much I cannot stand being outside in the middle of summer. I hate it. I hate it I hate it I hate it. My body cannot stand excessive heat. I am meant to live in Arctic temperatures. Where I live now, the weather has been mostly between -10 and -20 degrees Celcius for the last few weeks, and that's about where I feel comfortable. As soon as it starts going above 0, I don't like it.

London in the summer was well above 0. To be fair, it was slightly less hot there than it was at home. I was told that I was there during one of their heat waves, but even their heat wave temperatures were not quite as hot as what I get at home on a regular mid-summer week. So that would normally be nice. But at home, I'm not usually walking outside all day, for several days in a row, in the middle of summer. I'm usually hiding in my house with a fan blowing directly on me and cold wash clothes draped all over my body, telling myself that autumn will come soon.

So. Summer tourism might not be the best call for me. I got very miserable being in the heat for so long, and that made everything else harder to deal with. The crowds. The blisters on my feet. I could stand them all more easily if my body were not in horrible pain from the elevated temperatures, dealing with the sensory nightmare of sweat everywhere. Not to get too graphic or anything.

- The crowds

Oh my God, the crowds in London. I already covered most of this when I wrote about crowds before, but fucking hell, it was bad. The whole sidewalk. I'd often been surprised when I saw people on panel shows talk about how much they hate people who stop walking on a sidewalk ("pavement"). "Why don't you just go around them?" I wondered. Well now I know why - you can't! You can't go around them. There is no area of foot traffic that's not full of people. I think it was the lack of ability to stop moving that bothered me even more than just the proximity to so many people, but both were bad. And worse in the heat.

- I got awful blisters all over the bottoms of both feet on my first day there, and they didn't start to heal until after I'd left London

I still don't know why this happened. I mean, obviously it was because I was walking around all day as a tourist. But I had a job at the time where I was on my feet all day, so it's not like I wasn't used to some of that. I had good shoes. New enough to still be good, old enough to be broken in. I think I'm maybe just not used to walking on paved surfaces for so long. They were hard on my feet.

The blisters started to get better when I spent a couple of days on the trains to and around Scotland - got off my feet for nearly two straight days, just sitting in the train seats. Also, at the Edinburgh train station, I "bought some plasters from Boots", which I found to be an amusingly British thing to do. Those helped. So it wasn't such a problem when I was walking all around Edinburgh.

But for those five days in London, I couldn't put weight on either foot without it being in terrible pain, and obviously that's not ideal for an holiday where I walk around a city all day. The worst was in Cambridge, as I walked around that utterly beautiful St. John's College, and kept thinking... I wish I could be here without it causing excruciating pain to the bottoms of my feet. Then I could enjoy it more.

I need to look up good preventative blister stuff before I got back in 2025. At the very least, I'll bring some Band-Aids ("plasters") with me this time and put them on when it first starts.

On the best-of list, I put pictures of each bullet point. Be grateful that I'm not doing that here. Because I did take a picture of them one day, so I could have a record of how bad they got (seriously - the ran all the way across). But I'll spare the public that.

- Covent Gardens

Oh my God, I hated that place. I planned to spend a few hours there because there was so much touristy stuff that I figured I should see, but it was awful, for the reasons I've already outlined. Heat, and no escape from it. Giant crowds. Blisters on the bottoms of my feet. Walking around this busy square.

I went to get a something from my UK trip pictures folder to put here, but it turns out I didn't take any pictures in Covent Gardens. I was so miserable that at no point did I think "I want to save this for posterity". I'm not doing that place again.

- Buckingham Palace guard changing

The palace itself was cool to look at, but if I went back there again, it wouldn't be when they change the guard. It turns out the Buckingham Palace guard are just Mounties. We have Mounties at home. It was a bunch of guys dressed as Mounties doing the guard-changing routine that the Mounties in Canada do, but with fucking thousands of people gathered all over the square and the streets so you couldn't get anywhere near it to actually see. It might have been cool if I'd been able to get near it - I enjoy watching the Mounties do their thing sometimes. But I'd rather just go look at the pretty Palace sometime when it's not so full of people.

- St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Cathedral

I was looking forward to this stuff because as I've said, I like that kind of architecture. But the number of tourists meant that vibe-wise, it felt more like a very fancy shopping mall than the site of centuries worth of humans trying to connect to the Divine.

- The London Underground when it was packed with people

Extremely uncomfortable, do not recommend.

- The show I saw at the Soho Theatre

It wasn't very good.

I was going to add parts 2 and 3 of my trip on the end here, but this post has got too long, and I know Tumblr has a limit to the number of pictures you're allowed to add in one post. So I'll just post this one now, and then I'll add the other parts in a reblog later. This has been a fun exercise in remembering stuff.

[respectthepetty]

You're American?!

Anon, this is the expression I feel you had while you wrote that sentence.

Yes. Yes, I am American. What gave it away? Me stating all the time I'm American (rural Southwest, Catholic, bisexual, a slut, Hispanic/Black, a Leo, a vegetarian) or was it the way I spell "colors"?

For an aging millennial who knows better, I actually offer up way too much information in the tags. So . . . fuck it, let me offer up more - I was born in Japan due to America's strategic colonization in over 80 countries (aka my father was in the Air Force), so my first passport has a picture of a week-old me! Whenever I renew my license or fill out any type of legal paperwork, I have to present five documents to prove my American citizenship since I was born in a regular Japanese hospital instead of the one on the American base. When I travel, internationally or domestically, it never fails that I get held up because my passport is American, my place of birth is Japan, and my place of residency is . . . just know people don't realize it's an American state. I travel often, but I think about two years ago, I might have fucked an international criminal at a Canadian music festival because I got held up in the Montreal airport for hours trying to leave and since then, I always have to go to the counter to print out my boarding pass and I always get asked additional questions. Odd, but if the criminal was who I think it was, the sex was worth it.

[flanaganfilm]

Hey Mike! Can you talk about your experience going from Absentia to Oculus? That process after Absentia went on its festival run to pitching Oculus? Would love to learn about that time in your life & career!

I moved to Los Angeles in 2003, right after I graduated college. I went to Towson University in Maryland, was an EMF major (Electronic Media & Film) and had wanted nothing more than to make movies my whole life. We were a comfortable middle class military family (my dad was in the Coast Guard) and for most of my life, making movies for a living felt like an impossible dream.

When I moved to LA I took whatever work I could find. I shot and edited those local car commercials you see on TV at 2am, I was a logger and an AE for reality TV shows, and I eventually worked my way to editing.

I said I'd give myself 5 years to make it in Hollwood. By the time we shot Absentia, I'd been here for 7 years, and in that time I hadn't gotten any closer to my dream.

I've already written at length about how Absentia came along and what it was like to make that little movie, and I've recently blogged about how the Oculus premiere changed my life and birthed my career, so I won't rehash those - but I don't often talk about what went on in between.

I finished editing Absentia just before my oldest son was born in 2010, and went back to working full-time as a reality TV editor. In fact, in the months leading up to his birth, I was working double-time - I spent my days at a company called Film Garden working on a series for DIY Network, and my nights editing packages at Nash Entertainment for those true crime clip shows. Whatever it took to keep the lights on and provide as much support as I could for my son.

While this was happening, I'd submitted Absentia to a pile of film festivals. We didn't get into any of the majors - Sundance, SXSW, and Toronto all passed on the film. Our world premiere was at the Fargo Film Festival, where Tom Brandau, one of my former professors from Towson - and one of my mentors - was teaching.

(Our original festival poster, WAY better than the weird clip art that would come later)

The movie got into a fair amount of film festivals, and we traveled with it as much as we could. I have fond memories of the Phoenix Film Festival, San Luis Obispo (where I met Greg Kinnear at a party and very awkwardly asked for a picture - you can see how thrilled he is about it) and my personal favorite: the Fantastia Film Festival in Montreal.

(At one of the screenings, I believe the San Luis Obispo Film Festival)

While this was happening, the film was picked up for a tiny VOD and DVD release through Phase 4 Films.

They were a Canadian distribution company whose claim to fame was putting out Kevin Smith's Red State under a very unusual distribution model. They acquired the movie, which led to a company holiday part in Hollywood.

There, I briefly met Kevin Smith for the first time. We've met again since, and I've now had a chance to thank him for the kindness he showed me back then - I was just some starstruck kid at a party, but he was gracious and available and inspiring. I really admire the way Kevin deals with his fans, and I've tried to emulate it over the years.

So that was kind of it for Absentia. We went to a few festivals, went to a few parties, and posed for a few pictures with some people we admired. Phase 4 designed some truly godawful cover art, dropped the movie into video stores, and that was that.

($2.99 is a pretty good deal)

So Absentia had pretty much run its course. It had a passionate following of fans, but between the crappy art design and glut of low budget horror films on the market, its moment had already come and gone. I was back at work, editing a series for DIY Network called Extra Yardage, and yearning for another chance to make a movie.

Absentia might not have broken open the industry doors like I'd wanted it to, but one thing it did yield was a meeting with an entertainment attorney named Joel VanderKloot.

I had been represented a few times over the years by various managers (to be honest, they were actually Jeff Howard's managers, and they took me on because we had a co-written project together.) But those relationships hadn't gone anywhere, I'd never sold a script or booked a job, and when I suggested making Absentia they were not supportive ("You've already tried the indie thing, haven't you?") so by the time Absentia was made, I was completely unrepped.

Joel was a family friend of Jason Poh, who was one of our Absentia Kickstarter backers. He was a guy who'd just found the project online and donated a thousand bucks. He kept up with us, and loved the final movie. He told me he knew an entertainment lawyer and offered to arrange a lunch.

I left my editing job at Film Garden for a long lunch and met Joel in Santa Monica (this was a day-killing drive for me). Joel had seen the movie and really liked it. We had a good lunch, but wasn't immediately sure about taking me on - it's a lot of work to take on a new client, and there wasn't much heat on my movie. But there was something there that he liked, and he called later that day to say he would take me on as a client.

I was elated. I felt like I'd made my movie to the best of my ability, and that it had flashed in the pan and then died... no one had noticed outside of a few festival audiences and critics. But here was someone who worked in the industry and he saw something in the film that he believed in.

Joel started looking for managers while I clung to my day job. He passed the movie around and we had a few nibbles, which led to the first manager in my career who wanted to simply represent ME: Nicholas Bogner.

Bogner went about setting general meetings at production companies who specialized in horror films. There weren't a lot of takers, and not everyone was willing to watch an entire feature film in consideration of a general meeting. So it was hit or miss - I was a nobody, after all, and they get these kinds of incoming inquiries all the time.

But there were a few takers. And the very first meeting I had was with Anil Kurian at Intrepid Pictures.

Again, I took an extended lunch from my editing job and drove across town to Intrepid's offices in Santa Monica. I was beyond nervous when I sat in the waiting room. The young man working the front desk signed me in and offered me a water. And then, just before the meeting started, he leaned over and he said "I loved Absentia, by the way."

Anil was a really cool executive and we had a good general meeting. At the end of it, he introduced me to the heads of Intrepid: Marc Evans, and Trevor Macy.

We all ended up in the conference room, where posters for Intrepid's other movies - at that time, The Strangers and The Raven - were hanging. I vividly remember staring at them while I pitched all five of the ideas I had for movies.

One of them was a story about a little boy whose dreams manifested in real life, and another was a take on Stephen King's novel Gerald's Game. But at the time, none of these ideas worked. The meeting was over, and everyone was politely going about their day.

I felt a panic in me. It was my first real meeting, the door had been cracked open just an inch by Absentia, and I was about to walk away with nothing. Would my new manager want to keep me? Would my new lawyer think he was wasting his time?

I stopped in the doorway and turned back. "I've got one other thing," I said. "I made a short years ago about a haunted mirror, and I have a take for a feature."

They kind of laughed at the idea of a haunted mirror. "How do you make that scary?" Trevor asked. I said "Think of it like a portable Overlook Hotel," and the room got a little quieter.

"I'd like to see that short," Trevor said. I agreed to send it immediately.

I ran back to work, stayed a few hours late to make up the time I'd burned on my lunch hour, and went home to find a DVD copy of Oculus: The Man with the Plan.

I'd made that short in 2005. It was 20 mins long, and a lot of fun. Over the years whenever I'd get into meetings (all courtesy of Jeff Howard, who had sold scripts long before we started writing together), people would see it and ask about a feature. Every time, though, the conversation stalled because they wanted the film to be a found footage movie, or they'd balk at the idea of me directing a feature.

I sent the DVD to Intrepid and waited. About a week later, they called and asked me to come back in.

I took another long lunch (this would become quite a habit as the project advanced) and drove back down. We met again in the conference room, but this time the mood was a little different.

Trevor said "We're interested in this. How would you expand it? I know there are cameras in the room with the man and the mirror, which begs the question of found footage..."

My heart sank.

"... but we're thinking that's a mistake. It looks like all the fun is in playing with reality, and you can't do that with found footage. So how would you do it?"

And we were off.

I won't rehash the long journey between this meeting and the Oculus premiere at Toronto (scroll down to find another blog about that), but that was really the moment when things changed.

I drove back to work a little giddy. Intrepid optioned the short film, I called Jeff Howard to see if he'd still want to work on a feature with me, and we were commissioned to write the script.

It was my first Hollywood job. I was paid the bare minimum, but I was also able to join the WGA because of the deal. I still didn't quit my day job (and wouldn't for a long time, not until the movie was really shooting in Alabama the following year) but I was off to the races.

Once the script was done, Oculus would lead to my first agents (at APA, and they treated me very well) and my first "real" movie.

What's particularly neat about this time, looking back, is that I owe it all to Absentia. We'd made this tiny little movie to try to kick open the door of Hollywood and start a career. And despite the enormous pride I had in the finished film, it felt for a long time like it hadn't quite succeeded in that.

But quietly, subtly, the movie did exactly what I hoped it would. The festival screenings built up a small but confident word of mouth. The movie led directly to my attorney Joel (who still represents me to this day), which led directly to my first real representation, which led directly to Intrepid Pictures.

Trevor Macy is now my business partner and has produced every single thing I've ever made since. We run Intrepid Pictures together, and I see that same eagerness in the faces of young filmmakers who find their way to us for general meetings. I try to be as supportive and accessible to them as I possibly can, because I remember very well what it feels like to stand in their shoes.

And Trevor even ended up making those other pitches he'd rejected all those years ago - Before I Wake and Gerald's Game followed soon after Oculus was done.

Absentia did everything I could have wanted it to do, and much more. I'll always remember that period of time with great affection... but man, it was stressful. The uncertainty of those years still exists in me, I don't think it'll ever leave.

Someone told me, along the way, that there wouldn't be a moment when I realized I "made it." It would happen while I wasn't looking. That ended up being absolutely true.

[warningsine]

Deborah Vance and Ava Daniels can’t seem to quit each other. For two seasons, the love-hate relationship between Hacks’ imperious, old-school comedian, Deborah (Jean Smart), and the woke, down-on-her-luck, 20-something comedy writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder) hired to update her material fueled some of TV’s funniest and most provocative humor about people who tell jokes for a living. Then, for a year or so, it seemed as though the joke was on Hacks. First, Smart needed heart surgery. Just days after she’d recovered and the Emmy-winning series had gone back into production, the WGA and then SAG-AFTRA went on strike.

Hence the two-year wait for Season 3, whose first two episodes debuted May 2 on Max. Such a disjointed production schedule could have been disastrous for a show that relies so heavily on the chemistry of its cast—and especially between its intergenerational leads. Fortunately, the actors seem to have flourished amid adversity, just as Deborah and Ava often do. Creators Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky have crafted Hacks’ best season yet, one that allows the characters to grow without killing their spiky, push-pull bond. Smart and Einbinder further elevate that story arc with a rapport that feels more natural and intimate than ever.

When we last saw the divine Ms. V, her career was soaring on the strength of a smash-hit, self-released special in which she dropped her dated stand-up schtick and told the funny, sad, real stories she’d amassed as a pioneering woman in a male-dominated entertainment industry. It was Ava who pushed Deborah to push herself, and Deborah thanked her by pushing her out of the nest. In the Season 2 finale, the diva fired a protégée she’d come to respect, in hopes that the younger woman would seize the opportunity to start making her own dreams come true.

But Hacks would not be Hacks if its stars spent all their screen time apart. Season 3 picks up one year after its predecessor left off, as the Vance-aissance continues with Deborah’s appearance on—what else?—the TIME 100. Things are going great for Ava, too. She’s secured a staff job writing for a comedy-news show in the vein of John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight and is living with her actress girlfriend, Ruby (Lorenza Izzo). Then she runs into Deborah at Montreal’s Just for Laughs festival and they bond over Tom Cruise’s coveted coconut cake.

Ava misses working with a boss who can certainly be a self-absorbed pain but who also really gets her sense of humor. Deborah is surrounded by sycophants, from the two mediocre writers she hired to replace Ava to the stylist who co-signs her bad fashion choices to audiences who laugh appreciatively even when she isn’t cracking a joke, and longs for a collaborator who will tell her the unvarnished truth. So, with Deborah in the running for her dream job as a late-night host, Ava agrees to spend her show’s three-month hiatus helping her prepare.

Deborah’s new place at the center of the comedy universe gives Aniello, Downs, and Statsky an excuse to survey the strange, fragmented and often-contradictory state of that art form in 2024. There’s a roast that brings both hired-gun comics and Deborah’s aggrieved adult daughter, DJ (Kaitlin Olson), together to say the meanest things they can think of about her. Then there’s her G-rated gig cheerily co-hosting the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. At one point, Deborah’s history of insensitive humor resurfaces. While she initially vows never to apologize for any joke, Ava urges her to at least hear out a generation that wasn’t even alive when she made many of them, in what is perhaps the least hysterical “cancel culture” plot TV has produced.

For all its timely self-awareness about the industry it represents, Hacks is, in many ways, a traditional sitcom. It’s a professional will-they-or-won’t-they centered on a classic odd-couple duo: two women of vastly divergent ages, politics, and bank balances, one just starting her career and the other a battle-scarred veteran. Season 3 smartly ups the show’s focus on another well-mismatched pair, Deborah and Ava’s dangerously decent agent, Jimmy (Downs), and his flighty assistant, Kayla (the wonderful Megan Stalter, now more than just wacky comic relief), who have left the agency her dad runs and struck out on their own. (The season’s one notable flaw is the dearth of substantive storylines for two chronically under-developed characters, DJ and Deborah’s repressed deputy Marcus, played by Carl Clemons-Hopkins.)

The writers make inspired use of sitcom standbys, from the character who absolutely needs to be in two places at once to the bottle episode; Deborah and Ava are forced to spend hours alone together, as Deborah finally confesses her mixed emotions about getting everything she’s always wanted so late in life. “You know,” she tells Ava, “your whole life you say, ‘One day I’ll do this, one day I’ll accomplish that.’ And the magic of ‘one day’ is that it’s all ahead of you. But for me, ‘one day’ is now. Anything I want to do, I have to do now, or else I’ll never do it. That’s the worst part of being old.” The speech resonates whether you’re Deborah’s age or Ava’s, made all the more poignant by Smart’s gradual shift in mood, from tough to vulnerable. In this scene and others, the tumultuous love between her character and Einbinder’s has a familial authenticity. 

Like its best forerunners, from Seinfeld to 30 Rock, Hacks is hitting its stride a few seasons into its run because it takes that long for a cast and a writing staff to learn how to make each other as brilliant as they can possibly all be. Early on in the series, there was a bit of a disconnect between Einbinder’s affable performance and some of Ava’s nastier moments. Now, the character seamlessly coheres. Deborah has always been the role of a lifetime for Smart, and in the new episodes, the creators reward her virtuosity by giving her more fodder for introspection and growth than ever before. In the heyday of broadcast comedy, a sitcom that had achieved such ideal synergy could retain its audience—and the support of its network—for upwards of a decade. It’s fitting, when you consider that one of its heroines is the ultimate Hollywood survivor, that Hacks has become the rare streaming show with the potential to have the same longevity. 

[aeolianblues]

personal 2024 wrapped

Met some dear Tumblr friends, moved house thrice, did a film festival red carpet, was sort of homeless for a week, fell out with a friend and it is still awkward and will continue to be, got my first press pass, won a radio award, graduated (how tf did I nearly forget that), attended my first crazy st. pads house party thanks to housemates, hid a couple of inexplicable times from said housemates bc the music got too loud, went to my first proper music festival though not a camping one, travelled 7h to see one band, travelled to see more bands then I have ever in my life, got employed, had my first proper 'holy fuck, what a creep and loser' experience, met some more really dear friends irl, had so many people, some who were not long ago complete strangers be so so unbelievable kind to be and I think that's what I'll remember most from this year, had my first major medical procedure, had my dentist get really mad at me mid-surgery, (survived), had someone tell me if I worked for the CBC I would 'fix everything' (sigh, don't give a fella hope), sent a lot of scary emails, actually got quite a few unbelievable interviews and talked to some incredible people, I now have one of the few verbal records of Montreal's punk rock riot of 1979 told first-hand by the guy that caused it, met my family again after so long, had my first (and apparently second??) grey hair (unrelated) (related to the housing thing and that was when I truly understood how connected being comfortable was to both physical and mental health), presented at a live gig, rawdogged two foreign languages in their native places, attended my first-ever club night— and danced too! (To post punk music), had last-minute nostalgia and fomo and decided against moving out of my small city into the biggest one, finally started a music website and harbour mad hopes of being a music journalist again, got invited to a music business conference, met this girl who was also getting fucked by this school and city's housing disasters and tried to help, she eventually dropped out because she couldn't find housing and went back home but she's going to a better uni now and she sent me such a kind message about helping her that I cried on a public bench (and I'd do it again!! Help, I mean. This city needs to sort its housing policy out), got hugged quite a bit actually and in general was shown so much live and kindness and that's what I'm taking with me into 2025. People gave me do much of their time, it meant so much to me. The hour-long calls. Picking up my phone at 2 AM. Thinking of me as the first person to call when heartbroken over a breakup at 1 am. Running to me with the good news. Being there for me. Travelling how many hundred, thousand kilometres to be with me. Was severely underslept but that's livin la vida loca. I'll try and be a better sleeper this year, as I'm getting older, the leeway my body can give me for staying up all night and sleeping quite little will reduce if I want to live. Earlier nights for earlier mornings. More sleeping within 20 minutes of being home rather than somehow wasting an hour after a 2 AM-night out and we'll still be fine. Still a little young, right?

The first half of the year was harrowing but I'm glad I went through it to get to the good parts, because I wouldn't have missed those for the world. I was buoyed by the love and kindness shown to me and that's what I cling to and will remember.

[sippinggossip]

"Regardless if they are a PR couple they are cute"

Sorry but what does that mean? They are together for almost a year already at more than official events.

Here's a timeline of their relationship (Damiano and Dove) the not aware people:

First they started dating in New York when the band was there to start their tour and for the VMA thing. Then continued in LA where a video of them kissing got out, also they left together that party, Dove was wearing his Daddy hat and she did hang out with his friends. The Thomas guy (not the Thomas from the band, their LA friend) posted a pic of them, also there's a pic on Dove's instagram from that night.

Next. Dove went to Brazil and first they were seen at Anitta's party together. Then they were seen at the hotel lobby in Rio. Then Dove was at the concerts and lastly they were seen leaving in a car, also joined by Ethan.

Next: Australia: She joined for the concerts there. Fans saw them holding hands in Adelaide. Later the beach pics from Melbourne got out too.

Next: She joined him in Dublin, Ireland where they stayed a few days and were seen in a bar with his brother and friend by a fan girl who later posted the pics and said she talked to both of them, more to Dove who was very nice.

Next: Damiano took her to Rome after Dublin where they were seen having a dinner being very in love. Also seen with his friends again.

Next: Then went to Manchester together. Last concert of the tour at the time. After that he took Dove to Rome again. His tattoo artist posted a pic and said she was the photographer.

Now on to 2024: I will mention only the times fans saw them because probably everyone knows about the official pics.

In January, Damiano went to LA and they were seen multiple times there. At the flea market by a few guys. One guy took a pic with Damiano and a girl with Dove.

They were seen by fans holding hands, walking around Krustyland with Damiano's brother and a friend who were visiting.

Next seen at Disneyland with Damiano's brother and his girlfriend.

Next they went to Las Vegas with his brother and girlfriend. Tea Hacic, a long time friend of Damiano and Vic posted a video of her and Dove. They did hang out together. Later they followed each other.

Next: They went to Rome for a few days. They were seen before the Roma game, holding hands, looking happy. Then the pics from the match itself are probably known.

After that they went to Milan to work on their Met gala costumes. Also in Paris for a few days. Damiano posted about Paris himself.

Then they returned to LA where they were seen shopping and looking in love, kissing. Some girl even saw them at a sex shop other day.

Latest: Girl sees them possibly getting food at 2 am. She wasn't sure what they were doing but she saw them pass by and shared the video.

After that Damiano leaves LA after Met gala to do festivals. Dove couldn't go because she films new series in Montreal.

Damiano goes to Canada to see her in his free days from festivals. He was seen on the plane. Dove's latest post is assumed to be from them going out in Canada.

If you still wanna believe it's PR and they pretend all the time , go ahead.

I didn’t say that I believe they’re a PR couple. I personally don’t think they are. I also meant to say “regardless or not”, but I forgot.

I honestly don’t know why I said all of that, lol. Oops.

[crossbackpoke-check]

56 and any Yamo pairing! 🫶

i just wheezed so hard when i saw what the song was i almost snorted coffee out of my nose i am so sorry for this one

#56 - kyoto phoebe bridgers + yamo

the story of how this song ended up on my wrapped is too long so it’s going in the tags but. let me set the scene for you.

2026 NHL GLOBAL SERIES™️ JAPAN - Presented by YPPI

November 13 & 14, 2026: Dallas Stars, Montreal Canadiens, Seattle Kraken, Vancouver Canucks

Saitama Super Arena, Saitama, Japan

It’s a pitiful excuse of a consolation prize for not being able to go to the Olympics, but Kailer’s not going to look a vacation horse in the mouth. The arena’s cool. It’s huge. The people are cool. There’s so many more of them than he thought there’d be with jerseys that have his name on the back, and a lot more that have the familiar orange and blue. He takes a picture of the fifth Oilers Yamamoto jersey he signs—this one’s the good Reverse Retro—and texts it to Connor, says,

no one here has even heard of mcjesus

and gets a moon face emoji in response. Leon’s influence. Kailer’s still never really deciphered what that one means, and he doesn’t think Connor knows either.

They don’t have a lot of time off between games, but Kailer’s trying to be a good tourist. His dad had been so happy when Kailer had told him about the series that Kailer’d had to stop him from trying to book a flight a year in advance, and his mom’s been just as bad, sending him every article she sees about Best New Spot in Tokyo! Cool Restaurant! Have You Seen This Japanese Cat Café? that she scrolls across on Facebook since June. Suzy’s in the same boat, so they’ve been crossing off their compiled travel-guide list together, looping in as many guys as they can. Everyone’s been pretty game. All the teams are crammed into close quarters at the same hotel, which means everyone wants to spend as much time as possible outside of it, and it helps that Kailer’s gotten pretty close with all the other guys that the NHL picked up as Global Series figureheads. Robo’s memes? Absolutely fire. The groupchat loves them.

For every item he crosses off the list, Kailer takes a picture and keeps it tucked in his phone notes. It’s like speed-running a scavenger hunt—they’re only here for four days—but he’s doing a pretty good job. His favorite so far has been all the gardens. They’re stunning, trees shining bright red and yellow, and every vendor has been selling maple candies, maple cakes, and even fried maple, though the official maple festival doesn’t start until next week. The second garden he visits, he does it on his own after practice, buying two cakes from a cart near the gate and walking until he loses the bustle outside. It’s easy to get lost in the winding pathways, heading deeper into the quiet, and there’s dozens of benches underneath the burnished leaves where young couples are tucked away on dates, or old friends are laughing and catching up. In some of the little clearings, there’s small shrines where people leave offerings, a prayer for good luck or good fortune.

Kailer stops at one without any people and sets the second maple cake on top of it, then sits and scrolls through all the texts that he’s missed. His mom gets replied to with a picture of him outside the garden gate, grinning and surrounded by other travelers. He sends his brother a picture of a trashy graphic I Love Japan t-shirt with the threat that he’ll buy one for him, and Kailer’s dad gets a picture of the meticulously arranged and cut bonsai that are across from the bench where he’s sitting. The Seattle groupchat gets a recycled meme from Robo, and he gets two thumbs up and an “LMAO” before he can even exit the thread. Finally, Kailer takes a picture of the half-eaten maple cake in his hand, holding it next to a fallen maple leaf on the bench, and gets halfway through typing another message before he thinks better of it.

(On the plane over, Drieds was reading them a story about how when they first introduced the high-speed railway, people were afraid to use it because they thought it would be too fast for their souls to keep up.

“Bro, if that were true, you just left your soul in the middle of the Pacific,” Ebs had laughed. “Planes are faster than trains.”

“Are they?” Matty asked. “Isn’t the train in Japan the fastest in the world?”

Drieds couldn’t make it through the rest of the story over the sound of everyone ripping Matty to shreds, so Kailer didn’t get to ask whether or not they found out anything about planes. Kailer’s not worried about his soul, but the logic makes a strange kind of sense; after all, he traveled 429 miles in five and a half hours once, and that was a little too fast for his heart to keep up.)

Fuck it. Kailer’s been trying to write a response for the past ten days, and he’s sick of swiping in and out of the message, staring at the keyboard so long he starts to see swirls in his vision.

Kailer drafts the text again and sends it, no context, no caption. A text travels faster than a high-speed train or a jet. Maybe it’ll pick his heart back up on the way.

[burlveneer-music]

Hailu Mergia — Belew Beduby (Live) - teaser for forthcoming live album Pioneer Works Swing (Nov. 3)

Hailu Mergia — Keyboards, Accordion, Melodica, Vocals Alemseged Kebede — Bass Guitar Kenneth Joseph — Drums It’s been a little over ten years since Hailu Mergia re-emerged on the international music scene. Following the first in a series of his classic recordings reissued in collaboration with Awesome Tapes From Africa, Mergia assembled a band and began performing live again after many years driving a cab in Washington, DC. His first show back appeared on the front page of the New York Times along with a stellar review and he took off from there performing his flavor of Ethiopian jazz all over the world in the years since, including Radio City Music Hall and Montreal Jazz Festival. Finally, we have a recorded document of the keyboard player’s powerful DC-based trio—which practices each weekend in his basement—featuring Kenneth Joseph on drums and Alemseged Kebede on bass. Beautifully captured at one of their fiery live shows at the venerable Brooklyn non-profit cultural center Pioneer Works on July 1, 2016, the concert was recorded by PW staff and mixed by Ted Young with mastering by ATFA’s expert audio extraction collaborator Jessica Thompson. The performance clarifies what many people across the globe already know: in his fifth decade of music-making Hailu Mergia continues to push the boundaries of his remarkable abilities.

[x--daughters-of-darkness--x]

MEGADETH Joined By CRISTINA SCABBIA For 'À Tout Le Monde' Performance At Italy's AMA MUSIC FESTIVAL

LACUNA COIL singer Cristina Scabbia joined MEGADETH on stage on August 27 at the AMA Music Festival in in Vicenza, Italy to perform the MEGADETH song "À Tout Le Monde". Fan-filmed video footage of her appearance can be seen below.

"À Tout Le Monde", which originally appeared on MEGADETH's 1994 CD "Youthanasia", created controversy in September 2006 because the song was cited in an online post by Dawson College killer Kimveer Gill as one of his favorites before his Montreal shooting spree. MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine contended that he wanted to give the song a second shot at success, as the original video for it had been banned by MTV, and most radio stations followed suit. The track ended up featuring Scabbia after "the first singer didn't work out," Mustaine told Straight.com. "The second one didn't work, and the third one was Lisa Marie Presley. She was on the way to the airport, and we had to call and say, 'Sorry, we changed our minds.' I would have loved to have heard what Lisa Marie Presley would have done, but because of the demographics of the LACUNA COIL fan base, and Cristina's reign in the heavy-metal business, it was the right thing to do."

In a 2008 interview Cristina stated about her collaboration with MEGADETH, "[Dave Mustaine] actually asked me to be part of this duet, and I was really surprised about it because 'À Tout Le Monde' is a song that I've always loved, even if it's not like the new [version] because [the original song] [was released on] the album 'Youthanasia'. It was a big surprise for me to get this invitation — I was really honored to be part of it. And seriously, when I heard the final result, I was awesomely surprised 'cause I think that the two voices are fitting incredibly [well together]. I think that the version of 'À Tout Le Monde' 2007 has a stronger attitude. If the original version was for the mellow mood, this one is way more rock, way more powerful. I totally love it. I was surprised myself, and I think that a lot of people will be pleasantly surprised. It was recorded, like an hour from Birgmingham [England]. So I flew in and recorded my parts with Andy Sneap [producer]. He's [Andy] an amazing guy — super professional — and the atmosphere in the studio was so relaxed. It was like a family vibe, and I think that's the most amazing thing when you have to work. You can work and still smile, you know, and be relaxed. I tracked the entire song because we weren't really sure what we had to do, so we just wanted to be totally sure, so we recorded all the parts that Dave sung with some improvisation with it, double vocals. We basically made anything possible, so they could pick up whatever they wanted to."

"À Tout Le Monde (Set Me Free)" appeared on MEGADETH's 2007 album "United Abominations", which was released via Roadrunner Records.

[surffaresbookings]

Witness the World's Largest Spiritual Gathering with : Maha Kumbh Mela 2025

Are you ready to witness the Maha Kumbh Mela, the grandest spiritual gathering in the world? Held every 12 years, this awe-inspiring event is a deeply transformative experience where millions of pilgrims, saints, and spiritual seekers come together on the sacred banks of the Ganges, Yamuna, and Saraswati rivers in Prayagraj, India. The upcoming Maha Kumbh Mela in 2025 is an opportunity to immerse yourself in spirituality, cultural diversity, and ancient traditions that have existed for millennia.

If you're traveling from Canada to India, here's everything you need to know about flights, travel plans, and why you should add this incredible event to your bucket list!

Why Visit Maha Kumbh Mela?

Largest Spiritual Gathering in the World Over 100 million people gather at this UNESCO-recognized event, offering a chance to witness India’s vibrant spiritual traditions up close.

Sacred Bathing Rituals Experience the profound "Shahi Snan" (royal bath) as devotees take a holy dip in the Ganges, believed to cleanse sins and grant liberation.

Sadhus and Ascetics Meet India's mystics and holy men, such as the famed Naga Sadhus, adorned with ashes and known for their deep spiritual practices.

Festivals and Activities Enjoy music, devotional singing, yoga sessions, Vedic teachings, and art exhibitions showcasing India's rich heritage.

Flights from Canada to India

To attend the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, you'll first fly to a major city in India like Delhi or Mumbai, and then connect to Prayagraj via domestic flights, trains, or road travel.

Popular International Flights from Canada to India:

Toronto (YYZ) to Delhi (DEL) Average round-trip fares: CAD 1,400–1,800 Airlines: Air India, Air Canada, Qatar Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways Flight time: Approximately 13–15 hours (non-stop or one stop)

Vancouver (YVR) to Delhi (DEL) Average round-trip fares: CAD 1,500–2,000 Airlines: Air India, Air Canada, British Airways, Lufthansa Flight time: Approximately 14–17 hours (one stop)

Montreal (YUL) to Mumbai (BOM) Average round-trip fares: CAD 1,400–1,900 Airlines: Qatar Airways, Air France, Turkish Airlines, Emirates Flight time: Approximately 15–18 hours (one stop)

Domestic Travel in India:

Once you reach India, there are multiple options to get to Prayagraj:

Domestic Flight to Prayagraj (IXD) from Delhi or Mumbai: CAD 100–200 (round-trip)

Train Services from Delhi/Mumbai to Prayagraj: Highly economical and scenic.

Suggested Travel Itinerary:

Day 1-2: Land in Delhi/Mumbai and explore the bustling cities, their monuments, and cultural vibrancy.

Day 3-7: Travel to Prayagraj for the Maha Kumbh Mela. Attend key bathing dates, cultural activities, and explore the mela grounds.

Day 8-9: Extend your trip to visit iconic nearby destinations like Varanasi or Agra (Taj Mahal) before flying back to Canada.

Important Dates for Maha Kumbh Mela 2025

Duration: Mid-January to April 2025

Peak Bathing Dates:

Makar Sankranti: January 14, 2025

Mauni Amavasya: February 9, 2025

Basant Panchami: February 12, 2025

Tips for Canadian Travelers to India

Apply for an Indian Visa Canadian tourists need an e-Visa for India. Apply online before departure.

Weather Prep January to March is winter in India, so pack light woolens and comfortable clothing.

Health Precautions Stay hydrated, eat freshly cooked meals, and consider travel insurance.

Cultural Sensitivity Respect local customs, dress modestly at religious sites, and seek permission before photographing people, especially sadhus.

How to Book Flights and Packages?

Search for flights on travel platforms like Google Flights, Skyscanner, or Expedia. Alternatively, you can work with travel agencies offering tailored Maha Kumbh Mela tour packages. Many packages include flights, accommodations, guided tours, and access to cultural events.

Conclusion

The Maha Kumbh Mela 2025 is a once-in-a-lifetime spiritual and cultural experience that attracts people from all over the globe. Canadians can easily plan their journey with affordable flights, efficient transport, and well-organized travel packages. Don’t miss this extraordinary opportunity to connect with India’s spiritual essence and witness the magic of one of the largest gatherings on Earth.

Book your flight from Canada to India today, and prepare to be amazed by the Maha Kumbh Mela!

[rabbitcruiser]

Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day

A national holiday in the Canadian province of Quebec and celebrated by French Canadians worldwide, especially in Canada and the United States, Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, June 24,  honors the traditional feast day of the Nativity — or birth — of St. John the Baptist. The religious nature of the holiday has been de-emphasized for civic events, and “la St-Jean” is now mainly a celebration of francophone culture and history filled with public events, parades, barbecues, picnics and fireworks. Bonne Saint-Jean-Baptiste!

When is Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day 2022?

Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, or St John the Baptist Day, is celebrated on June 24 in the Canadian province of Quebec and by French Canadians across Canada and the United States.

History of Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day

Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day is a national holiday celebrated on June 24 in Quebec, where it’s also known as ‘Fête nationale du Québec’ (‘national holiday of Quebec’ in English). Many Canadian Francophone communities outside of Quebec also celebrate Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day.

The holiday festivities start on June 23 and people gather to celebrate Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day and Francophone culture with outdoor activities, parades, concerts, and fireworks. Smaller celebrations are also held in neighborhoods, like bonfires, barbecues, and picnics. The white fleur-de-lis on the flag of Quebec is the symbol of this holiday. Blue and white are the colors of the day, and the flag is waved and hoisted at Fête nationale du Québec events.

The history of Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day is more than 100 years old. The day originally marked the honorary remembrance of the Christian saint, John the Baptist, but all this changed in 1834 when Canadian-French journalist Ludger Duvernay witnessed a St. Patrick’s Day celebration in Montreal. Seeing the grand celebration for an honorary figure inspired him to form a similar holiday for French Canadians to honor their heritage. Duvernay established the charitable association, the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society, in the same year, and the holiday was observed for the first time on June 24. The association was chartered in 1849 with the aim of promoting moral and social progress.

Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day was celebrated on and off for years until it finally became an official holiday in Quebec in 1925. The day has been observed every year since and has become a mark of Francophone culture.

Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day timeline

1646 Shots fired

One of the first recognized celebrations of Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day took place on the banks of the Saint Lawrence River with bonfires and shots from a cannon.

1694 Holiday declared

Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day is declared a public holiday by the second bishop of Quebec, Jean-Baptiste de La Croix de Chevrières de Saint-Vallier.

1744 The bishop of Quebec ruins the party

According to some sources, Henri-Marie Dubreil de Pontbriand, the sixth bishop of Quebec, tries to abolish Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day celebrations because he felt they had strayed too far from their religious origins.

1834 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day Promoted

Journalist Ludger Duvernay, inspired by Montreal’s Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations, establishes the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society to promote Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day.

1977 Fete Nationale du Quebec

Lieutenant Governor Hugues Lapointe declares June 24, Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, a national holiday in Quebec.

Traditions

Many celebratory events are organized around Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day. From small family gatherings like picnics, bonfires, parties, and yard sales, to large organized events such as concerts, parades, sports tournaments, and firework displays, there is something for everyone. Church bells also ring in celebration, and local funfairs and dances are hosted. These events are also sometimes broadcast live on TV or live-streamed on social media. The celebrations are coordinated by the Mouvement national des Québécoises et des Québécois.

The colors for the day are blue and white, with many people wearing these to attend events. The public holiday is a day off from school and most businesses are also closed.

Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day FAQs

Why do we celebrate St-Jean-Baptiste Day?

St-Jean-Baptiste Day is a public holiday in Quebec, on which John the Baptist is remembered.

What is Québec's national holiday called?

The official holiday of Quebec, Canada is called Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day or ‘Fête nationale du Québec’ in French.

What is Saint Jean the patron saint of?

Saint Jean is the patron saint of Canada.

Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day Activities

Have a neighborhood picnic

Grab a seat near the water for fireworks

Learn French

One of the great things about la St-Jean is that the party spreads outward from the main city events into all the neighborhoods and communities. Organize a potluck picnic with your friends from the block.

There's no better way to watch fireworks than right next to the water, where you'll get a front-row seat for the spectacular, booming, sparkling displays — both in the air and in the magical reflection on the waves.

French is one of the world's most beautiful languages. And it's the official tongue in a multitude of countries — not just France and Canada. Learn the language so you'll be prepared when you run into a fellow francophone.

5 Facts About Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day

The holiday has many names

Symbols for the day

He baptized Jesus

John the Baptist saved

John the Baptist is also mentioned in Islam

Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day is also known as St John the Baptist Day, ‘la Saint-Jean,’ ‘Fête nationale du Québec,’ and Quebec's National Holiday.

The flag of Quebec and the fleurs-de-lis represent Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day.

Jean Baptiste is French for John the Baptist, a Jewish preacher who baptized Jesus Christ.

John baptized Jewish people in the river Jordan on their confession of their sins.

St. John the Baptist is perceived as a prophet in the Islamic religion.

Source

[weepingdonutdinosaur]

Discover Canadas Exciting TaxFree Treasures

When you consider checking out Canada, you might envision spectacular landscapes and vibrant cultures, but have you considered the tax-free treasures waiting to be revealed? From spectacular national parks to vibrant celebrations that won't cost you a cent, the opportunities are huge and varied. You can immerse yourself in outdoor activities that not just revitalize your spirit but also keep your wallet intact. What covert gems are just around the corner, ready to improve your adventure? Let's take a closer look at what Canada needs to use without the included expense.

Natural Wonders to Explore

Canada's large landscapes beckon you to explore its sensational natural marvels. From the marvelous Rocky Mountains to the serene coasts of the Great Lakes, every corner of this nation provides spectacular views and extraordinary experiences.

Picture yourself hiking through the lush forests of British Columbia or standing in awe at the foot of Niagara Falls, where the rumbling waters create an enchanting spectacle.

As you journey throughout the country, do not miss out on the possibility to check out Banff National forest. Its blue-green lakes and snow-capped peaks are perfect for outdoor adventures, whether you're snowboarding in the winter or hiking in the summer.

If you're seeking serenity, head to the Bay of Fundy, where you can witness the highest tides in the world.

You might also enjoy checking out the sensational landscapes of Jasper National forest, where wildlife wanders easily, and the night sky dazzles with stars.

Canada's natural wonders invite you to connect with the outdoors, providing countless chances for exploration and adventure.

Free Celebrations and Events

Celebrating culture and community, complimentary celebrations and events throughout the country use a great method to experience Canada's dynamic spirit. From coast to coast, you can immerse yourself in varied traditions, art, and music without spending a dime.

Whether you're in the heart of Toronto or the charming streets of Victoria, there's always something happening. At occasions like the Calgary Stampede, you can absorb the excitement of rodeo competitors and live performances.

In Montreal, the International Jazz Celebration showcases world-class artists, inviting you to dance and delight in the rhythm of the city. If you remain accounting company in Halifax, the Natal Day festivities combine locals for a weekend of enjoyable, food, and fireworks.

You'll likewise discover cultural events like Native festivals, where you can learn more about the rich heritage of First Nations peoples through storytelling, dance, and art.

Plus, summer season markets turn up in numerous towns, providing a possibility to sample regional food and crafts. No matter where you are, these totally free festivals and occasions produce chances to connect with others and commemorate what makes Canada unique.

Tax-Free Outside Activities

After taking pleasure in totally free celebrations and occasions, why not make the most of the outdoors? Canada uses a treasure trove of tax-free activities that let you soak up nature without spending a dime.

Lace up your treking boots and struck one of the countless tracks winding through spectacular national forests. You'll discover tracks for every skill level, from leisurely walks to challenging climbs, all showcasing awesome views.

If you're more into w

[respectthepetty]

15 Questions

Tagged by @italianpersonwithashippersheart and @pandasmagorica

1. are you named after anyone?

Yes. First name is after my cousin's imaginary friend because my parents were wild. Middle name is after the song I was conceived to because my parents were really wild.

2. when was the last time you cried?

Externally? I joke that I haven't cried since 2009, but I really think that is the last time I cried. Internally? Every single fucking day.

3. do you have kids?

Oh, Lord, no.

4. what sports do you play/have you played?

Basketball, volleyball (horrible at it), fast-pitch softball, but I love watching all live sports.

5. do you use sarcasm?

Strange story, but many educators have to get "empathy training" because we do not understand declarations of self-harm to be serious. We think they are sarcastic comments. I think as an aging millennial, sarcasm is all we have, so we do not recognize when someone else is being serious. So . . . yes, I use sarcasm.

6. what’s the first thing you notice about people?

Vibes. I travel alone, so if the vibe ain't right, I'm out.

7. what’s your eye color?

Very dark brown

8. scary movies or happy endings?

Happy Endings. Both kind. *wink*

9. any talents?

Navigation and directions. Stick me anywhere, and I will find my way to where I need to go. Metro, bus, interstate, walking. Doesn't matter. I will figure it out. Also driving. I can drive loooong distances and any vehicle is my friend, which is why I got a ticket on the autobahn because I was just vibin' in the Audi at 150 km.

10. where were you born?

Japan

11. what are your hobbies

Traveling, especially for live music. I've seen hundreds of artists individually and have been to almost fifty music festivals. Some of my favorites are Austin City Limits (Austin), Electric Daisy Carnival (Las Vegas), Lollapalooza (Chicago), Country Music Awards Fest (Nashville), Osheaga (Montreal), Ultra (Miami), Primavera (Barcelona), Mad Cool (Madrid), and Pa'l Norte (Monterrey, México). Some of my favorite venues are Meow Wolf (Santa Fe), Red Rocks (Denver), and Fenway Park (Boston), and I had a ticket to see a concert at the Palace of Versailles in France for May 2020, then everything went to hell in a hand basket. But strangely, I saw Bad Bunny, Big Freedia, and French DJ Gesaffelstein in 2020.

I could talk for hours about music, but I'll stop with this picture (not mine because none I took came out good) of Gesaffelstein who dresses like this for his shows with an all black background and all black equipment. Ah-maze-zing.

12. do you have any pets?

Oh, God, no. I'm a Disney villain. I don't mess with animals. Or plants.

13. how tall are you?

5'9" (This is a good country song too)

14. favorite subject in school?

Languages & Literature, which is why I teach English now.

15. dream job

What I'm doing now. Teaching. Except I would like to grade less than ~150 essays every month, but education is a mess right now, so y'all be nice to your professors.

[petewentz-livejournal]

December 4, 2001

“i keep her heart in a box next to my bed and take it out sometimes before i go to sleep…”

[10:30 pm]

[  Current Music    |   the cure: all  ]

what’s up. it’s been awhile. we had one of the best and worst weekends as a band ever. our record release was great- kids went pretty insane and we sold a bunch of cds. however, our trip to cleavland was horrid.

first, we leave late for the show. next we get a flat outside of toledo- the tow truck guy picks us up in a van to go and get a tire. on the way i tell him we are in town for the adult film festival. a half hour later we get another flat. this time 20 miles outside of cleavland. the towtruck driver tells us that we won’t be able to get a tire that night as he tows us. at least he buys a cd cause i tell him we sound like slipknot. i then call the promoter and tell her our story, i tell her to have our friends in the band Deadtofall come pick us up cause they are from chicago too. instead she gets super pissy and is all “i’m coming to get you, i’m leaving the show unattended… blah blah”. she gets to the toll plaza that we are stuck at and we grab our guitars and some cds and get in. the whole ride she bitches at me about how she thinks this is our fault and shit. we get to the show and borrow deadtofall and the funeral’s stuff and play one of the worst shows we have ever played, honestly we were so sloppy. this had something to do with playing on other equipment and so forth. we sold a couple of cds anyway which was nice. 100 demons was supposed to play next on santa sangres equipment but since they broke up, they were going to use our equipment but we had none because of the flats… to make a long story short they weren’t given any equipment and got pretty pissed off. people ended up demanding money back- they wanted some- in the end we got paid nothing (because of the hassle we “created” by getting two flats) and ended up spending a fortune on getting towed and new tires. deadtofall drove some of us home that night and some slept in the toll plaza and waited till morning to walk two miles to get a new tire. on the way a cop stopped them and when giving them ride informed them he had picked up 100 demons the night before for having drugs in their van. yikes. ah you win some you lose some.

the dates for our winter tour:

12.30 evansville, in - 7a7p

12.31 cincinatti, Oh- 7a7p

1.1 syracuse-w/ throwdown

1.2 ottawa, on-w/throwdown

1.3 montreal, pq -throwdown

1.4 long island, ny

1.5 philly

1.6 nyc-w/throwdown

and a review of our new record from hanging like a hex fanzine:

“This easily wins scariest layout of the year award. Very blunt, very graphic, and very disturbing, this Chicago piledriver unleases it’s most solid work to date. Whereas I really liked what they were doing before, but felt that they dragged out their songs, and overloaded them with too much baggage at times, this debut full length simplifies things a bit. The heaviness and technicality is still there in spades, but the songs have shortened up a bit, and are a bit more concise, which is something this band really needed. And it works really well. Playing pummelling metalcore with down-tuned riffing, and a heavily pessimistic view of the world, Arma just crush everything in their path, and continue to maim with no concern for the past, present, or future. It’s a great effort with supurb recording (heavy on the bass I might add) and a bleak outlook.”

in other good news i’m finally gonna get to hang out with this girl i have been missing for the past month or so. shes come’s into town tommorrow- yep.

love petey

[mariacallous]

As 350 Jews with roots in the former Soviet Union gathered recently for a weekend conference at a Canadian Niagara Falls resort, Montreal was experiencing one of the worst outbreaks of antisemitic violence in Canada in this century.

Hundreds of protesters smashed shop windows, attacked police officers, set fire to cars, and waved Hamas and Hezbollah flags. The violence sent chills through Canada’s Jewish community—at over 330,000, the Diaspora’s third-largest after the United States and France.

“This is a clear warning sign that demands a decisive response from all who uphold democratic values,” Raheli Baratz, head of the World Zionist Organization’s Department for Combating Antisemitism and Enhancing Resilience, said of the Niagara Falls conference organized by Limmud FSU Canada. “We must unite in the fight against hate and protect the safety of all Canadian citizens.”

Several speakers at the event focused on the problem of antisemitism. The conference was hosted by Limmud FSU, the nonprofit organization that caters to the 60,000 or so Canadian Jews with roots in countries like Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and others that once comprised the Soviet Union. Since the first conference in 2005, at least 90 events across the globe have been hosted by 13 volunteer teams with over 80,000 participants.

The Nov. 22-24 gathering at Ontario’s White Oaks Resort & Spa also coincided with a sharp escalation of the Russian war in Ukraine, now in its third year. Shelly Pisarenko, 32, has roots in both countries. In 1989 her parents moved to Israel, where she was born. Now married, Pisarenko attends Toronto’s York University, where she says antisemitism is pervasive.

“I don’t feel physically threatened, but it’s dangerous to disclose who you are,” said Pisarenko, a psychology major also studying for her Ontario teaching license. “You have to be very careful with whom you share your Jewish identity. Really, I try to avoid any sort of protests on campus.”

Pisarenko leads Limmud FSU Canada’s Young Professionals committee, whose focus this year was on responding to Jew hatred and verbal abuse, whether on campus or at the workplace.

The festival’s theme was “We Will Dance Again,” a tribute to the 364 people massacred by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023 at the Nova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im in southern Israel.  

Workshops in English and Russian covered weighty topics such as “God and the Holocaust: Can They Coexist?” and “Wars in Ukraine and Israel: Against a Common Enemy.” Lighter fare was on the agenda too, such as a lecture on the history of Jamaica’s Jews, a halachic analysis of artificial intelligence, and a debate on the relative health benefits and risks of drinking coffee.

Pro-Israel social influencer Rudy Rochman offered a seminar on understanding and combating antisemitism. Mayor Jeremy Levi of Hampstead, a heavily Jewish upscale suburb of Montreal, spoke on what it’s like to be a politician and a Jew in Canada post-Oct. 7. Uzi Dayan, former head of the Israeli National Security Council, spoke on “What happened on Oct. 7: First 24 hours and beyond.”

Melissa Lantsman, 40, the first Jewish woman ever to serve as a Conservative Party lawmaker in Canada’s House of Commons, also spoke. Elected three years ago, she represents the Toronto suburb of Thornhill, home to more than 10,000 Jews of ex-Soviet origin.

One of the most powerful presentations came from Maya Regev, 22, and her brother Itay, 18, who were kidnapped from the Nova festival, dragged to Gaza and held hostage there by Hamas. The siblings were released in a hostage deal and returned home 59 days later.

Vicky Sirkovich, 19, a Canadian-born business technology student whose mother is from Russia and father is from Moldova, said, “It was difficult for me to listen to them, but everyone should have been at that lecture.”

This was Sirkovich’s first Limmud FSU event; she had planned to volunteer at last year’s conference, but it was cancelled after the Oct. 7 attack. 

“It was so nice to see everybody together,” Sirkovich said. “I don’t attend conferences very often, but everyone there had the same background: Jewish and Russian-speaking. And any event where I can be among Jewish people is a great event for me.”

Participants came not just from Canadian cities like Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa but also from Atlanta, New York and Boston.

“Despite the challenges facing Israel and the Jewish world, we see a real enthusiasm for Jewish learning, for community and for being together,” said Limmud FSU founder Chaim Chesler. “It’s an incredible thing to witness.” 

Co-founder Sandra Cahn added, “Our amazing Canadian team continues to inspire and impress with its dedication and impact.” 

Key supporters of Limmud FSU in Canada include the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany, the Jewish National Fund (KKL), World Zionist Organization, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, the Canadian Forum of Russian-Speaking Jews, and philanthropists Harry Rosenbaum, Diane Wohl, Shoel Silver, Warren Kimel, Henry Koschitzky, Mickey Blayvas, Alex Shtein and Bill Hess, among others. Besides Chesler and Cahn, the organization’s leaders include Matthew Bronfman and Malcolm Hoenlein. 

Sergey Petrenko, president of Limmud FSU Canada, learned about Limmud FSU from his son Dan, who attended his first Limmud conference in 2015 along with friends from the Jewish summer camp where he’d worked. Petrenko and his wife Ella, both from Odessa, immigrated to Israel at a young age and moved to Canada 18 years ago for business reasons.  

“A huge part of the Russian-speaking Jewish community was robbed of its Jewish roots while living in the Soviet Union,” Petrenko said. “The main goal of Limmud FSU is to gain it back.”

Limmud FSU festivals generally feature kosher food, klezmer music, Russian-language comedy shows and a cheerful atmosphere. 

“But this year it was different,” Petrenko observed. “We gathered under the very heavy shadow of the events of Oct. 7. The whole community is heartbroken over the hostages.”

Petrenko said Oct. 7 was a turning point for his family. His son Dan, 26, and his daughter Michal, 24, found themselves blocked on social media by non-Jewish friends in the weeks following.

“Our daughter said she didn’t feel safe in Canada anymore and started to look for a job in Israel, which she eventually found,” he said. “Hate has increased enormously in all countries where Jews live, and Canada is no exception.”

Amid these challenges, Natasha Chechik, the executive director of Limmud FSU, expressed a sense of hope and trust in the strength of the community. 

“Canada has rapidly become one of our flagship events, with so much potential for growth,” she said. “Despite the antisemitism on the rise, this incredible team and community continue to shine as a beacon of resilience, and we cannot wait to see what 2025 has in store for them.”