Photo Post

Tam Tams

Every Sunday at Parc Jeanne-Mance (on the lower slope of Mont Royal) there is a gathering of hand drummers and fans. The tradition began in the 70's when it was started by a group of community members. It is not sponsored or endorsed by the city, although the police now walk through from time to time because the group gets rather large. It's really interesting because it's a large group of drummers, and anyone is welcome to participate. The song is constantly changing and there is no conductor, although after going only a few times I recognize leaders within the group. People dance in the circle created by the drummers, and there are large crowds of spectators watching close by and listening from around the hill. Although I love the collective aspect of tam-tams, the most interesting part to me is the diversity of the group. There are so many different types of people.. African men, white college kids, lots of hippies, lots of homeless (looking) men and women, tourists, old people, families with babies and young children.. a really eclectic group. I find this especially interesting because smoking pot seems to be a central aspect of tam-tams. There are always people rolling and smoking openly in this large group, and you can smell the pot throughout the whole area. The police do walk through the group from time to time, but I've never seen them stop anyone for anything. It seems like most of the people who dance are stoned, although you never know. The old man for instance didn't seem to take any smoke breaks but he was dancing with the best of them!

 

Islam

 

old man & stoned chick

 

this guy was too out of it to support his own drum. he was punching it with his fist at one point.

 

Tourist + little child + dude smoking up.

 

Me and Thea

 

Islam and I

 

crazy dreads/beard combo

Street Art

I know lots of cities like to pride themselves on their street art, but Montreal is on a whole other level. In additional to artistic graffiti lots of buildings have multi-level murals of all different styles. These pictures are some I saw on a walk down just one block. One block out of a whole city and I saw all these awesome things. So cool.

 

I think this picture is a great representation of Montreal. Cool street art, a bixi station, and greenery. Perfect.

 

MUNACA Strike

A few pictures I took at the MUNACA rally on Friday across from the uni.

 

Our first (blurry) roommate picture!

 

At the Atwater Farmer's Market

I didn't get any great pictures because my camera is broken (hence all the blurry pictures) and also because I feel weird going up to people working and taking pictures of their stuff without buying anything. I think all the colors, especially colors within one type of produce, are really beautiful.