hanging out downtown

ok, so now 5% of my time looks like this:

not even, really, cause i`m getting quite emotionally invested in my classes. it`s always fun to think i`m like a freshman...but maybe not - the classes i`m taking this semester sound sophomore and senior. whatever.

but these days, about 40% of my time is spent downtown, where i hadn`t been hanging around regularly for...a while. it`s cool. just watching places i already know and seeing them change throughout the day, and with the season.

the argo bookshop, where i HAD TO buy some textbooks. also, my first purchase ever paid by debit card, and what happens? i forget my debit card at the store.

if i could just live on a bench here, that would save me time for doing my readings. or something.

this is during my first week of classes, a season ago, the time of tank tops and dresses

...and of impromptu bon iver covers concerts. i hadn`t noticed this until someone pointed it out, but there are an awful lot of people around here who can really play the piano! i`ve never seen a public piano without someone playing it and other people crowding around.
one early afternoon, there was a girl playing the Game of Thrones theme song!!! it got quite the cheers!

i love murals, but they never seem to last very long around here. last fall on this wall there were some biking birds...i just have to keep documenting everything.

high towers-wise, the downtown of montreal is not that bad...excepting rene levesque boulevard, where, why would anyone want to go there, ever? and to top it off, sometimes even these look downright pretty.

seamless connection, good blogger! this topiary (actually at berri-uqam, place emilie gamelin) is supposed to represent the main high towers of montreal. cute. 

and the chia pet of buildings: it`s called `la maison fontaine`, close by place-des-arts, and it will stay until end of october! a full life cycle for the grass?! there are some interesting things going on here: inside it`s like a gazebo with benches and a ...fountain? basin? there`s a source of water from a hole in the roof, and steam...things in the walls. and yes you can climb on top of it.

different angle, just to catch the neighbouring derelict buildings, with their peculiar charm. there are so many layers of everything along ste catherine

and of course, the classic shot from the roof of la maison fontaine, because it is le quartier de spectacles after all:

and just a few meters away, on the stairs, above the waterfalls - my chance for the perfect candid photo

and just a few meters away again, in a different direction, this site of the francophone festival de litterature that`s happening these days. i don`t know many details, but there`s been a stage (for readings?) and there is an improvised bookstore inside that smaller temporary building. at 5.30 pm there still were some people (couples, yes) lying in the grass around the area. i repeat, this is downtown. the downtownnest of downtown.

yòu all know what i was going to say now. don`t make me say it, please, not yet...