Mickey Rourke was spotted at the Hard Knocks Gym in St. Henri, “Sex and the City 2” star, Max Ryan was slated to be at Times Supper Club,” Nicole Scherzinger was seen at Club La Mouche, and so on and so forth. For a short weekend Montreal soaks up the glamour of Hollywood.
I also happened to spend most of my weekend on the Main, not because of F1, but because I’m an avid Fringe-goer. Early buzz seems to indicate that Recess, Dirty Little Spoons, Antoine Feval, Fruitcake, Blind to Happiness (which I personally loved) are fan favourites.
Now, you will never get two events as diametrically opposed as the Fringe and F1. It’s rather humorous to take a walk down the Main, from the Fringe tent at the corner of Rachel (all grunge, bohemian laid-back ease and $3.50 hot-dogs) and enter F1 territory below Prince Arthur. All of a sudden the dresses are way too tight, the heels are way too high, the tans are way too fake and there’s nothing to be found to eat that won’t cost you a small fortune. It’s just a different vibe.
A small note to the young ladies trying so hard to impress: There’s nothing sexy about having to stop every two seconds to pull down your dress because it rides up with every move. Sexy should be much more effortless. But, to be fair to them, you rarely know that at the age of 18.
A microcosms of what makes Montreal so endearing to me, the Main is its lifeline, its meeting point, its beating heart. The proverbial paradox, the Montreal melting pot, the Main is the land of hobos and hippies, artists and anarchists, the glamorous and the glib. -
A microcosms of what makes Montreal so endearing to me, the Main is its lifeline, its meeting point, its beating heart. The proverbial paradox, the Montreal melting pot, the Main is the land of hobos and hippies, artists and anarchists, the glamorous and the glib. When the street is closed to traffic, the vibrations of people, not cars, take over. It’s why I love people-watching there so much.
In the end Lewis Hamilton won the Montreal Grand Prix and men everywhere were heard groaning “A GP win and a Pussycat Doll? Just doesn’t seem fair…”, and the sun shone brightly all weekend long despite the ominous forecasts on Friday.
“F1 Supremo” (as GP owner Bernie Ecclestone is not-so-lovingly known) once famously stated that "You can have anything you like, as long as you pay too much for it", but he was wrong, because in summertime Montreal, some of the best things in life are free!
As for star gazing, I caught local musician Patrick Watson enjoying an ice cream cone at Ripples with his family. No extravagance, no paparazzi, no thousand dollar tabs. My kind of star in my kind of city…
