Obélisque en hommage à Charles De Gaulle (aka Still more things seen in Montreal)

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Montreal’s bureau d’art public has a Facebook page where they announce things (why they don’t do it on their website, I have no clue! Kind of like buying a Cadillac and then leaving it at home at taking taxis everywhere). And recently they’ve been publicizing the repairs that have been done on various pieces in the city’s collection.

Somehow, someone decided to prioritize the sculptures in Lachine over a sculpture on Sherbrooke. My best guess would be that Obélisque en hommage à Charles De Gaulle gets seen by at least ten times as many people each day, if not 50 times more people.

Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré

If you squint, it looks kind of like an elongated tank trap.

Detail of Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
Detail of Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré

I have no idea what the blue means either. Doing just cursory research it doesn’t appear that the The French Resistance had any one color, just a Cross of Lorraine added to the bleu, blanc, rouge.

Detail of Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
Detail of Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
Western Plaque for Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
Western Plaque for Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré

I think that this is wrong. De Gaulle did say “Let us be firm, pure and faithful; at the end of our sorrow, there is the greatest glory of the world, that of the men who did not give in.” But I don’t think he said it in Brazzaville in 1941, I think he said it in Algiers in 1943.

Eastern Plaque for Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
Eastern Plaque for Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré

Explaining who made it, and that it was a gift in honor of both the 375 birthday of the city of Montreal and De Gaulle’s centenary.

Bench for Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
Bench for Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré

Gotta love the bureaucrat who decided how to deal with the skateboarders.

Lights for Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
Lights for Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
Lights for Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
Lights for Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
Lights for Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré
Lights for Obélisque en hommage à Charles de Gaulle by Olivier Debré

And I can’t imagine it would be that difficult or expensive to fix the lights…

And then if you’re interested… the De Gaulle moment in Montreal.

PRESIDENT DE GAULLE VISITS MONTREAL

I would have embedded the video from Radio Canada’s archives, but I can’t.

Then finally, more on Olivier Debré, and here, too.

And some better pictures of the sculpture.

Another thing seen in Montreal

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A piece of art made by some former student at Concordia University
A piece of art made by some former student at Concordia University
A piece of art made by some former student at Concordia University
A piece of art made by some former student at Concordia University
A piece of art made by some former student at Concordia University
A piece of art made by some former student at Concordia University

In front of the VAV building at the corner of René Lévesque and Crescent. It’s been there for at least half a dozen years (although I must admit, that my memory is sketchy at best). And while Concordia University is awesome at labeling at promoting officially sanctioned public art, they’re not so hot at older stuff that isn’t quite as officially sanctioned.

I presume that this was a piece made by a former student, and because it was so big someone thought it would work in the courtyard in front of the VAV building, but because it was a student project, the tag, explaining who, when and what either got forgotten or wasn’t made due to a lack of budget.

I like how it flips the “traditional” sense of street art on its head. The graffiti is embossed in the concrete and not painted on the fence. Although I’m not certain that the fence itself is supposed to have that bite taken out of it on the top (insert snarky comment about Concordia also not taking care of officially sanctioned public art here). I’m certain that if I did some research I could also find some details about the style and make of the fence, and when cast concrete barriers started to become prevalent and try to make some connections between the two. And then there’s the irony of it being placed outside of the actual fence marking where the courtyard ends.

Things seen around Montreal

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In a tree on de l'Esplanade near Fairmont
In a tree on de l'Esplanade near Fairmont

In a tree on de l'Esplanade near Fairmont
In a tree on de l'Esplanade near Fairmont
In a tree on de l'Esplanade near Fairmont
In a tree on de l'Esplanade near Fairmont

Namasya by Shantala Shivalingappa

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So I went to see the second of Shantala Shivalingappa’s performances last Friday. This one was all-contemporary all-the-time and as a consequence was not as mystifying to me as her kuchipudi performance a week earlier. This one was a little shorter, about an hour in length, and was made of only four different dances. All with extremely evocative names; Ibuki (breath of life), Solo, Shift and Samarana. Also instead of highly elaborate and fancy saris, Ms. Shivalingappa wore very plain monochromatic costumes that seemed to be made more for comfort than for anything else. Although she was using the same pink toenail polish as she had for the kuchipudi. I presume that she, like Gene Kelly, is a firm believer in the idea of high contrast on and around the feet so as to better direct your eye.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tciT9bmCMq8

Despite it’s name, Ibuki (breath of life) the first dance had nothing to do with the character from the Street Fighter III video game series.

Ibuki from Street Fighter III by Stan Lau
Ibuki from Street Fighter III by Stan Lau

And from my seat (actually the second one of the eve, we had accidentally sat in the wrong seats to start) I couldn’t make the connection to anything related to a set of lungs either, despite the fact that in Japanese, the word ibuki, translates into breath.

But neither point really matters, the title of an abstract dance piece isn’t quite exactly the most significant thing. The more I see them, the more I become convinced that whomever names them, for the most part might actually be in a bubble of their own creation, and have no real concept of the possible broader connotations. Ibuki (breath of life) starts and ends with Ms. Shivalingappa lounging on the stage, in something that looks like a sleeveless white pantsuit, almost as if she was posing for some sort clothing ad. In between those two fashion advertisements she does a lot of slow moving and some fast moving which initially I found very jarring. The music is something flutish by Yoichiro Yoshikawa. Not to belittle the music, but it’s fairly straightforward and typical world fusion. A day later I have some vague memories of something that would be played if I was in a movie and approaching a Buddhist temple. But then later in my notes I wrote “Generic World Fusion Music” which would make me believe that somewhere in the middle some other instruments and rhythms might have appeared. For what it’s worth I don’t remember, but I wasn’t there to hear the music.

I was there to see the dance. Or more precisely, how Ms. Shivalingappa moved. As I expected, she moved exquisitely. There were some points where it looked like she was swimming upstream, others where she imitated a rotating cell phone tower, and at some point I noted how she ran around the stage coquettishly. But all of those paled in comparison to what I duly noted on my pad as “THE HANDS!!!

It was the same exact movement (or pretty gosh darn close) that she had done with her hands in the kuchipudi performance, last week. Since I’m not going to use as much video, let me see if I can describe it in writing: Take one part butterfly, a large dose of Archimedes’ screw, the perception of air blowing, one of those time lapse photography videos of a flower blooming and apply liberally to your imagine in order to visualize a movement involving both hands together, touching at the wrists and spinning that starts at about waist level and finishes above her head.

At one point my insides turned to jelly as Ms. Shivalingappa looked directly at me. Thankfully it was dark, so I think, despite the start that it caused me she was just looking out into the audience, without really focusing on me. She did this just before doing “THE HANDS!!!” a second time. If I were a 15 year-old boy, I would definitely swear up and down that there was a connection.

It’s a good thing, I’m not a 15 year-old boy.

After she returned to the fashion model pose for the second time, the lights went dark, she scurried offstage and this large blurry video of her in blue and orange sari doing what I presume was some kuchipudi dance was shown while she changed. If there would be anything negative about the performance I would say it was the video interludes (there were two others, of which I won’t write an awful lot). There’s gotta be some better way to pass the time while doing costume changes than making Ms. Shivalingappa’s movements the equivalent of moving wallpaper. Something like an animated graphical presentation of where the dances originated that used pretty colors, or whatever the Indian equivalent of the drive-in interstitial is, or in other words something that is instantaneously recognized as the wallpaper and time killer it is.

http://wwwv.youtube.com/watch?v=q8BHqQamnNM

As long as I’m embedding video, watch this

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSYCSxRvT0I

It was the second piece of the program. Called “Solo” and possibly choreographed with or by or under the supervision of Pina Bausch (the program reads “Choreography made during a residency at Tanztheater Wuppertal-Pina Bausch.” So it isn’t exactly clear, and if you read it fast, you definitely get the idea that some really influential but dead choreographer had a hand in it. (And now after seeing it for the third time, I finally read the title on the video to see that it was Ms. Shivalingappa who in fact did the choreography.)

Now if you watched really closely, you can skip over the next 500 or so words, because now that you’ve seen it, you don’t need to read my description of it. Or if you prefer to skip over the video, thanks tons and continue reading.

First off, the music is by Ferran Savall. If I hadn’t read it in the program I would have guessed José Feliciano. I should also mention that Mr. Savall’s mom died two days before the performance.

Second off, Ms. Shivalingappa kind of dances like the hippy older sister of a friend of mine. I’m certain there are a bunch of allusions in the dance to things that I am unaware of since I haven’t seen all that much dance. Her arm moving like a sweeping second hand and with her body following, the way that she holds her head from teh top while following her hand strike me as being just incongruous enough to the rest of her movements that I would think that they were placed there for slightly stronger reasons than “they flowed.”

At the risk of sounding clichéd “Solo” is dance for dance’s sake. Basic form making beauty, as done by Ms. Shivalingappa. No more, no less. Somehow it makes me think of a painting by Mark Rothko.

The third piece “Shift” was also choreographed by Ms. Shivalingappa – I gotta hand it to her, in this day and age when everything dance seems to be centered around the choreographer, Ms. Shivalingappa is successfully bucking the tide and bringing the focus back to the dancer – and this one says so in the program.

Shift” starts with Ms. Shivalingappa in a classic ninja pose, you know the one, where they are jumping through the air, their trailing arm raised above their head, one foot fully extended, as if they just finished some humongous kick. Just like that, except she’s not flying through the air, she’s crouched on the ground. From that position she kind of walks/creep across the stage.

The main feature of “Shift” is the A-OK sign she makes with her fingers, her index finger and thumb are slightly pinched together instead of being in a circle.

A OK
A OK

She uses it a bunch of times during the dance. Unfortunately, I have no idea if it has the same cultural meaning in India as it has here. But I do know that in France it is used to signify zero, instead of everything being alright. And what in means in the context of her dance, I have no clue. It kept my attention focused on her hands for the most part of the performance, and while she did not make “THE HANDS!!!” her fingers wiggled a bunch and she made it obvious that she had mastered how to move each digit on its own (and I won’t get into the anatomy of the hand here, suffice it to say that it is complicated). I don’t know who composed or played the music, but for the most part it is just a bunch of hand drumming, although after a very intense period where she continues to move while there is no musical accompaniment towards the end the music starts up again and some steel pans get involved as well. In contrast to the rapid rhythm of the drum, her movements are slow and deliberate, during the show I wrote “zen moves,” “stylized martial arts.”

I think “Smarana,” the fourth and final dance, is a Sanskrit word meaning “the act of remembering.” Sadly, I have no idea if that is the idea that Ms. Shivalingappa is trying to give. My knowledge of Indian languages (besides Sanskrit there’s also Punjabi, Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and dozens of others). It was choreographed by Savitry Nair who also is Ms. Shivalingappa’s mother.

Most of it takes place while Ms. Shivalingappa is sitting (or kneeling) on the stage. There is a spotlight directly above her that causes some pretty cool shadows to be cast. During the performance I tried to write just her moves, almost like a play-by-play announcer during some sporting match. This is what appeared on my pad:

Sitting middle stage, back to us leaning over, she rises on her knees and wiggles back and forth, One foot extended, and slowly turning, while holding ankle, cross over and turn, spin, fetal position, Roll over, Extend and cross feet, sit up startled, calm, turn around, sweep hand back and around, Upright fetal position, get up on toes, spin around 360, crouched over all still slow, Notice shadow, Back kneeling, arms doing a balancing scale side to side, Faster, then stop wiggle fingers, Raise hand, Kneel forward and reach around, arms akimbo, slowly raise her hand, Slow and fast, A-OK again, looking like a flower, and it slowly fades out

It was an experiment, trust me the dance was much better and more interesting than my description.

At this point, I’m getting to the limit of even what I can concentrate on. I wanted to explain the choreography of Ushio Amagatsu, Pina Bausch, Savitry Nair, and explain how they are all fairly important, which would lead into a couple of paragraphs on the the similarities between kuchipudi, butoh, and some other dance styles. But I’m going to have to save that for another day.

In closing I can only express my disappointment that it took her so long to get to Montreal and that we got such old shows (both Namasya and Gamaka are more than four years old). She’s been touring internationally since 2005 and has many other performances that could be presented. it kind of makes me feel that Montreal has become some kind of dance backwater, instead of being the leader that it used to be.

Two reactions to the $2.34 million painting by Jean Paul Lemieux

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In this article by Martine Turenne from Agence QMI, Simon Blais is quoted as saying that he raised the price on a Lemieux painting he is selling by $300,000 and that buying art is “always a safe bet.”

In this article by John Archer in the Gazette, he writes “buy pieces that will give you pleasure during your lifetime and not to worry about the investment component unless you play in that rarefied field of the ultra-rich collector.”

Who are you going to believe? The art dealer with a vested interest in selling art? Or the investment adviser who also happens to collect art?

Gamaka by Shantala Shivalingappa

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Last week I went to see the first of two very different (or what I have been told will be very different) shows put on by Shantala Shivalingappa. From the promotional material produced by the promoters, Danse Danse, I got an idea that the first show was going to be some kind of Indian Classical Dance. But like Brian Seibert I haven’t seen much Indian Classical Dance. However, as I read his review before going to see Ms. Shivalingappa (normally I try to avoid doing things like that, tabula rasa, low expectations, etc.)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIDLC8M4R28

I got kind of excited, as I imagine anyone holding tickets to a performance would feel after reading the review. And after seeing Ms. Shivalingappa I can kind of understand what Mr. Seibert saw and why he got so excited, although I think I need to develop some sort of deeper understanding of Kuchipudi before I end up going overboard like he did.

These are excerpts from the program I think that he saw. As far as my memory (which shouldn’t be trusted, and my notes which should) there were changes made to the program for the performance in Montreal.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDp5cDZzLpA

Since it is unlikely that I am going to instantaneously develop a deeper understanding of Kuchipudi (go on, say it outloud, it’s a great word, way better spoken than read) I’m going to have to rely on what I can find on the good old internet. Here, and here with video examples, unusually, the wikipedia page is useless.

In a nutshell, it’s old, very old. It got saved from obscurity by this dude Vempati Chinna Satyam, there are very specific movements that have lots of significance. And to my eyes it shares an awful lot with folk dancing.

I could probably spend the rest of my life studying Kuchipudi, but I think it would be better spent, at least in the near future, by actually trying to describe Ms. Shivalingappa’s movements and more importantly what her movements made me think and feel.

Because in doing the research, I realized that the way that I normally approach dance was completely bassackwards. Where I normally try to go in with absolutely no expectations, refusing to read the program or press releases until after the preformance, I should not have done that this time.

Each and every one of Ms. Shivalingappa’s dances told a story, but stupid me, didn’t pay attention while the story was being explained, so where she was trying to make it fairly simple for me to understand, I instead insisted on keeping my blinders on, being pigheaded and insisting that I knew best.

Yeah, right! Remind me next time.

Since I refused to follow the stories, all I had left was trying to understand the movements, which in and of themselves are incredibly simple. So simple, that I am convinced, 100% certain that my almost two year old nephew could do them. Just in case you missed it the first time around, go back and watch this video.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDp5cDZzLpA

You see? There isn’t anything terrible complex. Some moves like she’s telling me that she’ll call me, a couple of others like a football player blocking, or when she extends her arms from the blocking position, like a football cheerleader (minus the pom-poms).

But then if you compare it to another Kuchipudi performance

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MfR7LOxV-A

You can pretty much completely glom what makes Ms. Shivalingappa’s performance and by extension Ms. Shivalingappa special. I can talk all I want until I am blue in the face about execution, but unless you can see and compare for yourself, all I’m going to be, in the end, is blue in the face (although since I’ve stopped smoking, it takes a lot longer…)

Now to go back a little bit, there was one point in Out of White where Francine Liboiron did something incredible and amazing with her legs while lying on the floor. While I am incapable of describing what she did (somehow, “twisting and turning her legs” just doesn’t cut it) I can remember the sensation (sort of like a combination of my breath just stopping, my chin hitting the floor and wiping my eyes after it was done to make sure I was not seeing things).

httpv://youtu.be/tDp5cDZzLpA?t=5m28s

Well it happened again. And again, “twisting and turning her hands” just won’t cut it. But this time I found myself cursing the cameraman who just was too slow to catch the moment. Thankfully I got to see it in person, and it did take my breath away, I have the bruise on my chin and my eyes did get rubbed. If you have a chance run, don’t walk to see Ms. Shivalingappa do her Kuchipudi thing.

And while Kuchipudi, to my eye, doesn’t have or do anything terribly complex, as I said, it’s kind of like folk dancing. But after having spent weeks, days, hours, a little bit of time doing some research on the internet, I gotta admit the head, neck and eye moves involved in Kuchipudi really turn my crank.

I know how to shake my head from side to side, normally I do it about seventeen dozen times a day (despite being a positive person, historically my first response is always “no.”) but one thing I have never been able to figure out is that side to side head shake where your head doesn’t pivot on your neck, but more, slides along your shoulders. It is a stereotypical move for Indian Dance, although I have no freaking clue how it fits into the Kuchipudi tradition. Well, anytime, any y-chromosome challenged person does that head slide, I get all weak in the knees, my body pretty much turns to jelly and I will gladly follow she who can slide her head along her shoulders just about anywhere. That all being said, Ms. Shivalingappa’s head slides just about had me melting into my seat.

There are these videos of Ms. Shivalingappa from eight years ago

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SITnAVWw9uo

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0-OuF2u0Rw

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGIy6aYKiu4

I’m not certain where I was in 2003, but I wish I would have been there. As it is, I’m going to have to satisfy myself by wishing that I could write as well as Joan Acocella; not only does she know scads more about Kuchipudi and Ms. Shivalingappa, but I wish I could describe a sari half as well as she does.

And then finally, if you’d like some background on why Ms. Shivalingappa does what she does so spectacularly, there is this interview with her mom

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYYFIM99kk8

For what it is worth, I’ve got some expectations about her non-classical Indian dance performance coming up.

Still More Stuff Seen Around Town

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Window of a photo studio on Wellington
Window of a photo studio on Wellington
Window of a photo studio on Wellington
Window of a photo studio on Wellington

More stuff seen around town

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Unfortunately, I don't know where Eddy's Club was
Unfortunately, I don't know where Eddy's Club was

In the garage of Montreal Piano, more on Slim Gaillard here,

Stuff seen around town

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Sculpture in front of 5483 de l'Esplanade
Sculpture in front of 5483 de l'Esplanade

I know nothing about it, other than it wasn’t there previously.

What’s missing from the 2012 Mixeur Guides

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On Monday I was invited to the launch party for the 2012 Mixeurs Guides. This year they decided to publish two, one for restaurants and a second one for bakeries. And while they are all fine and dandy (in the interest of full disclosure, I know Jean-Philippe Tastet from having served on a burger jury with him) they missed a couple of places.

Restaurants, in alphabetical order:
Chez Delmo, 275 Notre-Dame O. (514) 288-4288
Jane, 1744 Notre-Dame O. (514) 759-6498
Nouveau Palais, 281 Bernard O. (514) 273-1180
Renoir, 1155 Sherbrooke O. (514) 788-3038
Le Valois, 3811 Ontario E. (514) 528-0202
Vegera, 228 Bernard O. (514) 490-9444

And then while I’m not a big fan, I’m also surprised by the exclusion of L’Orignal, Européa, Da Emma and that they didn’t mention Bienville sur Chabanel in the description of Bistro Bienville.

Then since they decided to cap the list at 100, I figure it’s only fair that I mention the nine places I wouldn’t have included: Big in Japan, Dominion Square Tavern, Byblos, Gandhi, Holder, Le Cartet, m:brgr, Soupesoup, and sadly La Terrasse Justine went bankrupt back in September.

And as long as I’m at it, they should have added an index for restaurants open at lunch and apparently Olive & Gourmando is both a restaurant and a bakery as makes it into both the restaurant and the bakery books.

Speaking of the bakery book, there are large glaring holes in it as well. First and most importantly it focuses exclusively on European (read: French) Bakeries. Not a single Italian, Jewish, Lebanese, Australian, Indian, Portuguese, Polish or German bakery is listed. To me this is an egregious error.

Secondly, while its title is “adresses gourmandes” which loosely translates into places to get fine food, they also miss out on butchers, grocers, fish mongers, cheese shops, and delicatessens. To me this isn’t as bad, but it would have been better if they changed the title to more accurately reflect the content.

Since Mondays are traditionally the days that bakeries are closed, it would have been simple enough to include an “open Mondays” index in the bakery book, just like they did in the restaurant one.

And then finally, I think that they should add one more title to the line, casse croutes. I think I know someone who would be perfect for the job…

I gotta remember to talk to Sylvie Berkowicz and Jean-Philippe before they start working on next year’s.