La Grande Danse @ Divers/Cite

Montreal's Divers/Cite climaxed yesterday with an all day street party called La Grande Danse, which was headlined by the red-hot Freemasons. This clip was shot quite early in the day while opener DJ Danny Verde was spinning and before it got super-packed. I'm told about attendance at the party peaked at around 40,000.

Morning View - Montreal Detritus

Club flyers, bar rags, Divers/Cite guides, etc etc. Embiggen for a closer look. In the upper left is my VIQ pass, which Divers/Cite co-founder Suzanne Girard told me stood for Very Important Queer, Queen, or Quebecois, my choice.

RECAP: Montreal Day 4

Saturday began with a trip to the "24-hour hipster joint and poutine mecca," La Banquise, where my able homo-guide ordered us the traditional version of Montreal's specialty seen several posts below this one. From there we went to Parc Lafontaine in the Le Plateau-Mont Royal borough, where we lounged on the grass and scarfed our fries and curds. Lafontaine seems like a mini-Central Park, with an open-air theater, playing fields, bike paths, fountains, and waterfalls. Lovely.

Next we headed down to the waterfront, as Daniel had promised a jet boat ride around the Island of Montreal. What I hadn't realized is that we were actually going to ride the white waters of the Lachine Rapids on the St. Lawrence, which it turned out are second only in ferocity to the Colorado River. When I saw the safety gear, rubber boots, and giant padded head-protectors on the boat...I very nearly backed out. Especially when the pilot shouted to me, "New York City? FRONT ROW!" I am so not a thrill-ride person, particularly when the pre-ride spiel includes barfing instructions. (Into the hood of your poncho, please.) The ride was actually exhilarating (and terrifying) and I'm glad I did it, even if my shoulders ache today from holding on. BTW, those ankle-length rubber ponchos, haute couture though they may be, are useless when the water is up to your chest in the boat.

After dropping our sopping clothes with hotel housekeeping, Daniel and I joined the Farmboyz for the solo show debut of Blowoff artist Linas Garsys, where local and USA bear-types ogled the artwork and dished about that coming evening's entertainment options. From there we headed to rotisserie specialist St. Hubert for some of that there organic, free range, only-spoken-softly-to chicken.

And then we were off to Mascara, Les Nuit Des Drags, Montreal's Divers/Cite version of Wigstock, where long-reigning queen of the city Mado held court before 25,000 wildly enthusiastic fans in between numerous highly choreographed group drag numbers. Mado is apparently quite hilarious, judging by audience response, but of course I couldn't understand a thing. After a couple of hours, we moved to the other end of Divers/Cite's sprawling blocks-long area to hear legendary DJ Frankie Knuckles work his Whistle Song magic at the Sunset Party (above photo.) As longtime readers know, I consider dancing with thousands of homos in the dwindling light to glorious swirling house music to be one of life's greatest pleasure. Happy happy JMG.

Then it was back to the hotel, where Frankie's final notes rattled our windows from a block away as we changed for our assault on St. Catherine's zillion bars and clubs. First stop was the L'Aigle Noir, where some kind of electric-fetish demonstration was taking place, after which we headed once again to my new favorite bar, Le Stud, where they thoughtfully do not pump the dance floor's audio into the adjacent rooms. I should have hit a lot more of the clubs and bars purely for investigative purposes, but the long lines of youthful clubbers outside places like Complexe Sky and Club Unity dissuaded me from even a casual poke-in. Anyway, more to come on my first visit to Montreal, including some video from Mascara and the Sunset Dance. Big hugs to all the JMG readers who stopped to say hello yesterday! Full-screen versions of the below slideshow are here.

Afternoon View - Real Poutine

This is for the purists who dissed yesterday's poutine post.

Evening View - Poutine!

RECAP: Montreal Day 3

Yesterday my able homo-guide started our excursion at the famous St. Viateur Bagels in Montreal's hipster-heavy Mile End, home to many of the city's artists, musicians, and writers. Think Billyburg, but with slightly fewer sleeve tattoos. The bagels aren't very New York-y, more like unsalted warm pretzels, therefore I liked them. After bagels, Daniel rented me an orange electric scooter and we were off to Marché Jean-Talon, a sprawling green market in Petite Italy, where I plotzed over the pastries and wondered WFT some of the veggies were supposed to be. Purple carrots! Lots of photos in the below slideshow for you foodies.

And then we were off to Mont Royal, the mountain in the dead center of town for which Montreal is named. My poor little scooter could barely get up the mountain, but eventually we got to the top where a local Portuguese band was shooting a music video. Daniel then toured me around the Parc du Mont-Royal, which was designed by Frederick Olmstead, who also created Central Park. The view of downtown and the Olympic Stadium are breathtaking from some points in the park.

After turning in the scooter, we scooted back down to the gay village for a posh dinner at O'Thym, where I had the best filet mignon I've had in many years. (Lots of great photos of our dishes below.) Joining us for dinner was a fun group of Montreal movers-and-shakers, including well-known Three Dollar Bill columnist Richard Burnett, "the Michael Musto of Montreal." Love him. And then we were off to the Gotha Lounge for the JMG meetup, where about 20 very handsome and intelligent men turned up to hang out with us. Usually these things sort of put me on speed-dating mode in an attempt to properly meet everybody, but we ended up clubbing with lots of them and I got to chat extensively with almost everybody. More on the meetup and the rest of last night later, right now I'm late for poutine! Full-screen versions of the below slideshow are here.

Afternoon View - On Mount Royal

Today's excursion included a trip to the top of Montreal's namesake. More on today in tomorrow's recap. I hope to see some of you local homos tonight at Gotha at 9pm!

RECAP: Montreal Day 2

Yesterday my able homo-guide from Touisme Montreal and I picked up a couple of Bixi bikes and made an all-day excursion across the enormous Jacques Cartier Bridge over the St. Lawrence and down onto Île Sainte-Hélène in the middle of the river, where we toured Parc Jean-Drapeau.

There we circled the Biosphere from the 1967 World's Fair and rode the actual raceway of the Canadian Grand Prix, past the Casino de Montreal and the Olympic Basin. Then we crossed back across the St. Lawrence, rolled past the way cool Habitat 67 (above) and down into Old Montreal, where we docked the Bixis and strolled around the cobbled streets in a sea of tourists, stopped for girly frozen drinks on the rooftop terrace of the fancy-schmancy Hotel Nelligan, and had a fab meal at Garde Manger.

After dinner we headed back to the gay village to drop at the Divers/Cite concert being held at the park directly adjacent to my hotel, where the capacity crowd was jumping to DJ sets in between live performances from local Montreal bands and singers. I was unfamiliar with the artists and didn't understand a word, but it was all pretty great. And I got to run into my pal Suzanne Girard, the co-founder of Divers/Cite, whom I know from back when she ran Montreal Pride.

Then I had to run off to meet up with my beloved Farmboyz, who have driven up to revisit their former hometown. I was pretty beat from my 10-mile bike ride (those bridges!) but I managed to hang on for a few drinks at Le Stud (packed!) and the Aigle Noir (Black Eagle), from whose front deck we enjoyed the parade of hotties down St. Catherine. GREAT day! Lots more to come. Full-screen versions of the below slideshow are here.

Morning View - Bixi Stand

Montreal has a fantastic public bike system called Bixi (bike-taxi), in which you can swipe a credit card and take a bike for free for up to 30 minutes. Longer rides start at $1.50/hour and are very reasonable thereafter. You can return to the bike to any of the numerous docking stands around town, making them perfect for short one-way commutes. An iPhone app will tell you the closest available bike and the closest open dock for returns. The stands are everywhere.

Evening View - At Garde Manger

Tonight my able homo-guide to Montreal treated me to dinner in Old Montreal at Garde Manger, a highly-regarded place recently made more famous because of a reality show starring its owner, which is now running on the Food Network in Canada. I recommend the halibut. And the scallops. And the bartender. Definitely the bartender.

Evening View - Square Ville

The bathroom in my Montreal hotel room has a square toilet. OK, then.

Montreal Divers/Cité: July 26 - August 1

A couple of days after I get back from Netroots Nation, I'll be making my Canadia debut when Tourisme Montréal brings me up to cover Divers/Cité, the 18th annual gay pride arts, music, and party festival.

Eighteen and going strong. All together different! Divers/Cité is an event whose mission is to present an arts and music festival that illustrates and celebrates the value of diversity in a spirit of sharing, solidarity and openness with the world. Eighteen years of constant growth and expansion has established Divers/Cité as an internationally recognized festival. Most of the programming is outdoor and free. Our programming also follows set themes that cover a wide range of artistic tendencies that address widely varying audiences. The event proudly showcases modern dance, blues, jazz, pop, Latin, rock, world, funk, ambient, techno and electronic concerts, drag queen performances and an outdoor cinema. The 2010 edition, from July 26th to August 1st, will offer more than 47 hours of free outdoor performances spanning 7 days.

Tourisme Montréal is lodging me in the heart of Montreal's gay village, where they are providing me a strapping young homo guide who promises to tour me through "authentically JMG places of interest." Oh my and stand by. Obviously this trip calls for a Québécois-JMG reader drink-up. I welcome your location suggestions. And feel free to hit the Divers/Cité site and point out anything you think I'd especially enjoy as the number of options are a bit dizzying.

QUEBEC: Montreal Pride Launches "Queer Of The Year" Contest

Montreal Pride has launched a "Queer Of The Year" contest in which the winner gets a week in Montreal, a shopping spree, and their very own float in the parade. Details at the link and in the video clip below. You don't have be Canadian to win and you've got until July 22nd to enter.