This year I flew to Montreal for Halloween weekend. Montreal (and its lovely inhabitants) always seem to take my favorite holiday way more seriously than Winnipeg does, so I just couldn’t bear to miss it. I had a hard time coming up with a costume idea – I eventually went with Gym Teacher – and it wasn’t until I got to Montreal that I realized how low I had set the bar. Those folks are creative to the max. At any rate, I arrived Friday morning, just in time to do some shopping (instructions to the cab driver at the airport: “Take me to Simon’s!”) and hit up my friend Brianne’s faculty bake sale at McGill.
The weekend was, in a word, awesome. Friday night I saw my friends’ band, On Bodies, play at the Playhouse for Faggity Ass Fridays. The proceeds of that show went to Head and Hands, an organization that does sex ed since Quebec has abolished their sex ed program (worst decision ever?!). The night was zombie-themed, but I hadn’t prepared a zombie costume. Luckily, Dallas did my makeup, and did such an amazing job that I scared myself when I looked in the mirror.
Photo by Dallas Curow
We spent the night drinking cheap beer, listening to On Bodies play an amazing show, and dancing sweatily on stage. Beaucoup de fun. Afterwards we went to Palaise Royale, possibly the worst restaurant in Montreal, solely for the comedic value. They have terrible food and worse service, but it was one of the highlights of the night. Particularly our drunken rendition of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song, as the Anglo-hating waitress tried to ignore us/told the cooks to piss in our food.
On Bodies at Faggity Ass Fridays
Photo by Dallas Curow
Saturday was spent lounging and nursing the headache from the previous night’s beer consumption. I met up with Karen and spent a lovely few hours catching up with her at a coffee shop before heading back to Dallas and Brian’s to get ready for the night’s festivities. Peter dressed up again as his lady-self, Petra, and quickly became my Gym Teacher alter-ego’s nemesis. Coach McDyke has no patience for insolence. We’re in the process of pitching our sitcom idea. Petra and the Wolf will be a huge hit. Dallas, Brian and their friends Jennie and Zach dressed each as different versions of Elvis. Their costumes put us to shame – they were fantastic!
Photo by Dallas Curow
A bunch of people came over to pregame and watch the Habs play Toronto as Dallas and Jennie made delicious cupcakes and pumpkin cake. We left around 10pm to head to FouFounes Electrique for their amazing Halloween party. I cabbed there with Brianne and Petra and we managed to get the most hilarious and terrifying cab driver I’ve ever encountered. Not only was he driving like a fucking drunken maniac, but he was hitting on Petra like nobody’s business, trying to convince her to stay in the cab with him and smoke hash. It was hilarious and bizarre.
FouFounes did not disappoint. It took us a while to get in, but the costumes and atmosphere were absolutely amazing. I’ve never been to a Halloween party where I was actually scared of some of the people in costume – seriously, if you have a fear of clowns, stay far away from that place. It was intense. The costume contest was awesome, the winners of which were a group of guys dressed like green toy soldiers, each with his own weapon and pose. Runners up were Slash, complete with guitar and mini-amp, and H1N1, complete with giant foam hands and head. One of the costumes that should have won was a woman dressed up like the most convincing zombie I have ever seen. She was covered in blood and rotting flesh, her hair was in clumps, and she was twitching and shaking all over the stage. Creepy as fuck. Unfortunately, her male zombie partner was acting like a total d-bag so they were booed off the stage.
Photo by Brianne Selman
Photo by Dallas Curow
Photo by Dallas Curow
After a night of $1 beers and many a photo-op, we headed to The Main (naturally) for some late night poutine. Poots and a pickle. Story of my life. The Elvii were even serenaded by a drunken old woman who stood on her table and flashed us while cooing “final curtain call!” It was slightly disturbing and majorly awesome.
My flight didn’t leave until 7pm on Sunday, so we went to Fuscia for brunch on Sunday afternoon and watched a few episodes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – which is fast becoming one of my favorite shows. The weekend was a total success, save for the minor heartbreak of losing my camera somewhere between the serenading flasher at The Main and the cab ride back to Dallas and Brian’s place. I had a billion Halloween photos on that thing (and had kept such a close eye on it all weekend), so I was pretty distraught to find out it had gone missing. So far, no sign, so it looks like it’s gone forever. Someone else will find it and hopefully enjoy all of the hilarious photos of Petra, the FouFounes costume contest, the Elvii, and everyone else’s amazing costumes. I guess the upside is that I can now justify buying a new, fancier camera. In the meantime, though, I’ve managed to borrow my parents’ camera, so I’m not completely without the ability to document my escapades.
So, despite losing a bevvy of photographic gems that really do deserve to be shared with the world, this weekend was exactly what I had hoped for. I just found out that our flights to Mexico this winter have gone down in price, so I’m able to get a credit with WestJet, which seems to me to be the perfect excuse to head back to Montreal and spend another weekend acting the fool. Poots and a Pickle.
Photo by Brianne Selman
Filed under: Awesome | Tagged: booze, fashion, friends, Montreal, nightlife, photos, travel
Best summary ever! I am going to print this out and paste it in my journal (yes, I keep a real journal, like a nerd) to remember that awesome weekend forever!