The rest of the stay in Montreal
This past Saturday, we packed up our belongings and left the Airbnb we had been staying in, in the Plateau area of Montreal. In the last post we talked about seeing Ministry at the MTelus Center. Staying with the heavier music trend, we went to see a show at the “Apriliis” Music Festival at La Sala Rossa. We know two of the people (the lead singer and lead guitarist/singer) in the band “F*ck the Facts”, who were the closing band on the first night of the festival. We were expecting a heavy show and they did not disappoint. The lead singer, Mel, is a force to be reckoned with (as you can imagine from seeing the photo of her below) and the band was incredibly tight.
Then for a change of pace, the following week we went to see Hawksley Workman play at the Fairmont Theatre.
Hawksley’s non-stop monologue between songs was as entertaining as always, sharing the stories behind the songs, and playing classics like “Jealous of Your Cigarette” and “Smoke Baby”.
One weekend we made the trek down to the Saint-Henri area of Montreal to the Musée des Ondes Emile Berliner (MOEB). This is an amazing museum that is focused on the history of the development of music recording and broadcasting in Canada, and related industries. The museum is housed in a small part of the historic Berliner Gram-o-phone Company building, which was built in 1907. In 1929, the factory became part of RCA Victor Canada.
The connection to satellites comes from the development of the Alouette satellites. According to this post, nine months before the proposed launch date for the satellite, there was still no transmitter to send the data from the satellite to the ground. The U.S. company that was supposed to build it said that the specifications were too difficult to meet. When John Stewart from RCA Victor Canada, heard of the problem, he told Canada's Defence and Research Telecommunications Establishment that he thought his team could do it, and they did! In this very building.
There is an exhibition in the museum that focuses on women in Montreal’s music and broadcasting history, and one corner of that exhibit is entitled “Reclaiming Their Space”. It tells the stories of five of the one hundred and twenty women who contributed to the Alouette I. Some of the women worked as “Scalers” (see the photo on the wall below), they read the data coming from the Alouette about the ionosphere and transferred the information onto punch cards for computer processing.
The volunteer working at the museum told us that they only have a small fraction of their collection on display, but there was a lot to look at from old record players to a theremin you can play. Just inside the entrance was a display case of “Nippers” of various sizes, including an actual casting mold you can see in the background.
I also learned that record needles used to come in tins, and they had a lovely collection that showcased their graphic design.
As you can tell, we really enjoyed our two months of living in Montreal. A few of the places that we frequented during our stay included: Le Moineau Masqué (coffee), Le Loup Bleu (coffee), Ô Petit Paris (bakery), Bleu et Persillé (cheese), La Maison du Rôti (butcher), état de choc (chocolate), Au 33 Tours (record store) and Magpie Magique (cocktails).
For now, we have said “À bientôt” to Montreal, and now we get Rosie ready to hit the road again the middle of this month!