Awesometown, Bienvenue!

Until this post Awesometown's done little but hang loose 'bout the nether spheres of my brain, protesting lightly. Chances are it will continue to do so when this post is done and gone. But maybe, dare the thought, this will gain it a little solidity. Here then, definition and purpose.

Awesometown is what I call the almost-neighbourhood centred quite conveniently around my house. Borders on the north gate of Chinatown to the south, Bleury/Parc to the west, Sherbrooke up top and round about St Denis to the east, though they stretch and flux with ease. Centred on Metro St Laurent. Population largely composed of immigrants, some hipsters. Cultural staples would include the Place-des-Arts, the Desjardin Mall, the tenderloin, Foufounes Electriques, and innumerable clubs.

I've lived here a little over a year and a half, in a slummy, 236.25 dollar a month walkup off St Laurent, with a band whose been here five. I have no windows, but it's warm. Isolationist that I am I've acquired little knowledge of Montreal as a whole, but I've been around my little nook a bit. I'm fond of the sleaze, grime and occasional glamour. The closeness of poverty and wealth, and the blind eye they turn on one another as a result. And what really strikes me is what I perceive to be a lumbering, momentum building effort to drive the poor out of this neck of the woods, perhaps into the river.

So, as for the future, an analysis of how this place functions and why it's changing. Two libraries, bloody rumblings in Awesometown, Pasq et Bitch, homeless movement, neo-nazis, moral decay, and if you need more than that, it shall be done.