Whispers from the Myth Teller

It is with great sadness that I must report that Kirk MacGeachy (the lead singer of Montreal's Orealis) passed away on the weekend of a heart attack. Hurley's is hosting a wake on Friday after his funeral. You can read more about him in today's Gazette (section D).



I'll miss Kirk. He and I weren't close friends, but we always caught up on our news each time we crossed paths in the various Montreal pubs and festivals. He was charming, funny, soft-spoken, and a true gentleman musician. It was always a pleasure to see him and hoist a pint together.

Another successful St. Patrick's Day celebration has come and gone. The Brunch was well-attended (including sarahcarotte, yukonflower, talyesin, grrscary, un_roseau, and twilightbunny,) and the food was fantastic (thanks to Edith for the Scotch Eggs)! Not much of the food was terribly Irish, but we live in a multi-cultural city, so we had plenty of cultures at the table: bagels, scones, haggis, eggs, potatoes, fruit salad (although it was more like fruit soup), bacon, etc...

The party broke up around 11:30 am as we made our way to the Parade that started at noon. Ms. Carotte still can't walk, so we rented a wheelchair for the day. The unexpected affect was that many of the Parade walkers made a point of coming to Ms. Carotte and giving her special attention. It was great.

After standing and watching for a while, near the end of the parade, we decided to take advantage of a hole in the parade route and start walking in it ourselves (right behind the James Lyng High School float. We waved, danced, shook hands with folks, got the crowd to cheer a few times, and enjoyed the walk.

Once we hit University road, we stepped out of the Parade and made our way down to the Old Dublin pub. Surprisingly, the staff was very accomodating of the wheelchair and found us a spot to sit.

We spent most of the day at the Dublin before heading over to Ben's for some smoked meat. We then headed down to Hurley's to end off the night.

sarahcarotte and yukonflower headed home around 11pm, but Kensington stayed with me until about midnight. I stayed out until about 4am, coming home in a drunken stupor. I suffered a bit the next day, but this is the price I must pay for a little over-exuberance on my part.

All in all, it was a great weekend. Thanks to everyone who made it memorable. Special thanks to yukonflower for visiting and we hope we've planted a seed to get you to move to Montreal eventually.