Mook-Life

Mook-Life called me up for a Peace Park life style experience, buy the end of the day the gave me a new title, Dave Boots – Peace Park President. haha

Peace Park 2010

It’s 2010 and skating at Peace Park so far this year has been good as always, with enough crew and new tricks popping off.Ain’t nothing changed, well almost. All around Peace there has been significant changes. On the east side of the park Temple seems to have closed its ‘retail’ doors for what seems like forever since they haven’t lifted their metal store front for business yet this year. Sucks for all us skaters who would go there in times of need. However, Andy still has the Temple shop on line.

The SAT (Society for Arts and Technology) situated on the north side of the park is undergoing renovations. They are adding a 3^rd story to their building that will have a huge dome, which will be used for some next level video presentations. The boom crane being used for the construction is interfering with the park a bit do to its size, but all the ledges are still skate able.

Also, Importation Main in front of the park closed down forever succumbing to the pressure of expropriation by the city, along with it’s neighbor the Montréal Pool Room, which fortunately moved across the street after being in the same place for nearly a hundred years. Cool thing is that the Pool Room is still hooking up the skater specials.

In other news… The documentary. Yes, it’s still in progress. Relatively recently we interviewed Joe Buffalo for the videoo via Skype, who at the time was in Vancouver. And with Stack Money from JKR, who is amongst the first graffiti writers in the city. He filled us in on the historical graffiti that took place at Peace Park during its construction days, which is priceless. After those interviews became all said and done, the capturing and logging of footage came to an end, and just yesterday we finished laying out the storyboard.

So, now were placing things in order to start writing the narration to be filmed ASAP, we’re excited and will try to keep you update time permitting. After all, there is barely enough time in a day to skate, party, and sleep, not to mention maintaining a website, and organizing events such as the Montréal City Hall Championships Poser Game, which is coming soon, and put together the best damned documentary the world has ever seen.

Chief of Police Alain Simoneau of Station 21

Today I meet with chief police Alain Simoneau of station 21, who agreed to do an interview for the Peace Park documentary. He’s only been the chief of police since 2007, but in my opinion definitely has a good knowledge of what’s going on it his district, and at Peace Park.

It didn’t really feel like I was interviewing him, it felt more like a conversation about Peace Park and the area. We talked about the history of the area, some of the changes in the park which wee made, such as the removing of the benches, the addition of the water sprinklers use to deter people from sleeping in the park, and the surveillance cameras that were installed the reduce the drug operations. Some of the most interesting information covered was about the history of the struggle of the bikers to maintain control of the drugs, and crack at Peace Park and on the Main.

When I asked him skateboarding he ended by saying that he would have no problem with skateboarding at Peace Park if the laws were changed, but that is up to the city. Many more topics were discussed such as graffiti and how the police deal with the vandals that will be in the documentary. Mr. Simoneau contributions to the documentary are much appreciated.

Le Rock

Le Rock is one of the oldest paraphernalia. Owner Jazz Mahoon, who did an interview for the Peace Park documentary yesterday, took over the family business in 2001 with partner Buddy. Even though the store is located at 17 St-Catherine Street, one block from the park, it is pertinent to the documentary because the store has been supplying the area since 1984, and is where the park lifers do their shopping.

Le Rock is more than just a T-shirt and paraphernalia store. It’s one of the first stores to sell spray paint for graffiti. All their pipes are supposed to be for tobacco use only, but their cylinder glass pipes are popular amongst crack addicts. According to Jazz he always gets a line up for them at the first of the month. He also carries a colorful selection of Apple Baggies. Check them out on the web Le Rock

The Red Light de Montréal in French

Another great book titled Le Red Light de Montréal arrived today. Written by Daniel Proulx the book covers the history of Montréal’s Red Light District dating back to the 1930’s, which is the neighborhood Peace Park resides in. What’s dope about this book is that it makes references to specific people, places, and major incidents that took place in the crime world; such as Eddie Sauvageau, who was responsible for introducing racketeering in Montréal, and Machine Gun Molly, the famous bank robber who went down shooting.

In other news, as promised today we began working on a French version of the website with help from Iza. She offered her translation abilities simply because she is down for the cause. Thank you Iza much respect,  it’s much appreciated. We’re not promising to have every blog post translated into French, but we are definitely trying to make the site as bilingual as possible. If anyone would like be the official Peace Park blog translator please let us know. Merci.

Interview with Shawna

After making numerous promises to an exclusive in-depth interview for the Peace Park documentary, we finally had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Shawna, who’s been a local in the area for approximately 20 years. During our conversation she revealed to us about her past and present situation, how she feels about the park, her love for the skaters in the park, and much more.

Rainy Days Are Good For Movies

Raining on and off today, Peace Park wasn’t ideal for skating. So, after a couple manuals where popped in and flipped out of, while Stare continued to paint his piece in the drizzle, it was back researching for the documentary. A new video was found during the search containing great black and white footage of Montreal in the 50’s and 60’s, which is relevant to the Peace Park documentary, helping make the best of a rainy day, which is good for watching movies.

New Research Material Found

After visiting about a dozen different used book stores, I was able to find some very rare books with great pictures and information regarding the immediate surrounding buildings and the history that revolves around Peace Park.

Rap Star Daybi Out of Jail

Rap star Daybi was seen at Peace Park today after being released from the courthouse. He had been arrested with a warrant from 2008 for disturbing the peace. When asked why he came straight to Peace once he was set free, he responded, “I was hoping to find Gab (Ekoe)”. We took the opportunity of freedom to give him a short interview about his Peace Park experience for the Peace documentary.

Peace Park is now following Exposé Mag on Twitter

Peace Park is now following Exposé Mag on Twitter

What else is there to say.

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