Gold Mario Cold Shot

Mario Cold Shot cruised up to Peace Park today catching me skating flat ground perfecting hard flips. He was on his bike instead of on his famous roller blades claiming he had to exercise different muscles. Mario used to pass by the park at least 3 times a week kicking down beers for the whole crew, good times. Now, he hasn’t had a drink in over a year. Some things change, but according to Mario the park hasn’t. He said that while he pointed out these two dudes making out on the ledge.

After Mario left I went to the Montréal Pool Room for some steamies to go. Before I could sit down to eat them, this guy named Jimmy approached me asking if I was interested in buying a ring or cufflinks. Showing them to me he mentioned they weren’t real gold. However just looking at the ring I knew it was real, and invited him to sit. During the time I was eating my steamies Jimmy showed me more jewelry.

Once we negotiated a fair price for the 2 pendants and the ring at 10$, he began telling me how he’s been hooked on crack for a month and half smoking 4 grams a day. Jimmy continued to explain that he went to rehab,  only out for four days before he fell back into it. His plan was to spend my $10 on one last rock before returning to rehab. Our conversation ended with me wishing him good luck after he asked he if I had another 5 buck because his ‘last’ rock wasn’t enough to satisfy him before going into rehab.

Stoked on my new ring I showed it to some skaters at Peace Park. One of them had a friend who was like,” You just got that right? I work at the pawnshop on the corner, and that guy tried selling us that ring 20 minutes ago. We tested it and it wasn’t real gold”. Convinced it was real, having a lot of experience dealing with gold, I decide to have it tested for fun. I went to Angelica Diamantaire Joaillier & Bijoux Raffinés on St-Catherines street to have it tested. The people there were super nice. They scratched the gold and applied an acid to it. The result was that the jewelry was all real gold. They suggested I try to find the owner, but if I couldn’t find him they would give me $90 just for the ring. Stoked I returned to Peace Park just in time to watch Mary chase after a midget walking past the park.

 

 

Reassured Cops Dumping Beer

Getting to Peace Park pretty late today there were no skaters present, only locals doing their regular drinking until two police officers rolled up. They didn’t get out at first, but it didn’t take long before they were pouring out peoples open beers. That’s when I started doing my regular picture taking, which attracted their attention.

After the cops finished dumping everyone’s beer they walked over to me asking me what my problem was. I responded that I had no problem, but they continued to ask me the same question in a hostile manner. This continued for a couple minutes until one of them finally asked me why I was taken pictures of them, so I explained that I’m making a documentary on the park. They didn’t seem to believe me at first but after explaining my project to them, they realized I was for real. They then eased up and expressed their concerns to me about how I always take their pictures; and asked if I could understand why they didn’t like it. I said yes, I can understand their point of view, and then proceeded to reassure them that it’s not my intention to single out them or the police in general. In fact, the video will not single out any social group, organization, administration, or person. The documentary is simply going to help elucidate the situation at Peace Park to all groups involved to better understand their “locals”, and to find ways to address the needs of everyone who interacts with the park.

Seems like a lot of people expect the Peace Park documentary to be full of shit and piss, while pointing fingers. Let me reassure that I feel a great responsibility in representing Peace Park through this documentary not just to the skate community but to the world. My intentions are to portray an image of respect, integrity, and professionalism in hopes of making this world a better place.

Birthday Fight

Yesterday was Didi’s birthday; he turned 41. Bunny gave him a diamond cross earring and told him he had better not give it away or pawn it off. While she pointed it out on Didi ear, I could see that he was all teary eyed. He wouldn’t tell me if he was crying because he was touched by the gift, or if it was for some other shit. I simply wished him a happy birthday.

We celebrated the occasion of Didi’s birthday by watched some live entertainment in the park, these two guys, one tall one and one short going at it.  Of course we had no idea why the big guy was kicking the shorter guy in the head since Didi and Bunny weren’t paying attention to the beginning, and I had only arrived 5 minute earlier.

Arriving late to the fight but just in time for the next performing act was Adam Green. Together we watched Maranda who’s always training in the park attempt to execute his favorite exercise of upside down push-ups leaning against a tree. He has no problem standing on his hands, but every time he tries to do a push up he topples over. After doing that a couple times he eventually just stands on his hands for as long as he can.

During the show Bob La Salle, Charles Rivard, and Phil Lavoie showed up, followed by, Darrel Smith, and Andrew Mcgraw, and a few others. We got a couple minutes of skating in the before the police showed up. They didn’t catch anyone so they made themselves useful by aggressively ripping old man Willy of his forty.

After that we all headed to Pointe-à-Callière leaving Bunny and Mary playing in the fountain.

Near Death – Fighting Over Food

On our way to the old port today with visiting family members, we stopped at Peace Park for only five minutes, which was just long enough for them to want to leave. Everything was cool at first when we arrived. Dustin Lopez and Jamie were popping nollie nose grinds and switch heels as my family appreciated the graffiti that surrounds the park.

While greeting with Dustin and Jamie I asked them if they knew why the park seemed so quiet. Dustin told me that most of the lifers left after some dude just about died in the park about 20 minutes earlier. They said that it happened right in front of Temple under their mailbox, adding that Andy from Temple took a picture of the incident. Trying to find out whom it was that nearly croaked and for what reason I asked Andy’s for input . He wasn’t sure who the guy was but he was pretty sure he had a heart attack. The picture he took was on film and was therefore unavailable for viewing. The important part is that the guy lived.

As I walked out of the shop, I saw Didi trying to eat Real’s food like a seagull. Real went berserk blowing his whistle giving Didi hell. That’s when the family was ready to continue on to the old port, and when Dustin came running to watch the action as I snapped off a couple flicks of the public disturbance.

Real took his food back only to throw it back in Didi’s face, who simply stood there until he realized Real wasn’t going to calm down. The ordeal ended with Didi walking away as he stated that he’d be back. Jamie and Dustin didn’t budge though; they stuck around with their video camera capturing the moment, hanging out with Real who was looking super down after using his food as a defense weapon. What a great classic five minutes at Peace Park.

 

Poles, Tits, Fights, and Fire

On my way to Peace today I bumped into Maximizer, who decided to hang out at the park for a bit to watch me throw my worn out shoes on the North East lamp pole, which I started to do in 2003. In the past I’ve been able to get about a 15 pairs of shoes up there before the city took them down, which they do at least once a year. Today Max and I counted 4 pairs of shoes before he started counting how many tries it would take me to get the shoes on the pole.

To make things easier I undid the shoelaces to make them longer, to make for a large shoe span tying them at ends. Doing this makes it easier to hook the shoes on the lamp and lets the shoes hang lower for better shoe on pole aesthetics. My first throw bounced off the lamp. The second brushed a pair of shoes hanging. On the next attempt the shoes landed on the street sign. After retrieving the shoes, I was successful on the fourth attempt.

A little later while hanging out with Yens and Andy in front of Temple we saw this dude pull out a metal bar and smack this other guy for who know what reason. The guy that got hit simply walked away without retaliating. Being used to this kind of behavior we simply resumed to our conversation of Yens preparing for a 21km marathon around the city in a couple days.

Over all the rest of the day was pretty normal. Alot of locals like Didi, Bunny, Ramona, and Randel were chilling in the park. Then some skaters showed up like Sam Chouinard, Hugo Balek, Adam Green and pretty much the new generation of younger Montreal rippers. who were just chilling as  Head Band Mary decided to show us her tits. It wasn’t long after than i decided to peace out, and if Mary’s tits weren’t enough to get the day heated there was a recycling  fire on the corner.

Stare at the Piece

Stare from the NME crew finished his piece the other day. Not only does it look it fresh, he gave props to Peace Park MQC. Much respect, Thanks.

 

MQC Pieced Over !

Stoked on taken a day time flick of the big MQC ground up bubbly outline at Peace, Frekr did last night turned into a WH@T THE F@CK !!! When I got there around 2pm it was just too late, Stare from the NME crew was doing a legal piece over the bubbly. He had already started doing his outline over ground up before I could even take a decent picture.

Despite being super bummed, if someone was going to go over the spot, I’m happy it was Stare, him being in my top 3 of favorite painters in the city. That, and his a nice guy. NME simply paints fresh, always well thought out, clean dope shit. The part that stresses me the most though, is that there was only two walls good for marking Peace Park as MQC’s romping ground, and they both disappeared becoming legal walls this summer. Damn, well anyway, we’ll show the final results when ever it’s done. Also, I heard Frekr has eyed the one last spot and is in the midst of planning.

MQC Outline

The other day the walls with illegal graffiti on them at Peace got buffed. So, last night  after having some refreshments Frekr rolled down to the park with Cedez, with whom he had never painted with before, or hung out with for that matter. When they got there just after midnight police popped up right away coming down St-Dominique from St-Catherine Street. As the cops past them on the corner turning on Place du Marché towards St-Laurent they starred Frekr and Cedez down. They must have looked super sketchy to the cops because they stop in the middle of the road to watch them. Even when a car pulled up behind the cops they didn’t budge until Frekr and Cedez commenced to walk in the opposite direct. Feeling sketched out they went to the Montréal Pool Room for some skater special poutine. After taken their time eating, they chilled in the Park for a minute, as Frekr explained to Cedez which direction the cops are likely to come from before he hit the wall.

When Frekr was half way though the outline Cedez made noise, so he jetted thinking it was 5-0. When they regrouped, he learned that it was just a normal car. That’s when Frekr explained to only sound the alarm if it’s police.  When the two walked back to the spot, to finish what Freker had started, a paddy wagon pull up in front of the monument national. It was their turn for Pool Room steamiest. Un-stressed, with the empty wagon present Frekr started to unload on the wall.

As he was painting, falling all over the place because he couldn’t see the un-even ground do to bur bushes, which he ended up with all over himself, another Cop pulled up behind the wagon on St-Laurent to join their fellow pigs for a bite to eat.  Cedez apparently notice them and didn’t say anything cause they didn’t see Frekr. Painting till he was done, the outline turned out looking drunk, but that’s ok for all is well that ends well.

A Stolen Skate from Park Lafontaine

Getting to Peace Park today I was amazed to find that for the first time in 3 weeks there were no one on the ledges or the middle mani pad. The tension in the park was still high though, apparently someone got stabbed early in the morning according to Sergio. Skating today was Phil Lavoie and Charles Rivard chilling doing shit flips, while Darcy and I played a couple games of Poser, during which I was robbed for my open full can of coke. What’s really crazy is that my can of coke was literally right beside my camera at the base of the southeast lamp pole, and they didn’t take it. Whoever stole my coke left my camera, like what the hell? I’m not complaining.

Also in the park today was a bunch of French rappers, doing some kind of battling. It was funny to watch these kids spitting in each other’s face, acting all tough in multi-colored plaid shorts with fluorescent clothes, while being scared of the locals. Their all lucky Phil Beauséjour wasn’t there, he’d a put them in their place for sure. On the other hand, at least they were doing something constructive instead of getting into trouble.

The best part of the day after the skating was buying a complete for real cheap of these two dudes. They were asking for 30 bucks, claiming to have found it in Park Lafontaine by the statue. Who knows, maybe they did find it after some drunken kid left it there, or maybe they stole it from somewhere completely different. Either way, I worked their price down, and now I have some trucks and wheels to hook someone in need up.

Shooting Felt At Peace

Bunny a local lifer who hadn’t been around for the past couple weeks made an appearance in the park today. When we sat down to talk she told us that there had been an unexpected death in her family. Her nephew Harold Wayne Christopher Mullins was shot on St-Laurent Blvd, between Blizzarts, and Blue Dog on August 2nd, 2009 after leaving Bar St-Laurent. According to several sources, he was shot for speaking to a girl who had a boyfriend.

Bunny described him as a good person, whom despite living a hectic life as a youth was able to turn his life around. Born January 4th, 1982 died at the age of 27, a loving father going back to school. What frustrates Bunny the most is that such a thing could happen after he made so many positives changes in his life. MQC gives our condolences to Bunny and her family.

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