a so-called street-party

this morning I had brunch with the lovely lx6 O at Local, a local café on saint-viateur street. we sat on the sidewalk and discussed, among other things, the street party that had transpired on that very street the evening before.

anybody who lives in mile end and many people who don’t know that until a few years ago saint-viateur street used to host the city’s best saint-jean baptiste party, which was shut down eventually on grounds of getting out of control. ironically, the best thing about that party was nothing ever happened at it. it was just the one day of the year that it was possible to run into every one you forgot you ever knew.

last night, only three four years behind the times, our friendly neighbourhood corporate giant ubisoft decided they’d been slumming in our hood for ten years now and it was about time to throw us a bone. I mean a party. this party was not that party, we agreed. it was fun and all, but just not the same. for one thing, it was over-run with baby strollers. thanks a lot, ubisoft, thanks a lot.

while we were brunching out on st.v st, lx6 and I waved to our passing fans. well, most of them were fans of lx6. one morning-after-looking friend noted how eerily free the morning-after street was of litter. not one aluminium beer can rattled in the wind. and let me tell you – an obscene amount of beer in cans in brown paper bags was consumed. anyone dumb enough to drink from a bottle, the cops gave them a plastic cup to decant into. yeah, one passer-by boy said, the cops were super chill. that’s what corporate sponsorship buys you, I said. chill cops and a clean street in the morning.

corporate sponsorship also buys some talent. dj socalled was was seriously impressive. apparently his god’s gonna kick my god’s ass. fine by me. cause I think we’re of the same tribe. he got us all jiving to his hip-hop klezmer vibe then called out for a big up to the corporate sponsorship, instantly creating a brilliant rift in the illusion that this party was just a regular friendly neighbourhood street party. sure it had the same kind of random social pinball effect of st.v parties of old. but it wasn’t the same. and why not? we queried the passing fans. it felt staged, someone said. too set-up. and then it hit me. ubisoft makes video games. do the math.
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