#everyone else: this is your sign to go watch the queer pirate show | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

forcefully-awoken · 3 years

Text

hello this is for @titan-fodder's coffee shop AU collab. you can find the rest of the amazing works here. divider by @firefly-graphics

i am patently against coffee shop AU's but i do like plot twists.

pairing: Nemuri Kayama (Midnight) x Reader

Summary: Life is boring when you work at a coffee shop in a small town and your life feels like it's going nowhere. Good thing Nemuri walks through the door and sets her eyes on you.

warnings: pining, angst, ghost shit, author has never worked in a coffee shop, period typical mentions of homophobia

WC: 4.2k

You never thought your life would turn out this way.

Stuck in a dead end job at a local coffee shop, always working the opening shift, paying off loans for a degree you barely had use for now. You weren’t so old now, barely twenty three, but starting college seemed so far away. Everything felt so much easier back then, you were so young and idealistic and you were going to change the fucking world. Now you have to listen intently while the rudest woman in town berates you because her coffee isn’t heated to the exact degree she had specified.

“I’m so sorry, ma’am,” You reply smoothly, voice honey sweet and fake as hell, “I’ll get that remade for you right away.” You had no such intentions, but this bitch didn’t need to know that. Instead you took it behind the counter, just out of sight while you busied yourself making another drink. Then you handed the original back to her, and watched as the woman took a sip, sighing happily.

“That wasn’t so hard, now was it?” She snips, walking away. You roll your eyes and take up the register again. Standing in front of you is the single most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen. You’re certain she’s never been in before, at least not while you’ve been working. She’s eyeing the menu board over your head, while you’re able to drink in your fill of her. Long black hair, falling in soft layers down her shoulders, pale, unblemished skin, full lips, and bright blue eyes. She’s dressed in the vintage style you’ve seen come back into fashion, red glasses perched on her face.

��W-what can I get for you?” You curse how you stutter out the question- you haven’t stuttered in front of a woman since the sixth grade and you realized you liked girls.

“I think just a black coffee, small.” Oh for fucks sake, even her voice is pretty. You mutely nod, picking up a cup to write down the order.

“And a name?” The words are routine as they slip from your mouth.

“Nemuri Kayama,” She replies, giving you a smile as bright as the sun. All you can do is nod back to her, taking her money and making change in silence. Your coworkers snicker quietly when you even go so far as to hand deliver her drink.

“What time do you get off work?” She asks when you manage to make it over to the table and set the drink down without spilling it on yourself. “I’d love to get to know you.” You check the time on your watch.

“Another two hours,” You reply, sadness in your voice because there’s no way she’ll wait.

“Wonderful!” Are you dreaming? You must be dreaming. “I’ll see you then!” Once again you can only nod in reply, silently wondering what the fuck to yourself as you get back to work. You try to look at Nemuri as much as you can, but she seems to just be lost in thought as she sits at the tiny two person table. She gazes out the window with a dreamy smile on her face, every so often bringing the cup to her mouth- though you notice it doesn’t look like she’s drinking, only smelling it.

Two hours has never seemed so long as your shift drags by. Customers come in, you take orders, your heart tries to beat out of your chest. Soon enough you’re hanging up your apron on its little hook, and ignoring the stares of your coworkers as you take a place across from Nemuri. Her cup still looks full, and you almost want to ask if there was something wrong with it before shutting that train of thought down- you’re not working right now.

“Hello,” You breathe out, trying not to sound so excited, failing miserably. “You waited.”

“Of course,” Nermuri practically purrs at you, leaning forward on the table, just slightly closer to you. “I wanted to talk to you.”

That’s all it takes- you think you’re in love now. The talk starts small, just figuring each other out, you tell Nemuri about your degree and she tells you she never went to college, that she worked as a secretary at a bank you hadn’t heard of. You figured it had to be in the town over, but the conversation moved on before you could ask. You don’t think you’ve had such a delightful conversation in ages, so far from your friends and not close to your coworkers.

Nemuri makes you realize how lonely you’ve been, but soothes the ache before it can even begin. Neither of you offer up your last names, but that seems so inconsequential. You want to know what makes Nemuri smile, what drives her out of bed in the morning (“Not a lot,” She says, smiling down at her now cold coffee, “Just getting by like everyone else.”). For all you can find it in you to care the rest of the world is standing still now. You think you could swim in her eyes, drown in the soft peals of her laughter.

It’s not until the pointed coughs of your coworkers that you realize the shop is only a few minutes away from close. She hesitates when you ask for her number, but that doesn’t slow you down. You offer to walk her to her car, but she says she doesn’t have one- doesn’t even have her license in fact. You offer her a ride home, eager to spend more time with the mysterious woman. She nods just the once, and you go to gather your things, taking her coffee to the back to pour it out in the sink. You’ll really have to figure out what kind of drink she likes.

Nemuri is standing by the table, waiting for you once again. She looks ethereal in the low light, and you tell her as much.

“You look like an angel,” You declare confidently, but she somehow becomes even more pale. There’s a split second where you think you’ve done something wrong enough that she’ll faint right there on the spot but she perks up after a moment.

“That’s the first time I’ve been compared to one,” She teases you, and you lead the two of you out the door. When you turn to grab your keys from you bag you take your eyes off of her for a split second, it’s barely anything, but there’s a gentle breeze and when you turn back Nemuri is gone- leaving you with disappointment and more questions than answers.

Namely, what the fuck.

You had the next two days off, and you were left to wonder- had you done something wrong? The signs felt like they were so clearly there but maybe you had misread them? Maybe Nemuri was just flirty like that, and ran at the first sign of queerness? For the first time in your memory you wish you would get called in so you could ask her about it. But your days off passed quietly, with you just puttering around your house, trying to get everything done that needed to be.

Soon enough you’re there, bright and early, and nervous beyond belief. It feels like it takes all day for Nemuri to show back up, but she arrives- this time right before your shift is over.

“I’m sorry,” is the first thing out of her mouth, and damn, it’s hard to stay even a little annoyed when she looks so cute staring at you like that. You find yourself melting, smiling and taking her order- which is your favorite drink, you recommend it to her. When you join her after your shift again she gestures to it. “It’s yours.” Your answering smile is all she needs.

“Tell me about your favorite childhood memory?” Nemuri asks, and you find yourself unable to deny her.

“My mom took us to this mermaid cove place, they have a show with pirates, and mermaids, and singing, and I just remember how happy she was watching it all,” Your eyes grow a little misty thinking about the past, about your mother, “I remember telling her that I was going to be a mermaid one day, just to make her smile like that all the time. I was a very ambitious seven year old.”

“You sound like a good daughter,” Nemuri replies, smiling sweetly at you. “I’m sure your mother is still very happy for you now.”

“She passed,” You manage to choke out, trying hard to sound like you’re okay, “A few years go, but anyways, what about you? Your favorite memory?”

“I’m so sorry,” Nemuri starts, but sees something in your face so when she talks again it’s not about you, “We were down on our luck when I was a child, like everyone was. I was maybe nine or ten at the time- everything we ate was so bland, but it was all we could afford. One day papa came home with an orange- a real orange! We had to split it between everyone but nothing tasted sweeter.” Nemuri isn’t looking at you now- she’s lost in her own thoughts as surely as you’re lost in yours.

“We should talk about happier things,” You say, and Nemuri is nice enough to ignore the sniffle in your voice. “The future, maybe. Where do you see yourself in five years?” She blanches at that, actually, and you feel bad, taking a sip of your drink to focus your thoughts. “You’re right, that was bad. This isn’t a job interview.”

“I just haven’t given it much thought,” Her reply is a little stiff, formal.

“Ah, a live in the moment type of gal?”

“You could say that,” There’s a secret hiding in Nemuri’s smile, one you want to spend as long as she’ll let you trying to figure it out. “What about you? Big future plans?”

“I want to fall in love,” You blurt out, cringing back a little, “That sounds so cheesy. I just want to have a little place, just a little piece of happiness.”

“I don’t think that sounds cheesy at all,” Nemuri assures you, “I think it sounds amazing.” The two of you sit there for another moment, just enjoying each other before the alarm on your phone goes off- half an hour until your therapy appointment. You frown at the reminder, cursing it internally for disrupting your time now. You stand, gathering your things as does Nemuri.

“I have to go, but maybe I could take you out?” There it is again- the blanching, the frown that plays on her lips. “Or is that too fast?”

“We could meet back here?” She slowly suggests, “I live in one of the apartments above?” You’re not sure why she sounds so shy about it but you readily agree anyways- you don’t cherish the idea of coming back here but maybe you’ll get lucky if she’s already inviting you over.

“It’s a date,” You declare, feeling more confident when Nemuri nods in agreement. You bid your farewells and make it home just in time to pick up your therapist’s call- the wonders of telehealth. It’s hard to focus on what your therapist is saying, and she seems to pick up on that.

“I met someone,” You say, suddenly shy. Nemuri is so new, you don’t feel quite comfortable gushing about her yet. “It’s new. We have a date tonight.” There’s not much else to say after that, anyways. After that you’re able to focus just a little bit more, and soon the hour is over, with you promising to tell your therapist all about your date.

There’s still a few hours so you take your time getting ready, trying to find that balance between casual and dressed up. You’ve never felt so nervous for a date before in your life, but then it’s suddenly, somehow, time to leave again.

Nemuri is waiting in front of the shop for you, looking nervous but she lights up when she sees you. You can see a soft glow behind her- the shop is transformed. The door is unlocked, and she mentions something about being friends with the owner again when you lead the pair of you inside.

The main lights are off but there’s fairy lights all over, and the tables pushed out of the way, save for one right in the middle. There’s some take out on it, a Thai place you know you had mentioned earlier today.

“This is all so much,” You gush to Nemuri as you take your seat across from her. She looks perfect, and you tell her as much, just to watch the apples of her cheeks turn a beautiful shade of pink. It’s endearing, really, the way she waits for you to serve yourself, how she just watches you, and talks to you. Conversation flows as easily as the wine you brought, though you’re the only one drinking it.

“I thought I had misread the signs,” You confess. “I thought maybe once again I had a crush on a straight girl.”

“I had the same fears,” Nemuri returns, shaking her head a little, a soft strand of black hair falling around her cheek to frame it perfectly. “I know I can be a little unusual and I thought you were simply being kind.”

“Oh, no, I totally wanna fuck you,” You try to keep your voice a little light, teasing, but it comes out damn near a purr and Nemuri’s eyes widen in response. Now, your tipsy mind thinks, now you’ve definitely over stepped and you’ll be reported, and get fired or sued, and your therapist will be so disappointed and-

“It’s good to know we’re on the same page there.” Her words bring you up short, stopping your anxiety spiral before it can even really begin. Nemuri shifts, her eyes going distant when she looks away from you. “Though there is a slight complication here.”

That sends another pang of worry through you- you’re pretty certain Nemuri is perfect, what could complicate sleeping together? A million different scenarios speed through your head all at once, but for the life of you, you’d never be able to predict the next words that come out of her mouth.

“You see, I’m a ghost.” You’d laugh, but her face is kind and serious and all sorts of heart breaking.

“I’m sorry?” Your manners prevail, and you bite back what you want to say, “You think you’re a ghost?”

“I am, I know I am,” Her words hold a note of finality, so much so that you can’t help the next words out of your own- “Alright, then prove it.”

She looks back at you now, catching your eye with a mischievous grin. She stands, but the chair doesn’t move. Nemuri walks, actually walks, through the table, standing right in your food to bend over and brush her lips against yours. It’s like there’s nothing there, only the hint of coldness, something that sends a harsh shiver down your spine.

“Do you believe me now?” She asks when she pulls away.

“I do,” You answer simply, before everything goes dark and you feel yourself slide out of your chair onto the floor, as Nemuri calls your name.

Your eyes flutter open and Nemuri’s face is so close to yours that if she had breath you would be sharing it. You scramble away from her, kicking the chair as you move, and her face falls.

“You- you’re a gh—” You choke on the word as you sputter, unable to get your mind around it. Ghosts aren’t real, your mind distantly supplies, the wine is drugged, or you’re having a stroke, or you fell asleep on the couch but this isn’t- it can’t be real. Nemuri is still frowning at you, kindness in her eyes like she understands. God, how do you even begin to tell your therapist about this? That the girl you have- had- have a crush on is a ghost?

“I have to go,” The words leave your mouth, body twisting as you grab your bag off the floor and run out the door. You think you hear your name being called but you don’t look back, you don’t stop shaking until you’re home, and the door is locked behind you. Your mind doesn’t stop racing, anxiety making your heartbeat loud in your chest.

There’s a pang of regret but all you can think is why, how, what the fuck? Nemuri is a ghost, she walked through a table and kissed you and you ran away. You had work in the morning but it was so hard to think about going back. Would the shop even look the same now to you now? God, had she died there? Is this why she lingered around it? Were her bones buried under your feet as you made rude middle aged women their overpriced lattes?

That thought is enough to have you running to the bathroom, emptying your stomach into the toilet. You slide to the floor again, pressing your forehead against the cool tile to try and stop your reeling brain. You have no idea how to process this now, electing to simply crawl into bed, deciding to call in sick in the morning.

And you do- you call in sick for two days. You curl up in your blankets, and ignore the world outside. You think about the sad look on Nemuri’s face, and it sends another pang through you every time. It’s hard to think of disappointing her again but where do you go from here?

After two days you can’t justify calling in anymore. Your bills need paid, no matter how many ghosts you think you might want to have sex with. You don’t see her your entire shift either, which makes you a little sad, and that surprises you. You hesitate as long as you can, hoping to see her before you head home, but she never shows.

And for the next week you don’t see Nemuri. You brush it off when your therapist asks after her, and try to write it off as maybe a slight psychological break. But then you see her, sitting in a corner, and you notice how the sunlight goes through her now, like she’s fading, like she’s only ever been halfway there.

You don’t acknowledge her until the end of your shift when you whisper, “Tonight. The same time.” There’s no reply but when you glance back she’s gone.

Your hands shake something terrible when you drive back to work after hours. When you arrive this time there’s no grand set up (and you really should ask Nemuri how she did that!) there’s just the table by the window, the same one you first spoke to her at. You don’t even see Nemuri as you walk in, the lights on just enough for you to see.

“Hello?” Your voice echoes around the open space and then all of a sudden she’s right next to you. Materializing out of thin air like, well, like a ghost.

“You’re here,” The word sticks in her mouth, and you feel the pressure of it on you, compelling you to take a seat. You slump in your seat, eyes widening when Nemuri is just there across from you- only she didn’t walk there. She’s just there. Everywhere. The thought makes you dizzy.

“I figured,” You voice is too quiet, you clear your throat, straightening up in your seat, “I figured talking can’t hurt, right?” Nemuri nods, a little too eager. “I don’t have to solve your murder or anything right?”

“Heavens no!” Nemuri sounds scandalized at the thought which brings you little relief. “I died of old age, quietly, in the apartment above here about twenty years ago.”

“But,” Your mind is still reeling from how old she must be, what year her date of birth is, “Why are you here then?” And from the look on her face she knows you don’t just mean why is she in the coffee shop. She doesn’t look at you when she starts her story.

“My father wasn’t a nice man,” She says, a hard line to her words. “He loved me, please don’t misunderstand that, he loved me in the way fathers love their first daughters, which is to say pining a legacy on my shoulders before I know how to walk. He looked at me and saw future generations, saw grandchildren that might share the color of his eyes, the shape of his mouth.

Unfortunately for him the first time I kissed a boy I knew- I couldn’t love him or any man. I couldn’t love anybody the way I loved the girl next door, my roommate in my first apartment, the lovely barista at the coffee shop. I was… wrong in his eyes. I wasn’t the child he had been promised and that broke something inside of him. He asked me to deny myself, if I wouldn’t have a husband then at least, I should have nobody at all.

And I couldn’t deny him that. I died here. I died alone, with regrets, and one big thing tethering me to this ground we sit on. I wanted a love. I want one kiss, with someone who looked at me and saw me and understood me and loved me so much it didn’t matter that I was wrong in my father’s eyes- because I would always be right in theirs.”

You’re crying by the time Nemuri stops talking. Big, fat, salty tears make their way down your face. Your nose is running too, and with shaky hands you move to wipe your face off with a napkin. You can’t imagine Nemuri’s life the way she described it. Your mother had hugged you tightly when you came out, had set you up with the daughters of friends, had held your hand in hers on her deathbed and told you to love as much as possible.

But Nemuri, sweet and kind and loving, had been denied that because it was the wrong time? The wrong place? The wrong family? It broke your heart to think of decades alone, closing her eyes that final time knowing there was nobody waiting on the other side.

“I’m sorry,” You gasp out, trying to stop yourself from crying more, “I’m so sorry I ran off, I didn’t even give you a chance!”

“You’re giving me a chance now,” Your heart breaks a little more at how kind she still sounds, “And you’re not running. I don’t see fear in your eyes. I see acceptance, and understanding.”

“And love,” You say with some finality. It’s hard not to love someone like Nemuri, and how could you not love her now? She’s laid her soul in front of you, and all you want to do is hold her hand. You reach out, placing yours palm up on the table. She’s hesitant, but then her hand rests in yours and you can feel her- warm and vibrant and alive. She’s solid when you look back up at her. Holding her hand in yours, you move around the table, bringing your face level to hers.

“I love you, Nemuri,” You tell her, watching as tears gather in the corner of her eyes, “And I won’t stop until my dying day.”

When your lips meet hers this time you feel them, the first and best kiss she’ll ever give you, and there’s a soft exhale from her that your greedily swallow down. When your eyes open again she’s gone, but you know that’s okay.

Somewhere, she’s happier.

Your life moves on after that.

It’s weird- you think going back to the coffee shop might feel awkward but it doesn’t. You swear you can hear her laughter in the ringing of the bells over the door, feel her touch as it stops you from burning yourself on something hot. She’s everywhere and nowhere- just the simple, calming presence of an old lover.

You meet a girl, two, three, before the fourth one finally sticks. It doesn’t feel like betrayal, not when your first kiss with her happens because an invisible force pushes you forward and into her arms. Sue, your wife, is lovely and understanding, even when you drag her to a cemetery, and introduce her to a grave holding a person you couldn’t know, given that the gravestone held a death date of when you were five.

She doesn’t question it when she finds you talking aloud sometimes, to thin air, to a person who’s name she’s only even seen on that gravestone. Sue holds you tight on your worst nights and lifts you higher on your best. Every kiss with her is full of life, of love, of a happiness you find yourself thinking you’re sharing with one other person. You give everything you have to Sue, save one little corner of your heart.

You move away, you move on from that small town and everything that held you down there. Your life flourishes out, it’s more than you ever could have dreamed of, your happiness so much that you’re not sure how your heart handles it. Every little victory feels dedicated to her, to the one ghost you’ve never been able to exorcise but that’s okay, more than, because you know Nemuri loves you still, wants you to be happier just for her.

And you know it too, when you close your own eyes for that one final time, and her voice calls to you from somewhere, far off in the distance.

#nemuri x reader #nemuri kayama x reader #midnight x reader #homophobia tw #♟.collabs #♟.bnha #♟.nemuri #if nobody cries i’ll delete bye

59 notes · View notes

im-the-punk-who · 4 years

Note

Hi! I’m new to the fandom and I’m simply curious (not trying to start a feud or anything), why don’t you like Steinberg?

Hello dear anon! And welcome to the fandom!

Oof. That’s a question. xD

I’m going to try and stay as uh. neutral as possible. Because I’ve already written the post I know I failed but, the intent in answering this is also not to start a feud or hurt anyone’s feelings.

Okay, so I got fairly negative in this chilis tonight, so I want to start by saying that even in light of the opinions I’m about to express, Black Sails is one of, if not my number one, favorite TV shows of all time. Certainly in recent memory - I’ve been hyperfixating on this show for 18 months with no sign of stopping, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for everyone who worked on the show - even Steinberg. (The one exclusion is Michael Bay, he can go twist.)

AND I think Stienberg is an incredibly talented writer. Black Sails is one of my favorite shows because it does such a wonderful job of weaving stories, creating characters, and melding things in a way that is both unexpected and makes sense narratively. I have changed as a person because of the show, and they will have to pry James McGraw and Thomas Hamilton from my cold dead knives-attached-to-them hands. None of what I’m going to say is meant to detract from that.

I will also say that a lot of these issues are not particular to Steinberg and are in fact a systemic problem with American TV + Film. And I’m not leaving Robert Levine out of my criticism, it’s just that Steinberg had the biggest hand in the pot(he wrote a full half the episodes) and a lot of what I’ve heard as far as talking about the show comes from Steinberg. So, he gets the brunt. But it isn’t that I think Steinberg was the only problematic element of the show.

Also, these are all my opinions and are colored by how I interact with my fandoms. I am not only a fandom veteran, but I work and pretty much live in the entertainment industry. I work in indie film and theatre and am surrounded by artists and creators of all walks of life, like, constantly. I know what is possible, and when I see something that can be improved, I want to note it because it is important to me to always be striving forward. Like Miranda says about Thomas, this isn’t out of malice, or out of hate. It’s because I genuinely love this show, and I love entertainment as a whole, and I think in order to get to a better, more inclusive industry we have to have hard conversations and look critically at the media we consume, and it is frustrating to me to time and again see the same faces in the room.

But if that isn’t your cuppa, that’s fine! Fandom isn’t meant to be stressful and if all you want to do is watch a show about gay pirates that is your tomato and I applaud you. Have at it you funky motherfucker.

OH! One more. At some point I’m going to talk about Silverflint. When I do, it is NOT meant as a ‘you shouldn’t/cant ship this’ or ‘this pairing is bad’ or any negative attack on the people who ship that pairing. My criticisms in this post are exclusively about what it means for Steinberg as a writer and Black Sails’ representation of gay and mlm men. While it’s not my cuppa, this is a sail your own ship blog.

OKAY! SO!

My main criticisms of Steinberg & Co boil down to:

The homozygosity of the writers and directors shows a complete lack of desire to include marginalized people in the writing of a show that is about them. Which leads to:

The centering of white men while choosing a historical setting and time period that was in fact dominated by people of color and specifically a black woman,

The gratuitous inclusion of violence against women, particularly sexual violence, and again, that the female characters are often sidelined for the central male characters.

SO.

Black Sails is a show centered around queer, female, and black leads, and yet there were only two non white-male directors (one bi-racial man and one white woman) and only 7 female writers - one of whom was Latina. The entire rest of the major creative staff was white men. I’m not going to comment on sexualities but none of the writers or directors are out as queer according to a quick google search.

Let me reiterate the important bit there.

In Black Sails, where the last two seasons specifically feature around a real, actually-happened-in-history event that shaped black history in the Caribbean, there was not a single black writer on the entire show.

This is the main difference between inclusion for inclusion’s sake, and actually centering marginalized voices. Black Sails has a ton of gay, POC, and female rep in front of the camera but practically zero representation behind it, which leads to storylines and implications that Steinberg and his writers, as white men, simply would never realize.

It’s like why Silver and Miranda never realized the true reasons James was waging war on England. They just did not have the life experiences to realize they were missing a piece of the puzzle, and so they filled in their own without even realizing they’d done so.

Because no one in the room of Black Sails was a part of these marginalized identities, nuances get lost or mistranslated, motivations get muddled through a white man’s gaze(or a straight person’s) and implications that someone within those communities might think is obvious won’t even come up.

And again, because there were no writers or directors of color in the last two seasons (the biracial man directed episodes 2x02 and 2x04 - WHICH MAKES SENSE IMO) the entirety of the historical lore that the show bases itself on in its latter half is filtered through a white man’s lens. And so there is no discussion of how changing something changes the meaning, how leaving someone out or changing their role to be more minor might affect people for whom that is their heritage. How the entire story they’re telling might change with one simple exclusion or addition.

So, how does this relate directly to Steinberg, you ask? Well, simply, because it was his show.

Steinberg(and Levine) were involved in every major decision about the show, from its conception, to the script, to choosing the writers and directors. They chose how they wanted the show to look, to think, what stories to tell and how they wanted to tell them. Their decisions(and the biases that formed those decisions) are woven into the show.

And look. I don’t for a second believe any of this was willful or malicious. I don’t think that John Steinberg and Robert Levine sat down one day and said ‘you know what would make the gays really angry? If we locked the only two canonically gay men up in a prison camp.’

But the decisions that were made in the show were based in ignorance in a way that shows more than just simple negligence or laziness(especially given the attention to detail in everything else). The things they leave out or change in the Maroon War plotline for instance are not small details easily missed. They are big, giant waving flags. They are things that are irreplaceable to still have the same events and stories and tell them respectfully.

It shows an insane amount of privilege to, for instance, write a show airing during a time when the Black Lives Matter movement was at the forefront of the American conscience, include black characters and black storylines, and yet not include a single black voice on their creative team.

In a show that centers a gay man’s love and his journey in attempting to process the horrible things done to him and his lover because of it, we are given just forty minutes of the entire show dedicated to their relationship - and just fifteen of those minutes actually feature the lover!

(Relatedly, the entirety of the gay romantic rep is two kisses, and a forehead touch. That’s the entirety of your gay intimacy representation. And yet there are in the first two seasons alone - because that’s all I’ve clocked so far - something like twenty seven minutes of scenes involving a naked or half naked woman. Five minutes of that is explicitly wlw sex.

Again, I just want to reiterate this because it’s important in recognizing bias.

There is fully twice as much female nudity in the first two seasons, as the entirety of the time the two gay characters have together on screen. )

Steinberg is a perfect example of how a lack of understanding why the diversity you are representing is important, matters. I dislike Steinberg because he, just like every other straight white cis man I have known, profited off of marginalized voices without including them or creating with them in mind.

Art does not exist in a vacuum. You cannot create something - especially something as back breakingly, intensely a labor of love as Black Sails - without putting several pieces of yourself into it. But those pieces color your narrative. They will expose things about you that you don’t even realize. And it’s in these places we are weakest, and why a diverse group of writers with a diverse group of experiences can help a piece be stronger. But for whatever reason, John Steinberg thought that he could make art with only people who looked and thought and experienced like him.

The lack of representation behind the camera in Black Sails was evident in front of it and yet Steinberg is out here getting to pretend like he created the most inclusive groundbreaking show that ever existed. It is important to me, personally, to acknowledge that. And that it kind of makes my skin crawl in the way all media made by straight white (cis)men makes my skin crawl. I wish I didn’t have to feel that way about my favorite tv show just because it was created by a man of privilege, but here we are.

SO. I hope that helped? Feel free to take what you want and leave what you don’t!

Below the cut is a more in depth look at things that I think show what I’m talking about, but that up there ^^ is the gist. <3 |D

SURPRISE!

The Maroons and the Maroon War

So the first thing I want to point out is that the Maroon War was a real thing that happened. It lasted ten years, and resulted in the most substantial victory the Maroons ever achieved against the British. Not only that, there was in fact a KICKIN’ badass female leader of the maroons named Queen Nanny, who is to this day honored as a national hero in Jamaica. While they weren’t able to drive the British out, the outcome of this war led to a mostly self-governing Maroon population in Jamaica from the mid 1700s on. This was a long term fight that had a very tangible and real outcome, even if it didn’t end in the destruction of colonialism.

And what is this war turned into in Black Sails? A white ‘madman’s revenge’ that is doomed to failure after six months.

That, my dear pirates, is a problem for me. (And those familiar with my brand of spiceyness know that I do not ascribe to the ‘Flint is a Madman’ trope, but that IS what Steinberg ascribes to, what he seems to have written the show thinking.)

There was no narrative reason to include the Maroon War in the narrative of Black Sails. The Maroon War didn’t happen until a decade after the Golden Age of Piracy, and aside from Silver’s wife being a black woman there is no mention of Silver ever having contact with them. To me, this feels like the choice of a showrunner who found a cool historical event and saw a chance to up the stakes of their white male heroes while getting in some sweet sweet POC rep.

Except that they then took the major events of the Maroon War and gave them to their white characters, Flint and Silver.

Here’s the thing. If you’re going to take a piece of culturally important history and use it for your show, you NEED to have sensitivity writers. You need to have people who are at least familiar with those events and who care about them to do them justice. Have an expert come in and read your script or go over your ideas. Or just like. Hire a black writer. Hire ONE black writer. As a treat.

The important Maroon figures, Nanny, Cudjoe, and Quao, all get sidelined or ‘sexified’ and then used as plot points for the white characters. Nanny gets split into two women - the older mother queen and Madi, the young naive warbent visionary. Quao(Mr. Scott is the closest, or Kofi possibly) gets killed off because the writers realized they didn’t exactly have a place for him in their writing. Cudjoe(Julius) gets a few scenes and one good speech but his entire role in the war gets given to Silver. And THEN. That sexy Queen Madi figure gets used as emotional bait for Silver and then has to learn he has betrayed her and destroyed the hope and freedom she had wanted to bring to her people.

Gross, pirates. Gross.

Anne Bonny/Max/Mary Read - a heads up, this section includes a semi in-depth discussion of both Max and Anne’s sexual assaults. If that bothers you, the paragraphs talking about that begin with a ***

COOL NOW LET’S TALK ABOUT LESBIANS. Words my 20 year old self would never have imagined coming out of my mouth.

Specifically, I want to talk about Max, and Anne, and their backstories both involving extreme sexual trauma at the hands of men. And then Mary Read and the once again sexification of female characters.

(Actually while I’m here another criticism I have of Steinberg is that his writing does not seem to recognize how queer people existed in the past - again, likely because he didn’t have any gay historians to be like ‘actually buddy that doesn’t make sense also why is Anne not dressing as a man? If you want to fuck with anything and insert modern day terminology and ideas into this show, make her non binary and REALLY piss off the hetties.’)

(This same ficitonal gay dramaturg who is definitely not me has also questioned John Steinberg repeatedly about where Mary Read is, unsatisfied with the answer ‘well we wanted her to be hot so we made her a sex worker and then had Anne have to rescue her but then we realized it would be weird not to include her actual character so we gave her a five second cameo at the very end of the series and also made her like 13.’)

Anyway! So my main point in bringing up Anne and Max is the sexual trauma they are exposed to in the show, particularly being that they are the two primary wlw in the show, who Steinberg has said he views as being completely gay, and what THAT whole unexamined idea looks like.

***Max. My dear Max. There was literally no reason to have her be repeatedly r*ped(and for the love of god there was even less reason to make it that gratuitous and graphic). Max being assaulted like that did not add anything to the gravity of Eleanor’s betrayal. The traumatic event was being tossed aside by Eleanor, and that could have been just as emotionally damaging without the sexual assault. And the only reason for her to be continually assaulted was to bring her and Anne together.

***The reason imo that Max’s r*pe plot was added was because it was the only thing these white straight men could come up with that felt emotionally damaging enough to them. The act of betrayal itself wasn’t enough, the act of being thrown away, of having a lover put your life in danger because of her own ambitions wasn’t enough, they needed her to be r*ped to really drive home the point.

***Anne, on the other hand, is never shown being sexually abused, but we are given an explicit account of her own traumatic history and how Jack saved her from this vile beast who was passing her around to his friends.

But here’s the thing pirates - that never happened. According to every account we have of Anne Bonny, she chose her husband, and married him against her father’s wishes. They were probably relatively happy until her husband started being a pirate spy and Anne started cheating on him with Jack.

And yes, when they were found out. Her husband had her beat. That’s not fucking cool, and if they really wanted to go the damsel in distress route they still could have had Jack ‘save’ her from that. But at no point was she sexually abused by her husband(at least not in any accounts I’ve read.)

You know who did likely sexually abuse her or at least manipulate her and Mary for his own benefit? If you guessed our Rat man Jack Rackham, you would be correct, because when he found out about Mary and Anne’s (supposed, but probably real) relationship, it’s implied he extorted both of them into fucking him to keep their secret from the crew.

The addition of sexual abuse to Anne’s past isn’t done to be true to her character and was in fact explicitly untrue. Now of course I don’t know the reasons why they chose to do this, but I can guess. Just as with Max, the most traumatic thing a male writer can think of for a female character is for them to be sexually abused.

And the most disturbing part of this to me? The parallels it has to the real world of why straight men think lesbians exist. These characters who would be called man haters in present day are given these incredibly traumatic man-centered histories. It brings up something very uncomfortable in me about particularly wlw sexuality being viewed as a reaction to trauma at the hands of men. It’s just gross, I dont like it, and honestly there is no fucking excuse for it besides a room full of white straight men writing this bullshit. A room that Steinberg chose, because they fit his ideas.

In Fact heck, the women of Black Sails in general

***I honestly struggle to think of a single female character who I think was treated fairly in Black Sails. Miranda and Eleanor are killed for taking sides and not understanding their partners, Madi is betrayed in the worst way possible, Max is given a pseudo empowering ending but has that fucking terrible start. Idelle ends off fairly well, but tied to a man she may or may not have any actual feelings for, in what is essentially a political marriage. And Anne has her entire identity tied to a man who will be dead in two years as she is robbed of any agency whatsoever without him. (Oh, and the whole r*pe thing. And also her support for Max’s r*pe or death until she started having fee-fees. Who wrote this stuff. >_>)

Even though the characterization of each and every one of these women is PHENOMENAL - and again I will repeat that I absolutely LOVE these characters as they exist in a vacuum. I think they are well rounded, real, feeling people given motivations and drives and FEELINGS and they SHOW THEIR ANGER and i LOVE THEM.

But the show punishes them for it. Miranda is essentially fridged to move Flint’s storyline along, and to make room for Silver. Eleanor is killed for the emotional damage it will cause Rogers. Madi is placed at the center of a conflict she explicitly says she is willing to die for and then not only is her entire cause taken from her, but when she tells Silver to fuck off he - in possibly the most predictable white man move ever - says ‘no i will stay until you change your mind. I will never leave you. I don’t care about your choice in this matter, I will wait forever for you. I’m your biggest fan. I’ll follow you until you love me. papa, - paparazzi.’

And I touched on this before, but I want to talk in more detail about what is possibly my hottest take to date, the sexification of Mary Read and Queen Nanny, as they are presented in the show.

Max is to Anne what Mary Read is, historically. She is the lover that Jack Rackham discovers with Anne, and then he joins them in their bed. They form a triumvirate that upholds Jack at the expense of the women. But for some reason, Steinberg didn’t want to just include Mary Read as an actual character. For some reason he needed to make Anne’s love interest a sex worker who was in need of saving (and who, coincidentally, we never see working the brothel after she becomes lovers with Anne, because she is now a madam. :) Gross.)

And Madi. My dear sweet fucking Madi who didn’t fucking deserve any of this bullshit send tweet.

So, historically, Queen Nanny was the Queen, spiritual advisor, and the military tactician of the Windward Maroons. She would have filled both Madi and the Queen’s character roles(and Flint’s, but who’s counting. A BLACK GAY LEAD? Inconceivable. I digress.) But, I guess, because they were wishy-washing with Silver’s sexuality or felt they needed to give him a female love interest because of Treasure Island, or because they were leaning a bit too hard into the gay shit and needed to backpedal, they took Queen Nanny and split her into a character who is for all intents and purposes powerless in the war and Madi, who is young and naive and does not have any real world experience outside of the Maroon camp.

Because that’s sexy, or something. They could have had the Maroon Queen be a fucking badass lady who works and fights alongside Flint and Silver and one ups them and teaches them shit and has her own ideas about where the British can stick it, but instead they made her into the perfect caricature of a female monarch, letting the big strong men handle the dirty work or something. Because white male power fantasies.

Just let women be powerful and not nubile and let them have character arcs over fucking thirty and let them be CENTERED in their own. fucking. narratives.

God damnit Steinberg.

James Flint, mlm extraordinaire

Oh, my love. My most amazing child. The light of my life. My purest cinnamon roll.

~~And now we’ve come to the dreaded Silverflint criticism part of our programming. Please please know and remember this isn’t a criticism of people who ship Silverflint. As I said up top, Your Tomato Is Not My Tomato and that’s cool. Please don’t take this next part as an attack on Silverflint as a fandom ship.~~

My criticism of Steinberg as it relates to Flint is related to:

What a romantic/sexual relationship with Silver being the basis of the tension and plot means for Flint in particular as a gay or mostly mlm man.

Refusing to confirm Thomas and James being alive at the end and honestly the whole finale in general but like I’ll try and focus.

The major problem I have with Silver and Flint being coded as in love with each other is the implications there in terms of gay men’s relationships to other men.

From every corner, men are inundated with the idea that any close relationship between them must be gay. That intimacy cannot exist unless there are sexual feelings involved. That a relationship cannot be close, deep and soul shattering and life altering, unless one guy secretly(or not so secretly) wants to bone the other dude. That two men cannot value each other as partners or friends or truly know each other unless they are gay.

Seeing both of the meaningful relationships Flint forms with other men be sexually coded feels a bit the same way as Anne and Max’s sexual assault plotlines does vis-a-vis being wlw. (Even with Gates, Flint never spoke about Thomas or his plans - Silver is absolutely the closest person to Flint besides Thomas and Miranda.) And this is just as true for Silver. Having both Flint and Madi - the two people he trusts - both be people he’s in love with also just feels. I don’t know.

It feels like a confusion between male intimacy and male love that is so so familiar to me as a gay man I could choke on it. Where they wanted these men to have a deep and really lasting connection, but could only figure out how to do it if they were in love. Friendship wouldn’t have been enough - only romantic and sexual love is enough for the gay man(or men, at all).

Just because it isn’t queerbaiting doesn’t mean it’s good rep, and I would have liked to see truly deep male friendships that did not center on sexual attraction - particularly for Flint as a confirmed mlm(and Silver too, if you’re counting him. The same arguments for why I dislike Flint being paired with Silver are also true in the reverse.)

Even if both Flint and Silver were confirmed mlm I still would have LOVED to see a platonic relationship between them. In fact I would have loved that EVEN MORE. Men! Who fuck men! Not needing to fuck each other to be important to one another! Who made this. Very delicious.

But because there weren’t any queer writers on the show, writers who understand this kind of struggle that gay and mlm men face, they thought ‘oh, let’s also have them be in love with each other. More gay rep is better gay rep, right?’ False. THOUGHTFUL gay rep is better gay rep.

Okay and here’s my last thing. The fact that Steinberg refuses to say whether or not the explicitly mlm men are alive at the end of the show - that the words he specifically uses are ‘up for interpretation’ is. Fuck, it’s gross, okay? It’s fucking gross.

I have been around enough men, enough people in power, enough people with leverage who also know how to play the field, to know that when someone wants a group’s support but does not agree with them, their go to phrasing is that it is ‘up for debate’ or ‘up for interpretation.’

Say the gays are alive. Steinberg refusing to acknowledge the reality of the ending of his show to maintain his own sense of artistic integrity is what, honestly, really sets me off about him and I don’t care if this is a nuanced take.

Like yes, death of the author. I honestly don’t care if he thinks they’re dead or alive. What I care about is that he thinks he can get away with being clever and leaning hard into a story is true/untrue’ - doesn’t realize what the implications of that are, and didn’t when he was writing, and didn’t have anyone else in the room who would think about it either.

ANYWAY. So this is....my long drawn out explanation for why I do not like Steinberg. Uhhhhh tune in next week for more of my totally unpopular opinions!

#good....fucking lord #i am so sorry #how many opinions can milo fit in one post #i mean i have more but yknow lmao #black sails #behind the black sails #milos black sails meta #long posts #my increasingly devoted attempts to find tumblrs word limit #Anonymous #john steinberg #js critical but the js is jon steinberg

143 notes · View notes

timefirewrites · 3 years

Text

COMIC SANS INTRO

Taglist (ask to be added/removed): @black-lakritz-dragon @marewriteblr @spacetimewraithwrites @emmaschoutenwrites

ID under the cut would’ve prefered to put it here, but the post is already super long, sorry

[ID: thirteen google presentation slides, all written in the font comic sans, black text on a white background.

1. Title: “Gay Space Pirates", subtitle: “thats it thats the story”

2. Title: “What.” Text:

Okay so, everyone is queer

Literally, there’s not a single cishet character in this story

I’m not sorry <3

Most of the cast are non-humans, but the ones that aren’t are super diverse

Transfem muslim gal, intersex nerd with vitiligo, nonbinary overweight dumbass, I’ve got them all

There are also some disabled and mute characters

Oh, also they’re all neurodivergent because I said so

3. Title: “Setting!”, Text:

So, humans discovered aliens are real

and joined their Intergalactic Union

(which is definitely not evil)

That happened about 300 years ago and humans are now vibing all over the galaxy

Sounds great, right?

Well, for most humans, sure, but the ones who had to stay behind on Earth because they couldn’t afford space travel don’t like it as much

The situation on Earth is kind of shitty, and some people want to leave

4. Title: “pLoT??”, Text:

Neb is one of those people

They got an amazing plan to “borrow” a spaceship and never look back

Problem: Neb didn’t account for a robot to suddenly accompany them

The plan kind of fails real bad, but in the end the two escape from Earth

And immediately get picked up by space pirates

Fortunately, they don’t get killed

Because those pirates could really use an extra pair of hands or two, for their biggest mission yet

Which is retrieving a weapon apparently powerful enough to destroy the universe before someone else does

Nobody knows what it actually looks like though

5. Title: “Neb”, Text:

Nonbinary, aro and ace (they/them)

overweight

has idiopathic hypersomnia (basically means they sleep a lot)

also chronic migraines

pretty impulsive and says what they think

has a hard time trusting others

dreamt of going to space for as long as they can remember

On the right side of this slide is a picrew image, showing a person with brown skin, dark brown eyes and black, curly hair. They’re wearing a red bandana as well as a torn yeans jacket and have multiple scars on their skin. The background is the nonbinary flag.

6. Title: “Ahdia”, Text:

Transfem, bigender and pan (she/they)

mute

mechanic of the ship and the only one with a sense for fashion

happy go lucky and just overall fun to be around

pretty laid back, but would absolutely hunt you down if you hurt one of her friends

proud holder of the single brain cell this crew has

On the right side is an image as well, it shows a woman with fairer, but still brownish skin and brown eyes wearing a black hijab and a long-sleeved light blue shirt with clouds on it. The background is the trans flag.

7. Title: “Cap”, Text:

intersex, queer (they/them)

First time they show up, they’re holding a soda and pizza

likes organization in theory

wants to appear like a badass, but is too chaotic for that

needs to wear glasses, but doesn’t bother

Captain of the crew that picks Neb up

certified mess

Again, an image of the right shows a person, this time with dark brown skin and vitiligo, dark brown eyes and long, black dread-locks. They have some silver piercings in their ears and wear a dark purple hoodie. The background is the rainbow flag with the brown stripes on top.

The next three slides feature two columns each, each with an own title.

Title: “Com”, Text:

AI of the ship

shy and nervous mess

wants to visit all kinds of planets

loves taking care of plants

panromantic and ace

uses she/her, but doesn’t really care about gender

spends most of her time watching trashy romance movies

Title: “Coal”, Text:

The robot Neb befriended

Realized they were self-aware not even a day ago and already got anxiety

easily overwhelmed by everything

Has no idea what to do with themself

they/them

someone tells them knitting is a thing and they never do anything else ever again

Title: “Laser”, Text:

genderfluid, uses he/him or she/her

weapon specialist and tired of it

suffers from chronic neurogenic pain

speaks in a very monotone voice

writes poetry, but nobody is allowed to read it

canonically wears crocs

Title: “Lifo”, Text:

gender? no thanks (uses fel/fels pronouns)

tiny, but deadly

lost an arm and half a leg and replaced them with robotic parts (same for fels spine)

usually very loud, but can be completely silent if fel wants

cook of the ship

loves collecting trinkets

Title: “Nova”, Text:

He’s absolutely enormous, huge, colossal and every other synonym for really big you can think of

looks like he can kill you, is actually a cinnamon roll

licensed medic and mom friend of the crew

I lied when I said Ahida is the only one with a brain cell, Nova knows what he’s doing too

loves painting

Title: “Mer”, Text:

Don’t tell anyone I said this, but Mer is my favorite

if the name wasn’t clear enough, his species is aquatic

he’s beauty, he’s grace, he’ll punch you in the face

killed a man and will do so again

don’t cross him, he will get his revenge and you will regret your actions

seems like he has everything under control, but really doesn’t

11. Title: “some of my favorite lines”, Text (in no particular order):

“What’s up with your display?” Their voice sounded more steady now, which was good.

“I do not understand.” Their voice on the other hand just sounded confused.

“Oh, right. You probably can’t see it. You’re currently displaying an error message. Which just reads ‘error’. Not very helpful.”

“Fuck. I didn’t deactivate it.”

“We could just go in and race to the top.”

“What? No. Why would we do that? We can’t afford to get caught, we need to make a plan, Coal.”

“You said you wanted an adventure. Plus, I do not think we could create a plan, seeing as we know next to nothing about its defence and security.”

They said that because of them? They were just rambling earlier, not really thinking about it, just talking to fill the silence.

“Okay. But if anything goes wrong, it’ll be your fault.”

“Uh, I don’t think so? Better not touch it, though.” As Lifo said that, Cap could see fel fighting against the desire to do just that. At least Com would be happy.

Chapter 13 - they did surgery on a grape Neb

“Oh. I’m the ship. Nice to meet you?”

Whatever the hell was going on, they didn’t sign up for this.

“I am fine.” Perfectly fine. Mhm.

Coal nodded, then just stood around?

"You're outnumbered now! Coal agreed to watch Love On A Foreign Planet with me. So, uh, get moving, Fishsticks."

They settled on two things they were pretty sure were edible: a soda labeled “SpacePop: the best soda in the universe” with a “multiple sunsets on Madoras” flavor and some leftover pizza. (They were pretty sure Madoras didn’t exist, they never heard of that planet before. Maybe they shouldn’t drink that soda after all.)

“I’m Laser, my gender is a burning trash can and my pronouns depend entirely on the mercy of the universe.”

12. Title: “Homegrown memes”, this slide is filled with six different memes.

A windows error message, but the title and text is just screaming. The two options are “AAA” or “AAA”. It’s labeled “Coal”.

A photo of two people in wedding clothes. They’re labeled “Laser and Lifo”, in the background is a person falling from the sky, labeled “Com”.

Spiderman (labeled “Mer”) is holding a screen labeled “dealing with a breakup like a normal person”, in the next frame that screen is being thrown away as spiderman looks at a pc being held by someone else labeled as “commiting murder”.

A person is being kicked into a lake by someone else. They’re labeled “Coal trying to figure out what to do now that they’re self-aware”. The person kicking them is labeled “the plot”.

The “is this a pigeon” meme, but the guy is labeled as “Cap”, the butterfly as “wearing a hoodie and truly horrendous shorts” and the caption now says “is this formal dress attire?”.

The last meme is a chart, with five rows and two columns.

Row 1: Regularly says fuck: Coal, Lifo

Row 2: has sworn of saying fuck, but said it at some point: Cap, Neb

Row 3: has not said fuck before, but can if so desired: Laser, Ahdia, Mer

Row 4: has not said fuck before and refuses to say it: Com, Nova

Row 5: legally cannot say fuck: also Coal

13. This slide is an image of Earth as seen from space. Above it white text reads “the End”. /end ID]

16 notes · View notes

melroesplace · 5 years

Note

Gonna steal your question and ask for your top 10 ships of all time for Valentine's Day :D

Ok this is super late (and also super fucking long) because it took forever to narrow down my top 100 ships to only 10, but here we go:

1. Ron & Hermione (Harry Potter)

My very first OTP and still my favorite. Their slow burn development from enemies to friends to lovers makes this the best relationship of the entire HP franchise. Haters can deny it all they want, but these 2 have always and will always belong together. Harry & Hermione would be together if Ron wasn’t around? Nope, Hermione and Harry was pining for Ron when he was away in Deathly Hollows. Ron & Hermione will get divorced because of their arguments? Lol you thought, they are planning to renew their vows after 20 years of marriage. I’m sort of gloating now, but Idc because this is one of the very few endgame ships I have.

2. Zuko & Katara (A:TLA)

In the exact opposite of what happened with Romione, this was my first ship that wasn’t canon and the first one to make me cry angry tears over the fact. Zutara introduced me to the dark side of my fangirl, engaging in shipping wars, hating on Bryke for not getting them together even tho I should’ve known it was never gonna happen. I’m not proud of everything my preteen self did in the Avatar fandom, but *tune of God Bless the USA* I’m proud to be a Zutarian, where at least there’s fans like me They are twin flames, 2 sides of the same coin, and forever friends. Plus, Dante Basco and Mae Whitman shipped them, so neener neener neener. (Sorry, my 12 yr old fangirl came out a bit)

3. Katniss & Peeta (The Hunger Games)

#RelationshipGoals That is all. Ok, not really. I love seeing a hardened badass fighter like Katniss with such a gentle soul like Peeta. He is her anchor, she is his passion, and I am their bitch. No matter how many times I read the books or watch the movies, I fall to pieces over them in the best way. And to think when I first started reading the books, I was convinced Peeta would end up dead because all the signs seemed to be pointing that way. I’ve never been so glad to be wrong in my life.

4. Magnus & Alec (Shadowhunters)

Let me start this off with #SaveShadowhunters. I will miss Malec, I will miss the Malec fandom and I will especially miss the showrunners being so lovely to the fans. After being disappointed by JKR, Bryke, Plec, and Shonda, it is such a relief to feel validated by a creator. Todd, Darren, and Matt Hastings are real supporters of the LGBT community who actually listen to fans’ concerns and fight to include as much diversity as they can get away with. I’ve never watched a show that treated an interracial same sex couple the same (or imo better) as all the other couples. Magnus & Alec had me at “Who are you?” with their amazing chemistry. I love one badass shadowhunter/warlock team who are also adorable boyfriends.

5. Jackie & Hyde (That 70s Show)

Sigh…..what could have been. I will never understand how the writers could throw out such an amazing relationship after so many years together. Jackie & Hyde are the epitome of the Opposites Attract trope. Hyde is a sarcastic little shit and Jackie is a materialistic snob and they love each other exactly as they are. He keeps her grounded and she makes him open up. Since I don’t consider season 8 canon, I like to imagine Hyde opening up his own record shop in Chicago so that Jackie could pursue her dream. They’re still together.

6. Isak & Even (Skam)

Just look at these pure babies! You should really watch this show if you haven’t already. I think you would love them and I don’t mind spoiling that they’re endgame so you don’t have to worry about that. Evak probably have the hottest chemistry of everyone on this list, but they’re also 100% soft boyfriends.

7. Bonnie & Jeremy (Vampire Diaries)

TVD is responsible for at least a quarter of my ships, but Beremy was my first OTP from the show. After watching everyone treat Bonnie like little more than a magic wand for over a year, it was nice to see someone want her simply for her. Jeremy didn’t care about what Bonnie could do for him, he genuinely admired her strength and morals. Bonnie stopped seeing him as her best friend’s kid brother and saw him for the hot, strong protector he is. I will never forgive the writers for ruining their relationship twice, but I still head canon that Bonnie & Jeremy reunited as adults.

8. Harry & Uma (Descendants)

My favorite thing about Huma is that Harry is a hook wielding maniac who is also completely head over heels in love with Uma, a beautiful black girl who is Captain of their pirate crew. He is unapologetic in how utterly devoted he is to her and even tho she keeps her feelings close to the vest, it is obvious Uma has a soft spot for her First Mate. My least favorite thing about Huma is that despite the overwhelming evidence, I still don’t know if they’re an actual couple. I hope D3 clears that up.

9. Dante & Ari (Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe)

*There are plenty of amazing fan art of them, I just couldn’t decide which one to post*

You should read this book if you haven’t already, it classic coming-of-age queer literature. Ari is an introverted smart ass kid with no friends until he meets cinnamon roll Dante. These are my favorite type of relationships to see/read, especially when its a slow burn like this. Idk what else to say other than how much I love these two makes my heart ache in a good way. Right after finishing the book, I went back and reread my favorite parts.

10. Kelly/Yorkie (Black Mirror)

My favorite wlw ship only appears on 1 episode of a tv anthology, that’s how amazing they are. I relate so much to Yorkie, uncomfortable in my own skin and socially awkward. All I want is someone like Kelly who can bring me out of my shell, but still love me for who I am. Their relationship honestly gives me hope that even someone like me (with little relationship experience) can maybe find love. You know, if I ever leave my damn house for anything other than work.

#Romione #Zutara #Everlark #Malec #Evak #Huma #Beremy #gifs not mine #Danielle #ask and answered #kelly x yorki #otps

47 notes · View notes

nothingman · 6 years

Link

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

When we're all reading books aloud to each other for entertainment again, it's possible that 2018 will be remembered for the death of the internet. Going beyond GDPR and the debate over whether or not Alex Jones should be allowed to explode on Twitter like everyone else, recent and forthcoming legislative changes are spelling bad news for the future of the porn industry.

On July 4, YouTube banned an independent erotic film production company after it posted interviews with sex workers. In a blog post, feminist adult filmmaker, Erika Lust, wrote that her eponymous channel was removed after they uploaded their docuseries "In Conversation With Sex Workers," in which sex workers discuss their experiences, social stigmas, relationships with clients, law enforcement, and the relationship between sex work and feminism.

Despite being non-explicit videos of people talking, YouTube terminated the channel, citing "violation of community guidelines." The problem, YouTube claimed, wasn’t to do with sexual content but the links in the descriptions of the videos that drove traffic to Erika's site, ErikaLust.com, which YouTube considers a porn site (even though it's a hosting site for paid-for content, and therefore clean).

Erika Lust

YouTube's decision seems to be another result of FOSTA/SESTA. Signed into US law in April, FOSTA/SESTA is intended to curb sex trafficking by making websites liable for what users say and do on them. In addition to harming consensual sex workers while pushing sex trafficking further underground, the legislation's broad language means that sites now seem to be over-censoring their users to ensure they're not liable for anything problematic. This has already led to sex workers' Google Drive files being locked or deleted, Patreon changing its terms of service to exclude pornography, and Microsoft prohibiting profanity and nudity on Skype.

Needless to say, this affects the livelihoods of already vulnerable sex workers first and foremost. Additionally, sex bloggers and smaller, independent companies—like feminist, body-positive, and fetish sites—which rely on social media to attract traffic will struggle, while inherently misogynistic mainstream sites can afford to weather the storm.

I spoke to Erika Lust about the future of the porn industry in the wake of FOSTA/SESTA, the problem with the Digital Economy Act in the UK—which will require porn sites to use age checks before the end of 2018—and the value of education over regulation.

VICE: So, obviously YouTube is a popular platform, especially for young audiences. How do you think the landscape of pornography will change if access to material that approaches sex and sex work from a feminist perspective is restricted? Erika: It means that younger viewers—such as Gen Z—who use YouTube a lot more than older generations, and who may be curious about alternatives to mainstream adult content, won't be able to discover alternative, indie, feminist porn, but they will still have mainstream porn shoved down their throat in every single outlet.

YouTube is targeting smaller, indie businesses and allowing the big mainstream outlets to continue unscathed. Look at the WoodRocket channel, for example. They drive traffic to their porn site in every single video and can speak explicitly about porn and different sex acts—anal poop stories, double penetration, etc. But my channel was closed because of a docuseries on sex work and non-explicit trailers for indie, feminist adult films that show consent and female pleasure. It's easy to see which type of content young people are going to have the easiest access to.

What impact do you think this form of censorship will have on our ability to have progressive dialogues around sex and sex work? Progressive and healthy conversations around sex and sex work are already being censored. Online sex educational platforms have already been affected by shadow banning [where a user's content is blocked without the user being informed], demonetization, and hashtag censorship. Great channels, such as the female-focused sex-ed Come Curious, have been shadow banned and demonetized by YouTube. Other LGBTQ, BDSM, and sex educators have noted the same problems. These channels are so important for teaching a more inclusive, diverse sex education and covering topics that schools neglect when it comes to sex. And they are especially useful for young people growing up with thoughts or desires not shared by the people around them. It can show them that they are not alone and their feelings aren't abnormal. If access to their channels becomes increasingly limited, many marginalized or queer communities won’t be able to benefit from their often life-saving advice

Shadow banning and demonetization was already taking place before FOSTA/SESTA, but how do you think the bills will make things worse for sex educators and workers online? The bills will force platforms to over-censor any material related to sex, even if it isn't explicitly sexual. And in terms of dialogues around sex work, refusing to speak about sex work at all. Look at the video sex-ed platform O.School, which removed all sex work content from its program in the wake of FOSTA/SESTA. This will only help perpetuate the negative stereotype that sex work isn't real work and make the stigma even stronger.

From Erika Lust's 'XConfessions' series

Which issues arise when big corporations like YouTube and Google start to remove adult content from public and private accounts? We end up with internet overlords who won't let us speak about anything. Sites are too frightened to be held accountable, so they censor their users and any content they deem to be "problematic." On a personal level, this is an attempt to silence sex workers' voices online and control their behavior—as seen in Google Drive removing content from sex workers' own private accounts without warning. In terms of wider problems, we already know that censorship hits the most marginalized communities the hardest; look at Facebook's hate speech censorship last year, which disproportionately censored LGBTQ people and people of color. Similarly, FOSTA/SESTA is disproportionately affecting trans, LGBTQ, and POC sex workers.

At the end of the day, the legislation boils down to the belief that "sex work is bad" and an underlying sexist notion that women can't make their own decisions about what they do with their bodies. Of course, there are sex workers of all genders, but cases such as Instagram censoring #woman and #femalestripper, and not #man and #malestripper, shows that this is a patriarchal desire to tell women what they can and cannot do with their bodies.

What do you consider to be the main issues facing the porn industry at the moment? A huge issue is the whole pirating business model operated by the free tube sites. Sites such as Pornhub are not making their own material, they're stealing it. They traditionally rely on "users" uploading content to the site, who should declare that they have the rights to do so, but it’s clear that amid large quantities of fully licensed material, content exists on Pornhub that is infringing copyright. But because they claim to be a completely user-generated content site, they're protected by the provision that they can't monitor copyrights of every video uploaded.

When a filmmaker finds that their content has been illegally uploaded, they can report it and the tube site is served with a DMCA takedown notice, upon which they remove the stolen content. However, the next day, the same video is often re-uploaded by another—sometimes the same—user. Obviously, small porn studios do not have the time to be trawling through tube sites looking for their content every day. Therefore, content goes up faster than studios can issue demands for it to be taken down.

Do you think more controls need to be put on these websites? Definitely. Above all, users need to be made aware of the ethical implications of watching pirated material. When we talk about professional and ethically-made adult cinema, there are many reasons that the content is behind a paywall. It costs money to make. It costs money to pay performers, crew, post-production, and the director; legal contracts that protect all of their rights as workers, lunch for the day, comfortable accommodation if required. Sex work is a real job, and performers deserve to be paid. By paying for your porn, you're helping to ensure that smaller companies that are committed to some of these labor practices are able to continue making the porn that they want to make, and that sex work is done in a safe environment. I always recommend the same: Do your research, and when you go to porn websites see who is behind those websites. Can you see their names and their faces? Are there credits for the team behind the camera?

What are the main concerns facing you as an independent erotic filmmaker in the wake of FOSTA/SESTA? Ultimately, these policies boil down to anti sex-work politics, so I think the real focus and concern should be looking at how these bills are going to affect sex workers. The legal persecution of sex workers is justified by an ideology which has painted them as either victims or undesirables. And as a result, legislators indiscriminately crack down on sex workers by imposing their own values and judgments. Sex law is already very harsh, and quite often the penalties are out of proportion to any social or individual harm. This has led to a climate in the US where sex workers are more likely to be murdered on the job than police officers, 400 percent more likely to face violence than the average worker, and largely unable to access the justice system when they are victimized.

And now, with FOSTA/SESTA? Sex workers are being forced out onto the streets to find clients. They're losing online advertisements, bad date lists, online client screening, and their voice. Pimps are exploiting and abusing them, and bad clients are taking advantage of the situation. The bills are literally killing sex workers and nobody seems to care.

Does it come as a surprise that FOSTA/SESTA fights against sex work? Not really. One of the main proponents of the bill was the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, which was founded as "Morality in Media" in the 60s to fight porn. On their website they state, "Pornography is a social and physical toxin that destroys relationships, steals innocence, erodes compassion, breeds violence, and kills love." FOSTA/SESTA is as much about a hatred toward sex work than it is about stopping sex trafficking.

We should also all be concerned for the people these laws claim to be helping—sex trafficking victims themselves. Web platforms are being forced to over-censor by removing any postings related to sex. So, the words and phrases that a victim of trafficking would use to try to share their experiences or get help would also be picked up by a filter in an attempt to delete sex trafficking content. Plus, censoring these platforms also takes away an important resource for finding victims—the open internet. If traffickers were using these sites before, the bill has pushed them out of the spotlight and onto the dark web. Even the US Department of Justice urged against passing FOSTA-SESTA, advising that it would make prosecuting sex traffickers harder.

Related: The 'Heaux Mentor' Helping Women in the Adult Industry Rebrand

The UK is currently moving to implement age verification checks for "adult content" online. What problems do you see arising from that, both for mainstream and independent porn sites? Oh God, there are so many problems with the age verification plans; I don't know where to start! Aside from the extreme risk of privacy loss for any person using the service, there are a number of problems that arise for porn sites.

The UK government has basically handed all powers over to MindGeek [which owns almost 90 percent of the popular tube sites, such as Pornhub, RedTube, and YouPorn], which now stands to increase their huge market share even further by offering age verification services to smaller sites. I knew this would happen when I read that MindGeek was in meetings with government officials about the plans to create age verification laws. Smaller, low-traffic sites and independent sex workers who cannot cover the costs of installing age verification tools will be disproportionately affected.

How do you think it will impact smaller sites? It will give MindGeek even more dominance in the adult industry. The BBFC [British Board of Film Classification] draft guidance does not enforce sites to offer more than one age verification product, so all of MindGeek's sites and studio brands—again, 90 percent of the tube sites—will only offer their own product: AgeID. The BBFC have also stated that users do not have to verify their age on each visit if access is restricted by password or a personal ID number. So users visiting a MindGeek site will only have to verify their age once using AgeID, and then will be able to login to any complying site without having to verify again. Therefore, viewers will be less likely to visit competitor sites not using the AgeID technology, and simultaneously competitor sites will feel pressured to use AgeID to protect themselves from losing viewers.

It's also very interesting—and not at all surprising—to see that MindGeek made AgeID to monopolize on the new age verification law, but, of course not wanting to lose their own under 18 viewers, they have now created their own VPN! VpnHUB will allow underage users in the UK to bypass the age verification controls by avoiding being detected as a UK viewer.

A press release from the BBFC read that their "priority is to make the internet safer for children," so as with FOSTA/SESTA the justification is ostensibly about protecting the vulnerable. Do you think there are better ways to help young people understand the material they’re watching, beyond simply making it harder to access? I understand the government concern, and on the surface age verification seems like a good idea—protect children from seeing porn too young. However, there is a huge lack of credible evidence supporting the effectiveness of age verification checks to protect children from sexual content, and research has now been released to show that these plans will not work. The Oxford Internet Institute published their findings from Internet Filtering and Adolescent Exposure to Online Sexual Material, which shows internet filters for sexual material online are not an effective preventative measure with young people.

For as long as there has been online pornography, there have been calls to give government censors the power to shut it down, and this is usually for the "sake of the children." But this type of censorship is a poor answer to the sexual dysfunction of our society. In this internet age it's inevitable that children will see things they probably shouldn't, but we shouldn't try to fix a social problem with technology. We need to ask ourselves why children are searching for sex online? What are they looking for answers to?

How do you think we could approach those questions and answers better? The problem we have right now is that good, useful sex education is lacking, pretty much everywhere. We know that a huge percentage of schools are not providing adequate sex education. At no point in a child's education does anyone teach them about consent, which seems pretty important, no? Our kids aren’t oblivious to sex; they hear about it from the society around them and go straight to Google to find answers. And unfortunately, pretty much every time you type something sex-related into a search engine, you’ll be greeted by something like PornHub, where you'll be bombarded with a lot of bad, degrading, disrespectful sex, or kink that doesn’t always appear to be consensual.

We can't stop kids from finding these sites, so instead of ignoring it, let's educate them. By acknowledging porn, it immediately becomes less shameful and opens up a dialogue, which leads to healthy, active learning.

What do you think are some ways we can start to open up that dialogue? We need government-funded compulsory sex education in schools that addresses porn, given by independent experts rather than untrained teachers. We need to give young people space to ask questions and explore their sexuality without shame.

My husband, Pablo, and I have been working to provide parents and teachers with the tools they need to talk to teenagers about pornography. It’s called The Porn Conversation and it’s full of practical, useful guides to encourage parents to talk to their kids about what they are going to see online. To tell them that it’s normal to be curious, but what they are going to see is a performance of sex and not what real sex is actually like. That many of the people they see are not representative of the average body and that you shouldn’t treat women the way they are treated in a lot of the problematic porn on the free sites.

How do you think this will help in the long run? Porn is always going to exist, so giving kids the tools to be critical and aware of what they’re watching is unbelievably important. They should be able to differentiate between the types of porn and also understand what respectful, equal sex is that consenting adults can enjoy. When they are old enough, they will see that certain porn can promote gender equality, intimacy, diversity, affirmative consent, safety, pleasure, and sexual freedom and exploration.

By learning to distinguish between different types of sex they see around them, kids will develop much healthier attitudes toward sex and relationships. By having open and honest conversations, they’ll have the opportunity to discuss their feelings, communicate their sexual desires and be happier people for it!

In 2014, the BBFC created a list of "content that is not acceptable" in porn, which included a wide range of sex acts, from strangulation to female ejaculation. All things considered, do you think it's a positive thing for adult content to be regulated by a NGO that’s also responsible for regulating video content in general? For starters, this list is ridiculous. It divides sex acts into good and bad, and in doing so, contributes to the rhetoric of shaming natural body functions, natural desires, and fantasies. It completely goes against sexual freedom, specifically female sexual freedom if you see the list of acts deemed not acceptable, like squirting. It also shames people with these desires, silences their sexual autonomy, and excludes them from the porn narrative.

But, to get to your question, I don't think it's a positive thing at all for porn to be regulated by an NGO that doesn't have any understanding of the adult industry. The BBFC regulates porn in the same way it does with blockbuster films, and their guidelines for what constitutes the R18 [films labeled as adult works for] label are based in part on what is judged obscene under the Obscene Publications Act of 1959. This act is well-recognized as completely out-of-date and difficult to interpret.

My thoughts are that the BBFC are not equipped to moderate adult content. Bear in mind that these are the people who classify a rape scene as appropriate for a 12A [Films labeled as suitable for 12 years and over], but a flaccid penis as only appropriate for 18+. The BBFC was founded in 1912, back when the "C" still stood for "Censors," and not "Classification" as it is now. I think it's time to find a new way of regulating video content. It's been years since we reassessed art and literature and decided that they did not need to be regulated, so why are we not putting more thought into the regulation of film?

How do you think porn should be regulated, if at all? In the US, the laws on pornography are regulated by the state, and some pornographers have been imprisoned for obscenity charges, while some others have been charged with obscenity violations. I do find it worrying that all sorts of extreme and violent content is available so openly for young people to see, but I don't believe in censorship. Should porn be harder to access? Probably. With the internet, porn is so widespread as a genre worldwide that it's hard to imagine how strict regulation would even happen. To regulate internet porn would probably push it to the deep web, and you don't want that at all.

The same as with age verification, I think it's ultimately more important to educate than regulate. Porn is everywhere and it's all available online for free, so we need to take responsibility for this and start educating young people how to navigate this. For me, this means making sex-positive films that show consent, mutual pleasure, and a range of desires and sexualities.

What about in terms of guidelines and regulations to ensure performer safety? I think it would be great if there were laws surrounding implementation of an ethical production process, compulsory sexual health testing, and stricter laws to ensure that no one under 21 can perform. Unfortunately, this is not something I can easily change as one filmmaker. But what I can do is make sure my ethos, production standards, and values on set stand up to my own beliefs and scrutiny and stand by them 100 percent.

The trouble with FOSTA/SESTA, the proposed similar bill in the UK, and age verification checks is that the legislation is so broadly worded. It sweeps all conversations to do with sex and sex work under the carpet—pushing it offline, rather than opening it up. What could be done to push the porn industry and cultural attitudes toward sex in a more positive direction? We need comprehensive sex education programs that teach about sex and sexuality, not abstinence. Studies have shown that countries in Europe that are more open about sex have lower rates of STIs and teen pregnancies than countries like America, where they are taught abstinence. We need to speak openly to young people about sex and sexuality. And for the sex industry, we need full decriminalization of sex work to improve working conditions, give sex workers rights, remove the stigma, and show that sex work is real labor, reduce sexual violence, and altogether improve the well-being, safety, and working conditions of sex work.

Find out more about Erika at ErikaLust.com.

Follow Emma Garland on Twitter.

via VICE

#IFTTT #Feedly #Nothingman uses feedly

0 notes

dusudaunord · 7 years

Text

375 things to do in Montréal in 2017

As you probably heard, Montréal is celebrating a big birthday this year – and it might get a little noisy. Sorry.

youtube

To keep the fun going all year long, we asked locals and Tourisme Montréal staffers to recommend some of their favourite things to do in the city. Here are just 375 of their suggestions.

Winter

Make a plan to get in on the panoply of activities of Les Hivernales.

Make a clean sweep and toss a few rocks at Curling en lumière in the Place des Festivals.

Grab your thermos and watch 40 teams compete on icy waters of the St. Lawrence in the Montréal Ice Canoe Challenge.

Warm up with a delicious hot chocolate at Juliette & Chocolat or Cacao 70.

Don your tuque and mittens and watch outdoor hockey at the Classique Montréalaise at Parc Jean-Drapeau.

Take the kids skating in huge outdoor rink in the Old Port.

Indulge in everything chocolate, from cocktails and workshops to a chocolate-infused fashion show, at Je t’aime en chocolat!

Strap on your cross-country skis or snow shoes and head down to the river to meet the Grande Traversée du Saint-Laurent.

On Chinese New Year or year round, fill your plate with a batch of hand-made jiaozi dumplings.

Get in on the giant foosball game at the Fête des neiges at Parc Jean-Drapeau.

Experience northern winter living with a cool twist at the Igloofest Nordik Village.

Take the family out for a rosy-cheeked day of skating, sliding and playing at Village Mammouth at the Olympic Park.

Be amazed as world snowmobiling champions perform jaw-dropping aerial tricks in downtown Montréal at Motoneige MTL Xtrem.

Pack a lunch and head out for a day of ice fishing in a heated cabin on the St. Lawrence River.

Warm up the holidays by sipping a hot drink outside in an Adirondack chair by a fireplace during Merry Montréal.

Dance under the stars and snowflakes at Igloofest, Montréal’s massive outdoor electronic dance party.

Enjoy the hilarity of the Descente Saint-Denis soapbox race.

Marvel at the dazzling light installations as you meander through the Illuminart circuit in the Quartier des spectacles.

Une photo publiée par Les amis de la montagne (@lemontroyal) le 6 Janv. 2017 à 12h46 PST

Awaken your inner coureur de bois and sign up for snowshoeing at night on Mount Royal.

See how many different kinds of poutine you can try during Poutine Week.

Zip up your parka and stroll through La Petite Floride winter village in Mile End.

Feel the positive energy at the Expo Yoga Wellness Summit

Do the wave with Youppi at a Habs game at the Bell Centre.

Try tube sliding and so much more at the Fêtes des neiges winter festival.

Make it an all-nighter with tons of free activities and events happening all night long during the Nuit Blanche.

Enjoy the best of the city during MONTRÉAL EN LUMIÈRE, from fine arts to fine food.

Channel your inner Olympian and skate to music at Parc La Fontaine.

Strap on your cross-country skis and take a tour of Parc Maisonneuve.

Grab a toboggan and challenge your friends to a race down the snowy hill at Mount Royal Park.

Take a selfie with the spoon player in front of Ogilvy’s.

See stunning displays of athletic prowess as over 900 gymnasts compete at the International Gymnix.

Add a little sparkle to winter with the light installations at Luminothérapie.

Relive Montréal’s past through the lens of visionary photographer William Notman at the McCord Museum.

Forget about eating light and dig into a holiday brunch with family and friends in a neighbourhood restaurant.

Get the perfect gift for everyone at one of Montréal’s holiday markets.

Reawaken your inner child before the Christmas window display at Ogilvy’s.

Get into a holiday mood by admiring Christmas decorations in shop windows in Old Montréal.

Clap your hands and feel your spirit soar as the Montréal Jubilation Choir celebrates its 35th anniversary at Place des Arts.

Celebrate New Year’s Eve with fireworks in the Old Port.

youtube

Spring

Get goosebumps when Opera de Montréal’s presents Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall.

See the music-inspired masterpieces of Chagall, immerse yourself in the sixties with Revolution, or explore the history of the Western at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Be still and let a butterfly land on your shoulder during Butterflies Go Free at the Botanical Garden.

Discover cutting-edge artists at one of the shows or events during Digital Spring.

Dress in green from head to toe for the Montréal St. Patrick’s Parade, the oldest consecutively-held St. Paddy’s Day parade in North America.

Stock up on peanuts and Cracker Jacks for the Pirates vs. Blue Jays Major League Baseball game at the Olympic Stadium.

Marvel at Moment Factory’s Living Connections stunning illumination of the Jacques-Cartier Bridge.

Pop open the champagne and toast with locals on Montréal’s birthday on May 17!

Get your dance and theatre fix at Festival TransAmériques.

Witness the battle of the beauties at the Fringe Festival’s Drag Race hosted by Mado, Montréal’s eminent drag queen.

Experience life in the fast lane with F1 races and all-night parties during the Grand Prix de Montréal.

Fast-forward to see the future of digital arts at the Elektra Festival.

Treat your sweetheart (and sweet tooth) to a sugar shack experience at Sucrerie de la Montagne (pork rinds included).

Pick up some sizzling new moves at Montréal’s Queer Tango Festival.

Chat with authors and get that favourite book signed at the Blue Metropolis literary festival.

Fancy a Quidditch match? Cheer on the McGill Quidditch Club or play with your mates at the Ministry of Cricket (and Other Homeless Sports).

Feel the magic of VOLTA, Cirque du Soleil’s latest show, under the Big Top.

Find your new favourite drink mix with Invasion Cocktail.

Reserve your seat for 100% Montréal, the opening performance of the Festival TransAmériques, featuring citizens of Montréal as the stars of the show.

Watch the neighbourhoods change – literally – before your eyes at the MURAL Festival.

Sample a brew or two at the Beer Fest.

Gaze up – way up, like 10-metres up – at the amazingly life-like giant puppets of the Royal de Luxe.

Tour the streets of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve on the back of an electric tour bike and relax while someone else does the pedalling.

Chill like a local on the terrace at Café Olimpico, Rufus Wainwright’s favourite spot.

Hear big names and up-and-comers perform at the POP Montréal festival.

Breathe in the perfume of lilacs and cherry blossoms at the Botanical Garden in spring.

If you swing in sync, it plays a song If you swing out of sync, well… It still sounds pretty #musicalswings #21balançoires

Une vidéo publiée par Marina Cherry (@marinacherry11) le 24 Mai 2016 à 16h55 PDT

Swing into spring and make beautiful music on the 21 Balançoires (21 Swings) in the Quartier des spectacles.

Rave on to house and trance music with international DJs at the Bal en Blanc Easter weekend party.

Follow the checkered flags and hang with the fast crowd on Crescent Street and in Old Montréal during Grand Prix weekend.

Pick a sunny spot, spread out a blanket and settle in for a day of folk, roots, and bluegrass music at the Montréal Folk Festival on the Canal.

Go back in time and live a page of Montréal’s history at Encounters in New France at Place d’Youville.

Revel in the exquisite sounds of the great masters and contemporary creators during the Montreal Chamber Music Festival.

See the design trends of tomorrow at the Montréal International Design Show.

See the looks that defined the 1967 World’s Fair in Montréal (celebrating its 50th anniversary!) at the Fashioning Expo 67 exhibition at the McCord Museum.

Summer

Cheer on the blue and black on the soccer pitch – go Montréal Impact, go!

Pose for a pic with Chihuly’s The Sun in front of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Gather your friends (and your courage) for a bird’s eye view of the city from the MTL Zipline.

Watch top international cycling teams compete at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, a UCI WorldTour event.

Get doused with rainbow colours on the finish line of the Color Run, the “happiest 5K on the planet.

Paddle a kayak down the Lachine Canada with H20 Adventures.

Learn to surf a standing river wave in the St. Lawrence River with the experts at KSF.

Add a little oomph to the back-to-school season with the OUMF Emerging Art Festival.

Learn some sizzling hot moves at Salsa Saturdays at Les Jardins Gamelin.

Play free video games outdoors at the Place des festivals at the Mondial des jeux Loto-Québec.

Feel the excitement of jet boating on the Lachine Rapids on a hot summer day

Check out the Mode en Folie street fashion show during Montréal Fetish Weekend.

Have a glass of wine with friends on the park-side terrace of French Bistro Le Valois, not far from the Olympic Park.

Bike the island with about 20,000 of your new pedal-pushing friends during the Tour de l’Île de Montréal.

Learn a French song or two at a free show during Les FrancoFolies de Montréal.

Enjoy free shows, shopping and people-watching from patios during Atmosph’Air on the Plaza at Plaza Saint-Hubert.

Savour a glass of wine by the canal in the hamlet of Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, less than half an hour’s drive from downtown Montréal.

Head down to the river to watch the Montréal AVUDO multimedia show pay tribute to the mighty St. Lawrence.

Challenge friends to a game of ping-pong at Parc Laurier.

Gather the family for a wacky day of aquatic fun at Aquazilla.

Grab your rollerblades (or rent a pair) and skate the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve Grand Prix track.

Celebrate diversity while sipping drinks on a patio in Montréal’s Gay Village.

Join a sea of blue and white at free concert in the Place des festivals for the Fête nationale du Québec, Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, on June 24.

Celebrate the 150th anniversary of Canada’s Confederation with red-and-white birthday cake and fireworks at the Old Port on July 1.

Hear the city’s best electronic beats while picnicking in the park at Piknic Électronik.

Stroll through the Village and pick up an original work of art during the MTL en Arts festival.

Make other picnickers jealous with classic comfort food from Dinette Triple Crown.

Keep it casual with drinks at Alexandraplatz, Montréal’s most effortlessly hip watering hole.

Kick off your shoes and dance in the sand at the riverside Village Au Pied-Du-Courant.

Prove that all those childhood lessons were worthwhile by playing one of Montréal’s many public pianos.

Go star gazing in more ways that one with Cinema Under the Stars.

Take in a show on the grass with Théatre de Verdure in Parc La Fontaine.

Try a gourmet food truck – in Montréal they offer much more than just hot dogs.

Ooh and Aah at the fireworks exploding over La Ronde.

See Montréal from the other side on a Bateau-Mouche cruise along the St. Lawrence River.

Let the world beats move you and dance with a stranger in the crowd at the Nuits d’Afrique.

Unleash your inner hepcat at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal – the world’s biggest!

Move to the beats of world music at the International Percussions Festival.

Explore Montréal’s leafy back lanes with the Ruelles enchantées summer performance series.

Take in over 800 street performances on Sainte-Catherine Street in July. Let everyone know you’ll be late arriving at your destination.

Celebrate life and love at Canada Pride Montréal 2017, when over 80 LGBTQ Prides from across Canada come together for the country’s biggest pride celebration.

Try your hand at bocce at Parc Laurier.

Stand mouth-agape watching circus performers from around the world at the Montréal Cirque Festival.

Delve into the worlds of genre film at the Fantasia Film Festival. Keep your eyes peeled for Quentin Tarantino.

Laugh out loud at the world’s best live comics at the Just for Laughs festival. Nap. Repeat.

Check out the hottest new alternative comedy, theatre and music at Zoofest & OFF-JFL.

Put the pedal to the metal at the FIA Formula E Championship.

Catch the world’s hippest bands on-stage at Osheaga.

Discover the art, culture and traditions of indigenous peoples at the Montreal First Peoples’ Festival.

Let the music move you during the OSM Classical Spree Festival, the annual summer celebration of classical music.

Join the locals in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve for an afternoon of cold beer and free music at an intimate concert in a neighbourhood ruelle (an alley or laneway).

Feel the outdoor summertime beats at ÎleSoniq.

Enjoy a love match with the best in men’s tennis at the Rogers Cup, one of the oldest and most prestigious tennis tournaments on the ATP tour.

See international-calibre skateboarders go head to head in heart-stopping competitions at the Jackalope action sports festival.

Stroke your chin to the EDM rhythms at MUTEK.

Get into the groove at MEG Montréal, and take to the streets for their first ever Electro Parade.

Peruse the pop-up shops and exhibitions in search of that new one-of-a-kind outfit or accessory at the Fashion & Design Fest.

Drool over the orders of others while waiting for your own scoops at Kem CoBa.

Wander the leafy back lanes off-limits to cars of Montréal’s Ruelles Vertes.

Soak up the sun while the kids take in some theatre with Le théâtre La Roulotte’s outdoor programming.

Take a cooling run through the water fountains of the Quartier des spectacles.

Perch like a local at a placottoire, unique public resting spaces scattered along the streets of the Plateau.

#canallounge très beau moment

Une photo publiée par Martin Arganaraz (@arganarazmartin) le 27 Août 2016 à 20h37 PDT

Float in a boat with a drink in your hand on the Lachine Canal in the Amsterdam-inspired Canal Lounge.

Let your dreds down at the Montréal International Reggae Festival.

Treat your taste buds to an ice cream sandwich from Dalla Rose.

Do a little cardio by climbing the 192 steps to the top of the Clock Tower in the Old Port and be rewarded with spectacular views of the city.

Chow down on tacos as you shop for indie designs at Marché des Possibles.

Settle in for a sunset picnic on the banks of the Lachine Canal.

Count how many licks it takes to finish an ice cream from Comptoir Chocolat.

End a great night at the Jazz Festival with a hot dog at the Montreal Pool Room.

Cram in three burgers a day (minimum) during the Montréal Burger Week.

Purchase cheese and bread at Marché Jean-Talon and have an impromptu picnic at Parc Jarry.

Drink in the view of a fireworks display from an Old Montréal rooftop patio, cocktail in hand.

Go deeper into Montréal’s cultura italiana during Italian Week by taking a cooking class.

Take an AML dinner cruise and watch the sunset on the St. Lawrence River

Pack your light sabre and head for the Montreal Comiccon pop-culture fan convention – keep your eyes peeled for the stars!

Get in on some cosplay fun at the Otakuthon Animé convention.

Pet the lawn-mowing sheep at Parc du Pélican in Rosemont – La Petite-Patrie, an urban agriculture pilot project.

Be a pirate for a day and clamber around the ship at Voiles en voiles in the Old Port.

Get some candy-sweet Québec strawberries in a public market in early summer.

Play chess outdoors by the vegetable gardens at Jardins Gamelin.

youtube

Hear the city’s best electronic beats while picnicking in the park at Piknic Électronik.

Help a Montrealer move on July 1st (our other national sport!).

Soak up a few rays at the Clock Tower Beach in the Old Port.

Do a little line dancing at the Place des Festivals with 375 other dancers at the Super Méga Continental.

Take a ride on Le Galopant, the oldest wooden carousel in the world at La Ronde.

Discover the ephemeral summer markets like the Marché des Possibles in Mile End, where open-air yoga is offered every weekend.

Glide down the river on a tour of Old Montréal or the Lachine Canal on Le Petit Navire.

See what local farmers, bakers and restauranteurs are up to at open-air Marché des Éclusiers in the Old Port.

Dance along with brightly costumed performers at Carifiesta, one of the biggest Caribbean parades in Canada.

Get into funky urban beat of Under Pressure, one of the longest running graffiti and hip hop festivals in the world.

Dress in white, grab your mat and strike a peaceful pose at the Lolë White Tour, a major yoga happening to promote peace.

Spend a summer Sunday grooving to the beats or just chilling on the grass at the Tam-Tams beneath the famous “angel statue” (George-Étienne Cartier Monument) at Mount Royal Park.

Take some quiet time to reflect and enjoy the beauty of the lush gardens at Saint Joseph’s Oratory.

Follow the fun from park to park during La Grande Tournée du 375e, from May to September.

Go for a cool city tour on a Dyad electric scooter.

Join in a game of volleyball with a view of the mountain at Parc Jeanne-Mance.

Test your team building skills in a dragon-boat race at Parc Jean-Drapeau’s Olympic Basin.

Share your love of food, wine, and good company at the outdoor BOUFFONS!MTL.

Up your appreciation of Frisbee as a high-intensity, competitive sport at the AUDL Championship Weekend.

Fall

Beat your best time at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Oasis Montreal Marathon in September.

Catch a movie on a rainy day at an indie cinema.

Spend a bucolic afternoon picking apples at Labonté de la Pomme.

Celebrate all things pie during Montréal Pizza Week.

Taste the best Montréal tables during MTLàTABLE, the city’s restaurant week.

Get your gymnastics fix when the best-of-the-best compete at the 2017 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships at the Olympic Stadium.

See the spectacular red, orange and yellow foliage on Mount Royal in the fall.

Light up your fall nights at the Gardens of Light in the Botanical Garden.

Catch the fan fever at an Alouettes football game at the Percival Molson Memorial Stadium on Mount Royal, with great views of the skyline, too!

See A Crack in Everything, an exhibition dedicated to the creative genius of Leonard Cohen, at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.

Hear the Montréal Video Game Symphony at Théâtre Maisonneuve.

Celebrate Halloween in the streets and bars of Montréal.

Take part in the 12th edition of M for Montréal, with over 100 local and international buzz-worthy bands.

Get spooked by ghosts in Old Montréal with a Fantômes Montréal walking tour at dusk.

Check out the amazing variety of pumpkins at the Atwater Market just before Halloween.

Put on your dancing shoes and dance the weekend away at the Black & Blue festival.

Go for an autumn stroll in an atmosphere of peace and contemplation in the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery.

See the best of queer cinema at image+nation, Canada’s oldest LGBTQ film festival.

Stimulate your musical brain at the Montréal Bach Festival.

Anytime

Go for a midnight bagel at Fairmount Bagel Bakery.

Feed your appetite for great gastronomy experiences at Montréal food festivals like Oysterfest, Omnivore and the YUL EAT Festival.

Feel your tensions melt away in the serene setting of the Bota Bota spa.

Make your great escape by outwitting the scenarios at A/MAZE, Échappe-toi or Escaparium.

Awaken your inner cinephile at one of Montréal’s many film festivals.

Play the detective and find Montréal’s coolest hidden bars like Big in Japan, Cloakroom, Henden, Le 4e mur…you’ll have to find the rest yourself.

Chat with locals in line at Schwartz‘s to work up an appetite for a classic smoked meat sandwich.

Discover the wealth of public art as you wander through the Underground Pedestrian Network.

Experience music, design and gastronomy through the prism of digital creativity at Inter_connect MTL.

Load up the Montréal en Histoires app and let the ghostly projections of the city’s past speak to you as you wander through Old Montréal after dark.

Sip a Péché Mortel (“Mortal Sin”) imperial stout beer at Dieu du Ciel.

See over 1000 Barbie dolls dressed by world-renowned designers at the free Barbie Expo.

Discover 250 different animal species at the Biodome.

Explore urban design at the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

Immerse yourself in public art at La Balade pour la Paix / An Open-Air Museum.

Dare to go up the world’s tallest inclined tower at the Olympic Stadium and be rewarded with incredible 360° views.

Sink your teeth into a doughy Beaver Tail as you stroll through scenic Old Montréal.

Try the lobster spag at the legendary Joe Beef restaurant and never, ever look back.

Rub shoulders with local intellectuals at Café Crew (or just stare at their incredible ceiling).

Seek out some of the city’s best espresso at Pikolo Café.

Visit the Fort Ville-Marie pavilion at the Pointe-à-Callière Museum of Archaeology, located on the site where the first French settlement was built in 1642.

Discover works by Aboriginal artists at the ASHUKAN Cultural Space in Old Montréal.

Treat yourself to maple candy and pretend you’re a kid again at Délices Érable et Cie.

Discover the sweet sound of live music on a sunny afternoon at Café Dépanneur.

Climb all the way up to Saint Joseph’s Oratory to discover its history (and rediscover your quads)!

Attend mass at the Notre-Dame Basilica and let yourself be enchanted by its beauty.

Tour Montréal’s back alleys to see the murals, graffiti and street art.

Stop taking yourself so seriously and catch a fabulously colourful drag show at Cabaret Mado!

Get your (board) game on at Randolph, the most fun-filled pub in the city.

Prepare to laugh till you cry with improv at Théatre Sainte-Catherine.

Unwind with lager and laughs at the Comedy Nest.

Put a swagger in your step and head to Le Speakeasy for a candlelit evening of nonchalance.

Warm up your vocal chords and karaoke the night away at Pang Pang.

Snap a stunning photo of the Five Roses sign at sunset.

Welcome back one of the city’s most beloved parks with the reopening of Ahuntsic-Cartierville’s historic Parc Belmont.

Eavesdrop on the Montrealer conversation on the news of the day at Café Club Social.

Keep every First Friday free because that’s exactly what these ever-changing monthly special events cost.

Get fresh at the Atwater Market, stock up healthy provisions at Marché Maisonneuve and fill your basket at Marché Jean-Talon.

Climb the steps to the look-out point and frame that perfect shot of the Boules Roses stretching over the Gay Village.

Camp, canoe, and cuddle on the îles de Boucherville.

Take a guided tour on land and sea with the Amphibus.

Être touriste dans sa propre ville lors du MTL SOCIAL de juin thanks @montreal ! ☀️ #mtlsocial #mtlmoments #livemontreal #somontreal #doubledeckerbus #montreal #mtl #summer #tourist #videoftheday #video #videography #videographer

Une vidéo publiée par Guillaume Langlois (@guillang) le 22 Juin 2016 à 7h45 PDT

See Montréal from another angle atop a double-decker tour bus.

Ride en masse atop a multi-seat Vélo Festif party bike.

Spice up your life with some South Asian flavours at Satay Brothers.

Ride the third wave of coffee with a perfect latte at September Surf Café.

Brunch like a king at Restaurant Chez Chose.

Clink glasses over a seven-course meal at Europea.

Light up the night with a late-night meal at Inferno.

Bow down to the shrimp bao at Restaurant Cho.

Taste the prettiest cupcakes in town at Les Glaceurs.

Pick up a few Québec-microbrews from Peluso.

Indulge in sweet French temptations at pastry shop Patrice Patissier.

Take a walk down Mile End’s memory lane with a Wilenski Special.

Jumpstart your weekend with the savoury waffles at Chez Régine.

Get a taste of the Old Country with a British-style brunch at Lawrence.

Dip a buttered Montréal bagel into your yolks at Beauty’s Luncheonette

Enjoy a stunning kale salad and lively cocktails at Santa Barbara.

Relish a truly haute high tea at the Ritz-Carlton Montréal.

Take a bite out of classic Quebec with a plateful of ragoût de boulettes at Binerie Mont-Royal.

Bite into sheer croissant perfection at Fou Desserts.

Test your mettle with the bug-eating challenge at the Montréal Insectarium

Japanese drum show #suntory #whisky

Une photo publiée par @biginjapan_bar le 2 Nov. 2016 à 16h31 PDT

Go on a hunt for Big in Japan’s unmarked door and enter an enchanted world of delicious drinks.

Grab a bottle of your favourite wine and meet friends at a BYOB restaurant.

Enjoy your egg brunch at Espace La Fontaine, an oasis in the heart of Parc Lafontaine.

Jazz up your weekend brunch at Café Les Entretiens with their live pianist.

Surf the Montréal taco wave with dinner at Taco Victor.

Discover Saint-Henri and treat yourself to a mini-pie made with love at Rustique Pie Kitchen.

Grab a flat white and catch up with the barista at Saint Henri’s famous Campanelli Café.

Have a slice of New York style pizza at Adamo in Saint-Henri.

Cheer with a cold beer at Saint-Henri classic Bar de Courcelle.

Savour a burrito chockfull of fresh ingredients and slow-cooked meat at Tejano BBQ.

Taste the incredible tacos at Grumman78’s Saint-Henri HQ.

Cheer your favourite soccer team while chowing down on Burgundy Lion’s British-inspired bar food.

Have a quiet têtê-à-tête over coffee and croissants (or brownies!) at Olive & Gourmando.

Check out an underground band and do a little body surfing at Les Foufounes Électriques.

Take a culinary trip to Africa with a meal at Le Virunga.

Play the tables, catch a show or sample world-class cuisine at the Casino de Montréal.

Try your hand at retro 80s video games at Arcade MTL on Saint-Denis.

Catch a big-name like Ariana Grande, Def Leppard, Coldplay or Bruno Mars in concert at the Bell Centre.

Sample one of over 300 single malts or 100 specialty gins at L’Île Noire Pub.

Go for a late-night gourmet meal after a show.

Drolet #spring #plateau #mtlmoments #montreal #mtl #quebec

Une photo publiée par Susan Moss Photography (@susanmossmtlmoments) le 14 Mai 2016 à 17h14 PDT

Stroll Le Plateau and admire the iconic spiral staircases.

Relax by the fountain at Square Saint-Louis and admire the colourful Victorian houses that line the street.

Book a tour of the Cirka Distillery and learn how they make their signature gin and vodka.

Treat yourself to a three-hour walking tour of the city’s craft breweries with The Montreal Craft Beer Tour.

Immerse yourself in Montréal stories at the #MTLGO exhibit on the 45th floor observation deck of Au Sommet Place Ville Marie.

Take a day trip to the Granby Zoo and take the “Curiosity Tour” to learn about all the different species of animals.

Explore lesser-known gardens and greenspaces, like the Sentier urbain, which revitalizes vacant lots with themed gardens.

Rise early and go for a self-guided walking tour of Westmount, one of the city’s most elegant and affluent neighbourhoods.

Drop by the Dragon’s Beard counter on de la Gauchetière in Chinatown and sample this sweet treat (hint: let it melt in your mouth…slowly).

Take a quiet walk among the used bookseller stands in the Allée des bouquinistes of the Grande Bibliothèque.

Rent the arcade corner at La Graine brûlée in the Village and play Nintendo with 9 of your friends.

Shop the quirky used clothing stores (what locals call les fripperies) along Mont-Royal Avenue.

Strike vinyl gold at Aux 33 Tours, including rare jazz recordings and Japanese pressings.

Pick up a cool Montréal-made souvenir at YUL Designs.

Get a selfie with a squirrel in Mount Royal Park.

Pick up or drop off a kid’s book at one of the nieghbourhood croque-livres spots, a community initiative to encourage kids to read.

Drop in for some cool tunes at a Montréal Jazz club.

Rent a cricket pitch at the Ministry of Cricket and learn how to set up your wicket and bowl to the batsman.

Satisfy your sweet tooth with gourmet chocolates, locally-made candies and maple candy treats.

Go for a long, long walk on Mount Royal with your camera.

L’endroit parfait pour votre soirée en couple ce week-end ! // The perfect place for this weekend’s date night! #AtriumLe1000 #mtlmoments #datenight #couples #patinage #patinoire #Le1000DLG #weekend #mtlphoto #photooftheday #somontreal #mtlweekend #narcitymontreal #mtlblog #dailyhive #montrealpromos #montreall #igersmtl #instagood #instalike #instafollow #skating #skatingrink #yulorama #visitmtl

Une photo publiée par Atrium Le 1000 (@atrium.le1000) le 25 Nov. 2016 à 13h16 PST

Learn to skate or practice your figure eight all year round on the indoor skating rink at the Atrium Le 1000.

Order a coffee at the new Dispatch on Saint-Laurent Boulevard.

Indulge in a traditional absinthe experience in a private booth at the Sarah B bar.

Learn to make a signature cocktail with the mixologists at Ateliers & Saveurs.

Order a poutine at 3 a.m. at La Banquise.

Have a purr-fect cup of coffee at the Cat Café Montréal.

Treat your taste puds to the delicious delicacies of Stéphanie Labelle, pastry chef and owner of the Rhubarbe pastry shop.

Discover “New Québec Cuisine” at EVOO, Herman Hotel, Montreal Plaza, Comptoir Charcuteries – the list goes on!

Feast on Dim Sum at Maison Kam Fung and follow the fluorescent pineapple that leads to an underground tikki bar in Chinatown.

Eat the best dumpling soup in town at Sammi & Soupe Dumpling in the “New Chinatown” on Sainte-Catherine Street West.

Don an apron, roll up your sleeves and take a cooking class at Touilleurs, Guilde Culinaire or Atelier & Saveurs.

Bring your appetite for a big burger experience at l’Anecdote or Burger Royal

Eat a piadina and a classic cornetti in Little Italy.

Savour a cappuccino at Caffè Italia, and sit at the bar with the nieghbourhood locals.

Fall in love with the crispy crust and fresh toppings of pizza at Gema.

Wander the stalls of the Jean-Talon market and sample local flavours along the way.

Discover some of the bars off the beaten path: Chez Loic in Saint-Henri, Chez Dallaire in Pointe-Saint-Charles or Huis Clos in Villeray.

Elect the best donut in Montréal: Léché Desserts or Crémy Pâtisserie?

Head out and explore the southwest neighbourhood of Pointe-Saint-Charles with relaxing stop at the sublime Café Bloom.

Make like a local in the summer and kick back in one of the city’s great greenspaces like Parc La Fontaine, Parc Laurier, Parc Jarry, or along the Lachine Canal with good friends and a mini barbeque.

The fluffiness of these freshly baked croissants will make you go @hofkelsten is a great morning ☕️ spot #3rdwavemtl . . . #thirdwavecoffee #specialtycoffee #pourover #coffeeroaster #coffeeculture #coffeegram #singleorigin #coffeeshopcorners #mtlcafe #mtlcoffeecrawl #mtlcoffee #mtlcafelove #igersmontreal #mtligers #igermtl #mtllife #mtlshot #livemontreal #mtlmoments #somontreal #montrealmoments #eatplaylive

Une photo publiée par TH3RD WAVE (@th3rdwave) le 20 Juil. 2016 à 8h13 PDT

Discover Québec bakeries that rival the best of Europe like Automne, Guillaume, Pain dans les voiles, Le Fromentier, Hof Kelsten … shall we go on?

Pick a neighbourhood, any neighbourhood, to discover Montrealers’ incredible, culturally diverse home cooking on Restaurant Day.

Brunch on locally sourced comfort food at Quai No.4 brasserie in the Rosemont neighbourhood.

Sample a little of this and a little of that from the seasonal $5 menu at Pot Masson in Vieux-Rosemont.

Add live jazz to your table d’hôte meal on weekends or go for no-meat Mondays at Café Lezard on vibrant Rue Masson.

Cozy up to a great glass of wine, a charcuterie plate and beautiful people at Buvette Chez Simone in Mile End.

Pair expertly curated natural wines with local cheeses or dishes from the ever-changing menu at Le Vin Papillon wine bar.

Sit down to tea, cakes and cookies in the cozy Cardinal Tearoom in Mile End.

Make a mean thin-crust pizza, authentic ravioli and much more at Mezza Luna cooking school in Little Italy.

Step back in time with a traditional gourmet Québécois meal at Filles du Roy at Pierre du Calvet hotel built in 1725.

Refuel on strong espresso while your kids eat grilled cheese at La Petite Cuillere café – then let them run free in Square Saint-Louis across the street.

Wander Mile End like a local while eating a warm bagel from St-Viateur Bagel.

Don’t leave Montréal without eating an authentic Portuguese nata pastry from La Patisserie Du Rosaire, Rôtisserie Romados or Les Anges Gourmets in the Plateau.

Travel off the beaten path and way back in time at Auberge du Dragon Rouge, a French medieval-themed restaurant.

Savour your meal in a whole new way – in the dark at oNoir restaurant.

Contribute to community organizations just by eating a meal at not-for-profit restaurant Robin des Bois.

Satisfy your craving for Indian food on Jean Talon Avenue West, home to over a dozen diverse Indian restaurants.

Choose your favourite broth and all the soup fixings at an authentic Japanese ramen house.

Dig into a half-chicken combo at infamous Portuguese chicken joint Romados on Rachel in the Plateau.

Fill a bag or three with bulk candies and cookies at legendary La Biscuiterie Oscar in Hochelega-Maisonneuve.

Pick up a bouquet of fresh flowers and snap a photo of the beautiful white bird cages at the Dragon Flowers shop on Bernard Street, run by Hong Kong-born Tamey Lau.

Wander through Montréal’s graphic novel headquarters, Drawn & Quarterly.

Visit the oldest church on the island of Montréal, the Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, built between 1749 and 1752.

Get a feeling for Leonard Cohen’s Montréal with a visit to Parc du Portugal, near De Vallières Street, where Cohen lived until his death in 2016.

Meet the piercing gaze of the statue of Montréal Canadiens legend Maurice “Rocket” Richard outside the Maurice Richard Arena.

Strike a pose with your favourite stars at the Grévin Montréal wax museum at the Eaton Centre downtown.

Visit the oldest chapel in Montréal, Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours, and climb to the chapel tower to see iconic angels overlooking the port.

Be a spelunker for a day and learn about Montréal’s other underground scene with professional speleologists at the Saint-Léonard Cavern in Parc Pie XII.

Get lost in space at the Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium.

Throw a hook ball in the intimate retro setting of Notre Dame Des Quilles bar and bowling alley.

Hang with the cool kids at a party at Never Apart.

Rent a BIXI and pedal the downtown bike paths with locals.

Add a little bling to your life with a pair of vintage shades from the Vintage Frames Company.

Shop for quality fashion, housewares, food and beauty items in the chic stores along Laurier West.

Go for a little retail therapy in a downtown shopping mall like the Eaton Centre, Place Montréal Trust or Complexe Desjardins, all connected to the underground network.

Dance, flirt and have fun in a historic landmark at New City Gas, one of the city’s hottest –and biggest – dance clubs in town.

Go antique shopping on Notre-Dame West or on Amherst in the Village.

Work out those unresolved tensions with a little ax-throwing at Rage.

Have a friends’ night out on the Plateau with pitchers, pool, pinball and foosball at Fitzroy on Mont-Royal.

Take a long, long walk up The Main, the most storied street in Montréal.

Stroll down the romantic cobblestone streets of Old Montréal with your sweetheart.

Get a cowboy hat and learn to line dance at Club Bolo, a non-profit LGBT organization run 100% by volunteers.

Take a seat at Place Jean-Paul-Riopelle and watch “La Joute”, a massive sculptural installation, go through its kinetic sequence of water, mist, fog and fire.

Wander through a lipstick-pink forest, then marvel at the kaleidoscopic multi-coloured glass façade made up of 400 glass panels at the Palais des congrès de Montréal.

Feel the wind in your hair on the Navark Cruise shuttle to Parc national des Îles‑de‑Boucherville, and enjoy a refreshing day outdoors in nature.

Make a spontaneous decision to see a show and go to La Vitrine for a last-minute deal on tickets.

Pick up an original work of art on paper.

Do a live music crawl until the wee hours of the morning at Montréal’s many eclectic music venues.

Connect with the history of Canada’s game with a visit the old Forum and other hockey hotspots.

Climb the walls – in a good way – at HorizonRoc.

Order a corn dog and check out the hot wheels at Orange Julep’s weekly classic car meet-up.

Discover 115 animal species exclusively from Québec at the Ecomuseum Zoo, an ethically-managed outdoor zoo on the island of Montréal.

Snap a great shot of Buckminster Fuller’s iconic geodesic dome, now the Biosphere, North America’s only environment museum.

Explore the past at OFF375, a special series of exhibitions and event at the 15 Montréal History Museums.

Watch talented skaters compete in hip-checking action at Montréal Roller Derby bout.

Stay up late and get your fix of contemporary culture at Les Nocturnes at the “MAC”, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.

Take the kids for a day of wacky aquatic fun at the Olympic Pool during Wibit Sundays.

Go on a “memory tour” of Montréal’s past along the St. Lawrence River with the Montréal, toute une histoire mobile app.

Lie back on a bean bag and immerse yourself in a high-tech audio visual experience beneath the dome at the SAT.

Play some glow-in-the-dark mini-golf at Putting Edge.

See a section of the Berlin Wall at the World Trade Centre Montréal.

Visit the Centre for Sustainable Development, one of the most ecofriendly buildings in Québec.

Up next:A first look at Montréal’s 375th Anniversary celebrations in 2017

The post 375 things to do in Montréal in 2017 appeared first on Tourisme Montréal Blog.

http://ift.tt/2iNws63

#tourisme #montreal #france

0 notes