the dragon boat

Somewhere, a long time ago, I wrote a short piece about dragon boating and its history. Stories change in my memory over time, and I'm not a stickler for facts when it's coming out of my mouth, so what I remember is a poet, ruined by the hateful government of his region, who drowns himself in a famous river in China. The fishermen and villagers race out in their boats to save him. At some point -either then or during the yearly anniversaries- they throw rice cakes, or another similar snack, into the water. Can't really remember why.

Montreal hosts an international dragon boat race yearly. This year I agreed to be the drummer for team Scully. What that basically means is that I sat on the end of a long boat and tried to hear what the team's coach was yelling at them from the other end of the boat, and then I tried to repeat it to them accurately. The point of this is that the paddlers in the front of the boat have their backs to the coach, who's all the way in the back, and sometimes can't hear what she says. Well, neither could I, but I tried.

Even though it meant getting up between 6:00 and 6:30am on both days of the weekend, and missing my breaky with Dan, it was great. I've always rather despised athletics and this time I got to be part of a team and hang out at the tournament without actually having to do any exercise. Per-fect.

Apparently something like 4000 people participated in the Montreal Dragon Boat Festival this year. There were races all day for two days on the basin on Ile Ste-Helene. After the last Sunday race, some of us went for a swim and tan and nap at the artificial beach on the island. The sand is coarse, there's algae in the water, but it was fresh and beautiful and such a welcome reward.

Here are some pictures from Geraldine's camera to show you a bit of what I mean. For some reason I can't upload them so that's why I'm making you work and follow a link. But don't worry, as usual I've set it up so it'll open in a new window.

***
movies recently seen: A Scanner Darkly; Nine Lives; Souffle au Coeur; The Peaceful Warrior.