Saturday, 20 February 2016

Acadian Hip Hop

            

            On Friday I had to skip song practice so I could get my place ready for a cockroach treatment. I worked steadily for about five and a half hours and yet I still didn’t get everything done that I wanted to. The Orkin guy didn’t come till around 12:30. I hadn’t been sure about whether or not I should put the cats out. He asked how bad the infestation was and I told him there were a lot of roaches, so he told me to put the cats out. That took me about five minutes. I showed him the problem areas: the stove and fridge sides of the kitchen, the bathroom and the cat feeding area. He told me that he was going to use a dust treatment but that I’d only have to leave for fifteen or twenty minutes.
            I took about $2.50 worth of empties to the Beer Store and then came home. I probably should have stayed out longer than fifteen minutes. I could feel that I was breathing the floating dust even after fifteen minutes. I don’t think that he dusted in all the problem areas but rather just the main one. I don’t know much about the dust, though it might be boric acid based, but it would be nice if it poisoned their poop, since the charming creatures eat each other’s feces. I saw a couple of roaches going crazy though as a result of the treatment. I put them out of their misery, or mine. Maybe misery is too strong a word. A reflex in response to danger makes them look like they’re panicking and since they don’t really have nerves they probably just shut down when they are killed.
            I went to PARC to teach my yoga class and on the way to the Healing Centre I ran into Bob Rose, who I’d met one day when he was occupying the Healing Centre with his anti-gentrification committee and their meeting went a little too long. We’d chatted but hadn’t formally introduced one another. He was on his way outside with a cigarette when he stopped to talk. It danced around in his hand and sometimes found its way to his mouth. It was in a hurry to get out of the building so it could burn. He told me that he should come and take my yoga class because he’s been neglecting his meditation. I pointed at his cigarette and told him it wasn’t helping him any. He informed me that he only smoked for on reason: “I need the tar to fill the potholes of my soul.” And then he walked away.
            Michelle, Anna and Diane came to my yoga class. Michelle came on time but Anna is always about ten minutes late. Diane was even later this time. I don’t have the chance to teach a well-rounded class when they are tardy like that. They asked about breathing exercises and I told them that when one learns to relax, one’s breathing becomes correct and that yogic breathing exercises are a type of psychic bulimia.
            After class I did my laundry, so I wasn’t finished until early evening. It would take days to put everything away again, so I sure hoped the treatment put a big dent in the infestation.
            On Radio Canada I heard a song called “My Dance Floor” by an Acadian band called Radio Radio (I assume one “radio” is pronounced the English way and the other in French as “Rahdio”). The song begins, “I see you dancing! Why are you dancing? Get off my dance floor! Get off my dance floor!” It really captures a certain attitude of certain people that go to dance clubs. I’ll bet the song is popular on the dance floors. This particular song is all in English, but the band frequently raps in an anglicized type of Acadian french called “Chiac” that also uses some aboriginal words.

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