Sarx

ER HOST Is here with Brodie in Hamilton, Ontario, for the monthly Art Crawl on James Street North. Last night’s trip up and down the strip was crowded. After last month’s wash out, I think everyone in the area took advantage of the balmy night to come look at local artists.

Serious props are due to the Loose Canon gallery for this month’s show, “Cutting Corners”. David Irvine’s display of painted vinyl records of engaging and enjoyable. (The Rabbit was a little morbid, but I still enjoyed seeing my totem in the show!)

Also greatly enjoyed was Peter Pona’s exhibition of portraits at the Assembly. If I follow local news well enough, the Assembly is the newest gallery to open up in the Art Crawlspace. Formerly a record store, it’s an interesting apse-shape up a few steps from a wide store front at 22 Wilson St. It was a perfect space for Pona’s work which struck me as rather icon-like in the depiction not only of local arty-types (a sort of inner circle) but also in the selection of colours and style. Although I can not yet find a website for his portraits, the multi-talented artist has a MySpace page for his music.

After the Crawl Brodie and I retired to the Pepper Jack Cafe, Hamilton’s coolest live music venue, to listen to Blood Ceremony. I’ve enjoyed a number of bands at PJC in the last year and a half, but none so much as this one! During warm ups - with their driving bass and eerie-sounding organ, I turned to Brodie and said, smiling, “I think I’ve entered a time-warp to the 70s.” While I doubt anyone in the band was born before 1977 (and that’s generous) they had totally perfected the style of pseudo-Mediaeval Rock and Roll that I enjoy from that era. (Think Jethro Tull).

I commented to B that I wonder how they managed to so-expertly perfect the sound. From their page, “We’re anti-war, but pro-horror. Standing before the crimson altar, our minds melted as we gazed into the cosmic eye. Now we slay the stages of the universe with heavy riffs, paranoia-inducing trills and ’70s fills.” I’m sad there was no CD for sale, but there are a couple of tracks for downloading on their page.

After the music, there was nothing to do but chat and drink - and we did - until the local club scene barfed out into the parking lot. It was strange: the Pepper Jack has a very nice cafe and a huge patio (nearly equal in size to the indoors. Everyone was on the patio as the evening was still rather balmy. Suddenly some of the Out-to-get-laid from the club next door burst out onto the street with a rumble of “Fight! Fight!” Everyone from the Pepper Jack grabbed cocktails and went over to the brick wall to look out. There is a serious class issue here: the folks in that other club are, mostly, drunk suburban kids attempting to get laid. They are dressed in that odd, urban cross of Upscale Party Goers cum Gangsta. They are leaving the club, preparing to drive dunk home… it’s all vaguely like a Fraternity Party although we’d never have such a strict dress code!

The Art-Music Hippies are standing there, talking about all this while the fight is going on (and two of us are videotaping it). There’s a crowd of people below us, watching the fight - and everyone’s yelling. They don’t see us at all. We don’t register on their radar. It was a strange scene. But it was also the first time I’ve seen any real evidence of an American-style violence here. Mind you - it was only American-lite, because there were no guns and no knives. That was odd to me: in other words, it was like a fraternity party in the early 80s. So while there was a *huge* difference between “our crowd” and “their crowd”, from my point of view as an outsider, it was evident to me that I was looking into two manifestations of the same culture which is, in many ways, very different from my own.