Friday night, in Hamilton, Ontario, was the monthly Art Crawl. I was there with Brodie. We saw some very cool stuff: including a wall of community generated art (free pens and pencils at the door), a noise show at the Anglican Cathedral, a wonderfully dark collection at Loose Canon, and some wonderful, very large landscape photographs at the You Me Gallery.
After the evening’s art Brodie and I joined a whole passel of his friends at Chester’s Beers of the World on King Street. As much as I want to rave about the art and the sheer joy of hanging out with Brodie’s friends (the proof that I’m not a Brain in a Jar), I’m obliged to rave all the more of the joy I felt in this bar!
Imagine a place where the beer menu is as thick as some small town phone books. Yes, the beers are in cans or bottles: but so are the beers you buy in stores. It was awesome to find Corsendonk (see the logo above) as well as Chimay. I also had some Ebulum Elderberry Ale from the folks at the Heather Ale company, as well as something with raspberries. Brodie had something that tasted like a smoked cheese. Yes, they are kinda pricey: but no more so than they are in bottles at the store. It was a fun evening. As enjoyable as the beers were, the star of the evening was the bar, itself.
I don’t think the bar had been redone since Benny Hill was popular. It was a simple 70s single’s bar - a set of stools at the bar and a standing bar about one metre back (which allowed the men folks to ogle the women in the stools). There were mirrors everywhere - enough of them so you could see nearly anyone. Yet, if you paid attention you could tell when the bar ran sort in the decoration budget: one wall filled with mirrors, one wall with mirrors every so often, spaced by fancy woodwork, and finally, a bar of mirrors spaced rather far apart - no woodwork involved.
While it was better lit (and the wood more blonde) what it mostly reminded me of was a scene from the 4th season of Mary Tyler Moore, shot in a singles bar:
There were one other stop for the evening: a stop at Backstreets for Karaoke and some other beers… no, I don’t remember much at that point. And then it was back to home and bed.
I heartily recommend the Art Crawl - on the 2nd Friday of the Month. But the Beers of the World are there all the time.
As hard as I work to overcome my own internalised racism, I’m made very aware of it on a daily basis.
Listening to the CBC news this weekend, driving around Hamilton, Ontario, as well as reading the paper, I was struck by the total lack of something: race. THere are no races in Canadian News. When describing people as suspects in a crime, we’ll get age, height, weight and hair colour: but no race. When reading about the spate of muggings in the East End of Hamilton on Saturday, I was floored by descriptions of two young men… race unknown. Mind you: the CBC never said “race unknown”. But in my head I “knew” they were blacks. And I was “certain” of what these youths looked like.
This, of course, says *nothing* about the CBC and a hell of a lot about me.
I think it also says something about American culture: because to the extent that we *expect* to hear such descriptors we engage in racial profiling. I’m reminded of how all the good and prayerful Episcopalians on EcuNet insisted that Arab Muslims had bombed Oklahoma City - and how much fun I made of them when it turned out to be a nice white guy. And lo, I’m just as messed up.
This weekend, Brodie and I did a lot of things in Hamilton: two art events, a couple of bands - a lot of drinking. Here’s a pic of the two of us at a very cool show of large works in a HUGE space, part of a huge set of very nice shots on flickr. (I forgot my camera in B’lo.)
Brodie and I saw this band, The Burning Hell, this weekend at the Pepper Jack Cafe in Hamilton. If you get a chance to see them or hear them, get yerself moving! They are most enjoyable. (Some samples on their MySpace page.)
While “Melodramatic Popular Song” is quite descriptive, I have to say I’ve not seen a band have so much fun on stage in a while. And I think just about everyone played multiple instruments.
Here’s a video (that’s a bit jumpy and with bad sound, but gives you an idea of how it all works…)
(And, today being the leap year celebration of St Matthias day, happy name day to Burning Hell Front Man and Ukulelist, Mathias Kom. - much better video)
So I get hits, occasionally, from anonymous proxy servers. Eh… whatever.
Just to let the user of “YouHide” know: it seems to report your IP address and your location. It reports the type of machine you’re using as well as the type of browser.
I have *no* idea if the info is real.
But you sure don’t look too anonymous to me.
In other news…
NPR *seemed* to say this morning that the US is going to start requiring passports of Canadians.
This has been on the books for a while, but Congress had postponed it because of complaints from border states and from Canada.
NPR *seemed* to say, this AM, that the Security folks were going ahead with the requirement despite the congressional postponement.
Anyone have any news about this?
Canadians? Have you been told to get a passport?
I’ll vote for the presidential candidate that will disband the DHS and the TSA.
Buffalo, of course, is only a stepping stone to Canada in my own personal life map. As I point out to the Rector at St Mary’s at least once a week as he asks me to stay: They have Free Healthcare and Legal Marriage there.
They have other things, too: as this article from Common Dreams points out: Imagine It in Toronto.
The most significant impression I had of Toronto is that its people are so civilized
I’m sure Peter might offer a different view: as a resident rather than a tourist.
Peter will remember when he and I went walking through Hamilton: how I kept talking about my urban alarm system and seeing people of different races, walking together around the city. What, in Asheville, SF or NYC would have been a gang situation or a case of crime was, in Canada, a perfectly normal celebration of diversity and living-together. It kept freaking me out.
What does it mean that the 5th largest city in North American had only 84 homicides in 2007? (The fourth largest, Houston, TX, had 351.)
Yesterday, the Synod of the Diocese of Niagara voted to support blessing of same-sex unions: the discussion is interesting.
What is most interesting to me about the Canadian movement is that while General Synod said no, the constituent dioceses are all voting yes - and by large majorities.
Arrived home at 3AM after nearly 17 hours of driving (including down time, eating time, exercise time and talking-on-the-phone time). I left Hamilton at 10 or so, having dropped Brodie off at work and packed up and gassed up. (According to my best conversion skills, the current Canadian price is USD3.40/Gal = CAN.95/l.)
Bear and Rabbit sit on my dash as I drive to Hamilton. Other pictures have been posted.
We had a heck of a party last night… much eating and much drinking. We were joined by David and his partner Mark, Greg and Jon, there were cameos by Rosie, Paul and Nikki. Sausage, Beer and Burgers were had in abundance… As were various grapes and plums and home-made hummus and tasty little pizza nibbles (from Mark). We roasted corn on the grill - sweet enough even without butter - and we forgot to roast the potatoes and the bake the sausage nibbles. We had cranberry soda and all kinds of beers.
After Mark and David left, John, Greg and Brodie and myself retired to a local establishment where we continued to drink heavily. I awoke this AM with a hangover and then we went, this AM, to The Egg and I for a grease injection. It was the first such event - hangover and breakfast - I’d done in several years. In fact it’s been that way since I left NYC - ten years ago. It was quite a good time, though! No excuse like a hangover for eating back bacon and eggs, hash browns and coffee!
This is the self-ruled blog of an Christian attempting to follow God in the Way of Jesus... sometimes. I most identify with the Anglican and Liberal Catholic flavours.
«Christ came to separate the genuine and the valuable in the world from the false and the worthless, the Divine from the diabolic. Christ -- is the Saviour of the genuine world, that which is authentic and of the fullness of being, the Divine cosmos, wounded by sin, and not the inauthentic world, not the chaos, not the kingdom of the prince of this world, not the non-being.» Nicolas Berdyaev,Christ and the World
I who have written this story, or rather this fable, give no credence to the various incidents related in it. For some things in it are the deceptions of demons, other poetic figments; some are probable, others improbable; while still others are intended for the delectation of foolish men. (Closing lines of the Táin Bó Cúalnge)
