7 1/2 Months To Go...

I'm trying to find the good things about Hamilton. Really, I'm making a concerted effort.

And I haven't come up short: the area around McMaster is kinda nice, as I've heard; people are generally pleasant and well mannered; it's fairly quiet; King Street West seems like the only cool street in this city, but I know there are other cool places that I have yet to check out, like Hess Village. Yeah...that's all I've got right about now.

There are certainly things I hate. Main Street is tops the list.

It took me a while to figure out what it was exactly that I find so utterly horrific about it - aside from the bland scenery, lack of trees, and plethora of fast food joints - but finally I realized, it's the traffic.

Not just the six lanes of traffic, but the fact that when you're walking on the sidewalk, there is absolutely no buffer between you and those wretched six lanes of traffic. The rushing noise, the fumes, the wind: you're completely exposed to all of it. It's horrible.

This is Main Street, object of my revulsion:

Yeah I know it's just a street but it's the worst manifestation of a street in a city that is so clearly meant for drivers. I will take detours to avoid it.

I seem to have acquired a slight city-snobbery...and while I'm not proud of it, I do admit it.

There are, however, some more interesting things about Hamilton that I've noticed. I'll fill you in as neutrally as I can manage and let you draw your own conclusions:

• Outside the NoFrills grocery store, I happened to notice while waiting for a cab, random men lingering for no apparent reason. One guy was talking to people as they passed (he was kind of a down-on-his-luck eccentric) and another guy starting shooing him off, even though he himself was just hangin' out for no apparent reason. It was like a turf war between bored retirees and the socio-economically underprivileged, and No Frills was prime real estate.

• Public transit (i.e. the bus) in Hamilton is an obstacle course of canes, walkers, strollers and basket-carts. You've got to be agile and keenly aware at all times.

• When I enjoy my morning tea out on the front step, I overhear pairs or groups of my neighbours gathered on the sidewalk or the street talking about the late night noise coming from a few student houses. There is a lot of pointing, head-shaking and negative gesturing. I heard the word 'hooligans' on two separate occasions.

• In downtown Hamilton, there is a gun shop: "New & Used Firearms. Professional Repairs. Ammunition Equipment and Supplies." When was the last time you saw an actual gun shop in a city? I can't remember the last time I saw a gun shop period. Just down the block there's a Starbucks and an organic food shop...

I'll stop there, although I'm sure I'll have more quaint little anecdotes for you in the near future.

So on to good things...Here are a few shots of McMaster. It is a really nice campus.

More on the wonderfulness of grad school later, fear not.

I found a tiny little room in a basement that I share with one girl, in a house that we share with 4 boys, who like to play Guitar Hero directly above my room.

At the moment, it's Eye of the Tiger. Oh, now it's Float On by Modest Mouse...with a little karaoke action...

But, everyone is fairly cool and the boys generously let me use their pepper grinder, so it's all good.

This is my tiny room, where the lowest part of the ceiling touches my head if I stand up straight:

I told myself that I would not do anything that required tools or even vaguely resembled remodeling because, let's be honest, I'm outta here May 1st (or even mid-April...).

For those of you who know me well, you know that this is a radical expectation.

So considering that all I did was paint, rip up some abhorrent mac-tac, reinforce the baseboards and remove a closet door, I'd say that's within reason.

About the paint: the colour I was initially enamored with was a nice rich spicy kind of orange, but...I just couldn't bring myself to paint my bedroom walls a colour called Peeping Tom.

Who the hell came up with that name? What kind of shopper/redecorator is that colour designed for? Most importantly, who approved that selection? ("Great job with the new line Henry - very provocative, you rascal!"). Although, if I were a paint-colour-namer I would most definitely test the boundaries of perversion and political incorrectness too.

But the point is, I couldn't be surrounded by Peeping Tom. I went with the much less threatening Warm Autumn. It's lovely. And not at all menacing or perverted.

(Oh, now it's Bon Jovi, Livin' on a Prayer. Sing it Justin!)

This is my hovel for the next 7 1/2 months:

It's quite cozy actually.

Especially with the return of a certain furry creature who gives gentle head-butts and snores:

My Luna! I'm so happy to have her back. She adds a little something special to my day, everyday.

By the way, that orb-paperweight thing is one of two that were made for me in Malta.

Strangely enough, the girl I share the basement with - her name is Luna too. How fun!

Ok, now back to reading the 80 pages of very dense texts that I have to finish tonight...

Hectic Days, Fervid Nights - How Long Has It Been Since...How Long Will It Be Until...?

For the last two weeks I've been GO-training back and forth between Toronto and Hamilton, loving Toronto and hating Hamilton, apartment hunting in Hamilton and couch surfing in Toronto, fondly remembering Toronto and cultivating high hopes for Hamilton, moving from Toronto to Hamilton, being in Hamilton and wishing I was in Toronto, being in Toronto and wanting to go "home" even if it is in Hamilton...

More on my new residence later - first, this is what I've been up to amidst the practicalities of adjusting, familiarizing and reacquainting:

Dana and I went to Buskerfest at Front St W & Church St - there were more promotional tents and kiosks than buskers, but plenty of local artisans with some amazing jewelry and clothing.


The 'Chalkmaster'...



Marie Antoinette checking her phone...


High-flying performances...



It was sweltering that day so we did a quick tour around the St. Lawrence market before leaving, retreating indoors at the height of midday.


* * *


I had to go to Tavistock to pick up some stuff - Eddie was amazingly cool and drove me up there to give me a hand. It was a nice drive. Picturesque.




Corn fields in August always make me think of rural childhood, but not my own - someone else's, or maybe a collective, imaginary, idealized childhood...



* * *


My TTC stop for the five + years I spent in Toronto. Over the course of all that getting on and getting off (how many times?), my entire life changed...


Korea Town (or the Korean Business District) between Christie and Bathurst.


My favourite fruit market, on the north-east corner of Bloor and Manning (my old street).
I went to the house and checked the mailbox. There were two envelopes for me.

The Korean supermarket at the south-west corner of Bloor and Manning, and the Metro Theatre just edged in there on the right - I think it's one of the oldest Theatre's in Toronto, built in the 1940's. All it shows now is porn, maybe the occasional cult film during festivals.


The same men sitting in the same places, as always, (perhaps having the same conversation) at Bloor Sweet Cafe.


A new tea shop in the Annex - I was so excited! They have pumpkin spice tea! The spiced pear is fantastic too, and the honey spice rooibos is soothing.


It's right across from the Tim Horton's, as you can see from the reflection...


* * *

The Counting Crows...always loved them, never saw them live, so what the hell. They played at the Molson Amphitheatre August 19th.

I was chilled out on the lawns watching the sky change colors and darken over Ontario Place as his voice carried over the crowd.

He's very mellow. He says all these groovy things like I hope you feel what I feel and the world is a dream you need to wake up into...

Someone near the front took this video of this very cool acoustic Mr. Jones:



How appropriate that the Exhibition was going on, and our concert tickets included admission.

Circuses and carnivals are kind of a recurring theme in a lot of their music - a sense of transience, of melancholy and quiet conflicts, of facades and the raw humanity underneath...


My camera can't do this view justice. It was actually breathtaking. The CN Tower changes colors in the distance, the noises of the fair get carried away by the breeze. From high up on the ferris wheel, all of it looks so...innocent. But you know it's not, and that's half the fascination.


'The circus is falling down on its knees, the big top is crumbling down...' (Raining in Baltimore)


The street lights are dark, strung with banners or holding ropes and completely neglected for the time being...it feels incongruous; it hints at the temporal, the ephemeral. I love it.



From above you can get the whole picture: the trucks and caravans, the equipment hidden behind temporary steel barriers, the cables and extension cords and ropes...


'Some of us are dancers on the midway, we roam from town to town...' (Goodnight Elizabeth)


On the Spadina street car, on the way home, we pass by the Skydome (I refuse to call it the Rogers Centre unless absolutely necessary for reasons of clarity. I hate that it's been renamed after the corporation that owns it. How arrogant of Rogers to rename a landmark like the fucking Skydome!).
Anyway...it's beautifully lit, that glowing blue, next to the popsicle-coloured tower.


I love this city. I've realized just how much so many times in the last few weeks. And just when I come to love it, I have to leave it for freakin' Hamilton. More on that later.
At least I'm close. Just a GO train ride away.