use your nostrils

i just want to comment on the different smells one will encounter while travelling... i find every city or small town has its own distinctive odour..in every city i have been to in north america i find a different smell...and after all that, maybe because edmonton is my home, i miss the smell of this city most...due to the refineries i know that sometimes we can get some disgusting reeks blowing around, but for the most part we are blessed with nice clean prairie air that refreshes...there is also something nice about the river valley that is engrained into my nasal memory...so ya, next time you're going to a different city, smell this one and keep that memory, then smell the one you go to...maybe i'm just weird but i find it very distinctive...

inside the pocket of a clown

after reading the Gregoire piece the other day, i was struck by how much a love and adore the idea of taverns like the ones she writes about... at one point in time these taverns/bars/hotels were the central place in the neighborhood. They were where everyone would meet after work, where those who didn't work had a place to spend their afternoons digging themselves deeper into the 'pocket'. They in a sense, gave the community a place to congregate and thrive...But as it happens, all good things must fall and these once beautiful and cherished pieces of our community were left by the wayside...progress opened the door for further development and the older buildings were occupied by those that could not afford to go anywhere else, which in turn lowered the standard of living within them...i still remember the Cecil right on Jasper ave, about 15 years ago you could walk down that block and have 10 to 15 people ask you if you wanted to buy drugs...they would just open their hand and be holding a bunch of hash...it's almost as though it was accepted like it is in downtown Vancouver...it was more or less a crack house right on Jasper ave, fit only for the mice...i also think the smoking ban, as much as i accept it, has taken away from the authenticity of being in a bar like that...now instead of the scotch, smokes, and urinal puck stench of the commercial, it reaks like puke and booze...without the haze of tobacco, the aura is gone...