Can’t help but make you smile and wish for more of this
Naheed Nenshi was on CBC Radio One’s Wildrose this week talking about the proposed Memorial Drive closure on Sunday’s in August to turn it into a promenade. While I don’t necessarily agree with him I couldn’t help but share this video he mentioned on the show.
If this doesn’t make you smile, you are dead inside. This kind of guerrilla art is so much fun I wish we’d see more of it popping up elsewhere in the world, including Calgary.
It’s the kind of thing that makes life exciting and worth living. Enjoy.
Did You Know 3.0
Time to get your stuff together and get organized. Or the world is going to leave you behind. And very probably me and my family and my friends and my friends friends.
This is a great video showing how quickly the world around us has changed – and will continue to change. Are you prepared for that much change that quickly?
If you feel overwhelmed by everything going on in the world right now the answer is probably “no”.
Previously on Lost : What?
I dedicate this video to my wife who feels exactly like this each time I watch Lost. It’s usually followed by “… is going on. I don’t understand this show.”
This video also encapsulates how I often feel when I listen to some of the suggestions coming out of Ottawa.
A Juno Tribute
Congrats to Calgary on a fantastic hosting of the Junos this week. In the spirit of the night I present for your viewing pleasure, one of the coolest videos of all time (and I am a sucker for fireworks as you can see from my resume), “I Feel It All” by tonight’s big winner, Calgary’s own, Feist. Turn up your speakers and enjoy!
McNally McNo More
This blog entry is cross posted on the Calgary Herald’s Q.
Calgary has officially lost a landmark today. I’m hearing from sources (and now the Herald) that McNally Robinson Booksellers on Stephen Avenue will be closing their doors this summer.
This is a huge strike to the heart of Calgary’s arts and culture scene. McNally was one of the very few downtown retailers that sought out Calgary talent – be it literary, musical or otherwise – and gave them a stage to show their works. It was great working with their staff (I had occasion to do so when I was with Alberta Theatre Projects and again when I was trying to find a new audience for Theatre Junction.) They truly cared about the community and their place in it.
Not to mention it they were simply the best bookstore in town. The best by A LONG SHOT. (Sorry Pages, you know I love you, but it’s tough to compete.) On a personal note often they were the only Calgary retailer that had the book I was looking for. Smaller shops like Pages and Owl’s Nest were just too small to carry some of the more obscure non-fiction I often request. And Chapters/Indigo is usually too unilateral to even order them in the first place let alone a special order.
I can’t say I’m overly surprised they are closing. The location was a shocker for me when I first heard they were moving into Calgary in 2002. (I’d previously enjoyed each square foot of the Saskatoon McNally.) Calgary’s downtown – outside of the lunc hour – certainly was never described as lively. I’d heard more than one person on more than one occasion describe Calgary’s core as “dead”. This was a serious hit to the city’s wishful image as a cosmopolitan centre. There was no way anyone thought a big bookstore could survive downtown. (A&B couldn’t even do it any longer.) But then a Western Canadian born and bred bookseller came to town and took a chance.
I think it is safe to say a lot of Calgary’s evening and weekend resurgence can be attributed to the McNally family’s shop. They started a trend that saw the storefronts of Stephen Avenue open up one by one during times other than just lunch. Soon Encorp followed by taking a huge risk with Art Central. Theatre Junction chose to do the same and bring back the Grand Theatre. New restaurants started popping up throughout downtown. Earl’s expanded into Fuel; and very recently even the Calgary Flames decided it was worth the chance and they chose to refurbish the Palace Theatre into Flames Central. Anyone who visited Calgary’s downtown just five years ago would barely recognize it now. There are actually people on the streets after 5:30pm. And not just the homeless.
McNally Robinson leaving Calgary is a blow in more ways than many of us might think. Hopefully it is not a sign of things to come. This would certainly be a boom going bust. And nobody in either the business or arts community wants that.
McNally will be closing their doors August first and I will be weeping shortly after.
Although I’m glad I didn’t renew my Reader Club card early, like I planned to last week…
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