"quietly to night"*

 "in the evening the water in our jug is finished and perched on stone, or sometimes concrete, our birds all fly away...

one piece of lokum remains on the rose-patterned plate...
the fruit on the branch consumes night for us...

if they submit quietly to night and lose their lives in all their fineness, new generations will arise and sing the songs behind the mountain,

so the sail can be furled all day with song,

so if water wants the sea it can reach it,

or if it wants it can end on the plain,

so the lokum can remain on the rose-patterned plate."*

[*selected lines excerpted from Agamemnon I by Oktay RIFAT (1914-1988), translated from the Turkish by Ruth Christie and Richard McKane in Tablet and Pen:: Literary Landscapes from The Modern Middle East, A Words Without Borders Anthology Edited by Reza ASLAN, Copyright 2011, W.W. Norton & Company]

strathcona corners:: round one

good to know that we can renew our luck - or get lucky again - in this one particular room, for rent [I presume!] in the Strathcona neighbourhood just east of Chinatown...

the ethnic mix here has shifted from immigrant italians early on to chinese workers to artists, mostly white, to determined home renovators and staunch heritage buffs, also mostly white...

still, many cool old houses from the turn of the 20th century remain, albeit in various states of redressing, making for an interesting residential pocket in the downtown eastside that is easy to miss buffeted as it is by the industrial edges of Clark Drive, the messy distractions of East Hastings Street, and the bright lights of Chinatown...

during a recent culture crawl event that encouraged the opening up of artists' studios/homes to curious outsiders, I wandered around briefly mostly looking in, but plan to return for more photos when the streets are less lively...

 [this was taken in the summer when visiting a friend staying here in this truly haunted house!]

tosi time toss

 Sandwiched between the Chinatown cacophony of East Georgia and Keefer Street on Main Street sprawls the cavernous premises of the nostalgically real italiano deli and import foodstore of TOSI and Company...

I have never known of its existence until walking by the other day and noticing the grimy and haphazard window display - or rather, non-display of boxes and cans with seriously faded labels and dusty plastic canisters! 

I had to ring a bell to be let in and I walked into a murky time warped chamber filled with an epicurean jumble of a more peasanty persuasion from another era - I don't believe the shelves and counter tops have changed much since like about 1910!

In a Vancouver that is constantly in flux and nestled in a Chinatown that is losing its original lustre, this throw-back of an authentic italian pioneer enterprise was an unexpected and oddly delightful stumbled upon discovery for someone who has only lived here for over 30 years!

[when we were waiting to pay for a package of tagliatelle, the character from central casting behind the counter was speaking in italian on the telephone to Signore Tosi Jr. himself to ask for instructions about when to plant the chicory seeds that the customer ahead of us was buying...

needless to say, it was slightly jarring to walk out the door of this time-[and scent]-muddled yet shabbily atmospheric food emporium of the TOSI family and be right back in Vancouver Chinatown again!]

a tall tree tally

 two weeks before Christmas and the seasonal betrunking of evergreen trees is well underway...

just off Commercial Drive this tallest of them all will not enjoy its regal solitary stance in a small private garden anymore...

silhouetted for one last moment against the pale winter sky before its silent majesty is no more...

*please save a tree this holiday season* 

chinatown remains

It has been much too long since I have been down to Vancouver's Chinatown and really take notice of the upscale changes going on as well as sadly, what is still barely clinging on...

The establishment of well-funded vanity projects in art galleries, stylish lounges and uptown priced

cuisine nouvelle-chinoise contrasts even more starkly with what remains of a once bustling enclave of working-class chinese culture and commerce...

On a late winter afternoon, as the sun dips low behind the buildings and the street lamps begin to turn on, I walk the few blocks of East Georgia Street, Keefer Street and East Pender Street where the majority of the shoppers are still Asian but just not as unrepentantly chic in dress as the few non-Asians making their way to be seen in the uplifted high brow cool spots...

savage snow

on my portuguese fig...

on my spanish grape...

on my french rose...

on my italian jardiniere...

denaturalization

the slow and laboured denudation of the American Hotel on the derogated part of Main Street...

the inevitable dénouement lying in a pile of gutted and discarded bricks...

the deployment of developmental mercenaries has been activated...

marking my clark park:: part III

As the leaves slowly drift away again from the drowsy trees of Clark Park, small windows open up between the branches toward the views of the city skyline and the north shore mountains...

I clamber around the high points of the park searching for such glimpses ornately framed by the golden and russet foliage, baring branches and darkened trunks...

and through the lacerating arboreal veil, the gleaming glass towers and the snow draped mountain peaks appear only as enticing mirages in the far, far distance...

paradigs

Paraphrasal Housekeeping

the wenonah

 

The Wenonah building has sat comfortably on the southwest corner of Main Street and East 11th Avenue for close to a century now...

The elegant neo-classical doorway to the apartments has been maintained and adds a grace-note to this side of the building on East 11th that houses a theatre studio and a massage and therapy centre on the street level...

The residents have also greened this section of the sidewalk with lush plantings...parting for a back view of the Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Church on East 10th Avenue...

Many of the casement windows still retain scenic and intricate stained glass panes adding sparks of colour and light to the solid brick façade...

[I would like to know more about the Wenonah - if anyone out there has information about this building and/or knows someone who lives in the apartments, please do let me know...thank you!]

MAIN-taining

Main Street a few blocks north and south of Broadway has evolved into a hub of hipness so mainstream it has lost some of its hard-earned edginess - and has inevitably acquired the flash flood of corporate chain and condo development dredging...
And yet on a sunny fall weekend during another one of its frequent street festivals - SHIFT? SHRIFT? SIFT?? - the essence of the Main of yore faded in and out of my consciousness, like an old movie that hasn't quite finished unreeling...

[note the new incongruous TIM HORTONS (in the above window's reflection) now ensconced in the cool old marble and glass bank building on the southwest corner of Broadway and Main]

[glue-splotch pattern left after the sign was taken down when the store had to close from damages of a fire next door and a few over]

[during the street festival, the resident of this apartment posted this heartfelt note that was barely visible from the street below - no one paid any attention by turning the music down!]

[where the fire had started and razed, now waiting for a new configuration of commerce]

[but gracious living still goes on around the corner...*]

*more images of the WENONAH in my next post...