Dear, Edmonton...
You, sir, are awesome. I think I must be going through that thing that people say always happens when you're just about to leave this town and suddenly realize how much you love it. This photo, while nothing special, was taken en route to the Oodle Noodle this afternoon to grab a vermicelli box. I'm hoping to have some time to walk around and shoot some more pictures before the sun goes down, but lords knows time is at an ever-increasing premium is this work-a-day world of ours, hey? HEY??Yeah, that's fucking right. And come to think of it, this is my last week at Vue. Weird. Weirder still: moving in two weeks.
posted by Anonymous at 4:30 PM
15 Comments:
Yup, it's a shake-up, but I'll bet you Heather's surf 'n' turf dinner you won't regret it -- there's a lot in this town you'll dig, and half of your friends are already here, which makes for the easiest part of the transition. That and the free wheelbarrow full of peanut brittle that all new Ontario residents get.
When I arrived here a year ago Jan 2nd it was cold and snowy and big and alien. A high school friend got two of his buddies -- guys I'd never met -- to pick me up at the airport. They'd been partying for two days straight. I wasn't sure I was even gonna make it to my office, a big weird funeral home, which was also my new home for the next month. I lived upstairs with people I barely knew.
But thanks to new friends and old, I settled in remarkably well, and had (am having) a blast going to gigs, discovering new bars and restaurants, checking out all the strange, cool neighbourhoods, and going on road-trips. You'll definitely miss E-ville, but seeing as half of Edmonton lives here now, ironically you'll probably end up talking more about the place than you did when you lived there. So yeah, very few, if any, regrets about moving here.
At least until I got SARS.
8:51 PM
Edmonton is a shit hole and never look back.
No wait, the people are nice. Toronto is good, too, but I still haven't found a decent place to go dancing. If there is a dancefloor, the music usually not very good and House-y, and people just STAND THERE and shuffle their feet.
8:59 PM
Dude,
You're not talking about Edmonton, you're talking about "home."
Edmonton IS home, and what place could be homier? What place could be as bacon-and-eggs, knuckleheads-make-good, you're-one-of-us, nice-hat, if-you-leave-we'll-freeze-to-death as Edmonton? Nowhere, that's where.
Wop May, Lois Hole, the smalls, and, I suppose, Colby Cosh all dreamed of leaving Edmonton.
Arthur Hiller, Darren Dutchysyn, John Candy and every Oiler hall-of-famer actually did it.
As someone who moved to Edmonton and wound up with more cold winter than hot ass, I can relate. My only advice is to know when to cut bait. You'll never boat a marlin in Edmonton. The big ones who know how to fight are something special.
Yet, you'll never starve on trout, and lord knows that I filled my belly.
Edmonton does well, all things considered.
As a great big social experiment I'd call it a success but stop short of being its champion. Flee.
It doesn't need you and doesn't want you hanging around.
-- Collin
5:01 AM
Wise words, all. But one thing remains to be said: Edmonton doesn't have a Robocop stencilled on the side of its local Econolodge. It used to, but no more.
Toronto, however, does boast of a Robocop sign--and it's mere blocks from my place.
I think we have a winner.
10:53 AM
I'm waiting for you to leave town so I can put that robocop stencil back up. GET OUT!
11:36 AM
It smells like a eulogy in here. I'll miss ya, Chris. You were a good boss who casually taught me how to be a better writer. Even if I didn't listen much.
Good luck in the Big Smoke - your future writers suck even worse than I did, so you have your work cut out for you.
C.
1:02 PM
Hey! I'm one of his future writers! Play nice, Mr. Enthrall. :-)
1:18 AM
Heh heh heh...
9:05 AM
Having moved to a town with even fewer prospects than Edmonton, I'll say this.
Getting out is worth it, just for the chance to shit in a different city.
After spending three weeks in the town I lived for 23 years, I came to one conclusion: I've been there, and it's going to be exactly the same next Christmas, and every other Christmas for a long time. I think the same holds true for any time of the year. Edmonton is Edmonton, and until the last building on Whyte Ave burns down, it's going to be just like you remember. Besides, it's the people who make a place livable. And there are lots of people in Toronto. And here in Halifax, it's pretty fuckin' great, too, and everyone can come out here now! Why? Because. Oops. TOo long again.
2:13 PM
When is the Kegger. I mean, seriously... when? We're all grown adults, now, so maybe we could make it, like, a pony keg. Or maybe a couple 4 litre boxes of l'Ambience. Perhaps a frisky little Chardonny paired with a rare Comte cheese? Maybe a nice nap?
Consult Dose: what would Bennitommica Katrangelia do?
KEGGER IT IS!
(Seriously, right here; everything breakable's been broken)
4:09 PM
It’s funny, but every time I start to think about the fact that I will, in all likelihood, eventually wind up leaving Edmonton as my career requires it, I feel both a pang of giddy relief, and a moment of silent sadness. On the sadness side, I may never get to ride the LRT extension all the way to Century Park in 2009 (yes, I’ve really been looking forward to that…), and I would feel sort of strange about leaving the place when it’s sooooo close to finally becoming a real city, instead of a large stab-happy town. On the happy-to-leave front, I’d be relieved to know that I wasn’t just another one of those media cogs who basically just sit in one place for their entire career, covering the same stories over and over again. In this industry, it’s often really hard to get ahead without hopping between cities a fair bit, even if you stick within a larger chain of papers. Still, I often wonder how many “stabbing in north Edmonton” stories I’ll end up covering before I get a change of scenery.
If and when I wind up leaving Edmonton, I’d like to think that it’s not about wanting to leave Edmonton, but that it’s all about knowing that sometimes, a move is necessary in order to keep the brain fresh, and to keep from winding up like all those old, grizzled reporters who should have left town years ago.
Besides, I’m going to have to move to Toronto eventually if the Edmonton takeover of Dose is to be complete.
3:27 AM
When I fled Calgary I was so absolutely sick of driving up and down the same streets that I'd have swallowed my tongue if I didn't get out.
I kind of felt gyped in that everyone I knew left town for their university. Got out, grew up, and so forth.
Now, I'd go back in a heartbeat to Calgary, and not just because I'm stuck in a small-town conspiracy of beef-and-oil.
I heard a great line the other night that, "nothing ever happens in Chicago for the first time.... it's got this great spirit, but new things happen on the coasts."
Well ditto Edmonton, which kind of showed me what a Canadian town was all about. It's Bedford Falls vs. Pottersville, so to speak.
Do you need a sportswriter to make the Edmonton takeover of Dose complete?
Looking forward reading the first instalment of "Life after Ballard." Or would it be "Life after Cito"?
--Collin
12:41 PM
Hmmm... I didn't know we were applying for jobs: I'll take restaurant reviewing across Canada, flown in and out of cities and towns to sample their fare.
Come to think of it, that idea sounds pretty damn good.
Edmonton is home. A dusfunctional family home where everyone's crazy, but in the crazy you're used to. Small-town concerns loom so big here, while they barely make a blip on the news elsewhere. That pisses us off. It also makes media people want to go places where they cover things that make blips elsewhere. It's comfortable, it's self-indulgent, and it's just boring enough to be interesting.
Normand's is serving kangaroo next week!
I like living here, but I would definitely listen to other opportunities - though I'm not quite at the stage of hunting them down and shooting them, then dancing around the pages of my current gig while smeared in their still-steaming blood.
Wow. That was more graphic than I expected. If you need a blood buddy or a comforting slice of hom, sir, give me a shout.
C.
2:06 PM
Ah, yes... heaven will surely be like The Gateway, but when you smash out a ceiling tile, it will leak manna, instead of one of Neal's old lunchs.
If only we knew more rich business types willing to throw money at the creation of a magazine without turning the damn thing over to the ad dept. If only an online magazine was profitable. If only we had proofing pens full of nougat. Sigh...
In other job(ish)-related news, tonight we screened the absolutely insane Italian gore flic The Beyond, and just for the hell of it, made up novelty "The Beyond" barf bags and handed them out. Yay!
1:52 AM
This is a bad idea. You all remember what happened when the Journal reached maximum Gateway saturation -- Dan, Bence, Myself, a bevvy of Ed and freelance writers. It rained long and hard.
If you'll excuse my I have to look up the term "ringtones."
--CG
1:13 PM
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