The first post of a blog series that will likely never take off

If I had more time I would love to begin a series entitled ‘Five minute walk’.  The name comes from my high school days and refers to a small record label specializing in marginal Christian rock (we all have a past don’t we?).  The reason it keeps coming to mind is because of how consistently impressed I am by what I encounter around my home in as little as a 5 minute walk.

This past Friday my wife and I were without child and set out for a walk in the seasonally acceptable but still crisp Fall air.  Our original destination was the new coffehouse and gallery Pop Soda’s at Portage and Furby.  On the way we noticed that the restaurant Elements in the new UofW science building was open.  The restaurant occupies a glassed corner of the building and expands into the larger science complex.

(Unfortunately we did not take our camera so all the pictures to follow were snagged from the web)

The space that Elements opens into

The building was a warm and inspiring stop on out walk.  But we pressed on to what we thought was our destination.  Pop Soda’s is a large eclectic space in contrast to the clean, intentional and modern lines of the science building.

Pop Sodas

The first time I was at Pop Sodas the place was packed, standing room only as some local artist put on a great folk-pop show.  This night things were more low key.  Patrons were scattered about engaged in relaxed conversation listening to canned music.

For whatever reason, perhaps we were still a little restless, we decided to walk on and headed up Portage towards Stella’s located in the new Plug In Institute for Contemporary Art.

 

As we got closer we saw a buzz of people around the entrance and inside the near completely glassed street level.  We were fortunate enough to have stumbled on the reception for a new art installation by Lani Maestro entitled, “her rain”.  The installation is what I would call a ‘highly conceptual’ work.  This means that most of us will be scratching our heads, questioning the entire project of ‘art’ when we first walk through the installation.

one of the pieces

And indeed that is part of the experience.  The installation is meant to question the manner in which our ‘subjectivities’ are constructed.  We are meant to be a part of the work.  None of Maestro’s pieces are traditionally ‘framed’.  There are not meant to be clear boundaries from which we can objectively evaluate a piece.  And to reject Maestro’s approach may well be to reject our willingness to be change, to be ‘touched’.  Well, anyway.

We walked over into Stella’s shared a couple of glasses of wine over a waffle, talked about beauty and other such mundane topics.  Once finished we stepped and passing through the UofW pedestrian corridor it took us about five minutes to get home.

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Shop local, shop global

There are numerous perspectives on how to understand and engage with some of the larger economic issues facing our world.  I for one see the destructive nature of increasingly large and aggressive corporations that leverage cutthroat tactics to secure a consumer base and expand products and monopolies.  The question then is how to respond.  Some advocate for smaller local economies that are more sustainable and resilient to the increasingly devastating effects of transnational corporations.  The reality, as I understand it, is that this model tends to not actually address global issues as these local expressions remain either directly tied into the larger economic structure or function in an isolated and ineffective margin.  Until I have a better grasp of the larger structures and have a sense of how to respond I have decided to shift, to a small extent anyway, towards local economies for another reason.

Reason #1 – Juba Halal Foods at 524 Sargent (between Young and Langside)

My wife was looking for dates and since this place carried a variety she asked the man behind the counter about the differences.  This led to a 20 minute overview of the historical, religious and nutritional value of dates in the Middle East.  These candied jewels helped nomads survive in the desert and old-men survive constipation.  Men and women were to take them at different times of the day.  They essentially contain everything essential.

Reason # 2 Selam Foods (714 Ellice between Victor and Toronto)

We stopped in here simply to look around and found ourselves engaged in conversation over an exotic spice my wife had not heard of before (which is saying something).  The man behind the counter took time to let us smell the spice and described different ways it could be used to prepare tea of ground up for various dishes.

Reason # 3 -El Izalco (696 Sargent between Victor and Toronto)

Here my wife and I were greeted by Sarah.  She kindly asked us if we were looking for anything.  As we came to the refrigerated section she pointed out her homemade Tamales and Papusas as well as various sauces and salsas (she also said she was out of the sausage she makes).  We mentioned that we were returning to the neighbourhood after being away she welcomed us here and told us stop in again.

These three reasons for shopping local may make absolutely no change in larger economic systems.  They do, however, help to sustain local business people allowing them to continue to have pride and freedom to express their gifts and traditions.  This is reason enough for me and almost feels selfish with what I receive in return.

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