...and forth...
Batshit finds you day 4, a gift for the son, an old Calgary Flames hat, a quick touch and frisk for a loan to buy the frame for the Mona Lisa which just happens to be hanging in the Salvation Army, then he's off.
The customers, many glad to see you back, some of the locals - members of the anti-tipping league - break form and even leave you a tip, but that won't happen again, it's a one off.
In a weird way it's good to be back, although the manners are - in general - ruder than what you'd find in the city, and we have customers exploding in alcoholic rages, fighting with staff, with themselves, you just shake your head, carry on, out here it's just another day, a game of numbers.
The schedule, I'd asked, been promised, 4 doubles, 3 off, so that I could return to Calgary and visit daughter, they give me 12 in a row - doubles, 2 off, I shuffle the schedule and make it work. This could be a long summer - if I can survive it, we'll see...
Early morning, drive to Calgary, visit, a few shops, errands, then - again tomorrow, bright and early, back to work the evening shift...
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- Category: Calgary
Reading the Herald, a few articles of interest - Cop accused of assaulting wife claims to be "Mentally Ill" - Nice, but we knew that when you wanted to become a cop. Don't buy it for a second. The three cops accused of kidnapping and beating up a suspect, the force springs to their defense with: "All fine, upstanding officers", the cop who was too lazy to check in the drugs he'd been seizing and took them home instead...
All this on one police force for a relatively small town. Really? Really people? Is anyone safer because the police are around? Probably not.
But the follow up to the shooting last year of the wealthy Calgary real estate "developer" was the most intriguing. Obviously a targeted attack, and reasonably well executed (I mean, he lived, but not for lack of trying). Asking around at the old restaurant - lots of people knew him, had a reputation for fucking people over for large sums of money, no shortage of possible suspects. The article explains that a group entitled "Friends of ..." had raised a $250, 000. reward for information leading to the arrest of whoever was responsible. Unbelievable. Your kid goes missing, disappears, you're lucky if the cops take a statement that same month. Take a shot at a dodgy real-estate developer and there's a quarter million dollar bounty on your head. The world is upside-down. Seriously.
And the image of "evidence" they provide is even more telling:
(Bullet Damaged Titanium American Express Card)
This photograph is a work of genius. This wasn't just another attack on a shitty person that could comfortably go uninvestigated and unsolved, this was an attack on their every shitty sacred ambition, the Titanium American Express Card, the Rolls' Royce, the house in Mount Royal....You can bet they won't rest until they find the culprit.
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- Category: Calgary
Spotted this at the flea market today. What can I say? "I remember when..."
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- Category: Calgary
A pleasant Sunday off, head on down to the Market Collective, now moved to the Chinese Cultural Center. One of the better sources of Arts and Crafts in Calgary, there are some remarkable locally produced things...
Portraits out of leaves, owls, animals, extremely well done, brilliant, even, although unfortunately available as scanned prints and not originals, there are "fashionable" pictures out of rocks (cool, but you know you're looking at next years kitsch), artisnal belts, and handcrafted chocolates, knit toques and mittens, occasional stalls filled with Bric-A-Brac, a couple of accomplished children's book illustrators...it is a bit of sensory overload, and I make a few passes trying to think of everyone on my list..
There's a child artist, maybe 8 years old, small little postcard sized sketches, classic child art, one catches my eye, "The Moustache Girl", no end of people I could give that to, inquiring the price she tells me "$20.00". Having engaged her I'm now committed, her mother explains to me apologetically that it's her own business, she's bargaining hard, I offer $5.00, nope, we compromise at $10.00, the most expensive postcard ever, but charming...she could be hipster imitating child, or child imitating hipster, I like the uninhibited style, I like child art, "The Moustache Girl", an in joke with an Italian girl at work, pupils drawn so large and the smile so wide it looks as if she's seen her mom tripping, this will suffice.
And there are other artists, too many to list, and I know some of them, not them, personally, but I recognize them from their artwork, look at a dozen or so pieces of somebodies art and if it's good you can see into their soul, I know them but leave the conversation for another time.
They've a musician, actually several, a great little stage, $5.00 admission, really, it's even better than shopping at "Community Natural Foods", a couple of hours that brighten the day...
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- Category: Calgary
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