An Afternoon Downtown

I had to get out of the house today. I had to go for a walk, a long one, do something for me and clear my head of the crap of the last 24 hours. I went to the WAG, took in the Cuban art exhibit and thoroughly enjoyed the Karsh retrospective. I went into the WAG shop and was enamoured with the many Christmas ornaments for sale, some quite beautiful and not badly priced. Well, when I have some money maybe I will get something pretty that will cheer me up.


I walked over to Portage Place and had to dodge all the strollers and rude people....got myself a nice latte went back onto Portage Avenue and sat down in that little park beside APTN. There were many folks out enjoying the day but it was marred as far as i was concerned by the dirty habits and rudeness of those who chose to hawk and spit where ever without even checking to see where their projectiles of filth may land.

I chose to gently rebuke a man who did this near me and he stops dead in his tracks and yells at me "I am First Nations and proud of it!" Well I asked him what that had to do with him being such an inconsiderate person. He could not answer that except to say that this was Indian land and he could do as he pleased. It did not escape my attention that he had a badge on for the Manito Ahbee shindig that I assume was on at MTS centre.....and as I got closer a short while later to said centre I had to dodge even more strollers, unkempt types begging, teens clogging the sidewalk and spitting out their gum....and folks wonder why I stay at home or go out to the woods.

One highlight today though, on Graham, was seeing some would-be thief get taken down by the cops.....folks were clapping.

I went to Dim Sum Garden for Dim Sum happy hour.....as always it was good and a deserved treat. I then went back over to the concert hall to catch a bus back to the hood.

I don't know.....downtown to me has become a slum, Portage Place a daycare centre cum clubhouse. One woman, while I was waiting for my latte, coughed right on me and as i moved away from her she looked at me and said WTF lady ya want me to hold my f*cking breath? I said nothing but I am sure the thousand yard stare said it all.....another example of human detritus.

I am happy to be back in my home resting....it was a gorgeous day but I believe that there are just too many people out there who through their loutish behaviour spoil it for some of us.

Portage Avenue has become what the Main Street Strip used to be....has been for a number of years.

JTF wrote:Portage Avenue has become what the Main Street Strip used to be....has been for a number of years.

Quite sad isn't it.

It is sad and here I was trying to cheer myself up.....did not do a good job.

Ya.. what's also sad is that this could have been prevented. People told of this happening when they started closing those old hotels...perhaps even before, if I can recall it correctly.

Seems there were some planners/social workers that thought that we could have a city without slums and a low track. The only one in Canada.

Miz point wrote:It is sad and here I was trying to cheer myself up.....did not do a good job.

I know what you need.

Call up Ticketmaster, order yourself a ticket to the GWAR show. Hang with the wife and I as we get slaughtered by ODERUS URUNGUS and his entourage.

You know you want to.

Al brief history of Gwar

THE EPIC TALE OF GWAR


Eons ago, there existed an elite group of chaos warriors who ravaged
the galaxy with a boundless hatred of all things alive. They were
called the Scumdogs of the Universe, and they grew in might and fury,
the greatest weapon in the arsenal of their cosmic Master.
But they became too powerful, and too defiant, and for their cosmic
crimes were banished to the most insignificant planet in the
universe…the seething mudball known as Earth.
Millions of years passed, and they slumbered, until the pollution of
your world de-thawed these creatures from their ageless coma…and now
they stride the Earth, living gods, dedicated to one goal, the
destruction of the human race, and the eradication of existence itself!
Wait- that’s two goals!
Hark to the hideous majesty of your MASTERS, rulers of Earth, the MIGHTY GWAR!!!
It is I, ODERUS URUNGUS, lead singer of the sickest band in metal
history, Earth’s only openly extra-terrestrial rock band, and the
destined destroyers of not only the human race but also reality itself.
GWAR! Hulking, heaving, dribbling WAR-GOD’s who like nothing better
than putting hordes of our sniveling fans to the sword while playing
the marauding mutant metal that we are famous for! Star’s of stage and
screen, carvers of stem and spleen! GWAR LIVES!

Thanks but I feel so demoralized.

I guess you have travelled on a bad day. I work near Portage Place and in the summer spent time at the Air Canada plaza almost daily. I have never had any unpleasant encounters there.

Guess so but today combined with some ahhhh, other events all added up me not being my usual, jocular self....the art gallery though, a must visit.....I was glad I went there....there were quite a few folks taking in the Karsh exhibit.

I dont really mean it, but the classic response is.........

"If you don't like it leave"

heheh

Easier said than done at present is what I would say to someone who trotted out that tired phrase. Critiques have their place and yes, Portage Avenue is a sad place compared to what it was sometime ago.....

I agree, just pointing out thats what im told so often when giving my honest opinion of this one great city.

.....

I don't know. It sounds like you described Portage Ave in the 1980's...(1987). No big difference, just some of the low-class junk stores are demolished by now (I hope). Isn't the Corydon strip, the place to stroll nowadays?
You should have got your skateboard out and hit the skate park instead.

Miz point wrote:I chose to gently rebuke a man who did this near me and he stops dead in his tracks and yells at me "I am First Nations and proud of it!" Well I asked him what that had to do with him being such an inconsiderate person. He could not answer that except to say that this was Indian land and he could do as he pleased.

I was gonna blog about this, but...

Sounds like the "gentleman" I ran into yesterday, or more appropriately ran into me. When told he should at least say "Excuse me", he gave me much the same spiel, adding that "white man's laws don't apply to him."

So I asked him, "Great. I guess that means we don't have to pay you welfare then?" and got a nice "F*ck you!" in response.

Sorry pal, you can't have it both ways.

Ummm, I think they do. Hence the sense of entitlement.

LD - that song - that one too should be on the list of the worst songs ever. SWM - I concur. I have been away from town for the last few years (well back and forth a lot) and thus have not noticed the attitude change of some of our finer residents. When did this anger and sense of we can do whatever the fu*k we please start to really become the norm as opposed to the exception. To me this behaviour is just as bad if not worse than the racism that some of them have had to endure as all they are achieving is perpetuation of nastiness.

This generation of First Nations folks has all the privileges one needs in order to establish themselves firmly as a Canadian of merit yet and all some find it so much easier to get on the "pride" and "hate whitey" bandwagon and chant the same f*cking litany when caught out on something. Remember when I told of a similar response regarding spitting last spring when the mother of a kid told me that because he came from the rez he did not know better?

BTW I rebuked four Chinese folks, two white trash and two others for public hawking and spitting. Natives are not the only persons who can be the brunt of my ire but it seems to me they can sometimes be more deserving of it when they espouse non-contextual retorts.

lets keep in mind spitting, especially spitting and missing you is not the end of the world

True, but it's a good indicator of general behaviour though.

Plus, that spit can hurt... when it's -40C outside...

casualchris wrote:lets keep in mind spitting, especially spitting and missing you is not the end of the world

It is the fact that some folks do it without giving consideration as to how their habit will be taken.....regardless of whether or not the spittle/sputum hits me it is knowing that I have to traverse sidewalks displaying big gobby chunks of the stuff and darling, I wear really nice shoes. So before I get home I find some nice green grass to wipe my shoes on before entering my house.

Just witnessing the act, seeing it land near me - it is enough to raise my ire but not to the point where I am cussing or yelling or calling someone a name.....but enough for sure to point out to some lout that for some of us, public hawking and spitting is not becoming behaviour. Just like the woman coughing right on me yesterday - does no one not understand boundaries anymore or grasp the concept of politeness?

For those of you who do know me you know that i can be quite formal.....here in a sandbox that sense of decorum can sometimes vanish but I still try to be polite. The latter characteristic is one that we should all strive to maintain in our personal and business lives.

I will give one more example as to an act of rudeness that has existed here for a long time....people who do not line up proper to catch the bus. In NYC if you jump a queue you will get called out on it.....in a city of two million (Manhattan) folks have learned to be polite - they may come across as abrasive but I have found New Yorkers to be very polite - one has to be when such little space is shared with so many.

SMW wrote:

I was gonna blog about this, but...

Sounds like the "gentleman" I ran into yesterday, or more appropriately ran into me. When told he should at least say "Excuse me", he gave me much the same spiel, adding that "white man's laws don't apply to him."

So I asked him, "Great. I guess that means we don't have to pay you welfare then?" and got a nice "F*ck you!" in response.

Sorry pal, you can't have it both ways.

You're an idiot. :p

At my morning coffee this bald white guy bumped into me and spilt my coffee and just stalked off without so much as a sorry. I tried to call him but he just kept stalking off.

MP, this attitude is a symptom of the ongoing racism. It will get worse in the near future. Your mention of First Nations alone in your original posting 'unknowingly' perpetuates racism. As does all DeanK's threads speaking about First Nations people... It'll bring out the SMW's of the world and they'll think that they're right...

Spitting will be commonplace until this H1N1 thing has done it's rounds...

I mention FN people primarily because yesterday Portage Avenue and the mall was FN-dominated. Cigarette butts, used gum and spittle/sputum literally flying around me.....

That dude who so rudely bumped into you deserved your ire.....like I maintain, I never made my ire an issue of racism yesterday but the young man in question did so who, if anybody, is in the wrong here or who can be accused of espousing even unknowingly a racist attitude?

Some of the most racist people I've seen have been natives. Nobody has an exclusive on it.

I think JTF is right, that racism issue goes both ways. And sadly nothing is going to change this, 1000 years from now we'll still be arguing about this issue.