The Rose City or "The Worst Place in Canada"

I made my first trip to Windsor last week, which coincided with Stephen Colbert stating that Windsor is "the worst place in Canada. Just...just God-awful. I don't even have time to go into it, but if you've been there, you know." While I perhaps didn't get the full Windsor experience, from what I saw it didn't seem much crappier than Trenton or Brantford so, you know, maybe Colbert should take a tour of the other many crapholes in our lovely nation before making such a definitive statement. But I am getting sidetracked. Ok, so I went to Windsor to interview a 96 year-old nun and to check out the archival doings there. It was a quick trip but a good one. In addition to getting to see the archives there and do the oral history thing, I got to hang out a bit with everyone’s favourite Windsorite, Christine. She took me our and showed me a bit of what the city had to offer. If I were to judge Windsor on what I saw I would come to the conclusion that it was quite a happening place - this belief, however, is undercut by the fact that pretty much everyone I met told me that it wasn't a typical night. Nevertheless, Christine showed me a pretty great time out on the town. First up was bar called The Avalon Front to see an exhibit of local photographers called "Fotografika." There was quite a diverse array of images on display around the bar varying from portraits and landscapes and still-lifes, documentary, 'art' photos, colour and b&w, traditional and digital. A typical mix bag that you might expect from a group show. Most were good, some were excellent. Of particular note were a series of large b&w photos of people in front of their houses, a series of images by Christine's friend Chris which had intense colour and a unique mounting, and a time-lapse video that was projected on a screen of urban views. For the opening there was a dj and a pretty good little local band called Theory of Everything. If that wasn't cool enough, we then skipped over to the Phog Lounge for the opening night of their second annual T-Shirt Art Show. This, my friends, is an awesome idea. Essentially the bar had people submit one-of-a-kind or limited run t-shirts with designs that were silk-screened, embroidered, handpainted, etc. They stay up for the month and are auctioned off to the highest bidder (with some that you could buy 'off the rack' for a set price). There were some very cool, and some very odd, shirts and the bar itself was excellent with a good vibe, good beer, and board games galore (a very intense game of Connect Four was happening behind me at one point). A good time was had. Thanks to Christine for showing me her hometown and introducing me to all her ubercool, artsy friends. I look forward to getting back down there soon.
rgsc