In recent years, Saint Roch has seen more changes than any other neighbourhood in Quebec City. Once a bleak slum/parking lot, it is now home to the second-largest Hugo Boss store in North America (after New York). Needless to say, this has led to some friction between new and old residents.
Fifteen years ago, most of this was a parking lot.
Although not big news outside of Ottawa, the municipal election this year is making daily headlines in the local papers. I’m not sure if this is a regular thing, as I’ve only been here for one previous, but based on my experience in Calgary I’d guess it isn’t. I’ve taken a collection of photos of the numerous election signs all over Ottawa, which seem to be even more extensive then for the last federal election.
This is the first in a series of posts on city-related pop songs.
Photo by Chiron Bramberger on Flickr
Owen Pallett doesn’t like condos. This is abundantly clear in “This Lamb Sells Condos,” a song on his most recent Final Fantasy record, He Poos Clouds, winner of this year’s Polaris Music Prize for best new Canadian album. The Lamb in question is Brad Lamb, a Toronto condo broker whose billboards, including one with Lamb’s face photoshopped onto the body of a sheep, are found throughout the city. “The lyrics of Pallett’s song are a scathing psychoanalysis of Lamb and his colleagues in the loft and condominium development business, as well as a critical look at the costs — emotional and communal — of urban growth,” Torontoist informs us. Pallet himself elaborates, explaining that “these condos make me wickedly mad. It is turning Toronto into the architectural equivalent of a Glade Plug-In.”
But don’t expect a polemic in “This Lamb Sells Condos.” Instead, its lyrics are decidedly off-kilter and tongue-in-cheek, set to a gorgeous piano composition. The song isn’t so much a personal attack on Lamb as a poke at condo promoters in general, big-ego characters who have gleefully reduced urban life to a kitschy brand. “There’s a merchant in our midst and with a barrel fist / He’s coloured every surface, he’s slapped up a portrait / And yes, it is his own! He’s gonna take your home!” sings Pallett. “Look! Over the treetops! / Newly conjured erections are making him a killing / And Richmond St. is illing, so the graduates are willing / To buy in to the pillage, now there is no hope for the village.”
Click here to download “This Lamb Sells Condos.” The lyrics are after the jump.
For a long time I was fascinated by Hong Kong. Since about 2000 I had been monitoring airfare prices to Hong Kong. Last winter, on a late January night, I was perusing airfares and noticed a ticket sale to Asia coinciding with my week-long spring break. I had the money, I had the time — so, spontaneously, I purchased a plane ticket for Hong Kong. I left in March. I didn’t even bother telling my family about my impending departure until the night before my morning flight out. I flew from Kansas City to Chicago’s O’Hare and on to Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok Airport from there.
The photo above comes from Causeway Bay, the part of Hong Kong Island where I stayed at a decent hostel for a week. I have visited some of the world’s best cities — New York, London, Madrid, and others — but Hong Kong turned out to be my favorite, so much so that I find myself plotting ways to get back there, be it getting a job in Hong Kong, or taking a study abroad program. The problem with all that being that I have too many mitigating circumstances at home preventing me from making a long-term commitment to another city. One day, maybe.
After the jump, more photos from Hong Kong.
