Big Walks, Big Tables and Big Ideas
Remember my life in a silo? When you tend to spend all your time with your head down, working feverishly on your own pet-projects? Well, as soon as I lifted my head up to take a breather, I found out that - GASP - there are others working towards the same goals here in our fair city.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with this most-excellent hole-in-the-wall, Phog is that red, boxy joint located on University Avenue just west of the Capitol Theatre. Go in there. Really. The guys behind the bar (Tom and Frank) are crazy for introducing Windsorites to some of the best homegrown and imported musical acts in this city. They truly do this city a favour by keeping the art genre of live music alive and well. We owe them big for that alone.
But it’s not just that. Tom Lucier is also one of the biggest boosters for this city that you will meet. Read his column in the Windsor Star every now and then and you will be able to tell. He is also trying to facilitate some dialogue that will help improve this city as well. His “Big Table” discussions, in Tom’s own words…
These mentors of mine, doers in their own right, festival organizers, volunteers, idea-people, resource-collectors, arts-minded, cultural individuals are altruistic enablers. They come together every week to help anyone within the group to realize an event, project, festival, whatever…
Gee, what a novel concept, eh? Collaboration! I want in!
This is reprinted from Lucier’s personal blog…
Big Walk is scheduled for 8am on November 8, and will finish at the starting point 16 hours later, at midnight. We will be walking across the city back and forth, up and down, north of Ottawa Street primarily…but keeping within the oldest quarter of the city (closest to the Detroit River).
We plan on stopping for four sit-down meals and some short tours of certain select spots. We also plan on visiting several local businesses, some you may know, some you may not, to increase awareness of what they have to offer. Most of these stops will be culturally significant or historically significant stops. So we’re not stopping at a car dealership, or a mall.
What will everyone take from this walk, besides sore feet? I think we will have a renewed sense of our city, in the area researched, because we will be unable to ignore the subtleties we are habitually glazing over when we drive or bike. These walkers will be seeing the trash (or lack thereof) in certain neighbourhoods, the road conditions, the abrupt endings to bike lanes, and the faces of many houses we have never turned our heads to enjoy.
Personally, I look forward to seeing how much environmentally significant spots we discover, or discover ruined. The city life finds us hunting for parks and green spots more and more, and I hope that I can leave this walk with the sense that not all is lost in the natural history of Windsor. My home.
If you want in, e-mail me. phoglounge@gmail.com
I am looking forward to joining Tom and the other “Big Walkers” on this 16 hour scavenger hunt of cool Windsor ammenities. I urge you to contact Tom to see if you could join us.
Tags: community building, Downtown, Entrepreneurs, event, local business, Local Music, local writer
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this sounds fantastic! it actually reminds me of what shawn micallef did in toronto with his toronto psychogeography society. brilliant. yay tom!
Ahh, the Windsor music scene, perhaps the most maligned and misunderstood sector of the local artosphere. Places like Phog, which is an undeniably awesome place to catch a live act, and have a drink are too few in this city. The space definately should include musicians, not only because music is my first love, also because Windsor has not been kind to it’s musicians… unless you are a cover band. I saw a guy at the Milk once who just blew my mind. It was just this thin, uncomfortable looking lad with an acoustic guitar and an incredible voice.
Who knows what happened to this guy? Perhaps he still plays, somewhere, perhaps in Toronto or New York. The mass exodus of talent, or even worse, the bands who quit before they even start, has got to end, and I for one think that our upcoming space has to be a place that helps develop and inspire musicians as much as it inspires all other types of artists.
brendan i totally agree with you. back in the day i was in bands, we’d have shows every nearly weekend. granted…..it was usually at the old alcopcco delight next to phog…..annnnd we were a craptastic punk rock band. but we always had somewhere to play. i remember a music scene that simply is not around anymore, and became very discouraging to even bother playing music when the city didn’t seem to want to allow a venue for this passion to be nurtured. i think at some point, we may have even sqeezed into the phog waaaaay back when it was the eclectic.
….if only we had an old theater house of some sort still standing, maybe one that was on the river, ideally like a block east of ouellette…..yup,that would be perfect.
this walk sounds really cool! but i quite honestly have to get myself really motivated to walk for 16 hours, i need to think about that one lol i really do want to take this walking tour and not glaze over everything i go by.
Just to let every know, the walk isn’t for a continuous 16 hours. The whole idea of the walk is to explore areas in Windsor that you may not know about, including restaurants et al. There’s going to be lots of butt-time and time for getting to know your fellow Big Walkers. This is about expanding our networks and learning to love our city a little bit more. Trust me, if it was for 16 hours straight, I may be watching from the sidelines as well.
Also, if you know of any of Windsor’s “Hidden Gems” that you think the walkers shoud go to, please let us know. We wouldn’t want to miss anything along our travels, and you may just hold the secret to the best spot in Windsor!
Chris, I think that the city centre west lands and West River Village (you know were I mean) should be added if it isn’t already.
What can be showcased is a vibrant and eclectic mix of businesses, individual houses and apartments. The area can be shown as a what-once-was whenit was larger and a true urban village and what it is today and what it could be again tomorrow.
If I am not out of town that weekend (I have a previosu engagement) I would love to come along. It really is a fantastic idea!
The smell of apathy!
It is an exciting time to live in Windsor. There is an understanding that what has always been done cannot continue. Transformation is needed and the opportunities are unlimited.
Having lived through community transformation before, I can say that popular apathy is our biggest obstacle.
I grew up in a neighborhood called the junction in Toronto. The junction is a neighborhood in west Toronto to the west of High Park and north of the Bloor West Village. Some describe the junction neighborhood as the next big “hip place to live.”
But, this is not what my old neighborhood was like. You see the junction was the hog in Toronto’s nickname of “Hogtown.” It was a working-class neighborhood next to Canada’s largest stockyards. The defining characteristic of the neighborhood was the odour from the stockyards.
In 1993 the stockyard closed and the meat-packers also began to move. But, even though it was one of the best locations in the city developers did not come. The smell of what was, kept them away. It was not the smell in the air - that ended with the closing of the stockyard; but the smell in the psychic of Torontonians. It took some time before people began to get excited about the opportunities and forgot what was.
I sense the same apathy from many Windsorites.