i found this tonight on a telephone pole on johnson and broad st. at around 5 pm on a week day, i’d give that piece of hand-drawn posterage about 3 minutes before it’s covered up by a machine copied poster for a cultural event. is that intended irony ?
after spending some good time in nanaimo, i would have to disagree.. there is a lot going on in victoria, people just need to crawl out of their comfort zones to see it and appreciate it. right?
i went for a walk on The Breakwater today with chrissie and jim. it was gorgeous out there.. we probably spent almost an hour on it, taking pictures and observing stuff.
very relaxing weekend .. why does it have to end!?!?!?
eeek!
Davin, there’s a badlady behind you!
baglady..well..she’s also bad..
d00d! that pic is jweet! not the poster. poster be damned. obviously someone without the depth of character to see beyond their own pretension. the lighthouse pic. wikkid! nice one Jim!
i was just about to say! my, davin, those are some awesome lookin shoes you’ve got on! watch that the badlady doesn’t try & steal ’em… 😉
love the “cultureless” pic by the way. whoever wrote that is so fantastically wrong.
baglady! haha! with those pants on you look more like one of those bratty raver kids i keep seeing around town. *laughs* ahhh…sometimes i’m funny. sometimes only to myself…
victoria cultureless? whoa boy, if only there was a phone number on there, i’d call up that person and give them a piece of my cultured (like arty and stuff, not grown, like bacteria) mind. elisa and i went to a four-hour world dance thing on saturday that was absolutely fabulous. stuff like that goes on *all the time* in victoria and for some reason lots of people don’t hear about it, or they don’t pick up a monday mag or boulevard at the literally thousands of drop boxes around town. cultureless my ass–that pisses me off!!
umm, however, i think there are a lot of victorians who are unnecessarily snobby. oh, and the rendition of vancouver island on that poster is quite good. see barkely sound there? and port renfrew? yep, not a bad little map. heh.
Just to be a contrarian bastard, I’ll agree with the feeling behind the poster, though the tone is WAY too strong. (To call Victoria ‘shit’ or ‘nazi’ is ridiculous and extremist, and just turns away people who might otherwise have considered the message.)
When I think of Victoria I think: Beautiful, friendly, tourist, happy, sunshine, perfect-size.
But I also think white, monoculture and old. (And bad phone books. hee hee!)
There are events going on in Victoria, sure, but you have to seek them out, and they’re not particularly well-attended. And the well-attended part is the real indication of a cities cultural level, to some extent.
I guess I just love the vibe in places like Montreal, where they have month-long jazz-fests and movie festivals, and public concerts and such.
Maybe I just don’t pick up Monday enough. I guess I just wish we had so much culture we were bursting with it, and always closing down streets for street parties. Bah. 🙂
This should be fun- I dare anyone to try to organize a public event that in any way could at all interfere with anyone else’s day. Welcome to Victoria, where if it’s conservative we’re all for it.
I’m afraid I have to agree with the poster…but it’s not just Victoria..it’s pretty much the culture here in Western Canada..which is exactly why I crave to be in Europe. Even BRITAIN has more cuture than us.
Julie is that the one heart dance you went to in Fairfield?..been there too..although it was right around the time I started raving, and it was hard to get into it at the time.
bah! yes, victoria is very white and, and at times, i think very racist, but that’s not *really* what the heart of victoria is about. if that’s how a person feels about victoria, then they aren’t really a part of their community. if someone feels the need for some culture, go hang out in chinatown for the afternoon. (believe me, you *can* spend the whole afternoon there.) did you know there is a community arts centre? and that they’ve been having some very cool shows lately? did you know that they are dozens of art galleries showing the work of artists from many different cultures? when was the last time you’ve been to the gvva? or even the royal bc museum? (other than to see an imax film.) have you seen how thick the independent film festival guide is? what about jazzfest in the spring? i could go on and on and on here. we’ve got culture coming out of our ass here and most of us don’t even know it.
believe you me, i know in comparison to european cities that victoria lacks in culture, but you really can’t compare the two. the population of victoria is 76,000 (!), within the grvd the pop. is 311,902. in the 1996 census, only 7.63 percent of the grvd residents id’ed themselves as a part of a visible minority. can you really compare this with montreal? we’re just a tiny, white seaside community here, and yet we’ve got some cool stuff going on.
if you’re feeling cultureless, go to the “world dance coffeehouse” at errington hall (1390 errington rd) on feb. 8 in parksville. african dance, middle eastern delly dancing, hip hop. there’s dancing afterwards with the doods from zimbabalishious (amazing!) they’ll have greek lebanese meals there too. these events sell out!! i know it’s not in victoria, but i’m actually thinking about going anyways–the one i went to last weekend was so much fun!
anyways, my point is, yes, victoria is frighteningly white, but that shouldn’t deter anyone from thinking it’s also cultureless. sincerely, open your eyes and you’ll find a lot of really neat things to be involved in. also pick up monday mag (their event calendar is great), and boulevard, which is an urban lifestyle magazine. i guarantee that you’ll find some fun stuff to do!
you guys who are complaining about victoria’s lack of culture should come down and visit florida’s “cultural coast” sometime.
First, an acknowledgement; yes, Victoria is small and therefore less likely to have the same level as a big city.
I don’t think of it as an excuse though. For example, there’s even less going on in Sidney than Victoria. And I’d still call it ‘boring’. It doesn’t matter to me that it’s small, or that Sue’s dinner might stay open late trying to liven things up. If it’s not working it’s not working…
It seems the counter-argument presented is, “but we’re small (and we’re trying, you just have to look!)” Fair enough. I’m just saying it doesn’t matter if we’re trying. The *success* of the event is the reality I’m talking about. So in a sense I’m not saying we’re not trying, or that people aren’t putting on cultural events, I’m decrying that they’re not well-attended. The *people* of Victoria don’t show up, and that’s the problem. We have a higher percentage of white, and a higher percentage of old. Fair enough. The sad thing is it has a definite effect on our city.
It *feels* old and white. 🙁
Sorry for being so down guys, this topic just gets me down a bit. Not sure why I’m carrying on… *rolls eyes*
And YES, I know it’s up to us to make Victoria better if we want it to be. Right now I’m one of those people who’s not going to a lot of cultural events (so perhaps I lose my right to criticize, fair enough…) I’m working on it though.
Sorry for being such a downer! 🙂
Middle-aged woman, to me while on a practically empty walkway around the inner harbor: “Sidewalks are for pedestrians.”
Me: “Ok.” (Continue riding)
This has happened multiple times. It’s annoying, especially the mindset of all these older fellows, but I don’t let it bother me. I’m on a high gear bike, and if they get maniacal, I can outrun them easily. The problem is that they stick to these silly rules when there is nobody in the area. It’s not like I’m about to hit anyone, but hey!
I guess they need extreme layers of structure to lead ‘healthy’ lives. Later on, while biking *past* Laurel Point Hotel, two men in their 50’s (it appeared) warned me to ‘not bike on any area in or near this one, as it is private property’. Well! I was just on my way to the Galloping Goose, but OK!
Yes, White, Monoculture, and Old. Something so heinous as riding a bike downtown has the potential risk of getting yourself crucified and skewered by vicious, conservative old people. So watch out!
Woohoo!
Neil