west uptowner

homage to banksy, originally uploaded by plastictaxi.

So what to say about London. Ontario. The graffiti is a little derivative of London (the other one). But it's okay... the downtown area is a little strange - so many empty storefronts in one part of town, none in others. I went to see 300 at the mall (The London Galleria) and only the movie theatre and a college were open on the entire second floor. It was an indoor ghost town. Reminds me of upstate New York. But you can walk everywhere and the people smile at you on the street if you bother to nod at them. I've forgotten what a friendly mood on the street can feel like.

I'm here with Anna Chatterton and Evalyn Parry, putting up Clean Irene and Dirty Maxine for the week. It's fun, easy going, and there's time during the day to refine designs and such for the next big show.

Kind of surreal, though, sitting in the green room while the big musical upstairs is playing through the speakers. ("Say what you want! Say what you will! Somethin's cookin' at the Spitfire Grill!") Sitting there, in the basement, it's like the three of us are survivors in some post-apocalyptic world with singing crowds of performers belting songs at hundreds of bourgeois Londoners over our heads, while we put cookies in sandwich bags and prepare our humble show for an audience of a couple dozen lesbians and bohemians.

I like it that way.

# posted by trev @ 1:35 a.m.