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Commercial Drive
It’s odd when a local culture misrepresents itself
By Kevin Potvin
But that seems to be just one more element of the beguiling nature of Commercial Drive
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The culture of a place—its art, its music, its literature—we must believe expresses the collective mind of the place. It’s always been so. Painted Haida war canoes and Rembrandt nudes tell us a great deal about where the mind of the Haida or the Dutch were at.
A cursory sampling of that micro-laboratory of art that is Commercial Drive, however, turns up cultural production that seems at odds with the mind of the area, at least as it’s revealed in conversation and in “feel.” There seems a disconnect, if that’s at all possible. It’s either disconnected, or the cultural product on offer is being read wrong, or the mind of the people is being understood wrong.
The overarching theme of conversations on the street, the “feel” of this place, is one of deep foreboding bordering on paranoia. There is an overabundance of doom, a doom made even more menacing for being largely invisible thus far: climate change can’t be felt in day-to-day weather, economic collapse can’t be seen during the work day, and depleted energy isn’t evident in week-to-week rises and falls in gasoline prices at gas stations. Dan’s Homebrewing Supplies, 693 East Hastings, is the place for all your home-brew ideas. You can’t get more local than right at home, and the quality you’ll make is better than you can buy.
As mystery and thriller novelists know well, the scariest threat is the unseen one. There is a conviction throughout this neighbourhood that conditions of life are about to change radically, and on all fronts, for the worse. The anxiety is as palpable. People are worried, and not so much about themselves, their own homes or their own jobs (though this personal anxiety is surely on the rise too), but a more profound, a much deeper worry, grips them: it’s about mankind, the Earth, and the whole global economy. This anxiety about the world is already at serious levels and seems to be rising yet more, even while personal anxieties also begin to mount, multiplying and further complicating a tightening web of worry.
Amidst this profound anxiety, I sampled cultural product up and down the street over the course of a night. New paintings displayed at the Britannia Community Centre Art Gallery by Donna Cowan capture a particular tree in different poses that resides in Lighthouse Park, West Vancouver, and views of a coastal bay. One picture in particular exhibited powerful movement and strength.
I went from there to the Apocalypse Road Show, a title that promised to resonate with the “feel” of the street of late. It was a Hallowe'en-ish night of fun with common End of World themes. The spoken word poems, rapped pieces and musical selections captivated the audience, a full house spilling out into the street through the great big open windows, with upbeat humour and lighthearted reference to the idea there would be no tomorrow. The approach reminded me of the capriciousness of the voice-over at a spot on Pink Floyd’s now very old Dark Side of the Moon album: “News today: No tomorrow. Next news: Never.”
From there I retraced my steps back down the street to the Libra Room, a new and, after a fire, a well-renovated and much expanded live music room reminiscent of the best secret finds in Paris or Prague. There’s high-end jazz here every night of the week, no cover charge, and thoroughly welcoming service. Amanda Tosoff and her trio play here every Thursday night. It was melodic, a bit challenging and virtuoistic. The music was powerful enough to leave me with particular progressions still echoing in my mind all the next day.
As with the paintings and the spoken word, the live music had no hint of the anxiety that permeates this street, that connects these diverse venues as nerves do the reflexes. Either there is anxiety in this art—unlikely as I looked and listened hard for it in case it was more subtle than I was prepared for—or there is no anxiety in the street—also unlikely as I find myself buffeted by it face first every headlong struggle up the street. Or there is a profound disconnect going on here between what this street feels and what it says it feels. This is not an impossible phenomenon as it would resemble behavior so many people themselves exhibit everyday, feeling one thing but attesting to quite another.
What I don’t know is whether this is in some way typical, a local culture feeling one thing but showing another, or if this is an interesting moment of aberration worth noting and commenting on.
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The Republic of East Vancouver masthead
The Republic of East Vancouver supports no party, advocates
for no cause, represents no group, serves no master, and considers
problems with no preconceived notions. We hope to afflict the comfortable,
both materially and intellectually, and comfort the afflicted—of
both kinds as well, and we are trying to do both things at the same
time.
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Kevin Potvin
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