Friday, May 27 2011
Former Zig Zag Zebra, at 30 King St. east was taken down to the ground today.
In the short time that I’ve lived in Hamilton I’ve already seen far too many beautiful old buildings torn down. King St. by Gore Park; the centre of Hamilton’s downtown core is walled by some of my favourite building facades. The buildings remind of New York, they are 4-5 stories, have huge floor to ceiling windows, and would make amazing lofts, and studio spaces. I noticed another architectural firm that is housed next to 30 King St. on the 2nd or 3rd floor -could be a good thing? When the architects start moving in, which they have been in Hamilton, you know that’s a sign, they’re usually the first ones in on the gentrification scene right after the artists.
The Century Theatre (also known as the Lyric Theatre) was a building I had walked by a million times en route to the Hudson on King St. (currently Club Absynthe) for acid jazz, white russians, and pool, from back in the day. Nearly a decade later it caught my eye when we were sussing out Hamilton as a potential place to buy a house and I thought of the old Century pretty much as a selling feature. This old abandoned theatre was living evidence of what was once a prosperous city with a rich arts community (the city in it’s hay day boasted over 6 major theatres -amazing for a city the size of Hamilton). To me the building served as a backdrop and muse for the cultural renaissance that I believe Hamilton is in for. The Century was demolished sometime during the winter of last year. I’ve even been sentimental enough to take a couple of the “Hamilton” bricks that are left in the rubble pile of the former Century.
Last summer the old Victorian house around the corner was demoed. It had been abandoned by it’s owner for years, and had become home to many raccoons and other pesky rodents. Despite it’s scavenger tenants, I still used to dream about buying the place and restoring it to it’s former glory. It’s now an empty dirt lot (soon to be brown field) that my neighbours currently use to park their car.
Friday, May 13 2011
Tonight is going to be a good art crawl. I’m sad to be missing it, especially the Field Trip: a spring pop-up shop that the folks from White Elephant have organized at the the old Friendship Gift Shop.
A great write up of the Pop-up shop and preview of the art crawl tonight can be found here. Photo taken from http://hamilton.openfile.ca
I’ll be taking my own field trip to Windsor to visit Steve at his artist residency. Windsor and Detroit, here I come! Stay tuned for more posts from my field trip.
Wednesday, May 11 2011
Going to my first knit night…
Before heading to my first knit night ever I had to buy some yarn. When you live in downtown Hamilton with no car any last minute options for yarn purchasing can be limited to mainly The Dollar Store. Luckily a friend had recently tipped me off to a knit shop that just opened in Westdale called Fireball Knits . I decided to take a little look. Although currently their selection of yarn is limited, as the store has just barely opened, the owner, Elizabeth assured me that more wool would be coming in soon. According to Elizabeth, in addition to selling yarn, Fireball Knits also offers all different sorts of crafty classes such as; yarn dyeing, weaving, drop spindle, spinning wheel, crochet and knitting. They even sell spinning wheels! I ended up buying two types of yarn, and Elizabeth even pointed to a picture on the wall of the very sheep my yarn came from.
Last week I went to the knit night at The Brain, which has been host to a knit night now for an established amount of Wednesday evenings, (so established that it appears they even received a free plate of Portuguese nata custard tarts!). There was a good show of knitters -about 15. A friend taught me a basic stitch and I was well on my way to knitting a monster-green dish cloth. I’m not going to fool anyone with my novice knitting skills, cast on cast off.
When I used to work as a librarian I saved some books from the discard pile, which I thought might come in handy if I ever decided to take up knitting. It’s a good place to go for some knitting inspiration. These pictures are from the book Knitting Techniques and Projects.
*The Brain, 199 James St. north, Hamilton
*Fireball Knits, 777 King St. west, Hamilton
Monday, May 9 2011
Lush green grass, and budding trees, who could resist this lofty patch of greenery?
Steve and I picnicked at Dundurn Park this weekend. We packed up some fixings from the Hamilton Farmers’ Market, bundled up Steve’s grandma’s quilt, and headed out to enjoy the spring sun.
My latest favourite are these sparkling fermented teas from Ercilia’s Fine Food in the Hamilton market. They are refreshing, bubbly and a little special treat above and beyond your regular tea. I bet it’d be fantastic in the summer with fresh mint and some clinking ice in a glass.
I picked up the cheese from Sam’s Cheese and Meats. Usually my default cheese is the raspberry cheddar, but for this picnic I opted for a smoked aged cheddar. It went really well with the spicy fennel salami, roasted pepper, and greens from our Plan B organic food box.
Sunday, May 8 2011
We did some informal Doors Open Hamilton wandering over the weekend. The Art Gallery of Hamilton had their annual Spring Art Sale, which nicely coincided with doors open -free admission, and we got to check out a great new exhibit. If you have the time I recommend stopping by the AGH to observe Diane Landry‘s installation Defibrillators -beautiful light, soft sounds, and mechanical operations.
Diane Landry -Flying School 2000, photo by Mike Lalich
Diane Landry, Defibrillators, photo by Mike Lalich
*Art Gallery of Hamilton, 123 King St. West, Hamilton
Saturday, May 7 2011
Pre-picnic we walked through the cemetery across the street from Dundurn castle. There were some really old tombstones and a few small groups of tours from Doors Open Hamilton. We were there mostly because I wanted to see the massive magnolia trees that were budding and blooming throughout the cemetery. I bet these magnolia trees are at least 50+years old. So beautiful…
Sunday, May 1 2011
In lieu of Record Store Day April 16th I wanted to do a rundown of where to pick-up a little local vinyl. You could say that in comparison to the likes of Toronto, or Montreal, Hamilton is no thriving metropolis. However, for its size, Hamilton still holds it down with regards to the number of record stores per capita. We’ve got
Cheapies, Dr. Disc, Books + Beats, Hammer City Records, all right downtown plus a new one that’s popped up over the past few months next to Mex-i-can on James north. Then in the east end on Ottawa St. there’s
Starddust Records for your country, 50′s, rockabilly and surf music and in the west end in Dundas we’ve got
Records on Wheels. On the occasional art crawl or open streets on James north there’s sometimes a man that I’ve bought from that’s had some real gems. The seller of those rare finds, is who told me about the record sale at the Festival Banquet Centre, which tends to happen twice a year. I’ve also come across some great deals at the
Deep Groove Record Swap that’s hosted at
The Brain. So no shortage of records over here, in case you were worried.
The photo is taken of the front window next to Mex-i-can at James and York/Wilson. I’m sure with a little digging and flipping you could manage to find a few goodies.
Sunday, May 1 2011
During my short-cut walk home from downtown, I noticed from the back of James St. north, a tri-colour combo I adore; hot pink, baby baby blue, and bright yellow, perfect spring colours for Saturday’s sunny warm day.
It seemed fitting to end the sunny day with a colourful spread of roasted veggies on the BBQ. We sat in the backyard and chased the sun until it hid behind the rooftops.
Tuesday, April 26 2011
On Saturday we took a short drive to the neighbouring town of Dundas. One of our favourite and mandatory stops, when in Dundas, is to visit our friends at Picone Fine Food; a great place to find quality local produce, unique dressings, sauces, gourmet oils and vinegars, and other tasty treats.
There was a gorgeous spread of delicious and delicately crafted baked goods.
We left with two varieties of meat pie, one chicken and the other beef. I was told that the pies were handmade by the Picone family matriarch.
*Picone Fine Food, 34 King St. West, Dundas, Ontario
Friday, April 22 2011
Former Friendship Gift Shop on 118 James St. North -looking good. Striped siding has been up for a while, and gorgeous new windows on the front were put in sometime in the last 2 weeks. Rumour is; one day the main floor (or part of it) will be home to a massive cafe. Currently the second floor is occupied by Thier + Curran Architects. Take a look at their office space.
Before 1.5 years ago.
Coincidentally, I just noticed on the Beehive Craft Collective’s Blog that they have a nice detailed post about 118 James St. north from this week! And according to their post, the old Friendship Gift Shop will be home to the craft fair that they are organizing for August 12 and 13th. The space is a real beaut, click on their link above to check out their post and pictures.
