There seems to be a whole sub-genre of music devoted to disliking Winnipeg. There was an album by the Venetian Snares a few years back, called “Winnipeg is a frozen shithole.” And today I ran across this gem.
The fact is, I have a lot of nostalgia attached to Winnipeg – more than to any other place in Canada. I have some fondness for the Vancouver of my childhood visits, and the flash-romance of the week I spent stranded in Ottawa during my strange, cross-continental foray into homelessness, in my 20th year. But Winnipeg was a connection built on repeated visits with my spouse Michelle during the mid 1990’s. It’s a place of magic and romance and nostalgia re-nostalgified. Is that odd?
What I’m listening to right now.
The Weakerthans, “One Great City.”
Lyrics:
Late afternoon, another day is nearly done
A darker grey is breaking through a lighter one
A thousand sharpened elbows in the underground
That hollow hurried sound, feet on polished floor
And in the dollar store, the clerk is closing up
And counting loonies trying not to sayI
Hate
WinnipegThe driver checks the mirror seven minutes late
The crowded riders’ restlessness enunciates
The Guess Who sucked, the Jets were lousy anyway
The same route everyday
And in the turning lane
Someone’s stalled again
He’s talking to himself
And hears the price of gas repeat his phraseI
Hate
Winnipeg
And up above us all
Leaning into sky
Our golden business boy
Will watch the North End die
And sing, “I love this town”
Then let his arcing wrecking ball proclaimI
Hate
Winnipeg
Below is a picture I took in Morris, Manitoba (about an hour south of Winnipeg), and above right, a desolate highway sign in Pembina, North Dakota, both in 2009 (I may have posted these pictures before – if so, apologies).
Unrelatedly (hopefully unrelatedly), a quote:
“The more laws you have, the more criminals there will be.” – attributed to the Tao Te Ching, but I’m not sure of that.
