The Churchill Arms
They say 'you always return to the scene of your crime' but I've never met 'them' and my crimes are pretty pedestrian at best. But returning is nice.
This shot to the left I took back in 2001 or 02 with my precious, the ol K1000, back when it was teaching me the ropes. As mentioned in the 'film days' section, I did spend a lot of time in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver in those days when it was a very sketchy place. The condos hadn't moved in yet and for a while I lived in a place where you could hear people going crazy from heroin at 2 in the morning. Truly crazy. Not TV crazy. Scary place. Even now, despite the 'huge economic boost' it got from the 2010 Winter Olympics (they tried to push all the marginal people 20 blocks further east or so, so the problem would, y'know, go away. It didn't. Surprise. Money will never understand lack of itself.) it's still a mess. Good people. Bad people. Poor people. All just trying to get by. And now there's condos so... y'know... that'll go well...
Anyway. A lot of things vanished in 10 years. A lot of things got a huge makeover and got turned into condos. Like the Woodward's building which I have a ton of shots from when it was all boarded up and left to fall apart. Now it's got an artisanal charcuterie and is adorned with a lot of 'edgy' photographs from the area 'back in the day' where people like to pretend they visited but honestly only ever drove through to get to an underground parkade somewhere else. Some of us remember going to sleep to the crack-lighter cricket symphonies and taking edgy pictures in urine soaked alleys...
This shot to the left I took back in 2001 or 02 with my precious, the ol K1000, back when it was teaching me the ropes. As mentioned in the 'film days' section, I did spend a lot of time in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver in those days when it was a very sketchy place. The condos hadn't moved in yet and for a while I lived in a place where you could hear people going crazy from heroin at 2 in the morning. Truly crazy. Not TV crazy. Scary place. Even now, despite the 'huge economic boost' it got from the 2010 Winter Olympics (they tried to push all the marginal people 20 blocks further east or so, so the problem would, y'know, go away. It didn't. Surprise. Money will never understand lack of itself.) it's still a mess. Good people. Bad people. Poor people. All just trying to get by. And now there's condos so... y'know... that'll go well...
Anyway. A lot of things vanished in 10 years. A lot of things got a huge makeover and got turned into condos. Like the Woodward's building which I have a ton of shots from when it was all boarded up and left to fall apart. Now it's got an artisanal charcuterie and is adorned with a lot of 'edgy' photographs from the area 'back in the day' where people like to pretend they visited but honestly only ever drove through to get to an underground parkade somewhere else. Some of us remember going to sleep to the crack-lighter cricket symphonies and taking edgy pictures in urine soaked alleys...
...but, despite it all, some things stay the same. Actually, some things stay crumbling even to this day because the economic boom came and went for a lot of the old buildings down there without a glance. Some still have giant brick cavities with the telltale Lower Mainland moss growing in their caverns. I love that green. I love how it clings to everything out there. It isn't as discerning as economic booms seem to be. And it softens even the hardest edges of a city
(though it also throws an even damper weight on the odors).
Ten years after the above was shot, I was in better places in a lot of ways. Truth is, I wasn't in horrible places in '01 (that was '97-'99) but I had moved on as I tend to. Living the BS romantic lifestyle of a 'beatpoet' in a crackhouse was exactly what it was cracked up to be... bullshit romanticism of the 'phase II artist' (still trying to be Pollock or Bukowsi or Zappa instead of yourself). Besides, I was done being 'beat' before I even got there, never claimed to be as I loathed the term only slightly more than those who blindly mimicked it.
Anyway...
I'd been to many extremes of the country since the top shot was taken (Halifax to Haida Gwaii) and, in 2011, was about to trade the west for the east coast again to begin my recent adventures. I had to visit Vancouver from Victoria to see my dad and some old friends before leaving so I hopped over on the ferry one last time. Seems that some of the 'old friends' were neighbourhoods I'd lived in back in 'the day'.
One of those was Gastown.
I took this second shot from memory as the above had always been one of my favourites. Yeah... looking at them again I guess I could'a had a different lens on and have stood back another 20 feet or so but... impression is better than accuracy in this case, I think.
...maybe I am a romantic.
-Kreddible Trout - 2013.
*click HERE to go back to 'Stories', click HERE to 2011 and HERE to get back to 'film days' (and HERE to get back to where you really want to be).
(though it also throws an even damper weight on the odors).
Ten years after the above was shot, I was in better places in a lot of ways. Truth is, I wasn't in horrible places in '01 (that was '97-'99) but I had moved on as I tend to. Living the BS romantic lifestyle of a 'beatpoet' in a crackhouse was exactly what it was cracked up to be... bullshit romanticism of the 'phase II artist' (still trying to be Pollock or Bukowsi or Zappa instead of yourself). Besides, I was done being 'beat' before I even got there, never claimed to be as I loathed the term only slightly more than those who blindly mimicked it.
Anyway...
I'd been to many extremes of the country since the top shot was taken (Halifax to Haida Gwaii) and, in 2011, was about to trade the west for the east coast again to begin my recent adventures. I had to visit Vancouver from Victoria to see my dad and some old friends before leaving so I hopped over on the ferry one last time. Seems that some of the 'old friends' were neighbourhoods I'd lived in back in 'the day'.
One of those was Gastown.
I took this second shot from memory as the above had always been one of my favourites. Yeah... looking at them again I guess I could'a had a different lens on and have stood back another 20 feet or so but... impression is better than accuracy in this case, I think.
...maybe I am a romantic.
-Kreddible Trout - 2013.
*click HERE to go back to 'Stories', click HERE to 2011 and HERE to get back to 'film days' (and HERE to get back to where you really want to be).
