The Blue Eagle Cafe
A friend of mine bought this from me a long long time ago...
I’m actually not sure I’d call him a ‘friend’… he was… a good person in my orbit with whom I had friendly interactions. Even before Facebook came along to throw real question into what that word meant, I still had trouble with it. Might come from insecurity, I guess. Pre-2007 everyone still had varying definitions of ‘friend’ (usually based on what someone would or wouldn’t do for or to you) but for me, it was always harder. I moved a lot. I have trouble with connection. And while photography was therapy for me for a long time (still is) my hang ups are not what this is about. I un-digress:
A friend of mine bought this from me.
In early 2002 I had some of my photos hanging from dollar store glass clip frames in a café called 'Urban City' on Commercial Drive in Vancouver. The café (owned by another ‘friend’) allowed me to hang them for quite a while. Theresa was nice.
At the time, I was doing spoken word poetry (how the artistic pseudonym Kreddible Trout was born, actually) and I must have announced my ‘gallery showing’ at a few readings and my friend had gone to check my stuff out. A while later, we went out for coffee and he asked me if he could buy a ‘blown up’ version of The Blue Eagle. I, of course, said 'Sure!' Having someone pull a shot off the café wall and drop (was it maybe 10 bucks back then for an artistic 4x6 in a dollar store frame?) was one thing, but someone asking for an 8x10? Like, I had to go to a developer and have it enlarged! Wow… I was a ‘photographer’!
While I do like this shot, I tried to aim him towards some others that I thought were ‘better’. Some shots I was pretty proud of. Nope, he wanted The Blue Eagle. Said it meant a lot to him. He hadn’t been down there in quite a while and it had ‘memories’ for him. I think he paused a bit and then, remembering that I was a recovering alcoholic (would have been only 2 years in at the time), he figured I might understand and decided to share. He was a recovering addict (I knew that. We were ‘friends’ after all) and The Blue Eagle in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side was a spot where he used to score his heroin.
He wanted it as a reminder. He wanted it as a symbol. He wanted it to look at it every day to remind himself how strong he’d become since ‘cleaning up’. How he’d beat it and how, if he wasn’t diligent, it could beat him back.
I understood. There is a pride with sobriety, if you can keep it. There is victory. It’s like a Stanley Cup. It’s like reaching the peak of Everest. It’s like grappling a grizzly until you’re both sharing a nice cup of tea.
It’s like getting through one day.
Reminders, for some, need to be avoided at all costs while, for others, we like to look them straight in the eye and flip them the bird. My friend, wanted this to flip it the bird every day.
This friend passed away a few years later. His heart. Likely lingering health issues from such an addiction. I don’t know, I only assume.
There’ve been a lot of sales in my life that have ‘meant’ something to me. Sales that began friendships and partnerships. A photoshoot was one of the pieces that helped my wife and I bond at first. This photo, this sale of a ‘blown up’ shot of The Blue Eagle is easily one of the tops even though I don’t know if it was to a friend or an acquaintance.
'The Blue Eagle - 2001'
*click HERE to go back to 'Stories' and HERE to get back to 'film days'.
A friend of mine bought this from me a long long time ago...
I’m actually not sure I’d call him a ‘friend’… he was… a good person in my orbit with whom I had friendly interactions. Even before Facebook came along to throw real question into what that word meant, I still had trouble with it. Might come from insecurity, I guess. Pre-2007 everyone still had varying definitions of ‘friend’ (usually based on what someone would or wouldn’t do for or to you) but for me, it was always harder. I moved a lot. I have trouble with connection. And while photography was therapy for me for a long time (still is) my hang ups are not what this is about. I un-digress:
A friend of mine bought this from me.
In early 2002 I had some of my photos hanging from dollar store glass clip frames in a café called 'Urban City' on Commercial Drive in Vancouver. The café (owned by another ‘friend’) allowed me to hang them for quite a while. Theresa was nice.
At the time, I was doing spoken word poetry (how the artistic pseudonym Kreddible Trout was born, actually) and I must have announced my ‘gallery showing’ at a few readings and my friend had gone to check my stuff out. A while later, we went out for coffee and he asked me if he could buy a ‘blown up’ version of The Blue Eagle. I, of course, said 'Sure!' Having someone pull a shot off the café wall and drop (was it maybe 10 bucks back then for an artistic 4x6 in a dollar store frame?) was one thing, but someone asking for an 8x10? Like, I had to go to a developer and have it enlarged! Wow… I was a ‘photographer’!
While I do like this shot, I tried to aim him towards some others that I thought were ‘better’. Some shots I was pretty proud of. Nope, he wanted The Blue Eagle. Said it meant a lot to him. He hadn’t been down there in quite a while and it had ‘memories’ for him. I think he paused a bit and then, remembering that I was a recovering alcoholic (would have been only 2 years in at the time), he figured I might understand and decided to share. He was a recovering addict (I knew that. We were ‘friends’ after all) and The Blue Eagle in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side was a spot where he used to score his heroin.
He wanted it as a reminder. He wanted it as a symbol. He wanted it to look at it every day to remind himself how strong he’d become since ‘cleaning up’. How he’d beat it and how, if he wasn’t diligent, it could beat him back.
I understood. There is a pride with sobriety, if you can keep it. There is victory. It’s like a Stanley Cup. It’s like reaching the peak of Everest. It’s like grappling a grizzly until you’re both sharing a nice cup of tea.
It’s like getting through one day.
Reminders, for some, need to be avoided at all costs while, for others, we like to look them straight in the eye and flip them the bird. My friend, wanted this to flip it the bird every day.
This friend passed away a few years later. His heart. Likely lingering health issues from such an addiction. I don’t know, I only assume.
There’ve been a lot of sales in my life that have ‘meant’ something to me. Sales that began friendships and partnerships. A photoshoot was one of the pieces that helped my wife and I bond at first. This photo, this sale of a ‘blown up’ shot of The Blue Eagle is easily one of the tops even though I don’t know if it was to a friend or an acquaintance.
'The Blue Eagle - 2001'
*click HERE to go back to 'Stories' and HERE to get back to 'film days'.
