City of Fragments: Part 4

     13.            Willow Park, Rocky Ridge, Scenic Acres, Mount Pleasant, Forest Lawn, Rosedale, Edgewood, Royal Oak, Parkdale, Mount Royal, Silver Springs, Lake Bonaventure, Inglewood, Sunnyside, Valley Ridge, Briar Hill, Meadowlark Park, Cougar Ridge, – these are the names of some of Calgary’s communities. The names are reminders of the city’s desire to maintain a connection to nature that either no longer exists or never existed in the first place. Where in these communities can we find forest lawns, dales, silver springs, natural lakes, oak trees, rocky outcrops, a pleasant mountain, a place on the edge of woods, briars, and so on? True, we can find slews, man-made ponds called “lakes,” small parks equipped for children, and suburbs provided with sidewalks that have no one on them. The names of communities simulate elsewhere as in the community called Tuscany. Tuscany is a reminder of this city’s aspirations to art and beauty as well as to nature. Parks simulate dales and forests and lawns and so on. Simulation is the order of the day. Simulated pastoral. The modern city replaces natural space with queer space, a space neither one thing nor the other, neither real nor artificial, neither forest nor lawn. In fact, the city claims that a forest may be a lawn and vice versa. Nifty trick. The city is all things and nothing. It has queerly named Communities to simulate the intimacy of small centers, and runs these communities like large corporations that serve no one’s interest except the corporate interest. And so we have corporate scenic acres. We find our royalty in the King’s gardens – Royal Oak or Mount Royal. We might find more honesty in the bluntly named community – Rutland Park. “Rutland” – somehow the name captures the modern city where citizens daily find themselves recipients of the shaft. Or should I say, with the short end of the stick?

   14.            Airport architecture flies through the city. Take a look at any one of the city’s many Malls. The eye detects the same pale green and simulated cedar exterior, with those little gables placed over entrances. The sense is openness and light, a sort of as-you-like-it space in which exchange is the order of the day. But the open girder, glass, and open space architecture is visible just about everywhere. Take the ubiquitous city structures known as “plus-15s.” What are they but simulations of terminal walkways, taking pedestrians from one terminal to another in an interminable round of sameness? Even the University gets into the act. The Student Union Building looks precisely like an airport waiting lounge, with that same characterless colour scheme and the geometric and lifeless benches and seats. You can find something similar in just about any foyer in the city. Check out doctors’ offices, dentists’ offices, lawyers’ offices. Hospitals get into the act. Check out the foyer in the ‘new’ City Hall. Even the Olympic Plaza carries something of the standard airport geometry. And then we have the Devonian Gardens, that city center high rise forest of as-you-like-it fun that disguises its airport look with fronds and fish. The Airport Look is de rigueur for Calgary, the city on the move, the city of high fliers, the city filled with jet-setters, city of the B-52, supersonic city, airport of the future city. Calgary announces its fast-paced arrival at the future by turning itself into one grand airport terminal, complete with the malls and hygienic spaces and food courts and plastic décor and runways – everything to make things comfortable for the weary but happy traveler.

     15.            What do Bowness and Midnapore have in common? What do Airdrie and Cochrane have in common?  And what do these four places have in common? The answer is, of course, obvious. At one time, not too long ago, before the earth had lost most of its oil and stretched its sinews in the squeeze for more, each of these places was separate from Calgary, communities we might almost call rural. Midnapore had its grain elevators, landmarks distinct from anything in the nearby city a few kilometers to the north. Bowness had its main street with the Hotel that served local clientele, and the crew who owned the choppers lined up outside.  The disappearance of these communities as separate entities is metonymic of the postmodern phenomenon of disappearance generally. As the city spreads more disappearance takes place. Midnapore and Bowness once stood beside Calgary; now they are inside the belly of the beast. They occupy vacant space, space that effects an emptying of that which was once full. The same is not precisely true of Cochrane and Airdrie, but the writing is on the wall, as they say. Calgary gobbles up nearby places voraciously. And sadly, places such as Cochrane and Airdrie rush to accept the embrace of the city. As the city moves towards them, they too move toward the city gobbling up pasture and field like little Pac Men out to win a mug’s game. Look out Okotoks and maybe even High River, and – Heaven forbid – Balzac and Crossfield. Concrete floods the plains as surely as the oil seeps from the ground in this country of high rollers and fancy urban cowboys.

    16.            The arts in Calgary have a pretty good time. The Jack Singer Concert Hall and the Epcor Center and the Martha Cohen Theater provide a home for the arts, but the city also boasts the Jubilee, the old Garry Theatre, the Pumphouse, One Yellow Rabbit, Loose Moose, the various University theatres, plus theater and concert space in such places as Fort Calgary, the Planetarium, the Glenbow Museum, Mount Royal College, and the Bow Valley Center. The city has dinner theater, children’s theater, modern theater, experimental theater, musical theater, and theater sports – all sorts of theater. But theater is not the only art in town. The city has private art galleries, and of course the impressive Glenbow Museum and the less visited Nickle Art Museum. And then there are the festivals – the Children’s Festival, the Folk Festival, the Jazz Festival (now defunct), and various ethnic festivals celebrating the city’s multicultural community. The city has a philharmonic orchestra, an opera company, and ballet. Every so often the Saddledome hosts the likes of the Rolling Stones or Rod Stewart. The Eagles once played McMahon Stadium. And of course some of us remember the Festival Express! A number of cafes and bars provide musical entertainment of a variety of kinds, from blues to jazz  to world beat. Ravi Shankar and his daughter came to town, and so did Roger Whittaker. Various community halls play host to local artists such as Oscar Lopez or Tim Williams. Movies are sometimes made in or near the city. Recently a well-known celebrity couple conceived their first child here. This is a city to reckon with when it comes to the arts. This is a city sure to raise a successful Canadian Idol or two. And I haven’t even mentioned the Stampede or the several impressive sculptures placed strategically in or near the down town core. Nor have I stated the obvious: cowboy music is easy to hear in this city. Bookstores such as McNally Robinson (now no more), Top Shelf, and Pages have readings by local and national authors. Even international authors come to town now and then. The University, through the Markin Flanagan Programme, brings in well-known writers such as Alberto Manguel, Rudy Wiebe, and Timothy Findlay. The city is abuzz with artistic activity of one kind and another.