The Queen Street Shuffle

 This is just a story about feeding people.
It's me telling this story, thus by definition it is made up of my opinions. So don't worry if you don't agree with everything I say. This is just a story about feeding people.

This is not a story about rock stars. Rock stars have already won your devotion by conforming to the underdog bad boy image: Rock stars owe you nothing. Any connection to their community is a happy accident.

This is a story about the parking crises in downtown Sault. See the picture below of a pickup truck backed into a building at Albert and Gore. Where's he gonna park when they take out the traffic lights?

This is a story about three or four people trying to have a good time for 35$ on a Friday night downtown with no car in the fluffy mid-April snow. The journey took us from East Street to the Riversedge™ Paper Mill in search of fresh music and hot dogs, sampling pitchers and hockey matches at the American and the Breakaway.

But of course the only hot dogs available in downtown Sault are at Reggie's on Saturday, the right jab of a one two punch that brings out the karaoke and chicken wing fans for the best Sunday scene in town.

This is a story about Nick Luck. Is he the Soo's next Kalle Mattson? Is there hope for a chillwave scene on Algoma's subarctic tundra? Last week at open mic we turned two young men into instant hypeman rappers. Sometimes excitement is infectious...

This is the week that Bill Cowan's Full of Beans goes into the installation phase at 180 Projects, Isabelle Michaud took her show down at the café, and Paula Robertson put hers up. A busy time for art on Gore:-)

Now it's Thursday and we've headed for Lop Lops to catch the pizza-and-pint deal, some bartender mash-ups, and a few rounds of Blokus. Here's a little song I wrote about the pursuit of happiness and fun in Sault Ste Marie. Come check it out live at Lops on May 12th, at the KIDS hip hop show.

The Sammy Shuffle

From Greco Pool to Carmen's Way
Ste Marie's seen better days
Hop across Great Northern road
Shop and haul my heavy load

Read the signs they pack away:
Princess General, Sunshine Laundry
Low 'n Slow to 180
SMAC please ain't no hill of beans

Cops and bikers, cowboys, locals
Battle bands, new media moguls
Up before the Arab spring,
Bondar's big old trampoline

Throwing snowballs glowing flame
Arcadia ergo again
Downtown broke no joke, no cash
Not enough work, find hope, move fast!

Woah woah woah woah,
the Sammy shuffle

Exercise free market muscle
Don't drag feet now do the shuffle
Hilltop view of the hot mill
Holding one soul in a sludge tank still

In my clubhouse keep it tight
safe(r) space both day and night
City's dying, world in plight
Lemme spread this little light

Plan as it stands on Albert and Gore
Says we don't need the lights no more
Isn't our safety worth 8 grand?
Turco, hear the Ward demands:

We want parks, there's plenty parking
Sweet Jane Jacobs, let's get walking
Wash your hands of the decision
History is in revision

Woah woah woah woah,
The Sammy shuffle