Reposted Rant from Van-Goth

[mbarrick]

[Discussing the upcoming Indy race]
> The race is one of the few things left
> in this city...

It's not something that's "left". It's not a unique part of Vancouver. It is another mass-marketed, corporate sponsored, "gee-ain't-we-'world class'?", lame knock-off event that has no soul and no basis in local history that was plunked here in recent years like a cow-pie in a field of flowers. *Indy* FFS, as in *Indianapolis*: there is no history of auto manufacture or racing here. This is a city that has its roots in forestry and fishing. What the hell happened to the Sea Festival? The bathtub races? No, can't have anything home-grown here, we simply *must* copy-cat things that grew up out of the distinct cultures of other cities, all in the name of luring tourists from other cities to spend money to benefit the sponsors that are headquartered in other cities, all for the sake of appearing "world class" to other cities. We didn't have fireworks on *Canada Day* this year for fear of unruly crowds, yet we'll pack the beer-swilling yahoos in to watch the fast cars go vroom. I don't see the fireworks being sponsored by the Hong-Kong/Singapore Bank (based in London, England) being cancelled. What about those crowds? Oh, that's right, were not sucking the IOC's ass the day after those. It's a fucking joke! Events like Indy, Expo, the Olympics, don't do anything but entrench a provincial service-industry culture, dependent on sucking up to those places that generate the real wealth, while we try to weasel a barmaid's tip from them. We're building a city of branch offices and franchise stores. Would you like fries with that? Would you like whip cream on your Frappuccino™?

There are two million people in Greater Vancouver. Do we really need to draw people in from out of town to make money? When New York was this size they were building the grandest monuments in the entire history of the world to date. Jazz came into being in New Orleans when they were half this size and not nearly as ethnically diverse as Vancouver. When London was this this size they were out founding nations. At its peak ancient Rome had fewer people. Golden Age Athens was a tenth the size.

Behind us, in those oh-so-pretty mountains that loom over the city is more *real* wealth than almost any area in the world, but we don't exploit it because we don't want to scare the tourists away with unsightly factories and foundries. But where to the tourists come from? Places that buy our primary resources cheap and make something useful out of them that we *could* make ourselves, and have local people making decent money instead of selling souveniers and lattés for minimum wage. We serve them with a smile so we can barely afford to buy the furniture they made with our wood, the cars made from our iron, the electronics wired with our copper and gold...

Fuck Indy. Fuck the tourist "industry". We need *real* industry and to get our heads out of our colonial ass.

Comments

Re: 1911

[seymour-glass.livejournal.com]

the rosebuds always made me laugh...there are some other great old teams and they have examples of the jersies at the great pacific forum in delta...my favourite is the saskatoon shieks...see here...beauty, eh???

here's the others:

portland they became the aristrocrats...

calgary tigers

edmonton eskimos

new westminster royals they became the rosebuds...

regina capitals i like this one...these guys became the second portland rosebuds who became the chicago blackhawks...

seattle metropolitans

spokane canaries the logo is real, the jersey imagined...

millionaires

and finally

victoria cougars the aristocrats/senators became the spokane canaries...the aristrocrats then became the cougars who eventually became the detroit red wings...

New Westminster Red Wings?

[sovietnimrod.livejournal.com]

new westminster royals they became the rosebuds...

The is at least one serious writer that I have done hockey research for that has put forth a strong case of the Detroit Red Wings actually originating with that New Westminster team of 1911.

Theory goes like this:

1) New Westminster Royals moved to Portland ca.1914;
2) Portland Rosebuds moved to Victoria and became the Cougars, ca. 1918
3) When the Western League folded, the Victoria Cougars were sold en masse to the NHL's new Detroit franchise in 1926. That team was called the Detroit Cougars.

The Detroit Cougars were later renamed the Falcons and then the Red Wings in the early 1930s.

Re: New Westminster Red Wings?

[seymour-glass.livejournal.com]

yeh the origins are there...interesting that both midwest original six teams had their roots in western canada...i have a friend who is the best in north america at hockey trivia on tnt...he plays every thursday at the holiday inn on broadway...in fact he writes questions for them now...he goes under a name that combines his last name bibby with messier...but he's always at the top of the heap...he's won mega prizes for him and the pub...

Dullard!

[sovietnimrod.livejournal.com]

I'm such a dullard! I repeated what you pretty much pointed out in your previous post....

If you want to read an excellent history of the early NHL's formation and all the legal dirt that was stirred up (and since hidden), then read Deceptions and Doublecross by Holzman and Nieforth. I assisted with some of the Vancouver research and got to proofread / critique the first draft before going to press.

Re: Dullard!

[seymour-glass.livejournal.com]

sounds like a great book...and i'd have never pointed out that you had repeated me...it's more polite not to notice...ha ha...