Saturday, March 14, 2009

A Zone of our Own Part V

One of the highlights of our little Niagara St. community in the early to mid-90s was an annual party called Zone of Our Own. The three buildings, 89, 101 and 109 along with another chunk stuck onto 109, which we called the annex, formed a U with the hollow of the U facing the tracks and Fort York. This formed the parking lot and loading dock for the building. Each year we had a big party there. This was organized by some of the tenants in the building. Typically, there would be a huge cauldren boiling sweet corn, and a bbq set up, and one year, there was a bath-tub full of couscous. One of the tenants was a woodworker and he would supply a stage. Others would decorate the stage and the fences surrounding the property. A lot of the musicians around would get their bands together, and I can recall 8 or 9 bands playing over the afternoon and evening. To attend, you needed a ticket, and to get a ticket, you had to know somebody who lived in the building. One of the musical highlights were The Subtonic Monks. These spirit drummers captivated the crowd and were a popular favourite. Another favourite for me was Rodney Brent, who performed as Bartok Guitarsplat. These days I understand Rodney lives and performs in the Calgary area. His music was always innovative and fun and I remember him to be a really nice guy as well.

Speaking of parties, I hosted one huge party in my studio during my time on Niagara. Jughead provided the music. Jughead were a band we first saw playing outdoors, outside Natalie's cafe and also at the Drake back when it was a dive. It was a fairly early incarnation of the band, before they had accordion. There were a lot of people at the party, and it was tremendous fun, went much of the night, and taught me that the problem with hosting a party is that you have to clean up later.

10 comments:

Candy Minx said...

You know...I was waiting for you to post about that party...and say how much hassle it was to clean up afterwards. You know, we came to help...but we didn't know you'd be up by 9 a.m.!!!

:)

The parking lot parties were pretty fun. there was an interesting couple that lived right on the parking lot level. I don't remember their names...but I remember their wonderful dogs name (god that is so typical of me, remembering the dog) whose name was "Legion". I thought it was the coolest name for a dog and reflected the industrial goths who lived with Legion. He made heavy sculptures all dark and scary and she was a dominatrix.

Anonymous said...

This is why I seldom host parties. Love to plan, prepare, and cook.... hate to cleanup!

Bridget Jones said...

That sounds like a party!!!

Anonymous said...

a bathtub of couscous? did anyone dive in?

sp said...

Sounds like a great party. A bathtub of couscous? I've never heard that one before. That's great.
Is this not the same address as Exclusive Film and Video? I use to get my film developed there.

Anonymous said...

Did you know that it's been almost ten days without any cat pics?

mister anchovy said...

If Exclusive film is there, they must have opened up after I left.

Gardenia said...

Sounds like fun - - - the bathtub full of couscous sounds the most intriguing - just joking, but there are really lots of possibilities there - sounds like a good era . . .

Rodney Brent said...

Mr. Anchovy. Rodney Brent Here ( a.k.a Bartok Guitarsplat ). Thanks for the nice things you said about me. If Your Interested, I have photographs of some of the "Zone of it's Own" Parties as well as mp3's of music from that time.
You can email Me at < guitarsplat@hotmail.com >.
Cheers to Ya.
Rodney Guitarsplat Brent

Rodney Guitarsplat said...

Mr. Anchovy. Rodney Brent Here ( a.k.a Bartok Guitarsplat ). Thanks for the nice things you said about me. If Your Interested, I have photographs of some of the "Zone of it's Own" Parties as well as mp3's of music from that time.
You can email Me at < guitarsplat@hotmail.com >.
Cheers to Ya.
Rodney Guitarsplat Brent