Completely impromptu walkabout today. It’s October 11 and it’s gorgeous outside (15C/59F) and I just put the Christmas lights on the balcony railing. Yeah, it seems early, but it’s supposed to snow tonight and tomorrow, so….

The weather was so nice, I decided that there was NO WAY I was going to spend my day sitting behind a screen. I threw on some shoes, marvelled at the fact I could still go out in shorts and a T-shirt in mid-October, grabbed my camera, and headed out.

This is where we live. The third balcony from the top is the “East Wing”, where the big computer, all the Lego, and my music stuff live.

Just a couple blocks away is the Mewata Armoury, a building that I’m going to build out of Lego at some point when I have a lot of time and a few hundred bucks to spend on plastic bricks. Neither of those things apply right now, so it will have to wait.

Across the street from that is this cute little barbershop that promises coffee with your haircut. Looked them up. Couple of Ukrainian immigrants following their dream to set up their own barbershop. They moved to Canada last year and opened up shop here after barbering at other shops for awhile first. Looked them up and they have 216 google reviews and a 5-star rating. Guess where I’m going for my next snip?

Just a few steps from there is the old planetarium, which has been converted into a contemporary art gallery. Every time I pass by, I think, “I want to go in there someday”. Today, I thought, “well, this is some day!” and in I went. I wasn’t all that enthralled with the particular exhibits showing right now, but the conversion of the building and the display of the art is stunning. I’ll be back when there are new exhibits to see.

The thing about art is that you don’t have to fully understand it to appreciate it. For example, this little quote tacked to a stand in a hallway punched me right in the feels. Still not sure why, but ‘why’ isn’t the point.

I looked it up - it’s a quote from one of the artists whose work is being shown now. She’s indigenous and the quote refers to feeling unattached to your roots due to the rapidly declining use of their native language. I get it now, but that’s not what it means to me. And that’s kinda the essence of art, yes? Feel what you feel, even if it’s not what the artist had in their mind when they made it. As long as you feel something, then the art is working.

Hopped on the C-train (light rail system) for a free ride to the opposite side of downtown and took a stroll along the riverwalk. Almost missed out on the fall colours, with lots of the leaves already on the ground. Still pretty, though. Occasionally, I’d catch a glimpse of local wildlife, like the little black squirrels, a few Canada goosesses (a local YouTuber refers to them that way and it’s stuck in my head now), a duck or two, and whatever this is:

Oooo, and have a look at this nice shot I got!

Non-Calgarians: oh, that’s nice
Locals: WAIT, WHAT??? Are you IN the Bow River?
Yes. I was knee-deep in the crystal-clear glacier runoff / snow melt / Rocky Mountain spring water. And look at my face: YES, it was freaking cold.

But HEY, I got the shot that I wanted, so yay. After that, I stayed off the main riverwalk path for awhile to enjoy the fall colours

I also discovered a little coffee shop I hadn’t seen before. Since the wind had already kicked up a bit and changed direction, I thought it would be a good idea to get a warmup before heading home, just in case the temps plummeted before I got home.

Inside, it was an odd little mix of cozy coffee shop and something else I can’t quite put my finger on.

I was about to write the place off as ‘cute, but nothing special’ until I went to pay and the ‘choose a tip’ screen popped up…

These people are my people. It was a completely unexpected surprise that caught me off-guard, but in a good way.

Got home from the walk around 3pm. Still gorgeous outside. Two hours later, we walked down the street to try a new restaurant. Wearing long pants and jackets. And it was COLD. Hello, winter.

The restaurant is a Japanese hole-in-the-wall I noticed when I dropped off a package at the UPS store the other day.

It’s tiny inside and absolutely PACKED when we arrived, with two people waiting for a table. Often, that would be met with “ok, we’ll come back another day” (especially since there’s a really good Sushi place across the street) but we stuck it out. Partly because we wanted to try something new and partly because when you go into a Japanese restaurant and nearly everyone that’s eating there is Japanese, well, that’s a good sign. Eventually, we got a table.

Rob said his tempura was excellent and my spicy yuzu aburi salmon don was delicious as well. (like a poke bowl, but the salmon was slightly seared and it was covered in a spicy yuzu sauce) We’ll be back, but on a weekday when it’s not so crowded.

Next day: heading over to the National Music Centre. NOT in shorts and a tee shirt, though.

Absolutely gorgeous sunny 15C/59F day yesterday. Today it’s -2C/30F and snowing. Welcome to Calgary.

I absolutely LOVE this city, though. Yesterday’s pics showed you how beautiful the nature is here, but the city shines in the gloom of an overcast winter day, too. Municipal buildings aren’t just “lowest bid boxes”, they have nice designs. Take the Central Library, for instance.

The outside is interesting, especially as it sits atop the light rail line and serves as a tunnel for the C-train.

But the inside is stunning. Full disclosure, I had intended to go in and get new pics today, but it’s Sunday and the library doesn’t open until noon. You’ll have to make do with the pics I took a couple years ago.

Even structures as boring as a parkade (parking garage for the American peeps reading this) get gussied up a bit.

There is also a TON of public art here. Sides of buildings sport elaborate murals, pedestrian underpasses get colourful…

…and the really nice thing is that even though Calgary gets a bit of graffiti “tagging” here and there, you’ll never see any graffiti on any of the public art. It’s just not done. The ones with the spray paint respect the art and tag somewhere else.

The reason for my outing today was to FINALLY visit the National Music Centre at Studio Bell.

I’ve performed here. Elbow River Bells did a Christmas concert here a few years ago, but I’ve never been here to see the exhibits.

I almost added this to the itinerary yesterday, but I figured that it being Saturday and a gorgeous day, it would likely be busy. But today, with snow falling on Sunday on Thanksgiving Weekend? Not so much. Turns out I was right - For the first half hour, I was literally the only visitor in the building. Fantastic!

The National Music Centre is a museum that chronicles the history, development, and culture of music in Canada. And to that end, I felt like I wasn’t getting the whole experience. I didn’t grow up here and very few Canadian artists were played on radios where I’m from. So while it was interesting to see the exhibits, I had no emotional connection to them, as the music was completely unfamiliar to me and generated no sense of nostalgia at all.

I enjoyed the exhibits, anyway, especially the room dedicated to indigenous musicians (shown above). And since I was here with nobody else around, I got to try all of the hands-on exhibits without having to wait for someone else to finish - and without anyone watching me, so I could go as crazy as I wanted without embarrassment. I tried the vocal booth first.

You go in, shut the door, then sing along to one of several songs that you can pick from. I knew none of them, so it was kind of a wash. They did have “Takin’ Care of Business” on there, but I only knew the chorus from a string of ads for an office supply chain awhile back, so that didn’t really help.

There was an instrument room as well, with guitars and a piano and a drum set that you could use to play along with stuff and get a little mini-lesson. All of them were set up so that the sound only went into the headphones and didn’t disturb anyone else. Nice. I tried the piano (didn’t do well) and the guitar (did worse) and then finally went to the drums, because that’s my thing.

I’ve got an electronic drum kit at home, so playing ‘silent’ drums that sound in the headphones is nothing new for me. I consider myself an intermediate-level drummer, but I chose “beginner” anyway. It was all about where to put your feet and how to hold the sticks and the difference between a drum and a cymbal… so I backed out and chose “intermediate”. It was a song I didn’t know and the rhythm they taught you to play was still very basic. I backed out and chose “advanced”… and got “Tom Sawyer” by Rush. Holy shit. That’s like taking a kid who just learned to read “See Spot Run” and saying, “great! Here are the complete works of Shakespeare, good luck!” I didn’t get all the notes that Neil Peart did, but I at least played something that fit with the song.

There were a number of vintage instruments on display as well as some more modern ones

I enjoyed that part of the museum a lot, because it was music in general, not specifically related to artists I’d never heard of. There was also a room devoted to how music can literally heal the body and mind and mood. I got a bit emotional in there, because reasons. That room was filled with music playing over speakers, but each station had a setup like this:

The TVs were all playing on repeat, with each one talking about a different way that music can heal. But it wasn’t cacophony… you could only hear the TV if you stood under that plastic umbrella. If you stepped out or even leaned too far to the side, you couldn’t hear it any more. Wild. It reminded me of the “Cone of Silence” from the old “Get Smart” TV show.

The National Music Centre is really well-done and I’m glad that Calgary (and Canada) have a place dedicated to showcasing the long history of music in this country. I just wish I had some kind of history with this music myself, I think I would’ve enjoyed it even more.

Walked back home (still snowing) and began to thaw out a bit, at least long enough to finish typing this up. Happy Thanksgiving!