I just have two small anecdotes to recount, both in the “stereotype of Canada” vein.
1) I was just listening to a few more episodes of the CBC Radio 3 podcast, and I must say I loved the concept of their See Vous Play edition. The two co-hosts banter back in forth in English and French, seamlessly switching and never translating their discussion of the latest in hipster Canadian and Québécois music. Only in Canada, and only on the CBC.
2) I went to a show at the Rex on Saturday, and I still really love that place. Yeah, it’s a bit of an older crowd, and it’s jazz – given those two, it should be a stuffy, snotty affair, right? But the musicians played upbeat improvised, solo-stuffed jazz with no dull crooners, the bar was jam-packed with standing room only and the crowd was talking loudly but still really into the music. And the Rex itself is so utterly unpretentious: Labatt 50 signs on the walls, battered wooden tables everywhere, and a television with the hockey game a few feet from the bassist’s head. Lesson to the musicians: keep the crowd’s attention, or you’ll lose out to the hockey game. Lesson to Vancouver jazz bars like the Cellar: loosen up, lose the red tablecloths, and make jazz fun. Damn, I’m glad the Rex’s owners didn’t sell out to the new condo building that now occupies most of the block.