Spring is finally nearing in Calgary. As the ground clears and the nights get warmer, my attention typically drifts to vintage Vespas and bikes that rattle and clatter and smoke, while my clothing takes on the all too-familiar scent of Motul 800 two-stroke oil.
I’ll try not to neglect you, internet, but the sweet mountain air calls.
Two examples of hand lettered text in my neighbourhood. What a difference a century can make.
There isn’t much to Spring Valley, Saskatchewan. I would hope that the owner of this truck isn’t intending on ‘restoring’ it.
A few shots from my recent trip to Toronto.
This is the Don Valley Brickworks, presently under re-construction at the hands of the Evergreen Foundation, as of December 8th. No stranger to trespassing, I missed my chance to get inside this amazing space, as the site was indeed quite busy.
Despite the positive notion of adaptive reuse, taking form with a summer market, and Evergreen’s own Centre for Urban Sustainability, instead of continued abandonment, or inevitable bulldozing–I did note the occasional dissenting (‘Evergreed’) graffiti peppering the site (as have others, evidently.)
The houses and businesses of Victoria Park are slowly being felled one at a time as the victims of neglect, misuse, and encroaching development. For the last few years I’ve taken it upon myself to document what remains, along with their sometimes gentle and sometimes violent disintegration. There isn’t much left.
Scuderia BENZINA
As the weather turns, I tend toward the workshop, squirreled away turning wrenches and smelling of two-stroke motor oil. This is a world I stumbled upon, years ago, that has become very much a part of me—despite the challenges of geography, parts availability, and prevailing attitude towards such means of transport in an oil town, such as this.
A very good friend of mine has decided to have a go at a shop, and I’m happily along for the ride. If you ride a classic Vespa or Lambretta, BENZINA is here for you, from the ground up.
I hope to be able to show you more, as our venture proceeds.