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‘Bottoms Up!’

> Museum at Anvil Centre opens exhibition
on New West's history of drinking

Jillian McMullen
Staff Writer

 

Ihe New Westminster Museum and
Archives, located in Anvil Centre,

opened the exhibition Bottoms Up: The
Cultures of Drink in the Royal City on
November 6, exploring the city’s former
and current drinking habits, drinking
places, and the people who frequent them.

The exhibition focuses mainly on
the social aspects of drinking—most
significantly, of course, alcoholic drinks.
According to the welcoming infographic,
New West was one of the country’s
national drinking capitals, with the
most bar seats per capita. This helped
to strengthen identity in the city by
reinforcing camaraderie among social
groups. However, the exhibition highlights
the important distinction that only citizens
who already belonged to these established
social groups were brought together,
as outsiders were not allowed past the
threshold of certain establishments. Age,
class, gender, and race have all socially
limited citizens from drinking parlours.

The exhibition covers familiar historic
moments affecting communal drinking
habits, with examples of drinking wares
that were common to each one. Prohibition,

probably the most notable of these periods,
did not stop drinking, but merely slowed
the process by which people accessed their

drinks. Saloons and parlours, according to
the exhibition's text, “were predominantly
white male spaces,” so women responded
with establishing a new type of venue:

Teahouses. Despite men and women having
their own spaces, young citizens found ways
to interact, allowing women into prescribed

men’s sections granted they had an escort.

The centrepiece of the exhibition
explores the memories of various citizens’
participation in the city’s drinking history
via sound clips. The exhibition contains
a table on which there are about eight
to ten copper disks and a cup that the
curators of the exhibition have hooked
a speaker into. When guests place the
cup-speaker on one of the disks, a clip
is played. One in particular describes
how men would attempt to meet women
despite the gendered sections.

“Yes, there was a men’s side and
a women’s side—women and escorts,”
humorously reminisces one of the men
in the clip. “And it was a regular thing if
a bunch of us were over on the men side.
We would look over into the women’s side
to see if you knew anyone. If we did—we
saw one friend with one lady—wed all

gr a

E ¥

 

go over. ‘Women and escorts’ didn’t say

how many, so you were always looking

over for somebody who you could join”
While New West was definitely

a drinking city, the exhibition shows

most importantly the changing physical

and social landscape of public spaces

; Vie um _

Photo by Analyn Cuarto

throughout the city’s history. Photos of
old storefronts are a fascinating way to
look back on the history of the streets on
which we travel day-to-day and how we as
citizens interact “in place.” Bottoms Up is
scheduled to be in the New Westminster
Museum until March 25 next year.

A thank-you note and a couple 1n an album

> ‘Introduce Yerself’ album review

Jerrison Oracion
Senior Columnist

 

kkk

ecret Path might be considered

Gord Downie’s legacy album, both
for how its gravity as it delves into the
lives of Indigenous people and the
misconception that it was going to be
his final album. However, he has another
album for his fans. Introduce Yerself is
a thank-you note for his fans and tells
the story of a couple going to a cottage
during the winter. Unfortunately, the
album was released nine days after
Downie passed away from brain cancer.
Originally thought to come out as a
two-disc album, it has actually been
released with all 23 songs on one disc.

Downie said that every song in the

album is about a person. When I was
listening to it, his message of thanks is
spread out throughout the album. In
“First Person,” he talks about the people
who were important in his life witha
bittersweet note, perhaps as a reference
to his illness. Downie talks about the
things that he did with his band, the
Tragically Hip, in their hometown of
Kingston and Toronto in “Spoon.” In “A

Better End,” he gives advice that if you
sing about something, it’s a real song.

The second half of the album involves

the story of a couple going to a cottage
nearby Lake Ontario during the winter.
We learn that the couple talks about the
Boston Bruins a lot when they watch
their games in “You Me and the Bs,” and
the song is inspired by Downie liking the
team. In “Snowflakes,” the couple walks
to their cottage in the snow. It is the type
of song that you would hear when you
walk outside in the snow. The rest of
the songs on the album talk about the
relationship of the couple, and in “The
Lake,” we find out where their cottage is.
The last song in the album, “The
North,” talks about the situation of the
living conditions of Indigenous people in
Northern Canada. It is Downie’s warning
that we have to do something to help
Indigenous people and the last words of
the song are, “Let’s turn our faces to the
sun and get whatever warmth there is.”
Some of the songs in it have a
pop sound, which causes them to
have more impact. Some have a rock
sound as well. The second half of the
album gives the listener the feeling of
winter in Canada. Because of Downie’s
brain cancer, he sounds choppy
throughout, but the lyrics show that
he was still able to write great songs.

 

 

The sound of the album is similar
to the sound of Secret Path, which has
similar lyrics. Like Secret Path, perhaps
a TV movie could be made about it, ora
visual without Downie being involved,

 

Cover of ‘Introduce Yerself’

with the help of his brother, Mike.
Introduce Yerself is more than

Downie giving a thank-you note for

his fans: It is a celebration of his

life and what he did for Canada.