Sunday, January 21, 2007



In the late 70s and early 80s Holly Suicide, who looked like an overly made-up street urchin haunted the punk concerts of the Smiling Buddha on Hastings Street. She sometimes taunted the huge egg-shaped Igor the bouncer. As scary as I had first thought it all was, one could safely walk the streets then. My friend Les and I would walk to the Balmoral Hotel for its "cleaner" bathrooms and cheaper beer. I don't know what it was that Les might have said or done but he was actually ejected from the Balmoral one night.

When I drive North on West Georgia I sometimes look up to the old building on the north-east side, right on the corner with Bute.



It is astounding that this relatively attractive old building with trapezoidal bay windows has not come tumbling down to make way for The Newton west coast adult living condominium.

It was there that in the late 80s I photographed Holly Suicide's alter ego, Daniela Ciccone. I had that uncommon pleasure of looking out from the inside of those lovely bay windows.