Cities in Review - Lethridge: Tap Water and Fire Spinners

On Saturday the 4th, I was invited to join the "the magical mystery tour" to Lethbridge Alberta. My hope was to get some perspective on alternative style of Albertan living, low cost living, and decent cultural outlets. One way I judge a city is on how walk-able it is, When we got their it was sun was down, so it was hard to tell the size of the community and what the suburban sprawl is like. The three art galleries that had openings and performances where pretty much all in a three blocks, so with limited information I'd say "yeah thats an easy walk." City is pretty, lots of nice building that remind me the short stout shops lining Saskatchewan summers. (ha alliteration.) It was too bad the thrift shops I saw were closed. I like cheap shwag. Their is a park beside the Southern Alberta Art Gallery that had a vigil set up for abused Aboriginal Women and afterwords djs set up and started a kind of dance party. I was told that the park was kind of a hangout for the homeless, but rather than running a fear-monger campaign against "sketchy people" like some cities might do... Lethbridge has made an effort to host cultural events to liven up the space and get people comfortable with the idea that, yes we can co-inhabit. And the best way to co-inhabit is with fire spinning! I think I should learn how to do this, their were alot of teen-twenty somethings taking turns to practice this really wicked art form. Here's a little video and some pictures and such. Also, if these pictures are of you and you want a link some where... message me. On to another element of the city I liked. Water! zing. I found this water bottle at the SAAG opening, just an empty plastic bottle the city or someone distributed. The back side has instructions on how to fill the bottle and a few sentences clarifying the fact that tap water should be good for you. Personally I think if your town has bad water... you should take to the streets and demand money is put into fixing it! Instead of handing your money over to Coca-cola for basically the same damn thing. In conclusion, I would give the 5 blocks of Lethbridge I saw an B+, which is pretty good. With acknowledgment that I should really see more of the city and live their for a bit before I could give it a final or even just a mid-term grade.