What is your favourite place in Ottawa that doesn’t exist anymore? I’ve spent most of my formative years outside of Ontario, but as a frequent visitor and now resident Ottawa always struck me as a place that doesn’t really value the longevity of cool stuff. Maybe it’s just ignorance of the economic forces involved, but any time I was shown something cool here I always left with the sense that it wouldn’t be there next time.
For me, I divide this into places I’ve been and places I didn’t get to go.
Some of where I’ve been:
-Invisible Cinema
-The InfoShop on Bank
-Rideau Bakery
-The Ex when it was still at Lansdowne.
Some of where I didn’t get to go:
-The Beachcomber Room
-Capital Music Hall
What about you?
These sound cool, can you tell us how these places were and what you enjoyed there ? (I’m not from Ottawa)
For sure!
So Invisible Cinema was a video store on Bank that carried a lot of specialty and niche movies. Some high brow, some B movie stuff, basically things you probably wouldn’t see in your average video store. Was on the floor above Wallacks.
The InfoShop was an anarchist-led community space at Bank and Cooper (shared the floor with 1 in 10) with a few things, but what interested me was the zine library. Had all sorts of very cool DIY zines from all over the place on all sorts of topics.
Both closed several years ago, but were cornerstone “Some bits of Ottawa are pretty cool” places for me.
Great picture :)
Is it common to have infoshops in permanent locations in Canada ? And where else can you find fanzines ?
And this is the part that made it particularly interesting to me - I don’t know! The one in Ottawa was the first I had heard of or seen. I’m almost certain there are others though in major urban areas (I’d be shocked if there wasn’t one, or used to be somewhere in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, for example).
I’m not super tied into the zine community here (though I know it exists and is pretty bumping all things considered), but we have zine fairs from time to time at (historically) The Bronson Centre, Possible Worlds carries some zines (more artsy IIRC, but worth checking out), etc.
Would love to hear comments from others re: finding zines (and specific fan zines) in town!