Comments on: New Westminster’s Glad Game

By: Briana Tomkinson

Briana Tomkinson — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 15:58:47 +0000

Waferboard: I missed that article in the Record. That darn paperboy!

Neil: I've never been to Sapperton Landing. It sounds like a nice place! Sapperton's a cute little part of the city. I think it's really starting to come into its own.

By: Neil Powell

Neil Powell — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:28:12 +0000

Under festivals I need to add, Sapperton Day Street Festival.

Under parks I need to plug:

1. Sapperton Park (which used to serve as a landing pad for the air ambulance) and is the home of the Sapperton Rovers

2. Hume Park, home to New Westminster's first dog park

3. Sapperton Landing – I love walking down there with our daughter at various times of the year and noticing the changes of the seasons and the various birds.

By: Jocelyn Tomkinson

Jocelyn Tomkinson — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 14:59:10 +0000

I should note that I was more referring to the citizens of New West and not exactly the authors of T2F.

I like Briana's description of the Greek Chorus of T2F. That's really what we are… Reflecting and understanding New West people and ideas for all to read… I just think that New Westies do a lot of reflecting their losses and not so much reflecting of that incredibly community-minded, great little city we have.

Surely we don't want an out-and-out love-in where people promote the "good stuff" in exclusion of reality, but i was thinking that we really do have this wistful worry about the loss of things that represent our 'community-ness.'

By: Jen Arbo

Jen Arbo — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 13:24:39 +0000

I like that all four of us have very different voices and do not represent the mass media.

Wow, this is just a love-in, eh?

By: waferboard

waferboard — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 11:09:14 +0000

There's nothing wrong with a little boosterism. How about the recent item in The Record that there were no murders in New Westminster in 2008. MacLeans (boo, hiss central canadian media) had some faulty study in 2008 that claimed we were one of the most dangerous cities in Canada. Who's looking dumb now?

By: Briana Tomkinson

Briana Tomkinson — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:57:15 +0000

I think we do represent a mix here, from celebrating the best restaurants to championing our parks and sharing our love of the city. I'm all for cheering on New West, but I also believe that the story of New West is as much about loss and disappointment as hope and renewal. We are a sort of Greek chorus for New Westminster, providing colour commentary shaded to match the mood of the moment. Actually after writing that last bit, I realized how apropos it is. Here's Wikipedia's description of the role of the Greek Chorus: "Plays of the ancient Greek theatre always included a chorus that offered a variety of background and summary information to help the audience follow the performance. The Greek chorus comments on themes, and shows how an ideal audience might react to the drama ... In many of these plays, the chorus expressed to the audience what the main characters could not say, such as their fears or secrets. The chorus often provided other characters with the insight they need." Sounds like TTF, no?!