A week prior to my Northwest Territory journey, I learned that a friend and former colleague, Vimala, who was a publicist at Penguin Canada, had moved to Yellowknife months ago. I messaged her on Facebook and made plans to hang out when I was in the city.
Yellowknife ‘rock’ city.
Vimala was an extremely generous and knowledgable guide to Yellowknife. She, her roommate Amy and Amy’s Parisian friend Elody (visiting to witness the Aurora Borealis; she went out with a professional camera every night) let me tag along on their Friday-night plans. We started off with dinner in Yellowknife’s finest Thai restaurant, which just happens to be in the curling club. We ate spring rolls and scoped guys out while they curled. Really, we were just waiting for our turn to take the ice. Amy is on a curling team and their opponents weren’t attending this Friday night. So instead of just staying home, they cobbled together a team of newbies to battle (myself included). I’ve tried it once before, but as far as curling goes, I’m a much better bowler.
Following our curling defeat, we went to a house party on the lake. The host was a coworker of Amy’s, and she was entertaining a Latin fusion band from Edmonton who were in town to play at the Snow King’s castle. A jam session was going on in the living room when we arrived, while a kitchen party was also starting to form. Following the musical intermission, a member of the band started turning on the charm toward Elody, though in a really ham-fisted way.
In conversation, it became clear that Vimala has been actively recruiting her Toronto friends and former coworkers to join her in Yellowknife. She’d already successfully convinced one other Penguin publicist to move to the city. She noted that the jobs pay a lot more and offer more incentives than they do in Ontario, and that – along with Northern Living Allowance the government provides – more than offsets the higher cost of living. So much so that you can actually save money in Yellowknife; a concept unfathomable to those of us working in publishing in Toronto.
From the house party, we hit the Gold Range (known to locals as ‘The Strange’), a notorious local bar mythologized in Mordecai Richler’s Solomon Gursky Was Here, among other CanLit titles. The Gold Range is kind of a dive honky-tonk – like a step above a biker bar – and typically there’s lots of two-stepping on display, but that night we were treated to a pretty decent rock cover band. The crowd was a bit older than us – largely Indigenous locals, Canadian military and possibly one snowmobile gang. No bar brawls erupted, but the crowd did bang their bottles on the tables for a musical encore, and the bartenders physically ejected everyone at last call. They don’t just turn on the house lights at the Gold Range; they really kick you out!
The following day, I did one of my few public events: a talk and portrait-drawing session at the Yellowknife Book Cellar, owned and operated by Judith Drinnan. Judith Drinnan and her husband Ian were my new Yellowknife billets, and their house was really magnificent – situated on the same hill that contains the Bush Pilots’ Monument. (The Bush Pilots’ Monument offers a really great vista of the entire city.) The talk went well, and a few people of widely different ages were very interested in making their own illustrations and comics. However, I felt like I was competing against the spectre of Kathy Reichs (of Bones fame). She visited Yellowknife a few years ago and promised the residents that she’d set a future Bones mystery in Yellowknife. That book became Bones are Forever. I can’t really top that, now can I?
Dinner was with Janice and Sean Daley, two teachers at a local high school (well, Janice was the librarian) who are both very involved in the local art scene. Janice’s paintings were all over the walls and really stunning. Their friend Scott (also a teacher) prepared the food with Sean and the two of them were really excellent cooks. Conversation topics included the dangers of housesitting for friends during a Yellowknife winter (so many burst pipes!), driving on ice roads and visiting Toronto. (Janice and Sean have a daughter at Sheridan College and are visiting for her graduation.)
The Snow King with his palace.
Following that, I visited the Snow King’s castle for the set of that Latin fusion band I met the night prior. The castle – somewhat like Quebec’s ice hotel – is built every February by houseboater and ‘character,’ The Snow King. The design is different each year, but it’s made entirely of snow, with some ice for the windows. And during March, it hosts a number of events, including concerts, film screenings and even a burlesque show.
I found Amy and Elody in the crowd as the band started. Almost as soon as I said hello, Elody nodded toward last-night’s paramour, centre-stage: ‘I should have known he was a lead singer.’
The castle fit about 150 people and soon, they were all salsa dancing. It wasn’t even all that cold, though my feet started to feel it after about an hour of standing on ice. I took a break from the concert to try out the massive ice slide in the back. (So fast!) The security guy by the slide was pretty friendly. On my way out that evening, he shouted: ‘Toronto, you heading out?’ As far as nicknames go, it wasn’t bad.
