Well Malawi has come and gone and yet here we are. When I got home a lot of people told me how they thought my blog last summer was “not terrible” and how they “were able to read half of it in one whole sitting” so I was basically drowning in compliments. This has led me to writing a little ditty on my hometown, Regina, and how it’s not terrible.

Quick side note, if you ever want to be my friend you literally just need to slightly compliment my blog once and I’ll cling to you for life. I’m an incredible narcissist.

Who knew?

Everyone.

Anyway I’m not sure if this will be my only post while here in Regina but I really wanted to talk about things I love in this city. More importantly though is I want to call people out who are constantly bitching about this city. First off, shut up. Secondly, this post is geared toward you as an audience so please keep reading even though I just told you to shut up.

K so we all have that friend. That friend who always complains Regina, as a city, is boring as all hell. Regina gets a bad rap because we are smaller, have a weaker club scene , and don’t have a ton of landmarks. Apart from having the longest bridge over the shortest body of water, I would agree.

BUT HERE IS THE THING. These same people who complain about how lame Regina is are guaranteed not trying very hard to integrate themselves in the community and see what’s out there. They are probably complaining Regina doesn’t have a cool aquarium like Toronto or something. Like, okay buddy, if Regina DID have an aquarium I would go maybe once. It’s not like an Aquarium would give me constant enjoyment every weekend unless I really fucking loved fish. If you love fish that much just stop reading now and move to Toronto, you win.

That is why I am writing this though, because frankly there are always people who will complain instead of try. Why? Because complaining is easier. It’s way easier to whip on Netflix, order a pizza and say: “Regina is so lame with nothing to offer.” There are some absolutely RAD scenes in this city for literally everyone. So before you watch How I Met Your Mother for the billionth time I graciously ask you give these places a chance.

DISCLAIMER TIME. The places/events I’m about to talk about did not by any means approach me to write this or anything like that. Yes, I have had some personal affiliation with these places but that’s only because I’ve always thought they were cool from the beginning. So yes this blog post is a plug, but it’s not plug a for these individual places, it’s a plug for this city with a ton of god dam potential.

ONTO COOL PLACE THING #1

Do you like laughing? Simple yes or no question. If your answer is yes then good, you are correct. If you said no, “I don’t like laughing” then you can just join the buddy who is moving to Toronto for the fish. I mean c’mon, I can only think of very few people who hate laughter:

Mike Pence Toby from The Office Nursing Students during finals

Hitchhikers Improv sets out with one goal: to make you laugh. Personally, I think laughter is such a crazy thing. Laughter isn’t planned, it’s not something you think about, it just happens. It relieves stress and for bliss moments you’re not worrying about taxes or if you left the stove on, you’re just happy. When you inherently agree with a point you’ll laugh, and I firmly believe the most important thing in a relationship is if they make you laugh or not.

Laughter is great.

So according the Artistic Director, Andrew Parry, the HH squad has been sticking with this organization for over five years. Over that time they went from extremely humble beginnings of audiences with maybe 20 people, to filling venues up to the brim with 190 attendance. In this work it is SO EASY to get discouraged from a low turnout when starting out, give up, and pursue something else more established.

These guys didn’t though.

They are now the largest Improv Company in Saskatchewan with a cast number higher than the audience of their first shows.

While they have changed their venue, look, and the cast has had some turnover, one thing has always stayed constant, the laughter they provide.

Hitchhikers also is an amazing outlet for people dealing with mental health. Many people who practice comedy suffer from some kind of mental illness. The funniest people all have some kind of story. But in Hitchhikers your story isn’t suppressed, it’s not something that you’re ashamed of but instead it is celebrated. Hitchhikers has created a community where you can be as open as you want and no one gives a damn. Being part of the community has consistently acted as a safety net for me and many other people when things get heavy.

ALRIGHT ENOUGH HEARTFELT FEELGOOD STUFF, LET’S TALK ABOUT SOME REAL DOPE SHIT.

I.E.

So an unpopular or maybe taboo opinion is that Regina has always been associated as a hard representation of Bible Belt Canada, where evolution is unproven, being gay is a lifestyle choice, and clean coal apparently exists.

I’m feeling edgy today.

Regina’s representation of Bible Belt Canada is partially backed by it’s huge country music genre presence, among other things. TO BE CLEAR, I have no problem with good country music. Everyone has their own music taste and there is no real right or wrong answer, it’s like your favorite colour. That being said, this country genre presence in Regina didn’t leave a lot of room for other upcoming artists to flex their musical talent.

Trifecta helped changed that.

So I had the chance to grab a coffee with Marvin Chan, the artistic director of Trifecta, where he filled me in on how it started. Essentially Trifecta started as a three-way house party but eventually transformed in the Summer of 2014 when it’s first festival was hosted in Regina.

Marvin describes the festival as the “Perfect Storm” in the sense that it worked because each of the niche music scenes, although fragmented, were strong in their own right. Because of this, artists from these scenes were willing to perform for free in order to bring a free festival to life for the benefit of culture diversity in Regina which is literally the coolest thing. This, in addition to the city offering a free stage to help bring more life to the downtown, as well as having a group of people all wanting to contribute to the diversity of Regina’s arts and music culture created the “Perfect Storm.”

Marvin also talked about the stigma against Hip-Hop in Saskatchewan’s culture. Hip-hop in Regina is constantly associated with negatives issues like crime, which means a lot of people don’t really give the genre a chance. This sucks mainly because Hip-Hop is an amazing medium of performance. As Marvin says, hip-hop can be used to express vulnerability, love, and the dilemmas of the common person, not just bravado and gusto.

So Marvin took the communal aspect of other genres like hardcore/punk and brought it to hip-hop in Regina. When you walk into a Trifecta show you get the vibe of an underground music scene which can be very intimidating, especially if you are living embodiment of a suburban white kid (this guy). BUT, this feeling is almost instantly dispelled after spending some time there.

You realize you’re with some of the most welcoming people on the planet.

Processed with VSCO with a6 preset Processed with VSCOcam with a6 preset

Today Trifecta is a space for all artists to get out there, and it acts as an arts collective. There are some wildly talented people performing at their shows including @LOA who was their first signed artist who is will be playing in the UK focus festival this May, which is fucking rad. Marvin quote “dicked around” for ten years before he really got invested into his music so now Trifecta acts as a catalysts for young artists so they don’t do the same thing.

Trifecta is probably going to indirectly change people’s lives in the most drastic positive ways possible, and it’s all because people are following their passion.

And a free stage.

📷 : @athirdtime

NUMERO TROIS, A PLACE TO EXPRESSO YOURSELF

(I’ll see myself out)

Alright so we’ve done some popular entertainment scenes here in Regina but I wanna cover all aspects of this city.

So for this last place I wanted to highlight something a little different. Great music and hysterical entertainment is awesome but there are definitely people out there who don’t go for that kinda thing. People who have a hard time with crowds, maybe a little more introverted. If you’re someone who is like this that is absolutely okay. Everyone is different and the fact you don’t feel the need to constantly be socializing is by no means something you should have an issue with. So what can this kind of city offer you? Whelp let me tell you about this little coffee chain called Brewed Awakening.

You’re probably already saying to yourself..

“Thom, every city hosts cool coffee shops where everyone who wears flannel that aren’t lumberjacks go, this is no different.”

To that I would say you’re a cynical fish loving bastard, but you’re also right. Local coffee shops are by no means ground breaking but Brewed is little different.

First off, Regina doesn’t have a Starbucks at every single street corner like most places. For some wild legal reason to do with unions Starbucks can’t have any stand alone shops in Regina. So there was a gap for a chain in Regina that kinda served the purpose of a local coffee joint. This in my opinion, is a good thing. Nothing against Starbucks but they are a lot of talk without the walk. They push a lot of the “Fair Trade” mentality but in the end, hit very minimal requirements for the certification. Before I throw Starbucks completely under the bus I should say I do go there occasionally out of convenience and because the girl who works there always writes “Tom Cruise” on my cup. I understand the mix up even though I’m taller than him but whatever.

All I’m saying is we should not be looking at Starbucks as the shining example of progressive coffee trade, so not having that influence on Regina is pretty rad since it created room for Brewed Awakening.

Brewed awakening is all fair trade coffee BY THE BY.

I got to sit down and talk with the one and the only Daniel Gunther, who is in basically all the pictures I could find. Anyway he has been with Brewed since 2011 and let me tell you something quick about Dan. I have never seen someone so passionate about coffee in my life.

Like, holy shit.

This dude has such a solid opinion on the industry and if we wanted I’m sure he could talk about it all day. Passion drives passion so it’s always nice to hear about what makes people get up in the morning.

The thing I love about this chain though is it makes Regina feel like such a solid tight-knit community. Dan compared Brewed Awakening to a local watering hole and I totally agree. I’ve been using Brewed as a place to do work for the entire year now and I do really feel like I’m walking into a group of friends when I come into a store, even if I know no one.

It’s like a pub open for works hours.

So if you’re looking to get out but want to avoid events, Brewed Awakening is the place for you. It’s a chain like nowhere else in Canada and I feel very lucky to have it in this city.

📷 : @Brewedawake

So this wraps up my series for now everyone! If I could just reiterate this one point:

Stop Bitching About Regina

Even if I didn’t go over anything you thought was cool, go out and do you own rad things. It’s so easy to complain about the world we live it and do nothing about it, blaming others when in fact you are part of the problem.

Lastly here is a hot pic of the some of the guys behind what you just read about and a quote they each gave me about Regina.

“Building things take energy. Searching for “home” takes energy. Complaining about things take energy. All these things require energy, but the first two require devotion and commitment, while the last one does not. If you’re spending energy anyway, you might as well be building or searching for something. Otherwise, you’re wasting energy.” –MARVIN

“The whole thing about the grass is always greener. We see the big cities and ask why are they so good..Why try and go somewhere everything is great when you have so much potential in a city where you CAN MAKE things great.” –ANDREW

“People always complain about the fact Regina is so small and they run into all of their friends and see people they know everywhere. I never understood why that is a bad thing, if they are your friends isn’t that a good thing? I love that community aspect about Regina.” –DAN

If you’re just being reactive to your situation oppose to being proactive, you’re never going solve the problem, that is just a hard fact. So get off your ass, get out there, and make this a world you wanna live in.

Much love for reading everyone ❤

-A Canadian