The Alley Project

 Since my life has kept me away from the alleys lately, I’m going to let Guy Maddin take over this week. Here’s his brilliant take on the back streets of Winnipeg.

(Ignore the "Dowload Video" link. It doesn’t seem to work.)

 
Every once in a while, there’s a big art gallery shindig on Chung King Road in Chinatown. All of the galleries open up and show off their wares. The first place we hit was the Charlie James Gallery, where Kerry’s friend Packard Jennings had taken over half the gallery for his culture jamming artwork.
The Anarchist [...]

photos by SCF

This is the only photo I could find to represent Eldon, MO.  Photo by Neato Coolville

I didn’t know it was possible to kill an alley, but one flower shop owner in a small town in Missouri managed to git ‘er done.
Seems the alley [...]

 
Does this look like the kind of man who would leave his meat in an alley?
 
 
He says he ain’t, the health inspector says he did. And some pesky neighbor is involved, too.
 
 
 
Spike Mendelsohn, who didn’t quite go the distance on TV’s "Top Chef", did have some problems with the Department of Health in Washington D.C. [...]

I hate to deviate from the central purpose of this site (dealing with legitimate alleys and not figurative ones) but this seemed too important to pass up.
Tin Pan Alley, a particular collection of buildings along W. 28th Street in New York City, housed a good portion of the most influential and successful music publishers and [...]

Harvelle’s is the oldest music venue in Santa Monica, open since 1931. It’s likely that the crowd has stayed perpetually young, most of them now unable to conceive of the 1930’s when dinosaurs waked the earth and music was played on a harpsicord. 
 
I met up with a friend here for a quick drink before beginning [...]

Some interesting things are going on at Catalyst Cocktails. New wavey music and parties and DJs, oh my! Tucked away on Harriet St. across from the imposing Hall of Justice on Bryant Street, Catalyst seems to have a lot of potential that it has yet to realize. I mean, the 300 lb. longshoreman (below) is [...]

 
Around the corner from the famous Tosca Cafe, where it’s not unlikely to spot Francis Ford Coppola doing espresso shot after espresso shot, is a little old bar called Specs. Specs is the kind of place where you’re unlikely to see anyone of note, ever. Specs is cluttered with crap from beat generations past and [...]

If I’d been faster, this lead picture would have been of the guy pissing between cars rather than the eerie smokestacks that loom over Jessie St. Mezzanine is a club that sits in the middle of the alley, just south of where it T’s off at the back of the old Mint building.
 In line to [...]