dewline: (canadian media)
The Bay was a retail fixture of my life. I didn't expect to outlive the company.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/hudsons-bay-8300-employees-june-1-1.7544639
dewline: self-portrait, taken while drawing (Sketching)
Wallack's got back to me with an answer about the options they have either in stock or available to order:

Holbein (Japan)
Colleen Pencils (Thailand)
Bruynzeel (Holland)
Faber-Castell (Germany)
Caran d'Ache (Switzerland)
Derwent (UK)
Lyra (Germany)
dewline: Logo: Open comic book with Cdn. Leaf Symbol (comic books)
Some of you may recall that the Comic Book Shoppe's Centretown store had been forced to relocate from a previous address further south on Bank Street a year or two ago due to a fire elsewhere on the block.

What I did NOT know was that they had moved into the old Prospero Books space on Bank and Slater until doing an unrelated Google Maps postal code search tonight! Excellent matching of tenant to location there! I hope they get to stay in that space for many years to come!
dewline: Virus Don't Care (COVID-19)
I went for a walk, partly for exercise, partly for newspapers and other essentials-to-me.

The hand sanitizer apparatus at the local grocery and pharmacy were still out of order when I got there, the former for about a week now and the latter being hour-by-hour iffy.

I am pleased to note that my polite complaints about this were not met with indifference or disrespect. Both establishments took measures to either get the equipment working again or to provide a workable substitute system until repairs/resupply can be properly done.

Should I name these stores as examples of making positive efforts to assist their customers?
dewline: Text - "On the DEWLine" (Default)
Natural Food Pantry
Canadian Tire Gas+

And the local Metro grocery seems to be improving their conduct. I hope.

Hoping that trend further improves...and I expect to talk about other stuff as the day passes.

(If you're wondering about local weather, there's rain...but it's barely even there. Wind, yes. Grey skies, yes. Not even enough rain to be called "drizzle".)
dewline: Text - "On the DEWLine" (Default)
Keeping in mind these are the locations within walking distance of where I live currently...and things may already be changing for the better (I hope).

Metro
Canada Computers

Shoppers seemed to get better as the day went on yesterday. I have to allow for them because I showed up right at the start of their work day at 8 AM. But the people at the pharmacy section were already masked at that point, so...?

We're still not out of this yet, and I don't care for the howls of the "skeptics". Especially after the last two years.
dewline: Snoopy screaming in frustration (Augh)
Inconsistency in retail settings is going to make people die too early.

I saw inconsistency at the Metro grocery this morning, not half an hour ago, among both customers and staff. Because while most were masking up, some were not. As expected, yes, but that still doesn't make it right and proper.

Yes, Dwight, there are Convoy Crowd people lurking in Orléans too. There always were.

I was considering visiting Linen Chest at St. Laurent Mall this afternoon. Not going to do it now.

(It was a competition in my brain between using "AUGH!" and "Virus Don't Care" for this posting. Tight competition.)
dewline: Exclamation: "Hear, Hear!" (celebration)
I got my debit card PIN problem fixed up at the bank. (Sadly, this is an issue that has to be fixed in person, one of the few banking issues that has to be fixed that way.)

I used some Christmas gift-money to buy a personal DVD copy of Black Widow.

There was reassurance that my local comics dealer is still operational, and was able to reassure the staff that I have not forgotten my obligations to them. More pointedly, that I anticipate starting to get caught up on my reading next weekend because payday timing.

The local custom-t-shirt printer can work with PNG files I bring for them, and that they can print on 3XL t-shirts.

The British mystery novels that inspired the CBC TV series Coroner are still in print as of two years ago, and available through local booksellers.

It may be possible for me to finally get a used Wacom Cintiq without breaking myself financially. More on this anon, I hope.

New battery for the cell-phone, finally. Been worrying about the battery I bought with it for a few weeks after four or five years. Didn't think the shop I bought the new battery from would have it in stock yet.
dewline: Highway Sign version of "Ottawa the City" Icon (city life)
You might remember a newsstand-turned-gift shop/art supply house on Elgin called the Gifted Type, that I mentioned relatively recently as getting out of newspapers and magazines?

Well, two weeks earlier, I found out they've gotten out of storefront retail, too. Online-only, nowadays. I found out when I visited Perfect Books to see how their expanded floor space is serving their needs as a retailer...and walked over to find out that their old Elgin Street floorspace was being refitted for a new tenant.

Not happy about this. I'd been dealing with them since moving to Ottawa under their old name and an earlier, more southerly location on Bank Street under another, cruder name and different ownership back in 1985.

I see that their website has not yet been updated to reflect this news.
dewline: Text - "On the DEWLine" (Default)
I went to Perfect Books this morning, having pre-paid, to pick up Stumptown V.4 and ST:DSC Wonderlands. Both books were pretty much as I expected them to be, hence worth the money and time to get them.

The trip was mildly eventful because of the weather. The trip from home to downtown requires switching from bus to train at Blair Station these days, and the rain that was being given 40% odds of happening by Environment Canada fully happened during the train ride. The "wave" passed over my route when I was between Cyrville and Tremblay Stations and left me behind when I got to UOttawa Station and - at that point - off the train.

Finally got the transit pass updated for this month - thanks again for the current unemployment insurance rules, federal government, or that (and much of my current ability to keep looking for work) might not be possible! - after I got there.

Looking at the Rideau Canal as I crossed the Corkstown Footbridge connecting the University of Ottawa's Sandy Hill campus with the "Golden Triangle" section of Centretown, I saw...a lot of underwater plant life blooming. I think that's normal most years, but with canal boat traffic largely shut down because of the Pandemic (like so much else), the greenery comes right to the surface in much of the canal that I was able to see.

Perfect Books is in the midst of an upgrade of sorts. Their longtime next-door neighbour, Elgin Jewellers, has shut down in part due to Pandemic and partly because the owner was already thinking of retiring. That decision opened up an opportunity that the bookstore has taken advantage of: to double their then-current floor-space. They'd already been managing to weather the Pandemic "storm" - and the reconstruction of Elgin Street over the year prior to the Pandemic's beginnings - fairly well due to bulk-order business, a devoted long-time walk-in clientele willing to pivot with them, and other factors. So owner Jim Sherman's taking this chance. I'd really like this to work out for him and his staff.

Maybe it's because of the binge-reading of the Retail comic strip series' archives these past few days, but I'd like to see independent bookstores - and other retailers - be able to keep going, and maybe a little bit of careful growth, too.

And that leads me to my next reiteration: that we need a better "new normal" to move into from these Pandemic times. I worry that we're not going to get that better "new normal" because of far too many reasons right now.
dewline: Exclamation: "Hear, Hear!" (celebration)
Back in February 2020, I noted the passing of Norm Feuti's comic strip series, Retail.

Mr. Feuti had announced at that point his intent to archive the whole series online at some point. I'd expected the process to take longer. But apparently, the main work is done. There's topic-tagging yet to do, but that's not a high priority, and as someone who took years to finally manage to get every image file on my Flickr account properly tagged, I'm extremely reluctant to denounce anyone else's scheduling of such work.

Oh, and if you're wondering about the company that took over Grumbel's mall-space...?
dewline: Text - "On the DEWLine" (Default)
Norway adds trans people to the "protected" list in their hate-crime laws.

https://www.reuters.com/article/norway-lgbt-lawmaking/norway-outlaws-hate-speech-against-trans-people-idUSKBN2852DL

CBC reporter Anthony Germain learns lessons about addiction.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/germain-pointofview-brothers-1.5852908

Baltimore Sun reporter David Zurawik on the need for a proper post-mortem among journalists in the wake of the Trump "Administration":

https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/columnists/zurawik/bs-ed-zontv-trump-media-no-mercy-20201222-twriwoeftncvtc7vy7u6pldqj4-story.html

A boon of sorts for some of the bookstores I deal with:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/bookstore-business-rises-during-lockdown-1.5837661
dewline: Text - "On the DEWLine" (Default)
Gifted Type - 5 September 2020

Boogie & Birdie

A profile of the artist is carried by CBC News:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/old-fashioned-sign-painting-pandemic-1.5664984

Their business has its online home here:

https://www.pascalearpin.com/
dewline: Logo: Open comic book with Cdn. Leaf Symbol (comic books)
Three of the Montréal shops aligned with the Montréal + Ottawa Comiccons are jointly setting up a web-retail arm:

https://comiclist.ca/

There's a magazine about Canadian comic books, Canadian SF&F in general that you might be interested in supporting:

http://sequentialpulp.ca/sequential-magazine/
dewline: Text - "On the DEWLine" (Default)
Houses that used to be storefronts. There's ways to look for them, depending on the history of your neighbourhood. Dylan Reid discusses some of them - applicable in Ottawa and Gatineau as in Toronto - over at the Spacing Toronto blog:

http://spacing.ca/toronto/?p=61839
dewline: Text - "On the DEWLine" (Default)
Don Gorman at RMBooks apparently worked up this project on Google Maps.
dewline: Text - "On the DEWLine" (Default)
Entertainment Ink is going to "no walk-in traffic" mode effective tomorrow. Today was the last day of that.

"Please respond so we know you have received and if you have any feedback. It'll also just nice to know if you all are doing ok.

Commencing Monday, March 23th,2020.

Entertainment Ink! Will no longer be accepting walk in traffic due to Convid-19 (Coronavirus). We will however continue to operate. And as soon as we are able to safely open to the general public we will do so.

This is to protect both our customers and staff. We will however continue to operate.
And as soon as we are able to safely open to the general public we will do so.

For Comic/Manga customers. - Comics/Manga are still being processed and slotted.

We will be storing your comics on site or if you prefer we can arrange for delivery.

We will also make arrangements for payment.

If you need to contact us email the store at entertainment_ink@yahoo.ca

For Board game customers. - Please email us at entertainment_ink@yahoo.ca to make arrangements for payment and pickup.

For Ink customers. - Please email us at entertainment_ink@yahoo.ca to make arrangements for cartridge drop off, payment and pickup.

For Toner customers. - Please email us at entertainment_ink@yahoo.ca. Let us know what cartridge you need and we will make arrangements for delivery and payment.

Thanks,
Emmanuel"
dewline: Text - "On the DEWLine" (Default)
If you're in Orléans, the east end of Ottawa outside the Greenbelt, you might mistakenly believe that there's not much in the way of art-skills learning in this borough. The good news is that "mistakenly" adverb choice is on-target.

The Apartment 613 arts and culture weblog has a profile on the Ottawa School of Art's Orléans Campus at the Shenkman Arts Centre.

An additional thought: in recent years, the photography equipment retail chain Henry's and the Ottawa-headquartered art supply store Wallack's retreated from Orléans for financial reasons. I would argue that putting their stores at the corner of Innes and Tenth Line - at the opposite side of the borough from "the Shenkman" - was a mistake. As was the later retreat. The Orléans Town Centre Mall, clustered around the Cinestarz Orléans cinema and right across the street from "the Shenkman" and ten minutes away from Place d'Orléans Mall, might have been a better venue for both retail operations. There was enough empty space in the Town Centre to serve them both.

Now? Not so much. The empty space seems to be more available at Place d'Orléans nowadays. If Henry's and Wallack's were to return to the east end...
dewline: Text - "On the DEWLine" (Default)
  • Uppercase (crafting and design magazine published in Canada)
  • Branchline (published by Bytown Railway Society)
  • Star Trek
  • The Atlantic
  • Warships - International Fleet Review
  • Bloomberg Business Week
  • Toronto Life
It seemed a good idea at the time, while I was making my way home.
And yes, this is a not-so-veiled clue to Metro, Shoppers Drug Mart, Rexall, and a few other companies operating in Ottawa. I've spoken of this before, after all.

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dewline: Text - "On the DEWLine" (Default)
On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

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