I'm back in that old place again,
Watching the smoke rise, exhaling towards the screen in front of me.
Once again, I'm in that beloved city, the one I called home for one short year.
In one short day I am romanced in a park, bumping into people who wander the streets, challenging the rules of a members only pub...

Nostalgia comforts me. Downtown seduces me.
One Great City they call it.
Or simply The City, to whom it isn't home.



Billy Holiday, along with a beat created in this very place:
that is my soundtrack tonight.





Then there's that old church down the street, the one with red brick and stained glass. The one that forced me to think, doubt, and see beauty.

And my precious friend:
who taught me to choose character above beauty.
Love of light and Christ.














All of this, along with Portage Avenue, are the things that make this city seminal.