big, fat neon buddha shines on

Rockers give famed club sign to museum

Smilin' Buddha prime example of neon heyday

The Vancouver Sun

Friday, October 19, 2007

By John Mackie

Vancouver rockers 54-40 drew their name from a historical slogan, "54-40 or fight." Now they're making a bit of history themselves by donating one of Vancouver's landmark neon signs to the Vancouver Museum.

The sign is for the Smilin' Buddha Cabaret, a legendary dive on East Hastings where Jimi Hendrix played in the 1960s and 54-40 played their first gig on Dec. 31, 1980.

The sign was a civic icon for several decades, featuring a big, fat neon Buddha with a rippling belly reclining atop Smilin' Buddha (in script) and Cabaret (in oriental lettering). In a city that was once full of playful, imaginative commercial neon signs, it was one of the best.

The Buddha closed in 1987, and 54-40 purchased the sign a few years later from a guy who had bought it and stored it in a warehouse. They then used it as the title for an album, and took it on tour.

The band lent it to the Vancouver Museum for a neon show a couple of years ago, but the sign has mostly been in storage. So the band decided to donate it.

"We essentially consider ourselves stewards of the sign, never really owners," says bassist Brad Merritt, who will appear with 54-40 tonight and Saturday at the Commodore Ballroom.

"We happened to buy it and fix it up and get a case for it and all that stuff, but we were struck by the fact that it's a historical landmark. It meant a lot to me, personally. I heard my parents talk about the place, taking their little brown bags of booze [when it was a speakeasy bottle club] and sticking them in a little spot in the table as the cops go by . . . it was just an amazing place, part of Vancouver's lore."

The sign is at the Vancouver Museum being fixed up for an official unveiling in January or February.

That means it won't be with the band at the Commodore, which has long been the band's favourite local venue. Last year, they released a live DVD, This is Here, This is Now, of a Commodore show.

"We could play anywhere, but a couple of nights there is the most fun," says Merritt.

"It's a giant love-in. What shocks me is that when I turn around and look at the band, everyone in the band is just smiling away. The crowd loves it and we love them: it's an amazing thing. A celebration."

The quartet may play some songs from a new album they've been recording which should be available next March. Part of the album was recorded at the Chapel, a converted funeral home at Dunlevy and Cordova in the Downtown Eastside.

"In the parlour part, where they had the showings and the service," Merritt says.

Did they run into any ghosts?

"Well, I don't believe in spectres or ghosts or gnomes or any of that stuff, but it definitely had a vibe," he says.

"We had a lot of fun down there. I think our experience down there will somehow be evident in the sound of the record."

The band has cut back somewhat on the heavy touring of their youth.

"If we do 60, that's a big year for us," says Merritt, 47.

"We used to easily do more than double that, 140, 150 shows a year. We could go out there and slog more, but there's no point."

He laughs. "We're a bit more high-end now. But that's okay. You have to be conscious of your physical and mental health. When you're 22, it doesn't matter so much."

How do they fill in the rest of the year? Guitarists Neil Osborne and Dave Genn do a lot of producing, while drummer Matt Johnson DJs one night a week in Victoria and plays in a band on Saltspring Island with Tom Hooper of Grapes of Wrath fame and Tally Bachman. Merritt has an Internet business selling coffee cosies for Bodum coffee makers (www.decentcoffee.com).

But don't expect 54-40 to pack it in any time soon.

"I always say when the Rolling Stones quit, that's our 20-year warning," says Merritt.

"'Okay guys, the Stones have packed it in, we've only got 20 years left.'"

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Canucks polite, Vancouverites more so than most, mag finds

Vancouver outshone only by Moncton

The Vancouver Province

Friday, October 19, 2007

By Ian Austin

Thank you very much, Reader's Digest.

The magazine sent undercover reporters to 15 cities across Canada, and they determined that Vancouver is the second-most polite city in Canada.

If we weren't so polite, we might say that top-ranked Moncton, N.B., with just 120,000 souls, can barely be called a city.

So The Province went out at what should be a most impolite time of day -- afternoon rush hour in a deluge -- to see if the magazine knows whereof it speaks.

At the geographic centre of downtown Vancouver, Georgia and Granville, passengers queued politely for buses to the suburbs while motorists queued patiently, except for the occasional horn, to make their way to the Lions Gate Bridge.

"Vancouver is very polite compared to other cities I've been to around the world," said Leigh Gittings, an executive assistant who hails from Australia's Gold Coast.

Gittings was waiting for a bus to her home in West Vancouver, what she called "a very polite city," where she has found "a Canadian boyfriend."

Nellie Bugden, a transplanted Newfoundlander who lives in White Rock, travelled in by bus and was headed to the Sunshine Coast to visit her granddaughter.

"People give me a spot on the bus," said Bugden, a spry 67, who wasn't surprised that Moncton won the grand prize for politeness.

"If you ask someone in the Maritimes for directions, they'll probably say, 'I just live around the corner. Why don't you come 'round for a cup of tea.'"

Bugden added: "If you're nice to people, they'll be polite to you."

The magazine measured a city's politeness by observing the percentage of people who held doors open, how often store clerks thanked a purchaser of a small item and how often people helped pick up a folder of papers deliberately dropped by a reporter.

At 700 West Georgia, The Province noted a flurry of elevators and glass doors being held open.

Bike courier Jenn Jefferys said if someone holds an elevator or a door open, it makes her day.

"Some stuff is common courtesy -- I hold doors for people, hold elevators for people," she said.

"When people hold the elevator, or receptionists say 'thank you,' that lets you know they appreciate what you're doing."

Mario Trejier, owner of Mario's Coffee Express on Howe Street, gets a broad cross-section of customers.

"I have the opportunity of dealing with people from all around the world, with students from all over the world," said Trejier, who immigrated to Canada from Argentina in 1989.

"Canadians are the most polite by far, but the British are very polite, too. A lot of the students from other countries say to me, 'People are very polite here.'"

Trejier, who admits to being a bit of a neat freak, is also impressed by the cleanliness of Vancouverites.

"People will carry a piece of paper around looking for a garbage can," said Trejier.

"Even during the garbage strike, this was a very clean city."

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