Personal Videos of Your City

[giallo]

I thought it might be cool to have a thread where we can post our own videos (no city-made promo videos, please, just post ones that you have made) of our city. It can be wherever you, as a Canadian, are currently living. This will let other forumers such as myself, kool, The Chemist, etc. share our take on the cities we currently call home.

I love watching these kinds of videos, and I really hope I can see someone's cosy nook in the Mile End, a night out in Cabbage Town, the morning after on George St or a tour of a hidden gem neighbourhood in Regina. Some dialogue about the street/alley/hood during the tour isn't necessary, but would be appreciated.

Let's start off with these two videos I posted in the 'Your Block' thread.


North side of my block

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South side of my block

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Feel free to post a video or three!

[SignalHillHiker]

I love it.

So, tonight, jeddy1989 and I went to a friend's place to party before going downtown. We're walking down York Street and suddenly jeddy1989 turns right. An alley. I have walked down York and Duckworth (where this alley emerged) 10,000 times in my life and never once noticed this alley was there.



Look at the street in the foreground. That's Duckworth. See the space between the two buildings centre left? Yeah, that's the alley. My whole life. Never knew it was there.

There are many hundreds like this in St. John's. Here's one... the alley from Fort Waldegrave to the Lower Battery.

Some of the houses here are only accessible via this lane. So, you know... if you're mobility impaired... well, don't come to St. John's full stop. But if you must, don't buy in Fort Waldegrave.

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[niwell]

^That's a.... public alley??? Wow. Things are a bit different there - very cool.

A laneway tour in Toronto would be kind of interesting. I will think about doing a video maybe. What do you use to shoot them with (for giallo as well)? My DSLR is too old for video and I'm pretty much relegated to my iPhone. Although the quality doesn't seem too bad.

[giallo]

^I'm just using my phone to film right now.

SHH, that is a wicked little alley. It kind of reminds me of the random pathways one can take up and down the mountains behind Hong Kong's Central and Wanchai districts.

[giallo]

A quick two part tour of Yongkang Rd. It's a short road; only two blocks, but they couldn't be more different from each other.

Let's call this tour; The Tales of Two Blocks.


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[SignalHillHiker]

Awesome. I love the second one. I wish scooters were more popular here. I can't remember the last time I've seen one.

*****

A creepy one from here. One of the abandoned WWII batteries at Cape Spear. There are a few around the city. I hate re-listening to myself. "When the Americans left, they pretty much just left all this here." No, b'y, what d'ya expect? Them to dig the ****ing concrete bunker out of the hills and take it with them?

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Same lane as my previous video, but continues on a little longer. Also, it was filmed in "summer". You thought the lane was weird... check out the street at the end. That's a two-way road, not a pedestrian path.

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A hike to the very tippy top of Gibbet Hill, where they used to display the bodies of the executed. It's not the highest point on Signal Hill, but it is the closest high point to the city so it offers the most unobstructed view.

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Catherine Snow was the last famous execution in St. John's. She was an unhappily married Irish Catholic from Harbour Grace who was known to fight with her husband, throw things at him, etc. He went missing, everyone suspected her, and dried blood was discovered on his dock.

Snow, her cousin, and one of her slaves (officially "indentured servant", but functionally a slave) were charged. Snow fled into the forest but eventually turned himself in. She was tried in St. John's on January 10, 1834. She was convicted on circumstantial evidence, which very nearly started a civil war in Newfoundland. She, of the Irish Catholic majority, sentenced to death by the English Anglican elites. Riots nearly broke out when it was discovered Snow was to be executed while she was pregnant, and Irish Catholic churches preached rebellion against the injustice in their sermons. Even upper class Anglican men mentioned in their letters in the paper that their wives wouldn't shut up about it and wanted the execution scrapped.

In the end, her death was delayed and she was hanged shortly after giving birth.

On July 21, 1834, as crowds gathered on Duckworth Street, Snow walked out on the platform. Her last words were,

I was a wretched woman, but I am as innocent of any participation in the crime of murder as an unborn child.

According to the Public Ledger: The unhappy woman, after a few brief struggles, passed into another world.

A little taste of a foggy sunrise - the sounds of St. John's waking up.

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Walking downhill in St. John's from my house to Water Street, including a handful of little pedestrian-only lanes.

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And, of course, the famous, the infamous George Street.

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[giallo]

Excellent selection of videos.

Gibbet Hill looks like a wonderful hike. I love all the wild, yellow grass blowing in the wind. That hill is made for video.

I really enjoyed the Water St. tour. I got a good sense of the city and its surroundings. I love a good alley, and St. Js has them in spades.

George St. looks like a riot.

Yeah, listening to your own voice again can be cringe-worthy. In the four videos I've posted, I've had as many grammatical errors (saying things plural that should be singular) and redundancies. I just chalk it up to walking, concentrating on filming AND trying to explain what it is your looking at. I imagine it takes some practice to be able to narrate on the fly like that flawlessly.

[giallo]

Here's a cityscape video from my apartment. You can see parts of the Luwan, Jing An and Huangpu district in the video.

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[giallo]

People-watching in Shanghai.

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[SignalHillHiker]

Oh the cityscape one, the car horns. Life really is similar everywhere, isn't it? I love it!

[SignalHillHiker]

One more from this past weekend - not quite urban, but still some of the cooler things to do in St. John's. There are videos of the icebergs from the top of the Southside Hills as well as from Fort Amherst and Signal Hill.

The Royal Newfoundland Regiment's band happened to be practicing on Signal Hill so I took a few clips of that as well.

And of course, a few shots of the city itself.

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[FrAnKs]

Not my city, but you guys need to see it !

It's the most breathtaking video I've seen in a while !

This is what I call Top notch quality !

Be sure to Watch full screen.

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[giallo]

Wonderful collection of videos, SHH. That's some Chamber of Commerce type shit right there!

Franks, thanks for contributing, and it's no doubt a stunning video, but I'm trying to keep this thread for videos that SSP members have personally filmed.

[FrAnKs]

I know, it's the very, only one video, that I will post that isn't from me. It was a good exception

[FrAnKs]

Got this one, filmed in 2011 when I just moved in Québec city from Montréal.

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[giallo]

^There we go. Nice!


Walking home from work.

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SHH, what program do you use to stabilize your walkabout videos?

[niwell]

^Great video!

A couple things struck me:
-The street trees you passed were surprisingly large. The base planters didn't look great so I assume this is a climate thing. Toronto street trees on commercial streets tend to suck (not residential though). Only now are we planting them right.
-The general paving quality and street details are really good. Again, we suck here.
-Traffic seems pretty orderly and there is a preponderance of municipal(???) traffic people. Interesting

I would assume this is an older area of Shanghai since you said it was a walk home (based on your previous videos). I saw some big western retailers (and Uniqlo) so is this kind of a tourist area? I find older Shanghai fascinating and it's great to see it at street level. We tend to just see massive skyscraper vistas online. But it seems there's a legit city under there.

[giallo]

Originally Posted by niwell

We tend to just see massive skyscraper vistas online. But it seems there's a legit city under there.

Easily the biggest misconception (more than the terrible air or bad traffic) about Shanghai is that it is not unlike Dubai; a city that sprung up from nowhere to become this global centre. It's completely understandable though; the majority of pictures shared online are of the Lujiazui skyline or views from up top the Jin Mao, SWFC or Pearl Tower - all of which are in Lujiazui. This will give off the impression that Shanghai is this giant suburban office park. The reality is that over 80% of central Shanghai looks like the last video I posted. The architectural styles of the buildings will differ as well as the stores beneath them, but they all have the same basic form (retail at base, offices or apartments on top). Shanghai developed along side cities like NYC, MTL and Boston. Most people don't know that Shanghai was one of the world's largest cities back in 1950 with 5 million residents. It's got old bones.

As for my hood, yeah, it's probably about 150-200 years old, but it's definitely not the oldest neighbourhood in the city. That would be the south Bund area which has had constant settlement since the 11th century.

I'm glad the videos have piqued your interest, niwell. I'll definitely go to Lujiazui (gotta show the bad) soon as well as some other really nice spots in the city.

[giallo]

A walk from my apartment to Xintiandi (tourist-heavy F&B area). The walk takes about 20 minutes, so I cut it down to about 14 minutes, and spared you some of the more repetitive streetscapes.

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[SignalHillHiker]

A look at what the SSP crowd in St. John's gets up to. ;-) Scenes from, oh, a half dozen or more gatherings.

"I'll fall, there'll be tits everywhere..."

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