BAGHDAD ON THE CATARQUI — JANUARY 22, 2007
WHY NOT AN OCCASIONAL COLUMN COMMENTING UPON THE HUMAN CIRCUS AND CONDITION AS THEY EXIST IN KINGSTON, AREA, COUNTRY, HEMISPHERE, WORLD, WITH A BIT OF TONGUE-IN-CHEEK, TO ACCOMPANY LIGHTNING INSIGHT, HUMOUROUS REFLECTION, AND SERIOUS ATTEMPTS TO AFFLICT THE COMFORTABLE AND COMFORT THE AFFLICTED?
AFTER ALL, KINGSTON IS THE CULTURAL CENTRE OF SOUTHEASTERN ONTARIO; THERE IS NOTHING ELSE WITHIN MILES….NEW YORK CITY TO THE SOUTH, OTTAWA TO THE NORTH, TORONTO TO THE WEST, MONTREAL TO THE EAST. SO HERE IS THE DIADEM! BETTER BELIEVE IT. WE DON’T APPRECIATE WHAT WE HAVE HERE, SO SMALL-TOWN DOES IT APPEAR. BUT IF WE LOOK UNDER ROCKS, UP IN TREES, IN BOARD OFFICES, IN UNIVERSITY CLASSROOMS, HOSPITAL OPERATING THEATRES, McGAFFIN STADIUM IN GOOD WEATHER, THE CAT MALL, AND THE EMPHASIS UPON WESTWARD THE COURSE OF KINGSTON COMMERCE, THEN WE BEGAN TO GET A PICTURE…..OF WHAT IS, WAS, AND WHAT MIGHT BE. ESPECIALLY WHAT MIGHT BE……
BAGHDAD, OF COURSE, IS A METAPHOR FOR KINGSTON’S HISTORIC COSMOPOLITAN OUTLOOK, FIRST AS A FRENCH FORT, THEN AS A BRITISH VICTORIAN COMMERCIAL CENTRE, THEN AS A PRISON/UNIVERSITY SITE (THE TWO ARE INTIMATELY RELATED), MORE LATELY A SITE WHERE BABBITTRY SEEMS TO RULE (GO BACK AND READ SINCLAIR LEWIS–HE APPLIES HERE TOO). ALWAYS IMPORTANT, THE ALMIGHTY LOONY LOOMS NOW AS THE KEY TO THE CITY, CITY HALL, AND ALL THOSE SERVANTS WHO ENTER THOSE DOORS. THE BUSINESS OF KINGSTON IS BUSINESS, AND THAT IS AS IT SHOULD BE, BUT THE BUSINESS SHOULD ALSO BE MORE THAN BUSINESS. WILL EXPLAIN AS WE MOVE ALONG.
WITH THE RUBRIC FROM THE TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES, SHIFTED TO THE CATARAQUI, I ADMIT BORROWING SHAMELESSLY FROM HERB CAEN, LONGTIME COLUMNIST FOR THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, WHOSE “BAGHDAD BY THE BAY” CHRONICLED THE COMINGS AND GOINGS OF SAN FRANCISCANS AND INTERESTING DENIZENS OF SURROUNDING AREAS. CAEN’S COLUMN WAS A FORCE FOR GOOD, SKEPTICISM, AMUSEMENT, AND ASTONISHMENT, ALL THE WHILE PURVEYING A SENSE OF AWE AND WONDER FOR THE CITY HE LOVED. LET’S SEE IF WE CAN DO THAT WITH A SIMILAR FRAMEWORK FOR KINGSTON, OUR LIMESTONE CITY. THERE IS PLENTY TO COMMENT UPON HERE, BOTH LOCALLY, AND IN LARGER REALMS. AFTER ALL, SOMEONE ONCE SAID, KINGSTON IS A HOTBED OF SOCIAL REST–ABBIE HOFFMAN I THINK IT WAS, BUT HE WAS ONLY HERE FOR A NIGHT, ABOUT FIFTEEN YEARS AGO. AND ONE NIGHT IS INSUFFICIENT TO A JUDGMENT MADE.
BAGHDAD BY THE BAY, CIRCA 2007, IS NO LONGER SAN FRANCISCO. UNFORTNATELY, SHIFTING THE EMPHASIS TO THE VIOLENCE AND CARNAGE OCCURRING DAILY IN THE REAL BAGHDAD, THE CALIFORNIA VERSION IS OAKLAND, WHICH, SADLY, APPEARS TO BE THE NEW VIOLENCE CAPITAL OF THE UNITED STATES, FEATURING GUNS, GUNS, AND MORE GUNS, AS WELL AS PEOPLE READY TO USE THEM. OAKLAND WAS ONCE A PLACE ABOUT WHICH THE WRITER GERTRUDE STEIN ONCE OBSERVED, “THERE IS NO THERE THERE.”
THERE IS A THERE HERE, HERE AND THERE, AND THERE AND HERE……SO LET’S GET AFTER IT……..AND THEM!
******************************************************************
******************************************************************
A NEIGHBOUR OF YOURS–chilly last night, but not enough to stop the doughty scribe from heading out to Etherington Hall to view the film “Looking for Angelina,” an account of an Italian immigrant described in an earlier post, who ended up doing a Lizzy Borden on her husband in the early 20th century. That was in the Sault, well known as a site where southern and eastern Europeans were hired to do menial work at menial wages, then discarded if they (1) grew old (2) injured themselves or (3) became critical of working and living conditions. (4) was the strike three against all Italians to begin with in the Anglo parts of Ontario and Canada generally. When Angela Napolitano whacked her husband for abusing her, indeed, driving this good Catholic girl to prostitute herself to earn the money that he could not, official Canada–male and Anglo-Saxon to its core, convicted her and she ended up spending time in Kingston at the P4W. She might have hung had it not been for a popular uproar against this miscarriage of justice (the husband seemed to deserve it), but even then, the life sentence stuck in the craw of feminists, progressives, and Italian Canadians generally. Angelina got out and ended up working as a domestic for a local businessman, Hugh Nickel, who took an uncommon interest in the case, and the poor conditions genrally in the prison. She lived her last eight years in Kingston.
The film, though a tad melodramatic and syrupy, made for good theatre, and the filmmakers did well to illustrate anti-Catholic (Italian) nativism, as well as the problems women within the Italian family had standing up to their husbands. Unequal justice is an enduring theme, and this film made the point indelibly clear. Class, race, ethnicity, and sex/gender analyses were on hand to see. The film is available on DVD.
Got a note this morning from a colleague, Karen Dubinsky, who had a hand in the history behind the film, writing an article in the Canadian Historical Review (with Franca Iacovetta), and discovering Angelina’s grave (see below) at St. Mary’s Cemetery.
Dr. Dubinsky also noted that Angelina had been a neighbour, over on Earl Street, at 155 Earl. That house is now occupied by Royal Military College President John Cowan, whose name was among those listed in the credits…..wonder if the Ghost Walk does much with this one.