In June of 1998 my friend Danielle and I moved from St. Catharines, Ontario to Victoria, BC. We left behind a small but amazing music scene amongst our friends and were desperate to find something similar in our new town.

We were really into funk music (and really, who isn’t?) and in St. Kitts Danielle and Jen had a Saturday afternoon radio show called Peanut Butter Sticky Sticky, it was 2 hours of pure funky heaven. On Saturday nights, hyped up from the radio show, our group of friends would gather at a bar called Shooters for Funk Night. We’d take over the dance floor and close the place.

So when Danielle and I got to Victoria we assumed there had to be something similar, what city wouldn’t have a regular funk night? As it turns out, Victoria didn’t.

One day, feeling disappointed by the lack of dancing opportunities, we were walking around town handing out resumes and decided to take a break, go sit at the boardwalk and have some lunch. While we were eating we saw this guy further down the boardwalk sticking a tarp onto the ground and he had a portable stereo and sheets of cardboard. Danielle and I waited anxiously, we were sure the guy was about to start break dancing. We got our hopes up that a break dancing dance off would start up just like the Run DMC video, It’s Like That:

Our spirits were lifted we thought this was it, this is where we’d be able to get our dance fix, watching some break-dancing buskers on the boardwalk in Victoria.

The guy turned on his stereo and we waited for his first moves. He then pulled out some spray paint cans and proceeded to paint a bunch of cheesy moonscapes on the sheets of cardboard.

I believe that was the moment we knew we had left behind something unique and utterly fantastic in St. Catharines Ontario.