One Great City

The musical group, the Weakerthens, began playing together during 1997 in Winnipeg, Canada. The members of their band are John Samson (lyricist, guitar, and lead vocals), Stephen Carroll (guitar and backing vocals), John Sutton (bass, backing vocals), and Jason Tait (drums). Their music is a reflection of where they are from and John Samson’s lyrics focus on issues of hope, isolation, and survival within a society riddled with injustice and a culture commodified in every possible way.Their song “One Great City” is about their hometown, which happens to be Winnipeg where they formed

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The song is told from different angles beginning with the underground of the city working its way up until it reaches the highest point. The song lyrics and its title are contradicting because the words of the song paint the city to be repetitive and something far from great. It begins with the day ending, and the night shadows covering the city with a “darker gray”. The song describes a lot of the cities features and personality through its lyrics.

The first verse of the song introduces the city starting from the below the ground. It sings, “a thousand sharpened elbows in the underground,” and this refers to the underground mall which is called Winnipeg Square. It is nicknamed the underground and is located underneath Winnipeg’s downtown and major office buildings. Its location makes the vast majority of people who go to the mall there mostly business people and the description of “a thousand sharpened elbows” refers directly to the business people. The following line of “that hollow hurried sound of feet on polished floor,” adds to the description of the high end working class who move swiftly and the fact that the floor is polished lets us know that the mall is well kept because it is meant for the wealthy. The next line takes the angle of the city to above the ground and says, “In the dollar store the clerk is closing up and counting loonies, trying not to say I hate Winnipeg.” This line is meant to show how the other half of Winnipeg lives aside from the wealthy. The dollar store clerk works to provide for himself, while the high end probably shops at the underground mall. The idea of the store clerk counting loonies hints that there are probably people in a worse living state then the clerk which would make it understandable for the clerk to say I hate Winnipeg.

The song then switches the perspective to a normal person on the street.

the driver checks the mirror seven minutes late

crowded riders' restlessness enunciates

the guess who suck, the jets were lousy anyway

the same mood every day

and in the turning lane

someone's stalled again

he's talking to himself

and hears the price of gas repeat his phrase

I hate Winnipeg

This verse then goes to talk about life in general in Winnipeg. How it can be repetitive and the most interesting thing in someone’s day would be being late to where they have to go in their schedule. Everyone has the same attitude everyday and their mentality towards things in their life never change because they rarely experience something new or better. The lines, “and in the turning lane, someone’s stalled again,” may refer to how a person has a chance to change his life or the direction they are headed, but is stuck and just can’t escape the city. The ending line of this verse that says, “And hears the price of gas repeat his phrase, I hate Winnipeg,” just implies one of the few problems of society.

up above us all,

leaning into sky

our golden business boy

will watch the north end die

and sing 'i love this town'

then let his arching wrecking ball proclaim:

"I...hate...Winnipeg"

This last verse talks about the golden boy which is located on top of the legislature and was the highest point in Winnipeg. He faces north because that was where the founders of the city believed the future of Winnipeg was held. The ironic part of this is that the North End of Winnipeg is the rough end of the city. The Statue which was suppose to symbolize hope,

business, and a promising future, points to the dying north end which is referred to in the song. Like in the song, he is meant to sing “I love this town” ,but rather he truly represents the rest of the town in symbolizing the corruption that occurred in Winnipeg.

The title of One Great City may not seem to mesh with the lyrics, but the role of this song I believe is to have people reflect on their hometowns as well. Every town is like someone’s Winnipeg. After living in a place for so long, things get old, people begin to notice the flaws in the city, and when people try to leave they always manage to return. The city is a part of them as much as they are part of the city. There is a hidden love for their hometown under all the negatives. It is where a person is from making a town like Winnipeg One Great City.

The Natural City

 We've been waiting all our lives
for things we've always had but have no eyes to see.
Something new is going to happen,
The most natural thing but nothin' we'd expect.

All these buildings and mountains
slowly they'll arise
before our eyes.

How do cities understand?
We drink our wine and wonder why we're really here
What's the point of even asking?
You take the good and bad and make the best of it.

All these buildings and mountains
slowly they'll arise
before our eyes.

All these buildings and mountains
slowly they'll arise
before our eyes.
have you watched the cities move
does nature fall before this age of industry
for today I'll let it go
you've been good to me have I been good to you?
All these buildings and mountains
slowly they'll arise
before our eyes

All these buildings and mountains
slowly they'll arise
before our eyes

The song "Buildings and Mountains", by the Republic Tigers may seem like meaningless existentialism to some, but I want to explore an idea that they bring up: Is there a connection between the city and nature? In a black & white world, the answer is no, but when looking at the grey area they are in many ways connected in how they are defined. Just looking at the lyrics, in the chorus, they say that both buildings and mountains will arise; in the same way that nature grows and changes, sometimes shaped by humans, the cities develop in the same way. They ask "how do cities understand?" as though there is some connection between the city and its inhabitants, as though the city is made to be perfect and these flawed creatures live within it. It talks about cities moving and nature falling before it, but not in the form of a statement, but in a question. This brings up the question of is nature strong enough to resist the growth of this mechanized city, or does the city replace it all together. The Republic Tigers might be right that the city itself could be "the most natural thing, but nothin' we'd expect".


In many ways, the city does replace Nature. A passage in the nior novel, The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler, really brought my attention to this idea. The passage reads:

"It's beautiful." I pulled up beside a loading platform. We got out. I listened. The hum of traffic was a distant web of sound, like the buzzing of bees. The place was as lonely as a churchyard. Even after the rain, the tall eucalyptus trees still looked dusty. They always look dusty. A branch broken off by the wind had fallen over the edge of the sump and the flat leathery leaves dangled in the water.

Looking at this scene, it seems very desolate and that nature has been destroyed by the city that developed in novel, but I view it as more of a new kind of nature, what the Republic Tigers would say is the most natural thing, but nothing you would expect. The layer of dust that coats the trees acts like a haze that is spurs the evolution of the trees to last in the city, as though the layer of dust protects them from being destroyed by the city, but changes them so that they are now something less than a tree, and the leaves from it are now leathery as a means of adapting to the city. The bees that would be found in nature, carrying pollen for plants to grow and reproduce, are replaced by cars that carry cargo or people that allows for cities to grow and reproduce. The empty spaces that formerly belonged to nature are even now used for churches and people. The stereotypical view of the city is that it destroys nature to make room for the city, but this passage almost shows how the city doesn't destroy nature, but instead forces it to change with the city in order to survive. 

In more modern times, there have been efforts made in society to try and restore nature to its former glory before the city, within the city. This notion of making a city "green" simply by making it more energy efficient and using new forms of energy. The currently accepted "bad" non-sustainable energy sources are plants that use coal, nuclear, gas, or similar fuel sources; what is know as "good" sustainable energy sources are solar panels, wind turbines, or dams. So what society considers to be "green" energy sources are the sun, wind, and water. Ask any biologist what plants need to grow and survive and he'll most likely tell you, the sun, air, and water. So are these new buildings that claim to be "green" so far from plants themselves? If you think about the economic advantages of using sustainable energy sources, inside such large (non-residential) buildings, businesses develop and grow inside them, and not having to pay as much for energy over the long run can lead for more growth, maybe creating branches, spreading out. Just the phrase green energy makes people think of a city that can get all its energy through the same methods that energy is made in nature to in some ways make the city more like nature. City and nature are two contrasting things that are becoming more alike as they both try to grow and thus have to grow into the other.

Wooldridge Square

Google Maps View of Wooldridge Square

Wooldridge Square

By: Noah Stewart and Michael Greeson

Project Chopped and Screwed in GarageBand

"The Truth Enforcement"

Real APD Squad Vehicle

Wooldridge Square

At the intersection of 10^th and Guadalupe Street, there lay a 1 square block patch of dried grass, which goes by the name of Wooldridge Square. Although devoid of any nature after a record-breaking drought, this park remains alive in terms of human interaction. Here we found various subcultures of Austin clashing, and co-existing as they used urban space provided by the City of Austin as they pleased.

An off-white gazebo sits in this small valley of the square. Although the gazebo appears to tower over the homeless citizens who seek its shelter, it is dwarfed by the surrounding government buildings. Even from the lowest point in the park, the capitol building is visible, looming over the top of every building in between. The urban space is host to irony, as the government officials in the buildings surrounding the park observe the impoverished inhabitants of the park without aiding them in any manner. The park also represents the eternal struggle between rebellion and authority given its location between the Travis County Constable Office, the Travis County Jail, and the Justice of Peace.

Upon scanning the various corners of the intersection, we found a group of skateboarders. We approached them in order to inquire about their use of urban space. (View their location here.) The skaters happily showed us their different tricks, all utilizing the set of stairs in a different way. After observing, recording sound, and shooting video for a few minutes, a policeman arrived to enforce the law upon the urban rebels. We observed from a distance with a small portion of the group as the cop lectured the other skateboarders and apparently told them to leave. Both of us approached the policeman for an interview after he sent the skateboarders away but were turned down after being told that granting us an interview would oppose department policy. This clash between authority and rebellion was again exemplified in a different corner of Wooldridge Square.

Just a short walk away from the corner where the skaters were, we saw what we believed to be a police car a first glance. But upon inspection we realized that this car was not a police car at all, but “The Truth Enforcement.” The car was the exact same make and model as the vast majority of squad cars in the area, but instead of enforcing the law, this vehicle preached marijuana reform. The driver of this vehicle is using the urban space to protest solely by parking the car there. When he is around the vehicle, he is using the space to actively spread the word and hand out pamphlets.

After only an hour of observation at Wooldridge Square, we found that urban space is used for much more than the designer intended. Observing a landscape is just like reading a book in the sense that one must pay attention to each detail and read further in depth than what meets the eye.