Design Tourist Ottawa: The Musical Ride
On her latest Designing Ottawa blog posting, Ottawa Citizen journalist Maria Cook comments on the cultural signifigance of the RCMP Musical Ride and on the negative impacts a bridge at Kettle Island would have on this treasured institution.
Excerpts from her commentary below:
Red coats, black horses, green grass. The Mountie is arguably Canada’s most recognizable piece of design and the Musical Ride a wonderful pageant.
…
Should the interprovincial bridge be routed via Kettle Island, the view would be of trucks.
Noise could prevent the musical ride from performing and it appears possible the stables and horses would move away from Ottawa.
It is to be hoped that this historic landscape will be preserved.
Meanwhile, the combination of horses, red coats and summer evening is a lush visual experience, a echo of ancient pageantry.
The complete posting is available on her blog:
June 25, Designing Ottawa: Design Tourist Ottawa: The Musical Ride
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June 26th, 2009 at 11:23 am
I particularly like the following passage:
“The fall of the land makes a natural amphitheatre. Visible just beyond the performance grounds are the Canadian Aviation Museum and historic Rockcliffe Airport.”
The natural setting and surroundings of our cultural institutions and historic attractions are an instrinsic part of their value. Destroying this degrades the institutions themselves and tarnishes our national image.
Maria Cook has a true appreciation for our cultural landscape. She also has a gift for describing it and promoting its significance. It is a topic worth further discussion.