Howie Tsui
Howie Tsui - Ottawa

Based in Ottawa, Canada, Howie Tsui is a visual artist and past member of the music project The Acorn. His culturally divergent approach to art owes much to the shifting backdrop of his formative years spent in Hong Kong, Lagos and Thunder Bay. Selections from his recent series Horror Fables will be part of the Phantoms of Asia exhibit at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco in 2012.

www.howietsui.com

Artengine (Gallery)

Ottawa by Howie Tsui

Artengine is a local arts group that produces technologically based presentations. As part of their Electric Fields program, I recently attended Swim Sound – a sound performance at a municipal pool. A percussionist played on a floating platform, while a knob twiddler tweaked and tweezed the inputs coming from drum mics and a couple underwater mics. Too fun with an encore performance possibly happening in the spring!

Address
Artengine | Swim Sound at Champagne Bath | 321 King Edward Ave | Ottawa

Ragtime (Shop)

Ottawa by Howie Tsui

This vintage clothing store ain’t just some new-aged, marked up warehouse for ironic t-shirts and howling wolf hoodies. Brimming to the teats with ghostly relics, Ragtime has come to my rescue on multiple occasions; whether it’s a tailcoat for a bougie gala, Genghis Khan gear for a time-travel party, a Kamikaze pilot for Halloween or knickerbockers for my groomsmen.

Address
Ragtime | 43 Flora St | Ottawa

Orange Monkey (Bar)

Ottawa by Howie Tsui

With age, I’ve been more reluctant to engage in the cyclical social gymnastics of a high-octane evening. Just give me a pint and a pinball machine and I’ll be a content little monk, cussing at gravity and the wiles of analog engineering. Aside from triggering rebellious teenage memories, the Orange Monkey pool hall is also situated in one of the rare industrial complexes in the city.

Address
Orange Monkey | 250 City Centre | Ottawa

Kowloon Market (Market)

Ottawa by Howie Tsui

As a child in Hong Kong, I was always mesmerized by all the glass and mirrors and the way they created this illusion of space. My favourite were aquariums with seahorses in them. Kowloon Market in Chinatown satiates my aquaphilia with their fish tanks, while also satiating my appetite for freshly bonked fish cleaned and ready to be steamed.

Address
Kowloon Market | 712 Somerset St. W. | Ottawa

Huong’s (Restaurant)

Ottawa by Howie Tsui

We have the best Vietnamese cuisine in Canada thanks to an inclusive policy that opened the city up to thousands of post-war Vietnamese refugees in the late 70s. At the zenith of this flavour heap is Huong’s where I can relive a recent trip to vibrant Hanoi. The whole idea of lining up for egg-y brunch is absurd when you can get a spicy saté noodle lashing here and squash that hangover in seconds.

Address
Huong’s | 343 Booth St | Ottawa

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