Speaking of graffiti, I ought to mention the listen bird, which I’d guess that everybody who’s spent more than a day in Edmonton would know about. “Listen,” often paired with a particular bird, shows up graffitied (sometimes by stencil) nearly everywhere that I’ve been in the city—on walls, windows, newspaper boxes, Canada Post drops, bridges, sidewalks, streets, billboards, roadsigns and pretty much everything else that’s outdoors. It’s in line with a graffiti style here that is noncryptic, less urban, and much, much more high-artsy and political than what you normally see in the U.S. For instance, I thought (but was wrong) that the original listen bird writer was behind the simple “love,” “trust,” “focus,” “grow,” and “try” stencilwork that you find near each other on sidewalks around the city, including beside my community league’s meeting hall. Some people pooh-pooh the listen bird because they think it’s a marketing tactic for an Edmonton record store called “listen.” If it is, though, it’s a damn impressive (and extremely inefficient) one.

My favorite is what looks like a copycat listen bird on a city electrical box that I pass by most days on my way to the university. It has the drawn bird and says “the system has no redeeming qualities. listen.” And then, someone’s response in marker: “The alternative is Sierra Leone.”