Out of curiousity I dropped by the Kenk graphic novel launch party last night. To my surprise, while ordering a beer, I saw Igor Kenk nursing a glass of water (or vodka?) at the bar. He was decked out in the very "I'm Tired" shirt that graces the cover of the book, which seems to encapsulate his world-weary attitude of profligate North American consumerism, while he also profited from it.
The Cadillac Lounge was packed with people but I saw only one other cycling advocate there, suggesting the topic is not the highest priority for them, at least not on a Thursday night. We will see later on this month at the bike theft forum hosted by the publishers (where I'll also get to gab on about my own views on bike theft and Kenk).
One guy, who had seemingly arrived not knowing it was the Kenk event, was steaming mad at the "celebration" for Igor, telling me that he had three bikes stolen and had visited the big warehouse after Igor's arrest to look for his bikes. He didn't find them and asked me "Who remembers their serial numbers?!" I replied "I wrote mine down, but I'm a bike nerd." When I mentioned that Igor had graced us with his presence he went off looking for him to give him a piece of mind or fist (I hope he didn't encounter Igor's "martial arts").
There did seem to be some fawning going on, or at the least, a voyeuristic urge to find out more about the inner workings of Igor (see a photo of Igor talking to some of the voyeurs - I'm just out of the camera's frame, thank god).
A former neighbour, Dexter - a modern day beatnick in appearance - informed me that he had lived right near Igor's original shop at Queen and Ossington, back when he was "legit". "We used to play chess together." At this point Igor was talking to some the voyeurs and I encouraged Dexter to go get his book signed by Igor. I listened in as they promised to play chess together again soon, and found out that Igor felt that his happy situation from being forced to sell his building for $700,000 was tempered with some brutal time in prison. He claimed he was beaten by 10 guys upon arriving, but that after that initial beating, he said he was able to hold them off with his martial arts skill, even in his injured state. Or something like that.
Igors stories and dramatic lifestyle are the core of what draw people to him. They know he's a criminal (even though a CBC story claims he was an 'ordinary guy' who saw a loophole in the law). Even if only 50% of his stories were true, they would still be fascinating. At this point I felt I had to leave since I too was clearly tipping onto the side of uncritical fandom.
Igor is a petty criminal dealing in stolen goods and drugs. Like Richard Poplak said in the NOW, Igor was a Robin Hood who stole from everyone and sold to whomever.
