Mark Bellis

Sunday, October 18, 2026

Albertine Lapensée

Albertine Lapensée, 1917, Montreal Star

Albertine Lapensée of Cornwall, Ontario, was 'the Star of Stars' of the Eastern Ladies' Hockey League, which briefly flourished during the First World War. She disappeared after the end of the war put an end to professional women's sports leagues in North America. A subject of many rumours, in fact she went to New York, became a cab driver and began to live as a man and used the name Albert. He married and adopted a daughter, and returned to the Cornwall area, ran a restaurant named "Chicky's" in Bainsville close to the 401 and the Quebec border and died in 1963. He used the last name Smith, (not Smythe, as it appears in some sources) at least according to his obituary and his tombstone, which is in the middle of the east border of Cimetiere St-Joseph Cemetery in Lancaster, Ontario. The most extensive and up-to-date article about Albert is by Guillaume Piedboeuf for Radio-Canada (in French), available online here: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/recit-numerique/12820/albertine-lapensee-hockey-feminin-mystere-disparition-intersexualite

Drove downtown in the rain

We can never drive downtown in the rain to check out the late night record shops. They've all closed. The Sam the Record Man flagship store on Yonge Street that Steve Page drove to at night closed almost 10 years ago. There's only one independent franchise in Belleville out of the hundreds that used to be across Canada.

I bought the 'yellow label' tape with 'Brian Wilson' on it from Steve for 5 bucks in 1991.

Steve Page, 1991. I also bought the same shirt at a Rheostatics show.

The 'yellow label' cassette

Saturday, October 17, 2026

Kissing Bridge redo

Filming location for: In the Mouth of Madness, (1994), To Die For (1995), It (2017). Even though it's been in two horror and a crime film, it's also called "The Kissing Bridge" as dating couples were supposed to be able to kiss without being seen when crossing it in a carriage. Horse drawn carriages still use it as the bridge is in a Mennonite/Amish region.