Running the Tape in Reverse · Week 37
By Luca Bonafede · September 15, 2026 ·
A lot can happen in a week.
There’s a small, poetic kind of full circle happening on Water Street right now. When I first arrived, I watched them build the patios for the pedestrian stretch. Tables went up, and the street turned into something alive. Now, as my time here winds down, I’m watching them take it all apart. It’s the same street and the same hands doing the work, just with the tape running in reverse. It feels like the city and I are packing up on a similar schedule.
Of course, the week still had its usual list of things to get done in order to live fully. I picked up my bib number for a half marathon, which I’ll be running for Terre Restaurant and Terre Café. I also did a photo shoot for Always in Vogue, a fantastic local shop.
Then, with some colleagues, I managed to crash a wedding party purely by accident. We had no invitation and no plan. We were just in the wrong place at exactly the right time. To the happy couple, if you’re reading this: congratulations, and thank you for the hospitality you didn’t know you were offering.
Outside of that, the week felt pretty much like “the usual.” Ordinary, even. Then I came across a post about 9/11, and it stopped me for a second. It showed the Twin Towers lit up at night, with a simple message: if today feels ordinary, it just might be “the before.” For everyone who lived it, that morning felt ordinary too, right up until it wasn’t.
Ordinary and “the before” aren’t opposites. Most of the days that end up mattering start out looking exactly like the ones that don’t. You don’t get a warning label. You don’t get a soundtrack telling you to pay attention, because this is the one. That’s why the ordinary days deserve more of our attention, not less. This coffee, this conversation, this street with its tables still standing. This is it. There is no rehearsal running somewhere in the background.
I said goodbye to a couple of people this week, and I probably annoyed a few more along the way. It turns out I’m a genuinely terrible texter. The funny thing is that I can be surrounded by people constantly and still spend most of my time with myself. That’s probably why I enjoy being around people so much when I get the chance. Scarcity does that.
The song of the week is “Eminence Front” by The Who (1982). I discovered it at 6 a.m. while opening the café, with the city still asleep outside. It has a great groove, but underneath there’s a double meaning: a luxurious life that’s really a performance to cover up the emptiness behind it. It’s all front, with nothing inside. It’s a strange song to fall for in the same week I was thinking about ordinary days, but maybe that’s the point. Some people build glittering lives to hide an empty inside. Others live quiet, ordinary days that turn out to be full.
And now, a quick disclaimer, since a lot of you missed the joke last week: the “custody agreement” I signed was for a cup with the letter B on it. My colleague is just an excellent writer. Apparently, the news of me having a baby clearly upset some of my old flames. Ladies, come on. For the record, if it ever were the real thing, there would be no hiding it. That kid would be the highlight of my Life, out loud, for everyone to see.
So here’s to the ordinary weeks, the ones with patios coming down, bibs being picked up, weddings crashed by mistake, and coffee poured before sunrise. One day, I might look back at one of them and realize it was the before.
A lot can happen in a week.
Thank you, and ciao for now.
Luca Bonafede
St.John's, NL, Canada 🇨🇦