Van Photos

Today's the last day of my vacation. I feel great, simultaneously much vacated, and yet also full of many new seen sights. Herewith I present the photographic record of said sights. If you're looking for hints on what to do in Vancouver, I highly recommend the Lonely Planet guide.



.:more:.

Everything looks beautiful when you're young and pretty

The first time I heard Birdhouse in Your Soul was on a mix tape of Aaron's sister. Because it came right after It's the End of the World as We Know It, for a long time I thought REM sang Birdhouse as well. I had a troubled youth, in many respects.



Just got back from seeing the They Might Be Giants documentary, Gigantic, and it was a rockin', dorky good time. I've never had a stronger mimetic experience than watching high school debaters argue over the meaning of Particle Man.


But the most impressive thing to me was what was left out. Somewhere toward the end, there's footage of the two Johns doing a release show at Tower Records for Mink Car. The card reads "September 10, 2001 - Midnight in Manhattan." And you're just like, "Oh, man here it comes - time to make contact with the great touchstone of national tragedy." Instead, you've got TMBG singing New York City, and the film simply transitions from the record store appearance to a stage performance of the same song. And that's it. No falling towers - no channel-flip style news footage.



In talking about the happy-sad mix of most their songs, John Linnell says something like "It's not really interesting just to watch someone's heart break." It's much more interesting to wrap despair in this complex wrapper of accordion punk rock.

Light Quality

Back at home and there's no place like it.



Before heading out this morning, I zipped around the Vancouver Art Gallery. Got to see one of the Lombardi conspiracy maps up close ... damn you Henry Kissinger!



And I saw Danica Phelps' work which consists of an obsessive, beautiful record of the transactions and events in her day-to-day life. My first thought was "Wow! This is what a blog looks like put up on the walls of an art museum." But maybe that's not quite right.

You shoulda been a clerk

Not much time left on vacation, so I've been doubling up. Yesterday was the Day of the Two Formal Gardens (one japanese one chinese). Well, it was also the day of dropping a bunch of loot in Zulu Records which has the same kind of well written reviews you find in SF's Aquarius and a wider selection of Anticon stuff than I've seen anywhere.



Today I hit up both Pacific Spirit Regional Park and Queen Elizabeth Park - one very treeish with a bit with a bog, the other more flowery. And then I had to eat dinner in three different places to squeeze in the remaining restaurants I wanted to try.



Nothing can stop the Blob.

Slash death

Thanks to Sutter I'm now rocking out at goldtoe.net. I feel all grown up.

Eh

After walking to a lighthouse surrounded by an old growth forest, I decided to do my Zelda: Wind Waker imitation today. I rented a motor boat from up in Horseshoe Bay.


I was a little worried that since I lost my driver's license a while back, I might have some trouble. Turns out there aren't many rules up here in regards to renting a boat. You don't need to actually know how to drive one. You don't need to wear a life jacket. Basically, you just get in the thing and point it at the pretty stuff.


And, man, is it fun. Howe Sound is dotted with islands you can zip around, some of them peopled by lazy sea lions. I was amazed by the distance I covered in 2 1/2 hours.



Having spent the afternoon communing with marine life, I decided to spend the evening eating it. Whole mess of oysters, whole mess of trout. Good times.



Oh, and then I saw Northfork which is a really fine looking movie that may or may not be about something. God, maybe.

Been here 4 hours

My first day in Vancouver has been pretty amazing. This morning, I saw a crazy clock that runs on a combination of steam and the dropping of stainless steel balls.


I walked all over Stanley Park which, I feel, is better than NYC's Central and SF's Golden Gate if only because there's an unlimited number of places where you can stop and eat salmon.



But the real kicker was the all-you-can-eat japanese restaurant. In some ways I feel I'd been waiting for that meal all my life. 12 dishes later I stumbled back to my hotel.


Tomorrow I predict there will be more eating.

Moldy

Bob Hope was so old that the guy who wrote his obituary is dead.

Friendly Confines

I'd been wanting to see a game at Wrigley for a while now and finally had the chance a couple weekends ago.



Moreso than even Fenway, Wrigley Field is all about the old timey baseball feel. Instead of a Jumbotron, there's an electromotive scoreboard for keeping track of balls and strikes and hand-turned placards for everything else. I was sitting dead center in the outfield bleachers, directly beneath the scoreboard. Whenever there was a one ball count, you'd hear an electric whine from the board laboring to display that number. During the 7th inning stretch, rows of heads popped out of the empty holes on the scoreboard to see the guest conductor lead the crowd in Take Me Out to the Ballgame.



From the outfield, you can't see any ads at Wrigley. There are two small video strips in the grandstand that show the score and have a Sears logo. Aside from that, nothing. Quite the contrast to PacBell park.



At one point, some of the rowdy bleacherfolk I was sitting near tried to start the wave. They were mercilessly heckled and revealed to be out-of-towners posing as locals. A guy in my row turned to the would-be wavers and said, "I was born 3 blocks from here and have been coming to Wrigley my entire life. So let me tell you, there's no fucking wave!" Right on.



Modern baseball park design has focused a lot on trying to incorporate the stadium into the city rather than just dump it on the side of some highway. Nowhere is that neighborhood feel more authentic than at Wrigley. From our seats, I could look straight down Waveland and Sheffield Avenues. And in addition to the folks watching from the rooftops across the street, I saw parents playing catch with their kids in the street, others flying kites outside the park. Wrigley is the neighborhood.



All this and the Cubs won. Certainly, not disappointing.

One for my Bro

COM 480: Ethnography of On-line Role-playing Games:

"In this course, we will conduct an ethnographic study of the behaviors, cultural practices, and motivations of MMORPG players. The course packet will include readings that explore role-playing games, virtual community, and the construction of identity on-line. Extensive attention will also be given to methods for conducting research on-line."

(via Costik)