Archive for January, 2009

Attending Canucks games at GM Place is always a treat. Especially when you get a random phone call an hour before the game from someone with a spare free ticket from work! I figure a jock post is in order…

The good news: Roberto Luongo is back from missing 24 games with a groin injury.

The bad news: Louie made a couple epic saves, but he’s not quite his usual self between the pipes. Last night’s tilt against Wayne Gretzky’s Phoenix Coyotes was telltale. The Canucks have lost the last 4 games straight, and the last 6 at home. Let’s git ‘er goin’!

In other news: 19-year-old Kyle Turris (from New Westminster) is in his rookie NHL season, and registered an assist for the Coyotes in his first ever game at GM Place. He played Junior A for the BCHL’s Burnaby Express. In the December ‘07/January ’08 annual IIHF U20 World Juniors, Canada won gold and Turris led the team in scoring. After taking a scholarship to the University of Wisconsin to play for the Wisconsin Badgers of the NCAA, Turris was drafted third overall in the 2007 NHL entry draft, and was Phoenix’s first choice. Turris’ dream is to play for his hometown Canucks. I was made well aware of all this since I was sitting next to his Desert Dog jersey clad relatives at last night’s game.

Host city status strikes again in Vancouver! This time, in the form of the highly anticipated premiere of the Alien Workshop film, Mind Field. Alien videos are always creative and memorable enterprises, so this free premiere at Tinseltown on February 5th (click above poster to expand) should not to be missed.

Mind Field trailer.

One of my favourite all-time Alien parts – the eccentric Lennie Kirk from Timecode, 1997.

Me neighborhood variety store also happens to be a full-fledged Jerky Emporium. It’s awesome! It’s also awesome that my first post happens to be about beef jerky!

My all time favourite Canuck defenceman was inducted into the B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame today.  Possibly one of the strongest and definitely the hairiest Canuck of all time, as a player he will be remembered as being rock solid.  I’ve been lucky enough to see quite a few Canucks games over the years, including Bure’s first game as a Canuck, but the most magical thing I’ve ever seen is Babych getting a hat trick.  He scored five goals that year…I saw him get three.

You may remember him for this!

Me and my friends use to try and see how far we could go across Vancouver underground… you know, cutting through Pac Center, food fairs, banks, cutting through Skytrain stations etc… that kind of thing…

It was always fun, and I love the concept of going underground…

There are some rad pedestrian tunnels in Vancouver. They are usually spookily lit, water stained and slightly overgrown… But man, when they’re empty, they sure look rad:

And they’re dry enough to have a sesh in the middle of winter!

Saturday, January 31, 2009 at 7:30pm

it’s gonna be at the harbour dance centre 927 Granville Street (Cross street Smithe) for more info go here or email: projectsoulcompany@gmail.com

can’t say i didn’t tell you..

All this talk of the Ranch, and Tracker Trucks has got me thinking… (and this is gonna be a long and winding road… so stay with me…)

Kevin Harris is rad because, after years of the Ranch being closed, he opened up RDS, which didn’t smell ANYTHING like the Ranch. The first time I walked into the Ranch, it felt like I got smacked with a jock that’s been marinating in a hockey bag in the summer time in someone’s car trunk.

RDS smelled like Sport Check at the mall… sporty, but not too sporty… a clinical sporty smell… you know, a hint of testoserone, wood fibers, shoes, concrete, Gatorade… that kind of stuff…

I always use to joke with Jeff Choy about how I was hanging on to my RDS passes after they closed up, cause I was convinced that they would re-open one day… I still had tricks to learn… like anything on the mini ramps… Didn’t they know that I had stuff to learn before shutting down…

But anyway…

In my wallet, I had about ten RDS passes left… good for at least a month of skating… But the other day, in a moment of despair… I finally did it. I threw out the passes, because there’s no hope…

And now… onto Tracker Trucks…

My good friend Colin Ruloff helped start up the ranch with Kevin Harris back in the day (little known fact!). He rode for Powell as an AM in the late 80′s, as well as Tracker Trucks (you can see him skating in the Radical Moves DVD that Spencer’s got). I found this pic the other day of him rockin a backside air on the RDS ramp that was at least 12 feet too tall (haha… um…. ok… 8 feet too tall… ok seriously… 3 feet too tall…), and check the bottom of the board…

A Tracker Trucks sticker… See, my story does come full circle, in a disjointed kind of way…

I wonder if I was the sole survivor for holding onto the RDS passes, or if there’s anyone else out there squirreling them away for a rainy day.

I was flipping through some old mags and I came upon this ad that has Kevin Harris in it. Kevin Harris’s impact on the local scene is huge, his board graphic is one of the best ever, the magazine he started has obviously showcased the talents of many locals for years, but what I think of and what makes me nostalgic is the Skate Ranch. That place ruled….

I also like how the ad says “gnarly”!