Archive for November, 2011

OBJECT: Village & Co T-shirt
NEIGHBOURHOOD: Commercial Drive

Once weekly I bring you personified pieces of our city. Reaching into our neighbourhoods I collect images of all types of inanimate objects, then bring them to life!

CLICK TO VIEW THE ARCHIVE OF OUR “EYES ON VANCOUVER” SERIES:

About a year ago I started a project called A Stranger A Day to overcome my shyness and talk to people. The challenge: talk to a stranger a day for a year of my life and try to convince them to let me take a picture and share a story. Since most tattoos have a story behind them, this was my conversation starter and a common thread that linked them all. Every week I have been sharing the story of the week here on Vancouver Is Awesome.

With the year now over and 365+ strangers and their stories documented, I’ll continue to talk to a stranger every once in a while, and post a story weekly here on VIA.

Location: The Elysian

Hi all! I can’t believe it’s been almost a month since the show. Feels like it has been longer than that. Life has been weird since then and I still miss how fun this was. Luckily, I still have the weekly posts to do. One thing I’ve noticed: not doing the strangering for days in a row only causes the encounter to be a lot more full of nerves, but also a bit more rewarding (probably in direct co-relation to the first thing I mentioned).

I came by during a coffee break from work. I remember that one of the baristas (and now friend) had asked a long time ago if I had talked to their baker. I was running out of time then, and although I hadn’t, I let the opportunity pass. I remembered that offer yesterday and went to see if said person was still around. My friend called him to come to the front, but didn’t mention a thing. I then did my pitch.

“I can tell you about my most recent one, this one.”—he turned and showed me the little bag on his arm and let me take the shot.

“Last summer I went traveling. I chased a girl down to Toronto. I went to spend an indefinite amount of time there. I got there and within three days she told me to back away. I had just moved. I had no ticket back or anything. I didn’t know what to do. So I just tossed a bunch of stuff that I had brought with me, and grabbed a bag,  put socks and underwear there and went around traveling on my credit card. I went to Montreal, New York… all around. I spent about a month or more being basically a hobo, haha. It was good and bad. I got the tattoo on my travels, Bedford(?) Ontario.”

He soon had to return to his hide-out at the back, but I was left with a nice picture and story. I thanked him and my friend and went back to my desk. Gosh, I do miss this.

Thank you all, and thanks stranger!

For all the 365+ stories, click here: astrangeraday.com

Nicholson Road is an ongoing photo project aimed at sharing and celebrating the different communities in Metro Vancouver. Each week Vancouver Is Awesome will be featuring an image from the previous week, shot in one of the many ‘hoods around town in order to draw your attention a little bit outside of the hyper-focus that we usually have on the City of Vancouver. Metro Vancouver Is Awesome, and you should get out and explore it!

Langley in November. I’m a week late on this one, but can you name the big historical event involving Langley and November? Does it help if I say it was on November 19th? In the year 1858? If you said that was the time and place the Crown Colony of British Columbia was inaugurated, you’d be right!

With all sorts of familiar names in attendance (like Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie, the newly appointed Chief Justice) James Douglas was sworn in as the very first Governor up at Fort Langley. His preference was for the Fort and surrounding Derby Townsite to be the location of the capital for the newly recognized colony, but Sir Colonel Moody had other ideas. His primary concern was to find an area a little less open to potential attacks from our friends to the south, and hence New Westminster (located on a hill on the north side of a bend in the Fraser) was selected.

So what does that have to do with a photo of the Nicomekl Floodplain Trail out near Portage Park?

In the 1820′s it was determined that an outpost on the Fraser River would be a smart investment to secure the coast from ocean-based American invasions. While venturing up from Fort Astoria (at the northwestern-most tip of Oregon, right at the Columbia River delta), James McMillan and his gang of explorers arrived in Mud Bay down in South Surrey, and journeyed up the Nicomekl River as far as they could. At some point, near today’s Portage Park, McMillan and his team portaged north across Langley following what would become Glover Road until they reached the Salmon River (near Trinity Western University) which led them right to the Fraser River and the soon-to-be site of Fort Langley.

A few things have happened since then. Namely, the site of the original Fort Langley and Derby Townsite are now indistinguishable fields next to the river. Oh, also, we don’t commute to work by canoe (most of us at least).

Our history is kind of awesome. Do yourself a favour and hit up a library for some more in-depth tales on the formation of this fine province, and the people who discovered it (and the nations who’d known its awesomeness for generations prior!)

Archives of the Nicholson Road project can be found HERE.

SCENE AND HEARD showcases the independent music scene here in Vancouver. With 27,316+ artists, boasting 127,073+ tracks, the CBC Radio 3 web site is the absolute ultimate authority, and the home, of independent music in Canada. With that massive library along with tools for members (free to join!), we’re taking advantage of what they’ve set up by bringing you a fresh batch of music every week featuring local groups who have tracks (entire albums, even!) on the R3 site.

It’s almost over! Movember that is. In a few days, mo’s will be mowed and clean faces and beards will once again be in abundance.

This Wednesday is the 2nd Annual Movember Mo Off at the Biltmore and Redbird, Portage and Main, and The Matinee will be performing! In addition there will be a shave station set up so the moustaches can be mowed down and I’ll be running a photobooth (before and after shots too!) Prizes and beers, music and moustaches. You can’t go wrong.

Thus, we got Mo Off organizer and front woman for Redbird, Savannah Leigh Wellman, to make us a playlist…which includes the lineup for the night, plus bands from BC that everyone loves, some you’ve likely not heard of but will love soon, and some with great facial hair! Thanks Sav!

Redbird photo by Leigh Eldridge

Simone Osborne as Juliette. Gordon Gietz as Romeo. Photo by Tim Matheson

This past Saturday night was opening night of Romeo et Juliette by Gounod at the Vancouver Opera. It was also “Bloggers Night at the Opera”, so when I was offered the chance to go I immediately accepted. Up until last weekend I had never once been to the Opera. It was definitely a treat. Even before the show started I found myself enjoying seeing all the lovely people, from the very young to the elderly, all dressed up and eager to take in an evening of spectacular beauty and talent. And the show itself truly was spectacular. There was so much to love, but if you go for one thing, and one thing only, go for Juliette (Simone Osborne). She was so very endearing. And her voice… maybe I don’t know much about opera singers. Okay, I know nothing! But her voice blew me away. And when the time came for applause at the end of the show, it was evident that the rest of the audience was taken by her too. She has brought new life to this centuries-old-tale. I am pleased to have had the opportunity to experience this production.

Take a date, take your mom, take the whole family and prepare to fall in love.

Today on Illustrated Vancouver, a placemat from White Spot, circa 1947. Actually, the date is just a guesstimate; August 22, 1947 was written on the back of the placemat in ink. I came across this placemat amidst the paper ephemera at the annual Burnaby Train Show earlier this month.

I love looking at old maps of the city, and I’ve featured quite a number of them so far. In spite of all the changes we’ve seen over the years, this map is still surprisingly useful, although you will no longer find a White Spot location at the corner of Granville & 67th Avenue. Incidentally, that was the location of the very first White Spot drive-in restaurant, which opened in 1928.

According to their corporate history, the White Spot story all started with a man and his truck. The man was Nat Bailey and his truck was a 1918 Model T which he transformed into a traveling lunch counter to serve sightseers at Vancouver’s Lookout Point.

Is there something about this story that sounds familiar? With a bit of luck, Vancouver might just get to see the food cart to franchise story repeat itself in the years to come.

LOCATION: Cultus Lake I’m not usually a huge fan of the curved-corner effect but this image caught my eye today and gave me flutterings of nostalgia, not only because of it’s retro re-fit but it’s subject and composition as well. The way this shot has been laid out and the subtle colours and hues in it gave me flashbacks of those oh-so-ubiquitous postcards from the 80s. And Cultus Lake? I have many a fond childhood memory of camping, swimming and water-skiing at this beautiful BC getaway. Admittedly, it’s been a good long while since I last visited Cultus and perhaps my memories are rose(or in this case, somewhat cyan)-tinted but this is the picture I hold in my mind of this place. Thanks for this blast from the past -annon.!

There was a lot of amazing photography in the pool this week folks, please keep posting and spreading the word about the Unplugged Flickr Pickr.

It’s that point in your consciousness where you can feel at one with nature, escaping the trappings of the day-to-day to an almost dream-like place where nothing else seems to exist besides you and your natural surroundings. It is our opinion here at VIA that Vancouver holds a unique place in the civilized world in that reaching this state often requires no more effort than simply pulling off to the side of the road, pocketing your keys and taking a few steps into the forest

I’m working on a couple of Super, Neighbours posts regarding the trip that I took to Whistler last weekend but before I drop them I wanted to share two simple things:

1. 40 seconds looking out the window of our suite at the Westin, literally steps from the gondola up to the Whistler Peak. I was standing next to the fireplace when I shot this.

2. The proper form for throwing a giant snowball at your dad if you’re a three year old (yes, that’s our youngest blogger, Arlo, who joined me for the trip).

Stay tuned for the hospitality of the Westin Whistler and a trip up and down the mountain with myself and a three year old, both who neither ski nor ride!