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THE PROOF is a weekly roundup showcasing local creatives. A column for creatives to share their story and work, in a unique, concise format: each creative shows 8 pictures and answers 8 questions. Past participants include Bob Kronbauer, Omer Arbel, Carson Ting, Lizzy Karp, Branislav Henselmann, Hannah Georgas, Douglas Haddow - all living in Vancouver. |
I've known Douglas Haddow ever since we shared studio space years ago at second and main. Since then we've collaborated on multiple projects, extensively argued a plethora of subjects, and are earnestly trying to write a screenplay. We've also basically joined a cult, mixed enough psychoactive ingredients into our joint brainpunch to fast track any friendship, and most importantly..... I've met his parents. Which is all a garbled mess of a way to say that I know him better than most.
Douglas is hands down an incredible writer. The man has a way with words. Which in our current emoji'fide, snapchatted, non-verbal as a first language world I find deeply shocking. I've always been a fan of his pieces in Colors, the Guardian, Adbusters, etc. but it wasn't until I actually saw him write that the awe ascended to its current height. He has a command of the written word that is nothing less than admirable. I don't understand how he does it... I mean on an intellectual level I understand the concept of "being good at writing" but how many of us can honestly say we can write ? How about write well? Or in Douglas’s case write so f*cking well that you reach hundreds of thousands of total strangers. Somewhere inside of that big ginger quaffed head there's a special part of his brain that can spin magic.
Do yourself a favor and dig into his writing. I guarantee you'll come out the other side invigorated.
Nathan Drillot, filmmaker, Salazar.
THE PROOF
1. My desk and sometimes dinner table. Partial entertainment console, dayplanner and electronic banking station. It’s kind of like a TV but with a keyboard attached that I’m forced to work on because technological determinism has made carrier pigeons passé.
2. This is my brain on the Internet. Which is most of the day. We’re not so different, you and I.
3. But every morning I hit ‘pause’ on technology, sit down with a fresh cup of joe and read an actual, physical newspaper so as to remain informed on the very serious issues facing our society. You should give it a go, it will leave you terrified and angry with things you previously thought to be perfectly harmless. It’s like a bad tab of LSD only more expensive and worse for the environment.
4. I do not own a laptop and my sausage fingers make it difficult to type on my mobile phone so I often walk around with pieces of illegible notes stuffed in my pocket because Moleskins are for poseurs.
5. Current non-fiction book I’m reading about a Transylvanian hockey player that robbed banks part-time and became a post-soviet folk hero. It’s really good. Like REALLY.
6. I’m also reading Mike Tyson’s autobiography. It’s fascinating and compelling and pairs well with rye whiskey. Pick it up if you enjoy being entertained by words.
7. Speaking of Mike Tyson, I recently took a vacation to Las Vegas and discovered that the McCarran Airport smoking lounge is the most depressing place on the planet.
8. I come from the Kootenays, one of the more Canadian parts of Canada, given our taste for snow and moose. Every year I brave the threat of flight cancellation and travel there to honour my mountainfolk heritage by getting drunk on mulled wine and playing bitter, tense games of Scrabble with my parents.
THE QUESTIONS
1. What neighborhood do you live in?
Supernatural Mt. Pleasant.
2. What do you do and where?
I'm a writer, based in my apartment.
3. What are you working on?
A litany of projects I’m hugely excited about that will hopefully see the light of day. Check back soon.
4. Where can we find your work?
You can find my work at Scout Magazine, sometimes on The Guardian and Ballast, and my work has appeared in Vice, Hobo, Slate, Colors, Adbusters, Vancouver Magazine, etc.
5. Who are your role models?
My friends who are killing it in their respective fields. My family. Hockey goons. Any writer that can make a decent living from their craft and still believe in what they’re doing.
6. What keeps you going in this industry?
My aversion to a day job and fondness of deadlines.
7. If you had a chance to start your career all over again, how would you do it differently?
I would have started writing earlier. Or not. Who knows really? I definitely wouldn’t have spent all that time watching LOST, what an awful ending. I’ll never trust an American television network ever again.
8. What advice do you wish someone would have given you when you were young?
No matter how badly you want it and how good it looks, the third plate at an all-you-can-eat Indian buffet is never a good idea.
Follow Doug on Twitter @douglashaddow.
