It started after work on Friday with taking some photos for this contest that is going on in one of the free daily newspapers. The contest is to take a photo reading the publication in an unusual place. Me and one of my co-workers have a couple of different ideas of where we could go to take the photo – the grand prize is $240o and a digital camera. It’s a secret what our locations are, but once the contest winner is decided, I’ll post the photos to show what unusual place we chose to read it.

On my way home from taking the contest photos, my friend S. called because we had plans to meet up and discuss this project that we are going to work on together. She writes electronica tracks – a singer/songwriter (among other things) and wants to set up a website with all her stuff showcased. I’m going to help her set that up, even though I know basically nothing about setting up a website, except for a couple of HTML courses and a DreamWeaver course I took in the distant past. Because I’ve wanted to learn how to do that website stuff but I never finished any of my coursess… so I only partially learned how to do it. I guess now I’ll be going the DreamWeaver for Dummies route or something. So we talked about all this and then S. went over to her keyboard and played me the song(s) she is presently working on. OMG her music was so good it made me cry, tears pouring down my cheeks.

Anyways, we ended up going out to a neighborhood pub for tuna bites and juicy martinis. It was packed in there but we got to share a table with this guy who was sitting alone at a table for four. He turned out to be cool and we all talked (well mostly S and him as they were sitting next to each other) and I talked to his friend who showed up for a bit and then they left. We left shortly after, as next on the agenda was to see this movie we rented that S. said I had to see. It’s called “Freeway” and it stars Reese Witherspoon and Keefer Sutherland. Great movie – it’s harsh and funny with snappy dialogue. When it ended it left me wishing it would go on so we could see what was going to happen next to Reese’s character. She gets harsher and harsher as the movie progresses, as the circumstances surrounding her get harsher and harsher and as this is happening her reaction to what is going on keeps making things worse. But she manages to be hilarious at the same time.

Saturday I went to see my dad to discuss some documents, papers, family businessy stuff and to figure out plane tickets for the trip(s) I’m taking this winter. We spent the afternoon video-skype-chatting with my bro who is halfway round the world in Europe, and surfing travel sites to find the cheapest air fares. I guess it is kinda late to be booking flights now and I still don’t have my tickets confirmed. Then we repotted a plant, a special plant my dad got me – its from the Jurrasic period, and grows in Australia only. Now the little prehistoric trees are being shipped all over the world which, apart from making a bit of $ for the shippers, will ensure the continued survival of the plants as they will exist all over the world, not just in a secret hidden patch of land somewhere in Australia. The tree looks like a cross between an evergreen and a monkey tree…

Then that night I went with my friend CJ to a Vancouver Film Fest movie, a Brazilian movie called “Antonia” about female hiphop artists. It was excellent. Deep liquid colours and great cinematography – I liked the way the shots are set up, with long vistas of the characters walking away from the camera and getting smaller – lots of shots highlighting long or unusual perspective. After the movie we went for martinis.

Sunday was Thanksgiving lunch at my dad’s. We had tons of delicious food – birds with all the trimmings, brussel sprouts, potatoes, etc.  We ate so much. Then we went to meet up with my dad’s friend, P. to go see the “Bourne Ultimatum”. It was non-stop action the whole time, with intense fight scenes. Matt Damon was really good, but his poor character never gets to eat or sleep or fall in love in this one. The story was riveting, but I kinda wanted to see more about the relationships between the characters, because the characters were engaging – you want to get to know them better and how they relate to each other.

After the movie we went for drinks at a fancy hotel bar. We got there and there was nowhere to sit but there was this guy sitting alone at a table for four. We ended up asking him if we could share the table with him, and he actually let us have the table as there was seating nearby for two but not for three, which we were. I had a couple of martinis and had a nice time talking with my dad and his friend.

When I got home at about ten pm, I remembered that at my play rehearsal the next day we were also going to have a potluck (it’s our first all-day-rehearsal) and I had put my name down to bring an apple crisp. So I started peeling and slicing the apples and the rest of the ingredients, finding whatever I could to use as the pie pan which I don’t have so I used a casserole pan…

My friends N and S called to tell me I should go to this afterhours dance party that our friends were putting on, not far from my house. So I got the apple crisp ingredients ready and left about midnight to go to S.’s house. We hung out for a bit and then went and danced to a DJ from Berlin. I got to see some friends who I hardly ever see, so that was great. It was early morning when I told them I had to go, and I left alone to go home to get some sleep before my rehearsal that day.

So when the alarm went off I was still pretty tired. But I got up, stuck the apple crisp in the oven and slept for another 45 minutes while it baked. Then it was off to rehearsal all day. The potluck turned out to be so yummy, everyone’s food was delish. And the rehearsal with all our props went well. We are all hoping the civic strike will end so we can perform in the community center theater which is presently still closed until the strike is over. The union and city are voting this week and we’ll know soon if the show will go on.

After the rehearsal CJ and me watched this movie I had rented a few days ago, called “The Fountain”. It was really trippy and I know there are so many part I didn’t get, that at first I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not, or I didn’t like it totally because I didn’t really get it. But in retrospect I am liking it more and more. One interesting theme that was presented is: well what happens is that there is this man and his wife is dying from a brain tumor, and he is a scientist/doctor and he is trying to find a cure for the tumor so he can save his wife. But he discovers the tree of life, it gives eternal life/youth/health.

And an interesting theme was their attitudes to death – she was preparing herself to die and he was doing everything he could to save her, refusing to believe that she might die. It is so huge – what do you do/feel when you know you make die earlier than expected? Do you cling to life even more or do you try to find a way to embrace death so you won’t feel so wretched. And the people who are witnessing their loved on who may or may not die. Do they have to painfully distance themselves from the one wh omay die because that is the only way to keep their hearts from totally breaking?

It’s so weird how the dynamics of their relationship was at odds in some ways because they were dealing with the possibility of her dying soonish, differently- she was looking at the postitive aspects of death (what writers have written about it, about it being the “gatewaY   to awe”). He was horrified at the prospect of her dying and would focus on his work which was connected to saving her, instead of spending time with her becaus eit could be the last times he has with her. but he just couldn’t acdept thgat.

After the movie we went to this little bar/pub in our hood (we both live a few blocks from Main St. and each other). Because one of our little plans is to check out the bars and pubs in our hood and go on extensive bar hops or pub crawls to places we choose as our favourites. So far we have a few favs and this place tonight I’ve only been to once before but it’s definitely one of the favs. They have a killer martini, it’s blue and goes down so easy. You can’t even taste the alcohol in it.

Actually we totally saw a cockroach and you know how they are supposed to be all hiding from the light and at least pretend to be scared of us, well maybe not scared actually, but at least there is usually a mutual aversion? This one was running all over the counter, totally unconcerned that we were sitting right there, trying to have a converstation. Instead of avoiding the presence of us people and the lack of darkness, he was very much front and center. He scurried along the counter then stopped right in front of us, turned to face us and just stared at us for a good minute if not longer. Meanwhile we were like, “hey, roachie, dude u are supposed to be hiding from us! go on now, go on under the counter or find a crevice to nest in!”(yeah the martinis were having an effect for sure), but he just sat right there in front of us and stared. His little antennae or whatever were all twitching. Like he was saying something but I couldn’t hear.

But there’s so much going on in our neighborhood – from bars/p;ubs, restaurants to clothing stores and magazine/comic/book shops. There is lots of artsy stuff. Lots of places are super nice shops with super nice stock, that double as galleries as well. After we had a couple of martinis we walked up a couple of blocks to this flower shop called the Flower Factory. I had recently submitted three framed photographs to their gallery. Once a year they have this art exhibit where people from the hood are invited to submit some artwork and then they put it all on the walls of the flower shop. We walked by and through the windows we looked at the show – the art was all over the walls of the shop. Then we spotted my pieces! The were right there in a prominent spot, three photos hanging on the wall and in the company of all the other pretty amazing art, they looked way better than I remember them. It is such an honour to be in a show with all these obviously talented artists. It was pretty cool.

The next thing I would like to explore in the hood is the spoken word stuff that is happening at certain cafes around not just this hood but my old east van neighborhood as well. This city seems to be really expanding with art shows and productions sprouting up everywhere. From what I’ve heard, there are some wicked poets/rhymesters out there.

PS still havent got my camera for the laptop. And I cant even save files right now because my hard ddrive is so fing full. and the external hard drive I got won’t work… I’ve got to get my little computer working good again. It needs some attention from me that’s for sure because I’ve been neglecting it and now it barely can barely function!

It was a bit of a rush Sunday night, I wanted to have at least a few prototypes printed by October 1st. It was like 12:30 and I was driving to the 24 hour printer with a cd still hot from getting burned. But I got it printed so that’s good. Now I’ve got a few little mistakes to correct, lighten some photos up and we’ll do a print run of 100. D wrote the opening statement and in it she mentions the ‘next issue’. So I guess we’re doing a next issue for sure! It’s hard to believe, but this is the first time I’ve put together a little zine like this. And I’ve always loved looking at other people’s zines – some are really slick and some are totally hand-drawn – it’s cool to check them out.

So now I’m starting to think about the content for the next zine… and maybe I’ll do one that is full of just doodles and bad poetry… and hybrid photographs or something. Maybe it could tie in to my vlog that doesn’t exist yet…

I guess there are tons of topics, so many it makes my head spin like in the Exorcist and then everything goes blank. It’s freaky. But for example, the video below is a lighthearted look at global warming. I definitely need to do a lot more web surfing looking up pertinent stuff.

But I saw this cool thing coming up: this writer called Derrik Jensen is coming to town, doing a talk. My friend told me about him and I think I’ll go check that out… He talks about social-political issues and the state of the world that we’re in. And what the world could be – if we act differently it changes everything. So we act with the fact that we are all connected in mind, and it’s an amazing source of inspiration. Because time is running out and we have to hurry.

Why is it so hard to say something when you know that you are on camera?

Thinking about it later, I thought that I could have just said something like, “Hi everybody! How are you? It’s great to have this opportunity to say hello to you all. Here’s wishing you a great day – whatever the weather is where yu are. Well, thanks for watching!”

Or something like that!

A few days ago I wrote about vlogs – there are a few I saw on youtube and a couple were how-to-vlog vlogs. Still plan on getting one of those little cameras for my laptop. Kinda like the idea of doing a vlog… but what would I say? The same ikind of stuff that I say in this blog I guess…

Lately I’ve been reconnecting with friends I haven’t seen or talked to in years. Some I know back from junior high, (back in grade and high school, some I know from ten years ago when I was in my twenties. It’s great to hear from people who mean so much to me and all the years of growing up together.
Of course you don’t know at the time when you are a young teenager what it will be like when you are older and looking back over your life… It makes me think of the choices we have and how so many of these daily decisions we make every single day can alter the course of our lives. And the lives of the people around us. This was something I didn’t really see before. There are times when I have acted self-destructively and not realized that I was hurting other people with my actions.

I didn’;t mean to but I did.

Our actions shape the world around us, the people in it and our own lives.

There have been a lot of shootings around town over the past few weeks – like people pulling out guns in the middle of a busy restaurant and shooting up the patrons. Of those riddled with bullets, many are innocent bystanders, some are known to the shooter(s), but all surely didn’t deserve it.

It’s the last thing you think will happen when you go out to get some yummy chinese food at your favourite bustling restaurant. Or imagine waiting at the bus stop one mild evening or walking down the street on your way home, when suddenly a loud shot or shots cracks the air and you’re down in a pool of your own blood. HOrrifying. Yet this is happening more and more.

People who go around whipping out their guns in public must not see the pain they are causing to those around them. They must get so wrapped up in their POV that it distorts their perception of the context they are in. They say it’s gangsters going around settling their debts by gunning down their rivals.

You can’t even go around dressed in certain designer clothes anymore. They have to censor certain types of clothing because what they represent is so ultra-violent (“A Clockwork Orange”) that it is offensive and possibly endangering the public – like what if it leads to an impromptu gun fight.

In the paper yesterday on the front page was a story about how certain nightclubs are not letting people in if they are wearing certain designer’s clothing. It’s that serious, the connection between violence and the perception of potential violence. So whether there is a violent situation brewing or not, now the threat of a random killing is always there, because it could happen anywhere since it happened before.

What is considered gang-wear anyway? Is it literally the clothes that gangsters sport or is it the themes of the designs. The article in the paper said that it was like skulls, chains an tattoo motifs that were the types of images most commonly associated with gangster-wear. So maybe the censored labels should try making some cuter images to replace the scary death themes… But would that deter gangsters from wearing them or would it just spawn a new super-cute gangster look?

This has probably already been written about a lot but what is up with the phenomena of sneakers and shoes hanging from electrical or telephone wires. You know how at street intersections you’ll look up and see a pair or several pairs of shoes just dangling from the wires… Someone put them there, so there must be a reason. Is it some obscure urban message? (I guess it doesn’t have to be urban per se, it could happen anywhere there are telephone poles with wires connecting them – which is, if not practically everywhere, a good many places).

The only explanation I have heard about from different people over the years, is that it signifies that there is a drug dealer’s house in the vicinity… I’m not sure if that explains why I totally see them everywhere! In different neighborhoods and different cities, too. In San Francisco, yeah I remember that. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them in Europe – in London? Maybe in Paris? I’ll have to write my family and friends there to get them to check it out for me.

They are all over this town. And sometimes there are a bunch of pairs of shoes (and they are always in pairs – that is how they are able to hang – by the shoelaces tied together). I don’t know if they are ominous or if I just made them so with my POV. And there have been a few times where the shoes dangling from the wires were quite nice sneakers, and I would have gone up there to see if they fit if I had had a ladder or something…

Another totally unrelated thing I often see, and I’m sure it’s probably nothing, but often have you ever noticed that a tree or a bush will have just one part of it that is dead? Check out this (somewhat blurry) picture:

See what I mean? Ok it might not seem like the biggest deal… But it’s just something that I see here and there and it strikes me as plant art or something.

It’s like printer art. This one day at work I was trying to print out a really big file. Everytime I sent it to print it would crash my computer. When I finally got it to go through to the printer (after waiting like then minutes for it to flatten and process), what comes out of the printer is not even remotely what I sent in.

Instead of the image (in this case a jersey with a design on it), the printer spits out this page with black lines that look like scribbles made with parallel and perpendicular straight lines , and only the image outline off in one in one corner of the page depicted at a quarter the size. It was like, Hello, could this be farther from what I was expecting to get? G called it printer art.

Now we’re keeping a collection of printer art at work. There are some pieces of printer art that are pretty impressive – the blackest, most-farthest-from-what-was-intended mish-mash of scribbles with just a hint of what the original image was supposed to look like.

Even so, last night I did some stuff on another project that I’m also doing with D. She wants to make a vinyl sign to hang in front of her store, all across the top above the door – it’s going to be 16 ft across! The design has damask elements to it, and although I have an idea about how it’s going to look, the vision is still a little blurry. Not sure how it will all fit together yet.

But last night I started doing one element of the sign and that ended up taking all evening. The whole time I wasn’t sure if it would turn out ok. (To be working on something and putting a lot of time into it, then to have it not work out in the end, totally sucks). I think it’ll work.

But at the same time, I feel like it may have been smart to work on the zine content since that deadline is looming closer than the deadline for the sign! Sometimes I get going on one thing when it isn’t the right time to be doing that…

Today I had a rehearsal for the play I’m in that is happening this October. It is pretty interesting to watch the elements of each act start to be connected and us people in the play starting to work together. The director is coming up with scene transitions all the time. It’s great to be working with such a diverse and talented group of people – all the actors and the director and second director.

But the Civic Strike is still going on and this play could be another casualty of the strike. The venue that the play is supposed to be performed in is a community centre, The Roundhouse Community Centre. This means that there is a chance that our play will have to be postponed – they aren’t going to cancel it, but… I mean, they say it’s postponed…

But it’s not the same to be going to rehearsal and working towards putting the play on, when it isn’t certain that the play will be performed in the next few weeks. We are trying to think positive!

It’s hard to believe that the strike is still going on. We should all write the Mayor of Vancouver to let him know that the strike is affecting each of us in personal ways. It’s not just the garbage piling up because garbage men are on strike, but it is the community centres and the libraries and city hall – there are too many things grinding to a stand-still in this town, and it’s making it so the shows can’t go on!

A pic of the hockey game I went to this eve.

Working a little late at work I got a phone call from my dad. He had tickets to a hockey game that started in like an hour and asked me if I wanted to go. It has been quite a while since I went to a hockey game – tonight it was an exhibition game, like a warm-up game for before the ‘real’ games of the season start. It was Vancouver Canucks vs. Edmonton Oilers. At first I wasn’t sure because I was thinking of drawing this evening, for making up some designs to print onto tshirts. This is a project that I have all these ‘notes’ on what I want to do, but I haven’t really done it, and it is making it so that I think about it all the time because I’m not doing it!

But that said, I went to the hockey game and it was a good game. It was nice to have a evening with my father as well, haven’t seen him in a coupla few weeks… So anyway the Canucks won after scoring some really solid goals, with a couple of those breakaway goals where there is like one player who just grabs the puck and just runs with it across the ice across the whole rink as the other players are all mangled up with each other and playing. Then one crank back of the stick and the arms make it swing down and slice through the air and crack onto the side of the puck and the puck just flys through the air like the blade of a knife and right into the goal. The goalie is like, wtf? There’s nothing like being part of a crowd either – all the people together and we are all cheering and doing the wave and shouting and chanting and all towards the same goal – to have our team win.

When I got home from the game I was online and checking out this really great illustrator’s website: http://www.andyrementer.com/ You must check him out. He does a new comic every Tuesday, called Techno Tuesday. From his site I linked to another amazing design site: http://www.fabrica.it/blog/. It was like, everything that I saw on this blog I wanted to keep to watch all the time. So here are a couple of video clips that they had posted.

The first video clip is of this drawing animation of hand drawn drawings that are all morphing into each other and out of each other and continuously becoming new shapes, new characters, different figures, little animals like none you have seen in real life and they are all turning into eacho other.

The second video is of this interesting project that is: Braille Graffiti! The only thing is, I wish I knew what the braille graffiti was saying. It would be cool to see visual graffiti overlaid on the braille so we could all read it.