hey there,
(i wrote this about a week ago, but somehow got distracted and never sent it!!).........
well, i'm settling into life in vancouver nicely now, and have met some more local folk and made some new friends.
last friday was the last of the month of february, and for those who are in the know, the last friday of every month is 'critical mass' day in many a city
across the globe. what the hell is critical mass?
well, it's a bit of a cyclist community group with an activist bent, promoting alternative forms of transport to the evil empire of the automobile -
promoting cycling as a healthy, non-polluting, ecologically and economically sound form of transport in the cities. this is done by a 'random coincedence'
of a group of cyclists in one place at the one time (here in vancouver, its the city art gallery on dunsmuir street), and a collective cycle thru the
streets of the city in peak hour together in a friendly non-threatening awareness campaign, chanting slogans along the lines of 'we're not blocking
traffic, we are traffic!', and 'if you love your car, set it free!', and 'imagine if we were all in single-occupant cars how much worse the traffic would
be!'
needless to say, this was me in a nutshell - i'd been to many critical mass events in melbourne, and to discover one in vancouver was heaven on a stick for
me!! having arrived at the allotted time, i knew absolutely no-one of the gathered masses (later to be counted out at 109 riders this month), but i struck up
a conversation with a small group of folk, who it turned out, was also their first critical mass! Lisa, Leslie and Arthur became my cycle buddies for the
evening's ride as we followed the crowd over 90minutes thru many of the main streets of Vancouver, over the Burrard Bridge crossing False Creek and ending up at
an artists collective gallery off Main Street for a combined artists opening and musicians gathering. They call themselves the "Butchershop Collective", having
established themselved in a space previously occupied, appropriately enough, by a butcher shop, and converted into a very cool art space, with room for live bands,
art installations, and paintings, as well as any other art space that can be accommodated within its walls.
I truly landed right in amongst the 'underground activist' scene here by joining this ride, where i feel completely at ease and at home. This scene is a
complete throwback to my University days in Melbourne - and boy how do i miss the feeling of solidarity and collectivity you get from these events!!.
As it turns out also, Lisa is a recent arrival in Van also, but originally from Seattle, and Leslie's boyfriend lives down there,...and i was planning the
spend the first weekend in March down there....so they were like 'why don't you hitch a ride down with us!!'.....'Okay then, its a deal!!
The next day I had arranged to attend a volunteer session for the citie's 'Celtic Festival' to be held from 11th-17th March, and cycled downtown to be there.
The whole point of the thing was to celebrate St Patrick's Day on the 17th - Ireland's biggest public holiday - and try and turn it into a huge expat's and
Celtic descendants party, with a parade along the main street of downtown Vancouver. Obviously, this would be no where near as big as it would be in Ireland, but I
thought it'd be fun to be a part of this, having spent the previous year in Dublin. I'm now officially entrenched in the volunteer group and have been given
the role of 'crowd controller' for the parade, and sales and merchandise dude for a couple of other gigs.
It should be a lotta fun!!
But wouldn't you know it, on my way to the bike shop to get some fine-tuning, the bike i bought a week previously gave out a flat on me on the way back home,
and i have zero tools to fix it with (the joys of living hand-to-mouth, eh!), so i dropped it into The Bike Doctor on Commercial Drive, previously mentioned
as the hip-and-coool funky street in town right by my place, where i happened to discover they sell a whole range of cool pro-bike stickers - 'think globally,
bike locally', and 'bicycle - the vehicle of the revolution'.
the same night i deicded to check out, and introduce my new housemate and friends Ceri and derek, to some of the 'experimental art' on offer at the 'butcher
shop collective' - a varied combo of super-8 video footage and computer&keyboard generated sounds. mostly crap (in my humble opinion - and, as forrest gump
famously says, yer never know what yer gonna get) - but over the 3 hours i was there, a few really cool surprises and sounds were thrown into the mix.
a wierd, but ultimately super-cool, house-party option was presented to myself and Derek, halfway thru the night, one which we couldn't turn down. "Vincent", a
random guest at the art-event we were at (a guy clearly not altogether with everyone else's concept of the modern living world - ie, a freak - even by my
reckoning of standing) invited us to a house party after the art show writing the address on a gig flyer.
Derek and I, pissed as we'd become by the time we decided to leave (early), thought we (derek and i - ceri decided earlier to leg it home) could check out
this party invite.
vincent was wierd, the party was even wierder (but don't construe this in a bad sense, please)..we jumped out of the cab, and bounded up the stairs of a house
party where we knew absolutley no one, with a greeting in the front room of a 3-piece punk band consisting of drums, hammond organ and epileptic, throat-gargling,
wild-eyed lead singer....and we hadn't even found our inviter yet - we wondered if he was a resident here, let alone if he even was here!...we finally saw him,
albiet briefly, and then found our way out to the balcony for some meditative, and medicative smoking and cheap-booze sessions. it was a very, very funy
situation.
the punk band was wierd-arse to the extreme (doesn't mean they were bad - the singer was psychotic tho), but the backyard balcony seriously provided some
respite in the form of relaxants in the vain of liquid (voddy-and-pepsi in a bottle) and smokeable kind. needless to say, we partook in said offerings but soon
reached our fill, and promply decided on ther cab as the best venutre home....if only we could hail one!
at an estimate it was a good 20-blocks we walked towards my gaff without a cabbie sight, by which time, we were practicaly home.....seems like no matter where
in the world u are, when u need a cab, they simply ain't there. Needless to say, Sunday was a write off.
Something i've wanted to do for a long, long while, is life drawing. The Butcher Shop Collective Art Centre provides such a space for such and event. Now, I have
never claimed to be an artist of any kind (other than maybe a photogrpaher), but I have always wanted to try my hand at life drawing. Generally, to be completely
honest, I suck at art, but I am willing to give it a shot when the opportunity arises. My high school attempts at any kind of art, no matter the form were
shot down by less than enthusiastic teachers (a big F-U to Dakin and Rundle by the way). After session number one, consisting of one female nude, 2 female
and 5 male sketchers, and comparing the results....I really do suck. never mind the fact that 1/2 the other folk were to be enrolled in the 3D Animation class due
to begin at UBC (University of Britsh Columbia) the following week. The point is, I realise my deficiency, and am willing to accept criticism and advice and work
on it.
The other big news of the week is that i've enrolled in a class here - a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign language) course. I'm actually doing it
online, so can work on it in my own time at my own pace, without having bother with going to physical classes. It's a 60 hour course, and on average takes
about 6-8 weeks to complete. Cost is reasonable - A$530. This will give me a qualification that i can take to non-english speaking countries and allow me to
work, teaching english. This is something i've wanted to do for a long, long time, and i've finally pulled my finger out and got into gear.
So yeah, it's been a busy week for me. Oh, and this weekend coming i'm heading down to Seattle for 4 days - a bit of a pilgrimage tour to the home of grunge and
one of the best music scenes in the United States. I can't wait for that!!
Anyway, talk soon,
Tony
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