Snow Patrol at the Vogue Theatre...
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Friday, May 13, 2005
Monday, May 09, 2005
U2 up close and personal
hey,
it's a busy day for emails!....it'd been a few weeks since i last wrote, and i've been a busy boy in more ways than one in that time.
U2 came to town a week or so ago. For those of you who don't know, when i was a teenager, i was THE BIGGEST U2 geek-obsessive around. My bedroom was a living, breathing shrine to Bono and the boys. And then, when I was living in Dublin and my house was around the corner from the High School where they all met, and just a stones throw from their childhood neighbourhood, my 15-year old U2 geek came back out in me again.
Now, in Vancouver, just a month into thier gargantuan world-tour, U2 reappear in my life. When tickets were announced back in Feb, and they were only C$50, I was ecstatic. Of course they sold out 2 shows of the 25000 capacity GM Place arena in 15 mnutes, and I missed out. Enter stage right into my life the world of e-bay, something I was aware of but never paid much attention to. U2 ticket auctions were wildfire, some going into the stratosphere price wise. Several hundred dollars U.S. and more. Nevertheless, I wanted a ticket.....bad. So, I put down bids on no less than 40 auctions, but put a personal limit of C$100 down. I wasn't going to pay too much over the odds, and I figure $100 is roughly the cost if they toured Melbourne. And, to be honest, my fan-dom had diminished quite a great deal over the years, and I wouldn't have been totally crushed if I missed out.
Anyways, I got lucky....very, very lucky. I got my ticket for C$62! Upper bowl, to the left and slightly behind the stage tho, but reasonably close to the stage in the general scheme of things. At least I wasn't way, way, way back at the rear of the arena. So, that was 2 months ago...2months of waiting before my beloved U2 came to town.
As it got closer, the vibe around town got increasingly excited. The band had set up shop for 3 weeks to rehearse the show before the tour officially started, and U2-spotting became a mini-sport amongst the cities citizens in that time. The city as a result fell in love with the band. So when, the day before the first gig, U2 publicly announced that they would be shooting a live concert video of their next single, City of Blinding Lights, and needed 4000 extras to make up the audience, there was palpable pandemonium. Be at GM Place, Gate 7, at 4pm was the word, spreading like wildfire.
I am ever so grateful for the email i recieved from a buddy as I would never have known otherwise. I knock off work at 3.30pm every day, and so I was out the door, in a flash, got the train up to Stadium station, ran up the stairs and sprinted around to make sure i got a coveted wristband that would garner me entry. In reality, there was no need for quite such a rush.....I spent the next 3 hours standing in the queue, in the blinding sun (with my newly shaved head copping a beating), before we were eventually let in at 7pm.
What happened next was truly quite awesome (for the 15-year old U2 fan in me anyways). We were seated to the right of stage in the section neaest the stage, virtually within touching distance. The band came out, and ran thru 4 versions of the new single, with us 4000 U2-freaks cheering and clapping and making sure the live vibe was as realistic as possible while the numerous cameras captured the moment. As you'd expect, there was a sizeable Irish contingent in the audience and several tri-colour flags adding to the colur and the spectacle. Next we were all moved down into the centre floor section and U2 performed 2 more renditions of the song. As a thank you to us, they then did a mini-concert, playing another 3 songs from the latest album. Heaven. On a stick. Truly. Without realising it, it was 11pm before we got out of their. 4 hours. where the hell did the time go!!??! time flies when yer having fun!
The gig the following night was pretty good, too, with the band putting in their usual professional performance, playing a LOT of really old tunes from the first 2 or 3 albums, which was really cool actually, and had the crowd in the palm of thier hand for 2 and a bit hours. But, to be honest, I think I had way more fun at the video shoot. Something out of the ordinary, unusual, a one-off, never to be repeated experience. this is what we live and travel for right? Damn right!
talk soon,
tony
p.s. below is a brief local paper article on the video shoot gig...i couldn't sum it up any better!
http://www.thetyee.ca/Entertainment/2005/04/28/UCU22/
TheTyee.ca
"This is like a club gig," says Bono during the shooting of the video for U2's upcoming single.
In many ways it did feel like a small show -- there weren't even 4,000 of us at GM Place last night. After a surprise lunchtime announcement that you could be in a U2 video just by lining up at the Garage, I jumped at the opportunity.
By turning Vancouver into a city of blinding lights, U2 treated their fans to an up close and personal show, and treated the band to thousands of unpaid extras.
Aside from my ancestors, I think U2 is the greatest thing to come out of Ireland. I didn't get tickets to any of their shows, but I did hear the announcement about being in their video.
So at one o'clock I headed to GM Place where some 60 people were already in line. Some came on bikes, others on skateboards, by car or on foot. We leaned against the building and talked about what could possibly happen at a music video shoot.
Hot show. Really hot.
Ontario native Carlene McGowan was on her way to Mount Seymour when she and her cousins heard the announcement on the radio.
"They turned to me and asked 'what would you rather do?'" says the 24-year-old.
Before even entering the building, the elementary school teacher had already declared the experience the highlight of her trip.
It wasn't the lure of being on camera that drew McGowan to the video shoot, she just wanted to see the quartet perform.
"I'm so impressed they're doing this," she says. "I can't believe you don't have to have a ticket."
Tour guide Kelsey Torok had never seen U2 perform, though he's been a fan for as long as he can remember.
"When my friend called to tell me about this, I dropped everything, threw on a change of clothes, hopped on the seabus and got over here," he says.
"I've never been a part of anything like this before," says the 26-year-old. "I like U2, I like their music -- I'm hoping this will be a good experience."
Several hours later people were not in as high spirits. The sun had turned many pink. I was dehydrated and hungry.
Play it again! And again?
It seemed we were stuck in a moment we couldn't get out of. We didn't know when we would be let inside -- we were being told three o'clock, then possibly four o'clock, then definitely five.
By six I still hadn't found what I was looking for -- a golden wristband that would earn me a spot on the floor.
It was nearly seven before my hours in the sun paid off. I clamoured over people trying to clamour over me and got a wristband.
Inside the Garage the atmosphere was very different from any other concert I'd seen there. The place felt nearly empty. Very calm. There were no food vendors, no music, no rush to get to your seats.
Once in our assigned sections, there was more waiting. Had I not been hungry and tired and thirsty and cranky, I would have been really excited.
I didn't realize how unique the situation was until guitarist The Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. came onstage.
Then I noticed Bono had snuck onto the ring-shaped outer stage.
U2 broke into the first of six renditions of "City of Blinding Lights." I won't be able to listen to that song for a very long time.
Beautiful day
Though he was wearing his shades and I couldn't quite tell where he was looking, I swear Bono flashed a peace sign right at me. It was the sweetest thing.
I was right up against the barricade as Bono began to sing "City of Blinding Lights" for the last time, while the audience was showered with confetti.
People seemed to forget about the cameras in their face as they stretched their hands out to the frontman.
As a thank you set, U2 broke into "Vertigo," followed by "All Because of You," and finished with "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own," which Bono dedicated to his father.
Afterwards a few people were chatting, but the rest of us seemed a little stunned. Or maybe just tired. At 11 o'clock, I was ready to go home.
"That was awesome," Torok says. And it really was.
Huge band. Huge venue. Small show feel.
I doubt I'll be in any shots, but when the video is released, rest assured I'll pause every single frame and play Where's Kelso?
Sure it was a mock concert, but it just might have been even better than the real thing.
And here's some more links to check out...
http://atu2.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_atu2_archive.html
http://www.u2tours.com/detail.src?ID=20050427
http://www.u2tours.com/detail.src?ID=20050428
http://www.u2tours.com/detail.src?ID=20050428
April 27, 2005posted by: m2
@U2 staff were on hand tonight for the "City of Blinding Lights" video shoot at General Motors Place and will soon file a report about a long and difficult day to the @U2 Blog.
For now, here's the setlist as we've posted it on U2tours.com:
City of Blinding Lights
City of Blinding Lights
Hokey Pokey
City of Blinding Lights
City of Blinding Lights
City of Blinding Lights
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
All Because of You
Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own (encore)
it's a busy day for emails!....it'd been a few weeks since i last wrote, and i've been a busy boy in more ways than one in that time.
U2 came to town a week or so ago. For those of you who don't know, when i was a teenager, i was THE BIGGEST U2 geek-obsessive around. My bedroom was a living, breathing shrine to Bono and the boys. And then, when I was living in Dublin and my house was around the corner from the High School where they all met, and just a stones throw from their childhood neighbourhood, my 15-year old U2 geek came back out in me again.
Now, in Vancouver, just a month into thier gargantuan world-tour, U2 reappear in my life. When tickets were announced back in Feb, and they were only C$50, I was ecstatic. Of course they sold out 2 shows of the 25000 capacity GM Place arena in 15 mnutes, and I missed out. Enter stage right into my life the world of e-bay, something I was aware of but never paid much attention to. U2 ticket auctions were wildfire, some going into the stratosphere price wise. Several hundred dollars U.S. and more. Nevertheless, I wanted a ticket.....bad. So, I put down bids on no less than 40 auctions, but put a personal limit of C$100 down. I wasn't going to pay too much over the odds, and I figure $100 is roughly the cost if they toured Melbourne. And, to be honest, my fan-dom had diminished quite a great deal over the years, and I wouldn't have been totally crushed if I missed out.
Anyways, I got lucky....very, very lucky. I got my ticket for C$62! Upper bowl, to the left and slightly behind the stage tho, but reasonably close to the stage in the general scheme of things. At least I wasn't way, way, way back at the rear of the arena. So, that was 2 months ago...2months of waiting before my beloved U2 came to town.
As it got closer, the vibe around town got increasingly excited. The band had set up shop for 3 weeks to rehearse the show before the tour officially started, and U2-spotting became a mini-sport amongst the cities citizens in that time. The city as a result fell in love with the band. So when, the day before the first gig, U2 publicly announced that they would be shooting a live concert video of their next single, City of Blinding Lights, and needed 4000 extras to make up the audience, there was palpable pandemonium. Be at GM Place, Gate 7, at 4pm was the word, spreading like wildfire.
I am ever so grateful for the email i recieved from a buddy as I would never have known otherwise. I knock off work at 3.30pm every day, and so I was out the door, in a flash, got the train up to Stadium station, ran up the stairs and sprinted around to make sure i got a coveted wristband that would garner me entry. In reality, there was no need for quite such a rush.....I spent the next 3 hours standing in the queue, in the blinding sun (with my newly shaved head copping a beating), before we were eventually let in at 7pm.
What happened next was truly quite awesome (for the 15-year old U2 fan in me anyways). We were seated to the right of stage in the section neaest the stage, virtually within touching distance. The band came out, and ran thru 4 versions of the new single, with us 4000 U2-freaks cheering and clapping and making sure the live vibe was as realistic as possible while the numerous cameras captured the moment. As you'd expect, there was a sizeable Irish contingent in the audience and several tri-colour flags adding to the colur and the spectacle. Next we were all moved down into the centre floor section and U2 performed 2 more renditions of the song. As a thank you to us, they then did a mini-concert, playing another 3 songs from the latest album. Heaven. On a stick. Truly. Without realising it, it was 11pm before we got out of their. 4 hours. where the hell did the time go!!??! time flies when yer having fun!
The gig the following night was pretty good, too, with the band putting in their usual professional performance, playing a LOT of really old tunes from the first 2 or 3 albums, which was really cool actually, and had the crowd in the palm of thier hand for 2 and a bit hours. But, to be honest, I think I had way more fun at the video shoot. Something out of the ordinary, unusual, a one-off, never to be repeated experience. this is what we live and travel for right? Damn right!
talk soon,
tony
p.s. below is a brief local paper article on the video shoot gig...i couldn't sum it up any better!
http://www.thetyee.ca/Entertainment/2005/04/28/UCU22/
TheTyee.ca
"This is like a club gig," says Bono during the shooting of the video for U2's upcoming single.
In many ways it did feel like a small show -- there weren't even 4,000 of us at GM Place last night. After a surprise lunchtime announcement that you could be in a U2 video just by lining up at the Garage, I jumped at the opportunity.
By turning Vancouver into a city of blinding lights, U2 treated their fans to an up close and personal show, and treated the band to thousands of unpaid extras.
Aside from my ancestors, I think U2 is the greatest thing to come out of Ireland. I didn't get tickets to any of their shows, but I did hear the announcement about being in their video.
So at one o'clock I headed to GM Place where some 60 people were already in line. Some came on bikes, others on skateboards, by car or on foot. We leaned against the building and talked about what could possibly happen at a music video shoot.
Hot show. Really hot.
Ontario native Carlene McGowan was on her way to Mount Seymour when she and her cousins heard the announcement on the radio.
"They turned to me and asked 'what would you rather do?'" says the 24-year-old.
Before even entering the building, the elementary school teacher had already declared the experience the highlight of her trip.
It wasn't the lure of being on camera that drew McGowan to the video shoot, she just wanted to see the quartet perform.
"I'm so impressed they're doing this," she says. "I can't believe you don't have to have a ticket."
Tour guide Kelsey Torok had never seen U2 perform, though he's been a fan for as long as he can remember.
"When my friend called to tell me about this, I dropped everything, threw on a change of clothes, hopped on the seabus and got over here," he says.
"I've never been a part of anything like this before," says the 26-year-old. "I like U2, I like their music -- I'm hoping this will be a good experience."
Several hours later people were not in as high spirits. The sun had turned many pink. I was dehydrated and hungry.
Play it again! And again?
It seemed we were stuck in a moment we couldn't get out of. We didn't know when we would be let inside -- we were being told three o'clock, then possibly four o'clock, then definitely five.
By six I still hadn't found what I was looking for -- a golden wristband that would earn me a spot on the floor.
It was nearly seven before my hours in the sun paid off. I clamoured over people trying to clamour over me and got a wristband.
Inside the Garage the atmosphere was very different from any other concert I'd seen there. The place felt nearly empty. Very calm. There were no food vendors, no music, no rush to get to your seats.
Once in our assigned sections, there was more waiting. Had I not been hungry and tired and thirsty and cranky, I would have been really excited.
I didn't realize how unique the situation was until guitarist The Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. came onstage.
Then I noticed Bono had snuck onto the ring-shaped outer stage.
U2 broke into the first of six renditions of "City of Blinding Lights." I won't be able to listen to that song for a very long time.
Beautiful day
Though he was wearing his shades and I couldn't quite tell where he was looking, I swear Bono flashed a peace sign right at me. It was the sweetest thing.
I was right up against the barricade as Bono began to sing "City of Blinding Lights" for the last time, while the audience was showered with confetti.
People seemed to forget about the cameras in their face as they stretched their hands out to the frontman.
As a thank you set, U2 broke into "Vertigo," followed by "All Because of You," and finished with "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own," which Bono dedicated to his father.
Afterwards a few people were chatting, but the rest of us seemed a little stunned. Or maybe just tired. At 11 o'clock, I was ready to go home.
"That was awesome," Torok says. And it really was.
Huge band. Huge venue. Small show feel.
I doubt I'll be in any shots, but when the video is released, rest assured I'll pause every single frame and play Where's Kelso?
Sure it was a mock concert, but it just might have been even better than the real thing.
And here's some more links to check out...
http://atu2.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_atu2_archive.html
http://www.u2tours.com/detail.src?ID=20050427
http://www.u2tours.com/detail.src?ID=20050428
http://www.u2tours.com/detail.src?ID=20050428
April 27, 2005posted by: m2
@U2 staff were on hand tonight for the "City of Blinding Lights" video shoot at General Motors Place and will soon file a report about a long and difficult day to the @U2 Blog.
For now, here's the setlist as we've posted it on U2tours.com:
City of Blinding Lights
City of Blinding Lights
Hokey Pokey
City of Blinding Lights
City of Blinding Lights
City of Blinding Lights
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
All Because of You
Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own (encore)
Big News!
Hi all,
well, some of you know this already via one-on-one emails, but for the rest of you......
I'M GOING HOME!
For a combination of reasons, but money (and lack thereof - or more to the point, a rapidly diminishing available credit on my 3 credit cards!...) being the main one.
It's not a decision that i'm entirely happy with. In fact, to be totally honest, i'm not sure at all how I feel about it....happy, sad, disappointed, excited, angry, nervous - a little bit of each emotion all in the same breath. But mostly nervous to be honest....so much has changed in my friends and families lives since i left. how will i fit in.
I guess you would have read my last batch of 3 emails, and i suppose that gives some kind of indication of what emotional point i was at.
In truth, i think i booked the ticket in a moment of weakness. After the troublesome period with little decent work, the idea of going home entered my head - all was not nice in paradise at the time - and even tho I have since secured a decent work contract and things are on the up again, the seed of the thought was planted, and I really couldn't shake it. The clincher was when i was in a Flight Centre office making general enquiries and a deal that honestly couldn't be refused was on offer.
The thought process was that I wanted to make sure I had a flight home in the event that my funds totally dried up, and so i booked it.
There is one small problem with this tho - and i hope it doesn't come back and bite me on the bum.......given that its such a sweet deal, it has very restrictive conditions placed on it.....NON-TRANSFERABLE, NO REFUND POSSIBLE, NO DATE CHANGES ACCEPTED (NOT EVEN WITH ADDITIONAL FEES).
Why is this a problem? Well, because the dates I have chosen are quite a ways away, and the plans for the duration of my last few months are quite busy.
So the details?
28th August: Fly to San Francisco.
30th August - September 5th: backpacker company "Green Tortoise" trip out to the Nevada desert for a 5-day arts & music camp & wierdness festival called 'Burning Man" (http://www.burningman.com) .....I'll write more about this another time, but its gonna be nuts!!
September 6th - October 4th - travelling around California and Arizona, taking in visits to friends in Oakland, Carmel/Monterey on the So Cal coast, Los Angeles and Phoenix, as well as seeing San Diego, a quick jaunt over the border to Mexico for a few days (possibly on my birthday, Sept 22nd), and of course Las Vegas.
October 5th: Fly home to Melbourne.
Pretty mad huh? I'm looking forward to it, but i'm also crossing my fingers that the money will be there (i'm estimating $3000 for the trip)
Anyways, arriving home on October 7th (i lose a day....i want my day back!!), i would have been away from home 2 years, 3 months and 2 days. SO, thats 823 days..... (okay Mabs, i concede...mate, you win!! 1100-odd days on the road was always gonna be a huge total to overhaul ;-) )
In the meantime, I've got a 6-day trip out to Banff in the Rocky Mountains, encompassing a quick visit to Calgary to catch up with a good buddy Tricia from my Edinburgh bar-tending days, and hopefully a week or a long-weekend over on Vancouver Island.
What will I miss out on from my plans?....a lot. In America, I was gonna swing down to Yellowstone National Park (another Asia-travelling buddy, Alison, down there in Cody, Wyoming, yee-haw!), I was gonna drop right on down to New Orleans to suss out the jazz and blues and general crazy-ass music scene they got goin' on down there, and the real biggy that i'm majorly sad to miss out on - New York. Damn.
My Canada misisons to Montreal and Toronto, and up to Whitehorse in the Yukon are scrapped (sorry Matt. maybe another time) - and Alaska was only a hop-skip-and a jump from there too...
But, as people keep telling me, I can always come back. I've had a good run.
Anyways, thats the latest.
Talk soon,
Tony
well, some of you know this already via one-on-one emails, but for the rest of you......
I'M GOING HOME!
For a combination of reasons, but money (and lack thereof - or more to the point, a rapidly diminishing available credit on my 3 credit cards!...) being the main one.
It's not a decision that i'm entirely happy with. In fact, to be totally honest, i'm not sure at all how I feel about it....happy, sad, disappointed, excited, angry, nervous - a little bit of each emotion all in the same breath. But mostly nervous to be honest....so much has changed in my friends and families lives since i left. how will i fit in.
I guess you would have read my last batch of 3 emails, and i suppose that gives some kind of indication of what emotional point i was at.
In truth, i think i booked the ticket in a moment of weakness. After the troublesome period with little decent work, the idea of going home entered my head - all was not nice in paradise at the time - and even tho I have since secured a decent work contract and things are on the up again, the seed of the thought was planted, and I really couldn't shake it. The clincher was when i was in a Flight Centre office making general enquiries and a deal that honestly couldn't be refused was on offer.
The thought process was that I wanted to make sure I had a flight home in the event that my funds totally dried up, and so i booked it.
There is one small problem with this tho - and i hope it doesn't come back and bite me on the bum.......given that its such a sweet deal, it has very restrictive conditions placed on it.....NON-TRANSFERABLE, NO REFUND POSSIBLE, NO DATE CHANGES ACCEPTED (NOT EVEN WITH ADDITIONAL FEES).
Why is this a problem? Well, because the dates I have chosen are quite a ways away, and the plans for the duration of my last few months are quite busy.
So the details?
28th August: Fly to San Francisco.
30th August - September 5th: backpacker company "Green Tortoise" trip out to the Nevada desert for a 5-day arts & music camp & wierdness festival called 'Burning Man" (http://www.burningman.com) .....I'll write more about this another time, but its gonna be nuts!!
September 6th - October 4th - travelling around California and Arizona, taking in visits to friends in Oakland, Carmel/Monterey on the So Cal coast, Los Angeles and Phoenix, as well as seeing San Diego, a quick jaunt over the border to Mexico for a few days (possibly on my birthday, Sept 22nd), and of course Las Vegas.
October 5th: Fly home to Melbourne.
Pretty mad huh? I'm looking forward to it, but i'm also crossing my fingers that the money will be there (i'm estimating $3000 for the trip)
Anyways, arriving home on October 7th (i lose a day....i want my day back!!), i would have been away from home 2 years, 3 months and 2 days. SO, thats 823 days..... (okay Mabs, i concede...mate, you win!! 1100-odd days on the road was always gonna be a huge total to overhaul ;-) )
In the meantime, I've got a 6-day trip out to Banff in the Rocky Mountains, encompassing a quick visit to Calgary to catch up with a good buddy Tricia from my Edinburgh bar-tending days, and hopefully a week or a long-weekend over on Vancouver Island.
What will I miss out on from my plans?....a lot. In America, I was gonna swing down to Yellowstone National Park (another Asia-travelling buddy, Alison, down there in Cody, Wyoming, yee-haw!), I was gonna drop right on down to New Orleans to suss out the jazz and blues and general crazy-ass music scene they got goin' on down there, and the real biggy that i'm majorly sad to miss out on - New York. Damn.
My Canada misisons to Montreal and Toronto, and up to Whitehorse in the Yukon are scrapped (sorry Matt. maybe another time) - and Alaska was only a hop-skip-and a jump from there too...
But, as people keep telling me, I can always come back. I've had a good run.
Anyways, thats the latest.
Talk soon,
Tony
life's ups and downs - metaphorical and literal, part 3
G'day again,
So the weekend exertions over and done with, come Monday morning I was to front up for the first day of my new contract job. I'm now with a company called CDS - Canadian Depository for Securities, a kind of holding company or middle man for stockbrokers trading shares, and thus far it has been pretty dull, loads of excel spreadsheets and data entry, and a rather steep learning curve. As I write i'm in my 3rd week and still pretty much have no idea what I or the company do.
Going out for dinner during the week for a friends' friend's birthday,
I met some lads who were heading to Whistler the following weekend, and I cheekily asked if there was room for an tag-along. "sure, the more the merrier!" I still hadn't been up to the legendary mountain in 2 months of living here, and this was a great opportunity to do so. Altho, I still didn't see any ski or boarding action. I soon learned that this was going to be purely a clubbing-pubbing-drinking weekend! British DJ Josh Winks (????) was headlining a club night up there and was the main focal point of the trip for these lads, and therefore me.
heading off straight after work on friday, there was fellow aussies Mick and Ricky, and Brits John and Andy. Mick had struck it lucky and bought a Toyota Corolla for $500 and so the only transport cost was fuel. nice!
2 and a 1/2 hours later, and we were in Whistler village. We quickly checked in to the Shoestring Lodge and hit the hostel bar, The Boot Pub. Unbeknown to us (honestly), Friday nights are stripper nights, with a temporary walkway-stage and fireman's pole installed. Never one to turn down such an opportunity, we parked ourselves at a table and began the long night ahead of us in style. Venturing into the village proper, it was teeming with people, bars and pubs chock full of revellers, and spilling out into the street - a real carnivale party atmospehere. Apparently its like this every night of the week in the peak of the season - if you live here, whether as a local or a random Aussie backpacking ski-bunny, its pure madness. Needless to say we lads took to it like a duck to water, cruising a few bars and ending up at some Cuban cantina styled basement bar.
when we left at closing it was snowing!....it was funny, but it was so nice to be standing about outside the bar chatting away to strangers with huge snowflakes falling about our feet and on our clothes and hair. back at the hostel i got some great pics from the open window of our dorm, and then the next morning a thin blanket of white covered everything outside. as i knew i wouldn't be getting up the slopes, it was nice to see at least a little bit of snow.
the Saturday morning saw my first real glimpse of Whistler village, and its pretty much as i was told it would be - a kind of plastic, synthetic, homogenised ski resort - everything about the architecture reminded me of a giant play-lego set, or a hyper-real Hollywood-ised version of what a European ski resort is supposed to look like. Needless to say, its totally set up for maximum fun levels, with everything a ski-bunny could possibly want at his/her disposal. After checking all this out, having a huge fry-up brekky and going for a little drive around the area, we decided to see out the afternoon from the patio of one of the copious numbers of bars in the village, and slowly drink away our hangovers.
Finally,mid-evening, the event of the weekend was upon us, Whistler's huge convention centre converted into a club of epic proportions for the guest DJ Josh Winks from England (who, to be honest i am not at all familiar with). We were already suitably alcohol fuelled from the afternoon, and all that was left was to find some further chemical stimulus, which to no suprise at all, materialised within about 20minutes of being inside. Disco biscuits all round! The beverage of choice for the rest of the night then? - water.
DJ Josh Winks has some talent. He played a good long set of funky hard house, a little bit of euphoric electro thrown in for god measure. well, again to be honest, i don't really know - i just remember dancing hard aalllllll night, and again got some good pics of us getting particularly well-melted! (more 'up' of the email's title).......and then it was over! as usually happens in this scenario, the night flew by before our very dilated pupils.
Come Sunday, we weren't well at all, and the general consensus was to skip the Sunday and just head back to Van. 11am check out, and we were on the road by 11.15, and i was home and in my bed by 2pm, to sleep the rest of the day away. I guess i'm not as young as i used to be!
well, i guess this pretty much concludes this epic....another mad emotional roller-coaster period in my travelling life.
take care,
tony
So the weekend exertions over and done with, come Monday morning I was to front up for the first day of my new contract job. I'm now with a company called CDS - Canadian Depository for Securities, a kind of holding company or middle man for stockbrokers trading shares, and thus far it has been pretty dull, loads of excel spreadsheets and data entry, and a rather steep learning curve. As I write i'm in my 3rd week and still pretty much have no idea what I or the company do.
Going out for dinner during the week for a friends' friend's birthday,
I met some lads who were heading to Whistler the following weekend, and I cheekily asked if there was room for an tag-along. "sure, the more the merrier!" I still hadn't been up to the legendary mountain in 2 months of living here, and this was a great opportunity to do so. Altho, I still didn't see any ski or boarding action. I soon learned that this was going to be purely a clubbing-pubbing-drinking weekend! British DJ Josh Winks (????) was headlining a club night up there and was the main focal point of the trip for these lads, and therefore me.
heading off straight after work on friday, there was fellow aussies Mick and Ricky, and Brits John and Andy. Mick had struck it lucky and bought a Toyota Corolla for $500 and so the only transport cost was fuel. nice!
2 and a 1/2 hours later, and we were in Whistler village. We quickly checked in to the Shoestring Lodge and hit the hostel bar, The Boot Pub. Unbeknown to us (honestly), Friday nights are stripper nights, with a temporary walkway-stage and fireman's pole installed. Never one to turn down such an opportunity, we parked ourselves at a table and began the long night ahead of us in style. Venturing into the village proper, it was teeming with people, bars and pubs chock full of revellers, and spilling out into the street - a real carnivale party atmospehere. Apparently its like this every night of the week in the peak of the season - if you live here, whether as a local or a random Aussie backpacking ski-bunny, its pure madness. Needless to say we lads took to it like a duck to water, cruising a few bars and ending up at some Cuban cantina styled basement bar.
when we left at closing it was snowing!....it was funny, but it was so nice to be standing about outside the bar chatting away to strangers with huge snowflakes falling about our feet and on our clothes and hair. back at the hostel i got some great pics from the open window of our dorm, and then the next morning a thin blanket of white covered everything outside. as i knew i wouldn't be getting up the slopes, it was nice to see at least a little bit of snow.
the Saturday morning saw my first real glimpse of Whistler village, and its pretty much as i was told it would be - a kind of plastic, synthetic, homogenised ski resort - everything about the architecture reminded me of a giant play-lego set, or a hyper-real Hollywood-ised version of what a European ski resort is supposed to look like. Needless to say, its totally set up for maximum fun levels, with everything a ski-bunny could possibly want at his/her disposal. After checking all this out, having a huge fry-up brekky and going for a little drive around the area, we decided to see out the afternoon from the patio of one of the copious numbers of bars in the village, and slowly drink away our hangovers.
Finally,mid-evening, the event of the weekend was upon us, Whistler's huge convention centre converted into a club of epic proportions for the guest DJ Josh Winks from England (who, to be honest i am not at all familiar with). We were already suitably alcohol fuelled from the afternoon, and all that was left was to find some further chemical stimulus, which to no suprise at all, materialised within about 20minutes of being inside. Disco biscuits all round! The beverage of choice for the rest of the night then? - water.
DJ Josh Winks has some talent. He played a good long set of funky hard house, a little bit of euphoric electro thrown in for god measure. well, again to be honest, i don't really know - i just remember dancing hard aalllllll night, and again got some good pics of us getting particularly well-melted! (more 'up' of the email's title).......and then it was over! as usually happens in this scenario, the night flew by before our very dilated pupils.
Come Sunday, we weren't well at all, and the general consensus was to skip the Sunday and just head back to Van. 11am check out, and we were on the road by 11.15, and i was home and in my bed by 2pm, to sleep the rest of the day away. I guess i'm not as young as i used to be!
well, i guess this pretty much concludes this epic....another mad emotional roller-coaster period in my travelling life.
take care,
tony
life's ups and downs - metaphorical and literal, part 2
Hi again,
That Friday evening I hooked up with a group of cycling enthusiasts (nee nutcases - in the friendliest possible way you can use that term) called the Margaret Charles Chopper Collective, or M-C3 for short. These guys and girls are a combination bike group and alternative-experimental art collective. Thier bikes are their art. These are not your average 21-speed mountain bike or road-racer.Some of the contraptions include welding several individual frames together to form form 'tall bikes' with 2 or even 3 chains and cogs, with the rider sitting atop at about 15 feet above the ground, or the bicycle equivalent of the Harley-Davisdon chopper, complete with 10-foot long front forks, fat tyres, painted flames along the frame, and custom-designed fibre-optic neon lighting!! (i'm serious!!)
Us mere mortals with the standard off-the-shelf mountain bike are welcomed into the group,
but are considered 'guests'. Ian all there was around 30 cyclists. We met in the early evening at a rotunda by the mouth of False Creek and then proceeded to carve up the bike paths in a celebratory manner, whopping and hollering and chanting songs and slogans to the bemusement of other bikers, roller-bladers and pedestrians (altho we did manage to recruit a couple of cyclists and bring them into the fold). Great fun, completely harmless and non-threatening. Our first stop was down by Kitsilano beach to watch the sunset at the point where Burrard Inlet becomes the Pacific Ocean. What a gorgeous view. So pretty in fact, that despite the strong cool breeze and low temperature, a number of us decided it'd be a good idea to go for a swim. Never mind that we had no towels to or proper swwimming attire - we went for a skinny-dip (yes, i was one of the brave few!)....i'd skinny-dipped Loch ness in the Scottish Highlands in November - I could handle this!
I have to say it was one of the most invigorating 5minute dips i've ever had! Altho, I will admit that the offerings of hip flasks of dark rum were gladly accepted afterwards, and my toes remained rather numb for at least 2 hours after the rest of my body regained normal temperature.
After that, we had to pay a visit to a restaurant where one of the cyclists friends was having a birthday dinner. Imagine her surprise (and the other 15-odd dinner guests) when her friend turns up to the restaurant with 30 freaks to give a rendition of Happy Birthday...and then immediately leave!! What a present!
The next freak-show event of the night, close to midnight, was a 'parkade bomb', where we would all invade a city centre multi-story car park, cycle to the open rooftop (the first literal high of the journal title), spark a few joints (the 2nd - i guess!), take in the scenic city lights, and then sprint down the levels making all sorts of racket in the form of haunting ghosts and the like, the open chambers of the parkade creating enormous echoes and a cacophanous sound that i'm sure could be heard several blocks away, and streaming on out into the street at ground level (the literal low) in a procession of madness. By this stage, I was quite stoned, and a little drunk after the rum and some sneaky cans along the way. Coming up to 1am we all voted to call an end to the night - it was a good 5 hours since we took off, and a good night had been had by all.
All that was left for me now was to cycle home - no small mean feat given my state. We split up into generally 2 groups going in different directions, only i got a little confused and followed the wrong group for about 3 blocks before i realised, and in my efforts to try and locate the other group got myself rather disorientated in the city. Now keep in mind that i've been living here almost 3months and travel to the city every day for work - but i got totally lost and honestly it took me about 15minutes of cycling around taking random lefts and rights before i found a street and route that i was familiar with to head out to east vancouver. It actually got a little frustrating for a while! Thank God the traffic was virtually non-existent as i'm pretty sure (but not entirely sure) that i lost balance and fell off my bike more than once en-route home, more as a result of the BC buds rather than the beverages. My housemate Ceri can verify the state I was in when i got home, barely able to string a sentence together, talking incomprehenisble nonsense.
I've had several heavy nights out here in Vancouver and elsewhere, but I only described this one in some detail as it ranks pretty high in the messiness stakes!
The following morning, I was due to get up early and head out to Bowen Island for a day-hike with the University hiking club I'd hooked up with. I honestly thought I'd have no chance of responding to my alarms' 6.30am wake up call, but respond I did, and with some semblance and feeling of normality too! Perhaps I was still drunk/stoned. I necked a coupla Tylenol in preparation for the hangover I knew was bound to come and headed city-bound to our rendesvous point.
Bowen Island is one of the Gulf Islands located on the Howe Sound inlet between Vancouver Island and the mainland. Very close by the city, it's only an hours bus ride and a 20minute ferry ride away. That's one of the best things I love about Vancouver is that you can be in the middle of nowhere in literally minutes.
Getting the ferry across the Howe Sound to Snug Cove on the island was breathtaking, with perfect weather views of the lower Rocky Mountains, their peaks rising just above wispy drifts of fluffy white clouds, and thousands of acres of green pine forest covering the mountain-side all the way down to the waters edge. Snug Cove itself is a tiny little village with a quaint marina of small yachts and other boating vessels, our enormous BC Ferries transport seeming quite out of place.
The aim of the hike was to scale Mount Gardner, the highest peak on the island. At 600metres or so, it was more of a hill than a mountain, but it was a 17Km round trip all up. More interesting people to meet, a gorgeous hike, and wonderful views from the heli-pad at the peak over the Howe Sound and out to the city skyline, where we had lunch (the 3rd high!). My hangover was more than soothed by the company of a couple of nice and friendly Canadian nationalised Turkish gals, with me becoming their official photographer for the trip. Altho the hike was longer, it was not as challenging and difficult or as interesting as the Stawamus Chief hike in Squamish a few weeks earlier.
As per usual tho, I took a kazillion pics, and as a result on the way down, got seperated from the rest of the group, and nearing the end of the hike, almost back to civilisation, at the base of the mountain (literal low) where the trail met the road, I took a right instead of a left and wandered 15minutes in the opposite direction from which I was supposed to be going. It was only when i stopped a local to confirm directions that i realised my error.
This is all well and good, except for the fact that we were all supposed to be back in Snug Cove to catch the 6pm ferry, or else be stuck there until the next one 2 hours later. Time was against me, and I was pretty well cream-crackered (knackered) and so resigned myself to the fact that i was gonna miss it. However, today was the one day when Canadian transport ran late (that never happens) and the ferry was still there at 10past when i strolled on, literally the last passenger on board before it took off.
more in a mo...
That Friday evening I hooked up with a group of cycling enthusiasts (nee nutcases - in the friendliest possible way you can use that term) called the Margaret Charles Chopper Collective, or M-C3 for short. These guys and girls are a combination bike group and alternative-experimental art collective. Thier bikes are their art. These are not your average 21-speed mountain bike or road-racer.Some of the contraptions include welding several individual frames together to form form 'tall bikes' with 2 or even 3 chains and cogs, with the rider sitting atop at about 15 feet above the ground, or the bicycle equivalent of the Harley-Davisdon chopper, complete with 10-foot long front forks, fat tyres, painted flames along the frame, and custom-designed fibre-optic neon lighting!! (i'm serious!!)
Us mere mortals with the standard off-the-shelf mountain bike are welcomed into the group,
but are considered 'guests'. Ian all there was around 30 cyclists. We met in the early evening at a rotunda by the mouth of False Creek and then proceeded to carve up the bike paths in a celebratory manner, whopping and hollering and chanting songs and slogans to the bemusement of other bikers, roller-bladers and pedestrians (altho we did manage to recruit a couple of cyclists and bring them into the fold). Great fun, completely harmless and non-threatening. Our first stop was down by Kitsilano beach to watch the sunset at the point where Burrard Inlet becomes the Pacific Ocean. What a gorgeous view. So pretty in fact, that despite the strong cool breeze and low temperature, a number of us decided it'd be a good idea to go for a swim. Never mind that we had no towels to or proper swwimming attire - we went for a skinny-dip (yes, i was one of the brave few!)....i'd skinny-dipped Loch ness in the Scottish Highlands in November - I could handle this!
I have to say it was one of the most invigorating 5minute dips i've ever had! Altho, I will admit that the offerings of hip flasks of dark rum were gladly accepted afterwards, and my toes remained rather numb for at least 2 hours after the rest of my body regained normal temperature.
After that, we had to pay a visit to a restaurant where one of the cyclists friends was having a birthday dinner. Imagine her surprise (and the other 15-odd dinner guests) when her friend turns up to the restaurant with 30 freaks to give a rendition of Happy Birthday...and then immediately leave!! What a present!
The next freak-show event of the night, close to midnight, was a 'parkade bomb', where we would all invade a city centre multi-story car park, cycle to the open rooftop (the first literal high of the journal title), spark a few joints (the 2nd - i guess!), take in the scenic city lights, and then sprint down the levels making all sorts of racket in the form of haunting ghosts and the like, the open chambers of the parkade creating enormous echoes and a cacophanous sound that i'm sure could be heard several blocks away, and streaming on out into the street at ground level (the literal low) in a procession of madness. By this stage, I was quite stoned, and a little drunk after the rum and some sneaky cans along the way. Coming up to 1am we all voted to call an end to the night - it was a good 5 hours since we took off, and a good night had been had by all.
All that was left for me now was to cycle home - no small mean feat given my state. We split up into generally 2 groups going in different directions, only i got a little confused and followed the wrong group for about 3 blocks before i realised, and in my efforts to try and locate the other group got myself rather disorientated in the city. Now keep in mind that i've been living here almost 3months and travel to the city every day for work - but i got totally lost and honestly it took me about 15minutes of cycling around taking random lefts and rights before i found a street and route that i was familiar with to head out to east vancouver. It actually got a little frustrating for a while! Thank God the traffic was virtually non-existent as i'm pretty sure (but not entirely sure) that i lost balance and fell off my bike more than once en-route home, more as a result of the BC buds rather than the beverages. My housemate Ceri can verify the state I was in when i got home, barely able to string a sentence together, talking incomprehenisble nonsense.
I've had several heavy nights out here in Vancouver and elsewhere, but I only described this one in some detail as it ranks pretty high in the messiness stakes!
The following morning, I was due to get up early and head out to Bowen Island for a day-hike with the University hiking club I'd hooked up with. I honestly thought I'd have no chance of responding to my alarms' 6.30am wake up call, but respond I did, and with some semblance and feeling of normality too! Perhaps I was still drunk/stoned. I necked a coupla Tylenol in preparation for the hangover I knew was bound to come and headed city-bound to our rendesvous point.
Bowen Island is one of the Gulf Islands located on the Howe Sound inlet between Vancouver Island and the mainland. Very close by the city, it's only an hours bus ride and a 20minute ferry ride away. That's one of the best things I love about Vancouver is that you can be in the middle of nowhere in literally minutes.
Getting the ferry across the Howe Sound to Snug Cove on the island was breathtaking, with perfect weather views of the lower Rocky Mountains, their peaks rising just above wispy drifts of fluffy white clouds, and thousands of acres of green pine forest covering the mountain-side all the way down to the waters edge. Snug Cove itself is a tiny little village with a quaint marina of small yachts and other boating vessels, our enormous BC Ferries transport seeming quite out of place.
The aim of the hike was to scale Mount Gardner, the highest peak on the island. At 600metres or so, it was more of a hill than a mountain, but it was a 17Km round trip all up. More interesting people to meet, a gorgeous hike, and wonderful views from the heli-pad at the peak over the Howe Sound and out to the city skyline, where we had lunch (the 3rd high!). My hangover was more than soothed by the company of a couple of nice and friendly Canadian nationalised Turkish gals, with me becoming their official photographer for the trip. Altho the hike was longer, it was not as challenging and difficult or as interesting as the Stawamus Chief hike in Squamish a few weeks earlier.
As per usual tho, I took a kazillion pics, and as a result on the way down, got seperated from the rest of the group, and nearing the end of the hike, almost back to civilisation, at the base of the mountain (literal low) where the trail met the road, I took a right instead of a left and wandered 15minutes in the opposite direction from which I was supposed to be going. It was only when i stopped a local to confirm directions that i realised my error.
This is all well and good, except for the fact that we were all supposed to be back in Snug Cove to catch the 6pm ferry, or else be stuck there until the next one 2 hours later. Time was against me, and I was pretty well cream-crackered (knackered) and so resigned myself to the fact that i was gonna miss it. However, today was the one day when Canadian transport ran late (that never happens) and the ferry was still there at 10past when i strolled on, literally the last passenger on board before it took off.
more in a mo...
life's ups and downs - metaphorical and literal, part 1
hey all,
man its been a drama of sorts the past month and a bit (isn't it always!!....)
all was going swimmingly for me after a slowish start to my life in vancouver. i was working a decent job, meeting interesting and fun people, taking long-weekend holidays, and had exciting plans for the year ahead and beyond.
then my work contract got cut short by a cuppla weeks with pretty much zero notice (the life of a temp, eh!), and the agencies didn't really have anything concrete lined up for me. i was kinda miffed about the whole thing, and was left lazing about the house with little to do while i waited for the phone to ring for a job. i got a few odd days here and there paying between $9 and $11 per hour (wages I hadn't accepted since my Uni days) - I'd get 1 day retail, which would be followed by nothing, then a 1/2 day's photocopying, 1 evening table waiting for an enormous function (more on that one later!), more nothing, some sandwich making and dishwashing, more nothing, and then 2 days light industrial packing maple syrup jars into boxes for export to Japan. not exactly promising stuff.
It was around this time that the news of an incredibly popular and talented Australian drummer for Aussie/Kiwi band Crowded House named Paul Hester had committed suicide in Melbourne. I, like thousands of others in Oz and around the world, was a pretty big fan of the band, and the news hit me like a ton of bricks, It actually affected me more than any other event since Jeff Buckley died I think, and was sorta surprised and just how deeply it did affect me. Maybe it was just the timing. I was already a little (lot) down about myself with the way my own life was panning out, but it did send me into an ordinary downward spiral........At one point I didn't leave the house for 4 days, kept the curtains closed, lay in bed til 3pm - what reason did i have to get up - and generally became a miserable sod surfing the net reading all the Hester obituaries I could find.
Those that know me well know that this just isn't like me. I'm usually pretty proactive about things, but i just felt very, very ordinary and let myself feel sorry for myself. fortunately I eventually was able to 'snap out of it'. On finishing the last of the crappy jobs - for the maple syrup company - I fired off a couple of strongly worded emails to my agencies stating just how badly I needed to be working solidly on a decent length contract, and the the work they were getting me simply wasn't enough - wasn't challenging enough, wasn't paying enough and weren't long enough.
Suddenly, I got a phone call offering me a 4month contract, till the end of August, at $14 per hour. Coincedence? I'm sure these jobs were around before, but I was just not getting them. One email later and "all of a sudden" this contract "just happened" to come up. It's amazing what a bit of proactivity will get you!
So that's the metaphorical ups and downs. Now wait for the second instalment for the literal ups and downs.
man its been a drama of sorts the past month and a bit (isn't it always!!....)
all was going swimmingly for me after a slowish start to my life in vancouver. i was working a decent job, meeting interesting and fun people, taking long-weekend holidays, and had exciting plans for the year ahead and beyond.
then my work contract got cut short by a cuppla weeks with pretty much zero notice (the life of a temp, eh!), and the agencies didn't really have anything concrete lined up for me. i was kinda miffed about the whole thing, and was left lazing about the house with little to do while i waited for the phone to ring for a job. i got a few odd days here and there paying between $9 and $11 per hour (wages I hadn't accepted since my Uni days) - I'd get 1 day retail, which would be followed by nothing, then a 1/2 day's photocopying, 1 evening table waiting for an enormous function (more on that one later!), more nothing, some sandwich making and dishwashing, more nothing, and then 2 days light industrial packing maple syrup jars into boxes for export to Japan. not exactly promising stuff.
It was around this time that the news of an incredibly popular and talented Australian drummer for Aussie/Kiwi band Crowded House named Paul Hester had committed suicide in Melbourne. I, like thousands of others in Oz and around the world, was a pretty big fan of the band, and the news hit me like a ton of bricks, It actually affected me more than any other event since Jeff Buckley died I think, and was sorta surprised and just how deeply it did affect me. Maybe it was just the timing. I was already a little (lot) down about myself with the way my own life was panning out, but it did send me into an ordinary downward spiral........At one point I didn't leave the house for 4 days, kept the curtains closed, lay in bed til 3pm - what reason did i have to get up - and generally became a miserable sod surfing the net reading all the Hester obituaries I could find.
Those that know me well know that this just isn't like me. I'm usually pretty proactive about things, but i just felt very, very ordinary and let myself feel sorry for myself. fortunately I eventually was able to 'snap out of it'. On finishing the last of the crappy jobs - for the maple syrup company - I fired off a couple of strongly worded emails to my agencies stating just how badly I needed to be working solidly on a decent length contract, and the the work they were getting me simply wasn't enough - wasn't challenging enough, wasn't paying enough and weren't long enough.
Suddenly, I got a phone call offering me a 4month contract, till the end of August, at $14 per hour. Coincedence? I'm sure these jobs were around before, but I was just not getting them. One email later and "all of a sudden" this contract "just happened" to come up. It's amazing what a bit of proactivity will get you!
So that's the metaphorical ups and downs. Now wait for the second instalment for the literal ups and downs.
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