The Dramaturge At Home

Holy Hannah, those are snowflakes!

I might have to go back to bed.  Seriously, snow?  No snow.  Snow on the mountain?  Yes.  Snow in downtown?  No.

Maybe I'm panicking unnecessarily, but those are FLAKES, dammit.

Will keep you posted.

Is this what its going to be like all winter? (Day 4 NaBloPoMo)

As some of you know ... we just moved to Vancouver. 

"It rains there a lot". 

"Yeah, I know."

"No, really."

"I like the rain."

But then I started using a Yahoo! Desktop Weather Widget.  I don't know if I can look at this thing for 4 months and have it never really change, except get a little colder.

Sigh.

Time to order the Happy Eyes.

Vancouver masquerades as NYC yet again ...

So last night, when walking home from work, I saw some new flutterly pole signs for something about NYC Shopping.  And I thought, "Hmm .. must be some new exhibit at the gallery.  I like NYC; I like shopping.  I'll have to go."

And then I saw the subway entrance.  And I knew I wasn't in Kansas (or Vancouver) anymore.

There were other tell-tale signs (in case the subway entrance wasn't enough of one).  An NYC garbage can, more pole signs - these with the Statue of Liberty, and NYC taxi cabs).

You can't fool me.  These must be for a movie shoot!

Sure enough, today when Roro and I were walking downtown they were shooting some scenes on the corner.  The nice lady from FOX ran over as I pulled out my camera and asked me nicely not to take photos.  But she did tell us that they were filming Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (IMDB entry). [FF Hype Blog - some good reports of filming here too].  Now it was drizzling, and Roro and I hadn't had lunch, so after we watched two crew members heat up a corner of the street with mega blow torches (I still don't understand why they would do that) and about a b'zillion crew members standing around, we headed on our merry way.

There have been a number of movies and TV shows being shot in Vancouver since we moved here.  Seems like more than in Toronto (where the highlights were often the late night scenes of Queer as Folk shot on our street).  Here I've seen some vampire series being shot on Granville St. and CBC's Intelligence just outside our door on Seymour.  One more reason I've started carrying my camera everywhere.  If ONLY I had lived here in the days of the X-Files.  Oh, Scully, how I miss you!

Life in Vancouver: Spirit Bears

Ahem. So, I've had a request for a "photo essay" of life in Vancouver.  (That Melissa, she can be so demanding!).

One of the most obvious elements in my new neighbourhood are the Spirit Bears.  Spirit Bears in the City is a public art/charitable program in Vancouver and seven other cities (Surrey, Vancouver Island, Prince George, Terrace, Kitimat, Prince Rupert, and Whistler) -- similar to Toronto's Moose in the CIty program.  Local artists use a 7ft fibreglass polar bear as their canvas.  The designs range from nods to native culture, pop culture inspired and even some inside jokes. 

Spirit Bears will be on display til October 2006 and then there will be an auction to benefit the BC Lions Society's Easter Seal Operations and the Canucks for Kids Fund.

Below are a few of the ones that I see on the way to work.

Bat Bear

Darth Bear

Eric

RoboBear

t’alhálem