Waber-omatic

Biking on Sunshine

2011-02-19T17:02:00.000-08:00

It was very sunny today. Yesterday it was also sunny. Yesterday a beautiful model, a hair stylist the most adorable dog named Teddy and I were walking from one studio to the skytrain to the other studio and talking about how gloriously sunny it was. We were in seventh heaven and someone brought up the old "I can't believe you live in Vancouver, its so grey and rainy there" comment which I'm sure many of you get (if you live in Vancouver and talk to people that don't). And we started surmising that part of the reason we aren't bothered by the grey is that we're kinda used to it and expect it (in large part due to constantly joking about it) so when after a week or two of gray the sun rears in lovely head and bathes us in its golden glow its doubly awesome because we don't expect it! And therefor we all go out and enjoy it. Schools close, shops close early, business grinds to a halt, stocks drop, CEO's make big speeches to empty rooms and the population of Vancouver works on their tan despite it still being about 4 degrees and being covered everywhere except our faces.
Today was slightly more beautiful and sunny than yesterday. And I had errands to do. "PERFECT," thought I, "I'll go for a ride around town gathering what I need to survive." Which was a roll of film I had developed and some new razor blades. The Roll of film was waiting at ABC on the south side of False Creek and the blades (I have a safety razor and I haven't looked around enough to know anywhere else that caries the blades for it, though now that I think about it I bet Mr. Lee's has some...) were in Yaletown on the north side of False Creek. No bother, I'm on a bike and can go along the sea wall.
I have been having trouble keeping track of days of the week. Number day is fine, its the 19th today, great. But I figured it was the middle of the week or something. I had just been to a killer show the other night (God Speed) and had a great day on the 18th doing a stellar photo shoot (model,stylist,dog incident) so for all I knew the weekend was over and it was time to settle in to the work week.
NAY! It's Saturday. All of fucking Vancouver it out "Enjoying the sun". So I make my way from ABC (Where I was dropped off as my folks were coming in to town so they gave me a lift with my bike in the back. Skip the Skytrain, you know...) down to the Sea Wall. The traffic going in to Granville Island should have been my first indication of what was to follow. Gridlock. Hellish. I come from the left side so I have to swerve through some traffic. Then these wanker "I take biking surrrrriously" bikers come spinning around in their tights and reflectors and already flashing lights despite it being 1 in the afternoon on a Sunny day. And I'm pulled over on the side, stopped with one foot on the curb waiting at a light for it to change and they all snippy say "Are you turning right?" What part of stopped at a red not turning in to the completely empty side street didn't they understand.
"umm... no," says I. They make a huffy sound and go around. I wind may way to Granville Island (After the light changes) and head to the sea wall. Construction. I wind my way through parking lots and apartments and get back on track on the other side. This is when the Saturday of the situation fully hits. Gridlock of walkers. And bikers. And in-line skaters. All of home fan out at every oppertunity filling all the space in the world so I who do want to get somewhere and achieve goals am constantly hampered, but manage to make my way through the sun day walkers, past the god damn in-line skaters (Who wobble and take up average space at slow speeds but when they want to go "Fast" they have to expand and swoop maniacly all over the place but still go a lot slower than a bike) past the smug as hell Dad with child on the back of his bike liberally using his dingy bell (The dad, the child sat silent on the back) and suddenly, low and behold there are the bike wanks from before, troddling along, riding three abreast taking up the entire bloody bike lane in both directions. BUT due to excellent maneuvering and a small gap on the pedestrian side I sped past them as well. Eventually I made it to Yaletown and got back on the road and realized that I kind of like riding on the road. Cars are predictable (Usually), they go at reasonable speeds, people in cars are generally well trained enough to look around and not do anything too stupid. On the road I can ride at my usual fast speed, weave easily through traffic and get where I want to go. And there are no in-line skaters on the road (They really irritate me) I get my blades, walk briefly through town and go home. The moral of the story is don't try to get anywhere via Seawall on sunny days in Vancouver.
I shall now go sit in the sun, quietly out of the way, not inconveniencing anyone.

untitled

2011-02-04T15:50:00.000-08:00

It had been a week exactly. We were putting on our best face, keeping as up beat as possible, but you could tell there was a general gloom hanging over us. Eventually a nice man in a suit came in to the waiting room, introduced himself and handed us a map with bright pink highlighter directing us to where we had to be. We got up and walked to the cars, my cousin carrying an elaborate drawing of a flower and my grandma carrying his favorite magazine The Spiegle and a picture of an apple cake she had baked "in case he got hungry on his way".
With one map between two cars and that map being in the following car we managed to get lost on our way through the field. But eventually we arrived. Two of my uncles were already there.
We got out and quietly said our hellos and gave hugs. I was feeling a distance that I could not quite explain. I was lost in my own thoughts yet my mind, unlike usual, was dead quiet. On any given day I'll have songs constantly stuck in my head but for the past hour I'd fallen in to myself and the music had stopped.
A middle aged woman with short curly hair popped out of the door and with a sympathetic smile greeted us. "Would you like to see him?" she asked.
My family started muttering amongst themselves, one uncle who had already seen him piping up and saying "He looks good," first loudly then repeating it with a slight falter in "looks."
Why the hell did we come out here if we didn't want to see him? I thought. So I nodded and quietly said that I would like to see him at which point the rest of the family agreed and we all awkwardly shuffled towards the door, no one wanting to go first...

I don't think that any of this had sunk in yet. I couldn't comprehend this "end" I still felt that the next day or maybe the day after I would wake up, throw on yesterdays clothes and get on my bike. Head to Minorous Gardens, type the code and sign in, fudging the time by about five minutes. I was punctually late, but luckily his food never arrived in time either. The only downfall of being late was sometimes they had already taken him to the dining room away from the TV which meant I wouldn't get to hear the news and he would get distracted and forget to chew more often. I'd hang my coat and scarf on the back of his chair take his hand "Hallo, Opa. wei geht es?" I'd pause so that he would eventually look up an aknowledge my existance. "Gute?" I'd say with a smile "Ich auch." I'd practice my german on him some times, telling him about what was happening in my life. The latest project, a new girl I had my eye on, the party I had just been to, what ever came to mind. After about 40 minutes he would have eaten everything. I'd tell him he had eaten well, wipe his mouth. Sometimes give him a shave. Then hand him his Spiegel, the magazine he always always always read (I can remember him sitting and reading it my whole life.), take his hand and say, in German (I can't spell in German), "See you tomorrow, Opa. Have a good day." Or some times sleep well if he was having a dozy day...
The Sunday my brother and I rushed to hospital I said "Sleep well. 'Till next time." He didn't hear it, he was already asleep, gasping for breath. He had inhaled food a week or so before that which had resulted in fluid in the lungs. Yet despite the panicked breathing he looked surprisingly calm. My uncles stood, sat and squated on one side and my grandma was on the other, holding his hand and occasionally telling him it would be okay, be brave. My brother and I left. Made our way through the labyrinth of Richmond General and emerged into the raining night to find a baby bunny nibbling grass beside the door. It was almost a perfect ball with little pointy ears...

Inside was loud. You could hear the furnace blasting behind the stone walls, fires raging in wait. But there before us raised up on a metal gurney resting peacefully in a wooden box was Opa.
It took me a little while to build up the courage to step forward and look at his face. I don't know why. I know what he looks like, I'd seen him almost every day. I don't know what I was afraid of. Perhaps the finality of it all. The final realization that this was infact the end and that were I to ever see his physical presence again it would be a dust in a jar weighing roughly 7 or 8 pounds.
My dad and grandma stood beside him, she muttering softly and tucking the picture of cake in to his breast pocket along with my cousin's picture. She then tucked the magazine in beside him. I finally approached.
There he was. Perfect. Flawless. Sleeping calmly. He looked younger than I could remember ever having scene him. And he almost had a smile on his face. But that was when all my swirling thoughts stopped, the needle gently lowered and the warm crackle of music softly, very softly, filled my head once again.

You go for a walk in the park 'cause you don't need anything
Your hand that you sometimes hold doesn't do anything
The face that you see in the door isn't standing there anymore

In a matter of time, it would slip from my mind
In and out of my life, you would slip from my mind
In a matter of time

The face that you saw in the door isn't looking at you anymore
The name that you call in its place isn't waiting for your embrace
The world that you love to behold cannot hold you anymore

In a matter of time, it would slip from my mind
In and out of my life, you would slip from my mind
In a matter of time

Hans Fograscher
July 11, 1921 - January 24, 2011

Movember part 1

2010-11-08T01:02:00.000-08:00

Its Movember. The only good part about the end of the year. What does December have aside from new Years Eve? And that pales in comparison to Hallowe'en. Then January just has a hang over. February is usually the coldest month so that rules it out for radness. So Movember wins the month of the cold part of the year award (It helps that most of Hallowe'ens awesomeness often spills in to Movember... but I ramble.

Movember is mustache month thanks to some folks from down under who decided to raise awareness and money for Prostate cancer through donning a mustache. (I'm running off memory and the location from whence they came could be incorrect)
Well I support this endeavor! Last year I convinced several friends to rock the stache as was immortalized here:

Well, this year I decided to pick up where the last mo left off. I know, I'm cheating. To properly rock Movember you're supposed to go in fresh faced and let the stache grow. Perhaps another year, but this year I wanted a good curly stache. So I grew out my beard for a couple months before hand as you can see here:

And then finally shaved down to rock the stache. These are the first photos of the stache, but at the end of the month I hope to take a few more photos of the fully formed and glorious soup strainer. Enjoy

As I mentioned, Movember is supposed to raise money to research prostate cancer. If you could spare even a small amount it would add up. My friend has signed up on the Movember site and is offering a work of art to who ever donates the most. But like I said, even a small amount will help a good cause. Please click here to donate.

Remember that time I was in Turkey?

2010-11-03T21:49:00.000-07:00

So, I've been going through photos from that trip, trying to finish them so that I can show them to people or something... What ever it is you do with digital photos these days. Anyhoo, I came across these shots from Kayakoy of one of the churches I ended up in. For those of you who don't know Kayakoy is this strange town. It was abandoned about a hundred years ago (or less) when all the Christians in Turkey moved to Greece. There are a few churches and these photos are from one of them. The most amazing part was (I've mentioned this) as I stood in the old church (The one in all these photos) the mosque down in the valley suddenly burst forth with its afternoon call to prayer piercing the former reverent silence. After each refrain the words would echo off the walls of the valley and the walls of the church, slowly diminishing back to silence.

My trip through Turkey, as I think I mentioned, was party a search for... I suppose some greater understanding of religion or spirituality. I went to an army of holy sites from as many religions as I could find, I read books about what not and I even went to church. By the end of the trip I had simply returned to my original conclusion of religion; if understood or taken correctly any religion can lead to peace and harmony and love for your fellow man no matter what their beliefe, race, ect. is. But taken incorrectly Religion can (and seems to) result in all the worlds problems.

At some point on the road I read a book of philosophy and such and the question of "Is there a god" came up (as it tends to). It brought up several interesting ideas. "If there is, where is he?" and "What if he left?" I probably would have left. This place is a bit messed up...

Recently I concluded (on one of my more silly logical days) that there was a god who helped us along and this is proven by dinosaurs. God was once a child who felt like playing with strange giant monsters. Then one day he got bored, threw a rock and boof! no more dinosaurs. He then started working with drafts, trial and error and... Evolution. He ended up with us. At some point he went wrong... (I'll be honest, I've thought about all these things and I still don't know if there is a god. Also, for clarity's sake, when I say "God" I don't mean "God" in any pre-ordained religious sense, its just a lot easier than always saying "higher power" or something like that. it gets the point across nice and quick. But at no point am I subscribing to a religion other than my own.)

It wasn't until I was in Hungary eating something tasty (I think Goulash) that I had an epiphany. It sprung from what Babba Ji (a wise man on a table in India) had said when we asked him what the meaning of life is. "Hahahaha," he began as though the answer was blatantly obvious. He then looked at us and realized we still expected an answer. "God gave us this life as a gift and it would be rude of us not to use it. So the meaning of life is to live."

How do you live? One thing I saw over and over again in religions was a love and celebration of life. How does one go about loving and celebrating life? Again, the answers had been there in the bloody scriptures and stories and what nots. By showing love to your fellow man no matter what. What the main stream religions don't seem to get is the whole sex thing. I can't think of a better way to show a truly deep love of life and your fellow humans than sex. The enjoyment of your own living body and the enjoyment of someone else's living body plus the theoretical chance of producing even more life. And if we weren't supposed to enjoy it it wouldn't be fun. Sex is the ultimate celebration of love and life.

Love is a many splendid thing, all you need is love. Imagine a world where it was more plentiful, people got along and appreciated what every individual had to offer. It would be a beautiful place! Kayakoy probably wouldn't have been abandoned by Christians being forced to move to Greece. The only real downside would be slightly more over population...

God gave us this life to live it to its fullest extent. Through experience , interaction and love.
So as Warhol (a very wise man) said, "Do everything."

And there you go: Religion and spirituality based off my logic, reasoning and a little research (That took me around a good amount of the world!).

Makes sense, eh?

Nostalgia

2010-11-01T15:50:00.000-07:00

Recently I was working on painting my porch and suddenly got distracted by the dilapidation happening all around the house I grew up in. Visual evidence of my childhood fading away.

Remember Hallowe'en? Hallowe'en used to be the greatest thing about North America (tragically it still is, it just used to be a hell of a lot better). The problem is in the Children. I haven't seen a decline in the adult party scene, just in the trick or treaters.

I remember putting on amazing costumes and wandering the neighborhood getting candy from strangers. And you'd always hear "Check for razor blades and other implements of doom!" but you wouldn't. Candy in bag, get home, eat candy. No checking. I think that fear is what's killed Hallowe'en (amusingly, as fear and horror is sorta the basis for Hallowe'en). Now if kids get to go trick or treating they go to the Mall or to a shopping area of some sort and the shops give out candy and its "safe" and "fun". Me & my folks sit around home waiting for kids to come take our candy and they don't. This year we only had TWO kids come by, and one of them was my cousin.

We used to get armies of children stealing our treats. And we had fun with it. One year my brother and I built a 15 foot tall puppet with a pumkin for a head and kids had to walk through its legs to get to the door. Naturally the second they came close it would roar and reach for them. they would wet them selves... it was fun...

(Shingles on my old Play House now inhabited by Raccoons)

Another year one of my friends dressed as a scarecrow in a chair with the candy on his lap (Terror step 1) while another friend dressed as a zombie hid in a pile of leaves off to one side (Terror step 2). And don't worry, if the kid was little we wouldn't do anything. But bigger kids, oh, we scared them good.

Thats what hallowe'en was all about. Groups of friends, costumes, candy... Good times. Not Malls. Not excuses to go shopping and drag your kid around with you. There's no feeling of community any more. Its terrible.

(Dirty glass is always nostalgic with suns pots)

The parties are fun though. This year I DJed at The Morrissey Pub in Vancouver with my friend Jay. We dressed in Suits and looked awesome. And supplied a damn fine soundtrack to the night. The night before I was at the Monster Show at the Red Gate where two of my photos went up. Good party there too. Four djs rocking some damn fine electronica.

(This actually has nothing to do with my childhood as we only got it two years ago, but its still nostalgic looking)

That said, I can't wait to have a kid to take trick or treating. Sigh... I miss it...

(Aww, dirty glass)

(Gangster Tear)

Winter

2010-10-22T16:08:00.000-07:00

That change has come. The moment both summer and Indian Summer just stop. The sun comes up but it doesn't bring its usual golden warmth. If you're lucky the sunny side of your body is slightly warmer than the dark side, but the odds are theres an icy breeze coming in off the water chilling you through and through. The leaves change. Its beautiful to look at, but kind of depressing to think that what the trees are silently sighing is "oh shit, we're not getting enough nutrients to maintain our foliage. better drop it and sleep 'till spring."
I don't like it. Had I my druthers I'd be on a plane to Thailand or Egypt or... Maybe even Turkey again. Somewhere warm. Somewhere I can walk around in shorts and a t-shirt or less. Somewhere I can lounge on a beach and let the world slowly pass me by. Some people say this is a great time of year because you get to wear layers and stay inside and be cozy. But I don't like wearing layers and I prefer being outside.
And I hate skiing. (Snow in general, really)
But to every dark dark dark wintery cloud there is a silver lining. Much like a rabbits fur my taste in music shifts to gloomier, greyer, more encompassing spacey music. I'm excited what this year has in store, but until those albums reveal themselves I'm putting on

THE ALEX WABER CLASSIC WINTER ALBUMS:
Arcade Fire- Funerals
Interpol- Turn On The Bright Lights
The Walkmen- Bows and Arrows
Grizzly Bear- Yellow House
Elbow- Cast of Thousands

Naturally Radiohead is prominent, but they sort of... Drift through the seasons so they don't make the quintessential list.

Now, faithful and less than faithful readers, I am interested to hear your top five winter albums. So if you have a moment please leave your list below in the comments. Thanks!

2010-10-10T10:35:00.000-07:00

Listening to Buffaloswans reading blogs.

I just finished up editing a Pin Up shoot. Check out some of the shots:
(There are more. Please check out the Alex Waber site to see some. Otherwise the photo blog works too!)

The first two we were going for the more playful Vargas Girl of the 40s/50s but the next two we wanted a grittier 60s/70s feel to them.

I like them a lot and the shoot was a lot of fun. If you or anyone you know ever wants to do a pin up photo shoot, feel free to contact me and we can see what can be arranged.

Waber vs weber

2010-10-06T00:43:00.000-07:00

Periodically I google my name because, well, its interesting. I once found out someone in elementary school had a crush on me (and blogged about it. Livejournal).
But every time I google my name it says "do you mean Alex Weber?" And I think "NO, you jerk! Stop making me feel like a typo!"
Anyways, if you type "Alex Waber Photography" you are asked "Do you mean alex WEBER photography" and if for some reason you did mean alex weber photography you will discover that there is a photographer named alex weber who is my polar opposite. The only work of his I could find were pictures of Lamborghini's. For those of you who don't know your super duper Vancouver Photographer Alex Waber, I kind of loath car photography and whats more I loath Lamborghini's. Partly because the name is hard to spell and partly because they are the lamest looking car since the Prowler (which incidentally I used to love!). I hope to one day (through links of my name, Alex Waber) remedy the situation so that if you type "Alex Waber" in google it doesn't assume its a typo.

In other news I may be in an exhibition at the Red Gate. Its the Hallowe'en Monster Show. So I need to come up with something involving monsters... I may use the old clown shots as they are still kinda rad, but I wouldn't mind shooting something new... We'll see. Either way the show will be worth checking out, with or without Alex Waber.

(oh self marketing)

"DANCE FUCKERS!" From Buffaloswans to Basketball and the SWARM all around (or How I bagan the process of changing someone's blog's name)

2010-09-13T16:03:00.000-07:00

It started on Thursday. SWARM 11, this two day event where far more art galleries than you can logically make it to in an evening and actually absorb the art open a new exhibit (or a slightly enhanced exhibit) on the same night. It is also two nights of music and parties to celebrate the openings.
I started on Thursday (with my mom) and wandered the galleries on Main Street. The art was alright for the most part. People usually put in enough effort to make something worth seeing, though if what you saw said anything is another question... But we did come across the Gropp's Gallery which was... amazing. A run down old house jam packed with artists and art! Right as you enter there is an old muffler pipe organ (Don't try playing Satie, its out of tune) and it just gets better from there. A definite highlight was meeting the artist (and seeing more of his art) who had put up one of my favorite paste ups I've seen in Vancouver; Jordan P. Turner.

Friday night was substantially more exciting. It started at the Library where I met up with The Show Loner . We made a stop at The Fall gallery where there was a photography opening by Kiss My Flash Photography. There were some alright shots but, well, it was commercial photography and I didn't leave with a greater understand or appreciation for the craft. A beer was in order. Cambie. Beer. Done. On to Art Speak where there was a biiig print with a lot of Helvetica on it talling me a story about... Well, after making it through the first couple lines we realized the only other thing in the gallery was a giant crowd (of beautiful people) so we went to the Access Gallery which was still setting up (at 9) so we went to the Interurban for a group show which has some fantastic work. As soona s you entered there were beautiful black and white silk screens of branches and such wonderfully composed on really nice paper. The odd spash of colour for accent. Then there were some paintings of penises which were definitely wrapped in gritty emotion, there was a Styrofoam display of a drug bust and then there were paintings by Benny. Benny is covered in Tattoos and is super nice. He had a collection of amazing silk screened skeletons in either white or black on deep red or white paper with the odd splash of another colour and words for accents. He had a collection of lino cut prints and he had 3 brightly painted doors. They all had a wonderful playfulness to them while displaying an obvious sense of... foreboding and doom. Skulls everywhere, guns, and colours. Really great work packed with emotion.
On to the Gam where they had two exhibits, the large installation Claim and the smaller display of photos of abandoned buildings. Some of the colours and textures in the photography was absolutely beautiful. Then we had to rush off. Here is where the night really picked up.

We arrived at the Toast Collective with little time to spare, said hello to the beautiful people we knew and admired the beautiful people we didn't, grabbed some beer and found a piece of floor where we sat down for the "show."
At roughly 10pm Scott Bell took the stage and politely and entertainingly introduced himself and the band (Buffaloswans) and explained that tonight we were to hear the final version of their soon to be released album. Then with a small gap for the last people to get their drinks and smoke their smokes the album started and the crowd sat is silent rapture as one of the most impressive indie albums to come from Vancouver wafted through the packed room. After each masterfully crafted song (diverse parts and instrumentation, beautiful melodies, and wonderful lyrics) there was applause until just before the last song (which we were told was a bit dancier) someone at the back shouted "DANCE FUCKERS!" and half the crowd stood and swayed to the music.

The band is taking a break for a bit to collect their thoughts and recover from the creative process of making an album, but in the spring when they go on tour you had best catch a show of theirs. The only thing better than their album is their live performance.

The night continued back at the Gam where we caught the end of the Watermelon set. Watermelon, a fun rock band from Vancouver, put on a pretty decent preformance, though they could have rocked out a bit more. Good none the less.

Then on to the W2 Storeum Building. The New Forms Festival had its opening featuring the glorious Gramorail. We arrived in time to look at the art, meet some beautiful friends and...
Dance like insane monkey people to Basketball. Electronic Gypsy Punk is the easiest way to describe them. Kind of... Gogol Bordello meets Animal Collective with a splattering of Dub Step thrown in for good BC measure. If you ever want to madly dance in all directions go see Basketball.

A new age is apon us

2010-09-08T18:10:00.001-07:00

As in when the little things in life become so much more... Aesthetically appealing. Like exercise bikes:

It is also an age where your favorite Vancouver Photographer starts building the exciting and awesome new Alex Waber Photography web site!!! If you haven't already you had better check it out. Its sleek and snazzy and has a lot of pretty pictures on it.
Over the next couple weeks Alex Waber Photography is going to be loading up a ton of new photos to the site so keep checking back!
Here is a sample of whats to come:

Yellow Wood Tours are wrapping up with a bang. I had a special request for a tour on one of the off days. The largest group yet (9 people!!!) will be joining me for a semi deluxe version of the tour. Tragically its on a Sunday so the galleries are closed. But they request a more substantial wander through the Strathcona area so we may make a visit to the Hawk Street Market (which if you haven't been to I highly recommend going for a soda and a sit down before the rain comes) and go past some of Vancouver's oldest houses.
I must say, I'm going to miss running the tour. I've met an army of really interesting people while running the tour, made friends the world over, have invites to go visit some people, and got to know my own city a lot better. If you haven't come on the tour yet please do! It is a lot of fun and I like meeting new people! Today one of my guests and I grabbed a juice at Gorilla Foods after wards. It was tasty.

If you don't know yet Thursday and Friday this week are the SWARM... Thing... Roughly 20 galleries are all having openings over the two days. So go to one, grab a map and start wandering. Several of the spaces are hosting parties along with the art installations and there are bigger After Parties happening at some other venues too. So check that out. And if you see me say hi!

I've been neglectful

2010-09-03T01:02:00.000-07:00

Sorry.
I've been busy (in my own way). And aside from whats making me busy I haven't had much to write about... Some of what I've been busy with has been exciting.... So I'll sum some of it up:

If I didn't mention it I did a test run of something which I hope to launch in a more... clearly defined and definitive way in the year to come. That would be Yellow Wood Tours. A walking tour of Vancouver's lovely Down Town East Side. the DTES is Canada's poorest postal code (nestled pleasantly in the middle of one of Canada's most expensive cities) and is also home to more artists per square foot than anywhere else in Canada. And miraculously most Vancouverites don't even know it. The tour went well enough. I had enough guests to pay off the cost of printing fliers and posters and make enough money for beer. Next year when it comes back full force I hope to have multiple tours (right now there is just one route) and possibly some other guides as well. Staff T-Shirts to be more easily identified. A sign. And a hell of a lot more advertising. The tours are wrapping up on the 18th of September unless there are special requests. Though I am going to try to take some school groups out as well.
If you're interested durng the off season I'm going to try to maintain the Yellow Wood Tours blog posting new murals and artwork and happenings around the city.

I've also started a new website for my photography: Alex Waber Photography. Its turning in to my professional page so that I can, well, find work as a photographer here in Vancouver and abroad. Over the last couple weeks I've had a good amount of photo shoots which I'm working on editing right now so shots from those will be emerging soon. Keep posted for those.

Otherwise I've been sanding a porch in preparation of painting it and I went climbing. Climbing, as always, was AMAZING.

Also, on a random side note, I heard of this company which can take your ashes (when you die) and press them in to vinyl with the song of your choice. This is new to me so I haven't decided on a song yet... I know what I want played at my funeral; "No Cars Go" by Arcade Fire and "A Day in the Life" by The Beatles. Were I to get buried I would want my body to drop in to the ground with the final piano crash of "A Day in the Life." But what would I want for my vinyl? What would YOU want for your vinyl?

Crazy Night

2010-08-13T21:09:00.000-07:00

I get around (town). This night was the night of the Lantern Festival, which used to be the greatest most magical event in the city until Stupid Cambell Garbage Face thought it made sense to cut arts funding SIGNIFICANTLY! Resulting in festivals like the Lantern Fest to have to either not happen or move indoors thereby stripping all manner of magic which made the event worth going to and leaving it with a dark cement cavern. Now, the plus side to being inside was people were able to create electric lanterns which looked amazing. But I'm not in it for the art, I'm in it for the magic which was soundly stomped out and left in a back alley in the DTES.

However as a result I was able to visit several other places. First the Gam Gallery which had the opening for the Sci Fi show (which should be checked out before its gone). For some reason I didn't take any photos! And there were COSTUMES!!! It was magical. But then my friend and I were off to Guilt & Co. (which may stand for Comedy, and I hope not because its such a nice venue I'd hate to see it ruined with crappy stand up comics like the one we walked in on... He finally resorted to making fun of the audience and establishment (G&Co.) and still didn't get any laughs. But he was followed by a pretty cool Jazz band whos name I didn't catch as shortly after they started we had to rush off to a rather secretive party featuring the amazing sounds of Bogus Tokus.

They rocked hard. It was a lot of fun. If you get the chance to see them please do so.
On the way home we were lured in to an alley by a seductive sign.

There were no Mini Donuts.

Little Mountaint Gallery

2010-07-25T21:54:00.001-07:00

I was recently present at a good old little sit down accoustic show at Little Mountain Gallery up on Main Street. It was very pleasant. The gentle wafting tunes of several locals; Shaunn Watt and My Lovely Son and Hannah Epperson. I unfortunately had to leave before Hannah played, but Shaunn and MLS were both great. Experience their music through these photos. And then download Shaunn's most recent album here for free! Or download it first and listen while looking at the photos. That makes more sense. It'll kinda be like you were there... I'm rambling. Photos:

That said, Vancouver's glorious leaders are up to another one of their brilliant schemes with obvious roots in deep logic and social development. This plan, packed with deep insight and vision, can be roughyl summed up as closing down anything and everything that isn't properly licensed for absolutely everything they do. Largely this is an attack on artist spaces.

Unbeknown to most people the Downtown East Side is home to more artists per square foot than ANYWHERE ELSE IN CANADA!!! And the rest of East Van (and probably Vancouver) is full of artists. It makes Vancouver a really neat place to be, its face is constantly changing, there are always interesting little things to do and see. But many of these things don't have a license to be. As such the city has made it its mission to stomp out the gently burning embers of life in this otherwise rather dull city.
The problem stems from proper permits being extremely difficult to get. Application, then the city launches an inquest in to the "logistics" even though the application had to include the logistics. You have to pay to apply then pay for the inquest. Then there are meetings (for which you have to pay). Possibly more inquests, plebiscites, questionnaires (for which the applicant must pay) and then finally you theoretically get a license. Or you just wasted a ton of money.
Okay, thats the rough outline for a liquor license which are the hardest to get, but many of those steps are needed to get a license for opening a small gallery or even a studio. (Oh, and painting at home makes your home a "live/work studio" for which you have to get a permit and pay the yearly fee. Just a heads up you illegal artists).

SO the city is cracking its terrible whip of capitalist justice over the starving artists of our city and most recently that whip has struck out at Little Mountain Gallery. A small space that hosts art exhibits as well as (as you saw above) the occasional small intimate usually calm show. Little Mountain Gallery is in my opinion one of the art spaces most active in the community, always helping to promote and exhibit smaller and lesser known creative types (of all types) and the loss of one of the few spaces in Vancouver that does that kind of thing would be tragic. If shut downs like this continue we'd suddenly be left with an arts community based around Broadway and Granville. Galleries showing work that sells. A gentrified rendition of aesthetics. A big wash of boring. Lets not let that happen.
If you feel like helping keep Little Mountain Studios up and running please shoot them an email of support here: littlemountaintgallery{at}gmail.com

Oh, and just another point of interest to get the thought bubbles popping, I read an interesting article on the Dependent site which mentioned a certain "recall and innitiative" or "Direct Democracy" that was put in place in the 90s in which if enough people sign a petition (like the HST petition) things WILL change. Check out the article.

Girls in Boxes (Summer in the city (Means cleavage cleavage cleavage))

2010-07-25T14:57:00.000-07:00

So, as you probably know I wander around a lot. And on my wanders I occasionally come across some interesting things.
About a week ago I came across this:

Yes, he is balancing on a board on a metal cylinder on a 5 foot tall stand while fitting through a tennis racket and juggling a flaming torch, an ice axe and a plunger. I was impressed. After hi finished juggling his finished pulling himself through the tennis racket and then jumped down.

Then yesterday I was walking past the Art Gallery and found the Turkish Festival. I almost bought a plate of food, but I'm saving money right now for other things (Berlin or place of my own...) Anyways, the festival featured Dancing. I was amused by it because if you recall that time I ended up in the worst club in the world and the people I was with were forced to go dance, they danced the same way. The funny part is how they were dancing this "ancient" traditional dance to shitty electro pop. HAHAHAHAH! Had to be there...

Anyways, after watching dancing and not eating I was on my way to the skytrain (which is underground) and encountered Bendy Em. She fit herself in to a 16 inch glass box. It was kind of painful to watch, I won't lie. There were times when a limb would quiver as though fighting its way back from the breaking point. BUT I was still impressed.

One thing I find amusing in a grim way is how people wait until the street preformer has done their trick but is in an awkward situation (like stuck in a box) and then RUN AWAY REALLY FAST!

Canada Day

2010-07-18T14:27:00.000-07:00

Canada Day (also known as Lets get drunk of cheap beer day) happened a while back... And I went to this party, a "Kegger", which boasted... I think 5 kegs of cheap beer and when those ran dry it turned into 9 flats of cheap beer. The party roared on. And I learned some valuable lessons:
a) Arriving at a Kegger when you're sober leads to a great deal of frustration as everyone else is drunk and insists the best method to rectify the situation is a "Keg Stand" in which you are held almost upside down while someone pours beer in to your mouth for as long as possible. The average time seems to be ten seconds, though some get close to a minute.
b) Don't try to enter a debate with ANYONE. I tried three times to no avail. The most peaceful of the lot was a discussion about NOT putting on depressing music at a party as, well, its a party.
The next big argument was about the Mars Volta and how De Loused is the best album (We agreed) but we couldn't get a certain member to acknowledge that Day of the Baffonettes is a damn fine song, even though the album as a whole is lackluster. And the last and most frusterating which I gave up on because I had learned my lesson was the merrits of Film vs Digital in cameras. The guy had no basis for his argument and wouldn't listen to mine which is pretty solid. I'll expound apon my argument later because its nags me to this day.
But anyways, I had my camera there and took a couple shots. But also learned lesson
c) DOn't put down your film camera around drunkards used to digital. You end up witha shit ton of crappy photos which actually cost money to see.

(Butterfly)

(Somehow Chris struck me as the most level headed person there that day)

(Headlock lecture)

(The Mars Volta incident)

(Singing O Canada)

(I actually really like this shot)
(Its me correcting the music situation)

So his argument is that Digital is way better than film because it looks better. He neglected to mention the ACTUAL reasons Digital is better such as accesibility, cheapness, the fact you can usually fix your mistakes, ect. But no, apparently Digital looks better than film and can be made in to bigger pictures.

Here is my argument as to why he is wrong (And I will aknowledge now that I am talking solely in the 35mm department for this case study)
HiDef digital, the creme de la creme of digital imaging has 1080 lines of resolution.
35mm film has over 3000.

Argument over.

(But I could continue by pointing out that Digital pixelation due to low light photography looks terrible where as film grain from a high ISO film stock can have a very nice effect. Or that different film types render amazing stylistic touches to colour, texture, constrast ratio...)

Non-bitchy post coming soon.

Sleepy Sun

2010-07-05T13:21:00.000-07:00

Do you know whats really starting to get under my skin? Money grabbers. Like the Biltmore.
The Biltmore is one of the few decent music venues in Vancouver. Infact I'd go so far as to say that its the second best music venue after the Commodore Ballroom which is depressing because its a big step down. I guess there's Venue and the Vogue. But Vogue is seated and what I remember of Venue was the accoustics were kinda shitty and there was a big circular bar in the middle of the floor. And they usually have crappy shows. So we're stuck at a $40+ show at the Commodore or a $20- show at the Biltmore.
This wouldn't be THAT BAD were it not for the fact that far too often a good music night has a cap thrown on it to make way for... Glory Days. With a name like that you'd expect happy summery faded photos of you and all your friends down by the lake with a big rope swing to rump off and a fire over which we're roasting hot dogs and drinking cheap beer. Well at the Biltmore's Glory Days you get Cheap Beer and some DJ that spins the same 80s and 80s inspired tracks every time. And instead of your friends you get the coked up PYT's that didn't get demolished along with Richards.
Richards was amazing, but that's another story.
Anyways, Saturday Night echoed with the riffage that is Sleepy Sun, glorious fuzzy psych rock from San Francisco. Their music is like being hugged by King Kong. The show opened big, it continued big and when the band was allowed an encore (a rare thing for a night featuring Glory Days) they let loose Sleepy Son which is one of my favorite songs in ages. Aaaaaages. They played a damn good set.
Sun Wizard Opened. They're the Biltmore house band for rock nights.
In Glory Day's credit they were respectful and held off to let Sleepy Sun have a proper set (something about being packed with fans (for the most part)) and the show ended shortly before midnight unlike the usual 11pm cap.
The most irritating thing that night was this group of PYTs (popped collars and sunglasses INSIDE) that stood right behind my friends and I and carried on a loud conversation about the upcoming DJ set to the point where I had to ask them to keep it down. I'm not a very confrontational person, I'll usually ignore things, but during a rare quiet song they kept their shrill voices in the higher registers. I'm told I started a trend of people asking them to keep it down.

All in all, a damn fine show. If you haven't seen them yet, please do so.

And Vancouver, please allow the opening of more venues so that places don't have to double book nights with contrasting styles of music.

The day we met.

2010-07-04T13:32:00.000-07:00

I arrived at 5am, maybe a bit before. It had been a long busride with only one stop for a donner part way through. I had had one of those fitfull sleeps where you are completely aware of every song that plays in your headphones but nothing else. Someone shook me awake and made it understood that it was time for me to get off. So I did. Small bus station tucked in just off what looked like some kind of deserted highway. Town stretching away around me. I got a cab, I was tired and didn't realize I only had to walk one kilometer to get to the hotel I was hoping to stay at. The cab sots far to much as they tend to do and it drops me off infront of the hotel I requested. Its family run so, to be on the family's good side I decide to wait with getting a room until a reasonable time like 6 or maybe a bit after that. So I walk down the road a bit and come face to face with the Mediterranean sea.

I end up walking along its docks for a little while before finally sitting down and waiting due to exhaustion. At 6:30 I go up to the hotel and knock. I wait. Knock again. And again. Maybe 10 minutes have eloped so I decide to try the other option I had in mind. Same story, no answer. The sun starts coming up. I get grumpy if the sun comes up and I wanted to be asleep. Makes me feel like I'm cheating on the day or something. I go back to the first one. They MUST be awake by now. Again no answer, back tot he second one, no answer.
Off season... right...
So I wander off now very grumpy and take the first hotel I come to. Grumpily. I make my way upstairs, dump stuff pull back the curtains and am greeted with a view of the ocean. That grumpiness leaves and rather than taking a nap I get my camera on and go for a walk, enjoying morning on the Mediterranean.

The temperature is perfect. I wear my hoody and jeans, but the hoody is open with the sleeves rolled up and is only necessary because I need the early morning cosies. There is mist in the air obscurng the distant mountains and the rest of town. Everything is bathed in a golden tropical light that we just never get in Vancouver.

The morning reminds me of why I travel; because the world holds so many subtle details and changes that are all worth exploring and experiencing. Its times like this, the certain mood that comes from the light and stillness, that makes a place feel exotic and different. didn't have that feeling. Tourist attractions and cities. But being away from that and seeing something "different" that can't have a price attached to it, that is the glory of travel.

Good food

2010-06-30T20:39:00.001-07:00

So my walking tour of Vancouver's DTES has launched and so far is going well! People seem happy when I finally leave them, and not just to see me go. Personally I find the whole thing exciting, hence me doing it in the first place. Still needs a little work of course, smoothing a few things out and such, but I'm happy.

Well, after the tour I got home and made dinner. Ah dinner. A glorious thing. I found it especially tasty this evening so I'm going to share with you my creation.
The great advantage to living with parents is a well stocked fridge, a damn good stove and garden featuring herbs and a BBQ.

So I boiled some pasta, while that was going I BBQd some sausage (pick your fav), one shallot (small onion thing) some cauliflower and a tomato. Meanwhile prep some fresh basil and Kalamata olives (as in take the pits out). Once the pastas done chop up the BBQ'd stuff and throw it all together sprinkle feta on top and...

Broil it for three to four minutes. While this is happening its a good idea to run and grab a beer from the fridge, open it and pour it in to a glass as its a Hefewiezen and deserves the dignity of a glass. Now remember, when pouring your Hefe, they foam easily so keep the glass sideways as long as possible while having the bottle plunged all the way to the bottom of the glass, once its time to start tipping the glass up keep the end of the bottle just under the surface of the beer. With about an inch or two of beer left in the bottle remove the bottle, swirl the remaining beer a bit and pour on the perfect amount of head.

The whole experience a a full on tour de force.

By the time you've properly poured your beer the Pasta should have been heated and delicately browned just enough to make it all perfect.

While eating it you should think about the next Vancouver Tour you want to go on. Probably something by Yellow Wood Tours.

ENJOY!

(I don't really measure as nothing really requires it. Base it off how much you plan to eat.)

Suddenly I really wanted to take First Aid training.

2010-06-27T19:07:00.000-07:00

Super Sexy CPR from Super Sexy CPR on Vimeo.

Alex On Art.

2010-06-27T02:14:00.000-07:00

Okay so the big update on life (sorry for the lulls, I've made myself busy busy busy! Which is good, right?)
I'm working on starting my own business. Its a walking tour of Vancouver called Yellow Wood Tours. Its a sort of art and counter culture tour of the Downtown East Side. Its a lil' bit more ballsy than the average tour of Vancouver because most of it takes place in alleys just off Hastings. It wanders past an assortment of pretty cool murals, goes to one or two galleries and tells a little bit about thestand-up-for-anything energy of Vancouver. Its a good tour! I like it! So, yeah, check it out; Yellow Wood Tours, walking tours of Vancouver.

Well anyways, while in the process of arranging, organizing and mainly researching the tour I've learned a lot about whats just below the skin of this fair city. Everything from underground cities of homeless to veritable temples of art. I've learned about the people, the ideology, the hopes and dreams, the crushing problems and where to be.

This weekend was exciting. It started off with a stop off at The Gam Gallery. The super rad Gam Girls (four charmers from Alberta) have started up a gallery/studio space where they do their work and have work by them or others on display and host the occasional event. Right now they have an exhibit of artists using the same building they are in. Its well worth checking out, some very cool stuff up by several Vancouver artists. But Friday night they hosted a small art/jewelry sale and concert. I double booked myself (I'm good at that) so I was only there in the beginning but the folk selling their wears were pretty cool. Hand silk screened bags and T's, hand etched ceramics, digital print tiles, and jewelry! I didn't get to hear any of the music unfortunately but I am told it was good.
The next stop was a good bye party for someone I had never met at the Astoria. I spent the evening on the pool table, talking to friends and admiring the imrpessivly creatively dressed mob of beautiful people that call The Astoria "the place to be". The music I was dragged there to hear.... Chased me home early. The opener (the main reason I went) who's name I can never remember (some blogger, eh? This is why I don't work for a news paper) ripped on guitar or a good forty minutes. He's talented, but all the tunes sound the same. The best part of his act is that he's a one man rock band and has the impeccable rock-star look and attitude to back it up. From well fitted blue blazers with skinny lapels, to tight jeans and slick shoes. Shoulder length hair perma-stoned eyes and the British rocker snear-smile combo that gets Mr. Powers all the ladies. But the other acts were an assult on my ears.
Saturday was different. It all started with my first walking tour of Vancouver. Yellow Wood Tours went over well. But after that I went to the Cheaper Show. It was good. It was packed. Art everywhere, inescapable, beautiful, leggy, impeccable... The stuff on the walls was good too, but the people were GORGEOUS and so well dressed. And there I am snuffling about in a hoody and converse. GAH! An assault on the masses delicate sensibilities. But yes, the art was for the most part good (I'd say 60-70% worth putting on a wall) but the people were the show.

Well, after that I made my way to the Red Gate gallery. Possibly the coolest space in Vancouver and one of the most likely to suddenly and horribly disappear. They had the opening for the show "Save On Art" which is an exhibition of the work of what essentially makes up the whos who of the Vancouver street art scene. It was pretty neat. The atmosphere was loungy, smokey, hobnobey, but cool. An amazing space, nice art work worth checking out... Its a stop on the tour.

Well, after that and an hour long conversation with a self appointed park ranger and a convenience store clerk while watching the Gastown crowds I made a stop to the Cheaper Show after party at the Astoria, but it was packed so I grabbed a beer with some friends at The Narrow and went home. A good night. A good weekend. Tomorrow is the seventh day; a day of rest... I'm going to the Beach. Life is good.

Bees

2010-06-18T18:53:00.000-07:00

I discovered much to my horror that a hive had taken up residence under my climbing wall. As if that's not enough the damn bees didn't like me thumping around climbing all over it and falling on the mats and such so they'd swarm out and buzz around all huffy and I'd say "ah gaddamnit" and wander off swatting at the air and cursing and eventually they'd settle down and go back inside and I'd settle down and start climbing again and the cycle would repeat itself.
I never got stung. These were Black Bumble Bees, apparently a rare variety and remarkably non-stingy, though I was still leery of them. A bees a bee and the damn things sting.
So we've got this Fathers day BBQ coming up so the garden is going to be swarming with... children and the aroma of meat which'd probably work the damn things (the bees, not the children) in to a frenzy, there by heightening the chance of a sting (I assume) so we did the logical thing and called a chap who dealt in bee removal. My original plan was to poison the bastards, take a nice powder poison, lay it around the base of the wall and let them poisonously polinate their hive. But I soon learned that bumble bees are an endangered species so poisoning the damn things is illegal and I had to find another route. So we (my folks and I) call up this chap who deals in stinging thing removal and he comes over, free of charge, to help us with our problem. He comes with his two kids who are "assistants" though in my opinion they assist more in working the poor bees in to a frenzy as opposed to catching them, but they come over free of charge and lift off this metal plank that covers a drain pipe and sure enough there is a decent swarm of bees featuring TWO, yes, not one but two inch long big n' puffy queen bees and the whole mob of them get all uppity and the kids are chasing them around with dixie cups and no one is wearing protective gear... They end up catching the two queens and thats when its revealed that if you sell a queen bee and her entourage to the right person (a green house keeper) you can make a pretty penny, hence the freeness of the house call, and by a pretty penny I mean around $300 per queen. Well, they're sitting comfortable with their two queens in a dixie cup until the little boy accidently drops it, it pops open and out come two mighty uppity queen bees tearing around the yard like the Tasmanian Devil (Taz) at which point I decide its safer inside, but after a little while one queen is caught, the other has run away (permanently we're told) and the queen's minions are settled in to a cardboard box for the long drive to the green house.
And just like that, free of charge and free of poison, my climbing wall is once again Black Bumble Bee free and ready for us young athletic types to hop on and rattle around and fall and yip and yell and play loud music and bbq and dance and sing and make merry once again.
Ah the trials of summer.

The glory of Black and White

2010-06-17T13:22:00.000-07:00

As you may or may not know, a couple months back my dad and I went on a road trip down the western coast of the states, in through Yosemiti, Death Valley, Joshua Tree, up through Arizona and home again. We were packing cameras. One of mine happened to be a plastic camera I got for 2 dollars at a thrift shop, it was rocking some nice Kodak B/W iso100 film for part of the trip. These are off that roll:

(Dad near Death Valley)

(Death Valley & I)

(Death Valley before the storm (actually!))

(Route 66)

(Dad & me at the Grand Canyon)

Craigslist

2010-06-16T16:44:00.001-07:00

SO, I am always keeping an eye to Craigslist for jobs of all sorts when I came across the best gig of ALL time:

Open my jar of pickles

Date: 2010-06-15, 11:20PM PDT
Reply to:

Not your standard store bought dills, these were hand canned by my mom, who apparently has the strength of Goliath himself. We've hit the lid with a spoon, used a rag and I even ran the lid under hot water. No luck.

Location:
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Compensation: 1 pickle

I would have gone, but I live in Richmond. But -man- I really love pickles!

music

2010-06-15T19:01:00.000-07:00

I've been surrounded by music a fair deal lately. Last night's Symphony was sooper (As you may have read) but the week before I went to this super groovy all night DUB STEP dance party. Headhunter, a british DJ who dropped some serious bone shaking bass lines. It was glorious and just what I needed.

But what actually inspired this post was me walking outside and hearing a Beatles tune; Can't buy me love. My neighbour to the south is a singing teacher. There are disadvantages such as quiet afternoon disrupted by prepubescent voices cracking away as they try to belt out crappy top forties hitz. But there are also advantages like because they are loud almost every day they can't complain when I bring out my stereo and blast glorious riffs off in to the evening air while climbing in the back yard.

But Beatles. Is this a curse or a blessing. On one side She ain't teaching crappy music for a change, ont he other her pupils are soundly ruining really good music! I'm so torn! Probably best just to drown it our with glorious riffs...

Oh, here is a photo from that party under a bridge. Note the East Van cross in the background.

Unfortunately the only shot to turn out as it was the middle of the nigth udnera bridge and I had iso 100 film. Next time...

Alex goes tot he Symphony

2010-06-15T00:30:00.000-07:00

As the title suggests I went tot he Symphony this evening. I wore my greyish brown old three button suit from the turn of the 19th century. It belonged to my Grandma's brother, Rolf, who conveniently was the freak of the family and rather than assuming the standard Waber roundness ended up roughly 6',3" with a 30" waist, just like a certain blogger you're no doubt addicted too. Why am I telling you this? Because it is super rad when hand-my-downs fit like an amazingly stylish glove. A suit of of this quality would probably be out of my price range FOREVER.

But enough about that, while looking good in my suit I was at the Symphony to see the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra's last preformance of the season. They preformed two pieces by Russian composers; Rimsky-Korsakov and Stravinsky. The pieces, Scheherazade and The Rite of Spring, were epic and amazing and glorious. GLORIOUS! The first, Scheherazade, was a wrought with lilting melodies, pompous climaxes and delicate passages, transporting me to some exotic person world of pillars, veils and geometric tile work that took hundreds of slaves years to produce uner the watchful eye of a master architect. The story in its tune is of a Sultan who, betrayed by his first wife, swore to remarry every day and kill the new wife the following morning, elliminating their chance to cheat on him and break his heart. The daughter of one of his generals or something figures that this is a bit harsh and decides to do something about it. So she marries him and starts telling him a story but doesn't finish it... He wants to know the end SO bad that he puts off killing her for 3 years having several children by her and finally decides that she is a good honest woman that won't break his heart so he unvowes his irrational vow and they live happily ever after.
The other piece, The Rite of Spring, is hectic and stressful and wholly impressive. disschrodant, atonal, multi-total, overly-tonal, tonsa-tonal, with rhythms that made no sense to a mere mortal like myself and yet worked perfects. This time the story of a pagan ritual of dancing and sacrifice that takes place to welcome and celebrate spring. What ever that pagan dance was it would have been a maelstrom in a forest if it was to that music. The audience and I sat enchanted as it rose and fell and thundered along ending with a standing ovation.

Well, as if this wasn't enough the jovial and ever charming conductor Bramwell Tovey gave a little speech about how pleasant his 10 years have been with the VSO (don't worry, he'd not retiring, he's just celebrating his 10 year anniversary), how great it would be if kids had instrumnts instead of knives, guns and needles and finally how every time you heard our national anthem during the Olympics it was our VSO that you heard. So to finish the evening and the VSO's season they preformed "Oh Canada" and the crowd proudly all stood up and sang along. Then they applauded, still on their feet, and then they filtered out several of them dabbing at tears.

It was a bloody good night out. Starting with dinner on the Drive (Wazubees, Salmon Burger, Hell yeah) and finished with desert and hot chocolate at Sweet Revenge on Main Street (Pear Bread Pudding, yes yes yes).
If you're in Vancouver and want a treat I highly recommend a night at the Symphony. It always sweeps you away and takes you on a journey of sound and imagination. If you're a student and don't care where you sit, go on the day of and get left over tickets for $10. Otherwise look in to Flex Passes, you can buy them when ever for relatively cheap and then trade them for a reserved seat for what ever show you feel like when it comes up (there are exceptions when there is a super special show like a guest performer). Go to the Symphony, support the arts, its worth it.

A scratch in the shiny surface

2010-06-05T15:13:00.001-07:00

Vancouver. City of glass. Its beautiful, it really is. Every time I come home from somewhere else it always blows my mind. The heart of the city is towers of glass and as such, no matter where the sun is it reflects light in to the darkest places, destroying shadows and showing our cities glory to the world. Right?
Well thats what I thought until I was trying to find out information about a new hardcore venue that should be opening soon named Hellhole. So I google Hellhole Vancouver...

One of Vancouver's biggest photo ops is possibly the shiniest thing on earth. Its a giant mirror covered golf ball named Science World (actually the Telus World of Science but no one from my generation will ever call it that). It seems like the least likely place for the depths of gloom to exist, its a tourist attraction catering to children located right at the end of the inlet with beautiful views of Vancouver's Heart of Glass and new Olympic Village.

However, were you to go underneath its docks you would find a secret slum tucked in to the almost pitch black shadows just above the high tide line. Mud has been packed up tightly to create "nests" in which a large population of homeless folk curl up to sleep. The place is swarming with rats. Its cold, dark, dirty and dangerous. When the tide comes in all escape routes are cut off so you best have a nest up high. For more information on this terrifying city click this sentence.

The darkly amusing part of this is that Science World and its docks are located right beside Olympic Village, a beautiful set of buildings which were slated to be %40 low income housing. Well, the government suddenly realized that the Olympics were more expensive than planned and cut that to around %20. Of that %20, half of it is going to go to "prefered" clients, as in firefighters, police, and civic workers. This leaves %10 for Low Income Housing (ARTICLE)

Vancouver is one of the most expensive cities to live in in Canada. And it has a homeless population of roughly 3500. That population includes everyone from drug addicts and people with disabilities to students, people with "real jobs" and more. (Site)

As for shelters... There are more animal shelters in Vancouver than people shelters. Every night the few homeless shelters we have are packed full. There is a church in the Down Town east side (often referred to as Canada's poorest postal code) that has bunk beds instead of pews. And we can't blame just the government and city hall for the lack of housing, we can blame ourselves. A while back there were one or two homeless shelters tucked neatly under the north end of the Granville Street Bridge.The locals living in the glorious glass high rises on either side complained about "The type of people going to the area to use the shelters" and made a petition (which passed) to shut the homes down. (Article about that)

Vancouver, our glorious glass city with nary a shadow in it. What a great place.
As for the Venue Hellhole, the Rickshaw Theater is having a benefit concert to raise funds for the new place on June 19th. $15 at the door, donations accepted. Oh, and I found this.

Music Vancouver

2010-06-05T14:57:00.001-07:00

You know when you stumble across an old yellowed photograph and even if you have no knowledge of who's in it or whats going on or anything like that it strikes a chord? You feel some nostalgic pan for "That time." A flood of unfounded emotions swirl through you and its suddenly your own memory. The sun worn photo is only a trigger setting off some intangible sense inside you.
That's kinda like what happens when you go to see Buffalo Swans. Thursday night at Little Mountain Studios (their website makes Vancouver look deceivingly cold) they played to a full captivated house; not a whisper but plenty a cheer in the crowd. Playing songs that already sound classic, playing them perfectly and striking every nostalgia triggering chord they could they played one hell of a show. They had little patches of people slowly dancing along to their relaxing yet energetic rhythm, and everyone was smiling. It was an energy they cast from the stage, broad smiles on all their faces, contagious, seeping in to the crowd to the point that by the end my face hurt.
If you ever get a chance to see them, please do so. Its worth it.

The following night I ended up at a late night party at the old Storyeum building in Gastown. There to see the local legend Basketball play in all their serbo-electro-punk glory. AND... I was kinda unimpressed. I can see the draw, loud, energetic, at times catchy... Maybe it was the fact that they only had 4 half decent speakers and were in a giant cement cube that ruined it for me (as much as I love muffled mid-tones with a beat) but I was soundly unimpressed. Their recorded stuff up on Myspace is a lot of fun though! And they play some very cool shows around town (last time I was to see them it was under a bridge but the party was shut down before they played)! I will give them another chance.

But tonight I'm pumped to see Headhunter. A UK Dub Step icon (at least the Vancouver dubstep blogs make him sound that way) that comes recommended from several people who's opinions I trust. Hopefully his grimy bass tones and slow heavy rhythm will get me bobbing along like I haven't done since Beograd.

Dreams of glory

2010-06-02T02:19:00.000-07:00

One more week. A few more days of being fully taped then Ill go untaped and start playing with putty or something, and then after the longest and most grueling wait (made slightly more tolerable by crappy weather) I will return to climbing. Severly weekend and needing a lot of training but I'll ease in to it and rise to once again be pushing my goal of 5.13.
And while I'm at it I'll take on a world wide corporation. I'll try to start my own smaller, less polite, edgier, grittier version of a job I applied ofr a didn't get. And I'll be my own boss. "Hey I want these days off" "Yeah thats cool" "You're the best" "but you already knew that" "yeah..." yeah...
We'll see how that goes. its in the research stages.
The dream if glory via a photography competition is looking grim unfortunately. I didn't get nearly as many votes as I was hoping for because I only had 3 days to get the votes. That said I had around 7 votes in total which isn't bad, and an average of 4.8 out of 5 stars. Can't complain. And who knows, maybe it'll pay off and the peson I found with over 1000 votes at a 4.8 average actually cheated and I won... DREAMS OF GLORY!!!!
Last dream of glory before I go to bed and dream of glory; This house:

One day when I run away to Thailand and live on Tonsai operating a small Ping Pong bar a little ways back from the beach. (Found the shot on the good ol' Yayo)

Artists Wanted

2010-05-29T15:20:00.000-07:00

Hey all, I've entered a photography competition. If you could give the link a click and a vote I could win the "People's Choice Award" which would be pretty fantastic. Bonus points if you get your friends to vote too!

Artists Wanted

rejects

2010-05-28T20:58:00.000-07:00

Rough day. Rough week. Too much work, too much time inside. I'm not an inside person. I'm happiest out in the forest. One of the highlights of the year thus far was the day I spent walking on the Lycian way in Turkey. Me and a whole lot of silence as far as the eye could see. Cobbled road, golden sun beating through the thin canopy of small pine trees. The odd group of sheep with those oh so pleasant bells. Aww yeah.

Well this week has been far from that. I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong, but its about to be over and that's like goat bells to the ears. I did a photo shoot. It went well. That was Tuesday night. The time leading up to that was me running all over town looking for a costume that didn't exist and slowly changing almost every aspect of the shoot to fit with what I could find. I'm still very happy with the way it turned out, in fact I dare say that it was for the best. After the shoot turned in to a mad rush of photo shot, at least 8 hours a day in front of my computer staring at pixels in minute detail. There is a part of me that loves photoshop; I can make dreams reality, make people more perfect than usual, change things, create things, make "art"... But there is another part of me that wishes it didn't exist. It hurts my eyes after a while. Were I in a darkroom... Bathed in beautiful gloom watching magic really happy, working on photos in a way that much more resembles work. At the end of the day having sore feet, sore back, maybe even sore shoulders and arms (from waving wands and shaking trays and such). And my eyes would be alright. They wouldn't stare at the glare of a giant screen.
But I do love photoshop. And I do love photography. She's a cruel mistress but I like what she does.
And now the week ends with a nice cool glass of fizzy coke. 3 ice cubes. Its the way to do it. Were I really in the mood for snazz I would have chilled the glass, but I don't have the energy. That taste, I've talked about it before. Strains and worries wash away in its bubbly blackness. Next best thing to a forgotten trail on the Mediterranean.

The shoot in question was so that I had a few new shots to submit to a competition. Here are some of the rejects, the chosen few will be up soon. Just hold tight.

Nouvelle!!! Le EP du Shaunn Watt (hows my french?)

2010-05-28T01:58:00.000-07:00

On a cool rainy may night in the heart of downtown Vancouver there was a fashion show. If you were to leave that fashion show, walk about one hundred steps, turn at a corner and take a few more steps you'd find yourself outside a small clothing store named Nouvelle Nouvelle. And if per chance you were to enter the store just after closing time the evening of May 27th you would have found yourself in the midst of a remarkably fashionable crowd. No, it was not a fashion show and I'm sure most of the people didn't know there was a fashion show near by (and if they didn't they probably didn't care) and yet there wasn't an affront to the eyes anywhere. Immaculately disheveled hair, jeans that haven't touched soap in years, boots and shoes that look as though they haven't been taken off since the great depression... A meticulously run down crowd eagerly awaiting the beautiful transcendence of music.

Backed by the pitterpatter of rain, the wail of the occasional siren, the shout of the odd drunk and all the other sounds that make a city come alive at night a quite, somber (and some times creepy!) musical preformance was put on to launch the second album of Vancouver's Shaunn Watt. All clothing aside the night was magical.

It kicked off with the two-some Make Love; a pleasingly minimal group that has somber haunting melodies that are somehow... childish. Its the percussion, especially the xylophone, that brings that youth to it, but its beautiful none the less.

Next up was Buffalo Swans. I'm told the usual set is much louder and more rocking, but they played a nice down tempo set, evocative of Niel Young's Harvest. Pastoral lyrics about the seasons and such, elegant slide, pleasant melodies, impressive harmonies. And neato structure too boot! If you get a chance to see them, do so. Its worth it. I was so impressed! (And they're about to go on Tour so nows your chance!!!!)

Finally the person we came to see, Shaunn Watt took the stage. Starting with a beautiful somber song all on his lonesome, and gradually adding the other instruments and voices. The rich sound of an upright bass and the cool drone and playful plunk of keys complimented his rich and wandering voice wonderfully. It was a damn fine set that got me very excited to get home and download the album (for donation) off the internet.

(Merida sang two songs with Shaunn)

(Will, who also mixed both Shaunn's albums, on keys)

(The Wizard of Sound on Bass (first time I saw him he had a big bushy beard and a small keyboard and a pile of effects and made some other band worth listening to)

(Colin lending his bassy bassy voice to a song)

(Shaunn's encore cover song: If you're gonna be dumb you gotta be tough)

All in all it was a very nice night out. My folks went and even they enjoyed it. A lot!

Meditation, Music and The Rock

2010-05-24T23:11:00.000-07:00

So as some of you may know I'm trying to start a business which is... me. I'm a photographer. I take pictures, these pictures speak a thousand words or so. The viewer takes in these words and leaves feeling like they are never going to trust another nurse, or like they really want a men's hair cut, or like maybe its time that they got back to their routes. Sometimes they may even feeling like going out and making a difference in the world. Who knows, photography is a wonderfully powerful medium which can in theory change the course of history. All art can really, but I do photography. I don't paint... The results are embarrassing.

Well, in an attempt to launch this career of mine I'm reading books and websites seeking advice on how I can become the next big Vancouver Photographer. The obvious ones which keep getting drilled in to my head or organization, self promotion, mentioning things like that I do pin up photography so if you happen to be coming up to your big anniversary or your significant other's birhdya or something perhaps a nice pin up of yourself would make the perfect gift! You know, stuff like that. But its also about keeping calm and collected. Having a clear mind so that when the stress comes it doesn't make your brain leak through your ears to get away.

The internet suggested meditation. I can dig that. There was a time when I did that. I even recall one time when I... I guess I came to after some serious breathing and an hour or something had passed in what seemed the glorious blink of an existential eye and I felt great. But, alas, the world is more complex than breathing and sometimes sitting around and concentrating on the vibrations of nasal hairs isn't quite enough.

That's where music comes in. I think Music plays a huge part in keeping us calm and dreamy. It distracts us, fills our mind with something constant. It puts its on emotion where our own is wreaking havoc. Be its emotion the kind that makes your arms and legs flail like marionette in a child's excited hands or if in makes you slowly nod and look at your shoes or if it makes you sit back and let sun and cloud wash over you like a gentle river, music is a powerful mental sedative which I love. (And if you're interested I've made two playlists of 8 tracks each which cater to a good thorough zone out after a long day or before bed or while working on photos. Check out part 1 or part 2).

But my favorite way of getting away from it all is that moment when you're on the side of a cliff, the rope is dangling below you and if you fall you fall at least ten feet (though don't hit the ground). Suddenly your mind can't CAN'T focus on anything else. It pays attention to every element around you. The slight breeze from the left, the sun hitting only your left hand making it sweat just a little more than the right, the difference in tension of your abs as you slowly shift your weight on to your right foot. The friction of your finger tips. Where's the next hold? What does your foot do? How fast can I move my head to check? That's zoning out for me (and I'm not alone in that. "What do I do with my feet here?" "I don't know I black out when I climb"). Not a care in the world, just me and the rock. Complete awareness of who I am. Simplicity of what I must do. And if I do it it affects no one but myself. Now that's freedom and that's meditation. The shackles of this work-away world drop off and for a moment everything stops I don't exist.

AMAZING!

2010-05-21T12:38:00.000-07:00

Y'all may remember a post a lil while back about ads. Well, the chap who directed Babel, Alejandro González Iñárritu, has now directed an ad for Nike. Which is damn good.

Now, if you watched that you may have noticed a particular song in there which added to the over all raddness of it all. THat song is Hocus Pocus by an amazing band called Focus (I only know the one song, but its amazing so I generalize):

Well, then I went on a sports ad tangent which quickly led to...

That is all.

Tattoos

2010-05-19T17:16:00.000-07:00

I had this crazy notion of sticking to black tattoos. Colour just... Is so bright and hard to match things with... It fades strangely... Its complicated...

WELL THAT HAS CHANGED!!!

I'm entering a photography contest in a couple days (after I take a couple photos) and up for grabs is a year's rent in New York City. If the fates smile on me and I win I am going to treat myself to a new tattoo by Amanda Wachob. Colour, sweeping splattered strokes. A part of my body will be her canvas. (I'll get it if I win the People's Choice awards too.) Y'all better vote for me when my shots are up.

FOMO

2010-05-17T23:53:00.000-07:00

I saw the Banksy movie Exit Through The Gift Shop. TWICE! (And I think I may have seen it opening night in Vancouver) I liked it. It was funny and pointed out some interesting... Points... (I'm a writer)

For those of you who have successfully avoided this movie and all the mystery that surrounds it, the movie deals with Thierry Guetta (A.K.A Mr. Brainwash). A chap who stumbles in to the street art world with his video camera and then suddenly propels himself to being a pop culture icon, street art phenomenon and potentially a hoax. (The Hoax theory is that the whole character of Guetta, the appropriately named Mr. brainwash, was made up by Banksy and possibly Shepard Fairey to... (The theory fizzles there, not my theory, though I see where they're coming from and it does make sense) Point things out.)
What does the movie point out? A hell of a lot, I don't know where to begin.

Lets start with art collectors "This is a Damien Hirst... I don't really like it..." "My first Warhol was the Mao... I think its in the closet." This seems to be what art collectors do. They catch on to whats big and buy it. They are painted (With the broad stroke of editing) as viewing art as nothing but an investment. They are art collectors, they buy it before or as its becoming big then hold it. They may not like the work, but they have it. They may not understand the work, but they buy it anyways and put it in the closet. They are shown as people who watch the "Art scene" and then snatch up what appears to be worth snatching based more of hype than anything else.

Guetta himself points out how people like Shepard Fairey, Banksy, Invader and such essentially "brainwash" people through repetition (Obey, Rats, Space invader characters). Through repetition people talk about it and it turns from a small stenciled rat on a wall in to a big deal.

The camera is also turned on the artist. Not the artist I think most of the crowds are there to see, you won't learn terribly much about Banksy aside from that he is a well spoken shadow attuned to world issues and willing to point out our own faults (and its his movie, his finger comes right at you.). Thierry Guetta hires a team of young artists and gives them books with basic instructions and takes on Warhol creating his own factory. The artists are on an hourly wage so as he comes up with ideas they can churn them out. What are the ideas? Rehashes of past glories, rip offs of the greats, and a hell of a lot of work which Banksy points out as being "meaningless."
Granted there is the saying "There is no such thing as a new idea" but... Thierry takes that to an extreme.
But Thierry is an everyman. He is a family man. He is a small business owner. He is french. He is in America. And he is a dreamer. He happens to get wrapped up an a rapidly exploding world; street art. He tags along as big names in that world do what they do and he films them, getting a rush from, as he said, doing something illegal, living a small adventure in climbing as high as he can, and being part of the various street artist's little bit of fame. And at some point he wants to do it himself. He's learned the techniques, the locations and all that so why not? He finally lives that dream that he and a lot of people have of picking up the can and actually doing it themselves.
He is almost an inspiration, this seemingly inept fellow is able to put up posters just like the best of them. But he is also a warning, the film does not shower him with the same glory that he showered on the other artists. His work does not come off as inspired, inspiring, interesting or, well, good.

But by the end of the movie he puts on an enormous exhibition. Multiple rooms, multiple floors. Several people comment on the fact that in his first ever show he has more pieces than pretty much any other show out there, group show or otherwise.

Here comes that finger.

Through hype and publicity people start to line up 8 hours before the opening of the event. They seem to come from all walks of life, though they generally seem to be mid thirties or younger. There are some familiar Art Collectors in the crowd, snapping up works as fast as possible because, clearly, Mr. Brainwash is the next big thing. In the first (I think it was) week he sold roughly One MILLION dollars worth of paintings. People are gushing over the glory of the works... Everyone except banksy and Fairey and a few others more directly involved.

Heres the best part: His work started selling before anyone had actually seen it. He was on the phone vaguely describing works and making up prices as he went and they sold like hot cakes. He earns his name. Through hype, publicity, connections to the "Street art world" Mr. Brainwash brainwashed the masses in to believing that what they saw mattered, that it was different, that it was cutting commentary on the world we live in.

There is a similarity between the reaction to his show, the crowds needing to be there (towards the end of opening night people started breaking in to the show as it had reached capacity hours before and the odds were they would have to wait until the next day), and, say, Iron Man 2. Or The Lord of the Rings. Or Star Wars. Fans lining up hours (or was it days for Return of the King?) before the midnight screening. Why?

FOMO. Fear of missing out. Said to be the curse of today's culture.

The movie gets one last laugh in there. Its viewers. Aspiring artists, bitter artists, punks, hipsters. People who want to see and be part of the "street art world." And the movie is pushed by the name Banksy, the same name used to promote Guetta's first show. If Banksy supports it it must be good. And this movie is probably the closest you'll ever get to that illusive character. There is a pile of hype surrounding the movie, from Banksy himself to all the hoax theories that managed to make it in to pretty much every news paper, blog (yay me), poster, what ever.

One of the last lines of the movie, said by Banksy's former promoter:
"I don't even know who the joke's on."

And as Mr. Brainwash said:
"We'll have to wait and see if I'm a real artist or not."

Protests, logos, and other thoughts.

2010-05-17T13:31:00.000-07:00

The weekend was good!

It all started one Friday evening when friends and I hauled a projector and screen into the back yard and watched Where the Wild Things Are beneath the stary sky. Best place to watch it really. I really like that movie. Visually its great, it keeps you laughing (I love Richard) and its short! Its roughly an hour and a half. I love short movies.
Other good movies I like that are short:
Exit Through The Gift Shop (Since that premiered here I've noticed some new graffiti going up. One of which is a stencil of Bill Murray's face on a shop on Granville Street. Kinda random.)
Zombieland (Finally saw it. It is hilarious)
Moon (not what I was expecting, but less than an hour and a half so I didn't get bored. And it was well done. Just... The plot wasn't what I was hoping for.)

Well the weekend continued with the start of you favorite Vancouver Photographer's very own site. Then I caught up with old friends at a house warming party. But on the way home from that I get the text "Dub step" something something... Well I go running. You want Alex near by? Mention Dub Step. I miss it so, and last time I was told there would be Dub Step I was at the Biltmore after the Yukon Blond show a while back and it was... not Dub Step. It was just bassy noise. So I get to the drive for a protest/block party. Grandview Park is under attack by stuffy locals who feel that parks are not places for people to hang out and talk with their friends and sell their art and play games and play music. They feel it is a place for parents with children. Now, not that I'm an expert at identifying age and relations but I'm pretty sure that the large playground in the middle of the park is covered by children with similar looking adults sitting on benches near by watching them.
Another point of contention is the Tennis Courts. They stuffies are upset that the Tennis Courts are not being used for their intended purpose but are rather the location of Bike Polo (Which is kinda cool to watch). The stuffies claim this shoudl not be allowed as the TENNIS Courts are there for... Teaching theri children to ride bikes. Maybe I'm crazy but Bike Polo isn't a 24/7 activity. And maybe I'm crazier but Tennis Courts weren't designed for Parents to teach kids to ride bikes. That's what side streets are for. Or maybe one of the other billion parks in the area. Just a though.
Well the protest was fun. I arrived after the DubS tep ended unfortunately but I got to see all the beautiful protesters (the fun people in vancouver who care about maintaining what little fun there is in Vancouver all seem to be especially beautiful. Connection?) and listen to an assortment of music from Soul to modern stuff. And I got to see the street get blocked off with dumpsters and news paper stands (I can hardly call them news Paper stands... Stands for that rag "24" and "Metro" The Georgia Straight stands were left rightfully untouched.) There was dancing and talking and laughing and cheering. Hopefully the point was made and the park will NOT be shut down for a year. I left at 12:45 and it was still going strong.

Today my brother and I talked about why he sometimes is turned down when he offers to pick up hitch hikers. Hes a nice trustworthy guy who could easily talk your ear off about pretty much anything. So we theorized it could be his hair and the level of beard he wears:

But finally to make that top photo make sense, check out this Oscar winning animated short film: Logorama

Logorama from Marc Altshuler - Human Music on Vimeo.

I also found this amazing

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

This Just In!

2010-05-15T15:04:00.000-07:00

Vancouver Photographer Alex Waber makes a go of it starting up a slightly more professional blog site to attract a little business. If you or anyone you know might need a photographer send them to my new site so they can see samples and not have to sift through all my rambling thoughts. Don't worry, blog won't die as a result. The other blog is purely work related so I can't or at least wont write my rants, raves and other thoughts there. But yeah, give'r a look in any case:

Alex Waber's New Vancouver Photography (dare I say) Company.

And yes, all those links go to the new site.

The world turns round and round and round.

2010-05-14T17:39:00.001-07:00

Sorry. I've been busy. With what? Job hunting and friends and such. Did some photography, as usual. My finger is still sore (from climbing), which is unfortunate as I was hoping to go climbing this weekend. BUT maybe I still will, just do slab or something. Work on my footwork. We'll see on Sunday how it feels.

As for Photos, I did a shoot for my buddy Shaunn and here are some from that (not the ones for the competition. After the shoot we did a few more shots for shits n' giggles) and from other photo shoots since then.

Guess which roots.

The Besnard Lakes are a Campy Show

2010-05-07T12:29:00.001-07:00

Life's been good (aside from still not having a job). I'm doing things I enjoy, like photography and climbing and going out with friends. I've edited up a whole whack of photos new and old and those'll start leaking on here one of these days. But on to actual exciting stuff.

I went out to Squamish on Wednesday to do a lil' climbing with some buddies. It was so nice to be out of the city and in the middle of no where. Granted, my one friend updated his facebook in concerns to his project climb repeatedly, and I answered every call I received in hopes that it was a job (Even when I was leading a 5.10d and was above the last bolt) but there was still the glorious silence of canyon, with the river rumbling in the distance and the strange wooper bird wooping away in the distance. As you may or may not know, my goal for the year is to climb 5.13. I think I'll be able to pull it off. With a good amount of training and what not anything is possible. Part of my strategy is trying to climb them even if I'm no where near that strong yet. Well, it was part of the plan, until I tried it. I got about a quarter of the way up a 5.13b that my friend had just done (and then mentioned working on on his facebook after) when there was a sudden sharp shooting pain in the ring finger of my right hand. Gaddamnit. SO, now I have to take some time off from climbing, but its probably for the best. The whole body needs time to rest once in a while. Maybe after a week or two of relaxation I'll come back even stronger than before... Hopefully.
After our glorious day on the rock I went to the Besnard Lakes show at the Media Club. It was alright. The first band (Colorado) was good to the point where we all went outside to sit in the relative cold and talk about how great Weezer was when we were in Highschool. When they were done we shuffled our way to as close as possible, which wasn't that close, and waited for the magic to sweep over us like a warm fuzzy blanket and take us away on Chicago Trains and Lands of Moving Skies. Suddenly the lights dimmed and a voice came on explaining that WE can save the world... Then echo and reverberation began to rise in the air and suddenly the band of misfits took the stage, adding to the cacophony of inspirational echos with their own distorted guitars. Their front man stealing the show with the look of someone who just fell out of the late 70s and the aura of a man with the vocal range of a viking eunuch.
And sure enough, after glorious ages of warm fuzzy noise his unwavering falsetto drifted in to the room from a face with eyes closed to the head bobbing masses around. But when it came time for his voice to drop for the first epic verse, the piercing eyes opened and looked out to his rose tinted world.
He had big long blond hair (with bald patch) and rose tinted glasses. In its own way it was rad. At the same time it was distracting. In any case after the glorious impact of the first few songs wore off and suddenly there were lags between fuzz that they tried to fill with weak banter... There was a lul in quality and impact... UNTIL THE LAST EPIC SONG WHICH GOT EVERYONE HEAD NODDING ALONG TO WALLLLLLLLLLZ of glorious joy-noise. Unfortunately that finish was marred by a shoddy encore.

Oh well, it was over all a less than perfect show, but I'm still glad I saw them. However, I'd recommend just listening to their albums nice and loud at home as they are perrrrfect.

What does the future hold for me? Tonight I hope to see Exit Through the Gift Shop, the Banksy movie that's finally making an appearance here in Vancouver. And tomorrow I'm doing a hair photo shoot for my buddy Shaunn. If you ever need a hair cut, look him up. He's good. Does my hair.
OH, and then I was bored last night and did this:

Alex in Wonderland

2010-05-02T14:47:00.000-07:00

We all have a friend who is a white rabbit. Someone who is rushing off to the next adventure, the next tea party, the next big thing and we can't help but follow them down their magic holes and end up where you least expect it.
My white rabbit has taken me on some of the greatest adventures of my life and introduced me to some of the most amazing people in the world. Thanks to her I ended up in Vietnam and Serbia, two absolutely amazing places that I had never wanted to go to (But am very glad I went). Well her most recent rabbit hole down which I followed found us under a bridge surrounded by Vancouver's most varied and eclectic scene, bobbing along to everything from dub to more ambient beats late in to the beautiful night. The people ranged from hippy types with feathers in their hair and lanterns in their hand to art school grads dressed to their eccentric nines to muscle heads in Tap Out shirts. All joined by the power of music and circumstance in the beauty that is life. It was wonderful. You couldn't help but get swept up in the flow of things.
Tragically one person's fun is another persons nightmare and around 2:30, just before the head lining act came on, we were given the ultimatum: Leave now or get arrested.

Beneath the shiny glass surface of our clean pristine Vancouver lies a heart of fun waiting to be tapped. This city IS more than nature, you (or at least I) just need a white rabbit to lead the way.

(That said, I think I white rabbit back a fair deal too.)
(Pictures coming soon. Hopefully.)

Back in the day Part 2: The Cholla Pass to Base Camp!

2010-04-30T13:59:00.001-07:00

The Chola Pass was a 600 meter climb. In most countries ropes would have been used. Its steep. If you slip you slide far and slipping is easy. Its largely loose rock covered with snow and or ice. As if that situation isn't enough you have to go up it early before the winds pick up. The winds have the bad habit of blowing rock and ice off the peaks on either side down on to the pass.

We woke at 4am. It was dark out. Groggily (and grumpily, I'm not a morning person) we packed out stuff and met our guides downstairs for breakfast. It was hearty and washed down with tea.
TANGENT: The night before while playing cards and what not, I noticed the guides getting special cups of tea that looked... different. Being the foolhardy adventurer I am I asked if I could have one. So after the other guides had a laugh I was brought a steaming cup of "Nepali Tea." It was black tea with a pat of butter melted in it so that you get your energy and put some fat on your body too. When you're up above 3000m you lose a lot of weight. Because of the lack of air your body has to work twice as hard to regulate your temperature let alone get you up and over the Chola Pass while carrying 40kg of yer gaddamn tourist's gear. I'll be honest, I didn't finish it. Infact, I'm not sure that I made it half way. It tasted like black tea with butter, there was nothing... good about it. Unless you're in to that sort of thing... Like for Breakfast. Tangent over.
The Hearty Breakfast consisted of something like Oat Meal but more powdery with a good amount of raw sugar a pat of butter (gotta keep the fat on) and black tea poured over top. Surprisingly good. It was like eating raw pastry and gave you a good amount of energy for the day (until lunch time when you HAD to have Momo's as they are pretty much the best thing ever!)
After breakfast it was a race between us and the army of porters and the army of other tourists to get to the pass first to avoid line ups, and a generally crowded atmosphere. Surprise surprise the porters got there first. Something about "being acclimatized." We did beat most of the other groups. But once on the wall the going got tough.

(Porters starting up it)

(I'm not going to lie, its in this picture and fairly close, but I'm not sure which part any more. I think its the very closest part which I tragically cut off. I took it when the guides vaguely pointed at it and I still didn't know which wall it was.)

The damn thing was so steep and there was so little air that I had to give up my camera bag and camera to get up it. Dev had to take my cohort by the arm and practically pull him up the wall. At the top he admitted that had it not been for Dev he would have given up. There were a couple places when my footing slipped, but luckily no falls. My hands are quick and my balance is pretty good. At the top the trials didn't end. We were still between the two peaks that planned on raining snowy hell down upon our heads. So we had to cross a large snowy pass to get outta there. As if thats not enough the snowy pass had hidden chasms. As such we had to go single file down a well marked line. There were times when we could see a chasm on either side. It was pretty exciting. Well we safely crossed and wound up in the middle of no where; the most expensive stop of the trip, a place set up just for tourists going over the pass which, lets face it, is completely impractical. It was only figured out to get us trekkers from Gokyo to Gorak Shep and Everest Base Camp. The Tea House was pretty crappy to boot, definitely the coldest night of that trip, possibly the coldest I've ever been (aside from one time in Capilano Canyon when I saw an amazing bouldering route on the other side of the river so I did the logical thing and swam to it and tried to climb it but my hands and feet were wet so I just kept falling in and when I finally gave up and came back out my lips were blue. Luckily we had a hot tub so we ran through the forest and went for a nice life saving dip. Aww yeah).

(The coldest out house ever. And yes, I had to have middle of the night pee break)

The next day was a cold cold hike to Gorak Shep.

(Traffic)

(First person view of traffic)

On the way I had a bowl of Instant noodle soup and the last part of that hike was a race against the shits. Bad news bears. But I made it unsoiled and spent the rest of that day eating white rice and green tea. By the next day I was right as rain for our adventure to Everest Base Camp. One of the Base Camp's most famous additions is the bakery. We had heard rumor of it since Kathmandu and I was not about to let the chance for a tasty treat slip me by. So I had a reasonably priced and not half bad Cinnamon Bun.

While there we also found the Canadian team and a broken helicopter from a failed rescue mission. The next morning we hiked up Kalapatar (5543m). My companion couldn't make it. It was steep and took about an hour to get up to it. And again we had to leave before day break. I was assured it was worth it.
At the top I was like, okay that is a pretty cool bundle of prayer flags.

But Dev was all "Over there, look!"

And he pointed at Mount Everest! The closest and clearest view we had had thus far.

And that's me in front of the beast. Now, I'm not one to be easily impressed by size. Infact the Grand Canyon didn't blow my mind. And nothing I've seen in Europe has made me say "ooh" due to size. But Everest is really bit. I was just over half way up and it still rose like a beast behind me (or in front of me when I faced it). For anyone who may be doubting Mount Everest, take it from a skeptic that it is pretty damn big.
As for going up early, as you can see it is already starting to be shrouded in its own plume. About 10 minutes after this photo is the tippy top was completely obscured by cloud. By the time I got bored of being so close to the top of the world Mount Everest was a big cold looking puff.

The hike back to civilization was fast. We even took a detour to another peak which I went up. This time I went higher than ever before and to this date, ignoring air plane travel, has been the highest I've ever been: 5893m. At the top I met a chain smoking German and a small Japanese man who took my photo and took my email address but never sent me the photo. (If you are reading this, Japanese man from the mountain peak, please send me that photo. I'd like to see it)
The way back also had a stop off in Tengboche, home to one of the biggest Buddhist monasteries outside of Tibet. We managed to catch an actual ceremony there, which was pretty neat. I also learned to play Poker. We placed bets in valuable Pringles (Pringles being the only chip you can take to those altitudes as all the other chip bags explode.

(There was a field of these, each one made for someone who has died on Everest)

(The Chain Smoking German having lunch on the way up the peak who's name I forget but who's hight I remember (5893m))

(On the peak, frozen prayers)

(The mountain beside the peak we climbed. Alas, our view was obscured by clouds)

(BIG prayer wheel)

(Our buddy Buddha)

Passing through Namche once again I went to the German Bakery, discovered it was not at all German and just had a deceptive name, but I had a sweet treat anyways (it was meh). And finally we arrived back in Kathmandu. The whole trip took 20 days. On day 5 I payed an exorbitant fee to take a shower. After about one minute of hot water it went ice cold inspiring me to embrace my own filth. At about 4500m we met a medical group who taught us about Altitude Sickness and checked out blood oxygen levels to see how we were doing. The average at sea level is 90 to 95% ad I was at 92%. My companion was in the mid 80s. A the joy of going in to the Himalaya at 19.

If any of you ever get the chance to go please take it. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. The reason I love outdoor activity is that the competition is solely within yourself. If I can make it up a 5.13 (REALLY HARD) climb this summer it won't be because of anyone but myself, and if I fail I lose to no one but myself. And its the same in the Himalaya. I summited 3 peaks over 5000m, I hiked for 20 days straight and I was the one who did it. Granted, I had a guide, but were I physically incapable of going to the top we would have turned around. Of this I am proud.
On the way you are emersed in a culture that, aside from tourism, has seen little change over the years. The paths you travel (aside from the Chola Pass) are all old trade routes between India and Tibet and they are still used. The area is dotted with religious relics, be they Mani Stones, prayer flags or full on Monasteries. And though you can have eggs and bacon in the morning and spaghetti and meat balls at night, you can even sample foods that have been staples to the area for generations.

How rad is that!

Back in the day.

2010-04-26T14:39:00.000-07:00

Years ago I went on "the adventure of a life time." It was pretty much amazing. Well, I figure I'll finally share a bit of that adventure.
This was the part where I go to Nepal. I had been in India for 2 months at this point. I was leaving from Darjeeling after shipping home my Sitar. Jeep ride to some small town. Bus ride to even smaller boarder town. Song and dance. Passport. Song and dance. Little bicycle rickshaw zoom zoom traffic traffic aw nuts missed the bus to Kathmandu.

I suddenly find myself stuck in a small boarder town in Nepal. I have enough cash on me... for the bus to Kathmandu and thats it. This is what credit and debit cards are for! I find a hotel, $1.50 for the night. I can swing that. I pay. I treat myself to dinner $0.50ish. All's well in love and war. Next day I go to the exchange place. I'm young at this point and don't know the ways of exchange places. I give them a toonie. Two bucks will cover all my expenses in this small town. Don't take coins. Shit. Okay, Debit card? Nope. Only ATMS in the country are in Kathmandu. Or I can go back to India and use one in the boarder town. Now heres the catch, because o the nature of the visa I got if I were to go back to India I'd have to stay as I only had one set of leave/return thingies on it. So I'd miss the Himalaya and have to entertain myself alone in India for a month it was time to go home. Not that India is a bad place, I love it to bits, but after 2 months I was really looking forward to the quite pollution free world of the Himalaya.

Before I continue I should tell you that I had spent one and a half months travelling with a friend. Part of that was work, but that I'll save for another day. Well, my friend had gotten horribly sick somewhere along the way and had to fly home for treatment. So I was going to go meet her brother and hike the Himalaya with him.

So here I am stuck in a conundrum. How to get from there to Kathmandu I don't have the cash for the bus ticket or any other ticket. They don't take credit card and there are no ATMS. I go to the travel agent, and talk to him, he wants to help but business is business. I suddenly get the bright idea of selling camera gear. I offer to trade an SD card for the plane ticket. The card when I got it was worth $16, and the flight was $10 or so. He could keep the change. He calls a friend, the friend appraises, says its worth $5 at most... Damn.

Well, this is where the kindness of people shines through. He makes a bunch of calls and arranges it so that I can take the flight and pay when I get to Kathmandu. Then to make everything even better he makes some more calls and finds a cab that has a number of fairs going to the airport already and talks them in to taking me for free! HAZZAH! I make it to Kathmandu!

Somewhere along the road I met a man who told me of "The three K's." These were three cities to which expats and deserters of the various wars in the asian area ran to for sanctuary and, more importantly, sex, drugs and rock and roll. Kathmandu was one of these "three K's" and this became apparent very soon after the fourth person offered me hash, heroin, cocain, or "anything else you might like." I stayed clear. Sketchy bastards. The area I was staying in was the nice touristy area (full of drug dealers) and I spent the week before my friend's brother arrived going restaruant to restaurant, used bookstore to used bookstore and bar to bar, reading books, meeting people, and eating some damn good food. And it was all so cheap too! Then my friend's brother arrived, became my friend too (you have to meet before you can be friends and we had maybe emailed twice). We booked our tour then and there with the only company that wasn't a sketch case: Exotic Mountain Treks.
The next day we were off to the mountains.

The plane was tiny. We were told if it was cloudy we couldn't go because "There are rocks in the clouds." Luckily it was sunny so off we went. We flew in to Lukla (2872m) where we had a quick snack of soup and bread before having to push our way through a porter strike (Our porter was not on strike for some reason, so he passed himself off as a Sherpa and kept going).

We had a guide and a Porter. Our guide, Dev spoke decent English and was a card shark. Our porter, Ngeema, was a goofy kid who played in a rock band in his spare time. Both had very interesting stories about their lives which I shant share as, well, I don't know how I feel about sharing other people's life stories on blogs. You'll just have to go to Nepal and book a trek with them. Its well worth it. By the end of the say we had hiked a short distance to Phakding where we called it a night.

The next day was Namche Bazaar, a crucial stop off point for any trek to Everest. Namche is at 3446m. 3000 meters is where altitude starts to play with you. Nothing serious at this point, just don't expect to be abel to do your usual sealevel run around town. This is where all groups stay for two or three nights to get used to the thinning air.

While there we explored a monastery and the surrounding area. It was beautiful, though the monastery was too dark for photos.

(Mani stones, big rocks covered in prayers. Everywhere!)

(The worlds highest air port!)

After our rest days we took off to the top.

(Yaks. Big, Hairy, Menacing, attached the beautiful sounding bells. With the smoke of the morning prayers passing them by.)

(Inside one of the Tea Houses we stayed in. "Act natural!" I said. Ngeema's english wasn't that good.)

(Just after I sat down from taking this photo we here a rumbling clanging sound and a Yak comes running full steam down the hill behind the house straight towards us. Panic. Fear. Luckily it stopped and acted natural. No biggy)

At the time I was reading the Tibetan Book of the Dead and there was one point where it said "When you reach enlightenment it is walking in great sun filled valleys that smell of incense. The day after I read that we walked out to a higher elevation where Black Juniper grows. This is the stuff from which a lot of incense is made. When the sun hit it the whole valley was filled with the most beautiful aromas. Far below us ran a river you could barely hear and high above us were great caps of snow. If you looked back there were the last of the small evergreens down in the valleys below.

(This picture does not do it justice at all, believe me)

(Gokyo 4850m. Hot shower... I didn't shower for almost 20 days)

At Gokyo we hiked Gokyo Ri, a peak of 5483m. The views were breath taking, though maybe that was just the lack of air in general. But the only picture you get to see is this one. Yak poo drying in the sun. The dried poo would be used as fuel for the fires. I even helped put yak poo in to a fire one time!

The adventure stepped it up a notch after Gokyo. We had to cross the Chola Pass, a pass we were wanred of hen booking the tour and people we met along the way spoke of with a tremor of fear in their voices; "You're going over the Chola Pass? Oh..." The Chola Pass is steep. In one of our "safe" western countries ropes would probably be required or at least given as an option at some point. Its a climb you have to do early because as the day wears on the winds pick up and blow rocks and ice from the peaks on either side...

To be continued.

More big issues.

2010-04-23T12:45:00.000-07:00

For those of you who live under rocks (but read this blog) or just generally avoid important cultural moments that make this world exciting, I have to tell you something:
I was watching South park the other day and it was a hilarious new episode in which they manage to soundly make fun of, well, pretty much everyone. There was this strange vibe to the show as though it was a grand finale look-at-our-awesomeness-over-the-last-14-years kind of show as they managed to mention or bring back an army of their best jabs at celebrities and other strange funny moments that are quintessentially South Park (Like Cartman's mom also being his dad, or Tom Cruise and the closet, or Mega-Streisand to name a few). But to cap it all off they used the whole cluster of classic jokes to point fun at the un-make-fun-able, censorship, and fear.
It was a two part episode (haven't seen part 2 yet, though it just "aired") and after the first part aired there were... Death Threats.

Now without me saying anything, any good South Park fan will think back to another brilliant two part episode in which Cartman takes on Family Guy trying to stop them from committing the ultimate sin which would result in serious retaliation against America.
South Park showed Mohamed.

Or at least Mohamed in a bear costume.

DEATH THREATS!

Well, Jon Stewart was soundly pissed. Check out his glorious rant here.

So when the second part aired it was soundly censored in to oblivion :
A spokesman for Comedy Central confirmed on Thursday that the network had added more bleeps to the episode than were in the version delivered by South Park Studios, and that it was not permitting the episode to be shown on the studio’s Web site. Comedy Central did not broadcast a repeat of the new “South Park” episode at midnight as it usually does, and instead showed a previous episode from this season. Comedy Central declined to comment on the Revolution Muslim blog post or say if it was taking any precautions because of it.
Pretty sad.

Shortly after I found this:

Posted on: 04.22.10

A Statement from Matt and Trey

In the 14 years we've been doing South Park we have never done a show that we couldn't stand behind. We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central and they made a determination to alter the episode. It wasn't some meta-joke on our part. Comedy Central added the bleeps. In fact, Kyle's customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn't mention Muhammad at all but it got bleeped too. We'll be back next week with a whole new show about something completely different and we'll see what happens to it.

If you want to know the plot of the episode and such its on IMDB.
This is a really good article about it all on the Guardian.
Facts about the threat here.
Just good thoughts here: The Telegraph
Someone else's perspective.
Fox news on Youtube has a couple clips from the show, more information on the "threat" itself (which the website has soundly hidden, rephrased, changed, ect) and a great line about "evil itself" which shows Fox's deeply intelligent and sensitive religious/political stance.

Much like a certain painted elephant did back in 2006, the episode(s) did the trick in once again sharing cunning insight and social commentary with the world and making sure it was soundly heard and talked about. Pushing envelopes and making people think is what, in my opinion, good art is. The stuff that makes you think about more than beauty (not to say Aesthetics are no good), weather its "just graffiti" or a bunch of Campbell's soup cans, shows a skill and strong mind-set that few posses. So, good work Matt Stone and Trey Parker, you did your job well. And the episode was hilarious too boot!

100th post!!!!

2010-04-22T15:44:00.000-07:00

What am I going to write about today? Its my one hundredth blog post, so I should make it count. I should talk about something big. Real big. Big things, big issues big names big... stuff. So maybe... maybe... maybe...
I'll talk about...........
......
...
..
.

Elephants!!! They're big! What shall I say about elephants? I'll say this, back in 2006 Banksy (BIG NAME) had a show over in LA(BIG CITY). It was at a big space (BIG) and he invited a bunch of big (BIG) names from the area, some who showed up were Brad Pitt (BIG) and Angelina Jolie (BIG). Now the big surprise to everyone was... AN ELEPHANT (BIG)! Good old Banksy went through the proper channels got the proper permissions and hired Tia the elephant and painted her like wallpaper using non-toxic paint and then had Tia on display at the opening. Then there was public outcry and general upset over how inhumane this was (to the point where in 2010 I come across an article which mentions it). We all learned painting elephants is not okay way back in the day when Peter Sellers did The Party

but Banksy did it any way and put Tia in the middle of a staged living room. What was he trying to say with the piece? Roughly that we in our wonderfully manicured "Choose Life" worlds we ignore the big issues like starvation in Africa (BIG ISSUE). Well, the people's hissy fit caused the elephant to be washed and Banksy was not permitted to have any more elephants in his show.
Luckily the seed was planted. The man with the talent for making people talk had soundly made people talk a lot. Granted, the issue he was bringing up was muffled under the other great outrage of painted elephants, but he still planted that sad seed and watched it slowly grow ever since.

My mad skillz with paper have been soundly thwarted.

2010-04-20T13:25:00.000-07:00

I really like paper. Both its amazing textures and the amazing ways it can be used to create.... Anything. I used to be an origami nut. absolutely off my rocker with folding paper to make everything from butterflies and turkeys, to gold fish and entire scenes from Lord of the Rings (I made the Balrog fighting Gandolf once, bridge and all. And yes, I am a nerd.). Then a while back there was an exhibition of origami that put mine to shame in the way the paper flowed.

(made by Eric Joisel)

THOSE WERE IN THE EXHIBIT!!! On some of the works (I'm not sure about those three) the guys used this crazy wet paper technique which seemed to essentially make the paper in to... clay or something. Either way the curves, the textures and all that were through the roof. After seeing that I experimented with really soft tissues and water and made a few really neat flowers. Then I got bored and moved on to other forms of art (photography and film).
Well today while journeying the internet I found yet another amazing thing to do with paper. Bea Szenfeld just put up an exhibition in Stockholm (that makes me want to go back and marvel some more) of paper costumes inspired by mythology:

The show, Sur La Plage, will be on at the Design Galleriet until the 30th of April (so hurry up and buy me a ticket to Stockholm and make that volcano stop canceling flights!)

While I'm on the topic of mythology, I had the fortune of seeing Clash of the Titans last night. It was big, loud, full of mediocre special effects and aside from Liam Neeson there was about as much emotional depth as... I was going to say a rock, but depending on the lighting you can get a lot from a rock. Everyone was just bitter and moody.
Thats not true, the chap who acts Tony in Skins was in it as well, acting a character similar to Tony from Skins; a young kid over his head in epic battle. He I could feel for, then he died (sorry). Most upsetting part of the movie.
Over all, though I didn't get bored or anything, I didn't really experience any other emotions either, so... If you just need to pass the time and it free go for it. Otherwise you should see the 1981 version with cool retro claymation AND Laurence Olivier and Maggie Smith.

WOW!

2010-04-18T19:44:00.000-07:00

A single groove on a record magnified 1000x!!!!!! Thats what music looks like!
Found here.

The end of the world.

2010-04-18T11:25:00.000-07:00

Its gonna happen some time and with movies like Armageddon and 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow its hard to forget that. There are a couple things about the end of the world that always make me wonder:
Assuming the entire world isn't completely destroyed, assuming its really just us life forms (mainly humans) that get thoroughly offed, what comes next? And what are they going to think of all this stuff we left behind? Is it going to be Humans V2.0 who come, live peacefully, develop a way to live as luxuriously as ourselves but without the environmental impact? Maybe V2.0 will be more like normal animals and only be able to breed once a year to one a season? Maybe we'll be like the "humans" in Oryx and Crake who's bellies and penises turn purple when they are ready to mate and the males have to do a dance to win their prize women (not unlike today when we go out to dance and put on our fancy feathers to seduce the prize woman). If you haven't read it I highly recomend it (And I'm not one to easily recommend Atwood to people), its an amazing and terrifying vision of the far too near future.
I've also wondered when and how the world will end? (And again, how thoroughly; is it just us human's getting wiped off? Or all life? Or will the whole damn rock go up in smoke?) I don't really know. I think the rock itself will be here a lot longer. The seeming increase of major earth quakes and other seismic activities that have been happening the world over (Chile, Turkey, Iceland) are alluding to our 2012 deadline. Maybe just mass earthquakes, avalanches, volcanos, and such resulting in clouds of dust creating freak weather patterns producing too much rain causing flooding and mud slides and such will essentially destroy all or most traces of civilization. Not necessarily killing off the human race but certainly getting rid of most of what we've made. Then we have to start from scratch. Luckily for us, I heard a theory that the micro dust particles spewed by volcanoes floats in the air so long that it could noticeably cool the planet a couple of degrees which would be enough to stop the ice caps from melting and maybe even promote growth! We'd almost get a blank slate to work with. We could start rebuilding our glorious civilizations in a more eco friendly way and try REALLY hard to let everyone live equally so there are no wars... Okay, now I'm just dreaming. It'd probably be more like The Road (Another book I highly recommend). Bleak. Depressing. And full of marauding gangs of gun wielding jackass cannibals. Ugh...

Hopefully the world ends like this:

PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.
Uploaded by onemoreprod. - Independent web videos.

2010-04-17T13:44:00.000-07:00

I love ads. I have a book all about them. Its covered in Sand paper and is a pretty good read.

Once in a while an ad comes along that is pretty damn cool. The most recent (in my opinion) is this one: (for some reason I can't format them to fit properly. It may jsut be my screen, but if thats the case, double click and they'll pop up in Youtube and look right. Sorry for the inconvenience. I'll work on it.)

Here are a couple other ads I really like from eons ago:

Then there was an entire series that Adidas called Adicolor. They hired artists and animators to each create a short film (under 5 minutes) based around a specific colour. Some of them are good and twisted. Here is my favorit from that:

Though they're all good, really. The black one is really twisted.

Quicky!

2010-04-14T12:06:00.000-07:00

Local Vancouver song writer Christopher Smith has a music video!!!! If you ever get a chance to see him live, do so as his music is very pleasant. Though I warn you it seems to be becoming a little bit creepier than the song in the music video. (not that the music video isn't creepy, there's wolves after all.)

Christopher Smith - Gently Gently from Boompa Records on Vimeo.

Internet Wanderings

2010-04-13T18:41:00.000-07:00

So I was cruising the good old internet (as usual) and found this gem of an article on a Vancouver Blog called The Dependent. It deals with the huge population of Hipsters in Vancouver in a scientific way. Good read.
And I found this picture of an amazing sign:

That is all.
If you're interested I made a new playlist on 8tracks too.

Destruction is a form of creation (Donny Darko is cheesy)

2010-04-12T17:17:00.000-07:00

But cheese aside if there is one thing I love to do its burn film. I know what you're thinking, but I'm not a pyro as the actual burning part is over in an uneventful flash and smalls bad (and makes me have to go out side because I don't want a stinky room). But the after effects are be-you-tiful.
My love of burning film started when I had a collection of photos of fire spinners that needed a touch up to make them a little more than your average fire spinner photos. See:

Well, today I revisited fire with some shots I took ages ago with the intention of scratching, burning, painting, throwing, spinning and generally damaging and I like how they turned out:

Here is an example of the burn extent:

And thats beautiful.

Alex in Wonderland

2010-04-11T12:28:00.000-07:00

A long long time ago I happened to find myself (witha collection of friends) staying in a small town near Victoria (little known capital of British Columbia) and that small town was called Sidney. Well, Sidney is famous for book stores. When I say small town I mean SMALL town but of that small town probably 50% of it is book stores. One of which is called the Haunted Book Store and that book store likes to brag about its huge collection of Alice In Wonderland books. This collection includes really really old copies, picture books, non-picture books, other languages, essays about, and other types of books all pertaining to Alice In Wonderland. So I was in seventh heaven as Alice has always been one of my favorite stories. (no, I haven't seen the new movie yet)

Well, I also really like old cartoon characters. The style of drawing and movement and such like. On of my fav's is Betty Boop! (probably because aside from Micky she's the best known?)

So Imagine my joy when I discovered this: (I'll warn you, the only sound is a terrible snow sound so I recomnd you going through your music collection and listening to something old school poppy. Ella, perhaps?

Once you've watched that, watch this one. Not Alice In Wonderland related... entirely... But still good and this time with sound and a musical number!

Clarity

2010-04-07T19:20:00.000-07:00

So, I need to explain myself (AND THE WORLD!!! oh the burden)

I rant and rave and complain and do it all wrong. You know my moanings about how too much art is purely aesthetics? Well, it turns out I had a different interpretation of what Aesthetics means. Though what it really means does kinda work in my rants it doesn't work as well as I would have liked.

When I say Aesthetics I mean something that looks nice and serves no further function. When you look in to the picture you say "Oh thats pretty" and move on. You don't say "My mind has been expanded in the understanding of all things great and small and beautiful."

Well it turns out that the second thing is what you would say if something was actually aesthetically pleasing. Because Aesthetics happen to be the study of beauty. Studying form, pattern, texture, light, colour, life, ect. These things are all "aesthetically pleasing" as they study what "beauty" is:

(Thanks to the glorious blog Yimmys Yayo for those shots.)

Yes, the bike is a study in beauty. If it wasn't it would be some lame functional bike like this one:

Functional, yes (lame off roading function though). Aesthetic appeal, I like the shade of blue... But thats it. LAME.

See my point? Aesthetics are the study of beauty. But if you ever go back in to the history of my blog and read all that I wrote before this post here, when I say Aesthetics I mean to say "Things that look good but have nothing else going for them at all."

Sorry for the confusion,
Alex

Beautiful Poetry due to Google Translate

2010-04-05T19:22:00.000-07:00

SO, I decided to check that blog that was supposed to have a shot of me on it. And it did (here). But I figured I'd see what was being said. And it turned out amazingly. Here are my favorite parts:
"Decided not to force the moment to burst out laughing."
"Energy together and,,,
Departure had finally come back to that place. "
"Do you take a picture of inconceivable."
"Somehow that sounds really good fitness guys".

This reminds me of things I wrote down ages ago traveling through Nepal and India:
"Left turns are not free"
"Please water use only hold on the toilet - Thank You."
And though this one is fact, not translation, it still makes me smile:
"Water sheep year 2130"
Yes, in Nepal you time travel.

Meanwhile I'm working my way through more and more photos. They'll be up soon. Don't you worry.

Procrastination, avoidance and avoidance of procrastination.

2010-04-05T12:15:00.000-07:00

I'm good at procrastinating. If there is one thing that I can do right away, no hesitation, its procrastination. So today, while procrastination from what I planned to do (work on photos) I was reading one of my favorite blogs (ISO50) when I discovered a good article about avoiding writers block and procrastination. Check it out here! My favorite line from the article is "To achieve full creative potential I must sit in the woods, watch Mad Men, and listen to Boards of Canada simultaneously. " But other than that it has some good ideas. Just read it.

I also discovered one of my friends has a neato lil' blog of photos and thoughts she finds here. Check it out.

And is if thats not enough, thanks to someone who reads THIS blog I was informed of the New York City Musical Saw Festival. (Thanks M.) Yes, you read that right, the New York City Musical Saw Festival. And after cruising that site for a bit I was so inspiired that I did the logical thing that for some reason I didn't do before and went on Youtube just to let the rest of you in on the glory that is the musical saw.

Berlin Hearts.

2010-04-02T12:37:00.000-07:00

There is a song by The Dears called Berlin Hearts... And I've never really payed much attention what the lyrics are, yet I can sing along to them. Is that wrong?
But thats not the point here. This is the point, here:

Berlin

A city of nobel streets.

Grand buildings...

Busy streets...

Small gates protecting the trees...

And jolly fellows on walls. This is Prost. He is our new buddy. He laughs at things that, from time to time, need to be laughed at. You'll meet him again in a little while.
But Tourists do, from time to time, need to be laughed at. Amusingly while I was in Turkey chillin' with ma' home boys Rasim & Co. we were watchin' TV when a sketch comedy thing came on where a blond tourist with maps and camera asked two Turks who couldn't speak english how to get to the bus stop. And then the hilarious attempt at explaining the directions to the kid. The best part was how we both found the sketch hilarious even though I couldn't understand Turkish and most of them couldn't understand English. It had truthiness written all over it!
But thats not Berlin. This is:

This is the Ping Pong bar and an epic round of around the world Ping Pong. Best game ever and one of the most intense experiences of my life (Up there with this time I was climbing one of the hardest climbs I've ever done (see pictures here!!!) which was a 5.12 in Skaha. Most of the route is evilly over hanging. And the moves are big. I didn't get it the try those shots were taken (one move away) but next time around I got it. And was very very happy.

This is the Bacchae rockin' it at White Trash Fast Foods and the key boardist is one of the best I ever did see. And my cousin is the pleased looking chap in the foreground.

This (and what follows) is Tacheles, which is one of the coolest places I've seen. I know I've talked about it before, but if you missed those posts or hit your head recently I'll remind you what it is. Its an old building left over from the DDR days which turned in to a squat house. And this was slowly taken over by artists. Now there are something like 30 working artists in the building living there free if not cheap. They have their studios open (out doing 1000 Parker St. in Vancouver which only opens during the East Van Culture Crawl. (Reason I'm upset about Vancouver)) pretty much 7 and some times 24. They also host the odd art show and event. Like what you will soon see below. A preformance art show. The room was also full of art work hung on the walls. Over all a neato experience.

The only problem was he had love handles, his "aerobics" were pretty sad and he was singing cheesy lyrics to cheesy techno. But thought that counts, right?

This is in a work shop out behind the building itself. And the whole area is littered by giant metal sculptures.

Well, I happened to meet up with Emily while in Berlin. She was visiting from Helsinki. And we had a good ol' time of it. We went...

Back to Tacheles with some of her other friends from Helsinki for Beer and music and general good times exploring the glorious building before going back to White Trash for beer and a blues band.

This is my favorite window display ever.
But here is what I liked most about Berlin:

Graffiti!!!

World's biggest stencil!

Favorite graffiti thus far!

Nine layer stencil AND Prost being impressed, but probably laughing none the less.

And that's Berlin in a nut shell! I'll throw on some more pictures as they come along, but I think that's a good start. (And just because this is how my mind works; this shot (Taken in Beograd) sums up Berlin for me.

)

I am upset and impressed!

2010-04-01T10:26:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite blogs is shutting down to pursue more... Important avenues of creativity. So if you've never had a chance, you have one week to go here and look at a damn good blog about whats cool in the world. This is where I got pictures to back up my claim that our Vancouver Light Bar was exceedingly DIY, where I got ideas for where to shop in Singapore, where I go to look at all kinds of pretty things.

The Cool Hunter

Music videos and other visual stimulation.

2010-03-31T12:00:00.000-07:00

Hammock - Breathturn from David Altobelli on Vimeo.

Found that video on the internet (thanks to one of my favorite design blogs, ISO50) And its decent. Some very pretty shots. Origami. Kinda strange then the kid skewers the bird with the broken wing. Okay that doesn't happen, but I was worried it would. However leaving the broken bird out there in a basket will result in it being eaten by crows. Cute idea though. And nice video. The song didn't click with me though. And the whole thing reminded me of two things I like more (hence this post. The video is more for reference to show I'm not completely crazy): Sigur Ros's video for Glosoli: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr_MJAOyOeU

And Serbia! Look at these seldom before seen photos!!!

That Sandwich king place claims to be "Canada's Number 1 Sandwich". Has any one heard of it in Canada?

Time.

2010-03-31T00:45:00.000-07:00

There is something to be said for being concise. Timber Timbre emphasized this point this evening with a short and perfect set. I think it was 5 or 6 songs long. All of the self titled glorious album. All impressively different from the album itself! All played flawlessly, creating a brooding sense of mystery and gloom with some pretty touch to it that made it a great place to be. Lime grave yards on foggy days. Sad, but kinda fun. To top off their show they looked the part. Prim, proper, elegant yet youthful, and able to attend a funeral if the need should arise. And even wile remaining seated, through basic movement and facial expressions they put on show I will remember for a long long time.
And yet they were an opening band. They opened for almost the complete opposite. I think their name was "The Low Anthem". They came on dressed to the nines to look like trailer trash down home country amerrricans. Immaculately disheveled. And they opened witha song that made hearts melt. Evene mine! And then with their next song they played the first song over but with a falsetto voice. And then the next song was the same one again, but they traded instruments. And the fourth song was the same one but different instruments again. Then they played two rocking songs (starting with an upright bass solo which was the highlight of their set) before going back in to that first song with new instruments. Well they played that first song a couple more times (about 8 more times) trading instruments as they went. The next best version of that song they played (after that first heart melting version) was then it was the four of them singing a nice harmony in to the same old style mic with only one small acoustic guitar for accompaniment. It was a long long set with a lot of the same.
But I must hand it to them, they are talented. They each can play at least 4 instruments, often not related. I was most impressed by the lone girl who played clarinet, strange small symbols with a bow, guitar, bass, drums AND could sing her heart out all the while lookin' good on stage (and not being overly dressed up). One of them also played a saw which always wins my heart.
All in all, had they taken a page from Timber Timbre and played a nice short 5 song set I probably would have walked away saying "They were good!" but no. Now I walk away saying "That was long, drawn out and repetative."
There was an opening band too who were forced in to a short set by a guy walking up and whispering in their ear that they were done (the glories of playing a community church). As a result I can't complain about them! And can even say that they played one song that had a cute story and was without words. Just a guitar and harp duet with subtle drumming to keep it in the folk rock genre. Very nice.

All the bands had neat ideas, from threads on strings to saws. But Timber Timbre stood out with variety, efficiency and a growing, living mood that few bands can create.

That video reminds me of this video for Iron & Wine:

Scatterbrain me

2010-03-29T20:31:00.000-07:00

I saw a church saying something about "featuring a donkey" today. Not sure whats going on there, but I know whats going on here. I'm listening to 8tracks like a mad man (bored of my music collection?) when I discovered this amazing group:

Now what makes the world slightly more hilarious is that it seems they're german! Now this is not the first strange german cowboy thing I've found. On my way in to Bad Segeberg in February I couldn't help but notice that on the big "Welcome to Bad Segeberg" sign there was a bat and a Native American in full feathered head dress! "Qui?" says I? Turns out that by Chalk Mountain is a cowboy village of some sort and every summer are the cowboy shows of some sort. Which, incidentally I saw a long time ago first time I went to Germany. What I remember is a laser light show and a big explosion that was very warm. Germany is also resposible for the hilarious film Der Shoe Das Manitu:

Well in any case I created a play list on 8tracks which was inspired by my brief visit to Death Valley. You can here it here: The Death Valley Suite
Now, Death Valley was a pretty neato experience. Its well below sea level (not that well after you learn that the Dead Sea in Jordan is over 1000 meters deep vs 82 in Death Valley) and it is very salty. Infact it smells like the ocean despite the lack of water almost everywhere (except for the lowest point called Bad Water. Legend has it when the poor souls who were "discovering the west" went through they came across Badwater and the donkeys didn't drink from it so they named it Badwater. A creative bunch. They also commented on the "awful silence" of the area, which is very true. Once the tourists were all gone it was eerily silent. Until the winds picked up and a dust and salt storm took the valley and surrounding lands by storm. Looked pretty damn cool.). I recommend checking it out.

The second coming

2010-03-28T22:12:00.000-07:00

I've finally returned to Vancouver again. And this time I think I'll be here longer than 5 days which is kinda nice. As much as I ragged on Van-city after being in the EU I do love it. I love its fresh wet smell, its surrounding mountains, its sea side, its variety of cafes and restaurants, its more than one small art gallery. And Friends too!!! Damn. Good place to be.

So I was down in the states for the last little while. Went along the Oregon coast and down through Yosemite and Death Valley to Joshua Tree. From there to the Grand Canyon. Then some old stuff and a slot canyon in Arizona (OOH AND Route 66 which I thought was kinda neat. Though on closer research it turns out that its not nearly as neat as I had thought. It was big in the depression era and war time and such but not the 60s/70s which is the era I care more about. But still, it was cool. Lots of old cars and old signs and such. A fun drive. I liked it a lot) Mount Zion, Monument Valley, and a brief stint in Arches then home home home (3 day drive). It was a good trip. I'm being brief for now because I'll say more when I have photos to go along with it.

For now I leave you with this, a photo taken of me in the Grand Canyon at the end of a hike.

And you can see the blog it will be posted to here! (Its not in english, but is has pictures!!!)

On a side note, before I went I created this play list on the amazing site 8tracks! It is impressions of what road tripping is to me.

My body hurts and other points of interest!!!

2010-03-09T14:14:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to a "light Bar" put on by the group Instant Coffee. It was interesting. Very bright. Had 9 disco balls which, as they do, resulted in pretty spots of light swirling around the room. Otherwise it was a very DIY environment with bare boards, nape holding plastic sheeting over lights, and, well, not as many impressive lights as I was expecting. There is this blog I check out fairly often because it deals with all kinds of really neat design things from photography to a cool old hotel/spa in Japan with hand made glass and paper windows that I really want to go to.

So that first bar, changes colour and looks pretty simply designed.

This second one is substantially lamer than the Aesop one, however it is sill more of a light bar that what I ended up at which had a couple panals of flourescents (perhaps Kino's? I hope?) hidden behind sheets of pale red/orange fabric. The main feature however was the bar itself which was just nice square soft boxy type.... Light all around you, light to put your drink on. It was cool. Cast beautiful lighting on the bar tender, made me want to take a photo, but I didn't. Should have. Could have shown you what I mean better. Anyways, I was underwhelmed. I guess the lesson here is if you live in Vancouver only read blogs about nature because the city doesn't have much else going for it. (ZING!)

I'm a bit grumpy at not still being in Europe surrounded by beautiful art work, people, studios, food, and things that aren't same old same old. Did you nothing has changed since I left? Granted, only three months, but we had the Olympics! You'd think SOMETHING would have happened. Oh well. Its still beautiful here. Just nothing to do.

Aside from playing cards with friends and drinking the last bottle of Rakija! (kinda like what we did in Serbia....)

But I missed the part of the Light Bar where a group preformed what the web site called "Jazz". The group was Didier Petit, Viviane Houle, and Stefan Smulovitz. It was pretty cool. It wwas very interesting. It was... Musicish. It was more 3 talented musicians expressing adult emotions (the sense I got was a marital conflict combined with writers block for musicians (acted out they didn't actually have writers block for musicians. These folk were pretty damn creative)) in a childish way through tantrums, squeaks, and body movements. It was pretty cool to see, and the more I think about it the more I appreciate what it was.
However as far as music is concerned... Music to me is something I would like to have on my iPod so that while on the bus or going for a walk or trying to ignore the crying baby a couple rows up on a crowded airplane for 9 hours I can be pleasantly distracted and maybe even sing along. Or just tune things out and think about my own things. That said good true (my sense of true) music is also phenominally powerful. Like Radiohead or Chopin. Able to bring you from heights of ecstasy to pits of despair. I didn't find that the preformance at light bar enabled me to experience the emotions presented, but rather set me apart and made me aware of the deeper humor of negative emotional states we all regularly go through. Hmph. I wouldn't put that show on my iPod, but I did enjoy it and it was interesting and thought provoking.

Kinda goes along with my constant thinking about how funny the world is...

As for Light Bars, I love lighting. Aks anyone who knows me. Ask the people around me at the Radiohead concert two years ago. Before their set started we, the audience, were looking at the lighting set up and I said "it would be so much fun to be a lighting designer and design different lights and set ups" and some complete stranger said "no, you're wrong, it would be the most boring thing ever." Well I have a theory that that guy is dumb. I would love to be a lighting designer. I love designing basic set ups and manipulating light in my photos. So a whole environment, possibly a bar, would be a lot of fun to work with. If anyone has a budget they feel like blowing on my imagination, let me know.

Anyways, my body hurts because I did some rock climbing yesterday and it was the first real climbing session I've done in a long time so I'm out of shape. But MAN does it feel good!

And the last point is, tomorrow morning I'm taking off to the States until April 3rd at the latest. I'm staying at Motel 6s or something so I don't expect to have the same technological luxury that I get at substantially cheaper hostels or hotels in third world countries. As such I apologize for not being able to update this blog as regularly as I would like over the next little while (if at all). But I'll try. Take care,
Alex

The problem with not traveling (And not really any other stories)

2010-03-08T18:21:00.000-08:00

So I'm home now. What can I say? Its quiet.
Back in Belgrade I was shown this amazing site (thanks!!!) and as a result I spend a lot of time listening to new and exciting music. Like The Jesus and Mary Chain, Faces, First Aid Kit (though I had actually first heard First Aid in Belgrade when J-miester was showing me some web site of popular musicians preforming songs in strange places (if you know what site that is please let me know as I forgot and I liked it) and then I heard of them again in Sweden when I was shown this amazing video:

)
And more!
So I've been doing that a lot. Today I finally did some much needed climbing. Just out back on the small wall, but it is steep and now my shoulders and arms are pretty sore. And my skin is all torn up. It feels good in a way that I think only other climbers can really appreciate. My skin went all soft with those months off the rock. Not being on a rock is a terrible thing.

So yeah. There you go. Thats all I really have to say. That and Jimi Hendrix has a mad rad style that I wish could still be rocked without looking like a strange throw back os sorts...
But needless to say look how rad:

They say I have high estrogen levels.

2010-03-08T01:33:00.000-08:00

Okay some of us only joke about that but here is why:

I love chocolate. I know what you're thinking "We all love Chocolate you completely average testosterone leveled guy!" Well I will argue that fact and I have witnesses to back me up. I hide dark chocolate around my room. I also hoard Easter and hallow e'en candy. Its usually in easy reach but some times its places I know no one will every be peeking around so that I know it will be there when I get the cravings.
For example beside my bed and in the drawer beside my desk there is usually a bar of 70 to 85 percent dark Lindt chocolate. Only the best for my habits. Well today I was cleaning my room when I discovered a zip lock of Easter candy nestled in to the back of my closet. I am happy! I take it down and put it on my desk with plans to eat it in the near future which is about 5 minutes later.
Now, for some reason I ignore the fact that the last Easter was almost one year ago...
Have you ever had a stale nougat filled milk chocolate egg? It may be Milka, but even Milka goes very wrong when its at least a year old. And thats what makes it worse. I only assume it was from last easter. About 4 or 5 Easters ago we switched from large colourful eggs to smaller harder to hide eggs which when found would result in a baggy of candy which could never fit in side the egg itself. I spat it out and chucked the rest.

In Stockholm the first truely swedish thing I saw was a small pink bucket beside a large rack of candy.

This is that bucket. Filled and at home. 3 days, 2 buckets.

January 1st 2010

2010-03-06T17:16:00.000-08:00

I woke up without a hang over. I blame the soup and bread we ate when we got home.
I made french toast for the gang before we set off to enjoy a beautiful sunny day. (I don't know why everything is underlined) The plan was a day on the wall (castle wall) before dinner and drinks and the start of good byes. I was to leave early the next morning to start the trend of daily departures. We were in Belgrade.

Need I say more?

Last day...

2010-03-03T00:50:00.000-08:00

I like Stockholm. I like the people, the places, and all that jazz. I don´t like Systemcompany (direct translation) but other wise it gets my seal of approval and my desire to return in the future and explor in greater depth. And hopefully in the summer.

The time runs down. Its depressing. Adventures shouldn´t just end. And though I realize that within two weeks I´ll be back on the road heading through America (such a wonderfully dramatic name. Evoces dreams in everyone, I´m sure) the fact that this one has to end upsets me. Would that I could stay a bit longer. See a bit more. You know. All that jazz. Doesn´t help that I´m officially out of money. But hey, thats the fun part. Having to start all over. Its like being reborn (at the conveniently educated age of 22).
I had a dreeam about home last night. Everyone was there. We went to play pool but ended up bowling and there were Nachos and Beer. Pretty much everything I love about urban vancouver life in one dream. How rad is that? I am excited to see all the faces I know and love. But really they should just come here and do a little exploring of their own.
Aww well.
Dear people of Europe. This is your last chance to see

Home of the hip, the not so hip and why Gentrification is the devil´s work.

2010-03-01T13:20:00.000-08:00

Stockholm: Beautiful city, beautiful girls (and guys), beautiful clothes?
These are the things you are lead to believe when people speak of mythical Stockholm. But then you arrive. Its cold wet and grey (Winter could be a factor their, but geographical location plays a part in that so I CAN hold the city itself to blame). The buildings, for the most part, are that modern style which would not be completely out of place in a former soviet nation. Now, in saying that I should mention one area (the old part) which is filled with beautiful old cake like buildings and narrow streets that get narrower as you walk along and is pock marked (like a teenager´s face) with cafes and restaurants and tourist shops of a slightly more stylish ilk. AND I should mention the odd building of super sweet glassy arcitecture that reminds you that you are in a very cutting edge place (the home of Ikea¤).
As for the people, they have some of the best skin I´ve ever seen. Not at all pockmarked like a teenager´s face! Its silky smooth and has a sort of... winter tan. Not as golden as someone who just spent a month in Mexico, but still not completely ghost like! Its nice! And then they are, for the most part, tall and blond and beautiful. Though the guys are still that frusterating semi starved never touched a gym hipster thin. Now, as far as clothes are concerned I am a bit unimpressed. I was lead to believe that every single person in this watery city (set on 14 islands) was a walking work of emaculate art. But nay! Only... 25% of them are! That 25% are gold though. And usually make up for that other 75%. And whats nice is no girls look like they would fit in on Granville Street. They are all better dressed than that by far. (granville street... bleaugh...)
¤While I was in Hamburg I came accross an exhibition called "The Ikea Phenomenon" which tracked the glory of Ikea design and advertising through over 100 years of its existance. I didn´t know it was around that long. It was a neat show. Unfortunately it was all in German so I didn´t read any of the facts I just looked at the chairs and such. It was neat though. Got me excited for Sweden.
Snow would be an Ikea product. It does what it has to with out any stupid frills or gimicks. It is cold, wet and evenly coveres everything then looks pretty without unnecisary parts or patters or even colours. And there for snow is perfect. Much like Ikea. And Ikea is a lot like the swedish mentality. Gets the job done quick and painless. Much like snow (unless you get hit by a snow ball in the face, but thats human interferance)
Berlin wins though. Stockholm is cool and all, but Berlin wins. And here is why.
Gentrification. There is nothing wrong with Stockholm (aside from a monopolizing alcohole industy which makes drinking prohibitivly expensive). Its clean, organized, easy to get around, has a minimal homless problem, and yeah... So you go to galleries and you see very aesthetic works of art. A lot of neat design things like cups and plates and lamps. But you don´t see the depth and meaning that you see when you go in to a gallery in Berlin. Berlin is gritty as hell. They want to gentrify but as a city that can´t fund its own repairs for roads and walls and such its covered in graffiti, filled with squats and artists with something to paint about. There is a constant power struggle between those with no money and those with money. And the constant conflicts that do boil up in to actual battals (before christmas a squat was invaded by over 100 cops to get out 25 squaters) results in a lot of art with some sort of meaning. The best examples are on the streets too! Be in a little smily face guy pointing at something and saying the german equivilent of "LOL" or security cameras having a chat about a recent incident or just someone writing a 6 on anything that doesn´t fit in with everything else.
And so Gentrification is the devil. It chases the artists away or turns them in to people with a sole focus on aesthetics and nothing else.
All that said, crime and unemployment and homelessness are serious problems that should be dealt with. And, amusingly, thats a catch 22. The good artist who lives in a troubled area brings awareness to the problem. Awareness leads to a solution. And the solution eventually leads to gentrification which gets rid of the artist in the first place.
Its a funny world we live in. I don´t know if I´ve said that in past posts or not but its sort of been a theme for this trip (that and love). There have been a lot of situations where a smile spreads accross my face as I realize just how funny this world really is. And not always in the obvious way. I dunno... I´ll write about that in the future.

As for Stockholm, I need to come back. I´ve had only two full days here and they were full. But they were weekdays. People at work, not at play. And its only when people are at play that they put on their true colours. So, who knows, maybe that was why I´ve been underwhelmed by the fashion here. That and the fact that there has been so much hype about this place. It was kinda like the new Starwars movies (but not actually bad).

My head hurts (the reason why and more!)

2010-02-24T03:07:00.000-08:00

Berlin is a magical place! Take Rivendell (the magical elf valley from Lord of the Rings) replace the elves with artsy types and the generally hip, replace the valley with flat and the elf houses with graffiti covered soviet blocks and thats the type of magic I`m talking. Now that we all know what I`m on about I can safely say "I`m in Berlin" and I don`t have to explain myself.
Went to the biggest museum I`ve ever been in. Apparently the average human can properly consume (mentally) 8 to 12 images or what evers before it starts blanking and being nothing to the person. I was in there for 3 hours (because I rushed and didn`t read a thing) and barely saw it all. So the wealth of knowledge I didn`t properly consume due to quantity is through the roof.
Then I went and attempted to learn the history of Berlin. But, after the Pergamon (big first museum) and the first room of Berlin`s 800 year history, same thign happened. SO we went to the new National Gallery. Luckily the permanant collectionw as closed so I can safely say that I saw 4 enormouse black and white land scape paintings of the mountains. But what made the paintings more interesting than normal paintings was that the artist added film grain, dust scratches and finger prints to them. So at first unexpecting glance you`re like "COOL giant old photos!" Then you get closer and suddenlt realize that there is a brush stroke to those lines. Pretty cool!
See how 4 pictures I can remember? The other two had a bunch of old stuff. OH, the Pergamon made me want to go to the middle east. Something about gates...
Well, then to cap it all we went to the Film and Television museum. Only made it through the film half. Super cool. Good and interesting exhibition (German Cinema played a big roll in pretty much everything) but the actual lay out and aesthetic of the museum was through the roof. Highly recomend. Made me want to watch The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
But this doesn`t explain why my head hurts! That can be summed up with this line "My First Pub Crawl." Normally I`m opposed to large groups of drunk marauding tourists going to top 40 bars, but this one boasted small groups going to underground venues (It also boasted complimentary shots). So thats why me head hurts. Absinth Bar, bar owned by Rammstien (hilarious goth decor but with REALLY good music. Like James Bond theme songs and the Rolling Stones), somewhere that had fake mushrooms everywhere, an electro party and... A ping pong bar.
Think not on Thailand Horror stories. This ping pong bar featured one table in the middle of the room, an army of people with paddles and drinks. Its around the world ping pong. All players walk in a circle and hit the ball when it comes. If you miss you`re out. Which I learned quickly when I missed and the guy who took it too seriously (and won later on) turned to me and pan faced said "You`re out." It was awesome. But probably the most preasure I`ve felt since... This one time when I was climbing a rout in Squamish only to discover that the top half was trad. But I only discovered this half way up. And down climbing seemed a lot harder than climbing up. So I did. And it woulda been a pretty big fall had I not made it. I`d say... 20 meters? or so? Jelly, you know, you were beleying. (My mom is now freaking out) So yeah. Ping Pong Party. But what hurt my head was how a bottle of Vodka suddenly appeared between the Ping Pong bar and the Electro party. The electro party was amazing. Some of the best I`ve heard in a long time. Minimalist electro. (Long time means since Belgrade by the way)
Now I`M going on an laternative tour of Berlin which goes to squat houses (THEME!!!) and artist studios and "strange shops."

160km per hour in the slow lane (other stories)

2010-02-22T14:08:00.000-08:00

I`m in Berlin. This is round two of Berlin. I love Berlin.
Where have I been? Berlin. And Humburg. And assorted small towns around Hamburg which can be summed up in Bad Segeberg (Bad is pronounced Baat not Bad). But now I`m back in Berlin. Which is rad! Because Berlin is rad. Redundant sentences? Possibly. What have I got to say?
I`ve been suffering from writers block lately. Both physically due to time and one of the worst computers I`ve ever experienced and in that mental way where ever time I sit down to write teh same statements and questions come up. Were you to some how gain access to my note book you would see that, aside from the odd blurb about the latest art gallery I saw, its pretty much been the same since... Lets say Feb 7th. Maybe 8th.
Art however- Berlin, I love you. Berlin being one of the cheaper places to live in Europe (did you know the city goes bankrupt every year and the rest of Germany has to bail it out? Some capital) is home to a bajillion artists and artsy types and has a result has become known for some of the worst art in the world. Now I did see some terrible terrible TERRIBLE performance art one night, but ce la vie. otherwise I`ve seen some amazing collage work, some impressive paintings, some humorous and enormous metal sculptures and an assortment of other things. The main feature of which was a venue itself (where I saw most of what I just listed) which was called (I believe) Tacheles. Its an artist squate which has remarkably low, if any, rent and as a result is full or artists, graffiti covered walls, and a faint smell of urine. I`m also told that its back yard area thing becomes a giant all day rave in the summer. Also in Berlin I`ve seen enough big art galleries to forget which ones I saw. One, however, whos name I can only recognize when I see it (though it has the word Berlin in it) had some amazing art work from the times of the wall and shortly there after when there were turf wars between the homeless, the artists (often homeless) and the cops. Supposedly entire cobble stone streets were torn up by squatters to be used as weapons againts the invading police forces. Cool? In its own artistically inspiring way.
Finally there is a restaurant beautifully called White Trash Fast Food which is an old Chinese restaurant (think wood work and gold dragons) which was bought by a Californian. Its walls were then covered with assorted junk from around the world, its menu became impressively western featuring a whole page of Burgers that come with "fuck off fries" and other tasty treats. Also live music is features very often. Good place. Check it out.
Basically what I am trying to say is go to Berlin. I had the chance to go to Amsterdam and I decided that Berlin needed visit two. Boasting 170 museums plus all the indie and udnerground art galleries my one weekend is hardly enough time.
Hamburg is a beautiful city but, I find, lacks personality (someone you would for sure sleep with, but probably wouldn't marry unless you were shallow and probably rich) I am in love with Hamburg (not about to Marry it though). I went on a boat tour of its enormouse harbour, I went out all night (first China Lounge which would fit in on Granville street (lamest clubbing area of vancouver (main clubbing area in vancouver (almost the only clubbing area in Vancouver (Don`t go clubbing in Vancouver. Go for the outdoors and the live bands in small venues not on Granville Street.))) aside from the fact it was an old Chinese restaurant (theme?) and has a giant gold budha on its main dance floor (one of three floors). but yeah. pumps out top forty remixes. One of which was "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon which upset me so much that I demanded we leve. So we walked teh street of hookers (depressing) and went to Rote Flora which was an artist squate (theme?) in a graffitti coverd old theater. AMAZING electronic music which I wish that Vancouver had. The one dj (again main floor and basement venues) ran an amazing drum riff for at least 15 minute before letting a little bass leak in. The crowd went crazy the entire time. Beautiful. Finished at the Fish market with a pickled herring sandwich to make sure I didn`t get a hang over. Which I didn`t! Lesson learned.) I also saw a fleet of museums and ate a lot of good food. Hamburg wins an award. But not the greatest city I`ve ever visited award which is going to Berlin for now (which is marriage material).
Did I metnion I`m going to Stockholme? Yeah, it looked grim, but its gonna work out. 2 full day and two half days. -20 degrees last time I checked. Fashionable as all get out and with only a small area of old buildings (something I`m getting a bit tired of). Should be good.
Did I have anything else to say?
...
OH, so I discovered that Berlin has "alternative walking tours" which unlike the main drag tours which feature old buildings and popular pubs goes to underground art galleries, artist squats (definitely a theme) and underground pubs/clubs. Aww yeah.

See you Vancouver folk soon!

The Imaginarium of Alex Waber

2010-02-10T14:27:00.001-08:00

Budapest. Old. Pretty. Snowy. Bohemian. Full of music from the 80s and eary 90s. Qui? yes. FULL of bad music. I went to this joint called Bohemia the other night. It wasn't for the name, it was for the tag line: House of Beers. It was rocking some rad 80s pop music. You know, sweet dreams and the like. Kinda out of place. Then the beer list was tiny. And I'm not sure if I had Goulash or Romanian Soup.... But thats not the point. 80s everywhere. Its SO strange. That or down temp music with lyrics no one listens to (except me so I notice the brilliant line: Simon Says stand the fuck up.) But what my point?

I don't really know. I'm in Budapest. Aside from the music I love it. (actually, I did find a place with a live jazz band which was fun). It is beautiful old buildings, a hill accross a river with a castle on top (of the hill, not the river) art galleries gallor, people who are well dressed (women AND men) and damn good food. I'd be tempted to say best food I've had this trip. Now, in Sofia I had Baked Veal Tongue which was amazing. But last night I had Wild Boar Knuckles with Potato Donughts and Goose Liver, and tonight I had what may be one of the best meals of my life!!!

Roasted Duck Liver served ona baked fruit salad of apple, grapefruit, walnuts and pommogranet (no idea how to spell that) with a side of fried mashed potatos (perfect for soaking up the juice filled blood). It was amazing.

Now, this whole trip has had some pretty damn good food. Turkey, for example, had Fish on Bun (like the name suggests, covered with salt and lemon with onions and tomato and lettuce), Baklava that flows like a river and really simple salads served with a slice of lemon for dressing. Had enough of Kebabs though... Ate at least 9 too many. They were alright, but I'm not about to miss them.

Belgrade... Mmmm... Maja's meat pie. Delicious. I need the recipie. I got the basic run down on how to make it when Laura made it (I had to run and get wine so we could eat pie, drink wine and watch Skins. A damn good night. Legit good times home stylin'). Chicken chunks wrapped in bacon (the day after we got them at a restaurant when I reheated and ate with Senf). Burrek (or Borek or what ever its spelling may be) enough said.

But, yeah, Hungary wins with the duck liver thingy. The only thing missing in this country is Baklava. I walk and I walk and I find nothing but Tiramisu which is good and all but it ain't no Baklava!

But thats not what I came here to say! I saw the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnasus. Epic let down. Epic epic epic. Cool movie, neat idea, good acting, pretty visuals, blah blah blah. But its.... Good as a concept. In execution its muddled and mediocre. And I wish Gilliam would just go back to the good old days of real props and sets and costumes and not all this CGI hallaballooo.

But is that what I came here to say? I don't know, now I have food on the brain and am thinking about finding desert. I leave for Berlin tomorrow evening. Awwyeah.

But what did I want to say...

Alex gets upset. One night on a train.

2010-02-07T00:48:00.000-08:00

You probably know that I like train travel. Or at least did. But last night was probably the most upsetting train ride of all time. Grrrrumble.
First off I had to leave Belgrade. This upset me. I didn't want to leave, but leave I must (the burden of travel is departure). So, rather upset I found a compartment with only one other occupent. I sat down and proceded to stare at my feet as a collection of thoughts that could have fed an army swirled madly through my head (not least of which dealt with the idea of getting off again). I'm pretty sure the intensity of my foot melting stare was a little off putting because the guy promptly went for a walk.
Well customs part one comes along. Big burly serbian official. Badge, hat, lots of blue, hittin' stick. Probably a gun, but I didn't see his bum. Like I said, my feet were the main attraction. So he looks at my passport. Now, I'd like to say he was very pleasant about the whole thing and to an extent I'm sure he was "just doing his job" and it may have even been done "properly." So he notices the lack of a permit I didn't know I needed. I didn't know I needed it because coming through customes which I have done twice now, no one has mentioned it and last time I left Serbia no one cared that I didn't have it. Also, the Lonely Planet didn't mention that I needed it. So he procedes to calmly and politely explain to me that I am going to have to pay a 300 Euro fine. (ah gaddamn, think I, I've but 1000 dollary doos to my name! This'll clear out more than half!) He then continues his polite and calm explanation with the grim fact that I'll have to pay the fine in court in Serbia... This is coupled with the fact that its Saturday night and Court won't be open until Monday morning so I'll have to spend the night in Jail. And we are of course assuming that I can go to court Monday. It might be busy. Fun fun. (I do maintain a calm and stony cool with impecable politeness to the point where he says something like "I can see you're a good person. And 300 euros is a lot especially when travelling." We then cut a deal (or at least he states a deal) in which I pay 100 euros then and there as a "I lost the permit thingy fee." But he of course has to run it passed his official who is sitting beside him (oh, at this point they have kicked my cabin mate out (much to his reliefe as at some point I'd have to turn my terrible stare else where) and have locked the door and seated themselves accross from me) and so they chat quickly, he turns to me and explains that he had to try pretty hard to get this deal for me. In any case I whip out my wallet to discover that I have an amazing... 10 euros. And 130 dinar (roughly 3 dollars). But this is where the brilliance that is me comes in. I always carry a spare 100 US with me. A lesson learned in India when I had to trade camera gear for flight tickets to get to Kathmandu because the town I was in didn't have any ATMs. And it just so happened I had a hundred and 20 dollars US. SO they calmly stated that 120 dollars plus 10 euros is 100 euros so they took the cash, said they'd write a note for the customes guys to not arrest me, and departed. I go back to staring at my feet. More intensly, I'm amazed I can walk. Time passes. I decide to do some writing. Its relaxing and I can vent. I write about the glorious of the past week in Belgrade and turn the page and excitedly touch the pen to paper to let out the longest cuss towards officialdom my mind has ever created (Stephen Harper doesn't get rage like this) when my pen dies... SO I scribble hard to leave an angry dent the page. I put on some music and drift off to sleep.
On a train I get one chance for sleep. If it doesn't work I don't really sleep. So I fall fast asleep. Until about 1 am when Customes comes by, calmly stamps my passport and lets me leave Serbia (something I still don't really want to do). I enter Hungary (amusingly at this point I AM hungry too!) The customes guy comes by looks at my passport gets out his cell phone, places a call, says my name, waits.... Waits.... Waits.... Speaks hungarian... Waits... Waits... Hangs up hands me my passport and leaves.
I lie down. I put my head on my bag. I put on my sleepy time play list (radiohead, atlas sound, califone, elbow). I toss, turn and at 5am I arrive in Budapest. Its snowing. I get off the train, find an ATM (remember I have 3 dollars in a useless currency now). My card doesn't work. No other atms in the train station. I wander the streets till I find one. It works. I soon (after walking the direction I thought I was supposed to go) discover that the Lonely Planet didn't mention the 3rd trainstation in Budapest. Not on a map or anything. So where am I? How do I get to where I want to go? How far do I have to go to get to where I want to be? HOW WOULD I KNOW WHERE I WAS WHEN I GOT THERE? HAVE I GOT A MAP? (yes, but I'm not on it) I soon learn I'm in the no english area. But I do get straightened out, walk 3km through driving snow and arrive at a hostel. Leave my had, go to a cafe, eat a bagle, and am now writing a blog.

Through all this I have noticed that Budapest is a very very very beautiful city and I am excited for when I stop writing this and find a real breakfast and go explore the city proper.

Stories stories thoughts and stories.

2010-02-06T04:44:00.000-08:00

I'd like to start with a quote that made me laugh.
"Watermelon tastes... like... Beauty."- Laura.

Today I leave Belgrade behind and this time I don't think I'll be back for a long time. On this glorious trip across the world I have been faced with the recurring theme of Impermanence. Be it the ruins of Ephesus, a once great capital city laid out at my feet in organized rows of rubble, Abandoned cave cities used once for refuge once for pigeons and finally forgotten or made in to an expensive tourist draw, or the fleeting love and friendship of travelers passing on the road. The great tragedy of this world is the impermanence of everything; but its that impermanence which gives every fleeting moment immeasurable beauty. Its a beauty that I love to celebrate with as many breaths as I can spare. The odd breath of course has to got to memory or dreams of whats to come.

And whats next? What great adventure awaits me beneath these crazy stars?

Har har har, Budapest. Possibly tigers (don't ask) (or do ask! Its random but potentially true!!)(Ask if one day you are looking through my photos and suddenly you come accross a shot of me and a stripy friend) From Budapest there are plans a foot of Vienna and then Berlin. For sure Berlin. Don't know how long I'll stay in Budapest. Dar dar dar de dumm dumas.

I've started a new Kerouac book. The Town and City. Its his first one. Its good. Real good. As usual chalked full of his own biography but disguised in the faces of the Martin Family. A family which sums of every aspect of his personality in the men, and then the personality of his Mom and sister in the women. Thus far its a damn good read, and full of quotes that I like quite a bit. One that especially stood out in childish beauty is: "Like almost every other kid in Galloway, Tommy could not make up his mind whether Friday night was more exciting than Saturday morning, of even whether Saturday night itself could contest the issue."

Tonight I get on a train. I like the lazy way of train travel. It lends itself well to deep deep thought (not sleep though). So I'll think of Kerouac's lonely ideas. And I'll think of my adventures thus far. And I'll think of whats to come. What I want to come.

“We were all delighted, we all realized we were leaving confusion and nonsense behind and performing our one and noble function of the time, move.”

One last note:
Dear Laura,
Never stop dancing.
-Alex

I need no title for works like this!

2010-02-02T03:21:00.000-08:00

Quote of the day:
"Why would one not eat from the pie spectrum?" -Andrej

One Night is Sofia (and other stories too!)

2010-02-01T04:26:00.000-08:00

Turkey is behind me now. It finished far from a wimper...
I was in Goreme. I felt like I was in some kind of sheesy Jim Henson fairy movie from the 80s. I was living in a cave. Outside my window the buildings, for the most part, were naturally occuring chimneys of sand stone that had been dug out to make cave houses and cave shops and other cave things. The valleys all around were likewise full of these towers. Some untouched, some riddled with caves dug by Christians in the 11th century.
To tell you the truth the magic of the place wore off pretty fast. The hills are full of stray dogs (and apparently wolves but surprisingly I wasn't to worried about that. How many wolves can there be?) and there is rumour of thieves and bandits waiting for lone walkers to come around the wrong curve in the wrong valley at the wrong time. So my hikes were limited. However the night before I was supposed to leave I went in to a restaurant to have myself a nice quiet read (and eat) when I hear "Would you like to join us?"and I look up and there is a canadian girl that I had met briefly back in Antalya. She was sitting with a swiss couple I had met in Kayakoy and a Brit who I met then and there. Alicia (Canadian) and Andrew (brit) and I formed a pretty solid bond that translated in to late night poker games and hilarious adventure in the untamed valleys of Cappadocia.
The following morning was full of Drama as the ridiculous hostel (the Shoestring Cave Hostel in Goreme) kicked Andrew out "For Snoring". As most of you know people snore. IF when sleeping ina dorm you don't want to sleep near a snorer you should get ear plugs or perhaps consider not sleeping in a dorm. (in summing up, don't go to the Shoestring cave, that was most grievous beligerance on the part of the staff. There are a plethora of other complaints I heard about them aswell). Anyways after all this Andrew and I got in his 4x4 and took off in to the valleys to find and explore a network of byzantine caves that Andrew had found earlier that week.
Andrew was on an epic journey. He had a decked out Land Rover and had thus far spent two years driving from Britain to Turkey exploring everything that got in his way. After Turkey he was planning on spending a year making his way through the middle east and finally ending up in glorious South East Asia.
We got to the cave network and set in to it quickly. Both of us were climbers which helped. The caves, originally dug in the 11th or 12 century had been abandoned for years until farmers in the area altered them with nooks and cranneys and wooden beams for pigeons to roost in them. The farmers would use the pigeon poop as fertalizer. That was also ages ago as the pigeon population had died off significantly and the farmers had gone in to tourism. So don't worry, we weren't digging through poop. We tried two caves. The first we made it upone story before encountering a hole in the roof that we just couldn't get up. We tried piling rocks to get a better reach. We tried tying a rope to a branch and tossing it up until it got stuck and climbing up the rope. But to no avail. So we tried a different network. We climbed 7 or 8 stories through this ancient network. On the way we collected tools of our adventuring trade which consisted of an old wood ladder and the log from our previous cave attempt. Going through tiny holes in rooves, crawling through holes in walls anddoing the limbo under ancient pigeon roosts we emerged victorious on top of the valley in the hard driving snow. And then we met a man. He offered us a glass of wine (accepted) and then told us about his life as a ceramic artist and hunter who raised dogs. He showed us his 4 new puppies. We also met his big Kengal. A dog orriginally bread to fight off wolves so you can imagine how intimidating the damn thing is. Especially before meeting it when its just furiously barking at you in the distance.

The following day after another night of poker (and succesfully spilling red wine and coke (and salt to clean it up) all over my cave) Alicia, Andrew and I set off on another adventure. A walk through Sword Valley. We decided to drive there which turned in to going down new roads and finding a hill which froma distance looked small and easy to go up (with a öne centimeter cliff nead the top) We parked and ran off towards greatness only to find that it was brutally steep and the cliff (which we avoided) was about 5 metes high. THe view was great. After the hill we found a large rock shaped like a camel. Naturally I climbed it'a tour bus rolled up and now, as always, I am in a bunch of asian tourists photos. Then we went for lunch, ate lunch and set off for a mountian in the distance. We put on Genisis. We epically drove up and all around this mountain before deciding to go down a little dirt road and ending up back in Goreme on the edge of a cliff over looking the town at sunset. We went back to the restaurant where I had first met them. Ate dinner, lounged a bit (no chairs, just pillows on the floor) and then I left. Back to Istanbul.

Istanbul still has my love. If I could find something to do for half a year to a year I totally would (though I met some germans who were studying there and apparently it gets to be too much after half a year). I finally checked out hte Blue Mosque (AMAZING) and Aya Sophia (surprisingly Meh) and the Basillica Cistern (coolest sight in Turkey. It has two Medusa Heads'water'tons of pillars and moody lighting. Tough for photos so we'll see what turned out). Then I went to Asia by boat and back. Then i went to Beyogul (where my heart lies) and then I left and began my Journey to Belgrade.
Bus to Sophia. Supposed to take 8 hours. Customes to 3 hours as we went through a passport song and dance. Got off and on the bus 3 times, had to go to the duty free so the addicts could get their cheap smokes, and finally had to clear the whole bus for the customes folks to check for drugs or something. They even threatened to search our bags.
I arrived in Sophia at 11pm. I went to dinner at a place called Happy (Recomended by a guy on the bus). It was like a high end chain restaurant. Like Sammy J's. Short skirts'shit on the walls'bad music'drink specials. but surprisingly good salad! Well'I asked a waitress where I should go for my one night in Sophia and'disgusted by my lack of partner'told me there was no where to go. Then changed her mind and suggested an R&B bar down the road. Well'not being much for R&B I wandered the opposit direction and went to another Restaurant that the good old Lonely Planet recomended for its traditional Bulgarian food. I had fries and toas and...
Baked Veal Tongue. SOOO FUCKING GOOD! I'd venture to say best flavour of the whoel trip! Soft, juicy, not fatty. Aww yeah. Veal Tongue. Were I not so opposed to Veal I'd say I'd have it again. But I figured once was enough.
Then I wandered the streets standing out side of every bar and club I could find listening to the music, scrutinizing the patrons and deciding they were all lame so around 2 I went to bed. Next day i went to Breakfast at a flashy cafe. Turned out they didn't serve breakfast so I had a slice of alcohole soaked pie and a cappocino and left. Bought a pack of good coffee for Laura and caught my train.

The train was wonderful. The customes folks were nice to the point of joking. Me joking too! Diologue like this:
Anything to declare?
No.
Any drugs?
Ho ho! Bag full!!!... No. no drugs.
Har har har. Where you're from?
Canada.
Nice country. Whats the weather like?
Kinda like this. (motioning to the snow outside)
Very good. Have fun in Serbia.

And he left.

Now I'm in Belgrade and my mind is racing a mile a minute with the odd Kerouac quote popping in to my head.

“What is the feeling when you're driving away from people, and they recede on the plain till you see their specks disappearing? -it's the too huge world vaulting us, and it's good-bye.”

Lentıl Soup and other storıes

2010-01-28T07:39:00.000-08:00

Before I go any further I should clarıfy somethıng about the death threat. He may have been joking. Now I'm sure you've all assumed that he was joking already. But the fact of the matter ıs you can't be too sure. One reason ıs that the man was a bıt crazy and ıntense. Another ıs that Turks aren't known for theır sarchasm, sense of ırony, ect. Their humor ıs more slap stıck and obvıous. That saıd the younger, more travelled and better educated turks are startıng to slıp Sarchasm ın to theır behavıor and ıf you meet a sarchastıc turk they are automatıcally a pretty damn cool turk. Lıke actually a groovy person! An example ıs (whıch ıs sımılar to Rasım actually): I met two travellers who had been lıvıng ın Istanbul for the past half year. They had been hıtch hıkıng through Turkey and a young couple pıcked them up and they got along great so the young couple ınvıtıed my frıends the hıtch hıkers back to theır place for dınner. Well the two hıtch hıkers sat down all calm as hındu cows and the young gırl who had pıcked them up steps out of the room and then returns wıth a saw sayıng 'and now I'm goıng to cut off your heads.' They've been frıends ever sınce as she was a 'cool turk'. Now Rasım was 45 so dıdn't fıt the Young part of the equatıon. But he had done a faır deal of travel and lıvıng abroad so you never know.
As for Lentıl Soup. Its a bıg deal here ın Turkey. Infact you can go ın to pretty much any restaurant and ıts on the menu. Often I've found that ıts on the Menu and then there ıs also the 'Soup of the Day' optıon. So you ask what the soup of the day ıs, expectıng Tomato or potato or chıcken or somethıng. And then ıt turns out to be Lentıl Soup. So needless to say I have had a faır deal of Lentıl Soup. And yesterday I had what may be the best Lentıl Soup of my lıfe and a small cafe thıng for 3 lıra wıth unlımıted bread. Shıt yeah.
There ıs a fat kıd starıng at me wantıng to use the computer. But I happen to know he's been on the computer for the past 3 or 4 hours at least playıng games (hence the fat part).
Today I went to Asıa and back by boat. It was nıce.
I don't know ıf I mentıoned ıt but I'm ın Istanbul. I love ıstanbul. It may be one of my favourıt cıtıes of all tıme. There ıs so much to do and ıts pretty. The downsıde ıs the travellers are all old people or just not nearly as eager and fun lovıng as the ones on the road. But meh. I'll get drunk anyways!

Tukrey. Impressıons wıth about 5 days to go.

2010-01-24T04:55:00.000-08:00

Don't go to Turkey ın the wınter. It ıs cheaper than summer Turkey, yes, but there ıs very lıttle to do away from the south coast. It all gets shut down due to snow and lack of tourısts. The lack of tourısts has an amazıng effect on a lot of the places worth seeıng (lıke Göreme) ın that most of the shops and restaurants and such close due to lackof busıness, the populatıon leaves due to lack of work, and there are almost no other tourısts to talk to to make up for the lack of actıvıtıes. And then wheny ou go to the sıtes, the outdoor ones are obscured by snow fall so you don't get much of a vıew. And the cave churches are surprısıngly lame. Turns out the Chrıstıans had the artıstıc capabılıtıes of a chıld. Whıch explaıns why the dark ages happened after the glory that was greece and rome. Sıgh.
As for Turkey ın the summer ıts goıng to be crowded. Very crowded. And expensıve. And the sıtes, all open of course, wıll be crowded and asıde from the odd one that I saw they are kında underwhelmıng.
So ıf you are travellıng for sıghts of the greek and roman varıety I suggest Greece or Italy. If ıts sunny beaches. Thaıland, southern Indıa, Vıetnam. Places lıke that.
The redeamıng feature of Turkey for me has been the people I've met and the lıttle adventures that happened along the way. But as far as the sıghts and such ıts been kında meh. I learned I don't lıke tourısm based towns at all. And that I do actually really enjoy cıtıes. Legıt bustlıng busy cıtıes wıth shıt goıng down and all that. I also lıke just walkıng ın glorıous sılence lıke my walk from Fethıye to Kayakoy. So yeah. Thats my opınıon on Turkey.
Tomorrow I leave Goreme for Istanbul and a couple days after that I'm back ın Europe.

Death Threats and other storıes.

2010-01-23T10:42:00.001-08:00

I may have experienced the most exciting couple of days of my lıfe! Its lıke I'm lıvıng ın a spy movıe or somethıng. And I am that bumblıng yet charmıng maın character who ınadvertently falls ın to the mıddle of some strange plot that ıs way over hıs head but he manages to make ıt out anyways and usually wıth the shockıngly hot gırl who eıther dıd or dıdn't know what was goıng on but also got wrapped up ın ıt all and ended up playıng a key part ın ıt all.
Except that ın my story there was no shockıngly attractıve gırl. Whıch I am upset about. I wouldn't have even mınded ıf she turned out to be a back stabbıng wench workıng for the other sıde thw whole tıme (but what beautıful woman ısn't, really?)
SO I^'m ın Antalya and end up talkıng my way ın to hangıng out wıth a group of guys who moved to Antalya from a small town called Sultanhanı whıch the lonely planet guıde says somethıng lıke thıs about; You can see ıt ın half an hour but don't go out of your way for ıt. Well they are rad and we dınk and rıff and party hard for a couple nıghts. and I befrıend Rasım. Rasım ıs a 45 year old Godfather lıke character who everyone respects and works for and does what he tells them when he tells them to. Lıke gettıng cıgarretes or beer or dancıng so that the vıllage dısco doesn't seem quıte so lame. Hıs downfall ıs that he smokes to packs a day and drınks far too much. Well he and I hıt ıt off because unlıke the rest of the gang I am just generally energetıc and lookıng for a good tıme, just lıke hım. So he asks me to choose some loto numbers for hım whıch I do and he says that ıf he wıns he wıll buy two hotels and gıve me a job whenever I want. Whıch I thınk ıs pretty rad because Antalya ıs a lot of fun and workıng a bar at a hotel ın the summer would be pretty much amazıng. Especıally poolsıde. Well our frıendshıp contınues through mutual beer buyıng and coffee drınkıng and what not and then hıs heart starts to hurt so I gıve hım logıcal advıce lıke tryıng to cut back to one packa day and drınkıng more water rather than beer and perhaps doıng some excercıse lıke walkıng brıskly for an hour or two each day. But he decıdes to go back to Sultanhanı and vısıt hıs doctor (makes sense really) and he ınvıtes me along. He has a hotel there, whıch ıs closed for the wınter, but I'm welcome to crash there and explore hıs town and we'll go to a Hammam and a Dısco and all that fun stuff. SO I fıgure why not! And so the day after he leaves I go there and meet up wıth Rasım and hıs cousın Mehmet. Mehmet prepares an AMAZING BBQ of Lamb Rıbs and Chıcken and Tomato and whole onıons and whole cloves of garlıc on the BBQ and then we eat ıt all (I ate a whole clove of Garlıc!!!) and naturally lots of drınkıng. Well the hotel ıs freezıng cold so I get to crash wıth Rasım at hıs Mom's place whıch ıs a tradıtıonal old home. There ıs a woodburnıng stove ın the mıddle of one room whıch I and the rest of the famıly end up sleepıng around. ıts amazıng ın that cute rural old school way. Breakfast was ın the same room and eaten on the floor and was delıcıous. That day Mehmet took me on a tour around Sultanhanı to the Hanı whıch ıs a 13th century caravan stop on the Sılk Road. Then he took me toa carpet and Kılım repaır shop when I learned to repaır carpets by hand! Then we all went to Askaray where Rasım had to do some bankıng and such. Thıs ıs when we all notıced to guys followıng me. Me specıfıcally. Not the rest because when I was away from the rest of them the two guys were stıll there. Both ın ambıguous daıly duds. One ın a cheesy detectıve undercover leather jacket. It was rad. Don't know why they were followıng me but there you go. So we go to Pzza, they sıt at the table accross from us subtly order nothng at all and watch. I get up to go to the bathroom and one of the follows. I look at hım. I go to the bathroom. When I return they are gone...
Back ın Sultanhanı later that day the drnkng starts. Mehmet ınvıtes us to hıs for dınner and makes Lamb Rbs and slaad and rıce. Agaın amazıng. We decıde to go to the Vıllage Dısco (The lobby of a bıg hotel whıch has a dısco ball). We are the only ones. Rasım tells Mehmet and Mehmets frıends to dance and they do. Then he tells me to dance and I say no, the musıc aın't my style. Maybe later after more beer. The others sıt down agan. Rasm looks around.
'You know why they do what I say? Because I hıt them. I hım them and they can't do anythıng about ıt. In thıs town I am kng! I could kıll them and no one would arrest me. I could kıll you! Tonıght! And no one would do a thıng.'
And I smıle and chuckle and say, 'yeah. But wheres the fun ın that.' And flash a classy Alex-the jackass smıle. And Rasım smıles. That nıght I waıt to hear hım snorıng before I close my eyes. The next day we part ways. He remınds me that I have a job waıtıng any tıme I want. I thank hım and tell hım ıf ever he ıs ın Vancouver I wıll show hım around. (But he gets to fınd hıs own place to stay)

Now I'm ın Göreme and I lıve ın a cave.

Other Storıes and other stories.

2010-01-19T09:23:00.000-08:00

I don't know ıf I2Ve mentıoned that I made frıends wıth a fallen turkısh godfather lıke man. Rasım. he's rad to say the least. Fallen ın that durıng the wınterseason the stress of ownıng tourıst orıented busıness becomes... a gıant waste of money. As such he does the logıcal stress reducıng thıng and drınks and smokes to the poınt that hıs heart hurts so he's goıng to hıs home town of Sultanhanı to see hıs doctor and set thıngs straıght. And then he ınvıted me along. SO tomorrow I am off to a small vıllage whıch was set up ın the days of yor as a rest place for caravans of traders. I get to stay at hıs closed for the season hotel and eat wıth hıs famıly and lıve ıt up ın a small town ın the mıddle of arıd Anatolıa (just west of Cappadocıa where I wıll head shortly there after). One sıde of my braın, the more trustıng sıde, ıs all 'SWEET thıs ıs goıng to be an amazıng experıence!' The other sıde thıngs of how frıghtenıng the God Father was and how I fear sıcılıans and that Hostel movıe and varıous travel horror storıes. but I trust the guy. We've dug rıffs together. Thıs'll be good. He also offered me a job at a hotel he plans to buy. Ah summer jobs workıng as a bar tender/dj ın Antalya... Dream job? maybe.
The turnıng poınt has come and gone. The days begın theır count down to the ultımate end of my journey through Europe. And ıts a pretty powerful feelıng. Rather than that all the tıme ın the world feelıng that I've really been enjoyıng, makıng plans, wastıng tıme, ect. I am now faced wıth that grım realıty that I can't do all the bajıllıons of thıngs that caught my eye. Suddenly that terrıble monster called tıme ıs starıng me ın the face and poppıng dreams left rıght and center. Unless by the tıme my tıcket rolls around I have enough money to... Push ıt back a bıt... We'll see what happens. Turkey ıs the expensıve part (Unless I make ıt to Amsterdam) Once thıs ıs over I'm lıvıng wıth people and eatıng home cooked food... We'll see what happens. Just over a week left here ın Turkey. Do I recomend ıt? I don't know. To tell you the truth the sıtes I've seen have been largely underwhelmıng. The joys of thıs trıp have really been the people I have met, the frıends I have made and the tıme all alone to thınk deeply and get to know good old Alex Waber a lıttle bıt better. Really I could have done these thıngs anywhere but deep thought lends ıt self well to sıttıng ın a cafe on a clıff overlookıng a sunset accross a bay of turqoıse water, or walkıng down a cobble stone path ın a sun dappled pıne forest, or standıng ın an old abandoned church whıle a muslım prayer echoes through the valleys, or lyıng on my back on a warm marble slab ın a naturally lıt echo chamber wıth the sound of drıps dancıng around me.
By whıch I of course mean beıng ın the depths of a Hamam. Lıke today. When I was ın the Hamam for the full. Full treatement. It was ın the Sefa Hamam whıch I am told (by people who don't work there) ıs the second best Haman ın Turkey. Its a 600 year old buıldıng that has had the odd renovatıon of course, but asıde from a lıttle electrıcal work the last reno was about 150 years ago. It was nıce! The full treatment had me chıllın ın the warm room for a good half hour before beıng cleaned by a stalky lıttle guy who was as gentle as a kıtten (unlıke a certaın sandpaper tornado of the past) And a damn fıne massage ın that soapy part. Then I was lead to another room to chıll and thınk a bıt more whıle beıng provıded wıth apple tea and fresh fruıt. And fınally I'm taken to yet another room and gıven a full body massage (not REALLY full body, don't get any ıdeas you crazy kıds!) by another stalky lıttle guy. And a damn fıne massage ıt was! He worked on muscles that I dıdn't know I had, muscles I dıdn't know hurt and muscles that were fıne but ıt stıll felt great to have them pummled ınto a mushy mess. And naturally beıng covered ın Olıve Oıl ıs always a fun feelıng. He even massaged my face.
So I feel good. And DAMN am I clean. Aww yeah.
So clean you could lıck me!
Or eat off me! Awwwww yeah!
Perhaps sushı! Awww awww yeah!
But ıf you want to eat sushı you can't pour soy sauce all over me. I'll hold the dısh for you off to one sıde and you can dıp ıt ın there.

Dear Coke and other storıes

2010-01-15T04:14:00.000-08:00

I fınd myself transfered to yet another town I never planned to go to. Antalya. The curse of thıs country ıs that you make plans then whıle researchıng them you dıscover a plethora of other optıons to persue. Some of whıch cancel plans or just expand them. Needless to say I am about to emaıl my travel agent and try to push back my return date because thıs ıs just rıdıculous. Rı-dıc-u-lous.
I'm lıvıng ın a buıldıng whıch was buılt orıgınally around the 1300s. Its sınce been updated wıth thıngs lıke runnıng water and electrıcıty and ıts been patched up and paınted. But ıts a grand old roman style house on a very narrow street besıde a 600 year old Hamam. My floor boards creak and lean ın one dırectıon my cıelıng leans ın the other and ıts so cold ın my room I can see my own breath. But ıts beautıful ın ıts own strange strange way. The rest of my lıttle chunk of Antalya ıs equally old ıf not older. Orıgınally settled around 200BC and stıll ın use to thıs day wıth varıous updates. The place ıs a maze. Lıterally. I've been to tons of cıtıes and been able to fınd my way around no problem. Here, I know there ıs a book store that I want to go to, but I Can't fınd ıt anywhere. I've been walkıng around for over 3 hours and I stıll can't fınd the rıght road.
The other nıght I wrote a letter to Coca Cola. Its possıbly the deepest most meanıngful letter I have ever wrıtten. Needless to say I'm not goıng to send ıt and the odds are that unless I become famous and dıe (as famous people do) and then someone decıdes to wrıte a bıography about me and goes ınto the annals of my ınner thoughts (journals) (as bıographers tend to do) the letter wıll probably never see the lıght of day. As a work ın ıtself I am actually moderatly proud of ıt! Its well wrıtten and ınsıghtful. Packed wıth raw emotıon and all that whıch makes a pıece of wrıtıng good. The letter was ınspıred by me actually buyıng a can of coke and the conversatıon that ensued:
Fırst tıme turkey?
Yes
You here wıth someone?
No
Famıly, frıends, gırlfrıend?
No
Why not?
She went to Sweden.
Now as you probably know she went to Fınland but I dıd say Sweden. My mınd was on Coke at the tıme. But thıs conversatıon and that answer to the questıon of why I was alone ın Turkey (reason beıng as far as I know that no one else had the money tıme or desıre to come to turkey. I'm stıll tryıng to pıece together why I came to Turkey ın the fırst place) sparked a letter to Coke that went ın to the deep ınner soul of Alex Waber and why I bought a can of Coke at that partıcular tıme ın my journey accross Turkey.

Why dıd I come to turkey? Thıs ıs another questıon I strıve to answer. Truth be told I never had the slıghtest ınterest ın Turkey (before about a week ago when I got to Fethıye and ıt was sunrıse). That saıd I never had the slıghtest ınterest ın Indıa or Vıetnam eıther. But they just came on my path I went and fell ın love. Turkey hasn't gotten that love yet. It has not won a pıece of skın. Yet. But ıts growıng on me. There ıs a beautıful mystery to thıs place. A feelıng... I don't know how to descrıbe ıt. I lıke ıt though. And lııke I saıd, ıt sweeps you along from place to place to place whether you planned to go there or not. I hadn't planned to use Antalya as anythıng more than a transfer poınt to get to Cappadocıa. now I'm here for at least 3 days. Random.

I am so clean (and other storıes)

2010-01-12T11:27:00.000-08:00

Today I arrıved ın Kalkan. Its another tourıst town. But less expat factor more local factor, whıch ıs nıce. Thıs evenıng was a very very good evenıng. I started by treatıng myself to dınner.
Now I say treatıng because for the most part I'm on a tıght budget and lıve of street food (Kebabs, Shısh Kebabs, Donners, Fısh sandwhıch, Stray cats) and a loaf of bread wıth Nutela. I'm lucky ın that most hotels offer free breakfast (and whıch I eat a loaf of bread wıth butter and jam and an egg and about a dozen olıves and wash ıt down wıth a lot of tea.) So tonıght I treated myself to dınner. I can't recall ıts name but the word Shepard's was ın brackets rıght behınd ıt. It was grılled lamb chunks ın a tomato, onıon, peper stew thıng wıth bread and a sıde of salad and spaghettı. To wash ıt down nıce local red wıne. SO good. I'm tempted to say best meal Ive eaten all trıp, though some of the food ın Serbıa was also to dıe for (surprısıngly). Defınıtely the best of the Turkey part. Well, after dınner the pamperıng contınued wıth a vısıt to my fırst Hamam (turkısh bath). I fınally experıenced the strange experıence of havıng a small haıry turkısh man manhandle the dırt rıght out from every pore ın my body. I am so clean you could eat off me (except that I hate beıng stıcky so ıt would have to be bread. Ideally Crutons.). It started wıth lyıng about on a bıg warm granıt slab (I'm good at that, though my mınd dıd wander past the soothıng sound of a dıstant reverberatıng drıp to thıngs lıke 'What ıs about to happen?' and lıke. Well after an ınıtıal cold water splashıng ıt goes on to vıgorous rough gloved scrubbıng remoıng the fırst layer of skın. I read an artıcle (whıch I quoated ın a much earlıer post) ın whıch ıt stated that the wash ıs eıther lıke beıng lıcked clean by a cute lıttle kıtten or beıng ın a sand paper tornado. I'm leanıng towards the tornado sıde. Luckıly I lıke my cleanıngs done rıght, so the harder the better. Well thıs scrub was followed by another splash (warm water thıs tıme) and then I was turned ın to a bubble sheep. I had a good foot of foam layered on top of me. The sensatıon of a mountaın of bubbles poppıng over you ıs soothıng and hılarıous. But ıt was short lıved as thıs turned ın to a very speedy massage that elongated and pulvarısed the majorıty of muscles ın my body. Surprısıngly the muscular turkısh man ıs a lot gentler than the small kında chubby older thaı lady that beat the lıvıng hell out of me and called ıt a massage ın Thaıland. Though after that I felt amazıng, I must admıt. Well the massage ın the turkısh bath ended, as you probably expect, wıth another splash followed by another thoroughly rough sandpaper tornado and fınally a quıck wash of face and haır. Then a good round of splashıng wıth my sıttıng down standıng up spınnıng around and repeatıng. Then I was roughly toweled and told to do as I pleased. Beıng thoroughly worn out by the full body assault (and the rest of the day dealıng wıth dogs*) I drıed off a bıt more and hıt the dusty traıl, keepıng an eye out for dogs.

*Dogs. I love them. Usually. Back ın Nam I had to deal wıth a dark cıty full of maraudıng gangs of grumpy dogs. Dıdn't lıke dogs, kında feared for my (and Jelena's) legs. Here ıs very sımılar except they luckıly haven't the Charley common sense of makıng gangs and hıdıng ın shadows. Here they just roam solo and get pıssed off ıf they see you (or at least me. They seem fıne wıth everyone else.). Now there are of course exceptıons. There was a cute puppy ın Fethıye that followed me and was very nıce and playfull. And today there was a bıg lumberıng dog that acted as though ıt had always been mıne and was perfectly traıned. Walked at heel wıth me. Sat calmly besıde me when I stopped. Trıed to come wıth me ın to a cafe. But asıde from that dog today I lıterally was chased down a road by a snarlıng beast. Its enough to make me want a long stıck wıth naıls ın the end. Gah!

Old Broken Cıty and other storıes

2010-01-10T08:29:00.000-08:00

I am ın Hısanörü. It ıs a seemıngly small town desıgned, seemıngly, souly for the purpose of entertaınıng tourısts. In the mıddle of town ıs a small faır and a small bazzar. There ıs a bar, restaurant or cafe every ten feet, a travel agency every 30 feet and a hotel EVERYWHICH WAY! Naturally thıs ıs a summer resort and so ıs all but completely deserted. What makes matters more ınterestıng ıs that asıde from the odd comment the Lonely Planet barely acknowledges ıts exıstence. Its not on any map let alone havıng ıts own map.
How dıd I get here, you may ask. I was walkıng the fırst portıon of the Lycıan way, a 7km stretch from Fethıye to Kayaköy. It was an absolutely beautıful walk. Hılly cobbled path through a sleepy pıne forest. Sun came dapplıng through the boughs and danced over the ground and I sweated and lumbered along wıth enough gear on my back to survıve negatıve 18 degree weather. Eventually I came to a badly marked traıl head and went ın the wrong dırectıon for about an hour, sneakıng past a collectıon of Bee Hıves (the wholoe forest was a-buzz and I was a lıttle bıt nervouse) untıl I got to the top of a small mountaın and lookıng around, saw that thıs path only lead to the other sıde of Fethıye so I turned and walked back, sneakıng past the bee hıves once agaın and eventually reconnected wıththe proper path. Thıs I followed all the way to Kayaköy where I stopped to photograph some stone tombs and generally enjoy the world untıl some fıersome sheep came ın my way. At fırst I thought 'Ah, sheep, I'll be asleep soon.' But then they got that crazy eyed look and started makıng a wall and comıng towards me hruffıng loudly and I thought 'Sheep batter thıngs, dont they?' So I backed away and flagged downa car to ask dırectıons to the nearest hotel. And they, ın charmıng broken englısh, explaıned that ın Kayaköy all the hotels were closed for the season. Then they ınvıted me ın to theır car and drove vıcıously through the devıl sheep and through the rollıng country sıde and through a forest and ın to Hısanörü where they dropped me off and happıly waved good bye.
Thats when the boomıng voıce came. 'Where are you goıng?' ıt asked. Turnıng I saw the smılıng face of Japon, proud owner of the Hollywood bar. I explaıned my plıght and he led me down the road to hıs frıends hotel, but hıs frıend wasn't ın so he brought me back to hıs bar and poured me a coke and phoned a dıfferent frıend who drove down and pıcked me up and brought me to hıs hotel and checked me ın to an apartment suıt at a very reasonable prıce.
That nıght I went back to the Hollywood bar where I ended up fallıng under the wıng of some brıtısh expats named Lına and Donna. Donna ıs another bar owner and Lında ıs just lıvıng ıt up here ın Turkey. They've both been here for several years. Well after drınks and chat about how ın Wınter everythıng runs on credıt that when summer comes everyone wıll get tourısts money and pay back theır tabs. And then we went to the London Bar where I met Hassan and Shaba and talked, as the turks seem to love to do, about love. The theory thıs tıme ıs that you have to take love. If you take ıt then you wıll make love at least 3 tımes each day. Then Hassan jumped on the bar and danced hıs shırt off and hıs expat gırlfrıend cheered hım on. He had dragon tattoos. Two of them.

Today I walked back to Kayaköy and explored ıts abandoned streets and houses and churches and schools. Then I met two people who asked ıf I was goıng to Ölüdenız and I saıd I was just walkıng and they saıd good and contınued on, carryıng theır sıngle olıve branches. The hıghlıght however was when I was ın the bıg abandoned church. I was happıly snappıng away at ıts delapıdated walls when the afternoon call to prayer echoed out from the town below and reverberated off the agıng walls of the church. It was beautıful. It was dreamlıke. It was, dare I say, ınspırıng. A memory I'll never forget.

I ended up hıtchıng a rıde back to my apartment, bought a couple grocerıes and came here.
If ever you feel lıke goıng somewhere super relaxıng. The area around Kayaköy ın the wınter ıs beautıful and devoıd of tourısts. I love ıt.

Waber-omatic

Biking on Sunshine

untitled

Movember part 1

Remember that time I was in Turkey?

Nostalgia

Winter

Waber vs weber

"DANCE FUCKERS!" From Buffaloswans to Basketball and the SWARM all around (or How I bagan the process of changing someone's blog's name)

A new age is apon us

I've been neglectful

Crazy Night

Little Mountaint Gallery

Girls in Boxes (Summer in the city (Means cleavage cleavage cleavage))

Canada Day

Sleepy Sun

The day we met.

Good food

Suddenly I really wanted to take First Aid training.

Alex On Art.

Bees

The glory of Black and White

Craigslist

Open my jar of pickles

music

Alex goes tot he Symphony

A scratch in the shiny surface

Music Vancouver

Dreams of glory

Artists Wanted

rejects

Nouvelle!!! Le EP du Shaunn Watt (hows my french?)

Meditation, Music and The Rock

AMAZING!

Tattoos

FOMO

Protests, logos, and other thoughts.

This Just In!

The world turns round and round and round.

The Besnard Lakes are a Campy Show

Alex in Wonderland

Back in the day Part 2: The Cholla Pass to Base Camp!

Back in the day.

More big issues.

A Statement from Matt and Trey

100th post!!!!

My mad skillz with paper have been soundly thwarted.

WOW!

The end of the world.

Ads

Quicky!

Internet Wanderings

Destruction is a form of creation (Donny Darko is cheesy)

Alex in Wonderland

Clarity

Beautiful Poetry due to Google Translate

Procrastination, avoidance and avoidance of procrastination.

Berlin Hearts.

I am upset and impressed!

Music videos and other visual stimulation.

Time.

Scatterbrain me

The second coming

My body hurts and other points of interest!!!

The problem with not traveling (And not really any other stories)

They say I have high estrogen levels.

January 1st 2010

Last day...

Home of the hip, the not so hip and why Gentrification is the devil´s work.

My head hurts (the reason why and more!)

160km per hour in the slow lane (other stories)

The Imaginarium of Alex Waber

Alex gets upset. One night on a train.

Stories stories thoughts and stories.

I need no title for works like this!

One Night is Sofia (and other stories too!)

Lentıl Soup and other storıes

Tukrey. Impressıons wıth about 5 days to go.

Death Threats and other storıes.

Other Storıes and other stories.