C'est quoi ça?

Depuis le commencement, j'ai voulu ecrire ce bloque en anglais et français. J'étais un peu embarassé d'ecrire parce-que je ne suis pas completement bilingue. Mais, ca ce n'est pas le but de ce projet. Le but est d'amerliorer mes capabilités d'ecrire.

Des fois je lis un bloque d'une fille quèbecoise, et elle ne gêne pas du tout. Elle ecrit moitié en francais et moitié en anglais. Je suis assez capable faire pareil, et je le ferai!

Alors, depuis maintenant, j'ecrirai quelques postes en français quand l'espirit me tien.

Challenge.

Challenge yourself everyday. Difficult undoubtedly. If you continue to reach for more and more it leaves you open to fail and feel frustrated. The flipside is also true. It prepares you and moves you closer to greatness.

Mandatory

Seriously, does every city HAVE to have a "Hotel Europe" in order to be considered a city? Regardless, it's quite a classic looking institution here in Vancouver.

The whole diversity issue

I might be obsessed with the concept of cultural diversity. As of late, the issue has been plaguing my conciousness. In particular, I am increasingly concerned about the 'Canadian identity' and what that will mean in the future.

Like most of the people I know, I consider Canada to be a multi-cultural country. This is true and not up for debate. Unlike some people however, I fear that Canada's identity is at risk of being replaced by a series of individual cultural identities, rather than a unified multi-cultural identity.

The situation isn't so dire, but at the same time it is something that needs to be addressed. In many communities around Canada, there is extreme ghettoization of certain immigrant groups. Individuals can exist speaking their mother tongue not knowing a word of either official language nor needing to. For individuals who live in these areas, I wonder what the Canadian identity means to them. What does Canada represent to someone who lives a marginally different life than the one they lived in China, India, Iran or Italy?

If Canadian municipalities continue to foster this cultural isolation versus an integrated social fabric, the Canada of years to come will merely be a society of societies each distinct. None the Canada I believe we can be.

Memories of New Westminster

Everyday I travel past the downtown area of New Westminster, the future sight of our condo. There are some beautiful old buildings that make up the downtown area near the river and give an idea of New West's old past. I have wanted to shoot this building for quite some time, but just had not got around to it.

It is to the west end of the downtown and in a bit of a dodgy area. I worry that it is ear-marked for demolition and won't be preserved. It is sheet metal or something of the sort, so unlike the brick and stone buildings popular in the area, this one doesn't real hold much renovation possibilities. The colours are beautiful though, and I love the old writing style along the side of the building.

Everyone has their favourites, this is definitely one of mine.

Torontoist-TTC photos

Anyone who loves cities finds it easy to see beauty in the mundane. Scenes that thousands walk by everyday are beautiful to few. In particular, transit stations and transit hubs are often the most loathed and loved sites in a city. Some stations truly are works of art, and are treated as such.

I received an e-mail the other day from a gentleman in Toronto named David Thompson. He runs a sited called Torontoist. The site is dedicated to everything that is Toronto. One project in particular that he wrote about was a photo project (self-assigned) that he worked on throughout the summer. His task was to photograph one transit station a day.

For anyone familiar with the TTC network, his photographs will surely hold some special place for you, but even those not familiar with the places will enjoy them. Original angles and interesting subjects. Check them out here

A Life Designed

An interesting article on designing one's life. The article discusses how the concepts and principles of design can be used to get more out of life. The idea is that the reason for design is to envision a better way of doing something and then working towards that vision. In the same way, we too can design our lives to derive maximum satisfaction from them. Worth the read, check it out.

Friendly stranger

Being the fool that I am, I rode to the grocery store only to discover upon arrival that I had forgotten my u-lock. In some neighborhoods this might not have meant much, but in Surrey BC that bike would have been stolen before I fondled my first mango in the produce department.

Luckily for me, a very kind women happened to be walking by while I was in the process of "Shit I forgot my lock". She kindly asked if I would be long and then offered to stand guard over my bike as long as I moved it into the shade. Definitely a simple action, but seeing as how I hate the suburbs more and more each day, her simple gesture of generosity renewed my faith.

Pay it forward the next time you see a silly soul sans u-lock, quarter, pen, pocket or button.

The Death and life of ...

For the past two weeks or so I have been reading "The death and life of great American cities" by Jane Jacobs. For those not familiar with the book, it is a jargon free approachable read on what makes cities beautiful places full of life and activity and what makes them sterile and void of life. It is an excellent read and will definitely change the way you look at the built world around you.

In the past chapter, she spoke on properties necessary for diversity within a neighborhood. I especially enjoyed this quote by Paul J. Tillich (some Harvard professor cat), "By its nature, the metropolis provides what otherwise could be given only by travelling; namely, the strange. Since the strange leads to questions and undermines familiar tradition, it serves to elevate reason to ultimate significance ..."

Changing face

The east end of downtown Vancouver is one of the most beautiful parts of the city. A good deal of the heritage buildings are found here, and it is arguably one of the most walkable parts of the city. There are a number of tourists because of Gastown, which makes up a sizable portion of the east end and is the cobblestoned area near the waterfront. The area gets it's name from an old time saloon owner who apparently had an issue with flatulence. Besides the tourist shops, there is a great deal that this area has to offer any interested "flaneur".

This past Friday I spend the better part of the evening roaming through the small streets that make up this area. There is some spectacuar shopping to be had in some of the small boutiques that line the streets around W. Cordova and cambie, as well as around Abbott and Water St. Tons of unique clothes, furniture and interesting odds and ends. Some seriously expensive shit as well, including jeans worth more than my kidneys and couches that require a mortgage.

This all makes for interesting walking, but to me the highlight of the area is it's buildings. I love the old brick and stone buildings that are hard to find in other parts of the city. They really add a lot of charm to the area and make for captivating street corners. One building in particular that is worth seeing is this swanky clothing shop along Water St. that is made entirely of glass and has no side walls. The glass front butts up against the two buildings on either side of it, so that the walls are the adjacent buildings. It has a soaring ceiling and receives wonderful lighting. You'd think I would have taken a photo, wrong. Either way, it's worth checking out, as is the rest of the area.

The area isn't all glamour though, as a few streets in the "wrong" direction and you are faced with the all too familiar dark side of Vancouver. Numerous junkies down alleys and a huge homelessness problem. The extent to which these are a problem is really hard to imagine, and if for nothing else the trip down here is worth it to gain a better understanding on just what life is like off Robson St. With all the change in the area, the city will have to provide some real solutions for the people in this area.

Ain't it grand

Quick make a list of 5 things you love. Pretty easy huh? There is a great deal to be upset about, disturbed by and downright angry about. Open a newspaper if you can't think of shitty things. Somehow though, there are always little things that just make us smile and hopefully that's what most of us can remember and focus on the most. That and trying to do something about all that shitty stuff.

Bring your own ...

A while back I came across a posting on a website from a gentleman in Toronto who was interested in reducing the number of disposable chopsticks that get used in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and other asian restaurants. I thought it was a great idea, but didn't give it much thought after that. Just today though, I came across this article about a movement in China and Japan towards reducing the number of disposable chopsticks used in the respective countries. It would make sense that these countries would lead the transition away from disposable, but I would suspect a sustainability loving city like Vancouver won't be too far behind.

Check out the article here