well it blinds me back to light

Handclaps for you this Sunday.

Trying a new file host, File Den is currently dead to me. Hope this works.

In the Daylight - Stars Don’t Sleep (thanks, Liz!)

oh velveteen

After my first attempts with felt, I wasn’t sure if I would try it again so soon. Then I stumbled across self adhesive felt. Peel off the back and stick. Excellent I thought, this will make things more easy. Well, it made things less messy it was not necessarily easier. Most tedious craft I have ever attempted. I’m still regaining feeling in my arm.

So this is my first practice run at the Space Invader series I hope to do. Few bumps to still sort out, but not bad I think.

The goal is to do the entire game, framed like above and put them up on a wall, and change them about to make it actually look like the game is in progress.

I think I might need more wall space.

And a ruler.

i like raisinettes too

rockabilly blues

I’ve been fortunate lately to have seen some great concerts, and have quite a few more lined up for the coming months; Spoon, Timber Timbre, BRMC…

However, sometimes the best shows are the local gigs.

If you’re living in Van, and haven’t checked out the Grove Pub at the Waldorf, well you must. I will be sure to let you know when the next showcase series I attended tonight is playing again. I believe it’s a monthly thing. I was blown away tonight. I wish the acts I saw had clips on the web to share, but alas I haven’t been able to find anything.

And really what’s better on a Friday night then an excellent atmosphere, local talent and a crowded dancefloor?

Well, Bulmers Cider instead of Strongbow would have made it aces, but not much else.

like a mountain

I haven’t been too vocal here about the upcoming Olympic games in Vancouver. Because once I start in on the subject, it gets me so angry, I can’t even see straight.

The first summer I moved to Vancouver is the summer they got the Olympics, now six years later it’s on our doorstep, and I find myself in an interesting place working in the Arts community, not in Vancouver, but in what is still considered the “metro” area. I am so very lucky to even be here, as provincial cuts to my sector were announced just two weeks after I was offered this job. I know for a fact working where I am now, they would have pulled the posting knowing they were going to lose 35% of their income. To a non-profit organization that is huge.

There are many other issues surrounding the games, that the rest of the country seems to just now be waking up too, and how horribly everything has been handled. From now on when people ask my why I’m upset the situation I’m going to refer them to this clip. Please jump to halfway through, 4.45 to be exact.

When he mentions communities outside of Vancouver (where I live and work), I also I can’t help but think of my time spent in Northern BC and seeing first hand the horribly unequal spread of wealth when it comes to anything really, but especially local schools, heritage organizations, etc. There is Vancouver, which gets 92% of any government funding, and then everything else. Do you know how large this province is?

So more than anything, I’m just frustrated. Frustrated that attention is not being paid where it should be. I knew years ago choosing a career path in heritage would be difficult, but it seems to be getting worse.

Still, I’m hopeful. Why?

Well, I sat tonight, as I do every third Thursday of the month, chairing a programing event that we put on for the members of our historical society, but is also open to the public. It’s a lecture series, different speakers every month, usually draws 40 people tops. Tonight, standing room only as close to 100 people crammed into the hall. After I introduced everything, I got to make my way to the back of the room and stand against the wall and listen to a story about local history, which was actually quite fascinating. Reminding me that it is definitely true; towns make the cities, not the other way around. Yet nobody usually ever stops to ask where it all started.

My friend asked me the other day if I was going to move into Van soon. I smiled and said no, I like my view from here; the fringe.

maybe there’s a trapdoor under my chair, and i’ll just disappear

J.D. Salinger passed away yesterday, at the age of 91.

Perhaps best known for penning The Catcher in the Rye, still I was always more of a fan of Franny and Zooey and the Nine Stories series, although I enjoyed Caulfield, too.

There are certain Vonnegut books that I typically buy over and over, as I tend to loose copies in moves, or just like to collect different covers really, I also collect copies of Franny and Zooey. Do you ever do this? Starts by accident and then before you realize you  have 5 copies of the same book. It’s only with these two authors that I really do this with though, perhaps because I hold such a strong attachment to them as I started reading them in my early teens and those things just stick with you.

Well Mr. Salinger, for your sake, I hope nobody brings you flowers.

R.I.P.

retro

Ha, Kazaa.

Do you have a site, or program that you used a lot during the early days of the interweb, but don’t anymore?

What website is now your go-to click?

Besides here, of course.

iwhatever

*UPDATE*: It has been released…iPad. Read more here. Looks exactly like the leaked photos, and I lost my price guess…however all prices are in US dollars and you know they’ll up the price here, like the iPhone.

It starts at $499 for 16GB, 32GB for $599, and $699 64GB. Adding 3G costs a $130 per model, so the most expensive model (64GB / 3G) is $829. The WiFi-only model will ship in 60 days, and the 3G models will come in 90.

If you’ve followed any kind of tech news lately you’ll know that Apple is releasing a new tablet tomorrow. Rumours have been circulating whether it will be called an “iSlate” or “iPad”, etc, and you can read more about its alleged features here.

The Boy and I were discussing price points for this new product, based on what we’ve read; He thinks $699, I say $899. He is not an Apple fan. Or rather, not a fan of how the products/parts are grossly overpriced, and we have the Mac vs. Other debate a lot. He builds his own computers so he normally wins the argument.

Anyway, as we were discussing this new product, and even as an Apple fan I’m struggling to see the market for it.

The Boy: Don’t worry, in a couple months they’ll introduce the iStrap to go along with the “iSlate” and it will all make sense.

Me: What?

Boy: The iStrap:

A wrist/arm band attachment for the iSlate. Made with velcro so you can wear it like a portable computer pad, on your wrist, arm or even leg. It also comes with the iShield; made of a hard plastic protective case that when added to the iStrap forms a cool shield to deflect Mac haters.

Me: (laughing) That would make a good comic; you should draw this out.

Boy: You know something like that’s coming. Apple can do its thing, I’m waiting for this.

Any piece of technology that has your fancy lately?

smile vancouver

There’s been a bit of a stir here in the lower mainland over the surveillance cameras that were installed last week, and will be turned on Feb. 1 for the Olympic and Paralympic games. Just under 1000 cameras according to this article from the CBC. All the talk now is about if the cameras will stay after the games, which end March 28th.

Although according to this, thousands of unnamed, private cameras are already pointed at the downtown core.

When I first moved to England it was a bit of an adjustment getting used to the country’s 4.2 million cameras. I recall having one right on the outside bank of my flat, but after a while you forget about it, and it gave me a little bit of a sense of security, however false it may have been. As reports have shown in the UK that the presence of cameras in certain areas only pushes the crime to areas where cameras are not, and that they do not so much prevent crime, but tell the facts after. Of course one could argue this still helps in the overall process.

I’m really on the fence here; I can see the arguments for and against.

What do you think?

maybe he should be illegal

Any Magnetic Fields fans out there? I know there are a couple of you at the very least.

I’ve been a fan for many, many years but I was really disappointed with their latest record, Realism. Have you listened to it?

It was not the fun, humourous music I had grown to love over the years. It does complete the “no-syth” trilogy, and as been noted as the bands “folk” album. Now I do enjoy folk, but it just didn’t fit here for some reason. Perhaps I had trouble getting their back catalogue out of my head, not sure, but hopefully we’ll be back to basics for next time around.

For now we have old favourites…