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Cambie & Marine Drive
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 1052
I don't know why, file this under another of my mislaid memories. Monday, off thrifting, South Vancouver. I start on the Canada Line, ride down to Cambie and Marine Drive.
Now this haunts me - I can't figure it out, but that phrase - that intersection - has been with me since childhood. And since this is the start of my thrifting tour get out and check it out.
Nada. No memory cues or clues whatsoever.
I don't know why, perhaps - as a child, decades ago, I obsessed over a magic store located nearby. That's the only reason I can think. And here, in Edmonton, I asked my father, he has no recollection either. So - that must be it - if ever I was here it didn't make much of an impression, unremarkable in every respect, but a good jumping off point to begin a fine day of thrifting, during which I found 2 pairs of cufflinks for the boy (one, theatre, silver masks of comedy/tragedy, appropriate, the other a "SWANK" pair of female buddha's - TARA - arm outstretched in a blessing, silver again, huge, vintage 60's or early 70's, maybe an inch across, masterpieces, need only to find him a fitted lotus dress shirt with French cuffs and he'll be set... other finds, books, shirts, countless others left behind - it was a great thrifting day.
And still I wonder what once was at "Cambie & Marine Drive".
Vancouver to Edmonton
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 1086
So a couple of days away from work - I'll come back to that in another post - and I'm ready to head to Edmonton for Xmas. It's been a long time. And my flight - a WestJet ticket out of Abbottsford, I'm regretting the "deal" - (!!NOT) I got on the ticket when I realize I have to spend another $50.00 and 2 hours on the bus.
Meh. The day is largely given over to travel, a few trifles before I leave, I'd planned to get some 'shrooms from one of the dispensaries around town, but they're too obviously packaged, there's no subtlety whatsoever. I compromise and get myself a gram of "African Goliath", fill in the required "Medical Disclosures" - essentially for medical reasons & not recreation - and far be it for me to enjoy myself - and I'm off to the Station to catch my discounted flight ($650? TO Edmonton? Are you PAYING ME BECAUSE IF YOU ARE $650 ISN"T FUCKING ENOUGH!!!!)
But nope...
Anyways, a rainy day, waiting to get on the bus and then waiting to get on my flight to Edmonton and then waiting to land in Edmonton...
Only, get to Abbotsford and I can't seem to find my flight. Where's my flight? Chill. Don't worry. Notice that I'm not commenting on the Abbottsford International Airport - or countless hectares of rainy parking lot, filled to the brim with cars. I mean...
Another time...
So, can't see my flight, wait for the "Departures" screen to clear and load the next screen. Grab a coke, Grab some twizzlers, wait. Go for a smoke. Wait.
And, weird, it's like - this Abbottsford International Airport - the "Departures" screen doesn't update...
And checking my ticket - trying to find what's up, searching for it, for the flight, and -....
FUCK I'm departing VANCOUVER. YVR. "WHERE IS YVR??" I ask someone - but, maybe, not "asked" so much as pleaded or shouted and shook them in a panicked and insane realization...
Then a mad dash into the rainy evening again and hail a $200 cab into the Vancouver International Airport.
$250 spent on the nighttime tour of Abbottsford. Burn it down I say.
And how - how exactly - did I come to understand I was leaving from Abbottsford? I have no clue, only that from the moment I booked my ticket I was 100% sure I was leaving through Abbottsford, and - take this as a lesson for life - 99% of our certainties are most certainly wrong. Hang on to only 1 % - let the rest go - because - well, you need an anchor someplace or you'll go insane - and when you've found new certainties let the old anchor go as well and drop a new one in better harbors.
So, finally, 5 hours and $250 later and I'm at YBR, smoking, getting ready to get on my flight, take my "African Goliath" mushroom - 1 gram, a microdose, and head through security.
Chatting with the daughter, who tells me not to grab a glass of wine inside - "It's OverPRICED" she tells me, and - this microdose - whew - wow- the colors are great and I'm feeling the release of waves of anxiety and I'm gonna grab a glass of wine, even if it is overpriced. And - it is. $24.00 for a glass of what I was pretty sure was Jackson Triggs. $24.00 and tip option on the machine that starts: "18 - 20 - 25%", and - fucking hell, I don't have to say it. She should have told me the price, not that it was "OverPriced", maybe phrased it more as "Would you prefer a Jeep or this Glass of Wine", at which case I would have made a better decision...
This takes my mushroom glow off in a hurry, but it comes back when I wander away from the bar and eat a chocolate bar. Also overpriced but not $24.00 overpriced. Fucking amazing.
And - definitely not a tripping dose, but a hell of a lot more than a microdose.
Finally, plane is late, board plane, cram-packed, full to the brim, a late departure - but a mere hour and 7 minutes to Edmonton. I mean the flight. The whole fucking journey, well, that was an Odyssey, an ordeal, but it seems I can't go anywhere lately without it turning into a shit-show of one sort or another, so - relative to all other adventures this ones a trifle, I'm glad I'm here, warm, and a few days away to pray the weather relents before I head down to Nelson.
Nightmare Alley
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
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Guillermo Del Toro's Film Noir & remake of a classic film about a grifting sideshow carny. Permeated with a dark ambience, great set pieces and props, good performances by Cate Blanchett, Ron Perlman, Willem Dafoe, that said it grows a little stale and old when you can see the ending clear as day a mere 20 minutes into the film. After which it becomes a tired exercise in seeing how it realizes itself. Meh. Although - the sideshow attractions, the tarot cards, the good Psychiatrist's office - they all serve to inspire, merely a less predictable plot would have driven it along a lot better.
The Vampires
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: People
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The Persian girl, her boyfriend, a couple of others...
"Long-timers" here, almost as long as I, they've adapted to living in the Hostel by sleeping all day, and spend all night up gaming on their computers. They come into the common area, 9, 10:00 PM, set up their computers, they're there when I finish work, and again when I wake up in the morning, before packing their shit up and going to bed.
They're just here passing time, and I'm wondering - why? I mean - why be here - overpaying for squalid quarters - and not looking for a more permanent or cheaper place to live, find employ - the Persian girl, she has anxiety attacks every other day - and no wonder - but - her lifestyle is largely fueling it.
Curious, this, these travelers, one imagines their reviews of Canada or Vancouver in the next edition of "Lonely Planet" - "Days are grey, nights are dark, WiFi is so-so...".
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