3 posts tagged “denman”

Since I spent most of May not blogging, here's a random update to kick off June.  (You're welcome.)

• I bought a bus pass/student ID holder at the dollar store last month to use in my commuting.  It is awesomely: a) originally from Korea (and came with a subway map of Seoul), b) called a "Multi-Trance Pass" (pretty sure they meant transit), and c) has a picture of a cartoon dog wondering, "Are you happy?" on the front.  (Answer: yes, but only because of this pass holder.)
  

• Shane accompanied his tennis partner, Etienne, up to the Lynn Headwaters in North Vancouver recently to get some fresh mountain spring water.  They stopped by the side of the road and simply filled up some jugs from an aquifer there.  It was easily the best water I've ever tasted.  (Fuck you, Aquafina.)
  

• The herons have been back for awhile now, so we are well within the months of late-night heron brawling (which sounds not unlike a ten-car pile-up) and all-night chirping heron babies.  Ah, nature.
  

• Two of my seven classes ended last week, so I can now enjoy five weeks of no school drinking on Fridays.  Woohoo!  I plan to savor this time, as the term after this is supposedly downright hellish.
  

• The weather here has been ridiculously beautiful lately.  The sun has been shining, the temps have been warm, the breeze has been cool and the bikinis have been plentiful.
  

• With all my recent school-inspired hoodie-love, Shane decided he wanted to give hoodie-dum a shot.  In the past couple of weeks, he purchased three new stylin' hoodies, all of which look fabulous on him.  (If you bother him enough, maybe he'll let me take a picture.)
  

• Our new favourite joint along Denman Street is the place that moved in to the old Cupcakes location: Qoola.  They sell a fantastic frozen yogurt (among other goodies, including loose-leaf tea) and the majority of their trash is biodegradeable.  Compost that, bitches.
  

• I was recently inspired by one of VeryScaryCarnival's posts to start assembling a "Things I Miss About the States" post.  So for those of you worried we were so over the U.S. of A., look for that in the coming, uh, weeks?  (Or at least sometime before August.)
  

• Shane is gearing up for a 5K PR on June 12th.  He's been training to beat his old record while running a race out at UBC (on a Friday night, strangely).  I have been training to steathily sneak myself some of the post-race veggie burgers.
  

• I just learned that Dollhouse has been renewed for another season!  While this news was not met by the insane rejoicing of FNL's multi-season renewal, our household is pleased.  (Especially since Without a Trace had its series finale last month and Grey's Anatomy is still sucking lots of ass.)  (Thank god The Office is still funny.)  (Oh, and the first person to mention 30 Rock will get a complimentary shot to the nuts.)
  

In addition to the aforementioned explosions, our weekend was filled with some colourful culture.

On Saturday, we ventured out for the Powell Street Festival in the notorious Downtown Eastside.  For those who may not know, this poverty-stricken area is the place in Vancouver for drugs, prostitution and other such shady business.  We tend to avoid even driving through there, but the event was going on in Oppenheimer Park (located in the midst of it all), so we jumped on a bus and rode through the craziness.

The festival is a celebration of Japanese-Canadian culture, and we got to experience a little of everything.  We started by perusing the craft booths, which included very cool origami art, hand-crafted tea sets and several sushi-shaped items like jewellery and candle sets.  We tried two Japanese items for lunch: a hot dog with seaweed, terikayi, and wasabi mayo (surprisingly good) and some dorayaki (sweet, bean-filled pancakes).  And we smiled at the few Japanese phrases we overheard and recognized from watching Sailor Moon.

Much like the Sawan Mela event a few weeks ago, the performances here were amazing.  The groups ran the gamut from contemporary (a Japanese-Canadian punk band was rocking out when we arrived) to traditional (featuring one set by the same duo we saw at the Ohanami in April).  We really enjoyed watching the taiko drumming group, whose members managed to combine precision with equal parts exuberance during every piece.

Sunday was the day of Vancouver’s infamous Pride Parade.  After walking around at the Powell Street Festival all day Saturday, staying up for fireworks that night and then completing our regular six-mile run on Sunday morning, we were looking forward to relaxing during this event.  Clearly, we had no idea what we were getting into.

The Pride Parade this year stretched out over 3 miles and took 3 HOURS to finish the route.  Not that this made it boring; oh no, it was 180 minutes of PURE PARTY.  We joined the spectators (estimated to be near 500,000) in clapping, cheering and dancing around as the participants and floats – with their live bands and blasting techno music – cruised by, rainbow-hued flags, banners and balloons flying behind.  The parade was brimming with a celebration of the GLBT community and sexuality in general; I absolutely loved it.

Mixed in with the requisite drag queens and scantily-clad twentysomethings were some unexpected faces.  Coming from the Midwest (where such participation is unheard of), I was pleased to see the number of political figures (current mayor, mayoral candidates, the local MP and the leader of a national party!) joining whole-heartedly in the gaiety.  And there was even representation by the firefighters, police, EMTs, Mounties and armed forces.  Canada, you kick ass.

Overall, the Pride Parade (and the weekend in general) left me with a feeling of pride for how welcoming Vancouver is.  But it also taught me an important lesson: next year, we are totally bringing chairs.

As you may have surmised by now, there is a real affection in this city for anything anti-car.  We’ve been here just short of three months, and we’ve witnessed at least one event or demonstration every other week.  We’ve even been stuck at a major intersection walking back from grocery-shopping once, due to the (seemingly never-ending) parade of bicyclists (clothed ones, thankfully) participating in the monthly Critical Mass ride.  I fuckin’ love it.

So of course we joined in on the fun during Sunday’s Car-Free Festival.  Throughout the day, various streets and blocks in Vancouver were limited to traffic of the foot and bike variety.  In the West End, Denman Street (one of the major commercial roads in our area) was closed to vehicles from 12-6.  Much like the Grand Old Day event in St. Paul, food and merchandise vendors lined the street and local businesses spilled over from the sidewalks.

The variety of entertainment was impressive.  We saw musical acts ranging from native to folk (banjo included) to techno to punk.  We watched demonstrations in break-dancing, tango, salsa, and Brazilian martial arts.  And I just about died of happiness over the number of adorable puppies running about.

Conveniently, this event was held THREE BLOCKS from where we live.  So we were able to walk the walk (literally) and leave the car behind.  No worries though, The Couv, we still love your sweet (albeit semi-polluting) ass.