Totoro birdshouse

Dagmar built us an indoor-Totoro-birdhouse!

Dick Tracy and the Mad Killer

Did you know that comics used to look quite different during the old days than today's Mangas? The displayed comic "Dick Tracy and the Mad Killer" was found by a trader in an old barn in Victoria and he sold it to me for a few bucks. This is how comics looked like in 1943:

Tourist attraction 1

I think today we visited the first real tourist attraction in Vancouver since we arrived. The Capilano Suspension Bridge. Its just 20 minutes from our house by car (when there is no traffic, otherwise up to one hour). Since we have a car for this weel we figured we have to capitalize: Get out of the city, do something we don't usually do etc. Except for the tourist stuff around it the forrest around the Bridge is really nice and its a good way to show tourists that might not go to the forest otherwise the beauty of it. We also went for a walk in the Capilano River Regional Park nearby where it is more natural and there are less tourists. We watched two bald eagles chasing some other bird (which was also pretty big).

One year to go

Its exactly one year until the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver beginn. Just a few days before the Richmond Olympic Oval opened its door to the public and this weekend there were family activities to show what a great place the Oval is. And it really is. The architecture I found very impressive but unintrusive. I liked the combination of industry look with concrete and the warm wood in the roof. We are looking forward to see this venue on TV! Tickets are too expensive :-(




skating area on the inside


ice sculpture outside

Networking

Last week I did quite a lot of networking. First we went to the Game Design Expo at the Vancouver Film School. We watched a few lectures (Prototyping, Secrets of designing enjoyable games and "Women in Games") and attendes a workshop on storytelling and flash in games. It was like an open house day and free so there were a lot of people. I still got to talk to a "real" game designer from EA. She does mostly level design and strategy and could explain same things I never really could understand (like what is QA? = Quality assurance, well that was easy) plus had a good link for job posting on facebook :-)



On Monday I went to the monthly Graphic Design Meet Up, which was in a nice pub on Granville Street. We were about 15 designers (Web, Print, Typograpy ...) The oldest was about 55 but most were my age or younger. A lot of freelancers, a teacher, a startup partner and some jobsearchers (one was just laid of). We talked about a lot of things, design or not design. I learned that there are two mayor indian languages, that the Hotel Rem Koolhaas build in Beijing burned a day before and that Fontlab is the new Fontograoher! Nice people and deffinately worth going next time.

The other networking event I went to was "Twestival" a initiative that was organized in 200 cities around the world on the same day just time shifted because of the different time zones. Already at noon I could watch the live stream from parties in London and Stockholm, 9 hours before the Vancouver event. I did not know a single person but there were some people I met and at the end I had a few new ideas and about 5 new followers on Twitter (still not much but I am not an active twitterer anyway and don't think I will ever be). It was interesting to watch people and some also talked about there Twitter experiences. All in all it was nice to be at a global event organized by volunteers, sponsored by local businesses and supporting charity : water, a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. Its always great to combine fun with a good purpose.


Incoming "tweets" on a screen during the Twestival


Good beer and snacks with some good talks are much better then twittering (with strangers) sometimes!?

Gang Violence II

This time, it's not about the great music band but about real gang violence. Over the last two weeks, fights among local gangs have escalated and lead to nine shootings in the last eleven days. Most of these shootings took place in the suburbs (map of 2009 homicides), but last Sunday violence break into the heart of our posh Kitsilano neighbourhood when unknown subjects gunned down a 28-year-old in front of Kit's IGA supermarket. Considering that it is Valentine's day today, it makes me thinking of the classic Roger Corman's 1967 film The St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

Link to a CBC news report in RealMedia Player streaming format

Hank Pine and Lily Fawn

You think, comic books and live guitar music with a mariachi-like trumpet and background-singers, dressed up as nun, won't go together? Hell, it does!





It was the night when Broken Social Scene played some sold-out big stage and we didn't get any tickets anymore that we went to the free-by-donation afterhour session of the Push club where Hank Pine and Lily Fawn from Victoria performed. They are a performer and comic book drawer duo, who dress up like their comic characters on stage, performing a mixture of music with a true punk spirit.



The atmosphere was great and despite seating, most people got up and started dancing, many of them dressed up for the night, too. And last not least, the music was great too as you can listen yourself on MySpace or watch on Youtube (unfortunately, a less impressive night where they played without this week's background band):



Screw Broken Social Scene, this was way better !

Peanut Butter Cookie

Yesterday night, I was going to buy a very cheap but handmade peanut butter cookie from a small shop near Granville Island. When I came to the counter, a crazy old woman, who looked a bit like a witch, asked: "Ohhhhh, that cookie looks good!" Then, with that lurking tremble in her voice: "Is it a peanut butter cookie?"

Unsuspecting, I answered "Yes!" and she hysterically cried: "Did you know that people are dying from peanut butter?! Where does the peanut butter come from? Google it! How do you know it's safe? Shopkeeper, is your peanut butter safe?"

To explain her strange behaviour, I did google peanut butter and found out that she referred to a food scandal one month ago, where American peanut butter contained Salmonella and five people died, 400 getting sick. However, the shopkeeper calmed her down and cleared all my freshly induced fears:

"My cookies are safe, they cannot be poisoned by food scandal in January. For my cookies, I only use very very old peanut butter."

Bon appetit!

Yellow Sticky Notes

This film is about an animator illustrating his career on over 2300 yellow sticky notes. He starts his journey with moving to Vancouver and taking classes at Emily Carr Institute. Major world events between 1999 and 2007 flow in from one note to the next during this experimental personal project. (via graphicdesignbar)

shame on UBC's engineering students

A group of UBC engineering students were arrested Monday morning after being caught trying to suspend a Volkswagen Beetle from the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge.

The group could face charges of mischief over $5,000. This is the first time the students have been charged for what has become an annual traditional with UBC's engineering students.

Image source: DPA (Biennale Sao Paolo): Thats how you hang a beetle

Der Spiegel
Vancouver Sun

idioms 2

• white elephant: Something that was cool when you bought it, but over time it lost its glamor and its use
• to dig your hole bigger: By excusing for your mistake, you make it even worse
• right down your alley | right up your alley: If something is right down your alley, or right up your alley, it would be perfect for you or ideal for your skills and interests.
  

Safeway lyrics

If you want to save money on your way, Safeway isn't a safe way.

Chinese New Year Parade 2009

parade with umbrellas




lion dance


... a bit frightened of the lions


fresh dumplings sold on the street...


...soup and noodles to get warm after the parade

More about Chinese New Year

Push 2: 20-minute-musicals and The Beige

Last Thursday, I went with some friends to another play from the Push festival, including two 20-minute-musicals by Veda Hille and Bill Richardson doing one inspired by Craigslist, and Geoff Berner doing one based on Steve Fonyo. The waiters had dressed up in 20s like clothes, the craigslist musical was pretty funny, singing about all the strange things you can buy there, finally ending with the "I have seen you" section...

Geoff Berner was very cynical and maybe it was a bit too much: It started easy, with the main actor introducing himself as "Douglas Coupland, who wants to be the writer of a whole generation although his books get worse and worse. But there are still some guys in Europe, who are reading my books!" In the persona of Douglas, he visited the broken existence of Steve Fonyo who tried to repeat the success of Canadian one-leg hero Terry Fox (he got a monument in Vancouver downtown). For non-Canadians: Despite Terry Fox had lost a leg through cancer, he ran from Canada's East to West Coast and raised millions of Dollars for cancer research. Tragically, he died from cancer shortly afterwards. "The, well, less charismatic" (quote) Steve Fonyo tried to repeat this run, but couldn't cope with it, became an alcoholic and shoplifter. A kind of Canadian "Matthias Rust". Together with the fictional Douglas Coupland, he now goes to disgrace the grave of Terry Fox... A bit too much, maybe, very cynical for sure. For a review, see Kriss blog.


Image: McNee, playing Douglas Coupland with a photo of Terry Fox in the background (oh, I want this sweater!)

After these two musicals, The Beige entered the stage. A great band from Vancouver with a beautiful website and a likesome beautiful name. I was told that in an international survey, only the Canadians had chosen beige as their favourite colour. Because it was so average and nobody wants to sit on a fence... Therefore their name - go and check them out, now: www.thebeige.ca/