trees

intertidal walk

At low tide the beach is a very exciting place to visit. Seagulls and crows think so as well and search for clams that they lift up in the air and let them fall down on rocks to crack the shell and get their treat. But despite some cracked shells and crab bodies the beach is still full of life even when the water is sone. Clams and mussels are well adapted to the tides so they wait deep down in the sand or with their "door" closed for the water to return. The seedweed dries in the sun but will return to life with a little bit of water.

a day at the beach

Centennial beach, boundry bay, Delta


Kitsilano beach


Kitsilano pool


Kitsilano Beach at sunset

birds

Here is a selection of the birds that we are seeing around us here. Most of them are very common but still fascinating to us because some are not found in Europe. For example the Hummingbird in the top left corner. It is only native to the Americas and fascinating because of its fast wing beat that enables it to fly even backwards. Some species are really tiny and often seen around blooming bushes, almost looking like insects. The American Robin has a beautiful voice and is easy to identify with its red breast.

Yesterday we saw a red winged blackbird (top reight corner) which I found quite impressive. It didn't look at all like the european relative that we know as "Amsel". Herons, crows and seagulls are seen a lot during low tide scanning the beach for clams, crab and whatever else is eatable. The screaming crows are very annoying when they try to mob other birds or animals (squirrel). Sometimes I even wake up because of their noise in the morning.

The bald eagle can be seem circling large bodies of open water all around the coast and there are even several eagle nests close to the city.

Fashion

This photo shows the perfect Vancouver hipster: He is wearing an ironic moustache and a lumberjack shirt, combined with Converse sneakers, tight-fitting jeans and some kind of hat.

Grouper live @ Zulu Records

Last Sunday, Grouper, the opener of Animal Collective, played a short live gig at Zulu Records. Although she made a slightly bored impression, it was amazing to see her handling all those little cassette recorders which she looped and accompanied with her voice and her guitar, creating a dark ambient sound landscape.

Battlestar Galactica landing on Earth

Do you remember when the crew of Battlestar Galactica landed on Earth Nr. 1? That scene was actually shot at Centennial Beach in the Community of Delta near Vancouver. By chance, the same beach is part of one of our current projects where I also visualize a dark future, in this case the impact of sea level rise. However, flip through some images of the reality and of the Battlestar universe:


photo: Olaf







Last three images: Dark Mojo Blog

Church of MacDonalds

As you can see, we made a field trip into the suburbs today. And passed by the Church of MacDonalds...

Gaming Industry Opportunities in 2009

As you might know, Vancouver is a hotspot of the game industry: The HQs of EA, Relic and others are here and it's a pretty big industry. On Thursday, we attended a panel discussion on the opportunities of the gaming industry in the face of that so-called recession and as many of you are somehow gamers, I wanted to share the key outcome with you:

- Not all the companies are actually going down:
Up: Activision (owner of Blizzard and their cash cow World of Warcraft), Nintendo (Wii), lots of small companies producing casual games
Down: EA, Disney (some big high-end games and sequels)

It seems that you can now become successful by aiming at the casual players as well, not only through hardcore gamers. On the other hand, hardcore gamers still provide the best margins as they are willing to pay high prices for high-end games.

Other trends:
- The AppStore has become a great success story and every day, Apple approves about 200 new games for the iPhone
- The success of the AppStore might be a first step towards Digital Distribution, which is going to change the distribution chain a lot
- The other big trend is to link social network pieces and their stickyness to games to create a community etc.

So, if you are in one of these fields, digital distribution or social networks, you're pretty well off. On the other hand, competition in these markets is increasing and the gain from advertising decreases, which is problematic for many free2play games.