Vancouverianer

Blog ausgesetzt

2010-07-31T13:02:00.001-07:00

Aufgrund unvorhersehbarer Ereignisse mussten wir unseren Aufenthalt in Vancouver vorzeitig beenden. Deshalb wird dieses Blog bis auf weiteres nicht fortgeführt.

Open House at the Olympic Village Vancouver

2010-05-16T22:25:00.000-07:00

Dagmar`s work: Don`t trash your food campaign

2010-05-09T21:42:00.001-07:00

Sunset at Heritage Harbour

2010-05-09T21:40:00.000-07:00

Janes Walk 2010: The History of Coal Harbour

2010-05-09T21:39:00.000-07:00

View from the cityhall rooftop

2010-05-09T21:36:00.001-07:00

Shadow of the seagull

2010-05-09T21:35:00.000-07:00

Canadian baby geese

2010-05-09T21:32:00.000-07:00

Emily Carr semester end exhibition

2010-05-09T21:29:00.000-07:00

Japandroids @ Lifetime Collective April 30, 2010

2010-05-09T21:26:00.001-07:00

Great live performance by this two-men only band.
http://www.myspace.com/japandroids

Salt Tasting Room

2010-03-28T20:07:00.000-07:00

Dagmar's coworker Mia celebrated her farewell from Vancouver at the Salt Tasting Room in Gastown which offers an intriguing concept: You get a selection of three cheese and meat choices and three complements. If you wish, the waiters will also select three wine tastings that match your choice of cheese and meat. It's all set in an stylish urban setting, neat.

http://www.salttastingroom.com/

Orienteering in Burnaby

2010-03-28T20:04:00.000-07:00

Although orienteering (Orientierungslauf) was big in Switzerland, especially at ETH, we first tried it in Vancouver. Actually, in Burnaby, Central Park. Burnaby is more of a suburb as you can see in the photo - interesting for urban designers!

People, Pixels and Planning Conference in Castlegar, March 5th

2010-03-07T17:51:00.000-08:00

I was invited to the People, Pixels and Planning Conference in Castlegar and after an excellent workshop, I was glad to have a full day with glorious sunshine for sightseeing. Castlegar was founded by the Doukhobor, a Russian Christian sect that had been exiled from Russia. A museum and some Borscht on local menus are still reminders of that history:

Lonely Planet says that Castlegar was primarily known as "Highway junction 3 and 3A" and upper and lower downtown centres are still a bit of a reminder of that history:

On Saturday, I also got to see the neighbouring city of Nelson which is more famous for its coffee-culture and local arts.

Sotchi 2014

2010-02-22T00:25:00.000-08:00

From the Russian House - Sotchi 2014 model

Considering that a dodgy oil company and Volkswagen will be major sponsors of the Sotchi Olympics, Vancouver 2010 will really be the Greenest Games ever (for a while...)

Kruzenshtern

2010-02-22T00:24:00.000-08:00

Promoting Sotchi 2014, the Russian government sent the Kruzenshtern bark to Vancouver as well.

Olympic Flame

2010-02-22T00:21:00.000-08:00

Is it a prison camp? NO - It`s the Olympic Flame!

Dagmar volunteering

2010-02-22T00:12:00.000-08:00

Dagmar has an even much more intense experience of Vancouver 2010, up in Whistler close to the athletes. Here a first photo:

in the streets

2010-02-22T00:08:00.001-08:00

The atmosphere in Vancouver is amazing, nobody had expected such crowds crumbling through the streets every day, day and night.

Cultural Olympics

2010-02-21T23:49:00.000-08:00

Street Performances

Deadbeat live @ Code 9

Code 9 Exhibition

Dave and his bands rocking The Vogue
The Arbutus Collective

Broken Falls Community Hall Band

Hockey Czech Republic VS Slovakia

2010-02-21T23:43:00.000-08:00

Kick-off

Is that Putin?

Dress Rehearsal (Generalprobe)

2010-02-21T23:31:00.001-08:00

In eigener Sache

2010-02-21T23:27:00.000-08:00

Wie die meisten Leserinnen und Leser dieses Blogs vermutlich schon wissen, haben wir die Möglichkeit erhalten, noch ein weiteres Jahr in Vancouver zu verbringen. Den Januar über haben wir uns erstmal wieder eingelebt und es ist nicht viel Berichtenswertes passiert. Mit dem Beginn der Olympiade hat sich das aber gewaltig geändert, denn in diesen zwei Februarwochen ist so viel los dass wir überhaupt keine Zeit mehr hatten, hier im Blog davon zu schreiben. Bitte entschuldigt daher die längere Pause - ab jetzt gibt es wieder öfter Fotos und auch die eine oder andere Geschichte.

A-Team film set

2009-11-15T14:55:00.001-08:00

Yesterday on the way to the Circle Craft christmas show I had to get of the bus one stop earlier because the street was closed for a movie set. Nothing special in Vancouver but still I am always curious and walked by to find out what was going on. There was not much to see but when I walked by I noticed a sign on the buildung "Königsbank" and got a bit suspicious! I asked a guy who seemed to be working there which movie they were filming and he said "A-Team, the movie" which is supposed to come to the theatre next summer. I asked about the sign too and he said the scene is playing in Germany or Austria. Later I also noticed all the German licence plates on the cars standing around. There are also some bad guyes played by Germans as the crew member told me (what a surprise) and they even had someone to rope down from the building. I guess it must be playing in Frankfurt, where else do you have skyscrapers like that in Germany or Austria? On a Taxi it said Berlin, but the other licence plates were from all over, even some swiss ones.

I found this movie on youtube:

Kind of funny to see German police cars in downtown Vancouver!

A-Team crew member with coffee in front of the Königsbank (which is usually Blenz coffee :-)
Below: German Taxi in front of Königsbank with sticker saying something about gyms in Berlin! and Canadian no parking sign!

Swiss licence plate on a downtown Vancouver Street!

Fall images

2009-10-19T18:56:00.000-07:00

Portland

2009-10-13T15:24:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was Canadian Thanksgiving and Monday was a holiday. We decided it would be a nice long weekend to take the Amtrak Cascades south to Portland, Oregon. The train takes eight hours and it is a very scenic ride along the Northwest Coast and the Cascade Mountains. Seattle is about halfway and also Bellingham and Everett seam to be interesting places. For the direct train we had to be at the train station just after six in the morning and just about managed to do all the bureaucratic stuff and security checks before the train left at 6:40 am. We enjoyed the ride towards the border with all the bridges over the Fraser river and also the clear view of the coast was great. We saw shipwrecks, container ships and lots of fishermen.

Pearl District

Delicious Tuna at Bay 13

In Portland we walked to our hotel in bright sunshine, quickly refreshed and headed out again to check out the city. We took the Portland Streetcar which has a Fareless Square that covers most of the area that was interesting to us. The Portland Streetcar is the first new streetcar system in the US since World War II to use modern vehicles. They are similar to Swiss trams but were build in the Czech Republic and shipped to Portland complete.

Portland at night

In the Pearl District we explored the streets with old warehouses and industrial charme. We found a stylish seafood restaurant and I had some amazing tuna while Olaf went for the steak. We wandered around the Pearl District a little more and went to another cafe for coffee and dessert. It was getting cold and we still had some time to kill before the concert started, that we wanted to check out. The concert was alright but it was even more intersting to watch the Portland cultural scene and try some of Oregons microbrewed beers.

Indian Corn at the Farmers Market

On Saturday we alreday knew we would check out the Farmers market at the University since it was recommended to us by Kristi and Ben when they were in Portland two weeks before. After trying a few things we bought German style bread, rawmilk cheese and pesto for breakfst and some apples for a snack. We walked around some more, went to a crafts market at the waterf ront and when we were getting tired we went to Wordstock mexican restarant just across from the, a bookfair, and listed to some readings and discussions. For dinner we took another advice from Kristi and went to the Bailey's Taproom were you can have 20 different, changing constantly local beers from microbreweries. The torta and Enchilada were a good basis for the beer and the athmosphere was relaxed but vital.

Olaf in th City of books

Powell's books

An Sunday we met with an old "virtual" friend of Olaf, Claudia and her husband Stephen. She is German and has been living in Portland for ten years and plans to stay. We went for brunch and had a great time talking about all kinds of things even though we just met. They also showed us around the North West of Portland and 23rd street with its nice shops and cafés. We enjoyed staying at the Ace Hotel for the last night, a design hotel with each room different. Our room had a graffiti like slogan on the wall and a working record player with over ten records. We enjoyed listening to music instead of the TV and the restaurant next door served excellent past as well.

Our room at tha Ace Hotel

Monday morning we still had some time to walk around downtown and the Pearl district, went to Powell's books again and got ready for the long train ride. Unfortunately the ride back was really fatigable. We had a delay of almost an hour and when we were finally in Vancouver there was still a lot of waiting and the customs check, when all you want is go home. Riding the train in North America is really different than in Europe. There are people on the road waving or taking pictures, as if they had never seen a train before and the peole on the train also act like its their first train ride ever. The things we like about riding a train are that you can read and enjoy the landscape. European trains are much more quiet though, while the Amtrak Cascades is constantly squeaking and blowing the horn for cars and pedestrians to watch out at crossings. Also there is a lot of waiting at Signals when cargo trains is coming through and even the Skytrain is faster while riding through Vancouver. We chose the train because we don't like driving long distances and it was cheap but next time we will consider a different transportation. There is still a lot to do until we can confidently recommend others taking the Amtrak for such a long ride. I know, we are spoiled from the trains in Germany and Switzerland but now we can appreciate them much more agian.

Farmers Market

2009-09-23T17:17:00.000-07:00

The Kitsilano Farmers market is our weekly Sunday market during summer months until the end of october. I anxiously waited for it to start in June because I had heard only good about it and simply because I love food markets! To tell you the truth all the Vancouver farmers markets are nothing to write home about since we have plenty of great markets in Europe. In Vancouver we have at least the Public market on Granville Island which is unique in its own way. If you don't want to end up buying at Safeway you can buy good fruit and vegetables at your local Apple Farm Market, a usually chinese managed market of everything, they have seasonal fruit and vegetable but not necessarily organic. At Whole Foods Market you get great products for double the price then anywhere else, IGA isn't bad either but to me nothing beats an open air market in the summer. First I take a look at all the market stands and see whats in season and who is selling what. On the way back I try not to spend all my cash but still at the end can barely afford a coffee :-)

2009: a good year for blueberries and blackberries

Chinese Night Market

2009-09-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

Finally we made it to the Richmond Nightmarket. A chinese or asian style Night Market in the industrial area of Richmond (close to Ikea and Home Depot). After having visited the Chinatown Nightmarket we were positively surprised how big and well visited the market is. Although there is nothing to buy (except food) that you even would want, you end up taking stuff home (little robot figure and gute tin). The food section is probably as close as an asian experience outside of Asia can get. We tried several things: Vietnamese summer rolls, bbq lamb, curry fish balls, Bubble Tea, Vietnamese Cocktail and Sweet and Sour Soup. Everything was really good and fresh and the prices were great to try a few little things.

Very artistic version of fries (chinese instead of french)

First time Bubble Tea: an unforgettable experience

Feeling like in downtown Hanoi or Hong Kong?

Happy market visitors

Tofino Beach Impressions

2009-09-05T20:13:00.000-07:00

Sanddollar on Chestermann Beach

Sanddollars on driftwood

Sandpattern at low tide

Kelp

Tofino mudflats

friends visiting and sunshine coast part2

2009-08-26T17:30:00.000-07:00

We had more visitors from home the other week. After hiking the West Coast Trail we met Metke and Bianca on Salt Spring Island. We then continued to travel to the Sunshine Coast after a few ferry sails and spent a day in Robert's Creek.

Pod of Orcas seen from the ferry to Salt Spring Island

Luckily Olaf got these shots while I was way too busy watching them with binoculars and without. I even missed one spy hopping because there were so many and so much to watch.

Enjoying the evening sun on BC Feries

BC Ferries fries after dawn

Kayaking in Porpoise Bay

We did not see and porpoise but hundreds of starfish in various colours and sizes with 5 legs or up to 12 legs. We also saw lots of jellyfish, crabs and sea cucumbers from the kayak as well as a few seals that were curious and stuck out their heads.

Bianca was brave anough to touch a little starfish

Friends visiting and Sunshine Coast part1

2009-08-20T19:24:00.000-07:00

Dagmar and Wolfgang, friends from Berlin and Hanover, came to visit us this summer. They first went camping on Vancouver Island with Astrid, another friend from Berlin, and spent their last week with us exploring Vancouver and the Sunshine Coast.

First we introduced them to good canadian beer, especially Pale Ale, from microbreweries like Granville Island brewery and Okanagan Spring.

We were very fortunate to be able to stay in Duncans house in Robert's Creek at the Sunshine Coast for three days (Thank you so much Duncan and Denise). We made good use of the open and well equipped kitchen, played Carcassonne and enjoyed waking up with a terrific view of the forest.

Pender Hill with a scenic view after a half hour hike through Arbutus trees.

We took our barbeque and groceries down to the beach and make beef and buffalo burger "all you can eat". When we ran out of burger buns we improvided with toast. Another good thing about a remote place like the Robert's Creek beach is, that you can drink beer in public without beeing disturbed by the police as it can happen at Kits beach in Vancouver.

The twilight athmosphere on the ferry back to Roberts Creek after a day of exploring was wonderful despite the chilly wind.

Not minding the rain on the next morning we had to take care of the almost 5 pounds of blackberries we had picked the day before. We decided to make scones and cook jam with the rest. The result were 6 glasses of jam and yummy scones for us and the hosts.

Back in Vancouver we went to our favourite next door Sushi place "Kibune" for delicious sashimi and maki.

Black Lips and Deerhunter prove you can never have too much of a good thing

2009-07-31T16:36:00.000-07:00

By Jenny Charlesworth (Georgia Straight)

At the Commodore Ballroom, on Thursday, July 23

photo: sarah bastin / Flickr

If you can make it through Groundhog Day without furiously chucking your remote at the TV during the painfully repetitive 1993 cult classic, then the Black Lips–Deerhunter double bill last Thursday night at the Commodore wouldn't have fazed you at all.

The pairing of the lo-fi Atlanta bands is a no-brainer as far as crowd-pleasers go, but you've got to ask yourself: how many times are these guys going to repeat this particular tour configuration. Isn't it a bit much to hit Vancouver three times in the span of two years on this seemingly never-ending Black Lips–Deerhunter package?

Whatever the reason—a wacky time loop or a secret love affair between Black Lips bassist Jared Swilley and Deerhunter lead singer Bradford Cox—it's a damn good thing that both sets of Pitchfork poster boys were in top form on this evening.

Thanks to the perfect mashup of colourful acid-flashback-inducing stage lights, shoegazing psych-pop, and rambunctious '60s-tinged flower-punk, debating how high the night registered on the déjà vu meter seemed like the last thing on anyone's mind. The packed room—an intriguing mix of squeaky-clean UBC students still trying to get their bearings after a harrowing stint tree-planting up north and beer-guzzling hipsters—was about as gung ho as Rosie O'Donnell in front of a stack of Burger King Double Whoppers.

While Deerhunter's opening set was more subdued than that of its spunky Vice-sanctioned counterparts, the quartet's experimental jams still managed to whip those front and centre into a reverb-loving frenzy. During hypnotic numbers like the far-out soundscape “Cryptograms” and the relaxed, Tropicália-tinged “Rainwater Cassette Exchange”, there was no sign that the crowd's members were anxious for the mayhem of the Black Lips—arguably the bigger draw of the evening.

But once the Lips arrived, the dance floor was a swarming mess of outreached arms and kicking legs, as overzealous crowd surfers rode the buck-wild throng to Black Lips anthems like “Starting Over”, “Sea of Blasphemy”, and “Not a Problem”. Given the group's highly publicized history of debauched show antics, it wasn't that surprising that the southern punks didn't seem concerned by the insane onslaught of stage divers throughout their set. What was baffling, though, was that the guys didn't pummel the dumb shlub who, after clawing his way on-stage, slow-danced like a sedated gorilla alongside some half-baked Aldo sales associate, all within steps of guitarist-vocalist Cole Alexander's mike stand. Perhaps the members of the foursome knew that its adoring fans would take care of them

And that's exactly what happened when a Good Samaritan took matters into his own hands and leapt on-stage, flinging the doucheface back into the throbbing masses below. As the night went on, the chaotic energy never let up, which was excellent news for best buds Black Lips and Deerhunter. Apparently, you can never have too much of a good thing.

Video impressions from the folk festival 2009

2009-07-22T14:23:00.000-07:00

By now, some of the Vancouver Folk Festival highlights found their way to Youtube. For example, Great Lake Swimmers with their hit "Your Rocky Spine"

Or Geoff Berner, the Vancouverian "wunderkind" and enfant terrible of folk, with his song "My half-German girlfriend"

Finally, in comparison to Geoff Berner, the local facebook-mySpace-Twitter-shooting-star Dan Mangan's song "robot" is also about love but it's just cute.

Folk Fest

2009-07-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

We had heard a lot about the Vancouver Folk Music Festival in advance, being the music event of the year, great atmosphere, unique location, cool people and everything ... so we wanted to experience that ourselves. Folk music is not to be confuses with what would be Volksmusik in German. You can find many definitions for original Folk Music like music transmitted by word of mouth, music of the lower classes, music with no known composer. At the Vancouver Folk Music Festival it is simply called "the people's music" and over the 32 years of its existance they tried to have music that is not too commercial/mainstream and there is matching the tradition of blending music and politics. All in all the music varied from folk (singer/songwriter with guitar), hip hop, pop, punk, jazz and klezmer.

some 30000 visitors were expected (10000 each day)

360° nice view

Because I wanted to have a real canadian experience and possibly get to know some more people I decided to volunteer for the three day event. My first choice was the lantern making comitee, second would have been little folks and third floater. Inbetween I was also offered to work in the performers lounge. Anyway that all did not work out and after all I ended up in Duncans Security Team G, the best Team of all! I had two 4-hour shifts with Duncan at the service gate, so I could benefit from his 10 years of Folk Fest experience. My last shift at the Backstage area was also great fun, we even got a massage and foof was delivered so we did not have to line up.

Securing the service gate was busy and fun

The great thing about volunteering is that you still have a lot of time to listen to music, sit/lie in the grass (hay) or wander around after or before your shifts. I got to see great concerts and the headlines each night were all great although most of them had aged quite a lot (Arrested Development, Proclaimers etc.) It was the oldest performer, Mavis Staples, age 70, who brought down the house Staples and closed out the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, 2009 on Sunday.

See you next year is what everybody said for goodbye. I would be awsome to return to Security Team G.

read more here

Geoff Berner with his Official Theme Song for the Vancouver/Whistler Olympic Games

Dinner

view from the beer garden

twilight

main stage with lantern passing by

Lets play Yoga - follow your bliss!

2009-07-20T12:29:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday Anja, Rabea and I went to the Vancouver Yogathon & Blissfest, an anual fundraising event to raise money forcamp moomba, a summer camp for children with HIV/AIDS. After having difficulties to find the Thunderbird stadium in the labyrinth of UBC we were overwhelmed and infected by the energy and bliss of about 2000 participants. Before the actual Yoga programm there was nice Yoga Rock from Scatterheart and a marketplace for all kinds of products connected to Yoga (or not).
The programm was led by Eoin Finn according to his Facebook page a "yogi, writer, surfer, blissologist and ocean worshipper" and a star in the Vancouver Yoga community. He was supported by a team of eight other Yoga teachers including Bernie, Semperviva Yin expert, and Rebecca, the power flow lady. They took turns in describing poses that combined Yin elements, Hatha and Vinyasa Power flow.
The sun was burning on us all day and after an hour of Yoga it was really difficult to focus. We drank litres of water and the provided cereal bars gave back some energy. We still needed cooling of in the ocean at Spanish banks afterwards.

Welcome speech by mayor Gregor Robertson

Scatterhearts singer Jesse Enright showing off :-)

bowing to the sun and whatever else.

Feel the Bliss?

Vertigo Comics

2009-07-12T23:26:00.000-07:00

Dank der Nähe zum sehr gut sortierten Comicshop, genaugenommen: “THE Comicshop”, teste ich zur Zeit verschiedene Comicserien, vor allem von Vertigo. Bereits heute ein Klassiker ist Sandman, zu dem ich die mir noch fehlenden Folgen nachlese. Ebenfalls preisgekrönt ist die Serie “Fables” bei der aus Märchen bekannte Figuren und Fabelwesen im heutigen New York Asyl suchen mussten. In der ersten Folge geht es darum, wie der “Böse Wolf” als Detektiv das mysteriöse Verschwinden von Rosenrot untersucht. Bemerkenswert an der erst vor einiger Zeit gestarteten Serie “Scalped” ist laut Einleitung dass sie auch ohne Elfen und Fabelwesen ein Erfolg geworden sei. “Natives” ist das Stichwort, allerdings haben diese nichts mit den von Karl May bekannten Indianern zu tun... Garth Ennis (Preacher): “a neo-western/political/historical/Native/ultra-violent/black comedy crime story, to be precise.” oder wie es im Klappentext heisst: “a gripping mix of Sopranos-style organised crime drama and current Native American culture”.

Canada Day and Jazz Festival

2009-07-07T20:19:00.000-07:00

Canada Day on Granville Island

Jazz Festival on Granville Island

Jazz at David Lam Park

view from Yaletown to Granville Island

Alaska Cruise

2009-07-02T18:58:00.001-07:00

This years summer vacation took us to a very isolated destination, Southeast Alaska. This southern tail (panhandle) of the 49th US State can basically only be reached by plane or by ship and we decided to go on our first cruise. The Inside Passage takes travellers along a series of passages between the mainland and the coastal islands. Departing from Vancouver our cruiseship, the Norwegian Sun, passed the sunshine coast (we waved to Duncan in Roberts Creek) and after one night and one day of travelling we arrived at our first port Ketchikan, Alaska.

Ketchikan is the southernmost city of Alaska. According to our "advisors" from the ship there is not much to do in Ketchikan apart from booking one of their adventurous and expensive tours, that included fly-fishing, exploring the back country with a jet boat or visiting the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show. We did not want to spend all our money on the first trip so we tried to find out what to do in Katchikan on our own. First we went "downtown", which has a lot of souvenir shops and restaurants to supply the cruise ship loads that invade them every week. We decided to check out the Totem Heritage Centre that explained a lot about Totem Pole making and the living culture of Southeast Alaska's Native Americans. Right next to the Heritage centre we also visited the Deer Mountain Tribal Hatchery and Eagle Center, that specializes on raising king and silver salmon as well as steelhead trout. They raise and release over 350,000 fish each year, drastically enhancing their chance to survive the first year. After one year they are released to the nearby stream to which they will come back to spawn a few years later. Later we just strolled around the Harbour, saw a wild Eagle from about 50 feet distance (for free) sitting on a fence and found a nice coffee shop. Ketchikan is a very nice little town where you can spend a day learning a lot about Alaska, its people and its culture.

Ketchikan, Creek Street

Ketchikans second income after tourism: fishing

Ketchikan

Our next port was Juneau the capital of Alaska with its current governor Sarah Palin. In Juneau we decided to book a bus tour offered by the cruiseline because we wanted to see some of the surroundings, especially the Mendenhall glacier. First we visited the Glacier Gardens where you had a fantastic view on the Juneau valley and we were driven around the old growth forest in Golf carts.

Juneau valley

busy port of Juneau, still 4 cruiseships without us

The next stop was the Mendenhall Glacier which extends from the Juneau Icefield, its source, to Mendenhall Lake and ultimately the Mendenhall River. I have seen glaciers in Switzerland even skied on them but standing in front of this river of ice was still awsome. We even got to see two more glaciers that day when we did a little excursion with the cruise ship.

Mendenhall Glacier and Mendenhall Lake

Mendenhall glacier

Dawes glacier

Dawes Glacier is at the head of Endicott Arm, a steep waterway south of Juneau that runs 30 miles into the coastal mountains. The active glacier calves immense amounts of ice into the fjord. The face of the glacier is as high as a 33-story building.

Skagway was our final destination. During the Klondike gold rush Skagways population reached 30,000, composed largely of American prospectors. Today it attracks tourists wirh the White Pass and Yukon Route narrow gauge railroad and numerous other activities. Our choice for the stay was a trip to the nearby town of Haines and a hike in the temperal rainforest along the ocean. We booked the trip from the ship but were the only ones, we had our personal hiking guide. We enjoyed being away from the crowds for a while and after the hike our guide showed around Haines a bit more, a really interesting little place to visit.

Downtown Skagway

Here the hiking trail ended at the beach

Haines

One of the beautiful sunsets we had all along the trip.

See more photos here.

American English lesson

2009-06-05T00:06:00.000-07:00

Here, people say "dude" instead of "mate" and "Durchzug" is "cross breeze" while ordinary "Zugluft" is a "draft"...

trees

2009-05-31T15:19:00.000-07:00

intertidal walk

2009-05-31T14:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-31T14:12:00.001-07:00

Centennial beach, boundry bay, Delta

Kitsilano beach

Kitsilano pool

Kitsilano Beach at sunset

birds

2009-05-31T13:49:00.001-07:00

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

2009-05-31T00:46:00.001-07:00

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

2009-05-31T00:40:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-31T00:28:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-31T00:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-16T22:57:00.000-07:00

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.

Spring weekend

2009-04-26T22:38:00.000-07:00

Garage Sale

2009-04-26T22:07:00.001-07:00

It's Garage Sale season and thanks to craigslist I found a few adresses in Kitsilano on Saturday and on Sunday. I started the first tour around 9 o'clock in the morning and even found other Sales while walking around. After noon I had visited about 7 Garage sales, some bigger some really small. My best buy was a gas barbecue for $2. The rusty parts were reasonable and we gave it a try the same night. We had burgers and they were mighty good :-)

Now our barbecue season can start.

Main Street Literary Tour

2009-04-26T21:45:00.001-07:00

The Literature Tour on Main Street was a welcome change on Thursday night. There were stops at Neptoon Records, Strategies and and at the Regional Assembly of Text and journalists, writers and poets got a chance to read there work and discuss about it. It was a nice crowd and an inspiring evening.

Talking about writing about music at Neptoon Records

poetry and freestyle presented by ricepapermagazine

Pirates

2009-04-12T18:06:00.001-07:00

Look what I got for Easter - a Somalian pirate!

(Isn't it amazing how up-to-date Playmobil always is?)

A walk along Frazer river

2009-04-12T18:05:00.000-07:00

electronic music

2009-04-11T19:06:00.000-07:00

Als wir nach Kanada gegangen waren, hatte ich noch einen Artikel in der de:bug gelesen, dass inzwischen alle elektronisch ausgerichteten Musiker aus Kanada in Berlin lebten (abgesehen von Akufen). Der erste Eindruck schien dies zu bestätigen, denn Punk, Indie, Folk, Country, Metal und die unseligen Nickelback sind allgegenwärtig. Mittlerweile sind aber doch ein paar elektronische Nachwuchskünstler hervorgetreten:

- Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles (was vom Namen her wie eine schlechte EBM Combo klingt, ist feinster Techno)
- Thunderheist - Thunderheist (sehr tanzbar, erinnert mich manchmal an Peaches. Ach ja, Peaches hat auch ein neues Album am Start)
- MSRTKRFT (ganz guter DJ)

Bezeichnenderweise wurden die oben aufgezählten Acts bereits dadurch geadelt, dass sie beim diesjährigen MELT auftreten...

The Independent: From heaven to hell - Gang Violence in Vancouver

2009-04-08T18:24:00.000-07:00

We try to document our impression of Vancouver rather than showing nice pictures only and where a lot of light is, there's also a lot of shadow (crude translation of an old German saying...). A currently hot topic is the increasing gang violence, but I'm not a crime journalist and for that reason, I refer to the well established British newspaper The Independent and their recent article "From heaven to hell: 18 die as drug war rages on streets of Vancouver"

The Independent: From heaven to hell

Sebastian Grainger without the Mountains

2009-04-06T22:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at the free and live performance by Sebastian Grainger from Sebastian Grainger and the Mountains, though without the mountains this time, at the world's greatest record shop, Zulu Records.

Although, he was more talking weird than actually playing: "I wanna tell a story. Actually, it's more of a confession. I've been drinking too much. End of story." "You wanna talk about economy? I've heard there is a rezession going on. Buy real estate now!" "Should I smash my guitar now?" "How about going shoplifting right now - we all go to XXX and steal kale."

Funny guy!

Cylon Cafe

2009-04-06T22:38:00.000-07:00

Anybody recognizing this place? ;-)

A little note for the architects among you: It was built by Arthur Erickson.

Cherry Blossom Time

2009-04-06T22:36:00.001-07:00

long walk at the beach II

2009-03-29T22:43:00.000-07:00

I was a beautiful sunny and windy day. So we went to the beach to walk west towards the beautiful beaches of Kitsilano, Point Grey and Spanish Banks. It was low tide, so we could walk along the water most of the time. At Locarno beach and Spanish Banks there were a lot of wind and kite surfer enjoying the waves.

Jericho Beach towards downtown skyline

Spanish Banks

View from Spanish Banks on downtown

Beautiful original VW bus with a swing-hinged windshield

Spring break(up)

2009-03-18T19:21:00.000-07:00

Spring break is a one week or more break in march when university students can do whatever they want! Besides studying a common practice is partying until you faint in Florida or Mexico.

For Spring break up there are two definitions according to Mathias Kom from the spring breakup duo with Kim Barlow that performed at WISE Hall last week. The first would be the ice on the frozen rivers breaking up in spring in the north (Mathias and Kim spent the winter in the Yukon). The second definition is the break up between men and women after a long winter when they find out they don't have too much in common and don't need anyone to warm them any more! (also more common in the north)

This concert was my frst real encounter with canadian folk music. I liked it, especially that I could understand most of the lyrics and it was very funny. I think in the summer at Jericho beach the beer will taste even better and I'm looking forward to the Vancouver Folk Festival in July very much.

Granville Island

2009-03-10T20:10:00.001-07:00

Today I felt like making chicken noodle soup. What is better than fresh veggies, noodles, chicken and herbs? and it doesn't get any healthier too. It was also the perfect day for a walk to Granville Island Public Market for the shopping. So I think this is a good opportunity to tell you what Granville Island is and why we like it so much.

Granville Island, one of Vancouvers main tourist attractions is only 20 minutes walking distance from our apartment, a bit more if you take the nicer walk along the beach. It's called an urban Oasis on the official website and what makes it unique really is the location is the middle of the city, looking at the downtown skyline combined with the island feeling, being almost completely surrounded by water.

At the entrance to False Creek where Granville Island is today you would originally find two seaweed-laden sandbars, which the Squamish Indians used as their winter fishing grounds because of its richness in fish and wildlife. The Island as we know it today was manmade around 1915 when the land was claimed by the Harbour Commission. More than 760,000 cubic meters of sea mud were sucked from False Creek’s bed and poured within the island’s wooden walls. The mud flats finally transformed into an island, railway tracks were built and a wooden roadway to False Creek’s southern shore.

For many years Granville Island was officially called “Industrial Island” with about 1,200 people working in the island’s factories by 1930. In World War II defense equipment was produced here such as anti-torpedo nets, minesweeping ropes and rigging ropes for the merchant fleet. After the war many of the island’s biggest customers moved out of False Creek, seeking more and cheaper land, and preferring truck transport to water. The little island started to suffer from neglect until in the early 70s a successful initiative started to turn Granville Island into a people-friendly urban area. Urban geographer Walter Hardwick completed a land economics study of the creek. He saw the area as ideal for an urban mix of housing and public use.

In July, 1979, the Granville island public market was opened which is world-famous today. It is a tourist attraction especially in the summer but also a lot of locals (like us!) go to the market regularly for fresh vegetables, fruit, seafood or meat, cheese or bakery.
Since the redevelopment Granville Island has become a paradise for artists and those interested in art. All across the Island, former empty sheds have been turned into studios, stages, sets and scenery for art exhibits, theatrical plays, street performers, and music shows. Since the 70s the island attracts creative people, craft studios, including a glassblowing studio, a printmaking shop, a luthier, a master shoemaker, various jewellers, and the B.C. Potter's Guild are located here as well as the worldwide recognized Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

Last but not least my favourite Vancouver beer is brewed directly on Granville Island at the Granville Island Brewing Company, a Canada's first microbrewery. Supposedly their beer is even brewed according to the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516 which I doubt in the case of the Honey Lager. I like the Pale Ale best.

More about the islands history can be foud here.

The chicken noodle soup (here without noodles and chicken) tasted very good. Looking forward to tomorrows leftovers!

spring is here

2009-03-05T17:56:00.000-08:00

I think we can say that spring has come. There is still snow on the mountains of course and last week it snowed once more but down here it feels like spring. The snowdrops and crocus are blooming everywhere (just like in Europe, not so different here after all) people are starting to sit outside for coffee. There is a rain shower now and then but when the sun comes out like today you forget about that pretty soon.

Our new furniture on the terasse.

long walk at the beach

2009-03-05T17:09:00.000-08:00

Last saturday we walked down the beach in the direction of Point Grey and for the first time could we could actually walk all the way at the beach because it was low tide. It was very humid that day but not to cold and so we just kept on walking and walking, past Jericho beach and past Locarno beach until we got to Spanish Banks Beach. This area is so great now and must be so much greater in the summer. Already that day a few young people made a fire and had a good time. We kept on walking up the hill to say hello to Anja and Rabea.

beautiful colours from grafitti (blue) and nature (yellow!)
photo: from iphone, did not take camera

photo: duncsp8

Later we went to the Canada West Final Four Tournament at UBC to watch the UBC Thunderbirds play the Calgary Dino's. The first half was dominated by Calgary and the Thunderbirds were back up to 20 points. In the third quarter they managed to get closer and in the end it got really close. Unfortunately there was not enough time and just a few seconds before the end Calgary scored three points again and won with 80:76.

We really enjoyed the athmosphere which reminded me of High school. We had Popcorn and a Hotdog and it was fun watching the game and the audience too. The college girls were all dressed up, I really felt for once underdressed with my hiking boots and fleece jacket.

photo: tyfn

Totoro birdshouse

2009-02-16T13:42:00.000-08:00

Dagmar built us an indoor-Totoro-birdhouse!

Dick Tracy and the Mad Killer

2009-02-16T13:35:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-15T23:08:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-15T22:53:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-15T22:17:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-14T16:03:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-08T19:43:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-08T18:12:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-06T18:23:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-06T18:03:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-04T22:36:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-03T10:36:00.001-08:00

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

Chinese New Year Parade 2009

2009-02-02T19:08:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-01T23:00:00.000-08:00

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/

What's green?

2009-01-31T23:38:00.000-08:00

Organic, biodegradable, carbon neutral and sustainable, are the words that you have to take in when you live in Vancouver. The abbreviation to all of this would be "green".
("Bio" is associated with something different here by the way!!! Just for the non german readers: Bio is what we call organic food!)
Never admit that something is not organic when you bring it to a party or if you buy a can of something you don't have to feel bad about the enery it takes to recycle it can still be carbon neutral! You can also make a bottle/can collector happy, which I learned from "Carts of Darkness", its worth 5 cents (pop)/10 cents (beer) when they return it)

Last week I was asked by a woman if my Yoga mat was biodegradable. I did not know that those existed before. We both checked the label which did not say so. "At least it's green" I said (it's color is green).

Today in a "Paperie & Design" shop when we declined to take a "plastic" bag for our purchase because we had our own "fabric" bag the lady said: "But it's biodegradable, you can take it." "Thanks, but we don't NEED it"

Olaf bought an "organic" chocolate muffin today. Very delicious, almost 100% chocolate. The little muffin was packed in a huge plastic see-through APET-container from Pactiv. Unfortunately he did not ask if it was biodegradable :-) The store he bought it at says this about sustainability: Whole Trade, reducing packaging waste, MSC and being certified organic are just part of our Market commitment to sustainability. Well I have to add if you choose not to take a bag at that store the 5 cent are going to charity, it you want!

I don't have a car, I ride my bike as often as possible, I am aware of buying sustainable seafood since I live in Vancouver, I buy hardly any meat and I actually bought a waste basket that says its biodegradable! I have an iphone application that tells me where I can buy "green" in my neighborhood! I'm so green.

Om Yoga

2009-01-31T22:37:00.000-08:00

This week was my Yoga-week. I had a voucher for semperviva a Yoga studio in the Kitsilano area and had the chance to test all their classes and four studios for one week. I did Hatha, Vinyasa Power Flow and Kundalini and liked all of it in its way. Hatha is the less energetic version that I like to do to relax, Vinyasa Power Flow was like what I got to know as Power Yoga before and I like the movement and the sweat. I did not know anything about Kundalini before, still don't understand all of it (what were they singing?) but it was a good workout especially since I did Hatha Yoga before! I will try to go twice a week now. Just makes me feel good even though we chant om in the end! I only miss the change rooms and showers at the studios. That will get better in summer, I'm sure.

Stanley Park and Vancouver Aquarium

2009-01-31T21:28:00.000-08:00

Whenever we go for a walk in Stanley Park I can't avoid to sneak in the Vancouver Aquarim and take a look at the beatiful beluga whales. Tiqa, Qila and Aurora are in the part of the aquarium that you can visit without paying! Tiqa is the baby beluga born in the summer of 2008, Quila her mother and Aurora is the grandmother, that is going to have another baby this summer!!! The beluga even have ther own webcam.

Captivity of animals, putting them in zoos or aquariums for humans to look at is something that I generally decline. Fortunately Canada doesn't allow beluga whales to be captured and exported any longer. Most beluga at the aquarium were born in captivity. Modern zoos and their staff more and more actually educate people on animals and the research is also useful to the wild relatives. According to the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre their mission is to conserve aquatic life through display and interpretation, education, research and direct action. Aquarium staff and Volunteers have been involved in the creation of Canada's first no-take marine protected area, beach clean-ups, wetlands restorations, wildlife rescue and rehabilitations, and population surveys of marine mammals and intertidal fishes. So its not all bad and one day I will also pay the entrance fee to see all the aquarium has to show and to have a full glance at those amazing animals!

There are also seals that you can look at. We saw a wild one in the harbour today just half a mile from the aquarium!

(canadian) idioms

2009-01-31T20:54:00.001-08:00

This is a list of idioms that we learned in the last 3 months:

That's the way the cookie crumbles
sit on the fence
Bob's your uncle
blind alley
for a song
redneck
fat is in the fire
I'll take a rain check
go through the motions
monkey on back

Some of the idioms we learned from the newsletter "One word a day"

Carts of Darkness

2009-01-30T23:17:00.000-08:00

Being homeless is not fun but this documentary shows that some guys know how to have fun surviving in the streets of Vancouver. I watch people bottle picking every day in our back alley with a mixture of compassion and disgust. I put out empty bottles on the side for them to pick up but I will probably never get closer then that. This film gives a deep insight in the lives of men who did not all choose to live the way they live but make the best of it.

also found here and here

Nordic Festival

2009-01-25T21:42:00.000-08:00

This weekend the Ski Jumping Wordcup was hosted in Vancouver, well actually Whister and to be very precise at the Whistler Olympic/Paralympic Park, located 16 kilometres southwest of Whistler, 50 kilometres north of Squamish and 115 kilometres north of Vancouver. It takes two hours by car to get there from Vancouver on the Sea to Sky Highway. It is a very scenic drive on a "soon to be finished" road along the Strait of Georgia (not Georgia Straight)!

Ice Scultures at the Whistler Olympic Parc

The Nordic Fest which combined crosscountry ski events biathlon and Ski jumping was a welcome test for the 2010 olympic games. For us the still to be improved traffic situation turned out to be a desaster. We were in the middle of a traffic jam while the ski jumping final started and when we finally arrived, by foot, since we were advised to leave the car 2,5 kilometres down the hill, because of no parking, everything was over and there were lots of parking spots because many people had already left!

We still got to see the winners and the VIP's photoshooting and giving interviews but we did not see a singe jump :-( It was still nice to wander around the olympic park in the sun, have a almost veggie (!) burger and Anja and Rabea met a future workmate from VANOC.

Brandnew skijumping area at the Whistler Olympic Parc

Simon Ammann and Adreas Küttel, Switzerlands Skijumping Superstars, chatting with spectators

more pictures here

War camp at UBC

2009-01-25T20:50:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, I took a walk around the UBC campus during the break of my course and suddenly, I stood in front of a frightening war camp that had been erected around the Buchanan Tower: Concrete walls, barbwire, watchtowers with floodlights, crude warning signs: "HALT! Warning! Restricted area - Use of deadly force!" My first thought was that this was an anti-war installation and for that, it would have been a pretty good setup.

However, it came out that it was "just" a film set and two production assistants informed me that they had to re-shoot some scenes from forthcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Wolverine is a super-hero with the special power of extreme growth of hair and fold-out scissors like Edward Scissorhand). Well, I'm a fan of the X-Men series, so it was still pretty cool to watch and I'm looking forward to the release of the movie.

SwissWater Decaf

2009-01-25T20:43:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, I visited a new cafe and curiously discovered "SwissWater Decaf" on the list. Curious? It actually is the brand of a Vancouver-based compan y, who is using water instead of chemicals for decaffeination.

What has that to do with Switzerland? Nothing, except that it was somebody in Switzerland in 1930, who was the first to use water for decaffeination.

Sirens

2009-01-22T23:20:00.001-08:00

Until febuary 8th there will be the 5th annual PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. Today we went to see Siren. I was totally unprepared, just new it would be some kind of art installation. What it really was is hard to describe but I will try:
Siren is an audiovisual experience. On the performance site there are large metal tripods from one up to three metres tall. They have rotating arms powered by motors, electronic tone generators (sirens) and a speaker at each end. It starts slowly. The performers consecutively switch the "instruments" and tune the sound. When they are all running they create a chorus of analog sounds. They also start spinning, some slow some faster. The audience can wander around the tripods freely while the performers tune the oscillators to change the musical composition and try not to get hit by one of the rotating arms. The small red LEDs at the end of each arms trace circles of light as the arms rapidly rotate, which is expereinced best when there is no other light (see images below). I enjoyed this unusual experience with sound and light very much. If you have the chance, go see it!

photo: Ray Lee; You can watch videos on the website but its not nearly the same experience then when you see it real

Weihnachtsstollen

2009-01-22T22:59:00.000-08:00

Today, we were very happy because the delicious handmade Christmas Stollen, which Christof had baked for us, arrived! Yummy in the tummy!

Thank you very much, Marion and Christof!

Manga bakery

2009-01-19T19:53:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we found a wonderful Japanese bakery, which is decorated with lots of love and looks like the manga-version of a French bakery: The apple pie is formed like an apple, some signs are written in French and printed in old-style fonts, and little robots are placed in the show case. And one of them even starts dancing, if you give a tip!

French Vanilla

2009-01-19T19:44:00.000-08:00

Today, I went to Tim Hortons, the legendary Canadian coffee chain, and ordered a "French Vanilla". I was curious what I'm drinking and asked whether it contained any coffee, but ufortunately, nobody at the counter knew. However, the very friendly lady even went to the back office and the chief finally knew that their drink does contain coffee. And by the way, if you have a sweet tooth, is actually really good.

Above the fog

2009-01-18T19:36:00.001-08:00

After several days with heavy fog in the city we were hoping to escape that by going up to Cypress Mountain on Saturday. We took the early bus together with about three dozen of "Richmond kids" (thats where the bus started) and some staff people who complained to be late for work while we could not believe how early it still was. We were rewarded by bright sunshine just a few miles from downtown. You could even see some skyscapers stick out of the fog.

From the bus I could not possibly take a picture like that myself.

Cypress Mountain is the 2010 Olympic venue for Freestyle skiing and Snowboarding. Passing the Alpine Venue we saw the slope for a Freestyle event. Too many bumps and jumps for me! We decided to start with snowshoeing. At the Nordic area they have very nice snowsho trails with maps every few metres. There were many people on the trails and on the cross-country ski runs but still it was a nature experience walking between ancient trees and on about 2 metres of snow.

Olaf on snowshoes. The snow was quite packed here but we went through the forest a lot and there we needed snowshoes.

Lunch break with other cool snowshoeers.

Last descent to the Hollyburn lodge.

Nordic ski area on Cypress Mountain. We will come back!

Gang Violence at New Year's Eve

2009-01-18T19:03:00.000-08:00

Don't worry - we didn't get involved into gang violence but that's the name of a local music band...

New Year's Eve, we had spent with Anja (out of Brackenheim Blog) and Rabea, first cooking at our appartment. Later, we went to the "Emergency Room VS Icecream Social" party at Biltmore Cabaret. Emergeny Room is the probably hottest music label in Vancouver and they presented the band "Gang Violence", who played pretty loud noisy music.

In contrast, Icecream Social is a party DJ playing 50s and 60s music, famous four his great parties and many guests had dressed up with pettycoats and similar clothes. If you think, these two music directions don't get along, well, it was interesting, but somehow, it fits. Or, as Anja said, it was a "Potpourri, ein bunter Strauss an Melodien".

Photos: Steve Louie Photography @ Flickr

Hongkong

2009-01-16T16:44:00.001-08:00

Last Thursday, I took the wrong bus and suddenly, I was in Hongkong.

Vancouverianer: Tofino Time

2009-01-08T19:18:00.000-08:00

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Tofino Time

2009-01-06T19:41:00.000-08:00

When we were thinking about getting out of the city for a few days after the holidays we were soon thinking of Tofino as the perfect getaway. We were already amazed by its beauty and tranquility on our first visit 2 years ago.

Tofino is a small intimate town at the end end of the Trans Canada Highway on Vancouver Island. It's where the ancient rain forest meets the Pacific Ocean. Yes it rains a lot here, but when it gets too cold to rain it will snow. For the local surfers neither rain nor snow nor temperatures just above 0° C are a reason not to go surfing if there are big enough waves. We had it all in 3 days. Beautiful sunshine and sunset, rain and hours of snowing. We were glad to spend the time when it was snowing at the cosy fireplace of our hostel reading and drinking hot beverages.

2 surfers and their dog

surfer on bike

Who said surfers don't drink beer?

Everything's Gone Green

2009-01-01T19:30:00.000-08:00

Vancouver's famous and usually great writer Douglas Coupland (Generation X has been the best description of a whole (maybe my?) generation) has not only written books, but he also wrote the script for a movie with lots of insiders about Vancouver:

Everything's Gone Green is a 2006 Canadian comedy film starring Paulo Costanzo, directed by Paul Fox and written by Douglas Coupland. This movie, Coupland's first screenplay, won the award for best Canadian feature film at 2006’s Vancouver International Film Festival (Wikipedia).

Well, I was a bit disappointed about the rather predictable story and some of the best jokes Coupland had used in JPod already, but still, you get lots to see of and laugh about Vancouver.

Two more photos from Christmas day

2008-12-31T17:50:00.001-08:00

Vancouver Poetry Slam

2008-12-31T17:11:00.000-08:00

Monday night, we went to the Vancouver Poetry Slam at Cafe Deux Soleil, Commercial Drive, there is another one every Tuesday at Main Street. You don't know poetry slam? It's a kind of fun competition in writing and rhetoric skills, where each author and performer has 3 minutes (sometimes 5 minutes) to present a self-written poem or story, only with help of his body - including dancing, singing, beatboxing but no guitar, no powerpoint or anything else. It seems rather new, but you might remember that already ancient Greek respected rhetoric competitions as the highest form of competition.

Poetry Slams take place in many big cities all over the world, so Hamburg had some pretty good ones, I still remember the great nights at Fools Garden and later, Molotov, in Zurich there is one at Xtra once a month, though the origin is in Northern America. And here we went, to see the original thing, this Monday feat. Brandan MacLeod (who is a champion for good reason, to tell you already).

Performer at open mic

The night started with the "open mic" where everybody had the chance to perform. To our surprise, suddenly, the quite girl at our table stood up and walked on stage to perform a great poem on cyberspace and all its issues. Afterwards, some already well-known local poets entered the stage to compete in front of a jury of five randomly selected guests. Somebody already suggested us to be judges, but for good luck, this got forgotten. In contrast to Germany, not the poets were booed here but the judges! So, you need good nerves to be a judge... What does this tell about the country? Anyway...

After the break, the already mentioned Brandan MacLeod presented some longer stories of his Christmas time, before the five best poets went into a second round, deciding who will win the green bath-tube-toy-special-price and who will win the 35$. To quote the master of ceremony: "Poetry is the lowest paid art in Canada. Even mimes get more although they don't have anything to say."

To give you an impression of the night, you might watch some of the following YouTube videos, which show two of the regular local poets, we also saw that evening. These videos are actually not from the same night, but same poets and same location.

Francis

Ms Spelt

Quak Quak Quak
If you don't speak Duck,
you're fucked
Quak Quak Quak

Jingle Bells Rock

2008-12-26T13:50:00.000-08:00

We went to Jingle Bells Rock before Christmas, seeing The Dears, Tokyo Police Club and Metric with Emily Haines live (unfortunately, we had missed the first band, Sebastian Grainger and...). In contrast to our previous concert visit in an underground venue, this official event took place in a run-down theatre with seating though no heating. Most people stood up to the music later, but still, it was somehow a strange atmosphere. Perhaps, because it was so bitterly cold. At least, the bands made it easy to move to.

The seven, around our age old, members of The Dears presented pretty good craftmanship with a cude keyboarder and a great Murray Lightburn as singer/gitarist.

Afterwards the much younger and hip Tokyo Police Club rocked the younger part of the crowd with their 2-minutes songs. Sometimes, we had problems distinguishing their songs but who cares - they are all good.

Last not least, Metric entered the stage with their "hearts beating like a hammer" and I wondered who that was. How was that possible, I didn't recognize their lead singer and keyboarder (did I mention that I love keyboards?) Emily Haines who is also well-known for her solo projects. Instead, I bet that it was an 80s band, so 80s-like they sounded. But no, it was Canada's famous Indie band Metric! Just bought their latest record a day after.

(Source of the photos: Flickr)

Xmas lounges

2008-12-25T14:32:00.000-08:00

Walking through our neighbourhood, I already had noticed the specific style of apartment buildings, all with very representative lounges. Especially now at Christmas time, they are worth a look, so follow me through a short virtual walk through Kits.

In contrast, the last picture doesn't show an apartment lounge but an abandoned shopping trolley as it is used by the many thousand homeless, collecting deposit and other recycable garbage. Maybe, he or she couldn't get it through the raising snow anymore, nobody knows.

The whitest Christmas

2008-12-23T21:29:00.000-08:00

We are not snowed in, we have power, we have enough food! The only thing missing are a few christmas presents and cards that still did not make it to our place :-( The road conditions require at least winter tires if not a 4-wheel drive and even Canada post seems to be overextended by 30 cm of snow.

We love the snow and look forward to the next snowfall anounced. Isn't it great to wake up at night and look out, hoping more than anything to see snow falling? Hearing the sound of nothing outside is amazing. The snow is like a blanket that takes away all sounds. It makes you feel like you are 10 again and want to go outside to sled down the hills for hours until you can't feel your hands and feet and then come home to a huge pot of hot chocolate.

View towards downtown from West 2nd Avenue

Robert's Creek cohousing

German accent

2008-12-17T10:55:00.000-08:00

I'm afraid, I have to work on my accent. This morning, I ordered a Coffee Latte and was getting a Toffee Latte... Where is your accent from?