Stan Douglas’ High Art: “It’s about Public space and who controls it.”
What came first? The Hippie or the smack-down? This giant installation launched January 2010 in the Woodward’s complex by Stan Douglas first began back in 1971 when Vancouver’s police chief got “reports” of long-hairs & degenerates throwing stones through windows. Gastown was slowly becoming residential, squatting being de rigeur. Smoke-ins at Water and Carral St. began in effort to legalize pakalolo. After the clomp and stomp and the broo ha-ha recreated below in this commision by Vancouver artist Stan Douglas, the area was deemed a commercial zone. Gastown became Ghetto-fabulous soon thereafter.
Stan Douglas : “If this neighbourhood had been allowed to have a mixed-use designation, with people living there, I believe it would have a very different character.”
Flash forward 2012 and man, it certainly does! Now you can can get yer lambchops butchered old-school by a young man in a tam and a canvas apron! Never even mind the free peeks at ye olde handle-bar moustache. This is condo living at its’ finest! I picked up brass submarine parts and an old rusty bucket that is going to look so seaworthy above the gas-fire mantle. Then there’s Meat and Bread who, shockingly enough sell bread and meat. I’m calling my pop-up store Cha-Ching! To cut to the chase. You can sit there with your sammich and watch local artists push their kinetic wheeled metal scupltures around filled with repurposed glass and aluminum tubes, performing beat poetry for free! Kinda makes you wonder what all the fuss was about, huh? You know what? Dammit…I think I left my iphone at the drift-wood store.
read from the georgia straight article I got the quotes from here .
see images from the 1971 Gastown riot here
images: “Abbot and Cordova, 7 August 1971” by Stan Douglas.
Canucks’ “it’s not me it’s you” campaign a hit with flock: Vancouver
The Canucks franchise would like to take this opportunity to reiterate that alcohol and fist-fighting have nothing at all to do with Hockey culture.
And they’ve got the super smooth dolly shots to prove it. So this year, bring even the blood-shy kids! In keeping with Vancouver’s zero violence policy, the entire Canucks team will refrain from fighting or brain damaging body-checks this season! And just to show us what responsible sportsmen they are to reduce public boozification, Rogers Arena is serving delicious frosty ice-cold near-beer. Remember: We’re all in this together. Except us.
April fools. this poster on Hastings. or is it?
Hoodies as lethal as Chicken Pink Slime
Geraldo’s back-peddling moustache is currently powering Fox’s fifth floor shredder. #makingadifference . Well you know what they say about men with creepy un-stylish moustaches who roll in white windowless vans? ICE-CREAM!
This photo refers to the Vancouver artist Mad Dog. Using leather, brass hardware, Baby-doll parts, mannequins and bits of taxidermy his assemblages take on creepy personalities of their own. His pieces can often be seen at THE FALL Tattoo and Art Gallery Downtown Vancouver
Two out of three Matrix movies thought the last one sucked : Poll
The three things I learned from the Matrix:
1) The red pill has a laxative side-effect, as does consuming lots of runny Zion porridge. SLIMMING!
2) You’ll get serious jock itch from living in a humid underground rave. I suggest athlete’s foot-spray directly to the gen-gens.
3) Don’t move your face. Ever.
It’s not easy being green. And then you snap.
I always knew there was something not kosher about him. Muppets are exposed to long hours, physical abuse and no unions. Another cup of Coffee?
Jim Henson’s most famous creations were both green. Kermit the frog hosting “The Muppet Show” was not a hit idea with American networks. It was financed and shot in the U.K. where it was later syndicated worldwide. Later, in 1979, Producers of The Empire Strikes Back asked him collaborate on the creation of that senile little gnome who couldn’t grasp sentence structure. This M.W.Bowen creation can be found left of the Balmoral. Here’s the website for the works of M.W.Bowen
Should We Date? Are You Harrison Ford?
Are you Harrison Ford
I love organized women who know what they want.
flowchartgirl@hotmail.com
Update: Flowchartgirl emailed me to emphasize the fact that she is currently accepting dating applicants. Are you Harrison Ford-esque? Are you Harrison Ford? Perhaps a Harrison Ford clone that has escaped the lab and is currently seeking shelter? email her at address above.
Most West-Coasters do their Dim-Sum in the Sweat-lodge.
Hanged man
This little gem is just outside Beckwoman’s Folk Art on the Drive. 1314 Commercial Drive, for all you secret agents out there. Beckwoman’s another sensible dresser who, like me, is into snappy bumper stickers like “imagine whirled peas” and saucier still: “Nice Hummer, how many Iraqis to the Gallon?” Go on down, get an education and take it from me: no smack-talk, or else it’s 27% Hst
A really nice post-war Chevy. Coming in 2015
I’ve never been into cars. I’m more of a “surf-on-top Mad Max style” kind of driver. A couple of bungee cords around the wheel, a molotov cocktail (delicious chilled btw), and a serious penchant for nineties Tina. Masterblaster rules Bartertown! Screw Starbucks! I make my own damn mixtape!
This is in Mount Pleasant, Vancouver British Columbia. photo by yours truly.
Badboy likes his cream heavy and his Italian Vogue
Hunx and his Punx Saturday 24th March 1489 East Hastings.
Their new album TOO YOUNG TO BE IN LOVE is about as out as their lead singer Seth Bogart. Visit their Myspace page for free music and concert dates here. See Seth’s enviable slim figure in Italian Vogue right about here.
Listen to the track Badboy on Youtube here.
Volcanic Dike Formation. I read it on Wikipedia.
Here is the ever fantastic Siwash rock just off the coast of Stanley Park where I wave to my Russian friends.
Siwash is Squamish for “He is standing up.” He certainly is. There’s a small growth I would consider getting checked out however. Take the Stanley Park Geo Tour here. A little ankle support would be good. (No Flip-Flops)
Your nose knows it’s not the place it goes…
Didn’t your Mom ever tell you not to not to stick beans up your nose?
Speaking of moms, one of my favorite things is parents who drive like maniacs with “Baby on Board” signs jangling madly in the back. So cute! So Alanis Morrissette! This Soul Gardens Mural Project on the finer side of The Astoria Hotel was created through the W2 Community Media Arts project which you should check out because…is…is she still staring at me? Shiver.
Here are pics of veggies in poles in the the garden below. You may have to scroll.
I like people who dress sensibly. Could you imagine Lady Ga-Ga in the Hunger Games?
Here’s Michael Rose, Photographer, Carver on Commercial Drive March 2012 . He’s the guy you have to thank
before you reach the top of the Wreck Beach stairs as there’s a glorious bench to park your ass on before you die of a coronary. Whew! He showcases his stunning prints on canvas in front of the Post Office on Commercial Drive.
Say hello and buy a print.
I haven’t had such a star-crush since Tom Pitt’s dignity fell off that couch. Ouch!
I think I’m in love with Lana del Rey. She writes like Lou Reed on champagne, makes her own music videos,
sings like a temptress and is an absolute bombshell-honey. Listen to Video Games from The Album Born To Die. And the poster is good too.
Hello? Robocaller? The future’s so bright but you gotta wear Glade
This is where I hide from all the ROBO-scandal news. I suppose we’ll all pony up another ten million for some conservative independent investigator to dial star 69.
Read how Stephen Harper will successfully wiggle out of this one by trashing the opposition HERE.
The English are coming!
Personally, Iron Maiden makes Kiss seem about as evil as dryer lint.
They can start out all folk-ballad and you’re like “Huh? Wuzzafuh?” and by the end you’re either crying on your iphone calling mom or doing an epic swan-dive off the back porch into the hot-tub. Both are O.K. (she’s just happy to hear from you). Watch their 1981 Canadian debut concert in Toronto on YouTube and my favorite: Flight of Icarus.
All my relations, (except Uncle Carl)
I’m no expert but I think that hat is Haida. The Haida People are indigenous to British Columbia which is a fancy word for here first.
Wanna see some more Haida art? Look on the back of that 20 dollar Canadian bill your Dad just gave you. No, not Helen Mirren, the other side. That’s the Black Canoe, or the Spirit of Haida Gwaii by Bill Reid, one of my all-time favorite artists. (I met him once before he died in 1998). The huge bronze cast is paddling upstream at the Canadian Embassy in Washington D.C. This photo was taken just off Clark Drive near the Adanac Bikeway by my sweetie because I had seen it once and couldn’t find it to save my life. Thanks, babe
Richard Tetrault mural defaced, I’m handing out condoms.
You know those kids, whose only talent was coming out of their mothers breathing?
They’re the same ones that fill super-soakers with paint and do shit like this. Richard Tetrault is a Vancouver printmaker, painter, muralist and all-round community collaborator quite unlike the dog that left these marks. Richard, you have my sympathy. If you have friends or offspring that do this, get photos of them in action and send it to the cops.They don’t work nights or weekends but would still love to hear from you. I think.
“Your mum eats so many crisps she has to take two cabs…”
Just to prove I’m not just a bitter used tea-bag, and that indeed I do have a shred of Sense & Sensibility:
Doesn’t this look like a giant Wanger? I was momentarily transported to London that morning as a couple of cabbies rolled by on their way to film set. That’s the Europe Hotel in the back. On gorgeous profound mornings like this I always think to myself: “…you lucky, lucky homeless people…”
Thrill Bill
Vancouver Eastside behind the Hotel Astoria approximately
Martha Stewart and I have more in common than just time served.
We are both collage addicts. (I just about broke my nose with my niece’s macaroni and glitter manger scene last Christmas). Sorry Sweetie! But my shameful days of eating paste are over.
Now it’s all about the pole.
Welcome to Musqueam Country! Now this is great! A Healing lodge built atop
a beautifully reappointed housing and services center. This is opposite the north side
of Tinseltown around East Pender and Abbot St. I call top bunk.
I’m a public dancer, A dancer for veggies, Any old lettuce will do…
And finally beside the glorious Astoria Hotel where even the strawberries have
to live in leaky condos. I love my Vancouver apartment. It’s cozy. The toilet
folds out into a Murphy bed. Adorable!
Did you wash your hands? Dark Dreams….
“Who are you calling a diptych?” Two from the We Will Buy Your Dreams series by Devitt Brown.
Looking even more fantastic under an inch of splattered grit like some Orwellian hand cream advertisement. Wouldn’t it be Lover-ly? NOW WITH SUPERPLUS CREAMY RADON
visit Devitt Brown’s WEBSITE
Totally Getting the Jerm IX: If Only our City Hall had as much passion for Social Justice and Housing and being EPIC
“…for the city, to the city VAN ! like karate, turn a fist into an open hand. I AM A BROKEN MAN, just hoping you understand.” –jerm IX (visit the Jermalism blog for some gorgeous photography of derelict houses in the “Abandonment Issues” series).
GUCCI BRAINLESS is Genius
Hands down favorite this week is this Garbage Pail Kids-style poster for Hip-Hop Karaoke @ fortune sound club. EDITOR’S NOTE: Pooped myself a little for the excitement.Too much was happening too quickly.
fortune sound club in chinatown has a great website btw. Fun Fact i didn’t know: Garbage Pail Kids was conceived by Art Spiegelman of Maus: A Survivor’s Tale fame.
I saw the sign. I think we all have. I think Mars has.
The East Van sign by Ken Lum
The icon seems to originate from the 1950’s Catholic Community and was later adopted
by Greasers a decade later- bedazzled on denim and shot-gun sprayed into walls. My friend V-Town heard that the Eastside gang “Clark Street Parkers” kidnapped it by switch-blade in the Seventies.
But don’t quote me on that- I don’t want my legs broken. photo by me!
VANCOUVER GRAFFITI 
