don't really have much to say today, been busy most of the morning with the nose-miners so here's  a video that makes me consider that ufos may just be domestic aircraft afterall

and a couple of links:

siberian wooden houses

psywar

5 favorite music videos

my five favorite music videos are as follows

just some links today

unicorn being a jerk

mr. w

lid not on tight

It's coming up to the fifth year anniversary of when Melanie and I met and I think it's pretty cool that we've made it this far considering five years ago we were strangers. It was a fateful night when we met on the dance floor of the Lotus while Kevin Shiu was spinning records. We would spend the next 20 hours talking and laying under a tree. A week later I told a friend of hers that I worshiped the ground Mel walked on and only realized how true those words were once I had spoken them. Within a month she moved in with me, six months after that we were pregnant,  and here we are three kids and a home of our own nearly five years later. 

I remember being at a bar in my early 20's talking to a bunch women in their mid-late 30's. I was pining over some girl at the time who I was sure was the one for me and they told me how I would just know when I met her. I shrugged off their advice at the time but it was true. When you fall in love with the person you're going to build a life with, you come to a clear level of understanding, of comprehending that this is the person. It becomes an all encompassing fact.. plain and extraordinary at once. 

here's a movie that explores that subject:

500 days of summer

here's a cool youtube vid:

alone

lamenting the death of the Capitol 6

Vancouver is like that girl that lived next door to me and I've watched her grow up over the years, turning from gregarious and down to earth to superficial and as a matter of fact. Cool as money can buy when she was never like that before, I used to drive up the mountain with her, smoke a joint and go for a walk in the woods. Now she pretends she doesn't know me when I pass her on the street.

Nope, I barely recognize her anymore. Her glass condos, worldly retail boutiques and fine dining establishments have replaced  luvafair, the house of clogs and the funky armadillo.

I feel the evolution of the Sugar Refinery is a perfect example of how Vancouver has changed. When I first went to the Sugar Refinery it was an afterhours/cafe that was only accessible from the alley. They served coffee from a household drip-coffee maker. Then they became a legitimate business, expanded their hours and moved the entrance to the front of Granville Street. They have recently re-opened as a cosmopolitan eating environment.

Half the places I used to hang out in this city of mine are now gone. Buildings are going up at record speed which means they are being demolished just as quickly. We've been hearing for years that we were going to be a "world=class city" and now that we are turning into one I can't help long for those days when we were just a great place to live. 

flex your head

I miss the old radio receivers that I owned as a young teenager... hand me downs from my aunt or uncle, remnants from the seventies. You know, the ones with a big heavy-moving dial for the tuner and a green or amber glow emitted from behind. 

When I was 14-15 I used to put on the radio in my room and stay up late listening to CiTR and Coast 800 (eventually Coast 800 changed to Coast 1040) It was my first exposure to real punk, industrial, seriously heavy metal, electronic music, etc. I felt like I had a link to an entirely different world and suddenly I didn't feel so alone. I would fall asleep listening the radio for the next year and half. My darlened room drenched in the eerie glow from the stereo light like I were at the bottom of a swimming pool in the middle of the night....

radio gaga

going somewhere, not entirely sure... just heading out of town in a northernly direction. sleep in the van with the kids :)

go on, get outta here...

interesting movie

young me / now me

just a few links today...

a generic news report

unhappy hipsters

anarchy

If I have the time I will be attempting to make a Chocolat Kidney Bean Cake tonight :)

later that evening....

what the fuck was I thinking? no cake tonight :(

I see the shit going on in Europe and I can't help but want to move there. Basically the only things keeping me here are the rainforest, my family and a decent paying job otherwise I would flee...

It's hard to really have much pride in a city that seems to erect a new building every other week and doesn't take the opportunity to enforce strict eco-friendly practices. Sure there was the Vancouver Olympic Village.. I've read all about it's "green features" half of which are frivolous items that I accept as the norm in Metro Vancouver (Seaside greenway and bikeway, Urban agriculture, etc.) The only things of value were the Neighbourhood Energy Utility and a water management system that reduced water consumption by 50% through havesting and re-use of rainwater. I guess that's something in a land where they refuse to accept that one day the oil will run out.

In Europe however it is quite different. Check out these photos

Freiberg, Germany: 1 2 3

A new Stadium in Switzerland: 1 2 (I wonder if this is what they have planned for BC Place) 

I know we in Vancouver like to suck eachother's dicks, discussing what a progressive and forward thinking city we are when it comes to our attitude towards the environment. But when you have an area like Yaletown that was built in the last 20 years, and there is nothing much different about the buildings other than style, you have to accept that it's just not true. It doesn't matter how many bike lanes you put on the Burrard Street Bridge it can't compare to what they're doing in Europe. 

and in Europe, their grocery stores aren't filled with genetically modified foods.

I reside on the underside of these leaves

I just watched Jacob's Ladder lastnight for the first time since I was 17. Very strange to see movies that disturbed me when I was young and recognize how far they really touched me subconsciously. Brings me to making a list of movies I saw at a young age that really effected me... in no particular order...

1. Jacob's Ladder

2. Blue Velvet

3. A Clockwork Orange

4. Naked Lunch

5. Dog Fight

here's a link for you, go on...

quiz

scratched, slightly stretched and getting a little sketched out

there were reasons for my absence, abstinence that I can't go into now

the drug delivery was acute, was a cute pixie-haired girl in a fading photograph

sunshine can save me when I hold her hand

This you must understand.

We have the hero of heart

and from what I've read,

that's always a good start

followed by a promise

even though

your hair is dark and curled and long

now

*

go on, get outta here...

ms paint materpieces

mystery man

iNUDGE

This guy is making something wonderful

visual economics

it took a few years for this music to touch me

stimulants are nice. they make you excited, make you feel like you're experiencing something worth being excited about. like something important is happening. but it's just a caffeine buzz coming on.

I'm listening to orbital right now... something I'm not familiar with, makes me realize a lot of their stuff is hit or miss. There other day I considered Orbital among my favorites for the first time... sometimes it takes awhile to understand how important different periods of your life were and the music that accompanied them. 

My life has always followed a pattern of long periods of solitude and introspection separated by short periods of intense and diverse social interaction. Throughout them Orbital was there, residing in the background, weaving itself into my memories. Listening to "The Girl with The Sun in Her Head" brings me to so many places in time at once and then "Lush 3.1" or "Belfast"

but Halcyon & On & On, well shit, how do I even consider broaching that subject with words

here's some links, go on...

dominion

adam curtis' blog

kevin shiu

Eli squeaks and squeals in the background, I've become to used to a coffee in the morning so I guess I will be making a pot soon.

one thing I wish my father would have let me in on was the state of the world and how it is controlled. This is something that took me over 30 years to come to grips with through my own exploration of history, politics, economics, etc.... through the seeking of knowledge.

This will be something I let my kids know about from an early age. 

I wonder which of my children will be most interested in politics, Sophia seems to have the most strategic mind, however now that Tay has grown I can see the ways in which he thoughtfully positions himself to get what he wants

here's some weak links for ya

heaven

things I did lastnight dot com

strange music vid

shit my kids riuned

a few years ago Mel and I decided to get rid of our microwave, I'm thinking our next move should be to get rid of all the plastics in our kitchen. and replace them with steel, glass or wood... maybe silicone as well, I haven't done much research on silicone.