Lions, Tigers
Ivan and I watched the Canadian program "Trailer Park Boys" Sunday
night. It's a weird, gritty comedy/drama about a mix of guys who live in a
. . . you guessed it . . . trailer park. Last night's episode involved
a mysterious creature repeatedly destroying one character's hidden
marijuana field. After a couple of days' investigation, the group discovers
a very stoned mountain lion. They capture it, and the sort of
developmentally-challenged sort of character puts it on a leash and adopts as a
pet for a couple of days (much to the destruction of their trailer
surroundings, including eating the park owner's Viagra-laced hamburger
patties and then attempting to get busy with a neighbor inside a
camper-trailer) before finally releasing it into the wild.
Ivan found the show especially entertaining, with the lion and the
people running around and all, so it gets two paws up in the Canadian cat
culture category.
And, just in case you were wondering, yes, this is live action (low
budget at that — it all appears to be filmed with a personal video
camera), and not some sort of animation. Real mountain lion. Real marijuana
field. Only in Canada, eh.
* * *
Other occurrences this weekend.
Sunday:
Woke up. Walked to De Dutch for brunch, and ate a pannenkoek with
salmon and edam cheese. Had a fun conversation with Leila the Albanian
waitress.
Walked around on the beach for about a half hour. It was raining, but
not too badly, and I enjoyed climbing around on the rocks looking at
scallop and mussel shells. The water in English Bay was very calm, and
floating about on it were some loons, ducks, Canadian geese, and seagulls
(I never knew they could float like ducks, too — I guess most oceans
are too wavy for them to try it). There was also a small harbor seal
poking around.
I took a ferry across False Creek, and looked around the Vancouver
Maritime Museum for a couple of hours. The highlights of the museum for me
were some authentic hand-drawn maps made by Captain James Cook and
some panoramic photographs of Vancouver dating back to 1898. The tour of
the perfectly preserved Le Roch ship was also pretty cool.
Realizing I was the closest I'd ever been to Kitsilano while on foot, I
made the executive decision to explore the West 4th Avenue area for a
while. I spent a couple of hours looking at furniture and kitchen shops
and making notes of restaurants to try later. I decided to give Mexican
food up here one last try, and stopped in Las Margaritas restaurant,
which, it turns out, was quite good — their salsa alone is worth a
return trip.
I originally planned to take a northbound bus back across either
Burrard St bridge or Granville St Bridge, but, seeing very few buses around
on a Sunday evening, and not wanting to shell out for a cab, plus still
feeling fairly energetic, I plotted an urban hike across the Burrard St
bridge and back across downtown to the hotel. It was raining pretty
hard again by the time I got back, so it was good to get inside and into
some dry clothes.
Saturday:
I checked out the Vancouver art Museum. They have a special exhibit
right now called Massive Change, focused on the way that technology is
being used to approach the world problems of overpopulation,
pollution/recycling, transportation, and communication. The exhibit included a lot
of thought-provoking material (one statistic mentioned that if every
current inhabitant of the world followed the United States' average rates
of consumption, we would already need four more planet Earths to
provide enough food, power, and raw materials — a pretty sobering thought).
There were also lots of good things to look at, including prototypes
for the Segway and a stair-climbing wheelchair, dozens of interesting new
industrial materials, and a full lineup of electric vehicles.
night. It's a weird, gritty comedy/drama about a mix of guys who live in a
. . . you guessed it . . . trailer park. Last night's episode involved
a mysterious creature repeatedly destroying one character's hidden
marijuana field. After a couple of days' investigation, the group discovers
a very stoned mountain lion. They capture it, and the sort of
developmentally-challenged sort of character puts it on a leash and adopts as a
pet for a couple of days (much to the destruction of their trailer
surroundings, including eating the park owner's Viagra-laced hamburger
patties and then attempting to get busy with a neighbor inside a
camper-trailer) before finally releasing it into the wild.
Ivan found the show especially entertaining, with the lion and the
people running around and all, so it gets two paws up in the Canadian cat
culture category.
And, just in case you were wondering, yes, this is live action (low
budget at that — it all appears to be filmed with a personal video
camera), and not some sort of animation. Real mountain lion. Real marijuana
field. Only in Canada, eh.
* * *
Other occurrences this weekend.
Sunday:
Woke up. Walked to De Dutch for brunch, and ate a pannenkoek with
salmon and edam cheese. Had a fun conversation with Leila the Albanian
waitress.
Walked around on the beach for about a half hour. It was raining, but
not too badly, and I enjoyed climbing around on the rocks looking at
scallop and mussel shells. The water in English Bay was very calm, and
floating about on it were some loons, ducks, Canadian geese, and seagulls
(I never knew they could float like ducks, too — I guess most oceans
are too wavy for them to try it). There was also a small harbor seal
poking around.
I took a ferry across False Creek, and looked around the Vancouver
Maritime Museum for a couple of hours. The highlights of the museum for me
were some authentic hand-drawn maps made by Captain James Cook and
some panoramic photographs of Vancouver dating back to 1898. The tour of
the perfectly preserved Le Roch ship was also pretty cool.
Realizing I was the closest I'd ever been to Kitsilano while on foot, I
made the executive decision to explore the West 4th Avenue area for a
while. I spent a couple of hours looking at furniture and kitchen shops
and making notes of restaurants to try later. I decided to give Mexican
food up here one last try, and stopped in Las Margaritas restaurant,
which, it turns out, was quite good — their salsa alone is worth a
return trip.
I originally planned to take a northbound bus back across either
Burrard St bridge or Granville St Bridge, but, seeing very few buses around
on a Sunday evening, and not wanting to shell out for a cab, plus still
feeling fairly energetic, I plotted an urban hike across the Burrard St
bridge and back across downtown to the hotel. It was raining pretty
hard again by the time I got back, so it was good to get inside and into
some dry clothes.
Saturday:
I checked out the Vancouver art Museum. They have a special exhibit
right now called Massive Change, focused on the way that technology is
being used to approach the world problems of overpopulation,
pollution/recycling, transportation, and communication. The exhibit included a lot
of thought-provoking material (one statistic mentioned that if every
current inhabitant of the world followed the United States' average rates
of consumption, we would already need four more planet Earths to
provide enough food, power, and raw materials — a pretty sobering thought).
There were also lots of good things to look at, including prototypes
for the Segway and a stair-climbing wheelchair, dozens of interesting new
industrial materials, and a full lineup of electric vehicles.