Magic Jewball

You will not be surprised to learn, I’m sure, that I’m the kind of person who takes two weeks to download and sort through my vacation photos. I like to think of it as pining for the good old days of getting rolls of film developed. Of course, if you also knew that I hadn’t fully unpacked my suitcase, you’d more accurately call it “procrastination” or even “laziness.” In any event, due to post size restrictions, I’ll be doing this in three posts. This one’s the overview of the time I spent away from my delightful hosts. It comes last so you’ll see it first.

This is Olympic Park in Calgary, the first of two Olympic parks I’d visit on the journey. It’s mostly here because none of the photos I took of preparations for Stampede came out well. Oops. Just imagine some hay on the ground and people in cowboy hats. But while I was here, I tried to remember watching Katarina Witt on TV while I was babysitting at my weekly gig. I wonder what happened to her. The kid I used to babysit for, that is.

That’s the Calgary Tower in the background.

And this is downtown Regina, specifically, “the Twin Towers.” I know, because they were on the sign as we entered the city on the bus. I also visited a sweet museum there and chatted with a Jewish docent about the Jewish community of Regina. You can’t see the museum or her, but they’re down the street. So is the mall where they sold poutine from a place called “New York Fries.” Indeed.

(I’m skipping the whole train trip and saving it for another post. Too many good photos! But this is where it would be sequentially.)

Hey, it’s Olympic Park #2! remember when they were lighting this in Vancouver and one person’s section wouldn’t light? I loved those Olympics. The little Roots caps and whatnot…. by the way, Roots is an overpriced store and I couldn’t afford even their sale-priced items. Boo!

It was grey almost every day I was in Vancouver. But it’s OK, I hear that happens in the Northwest from time to time.

This was where I hung a left and went to Portland, or as I like to call it, Hippietown, USA. They had fabulous public transportation and no sales tax. Other than that, it wasn’t really my kind of place. Here are a gaggle of representative youth of Portland. Yes, that’s a cat sitting on that guy’s head (click to enlarge). He was more a hipster than a hippie; you can tell because even with the cat, he had the neatest hair of the bunch.

And there you have it! It was really an awesome trip and this was just 3% of it. Please check out Post #2 and Post #3 for more vacation scenery. I, of course, will be heading out to Canadian Fries for a bagel and lox.

Filter – Take A Picture

Continuing on, this was the segment on the train from Saskatoon to Vancouver, which went through the Canadian Rockies. If you recall, I didn’t have the connection to upload any pictures from the train, but this should make up for it. I whittled these down from about a brazillion gorgeous shots. All of them enlarge, because, well, we’re talking mountains here.

Ooooooh.


Aaaaaah.


Ohhhhhh.


This is our train when we stopped in a town called Blue River. The main store was the size of my living room but still had a surprisingly large assortment of Ziploc containers. Good to know that I’d still be able to store my leftovers if I lived up there.


I never did get a picture of my adorable compartment but this was the view from my own little window on the last evening just before the light was all gone and I reluctantly pulled the bed out of the wall and went to sleep.

~sigh~

Led Zeppelin – Misty Mountain Hop

Last up, there are a lot of birds in Canada. Or maybe they just always got in front of my camera. Either way, I noticed a trend when I was picture-sorting….

These are Canada Geese in Saskatchewan. I think they were the ones who brought down that plane into the Hudson. I gave them a stern warning, but let them go.

This bird wanted the remainder of my lunch on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery. A few seconds later he gave it a try and found it lacking. I cleaned up the trash and moved on.

These geese (ducks?) were in Stanley Park in Vancouver. There was a lyric in a song I was listening to about things being lined up, so this cracked me up. Sadly, that song is long gone from my memory, so you may find it less hilarious. Still delightful, though.

Well, that’s the end of our ornithological journey. Join me next week when I show you the pigeons I spray water at on my fire escape.

The Cure – Where The Birds Always Sing

Did I ever tell you about the time I went to Wales? Wow, are you in for some boredom. It mostly involves me sitting on a clifftop and staring at sheep ambling by. That was in 1999 so those sheep are probably long eaten by now. In conclusion, sheep are dull. I’m glad we had this little chat.

Oh right, also, I took that vacation to stare vacantly at sheep because I was at a crossroads in my life and I needed a few moments to sort it all out. The sheep and the sea beyond them were just a pleasant target for my eyeballs. My company had just been purchased, all my friends had been laid off, but somehow I had survived to get promoted to the next phase of my career. As Kylie Minogue would say, I was so lucky… lucky, lucky, lucky. But also, as Led Zeppelin, or rather Jake Holmes, would say, dazed and confused. Was I supposed to be happy or sad? Was I ready for a job where I’d have to make decisions rather than carry out other people’s decisions? Just why did they paint those sheep with streaks of fluorescent color? I never came to any conclusions, but just taking a couple of days to stare at sheep was really helpful. I came back feeling somewhat more ready and moved from the cubicle at Gutted Records to the office at Up & Coming Records a few days later.

Here is a helpful illustration to tell you what I was looking at. The sheep were afraid of the camera.

I did not take this picture, thanks for your understanding.

I never really thought of this vacation that way, more as a reward for hard work and a chance to relax and, frankly, the normal thing one does when one hasn’t had a vacation in three years and now finally have a job and the means to pay for one. It was somewhere around the seawall in Stanley Park, Vancouver that it all came to me. I should explain that Stanley Park is like Central Park in that it’s the place in the city for urbanites to experience nature and jog without worrying about cars. But bigger and wilder and with better views of mountains and sea. You have probably ascertained that I like mountains and sea.

I turned on my iPod and I don’t know what possessed me, but I had this urge to listen to Depeche Mode’s “Everything Counts,” maybe because it was stuck in my head or something. A few songs later on my “every DM song in order” playlist came the start of Some Great Reward with its sample of Blasphemous Rumours (I think.. I’ve always suspected) breaking into “Something To Do.” And then suddenly I was me in a summer 25 years before, sitting on the bus at camp, waiting to head out to some activity. I actually remember hitting the tactile play button and starting the tape as we pulled away. That was me, you see, always preferring to stare out the window with a walkman rather than talk to anyone. And in some ways, exactly 25 years after that summer where I first acquired Some Great Reward (my dubbing it from a friend then has probably been made up for by the 3 or 4 copies I’ve purchased since), I am still that person. But in lots of other ways, I could never have imagined the me I am now stopped at the station between one career and another. 1986 was such a big year in my life, it’s hard to believe it was a quarter century ago. I’m not sure I could have predicted that 2011 would be just as pivotal (the magic fortune ball is just for show, it has to be admitted). As the sheep would say, life is odd.

Then I proceeded to mis-read the map and be forced to walk eight miles all the way around the park and then some. Oops.

Here’s what I was looking at around the time of my revelation. You can see the seawall on the bottom left. Not pictured: my panic when I realized the seawall diverged from the inner pathway with a large cliff between them.

Spoiler: I made it out alive but have rarely been that tired in all my life.

Coming soon, some more pictures and then I guess we’ll return to posts about videos I came across on the Internet or what have you. This year also marks twenty years since my favorite album of all time was released. More on that some other day, too. Maybe in October closer to its anniversary.

The girl in the song is actually sixteen, but I wasn’t. Also, she commits suicide. But anyway, from the classic album, Some Great Reward, title comes from:
Depeche Mode – Blasphemous Rumours

Wow, I hate myself for titling this post that, it’s so trendy now. But really, once you see what I got in Portland, you will understand and forgive. See, they have this GIANT book store called Powell’s with new and used stuff and it takes up a whole city block and then some. I spent three full hours there! I have even sold them books, by mail, and if I could remember what exactly I had shipped them back in 2009 when I was clearing out space for the nine boxes of crap from my office at The Record Label, I’m sure I’d have gone and seen if they were still there. Instead, I headed immediately for the YA section, and while there was only one Norma Klein book (sob), I was rewarded with THIS FIND.

I know! I know! Only $11.95. Here’s the front view.

I can’t believe I carried a box set of books home, but I did. Also, two books that I didn’t have from Norma Fox Mazer. So.excited.

BTW, I already have a copy of AYTG? IMM so I may give away my other one, except it’s from my childhood and sentimentally reminds me of how baffled I was by the concept of a belt being involved with feminine hygiene. This is what happens when you read books which are already out of date by the time you hit puberty. But remember when I had some kind of attention span and inhaled books rather than blog posts and tweets? Good times!

Anyhoo, in other news, I’m home! I’ll be sharing last thoughts on the trip once I catch up on some sleep and other things that need to be done when you’ve been away for two weeks and left things like “the curtains fell down in the living room” to await your return. Also, I may re-read Then Again, Maybe I Won’t. Or Blubber. Maybe both.

Actually, I just noticed this set doesn’t have Deenie! Is anyone going to be in Portland anytime soon? Special consideration if you want to trade for a well-used copy of AYTG? IMM.

Talking Heads – The Book I Read