14.02.16

Things to Do around Vancouver, an Imaginary City

(after Gary Snyder)

Watch another one come down
Wait for the big one to bring it all down
Tread with irony and an eye to harvesting patterns
Feed a man lying on a bench before tossing crumbs to pigeons
Float down the Fraser smelling salmon spawn

Track piles: sulphur,
coal, red fife, chipped
old growth, demolished
homes, rubble, dog shit

Lie naked at night, listening to storms pound rooftops
Flirt in a crosswalk in passing as the light turns to amber
Seeking residue of the radicalized 70's
Un-real estate your conversation while living apart together
Bike to Finn Slough and picnic amid
      stilted shacks and blackberry thorns
Count food counters on Commercial Drive or eat
      pho along the King's Highway, now Little Saigon

Waiting in line at the same grocer for thirty years
Renaming a street after a forgotten lover
Drink pints, call it pinting
Invent a game, name it flinch

Seek a new edge beyond the seawall or tree-line
Sit on a bench and count strangers
Chase crows flocking to Willingdon
Trace the ridgeline separating lost streams
Stare into holes
Shades of grey
Names for rain
Counted layers

31.12.15
Our prospective walk will encompass the extent of Henry Valentine Edmonds's spread with frequent anecdotal stops. The map portrays the lay of the land as it were in 1895. (CVA) Refreshments will be served in due time. Only Sophia remains as a niece of Edmonds. The tree is an addition.

31.12.15
A portion of the BC Binning mural cladding the Dal Grauer Substation. The pixelated mosaic refracts sea amidst sky and forest.

 

31.12.15

Different views of substation pavilion : installed by cedric bomford. The concrete shell serves as an appropriate starting point to survey the industrial frontier dream.

23.11.15
The Columbia Grain Elevator stands partially demolished in October, 1972.  Revealed as a vertical shed. Note inlet and the mountain backdrop. This slide we read has been kept in frozen storage conditions. (CVA)

Rusted and digital the road has given way to greening. Monumental now the structure serves aptly as a place to revisit.

22.11.15
Mr. Higgins and companion sit in view for historical reasons. Somewhere on Lasqueti Island the sun in the decade of the 1920's was pleasing. She is at least half his age, kneeling no seat. Tongue and groove decking, dog sweats tongue. (VPL)

Decades pass only now this shed is clad in yellow cedar reverse board and batten. No tongue only groove as gestured and pointed.

14.11.15
Gutted the shell stands exposed to static upgrading. Crenellations to be retained while mullions crumble and make way for double glazing. Kitsilano High School is one of the few to be spared in part.