The ThunderBlogs

The breeze that on a Saturday afternoon swayed the rainbow flags in Vancouver’s West End, carried with it a diverse melody of sounds including the gravel-scratching of a drag-queen’s roller blades, the neighing of ponies and the rhythm of drums.

Stepping into the enclosed area starting at Davie Street from Burrard and ending at Broughton, one could sense the buzz of activity that characterized the seventh annual Davie Day street-festival.
Children squealed when offered cotton-candy and dogs of all sizes wagged their tails as they were luxuriously groomed.

In true West End fashion, the festival catered to the diversity of the neighborhood’s inhabitants and visitors.
People from different generations, ethnicities and sexual orientations walked shoulder-to-shoulder through a display of over a 100 vendors and numerous performances.

Two men wearing matching green shirts walked hand in hand, stopping to stare at the horses that stood amidst a historical rendition of the area. A drag-queen in roller blades whizzed through the crowd, stopping occasionally to greet friends and strangers with shared enthusiasm. Her platinum blond hair swung in the wind and her short black skirt swayed with the effort of her legs.

An older woman in a wheelchair stopped at a stall selling food and asked about the dishes from an African woman whose hair was covered with the bright colours of Ghana’s flag. At the same moment, a young man wearing a leather jacket and a backpack walked by.As he stepped away you could see his little dog staring out from the backpack’s open flap, excited with black eyes that glittered in the sunlight.

At Burrard, a main-stage dominated the view, with green benches put out for the audience in front of the Davie Village Community Garden. Artist Bill Monroe, dressed in a black sequined dress, brought the crowd to their feet with impromptu renditions of favorites ‘Razzle Dazzle’ and ‘I Will Survive.’“We’re going to survive here in BC, no matter what, no matter HST or PST or the Volcano, or God knows what, Vancouver’s Davie Street will be here with all you wonderful people,” he said to the crowd, resulting in an explosion of cheering and clapping.

“It’s easy sometimes to forget that not all places in the world are as accepting and as diverse as Vancouver,” said Samantha Meade a 23 student from UBC. “Days like this bring all the diversity out in the open, and we remember that what we have should never be taken for granted even if it was we are now accustomed to.”

Just past West Pender Street after the Cambie Street intersection, residents in worn clothing stood on sidewalks approaching pedestrians for spare change. Misty rain hovered in the air, adding a dark opacity to the area. There was a mild chill to the early September afternoon, and a slight breeze to match.

A frail, toothless elderly woman in a wheelchair waited just outside MacLeod’s Books and followed passersby with coin cup in hand. She rolled over to a young couple perusing a group of flyers in the bookstore window informing visitors of upcoming events. Asking for enough change to buy some coffee, she extended her cup to the couple.  The pair only responded by averting their eyes, ignoring her request completely and continuing down West Pender toward Homer Street and on to their final destination.

Further down the same street is Central City Lodge, a long-term care facility also offering addiction programs, silhouetted in the West Pender skyline. The seven-storey red-brick building placidly sat as a haven for local residents in need of complex care.

Six wheelchair-bound lodge residents were parked near the many windowed entrance of City Central, all of whom sho

wed heavy exposure to time and the elements with wrinkled faces, tattered clothes and wearied expressions. Protected by the awning, the residents stared through the wall of misty raindrops.

Suddenly, a seventh resident was wheeled out of the sliding doors and was deposited adjacent to the other six.  Once the orderly had rounded out the group to seven, he scurried back through the automatic doors.  The seventh member was somberly greeted by the eerie silence that enveloped the rest of the group.

With vacant expressions, they stared with glazed eyes straight ahead, oblivious to all passersby and each other.

The lights dimmed, and darkness enveloped the corners of the pub. Then suddenly, a brilliant spotlight illuminated a corner, making the single stool and microphone that stood on the small stage glint in its harsh glare.

Chatter faded as a man with scruffy black hair and a matching beard took to the small raised platform. He was clad in a dark-blue button-down shirt with patches of a light-blue pattern, which, from afar, resembled the effect of tie-dye.

His dark eyes scanned the audience as he began to speak, introducing the audience gathered in Darby’s Neighbourhood Pub to the weekly stand-up comedy night they had either come to see, or were unwittingly present for.

An unusually busy night, the laughs started on time Tues. Sept. 14, instead of hanging back, waiting for an audience large enough to preclude crickets.

A long succession of comedians ranging from locals to a Much Music star followed. Then the dark-haired man returned.

Sandwiched between a chubby redheaded comedian making jokes about her love life, and a headliner that pulled a joke a second in rants that ran into one another with barely a breath between them, Patrick Maliha spent the majority of his act making fun of a University of British Columbia masters student.

That’s because comedy night organizer Maliha, is a roast comedian. Every time he gets on stage, he singles out a member of the audience, and pokes fun at them.

According to him, people love it. They keep coming back week after week, because, as he’s been told by audience members on numerous occasions, no two shows are the same.

An Ontario native, Maliha got into the laugh business around the time he moved to Kitsilano – 16 years ago.

He said he remembers a Kits before parking meters and Lululemon, though through all the changes he’s seen in the neighbourhood, Maliha said Darby’s has remained the same. A community institution, the pub is undergoing its first renovations in 25-some-odd years.

Maliha said he loves it there because of the crowd: an unlikely mix of students, retirees and everyone in between. He said there’s one pair of 80 year olds that have been to 18 of the last 20 weeks of comedy nights.

Maliha can be found nearly every Tuesday, from 9:30 p.m. on, at Darby’s Neighbourhood Pub on Fourth and MacDonald, in the heart, and the funny-bone, of Kitsilano.

Dramatic rent increases for social housing across Vancouver have left many low-income individuals and families in constant fear of eviction.

Brant Villa is one of many social housing complexes owned by BC Housing. There are 48 units in total – some are apartments intended for single adults and others are townhomes designated for families. The complex is located in a family-oriented neighbourhood, tucked away behind the high-traffic Kingsway.

The two-storey units in the complex are arranged in two rows spanning from 25^th to 27^th avenue. In between the rows are two parking lots on both ends, largely empty on a Saturday afternoon, and a patch of neatly trimmed grass in the middle. There is a single bench that sits on the side of the grass.

The units’ exteriors are uniformly designed and have grim and hermetic appearances – small windows provide few openings in the brown stucco walls on the ground level and dark teal wood panels lining the upper level. A short flight of stairs leads abruptly into each unit in the absence of a front porch. Tenants attempt to lighten up their units’ harsh exteriors with various decorations and motifs. One house has seven dreamcatchers of different sizes and colours hanging from the eave.

The Villa seems to be in a world of its own and is in direct contrast to the large family homes with front and backyards that surround it.

Despite a sense of isolation from the rest of the neighbourhood, there is a strong sense of community within the complex. Several adults were engaged in active conversation late Saturday afternoon outside their homes. Among them were a caucasian woman, a black woman carrying a 7-month child in her arms, and a Muslim woman wearing a purple hijab. While they were chatting, their children were playing tag and running about between the units.

The three women all expressed their anger towards the recent raise in rent, which they claimed was part of Premier Gordon Campbell’s relentless efforts to balance the provincial budget at the expense of the poor.

According to the black woman, who is a single mother of three, her rent has increased two-folds this year from 300 to 600 dollars. Due to her seven-month-old child, she has not been able to return to work and has relied on social assistance the past year.

With the recent rent increase, she now has to allocate three-quarters of her monthly welfare income for rent, and this does not include additional expenses on utilities. When she spoke to BC Housing regarding this issue, they told her to use the Canada Child Tax Benefit she receives monthly to supplement the shelter portion of her welfare income. She said their suggestion completely disregards the wellbeing and development of her infant. The other women shared similar stories.

To exacerbate their current situation, they said that BC Housing has yet to announce a rent freeze for the upcoming year. Thus, there is looming uncertainty over whether the rent will increase again, which could leave many tenants with no option but to move out, and worse, to live on the streets.

EarthDance Day 2010 united hundreds of peace supporters on a recent Saturday afternoon in Stanley Park—literally.

At 4pm, hundreds of hands joined to form a human circle that spread across the field of the Prospect Point Picnic Area. It took only minutes for a huge crowd to gather, fostering a phenomenal energy that stopped several uninformed park wanderers walking by.

The group of passionate and eccentric participants danced blissfully in a circle that eventually coiled into a real live human spiral while tribal drums sounded in the background.

The concentration of this day, according to a press release, is embracing all traditions, recognizing and honoring the diversity of all faiths and cultures. It provides an opportunity for individuals of varying ages and ethnicities to come together and celebrate the demise of prejudices, address sustainability issues and help others in need.

The participants successfully transformed Stanley Park into a creative environment where everyone was welcome. Certainly, tie-dyed apparel and bare feet were the outfit of choice but at closer glance a visible cultural hybrid rendered visible.

Crowds of hippies opened up the circle to embrace a few chicly dressed but curious looking yuppies. Children somersaulted near an elderly woman swaying in the middle. As a group combined, everyone truly brought forth their unique personality creating an atmosphere built on sincere acceptance and understanding.

Yasmina Ramz stood eagerly with her fellow belly dancers waiting to perform on the far side of the circle. Dressed in traditional Middle Eastern belly dance costuming, the four girls appeared excited.

“It is a community building event,” said Ramz, “I have never done anything like it before.”

Across was volunteer Amir Tahmasebi whom represented the Greenpack Canada station.

“We are promoting eco-friendly, entirely biodegradable products,” he said. “The reason is to reach our target of being the greenest city [Vancouver] by 2020.”

It was just one stall among many promoting various causes and activities. Alongside the spiral dance, there was much to do and learn and activities were widely ranged.

While small children colored with their brightly decorated markers adults meditated and hummed at the stall immediately next to them. Meanwhile, expanding from the multi-cultural potluck smells of curry and spices filled the air.

Thankfully for those who appeared as if they could continue to dance without end, the festivities did not finish in Stanley Park. The EarthDance day continued into the night as part two of an all day celebration for peace at W2 Storyeum in Gastown.

The larger-than-life sculpture unveiled to the public this week on city-owned lands awaiting development is itself a tool of construction. Or destruction, depending on who you ask.

Whether the fate of southeast False Creek lives up to its artwork’s symbolism is another story.

Adjoining the paved path that rims the inlet, a monolithic brown bulldozer dominates the landscape. This one, however, happens to be devoid of gears or machinery, constructed from recycled wheat board panels and conceived by Berlin-based artists Folke Köbberling and Martin Kaltwasser.

“The symbol of the bulldozer is meant to create a tabula rasa for something new,” said Kaltwasser. “It’s about showing something going from this hierarchical, authoritarian idea of structure into this organic process of decay, this democratic spreading out and regrowth. It’s about being more and more open to outside influence.”

Outfitted with a work belt and boots, blue cargo pants, a “Brasilia futebol” t-shirt and translucent spectacles, Kaltwasser addressed an admiring 40-person crowd Friday evening.

He explained how soil piled into the sculpture’s interior would assist in its decomposition. Wind and rain will begin to eat away at the panels, made almost entirely of compostable wheat straw salvaged from Olympic Village construction refuse. His audience’s lycra leggings and thick-rimmed glasses stood in marked contrast to the hammers and drill guns lying atop a smattering of makeshift particle board tables.

Other Sights for Artists, a non-profit arts organization, presented Köbberling and Kaltwasser’s The Games are Open in part to address issues of sustainability in the development of southeast False Creek.

Despite the project’s name, the chain link fence enclosing both the sculpture and the barren city lands behind it will remain in place.

For over a decade the city has been launching official development plans and bylaws, conducting environmental assessments and discussing waste management and green building strategies for the 50-acre area.

It remains desolate, punctuated only by the recently built Olympic Village, yet uninhabited, and a decaying bulldozer.

That contraption, usually associated with rapid and drastic change, will gradually transition into a pile of soil and eventually a plant nursery. Its contents will be spread throughout the city’s green spaces, Kaltwasser hopes.

Less identified with rapid action, the city has further delayed its bid process for future operators of the Village housing units, extending the deadline last week to the end of September due to confusion over complex leasing demands.

A timeline for shovels—aside from those used for the sculpture—in the ground comprising southeast False Creek has not been specified.

The city’s waterfront property may resemble its decomposing art work for some time to come.

Local band Legally Blind played Friday at a fundraiser for the legal defense of Vancouver activists arrested at this summer’s protests of the G-20 Summit in Toronto.

The lead singer resembled a young Johnny Rotten as he dedicated Pink Floyd’s We Don’t Need No Education to Premier Gordon Campbell. Next the band played original tune No G-20 on Stolen Land, formerly No Olympics on Stolen Land.

A banner over the stage at the Royal Canadian Legion on Commercial Drive read “Business as usual kills! Stop the tar sands,” and to the left of the stage hung of portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.

To the right, a slide show of photos from the G-20 protests were projected onto the wall. One depicted a person dressed in black throwing a rock through a Tim Hortons store front. Another showed a young man with dreadlocks embracing a young woman in front of Toronto’s Old City Hall.

The crowd mostly gathered near the bar at the back of the room, sipping beer. A few young women stood closer to the stage, moving their feet to the tempo of the music.

Outside, the thumping bass and drums were just vibrations coming through the walls, and friends gathered for conversation.

Lliam Brander said he spent most of the G-20 protests “trying not to look like an activist.” He went to Toronto in show of solidarity with activists who came west for protests against the Olympics earlier this year.

Brander was arrested while walking with a friend a block away from a planned anti-prison demonstration, he said. After being put under arrest, police searched his bag and found a few articles of black clothing. He was told that he was being charged for “disguise with intent.” His charge was later changed to “conspiracy to commit an indictable offense,” and was eventually dropped, Brander said.

Brander paid $300 out of pocket as a result of his arrest. $200 went to legal fees, while $100 went to a judge-mandated contribution to a charitable donation, Brander said. Friday’s event will help with those fees.

But the event was not just about raising money. Dawn Paley, a journalist who covered the protests in Toronto with the Vancouver Media Co-op, said, “A lot of people were really traumatized [at the G-20 protests]. It’s really good to have social space where we can talk about what happened and where we can celebrate the victories and where we can figure out where to go from here.”

Rubén Ortiz Torres tucked the collar of his black collared shirt into his rumpled black sport coat before crossing and uncrossing his arms. His sculpture, Museum Bench, was the top-billed attraction at Friday night’s Hot to Cold |Cold to Hot opening at the Charles H. Scott Gallery.

The exhibition, held in coordination with the Consulado General de México, provided Mexican-based artists like Torres the opportunity to display their work in celebration of two centuries of his country’s independence.

A dozen-strong collection of twenty-ish students, fringe-goers brandishing programs, and sneaker-clad seniors murmured amongst each other beneath squinted eyebrows as they surveyed Torres’s knee-high, perfectly rectangular prism. A white index card listed the work’s title and described how its temperature sensitive paint was designed to change colour in reaction to heat.

A student shrugged her backpack over her shoulder and pressed her palms down for several seconds on the dark purple surface to no consequence.

Torres’s calm steps carried him over to the crowd of onlookers before they had long to scan the other exhibits.

“It’s designed to work in California – too cold here,” Torres said.

He turned his way into the crown and returned within seconds gripping a white coffee mug by its handle.

“Try this.”

He waved back some of the crowd who had gathered closer and poured steaming water out of a white coffee mug onto the purple bench.

The crowd collectively leaned back in deference to the small clouds of steam that rose from the bench as the boiling liquid slid its way over the smooth surface – turning the purple surface electric pink upon contact. The demonstration provoked nods of “ooohs” and “aaahs” from the close-drawing crowd.

Torres smiled before he passed the mug to the middle-aged woman with a backpack standing to his right.

“Praise the artist,” she said while emptying out the remaining water in long strokes over the length of the increasingly pink bench.

Outstretched hands and slaps to the back surrounded Torres.

“Wonderful art,” the backpack lady said after turning back for a final look at the water-covered bench.

The artists schmoozed in circles as the crowd shuffled its way around the other exhibits as a growing crescendo of Spanish and English carried the celebration into the night.

Hot to Cold |Cold to Hot runs September 18 to October 24 at the Charles H. Scott Gallery at the Emily Carr University of Art & Design

Hours are 12-5 weekdays and 10-5 weekends

Admission is free

Thirty-six teams from cities across Canada and the United States jockeyed for positioning Saturday at the fourth annual East Van Crown hardcourt bike polo tournament.

It was the second of three days of festivities that began with Friday’s Dirty Threesome Co-Ed Tournament and continued with Saturday’s round-robin qualifying matches.

For the uninitiated, hardcourt bike polo is a minimalist, scrappy version of traditional mounted polo, with its horses traded for bicycles, and luxuriant grass fields ignored in favour of patches of pavement lined with makeshift boards.

Teams are comprised of three players, including a goaltender, and games are won by outscoring the opposition. This is done, ideally, without falling, touching ones feet to the ground, or ramming, hitting, or otherwise interfering with opposing players.

As Saturday’s matches developed, it became evident that these ideals are not always met, as competitor after competitor tumbled and crashed their way through the day.

Almost as captivating as the relentless action on the courts was the spectacle of the sport.

The riders were a motley bunch. With few exceptions, team members wore mismatched colours, rode varied styles of stripped-down mechanical steeds, and fashioned their homemade wheel guards and mallets from an array of different materials. It was Mad Max meets organized sport, and the only prevailing theme was discord.

That in mind, the tournament’s location is wholly appropriate. It is being held in East Vancouver’s New Brighton Park, a meandering stretch of green-space framed in industrial land, presided over by the neighbouring Viterra grain terminal, and assaulted by the sounds of industry.

Kiersten George, first runner-up in Friday’s friendly tournament and muddied from a hard spill, sucked at air heavy with grain dust as she recovered from her first qualifying match. Her team, the 2 0 Chicks (pronounced “two-oh-chicks”, in reference to the team’s Seattle area code, 206) had just suffered an unlucky late game defeat, but she remained optimistic. “Top ten would be amazing. Really what we want to do is be the best all-girl’s team out there,” she said.

The 2 0 Chicks and their 35 competitors are scheduled to return to New Brighton Sunday to compete in the elimination brackets and fight for the 2010 East Van Crown. The tournament final is expected to begin just prior to dusk.

For more information, see host organization East Van Bike Polo’s website at www.evbp.ca.

The McDonald’s in Kerrisdale, usually a calm place where many members of the elderly community eat in the day time, transformed late last night into a loitering place for young adults under the influence of alcohol.  At 2 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 18, a police car was parked in the parking lot of the McDonald’s fast food restaurant at 41^st Avenue and West Boulevard.

This building is a hub for activity.  It is the largest fast food restaurant in the area, and it stands two stories high at a major intersection.  It is open for business 24 hours a day.

A group of twelve boisterous teenagers sat in booths next to the window late last night.  The teenage boys laughed and chased each other throughout the restaurant.

A small bottle of Crown Royal stuck out of the back pocket of an East Indian teenager with a faux hawk.  He occasionally spiked his soft drink with the alcohol.

An Asian male teenager wearing a tight white tee shirt and earings stared menacingly across the room at the employees. There was obvious tension.

They left the restaurant and shortly after, a police car arrived at the parking lot.  The officer questioned a few of the teenage boys and recorded their names and phone numbers.  The officer declined to comment on what happened.  He said, “They’ll tell ya,” and left promptly.

James Huang said a cab driver reported to the police that he was assaulted by a male passenger and a female passenger who refused to pay their fare.  Huang saw the two passengers flee after the incident.  “They kicked him and ran away,” said Huang.  “[The officer] just wanted to talk to us because we saw.”

Huang said he had to go and quickly left with his friends.

It is unclear as to whether this group of teenagers knew the passengers who committed the alleged assault.

More young adults filed into the restaurant at 2:30 a.m., presumably after drinking and partying.  Several young women looked intoxicated.  One young lady slouched over in her seat alone while others ordered their fast food. Strewn about on the tables were food wrappers, cups, and empty ketchup containers.

Steve Hyatt, a volunteer at the Kerrisdale Oakridge Marpole Community Policing Centre, said violent crimes are usually rare in Kerrisdale.