Category: Lower Mainland

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Spending Sunday in Fort Langley

Planet Java's ceilingThere isn’t a whole lot in Fort Langley, but sometimes that’s just what you need. A place where there isn’t a lot of hustle and bustle to get away from the city for a while. We were able to check it out a little more than just the drive through that I have experienced before. And if you are driving through, that doesn’t take too long.

Needless to say, it’s a small town with some character. Reminds me a lot of the small towns from where I grew up, but I think it’s a lot harder to get soy in your lattes back home than it is in Fort Langley. Even though there isn’t a Starbucks or Blenz in sight of downtown, there certainly is no shortage of coffee related establishments. You’ll have to wander past the numerous antique shops to get to them.

Autographed Tori Spelling photo at Planet JavaYou can tell that the town gets more traffic in the summer. People head out from the city to do the exact same thing that we did on Sunday. And if you do get the chance to get there, check out the little 50’s diner for a bite to eat, Planet Java 50’s Soda Fountain Café. They don’t do fries as a side to your sandwich of choice. The potato salad is just as good though, perhaps even better than the fried alternative. And it still tastes good for at least two to three hours after. How can you beat that?

And there have been movies film in this little downtown area as well. What kind of B.C. town would this be if it wasn’t used as a film set? It’s getting to the point where the game is spotting the place that has yet to be in a movie.

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The Amber Alert System in British Columbia

I was unaware until this week that BC has its own Amber Alert System in place. I found out about it due to an alert that was issued and resulted in locating the child, fortunately, without harm. I’ve read other accounts where people caught news of the alert flashing on bus signs. That’s pretty impressive. This goes a little beyond the usual highway signs and news outlets that I’m familiar with, but it makes so much sense. You can declare this one a success.

My brushes with the Iowa Amber Alert System gives me some insight on this. My chief engineer back at WSUI/KSUI, Jim Davies, was one of the main guys getting the Amber Alert to work through the Iowa Emergency Alert System (EAS). This stuff doesn’t simply work from the start. It takes a lot of work and testing to make all the information flow correctly, not to mention the politics of what constitutes an alert or not.  Have to give my congrats to BC for this one working so well.

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Shorty On 1040

CKNW Control RoomI’m not so new to Vancouver to know that the word about CKNW losing the contract for broadcasting Canucks games to Team 1040 is big news. To me, it’s huge. I’ve interviewed for jobs at both of those stations in the short time that I’ve been here. They both have very respectable operations going on with really great facilities.

David, chief engineer for CHUM Radio Vancouver, had a lot of projects on his list that he told me about during the few hours that we met. The combining of a couple transmitter sites was of peak interest to me, but that’s the broadcast engineer in me talking. It wasn’t until tonight that I recalled something else that I noted.

There was one studio that was in the process of being vacated that David took me through. I was excited when he told me that he would be completely gutting the room and rebuilding it so Rogers Sportsnet could simulcast programs from there. Of course, I was excited because there was a possibility that this guy could be hiring me and I’d get to help. It was for the I.T. position, but I could tell that David saw my RF experience being handy for situations such as these. Sadly, my work status in Canada prevented me from partaking in said fun, but they did check my references.

Team 1040 put themselves into better position to win the broadcast rights from the Canucks. CHUM looked like a good investment to the Canucks with the investments that CHUM made into itself. Corus, who owns CKNW, loses a long time legacy, but I don’t believe that their programming was hurting so much as to not get the contract renewed. The competition just presented a better, overall product.

I have come to really appreciate John Shorthouse doing play-by-play. He’s good. For those back in Iowa who remember Ron Gonder and the legacy he had with the Iowa Hawkeyes on the radio, Shorty is that to Canucks hockey. It’ll be weird to hear him say, “You’re listening to Vancouver Canucks hockey on Team 1040.”

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Could We Get One, Steve?

I’d like to see Apple open a store here in Vancouver. I mean, Toronto is getting their third one. Reno, Nevada is getting one, so what about Vancouver?

There is no shortage of places to buy apple products, but when we were over in Kits a few weeks ago, they password protect the computers so you can’t play with them.  It takes a lot to compare to an Apple Store.  I haven’t been to Mac Station yet, but you can’t tell me that Vancouver wouldn’t be a great place for an Apple Store.

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Educating the Masses

SNL did a sketch last night about a couple of guys who do a video podcast called “Joplin: Alive”. It was pretty okay, but it really could have been a lot funnier. The fact that they were doing the podcast live from Bennigan’s was enough to make me laugh. The only true gag here was the amount of people walking through the frame, but I’m not sure that the audience really caught what the joke was. There wasn’t much to distinguish the sketch from being too different from public access television, but I think that’s been done before. There was just so much more that you could have made fun of, but I’m not sure that people would understand unless you knew more about podcasting itself.

Oddly enough, the Vancouver Sun came out with quite the spread on podcasting this past Saturday in the arts section. Rebecca’s mom saved the paper edition and passed it off to me this morning. Tod Maffin had quite the feature in it as well as highlights on a lot of other things going on in and around Vancouver. The article is a really good read. There were a total of about five articles, but only the following two are available to non-subscribers of the online edition.

“Now hear this!: PODCASTS | Millions plug into downloaded audio files — to listen and communicate”

“Is podculture just a return to the past?”

Next week should have a follow up with more podcasting related content.

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The Risk of a Bridge

Already this year, five people have died in vehicle accidents on the Pattullo Bridge. This is a fact that is simply staggering to me as one of the first things I recall Rebecca teaching me about this structure was its history of being notorious for car collisions. And just yesterday, another person died in a head-on crash with an oncoming vehicle.

This takes the number of people who have lost their lives from similar accidents on the Pattullo to 15 since 2001. Further up the river, the Port Mann is about to be twinned in order to solve congestion issues with traffic. It’s obvious that people want to get to destinations faster than they can now, but at some point, I would think that you have to weigh the value of life over the value of time.

I mentioned this in a podcast with Rebecca some time ago, and today I released a video podcast that has a brief segment going over the Pattullo. The timing is erie, but perhaps you can see a little of this for yourself.

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Forecast for Today: Whatever

I’m learning more and more about the weather here in Vancouver.  Yesterday when I went running through the park, I came home soaking wet.  The strange thing is that during my route, I could have swore that snow was falling into my mouth on occasion.  That’s just something that happens when it’s raining, but this was really cold and kinda solid on my lips.  I thought I was imagining it, but it was confirmed when I got home, and even more so by the Volvo pulling onto the street with a healthy coat of snow on top, obviously someone who just came from the higher elevations.

So this morning, there’s more clouds and snow, turns back into rain, then blizzard like conditions for nearly a minute, back to clear and sunny skies, and now there are these snow pellets descending from the sky.  All of this in the time span of about eight hours, none of the snow sticking to the ground here in the West End.  Too crazy.

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The Olympia Restaurant vs. the COC

Last Saturday, we ate at the Olympia Restaurant on Denman Street.  After a long day of hiking, Rebecca tempted me with the thought of some greek food, and I was totally down for that, especially with my empty, fully hiked stomach yelling at me for nourishment.

The food was outstanding, but the restaurant itself has become a bit of a famous landmark due to it’s name.  As 2010 approaches, the Canadian Olympic Committee has hit the Olympia with an order to take down their sign as it uses the olympic rings in their logo.  They have used the name and logo this way for fifteen years, but with the games coming to Vancouver, the COC has deemed that the Olympia has no right to use the sign they have been all this time.

Check out 998denman.com and see for yourself.  Oddly enough, we were searching the web before heading over for dinner only to have Mosi, the guy pictured on the front page, as our server.  The place was pretty packed the night we were there.  As far as I’m concerned, sign the petition because the meal was pretty freaking spectacular!

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Hiking the Park

Looking Out at English BayMaybe Rebecca and I have a warped sense of what a honeymoon should be, but the outdoors are something we both enjoy. Right now, we don’t have a lot of extra cash to spend on a trip to Mexico as we would like to do. We’re going to do our best to enjoy as much of life that we can, and that is exactly what we did this past Saturday.

Nearly five hours of wandering around Stanley Park, and we had a hell of a good time. For those of you not in the know, the park is roughly 15% larger than Central Park in New York. You cannot even compare the two beyond that. Central Park is surrounded by Manhatten and tall buildings. Stanley Park is surrounded by mostly water with mountains for a back drop. It’s unfair to compare the two as they both have their wonderful charms.

Looking Down at the Seawall From Above Siwash RockThe hike, which might not be a hike to some, was something that I’ve been wanting to do for a long while. I’ve become familiar with less than a quarter of the interior of the park, so we took the opportunity to explore, have fun, and check out the scenery. With a variety of trails, it’s easy to get lost or turned around, but you’ll never lose all hope. The worst that will happen is that you get yourself further from where you wanted to end up.

One thing we discovered that was new to both of us, Rebecca having more experience wandering all over the park through her life, was the lookout above Siwash Rock. The sun was high in the sky, 12C, no clouds, and it was just beautiful. Turns out that this lookout is on top of a WWII defense bunker. I’m sure people were looking up at us trying to sort out how we got up there. It was truly an accident that we did. Hit the Siwash Rock Trail, head towards the rock, and check it out some time.

Inukshuks on Second BeachThe most fun we had was off the trails. Mushy, rain soaked ground that was covered with fallen trees, leaves, moss, thorny plants, and all sorts of dirty stuff was a good, good time. There are lots of other places Rebecca kept bringing up that we have to check out and do more hiking at. I’m completely up for it and could hike through the mud all day long.

The tide was the furthest out I have ever seen it that day, so we had to hit the English Bay side of the seawall as well to see some of the inukshuks random folks have constructed. I have to add, some of them are truly impressive.

It’s strange to go from murky Beaver Lake to the smell of sea water down by Third Beach. Mud coated shoes to having sand inside them. Truly you are not having fun unless you are getting dirty.

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Some Good Shows Coming to Vancouver

I will never claim to be the end all source of music related events in Vancouver, but there are things that are of great interest to me that I think is worth sharing when I see them.

With that being said, Mates of State are coming to town April 21st! Midwest transplants that call the San Francisco area home now, they are pretty amazing to see live. More so, just the sound they are able to reproduce in a live atmosphere is pretty incredible. A purely husband and wife duo, she plays the organ, he’s on drums, and they both sing. A drunken buddy of mine, Ben Schmidt (who has now inflitrated the land of Minnesota), said something to me at one of their shows that sums up seeing Mates of State live quite well. “I hear a whole band, but there are only two people up there! Am I that wasted?!” Long answer short, yes. Check them out at the Plaza Club for an early show.

The Boy Least Likely To is playing with James Blunt on April 2nd at the Orpheum Theatre. This isn’t overly huge news, but I just caught wind of the opening act, not being a James Blunt fan myself. However, I would go to check out The Boy Least Likely To and stick around for the rest. I’ve played them on my podcasts after getting direct permission to do so. That makes them nice people, and I like that.

Also worth mentioning is the Matthew Good solo, acoustic tour. Three dates in Vancouver, but he’s also doing a set in Nanaimo. Would be very cool to catch a ferry for an overnight to check out the show, but I don’t think we’ll have the time. Rebecca’s a longtime fan of his stuff, so I’m thinking we’ll be checking out one of the Vancouver dates.

Beth Orton would be a good time as well on March 29th. She’s playing the Commodore Ballroom where I went to my first show in Vancouver, a Matthew Good show at that. I’ve always liked Orton’s music. She has a pretty amazing voice and unique writting style. This would be an excellent venue to check her out.

I’ll do more posts like this as shows come to my attention.