Category Archives: Vancouvering

Inside Voice, Stories, Vancouvering

Proverbs from Ramada Inn

One thing I sometimes do is just hit random play on my whole music collection. Almost every time I get reintroduced to a gem.

Today I got reintroduced to the audio file embedded above.

It’s an idea from 2008 for a radio advertisement for a hotel chain. We chose Ramada Inn but it could as well have been Holiday Inn or Marriott.

We’ve taken a simple fact of budget or midmarket hotel rooms – that each room comes equipped with a bible in the bedside drawer – and created a hopefully surprising story from it. And I think it holds up pretty well.

Full credit to Monica Hamburg for the main voice acting and to Joe Solomon for the collaboration.

And, if you are wondering about the passage, it’s source is Proverbs, Chapter 7, Verses 15-20, with some updated language. (In the read I made the mistake of saying Chapter 17.)

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Findings, Vancouvering

Robert Davidson at Vancouver Art Gallery

Last week I had the chance to visit the Vancouver Art Gallery’s show Guud san glans Robert Davidson: A Line That Bends But Does Not Break and I found it exceptional.

I remember the first time I saw Davidson’s work at Coastal People’s when searching for wedding rings, and I have lazily followed his work for the 11+ years since. But I had no real sense of the full range of his powers, the trajectory of his work or the scope he has invented in what’s possible for Haida art.

A Line That Bends But Does Not Break is a perfect title for the experience. Since the late 1960s Davidson has been creating exceptional art, starting with traditional forms to a level of mastery, and then pushing the boundaries to new inventions. Abstraction is introduced. Colours grow vibrant and divergent. New materials create new options for form.

Exceptional and memorable. Thank you.

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Inside Voice, Nerdery, Vancouvering

2 New Year’s Resolutions: Gymnastics and Drawing

Welcome, 2012.

I have 2 new things I’d like to do with you: gymnastics and drawing.

Gymnastics? Yes. I’d like to try out gymnastics, again.

Last time I was taking any gymnastics I was in the 5 to 7-year-old range, so it’s  return to youth, to recess, to trying to do something new with the body.

I’ve done a little searching and the options in adult gymnastics are scarce. Most are geared towards high-level gymnasts who want to keep training and stay in shape. I am not one of those.

I am an amateur looking to try gymnastics for 1 to 3 months. I have taught myself handstands with low consistency but can’t master the cartwheel. I’d like to be able to do a handspring and to feel comfortable with my body upside down and flipping.

Best option thus far seems to be Phoenix Gymnastics.

And drawing?

Yes. I am a terrible drawer. I have some difficulty with stick figures. Flowcharts I can must in a tortured fashion but I need some basic skills: shape, perspective, composition, scale. The fundamentals.

The search is on for a class. If you have anything to suggest, please let fly.

And all the best in 2012.

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Findings, Food, Travels, Vancouvering

Sexy Beast: the Giant Pacific Octopus

Loved this long story from Seattle’s The Stranger on the giant Pacific octopus:

Sexy Beast — The Mysteries of the Giant Pacific Octopus

Brendan Kiley captures the octopus in such a wonderful way it’s hard to not want to see one soon in my Pacific freedives.

When we snorkeled in the Mediterranean we often saw octopuses. I pointed one out to Monique one time and as soon as I pointed it saw us and turned a bright red colour. Zounds!

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