My wife and I enjoy going to the theatre. When we were living in England we’d regularly spend weekends in London attending interesting looking shows picked out of Time Out magazine. We saw everything from a production of Dracula above a pub to Japanese comedians to big shows like Cats. In fact, our honeymoon was spent in London and included a couple of days at a Horror Film festival and a showing of War Horse. Now that we live in Vancouver we have a subscription to the local Arts Club Theatre. It’s relatively inexpensive (especially compared to London ticket prices) and it encourages us to go to see shows we wouldn’t normally think of attending. Sometimes we get a dud but most of them are good, some are outstanding. Yesterday, we went to see Helen Lawrence at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage. Created by visual artist Stan Douglas and screenwriter Chris Haddock (Da Vinci’s Inquest, Boardwalk Empire) Helen Lawrence is a hard-boiled, film noir-ish, tale set in Vancouver in 1948 that weaves several threads around the arrival of a mysterious femme-fatale. What makes the play unique is the way it’s presented. The actors perform on a blue screen stage behind an opaque screen. … Read More
Canada – April 2010 – The Vancouver Canucks
We’d never seen a hockey game before coming to Vancouver and didn’t really pay much attention until we got given some tickets to a game. We’re still not fanatics but we have jerseys, go to a couple of games a year and try to get to at least one playoff game – when Vancouver get that far (which doesn’t look likely this year). [Canada – April 2010 – The Vancouver Canucks by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 16th February 2014]
Canada – August 2009 – Zombie Walk
Vancouver’s Zombie Walk takes place in August and has been shambling since 2005. It gets better every year and every year I swear that next year, I’m going to take part. Thinking about it, I’m surprised I haven’t posted more zombie photos here. I’ll have to rectify that. [Canada – August 2009 – Zombie Walk by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 15th February 2014]
Canada – February 2005 – English Bay
This is a photo I took shortly after I arrived in Vancouver looking from the beach, across English Bay to the mountains. [Canada – February 2005 – English Bay by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 11th February 2014]
Nine Years On
I sort of forgot because we had a busy day but Saturday marked the ninth anniversary of my arrival in Canada. I can honestly say that moving here was the second best decision I’ve ever made (the first being to struggle past my teenage insecurities to chat to the cute girl my friend had invited out to the pub with us). Vancouver is a great place to live. It’s safe, clean and friendly and doesn’t have the over crowding of cities like London. There’s a decent theatre and music scene, plenty of sports if that’s your thing and if you’re the outdoors type you’ve got the Seawall, Stanley Park and Grouse, Cyprus and Seymour Mountains. Travelling to the US is easy and if you don’t want to bother with cross-border travel there’s always Whistler, the Sunshine Coast or Tofino. Yes, it’s not perfect. The relatively warm climate attracts the homeless, like any city it has its drug problems and it rains quite a lot (it’s raining now). Still, we don’t get the heavy winter snow that the rest of Canada endures and without that rain we wouldn’t have the parks and forests. Will we stay here forever? Who knows. Are there … Read More
Following Neil
When I posted on Facebook that I had tickets to see Neil Gaiman, one of my friends commented “Isn’t Neil Gaiman an author?” to which I replied “Yes, but he’s a rock star author.” I was wrong, he’s bigger than a rock star. When we reached the Vogue theatre, about 45 minutes before the doors opened, the queue was already at the block and a half stage, far longer than any band we’ve seen since moving to Vancouver. Twenty minutes later it had stretched another block and was in danger of reaching Ouroboros status before the doors were opened. The Vogue is a good venue for this type of event. Large enough to accommodate a reasonable number of people but small enough that everyone gets a decent view and there’s plenty of atmosphere. An Evening with Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer was held in the Vogue and it’s where we first saw Evil Dead: The Musical so it’s given us some good memories. Steadfastly refusing to look at the table selling copies of Neil’s books, we got into the theatre just before six. The room was filled with hundreds of politely excited people talking about Neil or books or how they can’t grow a … Read More
Winter Wonderland
Thankfully, the Arctic inspired storms that have engulfed Canada over the last week didn’t really hit Vancouver. It did get cold – down to -11c and not that much higher in the day. There were a couple of days of snow, just enough to cause chaos on the roads but it’s pretty much gone now. Plenty off snow on the mountains though, which makes the skiers and snow boarders happy As demonstrated by my lack of blogging, this week has been dedicated to day job work – we’re just wrapping up our latest project which means lots of planning for the next project. There was also two trips to the dentist (one aborted, one actual) and lots of running. I did manage to scrape together a spectacular 292 words on Monday though. Not an auspicious start to the writing year but still…better than nothing. That was my meager attempt at the story Ethel the Muse dropped into my lap a few days ago. I’m happy with those words though and the story is pretty short so I’m hoping to get the first draft wrapped up this weekend. No title yet though. Oh, and I fixed our bathroom tap.
Wet and Grey
It’s another very wet and grey day in Vancouver. I guess no snow is a good thing but still, I’ve had enough of the rain. So, what’s being going on. Ah yes, Tuesday was tying-up-loose-ends day. I finished the final drafts of a couple of stories – the horticultural science fiction tale, F Bomb, and a piece of flash fiction that could be a poem instead called On the Finding of the Body. Body as I like to call it, was actually written at some point last year and was inspired by Amanda Palmer’s Who Killed Amanda Palmer album. I think originally I was going to submit it to one of her websites but I never got round to it. Anyway, I tweaked it a little bit and moved it to the glorious Finished folder. Tuesday was also the day that the critique of The Ghost Smuggler arrived from Jeff VanderMeer. He’s provided lots of great feedback and some very insightful comments and suggestions. Now I just need to work out what to do with it all. In the evening submitted I four more stories including Body. F Bomb will go out later this week. Wednesday morning was mostly filled with writing but it was for my … Read More
Vancouver Historic Half Marathon
You get some amazing autumn mornings in Vancouver. Crisp, clean air. Clear blue skies. Bright sunshine reflecting off the sea with snow capped mountains in the background. Wonderful. Yesterday was not one of those days. It was cold, wet and grey. It was also the day of the first ever Vancouver Historic Half Marathon and the fifth half marathon that my wife, Ann, and I have run. Medal for the Vancouver Historic Half Marathon The route started at the naval base on Dead Man’s Island and followed the seawall around the edge of Stanley Park, looping round twice before finishing back on the naval base. As well as the half marathon there were 5km and10km races along a subset of the Half Marathon route. It was raining heavily when we arrived but although it stayed pretty gloomy for most of the race, the rain eventually died off and it wasn’t as gruesome as we’d initially feared. It was a fairly small race, roughly 400 people with 250 of those running the half so as the race progressed the field thinned out nicely which meant we could focus on running not dodging other runners. The seawall is a beautiful place to run, … Read More
Poison and Axes and Guns, Oh My!
Last night my wife and I went on a two and a half hour Haunted Halloween tour of Vancouver. It’s one of the seasonal tours performed by the Vancouver Trolley company during the winter months when tourists are less prevalent. The tour takes in numerous haunted locations around the city, including The Fairmont Vancouver (haunted by the “lady in red”), Stanley Park (site of several haunted burial grounds and where the infamous “babes in the woods” bodies were found), Shaughnessy (home of Vancouver’s more wealthy inhabitants and the location of the murder of Janet Smith and its subsequent cover up) and Mountain View Cemetery (to visit Janet Smith’s grave, among others). Along the way the guide regales passengers with tales of gruesome and often intriguing murders, suicides, accidents and “accidents”. The tour also stops at the Vancouver Police Museum and there we got a lesson in how to perform an autopsy and a look at evidence from a couple of the murders our guide had told us about, including the still unsolved “babes in the woods” case and a particularly gruesome crime involving a young man, his sleeping family and a double bladed axe. The success of this type of tour depends almost … Read More