Vancouver Winter 2019

[jamesq]

I went to Vancouver at the end of February/beginning of March, for no other reason than I needed to reconnect. Short write-up this time:

Good

• Friends.
• Listening to George Takei at FXV.
• Trivia at The Met.
• The Good Bride. Also a nice walk home from a theatre from the scary part of town.
• Mary Poppins Returns.
• Managed to avoid ass-biting Cowtown weather for a few days. It was awfully nice to be able to wander around in a sweater/jacket instead of a parka.

Bad

• Not enough time with friends. Didn't see several people I wanted to.
• I could feel the brain weasels nipping at the back of my head, but they mostly stayed hidden.
• Scheduled the trip to coincide with The Critical Hit Show at the Rio, but they ended up postponing it for a week due to a film festival.

Both Good and Bad

• Standing on the Skytrain, heading to Trivia, a nice young man offered me his seat. Because I apparently look like someone who should be offered a seat.
• Perfectly adequate suite on the Drive. Sadly I chose the location based on stuff that didn't happen, and it would have been better to either stay in Port Wood or a downtown hotel.

Meh

• Fan Expo Vancouver overall. It just seemed really small and lacklustre compared to Calgary Expo. Not sure if the reason is 1) too expensive to hold this venue in Vancouver, 2) too many competing events of a similar nature in Vancouver/Seattle/Portland, 3) Fan Expo just half-asses things compared to the former CCEE staff. I'm hoping like hell it's not #3.

No Ugly, thank heaven.

My last morning there, I woke up and packed with several hours to spare before checking out of my suite and heading to the airport, so I had a nice 7K walk around east Van. Here are some photos I took:


Ok, so this wasn't in East Vancouver. It's downtown at Granville and Smithe. I just liked it.


Assorted faces, somewhere on Commercial.


I thought these were crows, but whiggyone assures me they're sparrows.


These, OTOH, are crows. It says so on the tin.


The People's Republic of East Vancouver. Also, I don't know if you can read the posted sheet of paper, but it's from a mom looking for her daughter. These were all over the Drive, and it kinda broke my heart.


Peace.


They can't all be deep thoughts. Sometimes you just need a poop joke.


Storm Brewing mural. I hear they're in danger of closing since the building got sold out from under them. Hopefully they move somewhere with less rats.


Andina, a Peruvian-themed brewery.


Finally, my goal was take a picture of this guy. I believe in you big-foot. Note that that isn't paint. He's made of fun fur and googly eyes!