Vancouver

It started snowing a little before 4:00. I left work at UBC at 5:00 and walked to the diesel-bus loop. It was already a tragic shit-show. One articulated bus as stuck at one end of the loop. There were multiple "transit supervisor" vehicles, but no actual supervision and a lot of chaos. I walked over to Bay 1a for the 480 and there were already enough people to fill an articulated bus waiting in line. I waited for a bit and watching what was going on with the other buses. A 43, a 49 and 41 went by, all stuffed past the red line.

Going by controversial Shannon Mews (the complex at 57th Ave where they moved the previously convenient Marpole post office to, see http://www.mbarrick.com/blog/160805/gothic-bc-49-going-dead-episode-3 ) this morning on the way to work I noticed they had at least half a dozen "Now Renting" signs spaced along the Granville side of the development.

Last week I was on Bad Vibes on CFRO. This is the set-list from that show. My bit starts with The Vampire Club by Voltaire, and you can listen to it here. From that point on Marc Godfrey and I were picking from a list of music that I brought with me depending on how the conversation went. I came armed with almost three hours of music for a one hour interview, with everything picked for a reason. What I want to do for the next little while is run through those choices, including the ones that we didn't get to, and talk about why I picked them. 

It bugs me when Chinese New Year is called "Lunar New Year" (as the City of Vancouver is wont to do). Areas with large populations of Chinese ex-pats follow lock-step with the timing as it applies to the Chinese time zone, so calling it "Chinese New Year" is wholly appropriate. In the smattering of countries that officially use the exact mechanism of Chinese calendar outside of China occasionally the day for the beginning of the year is different because local time causes the first new moon after the winter solstice to fall on a different day.

#dailycolonist1915 #WWI - The news out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago.

I am, at last, caught up to exactly 100 years ago. The beginning of November 1915 has the British using gas for the first time, fighting in Bulgaria, King George V recovering from an accident at the front, the defeat of women's suffrage in the United States, new innovations in aerial warfare, and a new Japanese emperor, among other news.

#dailycolonist1915 #WWI - The news out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago:

Drug runners, whalers, pirates, propaganda, protests, Zeppelin attacks, giant telescopes, darkest Africa, Hallowe'en haunted houses, murder and atrocities are just a few of the things I've picked out from October 1915.

#dailycolonist1915 #WWI - The news our of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago:

In this update: Zeppelins, conspiracy theory (1915 style), propaganda, genocide, fall fashions, exploration and discovery in the far north, a major allied offensive on the western front and more.

#dailycolonist1915 #WWI - The news out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago:

In an effort to catch up to being exactly one hundred years ago, this update covers just over a month. There is a lot in this update even though I restricted myself to just one article per day.