“501s” – our only pants “Back to Basics” is the death of romance Stephin Merritt ’90: Dreaming in Tetris Even before TikTok and Instagram came along, it is not like humanity was free of comparison. Even Betty Rubble probably looked at Wilma Flinstone and thought – “Rock necklace, eh? What an uppity beeyatch!” I was…
On Valentine’s Day, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (OK, so it was Burns Lake in the year 1989) Valerie and I had our first date in the premiere Chinese restaurant in our small northern town. China Moon, run by the Lam family was in a shuttered “Mr. Mike’s” location in…
It’s hard to imagine the words “cheap”, “accommodations” and “Vancouver” in the same sentence. But in the 1990s when Valerie and I attended university as a young married couple, there were still a few bargains to be had. As we waited for an on-campus space to open up, we searched for a place between Kitsilano…
The world has grown weary, and lately I have been feeling weary about the world. A song by Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 sprang to mind this morning. My lifelong friend Lasse introduced me to this band at about the time the song came out – way back in 1994. Lasse and I and our…
I certainly wasn’t born a fighter. I have notched up nearly a half-century of conflict avoidance, and counting. However, in my formative years I did have several brushes with the masculine art of fisticuffs. My first pseudo-fight was with a bullying kid. I had complained to my dad that the kid wouldn’t leave me alone….
My dad is not a violent man, but he did care a lot about my well-being and growing into an upstanding member of society. A child needs lessons about how actions have consequences! You must understand that the years of my childhood were only just removed from the “strap at school” years. One day I…
My friend Ted is wise beyond his years, even though he is in his eighties. When one of his relations was talking about the bad path her son was on, she told Ted “He is in with a bad crowd.” Ted replied “No, he IS a bad crowd.” Touche, Ted. Who we choose to hang…
Many years ago, when I was just out of university, I found myself back in the big city of Vancouver to jump through some supplemental educational hoops. On the plus side, Valerie was able to join me and we took the opportunity to see the sights. As we walked along the downtown street, we passed…
In the last week or so, someone posted a note on the Facebook page for our little island in the Salish Sea. “Tell us the story of how you came to be here.” How did we get here? That is such a big question, considering how far back we have to go to untangle our…
When I was a young lad, my family lived in a couple of nailed-together shacks in rural British Columbia. To say it was rustic would be giving the wrong impression. “Farmhouse chic” it was not. “Late 70s Broke” was more the vibe. Ah, the things you settle for in an age of stagflation. The house,…