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| Granville Street February |
I was in Vancouver earlier this year
for a break from the "maximum effort" flying that is so common for
our charter operation during the winter. A typical Vancouver February: watery
sun, flat light and on my last full day, fog, misty rain and a cloud deck that
aviators would call VV001.
I grew up in many places in British
Columbia, but Vancouver was one like a perihelion for my family's orbit around
the province as the government of the time was pulling the transportation
infrastructure into the twentieth century. Every city has a DNA and no matter
what sort of urban renewal happens, if you scratch deep enough you'll find it.
When I get into Vancouver I still feel, like Commander Vimes, the cobbles through
the soles of my shoes even if where the Cafe Heidelberg once was there no
stands a glitzy temple to trendy fashions.
Evenings in Vancouver are special, no
matter what time of year. The streets always have something going on - unlike
Calgary where it's a stampede out of the city to the suburbs leaving the
hivemind empty save for the immigrant cleaners tidying up after a day’s hard
free enterprise. Just standing on a corner gives you boatloads of ideas and
images.
While I was out walking a small idea
for a project started to glimmer in my mind; I noticed that everywhere people were
huddled close together in conversation over food. In groups of two, three and
more people laughed, flirted, argued, wept.
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| Don't Cook - Just Eat |
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| Diner Date |
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| Specials |
Looking at the take from the two evenings
I saw something else. The interaction between the service people and food truck
operators was a similar to the interaction between priest and communicant.
Makes sense, Communion does commerate a meal.
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| Priestess |
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| Waiting for the Host |
Of course, not all the priests had
communicants. Like one of Pratchett's Small Gods they had few if any adherents,
no matter how inviting the chapel
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| Hot Dog |
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| Pizza, Lasagna, Poutine |
And some were excommunicated or never
had a small god. Wandering Vancouver's East Side this fellow stopped me. He had
an interesting story and we shared a conversation; he gave me two cartoons he had
sketched and I gave him some money for a coffee.
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| Itinerant Cartoonist |
Techincal Notes
The usual rig (not that it really
matters but some people care): Lieca M-E (Biogon 35/'Cron 50), EP-2 (Olympus
45). All with my usual workflow: Raw conversion and exposure correction in
Lightroom, noise reduction and sharpening with NIK and final post with NIK
(Viveza/Silver Efex).
