andrew deWaard » my city

take that ya stupid microwave!

andrew — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 03:51:42 +0000

since i left you

andrew — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 22:01:27 +0000

where were we… somewhere in saskatchewan… well we gotta outta there quick (i’ve been to saskatchewan twice this year and that is entirely two times too many), then stayed at a friend of laura’s family ranch in alberta, where we rode horses and ate bbq’d venison. laura’s friend is pretty much like a modern day cowboy — minus shootin the ingins — and he brought us out to their family’s lake where the horses he was raising/taming were just hanging out, enjoying the stellar sunset going on across the lake. it was like the most serenely beautiful moment, so of course i had forgotten my camera. we partied in calgary, and saw a badass car accident downtown. we’re walking down this wide street with towering buildings on each side, and then all of a sudden this van flips over right in front of us! it ran a red light and got jacked by this little white car, somehow flipping the whole van and it skidded to stop like 20 or 30 feet in front of us. it was surreal, and like totally awesome, haha (everyone was ok, minus a bloody arm). and we went to the big dinosaur museum in Drumheller where i envisioned a zombie dinosaur movie, but apparently ben stiller already made that movie as a comedy?

next stop, the glorious stretch of land from banff to jasper. banff national park has to be the best part of canada, and i’ve only been there twice, briefly. the lakes and mountains are just incredible (pics are comin, but gettin thru them and all my south american ones is too daunting right now). after some camping, ultimate frisbee, and very cold, crystal clear skinny dipping in the valley of the five lakes, we booted it to vancouver. it feels good to be home… and kinda weird that vancouver feels so much like home now…

and how could i not with events going on down my street like “parks are for people not pigs”

while my internet wasn’t working: part 3/4

andrew — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:11:30 +0000

sometimes i get a little weirded out by the amount of people i don’t know who read this blog, but then i found this:

I do not write for a select minority, which means nothing to me, nor for that adulated platonic entity known as ‘The Masses’. Both abstractions, so dear to the demagogue, I disbelieve in. I write for myself and for my friends, and I write to ease the passing of time.

- jorge luis borges

incidentally, ian is living in borges’ hood in argentina, and im hoping to abandon everything in my life and join him if he finds me a job as a struggling journalist. or maybe i’ll just go visit him (seriously ian, email me).

********************

winter in vancouver:

click for bigger

it was like 10 degrees and sunny everyday for a week here like a month ago, and so i decided that it was spring, but its back to being cold and rainy. stupid smarch weather.

i have a hard time taking pictures of strangers, i feel like i should ask them permission. instead, i sneak pictures of hipsters playing croquet on a hill in front of the skyline from afar.

also, i could never go back to an ontario winter now. 0 is enough to make me stay inside, its like how my sister has been in australia so long she uses a heating blanket in 10 degree weather. speaking of my sister, she just gave birth to a darling little baby girl, named brydie (pronounced “bry” like “dry”, and “die” like “dee”). how cute is little thomas giving her a kiss!

speaking of darling kids, here’s a pic of me with mandy’s super adorable daughter charlotte from christmas. later we danced to the clash.

i should probably stop dressing up as a girl, my brother’s girlfriend was noticeably weirded out by the halloween picture we have up of when i was the western zombie girl. i’ll stick to just dressing up with toddlers for awhile.

while my internet wasn’t working: part 2/4

andrew — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 21:15:36 +0000

donnie is trying to get work as an extra, so we had a rather bromosexual photoshoot on alicia’s bed.

later that same day…

we treated the thermals (who are awesome) to BC’s favourite export after their show (which was pretty rocking), and i talked to them about eddie vedder and sleater-kinney and elliot smith and good vancouver bands. had this guy turned around and filmed the quasi mosh pit (is it still called a mosh pit? surely someone must have coined a new term since the grunge era for a rambunctious crowd), he woulda saw a tall lanky dude lettin loose.

we also went to see camera obscura. we only made it for the last few songs, but i had had far too may drinks to stand still for scottish shoe gaze anyway.

arriving late to shows and not paying (or just having to tip at the coat check) has proven a successful tactic, especially when nba jam and penalty shots (i hang out with too many people from wawa) keeps us from leaving in time to actually catch the whole show. the last few songs + encore is usually the best part anyway, or at least that’s what i told myself for do make say think: i dont know why more bands don’t have two drummers.

while my internet wasn’t working: part 1/4

andrew — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 19:02:14 +0000

im in the in-between zone where i think im nerd enough to do my own computer hardware upgrades and whatnot, but alas, it turns out im not. a week later, i end up just buying a new network card after my other stopped working as a result of my “tinkering,” and here we are. i now have 3 hard drives though, and a lot of memory that doesn’t work right. fancy that.

so i have this friend who randomly gets the song jenny from the block in her head. and then starts singing it. and then im singing it like 3 minutes later. this wouldn’t be a story worth telling except that this has happened numerous, numerous times. randomly walking downtown, “im still im still jenny from the blo– dammit!” a few minutes later… head bob and “i used to have a little now i got– curses!!”

anywho, this is a picture of my block, commercial and broadway.

click for bigger

if you look close, you can see the motorcycle dude twice. and i love the guy in the tupac shirt, but maybe you need the big big version to see that.

my hood also has a snazzy website, and a not so snazzy website. one day i will take pictures of my favourite place on the drive.

ps did you notice how much justin timberlake alicia listened to when i installed last.fm on her computer without her knowing?

(this is the sass she gets for not coming out anymore. your move bond.)