19. Parts Kinda Known: Vancouver
today a canada goose, tomorrow a canada goose but its flown south to new york
The City of Lights. The City of Love. The City That Never Sleeps. The Emerald City. The city is the fifth girl. Can a city really have a personality or is that just a thing we make up to sell tote bags? I think so, but again, I live in maybe the most Main Character City there is. We talk about New Yorker’s big personalities and what makes you a real New Yorker and what's the real New York vs. whats fairy tale. I do think that some common unique social characteristics will inevitably result from squeezing millions of incredibly diverse people in a tightly condensed area, but does that an identity make?
This year, I made short trips to Chicago and Atlanta and am now closing in on three months in Vancouver- all cities I’d never been to before. During those trips, like a hack Hemingway, I was trying to squeeze these sprawling metropoli into a few stock characteristics, but if someome can write the British Columbian Moveable Feast, tis not I. The vibe changes so much from neighborhood to neighborhood, especially in a city as international as Vancouver, that there was no over-arching VanCity experience I can sell you, but I will try to jot down some observations. My favorite area was probably Commercial Drive on the east side, which someone told me was the Bushwick of Van (they specifically said it was where the lesbians lived, but I translated). For these scant months of summer, VanCity’s residents want to be outside as much as possible, enjoying the stunning forests and beaches. Their shared green spaces are well-kept and much-used. People like to hike, bike, kayak, etc. In a personal culture shock, many of their gay bars are also sports bars. The biggest highlight for me was meeting many people and animals who worked on the greatest show of the century, Riverdale (see my work colleague Bingo the Crime-Fighting Dog below).
People love to be asked to describe their hometown. I love to! What I got a lot from both locals and transplants here was that Canadians are passive-aggressive. They’ll let you do your left turn but they’re secretly peeved about it. Most cultures centered around “niceness” will be that way but not actually acknowledge it so I found their owning it refreshing. A couple people took it further to say Canadians are cold, which made me sort of go oooh, that’s what that is. There were just some weird urban etiquette things missing here that I assumed were universal to big cities, a repeating selfishness that nagged me. There’s a difference between unfriendly and private vs. cold. Van is mostly suburban, quite wealthy, and a driving city, so there isn’t that constant consciousness of others. Another thing is it is also, like, perennially 2014 here from fashion to club music to the popularity of niche cringe hobbies. I regularly passed a huge meet-up of people all baton-ing. Let’s just say Raygun would thrive here. I look forward to maybe returning in 2034 when brat summer finally hits.
good watch
SEEN/READ
08/09 MONEYBALL, Irish Fairy Tales
08/10 A Lion Among Men, ANATOMY OF HELL, SE7EN
08/11 Romancing Mr. Bridgerton
08/12 EVERYBODY’S IN LA
08/13 EVERYBODY’S IN LA
08/14 Romancing Mr. Bridgerton, EVERYBODY’S IN LA
08/15 OUTER BANKS
a peek into my souvenir shopping
I went into a record store on Sunday, and spent maybe fifteen minutes pouring over this bin of promotional pins from various 90s movies. At least a hundred were for One Fine Day with George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer. Most featured absolutely huge movie stars in films completely lost to collective memory, and I laughed at how at the time they still generated enough excitement to warrant the creation of this little piece of plastic. Who would have thought the world would one day forget Forget Paris with Billy Crystal and Debra Winger? Not the person who once proudly wore this pin! One day all the things we care about will be for sale in a dusty plastic tub in Kitsilano. It was a tough choice, but I went home with pins for the Pelican Brief, School Daze, and Interview with the Vampire. Crunchy, indeed.
goodnight vancouver!
new york, seeya tuesday :,)
