up china creek yo...

yo mama's house?...here bitch yo...

the Vancouver Parks Board has since replaced the missing "i" and the halfed "e" but did not see fit to remove the scratched in letters above the "Ch" that makes it into an archaic racial epithet, thereby perpetuating and perhaps also condoning the handiwork of racist oINKers...

yo bitch, listen to "china creek" by half chinese from their album we were pretending to be...hear bitch yo...

and on various youtube vids...

[more shit on China Creek Skate Park here...yo...]
 

sullen monuments

In the graceless state of the semi-industrial eastside, I have driven by these two sites countless times and not given them too much thought...

but the recent installation of Ken LUM's pseudo-monumental EAST VAN CROSS glowing at the intersection of Clark Drive and Great Northern Way has enlightened me to examine more closely these odd and neglected "monuments" in the midst of an arid landscape of overhead Skytrain tracks and the nondescript commercial structures below...

 This monolithic stone stairway does not lead to some sacred temple or sweet secret folly, but the statuary lining the edges might have one believe that a grander pavilion perched above will reward the climb...

Turn around at the top and the view northwards is expansive across a desolate stretch of Great Northern Way and as yet undeveloped swath of prime inner city land...

 Go up the small hill [where the CROSS burns brightly] and turn left onto Clark Drive, and this strange little "square" is easy to miss tucked in as it is beside a car service garage on a non-pedestrian friendly street...

 The unornamented raw concrete structure embraces a round plaza sunken a few steps down - the perfectly trimmed shrubs have almost fully filled in the openings between the pillars, thereby obliterating the view of the mountains...

 The lonely pedestal in the center of the plaza is obviously missing a statue and the small plaque left on it only bears a mysterious date - the commemoration day of the site perhaps...

 As the skytrains swoosh by above every few minutes, the hollow mechanical sound fills this dejectedly hidden site as harshly as the half-hearted brutalist design of a monument that was once dedicated to, grandly enough, Christopher Columbus...

clark drive

this was the first time that I have actually walked all the way down Clark Drive from East Broadway to Venables Street...

[Clark is a main eastside artery and busy truck route as it merges into Knight Street going south and the traffic is unrelenting and thunderous - not so conducive to a leisurely stroll or bike ride, even on a sunny day!]

just before the non-wintery O-LIMP-ics, this large LED-lit cruciform sign [ironically? yet grandiosely titled "Monument for East Vancouver"] by "world-renowned" Vancouver artist KEN LUM was erected on the corner of Clark and East 6th Avenue/Great Northern Way as a non-denomi-national warning that you have now entered the randy republic of EAST VAN... [and the snow-draped LIONS in the background surely add a touch of the majestic to the view from this rough and ready neighbourhood!]

leftover industrial structures still punctuate most blocks, some in use, some just waiting for the right offer to come along to rescue or replace...

this tall brick chimney has always intrigued me, partly because it has been left standing even though it is not attached to any function [that I can see!] anymore...

there are many low-end car repair garages along this stretch, and I ducked into a slightly questionable one to snap this cool old weathered sign...

the sharply defined shadow of the looping barb wire above this wall casts a mildly sinister yet graceful pattern above the abstractly torn posters...

a no-nonsense sign for those super-hungry truckers gunning it through don't-mind-the-exhaust working-class East Van...

at the north-west corner of Clark and Venables, the gently curving façade of this mid-20th century manufacturing building lends a gracious [almost] end-note to an otherwise uncaptivating street that most shoot through and never really slow down to take in the odd sightings...