walking the drive

the Drive [Commercial Drive] is my neighbourhood shopping street...

I have walked up and down both sides of it now for many, many years!

that bowling pin sign has hovered above the corner of East 7th forever,

and incredibly, people still go bowling!

at the entrance to the stairs that lead up to Johnny 5's Billiard Club & Cappuccino Bar, which I have never dared to venture up, partly because I don't think a nosy asian woman would be very welcome in this what I imagine must be a time-warp macho-male dominated domain!

on the side of Norman's greengrocer, a produce institution on the Drive, giant red birds on a wire look down greedily in anticipation of discarded fruits and vegetables, mimicking the real crows and pigeons waiting on the live wires above... 

chinatown upspotting

with the new chinese year of the tiger pouncing upon a city distracted by shiny-money and nuvo-power, old chinatown buildings are being stripped of their quaint chineseness and cultural significance to be appropriated for elitist galleries of western art pretensions, hip design stores of asian chic, cool-million condos and modernized fusion restaurants that no older chinatown resident would ever step foot into...
but then again, all those old chinese people will soon be pushed out of their venerable comfort zone...

cozy apts

such a quaint term..."cozy"...from that long ago era when it connoted grandma's nest redolent with hot tea in a brown betty...
if it is ever used in real estate lingo nowadays, it would be just a snide euphemism for a cramped shoe-box!

on the waterfront

The SALT Building located in the southeast False Creek development [at First Avenue and Manitoba Street] was built in the 1930's on what was then the original shoreline...
designated as a heritage building, it had been a raw salt refinery and was later used for recycling paper products...
it is now being renovated into a social hub for the 2010 Winter Olympics Athletes Village and will serve as a cafe/bakery/restaurant/brewpub post games...

grain elevators on the south shore of Burrard Inlet loom high above the industrial docks off Powell Street in east Vancouver...

fire on main

what was once Zocalo [above] and other eateries at Main St. and Broadway...

shrink-wrapped

at Woodland Drive and East Broadway, a shimmering ocean liner parked behind a condemned bungalow...

random walls on commercial drive

make-shift "art gallery" on a disintegrating wall...

window art on East 2nd just off Commercial...

beware where you park, even if it is only for a dollar...

a poster for my son's first "Four for Four" show that he organized...[Half-Chinese is his very cool band!]

a corner of east 10th and Main

florid fatima

twice a year this floral centerpiece encasing a statue of the Lady Fatima floats by our house along with the full congregation of the portuguese church nearby...transforming our neighbourhood into a small timeless Iberian village for a brief enchanted afternoon...

shaded walls

sometimes in certain attempts to paint out graffiti, the patchwork effects of layering on fresh hues create abstracted and ephemeral works of art...

on East 11th Avenue and Commercial Drive... [now a garish mural - so sad...]

on a backlane off East 10th Avenue and Main Street...

on East 2nd Avenue and Commercial Drive... [now a gaudy mural - so very sad...]