DTES to be better for Olympics!
With the Beijing Olympics in full swing, British Columbia's premier himself came out swinging yesterday with assertions that Vancouver's notoriously seedy Downtown Eastside -- the country's poorest neighborhood -- will be much improved by the time the Summer Olympics come to town in four years.
“I believe we will see significant improvements,” Mr. Campbell said of the notorious urban blight in the centre of the city, riddled with drug addicts, the homeless, the mentally ill, grim rooming houses and boarded-up storefronts.
“I believe we are making some significant steps to improve the lives of those [in the Downtown Eastside],” Mr. Campbell said. “I don't see this as an area of problems. I see this as an area of possibilities.”
Posted by Sebastian / Vancouver / August 12, 2008 /
Kids having kids
No, I didn't have a baby, but my nephew Pacey sure looks like he could be mine! Here he is, sleeping away this weekend.
Here are nephews Pacey and Jesse playing yesterday. Precious!
Posted by Sebastian / August 10, 2008 /
Amtrak
I generally avoid Amtrak, but in the past two weeks, I've taken them TWICE. This weekend I alighted at the "station" in Windsor Locks, Conn., which I had to snap a photo of because it was SO CUTE! They literally throw you off the train here, and hook you on the way back.
Posted by Sebastian / Etceteras / August 10, 2008 /
Oh the irony!
The Christian Science Monitor reports that the U.S. military is ready to pay $150,000 retention bonuses to Arabic linguists. This reminds me of the bumper sticker, 'If you're not angry, you're not paying attention.' After all, five dozen Arabic linguists and some 250 other language experts have been kicked out of the service under Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
Dispelling the rumors
Today it came to my attention that avid blog readers believe I have a thing against dogs. I can assure everyone that I have no personal vendetta against any pooch. That said, I am not a huge fan of the average dog owner (more likely the average city dog owner). I've been witness to too much bad behavior in Boston, New York, Vancouver, and elsewhere. So today, in my friend David's studio in Maine, I took this photo opp with the sweetest little dog ever for photo evidence. Jade, an Upper East Side dog if there ever was one, settled into my lap and immediately fell asleep, purring like a kitten. I let her sit with me until it was time to go, and I didn't even flinch. See, I do have a heart!
Big bugs
I'm no fan of bugs, but tonight I caught a few great shots of a hummingbird-like moth up in Maine. It was well past dark when I caught little sucker, thanks to modern flash photography. Look how huge!
Posted by Sebastian / Etceteras / August 2, 2008 /
Maine
I had been warned yesterday that the fog in Maine might be thick as pea soup today. I don't worry about these trivial things. So this morning I got up at 5:30 a.m., schlepped to LaGuardia, and got my butt on the 7 a.m. Shuttle to Boston where I connected to a flight to Maine. That flight unexpectedly terminated in our fair state's capital of Disgusta (nee Augusta) because my little airport in Rockland was fogged in. And so fogged in at that! Luckily, by the time I made it to North Haven later in the day, the fog had lifted a wee bit and was as romantic as my shot below reveals!
Here I am on the ferry, looking glum and unshaven!
Why I don't take the bus
The big news in Canada today is of a bus ride from hell last night: "Thirty-six passengers of a Greyhound bus traveling from Edmonton to Winnipeg Thursday night watched in horror as a fellow passenger reportedly stabbed another man sleeping next to him, eventually decapitating him and waving the man's severed head."
Toronto
I took a quick trip up to Toronto yesterday to hang out with my BFFs Joe and Julie. We had a blast wandering around Canada's most boring large city. I love Toronto and endlessly praise its virtues, but my god, the city can be so lame sometimes. Torontonians can seem incredibly self-conscious and that insecurity reflects itself in every interaction. But their city is massive and nuanced and perfect for exploring so those of us who love it keep coming back for more, despite our mixed emotions and occasional frustration.
In any event, some photo evidence...The Hazelton Hotel, below, recently rated by my fav columnist and condo critic Christopher Hume. I think it's a terrific building.
Down the street in Yorkville is this cool old building:
Nearby is Toronto's most adventurous new building, the new Crystal Building at the Royal Ontario Museum. I can't help but stop and stare at it every time I'm in Toronto.
Real coffee
The latest obsession in my constantly-obsessed life is Joe The Art of Coffee. It's my new hangout. Not only is the coffee actually drinkable, but the aesthetic of the place is so calming. Loves it!
Only in Vancouver
...do you see a headline like this: "Dead heron won't be removed from tree near Stanley Park tennis courts." That's what the CBC is reporting (please click to see the gross photo!).
According to the report, "The Vancouver Park Board has no plans to remove a dead heron hanging in a tree next the Stanley Park tennis courts. Spectators at a weekend tennis tournament expressed concern that the carcass, which was likely from the Great Blue Heron colony in trees next to the tennis court at the southeast entrance to the park, should be removed. But park board chair Korina Houghton said staff recommended that the dead bird, which is suspended in the branches about four metres above the ground, be left in the tree until it falls out on its own."
Toulouse
Last year, before going to Toulouse, in southern France, for the first time, my friend Eric described the city as "the Scranton of France." It turned out to be so much more! And the New York Times things so as well, in this week's 36 Hours feature. Toulouse is terrif.
Bye, bucks
It turns out that in Starbucks' recently announced plan to shed some 600 stores, the axe will fall hardest in New York, where 11 shops will close. As the Times wryly points out, "Starbucks said that 11 of the 600 coffee shops it planned to shut by mid-2009 would be in New York City, which would leave New Yorkers with 225 Starbucks to choose from."
A modern plague: loud cell phone talkers I have a little -- but increasingly passive-aggressive -- thing for people who talk loudly on their cell phone. Modern technology is great: you don't need to scream into your phone for that person 2,000 miles away to hear you. On Sunday I had two profoundly disturbing experiences of this sort. The first was at Paradise Cafe in Chelsea, the joint notorious for its awful service, and I suppose, sometimes awful clientele (yours truly excluded), too. When I stopped in for my usual weekend morning iced coffee fix, the same girl who was there talking loudly on her phone last weekend was back, chirping away, although this time she had lovingly placed her bare feet on another chair. Eeeewww! (See the photo snapped from afar for visual evidence.)
In my second hair-pulling moment of the day, I was over at Joe The Art of Coffee, on 23rd Street, getting my usual weekend afternoon iced coffee fix. The man sitting next to me clearly has relationship issues with his wife and control issues with his children. I learned all this, you see, because said man was talking at a decibel level that would give a lawn mower a run for its money. Truth be told, he also sounds like he has a touch of manic depression. In any event, I never thought I'd be able to snap a shot of said social-etiquette-offender without him noticing -- you'll remember, I was sitting next to him. But he was such a space cadet it was a cinch.
The Bay begins to says buh bye It seems Canada's most famed name in retailing is on its way out. The Hudson's Bay Company -- the oldest corporation in the Americas, for those who know their history -- has been sold to the parent of Lord & Taylor. Many stores in The Bay chain will quickly be converted to Lord & Taylors. I'm the first person to whine about how crappy The Bay is (except for its Vancouver flagship with its awesome Olympics gear collection), but it does seem sad to see the Hudson's Bay name winding down.
The history of the Hudson's Bay Company, as a fur trader, land explorer, and territorial ruler, is fascinating. There's perhaps no more Canadian an institution than the HBC.
Time to end 'Don't Ask'
An editorial in today's Washington Post calls for the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell: "The 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy that continues the ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly in the U.S. military was wrong when President Clinton signed it into law in 1993, and it's wrong today. The only difference between then and now is that more people are now coming around to that conclusion."
Shingles rock
There is nothing quite like a big old summer house in Maine. I am obsessed with shingle style "cottages"! Below are some of my favs from my town in Maine (including one hot clapboard home).
America's day
Happy Fourth to all! It's gorgeous up here in Maine, where today I shall endeavour to retain my crown as the winner of the annual Fun Run on North Haven. (It's not hard to win when it's only 1 1/2 miles -- this is my kind of race!)
Canada's day
Happy Canada Day! On this day the Dominion of Canada was created by the joining of the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Canada. (The Province of Canada became Ontario and Quebec).
Test your knowledge of Canadian -- and American -- history on the Globe and Mail's quiz. I got 18 out of 20 correct, thank you very much.
The Texas Bushes
Since my recent foray into Texas, I've become a Texas Monthly nut. Last month they had a terrific piece (not available online without subscription, but thank god for Google cached content) about the Bush legend in Texas. Great read!
"Putting your name on Texas is [not] all that easy. Lyndon Johnson did it (better yet, he monogrammed us) and also got to lead the free world for a while. Yet between LBJ and the Bushes was a two-decade interregnum in which Texas voters strongly trended Republican but neither party could put the other away. It took both the Bushes to pull off the remarkable feat of rebranding this contested turf as their dynastic homeland—and whoever hopes to claim future naming rights to our state should take some notes on how a patrician New England family turned Texas into Bush Country. It wasn’t just brilliant political bean counting, chicanery, or a masterstroke of political strategy. Texas is a storytelling culture, and the Bushes told a story about Texas that was so good they got to put their name on our state."
"Much like an epic in an oral tradition, the Bush story was composed of threads of history, myth, and previous narratives, and it evolved over time, which is why it held its force during two of the most transforming decades in Texas history. But at its heart was a powerful, patriarchal, almost biblical tale. It may have lacked the sheer moral drama of Exodus—that was LBJ’s Texas narrative, bringing the state out of the bondage of grinding poverty and Jim Crow racism. The story the Bushes told was more like the Book of Deuteronomy, a political covenant intended to bind a fractious, prolifically multiplying people and prepare them for the promised land."
Happy pride!
With Pride season in high gear around the world, I'm reposting this entry from a few years back. The following remarks were made by the leader of Amnesty International in Quebec a few years ago at Montreal's Pride festivities. Her comments are timeless:
"We march for the lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered individuals that are scorned, harassed, intimidated, tortured, killed and attacked every day all over the world. We march against intolerance, prejudice, religious fundamentalism and hate. We march for all the militants and activists who refuse to be silent, sometimes placing their own lives in peril. We march for all those condemned to clandestine lives of secrecy and lies. We march in the light for all the men and women reduced to living in the shadows. We march in order to speak up and to put an end to silence, a silence that is homophobic and kills. We march against propaganda distributed by both the State and individuals, and against forced therapies that are continually administered to sexual minorities as a 'cure'."
"We march against medication, electro-shock therapy, the whip, stoning, incarceration and death. We march against social and legislative discrimination, the uprising of the right, puritanism, fundamentalism, moral conservatism, and obscurantism."
"Finally, we march because it is always possible to change things and we are profoundly convinced that love is a fundamental right."
Vancouver's floating foot problem
Despite my unabashed love affair with Vancouver, I'm the first to admit the city has the highest sketchiness-quotient of just about any big city on the continent. There is, of course, Vancouver's missing women, the bizarre Robert Pickton, drug violence, and so on...and now comes news about a little washed-up foot problem.
A fifth human foot was found washed ashore near Vancouver recently but the BBC reports, "Police have said there is no evidence that the feet were deliberately severed or removed by force." A few days later, Reuters reported that the sixth foot found was actually an animal’s paw and seaweed stuffed into a sock. WTF?
Miami
I can't believe that as of yesterday, I'm 26. I flew down to Miami and enjoyed a quiet birthday spent at a lovely dinner on an island in Biscayne Bay with my friend Jeffrey, where, after enjoying a delish meal, we sipped on teas imported from Kuujjuaq.
Stayed at the Albion South Beach hotel, which was truly dirt cheap. I was unsure about the quality from its web site and its price, but it came highly recommended, and now I highly recommend it. Think Kimpton-wannabe. I was upgraded to the penthouse at check-in, which offered a large balcony for me to enjoy the view of Collins Ave and the beach beyond. Well, sort of. It was a torrential downpour for the 24 hours I was there, except for a brief moment at sunrise when I snapped this shot.
Random photo
I recently stumbled upon this photo -- perhaps the cutest one ever -- and instantly fell in love. It's Jerome Liebling's "Butterfly Boy, NYC" (1949), on exhibit all summer at the Yale Art Gallery.
The watch
Those of you still shopping for the perfect birthday gift for me are really cutting it close! There is only 48 hours to go. A quick and easy suggestion is this watch from Birks, bargain priced at $995 CAD, which is somewhere in the vicinity of $23,000 USD. Call the Vancouver flasgship today and ask for Dan, who assures me he can somehow get it shipped, through customs, and on my doorstep by my birthday!
Posted by Sebastian / June 16, 2008 /
SF
Before arriving in San Francisco a few days ago, I was warned to expect a heat wave. This of course, being the coldest city America, the "heat wave" meant mere 70-degree temps. But it sure has been spectacular -- especially for lazy, long afternoons in Dolores Park with the amazing views!
Sam Sullivan out! So the Vancouver mayor, whom I was so loud to support during his bid for office three years ago, has been defeated and is on his way out this fall. This week Sam Sullivan lost his party's mayoral nomination bid to Peter Ladner, a city councilor from Sullivan's Non-Partisan Association party. Municipal elections are set for this fall; in the meantime, Sullivan will continue to preside over Vancouver City Council, of which Ladner, of course, is a member. Awkward much?
In any event, Sullivan's ouster seems to be great news for Vancouver. I've yet to meet anyone who wasn't for him in the 2005 election, and who isn't against him now. The woman who dumped a large jug of icy Coca-Cola on Sullivan in the Downtown Eastside this week, since arrested by police, may have had the right idea. The Globe and Mail’s Gary Mason offered up a simple reason for Sullivan’s unpopularity: people “just can’t stand him."
Max gets the boot My BlackBerry was on fire yesterday with comments from friends north of the border on news that Maxime Bernier, Canada's foreign affairs minister, stepped down amid an embarrassing scandal of incompetence. Incompetence seems to be nothing new to the MP -- who represents Quebec's Maine-abutting Beauce region on Parliament Hill -- whose career has been more about his impeccable appearance and charming good looks than his capabilities.
As the New York Times so aptly explained the situation, "First Maxime Bernier lost his girlfriend. Then he lost his job as Canada’s minister of foreign affairs."
"Mr. Bernier’s political and personal setbacks are directly related. His former romantic interest, Julie Couillard, was linked to Quebec’s motorcycle gangs, which have long tried to infiltrate politics and the justice systems. On Monday night, Mr. Bernier resigned shortly before Ms. Couillard disclosed in a heavily promoted television interview that he had left confidential government documents in her suburban Montreal apartment."
A friend who is a Toronto journalist quickly emailed to ask me if I could get him a date with Maxime (for the record, I've never met the guy). "He's hot," my friend said. So I shot that little request and physical assessment over to another friend, this one in Ottawa who knows Maxime well, who I knew could make it happen. Of Maxime's supposed hotness, I got this sharp retort: "Umm...not really." No word on whether, now that he's had his heart broken by Ms. Hells Angels, he is going gay.
More Maine
While out rowing this afternoon, I headed over to the large channel marker that sits midway between North Haven and Vinalhaven in the Fox Islands Thoroughfare. Since time began, kids have headed out to the buoy, tied up their boats, and taken photos on it...today, I was less daring since I was all alone and had a digital camera with me that I was sure was going to fall overboard.
Family time
I'm up in Maine for the weekend enjoying the company of assorted nieces and nephews. Here I am with my nephew Pacey! I almost look like I could be a parent. JK!
Posted by Sebastian / May 22, 2008 /
Light flight
I've been on a lot of empty flights, but never like this...this morning I flew from Boston to Rockland, Maine, aboard US Airways, and as this photo reveals, there were only two of us on the plane!
Boston
The other day I was up in Boston, and except for the soon-to-open Mandarin and the hot new just-opened Apple Store (photo below), the city felt as if it hadn't changed a bit. Here's a basic rundown of how my morning there went:
7:53 a.m. - Land a Logan. A breeze getting downtown.
8:50 a.m. - Ramming around Back Bay. "Wow," I think to myself. "I've been here an hour and haven't seen anyone smiling."
8:56 a.m. - Ran into my old neighbor outside the Pru. My friend John was making bets on how long it would be before I ran into someone who said, "Hey, haven't seen you in a few weeks. Where ya been?" Only took an hour.
9:01 a.m. - On Columbus Ave., across the street from my old apartment, the same woman is STILL loitering outside her building with her baby-in-a-baby-carriage. Still seems sinister. Some things never change.
9:15 a.m. - Finally a smile! Does it matter that it's in a cafe where they're paid to smile at you? (I shouldn't be so quick to judge. Even I revert to an insta-scowl here!)
9:30 a.m. - Outside the South End Buttery, a recent arrival to the neighborhood comments, "Are there a lot of dogs here?" as two pups lunge at each other in a minor spat. (Oh honey, just check out The South End is Over for your answer!).
9:34 a.m. - I give up writing down my thoughts since this could go on all day...
O Canada, where have your bargains gone? From the Sunday Times: "ONCE upon a time, not all that long ago, there existed a magical country that was a lot like the United States, only less expensive. Its enchanted currency — the other dollar — allowed Americans to indulge as they could not back home. This delightful fantasyland was called Canada, and for centuries it was synonymous with frugality.
No more. With the precipitous decline of the United States dollar, Canada has slid off the budget-travel map, and nowhere is the challenge to stay frugal greater than in Toronto, a city of 2.5 million whose ascendancy is not merely attributable to fluctuating exchange rates."
Quotable
I can't believe it's taken me so long to comment on Benoit Denizet-Lewis's epic "Young Gay Rites." Let's just say it was longer than a flight to Johannesburg, but not quite as interesting. The blog remarks are quite amusing; everyone seems to think the cast of characters in the piece are silly, vacuous, and not that interesting. I tend to agree. But like everything Benoit produces, it is excellently written. I particularly enjoyed this gem, having seen far too many 60-year-olds clad in Abercrombie:
There was a reason, of course, why so many gay men my age and older seemed intent on living a protracted adolescence: We had been cheated of our actual adolescence. While most of our heterosexual peers had experienced, in their teens, socialization around courtship, dating and sexuality, many of us had grown up closeted and fearful, “our most precious and tender feelings rarely validated or reflected back to us by our families and communities,” as Alan Downs, the author of “The Velvet Rage: Overcoming the Pain of Growing Up Gay in a Straight Man’s World,” puts it.
No wonder, then, that in our 20s so many of us moved to big-city gay neighborhoods and aggressively went about trying to make up for lost time. And no wonder that some of us — myself included — occasionally went overboard.
Posted by Sebastian / May 18, 2008 /
Spotted in Boston
I love passive-aggressive signs!
The curse heard 'round the world
No TV outburst has ever been quite as amusing as this week's gaff by WNBC's Sue Simmons. The other night, during a tease for the 11 o'clock newscast, she must have thought her mic was off because this came out of her mouth...I've been watching the clip on loop for days and it just gets funnier each time.
Running like the wind
This morning I ran in the annual Mother's Day 4-miler along with 3,300 other crazy New Yorkers who somehow managed to get themselves to Central Park in time for the 8 a.m. start. It was my best run ever. Why? Recently I started buying more performance running gear (you know, the shirts made from mountains of soda bottles), slitty shorts and ugly sneaks. This race was the first time I put the whole outfit together. My belief is that if you look like a runner you'll run faster. And it worked. I managed to run a 6:54 mile, which is 40 seconds faster than I've ever run.
Anyone interested in being a better runner can forgot about training more. Just head to JackRabbit Sports on 14th Street (Don't forget your Amex. You'll need it. Glory does not come cheap.), where they'll videotape your stride on a treadmill, analyze your swish on a computer screen, and somehow pick the perfect pair of sneaks for you. It could be a complete racket, but it's worked so far!
Alex H-J, 1974-2008
Life works in funny ways. Today I was riding the New York City subway, thinking about an upcoming trip to Beirut. I thought that I needed to call my friend Alex tonight, the Lebanon expert, for advice on the best places to visit there. Minutes later, I got off the subway and had a voicemail waiting for me from our friend Lucas. I sensed a weird tone in his voice and called him back right away. Lucas told me Alex's body was just found dead in his apartment. It's hard to believe...
I met Alex half a decade ago and he kept me in stitches ever since (his obsession with my friend Mike, a complete opposite, was among the more humorous aspects of our friendship). He was full of contradictions (how many drunk, oversexed theology students could there be?) and full of endless surprises. He was a complete intellectual, a complete dandy, and one of the best listeners ever. And no one in Boston ever had bigger hair than he did (it was quite toned down in this shot from last month). More than a few bottles of red wine were downed on my roof deck, musing over eastern religions, bad clothes, sexual politics, our shared experiences at Boston University, and the latest South End gossip (he had me rolling on the floor when he discussed the merits of colonic irrigation). Alex brought many people into my life (oh the stories we could tell!), and expanded all our lives. For that he will be missed.
Sunning in Sin City
For as long as I can remember, I've had a no-Vegas rule, much like the no-Cancun rule I broke this spring. Standards are slipping all around; this weekend I broke the no-Vegas rule, too. On my noontime flight in from San Francisco, everyone was riled up and ready to go. A few were intoxicated already. I was actually a little frightened. Then I landed at Las Vegas's monstrous airport and was overwhelmed by the masses of people. I've never seen so many people and such a massive baggage claim area ever!
I headed up The Strip to The Venetian, wandered around for a bit and was again overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the place. So I headed to the pool to enjoy the 71-degree temperature and got one of those 15-minute sunburns I thought was only possible to get in Aruba.
Later, lost as I tried to find my way back to my room, I discovered the eerily realistic Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian with its mind-screwing animated blue skies. Everything was very well done -- but I'm not too hot on the artificial in any aspect of life (Disney, Cancun, Sweet and Low). The IGLTA conference was in town this week so I spent a great evening with friends at Trevi before heading to Kraze and eventually back to Caesars Palace when they insisted on 3 a.m. gambling! What a town.
Austin
I am so in love with Austin! I could easily see myself living here -- if only it were on the ocean. Staying at the uber-cool Hotel San Jose, a yuppie version of a roadside motel.
Gone to the Lone Star State
I'm visiting Austin for the first time ever...I'm eager to see the town. First stop: Whole Foods. Sure, it's not like I don't have one on my block in NYC, but the Austin flagship is the real deal!
Pre-fix
As I mentioned back in January, the rampant misspelling of prix fixe kills me. The newest restaurant in Chelsea, the cleverly named Ate Ave, has fallen victim to the troubling trend. Yesterday they had this sign out on the 8th Avenue sidewalk. Not only did they get the French wrong, but an apostrophe, too. But in that typical selective usage of grammar that seems to plague signs, they got "mimosas" correct.
Vick Vancouver On Saturday night I had the pleasure of attending the launch party for "Vick Vancouver," the hilarious animated series about gay life in Vancouver that's sweeping YouTube by storm.
Vick moves to town from Halifax and encounters all sorts of hilarious big city trials and tribulations as he settles into Vancouver's uber-gay West End. He is described as "Friendly and outgoing on the internet but wow--this boy’s got something to learn about real-life interpersonal relationships." The show is brilliant and completely believable. I am in love!
New episodes come out every Sunday night, and according to one of the fairly secretive figures involved in the show's creation, the season is about to get pretty steamy. But let's just hope they don't go the way of Queer as Folk in its final season, becoming completely cliche as it attempted to tackle every gay issue in every episode. Nice work Nixey, David, Jody, et al. (And thank you for not hating me for ripping off that image from your web site.)
Posted by Sebastian / Media / Vancouver / April 26, 2008 /
Have I told you lately I hate dog (owners)
One thing I love about Vancouver is the lack of dog crap on the streets. Any New Yorker knows how much this counts for quality of life -- in NYC, the stuff is everywhere. You know what I'm talking about. Bad dog owners run rampant and the punishment for leaving doggie doo on the sidewalks and streets and parks, if ever enforced, is a mere pittance. Vancouver, despite being a dog-owning yuppieville, doesn't screw around -- they slap violators with $2,000 fines. Seems sensible to me.
Posted by Sebastian / Vancouver / April 21, 2008 /
Sun Run, survived.
Well, I survived it again. Despite my threats to the contrary, I did manage to complete the Vancouver Sun Run yesterday. This year's was event was even more massive than last year's, with more than 59,000 beating a path through downtown Vancouver in what is Canada's largest race, and the world's third-largest.
This year I was seeded a lot better than last year, so instead of beginning the race in the last slow-poke wave, I was in the first wave. Not having to trample over people made all the difference. I shaved five minutes off last year's time and ended in 2,893rd place, the top 4-5%. Yay! For anyone looking for an excuse for a trip, sign up for next year's race -- it is the most fun race I do all year! See you then!
In other running news, congrats to my friend John who ran and somehow managed to finish the Boston Marathon today!
West Coast weather
Vancouver's weather is notoriously unpredictable. Last night it snowed; this morning it's gorgeous and sunny. Out in English Bay this morning, sailboats were out in force while people were still dusting snow off their cars.
Posted by Sebastian / Vancouver / April 19, 2008 /
Hello from Toronto!
The best part of traveling is hanging around the airport for hours waiting for your flight to depart. As long as you're in an airline lounge. Today thanks to a prime upgrade I'm relishing in the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge in Toronto's airport before flying to Vancouver. All airline lounges are not created alike; Air Canada's are really among the best.
Believe it or not, I love Air Canada. That's not a comment you often hear about Canada's much-reviled airline, but lately I've been experiencing some killer service from the airline that has been derided for so long as "Mapleflot."
AA in NYC Angela Adams stopped into New York tonight with a terrific trunk show at Design Within Reach on the Upper East Side. My favorite designer, and not only because she is the only one of my babysitters to become well known, down-to-earth Angela gave an excellent presentation on her design inspirations (i.e. North Haven, Maine). A flock of North Haveners were in attendance, including 3/5 of my elementary school class (those in the know will understand..ha!). She has motivated me to finally pick up the "Kelly" runner below.
Real Housewives of New York I have such severe ADD that I can't really watch TV very long without becoming completely distracted (I haven't seen a movie since 2005, if you can believe it!), but the Real Housewives of New York is keeping my attention. It's truly trash television, and I'm transfixed by it. The women are completely vapid but I can't take miss a second of the show (Real Housewives of Orange County was much better, but this is still TV crack).
Everyone watching the show seems to be in agreement: Alex and Simon are a freak show couple. Who brings her husband to girls' night? And what respectable woman says things like, "Jill is a great person to know. She can introduce to even better people." As Bethenny mused, "I think Alex overcompensates for insecurity by being pretentious."
Toxic bottles!
I'm addicted to Nalgene bottles. I have at least a half-dozen of them, in all colors and sizes. But now the Canadian government is on the verge of declaring one of the bottle's main ingredients toxic and retailers and racing to pull their stock of the cool bottles.
Here we go again
The notorious Christian Civic League of Maine is back at it! They're now pushing a referendum that would ban marriage for same-sex couples, bar gay couples from adopting, strike sexual orientation protections from the Maine Human Rights Act, and eliminate civil rights teams in the Attorney General’s Office.
Errors galore!
The CBC British Columbia homepage featured this headline the other day. I couldn't believe it! Actually, I can...errors run amok, even among the media.
The Washington Post featured this incorrect headline today:
The place.
The New York Times spring travel magazine has a huge spread on Vancouver, with a cool interactive feature accompanying it online. Check it out!
Poets gala
Last night I had the pleasure of attending the annual Poetry & The Creative Mind gala at Lincoln Center. It's always one of the best cultural events of the year, with celebs like Jonathan Demme, Meryl Streep, and Katie Couric reading their favorite poems in support of the Academy of American Poets. This year's best reader was certainly jazz singer Dianna Reeves, while the best poem was also the simplest one, E.E. Cummings' "Maggie and Milly and Molly and May," read by Katie Couric (whose 51-year-old skin looked great!):
maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)
and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and
milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;
and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and
may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.
For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
it's always ourselves we find in the sea
Posted by Sebastian / Etceteras / March 21, 2008 /
Quotable: A reality check
Looks like five-term Buffalo congressman Tom Reynolds will retire at the end of the year. (Remember Tom? He's the one who was accused of knowing about, but doing nothing about Mark Foley's transgressions.)
The New York Times says Reynolds' decision was driven by the "difficult electoral climate that his party is facing this fall." The Times quotes Reynolds today as saying, simply, it was "time to face reality."
Food to die for
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the farmers' market at San Francisco's Ferry Building is the best! Yesterday I did my usual Saturday morning routine, a lazy wander around the stalls and pushcarts of the fabulous food bazaar. Just look at these gorgeous veggies!
Posted by Sebastian / San Francisco / March 16, 2008 /
Visions of Cancun There are many rules in life -- don't wear pleated pants; don't mix gin, wine and beer; don't date men from Upstate New York -- and one of my own rules in life I violated this week. It the was the no-Cancun rule. I've always had this policy not because I hate Mexico (on the contrary), it's because I have a problem with the American Midwest. And since Cancun is essentially 600,000 people from Dallas and Detroit crammed into a strip of sand about as wide as a knitting needle, I have had my objections.
Well imagine my surprise when I landed at Cancun's shopping mall of an airport, amidst a flurry of flights from Edmonton (2 of 'em!), Toronto (4 of 'em), Montreal (3 of 'em), Vancouver, and Calgary. Who knew this attracted such a diverse crowd (of Canadians). The water here is so blue!
Cancun has always struck me as a bizarre sort of place. Not many people know that 40 years ago this sprawl of hotel chains packed cheek-by-jowl didn't even exist. Some who vaguely know the history of the place think a computer picked the site for this newish megaresort town. (The tourism people tell me this version's of Cancun's birth is a legend. They say the choice was man-made and hand-picked, not computer-generated.) Regardless, Cancun is artificial and to a great degree feels that way, a developer's interpretation of paradise.
Where in the world am I... • Same latitude as Honolulu. • 600,000 people live here. • This huge city, amazingly, did not exist four decades ago.
Posted by Sebastian / March 12, 2008 /
Haiti
Who knew Haiti still gets tourists? The Telegraph has a terrific travel piece on the place.
Posted by Sebastian / Etceteras / March 11, 2008 /
Puerto Rico's dog mess
Everyone knows I'm not exactly a dog lover, but the New York Times today has a great spread on Puerto Rico's stray dog and animal cruelty issues...including a gallery of fabulous photos like this one.
South American crisis ends
I don't like to toot my own horn, but I seem to bring good luck to places. You see, a few years ago, I arrived in Salt Lake City and within minutes Elizabeth Smart was found alive after her year-long captivity. Then on Thursday, I arrived in Santo Domingo hours ahead of the Rio Group summit, and within a day, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had suddenly become bff with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, whose country he seemed ready to eliminate mere hours before. Coincidence? Hmm...
(Well, now that I think about it, I suppose not all these events have been happy ones - I won't even mention where I was when the Societe Generale scandal hit.)
So the Vancouver mayor, whom I was so loud to support during his bid for office three years ago, has been 
My BlackBerry was on fire yesterday with comments from friends north of the border on news that Maxime Bernier, Canada's foreign affairs minister, 
From the 
I have such severe ADD that I can't really watch TV very long without becoming completely distracted (I haven't seen a movie since 2005, if you can believe it!), but the 
