Even though it isn’t officially Winter, the rain, early darkness and damp chill definitely arrived in the Pacific Northwest. Nevertheless, there are ways of dealing with the (not entirely expected) inclement weather. I’ve often written about Vancouver’s dual personality, and fortunately, there is plenty of the ‘city of the mind’ these days:
Two weeks ago, Bill Moggeridge, the founder of IDEO (one of the world’s foremost Industrial Design companies), and the designer of one of the first laptop computers gave a public talk, at the Emily Carr Institute because he is joining the school’s Design Department as an Honorary Professor. His talk was mostly material from his recent book, Designing Interactions which is available, chapter by chapter, on the web site. Nevertheless, I enjoyed his talk, which was to an absolutely packed hall (about 80% ECI Students, who were fun to watch as well — quite a few of them obsessively scribbling and sketching or playing with their Macbooks as we waited for him to begin). The only downside to the evening was missing the Blogger Meetup, which was going on at the same time. Sometimes there are too many of these winter events to cram into too few days and nights.
Today, we got a little break from the gloom, and Pam and I took part in another Winter event, the Eastside Culture Crawl. For about 3 days, artists and craftspeople in the neighborhoods of East Vancouver all open their studios (and homes), so that the rest of us go can visit and talk, admire sometimes buy art, pottery, furniture and fashions. It was a beautiful day, and we wandered around, taking photos of some of the art and the neighborhood, which was almost glowing in the sun.
Another way of coping with the Winter gloom is food (of course). But rather than just the usual comfort food, we capped the day with one of my favourite yearly indulgences, Cassoulet. The Oyama Sausage Company on Granville Island has an annual Cassoulet festival, and you have to get your order in early. We topped ours off with Toulouse Duck Sausages and some herbed Duck Confit. Some good red wine and a salad, and we were good to go. Oh, and not to mention, for dessert, a little ‘Juliet’ Goat (Camembert style) from Salt Spring Island (the other food festival at Granville Island this weekend was for Cheese).
And then there are the evening events: Next week is another DemoCamp, one of the recent spate of entrepreneurial coming-out parties for local startups and techies. I’m glad that I got into it, as I was unable to get into next week’s Third Tuesday, the local monthly get-together for online marketing, public relations and social networks. As I said, too many events, too few days and nights.
But it sure beats getting bummed by the weather!
Your blog makes me realize how much I miss Vancouver. What you say about the dual personality of the town is so appropriate. I love how creative and, at times, zany Vancouver can be.
By the way, in case no one filled you in, the bagpipers at SFU are world famous winning bagpipe championships in Scotland. We used to listen to them practice in Burnaby’s Central Park before we moved back East.
Thanks, Cara.
Yes, I’m finding that I’m now past the early starry-eyed infatuation with the city, and have settled into what I hope will be a more long-term affection. That means seeing the the place warts and all: Yes, there is nasty traffic (driving in it just never gets very good), the rain, the problems of homelessness and petty theft. The construction for the CanadaLine (not to mention the almost furious level of condo construction going on makes for a landscape not only dominated by the mountains but also by cranes. We’ve stopped counting how many dot South False Creek .
But, I’m now finding that I look forward to so many of these yearly rituals, whether it’s cassoulet or Okanogan fruit, the Culture Crawl or the PNE, the Symphony or the Fringe Festival, the Zombie Walk or the Santa Claus Parade, the snow on the mountains this month or the long July sunsets there’s a comforting and continual circle of the year here. I can imagine how you’d miss it.
Didn’t realize those bagpipers were world famous! They were certainly powerful…
Woah! Moggeridge is joining the Design Department? Damn, I sure missed out, having graduated this year. I also missed the talk, sigh, but I look forward to reading his book.
Be sure to whisk away some winter blahs by enjoying the holiday train in Stanley Park. There’s also some magical things tucked away in places like North Vancouver — Park & Tilford Gardens and Deep Cove — especially at this time of year. Can’t forget the view from Mt Seymour! That is, when it’s not cloudy 😉 Probably the best sight I’ve seen is from Cypress way above the fog. Amazing!
(Moggridge… please fix our typos 😉 I didn’t think there was a second E…)