Hollywood

I went to the Hollywood Theatre on Broadway, which is my favourite theatre because they show double features for one low price. I went to see Eastern Promises and the Telus movie website listed Eastern Promises first and the second film listed was Rush Hour 3. Now, I don't mean to imply that Telus was mistaken and likely had I looked at the times they were showing I would have seen that Eastern Promises was the later film. Considering the nature of the two films, it makes to show Rush Hour 3 before Eastern Promises. Well that is in the event that you are somehow committed to showing them together, which is an entirely different question.
The thing about the double bill at the Hollywood is that every once in awhile the pairings are fantastic. Even when they aren't I end up seeing films that are ok and that I wouldn't see otherwise except on late night TV when I really should be going to bed, but will stay up watching any thin excuse for television. In the end, I often feel I am paying a fair price for the 'other' film at the Hollywood, if I even stay to see it. And that is the question, I'm not sure I would have stayed for Rush Hour 3, but then I thought I would have to decide after seeing Eastern Promises.
What I can say in the end, is that Eastern Promises was well worth the wait. Excellent. Well done. Could have been longer. Rush Hour 3, well really how could they top Rush Hour 2.

Museum Art

Yesterday, I visited the Vancouver Art Gallery and that trip has left me depressed about art. The gallery is currently exhibiting two artists: Georgia O'Keefe and Roy Arden. You will likely have heard of O'Keefe, but I can't imagine that you will have heard of Arden. Although I am told:

Roy Arden has been active as an internationally exhibiting artist since the late 70’s. He has played a major part in the development of Vancouver as an internationally recognized centre for the production of contemporary photographic art. Regularly seen in significant local, national and international exhibitions, Arden's work is included in important museum collections in Canada, Europe and the U.S.A., including The Art Gallery of Ontario, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart.

He is a photographer and although I read the intro piece written in letraset on the wall, I just don't understand how his work can be called Allegorical Realism. Actually, I don't even know what that means. Certainly I was hoping that seeing his work would shed light on the glorious intro he was granted. After all, half the current gallery is either an exhibition of his work or an exhibition of work he likes by other artists.
In the end what I saw did not provide "a questioning of photography's 'truth value'." nor did it "present evidence of the social and economic history of Vancouver and it's environs, what he has termed ‘the landscape of the economy’". And while I think I saw "A photograph such as Landfill, Richmond B.C. (1991)", I definitely didn't see anything that could be described as "a searing image informed by a contemporary ecological consciousness", nor could I say that any photograph I "invokes the problematic history of the picturesque landscape."
Instead, I saw a collection of mundane, pedestrian photographs that I would discard had I took them. And maybe that is the point. Maybe someone thinks the selecting of these mundane pictures makes them valuable. But damn it if I didn't want my money back.
The thing is, by most standards, I'm an artsy fartsy kind of guy. I go to see galleries whenever I travel and I have fallen in love with works of art before. I have wished for the talent of Monet. I have dreamed of painting even half as well as Tom Thompson. So, I find it hard to understand how Roy Arden's work gets revered. I don't mean to pick on Roy. I think this inaccessible art is rampantly revered by galleries across North America. But I just don't get it.
I would like to say that thankfully I was there to see the Georgia O'Keefe exhibition, but it too was disappointing. A good portion of that exhibit was dedicated to photographs of O'Keefe. Fair enough. Another section was a hands on bone display encouraging you to give drawing a animal skull a crack. Fair again. Finally, a good portion of the work were styles for which she isn't famous. Fair still. In the end, there were only three pieces that you would want to make a trip out to see. Ok, but disappointing.
But then I got to thinking about the crappy little landscapes they had on the wall, which held absolutely no merit other than they were done by a famous artist. And it left me even further depressed to think that between O'Keefe and Arden occupying almost three entire floors of the Vancouver Art Gallery, there are only three pieces that are noteworthy. I mean museum quality noteworthy. That's the best we can do.
That is of course unless you like soundless video panning across a parking lot - cause there was plenty of that in the remaining portion of the museum. One of a lake. One of a stone wall with some trees behind. etc.
Maybe someone can explain to me what makes the photo at the top worthy of museum status but until then I will have to stay a little angry with our curators. Surely they can do better. Show us something that makes us feel awe. That makes us feel envy for the artists creativity and skill.
In the meantime, if you want to see some good art try the South Granville Rise.

Am I Alone?

Now, lots of people have heard me rant about gender specific single occupancy public washrooms, and my annoyance with them hasn't subsided. I am still uncomfortable and awkward standing in a hallway at the back of a restaurant waiting outside the men's washroom, while the women's door is wide open almost mocking me. I still think that if we allow ourselves to divide up our world along gender lines in the back hallways of restaurants, then we can expect no less a division in critical places.
But lately, my new confusion with single occupancy washrooms only applies to the men's version. It seems there is a trend towards putting a urinal into these types of washrooms, which I think confuses most of us. Do we lock the door or don't we? If we do, we feel ridiculously prudish and if we don't we risk a much more awkward situation as someone may choose to use the toilet. Can't say that I am a fan.

Canadian Ambassador

A future Canadian Ambassador was born earlier this week. If it follows that my mother turned out to be a great cook because neither of her parents could cook, then Shaen and Rou gave birth to a little boy who surely will be the most adept conflict manager this world has ever seen.
At least that's my hope little acorn. Roll as far as you can little guy.

Welcome Kaeden Greyson

Just outside the delivery ward, along the corridor, is a long wooden bench. Well more of a shelf really in that it has no shape to it. Just long flat and hard. That's where families wait. Wait and speculate.
Around the corner, down the hall, and around another corner you can find another waiting area. One with chairs and even a small sofa, but at 2am it seems awfully distant. And while it is clearly a better place for waiting, it certainly isn't the best place for speculating.
Whereas while seated on the bench you are privy to a constant trickle of activity. Nurses, or could they be doctors, come and go, carrying bundles, pushing stretchers, fetching mirrors. What's in the bundle, why is someone being moved, who is the mirror for? Then a cry.
Families hover listening, friends fret wondering and finally news is carried from father to friend to grandparent to other waiting families.
Twice we heard the sound we were all waiting to hear and both times we watched as news trickled out and down to us. Twice we were the other waiting family and twice we were left to wonder.
Then, at 4:32am our wonders ceased as the real wonder arrived. Little Kaeden weighing 7 pounds 12 ounces, who wasn't so sure he wanted to come out of the womb, finally did so in a rush. If he cried, we hadn't heard it.
His father came out to give us the news and like paparazzi we poured into the room cameras flashing and video rolling. And, to be honest, quiet little Kaeden didn't seem to mind.