Roy o' Roy

I don't mean to pick on Roy Arden. I've never met the man. I'm sure I've laid eyes on him, but I can't pretend to know him. In fact I assume I've seen him because I was at his opening tonight at the Monte Clark Gallery. The irony of which doesn't escape me.
After seeing his work at the Vancouver Art Gallery, you may recall that I ranted about the quality of art in our cities art galleries and suggested that anyone who wanted to see some interesting work would have better luck on the South Granville Rise. If you haven't been to Monte Clark Gallery, I guess I should tell you that it is in fact on the South Granville Rise. So that shows you what I know - not too damn much.
Here's to you Roy - whether I get you or not, you're a much more successful artist than I am.

AFRO ROBICS

That's what the sign said. It wasn't a big yellow sign on wheels with a trailer hitch. It wasn't the kind that people rent and park outside of their store when they are having a sale, but it did have the same style of lettering.
It was a big white sign in front of the community center not far from the parking lot where I saw Ninjas. When I saw the Ninjas, which was after I saw the sign, I started to doubt that I had seen the words AFRO ROBICS. I started to second guess myself. Perhaps it did say aerobics.
But that wasn't my first thought. My first thought, before seeing the Ninjas, was that they had lost their letter E's and thought that an F was close enough. I couldn't explain the gap and I was thinking about the gap when I saw the Ninjas, which as I've said made me question myself.
But in the end, they meant AFRO ROBICS. Who knew?

Ninjas

I was out for a run and I saw Ninjas training in the park. They were swinging swords at each other in what looked an awful lot like choreographed moves, but of course I'm no Ninja. I just feel fortunate to have seen them in the wild and I suppose, fortunate that they did not see me.

Unlikeable Characters

The Hollywood on Broadway is showing a pretty good double feature right now. Good in the sense that both films are good, but also in the sense that they are well paired. Some would say that 2 Days in Paris is a comedy and Before the Devil Knows Your Dead is a tragedy and so they aren't well paired. But I would argue that they are both about unlikeable misfits and frankly 2 Days in Paris would have been a hell of a lot better if it ended with a break up. Instead it ended, well ... how did it end? What exactly was going on in the very end. I don't know, but I wanted them to dump each other, which would not have been tragic.

Local Theater

Perhaps it is a pseudo New Years resolution, but I just don't think I go to enough live theater. Donna and I had a good run one year where we went to several shows of varying sizes and we really enjoyed it. And since then, it has always been the sort of thing one us would bring up from time to time.
"You know, we should go to more plays."
"Your right, we should."
As simple as that. Except that we don't. It is just that sort of thing we say we should do and then forget about it. Last night we tried to break that run. We went to the Vancouver Playhouse to see The Blonde, the Brunette, and the Vengeful Redhead. It is a one woman show with actress Lucy Peacock playing 7 different characters. To be frank, outside of playing a child, she does an excellent job. Her transformations were masterful. My hats off to Peacock.
So I say pseudo resolution because I didn't really think of it until after New Year's day, but I'm hoping last night kicked off a string of performances for us.

Uspset Sunday

Wow, both favourites go through on Saturday and both upsets advance on Sunday. I feel like it has set us up for a less interesting Sunday next weekend. The favourites are once again the home teams and I am now really hoping for a Brady/Favre match up.

NFL Weekend

No surprise that the betting money is on homefield advantage today. And while I can't blame them, I for one am looking forward to seeing the games this weekend. I admit I have no faith in our Seahawks. But I didn't have any faith last week either, so clearly my faith ain't required. I do have faith in Belichick, but Jacksonville did look good in Pittsburgh. Sundays games should be closer.
At this point some epic battles are still possible for the big show: Patriots vs Anyone for the undefeated season, Patriots vs Cowboys for the T.O. vs Moss show, Colts vs Giants for the Manning show. At least one of those possibilities disappears this weekend.
But I suppose what I am actually hoping for is for all the home teams to win this week, because I think that would give us the four top QBs going into next weekend all playing for the big game. That would be exciting.


NFL
Sat, Jan 12
Seattle at Green Bay Green Bay -9 1:30 PM
Jacksonville at New England New England -13.5 5:00 PM

Sun, Jan 13
San Diego at Indianapolis Indianaplolis -9.5 10:00 AM
N.Y. Giants at Dallas Dallas -9 1:30 PM

Happy Birthday

Let the festival begin. Donna's Birthday celebration begins today. While this festival has been known to stretch out over a month, there are only two days of festivity planned this year, or at least so far.