Opsal Steel

Another sunny day. Another trip to photograph a rundown building in Southeast False Creek. And a remarkably similar shade of paint. Hmm. Must have been on sale. Here are the photos.

Little People!

I love this. Basically, the guy takes little people figures, paints them, puts them in various public places, photographs them, then posts the photos to his blog. As the description on his blog says: "Little hand-painted people, left in London to fend for themselves." It's a tiny street art project. I like that you get the close-up photo, but then the wide photo showing how tiny they actually are. As well, the site serves as a warning of what will happen when the giant flies come.

Arrggghhhh!

Ahoy mateys! Today be International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Avast me hearties!

Dancer In The Dark

I watched Dancer In The Dark again last night. I hadn't seen it since it's theatrical release. It reminded me of why I think Lars von Trier is one of the most challenging, important and all around best film directors working today. In Dancer In The Dark, he takes any sense of innocence, naivete and nostalgia associated with the traditional Hollywood musical, smashes it into a thousand little shards, then drags our faces through the shards. It hurts, but we needed it. If art is part of a dialogue, and I'd like to think that it can be, then Dancer In The Dark is the final word about musicals. They're done.

As an aside, I love the following review from the film's official website's front page: "A 2 1/2 hour demo of auteurist self-importance that's artistically bankrupt on almost every level." Good stuff.

Thumbs!

Today I overheard a guy on Commercial Drive saying: "I lost a piece of my thumb downtown. I can't believe my thumb is still downtown. My thumb is still downtown." Not surprisingly, he wasn't actually talking to another person. So, if anyone finds part of a thumb downtown, there's a guy on the Drive looking for it.

And speaking of thumbs, a friend of mine recently had surgery to fix the tendons in his thumb. With the broken tendons his thumb was permanently bent and he had no control over it. They fixed it by taking the tendons from his forefinger and attaching them to the thumb. So now to move his thumb he has to concentrate on moving his forefinger. Seriously.

Rubberneckers!

Apparently I'm the type of guy who would walk a few blocks out of his way to watch a building burn down.

Southeast False Creek

Vancouver's Southeast False Creek area has lots of visually interesting, somewhat dilapidated industrial buildings. The area is set to be developed for the 2010 Olympic Village, then turned into Condoland, so I imagine many of these structures will be torn down or renovated. With that in mind, yesterday I went down to the area to photograph a building that often catches my eye as I cycle past it. You can see some of the photos here.