Stuff I Love Today - Sweet Lowrider Bikes

shizzlebike

I've been seeing a lot of cool dudes cruising around my neighbourhood on some sweet lowrider bikes lately. I've been fantasizing a lot lately about cruising around the seawall with my girlfriends on some sweet pink bikes like this one. I found it at www.shizzle.com. They've got some other nifty ones too. Looks like they are pretty expensive ($399US) but much more affordable than a car that's for sure!

Hi Neighbour!

Mr. Rogers

When you see a stranger on the street what do you do? Avoid eye contact? Pretend they aren't there? Or do you smile and say hello? What about your neighbours, the people in your building? Do you feel awkward with them in the elevator?

What about when someone you don't know smiles and says hello to you on the street? It's weird isn't it? How do you feel about those people who sing to themselves? How many of these questions am I going to ask?

I'm trying to make a point about how we are afraid of our neighbours. When I see a happy person walking down the street, humming or whistling or singing or whatever, I think - that person must have a screw loose. But when I think about it more, I am the crazy one. Why is it so weird when someone is displaying to the world around them that they are happy? And they want to spread that happiness around them by smiling and greeting strangers? Why is the average person put off by this kind of behaviour?

There are a couple of reasons I think. A lot of us are just so concerned with our own little lives that we think we have no time to get to know the people around us. And we are afraid of them. We are afraid of the unknown. We think "that singing man must be crazy, I better not talk to him or acknowledge him or he might hurt me". Kids are taught from an early age not to talk to strangers. That's fine. Kids are naive see the good in everyone. But does that mean that when we become adults we see the bad in everyone? With all the hatred manifesting itself all over the world right now how are we supposed to trust the people around us? We are becoming more and more afraid.

The headlines say "WE ARE NOT AFRAID", followed by another headline "COULD THIS HAPPEN CLOSE TO HOME?" You never know if the person next to you on the bus has a bomb in their bag. Should we let our ever-increasing fear enculturation get the best of us?

I think it can only be a good thing if we learn more about our neighbours at home and internationally, rather than making assumptions and relying on propaganda machines to tell us what to fear. If we don't we're just going to become a bunch of hermits locked in our homes relying on technology as our real-world interface.

Please, Oh Please

beach

Don't let me become a safe thirty-something. Don't let me wear only earth-toned coordinates that are disturbingly complimentary to my partner's equally coma-inducing wardrobe. Please don't let me inspire stoners on the beach to take pictures of me so they can post them on their blogs and talk about how they never want to be as dull as me. I think I've been reading too many Vice Do's and Don'ts.

A Day At English Bay

beach 003

This is what summer looks like.

Mural Painting Contest

winner

One of the grand prize winners at the 2005 Mural Painting Contest put on by the City of Vancouver. This year's theme was transportation. You can see all of the murals at Pacific and Seymour under the Granville Bridge off-ramp.

Stuff I Love Today - Vice Do's and Don'ts

vice

Forget Glamour Magazine's Do's and Don'ts. This book is a collection of the most hideous and hilarious crimes in fashion and behaviour caught on camera and featured in Vice Magazine's Do's and Don'ts section, paired with the pee-your-pants-funny observations of Gavin McInnes. This book is the perfect indulgence for the voyeuristic people watcher in all of us.

Stuff I Love Today - Flying Wedge Pizza

flying wedge

Holy crap this pizza is good. They put magic stuff in the crust and sauce that makes it a million times better than the big pizza companies or any dollar pizza on the strip. Today I had the Broken Hearts pizza with artichoke hearts and asiago cheese. Yum.

Stuff I Love Today - Common - Be

common

I've had this CD in my discman (do people still use those?) for weeks and I can't get enough of it! My favourite tracks are GO! and Testify.

Just When You Think....

rkelly

R. Kelly couldn't spew out any more of his signature baby-makin' tracks, he comes out with yet another album. Even through all the controversy of statutory rape charges, the creativity streams out of him.

As executive producer, writer and arranger...he makes it look as though it's easy to constantly release albums full of club crowd pleasers and bump-n-grinders. And he didn't let anyone down on this album, featuring all the in demand collaborators such as The Game, Elephant Man, and Snoop Dogg. The one guest that stood out to me was Nivea. She has the sweetest voice.

That all being said, R. Kelly hasn't come out with anything original in eons. It's always the same shit....ever since the beginning. I'm a person who appreciates originality, innovation, and reinvention. He doesn't perform in that respect, and honestly his lyrics are downright cheesy sometimes.

My favourite example of the cheesiness is the track "Sex Weed". Just listen to it please. You will die laughing. Try to feel sexy while listening to this song: "girl you got that sex weed/ I just wanna hit it/ all the time/ sex so good that it gets me high". Compare that to his classic old school track You Remind Me - "you remind me of my jeep, I wanna ride it, something like my sound, I wanna pump it, girl you look just like my car, I wanna wax it..." and so on. Hasn't changed one bit!

If you love classic R. Kelly, which I agree there is definitely a time and a place for, you will love this CD. If you are hoping he would have come with something different, better go for something different.

K-OS in Stanley Park

k-os

I enjoy the concert-in-the-park scenario. Sitting on the grassy knoll, lazing around on a Sunday afternoon. Listening to K-OS perform just as he had at the previous show I attended, pumping his fists in the air while cloaked in his signature white hoodie and sunglasses. There was nothing lacking in his performance and he even performed a new song that I hadn't heard before.

I can really grove to his laid back, reggae influenced, funky music. The band solos were really long but the talent of the band members allowed for it I suppose. My favourite was the bongo dude.

The only thing missing from this concert was the sunshine, and I couldn't help but think it would be even more ideal with a beer garden. Maybe the Saturday night show was more young adult oriented, while the crowd I was a part of was dotted with families with small children. Apparently the opening act didn't take that into consideration since his performance was littered with profanity.

Killa Kela, the beatboxer from Britain, put on an impressive show, combining layers of intricate beats with only his mouth as an instrument.

I respect K-OS for using intelligent language to deliver the messages in his music, I respect the originality of his sound, and wish him continued success.