As I walked past Beat Street Records in Vancouver, I noticed a quote, or a short poem, or something: All that was, will always have been, somehow never again. I wasn't sure what it meant, but it messed up my mind for a moment, just like when you watch Inception for the first time, trying to figure out the layers of the dreams. What was, might be, but won't? Where am I in this thought? After researching, I found out who the artist was behind this poem. His name is Raymond Boisjoly, and he's a visual and text based artist. If art is suppose to make us linger, to inspire, to imagine, or even to confuse, I guess Mr.Boisjoly has succeeded. I saw it, I thought about it, I researched it, and now I'm sharing it!
I decided to include a blurry bike rider just to add a dimension of movement and time.... all that is, will always be, but only for a moment, and then he's gone!!
A few months back I took some pictures of the Crow Highway Mural but I was unable to get a good clear shot due to cars parked right in front of it. This time, when I saw the lot empty, I jumped out of my bus excitedly to get a worthy image. Although the parking lot was empty, the gate was closed , so I took two images: one from the sidewalk and one through the fence straight on. It's a beautiful old building, and the history behind the mural and the building is quite interesting too (follow this link). Too bad it's so far back from the street view, and too bad there's a parking lot right in front of it...
As I walked through the poorest neighbourhood in Canada, I ran into many ATMs in the oddest places. Some were easy to miss, but none more than this one. The posters surrounding the ATM caught my eye at first, and only as I walked closer to investigate did I notice the ATM buried in the middle. Like any business, isn't the point of an ATM to be as visible as possible?
I was walking along the border of Chinatown, DTES and Gastown, and noticed this funny homage to Short Circuit's Number 5 robot. "Sup fu?". Funny. I think this is an entrance into a night club. I wonder if they play "Who's Johnny?" or "Come and Follow Me" for the closing number?
I was walking through Vancouver's Chinatown district and I noticed a faded sign on the side of a building. It reads: Pekin Chop Suey House. It sounds very 1950's American-Chinese, and so it should, as this was the old location of a Chinese restaurant many years ago. The lower half was rebuilt and the core was redone with concrete, leaving the top outer shell original. You can see in the distance the entrance-way into Chinatown from the West side on W.Pender, and the far left corner is just a part of the world's thinnest building. The sun was just going down behind the downtown buildings, and so the lighting was just right for a westward picture.......
I wasn't even trying to take pictures of these guys, but they happened to walk into my frame, and they decided to smile and pose for me. Nice smile. Nice pose. Thanks guys! Osaka people are very easy going and friendly.
Just a small side point, but I notice most men in Japan carry around man-bags. Here, unless you're a student or business person, most men walk around with nothing but an iPhone and a pair of sunglasses. The subject of another blog entry.....
This is a very common sight where ever children are congregated: a fleet of Japanese momma-bikes (aka "Mamachari"). In N.America, it's minivans and SUV's, but in the busy and densely populated cities of Japan, you would get nowhere in such huge vehicles, especially since many places in city have no parking lots. I'll post more pics of these mom's and their bikes in action, but it's not an uncommon sight to see a mom carrying two kids (one up front, one in the back) and groceries and plowing down the sidewalk avoiding pedestrians and vending machines in Tokyo. I've also noticed, kids don't cry in Japan, at least the ones on the mamachari's. Maybe they're more worried about falling out, or crashing into one of their pre-school mates!! Ride on momma-riders!! Ride on Mamachari's!
I'm going to be honest here, this image wasn't planned out. I noticed a cool car dashboard and wanted to take a picture of it, but I couldn't find the right angle to get rid of the relfection (I know, but I didn't have my polarizing filter with me). Then I noticed that I was getting pretty cool reflections of people as they passed by. I caught this guy looking at me wondering what's so interesting about the car, not knowing that I was actually interested in his reflection!! The far right reflection of half a face is my sister, also wondering what on earth her crazy brother is doing......
Like my previous post concerning the stylish bike texting guy, I notice many distracted bike riders in Japan. I'm surprised there aren't more accidents. This guy is riding on a busy 4-lane road, texting, listening to music with headphones, no helmet (very common in Japan) and only a few fingers on the grips; and he still has time to stare at me taking his picture! How dare he!! Ha ha. I got a good expression though...smile!!
Ride on Osaka!!
In Japan, I saw lots of oddly branded bicycles, mostly American brands such as Hummer, or this Coca-Cola bike. Obviously Coke didn't build or design this bike. However, since Japanese love American companies, by putting these types of brands on whatever item, sales increase. I've seen really weird cross-market branding in Japan, but this has got to be the oddest. Are you paying attention Pepsi? Maybe you have to kick it up a notch. Perhaps a Honda 'Diet Pepsi' 1000??
