Things have been exceptionally busy recently between work and numerous visitors and this blog has suffered. So, in lieu of a proper post, here are some notes on recent things (plus some recent photos).
1.
The two biggest buildings in my neighbourhood are the Molson brewery and the Lulu Lemon headquarters directly across the street from it. I learned the other day that the brewery has a bar on the top floor where you can grab a pint and look into the top floor of the Lulu Lemon building. There, instead of a bar, they’ve got a gym where all the women who work there exercise.
2.
I learned that many Chinese (plus Koreans and Japanese, according to the Wikipedia) hate the number four as it literally sounds like death. This leads to interesting situations in Vancouver condos, like my friend’s in Yaletown that is 37 storeys tall yet lacks a 34th, 24th, 14th, 4th or 13th floor. Plus there are no “number 4″ units on any floor. Let’s hope a lot of Italians don’t move here soon or we’re going to run out of numbers.
3.
I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in Vancouver. A lot of property developers are turning empty lots into temporary parks until they can sell enough units to break ground. I can’t imagine a more cruel joke for the neighbours: you temporarily gain a park until it’s replaced by a 26 storey building of overpriced units.
4.
I continue to be impressed by Apple’s attention to detail. I was at Emily Carr and looking at their industrial design showcase where they have an Apple PowerCD (for non-fanboys, this was a CD player that was briefly sold in the early 90′s). Despite not being sold for over 15 years, if you type it into your iPhone, they’ll auto-correct it to the proper, brand-approved capitalization.
5.
And speaking of Emily Carr, it’s that time of year when the grad’s show off their thesis projects. I’m blown away by the quality of the work and the focus on finding unique solutions to real design problems; the show compares really well with the ITP summer/winter shows that we used to go to in NYC. The following photos/movies do not do it justice:
I particularly liked this exhibit where you could hold up coded cards to paint on a virtual canvas:
The Wire is the best show on television in my lifetime and I’ve recently been re-watching it. So imagine my joy at finding this interview between David Simon (the creator) and Bill Moyers. Topics include the drug war, the importance of a free press and the future of America.
Jane Jacobs talks (in 2001) to the folks at Reason on cities. As a Canadian I couldn’t help but notice the line: It’s really surprising how few creative, important cities Canada has for its size, its population, and its great human potential and attributes.
Some interesting thoughts on how cities in Australia are going to have to change to address the 21st century. I like the approach of framing it in terms of “what does our country stand for?” and “what are the inexorable trends of the next 50 years?”
Bangladesh as a preview for what climate change could mean: lots of change and a need to be incredibly adaptive. I’d also never heard of the fascinating char dwellers before reading this article.
The Village Voice explores the business of selling drugs on Craigslist. As you read, be sure to look up some of their search terms and see if you can find some online drug ads (you will).
If you ever look at a map of America you’ll notice the smooth border that is the 49th parallel and then the little hiccup that is the Northwest Angle. The Walrus investigates who these people are that live in this tiny sliver of America north of the 49th.
Last year when travelling, Wen and I couldn’t help but notice the arrival of Chinese tourists. For this article, Evan Osnos of The New Yorker goes on a European tour with a contingent of the Chinese middle class. The story is about much more than 5 European countries in 10 days.
A weekend visit to the Vancouver Art Gallery has got me crushing on Jim Campbell and his LED art.
All of his works are a trompe l’oeil of sorts; he uses blinking LEDs to create the illusion of motion. If you stare at one LED it appears to blink chaotically; it’s only in the context of all the other LEDs that a pattern – and the art – emerges.
Take for instance, this piece:
You sit at the end of a long room and watch what appears to be a grainy, black and white movie projected on the wall.
Except that there’s no projector. You can stand right in front of the moving image and you won’t block it because it’s created by a mesh of LEDs hanging in front of the screen wall.
Moreover, in the first image it looks like there’s a grid hanging in front of the wall, but you’re only noticing that because this is a static photo. When seen as a video, the effect of motion created by the lights makes you ignore the grid.
It’s mesmerizing.
Here’s a video of another piece.
These are people walking through Grand Central Station. The glass contains one over-exposed image of people walking; an LED screen behind the glass projects the outlines of people. Occasionally the pictures and shadows line up, making you see the piece from a new perspective.
Inspired by the New York Times’ 36 Hours In… series, Wen and I recently ducked down to Seattle.
I love visiting Seattle because it’s a city that is absolutely unlike Vancouver despite the proximity; going there truly feels like a different world.
It was a great weekend: lots of walking, eating, taking photos, exploring and drinking coffee.
Here are some photo highlights.
Spring was in bloom
Public Art Abounds
A few Richard Serra’s at the sculpture park…
The most dynamic art is graffiti on building scaffolding
Lots of Modern Architecture
City Hall
The Hyatt
The library
You Have To Visit The Market
And a couple of random closing shots:
This is an acoustic sculpture at the conservatory. A speak is suspended against taught wires; inaudible music plays and vibrates the string – which in turn trigger instruments. A unique symphony ensues.
Elliott Bay Books is a must-visit for any reader. One of the best book stores I’ve ever been to.
A view of the city from the sculpture park.
And one more interesting thing. We drove back along the coast rather than the interstate. This takes you from Edison on up to Bellingham. This route is highly recommended (and most Vancouverites don’t know about it).
Edison is a really pretty town with a harbour walk around it; the road between in and Bellingham hugs the coast with mountains on one side, cliffs on the other and forests everywhere. There are also lots of restaurants perched on those cliffs where you can grab a quick meal.
Way back in 2005, Wen and I were living in Toronto and we stumbled onto the now-defunct Toba for brunch. There I discovered a dish that I have not seen since: the duck and hoisin crepe (a.k.a. Moo Shu Duck).
Peking duck.
Hoisin sauce.
In a fresh crepe.
What more could you want?
I’ve been mourning and missing it ever since (and yes, I’m aware that I probably could have googled either a recipe or a restaurant that serves it at any time during the past six years, but I’ve got a complicated relationship with food).
So imagine my surprise when I found myself making it on Saturday afternoon.
Why?
Knife skills.
Wen signed us up for a knife skills class at The Dirty Apron. She told me that we were going to make clam chowder in addition to learning about how to chop, dice and julienne.
The class is highly recommended. I now know how to properly cut an onion plus I got to spend a few hours in the Dirty Apron’s awesome test kitchen (12 mind-blowing Wolf ranges plus the demo area below):
Imagine my surprise when it turned out that in addition to the clam chowder, we were also going to make my beloved Moo Shu Duck that I’ve been pining for for half a decade.
I figured I’d burn the living hell out of the crepes, but all turned out okay:
Here’s what the delicious Hoisin-soaked, stir-fried interior looks like:
I can’t wait to cook this at home; it won’t be five years until I try it again.
Here’s the recipe for those who are interested:
BBQ Duck and Fine Vegetable Stir-Fry
Ingredients:
250g BBQ duck meat (shredded)
They get all their duck from Lee Loy. It’s about $18 a duck, but if you bargain like mad you can get it for $13
20g Cashew nuts
2 Cloves garlic
4 Shitake mushrooms (julienne)
1/4 Carrot (julienne)
1/2 Small onion (julienne); can use 1/4 red onion
30 ml Oyster sauce
50 ml Hoisin sauce
1 tsp Toasted sesame seeds
Salt & pepper
Directions:
Heat oil in a saute pan, allowing the pan to get very hot. Add the small onion, mushrooms, and garlic to the pan. Stir-fry on high heat for about 2 minutes.
Add the hoisin sauce, oyster sauce to the ingredients and stir-fry for another minute. Next, add the carrot, cashew nuts and sesame seeds and then cook for 1 more minute.
Add the BBQ duck meat at the very end and remove from the heat.
Star Anise Crepes
Ingredients:
2 Eggs
220 ml Milk
20 ml Melted unsalted butter
1/2 cup Flour
1 tsp Star Anise (finely ground)
2 sprigs Italian parsley (finely chopped)
1 tbsp Butter (room temp for cooking)
Directions:
Combine the eggs, milk, butter, and flour then whisk together until mixture is smooth and free of lumps. Add the parsley, star anise, and salt and pepper to the batter. The batter should be the consistency of cold cream.
Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat. When the pan is hot, brush it with a little butter.
Use a ladle (about 3 tbsp) to put the batter into the center of the pan. Tilt the pan from left to right to cover the entire surface. Cook the crepe until the edges begin to brown and then flip the crepe over to cook the other side. Remove from the pan
It’s not stated above, but you fold the stir-fry into the crepe just like it was a burrito and serve.
Wendy is currently reading Bill Bryson‘s A Short History of Nearly Everything . From it comes the following passage, with possibly the best metaphor ever for the slow pace of geological time:
…If you imagine the 4.5 billion odd years of Earth’s history compressed into a normal earthly day, then life begins very early, about 4 a.m., with the rise of the first simple, single-celled organisms, but then advances no further for the next sixteen hours. Not until almost 8:30 in the evening, with the day five-sixth over, has Earth anything to show the universe but a restless skin of microbes. Then, finally, the first sea plants appear, followed twenty minutes later by the first jellyfish and the enigmatic Ediacaran fauna first seen by Reginald Sprigg in Australia. At 9:04 p.m. trilobites swim onto the scene, followed more or less immediately by the shapely creatures of the Burgess Shale. Just before 10 p.m. plants begin to pop up on the land. Soon after, with less than two hours left in the day, the first land creatures follow.
Thanks to ten minutes or so of balmy weather, by 10:24 the Earth is covered in the great carboniferous forests whose residues give us all our coal, and the first winged insects are evident. Dinosaurs plod onto the scene just before 11 p.m. and hold sway for about three-quarters of an hour. At twenty-one minutes to midnight they vanish and the age of mammals begins. Humans emerge one minute and seventeen seconds before midnight. The whole of our recorded history, on this scale, would be no more than a few seconds, a single human lifetime barely an instant. Throughoutt this greatly speeded-up day continents slide about and bang together at a clip that seems positively reckless. Mountains rise and melt away, ocean basins come and go, ice sheets advance and withdraw. And throughout the whole, about three times every minutes, somewhere on the planet this a flashbulb pop of light marking the impact of a Manson-sized meteor or one even larger. It’s a wonder that anything at all can survive in such a pummelled and unsettled environment. In fact, not many things do for long.
Vancouver has an awesome food scene: great chefs, great restaurants and great food shops. Since we’ve arrived here, Wen and I have wanted to check out the stores that exist beyond the downtown/Granville/Kits core. On Satruday we finally got the chance, with a long walk from our place through East Van.
Here’s my attempt to take you on the ride.
The first place we went – and yes, I know that it’s not technically in East Van – was Benny’s Market. Benny’s has been around since 1917 and is worth a visit. At first glance, you might be dismayed: from outside it looks like a neighbourhood bodega, not a temple of Italian food. But when you go inside and venture into the bowels of the store you’ll find their broad selection of Italian delicacies: coffee, pasta, antipastos, meat, etc.
We left with a bag laden with pasta (including the elusive lazy man’s gourmet meal: Ripienissimi stuffed pasta), sauces and pancetta. The orecchiette ended up becoming our dinner:
We weren’t hungry enough for a sandwich, but we’ll be going back; they’ve been making sandwiches there since 1917.
Next stop was the East Van outlet of Les Amis du Fromage. Walking inside, we fell in love with the deep, competing smells of the different cheeses. We were tempted by the goat cheese below, but we settled on an Austrian Karotten Kase instead (it’s a hard orange cheese; hence “Karotten”).
They were sampling rose, orange and lemon-flavoured olive oils; if you ever stumble across these, be sure to try them. You wouldn’t want them every day, but they’re delicious.
We’re also going to have to go back to their wine bar, Au Petit Chavignol, which is right next door (one of the few places in Vancouver where you can get raclette).
At this point in began to rain and we did what any self-respecting Vancouverite would do: we went for coffee. Our chosen stop was Latin Organics. This tiny little cafe really is a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day: it’s all white walls with orange highlights and the most tasteful use of bamboo I’ve ever seen.
The spirit of the store is Colombian, so I had a coffee con leche and a corn arepa; Wendy had a delicious London Fog (Earl Grey tea, shot of vanilla and steamed milk).
Latin Organics is right next to the Gourmet Warehouse, which lives up to its name and stocks everything you could ever need to cook anything. Looking for 15 variants of cast iron griddles? Your choice of 80 different cooking knives? The Vosges bacon chocolate bar? Duck? It’s all there.
If you were to look at these last few stops, you’d notice that they’re all on East Hastings. This is the same one that’s home to the poorest postal code in Canada just a few kilometres away; oddly it’s a food paradise if you keep following it and know where to look.
In fact, our next stop was also on it: the East Village Bakery. We were tempted by their cheddar fougasses, but they were way too big to carry with us on our tour; we opted for a cheddar and kalamata olive loaf instead.
Our last stop on East Hastings was Moccia. I had been hankering to go here for a while: many of Gastown’s restaurants and many of the food stores we’d already visited sell Moccia’s meats.
When you step in the spare interior of the store, you notice immediately that they take their meat seriously. The stamps behind the butcher’s stand are a solid clue:
It was really tough to choose from amongst the many types of sausages, bacon and various cuts; we settled on some porchetta and breakfast sausages.
Thus ended the East Hastings portion of our tour. We backtracked a bit and went up Victoria Drive to the South China Seas Trading Co’s store.
This store might just pack the most cooking punch per square foot anywhere in the world. In the tiny store you can get an incredible array of spices sourced from over 10 global suppliers. We picked up some szechwan peppercorns; I’ve never seen them for sale anywhere else. They also were selling kasuri methi (dried Fenugreek), which I’ve never seen outside of India.
Incredibly, not only is this a store, it’s also a cooking lab; I’ll likely be coming back in April to learn how to make four types of noodles.
This was followed by a walk over to The Drive and a trifecta of Italian stores in quick succession.
First, JN&Z Deli. Meat lovers heaven; I couldn’t count all the hocks hung high from the ceiling; one of the most beautiful-smelling places on earth.
A hundred feet or so away was La Grotto Del Formaggio, where the sky-theme ceilings stare down on all things Italian: not just cheese. Much like Benny’s, we’ll be going back for a sandwich sometime.
Right next door is the Fratelli Bakery, where you can get your cannoli on.
By this point we were bushed, so we headed over to Prado for another coffee injection.
This place is one of Vancouver’s cutest cafes: lots of light, brushed aluminum navy chairs, whitewashed walls, wooden floor and – rare for Vancouver – brick. And the coffee’s great too.
It was a great day. Here’s what the haul looked like; call me if you want to eat well this week:
I recently finished Can’t Stop Won’t Stop , Jeff Chang‘s history of hip-hop music. The writing is of variable quality, but the book’s a phenomenal read because the stories are just so damn strong.
I’m not going to review the book here (Amazon does a great job) – and hey, you should read it yourself – rather, I thought I’d share two of the many great anecdotes from the book.
The first regards The Clash and their NYC tour of 1981 (NYC was good to them; the legendary cover of London Callingcame from the ’79 tour). The Clash always sought influences outside of rock ‘n roll (half their hits are reggae covers) and here’s what they did on that tour:
[The Clash] were set to play eight nights in June 1981 at an aging Times Square disco, the Bonds International, and they announced their stand with a dramatic unfurling of a magnificent banner painted by FUTURA. But on the eve of their opening, the fire department threatened to shut down the club for overselling the shows, and the fans finally had their white riot when mounted police stormed down Broadway to meet the punks in the street.
The Clash compromised by agreeing to perform eleven additional gigs, and hurried to find opening acts. In yet another naive act of solidarity, they booked Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. But, as Michael Hill wrote in The Village Voice, “Rather than achieve a cultural crossover, it threatened to widen the gap.”
When Flash and the Furious Five stepped onstage on The Clash’s opening night, the white punks stood bewildered as Flash began his “Adventures on the Wheels of Steel” routine on three turntables. Then the Furious Five, dressed in fly leather suits, jumped onstage and started rapping and dancing. Some in the crowd began shouting in disgust. They hadn’t come to see no disco. When Flash paused so that the Five could try to regain the crowd, the crew found themselves ducking a hail of beer cups and spit. The next night, dressed down this time in street clothes, they suffered the same reception. They left the stage angrily with Melle Mel admonishing, “Some of you-not all of you, but some of you-are stupid”, never to return.
Most music fans I know would give their eye teeth to see The Clash and Grandmaster Flash on the same bill, but the world wasn’t ready for it in ’81. Some things are just ahead of their time.
The other great story regards why hip-hop was able to become an unstoppable cultural force. It started out as a NYC local sound and was actually competing against other regional sounds – notably Washington D.C.’s go-go. Go-go is basically party music and so was a lot of early hip-hop (Rapper’s Delight and The Breaks anyone?) so why was hip-hop able to pop while you’ve never heard of go-go?
Despite the best efforts of Chuck [Brown], E.U., Trouble Funk and Rare Essence, go-go never crossed over. When the ’90s came, New York execs rushed to sign hip-hop acts and stopped returning D.C. artists’ phone calls. Go-go survived as one of the last independent, indigenous Black youth cultures.
…
It was an industrial-era music for a postindustrial era. Just as it was when Chuck Brown walked out of Lorton, bands’ fierce competition to remain atop the club scene remained the primary engine of go-go music. Making records with three-minute hit singles, the thing the music industry was most concerned with, was an afterthought. Economics partly explains why, after the 1980s, hip-hop went global and go-go remained local.
But there was also something else, something which Reo Edwards put like this: “I was talking to a go-go songwriter one time. I said, ‘Man, you need a verse here.’ The guy said, ‘The rototom‘s talking! Hear the rototom?’ there, the rototom telling the story.’ Okay. Alright. You know what the rototom is saying. Maybe the people in the audience know what the rototom saying. But the people in Baltimore don’t know what the hell that dang rototom is saying!”
He shakes his head. “Go-go’s got the same problem today as it did back then. You don’t have no good storylines. Hip-hop,” he pauses for emphasis, “tells stories.”
I’ve always loved the stories told by great hip-hop song (I’m thinking The Message, C.R.E.A.M., One Love, Hate It or Love It) and think they’re some of the most powerful narratives ever in song. Hip-hop’s domination is, in part, due to the power of storytelling.
I gave a talk today at ProductCamp Vancouver (well done organizers!) called Articulating Your Idea. It’s a 12 step process for taking your thoughts/visions and turning them into one or two concrete sentences that people can understand.
Here’s a link to the slides:
On a different note, the event was in the SFU Business School, whose building is the old BMO building at Granville & Pender. It’s a beautiful place and I highly recommend going in it if you’re in the area (and check out the old vault doors in the basement).
I’ve been doing some front-end web development and a common situation has come up again and again:
You’ve request a set of objects from a server (json or xml)
You store them in an array
The user does something
You need to request a changed set of objects and update that array
You’ve got two options here:
Destroy the original array (and create all new objects)
Loop through the original array to remove objects that aren’t in the new set and then add objects from the new set that aren’t in the original
Frequently option 1 isn’t really an option because destroying the original object would cause a negative experience for the end user. For instance, the screen might flash as everything they had chosen to see was temporarily destroyed and re-created.
As a result, you’ve got to take option 2. As a Javascript noob, it took me a bit of time and reading a lot of tutorials to figure out the best way to do it.
To help you avoid suffering my fate, I’ve created a quick demo of how to do it. Simply save the code below as an html file and you’ll get walked through a demo on how to do it.
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