Oh it's an early morning, even when you're 2 hours behind your home timezone.
Unfortunately , due to Bill's mother's condition, and the uncertainty about him having to travel to Ottawa (painful irony), he's not joining Barb and I for the weekend in Jasper.

That said - Barb and I make a quick jaunt downtown to ... Downtown Camera to buy another CF memory card for me, since I thought one of my 4GB Extreme IIIs was dead (later I determine random, non-repeatable errors are a fact of life with $6 USB Card readers - whodathunkit?)
What impressed me about this store tho, is that as you walk in the door, there's a Nikon 800mm lens standing on a pricey Gitzo Tripod... and none of it's tied down - at all! Not much for security, but then you have to realize that setup would take about 3 minutes just to disassemble to be fit out the door. Impressive inventory, excellent customer service and the staff also knew the product very well. I watched a guy pickup about $20K in glass while I bought my 'measly' $67 Extreme III card; Alberta FTW - no sales tax. Just GST.
Mission accomplished. Doubly - I may have bought 2 cards

Let's hit the road... into the Rockies!

... Okay - the road hits back! After the hoodoos, you're pretty much getting into the Mountains and ... wow. Nothing does The Rockies any semblance of justice - other than to experience them.

We stop to see Lake Louise... since we can't park, Barb lets me go ahead and says she'll come find me. Unbeknownst to me while I'm snapping away - an hour passes and my phone doesn't work while Barb is calling me... Ooops


The rest of the drive I spend with my mouth agape. Really - there's no way to describe the Rockies.

Some mountain goats by the side of the road punctuate my ceaseless imagery.

We arrive at Becker's Lodging, have a delicious Filet Mignon dinner and settle in for the evening, relaxing while we watch Die Hard 2 on the TV.

Getting an early start, when you're not a morning person, is somewhat easier when reality is running 2 hours behind you. Today was a mini-roadtrip day: head out to Drumheller, check out the Royal Tyrell Museum amongst the badlands.

On the way back we visited Wayne Alberta, settlement withs 11 bridges and a total population of 27. Not particularly exciting.

Since I've not seen much of rural Canada outside of the Hwy 7/401/417 corridors, I was quite impressed at the scale of the farm operations on the way to Drumheller, single fields that rivaled the entire area of the experimental farm in Ottawa. And while there's some lumps on the ground (given the proximity to the Rockies), overall the terrain is remarkably flat. What was a little disheartened to see was a dearth of 'pump-jacks', y'know - those lumbering oil pumps with the rocking beam, Bill said there's more of them south of Calgary.

Is this rapeseed?

It took me almost an hour to figure out why the light coming in the windows of the Calgary airport looked so strange. Sure, my body thought it was almost noon – or even later, given how much earlier I woke up compared to usual... but the beautiful blue Albertan sky looked to be a certain shade of blue that I only ever see in one place: Through a polarizing filter on a camera, as if the glass of the large windows itself was polarized! I couldn't completely convince myself of that, but the apparent effect was so dramatic, I almost tweeted the thought; but all too quickly I was at the baggage claim and my Calgarian host was seeking me out.

Bill & Barb's loyal old Samoyed, Bear.

Bill and Barb are what I imagine a distant relatives to be like: I don't see them very often, but when we do meet, it's always like family. See, Bill and my father grew up as boyhood friends in the same neighbourhood, and while Bill and Barb have lived in various far-flung places of the world, my dad and Bill have managed to always stay in touch – now facilitated by the convenience of the Internet, of course. And almost as long as I've been known of Bill's existence – he and Barb have been vigourously inviting me to come visit them in Calgary. Since I couldn't make the logistics work out with last year's Vancouver trip, I was determined to take them up on their offer this time. Weeks of strange negotiations, planning attendance of the upcoming weddings and talk of train-rides across the prairies and through the Rockies with zigzag return flights and doubling back, I did it.

So here I am, enjoying a comfortable summer's day in Calgary, finally realizing why the light looks so strange. Remember last year, how the running joke was about how far West I'd been? Well – I realized this is the furthermost North I've been, at least in the Western Hemisphere. I can't explain it any better, but even outside of the airport, the sunshine, the depth of the blue sky... just look different then they usually do.

Downtown Calgary

The house is in a very neat area too, just north of downtown and a few paces away from the Bow Valley. Standing on cliff's edge there's a fantastic view of downtown, almost like a cross-section, it ends so abruptly, and over to the right, you can just see the snow-capped Rockies. I was initially impressed with the Cartesian road-way grid too: All roadways are numbered, streets run North-South, avenues run East-West. It makes thing so much easier to find than the CHMC-mandated hell that is Ottawa and Toronto spaghetti, but there's not much romance to the names... Of course, I've yet to discover how this all falls apart horribly in the suburbs.

Most of the day I spend in a zombie-like state as I've barely slept in the nights preceding this trip. The 2 hour timeshift works in my favour too, but I'm finding it difficult to stay up to even 10PM MDT, but there might be another reason for that.

When I think of Alberta, the obvious things come to mind: oil, no PST, the Rockies, flooding bodies of water, and farms. But there's something else to remember: backyard firepits. Sure, they're not legal anymore, but if you're grandfathered... well... let's just say it's worth keeping around!

I want one!

Farms. Farms are where cows live. Cows get turned into steak. Alberta cows are good. Alberta beef is even better. Mmmmm.... steak.

I don't even remember what kind of cut of meat it was (sirloin? T-bone? striploin?) but I think I had a religious experience eating it... fresh, perfectly rare off a wood firepit with a good coating of grill-spice. My words do it no justice, but allow yourself to imagine the tastiest BBQ ever, then multiply that by OHMIGODTHISISGOOD.

Afterwards, while we sat around the fire, the folk festival started in the park – Sam Roberts set rang up from the valley below, it was pretty awesome. Before the fire went out, Bill helped me take this shot... I'll warn you now though, there was an air compressor, shirtlessness, and more fire.

Augh! Half-Naked Bill!

Here's my travel itinerary for The Big Trip this summer:

2008-07-24 0730 - 0952 - WJ847 from Ottawa to Calgary

2008-07-26 & 2008-07-27 - Roadtrip to Jasper

2008-07-28 - Calgary UFie Meet BBQ @ Danu's

2008-07-30 1030 - 1053 - WJ557 from Calgary to Vancouver

2008-07-30 1800 - Vancouver UFie Meet

2008-08-01 Evening - Sean & Sarah's Wedding

2008-08-06 1302 - 1520 - AC5008 from Vancouver to San Francisco

2008-08-09 Evening - Kendra & Silas' Wedding

2008-08-10 Stupid Early - AC758 from San Francisco to Toronto, then AC458 to Ottawa

It looks like there's a Toronto trip this week too, aiming for the later part of it though.

Hey Kids, I'm off to Jay Peak this evening till Sunday night. I will have limited connectivity & Internet while I'm there, so I likely won't be responding to anything other than urgent & emergency requests. Calling my cells will probably be the best/only way to get ahold of me, and Chris will be the lucky pager carrier. Don't bug him too much!

This is part three of my Nuit Blanche 2007 write-up, be sure to see Act One and Act Two. You can follow along with my travelogue on Google Maps.

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So the cab dumped Ken, Justin and I at Queen at Simcoe, at the WHAT WILL YOU DO TO COOL THE EARTH? The idea was to inspire people to think of ways of reducing global warming... by sending text-messages to be displayed on the screen...

"Ill put blury orange and blue on a screen" [sic]`

Of course, this didn't completely work: "I will hold my farts", "I will only eat once a week", "I will not work for Disney", "Stop wasting Electricity on a screen showing texts on queen street"... Ken and Justin were enthralled, and probably responsible for most of those

Right next door, was Ghosts @ Campbell House, which I couldn't find in the official Nuit Blanche program, but was just a fun exhibit: glow-screens with timed-flashbulbs... painfully blinding, but entirely amusing

Discghosts!

Justin declared he was heading home, and Ken was preparing to take off too... but I couldn't do that. It was about 0555, my feet had blisters like I'd never experienced before, I couldn't walk very well at all - but I wasn't done: I had to visit Lower Bay / The Ghost Station. And I'm sure glad I did.

Please stay clear of the doors.

So, imagine you just spent the past 12 hours touring a city you only know a little, having some very unique experiences... then you go through an unremarkable steel door in the middle of a semi-busy subway platform... and you end up in a different world:

(Play this video with headphones on, or a good subwoofer)

Lower Bay was amazing.

It was dark, sparsely lit by 40W incandescents in the corners, a train on each side of the platform, a massive sub-woofer sound system - using the cars as resonance chambers. Words do not describe. You felt the 'music' (noise?), you smelled the dust. You knew other people were there, but you could barely see them. You know that in a few minutes, nobody will be here again, except for the ghosts. Tranquil yet unnerving at that same time.

It was the perfect end to an amazing experience. The Night Is Over.

---

Going topside again, shuffling my way along Bay street, I captured this scene of the city waking up.

Good Morning - La Nuit est fini!

Caught a bus downtown - but everything was a total mess/detours because of the 10K run - and I have to give the driver directions!

Made it back to 151, changed my clothes, sat and sorta just vegged while chatting with the few people awake on #SPORKS... caught the train and went home.

Next year, I'll have to pick and plan my journey, just showing up and wandering was fun, but I think we wasted more time getting across the city than actually looking at things. But I have no regrets, and I can't wait till next year. Highly recommended. Will you come with me?

FIN

This is part two of my Nuit Blanche 2007 write-up, be sure to see Act One. Also, be sure to check out my travelogue on Google Maps, and perhaps add the KML to your Google Earth.

View Larger Map

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After an uneventful Streetcar ride along King, I marched past the new Umbra store up to OCAD, while Wishing You Were Here.
While I waited for ghoti to show up, I took in some really dark, freaky animated shorts... very strange. While dodging Jack Layton and his wife, we drove up to up to Queens Park where we absorbed some caffeine and calories. Satiated, we head over to the Zone B hub / ROM, all the while I'm SMSing math with no effective communication happening:


Eventually we meet up, but not before ghoti makes a cop guarding a barrier along Avenue/University Aves think he's the biggest idiot on earth... I find math committing a non-illegal act in defiance of the DMCA:

Emergency Room Recruitment Centre

math, Syncros, ghoti, Tallo & S.O., JOSH!, and ` were taking in the excitement at the rave out front of the ROM...

DSM5

Of course, since we all managed to get together, we promptly got separated within minutes. I picked up a Nuit Blanche T-shirt, waltzed thru the Zone A hub again, and then met Soj and Emily while in line for free FiveStarbucks caffeine.
Once we regrouped (sans Syncros and his friend), we checked out the Electric Forest and continued on to String of Diamonds where I experienced an early, reverse Halloween:

But don't take candy from strangers

Afterwards, we walked across Queen's Park to Crowd, where we were the exhibit.
Church street was all party... "Nightless City" supposed to be a red-light district, but it was mostly males who (appeared to be) were batting for the same time. A nearby deli adverstized "Pride Sausage"s in it's window.

math luvvin' the party

It was actually somewhat underwhelming, so we made our way south along Church to Dundas, along the way seeing some weird multimedia stuff at Ryerson... and some public toilets:

Some privacy please.

Ironically, a block away, in Yonge@Dundas Square - a Public Bidet.

Stepping inside the Sears North entrance at the Eaton Centre, It's a Cloud was well attended. Syncros got much better photos than I did - check them out here.

Strange people of the night

We were feeling peckish (it was 2AM!) but the only place we could find that was open was Frans... and they had a ninety-minute wait. What the hell?

Someone in the group suggested Chinese, so back through the Eaton Center where Balloonscape was... just... being... weird. Listen to Paul's comment at the beginning of the video:


Stepping outside we came up on Church of Confessions... I think. I couldn't quite find it in the program guide, but it was basically an old church where people could write messages on queue cards and put them up on the walls. I didn't really get it at first, but now that I've thought about it, it really seemed a lot like Post Secret - then you realize that people are baring their souls - and it's fresh. So honest.

Unsurprisingly, it was difficult to find somewhere to eat that was a) open and b) wasn't completely packed full of people. One hungry but memorable moment was when some idiot in a Civic made a left turn onto a blocked side street at about 80KMphs, squeeling tires and all - right in front of a Police car... whom we encouraged to have a word with the driver of the Civic - Mr. Policeman then did exactly that. Yay TPS Report

Passed by Everybody Loves You 2 for the second time,

Do you love me? (Because I could love you.)

... so easy to get people to pose for the camera.

Watcher was eerie. Paul took off for home.

Finding a restaurant that's open after 3AM and isn't packed to the roof - even on Spadina - is not easy. (Though I saw another iPhone)
Eventually we found a place that's open to 4 and had some excellent fried noodles and other weird stuff. The girls at the table next to us were sharing too.

Since Ken and Justing hadn't seen any of zone C, we hopped a cab and head to Trinity Bellwoods Park (... second time for me)

Unfortunately, it was a tad underwhelming, there was some people making weird music in a tent, there was a mobile rave which was cool. I was actually impressed by a couple of guys sitting at a picnic table, playing dominoes and free-form rapping to a beat from a totally old-school ghetto-blaster - on cassette!
Saw the Florescent Globe again, bumped into Candy girl again, hopped into a cab and went back downtown.
On to Part Three!

Zone C Hub - Where the real adventure begins

For the past year, I've been hearing all sorts of stories about Nuit Blanche, and seeing the crazy photos... when I heard it was coming around again - I knew I had to be a part of it.



Well, let me tell you, now that I've experienced it - I'll say it's totally awesome.

I decided to take the marathon approach: catch the afternoon train out of Ottawa to arrive in Toronto just in time for dinner (which I failed to actually do) and then begin the Night. Since 151 Front is right next to Union Station, my laptop and other extraneous crap from my backpack got dumped in my cabinet there - my $1500/mo locker Caught the King line streetcar to Liberty village and suddenly realized I had no idea where to go... for anything. With all the research and planning I'd done ahead of time - I didn't actually note where I wanted to be. Thankfully I was able to wrangle the Nuit Blanche website onto my Treo and eventually determined that Queen and Strachan (pronounced "Stron", like "Strong" without the g sound) was the Zone C hub.

#15 Fluorescent Dome

I looked at the map, looked at the index, and failing to figure out any effective strategy, I decided to march west along Queen - see what I could see. Fortunately this worked out for me, but a lot of the installations/exhibits were just static art galleries... looking at pictures and paintings on the wall isn't for me, so I moved along quickly.

Play It By Hear

Despite all the stories I hear about Nuit Blanche 2006, I wasn't prepared for interaction; the globe above was neat, but only because of it's construction, the next exhibit I noted was Play It By Hear, where the volunteer watching over the piece was encouraging me to connect my iPod and make the pipes sing. I picked Rush's Far Cry because it's loud, yet inoffensive
Not far away was Secret of the Syncope II, a curious installation where they carpeted over a road, but again - the interaction: at the far end of the road, they sat at a mobile desk, where they were cutting squares of the carpet, and then tagging them with serial numbers. These were handed out and people were asked to photograph their square and submit the photos to the website for use in next year's exhibit... Interesting - I'll have to figure out something unique to do with mine...
Just across Queen street, there was a lot of light, a lot of people and some really cool blue sticks:


Moving along, I encountered Femmbomb, Water Fall, then this nutty show:

... I dunno... huge line-up to see it though. Checked out the Drake Hotel, which wasn't very exciting - still early in the evening.

Then I encountered the Incursion:

Further along, Gladstone House was in full Nuit Blanche mode. Several installations and exhibits, and while many were very cool - I found the most noteworthy thing was a sticker on a streetcar stop shelter:


math, Syncros, ghoti and I were to meet at OCAD by 9:30, I started to head east, but the sidewalks were full of people, and they were spilling out on to Queen street - thus inhibiting vehicular traffic and the TTC. Despite my limited knowledge of Toronto, King street seemed like a viable opti--- whaaaa???

I doubt Pattison signed off on this billboard

... not wanting a Quick Lobotomy, I hurried to the King line streetcar and hauled over to OCAD.
On to Part Two!

Despite being an "Easterner", I quickly adapted to PDT, so waking up at 8AM (11AM Eastern) was somewhat brutal - but then again, anyone who knows me I don't like waking up anyway
In the words of J.D., who met us at the airport and bought me a chai, "Man, you look like ass." - I didn't comment on his appearance.

... I'm on the right.

Since this post is really just an excuse to use the above image, I'll treat you to some of my other photos from this trip that didn't end up in another of the previous posts.

Harbour Center reflected in the EA Games building

The mess of trolley wires above the intersection of Granville and Robson

"you're ugly and that's funny"

Sean saw this sticker on a very pink motorcycle parked near our hotel on Robson... he insisted I photograph it.

Megababe.

Optically Thrillin Kats
- OTK Crew

A valley (Sean took this photo on our way to Vancouver)

Almost home!

Ottawa Airport

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My Vancouver Trip: The Warning, Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5

After Friday's madness, we took Saturday easy, doing a little shopping downtown and having a fantastic lunch at Kitto Japanese House on Granville. (IfWhen I go back to Vancouver - I will definitely eat there again!)

After Sarah got her hair done, we headed to The Cat's Meow on Granville Island for dinner - close to the wedding venue - and where André, the groom was having dinner too

I wish we'd had more time on this trip to see more - the glimpse of Granville Island we had was such a tease.

Bubbles!

But then it was time for the main event...

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André Baron + Tanya Mineault
July 14th, 2007
_{The Baron & Baroness}

Waiting for the bride

Presenting Mr. And Mrs. André Baron

You May Kiss The Bride

The Newlyweds!

We have to do what?!

Okay!

Let's Party!

(The girl on the left was doing the wildest robot-dance)

When the house is a rockin'...

I had a blast and appreciate being invited; met lots of new people too, everyone was so nice. Congrats guys! (And Kim, you didn't seem that trashed...)