All Hail Vancouver

Today Vancouver gets a gigantic WTF from me.

The other morning on the bus, through my under-caffeinated haze, I overheard a girl telling another girl that she's looking forward to attending her cousin's wedding this summer. Sounds like Vancouverites are making plans for the warmer weather. Clearly I'm not the only one around here ready for the winter thing to be over.

And that's why this town gets a big WTF today. Here we are, almost a week into spring and we're freezing. Even the guy who grilled my lunch yesterday at Great Wall Mongolian BBQ made "cold weather" small-talk with me as the raw ingredients seared on the hot grill.

Out of the clear grey sky this afternoon, a hail storm hit the city with a sudden fury that had me wondering if I'd somehow been instantly transported back to the prairies.

The overcast sky cracked with thunder and was splintered by lightning, looking for a split second like your windshield behind an 18 wheeler.

The annual Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival may have started yesterday, but it feels like could be a while before things really get bloomin'.

Vancouver is Smallville is Vancouver

I think the name Vancouver, for a city, is strong enough to speak for itself.

However a number of others insist on also referring to this city as "Hollywood North" and to me, that nickname reeks of an embarrassing lack of self-identity.

It's a reference to the multitude of American film and television productions made in Vancouver (the main reason they're here is for tax credits). So why not annex ourselves in name to a city in another country?

Locals and visitors to Vancouver often find on-location film and tv crews around every other corner. Sometimes you might even catch a glimpse of one of your favourite stars. Or trip over them, as could be the case with Verne Troy (aka Mini-Me) who's here in Vancouver, but largely unnoticed since he's about as tall as your knees.

Lots of films have been made here including Juno, Fantastic Four, The Accused, and X-Men. And many tv series have been or still are produced here as well: The X-Files, The L-word, Battlestar Galactica and, back in the day, 21 Jump Street which starred Johnny Depp.

Depp is once again linked to this town as part of the Vancouver-shot "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus", the same film Heath Ledger was working on at the time of his death a couple months ago.

But there's one made-in-Vancouver tv series so popular that just days ago it was renewed for an 8th season … and that series is Smallville.

The other day I came across the Smallville set:

Since I started this post ranting about names, it seems appropriate to share this next pic ... I got a kick out of the name of the portable toilet company supplying on-site facilities to Smallville and Metropolis - behold "Full Moon" washroom rentals:

Thanks to Wikipedia, here's how Vancouver locations factor into Smallville:
The show is produced at BB Studios in Burnaby (a suburb of Vanouver). Initially, production was going to be in Australia, but Vancouver had more of a "Middle America landscape". The city provided a site for the Kent farm, as well as doubling for Metropolis. It also provided a cheaper shooting location, and was in the same time zone as Los Angeles.

Apparently if you watch the pilot episode on the season one dvd, you'll hear commentary regarding interior shots of Lex Luthor's castle filmed at Shannon Mews-- a massive, old, brick mansion surrounded by low-rise condos located at West 57th avenue and Granville street. It was originally owned by the Rogers family (of Rogers Sugar products).

For a time back in the 90's, I lived at Shannon Mews. During my time there, several things happened to me including 2 memorable things in particular. #1, I had my wisdom teeth removed and #2, I met George Michael. Those two things had nothing to do with one another despite their inclusion in the same sentence.

Back to Lex Luthor, on Smallville he is the founder of LuthorCorp. Here's an overview of his company, from the Warner Bros. LuthorCorp "website":

"Imagine a brilliant invention, a timesaving innovation or an inspiring scientific endeavor, and chances are LuthorCorp is behind it."

LuthorCorp comes to life at the corner of Pender and Burrard in Vancouver:

Thanks for the Ad

Anyone who has been to Picadilly Circus or Times Square knows it's nothing new to look up at the side of a building and see the flashing lights and motion picture imagery of advertising on the side of a tall building.

Here in Vancouver though, the concept is rare and has only recently been introduced.

The other night, as I moved from point A (my house) to point B (the pub) along the sidewalks of downtown Vancouver, I noticed this form of selling wares has now appeared, oddly, on the side of a building which houses the Burrard Medical Clinic.

This form of advertising appears to have allowed the BMW 1 Series to really, um, take flight over Vancouver.

I took those pictures looking up at the building (which is about 10 stories high). As you can tell, these images appeared on a "canvas" that obviously has no precedent for acting as a platform to sell cars.

These pictures are actually stills from what was actually a motion picture advertisement - it was just like a TV commercial, except no audio and a bit less than 30 seconds.

As the eyes of Vancouverites rose to meet the unexpected visual of a red Beemer on the side of a doctor's office, my eyes lowered to discover what was responsible for causing the image to unexpectedly appear like Britney Spears on an upcoming episode of How I Met Your Mother.

Here's what I saw... a fairly innocuous white van parked in the lot beneath the "floating" red car, with its rear doors open.

And what did I find inside that van?

That's Scott. A nice guy, eager to chat about what he was up to which was working for a local company in the business of making other people's business your business.

And if you make it your business to spend some time enjoying Vancouver, then by all means look up, look down, look all around… because this city, especially in the spring, will feel like the wind in your hair (unless you're bald) on a long ride in a new car down an open road (unless it's closed for Canada Line construction).

Vancouver TNA

The way I understand things here in Vancouver, one of the finest food experiences one can have in this city is at West.

I've not dined there yet, but I'll make it in one day as I do like to try out as many Vancouver restaurants as possible. And, they say that West is the best. I don't really know who "they" are, but apparently "they" are the experts.

West is in the South Granville neighbourhood where I just went for a stroll. Next door to the restaurant is a women's clothing shop known as TNA. Hmmm... TNA. Ok, I'll just go ahead and state the obvious - it's a rather unlikely name for a place to buy ladies clothes, n'est-ce pas?

It's not a store I shop in, but according to a comment recently posted on StyleForum.net there might be another dude in Vancouver who is considering shopping either there or at another Vancouver original, Lululemon.

Here's his posting under the topic "Guys who wear Women's pants: Have you ever tried TNA or Lululemons?"
Every girl I ask says that Lululemon and TNA make the most comfortable pants (They're like tight yoga pants). Now, I don't personally wear women's clothing, but I'm really curious (without going through all the trouble of doing it myself), if any guy has tried those pants on, and if they're comfortable at all for the male figure? If they are comfortable, does anyone see any problem wearing them for the comfort factor (Privately of course. I wouldn't personally like seeing another man in them)? P.S. I'm straight for anyone who's wondering. Simple curious question.

Wow. Have you ever known someone's identity to be so threatened by his own desire to expand his own personal knowledge about comfortable clothes? I digress…

Back to South Granville where the windows at TNA really caught my attention. Check out these pics of the window display at the store. It's kind of like Sesame Street meets street-level retail.

Whatever you want to call it, this window display in South Granville is a great example of the creative minds hard at work here in Vancouver.

Btw - if you want to know more about West, click here. And if you want to know more about other restaurants in Vancouver, click here.