More Rockies

More photos from my long road trip up into the mountains of BC/ Alberta. On one drive I saw a black bear, a brown bear, a coyote or wolf, moose, elk, long horned sheep, the white mountain goat things, whatever they're called. You feel very fortunate and very proud to be Canadian while taking that drive. I plan to make that area my office/ place of employment. I'm going to drive that run on a regular basis in future. That thought struck me a few times while on the road in this impossibly beautiful part of Canada. This could be my office.

Rocky Mountain Photos

Saturday Night

I sit click clacking at my keyboard pouring out my demons onto a screenplay and the phone riiiiings. It's Shelly. She's bored. I choose to ignore. The phone riiiiiiiings again.
I pick up. '1-800 Dirty Sluts,' I say.
'Hi, Dirty Sluts. I can't come in to work tonight,' says Shelly.
'Hey,' I say.
'Hey,' she says. 'How goes the great Canadian screenplay?'
'Working on it as we speak,' I say. 'It's therapy.'
'I saw you from the bus today. The fuck is going on with your face?' she asks.
'I am attempting. A goatee. Thank you,' I say.
'Looks ridiculous,' says good old Shelly.
'So does yours,' I say.
'What, did you, just say, to me?' she asks.
'I told you that your goatee looks stupid, too,' I say.
Click.
I go back to my typing. The phone immediately riiiiiiiiings again. It would seem we are feeling dramatic this evening. I pick up.
'Dirty Sluts,' I say.
Shelly laughs. 'I can't believe you said that.'
'Uh huh,' I say. 'Hey, who have you fucked in the film industry?'
'Nobody whose anybody,' she says. 'Why?'
'My soundtrack alone is running about half a million dollars on this thing I'm writing. We're going to need big backing, Baby,' I say.
'Dream big, Petey Boy,' Shelly says.
'Dream my ass,' I say. 'Watch me.'
'I'm coming over,' says Shelly.
'I know. I got movies and ice cream,' I say.
'Leaving now,' she says.
'If you don't ring up or call before 1 AM the police learn your name,' I say.
'Such a sweet paranoid boy,' Shelly says.
'Start reading the Vancouver papers and you'd feel the same,' I say.
Click.
I just start to type again and , of course, riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing.
I pick up the phone again. 'Sluts,' I say.
'What kind of ice cream?' Shelly asks.
'Double chocolate,' I say.
Click, me this time.
Twenty minutes later Shelly rings up to my place. And that's it for the writing this evening.

Beautiful Song

I have become aware of a singer named Anna Nalick. May she live to be a thousand. The lyrics to her song 'Breathe (2 AM)' work like few I have ever heard.

There's a light at each end of this tunnel, you shout
But you're just as far in as you'll ever be out
These mistakes you've made, you'll just make them again
If you only try turning around.

2 AM and I'm still awake, writing a song
If I get it all down on paper, its no longer
inside of me, threatening the life they belong to
And i feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd
Cause these words are my diary, screaming out loud
And I know that you'll use them, however you want to

Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable,
And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button now
Sing it if you understand.
and breathe, just breathe

Long Drive

I had the good fortune to go for a very long drive on a sunny day up into the Rocky Mountains today. Took a bunch of photos on the drive. Will post them shortly. If you click on the photo and enlarge it you get a better sense of the scenery.
When I was a pup my father bought my brother and I a doon buggy. While ripping around on this thing all over the countryside around my father's rural place, I would lean into the corners to get the most from the machine on the dirt roads. I found myself doing that on occasion on the drive up into the Rockies today. Felt very comical when I figured out I was doing it, leaning into corners on the Trans Canada highway.

Easy Rider

In the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine they interview a large number of very interesting people, none the least of which is The Joker himself, Jack Nicholson. He talks about how he had no recollection of partying with The Beatles until he saw some video footage somebody took of them all together. He then goes on to describe how he looked pretty drunk in the footage, so there you go. I was not aware that he lived in France for a period of his life before stardom struck. To me the most fascinating aspect of this man's life is that he regarded his biological mother as his aunt and vice-versa until very late in life when his family told him the truth. His quote on that circumstance was, things are not always what they seem.

www.celtx.com

Try writing a screenplay. What the hell? Write.

Your momma...

'Your momma is so poor, she's still got her real titties.'
Chris Rock

Dead whales and duckies

I went out to explore the Boundary Bay area of Vancouver today as I had never been out there. I saw a group of people gathered way out at low tide. When I went out to see what the fuss was about I saw the dead whale in the photos. She was 10m (30ft) long. Got hit by a ship. You could see the propeller wounds all down the side of her, poor girl. Any person or nation who would hunt these incredible creatures needs an education with extreme consequences. The smell of a decaying whale is something you will never forget. Also saw a few ducks following their mom around today out at Boundary Bay. Ever cute. I think I may be leaning into another attempt at vegetarianism.

Today With Takae

I spent some time with Takae at English Bay today.

More Driving

The company I work for sends us out in vehicles of various sizes. You got your 5 ton, your 3 ton, and your van. Today I was out alone all day in a late model Chevy van, 'Singing MAry, MAry, MAry, MAry, How CAN you LIVE this WAAAAAAAY?' bopping around with the classic rock music going all day. I really don't mind driving when I'm not in a vehicle with a kid who is still hallucinating from his magic mushroom episode the night before, or with a guy who describes how he did acid before work one day on a pig farm he worked at in Alberta and the boss explained to him that they were castrating the animals that day. He quit the next day. Driving for a living isn't that bad a gig without these charmers in my proximity. I am a surgeon with that van, had it just scoffing at gravity a few times today.

This evening I wrote installment one of the last screenplay I sampled on this blog. The first installment is in Vancouver. Each snippet goes from city to city heading East across Canada with the same lead character but entirely different circumstances. I'll put that portion of the screenplay on here when I have a little more energy. I'm tired tonight. It is brilliant.

How 'bout them Sens?

Annoying Songs and a Stanley Cup Prayer

I once had a job, a very bad job. Part of this very bad job involved speaking with people I generally didn't care for on a CB radio in a truck. What I started to do, to relieve some of the 'crap factor' of this job, was to sing really catchy but annoying songs into the CB radio at varying times throughout the day. This in an effort to get the most annoying song in the guys' heads for as long as I could. It became a thing at that job, all these guys singing catchy but annoying songs into our respective CB radios periodically throughout the work day. Heeeere we go;

Remember that Sesame Street counting song? In the video there is usually a big pinball going all around a pinball machine? You remember it.

'One, two, three, four, five
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten
Eleeeeeeeeeeven, twelve!'

Into the CB... in the morning...

Or the ever popular cat food commercial song,

'Meow, meow
meow, meow
meow, meow
meow, meow
meow,
meow, meow
meow, meow
meow, meow, meow.'

With the cat walking across the TV screen...

Go Sens go. You slovenly sons of whores, in the name of all that is good and holy in this universe win this fucking hockey series and move on to take that cup back to Canada where it belongs. Amen.

Police Response

I mentioned in a previous post that I was writing something involving conversations between police officers. I contacted the Vancouver Police Department media office to get details on what exactly what was said in certain circumstances. I was sent the following very helpful e-mail as a response. Completely unrelated to this, I'm drawn to painting lately. I may dabble in that a bit more in future.

Hello, Pat.

As a former police dispatcher, I think I'm qualified to answer your
questions.

First of all, all police units are assigned a call sign. It's usually a
combination of a letter and a number. For example, C4 (pronounced
phonetically as Charlie-Four) or 3B14 (Three-Bravo-Fourteen). Anytime a
dispatcher calls them, they use the name and anytime the officer calls
dispatch, they identify themselves with the name. So the dispatcher
would be likely to say something like, "Charlie-Four, what is your
location?" More often, police and dispatchers use the world "twenty"
for location, as in "What's your twenty?" It refers to a 10-code
sometimes used in policing and 10-20 is location. "Location" is also
used and might be better understood by your readers.

Whenever we have a serious incident, like a police shooting, there is a
tone alert that sounds over all the radio channels called a warble. It
alerts all the units that something serious is happening. The
dispatcher would then say something like, "All units. Shots fired.
Officer down. Rideau and Howe. Units responding?" and then the units
responding would reply. "3B12. I'm at Main and 10th," might be a reply.
The unit identifies himself and gives his present location so the other
officers and the dispatcher know where he is coming from and his
approximate time to get there. The other units responding would also
answer the same.

As for descriptions, the officer would likely say, "3B12. We're looking
for Jerome Ashton, black male, early 20s." He might also add, "He was
last seen on foot, eastbound on Howe."

Also, the international phonetic alphabet is used frequently and always
in the car's call sign. If you don't know it, you can likely find it on
the internet.

I hope that helps.

Laurel Kennedy
Communications Coordinator
Public Affairs & Marketing
Vancouver Police Department
604-717-2680
laurel.kennedy@vpd.ca

Small Business Idea

Many Asian cities are taking to putting gardens of some sort on the roof of highrise office and residential buildings to try and combat the increase in temperatures in the central areas of the cities. There's a business in that. In larger Canadian cities, you be the rooftop garden person who designs and maintains gardens on the roof of the larger buildings around town. Once you put things in place you probably wouldn't need to maintain it much as many office workers or residents in an apartment building would find it therapeutic to go and tend the rooftop garden a bit in their spare time. We need a name...

Police Help

I just got off the phone with the media office of the Vancouver Police Department. I am writing something that involves dialogue between police officers and their dispatch. I wanted to get the lingo in the scene right so contacted VPD. I emailed them the scenes with the dialogue I have and they will get back to me with what might be more appropriate wording in that situation.

Surprise Phone Call

I just got a call from an old friend in Ulsan, South Korea. Her English name is Sunny. We shared varying degrees of affection for the 18 months I lived in her small Korean city. Pardon the juvenile lingo but she had the coolest little store, in the true sense of the word. Her new web site is at www.hazzi.co.kr If you ever happen to be in Ulsan, South Korea by all means stop by her place. Sunny radiates joy like few people I have ever met.

A guy named KAREL VAN WOLFEREN

"On a national level, the U.S. ceased to be a democracy some time ago; I think it is stretching the term too far to still speak of democracy. It is a plutocracy. The new democratic majority has not brought significant changes with regard to the biggest thing which is going on — military action that is causing incredible suffering and hundreds of thousands of deaths. You have a corrupt Congress that does not reflect the wishes of the electorate. You have an out-of-control vice president who is almost certainly calling the shots. You have a president who should never have come close to office; who would not have had a position in government in almost any country where there is some parliamentary control. He is totally unsuited and unqualified. This is understood today by a majority of Americans and yet he is still there, destroying America's position in the world! It is not just the U.S; you see it with Tony Blair in Britain. The British have gone further in analyzing cause and effect and the rot within, but yet Blair remains."

Forgive the politics. Won't happen again.

Sea to Sky Morning

My morning today consisted of driving a good chunk of the way up the sea to sky highway. You get some of the most stunning scenery anywhere in the world on that drive. Then you add some low clouds, some vessels out where the ocean meets the mountains, and an almost completely clear highway. It sure beats the hell out of sitting in a cubicle for a living.

Funny Photo

Therapy In Labour

My current employment would never do in the long term but for right now it is exactly what the Doctor ordered. Early this morning I poured a bit of gasoline on my hands to get the grease off of them. It works very well. When I make a fist with either hand I feel like I could crush coconuts from the increase in strength I have experienced from the work I am doing. There is dirt under my finger nails that I can't remove. I don't intend to try again. My gut has visibly retracted from the constant activity. I drive a 3 ton truck for roughly 20 minutes then work for about an hour, then drive, then work. I work with men. We are men.

I have seen every country club in the lower mainland. There is a riding stable I went to where the horses are truly breathtaking. I have seen the best views on offer in the British Properties. I took a long morning in a 26th floor corporate office right in downtown Vancouver with a view overlooking the harbour. The Vancouver Opera House was rocking to a show called 'Tea and Trumpets' this week while I was there.
If you see a Hino truck making a right turn, watch yourself. I don't quite have that down yet.

The creative juices are flowing with the increased metabolism. My next pursuit will afford me a great deal more time than what I have now. All of my piles of rough creative notes will start to take on cohesion when the time allows for it in the coming months.

Nice Work

I think I know what would be a perfect fit for me for a career in the long term. Own a small scale photographic studio. I stumbled on this guy's site http://www.cloudninephotography.ca/ Don't think I would care to live in Kelowna unless I was raised there but a similar career pursuit would be fantastic. You're a small business owner so there's no repressing the urge to straight arm some useless 'boss' out the window. The earning potential is substantial if you're willing to do anything related to the field. There is certainly a creative element. There is the small matter of the six figures in startup costs and we're good to go. Details, details...

I spoke with Ian Tan owner of iantangallery.com yesterday about getting paintings on exhibit in his gallery. My Mensa Boy sibling needs a good kick in the ego regarding his art.