SUBMACHINE GUN ON HASTINGS

I had the great opportunity to ride along with Vancouver Police tonight. Really interesting. The most shocking call for sure was the “man shot in face and woman with gun still in the building” call...

We arrived at East Hastings and there were at least 10 police, 3 of whom had machine guns. The most dangerous part of the call was that the woman with the gun was reputed to still be there… that means either she was going to

 kill herself, try to have the police kill her or take more people out. 

All guns were drawn and movements were very methodical for obvious reasons. As it turns out room 210 had the door wide open and no body and no blood. Perhaps someone trying to mess around with tenant(s) in the building by making that call. They must know what would have elicited the most intense response. Who knows if it was done to get back at a woman living in room 210, or what, but it certainly was successful. Other calls included Break and Enter on Georgia, 20 kids fighting (was less than that, but that was the call), and other small incidents. Fascinating late night experience. Got home at 3:30 am.

PEMBERTON FESTIVAL HIGHS AND LOWS

1) - Tragically hip (I love that Gordon Downie acts insane on stage. Performers need to put on a show beyond the music and I feel the Hip do that well.)
2) - Working in the lost and found. People are pretty darn happy if you have their stuff. Shocking amount of Drivers Licenses and combination Passport/ DL/ Birth certificate together (What were they thinking bringing all that). We were trying to coax people that we reunited with their stuff to “pay it forward.” Do something nice when you least feel like it. Especially in traffic!
3) - Flaming lips put on a good spectacle, but Wayne Cody needs to stop demanding love from an audience. Earn it don’t demand it.

LOWLIGHTS:
1) I got a $598 ticket from Police on the way back since I didn’t know my insurance was not up to date. Ouch!
2) - Poor Rebecca in the dish pit for 6 hours... - - this bad volunteer shift led to a great one of doing security for Coldplay (in the pit)!
3) – Transport mismanagement by Live nation. A fiasco. I calculated that people leaving "right after the gig" would not get home till 7 or 8 am Monday.

**** My friend NARDWUAR was on his way up to interview Jay-Z after getting an email at 10 am Sunday. Long drive for a 6-minute interview. He left right afterwards too to drive back!

GRAHAM CHAPMAN'S EULOGY

I Always thought the Monty Python troupe were savvy gents and this Eulogy is really well done. 

Note there is some profanity in this, but just by saying that I almost spoiled the joke.

NARDWUAR'S BIRTHDAY

What a hoot... and a good excuse to eat that the Tomohawk grill. No I didn’t have a skookum chief burger! Yes this is the place where Bryan Adams toned up his fingertips in the dishpit.

The celebrities just keep coming!

"HOUSE TO GROUSE"

Each year it seems a few of us ardent sillies (ok three of us) tend to continue with our tradition of running from "my house to Grouse Mountain." This is a bit of a trek... not sure of the distance but it goes mostly uphill. Starting around Main and 18th to the top of the grind took 2:53:17 this time. I think last year was faster. Oh well. It is great fun though.