March 7, 2010

[Vintage Shoot]

Now that the Olympics are over, I'm once again in the look out for work. Well... I guess really it hasn't stopped and I doubt it ever will unless I win a million dollars. But even then I don't think I would stop looking.

Yesterday I met a girl in Chinatown to do a vintage-esque type shoot for her magazine she is planning on starting. I waited outside Tinseltown as at this point I'm still a bit iffy about Hastings where we were going to shoot.

The girls were running late with make up and wardrobe so I sat out in the sun for a good hour and people-watched. So here I am, minding my own business when this elderly chinese man appears a foot in front of me. One step closer and he would have been invading personal space. He stood there with his hands behind his back like all asian chinese men do and smiled. I looked up.. then looked back down to my book.. then did the re-look and found that he was still staring at me. WELL! lol. I said hi and he just continued to smile. He then knodded his head as if in approval and gave me the thumbs up then went along on his merry way. I thanked him not knowing what he was so happy about. At least he was happy! :) I think he liked my hot pink hair! :P

When we finally made it out to shoot, we walked along the Chinatown streets and shot along the nice red fences and gates. Eventually we made it out to Hastings, "Hoboville". Out of all the times I've been down Hastings, I've only ever been on bus or in a car. And if I was to actually be on Hastings, it would be to catch a bus so I'd just be stationary at the bus stop. But as sketchy as it looks with all the homeless and drug addicts, it's actually a nice area to be around. We even had our own hobo body guard check out what we were doing. When you're there and you don't have a giant CTV or GlobalTV camera around they're completely fine it! Just a buncha art students hanging out in the downtown eastside taking high fashion photos. Lol Erm. They get to see some pretty girls and it doesn't involve taking their photos! The hobos were extremely nice and friendly.

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March 6, 2010

[The Big Bird Bush]

On the way out from the theatre last night, I spotted an extremely yellow bush. The yellow comes from the flowers but it has no leaves whatsoever!

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[Alice in Wonderland IMAX 3D]

The group of us got tickets for Alice in Wonderland last week for opening night out in Richmond. We caught the 9:10 IMAX 3D show. I've been to IMAX films, 3D films, Omnimax films but never an IMAX 3D film!!! It was awesome! Because the screen is much larger (and also we were smart and stood in line for an hour), the 3D effect works way better than on a regular screen.

The glasses we were given were pretty crazy looking too. I wanted to take one home but we weren't allowed :( There's some sensor on it which sounds an alarm if you try to take it out of the theatre. I think maybe they were lying to us...

It's been ages since I saw the original Disney Alice in Wonderland and I vaguely remember what happens. Having seen it as a kid though, I only remember visuals and not so much the story. I know Alice follows a rabbit with a watch down a hole and she drinks a potion and becomes small. She bumps into the smiling cat who leads her to the hookah-smoking caterpillar who then leads her to the mad hatter tea party. Then there's an evil queen who has cards as guards and is obsessed with hearts. And then somehow Alice climbs back up the hole.

And I guess I should have expected this version to be dark... yno.. having Tim Burton directing it and all. The graphics were obviously awesome and having it in IMAX 3D just made it all that much better. You can really tell the difference between regular 3D and IMAX 3D. The tea cups really looked like they were heading towards your face!

I guess my rating for Alice in Wonderland would be a 4/5. Only coz I was expecting something a little happier than Tim Burton darkness.

Ty and Brent peeing on the giant fire hydrant.

Posted by jme at 6:47 PM | Comments (0)

March 5, 2010

[My Stapler!]

I've never really thought of myself as a girly girl who spends all her time in malls. Growing up I wasn't really a mall rat. And now I plan out outfits before buying them. And even though shopping for clothes is great and all, shopping at the dollarstore is the best!

I found this funny looking stapler and got it for a whopping $1.25! :) It works great and kinda looks like a whale!

Posted by jme at 2:44 PM | Comments (0)

[Young @ Heart]

I was at Superstore the other day checking out DVD Deals. I rummaged through 4 giant bins of DVDs to see if there were any good ones. It took a while but I found Young @ Heart! :) It's a documentary about an elderly choir group who sing old school rock and roll. They have a few music videos that look quite good too.

Posted by jme at 2:40 PM | Comments (0)

[Early Spring]

It seems that the seasons have been shifting. In the midst of January, cherry blossoms were getting confused and wanting to blossom already even though it was still January. I guess now that it's March, technically they're allowed to. :P Just watch Vancouver become snow city once again......

Oh and Happy 8 years to us! As of March 2nd, 2010, we have been living in Vancouver for 8 years. :)

Posted by jme at 2:38 PM | Comments (0)

[Ghost City]

We're now into the post-Olympic pre-Paralympic break between parties and Vancouver is like a ghost city. Where'd all the people go?! What about the lights? And the parties?

Posted by jme at 2:36 PM | Comments (0)

February 28, 2010

[Canada wins Gold!!!!]

It's weird that today is the final day of the Olympics. 17 days ago people from all over crowded streets, protests rang out, people partied and are still partying.. and through the Olympics, people wore Canadian colours.. sported Canadian sweaters, hoodies, toques, pants, mittens.. scarves!

Ty and I were on the edge of our seats watching the Gold Medal hockey game (Canada VS USA) this afternoon. We streamed it live from the CTV website onto the big screen. I've never been this into hockey before. I guess because it's such a big game I know which side I'm on whereas with smaller NHL games they aren't as important or intense.

We had DQ for lunch and a DQ ice cream pizza pie for dessert. A frozen ice cream pizza pie! I didn't know DQ even made those.

We were afraid of what would happen had the americans beat us. I never really thought about it before but it IS an Olympic event and so all of Canada is watching from Nova Scotia allll the way to Vancouver Island and also the rest of the world.. if they really give a care about the winter Olympics at all. So cheers rang out and when they screened it live, you could really feel the excitement and happiness as well as anxiety when the US scored on us in the very last minute of the third period pushing us to a tied game!!! We went into 4th period with 20 more minutes which would have turned into a shoot out and then sudden death but we didn't have to go through all that. :) We ended with 3-2 for us! Yay!

Tonight the flame is passed on to Russia for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.. amazing that the flame has come all this way from Athens and has never been put out.

Posted by jme at 6:35 PM | Comments (0)

[Ready to Bhangra?]

Even at the end of the Olympics, the streets were still filled with people and getting down there was just as tiring.

I attended Bollywood Olympics yesterday at the Yaletown LiveCity Site. They had a few groups perform dances, dhol drum beats and bhangraaaaa.

Later on in the day, I had to head down to the Queen Elizabeth theatre for Quantum Bhangra, the event we've been preparing for for the last 2 weeks and I must say it was a great event. It was extremely busy and hectic when I got there but I figure a lot of the Cultural Olympiad events have been that way since this is the first time Vancouver's ever hosted the Olympics. When the show started though...it was great.

What I really liked about all these events within the Punjabi community is that everyone seems so tight knit. Even though there are tons of them as there are with all other races here in Canada, they of all of them are like family. All events and shows is like a big family reunion. At some points I wish I knew what they were all saying.

When I finally got my pass and got access backstage, all the VIPs had no idea who I was however as I bumped into all the performers I'd met in the last 2 weeks at rehearsals, I was greeted with warm hellos and "eyyyyh! J.P!!!!!!!!"s;even I felt like family.

Black Mahal

I got to see more Bhangra... hear the Godfather of Bhangra, Black Mahal sing traditional Bhangra mixed with modern hip hop (that was a bit strange but he was the Godfather!).. more Bhangra...En Karma, who is my new favourite Bhangra/Punjabi band now and then at the end.... God... Harbhajan Mann.. Everyone wanted to touch his hand. They all seemed to know who he was and wanted him to sing all their favourite songs. Some even sang along!

Harbhajan Mann

It was definitely a great show and I'm glad I got to meet all these people. So I guess the Olympics wasn't all too bad. I'm not sure I would really enjoy all those people being around all the time and having to wait in long lines and squish with people on the skytrain.. but hey... for 2 weeks of partying and having all these people come together to celebrate as one.. it wasn't so bad. :)

Posted by jme at 6:27 PM | Comments (0)

February 24, 2010

[Vancouver 2010 Mascots]

So here's 2008's China Olympic Mascots.

And Vancouver 2010. Yay Quatchi! When they first put out the mascots for this year's Olympics, I looked at them and thought.. well these look really japanese. And a japanese artist did design them. But after watching the China mascots, these ones do look a lot better. And Vancouver totally copied China's idea for their animation.

Then there's the Muk Muk who is the outcast marmot mascot who appears only on the back sides of Olympic advertisments. "Muk Muk!"

Posted by jme at 9:34 PM | Comments (0)