Today, for some odd reason, Im really missing the place and some of my friends who live there right now [but no, not my ex]. I only lived there 4 months, but it was a pretty eye-opening time in my life. I pretty much was out of control for the whole time there... constantly drunk/on drugs/in the midst of some sexual escapade. I got my first tattoo, started loving rock n roll and punk music, ate sushi daily and started the now infamous 'hump attack'all in the span of the one summer.
I just googled some of my fave memories from Van city:
The call it 93 cent pizza...but its a lie. Its actually a dollar once you add the GST. Once, while really wasted i stood outside the 93 cent pizza place on Commercial Drive and yelled at everyone who walked past "93 cents MY ASS!" From then on, whenever I walked by a pizza place in Van, someone would have to yell that.
I lived on Hastings and Commercial Drive. We referred to ourselves as the "East Van Allstars". Google "Hastings" and you will likely see thousands of pages about the heroin and crack problem on said street. Im not going to lie to you, its a pretty scary place. Picture 50 junkies all standing on a street corner. Some are yelling, some are shooting up, some have blacked out. Somedays it reminded me of a post-apocalytic movie. This was my neighbourhood. To "deal" with it, I made up little songs about the junkies, or tried to "out crazy" them so they would think i was more fucked up than they were and leave me alone.
This is commercial drive... pretty cool place actually. Imagine punks, skids, and lesbian couples with their Chinese adopted daughters. Shopping for antiques, comic books, sex toys and ice cream.
[This one is actually of me...cool huh?]
Library Square is where I worked. Pretty cool place, actually. I think it was in an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie (the 6th day, i think it was called) and some other movie where Lucy Liu fought Antonio Banderas.
And finally, my fave watering hole...The 50 Bourbon I wont go into the hijinks there...but i think it was the only bar I wasnt kicked out of that summer. We called the place the "No teeth Bar" because there were few patrons who went there that still had all their teeth... we also renamed some of the staff: there was Sheroin [the bartender named Sharon who was really scary and skinny], tie belt [a girl who always wore ties for belts]and "Gunt" [a girl with a stomach that reached her...well, you can guess] Some of my other faves were the Cobalt and the Brickyard-- both punk places that were pretty scary.
3 comments:
I've only been there once, and it was for a day and half. I'd love to go and spend a week or so, and check out Victoria, too.
I got a new Jane yesterday which spent one whole page highlighting Vancouver. There's some kind of law of something or other that once you hear about something, you'll hear about it again like three times in x amount of days. I should look that up.
I loved Vancouver when i was thre for 2 days in 2000. I got one day on Victoria Island too. I could spend the rest of my life on that island. Really.
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