Things to do in the DTES

Besides protest and indulge your vices…

Our fair city has been the butt of jokes and the subject of harsh criticism over the Olympics, traffic, the weather, national pride, but perhaps most of all about the Downtown Eastside. There have been numerous efforts to improve the situation, combat negative stereotypes, and just plain let people know that not everyone in the DTES is a mentally ill, drug using, prostitute.

Wes and I have been doing a lot of blogging lately, Megaphone, and Frances Bula are among the others to speak out. This has kept me from doing much here but contributing photos, so today I’m doing a rundown on all the things going on in the DTES to encourage locals and tourists to visit and see for themselves.

Vancouver’s gritty Downtown Eastside is home to Canada’s greatest concentration of galleries and artist studios. This past weekend, the first ever Artwalk took place. Many of the popup galleries and installations are still available and generally are free to the public. Building Opportunities with Business is hosting a Cultural Olympiad installation by the world famous artist Trimpin which is open seven days a week and is completely free. Less than two blocks away at 39 East Pender is another free Cultural Olympiad installation.

The W2 Community Arts Centre’s Perel Gallery is open daily showing non-mainstream local and international artists. Their entire building is a Cultural Olympiad installation called “Fire with Fire” which you have to take in from across the street at night. That’s right to see the art you have to come to Hastings and Abbot at night, danger Will Robinson, danger. :-/

Not really, the Blue Dragon, yet another Cultural Olympiad show is playing at SFU across the street from W2, it is definitely not free but it is a pretty amazing show, by another world famous artist, in the brand new Milton and Fei Wong Experimental Theatre.

The DTES is location of many walking tours, Sins of the City is being run twice daily by the Vancouver Police Museum. If you want to know where Vancouver’s most infamous opium dens and brothels used to be located, this is the walking tour for you. There are a variety of others around architecture or culinary tourism. The city even has maps if you want to create your own.

If all the walking and art is making you hungry or thirst, the Downtown Eastside has no shortage of cafes, eateries, and drinking holes. You can find everything from big and glossy to tiny and gritty, from the just opened, to the establishment that has been open for decades. Chinatown of course has some world class Chinese food and Water and Carrall Street are home to many a reveler during the Olympics. And before heading home, you could hit up the Fortune Sound Club which is providing fresh beats on their world class sound system right from the heart of Chinatown.

Broadway Skytrain Platform

Just Plain Ol’ Broadway, originally uploaded by jules andre brown.

i heart chicken

…and so do you. Don’t front. Everybody does. And I like mine fried. I just do. It tastes good. I know I’m not alone. They open restaurants for us. I even dig KFC. Shoot me. Okay…don’t. I’m just saying that the colonel has a damn good recipe. I’d prolly eat fried chicken everyday if I didn’t care about rapping, breath control, health, etc…

But I do care. And I’ll have the yummy only once in a while. Today, it’s at the newly(ish) re-opened “Prime Time Chicken and Chinese Food” joint. Southeast corner of Main and Hastings. Open everyday from 11am to 9pm.

They got chicken. A lot of it. I mean mounds of it. I grabbed 2 legs and a thigh, home fries and gravy. $4.25. Added a wing for 85 cents. A whole wing. Like 3 sections whole. Grabbed a cola too. The gal rang the whole thing up at $5.75. The math got fucked. Prolly got distracted by the drunk who told me he came from a max security prison and that he loved me. I’d fuck up that math too.

It’s good quality chicken. Not as phatty as Church’s. A lil crispier than PFK. But good. And cheap. I’ll be back. In like 4 months.

Olympics Cauldron Failure

… because we need another reminder that we’re locked out of our own city…

Jep Beer

Jep Beer, originally uploaded by jules andre brown.

Sunny Sunday in the DTES

I knew about the 19th annual Downtown Eastside Women’s Memorial March thru a post on this blog. So I had the perfect schedule for today: to head to Hastings and Main about noon, take a few photos and maybe make a video, then I wanted to record the dragon parade in Chinatown… A weird Valantine’s day but good for me.

I showed up at the march and it was crowder than I thought it was going to be, that made me happy, I still can’t believe how a lot of people over-look the missing women issue. But I couldn’t see much happening so I headed to Pender, just to realize that, this year the dragon parade was held in the am…

Oh well, I went to read to the park and on my way back home I ran into the march at Abbott and Hastings, so I followed them along Hastings to the east.

It was kinda magic, in the corner with Carrall the march stopped. A few words and the woman speaking pointed up, way up in the sky a big bird (an eagle?) was flying in circles. Then, the drums went crazy.

Seriously, it was magic. It seems that the universe was paying tribute to all those moms, sisters, daughters, aunts, friends, women. And that made me happier.

Year of the tiger

Torch Diverted from Commercial Dr, East Hastings, Take Back Our City Rally & March

Hey all!

The Olympic$ Circu$ has begun! Check out Vancouver Media Coop for a video of the Torch diverted from Commercial Drive on Friday February 12. The community in action, standing passionately for what they believe in.

Kudos for Torch Bearer Carrie Serwetnyk for handling that with grace and poise. You can tell she wanted to say more in support of the demonstrators, but knew she could get in trouble for being a representative.

The torch was also diverted from heading into the Downtown Eastside thru East Hastings early in the morning.

I took part in the Take Back Our City Rally and March at the Vancouver Art Gallery. It was inspiring and felt good to take action in the resistance. Great food, music and people all around! Speakers and demonstrators came out to speak about homelessness, poverty, criminalization of the poor, environmental degradation, social service funding cuts and so much more. Once again great to see people getting engaged and taking our streets back. ‘Who’s streets? OUR STREETS!’

For more info on the convergence and action that is not covered by the mainstream corporate media, really check out Vancouver Media Coop, lots of great articles, videos, photos and links.

I’ll be keeping in touch on the ground and around the city at resistant events. If you are out there on the streets, remember to take care of each other, stay in a group and keep the following numbers on you to call for legal help and advice:

• Arrest line (if you are arrested): 604-689-9540
• Support line (friends and families missing someone): 604-689-9547
• Pivot Legal Speak to a Lawyer: 1-888-978-0050

- T

Mapping The Future

This is called Google Liquid Galaxy (Wii game?). It’s the next step in digital mapping and I don’t think these guys are stopping this technology any time soon. So long to privacy and hello to an eventual kick-ass iPhone app. Go to 4:30 as the demo zooms in on Vancouver/Whistler.