Monday, June 18, 2007

commercial drive festival

blogger has this new thing where my words appear at a glacial rate, about half a sentence behind what i'm actually typing. it makes things very difficult. she says, looking fixedly at the dog while she types. he has his paws crossed. how cute!

i went to the commercial drive festival yesterday, with n's household. it was very cool. the drive festival is a car free festival, where they block off the street at each ends and everyone runs free in the middle. there was lots of music and dressups, and local vendors with stalls.


there were roaming fairies with donation buckets, big skipping ropes doing double-dutch, bubble-blowing stations, people driving cardboard buses and lots of political stalls, including our friend v, hung-over at the boycott chapters table. everybody and their dog turned up (i brought chicory for a bit, but he wasn't into the crowds. i'm dogsitting again, just for the weekend), and it was a bit crowded, but most of the crowd were community-minded hippies, so it was all good.


the festival was partly a protest against the highway one expansion, which is the government spending $7 billion on an eight lane freeway which would funnel traffic into *my* nice hippie neighbourhood and take away funding from sustainable public transport. though i've found transit here to be comparable to melbourne. it goes later and feels safer (i don't get hassled very often, which is a nice change), but doesn't go as many places.

where was i? oh, yes. marmots against freeway expansion:
that's the inflatable marmot in the middle there. i'd never heard of such a beast before. small brown furry things, endangered. just like home! for more information on marmots, see here. for more information on the highway, see here.

in keeping with the car free theme, there was the best bike exhibition. it was a "pedalling zoo" with all sorts of weird and wonderful creations you could take for a spin up and down a blocked off section of the street. there were choppers with long front axles, bicycles you had to pedal backwards, very very tall bicycles, etc. ride at your own risk. i had a shot on a tall one, but couldn't get it going.

this one has a second joint in the middle. very tricksy:

we heard a community choir n's sister is involved in, had a bit of a sing-a-long to gospel music and a good dance with the most fabulous percussion band. v satisfactory day.

10 comments:

Nimmersatt said...

You probably already thought of this: try typing your post in word then pasting it in.

Oh, and thanks for the postcard, Bones. No, you can't have our brains. We find them very useful, and you have a perfectly functional one of your own.

xox TF

gumtreefid farmer said...

oh, tuchfrau, i fear that would spoil the whole *vibe*, y'know, the building an entry round photos, the hyperlinks, the little paragraphs. it's a different genre. plus it'd capitalise all my "I"s.

it's not me what wants yr brains - it's Bones! i can't do anything to control her.

glad you enjoyed the postcard. i can't get over how fast it is to mail to the UK.

love

Anonymous said...

ooh, street festival! all we have here at the moment is cold winds and rampaging gunmen.

Anonymous said...

woudl it be fair to say that the street festivals in van are better than street festivals here? gulp!

also, have heard van trumpeted often as a city that has taken a 'no-freeway' vow, and is not spending money on cars no more - seems they lied - again.

saw 'US v John Lennon' last night. didn't cry very much - illuminating on US and its unwarranted invasion of other countries

xgrot

Anonymous said...

Hello and thanks for the card. You are our best postal corespondent, well you, and the bank equal I think. So thank you. Loved the vids of your house, esp liked the shower shots!

Nimmersatt said...

Aunty Bones,
I go on Skype and you are never there? Where have you gone?
xox

gumtreefid farmer said...

itchy - i heard about yr gunman. very exciting.

don't worry, we have cold winds too. in fact, the festival got rained out, like RAINED out, once in the morning. you can see the black skies. and it's summer!


grot - i think there's more street festivals here. or maybe i just go to more of them here, being a good tourist. midsumma at melb is always a blast, and the weather is better.

vancouver is lying to you!

glad you didn't cry too hard over john. he is still on my laptop, glowing like jesus. . .

gumtreefid farmer said...

hf - glad i'm up there with the bank. the rowden white library used to be my most regular correspondent.

i like yr postcards v much.

good vid, eh? i like the bit where VTA says "apparently somebody else lives down *there*."


tuchfrau - i turned skype off cos it ate up my entire existence? i was off having dinner with housemate and two friends?

will turn it back on. probably.

love to both

Anonymous said...

OH! I wish I had been there.
I went to an island instead.
oh well, applying for Vancouver
jobs right now... ps finally
sent that cheesy postcard.
xxo
VTA

gumtreefid farmer said...

VTA,

a very nice island, though. and you're places that i've never been too. very exciting! is it pretty?

what kind of jobs are you applying for? and have you looked into visas? this is all very exciting. vancouver yay! cept for the rain. . .

you mean i shouldn't have been checking the mailbox excitedly every day for the last week then?