My friend Dan Findlay is a bit of a car nut. He’s been collecting, restoring and fixing up classic cars since he was a kid. In high-school he acquired his first Ford Model T. He recently pushed things even further when he called me up and told me about his latest acquisition… a 1911 Stanley Steamer.

We took it for a boot down to the beach were we realized our water tank was running low (it burns through about a gallon of water per mile). After filling up with the garden hose at a random strangers garden party, we were off again.

It takes a good 20 minutes to build up enough steam to get moving, easily catches on fire and it isn’t the most fuel efficient vehicle on the road, but it’s a s**t ton of fun to drive around… and it comes with a steam whistle 🙂

In the manual, it tells you if when the car catches fire, increase the speed until the flames blow out.

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Coachella didn’t disappoint, in fact this year was somehow even better than last year.

I didn’t lose anything (actually I found waldo), witnessed 2pacs resurrection and my friend Amy crocheted a bunch of us an amazing hand made beer coozies. All in all a great success. The music was pretty damn good too. I managed to get my camera in to the festival one night to take a few photos:

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Stay tuned as this vintage dumpster tandem bike get’s fully stripped down, repainted and retrofitted to cruise the mean streets of Kitsilano.

It’s been a couple of years since I was last in India, but my experience traveling to some of the Child Haven homes was something that still brings a smile to my face. Every year I try to put some of my photos together in a charity project to help raise money for them, and this year we decided to do a large run of notecards. The printing costs have been donated 100%, so every dollar you spend on these cards goes directly to Child Haven International, to help them support the hundreds of destitute children that they care for in India, Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan. These cards aren’t holiday specific, and you can use them for a variety of occasions throughout the year, plus they support a great cause.

The notecards are by donation and come hand packaged in packs of 10 (each with a different photo), we are asking for a minimum $20 donation per pack (100% of your donation goes directly to Child Haven).

You can pick them up from me in person in Kitsilano, or at the next charity dinner near you. Child Haven is a small organization running on minimal overhead, and they don’t have the resources to do individual mail outs at this time. Sign up for the Child Haven newsletter to see when they will be serving up great butter chicken, spicy curry and fresh naan near you 🙂

Last year you robbed me of my laptop, my cellphone, my basic liver function and most of my dignity… but I got them all back and now I’m back for more.
HAPPY COACHELLA!

This weekend we paid a final farewell to summer with some adventuring, surfing, and morning yoga on the dock.

Autumn, bring on the wool sweaters, corn mazes, and pumpkin spice lattes.

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My long time best buddy Eric just got himself married to an awesome girl this past Saturday in Hamilton Ontario, and I was lucky enough to be his best man. I’ve known Eric since pre-school, he lived around the corner and we somehow managed to walk to school together virtually every day. I wasn’t entirely aware of my best man status until about a day before the wedding, but I managed to remember the rings and avoid any catastrophes. In lieu of an embarrassing best man speech (saw-horse) I was able to take a few snapshots of their beautiful wedding.

Marianne & Eric’s ceremony and reception took place in Luina Station, a stunning old train station that has since been converted for use as a banquet hall. It was a great experience seeing his whole family again, as well as meeting his new family, friends, and super fun bridesmaids in Hamilton.

I didn’t take too many photos because I was busy with other things… come to think of it, I’m actually not entirely sure how I made it to the airport for my 6:00am flight back to Vancouver, late night turkey dance off.

Here are a few photos from throughout the day:

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Happy August!

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Firstly, congratulations to Boston for the Stanley Cup win. It was an amazing run. Tim Thomas played a tremendous series, and Boston was clearly the better team. I’ll always be a Canucks fan but that being said, I am absolutely sick to my stomach disgusted with Vancouver’s reaction to the loss this evening. The day started great. Cheering crowds, smiling kids, free samples, but as soon as the game ended the crowds had divulged into an angry mob hell bent on our city’s destruction. I’ve played witness to immigration protests in Australia and Maoist uprisings in Nepal, but I have never in my whole life experienced a mob of such hate filled individual’s hell bent on indiscriminate civic destruction. Call me naive, but I didn’t even think Vancouver was capable of this.

What happened to the jubilation we saw during The Olympics? What happened to sportsmanship? What happened to morality at its most basic level?

The day started out packed with cheering fans (5:35pm). Ok maybe a little too packed.

Reports from inside the stadium state that The Bruins victory was met with applause, the sort of class I would have expected from our hockey fans. Outside on the streets we threw our class down the drain before the game was even finished. We live in Canada, one of the greatest most peaceful places on Earth, and this is how we react to a hockey game? I realize that a lot of people instigating these riots were mostly “anarchists” who were there from out of town with the intent to cause trouble, most likely in a sick premeditated attempt to relive the riots of 1994.  Though I am sure they exist, I don’t know a single person who lives in Vancouver who would willingly take part in it’s destruction the way I saw it tonight, but I know that locals have certainly taken part as well. It was a mixed bag of terrible people doing terrible things. Even before the game was over, masked instigators started causing problems. Some of them even had gasoline and Molotov cocktails, apparently with the intent to start a riot win or lose.

After watching 3 cars torched and destroyed the police backed out and mobs started burning and destroying whatever they could find. I managed to put out two fires with two good Samaritan bicyclists, but while trying to put out a third trashcan fire, things took a turn for the worse. I spent the night in emergency because on my way out of the city. I was knocked to the pavement after stepping in to put out a garbage fire.  One of the rioters who sucker punched me also destroyed my Canon 5D Mark II and one of my lenses. If you come across any photo or video evidence of this incident I would greatly appreciate it if you could email the Vancouver Police Department to help aid their investigation.

Though my jaw is still swollen it only took three stitches to patch my eye up. It’ll take much more than that to wipe this memory from my my mind. I hope we can move forward as a community and build ourselves back up to be the world class city that I know we really are.

Please email all evidence to riot@vpd.ca with a dates, times, locations, and descriptions.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS

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