The Five Ring Circus: Maple Leaf Meltdown
Various angles on national pride during the last day of the XXI Winter Olympics.
Balcony patriotism.
Blue sky runs.
The outspoken fifth floor.
A message in red.
Maple leaf wrapper.
Siren / call to arms.
The lonely states.
The leaf breaks a smile.
Momentum.
Noise above the crowd.
Flag-swaddled.
View from the top.
Canted chaos.
Messiah.
Raise the flag.
Sound the bugle.
Impromptu street hockey games sprung up across downtown Vancouver through the Olympics.
Late night crowds at the epicentre of Robson and Granville streets.
The Five Ring Circus: Game Faces
Canada takes on the USA for Olympic Gold. Two kilometres from Canada Hockey Place at LiveCity Yaletown, 28 February 2010.
Full regalia.
Detail of a crowd.
Maple leaf array.
Canada celebrates a goal from Jonathan Toews 12:50 into the first period.
Canada takes a 2-0 lead with a second period goal from Corey Perry.
America comes back to narrow Canada's lead with a goal from Ryan Kesler.
America comes back to tie the game in the dying seconds, forcing overtime.
Tie game.
Crosby takes possession of the puck for Canada...
...shoots...
"Where were you when Canada won gold?"
Eruption.
Thrash.
Tears.
150,000 best friends.
Believe.
"Oh Canada..."
"...with glowing hearts..."
"...we stand on guard for thee..."
Frog
So, I made another movie. I say that not with the usual euphemistic subtext of “I accidentally broke a vase” or “I wish I wish I hadn’t killed that fish”, but rather, quite simply, as a statement of fact: I made another movie and it’s pretty good.
It’s a short film document of a long conversation, in real time, from awkward reunion to difficult goodbye. It’s my first team-up with The Studio, a Vancouver collective who spend their days off from being the paragon of cool to double as damned decent producers. Chad Krowchuk (RV, Mentors) and Smallville’s Allison Mack fill the void on the fairer side of the lens.
You’ll see it later this year at festivals, or maybe on an airplane or something. Expect, for a short, a pretty wide release.
Blocking the final beat through with cinematographer Sasha Proctor (left) and Allison Mack. Photo credit Shawn Edstrom.
Location manager Ithon Harrison-Jones, co-producer Jeremy Regimbal, Sasha and myself ride the action bus before a shot. Photo credit Shawn Edstrom.
More blocking, this time out front of the action house, with Allison and Chad Krowchuk. Photo credit Shawn Edstrom.
Allison and I blocking a moment outside the house. Photo credit Shawn Edstrom.
Sasha pilots the impossibly heavy steadicam rig. Photo credit Shawn Edstrom.
Co-producer John Poliquin on his pink flip phone. You go, JP! Photo credit Shawn Edstrom.
More photos from the film and, eventually, some real information can be once-over’d at www.underthefrog.com
And with some luck, this blog will be getting a whole lot more interesting very soon. I’m in transit again, writing this time from Hamilton en route to southern Africa for reasons I’ll have to take a raincheck on. Listen close and follow carefully…
Looking for a Landmark II
Wish upon a postcard.
The sun shines down on all buildings equally, no matter what they’ve done to deserve it.
Distortions.
Tower spire in fog.
—-
“They’ve Shut Down East Hastings”
Pedestrian xing.
Street press.
Neon stalwart.
Stilt pirouette.
Shadow patrol.
Protest smear.
A client enters Insite, North America’s first government-funded safe injection site. The facility has drawn the ire of many, being derided by the Bush administration as “state-assisted suicide” and repeatedly being threatened with closure by Canadian PM Stephen Harper. With five years’ operation behind it, Insite has seen no fatalities.
Buck-a-slice pizza.
Carnegie beat. Cops in front of the community centre.
Neon row.
Tungsten alley.
Umbrella Fields
Nine angles on Victory Park in the moments leading up to and following 11:11am on 11/11/08.
Protected.
Poppy.
Watchtower over umbrella layers.
Life between layers.
Looking out over umbrella fields.
Towering shadows.
Drumming styles.
Pinched hats.
Wardrobe malfunction.
The Shops of Main Street
Exploring the shops and storefronts between Little India and Chinatown on Main, November 2008.
Autumn canopy. Main & 53rd.
Black market typeset. Main & 52nd.
Star sign. Main & 52nd.
Ten Digit Dialling. Main & 51st.
Fancy. Main & 50th.
Weatherproof. Main & 49th.
Former glory. Main & 48th.
Red alert. Main & 46th.
Getaway route. Main & 45th.
Bygone community centre. Main & 43rd.
Codes blue. Main & 41st.
Combo Deal. Main & 41st.
Shout out to the regulars. Main & 39th.
Eat in/take out/boarded up. Main & 37th.
Colourfast inks. Main & 35th.
Second floor sale. Main & 34th.
No cards accepted. Main & 33rd.
Past perfect. Main & 32nd.
No parking weekdays after 3pm. Main & 32nd.
Replacement bulbs. Main & 30th.
Drawn blinds. Main & 29th.
Colour geometrics. Main & 28th.
Flash flood. Main & King Edward.
Festive faces. Main & 22nd.
A (yellow) shade of green. Main & 20th.
Calling cards. Main & 19th.
Rusty pinky. Main & 18th.
Value. Main & 16th.
Fast Font. Main & 15th.
Mixed messages. Main & Broadway.
Geodesic domes. Main & 6th.
Angles of incline. Main & 5th.
Letter columns ABC / ABPCB. Main & 3rd.
Celebration banners. Main & 2nd.
Hemispheres. Main & 1st.
Co. Ltd. Seeds. Main & Industrial.
Pacific Central Station. Main & Terminal.
Girl. Main & National
Skyscraping text. Main & Keefer.
Leading lines. Main & Keefer.
Watchful characters. Main & Pender.
Team Colours
I don’t obscure these pages with issues-oriented coverage often, so when I do it’s nice to think the issues might count for something. Yesterday’s snap federal election, called five weeks earlier by Conservative PM Stephen Harper in a bid to convert his party’s minority hold on the House of Commons into a majority, was unfortunately not one of those issues.
$300 million dollars in spending and five weeks of media saturation later, and the make-up of the Commons looks much the same as it did after the previous federal election in 2006. Harper failed to win a convincing majority and I failed to photograph anything more than a dull smattering of signs and speeches.
Oh well. We’ll both have another shot in a couple years.
Conservative propaganda at party headquarters in Vancouver Centre.
Turf wars along Main Street.
Painters $14/hour.
CBC on site at a Liberal rally on the eve of the election.
Vantage point.
Viral voting.
Adrienne Carr, deputy leader of the federal Green party and MP candidate for Vancouver Centre, addresses a crowd of party faithful as the CBC’s Peter Mansbridge announces election results behind her. Despite garnering nearly 7% of the popular vote the Greens failed to win a seat in the 308-member Commons.
Word of mouth.
Polls open.
Liberal propaganda at party headquarters in Vancouver Centre.
Stephane Dion, leader of the federal Liberals, entertains a media circus.
Minimum voting age.
Dion speaks to supporters at a last minute Liberal rally held in a failed bid to win the battleground Richmond riding for incumbent Raymond Chan. The riding was one of seventeen new seats ceded to the Conservatives.
Dion raises a victory fist as incumbent Vancouver Centre MP Hedy Fry looks on.
Dion in the public eye.
Weapons of Mass Influence
The lips and podium microphone of federal Liberal leader Stephane Dion on the eve of Canada’s federal election.
Panama Bound
Containers on a container ship at the Port of Vancouver, April 2008.
“2010 Homes Not 2010 Games!”
“Spirit” of Resistance. Anti-Olympics protestors flocked by the dozens Sunday to the departure of the CP Olympic Spirit train from Port Moody on the start of its cross-Canada campaign to raise support for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
Octogenarian Vancouver mayoral candidate Betty Krawczyk addresses fired-up protestors.
“The people united will never be defeated!”
Media focus.
Field recordings.
The Target.
An aboriginal woman dips into a box of household noisemakers as the protestors attempt to drown out the live entertainment with metal clanging and rally cries.
Focus.
Determination.
A policeman stands with hands folded behind a police line laid to keep protestors off the main stage.
Middle finger salute.
Semi-anonymous.
A protestor checks the phone number of the group’s legal counsel after an altercation at a police station.
Tools of uprising.
Canada Day at Canada Place
Vancouver celebrates July 1. Series previously unpublished.
Flag cheeks. Canada Place, Vancouver.
Maple leaves.
Noses.
Ballot stuffing at the face painting booth.
Volunteers at an info booth.
An aboriginal boy writes a protest slogan in chalk during a land rights demonstration.
Can-rock stalwarts 54-40 put on a rousing show inside the convention centre, with crowd members joining frontman Neil Osborne onstage for the encore.
Hands in the air.
Mobile phone memories.
Photos from the crowd.
Inflatable basketball.
Corn on the cob, with all the fixings.
Celebration.
Freedom Booth
Protestors on a sit-in for Tibetan freedom outside the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China on Granville Street, Vancouver.
A Night at the Chinatown Markets
Smoke break on a balcony overlooking the Chinatown Night Market. For three nights every week between May and September, a one-block stretch of Keefer Street is cordoned off from traffic and opened up to vendors, hawkers and buskers, each selling a range of goods under colourful big tops.
Entertainment varies according to the night, and ranges from talent shows to Chinese opera to, tonight, a traditional dance programme.
A conspiracy of pink.
The next group prepares backstage.
Waiting in the wings.
Stand closer.
Ready for primetime.
Exit, stage left.
Balloons and big tops down Keefer St.
4 for $10.
Lanterns on a lamp post.
Jewelry in a tub.
A Lion on Hastings
A group of well-rehearsed schoolchildren and their adult leaders/percussionists toured their lion dance routine along Hastings Street this morning as part of Burnaby Heights’ annual Hats Off Day festival.
“Picking the lettuce” in front of a local greengrocer. The tradition is said to bring good fortune to visited businesses.
