Vancouver: The Cultural Vaccuum Pt. 1

Vancouver. I've been back here 1 year now. Canada's most expensive city right now. Why? The fucking Olympics. You know what? Screw the Olympics. Anybody who goes and supports this shit should be shot dead. I can walk down few major streets without running into construction zones, some stupid construction worker telling me I have to cross somewhere else. I'm getting fed up with it. Granville Street looks like a war zone and it has for the last few years, Cambie as well. I want to crush the Olympics and if enough people thought the same way, we may just have something. I seriously hope there's a fucking riot or the games get invaded by a vicious army of Michael Jacksons. My advice is do whatever you can to fuck shit up during the Olympics. They must be stopped. Half the reason out economy sucks is because of it.

I still work at a Yacht Club. And I actually enjoy it. It's summer, I'm keeping a great tan, using my muscles everyday, get off at 3:30 every day, no overtime. I got no complaints. I ask myself daily whether or not I should get back into a design job full-time, working in some box, generating useless ideas for clients with narrow self serving objectives. I think maybe no. I look at the jobs people post on craigslist and it is a complete fucking joke. The design scene out here is at an all-time low, companies are looking for people to do websites and logos in exchange for cases of beer, if you DO find a full-time position, they only want to pay you 12 to 15 dollars and hour and have you do secretarial duties on top of your other stuff. These people and companies are scum and they should be ashamed of themselves for making such a mockery of a highly trained profession. YES. We actually have to go to school for this shit. What I've figured out in the last year is that anyone with any ounce of talent here will simply not make it out here. The odds are against creativity and all for being a sedate little follower. Originality, uniqueness, individuality are bullshit words that are thrown around a lot but I don't see much of it going around. I haven't seen a decent piece of creative come out of this city since I came back. There's some cool stuff being generated by some of the smaller 2 to 3 person shops, but they're probably just scraping by. It's a shame that Vancouver is so goddamn conservative. There is a lot of talent here, but it has little hope of going anywhere. So I think I'm better off working at a Yacht Club for 15 dollars an hour. No stress, no mess.

Something else I need to address is how bad and rude drivers and cyclists are here in Vancouver. First off, in my opinion, all cab drivers should be blown up. They are all assholes who deserve slow death. I'll just give you a few examples of situations I've been in.
a) I'm walking across the street, the light is green, cabby tries to get by, honks his horn and tells me to fuck off, even though I have the right of way
b) Cab drivers coming out of an alley or blind spots without looking both ways, going over the speed limit, almost scaring the shit out of you, and, killing you.
c) Cab drivers soliciting their services at bus stops. Yes, this has actually happened to me. I'm waiting for the B-Libe Bus, Indian cabby drives up and opens his door, looks at me and says "Are you getting in or not?" When I told him "No, I'm waiting for the bus", he tells me to FUCK OFF and drives off, tires screeching. Indian cab drivers think they own the show out here it seems. Well, fuck you.

Drivers in general are assholes, including most cyclists. They always cut you off, they yell insults at you like it's your fault, they screech their tires when they take off if they don't make the turn before you cross the street, etc etc. FUCK YOU. If you can't wait 10 seconds for people to cross, then tough tit, you shit.

Service in Vancouver? You rarely get a smile. You rarely get service at all. What you do get is shit, arguments, you-are-the-gulity-party-not-me looks. I sure do miss Japan that way. Nobody ever fucks with a customer over there. If they do, they usually get canned. Here, it's the norm.

I'll write some more rants about Vancouver as they come to me, but this is it for now.