Hello friends, fans, foe and lovers,
it's funny how sometimes dreams we have can be stolen, or we let them go, and time and destiny move onward, cold and merciless. I spent a lot of time in an Intensive Care Unit last week watching and visiting my dad, Chris Bose II. Yes, I am the Chris Bose III, sounds kind of heinous haha!? Anyway, i watched a lot of people come and go in my life, my dreams rise and fall, the world around me loosen up, and then come crashing down. The main things i want to do are see my kids, and be there, be a good dad, the dad i never had. It's tough to do, because i NEVER had a father in my life, a stable one, a sane one, a secure one, instead it was always these abusive assholes my mother brought home from the bar.
I think part of whatever the hell i'm trying to figure out, has been to get off the sauce, if not forever, at least for awhile. The clarity is great, and i find it amazing that after all these years, i'm still able to do what i want instead of what society wants. This begs another question, what the fuck am i doing? haha! As Leonard Cohen once said, "Trying to maintain a certain grace with the world around me." We are told so many things growing up, don't do this, don't do that, this is good, this is bad, blah blah blah. More often than not, the good stuff is bad for you, and the world seems more crooked the longer you live and watch it spin around and around. The rich have always been in power, and the power is benefitting them, and part of that is maintaining the law and giving us a sense of powerlessness over our own lives. It's weird, and when you are outside of that role, you watch hundreds of people marching towards some oblivious doom and just accepting it. plus, being in an ICU where people are dying often, is kinda weird, hearing them flatline, the curtains drawn around the patient, the nurses and doctor's trying to revive the patient and them calling it just like in the movies. creepy. especially the weird silence after a person leaves this world. the room becomes painfully quiet.
ugh.
We were all young once, we all had dreams, and somewhere along the line, those dreams get crushed, and only a slim minority ever make those dreams come true. The rest of the world either falls in line and tows the line, or apparently, chaos and madness will reign. I'm a little skeptical aren't you?
Well, aside from that heavy naval gazing, i've got some alarming news for you, once you go past the Rocky Mountains and head Eastward across our great and strange country, you will notice that Vancouver pays a price for about 50,000 great coffee shops. That is there are NO DECENT coffee shops past the Rocky Mountains eastward, and you must suck it up and drink Tim Horton's, which is okay, but if you like a decent americano, or a strong dark coffee, good luck with that. Not to mention, when you actually enquire about a starbucks coffee shop or whatever, people look at you like you are a homosexual alien from another planet, with tentacles and slime all over you, asking them with a slight 'lisp' about "a decent coffee around here?"
So, either bring your own ground coffee and bodum, and like a junkie, boil up some water in your room and make your own coffee away from judging eyes. Trust me, you'll be happier, and feel less like a freak for wanting a decent cup of coffee. And since I'm a teetotaler these days, that's the one guilty pleasure i allow myself, strong coffee.
I guess what I'm saying is this: Vancity, share some of your coffee shops and baristas, send forth an army of coffee soldiers across the prairies to win over the hearts and minds of amateur coffee drinkers proving to them there are more options than disgusting watered down 24 hour gas station coffee (which tastes like tepid coffee flavoured perfume should smell or taste like?) and Tim Horton's coffee. Please.
Until later lovers, enjoy some more photos from the road,
CB
my phone takes alright photos. is this a matterhorn?
Downtown Regina, Saskatchewan.
Last time i was there i was amazed
at some of the architecture and the speed
with which they were knocking it down
for ugly glass towers. lame.
Calgary, Alberta, the needle tower in the distance
if you follow the powerlines inwards.
Hutterites and Mennonites
made into sculptures
in a Regina, Saskatchewan
mall downtown.
of course it wasn't natives.
another huge mansion in Brandon, Manitoba
it was seriously massive.
there's this street full of them.
of course i can't remember it now.
empty abandoned gas station in Brandon, Manitoba
Faces in graffiti
Kamloops, BC
cool graffiti i thought, as i was taking photos
a lady came up and asked if i did it
and i said "No," and asked her if she thought
it was graffiti or art?
She said it was illegal
and i said art is illegal?
that is a scary society to live in.
That shifted the conversation
i saw the light click on
and we had a great chat after that line
had been crossed.
the loops, i do love it here.
but it's a love/hate thing.
i often wonder what the fcuk i'm doing here.
I love graffiti.
hmmmm, familiar faces on walls
across canada.
hmmmm....
well boys and girls, i hope you dig those photos and the video, i'll post more later, sorry about the heavy navel gazing, life and death experiences tend to do that to a person.
