by Sean Orr | Flogging a dead horse to death: Vancouver’s ‘big, bad, ugly night’. I think our serial obsession with last year’s riot is partly on account of a) how slowly it unfolded b) how sort of half-assed it was c) how the cops did everything right but still got blamed, and d) how young everyone was (and if there was no particular impetus, the cameras watching the rioters every move get the blame, too in a sort of self-propelled fait accompli). We all want to put the blame on everyone but ourselves, because we don’t like to think that our city still makes the young feel bored and alienated.

I was there, had a visit, took some shots, un-flipped a few smart cars, got threatened by the mob and then the cops, then walked quietly home to images of two rioters kissing in the middle of the street (a romantic ending to an imaginary narrative). “Cool riot, bro!” was the prevailing meme. A riot for its own sake. A riot because they hadn’t had a turn yet; self-entitlement run amok.

When you include Vancouver’s historically puritanical attitude towards alcohol, you can see why we’re so often compared to Tennyson’s Lotos Eaters. We’ve abandoned our children to the outskirts. Our city is full of one-bedroom condos. A lifestyle marketed to us by Bob “Everything is going to be alright [sic]” Rennie, which vanishes as soon as the shiny, happy couples in the ads eventually procreate (on granite countertops) .

Anyway, so the next day I wrote on the hoardings, “What are the politics of boredom?” I’d wanted to quote the Situationist International: “A warning to those who build ruins: after the town planners will come the last troglodytes of the slums and the ghettos. They will know how to build. The privileged ones from the dormitory towns will only know how to destroy.”

Kinder surprise: Mayors oppose pipeline expansion. Aww, that’s cute. It’s like they totally forgot about TILMA.

Guilty by association: B.C. Liberal apologizes following bizarre blast at NDP leader. “It really makes me wonder about the leader of the opposition stealing from the public, fraud. I wonder how he proposed to his wife. Is he like his good friend Svend Robinson?” I don’t know, Harry Bloy. Are you a drunk driver like your friend Gordon Campbell?

Surrey is better than Vancouver, pt. 37: The Goldilocks Campus. You know, like oatmeal. Not too hot and not too cold. But instead of oatmeal, it’s architecture.

You mean they’re golfing? TransLink has the air of a hockey team that didn’t make the playoffs these days. I’ll indulge in the crude analogy further…By choosing flash over substance (Skytrain vs. Light Rail), throwing money at big projects (Golden Ears Bridge, Port Mann, Sea to Sky) and neglecting meat and potato players (buses, pedestrians, cycling) they’ve created a team of prima donnas, and now they’re all unrestricted free agents. And even though attendance is up, they’re going to have to raise ticket prices to pay for it all. And if that fails, blame the media.

Derailed: Hotel ousts Rocky Mountaineer replacement workers. Thanks to some grade-A, insider espionage that I’m not allowed to talk about. #industry

This looks like it could be a good post if it wasn’t some weird blurry jpeg: BC’s top political influencers. It’s time to get WordPress or something, bro.

Because we can’t/won’t: London, England shines spotlight on Vancouver’s Stan Douglas. Thanks again London, England.