A no messing around guide to the coolest things to eat, drink and do in Vancouver and beyond. Community. Not clickbait.

TEA & TWO SLICES: On Junk Journalism, Ruining Canada, And Send Us Your Weirdos

by Sean Orr | The story of my life: Land-rich boomers buying nests for their young. The other day I saw an ad that read, “LOST in a sea of condos?” I thought it might be some cool anti-gentrification arts initiative but it turns out it was an ad for a condo.

Screw Luongo. Trade this guy: National anthem singer helps kick off pro-life campaign. Thanks Marc Donnelly. Now I will forever associate O Canada with right-wing, sexist, conservative values.

And while I’m at it, screw the monarchy, too: Let us celebrate a very modern Queen. No offense to my hyper-Loyalist Ulster relatives or anything but there’s no future for you.

Junk Journalism: Junk science is leading to junk public policy. What the hell? Look at the guy’s picture! He looks like a chain-smoking, out-of-work animator who drinks rum out of coffee cups and still drives a 1989 Thunderbird.

As websites go dark, ministers sell Tory vision of resource exploitation. The irony is that they probably saved a bunch of energy. The Tyee didn’t go black, but only because they “report on social change, rather than try to participate in social change in a campaigning mode.” Except, of course, when they ask you for money once a year.

B.C. business draws ire for ‘tackiest press release in human history’. Meanwhile, Vice asks “If Luka Rocco Magnotta Is Caught And Found Guilty, Should Canada Reinstate The Death Penalty”? Shhh, don’t give Herr Harper any ideas. Update: “Okay you got me” – Magnotta tells German police.

And speaking of Vice, they visit Spookhaus. Waste Coast: Interview with a Vampire. Vancouver: ‘Give me your weird, your doomed, your huddled loners yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the bizarre, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my laptop beside the golden door!’

War on Bears: Black bears are starting to think they run this place. Clearly, this is much ado about nothing. What’s next? Bear Patrol?

The History of the Vancouver Cocktail. How Vancouver’s ever shifting narrative and self-identity is reflected by the impermanence and opacity of its eponymous libation vis a vis a history of prohibition and puritanism. They should have just called it The Lotus Eater.

Bonus: Now that City Caucus is mostly a blog about New Westminster, I kind of like it.

On Ken Sim’s So-Called “Swagger” and ABC’S Class War

Sean Orr is back from his hiatus with a rundown of the local headlines that have been running on a ticker tape through his mind over the past six months...

On Post-Election Recuperation, Platform Paradoxes and Refund Communities

In his latest read of the local news headlines, Sean Orr finds irony in "safety, affordability, and sustainability", and shouts out a bunch of amazing local organizations working on the frontlines.

On Running for City Council, Playing Whack-a-Mole with Homelessness, and the Public Washroom Deficit

In his latest read of the local news headlines, Sean Orr finds a park ranger with a grudge, a gross misuse of air quotes and Tripadvisor slander.

On Living in a City Preoccupied with Street Cleaning, Chandeliers, and Campaigns Against the Homeless

In his latest read of the local news headlines, Sean Orr hones in on the recent Langley shootings, and the ongoing criminalizing and dehumanizing of the homeless population.