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 Rallying Against The Good Life And The Hootsuite Revolution…

by Sean Orr | Those ever-relevant old dogs at the Sun are stirring it up again! Opinion: Usage-based billing’s time has come. This guy Harvey probably also thinks the entire government should be run like Chuck E. Cheese.

Bonus denied. “According to a memo issued by VANOC CEO John Furlong, the organizers of the Vancouver Olympics have been forced to cancel payment of about $13 million in promised “retention bonuses” to staff, citing the recession”. Who said nothing good came out of the Olympics? Oh wait, I did. I said that.

SFU students rally against Goldcorp’s $10-million donation. B-b-but I thought the mining industry was responsible for our amazing quality of life. Besides, it’s just a little donation.

West End residents plan to stop bulldozer to guard landmark. Oh, hey, wow! It’s like our own version of Rachel Corrie except instead of Israelis bulldozing Palestinian homes it’s a church that replaced an even older church and a guy who wants to develop his ridiculously expensive property in one of the densest neighbourhoods in Canada (and I’m not talking about how close buildings are together).

Clark pledges to create website for public feedback on government. How about you just stop bullshitting us? A website? I mean, maybe you should fix The Access to Information Act first.

The Yuppy Dog Owners respond.

Vancouver’s Hootsuite plays big role in Egypt. The rioting helped too, though.

Photography Ethics on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. I’m a pretty big advocate of the DTES but I’m not sure I get this article.

Nardwuar vs Burrows.

There are 3 comments

  1. Thx for commenting on that little article Sean.

    A couple thoughts….

    It’s not meant to be definitive, but instead some reflections on the ethical ins and out of photography in the neighborhood. the genesis of the article was a conversation i had with a client about photographing the DTES. as we drove through the neighborhood he kept getting his panties in a bunch… wanting to pull over, buy a guy some crack and watch him smoke it. all the while taking photos. he wanted photo of drugs, sex, sores, despair, depravity.

    In the car I tried to explain to him that a) there are ethical concners that one must take into account when documenting areas like this. b) any photos taken in the area must understand their place in the overall body of work that comes out of this area and the residents and artists that have gone before and c) the ‘4 blocks of hell’ version of the story is only one version of the story and probably not the most interesting one.

    Anyway, I’m a timid mediocre writer so pardon if all my thoughts didn’t come through in that blurb. I was just trying to document the dicussion and stick it online for further reflection and conversation. It seems to be working.

    I’m super interested in your take on the topic. 🙂

  2. I think that even in your case, when exhibition becomes voyeurism, the viewer is able to make their own connection, provided there is some context. Even the voyeur often turns inwards to capture some sort of humanity in the apparent inhumane conditions of the area. Streets of Plenty for example, shows a skeptical man who thinks it would be easy to live in the DTES for a month, finds his own limitations and ultimately concludes that one must see for themselves, or in his case do, the actions of our fellow man in order that we may understand them. Thin Blue Line seemed a little exploitive seeing as it was the police themselves, often accused of maintaining a policy of containment. I do agree however, that the way the media portray the DTES as a warzone, is dishonest and reeks of special interest. I don’t, however, believe there should be a code of ethics especially for the dTES…

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