by Sean Orr | Beyond Robson reviews Salt and comes off like an ignorant, suburban, popped-collar xenophobe: “After traversing (Blood) alley, I now remain confident that it was named to commemorate the vast quantity of murder and casual rape that’s occurred there. Delightful. Keep your Taser on standby and 9-1-1 ready to send on your cells. As you arrive you will diverge off an already sketchy street into an unlit alley. Mind the syringes and possibly deceased bodies, walk a few moments and hang a left into Salt”. Remember, the website is called Beyond Robson, and the year is 2010.

Kevin Krueger says arts-funding threats were “no different than a junkie waving a needle”. In his defense though, have you seen some of these artists? Some of them look really poor. I don’t know what happened to these people. Why don’t they just cut their hair and get real jobs?

Unique service for Vancouver’s homeless needs online votes to stay open. Oh god. Isn’t it kind of depressing that we’re begging Pepsi for money so our city’s poor can store their belongings? Sigh.

Speaking of which, Blatherwick fears health ‘cuts’ will hurt the poor. I don’t really see how that is going to convince him. This is a government that has frozen the minimum wage for almost a decade. This is a government that is introducing another consumption tax which will only hurt families. They’ve decimated the Arts, they’ve gutted Welfare, they’ve bankrupted Translink. I think it’s safe to say, without hyperbole, that the BC Liberals fucking hate poor people.

What the Vancouver park board isn’t telling you about its smoking ban. They over-looked mental health? Go figure. “Yale researchers learned that cognitive functioning improved in people with schizophrenia after they smoked. This didn’t occur in people without mental illness”.

Calvin College cancels The New Pornographers concert because of the band’s name. I guess Fucked Up won’t be playing there any time soon.