celebration of light: vancouver, july 29, 2006

it was gray today.

i didn't expect dallas to awake with me at 9am, since he'd got in around 4am. but he did and after some sleepy bumbling about, we walked to delaney's (another coffee house) on denman street, procured hot beverages and muffins, and took them to english bay. we spent the next hour or so continuing the conversation we've been having, on and off, for the last several years, most recently the night before, the conversation about consciousness. it's one of those conversations i'm not entirely convinced occurs entirely out loud; we seem deeply immersed in each other's inner vocabulary. we've added discussion about applied kinesiology, alternative healing, despair, our respective vissions of our futures, our purposes, language and self consciousness (as distinct from simple conscisousness). i guess all of those aren't quite new threads of discourse, but we continue to discover new weaves, new patterns in which to lay them out for better appreciation.

the discussion continued over a late breakfast at theresa's, a plain but popular denman street eatery, with comforting western food cooked and served by charming asian staff. (i'm stupified by the proliferation of sushi joints in the west end, btw.)

a month or so ago, dallas got me excited about the "raven travelling" exhibit visiting the vancouver art gallery, particularly since the chilkat blanket that had reached out to dallas from the pages of one of his textbooks was included in the exhibit. dallas's fascination with the technique, mysterious even to seasoned weavers, was completely infectious. equally fascinating was the mystery of some of the symbols and motifs worked into the blanket, which are beyond the understanding not only of art historians, but of the haida people themselves. mike would love the exhibit, which includes several representations of the clamshell creation myth.

afterward, in the gallery shop, dallas was pleased to be able to point to some of the merchandise produce by his employer, native northwest. however, we were both horrified by a t-shirt, not produced by native northwest and made in mexico, bearing a white aboriginal design on a green camouflage background.

we had arranged to view the fireworks on the second night of the "celebration of light", from the 21st floor apartment of dallas's friend, richard, who is visiting his home in london, england. his suite commands what is likely one of the finest views of english bay, and is immediately opposite the barge from which the pyrotechnics are launched. we were joined by an old friend from edmonton, murray billett, and his friend, tony. among other things, murray is now an edmonton city police commissioner. he is an exuberant, passionate, human rights activist and a beautiful human being. dallas and i have been honoured to know him since the early 1990s. murray served with me on the board of the AIDS network of edmonton (now HIV edmonton). the three of us were members of the gay men's outreach committee (GMOC), a harm reduction group that distributed condoms and safer sex information. we had fabulous t-shirts.

china delivered what i think may be the most astonishing fireworks display i've ever experienced, though perhaps that had something to do with the wine, the view and the company. i wonder about the almost universal, childlike joy in fireworks. do they trigger memories of the big bang, or whatever original experience launched us into the present moment? i drank too much wine and marvelled both at the light display and the congregation of 250 000+ crowd assembled on the sands of english bay to gawp like children. light and magic were everywhere (as are the cliches in this post).

the day embraced everything and everyone i love about this city.

i'm waiting for help from james, in sydney, with formatting this blog with photos. in the meantime, a little collection from today can be found here.