Girl with puppies, downtown Victoria. I got to pet the puppies.

veronicahhh:

Oak bay Beach hotel mineral pools in this sunshine. Feels like summer!

This is my hood. It’s a good hood.

noah-ferguson:

Jessica Van der Veen, BC NDP candidate for Oak Bay-Gordon Head.

My new boss.

My neighbourhood: Bowker Creek, Oak Bay.

Lethal Johnson Street Fire Witnessed

Just got off the phone with Sarah Petrescu at the Times Colonist, about the house fire I witnessed this morning around 4:30am on Johnson St. in Victoria. She told me that three people were dead.

I was driving east on Johnson St. after leaving work when I saw two vehicles awkwardly pulled over, and then I very quickly saw what had caught their attention. The entire front porch of the house was completely engulfed in flames. Inferno is the only word to describe it, but it’s inadequate. Flames were also shooting from the second floor and the peak of the roof. I could feel intense heat on my face from 10m away.

People were slowly coming out of the neighbouring houses, and I yelled at them to GET OUT OF THE HOUSE! One guy rushed to his car in the driveway and drove off seconds before an ajacent van caught fire. The block was eerily silent for several moments. Everyone seemed to be transfixed by the horrifying spectacle. There was nothing any of us could do in the face of such a blaze. A dreadlocked man paced on the sidewalk in front of the house clutching at his head in dismay. Explosions were heard, either from the cars in the driveway or from the house.

A single policeman was the first emergency responder to arrive on the scene. He carried a pitiful fire extinguisher. Within moments we were completely surrounded by emergency vehicles. The firemen worked very efficiently to set up the hoses, but I could sense that they were taken aback by the intensity of the blaze. Even as the first fireman began to hose down the most intense section of the fire, you could see it getting hotter in other places. The van in the driveway’s windows exploded and it was engulfed in flames as well.

For the first little while I was invisible, sitting in my car with my emergency blinkers flashing in the midst of a dozen responder vehicles. Eventually an ambulance paramedic directed my car through the tangle of vehicles that had surrounded me. I parked on the next block and walked back. Some people wrapped in blankets were being led gently away from the fire, which could still be seen burning on the back side of the house, where the hoses hadn’t yet been able to reach. I could see one person collapse on the sidewalk as the group made its way up the block. From the other side of the street I got the sense that she was overcome with grief.

Sarah told me that she visited the scene just now, around 7am, and had seen one of the firemen weeping. It was a truly horrifying, brutal event to behold.

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/johnson-street-closed-house-destroyed-possible-multiple-deaths-in-morning-blaze-1.75350

The closing of Fort St Cafe is just another sign of the wasteland that’s overtaking creative life on Vancouver Island. It’s another cultural clearcut.

Much as I miss my friends at home, I really don’t miss the West Coast, I guess Victoria specifically. I don’t miss Halloween there. I don’t miss rain. I don’t miss the social/economic/political context. I don’t miss the vibes. I don’t miss the cliques. I don’t miss the general public with whom I worked for so long. I don’t miss the sports teams, cuz we don’t have any, except for shitty ones that make people angry versions of themselves. I don’t miss the feeling of inferiority that seems to emanate from all around me when I’m there. I just don’t miss it.

I understand that many people find our little town charming, but someone here in Tel Aviv told me this the other day: “Victoria is like being excited to go out with an amazingly good looking person, and on the third date running out of interesting things to talk about.”

Hasselblad with coffee.

I took this photo of the Gate of Harmonious Interest in my old neighbourhood around March of 2009. From the old stalwart, diaryofataxidriver.blogspot.com . Man, I’ve been at this shit a while, eh?

#keepontruckin

Chinatown Habit, Thursday afternoon.

Macchiato, chocolate croissant, the Surfer’s Journal.

Perfection.