check check one

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April 2016 - In French they say, 'Je suis fatigué'. Fatigué is a good word to describe the state of my inspiration over the past year - or in English, fatigued.  My inspiration feels frightened. An inspiration that needs to be coaxed out of hiding and tenderly guided into the dawn of a new land.

I'm just getting revved up. I'll be in LA for the month of May hangin' with my cousin's cat Wes. Taking the PCH down from San Francisco and chillin' the heck out. Lunch reservations at Chez Panisse, helping out a friend at the Rose Bowl Flea Market, night viewing of the Stahl Residence, and dropping by my old Alma Mater the Pickwick Vintage Show on May 29th - stoked about that - I can shop it this time, (for crazy lady in Vancouver clothes).

Here's a checklist of what I've been pondering as of late:

Fashion - the elderly Chinese ladies of Vancouver (per usual), Incredible String Band, and a smidgen of Hole (MTV Awards 1995). Hey, I've met quite a few guys in Vancouver lately with great style. There's Jacob over at Nordstrom (near the Chloe bags), Nigel at Gravity Pope and Mohammed who was at Gravity Pope but is now at Blanche MacDonald. If you're into men's street style go check out the kids hanging out on their 10:30 smoke break in front of BCIT downtown then watch them drive off in their Maseratis and Bentleys at 3:30.

Architecture -  There have been 787 demolition permits issued in the District of West Vancouver since 2010 - 174 in 2015 alone (population of West Van is 43,000). You know I left West Van in 2014 - or was it 2015? I left because I was frustrated by the mowing down of all the West Coast Modern homes. Well, turns out the District has voted unanimously to curb the size of McMansions. Here are the minutes of the meeting from December 2015. Too little too late in my opinion. The City of Vancouver issued 267 demolition permits in the first three months of 2016. If Mayor Gregor Robertson is tooting the greenest city horn - let's challenge him on the effect of the demolition cycle on landfills. I lived in Pt. Grey for six months (story in my next post). It was like a ghost town - no community, no neighbours hanging out in their yards shooting the shit, no cats rolling on the sidewalk, no sound of children playing in their yards. I moved eight blocks East and what a change! I was walking down Second last night and a group of people were having a glass of wine - they invited me to join them -  I did!

That being said how long do you think this house two blocks over from me is going to sit vacant?

My friend @bijouliving has the raddest apartment. This sunroom is a dream. 😍 #apartmenttherapy #decor #bohemian #indoorplants #decorinspiration #personalstyle #70s #sunroom #designideas #designsponge #vancouver #vancouverbc

A photo posted by Dana Landon (@itsmydarlin) on Apr 27, 2016 at 7:11am PDT

Interiors - I moved again in February - four times in one year.

Music - I have some playlists up on YouTube if you want to check out what I've been listening to.  Electric Moon, JJUUJJU, Federale, Moon Duo, A Place to Bury Strangers, Roy Harper, Bridget St. John, Magic Carpet and of course classical Indian music.

image via coding horror

Personal - Remember those Choose Your Own Adventure books from our childhood? I'll leave my adventure to you. Perhaps you've been following my other pages, perhaps you know my real adventure or perhaps I'm living vicariously through one you've chosen. Whichever - know this - everyone deserves a love story.

Design - I was contacted by the family of Thomas Kakinuma - the midcentury BC ceramicist that I've written about. They'd read a blog post I did and wanted to gift me a piece of his work. I went to their beautiful home and what's transpired is a wonderful friendship and a possible show at the UBC Museum of Anthropology (two year curation time but we're working on a small show in a different venue). You can see some of the images of his works I was able to photograph at his home posted over on my Facebook page.

Random - I've been so deeply moved by all the spiritually profound stolen images defaced with free hand font floating around my feeds. Please read this journal article On the Reception and Detection of Pseudo-Profound Bullshit.

Thanks for sticking around - I really value your readership! 

Terribly Planned Circulation

I'll tell you something about renting. 

You get to live in many different neighbourhoods and eras of dwellings - a pseudo-try before you buy. 

As you know, we were renovicted from the place we moved into just seven months into our lease (a long-term rental, my ass). 

We were turned down for about six or seven places we applied to rent - who knows why? Besides, I don't really care. 

We finally got accepted into one - we moved all our stuff over on the 31st, and within 30 minutes of stepping foot in the place - in the daylight - I gave our notice to get out. 

Our total stay was thirteen hellish nights. What a pen of filth. 

Viewings only after 6pm! 

After 6pm because it's dark and you can't see the filth. 

Anyway, this dump of a building was built in 2009; I hadn't lived in anything newer than 1965 since I was nineteen and living at home with my parents.

I'll never live in anything 'new' again. 

Speaking of such, how can people line up to buy condos that still need to be built? 

They've never even sniffed out the place. By sniffing out, I mean precisely that - smelling it. 

An educated nose knows the smell of particleboard and cheap flooring. 

An educated nose knows the scent of cheap. 

How do people put their trust in some developers they don't even know? 

Developers are business people. 

What do businesses care about in the 21st Century? The bottom line. 

What's the number one rule in business? Buy low, sell high. 

So, to all those people I saw lined up on 41st and Cambie today to buy an unbuilt condo on a major traffic artery - all the best to you and yours.

So, where is home now? 

Well, I had a Quebecois/Portuguese friend who used to like to call me a WASP; I adamantly disagreed - and even more so now that I looked it up. 

I don't have an Anglican or Protestant bone in my body and horses. 

Besides, horses and I have a mutual understanding - they don't like me, and I don't like them - but we're cool. Let's say I'm back at the beach (the other place was on 8th and Cambie). I haven't lived more than two blocks from the beach in eighteen years. 

What's that saying, once you leave, you can never go/get back?

squished

Here I sit with all my furniture from our place in West Van. Stuff bought for our place in West Van. How do you make things fit in a space you didn't intend to put it? I wanted to check out some of my interiors books to see what they had to say. That's what got me writing this post. Reading a chapter entitled Planning for Space*got me thinking about how all these new condos lack precisely that - a plan for a comfortable human space. Take these eight points on well-plotted circulation, for example:

1. Can you get to the bedrooms without passing through the major group area?
2. Can guests get to the bathroom without passing through a bedroom?
3. Can you move through the kitchen without interfering with the cooking operations?
4. Are hallways wide enough for two people to pass each other comfortably?
5. Are entrance areas large enough to welcome guests to the home without dumping guests straight into the middle of a party?
6. Are staircases wide enough to permit the passage of furniture?
7. Are doors well situated to allow for traffic flow and comfortable furniture arrangement?
8. Does the home have a "heart" - where people automatically congregate? Are paths to that area unobstructed?

 agh

Now, please memorize these points. Only rent/buy something after you ask yourself these questions. Landlords and developers - the same goes for you. It's in your best interest to keep happy, long-term tenants. That being said, although the layout sucks, I think the new place is going to be entirely satisfactory. You know I'll keep you posted.

On a similar note, I went to park in front of one of my favourite little Vancouver houses today and noticed it looked neglected. Well, it's been listed for sale—$899,900.00. It's probably 100% original, and it's listed for its property only. I've posted photos of its amazing dark purple hydrangea bush on Instagram.



* Faulkner, Sarah. Planning a Home. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1979.

From the Archives - Momo the Cat and Kevan

1. natural disaster
2. suspense
3. human compassion
4. cute quirky Canadian
5. Momo the cat

Three cheers for Kevan and Momo!

Calgary flood June 21 2013 - a full list of organizations looking for volunteers for the clean up can be found here.

all images © Jordan Verlage/Canadian Press
photo set at CBC

Originally published June 24, 2013

Where have all the Conversationalists gone?

Last Wednesday, I was feeling good. The sun was out, I was in my favourite part of downtown, and I felt inspired and alive - like my good old manic days that would last for weeks. The ones where I'd start four businesses, thrift shop for 12 hrs straight and forget to eat. Am I in denial to miss that? Anyway, feeling so inspired and alive, I automatically thought of my friend Ken and our hours-long vintage and fashion conversations, so I headed off to shoot the shit with him down at Deluxe - then I remembered Ken was dead. So I thought, well Rod will be there, I'll go shoot the shit with him, then I remembered Deluxe was gone - closed due to a $3000 a month rent hike. Okay, no need to get down, I'll go talk design with someone at Inform. Well, the only bodies at Inform were ones glued to computer screens behind cash desks. Five bucks, they're practicing the snobby sales technique identified in the UBC study, Should the Devil Sell Prada? Retail Rejection Increases Aspiring Consumers’ Desire for the Brand?

Well whatever, not yet feeling deflated I thought, 'Okay I'll go sit down and have a coffee somewhere.' Somewhere, conversation was already flowing, and I could at least be part of it. Uh, since when have coffee shops been so quiet? Not one person was engaged in vocal conversation with anyone. Not because they were glued to a book, writing, or staring off into space thinking, but because their heads were bent down, staring into their phones. Holy crap, people get with it. My public library has more conversations going on! I left without buying a coffee (or tipping someone for bending their arm beyond 85 degrees).

Highly irritated, I turned around and headed back home. On my way, a homeless man complimented me. (I was hoping to run into you, but I'd put a little extra effort in that day.) I turned around and said, 'Thanks.' He said, 'Anytime, sweetheart'. So, from now on, when I want to have a conversation, face to face with someone, I can feel confident the homeless guy at Water and Cambie will participate - and I guarantee he has a hell of a lot more stories and opinions to share than the dipsticks glued to their screens. What's that old saying, 'All text and no talk makes Jack a dull boy'?

God, I miss hanging out and just talking.

Stacy Reynaud
image: Simone Signoret, Marilyn Monroe, Arthur Miller, Yves Montand

The Longest Year in History

was 1972.

Remember the power of three? It's happening again, this time with the year 1972.

First off - Moody Blues, Nights in White Satin - a song I thought, from the very first day I heard remembering hearing it, was a cheesy 70s rambling poem song about King Arthur, so I paid no attention to it. Anyway, it popped up at me on the weekend, and I took the time to listen to the lyrics - which are everything but knights in white satin. 

New old favourite!

Then, I was looking at old Honda motorbikes online and came across this vintage ad from 1972. The truck and camper (and mini bike) equate to the elimination of the living in a van down by the river scenario created by the Vancouver rental pool.

Finally, Tuesday night I was looking at residential architecture and up pops this beauty. West Vancouver's Helmut Eppich house designed in 1972 by Arthur Erickson Architects (and sold in 2010 for $4.8 million.)

Things that confuse me

Efficiency committees

Initiatives that take the initiative out of initiatives

Seriously - they're paving paradise and putting up a parking lot

They're into destroying beautiful things in West Vancouver. If it's not homes or old-growth forests, it's something else. This ludicrous, corporate PR jargon notice from the District of West Vancouver popped up on our front door last week. The District of West Vancouver is actually chopping down a forest (see photos below) to put up a parking lot (they also closed down a tennis court and turned it into a parking lot). I'd like to mention that an arborist is actually employed full time by the district - they are an employee of the district and are paid by the district. Bets that the arborist the District consulted was actually an employee of the District?

Can the public call in an independent arborist to assess these trees? I, for one, would like to hear another opinion.

Look at those three wise old beauties!

Say goodbye to your roost, Mr. Resident Bald Eagle - I'm sure I won't be the only one who'll miss watching you torment the crows and seagulls of the neighbourhood.

The flags in the above photo are at half mast to honour Tim Jones of the North Shore Search and Rescue who passed away last weekend.

 

This tree is the very tall beauty in the top right of the first photo. It's a daily stop for the bald eagles making their way down to John Lawson Park.

I'll be very sad to see it go and replaced with a parking lot.

It's probably at least 100 years old.

 This photo was taken from our deck.

The trees that will be chopped down are the tall beautiful ones at the north side of the building.

So, the next time I post a photo of the municipal hall building, all those mature, beautiful trees will be gone. 

Shame.

Nothing like encouraging alternative options to vehicles. Good job guys, well thought out.

10 topics I've been meaning to write about but haven't gotten around to

Bijou Living Tumblr

It's much easier to publish with one's pseudo-opposable thumb than ten digits.

I've had a month-long case of insomnia (brought on by stress), which in turn aggravates my moods - hence many Tumblr and Instagram posts but no blog updates. 

Post ideas have been coming and going through my thoughts, but that's it.

Here are some things that have been floating around:

1. Have you watched the Upstairs Downstairs remake on Netflix? The set design and costumes - oh my cat - wrap me up in them! Those silk velvet gowns - purr.
2. How about Mr. Selfridge? We need more Roderick Temple.
3. Society women in Edwardian times
4. Gong meditation
5. Finding the perfect wasabi chickpea recipe
6. The phrase, 'Nothing personal, it's just business.' Screw that. Business is personal.
7. Only Lovers Left Alive
8. Predictive analysis
9. Out-of-body experiences 
10. Mallard green interiors

Our Scent | Inclusive | Exclusive

I met this woman years ago and she was wearing a really nice scent so I asked her what it was; she replied that it was an essential oil blend. Further inquiry yielded it was her 'own blend', and it was 'private'. Pft, well then. She was weird anyway - and had a haunted basement.

Remember what happened to Jean-Baptiste Grenouille - the protagonist of Patrick Suskind's Perfume: The Story of a Murderer? If you haven't read the book just go to the library and read the last chapter - (I call that technique, How to be Successful in Earning Your History Degree. For shame!).

Anyway, as you know, I'm a huge fan of Le Labo so the appropriate first stop for me on a recent trip to Los Angeles was 8385 West 3rd. I tell you, the last time I had been that excited was in 1978 at the Flintsones Amusement Park.  I was greeted by two gorgeous gals who thought my Vancouver accent was 'cute' (?). My mission was to get a bottle of Musc 25, the LA exclusive scent - which you can only buy online once a year. Well, for Ms. ADHD here, the store was just too much! Thankfully, I was reminded that I'd only traveled with carry on luggage and therefore couldn't bring any liquid over 3 ounces with us on the plane. I opted for the Musc 25 perfume oil and a handful of samples for loved ones. It took everything to hold me back from also buying the Oud 27, Patchouli 24 and Santal 33. Oh well, they have free shipping so there's always online.

Now that I'm back home, (and venturing out into society), people are asking me what scent I'm wearing. Usually, I wear amber resin, or essential oils of cedar and patchouli - which are pretty hard to carry off and folks don't have the wherewithal to scope them out. Where am I going with this post? Where do you think?

So, let's all smell the same - to save ourselves from the fate of Grenouille! It's City Exclusive time online at Le Labo again!

This Song | This Color | This Photo

You know those times when you're bombarded with something so much in such a short period of time? Well, over the past 24 hrs I've had three things do it to me.

This color I posted about yesterday,

this song

and this image.

Explanations? Thoughts? Willful exaggerations?

Wittgenstein has got it going on

Everything that can be thought at all can be thought clearly. Everything that can be said can be said clearly. 

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico Philosophicus

Going to California

Now, if it was only as easy as putting love in my eyes and flowers in my hair. Next week I'm headed to Huntington Beach, the last time I was in Huntington Beach I was 14. This Canadian, loves the sun but does not do well in the heat. I puff up like a puffer blow fish, don't like wearing skimpy clothes, and as a wonderful woman in NYC said to me, 'Girl, you are the whitest woman I've ever seen'.

Braless in a kaftan, that's it! I own a plethora of those! Alas, if only I were going to a fashion conference and not a technology leadership conference.

Yes, you've assumed correctly, that's me and my atv in the olden days at Pismo Beach Dunes before three wheelers were banned!

6 Things to Do in BC before I Die

Not that I'm planning on departing any time soon, I just don't like the term bucket list.
I was born and raised in the Lower Mainland and there are things that I've always wanted to do but haven't gotten around to.

Come to think of it, I can now see four of these six from my balcony. Nothing like a daily reminder.

1. Ride in one of those really big tug boats
2. Tour the BC Sugar Refinery
3. Hike up The Lions/Sisters
4. Tour the Mascot gold mine in Hedley
5. Go to Haida Gwaii
6. Tour the Port of Vancouver at night

My Kitchen Table

The other day I was catching up on blogs before they disappear from my Google Reader and I came across one from God knows who because now I can't find it! Anyway, it was a post on tables or work spaces or her table or something like that and she asked, 'What does the top of your kitchen table look like?' Well, I took a photo of what my kitchen table looked like just then - and still looks like now but the tabouli has been replaced by oatmeal. Who are you dear blogger? I want to link to your post!

This image reminds me of one of the vocabulary activities I used to give to a beginner ESL class - I gave them a photo and had them identify as many things as they could. Oh, the good old days!

Take Me With You | 5 Ways

I won't leave you in the Google Reader graveyard. The reader is toast as of July 1st, 2013. So, to follow my Bijou Living blog with another reader select that orange icon in the right hand column. Flipboard is also a cool platform to use.  Where am I posting when I'm not blogging? May I suggest subscribing to my other social media channels to keep totally up to date with my ramblings? You can do so right here: 

1. Twitter feed
2. Tumblr feed
3. Facebook feed
4. Blog feed
5. Email 

Whatever you choose, please know that I really appreciate you sticking around!

6 Quotes from My Teens Grow Up

While reading some bad poetry of my youth last night I saw a common theme in quotes I admired from way back when. 

Here are some of my teen faves and how they've grown up:

1. If it's meant to be it will be. Don't just sit there, go and get it!
2. If you love something set it free; if it comes back it's yours, if it doesn't, it never was. I got married.
3. Hang in there, baby! Pull yourself together, damnit! - in Mid-Atlantic English accent
4. If at first you don't succeed, try try again. F*ck it. 
5. Carpe Diem.   
6. I think I can, I think I can.

One of my cousins must've had the cat poster in their bedroom when I was growing up because it remains indelibly etched in my mind.

Annual Purge Yard Sale | Saturday June 8th

stacy reynaud

Coincidentally, I purged my closet last weekend and our pal Rachel has decided to have a yard sale this weekend. It's a purge so everything will be super cheap. I'm selling mainly clothes - and some Danish stuff. We'll be set up by the West End Farmer's Market.


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In My Other Life

I'm the program head (and member of faculty) for the part time marketing management program at BCIT. I'm also a tree hugger, as you've probably figured out by now. How did I get into marketing? It just happened. I actually hate marketing, or is it marketers? Or is it the campaigns? Remember, I'm also a born BC'er, as is Adbusters - and Greenpeace.

When I see a campaign like the new one from Greenpeace targeting Italy's largest fashion houses, the first thing that runs through my head is, 'OK Greenpeace, how exactly did that green rubber glove come into fruition?' Last time I checked rubber was harvested from trees - is it neon green when harvested? I thought not. Where did the dye go after the gloves were dyed? How many vehicles were used to transport the gloves? In all fairness, Greenpeace may have had a disclaimer on the gloves stating they were artisanal gloves produced by fairies - or in an ecologically sensitive manner.

Think before you approve.