I was really impressed by the clarity of Victoria’s – or Tori’s – responses. Jealous, actually, since I seem to be in a hazy sort of funk where clarity stands no chance against the shadows. In particular, I thought her answer to question #2 (”Which element of communications is the one that makes you most passionate?”) was awesome:

Same thing that excited me most about being a journalist: the opportunity to explain difficult subjects to a lay person with accuracy.

She then goes on to describe the various topics she deals with in her professional life as a public servant …and, well, wow. Just go read her post.

And as if that isn’t enough, there’s her personal history, into which she gives readers some glimpses. It sounds like quite a life, with plenty of ups and downs. But as her blog’s name Samothrace indicates, she’s a marathoner who’s in the race for the long haul: clear-headed, authentic, role-modeling, and having fun. A winner, for sure.

I got my hair cut at a new place today, and it turned out the two stylists working there knew all my old places (and faces): more or less my age, they had attended the same schools and we knew all the same fools. Good fools, fun fools: places to hang out, to dance, and the right foolish people to do it with.

Turns out some of us grew up to become rather interesting people.

I got my hair cut by Michael Farrell, who also writes and directs films. You can see a trailer of his latest “short” (17 minutes), Lions, Tigers, Bears (shot entirely in Victoria) on YouTube here.

It’s an action-suspense thriller about the organized crime underworld and one man’s quest for power. The film was produced by Coast to Coast Films, directed by Michael Farrell and written by Michael Farrell and Teri Robinson. Michael and Teri are recent award winners for best dramatic writing at the 2008 Action on Film Festival International in Los Angeles. (source)

The star, Christopher Mackie, played the “bad cop” in Theatre Inconnu’s The Pillowman last March – he was fantastic.

There’s an interesting Behind-the-scenes video that chronicles the making of the film. The all-white stark-ish bar scene was, I bet, filmed in the Jelly Fish Lounge, which used to be a grungy biker and stoner and poet bar called The Churchill: another favorite haunt from old skool days…

Speaking of schools, Michael Farrell’s Lions, Tigers, Bears will be showing at St. Ann’s Academy on Thursday night, part of a festival of shorts: Special one-time only Victoria, BC screening of shorts on March 19! 7:30 PM at St. Ann’s Academy Auditorium, 835 Humboldt St., admission $5.

Since I’m not perfectly unencumbered, however, that’ll have to wait.

But here’s foretaste (which serves also as a reminder to myself, in case I never get to the long version): the events were (A) a meeting called by the Victoria West Community Associaton and Victoria Member of Parliament Denise Savoie to gather public input regarding the proposed “mega yacht marina” project at the Songhees, 2/17; and (B) an Urban Development Institute luncheon featuring Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin who spoke to the assembled crowd about his – and his council’s – “vision” for Victoria’s development, 2/18.

Re. (A): I think this might be another case of putting all of one’s eggs into one basket – a large basket, but still a single, non-diversified basket. Not a good idea at the best of times, and since these are not the best of times, it’s even less of a good idea. I’m not worried about the alleged environmental impacts of dredging that section of the harbor (it’s even likely that dredging the harbor of its industrial and lumber gunk will restore seabed health), but I worry about the wisdom of asking multi-millionaires to fork over many thousands of dollars for the privilege of mooring their multi-multi-million dollar yachts at a marina where summer float plane traffic from the Harbour Airport proceeds to dump huge amounts of jet fuel residue and odor on patrons who are likely not to appreciate it. Bottom line: the Songhees condo dwellers already spend enough time kvetching about the working harbor (which includes a real airport with hundreds of flights from 7am to 10pm in the summer, not just a convenient water surface for occasional take-offs and landings), so what’s the benefit of adding a second constituency that will doubtlessly complain as loudly if not more so? Further, the condo dwellers are a captive audience and will continue to pay their property taxes to the city, while the second constituency is mobile (on luxury, aka “mega” yachts) and can just leave. Then what? A purpose-built facility built for just one purpose and for a very narrow niche market (admittedly lucrative) doesn’t seem like the best idea, given the scale of the project, the required investment, and the undeniable impact on the harbor and its current users …and the fact that the patrons can just sail away.

Can this one. Sorry. It’s clunky.

As for (B) – this one is trickier. Can’t sum it up in a few words, but let’s just say that I don’t buy Mayor Fortin’s talk of a “level playing field” for development. Let’s not forget who has the power to decide where the goalposts on this allegedly level field are (the current council). If you control the goalposts, then all talk of level playing fields is just BS.  One of the goalposts, for example, is called “skyline.” Here in Victoria that’s a loaded word, and code for a quite a few sore points. And here’s another thing that jumped out at me: Joe van Belleghem of Dockside Green introduced the Mayor in glowing terms, lauding him for his sense of direction and for being so accessible. Van Belleghem told us how he only managed to get to speak to the previous mayor once (that would be Alan Lowe, who was mayor for 3 terms – 9 years; Joe, you got to talk to Alan just once?, for real? hard to believe), but that he has been able to speak to Mayor Fortin 3 times already (since Nov. 08, i.e., in 3 1/2 months).

Yet here’s the contradiction: when Mayor Fortin spoke, he made a big point about how his new level playing field means that there’s no point in developers calling him to talk their projects over, that he and council work together and there’s no smoothing of paths by the mayor, and that all developers at any rate need to go see the Planning Department first and to get direction from Planning.

So who’s telling it straight, and whose level playing field are we on? Mayor Fortin named some names of people he favors and admires, including architect Franc d’Ambrosio (a personal friend of mine – at least I think he’s a friend, maybe he isn’t if he reads this?) – but Franc is known for preferring a low-rise skyline and as someone who believes that Victoria should emulate Paris with 6 to 7 storey buildings. Hmm. Level playing field, or just “these are my (our) conditions, take them or leave them”? Granted, there could be an advantage to that insofar as often enough one really couldn’t be sure which way the wind was blowing with the previous administration.

Incidentally, the overflow crowd at last night “mega yacht marina” meeting at City Hall had me sitting on the floor of the back corridor behind council chambers, which is normally off limits to the public. At one point Mayor Fortin left the meeting by the door I was crouching at, and he joked, “I see they’ve let the riff-raff in.” Very funny, Dean, and I know you were kidding, but I’m not just any riff-raff. I have a blog, I’m a citizen journalist, and I’m listening carefully.

Anyway… Will’s video is a lot of fun to watch if you know the city – it takes you from Oak Bay (the municipality), down Oak Bay Ave., past “the Junction” (that’s where Oak Bay Ave. ceases to exist and meets up with Fort St. and Pandora Ave. – and Johnson St. just a bit further down). He continues down Pandora, past the Johnson St. merge, past the Conservatory, past City Hall and A-Channel, into Old Town, before turning left at Wharf to head to the Inner Harbour area/ Belleville St. I really like the editing (speed) and soundtrack here.

After watching this, I searched for additional Vimeos tagged with “Victoria, BC” (again, thinking ahead to how these might be integrated – eventually – into MetroCascade) and came up with a couple worth mentioning.

(Side note: They mostly feature guys – young guys – in the active roles. Not sure why that is…)

So: check out vicwest by warrenfosterphoto – this one is amazing, it was shot at the skatepark in Vic West, a Victoria neighborhood just on the other side of the Upper Harbour, across the Blue Bridge (Johnson Street Bridge). (Full disclosure: I don’t think I could skateboard to save my life, so I watch the antics with fascination, envy, and …well, horror.)

Also related to the skatepark – which has a bike section, too – there’s Island Jam posted by Brydon Sudds. In this one it’s all guys (again) – they’re on funny little bikes that appear to impart superhuman skills to the riders.

Twenty-three seconds of last year’s gregarious Pride Parade were captured and posted to Vimeo: this one is fun to see because it reminds us of how sunny and just …nice it will be in a few months. (We’ve had an unseasonally cold winter – at least it seems that way – and while the tulips are pushing their way through dirt, and some of the ornamental fruit trees are starting to bloom, it’s still bloody cold, afaic.)

Speaking of unconventional dress (of which there’s always a lot in the Pride Parade), Tom Williams (CEO of GiveMeaning) shops for women’s high heeled shoes at Freedman’s, gets a pedicure at Spa Sereine (both on Government St. downtown), and heads up a parade to benefit the Women’s Sexual Assault Centre. See A Mile in Her Shoes by Red Pilot Media. The parade starts at Centennial Square on a weekend morning, and it all looks pretty deserted (except for the participants’ presence), but they raised ~$11K, not bad at all.

Finally, Project GreenScreen posted a cool “how to become a youth volunteer” video, Volunteer Victoria – The YouthCore Virtual Tour, which features some outside footage, although most of it is shot inside the Central Building on View St. between Broad and Government Streets. (In another “two degrees of separation” moment, the cameraman for this video is almost certainly Joseph Boutilier, who I know, and who ran for Victoria City Council last fall. He and Simon Nattrass were the youngest candidates ever, but among the brightest and best. Neither one was elected – maybe next time.)

Ok, I still don’t know how/if the extra media can/will ever be integrated into MetroCascade, but there’s lots of it out there…

Isn’t that a beauty? (I mean everything: the cars, the photo, the framing of the shot…)  It’s by  Maple Musketeer, and the shot is from this page.

Note, by the way, that it was taken yesterday (7/26).  It looks old, but it’s simply one (correction: two) of the many vintage cars you’ll see in this climate (they don’t rust, they just eventually fade away…), and the photographer has toned it (sepia?) to suggest age.  Across the street you can make out the sign for “Westbank,” which is the presentation centre for a development corporation.  The building it’s in used to house Ballantyne Florists, the building itself is by John di Castri, a local mid- to late-20th century architect of some (local) renown.