good timing.
It’s the long weekend here in B.C. and it was probably the best long weekend to date, as far as I can remember! Rob and I went to the Powell Street Festival, which is an annual celebration of Japanese arts and culture. Instead of going to the fireworks (which I never go to anyway, but that’s a different story), we headed out to see Shugo Tokumaru!! It was really amazing and adorable and intimate (about 75 people?) and just as I had expected it to be. He had Yumiko (who has a separate project called Meso Meso) play the accordion and toys (wind up birds, kazoos, bird flutes, bells, whistles, triangles, xylophones). It was awesome.
The following day we went back to the Festival (Rob really wanted to eat his favourite dessert, imagawayaki, a red bean pancake), this time with Kristina in tow to see him play again, in a festival setting. I am pretty sure he won a lot of hearts yesterday. We met Ian, who will be putting out Shugo’s record in North America, and actually met and hung out with Shugo and Yumiko for an hour or so. I really need to review my Japanese, that’s all I have to say. I apologize to them for butchering their beautiful language.
Yesterday made me love the city that I live in, even though it’s “No Fun”.
I’ve been in another place lately (school, life, oh I got a job!) so I will be posting the questions received very soon! I apologize. BUT – Shugo will be coming back to North America, playing a few shows in September, and I highly recommend you check him out. Ian told us that the label is trying to get members of Beirut and The National to back him up this time – which would be absolutely brilliant!!!
theories
We live in a strange neighbourhood in East Vancouver. It is eerily quiet around the bubble of the ‘hood, but if you are standing at the top of the hill and listen, you can hear a plethora of noises coming from the outside perimeter. Sandra and I realized this once and it totally freaked me out. Rob and I also speculate that there is a lot of strange going-ons in this neighbourhood. I’m certain there are at least three drug houses, and a lot of strange activity in a few others.
Which brings me to yesterday…
So it was a little bit before noon and we were getting ready to leave for the day (I for school and Rob for work) when I heard a slight knock on the door. Nobody knocks on our door. For one, we live in the middle of nowhere, and friends do not just “drop by” because they’re in our neighbourhood. Secondly, if it was a solicitor or anything, why would he or she come around to the back? The house is fenced off and you can’t really see that there is a separate entrance to the basement from the front of the house. Obviously I was not going to answer the door because I was scared of the various possibilities that could happen to a small Asian girl (thanks a lot, media!) and Rob was in the bathroom at the time. The mystery person knocked once more and then I heard a noise – as if he or she was pushing on the slightly ajar kitchen window. I was silently freaking out and signaling Rob to hurry up and check out the situation; the cats were frozen stiff (guard cats they are not!), shooting worried looks at one another (who will feed us if you two are dead?).
Rob and I finally regained composure and he set outside to see what was going on. I had the cellphone in hand, ready to call someone (at this time I wasn’t sure who I would be calling – the police? Kristina? Mom?). The back gate was open but Rob was sure this person hadn’t left.
Sure enough, this mysterious man appeared in our back yard (again), definitely caught off-guard by Rob, and was sketchy beyond belief (lets call him SAM – or Sketchy Asian Man). He was about 5′7″ Asian (Vietnamese? Cambodian?) with darker skin, wearing a black tank top and black jeans (fake Gucci, of all things) and black dress shoes. He had these strange scars on his face that did not look as if he was born with them. His face kind of reminded me of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Bug-eyed with a similar haircut.
Rob: What are you doing here?
SAM: Oh. Uh…nothing. I’m just…
[SAM turns and walks around the perimeter of the house]
[Rob proceeds to follow him]
Rob: Can I help you?
SAM: Is…uh…anyone home?
Rob: Yes. There is.
SAM: Oh…uh..nevermind. I’m going to go now.
[SAM books it, leaving from the back gate, going up and across the field]
Now, I’m generally a fair person, and I like to give people the benefit of the doubt; however, I don’t think this individual acted favourably to deserve anything of the like. We’re pretty sure he was scoping out the house for a possible break-in, or was going to break-in, had Rob not intercepted.
Who enters a home from the back gate? What would have happened if I did open the door – would it have been a home invasion?
I’m pretty sure another reason SAM was caught off-guard was the fact that Rob is tall and white. Face it, we live in a predominately Asian neighbourhood (who doesn’t?), and if SAM and co. (this definitely wasn’t a one man job) had been scoping out the house, they probably didn’t expect a white guy to live here, too.
So what now? I’ve notified everyone about SAM, and windows remain closed and locked when no one is home, no matter how stuffy it gets. I was pretty freaked out by SAM and everyone made sure that I called them when I got home yesterday. Thanks, friends!
Just so you know – if you have home insurance and there is a break in – chances are your policy will not cover you for entire contents (or anything) if
a) a window or door is ajar at time of incident
b) if the alarm was not set
It’s usually an afterthought (oh, I’ll only be gone for a few hours so I can leave this window open!), but the repercussions can be devastating!
I forgot to mention that I received my midterm back a week and a half ago – 19/20! On top of that, the prof decided to give everyone an additional mark (I’m guessing some people did poorly on it); thus, granting me 100% on my midterm. I am really pleased with this, mostly because this one text was worth 30%. Now I just need to do well on the term paper (25%) and my final (30%). I am really nervous about this paper, though. We have been given strict instructions on what to do and what not to do. Then there is also this expectation that I have to do well by my prof (it’s college, remember. Not as many people in the classes!) since we already spoke about my paper and he expressed great interest in reading it. Fuck.
digital
I had my Sociology midterm on Thursday. Surprisingly, I studied quite a bit. The exam was 20 questions, in short answer/paragraph/1 word answers. 20 questions in one hour and worth 30% of my grade. Wow! I think I did alright; however, whenever I think I do okay on something, it usually turns out to be horrible. So we’ll find out next Thursday!
We went to a 1950s housewarming party last night. It was pretty fun, but there were many random people. Highlights include “Oscar” (Guy wearing an Oscar the grouch tshirt), Leah’s super drunkeness, dude dressed up from the 80s, and bumping into my friend’s ex-boyfriend (always a pleasure). I think we looked like a pretty cool bunch:
this city
I finished my English course last week so I only have my Sociology course remaining this summer. Unfortunately it’s at 1:30-2:30 Monday – Thursday, so that’s quite inconvenient for me. I’ve been doing a lot of things (none of which have been entirely productive) with my friends, which is really good. I managed to get us on the guestlist for DJ Sets Andy Butler (Hercules & Love Affair) and Pat Mahoney (LCD Soundsystem) at Celebrities the other week. The first hour at any show or dance thing (club? I hate the connotations behind clubs and clubbing) is always difficult to dance through. This is probably due to the fact that most people aren’t dancing in the beginning. Whatever. We didn’t care and the music (go listen to H&LA!) was great so we shook our little booties. Everyone loved Rob’s suspenders, snapping them here and there. And many boys loved Kristina; too bad they had horrible pick-up lines! Oh, and I give Celebrities a big thumbs up for clean bathrooms and glasses of water for free. Wow!
Last night we checked out The Cheaper Show at the old Storyeum building. 150 artists showing and everything is $200. The line up was suuuuuuuuper long (we didn’t anticipate this!) because admission was free; however, we saw some people we knew and slid our way in. Don’t hate – I’m sure everyone knew someone in that lineup and did the same thing. There was a lot of stuff I liked and probably 70% of the pieces featured that terrific red dot by the time we got in (8:30pm). Hurray for art!
