verainvancouver@gmail.com

  • Do you mean this week, month, or in general?

    Do you mean this week, month, or in general?

    I have no idea how anybody could answer this one and claim the same album from, say, 10 years ago, or even five. Actually, no, scratch that: I’ve known some folks who are almost autistically fixated on the same band/artist that they liked as children and have clung fast to them for decades. To each…

  • Tap-tap-tapping on heaven’s floor

    Tap-tap-tapping on heaven’s floor

    Yes. That is me after winning a musical theatre award for some number called “Vaudeville.” I was about eleven here. This year of our antichrist, 2024–one of the most challenging but transformative epochs to date–marks the 45th anniversary of Coquitlam Centre.  What’s that, you may ask with soaring ignorance?  Why, it’s exactly what it sounds…

  • The Great Grime of Granville Strip [UPDATED ONE DAY LATER…]

    The Great Grime of Granville Strip [UPDATED ONE DAY LATER…]

    I’ve been immersing myself in all sorts of things Vancouver-related, largely because I’m stuck here.  I know, I know: there are worse places to be stuck, and no matter the myriad challenges that life can throw at you (my second cousin, a Saskatchewan boy and therefore one of the most down-to-earth people I know, listened…

  • Celebrating Trudeaustan Day

    Celebrating Trudeaustan Day

    …with my favourite song of all time, by a band that was criminally underrated and should have been massive. And yes, that’s the leader of our country in blackface. Two flawless studio albums, and they then threw in the towel because the world in the very early 90s was too fixated on hair metal (okay,…

  • Gabba Gabba Nope!

    Gabba Gabba Nope!

    The above picture was taken during the construction of my giant wall collage back when I was in teen-dream wonderland, featuring one Joey “Future Husband” Ramone.  You can see a black-and-white portrait of him towards the right, next to the HAIR poster; there’s Ramones stuff on the left concealed by the black chiffon scarf that…

  • TEENAGE LOBOTOMY

    TEENAGE LOBOTOMY

    I want to preface this by saying that this piece is full of music links, and you really need to click on all of them, even if to absorb what they are for a few seconds. The music enhances the entire 90s experience that I am writing about, and I would have been remiss in…