Grocery Shopping with Will & without Grace

Can you infer from the title of this post who I saw at the grocery store this evening?

If you guessed Eric McCormack from "Will & Grace," then you are correct. You get a gold star. (In fact, I think I deserve ten gold stars for my clever post title. It may be the cleverest ever.)

I saw him out of the corner of my eye, did a double take, we made eye contact, and when he saw the flash of recognition in my eyes, he ran away down the frozen food aisle. I wanted to yell, "An army of frozen peas cannot protect you, Mr. Will! ...And the show should've been called Karen & Jack!"

So, let's see... that brings my celebrity sightings tally up to SEVEN (or eight, if we want to include Mr. Dressup):

1. Kari Matchett, the beautiful platinum blond from "Invasion." Spotted in the Calgary International airport.

2. Christopher Lloyd (Doc from Back to the Future). Spotted on Burrard. Well, maybe it was him.

3. Kurt Russel from lots of movies. Gotta love the feathered hair! Spotted near Robson while I was eating at Fogg & Sudds. Hooray for 2nd floor window seats!

4. Brent Butt, the mastermind behind "Corner Gas" brought his Vdub in for service one day.

5. Kristen Krueck (Lana from "Smallville"). I touched her hand while handing her her car keys at work. sigh.

6. French Canadian TV actress with curly auburn hair. She's been in many TV shows, but I can't think of any right now. Spotted crossing the street in front of my apartment last night.

7. Eric McCormack. Spotted at Safeway sporting shifty eyes and a sense of urgency. Was his car the sporty BMW convertible in the parking lot? He's here filming The Andromeda Strain.

Fireworks Competition - Spain

Throngs of people leaving the beach after the fireworks.
The throng will undoubtedly be larger on Saturday.

I FREAKIN' LOVE THE FIREWORKS COMPETITION!

You know the fireworks you saw as a kid on Canada day in Your Home Town? Well, these fireworks literally blow those out of the water! It's sort of like eating gourmet chocolate, and never being able to eat another chocolate Easter bunny again.

For this competition, there are three layers of explosions choreographed to music: ones that shoot from the barge on the water, explosions above them, and sky-high explosions above that. I would have never guessed that Enya + fireworks could be so spellbinding. The fireworks looked like champagne cascading and dancing slowly and seductively to "Who can say where the road goes, where the day flows? Only time." There were also fireworks that sparkled long after the initial explosion, and it looked like angels taking flash photography. Jason called me "so lame" after I said that, but I don't care, it looked really cool. The finale was like an orgasm for the eyes: all the big fireworks in all the colors, exploding one after the other in rapid succession. Did I experience the sublime?* Yes, I believe I did.

*My favorite explanation of the sublime is when you perceive something that appears to be endless, but your logic disagrees with your perception, saying "this cannot be endless, that is impossible," and the conflict between what you perceive and what you know causes you to stop dead and maybe, if you're lucky, you get an adrenaline rush.

Yaletown Sidewalk Party

The BMX demo was by far the coolest thing in Yaletown yesterday. The best part of this back flip pic is the expressions on the people's faces in the background. The Chinese man and his mom [to the right of the host in the orange shorts] have the best "wow!" expressions. The woman in the denim jacket with the extra large purse [in front of the yellow car] looks angry, and unimpressed. This is the shape of her mouth ;----;

Visualize This

For this post, you must use the power of your imagination. Dust it off, it will appreciate the exercise.

I work on Main Street in Vancouver, which is home to many antique shops, small restaurants, and, of most relevance for this post, cheap apartments. As you can imagine (see I told you you would need it), I see many colourful characters in this area. It certainly helps to lighten my day when I see people who have either no sense of fashion, no sense of shame, or both, leave their cheap apartments to wear their unique ensembles out into the light of day.

Picture the following:
#1. An older man with male pattern baldness, long, flowing white hair, wearing a white polo shirt, small white tennis shorts, white knee-high socks, white tennis shoes, riding a white bike.

#2. A woman in her early 30's wearing light pink pajamas (button-up shirt and pants), sporting a really high side ponytail (think Punky Brewster), wearing black runners.

#3. A man in his early 50's wearing a sweatshirt of an odd colour green, riding his bike around a corner at an odd rate of speed. Upon taking a second look, I realized the man had a parrot on his shoulder. I must have missed seeing the (evil) bird the first time because it was camouflaged with the man's shirt!

#4. A man in his 70's riding a red motorized wheelchair/scooter, dressed completely in camouflage, pulling a small covered wagon that was also covered in camouflage!

#5. A Main Street regular: a woman who bears a shocking resemblance to Dee Snider from Twisted Sister. I can see her make-up from across the street.

These people make me glad to have large windows at work. When things are hitting the fan, I can always look out the window and get a good giggle.

Long Weekend Culture

ACT I:
Bonnie and Jason are sitting on their small couch on Canada Day. Jason is listening to the Bloodhound Gang and reading The Witchblade Compendium, Vol. I.

Bonnie: You know, you could be listening to Mozart and reading War & Peace right now.
[pause]
Jason: How do you know that this isn't the Mozart and the War & Peace of my generation?
Bonnie: [sigh]