Notice how outside the picture frame it's just a photo of a back alley but inside the picture frame it's a Photo of a Back Alley! Definitely should've kept the frame.
Last night the fog really helped make this cul-de-sac between West Broadway and 8th Avenue look very expressionistic, like something out of the 1927 German silent film masterpiece Metropolis. At least something out in the suburbs of Joh Fredersen's mega city. Click the images to enlarge them.
Behind the West side of South Granville Street, Just a bit South of the intersection with 10th Avenue. It's Friday night; all the noise, and activity is on the street side. Here in the back alley, it's peaceful, and quiet. Behind the window, a fan spins silently. The security light stutters, as if in time to a sound, audible only to burglars.
Usually this sort of sign is three feet by five feet, with three inch high black letters on a fluorescent orange background. How's that old expression go -- "Walk softly, and carry a big stick?" Geez, Louise, those must be big dogs!
Hmm. What's a London taxi doing parked in a back alley, in the Vancouver, B.C., neighbourhood of Kitsilano? Oh well, who cares? A cab's a cab. Hope the driver gets back soon, I've gotta get downtown. Click the image to enlarge.
Another neat classic car mural ►
I'd wanted the cool, flat, building, with the warm, receeding, hallway, but the guy got in the way -- good thing, too. Click the image to enlarge it.[/caption]
Laura certainly makes recycling look like fun, doesn't she? Her drop technique is pretty wonderful (it's all in the wrist!), and the way she styles up for a trip to the blue bins is, quite simply, awesome. If she's brought out none of her non-recycleable garbage to throw away, it may be because the dumpster is a different colour. Wow! Click the images to enlarge them.
Mister! Hey, mister! Look at me![/caption]More original art from the gallery of the alle(r)y; sort of pointillist, palette knife, folk art. How twenty-first Century if the best way for an unknown amateur painter to earn recognition for their art, was to throw it in a dumpster? Almost didn't notice it for the box of pop cans on the lid. Note the blurry pic, on the right -- the resident tossing out garbage, carefully ignoring the binner who's taking pictures of something propped on the lip of the dumpster. Bet I could bin stark naked for several kilometres before anyone said a word. Click on the images to enlarge them.
[caption id="attachment_1912" align="alignnone" width="497"]
No buses, no car binners; very short binning route. Sign me... Wait. Where's the Starbucks?[/caption]
No injuries reported, but the plane looks to be a write-off. Click the image to enlarge it.[/caption]
Not such a fan of indiscriminate tagging; about as creative as a dog marking territory, says I. But, graffiti can be visually and mentally stimulating -- the stencils of Banksy for example. The tentacles-and-wave stencil, pictured above, and below has survived for years, in the alley on the North side of West Broadway, near the cross-street of Columbia. I don't know if it borrows from any actual Japanese woodblock prints, but, I think the use of woodblock style is sly, and appropriate, and cool. It makes me smile, and think every time I see it. Click on the images below to enlarge them.
This is just one of, seemingly hundreds of similar signs throughout the back alleys of Fairview: "No Parking," "No Stopping," "Do not block laneway," "Dumpster Access, No Parking by Law." The lanes are sometimes as busy as the streets, what with all the dumpster collection garbage trucks, parcel delivery vans, service vehicles, and even occasionally, residents trying to go to and from home. It's a wonder there's any room left for us binners. Click image to enlarge.
Not much to say about this -- is creepy too strong a word? It just appeared in a Fairview lane today. It's laid on very thick, and three-dimensional in places. The pattern of the chip-board really gives it something special. Click the images to enlarge.
