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New Vancouver Report

By Jeremy Rosenberg
February 17, 2010
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Lisa Marr is TTLA's Ukrainian Bureau Chief. On assignment right now in her native Vancouver, we asked Marr, of the Echo Park Film Center, "What will the world learn this week about Vancouver?"

Here's her reply:

"So what do you need to know about Vancouver? Well, it's nice and it's natural. In fact, the provincial slogan is "Super, Natural British Columbia" and they don't mean the X-Files stuff, even though it was filmed here.

"No, they mean the kind of lifestyle that features fit, fresh-faced ladies and gents sheathed in Lululemon and Gore-Tex, holding a soy latte in one hand and the latest Canadian bestseller in the other, having just finished a brisk bike ride around the Stanley Park Seawall, with evening plans that may include a ride on clean and efficient public transit to a delicious dinner of local organic delights and award winning wines, and tickets to the government-funded Jazz Fest/Fringe Fest/Folk Fest/Film Fest/Writers Fest/Dragon Boat Fest/ Food Fest/Shakespeare Fest/Children's Fest/Sea Fest/Pride Fest/Fireworks Fest/Greek Fest or, if you don't want to go out, something called the In The House Fest." "Then there's the other part: Moss. Mold. Rot. Rain. Rain. Rain. Racists. Slugs. Strip Clubs. Squeegee Kids. (Murdered) Hookers. Heroin. Homelessness." "Why should the 2010 Winter Games be any different? Here's what the opening weekend had in store... Entertainment: k.d. lang singing Hallelujah vs. the Olympic Cauldron malfunction. Sports: The heartwarming story of Canada's Moguls Gold Medalist Alexandre Bilodeau vs. the horror of Georgian Nodar Kumaritashvili's luge fatality. Commerce: Thousands of Vancouverites wearing red Olympic mittens sold by The Hudson's Bay Company vs. dozens of marauding Olympic protesters smashing in the windows of The Hudson's Bay Company. Weather: Balmy winter strolls vs. no freaking snow!" "But why should we complain? It is, after all, this queasy mix of shiny-happy and dark-ugly that makes Vancouver Vancouver." "Welcome to the Olympics! Have a nice day! Piss off!"

Related: Read TTLA Vancouver Ex-pat Bureau Chief Amy Pederson's answerto this same question.

Image courtesy Lisa Marr

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