Soggy City

test

thenextstage — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 06:20:49 +0000

What’s your definition?

craigjohn — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:51:50 +0000

Hey John Q. Public, did you know that there is a difference between you and the the tax payer. Yeah, me neither. I also did not know that there was only one tax payer. But according to Jodi Andrews there is. Andrews asserts that there is a difference and it is not in this “Tax Payer’s” interest to disscuss the details( read: truth) of how city hall is spending our money. I would really like to know what the hell the difference is.

Here I thought that as a member of the public whenever I filled out my “Tax forms” and paid my “Taxes” that I was a tax payer.

I would like to thank Jodi Andrews for straightening that out.

I sure am glad that the Deputy City Manager is protecting me plural from me singular. No wait, I singular am being protected from me Plural. This kind of Bushian newspeak drives me nuts.

Hey Deputy City Manager, We the Public know when we are being scammed and lied to. We will be watching out for our lonely friend the Tax Payer all on our own thank you very much.

us or them

craigjohn — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:58:31 +0000

When are the lives of the people living on the streets of this city going to have a real value for those that govern this town? I was reading this article on city mayoral candidate Peter Ladner’s claims of how the NPA has addressed the homeless problem. The article also looks at how the activists at the Pivot Legal Society run the numbers on the issue. What gets me is that this is even an issue. These are people we are talking about. Human beings who are drummed out of society and left to die on our streets. The fact that the government both at a municipal level and a provincial level want to solve the homeless problem by 2010, in time for the Olympic games is very hard to swallow.

Talk about putting lipstick on a pitbull. This issue of homelessness, ( not housingless by the way) should be at the forefront of eveybody’s mind. Why else so we have civilization? The idea that not everybody is going to make it, that not everybody has the right to a home is a symptom of the free market, consumer driven mentality. Society goes against evolution. We are trying to go against our own dna by living in a civil society. In nature it is eat and be eaten. It is adapt and survive. It is evolution. Civilization is our attempt as human beings to supercede our genetic heritage. By allowing some of us to live on the streets as if we were all still living in caves flys in the face of our collective grand experiment. If we give up on this idea of a civilizied society then we will die out in huge numbers and all that we have done as a species will be for naught.

I see you

craigjohn — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 05:11:50 +0000

The people on my floor are the kind that think they are invisible. You know the type, they think that nobody sees through their bullshit. There is this one guy who smokes a lot of pot. I personally don’t give a shit that he smokes his brains out. But the thing that gets me is that he thinks that the smell doesn’t get out to the hall. Like the rest of us don’t know what is going on. That kind of entitlement, that kind of mindset, the kind that says to the world,” I am the only one out here in the world.”, bugs the shit out of me. You just know this guy switches lanes without signaling.

Et tu, Canada

craigjohn — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:19:29 +0000

I am not saying that I care all that much about what is happening in the U.S. election. I am not saying that I am a Barak Obama fan. I do wish however that our country had someone that excited the imaginations of voters the way he has in the states. I saw this little clip on the web and it made me think that I have not seen anything even this excited about any possible leader in Canada. I mean this little clip is as milktoast as it gets but the kid cared enough to make it. What the hell is wrong with us and our leaders. We got to choose from a feel good hippie soccer mom, a mustache, an angry separatist, a lying, kitty porn loving, Bushie, or a guy who had the right plan but “just couldn’t explain it” to Canadians.

What is it about this country that engenders Apathy? Almost fifty percent of registered voters did not vote in this country. How fucking lame is that? Makes me embarrassed for my country.

fighting for your rights

craigjohn — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 19:56:26 +0000

So now that the a judge has overturned a Victoria bylaw that prevented people from putting up a shelter on public property, there are homeless people setting up tent cities in front of city hall. They will be setting them up in public parks as well. Over in Victoria the police have already moved in and arrested the homeless for obstructing the police. Really? Was there suddenly a crime wave on the front lawn of the city hall? One of the reasons given is these tent cities usually support a high drug usage rate. Gee, can’t imagine why the homeless would want to get high and alter their perception of their reality.

There is a big push now to overturn the same bylaw here in Vancouver. That might be okay for a minute or three but it does nothing to help the homeless and protect their rights to basic human dignities. It is the middle of October the rains have already started and the temperature is dropping. If they try to live in tents it will be a public health disaster. Flus and other infections will eat them alive. The health care system is already falling down, we can’t be burdening it with preventable situations. With the ammount of vacant space sitting in our soggy city, we could do these human beings, (that’s right, I said it.) a lot better in terms of temporary shelter. A place that is warm and dry to start with. Somewhere they might be able to wash their clothes and themselves. Because contrary to the ignorant common opinion, homeless people DO NOT LIKE BEING HOMELESS AND DIRTY.

I was reading this article in 24HRS. Deiwert makes an excellent point. We need to make the homeless problem visisble to the general public in a way that it is not at present. I trully think that most people believe that the people living on the streeet are there because they choose to be. This is just an easy way of thinking. It allows those who think this way to stay nice and warm in the comfort of their own apathy. “where do you live?” “In the penthouse at Apathy Towers.” “Oh, yeah, that beautifull new development in Coal Harbour?” “That’s the one.” It is also entirely possible that a lot of the public has no idea how big the homeless problem is. Most of the people on the street do their level best to stay out of the public eye. You would too if you were constantly being hassled and assaulted. Mocked, stared at, insulted and shunned on a daily basis.

Seriously people, we have an obligation as human beings to help those less fortunate then us. That is the whole point of civilization. You should make it your mission to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. That is what my grandfather fought in the war for. So we could do that.

what’s your brand?

thenextstage — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:37:59 +0000

Continuing our skip around the VanCity blogoshpere, Raul at Hummingbird604 asks us to consider our appearance…mine’s “disheveled-in-3-day-old-boxers-full-of-sun-chip-crumbs-and-root-beer-stains”. But he probably meant how we appear to our readership.

This is a great question. What is the brandmanship of SC? I like to think of it as a sanity dam to keep me from standing in the middle of Water Street and screaming until the cops take me away and throw me into a little room with no sheets or shoe laces. Is sanity-saving logoable?

skipping stones on the blogosphere

thenextstage — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 22:21:57 +0000

I know that both my regular readers think that I’m the only thing worth reading on the Vancouver internet pond, but the truth is guys, our fair city boasts some of the most respected bloggers blogging anywhere. I thought I’d cast a couple of stones out for you and see what ripples.

First off, one of my faves…Matthew Good. Yes, that Matthew Good. He not only blogs consistently, but he’s a straight shooter who has no compunctions about speaking his mind. Dig it. A sample of what I’m talking about? From Matt’s latest post…

Of course, none of that matters to the families that lose children in ‘surgical strikes’ in which ‘smart bombs’ are employed. Their deaths are ‘collateral damage’, which is to be regretted, but what is there to say? It’s a shame that young Hussain was tending goats so close to where our surgically targeted smart bomb struck?

Yep. It’s like that.

craigjohn — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 04:46:26 +0000

Welcome to Soggy City, a window into the upcoming Lyric Stage Project experience The 21st Floor, going live November 11. This blog is composed by one of the eleven characters that inhabit our story; Craig John is a Vancouver blogger with a chip on his shoulder and a mission to wake the city up. Read on for his rants, musings and nakedly honest opinions about his neighbours and the world they inhabit.

Then click here for all the production details. We’re looking forward to meeting you at the show.

stink, stank, stunk.

craigjohn — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:46:17 +0000

I just walked out of my door into the hallway and I just about puked. The smell of cat urine coming out of my neighbour’s door was overwhelming. If you have ever smelt cat piss you know what I am talking about. Like little spores with spiny claws that stick in your nose and on your clothes. Gross! I know she’s got other animals in there too. A dog. I saw the delivery guy leave the box of groceries at her door. There it was, a bag of kibble right in the box. What an idiot. It says right in our strata by-laws that you cannot have animals in your condo. If it was a seeing eye cat I might not care. But you know it just bugs the shit out of me that some people think the rules are for everybody else. This is a communal living environment. Not just a collection of solo entities floating around in a common shell. This is the quintessential crazy animal lady too. I have never seen her leave her condo. I can hear her and her animals rattling around in there. She is always talking to them. Just weird. I thought these kind of people were a myth. Apparently not. I will have to call Dan the man again. Another exercise in futility. But you have to leave a paper trail, have to follow procedure. Otherwise I can’t defend my position.