DONUT SHOP STABBING AND PORN IN A CUP ... MY EVENING WITH THE VANCOUVER SUN.

An old friend rang me for a catch up and began telling me of her new life in Vancouver. ‘I heard it’s one of the most desirable cities in the world to live in?’ I ventured rather jealously. 

‘It is’ she replied somewhat witheringly, ‘and I can’t exactly understand it. People want to move here and buy a very small dog then jog along the waterfront with it. – It pushes the price of everything sky high.’

This seemed an odd thing to say. Admittedly I paraphrase her slightly and when she said it, it made more sense I promise. But basically it seems this place regularly fights its way into lists of the most liveable cities on the planet – number four according to Mercer, the people who measure quality of living for business exec types - yet its regular residents – the 'non dog joggers' if we may christen them such- can’t fully understand why.

Thirsty for more information (and thinking particularly of my own time in West London) I headed for their local paper, The Vancouver Sun, to get a flavour.  Which is where I have to admit I became hopelessly distracted by the masthead feature: “10 Espresso Shots: Porn in a cup?” Wow.  Was this why everyone wanted to move to Vancouver? I scanned the page but alas the story was syndicated from New York City instead. So I dragged myself back to the news pages in a continuing effort to determine the world-beating draw of this particular locale.

“D’oh. Vancouver man stabs himself while allegedly robbing Duffins Donuts” … Again, there’s a legally safe headline I just couldn’t bear to ignore. Click click. (You too can read about this mishap here should you wish) but for me, ten more minutes of Thursday night gone and still no closer as to the lure of the ‘City of Glass.’

Finally  I turned to the art and lifestyle sections where at last things started to make more sense.  …  It’s Craft Season apparently:

“I have to say, I’m so stressed right now,” says Nicole Tirona, the designer and maker of It’s Your Life jewelry and bags. “I’m doing so much sewing that I can’t think about anything else.”

I read on and find out about the Vancouver Craft Mafia (this is a real (and non violent) outfit) and things really start to fall into place. A cursory glance through Wikipedia and a look at some google images confirmed that a vibrant tradition of arts and culture as well as some fantastic scenery (and no doubt a bit of fresh air) helps to push this place higher on the liveable lists.  – It’s now also firmly part of my own stack of places to visit.

But to reclaim the point – the point lost in the first paragraph of this blog – these lists might make fascinating reading and are probably very well calculated, but you have to wonder whether they become skewed to prioritise the tastes and fancies of a cities’ wealthiest residents.   For those resigned to social housing in places like Zurich or struggling with minimum wage in London the resulting price of a pint, coffee, meal or house becomes an overwhelming negative rather than a positive. And many don’t have the opportunity to move elsewhere. When it comes to ranking cities, do the ‘non dog joggers’ really get a fair crack of the whip? 

THE LYING THE WITCH AND THE WORD WAR... OR WHAT HAPPENED NEXT TO THE TEA PARTY?

Clever compile: Copyright Steve Paulo via Flikr.

I’ve had a bit of a break from blogging. Partly because of some big projects at work – one of them our coverage of the U.S. midterms.  Which was brilliant.  To scamper down the rabbit hole into the mad, bad … perfectly profane world of U.S. politics - can be bliss itself for me – but not everyone loves it so much. Still I feel there’s some journalistic mileage left in the Tea Party yet – those candidates who made it and those who didn’t – the media spotlight shifted from these intriguingly nutty men and women far too soon in my humble opinion.

John McCain (remember him) let his daughter Meghan lose on Jay Leno this week where she was asked about the Delaware Tea Party candidate Christine ‘I’m not a witch’ O’ Donnell - who lost her bid for the Senate seat in that state. Refreshingly Meg McCain finally uttered the words all right minded people (and some Republicans too) had been thinking about this woman: She’s “out of her frickin mind.” – it got the biggest applause of the night.  Meggy Poos went on to talk about Karl Rove and masturbation, which, frankly makes this TV worth watching – the clip is below.

Next to Kentucky where Rand Paul – the Tea Party candidate who won – is preparing to take his ‘we hate all taxes and most government’ message to, erm Washington, where he gets to work from now on.  It turns out most people this side of the Pond don’t read the Louisville Courier Journal with as greater regularity as myself and so you may not have heard of the delightful story of ‘Aqua Bhudda’ doing the rounds shortly before his victory.  The allegations were fairly simple – essentially that Paul and his college buddies once kidnapped a female student, took her to a creek and forced her to bow down and worship a fake God called Aqua Buddha – (well that’s the kind of man I’d want to represent me!) The allegations appeared in an advert created by his opponent, Paul slowly and kind of half heartedly denied it, and  - get this – the guy’s ratings went UP and he won. Apparently most Kentucky voters thought this election advert was a pretty nasty move (!?)

Finally out West to California where they needed a replacement for Arnold Schwarzenegger. The race pitted Democratic veteran Jerry Brown against another Tea Party supported candidate Meg Whitman.  California bloggers have been concentrating on where she goes next, but from here – and despite her being backed by this band of nutters - it’s quite difficult to dislike Whitman, for two reasons – 1: She founded Ebay   2: She used her millions to produce one of the best election adverts I’ve ever seen – and I’ve watched a lot of these things. Give it a watch – give all of these things a watch and understand … it’s probably a good thing our elections aren’t as long or as expensive as those of our American cousins …  But God if they were as interesting.