looking to buy a home

It’s a great time to get into the Vancouver housing market. Z found us an agent and now we’re working with a mortgage broker. Today we toured four properties. I have to remind myself to be patient, wait for the right opportunity. It’s hard not to get excited.

enjoying Keith McKellan’s illustrations

A few years ago Z and I went on a dinner date at The Naam, “Vancouver’s Oldest Vegetarian Restaurant.” Later, Z gifted me a postcard with this illustration of the restaurant:

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I don’t know where that postcard is but I was reminded of it a few days ago when I saw dozens of similar illustrations covering the side of an old van parked at the edge of Commercial Drive. I stopped and spoke with the artist for a while. He has made, over the years, fifty of these intricate illustrations depicting quirky cafes and theatres of Vancouver. They are all on display on his site. They are all also in the coffee table book I bought from him. I saw him again on The Drive a few days later and bought a large print. I still have to get a frame for it and decide where to hang it up. We have a gallery wall but the piece deserves its own section elsewhere in the apartment.

playing soccer, watching soccer

In December of last year our sevens team finally won first place. It’s a local recreational league that lasts twelve weeks at a time, but for several seasons in a row we’d fallen short, often in the final. But last season, we finally won. Obviously it was not a big deal, but, also, it was. Taking on a challenge and succeeding is gratifying even if there are no real stakes.

Arsenal, on the other hand, is playing for high stakes. The team is fantastic, but they’ve won nothing yet. Hopefully come summertime they’ll have trophies to flaunt. Unfortunately not even that will deter the haters. I would call soccerfan culture zerosum but it’s probably in the negatives.

thinking about narcissism

For Secret Santa a friend of mine gave me a Bob’s Burgers cookbook. It was a thoughtful gift (he knows I love Bob’s Burgers) but I don’t use cookbooks so I took it to a bookshop to exchange for another book. I used the opportunity to pick up The Culture of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch. Owning thoughtprovoking nonfiction books is great because it affords reading in bouts and digesting over time.

I read the first two chapters in January and have been thinking about them. I’ve also been watching The Sopranos for the third time and noticing the intense narcissism of Anthony Soprano’s character. I’m dismayed to realize that his apparent morality originates from feelings of worthlessness and selfloathing. He is a complex character. At times he appears moral, even good. But I’m beginning to see how thoroughly polluted he is. He’s noxious, not just ultimately, but fundamentally. Not because he was born that way, but because the poison instilled in him in his upbringing he buries more deeply because he’s too afraid to unearth it.

watching movies

Marty Supreme – Fun, but not very compelling.

Hamnet – Beautiful, but flawed.

Arco – Special, and heartfelt. Fun, as well.

Heat – Overrated because it looks and sounds good.

The Boy and the Heron – Viscerally provocative. Confusing.

Send Help – Entertaining, funny, but unambitious.

Train Dreams – Gorgeous. Restrained. Moving.

Reviewed in more words on my Letterboxd.