Memorial Day In Canada

For Memorial Day we headed up to Vancouver BC. We had lunch at Granville Island. I had the Snapper soup from a great place called The Stock Market and Heather had a very rich Chicken in a Pot Pie.

After lunch, we drove through Stanley Park and then headed to Chinatown, which is always a cool experience. Vancouver boasts the 2nd largest Chinatown in North America (behind San Fran) and the largest in Canada. When you are there, you are completely immersed in a different culture. The restaurants don’t even bother to print the menus in English. I love the fact I only have to drive a little over an hour to get there.

One time I took a couple of buddies from Texas into Chinatown. As we’re driving through the streets, we hear an awful screeching noise. One of my friends says with a Texas drawl thicker than sweet and sour sauce, “What are they doin, killin monkees?”

“No” I said, “Just killing stupid rednecks from Texas who come up here and make racist comments.”

Heather was able to buy some cool dishes at a Chinese cookware shop for the kitchen. Our dinner menu has been showing a lot of Asian influence as of late. This explains the Buddha belly I’ve been growing. For dinner we had Thai food at Sala Thai, one of the best Thai places in Vancouver. We scored big time in that they had sticky rice and mangos for dessert. I’m pretty sure it will be on the dessert list for God’s banquet in heaven.

An interesting tidbit: Chinese statues of the Buddha usually depict a guru whose appetite for enlightenment is outweighted only by his appetite for eggrolls. The Thai version of the Buddha is much skinnier and not nearly as addicted to Pad Thai as I am.

There is much more to do in Vancouver than just eat, but when you go there with a pregnant woman that tends to be what you focus on. She says she never reads the stuff I write here. I’m about to find out if she’s telling the truth.

Attack of the Clones

Heather and I saw “Attack of the Clones” last night with some friends. I left the theatre not as impressed as I wanted to be. The final reel was breathtaking and Yoda is called the “Master” for a reason, but overall, it left me empty. I wanted to see a bit more happen with Anakin’s journey to the Dark Side. As it stands now, a lot has to happen in the 3rd movie, and I don’t see how Lucas can squeeze it all in. Then again, the only reason I know who Anakin Skywalker is is because of the imagination of George Lucas. It’s his story and he can tell it as he wishes. I stopped in on some discussion boards at starwars.com and read enough to know that there are plenty of backseat writers and directors who think they can do better. I doubt it. Now that I don’t have expectations, I’ll go back and watch it a second time and see if I missed something that was there because I was looking for something that wasn’t.

Not Made to be Famous

I was watching a segment on some news magazine show a couple of nights ago about McCaulay Culkin (Home Alone boy). He was talking about how screwed up his life is because of fame. That got me to reflecting a bit on the cult of personality that dominates our culture. I’ve come to this conclusion: we are not made as human beings to be famous. It is a curse not a blessing. Only God can handle fame. When what is due him is addressed to one of his creatures, the end result is not pretty. Our society worships celebrities. Its not only killing the worshippers, but also the worshipped. No wonder Elvis left the building.

Mike Tyson on Jesus

Mike Tyson on Jesus “I feel like sometimes that I was born, that I’m not meant for this society because everyone here is a (expletive) hypocrite. Everybody says they believe in God but they don’t do God’s work. Everybody counteracts what God is really about. If Jesus was here, do you think Jesus would show me any love? Do you think Jesus would love me? I’m a Muslim, but do you think Jesus would love me … I think Jesus would have a drink with me and discuss … why you acting like that?

“Now, he would be cool. He would talk to me. No Christian ever did that and said in the name of Jesus even … They’d throw me in jail and write bad articles about me and then go to church on Sunday and say Jesus is a wonderful man and he’s coming back to save us. But they don’t understand that when he comes back, that these crazy greedy capitalistic men are gonna kill him again.”