Mountain Nomad Chronicles

Driving and Grieving

Never forget your camera, especially when travelling.  I just drove 27 hours down from Whitehorse along the ALCAN through some spectaular scenery passing moose, caribou, wild buffalo, wolves, and a gazillion deer and you'll just have to take my word for it.

While I was driving on Monday, I heard on the radio that Jane Jacobs had passed away.  I first heard of Ms. Jacobs during my second year of university.  I was taking a local government course that was fairly dry and uninspiring as political science often is to me.  The only time my instructor would show any humanity was when he would occasionally quote from a book called "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" by Jane Jacobs.  He would talk about the book and about the author and it was like someone flipped a switch in him.  One class he announced that Jane Jacobs was going to speak at a local urban studies conference.  My wife and I decided to go...I think half my motivation stemmed from curiousity and half from trying to score points with the instructor who would be there.  The event was being held in the old Brittancia high school auditorium in East Vancouver.  The place was packed when we arrived and we found some seats up in the nose bleed section up against the back wall and the ceiling.  The emcee gave a short intro that told you very little about the guest speaker and just turned the podium over.  I was somewhat shocked as a sweet elderly woman stood up and began to talk.  She was 80 years old and had been an urban activist for 40 + years.  She had everyone's attention and she held it.  You could tell that she was an idol to many in the room.  She was born in Pennsylvania in 1916, but moved to New York during the Depression.  She became active in urban issues during the urban "renewal" and freeway craze that began in the late 1950's and continues to this day.  She chaired a group that stopped the construction of an expressway in the middle of Manhattan....can you imagine?  She moved to Toronto in the late sixties with her two sons to prevent them from being drafted and later become a Canadian citizen and member of the Order of Canada.  She was also involved in a successful campaign to oppose freeway routing in Vancouver.  Those of you that have been to Vancouver, know that the freeway totally misses most of the city.  If you want to go downtown you pull off the freeway and drive along the city streets quite a ways.  I imagine it is the bane of many commuters and but I for one love it.  She wrote "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" during this period, which has become one of the most influential books in urban planning and gave birth in many ways to the New Urbanism movement.  I went out and bought the book right after the conference and have read it many times over the years.  I adore it.  One of the ideas that really has stayed with me and is hammered home everytime I see new development, even ones that tout New Urbanist ideals, is that history and the natural world are so important in good planning.  Continuing, the growth of cities should be organic and a mix of old and new.   For me, the character and soul of a neighborhood lies in this principle. 

I could go on and on.  Maybe I'll reread her books and write some more when I get back home.  Jane Jacobs will be missed by me and my bookshelves...she was working on two books when she passed - I hope they release what was finished.  She was 89.

Remembering Jane Jacobs - "On This Day" - CBC Archives - Amazing archival interview.

CBC: Indepth - Jane Jacobs - obit of shorts with a nice photo.

Web 2.0 Suduko

Along with the Salt Lake Tribune's Online Crossword, I've added this daily online Suduko puzzle to my morning mental exercise routine.  Join the addicted.

Suduko Craving

MapFun: Religion in the US

Someday I'll finish my Bachelors of Arts in Geography.   In the meantime, I'll look at maps on the internet, like this one.

Map Gallery of Religion in the United States

Snow, Snow - Go Away

So with great joy I've been watching the snow slowly melt from the landscape over the last three weeks.  Everyday less snow, but bigger puddles.  Winter should be over.  I wake up this morning to a fresh foot of the white stuff and heavy snowfall all day.  The upside is that the snow is perfect for snowmen.

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Art Recommendations

Check out the work of Melbourne based artist James Riches.  Here's a quote from the man,

I'm curious about those moments when we slip through the crack in reality into a different place. So often in our day to day life we are denied the pleasure of fantasy by the constraints of work, deadlines, commitments and our urge to seek logic in the illogical.

James Riches Illustrations

Wilco is one of my favorite bands.  Not only do they produce some of the grandest tunes in the universe they also produce the great swag.  They have the greastest line of posters, shirts, and useless artistic junk I have ever seen from a band.  (Check out the concert poster with the Airstream in the desert - can the world be anymore perfect.)

WILCO : STORE

Watson Lake Community Garage Sale

I recently became part of a Yukon bloggers group called Urban Yukon.  So assuming that I may have some local readers I want to send out an invitation to check out Watson Lake's Annual Giant Garage Sale being held this Saturday, April 8th from 10 - 3 at the Rec Centre.  Spring is here, the roads are great and people are in mood to purge their treasures.  Personally we will have two tables of wares to make our move back down to Vancouver lighter.  Would love to see you there.

Lifehack: Clean for guests

I can usually find a million things to do other than clean the house. One way to ensure that it gets done is to invite over guests at least once a week.  It may be to hang out, games night, watch films, eat, whatever, if you are like me - it's a good way to cultivate relationships while preventing clutter and keeping household chaos at bay.