>Doug, overall what did you think of Vancouver?
I liked it, but it was very wet and many of the people were astoundingly laid back. The waiter at the hipster art gallery/cafe practically knelt while he intoned the evening's specials. Since it never cleared up, I never got to see the mountains around the city, but I was kind of disappointed in the way the city looked just walking around - just a lot of ordinary-looking buildings. The political & cultural scenes seemed pretty lively, but you can't tell much in 3 days. I gave a talk to a group of unionists and was reminded again that Canada is really a different place from the U.S. - they were much sharper and more militant than any comparable group down here would be. Some of them had even read Brenner's NLR article and wanted to talk about it - I can't imagine that happening here.
One exception to the general mellowness was a bar in a flophouse hotel next to the train/bus station I went to. I've never seen anything like it - a pretty young clientele screaming & thowing stuff at each other, which isn't all that unusual, but what was bizarre was all the folks walking around selling stolen goods. In the course of an hour or two, about a dozen salespersons approached me, with CDs, shoes, and a 5-lb wheel of cheddar cheese. One of my tablemates said he'd bought a roast beef the week before. They steal stuff from the supermarket that's one stop away on the monorail and sell it at this bar. I hope it's still there next time I get to Vancouver, if there is a next time.
What'd I miss/get wrong, Sam?
Doug