It’s been a busy month, and we didn’t even make it to the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition) with its myriad shows, concerts, rides, exhibits, and wide variety of food offerings. (Maybe next year.)
We’re continuing to love being “home” in Vancouver’s Marpole neighbourhood in between travels.
Pink Floyd at the Planetarium
The website description for this show certainly set high expectations:
On February 27th, 1973, Pink Floyd premiered The Dark Side of the Moon at the London Planetarium. Fifty years later, the album returns to its spiritual home with cutting-edge technology that transforms the listening experience into something transcendent.
This official 50th Anniversary presentation is playing at over 100 planetariums globally, with shows selling out worldwide. This is Vancouver’s opportunity to experience one of music’s greatest albums the way Pink Floyd intended—as a cosmic journey through time and space.
The experience takes place at The Dome, the newly transformed H.R. MacMillan Space Centre. Built by the team behind visuals at Sphere Las Vegas, this state-of-the-art venue features six Christie 4K cinema projectors delivering seamless 360° panoramic visuals in 10K resolution, 150,000 lumens of brightness, and a 65-foot diameter dome that surrounds you completely. Plus 20,000 watts of Dolby Atmos surround sound engineered specifically for complete 360° immersion.
Aubrey Powell, the mastermind behind Pink Floyd’s most iconic album covers and visuals, crafted this official experience in collaboration with NSC Creative.
All 10 tracks from The Dark Side of the Moon are played in chronological order. No intermissions—one continuous 42-minute journey through deep space, alien worlds, and stunning celestial landscapes, all synced perfectly to one of rock’s greatest records.
I was never a big Pink Floyd fan, beyond The Wall, but since we’ll probably never see a show in the Sphere in Las Vegas, this may be the closest we get to that kind of immersive experience.
Surprisingly, non-flash photography was allowed during the show; unsurprisingly, it was a really difficult thing to photograph.
Ted and I had several favourite moments in the show. We both agreed that flying through the rings of Saturn was amazing. For me, the best moments were all those that felt 3-dimensional – where we truly felt surrounded by space.
You can get a bit of that idea from the 6 minutes of Pink Floyd’s track Time that Ted recorded (below), although honestly it doesn’t capture how spectacular it was to feel as if we were right in the middle of it all.
The Eyes Have It
Not only do Ted and I coordinate our doctors’ and dentists’ appointments, but if one of us has a non-shareable appointment the other goes along “just because”. Any time we’re out of our home base together, and I don’t have to cook, it’s a “date”.
Since retirement, we’ve been dating a lot 😆.
Our annual visit to Ted’s’s ophthalmologist for his eye pressure monitoring (to ensure incipient glaucoma is not worsening) means pizza afterward at Me-n-Ed’s, a pizza restaurant that has been a Lower Mainland icon since 1969.
Its claim to fame is its unique thin crust, which comes out of the oven crunchy and almost flaky instead of chewy. The secret is two-part: first, the dough undergoes a prolonged fermentation and resting period to give it a distinctive rich and yeasty taste, and then it is rolled and folded in a specific multi-step rolling method that builds microscopic layers in the dough.
It’s not everyone’s cup of tea (or slice of pizza) , but we love it.
Comedy on Stage
Black Box Theatre Co. brought The Movie Star to the Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island for a very limited 10 performances, and based on its description I couldn’t resist getting tickets. I guess I could just read People Magazine for this kind of “bad-boy movie star turns his life around” story, but live theatre is way more fun.
Despite the claim on the poster, it was not really a comedy. Maybe a “dramedy”? The writing was good, but in our opinions the weakest acting was the lead, coincidentally also the playwright. I really enjoyed the minimalist split-stage set, the background Bond-themed music, and the running Princess Bride gag.
A solid choice for local theatre.
Ferry Cross the Salish
Oh, the lengths we’ll go to to experience music and a bit of nostalgia.
Last April we did a transatlantic crossing for the sole purpose of seeing the ABBA Experience holographic concert in Greenwich England Episodes 505 to 520).
This week, we did the trans-Salish crossing (I’m coining that term, if it doesn’t already exist) by ferry to see The Guess Who live in Victoria.
The crossing to Vancouver Island is an experience we always enjoy, not least because the scenery is spectacular.
It’s a 90 minute crossing, which affords the opportunity to grab coffee or a meal, shop in the onboard store, and – most importantly – make connections with other passengers.
We often meet first-time visitors to Vancouver Island, coming from all over the world.
Today was especially fun for me, when a Persian Vancouverite overheard someone speaking German near him. He turned around and assumed it was me (it wasn’t, but it’s an assumption that has been made by others, so no big surprise). When he asked in his own halting German if I spoke it, I acknowledged that I did, and then we both switched back to English. His reason for asking was that he and his family were hosting his niece from Berlin, and looking for someone to speak German with her. My friends know that I never turn down a chance to talk, so the result was me getting to have a wonderful conversation with a very interesting young woman.
Guess Who
Son#1, who turned (unbelievably) 45 this year, recently went to see BifNaked and Tea Party in Ontario, and commented that they’ve reached the age where their “nostalgia bands” are touring. It made me pause and think. For Ted and for me, despite our very wide-ranging musical tastes, our nostalgia artists and bands are those that were on Canadian radio when we were coming of age in the 1970s.
The 70s were a golden age for Canadian rock radio, largely due to new “CanCon” (Canadian Content) broadcasting rules introduced in 1971. Some of the biggest Canadian bands dominating the airwaves included The Guess Who, Bachman-Turner-Overdrive, April Wine, Lighthouse, and The Stampeders, whose 45s and LPs alternated on my little blue-and-white stereo turntable with The Eagles, Chicago, and The 5th Dimension, while Canadian solo artists Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, and Anne Murray competed with British and US heavy-hitters like Elton John, Neil Diamond, James Taylor, Carole King, and Carly Simon.
As front man for The Guess Who, Burton Cummings with his glorious brunette locks was a legitimate Canadian heartthrob. Now 78 years old, his iconic voice is still strong, even if his locks are no longer dark.
The band’s current tour, after a long hiatus and several intense legal battles to reclaim their name, is particularly exciting because it reunites Cummings with Randy Bachman, an original band member and later founder of BTO (Bachman-Turner-Overdrive). Cummings on keyboard and Bachman on guitar were a songwriting and performing powerhouse, and are still incredible fun to watch and hear.
This Takin’ It Back tour marks the first time in 23 years that they have performed together live as The Guess Who.
We booked an overnight stay at the Best Western Plus Carlton Plaza, just a 10 minute walk from the rebranded Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre, and grabbed a quick pre-show dinner at The Mint, an Asian fusion restaurant that has been serving yummy Tibetan momos (dumplings) and curries for 20 years in this Victoria location. Their current menu is truly eclectic, with everything from Mexican, Italian, and pub foods mixed in with Southeast Asian; Ted dubbed it Asian confusion. Nonetheless, our dinner was delicious.
The concert’s opening act was to have been another classic Canadian rock band, Vancouver’s own Chilliwack, but old musicians get sick sometimes, so at the last minute Canadian rocker Kim Mitchell stepped in. His “Patio Lanterns” was a summer backyard party sing-along standard in the mid 1980’s.
We enjoyed Kim, but we were there for Burton and Randy, and they did not disappoint.
After a wonderful energizing break in Victoria, we were back on a ferry home.
On the return trip, Ted and I were enthusing about the fact that from Monday to Thursday each week BC Ferries are free for BC seniors who walk on instead of bringing a vehicle.
Ted commented that we could spend a whole day just travelling between islands, watching for whales and wildlife, for the cost of onboard meals – so that’s my next planning challenge!
A Tasty Preview of Rome
Daughter-in-law #2 and I will be in Rome as part of a culinary tour in October, so when this event crossed my social media feed it seemed like a bit of serendipity. Ted won’t get to indulge in October’s experience with us in Italy, but he could do this one in Vancouver!
The venue was a shared kitchen space that chefs can lease to give classes or run special evenings, and was a cozy space for 24 diners plus a musician.
Sitting at communal tables gave is the chance to interact with the other diners, as well as the chefs. Our fellow diners were a wonderful mix of cultures, much like Vancouver itself – people from Spain, Peru, Argentina, Hong Kong, and Korea, all enjoying the Italian fare.
The entire dinner was accompanied by a smooth red house wine, and finished with a single scoop of nocciola (hazelnut) and salted caramel gelato.
At $99 per person, wine included, it was great value, great food, and a fun evening.
Reading
I finally finished #22 in Elizabeth George’s Lynley series, and moved on to a standalone novel that was an engrossing read that I would highly recommend.
The Diamond Eye looks at WWII from a perspective we rarely see: Russian, female, and in the military. Kate Quinn used Ukrainian history student and librarian Lyudmila Pavlichenko’s own memoir and historical records as a foundation for this novel, although it has been embellished with fictional specifics of sniper actions, and a love story that is apparently a requisite of every novel.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that nothing else worth journalizing is going to happen in the next two days and call it a wrap on August.
Rose and Ted’s Excellent Adventure 