MayTheBigTent'sPolesHoldFastForGoodVille
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2nd Update, Early Sunday afternoon edition: Dumping the notebook in chunks.....first and second thirds are now up in full.....done to a little MC-5 (eg. Kick out the Jams) backed with these kids....Oh, and I have made a few small revisions to the original version of the first third now, as I heard from a couple of folks who took offense to what they perceived as slagging of the personal kind. As that is not my intent here (ie. I really do dig the Vision thing and realize that folks who put themselves out there, especially if they are truly independent and new at the game, are taking a real chance and are doing their best) I've anonomized some of that stuff and I apologize....
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So.
2nd Update, Early Sunday afternoon edition: Dumping the notebook in chunks.....first and second thirds are now up in full.....done to a little MC-5 (eg. Kick out the Jams) backed with these kids....Oh, and I have made a few small revisions to the original version of the first third now, as I heard from a couple of folks who took offense to what they perceived as slagging of the personal kind. As that is not my intent here (ie. I really do dig the Vision thing and realize that folks who put themselves out there, especially if they are truly independent and new at the game, are taking a real chance and are doing their best) I've anonomized some of that stuff and I apologize....
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So.
Originally this was going to be a well thought-out, organized, bullet-pointed version of my impressions of Vision Vancouver's big nomination vote celebration at Science World last night.
But then things went haywire and the count came in three hours late.
And, because I was riding my bike, I didn't get home 'till about 1:00am.
And before I even had a chance to write much of anything I noticed that my sitemeter was going completely bonkers.
Which, it turned out, was all Frances Bula's fault.
(and if you want real analysis and real hard numbers as well as a blow-by-blow to the night's festivities go to her place and read from the bottom up , but....Hey, Francis! ....Change your 'publishing' template so that more posts stay on the front page, ok; that way, if we don't visit for an hour or seven we can still get the whole story, all at once).
Anyway, as a result of the onslaught, I decided to immediately bang out something about my first impressions of what happened after the deal went down.
What follows, for the record, and ripped pretty much straight from hastily scrawled notes (I didn't take the bloody box down to the glitter dome with me because I left late, and figured I would be done and home in an hour), is the unexpurgated version of most everything that I noticed going on before the deal went down.
OK?
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The First Third......Before 10pm....
It was dinner at our friend's across the back lane...she works for the city and wanted to hear all about the Vision thing (I was at the polling station earlier and gave them the blow-by-blow)....because of what she does she has all kinds of behind the scenes stories which are, to say the least, interesting in the extreme.....duck out early on them though to zip home to get the camera and my notebook, then haul my bike out of the VW (notso)Microbus for the ride down to the glitterdome....
After a short ride west past the million dollar homes (ie. along the Mainstreet corridor), I hang a right at Nat Bailey and it's pretty much a straight shot down Ontario for me .....the sky is really low over the city as I fly over the Broadway hump and when I hit the waterfront the curvy-edged concrete butresses of the $3000/sqft condos cheek-by-jowl are almost eerily creepy in a BladeRunner sort of way.
As I'm locking up my bike I glance at my watch.....9:15pm, and I'm worried I might have actually missed the votecounting.....there's a small gaggle of three, maybe homeless, certainly roughlife, but good natured guys nonetheless, hanging around the rack.....I ask them if they're going in, mentioning that there might even be some free food and stuff.....they laugh and one of them I can see is actually thinking of it.....as I walk toward the entrance I call back to say that 'and you'll probably get to see the next mayor' which brings laughs from all three; they're united in derision again as one of them calls back 'Forget that, the new mayor is gonna be me!'......
Inside the main doors the donation ladies at the table are pretty nice about it all when I ask if it's OK if I just give $5 instead of the recommended ten spot....they do kinda size me up first though given that I'm dressed in my old guy who wants to be a bike-courier sort of look (which is not my intention, honest)......
First impression of the crowd in the big room is that it sure is a lot whiter than what I knocked up agains a bit with earlier in the evening just before the polls closed at Tupper Senior Secondary....but the ambience is nice even if there was no free food or drink (unless I missed it.... I paid 2.50 and 5.00 each for my one pop and one beer over what was going to be a long night)...band, a jazzy duo is pretty good too.....conducive to conversation....I search in vain for Westend Bob and drf but in vain.....everybody's nice.....nodody's too tense except for poor Sarah Blyth who looks like she's going to jump out of her skin, even when folks, including me tell her she's in.....
9:30pm.....nothing much going on.....definitely nothing high tech nor hard sell from the Visionistas...they are running powerpoints on some of the screens around the place.....I like the ones of today's events...must have been crummy though, early on in the rain.....don't like the sunny side-up, everything's coming up roses ones from events through the summer however, as they've clearly been picked over and the 'best' (ie. smoothed over) ones chosen for screen time....
There are quite a few kids (real ones, not Blyth followers) and tweens in the room....amazing how many of them are banging away on hand-held electronic things.....a few of them, but mostly the smallest ones and some of their parents are playing around with the interactive SciWorld displays.....
There are a few media types with laptops sitting at tables.....these too are mostly kids (contemporaries, although a little more button-down than most of the Blyth followers - or what I perceive to be Blyth followers)....they have microphones - the radio folks I figure....I see no/zero TV folks (and in fact don't notice any all night, but I easily could have missed them, later on, as you'll see, I didn't move around much).....
9:45......Can't help but notice that the paparazzi are circling the Gregor, but at a respectful distance....Have a great conversation with a friend and colleague, 'D', who has tons of great stories to tell of all kinds of grassroots pol-work he has done in all kinds of places, including South Africa for the anti-apartheid 'Progressive' party....and in case you were wondering - he's a white Englishman.......we are interrupted by one of the candidates who appears out of nowhere and says that they are sure they know me from somewhere......I have never met the person in my life and I tell them so, but politely....they gladhand anyway and then move on....just to make sure I've got this straight - nobody's voting tonight are they?......
10:00pm.....slide by FABula and ask how long?.....she says just a few minutes more......(ha!).... things settle into not much of anything at all.....I decide to just sit back and watch because, as Yogi once said, you can observe a lot that way (at least I think it was Yogi - am eschewing the Wiki in the re-write as I did this all with ink on paper in the first run).......
(chunk above was written very late on Saturday night....stopped here and took up the 2nd chunk on Sunday)
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The 2nd Third......Waiting For The Midnight Hour....
There really is some kinda/sorta campaigning still going on....most notably that gang of rowdies from the Greek guy faction....truth be told even in their dark blue T-shirts Demitri Douzenis' folks are so good natured and goofy that it's hard to give them a hard time....and when I ask them if their guy is going to make it they are resigned but still smiling....that's the spirit....pro-Pols though seem to have a different reaction, but then again, maybe it's the strain of the waiting....
10:30pm.....crowd is starting to get ancy.....a lot of actual politicians of all stripes in the room now, including Ms. Davies..... and the crowd is much more polyglot than it was before which is good, I think...Much of the schmoozing seems to be done now and everybody is there to see what happens now....where'd all the pro-media types go?......post deadline I guess.....lots of folks still trying to buoy Ms. Blyth.....
10:45pm.....the live duo is gone from the stage, and so is the relaxed music......DJ has begun with the canned stuff... not much there for the young though (note to organizers for future events, eh?).....Visionista workhorse Marcela Munro comes on to tell us that they're still counting votes because there are so many....later learn from reading FABula that there is, maybe, some fussing going around the boxes re: provisionals?.....from what I understand those are folks that had ID but no proof of a living address in the city.....hmmmmm....Ms Munro does promise that we'll know before the clock strikes 11 (I think of Nigel as it's getting pretty loud)....Ms. Munro then requests that everybody dance.....and they do.....
Around 11:00 (I lose track of the chronometer a little at this point).....Ms. Munro gives up the microphone to a guy, not sure who it is exactly, sorry, who tries to get the crowd chanting....his message, I think, is the big tent one, mixed in with 'taking the city back'...but when he goes into an 'NPA is garbage'-type thing it kind of takes the crowd aback a bit ....and me too - no need for that here I reckon, not to mention that it is actually anti-big tent.....
I notice that the semi-spiral staircase that winds up to the second floor of the glitterdome is open and is filled to bursting with photogs and supporters/confederates of the guy who was just yelling on stage.....figuring that will be a good vantage point to watch the announcement that is supposed to be coming any minute I head to the top....it's less noisy up here and not so hot which is nice.... looking down, I notice for the first time that the stage area is actually the "Peter Brown Family Theatre"..... it says so on the wall above and behind the big Vision banner....is that irony in the extreme, or something else?.....
11:10pm....still no announcement....dance floor continues to be happening though while periphery is thinning a little.....my notes start to lose their edge for a while at this point so next I'm going to give you the rumba rundown all at once - but only the good stuff, promise.....
The mad Greek's supporters stream through crowd in front of the stage..... in a conga line!.....seconds later the Limed-up Greeniacs of Ms. Reimer show up and take the stage.....and some of them are actually, get this, real kids!.....Umlas (I think) and supporters circle up with maybe a Dhaliwal and/or Hundal supporter or six and start to rhythmically high five to Donna Summers' 'Sad Girls' (say what?!), then, of course, YMCA gets the whole crowd going crazy....even I get that one but 'Rah, Rah Rasputin'? (is the DJ doing this on purpose?).....Tim Stevenson has his jacket off but tie still knotted tight as he lets go a little with partner during Mama Mia.....Is Mr. S. really happy smiling?....Is this some kinda Swedeglam foreshadowing of victory?....Jessie's Girl??? Rick Springfield????!...c'mon, if you wanna give the kids something real to them (but still really fake nonetheless) why not just go all the way with the Jonas Brothers, sheesh..... Best dancers of the entire night?.....No question in my mind.....It was COPE Parks guy Spencer Herbert and Vision Parks candidate girl Constance Barnes.....real lapel pullin' going on there....the non-aggression pact fully realized?......
11:30pm......where did all the pols go? the periphery is really thinning and folks are starting to flag I think....I wonder why they don't have any food....notice there are vending machines up on the out-of-bounds, super quiet, 2nd floor.....I take a chance.....all I get is a bottle of water...D. who has gone off for a wander comes back and announces that he has seen, gasp!, a rodent scurry across the floor in one of the darkened empty exhibit rooms....
11:30pm.....Only a photog or two left now.....kind of weird....tension thickens as crowd thins.... me I'm just sitting on the stairs minding my own business now trying to be discreet with my dimestore notebook and bottle of anti-enviro liquid....kinda understand now what it must feel like to blow a deadline, and I don't even have one...am wishing that West End Bob was here so that he could play the Acosta to my pale hose imitation of the long gone Docktor (OK, OK, OK!....for any pro-pols with delusions of Mankness....it should really be Tim Crouse at something like this, not the Peter Boyle character from Buffalo Roam...Del Toro version too dark for me).....I rember that I told C. I'd be home by just after ten; and so much for all that....David Eby slides back into my vision and moves around the place a little.....lots of folks approach and want to talk to him, interesting what a diverse group they are - from the suits to the very pointedly suitless and, sorry, but I've gotta say this because it was so apparent, lots of women, and I've gotta say this too....Eby looks a little like G. R.'s kinda wilder-sided brother that goes off and does the crazy stuff that everybody admires (or some such thing, not really sure that I'm making any sense at all at this point, but it's what I scribble)......Just then a fellow bike rider climbs the stairs (he's got his helmet with him too) and he's wearing an Eby button...we get to talking....he's really worried, and he's not happy about all this slate stuff either....I realize now that I should have paid all that stuff more attention....
11:45pm....rumours abound....it's school board and parks that are too close to call....or......it's something weird with the council votes.....fact is, nobody in the peanut gallery really knows.....a lot of hugs and handshakes as folks start to stream out....even the dance floor begins to settle a little......still don't see many pols about.....I'm thinking of leaving myself, but I'm hooked....it's the drama..... and as I noted earlier it most certainly won't be televised (which West End Bob informs me later is apparent from the next morning's newscasts)......
(OK, enough already.....that's part 2 of 3 done.....you all pretty much know it ends, but I will spill all my own beans later....promise.....alternatively, you can just slide down the page for the abridged version here)
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