The Beaches. We're talkin' mainly West of Kits.  East of Granola. This is a semi-desolate area that stretches from Trafalgar St to Dunbar. Then we continue for a bit at Jericho. All these places are named after Biblical or Anglo Saxon conquests.  Makes you feel right at home, n'est-ce pas?

Commercial Drive.  It's all there, and it's all gone.  Shades of the 60's, left-leaning dykes, italian barristos, organic grow-ops, a real "community buzz", poets, scholars, therapy and the marginally deranged.  Wear shades on your skateboard. This place cooks in the summer.

Downtown. More Drugs, Sex & Color.  Humanity always has its "armpit".  And, humanity always has its deoderant.  We've merged four hot Wall-Mark-Its under DOWNTOWN: Cordova, Gastown, Main & Pender.

Murals.   These are many small hands on many big walls.  Teamwork to a "T".  More rainbow real-estate than one man can visualize in a lifetime. From the Nortorious Blue Pharoh, covering Cold World's "cold world" and stretching south to Venice Beach. 

North Van. The climate on the mountains is rugged, unforgiving. Bears roam the streets, looking for handouts.  Somewhere in the night, two young men fall between the cracks on an overpass. Trains pull into Lonsdale and life moves on, a Slug's Pace in the steamy Esplanade.

The SkyTrain. One of the few reminders here that we actually are a "big grown-up city".  Or are we?  At least the driver's not talking on a cell phone.  This elevated subway carves a handy diagonal corridor thru the heart of Lotus-Land - providing ample concrete for the Bomber's Creed to fulfill their duty. Ditch your BMW and let a sexy computerized female voice massage your testicles.

Van East. That term says it all. If you grew up east of Main, then this is your legacy. The future is uncertain. Your deck is stacked with wild cards. It's a slow night of Solitaire on the Orient Express. Count to 10 backwards; the world will slowly drift away.

Van-Other. "Other" means "other".  Not "mother".  Not "brother".  Not "under-cover".  Not "smother".  Not "if I had my druthers".  Perhaps a tiny cup of distilled madness to caress the end of your tongue after it runs out of coffee.  Perhaps, just another cheap high on just another blind date.