Dave Brubeck, who recorded “Take Five” in 1959 (the song sounds as fresh today as when it was first recorded) died today at 91. The song was composed by sax player Paul Desmond. See this article on the history of the song from the album Time Out, the first jazz record to sell a million copies.
And here’s the quartet in a 1962 live performance of Blue Rondo a la Turk (just ignore the corny intro by the TV host).
As you can see, we carry Desigual headphones and computer bags. We only have a limited number of these items available for Christmas, so shop early.
We are also taking orders for custom hand-painted shirts for Christmas gifts. Call me the store (604-681-0947) or email me at jackie@angelpaint.com
Angel Vancouver is located at No. 2 Powell, on the corner of Carrall Street, in the Maple Tree Square area of the historic Gastown district of Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Angel is an authorized Desigual dealer and carries both the men’s and women’s lines., and has the largest selection of Desigual in the city.
We have some new men’s shirts and T-shirts, plus sweaters vests and coats. The sweater shown in the photo at the bottom has a full zipper in the front.
Our store is located at No. 2 Powell in the Gastown district of Vancouver, B.C., on the corner of Carrall Street in Maple Tree Square. We are also taking orders for Christmas for custom hand-painted shirts. Call (604) 681-0947 or email me at jackie@angelpaint.com
And don’t be alarmed if you see little white dots floating down from the top of the screen – it’s simulated snow.
These new coats and dresses have just arrived at my store, Angel Vancouver. We’re located at No. 2 Powell, on the corner of Carrall in the historic Gastown district of Vancouver, Canada. The jacket that goes from black to red is called Suenos Liquidos. There is also a matching sleeveless “Baby Baby” dress in red and another in purple. The sleeveless zip-up dress is called Leela. The black-and-white coat with the cool coloured buttons is called L’Adoration. We also have the Mi Musa coat shown below, worn by the Desigual model Behati Prinsloo, who makes her debut tonight (Dec. 3, 2012) on the TV show Hawaii Five-O (You can also see her on the Desigual video here.)
The last photo (below) shows some Tibetan yak wool shawls we have in the store. We are also taking orders for custom hand-painted shirts for Christmas. Call (604) 681-0947 or email me at jackie@angelpaint.com
The last photo shows some Tibetan yak wool shawls we have in the store. We are also taking orders for custom hand-painted shirts for Christmas. Call (604) 681-0947 or email me at jackie@angelpaint.com
I recently painted these shirts, which now are available at my store, Angel Vancouver, located at No. 2 Powell in the Gastown district of Vancouver, Canada. We’re right on the corner of Carrall Street in Maple Tree Square. We do custom-painted shirt orders. Call (604) 681-0947 or email me at jackie@angelpaint.com
Angel is also an authorized dealer of Desigual, which is from Barcelona.
This great six-minute film shows the early days of Vancouver and Gastown — it is the earliest film footage of the city, whose population was only 27,000 in 1901. It was shot by Seattle filmmaker William Harbeck, who was hired five years later to film the maiden voyage of the Titanic; he died at 44 when the ship sank the night of April 14, 1912. More info about the film is here.
The film is set to the song “Calendar” by Your Hand in Mine, a Greek duo who performed the song live in 2007 at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival for a screening of a 1933 Japanese silent film masterpiece, Yogoto no Yume (Every Night Dreams).
The film begins on Granville Street at Georgia, heading north past the second-floor studio of Vancouver painter Emily Carr at 570 Granville, then turning east onto Hastings and down to Carrall, north on Columbia to Cordova, and west on Cordova, turning south on Cambie; it seems to skip to Davie Street in Vancouver’s West End, ending around Bute Street, where mansions were being built. There is only one automobile seen on the street during the film. It’s mainly people walking, riding bicycles or horse-drawn buggies.
The streetcar system began in Vancouver in 1889 and eventually expanded into the suburbs and the Fraser Valley (the Interurban Line). This second film shows the streetcars operating in the 1950s, just before they were retired, replaced by the round-topped Brill trolley buses as part of the “rails to rubber” modernization campaign.
This third film shows the streetcars leaving the Carrall Street tram “barn,” which was across the street from the Army & Navy store on Hastings, and going to New Westminster; it is narrated by former “motor man” on the Central Park/Burnaby Lake line.
This 1962 Vancouver Board of Trade film shows the last of the streetcars in 1955. And in this fifth film below, commissioned by the South Granville Business Improvement Association, civic historian John Atkin explains the history of expanding the Vancouver streetcars over False Creek to South Granville in 1891 to develop the area. It has some great historical footage of Granville Street when it was just a wagon trail through the forest.
The Vancouver Historical Society in 2007 produced this film, tracing the route of the 1907 film:
I also included this short film because of the issue in the news this week: A transit plan was unveiled to put a bored subway tunnel under Broadway to the University of B.C., at an estimated cost of $2.8 billion. There has been a call to bring back streetcars along Broadway at a fraction of the cost. I’ll leave that to the transit experts to resolve. But I still think there was an opportunity missed during the 2010 Olympics to keep the streetcar that went from Granville Island to near Science World — the free demonstration service ran on the Downtown Historic Railway using two modern Bombardier Flexity Outlook streetcars borrowed from the Brussels transit system. We shipped them back, post Olympics.
Bombadier tram used during the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver Canada
The City of Vancouver and the administrators of Granville Island had paid $8.5 million for upgrades to the rail line. The plan was to expand the tram route through Chinatown, Gastown and Stanley Park. Two heritage streetcars, built in 1905 and 1912 (the latter is shown below) had continued to travel the route until last summer, when operations were halted due to financial constraints.
This 1912 tram operated in Vancouver until last summer (2012), Vancouver Historic Railway photo
At the very least, I have made phone calls, trying to convince city officials and transit authorities to restore the westbound Powell Street bus service past Main and along Carrall street (my Gastown store is at No. 2 Powell); bus service was halted five years ago (!!!) for construction of the Carrall Street greenway project, which was completed years ago. But so far, my entreaties seem to have fallen upon deaf ears.
Update Dec. 4, 2012: Los Angeles has approved spending $125 million on a new streetcar system for downtown. The story is here.
A Los Angeles streetcar from 1963 (L.A. Times photo)
We’ve just got a new shipment of Celeste Stein leggings. They are fleece-lined for warmth and are super comfy. And they’re made in the USA. This would make a perfect gift for the woman in your life.
We have dozens of styles to choose from — below are a few we have at Angel Vancouver.
We’re located at No. 2 Powell, on the corner of Carrall Street in Maple Tree Square, right in the heart of the Gastown district of Vancouver, Canada.
Angel Vancouver is an authorized Desigual dealer. We also do custom handpainted shirts and are taking orders for Christmas. Call (604) 681-0947 or email me at jackie@angelpaint.com
This Desigual T-shirt pays tribute to George Mallory and his doomed Everest expeditions. Printed over the image of the mountain are the words: “Great Mountains/ Epic brave men/ But/ Soy lo que soy Go lo que me de la Gana.
” The last line is roughly translated from Spanish: “I am what I am, Go where I please.” Mallory famously said when asked by a New York Times reporter why he wanted to climb Everest (it had not yet been successfully climbed): “Because it’s there.” (see National Geographic clip from doc, The Wildest Dream, about finding Mallory’s body 75 years later) Wade Davis‘ book, Into the Silence, details the hardships of expeditions and the relationship between the British and Tibetans. Davis, an anthropologist and ethnobotanist who is an explorer-in-residence at the National Geographic Society, chronicles Mallory’s three attempts to climb Everest (between 1921 and 1924) within the context of his experiences from First World War. 
There is also an historic photo (left) of the expedition on the Desigual shirt, which is available at Angel Vancouver, located at No. 2 Powell in the Gastown district of Vancouver, Canada.
This shirt would make a great gift for mountaineers or fans of Davis’ book….We are also taking orders for Christmas for custom hand-painted shirts. For more info, call Angel at (604) 681-0947 or email me at jackie@angelpaint.com
To see earlier posts, click on “angelvancouver” at the top of this page, then scroll down.
Last year, Barcelona-based fashion house Desigual and Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil collaborated on a new collection that includes dresses, skirts, men’s T-shirts, women’s tops, coats, knitted hats, scarves, jewellry ans children’s wear — we carry some of the fall/winter 2012 collection at my store, Angel Vancouver (see photos below).
Cirque du Soleil rolled into Vancouver on Thursday Nov. 22 for preview performances of its latest show, Amaluna, which will continue through to Jan. 13, 2013. Ticket info is here.
The plotline of Amaluna: A mysterious island is governed by Goddesses and guided by the cycles of the moon. In the wake of a storm, a group of young men lands on the island, triggering an epic, emotional story of love between the daughter of the island’s queen, Prospera, and a brave young suitor. But their love will be put to the test.
Angel Vancouver is offering two tickets to see Amaluna in a random draw in mid December. No purchase is necessary – just write down your name and contact info on an entry form and put in the Cirque du Soleil contest box at Angel. Our store is located at No. 2 Powell in the historic Gastown district of Vancouver, Canada.
In early December, we will be offering flyers giving Angel customers an exclusive deal: a family 4-pack of tickets at a special discount.
Angel is an authorized Desigual dealer and carries an extensive selection of men’s and women’s clothing from Desigual – we are the only downtown Vancouver store carrying the men’s line. We also do custom-painted T-shirts and are taking orders for Christmas. Call (604) 681-0947 or you can email me at jackie@angelpaint.com
The photos below are Desigual’s Cirque pieces available at my store:
Some of the best Desigual designs this season were done in collaboration with French fashion designer Christian Lacroix. They are a heavenly mix of fabric, colour, pattern and design.
Desigual, the Barcelona-based fashion house, can’t use Lacroix’s name but refers to the styles he helped design by adding the tag “L” and attaching a stylized image of his face.
Here’s what Lacroix had to say when he first saw a woman wearing Desigual: “I was awestruck by the first girl dressed by Desigual that I saw in Paris. As I watched her, I could recognize in her a member of my own tribe. It was an explosion of colours and patchwork under the elegant, discreet and always monotonous French sky. It was fantastic, truly love at first sight, a breath of fresh air, all multicoloured, scorching, revitalizing, radiating Mediterranean colours and flavours and creeping into this global and colourless magma inhabited by zombies and clones.”
The photos below are a sampling of the designs by Mr. L for Desigual that are available at Angel Vancouver, which is located at No. 2 Powell in the historic Gastown district of Vancouver B.C. Canada. Call (604) 681-0947 or email me at jackie@angelpaint.com
Christian
