Anodyne
Sunday, April 08, 2007
 

Via Pete, news I would just as soon not have received: the big pine on the corner of Salsbury and William, just off Commercial Drive, is gone, chainsawed out of existence by the new property owner (nb. "One Percent Realty" sign in the foreground, February 2006, the equivalent of those troublesome blotches that keep cropping up on your chest x-ray). The second Jeff Wall photograph I ever tried to find, equipped with my old beater, a Vancouver map book, and a few important clues (minimal shadows; the Cut on Grouse Mountain to the north; and the houses visible at Salsbury's far north end).

On the day I found the pine, I was too early, and the light wasn't right. So I patiently sat in the car, listened to the radio (U2, the Cars, Trooper, Pink Floyd) and watched the shadows change. A mostly quiet street. Kids walking to school; Chinese grandmas with wire buggies; a guy towing his baby behind his mountain bike in one of those weird yurt-on-wheels kid-carriers. A calm and tranquil morning. Time to study that big ragged tree dozens of times, never dreaming of how soon it'd be gone.
- posted by cjb @ 7:57 PM


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