Sure Horizon

Archive for December, 2011

It doesn’t take very much for people to fall in love with Vancouver.  Especially if there is any trace of urban sophistication, or a fondness for a little taste and charm.  But it’s especially true if one is particularly drawn to the kind of city that really has it all and still manages to keep itself small enough to maintain its own identity.  Like many contemporary cities, Vancouver is able to keep an identity while still remaining quite fluid, and adept at adopting to the growing and shifting populations.  These are the qualities that can make first-time visitors start wondering about the availability of a Vancouver apartment.  It’s always wise to take a second look at any city one is considering living in, but this one is difficult because it is just as charming with repeated visits.

Travelers, artists, professionals, and students aren’t the only ones who are so charmed.  The students at the Vancouver Film School are well aware that the charm is not lost on the film industry.  Not in the least.  In fact, it is one of the more prominently-featured cities in a bewildering array of contemporary cinema, and there are plenty of good reasons for that.  Most of these are the same reasons that people want to move here.  It is a gorgeous city, with many different kinds of weather.  It’s not too terribly cold in the winter, and not overbearingly hot for most of the summer, making it a fairly lovely spot for living and working.  There is a diverse population, and this attracts businesses that bring in food and other goods from all across the globe, making it remarkably cosmopolitan. The architecture, however, is probably the main reason why so many movies are shot here.

Vancouver destinations for city scenes are attractive because the architecture is robust and interesting.  There is a strong tradition of community spirit that has kept the historical buildings intact, and continues to attract bright minds and talents in the fields of architecture and design. While the same could be said for other cities in Canada, where there are similar interests in rental apartment, Vancouver is distinctive.  It bears striking resemblances to other places, like Seattle, and has a modern flair.  These qualities reflect well on celluloid, and read as an interesting place that looks familiar, inviting, and surprising.  It reflects well on the city, but the city is a wonderful thing to be the source of a reflection.

One of the more interesting parts of travel is the way that things change when they shift from one country to another.  The things that are every day in one’s own home town become entirely strange when they are in another setting.  That’s one of the sources of that feeling of being not quite at home, and it’s most distinctive when traveling.  It’s the kind of thing that can make seals look like sea monsters, or Trabants into hot rods with weld racing wheels.

That might not be entirely fair.  In some part of Eastern and Central Europe, the hot rod culture is actually pretty well-developed, or at least on the rising side of things, and it makes perfect sense that this would be the place where it would start to show up next.  The idea of the hot rod, taking something that was new and shiny, and making it shinier, is the kind of reuse mentality that is so well fed in cultures with experiences of scarcity.  While every culture has some experience of want, some are more wanting than others.  These are the kinds of places that younger tourists tend to flock to, because scarcity does invoke innovation, and that makes its own kind of hipness.

Hot rod culture, with its ready-made nostalgia for the old, along with a love of the new, is often a collection of quotations of things across time and space.  It might not be common to see a Trabant, then, with new cragar wheels, but it doesn’t come as a surprise.  That particular car is the one that seems to have defined the Soviet era, in terms of being entirely useful and not entirely reliable.  The small engine and low horsepower also make it a perfect mark for mechanics and auto enthusiasts to take up the challenge of turning it into a beast on the streets.

To see these new creations from old forms, there are forums where Hot Rod culture in Europe are doing well at representing.  Most of the action is in Germany, but there’s always a fair amount of activities in English speaking countries.  Going deeper in, however, will reveal more innovations and unsuspected creations from the next generation to decide that some of the things of the past are worth quoting, and some are worth throwing off like old skin.  Though the vehicles may look different, and some of the methods for restoration will vary the spirit here is the one that comes from a very elemental heartbeat of the young and the restless.