Snoopy Come Home

Fundamental Friend Dependability

One thing Zexiv and Puff share in common is their love for the comic strip "Peanuts". As a kid Zexiv would look forward to seeing the strip everyday (in addition to other popular comic strips of the time such as "Spider Man", "Dennis the Menace", and "Beetle Bailey") in the Stars and Stripes, especially on weekends when a longer strip would appear in color. In the bookshelves at Camp Redbrick one can still find a number of old dust-covered pocket book sized collections of "Peanuts", belonging to Zexiv and his siblings. Puff also is a big fan, particularly of the character Lucy. She still has this old stuffed Snoopy which her father bought her when she did really well in school as a kid, complete with different sets of outfits. And every Christmas one of the CDs Zexiv and Puff always bring out to listen to over and over again is the original soundtrack of "A Charlie Brown Christmas".

A few years ago Fantagraphics announced it would release every daily and Sunday strip of Charles Schultz over a period of twelve years in a series of hardbound editions. Zexiv has been eyeing these for some time now and hopes to collect all of these books someday. They are quite interesting for anyone who is a "Peanuts" fan as you can very well see the changes in the way the characters were illustrated and their personalities developed over the years. It is also interesting to note that some characters who were introduced early with Charlie Brown, such as Shermy, Patty, and Violet, later became minor characters as the strip progressed.

This particular cartoon brings back to Zexiv and Puff pleasant memories of lazy weekend afternoons vegging out in their old 35 square meter apartment in the home country, complete with a two-liter bottle of ice cold coke and a box of garlic and cheese pizza. They used to sometimes show "Peanuts" cartoons on TV and this is one of the ones that would come out. In the cartoon Snoopy receives a letter from a girl confined in a hospital who knew or owned (?) Snoopy when he was a puppy and he leaves Charlie Brown and goes to find her (and is captured together with Woodstock somewhere along the way). It is a bit sad but this particular scene has one of the upbeat and memorable songs from the movie.

The world just wouldn't be the same without Charles Schultz and Peanuts ...

The Great Vancouver Bear Hunt (Part Three)

It was after I had walked a few steps that I realized Zexiv was not with me. I turned around and had a fleeting glimpse of him engaged in deep conversation with Darth Bear, oblivious to the sounds of the city around him . Has he been seduced by the Dark Side?

Darth Bear outside the former location of Virgin Records, now HMV. The day's work finally over, I packed my gear and started making my way back ...

Lulu Bear near the entrace of Lululemon Athletica, one of the Puff's favorite stores

After three separate expeditions downtown, I have finally given up on our attempt to document all the bears of the city of Vancouver. It seems no matter how thoroughly we try to cover the area, there appears to be a new bear sprouting up around the corner wherever we look. The captain and I have concluded that these things must be reproducing at a rate similar to Gremlins. Kind of like counting raindrops we have decided ...

The Great Vancouver Bear Hunt (Part Two)

Batbear

Biker Bear

" Goldilocks vs. the Three Bears? - a clear case of tresspassing, theft, and vandalism ..."

Greetings again from Camp Grayloft!

I had some trouble earlier trying to upload some pictures (I suspect our communication lines are being tapped by the elusive and fiendish Toyanese) so here is the second part of our photo expedition. Hopefully this goes through ... if not, till part three!

The Great Vancouver Bear Hunt (Part One)

"Come on to the theatre ..." (IMAX that is)

"When lost I always look for the mountains which are north ..."

Civilized bear indeed ... this one came too close with his eye on my Nikon so I took out my trusty slingshot which I had concealed in my pocket ...

Hailing the Bus on Burrard

It was a sunny but cold Saturday morning a few months ago when I was roused from my sleep by Capt. Zexiv.

"Care to join me for a bear hunt, Sergeant? ... It's a nice day outside ... Why not take a break from camp and explore this exciting place?"

"A bear hunting expedition? How exciting!", I thought. Here was an opportunity to finally take that vintage elephant gun out of storage and relieve the glory safari days of that late great American president and explorer, Theodore Roosevelt. I quicky jumped up, had a quick cup of coffee, and started picking out gear that would put an Ambercrombie and Kent safari operation to shame: elephant gun ... mosquito boots ... British pith helmet ... water canteen ... bush knife ... safari vest ... Cuban cigars (like Papa Hemingway) ...

After a few minutes I had assembled an impressive arsenal and was wondering how in the world I could go about hiring porters in this place. Yellow pages perhaps?

Zexiv took a quick sideways glance at my small mountain of gear and gave me a doubtful but amused look.

"You won't be needing all of that, Stingray", he said, trying hard to suppress a smile and looking away when that failed. "These are civilized bears. Just bring a camera, lenses, and tripod".

So it was a photo expedition then, I thought, feeling slightly disappointed, my hopes for being the next great safari hunter in the wilds of British Columbia quickly going up in smoke. Well perhaps it will be a reconnaissance photo expedition, I thought to myself ...

Forty minutes later, we were in in Downtown Vancouver, having taken a surprisingly uncrowded, speedy, and relatively comfortable ride on the 98 B line bus, from Richmond. We trudged over to the coffee shop where I was introduced to a former classmate of Zexiv's, a photography buff like ourselves. Zexiv's friend was apparently quite an accomplished lensman and had lately been giving the captains loads of useful tips on digital photography.

Surprisingly we had quite a good time. It was an interesting experience for me to get acquainted with some of the local wildlife, most of whom were quite civilized, covered modestly in various attire as befitted their profession, and in general very likeable chaps. We met a judge, a professional football player, a yogi, a motorcyclist, among others. There were also one or two shifty characters, which is to be reasonably expected in any major cosmopolitan city (or anywhere in the globe, for that matter). The world is full of mostly good people, but there will always be a few questionable eggs whereever you go. I found downtown Vancouver a very interesting and exciting place, which reminded me of a cross between parts of San Francisco, Seattle, and New York.

In my future posts I hope to write more about our new home and the surrounding country, also known as Beautiful British Columbia. Till then ...

P.S. Inspired by the Rare Spirit Bear or Kermode Bear found in British Columbia's northern forests, Spirit Bears in the city is a project collaboration of various artists and sponsoring individuals or organizations, which aims to support BC Lion's Society Easter Seal Operations and the Canuck's for Kids Fund. It consists of seven-foot custom formed fiberglass Spirit Bears displayed in various prominent public areas in primarily downtown Vancouver. The bears will be on display from May to October 2006, after which they will be bidded out at the Great Bear Spirit Auction. A must see.

The Beatles are Forever

something


By the time Zexiv discovered the Beatles, Beatlemania was long over ...

In fact it was the late seventies, the Beatles had ceased to be a band for more than seven years, and Zexiv must have been about eleven or twelve. Zexiv had just acquired his first record player with his earnings from a summer job and was browsing through what was then a well known place in the financial district of Makati, called The House of Stereo, looking for LPs to buy. He hadn't yet developed his own particular taste in music, although he, like his other siblings had been exposed to artists like Dione Warwick, Gloria Gaynor, Neil Diamond, and Donna Summer, whose music Zexiv's father loved to play in his car while he was driving the whole family all over the city.

We've all heard that saying "Never judge a book by its cover", but this is precisely how Zexiv picked out his first album of The Beatles. The album was entitled "Beatles: Oldies but Goldies" and there was something in the rear picture of the album which showed the members of the band smoking, hanging out, and just looking rebellious, perhaps after a late night recording session, which made Zexiv decide to take a gamble and buy it. He hadn't a clue to what The Beatles were although he seemed to have heard their name mentioned somewhere before. Later on, when he got home and played the record, he found out he had hit a goldmine. There was something about Beatles songs that made you like them after just hearing them once or twice and some songs were of course definitely very familiar, like "Yesterday". The record was also a very good choice for someone just discovering the music of The Beatles as it featured a number of their singles and the B-sides.

Later on Zexiv's mother heard Zexiv playing the record over and over again and gave him some tidbits of information about the band. She mentioned people from her generation would dance to their music. She also said that one of them was married to a Japanese, which added further to Zexiv's curiosity.

Zexiv's next record was an old LP of his father's, the American release of "A Hard Day's night" ( Zexiv remembers that one of their household help used to ask him to play over and over again two songs from this record - "I Should Have Known Better" and "I'm Happy just to Dance with You"). With these two records, Zexiv was hooked. He discovered someone who sat in front of him in the school bus was also a Beatles fan and ended up borrowing a lot of his records, amazed how easy the band's songs grew on you. He also discovered a Saturday special on this AM radio station in Manila called DWKW, where they played nothing but Beatles music the whole morning and would make sure he woke up early to catch the whole program. He also added more of the band's records and cassette tapes to his collection, buying them in this huge department store in the financial district.

For Zexiv, the Beatles were one of the greatest things he experienced at that age. It was his admiration for the band that later made him switch from the octavina to accoustic guitar in the Rondalla and beg his parents for an electric guitar. He found this huge poster taken from the front cover of The Beatles' album" Let It Be" which he hung up on the brick wall above the side table between his and Inverbras' bed. In school, a lot of his schoolmates his age were into more modern and harder rock bands like Led Zeppelin, making Zexiv sort of an oddity in terms of music taste but Zexiv was oblivious to all this. After all, was there any other band that had as many number one hits as The Beatles? He later felt secretly vindicated hearing a grade school teacher telling the class one day that they got the idea of wearing their hair long from The Beatles. He also remembers the teacher in Religion class in seventh grade telling the class to bring a picture of someone they really admired and looked up to. Zexiv proudly brought a picture of Paul McCartney, and talked about him being a brilliant composer and leader of a famous band, as well as a very talented bass guitar player.

The tragic death of John Lennon affected Zexiv immensely at the time. Zexiv was then in high school, and this came as a big shock to him. It was like losing someone he had grown up with. And aside from dashing forever Zexiv's hopes of a Beatles reunion someday, it also signified for him the end of an era - the end of carefree days of childhood and the start of the turbulent teens ...

Zexiv continued to listen to Beatles records as he grew older, gradually replacing his collection with CDs. While attending graduate school in the U.S. he had the opportunity to watch a live concert of Ringo Starr and his All Star Band and Paul McCartney's "Liverpool Oratorio" in New York. He remembers waiting outside the theatre after the performance of Liverpool Oratorio together with a small group of die hard fans and being quite overcome with awe on seeing Paul McCartney in person. He is somewhat embarassed to admit now that he was one of those shouting out Paul's name at the top of his lungs, along with others in the crowd.

He has somewhat been able to successfully convert Puff to being a Beatles fan, after they both saw a tribute performance to George Harrison, after his death a few years ago, by The American Ballet Theatre. Her favorite Beatle is George, while Zexiv's favorite members are Paul and George .

Yes, The Beatles may no longer be around as a band but their music will likely be enjoyed for many years to come. Maybe someday Zexiv's little nephews and nieces may learn to like them too ...

P.S. Incidentally,the title of the video above, "Something" (sung by George Harrison), is one of Zexiv's favorite Beatles songs. It is considered by Paul McCartney be the best song George has ever written, and by John Lennon to be the best song in the album, "Abbey Road". This is quite a tribute to the silent Beatle who was continually overshadowed by both John and Paul, but came out with some of the band's most memorable songs in their final years. The Beatles are shown with their wives then - John with Yoko, Paul with Linda, George with Patti, and Ringo with Maureen. Patti Boyd later ended up with George's friend Eric Clapton, who also wrote a song about her called "Layla". She is very pretty here ...