A Vincent Mounier Photography Blog
Behind the IMAX scenes - A story of geeks and magic
April 9, 2007
It might be Easter, but last night was Christmas. No, really: I was invited to a private "behind-the-scenes" visit of the IMAX theatre at Canada Place. Now, I’ve always been a big fan of the IMAX technology, just because it’s bold and it’s good and it’s large and it’s daring. But thanks to John, the senior projectionist, I spent an hour and a half in movie wonderland, on the other side of the curtain – so to speak – and the IMAX magic finally evolved in my mind...
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Living the Livable Life, Live...
It was in the newspaper; Vancouver has once again been ranked third most livable city worldwide in a 2007 Mercer survey, ex-equo with Vienna. The first and second positions went to Zürich and Geneva, just like last year.
It's obvious that the survey doesn't account for 100+ km/h windstorms, massive forest destruction, city-wide water contamination, one of the bleakest winters ever, tears in stadium roofs and in public pride, real estate prices culminating in the vicinit...
Google introduces TiSP (Beta) and paper email
April 2, 2007
Well the folks at Google outdid themselves today by introducing two brand new services, as always free and innovative. TiSP is an in-home wireless broadband deal and Gmail now supports paper email. It seems that some people are more likely to sign up for these offers if checking their email in the early morning... Good times! ;-)
Backpaddling
March 27, 2007
Well, consequence of sheer peer pressure, I will now rectify the tone of my last - rather gloomy - post and sing this, which I borrow from Bob Marley:
"Singin: Don't worry about a thing,
Cause every little thing gonna be all right!"
And
"Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
cause none of them can stop the time."
"Tout le monde il est beau, tout le monde il est gentil."
Jean Yanne
Sharkwater
March 26, 2007
I am sitting in a Yaletown coffee shop. Today, I went to see Sharkwater. I had to, of course. The movie had been calling me ever since I had heard about it. I’m not sure what exactly I had expected it to be. Another documentary with extraordinary images; a trip down the memory lane; a politically correct version of Deep Sea 3D; a few well-spent dollars. I had assumed I would walk out of the theater with a grin on my face and a renewed urge to dive, with maybe a glimpse of ...
Le roi est mort, vive le roi
March 24, 2007
My good old "HAL the pal" has finally retired, after a long and distinguished career. In comes "SAL the gal", because I've decided that computers should definitely have feminine names (don't get me to explain why!) For those wonderful curious minds out there, my HAL was of course named after Arthur C. Clark's original HAL 9000 (Heuristically programmed ALgorithm computer); SAL is my own acronym and stands for Superpowerful And Lightweight computer. Sh...
At the end of a long, rainy winter
March 23, 2007
The rainy season has been painfully long and persistent this year. Nerves are raw and moral is low. There is, however, usually a good side to all bad things. In this case, it's the amazing lushness of our forests. On my last two outings to Lynn Canyon Park, the paths were covered with moss and for a change, the thundering nearby river lost the focus of both my attention and camera...
At the heart of all things
March 20, 2007
Vancouver is the 3rd largest Canadian city. All right. That being said, it also in many ways feels like little more then a large village. With an extremely dense downtown core such as ours, everything one could possibly need happens to be so close it's almost too easy. So on a rather quiet night, I sat down in front of my very sick computer and with invaluable help from the Gmaps Pedometer, I decided to plot a set of straight-line distances from home. Here are the result...
The long, slow skid out of control
March 14, 2007
It was April 1993. I think I wrote:I am in Bangkok at night having dinner with a group of Germans in a restaurant serving sauerkraut, driven around by a chauffeur in a luxurious car, and going back to sleep in a fancy tower, with this girl I’m not sure to really know after all, in a bed surrounded by African sculptures. The evening flows by slowly without letting me get a grip on it. I can’t clearly grasp where I am or why. Thailand has moved back to a remote corner of m...
Houston, we have a problem...
March 12, 2007
My computer HAL says that it's just picked up a fault in the AE35 unit. It's going to go 100% failure in 72 hours. That means the blog is going to be rather silent for a while. I'll be forced to rely less on HAL and to explore a different space. I hope it'll be full of stars.
Shades of grey
March 7, 2007
On a dull, bleak winter day, West Vancouver's Lighthouse Park is quiet and the trails leading to Point Atkinson are almost empty. Once standing on the rocks by the ocean, at the very edge of the park, the city is forgotten as the entrance to Howe Sound reveals itself, dotted with islands and lined with snow-capped mountains. It's a world that seems to belong to the eagles circling overhead.
We deal in memories
March 5, 2007
It could be said that tourism is based on a combination of factors such as efficient advertising, convenient transportation, a hospitality infrastructure, local attractions, interesting geography and contrasting cultures. The higher these factors are rated, the better our potential as a tourist venue or destination. The product is then supported by outgoing, friendly and knowledgeable staff – thus actually fitting tourism in the service industry – and we usually leave it...