Recent Stories with tag canada

Courtesy WSDOT

On their blog, WSDOT own up to being "frustrated with mudslides along the Amtrak Cascades rail line." Part of the appeal of rail travel is reliability, but that is simply not a feature of the Cascades route. Now, with the wet winter we've had, you might have better odds at the roulette table.

"There were 16 mudslides that kept 90 trains from reaching their destination in Dec. 2010 alone," says WSDOT. "Normally, we average anywhere from three to 10 mudslides over a six-month period, but in the last three months we’ve had nearly 20." 

And it's not slides in the hinterlands: 35 of those 90 trains were thrown off-schedule by slides in the area between Seattle and Everett alone, an area that also affects Sounder trains. It's safety protocol that after any mudslide that threatens tracks, passenger rail service be halted for 48 hours. Though Amtrak tries to create "bus bridges" where possible, there's not always enough free bus capacity to handle bumped train passengers.

In the comments section of the blog, passengers lobby for a shorter post-slide window, 24 hours, with a 20-mph speed limit in slide zones, and for Amtrak to at least run trains as far as is feasible up to where a slide has occurred, rather than canceling the whole train.

Unhappily, the mudslide problem is not being addressed with all dispatch. WSDOT notes:

We are working with Sound Transit, Amtrak and BNSF to find a solution. The biggest challenge is funding. Before we can start any improvements, we have to complete an environmental assessment (EA) to determine potential key environmental impacts before beginning any construction. There is currently no funding for the EA – without it, we can’t begin construction to fix the problem.

Right now, WSDOT would like to get their hands on federal rail dollars refused by Florida. But otherwise, the main mudslide prevention activity anyone is engaged is hoping the rains stop. (Good luck with that: "Heavy rains linked to humans.") At that point, Amtrak Cascades unreliability will be determined by more mundane factors, like slow freight trains (44 percent) and bad tracks (37 percent).... (more)

There is one very important feature about your Washington State Enhanced Driver's License that you should know. It's good for crossing the border into Canada and Mexico (and Bermuda and the Caribbean)--but only by land or sea. Not by air. If you're flying there, make sure your passport is ready to fly with you. 

Don't have an EDL? See my previous story, "So You Want an Enhanced Washington Driver's License": 

Seattle residents have two EDL choices: the downtown DMV office or what's charmingly known to the DMV as Seattle-West. At the Seattle-West (known to locals as "West Seattle") location, they only take walk-ins for EDL applications, and stop taking applications 30 minutes before closing (closing weekdays is 5 p.m., Saturday, 2:30 p.m.).

The subtitle of this story is, "I ruin my vacation so you don't have to," since I discovered this useful fact while failing to fly into Mazatlan this past weekend. I thought about renewing my passport by appointment (which you can do if you have proof you're traveling in 14 days or less), but I was also sick with the flu. As it happens, I was sick with the flu when I got my last passport pictures taken, so I've been officially red-eyed and pasty for a full decade, and couldn't face another ten years of that. It was also a courtesy to my fellow travelers. ... (more)

The elation over the extension of the second daily Amtrak run between Seattle and Vancouver is shared north and south of the border, despite the contretemps being instigated by the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA), who wanted someone on the U.S. side to pay some $550,000 per year to defray customs inspection costs.

Washington's Governor Gregoire was "vexed" by the CBSA's original move, and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. ambassador to Canada David Jacobson eventually bent ministerial ears in Canada as well.

Crosscut broke down those costs as $1,500 per train, which the Washington State Department of Transportation, which sponsors the route, was unwilling to pay itself, or try to extract from passengers in the form of higher ticket prices. WSDOT Secretary Paula Hammond estimated the economic benefit to Vancouver at almost $12 million. (The CBSA, in turn, argued that they'd only agreed to waive the staffing costs for a pilot project lasting the duration of the Olympics, and weren't sure the post-Olympics tourism would bring the same economic boost.)

The potential economic benefit played a large part in the announcement Canada's Federal Public Safety Minister Vic Toews that "the border services agency has reallocated about $800,000 to cover the cost of the second U.S. Amtrak train into Vancouver per day," as CTV News reports. Essentially, the train has a year to prove that it's a net money-maker for the province. Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson hailed the decision as a "no-brainer."

Through the rest of October, by the way, train passengers can snap up promotional offers from twelve different Vancouver attractions.

The 35th Annual Toronto International Film Festival wrapped up yesterday with the Cadillac People's Choice Award--there's no festival jury, so this is TIFF's only award--going to The King's Speech, an English period piece about King George VI (Colin Firth) ascending to the throne and seeing a speech therapist. That award automatically puts the film in the Oscar race, as Toronto (and Telluride, more and more) now marks the beginning of the frantic award season. (And see Juno, Precious, and Slumdog Millionaire as examples of films that got the start of their Oscar campaign at Toronto.) 

Besides that, there seemed to be not as many heavily buzzed-about films at this year's TIFF. If you want to get into the word on the street, I heard that Danny Boyle's new film 127 Hours (about hiker Aron Ralston, who had to cut off his arm in order to survive) was good; It's Kind of a Funny Story (about some crazy teenagers and an institutionalized Zach Galifianakis) was bad; and Darren Aronofsky's psychological ballet thriller Black Swan got mixed reviews (critics seemed to like it more than the general public). Nonetheless, I know I'll end up seeing all three.

My final festival film was Rabbit Hole, an adaptation of the 2007 Pulitzer prize-winning play about a husband and wife's grief after the accidental death of their child. On stage, the couple was played by John Slattery and Cynthia Nixon, which in the film is translated into Aaron Eckhart and Nicole Kidman. That makes sense--in both cases, he's charming and she's brittle. Both actors give strong performances (they've got the material to do so), and the patient, mature direction is surprisingly care of John Cameron Mitchell, best known for Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Shortbus. The film fleshes out aspects of the play, adding characters only mentioned in the original piece, as well as throwing in a support group subplot that is entirely unnecessary. But despite all those positive attributes, Rabbit Hole runs into the eternal problem of turning a great play into a film (see Doubt): The exact reasons that a play works well--the focus on the words and the big speeches and the acting flourishes--are what limit it as a film. Simply put, I like Rabbit Hole the play more.

My companion and I hit Courtenay, BC, around mid-day Thursday and Courtenay, much like the singer of similar name, hit back. I have to admit, I should have seen it coming.

On the ferry to Nanaimo, I got into the most cordial throw-down of all time with a lovely woman who was herself going to Courtenay. The woman asked to buy a cigarette from me. I offered her the cigarette free of charge. She insisted that she couldn't possibly. I protested that as I was not a licensed tobacco vendor, it would be illegal, as well as unethical, for me to accept her money...et cetera.

Eventually, my nameless new friend took the cigarette and kept her money, and I spent the next ten minutes hearing about her various offspring. Mixed in there somewhere was a brief mention of something called the Seniors Games. We parted on good terms, but I should have Googled "Seniors Games."

The BC Seniors Games are an annual competition in which members of the hip-replacement set come together to compete in events ranging from archery to Whist. (My ferry friend was competing in the Bridge tournament.) The games are held in a different location each year. This year, the silvered thousands descended on Courtenay for the weekend, vehicles circling downtown in a Miltonian search for free parking. Belligerent old men were knocking people over to get first into queue for restaurant tables (I have the bruises to prove it), and every hotel, motel, B&B, guesthouse, and RV park in the Comox/Campbell River Valley was reported to be booked solid.

So, of course, the B&B we'd booked (and confirmed twice) had been double-booked by the flaky reflexologist (is that redundant?) who owns the place, and the other couple had arrived first. Vera greeted us with a blank stare, followed quickly by horror, a rapid search for alternate accommodations, and the offer to pay for said accommodations. This time, I accepted an offer to pay without hesitation. I have no idea what our very nice room in a chain hotel ended up costing, nor do I particularly care. By the time we settled in, we were tired, cranky, stinky, hungry, and feeling very, very ugly-American, though trying hard not to show it.... (more)

I was thinking that I had been lucky at TIFF so far. That while everything I saw hadn't been exactly to my liking, every film had had something interesting about it, and none of the films were truly bad. And then I saw Passion Play. The film stars Mickey Rourke as an old broken-down piece of meat (the role he will continue to play until whenever he decides to stop acting again), this time as a washed-up, ex-druggie jazz trumpeter who falls in love with Mexican circus sideshow bird girl Megan Fox. Not even Bill Murray as a murderous corrupt businessman/pimp named Happy can redeem this film (though he certainly tries). And the romance between the two leads is certainly cringeworthy, since it's not so much beauty and the beast as it is beast and the beast--one is a circus freak, and the other is Mickey Rourke.

Casino Jack (not to be confused with the Alex Gibney documentary on the same topic with nearly the same name) stars Kevin Spacey as Jack Abramoff, another asshole role that Spacey can add to his asshole filmography. Spacey takes on the role with great relish--due to Abramoff's real-life love of movies, he gets to show off his impersonation skills--with Barry Pepper as his partner in crime, Michael Scanlon. While the film has its moments (and Jon Lovitz, as a mob-affiliated businessman, steals nearly every scene he's in), I still prefer the documentary to the narrative feature, if only because the truth is always stranger than the fictionalized version thereof.... (more)

A few things that make TIFF its own special film-going experience: Before every movie, when the warning comes up onscreen that recording devices are illegal and the festival staff will take anti-piracy measures, people throughout the audience do their best lusty pirate "Arrrr." This has been going on for years now. The other pre-movie announcement that always gets a reaction is the slide thanking the festival volunteers. Being good Canadians, the audience claps heartily; being a cynical American, I see this as condescending at best, if not out-and-out (oot-and-oot) patting-ourselves-on-the-back self-righteousness. But that's probably just me.

Not everything at film festivals is dark, dramatic fare; there's some levity to be found if you look for it. Take Gregg Araki, whose Kaboom is totally a dumb fun midnight movie, a raunchy pansexual college comedy that also happens to be about witches, drugs, cults, scary animal masks, and the end of the world. It's kinda John Waters in the Valley, but with much more attractive people and great use of color. Kaboom is uneven and the plot often goes from this to that, so it made sense when the writer-director mentioned that he originally intended the plot to be for a television series. 

Peep World could easily be just another dysfunctional family black comedy, in which a group of siblings comes together for the patriarch's 70th birthday, in the wake of their youngest brother's very thinly veiled account of their family life in his best-selling novel. So of course wackiness ensues. It's the cast that makes this film worth a look: Michael C. Hall, Sarah Silverman, Rainn Wilson, Judy Greer, Stephen Tobolowsky, and Lesley Ann Warren.

Back to the heavy, high-minded stuff, with In a Better World, by Danish director Suzanne Bier (Brothers, After the Wedding). Like the rest of her work, it's a film that requires patience as you allow the story to develop, and even though I saw some of the plot points coming, it's still a profoundly challenging, mature film. At its basest level, the story's about two young Danish boys who become friends, but the film ends up being about bullies and bullying (do you take one on, or do you walk away?), nothing less that what it means to be a man, and ultimately, the relationship between the first and third worlds.... (more)

We headed out early Tuesday morning, bound for beautiful BC. Shrouded by fog, we crawled through Seattle rush hour traffic, stopping and starting until King County receded in the rear view mirror. Just north of Bellingham, the clouds parted, the fog lifted and there were only blue skies ahead.

My longtime companion and I are on our semi-annual trip to see Danny Michel, the Kitchener-Waterloo based musician whom a coterie of devoted fans consider to be the best contemporary English-language songwriter in North America. My companion, a tri-lingual former radio DJ and classically trained pianist and organist, is actually much better qualified to judge these things than I am: she considers Danny Michel to be the best all-around contemporary musician working today, period, end-of-story, talk to the hand. Our individual personal opinions aside, Danny Michel only tours the west coast about every other year, so when he's nearby we drop everything and drive north. Well, she drives. I ride.

The first stop on this year's tour is Duncan, BC, nestled in the Cowichan (pronounced "coe-w'-chin") Valley. Cowichan means "the Warmlands" and is an apt description of the area. Cowichan is the warmest place in Canada, the northern equivalent of the Napa Valley. Wineries flourish, and oeniphiles looking for a fix scorn California in favor of this little-known gem on Vancouver Island. Lodging is relatively cheap, the food is wonderful, Canadians are always delightful hosts, and Vancouver Island is so fantastically beautiful that I would move here in a smokin' hot second.... (more)

Oh Toronto, it's been too long. I was last here for the film festival in 2007, and compared to then, this year's TIFF seems a little slower, a little less crowded. Just one more thing to file under "In This Economy." Not that I'm complaining--for the 35th annual TIFF, the festival has added an eleventh day, as well as opened a permanent base for year-round programming known as the TIFF Bell Lightbox. It's like SIFF Cinema on steroids, with five screens and an inaugural program featuring what they consider to be the 100 essential films of all time (debate away!).

But let's focus on the here and now, and what I have seen in my time at the Toronto International Film Festival since arriving late Tuesday afternoon. From the airport to the hotel and directly to the theater, in order to catch a film that was one of the main goals for this festival: Xavier Dolan's sophomore release, Heartbeats (Les Amours imaginaires). Since his first film I Killed My Mother (which showed at SIFF this year), the twenty-one-year-old auteur wunderkind has screened his second film at Cannes, is already working on his third (Laurence Anyways), and has an idea for his fourth feature (his first in English, taking place in New York). To which I say: Kiddo, slow down, you've got plenty of time.

As with his debut, Dolan wrote, directed, acted, soundtracked, and even had a hand in the gorgeous costumes in Heartbeats, but while he definitely has an eye and an ear for cinema, there really is no there there. The film is ostensibly about a love triangle between Marie (Monia Chokri), Francis (Dolan), and Nicolas (Niels Schneider, who looks like no one so much as Michelangelo's David). Marie and Francis vie for Nicolas' affection, accompanied by so much slo-mo and music that even Wes Anderson would cry uncle. Dolan brings much beauty to the film, and while I implicitly trust him as a director and genuinely look forward to what he does next, I just hope that with age comes maturation in the medium. ... (more)

While Jay will surely address the Seattle food scene, summer and fall are excellent times for excursions, so he’ll also spotlight some accessible food and fun in an "Escape from Seattle" series.

Whistler. Coming off this year’s Winter Olympics, the name conjures up images of graceful and powerful athletes wearing skis and riding luges. Even in the height of summer, there’s snow on the slopes and people (mostly young, mostly with snowboards, and mostly texting while riding up the lifts--or so it seems) ascending high above the village, eventually coming down to earth along with fit hikers and ferocious mountain bikers.

Whistler must be one of the fittest places in North America; there’s a lot of beefcake and bodacious bods—healthy people showing off rippling muscles and summer tans.

And then there’s me.

My exercise: hustling from one eatery to another, and then thinking about ways to burn off some calories before inevitably just relaxing or even napping. Some are calorie burners; I, in contrast, am more of a calorie lover.

Not completely, though. In my one previous visit to Whistler, about fifteen years ago, I found myself in a canoe, struggling to row around a lake. And then, afterward, back to my real sport: struggling to find a decent place to eat. A struggle it was. But now, having heard rumblings that the food scene had improved, it was time for a return visit.

In Vancouver, I reluctantly put away my list of dim sum palaces and ramen joints, and skeptically boarded the Rocky Mountaineer to ride the rails to Whistler. While the trip proved that train food is much like plane food (it’s plain food, indeed), the service was stunning, and the scenery spectacular on the sea-to-sky climb.

Leaving urban for countryside, I found myself quickly relaxed, enjoying the views while sipping post-breakfast wine. My only exercise during those three hours: getting up for occasional walks to the open-air Heritage Observation Car when attendants cued us for photo opportunities of Pacific waters, snow-capped mountains, and cascading waterfalls. Little did I realize how making the 74-mile trip by rail, without worry about watching the road, would be such a wonderful experience.... (more)

An inversion collects the smoke from the Jade Mine Road fire in a valley. (Photo: Ron Ewanyshyn, B.C. Wildfire Management)

Over 1,000 British Columbia firefighters are working on a startling 318 forest fires (map) throughout the province. Blame lightning. Numerous evacuation orders are in effect, and a water bomber crash claimed the lives of two men. Drifting to the south, over Seattle, the smoke's milky white haze has people reporting a red sky or golden sun. Of course Cliff Mass has satellite photos from MODIS.

I'm in the market for an Enhanced Driver's License (EDL) because of my lifelong dream to get around to taking Amtrak up to Vancouver. So I have a trip to the DMV in my future. My dealings with the DMV always seem to involve moments where I ask myself, "Are they serious?" It turns out they usually are, so that hard-won knowledge I pass on to you.

Since the approval of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (Slogan: "You can still travel around the Western Hemisphere, it just takes a lot more personal initiative!"), Washington residents need either their passport or EDL to visit Canada (and Mexico, Bermuda, and the Caribbean).

Seattle residents have two EDL choices: the downtown DMV office or what's charmingly known to the DMV as Seattle-West. At the Seattle-West (known to locals as "West Seattle") location, they only take walk-ins for EDL applications, and stop taking applications 30 minutes before closing (closing weekdays is 5 p.m., Saturday, 2:30 p.m.).

Downtown, they only take appointments (call 1-866... (more)

If you did miss Unity (1918)--there were only four performances over last weekend--it's too bad because tickets were only $5-$10, and the play is quite good. Now you may have been thinking to yourself: A play by Cornish drama students about the 1918 influenza pandemic...is slightly less appealing than the flu itself.

I don't blame you, and that's why, in fact, I was willing to put myself in harm's way. You are not fools, and you deserve to hear when it's not an act of outrageous optimism to attend a student play. In this case, I was curious to see the direction of drama dynamo Marya Sea Kaminski, and guessed, correctly, that she'd do something worth seeing.

Kevin Kerr's play Unity (1918) takes place in the small town of Unity out on the Saskatchewan prairies, in October and November of that year. The influenza pandemic spurred by the First World War is just breaching the defense of remoteness, as soldiers return home. Kerr grew up out there, and it shows in his treatment of the town and its people; he won a Governor... (more)