Freyburg

With the collapse of the economy and subsequent reboot of people’s expectations away from fiscal overindulgence and (possibly) towards what really matters, some people are radically downscaling and moving into much smaller homes. As someone who’s gone from a two level suburban house in Edmonton through various moves, finally co-habitating in a 675 sq ft condo in downtown Vancouver, I have to agree with every point raised in the article. Things can get a little cramped, but that’s got more to do with us being messy than with any fault in the apartment itself.

I dunno what’s better about this video, the cool factor of molding robotic pixels in your hands in real time, or the cheesy corporate canned music and the shots of the boss going “hmm, well, that’s something alright!”

Jonny Vancouver interviews Christian, the owner of Voltage, a store on South Main St. in Vancouver that specializes in cool vinyl toys, arty t-shirts, and general awesomeness. Shot on my HV20 and edited with Final Cut Studio.

East Van Podcast episode 5 from Warren Frey on Vimeo.

For nearly a century, the American dream has been to make enough money to have a really big house (and of course park a couple of cars in a mammoth garage.) But recently, some Americans have taken a turn for the tiny, as small house gain traction. Why? A terminal mortgage market, growing concern over the environment, and a general disillusionment with “bigger is better.”

When I was a kid, I used to ravenously consume my dad’s old Mad magazines. It’s fair to say that a lot of my love of both reading and recent history comes from Mad (my knowledge of the Nixon administration, for one), and I’m glad that my collection has now been passed on to another young guy with an appetite for satire and sarcasm. One of my favorite Mad writer/artists was Al Jaffe, and it turns out he’s still kicking at 87, and still drawing amazing fold-ins for the back page of the magazine.

Designer and fellow Vancouver beer n’ tech buddy Dave Shea just had his new Iphone/Touch icons featured on The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Congrats, Dave!