Spotted: B-list TV actors doing every day person things, as if they were every day people

Lately I've been experiencing some semi-celebrity encounters here in Hollywood North. Sadly, none of them have any connections with Hollywood to my knowledge, beyond of course their probable aspirations. However, I do admit to being slightly excited about recognizing faces from television shows walk by me on the street, or hit on girls in the grocery line up.
First of all I'm pretty sure that Kandyse McClure, who is only famous to you if you watch Battlestar Galactica - which we do - thinks we're stalking her. Because she keeps walking by us in the most random places. And by us I mean not only TM and I, but the Slinger and AM team as well (welcome to the M&C cast of characters by the way guys). So not only does it seem like we’re stalking her, but we’re stalking her with a POSSE to boot. Here it would probably be appropriate to note that by “the most random places” I mean we saw her at the movie theatre with her boyfriend once, and then walking along Denman with a friend. (And if she happens to be technorati-ing herself right now, or in any way searching for references to her name, by say, googling, because you know everybody does and there’s no shame, and comes across this post – I promise we’re not stalking you, it’s totally coincidental. Welcome!)
So actually, the only thing that distinguishes these encounters from walking past anyone else on the street or in the theatre is the fact that on both occasions I spun around to face TM and made frantic (but discreet!) hand gestures to try and direct his attention. Essentially I was trying to avoid being super dorky and yelling “Hey look! It’s Dualla!” Needless to say I failed. Both in directing his attention, and avoiding being dorky.
Secondly, today in our neighbourhood IGA we watched Kevin Weisman pick up a chick. I am slightly less enchanted by this celebrity spotting because the celebrity in question clearly enjoyed being spotted. He hung around at the end of the grocery line, talking to this girl, and getting in the way, for a full 15 minutes after he had checked out. Also, his jaw is even bigger in person. One has to wonder how many people were staring at him thinking “where have I seen him before?” and how many were thinking “I know it’s not polite to stare, but…” (and if HE happens to be googling and what not – sorry about the jaw crack, man … although presumably that would be difficult).

BC is insane sometimes, Volume II

Scanning the headlines was kind of a mind-blowing experience for me this morning. There are times here when I have to stop and wonder whether these sorts of things only happen out here, or whether I was just studiously oblivious when I lived in Ontario. It’s really a toss up between the two. I can’t remember if I was oblivious – which is probably a good indicator of the fact that I was.

However, when was the last time someone BLEW UP a store front in Toronto?

It’s not only that either. It’s that this city seems to have such periods of relative calm, and then all of a sudden people get shot in restaurants, blow up restaurants, and climb telephone poles.

Maybe I’m totally out to lunch, but let’s just review shall we?

Wednesday morning it took me nearly an hour to get to work because all the buses had been rerouted around the site of where, at 3 am, someone had blown up a Taco joint on Broadway, taking the Starbucks beside it along for the ride, and blowing the windows out of the London Drugs across the street (which, incidentally, opened for business as usual, missing panes, debris and all).

This morning my buses suck again. The reason this time? Some guy climbed a telephone pole downtown and was threatening to throw himself on the cables for the streetcars. And not only that, but there are three armed police officers on the bus I take over the bridge, one standing at each door, complete with earpieces snaking out of their collars. Awesome.

In honour of Valentine’s Day, a thief clears out the ENTIRE STOCK of a florist in South Vancouver. What do you do with an entire store’s worth of cut flowers? Besides having a brand new dumpster full of rotting vegetation…

Finally, and this is what really drove me to post today, a SEVERED RIGHT FOOT, still in its running shoe, washed up on one of the Gulf Islands today. That’s alarming enough, but the really jaw-dropping bit about this story is that today’s foot is actually the THIRD of its kind in the last six months.

What struck me as a little macabre-ly funny about this is that living in this province has seriously reduced my shockability. You not only get the bizarre blend of backwoods, urban, yuppie, hippy, (this province henceforth to be known as the Bourbon Yippy! of Canada); you also sometimes open the newspaper, see the headline “Severed Foot Found on Shore of Gulf Island,” and think “Oh my God! …. Again?”