While on a flight from London for his first visit to Vancouver in October 2010, novelist David Mitchell records a description of what he imagines the city to be, “to protect my imaginary Vancouver against reality” [Geist, #80].
Excerpts:
“I find a park bench in my imaginary Vancouver, and see a dad throwing a baseball to his son, and my heart vibrates to minor chords.” …
“I think of Douglas Coupland, William Gibson and Wayson Choy, and I think, What a place, and am filled with an intense desire to be twenty-seven again, and buy a house here, and see if I can make fewer mistakes a second time around.”
Mitchell has not, to our knowledge, published a record of his impressions of the Vancouver that he actually found here. And it’s not clear whether, in the above excerpt, he is fantasizing about buying his Vancouver house when he actually was 27 (back in 1996), or whether he would like to be 27 now, and be buying a house at current prices. 
[By the way, we recommend David Mitchell's books; he's a truly great writer, with a fine imagination.]
I was wondering why David Mitchell would give a shit about Vancouver. Then I realized it was the less witty and humorous one.
matt -> Which of his books have you read?
I’ve never read any of his books.
On the other hand, this guy is my hero:
http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/10g/AutomaticWorkloadRepository10g.php
whoops, not that, http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/davidmitchell
+1
Vreaa: Can you postion this in the front page ASAP?
People in the Vancouver City Hall: Can you please the Property tax Cheques? I am not surprised, the City Hall can miss $5,000 in interest/day for not walking the cheques to the bank. (If you paid the tax in City Hall in July 5, it is still not cashed as of today)
Tips: to City Hall accountants. You can skip the paperwork now, and walk to the RBC across the street. It will the most expensive walk in history of Vancouver
Chris, email Suzan Anton, Michael Geller, and other NPA types with their fingers into the media. They will highlight it tout de suite. (They need all the help they can get!)
I’m not familiar with this guy’s work but I am a huge fan of the other David Mitchell (Peep Show, Mitchell and Webb, etc).
When I get home from work I’ll try to track down the (other) David Mitchell interview where he talks about how happy he is being a renter as he’s saving tons of money and prices are going down at the same time.
It doesn’t actually say whether he owns or rents but you get the idea:
“Well, my policy at some point is to sort of upgrade but I know it’ll be a long process,” he offers bashfully. “And also,” he explains, beginning to laugh, “the later I wait, the nicer the next place I get will be. And that’s doubly happening now,” he grins triumphantly. “I’m stockpiling cash, and prices are going down. So I might as well hang on for the stately home.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jun/08/g2-interview-david-mitchell-television
Author David Mitchell…
Oh! Plee…..zeeeee, spare me the abstract BS and actually spend a day in Vancouver, one of the most overrated cities in the world…
David Mitchell did spend a day or two in Vancouver, but he did it after writing this piece… that’s why it’d be nice to know his actual impression of the city.
By the way, ‘abstract’ impressions of a place are, in our opinion, far from ‘BS’. They are an integral part of the fantasy/sentiment that drives our speculative mania.
This piece shows that some are besotted with an imaginary Vancouver, even those who haven’t visited. That has been a factor that gooses the market.
Sentiment is ephemeral, and can turn in a moment.
there’s just been so much marketing about vancouver around the world
so much PR – with the usual ‘truth in advertising’ joke left out.