Out & About

My first point of contact was during the Star Trek reboot. That movie was humming along quite nicely when suddenly here was this young guy doing the Chekov thing. His attempts at entering his authorization code (9-5-wictor-wictor-2) were so delightful I made a mental note to see just who this kid was.

I don’t think I ever checked.  But he had a long resume already.

It wasn’t until last summer, when he started popping up in the movies I happened to be watching, that I was reminded of his existence.  His acting revealed an intelligence that brought more than the usual to his parts.  He was versatile, and could both carry a leading role and do the supporting thing while also stealing scenes. He was good looking (those curls!) but talent oozed out of him in a way that pointed to a long career, even after those curls thinned out and disappeared, as they were already beginning to do.

The great tragedy of an actor dead long before his time is that we won’t have an opportunity to see what he does next. We can check through his back catalog and see what we’ve missed, but after the things in post-production are released, that’s it.  Someone else will be Chekov in the future, someone else will take those parts he would have been great in and he will be forgotten sooner than he should be.

Yelchin didn’t die because he was troubled, or accidentally overdosed, or had been drinking too much, or was driving too fast.  His death was a dumb random happenstance and too bad.  Because we will never see where he was going to go.  We can only imagine.

Here are the three movies from last summer that turned my head.  They show his versatility: a conflicted lover, an enthusiastic musician, a young guy really into a hot girl. All are good in their own way and all were made better by his presence.

Like Crazy

Rudderless

Only Lovers Left Alive

photo credits:
http://www.trekcore.com/specials/albums/rare/yelchin/chekov_pb02.jpg
http://blog.sfgate.com/mlasalle/wp-content/blogs.dir/2272/files/the-faces-of-love-in-the-movies/1-like-crazy.jpg
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CIZ-tfESfUw/maxresdefault.jpg
http://photos.gordonphoto.org/img/s5/v133/p1050419070-3.jpg

The block which houses my bank is soon to be redeveloped.  I saw the sign a few weeks ago.  The new building will be the same old same old: mixed use with retail on the bottom, five floors of offices, five floors of apartments.  We know the drill.  You can see a photo here and also read about the building being the first high-rise in North America to be made of cross-laminated timber.  More photos here.  The second set of photos bug me because I can’t orient myself in space.

I was surprised to see how quickly they were starting.  This is not where my bank is, but is the structure on the other end of the block.  It was an antique store for several years, and of late it has been empty.  It was one story, painted an unattractive color I suddenly can’t recall, and no one will miss this building.  

Here’s my bank.  I asked the teller and she said they would be relocated during construction and then the plan is to come back to the same location.

From the corner.

I also can’t tell from the photo just how much of the block they are taking.  So here’s the rest of the block face.  I’m guessing the colorful building housing LexiDog will go.

I’m not sure if this building will survive or not.  I’m hoping so.  It’s got good lines.

It seems that corner will be very dark, what with the new 12-story building, the condo across the street with the red parts and the condo building across the other street that is yellow brick. That’s three tall building on one corner. We shall see, though.