At the time, they were promoting their third album, Freedom of Choice. The energy dome hats the band wore were fire-engine red, however it was their first MTV video, Jocko Homo, that shook my world. This video was so ahead of its time!

If you were a teenager living off of the late 70′s rock stream, Devo came onto the scene in a slightly frightening manner. The Jocko Homo video featured Booji Boy, a character who appeared from time to time taking on the persona of a small boy — a freakish boy with an odd face mask. Thinking back to that time, I can’t emphasize enough how much of an impact that early video had on me. Bands such as the Talking Heads and the B-52′s were just beginning to flourish, and Devo helped to pave the way for them and other bands to enjoy parallel success.

“Thirty years ago, people said that we were cynical, that we had a bad attitude,” says Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh. “But now, when you ask people if de-evolution is real, they understand that there was something to what we were saying. It’s not the kind of thing you want to see proven right, but it does make it easier to talk about.”

“We’re inspired by reality,” says Gerald Casale, “because the world is so ridiculous and stupid. DE-EVOLUTION IS REAL.”

I knew where Devo were staying in Vancouver. But I’m not *that* kind of fan (admittedly I was tempted!).

With media access to the Live at Squamish music festival, I had hoped to be able to interview the band, however final word from their management indicated that I wouldn’t be lucky this weekend. So you can imagine my surprise when pulling into the festival parking lot on Saturday morning to the distinct sound of lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh working through the band’s sound check!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WLNFOeLRP0

Fortunately for my husband and I, Devo’s sound check was running beyond its given 9:30 to 10:30 time slot. We headed straight for the Stawamus Stage and I proceeded to shoot video and photos while I had the chance. It didn’t matter one iota to me that they weren’t dressed in their trademark Devo gear (which changes several times throughout their set).

The band is not nearly through being cool. During sound check, Mark sang on stage wearing stylish mirrored shades, while the band rehearsed portions from their latest CD, Something For Everybody. “Don’t Shoot (I’m a Man)” (one of the CD’s first break-out tunes) contains several catchy hooks and proves that the band members still have a lot of creative juice left in them. Shivers creeped up my spine when they launched into Girl U Want and then Uncontrollable Urge.

It was as though we’d received a private concert. Only a few dozen onlookers were present, the sun was shining, and the gorgeous natural backdrop of Squamish only served to heighten the experience.

At this point I should mention that the festival included a collection of talent including Maurice Ryan, Said The Whale, Tennessee Three, The Dudes, We Are The City, and Matthew Good (you can view photos of our day at Live at Squamish here).

I spotted several Devotees in the crowd (of all ages), and interviewed one fan (wearing the now-blue Energy Dome hat), asking him to describe his first exposure to Devo.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSFeri51dpc

Before Devo took to the stage, a giant LED screen began cycling through a collage of images from their early days, getting the crowd excited for the first notes to begin. I spotted other fans wearing some pretty offbeat outfits worthy of a few photos, but by then all focus was on the stage.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBN7NCMbKTs

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBK4Uv4hzeQ

The 70-minute set featured a couple of their latest tunes from Something For Everybody, “Fresh” and “Don’t Shoot (I’m a Man)”. They soon dove into their glory days with “Peek-A-Boo”, “Girl U Want”, “Mongoloid”, Whip It”, “Jocko Homo”, “Gates of Steel”, and even brought out Booji Boy for their final encore, “Beautiful World”.

This was a fantastic concert, given the band members are all (excepting new drummer Josh Freese) 60+ in age. Devo perform less frequently these days. Their next appearance will be in Phoenix on September 18, performing at Arizona Fall Frenzy, for those in the mood for a road trip. Oddly enough, they’ll be performing mid-afternoon, and headlining band will be Weezer.

Devo is Los Angeles based and comprise Gerald and Bob Casale, Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh, and Josh Freese. Gerald Casale is credited as group founder in Akron, Ohio, 1973.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg_9eK3SldY

Here’s a short segment of Matthew Good’s sound check this afternoon at Live at Squamish’s Stawamus Stage.

Live at Squamish is a two-day music festival taking place tomorrow and Sunday, September 4 and 5. The weather’s been gorgeous and hopefully we’ll be blessed with the late summer sunshine we’ve been having all week in Vancouver up here as well.

Matthew Good will perform a one hour set at 7:55 pm on Saturday.

For Matthew Good fans, I’ve posted a set of photos on Flickr of the band and the beautiful stage setting that awaits this weekend’s performances.

Compared to a bumper case I’d recently used on the phone, this one is a winner right out the box: It’s lighter and all of the ports remain exposed for ease of use.

The Outfit Ice comes in red, blue, black, and bright pink. The case comes in two pieces that firmly snap together.

You simply lay the iPhone into the bottom portion and click the top rim all around until it’s solid.

Its texture and matte finish feel soft to the touch and the grip feels like I’ve got the phone solidly in my hand.

My personal measure of a case’s success is whether it will automatically launch iTunes using a retractable USB that lives on my Apple Cinema Display. Some cases contain port openings that cover the port in a way that prevents this from happening. This one didn’t cause any problems. Awesome.

I also found no problems taking photos with the camera. The hole on the back of the case doesn’t seem to cause any issues with flash usage.

Overall, I’d recommend this product for its ease of putting on (and taking off) the phone, its weight, and solid design.

The Outfit Ice retails for US $29.99.

I was invited last night to the launch of Opus Hotel’s 100 Days pop-up restaurant, currently taking over the hotel’s former Elixir Bistro space until the end of 2010. It took only six days to renovate the eight year space that they occupied.

The interior has a funky, urban vibe with bright Warhol-inspired graffiti [created by graffiti artist Vince Dumoulin] throughout the rooms and bar. There’s a DJ holding court together with the requisite Macbook Pro. I was told that he’ll be spinning tunes on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights.

Guests were served mouth-watering bites of food from their menu, from Kobe beef to seafood.

There’s great attention to detail. Being a designer, I had a field day in there with my camera. I was inspired at nearly every angle of the space to capture its funky vibe. Witness the exit door.

After 100 Days, the restaurant will again get an uplift, and morph into a world class restaurant incorporating a new design concept, due to open in early 2011. The restaurant is located next to the Opus Hotel at 322 Davie Street in Yaletown.

On a recent foray to Kitsilano Farmer’s Market, I discovered the wholesome yumminess that is Whistler Purebread. As if their display of delectable treats wasn’t enough to draw me in (witness Crack), the smell of fresh baked goods was what got me into the quickly-forming queue. They’ve already acquired a large local following. My husband and I can also personally vouch for their Chocolate Rosemary Sea Salt cookies.

The line-up was enough to convince me to score a few treats for my Sunday afternoon coffee at home. Their Chocolate Brioche is…well, how to put it? A picture is worth a thousand noms.

And where can you taste these godly wonders for yourself?

Apart from Whistler, their remaining Vancouver Summer Farmers Market dates are:

Trout Lake, Saturdays, August 28 and September 25
West End, Saturdays, September 4 and 18; October 2 and 16
Kitsilano, Sundays, September 5 and 19; October 3 and 17

Update: Visit Purebread’s new blog for the latest news.

This statement perfectly captures the essence of the new Museum of Vancouver exhibit entitled Home Grown: Local Sustainable Food, which opens tonight at the museum. MOV has teamed up with FarmFolkCityFolk to bring together communities and their passion for sustainable agriculture.

The large-scale photography of Ontario-born Brian Harris drew me in. His personal style captures the many faces of local food farming. “This series of photos is dedicated to those who see the beauty in small scale sustainable farming,” says Harris. The exhibit focuses on year-round organic farming by season. Displays are thoughtfully married to the photography.

Young Farmers Bhumi Organic Farm, by Brian Harris

A curious addition to the photography is a Communal Wall of Preserves. The public is invited to donate jars of home-preserved fruits and vegetables to the display, in the hope that the wall will grow over the course of the exhibit. Jars of all shapes and sizes (maximum height of 11″, or 28 cm) can be dropped off at the Museum’s front desk for inclusion onto the Wall!

Communal Wall of Preserves

Throughout the fall, look to MOV to host a series of food-based events, including talks, tours, the Food and Beers speaker series (hosted by David Beers, of The Tyee), and others. I hope to cover more of the series in future blog posts.

Small Farmers Are The Future, by Brian Harris

The opening night event is open to the public. Tickets are $15 and available either on the website or at the door. Home Grown at MOV will continue to January 2, 2011.

Going the Distance stars Drew Barrymore and Justin Long, in a romantic comedy with a supporting cast including Christina Applegate, Charlie Day, and Ron Livingston. The film is directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Nanette Burstein (“On the Ropes”) making her feature film directorial debut.

Synopsis: Drew Barrymore plays Erin, whose character’s wit and unfiltered frankness charm newly single Garrett (played by Justin Long). Their chemistry sparks a summer fling, but neither expects it to last once Erin heads home to San Francisco and Garrett remains in New York City.

After a six week romp through the city, they find the relationship is actually worth hanging on to. Throw in Garrett’s friends, Box (Jason Sudeikis) and Dan (Charlie Day), who don’t want to lose their best drinking buddy to yet another rocky romance. As well, Erin’s overprotective married sister, Corrine (Applegate) wants to keep Erin from heading down an all-too-familiar path.

The pair overcome both the opposite coast issue and nay-saying friends and family, fueled by texting, “sexting”, and late-night phone calls.

As far as t-shirt design goes, I’ve been given a pretty cool one to give away to a lucky reader who’s a fan of any of the above actors. In addition, the shirt is a ladies’ slim-fitting Size M*, thus suitable for someone with a small build (or a teenager!).

Leave a comment here (or share on Facebook for an entry and leave a comment when you’ve done so) and I’ll randomly select a winner on Friday, August 27th. Good luck to all entrants!

Going the Distance opens in theaters on September 3.

*I’ve only got one size to give away!

And we have a winner! Heather S, congrats and thanks for everyone’s comments and entries. If you wind up seeing the film, send me a comment and let me know how it was.

Samuel Weishaupt

Their website (half German, half English, depending on where you look), has been tracking their progress and uploading random images along the way. A very cool feature is the interactive map, where visitors can see an overview of their travels.

They’ve secured several sponsors, including Sony Switzerland and Appenzeller Cheeses. Not bad.

The van and trailer are loaded with crazy artwork, advertising from around the globe, and a trailer that reads “over 60,000 miles, 31 countries, and all continents” since their start date over two years ago! If they realize their goal, the two will have visited 50 countries in total.

Their route will depend on weather, political situations, prices, and other sundry reasons that may cause last-minute changes. Still, it’s ambitious and just a tad wonderful to meet someone who’s quit their work and planned for four years of continual travel.

We’re hoping to have the luck of running into them again later this fall, when we touch on the one South American country they plan to visit: Guatemala.

Yesterday I attended NetSquared Camp Vancouver, billed as an “unconference” bridging together non-profits, social media entrepreneurs, and local activists with those in technology and communications. Many of Vancouver’s prominent bloggers in the social media world attended and the effects of collaboration and sharing were immediately apparent. This was truly a productive and worthwhile day spent indoors.

To give you perspective on how quickly a session could be created, I simply raised my hand to ask a question about email marketing and list manager MailChimp, and boom!, a session entitled “Old Skool” was formed with myself and fellow blogger Bonnie Sainsbury. Bonnie is well-versed in email marketing and together we monitored a well-attended 45 minute panel that even included event organizer Elijah van der Giessen.

For those who couldn’t attend, here’s the audio file of the session. The recording volume is on the low end; turn it up!

I posted the distilled text on the Net2Camp Wiki.

Kudos to both Elijah and Darren Barefoot for bringing this unique event to Vancouver! Looking forward to the 2011 NetSquared Camp.

The next Net Tuesday (a mini version of NetSquared) is planned for September 14th at W2 Storyeum.

Are you a closet shutterbug? Grab your analog SLR camera and register for the second annual 12×12 Photo Marathon, coming September 12th to Vancouver.

One roll of 12 exposure 35 mm film, one theme to challenge your creative mind per hour, and off you go, interpreting each hour’s theme to your individual taste. No Photoshop allowed! I read about this event as it unfolded last year and hope to get a ticket in time to partake in the creative brainstorming and socializing that will inevitably unfold during its 12 hour duration.

The brainchild of Morten Rand-Hendriksen, a team of six creative photographers have helped to shape the event and I’m sure it will get a lot of attention. The event has already caught the eye of Vancouver Sun’s Gillian Shaw, who’s posted a story on her weekly tech blog, Digital Life.

Tickets will likely go fast are now sold out, as only 60 entrants are allowed to participate. Blenz Coffee on Helmcken will serve as base for the 12 hour duration of the event.