Vancouver Is Awesome

Artsy!Dartsy! Weekly!

2010-07-28T21:41:41Z

Greetings Vancouver is Awesome readers! We here at Artsy-Dartsy are proud to be new contributors to VIA.A brief background on us: We are Linus and Denise. So pleased to meet you! We love art and design, hence we started a website called Artsy-Dartsy.com to help people like us find out about art and design events in our awesome city of Vancouver!This week there are tons of great events happening. For the full listing please head to Artsy-Dartsy.com.

This week there is a new show on collage! A collage is a technique of composing work of art by pasting on one surface numerous materials not usually associated with each other. Making a collage is fun, easy, and creative! You are going to make a collage to represent who you are. What kind of things do you like? What are my hobbies, favorite colors, and favorite singers? You can put anything that you love into your collage! (via wikihow)
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There are a number of great artist in the group show.
Collage by Anna MacLellan by Alex Stursbery

http://alexstursberg.blogspot.com/

Other notables: The Douglas Udell Gallery is moving and having a farewell closing reception for Drawing to a Close/Drawing to a New Space, and Basic Inquiry Studio and Gallery are having free public life drawing on Saturday! See Artsy!Dartsy! Opening Receptions for details.

On Directing’s Director Angela Kendall

2010-07-28T05:32:44Z

I stumbled across Tegan and Sara’s latest video for their song On Directing today. While it’s good and I encourage you to check it out I was even more impressed when I tracked down the director of On Directing and clicked through a bunch of the work she’s done.

Anglea Kendall lives and works in Vancouver and has worked with the likes of the aforementioned Tegan and Sara as well as Death Cab, Hannah Georgas, Jets Overhead, An Horse and more. Visit her site HERE and be sure to check the demo reel.

Livestock and Adidas Livecup 2010

2010-07-23T21:14:23Z

Livestock added a wrapup post to their site about the Livecup soccer tournament that we played a couple weekends back. Find out who won and take a look at a bunch of great images shot by Chris Bone HERE!

Inside Ethical Bean

2010-07-28T17:44:15Z

Every few weeks the nice folks at Ethical Bean drop off some fresh coffee beans to keep us caffeinated. This morning as I was brewing up a cup of their Bold dark roast I thought about taking a photo of it and sharing with you (like I did with the Lush Sumatran HERE and the Rocket Fuel HERE) but then I caught word of this inside look at their company and figured I’d post it instead. Not only does it talk about their company but it also offers some insight as to what “fair trade” coffee means and there’s also a little “how it’s made” section that’s pretty cool…

Ethical Bean is an epicly awesome local company that not only makes fantastic, organic, fair trade coffee but also sponsors a lot of events around town. They’ll be at Theatre Under The Stars in Stanley Park tonight so pop in for a cup!

The sordid history of V.I.A. headquarters at 115 East Pender! (1 of 3)

2010-07-26T23:51:21Z

Have you ever been to the Vancouver Police Museum at 240 E. Cordova Street? Kim Werker did a BLOG POST about them and one of their forensic workshops not long ago and since V.I.A. moved into the neighbourhood a few blocks away from them I’ve been meaning to go and pay them a visit.

I was chatting with Chris Mathieson, the director of the Police Museum, and he told me to hold off, that he wanted to come and see us first. He asked me for our exact address and promised to dig up some of the police history of the Blim building at 115 East Pender. And dig up he did! Over the next three days I’ll be sharing the 3 newspaper clippings that he brought over to us from the archives, this first one involves gambling paraphernalia, secret doors and underground exits. I apologize in advance for the entirely unpolitically correct grammar used in this newspaper piece from April of 1920 but unfortunately there is no changing the language of the past…

Dogtown Vancouver: Ellie

2010-07-01T05:12:39Z

It’s a new dog every day, click here to find out how to get your dog featured here if you haven’t sent in your photos yet!

Today’s dog featured in Dogtown Vancouver is Ellie, Monica M‘s pup. Here’s what she had to say about her…

NAME: Ellie.
BREED: cocka-poo or cocka-doodle.
HOOD: The Drive.
FAVORITE SNACK: Pretty much everything on the ground or on the table.
OTHER INFO: Ellie is a big dog trapped in a small dogs body. loves BIG sticks, swimming in the ocean but hates being wet and also known to the peeps at havana as their little asshole who manipulates them into not working.

The Playground – Week 12

2010-07-28T15:09:38Z

Welcome to The Playground, a place for Vancouver parents and their awesome kids. Every Wednesday I post a roundup of upcoming family-friendly events and activities. I’m always on the lookout for fun stuff to do, so if there’s something happening that you think I should know about, contact me at theplayground@vancouverisawesome.com. Because Vancouver is awesome for kids too!

In the Playground Week 12: The Powell Street Festival, parades for pirates and Pride, Taiwanese puppetry and more. Read on for details!

Did you make it out to Pacific Spirit Regional Park for Forest Symphony last week? These were two of the many classical performers that filled the park with music Friday evening. We took our three year-old and saw lots of other families out enjoying themselves. Cassandra thought there should be more dancing but she did collect several nice sticks and was quite pleased by the excellent turnout of friendly dogs. A beautiful event, thank you Metro Vancouver!

Here are some fun things to do with the kids this week:

Any day this summer you can head to Klahowya Village at Stanley Park. The Aboriginal Summer Village is free to visit and there is plenty to experience, including dance performances, working artisans, a cultural tour, Aboriginal crafts and cuisine. For more information, click HERE.

Thursday, July 29

It’s the last week of the West End BIA’s “Dinner and a Movie” at Ceperley Meadow in Stanley Park. This week’s offering is the original Karate Kid. Movie starts at dusk (approximately 9:30pm).

Friday, July 30

Carousel Theatre presents free performances of The Taming of the Shrew! The theatre’s Teen Shakespeare Program will be performing The Taming of the Shrew at Performance Works Outdoor Stage on Granville Island, July 30 to August 14. Get details on show times HERE.

The Harmony Arts Festival in West Vancouver kicks off on Friday and runs until August 8. All kinds of fun happening along the waterfront including arts and crafts, musical performances and cinema, and it’s all free. There are lots of great events for kids including Bobs and Lolo (August 4) and Chris Hamilton (August 5). Check out the schedule HERE.

Saturday, July 31

The Powell Street Festival is on at Oppenheimer Park Saturday and Sunday. The annual celebration of Japanese Canadian culture has something for everyone, and this year’s festival theme is especially appropriate for families:

Taking inspiration from the Japanese notion of Koen debut, or Park debut, whereupon neighbourhood toddlers are introduced to their local community, the 34th Annual Powell Street Festival celebrates the idea of neighbourhood, youth, children, the park and its landscape.

Besides dance, music, film and video, visual arts, martial arts demos, an amateur sumo tournament, and craft and food vendors, there will be a Children’s Tent with some great activities — origami, tug-of-war, a Kiai contest (who can make the loudest NOISE!), mask and hat making, and a game called Suika Wari which involves putting on a blindfold and hitting a watermelon with a stick. (Uh, you might want to bring a change of clothes for that one.) You can find more information on the Powell Street Festival HERE.

Any pirate fans in the family? The Spirit of the Sea Festival is this weekend in White Rock, and there’s a Children’s Pirate Parade on Saturday at 10am followed by a Children’s Pirate Carnival all day at Semiahmoo Park. For more info on these and other Festival events, click HERE.

The new Aquatic Centre at Hillcrest Centre opens Saturday at 10am. The outdoor pool looks awesome, looking forward to our first swim!

And, of course, the Celebration of Light wraps up Saturday night with A Tribute to China.

Sunday, August 1

The Vancouver Pride Parade is this Sunday starting at noon. I can’t wait to take Cass — all those rainbows, I think she’s going to love it! Check out the parade route HERE.

Monday, August 2

Finally, here’s something a little different. The UBC Museum of Anthropology presents “A Sea of Puppets”, a traditional Taiwanese puppet show:

“A Sea of Puppets” has been performed in over 30 countries. Join us for a glimpse of one of the most extraordinary theatre traditions in the world, and enjoy the sheer virtuosity of the Taiwanese puppet performance accompanied by traditional music. The show is without words and suitable for an audience of all ages.

That’s Monday at 2:30pm. For more info, click HERE.

That’s all for this week. See you next Wednesday!

Tonight is the final night of the fireworks competition but NOT the final night of the fireworks!

2010-07-28T00:14:07Z

It’s being widely reported that the USA, Spain, Mexico and China are all competing in this year’s Celebration of Light fireworks competition. That’s untrue! The reality is that only the USA, Spain and Mexico are competing. Tonight’s presentation from the Mexican team marks the end of the competition but NOT the end of the fireworks themselves – on Saturday night an epic show by a Canadian fireworks team doing a tribute to China will fill the skies over English Bay, but it is not an actual part of the competition.

Here’s what the Celebration of Light lineup looks like if you’re more of a visual person:

So tonight’s the end as far as judging is concerned. Tonight we 7 judges (check my post about judging HERE in case you missed it) will deliberate and choose the winner and that country’s name will then be sealed in an envelope which head judge Jill Krop will be keeping in her purse for 3 days until the winner is finally announced during Saturday night’s presentation. I’ve been told there’s a trophy for the winner and I’ll do my best to get a photo of it for you.

Viva Mexico and good luck to all 3!

Fee, Fi, Fo GRUM! 2 Tix to Grum at Shine Nightclub

2010-07-28T19:05:20Z

Two Tickets to see Grum (and two complimentary bevvies!) at Shine Nightclub in Gastown on Saturday Night!

According to his MySpace, Grum is “Electro/Disco House/French Pop.” So, definitely, this would have been in the “electronica” section of the record store I worked at.

It is very high-energy, get-yer-ya-yas out dance music, and if you feel like you and a guest need to remove the burden of your ya-yas at some point over this long week end, you may want to enter the giveaway. (Also, the winner gets a couple free bevvies so you can feel like a bit of a rock star with your friend.)

To enter the contest, tell me and many other Vancouver is Awesome readers what your ya yas are (if you have any) and how you plan to get rid of them this weekend (weather permitting.)

Contest closes Friday, June 30 at 5:00 pm. Winner will be picked at random and contacted via email. Sorry, no minors.

You can even follow Grum on The Twitter!
And if you haven’t yet, you can even follow Vancouver is Awesome Giveaways!

Good luck!

WEEKLY SKIM PHOTO….

2010-07-27T04:17:19Z

Nori Kariya….Kamikaze Layback….