Archive for August, 2009

Russ Morland’s Timebomb Install sneak peek!

Photo: Judah Oakes

Co-founder and owner of the iconic, Vancouver-based Skull Skates brand of skateboards, the “PD” in Kitsilano’s PD’s Hotshop, the curator of the Skateboarding In Vancouver exhibit at the MOV from a few years back, PD is a living legend within skateboarding. He has been an influence and an inspiration for a good 30 years, growing and evolving his business without sacrificing quality, integrity or his vision on how things should be run. He’s also in love with life in Vancouver, and we’re fortunate to have him share his thoughts with us…

What makes Vancouver so awesome?
The layout of our city is such that you can easily skate, bike, walk or take the bus to get around town, this is important to me after having lived in a city like Los Angeles where you are dead without a car. The people are rad, there are all kinds in Vancouver.

Who’s your favourite Vancouverite of all time?
That’s a trick question… they all have the potential to be the the most and the least favorite depending on …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

A chain that started in Turkey, the English Bay area’s got a new type of snack on its hands – MR KUMPIR: baked potatoes with the monster works. The shop is on Denman, right at English Bay between that (or one of those) cup-cake places and the Babylon Cafe and across from Rain City grill (which ive noticed also has a take out window for fish n chips). Their website is below but not working. Anyhow, with its yellow color scheme and pictures of the loaded potatoes (under the cut), the place gets quite a look when strollers on Denman walk by. I’ll have to skip FRITZ next time and try it out myself.

http://mrkumpirvancouver.com/

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

The Smile On Your Brother charity art show that was supposed to come down today at Livestock has been held over until Sunday, so if you find yourself in Gastown this weekend please pop into the shop and have a look.

Also, I wanted to share the story of the board below with you. If you have a keen eye you might notice that the trucks are on backwards. As we were unpacking the show and setting it up I pulled this board (designed by our very own Calen Knauf) out of one of the crates and instantly said “Oh MAN! Calen is gonna be so bummed that out of all 60 of these boards, somehow they managed to put the trucks on his on backwards… “. Upon talking to Calen though, he told me that he actually specified for them to be put on backwards, mirroring the whole “my first skateboard” spirit that the show is all about, because the first board he ever got he unknowingly put the trucks on backwards. That’s awesome.

Photo: Maurice Li

Vancouver is such a dog-friendly city. I was pretty amused when I came across this gem in Deep Cove. Woof, indeed.

Way back when I was in high school, in the glory days when my stomach could digest cheese and wheat and even garlic, I would take the bus down town to go buy cassette tapes and dollar slice pizza. One particular trip I had already purchased some cassette tapes from the fantastic selection at Track Records (I don’t remember what I bought this exact day but it was probably something amazing like Y’all So Stupid), and I was down to my last few dollars. I had just enough left for some delicious dollar slice pizza (back when it was actually a dollar) and bus fare to get back home. So I headed over to the dirty old dollar slice shop on Dunsmuir to get some pizza. I got my pizza, took a single bite and was heading back down Seymour when I tripped on a cracked piece of sidewalk and dropped my dollar slice face down in one of those puddles of garbage/pee/poo/who knows what else juice at the entrance of an alley. The 3 second rule does not apply when whatever you drop lands in a “liquid” so I left it….. Fast forward to 2009, if I had dropped that pizza in this alley, I could have waited 10 maybe even 20 seconds before I picked it up and ate that slice. Look at it, it’s immaculate not even a trace of garbage or garbage juice, it even gets some mid day sun shine.

I have curated a film night at Blim on Friday August 28th.  It is also the last day that my installation “A Brighter Shade of Pale” will be up. Hope you can attend.

Flim- Projected films curated by Blim Gallery and Artist in Residence, Jennilee Marigomen

1. First film: La Jetee (1962)

In a devastated Paris in the aftermath of WWIII, The few surviving humans begin researching time travel, hoping to send someone back to the pre-war world for food, supplies and maybe a solution to their dire position. One man is haunted by a vague childhood memory that will prove fateful.
(28 min)

IMDB Film Reviews
“A unique, powerful and visually stunning experimental film”

2. Feature: Sans Soleil (1983)

“He wrote me….” A woman narrates the thoughts of a world traveler, meditations on time and memory expressed in words and images from places as far-flung as Japan, Guinea-Bissau, Iceland, and San Francisco.
(100 min)

IMDB Film Reviews
“In the entire history of cinema, there have been only two truly important, indispensable, founding films – this is one of them”

Friday, August 28 | 8pm
Blim | 197 17 Avenue East + Main Street, Vancouver
Projected film | Popcorn | $5-10 sliding scale | Facebook

Mike Mckinlay, who you might know from his exploits on a skateboard over the years, or from his camerawork in Carts Of Darkness, has been working with Vancouver’s Pacific Wildlife Foundation producing some short nature docs as of late, focusing on species that live in and around the lower mainland and beyond.

This one regarding the Pileated Woodpecker, which you’ve possibly seen around town (the woodpecker, not the video clip), is particularly awesome…

Hopefully we’ll be showing you more of these clips in the coming weeks and months. Stay tuned!