Archive for September, 2009

I’m not sure how many of you remember Sports Page on channel 13… but it was the only real sports highlight show on TV, before Sportsnet and TSN were around that is…

The first time I ever watched it, Don Taylor was on deck. 20 something years later, he’s both on the radio, and on Sportsnet daily.

So, for being there for all the highs, and lows in Vancouver sports, I’d like to wish a happy 50th birthday to a Vancouver icon!

Thanks Don!

I came across the most incredible thing last week. Oh man, this is good…

There’s a local family dedicated to giving away 10% of their modest income to random Vancouverites in an almost sneaky sort of way. A modern day tithe, in early September of 2009 they started this experiment in “guerrilla marketing for a life of connection—between ourselves, our neighbours, and the transcendent (God, Universe, Spirit, whatever name you choose)” and it is on fire!

Basically, they take 10% of their earnings and they dole that out creatively in little surprise parcels around the city, with the simple hope of brightening people’s days. They take photos of the places they left them and then post them on THIS SITE for you to check out and, if you were incredibly lucky to receive one of them, so that you can send them a message.

They do dropoffs every couple/few days and they’ve done a few so far. This one below was one they recently did at crosswalks…

And this one is similar except that they …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

We’re giving away one pair of tickets to Sean Kingston‘s show on October 4th along with an opportunity to meet him in person!!!

All you’ve got to do to enter is send us a photo of yourself wearing a gold pendant with your name on it, kinda like how Sean is doing in this photo above. It could even be photoshopped if you don’t have the means to make an actual jewel encrusted pendant with your name on it. And it doesn’t even have to look real. That’s easy enough, right?

All entries will be put into a random draw and a winner will be announced on October 2nd.
Send entries to contact@vancouverisawesome.com

Here’s another example below, maybe it’s just your initials?
…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

There are so many awesome photos that you’ve added to our FLICKR POOL that we can no longer pick just one a week, so from now on we’re going to be showcasing one every single day!

Day #19 is a photo courtesy of Chris Walker:

Submit to our FLICKR POOL for your chance to be featured on a Daily Flickr Pickr.

We won “Best Navel-gazing Web site” in the Straight’s Best Of Vancouver Editor’s Picks: Media!!! Here‘s the section that has a quick piece on us and the other winners in this category. If you were reading yesterday (or scrolled down today) you’ll notice that (thanks to you!) we also took 3rd place in the Reader’s Choice – Best Local Blog category!

HUGE THANK YOU to the Straight editor who picked us and wrote that nice stuff about the site! It is an honour to even be mentioned.

A few people have asked about navel-gazing, like “what does that even mean?”, and a quick internet search reveals that “the term navel-gazing is used to refer to intense self-reflection, often with the implication that the individual doing the navel gazing is self-absorbed or that he or she is too focused on a single issue, at the cost of ignoring other important issues. Being accused of navel gazing isn’t necessarily a bad thing; sometimes a little bit of contemplation can be a productive pursuit, especially when someone is trying to reach a decision about something important.”.

The kindhearted jab in the title of the Editor’s Pick is likely all in good fun (they wouldn’t give us an award if they thought we sucked, right?) but I think that this serves as a good opportunity to, again, make it clear that we aren’t mad at the “real” news, nor are we trying to change the face of the media. We are aware that if every outlet were to adopt our policy of only delivering the good news that the world would be an incredibly dangerous place. Or, I should say, an even more incredibly dangerous place. We’re not really journalists, we’re more like cheerleaders over here.

We are aware that Vancouver is not a perfect city. There are things about it that need to be changed and there are things that we all have a responsibility to be informed about and perhaps even take a stand on, but V.I.A. is not a forum for discussion on change or complaints, we are the one place that we hope people choose to turn to after they catch up on what’s actually happening out there in their city, serving as a reminder that even though there might be a lot of sucky stuff going down there are still a gazillion awesome things about living here, and that it’s healthy to step back and appreciate them simply for what they are, with no strings attached.

So thanks, once again, to all of you for visiting the site, supporting us, voting for us, contributing to what we do… hell, for just doing anything awesome in the city of Vancouver. Vancouverites are awesome.

Brandy from the Regional Assembly of Text sent me these photos from their last Letter Writing Club (remember?).

This first photo is of the place when everybody was buzzing at the typewriters…

And this second one is after they had …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Ms Nina Mendoza passed me onto this mix by U-TERN a few weeks ago as I was looking for a 80s bugaloo type mix for a wedding. Its now officially one of my fav mixes ever in addition to another mix I uncovered this summer, LUKE MCKEEHAN’s Back to the Lab #1 mix (#2 is dam good too). The mix is BODYWORK VOL. 1 (from 2006 according to his site) and like the Back to the Lab mix, such a nice change from the mashup madness thats out there these days. If 70s/80s disco bugaloo funk is your thing, you best check this. Gotta say too that 80s, synth heavy electro bugaloo isnt rare these days but extra props goes out to U-Tern for making it a such clean & smooth affair that isnt exclusively club crazy bumpin from beginning to end but something you could also be bobbin to while having drinks at a friend’s house and actually still lets the strengths of each original song stand.

U-Tern is a resident DJ of the new Bonafide Saturdays at Shine

U-TERN: BODYWORK, VOL 1 DOWNLOAD
U-Tern makes URB Next 100
U-Tern Myspace

Vancouver artists didn’t fare too well in this year’s run for Sirius Satellite Radio’s Polaris Music Prize but Dan Mangan has just swooped 2009′s “Artist of the Year” award from XM Satellite Radio’s Verge Music Awards.

Like my mom always told me, one satellite radio prize window closing opens the door for another… wait, no… she never said that. But still, congratulations to Dan for winning this awesome award and becoming $25,000 less in debt! In case you missed our recent Most Awesome interview with Dan, here you go.