Archive for July, 2010

Having never been to the Wednesday Main St. Farmer’s Market I thought it high time I check it out. I arrived before 2:00 and thought it was over, until my pal Shaye from The Farmer’s Market informed me that the Main St. Market runs from 3:00 – 7:00! It’s currently the only market that is not a morning start that is also not on a weekend. Next time you find yourself jonesing for a head or organic lettuce mid-week you can relax, because the answer lies at the foot of the Main St. Skytrain station….

As usual, everything looked amazing: heirloom tomatoes are finally available (chilly spring) and blueberries are exploding everywhere. One vendor was selling 2 lbs of for $5! Freeze them while they are in season for a hit of Sunday morning summer sunshine – think blueberry pancakes in the winter …

Cool Beans!

I can’t recall having ever seen purple beans before. A basket of beautiful.

Patrick from Maples Sugar Shack was filling the air with the amazing scent of his wares. He comes to the market every second week, but you can contact him directly for more information.

Those tins of maple syrup are pure Canadiana. Perfectly paired with blueberry pancakes!

Here’s Patrick heating maple syrup for fresh maple taffy. The best part? No yellow snow…

3 Pairs of Tickets to My!Gay!Husband! and Blondtron TONIGHT at Fortune Sound Club

Follow @VIAGiveaways for the trivia question which will be tweeted at 12:00 noon today! The first 3 @VIAGiveaways followers to give the correct answer will win a pair of tickets to tonight’s show at Fortune Sound Club.

Get your thumbs ready, kids.

Good luck!

Jef Choy made a POST a little while back about the abundance of satellite dishes in East Van. Still mulling over the fact that he only has basic cable, he’s told me that he’s been seriously considering getting a dish of his own. Now OMNI Television’s old office sits almost on the East/West divide of the city, almost within the line of site from our office here. The other day as I was getting into work I couldn’t help but notice that they were taking down the dishes from the roof. Are they shipping these to you, Jef?

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! I shared THIS piece with you yesterday and I’ll be sharing another newspaper clipping tomorrow that he brought over to us from the archives, this second one involves drugs. I apologize in advance for the entirely unpolitically correct grammar used in this newspaper piece from January of 1923 but unfortunately there is no changing the language of the past…

George Bowering, what a writer and what a babe!

How long can you read a really good book? Twenty minutes before you pass out? An hour while sunning on third beach? A few lazy hours of a rainy evening?

Well, the daring people of the W.A. Deacon Literary Foundation are taking the art of reading one step further. Friday July 30^th they will be hosting a public reading of the award winning novel Burning Water by the pride of Vancouver, George Bowering. Reading the entire book. For twelve hours. Straight. That’s right folks, from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm there will be a marathon reading at the 700 block of Granville between West Georgia and Robson Street.

Everyone from students to booknerds to onlookers are invited to participate, taking turns reading from the novel for 15-minute chunks.

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

This was the seawall scene from my bike on Tuesday:

There is no better awesome than a sunset ocean view like this.

The sound of drumbeats beckoned me ever-closer to Third Beach, where the regular drum circle crowd was considerably larger than usual. I am fairly indifferent to them, but Tuesday night was spectacular! The size of the crowd, the number of players, the collective energy and most importantly – the music – was just incredible. I was utterly fascinated by one very toned, shirtless older gentleman who was very much in his own mental space, playing what looked like a tin cup. He was clearly in his element and one cow bell away from another late-night home viewing of The Big Lebowski.

You can never have enough cowbell.

The crowd is as much a part of the attraction as the music. Kinda like a meat market, but with a strong drumbeat. A meat market jungle… at sunset.

Check out Brahm’s Tams for more information on Vancity’s drum circles. Have you ever seen or participated in them? What are your thoughts?

Woah, I just came across this amazing local site called INSPIRED BY that features one image a week along with a brief explanation and an invitation to investigate more. In it’s own words…

“This site is a collection of people, places and things that inspire us. They are in no particular order. Some of them are friends, some we do not even know. All they have in common is that they are making a positive impact on the cultural currency of our city. We think its important that you know about them.”

GO NOW!

This Friday night at Fortune Sound Club we are presenting the Eh! Team DJ’s Hedspin & Pump together on the 1, 2, 3 and 4′s. Also it’s the 1st time for Relly Rels to play at the club and it’s the Official Circle Prinz pre-party. Get on the guest list by e-mailing ‘your full name+1 and HED-PUMP’ in the subject box and you will be hooked up! No cover, no line valid till 12am! The boys also made an exclusive mix just for this special occasion that can be downloaded HERE.