Archive for August, 2010

My obsession. It was real.

In 1996, The B-52s frontman Fred Schneider put out a solo album, Just… Fred.

In the years since, finding this album – out of print, I am sure – has been a minor obsession. As buying Just… Fred on Ebay or paying full price would clearly be considered cheating, my obsession has been relegated to infrequent stops in used CD and record shops for years.

And then I saw … this. Strewn in a pile of CDs and other random moving-day detritus in the alley. Flashbacks to the wicked-awesome “Sugar in my Hog” (featuring Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet) and staccato-creepy cover of Harry Nilsson’s “Coconut” surged through the stuck-in-the-90s college radio station in my brain (and past – I used to DJ). Why would someone get rid of Just… Fred? Who cares, because today he is just mine!

Now I can focus on replicating Kate Pierson’s hairdid.

Imagine 2020. In just ten years, Vancouver will be the greenest city in the world. A vision this bold cannot be realized alone. That’s why the city is inviting you to talk green to them. Share your ideas for making Vancouver the greenest city in the world. Help them make the critical choices. Help them prioritize between blue-sky visions and immediate opportunities. This is your city – make it better. Between now and October 7, add your voice to this life-changing conversation. Share your ideas or vote on the ones you like. The City of Vancouver has ten greenest city goals. Learn about all ten, and tell them how you think they can best be achieved at www.talkgreentous.ca.

GOAL #2: Climate Leadership
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions 33% from 1990 levels

Vancouver’s greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced to 1990 levels and we are on track to meet our 2012 target of 6 per cent below 1990 levels. Vancouver has the lowest per-capita carbon footprint of any major North American city.

This is due to electricity that is primarily from hydro resources, good land-use decisions that have limited the growth of transportation emissions, and the capture and utilization of methane from the Vancouver landfill to produce electricity.

CHALLENGES:
Half of Vancouver’s greenhouse gas emissions come from burning natural gas to heat our homes, offices, shops, and industries. With some of the lowest energy prices in the world, reducing energy use and shifting to local green energy sources will require creative approaches and partnerships.

One third of emissions come from vehicle use. Expanding transit service to meet growing demand will be expensive and is outside of Vancouver’s direct control. Enabling walking and cycling will require us to continue to develop more compact and complete communities and demands re-thinking in how we design and use our roads.

twitter.com/greenestcity | facebook.com/greenestcity
Text “talktome” to 778.938.3424 to get updates and be entered for prizes

Win a Zipcar membership, $200 driving credit, and serious SWAG.

You’ve probably seen Zipcars around town but may not know what they are all about. If you don’t have a fast car and sometimes wish you could just take a free ride, or if you’re thinking about minimizing you eco-impact while saving cash on things like, say, insurance – keep reading.

On September 14th Zipcar is issuing a challenge to all those considering taking the car-free plunge. As part of the Low Car Diet, Zipcar is providing 30 curious eco-conscious souls (with a history of safe driving, of course) with a yearlong membership, $200 driving credit and a “car-free” survival kit filled with car-free necessities (aka really sweet SWAG) from the likes of Translink, Vitamin Water, Cookies of Course, Whole Foods, Waves Coffee, pHresh Spa and others in exchange for putting down their car keys… for a month. Go here to read more and fill out the application form. Must be available for the September 14th kickoff event.

Vancouver is Awesome readers (who also enjoy a history of safe driving) can bypass the crosstown traffic and take the express lane direct to Winnerdom because Zipcar is giving away two of these amazing opportunities. …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Every once in awhile I stumble across something in our city that’s so incredibly awesome that it’s hard to contain my excitement over it. One of my favourite things in the world is being able to share these things with you through V.I.A. with the hope that you’ll enjoy them even a fraction as much as I do. Today I’m sharing one of those things.

I was puttering around on Granville Island (and by puttering I mean I was picking up some fresh fruit from the market and eating fish n’ chips for lunch) when I bumped into an actual store called The Granville Island Broom Co. At first glance it’s …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Have you Tasted the Love yet? There’s still time to enter Vancouver is Awesome’s giveaway to win one of five (it was six but @VIAGiveaways Twittered one away) $50 gift cards to Mr. Mike’s. The Vancouver institution is celebrating their 50th year in the business of tasty burgers and to celebrate the milestone has been donating $1 from every Mikeburger sold to local charities over the past six weeks. You can read more about it (and help them reach their goal of $50,000!) here and here.

In the meantime, you can enter Vancouver is Awesome’s giveaway by leaving your comment here. Contest closes tomorrow!

Hold the bacon. Jules don’t dig on swine.

Last year, around the time that around 10 million sockeye salmon apparently went missing from the Fraser River, David Christian and I did an interview with David Suzuki for SBC Skateboard magazine (here’s the POST I made about the interview). One of the questions that I was excited to ask him was about the mysterious disappearance, and what he thought had happened. He told me that the sockeye are a true natural mystery, beyond anything we’ll ever be able to control or predict. He said that he had no idea why the stocks were low and that nobody would ever have the answer, that the public inquiry into it would provide next to no insight on the matter.

I imagine that in Doctor Suzuki’s life he’s had many I-Told-You-So moments, and he’s right in the middle of one right now as a whopping 25 million sockeye (as opposed to the 1.5 million last year) are in the middle of returning to the Fraser in an attempt to get back to the place where they were born where – if they make it there – they will spawn and then die in their natural cycle of life.

25 million sockeye salmon. More sockeye salmon than have returned since 1913. So many sockeye salmon that scientists are now worried that commercial fishermen won’t be able to catch enough of them and there will end up being too many in the river, that it will virtually become blocked from many of them making their way up. That’s a good problem if I’ve ever heard of one.

HERE is a more in-depth/expert piece from CBC. This is really, really, really awesome.

I recently had some amazing pie and I really want to tell you all about this  thing.  Availability varies as the man in the kitchen makes are variety of great desserts but this apple meringue pie is a must try.  This thing was insane, light meringue, mixed with the bitter and sweet taste of an apple, complemented with a buttery crust and some sugar.   I was freaking out on how damn good this thing was and my sharing partner couldn’t stop talking about this thing (it got annoying but I understand where she was coming from).  Go to ACME Cafe and try some of their pies out, I heard the peanut butter cream pie is incredible as well. …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

‘In The Dirt’ is a series about how the Vanier Park Dirt Jumps came about. The park, which will be breaking ground soon is expected to be complete before the end of this summer. With the help of Chris Young, lead memeber of the Vancouver Dirt Jump Coalition, this short series will look at the process behind getting a park like this built.  An avid BMXer, Chris has tirelessly helped skateboarders as a director of the Vancouver Skateboard Coalition.  With his experience, he’s now making things happen for BMXers in Vancouver.

We left off part one of this series with a bit of history about the dirt jump project, and now we’ll take  a closer look at where we are today. Keep in mind, this process reaches back almost a decade, so if there’s one thing to learn from  reading this series, it’s that perseverance does pay off.

Early stages of construction to jumps (note actual construction may be further ahead than photo….yay.)

During Chris’ 11 years on the Board of Directors of the Vancouver Skateboard Coalition , they’ve had good working relationships with a few of the Vancouver Park Board staff. One staff member in particular that has really helped them over the years was Mark Vulliamy, from the Park Board planning department. Mark has since retired from the Park Board, but he wasn’t a skateboarder, and wasn’t a BMX’er, he was just really passionate about making Vancouver awesome and keeping active. Mark went above and beyond his job, often attending many of our Coalition meetings after-hours and he taught a few of us how the process works.

(Click for waaaay more!)

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>