Archive for December, 2010

If you read our recent interview with Glee star, Cory Monteith, you’ll know that he’s a diehard Canucks fan. Cory must be back in town for the holidays because this photo of him with last night’s game-winning goal scorer, Kevin Bieksa, showed up on his Twitter after the game.

And if you read our interview with him then you’ll also remember this photo below of him at the last Kings/Canucks game last season, the one where we took LA out of the playoffs!

Basically what I’m getting at here is that A: you should read the interview we did with him and B: he should go to every single Canucks game.

Nicholson Road is part of a daily photo project aimed at sharing and celebrating the different communities in Metro Vancouver. Each week Vancouver Is Awesome will be featuring one of the most engaging photos from the project in order to draw your attention a little bit outside of the hyper-focus that we usually have on the city of Vancouver. Metro Vancouver Is Awesome, and you should get out and explore it!

The photo for this week comes courtesy of my sister, from her trip up to the Capilano Suspension Bridge and Park a few days ago. If you grew up in Metro Vancouver, you probably paid a visit to the park sometime during your childhood. If you’re a transplant to the city, you probably heard all about it on travel brochures and found your way up there at some point. If, somehow, neither of these are true, then it’s safe to say you’ve been missing out on one of the greatest treasures in the Metro!

The bridge (v1.0) was built in the late 19th century by George Grant Mackay, a developer and civil engineer. It was rebuilt a number of times, the most recent of which was in the 1950′s (and you thought it was scary today… imagine walking the original bridge made of hemp rope!). The park has quite a intriguing past, which you can learn about while wandering through the grounds, and by visiting the Story Centre pictured above.

Besides the nearly 140m-long suspension bridge, and the story centre, the park also includes North America’s first treetop suspension walkway (an engineering feat that reaches heights of 30m), and First Nations cultural centre, including totem poles.

Plus if you haven’t visited in a while, you may not have seen construction on the new Cliffhanger walkway, which cantilevers out from the cliffside near the bridge – and if that’s not cool enough, sections of the walkway will feature glass panels underfoot to get a totally unobstructed view of the river below. Sounds crazy-awesome to me. The new walkway is set to open in the spring, and I’m thinking I’ll be due for a visit… Who’s in?

More from Nicholson Road can be found HERE.

Every day we share a single photo from our Flickr Pool shot by one of our faithful and talented readers (that’s you!).

Airn Macfarlane presents us an image whose protagonists intrigue me. There’s something going on here that I just can’t seem to figure out, despite my repeated viewings. I find the composition in healing quite satisfying as well, it also keeps me coming back. But that reclined man – has he been trapped in a mall a little too long, or perhaps he has simply overeaten? Either scenario is quite plausible at this time of year.

Gary

By now I hope you’ve either picked up a printed copy of the joint issue of the magazine that we did with Discorder from one of the many LOCATIONS that stock it or you’ve DOWNLOADED the PDF from us for FREE. Over the next couple of weeks I’m going to bring you an inside look behind each and every spread.

Ninth up is a spread containing some cutout dolls designed by Jeannette Ordas and curated by Kim Werker who does our DiYVR features here on the blog. Did you cut em out and color em?

Click here to DOWNLOAD THE PDF of our entire magazine for FREE!

SCENE AND HEARD showcases the independent music scene here in Vancouver. With 24,434+ artists, boasting 109,890+ tracks, the CBC Radio 3 web site is the absolute ultimate authority, and the home, of independent music in Canada. With that massive library along with tools for members (free to join!), we’re taking advantage of what they’ve set up by bringing you a fresh batch of music every week featuring local groups who have tracks (entire albums, even!) on the R3 site.

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Josh McNorton wears many hats in the Vancouver music community. For example, for the THIRD year in a row he has orchestrated One Night Stand – a New Year’s Eve concert featuring local musicians performing as one big cover band. (VIA is excited to co-sponsor it this year!).

Josh (the former lead guitarist of The Painted Birds) also performs instrumental improvised music (check it out here) and when he’s not doing that he books the non-film events at the Rio Theatre and produces live-performance experiences as Infinite Yes.

If you got your ticket to One Night Stand, start getting excited by clicking below and listening to Josh’s playlist. Oh, and remember, there are a few tickets at the door, so come join us!

A new kitty twice a week! Yup, we want YOUR cat photos and stories! Click here to find out how your cat can appear on Van City Kitty.

In honour of those of you who may be traveling internationally this week, and also for my own American in-laws, I’m pleased to introduce Expat Van City Kitty Jazz! Formerly a Canadian Cat, Jazz now lives in Washington, DC with VIA reader Chris Yoh. Here’s what Chris had to say about Jazz:

Name: Jazz Breed/Colouring: Tabby gray (uh, grey) with white boots. Hood: Wash DC apartment Habits: Destroying cardboard, wrestling hands and attacking crickets. Hangouts: Bathtub, right next to the computer mouse, hardwood floor. Other info: He is insane. He’s apparently a Canadian cat, the shelter told me. So he’s pretty big on free healthcare, free booze, cheap meds and hockey ^^ Don’t know his story but am happy he’s here…never thought I’d get along with a cat so well.

Are you looking for a (or another) little furry beast to love? Please check out Happy Tails, our weekly segment featuring the BC SPCA and one of the animals they currently have available for adoption. (You may have noticed that many of the Van City Kitties came from the SPCA!) Check back every Saturday for a new Happy Tails segment!

And if you adopted your pet from the SPCA and would like to share your awesome story on Happy Tails, send an email to vancitykitty@vancouverisawesome.com or Rory.Blanchard@novusnow.ca.

By now I hope you’ve either picked up a printed copy of the joint issue of the magazine that we did with Discorder from one of the many LOCATIONS that stock it or you’ve DOWNLOADED the PDF from us for FREE. Over the next couple of weeks I’m going to bring you an inside look behind each and every spread.

Eighth up is a spread containing a PROOF feature, one that you’ve likely come to know here on the blog as we’ve published a ton of them over the past couple of years in order to expose upcoming creatives and well knowns alike.

On the facing page are an ad from Oddball Workshop (who recently moved into a new spot on Broadway that you should check out) and an ad from the City of Vancouver’s Greenest City initiative.

Click here to DOWNLOAD THE PDF of our entire magazine for FREE!

UBC Botanical Garden is Canada’s oldest continuously operating university botanical garden. The original mission of the garden was research into the native flora of British Columbia. Over the past nine decades, our mission has broadened to include research, conservation, teaching and public display of temperate plants from around the world, particularly Asian, alpine and native plants. We’re also home to the Greenheart Canopy Walkway. Come visit us – we’re located at 6804 SW Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC. You can find more info at ubcbotanicalgarden.org

Christmas Tree Recycling at UBC Botanical Garden
Dates: Sunday December 26, 2010 to Sunday January 9, 2011
Time: 9:30am to 4:30pm daily
Location: UBC Botanical Garden parking lot, at 6804 South West Marine Dr. (first left after 16th Ave. when driving north on SW Marine Dr)

Event Description: Donations raised through the UBC Botanical Garden’s Christmas tree recycling program will be directed to support educational projects at local schools. This year we are supporting the David Thompson Secondary School garden.

The David Thompson Secondary School garden includes a greenhouse and outdoor raised beds that are used by classes at the school. One example use is that students incooking class harvest materials and contribute them to the food served in the cafeteria. At this point, their contribution to the cafeteria is small, butit’s a start. They are looking forward to doing more so they can continue to explore the joy of growing, harvesting and cooking healthy and nutritious locally grown food. A lot of effort has also gone into starting up a gardenclub, which began this year and has big plans for the spring. The garden club is excited to use the funds that will be donated from the UBC Botanical Garden Christmas Tree Recycling Program, to acquire the necessary supplies for starting seedlings in the New Year. These seedlings will be grown and maintained by the students in the club, so they can enjoy hands-on learning opportunities, and nurture an understanding and respect for the environment, food, health, and the cycles of life. As the 2011 Christmas Tree Recycling Program recipients, the students are also looking forward to field trips at UBC Botanical Garden and having Garden staff visit the students attheir school.

Be sustainable and drop off your Christmas tree to be chipped into mulch that will be used on UBC Botanical Garden trails. Please remove all decorations, tree stands, lights and tinsel. Christmas trees only please (no yard trimmings, as potential invasive plants can harm the Garden). Submit your donations in the drop box when you drop off your tree (suggested donation $5).