Archive for January, 2011

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.

Today’s Van City Kitty was sent to us by VIA reader Kelly Roebuck. Here’s what Kelly had to say about him:

Name: Picasso AKA: Senor, Chairman Meow, Meow Meow, Casso Breed/Colouring: Marmalade tabby Devon Rex Hood: West End Habits: Jumping and climbing up his owners for cuddles, checking the weather in the morning (uses his paw to pull down the blinds and then proceeds to push his head through the blinds to check the weather for Mom), pretending he is a basketball player with his Harley Davidson plush ball, sneaking a drink of water out of the human’s glass or from the shower/bath, watching for ‘birdies’ out the window, chasing flies, and when not super-glued to the cat bed in front of the fireplace, he is an excellent party host – making sure to personally great all visitors at the elevator. Hangouts: Bed in front of fireplace, kitchen, kitchen, kitchen, under the quilt, in the wardrobe snuggled in clothes, cat tree, sitting on the edge of the bathtub…and the kitchen… Other info: Picasso’s daddy is allergic to cats. This caused a dilemma for the love of his life who is obsessed with cats and could not live without one. We heard about the crazy breed—Devon Rex—that is suppose to have less fur than most cats, hence being a bit better for allergy sufferers. There are still sneezes but no death by cat (yet…ahem) allergic attack. We couldn’t imagine life without Picasso. Turns out Devon Rexes are not only good for allergy sufferers, but are very social and affectionate creatures. Cuddles and purring are a-plenty.

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.

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

Weather is a pretty big deal in Vancouver. Ever-changing. Elusive to accurately predict. Usually wet, but also usually fairly warm. But one thing that many Vancouverites will agree on, is that only Vancouverites may complain about the weather. David Duchovny of The X-Files ruffled some feathers in 1997 when he described Vancouver as having “400 inches of rainfall a day” and as being “kind of like a tropical rain forest without the tropics”. In 2000, while a member of the Vancouver Grizzlies, Othella Harrington made no local friends when he opined of Vancouver that “it’s a beautiful city – when you can see it.”

Perhaps weather is a state of mind. A case of turning lemons into lemonade. A case of lemonade. And I just happen to like lemonade.

Of course, when faced with weather-related adversity we could also try what Hiestun.Photography did, and that is to rise above it all, quite literally, for a different perspective on things. The result is this photograph titled North Tower.

Gary

Danielle Sipple’s (aka @FierceKitty on The Twitter) “all recycled tshirt punk as f*ck scarves” : $20.

In lieu of the shining beacon of light that is the sun, I ascribe to the belief that the best way to combat Seasonal Affective Disorder and beat the grey weekend-weather-blahs consists of doubling my vitamin-D intake and perusing end-of-season sales.

Ain’t nothing like a little retail therapy.

The lovely Christie Clayton with her Carny Love design, purchased by yours truly for under $50.

In lieu of a January Blim market I toddled on down to the old Dominion building (Hastings @ Cambie) last night to check out 10 Designers, 2 Days, 1 Sale. Designer Kim Cathers‘ (Project Runway!) was the hostest with the mostest, turning her studio space into an oasis of fashionable fun-times (nibbles! music! adult beverages!). A number of local designers were on hand and the prices are pretty good. If you’re looking for jewelry or knit-wear you should head on down today. Take a look at the event page HERE.

$20. For reals.

A lovely evening spent chatting with the ladies, who were more than happy to make sure I found the ultimate birthday present to myself. The Carny Love dress I bought is adorable and I can’t wait for spring, as I plan to live in it for several months. Cotton, lined, exposed zipper in the back and properly darted(!) this dress was a steal and more than 50% off. Christie (who was on the same season of Project Runway as Kim) also talked me into getting a very “edgy” jersey (rayon made from bamboo – sustainable!) cowl-hip skirt for $20 – not something I would have ever even thought to get myself, but she was wearing one and looked adorable. Even though it was outside of my “comfort zone” I decided to take the plunge and I am so glad I did.

Iman would totally approve.

I immediately recognized this gorgeous alpaca scarf from Tegan and Sara‘s “Alligator” video – turns out it’s from a local designer, Larry. Read what Tegan said about it on Vancouver is Awesome HERE.

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It’s a new dog twice a week! Click here to find out how to get your dog posted if you haven’t sent in your photos yet!

Today’s dog featured in Dogtown Vancouver is Lucky, Cory G’s pup. Here’s what he had to say about her…

NAME: Lucky. BREED: Maltese x Shih Tzu x Bichon Frise. HOOD: Surrey. FAVOURITE SNACK: Cereal. OTHER INFO: She was a great and loyal dog who loved to sleep and enjoyed consuming any food that wasn’t her own. Sadly she passed away on January 26th, she will be greatly missed. If you’re interested in adopting a pet, check out our Happy Tails feature. If you adopted your pet from the SPCA and would like to share your awesome story on Happy Tails, send an email to dogtown@vancouverisawesome.com or Rory.Blanchard@novusnow.ca.

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If you’re on Twitter you know that at the end of each week people put together “Follow Friday” lists of their favourite people they’re following and share them with everybody. I’m flipping the script a little bit on this with this feature on the blog where every Friday I’ll feature somebody who includes our main Twitter account, @VIAwesome, in their #FF, in order to shine a little light back on them and what they do.

Today’s featured tweeter is Baron S Cameron, a self proclaimed “Culture Thug”. Baron is a writer, reviewer, interviewer, and I imagine he is a great many other things. Learn about some of them over at his BLOG which links to some of his other blogs and social media channels, my favourite being his OTHER EYES PHOTO BLOG.

Have a look at all of our previous #FollowFriday posts HERE.

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

I found myself waiting at a bus stop yesterday afternoon on my way home from work. Having just seen (and just missed) two of my buses back-to-back, I reckoned it would be a few minutes until another bus would come along.

Then lo-and-behold, the most beautiful and intense colour started to appear in the southwestern sky, growing in intensity with each passing second. I can’t recall seeing a more epic sunset in a long time; I found myself actually hoping that the bus would be a few more minutes, so engaged in the colours that I found myself standing there with a big grin on my face, oblivious to everything else around me. If you caught yesterday’s sunset, you know what I mean.

I was in no position to take a photo where I was, but luckily joannbc did and submitted it to the pool. The stunning Fire Sunset was the result:

Oh, and I should mention that after yesterday’s post, the VIA Flickr Pool membership did indeed reach 1,000 strong; in fact, as of writing this, we now number 1,000 and four! So now we are only 721 photos away from 10,000…

Gary

VANCOUVER DAZE showcases and highlights the social life and scene of our beautiful city, covering all the misadventures and shenanigans at various cultural events, mixers, parties, meetups, and local happenings. We fiercely promote all the fun times the city has to offer along with the interesting people behind them. Follow more of my work/coverage over at RICKCHUNG.COM and on Twitter at @RICKCHUNG. You can pitch me HERE.

Volume 1: UBC Arts Career Expo 2011 on January 27, 2011. More photos available on Flickr.

First off, I want to thank all the amazing people on or offline and those on Twitter who welcomed me warmly to V.I.A. yesterday. I cannot believe the astounding response I got to my announcement, so much so that @VIAwesome and I were trending in Vancouver. I was absolutely floored by  the positive feedback. It was, in fact, truly “awesome”.

To the business at hand, I would like to present my very first social event here on Vancouver Daze. This one is close to my heart.

I was graciously invited a few months ago (seems like forever now) to be a guest speaker and alumni panelist at the UBC Arts Career Expo even before I had a full-time gig. I even joked enthusiastically that I was probably one of the youngest and least successful alumni guests invited to speak.
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