Archive for February, 2011

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 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 @MAXguide, a new arts and culture guide headed up by Metro Vancouver. In their words…

“MAX is an acronym for Metro Arts Xperience. MAXguide is Metro Vancouver’s new online arts and culture guide that provides free listings of arts and culture events for arts organizations, individuals and selected arts and culture businesses. It features a clean design and easy-to-use interface, advanced search capabilities, image, video and social media. It provides easy access to links to tickets, reviews, professional associations, and volunteer opportunities and in the future will also host an archive of past events.”

We’re excited to see the growth of MAXguide and to see how other arts and culture organizations, like our own, will use it to get the word out about stuff they’re doing in and around Vancouver!

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

Our friends at Novus TV just produced this piece about the feature film Fathers & Sons from acclaimed Vancouver-based director, Carl Bessai. The film is a dark, dysfunctional comedy about the relationships between various fathers & sons from all walks of life and in this piece two of it’s stars (Manoj Sood and Stephen Lobo) discuss the storyline and their experiences making the film.

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 5: Popcorn Launch party and tweetup, organized by Dennis Pang, Amy Elderkin, and Nick Routley at The Refinery on February 23, 2010. Hasthtag: #PopcornLaunch. More photos available on Flickr.

A few notables from Vancouver’s social media community joined together to launch a new business venture, kickstarting their new restaurant/hospitality focused social media and promotions endeavour called “Popcorn”. They decided, fittingly enough, to celebrate with a party and tweetup.

Keeping with the popcorn motif, they had their own popcorn maker on scene. According to the trio, Popcorn represents a social snack and coming together of ideas for socializing and business.
…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Are you braving the cold and heading out to the winter farmers market outside Nat Bailey Stadium tomorrow? it goes 10AM-2PM. Click below to check out an interactive map that gives information on each of the vendors so you can map your plan of attack. In and out! Or you could just dress warm.

Also, did you know that Vancouver Is Awesome Inc is a sponsor of the Vancouver Farmers Markets? It’s true!

A couple weeks ago Brooklyn’s Das Racist hit town for a gig at Fortune Sound Club. Through the magic of twitter I was able to secure an interview! And errr, here it is ! Doot doola doot doo …

Nardwuar vs. Das Racist

Stay tuned for another interview next week and if you can’t wait then head over to NARDWUAR.COM, FACEBOOK.COM/NARDWUAR or TWITTER.COM/NARDWUAR!

UNPLUGGED is a state of mind. It’s that point in your consciousness where you can feel at one with nature, escaping the trappings of the day-to-day to an almost dream-like place where nothing else seems to exist besides you and your natural surroundings. It is our opinion here at VIA that Vancouver holds a unique place in the civilized world in that reaching this state often requires no more effort than simply pulling off to the side of the road, pocketing your keys and taking a few steps into the forest. Perusing the UNPLUGGED Flickr pool for shots to showcase I came across a photo that flashed me back to last summer. It was the first time I had seen one of the “guess where” posts that pops up on these pages every now and again by Jef Choy called Places Where Kids Drink. Today’s shot fits both the UNPLUGGED theme of escape into the outdoors and Jef’s theme of, well, places where people go to drink. It’s called “Found Drinking Fort” and it was shot by Gary Hubbs on 35 mm film in his pre-digital days. Thanks for sharing Gary.

By the way, please don’t forget that if you want to see your outdoor photo’s featured at VIA, submit them to our V.I.A. UNPLUGGED Flickr pool.

Last week I introduced you to artShuffle.ca, the fantastic new arts/video sharing web site created by the Knowledge Network. In their words…

Sharing and discovery. That’s what artShuffle.ca is all about.
artShuffle spans artistic disciplines with short films under five minutes. For artists, it’s a chance to share your creative work online and on television. It’s also a great place to connect with other artists and promote events. For art fans, there’s lots to discover. Meet new and established artists through their stories, performances and art.
Knowledge Network, BC’s viewer supported public broadcaster, will feature select films on air in 2011.

There’s a lot to click through as a user and there’s even a lot more in terms of opportunity for people who are producing video work to share, get exposure and have a chance at having your work shown on the Knowledge Network. In my first post about artShuffle.ca I shared a comedy video, today I’m sharing the trailer for a Canadian documentary that’s in the works and is all about hip hop in our country, and from the looks of it most of what’s been filmed so far has been in Vancouver. There’s some heavies in here including Grand Analog, Chin Injeti, Moka Only, Shad, Z-Trip, Maestro and more… …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>