Archive for May, 2011

DiYVR is a weekly spotlight on all things handmade, done-by-oneself, crafted and hacked around Vancouver, featuring profiles of makers, event announcements, exhibits and general DIY fun. Know someone or something we should cover? Email me!

In the spirit of Bike to Work Week, June being Bike Month, and the general amazing feat that today it was warm out, I thought I’d make this post an open thread about DIY bike stuff.

Tell us, Vancouver, what are your brilliant bike-maintenance tips? Have you come up with a wicked bike hack? Share your smarts in the comments – we’ll make this a page people can bookmark for inspiration and learning!

I’m afraid I don’t actually know a thing about my new-last-season lovely red bike. But I did come across this great video from Etsy on super basic bike-maintenance. I actually feel like I can do something with my bike now. So that means I’m even more eager to learn from you all. Speak up!

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

I enjoyed a chuckle by myself this afternoon when I stumbled upon the photograph below by knitgirl. You see, when you look at a Flickr pool, you see rows upon rows of really tiny thumbnails – and in that small representation, I almost thought the subject of this photo might be a relative of the robot spider down in the Finning Lands. Sounds plausible, no? So I clicked the image to see the larger view you see below, and knitgirl hooked me by the title. Here is new thingamajig (apparently located “at the what you call it.”)

I was going to attempt a one-liner about Tesla, but Edison kept telling me why it wouldn’t work.

Gary

Music Waste is happening June 1st to the 5th and as is to be expected they’ve released a couple of hilarious promo videos! Have a look below and then visit MusicWaste.ca if you’re confused. Actually, visit MusicWaste.ca anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWM9dQyRBrk

(Video produced by Cam MacCleod & The Sunday Service.)

A couple of years back we took home the Georgia Straight’s BEST OF award for “Best Navel Gazing Web Site“, and while our non-profit organization that supports our web site (Vancouver Is Awesome, Inc) is focused on celebrating all of the awesome things that make up our city one of those things is it’s proximity to other awesome places. In Super, Neighbours in British Columbia we take you on adventures to other B.C. locales that we think you should check out. ********** In this current series of posts we’re taking you on an adventure to Sonora Resort up in Desolation Sound. In the FIRST post I showed you what it’s like to fly there with their sister company, London Air Services, by helicopter. In the SECOND I showed you our room. Today I’m sharing a few of the things to do outside of hanging out in your room sitting in front of the fireplace and admiring the incredible view.

Something that I should have pointed out in my last post is that Sonora Resort is a Relais & Châteaux property. Relais & Châteaux represents a collection of luxury hotels and gourmet restaurants, of which there are only 5 in all of Western Canada, and only 500 in the world. Founded in 1954 in France, this logo below lets you know that you are in close proximity to the absolute peak of hotels and food.

I’m going to start off with one of my favourite things: the 12 seat theatre where we watched the Canucks beat the Sharks on a seven-foot wide screen with THX surround sound! It would’ve been uncivilized not to have watched the game while on holiday in BC, in fact it would have been downright criminal.

It’s nice that it’s here and I imagine it’s a fantastic and quiet place to get some work done but for your own good, please don’t spend much time in the business centre! There may be a wall of computers, printers, free long distance to anywhere in the world but I think you need to get your priorities straight!

Get some “business” done on one of the two 12 foot wide …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Our wonderful friends over at Paul Anthony’s Talent Time have released an entire episode of their show online just in time to remind you to go out and attend tomorrow’s LIVE SHOW at the Biltmore!

This episode was shot last year on “Make Somebody Happy Day” which fell just after the olympics and before St. Patrick’s day. It features 14 year old singer Shyann Silva, The Chinese Lion Dance Society, comedians Alicia Tobin plus Graham Clark & Dave Shumka from Stop Podcasting Yourself, Sean Sean the Leprechaun, a lucky charms eating contest and so much more…

Visit TalentTime.tv to learn more about the show and check the Facebook event page for the next show HERE. If you’ve never been you must check it out as this is the best live event in Vancouver. If you have checked it out, you obviously know you’ve got to go back for good times!

This one is full of bad stuff. No one should watch this.

It’s Bike To Work Week in Vancouver, so yesterday we asked our followers on Twitter if they were indeed cycling in to their place of business, and if they wouldn’t mind sharing photos of their rides. Here’s what a few of them had to say/share…

		@PublicRcrds: At least one of us did today (even if the brakes barely work)

		@gnb: sure did, just like every week!

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Keith is either going at full steam or sleeping. And because the latter usually gets sacrificed for something more fun, his energy and excitement for events, arts, and friends is well suited to Vancouver’s Main Street, his current home base.  He can be found running along the sea wall, biking to basketball or trekking with his guitar to his band’s jam space. Even when sitting quietly with his Chai Tea at a coffee shop, his toe is tapping out his newest guitar lick. He carries a notebook everywhere he goes to track the inspiration for his illustrations and visits dog parks to play with other people’s dogs – since he doesn’t have one himself, YET.  Always ready for a pint, Keith has large circle of really close friends and a huge appetite for Thai Food.

The Proof

01 My favourite place to be: on stage with my band Warless. Like a lot of visual artists, I’ve found that the excitement of music and energy of a live audience is totally addictive.
02 My girlfriend bought me this drawing table off an old french guy in West Vancouver back in December – his home must have been worth 15 million dollars, and he had built this table himself. I thought that was super cool.
03 “I may be a graphic designer, but there is only ONE logo that I actually will wear on a shirt.”
04 My favourite view in the city. This picture does no justice of course, but just walk over to 7th and Oak, and the whole city suddenly opens up to you.
05 Another fun thing about playing in a band – GIG POSTERS. Rick and I take turns making them.
06 Cheeky coat-of-arms for the South Granville Social Club. Now that I am on the east side, it’s time to make a new one.
07 My ride for about 5 years now. Weighs about a hundred pounds, but I’ve grown attached.
08 The reading list: Graphic novels, illustration, New Yorker cartoons. I have an unhealthy obsession with New Yorker cartoons.

The Questions

What neighbourhood do you live in?
I live at Main and 5th. Apparently it’s called “Brewery Creek” (who knew?), just moved there in the fall and love it.

What do you do and where?
I work at UBC as a graphic designer; I’m the art director of UBC’s Trek Magazine (among other duties). I do some freelance design as well. I’m also a cartoonist and illustrator – my biggest passion is for editorial illustration. And I play guitar in a band called Warless.

What are you working on?
There are three things I am most excited about right now:

1. Soon I will be starting “one cartoon a day” for 100 days and publishing them online. I want to build a body of work. These will be single-panel editorial/New Yorker style.

2. Warless’ first EP, Coast, is coming out April 1. So we’re working out a venue and a night for our EP release party.

3. ‘The National Apologist’, a social/political satire website and partnership with my friend Andrei Whitaker, coming soon!

Where can we find your work?
Illustration/Cartoons
Music