Archive for May, 2011

We’re knocking on doors and taking a look around peoples’ homes to see where your neighbours relax, hang out with their pets, and create! It’s an invitation to snoop, but we’re staying away from their medicine cabinets.Photos: @art3fact

Our Host: Kristina Egyed

Whose that? Business owner, LaLa’s in Deep Cove

Beverage Offered: lychee martini!

Tell me about where you live.

I live in an area called Grandview, just up from Commercial drive.

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

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

Well, I guess that today is a fairly big day here for the Daily Flickr Pickr, considering it’s installment FIVE HUNDRED and all. I mean, that’s not bad, right? If you don’t think 500 is so special, consider that in Roman Numerals 499 appears as this: CDXCIX. 500? D. It’s that big – I didn’t bold it, it emboldened itself. Of course, I am only a caretaker in this capacity – I followed those before me just like others will follow me.

But enough about Roman Numerals and other nonsense and let’s get back to the task at hand. Incredible light at times this weekend, sometimes fleeting, but other times brilliant. Great opportunities for photography purposes, and that is precisely what Chris Walker did on Sunday. Solid utilization of the nice light at the intersection of Georgia and Granville at 3 in the afternoon. I dig the framing too, an interesting compositional choice. Here is Sunday 3pm.

Stay tuned tomorrow for Daily Flickr Pickr Day 501.

Gary

It seems like it was just yesterday when Kyprios, Said The Whale and Vince Vaccaro we’re accepting their oversized cheques courtesy of 100.5 The Peak‘s Peak Performance Project to help them further develop their musical careers. Though the top three take away over $200,000 in prize money each round, it’s all of the groups involved who take away knowledge and experience from being a part of the project as well. And, of course, we all win because we get to enjoy the talents of these new artists as they’re primed for successful careers.

Photo: Christine McAvoy

But it’s on again! 100.5 The Peak‘s Peak Performance Project has announced the finalists in the third instalment of this amazing initiative that helps develop new musical talent in this province! Without further ado, please peruse the list of finalists below, complete with links where you can learn more about them and listen to some of their music. Stay tuned in the coming months as we report on the Peak Performance Project for the third year running!

Acres Of Lions Ashleigh Eymann Avairis Behind Sapphire Current Swell David Vertesi Fields Of Green Hilary Grist Jasper Sloan Yip Lindsay Bryan Maurice Redgy Blackout Rococode The Belle Game The Boom Booms The Matinee The Never Surprise The Oh Wells Treelines 41st And Home Learn more at PeakPerformanceProject.com, ThePeak.fm and Musicbc.org.

I started this project called A Stranger A Day to overcome my shyness and talk to people. The challenge: talk to a stranger a day for a year of my life and try to convince them to let me take a picture and share a story. Since most tattoos have a story behind them, this will be my conversation starter and a common thread that links them all. Every week I will be sharing one of my favourite findings here on Vancouver Is Awesome. Join me in this Stranger a Day adventure and let me know what you think!

Location: Opus on Granville Island

It was during art-intended errands around Granville Island when I had the chance to find some stories. They were super cool people, and the way this happened was random and cool too. I was hanging around the framing section of the store when I spotted a girl with interesting pieces showing on her skin. I figure I’d give it a shot and tell her about the project. She immediately was into it and let me take a picture of this one on her knuckles. Pacman!

[above] “Well, the story is mainly that I always wanted to get something on my knuckles, but I never knew what to get. I didn’t want to get a word because I thought it was too kind-of-pretentious to get a word. So I started off with these two (the heart and the apple) without realizing that those were sort of pacman-looking symbols. Then I added the ghost, which is my favourite Pacman ghost, and then finally the Pacman, which is sometimes mistaken for a moon or something else. But that’s ok! That’s the cool thing about symbology, some people get it right away and are like PACMAN! and some people see it as just a bunch of symbols.”

I am biased, but when I saw the tattoo for the first time, it immediately reminded me of awesome childhood times. Made me smile. :)

Half way through the story another stranger joined us. I would only know later that he lived with her. He seemed really into the tattoo conversation and mentioned that he had just given himself a tattoo about a week ago. I asked if he’d like to share it for the project as well, as I thought that story couldn’t go untold on the blog. He immediately rolled up his pants and let me take the shot:

“I gave myself this tattoo. I’m trying to be an apprentice at the tattoo shop I work in, and the guy I work with brought it up. He asked me if I wanted to tattoo myself. I was really into it, so he set everything up and I did it.” —I asked him what it felt like, as it was very different from all the classic self-given stick and pokes… —“I was so focused on it that I barely felt it. It was cool, because you are doing it yourself, so you know what to expect at all times… It was also the first tattoo I ever did on someone.”

Not bad to be the first time holding the machine. Like I said, very chill people. I had more tattoo conversations with strangers along the day, it was a cool afternoon. A few minutes later and all shopping done, we were back on the ferry on our way to the studio. :)

Thanks strangers! To check out the daily strangers, click here: astrangeraday.com

Nicholson Road is part of an ongoing photo project aimed at sharing and celebrating the different communities in Metro Vancouver. Each week Vancouver Is Awesome will be featuring one of the latest, 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!

Welcome to Maple Ridge. The photo for this week was taken from the north end of the Golden Ears Bridge, a toll bridge built in 2009 to replace the aging, and popular Albion Ferry service across the Fraser between Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows, and Langley/Surrey.

The mill near the top left is part of the Hammond settlement, which was given as a Crown Grant to the Hammond brothers (19 and 26, a farmer and a civil engineer from England) in 1862. The area was later named Port Hammond when it became the temporary terminus for the CPR during its westward expansion – Being the terminus to a national railway meant shipping activity, and Port Hammond saw quite a bit of traffic between New Westminster and Victoria during this time.

Built in 1910, the local mill, which cycled through a number of names like the Bailey Lumber Company and Hammond Cedar Mill, was at one time the largest Red Cedar mill in the world. And like many local communities around the turn of the 20th century, many of the local businesses burned to the ground during a fire in 1916.. but hey, fire shmire. People were tough back then and they rebuilt, and today Hammond proudly remembers its past with a number of heritage houses and other protected structures.

More from Nicholson Road can be found HERE.

Did you take advantage of Vancouver’s newest carshare service, car2go, and their free registration promo we told you about? Here are 3 small reasons why you should have already: 1, 2, 3.

car2go wants to thank Vancouver for the overwhelming support of their launch! Due to the overwhelming response they’ve decided to extend the free registration period until July 3rd. Simply use the discount code VAN when registering HERE!

Let’s talk housing! The City of Vancouver invites you to an unconference to learn about, discuss and explore ideas and actions to end homelessness and create affordable housing in Vancouver. Saturday, June 4. 10AM – 5PM at the Empire Landmark Hotel (1400 Robson Street). Space is limited so you’ll want to RSVP at talkvancouver.com/housing or by calling 604.673.8285 by June 2. Details are below, and you can learn more HERE.