Archive for May, 2011

The Bassment is a weekly article bringing you coverage of the best in Hip Hop and Electronic music from around Vancouver. Weekly interviews, event coverage, album and concert reviews that show how awesome our city’s electronic and hip hop scene really is. If you think there is someone or something that needs coverage in this city in regards to the Hip Hop / Electronic community then get in touch with us.

Clothing style and companies have always been a huge part of the hip hop scene. It is a distinguishing factor in what people listen to and how they live their lives. Vancouver is no different. Clothing store Sharks and Hammers has become a major contributor to the hip hop scene here and has brought out people’s pride in their city. Whether you are from the west or the east this store will make you proud to be from Vancouver. Their original clothing companies, sleek store design and carefully selected brands make cookie cutter stores look like amateurs. I met with the owners at the store in Gastown to discuss their history and plans for the future.

Photo: Courtesy of Store

Where did you guys get the idea or theme for this store?

We really wanted something that was more indicative of the history of the neighbourhood. The other spaces we have worked on have been heritage spaces and this one is too. It is an old railroad hotel and when the railroad got shut down it got converted. The lady who worked here bought the building she used to be the dry cleaning and laundry services person and she still owns it. We wanted to show the space and make the lady proud of it. We brought back the brick and wood. Everything all original. A space that would really showcase our clothing and our style.

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Dan Mangan killed it today. At the end of the set the chants morphed from “One More Song” straight into “Go Canucks Go”.

If you’re looking for something to do indoors on this overcast Saturday afternoon you might want to take a few minutes to read THIS incredibly thoughtful and well-researched piece by Paula Grasdal about the V.I.A.-produced Vancouver Special playhouse that we released a few weeks back. She interviewed myself and Jason Sokolowski as well as Steve McFarlane from mgb architects and she shot a bunch of photos of the interior and exterior including this one of a couple of creepy dudes creeping inside of it…

Photo: Paula Grasdal

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 Brixton, Jon H’s pup. Here’s what he had to say about her…

NAME: Brixton. BREED: Pittrador (Pittbull and Chocolate Labrador mix). HOOD: Gastown. FAVOURITE SNACK: She loves her dog biscuits! OTHER INFO: We’ve had her just a short while through the HugABull organization. She was abandoned and left to fend for herself. HugABull is a registered non-profit organization and a community of pit bull owners, advocates and enthusiasts whose mission is to rescue dogs, provide public education, and build a community of responsible pit bull owners and supporters. They rescue bull breeds from the shelter system, placing them in foster care and ultimately adopting them into responsible, loving homes. 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 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!).

Found a really nice shot in the pool from gwacdotca today. I got sucked into the contrast in the sky, and I absolutely appreciate the dead-centre camera placement on this one. I’m thinking a vehicle in which you are sitting high up? I detect a little elevation in the equation.

But back to the sky and the clouds and the contrast. A common sky of late in our region, but just now the clouds are breaking up and sunshine is blanketing the area. And as this was all unfolding, I was stopping to pick up some film – so on that note, I gotta run! Here is what we’ve all been saying to ourselves all too often the past week or so: “Them clouds look ominous!”

Gary

Hey, that’s V.I.A.’s youngest blogger, my son, Arlo, in the new video for The Pack a.d.‘s song, BC Is On Fire! My wife and I are also in there!

The video was directed by Sean Devlin, the dude responsible for CTV’s series The Party which we told you all about during the federal election. Sean’s company TruthFool Creative produced it.

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. Today I’m showing you our room.

I posted this photo of the resort from the air in my first post, minus the note in pink that notes the location of our room. We stayed in the Bute Lodge which contains two separate rooms, a common area and quite the view of the ocean.

Here’s what it looked like in our room. Very comfy.

And you see that door top right of the pool in the photo below? That leads into …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Skateboard culture is deeply rooted in this fine city of ours. Not only does Metro Vancouver produce some of the world’s finest wood-wheelers, it’s also a major migratory destination for skaters from all over Canada. The Weekly Ledge(r) exists to update you on skate-related news and happenings in our town. Know the ledge, it’s not just used for sitting…

Part of V.I.A.’s esteemed “Most Awesome” category, Rob “Sluggo” Boyce was invited to skate in the 7th Annual Pro-Tec Pool Party contest at the world-famous (and gnarly) Combi-Bowl down at the Vans park in Orange, CA. Sluggo cracked the top 10 in the 40-and-older Masters division, which included such legends as Tony Hawk (his first contest in a decade), Steve Caballero, Lance Mountain, Duane Peters, and the list goes on. Click here for the official Masters/Pro results, and watch the Sluggo highlights above.

Events: Paul Rodriguez, Ryan Sheckler, Torey Pudwill and Colin McKay from Plan B Skateboards will be doing a signing at West 49 in the Park Royal Shopping Centre today at 4pm. The partially roof-covered Chuck Bailey skatepark in Whalley, Surrey is officially opening on Saturday, May 28th with an event at 11am (details here). The KR3W/Shake Junt Smash ‘N’ Grab Canadian tour features Erik Ellington, Lizard King, Figgy, Beagle, Kevin Romar, Bryan Herman, Neen Williams, Shane Heyl, MTL’s JS Lapierre and Vancouver’s Spencer Hamilton. The final stop of their trip happens in Vancouver on Sunday, May 29th – a 2pm demo/signing at the new Chuck Bailey park, with a 10pm afterparty at The Met (320 Abbott St., Gastown).

YouTubes: The possible closure of “The Barn”, a long-time DIY ramp haven in Brittania Beach, was the subject of a CTV News report earlier this week (watch it here). Micky Papa and Paul Trep check in with a few quick clips shot down in Beverly Hills, Nick Moore tests out the new Thunder Trucks, and Jordan Hoffart shows us what goes on behind the ad for Active Ride Shop. Corey Klim gets down at a couple parks for Cariboo Beer, and it’s officially official: Fleetwood, Surrey’s John Hanlon is the new AM on Darkstar Skateboards: