Archive for May, 2011

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 18: Electric Owl Social Club grand opening on Main Street on May 26, 2011. More photos available on Flickr.

I was so pumped to hear a new (alternative) music and arts venue opening outside the downtown core and in East Vancouver across the street from The Cobalt. Hopefully anyone familiar with the whole anti-punk, No Fun City documentary saga of the city will be somewhat heartened by the opening of the Electric Owl Social Club. I know it’s not exactly a basement, underground skate park, garage, or illegal operation type thing, but it’s still something different.

There were a ton of hip, indie music lover types including the adorable and always fashionable Kelsey Dundon from The Anthology (profiled on V.I.A. here) looking splendid as always. I brought along my singer/songwriter pal Gio Levy to scope out the music venue.
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She’s known mainly as the punk movie girl – the director behind Vancouver’s punk music history documentary Bloodied But Unbowed. We first interviewed Susanne Tabata on the eve of BBU’s premiere at DOXA 2010. As a member of the Powell Street Festival programming committee, her involvement with Vancouver and film also extend to projects like Ohanashi: Stories of Our Elders which Susanne designed, wrote, produced and directed as a 10 part ethnography series for the Japanese Canadian National Museum (based here in Burnaby). Most recently, Susanne has curated and is ready to present the 3rd installment of Kibatsu Cinema which opens tonight and runs all weekend until Sunday at the good ‘ol Cinematheque.

A punk music documentary and a film festival featuring an old Yakuza flick from the 60s, psychedelic gore, anime and beyond may seem to be cut from 2 different cloths. Susanne talks about those 2 endeavors, the selection process for Kibatsu and about the help she got from a special crew for one of the selections below:

Photo: Randy Rampage

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On Tuesday night Kansas City independent rapper Tech N9ne stopped at Vogue as part of a tour that sees him playing 82 shows in 85 days! I was lucky enough tp get an interview. Props to Beat Street for the vinyl! Doot doola doot doo … doot doo!

Nardwuar vs. Tech N9ne

Tech N9ne, Nardwuar, Krizz Kaliko!

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!

V.I.A. is co-sponsoring the amazing Vancouver Sometimes Plays Itself film series that’s screening at the Waldorf Hotel! It’s the first comprehensive showing of some of the earliest, most ambitious and strangest films shot in Vancouver and it happens every Monday at 7 PM for the next few weeks. The series is presented by local arts researcher Elvy Del Bianco, who has spent the last year and a half identifying and acquiring Vancouver-set films, and will feature notable guest speakers. Michael Turner’s On Location 1 (Elvy Del Bianco’s Annotated Film Collection) will screen weekly before each film, and we’re priming it here on the blog by offering Elvy’s thoughts on that week’s title.

This week’s film is By Design, and here’s a clip:

And here’s the synopsis and some thoughts from Elvy:

Helen (Patty Duke) and Angie (Sara Botsford), live together on a Granville Island houseboat, run a fashion design business together, and are so intent on making each other happy that they tackle head-on the social and institutional challenges of a lesbian couple seeking parenthood. In their quest, Vancouver c. 1981 is revealed in all of its scenic glory and banalities: sunny beaches, bars, clinics, and –of course- construction sites.

Director Claude Jutra was Canada’s wunderkind, largely responsible for demonstrating the aesthetic capacity of a national film industry through his debut, A Tout Prendre, and especially his subsequent feature, the critically acclaimed Mon Oncle Antoine. (As Poevere and Dymond note in Mondo Canuck: “Everything you’ve heard or read about it is true.”) But following several critical failures, the ire of his fellow Quebecers for his insufficiently political stance/overly critical eye, and the introduction of tax-shelter funding that encouraged films for the foreign (read American) market, Jutra went into Canadian exile, making films as he moved west.

Jutra’s strengths are all on display in By Design, from his matter-of-fact approach to a subject that would not be tackled again for decades, to his sensitive and honest handling of character. (Duke and Botsford, as well as Saul Rubinek and Clare Coulter, all received Genie nominations for their performances.) As Pauline Kael reviewed in The New Yorker, “Jutra has a light understated approach to farce. His sensibility suggests a mingling of Tati and Truffaut. The scenes are quick and they’re dippy, but with a pensive, melancholy underlay.”

In By Design Jutra left us a gift of the rarest of the rare -not only with respect to the other films in the Vancouver Sometimes Plays Itself series, but of all films set in Vancouver: a happy ending.

Unavailable on DVD.

Vancouver Sometimes Plays Itself series screens every Monday, Admission is by Donation
7pm—Doors
7:30pm—Introductory Presentation by Special Guest Speaker
7:50pm—Screening

Over the past year and a half I have had the pleasure of delivering you in this spot features on some of the most awesome outdoors locations in the Lower Mainland as well as share some fantastic outdoor photography from you, our readers. Unfortunately, it has become increasingly difficult to kept delivering this feature in the way that Bob and I had envisioned at the outset with just one editor. So, the time has come to look outside of our current pool of editors for someone to join us in helping take UNPLUGGED to the next level. Bottom line, VIA is seeking another editor to assist with our weekly UNPLUGGED feature. If you are an outdoor-type, are handy with a camera, and like to write about the joys of the outdoor life in the Lower Mainland we want to talk to you. If you are interested please email Bob (bobk@vancouverisawesome.com) and me (michael@vancouverisawesome.com) explaining why you are the best choice to be the next member of the VIA editor’s team.

Joffre Lakes Provincial Park, BC – © 2010 Michael Tedesco

Welcome to The Playground, a place for Vancouver families. Every week I post a roundup of upcoming family-friendly events and activities. I’m always on the lookout for fun stuff to do, so if there’s something happening that you think I should know about, contact me.

Artwork by Ana, age 2.

In The Playground for the week of May 25-31: Klahowya Village, Lynn Valley Days, Dunbar Salmonberry Days Community Fair, The Great Pedalheads Treasure Hunt and the International Children’s Festival.

Klahowya Village, the Aboriginal Village in Stanley Park opened up recently, so why no check it out this coming weekend. Klahowya Village offers a variety of activities, including crafts, stories, dance performances and more. Tickets are $5/adult and $3/child (kids under 2 are free).

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

I’m a fan of Modified Enzyme‘s photography. Whenever I check out my contact’s photos on Flickr, Ivan’s photos stand out – even in the small preview version. I just know that should I click the photo to view the larger size, there is a reward for my effort. There is a subtlety of detail that begs a closer look.

Today I noticed an image in the pool from M. Enzyme that features a pretty distinct, albeit youngish, architectural landmark. Situated on the highest point of land on the downtown peninsula, One Wall Centre enjoyed the title of Vancouver’s tallest building from 2001 until the completion of the Living Shangri-La building in 2008. Random fact: Peter Wall looked at over 800 shades of glass prior to settling on the dark blue glass seen in the lower 30 floors, while the lighter blue glass on the upper 18 floors was a compromise with the City. Wall’s vision of the building was inspired by a 1979 Aston Martin Lagonda he owned which had no chrome – hence the sleek, seamless look. The building was also the first in the world to use a tuned liquid column damper to damper wind vibrations, which get architect-types all excited and giddy. Here is wall.

Gary

If this could be kept here permanently, I think it might be the west side’s answer to Ken Lum’s East Van Cross…….

I could think of worse places to be stuck at…..

PS….next nice day….get out there……