Archive for June, 2011

Did you know that Vancouver Big Band leader Dal Richards (aka the King of Swing) wrote the lyrics to “Roar You Lions Roar”, the B.C. Lions fight song?

Photo courtesy DalRichards.com

True story.

Roar You Lions Roar by VancouverIsAwesome

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 Pork Chop, Sara K’s pup. Here’s what she had to say about him…

NAME: Pork Chop. BREED: French Bulldog. HOOD: North Vancouver. FAVOURITE SNACK: Salmon maki, no wasabi. OTHER INFO: Fancying himself a bit of a Casanova, he once tried to put the moves on a Great Dane. Needless to say, she was unimpressed. It seems that looks will only get you so far! 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.

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Starting tomorrow, the world’s most famous royal couple will be taking a 10 day adventure across Canada from Ottawa to Calgary. And while they’re not heading as far west as this fair city of ours we do have a connection to this story as longtime V.I.A. contributor, Maurice Li, is joining them on their trip to document it photographically. Also, friend of V.I.A., travel blogger Julie Ovenell-Carter, is going to blogging about it the entire way. Follow the adventure HERE on the Canadian Tourism Commission’s Facebook page dedicated specifically to royalty.

I imagine one of the toughest things about running the Best Of Vancouver awards with a public vote like Vancouver’s best local paper, The Georgia Straight, does every year is that you can never really justify adding a “Best Local Weekly Paper” category without looking like you’re stacking the deck in your favour. Okay, maybe that’s not the toughest thing, the toughest thing is probably the massive undertaking of managing this beast of an awards series year after year, but when I’m casting my ballot I always want to vote for my favourite paper and then I think about why it’s probably a good idea for them not to have that category.

So. They’ve launched the voting for the 16th annual Best Of Vancouver for 2011! Have your say on your favourite Vancouver nouns and have a chance at winning a $2500 trip while helping bring public recognition to some of your favourite things your city has to offer. Voting only goes until July 9th, so get to it!

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

While I’ve never really delved into so-called ‘extreme sports’ (for lack of a better term), I often find myself mesmerized by what some people can achieve by pushing their physical limits. But just this past Saturday night in the basement of the Anza Club I had a conversation over a beer with a good friend about a past-time we enjoyed as young teenagers in Langley – what we referred to as lake-jumping.

Lake jumping is pretty much as it sounds – riding a BMX bike, you build up speed in the approach to a jump that is set up at the water’s edge (or if you were lucky, and had a real lake unlike us, the ramp might be at the end of a dock). Once you hit the jump, you could try almost any move you wanted, knowing that landing in a body of water is much more forgiving than landing on concrete. I once saw a segment of the Rick Mercer show where the same principle is applied to freestyle ski-jumping training. Sure, we had to rebuild our bikes and repack the water-logged bearings quite often, but it was good, clean fun. I’m sure the local construction sites barely missed the scraps and offcuts necessary in the construction of the ramp.

But that is where the jumping ended for all of us; none of us translated it into any serious on-land tricks. Not like the subject of the photograph below from Canadian Veggie, anyway. Taken at the MEC Bikefest 2011 at the Athlete’s village this past weekend, this rider appears to be enjoying 20 – 25′ of air, joyous air – pulling off a move in a photograph that Canadian Veggie has titled Olympic Superman.

*kids, please don’t try this at home. And if you are going to lake-jump, first make sure the water is sufficiently deep – and it never hurts to put a flotation device on yourself and on your bike!

Gary

SCENE AND HEARD showcases the independent music scene here in Vancouver. We interview some of our favourite local artists, post weekly guest playlists comprised of Vancouver artists and ‘Last Week in Music’ highlights some of the concerts happening around the city…

Busy work week for me outside of music, but that’s what friends are for! I’ve stolen a few photos from VIAindie’s second in command Leigh Eldridge, combined them with my shots of Brasstronaut and will start your viewing off with the recently completed Part One installment of Treelines’ tour video…from March. :)

THIS WEEK IN MUSIC: begins with the return of Adrienne Pierce, who will be performing at the Backstage Lounge tonight! Jazz Fest continues on with several free shows around Vancouver…CLICK HERE TO SEE THE SCHEDULE. Girls Girls Girls is BACK with a comedy edition at the Cobalt, which I will most definitely be in attendance for… The Sadies, and The Sheepdogs are at the Biltmore for TWO nights Wednesday and Thursday. Then the big Canada Day party happens! First head to Surrey and see the Top 20 in the Peak Performance Project perform (yes all of them!) and then hustle back into Vancouver for Oh No! Yoko’s EP Release at the Colbalt with Kingdom Cloud, Teen Daze, Humans, and Metal Mother. Have an AWESOME week, and if you spot me out and about say hi

PLEASE DON’T FORGET TO VOTE FOR VIA in the BLOG section of the UCC&Awards – Lifestyle, Sports, Events and…MUSIC! (you can only vote once, and don’t have to sign up, so it’s super easy.)
(FYI, I’m also in the ARTS>PHOTOGRAPHER section) xo!

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CLICK THE PHOTO BELOW TO SEE THE TOUR VIDEO:

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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!

I posted a fair bit about Vancouver Mini Maker Faire leading up to the event this past weekend, and I just can’t stop. Mainly because the event blew my mind. The creative, DIY community in this city is SO MUCH cooler than I ever thought it was! To boot, everyone’s friendly and wants to share how and why they do what they do.

The event was two days of parents making stuff with their kids, middle-aged people bugging out in wonder, crafters learning about circuitry and hackers learning to knit. I honestly can’t think of anything more fun or inspiring.

Did you go? Leave a comment and tell us something you learned!

The Express on Shaw TV did a great overview of the event:

After the jump, photos of just a wee sampling of things I was able to snap with my phone. Check out the Maker Faire Vancouver Flickr group for tons more.

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The Proof

01 Out of all of the illustrations that I’ve drawn, this one is my favorite. It’s also the biggest (if you don’t count wall murals – which I will do for you in your home or work if you contact me, because giant illustrations are awesome!)

02 I love this tree stump. I see it on my walk to work from the skytrain every morning. It has a hole right through it, yet it continues to grow.

03 I saw this bird downtown one day and thought I should take a photo of it. It has this haunting effect on me. Makes me pensive. Part of me wishes I was the size of a mouse so I could strap those wings on and fly around.

04 This is Kingsley, king of the cats. He has his own tumblr and is my best buddy and muse.

05 Comics rule my life. Here are just a few of my favorites. I’m a huge Sammy Harkham fan and also really enjoy the works of Anders Nilsen, Jeffrey Brown and Helen Jo. Best place to shop for comics in Vancouver: Lucky’s Comic Shop on Main street. I want to cry every time I have to leave that place.

06 Homemade potato/sweet potato/beet/daikon chips. Surprisingly easy to make and delicious. The weirdest veggies end up tasting fantastic when you fry them. Weird!

07 This is me working on an stop-motion animated short film with the crew of 1998 Creative.

08 This is one of my favorite photos. I took this on a roadtrip to Portland last year. Pat (see above bio) and I had a film in the Northwest Film and Video Festival so we packed up the car and headed down the coast for what ended up being one of the great road trips of my life. This picture was taken on a stormy day at Cannon Beach. Off in the distance are my fiance Caroline and friend Jessie.

The Questions

What neighborhood do you live in?
I’m currently living just off No. 3 Rd in Richmond but am looking to move back into the city with some friends this July.

What do you do and where?
I am a creative director and animator/illustrator with 1998 Creative. In my free time I like to draw portraits, comics and animate my own short films. Right now I work out of the 1998 Creative office in the Little Mountain area and on my coffee table at home.

What are you working on?
I’m working on some animations for the Food Network of Canada show called Eat Street with 1998 Creative as well as a web promotion for the new record label Public Records. In my spare time I’ve been working on an animated short called “What Is It?” (no relation to the Crispin Glover film) which I’m hoping to show sometime this summer. I’m always illustrating something as well. Right now I’m putting together a digital comic called “Wut?” and pounding the pages of my sketch book for fun.

Where can we find your work?

http://www.1998creative.com/

http://justinlongozmadeanart.tumblr.com/