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 31: Vancouver Marketing Ninjas‘ Summer Meet and Greet at The Charlatan Restaurant on Commercial Drive on August 23, 2011. Hastag: YVRninjas. More photos available on Flickr.

Some friends of mine decided to start their own Meetup group for marketers to share ideas, resources, and discussions. I know, I’m not sold on the name either. Upon, first glance “ninjas” sounds a little douchey, but hey, it works.

I was joined by friends and organizers like Nick Routley, Ray Silva, Conner Galaway, Jaxon Tam, Anthony Taylor, Dennis Pang, among newcomers to me, Vanessa Marshall, Dene Paquin, and Ryan Glasser.
…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Welcome to Vancouver Is Awesome’s newest feature, “In the Closet”, an intimate look into the wardrobes of stylish Vancouverites. Eunice Quan is a force to be reckoned with. She’s one of the cities youngest entrepreneurs and her latest venture, THE BOARD OF TRADE CO., solidifies her spot on Vancouver’s fashion map. Her dominating presence blends into her wardrobe that incorporates masculine cuts, bad ass brass knuckles, and combat boots. Don’t let her size fool you. Her petite frame is no measure to the amount of drive and ambition that is sure to have her solidify a few more spots in the world of fashion.

Tell us a little about yourself…
I am a design nerd that’s aspiring to take over the world, one idea at a time. For the past two years, I had dedicated myself to creating and developing clothing stores/brands. I recently just left my first venture OAK+FORT to start a new business with a friend called BOARD OF TRADE CO. I love every aspect of this retail game. I love what I do and the people around me. For me it’s not about the dolla bills, but it’s about …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

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…

So after three days of live music at Live at Squamish I have a LOT of photos! I ventured up North on Friday night (in my Car2Go…thanks guys! Check out the shot of it below!) and stayed until Monday morning.

You can view the photos on the VIAindie Facebook Page by clicking the images below for the specific albums!

We had a BLAST up there, thanks to Live At Squamish and Car2Go for everything.

Location – Mundy Park, Coquitlam, B.C. If you live in the urban/suburban density that is Vancouver and the surrounding cities you might be forgiven for thinking that any any remnant of the forests that used to blanket this area can only be found in Stanley Park or on the North Shore. Fortunately, you would be wrong. There are numerous sanctuaries dotting the area and one of those nature havens happens to be located right in my back yard, Mundy Park. Located at the corner of Como Lake Road and Mariner Way, Mundy is a massive treasure chest containing more than it’s share of gems. I decided to focus on this park for today’s UNPLUGGED feature as an opportunity to show my daughter, who has a burgeoning photography bug like here dad, that we don’t have to go much farther than our backyard to escape into the outdoors.

We entered the park from the soccer field next to Hillcrest Middle School under a blazing sun.

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

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. This weeks events include the Vancouver Wooden Boat Festival, a birthday celebration at the Robson Chapters, a Teddy Bear Picnic in Surrey, an African Market, Deep Cove Daze Festival, an outdoor concert and movie.

Greetings Vancouver!  My name is Laurin and I am the new editor of The Playground.    As a born n’ bred Vancouverite, I love showing my 2 year old daughter Sadie (and my Ontario born Husband) all of the great things in this city to do as a kid.  So in addition to the weekly list of community events, I’m going to share with you some of our awesome adventures and hopefully inspire you to check out something or somewhere you’ve never been in this great city of ours.

SADIE & THE PINE LEAF

Our first adventure was to the Pine Leaf wreck located on the north end of the Fraser River.   It is just minutes away from the Knight Street Bridge on River Road in Richmond (between 8 Road and Nelson).   Legend has it the Pine Leaf was owned by H. Bell-Irving Co (Packers and Canners) and was built in the 1930’s.  Here she is in her former glory:

YESTERDAY (image here.)

TODAY

I don’t know why the boat is in it’s current state, but it is a fun site to see and even more fun to come up with a story or two as to how it got there.  This small, secluded beach off …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!)

Today’s image was made possible with the help of two modes of transportation that I have yet to experience. I’ve never been onboard a cruise ship, like the ones about to pass under the Lions Gate Bridge in the photograph, and I’ve never been in a seaplane like the one that made this vantage point possible. I’d love to try either or both one day – the cruise ship if it was heading north up the Inside Passage and beyond, or the seaplane it is was going anywhere as all.

I don’t know if Zorro1968 has ever been on a cruise ship before, but a visit to his website suggests to me that he has flown over the city more than a couple of times. On this trip, the route in question was Nanaimo to Vancouver by air.

Gary

THE OPENING is all about introducing the fascinating, quirky and wonderful people working in and around the visual arts in Vancouver. Each week, we’ll feature an artist, collective, curator or administrator to delve deep into who and what makes art happen!

Art about the body and about nationhood can be separate, but the ideas are so synonymous that often an artist who deals with one also deals with the other. Vancouver and Toronto-based artist and writer Francisco-Fernando Granados (b 1985) regularly explores the idea of the body and his own Guatemalan heritage in his art. He has curated an exhibition along the same themes at 221A Artist Run Centre called I <3 CANADA & CANADA <3 ME for Swarm 12, featuring the multi-disciplinary work of Roya Akbari, Golboo Amani, Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Manolo Lugo, Pirouz Nemati, Emilio Rojas, and Ikbal Singh.

Granados watching a video work by Emilio Rojas at 221A Artist-Run Centre (Photo by author)

Many of the works have a relationship to the internet, hence the typed heart <3 symbol. Golboo Amani’s project began as a blog. Ikbal Singh’s began as a performance shared on a blog. Manolo Lugo’s drawings of the two cities of Naco were made in Photoshop from Google Maps. Chun Hua Catherine Dong’s husband search was carried out over Craigslist. In a broad sense, Granados was looking at translating the things we do that manifest themselves on the internet into a gallery setting, and each of these artists were only too happy to oblige.

Fittingly, the first work encountered in the space is Amani’s neat stack of posters on the floor, entitled Others. Based on a blog she created, the poster is a grid of pictures supposedly representing nationalities. She searched each nationality in Google and the first image that appeared in the search is the one printed – a grid of our stereotypes as found on the internet. The results range from hilarious (a search for ‘Danes’ returned a picture of actress Claire Danes) to horrifying (‘Iraqi’ brought up an Abu Ghraib image). Granados considers Amani’s work “the stone from which I began looking out,” the grounding point for the whole exhibit. It’s a work about stereotypes, “our stereotypes,” he elaborates. “I think it’s very poignant that it’s a take-away poster because these are ours to own.” It is a thoughtful entrance into an exhibition taking on some powerful themes.

Detail of Golboo Amani’s ‘Others’ at 221A Artist-Run Centre (Photo by author)

Dong’s project involved soliciting men (and one woman) on Craigslist to be her husband for a few days, and all that idea entailed. The resulting video at first appears to be …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

DINNER WITH… pairs interesting Vancouverites with top notch restaurants. We want to showcase the minds and menus of some of our favourite people and establishments. We’ll pick their brains, while they devour their dinner, and hopefully YOU will come away inspired, enlightened and hungry…

Welcome back to Dinner With…I’ve been loving the weather in the city and thought I should take another one of our fabulous editors out to dinner to enjoy it so I had…

DINNER WITH… ERIN SHAW!

Erin is our editor of the The Pop-In, and you may already know her face from Shaw TV, as she is on The Express…covering feel good stories about Vancouver. Sound familiar?

I fell in love with her instantly when she made a halibut pun (“I might go for the halibut..just for the halibut!”) and her red hair and saucy personality reminded me of Christina Hendricks.

We sat down for a delightful dinner at Sandbar on Granville Island, and I was excited to have another date that liked to share…but first CHECK OUT THE VIEW:

Not too shabby eh?

The Sandbar has some excellent cocktails. This is the Cucumber Margarita and it’s as great as it sounds. Also recommend …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>