Read All Over celebrates the bookworm in all of us, showcasing readers in Vancouver and the books they love most. Curtis Grahauer is a Vancouver-based artist, filmmaker, and karaoke master. He’s the director behind Steel Viper Force: Fiero’s Redemption, a stone-cold hilarious, high-octane homage to direct-to-video action movies of the 80s and 90s, showcasing some of Vancouver’s most promising talent in film, comedy and music. When he’s not directing or working on his art projects, Curtis is available for duets at any of Weekend Leisure’s Karaoke nights, which he hosts, with gusto.

What’s on your nightstand right now? Are you enjoying it?

I go through phases, but I usually have a short attention span for novels so I jump back and forth between 2-5 books at any time. I’ve been reading World War Z on and off for the past 6 months. It’s kind of just a bunch of short stories, so it’s perfect for my reading habits.

Yippee Ki-Yay Moviegoer has also been on my shelf for a while. It’s a collection of online reviews of action movies. I picked it up after reading the author’s previous book, Seagalogy. YK-YM has been hit and miss, but Seagalogy is amazing: the author goes through each of Steven Seagal’s films in chronological order – an awesome piece of film literature, giving each film a fair analysis. It even has an introduction by David Gordon Green. Apparently he’s a huge Seagal fan.

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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…

Two VERY big events this week…the very first Polaris Record Salon in Vancouver happened at the Waldorf ft. Dan Mangan’s “Oh Fortune” with yours truly as a host. THANK YOU to everyone that came out! The next salon will feature The Pack A.D.’s Unpersons on Dec 13th. — Next was the much anticipated and sold out finale for the Peak Performance Project where The Matinee, Current Swell, and The Boom Booms performed and were awarded 3rd, 2nd and 1st, not to mention a LOT of money. Check out the photos below to see who won what and some shots from the night!

THIS WEEK IN MUSIC: starts with a few low key shows and ends with a bang. Literally SO much music, you can’t see it all. I need a time turner. First up, tomorrow is The Oh Wells EP release with Jasper Sloan Yip and Skye Wallace at The Cobalt. Thursday head to the Biltmore for Imaginary Cities and The Coppertone! Friday and Saturday is when it gets tricky!

Friday:
- Grey Cup Street Festival Day One – ft. Rococode, Guilty About Girls, Bend Sinister, Kyprios, The Dudes…
- Maurice, with Stellar Radio Choir, and Ciseaux at The Media Club
- Mint Records 20th Anniversary Party – LOTS of Bands – at The Waldorf
- K-OS and Shad at the Commodore Ballroom

Saturday:
- Grey Cup Street Festival Day Two – ft. TV Heart Attack, The Boom Booms, The Belle Game, The Matinee, The Zolas, Hey Ocean!, Said The Whale
- Deep Dark Woods at the Biltmore with The Sumner Brothers
- Andrew W.K. with Oh No! Yoko at the Rickshaw Theatre
- beekeeper at the Media Club

GOOD LUCK!!! I know I’ll need it…

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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 unabashedly bring my own bias to the selection process in regards to today’s post. It just happens to be a photograph taken from one of my favourite places: the deck of a BC Ferry vessel. Even further, the caption of Jan Gates‘ image informs us that the vessel in question is passing through an area that is dear to my heart, that being the one and only Active Pass. I have a Collect-Them-All! attitude towards the Gulf Islands, and so have visited both Galiano and Mayne Islands, immensely enjoying my time on both.

But then you consider the wonderful monochromatic palette, the ‘Big Sky’ composition and the appearance of a magnificent rainbow, and its a done deal. The only thing that could possibly make this image any better (for me, anyway) is if this magical and fleeting moment was immediately preceded by the consumption of a bacon cheeseburger combo from the on-board White Spot, and subsequently followed by an orca sighting.

On second thought, the photo needs nothing more at all. Here is sunbeams and rainbows.

Trivia Alert! Active Pass is named for the American survey vessel USS Active, the first steamship to navigate the pass in 1855. The fact that it is indeed a popular route and therefore ‘active’ is purely a happy coincidence.

Gary

I recently read a theory that going for 50 coffees with people you’ve never met is the entrepreneurs equivalent to the theory that doing anything for 10,000 hours will make you an expert on it. While I get the idea, 50 coffees is far easier than practicing something for ten years, and while I’m far from lazy I’ve decided to set out on a fairly simple mission: over the next 50 weeks I’m going to invite 50 interesting Vancouverites, most of whom I have never met before, to go for coffee. I’m going to use this as an exercise in networking for myself and for V.I.A. while also using it as a platform to introduce you to some people who are doing really cool stuff in the city you live in. COFFEE #9 Name: Matt Chambers Occupation: Small business advisor/investigative journalist Beverage: Horchata

Meet Matt Chambers. Small business advisor by day and investigative journalist by night, he started his Vancouver blog, The Dependent, around the time of the Olympics and has since proceeded to consistently deliver provocative and eyebrow-raising features often focusing on shady parts of our city that aren’t getting lit up by mainstream media (or any media for that matter). Managing to get into places most people would never want to be, in the past few months he’s managed to gain the confidence of a group of drug dealers for THIS series about the Downtown Eastside drug trade at street level, he delivered THIS investigative piece where he shadowed a bike thief around Vancouver and gave up his secrets, and most recently he managed to get in close with the author of the Date Matrix, one of the NPA’s rookie candidates in the recent civic election, Jason Lamarche, to deliver THIS series that started out with “total access” to the candidate in order to give an “inspirational story about municipal politics” and ended in… well, controversy, no access and a great story in spite of that. But it’s not all crime and politics at The Dependent – Matt and his growing team deliver stories involving culture, lifestyle and history, often ripe with humour.

Opting out of a caffeinated meeting, Matt and I sat down for tacos and horchata at La Taqueria on Hastings. We talked about the election, Occupy Vancouver and the trials and tribulations of running local blogs. After lunch we walked around the DTES chatting more and Matt pointed out some of the handiwork of bike thieves, which would have gone totally unnoticed by me had he not. Even though I feel I have an eye for detail in the streets, Matt managed to do in real life what he does on his blog: he dug a little deeper and revealed something interesting to me about our city. Visit TheDependent.ca and be sure to bookmark it.

Vancouver is an amazing city, chock full of creative talent. WE ARE VANCVR is a simple, elegant way to showcase all that talent in one place. Every Tuesday we profile one individual from the VANCVR community.VANCVR.com is a Domain7 Labs project.

A perfect champion for her own brand (Henderson Dry Goods), Alex Henderson is a woman of style and substance. Her handmade wood products are “works of art, disguised as objects of design.” They evoke a sense of nostalgia, with a modern twist. Her line of  jewelry, home decor and (in time for the holidays) Christmas ornaments are available at retailers around the city, but this Emily Carr grad makes more than just consumer goods. You may recognize her name from the 2010 PNE Container Show where her ridiculously cool exhibit, “Boundless: The Canadian Landscape in Six Parts” featured miniature dioramas depicting Canadian landscapes borrowed from vintage postcards.

[photo: Janis Nicolay Photography]

[photo: Etherhill]
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The Society of Graphic Designers Canada, BC Chapter hosted their fourth Practivism – Collaboration in Sustainable Design event on Friday night. Located in the smartly designed CIRS buildings at UBC, the presentations featured local stories of designers and clients working together to promote sustainability.

Practivism, a mix of practical action and environmentalism, assembled a handful of local case studies to demonstrate how design adds value to our community as a sustainable shepherd, assisting in bringing great ideas to the surface and designing ways to make them reality. This is a very fitting topic for BC designers to own, given Vancouver’s reputation as a green leader, and it makes perfect sense that designers here would seek green ways of being unique in a globalized marketplace. The strongest of the presentations was Thisfish.info with Ecotrust Canada and Biro Creative, a food accountability project that is a genuine harbinger for how design is creating meaningful social change. This is a topic that has massive implications as we move forward and issues around food production are becoming politicalized.

The real value of the evening had less to do with education on how to be better designers and more to do with bringing together local graphic designers in a social setting. If you were looking for an interactive evening of dialogue about taking design to the next level, I did not leave with that experience, but the night did introduce me to dozens of industry insiders. The value of bringing creative people together is always positive and can only lead to a stronger design scene in the city.

Todd Falkowsky, citizen brand

This weekend, Portobello West is happening all weekend long for the “Very Blingy Christmas” extended market. Bling it on! Holiday bling is the thing at November’s two day Portobello West market. Among 50 local artists in fashion, art, and design, 20 of Vancouver’s top jewellery designers will be selling their wares so it shouldn’t be hard to find the right sparkle for the right person on your Christmas list. The market runs November 26 and November 27 from 11am – 5pm at the Creekside Community Centre in the Athlete’s Village.

Winner of the Georgia Straight’s “Best craft/artisan Market” for two years in a row, Portobello West is a monthly event in Olympic Village where juried local vendors display and sell art and design on the last Sunday of every month. In 2011, Portobello West became a non-profit organization in order to provide artists with the support and resources necessary to take significant steps within their own independent practice.

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

Sometimes I wish photographs had sound. At least, that’s what I thought today when I saw the below photograph by Dennis W. M. Lo. The only thing that might be more impressive than the sight of thousands of Snow Geese simultaneously taking flight is the sound of twice as many wings flapping. As it is, the sight is pretty impressive.

Here is an image that Andreas Gursky and Jackson Pollock might both think has a lot going on, titled Like and abstract photo.

Gary