Author Archive

I checked out the IDS West show on Thursday night for the first time (on until Sunday, Oct. 17) and man, there is just so much stuff to feast your eyes on as you walk around. It can be a little overwhelming but quite an enjoyable experience, of course, seeing so much stuff in one place. Shouts out to Sincerely Hana as well as she laid the musical backdrop for the opening night on Thursday.

Meet some of the IDS West Exhibitors:
The Cross Decor & Design
Orling & Wu
Homewerx
IDS West preview

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Should I have posted these pictures up more in season? I suppose the route is still doable on a sunny weekend (ie. not this weekend?). Well, anyhow, here is the continuation of the bike route taken this past summer from Burnaby across the Canada Line bridge, along the Fraser River south of Lulu Island (the airport island), past the Richmond Olympic Oval and onto the gorgeous West Dyke trail along the west coast of Richmond.

Translink Regional Cycling Map – Richmond, Delta, Tsawwassen
Riding to Richmond & the Road to Steveston (Part 1)

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Ahh…………did you squeeze enough of your summer? I never feel that I do. Not to the last drop, anyhow. One of the simple ways that I suppose I do though is just biking around the city after work and on weekends. From Burnaby, me and my riding crew usually take different routes westbound towards Main, the west side, Kits and onto thru the Seawall to English Bay where we usually grab a shawarma, enjoy the views at English Bay then head on back home. On weekends though, we try some longer different routes again. Riding to Richmond is now made a lot smoother with the Canada Line bridge which has a pedestrian/bike path. It starts, of course, just south of Cambie & Marine Drive and drops you off right at River Drive & Van Horne Way on the Richmond side, right by Bridgeport Station and the River Rock Casino….

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We’re blessed of course with a gorgeous stretch of waterside pedestrian/bike pathway from Spanish Bank – Kits – Granville Island – Science World – English Bay – Stanley Park – Coal Harbour. Across Lions’ Gate, there’s a nice little stretch at Ambleside Beach in West Van as well. It’s not really bike friendly (in fact, bikes aren’t allowed on most of the seawall) but its a nice walk with some different views of Stanley Park and the Kits/Spanish Banks/UBC end of the west side.

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Pictures from the exhibition at the tenth annual New Forms Festival
Running until Sat/Sep. 18, daily from noon – 7pm
Free (by donation)
@ W2 Storyeum: 151 Cordova St, Vancouver
Interview with exhibition curator and festival co-founder Malcolm Levy
Interview with Beat Nation curator Tania Willard

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As you are finishing off your end of summer haiku’s (strong chance that’s just me), there are at least lots of things going in the city to combat summer’s conclusion. The New Forms Festival runs until Sep. 18, the Fringe Festival is also on, Olio Festival is coming up and for film nerds from West Van to Abbotsford, the Vancouver International Film Festival full lineup was officially announced today!

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Jaykin, Vancity’s nicest, has released the full length album Sneakers & Videogames for download online. Cop it HERE.

Now, hip hop, the hippa to the hop, you dont stop – like a lot of people, my interest for hip hop was gone up and down over the years. During the raver years was when I rediscovered and got deeper into the golden era MCs like Eric B & Rakim, EPMD, Big Daddy Kane. Since then, though there have been some dope songs that have pulled me back in here and there, there havent been any full length albums that have done it for me. Outkast, including both Andre 3000 and Big Boi’s solo works, have always kept it interesting. Nas has still come out with single tracks that get me going, I have learned to really appreciate the production work of Kanye but even though I have tried, I just cant fully emerse myself back into hip hop at large. Ghostface couldnt do it, Clipse wasn’t doing it, even the soul instrumentals of Jay-Dilla didn’t really get me and that is something that I thought would…CONTINUED BELOW.

Q&A with Jaykin also below

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The 10th annual New Forms Festival continues tonight with Beat Nation, 8pm- Midnight at the W2 Storyeum in Gastown. Along with pushing the next for electronic music and the arts, tonight the festival and curator Tania Willard showcase a closer look into the movement of indigenous hip hop within traditional & new media.

Tania, from the Secwepemc (Shuswap) Nation, started breaking ground with Red Wire Magazine, one of the first independent Aboriginal youth run arts and media organizations. Beat Nation was originally a website and online gallery from director Glenn Alteen, it has expanded into a full fledged showcase for the artists tonight (with Sista Hailstorm, The Starmakerz – Manik1derful and Magic Touch, Skeena Reece – also co-curator of the Beat Nation exhibition, Ostwelve, Christie Charles) as well as taking part in the festival exhibition which runs from Sep. 18 and is FREE daily from noon-7pm. Tania talks about Beat Nation, how it fit into the vibe of New Forms and how hip hop fits into the aboriginal world below.

Interview with New Forms Festival co-found Malcolm Levy on a decade of the next

Q: Can you tell me how the concept for Beat Nation as a New Forms Festival event came to be? NFF is probably largely thought of as about the “next shit” or futuristic vibe. How do you think Beat Nation fits into this?
A: The concept originally for Beat Nation came from our director Glenn Alteen who had seen a lot of hip hop culture reflected in the Aboriginal community but with this indigenous twist, he asked myself and Skeena Reece both with backgrounds in Aboriginal youth arts to curate the online gallery. The project has grown from there, the association with New Forms Festival came about with festival director Malcolm Levy who was interested in the project as it related to the electronic narratives theme for New Forms. In many ways it is the narrative threads, the storytelling part of hip hop that has really captured Aboriginal communities, an extension of traditional oral culture and storytelling practice…..CONTINUED.
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