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Last month I introduced you to League, a collaborative arts and athletics project created by locally based artist Germaine Koh. League is back this Sunday, February 24th at their usual spot at Elm Park Field House in Vancouver-Kerrisdale. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, get out there and enjoy yourself.

Details provided below courtesy of Germaine Koh.

Walking. We might take it for granted, but it is one of the ways in which individuals know, shape, and give meaning to places. Walking is an everyday tactic that bends the city toward unplanned ends (Michel de Certeau). It’s done for political reasons, for pleasure, for meditation. “Walkers are ‘practitioners of the city,’ for the city is made to be walked.[...] Just as language limits what can be said, architecture limits where one can walk, but the walker invents other ways to go,” wrote Rebecca Solnit in Wanderlust: A history of walking.

The next League play date turns on walking. How does the environment around us affect how we understand our possibilities for action, and could our movements through the city shift those habits and conventions?

We’ll workshop some ideas from League regulars Jay White and Leah Weinstein, and of course adapt as we go. Bonus points if you arrive on foot.

League is an open gathering for the purpose of inventing games and sports; it’s problem solving as play. Large gatherings happen on the last sunday of each month. This sunday’s gathering takes place from noon to four o’clock at Elm Park (41 ave and Larch).  More information can be found at http://league-league.org.

Remember being a kid and turning the games you loved on their head by introducing or removing rules, or adding new obstacles and challenges? I remember personally doing things like putting two chess boards together to form some sort of mega-chess, or changing Monopoly by putting every property up for auction. Change was a way to introduce new life into an old game, or simply to see what would happen and what could be created if you altered the parameters. In that spirit, Vancouver based artist Germaine Koh is inviting anyone that would like to join her to come out and re-imagine play with League, a community based collaborative event held weekly on Tuesdays and on the last Sunday of every month at the Elm Park field house in Vancouver-Kerrisdale.

Billed as “problem solving as play as problem solving”, League will be an open gathering for the purpose of playing sports and games invented by members of the community. Each game will evolve through trial and improvisation, and new and unusual equipment may be invented. At its foundation, the project is based on the notion that play is an essential human pursuit. Useful both in the development of cognitive skills such as problem solving, creative thinking, and negotiation, as well as in the simple pursuit of pleasure (FUN!!!).

My Daughter Sadie and I had the opportunity to join the group back in November when the focus was on creating games using sticks and stick like objects. The results were all over the place, and included an oversized combination of pick up sticks/marco polo among other games. The freedom to introduce new variations and ideas on the fly made the games fun and easy going. There was no emphasis on scores or winning and losing and it was obvious that everyone assembled, both the young and old were having a good time and feeding off one another creatively. Ultimately, this is a project with appeal for any one, regardless of whether they identify as athletic, or creative, or neither.

The next gathering of League will take place this Sunday, January 27th, 2013 from noon to three pm at Elm Park located at 41st Avenue at Elm in Kerrisdale. The gathering this week celebrates Family Literacy Day, with games related to signs and signals.

For more information about League, you can check out the blog (which provides links to some seriously interesting reads). You can also find League on Facebook, and  follow along on the twitter.

Photographs and League info provided by Germain Koh.

Notwithstanding the current labour difficulties keeping the Canucks off the ice, you’d be pretty hard pressed to argue that we don’t have it good as sports fans in this city. We have teams in most every type of game you could imagine playing at a high level, and the BC Lions and Vancouver Canadians pretty much engineered to deliver championships. The only time this becomes an issue is when your first love is the type of 4 down football currently played only in the good old USA. If you’re anything like my friend Jordan and his family it’s a pretty easy fix. Just load up the car and head from your Lower Mainland home to Seattle…then board an airplane bound for New Orleans, home of the Saints.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina the Saint’s were at risk of being moved. A wildly successful season’s ticket drive created an opportunity for fans like Jordan to support a team and city they loved and also to provide for that team’s longevity and future success. That drive was so successful in fact that every single one of the 72, 000 plus seats is allocated to a season’s ticket holder. It’s the only way to ensure you can be there. Being a season’s ticket holder for almost any professional sports team requires a large commitment financially. Become a season’s ticket holder for a franchise that sits about 4500 kms from home and those expenses are increased exponentially. It’s a lot to commit to and Jordan’s pretty lucky to have Ann-Marie, his very understanding football loving wife. Football aside, the biggest part of what keeps them coming back year after year are the positive things they’ve been able to share with their seven year old son Strachan (named after the local mountain). As Jordan puts it, “it’s about exposing him to a city that I have called a second home for the last 20+ years.  It’s the opportunity to introduce him to a completely different culture and way of life.  The opportunity to experience the unique music, the architecture and landscape, the food, and the Southern hospitality. It’s him learning about perseverance, pride, and kindness that the people in New Orleans have towards themselves and the city they live in”.
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Kelly Jablonski is one of 7 survivors of flight 204 which crashed onto Russ Baker way just short of YVR a year ago today. Passerby who rushed to assist were able to help the 6 other passengers off the burning plane, but due to Kelly’s position at the front of the passenger compartment the flames had become too intense for anyone to safely assist him in getting out. Somehow, in all the chaos another passenger, who realized he couldn’t assist in getting Kelly out thought to unbuckle his seatbelt, allowing him to get on to the floor of the plane and ultimately put enough distance between himself and the flames to survive the ten minutes it took for rescuers to get to him. An interesting reminder of what a game of inches life can be sometimes. Kelly’s survival and the survival of the other 6 passengers on the plane is a pretty amazing story by itself. It becomes even more amazing when you consider that 8 months after being here:

Kelly was here:

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Despite dropping a close, hard fought game 1-0 to the Portland Timbers tonight at a sold out BC place your Vancouver Whitecaps are still set to become the first Canadian club to advance to the post season. The Seattle Sounders handed FC Dallas a 3-1 loss, which was good enough to secure the fifth and final playoff spot for the Caps. The team will have little time to relish the achievement however. They wrap up their regular season in Salt Lake City next weekend before heading to Los Angeles to take on current MLS champions the LA Galaxy in a first round elimination match on October 31.

It’s been an amazing season for the Caps, and although I’m sure they’d tell you that even making the playoffs is a great result (they’d be right). I can say personally that I’d love another opportunity to see this team play at home this season. Congratulations go out to the players, best of luck n California. We know you’ll make us proud.

Just when Gary Bettman thought things couldn’t get any worse,  Vancouver Whitecaps defender Jay Demerit comes along and steals the mullet. In all likelihood Jay just figured that  if hockey wasn’t going to be needing it’s iconic haircut anytime soon, maybe he could borrow it for a while, lead a great football club into the playoffs and while he’s at it raise some money for a good cause too.

To provide you with a little context, Demerit vowed to grow the back of his hair until the Whitecaps clinched a playoff spot. Things have been looking up too, the team has gone 1-0-1 since he revealed his business up front, party in the back haircut, and it certainly hasn’t hurt him at home either as he recently became engaged to Canadian Olympian Ashleigh McIvor (no word on whether the vows will include a promise to never again promise to sport a mullet for any reason). You can get in on some of this positive hockey headed energy by getting yourself and your own mullet down to BC Place this Sunday when the Whitecaps play the Portland Timbres in their last home game of the regular season. Barbers will be available by donation to the united way to provide you with a mullet of your very own. Click here for a little inspiration. If you’ve seen the barber a little too recently, no problem, wigs are fine also. There will be some wigs available from the team by donation but supplies are limited and fans are encouraged to bring their own. Remember that any wig can be a mullet wig if you have five minutes and decent set of scissors. Just remember, cut the sides, don’t touch the back. Those who choose to show their hair solidarity will have the opportunity to enter to win the shirt off Jay Demerit’s back following the game, and will also get 10% off regularly priced Whitecaps merchandise.

If you’ve been considering getting down to the game, tickets are limited but there are some still available through ticketmaster. It’s a great opportunity to cheer on a great sports franchise against a great rival with a lot on the line. It’s also a great opportunity to support a local charity and have a bit of a laugh at yourself, both of which are never bad things. Oh, did I mention that it’s Fan Appreciation Day on Sunday and that there’s a ton of other great things going on? More information on that here.

See you there.

Photo Credit: Bob Frid/Vancouver Whitecaps FC