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Every week V.I.A. Giveaways will give you a chance to win … something. Watch this space and if you’re a real keener, follow @VIAGiveaways on the Twitter for even more good times and random free stuff! Try as I might to come up with a theme for this week’s giveaway and… I can’t. Not that it’s not another awesome week of giveaway madness, because it is, but my brain can’t see a connection between two tickets ($75 each!) to the Canadian Culinary Federation’s Aboriginal Potlatch Supper, featuring the edible gastronomical artistry of chef Ben Genaille, and three sets of prize packs (tickets and CDs!) for musician Matthew Barber, who is playing the Biltmore Cabaret on Saturday night.

On June 13 the Canadian Culinary Federation is presenting the Aboriginal Potlatch Supper at the Vancouver Community College, featuring the talents of chefs Ben Genaille and JC Felicella and the school’s Aboriginal Culinary Class. The evening will be a foodie’s dream come true, showcasing a range of British Colombia’s indigenous food products prepared with both traditional and modern methods. For more information on the event go HERE.

Chef Ben Genaille. Photo courtesy Canadian Culinary Federation.

“Let Me Go Home,” Matthew Barber.

Matthew Barber, currently on tour with his latest release True Believer, will be playing the Biltmore Cabaret on Saturday. We have three pairs of tickets and six CDs to give away. Brand new sweet summer sounds for the iPod, anyone?

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Every week V.I.A. Giveaways will give you a chance to win … something. Watch this space and if you’re a real keener, follow @VIAGiveaways on the Twitter for even more good times and random free stuff! This week’s Giveaway is a nod to working it like a tourist – in our own backyard! Sweet, sweet swag from this Sunday’s Vancouver is Awesome-sponsored Love Vancouver, Love Your Planet festival; a Family Pack of four tickets and exclusive swaggitude from the new Cliffwalk attraction at Capilano Suspension Bridge; a $100 gift certificate to the Robson Square Artisan Market!

Coinciding with the United Nation’s World Environment Day and kicking off Canadian Environment Week, the FREE Love Vancouver, Love Your Planet Festival on June 5th (11 am – 6 pm) is a green-themed art, music and lifestyle labour-of-love festival taking place in the Olympic Village along False Creek. This FREE festival celebrates and encourages Vancouverites to build a more sustainable future for our city by bringing communities together to share their ideas and celebrate innovations.

Vancouver is Awesome is proud and delighted to be a sponsor of this new-to-Vancouver, kid-friendly, planet-loving event! We’re even more proud and delighted to offer some sweet swag to some wonderful winner. Valued at $60 and featuring a Love Vancouver Eco Swag Bag, SIGG water bottle, an assortment of Aveda goodies and Earthen Bamboo plates, this prize will keep you eco-chic all summer long.

The brand new Cliffwalk attraction at the Capilano Suspension Bridge. Photo courtesy CSB.

Have you heard about the brand new new Cliffwalk attraction at the Capilano Suspension Bridge? Opening tomorrow, “this heart-stopping cliffside journey takes you through rainforest vegetation on a series of unobtrusive cantilevered and suspended walkways jutting out from the granite cliff face above Capilano River to previously unexplored areas of the park. Not for the faint of heart, it is high and narrow and, in some sections, glass (very strong glass) is all that separates guests from the canyon far below.”

Cliffwalk features educational signage with ecological information from the David Suzuki Foundation, making it a perfect way to spend an afternoon with the kids (leave your strollers in the car!). Even more perfect would be spending an afternoon at Cliffwalk with a family pack of four tickets and an exclusive swag bag for FREE. You just have to win the giveaway ($130 value!).

Backyard tourism wouldn’t be complete without a shopping spree, and with a $100 gift certificate from the Robson Square Artisan Market you’re more thank likely to walk away with something utterly lovely and unique (made locally!) as opposed to something generic and boring (made… elsewhere).

Adorable, handmade felt toys by local artisan Comiditas! Photo courtesy Comiditas.

Featuring a wide variety of local artists under the dome at Robson Square (between Hornby and Howe on Robson), this FREE event is open from 10 am – 3pm, running Saturdays and Sundays from June 4 – September 18. The market will be featuring an ever-changing roster of vendors and musical guests; for more information on that go HERE. Performances start at 10:00 am sharp and will be featuring Patrick Spencer, Kate Morgan, The Matinee (Saturday) and Redgy Blackout, Matt Lowen & Sound Refuge (Sunday).

You want to win? You have to play. …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Every week V.I.A. Giveaways will give you a chance to win … something. Watch this space and if you’re a real keener, follow @VIAGiveaways on the Twitter for even more good times and random free stuff! This week is all about the V.I.P. experience, which to me means being on that magical piece of documentation known as “the list” and the feeling of self-righteous awesome that can only be had from breezing past those other people who are not. Oh, yeah. Technophiles will undoubtedly appreciate an evening with one of Vancouver’s Most Awesome, Douglas Coupland, at the Waldorf Hotel (complete with $30 gift certificate to Nuba!). Electrophiles will get a charge from being at the über-exclusive opening launch party for Vancouver’s newest hotspot, The Electric Owl. Both of these awesome V.I.P. events are happening this Thursday, which is so obviously, like, the new Saturday.

Join esteemed author and visual artist Douglas Coupland, who will be hosting an interactive presentation on Marshall McLuhan and YouTube at The Waldorf Hotel. For more information go HERE. I have two pairs of passes and two $30 gift certificates. You get the message?

Like most Canadians, this was my introduction to Marshall McLuhan.

Ms. McAvoy alluded to this pretty awesome event HERE, and of course she’ll be taking fotos, too. I can’t take your foto but I might be able to get you in, as I have two pairs of passes to this shindig. The American Hotel on Main Street has been roosting a new venue as part of its renovation, and on Thursday The Electric Owl will be hatching. Check out this really great article at Scout Magazine for more information about the renovation and the new nightspot which will be featuring…. izakaya cuisine.

All night.

(Which, to me, means an evening spent gorging on endless skewers and a serious case of Spanx.) …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Every week V.I.A. Giveaways will give you a chance to win … something. Watch this space and if you’re a real keener, follow @VIAGiveaways on the Twitter for even more good times and random free stuff! Yet another week featuring tickets… tickets, tickets, and yet even more tickets. * A-Trak, Kid Sister, Gaslamp Killer tonight at the Commodore Ballroom. * This weekend’s Epic Sustainability Expo at the Vancouver Convention Centre. * The final week of the VIA-sponsored West Coast Pop! series on Saturday at the Red Room. * Opening night of a new play, Shades of Gray, this Saturday at Studio 1398.

It’s all about the Twitter. Are you on it? Do you follow @VIAGiveaways (or @VIAwesome or @VIAindie or any other equally awesome Vancouver is Awesome-related twitter accounts)? Now might be a good time to delve into the wonderful world of Twitter, tweeples.

Especially when you can win free stuff.

I think I dated that guy… Yeah, that one!

My spidey-senses have alerted me to the fact that this may be hottest ticket in town on Saturday night (other than The Raveonettes at Venue, I mean). It’s the last week of the incredible V.I.A.-sponsored music series West Coast Pop! at the Red Room. The final installment will be featuring performances by this week’s featured V.I.A. Playlisters The Pack AD (seriously – check out the video below, it’s there for a reason), Dead Voices, and SSRIs. Advance tickets are $10.05 and you can get more info on that HERE. Alternately, you could follow @VIAGiveaways on the Twitter for your chance to win one of TWO pairs of tickets.

Learn how to green your wedding! Photo courtesy of Epic Sustainability Expo.

There’s also the Epic Sustainability Expo happening this Friday, May 13 – Sunday, 15 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. You know the one, “where style meets sustainability.” This year’s roster features an incredible slew of vendors and guest presenters (like the one pictured to the left of yours truly, below) imparting all kinds of interesting and useful ideas you can use to help green your life in fun, practical ways that are more modernist-funk and less granola-crunch. Tickets are $15 at the door, or go HERE to save yourself $3.

Observe the typical response of a man responding to hair products that are loaded with pheromones but sans sodium laureth sulphate, parfum, and assorted parabens. Go green!

Did I mention that @VIAGiveaways has FOUR pairs of tickets to give away? You know the drill, tweeples. …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Every week V.I.A. Giveaways will give you a chance to win … something. Watch this space and if you’re a real keener, follow @VIAGiveaways on the Twitter for even more good times and random free stuff! Yet another week featuring tickets… tickets, tickets, and yet even more tickets (and a killer swag bag). So maybe hockey isn’t your thing, or maybe it is but you’re not one of the lucky ones who has tickets to the big game. (Don’t fret, my pet – neither does VIAGiveaways.) But there’s a serious offering of tickets happening for the upcoming weekend, so read on for more information….

It’s all about the Twitter. Are you on it? Do you follow @VIAGiveaways (or @VIAwesome or @VIAindie or any other equally awesome Vancouver is Awesome-related twitter accounts)? Now might be a good time to delve into the wonderful world of Twitter, tweeples.

Especially when you can win free stuff.

Enjoy Twitter from the comforts of home.

Terminal City Rollergirls whip it good, so you don’t have to. This Saturday’s match at the PNE sees the @TCRG All-Stars battling Portland’s Heartless Heathers. Read more about it on V.I.A. HERE and go HERE for more information about tickets and times.

And, of course, follow @VIAGiveaways and pay attention for your chance to win tickets.

These ladies whip it so you don’t have to.

There’s also @WestcoastPop happening this Saturday at the Red Room with The Pack A.D., Dead Voices, and the SSRI’s. For more information on that V.I.A.-sponsored series and ticket information, go HERE. We have two sets of tickets to giveaway… which means, you know… follow @VIAGiveaways and pay attention.

And last but not least we have a set of passes and coveted swag bag that some lucky @VIAGiveaways follower will win through sheer diligence, remarkably quick Vancentric trivia recall, and fantastic Twitter timing. For more information on Got Craft, which is taking place this Sunday at the Royal Canadian Legion (2205 Commercial Drive) from 10:00 am – 5:00 pm . In addition to being Vancouver’s “largest indie craft fair” Got Craft is known in certain (estrogen-fueled, I’m certain) circles for their killer swag bags, which contain a token of indie-craft-goodness from every vendor for the first 45 people in line. People (mostly ladies) line up hella early for one of these bags. In fact, I did once too… and it was worth it (even if some ladies totally butted in line ahead of us… I digress).

Bottom line… #FF @VIAGiveaways. And it will follow you back.

Every week V.I.A. Giveaways will give you a chance to win … something. Watch this space and if you’re a real keener, follow @VIAGiveaways on the Twitter for even more good times and random free stuff! This week is tickets… tickets, tickets, and more tickets. Have you blown your available cash self-medicating during the intensely stressful round of Canucks playoffs? Low on funds but still crave a social life? Then you need to pay attention to this post.

Vancouver is Awesome is pleased as punch to be co-sponsoring this Friday’s midnight screening of Labyrinth at The Rio Theatre and both this Saturday’s ongoing West Coast Pop! series at the Red Room (featuring performances by Young Liars, Oh No! Yoko, and guests) and BetheChange.org’s Navigating the Great Turning “unconference” (featuring a whole slew of interesting people… and yoga!). We’re also giving tickets to the acclaimed Brooklyn duo of Buke and Gass at the Biltmore on Saturday night, too….

David Bowie in tights. Hair. Dancing. Babies. Magic Dancing. Puppets. End Scene.

Vancouver Specials are everywhere this week. Oh No! Yoko having fun. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Take a listen to Young Liars HERE and Oh No! Yoko HERE. For West Coast Pop! ticket information, go HERE.

Come and find out what is in the center of the galaxy in that poster. And the fabulously bespectacled Andrea Reimer (I love her glasses) will be there.

If you are a self-starter than this “un”conference could be for you. I think it requires a lot of energy to go, but then you meet the people and you do the yoga and you hear these stories and then it changes your thinking for a bit. Word. For more information and to get what I am saying, go HERE.

Buke and Gass. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Featuring real instruments that they made themselves, these guys are (to borrow from the record-store-clerkspeak I employed when I jockeyed that horse), “basically on the soundtrack to the .Etsy movie that Julia Roberts will direct as a female counter-point to The Social Network, featuring over-zealous DiYyers and their jerky ex-boyfriends in place of Zuckerberg.” Go HERE to get what I am saying (check out that bell-shoe-instrument she’s wearing! Where do I get one?!).

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

If you’re looking for an excuse to go see a fun romantic comedy this weekend I would suggest checking out Canadian indie-flickTextuality, opening across our home and native land today and directed by my lovely friend Warren Sonoda. If that’s not reason enough, then go to see Vancouver’s Most Awesome alum actress Carly Pope (Popular, Californication), who is starring alongside fellow Vancouverites Eric McCormack and Holly Dignard.

I had a chance to chat with Carly about Textuality, the pros and cons of virtual relationships, her fondness for Vancouver and why getting your Blackberry hacked and being forced to go through the pains of re-programming your digital life can actually be a good thing.

(And if you haven’t already entered V.I.A.’s giveaway for a brand new Blackberry of your own, you may want to GO HERE and do so.)


Carly Pope, Eric McCormack.

Let’s talk about Textuality. Who do you play in the film?
I play Simone, who is a modern-day woman, blogger and artist. She is in the midst of multiple relationships that really are distractions because she is not able to access the one relationship she does want to be in – with a married man (Eric McCormack). She is open and honest with everyone about where she is and what her boundaries are but is unsatisfied and, I think, a hopeless romantic looking for a connection that she is not able to find. Then she bumps into Breslin (played by Sex and the City’s Jason Lewis) and they go back to a simpler way of interacting …

And culling all those ephemeral relationships.
Certainly, and having time that is more productive. I think that comes from a place of fear, not having the courage or the impetus to take that leap or that step. If you just keep yourself feeling like you’re not isolated or alone, you can keep yourself safe from having to make a grand gesture before you are ready to. They (Simone and Breslin) just get back to basics. They take that step forward.

Carly Pope brushes up with Jason Lewis. Sans phone.

When we connect virtually – online, or through text – tone is missing. We project so much.
I think that is such a dangerous line to walk along.

We do project so much and misinterpret; you just don’t have that human quality of intimacy anymore if you can’t actually hear what someone is saying or look at their face when they are talking to you. I feel like we miss so much by having everything be digital. I see the value in having technology be a buffer or a pipeline to somebody, like if you’re in a long-distance relationship. It’s also super-fun to be flirtatious and creative with your text messages or your picture messages. (Laughs.) Those things are all great supplements, but if they are being used as the primary mode of communication you miss out on a lot.

Social media is pretty booming here in Vancity and we have quite an active Twitter community. Are you into social media?
I don’t feel like Twitter is really for me. I see the benefit of having a Twitter account but for me, it’s too much obligation and I kinda feel like no one would care! (Laughs.)

I am teasing my way into a bit of a blog right now, which is mainly just an outlet for me to write down my thoughts. A friend of mine said, “Just think of it as a diary and publish the posts that you want.” So I am taking the low-impact approach. I am technologically so unsavvy – my computer looks like it’s had a bender. It’s so busted. I have a Blackberry that I barely know how to use…

I can relate. I call my computer Frankenpooter because it’s made up of the parts of other people’s computers that they no longer needed.
I call mine Mickey Rourke.

Carly suffering for her art on day three of shooting.

When you do come back to Vancouver, what neighbourhood do you call home?
Well, that’s a little tricky. …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Every week V.I.A. Giveaways will give you a chance to win … something. Watch this space and if you’re a real keener, follow @VIAGiveaways on the Twitter for even more good times and random free stuff! It’s not every week that a Canadian movie opens starring not one, but two of our fair city’s most delightfully (and one of V.I.A.’s Most Awesome) talented citizens. Eric McCormack (Will and Grace) and Carly Pope (Popular) are sharing screen time in Textuality, which opens in Vancouver on Friday…

Eric McCormack and Carly Pope in a scene from Textuality.

I chatted with Carly Pope this morning about Textuality, starring in a film alongside fellow Vancouverite Eric McCormack, and what it’s like wearing her Canuck pride while she’s in Toronto.

Along the way she happened to mention that her Blackberry recently got hacked and that she is in the process of having to deal with the exquisite agony of re-programing a brand new telephone (and the unexpected upside over “social pruning,” but more on that later).

This is how Carly likes to get attention when she is sans phone. Having fun on set, Day 3.

In keeping with the theme of new telephones and texting (the movie is called Textuality, after all) I asked her what the first thing she would text and to whom she would send it if she was, somehow, magically gifted a brand new Blackberry Bold 9780.
…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>