Browsing “Most Awesome”

 
This is Cam and Jill

Hana Pesut is the photographer behind the amazing Switcheroo photo-series that’s gaining fans all over the world for its sweet, simple concept: Before and after shots of couples in each other’s clothes. You’ve probably seen her work, recognize your friends, or heck, even yourself – she’s shot over 400 people for the series in over 7 countries so far. Capturing a moment in time in the lives of her subjects (and their relationships), the Switcheroo series is immediately, instinctually compelling. And has garnered attention in Vice, the Globe and Mail, and the Huffington Post, among other international publications.

Now, Hana is making a book – bringing the Switcheroo home and into ours. Check out her Indiegogo campaign: For $40, you can guarantee yourself a copy of this first edition of the Switcheroo book. You’ll be supporting a unique home-grown talent that’s put Vancouver on the map in a positive, creative way. There are lots of other options for you to contribute, from $5-$1200, any amount will help make this awesome project happen. She’s just past the half-way mark as of today – there are still 6 days left for you to put your name down for a copy. Do it! And read on for a brief Q&A with Hana, and more Switcheroo photos!

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Rest in peace, Jim Green. Vancouver is a far more awesome place for all that you did for it while you were with us. May the spirit of your work carry on.

A little more than 25 years ago, Rick Hansen set out on a global tour to raise awareness about wheelchair accessibility and spinal cord research. Dubbed The Man In Motion Tour, it started and ended at Oakridge Mall here in Vancouver, with Rick propelling himself in his wheelchair through 34 countries and 40,000 kilometres, and into the hearts and the minds of all of us. The tour not only inspired Vancouverites, British Columbians, and Canadians but it literally touched the world. Since then Rick has continued his work, raising more than $252 million for spinal cord injury-related programs and initiatives and being an ambassador of accessibility and the cause of spinal cord research.

I’m so humbled to be able to introduce this interview with one of my biggest heroes. A dude whom I high-fived 25 years ago on the original tour and whom I’ll meet again on May 22nd, 2012 when I’ll be running in his 25th Anniversary Relay as it wraps up here in our fair city – the final stop for the medallion that’s been on the road since August 24th of last year as it’s made its way across Canada and through the hands of thousands of other medal-bearers. Below are Rick’s thoughts on this relay, Vancouver, accessibility, fishing and more!

Photo: Rick Hansen Foundation

What makes Vancouver awesome?
Other than the beauty, setting and diversity of the city, to me, what makes Vancouver awesome is how accessible and inclusive it is. From our transit to restaurants and retail spaces, to the airport, to new infrastructure and facilities – by planning with all citizens in mind, that is truly awesome.

Who is your favourite Vancouverite of all time?
That’s a tough one! I’ll go with my first coach, and mentor, the late Stan Stronge. He was the one who got me involved in wheelchair sport, and coached myself and Terry Fox.

I was recently on a boat with Tony Nootebos (LINK) and he told me all about the Fraser River Sturgeon Conservation Society that you’re the chairman of. What was the last fishing trip you went on?
The last trip I was on was with my good friend Tim Frick. We caught and tagged sturgeon in the Fraser River near the Port Mann Bridge.

What’s the best saltwater fishing adventure you’ve been on?
That would have to be in Rivers Inlet. We caught at 60-lb Chinook salmon. It was the biggest salmon I’d caught. The night before, a number of individuals I was with agreed that if we caught a salmon of that size, we would agree to donate our time to help create a more sustainable salmon run in Rivers Inlet. It introduced me to conservation and sustainability – which has become a passion of mine.
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A few months back I urged you to read TDM’s autobiography Mulligan’s Stew, with the promise that if you did you would get a lot more out of the interview that we’re publishing with him. Did you read it? The story of this legendary music journalist where he shares his life (so far) with us? From being an RCMP officer with a smalltown rock radio show in Alberta all the way to hosting a wine TV show with Jason Priestley, if you haven’t yet I urge you to pick up this fantastic offering from and about one of Vancouver’s treasures: Terry David Mulligan.

He’s the subject of a roast this Friday at Federico’s Supper Club on Commercial, so I figured we’d publish this piece while the Mulligan iron is hot. Click HERE to learn more about the roast c/o Miss604.com and continue reading for some thoughts from Terry on why he returned to Vancouver, what he’s been up to with Jason Priestley, and who his favourite Vancouver band of all time is.

With Josie in his backyard on the North Shore. Photo: Bob Kronbauer

So, why’d you move back to Vancouver?
Grandkids. Our kids are having kids and two of them are on Saltspring Island and, you know, Naramata Bench is four-and-a-half to five hours away from Vancouver and then Vancouver is another four, four-and-a-half hours to Saltspring, and that’s a day. How many days have you got? You’ve got a couple, one day down, one day back, one day on Saltspring? That’s just crazy. And also we have a grandson here in North Vancouver, or West Van. North Van, actually, and we just wanted to see them. And when you get to that point you just go “Well, there’s no decision to be made. Let’s go.” That’s it. Let’s go.

So do you think you’re back for good?
The only thing that I could see doing would be dividing our time between San Francisco, which we love, we lived there for four years, and Vancouver. And not specifically San Francisco. More like Napa or Sonoma – Vancouver. Because I’m going to continue to do the wine show, I hope, and we love San Francisco, crazy about San Francisco, but it’s even more expensive than Vancouver. I think what we’ll do is we’ll spend most of our time here but we will spend maybe January, February, March there kind of thing…

Is that when you film your show, Hollywood and Vines? In February?
No, we shoot it when Priestley’s got time, when he’s not directing or acting and when Chad [their producer] isn’t doing something.

Is it true that you originally met Jason at a celebrity fishing tournament?
Actually, we had seen each other before that at auditions. He would be going in to audition for the role of ‘Son’ and I would be going to audition for the role of ‘Dad’, or ‘Brother.’ But it was during that celebrity fishing trip that we just started to talk about doing a show. He had come to my house before the trip and he said “All those CDs that you’ve got.” “Yeah?” “Well do they send them to you?” And I said, “Well, yeah. I’m playing them on the radio and they’re promo copies and they want me to know about their music.” “Wow. Free music. How about that.” And we just sat there and looked at our rod tips for about 30 seconds. And then he went “Wow. Imagine if we did a wine show.” And then another minute went by and then “Free wine?”. We both looked at each other and went “Free wine. Wow! Free wine!” and that’s exactly how it went. I mean we’re out on the ocean; we’ve got all the time in the world. Just sitting there bouncing around. Free wine. Yeah!

So we started talking about it and then it all sort of started to take shape. And then he had his accident with his car on the racetrack, and it took more than a year to recover, walk and talk and speak, and just sort of move again. And then he said, “Let’s go shoot the show.”. So I was thrilled and delighted, and that’s what we’ve been doing.

What was that fishing show you did… Terry and the Tiger? Was that a pilot or did you ever do more episodes than one?
It was a pilot. And I loved the show. Loved the show. It was myself and Tiger Williams, and our guest was John Candy.

[Laughs] Where’s the pilot? Where is it?
I’ve got it somewhere. I’m probably the only one who has a copy.

Can I see it?
No, it’s …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Words and photo: Daniel Curtis

You’ve seen (and love) the comedy, Superbad, right? Pineapple Express? How about The Green Hornet, Funny People and Knocked Up? They all star one of Vancouver’s funniest exports, Seth Rogen, and what they also have in common is that they were co-written by another awesome Vancouverite: screenwriter, Evan Goldberg. A graduate of Point Grey Secondary who went on to become a staff writer of Da Ali G Show and lived out his dream of writing an episode of The Simpsons, his new movie Goon pushes hockey comedy and violence to the limits. It opens nationwide today (at Scotiabank Theatre and Silvercity Metropolis locally) and we were lucky to sit down with Evan to talk about his hometown, his career, his favourite local watering hole and more. Enjoy Vancouver’s Most Awesome: Evan Goldberg!

What makes Vancouver awesome?
I’m pretty crazy about Vancouver. I live in L.A. right now but I just want to live in Vancouver all the time. The rain. I think that the rain makes it awesome, because it makes everything clean, green which makes the air nice. I love the rain, the people are cool. The abundance of coffee shops. It’s clean, safe and fun. Most places aren’t all of those things. Most places are clean and safe but boring, or really fun but kind of dangerous. Vancouver just feels balanced to me. I come back here all the time, as much as I can.

Who’s your favourite Vancouverite?
I have the best answer ever: my mother. She’ll like that.

What’s your current favourite restaurant to visit when you’re in town?
I always go to Shabusen no matter what, every time I go home for all you can eat sushi. Shabusen is really awesome, Sun Sui Wah is really rad for dim sum. I recently tried Maenam, a new Thai restaurant and that blew my mind, but Shabusen… best deal ever.

What’s your favourite neighbourhood in the city?
My neighbourhood, 49th and Granville.

How did you research for Goon, and how was it collaborating with Jay Baruchel?
I didn’t have to do any research at all because Jay has more information about hockey in his mind than anyone in the world. He was an infinite source of everything necessary. I like hockey but I’m not like a hockey fanatic, but Jay is the craziest hockey nut on earth. Really I just made sure the story worked, the structure was appropriate, the emotions flowed and everything wrapped up properly. Jay put in all the hockey. The layman who’s not a hockey nut might not get this or that. So back and forth we slowly figured it out. Jay was the only research we needed.

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Fuck Cancer is an educational movement aimed at shifting the power from cancer to the patient. It educates people to look for cancer and  realize that early detection is cancer’s best cure. It also promotes generation Y to engage with their parents in this process. I met up with one of Vancouver’s Most awesome Yael Cohen, the founder and chief, at their head office in Gastown to discuss her Vancouver Favourites, people and food.

What makes Vancouver awesome?

It’s everything. Our environment, it’s the oceans and the mountains, sounds trite- but true. It’s our people, and our lifestyle. Oh  and the fact that no matter what you’re craving for dinner, there’s a place to get it within 10 minutes!

What are your fondest memories growing up in the city?

I moved here when I was ten, I had come from South Africa, then California and Colorado… all over the place. And the week we moved was the fireworks, Festival of Lights, so we had just moved into our new house,  and didn’t know anyone at all. My big brother Ryan and I, had gone out to play on the street and we had met neighbourhood kids. And so being me, I invite everyone over to watch fireworks at our house. It’s the first night in this new house, my parents are unpacking, they’re exhausted. Mom is in a nightie, busy putting the house together and the doorbell rings, and literally fifteen people show up. Any of course the only place that you could see the fireworks from our house was off my parent’s bedroom balcony! That was my first memory of Vancouver.  We had never really lived in a place where there was that sense of community. So that’s definitely one of my favourites.

Who is your favourite Vancouverite?

There are so many. My mom and my dad, is that lame?

My mom and my dad, they are my favourite humans so they would have to be my favourite Vancouverites as well, right?

What was your experience like doing your Tedx Keynote?

It was nerve wracking, that was the first time I had spoken in front of that many people, so it was as scary as hell, but it was awesome. It really makes you have to think about what you are doing and what you are trying to do and how to succinctly represent your message. You have got such a short amount of time and you really want to make sure you are clear and concise and inspiring. Obviously I believe in what I do, but if I can make hundreds of thousands of other people believe from my seven minute speech, then I better damn well work my butt off. I have gone to quite a few of the TED events. TEDmed, Tedwoman and TEDglobal.  I think that TEDx is fantastic. It gives us access to thousands of voices that wouldn’t get the chance to be on a main stage.

How do you prepare for something like that? Going from an average citizen to being thrown into the media spotlight?

I know you can prepare, I haven’t particularly, I still get nervous as hell, which is probably a good thing. It keeps me wanting to do better and better. I wrote three speeches before I got to the TED one that you guys saw. My speeches are points, I don’t write actual speeches, because if I get nervous and skip a line I throw myself off. I just write points and I speak about them from the heart.

What is your favourite thing to do in the winter?

Whistler. I don’t really ski or snowboard, I just love …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>