Entries Tagged 'quirky arts and misc culture' ↓

What isn’t there to love about New Zealand?

Flight of the Conchords making us laugh, Marilyn Wearing making us smart, and Lord. Of. The. Rings. Did Frodo ever get to battle life’s demons in a more beautiful place? No way! But now he could have a little extra help getting back and forth to Mordor on his new YikeBike. Sam Gamgee too!

I love that a group of people sat down and said enough with the nonsense of modern living – using gas to commute, having to play tetris with your bicycle on public transit, traffic jams, pollution, stress… and took the idea of a unicycle and  made it rideable for the talentless.  (I have great respect for unicycles- not only is it eco-friendly, but an amazing trick too!)

The private New Zealand company responsible for this “urban freedom” transit tool, called it “yike”-bike after hearing peoples’ first reactions to it. And again, what’s not to love about that, being tongue in cheek about your own invention that you’ve invested everything in?

You can check out their commonly answered questions here.  And even better is the Yikebike’s founder Grant Ryan’s blog. Talk about putting your passion to the pedal.

I’m looking forward to a pedal-assist model so a little sweat can be added to the mix.

So, my question for the day:  is Vancouver too self-conscious to initially look weird wheeling around on one of these things? I bet the happy people unicycling wouldn’t think so.

We could call it the VikeBike, especially if it was pedal-assist.

On this week’s Mouth2Mouth broadcasting outta CJSF 90.1fm, Sarah Hyde and I talk pseudonyms.

Have you ever changed your name?

Sarah Hyde talks about what it was like to live a year as Molly Hopkins. Turns out Molly is a whole lotta fun! (So is Sarah- she picked up a thing or two from her name-changing alter ego).

We talk to Orene Askew, who really prefers to be called “O”; Maegan Conway on changing names during a pub crawl in Berlin, Nick Kempinksi on how a name change can make a big difference and Katie K on what it’s like to catch someone using a different name. And as the world funnily turns, that someone just happens to be the same someone Sarah Hyde and I know…by a different name. I know. I know. There’s a lot to a name.

Including some silly fun. Sarah and I rename each other for a day.  And I’m not sure what she thought of my name for her but I was pretty happy with what she came up with for me, especially when we shortened it to a nickname.

So, go ahead, pick up a Sharpie and fill in that blank “Hello, my name is” box. Write whatever you want. We found out it doesn’t hurt a thing.

Until someone finds out.

The Pseudonyms Show Part I

The Pseudonyms Show Part II

b-b-b-bam-bam b-b-b-bam-bam, I wanna be more organized.

Not sure the Ramones would have rolled a cigarette or took a shot of whiskey to that last one, but I think if I was more organized I wouldn’t want to be sedated.

I’ve got that 200-cigarettes feeling for our Arthritis Society fundraiser tomorrow. I feel like Martha Plimpton’s Monica- making cupcakes, sending out thinly veiled beseeching emails and texts to close friends to bring their friends and that guy they always wanted to talk to at the office and then maybe his brother and if his brother’s neighbour is out on the front stoop then convince him to come too.  Ahh, nerves or is that excitement?

When it comes to raising cash they’re the same thing.

Throwing a big public bash feels like first date jitters. It’s exciting to go out with someone you don’t know but it’s such a risk from the usual pyjama pants and The Office routine. You have to be hopeful and realistic, but even more hopeful. Of course, we’ll break even, we may even make a hundred bucks towards the cause! Maybe a thousand! Someone’s shirt will come off! Who knows?!

In less than 24 hours our very first big public fundraiser will be game on.

The good news is our fundraiser is a White Stripes documentary. That’s like having a really cool older brother let you sell your Girl Guide cookies at his all-weekend party. You might not sell anything but you know your life is gonna be changed. That’s the thing about rock n’roll.

So having Emmett Malloy’s film on the screen already gives us a rock up from me playing an off-version of Alouette on my grade school recorder while crying. Already it’s waaayy better than that.

Last ticket count from Zulu Records has us sold 42, we have sold 12 ourselves and there are 194 seats to fill with sweet sweet fundraising love.  We need to sell 80 to break even.

So…140 people isn’t too many to expect at the door…right?…right? Well, not if someone’s shirt comes off.

Join us tomorrow at Pacific Cinematheque at 1:30pm. Cupcakes, prizes, swirly candy and rock n roll. Tickets are $10.00 each but 20-bucks worth of fun.

Local Vancouver artist Myron Campbell has whipped up some furry magic with his monthy drawing parties: Draw by Night.

The theme for March?

Civil Monsters.

And you know what? There are quite a few polite and conscientious monsters out there.

Grover, Harry from Harry and the Henderson’s, Sulley from Monster’s Inc. er, after meeting Boo, of course. Civil monsters that will not only help a kid cross the street but teach the alphabet, make breakfast and heck even save your life.

So, I took a shot at drawing one of my favourite monsters growing up:

That is my friend Mr. Aloysius Snuffleupagus or as you, I and Big Bird know him: Snuffy.

The Vancouver Film School Cafe is already a pretty cool space to draw in but Myron Campbell has a way of transforming it to make it even more inclusive and fun. He showed the Hilarious House of Frightenstein, an 80’s-child Saturday morning classic. Featuring maybe my most favourite monster – The Wolfman- that disco dancing werewolf. (I would front load “funky” to the wolfman’s “civil” because he was only polite on the psychedelic dance floor, hooowl!)

But, back to the VFS Cafe, tables were pushed together and covered with long rolls of paper. There were clusters of drawing utensils from pens, pencils, markers to sharpie paint markers. You could draw by yourself or with your neighbour and even the person sitting across from you. Lots of people switched seats to draw too.

There were so many different takes on civil monsters that if you didn’t have fun drawing one yourself (as if!!) you had a lot of fun looking at everyone elses’.

Here’s a few shots.. let the monstrous civility begin…

The next Draw by Night is at the Diane Farris Gallery as a part of Twitter/Art + Social Media,”a juried exhibition of work by artists using social media for inspiration, production and presentation of their work.”

Heck yah to Myron Campbell and collaborators!

Check out Draw by Night’s page for details on how you can be part of it. There will be open spaces for drawers of all ilks, even those with wavy Aloysius Snuffleupagus’s up their sleeves.

In the elusive pursuit of the marathon conquest, Jordan and I are somewhere between ‘is-that-a-glimmer-of-light-on-the-dark-dark-horizon-or-is-that-a-drop-of-sweat-on-my-eye-glasses?’ and ‘we’re-doing-this-and-it’s-going-to-be-awesome.’

Jordan is closer to the latter sentiment and I’m kinda checking out my sweaty glasses.

But as of today, we are now running 12 minutes at time/walk 1 minute/4xs in a row. This is huge. Although, it doesn’t quite measure 10km on a roadway, (and yup, we’re signed up to run 42km continuously),  it measures miles upon miles of progress in our 8 months of heaving our butts of our butt-enticing couch, putting our books down and getting outside. There were times when I thought I was going to have an asthma attack after running 2 minutes. And I’m only being half-dramatic. I literally would cough & cough and feel my throat turn into the size of a cocktail straw and who the heck can drink out of those things anyway? I remember asking Jordan tersely, “time?” every 5 seconds, not having the breath or gusto to say out loud a full polite sentence such as: “Jordan, could you please tell me the time we have left on the stopwatch, thanks, baby!”

Nope!  He’d get an angry or breathless or tired or tense one word command: “time?” I thought that by willing the 2.5 minutes to be over, it would be.

It really doesn’t work that way.

And I’m so grateful to find that out.

I really really hoped training for a marathon would increase my lung capacity and help me drop a few pounds from my huggable hips but I had no idea I’d be growing some patience, and heck, even compassion for my annoying non-running running self. I now try to challenge myself not to ask Jordan what time is left on the stopwatch anymore, unless of course we’re going up hill, then I ask every 2 seconds-  I mean, I’m not superhuman.

The fact that we’re running 12 minutes at a time feels like a great accomplishment. One I wouldn’t think was possible 8 months ago. So, maybe other things are possible too, like completing 5 hours of running, even if it’s 12 minutes at a time.

And of course with committing to run 42km, we’ve also committed to raise $13 000 for the Arthritis Society. And we’re at 23% of our goal right now! Thanks largely to friends, family members and workplace families. (I can’t say how many times I feel like Michael Scott as I learn to run and fundraise) haha.  But we definitely need help raising the last 10-grand.

And holy crap, $10 000 seems like a HUGE number, (did someone say recession?) but so did the number 12 (did someone say never-been-able-to-run-in-my-life?) when it came to running it in minutes. And the number 12 is not that bad, then maybe the number 10 000 ain’t either especially if you’ve got some fun events planned.

And we do!

Thanks to the White Stripes and B-side entertainment!

Our first *big* fundraiser is on March 27th (1:30pm) at Pacific Cinematheque theatre on 1131 Howe Street in Vancouver… a screening of the White Stripes Under The Great White Northern Lights documentary. Expect 100% rock n roll with a good chance of a of scissor kick or two.

We’ve even got a PG rating from Consumer Protection BC ready to post, some swirly candy and tickets!  You can get a ticket or three for 10 bucks a pop at Zulu Records on West 4th Ave.

The event is set to rock.

All we need is you.

Remember that 2006 movie, Paris, je t’aime? All the short films about Paris? I sometimes wake up thinking about those films or wonder what their characters would be doing now. Recently I felt like I was actually in one of the movies- the last one on the tape called 14e arrondissement by Alexander Payne. It’s about a middle aged woman who goes and visits Paris by herself. She wears a hipsack, uses French, sightsees, and takes it all in. In the closing scene she sits on a park bench and at once is filled with great joy and great sadness.

Well, LiveCity Yaletown, je’taime. I didn’t have a hipsack but an oversized purse, rain jacket, a map of Olympic venues and the honest intent to really take in the hugeness of the Games, the crowds, the line-ups, pavilions, energy, excitement. Like how some people go to Paris to feel love, I went to LiveCity Yaletown to feel magic.

The thing with magic and love is you’ve got to feel connected to something and usually that something is a someone or a lot of someones.  And like the character in the film, I didn’t. Sure, I talked to a few strangers, shared some cheers, tried to get a few interviews at some pavilions (not allowed), smiled and bobbed from foot to foot in the chilly rain with some super friendly blue-jacket volunteers, but the experience was at once, sad and joyful.  Sad to  not find that “it” I was looking for, joyful to watch the Canadian Men’s Hockey Team come back from the US loss with such a vigour and confidence, such a focus and clarity and speed, it was like James Hetfield sang Ohhyeahh at every flick of a skate’s blade and the team could score on Russia as though their sticks had wings.

What an incredible game. I’m sure we were all there because we wanted that incredible game to be bigger than our little screens at home or just streaming it from our computers at work. We wanted to be a part of it. Why go stand in the pouring rain in the late afternoon, cold and wet, watching a self-conscious good-hearted band from Manitoba play until pre-game if you don’t want something more?

But you can’t make it happen. Woody Allen said 80% is showing up. Yup. But what’s that other 20%? That’s the magic, that’s the feeling of love, that’s transcending whatever your current reality is and watching it turn into something else. That’s the shift, that’s what has made Malcolm Gladwell rich and probably not at all insecure to hang out in any New York City restaurant he pleases.

I forgot myself and where I was everytime Canada scored. A huge cheer went up from the crowd and my hands hit the air like jay z told me to.

But something was missing. Right in the centre of me.

I wanted to go around hugging people, especially the ones with canadian flags as capes, but I didn’t. I walked home with a heavy/ light heart, woohoo’ing pockets of people shouting Go-Canada-Go; high-fiving strangers, taking pictures, cheering at honking cars but not really feeling a part of it. I had tried to get into LiveCity Yaletown a few times and didn’t make it in. So,  I think I stored up my waiting-for-the-Olympics-magic to hit me and unfold within those large blue gates. But instead I got some rain, some friendly nods, some not so friendly nods, some small talk, some smiles and the chance to watch an incredible hockey game on a screen so big I couldn’t fit it all in my camera.  What I got was a sense of life, with its mixed bag of goods and bads.

And I also got this: a sound appreciation for those kids who dressed up and danced.

Is it too early to talk favourite Olympic moments? Is it alright that I feel whimsical about something that happened 5 seconds ago?

Sure it is!  To both questions!

I want to give type to a few things/events I admired so much during the Olympics that my jaw made a dent in my chest.

#1 Vectorial Elevation. Those lights felt like a city-wide hug of art. They were comforting, dazzling and incredibly interactive. And the icing on the sky? Artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer spoke out about BC’s pending arts funding cuts.

#2 Circus West. As a part of  Granville Island’s Winterruption festival, performers and students of the circus wow’d growing audiences under the bridge on chilly, rainy and cloudy evenings.  My fav performer was the artist on the unicycle… it takes more than guts to try out new stuff in front of a live, expectant audience under a concrete bridge in Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics, and anytime he fell, he just popped himself back up, made a motion to the audience to cheer him on, did a few dance moves with his arms and then tried the back flip again. Unbelievable and awesome.

#3 Also on Granville Island….Are you ready to rumbllllle…..Radio Radio rocked Performance Works/Place de la Francophonie like bees on speed. I only understood every third word they said but could feel it all, babee. Did I mention it was also my birthday? I lost the gemstone in my engagement ring, missed a date, ruined video for a fundraiser, got two pitches rejected AND still danced on fire to these guys, they were so good. For days after, my fiancee and I were much better phone conversationalists saying everything goes into ‘mon jacuzzi’ (so your carrot bean burrito in ma jacuzzi, paying my cell bill dans ma jacuzzi, I’m walking to meet you dans mon jacuzzi) Gosh, I forgot what it’s like to have fun. Radio Radio reminded me.

#4 Sidney Crosby scoring the winning goal. If that didn’t kickstart our Canadian hearts, no Alice Cooper song can. What a rush! What a unified WHHAAHOOO which I’m sure could be heard from the moon. I jumped up from my friend’s couch and didn’t stop jumping until they went to commercial and even then I was still screaming. I kept saying “we did it, we did it, we did it!” and rationally I know I didn’t do anything to help get that goal, but emotionally I felt like every single past, current and future Canadian got that goal.  I think maybe I could get just as much excitement if I jumped from a plane, but this was way better.  Check out this video post on Geist.

#5 Walking/bumbling/fumbling/high-fiving and praying not to be crushed on Granville Street after Sid’s goal. At one point I came to an intersection, I was separated from my friends and a very thoughtful young woman going the opposite way told me “don’t go that way, you’ll get crushed” while giving me a high five and sharing some Canada-woohoo’s. I tried to turn around but that was a no-go. I had no choice but to keep going the same way and for a split second I promised myself never to crowd around dogs who can’t see beyond ankle or hip level (I’m so short) and then I thought if I go down, it’s over and then I thought, don’t think like that, then I saw these three incredibly stout men standing in the centre of the intersection like boulders in a waterfall. I gave them each a high five and a yah Canada! on my push past and one guy looked at the other two, laughed and then lifted me up in the air from my kneecaps saying “yah Canada!”  I was mortified, gleeful and relieved to see that if I kept following the crowd in a few meters I could get out of the main rush and get to the side of the street to cheer and wait for my friends. I waved my little Canadian flag, said thank you to the man when he put me down and felt a renewed confidence in humanity. Today, there was no way I’d let anyone fall either.

#6 Olympic Tent Village. What an incredibly organized, visual and heart-wrenching protest. And to my surprise the most welcoming for an interview request. The thousands of dollars if not hundreds of thousands of dollars that went into organizing and setting up provincial pavilions is in such contrast to the zero-budget, no PR, open-community centre that was the Olympic Tent Village. From garnering International news coverage to receiving blankets, tents and food donations, Streams of Justice really presented an Olympic message that I hope can have even a quarter of the impact of Sid’s goal. According to an article at mediacoop.ca, 40 temporary residents of the Olympic Tent Village have now found housing. Go, Canada, Go, er, let’s go National Housing Strategy, let’s go.

#7 The Tim-Horton’s-commercial-esque gushy stories that are orchestrated to make you cry before you hear the end of the first sentence… Vancouverites footing the bill for athlete’s families to watch the games, messages to medalist Joannie Rochette, Clara Hughes donating $10 000 to Take a Hike…Those get-yr-handkerchief, get-yr-blanky-and-have-a-good-cry stories.

#8 The turn out for the Memorial March for Murdered and Missing Women. Which I’m going to post about separately because it was so powerful to be there.

#9 Canada’s Northern house - unpretentious, wide-open and full of art. And still open till the end of March.

#10 That I missed so many olympic moments! Dance marathon, the ice thing in Richmond, a taping of the Stephen Colbert report, getting a high five from the wandering Aussie’s boxing kangaroo mascot… so many incredible people, experiences and that thing we’re all looking for just beyond the sidewalk pavement: magic.

My terrible shot of Vectorial Elevation, those gorgeous robotic searchlights that lit up Vancouver's nights and life for two weeks. This is taken from the Granville Bridge. I'd usually try to get some place each night to stop and watch them and there were always little crowds of people doing the same.

Here is my favourite performer of the Four Seasons Circus West show 'under the bridge' at Granville Island. He is on a unicycle about to go up a set of stairs. He even rides down the stairs backwards and in the last show I saw, he did a backflip off of them all while on a unicycle!

Radio Radio when they turned the lights down low but before they lost their shirts on Granville Island. What a show!

Sid the kid waving the Canadian flag after scoring the winning goal during the Men's Olympic Hockey Gold Medal Game. I was at my friend's place and all of us were waving tiny Canadian flags with glee (same when the Women's Hockey team won gold too!)

Granville street was amazing post Olympic Men's Gold Hockey game and pre closing ceremonies. So many Canada-capes and cheers!

Olympic Tent Village was on 58 West Hastings. It was an incredible place: at once challenging and welcoming. Created by Sisters of Justice and other grassroots groups. I did my first official Olympic interview here and it was one of my most welcoming. We've got to re-establish a National Housing Strategy for Canada, make Bill C-304 a priority for your MP.

Depending on the source, between 500-5000 people marched for the murdered and missing women of DTES, Vancouver, BC, Canada on February 14th. The march started at the Carnegie Community Centre on Main and Hastings and continued in a grid, stopping at places where women's bodies have been found or where they lost their lives. It was an incredibly somber and uplifting afternoon. Uplifting because two eagles soared overhead and there was hope in that. There was also hope in how many people showed up.

Canada's Northern House is a really cool pavilion to check out. You can still visit until the end of March. There's no longer any daily performances but the artwork and thoughtful displays are still up and well worth the trip! At the corner of Seymour and West Hastings.

And the photos just aren't complete without a pic of the Australian's Boxing Kangaroo mascot. It's funny enough that the Aussie's were asked to take this down but even funnier that it stayed up.

On last week’s M2M we got to hear Sarah Hyde as we have never heard her before… talking in public…haha, kidding. We got to hear her starring in a production of Herb Gardner’s A Thousand Clowns.

I talked to Sarah about what it was like being in the play, the inner workings of community theatre and she talked to her fellow castmates. We even threw in some clips of the actual play,  including a scene which the audience is led to believe Sarah has no clothes on,  freaks out, loses her job, her boyfriend, has sex with her actual real-life co-worker -who also stars in the play- all in the span of 10-15 minutes.

Pretty steamy.

And funny.

The best part, though, is all the heart that went into it. Yup, that’s the best part, even better than the pretend play sex.

Kudos to all in Merritt’s Live Theatre Society for a stellar, sold out performance.

Clowning around Part I

Clowning around Part II

What a day for hang gliding emotions: swooping up, down, over there and back again.

There are a lot of currents in the air in this city right now, some congruent and some fighting for a piece of the wing.

The death of Georgian athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili is so tragic and senseless that it leaves one’s head spinning.  Although a few bloggers thought dedicating the opening ceremonies to him wasn’t enough, I thought VANOC did well. It was a powerful minute of silence after opera singer Measha Brueggergosman shook the 60 000 + people in BC Place. I have no doubt that that minute of silence was respected in households around the world.

My thoughts and prayers go out to Nodar Kumaritashvili’s family, friends and team mates who have decided to compete in his memory. If that doesn’t make your bottom lip quiver, reading the kind condolences people are posting will.

I also felt a turbulence of positive emotions yesterday when I saw the Olympic Torch carried past me . I stood within a large swell of people who cheered unabashedly. It was such a feeling of ‘coming togetherness’ or perhaps Olympic spirit, that for maybe the second time in my life I wanted to cheer for Canada. Not for the athletes and performers (I’ve been cheering for them for a long time) but for our country itself.  Inside my ribs I was saying something like, ‘you know, we’re not half bad, Canada, even with our large open wounds…racism, indigenous rights and land, poverty…we’re not half-bad, we may even, shoot,  be good. What a shift that was for me…to stand with hundreds of people celebrating… Canada.

 

 Podcast Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

*Video note: I love  the guy wearing the best “Olympic” hat I may see in these next two weeks. You really get to see his hat the moment the flame goes past me as it blocks out my view, haha, then again at the very end of the video.

So, olympic spirit comes in lots of forms. A funny hat perhaps or a violent protest?

I sympathize with Olympic protesters because it’s true – hosting The Olympics has forced already marginalized people to shoulder the city’s problems in a way that is invisible and inexcusable.  How can we spend a billion dollars on security when people are sleeping in the streets? I think giving the Athlete’s Village to not-for-profits and social housing would be a great way to start undoing some of these injustices.

But no matter what, I don’t condone violence. Breaking stuff just turns people off, especially during such an emotional and symbolic time.  Depending on which story you read, the protests this morning were infiltrated by a “few bad apples” but were otherwise quite peaceful. I do know that the online forums have some thoughtful responses which probably took longer to write than it took a few masked people to break windows downtown.

And speaking of what is the what with media coverage, the W2, the official unaccredited international media zone, open 24/7 for bloggers, journalists and every combo of the two, are covering stories in a way we might not get to hear otherwise. You can get their coverage here. And rabble.ca is rocking Olympic coverage here. 

I want to share some ideas from the opening ceremonies in a future post. But for right now, I’m off to see Anvil, and you know what? Anvil are definitely the Olympians of Canadian Metal! Can you think of a lead singer more enthusiastic, heart-breakingly hopeful and ready to rock than Lips?

Nah, I didn’t think so.

I woohoo’d way way through seeing the Olympic Torch pass by me on Granville Island.

and I got this blurry picture to prove it:

Note to self: don’t ‘woohoo’ while shooting.

But this is exactly what surprised me: this incredible swelling of emotion came up inside of me. I wanted to scream, chant, group hug the people around me, cry and call my mom on my cellphone all at once.

(Last month’s bill and a sense of common decency stopped me).

It’s like how a well sung National Anthem can make even the curmudgeonist of person teary eyed – the chance to get to see the Torch make part of its final leg of its 100+ day  journey across Canada and back in the Olympic City of Vancouver on February 12, 2010 came over me like… like …. well… it was powerful.

So powerful, in fact, that I joined forces with a man standing next to me and as soon as the flame was well passed us we took off like two teenagers skipping school to find a place to stand along the dock to see the torch cross False Creek.

He even stood on a very tall post and got some shots with my camera. (not blurry at all).

It was so nice to share the excitement of the moment with someone.  And I couldn’t see past the crowds for the life of me, either.

I loved the nervous, excited and self-conscious buzz in the air at the docks. It was a much different feel from the earlier crowd where I got the blurry picture. There, people lined either side of the route and screamed their hearts out (a video of it will be coming shortly). But the crowd at the docks was more self-conscious and reflective.  I really really really wanted to start chanting “Go, Canada, Go” and rabble-rouse the crowd into cheering. I felt like all we needed was a tiny spark of ignition. It was like we were all standing at the side of an empty dance floor when our favourite song came on. I think if just one of us would have John Travolta’d to the centre, we would have sashayed right behind him or her.

I had no idea I had this patriotism in me.

But I hope as the Games go on, I’ll have the guts to let it out.

Now I just wonder how the protests are going at the Vancouver Art Gallery. I hope everyone is respectfully heard.