Entries Tagged 'Vancouver' ↓

A few weeks ago Conan O’Brien did something Vancouverites won’t forget for a long time: he came here.

That’s how funny the guy is- he moves his eyebrows just so and we will love him forever.

And love him forever I do.

I’ve had a picture of Conan next to my bedside since i’ve been 19, that’s a long time. Actually anytime I get a photo frame as a gift, I put Conan in it. (I’ve only been gifted two photo frames so far in my life).

This year I got a special two-hearts-as-one-photo-frame that’s probably meant as an xmas tree ornament for you and  your significant other. So, Jordan put his main love in there too. Voila: Conan and King Diamond brightening up a light switch. More than electricity ever could.

So, to indulge my sadness that I was missing Team Coco, Andy Richter, Max Weinberg, and ‘the best crew in history of the medium’, I went for a lonely walk down to the ocean the morning before his second show.  I stood by my favourite ship that washed up on shore a week before during the windstorms. (I will really miss this when it goes, although I’m sure this is a nightmare for the owners to have it perched like this, it has been a delight to anyone strolling by and the dogs just love running around it).

I imagined seeing Conan come down to the beach; both of us standing in the sun watching my favourite ship slowly being taken back out to sea. Us pausing in the sunlight and in the infinite wisdom of the present moment and then after a long silence, easily trading jokes back and forth about pets and hair. About what it’s like to be so tall and so short. So pale and so pink.

He didn’t show up. Not that he didn’t feel any Vancouver love, anyone who I’ve heard from that went will have coco stars in their eyes for the rest of the life, they loved it so much.

And you know, even in my fantasies that guy can make me laugh so hard at so much, including myself.

Come back to Vancouver, soon, Conan and do three shows -and maybe one for free outta a 7-11 parking lot!

It was Canucks Day a few days ago on April 27th and a day after that I was jogging by Vanier park and stopped to watch the huge Canadian flag billow in the wind. I stopped because it was half-mast and I wasn’t sure why until I read later in the news that Jack Layton made a statement on National Day of Mourning to remember all the workers injured or killed on the job. This day was created by the Canadian Labour Congress in 1984.

Interestingly, I was incredibly touched by both flags-the Canucks flag flown high at City Hall and on mostly every car in the city and the Canadian flag at half mast.

And now comes a day that bridges the pride and joy of Canucks Day and their accomplishments thus far (not only making the play-offs but those guys do a lot of charity work), and the sad, reflective day of mourning for labourers – Eva Markvoort’s Memorial: A Celebration of Love. It is streaming live right now from New Westminster. There’s so much I want to say about Eva Markvoort, like anyone else who had the sincere pleasure of reading her blog (more gripping then the best novel you’ve ever read and it leaves your heart not only huge but wide open). But for now, I’ll just say this:

Let’s get an Eva Markvoort day, hold her shade of red lipstick up so high, and get this picture on every flagpole across the country.

Three cheers for Sejuiced! Hip-hip-sejuiced! Hip-hip-sejuiced! This veggie-delicious restaurant is letting us set up shop for our next Arthritis Society fundraiser tomorrow.

And between now and then I have a lot of vegan baking to do.

We’ve hitched our little wagon to the tractor that is The 2nd annual Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale. As a part of this worldwide 2-week event, we’re whisking up cookies, cupcakes and brownies (oh my! – I never get tired of this joke or The Wizard of Oz, sigh). So, if you’re strolling along beautiful West 4th avenue tomorrow between Noon and Two, stop by Sejuiced (1958 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver, BC) for a little taste of what hopefully will be delicious.

Yeah yeah oh-yeaaaaahhh.

Jordan and I are crossing our score cards in hopes that you will put on a housecoat or a tie and join us for some 5-pin fun.

Our next Arthritis Society fundraiser….(Kenny Rogers singing ohhh yeahhhh)…. The “Chuck the Stapler and Pick Up a Ball” fundraiser.

What the heck does that mean you ask?

1) We came up with the title really late at night, in a burst of creative hilarity and thought it would be genius

2) We both really love the movies Office Space and The Big Lebowski and was trying to figure out a way to combine them in both in our next event

3) We want people to dress up either as their favourite Office Space character or Big Lebowski and put the Swinger red stapler aside for some bowling time

4) We both suffer from ‘a case of the Monday’s’ on Monday’s, Tuesday’s, Wednesday’s, etc and there’s no better cure than a bit of The Dude or anything narrated by Sam Elliot.

5) Even Milton abides.

All money raised goes to lift our pink mercury up, up way up! (which is a weird way of saying it goes to The Arthritis Society; full disclosure: I named this event too, sigh)  :)

You can email Jordan at jordanwhemsley@yahoo.com to pick up a ticket!! He did this funny video-ad for it too! (And Jordan looks like a younger Kenny Rogers but he sings like King Diamond and Ronnie James Dio). ohhh yeahh.

Grace is located at 2685 Maple Street in Vancouver. It’s become sort of my daily prayer in staying playful. A reminder: This is it! This is what we’ve got and ain’t it beautiful?

Owner and creator, Wendy Williams Watt is a force -full of fun, insight, and that elusive “it” quality. (What is “it”?! It’s definitely bright (as in light and smart) and something some of us wear on our sleeves and the rest of us rub up against).

(Wait a second, does that make us some of us cats?)

(And what’s up with all the parenthesis?)

Sigh. That’s the thing with trying to describe “it”, you get cheap and feline in the process.

So, onto the short video we shot as a part of a job application. Wendy Williams Watt let us step over the threshold into a place of magic, a place full of “it” with not a cat in sight.

On M2M this week Sarah Hyde and I broadcast from the Burrard Bridge, hang out in Kitsilano, go to a coffee shop, walk by some car dealerships and talk all about our favourite places in the city.

Some of them are surprising. Some feature a baby owl. Some have cheesecake the size of a twoonie. And like every other M2M show so far, Sarah and I talk a lot. Talking out our nuances and joking about our foibles, we try to uncover how these cool places transcend the everyday and take us to new heights of experience. (I swear only Dads are allowed to use puns, so I sincerely, sincerely apologize).

We also talk to a few people who represent what we love about Vancouver: arty magic and dancing! I stop by my favourite place in the city (a separate blog post coming up on that shortly) and speak to Wendy Williams Watt who has really cool things to say. And Sarah talks to fellow “unicorn” Quinn Peters about his favourite secret place.

*unicorn is a term one of Sarah’s friends-from-away calls people born and raised in Vancouver. I find it fitting as I really relate to Douglas Coupland’s City of Glass understanding of the place and equate Vancouver to Cloud City mixed with Gotham and Atlantis. Surreal, beautiful and hard to get into.

Tune in Thursday at 3pm at CJSF 90.1 fm.

Tales of Cool Places Vancouver Part I

Tales from Cool Places Vancouver Part II

We heart Douglas Coupland, a national treasure and celebrated Vancouverite!

Those nooks up in the far corners of the bridge? Surprisingly great (and peaceful!) places to hang out.

I’m not sure if this small print at the bottom of a plastic bag is comforting or creepy, but I can sure tell you this: it’s poetic.

First off: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU  to Zulu Records (making us legit by helping us sell tickets); Pacific Cinematheque, (the people working & volunteering there are gods and saints); Videomatica (giving us a way cool prize pack and a much needed high-five); Jordan’s mom’s (baking supplies trip or should I say mission?) and the friends who iced cupcakes late into a Friday night, with no bottom of the tub in sight.

Our house the night before the fundraiser, icing 144 cupcakes. Thank god my friends are artists, or the decoration would have consisted of a blob of icing on top.

a close up!!

the most important part to making cupcakes...(don't worry this was a staged event and no real icing dipping or licking took place).

The duds

We raised $968 in ticket/cupcakes/50/50 draw sales and $200 in donations!! That’s $1168!! Bumping us up to 32% of our total goal!  We threw in the price of the theatre and insurance and gave a little speech before the show.  We were so amazed to see people come out. That we even gave out prize packs consisting of a dinosaur, fake tattoos and a $5 gift certificate. (So, if you were wondering whether or not you’d wanna come to our next event -may the prize pack sway you over-  because we’ve got two more to hand out for next time!)

We were a little nervous first time around that we only got pictures of the cupcake table before people arrived and the film started. hahaha. So, there’s no pictures of the actual turn out or how good the movie looked up on the big screen. And let me talk about the film for a second, holy holy, how grateful we are to The White Stripes, B-side entertainment, Emmett Malloy for letting us do our own screening of the movie that turned my heart into a six-string guitar and made it weep and howl.  A few years back one of my best friends and I took a greyhound bus to try and follow the White Stripes around for a few shows. Afterwards we stood waiting beside any vehicle that looked like it could be for them just to catch a glimpse of the band that brought our souls back. I didn’t even feel foolish. I was old enough to be the mom of the kids waiting with us. (Well, a responsible teenage mom at least). I love that band and everyone who showed up on Saturday loves them too. Even Jordan’s mom left the theatre raving about the mystifying/electrifying twosome. So, heck yah!

Me really hoping people will show up

One of our two tables at Pacific Cinematheque

These swirly goodies raised us 70 bucks!

Yay white stripes loving, cupcake selling friends!

We’ll post soon about our next event on Monday, April 19th. Just know this: it’s gonna bust your case of the Monday’s wide open and pour some bowling balls’ worth of fun right in till Tuesday. 5-pin style.

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.