Guided by Robots 2012—’My Valuable Hunting Knife’ (live)

Guided by Robots at the ANZA Club, Vancouver, Dec 15 2012.

Okay, I’m getting around to this later than I’d hoped. This is night two in the roll-out of GBV/GBR videos from the ANZA Club Saturday night Dec 15. In other words, this is members of Vancouver band SK Robot backing Guided by Voices fans in the GBV-aoke portion of the annual Guided by Robots event.

We think one of the ladies is named Lauren.

Video—Guided by Robots with friends, “My Valuable Hunting Knife” (live):

I wrote this: Vancouver Craft Beer Week preview

Vancouver Craft Beer Week Belgian Beer Showcase at Biercraft on Commercial 2011. Robyn Hanson photo

I recently wrote a preview for the third annual Vancouver Craft Beer Week, which begins this Friday (May 18).  I had a blast at the events I went to last year – an American beer expo at the armoury downtown and a Belgian showcase at Biercraft on Commercial – and from the looks of this year’s lineup, there’s lots of great events coming up. I’m especially excited about Portland Craft, a new bar opening up during the festival. It features only Oregon brews on tap.

Anyway, usually a piece like this should probably only run 5 – 600 words, especially for the pay rate, which barely covers the cost of the ticket I bought for one of the events during my research. But I got carried away…

From BCLiving.ca (posted May 14 2012):

Imerse yourself in the wonderful world of beer at Vancouver’s Third Annual Craft Beer Week May 18-26

If you haven’t started drinking craft beer, here’s a word of advice: don’t.

Because if you do, you might find yourself sniffing the air at bars and informing people, “The tap selection here isn’t fit for swine.” Party invitations will stop coming because you can’t stop talking about hoppiness and barley notes. You’ll find yourself standing in front of the beer fridge at specialty liquor stores, looking for that perfect magical elixir among the selection of newly arrived small-craft brews that seems to grow every week.

However, if you’re already at this point – or if you don’t mind ostracizing yourself from your circle of PBR-swilling friends – then welcome to third annual Vancouver Craft Beer Week.

Read more at BCLiving.ca.

Vancouver Craft Beer Week Belgian Beer Showcase at Biercraft on Commercial 2011. Robyn Hanson photo

Vancouver International Burlesque Festival 2012 – photos

Nicky Ninedoors at the Rio Theatre, May 3 2012. Cameron Brown photo

Photos – Vancouver Int’l Burlesque Fest May 5 2012

- photos by Cameron Brown

Last night was the third and final showcase performance for the 2012 Vancouver International Burlesque Festival (although there is a VIBFA members-only pyjama party tonight).

Dancer/performer Nicky Ninedoors supplied us with a list of performers. They are, in chronological order:  Betsey Bottom Dollar, Bunny Bee, Cheesecake Burlesque (Rocky Horror Picture Show tribute), Spooksy DeLune and the Cabaret Du Passe (including Cameo LeCrock and Candy Curves), Burgundy Brixx (on the Rolls Royce), Alyssa Kitt (sexy knees girl), Capitol City Burlesque (space!), Cherry On Top (the phoenix), Dapper Dan and Via Rose (The Magic Flute), Judith Stein (an honoree in the Burlesque Hall of Fame), Capitol City Burlesque (the apples), Persephone Illyri (purple fan dance), Indigo Blue (the chartreuse fan dance).

You can also see the pics at Cameron Brown’s site.

I wrote this: ‘Fan Expo Vancouver builds on a strong and geeky scene’ in The Georgia Straight

Jaimmie Que as Dark Phoenix. Photo by Ally McGillivray

My article on the upcoming Fan Expo Vancouver is in this week’s Georgia Straight: http://www.straight.com/article-662866/vancouver/fan-expo-builds-strong-scene

The feature is an overview of the Expo, which is the first of its kind in the city. The basic premise is that, considering the strong comics, video game, and movie and TV industry connections here, the Expo is long overdue.

What’s strange to me a little is that, despite being a lifelong comics fan, I didn’t make it to the mother of all cons, San Diego’s, until last year, and I still haven’t made it to Emerald City Comic-Con, though I know I would love that.

So I’m looking forward to seeing if the organizers can pull off a decent con in Vancouver, and I’m hoping people come out for it. This could be a positive thing for the city, and for bringing people from all these disparate scenes together.

Also, we ran a cool feature by Rachel Sanders on The Snipe News (my online arts/entertainment magazine) about a local cosplayer, Jaimmie Que (pictured, above) and tips on what to wear at a comics convention: http://www.thesnipenews.com/books-comics/fan-expo-vancouver-cosplay/

PechaKucha Night 15 at the Vogue Theatre Feb 24 2011

Office Supplies Incorporated street art in Vancouver

I had to leave my skepticism at the door for this one, especially after seeing the words “green”, “designer” and “architecture” associated with some of the speakers. But I was definitely rewarded for my patience. Though uneven, the 15th Vancouver installment of the international (over 300 cities host their own versions) phenomenon PechaKucha was definitely worthwhile, and even inspiring.

The idea is a number of people – last night it was 12; not sure if this is a hard-fast rule – have a brief window of time to talk about whatever they want, usually something to do with their passion. Each speaker has 20 images to work with and 20 seconds per image, and though this occasionally came off as nothing more than a commercial for someone’s product or website, there was also lots of interesting material and good energy.

So, in that spirit, rather than dwell on the negative, I’ll mention, in order of appearance, my favourites of the event (which, by the way, was held at a sold-out Vogue Theatre):

Scott Hawthorne, co-founder of Salt: on the value and potential of small spaces and random meetings;

Lindsay Brown, designer: on Habitat, a 1976 symposium in Vancouver on housing that has been all but forgotten;

Office Supplies Incorporated, street artist: on communicating via mash-up with “outsider” street artists.

So, three out of 12, with at least five of the others being at least moderately interesting and/or passionate, and only four being duds (or, to be fair, talking about ideas/subjects I had no interest in, and failing to make them interesting to me).

But probably the most important thing I took away from PechaKucha Night 15 was this: though I like to complain about the city – its uptightness, its NIMBY-ness, its political correctness, its lack of happy hours – there’s a lot happening here, and plenty of reasons to get excited about its potential.

Also, thanks to Think! Social Media‘s Robyn Hanson and Ben Vadasz for dragging my sorry ass out (Robyn) and the ticket (Ben).

Cthulhupalooza 2 – Son of Cthulhupalooza

Vancouver band celebrates HP Lovecraft

HP Lovecraft lovers The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets are presenting the second music/film/dancing tribute to the horror-fantasy writer.

Cthulhupalooza 2: Son of Cthulhupalooza features the Hillside Thickets plus special musical guests Scythia and Auroch.

HP Lovecraft-based and -inspired films from around the world will be screened, as will the premiere of The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets’ latest music video, for “20 Minutes of Oxygen”. Little Miss Risk will perform burlesque (we’ve seen her dance out of her HR Giger-type outfit, so if any burlesque dancer can do Lovecraft justice it’s Miss Risk).

Little Miss Risk in an HR (‘Alien’) Giger-inspired outfit. Photo by Heather Renney for Dr. Sketchy

The event also includes the Miskatonic Middle School PTA Bake Sale (not a band – we don’t think).

Festivities get underway at the suitably doom-y Rickshaw Theatre Feb. 18 in Vancouver.

Cthulhuapooza 2 tickets

Cocktail Kitchen finale

Cocktail Kitchen finale at The Refinery, Vancouver, Feb 7 2011. Robyn Hanson photo

Last Monday (Feb 7), a hundred+ people gathered at The Refinery. The Granville Street restaurant and bar was celebrating the end of its Cocktail Kitchen series, a seven-month-long competition between the city’s bartenders.

Each Wednesday, a different bartender would face the challenge of coming up with three different cocktails to go with a three-course meal based on regional recipes. Diners would rate the food, the drink and the overall experience. The winning bartender from each month was invited to compete again the next month. At the end of it all, one bartender and one patron would win the grand prize of a trip to the Napa Valley.

Congratulations to JT, the winning bartender. Here are some photos from the evening, courtesy Robyn Hanson.

Cocktail Kitchen finale at The Refinery, Vancouver, Feb 7 2011. Robyn Hanson photo

Bartender Marlo Panucci at The Refinery, Vancouver, Feb 7 2011. Robyn Hanson photo

Peter Raptis at The Refinery, Vancouver, Feb 7 2011. Robyn Hanson photo

Theatre review – August: Osage County

At the Stanley Theatre, Vancouver

Usually, anything over 89 minutes causes me to start looking for the Exit signs. Titanic? See you later. A Bruce Springsteen concert? I’m leaving before “Thunder Road”. And if a novel doesn’t grab me in the first chapter, back to the laundry room it goes.

So believe me when I say, at three hours, August: Osage County flies by, and leaves you wanting more.

The Arts Club Theatre production doesn’t start off that way – although the writing (the play was written by Tracy Letts, who also wrote Bug and the more recent Superior Donuts) is strong from the start, our introduction to the story comes through a halting, not very convincing monologue by actor Sean Allen. Allen, who looks way too young and non-alcoholic for the part, plays Beverly, the patriarch of the Weston family. He’s setting us up by telling the story of his family to the audience and to, onstage, Johnna, a young Cheyenne girl.

But when those two fade and the play focuses on the Weston daughters and especially Vi (Violet), Beverly’s wife, August: Osage County shudders into a psycho/dysfunctional-family, secrets-revealing black comedy where the quips, insults and rejoinders come at a furious pace.

Similarly, new characters keep coming at us until the second act. But the audience is never disoriented or confused; the three sisters, the blowzy aunt and the ineffectual uncle and first cousin, the academic husband, the sleazy boyfriend, the anti-social niece, and the more-than-just-a-rube sheriff are all precisely and humanely delineated by Letts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning dialogue, Janet Wright‘s unobtrusive direction and the cast’s solid, sometimes brilliant, performances. The set, by Ted Roberts, is the two-story interior of the Weston house, all angles and darkened corners that become illuminated as the action moves from room to room.

 

Especially good are McLellan as Vi and Karin Konoval as Barbara, the most Vi-like daughter; their “truth-telling” (Vi’s term) scenes together are electric, and not to be missed by theatre-lovers or anyone who likes to see grand dames of the floorboards go head-to-head in a barb-throwing  (no pun intended) contest. When these two go at it, all we, and the rest of the cast, can do, is duck.

Go see August: Osage County (on now until Feb 27 at the Stanley at 2750 Granville Street; click here for tickets). It’s hard to imagine a better, darker, funnier way to spend a night (or an afternoon).

Wine Australia Regional Round-Up

At the Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Vancouver, Jan 28 2011

Australia Day, apparently, was two days previous.

I can’t recall ever having heard of Australia Day before this year, but suddenly Vancouverites were treating it as though it was an actual thing. So I did my part by attending a tasting of Australian wines, the first of three events Australia Wine is hosting in the coming months.

When we arrived early Friday evening, the Buschlen Mowatt Gallery on Georgia was knee-deep in eager imbibers. Les Amis du fromage had laid out a spread of cheeses, crackers, grapes and olives, sculptural art (by Romanian-born Canadian artist Sorel Etrog) bloomed on the walls and Aussie acts INXS and Men At Work whispered from the ceiling speakers.

 

But the main attraction was 60 different pours from more than 30 vineyards. Most of the offerings were Cabernet Sauvignons, Shiraz, and Chardonnay, though I wasn’t paying enough to the whites.

To avoid becoming overwhelmed by the selection, this wine amateur stuck mostly to the reds, specifically the cabs. I was in search of something that would make me forget my current favourite while staying in the same price bracket (under $25).

 

While I didn’t find something to steal me away from my beloved California cab J. Lohr, looking was certainly fun. I did come across an alternate to Wolf Trap, my go-to $16  choice,; Next of Kin has a light, smooth feel and an aroma of blackberry and spice. On the high end of the price spectrum, the Dead Ringer Cabernet Sauvignon (retail approx. $60) from the Wirra Wirra region was delicious, with a lingering spicy flavour.

Two other wines, neither a cab, impressed. The Money Spider, a roussanne 2008 from D’Arenberg (available at Liberty Wine in Vancouver), was described by wine expert Robert Parker in these terms: “unoaked. Light gold-colored, it has an enticing bouquet of honey, candle wax, and melon aromas followed by a vibrant, ripe, smooth-textured wine with layers of flavor.” Couldn’t agree more, Bob.

A petite syrah (or “Durif”) from the Nugan Estate, described by the vineyard’s website as “deep crimson with a youthful hue,” was also a stand-out, though once again I’ll have to leave it to others – in this case, Nugan’s own website – for a proper description: “aromas of ripe raspberry, plum and cherry… with a generous palate of raspberry and plum pudding.” Easy to like, in other words.

 

Wine Australia is hosting two more events in the coming months:

Event #2: Down Under Mix Up

Date: Friday, April 29th, 2011
Time: 7:00pm – 9:30pm
Details and Tickets available here: House Wine

Event #3: Summer Sipper

Date: Saturday, June 25th, 2011
Time: 7:00pm – 9:30pm
Details & Tickets available here: House Wine

PuSh Festival 2011 – Dances for a Small Stage

Dances for a Small Stage at the Commercial Drive Legion, Vancouver

For a dance-illiterate like myself, a variety-show presentation in a casual venue is the ideal way to confront that lofty beast known as Contemporary Dance. By gathering a number of local performers and plunking them down, plop!, into the middle of Commercial Drive – at a Legion, no less – Dances for a Small Stage makes dance un-scary.

This year’s show, specifically last night’s (there is a performance tonight, Thurs Jan 27 and tomorrow, Fri Jan 28), features six separate pieces. Unlike past years, the individual works are linked together by a running skit. With Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg in period (Edwardian or maybe Victorian) dress and speaking archly, it’s a humorously gothic (think Edward Gorey) through-line that set us up for pieces like Kim Tuson’s burlesque “AWD-REY” and Delia Brett‘s metamorphic “Being Imaginary” that didn’t take themselves too seriously. The skit also demonstrated that Friedenberg is not only a creative dancer – her piece “Highgate/Westgate” was a highlight of the show – but also a terrifically talented comic actress.

Music was crucial to at least two of the performances. In ‘from The Spinster’s Almanac’, Susie Burpee performed a dance/pantomime to the perfectly beautiful song “Bird as Prophet” by Winnipeg singer/songwriter Christine Fellows (see video below). “Itchy Knee” featured David Raymond and TIffany Tregarthen of Out Innerspace Theatre in a clever, funny dance/pantomime to a rhythmic vocal work by Japanese composer Asa Chang that sounds like a cut-up language lesson. Theirs was perhaps the best piece of the night – “best”, in this case, meaning most accessible for those of us afflicted with contemporary-danceaphobia.