Registration/Check-in at the Museum of Vancouver at Vanier Park (1100 Chestnut St) and Britannia Community Centre (1661 Napier St) between 10am and 12:30pm. Finish by 4pm.

Festivities include live music and bike decorating at the Museum of Vancouver. Registration includes half-price entry into VanDusen Gardens and Museum of Vancouver.

Pre-register at www.greatrides.ca to be eligible to win the early bird prize pack. Fill your ride passport to win a bike.

Granville Street during the Olympics

Vancouverites, I think we can be proud of ourselves for successfully throwing a pretty seriously good party. There were a few hiccups early, such as the morons who broke the windows of The Bay during their protest, but thankfully there was no hooliganism let alone a riot like in 1994 the last time there was a hockey game of such importance in this city. Normally there is a pretty big yahoo quotient in this city during big events. Maybe the yahoos were still all downtown but they weren’t as concentrated, they were diluted because of all the tourists who were respectful of the city and made for a good vibe rather than a shit-show like Granville Street often is on any weekend evening.

There was worry, a niggling doubt, that it would be a little too Canadian, which is to say not nearly sophisticated or worldly enough to be as memorable and critically acclaimed as its Olympic predecessor in Beijing in 2008.

But it became clear, from the first few seconds of Friday’s 2010 Olympic Winter Games opening ceremony in Vancouver’s BC Place Stadium, that we needn’t have worried.

Turns out, Canada knows how to strut its stuff, from the glass, fire and ice and rain and thunder to a magnificent flaming cauldron, a stunning thematic spectacle that transformed BC Place Stadium into a winter wonderland to the superstar performers, like Bryan Adams and Sarah McLachlan and k.d. lang, to the ballet and tap dancers, to the aerialists to the brash young snowboarders who kicked off the event to the icebergs and fantastic fiddlers, to the moving aboriginal dancers in their glorious traditional costumes and falling snow.

Source ↑ www.vancouversun.com/…

V.c » The 2010 Olympic opening ceremony may have been a half hour too long, but it was pretty darn good. Many a great moment filled with lots of Canadians to be proud of. I would have to say that k.d. Lang singing Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah was the highlight of the night. My seven year old daughter sings that song so it has a special place in the family. Also, today we were driving down Davie Street and she was wondering why the garbage cans were painted pink so I tried to explain to her that sometimes boys like boys instead of girls and sometimes that colour represents … Then along came k.d. in her white suit and  having to explain that sometimes girls wear suits like boys and then again the questions and explanations about who likes who. I should have just said that fairies (no pun intended, she still believes in the fairy world) came along and magically turned the garbage cans pink just for the Olympics.

Anyway, the opening ceremony production crew must have been shitting their pants when the hydraulics on the cauldron apparatus started malfunctioning with Rick, Nancy, Catriona, Steve and Wayne all standing there with their torches ready to make a fire. Who wants perfection, from our flaws comes character.

No Fun City, a documentary by Melissa James: click to view website and watch trailer

No Fun City, a documentary by Melissa James and Kate Kroll, will focus on the musicians, artists, club owners, and promoters who continue to preserve and pioneer the arts despite all odds, and try to keep Vancouver’s subculture alive.

As the story unfolds we will watch as Malice Liveit, a local promoter and club owner, tries to open a new club despite his uphill legal battles; as Wendy13, manager of hardcore punk bar the Cobalt and local activist, struggles with the looming threat to her business from city hall; as Cameron Reed, a music-marketing consultant and promoter, attempts to organize the Music Waste music festival despite a lack of venues; and as David Duprey, a gallery owner and local entrepreneur, continues to contribute his time and money to creating spaces for artists and musicians. What all these people have in common is they are trying to make Vancouver a more interesting place because they believe that the city should be characterized by the people that live here, and not the local authorities. As the Olympics gets closer and the city dishes out billions trying to rebuild, we will see what becomes of the small underground arts community that barely survives under the weight of Vancouver’s current restrictions and regulations… .

Source ↑ www.nofuncity.org

V.c » It may have taken a Montrealer to create a gritty and professional documentary film about the music scene in Vancouver, but at least somebody has done it. Oh yeah, and Vancouver needs more small local, live music venues, especially not just downtown on Granville Street which has become uninhabitable unless you are 22 and from the suburbs.

This Vancouverite is taking a holiday to drop some NYC as John Popper of Blues Traveler once sang. See you in a week or so. And no I won’t be blogging about my experience in NYC, I think I will have other things to do that don’t involve computers. The forecast for Vancouver for the next week is a little suspect, but I’m sure you will find things to do. Enjoy.

'The Band,' winner of the Jury Selection Award in the Where's the Square? design ideas competition sponsored by the Vancouver Public Space Network.

Search for the city’s missing, true public spaces yields fascinating ideas.

If we build it, they will come. Or will they? And does it matter if they don’t? What is the importance of having a public square in the 21st century city, whose citizens are more likely to commune electronically, in virtual space?

Vancouver’s planning and design community has long bemoaned the lack of a major public open space in the centre of the city, like those great squares that so many other cities are identified with. Meanwhile, critics have noted the city’s eccentric emphasis on public life at the periphery. Vancouver has always had more intense public spaces at its edges than at the centre: Centrifugal City.

It seems that Vancouver’s true public spaces are its beachfront parks, plazas, walkways and associated strands. Meanwhile, the centre seems curiously absent of such a social condenser, where the citizens of this city can come together to celebrate, commiserate or demonstrate as they do in other cities. The centre — to paraphrase Yeats — does not hold.

Source ↑ www.thetyee.ca/…

V.c » Yeah man, this city needs a public space, a great public square where we can hang out and protest and be a real city and … yeah whatever, in politically blasé Vancouver (Canada) with our indifference to causes and conflicts, our materialism and self-interest, for what do we need a great public square like the great cities of Europe that were built during times of strife, upheaval and even revolution? And who is going to build this great public square? We can pay for things like the Olympics because they bring in tourist dollars but who is going to build a place for people to either slack off or bitch?

'Aquilina' by Jody Broomfield

Eagles in the City

The Bald Eagle will now migrate onto the streets of Vancouver, Vancouver Island and beyond to complete the trilogy of public arts projects by the BC Lions Society. The first being the Orca coming out of the Pacific Ocean, then the Spirit Bear coming out of the forests of Northern BC and now the Bald Eagle soaring through the skies of the West Coast from April 2009 to April 2010 in support of the BC Lions Society’s Easter Seal Services and the Canucks for Kids Fund.

Source: www.eaglesinthecity.com

V.c » It seems to me that I heard more people denigrating the orcas and bears than praising them, but I really liked them. Obviously some were more aesthetically appealing than others, but in the urban environment the more are the merrier. However, as a canvas the eagle seems to me to be the weakest of the three especially the way it is positioned. I wish it could be at more of a soaring angle that would enhance the sculpture, even though that might detract from the viewing of the paintings.

Note: Keep your eye out for the Sedins with beagles commercial advertising this project. (Seems that it is yet to be uploaded to YouTube.)