By dustin on July 10, 2007 - 10:09pm
Alice in Wonderland Tea Party - Sunday July 15th at 1-4pm on the east side of Trout Lake.
The fantastic characters of Lewis Carroll’s beloved 'Alice in Wonderland' come alive with an all-ages cast of more than forty community players at our 14th annual community festival, offering old-fashioned participatory fun for all.
Come as your favourite character, bring a family picnic and join Alice as she meets Humpty Dumpty, has tea with the Mad Hatter, plays croquet with the Queen of Hearts, and dances the Lobster Quadrille to the fabulous sounds of 'Toot-A-Lute' and eccentric duo 'Maria in the Shower'.
More info:
www.communityartsworkshop.com
By dustin on January 5, 2007 - 4:41pm
Of all the fliers that piled up in my apartment over the holidays, the only interesting one was the Continuing Education Program of the Vancouver School Board. They offer some normal academic classes, but what interested me was the huge variety of general interest seminars they offer. Cooking, dancing, computers, languages, art, business, personal development, and more.
I registered for a pair of 1 day courses about investing and memory boosting, as well as a longer swing dance course (bring it on Nikki).
By dustin on December 31, 2006 - 9:00pm
GameTunnel released their 2006 TOP 10 Games of the Year, focusing on independently produced computer games.
Vancouver based indies took spot number 9 with FizzBall (a fun take on Arkanoid), and spot number 2 for Eets (a combo of Lemmings and the Incredible Machine). That's 20% for lotus land.
I bought the number 3 game Titan Attacks when it came out this year, and beat it. It's an awesome retro Space Invaders game, and runs on Mac OS X. The only other mac game on there is FizzBall. That's a matching 20% support for Mac, with a few more maybe getting ported later.
This was cross posted from my blog Random Dude.
By dustin on October 5, 2006 - 11:46am
One thing the the current BC Liberal government seems to be good at is asking people for their input. They're currently running a 2007 Budget Consultation. It gives everyone an opportunity to share their views on where the budget should spend more and less. It includes an on-line response form, so go and tell them what you think.
My input (in a nutshell): Spend more money on public transport and to support increased bicycle use. Try and fix healthcare spending before all the baby boomers retire. Ditch the highway expansion spending.
By dustin on October 4, 2006 - 3:25am
A little while ago the free weekly Georgia Straight came out with their Best of Vancouver issue. They provide a pretty big list of interesting things to check out.
Inside the print issue there was a funny graphic showing the evolution of Vancouver. I took a photo and reproduce it here:
By dustin on September 22, 2006 - 3:47am
Today I found a curious picture on the internet. Somehow I found myself at SeeTheWestEnd.com. It's an old site that hasn't been updated in a while, but I live in the West End now so it was worth a look. Anyway, the curious picture I found was on their Vancouver public art page:
It's only curious because I lived just a few blocks away from that statue during 2004 and 2005. That was near its new location in front of the Musée de Beaux-Arts in Montreal:
Originally uploaded by Quan Nguyen.
I always liked the double heart statue in Montreal. It's a beautiful piece, and I think it fits really well in it's new setting on Sherbrooke Street (flanking the Museum along with the Cow). The top picture is the only time I've seen it in Vancouver, and it looks kind of odd displayed on the grass. So I guess the hearts truly belong in Montreal.
By dustin on September 11, 2006 - 9:53pm
On my way home tonight there was a police cordon on Robson Street just below Thurlow (1 block from my apartment). There was a large number of police officers (6+ cars worth), along with 2 ambulances, a stopped Robson city bus, and a ton of curious onlookers.
The policeman I asked wouldn't give me any information about what had happened. The only info I got came from onlookers, who said that somebody had gotten stabbed (possibly had their throat slit). 2 different stories were going around: that a bus driver had been stabbed, or that it was a homeless guy that got stabbed.
I walked by a little after 9 PM. The police were fully set up by then, so I imagine the action took place some time before then.
By dustin on September 6, 2006 - 10:27pm
I found a great Gundam mural on the back wall of some tennis courts at 11th and Clark. I went back with my camera and here's the shizzle:
Update care of Ryan Cousineau: These are Gundam Mobile Suits, not Transformers like I thought.
By dustin on August 18, 2006 - 2:10pm
Altered Oceans is a five-part series by the LA Times investigating the changing conditions in the world's oceans. It goes in depth in some different areas, and the overall picture is not good. The oceans are moving towards their conditions 650,000 years ago: full of toxic bacteria, algae, and simple organisms, while lacking higher order creatures such as mammals, coral and fish.
Vancouver has a colder climate then the coastal areas they talk about along with a nice island buffer, so we might be more protected here. For a while at least...
By dustin on July 31, 2006 - 2:19am
The Illuminares Lantern Procession was on Saturday night and it was spectacular. Bobbing and artful lanterns were on display in trout lake park (which is my local awesome park). Plus music, dancing, wild things, and fireworks.
I took a few photos and there are lots more from this year and past years on flickr.
It turns out it's pretty easy to make a simple box lantern. As long as you have some wood, glues, tissue paper, wire, and instructions. Thank you to the Public Dreams Society for providing all of those things when we stumbled on their lantern making workshop.
Lessons learned for my next lantern making session:
- use a light color paper tissue as background all around, and fill up each panel with decoration.
- 'ears' on the top of the box are cool, and could be made into a point easily.
- bring extra tea candles for a never-end
