Vancouver Art Gallery

The Vancouver Art Gallery holds exhibitions featuring artists from Canada and all around the world. The gallery acquires artwork that stays in the permanent collection but also borrows collections from different museums around the world, for example the Andy Warhol exhibition from the Warhol Museum. Some of the permanent collection includes work that is done by artists living in British Columbia. Once every few months the gallery changes its featuring exhibition. In the last few years I have tried to make the effort to go see all the featuring exhibitions. My friends and I go on Tuesday nights since it's donation night, and people can pay as much as they can afford.

The current feature artist right now is the Emily Carr exhibition. I've seen this exhibition before, it's good but my favorite exhibition is Massive Change: The Future of Global Design. If you didn't have the chance to see it I recommend going to the library and taking out the book. Massive change, by Bruce Mau, looks at the affects of design and how it is changing the worlds around us. Design is invisible to us, it has a ubiquitous presence, and it has become second nature and often taken for granted. We need to look carefully at all aspects of design and the opportunity it presents to us to change the way we live today in a positive direction.

"Massive Change explores paradigm-shifting events, ideas, and people, investigating the capacities and ethical dilemmas of design in manufacturing, transportation, urbanism, warfare, health, living, energy, markets, materials, the image and information. We need to evolve a global society that has the capacity to direct and control the emerging forces in order to achieve the most positive outcome. We must ask ourselves: Now that we can do anything what will we do? " – Massive Change

Reference:
Massive Change - “Massive Change: The Future of Global Desin”
from www.massivechange.com

Improv Extreme

I really like improv shows, and although I haven't been to this one, I heard it’s also a good. It's a late show, and audience can give suggestions and feel like they are part of the show. If you like improv visit the Vancouver Theatersport League website. There are tons of different shows you can check out. Here's the link to the site: http://www.vtsl.com/mainstage/index.php

Reference:
Vancouver Theatresport League - "Improv Extreme"
from http://www.vtsl.com/mainstage/index.php

So You Think You Can Improvise

So You Think You Can Improvise is a spoof of the TV show So You Think You Can Dance. If you like improv shows, you should definitely go to this. It's a very funny competition where comedians go against each other. Improvisers are given different styles and genres that they may or not be familiar with. Some styles can play against their strengths and weaknesses. Like So You Think You Can Dance, the improvisers that win the audiences heart stay on, while others move on to different things in life. In the end there is only one person that get the title. The show is going to be on for a while, I recommend going with a group of friends. If you want to save some money there is a 2 for 1 special on Wednesdays. It's in the New Revue Stage on Granville Island, so after the show you can go to Granville Island Brewing and enjoy good food and beer.

Reference:
Vancouver Theatresport League - "So You Think You Can Improvise"
from http://www.vtsl.com/mainstage/index.php

Tony and Tina's Wedding

A friend told me about a show where audiences also participate in the show. Tony and Tina's Wedding, is a play that audiences become guests and partake in the wedding ceremony. Guests are asked from the beginning to be part of the show; sing along to the music, eat the Italian buffet-style dinner, and enjoy the wedding cake and champagne. Guests can choose to set back and watch the show, or talk and dance with the families who are actors.

Tickets are $90 and you get an amazing outing, a great dinner, and memories that last forever. Get dressed up and as my friend told me, if you've never been to a wedding this can count as one. To save on the price, if you or anyone you know has an entertainment book you can get 2 for 1 tickets.

Reference:
Tony n Tina's wedding Vancouver.
from http://www.tonylovestina.com/

Bard on the Beach

Bard on the Beach is the Shakespeare Festival that takes place by Vanier Park's waterfront in Vancouver. The stage is an open-ended tent with an open backdrop. The waterfront setting provides a beautiful background of sea and mountains to each play. During the last few years I have seen the Taming of the Shrew and Midsummer Nights Dream. Both were excellent; the acting was great and the setting was beautiful. I saw the Taming of the Shrew during the day, and Midsummer Nights Dream at around sunset. It was so amazing to see such a great play and watch the sunset. If you enjoy comedies I recommend seeing Taming of the Shrew.

Bard on the Beach usually starts in June and run through the summer and ends sometime in September. I can't recall how much tickets are but I know it's affordable. This year I want to see Julius Caesar, and since I still haven't seen the most popular Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet.

Reference:
Bard on the Beach (2007)
http://www.bardonthebeach.org/

Ice Skating

I had always wanted to go outdoor ice-skating, and I finally had the opportunity last year when I went to Malmo, Sweden. The city had setup an ice-skating rink in the middle of a small square. I went a few times with friends, and absolutely loved going at nights. There was always music’s on and tons of people at the rink (some pictures I took ice skating in Malmo). I really miss that experience and lately have been looking around to see if Vancouver offers an outdoor ice skating rink.

A friend reminded me that Grouse Mountain has a ice skating rink/pond on top of the mountain. Grouse has an amazing view of the city, especially at nights, and I think it would be so nice to go skating up there. If you have a winter pass or just a day pass you have access to the skating pond. Renting skates is not too expensive; people can rent any size for $5.

For an indoor ice skating rink, I recommend going to West End Community Center. I've been there a number of times and have always had a great time. The night pubic skate is from 8pm to 10pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It's really cheap, I believe it's about $5 or $6 to rent skates and access to the rink.

Snowshoeing

Last year my friends and I went snowshoeing up grouse mountain, the trails up there are so beautiful. It was a lot fun, though very tiring. There are a number of trails up there to decide from, some are much longer then others so look at the map before starting one. I don't remember which trail we took but we didn't realize how long it was, and the three of us were very tired by the end. After our hike it was very nice going to the cafe and just relaxing with a cup of hot chocolate.

Since my friend worked on Grouse we got free tickets to go up the mountain and also free rentals. I just looked at the prices, and it is a bit pricey to go, renting snowshoes is $15 and if you don't have a pass for the mountain it costs about $30. You can also rent snowshoes at Mountain Equipment Co-op for $12 a day. If want to rent snowshoes for a few days I recommend renting for MEC.

If you go to the grouse mountain website you will see that they offer people different snowshoeing programs. The Snowshoe Drop-In Nights look like it would be fun to participate in. There looks to be no cost to join, and also only a $5 rental rate. The program is for people of all fitness levels. They offer the chose of two night; on Tuesday night it looks to be a fun social atmosphere where everyone for all fitness levels go on a hike together, and on Thursdays is more of a group training.

Reference:
Grouse Mountain. Snowshoeing.
http://www.grousemountain.com/rec_sno.cfm

Mountain Equipment Co-op. Equipment Rentals.
http://www.mec.ca/Main/content_text.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302881708

Bright Nights

Continuing with things to do during the holidays, I recommend the Bright Nights miniature train ride in Stanley Park. For the past 20 years, during the holidays, Stanley Park transforms the park and the trains into a winter wonder land. The millions of lights help create Santa's workshop and magical village. As you ride the train around the village you can enjoy the lights and the Christmas songs with hot chocolate and roasted nuts. Last year I went for the first time with a group of friends, and we're definitely going again this year. Tickets are $7.45 for half and hour time slots, and the trains run from 3pm to 10pm.

Not only is it a fun event to go to but it also helps a good cause. All the proceeds from the ticket sale go to BC Professional Fire Fighters' Burn Fund, which help burn survivors and their families. You can also make donations at the event.

Polar Express

Last year before Christmas my friend took me to see Polar Express in IMAX 3D. It was one of the best 3D movies I've seen in IMAX. Polar Express, the movie, is based on classic children's book written by Chris Van Allsburg. The story is about a boy who takes a extraordinary train ride to the North Pole. On this journey he meets interesting Charters who help him discover that anything is possible if you just believe. I highly recommend people to see this movie around Christmas, it's playing at IMAX in Canada Place and tickets are I believe $13.50. It's worth it.

The 3D animation is amazing in this movie, the charters in the movie greatly resemble the actors that provide their voices. I was just looking up how they made Polar Express and found out that creators used CGI and stop-motion photography to create bring life to the animation. They also used a new technique dubbed Performance Capture that allowed the actors in the movie, ex. Tom Hanks, to act out the entire movie rather than just doing a voice over like other animation movies. The same method was used in the Lord of the Rings to create Gollum. The actors acted out their scenes by wearing Lycra suits covered with sensors. About 150 covered were placed on their face. These sensors are able to capture the actors movement and facial expressions; the movements are then taken and are digitized into the computer.

I found some links about the making of polar express if anyone is interested in 3D animation:
http://www.avid.com/profiles/121304_polarexpress_filmcomposer.asp?featureID=814&marketID=
http://comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php?id=6440
http://www.siggraph.org/publications/newsletter/volume-40-number-1/makingitreal

Body Worlds

Last week went to Science World with a friend to see the Body Worlds exhibition. It's the anatomical exhibition of real human bodies. I found the exhibition very interesting and somewhat disturbing. There was something unsettling about knowing that the bodies I was looking at were once alive. One body was holding his own skin, and if you looked closely enough you could see the body hair on the skin. It was very interesting how you to see a healthy joint compared to a joint suffering arthritis, or a healthy lung and smoker’s lung. If you have a friend that smokes you should take them to the exhibition.

The exhibition is open till January 14th, and I recommend going during weekdays since it would be less busy.

Reference:
Science World (2006). Body Worlds.
http://www.scienceworld.bc.ca/bodyworlds/

Hapa Izakaya

Hapa is a great Japanese tapas restaurant. It is located on Robson Street. It's a fucky restaurant where you take off your shoes and dine. Hapa has a great atmosphere for friends to sit around and enjoy a good meal. I highly recommend going with a group of friends and getting many different dishes to share. It is a very busy restaurant so make reservation before going.

Stepho's

Stepho's Souvlaki Greek Taverna is one of my favorite restaurants in the city. It is a small Greek restaurant on Davie Street. The food is not only tasty but its cheap and comes in huge portions. It's a small, popular restaurant and so there is always a lineup outside its doors. I recommend to call and make a reservation before going, if you don't you will be waiting outside for most likely around 30 minutes. They have amazing tzatziki sauce, and I recommend the calamari dinner or the chicken souvlakia.

Vancouver

Vancouver is one of the most beautiful cities in the world to live in. It has been ranked 3rd in the world quality of life survey. This city has so much to offer to people from the beautiful mountains surrounding it, to the sandy beaches. Besides the spectacular natural scenery surroundings the city, Vancouver also offers people a great cultural experience; this city has a rich mixture of people from around the world, and so becoming one of the most diverse cities in Canada. People can enjoy authentic cuisines, arts and events from the many cultures residing in Vancouver.

Although Vancouver has so much to offer to its residents, there are times where my friends and I sit around the house trying to figure out where to go. We ask around about great new restaurants or shows, but often we don't find what we are looking for. Thus, I wanted to create a blog where I can and also other people can post about a new restaurant, show, event, lounge, etc that they have been to and would like to recommend to others.

Blog ideas

1. New and innovative technologies.
2. Places to go in Vancouver (ie. restaurants, clubs, lounges, museums, shows, etc.)
3. World issues - talk about issues that concern people; it can be from issues regarding science/nature to events in the middle east.

I am still conflicted between number 2 and 3. As of now I am blogging on places to visit in Vancouver.