April’s looking great for activities and the weather is improving too. I think I’ve compiled everything I know of for the month. There’s something for everybody.
East Coast Music Awards recipient and Great American Songwriting Competition winner David Myles plays the Rio Theatre with Jill Barber tonight. Doors at 7:30.
The Projecting Change environmental film fest continues through Sunday at Fifth Avenue Cinema with a screening of Blue Gold tonight and a second screening of End of the Line tomorrow, among others.
Speaking of which, The Great Farm Trek 2009 is on Tuesday, April 7 at 3:30 pm. It’s a big, fun-filled festival and a walk that follows this route to the farm. More info including entertainment details. I have never been to the UBC farm so I’m really looking forward to this!
The next Vancouver Bloggers Meetup is Wednesday at 6pm. Location TBD. Sign up for updates and RSVP at Meetup.com.
Stop Gateway has organized a protest at Kevin Falcon’s constituency office. Wednesday 3pm – 5pm at the sidewalk adjacent to his office at 17700 No. 10 Highway (56 Ave) in Cloverdale. And if I still lived there…
Kevin Falcon is BC’s Environmental Enemy #1. His massive highway, port and airport expansions collectively pave more than 7,000 acres of BC’s finite farmland.
He destroyed the environmentally sensitive wetlands and raptor forests of Eagleridge Bluffs, and his South Fraser Perimeter Road is poised to seriously harm Burns Bog.
While he is pouring public funds (that BC taxpayers cannot afford) into paving away our aspirations for a livable region, he is chronically underfunding public transportation.
This is a rally for farmland, wildlife habitat, fisheries, clean air and a healthy, livable region.
Rail for the Valley and Gateway to What? team up for Highway 1 Day of Action, 11am – 1pm. More info at the Facebook event page.
Hard rock and metal fans: my friend Dan plays the 5/4 time in ODDCHiLD, which plays the Red Room with Macula and Drums of Autumn. Doors at 8pm, show at 8:15, $10 cover.
Continue reading April events rundown: Earth Run, films, music, art and political events »
I’ve managed to stuff my weekend to the brim with various events, from Juno festivities to enviro-political discussions, and a possible, long-overdue trip to the market.
Here’s what’s going on!
In 10 hours, Avaaz’s new petition asking the federal government to support the CBC has garnered over 25,000 signatures. Please sign the petition and pass it on to your friends!
The Winter Farmer’s Market is on again at the WISE Hall (1882 Adanac St. in East Van) from 10 am – 2pm. Well, technically it’s spring now, so there are some fresh surprises:
Good-bye winter blues (and flus!) — spring has sprung at the Vancouver Farmers Market and what better way to celebrate than with the arrival of spring crops. Brian Patterson of Shalefield Gardens will have several varieties of sprouts including Broccoli, Mustard and Red Radish, as well he will have Micro Greens, Jerusalem Artichokes, Strawberry plants, and Nettle, oh my!
Still fighting off that winter cold? Don’t forget to pick up some garlic, which Brian says his customers are most excited about. His favourite recipe? Garlic broth soup, with celery, carrot, and nettle. Don’t forget to also visit Langley Organic Growers, for their selection of spring greens, including Baby Kale, Arugula, and Mustard Greens. Join us at the Market for this delicious start to spring, but get there early if you want the greens! — Facebook event page
SFU Surrey Campus (at Surrey Central Skytrain), Rm 5140, 13450 – 102 Avenue, Surrey.
1 – 4pm. Free, pre-registration is not required.
The Tar Sands megaproject in Alberta has been described as the most environmentally destructive project ever built. But many people don’t know about the pivotal role proposed BC projects could have in facilitating tar sands expansion and fueling demand for tar sands oil.
Join us for a short video, presentation and discussion on the ways tar sands plans depend on proposed projects in BC. The presentations will focus on the Tar Sands, the Proposed Enbridge Gateway Pipeline, and the Gateway freeway and port expansion schemes.
Presenters:
Harjap Grewal — Council of Canadians: The Gateway and other proposed tar sands pipelines.
Eric Doherty — Livable Region Coalition: The Gateway freeway and port expansion proposals.
Jessie Schwarz — Greenpeace: The environmental and social impacts of the tar sands.
A reminder that it’s Earth Hour from 8:30 – 9:30 pm (local time). Granville Magazine lists 21 ways to spend Earth Hour sans power. I will be observing it at a large party with candles for each person, which should be lovely! I think I missed it last year so this may be my first one. I enjoyed the Globe and Mail’s article about getting creative for Earth Hour.
Continue reading More events: Save the CBC, Earth Hour, local food, tar sands talk, and more »
Last night I finally attended my first Philosopher’s Cafe, on the topic “Sustainability—is it compatible with free markets?” It was a good discussion and, despite us all being pro-sustainability, we still differed on enough views to promote some argument. I’m an idealist but used my realist friends’ perspectives to offer some critique. (Sorry that you weren’t there!) I won’t make it to the next one at that location, because there is one that interests me even more in New Westminster: “The ethics of the hundred mile diet” is on April 15 at Heritage Grill, 7pm. A discussion on “GMOs: The complex difficulties of Frankenfood” happens there June 17… but that’s a ways off!
Here are a couple upcoming FREE events for folks interested in sustainability and social media.
Audacious Visions for Vancouver
Friday, March 20 (tomorrow!)
Pacifica Photography Studio, 821 Powell St, Vancouver
“A World Cafe style dialogue to discuss the future of Vancouver. How do we make Vancouver the greenest city in the world by 2020? Come and contribute your thoughts in an afternoon of creativity and audacious thinking. A collaboration of the SFU Undergraduate Semester in Dialogue and the City of Vancouver’s Greenest City Action Team.” Details: audaciousvancouver.com
Register online for the first portion beginning at 1pm, or come down at 6pm for some casual conversation.
Vancouver Net Tuesdays – Remixing the Web for Social Change!
Net Tuesday is a regular gathering of bloggers, social media folks, designers, non-profits and other folks interested in the role of the web for social and environmental change. It’s been going on in Vancouver for about a year.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
5:30pm – 7:30pm
WorkSpace, #400-21 Water St, Vancouver
Presenters (confirmed thus far):
Raul Pacheco – Social Media in Sustainability and Public Policy
Grace Carter – ChipsNotDeadYet.com (BC Children’s Hospital Social Media Case Study)
Doug van Spronsen – MakeGood.com
Steve Williams – Data for Good
Joe Solomon – The future of the Green Web — Joe is the Net Tuesday organizer
Host/MC is Darren Barefoot. Yay!
More details on Facebook or MeetUp.com
Last Monday’s anti-Gateway demonstration in Surrey; I’m in there somewhere! Photo from GatewaySucks.org
Stephen Rees’s blog has been bursting with exciting news lately, nearly every single post. When I say exciting, I don’t necessarily mean good, but the headlines do indicate multiple turning points in a potentially positive direction in what has so far been a steadfast plot on the part of our provincial and even federal government to proceed with Gateway.* At a time when gas prices have begun to increase once more, international shipping is declining, and peak oil is on the horizon, our provincial and federal governments are teaming up to build more roads and expand the port on the premise that it will create jobs. While I agree that creating jobs in British Columbia is of utmost importance, the economic benefits of redirecting funding toward building transit would more than double the number of jobs — and they would be local. That keeps BC money in BC. In fact, a study by the Canadian Urban Transit Association found that three times as many jobs are created in public transit as highways. Public transit encourages smart growth, reduces congestion and pollution (thereby making a grand step toward the Province’s 33% reduction in GHG goal), and has minimal environmental impacts.
Want to help steer the government away from highway jobs and construction to green jobs and transit, all across Canada? Here are some petitions and events happening right now:
PETITIONS
– Halt the Gateway Project
– Rail for the Valley: bring back passenger rail now
WRITE TO OUR POLITICIANS/MEDIA
– A Green Economy Makes Cents:
“On January 27, our federal government will introduce a new budget and invest billions of your tax dollars on stimulating the Canadian economy. Let’s make sure that as much of the stimulus package as possible is green.” Send a message to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty asking the government to invest in green jobs and green infrastructure. (David Suzuki Foundation)
Read my letter. (Americans can use the Wilderness Society’s page to send a letter to Congress on the same issue.)
Continue reading Changing the course of the city and country: green jobs and transit now! »
Yesterday I attended my first Slow Food Cycle Sunday, in Pemberton. Whew, what a ride!
We arrived in Pemberton Village rather on time considering the road construction on the Sea to Sky Highway. (No rockslides, thankfully!) Treacherous road, but man, what a view! The parking lot at Signal Hill Elementary School was rapidly filling up when we unloaded our stuff, packed up our saddle bags and took off in the direction of the Community Centre which would be our official starting point. It was obvious then that there was a huge turnout, and in fact the count thus far exceeds 2000 riders! It was mildly sunny and cool, but the weather didn’t do what was forecasted. It did the exact opposite, without the potential thunderstorm that seemed imminent.
Continue reading Slow Food Cycle Sunday Recap! »
I learned of this annual event when I naughtily “borrowed” my landlady’s Westworld Magazine to read a few interesting food-related articles before I delivered it upstairs. When I finished reading the article about Slow Food Cycle Sunday, I wrote down the event details and without hesitation decided I would attend. (Do read the article, a PDF complete with tantalizing photographs!) Now the date is finally approaching — not that I wish summer to pass quickly as it has been, but I’ve been looking forward to this — and I’m training daily now for the tour.
Training?
Continue reading Slow Food Cycle this Sunday in Pemberton »
Photo by Rob_ on Flickr
Yesterday I joined my sister and my little nieces to one of several Car-Free Vancouver festivals. It was almost surreal to see a chunk of Main St. filled with people, “dancing in the stree-eet,” with absolutely no cars. The warm air was filled with various music, voices, children’s laughter, and sometimes the crashing and bumping noises of skateboarders on the half-pipe. We enjoyed a live performance from a guitarist/singer + DJ/violinist duo that would probably be called lounge jazz pop? The kids had some fun dancing to it. While the next band set up some dancers moved to, I think it was flamenco music, with various dance props (ribbons, etc.) The girls had their faces painted — a butterfly and a lovebug (ladybug on one cheek, heart on the other) — and posed for some adorable photos!
Continue reading Car-Free Vancouver Day »
Tonight the Vancouver Public Library is hosting a screening of the film, The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, as part of its Necessary Visions series. It’s a free program and will be held at their Central branch, downtown at 350 West Georgia. Details below, and more events at the VPL website. Hope to see you there.
The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil is a project of The Community Solution, a non-profit organization that designs and teaches low-energy solutions to the current unsustainable, fossil fuel based, industrialized, and centralized way of living.”
— the Power of Community website
Screening info
Friday June 6, 7:30 pm
Alice MacKay Room, Lower Level
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba’s economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half — and food by 80 percent — people were desperate. This film tells of the hardships and struggles as well as the community and creativity of the Cuban people. They share how they transitioned from highly mechanized agriculture to using organic farming and urban gardens.
The Necessary Visions series features screenings of locally made documentary films, followed by discussion afterwards with the filmmakers.
For more information please contact Vancouver Public Library at 604-331-3603. Sponsored by Necessary Voices and Cinema Politica.
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POST-EVENT UPDATE: This film is excellent! The turnout was impressive — two hundred people maybe? — of all ages and I do believe everyone truly enjoyed it. Lots to think about, be inspired by, and make strides towards. I took 3 journal-sized pages of notes and that’s like 4.5 pages for a person with normal-sized handwriting. A small country with a truly remarkable recent history, Cuba is an example for the world on how to live. Shocking statistics revealed visually the massive differences between their way of life and that of Americans: they use one eighth of the energy and yet maintain the same (if not better) life expectancy. Given that diabetes and heart disease rates have dropped in Cuba, but the opposite is happening in the US where we forecast life expectancy to drop for the first time, I don’t doubt that a gap will start to appear. It is probably time that the US started looking to Cuba as a model for sustainable living, rather than shunning them. Not that Cuba appears to need them anymore! They’ve got it all figured out.
Saturday night I attended the ever-popular Emily Carr Undergraduate Exhibition, more commonly referred to as the “grad show” among my peers. There is some stellar work there, as always, and I strongly encourage anyone interested in art, communication design, industrial design, film or animation to get down there in the coming week and see the work of this year’s group of 350+ talents.
The show runs for a shorter period this year so you only have until this coming Sunday the 11th to see it for yourself! The show is open 10 am to 6pm at Emily Carr Institute, 1399/1400 Johnston St. on Granville Island. More info »
For myself and my class, today marks one year since our graduation and grad show… how time flies! The feeling walking to the show opening on that perfect sunny evening and the energy of the night itself has a nostalgic magic.
This year I helped put out the grad site again but with a much different set of roles. The student volunteers and coordinating faculty gave a tremendous effort; many thanks and congratulations go out to them for producing a fabulous grad 2008 website!
Note that many projects showing at the school are not on the website, and vice versa. This is particularly true of design projects which were not yet complete at the time of submission. So do visit the show, pick up a printed catalogue, and check out the website. Enjoy!
On Saturday I attended a forum put on by VALTAC (Valley Transportation Advisory Committee), hosted at the Langley Township Hall. (Nice building!) It was a statement toward our poor transit network South of the Fraser that all five speakers drove to the venue. Stephen Rees joked that the TransLink trip planner wouldn’t even give him a trip itinerary because it would take either more than 3 hours or more than 3 transfers. My proximity to the Hall made it easy enough to get there, if you consider a bus late by 7 minutes then a 20-minute walk easy. And Langley isn’t exactly known for being pedestrian-friendly.
The forum was about getting better public transportation South of the Fraser, mainly via rail connections. There is much support for one solution, spearheaded by a group called Rail for the Valley, which would reinstate the Interurban that ran from about 1900 to 1950 all the way from Vancouver to Chilliwack. Maps at the venue showed the dense urban centres through which this rail line passes. (Today it is used only for freight.)
Continue reading Event recap: VALTAC forum on Rail for the Valley »
