At @ChrisVelan concert for @TheBigWild and @1PercentFTP

Darren invited me to last night’s concert (on April’s Fool’s Day, no less!) by Chris Velan, an extremely talented Canadian musician who is also a lover of the outdoors, and who recently joined One Percent for the Planet (an organization that I knew from when I did my PhD). 1% For the Planet encourages businesses of all sizes to donate 1% of profits to environmental causes. As it turns out, Mountain Equipment Coop’s 1% goes to funding The Big Wild, a non-profit partnership project between CPAWS and MEC.

Coincidentally, I knew Esther Speck (Director of Sustainability at MEC and one of the big proponents of The Big Wild) from way back when, and it’s nice to now be reconnected through a round-about. As I told her last night, I don’t think she knew about my social media presence. Most people in the environmental community in Vancouver don’t. It’s like I live two lives at the same time (social media/PR/tech and environmental/policy). Only a few seem to know about both simultaneously. At the time Esther was doing her MBA and MREM (REM is the ‘cousin’ of RMES, the program where I did my PhD), she was really good friends with a very good friend of mine who was (same like me) doing a PhD in RMES. And now we are reconnected, after a long, long while. Vancouver is too small!

Anyways, I was delighted to be invited along with my dear Emme Rogers, and it was a pleasant surprise to bump into other friends of mine, like Monique and James, Leah and Jay, Jeremy and of course, Julie. Chris Velan‘s performance was excellent (I understand my friends from Mojave were there too, but I missed them! Chris is touring the country in support of 1% and The Big Wild, playing evening concerts and gigs at MEC stores.

Chris kicked off his tour in Vancouver at the Railway Club. As indicated by Darren, Chris’ music is kind of in the Jack Johnson, surfer folk-rock vein. I had a great time, thanks Darren for inviting me along! You can see a video of Chris below.