This is the first of many to come fashion-focused Hummingbird604.com events! We had the privilege and pleasure of attending the presentation of the Standing Armed Spring/Summer 2012 collection this past Thursday night. The layout of the night was quite different from the traditional type of fashion shows I’ve seen and shot: it reminded me of a real life magazine.
Photo Credit: Jessica Brodeur for Hummingbird604
The clothes: breezy and beautiful. Nothing makes me want to hop on the first flight to the Bahamas or Azores islands than summery dresses in tropical cocktail colours. The silky, flowy fabrics were absolutely stunning, and the overall theme of ivory, rich green, and coral reminded me of the Pacific islands.
As a fan of white-on-white, the beautiful silks paired with heavier, detailed eyelets on many of the dresses totally stole my envy. Every piece if wearable, light, flexible and absolutely drop-dead-beautiful. Keep your eyes peeled for Spring 2012: it’s going to be stunning!
A lot of the comments I heard from talking to different stylists and bloggers revolved around the flexibility of each item. From beach to office to even a formal event like a wedding, these skirts, blouses, and dresses could slip their way into any occasion. Packed for a vacation or even a beachy, L.A. day in Vancouver – they could rock any wardrobe.
Anabelle, Jessica and Raul attended the Standing Armed presentation of Spring/Summer 2012 collection in the first of what promises to be a substantial number of fashion-related events. Our next event coverage will be Vancouver Men’s Fashion Week 2011. Stay tuned!
I had a summer that while glorious (teaching environmental politics and visiting with my Mom and finishing a project), it was at the same time, a very busy summer. As it usually happens with me, the fall always gets busy. So here’s a few places where I will be speaking:
At Freelance Camp Vancouver 2011 (September 10th, 2011), I will be speaking on my 6 Key Elements to Thriving and Managing Myself as a Project.
At Social Media Camp Vancouver 2011 (September 19th, 2011 and September 22nd, 2011), I will be speaking on Pitching Bloggers/Influencers (Social Media Blogging Summit) and Public Policy 2.0 (Government Summit).
I can’t recall where else I’ve been invited, but I’ll definitely let you know where I speak next!
After having worked at a bookstore for 3 years, I can name a few key books that people really responded to. Tuesdays with Morrie is one of the most raved about books, with some customers even coming though the line with a stack of them to give away to friends. This heart-string-tugger book is definitely appealing to the sensitive souls of the world. Now that Mitch Albom has collaborated with Jeffery Hatcher to make this book come alive in theatre, the expectations are certainly high. This is basically a reenactment of Albom’s visits with a dying professor and the wisdom that is passed down to him. It’s the re-telling of a teacher-student relationship between these two men that runs deep and strong.
Pacific Theatre presents Gallery 7 Theatre’s guest production of Tuesdays with Morrie. Mitch Albom, a life-changing true story about generosity of spirit in the face of death. From the NY Times best-selling novel. Playing September 14-24th Wednesday – Saturday at 8pm with 2pm matinee on Saturday at Pacific Theatre, 1440 W 12th Ave. Artist talkback Friday, September 23rd. For tickets ($16.50-29.50 HST not incl.) call 604.731.5518 or pacifictheatre.org.
Here at Hummingbird604.com, we are offering a set of tickets to see the show! Comment a piece of wisdom passed down from a mentor to you, and you could win a set for the Wednesday, Sept 14th opening night! An additional entry can be earned by posting the following text on Twitter. We will draw a winner on Tuesday September 13th at 11 am.
I shared a pearl of wisdom with @hummingbird604 for a chance to win tickets to @PacificTheatre Tuesdays With Morrie http://is.gd/T4s46w
Working in a team has its pros (spreading of tasks, sharing of ideas, etc…) and its cons (many personalities, goals and skills). When I was first hired as Humminbird604.com’s project manager, I didn’t think a team of 3 people would get that hard to manage… Boy, was I wrong.
Coming from my humanities background, I wasn’t much used to teamwork. We usually do our own thing and have it approved by other people who also do their own thing. So I had to adapt and find a solution to my most pressing problem: how to reduce the amount of emails flooding my inbox?
Raul gets a lot of emails, and I only end up seeing a tiny fraction of them. But even then, the constant back and forth between me, Jessica and Raul about posts, covers, meetings and other projects quickly became difficult to manage. I would have several email threads for one topic, multiplied by a dozen or so every week at least. So it’s in this context that I sought an online project management application to help streamline our communications.
Why I chose 5pm
After much research and considering of price against function, I finally set my sights on 5pm. I first started reading about it on forums reviewing more popular applications like BaseCamp. However, what convinced me to pitch 5pm to Raul was
The ability to choose a smaller account for a lower price. BaseCamp has one price for all accounts while 5pm has several different prices depending on the size of your team;
The simplicity of the interface. Since 5pm is a web-based account, it can’t accommodate very complicated functions; but since our work is rather simple (plan, write and follow up on posts and giveaways), we didn’t need much more than that;
The list of current clients. It includes McDonald’s, Best Western hotels, Autodesk, Olympus and Hyatt hotels.
Interface
Everyone in the team loves the 2-window interface. On the left side you have the list of projects and tasks; on the right side you can toggle between the Info, Activity and File tabs for all projects, single projects or even single tasks. There are easy color-coding features for visual cues as well. The interface is easy to learn and provides all the information you need in a single glance.
Timeline
We ended up finding the timeline aspect a little useless, but that might be because of the nature of our projects and tasks. We have to plan events in our calendar and there’s no way to do that in the 5pm timeline. I personally think it just isn’t meant to be a calendar, but it’s kind of annoying that we can’t sync our Google calendar with 5pm while we can use Google Docs. Maybe adding a calendar sub-function to the timeline would be a good idea, and allowing for integration with Google Calendar an even better one.
Messaging
The messaging function is definitely our favourite part. Instead of sending emails through every time we need to discuss a minor detail, we use the 5pm messaging to avoid flooding our email. You can still have the message copied in an email to your team members, but at least they’re also in the 5pm system. It’s great for things that don’t need instant attention. You can write notes about entire projects or single tasks. This is definitely one of the best features of 5pm.
Files
We used the file system a little at first but quickly dropped it because of limited space–we filed mostly pictures. But now that we’ve figured out how to work with Flickr as a team, we just don’t really need to use it anymore. It’s useful only if you don’t have access to another shared-space app like DropBox or if you absolutely need to have your files attached to tasks or projects. In any case, you need a more expensive account for it to be worth it.
Sorting
Another great thing about 5pm is that you can sort projects and tasks almost any way you like. You can hide the stuff you’re not working on and keep only what you’re attached to, or see everything (depending on your access level). Assigning tasks is easy, too. You can add tags to projects or tasks and sort them through that as well. There’s a way to hide all finished tasks without deleting them, leaving you with only what’s still open. You can sort by due date, alphabetical order… it’s pretty customizable.
Mobile
I haven’t had to use it much since I spend most of my time at home anyway. 5pm has both a mobile website (mostly for tablets) and a dedicated app (for iPhones). It mostly enables you to see tasks and follow up with messages, but there isn’t much else you can do with them. They’re great for keeping track on the go, but the full web application is necessary to access the more advanced functions.
A screen capture of someone else’s project, just as a showcase of 5pm
Overall
We would recommend 5pm for small teams like us who just need a space to put everything together instead of relying on emails and individual task lists. Our favourite features are the messaging and the sorting functions. It’s helped us a great deal for our communication tasks as well as to make sure that no one’s writing the same post twice! The learning curve is very low and the simple interface makes it really easy to understand. There are useful videos on the website to help you get started as well.
If you’ve used 5pm, how do you like it? Do you use another web-based project management app that you’d like to share with us?
RAUL’S NOTES ON 5PM:
The one thing that I’m very curious to explore is the Clients element. Right now, I can’t consider PR companies and/or restaurants, arts companies, non-profits and everybody who pitches me as a client (as they don’t pay for the posts, and I don’t do pay-for-play). But I wonder if at some point, with some large PR projects it would be useful. For example, we are doing A LOT of coverage for the Vancouver International Fringe Festival, and I media-sponsored the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival. Given the size of those projects, maybe I should consider using it.
This review was written by Anabelle with input from Jessica, my two wonderful interns, with a couple of comments from me (Raul) which are clearly indicated on the post. 5pm does not actually know we wrote a review. We were neither paid nor do we get any free perks (I pay for the paid version of 5pm). I just have fallen in love with this project management software and would encourage anyone who likes project management to consider it.
Photo Credit: Michael Cowie for Surreal Soreal Theatre
Big Shot is a Vancouver-specific play, based on an imaginary encounter one night on the Skytrain. Presented by Surreal Soreal Theatre, this play follows their trademark look at modern culture and society, complete with an analysis of technology and media. As it’s name suggests, it looks at the modern world and tries to define what is real and what is surreal, what exists and what is merely a dream outside of our busy, urban lives. Despite the subject matter being exactly what 9 / 10 modern blogs and liberal arts paper are about, the play looks extremely original and interesting. Set during one fateful night in Vancouver, the one-man-show revolves around the death of a little boy, different perspectives of the incident, and fast-paced action.
Big Shot is a one-man show that takes us inside the minds of five tainted characters of the city: from a seventy year old Japanese racist, to a male prostitute recovering from a heroin addiction, to the shmoozy filmmaker inspired by the boy’s tragedy, the play is littered with tour-de-force performance and intense physical theatre. Big Shot questions whether the flash of media and entertainment has cut off our ability, as urban dwellers, to breathe in every day tragedies for what they are.
This is a recent remake of a concept from the 1970’s in Brazil. Five stories are told, all in and around Brazilian favelas – shanty neighbourhoods. The remake was done in 2010 by members of the favelas themselves. They all touch on families that are doing the best they can to get by in these dangerous neighbourhoods riddled with poverty and crime, but how they unfortunately end up involved in the activities that they were trying to avoid. The cinema quality was outstanding, and the colours and noises made me want to hop on a plane and go to Brazil to see it myself. Even the darkness of the favelas was brought into a redeeming light.
The story that stood out to me most was about kite fliers. Kids and families who competed in friendly kite competitions would suddenly turn ruthless at the sight of another person from a competing Favela. The film was beautiful and funny, yet with a strong message. All of the acts included children, some of which actually starred in the story.
Overall this was a great film. Perhaps if someone is a little squeamish around blood and violence, I would recommend something a bit different. For anoyone who wants to see a taste of the real Brazil, with life stories and a good look at the underlying class, this is exactly the film to see.
5xFavela: Agora por nós mesmos shows tonight (September 9th) again at 7pm at Pacific Cinemathéque. You can get more information and tickets here.
Hummingbird604.com is a proud media sponsor for the 2011 edition of the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival. Follow all our coverage here on the VLAF2011 tag or on the Hummingbird604.com Facebook page. Jessica attended on Hummingbird604.com’s media pass.
The weekend of September 16 – 18, coming out to the Fraser Valley – a place already renowned for it’s famous top-quality produce, dairy, and meat — will be the EAT! Fraser Valley fair. This food fair will feature over 100 different local shops, artisans, vendors and producers. This coming together really brings together the highilghts of this already fantastic area of BC for agriculture and food production.
Photo Credit: Sandra Garcia for EAT! Fraser Valley 2010
Presented by Food Network Canada, this event will feature celebrity chefs, appy-sized bites of local restaurants dishes, and (most excitingly for me!) a LIVE Iron Chef Canada-style face-off. That’s right – chefs competing in front of the audiences eyes during all three days of the festival.
As someone who dreams of being on the panel, or even the audience of Iron Chef, this is probably the best attraction possible other than the actual food itself. Keeping witht the theme of Iron Chef, past Canadian winners will be featured on the celebrity chef stage including Vancouver’s own Rob Feenie and Montreal chef Chuck Hughes of Chuck’s Day Off.
If you are looking to come to the event, I would recommend bringing your favourite Food Network junkie, a mind ready for culinary inspiration, and an empty stomach.
The 4th annual EAT! Fraser Valley Food + Cooking Festival is happening Friday to Sunday, September 16-18 at the TRADEX Fraser Valley Trade & Exhibitor Centre in Abbotsford.
Hummingbird604 will be hosting TWO contests for EAT! Fraser Valley.
First off, a pair of tickets to EAT! Fraser Valley is up for grabs. To enter, Comment about your favourite local treat. Mine would be Birchwood vanilla ice cream for blistering, hot, sunny Abbotsford afternoons. Or tweet:
“I entered to win a pair of tickets to @EATFraserValley via @Hummingbird604! http://is.gd/lvlS8J”
The second prize is a one night stay at Clayburn Village B&B in Abbotsford. Clayburn Village B&B will be at EAT! Fraser Valley as well. To enter, comment on what you love about Abbotsford or why you would love to go if you haven’t been! Or tweet:
“I entered to win a one night stay at @Clayburnbnb in Abbotsford, BC via @Hummingbird604 & @EATFraserValley! http://is.gd/lvlS8J”
Good luck to everyone who enters our draws! Contests close Wednesday September 14th at 1PM.
I have been a fan of Take 5 Cafe for a long, long time. My good friend Lisa Thomas-Tench and I often used to meet there before teaching our Economics and Marketing college-level courses and discuss our teaching strategy. Good times.
I recently found out that Take 5 Cafe had rebranded and expanded, which actually makes me really happy. Take 5 Cafe is one of those local companies that I love and have really provided me with that “safe haven” when I’ve needed to hide and just write (I did just that recently at their Coal Harbour location right after I landed back from Salt Spring Island, having just covered Chefs Across The Water).
Founded by long-time restaurateurs and brothers Dean and Steve Punzo, Take Five Café is also expanding, having opened a café kiosk at Richmond Centre in January and opening a ninth location at the Brewery District re-development in New Westminster this fall.Take Five Café offers fresh Italian-inspired food and coffee. With the first downtown Granville Street location opening in 2003, Take Five Café is expanding to nine locations this year in Metro Vancouver. The European-style coffee houses evolved from the Punzo family’s original business, the fine dining Caffé dé Medici restaurant on Robson Street, a recipient of the Distinguished Restaurants of North America as well as several Wine Spectator Awards. Dean and Steve started working at Caffé de Medici in the early 1980s and took over the business in 1995 when their father retired. Executive Chef at Take Five Café is Aron Zipursky, who was also chef at Caffé dé Medici for the Punzo family
I was also recently sent a basket of goodies from their menu (nom nom nom) that included a bag of Mediterranean coffee, and the following items:
Morning Glory Muffin: low fat muffin with carrots, apples, coconuts and raisins
Cheese Scone: Basic scone recipe with cheddar cheese, chives, onion flakes and fresh red peppers
Italians Only: foccacia bread, sun dried tomato mayonnaise, mixed greens, capicolla, ham, salami, red peppers and Asiago cheese
Chicken Fajita Wrap: salsa wrap, garlic mayonnaise, chicken, mango chutney, sour cream, green onion, cheddar, and romaine lettuce
Chorizo Farfalle: farfalle pasta with Italian sausage, mushroom,, spinach and parmesan cheese tossed in a tomato basil sauce
Pesto Penne with Chicken: Roasted chicken breast, penne pasta and parmesan cheese tossed in a fresh pesto sauce
I’m glad that Take 5 Cafe rebranded with the vibrant red and white contrasting. It’s a really good cafe (if only they opened after 6pm and on weekends!) and you can tell that the staff really absorbs the philosophy of “take 5”. As in, “take 5 minutes of your day and just enjoy your coffee“. I do that frequently. I take the Canada Line to Waterfront, exit through Granville and just sit down and have a coffee and a muffin combo ($3.50). And then I take 5 for myself.
Disclosure: I was sent a bag of goodies and a gift card to sample the Take 5 offerings, some of which I hadn’t sampled before in my visits. This gift basket in no way does influence my views, as I have liked Take 5 (and written about them already) and always pay on my dime whenever I visit. As always, I retain full editorial control of anything I publish on my site.
The Seminar is a play from Poiema Productions out of Edmonton that’s coming to Vancouver for the International Fringe Festival. Written, produced, and starring the girls of Poiema, this original production is sure to push boundaries and comfort zones as it attacks the state of media and marketing. This satire tries to expose the ugly truth behind ugliness.
How can someone improve their looks to rise above their own ugliness? Described as an “in-your-face” approach, this play plays around with surgeries and genetics to find beauty. If the possibility to change is available and within reach, why would anyone not take it?
Attention all UGLY PEOPLE: Come join our family and become a new you, a happier you, and an acceptable you. The Seminar gives all you ugly people out there an opportunity to change your lives. Don’t let your genetics define who you are. You can choose a better life when you choose to join our program. A photo speaks a thousand words, and they aren’t about your personality!
This sounds like it’ll be an interesting experimental piece.
Airdrie Hislop Miller is one of my very best friends. Whenever I think of the good things that blogging has brought to my life, I think of Airdrie and our friendship. A few years ago, when I was still a relatively newbie blogger, Airdrie invited me for dinner to her house, to one of the great gatherings she and Derek used to host. Airdrie welcomed me as though we had been best friends for years. And I cherished that openness and warmth. I still do.
Through the years, Airdrie and I have been able to work together in things, and I’ve done projects thanks to her inspiration. In 2009, Air organized a panel at Northern Voice, the blogging/social media/geek conference, where she assembled a panel of speakers (another two good friends of mine, Tod Maffin and Isabella Mori) who spoke openly, candidly and incredibly about the challenges of mental illness (depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, etc.) and how social media could be used to, in fact, cope digitally.
Airdrie had blogged about depression for a while, and her courage always has inspired me as she’s one of the most ardent advocates of de-stigmatization of mental illness. Her strength and amazing ability to deal with Derek’s illness in the way she did, and how she has managed to continue to raise her kids (both of whom I love and adore) is an inspiration day after day. Whenever I feel down, I think of how strong Airdrie is and how she’s done everything she has and I stop whining.
Through the years, Air has made me a part of her projects too. The host and founder of award-winning podcast and blog, Lip Gloss and Laptops, a podcast and blog about the beauty and cosmetics industry, Airdrie invited me to be a guest host and I’ve often reviewed colognes on the site. Airdrie, I’ve told you this many times in person, in private and I can also do it publicly: every day your strength, courage and drive inspires me. Your friendship has kept me sane in more ways than I can count, and the good times we’ve spent as we have built our friendship have been great reminders of how blessed I am to call you a friend, and a very good friend in fact.
You have kept me in check and encouraged me to take better care of myself even when I forget to do so myself. And you are the best partner-in-crime for any event I could ever think of. You make my life better every day, just by being you.
Air, I’m extremely proud of calling you a friend and I wish you the very best today and every day.
Having an insanely busy summer detracts from my ability to see some of the wonderful theatre we have in Vancouver. One of my closest partners in the theatre community is Bard on the Beach, and I had missed the 2011 season for the most part (even though I’ve given away tickets to As You Like It and also to The Marriage of Figaro). So, I decided it was time to make time (pardon the redundancy) for Bard on the Beach and As You Like It. I took JT to see it, as we both love Bard and we thought it’d be a great show to watch.
In this merriest of comedies, Shakespeare draws on his signature themes of disguise, misplaced affections and pastoral passion. The setting is ripe for romance when Rosalind, daughter of the banished Duke, runs away in disguise with her cousin Celia to the Forest of Arden. There they meet a pair of feuding brothers and Rosalind, who is masquerading as a young man called Ganymede, finds herself uniquely poised to teach her unknowing suitor Orlando the way to win a woman’s heart. Offering their own commentary on life and love are the melancholy Jaques and the wry clown Touchstone.
The performance run time may seem long with 2hrs and 45 minutes (including a 20 minute intermission) but the truth of the matter is: it’s an excellent performance. There are a number of recent innovations that Bard on the Beach has implemented, and As You Like It makes the most of these innovations to create a spectacle that is worth watching. While the main, overall theme of As You Like It is love, in its many forms (familial love, brotherly love, sisterly love and romantic love), the storylines are quite complex and sometimes hard to follow.
But if you think about it, that is exactly how Shakespeare likes it: complex, intertwined and not easy to follow. The fact that the actors engage in a few musical acts is an excellent strategy to keep the attention of the crowd, because as you know, it is a long performance. Some of my favorite actors steal the show, like Ryan Beil who plays the court fool, Charlie Gallant who totally surprises me with his artistry, Kayvon Khosham whom I’ve previously seen in All’s Well That Ends Well, a Sebastian Kroon who totally seduces me as Oliver, the originally bad brother who ends up charmed and enchanted by Celia, a Luisa Jojic who reminds me totally of my good friend Alexis Hinde). Shawn Macdonald doesn’t surprise me either, he is just so talented. David Mackay experiments with the way in which he wraps up
I was not disappointed. And as always, Bard on the Beach manages to rise above all the amazing stuff they already do. The fact that the BMO Mainstage has reserved, more comfy seats where you can bring your food and drinks, and where the seating is reserved, plus the improved acoustics really have enhanced the experience of the viewer. I would want to recommend one thing to attendees, though: at night, it gets chilly so bring along a blanket and a warm sweater. And if you, like me, are wearing sandals, remember that it may get cold even indoors.
As always, a delight to see Bard on the Beach. I’m going to try and see Richard III and a couple more plays before the end of September 2011, when this season of Bard ends. You should totally try to see As You Like It. Thoroughly recommended.
Disclosure: My guest and I attended this play on media tickets kindly offered by Bard on the Beach. In any review I write or publish on my site, I retain editorial control at all times. Should you have any questions/concern feel free to contact me via e-mail through my contact form.
This year the Vancouver International Fringe Festival 2011 is bringing us the non-fiction story and reenactment of the life and troubles of Edith Piaf. Her beautiful and haunting songs are as famous as her tragic life story. I fully expect this play to be a tear-jerker, but for anyone who loves the richness of this woman and her music, and her contribution to French history, I would encourage you to go.
My hopes are that the musical (yes, a musical at Fringe! Of course, featuring Piaf`s own music.) explores the life and times of Paris in the 1930`s – fashion, lifestyle, and so-forth. The story is told as a narrative from the point of view of Edith`s half-sister Simone, which should add a sort of twist. It`s also the only play at the festival which will performi n both English and French – a huge attraction for the Francophone community as well as those who find beauty in the French language.
Sisterscene Theatre [featuring Melanie Gall as Piaf] will present The Sparrow and the Mouse: Creating the Music of Edith Piaf as part of the Vancouver Fringe Festival, September 8 -18, 2011. The Sparrow and the Mouse is a musical comedy/drama that explores the early life of famed French chanteuse Edith Piaf.
The Sparrow and the Mouse is being performed at the False Creek Community Centre Gym. Showtimes are: Sept 8 at 8:30, Sept 10 at 2:00, Sept 11 at 9:35, Sept 15 at 6:15, Sept 17 at 6:00, and Sept 18 at 3:35.
Tickets are $11/$9 (students/seniors), and are available from the Fringe Box Office or at the door. The Sparrow and the Mouse runs 60 minutes and is suitable for ages 10 and up.
I absolutely love farms, despite the fact that most people identify me as an urbanite. If you think about it, I’ve done scholarly research on the leather and footwear commodity chain, which originates from the beef/agricultural commodity chain. And I’ve also studied the urban/rural transformation (when I wrote my doctoral dissertation I looked at all the literature on how farms were being transformed into bedroom communities). So, doing some agri-tourism and visiting farms is definitely something up my alley.
Krause Berry Farms was the third of our stops in the Langley Circle Farm Tour. I say was, because Krause Berry Farms is a set of two farms, in fact. I was unable to chat with the Mexican temporary workers that come up to do berry picking, something I really wanted to do, but was able to do a full guided tour of one of the berry farms.
Al Krause gave us a full guided tour of their sustainable farm, whereas Sandee Krause was kind enough to tour us around their restaurant/cafe as well as around their shop. It was an incredible experience, to taste so many of the treats that you can make with berries (blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, etc.). The Krause Berry Farm also cultivate some corn in an area of their acreage and they will also play hosts to the Feast of Fields this year.
Enjoy the ‘Berry Best’ in strawberries, raspberries, blueberries & blackberries and freshly picked vegetables. Visit our Market for our specialty jams, jellies, syrups, & farm-made fudge, as well as our delicious berry shortcakes & famous pies. Relax on the porch with our corn pizza, old-fashioned berry milkshakes & farm fresh ice cream. Kids love to visit our farm animals and fenced play area.
I can’t stress enough how much fun it was to visit the Krause Berry Farms. Our visit gave me again a wonderful feeling of being a child (my parents took me visiting a number of farms when we were little) even though I am old enough right now. And a fortunate coincidence was that Sandee and Al’s son is a professional volleyball player right now (I played highly competitive volleyball when in was in Mexico and thus we bonded over sharing some of the same experiences that my parents must have had when seeing me off to tournaments, etc.)
I found out that the Krause Berry Farms don’t open during Halloween but do during Christmas season, and they have a number of great activities for all ages. You should totally check out the Krause Berry Farms, one of the stops of the Langley Circle Farm Tour. Check out their calendar of activities for more information. You should also check my full Flickr set.
Disclosure: My visit to Krause Berry Farms was one of the stops of a media trip for Circle Farm Tours. You can read all of my Circle Farm Tours coverage here. A sample of goodies we tasted during our visit was compliments of our gracious hosts.
The -New Ventures competition is coming to an end of it’s yearly 6-month run. It is designed to act as a boot camp for small companies and entrepreneurs that are starting out in BC. A range of industries from medical technology, agriculture technology, safety in transportation, information technology, social and digital media spheres and more compete for prizes of up to 130,000$ to launch themselves into the competitive market.
The competition focuses on BC contestants in an effort to stimulate local entrepreneurs and partnerships. The companies will pitch their ideas to the council in hopes of making it through to the end to win funding for their enterprises.
Photo credit: Adam Campbell on Flickr
The BCIC-New Ventures Competition is open to any B.C. resident, team or business with an innovative technology product or service that has not yet secured significant financing from external investors (i.e. investors other than friends, family and company founders).
Learn from some of B.C’s best business experts at our business-education seminars
Network with top professionals in business, law, finance, government and academia
Improve your business and strategies during each round of competition
Receive advice and insight from mentors In Round 3
Present your condensed business plan to a panel of ‘angel’ investors, venture capitalists and industry experts in Round 4
The top 10 finalists were chosen and recently announced by BCIC. These finalists will have the chance to move ahead in the competition and pitch their ideas for a shot at one of the prizes. We look forward to learning more about these companies in the near future.
Despite what some people may think, I decline a substantial number of media dinner/lunch invites. Not because I don’t love them (who doesn’t love free food?), but because for the most part (a) either my schedule is too busy or (b) I want to go visit and pay with my own money so that people don’t even have the minimal qualm about whether I’m doing a non-biased review (despite the fact that I always write a disclosure). So while I was sad to have missed Fresh Bowl‘s invites, I was glad to come here for lunch. Long story made short? It’s good, very good. Weird pricing strategy, but good overall.
I ordered a Spicy Sambal with chicken (which ended up being from $7.00 to $10 – they added the chicken on top, something that I wasn’t really all that impressed with). My lunch colleague had a Thai green curry with vegetable (again, $7.00 plus $1.95 of the veggies). I would definitely prefer to know exactly the price of what I’m buying instead of this “on top of”.
My spicy sambal with chicken was tasty, spicy, and at some points a tad too spicy, but overall it was very nice. I’m glad I tried Fresh Bowl at least once (and I’ll have to say – smarty pants, because they found out I went there for lunch even though I came unannounced. I *always* do that at restaurants, so I don’t get special treatment. And nobody seemed to have recognized me there, but they posted on Twitter that they knew I had eaten there. Wowza). Overall, a bit on the overpriced side of things, tasty but a tad too spicy, but I’ll probably come back at some point. Not a place that I’m going to eat for lunch every day, but I can come visit on occasion.
Disclosure: I paid for my lunch and that of my colleague on my own dime. My views are my own, and I retain editorial control over anything published on my site
If you have followed my blog closely, you’ll know that I am both an academic and a blogger. And that I sometimes blog about academic nerdery on my personal site (this one). A few months back, I wrote about how fascinated I was with the mathematical epidemiology of infectious diseases. Several Mexican scholars (who for the most part, live in the United States) have done some excellent contributions to our understanding of the mathematical models of spread of transmissible diseases such as SARS and H1N1.
Well, Contagiondoes a very good, pretty solid and well acted attempt at combining the epidemiological analysis behind the spread of a new virus (a mutated kind of bird flu mixed with bat and swine flu, very funny to be quite honest how they come up with the actual mutation). A high-level female executive for a company (Gwyneth Paltrow, aka Beth Emhoff) falls sick to something that kind of looks like SARS/H1N1 but ends up being a completely new virus. Elsewhere worldwide, a number of individuals start to come down with the disease (which leads to seizures, and a fairly quick death).
The US Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta send a team (spearheaded by Kate Winslet, aka Dr. Erin Mears (who I am disappointed, did explain a bit the math behind the disease’s epidemiology but doesn’t go as far as developing the actual mathematical model) to check on the cases throughout the US. Mitch Emhoff, Beth’s husband, ends up being immune to the disease, but that doesn’t prevent Beth’s disease from progressing.
With an excellent cast who really take their roles extremely seriously (including a surprisingly convincing Marion Cotillard as a World Health Organization epidemiologist, a Laurence Fishburne that surprises also as the big honcho of the US CDCs, and a lovely Jude Law as the conspiracy theorist blogger who claims to have the cure to the disease), Contagion manages to achieve what Virus and other predecessors don’t: keep you at the edge of your seat and capturing your imagination.
You HAVE to pay attention because the infectious disease’s spread dynamics is so convoluted that it’s semi-impossible to determine who Patient Zero is (though some fingers point out to Beth Emhoff, we late discover that things are all like what we think). Themes of bioterrorism (remember the anthrax scare?) and conspiracy theories are very craftily intertwined with a storyline that seeks to understand the epidemiology of an unknown (and rather deadly) infectious disease.
While it was my good friend N.E. who did her PhD looking at public health interventions of communicable diseases, I have too been fascinated by the mathematical epidemiology of disease transmission, and thus I was completely absorbed by Contagion. There are a couple of scenes that are pretty scary and gory, but for the most part, the suspense is derived from an excellent plot and a lot of realism in the way epidemiological battles are portrayed.
I would very much recommend this movie, and I know that it opens on Friday September 9th, so you should go see it. After you do, I think you may be a little freaked out about anybody who coughs around you, to be quite honest. And it’s kind of creepy in a way that the movie came out so soon after we had the H1N1 pandemic. But I think that there’s value in educating people about the efficacy of public health interventions such as social distancing (an intervention that many argue helped contain both H1N1 and SARS).
I attended the advanced screening of Contagion thanks to media passes given to me and my team, Anabelle and Jessica, who attended as well. I am neither obligated nor expected nor paid for this review. I retain editorial control on all content published on my site.
While I stopped drinking completely around March of this year (with no alcohol at all for over 3 months, and now I do have a glass of wine every so often), I have still given myself permission to have about a glass of wine or so with a meal (and thus if it’s paired with meals, it’s usually a sip with every course). Thus I was pleased to have the opportunity to visit Vista D’Oro Farms & Winery.
Vista D’Oro is a Langley, BC winery whose owners are incredibly sweet and very forward thinking. We were able to see from the inside part of the process of making wine (and they have an excellent port-like, and several fortified wines). I wish I could have sampled everything. I did try some of their rose, whites and reds. Worth chatting about and reviewing in a future post.
Vista D’Oro is a culinary agritourism destination located in South Langley, BC on ten acres overlooking Campbell Valley Park and Golden Ears Mountain Range, just 45 minutes South of Vancouver. Dedicated to providing an ultimate agritourism experience, Vista D’oro Farms & Winery grows heritage orchard fruits, culinary herbs and grapes all of which can be found in the Farmgate Shop in some form – whether it be our flagship D’oro – fortified walnut Wine, a Green Tomato Garam Masala Preserve or a simple pot of fresh Lemon Verbena. The Cooking Studio is where our seasonal Artisanal Preserves and other culinary creations are produced. Vista D’oro Winery produces hand-crafted wines using traditional methods and old world values made in small lots on our farm.
We did sample some of their preserves, really tasty. And our dessert included fresh berries from Krause Berry Farms.
We had the privilege of joining our gracious hosts Patrick and Lee, who made a dinner that she said “was just a few things here and there” (an absolute gourmet meal, as she was really too modest).
Disclosure: My visit to Vista D’Oro was one of the stops of a media trip for Circle Farm Tours. You can read all of my Circle Farm Tours coverage here. Our dinner was compliments of our hosts. I was neither paid for this post nor expected to write it. I retain editorial control at all points on what’s published on my site.
You know, despite the vicinity with some of the biggest players in the food industry, and in the movie industry, somehow I’m not all completely thrilled with Pacifico Pizza (otherwise known as Pacifico Pizzeria Ristorante), located on Smithe between Burrard and Hornby. Don’t get me wrong: their food is very good. But I don’t know why, with their beautiful decor and ambiance, with their wonderful staff and their excellent service, and with the lovely oven that you can see from afar, I found the food good, but not AMAZING.
You know what I mean? Their food is very good, don’t be mistaken. But it’s a special kind of “very good”. As in, very good of the type “sure, let’s go for dinner there” instead of “let’s make a special trip for this“. But given its proximity with Scotiabank Theatres, I can totally and safely recommend having dinner at Pacifico Pizza. In particular, I loved their meat balls. Very well prepared, and spicy.
I took my Mom there this past month when she was visiting, and we ordered our usual standard order when we visit Italian restaurants in Vancouver. I went on the safe side of a Puttanesca, and my Mom ordered spaghetti with meat balls. At $13 price point for a VERY large portion, Pacifico Pizza is inexpensive and definitely a “must try at least once“. If you’re going to go watch a movie, you definitely can (and probably should) come have a pizza or some pasta.
Disclosure: I paid for both my Mom and my dinner on my own dime. All views are mine. I retain full editorial control on anything published on my site.
Inspired by Minna Van’s recent post about getting away from the constant barrage of work and online chatter, my partner Gregory and I decided to take up the challenge of finding a quiet place to spend the weekend. We chose to drive to Lillooet, which is only about 100 km north of Pemberton.
Lillooet is one of the westernmost points of the Canadian Sonora Desert, and was a major stop during the Gold Rush. According to the city’s small but interesting museum, Lillooet was once the largest city west of Chicago due to the influx of miners into the area over several decades. At present, it is a small, clean community which boasts one of the world’s largest reserves of jade gemstones, which are displayed throughout the town.
We arrived in Lillooet after a stop for lunch in Pemberton and a harrowing drive along twisting mountain roads through Joffre Lakes Provincial Park. Driving through the mountain passes can vary between thrilling and frightening due to the lack of road shoulders and high cliffs. Nonetheless, Lillooet proved to be a calm and relaxing retreat. We chose to stay at the Retasket Motel, which, as Trip Advisor had stated, was beautiful and well-appointed on the inside despite its 70s exterior. The motel’s beds and bathroom were lovely, and the proprietors provided delicious and hot homemade muffins and coffee in the morning.
During the evening we spent in Lillooet, we walked down into the town from the Retasket’s hilly heights, and had dinner at Dina’s Restaurant, which served tasty Greek food on a lovely patio with mountain views. We particularly enjoyed the local wine from Fort Berens, which was a smooth chardonnay with vanilla overtones. We watched the sun set over the mountains as we had our fantastic desserts.
The next morning after a peaceful sleep, on our way out of town we stopped at the Fort Berens winery and picked up six bottles of wine, including their last bottle of Pinot Noir. The winery was launched three years ago by Dutch immigrants, Rolf de Bruin and Heleen Pannekoek, who chose the site after finding it difficult to secure a suitable and affordable property in the Okanagan. Their risk paid off as the winery has won 14 medals since its inception, including Gold at the New World International Wine Competition, and has since expanded to 85 acres of vineyards.
We chose to drive home along the alternate route through Lytton, down to Hope and back to the city on Highway 1, which was a much less difficult drive, if you ignore the 5 minutes spent driving through a one-lane junction just outside of Lillooet in a rockfall hazard zone. Stopping in Lytton for a coffee around 11 am, we were treated with the annual First Nations festival including drumming and dancing. After that, it was a quick and easy drive home, with just enough time left in the day for a walk around the Stanley Park Seawall and dinner at the Teahouse.
We had such a relaxing time in Lillooet that we are definitely planning a return trip. We may be returning for the 2nd Annual Lillooet Beer and Wine Festival, hosted by Fort Berens on September 17th, which promises to be spectacular. The local Lilwat First Nations band is said to be presenting a deer to the winery as a sacrifice for the harvest feast, and there will be an entire day of music and free food and wine.
Disclosure: I covered every single expense I incurred during this travel, including (but not limited to) breakfast, lunch, dinner, and wine, and I wasn’t paid to write this review, nor was I required to do so.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Lisa Thomas-Tench is an entrepreneur, writer, educator, and policy analyst who (amongst many other projects) has worked helping set up a number of non-profit organizations in Uganda. Lisa is also is a very dear friend of mine. You can follow Lisa on Twitter here. All photos on this post are to be credited to Lisa Thomas-Tench. Thanks for the Travel Tuesday post, Lisa!
Total surprise for me: edible food in a coffee shop that is licensed to serve booze and within a half a block of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, where many of the theatre and musical shows I attend is. As Charlie Sheen would say, I call that WINNING. Creme de la Crumb in Yaletown, right underneath the CBC Vancouver is definitely a surprising gem. I wouldn’t call their cuisine high-end or upscale, but it was good enough and I didn’t have any problems with it.
I stopped by Creme de la Crumb a few weeks back when I was waiting for JT to meet me for the opening night of the Canadian premiere of Mamma Mia (Broadway Across Canada). I probably had never seen it not because I was blind, but because somehow Creme de la Crumb never registered in my radar. But I’m very glad it did. I ordered a 3 items combo ($8.99) and a bottle of Coke Zero ($2.50) for my dinner.
Overall, as I mentioned, a nice surprise that the food was good enough for dinner. I would probably not go out of my way here for a “romantic dinner” but for sustenance, BUT OF COURSE. I was able to survive going through almost 3 hours of musical theatre thanks to the fact that I had had dinner before, and that it was tasty and good enough at Creme de la Crumb.
The story of Hermano has been told again and again, yet retains its poignancy and freshness with the right actors and masterful direction. A touching tale of family, loyalty, brotherhood, justice, revenge, redemption and sacrifice describes what I saw on Sunday afternoon at the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival.
Daniel is an exceptional footballer, a phenomenal striker. Julio is the team’s captain, a born leader. As brothers they grew up playing football together in a Caracas slum called “La Ceniza.” While Daniel dreams of playing professional football, Julio supports the family with “dirty” money; he has little time to dream. The opportunity of their lives arrives when a football scout invites them to tryout with the city’s best team: the Caracas Football Club. But tragedy looms nearby. They must choose, on a dusty football pitch, what is most important: family unity, revenge or the chance of a lifetime. On this pitch, life is on the line.
As I said, the story of Hermano is one you’ll be familiar with and that you’ll recognize in the first half hour. But knowing the plot takes nothing away from the quality of the two main actors, the beautiful “shoulder camera” videography and the bittersweet feeling of the finale. It sometimes felt like a more tragic South American version of Slumdog Millionaire, but I don’t hold that against it.
Hermano is a hopeful “from rags to riches” movie but it doesn’t forget the reality of living in slums controlled by drug lords. Too often, the price to pay to leave the life is unbearably high, and the movie does its best to underline that. There is no easy way out for Julio and Daniel, even through football.
Hermano will be showing again on Friday, September 9th at SFU Woodward at 7PM. You can get more information on the VLAFF website.
Hummingbird604.com is a proud media sponsor for the 2011 edition of the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival. Follow all our coverage here on the VLAF2011 tag or on the Hummingbird604.com Facebook page. Anabelle attended on Hummingbird604.com’s media pass.
No, that’s definitely NOT me in the photo. I wish I had that vertical jump right now! Because of my knee injury, and my apparent inability to strengthen my core muscles ever since the injury, my vertical is not as high as it used to be. Which means, I can’t be a power hitter of the calibre shown on this photograph.
BUT
I can still be a competitive player. And I *love* being a power hitter. There’s a degree of freedom that comes from the ability to hit balls really hard. I have gone through all three positions. I began as a power hitter, then I graduated to middle blocker when my team needed a powerful block (and I was the strongest of my team) and then I went to setter when for some reason, my hitting and blocking abandoned me.
Of all three positions, I think I have always been a better power hitter. So when I participated this year in the evaluations for the VGVA Competitive I division (a division that I played in during the 2007-2008 academic year), I felt a really strange sensation. I’m fitter than ever (fitter than I was in graduate school, of course, and during the first years of my post-doctoral life) which means I was able to field balls and recover faster.
I also hit some amazing serves and kills (spikes). My volleying is better than it was in 2007-2008. BUT I feel still that there’s room for improvement. That is precisely the difference I feel and one of the reasons I’m so proud. 3 hours of gruelling evaluations each time left me with a body that aches in places I never knew it could hurt. BUT I know that if I work hard this 2011-2012, I might actually come back to the competitive level I always wanted: a similar level to when I was playing at the provincial/national junior team.
Next to Normal is one of those musicals I *MUST* absolutely see. For many reasons. First, because I love The Arts Club and they’ve been amazing to me. Secondly, because it’s a musical about bipolar disorder. Anyone who reads my blog knows that I am the co-organizer (along with my dear friend Isabella Mori of Mental Health Camp Vancouver, the mental health and social media unconference. I have a personal stake in making sure that mental illness is de-stigmatized. And to be honest, I really want to see how Next To Normal will treat the coping strategies of a family when realizing that one of the family members is afflicted with bipolar disorder. I expect it will be treated with dignity and can’t wait to check this out.
Fresh from a remarkable Broadway run comes one of the most lauded musicals of the new century! This contemporary musical will shake audiences to the core with its groundbreaking themes and thrilling score. Hailed for the empathy and accuracy with which it portrays one family coping with a painful secret, Next to Normal will find a place next to your heart.
With the recent passings (allegedly all by suicide, and after suffering from depression) of Trey Pennington (social media), Rick Rypien and Tom Cavanagh (hockey) and the National Suicide Prevention Week 2011, I find myself more and more compelled to promote education in the mental health field and any effort to promote de-stigmatization of mental illness, amongst the most common depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety. Next To Normal promises to allow and prompt a good discussion.
Next To Normal starts its run on September 8th (and you can purchase tickets here), but the actual opening night is September 14th and I have a pair of tickets to give away for that evening (it’s a Wednesday night, next week, at 8pm). All you need to do is write in the comments section a suggestion on how we can better educate ourselves on mental illness (depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, eating disorders, borderline personality disorder, schizophrenia, etc.) – what do you think we can do? I will draw a winner on September 12th, 2011 at 2pm.
To earn a second entry (for a total of two) you could post the following on your Twitter stream:
Commented on education about mental illness for a chance to win tix to @TheArtsClub Next To Normal from @hummingbird604 http://is.gd/Pt7vLn
Next To Normal plays at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Theatre (12th and Granville) from September 8th to October 9th, 2011. You should totally check it out.
Starring Warren Kimmel, Eric Morin, Caitriona Murphy, Jennie Neumann, Matt Palmer, Colin Sheen
Director Bill Millerd. Musical Directors Ken Cormier and Bruce Kellett. Set Designer Ted Roberts. Lighting Designer Marsha Sibthorpe. Costume Designer Sheila White. Sound Designer Andrew Tugwell. Assistant Director Shane Snow. Stage Manager Caryn Fehr. Assistant Stage Manager Peter Jotkus.
Any suicide is sad in and of itself. When people are unable to emerge from the darkness that depression and other forms of mental illness submerges them in, and individuals decide to terminate their own life, it’s definitely as someone said, a permanent solution to a temporary problem. I have many friends who have experienced extremely severe bouts of depression and who have entertained suicidal thoughts.
I also have close friends who have lost a loved one to suicide. It’s thus extremely saddening and really unfortunately eery timing that Trey Pennington (a social media super star from South Carolina and great human being from every tribute I read online, and who was friends with some of my own social media friends) took his own life right around the beginning of National Suicide Prevention Week 2011. How I wish there had been someone with Trey at that moment, someone who could have helped him emerge from the profound darkness where he might have been trapped. How I wish someone could have helped everyone who has taken their own life (we’ve heard of some recent cases in the professional hockey field, like Rick Rypien).
World Suicide Prevention Day is held on September 10th each year. The purpose of this day is to raise awareness around the globe that suicide can be prevented. Disseminating information, improving education and training, and decreasing stigmatization are important tasks in such an endeavour. The theme in 2011 is “Preventing Suicide in Multicultural Societies”.
The themes of the last two years of the World Suicide Prevention Day have focussed on suicide prevention in different cultures across the world. This year’s theme aims at raising awareness of the fact that all countries in the world are multicultural. Many countries harbour different minority groups, in the form of various indigenous and/or immigrant groups, refugees and/or asylum seekers. Some countries comprise many different ethnic groups due to artificial borders having been drawn by former colonial powers. This means that in all countries there are a variety of ethnic and religious groups living in the same society.
For the Canadian activities, please check this link. In Vancouver, the second-annual World Suicide Prevention Day is scheduled for Saturday, September 10th, 2011 in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery (750 Hornby St) at 12 pm. And if you know of someone (or you, yourself are suffering), know that you are alone. There is help out there.
If you need immediate support, please contact 1-800-SUICIDE
Partners in support of World Suicide Prevention Day 2011:
– Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention
– Canadian Mental Health Association
– CHIMO Crisis Services
– The Child and Adolescent Response Team, Vancouver Coastal Health – Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Centre of British Columbia
– The Josh Platzer Society for Teen Suicide Prevention and Awareness
– S.A.F.E.R. Suicide Attempt Follow-up Education and Research, Vancouver Coastal Health
