I walked the streets of Montreal last night listening to a number of songs, including Love Comes Quickly by The Pet Shop Boys. It’s one of those songs that while not completely depressing, makes you feel like you need to stop and think. For your listening pleasure.
The best way to describe Boris Bistro is a complete surprise. I had dinner here with two of my Mexican colleagues last night, and it was simply wonderful. Surprising to me, because (a) the staff was really accommodating to our needs (b) the food was excellent (c) the service was fantastic, all in light of (d) we arrived at 10pm. And besides, the staff were extremely good looking 🙂
Boris Bistro is a spacious restaurant located in the Old Montreal area, non-pretentious yet elegant, with a beautiful patio and more importantly, within 3 blocks from the hotel where I am staying at. We were greeted with warmth and the servers tolerated our French/English mumbling as we were completely starving.
I ordered a salade méditerranéenne au poulet (Mediterranean chicken salad, $17.50) which was well served (albeit, it had goat cheese – I know, how could I order a dinner item with cheese – but I did want to see how they served it, and besides I was starving). The salad was exquisite, and it had a side-order of tapenade that simply enhanced the chicken flavours perfectly. I will even admit that the goat cheese was amazing and that it combined perfectly with the salad (some balsamic vinegar may have made its way into the salad dressing). I’m a fan of very strong flavours and this salade méditerranéenne au poulet was just what the doctor ordered for me.
Overall, if I had to come back (and I know we had already visited here a few years ago for another NACEC meeting) I would definitely seek the comfort of Boris Bistro. Very highly recommended, and not expensive enough to break the bank.
I was really sad to see the Windjammer (a very old-fashioned, really cute English pub that offered apparently some really good fish and chips that I never got the chance to check out) disappear. But I’m glad that there’s an affordable (maybe not the most sophisticated) and tasty sushi restaurant near my house. I used to be a huge fan of Zipang Sushi but the last two times I have visited it’s been pretty awful.
The decor at Ryu Sushi is modest, clean and welcoming. I am pretty impressed with the size of the restaurant that they inherited. I’m not sure they’ll give their patio much action, but I am looking forward to checking it out soon. Ryu Sushi doesn’t boast any fanfare nor do they claim to be the best sushi in town. They offer affordable sustenance-like sushi at very decent price points and great customer service. The staff were incredibly warm and kind and welcoming. And I was just as pleased to have some grub to keep me on the go. We’ll have to see how they fare through time.
Today (June 21st) we celebrate National Aboriginal Day 2011 in Canada. I’ve always had a soft spot for Aboriginal (First Nations) issues, and I try hard to highlight them in my blog. I think one of the elements that really made me appreciate Canadian’s interest in their own First Nations culture was the UBC First Nations Longhouse. I was impressed that there was a full house within the university campus that highlighted First Nations cultures. And if you’ve seen me walk around town, you’ll see that much of my jewelry and decorations at home have First Nations renditions of hummingbird motives.
Proclaimed by the Governor General in 1996, National Aboriginal Day provides an opportunity to acknowledge the unique achievements of First Nations, Métis and Inuit in fields as diverse as agriculture, the environment, business and the arts. In cooperation with Aboriginal organizations, the Government of Canada chose June 21st for National Aboriginal Day because it is also the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. For generations, many Aboriginal peoples have celebrated their culture and heritage on or near this day. The Canadian Constitution recognizes three groups of Aboriginal peoples: Indians (First Nations), Inuit and Métis. Although these groups share many similarities, they each have their own distinct heritage, language, cultural practices and spiritual beliefs.
I’ve been to Montreal several times, but ironically, it’s always been for academic purposes (e.g. for conferences or research meetings). This is, unsurprisingly, also the case. I use the summer (even though I’m teaching one summer course) as the time where I get to focus on my research, and I’m heading to a series of meetings with the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (my area of specialization is North American environmental politics). It should be fun, though, and I’m looking forward to very intense but rewarding work days.
During the evenings, I might have some time to check Montreal. So, even though I’ve visited before, I’m wondering if any of my readers can suggest places to go and things to see?
UPDATE – Thanks for the suggestions, Patel, and for those on Twitter who suggested the below:
This past Thursday I attended the second art installation of The Artwork Hub project, an artistic itinerant exhibit curated by Chet Woodside. “The Friction of Distance” is an exhibition of photography by Vancouver-based photojournalist Jonathan Taggart (full disclosure: Jon is a good friend of mine, but I feel the same way regardless about his art – he’s an extraordinary storyteller). It was a really nice evening (which, full disclosure again, I emcee’d – I’m not giving kudos to myself, I’m just noting that I was the MC!). It was a really nice evening, and despite the fact that the event for the opening of Jon’s exhibit was invite-only, there was not a lot of room to move!
I was lucky enough to be invited by my good friend Cassandra Anderton (Good Life Vancouver) and Dawn Donahue, the Conference Director for the National Chefs Conference 2011 (CCFCC 2011) to the President’s Ball (an amazing evening of food and wine that was also the event where the CCFCC 2011 awards were presented.
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Actually, all of the Car Free Day Vancouver 2011 locations are holding the festival today, but since I live on Main Street, the one I’ll be covering will be this one (well, perhaps not covering, but I’ll show my face at least).
Main Street will be closed from 12th Avenue to 29th Avenue. This street festival celebrates non-car-based modes of transportation, and often features sustainability-related businesses and shows. There are Car Free Day festivals on Main Street, Commercial Drive, The West End and Kitsilano. It’s good fun, and it’s free, so you should totally check it out.
More about the Car Free Day Festival:
In 2005, the Commercial Drive Festival launched the first community- driven Car-Free Festival in Vancouver. The Festival was wholly volunteer-organized and presented, involving over 30 core organizers and 300 volunteers. It was an enormous success, bringing over 25,000 people out to celebrate the community and party in the street.
After that, the Festival happened in 2006 and twice in the summer of 2007, snowballing in popularity and attracting up to 40,000 people per day. Clearly, car-free days were an idea whose time had come.
The first annual Car-Free Vancouver Day, on Sunday June 15, 2008 ushered in the next phase in this bold experiment that had been gradually happening in Vancouver for many years. It took the car-free meme to the whole city, and represented the next level in our evolution toward healthy communities, authentic cultural celebrations, and car-free streets. On that day, FOUR communities presented their own Car-Free Festivals: Kitsilano, West End, Main Street, and Commercial Drive. Each Festival was envisioned and organized by the local core organizers, and each had a unique flavour.
Even though I already talked to my Dad this morning, I made the unfortunate mistake of calling my brothers who are in the same time zone as me as well (I’ve been up since 6am), and obviously I forgot that on a Sunday morning, there is no reason to be awake this early (well, except for me, as I was on the radio on a panel for Public Eye Online talking about the Vancouver post-Stanley Cup final riots and the role of social media). Today we celebrate Father’s Day worldwide (it coincides in Mexico and Canada, this time, as opposed to Mother’s Day). And while my Dad really doesn’t read my blog, I wanted to take this opportunity to celebrate him (and my brothers, all of whom are Dads too), as well as my friends who are fathers.
My Dad and I have a very special relationship. We’ve butted heads through the years on occasion, but we love each other profoundly, and many of my own personality traits are a direct reflection of my Dad. As Dad put it very aptly, I’m 50% him and 50% my Mom, pretty much a good split (with very opposite personalities, I might add).
My Dad taught me how to play piano, how to play tennis and basketball. He taught me the importance of taking time for self-reflection, and to celebrate the diversity within my own family. I mentioned last year about how he drove me over 800 miles for a job interview, because he knew that interview would be one of the most important interviews of my life.
My Dad and Mom may have disagreed on many things, but the one thing they always agreed on was that it was better to have ONE bad education than TWO good ones (e.g. they always decided on what was best for us by consensus, and they presented a united front all the time). And he and Mom always agreed that the priority as we grew up was to love our brothers before anybody else. They instilled in me and my brothers the sense of unity that characterizes my family.
I adore my brothers, all of them. They’re amazing individuals, wonderful professionals and amazing fathers. They have worked really hard to make their children’s lives the best they can, and they’ve been wonderful role models. I doubt I’ll have a chance to be a parent, sadly, but I try to be the best uncle to their children that I can.
On Father’s Day, many congratulations to all my friends who are fathers, to my brothers and to my own Dad. And also to the memory of my Grandpa Juan (my Mom’s Dad), who was an amazing father himself, and to whom I owe much of who I am now.
Happy Father’s Day.
“In brightest day, in blackest night, No evil shall escape my sight Let those who worship evil’s might, Beware my power… Green Lantern’s light!”
If you’re a superhero geek, like me, you’ll have been salivating at the prospect of a Green Lantern movie. Several failed attempts before (and a few really cheesy attempts, including a Justice Society of America film that was pretty terrible, but did include Green Lantern), we finally get to see one of the most mind-numbing, fun and exciting movies of the past decade. Yeah, you may think I’m exaggerating because I’m a Ryan Reynolds fan (full disclosure: I’m TOTALLY a Ryan Reynolds fan, not only because he’s from Vancouver, where I live, but also because his portrait of thrill-seeking, irresponsible and often laughed-at aircraft pilot Hal Jordan.
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I have lived in Mount Pleasant (in East Vancouver) for about 5 and a half years, and I loved it from the moment I actually set foot there. I heard stories about how derelict Main and Fraser used to be 10, 15 or 20 years ago (with prostitution and drug trafficking). And it’s nice to see how much more evolved the corner of Broadway and Fraser is getting.
I met the lovely lady behind this emerging community garden at Broadway and Fraser. Lila told me that she wanted to make her neighbourhood more beautiful and to enhance it. I think a community garden is a great idea. Lila also told me that while cleaning up the area was challenging (she found needless in the ground when she was cleaning up for the garden), she is happy to see it flourishing.
And frankly, so am I. I just hope I can find ways to help her with the community garden, to make it grow. And I’m really delighted that the corner of Broadway and Fraser is getting so much nicer.
I know some of my readers might be totally surprised that I love Christina Aguilera’s Express (a song that she performs in the movie Burlesque, apparently a total tanker of a movie). I’ve been a fan of Christina Aguilera and really wanted to see the movie because of Cher, Cam Gigandet and Aguilera herself. I haven’t yet, but I love the song Express, which is perhaps one of the main songs in the movie, so here it is for your listening pleasure.
I responded to the call from a group that sprung on Facebook and Twitter (@VancouverClean). I had a meeting with the Invoke team for our City of Surrey project, and headed down right after. I had a number of conversations with people who were volunteering helping. I got talking with the folks who helped me clean up the area where I was working on (I spent a bunch of time on Richards between Georgia and Dunsmuir). Everyone was so happy about the overwhelmingly positive response to the call to clean up. Lots of youth were, and are still helping clean around (people from all ages, but in general, A HECK OF A LOT OF YOUTH).
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What happened last night (you have seen it in the news and all over Twitter. We even trended worldwide. How embarrassing) is just one of those things I can’t wrap my head around. With all the research that people have done on mobs, mob mentality and social networks, I don’t think anyone could have predicted the outcome of what happened last night in Vancouver. Personally, I think the response of the Vancouver Police Department was very measured and firefighters, police officers and heroes who tried to stop looting and attacks on businesses are to be commended.
I wasn’t in the thick of it. I was attending the President’s Ball at the Canadian Chefs Conference (CCFCC2011) at the Renaissance Hotel, near Thurlow and West Hastings, and thus not really in any real danger. I debated whether to stay downtown or head home, and thankfully Julia drove both Melody and myself home. As we drove through we realized that the riots had been mostly concentrated within the vicinity of Georgia and Hamilton, Robson and Granville, that 6-block-radius area.
I’m embarrassed by the actions of a few, but amazed and proud at the actions of thousands who are repulsed by the behavior of those thugs who initiated the riots. Two things that I would ask my readers:
1) If you have footage or photos, please submit directly to the Vancouver Police Department (robbery at vpd dot ca) – remember, they need more information and context. Uploading them to Facebook helps with identification but it would be more helpful if you can provide more information.
2) If you can, please join Vancouver Clean (Facebook page here) and help clean up our city. I’ll be joining after a work meeting I have at 10:30am.
And more importantly, let’s remember that this was just a few thugs, probably fueled by alcohol. They were certainly not Vancouver Canucks fans.
Tea is one of those things that I absolutely love, for many reasons. Not only does it have the lower water footprint (about 30 litres of water per cup of tea, as opposed to 140 litres of water per cup of coffee), but also it’s a very social (non-alcoholic) drink. And recently I received a package of Four O’Clock Tea for review, but I hadn’t had the time to review them. Luckily some time has cleared in my schedule.
The best part of Four O’Clock Tea is the broad variety of teas. Some crazy mixes like tiramisu black tea (all of the Four O’Clock Tea is fair trade). I also loved the fresh pomegranate white tea. And the chocolate spice was outstanding. Overall, a delicious tea that you should definitely try out.
I am not a fan of waiting in line, nor waiting for a restaurant. But the kindness and nice personality of the general manager and staff of Umberto’s Trattoria (at the base of Whistler Mountain) simply made us change our mind. We arrived late on a Saturday night, which probably didn’t help our case. But the staff really made an effort to seat us soon, and we didn’t even wait 20 minutes.
Featuring rustic Tuscan cuisine in a warm and family-friendly atmosphere. You’ll find us in the heart of Whistler Village, Trattoria offers the year-round sports enthuiast fine Italian cuisine for a refreshing break after skiing, hiking, golf, or mountain biking. We thrive on style and originality.Open for lunch and dinner 7 days a week. Reservations are highly recommended.
In hindsight, I’m really glad that we went to Trattoria, because all I wanted was Italian food and I got a really sweet deal. The food was extraordinarily good and the service was outstanding. I’m disappointed that the menus aren’t online as it’s going to be hard to remember exactly what I had from memory (I do have a handy notebook, but I was so hungry I almost inhaled my dinner and didn’t really make detailed notes).
I ordered a Penne a la Indiana (which is basically chicken curry with penne pasta and vegetables to accompany the pasta). I’ve had a variation of this dish before at Incendio West, and loved it. The Trattoria version was generous in its portions, the penne was al dente (as expected) and the chicken was cooked to perfection. While it’s a hybrid dish (combined Italian and Indian), Umberto Trattoria’s Penne a la Indiana is flavourful and not overwhelming with the level of spice (and at $19, only slightly more expensive than most Vancouver Italian restaurants).
Overall, a wonderful experience at Trattoria, and I’m glad I stuck it out and waited as it would have been a completely different thing if I hadn’t had the chance to sample their Italian food. I’ll have to compare it with other Umberto restaurants, like Il Giardino. I’d definitely recommend it.
There’s a number of reasons why I love the Capilano Suspension Bridge and their family of businesses. One of them is the fact that the management team has always been kind to me, and has partnered with me in previous occasions for giveaways and other projects. Another one because it’s one of those iconic attractions that always seems to captivate my guests and visitors. And more lately, because they’ve been kind enough to give me a family pass to give away for CLIFFWALK at the Capilano Suspension Bridge.
At 300 feet (91 metres) above Capilano River, CLIFFWALK is an adrenaline-pumping series of narrow suspended stairs, bridges and walkways. A signature u-shaped bridge cantilevered over the river canyon and glass-bottomed decks highlight the 700 foot (213 metre) journey, offering spectacular river, canyon and rainforest views. Educational signage with ecological information from the David Suzuki Foundation also provides guests with background on the previously unexplored environment.
CLIFFWALK, along with the iconic Capilano Suspension Bridge, award-winning Treetops Adventure, Kia’palano, the Totem Park, interpretive exhibits and tours, seasonal entertainment and Raptors Ridge, completes a multi-faceted experience highlighting BC culture, history and nature. In addition, guests can also enjoy shopping at the Trading Post Gift Shop and dining at the Bridge House Restaurant, Canyon Cafe and Loggers’ Grill.
This giveaway is prized at $130 and it’s good for any time after the attraction is opened (June 6th was the opening).
There’s quite an interesting number of historical tidbits about the Capilano Suspension Bridge.
n 1888, George Grant Mackay, a Scottish civil engineer and land developer, arrived in the young city of Vancouver in Canada. Mackay purchased 6,000 acres of dense forest on either side of Capilano River and built a cabin on the very edge of the canyon wall. The bridge, and Mackay’s cabin, became a popular destination for adventurous friends, dubbed Capilano Tramps. After his death, the hemp rope bridge was replaced by a wire cable bridge in 1903.
Edward Mahon arrived in Vancouver in 1888. and began mining operations in the Nelson-Slocan area, naming the camp Castlegar after his ancestral home in Ireland. Returning to Vancouver, he set about purchasing and developing land and businesses on the North Shore, among them Capilano Suspension Bridge.
To enter my giveaway all you need to tell me is what’s your favorite thing to do when outdoors , whether it is with your family or alone. In fact, since my Mom is coming in less than 2 weeks, I’m totally taking her to Cliffwalk at Capilano Suspension Bridge. I will draw random one random winner from all entries on Tuesday June 28th at 2pm.
An additional entry can be earned by posting the following on Twitter:
Told @hummingbird604 & @capsuspbridge my favorite outdoors activity 2 enter 2 win CLIFFWALK passes. What’s yours? http://is.gd/4QxHk9
You can follow @CapSusBridge on Twitter and Facebook.
Few things are tastier for me than chocolate (with the possible exception of Ethiopian food). I’m a fan of all things chocolates and this past weekend I had an opportunity (thanks to The Magnolia Hotel) of trying a few samples of Rogers’ Chocolates. I have walked past Rogers’ Chocolates almost every time I’ve visited Victoria, but only until now I have blogged about it. Next time I’m in town I’ll have to get a tour.
My absolute favorites are the Nougat Mini and the Classic Mocha with the Winter Apple Caramel a close third. But overall, I simply, absolutely love their chocolates. AND their history.
Rogers’ Chocolates is steeped in tradition and a rich history that has earned us our reputation as one of Canada’s premiere chocolate makers. The first Rogers’ chocolates were made in 1885 by Charles “Candy” Rogers in the back of his grocery store in Victoria, B.C. He quickly became a popular man. In 1891, Rogers expanded his chocolate operation to the company’s current heritage storefront on Government Street in Victoria and the rest, as they say, is history. Today, we have 7 retail stores, several hundred wholesale outlets ship to over 50 countries, and a 20,000 square-foot factory .
OUR MISSION STATEMENT: To enrich people’s lives by creating cherished memories – one chocolate at a time!
I’ll have to get some more chocolates next time I visit Victoria and walk past Rogers’ Chocolates.
GLBT are inherently important issues to me, and thus I want to promote an event happening tonight at 5pm. Information lifted directly from the Facebook page.
On June 14th the Burnaby Board of Education is supposed to vote on Policy 5.45, the anti-homophobia and heterosexism policy. In order to support our trustees, and to encourage them to pass this policy on June 14th, we want to see as many people out and dressed in pink as possible. Our goal is to make this a fun and family-friendly event. I encourage you to put on your favourite pink outfit, bring your friends, families, classmates, parents, children, and allies, and come join us to sing, dance, wave signs, have fun, and show Burnaby that LGBTQ people aren’t scary!
Please consider joining (I’m unfortunately unable to come physically but I’m wearing a pink polo t-shirt in support). Please share widely this post as well. Thank you.
During the month of June, artist and student Jenna Grant is gathering work by a variety of local artists and entrepreneurs as she takes over the Rize pop-up retail space at Broadway and Kingsway. She is calling the collection of locally made products Concordia. Jenna came up with this concept to help bridge the gap between local artists and consumers.
She has put together a little gift basket which includes a variety of products from the store, each made by a different local artist. The gift basket includes:
It’s important to me to support local artists and my community within Mount Pleasant (I live in the area) so I was happy to run this giveaway. To enter all you need to tell me is what you consider is your favorite small gift. For me, an aromatic candle or a little bookmark is more than enough (I’m a rampant consumerist sometimes, but I appreciate the love, not so much the gift). So my question to you is – when you give a small gift, what kind of things do you like to give?
I’ll draw a random winner from all collected responses on the comments section until Tuesday June 28th at 2pm. Good luck everyone!
One of the main challenges I see with small businesses is that they don’t seem to have the best websites out there. While in my talks I always encourage people to start their websites even with free blogging platforms like WordPress, it’s always nice to have something that looks a lot more professional. So I was thrilled when Canpages asked me if I’d like to run a giveaway for a Website Solutions with Canpages Consulting Package (which can include a Landing Page or a SEM Consultation Package, or a number of options).
POST UPDATE:
As an added incentive, Canpages is offering a $100 gift certificate for me to give away to one of my readers who nominates their favourite local business. If your name is drawn, you’ll get a gift certificate for the business you nominate. As a reminder, to enter, scroll down to the bottom of the post to submit your comment. Contest closes Tuesday, July 5th at 2 p.m.
More importantly, I’m delighted to have Canpages sponsor this giveaway, because I really have a keen interest in promoting local businesses and solutions. The SEM and consulting package is valued at $3,000, and while originally it was supposed to go to a local Canadian small business of my choice. I’ve decided to open the contest to my readers.
So, my contest is open to both small business owners and my readers. If you are a reader, submit the name or contact information of a local gem, a small business whose online presence would benefit from this Canpages consultation package. If you are a Canadian small-business owner, please tell me why you’d want to win this contest (e.g. what aspects of your online presence you’d want to improve).
Given that it’s my first time doing this type of giveaway I will keep it open for 3 weeks, so that people have an opportunity to submit their favorite small business. I’ll draw a winner from all entries that come via comments on Tuesday, July 5th, at 2pm. I will announce the winner here on my blog on Wednesday July 6th. The contest is open and valid within Canada.
Some information about Canpages:
Burnaby-based Canpages is a local search company that provides innovative advertising solutions and hands-on marketing support to local businesses across Canada. Canpages recently launched a new online marketing product called Lead Solutions that helps local businesses increase their profile online through search engine marketing (SEM). Canpages wants to give one business owner who will clearly benefit from it, the opportunity to win one of these marketing packages valued at $3,000.
Working with a Canpages consultant, the winning local business will receive one year’s worth of search engine marketing (SEM) support as well as a custom landing page to help build its online presence and visibility in the local community.
The prize consists of:
• A hands-on consultation of the process with a Canpages search engine marketing expert
• Identifying and bidding on keywords for your business on Google, Bing and Yahoo
• Developing a custom landing page (if you don’t already have a website)
• Tracking and reporting the results including number of clicks, phone calls and emails generated
Canpages.ca is Canada’s national online directory for local business and residential searches. In excess of 3.5 million unique visitors visit the site every month with search requests. Rich and relevant local content sets Canpages.ca apart from other local search sites, including photos, videos and other immersive media. Canpages’ robust online directory combines comprehensive data and a unique user experience with maps and satellite images provided by Bing.
Website: Canpages.ca
Twitter: @Canpages
Facebook: Facebook.com/Canpages
My friends Ianiv and Arieanna Schweber love Moja Coffee, a super cute coffee house in North Vancouver, and they love Moja with reason. The baristas are completely adorable and well-versed in the art of coffee-making, the space is beautiful and the coffee is excellent. I was informed that Moja Coffee only does 2 open houses and sales a year, and the Summer Open House is coming right up on June 18th. You can learn more about it on the Facebook event, and while RSVPs would be useful, you can just show up. Also, there’ll be not only $1.00 espressos and $10/pound coffee sales but they’re also giving away gift baskets and prizes.
The Moja Coffee Summer Open House takes place on June 18th from 9 am to 5pm. Moja is located at 1412 Rupert Street, and here’s a handy map for you on Google Maps for the coffee house in North Vancouver, B.C.
I finally ate a JapaDog. Well, truth be told, I ate JapaDog before, twice. Once with JT (on our way to see Wicked, so basically we inhaled it), and once with Lorraine (but I didn’t blog about it). This past weekend I had JapaDog at Waterfront Canada Line/Skytrain station and many TBEX-ers joined me. There’s not much to write about in regards to the hotdog itself. I ordered a beef terimayo, which had a beef sausage, mayonnaise and shavings of Japanese seaweed.
While I can completely understand the obsession with the idea of JapaDog, I don’t necessarily think that JapaDog is the most amazing thing ever. It’s a hot dog stand. With lovely folks who are some of the nicest customer service people, but still. It’s a hot dog stand. Not sure how that makes it so exciting.
Maybe it’s the blending of Japanese and Western culture. Maybe it’s the variety of hot dogs. Regardless, it’s fun to eat at JapaDog, and I’m glad I did it.
Photos and content of this post were contributed by Dianne Chow of Fabulously Innovative Marketing in exclusive coverage for Hummingbird604.com. You can read more of Dianne’s awesome Fabulously Frugal Vancouver content on her site, and you can follow her on Twitter and on Facebook.
50 BITES AND 50 SIPS IN 50 MINUTES AT EAT VANCOUVER
50 bites and 50 sips in 50 minutes at Eat Vancouver? Not very likely unless I’m the Galloping Gourmet but apparently, that handle’s already been taken. With 250 exhibitors and speakers galore, the six hours I spent was still not enough time to cover it all. So I’ll just summarize what I thought were the ultimate highlights that no one should miss:
I’m a big supporter of First Nations’ projects (as you can tell with my coverage of museums like the Squamish-Lil’wat Cultural Centre in Whistler, my promotion of the Talking Sticks Music Festival, of Thunderstick at the Firehall Arts Centre, and many others), and I’m glad to highlights issues of Aboriginal culture, art and music. I have been invited to the Celebration and CD Release Party for Terri–Lynn Williams–Davidson New Journeys on Thursday June 23rd at 8:00pm.
Unfortunately I can’t make it as I will be in Montreal, but if you can, you should! There will be a Performance and Reception at the Museum of Anthropology at 6393 NW Marine Drive in Point Grey, Vancouver.
Transcendent music sung in the Haida language, bridging the ancient and the present, by Canadian Aboriginal Music Award winners Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson and Bruce Ruddell.
Terri-Lynn and musicians will perform selections from her new CD ‘New Journeys’ followed by a performance by the Rainbow Creek Dancers and a reception. Admission is complimentary; attendees are encouraged to purchase a copy of the CD. Spread the music! You can RSVP to reception@whiteravenlaw.ca.
I wanted to find out a bit more about Canadian Aboriginal Music Award winner Terri-Lynn and Bruce Rudell’s collaboration. I learned that the broad vision for the “New Journeys” CD is to create music that bridges two cultures and helps people of different backgrounds to connect with each other reflecting the current need in Canadian society to reach reconciliation with Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples. Such a wonderful goal.
I strongly encourage you to attend the CD Release Party which is coming up in a week and a bit, and do let me know if you attend, I’d love to hear your impressions of Terri-Lynn’s music.
