The main objective of this website is to scout out and promote the things that make Vancouver such a sweet place to be. We do this with an emphasis on the city’s independent spirit to foster a sense of connectedness within and between our communities, and to introduce our readers to the people who grow and cook our food, play the raddest tunes in our better venues, create our most interesting art, and design everything from what we wear to the spaces we inhabit.

The Scout List is our carefully considered first rate list of super awesome things that we’re either doing, wishing that we could do, or conspiring to do this week. From our calendar to yours…

HAITI RELIEF

The Power of a Penny

Unload those pennies from the bottom of your pocket – the good folks at Antisocial are collecting the little copper tokens for their Haiti penny drive. As they point out “people under estimate the power of the penny…” but at the end of the first day of the penny drive, the skate shop was looking at more than $500. Keep the pot growing. We’ll be dropping by for sure.
Jan 21 – Feb 5 | Antisocial

Haiti Fundraising Dinner at Cru

It’s a little beyond the scope of this week’s events – but we’re mentioning it now so you can be sure to get it in on your schedule. Why? Because Haiti is still going to need all the support it can get after next Sunday. From Cru: “support the people of Haiti at an Earthquake Relief Fundraising Dinner. Guests will enjoy an outstanding four-course dinner paired with quality wines. The evening will also feature a silent auction. Cru staff will volunteer their time, and the restaurant will donate all the food and beverages for this important event. 100% of the proceeds from the dinner will be donated to relief efforts in Haiti. The monies raised will also be matched by the Canadian government, doubling the amount of support that will be provided to the beleaguered country. Please help us show the people of Haiti that they are not alone in this time of crisis.”
Jan 31 | 6:30pm | Cru | $100 per person (all donated to Haiti earthquake relief) | 604-677-4111

FILM

Oh, Mr. Knightley!

Jane Austen’s Emma is on PBS this Sunday at 9pm. Because, well…some of us girls can appreciate a heads up on this kind of thing.

And We Demand…A Shrubbery!

From UBC FILM SOC: “The classic and most quoted Monty Python movie of all times. Chances are even if you haven’t seen this film [The Holy Grail], you have already heard half of the jokes contained within. King Arthur and his knights leave on a journey in search of the Grail, encountering many very silly obstacles on the way.” PS. Men Who Stare at Goats plays afterwards at 9:30pm.
Jan 27 | 7pm | Norm Theatre at the UBC SUB | $4

GREEN

Green Building Materials

Alastair Moore, co-founder of GreenWorks Building Supply, gives a talk at the Lighthouse Sustainable Building Centre this weekend. “Alastair will provide an introduction to green building materials and why they are important. He will discuss the evolution of the green building materials market and the relevance of green labeling systems such as FSC, EcoLogo, Green Seal, SFI, EF and review of some of the market’s most successful green materials.”
Jan 23 | 2pm | Lighthouse Sustainable Building Centre

LOCALISM

An Evening at The Penthouse

A fun excursion dreamed up by Heritage Vancouver – “Step back in time with Danny Filippone on his famous behind the scenes tour of one of Vancouver’s famous landmarks. You’ll visit the Steak Loft Dining Lounge and the VIP room where his uncle Joe Filippone entertained high profile guests, such as Frank Sinatra. After the tour, enjoy a talk by Danny Filippone and unique photographs and a talk by Reid Shire of North Vancouver’s Presentation House Gallery, “Nightclubs in Vancouver in the 50s and 60s”.
Jan 27 | The Penthouse | 6pm | $30

Pecha Kucha-style

Here’s the scoop on this one: “Originally devised by architects in 2003, Pecha Kucha was conceived as a place for young designers to meet, network and show their work in public. The Learning Centre’s Pecha Kucha-style event is inspired by the excellent work of Pecha Kucha Vancouver. It’s also and as part of a series of programming centred on UBC and the Olympics. The aim is to provide a forum for the UBC community to participate in a visual dialogue on the broad topic of the Olympics. ” Each presenter displays 20 images for 20 seconds.” I think you might need to cough up a few bucks for this one – but I couldn’t find out how many. Check for details here.
Jan 21 | Irving K. Barber Learning Centre | $?

All Aboard The Olympic Line

From the City of Vancouver: “Everyone is invited to celebrate the launch of the Olympic Line, Vancouvers 2010 Streetcar on January 21, 2010 at 9:30 am next to the Canada Line Olympic Village Station near the corner of West 2nd Avenue and Cambie Street. Be the first to ride the train and receive a first rider certificate from Bombardier Transportation and the Host City Team. There will also be live entertainment and the opportunity to meet Olympians and Paralympians! The Olympic Line is a free transit system and will run between Granville Island and 2nd Avenue and Cambie Street between January 21 and March 21, 2010. And once you get off the Olympic Line near Cambie Street, why not check out the light-based public art (under the Cambie Street Bridge) and Neighbourhood Energy Utility interpretive centre?” Why not indeed.
Jan 21 | 9:30 am | West 2nd Avenue and Cambie Street | FREE (well, until tax time anyway)

Artist’s Talk

Lifted straight from Emily Carr: “Edgar Heap of Birds is known internationally for his interventions in public spaces that bear witness to the invisible histories that are indelibly linked to a place, particularly histories concerning indigenous peoples.” Get the scoop on the artist here. One interesting dude.
Jan 21 | 6pm | South Building Lecture Hall – Emily Carr | FREE

Lunar Festival

The creative souls at Public Dreams are working to pull together thousands of lanterns to grace the Granville Pedestrian Corridor this week for the second Annual Lunar Fest. Look for stunning visual art installations by 10 Canadian and Taiwanese contemporary artists, a story wall projection, and a lantern forest. Check back in a few weeks for a reminder to turn up for the spectacular lantern procession (scheduled for February 13th).
Jan 22 | 4 – 7pm | Granville Pedestrian Corridor (between Georgia & Robson) | FREE

Celebration of Creativity

The Museum of Anthropology is throwing a bit of party this weekend., but not your average soiree. This is the kind of shindig you throw when you have finally finished a $55.5 million expansion and renewal project. And precisely because a celebration of this magnitude can’t be contained in a single evening – the MOA have allocated three days. Highlights will include the Director’s Reception (cash bar to compliment an evening of mingling with MOA Directors and staff), an outdoor tented dance party with Delhi 2 Dublin, live performance by the Cantonese Opera Association, and the launch of The Audain Gallery’s inaugural exhibition – Border Zones: New Art Across Cultures. Other attractions will include oodles of live music, dance and art performances, film screenings, and rare behind-the-scenes tours (collections storage rooms, Textiles and Ceramics Research Rooms, Lithics Lab, Scanning Electron Microscope Room). Oh my. Check the full line-up.
Jan 23 | Audain Gallery | Museum of Anthropology

FOOD

Winter Harvest Vegetables

Get your garden sorted by attending the four part series centered around the issues of growing a winter-harvest vegetable garden – from seeds to winter prep. In the words of the instructor (Carol McIntyre): “We all have busy lives. Learning by doing in real time is practical. Many people need time to take a garden from concept to harvest, with practical support along the way. For those people, this course is for you…Beginning in January, and meeting again in spring, early-summer, and early fall, the course addresses seasonal tasks of growing a winter-harvest vegetable garden.” More details.
Jan 23 | 1pm | UBC Botanical Garden | $50

Mmm…Haggis

It’s a bit of a trek (way the heck out near 73rd and Marine) but if you love your haggis, you can look forward to setting yourself up at the Scottish Cultural Centre this week for an evening of Highland Dancers, Piping in the Haggis, and “much more”. Event announcement reads “Light Supper with dancing”. Haggis-light? Bit of advice: let your stomach rest a while before you engage in the dancing part of the evening… half-digested haggis on the dance floor won’t be fun for anyone.
Jan 22 & 23 | 6 – 10 pm | Scottish Cultural Centre

PERFORMANCE

Little Fluffy Drums

Joni Mitchell hits the QE this week. “Opening the Cultural Olympiad is the legendary music of Canadian songstress Joni Mitchell combined with the explosive choreography of Alberta Ballet’s Jean Grand-Maître in The Fiddle and The Drum”. Get more information here.
Jan 22 | 8pm | Queen Elizabeth Theatre | $90

American Buffalo

Main Street Theater Equity Co-op is putting on a performance of David Mamet’s American Buffalo at Little Mountain Gallery.  Straight from the source: “Stephen Malloy directs a dynamite ensemble cast in David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play about fast-talking real estate salesmen and the lengths to which they will go to make a deal. Ryan Beil, Ian Butcher, Bill Dow, Josh Drebit, Alex Ferguson, Patrick Keating, Daryl King and Michael P. Northey will make Mamet’s rapid-fire dialogue ricochet off the walls of Little Mountain Studio, a small art gallery converted into an intimate performance space. Sparks will fly!”
Jan 21, 22, 23 | 8pm | Little Mountain Gallery | 604-992-2313| Pay-what-you-can (suggested $12)

The Weathered Pines

Indie band The Weathered Pines (influences include Neil Young, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello) hit the Biltmore Monday night for an album release gig with guest Dylan Thomas and Lovers Love Haters
Jan 25 | 8pm | Biltmore | $6

Romeo and Juliet

“One of Shakespeare’s most famous and best-loved plays, Romeo and Juliet has set the precedent for tragic love stories since it’s first performance in 1594. Love is the overriding theme of the play, but not the dainty expression of the emotion that bad poets write about. Love in Romeo and Juliet is a brutal, powerful emotion that captures individuals and catapults them against their world, and, at times, against themselves. ” Other details: original music, live with a cast of 21, directed by Catriona Leger, romance, mushy mush, and all that.
Jan 21 – 30 | 7:30 pm | Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, UBC | $25

Get Ready To PuSh

PuSh International Performing Arts Festival Goes down this week (and next). PuSh brings Vancouverites a line-up of theatre, dance, music (and various “hybrid forms” of performance) from all over the world. Some of this year’s really intriguing performances are on the dark side – check out Nevermore, The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe and Jerk (“…a story told from the vantage point of David Brooks, the real life accomplice to Texas serial killer Dean Corll who was responsible for the deaths of more than 25 teenage boys in the early 1970s. Devised as a play within a play, the audience takes the role of a psychology class visiting Brooks (played by Jonathan Capdevielle) as he serves his life sentence in prison.”) 4 and 6 show passes are sold out, but individual tickets to shows are still be available. Get the whole story over at the PUsh website.
Jan 20 to Feb 6 | Various times and venues | Get All The Details

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Michelle Sproule grew up in Kitsilano and attended Bond University in Australia and the University of Victoria before receiving her graduate degree in Library Sciences from The University of Toronto. She lives by the beach in Vancouver and enjoys wandering aimlessly through the city’s shops and streets with her best friend – a beat up, sticky, grimy, and uncooperative camera.

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