by Michelle Sproule | 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…

The Scout List

Tonight at Zulu it’s Vinyl Appreciation Night. It’s free and easily one of the coolest gigs happening this week

Pecha Kucha Volume 13 goes down at the Vogue Theatre tonight. Scout will be there. There are still a few tickets left. Never heard of it? “PechaKucha takes its name from the Japanese term for the sound of “chit chat”, it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It’s a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.” Come see Rebecca Bollwitt (Miss 604), Mark Shieh (Take Root & River Market), Michael Lyon (Laneway Housing Inc.), Robert Calder (Boompa) and Grant McDonagh (Zulu Records) spill the beans on their respective milieus.

It’s the Drift on Main Street this weekend. Grab a coffee at Gene and cruise Mount Pleasant to check out the hoods artists studios. Artists Reception and Group Art Show takes place Friday at the Creekside Community Centre.
October 1 | 7pm | 1 Athlete’s Way | Details here.

See that sun shining out your window? Don’t take it for granted. Use some time this weekend to walk the seawall or put your feet up and watch the sunset. I’d recommend The Galley at the Jericho Sailing Club.

It’s VIFF time. Check out the stellar line-up of flicks here.

Vancouver Institute once again delivers with Healing From Rain Forests: The Value of Traditional Knowledge. This month Dr. Memory Elvin-Lewi from the Department of Biology at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri brings her multifaceted scientific career (virology, epidemiology, microbiology, ethnobotany, and ethnopharmacology) and her knowledge of plants to Vancouver. “Dr. Memory Elvin-Lewi focuses on understanding the therapeutic rationale behind plants selected for a wide variety of maladies, particularly those of infectious origin.”
October 2nd | 8:15pm | Lecture Hall 2 | Woodward Instructional Resources Centre | UBC

On the big screen this week, Exit Through the Gift Shop is playing at the Norm Theatre. It’s a documentary about street art featuring notorious graffiti artist Banksy. If you’re not familiar with him, get your wiki on here.  Better yet, visit the artist’s website here.
October 2&3 | 9pm | Norm Theatre, UBC | $5 for nonmembers | Deets

And this week’s (Friday) midnight movie at the Rio is Ghostbusters.  (The Social Network is playing at the Rio as well, but that flick will run three times a day for a few weeks, so no huge rush). Details here.

Robert Adams + Song Dong open at the VAG. If you’re not a member, this week’s Members Opening Night should be a motivating shove to get the paperwork done and use your member card to slip in free (with a guest).

At Emily Carr’s Charles H Scott Gallery there’s an exhibition of contemporary Mexican artists called Hot to Cold | Cold to Hot.  The exhibition features the work of Los Angeles-based Rubén Ortiz Torres, and Mexico City-based artists Thomas Glassford, Melanie Smith, and Gabriel de la Mora. Find out more…

Behold the amazing skill of local artists as they recycle trash into new creations on Granville Island this weekend. “Twenty-four artists from British Columbia display work inspired by their creative use of recycled, salvaged materials. Stylistically diverse, these works incorporate reclaimed objects: an old book, a trombone, bottle caps, a lobster float, fire extinguishers, and a plethora of junk yard treasures.” .
Saturday/Sunday October 2-3 | Granville Island Hotel | Details

Catch Twenty + Change: Emerging Canadian Design Practices is on display at the Architectural Institute of BC. This show features twenty-one emerging firms from across Canada working in architecture, landscape architecture and urban design who created projects aimed at rethinking urban infrastructure,  public space and housing. The same exhibit was on display at ECAD earlier this year – worth a gander for sure. Ongoing until October 29th. The AIBC Gallery is located at #100 – 440 Cambie Street, Vancouver

The Ayden is running a show called Post Up. Check it out.

Word has it that there will be a BBQ fundraiser for FarmFolkCityFolk’s Get Local project at The Home Grow-In Grocer (18th Avenue @ Columbia) this Sunday from 1-3pm. Vikram and Meeru Vij (of Vij’s and Rangoli restaurants) will be manning the BBQ. Just sayin’

I like the sound of the Mount Pleasant’s Brewery Creek and the Natural Landscape of Vancouver walking tour with Bruce MacDonald.  “Bruce Macdonald is an avid local historian. His book, Vancouver a Visual History, chronicles 120 years growth in Vancouver in detail. He worked for many years with Mount Pleasant’s Brewery Creek Historical Society. The amazing original natural landscape of Vancouver is almost entirely gone today, but our city is so young we have an usually good record of what has been lost. Mount Pleasant’s Brewery Creek was one of the larger creeks in Vancouver. In the 1890s the Victorian community of Mount Pleasant located around this useful source of water, and Mount Pleasant became the only community in Vancouver to develop around a creek. This interesting and unique history has affected the modern Mount Pleasant in a number of ways.”
October 2 | 11am – 12:30pm | Brewery Creek Native Plant Community Garden | 375 East 5th Ave

Cool book launch alert: Bob Mersereau (music columnist and long-time arts reporter for CBC Television) sets up to launch his book : The Top 100 Canadian Albums. The title sort of says it all, but the question is: “Whose single will make it to the top 10? The top 40? The top 100? Neil or Leonard? Feist or Alanis? k.d. lang or Stompin’ Tom? The Guess Who or Arcade Fire? Gilles Vigneault or k-os? Does Paul Anka have a chance? Once again, the countdown is on, and every single musicphile in the nation will be anxiously awaiting the answer ”
October 3 | 4:00pm – 11:00pm | Zulu Records | Free

Those of you who like to get Christmas sorted well in advance will be glad to know that there will be a Christmas craft fair and marketplace at the Heritage Hall this weekend.
Sunday October 3 | 10am-4pm | Heritage Hall (3102 Main St) | Details

Annabel Lyon seems to be making the rounds these days, this week you can catch her (for free) at VPL. She will be reading from her award-winning first novel, The Golden Mean. “Set in fourth century BCE Macedon, it is the story of the philosopher Aristotle and his most famous student, the young Alexander the Great.”
October 4 | 7 pm | VPL Main Branch

If you are wondering why things look quiet on Commercial Drive on Wednesday nights, here’s the deal: Wednesday evenings during Power Smart month (October 6, 13, 20, 27), Commercial Drive restaurants and cafes will turn down the lights so that pepole can slow down a little, you know, dine and drink by candlelight and enjoy live acoustic music – candlelight and acoustic music – so romantic. Details.

Little Mountain Gallery sets up with a play called “Boys’ Life” (an examination of the cynical lives of three twenty-somethings.)
October 13-24 | Weds-Sun | Doors 7:30pm | Show at 8pm | Tickets at Red Cat Records | Details

October 4-8 is Ride-Share Week and International Association of Scientologists Day is on October 7. So…double points if you ride to work with a Scientologist.

Saints & Sinners goes down at Chapel Arts (304 Dunlevy). Their website might be useless, but we know the girl putting on the show and it’s going to be awesome. Be sure to dress appropriately! $2 Gallery Donation. $5 Cash Bar.
7:00pm Replay Tea Ceremony w/Adrian Sinclair | 8:00pm Louise Burns Acoustic Set | 9:00pm After Party

The CBC’s Stuart McLean breezes in to town on October 8th to chat with Hal Wake about his new book, The Vinyl Café Notebooks. I don’t care if everyone knows it – I heart Stuart McLean. Details.

IDSWest, Oktoberfest and the Sustenance Festival are coming up…more on that next week.

And, as always, get your weekly shopping done at a farmers market this week. Remember, they won’t be around forever.

East Side: Saturday | 9am – 2pm | Trout Lake | FREE
West End: Saturday | 9am – 2pm | 1100 Block of Comox | FREE
Dundarave (West Van) Saturday | 9am – 2pm | Between 24 & 25 on Marine
Kits: Sunday | 10am – 2pm | Parking Lot of Kits Community Centre | FREE
UBC Farm Market: Saturday | 9-1 | UBC Farm

Bonus: Farmer’s Markets may start to taper off. But you can comfort yourself in that The Baker’s Market is starting up again this Oct. 2 and will run Saturdays until Dec. 11. 11am-3 pm. Enter through the back door at #115-408 East Kent Avenue South (it’s the middle of bleedin’ nowhere, so pack a compass). Visit www.bakersmarket.com for more info.

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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 in beautiful Strathcona 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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