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SCOUT LIST: 11 Things That You Should Absolutely Do Between Now & Next Week

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 agenda 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…

RETHINK | Unless you’re fixin’ for some shitty booze, questionable pizza, and the occasional unwarranted threat of violence from a coked up douchebag, the 800-1200 blocks of Granville St. don’t exactly have a destination reputation. Discussions on how to ‘clean up’ the Granville Entertainment District are important but as we’ve seen before, if we’re not careful, ‘cleaning up’ can turn into clear-cut style re-development pretty quickly. Heritage Vancouver wants to draw attention to the fact that heritage designation for a number of the older buildings on the strip would go a long way in ensuring character is retained and they want to chat about it on Tuesday night. Guest speakers include Vancouver councillor George Affleck, architecture curator Trevor Boddy, and Heritage Vancouver’s Anthony Norfolk. This event is free but seats are limited. The big decisions are made by those who show up, so get involved!
Tuesday, November 27 | 7-9 pm | Arts & Culture Alliance (#100-938 Howe St) | Free | DETAILS

CRAFTY | The holiday season is creeping up, so if you’re super keen to deck the halls with homemade decorations but at a loss as to how get started, Collage Collage can help you get the ball rolling. Part store, part workshop, Collage Collage encourages imagination and creativity and arms you with the glue stick to pull it all together. This week they are holding a pom pom garland and wreath-making class geared toward grown-ups. Other upcoming grown-up workshops will have you making mason jar snow globes, wool stockings, holiday mobiles, and sock monkeys. Yes, sock monkeys! Grab a friend and get crafty.
Tuesday, November 27 | 6:30-8:30pm | Collage Collage (621 Kingsway @ 15th + Fraser St.) | $20 | DETAILS

TALENT | Walrus Home is a store known for its irresistibly attractive stock selection, and Alex Henderson of Henderson Dry Goods is a local artist and industrial designer who handcrafts jewellery, coasters, clocks, mirrors and more out of wood.  The two come together this Wednesday night when Walrus presents a new and interesting assortment of Henderson’s works at an evening reception. Meet the artist, enjoy a refreshment or two, and browse the collection of goods on the Walrus shelves. This is a perfect activity to distract you from the fact that there was frost on the ground this morning.
Wednesday November 28 | 6-9pm | Walrus (3408 Cambie St.) | DETAILS

BRUNCH | Captain Crunch, Lucky Charms, Cocoa Puffs? When was the last time you dove in to a bowl of sugar laden, artificially coloured cereal? A little while, probably. What better way to revisit the cereal rainbow than to hit The Waldorf Hotel where the weekend brunch menu offers the option to visit a freakin’ cereal bar. With over 42 varieties of cereal (mix and match or stick to one kind at a time) and eight types of milk (1%, 2%, Skim, Homo, Soy, Rice, Almond, and Cream), you’re guaranteed to find something perfect for you. Combine three flavours in one big bowl, sample a flight (three mini bowls) or fully commit with the all-you-can-eat Cereal Killer option. What are weekends for if not indulgence spiked with lunacy?
Saturdays & Sundays | 11am-4pm | The Waldorf Hotel (1489 E.Hastings) | DETAILS

ROAST YOUR OWN | A good cup of coffee isn’t something that just happens. Everything from growing practices to roasting techniques influence the way that your cup comes together. If you’re interested in taking your love of coffee to the next level there is a workshop this weekend that will fill you in on the process of transforming berry to bean to beverage and will even send you home with a sample of home roasted coffee. Homesteaders Emporium’s Rick Havlak will fill you in on drying and bean preparation before he gives a demonstration of a number of ways to roast coffee at home — everything from low-tech improvised gigs to snappy appliances specifically built to handle the task.
Saturday, December 1 | 1-2:30pm | Homesteaders Emporium (649 E Hastings St.) | $5 suggested donation | DETAILS

GIG | Vancouver-based brass band The Hummingbird Brigade is playing Friday night.  They’re New Orleans-inspired and made up of 11 pieces. Pause on that for a moment and consider what 8 horns, a B3 organ, drums and percussion will sound like. Good and loud, that’s for sure. This will not be an evening of background music. This is a shake-things-up night. And, as if the sheer magnitude wasn’t impressive enough, consider also the variety. Sharing the stage will be MC Kia Kaderi, the “Queen of West Coast Hip Hop”.
Friday November 30 | Doors 8pm / show 9pm | Pats Pub (403 E Hastings St.) | DETAILS

SCORE | There are two great opportunities to score unique objects of modern design this weekend. The first is from iconic Vancouver designer Martha Sturdy and the second is a vintage jewellery trunk show. Sturdy’s biannual factory sale takes place Friday and Saturday and offers contemporary fine art, furniture and home design pieces for up to 70% off.  The trunk show is at Inform Interiors and boasts exquisite mid-century Scandinavian and Canadian jewelry. Normally, we don’t get crazy excited about trunk shows, but we’ve learned to make an exception for Hopea events. Hopea is an online store specializing in vintage Nordic jewelry curated by Cosima Friesen (have a look Cosima’s blog here). The pieces in this show capture the bold design aesthetic of the 1960s and 70s with mind-blowingly beautiful style. This is not heart-on-a-chain stuff. This is jewelry made for design lovers: uncommon and sculptural.
Hopea | November 29- December 1 | 10am-6pm | Inform Interiors (50 Water St) | DETAILS
Martha Sturdy | Friday, November 30 & Saturday, December 1 | 10am-6pm (4pm Sat) | Martha Sturdy Gallery (12 W 5 Avenue) | DETAILS

KUBRICK | The ‘Midnight Movie’ at the Rio this week is the sublimely twisted 1971 flick, A Clockwork Orange. It’s a late night licensed screening with bar service, and bar service is a good idea with a Stanley Kubrick film. If you’re feeling inspired, dress up in a film related costume and take $2 off of admission but please don’t wander Commercial Drive afterward (that’ll just freak people out).
Friday, November 30 | 11pm | Rio Theatre (1660 E Broadway) | $8/$6 | DETAILS

LET THE WILD RUMPUS START! | Swallow Tail Canada is a company that leads culinary tours into the forests, coastlines and mountains of BC. They also hold an occasional pop-up dinner in the city, and when they do they prefer to set up somewhere unlikely and slightly magical. This week, Swallow Tail brings us Dinner with the Wild Things, a culinary circus with a ‘smoke and fire’ theme set in an wild location (undisclosed until the last moment). Food will be prepared by Fat Dragon with cocktails by Swallow Tail and a live performance courtesy of Circus Beasties. This is guaranteed not be a run-of-the-mill December event with pinecone centrepieces and Christmas baubles. It’s not cheap at $149 a seat, but this height of originality seldom is. Masks provided for added fun. Little tip? If you enter the code GCHEF when you buy your ticket online you’ll get $20 off your ticket and they’ll donate $10 to Growing Chefs. We love Growing Chefs, and they love you.
December 1 & 5 | 6:30-9:30pm | Location provided with ticket | $149 | DETAILS

SANTA | The Rogers Santa Claus Parade rips through downtown Vancouver streets this Sunday, and what says Christmas more than the phone company that milks us all dry like demons from hell drunk on power and rubbing alcohol. The procession of holiday cheer will start at West Georgia Street and Broughton, travel east along West Georgia, turn south on Howe and finish at Howe and Davie. Scout tip: be prepared. The coffee shops along the parade route boast line-ups of epic lengths before, during, and after the parade, so take your coffee, eggnog, hot chocolate, or whatever else with you in a stainless steel thermos or flask.
Sunday, December 2 | Downtown Vancouver | Free | DETAILS

REPRESENT | Put away the Gortex and dust off the Dior because Scott Schuman of www.thesartorialist.com is in town (with his camera) and he’ll be at Gastown’s Secret Location for a public book signing on Monday afternoon. Yes, Schuman has gone old school by printing a selection of his favourite photographs in a book (or three) that you can own and have on your coffee table. Signed. There is no charge for this event, but if you are interested in attending, you are asked to RSVP to [email protected].
Monday, December 3 | 4pm | Secret Location (1 Water St.) 

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late-may-2009-169Michelle Sproule grew up in Kitsilano and attended 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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