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…

ART | The positive Negative Gallery in Chinatown is exhibiting a FotoFilmic’13 right now. Head down to check out a show of images gathered from emerging and unknown photographers from around the world to demonstrate the unique medium and practice of film photography. Don’t be surprised to feel a pull; there might be something in the design of the show intended to entice you back to celluloid.
Now through August 17 | Positive Negative Gallery (436 Columbia Street) | DETAILS

FARMACIE | A mid-summer long table farm dinner is something that everyone should do at least once. If you haven’t managed to attend one yet this season, consider heading out to UBC Farm this Thursday night for Farmacie, a community dinner celebrating local food as “the grand connector of all aspects of life”. Quang Dang, the executive chef at South Granville’s storied West restaurant, will be preparing the main course. Also expect cool peeps from Tractor Everyday Foods and Victory Gardens to be on site along with Aphrodite’s Pies, Earnest Ice Cream and Johnny Pops. Beer will be flowing (Red Truck) and wine will be poured (Unsworth Vineyards). Don’t let the threat of a sprinkle of rain hold you back!
Thursday August 15 | 6-11pm | UBC Farm (3461 Ross Dr) | $100 (profits to Imagine1day) | DETAILS

POP-UP | The girls at local vintage clothing company Hey Jude are setting up a summer pop-up this weekend. Sure, this is an opportunity to browse their carefully curated selection of vintage duds (this time around the team is featuring an ‘athletic inspired’ collection and have joined forces with local designer Tasha James who will bring new leather bags and unisex t-shirt collection from her line Billy James), but it’s also an excuse to check out the Hey Jude studio space. Familiarize yourself as you’ll want to head back for future sales.
Thursday, August 15 | 15 E Pender St. | 7-10pm | DETAILS

TRADE SCHOOL FIELD TRIP | Trade School Vancouver is a barter-for-knowledge learning community wherein Vancouverites sign up to take classes and pay their teachers in goods or services rather than cash. To wit, if you’re a photographer who wants to learn how to cook, you can teach your skill in exchange for lessons on, for example, pasta making or knife skills. Pretty great, right? Well this week things get even more amazing when TSV moves the classroom outdoors with a field trip to Jericho Park. Get in on some of the cool classes offered (everything from identifying Urban Herbs & Edibles to Bike Maintenance and the basics of Volleyball) and enjoy an evening in the fresh air at the same time. Hustle over to www.tradeschoolvan.com to register for a class before everything fills up.
Friday, August 16 | 6-9pm | Jericho Park | Free | DETAILS

HAND MADE AND HOME GROWN | Delish General Store is a North Vancouver outfit that “extols the virtues of getting your hands dirty and believes in passing on knowledge, recipes, techniques and the pioneering spirit.” Maybe you’ve run across them at craft fairs or seen their magazine kicking around town – it’s like Martha Stewart for real people. They sell a curated selection of goods that includes everything from super cool ceramic growlers and beautiful linens to birch bark-patterned straws and pretty much every possible incarnation of a mason jar that your mason jar-obsessed brain could ever conceive of. Although they’re on the verge of opening a brick and mortar retail space in Edgemont Village, the team couldn’t resist the opportunity to set up a pop-up shop in Chinatown this weekend. Hit the Chinatown Experiment this weekend to check out the goods.
August 16-18 | 10am-6pm | 434 Columbia Street | DETAILS

DUMPLING PARTY | Chinatown has it going on this Friday night. Nine of Vancouver’s top chefs are gathering at the Chinatown Night Market for a dumpling cook-off. The competition is running under some relatively vague guidelines (to achieve ‘dumpling’ status chefs must present “something wrapped in something”), but with talent from restaurants like Chambar, La Mezcalaria, Wild Rice, Wildebeest, Pidgin, Cibo, Sea Monster Sushi, Harvest, and The Parker you’re guaranteed to see some pretty fine cooking going down. Each chef will whip up 300 dumplings (that’s 2,700 dumplings all told), so grab yourself a Dumpling Passport ($12) and get in on some of that tasty action. In addition to the cook-off, there will be a Dumpling Derby (in which a cast of brave dumpling-lovers will take part in a dumpling eating contest). Toward the end of the evening, the ‘one true dumpling master’ will be coronated.
Friday, August 16 | 7-9pm | Parking Lot beside Keefer Bar / Chinatown Night Market | DETAILS

ARCHITECTURE PORN | The Vancouver Heritage Foundation is holding it’s Midcentury Modern Residential House Tour this weekend and it’s going to be hot. Participants get to tour the interiors of 5 ‘significant’ West Coast Regional Style Modernist homes in Vancouver. Architecture wonks will appreciate that this year’s tour includes a walk through a Fred Hollingsworth house, a 1956 house designed by Robert McKee, 1960 Harold Semmens home, a 1968 Don Fairbrother design, and a 1959 Ron Thom. There will be a post-tour reception at VanDusen Gardens where tour participants will be invited to decompress and chat about their favourite architectural details over refreshments. Little bit of post-and-beam appreciation, little bit of wine and cheese – sounds like an exceedingly civilized Saturday! Tickets on the tour bus are sold out but for $85 you can follow along in your own car (and listen to your own music). Tickets must be purchased before Friday (August 16).
Saturday August 17 | 12-5pm | Various locations | $85 | DETAILS

PNE | The Pacific National Exhibition opens this week. Take a bit of time out to treat yourself to a wander through Playland and the fairgrounds. Feast upon mini-doughnuts, throw a few balls at something and take a ride. Don’t skip the house of mirrors, and the opportunity to play with nearby residents who pull their ‘park here’ signs to the street. DETAILS

ESCAPE | Our weather is set to turn temporarily cool this week, but don’t panic. Dig in with a bag of popcorn and a flick on the big screen. Pacific Cinémathèque Theatre is showing a gathering of four films set in (or focusing on) hotels.  The Grand Hotel series includes screenings of Death in Venice, Lolita, The Bellboy and Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories. Designed and executed as a collaboration between Pacific Cinematheque and the Vancouver Art Gallery, this programming was planned to coincide with Grand Hotel: Redesigning Modern Life (on at The VAG until September 15). Catch a film and walk the few short blocks over to the gallery to take in the exhibition, finish your day with a cocktail in the lounge at the Hotel Vancouver just across the street.
August 14+15, 21+22 | Various times | $11 | Pacific Cinémathèque (1131 Howe Street) | DETAILS

EAT LOCAL | Grab locally grown produce from good people at your neighbourhood farmer’s market while you still can. Summer will end and you won’t want to look back and wish that you had made it to more markets! This week the market to hit for added excitement is Kerrisdale on Saturday (between 10 and 2) when Corn Fest will take place. Expect fresh corn, popped kettle corn, corn related recipes and corn related activities. Also note the addition of Yaletown (Thursday) and Mount Pleasant (Sunday) Markets. Go Farmers!

Main Street Thornton Park | Wednesday | 3pm–7pm | Main Street Station at Terminal
Yaletown | Thursdays | 2-6pm | Mainland between Davie & Helmcken at Yaletown-Roundhouse
Trout Lake Farmers Market | Saturday | 9am-2pm | Duh, Trout Lake
West End Farmers Market | Saturday | 9am-2pm | 1100 Block Comox
Kerrisdale Village | Saturday | 10am – 2pm | East Boulevard between 37th/41st Ave – near Kerrisdale Arena
UBC: Saturdays | 9-1 | UBC Farm | FREE (but make a donation – they needs the support)
Dundarave: Saturdays | 9am–2pm | Dundarave Village
Ambelside: Sundays| 9am–2pm | Ambleside – parking lot beside Police Station (off of Bellevue/13)
Mt Pleasant | Sundays | 10-2 | Guelph Street between 7th and 8th
Kitsilano Farmers Market | Sunday | 10am–2pm | 2690 Larch @ 10th

Check the Globe & Mail every Thursday for our Special Weekend Edition of the Scout List

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Michelle 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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