A no messing around guide to the coolest things to eat, drink and do in Vancouver and beyond. Community. Not clickbait.

SCOUT LIST: 10 Things That You Should Absolutely Do Between Now & Next Week

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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. You can also check it out in the Globe & Mail, from our calendar to yours…

SOAK IT UP | Vancouver shines in the sun, so take some time to enjoy it (these are the bonus days of sunshine that you will appreciate having made full use of come late November). Throw a crab trap in the ocean, find a quiet patch of beach, skip some rocks, squeeze in a mini-doughnut-fuelled wander through Playland, grab a coffee on The Drive, watch the world go by, have a beer on a patio – such opportunities for awesomeness are on the wane!

WHISK(E)Y TASTING | Make your way to The Shebeen (tucked away behind The Irish Heather in Gastown) on Wednesday night for a civilized and informative whisk(e)y tasting. The Whisky Line-up Dinner begins at 7pm with a toast to Whyte & MacKay special blend (used in a cocktail), continues with a flight of Jura (10 year old, Elixir, Superstition, Prophecy), and then flows through roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, gravy, Lyonnaise potatoes, honey roasted root vegetables, sticky toffee pudding, with a surprise whisky to finish. The cost is $40 per person – beat that!
Wed, Sept. 11 | 7pm | The Shebeen at The Irish Heather (210 Carrall St) | $40 | DETAILS

SWARM | Vancouver’s artist-run centre programming season is about to kick-off. What does that mean for you? A jam packed weekend of openings and events at a bunch of Vancouver’s coolest independent, non-profit, and artist run galleries! The Or Gallery (555 Hamilton St.) is showing the sublime and slightly eerie Plänterwald, a film about an abandoned German amusement park; on Granville Island you can catch NET ETH: Going Out of the Darkness at Malaspina Printmakers; in Chinatown, Positive Negative Gallery (436 Columbia St) is showing Whiteout, a series of abstract paintings by Alison Shields; and the Unit Pitt Gallery is opening the doors of it’s new location at 236 E Pender with God Save The Queen, a multi media show using sculpture, street art and painting to explore the concept of the monarchy. Unit Pitt is also holding a Swarm after party on Friday night, which should be amazing. Check out the full line-up of Swarm events at www.paarc.ca
Sept. 12 + 13 | Various times and locations | DETAILS

REGGAE | The Easy Star All-Stars are playing the Commodore Ballroom Thursday night. Although the New York City-based band has recently put out an album of original tunes, they are best known for their smooth sounding covers with a reggae spin. Past albums have reggaefied tunes by Pink Floyd, Radiohead and The Beatles. The evening promises to be chill.
Thurs, Sept. 12 | Doors 8pm, Show 9:30pm | Commodore Ballroom (868 Granville) | $30 | DETAILS

FARMADE |  In addition to providing a place for students to study everything from apples and chickens to Mayan crops and First Nations medicinal plants, UBC Farm farm also runs public programming for people of all ages (from young gardeners to wanna-be cheese makers). It’s an amazing place. Whether you’re a regular at the UBC Farm Saturday markets or you’ve never been and are curious to check things out, this week is a great time make the trek, not because summer is ending, but rather because this Friday is FarmAde. Originally intended to raise awareness about the farm and help to protect it against the threat of development, this family-friendly BBQ has become a tradition. Short story: it’s a good time for a good reason. Longer story: There will be vegan, vegetarian and local, ‘low-impact’ beef burgers on the grill as well as farm-fresh corn and organic UBC Farm veggies AND a beer garden. As always, big props to the UBC Farm for cultivating food and community at the only operating farm in the city!
Fri, Sept.13 | 3-8pm | UBC Farm, 3461 Ross Drive | Free | DETAILS 

HOUSING TOUR | The Laboratory of Housing Alternatives (LOHA) is a non-profit organization that aims to engage Vancouverites in exploring ways to make it easier for these people to live and thrive in this city. This Saturday, LoHA is leading a guided walk and tour that will give participants a peek inside a variety of ‘alternative housing models’ (examples will be located in Railtown and Strathcona).  This is the first of a series of LoHA events geared at exploring the ways in which Vancouverites can “design, build and sustain better living and working spaces that increase the creative capital of our city.” Keep your eyes peeled, we will let you know about upcoming events on Scout, or you can check the The Laboratory of Housing Alternatives website here.
Sat, Sept. 14 | 10:30am | Meeting point: Wilder Snail (799 Keefer St) | DETAILS

COLLECTED SHADOWS | North Vancouver’s Presentation House Gallery is exhibiting a series of images gathered from London-based Archive of Modern Conflict (AMC). The objective of the AMC collection and the selection of images in this show is to document, preserve and convey, through both amateur and professional photographs, evidence of the path of conflict in our history. Expect to see formal and official photos supported by personal snapshots that give a more holistic impression.  The AMC strives to “store, explore, and represent the lost shadows that lens-based technologies have scattered to the wind.” I’ll snap to that.
Sat, Sept. 14 | 7pm | Presentation House Gallery (333 Chesterfield, North Van) | DETAILS

COMMUNITY | Get ready for the Autumn Shift Festival on Main Street! The idea of this street festival is to celebrate the shift in seasons and the growing shift in attitudes towards sustainability, eating foods that are produced locally and growing some of your own. Expect the usual wickedness that comes with any Main Street festival: great music, some sausage BBQing, a BLIM throwdown of local trinkets, gardening booths, interesting demos and – fingers crossed – a few alley-way pakoras from Chutney Villa.
Sun, Sept. 15 | 12pm to 6pm | Main Street between Broadway and 7th | DETAILS

POP-UP | Part storytelling event, part dinner party, the most unique event of the week has got to be the Yin Yeung Express. Awesome Vancouverites Ken Tsui (Vancouver Chinatown Night Market) and Kevin Chong (author) have collaborated with In The House Festival to pull together the necessary ingredients (good food, live music, great location and talented people) to make this event a guaranteed good time. On the table are modern re-interpretations of Hong Kong-style cafe fare prepared by Tarek Chellouf. While you enjoy your meal you will be entertained by a series of storytellers who will, apropos to the theme of the evening, relay tales of their memories of (or experiences with) Chinese food in a thoroughly entertaining manner. Storytellers are curated by a solid group of people who know what they’re doing when it comes to this type of thing: Rain City Chronicles (Vancouver’s premier storytelling night), Ricepaper Magazine (Canada’s only Asian Canadian literary magazine) and Kevin Chong (Vancouver author of Beauty Plus Pity and My Year of the Race Horse). Added bonus, the good folks at In the House Festival will be on site to provide live music. Each of these dinners are held at a secret location to be revealed just a few days before the event, and only to ticket holders. Tickets can be purchased online here or by phone at 604-874-9325. Don’t wait, folks. Seats are selling FAST.
Sept. 13 | 6:30pm | Stories by Ricepaper Magazine | Location TBA | $55 | DETAILS
Sept. 14 | 6:30pm | Stories by Rain City Chronicles | Location TBA | $55 | DETAILS
Sept. 15 | 6:30pm | Stories by Kevin Chong | Location TBA | $55 | DETAILS

RIFFLANDIA | If you can swing it, this is a phenomenal weekend to hop a ferry for Victoria. Not only will the sun be shining its beautiful rays all over the fair streets, but it’s also time for Rifflandia, the kickass three day music festival. Sure, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes are going to put on a great show and you should do everything in your power to get hold of tickets, but there are a number of smaller gigs that are going to be outstanding too. Scout picks would be The Belle Game (they play the Metro on Thursday night), Friday’s performance by Vancouver-based The Gay Nineties (yay Danny!),  The Easy Star All-Stars on Friday (yes!) and DJ Rennie Foster in Market Square on Saturday.
Sept. 12-15 | Various times and locations in Victoria | DETAILS

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

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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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