From our calendar to yours comes this carefully considered agenda of cool things we are doing, wishing we could do, or conspiring to do in Vancouver from October 31 to November 6, 2018. Please note that you can now get the Scout List – with a few extra pieces of intel included – sent to your inbox every Thursday. Sign up for your subscription in the sidebar.

DESIGN | Some of most talented designers in the city are coming together this Saturday night at the Museum of Vancouver to talk about what it is that inspires them. From MOV: “Why I Design spotlights the process of invention. This year’s Why I Design pays particular attention to Social Impact through design strategies of upcycling and repurposed materials. Participating designers will engage you with stories behind the development of everyday technologies and cool things you’ve never seen before. You can ask the designers—ranging from those emerging their careers to innovative leaders in international corporations—what motivates them, how they do what they do, and why Vancouver inspires them to keep doing it.” This is not an art display or trade show. Designers will be stationed throughout the museum’s galleries and attendees are encouraged to float between stations asking questions. Grab tickets here. Be amazed as you behold the awesomeness of the creative process! Bonus: cash bar. Find out more.

LUMIERE | We all knew it was coming: the darkness and rain have finally settled in and Sunday’s Daylight Savings will be trimming down the hours of pseudo-daylight even more. There is, however, one exceptionally bright event that will be popping up around Vancouver this weekend (November 2-4). The Lumiere festival is a celebration of light and art that will be lighting up English Bay, the Jim Deva Plaza and VAG’s North Plaza with 17 installations, including seven interactive pieces at the Plaza. The real festivities go down on Saturday night though, when Davie Village will be getting “lit” with a special Lumiere edition of the pop-up dance party, Public Disco. Why feel down when you can get down instead, right? Various times and places. Find out more.

TEA | Scoot down to Chinatown this Saturday and make your way around the tables and booths at the The Fifth Annual Vancouver Tea Festival. Expect a marketplace of tea purveyors, workshops and tasting sessions taking place hourly, and all of it going down in a stunning setting! Score tickets ($7.95-$24.95) here.

ART | This Mountain Home opens at the Ian Tan Gallery this week. Angles, slopes, colours and dots — this is going to be a good show! From the gallery: “Artists Elyse Dodge and David Pirrie live under the shadow of the coastal range. Their works are topographic, expressive responses created in fascination of these towering rows of frozen rocks, paintings punctuated by bold colour and visual analyses of their geographical features. Both artists interface with these sublime mountainous landscapes and develop their works through a process mediated through the body, the lens, the screen and finally paint.” Artists will be in attendance at the opening reception on Saturday, November 3rd (2 to 4pm), but This Mountain Home continues until the end of November. Find out more.

SCIENCE | Head out to UBC and hit the Beaty Biodiversity Museum for their Way Cool Biodiversity series this Sunday. The lecture is about what makes plankton so cool. From the Museum: “Plankton are tiny microscopic plants and animals that float through ponds, lakes and oceans. Because they form the base of the aquatic food chain, understanding how plankton are responding to climate change will help us understand what our water resources will look like over the next 50 years. We can learn a lot about plankton adaptations by comparing plankton that live in warmer areas to those that live in mountain tops or in the high Arctic.” UBC professor Michelle Tseng will take the audience on a tour of local plankton adaptations. Picking up a little extra knowledge about the natural world is only ever going to work to your advantage — if not in practical application, at least it will amp up your talking points as we move in to holiday cocktail party season, right? Find out more.

RENDER | The Vancouver International Music Video Festival takes place this weekend. From event organizers: “Render’s focus is on innovative and cutting-edge music videos that push the creative boundaries of the art form. The music video is often seen as a supplement to the music in the video: Render turns this understanding upside-down, championing the videos, the work that goes into them and the people who make them.” Render’s 2018 official selection screening will happen at the Vancity Theatre this Friday night (Opening Gala, 7pm; Screening, 8:15pm). Expect art, innovation, talent, and music videos from all over the world. Find out more.

EAT LOCAL | It’s true, the Summer Farmers Market season is over. No need to fret, though; it’s not like you have to push through the next seven months without your weekly grounding visit with local farmers and their tasty food! The bravest of local producers gather their goods at Winter Farmers Markets to keep us well fed through the colder months. There are two markets to choose from this weekend. Head to the Nat Bailey Stadium parking lot on Saturday or skip over to the PNE on Sunday and load up on all your fruits and veggie needs as well as fresh bread, honey, dried fruits and scores of other goodies.

SHOP | If you’re one of those people who likes to get a jump on holiday shopping before the pumpkins have even started to rot, you’ll want to hustle your way down to Robson Square on Sunday for the Japan Market Christmas Fair. Expect everything from pottery, matcha and massage to folk art, food and origami. Sign up for a workshop (Japanese calligraphy or Kimono dressing sound fun). Admission by donation. Register for workshops here. Find out more.

ZINES | The Canzine Festival of Zines and Underground Culture hits SFU Harbour Centre on Sunday. This gathering of comic lovers, zine makers and independent publishing enthusiasts is an opportunity for creators and admirers of indie culture to meet and share their wares. In addition to booths, tables and friendly people, There will be a Make-a-Zine drop-in zone (2pm -5pm) where everyone is invited to pull up a seat to make their own zine. There will also be a hands-on exhibition of zines, chapbooks and underground printed artifacts from around the world; some interesting material on The Vancouver Noir Small Press Resurgence; panel discussions, story swapping, zine comparing and general appreciation of small made-by-the-people publications. Find out more.

RICHMOND | Like beer and food? How about the idea of careening around a bobsleigh course or tearing down a ski slope at full speed without the risk or chilly temperatures? Well, we’ve got some great news: you can responsibly and safely enjoy all of these things at once by heading out to Richmond’s Olympic Experience Museum this Saturday for their Night at the Museum: BC Ale Trail Edition. For one night only you can channel your imagined inner Olympian while exploring all of the museum’s exhibits, including a bunch of sports simulators and interactive challenges, and sipping on beers from five local breweries. Sounds like a blast!  Find out more.