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 November 6 to November 12, 2019. Note that you can also 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.

THEATRE | We’ve been looking forward to seeing Kuroko, the latest work from local playwright Tetsuro Shigematsu. It’s premiering at The Cultch’s historic theatre this week (clearly we aren’t the only ones, since tickets for many nights are in low supply.) The creepy and comedic story focuses on a young female hikikomori – the Japanese term for a reclusive type – who has shut herself up in her bedroom, trading the outside world for a virtual one. After six years of self-confinement, an interaction with another Virtual Reality player leads her on a real life quest to the infamous Suicide Forest, presumably to save her father’s life. Performances go nightly until the 17th (excluding Remembrance Day). Find out more. See you at the show!

LISTEN | The Vancouver Podcast Festival goes down at various venues across the city this weekend. With over thirty events to attend, participants can enjoy everything from live broadcasts, and panel discussions to listener meet-ups and how-to workshops. Highlights include Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist Christopher Goffard talking about lessons he learned from his award-winning Podcast Dirty John; the Dark Poutine team; Everything at Kelly & Kelly Creative and (of course) the My Podcast is Ready to Go. Now, How Do I Get People to Listen? panel with a line-up of cool peeps, including Scout contributor Jamie Mah). Festival passes cost $100 to $215, depending on the type of experience and how deep you want to go into the programming. Individual tickets (most in the $25 range) are also available. Check out the full schedule here.

LAUGH | November is often a little on the bleak side. If the bare trees, fewer hours of daylight, and cold weather get to be a bummer, lighten things up with a good belly laugh. Not feeling you have the material to do it on your own? You’re in luck: comedian Chelsea Handler is in town and performing Life Will Be The Death of Me routine at at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts this week. Thursday night’s show is sold out, but there is still a chance you can grab a ticket for Friday. Find out more.

DESIGN | The Architecture & Design Film Festival is making its first appearance in Vancouver for four days from November 7-10. The program includes over two dozen current international and Canadian feature-length and short films, plus director Q & As and talks. The range of topics is impressive: homelessness, affordable housing and prison design are all getting some screen time, as well as the expected homages to famous architects. Find out more.

CRAFT | November marks the beginning of Craft Fair season. Just about every weekend will see a different gathering of artisans, craftspeople and artists setting up tables and booths to offer their local and handmade wares to Vancouverites. Even if you don’t buy anything, it’s pretty cool to walk around a room full of people who spend their time making things by hand. This weekend you can check out the annual Circle Craft show with 300+ artists, designers and artisans making everything from everything from jewellery and jam to woodwork and textiles. Always inspiring! Find out more.

REMEMBER | Slow down and appreciate the gravity of your moment of silence this Remembrance Day. Services take place at numerous locations around town on Monday morning, but the biggie will start around 9:45am at the Victory Square Cenotaph on the western edge of Gastown. There’s nothing like a 21-gun salute and some bagpipes to clear the tear ducts!

BE INSPIRED | Pecha Kucha Night goes down this week. As per usual, the gathering of local creatives will be presenting 20 images for 20 seconds each on what drives them to do what they do. The speaker line-up sees a great range of locals (expect to hear from artists, cooks, ceramicists, designers, farmers and even a perfumer). I don’t know about you, but I have never attended a Pecha Kucha Night event without leaving impressed and inspired, and that’s a pretty good score for a Thursday in November. There is just a small bit of bad news here… tickets are sold out. But here is the good news: people change plans and tickets do come available, check Facebook, Craigslist and your roommate’s pockets.

REPAIR CAFE | Got a busted blender, torn shirt, or malfunctioning coffee maker? Don’t kick your broken bits to the curb in frustration. Fix them! Don’t know how? Good news: the last Repair Cafe of 2019 is happening this weekend! This edition of Repair Cafe is happening at Killarney Community Centre. Expect knowledgeable volunteers manning repair stations for fixing small appliances, textiles, jewellery and electronics. From event organisers: “Bring your broken, worn out, or ripped item for assessment, disassembly, and possible repair. You’ll be greeted by a host who’ll confirm the item brought for repair and match you up with a repair specialist. The participant and the repair specialist will discuss the history of the item and whether it can be fixed, and then repair accordingly.” Thanks to all the organizers and volunteers who make this happen; it’s a pretty cool initiative! Find out more.

FEAST | Take a trip on the Silk Road without leaving the city by grabbing a ticket to the collaboration dinner (Autostrada Chef Scott Korzack teams up with Farmer’s Apprentice / Grapes & Soda Chef Bardia Ilbeiggi) to take you on a culinary journey from Iran to Italy. This special multi-course family-style meal combines Middle Eastern and Mediterranean flavours and the menu looks pretty tasty (marinated smoked olives, charcoal grilled flatbread with guanciale and pistachios, roasted carrots; celeriac stuffed pasta; saffron rice; braised lamb; orange blossom ricotta and honey filled cannoli…). Tickets are only $50. Get in on this while seats are still available! Find out more.

COLLIDE | Looking for something to challenge your brain? Collisions Festival is a two day art-science exhibition focused on works by artist/scientist pairs. From event organizers: “Picture this – a world where AI invades human creativity, bacteria invade our brains, and invisible technological signals penetrate all natural environments. Where invasive species from plants to humans transform spaces where they don’t belong, technology infiltrates every aspect of our daily lives, and the waste of human inventions ravages our natural environments. That world is here, and the time is now. ” Collisions Festival asks if we can use tools like visual art, multimedia installations and interactive experiences to recognize and better understand how invasive systems transform or become part of our world. Expect a collaborative art-science exhibition; Curator’s tours; guided discussions; live performances, a DNA sonification workshop and an opening night reception. Find out more.