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…

CORNUCOPIA | Cornucopia Wine & Food Festival, one of the most decadently consumptive events on the calendar, is going twice as long this year. Though well underway, there is still time for you to pack your bags and head up to Whistler to get in on some of the special dinners and events. We’ve just come down, but we’re thinking about returning for the Painted Rock Winery supper at The Four Seasons on Saturday night and to attend some sweet-sounding seminars (Absinthe – Risk or Reward?, Hair of the Dog Cocktails And Why They Work and Tour de France Rouge all sound like winners). We could also do some more of that invigorating mountain air!
Now – November 17 | Whistler BC | Cornucopia Wine & Food Festival | DETAILS

GENERATION RENT | The Tyee Solutions Society is hosting an evening of public story-telling intended to encourage dialogue around the issue of affordable housing on Thursday night. The event will feature four Vancouver renters who will take the floor to present image-driven accounts of what they value about their homes and some of challenges that they have encountered as renters while a panel of experts (DJ Larkin, Pivot Legal Society; Scott Nunn, head organizer at BC Acorn; Alvin Singh, housing researcher, and Karen Ferguson, Director of SFU Urban Studies program) consider what they’ve heard and offer their thoughts on how to solve problems and improve situations.
Thurs, Nov. 13 | 8 pm | SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts (149 W. Hastings)| Free | DETAILS

SKATE | After the time change and the dropping of leaves, one sure sign that we have passed from Fall into Winter is the opening of the Robson Square Ice Rink. Friday at 1pm officially marks the beginning of the 2013/2014 season of free skating right smack in the middle of the city. Get into it! Grab your skates (or rent them on site) and take a lap or twelve around the rink. Plan ahead – bring your thermal mug, some nice thick gloves, and some cash (although skating is free, equipment rentals are ‘cash only’ – skates $4, helmets $2). Rink hours are Sunday through Thursday, 9am-9pm, Friday and Saturday 9am-11pm.
Nov. 15 – Feb. 28, 2014 | Robson Square Ice Rink (800 Robson St @ Howe) | Free | DETAILS

HOPSCOTCH |  If you hurry – and I mean click here RIGHT NOW – you may still score a ticket to the Hopscotch Annual Grand Tasting Hall. In addition to a litany of tasting events, there are a number of talks and workshops designed to catapult you from consumer to connoisseur (think Whisky Master Class series with Forty Creek, Jameson, Macallan, Highland Park, Glenmorangie, Johnnie Walker, Glenlivet). Events sell out quickly, and with over two hundred products to sip and sample, that should surprise no one. If booze is your thing (and we suspect it might be in November), welcome home!
November 11-17 | Various Locations | Various prices | DETAILS 

GIG | The Gay Nineties play the Electric Owl on Thursday night. The band (Parker Bossley, Daniel Knowlton, Malcolm Holt and Bruce Ledingham) of local lads recently began the process of finalizing a 2014 tour schedule, so get in and hear what they have going on before they hit the road, get super famous and become impossible to score tickets to see. The Gay Nineties are playing with Oh No Yoko and Smash Boom Pow. That’s three bands for 10 beans, and a good start to your Thursday evening!
Thur, Nov. 14 | Doors 7pm | The Electric Owl (926 Main St)| $10 | DETAILS

FILM | The Vancouver Short Film Festival is on this weekend. Hustle down to the Vancity Theatre to check out screenings of a 21 short films and 4 web series episodes -all made by BC based filmmakers. A wide range of genres will be represented including romance, comedy, sci-fi and horror – almost all of them shorter than 12 minutes long. Check out the festival trailer here. For full program details and to purchase tickets, visit www.VSFF.com
Nov 15-16 | Various times | Vancity Theatre, 1181 Seymour St | DETAILS

MIND ON FIRE | The Contemporary Art Gallery launches a solo exhibition of the works of American artist James Welling this week. In the roughly one hundred works gathered together for this show, Welling employs a range of methods and materials to experiment with colour, texture and form in photographs that push lines of representation and abstraction. Welling has shown at galleries around the world (from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Guggenheim to The Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and The Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris), and he also has an impressive resume (Area Head of Photography at UCLA and is a Visiting Professor at Princeton University). All told, that’s some serious street cred. Get to know the artist a little better during a talk at Emily Carr University this Wednesday night – James Welling in conversation with Professor Dominic McIver-Lopes (Professor in the Department of Philosophy at UBC) – and then hit up opening night at the The Contemporary Art Gallery on Thursday.
LECTURE | Wed, November 13 | 7pm | Room 301, South Building, ECUAD | DETAILS
EXHIBITION | Thurs, November 14 | 7pm | The Contemporary Art Gallery (555 Nelson St)| DETAILS

HISTORY | The Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Gardens has an exhibit up right now called Modernize Tailors: 100 Years of Dressing the Modern Man that simultaneously chronicles the development of fashion trends over the past century while profiling a small, 100 year-old tailor shop that Vancouverite Wong Kung Lai and his sons, Bill and Jack, have operated over the course of the last ten decades. Wong started Modernize Tailors back in 1913. As time progressed, the father passed down his considerable knowledge and ability to his 2 eldest sons, who then took over the business and continue to run the shop to this day. This weekend is a perfect time to take in the show because local fashion columnist and author, JJ Lee (who spent a year as an apprentice tailor at Modernize) will be reading excerpts his book, The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father A Son And A Suit.
Sat,  Nov. 16 | 2-4pm | Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens (578 Carrall St) | DETAILS

FOLK MUSIC | Victoria’s Aidan Knight and Toronto’s Justin Rutledge are meeting up in Vancouver for an evening of indie folk music at The Rio Theatre this week. Not familiar? Knight has played with the likes of The Zolas, Dan Mangan, Hannah Georgas, Karkwa, Jeremy Fisher and David Vertesi, while singer-songwriter Rutledge is an accomplished musician with numerous fine albums under his belt. The two meet up at The Rio on Friday night. Gentle theatre seats, a crisp beer from the bar and two very talented musicians playing sets? That’s a perfect mid-November Friday night!
Fri, Nov. 15 | 8pm | The Rio Theatre (1660 E Broadway) | $18.50 | DETAILS

EASTSIDE CULTURE CRAWL | In our books, the East Side Culture Crawl is the greatest thing about November in Vancouver. We look forward to this event all year long. The annual three day crawl sees over 425 East Side artists (painters, jewelers, sculptors, textile artists, furniture makers, musicians, weavers, potters, printmakers, photographers, etc) open their studios to the public. There is no schedule per se; only the one you choose to structure for yourself. There’s no pressure to buy, either, as it’s treated as a chance to float from one studio to the next, talking to artists about their processes and enjoying the diversity of creativity that the East Side has to offer. Grab a map and get crawling (available at studios and shops in the community or online at the Crawl website).
Nov. 15,16,17 | East Side, baby | Free | DETAILS

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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