Author: Chantelle Belle

Temporary

No Stopping

September 25th

Traffic lights flashing green. East Broadway meets Prince Albert Street.  Rain, rain, rain.  A banner hangs from the Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House.

Harvest Festival

Saturday, September 25th

It is the eve of the festival and the house is buzzing with activity.

The front entrance is plastered with community bulletins: Job opportunities, volunteers needed, community events, UBC research projects.

Three computers.  Free internet.  One man admits that he started coming here because of the complimentary phone.  He volunteers on occasion, helping out where he can.

The house is a welcoming and inclusive space.  “People don’t look at you funny here,” said a young Aboriginal man.

Posted behind the front desk is a giant whiteboard:

Date: Friday Sept 24^th 2010

Time:               Group:

9-12                   FDI

10-12                 Seminar Mandarin

10-4                   Mahjong

10-12                 Vietnamese Seminar

11:30-1              In Pleasant Care

1-3                      Line Dance

3-6                      Teen

6-10                    Pre-Teen Dance

The whiteboard accurately reflects the diversity of the visitors here.

Children and caregivers button up their coats.  Family drop-in time is over and the East Hall is being converted into a dance hall.

Seniors pour in the front door as noon approaches.  One woman picks through the shopping cart full of free bread.

Free loaves of bread are available to visitors on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Women rush in and out of the kitchen.  Lunchtime is fast approaching and people are lingering outside the dining hall.  There is talk about line dancing and the Harvest Festival.

The festival is an annual event thrown by the neighbourhood house.  Block party.  Live bands.  Workshops.  Cake walk.

The house is an important gathering place for the community.  An alternative to city community centres, the house connects people from diverse backgrounds through a variety of activities and programs.

Volunteers are hopeful that people will come inside this Saturday to see what the house is all about.

Owned and operated by the Association of Neighbourhood Houses of BC, the house has served the community of East Vancouver since 1976.  It is one of eight neigbourhood houses in the Lower Mainland.

For more information visit www.mpnh.org

An afternoon in Queen Elizabeth Park accompanied by the leftovers of summer. Atop this particular hill: a stunning view of downtown Vancouver, Seasons in the Park and the Bloedel Conservatory.

The conservatory is a curious building.  Think Bio-Dome, circa 1995.  Whatever happened to Pauly Shore?

A West Coast Sightseeing bus unloads a bus full of camera-toting seniors.  Pants and light jackets.  Sunglasses.  A tourist with a camcorder trips over his own feet: moment captured with hilarity.

Aaron Jasper, once a tour bus operator himself, stands outside the Conservatory talking to a CTV cameraman.  Jasper is chairman of the Vancouver Park Board, which voted unanimously Monday to keep the conservatory open.

Conservatory stays.  Petting zoo goes.  That’s the story.

The conservatory will remain open with help from the Friends of Bloedel Association and the VanDusen Botanical Garden Association.  The Vancouver icon first opened in 1969.

Mavis Hnidy is happy with the park board’s decision last night.  She has been a cashier at the conservatory for six years and is one of the founding members of the Friends association.  She greeted Jasper with excitement as he entered the conservatory this afternoon.  “Thank you, thank you,” she said as she shook his hand.

The conservatory seems like a good place to take your children, if you have any.  It’s probably a good place for a cheap date as well.

Admission:

Adult (19-64)                     $5.35

Senior (65+)                       $3.75

Youth (13-18)                     $3.75

Child (6-12)                         $2.70

Pre-Schooler (under 6)   FREE

Humid, lush and bright – arthritics beware.  The geodesic dome is tightly packed with greenery from around the world.  The dense arrangement is littered with signs indicating the name and origin of the plants:

Venus Fly Trap (North/South Carolina), Lollipop Plant (Peru), Rattlesnake Plant (Brazil).

A Bird Watcher’s Check List reminds visitors that botanists and biologists are both welcome here.  The dome is home to more than 100 species of birds.  There are also a number of Koi scattered throughout the ponds.

Excerpts from the conservatory guestbook read:

“Excellent garden”          “I eat bugs”          “I liked the birds”

While the conservatory is a nice place to visit, it does show signs of neglect.  The guest shop is a strange arrangement of watering globes, embroidery patches and batteries.  The Self Guided Tour pamphlet is lacklustre at best.  Promotion outside the conservatory seems non-existent.

As news of the conservatory facelift spreads, visitors to the hilltop landmark will likely increase.  And maybe, just maybe, the Friends-VanDusen partnership will offer a free screening of Bio-Dome?

A man with a cell phone taped to his face.  Booooooom’s 10^th project begins:  Small Victories.

The guidelines are simple:

1.     Take a million photos.

2.     Select your best work (3 photos max, only one will be shown)

3.     Get  4” x 6” prints made (full bleed, no borders)

4.     Clearly write your name and email on the back of each photo

5.     Put the photo (s) in an envelope and mail to…

BOOOOOOOM!

… is an unassuming art blog, created and maintained by Jeff Hamada – Emily Carr graduate and proud Vancouverite.  The site is the most visited art blog online, according to the National Post, attracting over 2.3 million pageviews each month.  Curated by Hamada, the site has become a massive catalogue of Art! Design! Film! Music! Photos! and Junk!

Through special Projects! Hamada transcends the digital confines of his blog and redefines artistic boundaries.   He is a young man with ideas, optimism and integrity.

small victories

195 E 26^th Ave, Vancouver

Runs September 14^th-26^th

The digital world has collided with the physical world and Jeff Hamada has found himself in two places at once: redefining the boundaries of the art world and greeting friends at the Little Mountain Gallery.

Portrait.  Landscape.  Portrait, portrait, portrait.  4” x 6” photos from around the world scattered across the walls.  A gathering of friends, artists, enthusiasts, miscellaneous.  Finger-pointing-curiosity.

The exhibit is a forced embrace between amateur and professional .  “Democratized art,” as one man describes it.  A crowd has formed outside the gallery.   Free entry.  No purchases allowed.  Take a complimentary pin on your way out.

Earlier this year Hamada managed to squeeze the exhibit into a suitcase and took it to Hong Kong.  Booooooom goes global!  The local has become global and the global has become local.  Wrap your head around that one.

Gene Coffeebar
Sunday, September 12th
11:03am

Converse sneakers tucked beneath thick-rimmed glasses.  Plaid shirts.  Art mags.

Free range organic eggs breakfast wrap, $5.50.

A pie-sliced building with minimalist décor and detached coolness.  A designer barista stands at the counter tending to a steady stream of customers.  On occasion she abandons her post to collect dishes.

Concrete floors intersect with white walls.  A small refrigerator is stocked with glass bottles of water.  Condensation forming along the windows that provide a panoramic view of Mount Pleasant’s three corners – Community centre meets coffee bar meets porn theatre.

A disaffected crowd with the occasional out-of-place patron.  Students. Young couples.  Beards.  Long wooden tables where strangers sit elbow-to-elbow on white stools and bench seats.  Accompanied by designer lattes, customers are fixated on their Macbooks, their textbooks, their novels.  A man with a camera draped around his neck browses through Google Images.  Password protected, free wireless.

Wet cars idle at red lights.  Clinking-cups-on-saucers.  Classical music whispers in the background.  A shrill operatic voice interrupted by a loud sneeze.  A man reading “What the Bleep do We Know” looks up for a moment, a heightened sense of awareness fuelled by organic, fair trade coffee.

A pair of children sit across from each other. The young boy adjusts his messenger bag.  The girl flips through the pages of “The Usborne Little Book of Chocolate.”  They share a cookie and sip on San Pellegrino.  Dad steals a photo with his iPhone and Mom brings them a plate with two croissants.  She promises the other patrons, “Don’t worry, they’re well trained.”