Vancouver’s 17th Pecha Kucha Night, hosted at the Vogue theater downtown was an eye opening event.

The Zolas opened the event up with a great set, a band based out of Vancouver getting a lot of attention these days for their good music.

This perticular event was a special edition based on westcoast modernism, a specific style of architecture featured throughout Vancouver’s populated landscape. Each of the speakers represented a slightly different dynamic and view on what it means, and I felt that it really was a very stimulating experience to see what people are doing, what people have done, and what people feel about how it represents their culture.

The guest list included:

• Pamela Goldsmith-Jones
  Mayor – West Vancouver
• Mike Bernard, Gavin Froome
  Filmmakers – Coast Modern Film
• Bo Helliwell, Kim Smith
  Architects – Helliwell + Smith Blue Sky Architecture
• Julian Pattison
  Design Director, Landscape Architect – Considered Design Inc
• Free Lee
  Owner, Designer, Integrative Healer – fre(E)quency
• Isaac Vanderhorst, Joyce Song, Callum Kelpin
  West Vancouver Museum
• D’Arcy Jones
  Designer – D’Arcy Jones Design
• John Fulker
  Architectural Photographer
• Adele Weder
  Architecture Critic and Curator
• Sean Pearson, Alyssa Schwann
  Creative Directors – RUF Project
• David Scott
  Architect – Peter Cardew Architect
• Cathy Church
  Owner, Curator – Tartooful Design

To read the full article, head to Chronicles of Times.

Photographs courtesy of Ned Tobin and Sarah Canning, representing King Kabuz Media.

On Wednesday, June 15th citizens of Vancouver took to the streets to watch the Vancouver Canucks take on the Boston Bruins in game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Vancouver lost. One would expect sad faces on Canucks faces, and happy ones on Bruins, followed by the shaking of hands of each team, which then was followed by various parades with the cup raised above the victors heads.

No doubt the parades will happen, and the players will congratulate each other, but what some people of Vancouver decided to do was attempt at destroying not only the city streets, but city culture, city security, respect for the city, and their own moral and respect.

Read the full article at Chronicles of Times.

Images courtesy of Fotographix de Ned.

Photograph by Rowan Pybus (@makhuluct) of Makhulu Productions

Indigo, a beautiful creature known for her sincerity, creativity, work ethic, and of course art has recently returned from a trip to Cape Town, South Africa, for a project called A Word Of Art, where she witnessed both rural and central townships in the surrounding area first hand with her paintbrushes.

She has shared here experience with the world to view on her blog, Indigo Goes To Cape Town which only highlights a small fraction of the experience she has had there, so I suggest to dig around the site for a while.

One of her projects was to paint a few walls at a home, called Percy Bartley House, where she did an outer wall portrait of one of the oldest, and most respected residents at the home. This may not be a big deal normally, but this house happens to be a residence for boys who have faced severe adversity, giving them a safe place to learn and grow with the necessary support to do so.

Photograph by Rowan Pybus (@makhuluct) of Makhulu Productions

Photograph by Rowan Pybus (@makhuluct) of Makhulu Productions

Photographs are courtesy of the artist (@indi_gone) , and Rowan Pybus (@makhuluct) of Makhulu Productions.

Read more about Indigo here on our previous artist profile.

I was fortunate enough to get a pass to the event to explore it and learn as much as I could, and I did just that.

First off, I learned that parts of Vancouver and Burnaby have a mulch pickup program, similar to garbage and recycling, that they are piloting in a few neighborhoods to see how well it is liked. This means that we can divert a lot of household waste from the city landfills to compost heaps that can then quickly be turned into extremely fertile soil. I learn’t this from the people at the Bag To Earth booth. They were creating bags that were 100% made from recycled material and 100% biodegradable.

I had a great talk with the folks at Whole Foods who gave me a pep talk on the importance for bees to be around in order for pollination to  occur. They reminded me that this requires plants, and gave me a coupon to go get a free 4″ plant from Whole Foods.

I also had a talk a girl representing I Heart Van Art, a new local project aimed at creating a space for vendors and performers to show off their stuff.

The convention center was filled with very local things like homemade jellies, lotions, clothes, and many other neat green ideas that I hope some of these pictures can give some insight into.

I really enjoyed the fish they had up everywhere. They were pretty cool. Great job by the artist, whoever it was.

Also, I went on the night George Stroumboulopoulos was interviewed. I think a lot of people went at the same time as it was pretty packed.

Listening to George, who also hosts the Strombo Show, which you may also know as The Hour, made me realize how much I respect him, and appreciate the change and ideas that he brings to Canadians through his influence.

To read more about the event, head over to Chronicles of Times, where the do a full report on the show.

All photos courtesy of Ned Tobin, you can view the full set on Flickr.

It appears that there are a few events that really don’t favor mankind at all that are occurring in Japan right now.

With regards to the plant itself, as one would expect from such an organization such as Tokyo Electric’s (TEPCO), who run Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, we are experiencing a layer of secrecy and deceit, with the true details trickling out slowly.

From World Nuclear News (WNN) on May 16, 2011: “Investigations at unit 1 at Fukushima Daiichi suggest that most of the fuel in the reactor core melted and dropped to the bottom of the reactor vessel in the early stages of the accident. Work has started on installing a structure to cover the damaged reactor building. “

…. read full article here.

I can’t smell enough of this stuff, and it’s rather intoxicating. I’m very curious to hear what girls have to say about it. I really can’t begin to explain how it smells, for its a mix of very sensual smells, so from Gucci’s website we get:

On April 28, 2011 The Vogue theater hosted Vancouver’s 16th Pecha Kucha, an event produced by Cause + Affect, organized by Steven Cox and Becki Chan Begovic.

I have lost all information on the band, but I thoroughly enjoyed their entertainment to start off the evening.

For those of you that have been to Pecha Kucha, heres a little breakdown: A simple presentation where you show 20 images, each 20 seconds long. 20×20.

I was led to believe that this event represented grass roots change, inspiration, and a sense of instilled morality for all those who attended. I was only partly right. What I found was that Pecha Kucha #16  Vancouver represented more of a showcasing of peoples achievements, passions, and projects; all very inspirational. By no means was I disappointed with what I saw and heard, I was awakened to the raw truth of, well, society.

Paul Conder of Waddell and Conder opened up the evening of presenters. He discussed many of his ideas and accomplishments as designer, kind of taking the crowd through a timeline of his career. I always find it fascinating how most everybody can relate to certain events in the world at specific times in history, each with their own set of memories, each very valid.

Lauren Weisler spoke to us about DOXA Documentary Film Festival, of which she’s the executive director. I’m always very interested in these events, but always manage to miss them as they come through town.

Joseph Wu showed us the amazement he called origami, but I think everybody knew it was magic. Some artists just humble a person when they show you some of their projects they’ve worked on; Joseph did that. Before the event, I sat watching Joseph play with a origami bird of some sort, tweaking it ever so slightly to no doubt get the perfect angle… or maybe it had just got flattened riding in his coat pocket…

Watching Joseph do this, you can tell there’s passion. He was real, Joseph was.

Shary Contrary was a very interesting speaker, who explained her role and what exactly Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art School is all about. In a nutshell, they go around town to various venue’s with live models. The idea is that it’s alt, which means burlesque-type models, often doing some sort of a show to keep the sketchers entertained. Some of the photos that were shown made me feel like I was really missing out by not joining Shary on any of her escapades. Maybe the future holds something here.

I enjoyed Darrell Kopke of institute B’s presentation for it was the first one to kind of step away from the “this is what I do, where I’ve come from, and what I’m going to be doing” approach. It was more like a time bomb slowly ticking away, waiting for that moment when it all comes together in a speeding circle.

It could have been just his brilliant pictures. To me that’s something that’s very important for these presentations. Make sure you make it visually appealing. I can appreciate the fact that technology is something that is hard for a lot of people to accept, but the fact is it’s here to stay, so make it pretty, make it work for you, and make it send your message brilliantly; those are the effective presentations.

Michelle Rizzardo & Trevor Fleming was the only duo of the night. I believe they owned Lifetime Collective, a fashion designer.

I liked their line, I liked the fact that both of them really seemed to be into the real world, not based on a fake image that only Hollywood is capable of achieving. I think it would have been really interesting to talk to both of them about where they see their future taking them. Both of them really sounded like they are constantly on the go, constantly pushing into new areas, and exploring their potential. I have mad respect for people like this. All the speakers seemed to carry this sort of charisma.

Easily the most flamboyant of the lot, Sean Heather, made an impressive presentation: enter Irish bags and a drinking ballad to finish off the set.

He walked us through the history of him; his presence in Vancouver. For those of you Vancouverites who do not know one of his restaurants, which carry the names of Everything Cafe, Salty Tongue Cafe, Shebeen Whiskey House, Salt Tasting Room, or Irish Heather, I believe you should venture outside and lend your ear to the buzz. I personally enjoy Salt, a little tasting room for cheeses and wine in the heart of Gastown.

Can’t go wrong with Irish bags. You really cant.

Sean talked about his various trials he’s faced as a restaurant owner, through the brewmaster of Guinness, Fergal Murray’s ribbon cutting and funding local cheese makers survival. A very deep routed man in Vancouvers scene it would appear. A man capable of creating a very hot spot, as well as a very strong sense of culture. Probably the Irish in him. (Sean took the time to corrected me for I was under the understanding the war pipes were bags, and the musician was Scottish, not Irish. See his comment at the bottom of this post.) Great work with bringing the Irish War Pipes onto the stage, a clutch move!

Katrina Pacey‘s talk was very much what I expected from Pecha Kucha, to be honest. It was local, it smelled of activist, it had drive, had fight for power, it had equal rights, and a very touchy topic: prostitution. Through Katrina’s organization, Pivot Legal Society, she spoke of her battle for the last few years she has been facing, trying to help make a safe existence for everybody, not just the nuclear family. I like her quote there: “Your existence gives me hope.”

Her pictures were very powerful. I felt hers was a very raw presentation. A very good voice to be heard from.

Myriam LaRoche was from Eco Fashion Week. She talked about her struggle to transform from a plastic, frenzy driven fashionista to a more eco-friendly, environmentally conscious fashion designer.

I found it quite comforting to hear that she believes, as I do, about how all our clothes should be second hand, reworked, re-used. There may be a few pieces of clothing that we need to keep us feeling right about ourselves (queue unmentionables and socks!), but for the most part, we don’t need to buy new clothing to be fashionable. We need to be concerned with the world’s welfare every time we support the inhabitants of it by pulling out our wallet. Her presentation spoke a lot to me.

Steven Hill was a very interesting character, theatre director of Leaky Heaven Circus. What he seemed to be representing was a (or his) circus theatre… just what you’d expect from the name.

Steven talked to us about his creative direction him and his fellow theatre actors have followed to get to the point they are at now, what has brought them their success. It was really interesting to me how they used already well known plays and transformed them into their own, of course with a twist! A recent quote I just heard: “There is no original thought” rung in my head as I understood how we all like to feel that we create original ideas, but do we really have an original thought? Isn’t what we do just transforming our current surroundings into our own design? I personally like inspiration.

I really enjoyed what Carson Ting had to share. Carson brought us through a sort of lead by example explanation of why he felt that becoming as transparent as possibly was simply a great thing. He is the Art Director of Rethink, and founder of Chairman Ting Industries.

He revealed his creative process through his pictures, becoming transparent in an industry many people only ever see the final product in, not realizing or appreciating what goes into the process. This was also something that Joseph Wu talked about when he showed us one of his designs and a box of the prototypes. He made a very good point that from one project, he was able to make many different products from it. For example, he would do the actual art project he was hired to do, as well as make a short video of the process of making the art project, and then also animating the art project into another art project. Really expanding his capabilities and reach as an artist into many different genres, pushing the idea of well rounded to the max.

Samantha Jo Simmonds of Public Dreams had a very powerful message, which was very similar to Shary Contrary, in that there are no boundaries to the creative process. Sometimes the creative expression is all the process itself, rather then the final product. It brings to mind the idea about being about the journey, not the final destination.

The final speaker to present was Kahlil Ashanti. This man, you could just feel, had personality. I felt his message was of perseverance, have fun, and believe. His story was of blessings, luck, and success. He was a very friendly fellow.

He spoke of how a person should always be a beacon of hope; being a person to which those around you can feel the strength, cheer, and camaraderie; fueling with strength from your own strength. I believe in Kahlil’s message. It’s what I found in it at any rate.

His titles intrigued me with ‘Survivor’ in there. You know it’s about to get real with that word.

All photos courtesy of Ned Tobin. See more on flickr.

This event has also been covered at Chronicles of Times.

Today, this is how it went.

1. Log on.
2. Open up firefox.
3. Log on to class website, and open up lecture slides.
4. Read the first few slides.
5. Open wordpress, comment on a few freshly pressed.
6. Open hootsuite to see what the twitter crew is doing. (@kingkabuz)
7. Read a few more slides.
8. See what twitter friends are up to.
9. Open tumblr to follow a few new friends tumblr’s.
10. Start writing this post.

I don’ t think this is productive, is it?

It’s turning into summer time, and that means long grass, bare skin, sunny days, and photography opportunities galore! Nice blue skies and beaches! But it makes me think about how I’m spending my time, which is a usual worry for me.

Many people have been telling me that I worry to much, or think to much. I usually embrace the fact that I can think, and enjoy this facility as a human being, but sometimes going with the flow is a very fun thing to do. The problem lies, however, in my duties. I have a duty to focus on work/school to get it done. To pass, to accomplish, to succeed, to make my parents proud; so how can I do this all, when I’m getting distracted with so much?

Some people enjoy spending their time watching TV, or stalking on Facebook, or lamenting on Twitter, but I like to think that I do these things for slightly different reasons (which work out to be the same in the end I guess), but am I just justifying it to myself? Must I cut it all out to focus on one or two areas? Do I feel like I have a obligation to complete what I’ve started for my ‘fans’ or ‘friends’?

What do you think? Would I loose some people in my life if I stopped? Would anybody even notice? Would I be able to sleep at night?

How do you deal with this?

Due to the recent events in Japan, with a nuclear power plant going into meltdown (of the facts we do not yet all know) I’d like to go on a little rant here on nuclear energy and the state of Japan’s health. I would like to point out a few things.
1. There are giant oil drums that have been burning as well in Japan that nobody seems to mention anything about.

2. A nuclear power plant produces on the scale of 6 magnitudes (10^6) times less waste than a coal power plant for the same amount of energy. (yes thats a million times less)

read the full article here at Chronicles of Times.

Remi/ROUGH just finished a trip to Canada, his first ever, and to no other than Vancouver at that. Yes, this is where I’m at. Yes, I met him. Yes, he’s a major cool chap. Yes, his art is amazing.

The pure mix of straight edges, with complete slur of all emotion mixed with symmetry, and then displaced with layered chaos is amazing.

He came to Vancouver to do Unintended Calculations, a mix of spraying the Moda Hotel walls in downtown Vancouver, as well as showing at Becker Galleries, located on Granville Island. The show was curated by the talented Indigo, who herself is an amazing artists becoming a global figure. I’ve taken some photographs of the event held at Becker Galleries.

Remi/ROUGH’s work leaves a lot up to the imagination. There are many angles to approach it, for myself, I feel. One can embrace it from chaos inward to straight and stiff edges, or the other way around: straight stiff to chaos. Maybe the correct word is not so much chaos as one would think.

Remi/ROUGH has been part of the Graffiti scene for a very long time. One of the fathers one might even say, so needless to say he is looked up to by many, many people. Artists, punks, rebels, musicians all alike; and with just cause, he is a great guy.

While talking with him, he gave me the certain awe that most people who have been doing their thing for a while, proven themselves, give me. It’s like a ‘yes, I’m just doing my thing, and I’m great at it, and I love it, and I’m so happy to hear that you enjoy it too cause that’s why I do it’ kind of feeling. Or maybe that was just the English blood in him… Hard to tell.

The above piece is a collab put on the walls of a gallery with System, another artist.

To be honest though, it’s work like this that inspires me. There isn’t one thing that a person can pinpoint that does it, it’s a mixture of all things combined. How does one enjoy the drips any more than one does the edges? And how can you ignore the raunch feel of anger that is evoked in pin pointing an exact thing that inspires? Maybe it’s not anger at all, maybe it’s just something akin to capturing fireflies.

To me, it’s a body. It’s a figure, it’s a feeling. It’s not just one thing. It’s everything. Does this make sense? How does it make you feel?

The photo above is Remi/ROUGH doing work with Jaybo Monk. I have done a profile on him recently for he is also one inspiring fellow. Two legends, two icons, two people that will be talked about for many many years to come.

I am honored to have met Remi/ROUGH and I look forward to seeing his future work.

All pictures are to the best of my knowledge taken by Remi/ROUGH unless otherwise noted.