Next Generation

Dance Party in the Heritage Station!

Saturday March 7th - Flashmob style start at 3pm. Watch the giant
clock in the main hall for the time. Show up a few minutes early and
act incognito till 3 o'clock.

Important: Bring your own ipod for music!!
Funk, dub, dnb, electro, breakz, punk, ambient, whatever you like!

Sunglasses recommended for funky lighting and secret agent spy-vision.

Pacific Central Station features:
- huge main hall with 80ft high ceiling
- giant mega clock-tower cube
- olde tyme heritage design
- public washrooms
- cafes
- photo booth
- bike rack parking
- meter parking
- right across the park from Main St skytrain

Saturday Dec 6th

Play Music Not Politics - Concert and BBQ for Insite with Bedouin Soundclash.

Last night, the DTES was the stage for a drizzly, rainy night outdoor concert and bbq event! With the streets at Main and Hastings to Columbia and Hastings blocked off, the long awaited "Previously Canceled Show by the VPD Cops"made famous by a mob of angry but civil protesters and many witnessing TV and Radio Station News crews descending onto the one street of 100 block Hastings, made their triumphant return with full support of everyone from City Hall to the humble DTES citizen.

Grant Writing Information Sessions
November 10-15, 2008

Victoria, Richmond, Surrey, and Vancouver

The Canada Council for the Arts is pleased to invite the public to participate in free grant writing information sessions for professional artists.

During these sessions, we will explain:
• how to complete application forms;
• how to submit your support material; and
• how applications are assessed.

The following Canada Council for the Arts staff will be conducting these sessions:

Marianne Heggtveit, Acting Head, Arts Services Unit
Melisa Kamibayashi, Information Officer, Arts Services Unit
Nancy Guertin, Program Officer, Theatre
Peter Schneider, Program Officer, Writing and Publishing
Pao Quang Yeh, Program Officer, Visual Arts

IMPORTANT

• Please inform Melisa Kamibayashi if you wish to attend.  Make sure to include which information session, the date, and in which discipline you will participate. 1-800-263-5588, ext. 4033 or at melisa.kamibayashi@canadacouncil.ca.

• We encourage you to bring your résumé (curriculum vitae). This will help program officers determine your eligibility.

• We encourage you to read up on the listed grant programs in advance of the information sessions so that you may ask the program officers questions that are more specific. Application guidelines and forms are posted on our website at www.canadacouncil.ca.

Canada Council for the Arts – Free Grant Writing Information Sessions

SESSION 1 – Victoria
Monday, November 10, 2008
6:00 to 9:00 pm
Open Space Gallery
510 Fort Street

SESSION 2 – Richmond
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
6:00 to 9:00 pm
Richmond Art Gallery
180 – 7700 Minoru Gate

SESSION 3 – Surrey

Yesterday I helped work at the Fearless/W2 table at the library. We were located at the Big Library, the one that looks like a Roman Ampitheatre and I always wondered why it was built that way.. I guess it attracts alot of public interest by the shape of the library.  Perhaps parents and their children get a sense of Europe right in our own backyards.  

I arrived late with my two new laptops as I had abit of car trouble.  I had a late night, the evening before as I played a gig with my duo partner Jim. We're called Landslide and we mostly play Rock, Blues and Country. The older folks like to get up and dance in front of us reliving their childhood.  It's nice to see that happiness in people. Sometimes there's the odd drunk that comes up to us and starts yelling at us his requests for a particular song... sometimes we play and sometimes we don't... it depends if we have it on hand to refer to.  

April came to film us play last night, and unfortunately, she got punched out by a fat drunk named Barney from behind who was bothering us all night... I guess when April ignored his drunk advances as she was filming us.. he felt ignored, got mad and lashed out at her...We got off the stage real quick and made the guy leave and April was really shaken up and in shock.. she was worried about the camera and it even recorded the whole scene on audio.. lots of shaky camera motion... But she's pretty tough and fearless.. she makes a good field journalist.. I guess her working in bars makes her pretty resilient.

The Fearless/W2 table was the first one you see when you walk in through the main doors.  Irwin had his laptop there already, and we set up my two laptops also.  There were two that were playing the W2 stories:Building a Legacy and one that had Movino set up with the Nokia N95 cameraphone... it is supposed to show live performance and live streaming over bluetooth.

The following is an account of my timeline...

I arrived at the corner
of Main and Hastings ( where the Ford Building is situated ) and I was shocked
to see there were at least 40 cops wearing orange and yellow vests milling
about. I noticed that the road had been blocked  by the standard navy blue
uniform VPD officers.  When I tried to access the walkway down towards Insite..
I was told to go around the block.. I was feeling by then abit nervous and tense
because.. I have never seen an event where this much security was needed for a
free concert and bbq!!!  I ventured down the block on the  Hastings and Cordova
side, and I spotted even in the alley, the police were stationed in lineups, to
prevent DTES citizens from cutting through the alley and accessing the free
hamburgers.

When I rounded the corner of Columbia and Cordova, I noticed
a few passerbys eating their hamburgers, but not in the usual happy go lucky
manner that they "scored" free food.  As I approached  closer, I realized that
people were denied access to the food and the music as the police had formed a
barricade that stretched from the Radio Station corner of Columbia and Hastings
to the New Brandiz convenience store corner of Columbia and Hastings back up to
Main and Hastings.  The cops were securing off a 1 block radius... 100 East
Hastings. They looked very stern and serious in their dark blue uniforms as they
prevented people from accessing the main area which had the music and
food.

Finally under pressure of the crowd, the police allowed the hungry
to pass through their barricade, still keeping a close eye on people.  There I
met some fellow DTES Community leaders such as Cecily Nicholson of Downtown
Eastside Women's Centre and David Eby of Pivot Legal  who marched in solidarity
with the citizens. 

I viewed Stiltwalkers teetering on by carrying

There was a free concert given by Bedouin Soundclash ( 3 member Canadian band
that were Juno award winners) to support Insite ( the city's safe injection site
) when suddenly cops came in and started shutting the event down due
to the fact that the organizers of Portland Hotel Society did not get a permit
to have "structures" .. which in our case were tents.

What really
surprised me was that the VPD has let events carry on like this in the past and
have even served as "security" to allow the DTES have their free festivals at
Pigeon Park

But I guess, now coupled with  the Harper government and
their Conservative views against the Safe Injection Site.. and the VPD stopping
the free concert by Bedouin Soundclash and free BBQ, spells trouble for Insite
for the future.
 
 
Afterwards I went to cover Frances-Marie Uitti, a
celloist  who appeared at the Vancouver New Music Festival's Solus-The Art of
Solo Virtuosity. The fascinating thing about her is that she builds her own bows
and plays with 2 bows at a time, "a radical technique that can make a Uitti solo
performance sound as rich as a string quartet"

Lastly I filmed at the
Bedouin Soundclash concert at the Commodore Ballroom....awesome music with indie rock
and ska infuences. :)