Tomorrow afternoon, Bob from Vancouver is Awesome and I will be sitting down with Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson to have a chat. What will make this opportunity unique is that we’ll be asking questions that have been submitted by our readers.
#GregorLive. Bob and I will then collect the questions and @MayorGregor will respond. Have you ever wanted to know something about Vancouver? What’s the Mayor’s favourite bike path in the city? Where does he recommend you go for Sunday brunch? Does he know if there are tunnels under Chinatown?
The live chat will take place Tuesday, April 3, 2012 from 3:00pm to 4:00pm. Follow @Miss604, @VIAwesome, @MayorGregor, and most importantly, the tag #GregorLive.
We’ll try to get to as many questions as possible and thing left over, or anything that might need an expanded answer, will be posted here – on my post – and over on Vancouver is Awesome.
Update I’m liveblogging the question and answer session with Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson right now. It will begin at 3:00pm and we’ll be using the tag #GregorLive to find questions on Twitter. The Mayor will tweet out his answers from @VanMayorsOffice account.
Update The first question comes from Bob @VIAwesome: “Kicking off #GregorLive with a q from ME!: Gregor, which did you like better, playoff beard or #Movember moustache?: http://ow.ly/i/xUq2”
Mayor Gregor Robertson: “Kicking off #gregorlive with @VIAwesome @Miss604. 1st Q: playoff beard or Movember ‘stache? @MayorGregor says playoff beard! #gocanucks”
Question from @Lazin_Ryder: “How’s your cat? #GregorLive”
Mayor Gregor Robertson: “#gregorlive my rescue cat “Kitty” is doing great, thanks for asking a great question @Lazin_Ryder”
Question from @JustinYVR: “Justin Young @justinyvr Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
.@MayorGregor What’s your stance on the possibility of free transit in #Vancouver? Especially given http://ow.ly/a3KIq #Gregorlive”
Mayor Gregor Robertson: “. @JustinYVR we need big growth in public transit in our region, Broadway is the busiest transit corridor in BC #gregorlive Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
There’s not much that beats warm summer nights with thousands of easy-going music fans gathering in a field in view of the Stawamus Chief. Live at Squamish is returning for a third year this August and they’re kicking things off in style with a launch party next week.
What Live at Squamish Launch Party & Line Up Announcement
Where Commodore Ballroom, 868 Granville
When Wednesday, April 4, 2012 at 8:00pm
Tickets Available online in advance for $10.
Peak Performance Project winners Current Swell and finalists The Matinee will be performing at the launch party.
John and I have enjoyed covering and sponsoring the first two years of Live at Squamish. International sensations, local talent and more converge in one of the most beautiful concert settings in the world. Save the date: August 25th and 26th, 2012.
Update The lineup has been announced!
The Tragically Hip, City and Colour, Chromeo, Lights, Sheepdogs
Beats Antique, Charles Bradley, Mother Mother, The Airborne Toxic Event, Wintersleep, Kathleen Edwards, Plants & Animals, Current Swell, The Pack A.D., Rich Hope, The Matinée, Wake Owl, Humans, Washboard Union, Maurice, No Sinner, Good For Grapes, Rococode, Yes Nice, Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer, Facts
Silent Disco DJs (John Morgan, Andy Chambers, Kristian Littman, Maurice Ryan, Henry Mah).
Yesterday the Federal Budget was unveiled and it included the news that the Royal Canadian Mint will soon stop producing pennies, saving Canadians 11 million dollars a year. Most of the feedback I saw online was in support of this move but I’m left wondering what I’ll do with the giant bucket of pocket change that has accumulated in one of my kitchen cupboards. If I snooze and don’t get it down to my local Coinstar machine, there’s always the option to turn my 1 cent pieces into pretty little works of copper art: Penny Smashing.
You can find penny smashers or penny pressers placed at attractions and destinations of interest around the world. Pop in a penny, turn the crank, and produce a pressed keepsake with an embossed logo or image commemorating your visit. In Vancouver, several local attractions boast penny smashers including Science World, the Vancouver Aquarium, the Vancouver Lookout, and all ferry terminals.
I reached out to Bob Kronbauer from Vancouver is Awesome who is actually co-presenting the award-winning Penny Smash project. Bob writes:
Todd Falkowsky (of Citizen Brand and The Canadian Design Resource), Scott Hawthorn (of Salt Tasting Room, Native Shoes and Picker Shack Orchard), designer Tyler Quarles and I have been working for the past few months on producing a Vancouver pilot for a project that Todd launched in Toronto a couple of years back. The idea behind PENNY SMASH is to take a souvenir penny press machine (like the ones you see inside tourist attractions) and hijack it to produce truly affordable works of art. ALL of the proceeds go either to charity or grants to artists to launch other creative projects in the city.
The presser made its first appearance at the Vancouver Art Gallery’s FUSE event last November. Since the project was unveiled, Ken Lum‘s penny design was lauded as one of the “Top 10 Designs in Canada”. The other artists include Ian Grais, Jerszy Seymour, and Natalie Purschwitz.
You can find this all-in-one work of art and penny press located inside Salt Tasting Room in Gastown (at 45 Blood Alley). When you purchase and press a penny ($2) from Ken Lum’s design you will also be contributing to the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation.
There are a handful of living legends in Vancouver and Red Robinson is certainly one of them. A radio and television pioneer, he was the first Vancouver disc jockey to play that “rock and roll” music and was the emcee for Elvis’ Vancouver tour stop at Empire Stadium in 1957.
Since his career began at the age of seventeen, Red has been a television host, disc jockey, feature writer for TV Week, program director at radio stations throughout the Pacific Northwest, co-authored books, interviewed hundreds (if not thousands) of celebrities, and was even celebrated at the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.
For 20 years he hosted “Timmy’s Christmas Telethon” on the CBC, helping to raise over $75 million for the BC Lions Society for Children with Disabilities. He’s won countless awards, received honors such as being inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, and earned local distinction on the North Shore and in his birthplace of Comox, BC.
To top it all off, Red’s kept up a blog since 2008. It’s not often you read a blog post where the author talks about his efforts to get Elvis to come to town:
“Vancouver was the biggest success story on the whole tour. I was proud to be part of the success that day as I had tried in vain to get Elvis here for a year and a half. This was the first celebrity to ever rent stadiums and he could do it because he was a giant, even then.
He had completed two movies, had great success with his recordings up to that time going to the top of the charts and his appearances on the Milton Berle, Ed Sullivan, and Steve Allen TV shows were ratings monsters. He was a true sensation. I have always stated that this was his biggest show of that tour but to hear Elvis himself say that it was is the icing on the cake.”
Red’s blog includes posts about upcoming acts at the Red Robinson Theatre in Coquitlam as well as posts laden with classic photos and tales of rock and roll. Posts like Theme for Teens, 1955, Love Me Tender at the Capitol, 1956, and Georgia Auditorium, Circa 1959 are pure gold. He even first met one of my personal idols, historian Chuck Davis, “on a double date in Victoria in 1956.”
The website Riveting Riffs profiled Red and featured a quote of his about how he used to crowd source (before “crowd source” was a buzz word) the music he played on the radio:
“I had a little thing that I put together called teletune. I had kids come in after school and answer the phones. I would say phone in and tell us what you think of this new song and then at the end of the day I would add them all up. Then I knew what to play. I was actually asking the listeners what the hell they wanted to hear (laughs). It was a top ten by my listeners. I had my personal top ten, but I would give it to the audience to pick out (their top ten). I had Buddy Holly’s “That Will Be The Day,” listed in my top ten in Cashbox before anyone else in North America even played the damn thing. I have an interview with Buddy Holly when he says that.
We didn’t have music directors saying, ‘The focus group didn’t go for that or ‘it’s not appearing on the charts in Chicago.’ Who gave a damn, you did it for your local audience. One of my slogans was “The Station That Listens To You.”
Today is Red Robinson’s 75th birthday and we are so fortunate to have such a passionate and innovative icon in our community.
Read more about Red on his blog, check out the reunion listings, and browse the amazing memorabilia that he’s been putting up for sale on eBay.
George Stroumboulopoulos (known affectionately as “Strombo”) will be returning to Vancouver next week to film his show, George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight at the CBC.
Guests will include Sandra Oh, Daryl Hannah, Jim Treliving, Paul Franklin, and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. There will also be special features with comedian Brent Butt, former prime minister Kim Campbell, CBC Radio 3’s Grant Lawrence, actor Cameron Bright, Dr. Julio Montaner, Jane Goodall, Ian Hanomansing, Mark Donnelly, and those infamous Green Men. Musical guests will include Mother Mother and Nick Gilder.
All of the audience tickets have been scooped up but you can still get on the waiting list.
George will also be on CBC Radio One on Friday, March 30th at 4:00pm with Stephen Quinn and on the Early Edition with Rick Cluff Monday, April 2nd at 8:00am. Follow @Strombo on Twitter, for updates anytime and while he’s in Vancouver, and use the tag #gtonight when talking about the show.
