Vancouver is currently sitting in 7th place in the “Put your Town on the Map with Bing” photo contest. They are asking Canadians to submit photos of their hometowns and at the end of the campaign, the photo with the most votes (from the most popular city) will win a grand prize. Prizes incentives include cameras and swag from Walmart PhotoCentre and Kodak Canada Inc. as well as getting your photo featured on the Bing.ca homepage.
Ahead of Vancouver in the standings right now lies Ville de Saguenay, Calgary, Picton, North Bay, Quebec City, and Thunder Bay. In BC, Vancouver is in the top spot ahead of Kitimat, Kamloops, Nelson, and Victoria.
Although Vancouver is often ranked within the top ten livable cities or destinations in the world, when it comes to popular votes online we don’t quite do as well. Earlier this year Monopoly Canada was launching a new edition and asked people to vote on which cities should get which real estate on the board. The MonopolyVote site is no longer operational however last time I checked, Vancouver wasn’t in the top ten.
If you would like to give our city a boost in this photo contest, check out the entries and place your vote or submit your own photos for a chance at daily prizes or the grand prize. Be sure to also read the terms and conditions of the contest to ensure you are okay with the licensing of the photo you submit.
In 2005, the Commercial Drive Festival launched the first community- driven Car-Free Festival in Vancouver. The Festival was wholly volunteer-organized and presented, involving over 30 core organizers and 300 volunteers. It was an enormous success, bringing over 25,000 people out to celebrate the community and party in the street.
After that, the Festival happened in 2006 and twice in the summer of 2007, snowballing in popularity and attracting up to 40,000 people per day. Clearly, car-free days were an idea whose time had come.
The first annual Car-Free Vancouver Day, on Sunday June 15, 2008 ushered in the next phase in this bold experiment that had been gradually happening in Vancouver for many years. [About Car Free Day]
Olympics being in town was all of the pedestrian thoroughfares downtown – they just give the city a better sense of community and accessibility. These free neighbourhood festivals filled with food, entertainment, and special offers from local merchants. Check out what’s going on in your community or take your bike or transit to another. I know some people have commuted between locations on Car Free Day as well just to get a sense for each unique setting.
The 23rd annual BC Children’s Hospital Miracle Weekend starts tomorrow with a broadcast on Global TV that will run straight through to Sunday night. This is one of the largest fundraising events of the year for the BC Children’s Hospital and even I was personally invited to take part.
Having a niece and four nephews, and having worked with the Children’s Hospital in the past on several campaigns, this is a cause close to my heart.
Facts about the Hospital:
… it received more than 196,0000 patient visits last year
… an average of 690 sick and injured children receive care every day
… there are more than 100 newly diagnosed cases of childhood cancer in BC each year
… more than 750 youngsters receive active treatment for cancer at the Hospital every year
… it is the only pediatric health centre and teaching hospital in BC
… it is the largest full-service child health centre in Canada
… more than 42,800 children come through the Emergency Room each year
… 67 per cent of patients seen every year at BC Children’s Hospital come from areas outside the City of Vancouver
If you would like to support the BC Children’s Hospital this weekend you can add a Twibbon to your Twitter profile, add a add a Facebook badge to your profile, or share this donation page link any other way online. For a donation phone number, tune into Global BC anytime this weekend after 7:00pm tomorrow.
The 12th annual Leo Awards celebrating achievements in BC film and television will take place tonight and tomorrow at the Westin Bayshore.
I interviewed the President of the Awards, Walter Daroshin for my new weekly events column for TV Week online.
“We suggest that [the industry] just take one little pause for a weekend, once a year, and recognize that we’re actually pretty good at what we do,” said Daroshin. “I think it’s vital to a healthy and artistic community, to recognize and celebrate its own.”
With BC talent receiving recognition internationally, it makes sense to have a celebration of homegrown achievements.
“You see people more and more within this jurisdiction being recognized outside of this jurisdiction,” added Daroshin. “We really feel we represent the community.”
Daroshin made specific note of Monique Prudhomme who was nominated in the Costume Design category at the Academy Awards for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus as well as the folks at Image Engine and District 9 who were up for Best Picture at the Oscars this year.
Ever-evolving with the times, the Leo Awards are sensitive to the hard work of all communities within the industry. As such, they added the Web Series category over the last few years as well as the inaugural award for Stunt Coordination that we’ll see in 2010.
John and I will be covering the red carpet tomorrow night when they do the program and performance awards. Tonight, awards for craft and technical elements will be handed out.
Update Unfortunately John couldn’t make it down to join me on the red carpet so I snapped these myself.
Lou Diamond Phillips, Jodelle Ferland, Steph Song, Ryan Robbins, Warren Christie, Jonathan Silver Scott, Drew Scott, Andrew Jenkins, Calum Worthy, and Agam Darshi.
Recipients of the Leo Award include:
FEATURE LENGTH DRAMA
Best Feature Length Drama Excited
Best Direction in a Feature Length Drama
Bruce Sweeney (Excited)
Best Costume Design in a Feature Length Drama
Monique Prudhomme (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus)
Best Stunt Coordination in a Feature Length Drama
Marshall Virtue (Alice)
Best Supporting Performance by a Male in a Feature Length Drama
Chad Willett (Cole)
Best Supporting Performance by a Female in a Feature Length Drama
Gabrielle Rose (Excited)
Best Lead Performance by a Male in a Feature Length Drama
Jared Keeso (Keep Your Head Up Kid – The Don Cherry Story)
Best Lead Performance by a Female in a Feature Length Drama
Laara Sadiq (Excited)
DRAMATIC SERIES
Best Dramatic Series Stargate Universe
Best Direction in a Dramatic Series
Brenton Spencer (Sanctuary – Pavor Nocturnus)
Best Stunt Coordination in a Dramatic Series
Jacob Rupp (Smallville – Rapid)
Best Guest Performance by a Male in a Dramatic Series
Christopher Gauthier (Sanctuary – Hero)
Best Supporting Performance by a Male in a Dramatic Series
Christopher Heyerdahl (Sanctuary – Haunted)
Best Supporting Performance by a Female in a Dramatic Series
Julia Benson (Stargate Universe – Pain)
Best Lead Performance by a Male in a Dramatic Series
Robin Dunne (Sanctuary – Pavor Nocturnus)
Best Lead Performance by a Female in a Dramatic Series
Erin Karpluk (Being Erica – Being Dr. Tom)
SHORT DRAMA
Best Short Drama The Gray Matter
The Gray Matter
DOCUMENTARY PROGRAM OR SERIES
Best Feature Length Documentary Program Facing Ali
Best Short Documentary Program This Land
Best Documentary Series Ice Pilots NWT
Best Direction in a Documentary Program or Series
Pete McCormack (Facing Ali)
INFORMATION OR LIFESTYLE SERIES
Best Information or Lifestyle Series The Nature Of Things
Best Host(s) in an Information or Lifestyle Series
Anna Wallner, Kristina Matisic Anna & Kristina’s Grocery Bag – Cowboy In The Kitchen
MUSIC, COMEDY, OR VARIETY PROGRAM OR SERIES
Best Music, Comedy, or Variety Program or Series Wolf Canyon
ANIMATION PROGRAM OR SERIES
Best Animation Program or Series League Of Super Evil
STUDENT PRODUCTION
Best Student Production Trolls
Best Youth or Children’s Program or Series Stormworld
Best Music Video Road Regrets – Dan Mangan
Best Web Series The Vetala
In total, Sanctuary had 7 Leo Awards while The Gray Matter also walked away with 7 Leos in the Short Drama category. Alice had 8 awards for everything from Cinematography to Visual Effects, Stargate Universe had 6 Leos, and Wolf Canyon brought home 5. You can view a full list of winners by name or program on the Leo Awards website.
Born and raised in the Vancouver area, Lenarduzzi could easily be referred to as the Wayne Gretzky of Canadian soccer. He was a star of the North American Soccer League, a member of the Canadian nation and Olympic soccer teams, and is a member of the Canadian National Soccer Hall of Fame as well as the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame.
We met out by Empire Field where a temporary stadium is being setup while BC Place undergoes a massive facelift. Once everything is complete, the Whitecaps will move into BC Place for the 2011 season as one of two expansion MLS teams. Lenarduzzi explains all this and more in the following video:
