Update 2009: I won “Best Vancouver Blog” in the Georgia Straight’s Best of Vancouver 2009 – thanks everyone!

The annual Best of Vancouver issue of the Georgia Straight has hit news stands. The results are in for Best Local Blog and I’m very honored to have been voted into 2nd place by the readers of the Straight.

Congrats to VancouverCondo.info for taking the top spot, and Beyond Robson for coming in 3rd.

Since I hadn’t heard of VancouverCondo I poked around the site a bit: “Welcome to Vancouver Condo Info! If you’re looking to get excessively wealthy through the power of leveraging in one of North Americas last surviving housing bubble markets, or if you’re just scratching your head wondering why anyone would pay $300k for a small leaky condo you’ve come to the right place.” It’s pretty cool stuff and clearly they are a leader in their industry.

Unfortunately the only results that don’t display the correct URL’s / web addresses

Pick up your copy of the Georgia Straight for everything from the best place to get a manicure, to the best theatre concession stand. I’m also considering the revival of the “Best of 604” so keep an eye out for that in the coming weeks.

September 25th is National Digital Media Day, which will see “more than 32,000 digital creators will unite across the country to profile the digital media industry in Canada. A pillar of the knowledge economy, the digital media sector represents one of the fastest growing sectors and Canada’s best chance for taking the lead in this creative, green, and global industry.” [NFF]

Thanks to Zipcar, I’ll be mobile so I’m going to start with breakfast in Surrey at 9:00am where anyone will be welcome to join Raul, John and I while we live blog. We’ll pack up and head to our next destination for about 11:00am and end up in downtown Vancouver for lunch at Salt at 1:00pm. From there we’ll head to another destination before I drop Raul off for the Vancouver Blogger Meetup, and I head to my live blog for the Keall Foundation that evening.

Farmstead Wines has also stepped up as a sponsor and we’ll have complimentary beverages for anyone who cares to join us at Salt in Gastown for lunch. I am still looking for sponsors in other cities (and hopefully a venue sponsor) so please feel free to contact me if you have any ideas.

You can enter up to 3 answers/locations on the poll below:
[poll=14]

Other events in Vancouver for National Digital Media Day include the AGM of New Media BC at Radical Entertainment followed by Politube (a part of the New Forms Festival) as well as the aforementioned Vancouver Blogger Meetup. You can also check out the official social network of NDMD for more nation-wide events.

The Arts Club has kicked off its 45th season with Doubt, which will be running at the Stanley Theatre in South Granville until October 12.

The Arts Club Theatre Company’s production of Doubt – Photo by David Cooper.

Last year I visited the Stanley (my favourite little theatre in Vancouver) to watch The Producers and I was more than happy to head back last night to catch Doubt. The acting among the cast of four was emotional and not without small enjoyable moments of comic relief. I left feeling suspicious and uneasy; Doubt having played its role rather well.

This season at the Stanley is full of powerful performances and audience favourites like Cyrano de Bergerac, The Constant Wife, Homechild, Les Miserables, and Beauty and the Beast, which is being deemed “a new Christmas tradition in Vancouver.”

The Arts Club Granville Island Stage will feature The History Boys, It’s a Wonderful Life, Skydive, The Real Thing, Age of Arousal, and Altar Boyz.

You can purchase season tickets, flexible ticket packs, and passports. You can also purchase tickets for Glitter, The Arts Club Honors gala, which will be taking place October 23rd.

The New Forms Festival is well underway and with so much happening over the next week, here’s an update on some must-attend events. Continue reading this post ⟩⟩

Arriving for the Brew 2.0 event last night we weren’t too sure what to expect but found ourselves in for a treat once we entered the confines of the Molson Brewery on Burrard.

We started off by mingling and having some beers from the tap, although when I asked the man behind the counter for a Rickard’s Honey Brown I didn’t realize at the time that he was Mr. Rickard himself.

Raul, me, and Gord Rickard – Photo credit: Tris Hussey on Flickr

The group was then treated to various beer and food pairings, organized by Kerry Scarsbrook (on the beer side) and Blair Rasmussen, Executive Chef at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

The mini bison sandwiches (think pulled-pork sandwich) was delicious and its suggested pairing was Rickard’s Red. Meanwhile the prawn quesadillas with a cool Corona could only be beat by the addictive beer nuts.

After the delectable goodies we split into two groups for a full on tour of the Brewery and “Beer 101” session. Gord Rickard led us all around (luckily the oompa loompas didn’t have to carry anyone off) and the tour ended with a taste of Rickard’s Red – that was so fresh, the timestamp on the bottom of the can (right off the line) was about 2 minutes before we drank it down.

Once back in the main room, we were all treated to a special 50th Anniversary Brew (unique to Vancouver) called Rickard’s Gold Standard.

Raul, me, and Geoff Molson – Photo credit: Raul on Flickr

I had a lot of fun and met some very nice people, like Adam and Tonia from the Molson social media team, and enjoyed seeing friends and colleagues. Towards the end of the evening I really enjoyed speaking with Geoff Molson (7x great grandson of John Molson) and having some of the best tasting Canadian I’ve ever tried. In this smaller setting (those who decided to stay well past last call) Duane took a sip of his beer and shouted over to Geoff, “So sure, you make beer, but can you do a keg stand?” to which Geoff replied, calmly and assured, “You know what? YES.” We were all pretty amused by the conversations that followed.

Leaving the brewery we were handed taxi vouchers as well as some lovely parting gifts from Molson – beer glasses and 1GB thumbdrives loaded with promo materials, logos and videos.

I always disclose on my site that, for events and promotions like these, I maintain the full editorial right to express my honest opinion (did I like it, did I have a good time etc.) and I have to say that Molson did this event right. Truthfully I’m more inclined to drink Molson now than I ever was before after meeting such kind and knowledgeable folks as Kerry Scarsbrook and Gord Rickard.

UPDATE: Molson just delivered a little “morning after” present for us.

More photos of the event can be found in Flickr sets by Raul, Karen, Duane, Ianiv, and Tris. John took some excellent shots as well that will be up as soon as possible.