Every year hundreds of thousands of locals and guests from around the world enjoy the Vancouver International Film Festival. I’ve had the pleasure of covering the events so far for my weekly E!Online column and am just beginning to comprehend the months of planning, scheduling, and hard work that goes into making this event take place each year.
Unfortunately the City of Vancouver’s utility construction on Granville Street, that was supposed to wrap up at the end of summer, is currently obstructing filmgoers and causing a major disturbance to this festival that will only last until October 10th.
The management of Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is doing everything in its power to avert a serious disruption of our event by construction work just now beginning outside the Empire Granville 7 Cinemas at 855 Granville Street. The noise generated from this work could well mean the cancellation of many of the 200 screenings remaining at this venue… .
..We have received sympathetic counsel from everyone we spoken to at City Hall and at B.C. Hydro, but nothing has so far averted this extremely serious blow to the Festival.
According to the City of Vancouver’s website, the utilities road work on Granville (from Cordova to Drake) should have been over with July 31, 2008 with a few exceptions surrounding the Canada Line.
City waterworks crews have begun a significant upgrade to the water supply system on Granville. Watermain construction is expected to be completed by Sept with the exception of water distribution pipes which will be installed after the Canada Line stations are completed.
The VIFF is important to a city in which the film industry is so vital. It’s not only a chance to celebrate those who create local productions, but also invite the world into our backyard that is often portrayed as some place else on screen.
It is understood that construction is also a crucial element to keeping this city functioning, however it is a shame that this project (that has long overrun its completion date) is standing in the way of the festival. Screenings have not yet been canceled yet the sound of jackhammers and asphalt sawing is affecting theatres 3, 4, 5, and 6 as well as outside communications (you’ll notice there are a few tents setup for ticket purchase and general information). Hopefully something can be worked out since rescheduling and shuffling the 200 screenings set to take place at this venue seems like an impossible, at best daunting, task.
Update 2:25pm From the VIFF: “Our director, Alan Franey, finally visited the site this morning, spoke to the supervisor who said it was a Hydro project and Alan connected him with a Hydro boss, who had the construction shut down until after the end of the Festival on October 10th.”
Last night we headed to an event hosted by Warner Bros to celebrate their upcoming releases. With Christmas trees laced with DVDs it was pretty clear the objective was to give us all some stocking stuffer ideas, and I admit that it worked.
The evening had a Dark Knight theme that saw several people dressed up as characters from the film, and I had the chance to pose in front of a green screen and get my photo taken with Batman himself. Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
Ever since I used Zipcar’s service for National Digital Media Day I’ve been hooked. I still walk where I need to go, take the bus etc. but it’s great to have that option. Last Sunday we were supposed to head out to Surrey so that my family could celebrate John‘s birthday with him however, that morning while running, his calf muscle seized up and caused him excruciating pain for hours. We didn’t want to miss seeing my family but he knew he wasn’t going to be able to walk, bus, then Skytrain all the way out there. I hopped on Zipcar.com, booked a peppy little Nissan Versa, and we were off to Surrey for the afternoon. Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
I’m not usually one to break stories on my blog (leave that to the newsies) however this one hits very close to home.
The condo developmentQuattro, that claimed it was going to “bring Yaletown to Surrey”, is up in flames this afternoon (a message on Twitter from Airdrie led me to look in to this story).
“Surrey firefighters are battling a massive blaze on 138th Avenue near 107-A Avenue in Whalley. The red brick apartment building under construction went up in flames around 4 this afternoon… …It’s believed there’s a large crane in the middle of the fire, and Hydro poles in the area have also been caught in the blaze.” [News1130]
This isn’t the first time that a new condo block has been taken down by fire. Hopefully no one was injured and that this isn’t too much of a step back for development in the area.
Update: You can now read more about this on CTV as well as the Surrey Now that reports: “Quattro made news in May when pre-sale buyers snapped up 109 suites valued at $23 million the first day the project went on the market. Fortunately the building was not yet occupied.”
News1130 continues: “Around 100 customers are without phone and internet service and 4,400 customers are without power right now. The Quattro development was being built in several stages on a 10 acre site and would have included almost 400 condos, most of which had been sold out.”
Although I don’t often discuss political issues on my site, being a citizen of Vancouver I am fully aware that on November 15th we will have a civic election and even sooner than that on October 14th, we have a federal election. I always try to stay informed, keep up with the issues, and find out as much as I can so that I don’t have to “eeny meeny miny mo” my way around the ballot.
Update: Lisa sent this video around on Twitter and I thought right here would be a good spot for it in my post from this morning.
Even though this applies to the elections south of the border, the message is the same. Visit Elections Canada for more info.
When it comes to the federal elections, only two weeks away, here’s some quick info I was able to gather purely from the websites of those running in my riding, Vancouver Centre (I’m using the candidate websites as examples because well, my life and career revolve around the online realm and being present on the web):
Liberal Party – Hedy Fry, who has been our MP since 1993
Website notes – Hedy appears to have a Drupal-powered blog, which is cool but it doesn’t have comments enabled and each post ends with “sent from my Blackberry”.
Talking points – Seniors’ issues, GLBT equality, universal child care and early learning, arts and culture, Liberal plan for greener living, doctors and nurses, catastrophic drug coverage. [issues]
Website notes – The site is nice enough, I like the simple layout, however the issues section features a bunch of pdf downloads then it redirects to the general NDP website for any other information.
Talking points – As collected from the main NDP website there is a focus on jobs and affordability, health care, environment, and other priorities which include: strong communities and safe neighbourhoods, protecting Canadian sovereignty and the North, First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples, supporting culture, the arts and our Canadian cultural identity, international trade: fairness at home and abroad, Immigration, Canadian federalism and public institutions, ethics and accountability, defending human rights, women: moving forward on equality, people with disabilities: opportunities for all, Canada: global leadership in peace and justice. [issues]
Conservative – Lorne Mayencourt, whom I saw recently at the Keall Fundraiser.
Website notes – Despite there being a php error on Lorne’s main page, the issues section appears to be working.
Issues Outlined – The economy – Mayencourt outlines what Harper and the Conservative Party has already done for the county (ie. 5% GST). Insite / DTES / housing / mental health and addiction – long term and permanent solutions are needed. The environment / the green shift – he has a lot of criticism for the carbon tax, and the last issue on the website is Afghanistan. [issues]
Website notes – Very “clean” looking website with a lot of useful information about the election in general.
Issues Outlined – Catching up to the Global Green Economy, implement a comprehensive plan on climate change, affordable housing, GLBT – moving beyond just rights, better transit – no more congested Gateway roads, forward-looking immigration policy, improving our health (food, environment, care), protect our environment, international leadership. [issues]
Website notes – Basic, yet it’s one of the easiest to navigate with the large menu buttons on the left.
Issues Outlined – Property rights, free enterprise, individual rights, socialism and interventionism, and Big Brother: “Do you remember George Orwell’s 1984? We do and that’s a large part of what we’re trying to prevent.” [issues]
Website notes – They have a daily online newspaper and the yellow is a bit hard on the eyes. I haven’t yet found a site for the candidate. Issues can be found listed under “briefs”, click through to the individual pages.
Issues Outlined – Electoral reform and party financing, social security reform, citizenship and immigration, Quebec, Canadian unity and identity, foreign policy.
On Friday, October 3rd there is an “all candidates debate”on Art, Culture and Heritage from 8:00am – 9:30am at the BCIT Downtown Campus, 555 Seymour Street and there is another this Sunday, October 5 from 1:30pm to 3:30pm at the Christ Church Cathedral, 690 Burrard Street.
For a round up of local political blog coverage check out the VoterMedia selection.
Every year hundreds of thousands of locals and guests from around the world enjoy the Vancouver International Film Festival. I’ve had the pleasure of covering the events so far for my weekly E!Online column and am just beginning to comprehend the months of planning, scheduling, and hard work that goes into making this event take place each year.
