With 4600 racers and thousands of exhibitors, spectators and cheerleaders in their own right, the Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival was a happening place to be this afternoon.
Peruvian BBQ, fish and chips, and beverage vendors were alongside corporate and sponsor booths, games, swag tents and a concert stage. This free event around False Creek truly celebrates multiculturalism as well as our beautiful city.
I obviously cannot forget to mention the racers – these athletes come from all walks of life and man, can they ever paddle. With 170 teams and races starting every 12 minutes, the action is pretty mesmerizing.
There are teams with special needs members or those with mental illness, cancer survivors, organ donors, high school kids from the downtown eastside, corporate or social teams, and there’s even a team where half of the members are blind or visually impaired. Hearing those drums beating, provoking the paddlers and keeping them in time while they rush through the wake of neighbouring boats reminds you that the Dragon Boat festival not only celebrates ethnic diversity, but also triumph in sport.
Good news is that by the time you read this the festival will still be far from over. Tonight at 7:30 “doors” (and by door I mean gates) to The Trews concert will open and your best bet for this free show is to enter by Science World. Tomorrow the races continue, starting at 8:00am and going until 6:00pm – the action will be sped up as teams compete in the finals.
All photos in this post are © John Bollwitt for Miss604.com – view more in John’s Flickr stream. Thanks to the Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival for not only having John and I out there as official media, but also for linking to my blog on the special links page of their website.
Photo credit:
Raul on Flickr
We turned the corner from East Cordova onto Main Street and gathered under the brightly lit red marquee.
Once past security we entered the lobby of the District 319 Theatre and were greeted by two lovely ladies, one of which was Marina from Row Three. We were handed a door prize ticket, a drink ticket, and a live band (Vancouver’s ENTROPIA) was already playing some metal that echoed out from the theatre and reverberated in our wineglass-toting hands. Welcome to the First Weekend Club, a group of Canadian Film enthusiasts that celebrate our county’s big screen works.
First Weekend Club builds audiences for Canadian films. Our mandate is to keep films in theatres longer by building awareness and strong box office for great Canadian cinema on opening weekends. [About – FWC]
We made our way from the lobby to the theatre, wine glasses in tow, and sat down in red leather easy chairs. After a quick intro and prize giveaway the documentary began to run and soon we all just wanted to rock out.
In GLOBAL METAL, directors Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn set out to discover how the West’s most maligned musical genre, heavy metal, has impacted the world’s cultures beyond Europe and North America… …GLOBAL METAL reveals a worldwide community of metalheads who aren’t just absorbing metal from the West – they’re transforming it. [Global Metal]
I’ve seen my share of documentaries, even music flicks, and this was probably one of the best. We tag along with Sam Dunn from Rock in Rio and Loud Park to Desert Rock. The film takes you around the globe introducing you to folks who all pretty much seemed to have one thing in their hearts: “Gandhi and Iron Maiden,” okay well not all of them had those two elements but a running theme was definitely freedom of speech.
Throughout the journey some interviews with legends pop up to share a quick blurb, and they all had a lot to say about their tours and especially playing in countries where their music wasn’t even allowed.
Sam would interview fans and band members wherever he visited and honestly they were some of the most insightful, thoughtful and eloquent individuals who helped dissect metal and its roots where they came from. These youths and aged musicians alike all find inspiration from their daily lives, as witnesses of events and history forming all around them it’s their right to express their emotions musically which also helps these stories live on.
“There is plenty of darkness, we should speak of the light.”
In Jerusalem there was an interview with the singer of Orphaned Land, in Japan it was glammed-out metalheads X-Japan, Sepultura in Brazil, and Souled Out in India just to name a few. The film not only explores musical, historical and political motivations but also religious. At one point during an interview with a metal fan in Dubai our audience burst out in applause when he stated (among other things) that “religion is between you and your God.”
Form the tie-clad business men in Japan to the 29 year old from Iran who was going to his first metal show in the desert, Global Metal presented more than simply a fan-pic for bands like Iron Maiden, it truly went global and found those of all walks of life listened to their views of not only music, but the world around them.
I believe the film will be playing at The Ridge theatre after tonight so you can check out Festival Cinemas for show times. I’d like to thank the First Weekend Club for having us out and I’ll definitely be keeping up to date on their events in the future.
Me with Dr Raul and Dr Beth – Photo credit:
Raul on Flickr
More photos from the screening can be viewed in the First Weekend Club’s Flickr group.
A quick update to a previous post about the Dandy Warhols show tonight as it will now be taking place at Richards on Richards (and not The Vogue). Doors @ 8:00pm.
John and I will be attending later this evening and we hope to have a recap with some photos to add to this post as well. To warm you up for the show, here’s a quick Mixwit tape including four Dandy tracks.
Their new album Earth to the Dandy Warhols is available by download on their website and the CD will be released this summer.
You always see it there out of the corner of your eye sitting in its little plastic box mounted by the windows and blowing in the breeze after that one passenger opened the window even though no one else wanted him to. It’s The Buzzer, Metro Vancouver transit’s free publication available on all transit vehicles and skytrains.
“The Buzzer is a free onboard publication. It was first published June 2, 1916, and is presently distributed every second Friday.” [Translink]
I used to be big on The Buzzer, like back in 1984 when I would ride the 324 with my mom from Newton Exchange over to my grandma and grandpa’s house. I think I was just big on free pamphlets in general – you should have seen me at tourist rest stops during long-haul family camping trips.
Little did I know, or even think to look up, The Buzzer is also available online in pdf form (since 2006) although wouldn’t the content simply make for a great little Translink blog? They have cartoons, route information and upcoming events. Toss in a fun Google map for their next “how to take transit to…” article and they’re set. They are also in the middle of a FareCard contest, and the winner will be announced this Friday, June 20th.
I often wonder if the major launch of daily commuter papers in Vancouver hurt The Buzzer at all. It used to be something folks picked up specifically or so that they could stop staring at the same ads overhead during a 45 minute commute. As far as distractions go, the major free daily newspaper push a few years ago might have hurt The Buzzer slightly, but I do know some faithful readers.
Regardless, it’s a great tradition of transit literature over the last 92 years. Pick up the latest copy to browse the first edition ever from 1916 which was in search of a name (the contest offered $15 to the person who selected the winning name that would go to print). Runner up names to the contest were “Current Comments” and “Between the Lines”, I’m actually quite fond of the latter.
Thanks to The Buzzer for all the information and entertainment over the years. Who knows, maybe one day when we walk onto the bus our phones will beep and ask us if we want to view the latest issue, in digital form.
I received an email a while back from someone offering to cover Burnaby Lake Regional Park for the Park Series, which I gladly accepted. The following post is written by Mike from VancouverTrails.com.
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Home to such animals as Wood Ducks, Blue Herons, Beavers, Eagles, and Canadian Geese, Burnaby Lake is an important wildlife sanctuary and a great place for bird watchers and nature photographers to enjoy. There is 19km of hiking trails, 6km of horseback riding trails, soccer and rugby fields, and a rowing pavilion amongst other sports facilities around the lake area.
Metrics: The lake is 3.11 square kilometers and has a 10km walking trail that surrounds the entire lake.
How to Get There: Burnaby Lake is located in the center of Burnaby, on the north side of the Trans-Canada Highway about about 30 minutes driving time east from downtown Vancouver. The park has several access points including the Sports Complex by the soccer fields on the west end, the Nature House located off of Winston Street on the north, and the parking lot off of Avalon Avenue near the Burnaby Equestrian Centre on the east side.
The park is also easily accessible by public transit as the Skytrain stops at the Sperling-Burnaby Lake station along the Millennium Line and a short walk across the train tracks brings you to the Sports Complex on the west side of the lake.
History: The lake was created 12,000 years ago by a glacier and more recently was used for logging operations as several saw mills were located along its shores during the late 1800’s. Today, the lake is an important wildlife sanctuary that is home to more than 70 species of birds.
In 2008, the City of Burnaby and BC Government agreed to spend $20 million on dredging the lake so that it could be used again for rowing competitions. The funding was also to be used to improve the wildlife and fish habitat within the park.
Notes: My first experience going to Burnaby Lake was as a child, my parents took orphaned baby raccoons to the Wildlife Rescue Association on the south shore of the lake. Today, I jog the 10km path around the lake or just take an evening stroll along Piper’s Spit where beavers can often be spotted swimming from their lodge as the sun sets.
Read more from Mike over on VancouverTrails.com: “Vancouver Trails has a range of trails from easy to difficult, from half day to full day hikes, each divided amongst several regions and each with their own unique terrain.”
