It sure is a mouthful but North America’s largest multicultural festival is once again taking to the waters of Vancouver.
What: Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival featuring food, cooking shows, a marketplace, children’s entertainment and of course the dragon boat races.
When: Saturday, June 21, 8 am to 10:30 pm, Sunday, June 22, 8 am to 6 pm, Races start at 8 am, all other activities start at 10 am.
Where: At Concord Pacific Place, Creekside Park and the waters of False Creek.
More Info: The festival is completely FREE, there is no admission for any of the events including a free concert by Canadian rockers The Trews in the evening.
The main attraction is the Dragon Boat racing itself and this year we have 171 teams, from corporate groups to recreational clubs, who hope to paddle their way to victory. The 41ft boats have 27 paddlers, 4600 racers in total, and one lap of the course is 5kms.
The festival actually has a pretty interesting history and seeing as how this is its 20th anniversary, here are some notes from the organizers:
“Dragon boating was a demonstration sport at Expo 86 – a handful of paddlers got out in False Creek in two teak dragon boats sent over from Hong Kong. Vancouverites watched – then were hooked. By 1989 a few volunteers had assembled more teams and more boats and the competition angle kicked in. They created an event – offered food from around the world, live music and great kids’ activities. Every year since we’ve hosted the largest dragon boat race and multicultural festival in North America.”
Hopefully we’ll have some sun June 21st because it’s pretty much a perfect Vancouver weekend; food, entertainment, a little friendly competition between athletes, a free event, and a celebration of cultures.
Update: It was a record-breaking year for the festival [News1130]. Photos and video of the event can be found in my blog posts here and here.
The only thing that would complete our summer festival and event lineup in Metro Vancouver would be a spot of sunshine. Here’s a quick round up of cheap things do to in Vancouver this month:
Saturday June 14th is Joomla! Day Vancouver from 9:30am until 5:00pm at the Library. Tickets are only $25 and if you’re a developer, user, designer or fanboy of Joomla! it’ll be well worth it for you.
Also this Saturday there is a screening of the Canadian film Young People F*cking at The Ridge Theatre. This 4:00pm show will be followed by a “pillow talk” session with one of the lead actors from the movie. The evening is made possible and presented by the First Weekend Club, a non-profit organization that works to promote Canadian Movies.
This Sunday June 15th is Car Free Day in Vancouver with several neighbourhoods closing down roadways to make way for pedestrian fun times.
The following Sunday June 22 is Greek Day on Broadway from 11:00am until 9:30pm. The entire street from Blenheim to McDonald will be shut down and I have to say, you must try some of the delicious foods that are provided. I used to go to the annual Greek Festival in Surrey and man, that neighbourhood never smelled so good.
And since Raul introduced me to Mixwit yesterday (and dedicated his mixtape to me) I’ve created my own. This accompanies a warm cup of coffee, the whir of a laptop fan, and a rainy June afternoon in Vancouver.
In my daily quest to find history tidbits to share with my readers about our fair city sometimes the best leg work that can be done is by simply going for a walk. As I was walking down Richards street yesterday on my way to dinner I passed the large “Richards” condo development sign, next to Richards on Richards.
If you recall last June the “little green house” at 1062 Richards street was sold to make way for development. The owner, Linda Rupa, held out for many years and finally sold her cottage and two 25-foot lots in 2007 for $6 million, which is a nice chunk of change compared to the $16,000 she paid for it in 1962.
Putting it off for so long because she loved the house so much, the 80-something year old’s bank account finally caved and the $36,000 a year for property taxes on the lots proved to be too much (leaving her with literally pennies to her name) pretty much leaving her no other option but to sell.
“I’ve been here a long time, and I’m just a Safeway girl, I worked for Safeways throughout my career. And the Army and Navy department store when I first came to Vancouver. In those days we only made 99 cents an hour. [Vancouver Sun]
Rupa watched as the properties around her were bought up and the landmark houses where her friends lived for 50 years were demolished one by one.
Photo credits: SqueakyMarmot and jmv
She reminisced in the Sun article, dropping names of her neighbours and fellow Vancouverites from back in the day.
It was a lovely neighbourhood, where people cared about each other,” says Rupa, who gives her age as “just about 80.” “Really a nice neighbourhood. Mr. Kripps on Granville street, who has the drug store, he’s an old-timer here. We had the Filippone and Iaci families.
You may recognize the name “Fillipone” or Philliponi which is the family that owned The Penthouse over the years [VancouverHistory].
The slick orange and white boards advertising the proud project by the Aquilini Investment Group sits next to the old night club and current live music venue. However, during my walk yesterday I spotted something taped to it that seemed a little out of place. Upon closer inspection I had found two birthday cards dated June 8th.
The first read: “Happy 100th Birthday!!! 1062 Richards!!! June 8, 1908 – June 8, 2008. With love, (signed) xo xo xo xo xo xo”.
Directly underneath it, wrapped in the same protective plastic was another card, “Happy 100th Birthday little green house there’s been many warm memories of people and pets through the years. Enjoy your new facelift, (signed).
Pieces of Vancouver’s past disappear everyday, sometimes it’s for the best and shows our growth as a city, but many times we still need to slow down and appreciate where the city came from. I bet those little houses on Richards street sure could tell some stories.
If you’re interested in these shadows and traces of old Vancouver, check out the Flickr group Vanishing Vancouver.
I’ve been getting some excellent suggestions for additions to the Parks Series, the latest coming from Barbara of The Love Blog who shares some photos below from one of her favourite beaches, Blackie Spit near Crescent Beach.
View Larger Map
How to get there: Located at 3136 McBride Avenue, you can take the 351 Crescent Beach bus and get off at the corner of McBride and Sullivan. Driving along Highway 99 turn off on King George Highway heading South. From KGH turn onto Crescent Road then head all the way to the end, over the train tracks and right on McBride.
Side note: This was also the starting point of The Amazing Hunt, Surrey Edition that my sister and I participated in last fall.
Features: A fully fenced dog off leash area, dog swimming beach, shelter, picnic area, washrooms, natural area trails, and walking paths. Home to the Surrey Sailing Club and Crescent Beach Swim Club.
History: “George and Isabella Gordon were the first family to live on the waterfront in Crescent Beach. Gordon leased the land and buildings from Walter Blackie from 1896 to 1906… …Walter Blackie settled on the land, and built a log cabin and barn. The area became known as Blackie’s Spit. The cabin was located at what is now the south end of O’Hara Lane.” [George Gordon Family Site]
Notes: Today the park is, “one of the best bird watching areas in Canada with almost 200 species of birds recorded over the different seasons. The sandy spit, surrounded by tidal marsh and Eelgrass beds, is an important stop for migrating and wintering waterfowl and shorebirds as they make their way up and down the coastline of North and South America. Fall migrants start arriving in late August and September, with spring migrants arriving in mid-March and gone by the end of May. The park is managed as a wildlife conservation area and habitat enhancement activities are ongoing throughout the park. The sand bars are a favourite resting place for Harbour Seals and their pups.” [City of Surrey]
Barbara’s post from 2006 also suggests it’s a nice place for a calming walk. I know my sister loves taking the kids there as it’s nice and sandy (ideal for sand castles), the water is much more calm in the channel, and it’s far less crowded than the other beaches.
I’ve noticed an overall trend in the blogosphere which involves a conspicuous decrease in link love. Blogrolls are disappearing and going the way of the hat tip.
Blogrolls are link lists often found on sidebars of blogs or websites that list other blogs. People can display recommended reads, useful website tips, show off their friends, and give some overall link love when using a blogroll. Lately I’ve noticed a trend of moving this off of the main page and having a “links” page instead. Here are some pros and cons of a “links page” that I’ve discussed before with Duane.
Thumbs Up…
You don’t have to be limited to the sidebar width, meaning you can include little descriptions of the sites under their listing.
You can add photos or icons for the bloggers on your list.
You may be inclined to add more, which is always good for those you chose to mention.
Somewhere in the middle…
Your page rankings will probably go up. Technorati (although pretty much still a mystery to me) counts your “incoming” and “outgoing” links against each other, from what I’ve heard anyway. So if you have fewer “outgoing” links on your home page it works in your ranking’s favour.
Thumbs Down…
Do people look at other pages on your site aside from your home page?
“If everyone got rid of their blogroll it would throw Google Page Rank for a loop” – Duane
Some people can get very obsessed and possessive about their placement on your blogroll. Any sudden movements might cause disruption in the blogosphere.
If I didn’t have a blogroll on my sidebar it would look pretty empty, then I would consider removing it entirely. Then I would realize I like putting things over there, I’d miss it, I’d have to code it back in and really, it would really be a big waste of time.
I’m not going to be restructuring any time soon, I simply I put this out there to see what’s working for everyone in terms of link love – actively in posts or on a static sidebar or links page. In the blogosphere honor system, should there be an equal amount of give and take when it comes to links? Are there any rules or are links just from the goodness of one’s heart and no one is really obliged to provide info for any outside websites?
“I just hope blogs, no matter how big they get, don’t forget that at one time they prided themselves on not being mainstream media, and likewise held themselves to a different standard, including a basic respect of the friendly, easy hat tip.” – [David Markland on LA Metblogs]
