I was viewing my incoming links this morning and caught this one, which seems pretty interesting. If you head to the main website for The Province newspaper, which is Canada.com you’ll see on the top right “Province Blogs“.

Yesterday they introduced their brand new Newsroom:

We’ve started The Newsroom in an effort to keep in close touch with our online audience. We’ll keep you posted on stories we’re working on and direct you to other stories on the web that you might find interesting, even if they won’t be appearing on our main news site. The blog will also provide a quick and easy way to update breaking stories while our reporters are busy tracking down more details…

…Full disclosure: We got this idea from our friends at the National Post and their Posted blog. We liked it so much we decided to do something similar — with their full blessing of course.

Once you’re in their Community Blog area they have their featured blogs in the right sidebar as well as “Vancouver Area Blogs”: Beyond Robson, Metroblogging Vancouver, Urban Vancouver, Rant!Vancouver, The Vancouverite, Miss 604. They also have their own contributors.

We have a growing slate of bloggers. Canucks, Lions, arts, books, etc. Any new posts to any of those blogs will appear in the top right corner of our main page, so keep an eye on it.

This is the first step the province-wide publication has taken to this degree, online. I’m flattered by the link and more content is always good but I’ll be checking in to see how their progress is going over the next little while.

They are asking for feedback and also links so if you do have a Vancouver-centric blog, send it along to get some mainstream media link love.

Keira and I hit up the West End Block Party today. Although it was very kid-centric we got to explore, play carnival games, and be a couple big kids ourselves. I tell ya, we had to get a kid to show us how to play one game because it was pretty darn tough. We completed them all and got a prize to go along with the free bottles of water and granola bars that were being handed out.

There was also a yard sale at the United church with all proceeds going towards the World Vision children that the congregation supported. Although why they were selling a copy of “High Times” in the book section [photo], I haven’t the foggiest. But I suppose pot lovers can be christians too.

All in all a pretty successful afternoon in the neighbourhood. You can view the photo set or check out some choice pics below.

Old school BCE bus

Photo credit: keira on Flickr

They had some awesome little gems at the yard sale. There was a guy there selling photos he took of NHL players on the ice since he had access to photograph at warm ups – nice shots of Richter, Gretzky and Lemieux.

HOT dog!

These games were actually REALLY tough.

Photo credit: keira on Flickr

Tomorrow night perhaps Vancouverites will be able to catch an anticipated meteor shower. My husband‘s always been fascinated by astronomy and me, well I just think the little I know about it all is still pretty neat.

Photo credit: jon rawlinson on Flickr

It’s surprising how many more stars you see in the sky once you leave the city. Last weekend during our midnight run to Osoyoos we caught dozens of shooting stars in the twilight above. I know it’s one thing to live in the city and still be able to appreciate nature while out in a park or down by the beach, but it’s also another to be able to look up into the sky and be reminded of everything else there is in this world (and outside of it).

…Chunks of burning debris from the Swift-Tuttle comet will start hitting our atmosphere with the majority of space junk to arrive Sunday night.

The best viewing is after midnight as the Earth’s rotation turns into the comet left-overs. You don’t need to wear special protective gear to view the space shower. Look to the north-east for the best view of the meteors rocketing into Earth’s atmosphere. The shower gets its name because the meteors appear to be coming out of the constellation Perseus. [News 1130]

John was recently able to discuss his old passion in depth when our friend Henry was in town, he being slightly more of a pro in that field. I hope we’ll be able to catch some of the natural fireworks tomorrow night… if the weather cooperates and if the lights of the city don’t drown out the show.

My favourite place on earth to stargaze has got to be over on the Sunshine Coast, on a beach near Robert’s Creek. I’ve seen a meteor shower there before and have had plenty warm summer nights listening to the waves crash on the shore while watching the night sky. You don’t have to go that far out of the city to be able to look up and appreciate it all.

Photo credit: Keira on Flickr

After finding a neat cafe into which none of us had ventured, I’m pretty sure we would have all been content calling it a night without even hitting the movie theatre. Nevertheless, we arrived at our destination a little early so the attendant in the box office booth was a little frazzled by our presence, “who are you?”, “who told you that you had passes?”. Expecting the worst, I didn’t know if we’d even get inside at that point.

I was told I had some movie passes to a premiere last night for 3 friends and no one seemed to know what was going on. We weren’t in a terrible hurry or rush, as I said we already had a nice coffee/tea/chat around the corner. About 10 minutes later I was called over to the box office again, “who are you? What are your names?”. Since I rounded up the ladies, Corinna & Keira, for this midnight escapade I was hoping things would work out so we again stood patiently off to the side until the theatre doors opened and Mike came out.

Mike’s owned the RIO for a few years now and invested almost 1 of those years in re-making and renovating the place back into its original state, well back into its glory of a one-theatre house complete with 21st century touches.

He invited us inside for a private tour and we got the history and run down of the establishment, built in 1938 and was coined “the showplace of Vancouver”. Over the last decade it faded into the shadows until he took over ownership – the entire place looks shiney and new again. Their inaugural event was showing the World Cup games on the big screen last year, with participating countries’ flags remaining on the walls of the theatre.

Photo credit: Keira on Flickr

There are touches of the ‘old days’ and a photo of the RIO back in its heyday hangs in the lobby. A big bright red curtain covers the screen at the front, and there’s even a balcony. The seats are upgraded (close to Strawberry Hill standards… which if you don’t know in my books beats Silvercity any day) complete with arm rests that raise up and down. Mike was a very gracious host and I know my experience at the RIO was very positive. The movie was entertaining, however it’s the best that can be expected from the third movie in a series with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.

I’ll be recommending this to John as another one of Mike’s ‘upgrades’ was to start playing first run films (Rush Hour 3 is running for the next week, until the 16th). The RIO is $3 less than other movie establishments, at $8 for adults and they have cheapie Tuesdays and weekend matinees which are only $5. Best part is, since it’s not a googoplex corporate theatre house, there are no commercials before the movie at any point, just sweet sweet previews.

According to the checkout clerk this evening, it’s been 15 years in the making: the Safeway on Robson at Denman is closing its doors this Saturday.

I remember when the liquor store across the parking lot shut down, that was when the old building was slated to be demolished and a new super-Safeway was to be rebuilt on the same corner. The clerk today said that about half of the employees will head over to the Davie Street location but those who commute in, from as far as South Surrey, will probably be looking elsewhere for work. After years of disputes and red tape, the West End is losing one of its main grocery hubs. Where will we get our food stuffs now?

Let’s look at the options downtown (handy Google map of all locations is also available)

It’ll be a while until the new fancy Safeway on Robson and Denman is in place, but hopefully it’s worth the wait. I’m sure we’re all pretty tired of the cracked floors, ancient shelving units, and produce that’s been sitting there since the store was originally going to shut down in the early 90s.

If you have any more grocery shopping suggestions to add to my list, please leave a comment. I need to find a new place close by to get old fashioned chunky peanut butter since I don’t think they have any at the market.

Update: August 16, 2007 – Its features will include wood floors, acres of glass, and an in-store Starbucks kiosk. Although the new building will be two storeys, Safeway will occupy only the top floor, while the ground level will house smaller retailers, including a government liquor store to replace the one that was closed in January 2003. [Westender]