The Dunbar Village Harvest Festival returns to Dunbar St, between W 26th & W 30th, this Saturday. Hosted by Dunbar Village Business Association, this year’s festivities bring locals a variety of activities for adults and kids, group presentations, live music and entertainment and a scavenger hunt with the chance to win an iPad!
Dunbar Village Harvest Festival
Where: Dunbar St, between W 26th & W 30th
When: Saturday, September 10, 2016 from 11:00am to 3:00pm
Admission: Free!
Performers headlining the Shoppers Drug Mart stage include family-friendly acts such as Harrison the Yoyoer, School of M.O.V.E.S with Dianna David, Lights Up Musical Theatre School performing The Little Mermaid and Juno nominated and award winning CBC kids’ artist Ginalina Music.
The festival is also offering activities for both adults and kids such as Sumo Bouts with Elements Academy, a climbing wall by The Edge Climbing Centre and a dunk tank hosted by Stong’s Market. Guests have the opportunity to take part in a scavenger hunt and win an iPad by completing store trivia in three separate areas of the Dunbar Village Harvest Festival.
Food trucks will be on site at the festival and Stong’s Market and Save-on-Foods will be manning two separate barbecues to feed patrons. Donations from the Stong’s BBQ are going towards the BC Cancer Foundation and Save-on-Foods is donating its proceeds to BC Children’s Hospital. Shoppers Drug Mart will also be hosting a sidewalk sale benefiting the BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre Foundation.
For more information about the Dunbar Village Harvest Festival, follow Dunbar Village on Facebook and Twitter.
The anticipated premiere of Moosemeat & Marmalade‘s second season airs today on the Aboriginal People’s Television Network (“APTN”). This season, co-hosts Art Napoleon and Dan Hayes go around the globe, exploring new realms of adventure — both in the kitchen and in the wild, taking farm-to-table cooking to a whole new level.
Moosemeat and Marmalade
In the first season of the show, Art and Dan discovered each other’s culinary philosophies and expertise. Art is an acclaimed First Nations bush cook and Dan is the chef and owner of The London Chef, a dynamic and interactive cooking school, pantry and catering kitchen located in Victoria. The second season sees the duo explore their different cultures collaboratively, in rich and diverse ways. Together they investigate what sustainability and food production look like in a modern world, while foraging for food in every country and city they visit.
This season, Art and Dan travel from BC to Ontario and over to England and Scotland in Europe, where the chefs explore a host of classic and not-so-classic cuisines while cooking with guests including the acclaimed UK game hunter Mike Robinson and the eccentric wild rice farmer James Whetung from Northern Ontario. We see the duo venture into some extreme food tastings (singed Porcupine, anyone?) while investigating seaweed farming, and diving for the world’s best scallops off the Isle of Mull, Scotland.
Each week, audiences will get an insider look at some of the world’s most noted experts sharing their expertise around distilling, trapping, foraging, ice fishing and more. Recipes from each episode will be posted online for viewers to print and make at home. A free interactive e-book (iPad only) also offers exclusive additional content and technical step-by-step tutorials for some of the chefs’ favourite dishes from the show.
Win a Rustic Moosemeat and Marmalade Getaway
You can enter to win a stay at Mile High Resort, where part of an episode has been filmed! This is a rustic cabin getaway, nestled lakeside on Face Lake just outside of Kamloops.
Here’s how you can enter to win this back to nature experience:
- Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
- Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
Watch Moosemeat & Marmalade on APTN, check your local listings for times. Follow the show on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for more information.
I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Wednesday, September 14, 2016. The winner will receive a voucher to book their stay at Mile High Resort. Prize is for 2 nights, up to 4 people. Dates based on availability, no long weekends, the week leading up to or after Christmas. Read full resort details here.
Update The winner is Amanda Smith!
Lush evergreens, waves lapping at a pebbly beach, snow capped peaks, are all images that would make any local homesick for the Pacific Northwest. However, the soaked streets, glistening reflections from headlights and neon signs, and a couple huddled under an umbrella are scenes that really get me. I can’t help but feel something for my hometown, something for my partner, and something about those early fall nights in the rain that are so full of darkness, but full of love.
It’s these scenes that artist David Wilson has captured so beautifully, and meaningfully, in his latest collection that will be on display at the Kimoto Gallery this month.
Stay With Me, acrylic on canvas, 2016 David Wilson
“I stepped away from sort of the literal representation of the scenes that I have traditionally painted and I started inserting a bit more abstraction to the work and then a little bit more of myself,” Wilson told me just a day before his show ABSENCE opens at the gallery.
“Some thoughts and ideas that have always been present in the work but I think by actually writing some of those thoughts down and putting them on a canvas, making them a bit more overt has added a different element to the work.”
Wilson feels that this is his strongest exhibition to date. After health issues sidelined him a few years ago, he now feels a renewed vitality and energy. “In the last year and a half I have had good health and I think that’s reflected in the work. I’m very happy with the direction it’s going.”
For this collection, he started off by trying to create something new, and something a bit more personal, so he began with a series of studies, which is a canvas or panel he works on to flush out his ideas.
“I do that initially as a way to prepare myself for the large canvas. Because with a large canvas, if you’re not getting it right you have to start all over again and it’s a fairly large investment of time and energy.”
“I learned a lot about myself as a painter going through that process, it was really quite enjoyable.”
When trying a new approach, Wilson is very aware of the challenges that might come with it. “There’s always that risk that people will look at what you do, that’s new, and think that’s not what I want to buy anymore, that’s not what really interests me.” He finds that in time, however, as an artist it’s a great opportunity to grow and gain a greater understanding of what he is doing. “I like to keep moving, I don’t really like to sit still very long.”
The new process seems to have paid off, as he accumulated over 30 pieces for the Kimoto Gallery show. “I wasn’t really paying attention to how many [pieces] I had and when I pulled them out to do an inventory check I had 33 paintings to deliver to the gallery and that’s a lot!”
Wilson says that he does try to produce a larger selection of work to provide opportunities for different price points, different tastes.
Never Far Away, acrylic on canvas, 2015 David Wilson
A common theme in his paintings is Vancouver — whether it’s the Sea Wall, a rainy night in Gastown or on Commercial Drive, or the recognizable neon of Vancouver’s entertainment district.
“I think the cityscapes they create an opportunity to tap into a shared experience that most Vancouverites have here, I think that’s why people respond so well with the umbrellas and the rain. We all have that experience and initially when I started doing this work it was a bit of a shock for people to look at it and say, ‘Oh, it doesn’t look so bad when it’s raining here in Vancouver after all!’ We like to complain about the rain but I think we have this love/hate relationship with it too.”
“For the most part I just paint Vancouver because that’s where I live and it’s a city that has grown near and dear to my heart.”
Wilson moved to the city from Powell River 25 years ago and has raised his family here. His family has thought about living in other cities, but they just love it here so much, plus they still get to travel.
“This city is conducive to art making, for a variety of reasons, it’s just a great city to live in. The quality of life is pretty high here, it’s clean, it’s safe, it’s expensive but that’s just one aspect of it. It’s beautiful here.” The artists Wilson knows are also very supportive of each other. “I think there’s a lot of good art being produced here.”
With so much inspiration around every corner, but a new approach to this exhibition, Wilson’s subject matter blends some of his old favourites with new symbols — especially when it comes to Granville Street, which you’ll see quite often in his collections.
Dont Look Back, acrylic on board, 2016 David Wilson
“For this exhibition in particular I sort of stepped away, I do have some paintings of Granville Street, just because it’s sort of like a magnet that draws me back to it, but my emphasis was on the figure walking with the umbrella in the rain. I like the symbolism associated with the umbrella.”
For the show’s outline, he told Kimoto Gallery: “It is a nod to my limited abilities to form an envelop of protection or safety around the ones I care most deeply for and to the fragile nature of life itself as the vagaries of life frequently remind me of my limited abilities to control circumstances. When caught in a downpour an umbrella may keep much of you dry but you’re still going to get wet.”
With this, he has managed to capture a view of Vancouver through the watery lens of a downpour without making it dark or chaotic, but warm.
“Anybody that lives in this city has had to get under an umbrella at some point. I think that’s probably the direction I’m moving towards more, sort of the personal experience that we have, rather than the locations. That will always be a part of what I do, at least for now, but that’s where I’m heading.”
ABSENCE New Works by David Wilson at Kimoto Gallery
Location: Kimoto Gallery, 1525 West 6th Ave (at Granville)
Exhibition: September 9th to October 8th, 2016
Opening Reception: September 9th from 6:00pm to 9:00pm
Artist Talk: September 17th at 1:00pm
Follow David Wilson on Twitter & Facebook, Kimoto Gallery on Twitter & Facebook for more information.
On a blustery holiday evening by the sea, John and I visited Richmond’s newest craft beer destination, Britannia Brewing Company, to meet up with some old friends. Located at Second Avenue and Bayview, the restaurant and pub that pours Richmond-brewed Britannia beer was hopping with families and friends coming together in the nautical themed venue. We took a spot at the large communal table, hand carved and stained by one of owners, and adorned with a towering vase of flower.
Britannia Brewing Company in Steveston
Founded by partners Kyle Brailean, Lloyd Kinney and Trystam Hayden, Britannia Brewing launched just last month in Steveston Village, with their brewing operations located behind Ironwood.
We ordered their sample flight ($10) featuring their three brews plus a guest tap (Monday night it was Four Winds, from Delta). The XPA (5.6% abv/45 IBU) is available exclusively on draught at the restaurant. It has West Coast and Australian hops that “create a bigger than usual pale ale with a hop kick”. There was also a Rye Porter, which no one in our group was too keen to drink (they all preferred lighter brews — except John, he likes porters) but since it was one of just 3 by the host company we all gave it a shot.
The Hop Blonde Ale (4.7% abv/22 IBU) is described as “a refreshing ale with citrus and tropical fruit aromas and a subtle bitterness” and it didn’t disappoint, it was my favourite of the three by Brtiannia. It also paired beautifully with some of the seafood menu items.
They can’t do growlers yet, that’s coming, and I believe they still have some patio features to finish up, but Britannia Brewing is on its way. It has embraced its location, offering up catch-of-the-day fare like ceviche ($12), fish & chips ($15), and a poke bowl ($15), along with hearty two-handed burgers on a bed of fries.
There are definitely some good things brewing, and with a good start and fantastic location, Britannia Brewing is set to sail with the rest. Follow their progress and updates on Facebook for more info.
Join the second annual Sip and Savour fundraiser, presented by numpfer, on October 3rd where all proceeds from the event are donated to BC Women’s Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
Sip and Savour
Restaurants, Cocktail Bars, Craft Breweries & Wineries Under One Roof
When: Monday, October 3, 2016 from 7:00pm to 10:00pm
Where: Pipe Shop at The Shipyards (115 Victory Ship Way, North Vancouver)
Tickets: On sale online now for $85.
Last year’s inaugural event was a monumental success, demonstrating the incredible power of community and raising over $50,000 to purchase a critically needed phototherapy system for newborns suffering from jaundice. The generous support of individuals, businesses and non-profit foundations made this possible. The donation of time and resources including the venue, photography, a photo booth, gifts, food and drink all allowed this special night to play an important role in giving a helping hand to brand new babies in need of additional medical support.
This year’s Sip and Savour will be hosted by CTV news anchor and long-time NICU supporter, Tamara Taggart. Event-goers will have the chance to “sip and savour” some of Vancouver’s top food and drinks from acclaimed restaurants like Hawksworth, Minami, The Mackenzie Room, The Acorn, TUC Craft Kitchen and more. A silent auction featuring more than 75 items will further entice and delight guests – all for an incredibly worthy cause.
Follow Sip and Savour on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more information.
