Archive for the 'Event' Category

Rye­berg Curated Video is a Toronto event fea­tur­ing writ­ers dis­cussing their favourite YouTube videos. In March, its first show ever is hap­pen­ing out­side of Toronto– right here in Vancouver!

The line-up is great, with fea­tured writ­ers and web cura­tors Char­lie Demers (author of Van­cou­ver Spe­cial); Miriam Towes (author of A Com­pli­cated Kind­ness); Michael Turner (author of Hard Core Logo); Stephen Osborne (pub­lisher of Geist Mag­a­zine)

Don’t miss it!

Rye­berg Live Van­cou­ver
The Wal­dorf (1489 E Hast­ings)
March 6th, 2012
Doors at 7PM, show at 8PM
$12 in advance, $10 at the door (includes a copy of Geist)
Full details at Ryeberg.com

A Venn dia­gram of art enthu­si­asts and Bill Mur­ray lovers would have a very large over­lap indeed, con­sid­er­ing that both indis­putably make the world a bet­ter place. And while attend­ing an art show can be an intim­i­dat­ing activ­ity for those of us who would rather be at home watch­ing Ghost­busters, the folks who brought you the Steven Sea­gallery are back with Bill You Mur­ray Me, an art show that cel­e­brates the man, the leg­end, the one and only.

The show was orig­i­nally planned for Feb­ru­ary 11th, but after being over­whelmed by sub­mis­sions (any­one and every­one was invited to send in their best Bill Murray-themed work, in any artis­tic medium), the show was pushed back a week in order to find a larger space. The Fall (644 Sey­mour) will be host­ing the event, which also includes drinks and music.

Bill You Mur­ray Me: Group Art Show
The Fall (644 Sey­mour)
7:00PM-2:00AM
By dona­tion
Full details on Face­book

On Mon­day night, Vancouver’s swag­ger­ing funk-rap group Pan­ther and the Supafly will be play­ing live instru­men­tal ver­sions of hip-hop clas­sics while karaoke hope­fuls get live on the mic. If you’ve never been to For­tune Sound Club’s Hip-Hop Karaoke, widely con­sid­ered to be Vancouver’s best Mon­day night out, this is an excel­lent oppor­tu­nity to check it out. And if you’re already a Hip-Hop Karaoke fan, you shouldn’t miss the chance to see the night go unplugged like Jay-Z and the Roots on MTV. Pan­ther and the Supafly will also be rock­ing tracks from their debut EP “Nikazi.”

Sad Mag’s explo­ration of the com­plex moti­va­tions of Hip-Hop Karaoke per­form­ers con­tin­ues here:

Tim Mortensen

Shmuel Mar­mostein: What got you into Hip-Hop Karaoke?

Tim Mortensen: I was at a Nice ‘n Smooth show here wear­ing a Gang Starr t-shirt, and they pulled me on stage.It was right after Guru died and they were pour­ing out orange juice on stage, it was crazy! A friend of mine who knew about HHK saw that and sug­gested we per­form DWYCK, the song Nice n’ Smooth were doing.

SM: What was your favorite song that you performed?

TM: Half­time by Nas, on Hal­loween. It was one of the hard­est songs I’ve ever done. It was fun because I was dressed as b-boy priest in gold chains.

SM: What about by another performer?

TM: A Busta Rhymes song by local MC Kaboom Atomic, he did it perfectly.

SM: That’s hard! How much do you usu­ally practice?

TM: It depends on the song. For some of them I’ve already liked the song for a while, so it’s eas­ier. I usu­ally prac­tice the song 15–20 times. I always rap over the vocal, and then I switch to the instru­men­tal, which is a lot harder! For the Nas one, I did it 30 times or more.

SM: What do you love about per­form­ing here?

TM: The good vibe, and the fun I always have at the night itself. It’s a priv­i­lege to per­form. You do it once or twice and you get addicted. It’s great expe­ri­ence if you want to be a per­former because you have the spot­light on you. And I love hip-hop, so I get to do what I love.

Chad Iver­son, event orga­nizer and co-founder

Shmuel Mar­mostein: What made you start the Hip-Hop Karaoke night?

Chad Iver­son: Paul [Gibson-Tigh, the other founder and orga­nizer] told me about the HHK night in Toronto, and said we should do it here. It was just a drunken con­ver­sa­tion on Third Beach, and I though hhk sounded like the illest idea.

SM: What was your favorite song that you performed?

CI: Earl by Earl Sweat­shirt, or the one I just did, Tried by 12 by East Flat­bush Project. I love that song and I’ve been want­ing to do it for­ever. It’s an under­ground classic.

SM: It was awe­some, you killed it! What about by some­one else?

CI: That’s a really hard question…maybe Kyprios doing Passin’ me by at the one-year anniver­sary show?

SM: How much do you usu­ally prac­tice before performing?

CI: Way too much. If you take a look at my lastfm site, all my top songs lis­tened to are ones I’ve performed!

SM: What do you love about per­form­ing here?

CI: The ego boost. It feels good! It’s a rush being on stage. I’m also pay­ing homage to a genre of music and a cul­ture I love. I never thought I would be run­ning a hip hop night in Van­cou­ver, that’s for sure.

SM: How has putting on this night changed your life?

CI: Well, this night has made For­tune a sec­ond home. I do pro­mo­tion here and I’ve learned a lot about, I don’t want to use the term, the “club­bing scene.” It’s a poten­tial career changer. The changes have all been pos­i­tive, definitely.

Hip-Hop Karaoke: Pan­ther and the Supafly

For­tune Sound Club (147 E Pen­der St)

$4 cover before 10:30PM, $8 after

Full details on Face­book

What would make a per­son want to per­form hip hop karaoke?

For­tune Sound Club’s monthly Hip-Hop Karaoke night sells itself as the best time you can have on a Mon­day night any­where in Van­cou­ver. DJ Flipout hosts with a mix of soccer-coach pos­i­tiv­ity and sharp ban­ter, and DJ Seko plays boom­ing instru­men­tals on a full sound sys­tem. The crowd is loud and focused on the per­form­ers, and enjoys danc­ing, wav­ing hands in the air, and yelling. The stage has been blessed with “rap­pin’ ass rap­pers” (Flipout’s term for pro­fes­sional rap­pers) such as Jaykin, Kyprios, and the Ras­calz pay­ing trib­ute to the songs that inspired them to pick up the mic. But it’s equally wel­com­ing to ama­teurs, shy girls who bust out eerily accu­rate Li’l Wayne or Nicki Minaj impres­sions or nerdy dudes trans­form­ing them­selves into gangsta rap superstars.

Yet there’s still an intim­i­da­tion fac­tor. Unlike reg­u­lar karaoke nights, Hip-Hop Karaoke has no tinned canny instru­men­tals. There’s no video screen show­ing incon­gru­ous men in suits run­ning on a beach at sun­set. Most impor­tantly, there are no lyrics with a bounc­ing ball for per­form­ers to read. Per­form­ers need to mem­o­rize rap songs (which tend to have a lot of words, spo­ken fast) well enough to spit fire in front of hun­dreds of peo­ple. The crowd is patient with mis­takes, but screw­ing up can still be pretty embar­rass­ing. I asked four reg­u­lar per­form­ers why they loved Hip-Hop Karaoke.

Diana Theodora Christou

SM: How did you first hear about hip hop karaoke?

DTC: I saw a poster on a tele­phone pole and felt like the sky opened up and my des­tiny was call­ing to me!

SM: What was your favorite song that you performed?

DTC: Das EFX — They want EFX. It’s a really fun and tricky song, and I love how they rap.

SM: What about by another performer?

DTC: That’s a hard ques­tion, there’s been so many. But there was an Asian girl doing (sings) Whatta Man Whatta Man whatta mighty mighty good man!

SM: How often do you prac­tice a song before going on stage?

DTC: I usu­ally lis­ten to it every day for the two weeks before Hip-Hop Karaoke. I play it over and over again on the way to work.

SM: What do you love about per­form­ing here?

DTC: It’s a big release, and it makes me feel good about myself.

SM: Do you do any other live performing?

DTC: No, but even when I was four I loved to dance around and enter­tain my fam­ily. This is a great way to express that side of myself.

Lawrence Lua

SM: What was your favorite song that you performed?

LL: Breathe by Fab­u­lous, because it’s the one I screwed up the least!

SM: How did you get into Hip-Hop Karaoke?

LL: I came here for a few shows and then started to rap. I love rap and I love per­form­ing, it’s fuck­ing cool! Before doing it, I won­dered how it would be, to go through the stage fright and the whole experience.

SM: How long do you prac­tice for?

LL: A week or so. I usu­ally cram the night before.

SM: What do you love about per­form­ing here?

LL: The peo­ple. The vibe.

Next Fri­day: Part 2, inter­views with two more vet­er­ans and a pre­view of the Feb 13th show!
For more on Hip-Hop Karaoke, visit their Face­book Page.

Usu­ally we com­ment on things that make us un-sad, but there’s a fight going on between the Rio and the LCLB that’s mak­ing us sad and mad. For­tu­nately, the Rio’s Cor­rine Lea is not back­ing down, which is mak­ing us glad. As does rhyming but I digress.

On Thurs­day, Jan­u­ary 26, the Rio was sup­posed to be cel­e­brat­ing their suc­cess in achiev­ing a liquor license, an achieve­ment which was an inte­gral part of con­tin­u­ing as a viable busi­ness.  Instead, the event became a fundraiser to off­set their losses and fund future resis­tance to the restric­tions out on the Rio due to that very license.

Lea has had to can­cel film screen­ings as venues clas­si­fied as “movie the­atres” can­not serve alco­hol. Lea main­tains they are a multi-media venue and so are mis­clas­si­fied. She also notes that her license only runs from 6pm to 1am, and she is not insist­ing that liquor be served at screen­ings, only that screen­ings be able to take place. After they screen the “Rocky Hor­ror Picture-less Show” on Fri­day, Jan­u­ary 27th, when the sound­track will play and the film enacted by a  shadow cast, they don’t have any­thing sched­uled until Feb­ru­ary 4th. “As far as the blank days go, we’re just going to scram­ble and try to fig­ure out what to do. We might have an open mic night every night or a karaoke night…If the gov­ern­ment were to reverse their deci­sion I could have movies in those slots like that.” She snaps her fin­gers with the type of gusto required when going up against said government.

Since being told about the caveat on her license, there have been many state­ments issued — by Lea, by Solic­i­tor Gen­eral Shirley Bond, and by Liquor Con­trol and Licens­ing Branch gen­eral man­ager Karen Ayers — but lit­tle con­struc­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tion seems to be hap­pen­ing.  Ayers has made many com­ments in the media about the var­i­ous rea­sons the Rio is in this predica­ment and not, say, Roger’s Arena. Ayers touts pub­lic safety and notes the arena’s secu­rity as a rea­son for venue’s such as that being licensed. Lea notes that she was never given the option to increase secu­rity as a means to secure the licens­ing she needs.

My opin­ion, and the opin­ion of groups like CAMRA, is that the province and the fed­eral gov­ern­ment are main­tain­ing pro­hi­bi­tion era statutes. I would add that even the LCLB’s ratio­nal­iza­tions seem out­dated, not to men­tion incon­sis­tent. It would bet­ter serve pub­lic safety to ban alco­hol at vio­lent sport­ing events than at the movies. I’d def­i­nitely put my money on not see­ing see any post-event riots at the Rio, screen­ings or oth­er­wise. While Ayers has been answer­ing objec­tions one at a time, there are easy fixes to these, which Lea is more than will­ing to put into place. For exam­ple, wor­ry­ing about minors hav­ing liquor in the dark could be assuaged if the Rio doesn’t serve alco­hol dur­ing film screen­ings. Lea notes she sim­ply wants to serve liquor at events, not movies.

Bond has issued a state­ment, picked up by sev­eral out­lets, that her office is “aware of the chal­lenges,” are “con­sid­er­ing what changes may be appro­pri­ate” and they “look for­ward to hav­ing more to say about this in the near future.” While this may sig­nal progress, the lack of specifics are wor­ri­some to Lea. As of Sun­day, Jan­u­ary 29th, Lea has yet to hear from the Solic­i­tor General’s office or the LCLB on any options she might have going for­ward. The Rio is con­sult­ing with the British Colum­bia Civil Lib­er­ties Asso­ci­a­tion as to whether their civil lib­er­ties have been curtailed.

The Rio is sched­uled to host films from the Van­cou­ver Island Film Fes­ti­val, which begins Feb­ru­ary 10th. This is just one effect the Rio oper­at­ing with­out screen­ings will have, and rep­re­sents a real dead­line for action. The Rio sup­ports a vari­ety of com­mu­ni­ties beyond film – music, com­edy, bur­lesque, dance and more – by being a unique and acces­si­ble venue. It also rep­re­sents a part of Van­cou­ver his­tory, as the Tyee points out, an archi­tec­tural and cin­e­matic his­tory that is being demolished.

Thus it’s not sur­pris­ing that peo­ple are rais­ing their voices not just in the street forums (which is what I call cof­fee shops and face­book com­ments), but in the press (sim­ply Google “the Rio The­atre Van­cou­ver” for a flood of sto­ries) and among politi­cians (Jenny Kwan and Heather Deal are both speak­ing out on the Rio’s behalf). It even tran­scends polit­i­cal affil­i­a­tions, with Leo Knight,  “Law and Order” opin­ion colum­nist, to agree on an issue with a Vision Coun­cilor “for the first time in liv­ing history.”

This issue is hot, not only because the Rio and Lea are so sup­port­ive of and beloved by Vancouver’s arts com­mu­nity but because, espe­cially to that same arts com­mu­nity, it rep­re­sents major issues in Van­cou­ver and BC. It’s a hard place to suc­ceed as a small busi­ness, and is full of demol­ished unique cul­tural venues, archaic liquor and pub­lic safety laws and a gen­eral dis­re­gard for what access to arts does for a com­mu­nity both socially and eco­nom­i­cally. The story at the Rio has become a point of ref­er­ence  the chang­ing of BC liquor dis­tri­b­u­tion, but it’s truly a point of ref­er­ence for the inter­sec­tion of arts, busi­ness and government.

On a pos­i­tive note, the Rio fundraiser née cel­e­bra­tion was a suc­cess. “We had 200 peo­ple attend  – it was a beau­ti­ful event. Pan­dora and the Lock­smiths made for a really classy evening with a lit­tle bit of tease. On a per­sonal level I found it really uplift­ing to see every­one face to face. It was really great to per­son­ally go around and thank peo­ple. It was a real good night for peo­ple to talk about the issue,” says Lea, sound­ing hope­ful despite her los­ing thou­sands of dol­lars every day her the­atre is closed.  MLA’s Jenny Kwan and Shane Simp­son were in atten­dance, as was Leonard Schein, the pres­i­dent of Fes­ti­val Cinemas.

Along with the return (kind of) of gam­ing based arts fund­ing, the con­tro­versy and sup­port the Rio’s lat­est bat­tle has drawn may her­ald change. But to win, Lea needs our sup­port. Here’s how you can help: raise your voice and write to your MLA, the Solic­i­tor Gen­eral and the LCLB; on Jan­u­ary 31 Heather Deal is pre­sent­ing a motion at City Hall to have the movie ban removed, and you can come and speak for the Rio; and sup­port the Rio finan­cially by attend­ing their amaz­ing upcom­ing LIVE events. Find the addresses and emails, up to date info, FAQs and next steps on Rio’s Face­book group.

The Rio may not be screen­ing movies right now – but there’s still amaz­ing events com­ing up. Let’s wrap up this chap­ter of the ongo­ing saga with a few events com­ing up. You can check out full details online includ­ing advance tick­ets, but Lea had a few extra tid­bits to share with Sad Mag readers.

Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 4: Patrick Mal­iha presents the Legion of Stand-Up Come­di­ans
Tick­ets: $10 Doors: 7pm Show: 8pm

“This is a really excit­ing night because Patrick Mal­iha is a well known come­dian about town and always puts on an excel­lent event. Gra­ham Clark will be a spe­cial guest, which is amaz­ing, peo­ple love Gra­ham Clark. He’s added some­thing like 23 bur­lesque dancers last minute, so it’s going to be fabulous.”

Fri­day, Feb­ru­ary 10: Tongue N’ Cheek: Sex, Dance and Spo­ken Word
Tick­ets: $12 advance $15 door Doors: 8pm Show: 9pm

“We’re very excited about this show because it fea­tures my four favourite bur­lesque dancers in town, [Sweet Soul Burlesque’s Crys­tal Pre­cious, Lola Frost, Lit­tle Miss Risk and Cherry On Top].  This is kind of my baby, this par­tic­u­lar show, because I’m com­bin­ing two of my favourite things, bur­lesque and spo­ken word. C.R. Avery, Mike McGee and Jamie DeWolf are three really pow­er­ful spo­ken word artists and we’re get­ting them to col­lab­o­rate, it’s not ‘here’s a dance, here’s a poem’, we’re get­ting them to work together. [Plus] there’s 8 local poets who will be com­pet­ing in the Dirty Haiku con­test. … It’s com­ing up on Valentine’s Day week­end so it’s a good date night.

Tues­day, Feb­ru­ary 14: The 2nd Annual Sweet Heart Ser­e­nade
Tick­ets: $10 advance, $14 at the door Doors: 8pm Show: 8:30pm

“Last year we attached it with a movie, and we had planned to show Shake­speare in Love but with the predica­ment we find our­selves in, we are not going to be allowed show it with a movie. So, now it will just be live music but it will be a spe­cial night because we’ve hand picked per­form­ers from some really great bands in town. It’s a more stripped down, inti­mate per­for­mance which makes it per­fect for a date night. It’s adults over so they can have some wine to enjoy dur­ing the evening.”

Other events com­ing up:

Thurs­day, Feb­ru­ary 9: David Choi with Spe­cial Guests (Gen­eral Admission/All Ages Show)
Tick­ets $20 Doors:8 pm Show: 9pm

Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 12: The Rio The­atre & NightHeat Present: Chali 2na MC
Doors: 8pm Tick­ets: $18 + S/C advance

Friday, Feb­ru­ary 24: Com­edy Fest: Marc Maron (WTF) with David Cross and Bob Odenkirk
Show: 7pm Tick­ets: http://comedyfest.com/show/wtf-marc-maron

Valentine’s Day is a time to cry, whether it’s because you have no one to swap roman­tic sen­ti­ments and/or body flu­ids with, or because your swapping-partner gave you a box of choco­lates with the best ones already eaten. What­ever your rea­son for resent­ing the hol­i­day (just a lit­tle, you’re not bit­ter) join us for Sad Com­edy to laugh and drink away the pain!

Hap­pen­ing at our favourite hang­out (The Cobalt), the show fea­tures a stel­lar line-up of come­di­ans and is hosted by Ghost Jail’s Caitlin Howden.

If that isn’t awe­some enough, a full-on dance party is hap­pen­ing after the show, with DJs Jef Lep­pard and Robo Santa spin­ning tunes until close. We’ll have a cry­ing booth and a kiss­ing booth set upfor photo ops all night.

The $10 cover gets you a year’s sub­scrip­tion and admis­sion to the show and dance party! So gather up all your Valen­tines and get your cry­ing face ready for Sad Comedy!

Sad Com­edy: Valen­tine Edition

The Cobalt (917 Main St)

Thurs­day, Feb­ru­ary 9th, 2012

Doors at 8:00PM, show at 9:00PM

Cover $10 (includes subscription)

RSVP on Face­book