Vancouver and Beyond

Vancouver has been recognized as the 2008 Best Walking City in Canada by the Canadian Federation of Podiatric Medicine. Factors contributing to Vancouver’s win include the city’s natural beauty, extensive parks, and the city’s transportation plan which makes walking one of the top transportation priorities. The city invests in transportation options such as widening sidewalks, neighbourhood traffic calming, and increasing greenways. In addition, land-use planning has resulted in higher densities, and a very walkable downtown core, making it a pleasant host city for meetings and conventions. Vancouver was also recognized for the number of kilometres of trails in the city, its ideal year-round temperatures, good air quality and many points of interest. The award was established to raise awareness of the need for safe, accessible and practical urban walking routes which encourage and enable residents to walk as part of their daily life, and lead to healthier citizens and more vibrant communities.

Tags: canada, Ecotourism, vancouver

The City of Vancouver has been chosen as one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers for 2009 by Mediacorp Canada Ltd., the nation’s largest publisher of employment guides and job-hunting periodicals.

The Top 100 Employers list is the result of a national competition recognizing employers who offer outstanding work environments.

Entries are evaluated on eight different criteria: physical workplace; work and social atmosphere; health, financial and family benefits; vacation and time off; employee communications; performance management; training and skills development; and community involvement.

The City of Vancouver employs more than 9,000 staff through the City, the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, the Vancouver Police Department, Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services and Vancouver Public Library. The City was cited for many of its employee programs including:

providing mentoring and in-house training, educational and professional development courses, and tuition subsidies for courses related both to an employee’s current position and to their long-term career goals
giving employees discount passes which allows them unlimited access to all pools, rinks and fitness centres managed by the City’s Park Board
providing a number of flexible work arrangements, including a 35-hour work week and telecommuting options
offering comprehensive benefits and an employee savings plan that includes employer-matched funds
providing six-month work experience terms to individuals recovering from drug addiction in partnership with community organizations across the city.
Canada’s Top 100 Employers list will be featured in October 6 issue of Maclean’s magazine, and on the job search website Eluta.ca. Further details are available at www.canadastop100.com.
For more information:
Corporate Communications, 604.871.6336

Tags: canada, employment, park, vancouver

Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet brings its exquisite brand of hypnotic choreography to Vancouver for the first time.

Where: Centennial Theatre Centre
2300 Lonsdale Avenue
North Vancouver, BC V7M 3L1
When: Oct 09-10, 2008 8:00 pm
Details: Regular $45, Student $35, Senior $40, Eye Go $5

For 25 years, this world-renowned San Francisco-based company has been sharing its vision of transformative, revelatory dance — of vulnerability and tenderness, but also of furious abandon and exhilarating freedom. These two works exemplify Alonzo King’s vision as a choreographer and bring to life a vibrant new language for Western classical ballet.

In Irregular Pearl, choreographer Alonzo King uncovers the freedom that lies inside of form and movement itself. His choreography transcends virtuosity to achieve a unique beauty, a sense of unforced artistry; a luminescence that comes from within.

Rasa features the rhythmic virtuosity of Grammy-award-winning composer and tabla master Zakir Hussain. This collaboration between choreographer King and composer Hussain is both a continuation of a deep tradition and an expression of the contemporary global vision of both artists.

Tags: alonso king, ballet, british columbia, canada, centennial theatre centre, north vancouver, october, theatre, vancouver

Here is the place you are sure to find some great home remodelling ideas.

Where: B C Place Stadium
Vancouver, BC
When: Oct 16-19, 2008
Details: Adults $14.00 at the door; $12.00 online, Seniors (55+) $10.00, Kids 7–16, $5.00, Children 6 & under Free

The Vancouver Home & Interior Design Show is the one place where you’ll find hundreds of quality products and services for home remodelling, redecorating, landscaping, recreation at home and fine home living. Plus, you’ll enjoy entertaining features and special guest speakers.

http://www.bchomeandgardenshow.com/ME2/Sites/default.asp?

Tags: bc place stadium, british columbia, canada, home and interior design show, vancouver

Discover some of the stories behind the cranberries garnishing our Thanksgiving dinners.

Where: Fort Langley National Historic Site
23433 Mavis
BC V1M2R5
When: Oct 11, 2008, Sat 10:00 am-5:00 pm

Fort Langley was exporting cranberries internationally long before Vancouver was even built. Cranberries don’t come from a can! At Fort Langley, First Nations people brought canoe loads of cranberries to trade. These were then shipped to San Francisco to be sold to gold prospectors – a vital source of vitamin C long before oranges were widely cultivated in California.

Bring the family and celebrate our proud berry history by enjoying the cranberry harvest at the 13th annual Cranberry Festival.

Tags: british columbia, canada, cranberry festival, fort langley, october, thanksgiving, vancouver

For all Brave Families! Come rain, gloom, or waxing moon! Wear your costumes and bring your flashlights and cameras.
Where: Burnaby Village Museum & Carousel
6501 Deer Lake Avenue
Burnaby, BC V5G 3T6
When: Oct 18-28, 2008 6:00 pm-9:00 pm
Details: Call the information line at 604.293.6501 for more details.
The Burnaby Village Museum, Metropolis at Metrotown, & Tourism Burnaby present a combination of history, mystery, walking and riding. Visit ominous buildings, hear the ghostly stories, and learn about expressions like “dead ringer.”

Dress warmly — though all the chills may not be from the weather!

Tags: british columbia, burnaby village, canada, family, tours, trolley, vancouver

Enjoy Harvest Festival at the Capilano Suspension Bridge this year!

Where: Capilano Suspension Bridge
3735 Capilano Road
North Vancouver, BC V7R 4J1
When: Oct 08-31, 2008 9:00 am-6:00 pm
Details: Tel: 604-985-7474

Capilano Suspension Bridge celebrates the Harvest Festival this October. The park will be decorated with a Harvest theme and will offer lively entertainment throughout. Both Thanksgiving Weekend (October 11, 12, & 13) and Halloween Weekend (October 25 & 26) are packed with special activities for the whole family.

Festivities:
On Thanksgiving weekend, enjoy games, the Rainforest Explorers Program, wildlife series, face painting, kids crafts and fortune telling.

On the Halloween weekend, enjoy a grand Jack-o-lantern display along with fortune telling, face painting, kids crafts, ghost tours and trick-or-treating.

Tags: british columbia, canada, capilano suspension bridge, harvest festival, north vancouver, october

His deep voice and finger-picked guitar work have a reassuring quality, even when he is singing about the darker side of life.

Where: Vancouver
Vancouver, BC
When: Oct 13, 2008, Mon 8:00 pm
Details: Old Crow House Concerts – 243 East 22nd Street, Vancouver ($20.00)

In a darkened bedroom, lit only be the amber glow from an old floor model radio, two young brothers aged 6 and 12 lay in their beds, listening to the country music broadcasts from the Grand Ol’ Opry, and practiced their harmonies. Two years later, the youngest one was playing the definitive 8-year-old’s version of “Desolation Row” on his ukulele. He soon abandoned that instrument to teach himself the flute, violin and guitar.

Within ten years, and barely out of high school, Garnet Rogers was on the road as a full- time working musician with his older brother Stan. Together they formed what has come to be accepted as one of the most influential acts in North American folk music.

Since then, Garnet Rogers has established himself as ‘One of the major talents of our time”. Hailed by the Boston Globe as a “charismatic performer and singer”, Garnet is a man with a powerful physical presence – close to six and a half feet tall – with a voice to match. With his “smooth, dark baritone” (Washington Post) his incredible range, and thoughtful, dramatic phrasing, Garnet is widely considered by fans and critics alike to be one of the finest singers anywhere.

http://www.garnetrogers.com/

Tags: british columbia, canada, concert, garnet rogers, music, old crow house concerts, vancouver

Could killing your own child be an act of love?
Where: Pacific Theatre
1440 W 12th
Vancouver, BC V6H 1M8
When: Oct 17-Nov 15, 2008
Details: $11 – $34.00

Inspired by the true Canadian story of a Saskatchewan farmer and his daughter, Emil Sher’s new play explores the dilemma faced by the father of a severely disabled teenage girl, whose fate is about to be taken over by the medical establishment.

Can their best efforts ever relieve her constant pain? Or should her father pursue another, final alternative? So who gets to play God?

A stunning theatrical piece in which assuming a loved one’s best interests leads to an entire family’s loss.

http://www.pacifictheatre.org/

Tags: art, british columbia, canada, culture, november, october, pacific theatre, saskatchewan, theatre, vancouver

Combining an inclination for melodic ’60s pop with an art-rock aesthetic…

Where: Commodore Ballroom
868 Granville Street
Vancouver, BC V6Z 1K3
When: Oct 19, 2008, Sun 8:00 pm
Details: $24.50

The group’s trademark sound – a droning, hypnotic rhythm track overlaid with melodic, mesmerizing singsong vocals, often sung in French and often promoting revolutionary, Marxist politics and ideals – was deceptively simple, providing the basis for a wide array of stylistic experiments over the course of their prolific career.

Combining an inclination for melodic ’60s pop with an art-rock aesthetic, Stereolab are one of the most influential alternative bands of the past 15 years.

http://www.stereolab.co.uk/news/

Tickets available – click here

Tags: british columbia, canada, commodore ballroom, music, stereolab, vancouver