This coming Saturday, March 29, 2014 from 10am to 4pm, Strathcona's hosting its own food and garden event!

 

This amazing 745-foot sculpture has been hanging outside the Vancouver Convention Centre this past week as part of the 30th anniversary of the TED Conference.


"Unnumbered Sparks" is an interactive community artwork made from the collaboration of artists Janet Echelman and Aaron Koblin.

Visitors can control what appears on the sculpture in real time through their mobile phones. Those ripples and squiggles in the photo above were all made from the people that were visiting there! All you had to do was connect to the Sculpture network on your mobile then visit g.co/sparks. There you can choose a colour then go nuts on the screen! You'll see what you are doing projected onto the sculpture! It's pretty cool! In addition to the lights, you also hear ethereal sounds that also are controlled by how you interact with the sculpture. It's a gorgeous piece of art and I wish it could stay! But I think tonight is the last night before it will be packed up to be displayed in other cities. Go see it if you still haven't yet!






Visit www.unnumberedsparks.com for more information about this amazing sculpture!

Friday, March 21, 2014

PEAK Fridays at The Hard Rock 
6pm
Hard Rock Casino Vancouver, 2080 United Blvd, Coquitlam, BC
102.7 The PEAK is taking Friday nights out of the studio and doing them live from the NEW Hard Rock Casino Vancouver! Starting at 6pm every Friday, join The PEAK at Asylum at Hard Rock Casino Vancouver for live PEAK bands and great food and drinks.  It's a PEAK Party and you're always invited!  Features: - Live Top 20 PEAK Performance Project artists - Great food & drinks with entrees starting at just $12 - FREE Cover - FREE Parking or even better - FREE shuttle service to and from Braid Skytrain Station every half hour from 6pm to 11pm  PLUS, get there early for your chance to win a trip to Las Vegas! Before 9pm, EVERY $10 you spend on food at Asylum gets you an entry to win a trip to Hard Rock Casino Las Vegas! Must be 19+ to attend. Band starts playing at 8pm each night. Friday, March 21st - Rococode

PlayDome at BC Place - $29 
10am - 9pm March 15 - 22, 10am - 6pm March 23
777 Pacific Blvd., Vancouver, BC. 
Canada's largest indoor carnival with over 45 rides and attractions is back to BC Place! Feel like you're floating in air with the Zero Gravity ride, be spun around on the new open air cars of the Ring of Fire and be flung into oblivion on the Super Shot. Popular favorites such as 1001 nights, The Ferris Wheel and the Zipper are all back to be enjoyed

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Fresh, local, organic foods & crafts. 60+ vendors, hot food, music! Rain or Shine!

East Side Flea - $1
10am - 4pm
The Wise Hall & Lounge, 1882 Adanac Street, Vancouver
Just under 40 amazing local vendors selling everything from mid-century modern furniture, records, garage sale stuff, cameras, antiques, terrariums, vintage & second-hand quality clothing, local artists & craftsmen goods, sunglasses, plant starts, handmade candy, posters, taxidermy, screenprint t-shirts, kitchenware, books, and much much more…! 

Bakers Dozen
11 am - 3pm
River District Centre, 8683 Kerr Street, Vancouver
Baker’s Dozen is an indoors baked goods market hosted by River District Centre.  For all five Sundays in March, 13 local bakers will have the opportunity to sell their delicious creations down by the river!  Best of all, admission is FREE!

Gesamtkunstwerk
11am - 5pm,  March 22 - May 19
1460 Howe Street, Vancouver BC
Life as a Total Work of Art Opening to the public March 22nd, 2014  City Building Exhibition Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group Produced by Westbank. Gesamtkunstwerk is an unprecedented look into architectural creativity in action—the thinking behind the design of the Vancouver House project designed by the Bjarke Ingels Group, a creative synthesis of art, architecture, interiors, urbanism and energy with public-mindedness.

Portobello West Market: Season Opener - $2
11:00 am - 5:00 pm Sat & Sun
Creekside Centre in the Olympic Village 
Vancouver’s Favourite Artisan/Craft Fair is back for its first show of 2014 this March 22nd & 23rd! Shop from a wide variety of local goods ranging from Fashion, Jewelry, Accessories, Art, Sweets, Baby & Kids items and more.

PlayDome at BC Place - $29 
10am - 9pm March 15 - 22, 10am - 6pm March 23
777 Pacific Blvd., Vancouver, BC. 
Canada's largest indoor carnival with over 45 rides and attractions is back to BC Place! Feel like you're floating in air with the Zero Gravity ride, be spun around on the new open air cars of the Ring of Fire and be flung into oblivion on the Super Shot. Popular favorites such as 1001 nights, The Ferris Wheel and the Zipper are all back to be enjoyed

Night Quest 2014
7 to 10 pm
Pacific Spirit Regional Park, 16th Avenue entrance (400 metres west of Blanca Street) 
Join us for an evening of wonder and discovery at Night Quest. Walk the two kilometres of lantern-lit loop trail with friends and family. And visit all the discovery stations along the way to learn more about the creatures of the night, including moths, bats, coyotes, spiders, owls and more! You can also look at the stars through telescopes set up by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, get into the rhythms of the night at the drumming tent, roast a marshmallow at the campfire, meet a live owl and see how many “critters” you can spot on the “Shadow Walk”. 

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Gesamtkunstwerk
11am - 5pm,  March 22 - May 19
1460 Howe Street, Vancouver BC
Life as a Total Work of Art Opening to the public March 22nd, 2014  City Building Exhibition Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group Produced by Westbank. Gesamtkunstwerk is an unprecedented look into architectural creativity in action—the thinking behind the design of the Vancouver House project designed by the Bjarke Ingels Group, a creative synthesis of art, architecture, interiors, urbanism and energy with public-mindedness.

Portobello West Market: Season Opener - $2
11:00 am - 5:00 pm Sat & Sun
Creekside Centre in the Olympic Village 
Vancouver’s Favourite Artisan/Craft Fair is back for its first show of 2014 this March 22nd & 23rd! Shop from a wide variety of local goods ranging from Fashion, Jewelry, Accessories, Art, Sweets, Baby & Kids items and more.

Vancouver Comicon - $4
11am -5pm
Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street, Vancouver
Special Guests:  Andy Belanger (Kill Shakespeare, Swamp Thing, Black Church) Donald King Jenna Sokalski USNA and others! Admission: $4.00 Kids under 14: Free  Comics for Classrooms: Donate a new or gently-used school-appropriate graphic novel for free admission to this show. Books collected will be donated to Vancouver schools.

Hashtag OOTD: Fashion Blogger Wardrobe Sale - by donation of clothing
1pm - 4pm
YWCA Vancouver, Welch 1 & 2 
To welcome the season of Spring, our team has conceptualized an event revolved around giving back. We will be collecting clothing donations for admission, and in return, you are given the opportunity to shop from the wardrobes of local fashion bloggers! All you have to do is bring at least one clothing item, old or new, to donate to charity! *All clothing donations will go to The Salvation Army*  SWAG BAGS WILL BE GIVEN TO THE FIRST 50 PEOPLE WHO RSVP!!!   Swag Bags include some unique products, such as Principessa Water Containers, and coupons from our generous sponsors! 

PlayDome at BC Place - $29 
10am - 9pm March 15 - 22, 10am - 6pm March 23
777 Pacific Blvd., Vancouver, BC. 
Canada's largest indoor carnival with over 45 rides and attractions is back to BC Place! Feel like you're floating in air with the Zero Gravity ride, be spun around on the new open air cars of the Ring of Fire and be flung into oblivion on the Super Shot. Popular favorites such as 1001 nights, The Ferris Wheel and the Zipper are all back to be enjoyed

WOOHOO! Finally, I have Disney's Frozen in my collection! Frozen came out on Blu-ray/DVD yesterday and I bought it right away. Several stores had exclusive offers if you buy it from them. Bestbuy and Futureshop offered some kind of activity book or journal, Walmart offered an Elsa or Anna Infinity figure and Target offered an exclusive DVD with special features. I chose to go with Target since it was a few dollars cheaper there ($22.99 but with 5% off by using my REDcard) and I cannot resist extra special features! 

Frozen, is Disney's 53rd animated feature very loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen. It is about two sisters, Anna (Kristen Bell) and Elsa (Idina Menzel), who were once very close but were forced to separate when Elsa's ice powers almost killed her younger sister. Fast forward to Elsa's coronation as queen, where her powers were exposed to everyone. In panic, Elsa flees into the mountains but not before covering her kingdom in ice and snow. Anna goes off in search of Elsa to bring back summer, teaming up with mountain man Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), his reindeer, Sven, and a funny talking snowman, Olaf (Josh Gad), along the way.

It is an amazing movie with amazing songs. The film has amassed over $1 billion at the box office, won a several awards including two Oscars - Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song and continues to break records. It is my favourite movie!


 The combo pack contains the Blu-ray, DVD version and a digital download code of the movie.

 Special features included:

• "The Making of Frozen" - a musical starring Josh Gad, Jonathan Groff, and Kristen Bell singing about how Frozen was made - but not really.
• D'frosted Disney's Journey From Hans Christian Andersen To Frozen - this is a look at the earlier attempts at making this film. It actually took them more than 70 years to make this movie! Worth the wait because it was amazing!
• Four deleted scenes introduced by Christ Buck and Jennifer Lee - "Never Underestimate the Power of Elsa," "The Dressing Room," "Meeting Kristoff #1" and "Meeting Kristoff #2".
• Four music videos of the pop version of "Let It Go" from the end credits
• And the Mickey Mouse short "Get A Horse!" that played before the film in theatres.

I was a little disappointed with the special features. I wanted more! Where's the ACTUAL making of Frozen and there's no commentary?

Target's exclusive offer was this bonus disc that had a deleted scene, the Voices of Frozen featurette starring the filmmakers and cast members, and a Frozen Art Gallery. The deleted scene featured Anna chasing a pig through town. It was pretty funny! It was the referenced in the other deleted scene that is on the Blu-ray. 

I have a hunch that there will be a re-release of the film, like a Special Platinum Collector's Edition or something in the future because there's no 3D version in this combo pack and it was release in 3D in theatres. But for now, I'm pretty satisfied with this version. I can finally watch it over and over and over again. Multiple Frozen movie nights with friends! Yaaaaaay!

You can buy the Collector's Edition of Frozen on Amazon.ca for only $19.97 right now! And it's already the number one bestselling Blu-ray/DVD! I've heard the Collector's Edition has been selling out at some of the local stores. Good thing I bought mine first thing in the morning! It's a must for any Frozen fan!

When you find yourself craving some laughter and geekiness, you may be interested to know the first Tuesday night of every month is reserved for the West Coast Geeks VS Nerds! It is funny debate show that caters to every geek, nerd and anyone who are fans of popular pop culture icons. This season, they have made the Vancouver FanClub their home. The theme of March's debate was Robopocalypse!

Chris "MooMan" Nyarady, host and producer of West Coast Geeks VS Nerds, always starts us off with a little dance during the intro to the show. This time was no exception:

This guy carries the show! His enthusiasm is infectious!

The opener debate was Bob from the series Reboot vs Tron - Who is the better protector of your PC?

 Team Geeks, decked full out in their Reboot glory represented Bob.

 While Team Nerds, representing Tron, had a chill, radical, dude man.

During the debates, one of the things handed out is a rebuttal token, which each team can use at any time to rebuttal a point made by the other team. Usually the tokens are cheeky objects that pertain to each character's world. 

Team Tron was handed a spinning disc thing. Ooo. It spins!


There were some Nerf wars between the members of Team Bob and the Mooman. Haha that was fun to watch!



I wasn't too familiar with Bob from Reboot - I remember not liking the art style of the show so didn't watch it. But Team Geeks wins it for Bob!


Between debates, there's always a costume contest. This time there were only two entries and so they win by default! The guy who came as the Liquid Metal wins first prize. Mooman notes that everyone who participates gets a prize so let it be an incentive to dress up!

The feature debate was between the Cylons from Battlestar Galactica and the Terminators from Terminator - Which robotic race is best equipped to kill all humans?

Team Cylons resorted to numbers to try to win the debate. Cylons have killed waaaaay more humans than Skynet. 

Rebuttal token for Team Cylon? A toaster. Team Terminator? A picture of Sarah Connor.

Unfortunately for Team Cylon, the crowd was not persuaded by numbers and chose Team Terminator as the winner!

The next West Coast Geeks VS Nerds show is on April 1st (no joke!) and will feature: Aquaman vs John Carter and Bugs Bunny vs The Hulk. And psst - in celebration of the new Muppet movie, if you bring a friend and say the secret phrase "Wakka Wakka" when you buy your ticket, your friend gets in for free!

In the meantime, follow the WCGvN team on Twitter and Facebook. They are really active on both and periodically hold contests where you can win tickets to attend this super funny show that every geek and nerd should attend at least once!

In the morning of the last day of our weekend in Whistler, M.N., W.W. and I had decided to go snowshoeing. We had to take a short walk from the Whistler Village to Lost Lake Passivhaus.

We crossed under this bridge where there was some pretty cool artwork.

Cross the blue bridge!




Here we are. Lost Lake PassivHaus. This used to be the home of the Austrian team during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. Now it's a base for snowshoeing and cross country skiing rentals and lessons. We decided to try cross country skiing instead when we got there. It's has been a while since I've last done it. Last was in elementary school, I believe. It was only $25 for the pass to the trail and $30 for the ski rentals.

 Here we are at the start of the trail. Ready to for our big adventure!

The Lost Lake trail is the easiest one that loops around Lost Lake with mostly flat ground and a gentle downhill slopes. It takes about half an hour to go around the lake at a leisurely pace. The scenery is just gorgeous! It really was a winter wonderland that weekend. The snow was falling softly. The trees were coated in white. The silence of the forest. It was very serene.

As we progressed, around the trail, we could see the lake peeking out between the trees, covered in snow. So beautiful.






I thought cross country skiing was way more interesting than snowshoeing. I'm glad we chose to do this instead. In fact, I did it again 2 weeks later!