Photo Credit: Dining Out For Life Vancouver

Make a difference and help people living with HIV/AIDS. It’s easy and anyone can get involved. For one day only, on Thursday, March 29, 2012, participating restaurants in Vancouver and Whistler will donate 25% of your food bill to benefit A Loving Spoonful and Friends For Life.

This single day fundraising event is the single largest fundraising event for the two not-for-profit organizations, both of which provide valuable programs for individuals living with HIV/AIDS.

Since the program was brought to Vancouver and the Fraser Valley 16 years ago, participating restaurants have raised over $3 million!

For a complete listing of participating restaurants, visit the Dining Out for Life website.

Step by step, row by row, gonna make this garden grow… or so says the popular children’s song.

One of my favourite spring / summer / fall past times if photographing flora and fauna, so when I heard that VanDusen Botanical Gardens was hosting their annual Seedy Saturday heritage seed exchange I got pretty excited. Just think – for over 20 years, hundreds of metro Vancouver green thumbs have been meeting up the last Saturday of every February , itching to get their hands on some of the most sought after seeds and plants available.

Open from 10:00am – 4:00pm in the Floral Hall of the Administration Building, the BC Master Gardeners Association presents a celebration of seed-swapping fun. Over 30 growers, seed companies and exhibitors will be exchanging and selling all kinds of organic and heritage varieties of seeds and plants.

Admission is by donation. If you have kids, bring them along too – there’s a special Kids Corner with seed related activities.

Christmas is a magical time, and every night from 5:00pm – 9:00pm, the North Shore’s historic Capilano suspension bridge comes alive with thousands of twinkling lights from now until January 2, 2012. It’s called Canyon Lights, and the entire park has been lit-up to celebrate.

A popular family tradition in metro Vancouver, Canyon Lights is about bringing families together to celebrate the Christmas season. There is gingerbread cookie decorating, caroling, glass ornament blowing and even reindeer games!

The majority of the park is open for the evening event including the Tree Tops suspension bridges, the Cliff Walk and trails long the ponds.

To keep you warm there are gas heaters located throughout the park and plenty of concession stands to get hot chocolate.

Admission is $25 for adults and $5 for children 6-16. Proceeds from Canyon Lights will go to the BC Professional Firefighters. Burn Fund.

The Capilano Suspension Bridge Park is located at 3735 Capilano Road in North Vancouver.

From November 14-20, 2011, Vancouver’s beer and scotch community will come alive for the 15^th annual Hopscotch Festival. The focal event is the Grand Tasting Hall sold out within the first 90 minutes of tickets going on sale, however, there are still tickets available for many of the other 27 events throughout the week including whisky pairing dinners, master classes and the much anticipated Sunday Morning Brunch.

The Junior Culinary Team of Canada will prepare the two-hour long Sunday Brunch feast. The team has won first place for the Americas over the past two years and will go on to compete in Torino, Italy on December 4, 2011, for the world competition title. Proceeds from the Sunday Brunch will go towards sending the Canadian team to Italy for the competition. There will be eight action stations sampling their culinary creations.

Attendees for this event are in for a special treat. The whiskies to be sampled at the Sunday Brunch event are all from a private cask, some of which are from a production of only 700 bottles. The six single malts include Craigellachie 8 year old sherry cask, Bunnahabhain 9 year old sherry cask, Clynelish 12 year old, Glendullan 12 year old port finish and Tombermory 16 year old.

The Sunday Brunch is hosted by Master Chef and Scotch expert, Marcus VanAlbrecht.

The Hopscotch Festival is Canada’s biggest combined whiskey and premium beer festival attracting over 5,000 attendees each year. The festival also includes premium tequila, vodka, rum, gin and other spirits. Tickets are available from The Hopscotch Festival website.

Photo Credit: Brian Webb

The flashes and booms over English Bay followed by ‘ooohs’ and ‘aahs”will fill the air of Vancouver as the Celebration of Light takes off for another year. This year’s “Battle Of Champions” edition kicked off Saturday July 30 with China, followed by Spain on Wednesday August 3 and Canada on Saturday August 6.

In addition to the excitement of the spectacular fireworks, Shorefest, returns for a third year. This music festival features three stages; English Bay, Kits Beach and Vanier Park. Kits and Vanier Park stages are free for all to enjoy with the English Bay stage by-invitation-only performances.

This year’s performers include: former Barenaked Ladies frontman Steven Page, Wide Mouth Mason, Jim Byrnes, Jeremy Fisher, Leeroy Stagger, Grapes of Wrath’s Kevin Kane and The Sojourners.

Performances begin at 7:00pm each night of the Celebration of Light. Head down early and get your seat, and enjoy an unique specactle each evening.

Listen to the simulcast music on Shore 104.3 FM.

Photo Credit: Brian Webb

Bullying is a major problem in schools, workplaces, homes, and over the Internet.

On February 23, 2011 people all across the world are encouraged to wear something pink to symbolize that we as a society will not tolerate bullying anywhere.

Here’s the story on how the Pink Shirt movement got started:

“David Shepherd, Travis Price and their teenage friends organized a high-school protest to wear pink in sympathy with a Grade 9 boy who was being bullied…[They] took a stand against bullying when they protested against the harassment of a new Grade 9 student by distributing pink T-shirts to all the boys in their school.

‘I learned that two people can come up with an idea, run with it, and it can do wonders,’ says Mr. Price, 17, who organized the pink protest. ‘Finally, someone stood up for a weaker kid.’

So Mr. Shepherd and some other headed off to a discount store and bought 50 pink tank tops. They sent out message to schoolmates that night, and the next morning they hauled the shirts to school in a plastic bag.

As they stood in the foyer handing out the shirts, the bullied boy walked in. His face spoke volumes. ‘It looked like a huge weight was lifted off his shoulders,’ Mr. Price recalled.

The bullies were never heard from again.”

You can get involved. Wear your pink shirt on February 23, sign-up to become a fan on the official Facebook fan page, and follow along on Twitter.

In the lead up to Christmas the Naked models were stringing popcorn and making gingerbread houses in the window at BoysCo on Robson Street.

These men sure have defined ‘Getting Naked’ and they are on the prowl again.

With Valentine’s just around the corner you can catch these hot guys this weekend playing cupid and offering kisses at Holt Renfrew in downtown Vancouver.

Stop by and get your free kiss!

The best part about shopping in the city at Christmas are the beautiful and elaborate window displays. This year, Naked has embraced the celebration of Christmas shopping by developing a series of festive events at Boys’ Co on Robson Street in downtown Vancouver.

This past Saturday, December 4, Naked hosted their first live window animation, and will continue on December 11 and 18, from 2pm – 6pm, at Boys’ Co on Robson Street in downtown Vancouver. Alexander Mentele is the featured male model for the three week series.

“We truly want to create wonderful, lasting experiences for our customers and there’s no better environment for Christmas shopping than Boys’ Co on Robson,” said Naked’s President and CEO, Joel Primus.

For more information on Naked, check out their website, and follow them on Twitter.

Chefs Across the Water, a guest chef series at Hastings House on Salt Spring Island, highlights the bounty of the region’s produce and raises awareness and funds for the  “Save Salt Spring Lamb” fund.

Lamb production on Salt Spring Island has been down 50 per cent over the past five years, due to government regulations requiring all livestock be taken to Vancouver Island or the mainland for slaughter. It’s easier to get Salt Spring Island lamb in Vancouver than on the Island.

Salt Spring livestock producers have received $100,000 grant to go towards a mobile meat processing unit, however they need to match the amount to receive the money.  Partial proceeds from the Chefs Across the Water dinner series will go towards the fund.

“The ‘Save Salt Spring Lamb’ fund is looking to raise $200,000 in the next few months for a mobile unit on Salt Spring,” said Margaret Thompson, Chair of the Salt Spring Livestock Producers Group. “We are hopeful of raising enough money in time and are delighted to partner with Hastings House in their Chefs Across the Water series to draw awareness to this issue.”

The series includes one final event of the season on Monday, October 18, showcasing the talents of Chef Marcel Kauer of Hastings House.

Hastings House Dining room manager Milly Sinclair says there is a lot of excitement building for food-lovers who enjoy local fare prepared by the best chefs in BC.

For more information please visit the Hasting House website and the Chefs Across the Water website. For reservations call 250.537.2362.

From July 21 – July 31, 2010, Vancouver hosted the 20th Celebration of Light festival in English Bay. It’s a pyro-musical fireworks competition attracting the worlds leading fireworks designers. The event is free for spectators. The fireworks are simulcast on local radio beginning at 10:00pm sharp. There are an annual estimated 1.4 million people who come to watch the event.

On Wednesday, July 21, 2010, Rozzi Inc. represented the United States. The performance was spectacular. I was fortunate to have front-row seats to capture these stunning fireworks images.

On Friday, September 10 and Saturday, September 11, from 9 – 10pm, the Georgia Street side of the iconic Vancouver Art Gallery will be digitally transformed right before your eyes! The project has been toted as a one of the a kind animation meets public art installation event.

This is how the storytelling has been described by Project Nighfire:

Nightfire is a 3D building manipulation piece that uses the boundaries of an architecture building to tell a compelling and beautiful narrative. The Vancouver Art Gallery sets the canvas, as Rival Schools will tell the story of an fallen angel. Broken, she’s found by a lone man who, with love, takes her on a  journey back to her home.  Set to the music “Nessun Dorma” from Turandot, audiences will be presented with this unusual experiement, as light, shadow and colour are projected on the Vancouver landmark to create illusion and transform it appearance.

Project Nightfire as tested on September 6 and you can see the test video here.

The event is a partnership between The Vancouver Opera, Rival Schools, The Media Merchants, and the Vancouver Art Gallery. Each partner contributed valuable resources to the experimental project.

For more information, please visit the Project Nightfire website.

With the Vancouver PNE Parade making a special return in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the PNE, I wanted to share some vintage footage of the original PNE parade from 1959 that my grandpa shot with his 8mm colour reel camera.

It’s incredible to see just how things have not changed a lot. There are marching bands, RCMP in their red serge, the Canadian Armed Forces marched, elaborate floats and costumes, and even uni-cycles, just like in last nights parade.

The 100th Anniversary PNE Parade took place on Friday, August 20th at 7pm, the night before the Fair opened.

The special event celebrated 100 years of PNE magic as it traveled along Beach Avenue from English Bay to Sunset Beach. The parade paid tribute to special memories and highlights of the Fair’s 10 decades of history.

This year’s family-friendly parade featured giant parade balloons, similar to those seen in famous parades around the world including the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. It took a cast of more than 2,000 performers to put on the parade.

The original parade ran for 60 years, but ended in the 1990′s. There were no corporate floats featured in this parade. The parade cost an estimated $500,000 to put together because every entry needed to be created.

Thursday, July 1 people across Canada came together to celebrate our national holiday, Canada Day. I proudly sported my Team Canada Olympic jersey, Canada flags and a Canada flag temporary tattoo to show my passion for Canada.

My friend Jay and I spend the day at Canada Place, the gateway to Canada from the Pacific, located on Burrard Inlet in downtown Vancouver. It is home to the Pan Pacific Hotel, the cruise ship terminal, IMAX Theatre, the Vancouver Convention Centre, and the Port of Vancouver and Canada Place Corp corporate offices.

There were many activities including live musical performances, street performers, and demonstrations by the Canadian Armed Forces and Navy.

At 12:00pm, noon, the heritage horns rang out and the crowd proudly belted out, O’ Canada.

The highlight for many was to see the Vancouver 2010 Olympic cauldron re-lit. The cauldron has been under construction since the close of the Paralympics so a permanent structure could surround the massive art sculpture. The base of the cauldron is now surrounded by a pond.

In the evening I had the pleasure to watch the fireworks from the Helijet landing pad, located on the east side of Canada Place.

Although the weather was cool and threatened to rain, it was a very enjoyable day.