The sordid history of V.I.A. headquarters at 115 East Pender! (3 of 3)
| Have you ever been to the Vancouver Police Museum at 240 E. Cordova Street? Kim Werker did a BLOG POST about them and one of their forensic workshops not long ago and since V.I.A. moved into the neighbourhood a few blocks away from them I’ve been meaning to go and pay them a visit.
I was chatting with Chris Mathieson, the director of the Police Museum, and he told me to hold off, that he wanted to come and see us first. He asked me for our exact address and promised to dig up some of the police history of the Blim building at 115 East Pender. And dig up he did! I shared THIS piece with you yesterday and THIS one the day before. They’re newspaper clippings that he brought over to us from the archives, this third one involves the same raid as the last one, only with a bribe thrown in. I apologize in advance for the entirely unpolitically correct grammar used in this newspaper piece from March of 1923 but unfortunately there is no changing the language of the past…
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PLACES WHERE KIDS DRINK…….
Skate Viddys, an epic playlist, and a mini-ramp app
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Timebomb Trading hosted the RVCA skate demo at Railside in PoCo on July 20th. Vancouver’s Keegan Sauder was there, and ripping ensued.
•Locally-based pro Paul Machnau recently joined the skate team attached to IS Eyewear, which is also locally-based. For Paul’s “Welcome to the Team” vid, click here.
•Machnau, ‘Couver’s Cory Wilson and Toronto’s Lee Yankou each chipped in 7 songs that get them hyped (or mellow them out), along with some commentary and skate photos. It’s a pretty epic tracklist that you’ll find right here.
•Red Bull Canada just posted a video of Darkstar pro Ryan Decenzo skating and getting interviewed at his home park in North Delta. Hit play here.
•Local cameraman/video producer extraordinaire (and also a ripper on the wood-wheel) Mike McKinlay has expanded to iPhone apps. Through the Mini Ramp 101 iApp, Mike will show you the “deep secrets” behind “35 essential tricks that every mini ramp skateboarder should know” for a mere $4.99 (looks like the old Antisocial mini is involved…).
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More bee condos!
| More than a year ago we showed you these “bee condos” that are part of a City of Vancouver program to help maintain the bee population. HERE is a detailed story from the Vancouver Sun about it.
I’m heading out this afternoon to have a look at another urban beekeeping project so I thought it was as good a time as any to share this photo again. Is there one of these by your house? Are the bees using it? This one pictured has seen quite a bit of buzzing…
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Grooster deal of the day
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Have you heard about Grooster yet? It’s a Vancouver-based group buying web site that offers an amazing limited time offer every day.
Founders Lesel and Trish aim to connect locals with local businesses, helping to grow ecommerce in Canada, and over the next few weeks we’ll be bringing you one deal a week from them.
Visit Grooster.com now to take advantage of the current deal and be sure to subscribe to their mailer so you never miss another one!
Today’s deal is:
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It’s the Rolling Stones! “Charlie is My Darling” at The Rio Theatre Saturday
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3 Pairs of Tickets to see the ultra-rare Rolling Stones documentary Charlie is My Darling at The Rio Theatre!
“I’m a Paul!”
If you’re a fan of music, film, and pop culture history you are not going to want to miss tonight’s show at The Rio. Charlie is My Darling is the rarely seen documentary shot during the Stones‘ two city tour of Ireland in 1965. Conceived by their manager Andrew Oldham as something of a necessity after the massive success and impact of The Beatles‘ A Hard Day’s Night, the film was completed in 1966 and is as much a montage of footage as it is a documentary. Mick imitates Elvis, Charlie is “practically incoherent,” Bill claims he’s just “in a band,” and Keef is a young man brimming with health, vigor, and possibility (relatively speaking).
Keef and Andrew fooling around.
In attendance to present the midnight screening on Saturday is Andrew Oldham, who, in addition to being the Rolling Stones‘ manager in the 1960s was also their mentor and the PR mastermind behind much of their early work. Oldham encouraged them to start writing their own material and effectively manipulated their “bad boy” image (in contrast to that other British super group).
Up for grabs are three pairs of tickets to Saturday’s very special and ultra-rare screening, and one $20 concession tab. (I have been advised that the concession tab is only good for Saturday and will self-destruct if not used.)
To enter, follow @VIAGiveaways on The Twitter.
At 12:00 noon today a trivia question will be tweeted from @VIAGiveaways. The first person to tweet the correct answer wins the $20 tab and a pair of tickets! The 2nd and 3rd correct tweeters will get a pair of tickets to Saturday’s show.
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UNPLUGGED: #10 Elfin Lakes
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PLACE: Elfin Lakes (Click for Map)
LOCATION: Garibaldi Provincial Park, Squamish, B.C.
It’s confession time at V.I.A.
Ready?
Ok, here we go… I have never done a real hike.
Now I am sure you are saying, “What, but Mike, you write UNPLUGGED for Vancouver is Awesome, you must be a flippin’ mountain man.” Well, you are sorta right. I do pen this weekly outdoor column and yes, I do take regular hikes but I realize now that until this past weekend I have never done a “real” hike. By “real” I mean a hike where at any turn you expect to be greeted by a young Julie Andrews spinning and singing “THE HILLS ARE ALIVE…” to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Sound of Music.
That all changed last weekend in Garibaldi Provincial Park.
The View of Howe Sound from Elfin Lakes Trail
A few weeks back I received an invite from my regular hiking/brewing/photo-taking buddy Dave Herder to join him and a couple other guys from work on a hike up to Elfin Lakes. One look at the reviews of this hike on VancouverTrails.com and it was clear that this was no ordinary day in the park. The trail head begins at an elevation of 900 meters and gains another 640 meters before ending at Elfin Lakes Shelter. The average time to complete the hike (round trip) is listed as anywhere between six and eight hours and it is only deemed passable from mid-July through October depending on the conditions. Couple this with the fact that the three other hikers joining me were all serious athletes and I knew I was in for a beating.
Let me first take a moment to introduce you to the crew.
The Crew
From left to right you have Terry Field, Dave Herder and Stephen Zmetana. Terry is a marathon runner, Dave is a biker and Stephen is general good shape and an avid hiker. Then there’s me.
Your VIA UNPLUGGED Editor, Mike Tedesco, Photo courtesy of Dave Herder
During the week I commandeer a Yorkdale model 2340 and a Macbook Pro and on the weekend I make beer, hang with my wife and daughter and take hikes around Vancouver. Which of these things is not like the other?
Anyway, I am not in that bad a shape so I took them up on their invite and man I am glad I did.
You know what is Awesome about Vancouver? The hike up to Elfin Lakes that’s what!
The first portion of the hike takes you along a small loose-rock-laden logging road. It is quite easy as hikes go other than the elevation gain. The end of this portion of the hike is marked by your arrival at the Red Heather Shelter. A nice group cabin of sorts where one can pop in and get away from the horse flies, grab a snack and read about how not to get eaten by bears.
Upon leaving this milestone and the trail head up for another 5-10 minutes before see your first snow.
Looking back at the outhouse just past Red Heather Shelter.
Now I am told that had we waited a few more weeks we would likely not have seen any snow but this was definitely not the case last week. From this point forward it was all snow all the time and this is what really put the hurt on me. Thank goodness I invested in some MEC poles and that goofy large rimmed hat you saw in the photo above.
Snow, snow and more snow.
Terry hiking up the snow. Photo courtesy of Dave Herder.
Terry and Dave letting me catch up. Photo courtesy of Dave Herder.
Stephen heading up the slope. Photo courtesy of Dave Herder.
In the end the hike in took us a total of just under four hours and culminated in our arrival at the Elfin Lake Shelter. Here we dried off, ate lunch and rested up for the return hike back. Again, had we waited a few weeks we would have been greeted by two pristine alpine lakes one for drinking and one for swimming. Unfortunately those lakes were still frozen so we were only able to pull some tasty, ice-cold drinking water out of them to fill our bladders but that was certainly a treat.
I have to say, the views were simply stunning. At every turn you are greeted by jagged peaks, stunning valleys and mountains as far as the eye can see.
Opal Cone
The view looking north.
Looking West over the Squamish River Valley.
I am convinced that there are few places in North America where one can leave their home in city at 6 AM, do a hike like this and be back at a brew pub in the city for dinner. What can I say other than Vancouver is indeed AWESOME!
Note: My buddy Dave Herder is one hell of a professional photographer and he kindly donated four of the pictures you see in this post, all noted below. If you want to check out his portfolio or are looking to hire a photographer for your wedding or portait needs please visit his website, Crazycat Studios.
If you have any suggestions for an upcoming UNPLUGGED please feel free to drop me a comment below or email me at michael@vancouverisawesome.com. Also, feel free to share your thoughts on this feature or anything else (within reason and sticking to the VIA commenting policy of course).
Until next time…Happy Trails!
-mt
All images (other than those maked “courtesy of Dave Herder“) copyright Michael Tedesco
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