From John Hodgman’s blog [taome]:

I CAN UNDERSTAND how I might forget that Vancouver will be the site of the Winter Olympics (a sporting event) in 2010.

BUT TO FORGET that its mascot is a Sasquatch? SHAME ON ME.

ACTUALLY, “QUATCHI” is one of three mascots for the Vancouver Olympics, all of which are either MYTHOLOGICAL or CRYPTOZOOLOGICAL, because

CANADA IS PERFECT.

That is all.

(AND, PLUS: even the mascots have a mascot. FINALLY)

Since John Hodgman is well regarded as an expert on everything, including all things crypto-zoological and hobo matters, it could well be true that he is right and Canada is perfect. 

Walking around the seawall last night after work I remembered how much I really love living in Vancouver.  Sure there are problems, but I think for the most part we have it good here and we’re too quick to be cynical about what we do have.  It’s easy to make a list of thing of things wrong with Vancouver, but working with tourists and new arrivals to Canada every day has been reminding me just how much we take for granted here.

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Here’s the quick recap: NY Times reporter Jennifer 8. Lee wrote a book about Chinese food, and picked Zen Cuisine in Richmond as the best Chinese restaurant outside of China.

The reviews have been fast and furious since then, and so has the business. Along with some friends, we went there to try things out.

We had Tasting Menu A. I shall not review each dish, except to say that the meal started with a mango ravioli amuse-bouche, and ended with a red bean mousse as the dessert. The dishes in between ranged from perfectly-prepared straight takes on traditional dishes (salted chicken) to revelatory dishes (double boiled soup in young coconut) I had never imagined.

The service was trying hard, and had high-class moments (our server was very good about explaining each of the dishes, and I for one like that sort of thing), but on the other hand two different people at our table had drink-order problems. I was still happy. You’ll have to ask Ron and Ernie if they agree.

It’s not cheap, but it’s good enough that I will be back, and as often as I can justify the price. And I plan to come up with some pretty ludicrous justifications.

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Lamplighter Pub re-opens today, originally uploaded by bmann.

In response to my complaint at having spent last night at a hotel bar in Seattle I was challenged on Metroblogging Seattle to name three pubs that I’d take people in downtown Vancouver [mbs]. I panicked and listed off The Mill, The Dover Arms and The Library Square Public House.

Did I fuck up and forget something? There’s got to be something in Gastown I missed.

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Iron Man, originally uploaded by Jeffery Simpson.

Any comic book fan worth their weight in refried beans is heading down to Seattle for the Emerald City Comic Convention [eccc] this weekend. Though Vancouver has yet to get a decent convention that attracts mainstream talent, Seattle’s convention has been getting better every year.

Since it’s not Vancouver related you won’t see me blogging about it here, though if you head over to our Seattle sister site Metroblogging Seattle [mbs] you’ll find that I’ll be doing some posting while I’m down there.

Anyone one else going down for the show?

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I noticed the garden in progress (shown above) on Hastings Street about a block down from Main Street on my way into work this week ala the SFU 135 bus. Last night after work, I decided to head down there to see if there was any information explaining this garden. Once I got to the garden area, I realized this was not really a good plan. I was alone next to an awful hotel and surrounded by people smoking crack and ranting. I continued walking as though I knew what I was doing, walked around the block and peaked down the alley behind the garden. It seemed mostly clear, so I walked down to the fenced off area and took pictures through the fence. There were people coming down the alley and a few people huddled behind a dumpster. I packed up my camera and headed off, my heart beating fast and feeling rather unsafe.

Nothing happened to me. I made it out of the area and I’m fine. Nobody even said anything to me. But that part of town is sad and scary.

This is what makes this garden interesting to me. As far as I could tell, there was no explanation about what was going on there. It’s a full lot and someone is building a winding path with bricks in there. There were wooden barrels planted in the ground and some plants. I saw a couple of wheelbarrows and even a hard hat. I think this may be a permanent garden, right in the middle of skid row. Who is creating this? I’m very interested to know who it is. I’d love to go back to the garden (with some friends. My decision to go alone was not a good one.) and take pictures of the garden as it progresses.

If anyone has any information about this, I’d love to hear about it. I did a quick search online and didn’t find anything.

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Toshi Sushi
181 16th Avenue East,
Vancouver, BC
V5T 4R2, Canada
(604) 874-5173

Growing up in the interior I learned to love decent sushi. Maybe you’ve had decent sushi, it’s good stuff, fresh and generally tasty. Like having a good steak at The Keg, or a good hamburger at Fatburger you eat it and enjoy it but don’t really ever crave it. There’s loads of good sushi places in Vancouver, and when I moved down town I ate at quite a few.

Toshi’s is not good sushi. Toshi’s is not even great sushi. Toshi’s is fucking great sushi.

Away from the downtown core it does not get much of the tourist traffic that downtown places get, and yet it’s always busy. The fact that locals flock to it, line up for it and keep coming back is a sign of a great resturant. Any resturant can get tourists to pack themselves into seats during the summer, but a place that can get the locals to wait in line outside during the rain and snow of the winter months is truely special.

I don’t know what to say about Toshi’s other than it’s probably my favorite restaurant in Vancouver. It’s also not just a once in awhile place, saved only for special occasions and birthdays because of the price. Though not cheap, if you define cheap as what you’d spend at a McDonald’s or all-you-can-eat-sushi places, it’s not so much that you’ll need to take out a second mortage for the night, my fiancee and I tend to be able to eat there for around $40 and still have a bit to take home.

Now the thing to know about Toshi’s if you haven’t been, is that unless you’re there at opening there’s going to be a wait. Don’t bring a large group, anything over 6 people will probably get turned away unless you’re willing to split up. If there’s a line at the door send someone in and up to the front to put your name on the wait list. Don’t wait for someone to address you, just go to the front and fill it in yourself. Then wait to be called. Trust me, it’s worth the wait.

Don’t bother phoning in for reservations. Actually don’t bother phoning in at all during dinner hours.

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Canadian Women’s Foundation is Canada’s only national public foundation dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls. They raise funds and grant them to initiatives across the country that are working to:

Since 1991 they have granted over $10 million to more than 650 programs in every province and territory.

Today local Vancouver radio station 104.9 Clear FM is doing a Radio-thon to raise money for the charity and raise awareness as part of SHELTER FROM THE STORM campaign. They are broadcasting live at HomeSense on Robson from 6am - 6pm.

Shelter from the Storm is Canada’s largest national campaign dedicated to ending violence against women. From April 14th to May 11th, you can help the Canadian Women’s Foundation raise funds to support more than 450 shelters for abused women and their children, across Canada.

PLEASE DONATE TO THIS GREAT CAUSE.

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Come 2009, the museum that’s been situated at the water’s edge of Vanier Park at Kitsilano Point will be closing. This museum has been around for ages and it’s sad that another Vancouver cultural landmark is disappearing.

Right now they’re fighting to find a way to preserve the vast collection and safely transition it to a new location, which looks like it may make its way over to North Vancouver.

The biggest piece would be the St Roch which itself is actually a National Heritage Site.  The boat has been here since 1958 and I hope they find a safe way to move and keep it so many others can enjoy its history.  More information on the situation between the city and the Maritime Museum Society here.

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Pacific Jewel, originally uploaded by ecstaticist.

Photo by Evan Leeson currently in flickrs Explore - the most interesting photos from the last seven days

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azalea, originally uploaded by Stephen Rees.

April showers we had enough of. Now for May flowers. Sometimes you get the nicest shots in your own front yard, though I only noticed these when I was backing out of my parking spot.

I also discovered that all Azaleas belong to the genus Rhododendron - so i could have used either name and been right

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Starting today Metroblogging Vancouver allows our readers the ability to post video comments, so now we can finally see you.  This is all thanks to the hard work of the people at the Metroblogging mothership, along with Seesmic [sm].  I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, but the interface does look pretty cool.

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I’ve got two buddies running the marathon this weekend - one is doing the 1/2 marathon and expects to run 13 miles in about an hour and a half. And my buddy who’s running the marathon for the first time ever hopes to be done in about 5 hours. Me? I’ll be driving in, drinking coffee and waiting at the finish line for my friends to finish with camera in hand. What can I say? I’m no runner.

Be prepared for detours and roads to be blocked off on Sunday. They start running early on Sunday - 7:00 am for the full marathon and 7:30 for the half. There’s plenty of entertainment along the race course to look forward to as well. It should be a good time!

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On the set, originally uploaded by TrueFalseFilmFestival.

When most people really love a movie they might go see it a few times in the movie theatre, buy it on DVD and quote their favorite lines to their friends. In 1982 three twelve year olds really loved Raiders of the Lost Ark and so they set about remaking it shot by shot. Eric Zala, Jayson Lamb and Chris Strompolos took until 1989 to complete the filming of their remake, and then they put the film away for the next 15 years [wm]. Since being discovered by web nerd Harry Knowles, founder of Ain’t It Cool News, the film has become a cult hit the trio have been to George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment studio where they met Spielberg.

Crudly shot on ’80s home video recording technology and acted by a cast of teenagers, the film is meant to be quite an experiance both as a tribute to the original Raiders and for a cultish campish event in its own right.

Raiders: The Adaptation is showing in Vancouver tonight. There is one showing only at 7 pm at The Park Theatre [gmt].

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The thing with the big cellular companies is that once you’ve signed your contract and gotten your cheap/free phone it’s going to be a wait until you get another deal on the phone again. Between the getting of a phone and the end of a contract shit can happen and repairing phones is not cheap, especially if you’re like the fairly large portion of Vancouver whose got a grey market phone brought in from Asia or America that none of the local carriers will repair.

Some local repair places have stepped in to fill the need for a more flexible repair centre. Working with one of the big carriers I’ve regularly directed people to local shops for non-warranty repairs. When I managed to break my iPhone screen I went to the Bill Tan (contact information after the jump) who had a reputation for being both good and not too expensive.

Any other recomendations for local phone repair shops in the lower mainland.

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As you know last month I encouraged you to sponsor a cat for the BC SPCA. I did, her name is Amy, and I got a sweet package from the SPCA noting my sponsorship. I get a newsletter from the SPCA as well and I thought I would pass along the interesting ways you can support them.

Pawsitive Gifts

You can help by purchasing a Pawsitive Gift that improves or enhances the health and well-being of animals in our care.

A gift of $5 will feed a puppy for one week.
A gift of $5 can feed a litter of kittens for one week!
A gift of $10 gives critters (Hamster, gerbil, etc) a warm, cozy stay.
A gift of $15 will provide the necessities of life to a dog for a day.
A gift of $12 will provide the necessities of life to a cat for a day.
A gift of $20 will pay for the care of one horse for a day.

There are so many more options as well, please take the time to check them out and give if you can. The animals can’t speak for themselves and really depend on us to take care of them.

If you have a little more cash laying around, and want to make your pet into a supermodel, this is the thing to do… (If I had a $1000 to spend I would love to bid on a page in the calendar for my kitties.)

BC SPCA 2009 Calendar

You can once again make your pet an instant celebrity by placing a bid for your pet’s photo to appear in the 2009 calendar. Along with the coveted front cover, the BC SPCA will be auctioning off all 12 months for our 2009 calendar! This calendar reaches more than 80,000 households across the province.

To place a bid, please provide your name, phone number and email address along with your bid amount and your preferred month and send it to: lbrown@spca.bc.ca. Please ensure that you write “BC SPCA Calendar Bid” in the subject line. Or, call 604-647-1327 for further details.

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