"Two" was a very appropriate theme for the evening. Besides being the most romantic night of the year, it was also the second consecutive Valentine's Day PKN to be hosted in Calgary. “I figured it's Valentine's Day and I would never get a date,” joked Buffy St-Amand of Volunteer Calgary, as she settled into her seat. “So I brought my husband.” Fittingly, two local villages paired up to jointly sponsor the event, East Village – which looked after the evening – and Village Brewery, which handled the beer break.
The PKN format of 20 slides per speaker for 20 seconds each lent itself, as always, to widely divergent approaches to the theme. Ken Lima-Coelho from CBC gave his perspective on the conversation between audience and performer. Cara Anderson, President of Six Minutes Dates, led the audience in a call-and-response rendition of All You Need is Love before presenting old family photos that showcased her professional match-making skills. There were even two sets of presenting pairs, Natalie and Dale who reproduced the 80's with stills from their Depeche Ode project, and Angela Dione and Angel Guerra, the dynamic duo who founded Market Collective.
Pierre Lamielle, the illustrator behind the subversive food stories that frequently pepper the pages of Swerve, brought sexy back (and the house down) with naughty food pairings. Todd Hirsch, Senior Economist with ATB Financial, did not address interest rates or gold prices as we had feared, but instead theorized that life, the universe and everything could be represented with one of two board games, either chess or Ants in the Pants.
Really, it was anything goes. Not even the appearance of the Great Big 3, that large green symbol from the Three Things for Calgary initiative, seemed out of place propped up in front of the mic on an evening devoted to "Two." Of course, host Cory Mack summed it up best with her quip: "2 is the new <3". We hearted every minute.
To submit ideas for the next PKN night on May 28th visit: http://yycpkn.ideascale.com/
Construction on the EV Experience Centre is fast and furious these days as the grand opening approaches. CMLC is occupying the middle section of the Experience Centre, flanked by our two developer partners. Our ceiling is high, very high – some 24 feet – so an Alexander Calder-inspired mobile was designed to dance in the space above visitors’ heads. The mobile was built by renowned Calgary industrial designer Greg Ball.
The first thing Ball did when he got the commission was seek out every image he could find of the graceful, airy and playful Calder mobiles that dot institutions from the Museum of Modern Art and The Guggenheim in New York to the National Gallery in Washington and the National Gallery of Canada. The second thing he did was begin to make very small mobiles of wire and paper to try to understand where pieces should hang from the rods, and what size they needed to be in order to hang in balance. The horizontal rods had to turn on their axes independently, as did the logo shapes. And then there’s the small matter of aesthetics. “It has to work,” says Ball, “and it has to look good.”
Now that it’s installed, we can attest to the good looks of the mobile. It hangs in the centre of the space, above the 13 square foot model of East Village. That’ll be the last thing to be installed. We can’t wait to show it to you.
On March 10, 2012, a gaggle of lucky lovers of urban life will be the very first members of the public to set foot in the EV Experience Centre.
You, dear reader, could be one of them.
What you’ll see is the heart and soul of an ultra-modern new structure in East Village that will tell the world the story of the transformation of your new favourite neighbourhood – and also show off the first residential offerings, Evolution and FIRST, from our development parters Embassy Bosa Inc and FRAM+Slokker. We’re hearing some buzz about their show suites, and they sound way amazing, unlike anything you’ve experienced on your hunt for the perfect city digs.
For the bragging rights on that alone, you should register for a chance.
And at the risk of sounding like a late-night ad for a vegetable-chopping device, there is, actually, more.
We’re setting up a lounge for the Urban Explorer that you are on the big outdoor deck of the Experience Centre overlooking the Bow River. There will be DJs, food and refreshments, along with fresh copies of EVE Magazine, so new they still have that delicious, hot-off-the-printer smell.
We’ll also be giving away a sweet mystery prize that we know for certain you’re going to love.
150 people will be invited, and you can bring along a significant other of your choice. It’s from 12-5pm on Saturday, March 10. You weren’t doing anything that afternoon, right? Just dreaming about an awesome new place to live in the newest, oldest, coolest warmest neighbourhood in town. That’s what we thought.
Register here. And we’ll see you there.
The punchlines were raining heavier than a Perseid meteor shower when the Discovery Channel's Jay Ingram and the University of Alberta's Dr. Valerie Sim debated the pitfalls of science reporting at a recent Science Cafe at the Ironwood Stage and Grill. As they do every month, our close neighbours – the Ironwood in Inglewood and Telus Spark in Bottomlands Park – teamed up to host an evening of scintillating scientific discussion. Who knew that a couple of white-coats could be so wildly entertaining?
Jay Ingram argued that in order to engage the lay public, science reporting needs to be entertaining as well as accurate. "I don't value entertainment higher than accuracy," he explained, "but I value it equally." Valerie Sim saw things slightly differently. For her, the most important aspect of science reporting is that it be "true, but interesting.” For Ingram, however, it's most important that science reporting be "interesting and true.” There's a subtle but crucial difference.
Communicating complex ideas without resorting to jargon is a huge challenge for scientists. "The brush of an artist is general," Dr. Sim pointed out, "the skill of a scientist is to be detail oriented." Interviewers who only pick up on sexy data points, or who are swayed by personal bias, make for dangerously inaccurate reporting. Quipped Ingram, "Who needs data when you've got dogma?"
From discussion about the tendency of the media to prematurely report scientific advances as cures, to a revelation about the surprisingly unscientific nature of a television science show like Daily Planet, to role-playing the three most common bad interviews, the evening's engaging hosts made sure the medicine went down in the most delightful way. Resolute beaker heads and casual science tourists alike left the Ironwood a little smarter about scientific reports in the popular press.
We're thrilled that the Science Café monthly forum is just a short stroll down 9th Avenue from East Village. We can feel our brains growing already.
And she took us - and the National Music Centre's instrument collection - on a wild ride.
When Laurie Anderson signed on for a chock-a-block stint as High Performance Rodeo's 2012 artist-in-residence, one of her most anticipated stops was an interactive tour of Cantos/NMC's world-renowned musical artifacts. Anderson, an innovative multi-media musical pioneer, unleashed her boundless imagination upon the unique instruments in the collection, providing the handful of lucky participants with a sonic treat. “Laurie Anderson is a wonderful story teller and it was a thrill to see her weave her unique perspective, experiences and stories through our collection,” says Candace Elder, programs officer at Cantos/National Music Centre.
Those who were wowed earlier in the week by Anderson's performance series at Theatre Junction Grand – we watched her pop a pillow speaker into her mouth to produce an otherworldly combination of ethereal throat singing and robotic tuning – knew that in her hands (or mouth) anything becomes a musical instrument, and every instrument tells a story. Anderson regaled the gathering with tales of babysitting Steve Martin's Theremin – the early electronic instrument that’s played without being touched – and revealed that the vocoder was initially designed for spying purposes. Then she segued into a perspective on the way current audio compression relates to early wax cylinder recordings.
Anderson is a renaissance artist who doesn’t rest on her considerable laurels. In fact, with four performances of Another Day in America at Theatre Junction Grand, lectures and in-studio interaction with students at ACAD, a gourmet dinner at the Cookbook Company Cooks, and a video installation (The Gray Rabbit) – complete with an in-conversation launch – at the Glenbow Museum, in addition to the interactive tour of the collection at Cantos/National Music Centre, she barely rests at all.
High Performance Rodeo may have been Laurie Anderson's first rodeo, but she roped us in like a pro.
When East Village partner, FRAM + Slokker launched their FIRST Villagers Photo Contest, they hoped Calgarians would get out and experience all that East Village has to offer – armed with packs of tiny FIRST Villagers and a camera -- the response was overwhelming.
Calgarians did an amazing job – so much so that the team at FRAM + Slokker would like to host an event to showcase the witty, elegant and downright stunning photos that were created.
Please join us from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 1st at WEST Restaurant and Bar.
First and second-prize winners will be awarded their prizes by FRAM Vice President of Development & Construction, Fred Serrafero.Top entrants can look forward to specially made prints of their contest entries and preview never-before-seen details about FIRST.
Invite your friends and family. There will be plenty of West-style refreshments and appetizers on hand.
Please RSVP by Sunday, January 29, 2012.
Location:
West Restaurant and Bar
225 7th Avenue SW
Date:
Wednesday, February 1st
Time:
6:00pm – 8:30pm
RSVP:
http://www.thenewcalgary.com/event/
FREE!
FIRST isn't just about living in the East Village, it's about what the East Village provides for the City and neighbouring communities. It's a place of growth and change that, as Calgarians, we all have a chance to influence. To learn more, visit www.thenewcalgary.com
In some 60 days, the East Village Experience Centre opens in the heart of East Village on the corner of Confluence Way and 5th Ave. S.E., and sales will begin on the first two residential projects, FIRST, from FRAM+Slokker, and Evolution, by Embassy Bosa.
These mixed-use residential buildings will change the face of East Village, which has already seen new streets, street furniture and street lamps installed, along with, of course, two phases of RiverWalk and the 4th St. Underpass. – both of which reconnect East Village to Centre City.
The strikingly modern centre is a sales and information hub about all things East Village. You’ll be able to see the whole neighbourhood – at 1:300 scale! – on a big floor model designed by Calgary’s Replicate Designs, see an enormous Calder-esque mobile by local industrial designer Greg Ball and get a feel for the life, both man-made and natural, of the unique urban village that is East Village. Another good thing – the centre has been designed to be easily dismantled and the parts recycled into another use.
Come stroll RiverWalk and take a look at the construction on the growing Experience Centre; new signage is up, and most of the work has moved to the inside. And if you’re looking for other ways to enjoy East Village right now, check out 100 Days 100 Ways – every day between now and the day the Experience Centre opens, we offer ways to take in the variety of art, nature and culture offered by the neighbours of East Village.
It’s an exciting time. We love watching as the proud neighbourhood where Calgary was founded re-introduces itself to centre city, and a new generation of Calgarians joins the long-standing residents of East Village.
Fanzy Z’s image of a group of Tiny Villagers marvelling at a rainbow-coloured array of urban lights earned her a major prize – Z big trip to Montréal, including round-trip economy airfare from Calgary to Montréal, three (3) nights in the super cool Place d’Armes Hôtel & Suites in Old Montréal and $1,500 spending money.
The contest has been running since September to raise awareness of East Village and Fram+Slokker’s soon-to-be-released condominium offering there, named FIRST. The Tiny FIRST Villagers photo that got the most ‘likes’ on Facebook was the winner. Fanzy got an impressive 3,500 ‘likes’.
Contestants shot miniature models of East Village residents in situ, a feat second-prize winner Joke Zantua pulled off with panache, adding his own tiny trees, miniature pups and teeny bike. Joke was rewarded for his efforts – and his 3,400 ‘likes’ – with a snazzy Canon EOS 7D. [inline:JokeZantua_NewCalgaryWinner2.jpg]
Both Fanzy Z and Joke Zantua will be awarded their prizes at FRAM+Slokker's FIRST Villagers Photo Contest Awards event taking place Wednesday, February 1st at West Restaurant & Bar. In addition, top entrants can look forward to specially made prints of their contest entries. For more details, head to http://www.thenewcalgary.com/event/