Tag Archives: vancouver

An Ode to the Lamrichs!

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[Editor's note: on Saturday, two of my favourite people in Vancouver the world, Kurt and Theodora Lamrich, tied the knott - at the Planetarium, and it was epic. And their reception at Main Street's Heritage Hall was equally epic and unfolded as a true representation of the couple's love and character. For example, the hashtag #TheoandKurtkiss was trending on Twitter by the end of the evening. The wedding was, like there love is, truly galactic. More importantly, it was foretold by one of William Shakespeare's little known comedic characters, Hornlet. The poem unfolds below. Enjoy!]

HORNLET: To wed, or not to wed–that is the question:

Whether ’tis proper to wait four years to marry

Finding each other, your quite good fortune

Did you take arms against a sea of troubles

And with our help, ended them. Tonight, no sleep–

No more–and when you sleep to say we end.

Marriage, tell your story together forever

That love found in you. ‘Tis a declaration

We devoutly wished. To love, to wed–

Marriage—to live your dreams: ay, there’s the rub,

For in your marriage what dreams may come

When you are nestled in your lovers’ coil,

Must give us pause. There’s the respect

To grow old together of so long life.

For you will bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th’ NPA is wrong, the Heinrich’s qualified

The pangs of bromance love, did some delay,

The insolence of Hornlet, and fiery burns

That nutted merit Lammer’s friendship makes,

When she herself might cross the hall take

View a bare bottom? What do neighbours share,

Some advice to live your married life,

Or the dread of zombies after death,

The undiscovered marriage, from you’s bourn

No traveller returns, journey you will,

And will you rather bear the love you have

And fly to places that we know not of?

This wedding does make lovers of us all (not literally, that’d be weird),

And thus the serious tone of my elocution

Is shaded o’er with a much happy thought,

Your enterprise of red hair and eyebrows

With this regard your currents intertwined

And love the name of Lamrich. — Soft you now,

The fair Theodora! — Kurt, kiss her crimsons

And we all your love remember.

- Exeunt

Pete Mackenzie – NOT an Idiot

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Who are you?

[Editor's note: Pete Mackenzie is an Employment Counsellor & Facilitator at Job Options BC with the YMCA-YWCA of the Okanagan. Born and raised in Vancouver, he misses the rain and real estate prices. His messianic zeal is built around youth employment issues and he believes with some creative entrepreneurship, BC can be the next Mumbai, India. Pete is also this blog's newest Correspondent!]

Most people think of me as the guy with chiseled abs. Actually, that’s the guy standing next to me… he’s a bit of a jerk.

What do you do for fun?

Um, work. I’m really lame. I saw Superbad a few years ago, it was pretty good.

What is your favourite community? Why?

I ‘m taking a road trip to Utah in the spring. I hope the dynamic personality down there rubs off on me.

Pete can't belive the Canucks lost again!

What is your superpower?

The ability to talk even when no one is listening.

Pete building community!

How do you use it to build community?

One day I hope have something meaningful to say.

My Three Favourite Things About Pete Are…

1. Brevity. This was one of the fastest and more entertaining GTKYCs ever. Well played, Pete. Well played.

2. The Man Knows Funny. One need only check out Pete’s first contribution to The Daily Gumboot, “How Not to Look Like an Idiot” to get a sense of his humourous, um, sense. I  appreciate our newest Correspondent’s penchant for “laughing it off” – in the business of blogging, one needs to be able to laugh reflexively, as there are a lot of annonymously mean-spirited trolls out there.

3. Entrepreneurial Spirit. I love that Pete works for fun and I also love – and am honoured by – the fact that he sought out this piblication and pitched us on his writing style and substance. To say that he’s a good fit would be one of the biggest understatements of 2012!

- As told by John Horn

Sea Planes: #Awesome Community Builders

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Seaplanes are boats that fly. How cool is that?! On that basis alone I’m going to make it a goal for 2012 to fly in one. Heck, I might even get behind the controls, or at least get to sit in the cockpit. Or maybe I missed out on that one after turning ten…

Everyday on my bike ride to work along Coal Harbour on the south shore of the Burrard Inlet, I stop briefly and watch a small fleet (‘squadron’?) of planes sputter to life and motor out to their watery ‘runway’ (is that what you would call it?).

Not only are sea planes technologically awesome, they are also vital to our coastal province and to Canada as a whole. Vancouver’s squadron of planes is one of the biggest in the country made up of over fifty planes, including Single Otters, Twin Otters and DHC-2 Beavers – all servicing the Gulf Islands and the Interior. Over 250,000 business people and tourists use them every year. Across Canada, so-called bush pilots busily buzz between far flung lakes and rivers keeping communities connected by delivering their mail, workers, supplies, medical services and the odd canoer.

The winter can’t stop them either. Check out this video of a Twin Otter Seaplane landing on a frozen lake in Saskatchewan.

I might write about Hovercrafts next time…they’re also boats that fly. Sort of….

Kiley Redhead – Pure Intuition

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Who are you?

At first I wondered whether I should answer this question about me personally or about my work. Then I realized that it is the same answer, because who I am is my work. After years of feeling lost and misaligned with my work, I decided to embark on an adventure of self-discovery from which I wanted to connect with my own inspired work. Through this journey, I discovered my own purpose and vision, and my mission is now to help others realize the same. The creation that helps me fulfill this is my business, which is called The New School for Inspired Work. A place where I share my process with those who desire to create work that feels meaningful to them. I believe when we work from this place of inspiration, we serve the world best.

What do you do for fun?

My work is the most fun thing I do. Whether I am creating new courses or facilitating them or being with the incredible people that participate in them – I feel the most alive, the most joyful, and the most myself. I cannot imagine anything being more fun than that. I do have other loves outside of work. I enjoy playing games, all games – card games, board games, computer games. I also spend a lot of time cooking, using new recipes – I never cook the same meal twice. As well, I like to participate in a variety of activities such as swimming, biking, yoga, tennis, and boogieboarding. I especially love taking courses, learning, and being at school. In fact, I love it so much I decided to create a school so that I could be there all the time. Oh, I am talking about work again, aren’t I?

What is your favourite community? Why?

Outside of the people I work with every day, my favourite community is the Olympic community. What I mean by this is anyone and everyone around the globe who has any connection with the Games, whether hosting them, participating in them, or watching them. Why is because every two years for a short period of time, during the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, I feel as though we come together as one planet and I feel connected to the spirit of all. When I felt this most powerfully was when we hosted the Games here in Vancouver and personally saw the Olympic torch afire. To me, the flame represented the heart alight in each and every person.

What is your superpower?

I would define my superpower as “intuitive listener”. By listening with every part of my being, I am able to feel what others are saying, and what they are not saying, on many different levels.

How do you use it to build community?

We all want to feel heard, mostly from ourselves. When I am listening, others hear themselves to their own clarity, and this is where inspired work comes from. Those who want to connect with their work join me on this journey. Along with the programs, I create community by hosting movie nights, book clubs, and game nights at the school. More information can be found at http://www.thenewschool.ca/.

My Three Favourite Things About Kiley Are…

1. Entrepreneurial Super-Spirit. Kiley’s honest and transparent entrepreneurism is reflected by her very awesome comment about work being her life and life being her work. And her belief that working is how and when she has the most fun tells the story of a person who has truly found the intersection of her talent and passion.

2. Game-playing Fun. I think that Kiley might be the first person to admit/celebrate playing board games. I like this. A lot. I’m not saying that she’s a nerd, but I’m not not saying it, either. Regardless, nerds are awesome!

3. Getting the Best out of People! Starting with her awesome intuitive listening, Kiley applies her superpower in a way that is sure to support communities as well as reveal the best things about them (and the people that live inside).

XYBOOM Conference Discusses Workplace Community

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[Editor's note: whether you're an un-or-under-employed Millennial, Gen Xer, or Baby Boomer, you should be paying attention to an upcoming awesometastic collaboration between Service Canada, My Loudspeaker, the post-secondary community, and many change-making businesses from Metro Vancouver and beyond. It's called the XYBOOM Conference and it will be community-building at its finest!]

Vancouver, BC – January 10, 2012 – When a business loses an employee, it loses more than a staff member: employee turnover is estimated to cost more than double the cost of retainment. Loss of productivity, resources and time spent re-hiring and training are some of the burdens of employee replacement. The BC Business Council urges businesses to be more competitive in their retention strategies, suggesting investing in succession planning and staff development as solutions. The XYBOOM Conference seeks to address these issues with a dynamic, intergenerational approach.

Sustainable hiring systems and employee development and retention are key topics to be addressed at the conference on January 20th. This unique initiative, funded primarily by Service Canada brings togther business professionals and youth with experts from three generations – X,Y and Baby Boomer – to collaborate on finding strategies and solutions on mitigating the growing labour shortage.

The conference offers more than ten industry panelists who have diverse career backgrounds – including expertise in human resources, intercultural understanding, workplace organization and strategic marketing – as well as engaging, participatory workshops sessions, guaranteeing attendees will leave with strategies and insights on the issues at hand.

“The conference plays an important role in mitigating the pending labour shortage as baby boomers exit the workforce” says Alden Habacon, UBC Director of Intercultural Understanding Strategy Development and XYBOOM panelist. With baby boomers beginning to retire and a looming labour shortage, employee replacement is becoming a growing financial burden for unprepared businesses. Higher retention rates give businesses a competitive edge during labour shortages.

Business applications for XYBOOM will be accepted at www.xyboom.ca.

Hosted by My Loud Speaker, the XYBOOM Conference will be held on January 20th from 9-5pm at the Yaletown Roundhouse. This not-for-profit event will also include a live streaming feature for off-site youth participants across the Lower Mainland, XYBOOM awards for businesses, case study reports and an interactive art installation created by Gen Why Media Project at the W2 atrium from Jan 19-21st.

Please visit www.xyboom.ca for more information on the conference, issues at hand, and a complete guest panelist list.

Devon Wong – Media Relations
604 250 4662 | www.xyboom.ca
XYBOOM: January 20, 2012

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Masthead photo (The Train at the Roundhouse Theatre in Yaletown) courtesy of goldberg

Will Vancouver’s Ferries Ever Make a Comeback?

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It’s been over 60 years since the last crossing between West Van’s Dundarave pier and the Vancouver Wharf, yet its memory and talk of its resurrection live on. In fact, it’s always been a bit of a surprise and disappointment to me that there aren’t more boat transportation options in a city with so many waterways. Is the demand just not there? Would operating costs be too high?

1920s, West Vancouver Ferry crossing the Burrard Inlet, Archives Item#: SGN 1123

Before the Lion’s Gate Bridge there was a ferry linking Vancouver’s Downtown with West Vancouver’s Ambleside neighbourhood. And at one time  ferries bound for Vancouver Island serviced both false creek and the downtown core. The rise of the car and the parallel construction of the city’s major inner-city bridges spelled the end of these busy, working ferries. Check out this great post by Miss 604 describing the evolution of West Vancouver’s storied ferry service which ended with the Lions Gate ribbon cutting in 1947.

As recently as 2010, West Van did a 6 month trial run of the old service to downtown which it then abruptly cancelled. I can’t seem to find out why, but it wasn’t due to lack of demand from Vancouverites as far as I can tell. I wonder how West Enders and Yaletowners would respond to a ferry service between their neighbourhoods and the North Shore. Pretty well, I would think, particularly when these are communities with below average per capita car ownership.

Am I just dreaming that inner city ferries could even survive given our dependence on four-wheeled traffic and  bridges? What would it take to bring some of these old ferry services back on line?

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Masthead photo courtesy of rollanb

Lessons in Culinary Community Building

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Picture a long festive table decked with candles and lined with  a dozen smiling faces. Surely, all the ingredients for sharing of food, laughter and good conversation? Well, not so much.

As I sat down excited to spend the evening catching up with everyone, I realized a good third of the long table was out of earshot and I was confined to chatting only with my immediate neighbour. Others dishes were also out of tasting/sharing range. By the end of the evening, I left for home feeling unfulfilled -  increasingly convinced  that other cultures, particularly in Asia, but, oddly, as close as Switzerland, know where it’s at when it comes to shared dining. Here’s why:

Circle Sitting:

Rectangular tables are recipes for isolation and are basically retrograde – some sort of throwback to medieval banqueting. They’re also hierarchical when you think about it. Why do we need a “Head of the table”, for example? Sitting in a circle does away with all that and facilitates a shared social and culinary experience. Chinese Dim-sum restaurants have got it right.

Cooking (!) the food at the table:

Last year’s Christmas highlight was having endless Swiss Raclette with my family. A stack of cheese and a two little propane fired pans set up around our coffee table was all it took to have an interactive, collaborative and leisurely meal.

Japanese 'Hot Potting'

 

This year, the highlight was my first Japanese Hot Pot experience with six friends. Again, we relaxed around two bubbling cookers, working together to keep the pots full of pre-prepared seafood, mushrooms, kim-chi and other delicacies.

Admittedly my international experience is limited and hence my examples are too. But I feel it’s safe to say the West has a lot to learn. Sure – we’re good around a campfire with wieners and marshmallows, but it’d be great to bring that communal experience more regularly into our homes. Chopping the corners off all tables square is good start!

 

 

 

Stories from the Writers’ Room: Kids, Creativity and Careers

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A burgeoning superstar being tutored by a gentleman in a plaid shirt who needs to do a better job of knowing when the camera's on him...

Last week I was lucky enough to work with Sarah Maitland and the Kidsafe Writers’ Room team to create and deliver some superawesome – and super educational – literacy programming for kids from East Vancouver during their Winter Holiday Break. The program content was career-related – Wait, where are you going? No, trust me, it was fun and not serious at all and you will enjoy reading this!- and it was absolutely inspiring to work with over 160 kids as they invented their jobs of the future.

Fun fact: a student who enrolled in college or university in September 2011 will probably work in a job that does not exist today. For this reason, I often encourage post-secondary students who I meet to imagine and/or create future work that will address future challenges/opportunities and to consider the skills that will be needed to tackle this kind of work. It’s not my idea, but one that stems from guru/personal-hero, Jim Bright, who teaches the aptly-named Chaos Theory of Careers to students, practitioners and job seekers the world-over.

Needless to say, I was extremely curious and very excited to see how the kids, who ranged in age from five to fifteen, treated this exercise. For starters, here is a selection of some of the job titles that were created:

  • Teacher
  • Space Cooker
  • Cleaner
  • Driver
  • The World Helpers (there was a “Kids with Problems” helper, an Animal Helper, and a Health Helper)
  • Sky Welder
  • Inventor
  • Physicist
  • Super Spy
  • Star Gatherer
  • Owner of a Petting Zoo for Endangered Species
  • Poop Collector
  • TV Watcher
  • Video Game Tester
  • Fart Soldier
  • Princess
  • Social Worker
  • Toy Maker
  • Solar Plane Engineer
  • Veterinarian
  • Inventor of the Massaging Toilet

Interesting. And awesome.

So, how did the kids get here? Well, before working with some exceptional volunteer tutors to complete an activity sheet (pictured), I engaged the kids in a discussion about jobs – and work – that has come and gone over the last 150 years; the idea was that the kids needed to know what work started and stopped, and when it did, in order to get a sense of what might come in the future. The discussion was actually more of a yell-fest (there should be more yelling in school, in my opinion), as I brought up volunteers who held up a picture of a job (e.g. Lamplighter or Pony Express Rider), which I explained to the group, and then moved it along a giant time line (crafted on a huge piece of white paper), which spanned from 1875 to 2025. When they got to a point on the time line that the audience didn’t agree with, we all booed. And when the kid got to the right spot (this differed from group to group, as some of the kids felt that vinyl record production stopped in 2010) everybody cheered.

And that’s how we got to the activity sheets. Here are some examples of the great work these kids did:

I’ll go so far as to say that pretty much everybody enjoyed the group-activity (even Lucy, the intractable volunteer who experienced/put-up-with all 10 of my workshops); however, watching the kids – especially the boys – tackle the worksheets was a bit different. About half of the kids immediately took to the activity. The others, well, I can safely say – and I say it with much fairness – that not everyone became immediately super-enthusiastic about their career during the holidays…when they’re eight years old. And here’s the magical thing: as soon as the activity was framed with the questions ‘what do you like to do?’ and ‘how can you turn that into something that you could do for work?’ nearly everyone got into it. Oh, and the fact that the kids got to draw pictures as themselves doing the work was pretty darn fantastic. Especially the Fart Soldier!

Describing the very good feelings that bubbled within when the kids proudly shared their pictures and stories with me and especially when they excitedly (and some, I’ll admit, begrudgingly) commented on the value of the exercise and that thinking about a future career – or simply what careers might look like in the future – was “really helpful” or “important” or “pretty cool” is difficult to say the least. So I’ll just say that working with kids in a way that helps them to think about blending interests, talent, passion, and future possibilities in the world of work was as enjoyable as it was meaningful.

So, what’s the work that you want to tackle in the future?

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All photos courtesy of Sarah Maitland

How to Shelter Everyone – Lessons from First United Church

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Does everyone deserve a place to sleep? Photo courtesy of quinet

Nothing spoils Christmas like thought of dozens of people sleeping outside in cold, wet Vancouver weather. It’s been an ongoing struggle for years and isn’t likely to change anytime soon.

In 2008, shortly after the municipal election and right before the city was blanketed in dumps of snow, the city, province and non-profit housing leaders were able to open HEAT (Homeless Emergency Action Team) shelters to put the option of a roof over the head of some of the city’s most vulnerable individuals.

For the past three years, ground-zero for the emergency housing effort has been First United Church. Each winter night, Rev Ric Matthews, Sandra Severs and their church staff find beds (or pews) for hundreds of hard to house, hardcore, street homeless people. The shelter was hard to miss. A block east of Main off Hastings St, it is constantly surrounded by a gaggle of street people and their shopping carts full of belongings.

Mathews, Severs and their team were committed to housing anyone and everyone who needed help. No-one would be turned away, regardless of who they were, what they’d done in the past, where they were supposed to be living or how many people were trying to get in on a given night. You’d think such a commitment of open-armed acceptance would be welcomed by civic and provincial leaders looking to combat street homelessness. And it was, at least for the first few years.

But then complaints started to roll in. There were reports of sexual assaults by some shelter residents against others. It was evident that many of the government’s “best practices” weren’t being followed at First United. Then the city’s fire department got involved when it came to light that the fire code was being violated by the number of people sleeping in the shelter in a number of nights. The church leadership’s refusal to turn anyone out into the cold didn’t square with their insurance and liability contracts. The issue came to a head First United was forced to to turn away 27 people in one night due to fire safety bylaws. Matthews, Severs and another operational manager promptly resigned and a media uproar flared as the issue of shelter best practices vs. exclusion of the needy came to the forefront. Matthews summed it up aptly in a recent interview with the CBC:

We need a separate way of trying to deal with folk who fall through the cracks… The problem is that while that’s totally appropriate and necessary, there are folk who get excluded by that process. By the very definition of the word, there are folk who are seen to be a threat to others and who can’t be inside of that facility.

Now Matthews and his top lieutenants have resigned, BC Housing’s funding for the shelter has come to an end and First United will no longer be offering 200 shelter spaces to some of the city’s most marginalized citizens. Two new housing shelters have been announced by the province to replace First United’s stock of beds, but these will likely not be able to operate with the same “open-arms” approach of First United. Whether there will still be as many places for aggressive, criminal, alcoholic, or heavily drug addicted homeless folks remains to be seen.

One thing is certain, the demand for housing (especially as it gets colder) from this particular hard-to-house demographic is not likely to evaporate any time soon. The loss of an organization committed to housing and servicing this population could be a significant blow to the efforts of Vancouver and Victoria to deal with the Metro Vancouver homelessness crisis.

While it’s understandable that leaders in both the United Church, city and province would be uneasy with First United’s “no one will be turned away”, I wonder what will happen when dozens of these 200 street homeless people hit the streets, not beds, in the coming cold winter nights.

Photo courtesy of jmv

Handel’s Messiah at the Orpheum

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Composed in 1742, Handel’s Messiah has become a cultural fixture of the Christmas season. When I heard that some of my family planned to see the Vancouver Chamber Choir & Symphony Orchestra’s performance of it I recognized the name but didn’t know exactly what it was. I knew it was a classic that I wanted to experience for myself so I jumped at the chance to do so.

 

Image: Tourism Vancouver, Orpheum Theatre

The performance was at the Orpheum Theatre on Granville Street. This was my first time inside the Orpheum so I just need to briefly gush about the iconic building. The red and gold fixtures and the mural on the vaulted ceiling make it difficult to imagine this was ever a movie theatre, but the old photos on the walls are both proof and nostalgic reminders for visitors like my Mom, who remembers seeing movies there when she was young.

 

The baroque epic is composed of bouncing vocal rounds interspersed with soloists reciting what are almost comically repetitive choruses. You get the sense that they really want to make sure you now what they are talking about. Except for the soprano who sang in a pitch so high that what she sang couldn’t compete with how she sang it. Handel’s own habit of customizing the lyrics for each performance has become a part of the living tradition. While a live musical performance is always unique, it is not always intentionally so. I love the idea of a composition that was written over 250 years ago with the intention of performing it differently for each occasion. It makes the occasion more exciting for the audience, and the performers.

 

Handel was super rich. He still ranks in the top 5 richest classical composers. Messiah is just part of what made him so plentiful of resources. Handel is credited as being the first to write English language oratorios. An oratorio is a sort of no frills no gimmicks opera that cut out all the typical expenses that made Operas so unprofitable, such as costumes, sets, and star performers.  Mostly unknown performers on a simple stage created a vocal symphony so compelling that record-breaking audiences have attended since the first performance.

 

The ease and low cost of staging the show combined with the incredible popularity with audiences made Messiah the most profitable performance of it’s time and it remains one of the most performed pieces in the world to this day. This was a great opportunity to get out and enjoy one of the city’s best venues and one of the world’s most popular pieces of music and, to top it off, the tickets were only about $30. Halleluia!