Set your DeLorean to Nov. 5, 1955, and power up your flux capacitor with 1.21 gigawatts because White Rock is heading Back to the Future!
The 1985 comic blockbuster, starring Burnaby’s own Michael J. Fox as time traveling, electric guitar-wielding skateboard enthusiast Marty McFly, is one of four family-friendly films lighting up a giant movie screen in White Rock this summer as part of the Prospera Great Outdoors Film Festival.
The free summer series is presented on a gigantic, three storey-high movie screen set up at various outdoor locations around town.
Along with the ’80s time-travel comedy classic, Back to the Future, the festival will bring two of the year’s biggest animated films to White Rock, Pixar’s imaginative, heart-rending Up, and Monsters vs Aliens, DreamWorks’ somewhat gimmicky but action-packed sci-fi spoof about a monster-woman caught up in a desperate bid to save planet Earth from invading space robots. Continue Reading »
B.C.’s annual home-grown strawberry harvest is the best, brightest sign that summer in the Lower Mainland has finally arrived.
Deep, ruby red and bursting with an intense flavour, B.C.’s melt-in-your-mouth strawberry varieties are allowed to ripen on the vine so they ripen from the inside out – unlike the pulpy, tasteless Californian imports lining supermarket shelves all year.
The extra growing time gives them the superb fruit flavour and consistency they’re famous for (but makes it impossible to ship them very far). B.C. strawberry varieties are not everbearing, meaning there’s just one crop a year.
The short season – typically just three to four weeks from mid June to mid-July – means you’ve got to act fast.
The berries are hand-picked in the fields daily and immediately sold in flats that fly off the shelves of local fruit stands.
Early one recent weekday morning, Surrey Farm’s fruit stand on 152nd and Colebrook Rd. was already bustling with customers eagerly carrying sticky, fruit-laden flats of fresh strawberries to the till.
Surrey Farms sells as many as 10,000 pounds of fresh strawberries a day during the brief, frantic season, making them the family-owned operation’s number-one berry crop in terms of sales. Continue Reading »
Raise a toast to the Mountain Pine Beetle – scourge of B.C.’s forests – by settling into the cheapest six-pack in the province. Turns out the nasty little critters are good for something.
Cariboo Genuine Draft
A brewing company in northern B.C. has taken a cue from that old beverage adage, If Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade. But instead of lemons, the Pacific Western Brewing Company has taken inspiration from the devastation of the Mountain Pine Beetle in the launch of its latest beer.
The voracious pest has chomped and chewed its way through millions of hectares of B.C.’s forests, leaving wave upon wave of rust-coloured evergreens in its wake, an economic and environmental emergency that has created huge impacts on the beleaguered forest industry, once the cornerstone of the natural resource-dependent provincial economy.
Enter Cariboo Genuine Draft, a low-cost, surprisingly good-tasting 5.5 percent bargain beer introduced in March. (Pick it up at the government liquor store at just under $8 for a six-pack – that’s as low as she goes, people.)
For every case sold, the Prince George-based company will plant a tree. Continue Reading »
Fifty bucks and an apology letter is all it takes to get away with taking sexual advantage of an underage girl in British Columbia.
A White Rock man who pleaded guilty to assaulting a 14-year-old girl last August has been ordered to apologize to her in writing, take respectful relationship training and stay away from drugs and alcohol as part of a 12-month conditional discharge handed down at his recent sentencing.
The man, aged 20 at the time of his arrest, also been ordered to pay a $50 fine – what the B.C. Attorney-General’s ministry calls a Victim Surcharge. Continue Reading »
All that was left of White Rock's former landmark Art Deco Marine Drive home.
The notion of what happens to ghosts when their houses are demolished came rushing back to my thoughts a few months ago, when I learned that a well-known haunted house and architectural landmark in White Rock had been flattened by the wrecking ball.
The house at 14635 Marine Drive was one of my absolute favourite beach homes. An Art Deco-styled treasure dating from the early 1940s, the curving, two-storey home was like nothing else in town. It was covered in bright white plaster and trimmed with glowing sunset orange and lime green windows that appeared even brighter when its orange curtains were drawn.
Sometimes a mannequin or two populated the upper deck. A green arbour of wild-looking ivy arched over the entranceway (happily still there, along with a smidge of an old lilac bush) and a white lattice fence enclosed the pretty little yard. Walking along the promenade at the far end of West Beach, I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
My heart sank like a stone when I drove past one wintry Sunday morning, hoping to impress an out-of-town guest by pointing out the distinctive house, and I realized it was gone. Continue Reading »
Here’s a question for all you ghost-hunters out there.
If a building is haunted, what happens to the ghosts when it gets torn down – or undergoes a really extreme makeover?
That’s something I’ve been wondering ever since the White Rock Playhouse got a complete overhaul a few years ago. Turns out I’m not alone. A recent item in the latest issue of the tourist-oriented freebie guide, Discover the Peninsula (a publication of the Peace Arch News), has an article wondering the same thing.
In 2006, the landmark 1532 Johnston Rd. theatre underwent an extensive renovation and expansion project, utterly transforming the original structure, a former Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall that was converted into a theatre and fitted with a stage in 1960. When the latest overhaul was complete, it was renamed the Coast Capital Playhouse to reflect the name of one of the major sponsors of the $1.6 million reno.
Then, as now, the building is home to the award-winning White Rock Players, one of the longest-running community theatre groups in B.C. They formed back in 1944, giving the group plenty of time to build its well-deserved reputation – and collect its share of ghosts; as many as 18 different spirits, according to one psychic.
After enjoying a banner year in northern B.C. last year, sasquatches – well, their footprints, anyway – are once again being reported along Highway 16.
Sasquatch footprint?
Residents along this fairly remote stretch of highway, a ribbon of asphalt that links Prince George in Canada’s westernmost province’s interior and the small seaport of Prince Rupert on the north coast, came forward with a number of sasquatch sightings in 2008, suggesting something of a rebound for the notoriously shy, quasi-mythical creatures.
Things were relatively quiet through the new year, but reports are starting to come in again.
According to the Canada UFO blog, on March 8, someone in the First Nations village of Moricetown reported hearing loud, unexplained sounds coming from the back of their property, in the middle of the night.
The next morning, this person told a family member about it who, in turn, went out to see if they could determine the cause of the noises. They claimed to see large, human-like footprints in the snow beside the fence on the property line, as well as some moose prints. Researcher Brian Vike of Houston, B.C., says he drove out there the next day to take a closer look.
“There was certainly no question in my mind that what I was looking at were tracks of something that walked on two legs, large footprints that were not just in a small area, but rather this thing traveled a great distance,” he wrote in a report filed to his blog March 10. The footprints were deep – about a foot and a half – and appeared to have a long stride. He took measurements and a “whole whack of photos”. Continue Reading »
It’s a gorgeous, sunny spring night. It must be election night in B.C.! Let’s tune into the “pre-game show”, a term used sans irony by Global BC when promoting their election coverage. Since the results are pretty much a forgone conclusion anyway, let’s compare the TV coverage!
At 7 p.m., an hour before the polls close, Tony Parsons says: “In order to bring you results as quickly as possible tonight we’ve set up a state-of-the-art election centre.” He hands it over to anchor-in-waiting Chris Gailus, holding court in a giant spaceship-like command centre, with impressive graphics like a Decision BC 2009 banner and a tasteful red, black and grey decor somehow superimposed over a green screen. These fancy CNN Situation Room-inspired surroundings are tragically NOT as dorky as I’d hoped. Continue Reading »
Is it just me, or have the past eight years under the B.C. Liberals seemed to drag on a bit?
At times arrogant, elitist and increasingly out of touch, our political overlords have really done all they can to stretch out their two consecutive terms. From massive cutbacks to selling off or privatizing B.C.’s assets, they’ve clung to an outmoded economic philosophy – I think it’s “Every Man for Himself” – while nonetheless pursuing a breakneck spending spree.
This seems like a case of misplaced priorities, and it’s surprising more critics haven’t come out of the woodwork to condemn the move. But I guess Gordon Campbell, the champion of the carbon tax, has effectively bought his party an election-time pass from some of the province’s normally more vocal greenies.
The Libs have never managed our parks and protected areas very convincingly, but the hush-hush decision to slash park rangers strikes me as a particularly miserly – even petty – cost-cutting move. After all, this is the same group that blithely gave themselves big fat pay increases in 2007. Continue Reading »
I wasn’t impressed with something the premier said last week on the hustings in the northwest.
He told reporters he was frustrated by the previous district council’s stance over Alcan power sales and blamed their stubborn pursuit of the issue for hurting the town. In short, Campbell said it’s no wonder Rio Tinto Alcan didn’t get on with their long-promised smelter upgrade because of the town’s pissy attitude.
You see, although the company gets cheap electricity from the Kemano hydro electric dam, and has done since the 1950s in return for smelting aluminum in northwest B.C., the town apparently should have kept its pie-hole shut when the aluminum company decided to just sell a lot of its power to B.C. Hydro instead, a move that accompanied local smelter layoffs.
Instead, the city stubbornly pursued a legal ruling in hopes of blocking power sales, a tactic that hurt the Aluminum City’s economic development – and the entire region, the premier now claims.
Souvenir from the Kitimat Works
“I’ll be candid,” he told the Terrace Standard following a campaign stop, “there have been days when it’s been very frustrating to deal with the previous Kitimat council and the resistance they had to what would have been a multi-billion dollar investment in the Alcan smelter, which probably would be under way right now in the community and the whole Northwest would have benefited from that.”
Reading between the lines, I think the premier is suggesting Kitimat was punished because its (democratically-elected) mayor and council stood up for what they believed was best for their citizens. But he sounds like he thinks that’s a bad thing, representing your constituents. Continue Reading »
We still haven’t been told how much the 2010 Winter Olympics are going to cost.
Even though there’s been an election campaign underway, the provincial government hasn’t filled us in, yet. We’re waiting for a detailed auditor-general’s report on the subject. Last I heard he said divulging the true costs would harm the games. Does that even make sense?
Keep in mind just over 3,000 athletes are coming to the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver next February. By strange coincidence, that’s the same number as Vancouver’s current homeless population.
But it is kind of freaky when you instead picture 3,000 people sleeping out on downtown streets, in doorways, staircases and under Skytrain spans on a typical rain-soaked Vancouver winter night.
The Summer Olympics, BTW, are a big deal. More than 11,000 athletes representing 204 countries competed in Beijing. The 2006 Winter Olympics in Turino, by contrast, showcased just 2,500 athletes from 84 countries. Wonder what their homeless count is?
The living room offers spectacular floor-to-ceiling views of Blaine WA, and Semiahmoo Bay.
Touring lottery prize homes is a year-round hobby when you live in White Rock.
The latest is the 2009 Hometown Heroes Lottery, which raises money for the UBC & VGH Hospital Foundation and the B.C. Professional Firefighters’ Burn Fund.
This year’s grand prize is a three-condo collection worth $1.9 million or a huge luxury home (haven’t seen it yet) – it’s the winner’s choice.
The 2009 condo combo includes a two-level beach front unit in West Kelowna (Westbank), a 17th floor Yaletown apartment in downtown Vancouver and a two-bedroom corner suite at Miramar Village in White Rock, the only member of the prize trio that’s even open for public tours.
When it comes to Miramar Village – a controversial highrise development to say the least because it effectively doubled the allowable height of new buildings here – I suppose everyone in White Rock holds an opinion one way or another.
So when I noticed one of its glass-encased luxury condos was part of new a lottery grand prize package and open for tours, I jumped at the chance to take a peek inside.
I shepherded a group of friends up the street to the soaring glass towers a few Sundays ago for the prize home tour.
The patio.
First off, it’s fancy. And secure! An attendant buzzes visitors inside.
However, you don’t get to see the actual prize condo, a two-bedroom, two-bath corner suite on the southeast side of building B, a 17-storey tower fronting Johnston Ave.
Lottery ticket holders (and looky-loos like me) are instead shown suite 401 – Miramar Village’s show suite that’s supposed to be exactly the same except it’s on a different, lower floor.
The prize condo is on the 9th floor. Which should at the very least assure an even better view than the one lottery hopefuls are shown.
And the view’s a stunner. Continue Reading »
Guys who write for movie blogs can be such humourless pricks (sorry, guys!) – at least when it comes to recognizing funny female performers. The latest outrage?
Just three (!) comic roles featuring women were deemed memorable enough to make the grade in The Screengrab’s recent list of the 35 funniest movie characters of all time: Alyson Hannigan as Michelle Flaherty in American Pie, which I haven’t seen (but the clip they’ve included is awful), Chloris Leachman as Frau Blucher in Young Frankenstein, and Parker Posey (Darla) in Dazed and Confused. Just these three were deemed for-the-ages funny and Leachman had to share the distinction with the decidedly Y-chromosome-bearing Gene Hackman.
Really, Screengrab? Really? Those are the funniest movie characters of all time who happen to be women? Nobody else springs to mind? Continue Reading »
A D.I.Y. Oscar party mix of music from the films of 2008
Queen Bitch – David Bowie, Milk (originally on the 1971 Album Hunky Dory) Jai Ho – A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire Down To Earth – Peter Gabriel, WALL-E Everyday People – Sly & the Family Stone, Milk (Originally on Stand! 1969) You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) – Sylvester, Milk (Originally recorded 1978) Paper Planes – M.I.A., Slumdog Millionaire Prologue – Carter Burwell, In Bruges The Wrestler – Bruce Springsteen, The Wrestler S.O.S. – Pierce Brosnan and Meryl Streep, Mamma Mia! It’s Amazing – Jem, Sex and the City Barcelona – Giulia y Los Tellarini, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
O…Saya – A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam, Slumdog Millionaire Medieval Waters – Carter Burwell, In Bruges
There was definitely something in the water in 2008. Or the wind. Because wherever you went, the signs were everywhere.
I’m talking about change, and nothing defines that sorta scary, kind of inspiring six-letter word better than this year’s unexpected feel-good hit and Best Picture nominee, Slumdog Millionaire, straight out of Mumbai’s slums, some home to as many as two million people. Two songs from this impressive soundtrack – helmed by A.R. Rahman – are nominated for Best Song at this year’s Academy Awards, “Jai Ho“, and “O…Saya“. I’ve added Paper Planes, by M.I.A., a peppy new millennium manifesto from the Bhangra ghetto that uses a clip of “Straight to Hell“, a Clash screed about the rising tide of anger from the disabused neighbourhoods of the Post Colonial world.
WALL-E’s “Down to Earth“, by Peter Gabriel, is the third and final nominee for Best Song. The one-time Genesis frontman isn’t performing it Oscar night, but he’ll l be in the audience, hoping to take a gold statue home – and who can blame him?
The struggle to make the world a better place was a big theme in another best picture nod, Milk, starring Sean Penn. I’ve picked three songs (the super cool “Queen Bitch“, the feel-good groove “Everyday People“, and the Disco extravaganza “You Make Me Feel“) from this amazing biopic, set in San Francisco during the 1970s. Social justice never sounded so good. Continue Reading »
Thank you, Gavin Crawford of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, for your impression of prime minister-in-waiting Michael Ignatieff, unveiled to a grateful TV audience last night.
The skit features the versatile Alberta-born comic actor as the interim party leader standing at a podium summing up his recent listening tour, where Ignatieff spoke with “ordinary” Canadians at a series of town hall meetings across the country.
“All I can say is, my God. What is wrong with you people?” a squinting, grimacing Ignatieff begins. “I don’t want to say you’re all idiots, but I’ve heard enough and it’s my time to talk.” Continue Reading »
