BLOGGERS RULE at the Vancouver Opera... Live Blogging for Rigoletto! Opera is one of the most intercultural art forms.  It forces its audience to listen to foreign languages, as it tells stories from different cultures.  Okay, it also presents a lot of stereotypes and racial chariactures t...

Dance Review: Cock-Pit Why men should watch men dance special contribution by Devon Cooke Wen-Wei DanceScotiabank Dance Centre (677 Davie Street, Vancouver)Feb. 24-28, 2009 I spent a fine Friday evening last week watching Cock-Pit, a suitably suggestive and ambiguous title for Wen Wei Wang's equally...

What is typical Vancouver music for the Cultural Olympiad?  I think it is the cultural fusion music of Andre Thibault and Qiu Xia He''s Silk Road Music! For Chinese New Year, Qiu Xia He and Andre Thibault organized a truly multicultural show, featuring many ethnic performers and musical styles ...

Karen Lee Morlang organizes some of the most wonderful FREE concerts in Vancouver.  She brings emerging talent from the UBC School of Music, and puts them on stage at the Vancouver Library Central Branch. Carolling Around the World Wednesday December 17 7:00 pm Free Alice MacKay Room, Lower Lev...

Yellow Fellas... Western Canadian premiere at Vancouver Asian Film Festival If you don't know the name Tetsuro Shigamatsu... maybe you've heard his voice.  Tetsuro was the host of the CBC radio show "The Round Up" after the departure of Bill Richardson. I first met Tetsuro many moons ago, when ...

Earlier this month, on Sunday, April 6, a unique cultural event took place in Norfolk that didn’t receive much, if any media attention that I am aware of. The 24 youth (12 boys/12 girls) Honors Choir of South Africa performed at the Historic First Baptist Church on Bute Street in Norfolk. This cho...

Gung Haggis Fat Choy puts a dragon (not a snake) in the 5th Annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon team: Joy, Deb, Hillary, Richard and Michael - photo Julie The 15 foot long Chinese dragon undulated up and down in the air above the St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Vancouver’s G...

Tarun Nayar of Beats Without Borders occasionally sends me announcements of upcoming events and concerts.  Last night he and the group Delhi 2 Dublin performed at the CBC studios.  We met at the first Delhi 2 Dublin concert - back in March 2006 - see my review: St. Paddy's Eve in Vancouver...

Theatre review: Banana Boys jabs and pokes fun at Asian-Canadian inferiority complex...  Banana Boys Firehall Arts Centre directed by Donna Spenceruntil February 9th. Bananas are everywhere in Canada.  They are the Canadianized Asians that are yellow on the outside and white on the inside....

It's not every Christmas that you can be snow bound and car-less in the Okanagan, yet spend the day walking dogs in a park, after seeing a bobcat in the morning.  Boxing Day's gift was 15 cm of fresh Okanagan champagne powder snow at Silver Star ski resort.  And this morning I was canoeing...