Things To Do In Vancouver This Weekend

It’s another eclectic weekend! The PuSh Festival has begun, and that means quirky performances are on from now into early February all aver the place. If you want to delve further into the winter creeps and chills, there’s a surreal live soundtrack to the cult classic El Topo, some 35mm showings of Eastern European inspired stop-motion, or a devastating docudrama on indentured labourers from WWI. Too dark? Well, there’s also colourful dance about the Middle Kingdom, chit chats with people from a “human library”, music, museum discounts and some other things that will leave you feeling unseasonably chipper.

Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Ongoing

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Friday January 22

PuSh International Performing Arts Festival
Where: Various locations
What: Groundbreaking work in the live performing arts: theatre, dance, music, and various forms of multimedia and hybrid performance.
Runs until:Sunday February 7, 2016

The Quay Brothers
Where: The Cinematheque
What: This is going to be REALLY good. Anyone who loves creepy stop-motion and any 90s kids who stared dreamily at Tool videos must see these. The Quay Brothers have been producing nightmarishly surreal, Eastern European-influenced stop-motion films since the late 1970s. Their films are among the most vital, original, and eerily beautiful in contemporary animation. This program showcases three of their masterworks: In Absentia (2000), The Comb (1991), and perhaps their crowning achievement, the Bruno Schulz adaptation Street of Crocodiles (1986).
Runs until: Sunday January 24, 2015

A Loving Spoonful’s Candy Grams
Where: Canada
What: Select a friendly, flirty or frisky message either as yourself or as an anonymous secret admirer. CandyGrams include a special-edition Valentine’s Day card and a variety of treats. Proceeds will go directly to assisting those with HIV/AIDS. 
Runs until: Monday February 8, 2016

Vancouver International Boat Show
Where: BC Place and Granville Island
What: Western Canada’s largest boat show hosts a lineup of the newest and most innovative boats and accessories from over 250 exhibitors, along with entertaining and informative seminars for all of your boating needs. Visit
Runs until: Sunday January 24, 2016

El Topo
Where: The Fox Cabaret, 8:00pm
What: Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1970 cult Western, about a gunman on a mystical quest for redemption, is treated to a new soundtrack that’s as surreal as the film itself.

Your Future Home: Creating a New Vancouver
Where: Museum of Vancouver
What: In response to mounting concern about a rapidly changing region, this exhibit will immerse visitors in an experience that spotlights 20 visions for tomorrow’s city, while focusing on four topical issues: housing affordability, residential density, ease of transportation, and quality of public space.
Runs until: Monday May 16, 2016

20th Century Music to Love
Where: West Point Grey United Church
What: This program journeys through the 20th century with a melange of music that speaks to all of us. Starting with the fresh neo-classicism of Stravinsky and then exploring a work that was first commissioned by clarinetist Benny Goodman and inspired by Hungarian and Romanian dance melodies.

Shen Yun
Where: Queen Elizabeth Theatre
What: Experience  culture of the Middle Kingdom. Shen Yun brings the profound spirit of this lost civilization to life on stage with unrivaled artistic mastery through dance and music.
Runs until: Sunday January 24, 2016

Cross Vancouver
Where: Various locations
What: A photo based exhibition of works spread across 15 Transit shelters. These images captured by Korean artist Seung Woo Back during his Residency at the Vancouver Biennale are reflections of the deindividualized nature of Vancouver’s urban landscape which now reflects the shift towards a global singular identity.
Runs until: Sunday February 21, 2016

All New People
Where: Havana Theatre
What: This fast-paced, four person play was created by actor/writer Zach Braff, known for his role in Scrubs, and his writing and directing of the films Garden State and Wish I Was Here.
Runs until: Saturday January 30, 2016

Excision
Where: Commodore Ballroom, 9:00pm
What: It’s some dubstep.

Jam Over the City
Where: Grouse Mountain
What: Ready your board or skiis and your buddies and head up the hill to the terrain park! An MC will be presiding over with prize giveaways, and video footage will be compiled weekly for the Grouse Mountain blog.

Ty Segall
Where: The Vogue Theatre
What: Acoustic, post-punk, garage, it’s a little of indie everything.

Vancouver Metal Compilation CD Release Party
Where: The Rickshaw
What: The Vancouver Metal Compilation is a non-profit initiative made to showcase the all the incredibly talented and diverse metal bands that call Vancouver home. Free CD with entry!

The Motorcycle Show
Where: Tradex Exhibition Centre (Abbotsford)
What: Featuring the latest gear, live demonstrations, motorcycle giveaways, local musical entertainment, a brand new line-up of 2016 motorcycles, ATVs and scooters as well as the classics.
Runs until: Sunday February 21, 2016

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Saturday January 23

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Winter Wander: 5 Attractions for $5
Where: Vanier Park
What: This January bring your family down to Vanier Park for a day of music, science, history and art – plus, enjoy local food vendors, entertainment, and have the chance to win prizes. The Museum of Vancouver, H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, Vancouver Maritime Museum, Vancouver Academy of Music, and City of Vancouver Archives are all only $5.

Human Library
Where: Central Vancouver Public Library
What: Borrow a book, discover a life. In Human Library we’re invited to borrow a “human book” from a curated collection of 30 topics that range from “Drag King” to “In Recovery” and “Eight-Year-Old Inventor.” It’s a 20-minute one-on-one conversation with a human book that will take you on a personal adventure and open your eyes to the world.
Runs until: Sunday February 7, 2016

An afternoon with Jody Wilson Raybould
Where: SFU Wordwords, 12:30pm
What: Canada’s Justice Minister and BC’s first aboriginal woman in Parliament will speak on aboriginal issues facing Canada today, and on her long-standing role as a policy leader, reflecting on challenges and opportunities she has experienced as an aboriginal woman pursuing new and sometimes controversial policy ideas. The event will be filmed and live-streamed for those unable to get a ticket. 

Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World
Where: The Rio Theatre
What: Winner of the top prize at this year’s Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto and winner of Most Popular Canadian Documentary at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival, the film tells the story of a group of remarkable characters living on Haida Gwaii, a remote archipelago off the Northwest coast of B.C.
Runs until: Saturday January 30, 2016

Labyrinth
Where: The Rio, 7:00pm
What: David Bowie kidnaps a baby and tries to lure a young girl into a glamorous life with him (and a bunch of rad goblins) forever. For some reason she refuses. He sings, he dances, and his package is prominently featured. The girl needs to sort her priorities. Anyways, go see this movie.

A Bohemian Rhapsody
Where: The Orpheum Theatre
What: Celebrating all things Bohemian, this concert features one of Mozart’s wildest opera overtures, and his famous, brilliant Prague Symphony. You will also hear Liszt’s poetic and beautiful Piano Concerto No. 2, and two movements from Smetana’s enduring masterpiece, the set of symphonic poems known as Ma Vlast (My Homeland).

Bird Walk
Where: VanDusen Botanical Garden, 10:00am
What: Take a guided tour through VanDusen and learn about the native bird species who make their home in the garden.

BC Spotlight: Tricks on the Dead
Where: VanCity Theatre
What: Paterson’s docudrama delves into a little-known chapter of Canadian history. In 1916, as WWI raged on and the Allied forces suffered devastating casualties, 140,000 indentured Chinese labourers were charged with digging trenches and clearing the dead. Of this number, 85,000 members of what was called the “Chinese Labour Corps” were secretly transported from Vancouver to Halifax in locked trains and then shipped to the Western Front.

Vive Les Voyageurs Festival
Where: Fort Langley National Historic Site (Langley)
What: Experience the unique folklore and culture of the voyageurs and fur traders that lived at 19th-century Fort Langley. Learn a Métis dance; try your hand at spoons and jigging, attend a French 101 lesson, join our fur trade wedding, then fill up on delicious maple taffy and poutine while listening to live Voyageur-style music by Rejean, Chic Soiree and more. The Fort’s historical presentations will also be ongoing for the duration of the day.
Runs until: Sunday January 24, 2016

Ellice Blackout
Where: The Roxy (932 Granville), 7:00pm
What: Recently featured as one of the “Best in Van” finalists at Joe’s Apartment, here’s some rock from Victoria, playing with Switch to Black.

Excision
Where: Commodore Ballroom, 9:00pm
What: It’s some dubstep.

Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict
Where: VanCity Theatre
What: Peggy Guggenheim not only amassed one of the world’s most impressive collections of contemporary art but also came about her reputation as the consummate bohemian honestly through sexual escapades and other behaviour that would never pass muster in polite society.
Runs until: Thursday January 28, 2016

Dedicated to Justin Bieber
Where: Venue (881 Granville)
What: DJs dedicate a bulk of their sets to playing your favorites and/or your least favorite Justin Bieber hits and misses.

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Sunday January 24

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Speaker Series: Gwaii Haanas
Where: Bill Reid Gallery, 2:00pm
What: Come to hear stories and immerse yourself in the natural history of Gwaii Haanas with marine ecologist Lynn Lee. What do sea otters, abalone and kelp have to do with each other? What do sea urchins and Sitka white-tailed deer have in common? How does a little fish like herring make such a big impact on people and place? How do salmon link land and sea? Explore these questions and how management decisions are made, with Lynn Lee, who has spent over 20 years connected to the land, sea and people of Gwaii Haanas.

Sound Salutations: Yin Yoga
Where: Fortune Sound Club (147 East Pender), 4:00pm
What: Yin Yoga, chill lighting, a live DJ and free Kombucha on a full moon.

Chilly Chase
Where: 1 Athletes Way, 9:00am
What: Start your new year out by making the Vancouver Chilly Chase your first athletic goal race of the season. Everyone is a winner – participants earn a souvenir finishing medal. The Chilly Chase supports local Charity Give partners.

Chase Rice
Where: Commodore Ballroom, 8:00pm
What: An American bro-country singer and songwriter. (Yes, “bro-country.” I’ll be honest here, I found that description from Wikepedia. It’s country! It’s a bro? It’s a brodown! It’s something – check it out if you like new country stuff.)

Car Seat Headrest
Where: The Cobalt
What: Car Seat Headrest began in 2010 in Will Toledo’s hometown of Leesburg, Virginia where at 17, Toledo set up shop in the family car. Toledo’s catalogue is sharp, literary, and culturally omnivorous as it touches upon youth and death, love and depression, drunken parties and 2nd century theologians.

 

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Ongoing

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The Rivals (ends this weekend)
Where: The Cultch Historic Theatre
What: The whirlwind Edwardian plot revolves around the bookishly romantic Lydia Languish, who adores her lover when she thinks he’s a poor ensign, but is appalled when he turns out to be a well-connected Captain. Adding to complications, Lydia finds herself beset on all sides by a retinue of eccentric, bumbling suitors and stymied at every turn by her over-bearing, formidable, and linguistically-challenged aunt, Mrs. Malaprop.
Runs until: Saturday January 23, 2016

Geekenders Presents: Galaxy News Radio Live (ends this weekend)
Where: The Rio Theatre
What: The show, combining the charm of old Hollywood musicals, the classic songs featured in Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 4, dinner theatre, and a live radio play, combines charming humour with a live jazz quartet, tasty dinner, tap dancing, and soaring harmonies for a memorable night for video game enthusiasts, jazz lovers, or newbies to both.
Runs until: Saturday January 23, 2016

Street Food City (ends this weekend)
Where: North Plaza, Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Celebrating its fifth anniversary, Street Food City is your opportunity to sample from a collection of Vancouver’s Street Food carts all in one convenient location. Tents, tables, seating and music make for a festive mid-winter outdoor picnic! Special Dine Out Vancouver Festival creations and pricing will be available.
Runs until: Sunday January 24, 2016

The Quay Brothers
Where: The Cinematheque
What: This is going to be REALLY good. Anyone who loves creepy stop-motion and any 90s kids who stared dreamily at Tool videos must see these. The Quay Brothers have been producing nightmarishly surreal, Eastern European-influenced stop-motion films since the late 1970s. Their films are among the most vital, original, and eerily beautiful in contemporary animation. This program showcases three of their masterworks: In Absentia (2000), The Comb (1991), and perhaps their crowning achievement, the Bruno Schulz adaptation Street of Crocodiles (1986).
Runs until: Sunday January 24, 2015

Embracing Canada (ends this weekend)
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: For over a century the natural world and our relationship to it was a major subject for Canadian artists. Through paintings in the 1800s by Cornelius Krieghoff, Zacharie Vincent and others, Embracing Canada begins with early depictions of Indigenous peoples. European settlers in the Canadian landscape are also depicted by the artists such as Charlotte Schreiber and Homer Watson, who are associated with the founding of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1880, as well as the artists associated with the expanding Canadian Pacific Railway including Frederick M. Bell-Smith. As the exhibition progresses, artists’ paintings of Canada shift toward the landscape itself rather than human activity within it, as demonstrated by extraordinary works by Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven. They and other figures such as Emily Carr, David Milne and Jock Macdonald, who begin to define a unique modern Canadian style.
Runs until: Sunday January 24, 2016

Vancouver International Boat Show (ends this weekend)
Where: BC Place and Granville Island
What: Western Canada’s largest boat show hosts a lineup of the newest and most innovative boats and accessories from over 250 exhibitors, along with entertaining and informative seminars for all of your boating needs. Visit
Runs until: Sunday January 24, 2016

Shen Yun (this weekend only)
Where: Queen Elizabeth Theatre
What: Experience  culture of the Middle Kingdom. Shen Yun brings the profound spirit of this lost civilization to life on stage with unrivaled artistic mastery through dance and music.
Runs until: Sunday January 24, 2016

Vive Les Voyageurs Festival (this weekend only)
Where: Fort Langley National Historic Site (Langley)
What: Experience the unique folklore and culture of the voyageurs and fur traders that lived at 19th-century Fort Langley. Learn a Métis dance; try your hand at spoons and jigging, attend a French 101 lesson, join our fur trade wedding, then fill up on delicious maple taffy and poutine while listening to live Voyageur-style music by Rejean, Chic Soiree and more. The Fort’s historical presentations will also be ongoing for the duration of the day.
Runs until: Sunday January 24, 2016

Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict
Where: VanCity Theatre
What: Peggy Guggenheim not only amassed one of the world’s most impressive collections of contemporary art but also came about her reputation as the consummate bohemian honestly through sexual escapades and other behaviour that would never pass muster in polite society.
Runs until: Thursday January 28, 2016

Improv After Dark
Where: 1502 Duranleau Street (Granville Island)
What: This edgy show is 60 minutes of non-stop, fast-paced no-holds-barred comedy for grown-ups. Featuring a roster of all your favourite improvisers, and a fully-stocked bar.
Runs until: Friday January 29, 2016

Traces That Resemble Us
Where: The Monte Clark Gallery and The Cinematheque
What: Motivated by Jeff Wall’s history as a former film programmer at The Cinematheque, Traces That Resemble Us invites twelve prominent Vancouver-based artists to each program a film that has been influential to his or her practice, and to exhibit artwork for a corresponding group exhibition at Monte Clark Gallery.
Runs until: Saturday January 30, 2016

The Special
Where: Hot Art Wet City (2206 Main)
What: The Special is not at all about the strict documentation of the city, but rather presents a crafted idea of it as it exists in our thoughts and memories. By artist Kevin Lanthier, the assembly of the pieces is done with the intention of creating a series of hyperreal, yet nostalgic little worlds, each of them distinctly and recognizably Vancouver.
Runs until: Saturday January 30, 2016

All New People
Where: Havana Theatre
What: This fast-paced, four person play was created by actor/writer Zach Braff, known for his role in Scrubs, and his writing and directing of the films Garden State and Wish I Was Here.
Runs until: Saturday January 30, 2016

Dine Out Vancouver Festival
Where: Various locations
What: Canada’s largest food and drink festival dishes up 17 days of culinary events and experiences. Try a 3-course meal at hundreds of Vancouver restaurants at $20, $30, and $40 price points. Stay at one of the hotels participating with special rates and full-experience packages. Check out one of the many events – this weekend there’s beer pairings, tea pairings, a brunch crawl, tours, classes and more!
Runs until: Sunday January 31, 2016

The Gund Collection: Contemporary and Historical Art from the Northwest Coast
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: The Gund collection includes magnificent nineteenth-century masks, feast bowls, argillite carvings and other objects from across the region, including from the Haida, Nuu-chahnulth, Kwawaka’wakw, Tlingit, Heiltsuk and Nuxalk First Nations.
Runs until: January 31, 2016

Rookie Night
Where: 1502 Duranleau Street (Granville Island), 7:30pm
What: These 90 minutes of improv will showcase the talent of these new players and prepare them for the bright lights of main stage.
Runs until: Sunday January 31, 2016

Regular Expressions
Where: 221A (221 E Georgia) opening reception at 7:00pm
What: Not readymades, but ready-to-be-mades. These objects and images that have been called, for the moment, “art” seem too strange and slick to have simply been picked from the mundane cache of the “real world;” they smack of a virtual well of potential forms that is somehow both more generic and at the same time more customized.
Runs until: Saturday February 6, 2016

PuSh International Performing Arts Festival
Where: Various locations
What: Groundbreaking work in the live performing arts: theatre, dance, music, and various forms of multimedia and hybrid performance.
Runs until:Sunday February 7, 2016

Gaze
Where: Ayden Gallery opening reception at 7:00pm
What: The female body is the most painted, sculpted, sketched, posed, obsessed over, fetishized, and analyzed to death subject in the history of art. We’ve been transcendent, holy, and virginal. We’ve been shocking, seductive, and surreal. But always, we have been the art subject – only rarely the creators of our own depiction. Through realist and surrealist painting, drawing, digital art and collage, Gaze will explore what the visual landscape might look like dominated by a female perspective.
Runs until: Sunday February 7, 2016

Human Library
Where: Central Vancouver Public Library
What: Borrow a book, discover a life. In Human Library we’re invited to borrow a “human book” from a curated collection of 30 topics that range from “Drag King” to “In Recovery” and “Eight-Year-Old Inventor.” It’s a 20-minute one-on-one conversation with a human book that will take you on a personal adventure and open your eyes to the world.
Runs until: Sunday February 7, 2016

A Loving Spoonful’s Candy Grams
Where: Canada
What: Select a friendly, flirty or frisky message either as yourself or as an anonymous secret admirer. CandyGrams include a special-edition Valentine’s Day card and a variety of treats. Proceeds will go directly to assisting those with HIV/AIDS. 
Runs until: Monday February 8, 2016

Mythos
Where: The Fall Tattooing & Artist Gallery opening reception at 8:00pm
What: An art show dedicated to fables and tall tales – help us celebrate the weird and wonderful world of myths. Hosted by the FALL tattoing and artist gallery and featuring artwork from Emily Carr students and alumni.
Runs until: Wednesday February 10, 2016

Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival
Where: Various Locations
What: Vancouver’s best chocolatiers, pastry shops, bakeries, cafes, gelato and ice cream parlours join forces to make the humble hot chocolate hotter than it has ever been before.
Runs until: Sunday February 14, 2016

Remote Viewing by Noxious Sector Arts Collective
Where: Grunt Gallery (350 East 2nd)
What: A performance and responsive installation presenting human and camera interactions as a site for contemplation.
Runs until: Saturday February 14, 2016

Ideas of Breath
Where: Ayden Gallery opening reception at 7:00pm
What: A 35 piece exhibition from local and internationally published artists in a variety of mediums; photography, mixed media and fibre art.
Runs until: Sunday February 7, 2016

Walking on the Line
Where: Centre A
What: Through large-scale re-assemblages of his ongoing photographic documentation of urban environments and architectural structures, Seung Woo Back investigates the precarious nature of the medium of photography, while offering an opportunity to gain a fresh perspective regarding our relationship to our built environment.
Runs until: February 20, 2016

Voices of the Corridors: Repression of the Self, Repression of a Movement, Oppression of a People
Where: Gallery Gachet
What: A curated art exhibition in which collective members engage themes regarding contemporary disability and mental health activism by way of their diverse and politicized community– based art practices.
Runs until: Sunday February 21, 2016

Cross Vancouver
Where: Various locations
What: A photo based exhibition of works spread across 15 Transit shelters. These images captured by Korean artist Seung Woo Back during his Residency at the Vancouver Biennale are reflections of the deindividualized nature of Vancouver’s urban landscape which now reflects the shift towards a global singular identity.
Runs until: Sunday February 21, 2016

Flight of the Dragon
Where: FlyOverCanada
What: A fully immersive experience including wind, mist, and even scents. Follow a mythical dragon as you soar over some of China’s most spectacular landscapes and scenery during Flight of the Dragon, then stay seated and take off again to experience
FlyOver Canada, a thrilling flight ride that takes you from east to west across Canada.
Runs until: Sunday March 6, 2016

Dana Claxton: Made to be Ready
Where: SFU Audain Gallery
What: Claxton’s new photographs and video works in Made To Be Ready are informed by her attention to Indigenous womanhood and sovereignty. Drawing on the ideas of Anishinaabe writer and scholar Gerald Vizenor, particularly his notion of survivance which unifies survival and resilience as a means of resistance, Claxton’s photos picture Indigenous women commanding their own mediation of cultural, political and spiritual ways of being and doing.
Runs until: Saturday March 12, 2016

Gwaii Haanas: Land Sea People
Where: Bill Reid Gallery
What: Stories of the only place in Canada protected from mountaintop to seafloor. Thirty years after the Haida took a stand at Lyell Island, this unique place exists as an unprecedented example of cooperative management, between the Haida Nation and the Government of Canada.
Runs until: March 27, 2016

Body Worlds: Animals Inside Out
Where: Science World
What: Body Worlds creator and anatomist, Dr Gunther von Hagens takes you on an anatomical safari. As you explore this captivating exhibition, you will experience the intricate biology, zoology and physiology of a variety of the world’s most spectacular creatures.
Runs until: Sunday March 28, 2016

(In)Visable: The Spiritual World of Taiwan Through Contemporary Art
Where: UBC Museum of Anthropology
What: Against a backdrop of skyscrapers and mountains, ghosts and spirits haunt the island of Taiwan. Taiwan’s urban and rural life cycles are filled with rituals and ceremonies of various faiths ranging from Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism to Christianity, Chinese folk religions and animistic beliefs of Taiwan’s Aboriginal peoples. While religion affects, challenges and intermingles with the secular world, myths, legends and fairytales add other layers to the spiritual world of Taiwan.
Runs until: April 3, 2016

Ghost Passages of the McKenzie Shipyard
Where: Vancouver Maritime Museum
What: Through a varied collection of painting, photography and sculpture, Vancouver-based artist Tracy McMenemy seduces the viewer into endless and ongoing passage of time in her latest series, Ghost Passages of the McKenzie Shipyard. McKenzie Barge and Marineways was a landmark along the Burrard Inlet in Deep Cove, BC; an epicenter of industrial development in the North Vancouver community since 1932.
Runs until: Sunday April 3, 2016

Winter Farmers Market
Where: Nat Bailey Stadium
What: Each week you can look forward to finding locally grown vegetables and fruit, meat and seafood from local ranchers and fishermen, artisan cheese and bread, herbs and seasonal nursery items, baked goods, prepared foods and artisanal craft.
Runs until: Saturday April 23, 2016 (Saturdays)

Across The Top: The Quest for the Northwest Passage
Where: Vancouver Maritime Museum
What: This exhibit will transport you to the Arctic where you will learn about its environment and people; the many voyages of discovery; the search for John Franklin’s lost expedition (both historical and modern), and the ultimate discovery of HMS Erebus by Parks Canada.
Runs until: May 2016

Your Future Home: Creating a New Vancouver
Where: Museum of Vancouver
What: In response to mounting concern about a rapidly changing region, this exhibit will immerse visitors in an experience that spotlights 20 visions for tomorrow’s city, while focusing on four topical issues: housing affordability, residential density, ease of transportation, and quality of public space.
Runs until: Monday May 16, 2016

What are you up to this weekend? Tell me and the rest of Vancouver in the comments below or tweet me directly at @lextacular

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