Editorial

Hi folks,
Hope everyone enjoyed this past sunny weekend. I know mine was very full.
I spent some time at the Libra Room this week, and caught some footage of and the Amanda Tossoff and the Zoe Trio.
Also went to a good party last night at Kempton Dexter's and took some amazing video. Watch out for another video featuring Natalie von Rotsburg and a host of incredible musicians from that scene.

Kathryn Peterson aka Salmon Avalanche, of Blackberry Wood, and her prized squeeze box were at Kempton Dexter's fling on the weekend.

Speaking of the almighty Libra Room, I was truly sorry I had to miss the CD launch for the Monica Lee Band's newest release, a collection of songs recorded live at the Libra Room. The fact that she and her fellow band members, Marc L'Esperance and Jesse Waldman, sold 50 copies of the CD that night is a testament to their obvious talent and popularity. Buy this music!

A big high for me this week was getting a $40 donation from Annii McGuire Barta, whom some of you may remember as a Vancouver veteran and one-time publisher in the 90's of a small publication focusing on Main Street life called More On Main. I used to write the occasional literary review for it. Annii currently lives in Europe, so it was very gratifying to receive recognition for what I'm doing. I know she used to work very hard on that paper. If there were blogs back then, she might still be publishing it! Thanks so much Annii! While the blogging technology I use is free, my time and energy are required to distill information from off the web, and also to go out on occasion to cover live events. ... the fun part of the blog! Editing photos and videos take time and going out takes money!

Today was a busy day for me. I hosted a workshop on Tax Fundamentals For Artists. It was great to see so many people dedicated to improving the professional side of their career, battling the pull of a warm, sunny afternoon to learn about taxes, no less! I'm proud they did! Thanks folks!
Today ended in the best of possible manners. My friends Carol Anne and Ivett came over to this neck of the woods and did some way cool night photography. We had a lot of laughs. I needed that.
So what's up for me next week? Irish Spring is in the air. Coming up March 12-16 it is the 5th Annual Edgewater Casino CelticFest. I've been a volunteer since day one. As a matter of fact, I was the festival's very first volunteer.
Every year I put on some type of literary event for the festival. This year it's The Battle of the Bards Pub Crawl. A cross between Dublin's world-famous literary Pub Crawl, and the phenomenally popular Poetry Slam (which makes it's home right here on the Drive at Cafe Deux Soliels every Monday and produces consistently top spoken word artists.
For this event, hosted by the lovely Ravishing Rhonda, Dylan Thomas, W.B Yeats and Robbie Burns (played masterfully by Damon Calderwood, Mark Downey and Todd Wong - of Gung Haggis Fat Choy fame) go head-to-head in a poetry face-off at 3 different venues and are judged by members of the audience the grand finale is a karaoke battle at Ceili's Pub, with a live DJ (local spinmaster Michael Louw) and celtic fiddler Elise Bloer. It all ends with a wild dance party courtesy of
Sound crazy? YOU BET! Be sure to join us on March 13th. Email me at srduncan@shaw.ca or check out the CelticFest website at www.celticfestvancouver.com for more details.

Until next time, as Garrison Keilor says in his regular poetry podcast:

Stay in touch and do good work.

Live On The Drive: Gather & Give'r Party

Here are some highlights of a great party for a great cause I went to on Friday at the Libra Room.
Part birthday party for Commercial Drive's Riot clothing store owner, Brenda Mcguire, and part fundraiser for Gather & Give, a registered non-profit organization providing a variety of support services to organizations working with those in need: the homeless, those in transition, refugees, immigrants and individuals and families in crisis.
It was a night of great food, entertainment and people!


Elizabeth Mazzoni with DJ Michael Louw.


The Libra Room's Carly Tennant and Joee Brassard-Dejardins.



Wine girl, Elizabeth Mazzoni, tells me to talk to the hand.

Such a brilliant evening, I needed shades, so I borrow a pair.


Jennifer Lee, Executive Director of Gather & Give seemed very happy with this night's take.

Guitarist/producer Stephen Nikleva with mortgage broker Becky Burnham and songstress Monica Lee.

How cute can you get? Becky Burnham poses with ESL school Director Michelle Ronback.

The always charming Carly Tennant was one of the evening's MC's.

Riot birthday girl Brenda Mcguire gives a lucky, unidentified party'er a little sugar.

Fashion and colour consultant Corinne Ellingson.

Beautiful burlesque girl Corinne Lea gives us a taste of what's in store for later.

Musician Bruno Hubert looking very dapper.

Kameyo Melina from Riot's Main St. sister store, Hotbox Accessories.


Party goers Avery Cochrane & Dexter Fergie.

Tune of the Week: The Mission

This week's tune is from All Purpose, Commercial Drive's hot, juicy big band featuring Candice R. Curlypaws, Dayle Allison, Sacha Levin, Timothy Wisdom, Michael Louw, Curtis Mathewson and Corrine Mundel. The on-stage portions of this video were filmed at the Yale in August of last year.
The footage was filmed by Don Xaliman
Check them out at www.allpurpose.ca.