If you don't know what Etsy is, get on this bandwagon. It's a great site to buy and sell handmade goods, local designers are able to run their own online store and sell anything from silk-screened clothing to hand built furniture. The "We've Fallen for Etsy" Sale is the first ever Etsy sale featuring 26 local designers. These designers include devilmaywear, Cabin, Smeeta and more. Etsy sale organizer and local designer, Melanie Hull chose the designers by searching them online, "Etsy has a great feature on it where you can Shop local. If you look under the Shop Local for Vancouver BC you can find all your favourite designers there... Selecting a few people from each little category. I looked at what Etsy sellers had to sell and made sure to have something from many categories available to shoppers," Hull says.

There are many well known Canadian authors that use their fame to create television shows or robot hand to autograph books around the world without leaving her house... But then there are authors that simply strive for originality without any regard for glory. Sheila Heti maybe best known for writing the celebrated novel Ticknor and the acclaimed story collection The Middle Stories. Her work has been published in The Believer, The New Yorker, Geist, Esquire, Brick and more. But I believe she should be best recognized for created the "Trampoline Lecture Series".

The Trampoline Lecture series is something that makes us D.I.Y kids proud. The series was created by Heti and hosted by Misha Glouberman. These shows feature three lecturers speaking on subjects they're not experts on, in addition to readings and other activities. The New Yorker praised the series for "celebrating eccentricity and do-it-yourself inventiveness." Lecture topics range from wacky things like "Female poisoners of 18th century France", "Gossip is worse than pork" to less wacky subjects like "Hasidic speed dating" and "Not being naked". Okay... well they're all kinda wacky. Heti and Glouberman started the series in 2001 in Toronto and have sold out every show since.

Ray LaMontagne is set to play the Vogue on November 8, so folk-lovers had better prepare to have their hearts pierced with soulful musicality.

LaMontagne has been a favourite artist (and influence) of mine since I heard the opening chords of his debut album. 2006 saw the release of "Till The Sun Turns Black", further exposing an old soul drenched in emotion.

If you have a listen to LaMontagne's most recent,"Gossip in the Grain", you'll find that the man in the beard is exploring a new tone. While his musicality remains indisputable, it seems he has lightened up a bit (in the best sense of the phrase), and is creating work that is both adventurous and fun. More after the jump....

As good as the show was, a late Thursday night out seals the deal on an artistically empty turkey weekend for Jonny. I missed the must-have-been-rigged Vancouver/Calgary game, so Saturday I must make amends and witness the revenge, and other than that it'll be a load of busywork and a trip home to Cowtown. So once again I call on you readers to hit the city, as there's the usual abundance of great art to experience. Here's a handful of things I wish I had time to do...

The blog, found here, is described as "a collaboration between TransLink and the community" which probably means just TransLink means it's sponsored by Translink, but not run by them as evidenced in the comments section below. Regardless, it has relevant info for Skytrain users and allows you to see where they're going in terms of both security and design. I applaud the effort, at least.

Enter Timeraiser.

Sustainable SFU is hosting its 2nd annual SFU Sustainability Festival on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at Simon Fraser University's Burnaby Campus, from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. The Festival is a student organized, volunteer-run event and its purpose is to promote sustainable lifestyle practices to an audience of SFU students and staff, as well as members of neighboring communities. The event will include live entertainment of local musicians, an eco-fashion show, a locally based beverage garden and more. We are also very proud to be presenting Boyd Cohen of 3rdWhale.com who will be announcing the winner of his international competition for the "greenest person on the planet" at the festival. Come find a way to get to the top of the hill and support this event!

Photo by WAXY. from the Beyond Robson Flickr Pool

Check out their myspace site and have a listen.

Photo by Jen Gilecki

This event will be the culmination of a day-long digital photography scavenger hunt. In the morning, participants will be given a list of things to take photos of. You'll need your own digital camera, and will be given a fixed amount of time to create images and turn them in to the event organizers. No cars allowed - just feet, bikes and public transportation. The photos will be displayed by category at this evening gathering, with music, food and drink. No prizes or competition, just fun and the building of an archive of city snapshots. To participate in the scavenger hunt, email takingstockyvr@gmail.com. Everyone is welcome to come see the results at this evening event.

Image courtesy of kk+ from the BR Flickr Pool.

It's been a while now since I've profiled any local visual arts or music happenings. It's not that there's been a dearth of great ways to spend an aesthetically enriching Vancouver weekend; it's just that by the time I've finally narrowed down what's worth doing, I hardly have the energy to write a blog post about it. With that in mind, I thought I'd highlight a couple of random events happening this weekend that may be worth your time. I already wrote about some cool Saturday stuff in today's Brew, but here's a few things on the radar and worth highlighting for Friday night.

The ladies who run Momentum are putting on an event called Bikeosphere on Friday night, so if you get a chance to drop by the Centre A Gallery, you'll enjoy a whole mishmash of stuff aimed at highlighting city cycling as a lifestyle choice. There will be music, art, a fashion show, refreshments, and valet bike parking! It's only $5, and proceeds will go to the artists and to the magazine. If you can't attend, make sure to look out for Momentum (it's free), or subscribe to it.

While I'm on the bike thing... check out this Vancouver cyclists' map. I just found out about it, and I'm pretty sure that it's going to be my Bible.