Author Archives: Brian Smith

Mille Baci!

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We are truly blessed in Canada to have our choice of different cultural foods and cuisines from around the world, I mean it! Walk down any major city and you can see the look and feel the change as people bring their flavors while mixing in Canadian elements and other cultures in the neighbourhood to create something that is truly out of this world! Each neighbourhood design inspired by their homeland to bring that piece of it with them, giving each one a charm that only gets better with age.

But one group of immigrants who never had it easy, have given us meals that saturate our restaurants with their own take on it, to even a controversial Canadian take that has some people around that world going…. Pineapple and ham? That’s right folks our Italian Canadian community are part of our culture heritage that gave us pizza, and pasta. Two things I will always love for the taste and hate for what it does to my waistline!

This is your opportunity to honour and enjoy the culture, contributions, and history of Italian Canadians to the city of Vancouver area and all of Canada. Commercial Drive, where Vancouver’s historic Little Italy calls home there’s a month-long series of events presented by Il Centro Italian Cultural Centre, the Commercial Drive Business Society with historic ‘Little Italy’ designation, the Italian Day Festival Society’s annual ‘Italian Day on The Drive’ street festival. One of the city’s largest and most popular street festivals all for you to enjoy as well as other collaborations. The festival is weaved with annual themes. Celebrating 15 Year together drawing the community closer to the exceptional aspects of Italian heritage, culture, with the ‘la dolce vita’ lifestyle! The festival atmosphere will have dynamic sights, spirited sounds filling the air, and animated activities and dancing in the streets to captivate all ages.

But it’s not all about celebrations, Italian Heritage Month is also a time to stop and remember the adversity faced by Italian Canadians. The Italian community has been a part of Vancouver long before the city was incorporated in 1886.  In 1940, following the declaration of war against Italy by the Canadian government, approximately three dozen Italian men were deemed enemy aliens, taken from their families and sent off to POW camps. Many struggled to immigrate to Vancouver after the war, then try to build their lives and businesses, and contribute to our city. Then in 2022, Vancouver City Council gave an official apology to the descendants of the POW’s and to Vancouver’s Italian Canadian community and acknowledges Italian Heritage Month as one of its official observances and celebrations. The Italian Canadian community now numbers over 90,000 people today! Who proudly share their culture.

Most of us see the kiss and have no idea what’s going on, what is the deeper meaning behind the gesture? A kiss/ kisses (un bacio/baci) represent an element in the warm exchange of daily greetings in either written or verbal messages, as in “mille baci”, literally meaning a thousand kisses and ultimately conveying an intensified expression of respect and love.

So, welcome a mille baci on your cheeks and get ready to celebrate!

 

Brian Smith

bsmith288@my.bcit.ca

 

Our passion, our sport!

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There is nothing more inspiring than the indomitable human spirt, to overcome all challenges that try to stand in the way of aspirations and dreams, we all have our down moments, hell I broke my back and constantly have ok and horrible days. When I feel my worst, I look to those who are blind, missing limbs or any one of the myriads of things can happen to a person to see what we are capable of, did you know there is blind soccer? Yeah, don’t let anything stop you!

Well, we aren’t going on the pitch this time, we are hitting the ice!

Vancouver, British Columbia will serve as the site for the to be held May 7th-17th, 2025 at the University of British Columbia. The ten-day event will feature the best deaf and hard of hearing hockey players from around the world: Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Kazakhstan and the USA, and will compete in a round robin format

The United States Deaf Hockey team has battled against Team Canada in the previous international competitions creating a heated rivalry with each country trading off winning the gold. The upcoming World Deaf Ice Hockey Championships in sure to be a site to behold with the increased tension between both countries temper might just flair on the ice!  Along with other countries bringing their highest level of intensity the action will be nonstop!

The WDIHC 2025 logo was created by Siyámotsiya (Paula Wesley), a culturally Deaf Indigenous artist with Stó:lō and Tsimshian heritage. She lives in northwestern British Columbia working as a wood carver and artist.

The WDIHC 2025 logo embodies Canadian winter sports passion, and family, symbolized by a bear with a blue crest. Rooted in local heritage the bear, representing strength, family, vitality, courage, and health, thoughtfulness and independence. In the Indigenous Northwest Coast culture, the bear is known as the Protector of the animal kingdom, it is a powerful coastal animal.

The bear’s bluish frontal crest symbolizes the Pacific Salmon. Blue representing the color of the sea and sky, signifying the Sea-to-Sky Country, a fjord/mountain region. The bottom end of the bear’s frontal crest symbolizes the longest river in British Columbia the Fraser River named Stó:lō by the local Indigenous people who continue living along the river.

The hockey stick and gloves represent the Canadian cultural passion for winter sports, the white tree shape on the left side reveals the Coast Douglas Fir. The top of the bear’s head with three spikes symbolizing the North Shore Mountains. Out of these three spikes, two atop the bear’s ear symbolize an iconic Vancouver landmark called Two Sisters by the local Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, Musqueam, and Tsawwassen First Nations they are a pair of pointed mountain peaks also named The Lions.

Get ready to watch some amazing players lace up their skates and admire the hockey culture we all love May 7th-17th.

 

Brian Smith

bsmith288@my.bcit.ca

Witness our universes building blocks.

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For ages humans have based their destiny on them, sailors have trusted them to guild them over the oceans, and men proposed under them to charm the woman they love. How often do you just stop and look at the night sky and just let your imagination run wild? Does your mind go to the endless possibilities of life on other worlds and how it would live? Do you wonder about the endless world that circle around those stars and think of worlds that defies anything possible on earth.

Once you are done being in wonder at what’s above us, expand that knowledge with some on earth excitement. Vancouver’s Space Centre with its planetarium and theatre with shows throughout the day and its observatory has something for everyone. The H.R. MacMillan Space Centre has four main parts – the Cosmic Courtyard Gallery, Planetarium, Ground station, Canada Theatre and GMS Observatory.

The Space Centre is conveniently located on the south side of False Creek in Vanier Park. It’s in the same building as the Museum of Vancouver. The Space Centre is typically open seven days a week.

The Gordon MacMillan Southam Observatory is a real functioning astronomical observatory, how lucky are we to have this kind of opportunity, so don’t miss out. The Observatory’s half-metre Cassegrain telescope offers views of the Vancouver skies with instruction by a guide. Usually, open Wednesday and Friday evenings throughout the year from 6:30 pm until 11:30 pm. Admission is included with evening admission to the Space Centre, or by donation for people just wanting to see and use the telescope.

For some real fun hands-on fun, the Cosmic Courtyard Gallery is where kids can use their imagination to pretend, they’re in a real space station, with a model astronaut suit that people can take photos with, screens to watch a few videos, and models of space vehicles its everything needed to inspire our future space explorers!

Films in the Planetarium Star Theatre run for about 45 minutes each. They feature different topics including meteor showers, black holes, the Milky Way Galaxy, and numerous other astronomical sights and scenes. So, scratch that curiosity itch and learns something about what makes our universe of amazing.

The Ground Station Canada Theatre features live science shows and demonstrations about gravity, geology, space travel, what it’s like living in outer space and other topics. Presentations last for about 20 minutes each. Perfect for young child to learn without going over their ok, now what! Come on we have all been their when our child gets too honest when they get tired.

So, inspire your child to become the Canadian that sets foot on Mars. Let Vancouver’s H.R. MacMillan Space Centre be the start of that chain-reaction to further our understanding of the universe all because you took your child and set them on a journey of everlasting discovery!

 

Brian Smith

bsmith288@my.bcit.ca

Our beautiful planet.

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While doing sports and culture for this part of the program, and yes it all going to be mostly cultural stuff because I don’t know sports, I have the roughest of ideas but no idea the rules when I was on-air doing sport and trying to say the names of the athletes, I was hopelessly baffled. So, it has forced me to really look at Vancouver and the surrounding areas around the Fraser Valley, and I can’t help but be amazed all the museums that help to shed light on the place we call home, to the universe we live in. The ability to expand our knowledge in so many different facets whatever your passions are.

Which leads me to UBC’s Beaty Biodiversity Museum in Vancouver at UBC. It features a collection of animals, plant, insect specimens and fossils. Home to around 2 million specimens, the Beaty Biodiversity Herbarium holds more than 650,000 specimens, some dating back as far as 1804, and is the largest herbarium in Canada, west of Ottawa, so unless you are going to drive all that way to Ottawa it’s so much simpler to take a trip to UBC’s Beaty Biodiversity Museum in Vancouver. No matter your interest or of that of your child there is absolutely something for everyone to get lost in the amazing details that make up our world.

Vancouver’s Beaty Biodiversity Museum at UBC was the first biodiversity museum in Canada to publicly display its scientific findings. Next to the museum is the Biodiversity Research Centre. Scientists conduct biological diversity research that’s crucial to thwarting the degradation of biodiversity due to the perils of climate change. A visit can open your eyes to simple changes you can make, that will make long term impactful differences.

Perhaps the creatures that call night their domain, pique your interest? Even in the animal kingdom there is a graveyard shift so perhaps you can bond over that? The museum hosts its Beaty Nocturnal event on the third Thursday of each month. These are special evening hours from 5:00 pm until 8:30 pm and admission is by donation during these times.

Permanent exhibits displayed at the museum include the largest blue whale skeleton in Canada at approximately 86 feet long the story of how it got to UBC, and everything that went into preserving the blue whale is worth the visit.

Or is the dino hunter in you wanting to see casts of dinosaur footprints that were discovered in British Columbia! A visit to the museum can take you back millions of years to a time when your favorite creature roamed a much different earth.

Earth is at the age when it doesn’t want to talk about it, tells you it’s a young 2 billion years and is secretly having volcanos spew out lava as a filler to get rid of some of those wrinkles. But we know the truth Earth’s 4.54-billion-year history is represented as a horizontal line over 30 metres long with each step taking you 100 million years backwards in time which depicts when various organisms lived and then went extinct over time.

The museum has many temporary exhibits that often change too. It’s also possible to access online exhibits without having to go to the building itself.

Do yourself a favor and learn what make makes the world/universe so awesome as you learn where we fit into natures design.

 

Brian Smith

Bsmith288@my.bcit.ca

 

Come for the party, stay for the planet!

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When you live around the Vancouver area and get to experience the natural beauty that we are spoiled with, you can’t help but care about the environment and want to put in that extra effort to allow the next generation to enjoy trees and not screw this planet up so much we have holographic trees like in that Simpson episode where Lisa marries Huge. Yeah, I am that old I reference golden age Simpson episodes.

What is better than helping keep the earth that life sustaining green? Doing it while having a party. Surrey’s Earth Day Party for the Planet Event is Metro Vancouver’s largest Earth Day event, in recent years up to around 20,000 people attend on the day. This year’s event Saturday, April 26th. runs from 11:00 am until 7:00 pm at Surrey Civic Plaza at 13450-104th Avenue.

Are you like me and now have a passion for gardening? The Surrey Parks Native Plant Sale is what you are looking for to grab some beautiful, sustainable plants like, Red-flowering currant, Pacific crab-apple, Mock Orange. These plants help support our local biodiversity like birds, bees and butterflies, are naturally pest-resistant and require less water. Great additions for your garden to add that extra bit of life.

At the Sustainable Marketplace there will be stalls selling local artisans delights, eco-friendly brands, and handmade products. Whether you’re looking for some unique gifts, zero-waste products, or upcycled goods, you’ll find something special. Different community organizations and services will also be promoting how they can help so make sure to give them a look. There will also be live shows taking place throughout the day in different locations. Scheduled performances for children and young families, with artists for adults. Food lovers, get ready to enjoy a wide range of delicious food truck options with vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free choices.

 

Are you at the age where your kids have more energy than you do? Well help them burn it off by letting them climb the rock wall! Do I see a quite night for you to watch that show you have been putting off while your kids drift off to a power coma till morning? Yes, and all you need to do is go to a party first. Win, win!

 

Celebrate 30 years of the Salmon Habitat Restoration Program by visiting the Salmon Walk Activation. Unleash an artistic moment by painting a wooden salmon, then get one of four limited-edition “Salmon in the City” pins only available at Party for the Planet!

 

If all that wasn’t enough to get you to come, start your garden off with one of 500 complimentary tomato plants will be given out to attendees after the Welcome Ceremony at 2pm with Mayor and Council. Tomato plant giveaway is operating on a first-come, first-serve basis. Limit one per person, subject to availability.

 

It’s free so what do you have to lose? Get out and Party for the Planet!

 

Brian Smith

bsmith288@my.bcit.ca

Let Coquitlam Heritage be your window to our past.

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We see them around us all the time. I am sure if you left your house today and did a little traveling you would see one and didn’t even give it a second glace. The one thing that helped unite Canada as one from coast to coast. Did you get it yet? The rail you silly. The driving-in of the last spike under engineer James Ross harkened national unity in Canada and allowed so many people who would go on to do amazing things that would change Canada in science, geology and our cultural heritage and so much more.

Coquitlam Heritage has the passport you need to explore our history for those that love discovering history in their own backyard.

The Fraser Mills Station was built in 1910 at the King Edward and Grade crossing, was one of five stations of the New Westminster Division of the CP Railway. The ever-growing lumber industry in British Columbia demanded lots of workers.

Mackin House built in 1909 is an Edwardian home for the second in command at the Fraser Mills Lumber Company as a company home. It is period appropriate with furniture and artifacts to give visitors a better sense of what life in Coquitlam was like for someone living in an upper middle-class community.

Discover the unique history of the home, and the changes the lumber industry brought to the local area, and Francophone culture that enriched the local area with food, and neighborhood designs that give the area that charms all its own. Mackin House, offers seasonal tours of the Fraser Mills Train Station and CP Rail 1970’s Caboose in Heritage Square. They also operate year-round as a Tourism Information centre for the City of Coquitlam.

Coquitlam Heritage began collecting items focused on life in Coquitlam from the period 1890 to 1930 to fit with the original displays at Mackin House. In the 2000s they decided to branch out into the glorious world of toys and other collectibles with the future hopes of creating a toy museum. Coquitlam Heritage aims to preserve, honour, and promote our local culture and heritage with something that will catch the attention of anyone looking at having a great time learning about our history.

Best of all for all you four legged lovers out there Coquitlam Heritage explores the history of dogs in and around Coquitlam, how great is that? Often those amazing companions don’t get the recognition they deserve for the impact they make our history.

So, whether for the history or the toys, go look and find something interesting at 1116 Brunette Avenue, Coquitlam, B.C. and be glad you did!

 

Brian Smith

bsmith288@my.bcit.ca

You’re invited!

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Food and drinks, those two things have bound us together since we were drawing pictures on cave walls that still delight and fascinate us to this day. To break bread is a slang to highlight the coming together of people who were disconnected, or didn’t have bonds to begin with. After a victory in battle or the joining of two families the use of food to highlight a special event or just a simple get together with friends the meals we share together build the bonds that keep us safe.

Well, there is nothing better to celebrate and bring people together more than a food truck event! making its exciting return this spring! That’s right you ravenous bunch of FOODIES who can already smell those delicious creations. Perhaps a beaver tail will entice you? Or are you craving tacos that will blow you mind and make you believe you are in a simulation because food has never been so good! Perhaps some classic some BBQ made with a love only an artist with a passion can for the grill can create? Wash it all down with a beverage made fresh, lemonade is always a classic when you are enjoying a Donair!

With 20 new and returning food trucks, artisan market featuring Chilliwack small businesses with an interactive kid zone with family-friendly activities and a dedicated beer garden featuring craft beverages. 16 or so market vendors where on-site at the event last year and will likely be around the same in 2025. The vendors you will experience are local businesses that offer high quality products ranging from baked goods, candles, soaps, and jewelry, something for everyone to support Canadian owned businesses!

As with all events hosted by the Greater Vancouver Food Truck Festival, live entertainment runs for most of the day as well.

So just what you are going to do April 26 & 27, 2025? That’s right take a trip to mouth vacation as Central Community Park transforms into a vibrant festival of food, music, and community spirit that Chilliwack has is offering for so many to come out to and enjoy. Saturday the event runs from 11:00 am until 8:00 pm. On the Sunday, it runs from 11:00 am until 7:00 pm,

Admission is free, so get out of the house and enjoy what it means to be Canadian by enjoying great food with friends and family and making new friend over a glass of lemonade.

 

Brian Smith

bsmith288@my.bcit.ca

Art for the soul.

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For longer than we can imagine people have called this land home. Long before Europeans came to these lands it was known by many names, each First Nation had a name and unique culture that told stories of how they found themselves as stewards of these lands. When you look around there is so much culture to witness, tradition jewelry, totem poles that tells stories of their past and the commitment to the future with the vibrate colours and symbols depicted. But the Elders are getting old, and the stories can only survive with an audience to receive and understand the messages that risk being lost forever if we don’t act!

Here is your opportunity to open your eyes and soul at the Bill Reid Gallery in downtown Vancouver! It features major works of art by world-famous Haida artist Bill Reid a celebrated, sculptor, author and journalist. You also get to witness the unique artistic talents of other West Coast First Nations artists. The gallery has an exceptional collection of West Coast art to ignite your passion to keep going on this wonderful journey of discovery to connect to our First-Nation roots as a country. The collection includes Indigenous masks, bronze works, wood carvings, paintings, gold jewelry and other mediums. There are a couple of short films to watch, and the main exhibit changes every six months with a variety of contemporary works by other Northwest Coast artists to keep you coming back for more.

Once you are done at the Bill Reid Gallery you can continue to view Bill Reid’s works at the Vancouver Aquarium’s fountain sculpture outside called Chief of the Undersea World. Also, on display at UBC’s Museum of Anthropology the Raven and the First Men. According to Haida legend, the Raven found himself alone one day on Rose Spit beach, on Haida Gwaii. Where he saw a marvellous clamshell, and protruding from it were small creatures. The Raven coaxed them to leave the shell to join him in his incredible world. They emerged from the clamshell to become the first Haida.  The Spirit of Haida Gwaii: The Black Canoe, is a boat sculpture on display in Washington, DC at the Canadian Embassy also featured on some Canadian $20 bills.

The gallery is open daily from May until September, the rest of the year, it’s closed Sundays and Mondays. Hours during the summer months are 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and in the winter months from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm. Located at 639 Hornby Street. It’s across the street from the Burrard Street SkyTrain Station.

So, what are you waiting for? Expand on your culture and get inspired by Bills works today!

 

Brian Smith

bsmith288@my.bcit.ca

Unleash your imagination now!

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When you think back to the generations eons ago kick the can was a highlight of the day for a bunch of friends to do together, imagine that for a second, kick the can and countless other whatever was around us to stave boredom. Then Board games became the rage, have some fun one day and look at the weird, strange games that came out trying to entertain our family between the 60’s-80’s some of the ideas were crazy like how you thought this was a good idea, like no serious! This game is so messed up how did you get funding for it? Ah the time before the internet trolls shot down ideas faster than Billy Bishop flying his plane in the war.

In this era hanging out with friend is being done online. You and your friends are storming a dragons keep while conjuring spells of protection for your allies or saving the world from some horrible terrorist event by being a member of a tier 1 special operations unit with no name, that’s how need to know your team is, using gadgets and equipment to take the fight to the enemy. That is all fun, but what about taking those adventure into the real world?

Vancouver Mysteries is a company that offers a series of outdoor adventure games in downtown Vancouver where players work in teams and solve clues. Stop siting behind a screen and become a secret agent in Vancouver and delve into the world of espionage, where your spy craft skills will make all the difference.

Or is being a little more public about saving the world more up your alley? Then become a superhero and save the world from impending doom! Only you have the power to stop the villainous fiend, will you take up the responsibility with the unique powers you hold?

Or is the detective in you urning to get back on the trail of your biggest case? Well then you know what you must do, start investigating the clues and solve the case once and for all don’t let the murder get away!

So don’t get trapped inside playing games over the internet! Take your adventure into the heart of Vancouver’s streets, games last approximately two hours, most finish near Waterfront Station and cover around 2 km of downtown Vancouver rain or shine. Costumes are definitely encouraged but not required.

So set your imagination free soar to new heights of creativity!

 

Brian Smith

bsmith288@my.bcit.ca

I am like an onion.

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We have all been there, just wanting to be left alone and delight in some peaceful solitary distractions to pass the time before work, school or another commitment brings you back into the real world.

Kinda like a solitary ogre just wanting to relax in his swamp and be at peace. I totally get it! Just laying back and eating some new food creation you saw online that you though had the skill to recreate what a professional chef made in a fancy kitchen with all the gear and ingredients, and now you are going to eat that weird creation yeah you nailed it, get some Tums ready!

But exactly like Shrek real happiness for us doesn’t come from being alone. It comes from hanging out with friends, family, anyone that brings you joy, and unbridled excitement. Should you have that friend, you know the one let’s call them Squiggly Bottom-Nose.

A friend whose inadvertent intentions with oblivious manners constantly irritating those around them, but they look at you with those puppy dog eyes, and you can’t help but suffer those quirks because for every headache you suffer like that the overall happiness can’t be measured, and if you have and keep a friend like that then you have a heart of gold what a Saint. Come to think about it… I think I am that to some of my friends… Yeah, I’m Donkey.

So, get out of that swamp and brush those teeth because you have an adventure coming your way! Shrek The Musical a production from Fraser Valley Stage. Happening April 18 – 26, 2025 at the Abbotsford Arts Centre for 3 matinees and 5 evenings. That’s right you have the rare opportunity to watch in person the worlds greatest fairy tale ever told.

Shrek the loveable ogre who just want to be left alone and becomes angered when unlucky fairy tale creatures are evicted and sent to live in “HIS” swamp ordered by the pint-sized Lord Farquaad. After rough start Shrek befriends a talking donkey named Donkey, and they set off to meet with Farquaad to get to the bottom of Shrek’s problem, and the start of a friendship that proves no matter the rocky start, or bumpy journey true friendship can withstand anything the cosmos throw their way but its going to come with a few migraines.

So, dear reader message that group of friends who make you laugh and make your way out to Abbotsford and witness a production sure to excite!

 

Brian Smith

bsmith288@my.bcit.ca