Sounds Like Fun

Hello all, HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone! Today is the Monday that most people are dreading :-p. Waking up and having to return to work after a holiday of family, friends, food, and all the festive fun!

Don’t let the title miss lead you, Massive Gala was a lot of fun and the place was packed with people according to ticket sales there was 4500 people in the Pacific Coliseum this was Vancouver’s Largest NYE party of 2009, but it felt “REGULAR” nothing special.

The arena was divide into 4 different areas, VIP was on the second floor and the main floor was divide in 3 each with there own DJ, the entrance area AKA coat check and stairway to VIP, the MAIN arena with the stage all ready for go-go dancers and Sean Paul and another room adjacent to the entrance room.

I gotta say the VIP lounge was okay, sure the lines for booze was shorter and you get to rub shoulders with Kid Carson, and free food. But they REALLLY needed a VIP coat check and regular coat check was a zoo, and the view of the STAGE where the dancers danced and Sean Paul sang was like standing in NOSE BLEED territory.

The whole event to me felt like a highschool dance party to me :-p. Although I maybe expecting too much because I think most NYE are pretty much a regular night at the clubs…except for the CRAZY cover charges. AT LEAST at the Massive Gala we had Sean Paul! (Originally it was suppose to be Young Jeezy).

Maybe with age you become harder and harder to impress because you seen and done it all :-p.

Massive Gala an absolute FUN night but not impressive.

Pictures to come…I gotta “develop” the SD card in my Digital Camera <– geek humor! For those of you that get it *thumbs up*.

The Vancouver Art Gallery! The place that I always swear to check out since I moved to Vancouver but never did….till now!

So what’s my take on the place? Honestly? It’s good depending who you go with. Someone who is
1) Into Art (OBVIOUSLY!)
2) A date

If they don’t fall into either of these categories, you will probably dropped $20 just for a 30 minute walk in a nice fancy 3 floored building or you will have to ditch the classless person you went with . Going with the right person or people this could be a full day event!

Unfortunately cameras are not allowed so this review does not come with pictures, it would kind of defeat the purpose of going ;-p. Currently they have 3 different exhibits going on Expanding Horizons: Painting and Photography of American and Canadian Landscape 1860-1918, artworks by Scott McFarland, and From the Collection:Is Only The Mind Allowed to Wander.

The first two collections are your more contemporary type of art and the last is more of an abstract. If you don’t find these interesting don’t worry the Art Gallery changes it collection quite frequently so hit up there website to see what’s on display!

I started a bit late around 3:30 and only so allowed enough time to fully go thru the Expanding Horizons exhibit but I discovered my favorite painting. It was titled Lake Superior and was painted by Lawren Harris, and it is an amazing pastel colored painting of a single cloud over Lake Superior. Just by looking at just made me happy and relaxed! Now that is art!!!

Hopefully I will have enough money to buy it, but for now I will settle for a print :-p. Although I couldn’t find the exact painting online below is a shot of some of his work.

The first recently sold for $3.5 million, and the second one comes close to looking like the painting I liked.

After a long day at the office, I agreed to meet up with some friends at the Richmond Olympic Oval on Wednesday. Driving towards the Oval in the night, it really stands out, it just glows!

The whole complex is very much like the new Vancouver Convention Center, the blend of metal with wood give it a very high tech BC feel. *Thumbs Up*. Admission prices on the other hand *Thumbs Down* $12.50! Yeap that’s right you pay $12.50 for the privilege to skate in a oval, albeit an official Vancouver 2010 Olympic venue :-p.

I laced up my skates, and if you are use to regular ice rink the first thing you will notice about the ice at the Oval is….it is HARD. The Oval is geared for speed skating so the hard ice reduces friction and that’s how records are set. I did a quick lookup and the current 500m Speed Skating record is 34.42 seconds set by Casey FitzRandolph of the US set in Salt Lake 2002.

My personal best was 54.1 seconds, keep in mind I was tired :-p, had hockey skates, had to dodge people, and I had no skin tight aerodynamic suit! I have a much greater appreciate of the skills of the athletes of these events.

What the Oval might prove to be is the great place to workout, as the weight room current overlooks the  whole Oval. So you can people watch as you workout. You can watch the people skate around the oval while people play badminton and basketball in the middle of the Oval. BUT the $12.50 drop-in fee applies to the gym as well!

Hopefully the price will drop to a reasonable rate after the Olympics as for now the only really justification to pay the  ”milk them cause we can” price is purely for the bragging rights.

I would have liked to been more prompt with writing this review but I have been busy setting this website up. If the name doesn’t give it away let me explain: it’s a Halloween Party that takes place on Skytrain! It’s run by Vancouver Public Space Network and this year was the 3rd year.

The event all started at VCC station, where you get to check out the crowd of people you will hang out with for the night. Costumes varied from the classic bedsheet ghost (easy), some hot pirates and some not so hot pirates, some costumes that kept you staring at them SOLELY wondering how they is not freeeeeeze , to my personal favorite Jabba the Hut accompanied by a Princess Leia!

To be honest the skytrain ride itself reminded me of my commute to work, but it we did manage to sing some classic drinking songs, although we couldn’t drink :-p, and my friend did manage to crowd surf her way around the train, probably the first person ever unless someone can dispute it.

After about 40 minutes maybe an hour the skytrain made it’s way to Stadium station where everyone unloaded and a slightly disorganized group of people ventured to Fortune Sound Lounge. I DIDN’T even know there was a club in Chinatown, but there is! (I’ll do a review of that club on a regular night in a future post.)

The music started out to be Top 40 early on to get everyone pumped up and ready to party, but then turned completely to House and Trance. Not the biggest fan of Techno anymore but if you are into it, you would have had a blast!

But with every event it’s the people that make a event fun or not, and the crowd was a good diverse mix of people, and everyone that night had smiles on there faces, and were all open for some small talk.