Are you ready for the new and improved Beyond Robson? We're making some long overdue changes around here and are looking for some fresh new faces to come along for the ride with us to make Beyond Robson the best site it can be. In addition to ramping up our daily flow of posts, we'll be introducing a new site design, new functionality and a number of other changes in the next couple of months. Want to join us? Keep reading for more info about what we're looking for and what benefits you can expect to receive as a regular contributor to Beyond Robson.

Recalling my post in February where Adbusters called everyone to Come to the Courthouse, progress has been made in their fight against the big media conglomerates.

Their press release is as follows:

After 15 years of legal tussling to bring democracy to the public airwaves, Adbusters has finally scored a great victory. The Supreme Court of British Columbia has granted us an appeal in our landmark case against Canada's CBC and Canwest Global, giving us the go-ahead to set a precedent and establish some public rights over the airwaves (check out the judges' ruling here)

On February 16, 2009, Adbusters will be appearing in the BC Court of Appeal to argue its claim.

What's this all about? Well, McDonald's can go on CBC Newsworld and tell us how great their Big Macs are, but Adbusters can't buy airtime to point out that 50% of the calories in a Big Mac come from fat. Automobile manufacturers can buy as much time as they want to tell us how sexy their cars are, but Greenpeace is not allowed on the air to point out that the personal automobile is one of the primary causes of climate change. Every ad on TV glorifies consumption and tells us we can be happy if we buy things, but a Buy Nothing Day TV spot is not allowed on.

This lack of democracy on the public airwaves is what's at stake in a legal action that will be fought in the BC Appeal Court this Monday. Come to the courtroom and join people who are interested in fighting for the right to walk into their local TV station, put some money on the table and buy some airtime to broadcast a message that they believe in. Come and meet us there. Let's fill the courtroom and win this battle for the public airwaves.

- Kalle Lasn

Where? The Court of Appeal, 800 Smithe Street, Vancouver, BC
When? 10:00am on Monday, February 16, 2009

See you there!

Update:
TONIGHT'S SHOW MOVED TO PEANUT GALLLERY !!!!
436 WEST PENDER ST
USE BACK ALLEY

DOORS 8PM

We're going all out for our first ever party: we're bringing Women from Calgary. Sorry, I had to. But anyways, the JagJaguwar blog-stars will be headlining our municipal election special joined by Toronto's The Bicycles, Edmonton's Hot Panda, and locals Gang Violence and The Clips. I know, right? We don't even have to advertise for this show. In fact, we don't even have to tell you that you get one free beer per entry thanks to the readers who vote for us. We don't need to tell you that Gang Violence is one of Vancouver's best new bands. In fact, just don't come. Admire the poster from afar, but curse that the show is all the way in East Vancouver.

Interested in joining the Beyond Robson team? We're looking for writers for all our coverage areas including food, fashion, music, arts, film, the environment and general and random news about Vancouver. Keep reading for more details on current openings and how to get in touch with us.

The end of the year is always a time for reflection and looking back at the year that was. Here at Beyond Robson we feel that 2007 could have been better. We feel that the site has let many of you - our dedicated and perhaps increasingly infrequent readers - down. We've struggled through technical issues like the comments not working and the inconsistency of the quality and frequency of our posts.

The goods news is that many of the technical challenges seem to be behind us and looking forward to 2008 we'll be making many improvements, including incorporating some of the more popular features from our sister site in Toronto.

We'll also be making some wholesale changes to our team of contributors. In fact, we're looking to almost completely revamp the team and, starting with this post, we are now officially beginning our search for editors, writers and other contributors who want to be part of the new and improved Beyond Robson.