On the eve of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, publishing houses are crossing their fingers that books about the host city will fly of the shelves as souvenirs, guides and walks down memory lane.

For an urban centre, Vancouver is a bit of a light-weight. With a population of just over 600,000 (its greater area being over 2 million), it falls far behind the metropolises found in most of the rest of the world. Between its size and its young age of 124 years, it's easy to scoff at the suggestion that Vancouver's history and culture could possibly make an interesting story. Historically speaking, the extent of a Vancouver-themed book collection would include coffee-table books showcasing the ocean, mountains and trees, a few Arthur Erickson buildings, Douglas Coupland, Emily Carr paintings, totem poles and that sparkly science ball. But that is a bit Expo '86.

This year's Eastside Culture Crawl is the 13th and opens up artist studios for three days so the public can wander around and check out some of the 300 artists that participate.

The event runs on Nov 20, 21, & 22.

As a part of the culture crawl, there's the 4th annual Echo Chamber, which has an "after hours live art explosion" on Fri Nov 20th from 9 - 1am, and also on Sat Nov 21st from 8pm - 1am. This takes place at Chapel Arts 304 Dunlevy and apparently sells out every year. There's a cash bar.

The Echo Chamber costs $10 or $5 if you're a crawl artist, and features DJ Rebound, NFB award winning filmmaker Robert Riendeau, and a host of other acts.

Okay seriously, the cut in the arts and culture sector really didn't affect me personally -- especially since I work for a non-profit arts organization with little funding, but now it has. A friend of mine has been laid off -- about 6 months early! From a relatively big festival coming up, and you'd think they wouldn't be affected - but nope! Big and small organizations are taking a hit.

All because the Liberals want to cut over 80% of what has consisted of only 1/20th of 1% of the provincial budget. There will be a big rally tomorrow at the only place rallies take place in this town - Vancouver Art Gallery! Tomorrow! Wednesday at 12:00 noon!

Nearly done! from UPPERCASE gallery on Vimeo.

Hopefully I can squeeze it into my Saturday afternoon schedule of hanging out by the pool and uhh.. hanging out by the pool with drinks but tomorrow the Regional Assembly of Text is hosting an event with Janine Vangool the designer of owner of Uppercase Gallery in Calgary and also runs Uppercase Magazine. The magazine is a cute and some would say the cutest magazine for the "creative and curious". It's all happening in the lowercase reading room (which by the way is not an room located in the basement of the Regional Assembly like I originally thought but a small closet converted into a reading room in the store)

Like you need another reason to attend the Handmade Nation screening at the Rio Theatre tomorrow, but now you have one.Faythe Levine, the director will be in attendance and will be answering questions for all you crafty folks. InHandmade Nation, Levine travelled across the USA to 15 cities documenting the rise of DIY arts and craft scene.

If her name does ring a bell its because the New York Times has tagged her as the 'Ambassador of Handmade', and she has founded Art vs. Craft, Milwaukee's independent craft fair. She is co-owner and curator of Paper Boat Boutique & Gallery and has co-written the book Handmade Nation:The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design

HOTEL, formerly known as Plank Gallery, hosts Pretty Drifted, Sean Orr's first public exhibit in four years.
There is much discussion and word buzzing about on both artist and gallery for this show, so for all you lovers and haters alike, you might just want to wander down to 165 East Hastings (located right next to the Balmoral) and have a look-see at what those walls have in store for you. Orr will also have takeaway goodies for sale in book form.