Having attended over seven weddings in the past two years, I think I've seen it all. But despite my many intoxicated memories of Romanian DJs singing Numa Numa, post-reception camping on a Mission farm, and games involving a raw egg and the groom's pants, they all had the stereotypical elements of a North American wedding. White gown, check. Black tux, check. Ridiculously expensive photographer, check....

For those seeking something a little different, Miranda over at Blue Olive Photography sent us a tip about an upcoming event showcasing ideas for indie-style weddings. Indie I Do seeks to break the traditional wedding fair mold, for those inspired by the one where Rachel Got Married. Seems like more and more folks are sick of the cost and ubiquity of traditional wedding formalities, including this writer over at the Tyee.

I think Vancouver has enough hipster couples-to-be to make this event pretty successful. The show aptly takes place in the South Main neighbourhood, on January 17, 2009 from 11am to 6pm at Heritage Hall. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. More info can be found at www.indieido.com.

This was Robson Street last night, half dark, half light, during one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Looks like the credit crunch has hit us hard, and authorities are desperate to reduce operating costs during these tough economic times. BC Hydro has been sneaky about this one, and claim the outage was due to a car accident. Poor Gap, Mexx, and Roots. Yay for Aritzia, Banana Republic and Lululemon. Starbucks had been anticipating this exact scenario for years, and as a result, they were able to keep half of their cafes operational. Whew...

Much like VHB back in February of 2007, local real estate blogger the Pope has officially tossed in the white towel, shutting down his hugely popular Vancouver Condo Info blog late last night.

Controversial speculation has been rampant on all sites relating to the local real estate scene. Some people have even gone as far as to state that the Pope was paid off by the REBGV. An explanation posted by the Pope himself on Condohype's comment roll seems to fully explain the sudden closure of the blog... it's quite interesting so I've cut and pasted it below after the jump.

It's quite unfortunate that yet another democratic media source has disappeared due to the pressure of big business. You can say what you want about the real cause of this deal - anyway you cut it, it's a sad day in the Vancouver blogging community. Let's hope others can pick up right where the Pope left off. (Mohican has already stated that he'll never go down without a fight - kudos to that.)

The only silver lining (for us at least) is that Beyond Robson has moved up the totem pole. Yessiree, we're now the number 2 most popular local blog according to the Georgia Straight Best of Vancouver Awards. Miss604, here we come!

If you managed to find the unmarked basement door into the gas-chamber-esque venue this past Saturday night for a little post-election fun, consider yourself lucky. Not only did you get to enjoy the bodacious bohemian riffs and not only did you have access to free BR stickers, but you also had the once in a lifetime chance to meet your most cherished idols: us.

However, this almost didn't happen...

Canadian rockers, the FemBots, are back with their fourth album, "Calling Out" and to help celebrate the occasion they're playing at the Railway Club on October 30.

Their latest album was at first conceived to be played completely on "junkstruments" created by artist Iner Souster, but then evolved to be a combination of those strange sounds and a little conventional rock from more traditional instruments. The resulting mix is quite interesting, and is made more original with improvisations and collaboration with outside musicians throughout the album's production.

Beyond Robson has a pair of tickets to see the FemBots on Thursday, and a handful of their new CDs to give away to select readers.

Contest details after the jump...

I had the chance to catch up with Canadian filmmaker Randall Cole in Vancouver during the last days of the VIFF. Here's what he had to say about the making of his movie, Real Time, which is due to be released all over Canada in November.

You are relatively unknown to the public. Can you tell us more about yourself like where you're from, and what schooling you attended for filmmaking?
I'm from Toronto and I've lived there for the last ten years. I studied filmmaking at Concordia back in the nineties in Montreal and I then went to the Canadian Film Centre, a post-graduate film school. They have a program called the Feature Film Project, and I made my first film there. It was a $200,000 digital film called 19 Months and actually starred Vancouver actor Ben Ratner. It was a part of the Vancouver International Film Festival in 2002, and got picked up by Think Film, where it was released in Canada and a few other places.

So for our readers, could you please give a summary to your most recent movie, Real Time?
It's fairly straight forward. It's basically a hitman, played by Randy Quaid, who has been hired to kill a gambler (Jay Baruchel) that's racked up debts and made some stupid comments to the people he owes money to. But Randy's character has known him since he was a kid. He takes him in his car and basically says, "Sorry I gotta do this but I'm gonna give you an hour to do what you want. Put your life in order or whatever, you've got an hour and I didn't just want to pop you." I certainly think he expects him to maybe do some deeper things than his first impulses where he tries to find a hooker and get revenge with an old boss. It's not what we would necessarily expect but they're the kind of things that might pop into our head at the same time. And as the time draws near, it gets a little heavier, once he realizes that he's not gonna get away.

(more of the interview after the jump...)