I Have My Own Life to Live

Readers of this blog (and my Twitter feed) will know that I am a regular volunteer and patron of Intrepid Theatre.

I'm excited about the upcoming performances (March 4-13, 2011) of the play "Influence" written by Intrepid's artistic director, Janet Munsil, and produced to co-incide with the company's 25th anniversary.  And, thanks to the generosity of Intrepid, one of my readers (and a guest) will have the opportunity to attend too!

(See contest details below).

 Influence is set in the British Museum in 1817, the date of the controversial arrival of the Elgin Marbles. A young John Keats is taken on a visit to the museum by painter Benjamin Haydon when he inadvertently wanders into the middle of a millennia old feud waged by the gods of ancient Greece amidst the kidnapped statues of Athena’s Parthenon.
 
The play was commissioned and first produced by Touchstone Theatre in Vancouver in 2008 (directed by Katrina Dunn). While Influence had a reading in Victoria that same year, this will be the first time it has been performed in Victoria.  

Janet Munsil has been working for Intrepid since 1992 and is also a playwright whose works (that elusive spark, Circus Fire, Be Still, Emphysema) have been produced by some of the most respected contemporary theatres in the world (including Toronto's Tarragon Theatre & London's Soho Theatre). Influence is produced in association with her new Victoria-based production company, Missing Page.
 

Influence will feature a cast of Victoria’s favourite actors (Ian Case, Paul Terry, Elliott Loran, David Radford and Karen Lee Pickett).

 

Elliott Loran, Karen Lee Pickett, and David Radford, images - Intrepid Theatre

March 4-5 & March 9-12, 8pm

Sunday Matinees + talkback: March 6 + 13, 2 pm

At the Metro Studio (Quadra at Johnson), Victoria BC

TICKETS $25: www.intrepidtheatre.com or call 250 590 6291

CONTEST DETAILS:

To enter for a chance to win a pair of tickets to a performance of "Influence", post a comment below - what is your favourite poem by John Keats OR what do you think about the controversy surrounding the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum?

A random draw will take place at 6pm Friday March 4th and the winner will be announced via the blog and Twitter.  The winner will have 24 hours to contact me before I redraw.

Please join us and help us celebrate our wedding!

Although our wedding February 12th will be a very small family affair, we want to celebrate our marriage with all of our friends who have been such a fabulous and wonderful part of both of our lives!

We hope you can attend our celebration at a Tweetup/Meetup/Bash on Thursday, February 17, at 7PM at The Bard & Banker Pub, 1022 Government Street. We have reserved the entire upper-floor so that we can fit in as many people as possible. (cash bar)

We look forward to seeing you there, to help us celebrate and be able to share our moment with you!

(In lieu of gifts we are accepting donations to The BC Cancer Foundation. All donations of $10 or more will receive a signed copy of this year's Babes Go Bare Calendar. The BC Cancer Foundation is special to us as we were able to raise close to $10,000 dollars for them this past August as part of The Road to Port Hardy charity bike ride.)

See you there on February 17th!

Love,

Frans and Janis

aka @fransjonker and @lacouvee

PS: We're going to be offline from the 12th to the 17th and will be unable to respond to any tweets people send us. We want to be able to acknowledge you all and due to the restrictions of the Twitter API, this may not be possible. Please consider leaving your comments and well wishes here on the blog.

It was an honour to be invited to an historic ceremony at Mary Lake, Sunday January 23rd, honouring "Past Stewards of the Land".

It was the first time that hereditary chiefs from the five local tribes came together for an event that was not political.

Respected Tsartlip elder Tom Sampson spoke. The Yellow Wolf Drummers and Singers offered 3 songs: a prayer, a song to honour the past stewards of the land, and a song to honour elders and ancestors.

The gathering, recognizing Nancy McMinn (instrumental in saving the Gowland Tod lands), Peter and Violet Brotherston (original owners of Mary Lake) and ancestors of the Saanich Coast Salish Peoples for their roles as protectors of the natural world, was hosted by the Mary Lake Conservancy and the Greater Victoria Greenbelt Society.

Currently Mary Lake is the subject of a campaign to raise an initial $1M before January 31, 2011 in order to secure bridge financing, and eventually $4M for the purchase of this unique property in the Highlands of Victoria BC.

Mary Lake sits in the midst of a treasured 107-acre parcel of carefully conserved and endangered Dry Coastal Douglas Fir ecosystem. Only a very small percentage of the land in the Dry Coastal Douglas Fir Zone is permanently protected.

Its acquisition would ensure a green corridor joining Thetis Lake and Mount Work parks.

Individuals are encouraged to purchase their $10 square metre of Mary Lake to preserve the property in perpetuity. Social media has had a big role in the outreach of campaigners.There is the possibility to text donations using "MARY" and sending to 45678. A video contest "The Power of Many" asks people to create a video encouraging others in their lives to save a square metre of Mary Lake. Prizes up to $10,000 will be awarded; the contest closes January 31st. 

Local documentary filmmakers Mandy Leith and Nicole Sorochan are spearheading a live web-a-thon on Thursday January 27th from 4-8pm at Cabin 12, 607 Pandora Avenue.  There will be a "tweet bar" and live feed.

To learn more about how you can become involved in this campaign and the importance to the regional bio-sphere of the Mary Lake property, please visit the Save Mary Lake website.

Join Powerhouse Performance Company for a short run of the hit musical EDGES: A Song Cycle by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.

EDGES was written in 2005 while Pasek and Paul were undergraduate students in musical theatre at the University of Michigan.

This song cycle is about coming of age, growth and sef-discovery.Its most famous song, "Be My Friend", has come to be commonly known as the "Facebook song".  

 Powerhouse Performance Co. is co- founded by CCPA alumni Sarah Horsman (VOS "Will Rogers Follies) and Izad Etemadi (Theatre SKAM's "Smalltown").

"We're excited to begin the journey of contributing to the Victoria and Candian Theatre community!", they state.

January 7th-9th @ 8pm
WITH matinees January 8th and 9th @ 2pm
Tickets are: $12 for Adults and $10 for Students and Seniors

For more information or for advance tickets please contact Sarah Horsman or Izad Etemadi @:
 

powerhouseperformanceco@gmail.com

(250) 652-2458 - Sarah
(250) 889-0713 - Izad

 

 

Traditionally December would be a month of planning holiday celebrations! Not for the Victoria social media community. Janine Theobald  came to Social Media Camp and Club, and was inspired to create the #twamper drive   and tweetup  held December 17th at Cabin 12 . Two families were assisted through these efforts.

Earlier in the month Alan Smith organized a Victoria event for Help Portrait, providing free portraits for Victoria families and individuals who might be otherwise unable to have a professional portrait. More than 30 photographers and volunteers provided 148 sessions. Help Portrait 2011 is December 3rd. Become part of the Help Portrait Victoria community here:

On the same day, Herb Lainchbury  rallied over 30 geeks for International Open Data Hachathon Day locally. There are now plans to hold montly hackathons with the first scheduled for January 22nd. Contact Herb for more details. Anyone (not just geeks) interested in open data can attend.

Victoria's inaugural Figgy Pudding Carolling Competition was also December 4th. It all started with a tweet, and soon @JanineAnnT @VIHippieChick @jagamer and @lacouvee were forming a group "The Tweets".    It was so much fun, there are now plans for a much larger "Twitter choir" next year.

TEDxVictoria hosted simulcasts at the University of Victoria for the first TED Women  Congratulations to organizer Sherry Moir for the very first TED event in Victoria.

TEDxJuandeFuca has plans for another TEDx event in April 2011.

The year ended in a flurry of tweetups #victoriatweetup (breakfast, WestShore, High Noon Hump Day, #U30 ladies, ladies, gents) and one final Social Media Club "Holiday Open Mic".  See Mike Vardy's "The Twelve Days of Christmas: Social Media Remix".

Photo: Eventualism.com

 

Words can never convey my huge debt of gratitude to everyone involved in making this a simply amazing year. 2010 will be remembered as the year social media came into its own in Victoria. Each and every one of you played a HUGE part.

I'm sure I've forgotten people and events that need to be remembered - it's not intentional. Please let me know.

Happy New Year! Here's to a fabulous 2011.

There is much to look forward to - #yyjbleeders tweetup January 15th,  Word Camp Victoria January 22nd, Frans Jonker and my wedding tweetup/meetup February 17th (stay tuned for details), IdeaWave February 26th & 27th, Twestival Victoria March 24th, TEDxJuandeFuca in April, Social Media Camp June 3rd and 4th, as well as regular Social Media Club Victoria meetings (3rd Monday of the month at the Victoria Event Centre) and many a #victoriatweetup.

 

 

In time for Social Media Camp October 3rd, the Victoriatweetup meetup group  launched as a means to promote tweetups that need more concrete numbers for venues. 

Paul Holmes and Chris Burdge pulled out all the stops for Social Media Camp, with over 450 people in attendance from all over the Pacific Northwest. I was honoured to be included as a speaker " Community Building – Transitioning Online to Offline"  along with Don Power and Brenda Johima. Notes from my presentation.

The "after party"  at Bard and Banker allowed people from further afield the chance to connect with Victoria social media aficionados in a more relaxed atmosphere.

Volunteer Victoria was kind enough to invite me to guest blog on their website about "Using Social Media To Promote Events".

Teresa Sims started the #U30 lunch tweetups for young entrepreneurial and business minded women in October. Follow Teresa and tweet her for more details.

A second #yyjbleeders tweetup had 8 people sign up to give blood! Thanks for giving the "gift of life".

October is a month of birthdays for local Twitter users, and we celebrated at the Canoe Club on October 23rd. Shortly after some of the attendees (@Shelter68 @Phleygas @VIHippieChick @socialmediasean) started #randomtweetup - fun tweetups at a moment's notice.

José Albis, the Albis Group, presented on "Self Publishing and Launching Your Personal Brand" to Social Media Club in October.
 

Photo: tpholmes 

October was again a month of connecting to long distance tweeps face to face. I love theatre and events as my twitter feed and blog posts will attest. Mid 2009, I stumbled upon #2amt, a group of theatre practioners on Twitter who literally "met" at 2am and started to consider the future of theatre.

These discussions led to the #2amt hashtag, Twitter handle @2amt and blog, as well as professional collaborations. When Simon Ogden, author of The Next Stage Magazine, moved to Victoria (check out his outstanding bartending at Veneto) we simply had to have coffee. In October I met Kate Foy @dramagirl from Australia and Lois Watson @smlois from Vancouver (soon to be in Edmonton) too!

Although Gisela @lifeasafestival is not part of the #2amt tribe - we managed to find one another through our love of festivals and celebrations. Gisela is travelling the world and volunteering/interning at festivals. It was a pleasure to meet her in Victoria.

Patrick Tussie is not a long distance tweep, but rather a movie fan in Victoria. We had very different views of some 2010's "hit" movies. Twitter allowed us to connect. Finally, we met for coffee. Congratulations to Patrick on his recent engagement.  I love how Twitter allows us to see the world through other people's eyes - IF we are open to that experience.

We travelled to Nanaimo for the 3rd Nanaimo Tweetup hosted by the Vitamin House. Although tweetup culture in Nanaimo is still in its infancy, tweetups are very well attended and organized.

After the #poutineoff came the #pumpkinoff October 29th between the Fairmont Empress and Hotel Grand Pacific. Chefs Ito and Choy produced some phenomenal carvings and desserts for judging by @ScrimporSplurge @AwesomeYoga @magsedoyle @lacouvee @cpudan @sashaangus. Once again, Chef Ito and the Empress team won out - very narrowly besting Chef Choy (by one point).

 

WestShore coffee tweetups gained momentum in September and have continued since, usually every 1st and 3rd Friday of the month. We've been meeting at Mirage Coffee on Goldstream but may need to move soon as the group keeps growing. Search for the words "Westshore coffee #victoriatweetup".

Regulars include: @Growlies @CrisVleck @brandscaping @Chris_Synesael @DrMarkWagner @psbdelegation @westcoast_dave @chiatweet @StyleRunner @Ahkonsu @KPAthleticWear @WestShoreLife @K9HQ @DustypupVI @CalebDelamont @taylorjenn @pearlbriteyyj @WillWinterPhoto @cpudan

Finally, after months of watching the "Gents #Victoriatweetup" from the sidelines, and prompted by tweets from @KirstySheldon @GDGeek @Auryanna, the ladies managed to organize their own tweetup! It looks like this too may become a monthly affair. Keep on eye on http://meetup.com/victoriatweetup for more details.

In early 2010, I introduced Sandy Ibrahmin @hittofit of Victoria to Eleni Kehagiaras @ekehagiaras of Portland via Twitter. Sandy and Eleni went on to arrange a business partnership and @hittofitpdx was born. I finally got to meet Eleni in person in September.

September was a good month for face to face meetings with long distance tweeps. Jamie Gale was moving to Victoria from Vancouver - we'd tweeted back and forth a bit and connected for coffee and more networking. Jamie understands the value of moving online to offline in order to build stronger relationships. He's a great addition to the Victoria community. 

Photos: Debra Brash Times Colonist

Sarah Petrescu  from the Times Colonist often sources models for her articles via Twitter. That's how Melissa McLeod and I came to be featured in "Basic Instincts" an article on fall "must haves". Rumon Carter and Sean Dhillon  were the models for "Fearless Fashion"  in November.

The 3rd Mashable meetup on Sept 23rd for Social Media Good Day  was hosted by Parkside Victoria  and Lina Zussino. Discussions centered on using social media for social good. How can we effect social change using social media?

UVIC's LipDup went viral. But wait - it was UVIC in Spain.

In response, lead by Shawn Slavin, UVic filmed their own lipdub on September 25th. What an amazing experience to be part of a HUGE group of people focused on creating this video.  Chris Ruffell from Aclara Promotions will be presenting at Social Media Club in January.

Photo: tpholmes

September's Social Media Club meeting  "Religion, Spirituality and Social Media" with @Eshusan (Victoria Zen Centre) @NickTheViking (Saanich Baptist) and @DrMarkWagner (Salvation Army) had attendees considering the nature of community, as much as spirituality. Juhli Selby recapped the evening in two parts. 

One of the "ideas" to come out of the Ideas Victoria meetings was "Awesome Shit Club"  where "awesomites" grant money to "awesomers".  The inaugural event saw slam poet Missie Peters  win $600 towards creating the First Victoria Spoken Word Festival (February 23rd-26th). There is an event scheduled for January 2011.

For three years Frans Jonker reclaimed his fitness by biking. His introduction to most of the Victoria twitter community in July 2009 was through tweets about his rides. Originally he planned to cycle to Port Hardy as a personal challenge but people encouraged him to use it as an opportunity to raise funds for charity.

Thus, The Road to Port Hardy charity bike ride for the BC Cancer Foundation became reality. After a tweetup Aug 12th, Frans launched his ride August 16th, cycling 525km in 4 days and raising almost $10,000!

Photo:  Veloweb

Pecha Kucha Volume 3 August 12th focused on food.

Social Media Club's August meeting featured Social Video  with Don Power , Daniel Barton and Cris Vleck.

photo by tpholmes

Carl Leone @VicCityParty who most of us met at Social Media Day, went to give blood in early August. That sparked the beginning of the #yyjbleeders tweetups (August 12th and October 23rd).

The next #yyjbleeders is Saturday January 15th. If you've never given blood before - why not make this a resolution for 2011? Please read the meetup description carefully.

Ideas Victoria was founded in 2007 by Kris Constable as a place for critical thinkers to meet and discuss their ideas. IdeaWave Conference July 10 & 11th was an offshoot of these meetings. 50 speakers for 10 minutes each over 2 days. Here's my presentation "Set Theory and Human Relationships - The Importance of One".  The next IdeaWave is scheduled for February 22 and 23rd I'll be speaking on "Building Resilient Networks, Online and Off, in the 21st Century"

If you like ideas, don't miss this conference!

On International Free Hugs Day July 3rd a small group of us, mostly sourced through Twitter, greeted passersby at the Tourism Victoria info centre.

In July Dan Parks and Sean Dhillon started the "High Noon Hump Day Tweetups" focussing on apps like Foursquare and others for iPhone and Android. Lunches take place at different restaurants in the Capital Region. Check http://www.meetup.com/lunchtweetups for more details. The first meetup of 2011 is January 12th at AURA Restaurant

North Studio, Stikky Media, Vancouver Island Outdoor Adventure Expo and Birds of a Feather Bed and Breakfast hosted the 2nd Mashable Meetup July 29th. It was a lovely evening on Esquimalt Lagoon shared with friends old and new.   Thanks to FatDaddys BBQ for the fabulous eats too!

Photo: Stikky Media

The Social Media Club meeting July 27th was an "Un-Meeting" with great discussions facilitated by Melanie Wood of ACD Systems.