FREE IS GOOD | We don’t know a lot of people who send out Easter or Passover cards to everyone they know the way they might do for holidays such as Christmas or Valentine’s day, but when cute easy-to-send-out greetings are available online for free, why wouldn’t you do it. Read more
MONEY WELL SPENT | According to psychological research reported on recently in The New York Times, “spending money for an experience—concert tickets, French lessons, sushi-rolling classes, a hotel room in Monaco—produces longer-lasting satisfaction than spending money on plain old stuff.” Findings further suggest that the happiness accrued by spending money on leisure activities is amplified when the experience is shared with someone else.
Which brings us to our new favourite experiential “happiness place,” the Dirty Apron Cooking School. Everyone we know who has taken one of their four-hour hands-on cooking classes raves about it. Read more
WORK THE SYSTEM | Has this ever happened to you? Your favourite performer or sporting event is coming to town and you want to make sure you get great seats the second they’re up for grabs. You know that buying tickets in person at a Ticketmaster location or over the telephone will not be faster than purchasing them online, so on the day they become available, you access your Ticketmaster account and begin refreshing your computer screen repeatedly in the minutes leading up to their release, pouncing like a tiger on its prey when the Find Tickets button goes live. Even with your lightening quick reflexes, every ticket is gone in a matter of minutes, and not one of them sold to you.
What can you do to ensure this will never happen again? One thing would be to try to buy tickets before they go on sale to the general public. For that you will most likely need a presale password or code. Read more
EASY DOES IT | Pamela Anderson, one of Frugalbits’ favourite food writers, says people should stop entertaining and “have people over” instead. “Having people over,” says Anderson, is about coming together casually with good pals and enthusiastic acquaintances. It’s about serving uncomplicated food and having no other expectation for an evening other than that it be fun. The Oscars this Sunday is the perfect “having people over” occasion. No worries that today’s Thursday and you’ve only got four days to get your event together. We started planning our Oscar party yesterday, and you’re welcome to follow our game plan and our menu.
SHOPPING AROUND | When Apple TV relaunched last fall, I rushed out and got one and hooked it up to my television with an HDMI cable so I could gain easy, seamless access to Netflix and whatever other premium—a.k.a. paid for—audio/video content ITunes can persuade me to purchase from their online emporium. Now I’m wondering whether a Boxee Box would have been the smarter buy.
He’s here, he’s there, he’s everywhere: Bob Kronbauer, founder and chief booster and bottle washer at the delightfully addictive two-year-old website Vancouver Is Awesome (VIA was recently voted the best local blog of 2010 by Georgia Straight readers), is a man on a mission to introduce residents and visitors to the fresh, cool and ephemeral things that make our region the sweet place to live that it is.
When he’s not overseeing a team of 20-plus pro bono editors and contributors (this is a not-for-profit operation) who produce daily features on a smorgasbord of tasty local topics mainly of the arts and culture variety, Bob somehow finds time to involve VIA in an inordinate number of outside projects, either partnering with organizations or going solo to work on festivals, events and exhibits.
And in addition to all this, he has found a few minutes to write for Frugalbits. O Lucky Us!
HOLIDAY SHOTS| My longtime friend Elyse is an incurable romantic who still lives in the big, old house she grew up in surrounded by furnishings that belonged to her mother (who had exquisite taste), and interesting, idiosyncratic things she and her husband, Ben, have acquired over the years.
While both Elyse and Ben have careers that distract them, they are determined to stay focused on family at Christmas, making time for (at least a few) rituals that result in strong memories that contribute to their family’s story. For as long as I have known them, one of the things they do every year is take silly Santa pictures, and I love visiting their house over the holidays to see them set out in individual frames, their three kids, who are now young adults, looking progressively more sheepish as the years go by posing on some random department-store Santa’s knee—and then finally reaching an age where you can see in their pictures that they have embraced the tradition and find the experience kitschy good fun. Read more
A favourite among Canada’s top shelter magazine editors and art directors as well as talented architects and interior designers from coast to coast, Vancouver photographer Martin Tessler is known for exploiting the most dramatic, least apparent angles of the buildings, rooms and gardens he shoots.
Tessler recently won both gold and silver honours at Canada’s National Magazine Awards and includes among his current high-profile assignments Douglas Coupland’s home and James Franco’s portrait for The New York Times. Oh, and he also covered Canadian Architect with Bob Rennie’s private and uber cool Wing Sang [art] Gallery located on Pender Street. Read more
SPEND SMART | With Blockbuster gone and Netflix now in Canada but without new releases, what’s the best, most expedient, well-priced yet legal way to get both new releases and back-catalogue movies these days?
Though mom-n-pop video stores are one option, they are getting fewer and farther between. Another is getting movies by mail, and while this service lacks the instant gratification of streaming offered by Netflix, once you set up an account and get into the rhythm of the system, you can have batches of the movies you want to watch coming in and out of your house on a regular basis. Read more
The most vibrant and exciting cultural institution in our city right now is one that’s old as the hills: the Museum of Vancouver, a.k.a. MOV, which has been around since 1894. Over the past few years, the team pictured here has transformed MOV into a local light by celebrating what is original about our town, with exhibitions covering everything from our very own rock stars of footwear to barbecue duels fought local Iron Chef style. This year, MOV’s innovation led to a Canadian Museums Association award for “Re-Envisioning.”
Nancy Noble, CEO (pictured right), is a longtime museum professional and the driving force behind the recent changes at MOV. Joan Seidl, Director of Collections and Exhibitions (pictured left), has worked in museums since she was 14 years old and has curated dozens of exhibits. Amanda Gibbs, Director of Audience Engagement (pictured in the middle), is a specialist in branding, community engagement and new forms of storytelling.