October’s issue of INFAMOUS with Kanye West on the cover, damn! They’ve done it again. Too bad it’s taken me ’til December to post it up. For those of you who are anxious to get the latest copy, you can usually see it on the streets around the 5th or 6th of every month, or you can visit the INFAMOUS Magazine website around the 10th.

October’s issue was filled with 39 pages of goodness. A review on Cobre by Cassandra Anderton, and highlights from two great events that I sadly couldn’t attend to – BC Fashion Week and the annual Livestock Block Party and lots more.

My coverage of events start on page 5 with some of the best events I’ve seen all year. Italian Kitchen opened and Dr. Peter Centre held their annual not-to-miss Passions event. Something that members of the media wait all year to attend. So, overall, a not to shabby October, and not once did I ever have to dress up for a played out costume party.

via Pownce, and the good man Jake J., an amazing video by Tay Zonday promoting Dr Pepper’s limited time only Cherry Chocolate beverage.

As Tay likes to describe it:

dark sweet unexpected -

taste the secret you’re infected -

your my body’s deepest craze -

brought the thunder made it rain

From what I see on the Dr Pepper website, there appears to only be the Diet Dr Pepper Cherry Chocolate flavour:

The great taste of Diet Dr Pepper is now mixed with a sweet cherry dipped in chocolate to bring you Cherry Chocolate Diet Dr Pepper. That’s zero calories and 100 percent satisfaction. So go ahead and lick your lips to savor every sip. But you’d better hurry. Cherry Chocolate Diet Dr Pepper is only available for a limited time.

BTW – video bonus, LL Cool J, Snoop Dogg, DMX and Jay-Z all in one voice (Aries Spears) on Live 105:

Another awesome video! Never knew Aries could hit it like that.

UPDATE (1/2/2008): I’ve posted my review of PINKYS HERE.

LK Dining Lounge or LilyKate Fine Foods as it started out RIP. I’m speculating here but I believe Britta Joyce, owner, decided to pack it in after roughing it for a couple years with lukewarm response to the restaurant, despite the venue being comfortable and elegant.

With the fierce competition between restaurants in this city, be it for customers or even staff, I’d speculate to say that the only way you’re going to do well in this market is to ensure people keep you top of mind when it does come time to make a decision to go out and eat. Earls, Cactus Club, and the other big box restaurants do this by hiring the most ‘desirable’ talent. Other restaurants like Glowbal focus on impeccable service, then there’s others like Hamilton Street Grill that have arguably the best quality embedded in their raison d’etre.

For the little guy, there is hope – it’s about high touch, getting the word out and continuing to beat the same drum all the time. Networking, advertising, media and PR are all vital communication elements. You can no longer build it and hope they will come.

Speaking of PR, super-publicist Cate Simpson is spreading the word about Pinky’s Steakhouse which will open early December 2007 in the space of the former LK Dining Lounge. Good luck to them. Release after the jump.
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Part of being an IT services company means that a portion of your work is assisting companies in their capital expenditures whether it’s replacing something small like a few workstations or whether it’s something a bit bigger like outfitting a whole datacenter with blade servers.

One thing I’ve learned over the last 15 years in the business is that supply chains are not hard and fast – sometimes you can get better concessions from the guy next door rather than dealing with the supplier direct or the majors like Ingram Micro or Tech Data. This means that every time we go through the exercise, we truly do shop several sources – the bonus is pure profit – we’re sometimes able to shave 2%, 5% maybe even 15% off the top.

At the same time, we like to see what pops up on the radar so we regularly check out Microsoft, HP and other company resellers to see who’s up, who we haven’t worked with in the past and who’s new.

On this one occasion, after checking out an HP reference on the Microsoft site (HERE) we decided to shop a company called Sudden Service. What transpired thereafter was totally shocking!

Original message:

From: Rajesh.Taneja
To: Sales / Marketing
Sent: Wed Oct 31 00:25:30 2007
Subject: Please quote

Hi – can I get a quote on below? Also, I need a media kit for Microsoft P73-00295 both x32 and x64 version, please. It corresponds with Microsoft license # XXXXXX. Thanks!

… message truncated

Initial reply:

From: Roger Parmar
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 7:27 AM
To: Rajesh Taneja
Subject: Re: Please quote

Quit sending me these

I’m thinking to myself, holy freaking abrasive, batman! Needless to say and although the message was routed via Sudden Service Technologies’ Sales/Marketing email contact as the recipient, poor Mr. Parmar seems to have forgotten that he is representing the company…. or perhaps he was just towing the company line.

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Announcement

LOVERBOY returns full-force with the in-your-face new CD release JUST GETTING STARTED, the band’s first studio album in more than a decade. RockSTAR Music Corp. www.rockstarmusiccorp.com Loverboy’s label completed the exclusive deal with Wal-Mart for United States national hard copy distribution for the November 6 release. The CD will be available on all major online retailers.

Below is the link to the Loverboy-Wal-Mart EPK for the upcoming November 6 release of THE FIRST STUDIO.

http://video.clipstream.com/…

Please forward this to your friends

Michael

Michael Hektoen
RockSTAR Music Corp
Direct Line: 604.960.9880
MHektoen@RockSTARMusicCorp.com

www.rockstarmusiccorp.com
www.myspace.com/rockstarmusiccorp
www.myspace.com/loverboyrockstar
www.loverboyband.com
www.myspace.com/eliseestrada
www.eliseestradasource.com
www.liveonarrival.com
www.myspace.com/liveonarrivalband

Last week, I decided to head to the Italian Kitchen on Alberni Street to check out two varieties of the same steak side by side.

What type of nut would eat two 16 ounce steaks in one sitting? A frame of reference to help you understand, might help..

CrossFit Vancouver, the gym of champions, featuring a workout geared to total overall fitness looks at all aspects – exercise, sleep and diet. Members of the gym, given the intense and ever-changing training regimen, gradually become animalistic in their tendencies. Imagine, you’re a ravenous jungle beast and no one steak can satiate you. Well, that’s essentially I felt like that night especially after having restrained myself from eating the finger foods at an AceTech event earlier in the evening.

Rather than gnawing on the bumper of someone’s car.. you feed the beast… order two steaks, the 40 day aged rib steak and the regular rib steak.

What’s the big deal about a slab of meat that’s been sitting in the cooler for 40 days?

A 40 day aged rib steak contracts over it’s course in the cooler and it becomes denser and drier. More flavour but more meat to make a steak, too. So, it’s more costly, leaner, flavourful and complex. Most restaurants that carry this type of product have to plan well ahead to ensure they have enough quantities for their customers – if they run out, it can take days to get another batch prepared.

The 40 day aged steak is darker whereas the other steak is certainly pinker – the 40 day steak was a slight bit more tender too!

So what’s the verdict?

Overall, this process isn’t suited to a fatty steak like the rib eye but works wonderfully for the steaks like the strip loin or New York steak. So there will have to be another installment of the Steak vs. Steak sometime soon.

Next time you’re in at Italian Kitchen, definitely check it out!

Italian Kitchen
1037 Alberni Street,
Vancouver BC V6E 1A1

TEL: 604-687-2858
WEB: www.glowbalgroup.com

For September’s issue of INFAMOUS Magazine, with Missy Peregrym from the hit TV series Heroes on the cover, I couldn’t get a hard copy of the magazine – it literally flew off the shelves!

Click on the image below to download the magazine in PDF format.

Click on the image below to download my article, ‘Social Shot’ in PDF format.

This month, my favourite photo appeared on the second page of my article – the Earls Restaurant hostesses all dressed in white at the Hot Summer Nights event. The photo was shot ‘Malcolm Parry’ or Magpie style and came out phenomenally.

Another great set of shots was with Supermodel Noot Seear who put on the Be Bare Naughty Fashion Show at the Commodore. The staff at the Commodore can be downright unprofessional and difficult to work with which makes it a tough venue to cover but I persevered on the night of the event and spent most of the evening backstage chatting away with the models and getting a ton of exclusive shots with Ms Seear. She’s super sweet too – check out the photos starting HERE.

You can check INFAMOUS Magazine out online at infamousmagazine.net or grab it in Downtown Vancouver.

From Terrie’s Take #439, HERE.

The Professor for Amphibian Biology at Hiroshima University has “invented” a frog whose skin is transparent and thus allows science students to view the internal organs, blood vessels, and eggs without having to dissect the animal. The Prof says he bred the frog to allow biology classes to be more humane. ***Ed: What a great idea!** (Source: TT commentary from nationalgeographic.com, Sep 28, 2007)

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/…

Italian Kitchen, the newest Glowbal Group restaurant located at 1037 Alberni Street next to Betsey Johnson and a couple stores West of Tiffany at Burrard Street and Alberni Street opened their doors on the 29th of August with a truly memorable opening party fit for Vancouver’s A-List.

Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to check the restaurant out over ten times, dining there for lunch and having drinks at night. So far my impression is that the food is reasonably priced and the quality and execution is pretty good. The crowd is always hip and good looking and so are the staff.

So what’s good on the menu, you ask? So far I’ve had the opportunity to enjoy:

• spaghetti and Kobe Beef Meetballs,
• two of their Bruschetta selections, the Prosciutto di Parma, rosemary and parmigiano bruschetta
• and the chick peas, roasted garlic and Italian parsley bruschetta,
• the Anitpasto Platter with burrata filled zucchini blossoms with portobello frites, jumbo tiger prawns, egglplant alla parmigiana, asparagus and fontina wrapped with prosciutto, heirloom caprese salad, fennel crusted rare ahi tuna, spicy meatballs with tomato ragu and osso buco risotto crochette
• the 40 day aged rib steak

One item of note, the steaks at Italian Kitchen come in a regular and 40 day aged varieties. I have yet to try them side to side but expect an update in the near future on this.

In the interim, check out the menus below as well as pictures of food. You can always get the latest photos I’ve taken at Italian Kitchen, HERE.

Italian Kitchen address and information:

ADDRESS: 1037 Alberni Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 1A1 (MAP)
TELEPHONE: 604-687-2858

HOURS of OPERATION: Monday – Saturday 11:00 am to 12:00 midnite, Sunday 4:30pm to 12:00am

WEB SITE: www.glowbalgroup.com

Check out what the gals at Sweetspot.ca have to say about Italian Kitchen after the jump.
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At the end of August, The Economist reported that Whole Foods Market completed it’s acquisition of Wild Oats Markets. At first glance, the question is .. so who cares? Well, Wild Oats is the American parent company of Capers Markets here in Vancouver, so now Capers is also a subsidiary of Whole Foods.

Here’s some background on the acquisition:

• The Economist – intially read it in their weekly quick scan in the print edition which is copied here
• MarketWatch – great synopsis of what happened, the cost of the $565 million acquisition
• Brand Autopsy – good insight on the conference call with Analysts

So, what does this mean for the denizens of Vancouver? Well, they now answer the phone as Capers Whole Foods, oh.. and they’re committed to continued growth according to their news release HERE. The West Vancouver store, home of the original Capers Cafe (which has been closed for a couple years now) will close permanently later this year in October. You can read it all after the jump.
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