More regarding ‘No Fun City!’ – you can catch my previous post, HERE.

<rant> Here we go again. Business in Vancouver or BC for that matter is always a tough cookie. I can recount the story of a colleague (Vancouverite) who opened up the same business simultaneously in Alberta and BC. Within 30 days, he was running in Alberta and has a profitable little enterprise. After about 3 years in BC, no permit issued to run the company by the powers that be, he’s given up. He’s also packed up and moved to Cowtown.

Well, another well-respected Calgarian, Zak Pashak, someone I’ve dealt with in Calgary at the Broken City and for the Sled Island Festival, is now running up against a wall with his new venture, the Biltmore Cabaret.

Why? Well, it’s the City or Vancouver, ‘No Fun City!’ – not the people up top, not the people who should be making decisions, but the bureaucracy and the generally anti-innovation/anti-business/anti-capitalist machinery in between. People instilled in this city by the NDP, the left and those that support people like Gregor Robertson.

Single women frequently ask me where the good (straight) men are. I’ll tell you – they’re off making their money elsewhere, where the business climate is better. Only a few of us survive here. </rant>

I digress.

So, Zak’s gone and written an open letter to Peter Ladner, who’s likely going to be the man in charge after this November’s election. Hopefully Mr. Ladner can help.

Preface by Greg McMullen. You can read it, and the open letter after the jump.
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I recently upgraded to Firefox 3 – what a mess! All of a sudden some of my trusty extensions stopped working. One of them, Universal Print, the tool I use to print all my tabs out (sometimes there’s 50 and they all have to go to PDF for processing by the staff) broke.

Note to self (and anyone else who cares:) printing 50 tabs manually is a major pain in the ass. Doesn’t matter how mad your control-tab, control-p, [enter] skillz are.

So, Mark Grimes to the rescue. He’s created a nifty Firefox add-on called ‘Print All Tabs.’ It even has a mode which will allow you to cycle through your tabs and select the tabs you want to print. Pretty Slick.

According to the Mozilla people, the add-on is experimental but given the wringer I put this add-on through, I’d say it’s road ready and more stable than ‘Universal Print’ which would crash my browser on occasion. Of course, that could’ve been Firefox 2, as well.

So, back to ‘Print All Tabs,’ you can download it (requires you to Log in) HERE. Feel like thanking the developer for his love? Find him HERE.

The Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club needs your support. Sign up and MLS could come to Vancouver!

Here’s the details:

Dear Raj,

As you may already know, the Whitecaps are pursuing one of two Major League Soccer (MLS) expansion franchises set to be added to the league by 2011. As part of the bid to secure an MLS franchise, the Whitecaps also announced that local sports icon, Steve Nash, will join the Whitecaps ownership team.  For more information on this announcement, click here.

The MLS have since announced that the deadline to submit a franchise bid to Major League Soccer is October 15, 2008.

In order to make this bid as strong as possible, we are asking all Whitecaps supporters to register your support of the bid on our website.  To register your support now, please visit whitecapsfc.com/mls.

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Your Whitecaps

Revel Room opened their doors in Gastown recently – a welcome addition to the neighbourhood. What’s not to love about the 1:30AM kitchen last call, the 2:00AM distribution of cookies which signals to patrons that it’s time to leave. Much sweeter than the Vancouver club scene where, when it’s time to leave, you may find yourself landing outside on your ass.

revel (rev′əl)

intransitive verb -·eled or -·elled, -·el·ing or -·el·ling

1. to make merry; be noisily festive
2. to take much pleasure; delight (in) to revel in one’s freedom

noun

1. boisterous festivity; merrymaking; revelry
2. an occasion of merrymaking or boisterous festivity; celebration

The skinny on Revel Room:

238 Abbott Street,
Vancouver, BC V6B 2K8 (MAP) – a few steps towards Cordova from Jules

Phone: 604-687-4088
Email: info@revelroom.ca
Web: www.revelroom.ca

Blog: revelroom.wordpress.com

Hours of operation: 5:30PM – 2:00AM Monday thru Saturday

With valet parking, a great selection of cocktails, friendly staff and nibbles into the night, you can’t go wrong – the two levels and the decor aren’t too shabby as well.

Next time you’re in – check out the Irish Coffee, or some of Beau Muncer’s U’Luvka creations.

Cheers!

The E71 is Nokia’s latest flagship E-Series business/smartphone. I’ve had mine for just over a week and I absolutely love it. It’s definitely worth dropping the cash for.

In sequence, the last three phones I’ve used are the Nokia N95 8GB, the Nokia E61i and the Nokia E61. I’m happy to be back with an E-Series phone. If I were to compare the N95 to the E71, I’d say I miss the 5 megapixel camera. The E71 comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera that I would classify more as a toy.

Features I missed with the N series are back as well – one touch voice dialing – hold down the voice key on the right hand side of the phone and speak the name of your intended victim. It seems that the voice recognition has improved as well. More after the jump.
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olives in Calgary opened up in the arriVa Tower on Olympic Way SE almost kitty corner to the new Cowboys (nee Desperados Steakhouse then rechristened Coyotes) on Friday, July 4th. We got to check them out on day 6 and were duly impressed.

When I queried my friend, Kyle Hoeght of Opus on 8th fame, someone who knows my tastes through various foodie adventures, he put me on to his friend and colleague, Jenna Kopperson who currently works as the assistant manager at olives. I jokingly said, not the Olive garden, right?

Definitely not – olives is about Innovative Italian food and they execute very well.

In discussions with the staff, whether it was John the young and enthusiastic waiter who greeted us with fresh-baked pancetta bread, or Ryan the well versed assistant manager who masterfully orchestrated wine pairings for our food on the spot, you could only deduce that they’re not only friendly but that they’re also extremely passionate about great wine and great food – truly refreshing for Calgary which has seen a turbulent decline in the care and attention put into the service industry as a result of the influx of capital from the oil boom.

At the same time, it’s good to see that John Torode’s group, the company which brought Hotel Arts (Raw Bar and Saint Germain in tow), is continuing their tradition of excellence with the opening of Olives.

The skinny:

olives
1129 Olympic Way SE (MAP)
Calgary, AB T2G 0E6

TEL: 403-984-5000
FAX: 403-984-5002

WEB: olivesrestaurant.ca

Hours: Friday and Saturday, open until Midnight. Open until 11pm every other night of the week.

The restaurant itself is simple. Three open concept rooms with little more than a shimmer screen marking their separation – a deli area for the afternoon, the main dining room and a lounge for everything thereafter. High ceilings and a very contemporary feel. The best part of the main dining room is that it features an open kitchen and hightop service right at it’s edge where you can choose to ante up and watch rockstar chef Jonathan Canning create his masterpieces.

Click on any of the above thumbnails to view the images full size. More about the food, after the jump.
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What’s to say about July’s issue of INFAMOUS? It just oozes sex… from cover to cover.

Wicked events coverage, a look at the hot new Trattoria Italian Kitchen, cool industry notes, a red hot fashion shoot and more, it’s worth the pickup.

This month, Social Shot is back to two pages and features lots of great photos – BUZZ ’08 at MCL Motor Cars, the BRAVE Art opening, MUNNY, Trattoria Italian Kitchen and more. Get it fast before they’re all gone and see you at the party.

In the last few weeks, a couple things have been unfolding on City Hall’s steps – the type of activities that can spell disaster for Vancouver economically.

British Columbia has always been largely plagued by a contingent of people who either don’t want to understand the big picture or are simply ignorant to the thought that if business can’t thrive here, it will seek somewhere else like Washington State or Alberta.

We can live one of two ways – be taxed to the max, or be accommodating to direct foreign investment and increase the social good through the spinoff of the commercial activities which ensue. There is a balance here, but it seems that Vancouver’s becoming a less attractive place to do business.

On to point 1 – Vancouver’s Bedtime Police

The City’s Licensing and Inspections group wants to further restrict liquor licenses granted to food primary establishments and the closing time.

In essence, if the proposal is accepted and you want to go out for a nice glass of wine and have a meal late into the evening, forget it. You may be forced to come to the entertainment district and bear through the lineups, poor service and loud music to get that glass of wine. Likely it, won’t even be as good, either. More on that later.

Point 2 – Nepotism in the City

No folks, it’s not a new TV series or movie. A blatant example of this situation is the ROUGE vs TUTS controversy with the Parks Board Commissioners obviously making those back-room deals. Click on ‘read more,’ lots to read after the jump.

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Around the time I got married, I also decided that it was time to appease both sides of the family, get some brownie points and take in some Hindu/family traditions. One of those traditions is observing Tuesdays as a day of abstention. In this case, my family doesn’t eat meat on Tuesdays. Being the brown sheep et al. who drinks on occasion, I’ve taken this a little more liberty with the tradition, no alcohol or indulgences (er… Karma Sutra) either, and I try to remain as close to Vegan as possible. As Papa Guj likes to say, no meat, no booze, no Ziggy.

A few weeks ago, I invited Shahee, the multi-talented living foods chef, over to help prepare dinner – from the shopping to the end result and of course, to enjoy dinner with us.

The result was phenomenal – the photos should speak for themselves. Mona and I learned alot and enjoyed the process thoroughly.

Recipes we tried:

• Thai Peanut Chilli Cabbage Salad
• Deviled Avocadoes
• Cashew Cream of Mushroom Soup
• Smashed un-potatoes… made of cauliflower

Check out other recipes by Shahee anytime, HERE. Shahee is a great resource and is always up to talk back and forth about the living foods movement. if you don’t have the time to whip some thing up, there’s always Gorilla Food which recently upgraded from the Richards Street takeout window to a full restaurant. The smoothies are definitely worth a try!

Checking out BlogCatalog… anyone out there heard of this yet?

They say:

Blog Catalog is the premiere social blog directory on the internet. Whether you’re looking to promote your own blog, find blogs on various topics, or connect with other bloggers this site is for you.

I say:

Aren’t there hundreds of sites like this now? What makes you so special? We’ll see, I spose.