Vancouver Magazine, March2018

Head Case: Is Transcendental Meditation All It’s Cracked Up to Be? THE BEST B.C. SPARKLING WINES // STYLISH SNEAKERS WE LOVE ER IN IR EL A N D’S V EGA N I ZED CON DO // A NO WAST E GROCERY STOR E // M A IN ST R EET’S N E W EST PASTA BA R

Wild indulgences, smart investments, time hacks and feel-good charity flings...

Get that fun money ready.

Chill, Royal Canadian Mint: No real currency was harmed in the making of this cover.

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VA N M AG . C O M

M A R C H 2 0 1 8 // VO LU M E 5 1 // N U M B E R 2

FE ATURES

27

How to Spend It Put your money to work with the best ways to indulge, invest, give back or outsource your life.

39 Of Two Minds Is Transcendental Meditation the key to happiness? Or a mindbending hoax?

Craft Works We went global with this month’s cover art, recruiting Mumbai quilling artist Sabeena Karnik to cut, roll, shape and glue strips of paper into a crafty 3D headline.

City 13

13 Reasons to Love Vancouver Our local symphony knows how to party.

COVER: SABEENA K ARNIK

14 In Brief A big-screen ode to the resiliency of Chinese women.

16

16 Future of the City If we run out of real estate for industry, where will it go?

Taste 21

22

21 The Dish Yorkshire puddings, stuffed with corned beef—now this is how you celebrate St. Paddy’s.

22 Reviews Autostrada is the neighbourhood spot of our dreams.

24 Taste Test The best B.C. bubbles.

49

Play 49 Personal Space At home with food blogger Erin Ireland.

52

52 Hot Take Cabana-cool pieces to inspire fun in the sun.

54 The Accessory Slick sneakers perfect for kicking it.

56 About Last Night Fred Lee’s social snaps.

58 City Informer Can you actually own a beach of your own in Vancouver? City Informer investigates.

VA N M A G . C O M M A R C H 2 0 1 8

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General Manager | Publisher Dee Dhaliwal Editorial Director Anicka Quin Executive Editor Stacey McLachlan Food Editor Neal McLennan Associate Art Director Natalie Gagnon Associate Editor Julia Dilworth Assistant Art Director Jenny Reed Online Editor Kaitlyn Funk Videographer Mark Philps Contributing Editors Frances Bula, Amanda Ross Editorial Interns Alyssa Hirose, Jessica Palacio, Allie Turner Editorial Email mail@vanmag.com Account Managers Judy Johnson, Theresa Tran Sales Coordinator Karina Platon Online Coordinator Theresa Tran Production Manager Lee Tidsbury Advertising Designer Swin Nung Chai Senior Marketing Strategist Kaitlyn Lush Marketing Assistant Rachel Cheng Sales Email karina.platon@vanmag.com Vancouver Office 3rd Floor, 2025 Willingdon Avenue Burnaby, B.C. V5C 0J3, 604-877-7732 National Media Sales Representation, Mediative Senior Account Manager, National Sales Ian Lederer, 416-626-4258, ian.lederer@ mediative.com U.S. Sales Representation, Media-Corps 1-866-744-9890, info@media-corps.com Yellow Pages Digital and Media Solutions Ltd. Vice-President & Chief Publishing Officer Caroline Andrews

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1606 West 2nd at Fir Armoury District Vancouver Mon-Sat 10-5:30 604 736 5681 eastindiacarpets.com PHOTOGRAPHY: BARRY CALHOUN PHOTOGRAPHY ACCESSORIES: PROVIDE HOME

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VANCOUVER MAGAZINE is published 10 times a year by 9778748 Canada Inc. Copyright 2018. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the publisher’s written permission. Not responsible for unsolicited editorial material.

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Furniture Showrooms: 1855/1880 Fir Street Armoury District Vancouver 604.736.8822 Mon - Sat 10 -5:30 pm broughaminteriors.com

EX CEPTIONA L IND OOR & OUTD OOR FUR NIS H INGS

ED NOTE

Head Case

Coming Up Next Issue

LAST MONTH I told you that I had already failed at most of my 2017 New Year’s resolutions—more specifically, that my intention to meditate daily had fallen far short of my goal. (I never even started.)

And it’s not as if I was beginning from scratch. When I moved here almost 20 years ago, I acclimated to West Coast culture by picking up the habits of the locals: I joined a running group, purchased my first pair of Lululemon pants and took a course in mindfulness-based stress reduction—meditation for stress cases like myself.

Back then, while I was taking that course, I happened to have a chat with a friend about what I was learning—namely, that thoughts, as they arise, don’t need to take up space in the present moment as I meditated. “Don’t get distracted by what you need on your grocery list,” my instructor had told us. Hearing this, my friend didn’t buy the idea. “But what if it’s really important?” she asked me in all seriousness. “What if I really don’t want to forget that item?”

Now, reading about Alexandra Gill’s exploration of Transcendental Mediation for this issue (“Of Two Minds,” page 39), my own experience with the mindfulness process seems like a cakewalk. Gill became intrigued by the sometimes-controversial TM after learning that the late, great architect Bing Thom was a proponent of it, and he credited the beauty of his buildings to his nearly 50-year study of the art of meditation. For Gill, however, sessions in TM resulted in her feeling like her head was being squeezed in a vise, or even crushed by G-forces; she experienced stomachaches and foot cramps. More than once, she burst into tears. “My teacher says I’m clearing years of accumulated stress,” she writes, “but I think it has more to do with my fear of getting sucked into a cult.” It’s a fascinating read.

Also in this issue, we’ve dabbled in a playful feature on a different sort of self-betterment: “How to Spend It” (page 27). Make the most of your cash flow with dozens of ways to splurge (hello, road bike), invest (we’ve got wine bottles with your name on it), outsource (who wants to cook, really?) or give back (foodies, Sole Food Street Farms is for you)—your best bets for spending your hard-earned cash are right here.

And in case you were wondering, as winter wraps up I have renewed my resolution to get back into the om of things for 2018—and so far I am succeeding this time around. Forgotten groceries be damned.

The Best Breakfast Sandwiches In Town Our esteemed panel of breakfast experts puts the city’s grab-and-go egg sandwiches to the test, all in the hopes of brightening your mornings.

The Ultimate VanMag Neighbourhod Ranking We crunched the numbers and pored over data to find the definitive answer: what are the most liveable neighbourhoods in the city?

Correction Retraction In our December 2017 Power 50 story, we incorrectly reported that Carol Lee opposed the Beedie Group development and was an informal advisor to the mayor. In fact, Lee has off icially remained neutral regarding the Beedie project, and does not have an advisory relationship with City Council in any capacity. We apologize for this factual error.

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PORTRAIT: EVA AN KHERA J; ST YLING BY LUISA RINO, MAKEUP BY MEL ANIE NEUFELD; CLOTHING COURTESY HOLT RENFREW, HOLTRENFREW.COM. SANDWICH: @SAYHE YCAFE

Which matters more: a grocery list or peace of mind?

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M I N A S H U M R E T U R N S / D E N TA L DATA / I N D U S T R I A L WO E S

VA N M AG .C O M/C I T Y

City

MAT THEW BAIRD/VSO

RE ASONS TO LOVE VANCOUVER

Reason #47 Because our symphony knows how to have fun.

THE FLUTE-WIELDING maniacs of Vancouver’s 100-year-old Symphony Orchestra may love a good overture, but they know how to party, too.

Just look at the VSO events calendar for living, breathing, trumpeting proof: they put on a swingin’ Sinatra special in January, a Pokémon event in July, and have one-upped the prototypical Planetarium laser show by playing thrilling concertos alongside trippy videos of twirling interstellar bodies. A series of string-forward ABBA covers is in the works, and they’ve delighted Potterheads with nights dedicated to live performances of the Harry Potter score (the robe count that night was even higher than normal). Oh, and they’ve won a Grammy—and any symphony that shares accolades with Beyoncé is cool by us.

VA N M A G . C O M M A R C H 2 0 1 8

13

City

IN BRIEF

THE E XPERT

Mina Shum

The Vancouver director weaves a tale of infidelity and immigration in her new film. by

Fiona Morrow

The ploT for Mina Shum’s new Vancouver-set movie, Meditation Park, hit her “like a lightning bolt.” It was the summer of 2016, and the director was driving to Third Beach with her mother and a car full of kids. “My mom leans across and whispers in Cantonese, ‘The cat has caught a new fish,’ and I was like, ‘Wait. What?’”

The gossip was hardly revelatory—a middle-aged relative had taken a new mistress—but there was something about the way her mother phrased it that gave Shum (Double Happiness; Ninth Floor) pause. “In that moment, I realized how much I love the Cantonese language and the resilience of women,” she says when we meet the morning after Meditation Park opened the 2017 Vancouver International Film Festival (the film is set to open in cinemas March 9).

“And then I thought, ‘Older woman, thong,’ and I was off.” The impact of infidelity in immigrant families particularly intrigued her as she sat down to work on the script. “There

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Director Mina Shum (left) and actor Sandra Oh on the set of Meditation Park.

VA N M A G . C O M M A R C H 2 0 1 8

just happened to be a lot of stories in my family at the time. So many women who immigrated before liberation hit Hong Kong remain frozen. It’s the encoding of that generation.”

With an impressive cast —Sandra Oh, Don McKellar and Hong Kong superstars Cheng Pei-Pei and Tzi Ma—Meditation Park follows Maria (Cheng) as she navigates first the shock, and then the fury, of her husband’s affair. Her awakening includes stalking him around Chinatown by bicycle (Cheng’s daughter stood in for her pedal-challenged mom) and gradually finding independence from her isolated domesticity through friendship with the ebullient neighbourhood women busy renting their garages out to PNE visitors.

“In my upbringing, the mantra is ‘Listen to your father. Listen to your husband. Listen to your sons,’ Shum says. “I think one of the reasons the film is not cynical or bitter is because

I love the Cantonese language and the resilience of women.” the women want to serve. They were taught at a very young age that to serve, to be needed, is the most important thing. But they have put in their time and now, if they are alone, they are determined to do exactly what they want.”

Shum has lived in Hastings– Sunrise for 23 years, the past 13 in the same house. “I love the world of this movie,” she says. “I made this movie about a block away from my home, so it is my world. I see these women every day. I see what they are doing and how they are dressed, and I’m like, ‘Rock on.’ They give me a lot of courage because they don’t care what people think. They have solidarity among themselves, and they just don’t care.”

nosmilecity

VENTURE

nosmilecity

According to the latest Visa Canada tooth fairy index, $2.46 is the underpillow payout per tooth for kids in this province—the lowest in Canada, and almost a full dollar below the national average.

In an analysis of how much people smile on Instagram, software company Jetpac ranked Vancouver second to last among 25 Canadian cities—smilier only than Niagara-on-the-Lake.

THE BRE AK DOWN

Just Don’t Tell Us to Smile As 14,000 dentists, hygienists and related industry folk gather in the city this month to talk bone grafts and gummy smiles at the 20th annual Pacific Dental Exhibition (March 8 to 10), we take a closer look at the West Coast’s relationship with our pearly whites. by Melissa Edwards

1,693

That’s how many dentists there are in Metro Vancouver—one of the highest densities in Canada, at one for every 1,455 people.

Nada founder Brianne Miller (centre) in store.

22%

of B.C. dog owners in an Ipsos survey for Royal Canin brush their pet’s teeth at least a few times a week (likely in expectation of much face-licking). Only eight percent of cat owners do the same.

15.8 teeth,

on average, are filled, decayed or missing in an adult B.C. mouth, according to a Ministry of Health report. That’s half of all teeth in an average person’s mouth.

22%

8%

THE TICKE T

VIDF: STEPHANIE BERGER; NADA: AMANDA PALMER

Vancouver International Dance Festival

The Deets Date: March 1 to 24 Venue: Various Price: From $15 Online: vidf.ca

Since its beginning in 1998 under the name Vancouver Butoh Festival (referencing a form of Japanese dance theatre), whereupon it hosted a mere three artists, the Vancouver International Dance Festival (VIDF) has bloomed in size and stature—this year’s 19th annual edition presents a dozen companies and soloists at venues throughout the urban core. In addition to local perennials Amber Funk Barton, EDAM Dance and Goh Ballet, and a return engagement from Montreal’s Lucie Grégoire Danse, the 2018 program continues the festival’s mission to promote “culturally diverse contemporary dance,” including performers from as far afield as Hungary and Mexico. Perhaps of greatest note is the city debut of Shen Wei Dance Arts: its titular founder and director—born in China and based in New York— has led his company to international acclaim, with the Washington Times declaring him “one of the great artists of our time.” At VIDF, his dancers perform Folding (2000) and a radical interpretation of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (2003), two pieces upon which Wei’s sterling reputation was built.—Michael White

Waste Not, Want Not The grocery store tackling trash talk.

BRIANNE MILLER is on a plastic-busting mission. Tired of seeing how global plastic waste was affecting animal habitats, the former marine biology researcher decided to stop plastics at the source: the grocery store. She’s now the founder and CEO of Nada, a fullfledged zero-waste grocery store, which opened in early January.

Located at Broadway and Fraser Street, the store sells everything from baked goods and fresh produce to toiletries and pet food, all without the usual one-time-use packaging.

Customers bring their containers or, as is the case for the Avalon milk, pay a deposit for the glass bottle. The centre aisles are filled with organic bulk grains, flours, coffee, tea and oils. But that convenient roll of plastic bags— and frozen pizzas—are distinctly absent.

“Almost all of our items are single-ingredient items, so we have very few processed foods,” says Miller. But a few multiingredient items have sneaked their way in. Among them are ice cream and candy, as well as package-free Denman Island chocolate, selling at almost half its usual retail price. It’s a big ask for Vancouverites to change their shopping habits, but eliminating packaging waste might just be the key to our Greenest City goal.

—Tessa Vikander

VA N M A G . C O M M A R C H 2 0 1 8

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City

FUTURE OF THE CIT Y

Industrial Revolution

Chances are that, whether you walk, drive or bike, you have recently been stuck behind a lumbering industrial vehicle. Spare a kind thought for them and consider the plight of people like Chris MacCauley, senior vice president of industrial real estate firm CBRE. All those trucks going in and out of Vancouver are the most visible evidence on the streets of expanding industry here, and his clients are demanding more space to accommodate that growth.

But Vancouver has run out of ways to increase zoning for manufacturing and distribution. Push far enough outside of the downtown core and, at some point, companies keep going eastward until they end up in Calgary—and the trucks to bring products back to the West Coast keep on rolling through.

Petti Fong

ILLUSTRATION by

Q: A:

Meags Fitzgerald

Why should we worry about how easy or difficult it is for trucks to get from point A to point B? We spend a lot of time concentrating on moving cars, people...

Q: And bikes...?

A: Way too much time on bikes, and also moving people on rapid transit lines. But not a lot of time on moving goods through our Lower Mainland, especially since we’re a major port here. Where do the vehicles that you need to distribute the products go? Think of how difficult it is for truck maneuverability. We don’t consider how hard it is for these trucks to move around.

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VA N M A G . C O M M A R C H 2 0 1 8

CHRIS MACCAULE Y PORTRAIT: KENT K ALLBERG

by

BAKER . MCGUIRE . LEE . ARKETIPO . DELL AROBBIA . SANGIACOMO . SABA . GAMM A . ALIVAR

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EX CEPTIONA L IND OOR & OUTD OOR FUR NIS H INGS

You can build higher buildings, but you can’t do that as easily when it comes to the industrial side.”

Q: Is your industry getting stuck as well?

A: For industrial land transactions, it’s been slowing down for the last several years—not because of the lack of demand, which is at an all-time high, whether it’s an owner or user looking for property to develop or someone from the outside wanting to get a footprint in Vancouver. It’s slower due to the lack of availability. We’re getting busier trying to be creative in finding homes for these businesses. We’re busier in other areas of Metro Vancouver as we try to exhaust every availability in the core.

Q: What kind of options are available in Vancouver’s core?

A: For industrial right now, Metro Vancouver is looking at historic lows of vacancy. We’re about 1.7 percent.

Anything under three percent is considered no vacancy. Depending on the size of the business, many companies are going to find it very difficult to find a home. Vancouver proper is below one percent, and that means we have to look elsewhere.

Q: What kind of industries are we talking about?

A: We’re not a big manufacturing base, but distribution is the big driver here because we are a gateway. We do a lot of food processing here.

We do a lot of food warehousing here.

E-commerce is something we’ve seen trending upward in the last three to four years, but we are getting to the point where that’s also difficult because we don’t have the market to facilitate that growth. Amazon is here in a big way, but we don’t have the scale for them to find the space they need.

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VA N M A G . C O M M A R C H 2 0 1 8

Q: Why can’t we build up or build under?

A: People look at us and ask that question all the time. Other places build up and densify. That’s great for some cities. We have issues with our soil and structure. It’s just not efficient or cost effective for us to build up. People talk about densification and residential growth. You can build higher buildings, but you can’t do that as easily when it comes to the industrial side.

Q: So the answer is to head east?

A: Companies are making the decision that if we need to have some footprint here in Vancouver, we’ll do it small.

We’ll build big elsewhere, where we can get more for less. Calgary is about half the cost of what it would take to set up in Vancouver, and with oil as low as it is, the transportation costs to get from Calgary to Vancouver make sense for them economically.

Q: What does this mean for Vancouver?

A: It means we’re running out of employment lands on the industrial side.

Small businesses don’t have options in Vancouver. It’s not just whether they have cost-effective options. That’s not the consideration. It’s not even an option.

Q: But it’s not like we’re going to run out of industrial land, is it? Won’t simple economics for business mean industry will change to accommodate availability?

A: We have about eight years of land supply left. But where is that land?

Thirty-five percent is in Surrey; another 20 percent is in Maple Ridge. Half of the land we have left is in those two municipalities. But what does Vancouver have left; what does Burnaby have left?

No one wants to talk about going into the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR).

Q: Let’s talk about going into the ALR. A: The conversation needs to start about what the needs are to keep our economy growing and what the needs are for the agricultural community and how we can help both. When the ALR came into effect almost 40 years ago, there wasn’t a lot of science put behind it. We need to look at what the lands are for in the Agricultural Land Reserve and how we can help facilitate the need for further employment in industrial lands.

Q: People wanting a home are looking at the agricultural lands; industries are looking at getting into the agricultural lands. Why should industry get in over residential homeowners?

A: There’s a lot of synergy between food and industry, whether it’s food processing, food storage or food distribution. We need those synergies to help our agricultural community.

Q: The last major exclusion was over 10 years ago. Is the time right to get more land out?

A: To get land out of the ALR is extremely difficult. It has been 10 years, and we haven’t had anything of substance to help with our job growth and employment opportunities. Politically, no one wants to talk about it because it’s considered sacred. We’re not talking about paving over all of our agriculture land. But there are certain areas where we can improve our industrial lands and get more economic base. That’s not going to happen from the province until they see some economic consequences of these companies who don’t have options to set up here, who move east or down south.

TV when it’s on. Art when it’s off.

Art has a new canvas.

And two bonus offers.

White Beige Wood

The Frame is an innovative UHD 4K television that also functions as a piece of art. And now when you buy one, you’ll receive two bonus offers, a value of up to $397.

Offer runs January 5, 2018 - March 29, 2018.

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Some conditions apply. Offer valid from January 5th, 2018 to March 29th, 2018. *Purchase from an authorized Canadian retailer any eligible Samsung The Frame TV to receive a bonus matching Samsung customizable frame in oak, walnut, white or porcelain blue in one of the following sizes: 65” customizable frame (MSRP: $349.99), 55” customizable frame (MSRP: $299.99) or 43” customizable frame (MSRP: $249.99) from the authorized Canadian retailer at the time of purchase. Eligible Samsung The Frame TV models are as follows: UN65LS003AFXZC, UN55LS003AFXZC, and UN43LS003AFXZC. Authorized Canadian retailers may vary. No rainchecks. Total quantities of the Porcelain Blue model VG-SCFM65PM/ZA is limited to 50, Porcelain Blue model VG-SCFM55PM/ZA is limited to 125, and Porcelain Blue model VGSCFM43PM/ZA is limited to 25. Selection may vary by store and is subject to availability. The choice of colour is at the customer’s discretion at the time of redemption. Offer is open to Canadian residents only. Offer has no cash value. Cannot be combined with any other offers or promotions with the exception of the 2018 Bonus Samsung Art Store Subscription Offer. Offer subject to change or cancellation by Samsung at any time. If you return your eligible Samsung The Frame TV to the participating retailer, you will not be entitled to the bonus Samsung customizable frame. Limit one (1) bonus gift per customer per eligible Samsung The Frame TV purchased. Some conditions apply. Offer valid for purchases made from January 5th, 2018 to March 29th, 2018 (the “Promotion Period”). **Purchase from an authorized Canadian retailer any eligible Samsung The Frame TV to receive a bonus six (6) month subscription to the online Samsung Art Store. Eligible Samsung The Frame TV models are as follows: UN65LS003AFXZC, UN55LS003AFXZC, and UN43LS003AFXZC. To receive your Samsung Art Store subscription with the purchase of an eligible Samsung TV during the Promotion Period, you must register The Frame product online at www.samsung.com/tvpromos by May 1st, 2018. A coupon code for the subscription will be sent via e-mail upon product registration. The coupon code must be redeemed June 30th, 2018. If you return your eligible Samsung TV to the participating retailer, you will no longer be entitled to the bonus Samsung Art Store subscription. Samsung takes no responsibility for lost, misdirected, or delayed claims. Incomplete or illegible request forms may delay fulfillment of your request. All submissions require you to provide your product serial numbers. Samsung TV serial numbers are located on the back panel of the Samsung TV. Once your claim has been verified and approved by Samsung or an agency on Samsung’s behalf, you will receive an email confirmation that your claim has been accepted and a coupon code will be provided which will enable you to obtain the six (6) month bonus subscription to the online Samsung Art Store. Samsung is committed to protecting your privacy. We will not use or disclose your personal information for purposes other than those for which it was collected without your explicit consent as required by law. To view our privacy policy, visit http://www.samsung.com/ca/info/privacy.html. Authorized Canadian retailers may vary. While supplies last. No rainchecks. Offer is open to Canadian residents only. Offer has no cash value. Cannot be combined with any other offers or promotions with the exception of the 2018 Bonus Samsung Customizable Frame Offer. Offer subject to change or cancellation by Samsung at any time. Limit one (1) bonus gift per customer per eligible Samsung The Frame TV purchased. © 2018 Samsung Electronics Canada Inc. All rights reserved. Samsung is a registered trademark of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. used with permission.

This green-tie gala fundraiser showcases creations by Vancouver’s leading culinary artists, and the best of VCC’s fashion, music, and more. Join us in helping the next generation of VCC students flourish.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2018, 7 P.M.

Purchase tickets vcc.ca/gala | 604.871.7082 BUY THREE TICKETS AND THE FOURTH IS COMPLIMENTARY, USE CODE ‘VANMAG’

U N B I A S E D R E V I E WS / LO CA L B U B B L E S / N E I G H B O U R H O O D J O I N T S

VA N M AG .C O M/ TA S T E

PHOTO: CLINTON HUSSE Y; ST YLING: L AWREN MONETA

Taste

THE DISH

GET LUCKY

ARGUABLY MORE INDIGNITY has been done to the Irish by well-meaning North American restaurateurs in the name of St. Patrick’s Day than by any number of English monarchs. Green beer and green velvet cupcakes! This year, maybe underplay your hand and opt for some Celtic-inspired fare that’s not gimmicky—like these Yorkies (that’s Yorkshire puddings, stuffed with corned beef and sauerkraut and topped with horseradish cream). They’re from the low-key Irish outpost that is the Forkhill House, which has taken over the former Fat Badger space on Alberni and remade it with equal dashes of quirk and Cork. 1616 Alberni St., forkhillhouse.com

VA N M A G . C O M M A R C H 2 0 1 8

21

Taste

REVIEWS

It’s easy to over-fetishize such well-done simplicity.

A SIMPLE PLAN

Can Lucais Syme’s Autostrada become Vancouver’s first truly great neighbourhood spot? by

Neal McLennan Ariana Gillrie

photographs by

Vitello tonnato and (actual) focaccia

It was In 2010 when I first came across what I now think of as the most amazing wine list in the history of Vancouver. It was at the then two-year-old La Quercia (a restaurant that had just won this magazine’s Best New Restaurant Award), and it was a dense tome on Italian viticulture that, if you were patient, revealed the most sublime deals I’d ever seen in this deal-free province. Like a $25-markup-on-a$175-bottle-of-Gaja-chardonnaytype deals. I queried co-owner Lucais Syme at the time and he said, “It’s my dream to walk into a restaurant and order this great wine at such a great price.” But, to quote Ponyboy Curtis, “Nothing gold can stay.” The realities of running a restaurant in a city with crazy rents, expensive food costs and a shortage of labour mean that such flights of fancy are no longer compatible for the long-term financial success of a restaurant.

The prices crept up (although it’s still a great wine list today) and Syme ultimately ended up leaving La Quercia to open the downtown gem Cinara. The world moved on.

Until a few Fridays ago, when I stopped into Syme’s brand-new

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place, Autostrada. The casual Italian spot is at the “emerging” end of Main—neighbours include Bunk Beds Canada and Mootha Thayaparan and Co. Chartered Accountants—and it’s just 27 seats cozy. But there, on the simple shelf that for the time being holds the wine, was another bottle of Gaja— this one a 2012 brunello—that, when I checked the compact wine list, was $150—pricey, to be sure, but also a crazily small 1.75-times markup. For comparison, CinCin sells the same wine at a heretofore reasonable $219.

And while the rest of the list doesn’t reach such great heights, the markups are uniformly on the low end, and the selections—juicy cannonaus from Sardinia, salty verdicchios from Le Marche—are spot-on for the promised casual, rustic fare.

True, one bottle does not a restaurant make, but it was a very promising start. It’s clear that Syme and partner Dustin Dockendorf are doing their damnedest to keep Autostrada at the accessible end of the price spectrum—there’s no showy bistecca Fiorentina, no whole branzino—and, as a result, try as you might, you won’t spend more than

$21 on any one entry on the compact menu of 11 starters and seven pastas.

But the same can be said of Olive Garden. So when our server suggested adding “some focaccia” to our order of vitello tonnato ($16), a gush of wind departed my sails. Focaccia?

In 2018? Maybe I am at Olive Garden.

But just as I was expecting an offer of a side of sun-dried tomatoes accompanied by a Bananarama song, out come four slabs of perfectly dense, flavourful pieces of what I now assume focaccia was supposed to have tasted like for the past three decades.

And they were perfect ballast to go with the beautifully thin slices of veal and creamy tuna sauce. Rich, tart, chewy. Repeat.

Syme and Dockendorf have poached chef Fernando Montaner from the pasta station at Cinara to helm the kitchen, and it’s clear that he’s dialled in to the short list of classics that make up the menu.

With cacio e pepe there’s zero room for error—either you can make just cheese, butter and black pepper work with pasta or you can’t. Montaner can, and his version with bucatini (the advertised lumache shells were out that night) was all you could ask

Note-perfect cacio e pepe

AMUSE-BOUCHE

Chickpea

4298 Main St., Vancouver 604-620-0602 ilovechickpea.ca

The smoking deal in question

THE DEETS

Autostrada Osteria

4811 Main St., Vancouver 604-428-6820 autostradahospitality.ca Hours: Open Monday through Sunday, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

CHICKPEA: JOSH BOWIE

Owners Dustin Dockendorf & Lucais Syme

for with just the right amount of give to the noodles, just the right amount of cling to the sauce. And it’s $18.

The garganelli comes with properly crumbled fennel sausage and is covered in shavings of pecorino and, with the peas, plays three chords as well as the Ramones ever did.

It’s easy to over-fetishize such well-done simplicity—the continued lines outside Ask for Luigi speak to Vancouverites’ desire to do just that when a thoughtful, accessible Italian spot comes on the scene. To

be clear, Autostrada is no La Quercia, nor even Cinara: the portions are smaller, the ingredients more basic. But it’s also the sort of place that perfectly channels the same exuberance Syme had all those years ago that caused him to put such an untenable markup on a bottle of wine. In so doing, the restaurant may be something even more elusive in 2018 Vancouver—a true neighbourhood joint.

Best of luck on keeping it that way, fellas.

Forget expensive, tiny tapas-style plates of your favourite cauliflower, hummus and falafel—at foodtruck-to-restaurant Chickpea, you need to bring a container from home for your leftovers. Not that plates are at the same consistency level as a Nuba or as beautiful as Jarn (until Jamjar redesigns its restaurant logo, that’s what I’m calling it in protest), but I could happily eat this Mediterranean vegan comfort food daily and be fully satisfied and remain financially stable. Oh, and did we mention glasses of house wine are $5? The space is a cool and funky Main Street spot to hang out, and acrylic wall murals, classroom chairs and an indoor tree add a pinch of artsy Salt Spring-lite.

Menus are even inserted into repurposed children’s books— I Spy, anyone? Your order: the Chickpea Experience platter ($16) comes with parsley-onion-andchickpea falafel, crunchy fried eggplant, a generous portion of creamy hummus, side salad in a mint vinaigrette dressing (that I never finish), pita bread, plus their addictive chickpea fries topped with amba mango and sweet chili sauce. Be advised: in the colder months the entire right side of the restaurant is freezing, and year-round the service is friendly but equally glacial. Order everything you need at once, and don’t come here if you’re in a hurry. —Julia Dilworth

Chickpea co-owners Itamar Shani and Rotem Tal

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T H E TA S T E T E S T

Kaitlyn Funk Clinton Hussey

Its pale copper colour, its “gorgeous” nose, its mild complexity—our taste testers liked everything about this offering from Okanagan Crush Pad. “It’s lovely,” said one judge, “very crushable.” And they all agreed that it’s “really brunch friendly.” $30, 16576 Fosbery Rd., Summerland, okanagancrushpad.com

Haywire The Bub 2015

photo by

by

We can’t technically call them “Champagne,” but the sparkling wines produced by our local vintners are craftily creeping up on their French counterparts. Here’s what happened when we asked two local wine experts and one VanMag reader to find B.C.’s best bubbly.

MAKE IT POP

Taste

Our panel didn’t have anything negative to say about Fitzpatrick’s signature cuvée, but they didn’t have a ton of praise for it, either (“There are no fireworks,” said one). If you’re looking for a “simple” bottle of bubbly to start a meal with, though, this is the best choice. $33, 697 Highway 97 S, Peachland, fitzwine.com

Fitzpatrick Fitz Brut 2014

Summerhill Cipes Brut NV

This unique Vancouver Island blend (pinot gris, pinot noir, sauvignette) is “interesting,” but the judges would have preferred for it to have more time in the bottle. It’s “youthful” with a medium, too-dry finish. “The more I go back to it, the less I like it,” said one. $25, 2915 Cameron Taggart Rd., Mill Bay, unsworthvineyards.com

Unsworth Vineyards Charme de l’Île

Our judges weren’t sure what to think of this one at first (“It tastes kind of funky, doesn’t it?” asked Green), but the more they drank, the more they loved this riesling, chardonnay and pinot blanc blend. “It’s got character,” said Hertscheg, noting it would be best enjoyed “when you’ve had quite a day and need something to chew on.” $30, 4870 Chute Lake Rd., Kelowna, summerhill.bc.ca

BEST IN SHOW

See how we captured this explosive shot at vanmag.com/taste

Behind the Scenes

Catherine Green is our Instagram contest winner! She normally saves sparkling wine for special occasions, but lucky for us, she made an exception for our Thursday morning tasting.

Shane Taylor, wine director at CinCin, dropped all sorts of Champagne jargon (mousse, nose, Charmat) during the tasting, but it’s crushability that he’s really after.

Harry Hertscheg is the executive director of the Vancouver International Wine Festival; rather than focusing strictly on flavour, he judged the day’s offerings based on emotion and “the goose-pimple factor.”

Meet the Judges

With hints of orchard fruits (apple, peach, pear) and citrus, this wine’s “clean, bright” Okanagan Valley flavour impressed all of our judges. “If I came with a preconceived notion of what a B.C. bubble would taste like, this would be it,” said Taylor. “The nose, the palate—it tastes like B.C.” $25, 2825 Naramata Rd., Naramata, joiefarm.com

JoieFarm Quotidien Brut 2016

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C OV E R STORY

HOW TO SPEND IT

Splurge

How to

IMAGE CREDIT

Spend There’s no doubt about it: Vancouver has been riding a financial windfall the last few years, and not coincidentally, there’s been more than a small increase in the number of places available to help distribute the largesse. We put on our monocle to source the best options for making the most of your cash flow via fantastical indulgences, feelgood donations, outsourced chores and investment pieces. Get out your chequebook: we’re going shopping.

by

The Editors

typographic illustration by

Sabeena Karnik

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Splurge

HOW TO SPEND IT Ride the Rails If life’s about the journey, not the destination, then the Rocky Mountaineer’s Journey Through Mountaineer the Clouds trip provides a serious taste of the good life.

The leisurely 10-day railway trip takes passengers along an increasingly picturesque route from Vancouver to Jasper to Banff to Calgary, with non-stop beverage service and gourmet meals served up to the lucky travellers seated in the glasstopped observation car. $3,249, rockymountaineer.com

There’s a time to be financially responsible and then there’s a time to treat yo’self. For those go-big-orgo-home days, allow us to suggest some worth-thesplurge purchases with this big spender’s guide to flashy new toys and Vancouver’s most decadent experiences.

Gear Head The custom-built offerings from high-end bike shop Veloholic are miles beyond the Main Street fixie scene: take the Cipollini NK1k Italian Champion, Champion an impressive feat of aerodynamic engineering in a playful Italian-flag package that costs as much as some cars. $20,000, veloholiccycles.com

Back It Up This Mary Rich backpack—designed by two female entrepreneurs in Vancouver—is anything but kids’ stuff, crafted from cream shearling and leather. $595, maryrich.com

Over the Moon Mother-of-pearl and diamonds help the Chopard Imperiale Moonphase 36 mm automatic watch replicate the sparkling of the night sky. $66,840, globalwatchco.com

Look Book It’s a coffee-table book the size of a literal coffee table, but Annie Leibovitz’s gigantic, limited-edition book Sumo from publisher Taschen is more than just a stunt—her gorgeous portrait work of everyone from Keith Haring to Patti Smith is well suited for the large-scale format, which was limited to a printing of 9,000 and comes with its own special stand. $3,450, informinteriors.com

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Small World These highend, handmade architectural sculptures from Chisel and Mouse replicate some of the world’s most striking buildings in miniature— Helsinki Central Station, the dome of St. Paul’s and the National Theatre, to name a few. $199, goodgeplace.com

Kick Back Yes, you’re here for the massage (we dare you to stay awake with one of the Spa by JW’s signature Stress Relief massages, with warming ginger and black pepper oils), but its new relaxation room takes spa day to the next level. Cozy tuxedo chairs are lined up along floor-to-ceiling windows with a dazzling view of False Creek—grab a herbal tea, a copy of Cosmo (thoughtfully stocked in the back of each chair), and soak in that post-massage-muscle-melt feeling from the best seat in the city. Massages from $155, parqvancouver.com/spa

Shine Bright Put Stittgen’s master goldsmiths to work crafting a unique-to-you work of wearable art via a custom design of your imagining, be it a pendant that collages your family’s birthstones, a diamond-and-sapphire fish bracelet or a foldover engagement ring. Price on request, stittgen.com

My Jam These Olivia von Halle Lila Nika silk pajamas are so chic, you could probably wear them out of the house with no qualms. $595, rebeccabree.com

Sleep Tight Can you put a price on a good night’s sleep?

Well, Swedish luxury bedding brand Hästens is certainly trying. Its Vividus mattresses are handmade over 320 hours by expert artisans out of 210 kilograms of natural materials—ethically sourced down and horsehair— and essentially guarantee sweet dreams. $187,000, informinteriors.com

HOW TO SPEND IT

Splurge

Flower Power Sign up for weekly deliveries from the Fairview-based Wild Bunch floral design studio and get fresh flowers delivered to your door on the reg.

Subscriptions starting at $65, thewildbunch.ca

High Flier Take to the skies after acing the Sky Quest pilot course, a $6,000 program that will qualify you to get behind the wheel (or whatever it is planes have) of a single-engine aircraft.

But if you’d rather have someone else do the captaining, private jet and premium helicopter charter services are available from London Aviation Centre at your convenience. skyquest .ca; londonair.com

Drink Up This silver paper cup is Tiffany and Co.’s whimsical take on the most mundane of objects, elevating it to something special in hand-finished sterling silver. $780, tiffany.ca

Hot to Trot An Hermès saddle nods to old-world luxury and the design house’s history with craftsmanship, whether you actually have a horse or not—though it’s certainly not as easy to tote around as a Birkin. $10,000, hermes.com

Seafood Star The seafood game is competitive in our oceanfront town, but Boulevard Kitchen and Oyster Bar steps up to the challenge with gusto. The Seafood Tower Royale is a three-tier masterpiece that’s deliciously over the top. Piled high with oysters, lobster and snow crab, along with plates of ceviche and mussels, it’s the most expensive dish of its kind in the city. $500, boulevardvancouver.ca

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Money

HOW TO SPEND IT

Baubles and bling and gizmos and gadgets are nice, but the biggest luxury of all? Buying more time for yourself.

Happiness experts agree: outsourcing is the best way to spend your cash.

Freshly Pressed Hate laundry? We do, too. So make it someone else’s problem—preferably Fairview’s Greater Vancouver Laundry and Linen Service, which offers sevenday-a-week on-demand pickup and drop-off within 48 hours (either neatly folded or hung and pressed).

The only downside? They won’t put it all away for you. $1.50 per pound with a minimum charge of $50; vancouverlaundry.ca Drive Time We’ve done the math: every minute you’re behind the wheel, that’s a minute of productivity lost. With Vancouver’s notoriously terrible taxi service and no Uber relief in sight, outsourcing driving isn’t always an easy task, but new private driver start-up Kater has stepped up to fill the market gap. Use the app to pick a driver, who will arrive at your designated time to chauffeur you around in your own car. From $15 an hour, kater.com

Slice and Dice With myriad meal prep services jockeying for position in the market, you’ve got plentiful options to take time-sucking meal planning and grocery shopping off your plate (pun very much intended). HelloFresh, Fresh Prep, Chef’s Plate and now even local grocery hero Spud offer subscriptions for weekly delivery of portioned ingredients and recipes for you to assemble come dinnertime. Of course, if you want to save even more time by taking the 30-minute food-prep step out of the equation, there’s always the personal chef route. Meal kits from $9 per serving; personal chef services from $40 per hour plus food costs, chefseanbone.com

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The Big Assist Until science develops a way to clone oneself (hopefully by next year’s edition of this list?), Urban Rush Concierge might be the only way for you to be everywhere at once. On a sliding scale, Urban Rush will do almost everything you would just rather not—personal assistant–style tasks like picking up dry cleaning, driving your dog to appointments, wrapping gift baskets or waiting in line for the new iPhone. urbanrushconcierge.com

HOW TO SPEND IT

Splurge

Style Files St. Albert, Alta., company Frock Box ships five clothing items each month to subscribers, each hand-picked and inspired by subscribers’ personal style profiles. Pay for what you keep, return what you don’t, never face the mall again.

Another option for the timestarved fashionista: Nordstrom’s personal styling experience— stylists can create custom shopping suggestions remotely, sending recommendations to your phone. Frock Box subscription from $25 per month, frockbox.ca; personal shopping, free, nordstrom.com

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Splurge

HOW TO SPEND IT

Want some bang for your buck?

Sometimes, dropping serious coin is the smartest play in town— because big-ticket items with timeless appeal can outlast the trends and bring more wealth back your way in the long term.

Frame by Frame Investing in art is very similar to investing in the stock market: you can either bet on start-ups (a.k.a. emerging artists) that may either go great guns or go belly up; or you can look for blue chip stocks (established artists) who you think are undervalued. Option #1 is sexy, but Option #2 is smart.

Take Jack Shadbolt’s recent show at the Equinox Gallery. At the time of his passing in 1998 Shadbolt was the preeminent artist in B.C. and his reputation hasn’t faded. Shadbolts aren’t cheap—prices at the Equinox show ranged from $15,000 to $20,000 for good sized pieces—but compare that to the prices of his contemporary E.J. Hughes, whose large canvasses can now top $1,000,000, and they seem like a very solid, undervalued art play. equinoxgallery.com

Tick Tock The Daytona and the Submariner represent the dynamic duo of investment-grade Rolexes (Paul Newman’s personal Daytona sold for $17.75 million last November), so those looking to buy a new model with potential resale value might want to look at one that hasn’t yet attracted as much frenzy: a good bet might be the classic Explorer (not the Explorer II), which has the same legendary history of those other two (its predecessor was the first to see the top of Everest), and the same rugged good looks, but it sits at a relatively easy entry point (for a Rolex, that is) of $7,500. At 39 mm, it’s a nice size—big, but not hulking—so it’s likely to be in fashion in the future, assuming the ginormous watch craze continues unabated. Also, it’s beautiful: simple, handsome, timeless. Remember—always keep the box, paper and even receipt pristine—they’ll add to the valuation in the years to come. globalwatchco.com, palladiocanada.com

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Garage Goods As a general rule, if you’re buying a new car, your odds of making money might be a little thin. But let’s narrow it down using a few basic rules: SUVs never appreciate, no matter how rare; ditto sedans. And assuming you can’t get on the list for some limited-edition Ferrari, we’re left with this big bite: the Porsche 911 GT2 RS, a $334,000 car that is the most powerful 911 car ever made by the company (700 hp worth of power, in fact). Older 911s have shot up in value lately (especially anything with an air-cooled engine) as collectors scramble to snap up historical icons from the world’s most famous sports car. The good news?

You can easily drive this baby around town—something that can’t be said for your Lamborghini. The bad news?

Every kilometre you log will detract from the value when you go to sell. The wild card? Porsche has not announced how many of this model they’re making, so if they keep cranking them out, it could affect the long-term value. If they don’t, this is a good bet to wow at the auction block in 2030. porschevancouver.ca

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Not-So-Fast Fashion This is an easy one: 99.9 percent of clothes go down in value.

The exceptions? 1 Any Nike sneaker you need a raffle for 2 Hermès Kelly bag 3 Hermès Birkin bag 4 Supreme x Louis Vuitton 5 Adidas Yeezys

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5 Cheers to That Back in 1993, we had wine guru Anthony Gismondi choose a handful of wines that he thought were good bets, investment-wise, and darned if he didn’t end up beating the S&P 500 by 90 points. Fast-forward to today, and the fermented grape juice landscape has changed (a bottle of Lafite Rothschild will now set you back $3,000), but we’ve asked Gismondi and Wine associate Treve Ring to suss out a new crop of investment-grade bottles.

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1 Domaine Jamet 2013 Côte Rôtie, N. Rhône, France, $140

Affordable still from what is considered by many to be the pinnacle of Northern Rhône syrah. Tightly knit and highly structural, concentrated yet finessed, with heaps of savoury stoniness that will take years to yield.

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2 Château Beychevelle 2014 St. Julien, Bordeaux, France, $170

Epitomizing the smooth and ripe fruit St. Julien is known for, this vintage is especially perfumed and expressive, with density and amplitude that allow this regal medium-bodied Bordeaux to age impressively.

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3 Champagne Jacquesson NV Extra Brut Cuvee No. 739, Champagne, France,

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$86.86 A mature, lightly toasty and creamy wine, with a backbone based on the leaner, erratic 2011 vintage and all the best fruit went into this bottle. Native ferment, one-third reserve wines and aging in large wooden casks add detailing and support to carry this long haul with character and grace.

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4 Tenuta Poggione 2012 Brunello di Montalcino, Italy, $80

Fantastic value for this confidently quiet brunello, one of the stars of Montalcino.

Richly saturated with dark fruit, but with a rush of vibrant acidity to the bright, tight finish. Will reveal in time.

5 Ridge 2014 Monte Bello, Santa Cruz Mountains, California, U.S., $300

Understated, humble and authentic are not words that come to mind when thinking California cabernet blends, but the prestige and respect for Ridge’s Monte Bello is deserved. Inherently complex yet refined, with graphite, dark chocolate and cassis streaming the long length of this graceful wine.

How to Stock Your Cellar Like a Pro

X Invest only in what you like to drink X Purchase the best you can afford X Go for structure over style X Stick to the classics

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Splurge

HOW TO SPEND IT

Go Green Sole Food Street Farms supplies local produce to some of the city’s top restaurants, so when you donate to their efforts (which include providing handson urban farming work experience to high-risk DTES residents), in a roundabout way you’re benefiting your next dining experience. Make a donation, and then really savour that heirloom tomato salad at Savio Volpe, knowing you’ve done some good. solefoodfarms.com

Shopping Spree Holt Renfrew’s special H Project department enlists designers from around the world annually to craft socially responsible fashion and accessories that give back— like Uashmama fauxleather planters made from ultra-sustainable fiber or Guatemalan Mercado clutches, which provide artists in poverty with a livelihood. holtrenfrew.com

Hair Care That Cares AG Hair already is doing good for the earth—the plant-based products are all-natural, which mean no parabens, PABA or diethanolamine are washing down the drain—but founder Lotte Davis (left) is helping out mankind (well, girlkind) in the process, too, with partial proceeds from each bottle sold going toward her South African female education charity, One Girl Can. Products from $17.70, aghair.com

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You know what else money can buy you? A warm, fuzzy, I-done-good feeling—at least when you’re sharing the wealth (and the love). Charitable donations and purchases that empower the little guy have an amazing return on investment, karma-wise.

Dress Up A few years back, fashion designer Treana Peake converted her Obakki fashion brand into a purely charitable endeavour—all sales of the essentials line and foundation products benefit the eponymous Obakki Foundation, which empowers communities in South Sudan, Uganda and Cameroon with sustainable development projects.

So whether you’re stocking up on her super-soft organic tees or artfully frayed limited-edition Scarves 4 Water, you’re doing good and looking good. Scarves from $39; essentials from $42; obakkifoundation.org

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Of Two Minds

Transcendental Meditation promises life-changing effects for its followers. Or is it just another cultish cash grab? by

Alexandra Gill Jessica Fortner

illustration by

Uh, oh.

Here comes the midday slump, crashing down like an elephant on my eyelids. It’s late November, the sun is setting and I’ve been hunched over my computer since dawn. Espresso-break time? No, I yawn. I’d better do my second daily meditation.

It’s been two weeks since I finished a four-day, eight-hour course in Transcendental Meditation at the new Vancouver centre, and I’m not sure if it’s working out for me. Sure, the method is easy. I’m feeling more calm and alert during the day. At night, I sleep like a baby. But the meditation itself is not relaxing. It’s actually physically uncomfortable. During the 20-minute sessions, my head always feels like it’s being crushed by G-force or squeezed in a vise. I’ve also experienced stomachaches and foot cramps. More than once, I burst into tears. My teacher says I’m clearing years of accumulated stress, but I think it has more to do with my fear of getting sucked into a cult, as this controversial movement has often been described by professional deprogrammers.

So it is with a weary sense of duty that I drag my butt into the bedroom and sit down cross-legged on a cushion. I set my timer, close my eyes, take a few deep breaths and begin reciting my secret mantra in silence. As usual, my head feels heavy right away. Then, suddenly, without warning, I slip into an altered state and start sinking underwater.

The trippy immersion began three weeks earlier, when I ar-

rived at the new Vancouver TM Centre at Yukon and West 8th for one of the twice-weekly introductory talks, the first step in the $1,310 course that would allegedly set me on a lifetime path of “unbounded inner bliss” and “infinite human potential.” So yes, I had been warned.

The main-floor office in a low-rise strata building has the soothing look of a modern yoga studio or a medical spa. A tasteful lobby is painted in matte marigold and light teal. Laminate flooring is whitewashed grey. The only obvious vestiges of the group’s flower power heyday are a small vase of wilting carnations and, farther inside, a life-sized mural of the late founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, smiling serenely in a flowing white robe.

TM has been practised in Vancouver since about 1968, around the same time the Beatles got hip to the natural high and Life magazine declared it “the Year of the Guru.” As of 2004, the last time the local database was updated, more than 20,000 people had been initiated. But the B.C. chapter has always been a loose-knit organization led by volunteer committees with classes held in private homes. It wasn’t until February of last year, when the donor base finally caught up with real estate prices, that this permanent facility opened.

Sipping from a china cup of Ayurvedic lemongrass tea, I sit back to watch a video from the David Lynch Foundation for ConsciousnessBased Education and World Peace. “Sorrow, anxiety, traumatic stress, depression, hate, anger, rage, fear start to lift away. Life just

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gets better and better and better,” says the acclaimed film director, a TM practitioner since 1973 and the movement’s new public ambassador.

With a lot of fundraising help from Lynch’s celebrity friends, his New York-based foundation offers the training free of charge to veterans, homeless people, prisoners and troubled students around the globe.

The technique is apparently effortless. “It is the only time I have that stillness long enough that I open my eyes and I am sad that it’s 20 minutes later,” television host Ellen DeGeneres explains in the video.

Then, suddenly, without warning, I slip into an altered state and start sinking underwater.

The results sound mind-blowing.

“I found that there is an ever-present sanctuary within me,” exclaims the bombastic British comedian Russell Brand, one of the least likely poster boys for inner calm.

Health. Happiness. Focus. Balance. Creativity. Productivity. All this—and much, much more—can be mine by merely sitting quietly and saying a mantra to myself for 20 minutes, twice a day.

Flashback alert: the TMtrademarked promises of cosmic

M E D I TAT I O N

enlightenment are still as bizarre as they were in the late-’70s, when the Maharishi floated his “scientific” version of Hindu spirituality into the supernatural realm and started preaching the possibility of world peace through levitation, or “yogic flying.” In the early 1990s, the increasingly reclusive (and suspect) giggling guru moved to a former Franciscan monastery in the Netherlands and created his own nation, the so-called Global Country of World Peace, a closely guarded fiefdom replete with its own laws, currency (the raam) and ministerial government.

The Maharishi died in 2008, leaving behind an estate worth an estimated $300 million (U.S.).

He was survived by four nephews, who inherited 12,000 acres of land in India, and Tony Nader, a Lebanese neuroscientist whom he had anointed as his successor in the movement.

But now TM is creeping back into vogue. It’s not just for weird old hippies anymore. The revitalized movement has been groomed, glossed and tapered at the ankles to entice the next generation of fashionable devotees. “It’s pretty charming to see a very well-dressed, anxious Jewish woman take a moment at her country club to say she needs to meditate,” Girls creator Lena Dunham told the Huffington Post. She’s been practising TM since she was nine.

Today, TM is marketed as a quick-fix supplement for a healthy mental-hygiene regimen—as conventional as doing yoga or getting a proper night’s sleep, but without all the deeper spiritual work and complex philosophical inquiry required by more traditional forms of meditation. Who has time to

In Depth

pursue wisdom and ponder ethical conduct these days? On the TM path to enlightenment, it is said that these things just come naturally.

The image makeover has been working. In the three years following the Maharishi’s death, U.S. enrolment tripled. In the last couple of years, there has been a bullish run from Wall Street, accounting for more than half of the new converts in New York. Inspired by glowing endorsements from a handful of A-list hedge fund managers, including Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio, and cameos on the Showtime series Billions, Type A traders are investing in enlightenment to gain a competitive edge.

“I could never be what I am today without doing Transcendental Meditation.”

This isn’t a testimonial from a dreamy-eyed actor or a Wall Street wolf. They’re the words of the late Vancouverite Bing Thom, one of Canada’s most celebrated architects. Thom, who died of a brain aneurysm in October 2016 at the age of 75, wasn’t a starchitect who built colossal monuments to his ego. Calm, unassuming, always smiling, he was a passionate city builder who designed respectful, site-specific cultural landmarks (Surrey Central City, Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., the new Xiqu Centre in Hong Kong) that transformed the communities around them. Although he never schmoozed or did the power-lunch thing, he was exceptionally adept at crafting consensus among politicians, neighbourhood groups and huge networks of diverse stakeholders.

He was an activist who believed in the common good and was fearless about speaking his mind—whether ringing the early alarm bells about Vancouver’s empty condos or shaming the “godawful” Canada Pavilion built (by Chicago-based Giltspur Exhibits) for the 2010 Olympics.

This hero of mine was also a hard-core meditator who attributed his creativity and success to TM. He discovered it in the late 1960s, when he was 25, smoking two packs of cigarettes a day and quickly working his way to a nervous breakdown. For nearly 50 years, he meditated twice a day, every day (for 90-minute sessions in his later life), went on a week-long retreat without fail every summer, and offered to pay half the substantial course fee for any employee who wished to take it (about 25 percent did). “When people come to my buildings, they say, ‘It feels so comfortable, so relaxing,’” he explains in a video interview posted on his firm’s website. “Well, I create meditative spaces. I don’t do that willingly. I don’t do that consciously. It just comes … That is the magic of meditation.”

I was intrigued from the moment I heard Thom say, in another interview eight years ago, that he could meditate for up to seven hours on a plane and not feel jet-lagged. But once I began investigating TM, I had trouble reconciling someone so seemingly grounded and sensible with a secretive hierarchy run from a baroque fortress in the Netherlands by rich rajas who pay $1 million for their exalted ranks and golden cardboard crowns. Unfortunately, Thom passed away before I had a chance to interview him. But if he believed in it so devoutly, well, maybe there is something to it.

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Allahabad University Swami Brahmananda Saraswati

TIMELINE

Origin Story The Beatles, $300 million and how TM became a phenomenon.

1918

1940

Mahesh Prasad Varma is born into a scholar caste.

Varma obtains a degree in physics at Allahabad University before becoming a disciple and administrative secretary to Swami Brahmananda Saraswati (affectionately known as Guru Dev), the leader of the Jyotir Math monastery. Varma changes his name to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. After 13 years of spiritual study and two years in isolation, the Maharishi decided to spread his newfound enlightenment to as many people as possible.

My first day of instruction is a one-on-one session with Leigh

Badgley, a documentary filmmaker and certified TM teacher since 1993.

She seems awfully normal—and well put together in fashionable slim-fit jeans, a fine-wool sweater and chunky jewellery—for someone who spent years living in an ashram-like spiritual community. I have brought, as requested, two pieces of sweet fruit (a pear and an apple), five fresh flowers (pink tulips) and a new white napkin.

We retreat to a small, dimly lit meditation room decorated with a shag rug and two armchairs facing the wall. I fill out an interview form that asks about my age, marital status, education, psychiatric history, current state of mind and past experiences with hallucinogenic drugs. (New initiates are asked to refrain from taking non-prescription drugs for two weeks prior.)

I provide three post-dated cheques made out to the Global Country of World Peace. As a journalist, I have been offered the half-price student rate of just under $700. TM is awfully expensive when compared with assorted Buddhist groups in Vancouver, which offer meditation classes for nominal fees of anywhere from free to $50. Then again, if you’re treating TM as part of your compartmentalized health regimen rather than a spiritual pursuit, a lifelong membership is comparable to a 12-month pass at YYoga.

The interview is followed by a short ceremony, which I have promised not to write about. All I will say is that it involves incense, flowers, candles and chanting, and it’s conducted by Badgely. I am asked to merely observe. I am not uncomfortable with the ceremony. It’s no worse than the faux spirituality scrawled across Lululemon shopping bags. But when it comes time for Badgely to give me a personal mantra (which I mustn’t share with anyone), I have questions.

What does the mantra mean? “It means nothing,” she says. How is it spelled? “It doesn’t matter.” Why was this mantra chosen for me?

“That’s a very good question, but you’ll have to go to teacher training to learn that information.”

The thing is, I’m a journalist. Google is my best friend. And when I look up my mantra later that night, I realize that it is a Sanskrit word (not exactly meaningless), and it’s the same one given to every female initiate in my age group. Although I’m disappointed to learn that the mantra hasn’t been tailored to my individual needs as advertised, I’m beginning to understand the Maharishi’s savvy business model.

For the next three nights, I am joined by two other students: a young mother who has been having undisclosed health problems and a middleaged saleswoman whose mother recently passed away. At the beginning of each class, we discuss our experiences, followed by a meditation, a lecture about the TM technique and/or philosophy, and a short video of Maharishi from the archives. (I can barely understand a word he says, but I love the kitschy Day-Glo settings and heaps of flowers that always surround him.)

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1955 The Maharishi emerges from a cave in India’s Valley of the Saints to began teaching what he would later call TM, believing that meditation belonged to the masses.

The TM mantra method is indeed easy to learn. Amy Schumer calls it “the laziest.” It’s certainly easier than mindfulness, which comes from the ancient Buddhist tradition of Vipassana and has been popularized in the West by Jon Kabat-Zinn, a professor of medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Mindfulness, often referred to as open monitoring, requires focused attention on your breathing or various body sensations (the soles of feet while walking, for example) in order to be more aware in the present moment.

What stops many would-be practitioners in their tracks is the (often misconstrued) notion that you must clear the mind of everything else. How can one possibly stop thinking? Whenever I have tried to learn mindfulness meditation (through audiobooks and in yoga classes, granted), it has always felt like a frustrating game of whacka-mole as I try to stomp out all those pesky thoughts that keep popping up again and again.

In TM, we are taught that the mind will wander and that thoughts will come and go. Don’t beat yourself up for doing what comes naturally. Just go back to repeating the mantra when you remember, using it as a vehicle to settle the mind and, ultimately, to transcend thought. To help understand the process, we are told to imagine the cross-section of an ocean.

The choppy waves on the surface are the active mind, the part that says “gotta to do this, gotta do that, don’t forget to feed the cat.” But below the surface, there is a calm, quiet, wide-awake field within each and

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1959 The Maharishi makes his first U.S. appearance, part of a global tour that had already taken him to Asia, Africa and Europe.

every person. By repeating the mantra, we keep the mind active (you can’t fight the waves) while simultaneously diving down and dipping into this peaceful place, where we experience a state of rest even deeper than sleep. Every time we bob to the surface—both during meditation and outside of meditation in our normal, everyday life—we are bringing a little bit more of this relaxed state of being with us.

The ocean analogy is a helpful visualization, even if you don’t believe (which I don’t) that we are accessing the field of Being, also known in TM-speak as pureUntitled-1 consciousness, the source of creative intelligence, the home of all knowledge and the light of God present within. That said, it would be just as easy (and much more affordable) to pick up a copy of The Relaxation Response. This 1975 book was written by Herbert Benson, a Harvard physician who studied TM, concluded that the same benefits could be acquired from 10 minutes of practice a day (with any old mantra), and packaged the basic technique in nine simple steps.

I suppose the TM classroom setting and small-group coaching is valuable for establishing a regular routine, which is probably the hardest part of meditation.

“If you stop practising, you lose the benefits. You have to continue.

That’s what Bing always told me,” says Venelin Kokalov. The new principal-in-charge at the former

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Maharishi HQ in Holland

1967 The Maharishi begins charging tuition fees, a sliding scale equivalent to one week’s wages. According to Gary Lachman, author of Turn Off Your Mind, the Beatles “hesitated only slightly” when asked to donate such an enormous sum for a weekend initiation in the summer of 1967.

1968 Life magazine declares “the Year of the Guru” and the lineups outside TM centres around the world manifest in frenzied abundance.

1970s The Maharishi appears twice on The Merv Griffin Show and starts offering more advanced techniques, which promise superhuman powers and the ability to levitate, also known as “yogic flying.”

Bing Thom Architects—now Revery Architecture—began practising TM six years ago, encouraged by his mentor. “I was working 24 hours a day and I was super-stressed. I said, ‘Bing, I have a son. When am I going to find 20 minutes in the morning and the afternoon?’” Within two weeks of taking the course, Kokalov says he felt calmer, less anxious, more able to think clearly. He doesn’t treat it as seriously as Thom did. But when travelling for business, they would often meditate together, sometimes in lobbies and airports. “When they told me he was in the hospital, unconscious, I really thought he doing some sort of advanced meditation and would come back.

At the end, he was doing really long meditations, up to three hours a day.”

I am, however, troubled by some of the TM teaching methods. When leading us into the group meditation, Badgely instructs us to open and close our eyes several times. “We don’t do that when we’re practising at home,” she says. Why not? “We just don’t.” What’s the point of having a teacher if she won’t answer our questions? Is it perhaps because this is a form of group hypnosis that discourages critical thinking and makes us more suggestible to some of the organization’s more exaggerated claims?

Let’s take the scientific “evidence” of TM’s unparalleled effectiveness, for example. The cornerstone of the TM sales pitch is the “proven” health benefits from “more than 380 peer-reviewed research studies… published in over 160 scientific journals.” The study most proudly trumpeted is a “scientific statement” by the American Heart Association in 2013, endorsing Transcendental Meditation as “the only meditation practice that has been shown to lower blood pressure (emphasis added).”

This is a classic case of spin doctoring, implying that many benefits of meditation are unique to TM. If you actually read the journal article, the summary and clinical recommendations state far less effusively: “The overall evidence supports that TM modestly lowers blood pressure. It is not certain whether it is truly superior to other meditation techniques… because there are few head-to-head studies (emphasis added).”

Joe Szimhart, a U.S. mental health professional and specialist in cults who has helped many people come out of TM’s inner depths, says the group’s scientific propaganda is a manipulation technique used to justify the high cost, lure people back for more advanced (and expensive) courses and foster dependence. “The more time and energy you spend, the more benefits you reap—that’s what TM and a lot of these other controversial groups claim,” he explains by phone. “From my point of view, everything you’re going to get out of TM, you’re going to get in the first half hour.

After that, it’s all layered-on business. And the deeper you get, the more dangerous it is,” he adds, noting that TM’s promise of enlightenment has been known to exacerbate existing psychological problems. “You’re not going to get the promise you’re not going to disappear and become a ‘pure being.’ Humans don’t levitate like angels.”

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1980s People begin dropping out en masse. Even Deepak Chopra, who leaves the TM movement in 1993, says he started getting uncomfortable with “the cultish atmosphere” around the Maharishi. The latter stops making public appearances and isolates himself in the Netherlands compound.

Two weeks after the course ends, I return to the Vancouver TM

Centre for the scheduled follow-up.

We are told about additional courses and retreats, but it isn’t a hard sell.

It’s not like the Landmark Forum, the favourite go-to life coaching system for Lululemon founder Chip Wilson, which really piles on the guilt and pressure tactics to recruit friends and family. Here, we are welcome to take what we’ve learned and come back as little or as much as we’d like. I honestly think the local organizers are good people who really believe in the technique and operate somewhat autonomously within the larger organization. Still, I’m uncomfortable with the guys in the gold caps over in the Netherlands and the students at the Maharishi University of Management in rural Iowa, who spend their days in the Golden Dome hopping cross-legged across rubber mattresses. We haven’t been told much about the weird stuff that occurs higher up in the organization. While most people who learn TM go on with their normal lives, advanced practitioners in the TM-Sidhi program are taught yogic flying, a seated bouncing motion, which, it is believed, will eventually progress to floating (levitation) and flying (like Superman). When yogic flying is practised by large groups in one place, it is said the so-called Maharishi Effect manifests in reduced crime, terrorism, war and— the ultimate end goal—world peace.

That information comes later.

I’m even more uncomfortable— physically—during my final group

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2008 to 2011 The Maharishi dies, leaving behind an estimated $300 million (U.S.) in his U.S. estate alone. Thanks to Hollywood endorsements, U.S. enrolment triples. A spike of new converts from Wall Street accounts for more than half of the David Lynch Foundation’s enrolment in the last three years.

A NEW YORK ITALIAN STEAKHOUSE meditation. “How was that?”

Badgely asks, after we come up for air. Excruciating! It felt like a cement block dropped on my head. “Excellent,” she says.

“You’re clearing something big.”

The next day at home, I sit down to meditate—and this time it’s very different. As usual, my head feels heavy right away. Then suddenly without warning, I feel like I’m falling.

Wow, this is a new sensation.

My dissociated body quickly regains equilibrium. I feel light, almost as if I’m floating underwater. No, it’s more like scuba diving in a glass capsule. Untitled-3 Ambient noises take on a different dimension. I hear a car swooshing through the rainpooled alley outside. The sound is muffled, yet amplified. In the next room, an email notification pings with the symphonic clarity of a percussive triangle.

A ticking clock gets louder and

It felt like a cement block dropped on my head.

“Excellent,” she says.

“You’re clearing something big.”

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I close my eyes and begin to recite the mantra, letting the wave of soothing strings wash over me.

A hot tear rolls down my cheek. This is ecstasy. louder, even though time appears to have stopped. Engulfed in happiness, I start laughing out loud.

Holy shit, I’m transcending! This is why the hippies loved TM. Or am I wigging out? Hmm. I decide to just let go and bob along in my blissful bubble. After the timer rings, I crawl into bed and pull up the covers, hoping to hang on to the warm, fuzzy euphoria while trying to make sense of it. I’ve had similar psychedelic experiences on ecstasy and magic mushrooms (and in the operating room), so I’m not totally freaked out. But this trip, whoa, it came without any chemical inducement. I haven’t even had a drop of wine for days. I have no idea what just happened. All I do know is that this story just got a whole lot more complicated to write.

My initial euphoria turns to panic the morning after. Am I really that suggestible? Did I drink the Kool-Aid? Was I talking to God? Am I losing my mind?

“You transcended,” says Mark McCooey, another local TM teacher, whom I call for advice. “It’s kind of woo-woo, but there is a sense while you’re in there, the bubble that you describe, that time doesn’t matter, deadlines don’t matter. There is a sense of inner richness or fullness that the outer world can’t dent.”

Most people, he continues, aren’t wide awake and aware of the experience, as I was, at least not at first. “The nice thing about TM, and what sets it apart from other meditations, is the ease of transcending … TM allows us to have that experience frequently enough that it starts to grow. The feeling starts to stick to you. It will become a steady friend.”

Huh. I’m not sure if I want this feeling as my friend. I don’t want to live in “Being.” I need to be functional. I don’t return to the TM Centre or transcend again, but in the weeks that follow, other strange things happen. Meditation becomes pleasant. No more headaches. I stop drinking alcohol almost entirely. I have a glass or two when I’m out on the weekend, but my typically robust appetite for wine, especially at the end of a long workday, vanishes into thin air. Poof. Gone. On the downside, I start smoking cigarettes again. (Only temporarily.) I don’t have any anxiety attacks, a mild condition from which I’ve suffered off and on for nearly 30 years.

That said, I really should be far more anxious, considering that my writing speed—and livelihood—slows to a snail’s pace. (And I was already pretty slow in the first place.) I think I need an exit counsellor.

Szimhart helps me make sense of it all and offers some sage advice.

These altered states of consciousness, or “ecstasies,” happen to a lot of people, in many places: on Catholic retreats, in Pentecostal meetings, during long yoga classes. In psychology, it’s called dissociation, a split from normal reality. “This ethereal dream world kicks in. Some people have

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visits from angels; others describe a feeling of oceanic oneness. They can be healing, temporarily at least. But some people don’t want to let that feeling go.”

He’s not worried about me. “Just let it float by. Don’t get too hung up on it. Don’t think that just because you had this great ecstasy that you’re any closer to pure being than your neighbour’s pet snake.”

Pet snake? “Yeah, a snake. Those creatures don’t have a discursive brain; they’re not there to question reality. A lot of the higher-level courses in these organizations claim they’re going to get you to your essence of being. There’s no core of self.

There’s nothing happening there— unless you want to be a snake.”

Later that week, I curl into a

wooden pew in the choral loft above the stage at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC. This is one of Thom’s most beautiful buildings, with its sinuous wooden walls and acoustic canopy of cables resembling an instrument. I have no desire to go back to the TM Centre, yet I can’t help feeling that a regular meditation practice is going to change my life in many profound ways. As the Chinese Philharmonic Orchestra takes the stage, I reflect on something Thom once said, when comparing meditation to art. “Art is instantaneous,” he said. “It hits you right in the heart. It’s non-verbal.

It’s just bang! And it leaves you with a certain sense of wonder.” The orchestra launches into Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major. I close my eyes and begin to recite the mantra, letting the wave of soothing strings wash over me. A hot tear rolls down my cheek. This is ecstasy.

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i Vibrant plant art from Greenstems’ Heather March—made with picked plants that have been preserved and dyed—injects an outdoor feel into Erin Ireland’s East Vancouver condo.

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P E R S O N A L S PAC E

Though The mounT pleasanT townhouse Erin Ireland and Darren Yada bought in 2015 was perfectly fine, there was something about a cookie-cutter space that didn’t sit well with the creative couple. (Yada is the managing partner, strategy for Rethink; Ireland is the founder of To Die For Fine Foods and a food writer.) The layout was ideal—a naturally lit open-concept kitchen is the focal point of the ground floor, with cozy bedrooms tucked away upstairs—but the overall design was builder-basic blah.

“We wanted to truly love it,” says Ireland, so they enlisted the services of friends and family to elevate the space to dream-home status—which started with the kitchen.

It was essential for Ireland to have a functional workspace that was camera-ready: she shares video and photos of her culinary experiments daily, and she has plans for a plant-based-cooking show in the works.

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So an old friend of Yada’s, Brett Mauer, ripped up the floorboards and ground down the imperfect concrete beneath, while concrete artist Brett Riekert covered the kitchen island’s pre-existing brown melamine.

Ireland got started on the baby’s room for first-born Roen (now one) when she was seven months pregnant, turning to designer Karla Dreyer for decor (and new-mom advice).

Cactus wallpaper from Anewall pays homage to the ground floor’s botanical focus, while a West Coast Kids tent adds a whimsical touch.

This spring marked yet another interior change for the couple: both passionate vegans, the duo looked to veganize their home, swapping out a rug and sofa made with animal products. “You don’t have to sacrifice a stylish home by going vegan,” insists Ireland. “There are endless cool, design-forward leather-, down- and wool-free home items out there.”

Family Affair Ireland (pictured with baby Roen) and her dad replaced the original cupboards with a single steel shelf and wrapped the oven vent in iron, but one of her favourite features is the 12-foot-high exposed steel shelving (opposite), built by Ireland’s Uncle Russ.

Social Seating “We wanted a big couch that all four of us (Effie the dog, too), could get really comfy on,” says Ireland, pictured with husband Darren Yada and one-year-old Roen (opposite, far left). Their large white Cube sectional from Article frames a custom spruce coffee table by North Shore artist Brent Comber. As a vegan, Ireland was also looking to remove any trace of animal byproducts from her home, so friend and interior designer Karla Dreyer found a local Marramarket rug—made with dyed recycled textiles—to replace a wool rug in the living room (opening page).

DIY Dining An oversized light fixture from NYC’s HomeStories (opposite, top right) hangs above a custom dining table made from a marble offcut (once again with the help of Uncle Russ). The kitchen’s open shelving serves as the perfect place to display some of Ireland’s cherished possessions, including local ceramics from artist Janaki Larsen.

Play Time A soft watercolour cactus-print wallpaper from Vancouver’s Anewall adds a hint of playfulness and colour to baby Roen’s room (inset)—complete with a Stokke Roof bed. In the corner sits a whimsical teepeestyle tent ready for story time (left).

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3 Singing Birds

4599 Chateau Blvd., Fairmont Chateau Whistler, 3singingbirds.com What: This Whistler Village shop opens a second outpost offering its signature Pinterestworthy charm and locally designed fare.

Why we’re excited: This is ground zero for cool local goods: Russell Hackney’s Cabin Vibe ceramics, Whistler luminary Hollow Tree candles and handmade Cursor and Thread neckties.

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SWIMS PALOMA CHINO: MONA ØEDEGÅRD ; 3 SINGING BIRDS: JESSIE McNAUGHT

m Christian Louboutin’s new travel-sized Bikini Questa Sera evokes the heat of the sun that lingers on the skin with its heady tuberose, jasmine and Australian sandalwood. $185/30 ml, christianlouboutin.com

Exceptional Dining | Live Entertainment Nightly

Downtown Vancouver - Leading Luxury, Boutique Hotel Exclusive Spa Treatments

845 Hornby St, Downtown Vancouver | 604.689.7777 | wedgewoodhotel.com

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T H E AC C E S S O R Y

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GET SPORTY

Step up your street style with fashion-forward sneaks and walking shoes.

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1. COS Sock shoes in orange ($190), cosstores.com. 2. Dior D-Bee sneaker in checker ($1,190), dior.com. 3. Valentino Heroes Tribe sneaker in dark green ($960), holtrenfrew.com.

4. Reebok Kick Low Top leather sneakers ($110), thebay.com. 5. Prada Trail Show Double Strap sneaker ($845), prada.com. 6. Roger Vivier Sneaky Viv’ 2 Strass Buckle in silk satin ($1,565), holtrenfrew.com. 7. Balenciaga Allover Logo Speed trainers ($980), holtrenfrew.com. 8. Michael Michael Kors Beckett leather and metallic sneaker ($198), michaelkors.ca.

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PROMOTION

THANK YOU…to our VIPs, guests, and generous sponsors for what was, in its 17 th year, our best Power 50 party yet.

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1. Power 50 Winner Carol Lee with Vancouver magazine’s Editorial Director Anicka Quin 2. The Vancouver Club’s Dirty Manhattan Welcome Cocktail 3. Daily Hive’s Emily Morrey-Jones enjoying a glass of wine

VENUE SPONSOR

GOLD SPONSOR

4. Action shot of the custom risotto bar station 5. CBC’s Caroline Ewald and our CBC Host Rick Cluff 6. Grand Chief Stewart Phillip after graciously accepting his award with his wife Joan

MEDIA SPONSOR

7. Sophie Lui, Robin Gill and Fred Lee 8. National Bank Guests, Jeff Fitzpatrick, Chrissy Cottrell, and Shawn Anderson 9. Showcase Pianos’ exquisite red Fazioli piano 10. A full house of guests mix and mingle

MUSIC SPONSOR

A/V SPONSOR

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ABOUT L AST NIGHT

Back on Track Gala

Evening the Odds

A policemen’s ball and a 1920s speakeasy celebrate years of helping.

VPD officer Sergeant Mark Steinkampf and Odd Squad president Diana Zoppa saw over $220,000 raised to fund more documentaries.

by Fred Lee @FredAboutTown

The Idea With a video camera in hand and a desire to make a short film on the realities of drugs and the drug addicted, off-duty Vancouver police officers Al Arsenault and Toby Hinton set out to make Through a Blue Lens to start a conversation and inspire kids to make positive life choices.

The Results Their debut film would be seen by thousands of students, and Odd Squad Productions was born. Since 1997, the society has produced a library of award-winning documentaries and videos to help youngsters understand the stark realities of drugs and gang life, keep them off the street and drive change.

The Party Marking Odd Squad’s 20th anniversary, society president Diana Zoppa and Chief Constable Adam Palmer fronted the firm’s Back on Track Gala at the Pinnacle Hotel Harbourfront. Hundreds convened to raise a glass to the society’s efforts, fund more productions and hear from the evening’s keynote, Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster Scott Oake, who candidly shared the loss of his eldest son, Bruce, to drugs.

Hockey Night in Canada host Scott Oake and his wife, Anne, shared their personal and moving story that night.

Odd Squad Society founders Al Arsenault and Chris Graham mark 20 years.

Mission Possible Gala

Gary Lesueur and Pam Vidalin among the well dressed who roared at the ’20s speakeasy.

Committee members Jennifer Ottevangers, and Rachel and Jason Nelson saw $176,000 raised.

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The Cause For 25 years, Mission Possible has been helping those burdened with the hardships of living in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, one of the country’s poorest and toughest neighbourhoods.

Working with businesses and community organizations, the social agency strives to support residents who face barriers to employment and provide them with opportunities to achieve a renewed sense of dignity and purpose through meaningful work.

The Room As a roaring ’20s-themed affair, the Hyatt Regency ballroom was transformed into a spectacular speakeasy where Mission Possible CEO Matthew Smedley and an influential gala committee welcomed some 300 revelers who came ready to party, imbibe and celebrate the registered charity’s many achievements.

The Highlight In addition to collecting $176,000 from various fundraising games, the memorable night saw Downtown Eastside residents Violet Bittern, Mike Divine, Kelsey Duncan and Chris Reed cited with Mission Possible’s Comeback Awards for their dogged determination, courage and faith in overcoming great challenges and adversity.

CEO Matthew Smedley, centre, welcomed MP supporters Andrew von Rosen and Leeann Froese of Town Hall Brands.

Port Coquitlam mayor Greg Moore and his wife, Erin, lent their support.

Comeback Award recipients Mike Divine, Violet Bittern, Chris Reed and Kelsey Duncan.

ILLUSTRATION: NIMA GHOL AMI

Chief Constable Adam Palmer with Odd Squad benefactor Shirley Barnett.

VPD gang unit detectives Anisha Parmar and Sandy Avelar flank former gang associate Robyn Gill. The women have started a new gang intervention program aimed at young girls.

Sincere thanks to all our partners, participating restaurants, events and hotels, for another spectacular Dine Out Vancouver Festival PREMIER PARTNER

FESTIVAL PARTNER

PREFERRED PARTNERS

…and a big thank you to all residents and visitors who came out to celebrate Canada’s largest food and drink festival! ™ Trademark of Tourism Vancouver, The Metro Vancouver Convention and Visitors Bureau. ® Aeroplan and the Aeroplan logo are registered trademarks of Aimia Canada Inc.

Burnaby • Coquitlam • Langley • New Westminster • Richmond Surrey • Vancouver’s North Shore • Vancouver

CIT Y INFORMER

Do Private Beaches Exist in Vancouver? by

Stacey McLachlan Byron Eggenschwiler

illustration by

SOME VANCOUVERITES romanticize the notion of a private beach. I personally don’t get it. The sun and surf are a small part of the beach experience: the real fun comes from people-watching, having strangers come up to tell you that your sunburn is weeping and urging you to seek medical attention, and kicking sand at nerds. What would one even do with a beach designated for just you and your family? You can only bury your husband in the sand so many times before he says, “Wha—? What are you doing?! How did I get down to the beach? I’ve asked you to stop doing this, it’s the middle of the night and you’re freaking me out. I want a divorce.”

But maybe you’re a fun Howard Hughes–type character and just want a patch of sand to call your own. (If it’s fulfilling some sort of human litter box fantasy, I do not want to know.) Well, I have bad news: this isn’t going to happen.

You can buy beachfront property, but you only own up to the “foreshore,” which is Latin for “the ocean’s forehead.” That means your property goes just to the high water mark, and you must permit access across the publicly owned land below.

You could put up a fence, but only in the same way you could claim your gluten-free muffin tastes as good as the real thing: no one will listen.

Of course, as an oceanfront homeowner, you have rights as well, specifically something called riparian rights. They

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Think of all you could do with more sand in your life—like finally open that hourglass startup. entitle you to the right of access (nobody can stop you from accessing your land from the water, except the freakishly strong merpeople who, as we all know, live in English Bay); the right to protect your property from erosion (finally, a positive reason to chant “Build a wall!”); and, most excitingly, the right to acquire land. That’s right: with the tide, sand sometimes builds up in front of your property over time! Think of all you could do with more sand in your life—like finally open that hourglass startup or build some housing that’s actually affordable.

In fact, there are a few private beaches out there, even

if you can’t buy one today: at one point in time, B.C. did assign ownership rights to ocean beds, so you’re grandfathered in if you have an old enough survey plan. Or, if you happen to own oceanfront property tucked between rock outcroppings, it’s private due to lack of public access. That is, until the merpeople finally learn to walk.

And when that day comes, you’ll have bigger things to worry about than privacy—hide your children in your sandcastle’s panic room and hope for mercy at their webbed, vengeful hands.

Got a question for City Informer? stacey.mclachlan@vanmag.com

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I DON’T MEAN TO BE FORWARD, BUT WHAT ARE WE DOING THIS WEEKEND? Between my Symmetrical Full-Time All-Wheel Drive, Steering Responsive Headlights†, and amazing fuel economy, we can go anywhere we want. We could go see your favourite band, catch a movie at the drive-in, or check out that new Thai restaurant.

Nothing is stopping you from doing fun, exciting things. Nothing but the road, and I’ve got that covered for you. Learn more at subaru.ca/impreza.

The All-New 2018 Subaru Impreza. NEVER SIT STILL

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*MSRP of $19,995 on 2018 Impreza 4-dr Convenience MT (JF1CP). MSRP excludes Freight & PDI of $1,625. Taxes, license, registration and insurance are extra. $0 security deposit. Model shown is 2018 Impreza 4-dr Sport-Tech EyeSight Pkg AT with an MSRP OF $30,095 (JF2STE). Dealers may sell for less or may have to order or trade. Prices may vary in Quebec. Purchase price in Quebec from $21,735 (taxes extra) for the 2018 Impreza 4-dr 2.0i Convenience Pkg MT (JF1CP). Freight and preparation ($1,625), air conditioning surcharge ($100) and specific duty on new tires ($15) are included. Vehicle shown solely for purposes of illustration, and may not be equipped exactly as shown. See your local Subaru dealer for complete details. †Steering Responsive Headlight feature availability varies by trim level. ‡See Owner’s Manual for complete details on system operation and limitations. Impreza and Subaru are registered trademarks.