BEST PLACE TO LOSE YOURSELF IN A TIM BURTON FILM

Vancouver loves its sleek, minimalist cafés, but the recently launched Laurence & Chico Café is offering a different, more surreal take on the traditional caffeine stop—and plenty of Instagram photo ops, to boot. Founded by the minds behind New York City– and Vancouver-based fashion label Laurence & Chico, the shop feels straight out of a scene of Tim Burton’s reimagining of Alice in Wonderland. Think images of giant eyeballs and creepy-cool reptiles splashed onto the walls, whimsical holes in the ceiling that reveal a pair of dangling mannequin legs, and restrooms adorned with hundreds of rubber yellow ducks. If you love something enough, you can even take it home: every item—from the fringe-and-pearl-embellished lighting fixtures to the black-porcelain teapots—is for sale.

from page 46 hips and rolling your bodies with a high-energy crowd, learning choreography to throwback songs, the latest pop tunes, and Beyoncé hits. If you feel nervous because you think all eyes are on you, don’t worry—everyone is too busy looking at themselves.

to Vancouver city council on October 20, the city will finally have its first Latin American sitting in the council chamber.

urday bill headlined by Florence + the Machine, and 17,000 turning up to close out the weekend with a Sunday set by the Killers. Add major revelations (hello, St. Vincent and Father John Misty), veteran crowd pleasers (Metric and Bahamas), and a strong showing by veteran local acts (Mother Mother at its oddball best) and you had a festival that looks bound for great things in the future—including, hopefully, weather that doesn’t look like Vancouver in Juneuary.

BEST GOLDEN-YEARS RETIREMENT PLAN

Vancouver is consistently ranked one of the most livable cities on the planet, but that doesn’t change the reality that it’s also one of the most unaffordable places in the universe. One way to ensure you won’t be folding up your tent and moving to a Williams Lake trailer park in your golden years is to have kids and steer them into a profession that ensures they’ll have the money to take care of you. Screw aiming low for a career as a doctor or a lawyer—instead, sign up your spawn where the real money is this

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days: hip-hop. (Did you know that

Jay-z pulled down $76.5 million last year, according to Forbes, with Kendrick Lamar pocketing $58 million?)

The Hip Hop Drop is a drop-in program in gloriously gritty East Van, running 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Wednesdays in the old Astorino’s dance BEST SOON-TO-DEPART hall at 1739 Venables. The weekly EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF A BIA event features a free recording studio, When people think of Vancouver mentorship in rapping and freestyling, legends, names like Jimmy Pattison guidance in the arts of graffiti or the Sedin twins invariably come to and breakdancing, and tips for mind. But in Gastown, Leanore Sali has those who’d rather man the wheels achieved legendary status for her advocacy of steals. If you’ve got a kid between for the city’s oldest neighbourhood. the ages or 12 and 18, this might be The long-time executive director of the the career jump-start that gets them Gastown Business Improvement Society writing something as immortal as is moving on after playing a monumental N.W.A’S “Fuck Tha Police”, the Geto role in the transformation of the area Boys’ “Gangsta of Love”, or Rico from a dilapidated heritage district into Nasty’s “Smack a Bitch”. Or, failing one of the jewels of Vancouver. Under that, Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby”, which, her leadership, the society launched a the last time we checked, was still paying lane-cleaning program, now run by the bills for Robbie Van Winkle. United We Can, that provides employment for marginalized residents. She helped bring back the Gastown Grand Prix, which is overseen by Global Relay, and the always delightful Yule Duel. Choirs from across the city converge on Gastown in early December, re-creating the feel of Victorian England as they sing carols in different blocks. Celebrity judges choose the winner, with all the funds raised going to May’s Place hospice in the Downtown Eastside. Through her compassion and her determination to help small merchants succeed, Sali set an impressive example for BIA executive directors across the city. And never once, in all the years that we can recall, did she ever try to bring credit upon herself for her accomplishments. On July 3, a dozen activists dangled on ropes below the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge, suspended hundreds of feet above Burrard Inlet. They unfurled banners in opposition to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, which involves twinning an oil pipeline that runs from Edmonton to Burnaby. Upon completion, Trans Mountain—which was recently purchased by the Canadian government—would triple the amount of bitumen transported to the Lower Mainland, increasing the number of oil tankers moving through Burrard Inlet from some 60 ships per year to more than 400. The Greenpeace members dangled from the bridge in a dramatic show of environmental activism, calling attention to a project that would contribute to Canada’s greenhouse-gas emissions for generations to come. BEST WAY TO REVAMP YOUR WARDROBE WITHOUT FEELING AN OUNCE OF GUILT

In case you haven’t heard, the fast-fashion industry—what with all the pollution and discarded textiles it produces—is not exactly kind to the environment. But First Pick Handmade, a biannual “slow fashion” market championing sustainably crafted threads, is helping residents green up their closets with a selection of locally designed and produced coats, recycled-leather totes, reclaimed-wood jewellery, and more. Who knew shopping could feel—and look—so good?

BEST MOTORBIKE HISTORY LESSON

Trev Deeley Motorcycles

1875 Boundary Road

Last year marked the 100th anniversary of the Deeley family opening the first Harley Davidson dealership in Canada. To honour the milestone, Trev Deeley curated an massive, hog-happy