Benefit boosts culture, senior care
Nikkei Place fundraiser: Japanese star Kohmi Hirose and Vancouver conductor Ken Hsieh perform
KEY MOVES: Singing and playing the piano in a board-stiff, cherry-blossom mini dress and six-inch heels is no easy feat — or feet. However, Kohmi Hirose aced it on a handmade Yamaha S6 seven-foot grand the Tom Lee firm trucked to the Coast Coal Harbour Hotel. Sometimes called Japan’s Sarah McLachlan, Hirose played a solo set when the Sakura Benefit dinner-concert raised $23,355 for Nikkei Place’s cultural and senior care programs. The Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra then joined in under 10-year music director Ken Hsieh, 33, whose own piano playing was impeded by more than sky-high shoes. When a handball accident gibbled two fingers of University of B.C. student Hsieh’s right hand, he took up the baton, served a stint as the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s assistant conductor, and has performed globally ever since.
• VERY CHERRY: The Sakura Benefit was emceed by Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre director Justin Ault, who co-founded Vancouver and Toronto’s six Hapa Izakaya restaurants. But it was catered by Hidekazu Tojo, whose West Broadway facility will host the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival dinner on April 19. The Hapa Izakaya, Pacific Rim’s RawBar, Miku Waterfront, Zakkushi and Zen restaurants and Bella Gelateria will add dishes.
• APRIL NO FOOLING: As well as cherry blossoms, this is Esophageal Cancer Month. It’s a challenging and often fatal ailment, as I know full well. Recent radiation, chemotherapy and surgery patient Jim Boerma says and shows more at boermafamilyjourney.com than could be here. Rule No. 1: If you’re taking antacids often for heartburn, seek medical advice pronto.
• STRAIGHTER FACES: Fashion models strive to look as bland as store-window mannequins. The reality is often different. Take a recent show at Rachel Kapsalis’s Vetrina boutique. Behind her expressionless face, realtor Stephanie Twarog was figuring to sell two more Coal Harbour condos for endless multiples of the $8,000 John Richmond gown she modelled. Animation artist Sayuri Fean side was devising screen images to outglitter her Versace Collection $1,395 jacket. Kapsalis merely smiled broadly at the prospect of getting $1,200 for the jewelled Gem dress she wore.
• BOOK ’EM: A recent “soirée” at the Joe’s Apartment club introduced finalists for the 31stannual Lieutenant-governor’s BC Book Prizes gala April 25. Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice finalist Aaron Chapman later crossed Granville Street to the locale of his Live at the Commodore: The Story of Vancouver’s Historic Commodore Ballroom. Accompanying him, singer Blair Dobson recalled a lively moment while fronting the Dead Surf Kiss (DSK) band there. Doffing all his clothes, Dobson found he’d dropped his microphone, too. Maintaining modesty with his hands, he managed to lift the important item with one foot. Authors accomplish comparable legerdemain, too, but in lonely garrets rather than under concert spotlights.
• GOOD TURNS: The Bourbon pub in Jacqui Cohen’s Hildon hotel calls itself “Vancouver’s only country bar” and “your day-drinking headquarters.” Still, the cattle were sleeping recently when former national rhythmic gymnast Danielle Graham released her novel, Rank. Published by HarperCollins, it’s part of a near-stampede. Romance- and-teen-specialist Entangled Publishing released her One Percenter title, Feb. 23, with The Handler due April 28 and two more coming. Graham, who writes under the initials D.R., has signed with HarperCollins for three in the Brampton Beach series of young-adult romances. “When you do work like I do, said Graham, who is a clinical counsellor in private practice, “you need an artistic outlet.” Husband Sean Graham gets it from his day job. As head chiropractor for the B.C. Lions, he helps current team members overcome pains he endured as a three-season slotback and 2000 Grey Cup winner.
• KICK- STARTED: Jean-Francis Quaglia and wife Alessandra’s Provence Marinaside restaurant emerged recently from a renovation costing “under a million.” After weeks spent developing the Yaletown fixture’s more-open layout, Quaglia looks forward to opening up his BMW 800 GS Enduro motorcycle on back roads far from Provence Marinaside’s False Creek waterfront locale.
• GOOD AND GREEN: You don’t need off-road motorcycles to travel Highway 37 from Kitwanga to Watson Lake, Yukon. As one of only two roads to cross B.C.’s northern border, it’s a natural for everyone’s summer-journey plans. Nearing its upper terminal, Highway 37 passes Jade City, population 20. It’s the locale for the Omnifilm/Discovery Channel reality series Jade Fever, as well as the jump-off for 90 per cent of the world’s known jade in the Cassiar mountains. To reach new deposits, you will need that bike, a rugged four-wheeler or, as multi-episode director Paul Kell found out, stout boots. He walked a 127-kilometre-long trail back and forth while toting video and sound gear. He’ll require only floaties for a May screening in Venice of the Johannesburg-shot documentary Jeppe On a Friday, on which he was director of photography.
• DOWN PARRYSCOPE: The Make gallery’s April 16-May 31 exhibition of the late Fred Schiffer’s portraiture should further enhance the citywide Capture Photography Festival that launched on April 2.