I like events! I like vacations! Here are some things I’ve done or am going to do in the near future!

First Aid Kit: Jordy and I saw First Aid Kit at Venue in Vancouver. Like everyone else, I fell in love with the Swedish sisters’ cover of “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song”, but Jordy and I have been particularly taken with them since reading “Kids” by Patti Smith and subsequently sobbing watching the video of Patti well up with tears as First Aid Kit perform “Dancing Barefoot” for her. Unfortunately this video appears to have vanished off the internet or I’d recommend you watch for a good cry too. First Aid Kit sang with effortless harmony and brought some great 60s vibes in their matching dresses (a mini for Klara and a maxi for Johanna) and long shining hair. Highlights included their gorgeous cover of The Knife’s “When I Grow Up” and, of course, Smith’s “Dancing Barefoot”, and an unplugged sing-a-long version of “Ghost Town”.

Openers Peggy Sue were also quite good, in particular their layered harmonies on a cover of “Hit the Road, Jack”. I was surprised to recognize one of their songs from Kate Miss’ excellent mix, Harmony. Me and Jordy coined them “Al & Kath” because they reminded us of our friends Alana and Katherine (I think it was their hair).

Jesus Christ Super Star: Last year my friends in Victoria blew me away with their production of Jesus Christ Super Star (or Cheesus Crust Pizza Store, as it was more subtly known). I had a grin on my face through the whole show and was totally stoked to hear they were mounting a second production this year. If you’re from Victoria, chances are you might know someone in the show or recognize some local musicians. JCSS is running April 19-21 and tickets are still available!

Island Chefs Food Fest: Another amazing event I attended for the first time last year, Food Fest was a sunny day spent sampling local food and drink, including beer, cider and gin. We rode our bikes to Fort Rodd Hill in a huge group organized by Habit Coffee and were rewarded with first crack at the sample tables. I can’t wait to see who is there this year!

Victoria Tweed Ride: I just registered for the Victoria Tweed Ride, which involves dressing in dapper finery and riding bikes in an equally handsome crowd all over the city. Basically I will take 1000 photos of this event.

Hawaii: As a kid I spent a lot of time in my Dad’s hometown of Castlegar, hanging out with family. While Castlegar is charming in its own small town Kootenay way, I wish we could have spent an equal amount of time in my Mom’s hometown of Kailua, Hawaii. We’re finally heading back at the end of the month on a family vacation. I can’t wait to sit on Kailua beach, eat plate lunch and shave ice, wander the swap meet and hopefully learn a Hawaiian song or two from some talented family friends.

Seattle: I’ll be spending May long weekend in Seattle, staying Real World-style in a crazy beautiful house on Capitol Hill with a big group of friends. We’ve got a sunken cedar hot tub!!! I’ll unfortunately be missing Doukhobor Festival, but sunken cedar hot tub!!! Basically the plan is to try some of Seattle’s best restaurants, ride our bikes everywhere and sit in that sunken cedar hot tub!!!

Finally, here are my most liked things at the moment:

TNG Season 8: The most genius twitter account that summarises episodes of an imaginary eighth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Sample tweet:

Arrested Westeros: Games of Thrones/Arrested Development mash up. It works so well.

Annnnnnd #whatshouldwecallme is basically ruling my life right now. This tumblr is relevant to everything. For example, my fears about backpacking in SE Asia.

(First Aid Kit photo from here)

Here’s something I did once and never did again! Let’s try talk about some Likeable Things again.

Crystal Visions: Last year Alana and I brainstormed a party based on what was my obsession at the time and what is a lifelong passion for Alana: Classic Rock. The concept was ladies only, a lot of candles, red wine and lady rock. Thus, Crystal Visions was born. Generally speaking, it’s a party with a ladies of 60s/70s music theme. If you’re drawing a blank, just look at the inspiration page we helpfully assembled. Anyway, we enjoyed ourselves so much that we are having a sequel at the end of the month. All ladies welcome! Bring your finest fringed shawls. Also this photo of Nancy Wilson from Heart shredding on her guitar really gets me hyped. I saw Heart last year and Nance can do splits jumping in the air.

Matchstick Coffee: I finally spent a weekend in Vancouver and we went to Matchstick Coffee, which recently opened at Fraser and Kingsway. Really cute place with lots of nice design and they steeped my earl grey to perfection and held the leaves in case I wanted a rebrew, which was thoughtful. The owners (pictured above) were working and chatted with everyone. Great atmosphere and the pastries were delish too. I can’t wait for summer when I can bike over there.

Video Challenge Awareness Month: For the third year in a row, a group of friends are bravely sacrificing their evenings and sanity to creating a video a day for the month of February. My roommate Laura is a first time participant for 2012 and I am having a blast lobbing really stupid ideas at her as soon as she walks into the apartment (not to mention emailing and tweeting too, now that I think of it). She usually gives me some encouraging feedback and then goes into her room and creates something way better. These are my favourite ones so far:

1. Crystal Visions
2. Cat Van
3. Dance Practice
4. On the Arts

Sherlock: Do you ever watch a TV show or see a movie or read a book and then find it sort of consumes your thoughts to an unhealthy degree afterward? I am forcing myself to keep this brief or I will fill this entire blog with ramblings about Sherlock. I’m begging someone I know to watch it and go as crazy over it as me, just so I have someone to whom I can send crude fan art. Fellow fangirls, hit me up on Twitter, @rachabees, I’ll be waiting.

ANN-YA: This is an inexcusably late rave about the work dear Anja has been doing on her clothing and accessories line, ANN-YA. Everything she produces blows me away and comfy-factor is a no duh when she designs and chooses fabric. Really loving these new metallic pouches and the STYLING.

Travel: This photo is from when I was in San Sebastien in Spain. I was there alone and it was really strange. I had just come from the loving confines of James and Alana’s apartment in Paris and I found myself desperate to go back. I haven’t given up on solo travel just yet though. There’s a little current running through my mind lately, and I think it’s something big.

Karaoke: Is it a secret I love karaoke? Duh! It was way too easy to assemble multiple photos of myself clutching a mic at different karaoke sessions. My birthday is next Monday and Jordan’s is on Saturday, so we’re celebrating our last 20-something birthday with a karaoke party at Fireball Castle. We had a similar party for our 27th and wow, it was just great. Here are some top karaoke sessions:

1. 27th Karaoke Birthday: We had a keg, Doug’s concrete apartment (sing as loud as you want! It’s like you’re in a tomb!), a rented pro machine with endless songs, and a full revue of friends belting out the hits.
2. Roatan Karaoke: Jordy and I go to Honduras, stay on a tropical island for nearly two weeks, and duh, we find a karaoke night at the local expat bar. I open with “Alone” and then everytime I go up (we go up multiple times) the karaoke DJ sings harmonies on all the songs.
3. Amigo Room Karaoke: Karaoke night in the Amigo Room just happens to coincide with our one night stay at the Ace Palm Springs. Jordan and I drink a lot of very strong IPAs, get into a fight because we’re drunk and I won’t sing Jackson with him (I couldn’t remember how it went, in retrospect this is poor karaoke form, making it up is acceptable so long as it’s done with gusto) and he ends up passing out in a rope chair that gave him rope burns and I end up singing the Sheryl Crow/Kid Rock duet “Picture” with some random dude (Jackson would have been better). It was fun, believe it or not.

For reference, my current top 5 karaoke songs are “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme” by ABBA, “Magic” By Olivia Newton-John, “Dancing in the Dark” by Bruce Springsteen, “Alone” by Heart and “Wuthering Heights” by Kate Bush. Korean karaoke places never have any good Stevie Nicks!

Everyone does these lists and I always love reading them. Here are my current favourite things:

Earl Grey (part 1): I’ve always found wearing fragrance to be weirdly distracting. However, after learning about Demeter Earl Grey Tea, and with thanks to recent talk on fragrances on various blogs, I have become obsessed with wearing my favourite drink on my wrist.

Earl Grey (part 2): Despite a few years spent slaving for corporate coffee (just kidding, love you forever Buckies), I am a staunch tea drinker. My aunt recently introduced me to double bergamot earl grey. Double bergamot = double delicious.

Bike Commuting: In addition to the Lady Caprice, I’ve finally purchased a commuter bike for Vancouver. For the past week I’ve been riding a Kona Dew Plus (purchased at Dizzy Cycles in Kits) to work and am loving it. Okay, so I am terrified of getting smashed by a car, knocking out a pedestrian and the thought of climbing the hill behind City Hall every day, but it’s all worth it for the ocean/mountain/city views as I cross the Cambie Street bridge every morning.

Pronto: This little Italian gem just opened up on Cambie, dangerously close to my apartment. I’ve tried the pasta of the day twice now and both experiences have been wonderful. Today’s pasta (Spaghetti Amatriciana  with pancetta, caramelized onion, tomato & pecorino romano cheese) rivaled the spaghetti from The Colander in Trail and that’s saying a lot.

Haida Gwaii: Previously known as the Queen Charlotte Islands. I’ve been dying to go here since I read The Golden Spruce last year. Mysterious coastal rainforests, Haida cemeteries filled with crumbling totem poles and 100km of sandy beach at Massett. I’d pair it with a cruise through the Inside Passage for all the dramatic British Columbia scenery I can handle.

La Brasserie: Vancouver is going through a food cart revolution at the moment and nothing warms my heart more than La Brasserie’s hot roast chicken sandwich covered in gravy, crispy onions and Dijon mustard.

It’s All True: The new Junior Boys album is so good. When I came home the other day, Jordy was listening to it and the songs felt really familiar but in an awesome instant chill out classic way.

Hockey: I can’t believe I am admitting this. I could care less about hockey any other time of the year, but the Vancouver Canucks are in the Stanley Cup finals and it’s hard to ignore the game when city streets are closed down to broadcast it on jumbo screens to upwards of 70,000 people. Vancouver is insane for hockey right now. Truthfully, it helps that all the players’ faces are covered in robust playoff beards and that this has been a particularly frisky series. There’s something weirdly erotic about men making heated eye contact, tossing their clothing off and then full out grappling on the ice, not to mention “Finger Gate”, which has prompted the players to go around sticking their fingers in the opposing team’s mouths. Seriously! Also, the Canucks have a set of identical ginger Swedish twins! Everyone looks like a lumberjack or a courier du bois! When the goalie makes an amazing save, everyone yells “Luuuuu!” and it sounds like “Booo!” I can’t even believe I just wrote this paragraph. The whole Stanley Cup experience is a vortex. Did you know when the Canucks lost the ’94 series, Vancouver fans rioted? This is how big a deal this is!!!

p.s. I am devoting even more space to hockey but Melanie Cole’s billboard dedicated to the Sedins  (the aforementioned Swedish twins) is just so charming:

It’s part of a show called Total Devotion at the Little Mountain Gallery. (Even better are the voicemails she’s received and shared on her tumblr.)

Photos from here, here, here, here and here.