more cat pictures

Hey all, our June 17th meeing is set. We will be hosting White Rock editrix, writer, literary coach, communications consultant, blues-groover, cultural creative, and BC Federation of Writers President Sylvia Taylor, who will be presenting on the subject of memoir.

With everyone from Dave Eggers to James Frey to Socks the Cat jumping on the memoir bandwagon, it’s more important than ever to understand what makes a good story stand out. And of course, there’s always the thorny issue of literal versus subjective truth; when is it a novel and when is it autobiography?

Sylvia Taylor is an award-winning freelance writer, editor, instructor and literary coach in Metro Vancouver, with a passionate commitment to communication and the arts.

Through her business, Sylvia Taylor Communications, she writes articles and commissioned works, coaches authors of all levels and ilkes, consults with business and not-for-profits, and edits in all genres.

She is President of the Fed of BC Writers, and when not teaching in conferences and writing programs, she’s dancin’ up a storm somewhere.

Tonight will be a free-form evening where we simply catch up on one another’s projects. There are also lots of great events coming up, and if you know of one please bring details so I can post it later.

Next month will be Sylvia Taylor on Writing Your Life: crafting the memoir. That should be a very popular one, as I seem to be the only person not memoir-ization-ing lately! Perhaps I’ve missed a trend?

I betcha didn’t know that Roget recorded with the Beatles for his cinematic debut, didja?

The Shebeen Club: Gonzo Vancouver!

When: 7-9pm, Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

Where: the Shebeen, 7 Gaoler’s Mews, behind the Irish Heather, 217 Carrall Street, Vancouver BC

How Much: $15 includes dinner: limited to 40

What: mingling, door prizes, eating, drinking, fornicating!

Who: Heather Watson (Civixen), Gonzo Journalist and founding columnist at Terminal City

“We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-coloured uppers, downers, screamers, laughers and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.”
Hunter S. Thompson
Well, we probably won’t have that, but we will have a great introduction to indigenous Vancouver Gonzo journalism with the hyperkinetic and internationally infamous Heather Watson, alias Civixen (http://www.civixen.com/ and http://cvxn.tumblr.com). Coming at you straight down the Mojo Wire at 95 miles per hour, it’ll be an evening of raw, uncut literary power. Bare-knuckling her way up the ladder from the wide open frontier of the Wild West to the mean streets of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Heather has seen it all, done most of it, and has a damn hell solid alibi for everything else.

Bio: Heather Watson created the satirical op/ed column “Civixen,” which became a source of enjoyment and irritation for political bright lights and dim bulbs alike (including the current mayor) in the four years it ran in two local alternative newspapers. Besides a brief tenure as editor-in-chief of the 30,000-circulation Gonzo-inspired Terminal City (now sadly defunct), Heather Watson also presented a popular seminar on Gonzo Journalism at the request of the Western arm of the Canadian University Press in 2006. She is a published poet, a produced playwright and her essay “Vancouver Today” is featured in the Time Out Guide to Vancouver. In addition to a few years at Vancouver’s éminence grise of independent bookstores, Duthie Books, some of her more surreal side jobs have included voice-over and motion capture for a video game and six years spent hand modeling toys from Star Wars figures to Barbies in dozens of TV commercials.

Meet and Mingle 7-7:30
Listen and Learn 7:30-8
Drown Sorrows and Vow to Buck the System 8-9 or, really, the rest of your life.

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VFS and YouTube have just announced an international scholarship competition that should knock Chris Crocker off the front page and into the obscurity which has hungered for him ever since the Leave Britney Alone fifteen minutes started.

The prize is a full tuition scholarship to internationally-respected Vancouver Film School, the school out of which Kevin Smith dropped to go on to produce the magnum opus, the veritable Big Chill of his generation, Clerks. Like I ever saw that.

I’m old, yo.

Anyhoo. The challenge is to make a compelling YouTube pitch explaining just exactly why you’re the natural choice to win. Anyone with enough self-confidence to go into film should have no problem with this part. The school picks the finalists, and then the viewers on YouTube make the final choice.

Official Rules

Full Press Release (PDF)

A few more details, from the FAQ:

This competition is about making film school accessible to everyone. The YouTube community will award three aspiring artists (that includes directors, animators, actors, sound designers and more) with full-tuition scholarships to the Vancouver Film School program of their choice.

Between March 18th and May 9th, submit a short film, animation or creative pitch addressing the theme “What Matters to You.” You must start your video by identifying the VFS program you wish to attend and you must limit your video to no more than three minutes. On May 20th, we will announce the 10 finalists, selected by Vancouver Film School.

From May 20th to May 27th, the YouTube community will view and vote for their favorite videos.

On May 30th, we will announce the 3 scholarship winners.

What programs are up for scholarship awards?

1. Foundation Visual Art & Design
2. Acting Essentials
3. 3D Animation & Visual Effects
4. Classical Animation
5. Digital Character Animation
6. Houdini™ Certification
7. Acting for Film & Television
8. Digital Design
9. Entertainment Business Management
10. Film Production
11. Game Design
12. Makeup Design for Film & Television
13. Sound Design for Visual Media
14. Writing for Film & Television

Some handy tips:

Be creative. Don’t just tell us what’s important to you – show us. For example, if you’re a director, make a short film or documentary about an issue you care about. If you’re an animator, animate a story about an issue, person, place, etc. that matters to you. If you’re a writer, pitch a fresh screenplay concept about something that matters to you. If you’re a makeup artist, transform a stranger into someone who matters to you. These are just ideas and we know you can do better, but the point is: think creatively!

What gets into the shortlist?

Vancouver Film School will judge submissions based on the following criteria:

a. Creativity and Originality (up to 25 points)
b. Relevance of the video to the particular program of study selected (up to 25 points)
c. Technical Execution: Camera/Sound/Lighting/Editing (up to 25 points)
d. Overall Impression (up to 25 points)

And after that, it’s all up to the community on YouTube, so start sucking up building relationships now!

What: The Shebeen Club Presents: Screenwriter’s Alert!

When: 7:30pm-9:00pm, Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

Where: Upstairs at The Shebeen, behind The Irish Heather, 217 Carrall Street in Gastown

Why: Vancouver Film School will be making a very special announcement of keen interest to all aspiring screenwriters and anyone hoping to break into the business of movies, games, or animation.

Who: Contact lorraine.murphy AT gmail.com for more information. Note that, as this announcement is embargoed till delivery, we cannot give out many details.

How(much)? $15 includes presentation, dinner of bangers and mash or vegetarian pasta, one celebratory beverage, and mingling.

Our March meeting will be of intense interest to anyone with celluloid ambitions. Alice Zhou from our world-renowned Vancouver Film School will be making a very special announcement about a worldwide VFS event of major interest to those with a desire to become involved in the industry.

Bio: Alice Zhou Alice Zhou is a recent winner of Cultural DiverseCity Youth Enterpreneur Business Award, a graduate of Simon Fraser University with a degree in Communications. Her career has focused on Corporate Events Management and Seminars, and she is currently the Events Coordinator at Vancouver Film School. Her passion lies in building relationships and creating a massive network, to provide resources and information to help facilitate additional entrepreneurship. Alice is a board member of the International Special Events Society (ISES). She teaches several Events Management courses at Vancouver Community College, and is a regular columnist in the Vancouver View Magazine. She currently is the event coordinator, public relations and sponsorship coordinator for Vancouver Film School.

7-7:30: meet and mingle
7:30-8: listen and learn
8-whenever: David Mamet/Nora Ephron/Joe Eszterhas three-way cage match! Okay, not really, but you’d pay to see that, wouldn’t you?

Cross-Posted from raincoaster.com. Notice it doesn’t say whether I’m an em dash or an en dash; damn quiz needs an editor!

You Are a Dash

Your life is fast paced and varied. You are realistic, down to earth, and very honest. You’re often busy doing something interesting, and what you do changes quickly. You have many facets to your personality, and you connect them together well.You have a ton of interests. While some of them are a bit offbeat, they all tie together well. You friends rely on you to bring novelty and excitement to their lives. (And while you’re the most interesting person they know, they can’t help feeling like they don’t know you well.) You excel in: Anything to do with money You get along best with: the Exclamation Point

What Punctuation Mark Are You?