69 things to do in Metro Vancouver on Friday, January 27

Looking for something to do on Friday? The Straight’s got you covered. Here are 69 events happening in or around Vancouver on Friday, January 27.

 

CONCERTS

Caravan World Rhythms presents Vancouver world-fusion bands Zimbamoto (above) and Locarno at the Biltmore Cabaret.

Brian Cook hosts an evening of local music at the Imperial by Emily Chambers, I M U R, Jesse Roper, and Dutch Robinson, with proceeds to Parkinson Society British Columbia.

American rock band Big Wreck plays the first of two nights at the Commodore, with guests Ascot Royals.

Canadian roots-rock band Blue Rodeo, featuring singer-guitarists Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor, plays the first of two nights at the Queen E. Theatre.

Hear some of Paul Leahy's favourite bands play tribute to his extensive back-catalogue of songs at the Rickshaw's Super Duper Show.

American folk-pop band Us the Duo plays the Vogue Theatre, performing on its Just Love Tour.

The Canadian Guitar Quartet performs original music and classical works at Kay Meek Centre.

American rapper Lizzo plays Alexander Gastown, touring in support of new release Coconut Oil.

Vancouver blues veteran Jim Byrnes performs with his band at West Vancouver Memorial Library.

The “A” Band, NiteCap, and faculty guests perform the sounds of New Orleans, from Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, Buddy Bolden and Sidney Bechet to brass band music, Dixieland, R&B, and funk at the Blueshore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts.

 

ETCETERA

The three-day Lunarfest at Queen Elizabeth Plaza features winter games, workshops, activities, and family-friendly fun.

The three-day Eastside Flea Spring Market at the Ellis Building features street vendors, a DJ, artisan showrooms, over 50 vendors, food trucks, and an outdoor courtyard.

Surrey Health and Wellness Convention features three days of exhibits and hourly lectures on medicine and chi gong at City Centre 1.

 

FOOD & DRINK

The Dine Out Vancouver Festival continues, featuring guided dining adventures, brunch crawls, cocktail masterclasses, wine debates, guest chef dinners, B.C. VQA wine and craft-beer tastings, street-food markets, and hundreds of restaurants offering multi-course dinners at $20, $30, or $40.

Taste White Rock continues at various White Rock restaurants, giving foodies the opportunity to select from a wide variety of three-course, prix-fix menus, many complemented by B.C. wines, craft beer, and special cocktails.

 

FORUMS

Explore the lesser-known consequences of spinal-cord injury, their impact on quality of life, and some strategies to improve function at Cafe Scientifique, taking place at Boston Pizza in New West.

Conference at Robson Square covers some of the challenges faced by estate administrators, bringing together experts on estates law and taxation issues.

Learn what's available on the Internet and how to find it at the Vancouver Public Library's Internet Basics class.

 

KIDS' STUFF

Kids can discover the rhythmic and physical energy of playing the drums at a free introductory drum lesson at Staccato Studios in Burnaby.

 

SPORTS

The Vancouver Giants take on the Victoria Royals in Western Hockey League action at Langley Events Centre.

 

COMEDY

Canadian TV actor and comedian Scott Thompson of Kids in the Hall fame performs the second of three nights at the Comedy Mix.

Toronto-based standup comedian Nick Beaton performs the second of three nights at Yuk Yuk's Comedy Club.

The List features comedy by Dave Harris, Sam Tonning, Brent Constantine, Curt Da Silva, Ryan Anderson, Ese Atawo, Rae Lynn Carson, Racquel Belmonte, Brad MacNeil, and Shane McLean at Little Mountain Gallery.

Comedian Alicia Tobin and guests Kevin Banner, Jacob Samuel, and Sophie Buddle present an evening of drawing and laughing at Hot Art Wet City Gallery.

A fictitious male stripper troupe, played by a cast of Canadian improvisational comedians, performs an improv-comedy show at North Van's Centennial Theatre.

Ed Hill hosts an evening of comedy with headliner Alex Sparling, Damian Johnson, Erich Dachwitz, and Katrina Bennett at the British Ex-Servicemens Association.

 

ARTS ETCETERA

Opening at the Fairmont Pacific Rim of Japan Unlayered, an exhibition curated by master Japanese architect Kengo Kuma that presents Japanese traditions alongside contemporary design.

Final performance at the York Theatre of Portraits in Motion, in which Volker Gerling uses the flipbook to show us intimacy in motion through the beginning and end of a smile, an awkward embrace, and glimpses of a long-time love affair. Part of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.

The 2017 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival runs at various Vancouver venues, featuring groundbreaking theatre, dance, music, and multimedia art from 11 countries. Highlights include an all-star Australian indigenous band, South Korean performance art, Bavarian folk dancers, and participatory recitation from Portugal.

 

GALLERIES

Oh, How I Long For Home, Marianne Nicolson's installation at the Teck Gallery, addresses a persistent idea of the city as a conflicted promise for indigenous people.

Juxtapoz x Superflat exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery offers a unique insight into contemporary art and its place in cultural life.

Solo exhibition at Emily Carr University's Charles H. Scott Gallery by Irish artist Sean Lynch.

Sonny Assu creates a new series of digital tags on a body of Emily Carr paintings at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

 

MUSEUMS

Layers of Influence: Unfolding Cloth Across Cultures at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC features more than 130 diverse cultural garments, from Japanese kimonos, to colourful Indian saris, to the elaborate feather cloaks of the Maori people of Aotearoa/New Zealand.

The Museum of Anthropology at UBC hosts an exhibition that features the carvings of Papua New Guinea's Iatmul people.

At the Museum of Vancouver, you can explore the cultural power and significance of collecting through wall-to-wall displays of unconventional objects.

 

LITERARY

Readings at Merge by Roger Farr, Reg Johanson, and Aaron Vidaver, members of the Pacific Institute for Language and Literacy Studies.

Story Circle drop-in at Vancouver Public Library's Oakridge branch for adults with developmental disabilities and their families, friends, and caregivers.

 

MUSIC

The Canadian Guitar Quartet performs original music and classical masterpieces at West Van's Kay Meek Centre.

The VSO New Music Festival continues with Requiem for a Generation at the Orpheum Theatre.

The Turning Point Ensemble and Canadian composer John Oswald pay tribute to Frank Zappa and Edgard Varèse at SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts.

Vetta Chamber Music performs piano trios by Shostakovich, Brahms, and Smetana at West Point Grey United Church.

Baritone Cliff Ridley, pianist Tatiana Khvatova, and violinist Alina Khvatova perform music by Tchaikovsky, Glinka, and Khachaturian at Holy Rosary Cathedral.

Jon Washburn conducts the Bergmann Duo and the Vancouver Chamber Choir in a performance of music by Brahms at Ryerson United Church.

The Viola da Gamba Ensemble of Vancouver performs music by Purcell, Bevin, Gibbons, Lupo, Nicolai, del Encina, Cabezon, Vivaldi, and Charpentier at Studio 16.

 

THEATRE

The Geekenders present Portal 2: The (Unauthorized) Musical at the Rio Theatre, about a woman and a robot who attempt to escape a facility that's falling apart and end up inadvertently stirring something awake.

Performance at the Firehall Arts Centre of Jennifer Haley's The Nether, a detective story that explores the nature of virtual realms, fantasy, and morality.

Théâtre la Seizième presents a performance at the Vancouver Playhouse of Montreal-based theatre company Les 7 Doigts' medley of theatre, dance, and circus, Cuisine & Confessions.

Performance at the Frederic Wood Theatre of Love and Information, Caryl Churchill's play in which over 100 characters search for meaning in their lives through a series of vignettes.

Performance at the BMO Theatre Centre of the Arts Club's production of William Faulkner's Southern gothic masterpiece, As I Lay Dying. Part of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.

Square Planet Theatre presents a performance at Studio T of Happy Days, Samuel Beckett's darkly comic eulogy to the human spirit.

Upintheair and the Only Animal present a performance of the participatory theatrical experience The City and the City at the Russian Hall. Part of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.

Made it Ma Equity Co-op presents a performance at Studio 1398 of Bull, Mike Bartlett's play about two people who play a fast-paced game of cat-and-mouse with a coworker as they await news of a job termination.

City Stage New West presents a performance at The Galbraith of Shaw Shorts, featuring George Bernard Shaw's How He Lied to Her Husband and Renée Bucciarelli's Love Letters to Mrs. Patrick Campbell.

The Bachelor of Performing Arts program at Douglas College presents Anamnesis, an interdisciplinary work that explores romanticism through the shattered lens of nostalgia, at New Westminster's Massey Theatre.

United Players present a performance at Jericho Arts Centre of Sunday in the Park with George, a musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine about the relationship between an artist and his lover and model.

Metro Theatre presents a performance of Crossing Delancey, a romantic comedy about a Jewish grandmother who sets out to find a nice Jewish boy for her granddaughter to marry.

 

ATTRACTIONS

Robson Square Ice Rink offers free ice-skating in downtown Vancouver, with skate rental available.

At the Bloedel Conservatory you can take in more than 200 free-flying exotic birds and 500 exotic plants and flowers.

Grouse Mountain resort features a Skyride to the peak with views of Vancouver and the Pacific Ocean, as well as skiing and snowboarding, snowshoeing, ice skating, mountain ziplines, and the Peak of Christmas.

Cypress Mountain features skiing and snowboarding lessons, snowtubing park, cross-country ski trails, downhill skiing and snowboarding trails, and snowshoeing tours.

Edgewater Casino offers 24-hour gaming, over 60 table games, a poker room, a high-limit section, 500 slot machines, restaurants and lounges, and live entertainment, including concerts and televised UFC events.

The Capilano Suspension Bridge features seven suspended footbridges offering views 110 feet above the forest floor.

Mount Seymour features skiing and snowboarding lessons from the Mt. Seymour Ski and Snowboard School, tubing and tobogganing, and snowshoe trails.

The Vancouver Aquarium features almost 800 animal species in galleries ranging from Canada's Arctic to the Amazon rainforest.

 

MOVIES

Screening at the Cinematheque of Staying Vertical French auteur Alain Guiraudie's fairy-tale-like meditation on what it means to be a vertical animal.

Screening at Vancity Theatre of Ocean Waves, Tomomi Mochizuki's poignant animated film about adolescence and teenage isolation.

Screening at the Cinematheque of Juzo Itami’s art-house hit Tampopo, available for the first time in decades.

Screening at Vancity Theatre of Pablo Larrain's thriller Neruda, inspired by the period in which Chilean poet and Communist senator Pablo Neruda was forced underground and into exile by an authoritarian right-wing government.

 

For all the latest Metro Vancouver event announcements and updates follow @VanHappenings.