Category Archives: News

What is happening in your area.

01.23.19
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Ramen Teh to Play at the Victoria Film Festival

Playing at the
Victoria Film Festival
Victoria, British Columbia

Feb 1 to 10th

Tue | Feb 5 | 9:00 PM | SilverCity #3
Thur | Feb 7 | 6:15 PM | SilverCity #3

Back in 2011, I saw Chef of the South Polar (review link) at the Victoria Film Festival (VFF), and I learned a good noodle consists of a lot more than the love put into kneading the dough and creating the strands. Kansui is one part sodium bicarbonate and many other parts other trace minerals. To put them together in perfect harmony is part of many an Asian culture.

This year marks this event’s 25th anniversary (Taking place from Feb 1 to 10) and Ramen Shop (Ramen Teh) will continue to teach me something new in terms of how to celebrate life and food. Life lessons are often part of the theme in these movies, and I’m looking forward to what this year’s crop of films will offer.

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11.29.17
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The Sandwich Nazi Reigns Again … on VOD!

viff2015sandwichnaziLa Charcuterie
19080-96th Avenue Unit 8
Surrey BC V4N 3R3
(604) 882-0881

While everyone loves to have a good sandwich, not every body visits the same place to have it made … and hear the life story of the shop owner at the same time. The Sandwich Nazi made waves last year at the film festivals. As I wrote in my review of the film, “A trip to the industrial neighbourhood of Port Kells in Surrey, BC is needed to experience ’s capricious if not salacious behaviour in The Sandwich Nazi. Yes, the allusions to Seinfeld are there, and if the two had to be compared, Kahil is funnier.”

Filmmaker Lewis Bennett said in an interview on otakunoculture.com about how he loves how juvenile humour can play out on screen (i.e. when the cameras are rolling). “I’ve been drawn to people like Salam since I was in kindergarten. He kept making us laugh so we wanted to spend more time with him. The project started with a short documentary and as we were making that film we felt that there was a whole lot more to his story so we expanded it into a feature,” revealed Bennett.

I thought about visiting this operation on my last recent trip over to the Lower Mainland since I was there with a friend driving us around, but alas … it was on a day when the shop was not open. Fortunately, for those people who have not seen this funny, serious and somber documentary, it is now available on iTunes and Google Play. Additional services include Vimeo on Demand, Amazon Instant Video, and Microsoft Video.

To stay abreast with other releases, including a physical home video release (let’s hope there will be outtakes!), please visit them on:

Twitter @TheSandwichNazi
Facebook @NoSandwichForYou

03.01.17
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Cherry Bomb Toys to Expand, or Explode with Party Room Goodness

Cherry Bomb Toys

Cherry Bomb Toys in Victoria, BC is expanding. Not only do they have the National Toy Museum of Canada, on the second floor, which showcases approximately 80 years of love for childhood knickknacks, but soon, they will be opening their basement for people to use on a by appointment basis. The official opening is tentatively set for the end of March.

This area will not be limited to families wishing to celebrate their child’s birthdays (or an adult’s) in a venue that does not have to be their home. B Woodword, manager of the store, explained that not everyone has the space, especially if they live downtown, and cleanup for a whole home can be a chore. This operation’s idea is to offer a safe space so people can have fun in. There’s an arcade area filled with classic gaming consoles (Nintendo and SEGA were spotted) and four separate television screens so anyone can game with. People can bring their own next-gen consoles, but the purpose of this space is to stay retro. A dining room type area (with a few basic kitchen essentials) exists so people can mingle in. Of course, washroom facilities is down the hall.

Included in the rental party package ($200 for 2 hours) includes LEGO product promotions. Anyone celebrating a birthday here gets a build-a-fig product to take home. The honouree gets a $20 gift certificate and lots of bricks to play with while here.

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02.04.17
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Day One Musings from the 2017 Victoria Film Festival

victoria-film-festival

The 2017 Victoria Film Festival‘s Gala film certainly painted the night a pretty shade of pink with its opening film Window Horses to kick off the night. I thought the heroine Rosie Ming was wearing this event’s colours before putting on the black chādor, before arriving in Persia. Intentional or not, the first day was certainly fun, bright and cheerful. The morning and afternoon were wrought with continuous snowfall, and some of the organizers worried that it might cause problems since social media was on fire with reports of icy conditions and accidents already happening.

Thankfully, the troublesome weather faded away by evening so filmgoers can safely drive instead of slide to and fro from home. But for those who want an early start, Fort Tectoria is running virtual reality demos during this 10-day event to show off this technology as the coming thing. Eventually, some futurists predict it will integrate with cinema to create enhanced experiences. By the time I arrived downtown, I had a tough call to make: to go see Journey to the West 2: The Demons Strike Back at Cineplex Odeon or play video games. Very rarely, does a film festival offer this kind of opportunity for nerds like me!

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12.11.16
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Vic Film Fest Brings Tidings of Joy and a Look at What to Expect for 2017

vff2017logoChristmas comes early to film lovers in the form of the Victoria Film Festival. The annual event, established in 1994, has released a snippet of what entries are being offered in the new year long after the presents have been unwrapped and the bottle of Sheri has been thoroughly emptied.

The Victoria Film Festival will take place February 3-12, 2017 in the seaside city of Victoria, British Columbia (BC). The capital of BC is known for many things including the annual Chalk Festival, International Busker Festival, and the Fringe Festival. To learn more about VFF 2017, visit their official website at http://www.victoriafilmfestival.com/ Continue reading →

10.05.16
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Bugs on the Menu to Debut on Documentary Channel Oct 11th! & Its Future

Bugs_on_the_Menu_-_The_Vic_Poster_for_Web_2_250f94b0a36d369d5b4497e974f0aed8The feature-length movie Bugs on the Menu will soon be served across Canada beginning Tuesday, October 11 (9pm ET / 6pm PT) on CBC Canada’s Documentary Channel! If you can’t PVR this show, it does repeat again on the 16th (9 pm ET/ 10pm PT) and hopefully change a few culinary minds.

When I first saw this movie during the Victoria Feast, Food and Film Festival, I was all over it like ants to sugar because I have always been open to the thought of adding an unusual crunch to any of my meals. Samples were offered and I was anxious to see if a vendor would appear to offer up grasshopper (there was). To imagine the staples — mealworms or crickets — added to hamburger only has me salivating. But the question of which source has more protein needs to be asked. Some people may get surprised at the fact that crickets contain more per ounce than a similar slice of bovine, and this detail is just one of many factoids revealed in the program.

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