Our last Summer Mixcast, number Five – Solid Gold, in homage to Robert Frost, September’s golden sunsets and a colour that ain’t never done me no wrongs. Artists featured this Mixcast are:

1) Grand Archives – Silver Among the Gold
2) The Acorn – Bobcat Goldwraith
3) Dragonette – Gold Rush
4) Familia – Golden Lies
5) Metric – Gold Guns Girls
6) Ohbijou – Make It Gold
7) C.R. Avery – Midnight Gold Mining

Remember, if you’re listening to this Mixcast in iTunes or on your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad there will be a link to where you can buy these great tracks! If you dig the song it’s only $0.99 in the iTunes store! If you’re an artist hoping to be featured in a future Mixcast please contact me!

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Have you ever been walking through the downtown, stroll past the Sails, and suddenly arrive in the middle of artists, musicians, face and body painters, and a general good time and wonder what is all this?!?

Well I have the answer my friends, this an awesome program called Arts Alive!. The program features local and non-local crafters, artisans, and general cool object makers from May to September each year. All participants make their items, the group showcases a wide variety of jewellery, hand mixed Henna, paintings, carvings, pendants, or clothing!

Help support these artists and purchase an item or ten, let’s keep downtown Kelowna alive with culture, art, creativity and fun!

I think I speak for 94 % of Kelownians when I say “Mad Mango is Awesome!”

If you have not had a chance to make in, Mad Mango Cafe is located on the lights of St. Paul and Bernard.

Veggie Curry Rice Bowl (Add Tofu)!!  = Party in your Mouth!

Enough Said.

We love to share a photo from our Flicker pool shot by one of our faithful and talented readers (that’s you!). Today’s photo was taken by Neal Maben.

Chantal is warm, charming, creative, super funny, and has a bit of a spicy edge. She laughs with ease, cries at commercials and stands strong in the face of adversity. She only knows one line to every song, but sings it with wanton abandon. She is an air band rock star, a dancer with moves like you have never seen, and a catapult to excitement and fun. Her clever mix of the organic with the industrial, the hand picked with the hand made, the whimsy with the essential, has turned her store Funktional into an icon of Kelowna shopping. She is a business woman, an artist, a designer, an inspiration and a lover.

The Proof

1. EVERY day I’m in Funktional… accessories for you and your friends. I heart this new space like CRAZY!
2. Exterior of the wickedest shop on BERNARD.
3. I love to cook…new favorite, Risotto with oyster mushrooms and pistachios.
4. My favorite human being on the planet, my wife, Taryn.
5. Favorite place to play at home, in the POOL!
6. Favorite lunch, brushcetta & beer.
7. One of my favorite views, out of the airplane window towards an adventure with my love.
8. My other favorite view, our back yard, the greenway.

The Questions

What neighbourhood do you live in?
Right on the border of South Rutland and South East Kelowna, a river runs through it, orchards and wineries watch over us!

What do you do and where?
I create, buy and sell all things Funktional at 447 Bernard Avenue, downtown Kelowna.

What are you working on?
Living an extraordinary life!

Where can we find your work
Want cool stuff? Come to Funktional!

Good morning world! If you haven’t heard of the PEAK Performance Project, you probably will soon. We’re up at RockRidge Canyon in Princeton, BC as the Boot Camp portion starts today! Every year, twenty finalists from BC will receive an intensive, one week training program in the music business, live performance, songwriting, marketing and promotion. Artists will benefit from mentoring by some of the music industry’s top professionals and performers. The Boot Camp is a pretty extreme week that last year brought everyone in the program together in a very interesting bonding experience. This year, campers and staff will be using top of the line equipment sponsored by Apple Computers, Roland Systems Group and Long & McQuade which is really exciting in a very geeky way. Stay tuned throughout the week as things progress. Adventures include inventing our own cables until way late in the night. Funny stories usually end up developing as we are often awake until 2am to 4am and have to get up for breakfast around 7:30am every morning. When you’re over-tired, everything get’s pretty funny.

Here’s a clip from the PEAK Orientation this June…

I had a chance to poke my head into Tweaked & Yummy last week, which is Kelowna’s newest vintage boutique and I must give it a solid two thumbs up! Before I moved to Kelowna 5 years ago, I live in downtown Montreal for ever in the hip and cultural district where vintage & up-cycled fashion boutiques line the trendy streets in the “Le Plateau” neighborhood. These spots are gold mines for original pre-loved clothing and accessories and Tweaked and Yummy is no different. It’s relaxed and cozy set-up is inviting and the staff are as friendly as ever.

I really could lounge in their chairs for hours and banter on about life but there is shopping to be done! The racks are lined with incredibly original pieces of all shapes, sizes, eras, and prices. It is a definite visit for fashion-addicts looking for those stand-out pieces not everyone has. T&Y are cool, affordable, & enviro-considerate. They use recycled hangers, tags, & bags made from clothes that have served their fashion purpose. Plus when people buy their clothing, they are helping by recycling.

Each month the boutique features a different local artist displaying their work. They host an artist reception right in the store with drinks and music. Tonight’s feature artists are Catherine de Montreuil, Wyatt Parker, and Andrew Thom. Catherine has lots of work with mixed media, abstract, digital, and photography. Andrew is not only responsible for making your Bean Scene coffee look and taste as sexy as possible but he is also talented with a paint can, brush or a marker working on hip sneakers or giant murals. Everything gets going tonight at 7.30PM so stop in and have a peak.

What: Art Show (free admission)
When: August 26, 2010 from 7.30PM to 10.30PM
Where: Tweaked & Yummy Boutique 1292 Ellis near Prospera Place.

A close friend, Julian Hughes, has been visiting from Montréal for the last few weeks as he grew up in Kelowna and his father still lives here, as do many of his friends. One of my favorite parts of summer—if you haven’t guessed yet—is spending time with folks. I haven’t laughed as much as I have this summer, had some great nights and some great memories. This is one of them.

Julian is heavily involved in the North American hooping scene and has even traveled around educating and teaching classes and seminars both in Canada and the States as well as performing the last two years at Shambahla. We got together the other night for a quick swim with some friends and he showed us some Acro Yoga. Acro Yoga combines acrobatic concepts with a yogic consciousness. I’m not the biggest fan of Yoga. A lot of my friends do it at least on a fairly regular basis, or every day for the ones who own their own Yoga Studio, but when I’m asked to go I’ll usually make up an excuse about having to work (which in all fairness is usually true) which is too bad because I always feel so much more upbeat after a good session of the old Yogs’.

I used to be rather acrobatic as a youth and still hope to one day plant the perfect back handspring, and this for me took Yoga to the next level. I was stretching muscles I never knew I had and wasn’t even sure could stretch the way they did. I fell a lot as well, but that was part of the charm for me.

If you’re interested, we’re thinking about getting together for some Acro Yoga sessions on City Park around the 5th and 6th of September.

“What the eff?”

“He’s DJing using his iPhone!”

Kelowna’s DJ JPod The Beat Chef uses his iPhone to DJ live at Fractal Forest at Shambhala Music Festival during his Sunday evening set. He left the DJ booth with his phone in hand and joined everyone on the dance floor. He walked through the crowd inviting folks to have a look and listen at what he was doing. Even little Jaxen Lilly gets her chance at some wikka wikka DJ action at the 5:40 mark.

NOTE: The video was taken quite spontaneously and the sound quality is a little rough but enjoy it nonetheless!

video by TDano

The Following

Was Spotted

It’s kinda like Big Brother… only, with birds.