What Our Editors Are Doing This Weekend

That’s right: occasionally we leave the office.

The Never Ending Present: The Book Launch

Music journalist Michael Barclay (and, full disclosure, a friend of mine from a awaaaaaay back, when we were part of a scrappy team that published id Magazine together in the mid ’90s) has written the ultimate 450-paged ode to the band that Canadians have long had a love affair with, amped up with the too-soon departure of Gord Downie. (Barclay had some of the best, most moving coverage of the time leading up to the band’s last concert in Kingston, as well as this lovely tribute.) He’ll be in town this Sunday at the Heatley—and I may have to go there all day, now that I know they host a Country and Blue Grass Brunch on Sundays—and are about to open an artist space out back.—Anicka Quin, editorial director

Vancouver Whitecaps vs. Portland Timbers

It hasn’t been a great year for the ‘Caps. It’s just the second season in the last five that the club has failed to make the MLS playoffs. But it hasn’t been all bad. In fact, 17-year-old striker Alphonso Davies has been one of the league’s best players, and is the primary reason fans are flocking to the team’s last game of the year against the playoff-bound Timbers. Davies won’t be back next season as his transfer deal to German superpower FC Bayern Munich kicks in when he turns 18 on November 2. I’m looking forward to seeing what the kid has in store for his last performance as a Whitecap. The Ghana-born but Edmonton-raised teen has delighted fans for three years and it wouldn’t be like him to go out with a whimper.—Nathan Caddell, assistant editor

Ian Rankin at the Vancouver Writers Fest

My wife is on the board at the Writers Fest. I say this not to brag (although I’m very proud of you, baby) but to tell you that she couldn’t get me tickets to the sold out Ian Rankin event this Saturday—I had to get to an email from a pal. I just finished reading Rankin’s Black and Blue, and it was pretty good (truthfully I’m not sure I’m a detective novel aficionado), but what I liked more than the book was Rankin’s famed character, John Rebus, who seems like a the sort of a guy who would be great to have a drink with. My friend Paul actually had a drink with Rankin a few years back at Rankin’s fave Edinburgh haunt, The Oxford Bar, and he said that he, likewise, very good company. It’s on Granville Island so my hope is to maybe grab a whisky at Grapes & Soda before and then amble down in the rain—an apt intro to a night with one of Scotland’s favourite sons.—Neal McLennan, food editor 

Garbage Sisters’ Magical Neighbourhood: A Sketch Comedy Show

I know like it must seem like doing this story was just a sneaky way of plugging my own personal creative projects, but it was our editorial director’s idea, I swear. This weekend I’ll be rehearsing like mad, gathering up those last minute props and then actually performing a brand new two-woman sketch comedy show, Garbage Sisters’ Magical Neighbourhood. Is it weird that a magazine editor spends her free time running around dressed in an XXL orange jumpsuit and making a vague homage to Mr. Rogers’ Neighbourhood complete with puppets and musical numbers? Absolutely. But it would be weirder if no one were there to see it, so join me at Little Mountain Gallery on Saturday night, won’t you? —Stacey McLachlan, executive editor