Imagine an Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune was to put on a play and you’d have the Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret.

The production doesn’t have a Director per se, but a Story Coordinator who maintains the structure of the piece while the performers workshop how the story will finally be told. This format has attracted artists of all sorts – choreographers, puppeteers, musicians, animators, costume designers, set builders, singers and dancers.

Each artist is given the freedom to realize their own vision of their part of the production and then all the parts are drawn together to tell the story. For the last two months they’ve been work shopping, rehearsing, debating, voting and they even brought in facilitators to help the process move forward more smoothly.

This year’s production is “The Listening Jar,” a piece about lost/marginalized voices and the power in getting them back. It runs from February 26th to March 1st at the Russian Hall in Strathcona.

The dock at Jericho Beach is home to a fascinating sub-culture in Vancouver.

On any nice day of the year you can find a group of gentlemen throwing crab traps far into the ocean. They come from countries like Vietnam, Portugal, China and the Philippines to name a few. Usually their English isn’t the best but the love of crabbing doesn’t stop them from appreciating one another’s catch. It’s a communal event when a big crab is hauled out of the water.

While hanging out with them it struck me as a fine way to spend a lazy Sunday – light conversation, the beauty and bounty of the ocean, the raking mountains and the screech of seagulls lamenting a trap full of chicken gizzards as it sinks below the surface.

There are not enough art spaces like The Fall in Vancouver. Where else can you appreciate the work of young artists on the gallery walls or browse for fetish wear in the retail space on the ground floor, all the while hearing the staccato buzzing of a needle gun from the tricked out tattoo and piercing studio in the loft space above?

This weekend I had a chance to check out their art opening “Blood, Guts & Gore”. I would describe it as a meditation on mortality and the body as raw material, ranging from the macabre to the whimsical. The show runs til March 5th – go for the art, stay for the tatooes and piercings.

Last night Luv-A-Fair brought back Post-punk, New Wave and Synthpop in a strong way at the Bowie-Glamball.

Celebrities nightclub caters to an eclectic mixture of people but this time it was exceptionally diverse – filled with sparkly aliens, androgenous club kids, glamorous models, gothic road warriors and eccentric aristocrats.

This is definitely the event to hit if you want to dress up and dance to old favourites like Japan, Depeche Mode, Gary Numan, Klaus Nomi, Eurythmics, Culture Club, Visage, Telex, The Normal, Sisters of Mercy, Joy Division, Duran Duran, Bauhaus, OMD, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Divine, Psychedelic Furs, Nina Hagen, Soft Cell, Human League, U2, Nine Inch Nails, Billy Idol, Spandau Ballet, Fad Gadget, Echo and the Bunnymen, Blondie, Devo, The Cure, Ladytron, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Grace Jones. etc.