Category Archives: Monthly Meetings

Shebeen Club Jump Start Tuesday, May 27

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Whee! We're back!

Whee! We’re back!

That’s right, we’re back, bitches! For ONE NIGHT ONLY, the Shebeen Club returns to the back corner of the Shebeen at 7pm Tuesday, May 27 for drinks and eats and catching up on what we’ve all been doing in the what, six? eight? months since last we met.

Heading into our ninth year of existence, I’m sure we have a lot to share and boast and bitch about. I, personally, have some SOOPER EXCITING news that I am saving for the night. There’s no point emailing and asking; I won’t tell you. You gots to put your butt in a chair at the actual event.

Here’s the Facebook post.

It’s high time we Shebeened again! I hereby invite you and your literary homies to the May 2014 meeting of the Shebeen Club, one of Vancouver’s longest-lived literary gatherings. Bring your latest work, your attitude, and your ravenous thirst (for knowledge, of course!) to the Shebeen at 7pm on Tuesday, May 27.

Who knows, you might end up reading some lovely poetry, like Rik Mayall here and his highly supportive audience!

Shebeen Spirited September Meeting: this THURSDAY!

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Gaze into the Void

Gaze into the Void: image by Zbigniew M. Bielak

Come gaze into the void, or at least a warming glass of whisk(e)y with the scintillating members of the Shebeen Club this Thursday at six o’clock. Where else but the Shebeen? Don’t come early, because they won’t be open. And I PROMISE this time I won’t be two hours late. Jeremy Hammond could break out of MCC and kidnap Sabu on behalf of the Syrian Electronic Army and call me to interview them all live and I will still walk away from the keyboard instead of writing it up, I vow it.

All are welcome to our little literary gathering, and anyone with a freshly-written ghost or noir story will be accorded pride of place.

No cost to attend, pay for what you order, the kitchen is excellent and the bar is stunning. This week we’re in the Irish Heather’s snug instead of the Shebeen due to a double-booking issue.

For the facebook-inclined, there is an event, for easy calendar-addification.

If you’ve published a book, gotten a gig, or any other good news lately, by all means come out and boast. If you’ve got books or CDs, bring some along for signing and selling.

Shebeen Club Reunion Party: Thursday, August 22

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Typical Shebeen scene

Typical Shebeen scene

We’re BACK, BITCHES!

That’s right, Vangroover’s classiest literary gathering returns for One Night Only. Or will commit to One Night Only. You know how that goes.

This upcoming Thursday, August 22nd at 6pm, let’s meet up in the Shebeen and talk about old times and new times and, as ever, bitch about getting paid on time. If you’ve published a book since the last time we got together, bring some and we’ll let you show off. If you’ve gotten a new writing/editing/publishing gig since we last met, boast and we will applaud you.  If you’ve created an entire spoken word opera based on the Kardashians, please, in the name of Wagner, keep it to yourself.

Who’s welcome? Everyone except hostile drunks. If you’ve never been to the Shebeen Club before, well, it’s a group for practicing literati, whether they’re making a living at it or not. Writers, editors, publishers, book illustrators, printers, journalists, bloggers, poets, and not a few reprobates. They add a certain style to the mix.

Dress code: Dress writerly. Nobody knows what that means so you can’t get it wrong!

Pay for what you order, and don’t forget to tip nicely. We don’t want them getting annoyed with us after eight years, do we?

For the Facebook-dependent, the event is listed, and I quite frankly got so excited I blew $50 on Facebook ads. What can I say, it’s been a couple of years since our last get-together, and I lost my head.

Directions: the Shebeen is a “secret” pub, so it’s not going to have a giant neon sign out front. Go to the Irish Heather, 210 Carrall Street at the foot of Gastown in Maple Tree Square almost kitty-corner to Chill Winston. Go into the Irish Heather and straight through and out the back door. Turn right, because if you don’t you will walk smack into a brick wall. The door to the Shebeen is just a little ways on, on your left.

The Menu: no dinner special this time, but the menu is constantly changing and always high-quality. Don’t show up early, because they won’t be open yet!

VCon Debrief: the Shebeen Club for October 3

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VCon Poster

VCon Poster

Calling all SciFi fans… just a quick and dirty note to let you know our next Shebeen Club meeting will be this coming Monday, October 3, upstairs at the Revel Room, 238 Abbott Street just off Water in Gastown. Once again, they’re laying a special menu on for us as part of the meeting, for only $20: please pay your proprietor Ian Alexander Martin of Atomic Fez publishing. Dinner and a drink is included with your admission.

VCon, for those of you who live in the 17th Century, is the biggest event of the year for speculative fiction of all kinds. We’re hoping to coax a few special guests to overcome their shyness and share Monday with us. Given that the guests of VCon run the gamut from Larry Niven to, well, the Shebeen Club’s Fearless Leader, it’s guaranteed to be an entertaining and speculative indeed crew.

Please note: the Shebeen Club meeting is NOT officially a cosplay event. But discreet Spock ears are welcome.

6pm-9pm Monday, October 3 2011, Revel Room Upstairs lounge, 238 Abbott Street, Vancouver

$20 cash includes dinner, a drink, the VCon debrief, and our glamorous and scintillating company.

This is short notice, so while RSVPs are welcome, they’re not compulsory. Just show up with your smiling face and try not to wear a red shirt.

Jack Layton was afraid of NOTHING I tell you!

Jack Layton was afraid of NOTHING I tell you!

How to Pitch Your Thing to the Media: the AUDIO

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So, finally, I have completed the editing of the audio for last month’s event with Stephen Quinn: How to Pitch Your Thing to the Media. Profuse thanks again to Mr. Quinn for his amazing generosity and enthusiasm throughout the entire organizing and carrying-out of the event.

Due to a few limitations that WordPress.com has for blogs hosted on their servers, the file is being stored over on the Atomic Fez Publishing web-site, in its own little Shebeen-dedicated folder. Thus, the MP3 ends up being declared an “outside source” by some anti-virus programmes and ad-block-based browser plug-ins. Should you get some sort of “hey! whattya doing! this could be bad!” warnings when you click the link below, reassure your software or browser that all is well, and to let you do what you want to.

Instead of clicking the little [PLAY] button immediately below and not moving for awhile, some of you might want to [right click] the words in the link, and select something like “Save link as…” or “Save target as…”, and thus download the file to listen to on your iPod or in the car, or wherever you listen to sound files that run 85 minutes in length.

How Not to Get the Media’s Attention

How Not to Get the Media’s Attention

How to Pitch Your Thing to the Media

Yes, that’s right, the file is nearly one hour-and-a-half long. I tried to trim out as much irrelevant material as possible — especially my prattling nonsense — but the problem is that Stephen Quinn is so gosh-darned informative and entertaining, that this is the shortest I could make it without taking forever to provide the audio. Hopefully Mr. Quinn will be amenable to returning in the near future so that we can hear more specifically on the topic of “journalism in the new millennium”, now that we’re in the post News of the World reality that he had the fortune of investigating whilst filling in at As it Happens this past fortnight.

The media package Mr. Quinn mentions at the 15 minute mark is the one you see in the photo above. An astonishingly odd piece of promotional material, even without the context that he places it within as part of his talk. Click the image for “biggification”.

The material Mr. Quinn plays is from Ira Basen’s six-part series “Spin Cycles”, which was twice run as part of CBC Radio1’s The Sunday Edition in 2007. You can learn more about that series — as well as access all six highly informative instalments — at this link RIGHT HERE.

I look forward to repeating the success of this event September 19th, upstairs at the Revel Room (on Abbott, between West Cordova and Trounce Alley).