Category Archives: Shebeen Club

Notre-Dame Cathedral in Ottawa via Asif A. Ali on Flickr

The Shebeen Club Opens in Ottawa

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Notre-Dame Cathedral in Ottawa via Asif A. Ali on Flickr

Notre-Dame Cathedral in Ottawa via Asif A. Ali on Flickr

Well, kittens, we’ve up and moved to Ottawa for the next few wintery months, a place where we have literally two connections to whom we are not related by blood, so we’re dusting off the Shebeen Club and looking for a new monthly home in the freezing-rainyest city on the planet.

We have also given the Facebook group a bit of a tune-up, with a fancy custom URL https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheShebeenClub/ and a call for new members and suggested venues. Our needs are simple.

For a Shebeen Club meeting, we need a room that won’t charge us for the space, but will supply waitstaff, foods and beverages, and be okay if everyone wants separate bills (everyone will). To start with, seating for a dozen should be adequate, and if it’s not, we’ll learn fast. Hopefully we can get to critical mass fairly quickly. We need this once a month, from about 6 to 9pm. We don’t need this for September, and probably not for October either, but for November, for sure.

We also need you to invite your literary friends who live in Ottawa, since right now our Ottawa membership consists of: me.

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!

Truman Capote, Shebeener in Spirit

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Truman, Truman, Truman.

Truman, Truman, Truman.

Truman Capote “assumes the position” after a strenuous evening of Shebeening. The mark of a true pro is the fact that he doesn’t spill his drink even while unconscious.

In related news, they let people into Studio 54 dressed like Barrettes Girl?