“He Got a Real Solution!” An Interview with Jerry Ewen by Brandy Beak Photos by Noriko Nasu-Tidball A huge chunk of living in the 21st century means to be swarmed up in competition your entire life and be always subjected to a ranking system. Jerry, a president of Playfair Canada and the founder of U-Win Institute, acknowledges this reality, but is proactive in changing this current social trend. Being grown up in a large family with abundant love and support is what motivated Jerry to work towards the goal of building a cooperative society. 37 years ago when Playfair first got started in Berkeley California, Jerry’s friend persuaded him to be involved in Playfair. The name “Playfair” comes from the notion of playing “fair”, a term arguing against finding the faults of others. The intention of first opening Playfair was to bring back the joy that is innately in all human beings, which gradually disappears after childhood.  Although he believes that it is never too late to re-experience childhood, he states that joy becomes a privilege only reserved for children, because it is expected for adults to “suppress it because you want to have business and be serious and get on with life.” He explains that like an adult protecting a child, adults define safety as trusting nobody. As a result of this, individuals are disconnected with each other. This phenomenon is what Playfair aims to scrape off. Playfair’s clientele are 1st year university students. The reason why the clientele is so specific is because new students are not yet affected by the culture of post-secondary schools. Thus, the 1st year students are easiest to change. At the same time, Jerry expects these students who participate in programs offered by Playfair to later create a...

Written by Hazel Choy – Resident Gardener   Relax under a shady sumac tree on our handmade bench – 5 June 13 Lady Bug @work in a patch of wild strawberries – 5 June 13 Roberta talking to locals admiring the summer flowers – 5 June 13 Water Garden expert Roberta Skye enjoying her creation – 5 June 13 Who knows what was originally on the site where the Kerrisdale Community Garden now sits, but some speculate it could have been a creek bed. A diverse and dedicated group of community members came together in 2011, under the leadership of Kerrisdale resident, Monica Tang, to transform the site at Angus Drive and West 60th Avenue into what is now the Kerrisdale Community Garden.We gathered at our first work party in March 2011, a mixture of children, young adults, adults and seniors, to dig up weeds, move rocks and build raised garden beds.  Wheelbarrows full of soil provided by the city were dumped into plots and debris was sifted out. With pure excitement and joy, children dug up and collected worms. By the end of a long day, we had built the foundation for what would become our community garden. Through sheer determination and hard work, by the end of our first season, we had constructed the plots, fence, pathways and a shed to house our tools.One challenge in our first year was the poor soil conditions, so to amend the soil, we planted buckwheat and other nitrogen fixing plants.  Over the past 3 years, we have had a passionate group who designed the communal spaces to include a harmonious arrangement of plants, a water garden, fruit trees, berry bushes, herbs, squash and flowers.  We had previously used black city composters, with little success due...

By Raffi Wineburg Dr. V Setty Pendakur takes his first sip of tea, momentarily mulls its taste, and then launches into discussion without prompt from a question. We had met a block from his Yaletown home on the silver-tabled patio of Sciue Italian Bakery. I arrived early to scope him out. But somehow he materialized from nowhere, introducing himself with a firm hand-shake. Dr. Pendakur, Professor Emeritus at UBC, is a highly distinguished academic, urban planner, and international planning consultant. His numerous online biographies—without much for personal detail—tell the story of a busy man. He’s advised governments (Canada, China and Singapore to name a few), been a visiting professor at over 20 institutions across the world, and cycled through service on all the important sounding nouns for distinguished groups of people (boards, councils, commissions, foundations, associations…) He’s bald on top with patches of wispy-white curly hair that stick out from the sides. Born in India, his accent remains thick, sometimes audibly rolling his r’s for a half-second at a time. The accent only adds to his already forceful style of speech. A former politician (Vancouver City Council), it shows in conversation—not in the negative knee-jerk manner we react to ‘politician’ but by virtue of his unfaltering eloquence. Whole paragraphs come out a time as if he had prepared each word before-hand. He’s a politician without the nonsense, answering questions directly, honestly. At times, Dr. Pendakur makes a bold statement, or asks a question which I hope is rhetorical, reclines in his chair from his forward angled position to take a quick rest—perhaps waiting for my response that never comes—then leans back towards me, finishing his thoughts with a renewed purpose. By the end of our interview he was interviewing me, and most of my...

The Nectarines and Plums in Glass Bowl (Photo courtesy of Winsor Gallery) By Katja De Bock Photos by Noriko Nasu-Tidball For a few moments, Ann Goldberg forgets about her fancy, but uncomfortable high heels as she stands on a podium, presenting her paintings to an audience of over 80 art pundits. Quite an accomplishment for a woman who considers herself a hermit. Goldberg, a photo-realist painter, held a preview for her upcoming exhibition “Eden” at her Vancouver home on April 24. The artist spoke with Kerrisdale Playbook Editor-in-Chief Keiko Honda and journalistKatja De Bock about the show, which can be seen from June 13 till July 12 at Winsor Gallery on East 1st Ave. “Personally, I don’t need a lot of attention. When I have a show, I find it a bit overwhelming,” Goldberg says. “I am happiest when I am in my studio, working. In the flow, I am the happiest person in the world.” The flow is something that Goldberg can’t easily explain. It seems to be a matter of getting into a mind space of being able to focus on one activity, excluding what is going on outside, while combining the scientific and artistic parts of her brain in the act of creation. Artistic inspiration in Edmonton Goldberg was raised in Edmonton. Her father was a pharmacist, her mother a sewer. She was inspired by her grandmother, a weaver who dyed and spun her own wool, and by her mother, who would enroll her in art classes and take her to the Edmonton Art Gallery. Because her older siblings and parents frequently spent evenings away from home, Goldberg found herself often alone, with her German shepherd, listening to music and drawing a world of monsters. “I was a bit of a hermit,” she says, adding that after a degree in...