After 11 years of bringing you local reporting, the team behind the Vancouver Observer has moved on to Canada's National Observer. You can follow Vancouver culture reporting over there from now on. Thank you for all your support over the years!

Jason Hall

Jason Hall, Senior Editor - Arts & Culture, brings his passion for the local side of the Vancouver arts scene to the Vancouver Observer. Having grown up in a family of artists and theatrical designers of various sorts, he developed an early love for visual as well as performing arts. 
 
Previous to taking up the pen, he played clarinet with a number of orchestras in Canada (including the Vancouver Symphony), and continues to perform around the city. He also cycle commutes to Burnaby where he works as Marketing Content Writer for Webtech Wireless (a software company), and is instructor for BCIT’s Associate Certificate in Technical Writing program. 
See his website at JasonHall.ca and follow him on twitter: @jasonhall_ca

New Music Festival takes centre stage

As her music started, the ceiling and walls of the Orpheum flew away, revealing the star-filled heavens.

Colin MacDonald’s Orchestra: A Pocket Full of Fun

If you'd ventured out November first to hear Colin MacDonald’s Pocket Orchestra at the Orpheum Annex—you would have found a different warmth: New Music both witty and fun.

"Les Miserables" Delivers Triple Punch

It’s about revolution. In Turkey, they’re singing “Do you hear the people sing?” in defiance of the water cannons and bullets of Taksim Square.

Keeping it weird in Portland: cycling the brew pubs

Should you choose to bike the brews, you might run into a condition at about hour ten on the first day: getting too hopped.

A trip from Vancouver, BC to Santiago de Cuba: Son, Salsa, and Santeria

Still smarting from last year’s trip to Epcot, I was looking for real culture and that’s what brought me to Santiago de Cuba—the second largest city in Cuba.

Midori lives up to “sensational” VSO billing

I have a few favoured restaurants in Vancouver where, on a cold winter’s night, I can find reliable comfort food. On Friday, I was rewarded after a ten-kilometre cycle in the cold with an excellent...

Province's new mandatory pedestrian helmet law takes effect tomorrow

Starting tomorrow, if you plan to walk on city streets, you’ll need to be wearing one of the province-approved pedestrian safety helmets (PSH).

Biking, Copenhagen-style

Bicycles Rule the Streets of Copenhagen: an interview with a Vancouver expat living (and cyclist) in Copenhagen shows what’s possible for commuter biking.

Unforgettable bicycle trips around Paris: Notre Dame, Château de Vincennes, Arc de Triomphe

A personal and funny take on the very best cycling paths around France's gorgeous capital, Paris.

What Vancouver can learn from Paris: bike-sharing

How is it that Paris, with its frenetic traffic, is actually less scary for cyclists than Vancouver? Read on to learn about Paris' "go-with-the-flow" attitude bicycles and its bike sharing system.