About Beyond Robson

Anna Volgina came to Vancouver several years ago, and has been searching for the city's soul ever since. Anna thinks that landscape impacts mindscape, often uses that as an excuse for her actions, and later blogs about it. She loves languages, snowboarding, hedonism, people, trying new things, and music, music, music. Having lived in different corners of the world, she hopes to one day travel to as many places as possible before settling down in Beijing, a city that captured her heart and is holding it hostage.

Ami spends countless hours working on his music and photography. He enjoys the hunt for a great live show and is addicted to his favourite restaurants, good websites, and pointless all-night car rides with friends. He hates to shop, feels dizzy when he reads on the bus, and gets hives whenever he eats shellfish; inexplicably, he continues to do all three. He loves to go camping and wishes he spent more time dozing in the shade of trees and smelling like a walking bonfire. Dare you to pronounce his name properly on the first try!

Callan Davey is a wide-eyed pen pusher that volunteers with some of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside organizations. Aside from her unfounded fear of Skytrains, she has embraced the fast-paced lifestyle of the city. With a passion for culture, she enjoys walking the streets of Vancouver with her trusty notepad searching for the rare and the captivating. Content spending almost every Sunday making brunch for her friends, Callan one day hopes to finally do the impossible: properly bake a cheesecake.

Born and raised "on the streets" of the veritable cultural metropolis of Terminal City, Duran frequently ponders the meaning of life from the comfort of his grey-walled cubicle while being a dorky nerd trying to save the world through his work in a green tech company. With his trusty well-engineered Japanese camera, his pretentious preference for certain caffeine dealers, and his deft-typing hands, he scours the city for experiences beyond the generic condos, ubiquitous sushi joints and Lululemon models this city is known for. He once counted all the lightbulbs in all of the rooms at SFU and VGH. No joke.

Jon Hilderman is a UBC grad, freelance writer, and geyser of inappropriate sarcasm. He now calls Yaletown home, and has subsequently seen more small dogs in fur-lined jackets than any man should in ten lifetimes. Jon recently had his iPod stolen, teaches ESL part-time, and owns a murse. These facts combined with his intense passion for all things artistic leave him teetering on the edge of complete Vancouver cliche. To compensate, he only eats food with artificial ingredients, and has a cat.

A Content Editor by day and Sports Journalist by the light of the moon, Karl can be seen air guitaring to the likes of Zakk Wylde and Eddie Van Halen and lip synching Ozzy Osbourne lyrics in his spare time. A hardcore sports fan, he can be seen living and dying--mostly dying--with his favorite sports teams. He has spent many a night pondering the fate of Tony Soprano and eagerly awaits the release of GNR's Chinese Democracy.

J.Z. Garrod is a voracious reader and a sometimes writer. When he's not sharpening his devastating wit, he's busy learning things that make him sound intelligent or raising his apartment army of near-dead plants. J.Z. previously studied English and Sociology at UBC and is excited to begin his Master's studies in Sociology at SFU after his recent foray into the nefarious world of management. He has an instatiable curiosity and lust for all things Vancouver and has a penchant for dangerous combinations; like chewing gum and walking, or disc-golf.

Sean doesn't like cars, corporate media, factory farming, the GDP, TV, republicans, corn, Korn, yoga wear, yoga, people who do yoga, yoda, Voda, homophobes, xenophobes, people who stand on the left of the elevator, who feed birds bread, who walk on the bike path, who try and get on the skytrain when you're getting off. Probably lots of other stuff. Oh, and America. Almost forgot. I like cats. My cat's name is Pino. He is orange and he is poopy.

Ryan Weal has a chronic restaurant addiction. He has been in Vancouver for about a decade and worked his way up from a meat and potatoes diet to a more diversified palate of sushi and curry seven days a week. Since Ryan has never cooked anything for himself, beyond maybe a piece of toast, he feels the need to share with you his experiences and varied reasons for haunting many cafes around town.