Although discussed ad nauseum by well dressed Emily Carr Grads and maybe those who saw the recent Roy Arden or Frew Herzog shows at the VAG, I still think The Vancouver School, as loosely defined as it is, may be unknown to the majority of Vancouverites. I've pointed towards the Flickr group I started out of frustration with the Conceptual Group, which I found to be full of photoshopped abstract-surrealism, but I've never done a full post dedicated to the movement (although I did find this). So at the risk of watering down the original meaning or becoming another cliche of Vancouverism (Everything's Gone Green), and at the risk of coming across like a total amateur or at the very least a pretentious wannabe, here goes:

Typified by a calculated distance from its subject and an oblique, difficult beauty, of utmost importance to The Vancouver School, or at least the photorealism aspect of it, are the semiotics of the street; the secret meanings that unfold from a carefully composed snapshot. The imagery produced will inevitably be one of social critique vis a vis the seemingly banal built landscape. The subtle yet complex typology created are unassuming and vaguely cinematic. The large scale format often employed only magnifies the careful attention to detail, and sometimes absurd subject matter, leading the viewer to ask themelves, 'why am I looking at this'?

Local artist Andrew Salgado invited me out to his art opening at the Interurban Gallery, featuring the works of his series Boys' Night Out. Last night also happened to be Swarm 2008's focus on art galleries within Downtown and Gastown, and so after viewing his work and asking a few questions, we ventured around Gastown to view the talent this city has to offer.

Well, as promised, I'm back to offer up another rundown of the weekend's aesthetic highlights. And if you're not still recovering from last week's musical assault on the city or, like me, needing a heavy dose of solitude after a week spent re-acquainting yourself with the 'educational' life... there's a boatload of good art to be consumed over the next two days, and a variety of potentially 'enriching' ways to spend your time and money this weekend.

Theatre

• I would have loved to offer some in-depth coverage of the 2008 Fringe Festival, which runs from September 3-14, but I'm just too busy these days. If anyone would like to see their own show review published here at BR, send 'em my way. Regardless, get out there and support some of the best and ballsiest local talent in Vancouver. There's some highlights from the Straight and some previews at VancouverPlays to get you started. This city has an exciting theatre scene that shouldn't be taken for granted...

You know what's really KRAZY? It costs $19.95 to get into the VAG. Yup. More expensive than the Guggenheim, The Tate, The Metropolitan, the Louvre, and the Hermitage. And what do we have on display this month? Comics? Really?

OK that's a cheap shot. They've had some really good shows there in the past 2 years. The Herzog show, Pictorialism, the Tree show, Roy Arden and Monet to Dali. Although you have to wonder what else we could've curated if the director of the VAG wasn't in a huge rift with the National Gallery...

Now there is talk about moving the gallery to a fancy new building on the False Creek waterfront. Are they going to raise the rates again to pay for the move? Why do they need to build a brand new building? What about the Post Office? What is the old building going to be used for, other than selling pot?

This is my first attempt at what may become a regular feature here at Beyond Robson (though I'm away next week), the Friday art splatter - or arts platter, if you will. Aren't I clever? Ahem. Just a little rundown of the artsy stuff I think may be worth checking out for the weekend; there's always so many exciting things going on in this city come Friday that it can be tough to keep track...

It's been a while now since I've profiled any local visual arts or music happenings. It's not that there's been a dearth of great ways to spend an aesthetically enriching Vancouver weekend; it's just that by the time I've finally narrowed down what's worth doing, I hardly have the energy to write a blog post about it. With that in mind, I thought I'd highlight a couple of random events happening this weekend that may be worth your time. I already wrote about some cool Saturday stuff in today's Brew, but here's a few things on the radar and worth highlighting for Friday night.

When was the last time you downloaded a piece of music? Now another question; when was the last time you listened to a mixtape (or mix CD)? And no, muxtape does not count.

People have been swapping music illicitly for a long time, but with the rise of the internet the methods and scope of that sharing have changed completely. The most popular means of trading copyrighted material has been the emergent peer to peer technologies (all seemingly kneeling at the altar of bit torrent). Recent changes in copyright laws, combined with high-profile lawsuits (including last fall's shutdown of the world's most popular peer-to-peer network, Oink), have not only threatened the way fans consume their art, but have temporarily brought even more attention to and interest in downloading music illegally.

While this turnaround in music distribution has had an invariable effect on the artist, it's also profoundly changed the way us fanatics listen to our music (the death of real rock appreciation? the end of a true musical community?) With all this in mind, Cornershop Projects has brought together Ear to Ear at the Or Gallery, on display this weekend only: "a community-based, ad hoc archive of contemporary popular music and music ephemera." The show brings together visual, audio, and printed materials including 29 specially commissioned mix CDs which'll be given out over the weekend. There's also a conversation today at 5:00 (with lots of guests) and a closing night party on Sunday. More after the jump...