Thurs. April 13 - Canadian rock and roll band makes three Island stops on tour

TOGETHER WITH

Good morning !

Yesterday we asked whether you thought Victoria and Saanich should amalgamate, and nearly 2,500 of you voted! You’ll find those results at the bottom of today’s newsletter.

We’ll have to wait and see what the results are from the citizens’ assembly that we told you about in yesterday’s top story.

Going deeper, here’s today’s poll question:

ARTS

Pink Mountaintops makes three Island stops on its tour with the finale in Victoria

Check out the itinerary for Pink Mountaintops’ latest tour. The psych-pop-folk-punk-et-al side project of Black Mountain guitar wizard and Vancouverite Stephen McBean is hitting Cumberland, Nanaimo, and Victoria. Obviously for Islanders, this is exciting news, but these are not conventional tour stops for a musician whose band once opened for Coldplay on a stadium tour, and who took Bon Iver on that outfit’s first tour a couple years later.

McBean has unofficially dubbed this the “Going Coastal” or the “Relic Beachcomber Tour” and linked up with veteran Victoria punk promoter Marcus Pollard to book shows in corners of the province that don’t typically see this kind of rock ‘n’ roll attention. He also said it’s a chance for him to catch up with old friends on the Island, post-pandemic.

“It's harder and harder to catch up sometimes. So, I was like, hey, I can just knock out a whole bunch of visits at once, see the friends, spread some love,” McBean says, speaking on the phone from his adopted home of Los Angeles.

The current touring iteration of Pink Mountaintops includes actor-musician Tygh Runyan on bass and Andrew Moszynski on drums, though each stop will feature a rotating cast of guest musicians.

The Island stops kicked off last night in Cumberland at the Waverley Hotel. The next show is tonight in Nanaimo at The Queen’s, and the final show is at Upstairs Cabaret in Victoria on Saturday at 6:30pm.

Read the full feature on Pink Mountaintops and how the 2022 album Peacock Pools came to life in our sister publication, the Georgia Straight.

Capital Bulletin

☁️ Today’s weather: Cloudy with skies clearing at night. High 10C / low 1C

🌊 New leadership at COAST: The Centre for Ocean Applied Sustainable Technologies announced Jason Goldsworthy as its new executive director.

COMMUNITY

As spring blooms all around, local volunteers are cutting out the invasive species

In recent weekends dozens of volunteers have been heading out to local parks to restore habitats by removing invasive plants, with work in View Royal’s Knockan Hill Park and UVic’s Queenswood revitalizing thousands of metres. It’s all part of the Greater Victoria Green Team’s environmental stewardship, which teaches people to recognize and remove invasive plants to help local species and habitats.

Himalayan blackberry season is starting, and the people out there to remove the bushes have a much less pleasant time than those out there to pick the berries. Sharp thorns are eager to punish any assailant not wearing leather gloves, long sleeves, and thick pants.

But the volunteers have weapons of their own, and their shovels, loppers, and hand pruners fall not only on blackberry bushes but also the light-blocking, water-stealing English ivy; sticky and fast-spreading bur chervil; poisonous and persistent Daphne shrubs; and yellow and prolific Scotch broom. The real fight, though, is not against their thorns and stems but against their spread.

It can be prickly and tiring work, but for these volunteers the feeling of protecting local environments is sweeter than any berry. Read more about them and the work they do in our feature story.

The next removals are April 14-15 on the Gulf Islands and April 19 at Highrock Cairn Park in Esquimalt, followed by planting native shrubs on April 23 at Ocean View Park in Colwood.

POLITICS

SD62 board member Ravi Parmar will be NDP’s candidate for Horgan’s former seat

The second candidate to throw their hat in the race for the Langford-Juan de Fuca byelection is Ravi Parmar. The announcement was made yesterday as he launched his campaign for the BC NDP. Parmar is currently the Sooke School District board chair.

Parmar was born in Victoria and raised in Langford. He was the youngest school trustee in the country when he was elected to the Sooke School District, and he has served as board chair for SD62 since 2017. He is also a senior advisor to BC’s Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation Brenda Bailey.

The seat became open after former premier John Horgan stepped down as MLA on March 31. Parmar is the second candidate announced for this riding. The first was Camille Currie, who announced her candidacy on April 6 representing the BC Green Party.

TOGETHER WITH HEART PHARMACY

Pharmacists are key during family doctor shortage

Heart Pharmacy wants Victorians to know all their community pharmacists can do - which may just save folks from scrambling to find a walk-in appointment.

Pharmacists can provide emergency prescription refills of up to 30 days, providing temporary relief to secure a doctor’s appointment. They can also renew a prescription if the medication has been consistently used with no changes in the last 6 months. While this does not apply for every medication (e.g. asthma inhalers), many commonly prescribed medications are considered.

Bouncing between clinics often hides the big picture of someone’s current medications; medication reviews are free for those who have taken 5 or more medications in the last 6 months.

You can view an extensive list of services that BC pharmacists are qualified to offer on the Heart Pharmacy website.

Capital Picks

🐾 Best in Show, An Animal Adventure: Catch this drag and burlesque showcase hosted by Charlie Creamfill tonight at the Victoria Event Centre. [Tickets]

🏠 The next phase is here! Introducing ELIZA South. Offering 1-bedroom, 1-bedroom + den, and 2-bedroom suites. Discover why so many others are calling ELIZA home! Register today!*

🤠 The Rodeo at Sherwood: Experience an evening of music, improv, and signature cocktails with local queer comedy duo Cowboy kicking off at 8pm tonight. [Tickets]

🤝 Now hiring: Retail Supervisor at Butchart Gardens.

*Sponsored Listing

In Other News

🛬 Victoria on Forbes list of world’s 23 best 2023 destinations
Victoria joined Edmonton on the travel list, with the write-up praising a “compact, walkable city” that has outdoor adventures, presents Indigenous culture, and takes sustainability initiatives. Destination Greater Victoria recently told Capital Daily that tourists are increasingly looking for green efforts from the places they may visit.

🤘 UVic prof’s art featured in new Metallica video
Visual arts professor Kelly Richardson is an internationally acclaimed and environmentally focused digital artist, and her work now stars in Metallica’s new video for album title track “72 Seasons.” The video’s director and visual art curator had both been following Richardson’s work and approached her about using three of her pieces. Video viewers have called the artwork “suitably apocalyptic”—as an environmental activist, Richardson often reflects the human impact on the natural landscape.

In Case You Missed It

🏙️ Victoria-Saanich amalgamation exploration back underway: Plus, a new challenger for the open Westshore MLA seat, and backlash to its former occupant Horgan’s new job. That and more in Wednesday’s Capital Daily.

🧨 Police bust turns up dynamite stick: West Shore RCMP said that dynamite and a detonator was found through Langford and Victoria search warrants that they claim also turned up illicit drugs and pills, cash, and replica handguns.

⚡️ Do you work in government and tech? Then sign up for Button Inc.’s free twice-monthly newsletter and up your digital communications, user experience, and customer relationships!*

📄 See Spring Wellness Coalition is helping unhoused people complete paperwork: The grassroots coalition of local residents is guiding people through the process of applying for an ID and benefits that they qualify for. The pilot project is currently running Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9am to 3pm. [CHEK]

⚾️ Fireworks return to Royal Athletic Park as the HarbourCats unveiled four fireworks games this summer.

*Sponsored Listing

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