This month, the magazine brings out some love for Van City’s own Martini who’s opened up Freshman, Voya in the Loden Hotel, and some quoteables from Mr. West himself. I recall only last year, one of the writers spent eight hours on hold waiting to speak with Donald Trump – for his perseverance, he the ultimate reward – a few minutes with the big man himself. Here’s to hoping there’s a comeback of that type of journalism soon.

As for my work? This month, I only contributed a couple photos – guess which ones on page 19, the ’30 days of style in Vancouver.’.

It strikes me that the credit crunch is affecting alot of publications as of late. 24hrs and Metro are ever thinner with layoffs on the horizon but INFAMOUS is still weighing in at a healthy 23 pages. Kudos to them for still being relevant to advertisers and putting out editorial that readers want.

My role in writing somewhere between 2500 and 3000 words a month for the monthly social events feature on page 5 and 7 has been changed since Fred Lee already does this for the Courier. Instead, my photos will be featured throughout the publication on a regular basis – more my style anyways and I won’t be stressing out anymore over a publication deadline – *whew*

In this month’s issue, my photo of Noot Seear taken at this year’s Quente event was featured for a mini-blurb about Noot Seear posing in Playboy France on page 5. Renown photog Luis Sanchis gets the credit for the nude photography of Noot (aka Renata) Seear – you can check out the action HERE. Oh.. did I mention that it was about Noot Seear? Just checking…

The rest of my work can be spotted on page 15 in the 30 days of style section featuring Rick Campanelli, Cindy Busby and Michell Morgan on the red carpet at the Edgwater Casino, Erin Cebula, Tommy Gilmartin, Jason Matlo, Benhamin Arthur, Mark Rurknecht, Andy Chu and Sara Lynn at the Centre for Performing Arts and Catharine Ann and Marc Joncas at Players Chophouse.

My favourite? It’s a toss up between the Matlo-Gilmartin union and the Ann-Joncas one. Either way, I always smile when I see em.

If you truly can’t get enough of me (stalker), feel free to tune into the radio on Thursday mornings. I sit in with Jenn and Joe on TALK 1410AM between 9:15am and 9:30am HERE. Working with Joe Leary, Jennifer Thomson and producer Renee Lukacs is terrific. Also check out the Urban Mixer blog (every couple days) as it’s updated as quickly as we have content HERE.

Wicked events coverage, a look at the hot new Trattoria Italian Kitchen, cool industry notes, a red hot fashion shoot and more, it’s worth the pickup.

This month, Social Shot is back to two pages and features lots of great photos – BUZZ ’08 at MCL Motor Cars, the BRAVE Art opening, MUNNY, Trattoria Italian Kitchen and more. Get it fast before they’re all gone and see you at the party.

With the deets on new restaurants like Revel which is at 238 Abbott Street, a teaser for POP Opera, DHM’s newest addition, some words on Trattoria Italian Kitchen, Ping’s, and the $35 tasting menu at Restaurant Connor Butler, you can’t go wrong. They even covered Obakki’s Spring Show and Calvin Yu put together a wild ‘Urban Isolation’ fashion shoot.

As the regular page 5 ‘Social Shot’ guy (it’s aptly named after the amount of shots I might have to consume in a night), my content gets put up in lights first. It’s my job to reel ‘em in… after that, the newspaper is read page by page, right to the end.

In May, I visited a bunch of places including the new Tunnel Nightclub, the LEO Awards and a Wake for the very much alive Chip Wilson who recently ran his first annual (living) memorial mile. To sum it all up, Vancouver keeps getting better and better. If you’re on the streets and see INFAMOUS, get it, before they’re all gone.

My column in the May issue brought the best of what happened in April – a new cocktail list at OPUS Bar, the Vancouver Fashion Week Gala, Tanya Slingsby’s Atelier opening, the Lamplighter’s grand opening under the management of DHM and more.

As for a favourite? I’d say the all media preview at OPUS – upon setting foot in OPUS Bar, guests were greeted with a Pecorino cheese and fig paste lolipop – something concocted by the brave and daring minds at OPUS Catering. It was exquisite and set the tone for the evening. I got to rub shoulders with Rockin’ Ronnie Shewchuk, the barbeque king, and Brad Stanton, arguably one of the best bartenders in the city.

My column, Social Shot, always seen as the first thing you read in INFAMOUS (yea, pretty sweet gig,) covered a number of openings – new Gastown landmarks, Isabella Egan’s Gallery, John Fluevog’s Flagship Store in the old location of Richard Kidd, and a big day for Chef David Hawksworth who, after leaving his post at West, announced the opening of his new restaurant which will occur in 2009 at the Hotel Georgia.

Saving the best for last, one of the most amazing experiences of the month had to be in meeting megachef Daniel Boulud. A super nice guy, Boulud, who’s partnered up with David and Manjy Sidoo from Lumiere, made an appearance on March 13th to announce the opening of DB Bistro Moderne. Vancouver’s top chefs, Pino Posteraro, Vij, Tojo and others came out to show their support – it was truly amazing. In the words of the folks at UrbanDiner, with respect to Rob Feenie, ‘Lumiere and Feenies owners David and Manjy Sidoo have traded in their Mercedes for a Rolls [Royce].’

At the event, we also got a sneak peak at the floorplan for the remodel of Feenie’s and Lumiere which will take place somewhere after June 2008. Until then, they’ve got the $40 tasting bites on in the bar/lounge as well as regular menu service in the dining room. You can find out more about that in my other blog post, HERE.

Back to INFAMOUS, if you see it, pick it up. They can’t keep ‘em on the shelves no matter how many they print – heck, even I can’t get a copy without staking myself out at the delivery locations during distribution night.

www.infamousmagazine.net

A look at the new Yew in the Four Seasons, great wines, Naked and Famous Jeans, and way more. I even got two full pages for the Social Shot this month.

As for the month’s activities. Our friend Olivia Cheng joined the Burlesque Beauties as Madamme Manhattan, the folks at Dutil got Naked and Famous, they killed Cupid at Nu and more. Check out INFAMOUS on the newsstands – it hits every month at your favourite local hipster hangout.

I recall the nights.. going to Plan B’s opening. Going to the Vancouver Art Gallery and meeting Summer Lea – thereafter going to Mysala on Granville and out of the blue, local personality, Papa Guj, says yea… I know Summer. Who doesn’t he know?

.. then there was Jack Evrensel at Blue Water, and the new addition to the OPUS team, Rachel Sehl. Yup, February was a good month – and a good month for INFAMOUS. You can always check them out online, HERE.

December was a good month. Great food, awesome events including the launch of Imagine1Day at Chip and Shannon Wilson’s home and a calendar chock full of celebration.

As always, INFAMOUS was on the cutting edge, getting access to places that even I hadn’t got the press release to yet.  Hot new places, cool new things and great events. Check out INFAMOUS Magazine and the latest issue, HERE.

With an interview of Dan Wuertele aka DJ Timeline, this issue is something you don’t want to miss.

As for my section, in November and December I put down the camera at alot of places and picked up a drink. The most notable event in my mind, Urban Mixer’s own Gallery Series event at auto/ONE where we got to fill the luxury car dealership, enjoy drinks by U’Luvka, Whistler Beer and Barefoot Wines and got some fantastic food by Chefs Connor Butler and Kodai Uno. … not that I’m biased or anything but events like that are certainly few and far between.