Photo Courtesy of Jer’s Vision This is a guest post from the team at Jer’s Vision to celebrate Day of Pink. Jer’s Vision works with over 75,000 youth ever year, running conferences, workshops, and supporting youth initiatives. Find out more, volunteer & donate at JersVision.org. Also, join them at their Annual Gala celebrating the Day of Pink featuring Rick Mercer; the FREE EVENT is on April 11, 2012 at 6:30 at Tabaret Hall, at the University of Ottawa (75 Laurier Av E). Shannon and Melanie are volunteer workshop facilitators with Jer’s... | Continue reading article

Photo courtesy of the Rick Mercer Report Ottawa-based Jer’s Vision is a national organization committed to ending homophobia in schools and youth communities through outreach and educational programming. This week, Jer’s Vision will host its 7th annual Day of Pink Gala at Tabaret Hall. As part of the programming, Jer’s Vision is awarding Role Model of the Year Awards to Rick Mercer and the late Jack Layton. In the wake of the tragic death of Jamie Hubley in Ottawa last year, the fight to create safe and inclusive spaces for... | Continue reading article

The Easter weekend – regardless of when it falls – always feels like the first official spring weekend. In that vein, we’ve got some spring-inspired events lined up for you: ‘mo diggity returns for a post-winter dance party, it’s the Fuzzy Bunny Slaughterhouse Easter Extravaganza, and both the Diefenbunker and the Agricultural Museum will have hunts for chocolate. Art shows get sassy this weekend, as Patrick John Mills tells you to Quit Your Job, and Sue Ukkola’s show is None of Your Beeswax. It’s also the first Thursday art walk... | Continue reading article

Photo courtesy of blurasis on Flickr. Thanks to all of you who have donated to our funding drive so far! We’re really happy to be partnering with Kichesippi to offer this great deal for the drive and we hope that you’ll join us for a special evening at the brewery in April to thank you for your donation. Thanks to Ben, Brian, Tom, Natalie, Francois, Stephan and Mark who donated this week! You can find our post with all the details on how to make your donation, online here. We’re... | Continue reading article

Photo courtesy of jonschofield from the Apartment613 Flickr Group At this week’s Apartment613 Editorial meeting we invited some of our contributors to make suggestions for what to see at the Bytowne and Mayfair over the next bit. They scanned the calendars and came up with the following suggestions. Check bytowne.ca and mayfairtheatre.ca for showtimes. A Separation: I’ve wanted to see this since I saw the previews; it looks compelling and I think it’s important to support theatre from an area of the world that doesn’t necessarily get much artistic expression to the... | Continue reading article

As many loyal readers of Apartment613 have likely noted, for the past year or so we have been putting together a weekly radio show for CHUO called Apartment613 Live. We’re interviewing some great artists, foodies, bloggers, musicians, and newsmakers each Thursday from 4-5pm. You can tune in at 89.1FM or keep an eye on the blog for our show posts, where you can listen to the audio. You can also subscribe in iTunes, or by RSS to your favourite podcast aggregator. Now… we also need your help! It’s funding drive time... | Continue reading article

Photo courtesy of guidedbycthulhu on Flickr Urban Forum is a series of public events intended to create dialogue and discussion on planning issues in Ottawa. Apartment613 will be live-blogging from the Urban Forum event this evening, so if you can’t make it out in-person, you can follow along here starting at 7:00pm. If you’re move into twitter, follow Stephan Telka and Ryan Saxby Hill for live updates. Tonight’s Urban Forum will feature Dr. David Gordon from Queen’s University who will present The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: A historical... | Continue reading article

Photo by J. B. Hildebrand, jbhildebrand.com Post by Nick Charney Recognising that “Government Town” might be one of the adjectives that come to mind when thinking about Ottawa, we recruited public-servant-blogger-renaissance-man Nick Charney for an occasional series on the culture of the public service. He will be highlighting the interesting personalities running our national government and the cool stuff they get up to in the nation’s capital. You can read more from Nick on his blog CPSRenewal. I was chilling at the Bridgehead in Hintonburg, making some final notes in preparation for my... | Continue reading article

Zaphod’s got more memories – sordid, sentimental or otherwise – then most 20 year olds. Located in the heart of the Byward Market, the bar is a staple of Ottawa’s nightlife frequented by students and professionals, tourists and locals alike. Like any local watering hole, the bar has some idiosyncrasies that set it apart from anyplace else on earth… or the galaxy for that matter. The strictly enforced 11pm curfew for music shows springs to mind, a policy loved by people with day jobs and hated by everyone else. There’s... | Continue reading article

The family of Ottawa cyclist Nathan Anderson, who died on Feb. 19 after being struck by an allegedly drunk driver, released a statement this week thanking all those who provided help following the accident. The family’s statement asked for privacy and also calls on citizens to keep Ottawa’s streets safe for travelers. “In spite of losing him, we will remember Ottawa as the city Nathan preferred to live in and to get around by biking, walking and using public transit. Please keep on doing whatever you can to keep the... | Continue reading article