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...

With both Duran and I recovering from the weekend/Canada Day, the review for last Friday night's FUSE at the Vancouver Art Gallery is a few days late. Usually, these monthly parties last until midnight, but twice a year an all-nighter is held that lets you stay until 6 a.m. (there's breakfast at the Café in the morning!) I made it until close to 4. Duran left a little earlier, which might have had something to do with liquor service stopping so early.

We arrived at the party around 9, when the line-up was still tolerable. Later, it began to stretch all the way down Homer Hornby Street, and getting in took a while. Once inside, we were given schedules of what shows were on at what time. There was plenty to cover, and there was a ton that I ended up missing over the course of the night. Duran's photos (slide show after the break) alone were full of surprises - I didn't catch a lot of the performances because I spent the first part of my night trying to get all the people I was with in one location. Tip #1: go with one or two friends. If you go with a group, don't count on staying together. You'll end up wasting a lot of time and cell phone minutes.

Art. Wine. Tuange. Theatre. And hot bodies.

FUSE is back once again. And for the second time in my memory of the VAG, the partay won't stop until the early 'morn. Six in the 'morn to be exact. Come see some KRAZY! DragonballZ-infused anime, mixed in with the art of female Canadian modernists. Arowbe will be holdin' it down too along with July Fourth Toilet in the music department (loving the 'stache). And the nifty-est event of the night in my honest opinion will be the 12_Hour Comic Draw, where a comic book will be conceived from start to finish over the entire event by the talent of local artists. This among a plethora of other entertaining performances guaranteed to at least make you think "WTF".

A perennial Vancouver favourite, Hot One Inch Action once again takes over Gallery Gachet this Saturday, May 24 at 8pm sharp. Here's your chance to hob knob with the hottest art audience in town and watch panic stricken attendees breathlessly search out that elusive button that has everyone talking. Or just kick back and ride the wave of hundreds of people all mingling, bumping and talking to each other in this unique, one-night-only world.

Conceived by Jim Hoehnle and Chris Bentzen in 2004, this is the fifth, and possibly final year, for Hot One Inch Action in it's present state. A simple idea to get 50 artists to design the artwork for 50 different buttons, sold at the show for five bucks a bag - you take what you get and trade up the rest in a scene that, at times, resembles a stock market's closing hour. This year has an added bonus: they are raffling off all five years of hot action for a total of 250 unique buttons up for grabs. As they say: "Don't think you need that many buttons? Wait until you're in the heat of the moment." That's what it's all about.

While the marriage of art and protest was on the minds of the creators at the beginning, the event has become so popular they sell out of buttons within a few hours and find the thing takes on a life of it's own soon after doors open. It's become a template for social interaction, merging the high with the low brow. Redefining a familiar scene into something outside the bubble. Oh yeah, and it's a total blast as well. Keep reading for an interview with one of the creators...

I have a confession to make.

I secretly long to be a student at Emily Carr.

And although I love my job as a happily-employed engineer, there are times where my creativity lacks a certain outlet. I mean, just think about it, instead of performing complex Fourier transforms and utilizing Bernoulli's equation in ways I couldn't care less about, I could have been making great profound art or designing the next big sustainable thing-a-majigger at a fantastic institution. Many of my friends, who have attended or are attending the newly-minted university have always done such cool and funky shit.

Attending Saturday's Emily Carr Undergrad Exhibition definitely reaffirmed these beliefs of mine. To say it was an overcrowded zoo would be a serious understatement - it was uber-busy. But that was just indicative of how popular this yearly show has become. The $3 wine and beer made it all the better too... From a sock ball a gynecologist could only love, to massive sized sugar cubes (I confirmed that it was indeed sucrose) strategically placed in a symbolic pattern, to a sod patch complete with boxing gloves - it was all there.

Just a quick note that this Saturday on May 3rd, the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design... ahem, I mean Emily Carr University of Art and Design, will be having their annual opening night gala complete with snacks and the usual wheat and grape-based beverages. I highly recommend this event to anyone with any interest in the arts, cinema, animation or design!