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Hot Entertainment: Fan Expo Vancouver

Adam West as Batman

What do Burt Ward (Batman), Adam West (Batman), Kevin Sorbo (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys) and Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk) have in common? They’re all coming to town Apr. 21 and 22 for Fan Expo Vancouver, along with Kristen Bauer (True Blood), Jeremy Bulloch (Star Wars), Nicholas Brendon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Michael Dorn (Star Trek: The Next Generation)—and scores of other pop-culture favourites from film, TV, games, comics and anime. Don your geekiest costume and head to the Vancouver Convention Centre for celebrity autographs and photo ops, workshops and seminars with industry professionals, and panel discussions with sci-fi, fantasy and horror authors. Be sure to check out the sketching duels, in which comic artists go pen to pen to produce original art that immediately goes up for auction. And may the Force be with you.—Sheri Radford

Hot Entertainment: The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest photo by David Cooper

The tone is anything but earnest in Oscar Wilde’s beloved farce that examines the theme of triviality and skewers Victorian social conventions. The Importance of Being Earnest runs until Apr. 15 at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage.—Sheri Radford

Hot Entertainment: Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival

Cherry blossom tree photo by Tom Ryan courtesy Tourism BC

Snow may be falling elsewhere in Canada, but here on the West Coast only cherry blossom petals are falling. In the 1930s, Japan gave Vancouver more than 37,000 ornamental cherry trees. An additional 3,000 trees were planted last year for the city’s quasquicentennial (125th birthday). The annual Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival (Apr. 5 to 28) celebrates the delicate pink blooms with a bouquet of special events, everything from zen yoga to heritage walks to bike tours.—Sheri Radford

Hot Entertainment: Elvis Costello Plays Vancouver

Musician Elvis Costello

At 57 years old, Declan Patrick MacManus—better known to the world as Elvis Costello—shows no signs of sitting back and taking it easy. The English punk/new wave singer, who was banned from Saturday Night Live for 12 years after his infamous unplanned performance of “Radio Radio,” is still shaking up the status quo decades later. During his Spinning Songbook Tour, which kicks off Apr. 10 at the Orpheum Theatre, no two concerts are alike: fans come on stage to spin a wheel that determines the evening’s set. Bonus track: keep an eye out for Costello and his wife, jazz singer Diana Krall, out and about in Vancouver, as the musical pair keeps a home here.—Sheri Radford

All About the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

Symphony Smarts

Listening to classical music is literally thought provoking. What better place to stimulate the little grey cells than at a VSO concert?

By Louise Phillips

Bramwell Tovey conducts the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in the Orpheum Theatre

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra can help you stay smart. It’s true! Listening to classical music primes your spatial and mathematical reasoning and abstract thought, because it is more structurally complex than a three-chord rock anthem. It also relaxes the brain in the same way as deep sleep. Now that science tells us cognitive acuity starts to wane at the age of 45, don’t you think it’s time to give your frontal lobe something to do? Just choose your category below, and book your ticket.

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Hot Dining: Movie Nights at Society

Society. Photo by KK Law

How’s this for an offer you can’t refuse: movie nights at Yaletown hot spot Society (pictured). Reserve a seat in the upstairs lounge to see this month’s flick, Michael Jackson’s This Is It (Apr. 4, 7 p.m.), on the big projector screen. There’s complimentary popcorn, but why settle for kernels when you could sample some specials? Try the addictive buffalo wings on the $5 snack menu or pastas and pizzas for $8 each. Meals, movies and mingling—now that’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship.—Kristina Urquhart

Hot Entertainment: Motown Meltdown

The Higgins

Get up offa that thing and head down to the Commodore Ballroom for some movin’ and groovin’ at the Motown Meltdown, Mar. 31. Over 25 Canadian vocalists and a scorchin’ 12-piece band crank up the heat for an evening of hot soul music and solid-gold hits. Shake it to classics such as “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” and “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” performed by the likes of award-winning country music band The Higgins (pictured), local singer-songwriter Ali Milner and many more.—Caitlin Dawson

Hot Entertainment: Canoe Culture

A Squamish canoe at Vancouver Maritime Museum

Explore the full life cycle of a Squamish canoe—from a majestic tree standing in the local temperate rainforest, to being painstakingly carved by a Squamish craftsman, to launching into the Salish Sea—in Chátwilh: The Craft and Culture of the Squamish Canoe at the Vancouver Maritime Museum (to May 21).—Sheri Radford

Hot Entertainment: Cabaret with Ute Lemper

Ute Lemper

Sultry, seductive Ute Lemper seems to have stepped straight out of a 1920s European cabaret. She’s dazzled audiences in Germany and around the world with her concerts and musical-theatre roles, and is also a talented dancer and painter. See the celebrated chanteuse in Berlin Nights/Paris Days: The Art of Chanson at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts (Mar. 24).—Sheri Radford

Hot Entertainment: Road to Richmond

Photo: Toyohara Kunichiki, 1879, Woodblock print, The Actor Kaharazaki Shasho in the role of General Yoshitsune Minamoto

Bursting with Asian eateries and quirky stores, nearby Richmond is also home to a thriving arts and culture scene. Check out Edo: Arts of Japan’s Last Shogun Age (pictured) at the Richmond Museum (to May 21), which examines Japanese society from 1603 to 1868. Also in Richmond this month: comedian Jay Mohr (Mar. 30) and psychic Sylvia Browne (Mar. 23), both at the River Rock Show Theatre.—Sheri Radford